BIG Blog update

Okay, here we go.

2/28/11 (Monday)
Today was another school day + some new stuff. Last night I went to a family dinner over at my step-uncle's house. The Guerras are a really great family. While there, I got to spend some time chatting with my buddy Keith Campbell. One of the things we talked about was the upcoming track season, something I had been considering. That night I made the decision that I wanted to give it a try. So today I went and got a physical done at Dr. William's office. It went fine, except for a heart murmur that he heard. My heart swishes blood round inside before pumping it out now and then. He said it shouldn't be much of a problem, but I should go get an ultrasound for it just in case.

Later this evening Mikaela Hauck came over so we could practice our song for the choir concert. We chose Hey There Delilah, and it was very easy to practice. got to meet her mom too; she's a cool lady.

3/1/11 (Tuesday)
Frantic LL/mom works day. Like I promised, I spent a chunk of my morning recording a song that I had been practicing for Eden Worden's birthday. I think she really enjoyed it.

This afternoon my mother and I got out to Hidden Valley. After sorting through some paperwork, I went out to the field to join the distance runners. I've already memorized all of their first names! Taylor, Annie, Dakota, Hunter, Josh, Rachel, Sierra, Carly, and Devon. Coach Goodell is a fantastic coach. He's an old guy with a moustache and grey hair who speaks in a reliable, motivating tone. I'm going to really like working with this group.

After running a ton (which felt GREAT), I followed my cousins Anthony and Jefferson Jarvis into the high school's weight room. Those guys are the best weightlifting parters ever! They're both very motivating and dedicated; Anthony keeps everything light and full of laughter with his typical Anthony-humor. Both of them are throwers in the field; Jefferson is state-known for his discuss-throw. They then dropped me off at New Hope Market ("No Hope Market. Good luck getting home, Keenan." -Anthony) where mom picked me up later.

3/2/11 (Wednesday)

Today was a good day! Sure, I didn't get a huge amount of school done, but it was a good day nevertheless. I got to go to track again; feels great so far. This evening I stayed at the school after working out and walked over to the choir room. There Mikaela and a couple of people were hanging out. After playing some music on guitar and piano while socializing with a couple of my good friends from choir (Clark, Allison, Sam, Jeremy), the choir recital began. Mr. Lawson didn't let me perform with the rest; oh well. I still got to do the duet, which turned out nicely. And for the encore, two handfuls of the choir + me decided to sing Nelly Bly from last year, which was a lot of fun indeed. "Nelly Bly has a heart warm as a cup of tea, and bigger than a sweet potato... down in Tennessee!"

3/3/11 (Thursday)

Today was the beginning of the breakdown period. Schoolwork was done. Scripture study got done. Brother Johnson came over to bring back the review of my eagle scout project from the board. They called for a lot of things: legality, vandalism protection, maintenance, more specific things, measured diagrams, specific list of volunteers and specific list of doners. Also, they needed me to calculate how much exactly everything involving the project would cost and how I would meet all of the expenses. I admit it; I felt like giving up on the project and starting over with a new one at that point. But I came to realize that I needed to learn to accept this sort of thing. Accept rejection, improve your proposal, and then sent it in again. I can do this! I think I can I think I can...

3/4/11 (Friday)

Haha, today was very different from usual. I went to school with one of my best buddies Carmen Vadillo! I went over to the Wright's house at 7 this morning, and then went to Grants Pass High School as a guest for the day! It was a ton of fun; going to school for a vacation from school, whoo!

Anyways, we started by going to Carmen's Poetry of Rock class (I know, "that's a CLASS?"). I played Don't Be Like Romeo and Waiting for one of her assignments there. Later she told me she got a lot of extra credit for having me come and perform, which I am very happy for. After that class we went along to her World History class. I don't remember too well what it was about, but they were discussing the war-life and peace-time life of a well known Indian conqueror. Just as a side note, it surprises me that World History is a required class in the public schools, but American History is an elective. It really should be the other way around, I believe. At least that's how it is at ORCA.

Anyways, the next class was Spanish, if I remember right. It was WAY too easy for Carmen (she's from Spain; it was her first language!) I just smiled and pretended I knew what was going on throughout the class. The teacher there was teaching all of the kids a song in Spanish, which was pretty fun indeed. The teacher's a guitarist.

Next off was Geometry, which I really enjoyed. I didn't even know what the SIN and COS buttons were for before!

And finally before lunch, we wrapped it up with Chemistry, which was a blast! The main point of the lesson was endothermic and exothermic reactions, and the teacher did a real example of both of the reactions! Chemistry is so fun! I'm so excited for next year; I think I'll try Chemistry next year. Or maybe I'll do Physics. There's so much to learn in the sciences!

