End-Of-October Excitement

It's that time of year again; basketball season!

Last night, I got a call from my new basketball coach, Mr. Jordan (pretty sure that's what he said his name was), and I was informed that my first practice will be next Wednesday, at my school. I'm definitely looking forward to this, and I'm hoping I can get another trophy this year to add to the one on my nightstand.

Oh, that's right, there are new readers here! Let me explain how I got this trophy of mine; my first year playing recreational basketball, my coach was a coach I've had numerous times for baseball, and my one year of soccer. We called him Coach Dillon. Our team wasn't the best team; we had more losses than wins, I'm sure of that, and when the playoffs came around, we weren't ready to pack our bags just yet.

We ended up sweeping the playoffs, and winning the championship game. The underdogs came out on top, and we all got gold (not real gold, probably bronze, or something) trophies to prove it. We actually had to play a double-header on the day of the championship game, the second game being the championship, the first one being a playoff match. So, I'm actually kind of surprised we had the energy to win that.

It's actually kind of funny, the way we won. I think someone on my team made an awesome shot at the buzzer, which ended the game, and we knew we were ahead, but we all just kind of stood around, trying to figure out what just happened. My coach asked one of the referees, "Is that it?" Well, the ref broke the silence, by saying, "Yep, that's it."
It was one of the most awkward, yet funny moments of my life.

So, now you know how I got that championship trophy.

Speaking of basketball, the Celtics won their season opener against the Cleveland Cavaliers last night! I was watching NESN SportsDesk, and it sounded like a close game! Good luck Celtics!

In other news, Halloween is creeping closer, and closer, and I still need to get a costume together. Trust me, if I leave that till the end, I'll be going out without a costume this Saturday, and since my mom won't let me go Trick-Or-Treating without a costume, that basically means I won't be going at all. I'll let you know what I'm being as soon as I know exactly what that is.

One last thing; I saw this this morning, and it got a chuckle out of me.








Yours in awesomeness,
~Ry.

I'm Not Toying Around

It's that time of week again! Two whole days of sleeping in, and chilling out. I actually had some big plans for this weekend, but those were changed pretty quickly.

I was supposed to attend a Bar Mitzfah today, but decided not to go, after I heard that the ceremony can go on for more than a couple hours, and I just don't have that kind of attention span. Plus, this is for a kid I hardly know, so it'd just be me, and the kids I do know just standing around talking. I decided that staying home would be a wiser choice, so maybe next time.

On another note, last night I met Andrew Clements... sort of. He was doing a speech last night at the Sandwich High School, and my English teacher said that whoever went would get a free 100% on our next quiz/test. Of course, I jumped at this opportunity, even though I've never read one of Andrew Clements' books. He's actually quite an interesting guy, and has written more books than I could ever write in two life-times (that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but you know what I mean); he had this thing he called a "story-time-line" or something like that, and it was basically the front cover of every book he's ever written all attached in the order they were published from left to right. It was quite a long time-line.
Anyway, he's pretty funny, and has an interesting life story. I actually might read one of his books sometime soon!

In other news, I was recently browsing that wonderfully interesting site, YouTube, and was randomly looking up different movie trailers coming up in 2010. I came across some interesting ones; a remake of "A Nightmare on Elm Street," "The Last Airbender," some other romantic comedies, and some really lame fake trailers for wannabe-movies (what I call fake movies people want to see for some odd reason, but would go down the drain if they ever did come out in theaters). But, then I came across something unusually interesting; "Toy Story 3."

"Toy Story" is one of my favorite Disney classics of all time! I remember way back when my Uncle Rick would always call me "Woody". Why he did, I'm not quite sure. Probably because I always pretended to be Woody- just as I had pretended to be Tarzan (basically stripping down to my whitie-tighties, and "swinging through the jungle" with Gramma), Buzz Lightyear (I got a Buzz costume for Christmas one year, and spoke in this deep, manly, Buzz Lightyear voice, "Hi, mumma"), and Batman (I believe I used to go to the supermarket dressed up in my black Batman mask, and the whole getup). But, hey, I was, like, three. We all go through these stages of our lives where we want to grow up to be superheroes... or, in my little brother's case, a dog.

