Christmas 2008!

My Christmas was great. I got up and I had a lot of presents to open. My sister came over and I stayed up late the night before so she had to wake me up. I got some coin cases and tubes. I also got an I-Fish which is a robot fish that you plug into your mp3 and it will play the music while it dances and spins and make lights shows from the lights on its head and tail. I like all the stuff I got but there is one thing that stands out it is the Palm Pilot I got. I installed all the stuff in it and now everything is up and running. It is awesome. It can do so much. There is a picture of me when I got it. The other pictures are of my tree and outside because I though it looked pretty. That was a couple of days before Christmas though. On Christmas it was really weird because the temperature went way up to 68 degrees. When I went outside on Christmas it just didn't seem right. I got all kinds of cool stuff for Christmas. I also got $135 in coin store gift cards so tomorrow I am going to get a whole bunch of new coins. I had to move my collection downstairs into two cabinets because the chest that I had it in got to small. I will put what I get at the coin store in my next post.

Family

Over the weekend my brother and sister from Virginia came up and spent the weekend with us. It was really fun. We went to see a light show. That was really cool. There were so many lights and I can't even imagine the amount of electricity that it took to power it. Then we went to the mall and there was a stand for the original Nintendo. It was cool. It cost $80 and that includes 111 games. Plus if you want a new game then all you do is take it back to the stand and they will put whatever game on it that you want for 87 cents a game. Also I got some presents already. I like all of them but there is one that stands out. I got a Palm Pilot. It does everything that a computer does and it has satellite GPS. It even has Microsoft word and excel and everything. Also I can access the Internet anywhere I want. I love it I think it is so cool. I have been busy so I will get pictures up on the next post.

Happy Holidays!

It's the holiday season and I am getting excited. My house and tree are decorated and I am working on my room right now then I will put lights outside. I celebrate Christmas. I don't have the pictures yet but I will put them in my next post. Over this weekend my sister and brother are coming up from Virginia. I am excited because I don't get to see them very often.

Family Tree

I have been doing a lot with my family tree over the past few days. I have gotten a lot of new people added to it and I have made a binder full of marriage certificates and different things. So far I have gotten to my great great grandparents. I am still working on getting them done because some of them never came to the US so it is hard to find records of them. All the info that I have on them is from the different things that I collected and put in the binder. On Saturday I am going to my friends B-Day party so I will tell you about that in my next post.

Coke Monster

Coca Cola is cool so me and my buddy made a video. On Friday I went to Fun Fest. They have bowling, laser tag, and an arcade. I went from 11pm to 3am. Then I went to breakfast and got home at 5am. I started to look at my family tree and traced it back to the 1500s. I also found my family crest. Here is a picture of it below.

Learning a New Language

I started to take an online lesson for learning anew language. In school next year you can take a language as one of your classes and I think I want to take Latin. The language that I really want to learn is Irish though. School does not offer it though so I am taking an online class. I am in my first lesson and so far it has not been that hard although I have only gotten through half a lesson of the first chapter. There are a lot of chapters and in each chapter there are three lessons. Each chapter is like a category. One is animals one is food and so on. I am in my first lesson of my first chapter which is meeting and greeting. So far I have learned how to say hello, goodbye, how are you, and good evening. The nice thing is there is no specific time that you have to do classes but you do have to take notes. They help you so much. I told my English teacher that I was starting and she told me to let her know where I am at and how good I am doing. I think it is fun and cool to talk in a different language. Also if you want to confuse people you can start talking to them in a different language. I am not done with my whole first lesson yet but I got through about a third of it.

Thanksgiving 2008

My Thanksgiving was great. It was relaxing and nice. I got to see some friends and family. Dinner was great. I had stuffing and muffins and all kinds of things, except turkey.The best part about dinner is when you get to dessert. My family had pumpkin pie and dutch apple pie with home made vanilla whip cream. Today I went Black Friday shopping. My mom hates it but I love it so she took me with my sister. I thought it was fun. I went for 7 hours. We went to a mall. I got a lot of nice things. I also saved a lot of money.

Winter Camping

Over the weekend I went on a winter camping trip. I had to sleep in tents but I did get to go to the Gateway game. I got a ride there and then back. It was really cold. It never stopped snowing. When I would wake up it would be 12 degrees. One of the good things was that we were able to build a fire. We cooked all of our food in dutch ovens. I had to eat the side dishes most of the time because the entrees were meat, but there was a lot of side dishes. When everyone got all the food then I was allowed to get more side dishes. I got to shoot guns at targets on an indoor shooting range. We shot 22s. Usually I am against guns but it was ok because they were only paper targets. Also it was inside so there was no way you could hurt an animal by accident. There was a hill that at the bottom there were thorn bushes, trees, wooden poles, giant rocks, and a ditch that would make you flip. So me and three of my friends went sledding on it. We had so much fun. We were having so much fun that when we hit a tree or went into thorn bush then we just laughed at each other and kept going. We enjoyed watching each crash and sometimes we enjoyed crashing ourselves. That was probably the most fun out of the whole weekend.

