Weird Fact Saturday, Episode Four

• As much as I like to be early for things, I'm usually ten minutes late(Which given the people I hang out with, that's like right on time, but anyway...)

•  I love cleaning! Laundry, sweeping, dishwashing, vacuuming, just about anything. It makes the house so much less stressful to be in if it's mostly clean. 

• I DO NOT like bugs. Or mice. They freak me out. 

• I've always wished I could play either harmonica, drums, or piano, but I don't have the lung power to play harmonica, the funds to get a drum set or the patience to learn piano. 

• If milk is even close to its' expiration date, I'm not drinking it. 

• I can recite almost all of The Princess Bride from memory, a trait which my siblings don't especially like. 

Random Status of the Week Award Winners, Part Two

 It started out as a way to keep myself busy with nothing to write about, a year later, that's still pretty much the point, but a ton of other people came to look forward to the selection of each new post every Monday. And so, 52 weeks later, I've given out a total of 67 Random Status of the Week awards, to 44 people, two groups, three collections, and one week without an award. 

   (I'm exhausted to the point of thinking about taking a nap, so the math might not be perfect on this.) But, anyway, it's mainly stayed close(ish) to home, going to the far borders of the state sometimes, but the RSW Award wound up staying in Oklahoma 42 times. The next-often visited state was Missouri, with ten trips to the Show-Me State, six to Mississippi, once to Arkansas, one trip south to Texas, and it needed to bring its passport along one time, headed up to Manitoba, Canada. 

   My friend list is mainly made up of high school/college students, the awarding follows this trend, only six of the winners(sixty in all) were past their college graduation. 

   Forty-four people won over the year, by numbers it was 21 guys to 23 girls, when you add in the repeats, though, it becomes a female-dominated award, 22:38. 

   We had eleven reapeat winners, Madelyn D and Sam J led the way with four wins apiece, Ash H close behind with three awards, while Kyle C, Annette W, Jon L, Mikyla C, Rae P, Grace H, Brenna H and Justine M each won it twice.

   There's been two parent/child sets of winners to receive the award, Shelley B and daughter Julie and Steven C and son Bennett.

   Sibling rivalry can be destructive, or constructive, competition is always a good thing, in my opinion. When one of your sisters does something really well, you want to try to top it, if possible; the reasoning behind the fact that Madelyn and Marshall D, Annette and Levi W, Corinne and Justine M, Quinton and Brenna H and Wesley and Courtney C all thought of clever things to write about.  

American Idol Season 11 Top Six - Queen Night

(Typed Wednesday night, just never got around to post it on here until now.)

I was hoping it'd be good tonight, since they had a cool theme to work with, it was better than some others they've had this season.

JayLo looked weird, was that a C-3PO suit? Steven looked pretty normal, Randy was Randy, weird, but it faded off into the background. That medley with those two guys from Queen was awesome.

QUEEN -

Jessica Sanchez - Bohemian Rhapsody - I like the real thing better. I liked Michael John's version of that better than the original, she wasn't great, but the black and white filming was pretty cool.

Skylar Laine - The Show Must Go On - The violins were a little creepy, but it was a neat song. Her voice does shows emotion really well. Think I liked it.

Joshua Ledet - Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Nice guitar, good band instrumental, as far as vocals went, it was karaoke, and it was bad. He was shouting the entire way through that, and halfway through I searched around the past season yearbooks to find somebody else I'd WANT to hear sing that song, so I had Scotty McCreery singing along. He was weird, also, but it was at least a better weird.

Elise Testone - I Want It All -  GREAT choice, it's a good song, fit her voice well, and it sounded authentic:Terrific performance.

Phillip Phillips - Fat-Bottomed Girls - Strange. Very Phillip-like in style, I didn't like it much.

Hollie Cavanagh - Save Me - It was a pretty song. It was good, but that suit made her look like she was about forty from the wide camera angles.

Elise flew away with best of the round award this time.

CHOICE -

Jessica Sanchez - Dance With My Father - I learned a new color tonight: Mom said that was chartouse, which I had always thought was a pink-purple color. The dress still reminded me of banana peels, whatever color it was. The song was a LOT better than I've ever heard it(Seriously, why do guys always sing this?), I kind of liked it.

Skylar Laine - Tattoos On This Town - THAT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!! I love that song, love the way she did it, the bridge needed a lot of repair, but that was great. "She's very thick-boned, I guess you could say....strong-boned..." "HOLLIE! You just called me fat! I'm gonna cry now(giggle, giggle)" "What's that...? Jimmy just said it was thick-skinned, oh. Lost in translation, I guess." "I can't believe you just called me fat!' "I am SO sorry....one of those American phrases I'm not used to yet." "Still..." 

Joshua Ledet - Song Unknown - Boring and forgettable, somehow unsettling, the only thing I could think of to praise on that was his jacket, which isn't saying much.

Elise Testone - Bold as Love - Nice beginning, from there, it went downhill fast. Not good at all. Phillip: "She does that thing with her hand....it's like she's a sniper, she's going to kill that note, and all the ones that come after it. And not in a good way, either."

Phillip Phillips - Song Unknown - Weird, but sort of cool. Neat fiddle playing, that tuba-saxophone thing was odd, but interesting, the picking/strumming was neat. The girls making fun of him in the intro video was hysterical.

Hollie Cavanagh - The Climb - Miley's best song(Actually, her only good song), Hollie gave her a huge run for her money right there, I loved it. That was really, really good. Loved how they were making fun of her accent, it's always fun to see whether it'll be the English or the Texan.

This round Hollie and Skylar tie for best performance.   

Going home - Man, this is tough. I'm going to go with....Joshua, I guess, at this point it's nearly impossible to tell who America's gonna vote for.

America votes weird. This fact was already known, but proved yet again last night. I was mowing, so I missed the show, but my cousin Trish texted me updates. Stefano Langone and Katy Perry performed, along with a Queen tribute band(fancy way to say impersonators), the bottom three was Elise(Good idea), HOLLIE(What the heck??!!!) and SKYLAR(Again, what the heck???!!!!). How can people keep voting for Joshua or Jessica ahead of Hollie and Skylar? It's irritating. Side note, disappointing that Colton left last week, but that was a great lesson in how to leave a lasting impression as you exit the competition stage for the last time. Looking forward to seeing him in Christian music after the tour this summer. This week, though the bottom three was two-thirds wrong, they sent the right person home, as Elise leaves and heads back home. I can live with that.

