Happy Birthday Toph!

Happy Birthday to me,
Happy Birthday to me,
Happy Birthday to Toph,
Happy Birthday to me!

--------

Woohoo! Today's my birthday! And, in honor of that, I though I'd give a long-overdue update on the state of things.

=====
MOVIES That I've Recently Seen
=====

Flightplan

Flightplan really capitalizes on the current national state of mind, and it ended up as a pretty good, if not spectacular, movie. There are a few very thought-provoking moments, and it sure keeps you guessing.

Well, it kept me guessing, at least. :)

Serenity

The first thing I thought about this movie is, "Wow. That doesn't sound like a sci-fi movie name." I'm suppose I'm used to something as blunt as "Star Wars." :)

Speaking of which, Serenity has a number of sequences that appear to be largely inspired by SW, and it has a similar overall feel, albeit with some very, very brief moments that lean more towards the "horror" genre. A few things for SW fans to look out for:

• Serenity itself is very Millenium Falcon-esque, and the captain is very Solo-esque.
• Space sequences seem very reminiscent of the Episode III space battle...
  ...especially the end.
• Highly recommended for any sci-fi fan.

In Her Shoes

This isn't typically the kind of movie I would go to. Quite the opposite, in fact. And I won't waste too much time describing it, aside from saying that it does a pretty good job of what it's meant to do.

Elizabethtown

Again, I probably wouldn't see this normally. But I did like it. It's awfully reminiscent of Garden State in a number of ways, while remaining unique and funny. And an excuse for popcorn is always enjoyable. :)

======
WEBSITE Version 5.0 on its way
======

As I've said before, I'm somewhat dissatisfied with version 4.0 of my web site (which I haven't even completed, by the way). So I'm abandoning it. It didn't really accomplish the task at hand -- that is, to clean up and organize the site -- and I don't quite like the design, although I do think it's an improvement in many ways.

Just like the early stages of version 4.o, expect 5.0 to come in bits, starting with the mere skeleton of a site and then building up to its v.3 glory and beyond.

--------

I must be off now, so fare thee well. :)

School, Rockets, Segways & Websites

Well, school has started again. It's been pretty good so far -- and the BSEC has been born. :D

Standing for either "Beaver Science and Engineering Club" or "Beaver Society for Environmental Catastrophe," the BSEC is a new club I've founded with a couple friends. We're focusing primarily on rocket, potato guns, and robots. Hehe... it should be fun. :)

However, the most exciting news of the past few weeks is that I got to ride a Segway! Last weekend the Third Annual AltWheels Transportation Festival took place at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum. My Phyiscs teacher suggested I go at the last minute, and I sure am glad I did! Seascoast Fun Rides (website under construction) was giving 5-minute Segway demos on a p-Series. I got to go on one -- it was really, really fun!

==========

I'm currently in the conceptual stages of redesigning my website... again. Yes, I'm unsatisfied with version 4.0, which isn't really even done yet. The new site will feature a more unified look across all pages, including the home page, which is currently a random Flash thing. I think I'll have a quick Flash intro, but have the regular site be mainly just good old HTML.

I'm also hoping to get this blog on the front page, if I can ever figure out how... I need a web-based RSS newsreader... hmm...

Last Day of Summer

Three posts all summer long. Not so great, eh? Well, school -- yes, dreaded school -- is now upon me. I have just over eight hours left until I begin. It's been less than one since I finished my summer reading. Fortunately, I ended on a good note -- Rocket Boys, which inspired the movie October Sky.

While I haven't been a reliable blogger, I have still kept track of my summer. Oh yes indeed. It's probably my most well-documented summer ever. It's just that the documentation has yet to be sorted out. Perhaps, if I ever find some free time, I shall "retro-blog" as I said I would in my last post.

One last thing, before I retire for the night. In honor of the summer of 2005 drawing to a close, I have renamed this blog from the faux-egotistic and initially-temporary title of "Toph's Awesome Blog." It is now entitled, quite simply, "Toph Tucker." It matches my website better, and -- with luck -- eventually this site will match that one in style as well.

That is all for now. Happy September, and fare thee well.

Two Years Old

As of Wednesday, my blog is exactly two years old! Wohoo! Wanna know why I missed it? Probably 'cause I haven't posted here in over a month. Sorry about that. :( Here are some quick updates.

---

Half Blood Prince

I went to Barnes & Noble at midnight and got the new Harry Potter, and finished it three days later. That's the fastest I've ever read a Harry Potter book, and (I think) the second-fastest I've read any book. It was quite good, albeit sad... well, that's all I have time for now.

Website

I uploaded some minor changes to my site yesterday, including a revised home page. Check it out. More changes coming at the end of the summer, although I'm thinking of giving up on this version -- too messy, really, and I still haven't gotten it all working -- and skipping on to a very similar version 5.0.

Taconnet

Mere minutes from now I'll be on the road, heading for a wedding in New Hampshire. From there, on Sunday, we'll be going on to Taconnet. So I'll be relatively out of touch for the next month or so.

Retro-Blog

I have been keeping track of what I've been doing this summer... just not here. :) So I've been thinking of "retro-blogging" -- altering the time & date manually to make it look like I actually have been posting all this time. If I do, though, I'll put a little disclaimer towards the bottom.

---

Okay, gotta go. Fare thee well.

Last Day of School

Wow... I've been so busy lately I've barely been updating at all. Since my last update, I've studied for endless hours for exams, taken my exams, gotten my exams back, and -- today -- had my last day of school. I'm now, officially, a 10th grader... at least, that's what they say. I'd actually lean towards calling myself a 9th grader.

Gotta go... bed time. Late, it is. To bed I must go.

Xbox 360, Movies, and More

It's been an extremely exciting and busy time lately. For the biggest reason, head over to my new Star Wars blog, which is replacing the old Blogger one. Yes, Episode III has come out, and yes, it's awesome!!! :-D

In addition to seeing Revenge of the Sith six times so far, I've been swamped by homework, projects, and exam review. Here's my attempt at a worthy blog update.

---

Xbox 360

You know it's been a long time indeed when a whole new console has been announced and I haven't said a word about it.

Xbox 360 was officially launched during an MTV event that aired May 12th. Then, at E3, they revealed more information... kind of. The launch has been somewhat underwhelming, but there's sure to be plenty of new information as the launch -- this fall -- approaches.

It seems like X360 is going to be slightly less powerful than the PS3 this time around, but they're very, very close. That's interesting, since PS3 is launching 1/2 a year later. Hopefully the power differential will be balanced out by X360 being easier to develop for than the PS3.

A couple of promising games thus far include Gears of War, Project Gotham Racing 3, and, of course, Perfect Dark Zero. (What a weird name.) Also, it's been suggested that Halo 3 will launch day-and-date with PS3, which, personally, I find hilarious. Take that, Sony!

Backwards compatibility? Check... kind of. Word is X360 will support compatibility with only the best-selling games from the original Xbox. No, that makes no sense, but whatever. ;-)

One category in which X360 clearly has PS3 beat is online gaming. From micro-transactions to the marketplace to downloadable content to video chat to Live Arcade, persistent Gamer Card, reputation & stats... X360 looks to blow PS3 out of the water. You'll be able to create your own content and put it online for others to "buy" from you, as well as buy other people's custom work. Having one unified online persona really has its benefits.

Every connected X360 will have access to "Xbox Live Silver," which is basically all the features of Xbox Live but online gaming. "Ha ha," you say, "well what does that leave?" Stats, gamer ID, content download... a lot more than non-Live subscribers have today, that's for sure! Subscribe and you'll get Xbox Live Gold, which adds actual online gaming. It looks like some X360 games could get as many as 64 gamers per game, and I have no doubt someone will exceed that after a year or two.

Xbox 360 will also have Media Extender functionality built-in. Basically, that means you can stream video, music, photos and more from your Media Center PC and access it all from your Xbox. That means that, even without the optional, removable, upgradable hard drive, you can get Custom Soundtracks in every single game.

X360 versus PS3, I'd definitely go with X360. I expect the power & graphical differences to be negligible, and online/Media Center capabilities make up for all that. For more information, check out...
- IGN Xbox 360
- TeamXbox
- Xbox.com
- Xbox360.com

Movies

No, I won't mention a certain sci-fi epic. You can read plenty about that at my other blog. However, a couple weekends ago -- Saturday the 14th of May, if I'm not mistaken -- I saw Kicking and Screaming in theaters with my friend, and then went back to his house and saw Collateral. I couldn't find two more different movies if I tried. The former was pretty funny, although not extraordinary. The latter was very serious, though, and rather gruesome. It was good, though. Well done.

Constitution Day

"WASHINGTON - The Constitution long has ensured that Congress can’t tell schools what to teach. But that’s no longer the case for at least one topic — the Constitution itself."

That just about says it all. Click here for more.

Dreams

Last night I dreamt a little group of neighbors, including me, cleansed the neighborhood of all wildlife and then re-introduced only our favorite animals -- which, strangely enough, happened to include a giant man-eating frog. It got loose and started scaring people off. I think that's when I woke up.

---

Gotta get back to History now. I've probably spent too much time on it as is. Fare thee well... and do yourself a favor and go see Episode III!!!

SAT IIs

Today I took the SAT II Physics test. Fun. Not. I didn't even finish the test. Oh well... I'm glad it's over.

Forza, SAT IIs, and New York, oh my!

Today we finally got Forza Motorsport, which I actually got for Christmas but which didn't come out until this week. I've barely gotten to play at all, but so far it's great! You can customize you car in I'd say about a duotrigintillion ways. In addition, you can use the "Drivatar" technology to train your own AI driver who drives just like you do, and then have your Drivatar race for you in races you don't want to do yourself. You can also race against your own Drivatar, which is cool. Forza also supports split-screen and Xbox LIVE play.

