NEW PHONE!

I finally got a brand - new phone!  It came out like last year and it is super duper sick.  It is an LG Escape 2 and it is so awesome!  And I got a really sick case to go with it, too.  It is a basketball case and it looks really cool.  The best thing about this new phone is that everything runs fast.  I have had 4 previous hand me down phones that were all really old, and 2 of them were flip phones.  They all took years to load something as simple as Google.  So to have a really awesome, working smartphone... Well it's awesome.  Also, the graphics are really sweet looking.  There isn't anything bad I can say about it.  Thank ps Mom and Dad!  It's pretty sick nasty!

60 Minutes is one of our family's favorite TV shows.  It is basically a documentary on a couple different stories for each recording.  Some are boring, but there was a really cool one we saw tonight. It was about St. Benedicts Highschool.  A monk re-started the school, and he came up with a new idea.  Mostly all of the students are poor, inner city African American, Latino, or other race kids.  The whole idea of the school was to let the kids who don't get freedom at home, run the school.  They don't make all the choices, but they make most of them.  It creates a lot of responsibility and leadership skills for those kids.  I think the idea is pretty sick.  I would love to go to a school like that.  Also, all the kids refer to their friends and other peers at the school as "brothers" and they love each other in a brotherly supportive way.  As ninth graders, they have a sort of boot camp thing, which teaches the new kids how to help each other and support them when they need help.

Heat

It's like weather doesn't like me.  It keeps teasing me!  One day it will be 55° and sunny, which is nice for this time of year in Minnesota, and the next day it will be 20° and snowy.  Why???!!!!??!!?!  I need consistency this time of year!  Next time it snows (it is projected to snow about a foot tomorrow for us in MN) I'm gonna March up to the nearest weather station and tell them to make the weather nicer.  I think a weather man should be able to do that.  That would be pretty sick, wouldn't it?

Track

Track starts in two weeks for me!  This is my first year in track, and I am hoping to do really good.  I know for sure one event that I want to do - the high jump.  I also think the long jump and the hurdles would be cool.  After running so much last summer, I feel ready for this track season, and it's pretty exiting.  Of course, Track starts after Spring Break, which is next week, so I am also looking forwards to Spring Break.  Man, I need a break from school!  I missed a couple of days because I was sick with something, but that doesn't count.  I'm counting down the days - only 3 left - until Spring Break!  

Braces

After a long time of waiting, I finally got braces!  These are just top braces, and I will get bottom braces soon.  They only hurt a bit, but when I eat is when they hurt.  Everyone at school said that they look normal on me, and didn't even notice at first.  I am glad to have braces, and even more glad that I can still have M and Ms,  The lady who put them on talked with me about what things not to eat, and some food that I like was on there.  Thankfully, M and M's are still an option to have.  It's crazy to think that I will actually get used to these weird things in my mouth, but I will.  I am always feeling them and running my fingers over them without even thinking about it.  But I am glad that I get to have braces.

Missing State

So last week was our State Tournament, our last tournament of the year.  It is always fun, and each year has been better.  Until this year.  I wasn't able to play in it because I was sick.  And I didn't just have the cold - I could have played through that, but instead I had a really, really bad flu, which is weird for me because I barely ever get sick.  It was so bad that for about a week I just sat on the couch.  The good part was that I got to watch a lot of college basketball games that were on TV, and Mom did buy me a donut once.  Actually, I stopped being sick before the State Tournament even started.  I thought that I would be able to play.  But when I woke up the morning of the day of the State Tournament, I could not even walk.  At first, I just told myself that I was just sore, like always, and just had to walk it off.  But it just got worse as I walked more.  So when I somehow got downstairs to get breakfast, I knew that I wouldn't be able to play that day.  I mean, if a dude can barely walk downstairs to get the best meal of the day - BREAKFAST - then what can a dude do?  So I wasn't sick anymore right in time for State, but then I couldn't walk.  Just my luck.  And on top of it all, I got a rash all over my body.  Now, I am completely fine, but I still wish that I could have played in State.

March Madness

March Madness is about to start and I am excited.  Sadly, the college I want to go to, San Diego State, is not playing in this tournament because they lost the game to get into it.  Lots of teams that were great last year, are not nearly as good this year.  Teams like Duke or Kentucky.  They lost lots of their players to the NBA last year, so now they have to start over.  That makes it hard to figure out who is going to win the tournament, since there have already been a lot of upsets.  This is gonna be a fun year for March Madness!

Today the John Wooden quote is: You can't let praise or criticism get to you. It's a weakness to get caught up in either one.

I really like that one because it makes a lot of sense.  If someone tells you that you are bad at something, let that motivate you to work harder.  On the flip side, if someone says how awesome you are, you can't just stop working hard.  You have to keep working harder.  I could never think of quotes like that!  If I would, it would end up being something like: Donuts are amazing.  Give your friend a donut and it will change their life.  Or something like that.  (:

Here is the John Wooden quote of the day for today: Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

I think that is really good.  Just because you might not be strong, don't fool yourself and become even weaker.  If you aren't big or strong, just play how you play and don't let it effect you.  John Wooden was a complete boss!  I never could have thought of something like that.

John Wooden

For those of you who don't know who John Wooden is, stop reading my blog.  He is only the greatest (arguably) college basketball coach of all time.  He taught his teams about basketball, but also about being a person.  He also taught them about God, and religion.  He had a ton of great quotes, and I will share one a day until I get bored of this kind of blog post.  So here is the one for today, " Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful. ". I think that one is pretty cool.