Being a Glad You Ate

   Well, I just tried on my graduation gown.

   It's about ordinary, I guess, shiny thin black fabric, with the funny hat. Fits pretty well.

  Felt like Snoopy pretending to be a vulture or the Red Baron, though; "Here comes Wesley the graduate, all set to take on the world and go off to college..."

    There's this paragraph from "Upchuck and the Rotten Willy", by Bill Wallace, that is really good. Actually, the whole book is great; it's pretty short, only 101 pages, this cat's the narrator, one of his best friends, Louie, got smushed by a car crossed the highway one day. Then his other best friend, Tom, moves away, and THEN, to make things even worse, His Katie leaves and goes someplace called "college". And there's this enormous dog the size of a bear who moves in nearby....It's a book for kids, he used to be a school principal. I read it for the first time when I was about six or seven, probably fifteen times in the years since, it's that kind of book, filled with great descriptive paragraphs like this:

   "I wonder how long forever is.
   It was a people word. The first time that I heard it was when my Katie and Chuck held paws and played kissy-face on the front porch. They told each other that they would be together - forever.
   Chuck didn't stay around that long.
   My Katie and Jimmy said the same stuff about being in love - forever. Jimmy had been around for a long time. A lot longer than I liked.
   Come to think of it, I didn't really know how long forever was. I thought that it was a long, long time. Maybe it wasn't. Maybe people didn't know how long forever was, either - and people animals know a lot. They can talk with mouth noises and they can even read signs and stuff.
   That's a lot. But maybe nobody knows how long forever is.
    Maybe it wasn't as long as I thought.

   On the way back home, we didn't bound and leap across the vacant field behind my house - we waddled. At the street, Tom stopped and looked both ways. Then we waddled across. We waddled clear to his front porch where we sat and washed our faces with our paws.
   To be honest, I didn't wash my face too well. I had sucked a really long piece of spaghetti into my mouth. The tail end of it flipped me on the eyebrow. I cleaned that off, as well as the gooey red stuff near my ears. But I left some of the meat sauce on my whiskers. That way, when I licked my lips, I could taste it all day. We curled up and slept in the sun for the rest of the afternoon.
   It was the very next day when "forever" started getting shorter and shorter.
   My Katie left.

   My Katie had left before. I had come to live with her when I was just a kitten. Almost every day, she had left for a place called school. She told me she was a Senior and that "seniors are really cool." I didn't know what a senior was, but being one made my Katie happy - so I was happy, too.
   Going to school had been okay. When my Katie had come home, she played with me. She dragged an old sock round and round on her bed while I chased it. She hugged me and petted me and rubbed behind my ears. At night I slept on her pillow, next to her. Then, after a few months, my Katie had told me she was a "Glad You Ate." Now, I had no idea what a glad you ate was. My Katie had told me that she was happy to be one - only us cats don't just listen with our ears. We watch and feel and smell. My Katie made mouth noises that said she was happy, only the feel she gave off was happy and sad and worried, all rolled together. She smelled confused and uncertain - like maybe being a senior had been more fun than being a glad you ate - only she didn't know for sure."

Random Status of the Week Award Winners, Part One

     This is a list. Not your ordinary, fact-laden list that runs on for half a page of newsprint and makes your eyes glaze over in boredom; no, this is a list creative approaches in writing. You see, taking a common occurence, that of writing Facebook statuses, turns out anyone can be a good writer, even if they never thought of themselves that way.   

   So, I created the Random Status of the Week Award, to commemorate the most original updates I found from my FB friends.   

 (THE OFFICIAL CRITERIA FOR WINNING THE RSW AWARD-otherwise known as the rules)

1- It must not be too personal.

2- I must have met you, otherwise we wouldn't be FB friends. 

3- It must be entertaining.

That said, now to the winners(with editorial comments)

  1 - Mariah C - "I hate shoes." Um, okay....That is not something you hear that often...especially from a female...    

  2 - Madelyn D - " "April showers bring May flowers'? More like April apocalyptic storms of death..." Might be just a touch exaggerated, but that does come pretty well to describing all that rain that came pouring down around Easter...

  3 - tie -  Annette W - "I singlehandedly succeeded in almost killiing the archery teacher." Well, yeah, you did. But, we all turned out safe, the teacher's still in alive, all you got was a bruise on your arm, and it makes a terrific story. So, I'd say it ended up okay. Just be sure to yell so we can hide whenever it's your turn to shoot.

- Grace H - "Just found a very soggy carrot that survived a horse show, my pocket, and the wash." Hold on a minute. I can understand how it can survive a horse show, but it seems like you would have noticed it in your pocket, either on the way back to before you washed you jacket...that must have been nasty. And hard to clean up.  

 4 - Kyle C - "Exploring the great mysteries of my room, and finding great treasures!" First off, applause to Kyle, the first male winner of the award. Second, what a great way to say that you cleaned your room. Third, your room should contain great treasures, but it shouldn't be mysterious to you, the room's owner. Is there a Don Aslett book hidden somewhere?

  5 - Ash H - "I got a job at Dairy Queen today...however, the manager did a double take on my age, decided I was too young, and promptly fired me fifteen minutes later." Ouch....but that's the best backstory of any of these...and it's pretty funny, in a "I'm so glad that wasn't me" way...

   6 - Justine M - "Left her pillow in Missouri." It's easy to forget things, like where you left your car keys, or where your sister set her glasses. And being on a trip, it's easier than usual to forget something small. But leaving something the size of a pillow in a whole different state, that's something else entirely.

 7 - tie -Shelley B - "I'm so sensitive to caffeine, my kids drank energy drinks and I can't sleep." This is why it's all right to be FB friends with your friends' moms. You get even more good material for laughing at!

 - Kirsten J - "Figured out why my asparagus plants wouldn't grow last year. I planted them upside down." HAHAHAHA....the trials of gardening...