(I've loved racing games on Xbox ever since the original Project Gotham Racing, which was one of the very first games we got.)

In other news, I'm taking the SAT II in Physics this Saturday. Fun. Not. And my brother's going to New York tomorrow with the 7th grade, just like I did two years ago. They stay until Friday. (Friday the 9th grade also has a field trip: going to a Red Sox game!)

I have to go to bed now. So bye. :-)

So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish

Today we saw the 5:30 show of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I liked it, although I don't think it lives up to the book. Still, it does an admirable job. I thought the casting was great, and the opening scene is hilarious. It's a fun movie -- I'd recommend it.

Tests and Weekends

First of all, I had three tests today. Actually, I technically had only one, but I also had a quiz and an exam. (Quiz in Spanish, Test in Geometry, and Exam in History.) They weren't too bad, but still - it's a bit much, I think.

Second of all, I realize I never wrote up an overview of my long weekend, so here goes.

---

Friday

We went to Fever Pitch for the second time, which was fun. We saw the Episode III trailer again -- my fifth time in theaters -- which was even better. (We didn't have Friday off, mind you.)

Saturday

We went to my older sister's birthday party.

Sunday

First we went to my cousin's First Communion, and then to the after party at his house. That night we went to another birthday, this one for a family friend. That took up pretty much the whole day, but I got some good reading in what with all the commuting. Actually, I got quite a bit of reading done almost every day of the long weekend.

Monday

Patriot's Day! Every year we've always gone to a parade out in Concord (where my grandparents live) and then to watch the marathon at Heartbreak Hill. This year we managed to get Red Sox tickets and went with a few friends! The marathon route passes very close to Fenway, so we stopped by before leaving and watched for about 30 seconds, as opposed to several hours last year. When we got back there was some Xbox to be had, and then a little game of baseball with those same friends we went to the actual game with. Ugh.

Tuesday

Web site work, which I had also done some of the other four days, and homework. I was up pretty late, so now I'm tired.

---

That long weekend made this a three-day week for me! Last week was also a short week, but for a different reason -- I was out sick on Wednesday.

I have to go do homework now. Fare thee well.

Congrats to the New Pope

Congratulations to Pope Benedict XVI. I'm sure it's no coincidence that he was chosen exactly one month before Episode III is released. :-)

New Tophtucker.com Home Page!!!

I've just completed and uploaded a brand-new Tophtucker.com home page, unlike any it's ever had before. Complete with a Star Wars theme to celebrate one month until Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, it's done entirely in Flash. Check it out!

(I've also completed miscellaneous other updates around the site.)

I worked on the new home page some last weekend, but I did most of it over the long weekend -- we had today and yesterday off form school. Anyway, enjoy the new look, and tell me what you think!

Fever Pitch

I just saw Fever Pitch tonight, and it was great! They also had the Episode III trailer playing before it, which was a nice surprise. :-)

End of Vacation

At 8:00 tomorrow, I must go to school. Grr. Silly school.

Oh well... I actually got some web site stuff done today! And saw Miss Congeniality 2, which was pretty good.

Abduction!!!

Just this morning, I was abducted by evil aliens trying to take over the world!!! They broke into my bedroom through the window at 4:00 this morning, while everyone else was still asleep. They grabbed me from my bed, immobolized me with some kind of stunner, and then loaded me onto a hovercraft that was hovering outside my window. At that point the commotion woke up my brother, who came in to see what was happening. They stunned him, too, and then flew off to their mothership with me!

Once onboard, I was interrogated by their Supreme Overlord. He asked me all sorts of random questions -- how old I was, what my hobbies were, and so on. Just then, right in the middle of the interrogation, there was a fire drill on the mothership! I couldn't believe my luck. We all walked calmly but quickly from the Overlord's chambers, just as we had been taught to do. As we were all lining up so the alien fire chief could take our attendance, I spotted an escape pod right next to me! While the rest of the aliens were preoccupied, I dove into the pod and slapped the eject button. (I couldn't read the alien writing, so I just pressed the most prominent button, and it worked!)

By the time they noticed I was gone, I was already re-entering Earth's atmosphere. They shot at me a couple times with their laser cannons, but I was too far out of range. I had made it! I had escaped!

I landed in a field in Virginia. Sadly, I didn't know how to operate the parachute or reverse thrusters or any other landing equipment the pod might have, so it was quite a hard impact. The pod totally destroyed the surrounding field and an adjacent pod -- I hear you can see the crater from space!

So anyway, now I'm back safely, but I'm going to be tried for involuntary manslaughter on a massive scale. Too bad... I'll try to keep you updated on any new happenings.

Hans Brinker

Another thing: we watched "Hans Brinker" tonight, which is a hilariously dated skating movie. The acting is, shall we say, sub-par. :-)

Walt Disney World

Just a couple hours ago we got back from Disney World in Orlando, Florida. It was very fun!!! Here's my report.

Day Zero (Thursday) -- Disney Board Walk

We arrived on Thursday, March 24. As soon as we got to our hotel room (roughly 18:45) I rushed to the TV to see if they had Cartoon Network so I could watch Chapter 24 of Star Wars: Clone Wars, which was on at 19:00. Tragically, they didn't. We got the laptop set up, though, and downloaded it from starwars.com soon thereafter. We also went outside and explored the area behind our hotel, called the Disney Board Walk. There "Jeff" pointed us in the direction of a little restaurant -- and arcade.

Day One (Friday) -- Disney-MGM Studios

We spent our first full day at MGM, which remains my favorite of all the different parks. There we went to see, among other things, "Star Tours," Indiana Jones, "Lights, Motors, Action," and the nightime spectacular "Fantasmic!"

Day Two (Saturday) -- Epcot

Our second day was spent at the land of the giant golf ball. We saw (among other things) "Honey I Shrank the Audience," "Muppetvision 3-D," and "Test Track," which I did not go on.

Day Three (Sunday) -- Magic Kingdom

The Magic Kingdom is probably the most famous of the Disney parks. We spent the morning at attractions like "Big Thunder Mountain," "Splash Mountain" (which I didn't go on), Buzz Lightyear, Indy go-karts, and the Country Bear Jamboree. We went back to our hotel by way of Epcot shortly after noon, and then returned at night for the amazing parade and fireworks. ("Sal" helped us out then with seating suggestions.)

Day Four (Monday) -- Disney-MGM Studios, Disney Board Walk

We returned to MGM on Monday, this time doing "Who Wants to be a Millionaire - Play it!" twice and even more "Star Tours." I went on Star Tours five times total duirng our vacation. Later in the day, we fully explored the Board Walk, again assisted (this time in our quest to learn more about Disney's navy) by Jeff. We rented a little pedal-powered buggy to ride around the lake on, which was quite an interesting experience.

Day Five (Tuesday)

That's today! We spent a bit of time on the Board Walk, then packed up and left. Disney World was lots of fun -- perhaps when I have a bit more time I'll go more in-depth with my opinions on it.

Disney World

In 24 hours, I will most likely be in our hotel room in Disney World. Again, I'll be sure to report in afterwards!

In other news:

Yesterday and the day before yesterday, my family did the exact same thing at night.

1. Watch the latest Clone Wars chapter
2. Eat dinner while...
3. ...watching The Incredibles

We finished The Incredibles yesterday. It's a very good movie, and the DVD has some absolutely hilarious extras, which we also watched last night. Note that when I was watching The Incredibles last Saturday, it was with some friends, separate from our little family watching campaign. :-)

Vacation

As of 14:10 this past Friday, I'm on vacation! This time, my family's actually going somewhere, which is rare for us. This Thursday we're flying down to Florida to Disney World! It'll be the first time my brother or I have gone.

I'll report in when we get back.

Movies

Over the past three days, I've seen parts or all of nine movies.

Friday:
The Perfect Score (all)
Carolina (some)
Ace Ventura (some)
Austin Powers (some)
Forrest Gump (all)

Saturday:
Millions (all)
The Incredibles (some)

Sunday:
Robots (all)
Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (some)

The Perfect Score was weird. Forrest Gump was good. Millions was trippy. And Robots was very good, very funny, and very fun to watch.

Bed time... adios!

Xenon

Today, the first details surrounded the next-generation Xbox (code-named "Xenon") emerged at the Game Developer's Conference. Click here to see IGN's coverage. Sounds very cool indeed!!! :-)

Troy

We're studying Homer's work in History, and so our teacher suggested we watch Troy. It was pretty good.

Exams

Well, I had my two exams yesterday. They went all right, I didn't end up spending too much time on them.

The good news is: we got today off because of it. The bad news is: we would have had today off anyway, because of the snow. Why couldn't the snow wait just 24 hours!?!?!?

The bad news is made even worse by the fact the Middle School, for no apparent reason, got yesterday off -- they don't have exams. My brother Willy is part of the Middle School. I was fine with him getting Monday off, since I knew I would get today off, but now he's gotton both days off! Very unfair indeed. :-(

Dogs & Exams

Random Rosie Comment of the Day:

Boy, it's been a while since I've had one of those, hasn't it!? This entry, though, is actually largely about Rosie, and not so random...

This past Monday (which I had off... go presidents!) was the one-year-anniversary of us getting Rosie!!! I have some pictures that, with luck, will get on my web site sometime within the next year....

This past Tuesday was even more exciting -- our neighbors got a new cockapoo named Cooper! He's very cute. He met Rosie for the first time yesterday, which was very entertaining -- Cooper kept on hiding under the chairs, where Rosie couldn't get at him, and then jumping out and attacking Rosie's cheek, neck, or tail. Rosie, in turn, would paw at Cooper, occasionally trapping him.

