Away, away, away from here

Okay guys, I won't be able to post for the next few days due to personal issues. Sorry to leave you hanging like this, but I have major issues to deal with. I'll be back as soon as I can, but until then, au revoir.

Lorwyn

So, I went to the Lorwyn pre-release event this weekend. I was gonna take the bus to the train, and take the train in, but I missed the bus (T_T) so I had to ask for a ride from the 'rents. We had a bit of trouble getting to the tournament, but we eventually got there. My mom dropped me off, and I went in to register. Registration went alright, then I got some lunch (which was as awful as it was expensive), and sat down to wait for my Flight. There was some trouble getting the pairings up, but everything worked out in the end. I left after the second round though, so I could catch the bus/subway/bus (again) home before dark.

Whoops, g2g, photography class awaits.

PS: If anyone knows how to fix my last post, please feel free to leave a comment. I ... can't really read what is says (^_^;;).

Quizilla

What kind of Mythical creature are you?

You are a wood nymph! You are a real animal lover and tree hugger! The enviroment is very important to you! But, you need to learn to be more open to people and not just animals and plants! You are wise and kind and are a good person! Take this quiz! Quizilla | Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

In Memoria

It's been a long time coming, unfortunately. I suppose it's fortunate I wasn't there, as I was in class, blissfully unaware. At the time, at least.

Our dog, Brownie, is dead.

Allen says he invisions him running playfully in an endless field. Personally, believing more in reincarnation, I disagree, but it's right to believe whatever he wants. I would post something about the Good Times, but I really don't feel like it at the moment.

Still life goes on. I've started doing the Shakespeare play at Voyagers again. This time it's A Midsummer Night's Dream. After I got back today, I started working on a blog for the cast members. All I can say is, html-overload.com man. It's true what that Operator guy from The Matrix said: once you look at the code long enough, you just start seeing the end result.

Public Service Announcement

Warning: sharp blows to the head with a blunt stick can cause you to forget to keep you mouth shut. Handle with care.

School Woes

Of all the wonderful things that could happen to me in my first week of school, why did I draw almost all of the bad stuff?

Everything was fine until Monday. That was when everything went kablooey. First, someone steals my cell phone. Then someone steals my iPod. Oh, that's not bad enough? Alright, so the next day, I take some photos for my photography class, which we developed today. And as my photography teacher is handling the freshly developed roll, he freaking tears it in half. Oh, it was an accident, sure, but you'd expect a bit more finesse from a freaking teacher. I worked so long on that picture too.....

Well, with a bit of skill, and a lot of luck, I may be able to partially repair the picture. Still ... ugh.

PS: I can't seem to get to my scanner. It may have something to do with all the stuff piled on top of it. As soon as I get that stuff picked up, I'll scan some photos for you.

Back to School

I appologize for not updating my blog sooner. You see, it's back to school time, and I'm just starting my first year of college. So, for you now, I will post my views on some of the people and places of the MCC.

People:

Mr. Yokell: My biology teacher, and also my assigned student councillor. Quelle coinkydink. I'm still not entirely sure how to pronounce his name, but he's a nice guy, and not nearly as dull as I feared.

Mr. Light: My photography teacher. I'm still not entirely sure what to make of him. He's quite ... liberal. There is no real "assigned reading" for his class, and he hasn't handed out any tests yet, so I think he's mostly grading us on our homework (which is, surprise surprise, to take pictures).

Places:

Student Lounge: The place to relax during breaktime. Have an hour or two to kill between classes? Come to the student lounge. Unless you're at the library, blogging or something ;).

Library: The other fun place to relax when you have a moment or two to yourself. Not nearly as social as the student lounge, but you can get on the internet here, so it's all good.

Oops, almost time for biology. Gotta run, bye!

Idea!

I just had the most brilliant idea! It's a car engine, and guess what? It runs on water. You see, it takes water, and turns it to steam to provide the power to run the car. And then, like, it wouldn't leave any fumes, just water. It's a sort of ... of ... steam engine! It's brilliant, I tell you! I'm surprised no-one's thought of this before.

My meatball sub recipe:

INGREDIENTS:
2 1/2 lbs. ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
8 cloves of garlic
1 jar of tomato sauce
1 dash of salt
1 pinch of smoked paprika
1 package of sliced provelone cheese (the circular kind)
3 mini-baguetts
1 package of shredded cheese
________________________________

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
Place beef into a large mixing bowl.
Mix in some tomato sauce to make it easier to stir, and for flavor.
Chop up the onion.
Rush outside to escape the evil onion fumes.
Recover, place chopped onion into the beef mixture.
Chop garlic, add to the mixture.
Add salt and paprika.
Try to pat the mixture into meatballs.
Realize the mixture is too watery because you used too much tomato sauce.
Go to the store to get more beef to balance it out.
Stir in the beef, make the mixture into meatballs.
Place the raw meatballs on a cookie sheet, place in oven for 10 minutes.
Realize that the meatballs are burning (thank you smoke alarm [/sarcasm]).
Remove meatballs from oven.
Place provelone cheese in the mini-baguetts.
Follow up with the meatballs, more tomato sauce, and shredded cheese.
Place back into smoking oven until the cheese melts.
Cut subs in half, and serve with chips and watermelon.
Cheat and eat chips out of the bag.

Quote of the Day:

"Hail to the deva, he who drinks of the light of man and expands himself and looks like a right big chicken!"

Can anyone guess where this quote is from? Anybody?

TMNT

Well, tonight was movie night at karate. They were showing the new TMNT movie, the one that was in theaters just a couple months ago. Now, it's a great idea, but I managed to discover a minor flaw in the plan. You see, you've got a bunch of little kids constantly standing up, moving about, and making noise during the movie. Now, this wouldn't be much a problem, except that the little buggers kept blocking my view. And it's an action movie. You see where this is headed?

