District Tennis Champion

May 9 was the Freshmen District Tennis Tournament. My partner Hunter and I were super excited for it and were really psyched. We are the number 2 ranked boys doubles team on the Centennial Freshmen team, so we played all of the number 2 ranked teams at the tournament. We ended up playing a total of 5 teams from other schools and we went undefeated!

Here we are before the tournament. I love this picture because it shows how serious we are. The manila envelope Hunter is holding was full of papers we were supposed to give to the guy officiating the tournament. It just happened to sneak its way into the picture.

Great action shot of my serve. Would be even greater though if it were zoomed in a little bit. Sorry.

A great jump shot. If it were zoomed in a little on this one too, you would be able to see my crazy facial expression.

This is my trophy. When we won the tournament, the coach officiating gave us a handshake and congratulated us. After that I asked if there was a trophy or a cheeseburger coupon or something, but he said the handshake was it. Then he said "But you can have and old tennis ball and I'll sign it for you." So I made him write District Champions on an old tennis ball. Surprisingly it is probably one of my most prized trophies because it is one of the few that I have that aren't participation trophies. Looking at them all, I sure was good at participating.

New Favorite Song

Just for fun I was trying to find out more about the new judge on American Idol, Kara DioGuardi. I came across her website and the first thing that pops up is a video of her talking about a song that she wrote that was mentioned on the show called "Strangers and Angels." Then at the end of the video she sings the song, and I loved the song. Unfortunately it never really made it and I can't find anywhere where I can buy the song. Anyways I think you all should listen to it so here is a link to her website. Enter the site and then go media/press and click on videos. Then click on Strangers and Angels. If you want to just hear the song and skip the talking then fast forward to about half way. If anyone finds a way that I can legally get a recording of it please let me know.

Walking Home from School: A Sob Story

After waiting two months and receiving a death threat from Nate, I have decided to finally update my blog. I entitle this one, Walking Home from School: A Sob Story.

When I first walked out of school I was feeling pretty good. A breeze was blowing, my looks were as good as ever and the angles were singing. Since Mom was gone and Dad was at work, I was getting a ride home with a friend. I walked to the place where I was supposed to meet him...then I walked up and down the parking lot...I still couldn't find him. Then it all came rushing in on me, I had been forgotten. All of a sudden the breeze turned into a harsh wind, my face broke out into a thousand pimples and someone in the angelic choir went flat.

Calling my father from work and having him give me a ride crossed my mind, but being the vain young man that I am, I decided to walk. Walking the two miles home couldn't take that long could it? Well guess what it did. I walked home, and on the way home I was hit by a car, mugged three times and had a pit bull latch onto my foot. When I got home I kicked off the pit bull, popped my shoulder back into place and wrote this post. Oh and I just found a blister on my heel. Things could and just did get worse.

The End

Disclaimer: Some parts of this post may have been exaggerated.

A Candidate We Can Count On

Above is a picture of Ralph Nader speaking at some important conference.

This is his running mate Matt Gonzalez.

Over the past few months we have heard more and more about the presidential election and the Democratic and Republican candidates, and it seems that it is becoming more and more apparent that neither of them know how to fix this country. Well, I've done some soul searching the past couple months and have constantly asked myself the same question: Is there a candidate out there that we can count on? I think I've found my answer. Many say Vote Obama! Many say Vote McCain! I am one of the proud (and the few) who say Vote Nader! You know what Ralph Nader means in Ancient Aztec Hungarian (AAH), Real Change. This guy would be amazing. Let's just look at his credentials: (1) He has never been elected to anything. So obviously we know that he hasn't been corrupted by government yet because he has never been in government. (2) He's a consumer advocate (I'm not sure what that is, but I'm sure it's important) (3) He's really old, 74 to be exact. (4) He has been named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential Americans in the 20th Century. (He was influential enough to get 1% of the vote in 2004 so that's pretty good).

Obviously these credentials speak for themselves. So come on America lets make the obvious choice. Do we want a young, eloquent first term senator or an old not eloquent 1,000th term senator as our president, or do we want an old, who knows if he's eloquent, never senator as our next president. I think I've made my point.

RALPH NADER FOR PRESIDENT!

Wisdom Teeth

Yesterday I had my wisdom teeth taken out. First they took me from the large waiting with many magazines to a much smaller waiting room where I had to sit in a dentist chair and where their were only two magazines. After 5 minutes or so Dr. Cook came in and gave me and Mom a whole speech about what they were going to do and what could happen and yah da yah da. From the way he said it, it sounded like he was giving some script he had memorized, and given about 568,422 times before, and come to think of it, he probably was. Then they took me into another room where they poked me with a needle and gave me some "oxygen." Then all I remember is waking up with a sore mouth, four less teeth and for all I know one less kidney.

This is the most accurate picture of the procedure I could find.

Award Winning Saxophonist

This last Monday was my band concert. At this concert the director gave an award called The Director's Award for Band. Every school gets one of these awards to give away. The director chooses a member of the band who as done an outstanding both musically and academically, and she chose me. I have the plaque hanging on my wall right now.

Since my teacher also likes my sense of humor, she asked me to give the introduction for the P.D.Q. Bach piece that we played. I gave a brief history of the piece and its composer. It was pretty funny and I think I did a good job.

We also have a talent show coming up and I am going to be the Master of Ceremonies for it, so that should be a lot of fun.

To Start Off

As you will read in my profile, SWRT is an acronym for my main interests. They are Saxophone, Writing, Reading, Tennis. SWRT. I thought it might be appropriate to talk a little bit about these things on my first post.

Saxophone
I currently play the Alto Saxophone in a band. I have been playing for almost three years now and have enjoyed it quite a bit. Right now the band is working on two pieces of literature for a concert coming up. The first is a medley of songs from West Side Story and the other is a P.D.Q. Bach piece called Grand Serenade for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion. Both pieces are coming along pretty well and it should be a good concert. If I have time and I can figure it out I will try to record and post a recording of myself playing one of the pieces of solo literature that I have.

Writing
I really enjoy writing intend to do it a little more intensely over the summer, because I haven't had much time lately to do it. I have written a few poems (one of which was published in an anthology), but I also intend to write some short stories soon. At some point I would like to write a novel, so I'll have to get working on that. I think it might be fun to post serial installments of one of the short stories that I have an idea for, it is sort of a murder mystery satire, so it should be fun.

Reading
I have always loved a good story. I read all types of books, but I have a particular affinity for historical fiction. Some of my favorite novels are The Scarlet Pimpernel, King Solomon's Mines, The Giver and many others. I will post other favorites later on in this blog. Feel free to leave the names of your favorite books in the comment section of this or any other post.

Tennis
I am currently playing mixed doubles on a tennis team. It is almost the end of the season so right now we are playing in the district tournament. It is a round robin tournament and has been really fun so far. Today I played three sets and won all of them. Tomorrow we will finish up with the last three sets of the tournament. I will try and keep you posted on all of my progress as well as the competitions I may play in, in the future.