They're not perfect, but it's definately better!! I need alot of prayer that I will keep my temper though.
Blitz is back home with me, for which I am VERY glad. He still has those stitches in, but they'll be coming out tomorrow. His foot is healed, but this morning he woke up yelping with a limp in the same foot. He's not limping any more, but I still need to talk to the vet about it, because that means it's probably not completely healed.
We're still at the hotel, but it's a really nice one. We have two suites, one with two bedrooms and a living room/kitchen, the other with one bedroom and a living room/smaller kitchen. I spend the day in the smaller one to do my school in quiet, and at night I go in the bigger one with everyone else. (The big boys sleep in the small room though. For those of you who don't know, I have two younger brothers, a younger sister, and two older brothers.)
Torrey school's coming along. I'm getting better grades!! Got a 77 on my precis!! I know I sound REALLY dumb, saying that a 77 is good...But with TA standards, it actually is. Logic, however, (Which is also a TA class) ISN'T as hard, and I would be broken if I got anything less than a 95. Logic is all about learning the terms for things and such...Though this last chapter we did was...Difficult!! Lol. We learned how to find a logical equivalent of a statement...i.e., you change All dogs have fur to All non-furred things are not dogs. You have to change the quality, and negate the premesis, (Change ALL dogs have fur to NO dogs have non-fur) then switch the subject and predicate, (No non-furred things are dogs) then change the quality and negate the premesis again. (All non-furred things are not dogs.)
We had a term AND a precis due this week...And the book we precised was hard!! Ever read orthodoxy?? The content is GREAT, and I LOVED reading it. But the writing style is sloppy and goes in all directions, not fun when we're trying to convey the main flow of his argument. My term paper wasn't actually DUE this week, just the first draft, because we were peer-editing each others papers. When I finish it, I'll post it on here. I'm working on it right now, and than am sending it to a friend I have who is very good at proof reading, then I'll edit it again, show it to someone else, than that'll be my final draft. This week that is due, as well as a reflection for orthodoxy. For this book, I have a feeling the reflection will be alot easier than the precis, just because I'm not outlining it, but talking about ONE of his subjects. And he elaborates on all his subjects, so it'll be fine.
Anyway, just an update.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Monday, October 15, 2007
Stressed!!
Ay, I am feeling stressed right now. I just learned from my brother that we have a reflection on "The Great Divorce" due on wednesday, (It's monday night.) I have to finish reading "Descent into Hell," (Not nearly as good as Lewis' books...) do my Logic homework, memorize my Direct Examination answers, study for the PSAT's on Saturday, and Blitz is limping!! I feel so bad for the little guy. He keeps looking at me like, "Why does my foot hurt so bad??" And I'm not big in the vet department, so all I can do is wait for the vet to call back.
To give you an idea of what a reflection essay is, here's one I did last week on Mere Christianity. The paragraph at the top is the reflection question, and below is the answer. The word count has to be under five hundred words, which is alot harder to do than it sounds. (Torrey is actually for tenth and eleventh graders, but I'm doing it this year...)
Kasey Nash
Miss Romero
Thousand Oaks II
Inklings
Reflection Essay
17 October 2007
Word Count: 486
Mere Christianity
What is the difference between learned conventions and learned truths? How can we tell them apart? Is Chivalry a convention or a truth? Family roles/gender roles? Manners? Prohibition? Dancing?
A learned convention is something that could have been learned different, depending on our ancestors, such as grammar and spelling. It might just as well have been that we spell the word “Ball” with one L, but as it turns out, in school, we learn to spell it with two. A learned truth, however, is something that could not have turned out any other way, such as the Moral Law. We may have had small differences in the Moral Law throughout the years, but the main idea of it has remained the same. As Lewis says in Mere Christianity, we have disagreed whether or not a man should have one wife or four, but we have always agreed that he should not have just any woman he wants (6).
Chivalry is a truth. Some logic behind this statement is that chivalry is an instinct, an instinct we don’t encourage often, because the instinct to protect ourselves is stronger. Chivalry is a very small instinct that tells us to protect other people, and to put those people before yourself. What we learn in our life about chivalry is when we ought to encourage it. We should not always be chivalrous, because that would get us into plenty of trouble, if we used it at the wrong time and for the wrong reason. Lewis gives the example of a man who is in trouble. Of course we want to protect ourselves more than we want to be Chivalrous and help the man, but we have learned that we ought to encourage the small instinct to help (10).
Family roles and gender roles are truths. The father is always the authoritative figure in the family, and families who do not have fathers are incomplete. Given enough time, I do not believe that this fact could change, that God placed fathers to be the head of the family, and mothers to be the caregivers. As for the gender roles, these have much to do with the family roles. The man is the one who instinctively provides for his family, idealistically following the role of his father.
Manners are a convention. In some places in the world, it is considered polite to slurp your food, burp at the table, or stand very close to the person to whom you are talking, though in our culture, we consider these things as very rude and impolite. Prohibition is a convention. It is evident that it is not in our human nature to prohibit someone from stealing a piece of candy from a store, but we learn from our parents, school teachers, pastors and other people of influence to us, that we should stop that person from stealing. I would say that dancing is a little harder to tell whether it is a convention or truth. We have always danced, no matter what the culture, but we have differed on our styles of dancing.
Anyway, I've got alot to do. Just a quick update.
To give you an idea of what a reflection essay is, here's one I did last week on Mere Christianity. The paragraph at the top is the reflection question, and below is the answer. The word count has to be under five hundred words, which is alot harder to do than it sounds. (Torrey is actually for tenth and eleventh graders, but I'm doing it this year...)
Kasey Nash
Miss Romero
Thousand Oaks II
Inklings
Reflection Essay
17 October 2007
Word Count: 486
Mere Christianity
What is the difference between learned conventions and learned truths? How can we tell them apart? Is Chivalry a convention or a truth? Family roles/gender roles? Manners? Prohibition? Dancing?
A learned convention is something that could have been learned different, depending on our ancestors, such as grammar and spelling. It might just as well have been that we spell the word “Ball” with one L, but as it turns out, in school, we learn to spell it with two. A learned truth, however, is something that could not have turned out any other way, such as the Moral Law. We may have had small differences in the Moral Law throughout the years, but the main idea of it has remained the same. As Lewis says in Mere Christianity, we have disagreed whether or not a man should have one wife or four, but we have always agreed that he should not have just any woman he wants (6).
Chivalry is a truth. Some logic behind this statement is that chivalry is an instinct, an instinct we don’t encourage often, because the instinct to protect ourselves is stronger. Chivalry is a very small instinct that tells us to protect other people, and to put those people before yourself. What we learn in our life about chivalry is when we ought to encourage it. We should not always be chivalrous, because that would get us into plenty of trouble, if we used it at the wrong time and for the wrong reason. Lewis gives the example of a man who is in trouble. Of course we want to protect ourselves more than we want to be Chivalrous and help the man, but we have learned that we ought to encourage the small instinct to help (10).
Family roles and gender roles are truths. The father is always the authoritative figure in the family, and families who do not have fathers are incomplete. Given enough time, I do not believe that this fact could change, that God placed fathers to be the head of the family, and mothers to be the caregivers. As for the gender roles, these have much to do with the family roles. The man is the one who instinctively provides for his family, idealistically following the role of his father.
Manners are a convention. In some places in the world, it is considered polite to slurp your food, burp at the table, or stand very close to the person to whom you are talking, though in our culture, we consider these things as very rude and impolite. Prohibition is a convention. It is evident that it is not in our human nature to prohibit someone from stealing a piece of candy from a store, but we learn from our parents, school teachers, pastors and other people of influence to us, that we should stop that person from stealing. I would say that dancing is a little harder to tell whether it is a convention or truth. We have always danced, no matter what the culture, but we have differed on our styles of dancing.
