Classic Rodney and Jim Wednesday: Turkey Edition!

Happy Thanksgiving, readers!

OK, so what if Turkey Day is tomorrow? It's good to get in the holiday spirit early!

All right, on to the post...

I realize that I didn't post a classic strip last Wednesday, and I'll try to get back on that, starting with this week. Today, in honor of Turkey Day tomorrow, I'm posting a Thanksgiving-themed strip! It's pretty old (from exactly a year ago), but I'm confident that it'll still generate some good laughs!

Just a note to those who don't regularly read "Rodney and Jim", Rodney's mom is a TERRIBLE cook. This strip right here proves that:

And with that, here's to a HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL! (and hopefully a safe Black Friday!)

Andrew Brinkerhoff, OUT!

Seminary Surprise, Part II, and Shakespeare Fest

Hello again, readers!

Well, to start, getting up at 5:30 AM yesterday morning and having Dad drive me to seminary turned out to be a total waste of time. There really was nothing there at the door when we pulled up to the front (which is what I was half-expecting, but I was still a bit disappointed). Bro. Dyer didn't even ask this morning who got up early for those make-up days and who didn't. Dad had to be up early anyways, so I didn't get him up early for no reason, but still, waste of time.

Okay, enough negativity, let's move on to Part 2 of this blog post:

I got out of 2nd period this morning (U.S. History, so I wasn't too broken up about it) to see two guys from the "Oregon Shakespeare Festival" do a presentation for us.

Now the only Shakespeare I've read in my life was "Julius Caesar" last year in Sophomore English, and it was ridiculously boring, so I wasn't sure I'd like this presentatation. But these two guys were really animated and funny, so that got my hopes up.

The presentation was just them acting out bits from some of Shakespeare's plays, starting with "The Comedy of Errors", which was actually a riot! Then one of the guys put "dog ears" on his head, and the other guy went on about the dog and what he's done wrong and right (I had some difficulty understanding everything he said, but the visuals were still fun).

Then we got to "Henry VI" and "Hamlet", which is where things slowed down a bit and I tried to catch all the dialogue, but didn't quite get all of it. However, I got to ask the two guys a couple of questions before they dismissed us: "How many 'Henry' plays were there?" and "What exactly is the OSF?". I learned there were 3 plays Shakespeare wrote that began with "Henry", and that the OSF ran on an interesting schedule: for 6 months they performed many of Shakespeare's plays (these were just two people out of the 300 or so that are part of the OSF), and then they went out "on tour" for a couple of weeks, then got back to performing.

I don't know if what I just said was completely accurate, and if you're interested in learning more, I just looked up the website, found here.

That's all for now. Andrew Brinkerhoff, OUT.

P.S.: Added later!:

I forgot to mention that during lunch today, there was this pull-up bar that anyone could try out as long as they filled out a form showing their address, age, whether they wanted to join the military (the people running the table were from the Marines), etc.

Anyone who got up to 20 pull-ups or above got a free Marines sweatshirt. A couple of guys who went before me got to 20, but when I tried, I got 6.

Well, at least I tried it.

Okay, that's REALLY all for now...

Classic Rodney and Jim Wednesday

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Everyone hates to get their blood drawn, but it's even worse when they take ALL OF IT!

Andrew Brinkerhoff, out.

Seminary Surprise, Part I

OK, I know it's pretty late, but I've got to get this up tonight...

Tomorrow, since it's Veteran's Day, we don't have seminary. But my teacher, Bro. Dyer, said that if we still came at 6:15 AM tomorrow morning, we'd get three make-up days. I have a feeling that there may be a surprise waiting at the church tomorrow, so I'm going for it!

Tomorrow, Part II: The surprise (or maybe not...)

Andrew Brinkerhoff; round and round he goes, where he stops, NOBODY KNOWS!!!

Katching Up with A Brinkerhoff

Hello, readers!

It's been a while since I last posted, so let me catch up on some stuff...

Well, bad news first: The last game I played at for pep band was NOT the game that decided if we got to go to the playoffs. It turns out that was last Thursday, and the sad part: we DIDN'T WIN THAT ONE!

Oh well. At least there's still basketball season coming up, right?

Okay, with that negative junk out of the way, here's something cool:

I'm selling Ring Pops for a fundraiser in Band, and while I got off to a slow start, business suddenly got booming, and I believe I'm on my 3rd bag now (each bag has 10 Pops, 75 cents each).

Oh crud, another bad point: the first day I was selling, I had to squeeze through a group of black kids in the hallway (there's a lot of them at Foss), one of which I remember as one of my fellow T.A.s in Special Ed P.E. last year. I asked if she wanted a Ring Pop, and after she said no, this big black guy who was with them, at least a head taller than me, said he wanted one. I told him he needed 75 cents, but he wouldn't pay the price, so he snatched the bag out of my hand and ran down the hallway with it. His group and I chased him down, and he only got to a corner about 30 yards away. I told one of the assistant principals about it, but unfortunately I didn't have the guy's name, so he got off on that one. Scumbag.

Okay, done with the negative, back to the positive.

Currently in Junior English, I'm reading the literary classic "Animal Farm", by George Orwell. Funny, I actually read it two years ago in Freshman English. But my reading must have improved since then, because I'm having a much easier time reading it now than I did back then. I think I remember just dragging myself through the book 2 years ago, but this time I'm actually enjoying it!

It was an interesting week in Chemistry, too. On Wednesday, we got to turn copper pennies silver, and then GOLD. I wanted to do it again on Thursday, but instead we got something out of the book.

Something very COMPLICATED...

We learned about electron configuration for an atom of an element. Did you know that Argon, which has an atomic number of 18, has an electron configuration of S1 2S2 2P6 3S2 3P6 (I think...)? Did you even care? If you didn't, I don't blame you. Ble-ECH. Even Dad was totally lost (though he didn't take Chemistry back when he was in high school).

I've gotten into something Kaylee got into a long time ago: watching movies on my laptop. I've watched quite a few movies again recently: I watched the movies "Arachnophobia" and "Beetlejuice" on the night before Halloween and Halloween morning, respectively, then watched "The Emperor's New Groove", "The Sandlot", and "The Karate Kid" all from Thursday afternoon to this morning.

Oh my gosh, I forgot to talk about Halloween! D:

I didn't think much about my costume for Halloween during that week leading into it, due to school and trying to complete the "Rodney and Jim" for last Sunday, so I just went wearing my "Will Scare for Candy" shirt and wore a paper bag over my head with eye holes. Everyone at the Halloween church activity thought it was awesome, but I couldn't keep the bag on forever, because a.) It would be hard to eat all of that chili we were having for dinner, and b.) I was starting to have breathing trouble after a while.

All right, that's pretty much everything. Oh, and I'm taking a vacation from "Rodney and Jim" for this week and possibly next week as well, just so you know.

Andrew Brinkerhoff...

Classic Rodney and Jim Wednesday

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OK, I lied, there IS one more Halloween strip. Only this is more like "post-Halloween", isn't it? Anyways, Candy Time's over, and in a couple weeks, it'll be Eat-All-The-Food-Your-Stomach-Can-Hold-And-Sleep-For-Rest-Of-Day time! (Or you can just call it "Turkey Time" if that suits you better)

Andrew Brinkerhoff, signing off.

