Facebook vs. Twitter

Well it’s been a long time since my last post and a lot has happened. First off, I can’t believe how much it has been raining here in Raleigh, I thought it only rained for two weeks straight in Seattle. About the only good thing with the steady rain is that I have been able to use the 4WD on my truck off-road. But besides the weather cancelling all our baseball games, I have finally arrived at the deadline that I figured would consume my thoughts for months of waiting. I got accepted to Florida State University abotu a week ago but wait listed/denied from Carolina, Elon, and University of Georgia. I knew that Carolina and even Elon would be a big stretch for my mediocre SAT score but decent grades and extracurriculars. I was pretty upset about not getting into Georgia though because ever since I started thinking about college and stuff in middle school or ninth grade I wanted to go to Georgia. I’ve always been a Georgia football fan since I was barely able to walk so it’s a little strange now. I am still pleased that I was accepted to such a prestigous university as Florida State with all its tradition.

Now for the main event, I have had a Facebook for a long long time now, I’d say about 3 years or more. Before that I kept up a MySpace with all it’s background, pictures, music, etc. I still have a MySpace, but only to communicate with my half-brother and sister who live in Florida with my Dad and don’t use Facebook or Twitter. Facebook has changed layouts like three or four times which is kind of annoying and the new one is a lot like Twitter, focused on status updates and everything. I still use Facebook like crazy though, everyday, keeping up with friends and family. Today I signed up for a Twitter though, and it is different but I like it. Not too many of my friends have a Twitter right now but I’m sure everyone will have one before long, just like Facebook-I was one of the first at my school to get one and now EVERYONE and their mother has one, literally.

My Dad was here last weekend to hang out with me since I hadn’t seen him since Christmas and that was really cool. We watched NCAA tournament basketball and he even got to see me play baseball on Saturday and I hit a triple! Besides all this I’m just focused on getting through to the end of May.

My Week In Summary So Far

Well I haven’t posted in about a week amd there really isn’t anything coming to mind about what to write about so I’ll just talk about this week. First off, the weekend was way too short with having two baseball games Friday (during school though I might add), spending the night at my best friend’s house, baseball practice on Saturday morning, and a beautiful weekend to spend doing stuff outside. Monday came and I was actually feeling great, daylight savings time seemed to rejuvinate me even though we lost an hour going into Sunday. Things were going smooth all day Monday and I was really looking forward to going over to Wilson to play baseball on a minor league field/park. We played at Fleming Field, which is now home to the Coastal Plain League’s Wilson Tobs, a summer league for college baseball players. It was by far the best field I have ever played on with the outfield cut in a checkerboard design, real dugouts under the stands, and music playing in between innings; it was a dream come true. We played pretty well, lost, but had a lot of fun not to mention going to Bojangles like usual afterwards. We got home late though, around 9:30, and it was homework until 11ish then bed. Tuesday came and I was pretty tired but still nothing major in school. The only thing was that our Bible teacher told us to stop “bitching and moaning” because we don’t know how good we have it in my school. It was a good point but a heated discussion at the time. While the irony was pretty funny, I give my teacher props for just saying what he thought because too many teachers at my school just go around things like that and it’s very aggravating. We had to go all the way back over to Rocky Mount though and got to miss a test since we left during lunch for the trip. The field was a definite downgrade from the day before but we should have killed those guys. We started off great but the wheels came off sometime in the fourth and fifth innings and who knows what happened after. We ended up getting ten-run-ruled which was so frusterating considering we were only down 4-2 going into the fifth inning. Oh well, it’s still the beginning of our season and we’ve been practicing almost 3 weeks as a team now. I do like the leadership that me and my fellow senior teammates have taken on this year in which our coach encouraged us to do. We’ll get better, no doubt. I locked my keys in my truck at the school though so I couldn’t eat at Smithfield’s when we stopped because my wallet was also in there, so that was annoying. Again I was up late doing homework and was even more tired today.