Report Cards

Today I got my first nine weeks report card. I got As in all my classes except for english. I got a B in it though. I was very happy with my grades. In school for english right now we are doing another big project. We have to make a persuasive travel brochure. We have to choose a place we want to go to and then research it. Once we have a good bit of information then we start to write the paragraphs. We do that tomorrow. I chose to do Luxembourg. I always wanted to go to four places. They are Luxembourg, Latvia, Fiji, and New Zealand.At the top of my list is Luxembourg so I chose to do that one. The book I am reading has one of my vocab words in it so if I show my english teacher then I get a few bonus points. I plan on doing that tomorrow morning. I have been helping my teachers a lot lately, but I don't mind sometimes I ask if I can help.

Big Orders

Not a lot of exciting things happened over the weekend. On Saturday I went out to a few stores. It was kind of long. Then on Sunday my family had a football party. I got a order that was big and I have to finish it tonight so that I can have it for tomorrow. Today in school nothing really happened. It was just a normal day with the usual boring school work. Tomorrow in music class we get to start playing the key boards for our next lesson. I started to read a new series. The Golden Compass series. Most people I have talked to say it is good. Also that the movie is very different. I am on page 54 and it is already very different from the movie.

At the Zoo

Today I didn't have school and yesterday I had a half day. My neighbor up the street works at the zoo so she was able to take my family behind the scenes at one of the buildings at the zoo. It wasn't like one of the big enclosures. It was really cool. After we were done we walked around the zoo and saw all the animals. I was surprised how good some of my pictures were. Especially the ones in the aquarium. It was towards the end of the day so we got to see some of the animals eat. I took a video of the Sea Otters. Below are some of the best pictures I took. These are just with a regular camera. The only thing done to them were the lines were sharpened. Everything else is natural. At the zoo they had baby elephants. One of them was born on my birthday.There are pictures of them below.

Fun Weekend

Over the weekend I went with my sister to do her wedding registry. It took three hours. I was so bored. It was at Macy's. It wasn't a normal Macy's though. It was downtown and it was huge. It had 11 floors. Actually it had 12 but the top one was offices so I didn't really count it. I got a giant hedgehog. It is so soft. I named it Fred. While we were downtown I saw a smart car which is what I want as my first car. I took pictures because I thought it was cool. After we were done with the registry we went out to eat at a place called the Cheesecake Factory. It is a really nice restaurant. It is famous for its cheesecakes. It has so many different kinds plus a giant menu for dinner, lunch, and even breakfast. I got carrot cake cheesecake. It sounds like it would be bad but it was really good. For Halloween I got a giant gummy. It was shaped like a foot. Below is a picture of me eating part of it. I got some new things on my web site so check it out. To go to it click the return to my web site link at the top right hand corner or the web URL under the title Jake's Blog at the top of the page.

Halloween 2008

This year I went trick or treating. I got a lot of candy and I was Bob Marley. The pictures below are me in my costume. The next one is the pumpkin I carved. I used parts that I bought but I still carved some of it. Then there is me after I sorted my candy. After that one it is me sitting next to my reeses cups. They are my favorite. I got 56 of them! Then there are pictures of other things I have done. The plant is the one that was supposed to live in the pool but I am allowed to save it so I am trying. After that there is a random truck that I saw in the parking lot that I thought was cool. Then the final picture is of my family's Chinese Maple. It looked very pretty in that light so I took a picture.

Winter is Coming

Today was my town's first snow. I was excited. In math class everyone was distracted by the snow so the teacher closed the blinds. I managed to save the big plant in a small fish tank with a light so it should be safe for winter. The end of this week is the end of my first nine weeks of school. I am not happy. I want to get straight As but I have two Bs and I wanted to bring them up. It seems the subjects I don't like I don't do as well in.

Closing the Pond

I found out that I didn't get a time at WAADA. I got two new programs for my web site. One is called AdSense. It puts adds on my web site and then I get money for it. The second one is to track how many people visit my web site. I can tell of they used a search engine or what to get to my web site. I can also tell where they came from in the world. Today I had to close my pond. It takes a long time and is wet and dirty. One of the vines I had to pull up had these little potato things on it.

Also when I was pulling up the flowers I noticed that my dusty millers were really big. They are three times the normal size. I think that they just really like the soil. They are one of my two favorite plants.