Exams:

This Monday we have our first exams of the year. You see, we have each class for two out of the three trimesters, so we have our first exams 2/3 through the year. Fortunately, I have only two on Monday: Physics and Freshman Seminar. In fact, I really only have one (to study for, at least), because the Freshman Seminar one is almost exclusively opinion-based.

I'm certainly not looking forward to the end of the year, when I'll have four. :-(

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! :-) Valentine's Day means candy, and candy means goodness... yay!

Today at school we got our Math tests back. As a matter of policy, I don't state my grades, but I will say that I've gotten the exact same score percentage-wise on this Math test, our recent History quiz (both were last Friday -- we got the History quizzes back 15 minutes after taking them), and the History test before that. Crazy, isn't it?

However, my Math score looks like it's about to be overturned due to some noble arguing by a few of my classmates and I regarding question #16 during class today while reviewing the test. Here's the problem. (Specifics may be off, but the gist of it is right.)

Line AB is congruent to line BC. Line AD is congruent to line BD. Line CD is a perpendicular bisector of line AB. True or false.

I say false -- you can draw it so it's either way, so it's false. The teacher says true. What do you say?

Patriot's Parade = No School!

Since the Patriots Parade is today, we were told that, if we had permission from our parents, we didn't have to go to school today! Yippee! :-) I would have gone, but we'd get nothing done in class anyway with so few people.

Go Pats! :-)

SUPER BOWL CHAMPS!!!

Congratulations to the good ol' New England Patriots, winners of Super Bowl XXXIX!!! YIPPEE!!! Four championships in as many years for New England... not too bad! :-)

Feel like checking who won the last 38? Head on over to MSN Search (advertised today during the game) and search "Who won Super Bowl [insert number here]?"

GO PATS!

More Mirrors

We've actually just started studying mirrors in physics class (what a coincidence!), and I'm rapidly losing confidence in my explanation of why objects in mirrors are closer than they appear. It still makes a tiny bit of sense, though -- in a strange, pointless kind of way... ;-)

Additionally, I'm now reaching greater understanding of the part mirror curvature plays in image size. For a long time I've had a basic understanting of how the light bends differently because of the curve, but only now am I learning about focal points and focal length and such. Light is an extremely interesting subject. :-)

Enough of this light enlightenment... back to Spanish homeowork. :-(

More Sledding, "Kiss me Kate"

This past Saturday I started the day off with a trip to the bookstore. Next I went sledding at the same place I went last week. Much of my old camp remained, though the new snow had made it a bit harder to see.

This time I actually sledded a bit more, but I also spent a lot of time building a nice little snow tunnel with a neighbor of ours. (His younger brother was there, too, but he was sledding most of the time.) The snow's deep enough that we could build a nice deep tunnel with a sturdy roof and not have to increase the natural depth of the snow at all. :-)

Last night we went to my uncle's school's production of Kiss Me, Kate, which was good. It had a couple of especially funny parts, such as a random wandering donkey and a nice little dead bird!

School & Snow

Despite rampant AIM-based speculation to the contrary, we did have school today. Oh well. Yesterday's snow day was very enjoyable -- my younger brother's friend came over and we played videogames (Halo 2 & Mercenaries) and went sledding.

Almost the entire time they were sledding, I was working on a little base camp at the top of the hill (so would it be a... umm... summit camp?). I flattened out a pretty big area -- plenty of room for the three enough, with plenty of room for a couple more. The flattening was crucial -- there was so much so it was next to impossible to walk otherwise. I then created custom-made spots for out tubes. I also defined the top of our run, complete with a queue area. I also made an elevated flattened area -- the "Snow City Cafe." There I had three little bowl-shaped indents in the snow for eating our M&Ms out of. :-)

Videogaming was also, of course, plenty of fun. I had one particularly great solo game (meaning my brother & his friend were doing something else) of Team Fiesta on Beaver Creek. I ended up winning the game for our team with 20 kills. At the end, I was doing really well with a rocket launcher -- I was so proud of myself. :-)

Super Bowl and Snow Day!!!

The Patriots are going to the Super Bowl!!! :-)

And -- it can't get much better than this -- we even have a snow day tomorrow because of all the... well... snow! I've had very few full weeks recently -- last week we had Monday off for MLK Jr. day and Tuesday off for Parent/Teacher Conferences! We have about two feet of snow here. It's amazing!

GO PATS!!!

Mirrors and Mercs

Thursdays and Tuesdays at school for me are double-block days -- we have only two classes (not counting Art), but we have each for twice as long. That means 2-hour classes. Fortunately, we're given a ten or fifteen minute break in the middle of class so that we don't get quite so worn out.

This past Thursday I had Geometry for the last two hours of school. During our break, I suddenly realized something I had never known before: why objects in mirrors are closer than they appear. Coming back from the break, I burst back into class and said, "I know why objects in mirrors are closer than they appear!" The two other kids in the classroom at the time seemed a tad bit confused as to why I was randomly saying such a thing. I explained it to them, and then to a few other kids as they got back from break. I was exceptionally excited about my discovery, but no one else really cared that much. ;-)

Anyway, here's why objects in mirrors are closer than they appear.

.......................3 feet.............................
YOU -------------------- MIRROR

You're only three feet away from the mirror, but the light has to go there and back again.

YOU -------------------> MIRROR
..........<-------------------.................

Thus, those three feet are doubled! Get it? Pretty cool, huh? The effect is exaggerated in a car, since you're not looking at yourself -- you're looking at something else farther back.

..........................................YOU --------> MIRROR
OTHER CAR <------------------------ ................

Late last Tuesday night we got the LucasArts game Mercenaries, but I just had my first chance to play it today. (Willy's been playing it all week, and he's still only a little more than a quarter through the game.) It's awesome! I highly recommend it.

The game takes place in at least 2008. Australian forces uncovered a North Korean nuclear weapons cache, and the Allied Nations (basically a new UN) pours into Korea to take out this new threat. Your goal in the game is to capture or kill (capture is preferred) the "deck of 52" -- 52 North Korean leaders. There are also several side-quests -- races, challenges, et cetera.

So far, though, I haven't really played the main game -- the only card I've captured is the Two of Clubs (at least I think it's clubs). Instead, I've had fun hijacking vehicles, demolishing cities with devastating airstrikes, and sending cars skyrocketing into the air with huge amounts of C4. You can also call in supply drops, where helicopters come and drop off weapons, vehicles (including fuel trucks, tanks, sports cars, and helicopters), and more.

The helicopters have this really cool retractable magnet clamp thing -- you deploy it and then it hangs beneath you, and then you can latch on & pick up anything from supply crates to civilian cars to tanks and other helicopters. Just make sure you don't try to get anything that's too heavy, or it'll end up dragging you down!

Again, I highly, highly recommend this game. :-D

10,000 Black Holes

10,000 or more black holes are now said to be orbiting the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy, known as Sagittarius A*. Wow.

Cool Clock

Check this out. It's really cool! :-)

SNOW DAY!!!

Wahoo - it's a snow day!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

Hmm, what to do... how about a mix of web site work, videogames (we got MechAssault 2 & it's great!), and homework? I'd say that's pretty likely.

Tophtucker.com v4.0 is ONLINE!!!

As of last night at about 11:45, the first parts of Tophtucker.com Version 4.0 are online. For information on some of the changes, click here. Since I'm not yet totally done with all the content, you may still stumble upon some old-style pages, broken links, and various other missing content. Over the next few weeks I'll be uploading the rest.

The updates to the TuckLyne section (including the Athena and TuckLyne Studios subsections), by the way, will be significantly farther off in the future, since that requires a whole new design. Note that TuckLyne itself will also be reorganization somewhat. There's a lot of stuff that's kind of hiding in the shadows, and that needs to be fixed. Just today I stumbled upon this section on the TuckLyne web site, which I don't remember AT ALL and which is thus completely out of date. I don't even know some of those people listed in the staff section! That's the stuff that needs to reorganized, merged into other divisions, or outright eliminated.

Well, it's dinner time for me, and then homework. Today was my first day of school after break... so sad... anyway, be sure to check out the new site! :-) Adios!

Vacation is pretty much over.

Well, today is my last day of vacation, which is extremely sad. While I don't have a good enough memory to remember what I did every single day, like I did for Thanksgiving break, here's an overview of what I did with dates when possible.

Dec. 17 (Friday):

This was our last day of school... yay! After school we went to Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, which was pretty good.

Dec. 19 (Sunday):

Some friends came over, including a rocket scientist who helped us recover some files from a dead computer. ;-) Then we played a lot of Halo 2 - a lot of Halo 2. A lotalotalot. By the end of the night we had gotten pretty good!

Week One in General:

This week I did a lot of web site editing, reading, and Halo 2. :-) My brother came home from California, which was very nice! We ended up playing Halo 2 with a lot of different friends that week... it's a great game!!!

Dec. 24 (Friday):

On the 24th we went to a friend's house for a Christmas Eve party and generally got even more excited for Christmas. :-)

Dec. 25 (Saturday):

CHRISTMAS!!! :-) On Christmas we opened presents, talked with a lot of people who came over, and then went out to my grandparent's house in Concord to have a little family party.

I also started watching these funny Star Wars cartoons I got, "Droids." They're not meant to be funny... but they are. ;-)

Dec. 26 (Sunday):

We went to a nice little baptism in the morning and then a party at the family's house later at night. My younger brother and I also played a lot of Dance Dance Revolution with our older brother... actually, I was playing "Rome: Total War" most of the time! :-)

Week Two in General:

This week there was a lot less web site work being done. ;-) How could I get such things done with all that Christmas excitement?!?

