Bed sweet bed.

I’m home after a week of working at Granna and Poppa’s house. I’ve earned more than enough to pay for my Disney trip, and with another week or two I’ll have plenty for souvenirs/extra spending money and whatnot.

Today was spent trimming trees and hedges at Poppa and Granna’s house before loading up our stuff and heading back to Mesquite around 6:30. At home, we got to work trimming trees there as well, and, once we had finished, we ate burgers from a place called Five Guys. It was my first time to have it, and I really enjoyed it. They had Cajun French fries that were very good, and the burger itself was great too.

The rest of the night was spent downloading and playing Back to the Future: The Game for my PS3; I’ve already finished Episode 1. I also played that inFAMOUS game that was given away free by Sony for a few minutes…I’m looking forward to spending more time playing around with it.

Anyway, now it’s time for sleep. Hopefully Mom will let me sleep a little late tomorrow. We’ll see! Goodnight, everyone!

Pondering.

This is gonna be yet another short post.

Today was spent raking up dead grass, weed-eating around the house/trees, and putting the raked-up dead grass into trash bags. I was filthy by the end of the working.

For dinner, we had chili cheese dogs (I had five…whoops), and we watched the new True Grit film while eating. After having seen the original True Grit film two weeks ago, it was initially difficult to decide which I enjoyed more; both were extremely well-made films, and I loved both John Wayne and Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn. However, no matter how guilty I may feel for this, I think I enjoyed the newer one more. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering the fact that the Coen Brother’s adaptation featured actors that appeal to my generation more and that it’s not 40+ years old, as John Wayne’s is. In all honesty, both films had moments that stood out as better over the other; Jeff Bridges, though he did an incredible job, was difficult to understand at times, as were a few of the other characters, but I appreciated the subtle plot differences between the two films, with my favor leaning more in the director of the newer adaptation of the 1968 novel. I loved the music for the new one, while I felt that the main theme for the original was out of place until it was heard at the conclusion of the film. The newer one finished the story better, in my opinion.

All of that being said, I need to read the book to see which adaptation is more faithful to the original novel. Like I said, though, I loved both the 1969 and 2010 adaptations.

I think I’m going to buy the Back to the Future: The Game series on my PS3 now that I’ve completed it on my PC. The idea of being able to control Marty with a more familiar game controller versus my computer keyboard (which has a few keys that need replacing) is very appealing…plus, I love having games on multiple platforms; I have the Orange Box, Portal, Portal 2, and Star Wars Battlefront II on multiple systems. All five episodes of BTTF: The Game are only $20, so I don’t mind shelling out that extra money, especially because I’m earning extra money at Granna and Poppa’s house now that I’ve paid off my initial debt.

I’ve always toyed with the idea of being a writer (not for a career, but for an on-the-side type of deal), but today it really it me hard: how cool would it be to be a film critic for a local newspaper?! I’m really considering doing some research into this. Who knows? Maybe I’ll be able to score with one of the smaller local newspapers in Lubbock during the school year and get free passes into movies in order to write reviews for my own column. It’s just an idea at the moment; I don’t know if I’ll pursue it any further. It’s just something I’m considering.

Anyway, we’re waking up early again in the morning to work some more, so I’m off to bed. I haven’t been reading Fellowship of the Ring at night lately like I had been; ever since waking up at 5am for the Pottermore announcement last Thursday, I’ve been exhausted and yearning for sleep every night, unable to focus on reading anything. Oh well. I just need to allot time every day (during the day) to just read; my reading list is too long to be idle for any amount of time. Tomorrow, after working, Blake, Poppa, and I (I think Granna too, but I’m not sure) are going back to Mesquite to help Dad trim some trees in the front yard, and I think I’m going to stay home for the rest of the week; I’m glad to be earning money, but I’ve been going at it nonstop for nearly a month now, so I’m ready for a bit of a break; not too much, though, because earning money is nice! Plus, Seth leaves for the camp he’s working at for the rest of the summer on either Friday or Saturday, so we have to make sure and find time to hang out this week.

Welp, that’s all for now. Goodnight, everyone!

Chad

TWO HUNDREDTH (plus one) BLOG POST SPECTACULAR

Honestly, this isn’t going to be all that spectacular…sorry to disappoint.

My 200th blog post was actually yesterday’s, but I just didn’t notice at the time. I’m so proud of myself for having kept up with this for so long; I’ve made multiple previous attempts at a daily journal or blog type thing before, but none have been successful until now. Yay! And thank you, readers, for keeping up with it! My stats page on here says that my page has been viewed nearly 11,300 times, which is incredible in itself. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy updating it!