Anyway, I've got alot to do. Just a quick update.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Of Mock Trial, Torrey and floods.
So my life's a little crazy right now. I have seriously never had my life be any more crazy. I used to check the computer about twice a day, now I'm lucky if I can once every few days. Sometimes, as some of you can see, (Haha, Lisa and Peter...) I am able to get on fast enough to check, but I take a few days to reply to any messages.
ANYWAY!! It is late at night, but I told you guys I would update about the Mock Trial case, and I want to keep my promise!! So, it is a hollywood murder, the victim being a big shot producer that nobody liked. (That's what gets you killed!!) He was found with a bullet in his back. Anyway, here's how the story goes. Jes Markson, (The victim) was accused a few years back of killing someone. After a highly publicized trial, the verdict was not-guilty, but Jes was still infamous. His very popular show was cancelled, all his friends were skeptical of him, and he fell into a depression, and locked himself up in his mansion. The only person he was in contact with was Alex Palmer, who lived in Markson's pool house. While Alex was staying there, he decided to try his hand at writing, so he wrote a script for a show. All of a sudden, Jes snapped out of the depression, and started having all sorts of meetings regarding a brilliant idea he had for a new tv show. During all this, he met a girl named London Desmond, and they started dating. One day as Alex was passing through the living room, he saw the script for the show. He realized that it was his that he had wrote a few months earlier, and he confronted Jes about it. Jes denied stealing the script, and Alex moved out. A few months later, Alex saw a newspaper singing praises for Jes' new TV show, and Alex, enraged, went back to the mansion and argued with Jes again. Jes again denied it, and Alex went over to his friend, Stevies, (Markson's neighbor)to rant about it. Stevie told Alex to forget about it, because there was no way to prove that the script was even Alex's. That day Markson was having a party to celebrate the new show, and after all the guests had left, London came over to give him a gift, and Markson showed her the new theme song for the show. Jes died that night. Alex claims that he left Stevies at about ten o'clock, and arrived home about midnight. Prosecution claims that he hung around until London left, (eleven thirty) then went into the mansion, they had another argument, and then Alex took out the gun and shot him. The next day, Carter Cravin, (The person catering the party) came back to get some of her stuff, and found Markson dead on the floor. She called 911, and Detective Dana Brown (That's who I'm playing) came and examined the body, searched the premesis, questioned Carter, questioned Stevie, questioned Alex, questioned London, questioned Adrian, (Ya, a guy I haven't mentioned yet...sorry) pretty much questioned every witness except for one of the expert witnesses.
Here's a few details I left out, that are of VITAL importance!!! One, Detective Brown, when searching Alex's apartment, found a black jacket, blue shirt, and jeans (What Carter testified to seeing a guy wearing at eleven o'clock on the night of Markson's death) with gunpowder on them. The gun that Markson was killed with was an antique gun, that would have deposited gunpowder right where it was found on Alex's shirt. The defense is arguing that it is not gunpowder, but gardening chemicals on Alex's shirt, because Alex is a part time gardner. (So, I shouldn't say they found gunpowder, but that they found the chemical compounds of gunpowder) Also, (hehe) it is obvious to us all that it is not Alex who is the killer, but London!! Okay, so it says that there were rumors going around about Jes cheating on London for a Dakota James, and on the scene of the crime there was found an instant message from the screen name "DJ112233" (DJ, Dakota James) that said "I can't wait for LD to be out of the picture." (LD, London Desmond!!) So I say that when London went in there, she saw the IM, asked Jes what it was, realized who it was from and what they were talking about, and on sudden rage, took the pistol (Someone testifies that Jes has alot of props laying around his mansion) and shot Jes. Ok, so that sounds pretty weak. But surely, if I wasn't so tired, I could think of more info to prove to you it was London. But she IS guilty. Thing is, she's not the one on trial, and we can't do any more than HINT that London MAY have killed him. Sorry this whole explanation was so vague. If you read the whole case packet, it would definately make more sense!! Meanwhile, I've got alot to memorize. My witness statement is three pages long, while most of the others are one to two.
Torrey....Is hard. I got my reflection Essay back, got 69%. And believe me, that is actually pretty good. Someone else got a fifty something. I have yet to get my precis rewrite back, but it doesn't sound good, because a few people got theirs back, and their grade only went up a point of a percent. (Like instead of 69.2% grade, someone got a 69.3% grade.) This week I am reading "Decent into Hell," and doing my reflection rewrite, as well as doing RC V, (About three hours worth of work,) and tutorial G. (Only about half an hour.) Logic I am doing the exercises for chapters six and seven, and reading eight and nine. So, let's see...I've got about six or seven hours of work for Mock Trial, (Due monday) twelve hours of Inklings, three hours for Logic...And I've got to study for the PSAT's which are in two weeks. (Mostly math...I am not doing any math this semester, (Like I have the time) so I have to work very hard to get at least average in the math portion of the PSAT) We are scrimmaging next wednesday with Mock Trial, and I am nowhere near ready. I need to study that MUCH more.
Meanwhile, hotel life is okay!! I'm sure I'll get sick of it in another month, (Yes, we've had to extend our stay from a month to three months.) but right now, I'm getting to know everyone, their names, what shifts they work on, etc. I walk into the lobby, and I'll know who to expect.
Anywho, that's my life. It's pretty crazy.
ANYWAY!! It is late at night, but I told you guys I would update about the Mock Trial case, and I want to keep my promise!! So, it is a hollywood murder, the victim being a big shot producer that nobody liked. (That's what gets you killed!!) He was found with a bullet in his back. Anyway, here's how the story goes. Jes Markson, (The victim) was accused a few years back of killing someone. After a highly publicized trial, the verdict was not-guilty, but Jes was still infamous. His very popular show was cancelled, all his friends were skeptical of him, and he fell into a depression, and locked himself up in his mansion. The only person he was in contact with was Alex Palmer, who lived in Markson's pool house. While Alex was staying there, he decided to try his hand at writing, so he wrote a script for a show. All of a sudden, Jes snapped out of the depression, and started having all sorts of meetings regarding a brilliant idea he had for a new tv show. During all this, he met a girl named London Desmond, and they started dating. One day as Alex was passing through the living room, he saw the script for the show. He realized that it was his that he had wrote a few months earlier, and he confronted Jes about it. Jes denied stealing the script, and Alex moved out. A few months later, Alex saw a newspaper singing praises for Jes' new TV show, and Alex, enraged, went back to the mansion and argued with Jes again. Jes again denied it, and Alex went over to his friend, Stevies, (Markson's neighbor)to rant about it. Stevie told Alex to forget about it, because there was no way to prove that the script was even Alex's. That day Markson was having a party to celebrate the new show, and after all the guests had left, London came over to give him a gift, and Markson showed her the new theme song for the show. Jes died that night. Alex claims that he left Stevies at about ten o'clock, and arrived home about midnight. Prosecution claims that he hung around until London left, (eleven thirty) then went into the mansion, they had another argument, and then Alex took out the gun and shot him. The next day, Carter Cravin, (The person catering the party) came back to get some of her stuff, and found Markson dead on the floor. She called 911, and Detective Dana Brown (That's who I'm playing) came and examined the body, searched the premesis, questioned Carter, questioned Stevie, questioned Alex, questioned London, questioned Adrian, (Ya, a guy I haven't mentioned yet...sorry) pretty much questioned every witness except for one of the expert witnesses.