  8-Kyle C - "Humans are weird." Yep, we are. As proof of our weirdness, I kept track of these statuses. And anyway, he became the first repeat winner.

 9 - Sam J - "Yeah, I still rock out to my favorite music with a hairbrush microphone." Don't we all, we just don't like to admit it? This set off both a new friendship and never-ending headaches for six months, which started from the 127 comments that followed. I'll blame Shakespeare, we'd just finished reading through "A Midsummer Night's Dream". I like Puck's line, "Lord, what fools these mortals be.."

10 - 2011 Oklahoma Youth Tour. I didn't check FB all week, and besides, there were some amazingly strange(and surprising, and silly) and hilarious conversations on this trip. 

11 - Mikyla C - "Went golfing with my mom today....and a crow hit our cart!" That's weird...New spin on a birdie, too...Why can't that happen all the time?

12 - Levi W - "I got paid $150 for letting these guys use my car in a movie!" Cool, definitely not an everyday experience around here. It'll be called Yellow, it's supposed to be directed by the guy behind The Notebook, and I think it's a getaway car.

13 - Dennis G - "My grandson is playing with a Mr Potato Head in one hand, and eating potato chips with the other. I think I detect fear in Mr P.H's eyes." Yeah, I'd be scared, too, being an edible movie star....hope he doesn't know what Lays are made from...

- Madelyn D  - "When my sister takes Benadryl, she's like a five-year-old on Mountain Dew." Not particularly outlandish or strangely funny, but a terrific description, which is why it co-won this week.

14 - Adam F - "I've just been informed that 'Rawr' means 'I love you' in dinosaur." I've always wondered what that meant...

 - Michael V - "I just fixed the A/C in my truck, and now everyone wants to ride in it. Coencidence? I think not." When this was posted, we were in triple digits for two months straight.

15 - Kaitlyn P - "There's four frogs in my room!" I was having a horrible week, and couldn't find anything even nearly as funny. and besides, she's scared of frogs. However, her brave sisters rescued her from the amphibious intruders, and everything went back to normal.

16 - Sovereign Grace Youth Camp 2011 - I could go on and on, and on, about how much I love spending time with all the assembled people that show up, but this just isn't the time. If spending time with other believers is this good here, what will it be like in heaven?

- Annette W - "I had never put deodorant on another person's head before. Come to think of it, I've never put deodorant on another person, period." Little brothers can get so messy sometimes...let's just file this under "What Happens On Vacation..."

17 - Jon L - "The only thing wrong with eating huge spoonfulls of peanut butter is that your throat gets all sticky and then you can't swallow...maybe I should rethink this." Eh, maybe, but then you wouldn't have quite as good snacks...PEANUT BUTTER RULES!!!

18 - Sam J - "Note to self: Beware of reaching into the dishwasher...there may be knives awaiting to attack you." Ouch. Good sentence, though. That's why dishes should be done by hand...

19 - Jake B - "So...I totally fell off my bunk bed and broke my nose..." OWWWW......that can only happen to JAke. great way to start off college.

20 - Josh F  - "Overheard while getting my permit...'Do you wear hearing aids?' 'What?' " Eavesdropping is so much fun.

21 - Bennett C - "Last night we were eating some cereal, and my sister finds two dead moths in her bowl. Raisin Bran doesn't sound so good right now." Ewww......

22 - No award was given, in commermoration of the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Too serious a time for pointless things like this, I figured.

23 - tie - Clay D - "It's a bad idea to cut your own hair with your eyes closed." BAHAHAHAHAHA......er, sorry about that, I was falling out of my chair laughing. Most of us above the age of three know this already....

- Madelyn D - "Snake 1, Cheer and dance teams 0." This is an great example of what E.B. White always preached: That the more concise, the better sentence. Can't you just picture the panic?

24 - Jon L - "Just dropped my headpones in jelly yogurt...awkward...." Yuck. Mixing jelly and yogurt? And then dropping your headphones into it, even by mistake? They'd get all sticky, and how on earth would you clean them? 

25 - Sam J - "I was eating some peanuts today, and I thought, 'Wow, these taste just like peanut butter.' And then it dawned on me..." What can I say? 

26 - Quinton H - "Today, I find myself building an outhouse out of fencing materials, tarps, wire and duct tape."  He could do it, too...I'm just curious as to why exactly it was necessary to construct one, especially if you're close enough to civilization to be able to check Facebook while doing so.

27 - Brenna H - "When chickens eat, they look like chickens eating."  No, REALLY? Anyway, this marked only the second time that siblings have won this coveted award, and the first time they won in back-to-back weeks.

28 - Jose H - "ACT in the morning...I'm gonna show this test who's boss! (Sixteen hours later...) ....Hmm, I think the ACT showed ME who was boss..." Was it really that bad? We're smart teens, we should be able to get into college on our first try at these tests, at least. IF we don't do as well as we'd like, we can try again. 

29 - World Series collection. There were some great posts all week during the World Series, and it was especially interesting this year - this, coming from someone who detests baseball. Thursday night, was AWESOME. Or AWFUL, depending on whether you were a Cards or Rangers fan. Everyone was talking about it. Here's some samples: "This is the craziest World Series I've ever seen in my entire life!" (Alex L), "The kid who was going to go to bed early? Yeah, she's still awake, and has bitten all her fingernials off!" (Brandi C), "I wish I could get paid millions of dollars to miss ground balls like that..." (Brandi again), "This game is taking years from my life." (Luke N), "I just sat in Wal-Mart's parking lot for over an hour, listening to the game. I couldn't leave, it was so exciting. People were staring at me, it was awesome!" (Terry B). That sounds like something I would do...

30 - Earthquake collection. How often does an EARTHQUAKE hit Oklahoma??? Crazy...I lost count at 17 posts related to them over the weekend. Unfortunately, they were all generally so alike that I can't be sure who posted what. Samples: "EARTHQUAKE!!!!" (Kaitlyn P), "Earthquake-related status" (Tre McP), "I do not like earthquakes..." (Me). In my opinion, if we have to have bad weather, let's stick with tornadoes, ice storms and droughts: We know how to deal with those. 