I got to sleep in a bit today, not getting out of bed until 11, which was nice. I haven’t been able to sleep in too much lately. Granna, Poppa, and I grabbed the food that they had prepared/picked up, and we loaded the car and drove home to Mesquite. After shaving (you’re all welcome, I suppose) at the house, we all (Mom, Dad, and Blake included) piled back in the car and made it out to the family reunion. We have these reunions often, but I don’t know anybody by name, to be honest, aside from my great-grandmother’s (my Poppa’s mother) sister, Aunt Alice. Nobody my age ever shows up, so I mostly sit around on my phone or reading a book the hole time whenever we’re not eating. I’ll hold a conversation with anyone who initiates it, but I’m admittedly not very social at these things.

We left a few hours later, sitting around the house in the sweltering heat (still no A/C) before Granna, Poppa, and I, with the addition of Blake, went back to their home in Terrell. The rest of the night was spent watching Criminal Minds, helping Poppa update his antivirus software, watching Phineas & Ferb, and playing some LittleBigPlanet. Now, I’m getting ready for bed, might read a chapter of Fellowship of the Ring, and then I’ll be asleep before it gets awfully late.

That being said, goodnight!

Chad

Oh, there you are Perry.

Today was just another work day. Not much happened.

We woke up early again and had cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Once we had finished eating, Poppa and I drove up to Home Depot to get 10 more bags of mulch (bringing the grand total to 75 bags!) to finish up the V and to cover the area under their tomato plants. That didn’t take too long at all, so we moved on to mowing/weedeating the back lot. I was doing the weedeating around their barb-wired fence, which is REALLY long, but no big deal…it just took a while. I sorta wish I had brought jeans to wear for that, not because I was cold, but because every once in a while there would be a piece of something that would fling up and careen into my leg. No bruises though…that I’ve noticed. We also trimmed up a few trees, cleared out some thorns, and picked up horseapples while we were out there, finishing everything up before 7, I believe.

For dinner, Granna went and picked up Subway for the three of us. While we ate, we watched another John Wayne movie, called McLintock!, which, as I already told them, I wasn’t a huge fan of. It was designed to be a Western comedy, and it just didn’t appeal to me. I dozed off for a bit after an hour or so, but I was awake for the vast majority of the movie. Next time we watch an older movie like that, we’ll watch one of John Wayne’s more serious films…I think I would enjoy one of those a lot more. We’ll see!

Anyway, we have a family reunion tomorrow, and I get to sleep in until about 10, so I’m heading off to bed. Goodnight, all!

Chad

Are you out of your Vulcan mind?

Yeah, I watched Star Trek tonight. It had been too long since I last watched it.

Today’s been great, but first, we have something to discuss: Pottermore. I AM SO EXCITED. It’s genius of Rowling to give her fans something to completely, fully immerse themselves in the series. For me, Harry Potter has been a huge part of my life, and I’d even venture to say that the series has contributed to who I am today. I’m looking forward to experiencing Pottermore for the first time…I’m so glad that July 15 is no longer “the end”. However, I sort of wish that JKR had waited until AFTER the release of Deathly Hallows Pt. 2 so that it would, in a way, cheer us all up. Think about it: You go to the DHPt2 premiere. You walk out depressed because, while it was a great film, it’s all over. AND THEN, out of nowhere, JKR reveals a new way for the HP series to live on in all of us! How cool would that have been?! Alas, that’s not the way it happened, but no worries; I’m excited nonetheless. I’m DEFINITELY gonna try and be one of the million people to get early access on July 31st!

I woke up yesterday morning at 5am (after going to bed only two and a half hours before then) to make sure I was awake for the Pottermore reveal at 6am, and I didn’t go to bed until 12:30, with no naps in-between. I was EXHAUSTED, and I was even asleep by 12:45…rare for me, especially during the summer. I loved getting a full night’s sleep for once, but I’m still feeling the drowsiness tugging at me, so I’m going to bed without reading any Lord of the Rings again.

Today’s work schedule wasn’t too bad; we finish resetting the bricks surrounding the flowerbeds behind the garage, and then we mulched those areas. Then we did the same process to the “V” at the end of the driveway. We had to call it quits early today because Granna and Poppa had a wedding to attend, so we were done at around 4:15 or so. They got ready and left, leaving me money to go get food and whatnot. I ended up meeting up with Seth and Johnny at the Chick-Fil-A in Mesquite for dinner (Seth didn’t have enough gas to make it to Forney), and then Johnny and I took off with plans to see Super 8 at the movie theater in Forney. However, we discovered that the only showings were at 7:20 (which we had already missed) and at 10 (which we didn’t want to wait for). We decided to just hang out at Granna and Poppa’s house for the night and watch a movie there, so we stopped by Walmart, grabbed some water bottles for the house, looked at movies (but didn’t buy any), and then drove to Terrell. We ended up watching the “new” Star Trek movie (I keep calling it that, but it’s actually two years old), with me playing the last episode of Back to the Future: The Game (with headphones on, mind you).