Here's a few details I left out, that are of VITAL importance!!! One, Detective Brown, when searching Alex's apartment, found a black jacket, blue shirt, and jeans (What Carter testified to seeing a guy wearing at eleven o'clock on the night of Markson's death) with gunpowder on them. The gun that Markson was killed with was an antique gun, that would have deposited gunpowder right where it was found on Alex's shirt. The defense is arguing that it is not gunpowder, but gardening chemicals on Alex's shirt, because Alex is a part time gardner. (So, I shouldn't say they found gunpowder, but that they found the chemical compounds of gunpowder) Also, (hehe) it is obvious to us all that it is not Alex who is the killer, but London!! Okay, so it says that there were rumors going around about Jes cheating on London for a Dakota James, and on the scene of the crime there was found an instant message from the screen name "DJ112233" (DJ, Dakota James) that said "I can't wait for LD to be out of the picture." (LD, London Desmond!!) So I say that when London went in there, she saw the IM, asked Jes what it was, realized who it was from and what they were talking about, and on sudden rage, took the pistol (Someone testifies that Jes has alot of props laying around his mansion) and shot Jes. Ok, so that sounds pretty weak. But surely, if I wasn't so tired, I could think of more info to prove to you it was London. But she IS guilty. Thing is, she's not the one on trial, and we can't do any more than HINT that London MAY have killed him. Sorry this whole explanation was so vague. If you read the whole case packet, it would definately make more sense!! Meanwhile, I've got alot to memorize. My witness statement is three pages long, while most of the others are one to two.
Torrey....Is hard. I got my reflection Essay back, got 69%. And believe me, that is actually pretty good. Someone else got a fifty something. I have yet to get my precis rewrite back, but it doesn't sound good, because a few people got theirs back, and their grade only went up a point of a percent. (Like instead of 69.2% grade, someone got a 69.3% grade.) This week I am reading "Decent into Hell," and doing my reflection rewrite, as well as doing RC V, (About three hours worth of work,) and tutorial G. (Only about half an hour.) Logic I am doing the exercises for chapters six and seven, and reading eight and nine. So, let's see...I've got about six or seven hours of work for Mock Trial, (Due monday) twelve hours of Inklings, three hours for Logic...And I've got to study for the PSAT's which are in two weeks. (Mostly math...I am not doing any math this semester, (Like I have the time) so I have to work very hard to get at least average in the math portion of the PSAT) We are scrimmaging next wednesday with Mock Trial, and I am nowhere near ready. I need to study that MUCH more.
Meanwhile, hotel life is okay!! I'm sure I'll get sick of it in another month, (Yes, we've had to extend our stay from a month to three months.) but right now, I'm getting to know everyone, their names, what shifts they work on, etc. I walk into the lobby, and I'll know who to expect.
Anywho, that's my life. It's pretty crazy.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
QUICK update!
So, I'm about to leave for church, so I have to type fast, but I just had to update. The flood was worse than we thought, and we're having to leave our house for the next few weeks. So, we're staying in a hotel right now. This is Blitz's first time staying in a hotel, and I'm pretty sure he likes it!! We've been here about four days now, and everyone knows Blitz...The housekeepers, concierges, desk clerks, everyone!! People wonder where he is if I don't have him for any reason. At first, he wasn't sure how to ask to be taken out to go to the bathroom, so he went and stood directly in front of the wall, and gave me "The Look." Now, he stands in front of the window, (Opposite side from where we exit.) since it looks like the sliding glass door we have at home. He's already learned that he can't wait 'til the last minute to ask...The first few times his legs were literally together the whole way down. (We're on the fourth floor.)
Anyway, pray for us while we're all in this hotel room! We've got eight people in our family, two of which who are under the age of six, so it's a bit hard. But, we're fine so far!! Schoolwork is getting done, because I do it down in the lobby, rather than in the room with the kids.
So ya, just an update!!
Anyway, pray for us while we're all in this hotel room! We've got eight people in our family, two of which who are under the age of six, so it's a bit hard. But, we're fine so far!! Schoolwork is getting done, because I do it down in the lobby, rather than in the room with the kids.
So ya, just an update!!
Monday, October 1, 2007
Peopleness....
Sorry, couldn't think of a title for this post! So much has happened in the past week. Especially with Mock Trial. So, we had the Garage Sale...It was SOO awesome! You only had to work for six hours, but I ended up working about thirteen or fourteen hours. I started at four o'clock on Friday, went home at ten, then came back at five the next morning, and stayed 'til three. (The reason I said only thirteen or fourteen hours, rather than the sixteen I was there, was because I probably had about an hour or two worth of break time...Everything from eating pizza for dinner/lunch/dinner again to playing with the cool stuff they had there. There was a TON of stuff! It took seven suburban filled trips, and then three u-haul truck loads to get it all there. But by the time it was over, it only took two truck loads to get the remaining stuff. I think not only we made alot of money, but seeing as we were spending so much time together, we really grew as a team. I barely knew alot of the people on the team before, but now I know them alot better. We couldn't hang up our signs because of city ordinances, so we went paired up to different street corners to advertise. I went twice...Once with just Hannah Coyle, and once with both Hannah and Audrey Witt. When Hannah, Audrey and I went, we had a BLAST, and we were SO animated out there. We got several honks...A LOT of waves, (Like, more than half the people waved at us.) and also a few glares. We were doing everything from the can-can to singing "In The Jungle" and dancing along. Ya, we got a few stares. But good thing...Mrs. Austin came driving by and saw us being so animated, and she approved!! Yay. It's a good thing to get Mrs. Austin's approval!! Haha. And there was alot of cool stuff there...There were a bunch of things that we did NOT know what they were, so we stuck 'em together, and made this really weird thing...I don't even know what to call it. The base was like an old fashioned iron, but it was plastic, and there was a really thick bowl-type thing with two holes coming out of it, (glass) and then some weird metal thing, and a bunch of other things I don't even know HOW to describe! So we made that, (Bradley Krebs, Brandon Snow, Shane Mitchell and I) and then we were trying to figure out how much we should price it for, so I finally just put a "Make Offer" sticker on it. Sadly, nobody offered any money for it. I saw quite a few people looking at it though...I don't think they knew what it was either. There were a bunch of OLD things though! There was this electric massager that was still in it's box, and we looked at the guarentee, and it said, "Guarenteed to last until June, 1949!" Stephen Page ended up buying that! There was a "Fuzz remover!" It said on the box, "State of the art! M odel # 1809!!" We thought that was...entertaining. After we finished clean up, Mrs. Austin took all of us that stuck through it 'til the end, (Or else, those of us that were there at the end, and helped clean up) out to Dairy Queen for Ice Cream, courtesy of the proceeds of the Mock Trial garage sale!! Okay, so, now for our grand total! We got...
2000.17!! That is AFTER paying for EVERYTHING...The u-haul, the price for Goodwill to pick alot of the stuff up, the ice cream, EVERYTHING! Mrs. Austin said at the beginning, that if we got 1500 she'd be VERY happy, and if we got 2000 she would be ECSTATIC!! Well, she's very ecstatic right now!! Lol. That takes about 120 off of each of our tickets up to Sacramento. (it's 300 dollars a ticket.) That is terrific!! I'm so happy.
I'm very busy with school right now, so I can't update about the Mock Trial case packet right now, but I can tell you it's SOO exciting!! We've already come up with an obvious conspiracy theory...I'll tell you about it later!!
We had a flood yesterday. Our washing machine was leaking all night apparently, and not just"drip, drip," leaking, but "WOOOSH" leaking. The water was two inches deep out in our living room, which is the farthest place away from the washing machine in the house. So, we were busy most of the day with that. But you will not believe how clean our floors are!! Just the day before my mom was complaining about how much dog hair we had on the floor...Well, she got her wish! Haha.
I'm very confident with my precis this go-round. I think I'm doing a TON better than I was with my first one. I really learned alot from Miss Romero's notes. I'll update you later, when I don't have as much to do!!