Classic Rodney and Jim Wednesday

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Well, this looks like the end of the Halloween series (or is it?)

Now that you've seen how Rodney and Jim's halloween turned out, try not to have the same bad luck. In other words:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Andrew Brinkerhoff, Going to Sneak Some Halloween Candy...

Foss is Going to the Playoffs!

Last night was pretty much the best football game we had this whole season. And it was our last one, too.

We had a pep assembly at the end of the school day yesterday, to get everyone excited for the game. They had competitions between the freshman, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, such as a HUMAN wheelbarrowing race, and a relay where you had to get to one end of the gymnasium, chug a whole bottle of water, and then cartwheel all the way back. Then they did 3 or 4 "cheering contests", where each grade had to cheer as loud as they could. It got pretty noisy during the assembly, and one of the band members sitting behind me (we were playing during the assembly, of course) actually had to cover his ears (something I had to do a lot at the assemblies last year).

When I got home, I was beat, ready to just lie down and do nothing. They announced at the assembly that tonight would be the last home game of the year, and it would be the game to decide whether we'd go to the playoffs. I was actually kind of apprehensive that we wouldn't win (even after last week's victory, see my post "Victory is Ours!").

When I arrived at Mt. Tahoma at 6 PM, the wind was blowing hard, and it was COLD, even with my pep band sweatshirt on. The game was against the White River Hornets, and for the first quarter and a half of the game, it wasn't really exciting at all (even Mr. Byrnes, my band teacher, admitted it was like watching grass grow). During 2nd quarter, I took out Cindy's cellphone and played "Jewel Quest 2" (a version of the game "Bejeweled" made by a different company), then took out "Eclipse" (third book of the Twilight series, which I finally decided to start reading a couple of weeks before the end of summer vacation) and read to pass the time. Then, I looked up from my book, just in time to see one of our players cross into the end zone, ball in hand...

TOUCHDOWN!!!

We played the fight song (it's a tradition to play the F.S. when we score), as the score added up to 7-8 (the Hornets had scored earlier on). I was still a little nervous, thinking that we could possibly not get any more touchdowns and lose by one point, but I was soon proven wrong...

DETOUR:

Before pep band, I had no interest in football whatsoever, never understanding what the fuss was about.

Now, after playing at a couple of games, I think I've gotten into it, actually whooping whenever we score. Now that I understand the game, I'm a little more enthusiastic about it. Cool, huh?

END DETOUR.

It was senior night at the game, so we didn't play all the way through half time like we had previously. The senior football players were brought out and recognized, then after they were finished, we played a couple of songs, then when 3rd quarter started, everyone headed to the concessions stand.

Now, us band members get 3rd quarter off at every game. What was ironic, though, was that at this game, we ended up scoring THREE TOUCHDOWNS during that period. It was like nothing I had seen before at one of our games: every five minutes, it seemed, we scored another one. My faith in our football team was much bigger than it had been before, and seeing the current score, 28-8, I had a good feeling we'd be going to the playoffs.

Sure enough, after an unfortunately uneventful 4th quarter, we WON!

I felt WAY better than I had after a game before, and no longer felt exhausted like I had that afternoon. I gave all of my fellow band members that I ran into a high five, and helped carry a snare drum down the steps to Mr. Byrnes' truck. And, as a significant sign that I was feeling good, normally I get furious when I bang my knee on anything, but when the snare drum hit my knee on accident, I actually LAUGHED. I met and talked to the father of one of Mr. Byrnes' T.A.s, and we got a good conversation going; apparently he was really a member of the pep band along with his daughter. That's when Dad pulled into the parking lot and it was time to go home (where it would be much warmer than it was outside. brrrr....)

I was planning to watch some halloween movies on my laptop when I got home from the game, and Tyler (who Dad picked up from school and came home with shortly before he drove me to the game) was also interested. We ended up watching some episodes off of our Simpsons Season 4 box set before drifting off (Tyler dropped out around midnight, I went to bed some time after 1).

And as for our football team going to the playoffs, all I can say is: GO, FOSS FALCONS, GO!!!

Andrew Brinkerhoff, IN!


Oops, I meant: OUT!

Classic Rodney and Jim Wednesday

Click for full size... (make sure you've seen the previous ones first!)

Andrew Brinkerhoff, Where Art Thou?

Victory is Ours!!!

We had our third home game (second I've played at) last Friday night, against Bellarmine Prep.



Now, Friday afternoon was tough for me, because I had the Algebra assignment from H-E-double-hockey-sticks (so hard that today, neither my grandparents, who were up visiting from Alaska, or Mom or step-dad Dave were able to get anywhere with it, and they read the instructions in the book to understand; I still haven't finished the assignment), and I had to get all my stuff ready to go to Mom's (Dad and Cindy got on a plane for California at noon, so they weren't home), only to find my laptop bag was nowhere to be found. I was really stressing, but things got better that night...



Okay, so we got to Mt. Tahoma High School (for those who didn't get to see my post about our last home game, we play at Mt. T's stadium since Foss doesn't have one), and it was pouring down rain. It let up a little, but Mom and I weren't sure if the game would be cancelled or not. I went in through the gate and around the stadium, and sure enough, Mr. Byrnes was standing by his truck with his umbrella, while my fellow band students were carrying the drumset up to the top row of the stadium (in separate parts), and he claimed that Foss never cancels a game for rain. So I got my trumpet and backpack (I could get bored again like last time, so I wanted to have something to do) and said bye to Mom as she drove off to go to the mall (she didn't stay this time), and the game began.

Well, the game wasn't too eventful, although we got a wicked touchdown in the 2nd quarter, which meant we got to play the fight song afterwards! Then at half time we played the same songs as last time ("Land of 1000 Dances", "Iron Man", and "Mony Mony", which we didn't play last time).

No more points were scored for the rest of the game, so we ended up winning 7-0! I felt much better than I had a couple of hours ago, thank goodness.

Oh, and the rain even completely stopped to honor our victory! The Weather Gods must be Foss fans... :)

Andrew Brinkerhoff ran out of sign-offs again. Darn.

Classic Rodney and Jim Wednesday

Now, before I get to the strip for this week, I want to give a little background...

A long time back, someone put up a video on YouTube, called "Peanut Butter Jelly Time", and it became an instant internet phenomenon. Here it is (if you don't watch it, you won't get the strip...)




Now, with that out of the way (you didn't watch the whole video, did you???), here's this week's strip:

Andrew Brinkerhoff, gone with the wind...

Classic Rodney and Jim Wednesday

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Andrew Brinkerhoff, Ciao.

Peppin' it Up...

All right, so last night was our second home football game of the year. BUT, it was the FIRST game I got to play at! (We had a church youth conference out at Uncle Richard's lakehouse the weekend of our first home game).

For those of you who didn't know yet, I play the trumpet:







I started in 5th grade and played up through 7th, then for grades 8-10, I didn't play at all, because I was doing school on the internet (or, in the case of last year at Foss, didn't get right back into band), and I didn't play much anyways because I'd heard my braces would make it hard for me.

But I got back into band this year, under the impression that my braces would FINALLY come off (hasn't it been, like, 3 years?), and yes, I did start out behind everyone else, but it only took a couple of weeks to catch up. My trumpet I used for my first years of "trumpeting" was given to my Mom by a co-worker of hers who was leaving for somewhere, and it wasn't in the best shape, but it's gold compared to what it is now, what with the disconnected parts (along with a zip-tie to hold one thing together) and my slide moving when I don't want it to?