31 - Courtney C - "This is a boring status, not what you were hoping for as you scrolled down the screen. It has nothing to do with earthquakes, better luck farther down." Yawn...I mean, "Wow! A status NOT about earthquakes!!!" If it's non-tornado or ice storm damage, it counts as news here. 

32 - Corinne M - "Since nobody volunteered to make our famous Christmas Cookies, I had to do it. I broke the handle off the mixing bowl, and while measuring sugar, the fell off the cup into my hand(Both of those items my mom's had forever.) I guess this just isn't my day for scooping things."  Doesn't sound like it, nope...but at least there were cookies afterward, that makes any day better, right? Especially a crummy one when everything falls apart.

33 - Katelyne W - "Goin' huntin'! (Five hours later...) Welp, didn't get anything, but I did see a lot...of trees." Humor is important to keep intact. Specially when hunting.

34 - Bedlam collection - Too many highlghts to post, so I'll just pick a few: "Bedlam: A place of confusion and insanity; what happens when our Pokes show those Sooners who's boss. RIDE "EM COWBOYS!!!!!!" (Chrystal P), "Status involving the OU-OSU game" (Christian P) "WE DID IT!!!! YES!!!!" (Bailey R), "Cowboys: #DuhWinning! Sooners: #NotSoMuch." (Chrystal again), "I finally kind of understand what it's like to be an OSU fan....I don't much like it." (Adam F) "I just nearly died while tearing down the goalposts! It was awesome!" (Joe B).

35 - Marshall D - "My teeth are cold." Yeah, that brings back the "Random" in Random Status of the Week...and dude, it's winter. EVERYONE's teeth are cold!

36 - Jennifer D - "Just saw a car with a HAWAII license plate! You don't see that every day..." Awesome...but how exactly does a car get from Hawaii to Oklahoma?

37 - Beth P - "I have successfully super-glued my fingers together! Got it off, but for a minute there, the kitchen counter, scissors, my hand and the paper were one...good thing I didn't pet the dog!" The perils of Christmas...falling off the ladder while stringing Christmas lights, house fires, falling off a ladder while painting the family room, super gluing your fingers together....

38 - It was a three-way tie, which made RSW history. This trio was very good.

   - Ash H - "I rode my bike from Grandma's back to my house in high heels and a skirt this morning." This sounds hard.

  

 - Christian P - "My dog has a phobia of forks..." This sounded funny.

  

 - Amanda T - "Going outside in shorts in December? It's a bad idea.". She was chasing her dog back inside, but still....

39 - Derek G - "It costs $10.20 to ship a coconut from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland, apparently...the things you learn working at a post office..." I've always wondered how much the shipping was on thngs like that...okay, not really, but I just love off-the-wall facts like that.

40 - Steven C - "Things to do between LSU-Bama touchdowns...1: Read War and Peace. Twice. 2: Mow your lawn with scissors. 3: Memorize the peridodic table of elements. 4: Find your soul mate online, propose, plan the wedding and get married." Was it really THAT awful a game? Judging by what everyone said, it was. Glad I missed it. 

41 - Madelyn D - "The only place with enough space to do my homework is the floor, and my stupid dog Ladybug keeps laying on top of my paper!" Weird, that's usually a feline trait...At least you had some help with the project...

42 - Ryan W - "I'm mowing my grass. In January. I must live in Oklahoma." Yep, he does. 

- Joe B - "My brother got himself stuck in a mudhole...I get to pull him out. And the fact that his tractor's radio is only playing Katy Perry is NOT helping." Man, that sounds like a blast. Not. 

43 - Rae P - "I just discovered that earrings make great thumbtacks!" This comes from a girl who microwaves CDs to use for wall decorations; a MacGyver of interior design. 

44 - Julie B - "That moment when you feel something in your shoe, so you take it off, shake the whatever-it-is out, and it turns out to be a dead cricket." Ew. Had to win this week.

45 - Colton D - "I kicked my soccer ball today, and I broke the net." Dude, stop kicking so hard, then!

- Mikyla C  - "If poison expires, is it more dangerous or less lethal?" The unanswerable questions my friends ask...I'd go with being deadlier, but I'm not sure.

- Paige S - My little brother walks up and slaps an R2-D2 sticker on me. "What was that for?" "I don't know, you just kind of reminded me of him." "...How?" "You make noises like him. You know, squeals and beeps and chirps and things like that." "Um...okay, thanks?" This wasn't supposed to be a three-way tie, I just couldn't decide betweeen them, so I put it up ofr a vote, and they each got voted for once. 

46 - Rae P - "My hairbrush broke. While it was still in my hair. Apparently it was more tangled than I thought?" Ouch. Seems painful. 

- Grace H - "That was a good way to end the (soccer) season. I scored two goals, and the ref gave me this comment: "Number 3, there's a player there, you aren't allowed to run through her to get to the ball." Sounds like a great game. 

47 - Brenna H - "Um...I caught a possum...I was trying to catch my rabbit...."  I wonder what she did with the possum? Fry it up for possum innards to go with some hog jowls? You know, the thing about possum innards is, they's just as good the second day.

48 - Baleigh H - "Felt great to be out on that track again...even if I did eat a bug in the process." Just think of it as extra protein.

- Sam J - "Future tip for myself: Don't put socks in the microwave, they burst into flames!" First off, I think I need an award for being willing to give an award to something involving fire. Second off....never mind, I'm not even going to try to dissect the humorous aspects out of this one. It'd take way too long.

49 - Agatha L - "Getting IDed when buying an energy drink? That's crazy! I just need my life support so I ca nfunction and make it to work on time, why make it so complicated?" That is ridiculous. 

50 - Ash H - "I gave blood for the first time today. It was a total waste of my time. Apparently I have small veins, so to get a good bloodflow they took off some tape securing the needle while one nurse held it in place.THe needle came loose, my blood was now spewing everywhere and the were frantically stuffing paper towels into my wound. After clean-up, I discovered it wasn't my fault, and that I was only about three minutes away from completing my first pint ever. To make matters worse, I got to feeling sick and light-headed. So now my arm is cold and sore and I just typed this entire thing left-handed. Go me." This was a very good status, it was strange, it was funny, and it was well-written.

- Eva S - "This is totally sleeping-on-the-roof weather!" Never heard of anybody sleeping on the roof before.

