My Brand-New Cell Phone

This is my brand-new, two day old cell phone. The Fusic one. My mom got a Katana 2 and she thinks the appearance of mine is not very good. Amazingly, this phone came with a lot of accessories: four colored faceplates, a mic and earphones, a USB connecter, a memory card and chip adapter, and, of course, the charger. I like the phone a lot, and I had my first text messaging session with my friend yesterday, although I wouldn't have done that if my dad hadn't changed my plan the night before. So now we're trying to get me the unlimited texting for $10. The site is all messed up so we're trying to wait out the maintenence patiently. Very hard for me to do. The features on this phone are numerous. Mp3 player, connects to an FM radio, and all the other things any phone would have. My dad even said that he would've gotten this if he didn't get a palm pilot. I want my phone to be different though. Sure, my mom's phone is sleek and pretty, but does that really matter compared to what this phone can do?

Our Big Red Streak

All right, this may not look like much, but it is. The big red streak across the middle of the yard is in fact the result of getting our water line fixed. You see, for about two months when my mom got the water bill, it was amazingly high. Not like a couple of gallons high, but like thirty gallons higher than it should've been. Along with that, even in this drought, there was a spot in our front yard that was much greener than it should've been. It was the color of the greenest thing you can think of, but greener. So you put two and two together and what do you get? A broken water line. That's what we had. The water guy came over and told us that if we get it fixed within two weeks, we wouldn't have to pay for the extra water. So we turned it off for a few days, but that got annoying cause we had to keep filling buckets. So eventually we laid off that idea, and unfortunately, kept the water on. The guys came and fixed it, rupturing our neighbor's line while they did it. For a day there was a Caution sign wound around the area, but that came off after the inspector came. So everything is fine and good now. I'll always remember though the day I walked over the sidewalk and there was nothing under one part of it.

Our Awesome Tree Swing

Now this... this is the coolest swing in the world! I mean it. Very few people have a swing like this, and anyone who does will know that it is better than any old playground swing. It can go really high up into the trees, and you straddle it, so it might not be very comfortable, but it makes up for that with many other things. Whenever my friends come over we like to push each-other on it, and I absolutely love to twist it so that my brother gets really dizzy. I get dizzy too when he does it, but at least I don't walk around complaining about how I am about to barf; I'm immune to the dizziness disease. We have two of these swings, one in the backyard and one in the front. I like to go out and swing on them at night when my parents are yelling and freaking out. It's really fun because I can swing myself be standing on a chair or crate and I can still go quite high. Anyone sick of the old playground swings? Go buy yourself a rope and a wheel shaped seat (whatever it's called) and go hang it up in a tree. Try it. It's quite fun.

My Basketball Hoop

This is my big, beautiful basketball hoop. I got it about two months ago mainly because my dad wanted me to play some kind of sport, but I just don't like soccer or baseball a whole lot. I usually practice about twice or three times a week, and I am good at shooting. Dribbling is my problem. I had to build this whole thing with my brother, and I did most of the work. Being as old as I am, I still thought that the hoop would only be four pieces. Boy, was I wrong. It took me two days to build it, and there were more than four pieces. Probably about a hundred. The rim is heavier than you might think, and the poles are what makes the hoop weigh a ton. They must weigh fifty pounds each or something. My dad said when I get good at basketball, he'll put a concrete slab over by the side of the house and we can put the hoop there. Our driveway is long, but it's steep so there's not a whole lot of space for something like this. We found a place of course, but it's not very good. The problem is that I can't play this when we have a lot of visitors because there's all these cars in the driveway. Oh well, better that then not being able to play at all.