Today was the god of all bad days though. It started off with an AP Calculus test in which I knew some stuff but one whole page I just sat there and stared at it, great because I actually have a C in there but the quarter ends Friday and I need to do well on this test to finish strong. After that I got back my Spanish test from the day before in which I got an 80, I wasn’t too mad but still I now probably won’t be able to be exempt from that exam at the end of the year. Then in ELP/Civics we had a quiz on the textbook reading in which I was confused on what to read last night and read like 6 pages short of what we were supposed to and probably BOMBED that quiz, like 60s, again just fantastic. I then had to make-up the AP European test that I missed yesterday for leaving for baseball during lunch so I didn’t get a chance to eat my Chick-fil-a until later and my sandwich was cold. After that I worked on trying to finish my AP Calc test and I made some progress but still have like 3 left, I’m so over that class right now. However, once baseball practice came after school things just went uphill steadily. I even saw an old buddy with some friends at Sonic and got to talk with him for a while then hit the batting cages with some friends and teammates and that was fun.

Anyway, I’ll be hearing from UNC, Florida State, and Elon in the next week so expect me to write about that in the very near future.

A Quick Compilation of Things

Well I feel like I haven’t posted in a long time but it’s only been about a week or so. However, a lot has happened in that time. Baseball has continued to go very well with practices every day and thankfully it has been warmer so my hands aren’t falling off due to frostbite. We had a controlled scrimmage/practice at Cary Christian on Tuesday, and even though they are our biggest rivals in my opinion I was grateful for getting on a real field instead of the soccer field and their hospitality. We scrimmaged them on Thursday at their place again and overall I think the team did pretty well for only having practiced a week. There is A LOT to improve upon but that’s only expected. I went 2-3 for the day, beating out a grounder to shortstop first time up, lacing a double over the left-fielder’s head my second appearance, then smacked a rope right to the left-fielder my final at bat. I made a catch or two in the outfield and it felt good to roam around out there again. We have our first home game, and first regular season game, scheduled for Tuesday but with it raining all day Friday, Saturday, and today with snow possible overnight and cold temperatures I’m not sure what is going to happen. Our practice tomorrow is supposed to be at 6:30-8:30 and the high during the day is only 32 degrees so I’m hoping something gets changed because with my thin Florida blood I think I’ll die. We have a lot of games this year though so hopefully most of them will stay on the schedule and not be cancelled due to weather or schools bailing on a team. In any case, I’m working my tail off in AP Calculus and all my other classes for that matter to stay eligible as AP Calculus is kicking my butt.

It’s been a crazy weekend though. I came home Friday and went to turn on my Macbook and while booting the screen stayed black and it began beeping at me. I was really worried because I had none of my pictures, documents, or anything backed up. Luckily I was able to go to the Apple store yesterday and a Genius checked it out and it was just a firmwear problem that was easily fixed, and they even replaced my top cover because it was cracked where my wrists are when I type All for free..I love Apple. But other than that it’s just been a crappy, rainy weekend of relaxing and not much homework. I really should get my little homework out of the way so I can forget about it so that on the chance we don’t have school tomorrow I can fully relax and sleep with no worries.

Also, at church today one of my leaders announced her engagement to another of our leaders. I know them both fairly well but I was really excited for them. They are both really good people and they’re so cute together. This brought up things about engagement with my mom randomly like why people don’t take pictures of it and stuff since it’s such a big moment and all. She told me I better not be thinking of engagement for at least 5 years On that note, it’s the first day of March, and I expect to hear from the rest of my colleges I applied to in about 18 days..scary and nerve-racking. I guess that’s about all though. Not sure how often I’ll be able to write on here with the busyness of school, baseball, and occasional working when I have a free day.

I’m So Blessed

Well just driving home today from my best friend’s house I was thinking about how fortunate I am and how much I take it for granted. Even the little things came to mind, like just not having a sore throat or runny nose all the time like I have had this week. When I have it, it is so annoying yet I take it for granted everytime I breathe or swallow when I’m well. I have a truck, a 1994 with just over 100,000 miles that my uncle gave to me for free. I have people who truly care about me through the thick and thin like my family and best friends Mitch, Tyler-Ann, and Christina.

Today sitting in my room “cleaning” I just added another ticket to my “ticket bag”. I use just a normal ziploc bag to hold any ticket from sporting events, concerts, theme parks, shows, and other things that I have attended since I can remember. It’s bursting it is so full. Just looking through them I reminisce all the fun I’ve had with people as I write the score of the game and who I went with to the game or event.