51 - Wesley C - "My little brother: "How long is it until you're twenty?" Me, after thinking a minute: "About a year and a month, I guess." "Wow...I can't believe it...my brother being TWENTY....you'll like, have kids by then or something...." "Well, yeah...don't think I will, but yeah, maybe...might happen." Awkward..." I couldn't find anything capable of winning the RSW award this week, so I was going to not give one out, or just postpone this week's. But then Ash and Courtney decided that I should win my own award, which feels slightly wrong. But anyway, that was a hilarious conversation, which just had to be posted on here. When you're eight years old, everything's so simple...

52 - Justine M - "Teach Myself to Rollerblade, Day One: Two grass-stained kneecaps, one busted capillary, innumerable sweaty palmed adrenaline rushes - and that was just in the driveway! How do kids make this look easy!?"  I've wondered that myself...usually when I'm running into a wall to stop. 

Stats to follow.

American Idol Season 11 Top 7 - Then and Now Night

 This was a lot better than I expected. Now let's hope that since the judges used their save last week, America picks the right two to go home....

NOW - Hollie Cavanagh - Rolling in the Deep - I don't much like that song, but she did it well. Her hair was too fluffy, and bell bottoms? Really?

Colton Dixon - Bad Romance - Hate this song, but it was an interesting performance. Felt Adam Lambert/David Cook/James Durbin up there, it kind of worked. Kind of.

Elise Testone - No One - It had a nice beginning, but it was good karaoke. Not anything you would want to see at this point on Idol. Forgettable. And strange bright orange window drape-type dress.

Phillips Phillips - U Got It Bad - Boring.

Jessica Sanchez - Fallin' - Oh my gosh, was that outfit for real?! Weird stage setup, bad vocals, it was old. Bad old, like "There's a reason that music style is banished into the depths of history" old.

Skylar Laine - Born This Way - This song is like "Hot N' Cold" by Katy Perry, not that great, but considering the artists, pretty good, if that makes any sense. That countriying of it was AWESOME! Loved the fiddle and mandolin. She was best of the Nows, definitely.

Joshua Ledet - I Believe - Freaky red coat...did he make that out of Louisville's basketball jerseys? And I figured out what's wrong with him: He should be on Lawrence Welk, that's his style. But, it was kind of good, and his best performance all season.

THEN -

Hollie Cavanagh - Son of a Preacher Man - I liked it. Not perfect, little off here and there, but it was good. Somehow gave a slight Carrie Underwood vibe.

Colton Dixon - September - Classic Colton, that was nice. It was good.

Elise Testone - Let's Get It On - Fit her voice well, might could be used on a commercial, but beyond that? It was terrible, no way that would ever be listened to on radio.

Phillip Phillips - In the Midnight Hour - Awesome. The stage was really neat, that was cool. After he was done, though, all sweaty and everything, his stage makeup wanted to take off; looked a little bit like a "Twilight" vampire. 

Jessica Sanchez - Try a Little Tenderness - Dull. Old. Fossilized disco, and if possible, an even more stupid outfit than the one before.

Skylar Laine - Heard It Through The Grapevine - I cringed when I heard this was coming. Then I scratched my head and frowned when I heard Skylar was the one doing it. Then she launched into it, and that was cool! Amazing job of rearranging it, I really enjoyed that.

Joshua Ledet - A Change is Gonna Come - Randy did a passable Ryan impersonation. Too low a key or something, it was almost creepy, and without a doubt boring and uninteresting. Plus I hate that song.

Steven was wearing his typical flower-print shirt, Jennifer in something that was discarded during the filming of the arena scene on Geonosis in "Attack of the Clones", and Randy looked almost normal in that purple jacket - When purple suit jacket looks ordinary, something's wrong. Can we get Tommy Hilfiger to coach the judges on their style, too, please?

Jimmy said that Elise had a vacation home in the bottom three, he was right on, and Elise is booted out, followed by Jessica right on her heels.

Weird Fact Saturday, Episode Three

•   I cannot drive, due to poor eyesight, which makes life interesting. 

 

• My phone-speaking skills are pretty bad, and I'm an incredibly slow typist.

• I collect newspaper clippings, energy drink cans, guitar picks, cute little stuffed animals, and many, many other things.

• While not that good at it, I love playing ping pong. 

• I don't really mind mowing, once I get started; but fighting with our grouchy push mower and getting it to start and stay running is a chore. Past that, it's pretty easy. 

• If I read a book, listen to a song, watch TV or a movie, I'm going to splice it down into each of it's every little elements, and examine every little detail. This annoys some people.  

• This is a day late because I was too tired to think up anything yesterday. 

T4G Conference in Louisville

     You may have noticed, but I didn't post a recap of AI this week. Why not? Because I was in Louisville, Kentucky for a Bible conference called Together for the Gospel with six other guys from our church. So I haven't really been on the computer much this week.

     We left from Tulsa on Monday morning at 8 a.m., (Okay, it was really nearer to 8:10, but probably no one cares), stopping at 10:30 for breakfast at a Kum and Go in Joplin, a pack of Hostess mini-donuts and a Diet Coke makes a very good meal, that lasts most of the day. Next stop was Springfield, where Dylan, Josh and I got some exposure to those high-end town resturaunts in Panera Bread. It was an interesting place to look around, and have some good conversations with Greg, Paul, Peter and Steven. Missouri is an absolutely beautiful state; it's kind of breathtaking, most places. So many trees, grass, rocks and hills. The road doesn't seem to cut through the land to get somewhere, it's natural, part of the landscape. You don't really drive on it to make great time, by driving on it, you have a great time. It takes awhile to drive all the way through(About six hours). And nearly everyone else missed the views because they were taking a nap. Seeing the Gateway Arch loom off in the distant skyline behind fields and pastures was really neat. We stopped for gas at a Phillips 66 just inside the Illinois border at 3 p.m., the scenery of the southern part of that state is unimpressive, at best.
     Southern Indiana comes straight from the opening scene of "Hoosiers", where the caravan is heading to the game; nothing but flat farmland most of the way as far as you can see. Not much to do if you live there but farm and play basketball. It's a friendly sort of plain, though there's not many towns nearby the interstate. I can picture Phillip Gulley's characters living there very easily.  Southeast Indiana is hilly and heavily wooded, something like northwest Arkansas. It feels very alone in there. Took us about two hours to get across each of those states.