Speaking of which, I still don't know what I want to be for Halloween. I have plans to go with a group of friends from school who live in the neighborhood (not the gang I mentioned in previous posts), and Halloween is really only about a week away, so I gotta get cracking with this costume of mine. I was going to be a glow-in-the-dark stick figure, by wearing all black, and outline my body with glow-sticks, but I'm not sure about that idea anymore.

Ahh, where was I... oh yeah, Toy Story. Yeah, even though I'm a bit big for those movies, I might actually want to see that one. It's supposed to be coming out June 18, 2010, so I'll mark my calendar, and watch out for commercials. To see the trailer, click here.

Well, everyone, have a fantastic weekend!

Yours in awesomeness,
~Ry.

Another Three-Day Weekend

If you're wondering what I'm doing in my living room at 1:36 PM, instead of being at school, I can explain.

As you know, I was feeling a bit under the weather yesterday, and almost got sent home from school, due to aches all over my body, and a cough. Well, this morning it all came back, and felt twice as worse. To add to the chaos running throughout my system, I had a slightly upset stomach, so I couldn't finish my Cheerios. After taking my temperature (I had a slight fever), my mom decided to let me stay home, and I went back to bed for another two hours.

So, now I'm here, feeling better, spending a lazy Friday the way I want; browsing the web, and watching TV. Surprisingly, I haven't played video games yet, so I'll have to get to that later.

Yep, you could call this a geek's perfect day. Except for the pains running through my body off and on all day. See, staying home from school is a good thing, and a bad thing at the same time; The good news is that I won't have to worry about school until Monday, and I can just relax. The bad news is that I'll be buried in work on Monday, consisting of make-up stuff I missed today, and yesterday when I was in the nurse's office. I'm kind of hoping the teachers will give me a break, but I don't see that happening until June.

In other news, I've been thinking about Christmas lately, since lots of you relatives have been asking about it lately, and I have to say, I think this will be the best Christmas yet, if my evil scheme all comes together.

Well, it's not exactly evil, but it's a good strategy. See, I figure that if I don't ask for too much, and ask for some of the things I really want to different people, I'll get a good stash this December. So, if you realize in November/December that I start asking for an iPod Touch, and WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2010 a lot, don't be surprised. Of course, if I really want a good stash, I'll have to ask for other things I want, but if I emphasize the things at the top of my wish list- including the iTouch- I'll be one happy camper for Christmas.

And, besides, Christmas is all about giving, right?

Yours in awesomeness,
~Ry.

Random Ramblings, Eighth Grade, and "Dangerous Pie"

It's amazing how fast this week is going by. Maybe that's because of the four-day school week.
Speaking of school, I had my first trip to the nurse's office in, maybe, two years(?). I randomly came down with a headache, and random aches throughout my body. I lied down in one of the beds in the nurse's office for about an hour, and after that I realized this aching situation wasn't going away. So, I told the nurse that I wanted to go home. But, mom just had to be all the way in frickin' Wareham, so I ended up going through the whole day with an sore body. Plus, to make matters worse, I had a bad cough on and off throughout the day.
So, thanks for nothing, Mom (wink, wink).

On a happier note, I finished the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book the same day I got it. Even though all of the books in that series are a little over two-hundred pages long, I still manage to blow right through them in a matter of hours. And, I can assure you I will be re-reading those books sometime in the near future.
As for what I'm reading now; Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie, by Jordan Soddenblick. It's a great book, don't get me wrong, but the title- just as it sounds- is a bit confusing.
From what I've inferred, the reason the title is called Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie is because in the beginning of the book, the main character's little brother makes what he calls a "dangerous pie," using whatever ingredients he can get his hands on, including a special pair of drumsticks owned by the main character. That's the only mention of the dangerous pie, so I really don't understand why the author had to put it in the title. Books are wondrous things.