Dec. 27 (Monday):

My older brother's flight back to California was scheduled for the 27th at about 6:00 AM, meaning we weren't expecting to see him at all on Monday. Fortunately, the snow cancelled his flight, so he ended up going home Tuesday instead!

Dec. 28 (Tuesday):

Willy's friend came over and they went sledding while I took over the world in Rise of Nations, which I had started playing the previous day.

Willy's friend ended up sleeping over, and that night we randomly met his brother online in Xbox LIVE!!! The chances of that happening are absolutely miniscule, yet it happened.

We alternated playing Xbox LIVE and watching more of the hilarious Star Wars cartoons. We also started watching "Battle for Endor," the second in a series of two live-action Ewok movies... we started with the second by accident.

Dec. 29 (Wednesday):

Rosie turned ONE!!! We had a little birthday celebration, complete with a cake that she couldn't eat. Oh well... she got little doggie treats instead.

I continued watching "Battle for Endor" and also saw a big of the first movie, "Caravan of Courage."

Dec. 30 (Thursday):

I worked on an old "TuckLyne Studios" production, "Survivor or Not," and also worked on a Special Edition of an animated Star Wars movie I did in 7th Grade as a book report for the book "X-Wing: Starfighters of Adumar."

Dec. 31 (Friday):

I continued work on Starfighters of Adumar. That night, we had a few friends over for a New Year's Eve gathering. We watched Napoleon Dynamite, which is an incredibly strange movie. A little more than halfway through, at about 11:50 PM, we switched to ABC or CBS (I forget which... all I remember is that Regis Philbin was the host) for their New Year's Eve coverage.

JANUARY 1, 2005!!! (Saturday):

Happy New Year! We watched a bit more of the New Year's coverage on TV, including some of the fireworks in Boston. Then we finished Napoleon Dynamite, said good-bye to our friends, and went to bed...

...and woke up the same day! That doesn't happen very often. I watched most of Star Wars: Episodes I and II in celebration of the fact that Episode III comes out this year!!!, and then went to The Polar Express at the Comcast IMAX Theater in Jordan's Furniture. Contrary to what nearly every critic thought, it was really good.

That night I finished my work on the Special Edition of Starfighters of Adumar.

Jan. 2 (Sunday):

Today! Well, today (so far) I've had breakfast and written this. Later today I'll work a tiny bit on my web site, UPLOAD IT ALL (despite the fact that it's practically guarenteed I won't be totally finished), and -- this is the worst part -- do my homework. I think it should be illegal to give kids homework over vacation. Fortunately, I don't have much.

Well, that's all. Farewell!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! I love Christmas. If only it was longer... :-)

Due to all the Christmas excitement, I haven't been doing much work on my web site these past couple of days. Oh well... whether it's done or not, what I have of version 4.0 is going online at the end of this week, and version 3.2 is coming down.

Adios!

Winter Vacation!!!

Wahoo - winter vacation has officially begun!!! That means that, hopefully, I'll be working on my web site a lot. Finished or not, I'll upload what I have two weeks from now, at the end of vacation -- and the beginning of the new year! :-)

Titles & MSN Search Beta

First of all, I've decided to add titles to all of my posts in order to make it easier to find what you're looking for. Rejoice!

Second of all, I've started using MSN Search more and more now that they've released their great new beta. Try searching for "population of india," "prime minister of canada," "39 feet in meters," "define garrulous," "3x - 97.4 = 4 * 3x," "lifespan of an elephant," "height of K2," "John Williams," or a bunch of other cool things. Check it out!

Oh -- and happy December!!!

I'm now enjoying my last hour (or less) of vacation. Very sad... I won't even be able to wake up late tomorrow! Sad, sad, sad. Oh well. To honor the occassion, I'll now run through what I did this past week. Get ready for one of my longest posts ever!

Friday (Nov. 19)

My last class ended at 11:40, and then we went on a field trip to the mall until 2:10 (it's a very long story why we'd be doing that... but the good news is, while there I picked up two new Star Wars action figures!). After that, a few friends and I went to a new store near my house: "The Container Store." I had at first expected it to be fairly boring, but then I started hearing good things about it. Now that I've been there, I agree that it's great. :-) I got a stapler that, instead of staples, cuts a piece of the paper to be stapled and then folds it over itself in some weird way so that it acts as a fastener! It's great.

After that, we did... well... nothing, really, except kind of sitting around. Then we went to the school play, which was "On the Razzle" this year. It was pretty good, depite some pretty obvious (but very well handled!) errors. ;-)

Saturday (Nov. 20)

I went a couple different friends to go see the movie "National Treasure." It was pretty good, although the heroes acted pretty stupid at times. "Hey!" they say, "let's just pull out the Declaration of Independance in front of a trillion tourists and hope no one notices us discussing buried treasure!"

Sunday (Nov. 21)

We went out to Concord briefly to visit my grandparents, and then we left and went to the Celtics game! We won! Better yet, David Ortiz was there! He got ten times more applause than anyone on the Celtics, as is to be expected. :-)

Monday (Nov. 22) & Tuesday (Nov. 23)

I didn't really do anything but read and play Halo 2. That's not to say that I hadn't been reading and playing Halo 2 quite a bit those other days -- it's just that it's all I did on Monday & Tuesday. Well, except for a little computer stuff. Actually, a fair amount of computer stuff... but not as much as reading and playing.

On Tuesday, I played around with Adobe Atmosphere a little bit, which I had gotton as an early Christmas present two weeks ago today (the 28th -- so I got it the 14th). Previously I had opened it once or twice, but on Tuesday I actually managed to -- gasp -- create a small room with a red floor. (I still had the problem that every time the viewer opened the file they fell past the room into the empty void beyond, though.)

Wednesday (Nov. 24)

At this point it started to hit me that, tragically, vacation was halfway over! Unfortunately, that didn't at all spur me on to work more on my web site or anything, and to this moment I haven't worked on it one ounce, which is really a shame. Seriously -- I wish I had gotton more done. Sigh.

Anyway, on Wednesday I went to Finding Neverland starring Johnny Depp with a couple of the same friends with whom I went to the Container Store. It was a good movie, but very sad. (Although I argue that it has a "happy" ending -- at least sort off. It's that "the-world-is-dead-but-it-lives-on-in-your-heart" kind of ending.)

Thursday (Nov. 25)

I was greeted in the morning by my older brother, back for the weekend from San Diego!!! :-) Unfortunately, he had to head off to Rhode Island for the day almost immediately.

Later in the day -- around 1:00 -- we started the 1-hour trek (great for more reading) to my cousin's house for my family's annual Thanksgiving party. It was in a different house this year, which was interesting. My cousins have a GIANT golden retriever (Shamrock), a TINY little fluffy dog whose face looked like an Ewok (Logan), a cute little kitten who looked like one of Hasbro's "FurReal" animatronic toys (Spencer), and three other cats and a rabbit.

The kids spent almost the entire time in the basement, playing EA Sport's Madden 2005 for PS2 and ping pong.

Friday (Nov. 26)

We finally got some quality time with my brother -- YAY! There was plenty more Halo 2 to be had, as well as some computer time and reading -- how typical.

Saturday (Nov. 27)

My brother's friend came over, and my older brother, and another friend. We (but not my older brother) played with Nerf guns. Hehe... fun! Shooting! Guns! (Just kidding. ;-) ) That night, we played Red Sox Monopoly (but didn't finish our game) and watched some extras on the Harry Potter & the Prizoner of Azkaban and Star Wars Trilogy DVDs. There are some funny interviews on the HP disc, and the Star Wars DVD set has a great 2-hour documentary Empire of Dreams about the making of Star Wars that I just started watching earlier this week (maybe during that Monday-Tuesday lull -- I can't remember). The best part is the original screen tests -- they're hilariously bad, in some cases!

Sunday (Nov. 28)

How sad -- the last day of vacation. It also happens to be today. I woke up and immediately went on the computer, determined to get something done -- preferably web site related. Instead, though, I ended up making some read progress in Atmosphere. I was creating a simple maze when my older brother came over, and we started making a house together. Now it's a two-story mansion, although it still has no rooms -- only floors, walls, and stairs. Still, at least I've figured out how to texture the surfaces!

I'm hoping to put some of my Atmosphere stuff on my web site in time for version 4.0, which is now looking at a possible Summer 2005 release, although I'm still hoping and trying for a Christmas 2004 release, which with any luck will become a reality.

Later in the day, I (and my brother, Willy) did our family's Christmas card. Willy wrote the message and drew a couple little things, and then I scanned it, edited his handwriting in Photoshop to try to make it a little more readable, and put in some scanned photos. Next, sadly, I had to do my Spanish homework. We definitely shouldn't be given homework over vacations.

Finally, the same people who came over last night to play Monopoly came over tonight in an effort to finish the game, this time accompanied by their younger brother, who spent the time playing Midtown Madness 3 -- the first game to be in our Xbox other than Halo 2 since we got it on November 9th. In Monopoly, I landed on Free Parking and got about a thousand dollars, only to land on a spot with a rent of $1,150, go to jail, spend three turns trying to get doubles & fail each time, have to pay $50 to get out, and then get a Chance card that forced me to pay another $50. Yikes. Bad luck. By the time we stopped, everybody was in debt except one person: Mr. Diego Moneybags, who not only had that I-Owe-You worth over a thousand from me, but also other IOUs from the other people. Ironically, he has the fewest properties out of all of us: just four.

Even after today we didn't finish the game. Hopefully we'll have some other chance later.

Well, sadly it's almost time for me to get my last sleep of the vacation. Before then, though, I still I'll squeeze in just a couple minutes of web site editing. ;-)

According to the latest issue of Wired, Murphy's Laws have been proven to be statistically true.