2000.17!! That is AFTER paying for EVERYTHING...The u-haul, the price for Goodwill to pick alot of the stuff up, the ice cream, EVERYTHING! Mrs. Austin said at the beginning, that if we got 1500 she'd be VERY happy, and if we got 2000 she would be ECSTATIC!! Well, she's very ecstatic right now!! Lol. That takes about 120 off of each of our tickets up to Sacramento. (it's 300 dollars a ticket.) That is terrific!! I'm so happy.
I'm very busy with school right now, so I can't update about the Mock Trial case packet right now, but I can tell you it's SOO exciting!! We've already come up with an obvious conspiracy theory...I'll tell you about it later!!
We had a flood yesterday. Our washing machine was leaking all night apparently, and not just"drip, drip," leaking, but "WOOOSH" leaking. The water was two inches deep out in our living room, which is the farthest place away from the washing machine in the house. So, we were busy most of the day with that. But you will not believe how clean our floors are!! Just the day before my mom was complaining about how much dog hair we had on the floor...Well, she got her wish! Haha.
I'm very confident with my precis this go-round. I think I'm doing a TON better than I was with my first one. I really learned alot from Miss Romero's notes. I'll update you later, when I don't have as much to do!!
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Update!!
Okay, so not much has been going on. I've barely had any time to get on the computer, I've been so busy with homework! Torrey's a fun class, but it's a ton of work! Logic is just plain fun...Very very easy. I turned in my precis, and got my grade back. They say that the average student gets a D on their first precis of the year. Guess I'm an average student. (Yup, got a D.) Bummer. Inklings has a very high standpoint, and expects alot out of you. I'm hoping to get at least a B on my re-write. (She very thoroughly graded it, pointing out exactly what my strong and weak points were...So, this whole experience was a learning one.) The smartest kid in class, (He's really nice...Doesn't flourish how smart he is, isn't a know-it-all, but you can definately tell he's bright) got a B, and Miss Romero said she's never handed out anything more than ninety percent. She even handed out one forty-percent this week. She says that she never expects much from the first precis, but she expects AlOT out of the re-write. So, I'm working hard on that this week...And I'll have a good week, too. There's no parties or anything.
We're getting our REAL case packet for Mock Trial tomorrow!! I'm SOO excited! Can't wait to see what it'll be like, and try and decide which witness I want to be!! It's going to be SOO much fun!! We've already heard that it is a murder case, (The BEST kind...No, they're not real cases! It would be sad if it was!!) about some employee that was seeking revenge, or something. I'll update once I get it. We scrimmaged last night, on the People vs. Tanner case!! I could not believe how good we were, with only studying the case for two weeks, and most of us were knew to Mock Trial! I think I did okay with mine...I didn't forget anything! I split my witness character with Savanah, because we haven't chosen the Baliff yet. (I do NOOOT want to be Baliff!! I feel very sorry for whoever has to be.) So, we have one extra witness. Last night, I watched everyone to see if there was anyone whom it was obvious that they'd be picked for baliff. But, everyone's so good! There's a good chance I will become the baliff. So, I'm just trying to do my best, so that they won't pick me!! The first month, is basically an audition with the teachers/coaches watching us to see who would do well with what.
Okay, so, NON achademic update!! I went to a party on Friday, and it was a BLAST. The house was HUMONGOUS, and seemed like it was made for parties! It was for both Teen I and Teen II, so there were a ton of ages. (Trinity refers to the teens as Teen I and Teen II, rather than Jr. Highers and Highschoolers) We started out with an icebreaker, and everyone went around and said their names and what they did in the summer. Then you had a couple minutes to try and remember as many names and what they did, and write it down on paper. Then we played a game where we ran to the poolyard, and dug through sand 'til we had thirteen shells with letters on them. Then our team put the letters together, to form a message. (The message was, "Summer Is Over Now...Therefore the title of my last post!!) My team got it at EXACTLY the same time as another team, so one of the parents just chose a team...The other team won! Lol, I still got a second-place prize though. Then we all went swimming! It was raining, which is the BEST weather to swim in! I LOVE the rain. They had a really cool pool...The kind that gradually went down, like a beach, rather than just stepping into it and onto steps. Then I went into the hot tub and just visited with some of my friends. But it was SOO hot in the tub, I had to get out frequently and get in the pool to cool off. Then we had dinner. Pizza. It was good. (Miss Romero would NOT approve of those past three sentences...She doesn't like periods!!)
Today was parkday! Parkday is a day where a bunch of us from Trinity get together just to have fellowship, and hang out with friends. It's only every two weeks, and some of the people there, I ONLY see there. So, I LOVE Parkday.
Blitz and I are in a great obedience class. We should be getting the canine good citizen at the end, (IF Blitz passes...Which I'm sure he will!) and it's alot of fun, because at the end of every week, we do an obedience obstacle course. Anyway, that's my puppy update! If you want more puppy, go over to Blitz's blog! Just click on "My Profile," Then click on "Puppy In Training."
See ya later!!
Kasey
P.S...Wanted to add some color to my otherwise-boring-looking post!! Here's a pic of Blitz at the Dodgers Stadium! (Yes yes, I'm already poisoning his mind to become a Dodgers Fan...Well, not really, since I'm still loyal to the Mariners!!)
We're getting our REAL case packet for Mock Trial tomorrow!! I'm SOO excited! Can't wait to see what it'll be like, and try and decide which witness I want to be!! It's going to be SOO much fun!! We've already heard that it is a murder case, (The BEST kind...No, they're not real cases! It would be sad if it was!!) about some employee that was seeking revenge, or something. I'll update once I get it. We scrimmaged last night, on the People vs. Tanner case!! I could not believe how good we were, with only studying the case for two weeks, and most of us were knew to Mock Trial! I think I did okay with mine...I didn't forget anything! I split my witness character with Savanah, because we haven't chosen the Baliff yet. (I do NOOOT want to be Baliff!! I feel very sorry for whoever has to be.) So, we have one extra witness. Last night, I watched everyone to see if there was anyone whom it was obvious that they'd be picked for baliff. But, everyone's so good! There's a good chance I will become the baliff. So, I'm just trying to do my best, so that they won't pick me!! The first month, is basically an audition with the teachers/coaches watching us to see who would do well with what.
Okay, so, NON achademic update!! I went to a party on Friday, and it was a BLAST. The house was HUMONGOUS, and seemed like it was made for parties! It was for both Teen I and Teen II, so there were a ton of ages. (Trinity refers to the teens as Teen I and Teen II, rather than Jr. Highers and Highschoolers) We started out with an icebreaker, and everyone went around and said their names and what they did in the summer. Then you had a couple minutes to try and remember as many names and what they did, and write it down on paper. Then we played a game where we ran to the poolyard, and dug through sand 'til we had thirteen shells with letters on them. Then our team put the letters together, to form a message. (The message was, "Summer Is Over Now...Therefore the title of my last post!!) My team got it at EXACTLY the same time as another team, so one of the parents just chose a team...The other team won! Lol, I still got a second-place prize though. Then we all went swimming! It was raining, which is the BEST weather to swim in! I LOVE the rain. They had a really cool pool...The kind that gradually went down, like a beach, rather than just stepping into it and onto steps. Then I went into the hot tub and just visited with some of my friends. But it was SOO hot in the tub, I had to get out frequently and get in the pool to cool off. Then we had dinner. Pizza. It was good. (Miss Romero would NOT approve of those past three sentences...She doesn't like periods!!)
Today was parkday! Parkday is a day where a bunch of us from Trinity get together just to have fellowship, and hang out with friends. It's only every two weeks, and some of the people there, I ONLY see there. So, I LOVE Parkday.