My water plants were all normal. One was larger than all the other ones though so I wanted to save it for the winter but I couldn't. So instead of having to throw it away. I was allowed to let it live in the water on the pool cover until it dies from the winter cold.

Pumpkins

I didn't get the times yet from WAADA, but I should get them soon. I went to the pumpkin patch and bought three pumpkins. I got gourds too but those are not that exciting. I bought two small one and a big one. I chose the one I did because it is a really bright orange and in some parts yellow. In school I have been doing really well. I have good grades and a lot of friends. We finished Stanford testing just a week ago and now we are taking MAP tests. These one are weird because they are on the computer. After you are done testing you can go and search the Internet for whatever though. Also I have a big reading assignment coming up that is worth a lot of points. I have a B in English and I am really trying to get straight As. There is a big 100 point assignment coming up for English so I want to get a 100% on it so I can get an A. I started to take this really hard merit badge. It is Nuclear Science merit badge. It is hard. There are all these things with atoms and molecular structures and it gets confusing.I think the most confusing part is isotopes.

WAADA

Today I went to my WAADA championship for cross country. The course was the hardest course I have ever run. It was 1.8 miles long and the entire thing was just a giant circuit of hills. I don't have my time right now but I have my place it was 60 out of 82. Tomorrow I will try and put my total results on my blog.

My 2008 Cross Country Results

My Results

Date Time Place

8/29/08 18:49 65/68

9/2/08 ------- 85/90

9/11/08 12:24 37/37

9/18/08 ------- 65/68

9/26/08 ------- 173/219

9/25/08 12:45 58/79

10/2/08 12:09 31/35

10/9/08 13:29 46/60

10/7/08 14:53 118/143

This is all the meets and invites that I have raced in so far. They are from the first to the most recent meet. There is only one more. It is the biggist race of the season and it is called *WAADA*. When I race in it I will put up those results too.

Camping But Not Really

I went on a weekend camping trip but it didn't feel like camping because it was at a public park and it was 10 minutes away from home. Also our camp was in a baseball field that kept the big lights on til 11:00pm. I got to go see a big fireworks display though. My last cross country race was on Thursday and I did pretty good I stayed in the same rank but was going back and forth with the next person up. I am going to an invite today. I get out of school at the end of 7th period. I have testing in the morning so I go to period 4 which is reading, period 5 is lunch, period 6 is study hall, and then the last period I go to is a math class.

Terrarium Becomes a Reality

Today was my last cross country work out day. We still have practice but the difference is that a workout is much harder and is supposed to train you so you get better. With a practice it is typically an easy 45 minute distance run. We still have a good bit of meets left before the season is over though. I am thinking about getting a sundew terrarium. They are plants that eats flies and bugs. They are sort of tropical but not expensive or hard to take care of. They are similar to venus fly traps. I have been wanting them and I think that I can finally get them. I used to have pitcher plants but they were hard and they were one of those things that everything that could go wrong did. These sundew are very pretty smell like honey are inexpensive and are easy to take care of. This is a picture of a sundew. Also if you want to see a video of a sundew catching a fly click HERE.

Cross Country Meet Gone Bad

Friday I had a cross country meet. It was a big invitational and there were 35 teams that is 200 plus kids a race. I thought it would be a regular race and that it would be the usual 50 to 70 kids. First two kids passed out so they had to bring ambulances to help. Then a helicopter landed to help a person because they broke their neck. They tried to do a back flip. I did do well in the race though I beet 43 people and moved up a whole rank on my team. I was very happy with what I did. I have had many other meets I just don't put them on but I will start to put on my weekly meets. Also today I joined the my coke rewards thing to get prizes and stuff. I already have 32 points so I submitted into a contest for a cruise. It only cost 3 points.

Reports

In school I have been getting a lot of reports or big assignments. In one day I got a 80 point English assignment and a 90 point cooking assignment. It was insane I was up until 11:45pm. Just to do half of the cooking assignment. Today and tomorrow I get out early because I have a cross country meet in a place an hour and forty five minutes away. I get out at half way through seventh period. I got new glasses. I like them a lot better than the old ones because they are multicolored but with natural colored blues and grays. In my reading class we always get a warm up. You know like a simple question, two or three sentences and then you share. I guess this one made my brain go nuts and I just kept writing. I wrote two and pages in a big notebook. I just kept writing through the entire class.

