Today for English we were assigned to write how a portion of the Conclusion of Thoreau’s Walden applies to us today. The following is what I came up with. The portion of Walden is displayed first.

Everyone has heard the story, which has gone the rounds of New England, of a strong and beautiful bug which came out of the dry leaf of an old table of apple-tree wood, which had stood in a farmer’s kitchen for sixty years, first in Connecticut, and afterwards in Massachusetts, –from an egg deposited in the living tree many years earlier still, as appeared by counting the annual layers beyond it; which was heard gnawing out for several weeks, hatched perchance by the heat of an urn. Who does not feel his faith in a resurrection and immortality strengthened by hearing of this? Who knows what beautiful and winged life, whose egg has been buried for ages under many concentric layers of woodenness in the dead dry life of society, deposited at the first in the alburnum of the green and living tree, which has been gradually converted into the semblance of its well-seasoned tomb,–heard perchance gnawing out now for many years by the astonished family of man, as they sit round the festive board,– may unexpectedly come forth from amidst society’s most trivial and handselled furniture, to enjoy its perfect summer life at last!

The best modern-day application of this portion of Walden can be seen all over the world. When a child is born, there is much rejoicing among the family members of the newborn child. The child is thought to be perfect, blameless, sweet, an angel, etc, and is very precious in the eyes of its parents. As the child grows and matures, he is exposed to all sorts of things, including drugs, alcohol, violence, abuse, etc. Many times, these things can be a bad influence on the child and he, in many cases, becomes an addict of one or more substances. This is the point where they “die,” just as we see the egg bured in a “well-seasoned tomb.” The addict may remain that way for the rest of his life. For the sake of comparison with the portion of Thoreau’s Walden, though, there are many instances in which the addict changes his ways. Often, addicts hear the greatest story ever told – the one about Jesus and His death on the cross for mankind’s sin. God has the power to change people from what they were to something much greater. God can be seen as the “heat of an urn” that causes the egg to hatch, or, in my example, the reason an addict changes.

This morning, I took the PSAT at school and I just got back from eating out afterwards with some friends. The math parts of the test were easy – I was able to figure out almost everything. Had I been a bit less tired, I probably would have gotten everything. There was one question where we had to come up with our own answer and we weren’t penalized for guessing incorrectly on it. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to write down just any number, so I picked a number out of my head and wrote it down. Then, afterwards, I was discussing the test with some friends and they said the answer for that problem was what I had put. What a guess!

Then, there was the english/grammar and vocab part of the test. I found the grammar part pretty easy – whenever I write papers, I have my mom edit them and she’s really picky about that stuff. Then, there was the vocab part. I don’t think I should even mention it – I didn’t do too great on it. A lot of it was easy, but then they throw in a few analogies with words I’ve never heard of and those reading comprehension parts…my favorite (NOT)! Oh well. I took the SAT in sixth grade and got 480-Math and 420-English, so I’m sure that I didn’t do too poorly on this test.

Well I have a busy day – I’ve got to clean up some stuff in my room, then read the rest of my book and write 15 journal entries for it. Fun stuff…or not!

Well I don’t really have a lot to say, other than I’m pretty busy with school. I just finished practicing some Spanish – I have a speaking test tomorrow for Span 3. And right now, I’m listening to Supertones – Wilderness – a great song, by the way! Umm well let’s see tomorrow I have youth group, Thursday, I’m going to be very busy with school – I’ve got to write an essay that’s due Friday – maybe I’ll start today. Friday I have a half day, which is good, because then I’ll get a longer weekend! Yay!

Ok well I’m sure you’re life is greatly enriched by the information I just told you.

I’m out.

School’s been keeping me pretty busy, but every once in a while, I get some free time where I can relax, take a nap, work on the computer, etc. I’ve already finished my homework today (it only took an hour or two), well I actually still have to study for two tests, but that shouldn’t take too long. I’ve also got a few long-term AP English projects (he gave us three projects to work on simultaniously) I’m working on, but I don’t really feel like working on them at this moment. I think in a little while, I’ll study for my test, eat dinner, take a shower, and then work on the English stuff. Taking a break usually makes me more willing to work later.

Well, that’s all I really have to say for now. Don’t be expecting too many updates in the near future – remember all that I have to do and you’ll understand.