Our Horribly Messed Up Computer

This is our very old and annoying computer. The reason it's annoying is basically because it takes up space and we can't use it. When we attempt to use it, it's usually slow or it starts displaying stupid and sometimes nasty pop-ups. One time I tried to use it and every minute I got at least four pop-ups. I couldn't do anything on it. Another reason it's annoying is because if you leave it on, the humming and whirring gets REALLY loud. I'm serious. It's so loud that you know it's on. Other computers have a slight humming, and unless you're listening, you don't think it's on. I think the reason the computer has these problems is either because it's old or we have put too much stuff on it's hard drive. There are at least thirty games installed on it. No wonder it's messed up.

Our Classroom

This is our classroom. If you keep up with this blog, a month ago there was a post that showed our messy "Toy Area" and then there was a post about my mom's excavation project. This is the result. As you can see, it's still messier than it needs to be. Toys on the bottom shelf, notebooks scattered everywhere, (that happen to be my brother's), and random junk. It's not nearly as bad as it used to be though. All my books and things are neatly stacked on the far left. My brother's things are scattered all over the place. We have boxes of art and school supplies, many torturous books, spare notebooks, and, not shown in the picture, a whole shelf of puzzles and board games that aren't usually touched by anyone but me, sadly. It's kinda funny that after all this, I am STILL really bored, for no particular reason.

Monopoly- The Star Wars Way!

Why play boring old regular Monopoly these days? I mean, sure, it's original and all, but don't you get tired of it after awhile? Now there are so many versions of Monopoly that you don't even know which one to play, but my mom surprised me when she got this. The only problem is that I don't have anyone to play it with. My brother says he hates board games, but I think he's just to lazy to play a whole game with me. I convinced him the day after we got it, and we played the whole game, and I won! I was losing at first, and he spent all his money on houses. But let's explain some of the changes. In place of Community Chest and Chance cards we have Jedi and Sith cards. The houses and hotels are settlements and cities, (although they look more like Jedi Temples and Naboo Palaces.) All the properties have names of places in the Star Wars universe such as Naboo, Mustafar, Tatooine, Bespin, Endor, Yavin 4, and others that are taken from every film. There are eight collectible characters in battle poses: Darth Vader, Darth Maul, General Grievous, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, Emperor Palpatine, Princess Leia, and Yoda. The game rules don't change, except for when you roll doubles, there is a "Force move" you can do depending on what you roll. The game is really fun and puts a twist on the original Monopoly. Although my dad seems to think that the original will always be the best!

The "Lego Star Wars" Video Games

These are two of the most popular video games ever made. Based on the Star Wars films, the games present a humourous view of some of the events. The first one has levels starting with the Trade Federation "Negotiations" and ending with Mustafar "Darth Vader." The second game is one that I just got a few days ago. From what I've read, it starts with the first scene from the film, "Secret Plans," and ends with the battle above Endor. What is so fun about the games is the humour and the fact that everything is made of some type of Lego brick. When the story is told, no words are used. Instead, the players pantomime the actions, with some very funny results. There are many fun things to do besides playing the levels, like trying to get Lego studs for currency so that you can buy extra characters, or finding "minikits" in the levels to build vehicles, and in the second game, ride them. All in all, I think the second game has more fun things to do. Extra levels, extra bricks and things to find, more attacks, and enough things to do so that it will take at least twice as long to finish it as the first one. Any Star Wars or Lego fanatic should play this game. It tells the story in a whole new way.

Our Computers

These are only two of our six computers. Three of them are laptops and the other three are monitors. We got these flatscreens about two years ago. They take up a lot less space. There is a monitor downstairs, but we never use it because if you even attempt it, the computer either freezes or some really nasty pop-ups come up. It's really annoying. Right now I am using the computer that my grandma gave us the money for before she died. Along with this we have my dad's work laptop and my mom's Media Center one. All together I would say we have at least $2,000 worth of computers, not including the actual CPU for the monitors.