Sailing

I just got back from a weekend sailing trip. I did a merit badge for small boat sailing and I think I got it. It was a lot of fun we got to sail sunfish. By the end I was flying through the water with my friend. They are two person boats that are 14 feet long. They are a lot of fun. Then I camped out and at our site there was an apple tree. So I picked some they were really sweet and juicy. I thought the trip was a lot of fun and I would do it again. Below is a picture of a Sunfish sailboat. This is not a picture of me on the boat it is just an example picture.

New Music

I finally got iTunes so I can get songs for my mp3. I know that iTunes is for iPods only but I found a way to convert it and make as many copies as you want so I got all new music for my mp3. I figure that an mp3 can hold just as many songs and it is about $130 cheaper than an iPod so I have one of them. One of my older sister's friend's friend has a web site and blog that is really cool. She raises worms and then gets their poo as fertlizer. To check out her site click here.

School Is Crazy!

It is now the second week of school for me. I am starting to get the normal amount of homework. I have been having to stay up later to get it done. I have had no problems so far though. Tomorrow is the seventh anniversary of 9/11. I am going to where special charms tomorrow. They are supposed to protect me and others.

The Cross above is supposed to protect from disease and bad fortune.

The Mayan symbol below is supposed to give me strength and help me through tough times. I have it as a pendent.

Starting School

I started school and it is very different switching from class to class 9 times a day. I do like this school better than my last one though. In my new school there are new lockers that are really nice and there are old lockers that are not that nice. I got a new locker I was so happy. I also got really nice teachers. The school has a salad bar and it is so good. I love it. That is what I get for lunch every day. Also a lot of my friends are in my classes. The only bad thing is that my classes are all over the school so it sometimes hard to get there.

Betas Don't Work Out

The female beta did not seem to like the nest from the beginning so she did not mate with him. I think they know that they are not going to mate and they are not killing each other, so I am not going to try and breed them I am just going to leave them together. I am also not going to get the new beta. I'm going back to school on Tuesday. I am not sure if I want to but I have no choice. I bought a new back pack. I have been thinking about and looking into getting a tank of Honey Suckle. They are plants that eat flies like Venus Fly Traps. I already have a lot of the stuff from when I had tree frogs. I put some new Steeler stuff on my web site so check it out. To go to my web site click here.

Betas Come Together

I released my female beta into the Male's side. They are not fighting they are doing what the video shows. I am not sure if the female will lay her eggs because the nest that he built is not that impressive to her. If this pair does not work then I will try again with these two betas and if they still don't then I will get a third beta and try to breed the new one with one of the old ones.

Betas

I noticed that my betas were looking strange so I looked up there behaviors and colors that they now had. I found out that they want to mate with each other. The female has vertical bars on her side and the male is going crazy, darkened his color, and built a nest. I am hoping to successfully breed them. Throughout the posts I do I will give updates. Over the weekend my family went to a wine festival. They left me behind because they said I wouldn't have fun. I stayed at my friends house. I did get a new pool liner and have been using the pool a lot lately. The only thing is that the water is very cold because it was just filled.

School

Today I finished my web site so it is up and running. I also went to my new school's orientation. I thought the hallways were confusing but everything else was much nicer than my last school. The teachers that I got my friends said were nice so I am glad. I go back to school soon. The day after labor day I go back. I am not sure if I want to or not because there are good and bad things about going back. Tonight I have to go help clean up a road. I hope it goes fast.

Mexico

These pictures below are from my trip to Mexico. My family always takes a vacation in August. This year we stayed at a resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico. The resort was called the Grand Sunset Princess. We were reading some of the things that people had to say about it and they were bad but we got there and it was wonderful. There were fountains everywhere and it was very pretty at night. All the floors were made of marble no matter where you were unless you were on the paths to the beach and pool. It was five star and it had many things to do. It also had many restaurants. It was all inclusive so you didn't have to pay for some of the restaurants because it was included in your other price. The pictures you see that are of green grass and palm trees was inside the resort. The pictures of little buildings were some of the small Mexican towns that you sometimes drive through to get where you were going. The statues are the ones that lined the paths in the resort. There were also lizards everywhere. They were wild and also they had trained ones that you can hold. The trained one is the one I am holding in my picture that is on my profile. The old Volkswagons are like a modern cars down there. There are so many of them. The resort was right on a beach so you could just walk along the paths and be there in about ten minutes. We also went to the Mayan Ruins called Chichen Itza. It was amazing. The carvings and everything were fantastic. I always was interested in that kind of stuff and so I wanted to go for a long time and when I heard we could then I was very excited. I think I took about 50 pictures there alone. I also learned an interesting fact. The gum called Chicklets was actually invented by the Mayans thousands of years ago as a sacred food. The pool of water you see is a sink hole that was found and it started to fill. The water is 165 feet deep. You can jump from a platform into the water if you want. It was very cool.