I am... the Luckiest

I really really am.

Ever since right after the Cantebury dance, I've been floating. No, drugs are not involved :P. Everything has been awesome since then.

Party at Leaky's on saturday -- so much fun! Saw my friends, ate cake, listened to Ben Folds and lay around on the floor. Watched McC go emo kid and pull on his hair. I also enjoyed being the center of the party gossip. I love that :D.

I am also now addicted to Ben Folds. Yes, I really am. I buy myslef three songs a night, so I can savour it. I am also currently downloading about a million of Mike's CDs to my iTunes.

Who is Mike you may ask? Mike would be my date to the dance on friday. More to follow. *innocent smile*

In other news: I am the only grade 10 who has been accepted to staff at Leadership Camp! I'm so excited to go. It's even better as staff I hear. Oh and to clarify, my official title is "Galley Wench". They called them kitchen wenches last year, but this year Leadership Camp has a pirate theme. *Braces self for wench jokes*. Well, go ahead, post them in the comments.Aw... sad thought. I won't get a booklet this year! Too bad. I won't need it, stuck in teh kitchen as I will be all camp. Well, at least I'm going. Keltie was a wench last year, and said it was awesome. She told me that the best advice she can give me is "If Mr Hum wants to add something to the soup, let him." :P The teachers all hang out in the kitchen the whole time, so I should have fun getting to know Mr Hum.

Men love to barbeque. Men will cook if danger is involved.

25 years after death, Terry's still going strong

So, tomorrow, I get to spend half of my day at parliament hill with the rest of my school, walking 5km. Why you might ask? For Terry Fox.

If you don't know Terry Fox check out the full bio on wiki, or read my condensed version:

Terry Fox is a hero and legend in Canada. He had cancer, so they amputated his leg. He then attempted to run across the country to raise awareness about cancer. He was amazing. He started by dipping his prothetic leg in the Atlantic and then started his "Marathon of Hope". Not many people knew about him until he hit Ontario, and suddenly the entire country was behind him. People would line the streets to see him, especially others with cancer. He was such an amazing man. He was in his 20s.

Unfortunately, once he got to Thunder Bay (a city on Lake Superior), Terry found out that the cancer was back, this time in his lungs. He had to stop his run, and died soon after.

Every year, in Canada, we have the Terry Fox Run, to raise money for cancer research. This year is the 25th anniversary if Terry's run. So, some people got together and decided that it would be good if every school in Canada had a run in honour of Terry Fox. SO that's what happenning.

There's a few highy publicised ones, including one on Parliament Hill, where we'll be tomorrow, along with smaller delegations from other schools from the area. A lot of people are skipping the marathon, but I don't get that. To all of you who are doing that: Sure, it might not be your first choice to spend a large chunk of your day walking around a course on Parliament Hill, but you know what? It's a good cause. And for one day, it's not about you. Not at all. I for one, will be out there with a smile.

"That's the intercom. We're just a push-button away. It's like Star Trek!"

Shout out to Chanty if you're reading this! Glad you think I'm funny!

So my first book report of the semester has been assigned. I have to write a partial summary of the novel from the point of view of a minor character. I have a list of novels to choose from. I will post this list, and please comment which books you've read and liked/disliked, and you top picks. Thanks!

Farenheit 451 -- Ray Bradbury

A Clockwork Orange -- Anthony Burgess

Girl with a Pearl Earring -- Tracy Chevalier

Catch-22 -- Joseph Heller

Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley

Lord of the Flies -- William Golding (I'm leaning toward not picking this one.)

Shoeless Joe -- W.P. Kinsella

Nineteen Eighty-Four --George Orwell

Vernon God Little -- D.B.C. Pierre

The Bell Jar -- Sylvia Plath

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz -- Mordecai Richler

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer -- Mark Twain

Slaughterhouse-Five -- Kurt Vonnegut

The Colour Purple -- Alice Walker

The Picture of Dorian Gray -- Oscar Wilde

Please comment your thoughts! Thanks!

Eves: hey, read any of Nate's story?
Davis: Not yet, computer decided to snort some cocaine.

Keep it Simple

Funny quote of the day that actually came out of my dad's mouth in public: "Fred here had a traumatic upbringing. You see, his family members were devout Frysbeterians who believed that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof where you can't reach it."

Today I attended the "Keep it Simple" Music Festival in Tamworth, Ontario!!!