Then we went to lunch and played more guitar in the big cafeteria. After playing a bit more music and talking with many of my other friends from that school, mom came and picked me up. I know, it may've not gotten any schoolwork done, but I think it was worth my time. If I was in the city district, I think I would like to go to public school. I get kind of lonely here at home now and then, and public school doesn't seem so bad. That was only one day of it though; I'd probably have a more accurate hypothesis if I had spent a week or a month in the public school system. I don't know. Maybe I'll just wait 'till BYU to get out into the world. I don't really think there is anywhere else I would want to spend undergraduate school than there. Less drugs and beer, and more modest women (my wife will probably be somewhere in that swarm of LDS girls; that's always a plus, right?). Plus, the Philosophy/Psychology classes will actually be teaching CORRECT principles because Mormons are teaching them. Why would I want to go anywhere else? I think they have an AFROTC there, so I may have to choose the Air Force over my original idea of the Marine Reserve. I don't know; I really want to be on a reserve system, and the Air Force doesn't have one. I'd have to serve full time for a time, but I suppose it would be like another mission, right? I'll have to research my options for service a bit more.

This evening I went to a music party at Miranda's house. Fa, Carmen, Truli, Brittany, Sabrina, and Jessie showed up, but none of the guys did. Not too many musicians were there too, so we didn't really get any recording done. But we had a good time anyways. We played chess and pictionary. I got to duel Miranda on a pole with sticks! She won; I am out of practice when it comes to body balance!

3/5/11 (Saturday)
Today Brother Buckman and I went to a service project. Sister Bishop had a lot of garbage on her property, and a good group of the men in our ward came and took out 4 truckloads of it. Brother Buckman is an awesome guy; he was another veteran I got to interview. He gave a good review of his experience in the Navy.

This afternoon I did some intense planning for my Eagle Scout Project. I spent almost 4 hours trying to write up new ideas and plans. To raise money, I'll be holding a car wash on the 26th. I've got to make more calls, interview more people, get more information, then write it all up in a spiffy eagle project encased in a binder which I need to find somewhere. This experience I had today really burned me out; I felt mentally exausted. So I just crashed and spent some good leisure time on facebook for the rest of the evening.

3/6/11 (Sunday)
As it turns out, I injured my knee by overworking it in this first week of track. It became difficult to even walk today. Mom suggested I stay off of my feet and not go to church, and so I did. I tried to take a really long nap that day, but had a hard time feeling comfortable (Henry took my mattress again. Long story). Later today I decided to give Ceana a call, and that cheered me up a bit, as usual. But other than that, today was just a day of more Psych/scripture study and not much more.

3/7/11 (Monday)
Holy smokes. I got a lot done today.

Today I finally cracked down and called the CERT coordinator for Josephine County.As it turns out, Ernie is planning on doing another training course for new team members soon, and just needs to get more people on board. He put my name and number down, and will give me a call when he has the date down! It will be so fun. I feel like this training will not only help me to be better at emergency prep and community service, but it will help me become a bit more sharp and aware. "Son of man a man in time you'll be..."

Got a great amount of schoolwork done today; the two most scary assignments I'm trying to do are the Mark Twain 5-page essay and the Political Speech 4-pages. I tried to do a rough draft for the assignment on the writing style of Mark Twain, but I only had enough information to fill up 2 1/2 pages. This is going to mean a lot more research. I've been researching about the debate of whether virtual school should be an option for Oregon students, but I haven't gotten anything on paper yet. I might be able to yammer on about it for 4 minutes on improv, but I also need to turn in the paper + all of the MLA citations.

Hahaha! I could just hear myself say, "Once the Mark Twain Essay, the Politics Speech, and the Eagle Scout Project are done, THEN I'll be happy." Oh brother; time to change my way of thinking, right?

"If I were any better RIGHT NOW, I'd be twins!" Man up!

Besides, I totally love all three of these projects. All of them are simply going to take a lot of hard work, that's all. The more I do this sort of thing, the better I'll be able to bear hard work. Mark Twain is a funny guy. It's a shame he didn't care for the Mormons when he gave Salt Lake City a visit. He really needed the gospel in his life. I'll just share a few of my personal favorite quotes by him:

Patriotism: "You see my kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its office holders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from Winter, disease, and death. To be loyal to rags, to shout for rags, to worship rags, to die for rages - that is loyalty to unreason; it is pure animal; it belongs to monarchy, was invented by monarchy; let monarchy keep it."

Work management: "If you have to eat two frogs, eat the bigger one first."

Optimism: "There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist."

Love: "Wheresoever she was, THERE was Eden."

3/8/11 (Tuesday)
More school... more errand running with mom... more track... knee still trying to heal... more psych study... another piano lesson...

3/9/11 (Wednesday)
Today was crazy. That's all I feel like saying; too much inecessary and exausting information.

3/10-11/11 (Thursday and Friday)
Today I went to the first official ORCA assembly. It was concerning the ORCA Cares Day on March 17. Students all over the state have organized service projects for everyone to go to. Down here in Southern Oregon, I've set up a park path restoration for my most favorite park in town. It's going to be great, and I'm excited to meet all of the students that will come!