So Dad went to the same music store he and Cindy bought Ellysa's flute at, and I got one that wasn't brand-new, but was still in WAY better shape than my first trumpet. It makes better noise, too.


Anyways, fast-forward to last night...


Dad dropped me off at Mt. Tahoma High School (Foss doesn't have a stadium of their own, so we go to Mt. T for our home games), and along with my trumpet and pep band music, I also had my laptop bag, my winter coat, and this Andrew Jackson biography I have a book report for Junior English, due on 10/25 (Mom was picking me up and taking me to her house after the game, so I had to take all of my stuff that was going to her house with me).


I've never been a football fan, but I decided since we wouldn't be playing music for the WHOLE game, I'd watch just to keep from being bored during those short breaks in playing.


It was a long time before the game started back up again (we came just in time for 2nd quarter), and while the teams were practicing, we played our fight song, "Iron Man", "Land of 1000 Dances", and "Rock and Roll, Part II" (in our sheet music for it, it's simply called "The 'Hey' Song"). Mom showed up just a while before we started playing, and was sitting one row up from me, close to the rest of the band, but no one seemed to mind her sitting there at all, so, no biggie. She got a chance to talk with Mr. Byrnes, my band director, and they got along better than I had expected.

We were supposed to play the fight song every time we scored a touchdown, but not a whole lot happened during the 2nd quarter. Ironically, we got the 3rd quarter off, where we scored a touchdown, but we weren't there to play, yet during the final quarter, we just sat there waiting and waiting and waiting...

"Look, Foss is going to make it!... ohhhhhh, Wilson intercepted the ball."

"Oh no, Wilson's going to make it!... WHOOO, WE INTERCEPTED THE BALL!"

That second one brought up some big cheers, probably the best part of the game if it wasn't for that last touchdown we made at the very end (other than that, it was a LOOOOOOONG 12 minute quarter). We got to play at half-time and after the game ended, but that was it. I really don't want to dwell on the negative about all of this: it was actually pretty fun just being there, but I just expected to play a little more.

Oh, and we lost by one point, 13-12. Oh well, there's always the next home game...

From Andrew Brinkerhoff, trumpet player, to YOU.

Classic Rodney and Jim Wednesday

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Well, it's October once again (okay, so October 1st is tomorrow, but close enough, right?), so for the whole month, I'll be re-running the series of Halloween "Rodney and Jim" strips for those who missed it the first time, or those who want to see it again.

Enjoy! And Happy October!

Andrew Brinkerhoff has left the building...

Classic Rodney and Jim Wednesday

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What better way to end the summer than reminisce about all you did over vacation, eh?

Andrew Brinkerhoff, out.

Classic Rodney and Jim Wednesday

4th of July 2008, we went out to Uncle Richard's lakehouse on Mason Lake, and a bunch of Aunt Dorothy's family came over. One of her nephews, Travis, came up with some crazy ideas for fireworks, one of which was totally awesome: a "Quaker Oatmeal" can filled up with powder from various mortars. You can watch the video here.

So I got the inspiration from that for the first 4th of July Rodney and Jim strip, and Travis made a guest appearance! He actually made a few other cameos, including the 4th of July strip for this year...

Andrew Brinkerhoff, Ciao.

Classic Rodney and Jim Wednesday

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The two start their own cooking show, and we learn something about Rodney's mom that would become a common theme later on...

Andrew Brinkerhoff, Ciao.

Classic R&J's on Wed-Nes-Day!

Since it's premiere back in March 2008, I've created a total of 73 Rodney and Jim strips. I also just recently finished a series of 9 postcards made by the duo on their "vacation".




I decided that every Wednesday, as new strips are going up every Sunday, I would start doing reruns of my older strips from ages ago. Even though they're pretty old, they'll still give anyone a laugh you'll need in the middle of a long, hard week at work (or school!), or for those who have been following the strip for a long time, you may remember some of these!!! ENJOY!





First off, though, let's start with the VERY FIRST RODNEY AND JIM EVER MADE:

This was made a long time before I started making the bigger strips, as I had wanted this to be a daily with a big Sunday version on, well, Sundays. But Dad insisted it would be really grueling for me to have a strip ready EVERY DAY, so we just did it on Sunday. I made 11 of these six-panel strips, with 2 Sunday strips in between, before I decided to just stick to Sunday format we all know and love today.

Tune in next Wednesday for the next one!

My Junior Year Begins!

Hello, everyone! Just got home from my first day at school as a Junior!

Here's a list of classes I'm taking this year:

Period 1: CHEMISTRY I/II



Teacher: Mr. Wyckoff

This looks like it may be interesting, and not just because I believe all of those scenes on TV shows or in movies when you mix chemicals the wrong way... anyways, we learned about a few things, and got some more info on the periodic table that I didn't know before, so I'm looking forward to this one.

Period 2: U.S. HISTORY I/II

Teacher: Mr. Herbert

Meh, not really intrigued about this class at this point, although it could be interesting, maybe. We won't get to do some of the cool crafts we did in World Cultures last year, but not all history is boring (What could be better than tossing giant teabags into the Boston Harbor?).





Period 3: ALGEBRA III/TRIG





Teacher: Mr. Burmester

Again, I really wasn't a fan of Algebra II (though I did it on the internet with no teacher there to ask for help right away, so I could be biased), so I'm not sure what to expect here. We just did a quick review, and then learned about REAL numbers (as opposed to "imaginary" numbers, which we'll learn about later on), and the subsets: natural #s, whole #s, integers, rational #s, and irrational #s. We got a short, easy assignment (the only homework I got today, unless you count the syllabus from U.S. History I need to get signed and return tomorrow for 10 points, 5 if later than that) that I finished in the following class, which is...





Period 4: CONCERT BAND A





Teacher: Mr. Byrnes





In 5th grade at Whittier Elementary, we were given the option to start playing a musical instrument. I chose the trumpet, and Mom gave me this older one from a friend she worked with before he left for somewhere. So it's not brand new, but I learned to play, going from sounding like a sick elephant (or any other animal), to actually making music. I played up to 7th grade, after which I started going to Internet Academy, AND got braces on (trumpet + braces = INSIDE-LIP PAIN), so I stopped playing for a while. Two years to be exact, though I got it out every now and then, and could only play for 20 minutes or so. I may get these things off soon, though, so I decided I'd get back into band. Too bad we didn't play anything today; we just filled out a form saying what instrument we played and whether we needed an instrument provided by the school.

Period 5: JUNIOR ENGLISH I/II

Teacher: Mr. Aziz

This is self-explanatory, but we had an... ODD start. We got our teacher's, Mr. Aziz, last name written in Arabic on the whiteboard, and how it meant "Almighty". Also, "Abdul" meant "Servant" (sorry, Paula). He said he wanted to broaden his mind by learning more languages and becoming more aware of the world around him. He wanted us to be aware, too. So maybe tomorrow we'll do more English (I wonder if he teaches Arabic for another class).