Never heard of it? I'm not surprised.
The "Keep it Simple" music festival was started last year in honour of Bernie Jaffe (rhymes with "taffy"), who was this awesome guy who lived in the small town of Tamworth (literally a crosroads is the entire city center. It's a little bitty place.)
Bernie was a member of the band "JP Ringwort and the Heartbreak of Psaraisis". He played fiddle. (It was a bluegrass type band). Other members of the band included Bill on guitar, "Pineapple" Frank on mandolin/dulcimer, and my dad, aka JP Ringwort on banjo and vocals.
This band broke up before 1980 ( the year my mom met my dad), and haven't seen much of one another since.
Bernie died three years ago, but not before me moved from Toronto to Tamsworth and brought music to the community. Apparently he started teacher everyone to play bluegrass and was an amazing guy that everyone knew and loved. So, they organised the festival for him.
It started out as just a violin workshop on the Satruday, for old students ofg Bernie's, but they decided to add music and stuff on the Sunday. Last year there were 18 people at the workshop, and 1 teacher (Gord Stobbe). This year there were 3 teachers and 42 students. Wow, eh?

When we arrived at Faun's (Bernie's widow) house, we were greated by Gord Stobbe (stobe-ee, btw) who wa going to play fiddle in the band in Bernie's stead, and Henry who plays bass, and was going to join the band for the day. They were both awesome guys. We also soon met Pineapple Frank (no clue where the name's from) who made me immediately think of Eugene Levy. He's a lot like him. Really funny guy.
My mom, sister and I left them to practice and went into "town" for lunch, then returned to listen to everyone practice. Bill had arrived late (the usual, apparently), and so they finally got down to it a bit late. But they still were amazing.

Now, I am no huge fan of bluegrass. Really I'm not. But this was good. really good. You couldn't help but tap your foot and nod your head, and even clap and whoop at appropriate moments. It was great.
Their set was amazing. My dad was doing his "we were a little rough, but I think it was ok, don't you?" thing ALL THE WAY HOME, but really, they were amazing. My dad did his old bit as frontman, warming up the crowd between numbers, with lines like the one at the top of my post and "I'd introduce the band, but we've already met." and of course, "We get a lot of requests, but we usually play anyway, so you're out of luck." and such. Jokes that made the crowd groan. It was so fun.

Gord Stobbe (who btw runs the violin workshop) also mentioned this camp he taught at a bit this summer. It's in BC (British Colombia, to you Americans) on the Sunshine coast (or whatever you call it) and it's called the "Sunshine Coast Celtic Music Camp." It sounds awesome. It's not only celtic music, and you learn to really play your intrument. You learn how to jam on the cello!!! Not just do the annoying bass part! Actually, awesome, fun cello! (he used a word that starts with the letter 'b'. "B____ cello". I can't remember what.) He mentioned this at the end of the night, by which time I was questioning my choice of cello as an instrument to play since there are no cellos in bands. There are basses, violins, and even a viola could work. But no cellos. Ah, it would be SO awesome to learn to play fun cello. Mrs Bradley would hate it, but I'd love it.

On the way home we got pulled over by the OPP and given a speeding ticket (nice, mom.) We spent the rest of the ride home at 100 on 'cruise control'.

Eves: hey, read any of Nate's story?
Davis: Not yet, computer decided to snort some cocaine.

My comp went to snort cocaine with the candyland game behind the 7-11

So my comp is messed up. Very messed up. Everything on the screen is twice as big. so it's like someone one blew up the screen. And so everything takes up more room on teh screen, so the whole screen is all filled up. I know it's confusing but all you need to know is: Everything is big, and it sucks.

This means I can't make any icons for a while until we sort this out, because they'll be messed, and I dont like doing anything, because it's annoying to look at!!! Argh.

In other news, I'll be gone all day tomorrow. I'll be in Tamworth hearing the band called "JP Ringwort and the Heartbreak of Psoriasis" Never heard of this band? I'm not surprised. If any of you have a guess, post it in the comments and I'll reveal who they are and why I'm seeing them. Don't post if you actually KNOW because I told you. That's cheating. Why am I being mysterious? Jonah has put me in that mood.

Talk to you all on Monday!

Eves: hey, read any of Nate's story?
Davis: Not yet, computer decided to snort some cocaine.

I'm so peppy, it's painful.

So, today was teh ultimate minor niner party. (the "teh" is intentional).
Since this blog is about me, I will tell you all all about it.

The first happenning, was that on the way to school, we were at the light at pretoria bridge when I saw Josh walking to school. I jumped out of my seat (freaking out my parents) and opened the door, yelling "JOSH! GET IN THE CAR!" he was all confused, but ran over really fast and jumped in to ride the rest of the way to Lisgar.

We were there SO early. Like NO ONE was there yet. Actually, nothing really happenned til 8:15, half an hour after we got there. But whatever.
I got "briefed" on what I had to do. (schedule of the day below). The it was off to the mall to hang with my friends! (the mall being the space between the schools, not a building full of stores)
It was SO good to see everyone. Leaky cut his hair! It's actually a boy hair cut now! and Heather is back in school (for now) McC is running around telling everyone to resign themselvs to failing (:P) and Geoff hobbling around on crutches. (He can fly on those things! He's faster than I am!)
I went with Geoff to go see the awesomest teacher at LCI (in my opinion) so he could be all "Mr Hodgson, I broke my leg!" and I could be all "hey Mr Hodgson! I'm in your thirst period class this semester!". He was great. We hang in his classroom at lunch, and he's teh Teacehr advisor for the Lisgarwrite, but I never really talk to him. So I introduced myself and he was really nice, and wasn't all normal teacher-y and being "nice to meet you" but was all serious, like "Oh really? that's great!." and took me seriously, not just like "whatever". Further reinforces how awesome he is. I am SO excited.