Well I’m going to read now since I went by the library and actually checked out a book for the first time in years. I usually just go there to study or work on stuff for school but I went today just to find someting good to read. It’s either going to be “Hank Aaron and the Homerun That Changed America” since I love baseball and the Braves or “You Can Run But You Can’t Hide” the biography of Dog the Bounty Hunter (who is better the Chuck Norris or Jack Bauer Mr. Sabucco haha)

A Day of Skipping..well not literally, well sort of

Well today was our “Senior Skip Day” and frankly one of the most enjoyable days I’ve had as of late. I was out sick yesterday with a sore throat and all congested in my chest and nose and the day before that I was not feeling good at all. Still today was great. I had no idea about today until yesterday evening when one of my friends told me that I should NOT miss school today. Then my mom gave a couple subtle hints this morning, like taking travel kleenex with me in case I was “somewhere that I couldn’t get any”, bring my camera, and if I wanted hat? We went to first period as normal but then an announcement came over the intercom that seniors were to meet in the library for a “scholarship meeting” with our guidance counselor, and that’s when I was about 98% positive that it was senior skip day. After a little more delaying of the almost inevitable with our principle and English teacher we were told to go to the office. In the hallway we were told that we were being rewarded for all our hard work with our Senior Skip day.

Some parents were in the lobby waiting for us. We just left our bags and all in the school and took off carefree. We climbed aboard our transportation for the day, a bus trolley from the Raleigh Parks and Rec Department. We went across the parking lot to a laudromat to learn how to fold laundry in order to survive away next year. We helped the guy working fold fitted sheets and towels from a restaurant. He said we did work that would take him an hour and a half only 20 minutes. From there we got our next clue and went over to Barnes & Noble. There we read a kids book called “Biscuit Finds a Friend” or something like that. Everyone had to read a page of it. Then after that we had to “practice” writing home for next year, so we got stationary and and envelope to write home. We also got a $5 gift card to Barnes & Noble which a lot of people used to get coffee or muffins. After we finished writing our letters we headed over to the post office in downtown Cary to send them off. Staying in the general area we crossed the street to Ashworth’s, Cary’s oldest pharmacy and soda fountain. We enjoyed a orangeade, lemonade, or soda. After reminiscing some old times at the counter we went next door to the Flower Cupboard where we gave each girl a rose and every guy gave a compliment to each girl. From there we hopped back in the trolley and just down the road to Chocolate Smiles where the girls gave us guys a chocolate treat and a compliment. From there we went to Bojangles on Western Blvd. and were treated to fresh BoBerry biscuits and sweet tea. That was amazing, and we just hopped back on the bus and left that crowded place for NC State, where we had to search the library for a sleeping student and get a picture with him sleeping. My group didn’t find anyone and was just about to ask someone to fake it when we found out that another had got a picture of a sleeping kid a few floors below. Mission accomplished. From there we just headed to Red Robin to wrap up our day and grab some grub.

It was a great day of class bonding and nostalgia. We had a lot of new laughs and old ones too. I’m really glad I decided not to stay home from school again with already having missed the senior retreat to the beach and the ski trip. Now only 98 total days until graduation, 60 some school days..the countdown is on!

It’s that time again boys..

Well I’ve had my winter season off as usual and even though it’s been bitterly cold again after a week or two of 60s and 70s. Now it’s only February but baseball season at school is underway. The school purchased a nice batting cage indoors that will be put good use this season and in years to come after us seniors leave. I’ve already had my final season of high school soccer this fall. Even though I missed several games with my pulled groin, I went through my senior day game thinking that everything I did would be the last time ever. Still, while I absolutely loved playing soccer in middle and high school, and even my 3 year reffing stint, baseball was always my one true love in sports to play. I have a great relationship with my soccer coach and he is just like a good friend, mentor, and even father-like figure in my life.