Period 6: MARKETING III

Teacher: Mr. Ogden

Don't ask about the "III", since I never took "Marketing I" or "Marketing II", but it doesn't seem to matter here. This class is probably going to be my favorite, as we'll be doing some BROADCASTING. I did the morning announcements that were actually shown live at 9:00 AM every morning (School started at 8:00) a few times while at Hunt Middle School. This is just going to be on the School radio station, though, but should still be fun. Mr. Ogden did the afternoon announcements and "joke of the day" (which was always VERY corny) over the intercom, but he got "fired". We'll be able to make advertisements and spots on the radio between songs (it's an oldies, 50's-to-possibly-80's, station, since a lot of the more recent music supposively has rough language, but we might get some other stuff on there soon). Today, we just did the same assignment we did to start Digitools last year: a personal opinions sheet where we answer questions like "Coke or Pepsi?" and "Worst Movie Ever?". I like Pepsi a LITTLE more, and never saw an absolutely TERRIBLE movie that I can remember (probably 'cause it was so terrible).

Thanks for reading. Andrew Brinkerhoff, out.

The Kid in the Back of the Theatre...

Today, Mom and I went to see the new Harry Potter movie (I've seen all but this one on opening night, but didn't make it for this one). The movie was awesome, sad, but awesome. There were just two small things that were a little distracting:

1. I had to go "Numero Uno" about 1/4 of the way in, and for a 2 hour+ film, that's not a good thing, but the other one...

2. That 2-year-old in the back that wouldn't shut up.

About 5 minutes into the movie, this woman with three kids, aged 2, 4, and 5 (Mom guestimated), walks in and sits in the back. From that moment on, the 2-year-old continues to talk and talk and talk and talk, sometimes getting loud enough that the other viewers (including us) were getting distracted. She left at some point for a moment to calm her kid down, but then she came back in and sat down, and the kid just kept on chattering. Mom, irritated, managed to bite her tongue, but an older woman got up in the middle of the film and told the woman to take her kids out (again). The woman just said that "If you don't like dealing with it, you shouldn't have come to the movies." Bullcrap.

Seriously, you think that this movie is REALLY good to bring kids that age to? It's quite dark, especially the powerful, heartbreaking sequence near the end (sorry, slight spoiler). Yet, even during that part, the kid kept... FREAKIN'... talking. The mom did nothing about it, yet more people were getting irritated by it.

At the end, that same lady who stood up earlier asked for her money back, and the man she asked said she should've gotten up in the middle of the movie, and she got no refund.

According to Mom, kids don't need to see movies at the theatre until they're 4 or 5 years old, because the same sort of thing will happen.

At least at the movie theatre there's a way to get out for a while. It's even worse when you're on an airplane and you can't get up to move around at 35,000 feet. You have to deal with that kid the ENTIRE TIME.

Luckily, the kid was just a minor thing for me, and I was able to hold it for the 2 hrs. 10 min. we were watching the movie. I should win an award for that, actually...

Andrew Brinkerhoff, signing out of my Blogger Account (hey, there's a new one!).

My Games...

All right, one reason I'm posting about this is just so I can get at least ONE post up this month (I may get another up if my braces come off at the end of August), and also just because I think some might be interested. Anyways, onto the post...

Two years ago I created a joke game for my Dad for Halloween, called "Andy's Dad in: HIS OWN NIGHTMARE!":

Dad loved it so much he put it on the blog for the readers to play, and I came up with an idea: make a contest out of it! The whole game is about Andy's Dad running away from ghosts, and nothing more. You get a higher score depending on how long you avoid the ghosts before getting hit. So there's a high score table to keep track of your progress (and an awesome soundbite, turn up the volume and listen to what happens after you get hit!). The deal was the person to get the highest score would win a bag of candy corn. Unfortunately, someone had to easy a time

with the game, finding a spot to hide, and got a score of over 45,000 (believe me, that takes a LOT of time to get). So I modified it a bit to make it longer, and the contest resumed. But we never got around to the candy corn prize, since I think people stopped playing after a while.

Anyways, I made it with a program called "Game Maker", whose current website is Yo You Games.com. People join and become members, then make and upload games onto the site. Some are WAY ahead of mine, but most of my games outside of the one mentioned above aren't really too great, or too playable for that matter...

To see my stock of games uploaded on YYG, click the link below this sentence, but be aware that you MAY have to download their "Game Player" onto your internet (or you can also click a link near the bottom of the page to just download the games, if you don't have Vista).

http://www.yoyogames.com/members/andybrinkerhoff

Have fun browsing!

(Andrew Brinkerhoff, signing off.)

Howsa Bout a Book Review? (or TWO???)

Last time my younger brother Tyler was here, he told me about two books he had that I had wanted to read. He told me he'd bring 'em over next time he was here.

Sure enough, he came home today, with the two new books. One was a big success with me, the other...

Let's begin shall we?

DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: THE LAST STRAW

By: Jeff Kinney

This is the third in a series of books, which itself was adapted from an online "webdiary". The first time I actually found out about it was when Tyler was on a website called "Funbrain Academy", and whenever he lost and got a GAME OVER on one of the games, it showed a link to the said webdiary.

Here are the first two books in the series:





They are a series of "novels in cartoons", the same subtitle I used for my "Secret Agent Stick" series (which the layout of was inspired by this series).

They all center around a self-centered nearly-high-schooler named Greg Heffley, whose mom gets him a diary to write in, which he calls a "journal", as "diary" sounds too girly.

He has his slightly overweight friend, Rowley, his slightly overbearing mom, his bullying older brother Rodrick, his slightly crazy dad, and so on...

We got the first two books from a school book fair, and we went to Ellysa's water polo game. Not being really interested in the game (no offense to anyone, and I got more interested later), I decided I'd read the first book in the series to pass the time...

Oh my goodness... I ended up laughing so hard that Cindy actually complained that I was being too loud. I even showed some of it to Dad and he loved it too.

I later read "Rodrick Rules", and while I wasn't as impressed with it at first, I just read it again recently and thought it was just as good as the first book.

THIS one, however, I wasn't really sure about. I thought Jeff Kinney may be running out of ideas (a problem exhibited by the author of the next book I'll be reviewing, and one I've encountered more than enough times). However, I began reading it in the car, and was already laughing out loud. In fact, I'd almost go as far to say that it's most likely the best in the series, and that's something for a threequel...

I'd recommend getting all three, especially if you have preteens.

Now, onto the next review...


CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS AND THE PREPOSTEROUS PLIGHT OF THE PURPLE POTTY PEOPLE

By: Dav Pilkey

The cover of the book would make you think this would be the most awesome of all books. Well, that's what I thought too, at first...

The very first "Captain Underpants" book came out in 1997, when I was 5. I got the book, maybe for my birthday or something, read it, and loved it. Then the sequel came out 2 years later ("...and the Attack of the Talking Toilets"), and I loved it even more.

Each book seemed to be better than the last, and they got more absurd, with often fourth-wall breaking, mildly crude humor, and other fun stuff.

The whole idea of the series is a little complicated, but I think I can paraphrase it well enough:

George Beard and Harold Hutchins are two fourth-graders who attend Jerome Horowitz Elementary in Piqua, Ohio. While these boys are very imaginative and like to write and draw comic books, especially about their best hero ever, Captain Underpants, the staff at the school discourages use of imagination and fun, and therefore, the two often get in a lot of trouble.