I'm currently on my second-to-last day of Thanksgiving Break, enjoying a nice game of Halo 2. It is GREAT. :-) We've now created a clan, Tiny Green Men -- the name is based on the original-but-too-long name we first had in mind, Deep Space Leprechauns. Strange, I know... it's a VERY long story. If you play Halo 2 on Xbox LIVE, get an account over at Bungie.net for the best stat-tracking I've ever seen, and then check out the site we have over there for our clan and join!

Halo 2 sold 2.4 MILLION copies in the United States and Canada the day it came out (November 9th), which is equivalent to $125 million dollars for Bungie and Microsoft. That's more money on opening day than any movie in history!

I can certainly see why so many people bought it -- it's awesome! I've been playing a ton online, and soon my friend and I will be starting our very own clan. :-)

I have to go do homework now. :-( Bye-bye!

P.S. Yesterday was the first snow of the season -- yippee!! There was actually a couple inches outside today, which is a lot considering it's only November.

Guess what??? TODAY WE GOT HALO 2!!! It's awesome!!! Sadly, I haven't had too much time to play it due to homework, but I've played plenty to know that it rocks. :) Go buy it! Or, if you don't have an Xbox, go buy it and and Xbox! And buy Xbox LIVE, too, if you don't already have it! See you online!!!

Yesterday we went to the Red Sox Rolling Rally with some friends. It was great! It also wasn't as crowded in our little strip of the road than it was elsewhere, which was nice -- we were only the 4th or so row back.

THE RED SOX JUST WON THE WORLD SERIES FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 86 YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm soooooo excited!

YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, Willy's birthday came and went -- we celebrated on the 27th, even though his birthday is technically a day later. He got Fable, The Sims 2, and -- yippee! -- Battlefront. I'm obsessed with the later two, and he's obsessed with Fable, although (of course) we're all getting plenty of fun out of all three. :-)

While I hadn't really cared much about it before we got it, The Sims 2 is wonderful. You can have five-story houses!!! The character creation is exponentially better, so that now you can actually create a Sim that looks a lot like yourself!

More happy news: I'm currently enjoying a five-day weekend!!! We get Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off.

I'm off to play Battlefront now. Wish me luck in fending off the forces of the evil Empire!!! :-)

Sorry I haven't been able to update in a while... I'm just getting used to having homework again!

Last weekend we celebrated my grandparent's 50th anniversary up in Sorento, Maine. That was fun. :-) The whole family was there -- which is saying a lot, since my mom has five siblings, and one lives in Alaska with his wife and two kids. While there, we also celebrated a couple of family birthdays. Speaking of birthdays, by brother Willy's is this Tuesday!

This past Monday we had Matt Selman, writer for "The Simpsons" and Beaver class of 1989, come to talk to us. He said some somewhat inappropriate things and generated a fair amount of controversy. We even had an English writing assignment about him!

Yesterday I didn't go to school because I had a cold, but I'm feeling a lot better now. I've been playing lots and lots of the Star Wars Battlefront demo that came on the OT DVD set, which we got Wednesday. I absolutely love it -- I highly recommend it. :-)

Now Willy and his friend are playing Fable, which his friend brought over. It's a really cool RPG (role playing game) for Xbox. Willy has it on his wishlist.

---
Random Rosie Comment of the Day:
She loves sprinklers. While we're on walks, she'll go up to one and then kind of jump around and snap at it, trying to get a little drink!
---

I'm off to do homework now, so bye!

On Friday we got back from our orientation in Maine (we had gone up on Thursday). All throughout Thursday we were separated into twelve groups of six people each (roughly), all competing throughout various activities for points. The finale of that particular competition came after dinner, when each group had to come up with a skit involving certain pre-determined elements. Our group (F, later christened the "Flying Firefighters" by me) did a skit where we were on a bus ride to Washington D.C., but then our bus driver (named Jerry, which is actually the name of our driver for our real trip last year) crashed and we had to camp outside for a night. It was... interesting.

(When the winners were announced Friday, it turns out we managed to come in 3rd place, despite a not-so-perfect showing at the theater -- but we had done really well at paper-cup-stacking and blindfolding activities.)

The next day, and our last day, we had an egg-drop contest. We split into new groups of 6 people each (mine was group 1) and, using some materials given to us like straws, rubber bands, a balloon, string, and tape, had to create a contraption that would protect the egg in case of a drop. Our egg died on the first drop, despite complex rubber-band-suspension, a cushioning balloon, and a reinforced straw frame. Oh well.

---

Last night we went to The Lion King at the new opera house. It was really cool -- the costumes were amazing!!! Tomorrow school starts again, which is sad -- but there are only nine days left until the Star Wars original trilogy comes out on DVD!!!

Do you know how many femtometers are in a petameter? I do -- 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000!

Today in Physics we went over the metric system as somewhat of a refresher. While I know I called yesterday our "real" first day, even that was a special schedule. This was our first regular schedule day -- although even today, afternoon activities were replaced by a short little field trip.

Tomorrow we leave for Maine, at 8:30, for our orientation trip. I'll be back Friday. Wish me luck!

Today was my real first day of school -- not just orientation, but real school, complete with classes and homework and everything. :-(

One plus is that we got to see the new building. It's really cool -- especially the control room for the Black Box Theater, which hopefully I'll get to use some time for tech crew.

We also met all our teachers, which was fun, and learned who our classmates are and so on. And we didn't get too much homework, which is always good.

Tomorrow we go on some quicky orientation field trip, which is kind of strange, since we're going on a full-fledged, one-night trip the very next day. The teachers all say it's a lot of fun. Hopefully they'll be proven correct! :-)

We just got back from the wedding in Virginia. Today's our last day before school starts again, which is very sad. :-(

I just finished reading The Da Vinci Code. It was pretty good, although the endless cliffhangers got to be annoying. One thing's for sure, though: it was clever.

Well, I'm off to enjoy my last day of freedom for a long time. Bye bye!

In just a couple hours, we leave for a wedding in Virginia. We'll be gone until Sunday, and then school starts (for real -- not just pre-season anymore) on Tuesday.

Just now, I installed Windows Media Player 10. I highly recommend it. As I talked about a bit last time, there's a new look, simplified interface, auto-syncing with portable music devices, and -- best of all -- integration with the new MSN Music store. I think I might actually try it out -- MSN Music, that is. I played around with iTunes a bit a little while back, but never actually bought anything. Maybe I will this time. Who knows.

Well, I've got to go now. I'll try to update again Sunday. Adios!

Pre-season continues, for those who're doing it. Yesterday there was a little ice cream get-together for returning students, new students, and some teachers as well. It was also the first day the new Arts Center building was open to students, so a few friends and I spent much of the event giving a new family (with a kid entering 6th) a tour.

For me, work on tophtucker.com 4.0 continues after a month-long break. It certainly won't be ready by the time I start school, but I feel confident that I can finish in time for a New Year's 2005 release. Yippee!

---

In Other News:

Check out MSN Music Beta. They're still "stocking the shelves," but eventually it'll have as many songs (if not more) available for download as its main competitor, iTunes Music Store. You can access MSN Music straight from the new Windows Media Player 10, automatically sync your music with any compatible portable music player, burn the music to CD, and so on.

---

Random Rosie Comment of the Day:

She loves trying to catch bubbles in mid-air. :-) Also, just the other day she used her kennel as a stepping-stone to get up on the counter and eat a whole peach!

I'm back from the 9th Grade Orientation thing now! Here's my report on school, Taconnet, and this very blog.

---

School

Unfortunately, we didn't have much time to meet the new kids joining our class. However, we did meet several of our teachers and learn a bit about our schedule. Kids playing a sport in the fall went on to start pre-season, but since I'm doing tech crew for the play instead I got to go home -- which I feel very lucky about, since the kids who DID attend pre-season say it was a pretty grueling experience.

However, before leaving I attended another web committee meeting about BCDS' new web site. I saw the new logo, as well as a few potential designs.

Taconnet

You learned about most of what I did at Taconnet a couple posts ago (I actually wrote that post while at Taconnet!). Here are a few other things.

• We saw a kid blow a giant bubble in the annual Freaky Talent Show.
• I learned the name of the next Star Wars film. :-D
• We made a movie with some friends. The plot was that Rozie, the managers' dog, actually had a secret plot to slaughter all the humans. Sound interesting? It was!

This Very Blog

You may have noticed a couple new features in the past week or so. The first is that nifty toolbar at the top of the blog, which replaces the ad that used to be there. You can use it to make your own weblog (aka blog), see other blogs, and -- best of all -- search my blog! I'm not sure how well it works, though.

The other new feature is that little envelope icon at the bottom of every post. You can use it to email that post to a friend! Cool, huh?

And don't forget the other features this blog has had for... well... a while, such as comments (just click that link at the bottom of each post) and the archive, which lets you see every post I've ever written.

---

Well, that's all for now folks!

Howdy!

I'm back from Taconnet, and have been for a little over a week now. It was really fun! I'll try to give you a more complete recap later, but currently I'm only half an hour away from going back to school again! THE HORROR!!! Hehe... ;-)

Although, fortunately, this is only a couple-hour-long orientation session. People taking sports in the fall then have preseason for the rest of the week, from 9:00 - 3:30 or something like that. I, however, am not playing soccer this year. I'm probably going to do tech crew for the play instead.

As for summer reading, I'm almost done (it's due on the first day of actual school). I've calculated that by a week from today I will have read 14 books over the summer, which equates to about 5,000 pages. Yippee!

Adios, amigos.