Speaking of books, there's a wondrous web site called FanFiction, in which you may write your own stories based on TV shows, movies, other books, comic books, video games, etc. (Get it? Fans of different popular media sources, and fictional stories based on them. I'm one smart cookie!) I am currently a member of this site, and have written several "FanFics," but I realized that none of the stories I've written are subjects I enjoy writing about. For instance, I have written FanFics about a guy who becomes a professional hit man (based on numerous video games, and Nerf guns), a continuation of the Harry Potter series (in which Harry's future son becomes the next wizard prodigy at Hogwarts), and an expedition to find the lost city of Atlantis, by Indiana Jones.
But, as I said, I never got to finish these stories because I could never get into them. I have been thinking about this for some time, and I finally realized why;
I enjoy writing about things I can relate to.
So, obviously, I couldn't write about the hit man story, because I don't plan on ever really killing anybody in the future (although, if I was planning on it, my brothers would probably be on top of the hit-list *wink wink*), and I'm not a wizard prodigy, and I highly doubt there really is an Atlantis (although there actually is some solid evidence as to the existence of this city). So, what can I relate to?
Hmmm.
How's about school? Eighth grade, to be exact.
So, coming soon, to an internet connection near you, a tale of an average, everyday teenager, and his journey through eighth grade. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry (maybe), it will make you want to buy a cheeseburger (probably not). So, I hope to start that soon, and I'll update you on this project as it progresses.

Speaking of eighth grade (I'm speaking of a lot of things today), I'm already more than a month into it, and it's going great so far! I think this is actually a big step up in the social ladder, because I'm always being consulted by my numerous pals, and most of the girls my age are actually beginning to realize that I actually exist! I also have my fare share of enemies at school, but I keep it as civil as possible (even with that dreaded Colby), but other than that, I think I've finally stepped out of the shadow of nothingness.

Ooh, that's a good line for my upcoming story!

And, yes Mom and Dad, I'm also working hard at my grades, and not letting my extreme popularity take over me, and make me believe that it's not school that matters, it's- dare I say- "huggers".

Yours in awesomeness,
~Ry.

Recap

There's something wrong with our society.

I realized this when I saw a commercial for Christmas decorations on TV about a week ago. Since then I've seen Christmas decorations, and holiday-themed gifts, etc. Today, I went shopping for new school clothes with my Aunt Patti (more on this is a minute), and found small Christmas trees in JC Penny! Umm, hello? We haven't even had Halloween yet! I think we're all a bit eager for Christmas to come, but we need to listen to our inner kung-fu master, and "Have patience, grasshopper."
Or, is that just me?

Anyway, about shopping; I got some much-needed pants (all blue jeans, as usual), and long-sleeved shirts to finally fill up that middle drawer in my bureau. I do admit I got a couple t-shirts, even though my summer-clothes drawer is so filled, you might think an avalanche of Red Sox jerseys had ambushed it. But, I couldn't resist getting those t-shirts, they belonged to me. They even had my name on them; One says, "Hello, My Name is Awesome," and the other says, "Huh? What? Sorry, I was too busy being awesome."

I told you they were for me!

So, I got some good clothes, and in case you were wondering, I did get the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid today! I'm already half-way through it, and it's the funniest one by far!

At the end of the day, I hung out with the usual gang of neighborhood lunatics, and played some football, and stuff.
It's just too bad I don't have another day to hang out with them all day. School stinks.
I don't know if I've said this before, but I'll say it again, just to make my point:
I have a logical explanation as to why school is such a bad idea. For starters, us kids really only need to go to school up until about fifth grade, because about fifty, to seventy-five percent of the information we learn past then will most likely be totally useless in our future. By that time, we'll have also learned all the most important stuff; geometry, fractions, reading, writing, and whatever science we've learned by then (see, I've already forgotten what I learned back then!)
Another thing about school is that school never really ends, because once the school day is "over", you go home, only to be buried chin-high in homework, which leaves hardly any time to ourselves. And earlier bed-times make that matter much worse. So, even though we learn things in school (and apparently knowledge and formulas will set you free, as my science teacher says), the whole system is a scam. I'd love to have a stern talk with the bone-head who invented school the way he did.
Then again, without school, we'd all have much less friends than we do now.
School is so frustrating.