A few minutes ago, I got back from Chicago, where I went to a Cubs game with my dad, brother, and my brother’s friend. It was the best baseball game I’ve seen in person…ever. In the end, the Cubs won 13-2 vs. the Pirates. Sosa’s inside the park home run, as well as Brown’s two home runs and McGriff’s one homer. It was really great – you had to be there to get the full excitement that comes with the game.

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Wow it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything on here. A few days after I got my computer back up and running, the hard drive crashed, so I was without my computer for even more time!

Well, now everything’s pretty much back to normal. I’m busy with school, which isn’t really suprising – when am I not busy with school?

Well, I hope to post on here a bit more often than I have been.

That’s it for now!

I finally have my computer back! Last Tuesday, I got the replacement motherboard, but I wasn’t able to put it in until Thursday. Then, I had to format my computer and now everything is running smoothly – I just need to install more of my programs.

I’ll try and post on here a little more often, but I kinda doubt that I actually will.

Well, I’ve been pretty busy lately. First of all, I STILL don’t have my computer back. I’m going to go cry…I’ll be back in a few minutes. Please pardon me…..ok I was just joking. I’m not THAT obsessed with my computer :)! Well even though I don’t have my computer, I’m able to find some time on my dad’s and brother’s computers. I recently set up a web site for my youth group and one for Christians at my school – if you go to my school, email me and I’ll give you the url!

I start school on Wednesday. I hope it’s a good year this year – I’m taking a few harder classes, but I’ve got three good teachers who I’ve had before, and hopefully the teachers I haven’t had before are good ones too!

Today I went on a really long bike ride with my brother. Right as we left, it started sprinkling and we figured we’d be allright – that it wouldn’t rain too much, but we were wrong. We ended up being gone for about 5 hours and it was raining most of that time. The last hour or so of the ride, the sky cleared up a bit and we warmed up a little. Then, a little while after getting home, it acutally got sunny. I went to a baseball game with my friend tonight and around the fifth inning, it started to rain. I’ve had plenty of water for one day! Soon I get to go to bed in my nice, dry bed! … Wow that just reminded me that, no matter how wet I get, I still have a nice home and dry clothes to get into, but there are so many people in the world who get wet and have nowhere to go. Remember to pray for those people today!

Well, I’m going to get going…hopefully I’ll be able to start posting a bit more often, but I’ll see about that. I don’t know how busy I’ll be once school starts. You know how they say junior year is the hardest, I’ll see if that’s true. So far, freshman year was harder than sophomore year…we’ll see if junior year takes over that #1 spot!

I’ve been having some computer problems lately – it appears that my motherboard (gigabyte 71XE) has some problems and I’ll need to take advantage of that warranty! Sorry if I’m SLOWWWWWWWWWW in responding to email.

Yesterday my dad, brother, and I went to a computer show and my dad baught a 1200mhz athlon (200mhz fsb) and a gigabyte 71XE4 motherboard. A few weeks ago, he fried his old board and processor and had to get a new one. I got a new box with a 400watt power supply because I only had a 250w for my 800mhz athlon. I just found out recently that you need 300w or greater power supply for a computer configuration as powerful as mine. This new case is really nice – it’s got room for a case fan, it’s very “clean” – everything inside has very easy access, it’s got 2 usb ports in the front and 2 in back (on the motherboard). I also baught a soundcard yesterday, but when I tried to use it, it didn’t work. That’s when I realized a PCI slot was bad and that my motherboard is bad. I stuck the sound card in another slot and it worked. My old sound card woulda worked fine – if just I’d known that the PCI slot was bad and the sound card was fine. Now I’ll have to get my motherboard fixed – hopefully I can do that soon!

I’ll keep you posted and let you know sometime once I get my computer back up and running!

Well, I’ve been back from SEMP since Sunday. It was pretty cool this year, but I had a better time and got more out of it last year. There were some things, though, that were better this year. The second day I went out witnessing, I went with another guy (usually you’re paired up with someone of the opposite sex). I enjoyed that a lot better because they only want guys talking to guys and girls talking to girls, for obvious reasons. Well, anyway, when you’re paired up with someone of the opposite sex, you do more of the talking, but when I was with this guy, we split up the talking, which was good. I haven’t decided if I’ll go to SEMP next year, but I’ve got plenty of time for that.