     We arrived at the first of our Louisville destinations, our Galt House hotel, at 8:30 p.m., it was fancy. After checking in and getting our stuff in our rooms, we then walked(WALKED) around downtown Louisville looking for a place to eat around nine o'clock. It was an adventure comparable to jaywalking through Washington, D.C. Two things, besides the fact that ten hours is quite a ways to drive in one day, stood out: We didn't pass a single toll booth once we were out of Oklahoma, and we didn't see any casinos along the road past our home border, either.

    Tuesday came around quickly for us in the city that produces 80% of the U.S. bourbon supply and 90% of all disco balls manufactured(Might there be some kind of connection there?), went to Panera for breakfast(I'm a tightwad with an appetite of a sparrow, just ate a cookie)  after a Starbucks run/Bible study time, where me and Greg met this black guy named Lasadhi who was sitting there reading from James 2 on his iPhone. He noticed we were both reading our Bibles, we talked for a few minutes, then he volunteered to pray for us right there, strangers he'd never seen before and probably won't again. So he did, and then he got on his bus for wherever it was he was going. That kind of thing doesn't happen here, it stood out.
   Since the conference didn't start until one that afternoon, we had a whole morning to kill, so we toured the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum, which was a really cool experience. The tour guide, Matthew, was one of those interesting people in his job, made you enjoy listening to his explanations, unlike those tour guides who are annoying and you dislike. Held a bat that was over a hundred and thirty years old, made for a guy named Pete Browning, who played for the Louisville Eclipse base ball team. Well, he liked the bat this guy at the local cabinetmaking shop crafted for him, so he asked for some more, and then a few teammates and others decided that they wanted some bats made for themselves, too. Eventually, the demand for baseball bats became so great that they decided it was more profitable to quit cabinetmaking and make sticks for ballplayers to hit a ball with. The name they adopted? Pete's Browning's nickname, the Louisville Slugger. They can churn out several thousand bats a day, all from that one building, about the size of a Wal-Mart.
    All this exploring downtown on foot kind of made me feel like an extra from the Billy Ray Cyrus series on Pax about ten years ago called "Doc", it was a neat feeling. The KFC Yum! Center is a nice building, home to University of Louisville Cardinals basketball in wintertime, and nearly everything else in the other times. Not without it's faults, though;  Narrow exit/entrance corridors in the heart of the arena, and only four sets of bathrooms. We got seventeen free books as part of the conference, the teaching at the first session was good, music by Bob Kauflin of Sovereign Grace Music, then messages from C.J. Mahaney of Sovereign Grace Minstries and Al Mohler, president of a seminary in the Louisville area. There were about 8,000 people there, which when you see converged into one place for no apparent reason, unlike a concert or a ballgame where there's something to focus on, is a huge lot of people to be in one place at the same time. About 90% percent of the attendees were men, about 75% of those men were pastors, with tenures at their specific churches ranging from two days to forty-five years and nine months. Some of the sermons were a little hard to figure out how to apply to average non-pastors, but they were good nonetheless. CJ spoke on how we can sometimes get discouraged, but how God's still there to help and guide us in those times. Al taught on the power of words, how we need to use them more often in our sharing of the Gospel, instead of just passively hoping that our actions will serve as a good witness. I need to work on that. Mark Dever taught on the dangers of false conversions in the church that night, it wasn't quite as applicable as the first two were. A panel discussion of them talking about preaching in general afterwards was interesting, I always enjoy hearing people talk about the behind-the-scenes details of how they do their jobs.

   Wednesday's first sermon came from a black preacher from the Grand Cayman Islands named Thabiti Anyabwile, don't ask me how to pronounce it, lol. Anyway, he was pretty funny, spoke on how we've kind of lost confidence in the Gospel, and that's part of the reason we have trouble witnessing to people we come across, because we think that it's up to us to change them, when it's really the Holy Spirit working through us instead. A slight bug was going around us, Paul wasn't feeling too well most of the day, and Dylan and I both had our stomachs act up. Anyway, so I missed the first fifteen minutes of Kevin DeYoung(Author of "Just Do Something")'s sermon, which was irritating, because it turned out to be very good, about the power of the Holy Spirit, how it works in our lives. Then lunch at Smashburger(It's a hard balance to strike between eating cheap and well, and being with other people in basic fellowship around a meal. Not at all spiritual, but one of the things I took away from this trip was that it's sometimes okay to treat food not as a tool, to be devoured so that you can move on to the next thing, but as a destination, kind of, that you slow down and enjoy.)
   After lunch was a series of small-group sessions, called breakouts, Josh and I have this wonderful way of getting directions crossed up and inserted backwards. We went to the wrong hotel, then searched around again until we found the right one, then once we'd gotten the right building, proceeded to take a left when we probably should have taken a right, ending up in a different breakout than what we'd signed up for, so we listened to a guy talk about the need to evangelize more to Muslims. Interesting, but hardly seemed applicable to our lives here right now. But, maybe, later on, it might come useful, we don't know what the future hold for us, but God does. After that was over, we went to an optional panel discussion on the ways to teach adult Sunday school, which was a mistake. Extremely boring, our feet hurt from using them more than normal, and the convention center it was in was HOT. We did have a neat talk about lesson planning with Steven, our youth group leader, though.
    Wednesday night we listened to the blistering oratory of David Platt, author of "Radical", on the importance of missions. It's a topic that's easy to say, 'Oh, yeah, that's important. We need more missionairies to tell people about Jesus.", but you don't often realize how vital it is. I think that guy could be labeled brilliant, because he could be just a few steps away from being mad. Extremely passionate speaker, his intensity was captiivating, both of his delivery and the message; it was kind of scary, and made me glad that this guy's a preacher, and not a politician. It he had political ambitions instead of heavenly ambitions, he could very easily become a dictator, that powerful speaker.
   Courtney texted me updates on American Idol during this sermon, watching it two days later, I agreed with most of her comments. Glad to have a sister like that.
   Greg and Steven went to a special after-session on something to do with marriage, which was hopefully helpful and will be put into practice with their wives, me, Josh and Dylan stayed up late watching SportsCenter while waiting for them to get back.