Blitz and I are in a great obedience class. We should be getting the canine good citizen at the end, (IF Blitz passes...Which I'm sure he will!) and it's alot of fun, because at the end of every week, we do an obedience obstacle course. Anyway, that's my puppy update! If you want more puppy, go over to Blitz's blog! Just click on "My Profile," Then click on "Puppy In Training."
See ya later!!
Kasey
P.S...Wanted to add some color to my otherwise-boring-looking post!! Here's a pic of Blitz at the Dodgers Stadium! (Yes yes, I'm already poisoning his mind to become a Dodgers Fan...Well, not really, since I'm still loyal to the Mariners!!)
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Pictures!!
Got the computer hooked up!! Here's pics!!
In WA, with my Grandma.
Sunset on the beach...
On one of our youth outings...
Carpetball, the most awesome game EVER!!
Harley in the sand...
In WA, with my Grandma.
Sunset on the beach...
On one of our youth outings...
Carpetball, the most awesome game EVER!!
Harley in the sand...
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Summer is over now!
Yes yes, sad title. But I'm excited for this school year! I've got alot of amazing classes, and I've got a ton of amazing classes. My biggest class this year is Inklings. It's with a branch of Biola Youth, so really it's a college prep class. We're doing a ton of reading and writing. Last week we read and precised Mere Christianity. (The first two books in Mere Christianity, anyway. We're reading the rest of it this week.) The precis had to be at least forty-five lines long, and max was seventy five. I outlined every chapter, so mine just made it by, at seventy five lines. (Size ten font.)This week homeworks EASY! We just have to read the rest of Mere Christianity! I don't think I'm gonna have another week this easy again. Lol. When we're IN class, (Once a week) we discuss what we read. Last couple weeks we've been reading and discussing genesis. The first week we were only discussing the first two chapters. You would not BELIEVE how many discussions came up on just those two chapters! Everything from water being infinite, just like God, (In Chapter One, verse Two, it says "And the spirit of God was there, hovering above the waters." Our conclusion was that he created the actual earth (Just a lump with some water on it) in verse one, "In the beginning the earth was formless and void.") to a conspiracy theory that Eve wanted to eat the fruit, so that it would say WOMAN instead of MAN in the bible. (We had been talking about chapter one, verse twenty seven, where it says "God created him. Male and female, he created them both.") And we talked about faith in God, and we had to defend our faith using ONLY those two chapters. Man, I kept wanting to bring up other scriptures that would back it up, but that wasn't allowed! I really love that class, though. I love this class because the tutor, rather than just teaching us, she provokes our thoughts, and makes us think more about the subject, so WE come up with the answer through discussion.
We also have Logic, another Biola youth program. It's not nearly as intense as Inklings, though. Same tutor, same classroom, same day, just after lunch break. We discuss Formal logic, rather than material logic. (Formal logic deals with the FORM of an argument; material logic deals with what's in an argument.) Homeworks simple for this class. No writing, just reading. We're reading the logic handbook, and then turning in the exercises at the end of the week. The exercises are SOO easy, and they're open book, so really, they're just to let the tutor know that we are in fact, reading the book. In the first class, the tutor (I should tell you her name, so I don't have to keep refering to her as, "The Tutor." Her name's Miss Romero.) asked us for things that we don't see as being real, but some people believe in. So, someone brought up Santa Claus. (BTW...Here's a vid they showed us at CBCC, I thought it was HILARIOUS! http://youtube.com/watch?v=pUFgeFTPRnw) So, we discussed why we didn't believe in Santa! We had to go much deeper than "Because it's illogical." We actually went into all of the parents who put the presents there, rather than some magical being, we went into ALL of the impossibility's for him to be real. We took a poll to see how many people had believed in Santa when they were younger. There's about twenty people there, and not one of their parents ever told them that Santa was real. Our reasoning behind that, is, if they lied to us about Santa, could they be lying about Jesus? That's why MY parents never told me about Santa, anyway. They always told me (Yes, even as a five year old) That Santa was a way to replace the real meaning of Christmas. They also pointed out that the word SANTA is SATAN all mixed up. SOO, that discussion was quite interesting. Oh, and BTW, in both of my Biola classes, we are not allowed to call people by their first names. It's hard! I'm always like, "as Stev...er, Mr. Page pointed out," or, "Just like Jazm...er, Miss Sahakian said," and some of the people there have hard last names. There's one girl with the last name Moughtederi. (I think that's correct spelling...) Anyway, Logics tons of fun too!
I'm also in Mock Trial. I LOVE it! I've been cast as a witness! (BTW, if any of you don't know what Mock Trial is, say so in comments, and I'll change my post to explain.) Right now, with the case we're working on right now, I am "Detective Cameron Singh." We always pronounce the "H" because we think it's so out of place there. The case is people vs. Tanner. Supposedly (I think she's not-guilty) Loren Tanner (Eighteen years ago) abused her daughter, Virginia to the point of death. Sam (Lorens husband) and Loren both say that she slipped on the staircase and fell on her head. (She died by a hemorrhage at the back of her head.)Now, (Eighteen years later) Devon Tanner, they're son, is saying that he remembers that day differently. He remembers that Loren was yelling and Virginia was screaming in the upstairs bedroom, and that he heard a bump on the floor and quiet. Then Loren came down with a bloody Virginia in her hands, and Sam took Virginia to the hospital. While Sam was gone, Loren took the rug that had been upstairs, as well as some other things that had gotten bloody, and buried them in a bag in the yard. So now, eighteen years later, Devon calls in the heroic Detective SingH, (That's ME!!) and I find that instead of there being bloodstains under the floorboards on the staircase, there's blood in the bedroom. I also found other things, but we don't need to go that in depth. Oh, but you should know, I found the bag with bloody linens in it. So, the daring detective then arrested Loren Tanner. NOW, why I think she's innocent. (Or, at least, not guilty. BIG difference. Innocent, is PROVEN not guilty. Not guilty is just there's not enough evidence on the prosecution for her to be guilty.) Devon was only five years old at the time of Virginia's death. How many of you can remember any certain day (Yes, even a tragic one) THAT vividly? Also, Loren came to her pastor, a year after Virginia's death, and told him that she didn't fall on the staircase. She had Sam had been disciplining her, and Virginia was sulking. Loren reached out to comfort her, and Virginia pulled away and fell off the bed and hit her head on the back of the desk. Now, why would Loren change her story a year after the incident? She wasn't being put on trial or anything. Also, Devon said that he remembers being abused by Loren when he was young. But after Sam died, he was never bullied again. Now, isn't it possible that he SWITCHED the parents in his memories? That it had always been SAM abusing him, so as soon as Sam was gone, there was never any abuse! Anyway, that's my two cents. It's hilarious, the whole prosecution side thinks that she's not guilty. The whole defense side thinks she's totally guilty. Meetings are fun. Since I'm a witness, we do mostly drama exercises. (It is acting, after all!) And also, we're getting comfortable under pressure, and in front of alot of people. (We're going to be in courtrooms, after all!) In January, we're going on a road trip to Sacramento! YAY! We're going to be scrimmaging other teams on the way up and down. I think we're seeing the governor or something there?? Haha, I don't even know what we're doing! Lol. OH! And Blitz is our mascot!! Haha.
I'm also in five different clubs. Generation Joshua, (I'm the Chaplain) World Affairs, (Treasurer) Performing Arts, Aviation, and Service. GenJ is SOO much fun! Our Chapters name is P.R.A.Y. I forget what it stands for. I liked K.O.P.S better...Kids On Political Spree. Lol. Okay, so I have to tell you a story. Being the chaplain, I pray and read a bible verse before and after every meeting. So, what I didn't realize was, that everyone was looking at me to pray. I had forgotten I was supposed to pray, and I didn't know everyone was looking at me. My cellphone rang, and knowing it was my mom telling me she was here, I had to answer it. (Or else, in the car mom would have been yelling at me for not answering my phone. ) SO, I answered it and everyone was quite, listening. I was saying, Ya, I'll be right out. Everyone started bursting out laughing. I looked up and realized everyone was watching. Lol, it was funny.