Yours in awesomeness,
~Ry.

Christopher Columbus, I Thank Thee

Ladies, and gentlemen, it's the moment we've all been waiting for. Please, give a big round of applause to...
A THREE DAY WEEKEND! *crowd goes wild*
Yes, this Columbus weekend should be a great one; I've already gotten most of my homework done, I got a decent progress report today (all A's and B's so far), and Monday is hopefully going to be one heck of a day!

First of all, today was quite a crazy school day. It started off pretty normal, and the craziness started in Gym class. Every year, in the Fall, and Spring, we have something in Gym called the Mile-Run. It's just what it sounds like; you run a mile, and you're timed while you're at it (actually, it's not really a mile, it's more like half a mile, or something, but it's close enough. My gym teacher told me that a few years ago). The running course is two and a half laps around our large field in the back of the school. For good runners, this should take them eight minutes, or less (a handful of kids I know are able to do this thing in about five minutes!), and those kids have their name put on a list of "high-scores". Now, I've never made it on this list- I mean never- in my nine years here at Forestdale School. This past Monday, I came close, with a time of eight minutes, fifteen seconds. A mere fifteen seconds away from making the list.
But today was my day of reckoning.
Today, I made a record time of 7:35 (give or take five seconds).
Yeah baby!
I think the thing that helped me get that time the most was my iPod. During the Mile-Run, all students are allowed to listen to iPods while running, so I brought mine today, and decided to use the built-in stopwatch on it, just to give myself an idea of how I was doing throughout the run. Also, I wanted to beat my previous time of 8:15, so the stopwatch would help me keep track of that as well.
So, the run starts, and I try to start the timer on my iPod at the same time as the gym teacher hits the "start" button on her stopwatch, and I put on some inspiring music to get me pumped up (song of choice[s]; "Burn It To The Ground", by Nickelback, and, "Through the Fire and Flames", by Dragonforce).
I have to admit, getting under eight minutes is harder than it sounds. Some people I know can run the whole course without slowing down, and I don't know how they do it! I was panting for breath within three-quarters of a lap, but I kept checking the time on my iPod (a minute goes by real quick when you're running to beat eight minutes), and urged myself to keep going.
As I neared the finish line (which is the same line I passed three times throughout the whole run), my heart seemed like it was screaming, "Hey, can't you see I can't take it anymore? Gimme a break, slow down! Jeez!", but my pride was screaming, "You can do it, you're almost there! If you run now, you can beat eight minutes! GO, GO GO!!"
Conclusion; I got my name on the list.
For the first time!
So, I'm pretty proud of myself. Just goes to show you, if you put your heart to something, you can do anything!

In other news, my nerdy-ness saved my life today! Or, more like it saved my eyesight, because, I don't know what he was aiming at, but my friend, Drew, threw a pen cap, or something, that hit one of my glasses-lenses, and if my glasses hadn't been there, I would probably be blind right now. He didn't mean to hit me, but, I just thought that was crazy.

Anyway, I already told you I got A's, and B's on my progress report today, so that's cool, but I have some work to do with getting homework in on time, and studying. And, I have to say, studying absolutely sucks. Yeah, yeah, I know if I study, I'll get lots of A's, but just doing it just sucks. I'm sure you know what I mean.

In other news, I'm hoping to get some cash together by this Monday, because that's when the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book comes out! I'm so excited to get it! I have every book in the series, including the "Do-It-Yourself book." If you haven't figured it out by now, I love reading, unlike lots of boys my age that I know. I don't know what people find so boring about reading, because I love it! That is, as long as it's an interesting book.