But worst of all is their principal, Mr. Krupp. Krupp is the meanest principal of all school principals, and after catching the boys pulling a series of pranks at a big football game, he enslaves them to do all his chores. To get out of it, the boys order a "3-D Hypno Ring" in the mail, and use it to eventually turn their principal into the hero of their own imaginations, only wearing a curtain from his office window and his undergarments (know who I'm talking about yet?). Unfortunately, he believes he really IS a hero, and goes out to fight crime. This actually leads to them saving the world from disaster, but in the end, they have to change their principal back to his mean, awful self.

But this change ain't permanent, because at the sound of fingers snapping, Krupp turns into the underwear hero once again, and the three continue to save the world from living toilets, zombie lunch nerds and aliens, and best of all: WEDGIE WOMAN!!!

I was satisfied with the first 7 books of the series, and the 7th had a cliffhanger that led straight into this one, so I wanted to read it really bad. Too bad it didn't live up to my expectations...

Okay, so a 16-and-a-half year old may most likely have outgrown this kind of thing already, but to prove the opposite, I had read the first 6 (7 was missing from the daycare bookshelf) over again, and still really enjoyed them a lot. So what happened here?

Well, maybe it's not me, but the series. The first couple books were surreal, but not TOO surreal. This 8th installment is just a little too bizarre for me, however. Or targeted more at the younger ones (which makes sense, I suppose, but why do that if some older ones were enjoying it too?). The story was also pretty anti-climatic, too, with moments that could've been epic just ending in a matter of moments.

WARNING: ANOTHER DETOUR...

As "Spongebob Squarepants" is on it's 7th season and 10th anniversary, it is now the most overrated show on Nickelodeon. I really liked the first three seasons for the most part, but then the show's creator left along with a number of the original writers, and so seasons 4 and onward have been very different, and, with a few exceptions, not in the good way...

One thing is whenever they come out with a half-hour (20 minutes w/o commercials) special, the whole world stops. Burger King creates an entire TOY LINE for this one episode (they've had a long history with Spongebob), and Nick advertises the living (not-so-good word) out of it.

The connection here? Well, the commercials make the episode seem like it'll be epic, while it's really not (after all, only 20 minutes). One special from season 4, called "Lost in Time", had a scene in the commercial of Spongebob and Patrick being in what looked like an awesome seahorse battle, and with them going on an EPIC quest to save the King's daughter as part of a prophecy.

When the special finally aired, it wasn't like what I expected. The seahorse battle only lasted a matter of 15 seconds (no kidding), and the scenes that should have been epic were totally lame and (*ding!*) anti-climatic.

END DETOUR

In a similar way, I read about how the two boys would be in an alternate universe where everything was backwards. It sounded really cool, but it wasn't used as much as it could've been. Then the boys' pet hamster ends up giant and heading towards the big city, and while it should've been a bit more epic, it lasted pretty short. This was a common trend with most of the "big battles", done in Flip-O-Rama (look that up online). Not to mention at the end, when their GRANDPARENTS end up fighting at the end, due to a comic book the two boys wrote earlier that they read (which happens to become reality, which happened in an earlier book), that's also anti-climatic and kinda dumb.

Overall, not the masterpiece I was expecting. Oh, and the 9th is coming pretty soon (I hope it's the last).

Anyway, that's the end for this rather lenghty post. Thanks for reading!

Mr. Brinkerhoff is off to bed (or is he?)

I'm Home!

...whew...
Boy, this was one heck of a Wednesday-Thursday-Friday! We rode probably around 100 miles total, including 55 in one day, and a lot of THAT was uphill! Well, that's all that we did, thanks for reading!





...








Okay, I guess I could've said more...

So, on Wednesday, I got up at 6-something, hardly got any sleep, probably 4 hrs. Dad drove me to the church (Cindy and I took all my stuff, sans my camel-pak, there the night before), and we were probably out of there around 7:00.

We drove down I-5 to Hwy. 101, to some highway that went across the peninsula, then back onto 101 until we got to Astoria, Oregon.

We stopped at Costco along the way, and I got a hot-dog for $1.50, which just happened to be the only money out of the $80 that I brought with me (crazy, huh?). We stopped again at an empty parking lot just outside of Astoria, empty except for the Whites (family from church). We got out our bikes, and read off "The Ten Commandments of Biking" (biking rules), had a prayer, and we were off for Tillamook (yes, home to Tillamook Cheese Factory), 24 miles away. Keep in mind that my furthest distance in one day is 26.8 miles.

When we FINALLY made it to the factory (picture below this paragraph), we went on a self-guided tour, saw the big operation room (where they make the cheese, not a hospital area), and went through a cheese-sampling line, featuring fresh cheese curds, medium cheddar, sharp cheddar, extra sharp cheddar, colby jack, and pepper jack, all of which were very good. And the last stop: ICE CREAM!




I had a cone of their "Sweet Centennial" flavor (this year is their 100th anniversary), then, feeling guilty about not getting a double scoop, got some Bubble Gum ice cream in a bowl, also good...

xDETOUR WARNINGx

I like SOME interesting flavors of ice cream, like the aforementioned Bubble Gum and Pistachio, but on the list was "White Licorice" ice cream, which turned out to be black licorice flavored. I HATE black licorice, and just to prove I could do it, I ate an entire licorice. It took probably 5 minutes to get through the whole thing. It was THAT bad (to me anyway).

xEND DETOURx

That was the end of our first day of riding, and we packed our bikes in the trailer and went to a campground about 5-10 miles south (we rode on 101 the whole time). We stayed at Camp Lookout State Park for the night, had hot dogs for dinner, and had a fireside on the beach around a campfire. Then we went to bed.

Next morning we had some assorted muffins for breakfast, and then we packed our stuff up, including tents, and were off. Packing was an absolute PAIN for me, and made the mornings pretty rough, but once we got to riding, it was OK.

Our second day of riding was nothing special. We rode from Lincoln City (I think) to South Beach, around 26 miles (my current bike-distance-in-a-day record), and we drove a short distance into the state park there, aptly named "South Beach State Park".

For dinner, we had venison stew (Brother Hathaway, one of the adults who came with us, is a hunter, and he shot the dear himself and made the meat), which I even enjoyed AFTER hearing what it really was (Cindy was grossed out when I told her about it). For dessert we had apple-blueberry cobbler, a la mode, and had another fireside. Beforehand, some of the guys went out to the beach to swim. The only time I've really been able to tolerate ocean water is when I went to Hawaii last spring, but other than that...

Needless to say, I only got up to just above my ankles, and everytime a wave came over them, my legs went completely numb. I decided I was done after that.

Third day (ironic, I know) was the biggest ride of all. We RODE OUR BIKES out of the park, and then kept heading south.

We rode to a small town called Yachats (which pompously called itself "Gem of the Oregon Coast", a title it probably doesn't deserve, but hey, what are ya gonna do?), and had lunch (sandwiches, just like the day before, which had ham and turkey and american cheese, and came with butter or mayo, the former of which I preferred most). Then we rode on...



and on...





and on...







and ON...




We had been running on a "go five miles and meet at a stopping point" plan, but since we left Yachats, we hadn't had any stops, and this had been for nearly half-an-hour. Not only that, but there was uphill after uphill, so much it just got exhausting.

When we FINALLY stopped, Brother Cameron Masters, who had been following us in his truck, and had brought some guys along (they didn't feel like riding through all the uphills, which I can't blame them too much for), said we had ridden 45 MILES.

