Zhou Dynasty

Friday The weekend is here! And I am sitting at home in my PJs... What is wrong with me? Why am I so tired lately? I will have to make it up tomorrow.

I went riding... OMG I went riding today!!! I came home intending to clean the house a bit and water the plants but went straight into my basement to look at my bikes. Before the winter came my dad brought both bikes into the basement somehow; I think he rolled them over the neighbor's lawn. I couldn't stand just looking at them in the basement while it is sunny out so I started up my bike and rolled it out. When I got to the part of the steep grassy incline, I knew I couldn't turn back. I took a running start and tried to push my bike up the hill, but I rolled back down, twice! Eventually I was able to sort of drive the bike up the hill slowly because when I gave it too much gas, my rear wheel would slip on the grass and the whole thing almost tipped over. Then I took my baby to the nearby gas station, just like what I did the very first day that I got her. From there I cruised around Woodbury, but then came back after riding for 15 miles because I forgot that I haven't updated my tabs and don't even have insurance.

Wow cool http://www.eviltree.de/zoomquilt/zoom.htm That's like cooooolll... @_@

Sun! In the game Bushtarion, after a long winter where we barely see and sun to plant our seeds, we rejoice and do the sun dance when we see that first spring sun come. Spring is here in real life (not just in Bushtarion) and boy am I happy. I ate outside during lunch today. Went to Wendy's and got a side garden salad, five piece chicken nuggets and a chili (Finger in Wendy's Chili all for $3.19. Wow what a deal. After spending no more than 15 minutes on the grassy lawn eating my food, I can see my skin starting to change color. No it's not from eating Wendy's chili, its because I've started to tan already! I forgot how damn fast I can tan... I love being tan.

School shootings in America I've always been interested school shootings and why they occur. Mostly what interests me is how a kid gets the idea of brining a gun to school and shooting people. FIrst of all, how does a 12 year old get a gun? Thanks to the IRA, guns are easily accessible to most people. In fact, if I wanted to get a gun that is capable of killing someone, I actually have 2 to choose from (but they're not mine). Why is it that we never heard about school shootings in other countries? Is it because they have tougher gun laws or a different mentality? Here's a timeline of some recent school shootings in America, this trend is quite disturbing. ---------------------------- March 21, 2005 Red Lake Senior High School, Red Lake, Minnesota Authorities say Jeff Weise, 16, killed his grandfather and his grandfather's girlfriend before driving to Red Lake Senior High School where he killed five students, a teacher and a security guard. Weise fired on police as they entered the building, then retreated to a classroom and shot himself, officials said. September 24, 2003 Rocori High School, Cold Spring, Minnesota Jason McLaughlin, 15, shot and killed Aaron Rollins, 17, and critically injured another student who died of his injuries in October. McLaughlin has been charged as an adult with second-degree murder. April 24, 2003 Red Lion Area Junior High School, Red Lion, Pennsylvania James Sheets, 14, brought three handguns to school and killed Principal Eugene Segro, and then himself in the cafeteria before school. March 5, 2001 Santana High School, Santee, California Charles "Andy" Williams, 15, killed two classmates, a 14-year old and a 17-year old, and injured 13. Williams was sentenced in 2002 to at least 50 years in prison. May 26, 2000 Lake Worth Community Middle School, Lake Worth, Florida Nathaniel Brazill, 13, returned to school after being sent home for misbehaving, and shot and killed his teacher Barry Grunow. Brazill was sentenced to 28 years in prison. February 29, 2000 Buell Elementary School, Mount Morris Township, Michigan An unnamed 6-year old boy shot and killed 6-year old playmate Kayla Rolland at school. He was not charged with a crime, but he was removed from his mother's custody and put up for adoption. November 19, 1999 Deming Middle School, Deming, New Mexico Victor Cordova, 12, shot and killed a 13-year old classmate. He was sentenced to two years in juvenile detention. April 20, 1999 Columbine High School, Littleton, Colorado Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, killed 12 fellow students and one teacher before committing suicide in the school library. May 21, 1998 Thurston High School, Springfield, Oregon After killing his parents the previous day, Kip Kinkel, 15, returned to Thurston High School armed with a rifle. He killed two students in the school cafeteria, a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old. He was sentenced to 112 years in prison. March 24, 1998 Westside Middle School, Jonesboro, Arkansas Andrew Golden, 11, and Mitchell Johnson, 13, ambushed fellow students and teachers at their middle school by setting off the fire alarm and shooting people as they exited the building. Four students and one teacher were killed. Golden and Johnson are currently incarcerated in a youth facility, but will be released by their 21st birthdays. ---------------------------- 12 fatal school shootings in 7 years. Average age of the gunman is 13.75-years-old. What were YOUR concerns when you were 13 or 14? I don't think I ever worried about a kid bringing a gun to school. My main concern at the time was improving my hacky-sack skills. Am I gonna have to worry about MY kids when they go to school? I hope not. Will someone start a business selling bullet-proof vests for school children? Probably. Might sound like a crazy idea now, but metal detectors at schools were a crazy idea before as well.