The last episode of BTTF: The Game didn’t disappoint. It was definitely an improvement over episode 4, but it still felt pretty short. No matter, though: the ending was fantastic (I was literally laughing out loud because of the references to the first film), and it was great to hear Michael J. Fox’s voice in the game alongside Christopher Lloyd again! The best part? The last title card reads “To Be Continued…” There’s gonna be more! I can’t wait, and I hope they don’t take a long time to develop it (just long enough to make it high quality).

Anyway, I need to go to sleep. As I said, I’m feeling pretty tired. I might spend the night again tomorrow night, but we’ll see; family reunion on Sunday in the afternoon. Goodnight, everyone!

Chad

Zombie Chad.

I’ve been awake since 5am because of the whole Pottermore reveal thing…more on that in tomorrow’s post because I want to hit the hay early tonight. Goodnight, everyone.

Chad

Wax on, wax off.

I hate having nothing to talk about, but not much happens during the summer. Oh well.

I got out of bed this morning at about 10:30 (we all had a late start), ate breakfast, and then Poppa and I got to work. All we did all day was wax their motor home…which is large. We were able to finish three of four sides; we’ll finish the last one tomorrow. Who knows what we’ll do afterward?

We finished later than we normally do, at around 7:15 or so (as opposed to 6), due to our late start and a couple of delays. I got out my PS3 in preparation for our typical dinner movie (they don’t have a Blu-Ray player) and played a bit of LittleBigPlanet before eating dinner; we had homemade pizza, and I put beef, pepperoni, and black olives on mine. It turned out great! We watched the Princess Bride while we ate, and they both really enjoyed it. Mandy Patinkin (Inigo Montoya) is in it, and he was also in the first season of Criminal Minds, which we all love, so they liked seeing him in something else.

I then took a shower, and now I’m sitting in front of the TV on my laptop, watching Batman Begins. I ate my typical bowl of Cinnabon cereal with a glass of milk (I may have another glass of milk before bed; milk is good). I’m going to set alarms leading up to 6am in the morning to see if I’ll wake up in time to see J. K. Rowling’s big reveal of Pottermore, but if I don’t I won’t be too upset.

Anyway, that’s all for now. Goodnight!

Chad

Nothing happened.

Really. Today I woke up, ate breakfast, sat around, played PS3, ate Chipotle, watched TV, and removed some songs from my iPhone (to save storage space on my phone).

Now, I’m at Granna and Poppa’s again to do some more work, so I’m off to bed soon. Just finished watching the Secret of NIMH…great movie!

Anyway, ta-ta for now!

Chad

REDRUM

Today was a good day.

I woke up at noon or so, but I stayed in bed until about one. I ate a bowl of cereal, and before long Granna and Poppa had shown up. We’ve been having electrical problems, so we called the electricians and had them come out today. Since Dad was working, Poppa came down to talk with the electrician when he showed up. The problem is fixed now, so that’s good.

I met up with Seth, Andrew, Johnny, Scottie, and one of Scottie’s friends to play 3-on-3 basketball, which I originally didn’t wanna do, but I ended up really enjoying myself. I was on a team with Seth and Scottie, and we did really well: we lost the first game (21-18), won the second game (21-18), and we won the third game (22-14), with me scoring the final winning basket (the only basket I made out of all three games; in my defense, I only attempted three or four total). It was lots of fun, but by the end of it my shirt was soaked through with sweat, my back was killing me, and I had a large blister on my foot. Oh well. It was worth it.

After we had finished, I went home and changed shirts, and then Johnny, Seth, and I met up with my family (Poppa and Granna included) at Jason’s Deli for dinner. When we had finished dinner, we went back home and Seth finally finished beating Portal 2. Lots of fun! Once that was over, we put on the Shining; neither of them had seen it, and it had been a while since I had last watched, so it was a good choice. I’m not sure if they really enjoyed it or not, but I totally understand if they didn’t: it’s just a weird movie, but I love it.

Anyway, now they’re gonna, and tomorrow I’ve gotta get up by ten and mow the lawn before it (possibly) rains. So goodnight!

Chad

Is school is school is school.

Not too much to post today.

I drove the family to church this morning in my car. Service went well, but Blake once again failed to stay awake; I didn’t confront him about it this week, but I did subtly record him falling asleep so that he can’t deny it this time. Next week, I’m gonna sit with one of my church friends instead of Blake in order to stay true to my word…hopefully he’ll get the picture and learn to fight it better (and to go to sleep earlier the night before).

We went to the Cotton Gin in Crandall for lunch, where I had a pretty good cheeseburger. Afterward, we went to Granna and Poppa’s house (Memaw, we drove by your old house on the way!). All I ended up doing all day was sitting in the recliner, watching TV and messing around with the computer. I played through Portal just for the heck of it, beating it in an hour and 7 minutes…one day, I hope to get it under an hour.

After hanging around until 11pm, several movies, a slice of key lime pie, and some cereal later, Mom, Dad, Blake, and I drove back home. And now? Bedtime. This is the second night in a row I haven’t read a chapter of Fellowship of the Ring, but I really want the sleep. So goodnight!

Chad