This already broke my record of most-miles-in-a-day, but we still had a long way to go. Our next checkpoint was in Florence, 5 miles off. We made it, then we had to go even FURTHER.

(side note: Ben Betteridge, a guy in my young men's group, got a flat tire TWICE on the stretch between this stopping point and our destination. He got there 10 minutes after we did.)

According to Google Maps, which I've been using to calculate distances this entire time, it was 5 miles more from Florence to Honeyman State Park, where we stayed for our final night. In the end, it was 55 MILES of riding. That was over twice as much as my original record. And believe me, I had NO interest in riding my bike anymore by the time we reached our campground. The guys who rode with Brother Masters, however, did.

For dinner, we had spaghetti, and after that, I just got right into my sleeping bag to relax for a little bit. I saw a really tasty-looking chocolate cake and chocolate cupcakes in the back of one of the trucks, and I wanted to be awake for dessert.

Too bad.

I must have hit the wall HARD that night, because next thing I knew, I found myself inside the tent, with other guys around me sleeping, and it was early in the morning. Drat, so much for my plan. Apparently the guys ate the sweets, AND also had milkshakes. However, one of them said it was a good idea to go right to sleep after the huge ride yesterday, and a couple of other guys ended up missing it too for the same reason.

We got all set to go, and took off on our 6-hour trek back up to Tacoma, and if Ben didn't have his iPod handy (like I've said before, I live for music), I would've been just about bored out of my mind the whole trip. Oh, and we stopped for burgers on the way up.

We pulled into the church parking lot around 6:40, and everyone's parents were there waiting for us. I put my stuff in the trunk, and drove home with Dad.

I had gotten some fancy bike stuff before the ride (thanks, Cindy!) at REI and Big 5. I got a biking shirt and shorts, and some bike gloves. I lost the bike gloves, but if I managed to get through the aforementioned 55 miles without them, I don't think there's anything to worry about...

Oh, and I brought sunscreen too, but I didn't do such a great job with putting it on, as confirmed by the following pictures:

Picture number 3 shows the interesting burnline I got from wearing my bike shorts. A few of the guys called me "The Pill", because my leg was one color on one side, a different color on the other, and it apparently looked like a pill...

That was my excellent trek, and now I think I should take a shower...

Andrew Brinkerhoff, ULTRA-professional bike rider, OUT!!!!!!!

It's Finally Here!!!

Oh, and look, it's my 40th post!

Tomorrow, I'm off to Astoria, Oregon to begin the 2009 Soundview Ward Oregon Coast Bike Trip! I'll be waking up at 6:30 AM tomorrow, but I think that's a small price for what I'll be experiencing for the next 3 days (I get home on Saturday).

I'll make sure to get into all the details when I get back, and I might need to do two posts again (boy, it's been a busy couple of weeks!)...

Oh, and I just thought to put this up as a TUESDAY FUNNY:

Q. How do rednecks tell the weather?

A...

^ Genius ^-^

Andrew Brinkerhoff, professional teenage bike-rider, OUT!!!

What a "Weekend"!: Part Deux

Okay, where was I?

Oh, yeah, so I got totally whooped on the innertube, yet on the other hand, Tyler was totally impressed with how I managed to hold on the whole time (actually, so was I).

Ellysa got to drive the Wave Runner for the first time, so I got a ride with her (I'm planning on learning to drive one next time we're there), and then I headed inside for the final time.

Later that night, Richard and my Dad set up a projector and DVD player, along with a projection screen, and all of us grabbed some chairs, and we watched "Toy Story 2". I still have a hard time getting the "Woody's Roundup" theme song out of my head...

Next morning, me and Ellysa were woken up early to leave with G'ma and G'pa, as they had to go out and start their big trek across the country. Ellysa had to work at the Fircrest Pool, I had another practice bike ride that was presumably going to be on Anderson Island, which I was really excited about...

Well, I was slightly disappointed to learn that we wouldn't be doing that, as only 3 of us showed up, so instead we went up to Pt. Defiance again, riding this time, and didn't take the whole five-mile loop, but still rode around a little. But then we went back south and headed across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (which I had crossed back over just hours ago, coming home), and back. So, Anderson Island or not, it was still a fun ride.

A couple hours after getting home, I was picked up by my step dad Dave on the motorcycle (see here for more details) to go to my cousin Haylee's going-away party in Covington (my Uncle Ian's, Haylee's biological dad, house). Haylee's biological mom and her new husband moved to Texas and she was just visiting and she's heading home this Wednesday (day of my bike ride, what a coincidence!). I then got taken home by Mom later that night.

This morning, we were going to Aunt Linda's local church for her son and my cousin Nathan's homecoming (he was in Germany for two years on a mission). Along with his talk, Kaylee and my cousin Kevin sang a duet of "A Believer's Prayer". While I was nervous about going to a church where I hardly knew anyone, I actually hooked up with one of the priests in Sunday School, and the lessons we learned in both that and priesthood (in Sunday School we learned about Zion's Camp, and in Priesthood about forgiveness, story of Joseph) were great, too.

We then went back to Aunt Linda's house for lunch, where we had ham, rolls, fruit salad (courtesy of Uncle Richard, who had come to church with us that morning as well), veggies, and for dessert, BROWNIES, complete with "shell" fudge sauce and vanilla ice cream, the same huge "Cash-n-Carry" container we had out at the lake. Then we came home and did nothing in particular, up until I decided to write a post about my weekend, and... well, here we are.

So that was my action-packed weekend, how was yours?

Andrew Brinkerhoff, signing on.





...






(oops, I meant "off", sorry...)

What a "Weekend"!

The second half of the previous week was really fun...

Cindy's parents, Grandma Jeanie and Grandpa Joe, came over for a couple of days, and came with us on our trip to Uncle Richard's...

Oh, but I'm forgetting something. I have a big bike tour from Astoria to Portland, Oregon from July 22-25 with my Young Men's group at church, so we've been taking some practice rides. On Wednesday, we drove up to Point Defiance, and did the entire five-mile loop around the point. It was a darn good workout, and I was even closer to being all set for the big ride a week from then...

The next day, we packed up and drove out to Uncle Richard's cabin on Mason Lake, along with Zoe Ferguson, one of Cindy's daycare kids who was hanging out with us all week. Richard wasn't there at first, he was working. No worries, though, even without the Wave Runners (you may know them as Jet-Skis) and the boat/big innertube, we had fun just swimming with the smaller innertubes and inflatable sharks. The sharks themselves worked like (word deleted), but Ellysa, who was out taking pictures of us with my Dad's fancy camera, got a great shot of me with it:

(currently my Facebook profile picture, BTW, and yes, I DO have hairy armpits)

Then Uncle Richard and Aunt Dorothy came out later that afternoon, and we got to do a little Wave Running.

We also had a family who used to go to our church but now live somewhere outside of Belfair, the Bullocks, come over, and all of us had a grand old time.

Kaylee, Zoe, Tyler, and I sat down to watch "Get Smart" (Kaylee's 3rd favorite movie, behind "Twilight" and "Enchanted"), but everyone but me fell fast asleep about 30 minutes in, so I just watched the rest alone, and got to bed at 1:15 PM...