Kasey
We also have Logic, another Biola youth program. It's not nearly as intense as Inklings, though. Same tutor, same classroom, same day, just after lunch break. We discuss Formal logic, rather than material logic. (Formal logic deals with the FORM of an argument; material logic deals with what's in an argument.) Homeworks simple for this class. No writing, just reading. We're reading the logic handbook, and then turning in the exercises at the end of the week. The exercises are SOO easy, and they're open book, so really, they're just to let the tutor know that we are in fact, reading the book. In the first class, the tutor (I should tell you her name, so I don't have to keep refering to her as, "The Tutor." Her name's Miss Romero.) asked us for things that we don't see as being real, but some people believe in. So, someone brought up Santa Claus. (BTW...Here's a vid they showed us at CBCC, I thought it was HILARIOUS! http://youtube.com/watch?v=pUFgeFTPRnw) So, we discussed why we didn't believe in Santa! We had to go much deeper than "Because it's illogical." We actually went into all of the parents who put the presents there, rather than some magical being, we went into ALL of the impossibility's for him to be real. We took a poll to see how many people had believed in Santa when they were younger. There's about twenty people there, and not one of their parents ever told them that Santa was real. Our reasoning behind that, is, if they lied to us about Santa, could they be lying about Jesus? That's why MY parents never told me about Santa, anyway. They always told me (Yes, even as a five year old) That Santa was a way to replace the real meaning of Christmas. They also pointed out that the word SANTA is SATAN all mixed up. SOO, that discussion was quite interesting. Oh, and BTW, in both of my Biola classes, we are not allowed to call people by their first names. It's hard! I'm always like, "as Stev...er, Mr. Page pointed out," or, "Just like Jazm...er, Miss Sahakian said," and some of the people there have hard last names. There's one girl with the last name Moughtederi. (I think that's correct spelling...) Anyway, Logics tons of fun too!
I'm also in Mock Trial. I LOVE it! I've been cast as a witness! (BTW, if any of you don't know what Mock Trial is, say so in comments, and I'll change my post to explain.) Right now, with the case we're working on right now, I am "Detective Cameron Singh." We always pronounce the "H" because we think it's so out of place there. The case is people vs. Tanner. Supposedly (I think she's not-guilty) Loren Tanner (Eighteen years ago) abused her daughter, Virginia to the point of death. Sam (Lorens husband) and Loren both say that she slipped on the staircase and fell on her head. (She died by a hemorrhage at the back of her head.)Now, (Eighteen years later) Devon Tanner, they're son, is saying that he remembers that day differently. He remembers that Loren was yelling and Virginia was screaming in the upstairs bedroom, and that he heard a bump on the floor and quiet. Then Loren came down with a bloody Virginia in her hands, and Sam took Virginia to the hospital. While Sam was gone, Loren took the rug that had been upstairs, as well as some other things that had gotten bloody, and buried them in a bag in the yard. So now, eighteen years later, Devon calls in the heroic Detective SingH, (That's ME!!) and I find that instead of there being bloodstains under the floorboards on the staircase, there's blood in the bedroom. I also found other things, but we don't need to go that in depth. Oh, but you should know, I found the bag with bloody linens in it. So, the daring detective then arrested Loren Tanner. NOW, why I think she's innocent. (Or, at least, not guilty. BIG difference. Innocent, is PROVEN not guilty. Not guilty is just there's not enough evidence on the prosecution for her to be guilty.) Devon was only five years old at the time of Virginia's death. How many of you can remember any certain day (Yes, even a tragic one) THAT vividly? Also, Loren came to her pastor, a year after Virginia's death, and told him that she didn't fall on the staircase. She had Sam had been disciplining her, and Virginia was sulking. Loren reached out to comfort her, and Virginia pulled away and fell off the bed and hit her head on the back of the desk. Now, why would Loren change her story a year after the incident? She wasn't being put on trial or anything. Also, Devon said that he remembers being abused by Loren when he was young. But after Sam died, he was never bullied again. Now, isn't it possible that he SWITCHED the parents in his memories? That it had always been SAM abusing him, so as soon as Sam was gone, there was never any abuse! Anyway, that's my two cents. It's hilarious, the whole prosecution side thinks that she's not guilty. The whole defense side thinks she's totally guilty. Meetings are fun. Since I'm a witness, we do mostly drama exercises. (It is acting, after all!) And also, we're getting comfortable under pressure, and in front of alot of people. (We're going to be in courtrooms, after all!) In January, we're going on a road trip to Sacramento! YAY! We're going to be scrimmaging other teams on the way up and down. I think we're seeing the governor or something there?? Haha, I don't even know what we're doing! Lol. OH! And Blitz is our mascot!! Haha.
I'm also in five different clubs. Generation Joshua, (I'm the Chaplain) World Affairs, (Treasurer) Performing Arts, Aviation, and Service. GenJ is SOO much fun! Our Chapters name is P.R.A.Y. I forget what it stands for. I liked K.O.P.S better...Kids On Political Spree. Lol. Okay, so I have to tell you a story. Being the chaplain, I pray and read a bible verse before and after every meeting. So, what I didn't realize was, that everyone was looking at me to pray. I had forgotten I was supposed to pray, and I didn't know everyone was looking at me. My cellphone rang, and knowing it was my mom telling me she was here, I had to answer it. (Or else, in the car mom would have been yelling at me for not answering my phone. ) SO, I answered it and everyone was quite, listening. I was saying, Ya, I'll be right out. Everyone started bursting out laughing. I looked up and realized everyone was watching. Lol, it was funny.
Kasey
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Vacation
Photobucket Album
Here's an album of pics. Click on it to see all of them. I think you have to log in to see them. The guest password is jkilm.
Washington and Oregon trip!!
Hey guys! I just got back from an AWESOME vacation! Cannon Beach is absolutely and one hundred percent my favorite place for vacationing. And it is SO beautiful there! Anyway, we went to Washington first, to visit friends and family up there. (I was born and raised there until I was twelve) I brought along Harley, a VERY mature thirteen month old male black lab puppy in training, seeing as Blitz is way to young to come on this sort of expidition. I could not believe how perfect this guy was! I spent one of my days up there at a friends house. She lives on ten acres and has two cows and five horses...GREAT experience for Harley. Harley got to be off leash around them, since he is so well behaved. After some close watching with him, and teaching him to stay out of the paddock and fields where the cows were, we went swimming in their huge, slimy, freezing pond. Harley loved it, and I loved it! It is so huge, and I am surprised it is not classified as a lake. We took out an overturned Kayak, and took turns balancing and trying to knock the other person off. (They have nine kids in their family, BTW...Four of their own, five adopted.) Another day we spent with another family who has five acres, and since there were no skittish animals, I let Harley go crazy with a frizbee. We played Carmen SanDiego, the BESTEST game ever invented. This family's land was mostly forest, with trails that they had carved out for their quads and dirt bikes. Carmen SanDiego is where three people go and hide with a walkie talkie, and the rest of the people have another walkie talkie looking for the three people. Through the walkie talkies, three clues are given. It's a TON of fun...It'd be alot more fun to get like thirty or forty people playing all over the island, with one team of three people hiding, and then seperate the rest of the people into teams, and first team to find the hiding team wins. That'd be awesome!!