So after the assembly (normal blah blah blah, but also great that Alastair and Gabe are the directors), I went to TAP -- sorry, Period 1 (no TAP anymore)-- with Boylie and saw that my classmates from grade 6 who went to lisgar are in that class, minus Jake. So that's a plus.
Then I spent half an hour on the mall, meeting grade nines, introducing myself, and painting "9"s and "LCI"s on their faces, then sending them to the aud. They were so great! And it was awesome not being in grade nine anymore. Grade ten = the shizzat.

I watched the grade 9's assembly and freaked them out by clapping and cheering when studco came out. They then went to class, and we sat around for a while waiting til they were done. In my travels, I picked up a girl who wasn't registered yet and she joined my group for touring and games, and I met an Aussie kid who is in my first period by some wierd coincidence, as is his brother.
After I yelled and yelled the name of the kids I had in my group, and then I went to play games on the regional field outside city hall. The kids totally didn't get into Prom Date. Which sucked, but I had fun.
We toured the school, they got free food (I starved and was dying of thirst) and I mingled with the grade nines (hee. Minor Niners. Yes I'm using the term even though I'm only in grade ten.) I found a layout person for the Lisgarwrite, and made great friends with a girl named Daisy. She's my friend's neighbour, which I didn't find out until I'd been chatting with her for half an hour. Crazy!

I also managed to find a guy to do layout for Lisgarwrite this year (we didn't have one before). So fingers crossed, I've just saved Ilana and Lauren from one headache.

All in all it was an awesome day. Grade 10 is so different. Way more than I thought it'd be. It's not "Wow. I'm in high school. I'm with teh big kids." anymore, it's "Wow. I'm the big kid." It's great. I had so much fun meeting these grade nine kids. I also talked to Emma for an hour and a half at her house about her first day. I think she'd going to do awesome at Cantebury.

Eves: hey, read any of Nate's story?
Davis: Not yet, computer decided to snort some cocaine.

Wake me up when September's over...

So, here it is, the much-anticipated (by me) timetable.

Semester 1:
CHC2DF-01, History (in french): Boyle (the teacher we love to hate. She's crazy. Such a space cadet. (lol Kiki)
Science (Gifted): D. Wright. Whoever that is.
English (Gifted): Hodgeson!!! YES! I got the Hodge. Very excited, although he *does* do a lot of in-class essays. Ick.
Music (Strings): Bradely, of course. She's crazy. This year is going to be hard, since I don't have a private cello teacher and I don't already know all the theory stuff.

And of course, Intermediate Orchestra (I've been promoted! ...along with the rest of the Junior Orchestra :P) with Mr O'Connor, Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 7:40. I will fully call him Mr OC, ALL YEAR. Ha.

Semester 2!
Extended French: Mr Derry. Don't know like anyhting about him. I just know I wanted Mme Kuntsman. (She's awesome. Her first language is Spanish, then french, then english. She teaches french.)
Math (Gifted): Mr Fazakras!!! w00t. I got the teacher with the Croatian accent. Yes, EXACTLY like Luca on ER. *swoon*. (To be clear, I am swooing at Luca form ER, not my math teacher. Even though the accent is hot.)
Civic/Careers: Each class runs for half a semester and are EVILLE. First half of the semester is Civics with Turner, but then the second half is Careers class (of doom) with Miss Seiers. We have this theory she would have retired by now had she not invested in tons of those little plastice sleeves for paper. If anyone would lend me their time machine, I will go back in time and plant an aversion to plastic sleeves in her 8-year-old head. Anyone coming with?
Drama: Klassen. I'm not sure what I think about her. I don't know if she's good or bad. I'll find out in February, I guess.

In other timetable news:
We have 5 minutes more for lunch! It runs from 11:25 (from 11:30 last year) until 12:25. We have no TAP listed on the timetable, so maybe TAP has been integrated into Per 1 now. Wierd.

Also, I would like to officially express my disgust at the looters in New Orleans. Today rescue efforts had to stopped for hours because someone fired a gun at a rescue helicopter. I just don't see the logic in firing a gun at a rescue helicopter while people are dying from heat exhaustion and lack of food and water. It's so sad. It really is. I actually cried during the news tonight. They had images of people yelling at their collapsed friends to keep living, dead people lying on the floor, notes in their hands for family. And people are firing at the rescue helicopters. I just don't understand the logic in that.

Eves: hey, read any of Nate's story?
Davis: Not yet, computer decided to snort some cocaine.