Hi everyone! I'm writing this from Taconnet, so I have to be quick. We're now a little more than half way through our stay, and so far it's been great. Here are some highlights:

TUBING

• Tues. Aug. 3: We were caught in the middle of a torrential downpour, and I managed to flip a collossal tube while driving.
• Wed. Aug. 4: That same collassal tube was deflating, causing (at one point) one of two occupants to get squished and the tube collapsed onto itself!
• Wed. Aug. 4: One 6-year-old went on a slow roller-coaster type ride, as multiple wakes collided and the tube balanced on top of three-foot-waves.

ROCKETS ETC.

• We've set off one 1-or-2 foot rocket and two 2-or-3 feet mini-rockets. We got a great picture of one -- I'll have to post it when we get back!
• We also (with a friend who's a rocket scientist) got two cheap RC planes. One kind of worked, and the other didn't really work at all. So, we strapped a rocket engine to it and launched it a few times. :)
• We also got an RC boat, which works great and is perfect for chasing ducks with!

OTHER STUFF

• We've also made s'mores...
• Celebrated a few birthdays...
• Done some skiing...
• and a 550-piece puzzle!

That's all -- I really have to get off the computer now. Adios!

T-minus 5 minutes and counting...

Well, tomorrow's the day folks. Bright and early (well kind of -- around 10:00) we're off to Taconnet for four weeks. It'll be lots of fun, with swimming, boating, tubing, skiing, ping-ponging, tennis-ing, s'more-ing, eating, sleeping, walking, running, breathing, canoeing, drawing, writing, and more!

For the first time ever, we'll actually have a laptop there, which means I might have a chance to update this while we're up there. Wish me luck! And now...

---

Random Rosie Comment of the Day:
Rosie is by now too big to fit properly in her kennel, and thus is forced into a "submissive position" whenever's she's sitting in there, with her head lowered. If she lies down, she doesn't have that particular problem, but instead she's long enough that she has to sort of drape her front paws over the front of the crate. It's very cute. :-)

Web Site Update:
Sadly, I won't be able to get any work done on my site for the next four weeks, though I will have two weeks after we get back (and before school starts) to work on it. (I had previously thought I only had one week afterwards -- oops! Pleasant surprise!) Anyway, I'm almost done with the Reviews section now. I still have a whole lot of work left to do, though, and there's little-to-no chance of me finishing before Winter Break. Oh well.

--- 

T-minus 9:45 and counting...

Well, there's another birthday today -- my mom's! I made her a card that accidentally said "Happy Mother's Day..." oops....

Now, you remember what to do! What? You don't know what I'm talking about? Check the archives for one year ago today, then come back.

---

Ok, back now? Good! Now sing!

Happy birthday to you..................

---

In other news, today we overloaded the circuits in our basement with the computer, the laptop, the TV, Xbox, and dehumidifier. Is that how you spell it? I think so...

Well, that's all for now! Adios!

Ooh, just noticed something else. That last post there was my 111th blog post ever! How special! :-) And one other thing: check out my newly revised profile by clicking the link on the right.
 
Adios!

Happy birthday to this
Happy birthday to this
Happy birthday dear blog
Happy birthday to this!
 
Yup folks, it's the one-year anniversary of this blog! Wowsers... it feels like just yesterday when I started this! I'm so proud -- 93 posts and counting! :-)
 
One day, when I'm old and gray, I'll look back on this and think "Wow. I remember this." Or perhaps I'll think back and think "Wow. My memory's gone. I have no idea what this is." Or something like that. But I think that one day I should create a giant book full of all this stuff -- English journals, personal journals, word documents, emails, instant message conversations, blog entries -- showing all the events of my life. I think that'd be pretty interesting! Of course, it would also take forever to create... still, it could be a neat little "Story of my Life" thingy.
 
I think that's part of the reason I like blogging. It lets me create a record that I could look back on one day and say "Hey, what day was this? What happened this day?" and so on. I love keeping records. For example, just today we got rid of our old red Ford Ranger named Hank and got a new black Toyota Rav4 (we're still thinking of a name). I took over 50 pictures of Hank so that I would remember just what he looked like. Yikes. It's a good thing they're all digital, and thus free!
 
Digital pictures... they're wonderful for the same reason this blog is. They let me remember things I would otherwise forget. Like what Rosie looked like when she was only 2 months old, or what that snowstorm was like back in February 2003. It's for that reason that I have about 2,000 photos on this computer. :-)
 
---
 
In Other News
 
Work continues on my web site. I had a link crisis earlier today, where I had to fix these same four broken links on every single page manually -- and then I made a formatting mistake when fixing them, so I had to do them all over again. Ugh. Now I'm mainly working on the Fun & Games, Reviews, and Star Wars sections. Wish me luck.
 
In More Other News
 
Today my friend came over for a couple hours and we played lots of Halo (with Willy, too). We were trying to have my friend, Willy and I all in a line with Willy in the middle and my friend and I facing each other. My friend and I were both supposed to shoot a rocket at each other (and thus Willy in the middle, too) at the exact same time Willy ducked to avoid the rocket. What was supposed to happen was that my friend and I would be killed by each other's rockets, and Willy would survive. (Who came up with this plan, anyway?) However, I... umm... "accidentally" ended up killing both my friend and Willy, while my friend's rocket just went right over my head. Hehe... oops. :-)
 
Speaking of Halo, yesterday I met a family who's just moved here from northern California. They have two kids -- one who's going into 9th grade (like me), and another who's going into 6th grade (one year below Willy Tucker). The older one has a Halo PC clan, which is what reminded me of this in the first place. Only 5 1/2 more weeks! I'm going to miss vacation... :-(
 
---
 
Well, that's all. Tomorrow's my mom's birthday, and this Saturday we're off to Taconnet for four weeks, so it's an exciting time. But before we go, I have one more treat in store for you lucky readers... a picture! 

Random Rosie Comment of the Day:
She loves jumping up on the kitchen table now. She's gotten even more spongs since I last mentioned this, and she's also gotten a good amount of food. While we're in Taconnet, Rosie will be staying in a kennel recommended to us by the local marina owners (who breed puppies themselves, including "Parker," a cute yellow lab who looks just like the puppy in the K9 Advantix ad). The kennel is only about 15 minutes from Taconnet, so we might actually get to visit Rosie!!! YIPPEE!!!

Work on version 4.0 of Tophtucker.com is going quite well. The home pages for every primary section are done. I've just about finished the Family section, the Fun & Games section and the Multimedia section already have several pages, and the new About the Site page is done.
 
I still have to fix plenty of links, though, and there's still a ton of image work to be done. Nevertheless, the overall structure is complete, and I think it's all coming along rather nicely.

Sku! Just saw I, Robot. It was great! Yubnub! :-) Doesn't exactly make me feel too optimistic about robots, though.
 
Anyway, about the tophtucker.com beta...
 
On the site, you can currently preview the entire new family sections, one "flavor" of the new home page, and one totally new photo album. In addition, you can read over the outline that describes virtually every new feature of 4.0. (It reminds me of the NS-4s in I, Robot...) This winter (or so), the whole thing will go online. To see all this for yourself, head on over -- click here.
 
Following the primary updates to Tophtucker.com will be updates to the TuckLyne section, including updates to the Athena and TuckLyne Studios sub-sections. The new TLS site will include short video clips from our movies, and there'll be a whole new sub-section -- the TLO ("TuckLyne OnLyne" -- hehe, get it?) Store. There you can find simple instructions on how to order... well... anything! :-)
 
That part will come later on -- due to the school vacation schedule, probably sometime around Spring Break or even possibly later. Yut ehda... yeha!

Just now I uploaded the beta version of tophtucker.com version 4.0 -- check it out here! I also uploaded small updates to the School and Lessons sections and a bigger update to the Star Wars section. Check it out, and be sure to send me any feedback!
 
More on the beta tomorrow... or another day.... g'night!

I'm typing this from our new Dell laptop (they must love us right now), and I'm doing it wirelessly over our WiFi network! I've been having fun assigning the touch pad to do all sorts of fancy stuff, like launching a web site by tapping the upper-right or opening up Windows Media Player with the upper-left. Fun fun fun!

Random Rosie Comment of the Day:
She learned to swim yesterday! Well, she could already swim -- she had gone in once at Taconnet -- but yesterday was the first time she really went in, retrieved stuff, etc.

Just finished the document announcing all the exciting changes in store for tophtucker.com version 4.0! Actually, even it doesn't touch on some of the other longer-term things I've been working on...

I'm starting to distribute the document to select individuals for review. Then, in just a few days(maybe more, maybe less), I'll post it online along with the Beta section going up at tophtucker.com/beta so that everyone can take a look!

I'm writing this from our relativity new downstairs computer, which has a newer motherboard and an even newer hard drive.

Even after we got the motherboard replaced (to fix a faulty Ethernet adapter), we were having plenty of problems. Just yesterday a guy contracted by Dell to replace our hard drive came by and did so. Everything seems to be running smoothly -- so far.

Random Rosie Comment of the Day:
The day before yesterday (Tuesday), she managed to snag the singing little hamster we have in our kitchen. Yesterday, she did it again -- and I got pictures! Those pictures will be on my site in a matter of days, as part of the coming preview of version 4.0.

Also the day before yesterday, Rosie had a brief encounter with the neighborhood killer cat, Max, who catches and eats all sorts of animals. (We love him, though!) Max was sitting on a chair and Rosie came by and kind of sniffed him. I grabbed her by the collar, and Max hissed and basically ran off.

Finally, Rosie got her stitches out today. Yay!

---

I'm off to watch Waiting for Guffman, a great movie that I highly recommend. Adios!

This past Thursday, June 1, we went to Spider-Man 2. It was really good. :-) Funny, action-packed, et cetera. Yesterday, as you know, we watched 2001: A Space Odyssey. Wow -- quite a difference there.