Still, even when you can't see the movie, there are certain things that are hard to miss. For example, one of the main antagonists, Winters, was voiced by one of my favourite actors, Patrick Stewart. And the fact that the animation style is very similar to that of Shrek. And just how much one tends to fidget when he if forced to stand up the entire movie just to see what's going on because some brat in a football shirt won't sit down. You know, just for example.

D&D Blues (and greens)

As some of you may know, a good friend of mine, Orion, hosts a D&D campaign from time to time. Unfortunately, since he's leaving for college in a state halfway across the country in a few days, yesterday was his last session. So, in tribute, allow me to give you, the reader, a recap of our last campaign.

[The rest of this post is presently reserved for this information, as soon as I can type out the details. Hey, I can't remember every single name I hear! Besides, it's late here, and my bed calls to me.]

Party Time, Take 2

No, this is not another "Charles River" incident. I actually did get to go to a party last night, a sort of "back to school party" me and the 'rents were holding. Actually, it was more like a "going off to college dinner", but why quibble over details? More on that later. But first off, a small piece of good news.

My computer's working again! Well, not quite working, perse, but I have managed to access my comp's Safe Mode. And, as you can see, it even has net access. All the comforts of home, no? Even moreso, actually, because it's way faster. Now if I can just get the screen back to the right size, it seems to be stuck at 800 x 600 pixels....

Back to the party. You see, me and two of my friends are going off to college in September. Dan, Orion, and me, to be exact, though just a couple classes in my case. So Dan, his brother Josh (another friend of mine), Orion, and his brother Chiron (see "Josh") came over, and Dan brought his DDR pad. We ended up spending the night playing DDR, surfing the net, and playing Star Fox Assault. And eating dinner, of course.

Today, I got behind the wheel of a car for the first time (well, on the east coast, at least, I've had plenty of practice on the west coast). Me and my mom went out to Ayer, so I could practice my driving skills. On the way there, I got a little carsick, teaching me a valuable lesson: never read in a new car. The nauseating smell plus me reading the car's owners manual? Motion sickness, holding on line 1. Still, once I got behind the wheel, all of that evaporated. Well, mostly. I did feel a tad bit outta sorts, but I think it was just a relapse of my previous carsickness. Still, I'd like to think I did quite well.

Well, that's it for today. I'll try to get those underwater photos scanned, so I can post them here, by tomorrow. Until then, au revoir, amis!

Spiderman, The Lucky Star

Spiderman, spiderman, breaking it down like a spider can....

Actually, the spider wishes he could dance this well. It said so in an interview. Anywho, I got a kick out of this, I hope you do too.

Party Time?

So I went to a party last night. It was a good party, with music, dancing, and a great view of the Charles River. Sounds great, right? You're probably guessing I had a good time, right? Except for one tiny little flaw: they wouldn't let me in. Apparently, it was a 21-and-over party, because there was alcohol. Duh, me. Read the fine print next time. So, I didn't have a chance to eat BBQ, or dance until one in the morning by the Charles River.

But the night wasn't totally wasted. After we left the party (even I couldn't muscle my way past that bouncer), we drove to a Japanese restaurant near our place called Ginger's. I had just ordered my meal when my neckache returned with a vengeance.

Okay, let me back up and explain. Just before we left the house, I began to develop a minor neckache. It wasn't anything bad at first, but then it got worse, and traveled to that little space right between my neck and right shoulder. You know the place. So, back at the restaurant, I tried to find some advil, but came up empty. Now I was beginning to get irritated. My mom said she'd find it, and asked why I couldn't just relax, which made me even more irritated. So, just FYI, let me list the reasons why I couldn't "relax":

1. I've just been turned away from a party which I've been looking forward to for two weeks.
2. I've just been cramped into a car for nearly two hours straight, with no food or water.
3. It's 9:00 PM, and I haven't eaten anything since noon. And I've been swimming all day, mind you.
4. I still haven't had a chance to drive the new car.
5. And, oh yeah, my neck feels like The Incredible Hulk is using it as a punching bag.

So you see how I might be a little irked.

Oh, and as for today? Nothing special. Rode my bike a bit. Read more Maximum Ride, grabbed a drink down at Starbucks. My computer is still on the fritz, so I'm typing this on my 'rent's computer. How they function with this keyboard is beyond me though, so forgive any typos. Spellchecker can only do so much.

Walden Pond

Well, my computer is on the fritz again, so these first few posts will be brought to you live from my local library. Ugh, I feel like throwing my computer into Walden Pond.

Speaking of Walden Pond, me and my 'rents* went there today. We spent most of the day there, so I ended up getting home about two hours ago, hot, dry and pruney. It was a fun time though. We got there early this morning, set up our chairs, and I sat down to read a book (Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports) for a while.

It didn't seem like that long to me, but when I finally looked up from my book, the 'rents were setting up lunch. So I ate, then pretty much frittered away the rest of the day in the pond. I did manage to get some underwater photos, I'll try to post them here as soon as I get them scanned ... which I won't be able to do until I get my computer fixed.

*'rents /prun/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[rents], -noun: short for parents

And the lord said, "Let there be light!"

.....and he got this. His "Free Rewards" card must have expired, or something.

Welcome to Mad Cow Diary, the blog devoted to bringing you the latest from the world's greatest lunchmeat. My name is James Erin Gruenzner, and here I will post everything of interest that happens to me, day in and day out, sanity optional. So, if you don't like reading about Walden Pond, our new car, and my oftentimes insane day-to-day life, feel free to navigate right away from this page. Otherwise, stick around. I have a feeling it's gonna be one hell of a ride.