...yet I was the second one out of bed in our cabin the next morning (nothing unusual for me). I was out in the water before anyone else, and Ellysa got some more pictures. Here's what she got of me:


BUOY BOY!!! (ACTION SHOT)

ME WITH A PINK INNERTUBE (ELLYSA'S REQUEST, ALSO COULD'VE BEEN FACEBOOK PIC)

JUMPING WITH SAID PINK INNERTUBE!

DOING THE MOONWALK... ON WATER!!!

Jonathan Bullock brought his own Jet-Ski out, along with a 180-in. innertube, which apparently goes extremely fast. Needless to say, Kaylee went on it multiple times with Zoe/one of the Bullock kids/Tyler.

I went on the innertube attached to Richard's boat with Tyler and... wow. I didn't fall off once, but my entire body slipped off the innertube at one point, getting me sprayed with a giant jet of water, and my swim trunks almost fell off, meaning I could've mooned someone (if they could notice it while we were going 60 mph). Yikes.

Wow, this post is getting kinda long; I think I'll end this here and continue on a new post...

Hacked Mario Level Makes Music...

This is the most genius thing I've ever seen. This was made by a japanese person who made his own Super Mario World (for SNES) level that, with each action, adds SFX to the track already in the bg. You won't have to watch the whole thing to see how awesome this is (yes, WAY ahead of "Bambi Meets Godzilla")...



Mr. Brinkerhoff, signing off.

Quick 4th of July Recap

Boy, it's been nearly 3 weeks since I last posted...

Well, I had to say that last Saturday was a lot of fun. Maybe we didn't have the now-legendary "Quaker Oatmeal Bomb", or maybe THREE-HUNDRED-EIGHTY-EIGHT sparklers taped together lit off at once, but no biggie.

It all started in the morning with a special church activity. The first part of it was the "Freedom Walk", a big walk from somewhere a ways back from our church to... our church. We all slept in (except Dad) late, so we missed it. Kind of a bummer, since I wanted to go, but that slight disappointment was cleared up with the second part of the activity: breakfast.

We had 3 wards together for the french toast extravaganza, and I got to see some of my friends from seminary last year (most of the students in my seminary class weren't in my ward), and even got to help flip some of the french toast sitting on the grill!

One thing, though: I was sitting with a friend from seminary, and got up to go say hi to someone else, and when I returned, my plate was gone. Apparently her parents thought I was done and dumped it. I didn't really stuff my face at this breakfast but oh well...

Afterwards, we went up to my Aunt Linda's for the day. My cousin Nathan had returned home either that day or the day before (I can't remember), and it was good to see him again. Me, my other cousin Kevin, Nathan, and Tyler went out on the trampoline and did a bunch of crazy stuff. I managed to even jump right off the trampoline onto the ground! (yes, I did it on purpose; no, I didn't get hurt, even with bare feet). For lunch, we had burgers, chicken burgers, and garden burgers (I had chicken), and shortly after that we went outside to blow up some cans (as previously mentioned on my Dad's blog, and in last week's "Rodney and Jim" strip)!

After Nathan showed me pictures from his mission (he was in Germany), and I showed him my book "The Adventures of Secret Agent Stick" on Facebook, we went to the main event: Uncle Richard's.

It's pretty much become a family tradition to celebrate the 4th at Uncle Richard's cabin at Mason Lake, but due to reasons I'm choosing not to elaborate here, we were doing it at his "normal house" in Normandy Park, apparently the only place where it's legal to light off real fireworks (sorry, blowing up cans doesn't count...).

We had a bunch of barbecued stuff for dinner: ribs, coconut chicken, etc., and an entire cooler of soda. For a while, people were playing badminton and some other game where you toss two balls connected by a rope onto a rack of three poles, and tried to score points for doing so. Then, when it FINALLY got dark, we got to the fun...

We had the typical roman candles, one-shot mortars, quick-firecrackers (these insane firecrackers that explode a second after lit, and the braver boys were lighting them in their hands and throwing them as fast as possible), and so on. But among the big "boxes" of mortars, there was a BIG one that was called "BRUNO" (yes, I know it's ironic that there's a Sacha Baron Cohen film of the same name coming out in a couple of days) that would be lit off last. For the whole night we were all speaking in fake German/Russian accents talking about "BBBBBBRRRUNO!".

As I didn't want to go the whole 4th of July without lighting anything, I decided I would take the opportunity with a one-shot. Considering it was being done with a cigarette lighter, I had to get in close, which didn't end well: when the fuse sparked as I lit it, it hit my thumb, which pretty much hurt for the rest of the night. Ouuuuuuuuuuuuch...

In the middle of the big display, we were treated to some homemade ice cream. We got Vanilla flavor, we got Chocolate flavor, we got... ROSE FLAVOR?

Yep, Uncle Richard actually made rose-flavored ice cream. Now, for someone who likes pistachio ice cream, this isn't as crazy to me as it may sound to you, but I was a little apprehensive. But I tried some anyway...

Actually, it wasn't bad. If you've ever had musk candy (found primarily in Australia, where one of my Dad's friends lives), it sorta tasted like that. Oh, and for the record, I like musk candy too, even though almost anyone else in family who's tried it claimed it tasted like perfume, which is not far off from the truth, but... oops, gotta get back on subject.

We finally lit off "BRUNO", and after waiting with bated breath, we were treated to some of the most awesome fireworks ever. Each mortar exploded into at least 5 smaller fireballs, which all fizzled after a few seconds. Now those were something to look at!

Finally, we got in the car, and even though it was like 10-something at night, I wasn't the least bit tired. We had to drop off Tyler at his mom's on our way home, so we did, but we got there earlier than we said we would, so we had to wait. I had my head on the window during most of the drive, which made me a LOT more tired. I planned on taking a shower that night, but by the time we got home, I was so incredibly tired I could hardly think, so... no shower.

That was the 4th of July for me, and I'm glad I enjoyed it.

Happy Birthday, America!!! Andrew Brinkerhoff, OUT!

Short-lived Awesomeness is still Awesomeness

Been a while since I last posted, but I found something so truly awesome that there was no way I couldn't NOT post it here on the blog.

It's this short from the late 60's called "Bambi Meets Godzilla", and it's only 1 min., 30 seconds long. Nuff said, watch the video:



Brinkerhoff, out.

...And now I'm a JUNIOR!!!

Today was the day of my graduation from 10th grade at Henry Foss High School!

I just got home probably 5 minutes ago, and will most likely join in the party that Cindy's throwing for the PJ's.

Now that I've said this, let me just say that today may have been the most BORING day at school I've ever had to sit through.

First off, not everyone showed up for the 3-1/2 hour last day (though I can't really blame them). I had a really hard time sleeping last night, and got out of bed so tired I felt lightheaded.

Also, for 4th period P.E., since no one else was there, I spent most of the period running errands, one of which included carrying a 50-pound (well, it felt like 50 pounds) recycle bin clear across the building (did I mention I was tired?).

5th period felt so incredibly long I thought I'd fall asleep, and actually wouldn't have minded finishing "Julius Caesar" just to get through it. 6th period Biology, Mr. Stricker still had the N64 console and everything, and I got to play for a little bit, so this was all right...

Finally, at 10:40, the buses pulled in to the pick-up zone, and I climbed onto the bus for the last time. Bummer is that my friend Aidan is moving on Saturday to Bellevue, and he was my best friend there. But, considering Bellevue is the second-best city to live in, I shouldn't feel too bad. Besides, he has a Facebook!