Owie What do my calves, thighs, hamstring, ass, back, neck and shoulder all have in common? They're all sore as hell from playing football on Sunday. Ricebowl 2005 was on Sunday and 4 different Asian-American student groups participated in the tournament. There was CASA (Chinese), VSA (Vietnamese), HMSA (Hmong), and MAAC (some other Asians in the TC). I played for CASA and we got our asses kicked pretty good. It was a lot of fun playing football again, but I wish I was in better shape and had some shoes that don't slip. I think HMSA ended up winning the tournament, no surprise since those guys love to play every weekend. I think next weekend I won't participate in such a strenuous sport, it's gonna take all week just to recover.

Pope Pope Pope All I've been hearing and seeing from the media is about the Pope. Ever since John Paul II got really ill, I've been hearing about the Pope stuff nonstop. Past few days all we heard about is "the pope is dead, lots of people at st. peter's square." A few days after that all we heard was "cardinal, secret conclave" and "who is going to be the new Pope?" Then yesterday all day we were hearing "there was a dark cloud of smoke, that means no Pope has been elected." I heard about that damn dark cloud of smoke about 8 times before I finally shut off my radio and stopped visit internet news sites. And now today we hear that they have selected a new Pope. Good for them. I expect to be flooded with Pope news for another week. This sucks, just give us back our Michael Jackson's child molestation trial updates and the daily chaos in Iraq! Saturday at MOA Saturday I took a friend to the Mall of America. As soon as we stepped into the mall, a lady walks up to us with a big smile and asks if she may ask us a question. At first I thought she was lost and wanted some help so I was more than willing. Then she asks us "Do you believe in God?" O_o So we said "no we don't" and thought that would be the end of it. Then she continues to go on telling us what believing in God means and how simple it is to do so. We both nod our heads politely with the look of "lady we're busy" on our faces. Then she tries to get us to do a prayer with her... -_- I have nothing against people and their religion/beliefs (yes, even if they're vegetarian) but I can't stand it when people try to push religion onto me. I was just kind of shocked and didn't know what to say. Finally we told her politely that we need to get some shopping done because my friend is in desperate need of a new wardrobe. What was she trying to do by getting us to do a prayer with her? Was she trying to get us to acknowledge and believe in Jesus? I told her I didn't believe in that stuff, but I felt like she was trying to be sneaky in getting me to believe it. I still don't know what to think, all I know is that I was irritated and confused.

Lunch Yesterday I had one of the worst lunch days ever. I was short on time and couldn't leave to get to the drive-thru. I reluctantly headed to the cafeteria to see what I could buy. Everything was over-priced and non-tasty-looking. I saw the beef stew, which was new, and it came with a bread bowl. I reached for the bread bowl and began scooping up the soup. At the same time I realized that the soup was too old and dry, I already had my hand on the bread bowl so I couldn't just put it back. I began to scoop in the old beef stew, it was so hard because it would stick to the spoon like glue. About the second scoop, I realized that the beef stew was $5.79! FIVE DOLLAR AND SEVENTY-NINE CENTS! By the time I realized how ridiculously priced this old soup and crummy bread bowl was, my bread bowl was half way full and I could never just put it back. I grumbled as I paid for this over-priced "beef stew" and grumbled as I tried to eat it all. I told myself never again will I eat from the cafeteria. Today, I made up for my huge mistake from yesterday. I went out and bought a whole rotissery chicken from Cub Foods for $4.99, with tax it came out to be $5.31. I split the chicken with someone and if you do the math correctly, that's less than $3 for half of a chicken! The chicken not only had flavor but it was dripping with juices and was in a blanket of seasoned chicken skin! "I love my Cub!"