LOST Season 2: Episodes 5-8

Okay, if you don't know what this is, you have BIG problems. It's only the most addicting show in the history of the world. LOST is the ABC show that has been airing since Fall 2004 and is now one of the most popular shows on ABC. It has gone through three seasons, the third just ending in May, and is now on a nine month hiatus, which is very painful for fans. The show follows the lives of the survivors of the fictional flight Oceanic 815. Up until Season 2, it only focused on the fuselage survivors, and this disk in the picture has the episode in which we see what happened to the tail-section survivors in the episode "The Other 48 Days." The shows main characters are Jack Shephard, played by Matthew Fox, a spinal surgeon who is the main leader of the survivors, Kate Austen, played by Evangeline Lilly, a fugitive who has commited a number of crimes, and James "Sawyer" Ford, played by Josh Holloway, a con-man who is disliked by many of his fellow survivors. The show has many mysteries that fans are desperately trying to figure out, along with a group known only as the "Others" who captured many characters, including Jack, Kate, and Sawyer. Much knowledge about the Others has been gained, but with that comes more mysteries. LOST aires again at 10pm Eastern Standard time on Wednesdays starting in February, although I hear the producers are fighting for an earlier time. If you haven't already watched the show, try renting the first season. You may become as addicted as I am.

The Hobbit Video Game

This is the video game "The Hobbit" and, as you might guess, it is based upon J.R.R. Tolkien's novel. The different levels in the video game have the same names as some of the chapters, ranging from "An Unexpected Party" to "The Clouds Burst." The game takes eleven of the most significant chapters and adds creatures, quests and such into them to make them challenging and playable. As you can guess, it is a one-player thing with Bilbo Baggins as the playable character. One day Gandalf the wizard comes to his hobbit-hole and offers him the chance to embark upon the greatest adventure ever. He politely declines but invites Gandalf to tea the next day, and along with the wizard come thirteen hungry dwarves. And you know the rest of it. He goes on a wonderful adventure and comes home with two chests and a few bags of gold and silver, and a magic ring. The levels in the game focus on getting a main quest done to finish them, such as rescuing the dwarves from the giant spiders. Along the way you can acquire certain objects to help you with this, one being the ring. You also have other smaller quests to complete, some required and some optional, along with courage points, little and large colored diamonds, which increase your health. But don't let me spoil it all for you. Go buy the game yourself!

The Tintin Comics

These are the Tintin series of comics. I don't think that it's all of them, but it's most. The comics follow the adventures of a world-famous reporter called Tintin, his dog Snowy, and his friends Captain Haddock, an alcohol addicted sea captain, Professor Calculus, an almost deaf genius, and the two detectives, Thompson and Tomson, who are very clumsy, totally identical, and who's favorite saying is "to be precise..." These characters were created by Herge, an Austrian? author. The first comic was called "Tintin and the Soviets" to make fun of the Soviet Union. Although in this series, the first comic is "Tintin in America," in which Tintin is trying to capture Chicago's most notorious gangster, Al Capone. The comics are very lively and adventerous, anyone who likes mystery should try reading them.

Our Excavation Project

This is what my mom calls a major excavation project, and truthfully it is. She has emptied out the whole toy area and moved everything here, which basically means we can't go downstairs for the next week, unless we are helping her. You can see in the corner of the picture the pile of trash bags. Well, that would be thirteen years worth of toys, stuffed animals, and books that are useless now. And the clothes are either too small for everyone, or just me. We started doing this about two days ago, and my mom thought it would only take a day or so. But with all the stuff we have, and the fact that she has to go through it all, it could take as long as two weeks. I sure hope it doesn't take that long.

My Dad's Drums

These are my dad's drums, just another thing he managed to collect in Senegal. He would like to take a drumming class, but he has yet to actually do it. I would say we have about six or seven drums right now. Most of them have the Senegalese colors, green, yellow, and red somewhere on them. Here it is around the rim of the drum. Several times we have had people come over and show us their skills, and they are really good. I never really understood how you could get all those different sounds out of this thing. Oh well. Another thing to learn on the path to total knowledge.