Anyway, despite how boring this school day was (and pointless), it feels good to be 2 years away from graduation!

Andrew Brinkerhoff, Junior student, out.

Sunday Movie-Going

This last Sunday, I went with my Mom to see the new PIXAR flick, "Up".

I have been loving these PIXAR movies since I saw Toy Story at the age of... gee, I don't remember, and after watching WALL-E for the second time (on our Netflix Instant Queue, comes with TiVO), and actually enjoying it even more than the first watch, I was fired up for this new one...

Well, I wasn't disappointed.

BUT, this movie is just a bit different than the trailers and commercials have been suggesting. It's actually a darker movie than other PIXAR offerings, and has a very sad backstory that deals with the loss of a loved one (my Mom was crying during the prologue, I didn't cry, but I usually never cry at movies anyway). Also, it was a little predictable, as probably halfway through, I knew where the story was going...

That said, all of the characters (except for the villain who I'm not going to give away) were very funny, particularly Dug the talking dog- SQUIRREL!-, and the movie was definitely somewhat out of left-field (as you may expect from a movie about an old man tying thousands of balloons to his house to fly it like an airship).

So, it's highly recommended from me, just keep in mind that if you don't know what the backstory is, or if you cry at movies, bring some tissues along...

Andrew Brinkerhoff, going "up" to bed, for it is late, and I am tired- SQUIRREL!- and I'm out of school on Thursday! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

Finally, My Finals are Finally Finished! (FINALLY!)

(note: Anyone who can say the title line 5 times fast wins 10 bucks. Okay, just kidding.)

So I've been stressed the past couple of days, because I had a lot of work on my hands. One was designing a brochure for a theme park based on "Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare (really boring play, BTW), which was much more fun than reading the actual play, but I almost thought I was doing something wrong, and that my English teacher (this was my final project in Sopho. English) had changed something in the directions, but I showed her what I had, and she said it was fine for me to turn in this monday (due date).

Next up, a Sex/Abstinence poster for Personal Choices class. This really wasn't too hard, I just had to do an acrostic using the word CONSEQUENCES, and get some pictures related to the topic (STDs).

DETOUR: I was contemplating on the bus home yesterday about looking up pictures on Google Images, and that if I punched in "sex", I'd get a bunch of nude photos, then someone would see what I was doing, and think I was looking at porn, and I'd be sent to see some counselor. No thank you.

END OF DETOUR

Finally, Mr. Stricker, my Biology teacher, gave us what LOOKED like a truckload of homework (the way he wrote in on the board made it look like 9 ASSIGNMENTS), which I had to get done by today, assigned Tuesday. Turns out that paying more attention, I only had 5 assignments, and today I had another empty 4th period. It was a make-up day, but I had a 95% (A) grade, so I didn't have anything to make up. Instead, I went to hang out in Mr. Stricker's classroom and finish my work using the books that our assignments were based out of (no other classroom has these books, annoying, I know), and only had a little more work to do by 6th period, which I finished. Then I got to play some Mario Kart 64 (Stricker was nice enough to bring in his Nintendo 64 and let us play on it when we get free time). It was good times.

So, while I thought yesterday that it was the end of the world, it turns out it was no big deal after all. Echoing my last post, SWEET!

From Roo to YOU.

High Grades to Finish Off the Year!

In Biology 2, 6th period, we've been doing a bunch of assignments lately. Two of these were a quiz, and a TEST. The test was a review of all the stuff we had learned about in the Mammals section.

The quiz, well, I didn't do GREAT on it, or at least I don't think I did, getting 23 points out of ???, but one guy behind me had 9, another 4, and probably some above 10. So I did a good job there.

BUT...

The MAMMALS TEST, I got a 100% on, highest score in the class. The two students that had made the test (Mr. Stricker often has some students be Teacher's Assistants) said they were totally excited when they saw I got a perfect score, since no one else had managed a 100% (no offense to the other students, that test was NOT EASY...).

So it looks like I'll be finishing this semester in Biology out in style. SWEET!!!

Janice's delightful nephew, out. (I just had to say that)

I GOT FACEBOOKED!

It had to happen at some point, right?

All my friends at school have a Facebook, all of my family members have a Facebook, so I figured since I don't want to be left out, I should have one too. So, as of less than an hour ago, I have a Facebook profile. I'll just try not to get too absorbed in it...

Marvin out.

Good Deed for the Day

Today, in 4th period (where I'm a T.A. for the Special Education P.E. class), all of the students were gone at Camp Seymour, so us T.A.'s just did laps around the track outside.

But when we finished, I noticed a black hooded "Foss Baseball" sweatshirt laying on the ground beside the track. The sweater was back-side up, so I saw the name of the owner on the back.

I RECOGNIZED THAT NAME!

So I kept the sweater with me through lunch and 5th period, then in 6th period, I gave it back to its rightful owner (the one who dropped it is one of my Biology classmates), and she thanked me for getting it back to her.

This answers a hypothetical question: If you see a sweater lying on the ground and you recognize the last name on the back of it, do you pick it up and get it back to its owner, or just leave it lying there?

My answer: PICK IT UP!

Andrew Brinkerhoff... gee, I've run out of ideas of how to finish this line. Can you give me some suggestions?

Busy Friday...

Forgot to post about this last night...



Yesterday was quite a day for sure. First, every Friday in P.E. (4th period) we have free day in the pool. So I got to do some wicked jumps off the diving board...



DETOUR:



At our local recreation center pool, they just took out the diving boards they used to have, so the next two or so Fridays are the last times I'll be using a diving board for a while!



-END OF DETOUR-



Just next period, after lunch, we had our yearly (it's supposed to be done every semester, but we didn't get around to that this year) fire evacuation drill. It was basically like a normal fire drill, except after walking out to parking lot (all 1,000 students/faculty/staff/etc.), we THEN walked all the way to Cheney Stadium (which is just next door to our school). I was glad I left my stuff in the classroom, because (1) It was hot outside, and (2) It was a bit of a hike getting there (and back).



Less than an hour later, I was picked up by my Mom to go up to a going-away party for one of her co-workers, with whom I've been buddies with since I was 6 years old. We were always calling each other "gross-out buddies", since we used to always sing about gross stuff, and stuff like that. But, for the sake of those with weaker stomachs, I'm not going to recite one of those songs...

Finally, at 8:00, Kaylee and I went roller-skating. I participated in the boys' skating race done every half-hour, just me and another guy my age. I lost to him, but I got a prize for participating: a coupon for a small soda, and the guy who won actually shook my hand and said, "Good game."

We got home at 10-something, after stopping at DQ for some Dilly Bars, then I spent the rest of the night being useless. But hey, isn't that what Friday nights are for?

Andrew Brinkerhoff, out.

I'M ON FIRE!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Today in 3rd Period, Auto Maintenance, we went back into the shop to finally do some actual WORK (No more computer assignments!).

Our new section in the curriculum is using a cutting torch, sort of like this one:

Believe me, I wasn't too brave this time, being the 4th or 5th person to give it a shot, but I still did all right, and cut a piece of metal off of a big chunk of it. What was really weird is how the metal turned to liquid as I got in close and pressed the trigger.

That's all for today. Mr. Brinkerhoff has left the building...