Also yesterday, we got the Spider-Man 2 videogame for Xbox. Willy and I have been playing it pretty much non-stop ever since. :-) This time around, you can swing, walk or jump literally anywhere on Manhattan Island. Jump on a car and ride it around. Catch little kids' balloons and get "hero points." Save the city. And so on. All in all, a great game.

Today -- just now, in fact -- we went to see "The Terminal." It's very funny. Tom Hanks plays an immigrant from the fictional country of Krakozhia who gets stuck in JFK International Airport when a coup in his home country renders his passport and visa worthless. For more information, check out the official web site.

Adios, amigos!

Dave: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
HAL: I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.

We just rented and watched 2001: A Space Odyssey, and boy is it weird! Still, pretty interesting...

Currently, going to tophtucker.com displays version 3.2. That's basically the most-updated version. The original plan - though you might not have known it - said that there would be a version 3.3 before the jump was made to 4.0. However, in the interest of time that is no longer true. Rest in peace, version 3.3.

This basically means that, while there will be little updates here and there (a picture or two, a page update) between now and version 4.0 (scheduled for a winter release), nothing major is planned. That, in turn, means I have more time to work on 4.0, which means that it'll come sooner. Yay!

Note that no functionality is lost -- only a worthless interim site version is. ;-)

Very soon, a complete overview of plans for version 4.0 will be distributed to select individuals. Soon thereafter, a copy will be placed online, complete with a couple examples of the new site. Comments are welcome. :-)

Stay tuned!

Hello hello hello. Here I am, back again, for another great blog entry. :-)

First off, I now realize something. Look two blogs down. See how I say that my whole entry just dissappeared and that I thus had to do it over? Look one more entry down. There it is! The missing entry! I suppose it hadn't gone missing after all, though I maintain that it was not there immediately afterwards. Anyway, now you can compare the two, seeing little details that I forget or other ones that I remembered to include in the second version. :-)

Anyway, on Sunday, June 20, we left for -- Dallas. Yup, that's right, to go to Anchorage, Alaska we for some reason ended up in Dallas. While we were there, we saw a little Dell store and - BAM! - bought a laptop. Hehe... that was sudden!

Next stop, Anchorage. Alaska was lots of fun. We saw a giant glacier, several bears, some moose, and lots of mountains! One thing we didn't see was nighttime. In summertime Alaska, it never really gets dark. I took a picture at 10:30 or so PM, showing it was still broad daylight!

Our itinerary stated that we'd be in Alaska for about 5 days, then in San Francisco for 5 days. Unsurprisingly, that remained true. The trip from AK to SF was uneventful, and we arrived in time to see two things that were absent in Anchorage: our older brother Johnny, and darkness. (All the other things unique to San Fran would have to wait until morning.)

In San Francisco, our hotel was right accross the street from the Sony Metreon, a kind of Sony-only mall that we first discovered on our trip to SF three years ago. Unfortunately, 3 years ago it had a store called "Microsoft SF" with fun PDAs, software, games and more. Currently, it doesn't. Apparently, Sony took offense at Microsoft releasing the Xbox (which competes directly with Sony's PlayStation 2) and kicked them out. Very sad indeed...

At the Metreon, we played with projected marbles, ate ice cream, and saw at least a few dozen fancy Sony TVs showing the trailer for Spider-Man 2 -- which, might I add, is a Sony movie. (It also wasn't out yet during our visit. It is now, though, and I hear it's great.) In addition, there were tons of Spidey posters and giant Spidey wall displays. There were even more ads for it once you stepped outside, on busses, billboards, and so on. Despite its supposed greatness (I haven't seen it yet, so I can't be sure!), I think that's a bit much.

In SF, we also went to the beach (and made two giant sea forts -- the second only after the first was obliterated by a giant wave), saw plenty of restaurants, and saw my older brother's apartment. (In there, the day before yesterday, we played a board game called "Settlers of Catan." If you've ever played the computer game Civilation III, it's a lot like that. I love them both!)

The day before yesterday -- our last full day in SF -- we saw the best thing of all: Skywalker Ranch! We saw the giant sound/screening room, their artificial lake, and original props from Lucasfilm movies! I took at least 100 pictures of that place -- I hope to post some photos from the trip on my site soon, and those will be included.

Of course, I've been talking about putting stuff on my site "soon" a lot, and not much has actually gotten up there. We have plenty of free time ahead, though, so I assure you: there WILL be more updates SOON. :-D

Speaking of the web site, I spent some time discussing that with John while in San Fran. Fear not, version 4.0 is still on the way, and looking better than ever!

Random Rosie Comment of the Day:
We just got her back from her stay at the kennel today! YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!

Well, that's all, folks. Check back next time for another edition of...
TOPH'S AWESOME BLOG!!!!!!

Hi everybody! Just got back earlier tonight. While I suppose that was technically yesterday -- it as, after all, 1:24 -- that equates to only 10:24 San Francisco time.

Anyway, I'll update with all the details... umm... later today, I guess! In the meantime, I better get some good ol' sleep.

Adios!

Uggh, my ENTIRE last post just dissappeared into the ether due to Blogger problems, so I'll have to do a brief recap:

Random Rosie Comment of the Day:
She's just realized she can jump up onto the kitchen counter, so over the past week she's eaten 5 sponges, 1 wooden spatula, quite a lot of cheese and a little bit of coffee frappe. Yum!

Our cousin Alex came over today for most of the day -- we played LOTS of Super Smash Bros. on N64! Then we went over to my friend's house and played Halo PC multiplayer -- with Banshees! That was a lot of fun. (We had another couple cousins come over... was it Tuesday? Or Monday? Or Wednesday? Somewhere around then. We went to Shrek 2, which was fun.)

Yesterday a guy from Dell came over and replaced the motherboard on our downstairs computer, complete with a functional Ethernet adapter, which means that we now have internet access down there! Yippee!

Also yesterday, I went to Dodgeball with some other kids from school. It was so-so... nowhere near as good as Star Wars, that's for sure! :-D Hehe... I love Star Wars...

This'll be my last post in a while. Tomorrow we leave for Anchorage (by way of Dallas -- how odd)! (Rosie's already gone to her little puppy camp, where she'll stay for the next ten days or so.) We stay in Anchorage for 5 days, then go to San Francisco to see our older brother and sister and stay there 5 days! That'll be fun... while I might get my hands on a little internet access during that time, don't count on it!

While I've tried getting a little web site work done, it just hasn't really worked out for me. :-) However, when I get back there's plenty in store for good ol' tophtucker.com. Updates I'm working on include a better News page and plenty of new Photo Album content, as well as finished off the School and Lessons section. To top it all off, I've started planning out version 4.0. That'll be a mighty big update -- bigger than 3.0, I'm guessing. That might come by September, if I'm really productive, or by next summer if I'm not. :-) (I'd say early January would be the most realistic guess, though I'll do all I can to get it done before going back to school.)

Well, that's it! T-minus 9 hours and counting (that's until we leave for the airport). Adios!

Hi there! This'll probably be my last post in a while, since tomorrow we're flying to Anchorage (by way of Dallas -- how odd)! We're there for five days, then we go to San Francisco to visit my older brother & sister for five days, then we come back. All in all, 19 hours of flying -- which means 19 hours of quality time with my latest Star Wars books!

Random Rosie Comment of the Day:
She's just recently discovered that she's able to jump up onto the kitchen counter. Over the past week, she's eaten 5 sponges, one wooden spatula, quite a lot of cheese, and a little coffee frappe.

Today we had our cousin Alex over for a good chunk of the day. We played lots of Super Smash Brothers on N64! :-) Then, around 3:30, I went over to my friend's house and played some Halo PC multiplayer -- with Banshees! Fun fun fun!

Yesterday a Dell guy came over and installed a new motherboard on our new PC downstairs, complete with a functional Ethernet adapter! Finally -- internet! My life is complete! :-D Hehehe....

Well, that's all folks. I've tried getting web site stuff done, and to be honest I have gotten a tiny bit done, but it just hasn't been working out for me. ;-) Don't worry, there's plenty in store for when I get back! I'm working on updates to the News section, the Photo Album, and a bunch of other stuff. In fact, I'm starting to map out version 4.0! It'll be a biggie, quite a lot bigger than 3.0. I can't wait! :-D

Well, T-minus 10 hours and counting (that's until we leave for the airport)... While I might (if I'm lucky) be able to get my hands on some internet access during our trip, don't count on it! Adios!

Our friend came over last night to help us with various computer issues, including the issue of internet on our new Dell Media Center PC that I mentioned last post. Well, it turns out there's a very good reason I was having trouble connecting: somehow, it lacks an Ethernet adapter. Whether its simply missing it or whether something burned out we don't know, but tomorrow Dell is supposed to call us to let us know when they'll be able to come install a brand-new motherboard. Since we leave for Alaska on Sunday, go to San Fran 5 days later, and come back home after another 5 days, these issues might have to wait until then.

On a much higher note, computer-wise, I was able to connect the new Dell to our TV and play music & videos on both our TV and computer monitor simulataneously! Yippee!

Goodbye for now...

Just finished setting up our new Dell! :-D Actually, it's not connected to the network yet & thus doesn't have internet yet, but it's pretty much set up...

More on all that tomorrow!

Hi there! Sorry I haven't updated in a while... I've actually been working for the school this past week, not including Monday, updating computers and such.

Monday I went to Harry Potter 3 in IMAX with a few other people... we went to the Jordan's Furniture Comcast IMAX theater. It had Tempur-Pedic seats and armrests and a subwoofer built into every chair! WOW!!! That was fun...

Today was my last day working at school, so it was really only four days. Today I ended at 12:00, since they were taking down the network for repairs and thus I wouldn't be able to do any more work.