I notice that my personal studies are really getting in the way of everything else in my life. I need to make that a smaller part of my day so I can spend more time on school and family. I really need to work on strengthening my family relationships particularly

Today I improvised a plan to save my parents money! The plan was that I would go to track, then go back to the Jarvis' house with the guys. While there, I'd plan with grandpa more stuff about the Eagle Project, while thinking up ideas for tomorrow. Then I would stay over at grandma's house, then go to seminary with Anthony and Jefferson in the morning. Then I'd come back, and we'd record our St. Patrick's Day video (that's right folks. We're making a music video for every holiday this year! Mwahahaha!). Then I'd go to track again with the guys and then go back and then mom would pick me up after taking Julie back from Henry's birthday party. That wasn't the original idea, but that was how it all turned out! Jefferson let me borrow a fingerpicking book for guitar; I'm so glad! Now I've got some guitar material that I did not just find for free online! The songs that are in this book that I want to master are Piano Man (Billy Joel), Leader of the Band (Dan Fogelburg) Love theme from Titanic (My Heart will Go On) (DON'T WATCH THAT MOVIE. I never did, but I know of it. I've heard the love theme by Celine Dion though, and it sounds nice.), Can You Feel The Love Tonight from the Lion King, and Let It Be by the Beatles. Jefferson is an amazing guitarist and pianist, but he won't admit it, the humble guy.

3/12/11 (Saturday)
I got to do another service project today! Brother Rudd picked me up, and we drove to a big house in the middle of nowhere to fill it with a new family's stuff. I feel so ashamed, I don't even remember their name! They have three young boys between the ages of 9 and 3. And there's a grandma too. I had a good time doing the work, which took quite awhile. Near the end of doing the second load of the big moving van, the work was getting a bit boring to me, which can only mean one thing: START SINGING AS LOUD AS YOU CAN! Then the work became fun again. I had a good laugh with Jessie Rudd who was also there about surprises. She found the long and dramatic story about "The Thanksgiving Surprise" from last year rather interesting. We've got a new inside joke about brother Buckman. One of the men working there was thinking of taking all of the shelves out of a dresser that we were moving before getting it in the house. All brother Buckman said was, "Well, we put it in here with all of the shelves. Just buck up and lift!" And then the guy grumbled, "You hear that from a guy with "buck" in his name." Ah, it's the sort of thing that sounds stupid in writing, but funny if you were actually there. Why do I find the smallest things hilarious that would seem insignificant to anyone else? I don't know, I don't care. TRUE TO MY VALUES! One of them is Laughter, and no one will stop me again from laughing when I find something funny and appropriate to laugh at.

Sorry, feeling a bit philosophical today.

After wrapping up that service project I went home and crashed. I felt really really hyper. I felt just a bit slap-happy after a really stressful week. It was the climax of "breakdown week". I played airsoft war with Henry and had a great bonding experience with him. I almost wrapped up the 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management. That book has been so so helpful to me; it really has been a message from God. It's almost like a handbook for the Franklin Planner. HA, I still remember Preston Baxter's joke about my new planner (I know, another sounds-stupid-on-paper thing), "Franklin is missing his planner!"

Tonight I got a ride from Sister Wright to a dance in Medford! Fa and Miranda got to come along as well to the 80's themed event. It was just what I needed to unwind, I'm so glad I went. I got to meet new people and also meet some familiar faces from youth conference.  I even persuaded one of my newfound friends with crazy poofy 80's hair (her name was Emily) to start a great big conga line! Also that night, I got to meet two dance junkies while all of the real men were out of the cultural hall waiting for Baby by Justin Bieber to stop. Shane and Brent are two crazy dancers too, just like me! I love meeting people who share my beliefs on how a body should behave on the dance floor. I've seen these two zealots do their thing before, but I had never personally met them till then. Another thing that made the dance rather special was that there were a bunch of guys with JROTC uniforms all over the place. I think they were supposed to be doing security work, but I saw a couple of them busting a move now and then. It was great. And lastly, always my favorite, there were tons of beautiful young women there. Why do you think I go to these things in the first place?

 3/13/11 (Sunday)
And now for today. Today we all forgot it was daylight saving time, so our family missed sacrament meeting! I decided to skip Priesthood so I could go to sacrament meeting in another ward; I'm not going to try to live for more than 2 weeks without the sacrament. I went to Brother Hancock's Sunday School class today, which was pretty good! It all was because of a change in my way of thinking. Last night I was talking to Fa about the class, and she said that she really liked it. That surprised me. So, I've decided to try something new: look for the good things in Brother Hancock's methods. Now his classes are great!

I love this way of thinking, I think I'm going to have to give it a try on a lot of things. Mwahahaha! Let's rule the world.