Onward to America’s greatest pastime though. I, along with five of my senior classmates, laid the foundation for the baseball program at my school starting in eighth and ninth grades. One of our coaches we have had for all four years, another for three, and this year we got a new head coach, the first really big coaching change in my high school sports experience. He coached a college team and is extremely knowledgeable about the game and everything as it would take to coach at that level. Our other two coaches both played in high school and one of them went on to play in college. This changing over of the reigns though hasn’t seemed to skip a beat with anyone even though we are only on practice day number two. Since we have only won one game in three years it may have been time to try something new. Practices and everything seems to be way more official and organized, like a college practice would be. I love baseball and my teammates are some of my greatest friends so I just hope we have a lot of fun and a memorable year on the field.

Valentine’s Day and President’s Day..not your everyday weekend

From the title, people may think I’m with a lot of lonely singles this weekend without someone to buy a Valentine’s Day gift for. This is not the case though. It’s a three day weekend with two holidays, yet just another three day weekend. Doesn’t happen to much. Plus Friday the 13th, man this is ridiculous. I went to school so tired because I went to the Hurricanes game last night, got back a terrible grade on my AP Calculus test, had a party with food and playing basketball for two periods, buying stock for civics class that I’m obsessing over now, and removed a cat brain all in one day. It was nice “partying” for over 2 hours, just like elementary school…my parent’s money at private school going to good use, but I’m not complaining. Work has been slow this week, surprising since it has been in the 60s and 70s. It’s also supposed to rain tomorrow, which means no work. My uncle is also coming down from D.C. to visit a friend so we’ll get to eat with him and see him which will be nice considering I haven’t been able to visit with him since Thanksgiving.

I almost forgot that it was Valentine’s Day this weekend. I had already got my Valentine her gift a week or more ago so without having to worry about that for a while and that made me forget. At my school, the 4th grade does a fundraiser for their Outer Banks trip where people can buy red balloons “Balloon-a-grams” to send to people. Well I didn’t buy any, and since I leave early for work, I forgot to pick mine up at the end of school too :\ really in the spirit of Valentine’s Day right?

Then President’s Day, a day when I will surely sit back and think about all 40-some presidents this great country has had Not! I’ll hopefully be able to sleep in and not do too much. I joke, but the men truly have done a lot for our country, some taking office in terrible times like the economic downfall, depression and war. Though not everyone agrees on each position including myself, these men deserve respect and honor.

A lot going on this weekend with this too though because there is the rodeo in town and I love bull riding, the International Auto Expo, Stomp! is doing shows for the weekend, the Hurricanes play tomorrow, and I still need to get ready for baseball that is starting next week! I’m so out of shape for it but I can’t wait for it. Let’s hope that I just figure out where I’m going today, because everyone in my class at school pretty much knows where they’re going. Kids have their sweatshirts where they’re going to college, and I just wear whatever. Ahh, it will come together.

Best Chapel Ever

Well I have decided that Monday is just about my favorite day of the week. After not seeing people over the weekend due to me being busy with work both days and homework, Monday provides time to catch up and see people. Also, since I don’t work Mondays and my mom usually has a meeting after school, I go home with Christina so I don’t have to wait around school. I love this because I love her and her family so much. I always get my homework out but hardly get anything done. Last week her mom was feeding me leftovers from their Super Bowl party to the point of where I stuffed myself by like 5pm with mac n cheese, baked ziti, a barbeque sandwich, and sweet potato pie. Today it was just a funny day laughing about stupid things happening and stuff that I never got anything done. It was also the most beautiful February day so we went in the backyard with one of her sisters and messed around for a bit. The only downside to this Monday was that I had three tests, two of which went very well. My AP Calculus on the other hand was awful. I had the 45 minute class period plus 30 minutes at lunch and I still am no where near done or near understanding any of it. Great.