After that, my brother and I went down to our neighbor's house and swam some, had dinner, and then watched the third Zenon movie on Disney. It's bad enough that they spelled xenon wrong -- to make matters worse, that people in it (who are supposedly "futuristic") use expressions like "mondo-fabulous" and "macro-cool." Oh well -- it's so bad it's funny! ;)

Random Rosie Comment of the Day:
While she swam a few times while we were in Maine a couple weeks ago, so has thus far avoided any swimming in our neighbor's pool.

Random Rosie Comment of the Day:
Last Friday was the first time she's ever met my older brother John.

Today I went to a friends' birthday party (we went to Blue Man Group), tried to fix our wireless network and partially succeeded (accidentally deleting some stuff on my iPaq in the process -- oops!), and... umm... "won" (not really) Monopoly in a game with my older brother, who was visiting from San Fran.

(At one point in the game, I dove across the board and tackled my brother Willy, vanquishing him eternally -- yippee! Hehehe...)

As for Friday's in-depth recap, here goes...

We started the day with a little down time / yearbook-signing time. During that time I learned that my aforementioned brother John was here from San Fran! YIPPEE!!! We lined all then lined up (in alphabetical order) out in the front circle, and at 8:30 we headed in to Bradley Hall for 8th Grade Promotion. Jessica and Max, our two elected student speakers, and our elected faculty speaker, Ms. Mathieu, spoke. We also saw an 8th grade reflective video, and CSP prizes were awarded.

After that, we had a little reception thingy with snacks -- yum! My brother tried tossing various foods into other people's mouths, with little or no success. We introduced John to a couple of my teachers and took plenty of pictures.

After that, we headed back to Bradley Hall for Final Assembly. There, awards were... well... awarded, and some last words were spoken. At 12:30 or so we were free, and I finished getting teacher signatures. (Many kids I would see again that night, and some more I would see Saturday.) We headed to Johnny's (that's a restaurant -- no connection with my brother) and had a celebratory lunch with my younger brother and a couple of friends.

Next we headed to Circle Cinema to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It was pretty good. They have a new director who changed some things, as well as the general feel of the movie, to an extent. He made some good decisions, I think, but also a lot of not-so-good ones. The movie went by REALLY fast, they skipped a whole lot of content, and the supporting characters had little-or-no roles -- we only ever got to see the main guys, the pace was so fast. They changed a few bits of the book around, too. Oh well. It's bound to happen whenever a book makes the leap to the movies. Ha! Get it? A pun! BOUND to happen, like you BIND a book! Hehehe....

Immediately after that, I got a ride to a graduation party. We arrived around 5:35 and stayed until about 7:45 -- we were the last ones to leave, due to a bit of carpool confusion. Just for reference, I believe the party was supposed to last from 5:00 - 7:00. That was fun -- I took eleven pictures using my friend's mom's camera, which is one of those super-satifying ones that makes a nice "click." Fun! :-)

Last night's party was fun, too. There wasn't too much overlap, in terms of who went, which made it interesting. Other differences: Friday's was 100% outside, this one was 100% inside. Friday's went from 5:00 - 7:00, this one from 5:00 - 10:00. We played with some balloons at the beginning, listened to a bit of Beatles music, and marveled at the REALLY old TV in the basement. Then my friend arrived with his Xbox and game collection, and we started up Halo for some deathmatch / team deathmatch fun. Then more people arrived, we watched Pirates of the Caribbean, and headed downstairs for... I forget. Balloon fun? Yeah, some of that.

Anyway, later on, as some kids started to leave, another friend and I snuck upstairs for some more Halo. Unfortunately, he didn't have much experience, and the game wasn't very balanced. Once we got everyone playing and rotating out after losing, it got more fun. The later games were CTF; the earlier ones were team deathmatches.

Then I had to go home. Sad. My friend (a different one here) and I had quite a chat in the car, delaying my return to home -- as you could see from last night's entry. Well, that's all for the recap stuff folks. More real content tomorrow! Hey, maybe I'll get that iPaq working... ooh, and some web site work, too....

Just so you know, Star Trek AND Reading Rainbow star Levar Burton just won something like $167,000 for some teaching charity on "Star Trek" celebrity Weakest Link, as seen just now on the Game Show Network. The winning answer was antebellum -- but what was the answer? Unfortunately, some dumb aliens just came and blew up our planet-sized supercomputer that was only minutes away from the question. Alas, we may never know. Or will we? Find the hidden code, and post the question as a comment on my blog in our first-ever audience contest! May the Force be with you!

By the way -- I'll (still) update with a bigger recap a little later. No time now! :( Bye.

Howdy! Another fun day...

1. Opened some graduation gifts, incl. 2 Star Wars books -- yippee!
2. Played some Xbox
2. Headed off to another graduation party at 4:00; party went 5:00 - 10:00, though we stayed a little over 15 minutes late. Played plenty of Halo, which was great for me -- only 2 people (my friend & I) owned the Xbox version, so we had a clear advantage. Just to give you some idea of that, in one 4-person game, the final score was about 46 - 43 - 6 - 2. Not exactly evenly matched. :)

Well, gotta go to bed now. Believe it or not, I just got back from the party -- my friend and I (we were carpooling) ended up talking for a while after dropping him off at his house. Anyway, adios!

Wahoo! I'm a 9th Grader! :-)

I graduated from Middle School today, went to lunch, saw the new Harry Potter, went to a graduation party, came home, and wrote this -- all in one day! What an accomplishment! :-D

It's bed-time for me now, but I'll update with my impressions tomorrow -- my first full day of summer break! Yippee!

And just a bit more than 348 days left! YIPPEE!!! WAHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! Adios.

Today we had Community Service day at school. I actually just stayed at school and helped completely empty three classrooms.

We only have 4 more hours of middle school! Yippee! :-)

Today was our two-hour math exam. We had one 13-page packet to do on most all the stuff we did throughout the year, and then another 6-page packet only on "Chapter 10," which is the most recent stuff we've been doing. Even using all the extended time, I was only able to get a little less than half of it done. Oh well! The good news is: it's all over. We have no more work in Middle School -- ever!!! :-)

After the exam, we had little 20-minute sessions of each class. In Science we cleaned up a bit after the CSP chaos, in History the whole class played hand games, and in English we reminisced about the year gone by.

In Computer Class we did pretty much nothing other than surf the internet, though the winner of the recent "business plan" project won. My team -- "T-Ned Toys" -- won! Our idea was to make action figures based on NBC's hit reality series, The Apprentice. The best part was that they talked and had certain actions associated with them! So, for example, by pressing the button on its back, you could make the Donald Trump figure might say "You're fired" and do that weird hand thing. Donald Trump action figures... what an idea. Too bad it wasn't mine... ;-)

For our last Middle School class EVER -- Spanish -- we went outside to the tennis courts and just kind of played around. In started raining a little bit at first, and then it started raining A LOT. I got pretty wet. ;-) Of course, not as wet as the 6th graders, who had a water balloon fight.

After that, my carpool & I took a little trip to the local Barnes & Nobles, which also has a Starbucks cafe. While we were there it started REALLY raining -- about 100 times worse than the worst of before -- but, fortunately, by the time we left it had subsided. I love B&N. :-) We go there so often we even know the manager! Hehehe...

Well, that's all for now. Maybe I'll update again tomorrow and go into a little more depth... or who knows, maybe not! :) Adios.

Hello there! First of all, I'd like to point out that I have a new, secondary blog: Toph's Star Wars Blog. Check it out! (That means that I won't be posting much Star Wars stuff here anymore.)

Today in school we started off by practicing for our "promotion" on Friday, aka graduation. Then the whole middle school went to Dave & Buster's in Providence, Rhode Island. A little while ago we were given the choice of going to either "Good Times" (another arcade place) or Canobie Lake Park. However, Canobie Lake Park was rained out, and thus we all went to Dave & Buster's. It's on the very top floor of this giant mall - which, by the way, happens to have at least a couple dozen escalators. Oh well. It was fun anyway.

We started out with lunch at "DAB," as I'll call it from now on. We were served by a nice guy named Jon. Anyway, after that, we headed out to the arcade portion of DAB. I played Star Wars Racer a few times, some cop-chase thing a few times, a Ferrari racing thing, and maybe something else that I'm forgetting. Unfortunately, at that point my little "credit card" ran out of credits, and I had to stop playing. :(

We also went to DAB earlier in 8th grade, a couple days before winter break started. That day we went to some play -- the one with all the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future -- and then we went to DAB. That time they had another Star Wars game, called -- imaginatively enough -- "Star Wars Arcade." It was lots of fun, and it's too bad they took it away. I complained to the management, but they just said that they rotated games from time to time and that there were still plenty of good ones out there.

I actually still have my DAB credit card from that time around with a few credits left, which I suppose I could have brought this time for a little extra play time. Oh well. Maybe next time! :)

This was the 8th grade's last bus ride together. :( So sad... less than 3 full days of class left! Actually, NO full days left -- Wednesday and Thursday are 2:10 releases (the norm is 3:40), and Friday's a noon dismissal.

On a totally unrelated note, I discovered something REALLY cool in Microsoft Word today. (That program has SO many undiscovered features that 99% of the world never even realize exist.) Go to Tools > Options, then click the Spelling & Grammar tab, then check the "Show readability statistics" checkbox towards the bottom. (Last item under "Grammar" section of the tab; second-to-last checkbox.) Once that's checked, after every session of Spellcheck MS Word will tell you various stats about your document -- number of words, blah-de-blah, and so on. The best stuff is at the bottom. The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, for example, predicts what grade-level student should be able to understand the document. Cool, huh!?!?!? I certainly think so. Try getting as high a grade level as possible. My record is 12 -- which, I believe, is the highest possible.

Bed time for me! Good night moon. And good night to you, too! :)