My Brand-New Alarm Clock

This is my brand-new fancy CD-radio alarm clock. I got it at Target two days ago for twenty dollars, and unlike most, it's very good. Now, you might be asking yourself, why do you need an alarm clock like this? Well... let's just say that buzzer clocks are TOTALLY useless on me! To wake me up, it has to be a non-constant sound. So if something is going "beep... beep... beep..." I definitely will sleep through that. But if it's my favorite station playing realllllllly loud, or any station at all, I will wake up. The past two days I woke up to Hannah Montana songs at nine. The clock also has dual alarms so that I can set one time for the weekend and the other for the weekdays. It's set to nine for the weekdays. Maybe I'll do eight on Saturday. Anyway, this clock is really good, and although I have yet to try the disk part, I think that it will work out just fine.

Calvin and Hobbes Comics

This is the complete set of the "Calvin and Hobbes" comics by Bill Watterson. They were published in newspapers for about 6 years, give or take, and they were very, very popular. The comics are about a 6 year old boy in first grade named Calvin who's best friend is Hobbes, a stuffed tiger to everyone BUT him. The tiger is a love-obsessed, instinctive, and hard-to-hate thing who's main goal is to sneak up on Calvin unawares. Hobbes is the well-behaved one, wheras Calvin is always trying to skip school, misbehave, be a smart mouth, torture his parents, demented baby-sitter, and most of all, the girl down the street, Susie. Calvin hates homework, and Hobbes usually ends up doing it for him, with disasterous answers that Calvin is totally ignorant of. The whole series is hilarious because it shows that nobody is as ignorant or misbehaved as Calvin, who only manages to be good come Christmas. And yet, he still asks Santa for a flame-thrower, rocket-launcher, chainsaw, and nuclear bomb every single year, along with numerous other items resulting in a 100 page Christmas list. He never gets any of it, but still hasn't caught on to the fact that Santa doesn't exist, although he has gone within the boundaries of doubt. Calvin is a demented little kid, and if he wasn't, he probably wouldn't have risen to national fame, supported by his best friend in the world, Hobbes.

The Klutz Book of Juggling

The Klutz Book of Juggling is a very helpful, slightly humourous guide on how to do something that amazes most people: juggling. Now why is it so amazing? Well, if you are like most people, you have attempted to do it, with zero success. So it's no wonder that it's so much fun to watch others juggle. This book offers step by step instructions starting with the "Dropping Exercise" and ending with 5-ball juggling. Now of course, you still need to practise. But after about 5 months, I could juggle so many times that I lost count. My dad was really impressed because he learned how to juggle while he was walking down his school hallway. Now I am a little out of practice, but I can still juggle. I am telling you, this book helps. A lot. But if you don't want to buy it, then my advice is, start tossing one around until you can make a perfect curve and it lands in your other hand that didn't move. Once you have that down, take two and get good at that, but no cheating. Then move onto three. But don't start with three, cause then you will just embarass yourself. After all, did you start learning to read, unless you're a genius, by reading big gigantic 5000 page books? I didn't think so.

The Superplexus Maze

This is a Superplexus, also known as a "maze in a ball." And it really is, but instead of paper and pencil, it's just you, your hands, and this ball. The maze is made up of curves, falls, and drops, and truthfully, it's much harder than it looks. I was trying for almost a month before I could finish it. Since then, I have finished it 10 times, maybe more, but I lost count after that. My dad was SO mad when I beat him, he said that I had too much free time on my hands, and he didn't have enough. But he can't talk, he bought it. He found it at the Salvation Army, and seeing as it was only five bucks, he bought it. Later we saw on eBay that someone was selling one for seventy bucks. So we got a real deal. And better yet, they don't make it anymore. We had two, but we left one in Senegal because everyone there really liked it, and some of them claimed they could finish, but I never saw one who did. Even the little kids could finish the first level. But they worked at it for a LONG time.