I was blog surfing and I realized that the majority of the bloggers had made a post commemorating the old year, or welcoming the new year (or both). I decided that I had better post something to that effect also. Let’s see if I can remember the most important things that happened in 2004.

1. Last year at this time Me, Sari (exchange student from Japan), Eve (exchange student from Finland), Thiana (old exchange student from Brazil), and the rest of my family went to Zoologhts with Lea, an exchange student from Switzerland who went home early. We came home and jumped in the (50F) pool.
2. On January 8th, we all climbed Pikacho Peak, a mountain that we climb every year on my Dad’s birthday.
3. Thiana went home at the end of January.
4. Eve moved in with us after Lea returned to Switzerland.
5. Graduation night. Eve and Sari walked the graduation walk. We said goodbye to all of the Seniors that we might never see again. Including Frenchie, Matt from Poland, Chris from Sweeden, Daniel from Brazil, Susan from Germany, Thomas, Andrew, Jolene, Tommy, Jana, and a bunch of others.
6. Matt and Frenchie hosted a godbye party. It was really fun and sad at the same time.
7. Sari’s parents visited for 3 days. It was a short time for a long flight from Japan.
8. Eve left.
9. Sari left the next day. My dad was able to come, thankfully, because our tire blew out. If my mom changed it, Sari would have missed her flight.
10. Summer swim team expierences on the Parks and Rec league. Ah, the amature coach!
11. Henry from Ghana arrives.
12. Highschool swim team starts. I had more fun this year, but I hated Minck more also.
13. Sara, my sister, came for a visit.
14. Christmas
15. Tsunami. Rest in Peace.

I read all the books in the Narnia series (by C.S. Lewis) when I was in 4th and 5th grade. In celebration of the upcoming movie, The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe, I am re-reading some of my favorites. Last night I read The Last Battle in a about 2 hours. It’s pretty easy reading. And today I read Prince Caspian. The books are much easier to read than The Lord of the Rings.

Anyhow, go ahead and visit the site that I linked to. It has a neat little Flash presentation…

Also, see: http://www.narniaweb.com/ for more info.

Look at the picture at the top of the screen. It looks strangely similar to Poison Ivy plants… I just noticed that…

GAAHH! I can’t find .WMA files for the following:

• Crush- Jimmy Eat World
• For Me This is Heaven- “
• Boulevard of Broken Dreams- Green Day

I really, really, want those on my site. I am going to have to do a lot of searching…. *mutters*

I figured out how to transform .js into .WMA

I am doubly-happy! This means that I have so much more access to songs for my music player thingy! HA!

Visit http://www.iwebmusic.com and see what music you like! Because I like Dashboard Confessional and so I added “hands down.” This is wonderful!

I am incredibly happy with myself because of my new blog skin. Look at the music player thingy. Play with it! I know that I took the idea from Jess, but I still like it on my blog. I usually don’t like background music, but with this one, you can have a say in the music, and you can even turn it off. There is nothing more annoying than two toned music. I’ll make a list of website pet peeves:

• Background music
• When the cursor looks like +
• Stupid windows that pop up when you enter the site that say something like “Xx KISS ME xX”
• People who say “SIGN MY GUESTBOOK!” That is so dumb. If some one feel like signing, they will! I think that Blogger should make leaving a comment have less steps, however. You have to go through like three screens to leave a one-liner.
• WRITING LIKE THIS! THIS IS ANNOYING, NO?
• WrItInG LiKe ThIs! ThIs Is AlSo AnNoYiNg!
• writing with no punctuation or verb usage i think that it is inconsiderate
• Using text that you have to highlight in order to see it.
• Tiny little boxes that contain your post. You have a huge screen! Use it!
• Post boxes that you have to scroll sideways. That is a hugely annoying thing. I won’t go back to a website where you have to do that.

I’ve been living in central Arizona for 4 years now, and Christmas still doesn’t feel like Christmas. Today my church had a “stay and talk to people” kind of service, and there was a bunch of muchies on the outside patio. We were all hot standing out there. Crazy. If it’s 80 degrees, and you’re opening presents, it will not feel like Christmas.

Have a merry Christmas, to all of you Northeners!

I went to Goldfield Arizona the other day. Which used to be full of gold. There are still some mines up ther, but they are privately owned. You can see a picture of me here.

There is a lot of gold mining in Goldfield, Arizona, which inspired many men to go gold mining during the 1800`s. Right next to the town in the Superstition Mountains, where the Lost Duchman`s Gold Mine is supposedly hidden. That has to be one of the most famous gold mine legends of the American wild West.

With the ratio of men to women at 1,800:1, there was bound to be a lot of prostitution going on. The average age of a man was 35- so young to die. It was a legal profession back in the day, but I can`t imagine working there. I am currently reading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, and he really puts a light on what drives a woman to become a prostitute. They really are people. Fantine, a main character in the book, became a prostitute after she was fired from her job, and could no longer support her beautiful, fatherless, child Cosette. Fantine loved the father of her child with all her heart, and “she treated him like she would a husband.” He was not as devoted to her however, and left her with child and without support.

Also in this ex-town was the birth of THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC. Which, by the way, is a very good newspaper. Back in the day it was known as the Arizona Republican…they still stick to their conservative roots, even though they get most of their articles from the Associated Press. AP is the organizatin that I want to work for.

Phoenix at the time was a small town of about 2,000 at the time, while this town was home to 5,000. Goldfield was rightly the biggest town in Arizona, and made the state capitol. Phoenix was actually called Pumpkinville. As in the orange squash pumpkin. That`s a pretty dumb name and I`m glad that they changed it. Pumpkinville Police Department? OOOhhh, I`m really going to be scared to commit a crime there! What are they going to do, shoot a pumpkin at me?

“Anyone who grew up in the south is bound to have heard the phrase “poor White trash.” Teresa Heinz Kerry has given us a new category- rich White trash.”

“Since death is defined by the cessation of brain waves, shouldn’t life be defined by the beginning of brain waves?”

This is totally something my dad would think up and do. A man payed a fine of $82 dollars in pennies. Check it out!