Anyway, on to the SECOND part of our vacation. We then drove down to northern Oregon, to Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center. I have been going there every year since I was a year old, and I LOVE it. They serve two meals a day, breakfast and dinner, and they are so big that you don't even need lunch. After breakfast and dinner, are the morning and evening sessions. For the s, that's chapel. For the kids, that's whatever age group they're in. They have nursery, ones and twos, fours and fives, kids klub, kids klub 2, mid kids, and youth. I started in the ones and twos, and this year was my first year in youth. It was absolutely amazing. Our study this year was on defending our faith. The purpose was so that instead of just believing what we hear about Christianity, and our faith being our parents instead of our own, we were testing our faith. We did things like play devils advocate in a creation vs. evolution debate. One half of the class were creationists, and the other half were to be evolutionists, and we (I was on the evolutionists side) tried to come up with everything we knew about evolution, and argue it against creation. Basically what they were doing all week was giving us things that the average athiest would throw at us, and then showing us what was wrong with their claim, what could be right about it, and then showing us the Christian half of it. They never told us, "Christianity is right. Believe in it!" But they did show us so we could see for ourselves and decide for ourselves whether it is right or not.
In between sessions there was free time. Hanging out in the rec center, skim boarding at the beach, (We were advised not to go into the waves because the rip tide had been so bad lately.) going for walks to Haystack Rock, the landmark of Cannon Beach, (About a mile walk...I did it every day with Harley.) going downtown to a bunch of cute shops they have there, and also just hanging out in the coach house with friends. (And believe me...You make PLENTY of friends when you go to CBCC.) At first, I didn't bring Harley with me to session because I was told they had never had a dog in the kids sessions...They had only had them in the sessions. Their biggest worry was that he would be a distraction. At the end of the first session I asked my leader about it. He told me that I'd have to go to the other leader, who's basically his boss. She said I'd have to go to Becky, her boss. She told me that I'd have to go to either Jenny or Jeff, the people who are in charge of the entire conference. I went to Jeff, since I know him better, and he told me that I could give Harley a test run, and if he did fine, and the kids did fine, then he could stay in there. Of course he was perfect, and the kids only were distracted by him at the end and beginning, since during class I put him in the corner and FORGOT about him. (he's THAT good.) Soon he became the youth mascot, and one of the leaders was always asking to sit next to "The Snuggle Muffin." She said it's awesome to have him in there because they don't normally get to have muffins in class. Lol. In the mornings, we had games after class, and in the evening, before class. All of the games we play are a BLAST. One game we were split into four groups, and our leader stood in the middle with his hands out. The other leader told us to bring a certain thing to him, and the first team to give that thing to him would get four points, the second three points, and so on. Some of the things listed was a cell phone with the text "i like cheese" in it, a belt, a room key, etc. It was a huge blast. At the end when we tallied the results, my team won. (I was the runner, who ran the things to Joey, the leader.) Another game was we sat in a circle, going boy g irl boy g irl, and then two boys and two g irls stood in the middle of the circle. When the whistle blew, you had to run to the opposite gender (Sitting in the circle) and pull him/her up and sit in his/her place. At the end of one minute, whoever had the least amount of their gender in the middle won. (For example, if there were three s and one boy in the middle at the end, the boys won.) It was a BLAST, and everyone was running as FAST as the could.
SIDENOTE!!!
Okay, so Blogger WAS being stupid and not letting me post pictures, but now it is, but NOW I can't get onto MY computer that has all the pictures on it. I hate technology sometimes. NO! I take it back. I love technology. OH! And it won't let me type the word g irl! So, when you see it typed like that, I'm just trying to avoid the fixer thingy. Pictures should come as soon as I get my computer set up again. (We were rearranging rooms, and my new room doesn't have an internet hookup...it should take a while.)
Anyway, on to the SECOND part of our vacation. We then drove down to northern Oregon, to Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center. I have been going there every year since I was a year old, and I LOVE it. They serve two meals a day, breakfast and dinner, and they are so big that you don't even need lunch. After breakfast and dinner, are the morning and evening sessions. For the s, that's chapel. For the kids, that's whatever age group they're in. They have nursery, ones and twos, fours and fives, kids klub, kids klub 2, mid kids, and youth. I started in the ones and twos, and this year was my first year in youth. It was absolutely amazing. Our study this year was on defending our faith. The purpose was so that instead of just believing what we hear about Christianity, and our faith being our parents instead of our own, we were testing our faith. We did things like play devils advocate in a creation vs. evolution debate. One half of the class were creationists, and the other half were to be evolutionists, and we (I was on the evolutionists side) tried to come up with everything we knew about evolution, and argue it against creation. Basically what they were doing all week was giving us things that the average athiest would throw at us, and then showing us what was wrong with their claim, what could be right about it, and then showing us the Christian half of it. They never told us, "Christianity is right. Believe in it!" But they did show us so we could see for ourselves and decide for ourselves whether it is right or not.
In between sessions there was free time. Hanging out in the rec center, skim boarding at the beach, (We were advised not to go into the waves because the rip tide had been so bad lately.) going for walks to Haystack Rock, the landmark of Cannon Beach, (About a mile walk...I did it every day with Harley.) going downtown to a bunch of cute shops they have there, and also just hanging out in the coach house with friends. (And believe me...You make PLENTY of friends when you go to CBCC.) At first, I didn't bring Harley with me to session because I was told they had never had a dog in the kids sessions...They had only had them in the sessions. Their biggest worry was that he would be a distraction. At the end of the first session I asked my leader about it. He told me that I'd have to go to the other leader, who's basically his boss. She said I'd have to go to Becky, her boss. She told me that I'd have to go to either Jenny or Jeff, the people who are in charge of the entire conference. I went to Jeff, since I know him better, and he told me that I could give Harley a test run, and if he did fine, and the kids did fine, then he could stay in there. Of course he was perfect, and the kids only were distracted by him at the end and beginning, since during class I put him in the corner and FORGOT about him. (he's THAT good.) Soon he became the youth mascot, and one of the leaders was always asking to sit next to "The Snuggle Muffin." She said it's awesome to have him in there because they don't normally get to have muffins in class. Lol. In the mornings, we had games after class, and in the evening, before class. All of the games we play are a BLAST. One game we were split into four groups, and our leader stood in the middle with his hands out. The other leader told us to bring a certain thing to him, and the first team to give that thing to him would get four points, the second three points, and so on. Some of the things listed was a cell phone with the text "i like cheese" in it, a belt, a room key, etc. It was a huge blast. At the end when we tallied the results, my team won. (I was the runner, who ran the things to Joey, the leader.) Another game was we sat in a circle, going boy g irl boy g irl, and then two boys and two g irls stood in the middle of the circle. When the whistle blew, you had to run to the opposite gender (Sitting in the circle) and pull him/her up and sit in his/her place. At the end of one minute, whoever had the least amount of their gender in the middle won. (For example, if there were three s and one boy in the middle at the end, the boys won.) It was a BLAST, and everyone was running as FAST as the could.
SIDENOTE!!!
Okay, so Blogger WAS being stupid and not letting me post pictures, but now it is, but NOW I can't get onto MY computer that has all the pictures on it. I hate technology sometimes. NO! I take it back. I love technology. OH! And it won't let me type the word g irl! So, when you see it typed like that, I'm just trying to avoid the fixer thingy. Pictures should come as soon as I get my computer set up again. (We were rearranging rooms, and my new room doesn't have an internet hookup...it should take a while.)