Then on Mondays we have a chapel service since it is a Christian school. Usually I tend to dread these as I either get a headache from the bass being turned up too much or just put to sleep in the warm room at the end of the day, it’s not really my fault and I do my best to pay attention. Today was different though. I was still not 100% gung-ho about chapel walking upstairs but when we didn’t sing at first I thought something was up. We had the best speaker in GRACE Chapel history I think. We’ve had a renowned comedian come a year or two ago who had been on Comedy Central who was a Christian and he was great but this out did it so much. This couple from South Carolina was the best ever. The wife began about her story and how she fell in love with her husband at 18, and even though she grew up in a bad family situation with an abusive father and did not know Christ, she stayed pure. She talked about love and how it is forever. Her husband, who had never drank, smoked, and didn’t use profanity grew up in a Christian home going to church every Sunday and being told he was “such a good Christian boy” but really didn’t know what it meant. Well he volunteered for Vietnam and became a Lieutenant. He saw many men die. On one recon mission in the most dangerous area with 13 men they were rushed by Vietnamese holding grenades and satchel-charges already set and going off. One of his comrades, an 18-year old just out of high school from Charleston, SC smothered the grenade with his stomach in order to save his buddies lives and blew his body in half to do so. The man speaking said he would not be alive had this man not done this. Then another grenade came and blew the speaker’s left arm off at his elbow, blew his eardrums, left eye out, and when he covered he eyes shrapnel from the grenade messed up his one good hand badly. He was there today, in full uniform talking about his testimony and experiences. He was a baseball fan and being from Florence, SC was a real good ol’ boy too. His baseball diamond analogy for salvation was something I’ll always remember and his testimony was so so real. I had that sense of pride welling up inside of me as he talked about freedom not being free and other stories of his time in the Marine Corps in which I don’t remember it all. What I do remember though is that I was about to cry just listening to it because it was that emotional and real to me and I know others I have talked feel the same way. I just hope everyone was listening today because I think a lot more people should hear that sermon. I have heard a heck of a lot of messages in my lifetime also growing up in a Christian setting but that may be the best one ever. It inspired me to love the country even though I consider myself a huge patriot. If duty ever called whether the draft now that I’m 18 or any other time, I would not even reconsider joining the one of the forces. Freedom isn’t free.

I just found my house

Wow, the new Google maps just amazed the heck out of me. While working on some homework I deviated to Google maps randomly (just don’t ask..) and now you can “walk” down the street. I went to my house in Florida and the picture was taken around Christmas last year because our decorations are in the yard, but not lit up in the day, and my Dad’s truck is in the driveway. Very scary. But anytime I want to show anyone my house down there I will just take them to Google and show them! My neighbor is getting their mail, it’s quite humorous. I have no idea how they captured the pictures but I don’t care, it’s too cool. I was talking to some friends about it and they said that someone had found a car that is on fire somewhere in the midwest, and another friend told me they heard of a car hitting a deer that was captured on there too. Wow, technology.

Well, diverting from that, I’ve come upon yet another long weekend, four days. This time it is without inclement weather, even though we had a “dusting” last night of like a 1/2 inch or less because you could still see my grass and everything. Yet I love North Carolina because there was a 2-hour delay in school for nothing! That is always good because the schedule gets all screwed up with shortened classes and chaos. But I wouldn’t mind being able to sleep until 8:30 every day, because I got almost 12 hours of sleep last night, which is probably why I’m not really tired right now. Then again, I didn’t have to work today because it was so slow that I just picked up my check and left for the bank.

The only other interesting thing that I did today was meet up with one of my old teachers from earlier in high school, my beloved yet feared english teacher. She’s gone to teaching in public school, actually the high school about a mile from my house, yet I have yet to see her since summer. She taught me and everyone so much. While she was ridiculously difficult, that class prepared me so well for college. I used to kid that she had a dungeon under her house where she kept bad students. Man I miss those days. It was fun reminscing with her and two of my other classmates though. It’s crazy how high school flies by.

4 months to go

Well I have about 4 months until graduation, including weekends, and that’s crazy. I found out that I got accepted at North Carolina State University tonight so that was exciting to break the streak of deferments. Now it’s just waiting time until March to hear from University of Georgia, Florida State, Elon, and UNC-Chapel Hill. That and work on scholarships, which are just like applications but way more of them, not cool.

I think that I’ll be pretty accustomed to being out on my own though considering my parents are never home anyway. They aren’t here tonight and at least 3 other nights this past week I just went to bed before they got home for whatever they do. Anyway, I’m just going to live these last 4 months like crazy carrying into summer with the people I’ve spent the last 4 years with, some of my best pals. Make a few memories.