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!