   Thursday's first sermon, coming on the heels of another bag of bagels from Panera(These guys have a slight addiction to Panera and Starbucks, I found) was from Ligon Duncan, he talked about Elijah, mainly. Yes, he was a great prophets and everything, but he'd let his priorities got all out of focus, and his ministry became an idol, more important to serve than to serve God. Elijah, and Moses, too, didn't want to see God's glory when they finally had the chance, so after they died, that was why they went to back to see Jeuss at the Transfiguration, where they finally understood all of what God had planned for them and their lives. Since He came down to Earth, the only way they could have seen that was by returning to visit Him. I NEVER would have picked up on that, it was a really interesting point to chew on. A panel discussion followed on the inerrancy of Scripture, it was really interesting to hear John Piper and all the other guys defend it. Greg met some guys from another church in Tulsa, they went to dinner with us at this bar-type place, it was a neat atmosphere, and one of them, Joey, was a character, that's for sure. We got a lot of enjoyment out of analyzing him afterwards. Characters are some of the most interesting people in the world to know, they make the world a better place.
   Not at all in the same way, but John Piper is kind of a character, too. One who has a great gift for understanding and teaching Scripture, but that platform comes with an extra heaping of burdens, fears, stresses and temptations. His message was on God's delight in being Himself, which just listening to that title sounds confusing and kinda concise. Man, was that intersting, I couldn't take notes fast enough, definitely going to need to relisten to that one again. One of those rare moments when we realize how big a God we serve, and how powerful He is. You understand how small and helpless you are, and you're just overwhelmed by this crushing sense of thankfulness and gratefulness. Those times don't happen anywhere near often enough.

     Thursday, Friday the 13th, began early, 4:48 a.m, one last stop at Panera for breakfast, then Greg and Peter needed their coffee fix, so a quick run by Starbucks again, and we were off just after 7 a.m.(which being on Eastern time, was just after 6 Central). Paul was visiting his sister for a few days, so it was just the six of us on the return trip. Picked up five newspapers on the way back home, it's a cheap way to learn from others in your chosen craft, and cheap entertainment, as I spent $3.25 on them. Ten hours, in the rain, is a long trip.
   But, we got to talk about such varied topics as the struggle of public prayer, how many instruments and which ones should be the ideal for worship music, food, dating, planning ideas for new songs to learn as a congregation and youth group get-togethers, the weather, horror stories about hotels and Chinese food, and how someone needs to invent a portable pitcher's mound, lightweight enough to be hauled around easily, inexpensive enough to be widely available to Little League and high school coaches, strong enough to hold 200 lbs. of weight, and that it should open up like an umbrella, and then trying to figure out what kind of materials it could be crafted from.

   It was a good trip, overall, we got to Tulsa about 5:15 p.m, straight into a bunch of incoming severe storms. Welcome back home, right? From there, we each went home and spent today re-acclimating ourselves into the real everyday world. glad I went, learned a lot. If you would like to watch or listen to one or more of these sermons, stop by the conference website, at t4g.org.

Recap of my week

    This has been a busy week, but a pretty interesting one.

   I've got these awards I give out to my Facebook friends each Monday, called the Random Status of the Week award. They're given out to the strangest, funniest or best-written status, and I pick one or two out each week to award. Is it slightly pointless? Kind of. But people seem to like them, and they brighten people's days, which is why I've kept giving them. (You'll find them all in a series of posts to be listed on here sometime next week.) Anyway, nobody had written anything especially newsworthy, so my sister Courtney and my friend Ash decided I should win my own award this week. And tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of the RSW award.

   Well, that was Monday. Tuesday was a shopping day, stopping to get new glasses, then running by Sam's, Target, and someplace else I can't remember. Then back home for just a bit, then off again to pick up a Christmas tree found on Craigslist(to replace the tree that was melted in the fire, but that's not important to this story). You know what's funny? It was kind of enjoyable. After getting the tree, it was time for a Wal-Mart stop(the third in two days) to get some water and a tent, and then grab some pizza on the way home. While this was going on, I slipped on my "Advice Giving and Encouragement" hat to Sam(of CVS scotch tape purchasing fame), glad that seems to be an area God's gifted me in, but it sure is hard to know exactly what to say sometimes.

   Wednesday was an archery competition. Which is an interesting experience, because there's schools there, and you're competing on a mostly-even field. (That's strange.) I'm not that good at it, maybe because of depth perception issues, I don't know. Anyway, I was trying to break 80 points(a perfect score, if you're curious, is 150), and I managed a 102, which ordinarily would have put me on the bubble of making it into the second round, except that the other schools were outstanding this year. So our little band of ragtag social misfits only placed one girl into the medal round, she placed third, giving us reason to celebrate. Weird fact: Courtney is huge into archery, she's a great shot. I'm average at best. But my score topped hers by  eleven points(ha! Sibling rivalry here.) That lasted til about three in the afternoon, followed by American Idol that night, which of course had to be watched, notes taken, and then discussion debated with my cousins.

   Thursday morning we were off and running for a writing competition at the college I'm headed to this August, it was an enjoyable experience. I was one of the first students to arrive, so I watched the college students(they put on this event every year) arrange the last-second details, introduced myself to several people working at the newspaper and TV station, they gave me some advice on which classes to take, real helpful and friendly. I didn't win either of my sections(Sports Writing, huge surprise there, right?), but I wasn't expecting to. Softball was interesting, but not some of my best work, and for the live portion, it's a little tough to get good info out of a bored golf player, who's wondering why he agreed to stand in a classroom and be interviewed by eight high schoolers. Beach balls were swatted around volleyball-style, Katy Perry was blasting over the speakers(Somehow, it fit the setting well and was relaxing. Very weird.) The people from all the different schools that attended were interesting to watch, with their cheering on their fellow people who won awards and stuff. After my writing contest was over, and before the awards ceremony, I sat in on a question-and-answer session for yearbook/school paper advisors and staff, probably sounds excrutiatingly dull, but I enjoyed it, with the glimpses it gave into the planning and behind the scenes of getting the news(Whatever that might be) to people. Afterwards, I introduced myself to the lady in charge of the NSU paper, she was very friendly and helpful, gave me some advice on which classes to take.

