School, if you look around, in every classroom and every hallway, there’s some sort of motivational or inspirational poster with writing on them like; “Don’t be a fool, stay in school,” or “learn from your mistakes and move on,” or the WORST: the ones that are written in lies, such as “LEARNING IS FUN!” If you search up school on the internet, you;ll find poorly-drew pictures of books, pencils, binders, stick-figure kids holding hands, or an apple with a worm in it. These all show you the “happy” side of school and learning, when really, school can’t be summed up in a picture of school supplies. In my experience of 7th grade, it’s a whole new level of stress. I’m not just saying this to scare off 6th graders, “im saying this from experience. In middle school, you can always find at least 3 things that screw you and your grade up. Horribly.

The first thing to know when you start you first day of school is to memorize your schedule and you locker combo, and memorize it fast. I’m talking within the first 2-3 days of being a 7th grader. I’m begging y’all, PLEASE don’t be that one guy that is late every day to all of your classes within the 1st 2 weeks of being here, because those people are the worst. My advice is to rig your locker somehow. If you bring your phone to school, keep it turned all the way off and in your backpack, if you’re worrying it will get stolen.(Which it probably won’t, thanks to the security cameras.) To rig your locker you need to get something to do the jamming of the lock. My advice is to use a pen cap. Do you’re combo, pull up on the lever and hold it there, and on the inside door of your locker, put the pen cap between the lock. If you’ve done this right, your lever should be jammed up, and you should be able to spin your lock without it locking. Just be careful to make sure it doesn’t jam, or else you’ll have to go to the office to fix it.

Some ways to get to your class faster is really quite simple. In the morning, if you get there fast enough, just sit by the library. It’s right next to the hallway, and it will give you an extra 1-2 minutes to get to your classes. You also have 7 minutes to get to your morning class, unlike all your other passing periods, which are 5 minutes long. Also, if you get to school really early, you can go down to your locker early. If a teacher is there near the stairwell, you can just walk down the 6th grade stairway.   Another really useful tip on getting to class early is to take advantage of the outside paths.

The human race. We are considered the most complex and intelligent animals on the planet. We have made great history all over the world, created many great momuments and building. We have found cures for so many diseases. But besides all that, we can-and some of are- judgmental and stereotypical. But why?  Many people in our culture like to think that we are all equal, and we are not judged by what we look like, but who are on the  inside and the choices we make. Unfortunatley, thats not always true. Many people dont know it, but tons of people judge others every day by what they’re wearing, their skin color, and their race. Take tattoos for example. If you have one, you are categorized as “immature”,  “unemployed”, and a “punk”. People get tattoos to express themselves. A tattoo is just a piece of art, but put on your body. Most people that get tattoos to show who they are and who they want to be. Yes, some people have more tattoos thatn others, but does that really matter? should it matter? To the human race, it kinda does. A person’s future  may rely on if they have a tattoo. Another Example where the human race has screwed up horribly is someones skin color. Like African Americans. For centuries, blacks have been abused, made fun of, and have been mistreated. I mean, come ON PEOPLE! WHY does this still happen today? WHY cant we just love each other? WHY? we’ve had SO many conflicts on the subject, SO many deaths because of it,  for goodness sakes, we’ve had WAR on the subject, just because us humans are too flipping blinded by stupid racial stereotypes, that we actually go allong and support them. One other example, I have from personal experience. I cut my hair to donate it for a cancer patient, to help someone in need. I willingly lobed of 15 inches of my hair. Whenever I go walk around the mall or the shopping center, I almost always get some sort of funny look from one person. People judge me and instantly catogorise me as “punk rock” or “no good rebel”, without knowing the reason behind why I have short hair. In conclusion, just don’t be like so many people around the world. Please get to know someone before you make fun of them, or judge them.

When I was a little kid, I could not live without my Webkinz. To me, Webkins was the best thing on earth. What’s with all the games, building rooms, and taking care of your Webkinz. I also had many Internet friends on the website, which I traded things  and played games with. My favorite part of Webkinz was building rooms for my Webkinz to live in. Unfortunately, this is the part where my parents come in. To buy furniture, I would have to play various games to win coins, which I did not have very many of. My daily dose of Webkinz included begging my parents for their credit card, which they did not find very amusing. Even today, I still occasionally find my old stuffed toys in the bottom of my closet.

And now it’s time for one last bow

——-{LIKE ALL YOUR OTHER SELVES}——-

Eleven’s hour is over now

T h e   c l o c k   i s   s t r i k i n g 12

As you may have seen on my blog, I love Doctor Who. Doctor Who is my favorite show, and it would only see appropriate to write my paragraph about Doctor Who. This is one of my favorite poems, because if you watched the episode, it is sort of in a way across the sizing the doctors future. This pollen mix its appearance outs of a festive holiday popper.  The thing that I like about this problem, is that after the doctor is read the poem she replies to Clara with “I don’t get it .”