Sunday, July 15, 2007
CHEA Convention
Hey guys! So, the annual CHEA conventioin was this weekend. (Stands for Christian Home Educators Association.) I swapped Blitz for an older dog (Marlo) because there're so many people there. This was my first year going. My parents went last year, but us kids stayed home. It was a BLAST! They have a thing for teens called "teen-track." It was very cool. Most of it was lectures on the politics of history, and how Christianity reflected off of that. After the first lecture, we broke for lunch, and then the leader split us up into two political parties. One half of the room (Of about five hundred kids, aged eleven-eighteen.) was Anti-Federalist, and the other half was Federalist. I ended up being an Anti-Federalist. Go figure. Then we broke up into seperate caucuses, (Of about twenty kids each.) and we elected on person to represent us as a presidential candidate. We then discussed different points we should make. (Three were to be serious, two to be stupid/silly.) We elected Amanda Lee as our candidate. Two of our points were...1, we are Pro-Life. 2, Barney should be our national mascot. I can't for the life of me remember the other three though! Arg. Our motto was, "I love you, you love me, let's all vote for Amanda Lee!" Our name was "The Purple Dinosaurs." (That's what you get for having a bunch of teens in charge of your country!) Amanda then went up with all the other presidential candidates and introduced herself, what caucus she stood for, and some of the changes she would make if she were elected president. Sadly, she didn't win. Some of the other presentations were quite entertaining...One person suggested we have slave monkeys to do all our work...Another suggested that HighSchool Musical (The VERY stupid Disney movie) be banned....and yet another suggested we make the white house a different color. (You would not BELIEVE the huge diversity that caused!) Someone else pointed out that he was "pro-chocolate." When he asked if anyone liked chocolate, ALL five hundred of us answered in unison-NO! It was perfect, as if we'd all rehearsed. Anyway, after the preliminary election, you could start a third party if you had ten thousand dollars (Of GenJ bucks, of course.) and also, thirty signatures. I helped start a third party, with Steven Page as our candidate. Some of our ideas were...Giving starbucks cards to all students with a 3.0 GPA or above, and making a national homeschool day, on March 14th, and call it "Pi Day," (Get it?? March fourteenth would be 3/14, and Pi is 3.14. MY idea!) Some of the things we could do for campaigning (Mostly to the parents, because parents were voting as well.) were buy Poster Board, (With GenJ bucks) COMMERCIALS, (A power point.) and index cards for handouts. We did pretty good! After all the campaigning, we had a candidates debate. First, the leader (Founder of GenJ) would ask a certain candidate a question about one of his motives. Then that person would be given thirty seconds to answer to that, and then whatever candidate wanted to could basically throw his idea back into his face. There was a huge debate over the slave-monkey idea. Most of the candidates brought up the point that we could not communicate with the monkeys...Another brought up that the reason we have chores, is to teach responsibility, and if we had slave monkeys to help out...Well, we'd just grow up to be a bunch of unresponsible adults. Another person brought up that the monkeys would of course, have disposal, and it's not very likely they'd clean it up themselves, so we'd just have more work. Anyway, that part was interesting, because it encouraged alot more people to really re-think who they were going to vote for. Then, came the ballots. There was a huge rush to get over to the tables, and with a very tired out puppy-in-training, I wasn't exactly the first one there. Steven ended up coming in third of the election, out of nine, which I thought was quite good. Anthony, (Now known as "Mr. President") was obviously going to win. There were several times that people started chanting his name, and got almost the whole place to cheer for him. And when you went out and about, there was a million of teenagers saying "VOTE FOR ANTHONY! DON'T YOU WANT MONKEYS TO DO YOUR WORK??" It was quite amusing.
In between sessions, we did campaigning work, and also there was the exhibit hall, with a ton of curriculum for sale. So, now we're home with QUITE a few goodies for fall. We're starting Torrey in the fall, so we got alot of the books required for that class. We ran into the Hoekendorfs, raisers of Marlo's sister, Maui. So, they were happy to see Marlo and ask about how she's getting along. From what I've seen, Maui's much more likely to make it as a guide than Marlo. Marlo's a HUGE sweetheart, but she's got more of a personality for a good pet than for a guide. Oh! And another thing. She's obsessed with those laser lights. Apparently, her puppy raisers let her play with one before they knew not to. They were selling those lights at CHEA, so EVERYONE had one, and obviously, when they saw a dog, they thought, "Hey! Dogs love to chase these things, so let's point it at her!" so, she was a challenge, to say the least, but after a while she was so tired out from all the screaming teenagers and shopping, that she did farely well.
All in all, it was a GREAT weekend, and I can't wait to go back next year!
In between sessions, we did campaigning work, and also there was the exhibit hall, with a ton of curriculum for sale. So, now we're home with QUITE a few goodies for fall. We're starting Torrey in the fall, so we got alot of the books required for that class. We ran into the Hoekendorfs, raisers of Marlo's sister, Maui. So, they were happy to see Marlo and ask about how she's getting along. From what I've seen, Maui's much more likely to make it as a guide than Marlo. Marlo's a HUGE sweetheart, but she's got more of a personality for a good pet than for a guide. Oh! And another thing. She's obsessed with those laser lights. Apparently, her puppy raisers let her play with one before they knew not to. They were selling those lights at CHEA, so EVERYONE had one, and obviously, when they saw a dog, they thought, "Hey! Dogs love to chase these things, so let's point it at her!" so, she was a challenge, to say the least, but after a while she was so tired out from all the screaming teenagers and shopping, that she did farely well.
All in all, it was a GREAT weekend, and I can't wait to go back next year!
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Frusturating Day.
Well, yesterday didn't go so well. Blitz kept trying to get into food, (Something we REALLY need to work on.) and then my two little brothers fought ALL day, and Blitz wasn't listening to anything I said, and then I made a BIG mistake. I took my two little brothers and Blitz to all go see a movie. While Blitz was trying to eat all the popcorn and wouldn't lay down, my two brothers weren't listening to me, and they were climbing all over the seats. But then my older brother helped us walk home, so I could focus on Blitz and his AWFUL heeling, and Brooklin could focus on the boys.
Then I had Biology. That was great though! I didn't bring Blitz, so I could just focus on the microscope. Then after Biology, I went to Mindy Sharps house for Alisa's obedience class. Blitz was the worst I've ever seen him! He kept lunging at the other puppies, and wouldn't listen to me, and just all around . At the end of the night, I swapped him for Marlo, an older puppy, because I am going to CHEA on thursday, and that'd be way to stressful for a seventeen week old. It'd almost be like taking him to Disneyland!
So, I have NO idea if Blitz's behavior has improved, but I do think that it was just a bad day. Meanwhile, I have Marlo, the devil puppy. She's alot more hyper than what I'm spoiled with with Blitz. I'm thinking she's probably at the same level as Jaylie was, so I guess she's not THAT bad, but still, when you're used to the perfect puppy Blitz, any dog is hard to have!
Then I had Biology. That was great though! I didn't bring Blitz, so I could just focus on the microscope. Then after Biology, I went to Mindy Sharps house for Alisa's obedience class. Blitz was the worst I've ever seen him! He kept lunging at the other puppies, and wouldn't listen to me, and just all around . At the end of the night, I swapped him for Marlo, an older puppy, because I am going to CHEA on thursday, and that'd be way to stressful for a seventeen week old. It'd almost be like taking him to Disneyland!
So, I have NO idea if Blitz's behavior has improved, but I do think that it was just a bad day. Meanwhile, I have Marlo, the devil puppy. She's alot more hyper than what I'm spoiled with with Blitz. I'm thinking she's probably at the same level as Jaylie was, so I guess she's not THAT bad, but still, when you're used to the perfect puppy Blitz, any dog is hard to have!
Monday, July 9, 2007
So, guess I'm making one for me too!
(Me with two (Of five) of my sibs.)
Hey guys! I thought it'd be fun to make a blog for myself, since Blitz seems to love his so much. We're still sharing an account, but I really don't see a problem with that! Lol. So, I'll be posting in here from MY perspective of what happens in my life. I will have some posts in here about Blitz, (Of course!) but they will be from my perspective. (Of course again!) This is gonna be fun!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)