   Part of life, for some at least, on campus is Campus Christian Fellowship, something like a college youth group, from what I understand, they have chapters at many, many different universities throughout the country, helping lead each other closer to Christ. Remember, both my parents attended this same school. Anyway, they were both involved in CCF, I've heard tons of stories about this guy who runs it, his name's Tom. Once my thing's done, I walk out of the student union to go get some lunch before going to my aunt's to visit her, and who is Mom talking to but Tom! We have lunch with him, he seems like someone I'll need to study for awhile. Just as hilarious and hard-working as Mom said, wonderful at making students feel like they have somebody to lean on, give good advice and make them feel important. We need more people like that in the world.

   Somewhere in this, I forget exactly where, I find out I got a scholarship, which is nice.

   Thursday night I babysit my little sister Amy, we watch the Idol results show, which ends happily, as an irritating contestant we all dislike is kicked off.

   Friday we go spend the day with some friends after catching up with the rest of the family, who was camping, a campfire is good for sitting and doing nothing by.

   Yesterday was mowing, and then getting the worship music for this week down. Pretty restful, catching up from the go, go, go of the previous four days. And I found out I got a pretty good-sized scholarship, which should pay for most of the my school costs. Huge answer to prayer right there.

   Today, Easter Sunday, started out pretty well. Got to church early, able to spend time with our GBC church family, the Sunday school music went well, the lesson was good, the sermon pretty good, then my pal Josh was baptized, so that was extra cause for rejoicing. Not having any special Easter plans, our family, along with several others, went over to another family's house for lunch, ping pong is a good way to spend an afternoon.

  Now, I'm taking a break from packing for a Bible conference in Louisville that we leave for tomorrow, double-checking I have everything I'll be needing. Should be a ton of great preaching, and hopefully some good fellowship, too. Should be and interesting week.

Weird Fact Saturday, Episode Two

   Well, it's Saturday. Time to think up some strange facts.

• I'm a pretty terrible shot with a bow, better with guns. But I like archery more(Maybe because I have more time to practice?)
• My favorite sport to play is tennis, followed close by basketball. Favorite to watch would be either football or basketball. 
•  I think dogs are much easier to talk to than people, usually. 
• Next month, I will go into the category of "Completely Homeschooled Graduate". 
• I enjoy acting. 
• I have this irrational fear of cows; they terrify me. 
• If you ever wanted to REALLY get on my nerves, you would place something Styrofoam nearby, where it would squeak. "Shivers in irritation"

AI-S11 80's Night Results

   I got points last night! I called the bottom three right for the first time this season, and I got the person who left - Go me, lol. Now I'm in second place of our discussion group, two points out of first with about seven weeks to go.

   The guests were some British band called The Wanted, they were boring, I flipped the channel halfway through. And Kellie Pickler also performed, I've never much liked her, so I was playing with my four-year-old sister while she was on.

  The bottom three were Hollie(Booo.....), Elise, and DeAndre, Hollie was told she was safe first. Then Ryan said that Elise was safe, which meant DeAndre was leaving, unless the judges used their save. He squealed some uptempo song, prancing around the stage, giving high fives to the audience, flinging his hair every whichaway, Jennifer tried to save him, but thankfiully Randy and Steven overruled her, so we won't have to deal with DeAndre Brackensick any more this season.

American Idol Season 11 Top Eight - 80's Night

Good show! Gwen Stefani might be a good judge to consider hiring if they went with my "Start over with the judging panel" idea, she always gives good criticism whenever she's a mentor.

DeAndre Brackensick - I Like It - Annoying, forgettable, it was okay, I suppose. If you enjoy monkey-like screaming.

Elise Testone - I Want To Feel What Love Is - I liked the beginning. She looked weird, like she was wearing an ocean of material. The chorus wasn't great. Ending was awful.

Colton/Skylar - Islands in the Stream - They work well together. The song itself was forgettable and repetitive. Very nice.

Phillip Phillips - That's All - Cool opening. Nice. Very good, and it was awesome that he could play with his brother-in-law.  It'd be so great to have someone you could feel that comfortable playing with.

Hollie/DeAndre - I'm So Excited - Hmm. Strange pairing. She looked uncomfortable, he didn't. They both sounded all right, it was pretty good. The synchronized hair-flip was kind of cool.

Joshua Ledet - If You Don't Know Me Now - That suit scared me. I literally leaped back in fright when I saw it. He's consistent, at least; this season's Brooke White. That was AWFUL.

Jessica Sanchez - How Will I Know - It had that awesome guitar-keyboard thing that I don't know the name of! Nice outfit, cool guitar, the background singer looked ridiculous, I kinda liked it. Enough to give her one vote this week.

Phillip/Elise - Stop Draggin' My Heart Around - Awesome. Loved the guitar, vocals matched the tone of the song well, it was cool.

Hollie Cavanagh - Flashdance(What A Feeling) - Good. Her hair was fixed kinda odd, the makeup was strange, and she borrowed one of Taylor Swift's dresses. She did good tonight.

Jessica/Joshua - I Knew You Were Waiting For Me - Bad outfits, I liked the music. She did pretty well, he was awful. Even DeAndre could have done better than Joshua on that one.

Colton Dixon - Time After Time - Nice guitar, I like that song, I like Colton, it was great. That should go on his CD.

Skylar Laine - Wind Beneath My Wings - That was amazing. The light thing with the drum was neat, her dress looked kind of funny.  I was like, "Wow." all the way through.  Incredible.  

I like Colton's winter job, that sounds fun. And SchuyColt Facepainting is an awesome name. Hollie's dog looks like one I'd like to know. Definitely relistening to Colton, Hollie, and Skylar when I get a chance.

Bottom three-
DeAndre.
Elise.
(I really want to say Joshua here, but I'm not.) Hollie.
If Hollie goes home, and if the judges don't save her, I will be VERY ticked off. But she won't be in danger this week, because DeAndre finally wore out his welcome and is shoved onto a plane back home.