My friend made me a ridiculous mix CD, it's quite fantastic. It has The Kooks, The Wombats, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and Beck (lyrics in the title), just to name a few. I think my favorite song off of it is "Secret" by The Pierces, although it is a bit odd. Then I downloaded a bunch of new songs, including 3OH!3, Peter Bjorn and John, and The Wombats. Then I downloaded a new EP by this guy under the name Love Nothing from Myspace. It's quite good - and he's unsigned, imagine. Anyway, you should check him out if you have a Myspace, the EP is free. So my birthday is in two days and...yeah. I guess I'm pretty excited, but truthfully, I'm waiting the next two weeks out until I get my license. Then we'll see how often I'm at home. The more exciting news I have is that I have twelve more dollars to save before I've saved five hundred dollars. I'm very excited, because I have enough to go to state Thespians this year, and I'm well on my way to saving enough to go to Russia in two years. See, my friend is from Russia and goes back pretty much every summer to visit. We recently hatched an idea that I would go with her the summer after our senior year, and I'm beginning to think it might actually happen. I'm ecstatic - I've always wanted to travel, and this is a perfect opportunity. It wouldn't cost as much as a normal trip, as we'd be staying with her relatives, and I'd be going with someone who actually knows the best places to visit. So I am very excited. I normally don't like Rolling Stone magazine, as I find them biased and uninteresting. I'm not going to renew my subscription, but I am lucky in that my last magazine of my current subscription came in today and the cover story was on Obama. Although I realize the reporting in Rolling Stone, particularly on politics, is not up to standard due to what I believe to be bias, it still was a wonderful interview/article. The interview really showcased how honest and sincere Obama is. He's also interesting when you consider how such influential artists back him - Bob Dylan, Bright Eyes, Bruce Spingsteen. Not saying these people know more about politics than the average man, but his influence in pop culture is certainly something to behold. The article, which was about his campaign commitee, was also pretty interesting. Anyway, I think it's worth a read. Though the rest of the magazine was as predictable as ever. I need a new music magazine subscription. Any suggestions?

Do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips. 3OH!3. They're pretty good, like an American Hadouken! kind of? Maybe. The Red Sox just lost to Yankees. I mean, seriously, a minute ago. It's kind of depressing...they were ahead 4 to 2 in, what? the top of the 7th? Or something. Then they lost in overtime. Ugh. It's frustrating to be a Red Sox fan sometimes, but I was born into it, so I pretty much have to run with it. Hahah. Plus, once you've been to Fenway...well, it's contagious. I have an Ellsbury shirt, because the last game I went to he...beasted it up, basically. Yum. So I turn sixteen on Saturday. I'm not very excited...probably because I know with my advanced age comes greater responsibility? My summer, for instance, has not been relaxing at all, with driving lessons [do not try to learn how to drive a stick when you have BARELY been driving a manual ten months. Just. Don't. Do. It.], summer homework, volunteering, working, and planning a giant birthday party with two other friends. But fortunately, I get my license in a menial eighteen days, albeit only if I pass my driving test. Which I should, considering now they don't test you on parallel parking, though, incidentally, I am quite good at it. I've been reading "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" by Friedrich Nietsche. I was hoping it would change my life, but all it did was confuse me. I'm halfway through and I'm still not quite sure what's going on. I switch to the Tao Te Ching sometimes to cheer myself up.

'Cause I am so bitter. :] Been listening to Kate Nash quite a bit. My friend got me hooked on her. I'm not quite sure what I like so much about her, but most likely it's her lyrics. To quote other people, they're "quirky". I got a new Decemberists song, and I noticed the lyrics weren't on here. So I submitted them, but they haven't gone through. I wish they would...I actually really like the lyrics and want to right in what I think about them, hahah. Anyway, check it out, it's called "Little Boxes" and it's pretty good. I also just made myself a peanut butter sandwich. It is delicious.

I finallyyyy went to a concert Friday night. It was great; for A Cursive Memory and THE MEDIC DROID. Yes, it was amazing. Thank you for asking. I have two more weeks of school left. They can't go fast enough. I don't plan on studying for finals, really. I have a few tests that I guess I will study for, but to tell you the truth, I'm kind of "study-ed out", if you will. I know the material in all my classes well enough to scrape by with at least B's on my finals, and averaged in with my grades, I'd say my GPA should be a pretty solid 3.45. Win, hm? Going to another concert Monday night, for my brother's friend's band. It should be really fun, except I'll be out late and have to take a French test first period the next day. Oh, well. You only have French II once, right?

So I actually think I have a shot of getting into that school I like. And of making it work for my future. The campus is beautiful, the program is exactly what I'm looking for, it's small, and it's just far away enough from home. And although I have finals and APs coming up, a month from now I'll only have four more days of school before summer...and I'm a junior next year. Life is sweet.

This school in London sent me something in the mail today. It got me to wondering about going to school in England. And because they sent me something through this business that sponsors schools in all these countries, it got me wondering about that as well. What if I went to school in Ireland? Or Scotland? Or all the way over in Australia? I realize that these are mainly pipe dreams, but could you imagine? That would be such and enlightening and exciting experience. I mean to say, in case you can't tell, my number one goal out of life in general is to travel. And as I absoulutely love to learn for the sake of learning, what better combination is there than traveling...and learning while I'm at it? But speaking of learning, which I have come to associate with grades, I have a C- in French. But this is not such a bad thing, as I have a test that, if aced, I will have a B. And I have my AP coming it, but I feel adequetly prepared. My teacher is wonderful, albeit slightly deranged.

It's time I start looking at colleges. I have good enough grades that I can go out of state on a scholarship, hopefully, but I have to start planning early. (I have two years of high school left.) There's this one college. It's so unusual, so unlike any other college and so unlike the school I go to. But it seems so perfect for me that I nearly cry every time I think about it. It's about a day's car ride from my family and from my extended family (who live up North, while I live down South.) But that's good too. I feel like I need to just get OUT. Get out from everyone I know, everything I know, and really start making something of myself on my own, without my family and friends' help. It's going to be an exciting next two years. I have accelerated classes, theatre productions, and a possible trip to Russia and/or Poland. But I can't wait for college. I can't wait for this next chance to prove to myself that I can do IT, whatever IT is.

Dear everyone, Learn some self-respect.

I think seeing The Format in concert last summer was one of the best experiences of my life. Plus, Nate, with his short haircut, looks a bit like a young Mick Jagger.

I took two rolls of film today, out with my friend. One roll, all 24 exposures, was of this amazing mural in this great section of town. It has all different kinds of art in it; impressionism, cubism, all this abstract art. Even better, it's juxtaposed with a bunch of graffitti. These political slogans, names, airbrushed faces are scrawled right next to Salvador Dali's clocks. The other roll, black and white, was taken by the river. I don't think it came out as good as the color, but we'll see. I got this shirt for some random elementary school at the thrift store, a ring with my birthstone, ruby, at the antique store, and a poster of Einstein riding a bicycle. It makes me smile every time I see it.