Lastly, I just got informed that after, like, half a year, my mom finally has a job as a nurse! Congratulations, Mom!

So, that's the 411 for the start of my weekend. I'd love to hear about yours, so leave a comment, and I'll be sure to read it! Enjoy your vacation, and hopefully I'll talk to you before Monday!

Yours in awesomeness,

~Ry.

Ta Ta For Now

Fortunately, I'm not saying this to you. Unfortunately, I'm saying it to RySpace.

I'm sure most of you know about RySpace, but if not, just click that link. For those of you who do know about it, you know that I recently shut it down. The reason why is explained in the blog over there, but the reason is quite obvious, if you have been stopping by over there often.

It's not what I wanted to do, but I figured it was just becoming a waste of virtual space, and decided to bring a stop to that, and just abandon RySpace altogether. It was a sad day, beacause as I look back on the years I've owned RySpace, it makes me sad.

In 2007, I started RySpace, thinking I could create the best web site ever. A site where all my friends, and family could play games, watch videos, and have fun! But, as time went by, it became much more than that. Soon, I had members from all over the country, and in 2008 I had a couple of visitors from the United Kingdom! I changed the look of the site, until it looked as professional as any other social networking site. I even added my own logo!
But, starting late last year, and early this year, I started to update the site less, and less, until site ratings skyrocketed in mid-summer. But, by the end of Summer, things were looking bad.
That led to today.
This dreadful day that I tried so hard to prevent from coming, just as the Grinch tried to stop Christmas from coming. But, in the end, there wasn't much I could do for the site; I had no money for all that big stuff, like domain names (I had an online buddy by one for me for a short while), and search engines (I actually got RySpace on Google, but that was for free, which is another story...), and all that. So, I did what had to be done.

The reason I tell you this story is to share my feelings with you, and show you how much I loved working on RySpace (plus, aren't blogs made to allow you to talk about your feelings, and stuff like that? Makes me think of what girls might write in their diaries... *shiver*). Even though RySpace didn't quite live up to its expectations, I plan on making more web sites in the near future, that will, hopefully, become more successful, and stay that way.
If you would like to see what's left of RySpace, you can click the link above, or under "Partners" on the sidebar.

Blog to you soon!

Yours in awesomeness,
~Ry.

Happy October!

When I woke up this morning, and trudged into the bathroom, I looked into the mirror at that handsome dude staring back at me, and noticed that my lips were turning a shade of blue. Yes, it was that cold! It could have only meant one thing:
October has come.
It sounds like October will be a pretty big month this year; the Red Sox in the playoffs, Halloween, and, possibly, a Bar Mitzvah!

Today, in school, I walked into homeroom, and noticed everyone holding cards, with Nick Blackmon's (a fellow classmate) face on them. As I was wondering why I didn't get one, I noticed a white envelope on my desk.
Bingo.
I tore it open, and realized it was an invitation to Nick's Bar Mitzvah. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go, because I don't really know him, but then I heard lots of people saying they were going, including my friends, so I thought, what the hey?
So, I'll probably go to that. As for Halloween, I realize I may be growing a bit too old for the whole dressing-up thing, but the rule in my house is that you don't go trick-or-treating if you don't dress up. So, I'm only dressing up this year for the candy. Hopefully I can just throw on a mask, and call it a costume. Last year, I was thinking the same thing, and I found these t-shirts at CVS that said, "This Is My Halloween Costume," and tried getting away with wearing that, but mom would have none of that. So, I went dressed as a nerd, with a pocket protector, big glasses, overalls; the works.
And, of course, the Sox; I predict we beat the Yankees (again), and win the ALCS this year... even though we've been kind of shaky lately. But, we just gotta do what we Boston-baseball fans do best during October; have faith.
Anyway, just wanted to wish you all a happy October.

Yours in awesomeness,
~Ry.