The Doctor is many things. Brave, smart, dashing, mysterious. Many races fear him and consider him as “the oncoming storm” and many other consider him a savior, or a god. He has a very dark, serious side, as well as a  fun, childish alter ego that tends to show through often. My favorite quote is from The Tenth Doctor is when he’s trying to explain what time is, after being asked by a human. He pauses for a moment, trying to explain it the right way: “People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually, from a non linear, non subjective viewpoint, it’s a big ball of wibbly-wobbly… timey-wimey…. stuff.”

I feel like this quote brings out the more childish side of the doctor as he tries to explain something serious in an urgent situation. The Doctor has been in several situations in where he is explaining something very complex to a human, and it seems as if his his mouth is moving 20 miles per hour, and information just keeps pouring out of him. This quote is not the case. In the beginning, he’s talking in more complex, bigger words, and towards the end he try and explain it in a simpler way, using made-up words, such as “timey-wimey.”

The favorite sound of every true Texan is the sound of a slab of meat sizzling on a barbecue. There’s no doubt about it. Most people come to Texas for its amazing barbecue. There’s a lot of great places to get ribs, pork, or brisket, but one of the best places in Texas is a place called Rudy’s.

When you first step in those wooden doers, you’re greeted with the smell of smoke from the smokers where the meat is grilled. Signs and old style advertisements catch your eye as you look around the barn-shaped building. Your eyes then rest upon a cattle prod hanging in a glass box above the line, with a sign next to it that reads, “BREAK GLASS IN CASE OF SLOW-MOVING LINE,” which makes you laugh. Another cool feature only found at Rudy’s Is the When you reach the front counter, your cashier asks you if it’s your first time here. After you nod your head, the entire kitchen behind the cashier shouts “hey!” At you and your companions , as if they were welcoming you to the family.

You order your food, take a little red card with your number on it, and find a wooden bench where you’ll enjoy your meal. But before you take that first bite, you need to wash up. At the back of the room next to a huge display of different kinds of barbecue sauces, you’ll find a metal sink that yo’ll wash your hands in. They don’t set out paper fowls on the side of the sink.minstead, that have a huge hand-sauna. You put your hands in, and warm air swirls around your fingers while your hands get scrubbed automatically. It’s pretty cool!

When you find your seat, you’ll find your food waiting there, begging to be tasted. The wonderful taste of ribs fills your mouth as you devour tour meal. After you’re done earring, throw your trash away and dive back to your motel, wanting more of that amazing barbecue.

As I already said in my last post, I just recently got in 4th place for this year’s Destination Imagination Competition. Besides Mrs. Soap’s costume that I made, our second team choice element was a mushroom that I made. This is how I made it.

First, the stem was made by taking a carboard tube and a 5 gallon bucket. To make the mushroom stable, I needed a strong base. To make a sturdy base, a hole was cut on the bottom, where the carboard tube was inserted. To secure the tube to the bucket, I used triple-expanding foam between thet tube and the inside of the bucket. After letting the foam dry overnight, the base was finlly done. To make the transition fromt the tube to the base smoother and more cone-like, I wrapped chicken wire around the entire base. Next, to cover up the base, I cut the elastic off of a fitted sheet. to color the sheet, and to give it a more natural color thats not pure white, I neded to dye it somehow. My father and my little brother are ardent baseball fans, I went with them to our local baseball field. I was watching themplay, and saw the red dirt of the innerfield, wich would be perfect for dying the sheet. I took serveral cup fulls of dirt home and added water to make the dirt red. I soaked the sheet in the  muddy water overnight. It tinted the white sheet reddish-brown. I then sewed it around the base. Like a sock, I slipped it off when transpotring it.

Moving onto the top of the mushroom. The top was slightly harder to create thant the base. To create the shape of the top of the mushroom, I used an inner tube and a beach ball. I inflated them both and stacked the ball on the tube. To cover the top, I went to my local fabric store. there I found some fuzzy, darkish red cloth. I then took it home and spent 3-4 hours sewing it all together and leaving  a hole where I could then blow the tube and the ball up. To create the white dots needed on the mushroom. I used local moss called air ferns, wich are nature’s puffballs. After dipping them in white paint, I used adhesive glue to attatch them to the fabric on the mushroom.

After that, it was transported to the competition, where it scored very wel and played an important part in or performance.

One of the reasons I joined Destination Imagination this year was to have fun and work with people, and it toatally paid off. If you’re thinking of joining DI, do it. it is fun, you get to let your creative side show, and in the end, you wanna do it next year. One of the aspects of DI is creating your own creative costumes to be judged. This is how I made my costum. First off, my character was Mrs. Soap (s-oh-ah-p), the main manager of a dishwasher. Her and the two workers she in chrge of are all miniature people that wash all dishes inside of a dishwasher in our world, instead of machinery.

Since she is the manger of a dishwashers, I based her costume off of bubbles and cleanslieness and the color white, usind a base color of white and other colors like light blue.

I first started off with a skirt created entirley of bubble wrap, plastic, tubing (which I nicknamed “fabulous string”), and clear masking tape. I used several layers of transparent, shiny pplastic to make the base part. Clear plastic bubble wrap was wrapped around the plasitc, wich showed the shiny plastic. They were secured with clear masking tape. I then used the fabulous string as a belt waist of the skirt. To complete it, I wore white leggings underneath it. It may have looked good, but it was very hot, and I couldn’t sit down. If I did, i would pop the bubbles on the skirt :/

Next I made boots. I sacrificed an old pair of Uggss by covering them completley in white duct tape. A layer of silver was added to the bottom. for the final touch, and also add more bubbles to it, I wrapped the top part of the boots in blue duct tape, and blue bubble wrap to make it appear as if they were rain boots.

For the shirt, I borrowed one of my mothers long sleeve button up dress shirt and tucked it into my skirt.

Since mrs. soap is a manager, and has a job, of course she has to have a name tag. I used light blue duct tape to make a double sided piece of duct tape. I then used the rim of a cup to draw circles, wich I then outlined in thin strips of white duct tape. To finish it, I Sharpied in “Mrs. Soap” on the front, and duct taped it to my shirt.

The final touch-and personally my fvorite piece of my costume- was made with starting out with a dollar-store hat from last year’s New Year party. I wrappped that in white duct tape, and the bottom rim covered in light blue duct tape. I made more duct tape bubbles the same way I did before and attached them to the side of the hat. I then used the fabulous string and used it as a hatband. This is my final costiume. Since I was competing in DI, no parents were allowed to help or give any team member any ieas, including me. I hope you enjoyed this post, a I am hoping that I will make it to state this year.

My worst nightmare, standing right in front if me. Do I have arachnophobia? Triskaidekaphobia? Anatidaephobia? No, no, and no. My fear—is microwaves. Which, I guess, would be microphobia, I don’t know.

Whatever I have, I’m terrified of microwaves. If I keep up this fear, I would probably starve to death in college, not being able to use a microwave. I know that microwaves seem pretty harmless…until you do some research. They can make things blow up and catch fire, which totally isn’t harmless at all. Of course I knew this beforehand, but I wasn’t scared of microwaves like I was of spiders, or the dark. But that was before “The Great Black Castle Incident,” or so my family calls it.

It started with a couple of White Castle burgers. If you don’t know what they are or haven’t tasted them, you haven’t lived. They’re amazing burgers that are sold in Chicago and other parts around that area. They’re hamburgers that are miniaturized—and they’re delicious! I love them because they’re so small and you can eat 3-4 in one sitting. I decided one fine afternoon to make a couple of these burgers sent from the heavens themselves.

It all went fine at first. I unwrap 2 and pop them in the microwave—this is where it went wrong. The package stated on the back that they were to be microwaved for 60 seconds—nothing wrong with that. I then mindlessly continued to hit the “0” button 2 times, causing me to nuke them for 6 minutes. That is where my mistake was.

Uh-oh.

I flopped down on the couch and decided to browse the internet on my phone while waiting for them for them to cook. I was fully absorbed in Instagram. Minutes felt like hours, and soon, the kitchen filled up with smoke, the gas filling up my lungs. I can’t remember what happened next, only that my father came in with a bowl of water, him yelling, and the unbearable stench of smoke. When I came back into the kitchen, I saw the two burgers in the trash—they looked like lumps of coal. Hence the name, “Black Castle.”

Even today I’m still teased by my family whenever I try to microwave something, and I always check the package before I heat up anything.

If you have a little sibling, without a doubt they have tried to steal something for you and then run into their room or any other room and lock the door. You then are faced with two ways to get the thing they stole back. You either have your parents to get it back for you, or, you try to pick the lock on their door, fail, and have your patents get it back for you. And there my friends, is where I come in. All you need to pick a lock are 3 things: A lock, a clickable pen, and something your siblings stole. First, you take apart the pen and pull out the ink holder part. Once you’ve completed this, insert the pen into the hole and start to move the tip around the inside. The pen should lock in place, and you can’t jiggle it anymore. Then, give it a push and the door should open. To hide your universal pen, just put it back together, and your sibbling will never be able to know that it is the key to their room.