Tag Archives: summer

…and we’re back.

3 Jun

Summer is here. Again. And similar to last summer, this summer is also another “final summer” for me. It’s the last summer I’ll have at home before leaving for college.

Wow, college is only three-months away. And I’m less then three-weeks away from orientation.

Whoa.

Technically summer started a couple of days ago– last Saturday, to be precise. I didn’t graduate from West until Monday, and then I had Bear Bash on Monday night… which lasted well into Tuesday morning (I didn’t get home until 6 in the morning).

Tuesday was a totally wasted day; I didn’t wake up until 1 in the afternoon, and I didn’t really do anything after that.

Wednesday was slightly more productive. I went into town, picked up my work schedule for this week, and bought an iPhone 4. Oh, and I also filled up my car with gas. Yep, definitely did that too.

Today was fairly unproductive; I met up with Kelci for lunch, mowed the lawn, and… well that’s it, really. Like I said, it was fairly pointless day. It was super windy, and nobody really seemed available to chill.

Basically, the past few days have been a total letdown from the awesome nights of partying last weekend. For my loyal readers who’ve been tuning in since last year, this really shouldn’t be much of a surprise– my day-to-day summer life seems to be pretty uneventful, and mostly filled with me bitching about how I wanted to do more. So yeah, nothing new, right?

WRONG. This summer is different. I learned a few things from last summer– most notably, that life requires action. Complaining about how boring life is will only make the situation seem more bleak. You have to get out and make the most of life. Don’t expect things to happen because you want them to– make them happen yourself.

This summer, I plan to do that.

So here’s to a better summer– a summer filled with memories that I’ll fondly look back on and say, “Well, at least I didn’t bitch for three-months straight that year.” :D

Stay tuned,

- Will

This Month in Review: June

30 Jun

June has finally come to an end. With a month of summer under my belt, I’ve become quite accustomed to my sleeping summer hours, going to bed around 2 in the morning and waking up around 9 or 10 A.M. This summer seems oddly similar to last summer in some ways, but with the addition of work and a driver’s license, my time at home during the day has decreased dramatically compared to last year.

Last year I was freaking out about becoming a Junior. I felt as if time was slipping by, and I wasn’t living life to the fullest. I didn’t have any plan as to what major I planned to study in college or where I planned to go. I was stuck in a maze of confusion.

Now, I’m excited to be a Senior. Time seems to be passing at a perfect pace this summer. It’s hard to believe that a month of summer is already gone, but there’s still a lot of time left. I’ve decided where I would like to go to college. I’ve narrowed the majors I would like to pursue down to a select few. I have many goals for this summer, whereas last summer was mostly carefree. I have a plan for my future, and it looks good.

And no matter how boring, stupid, or disappointing this summer is, it will be impossible to look back on it and say, “I did not do anything interesting, productive, or relevant this summer.” Choosing the college I plan to attend and my major was definitely a necessary task to complete before I begin my senior year. Working during the summer will look good on my college applications and it builds job experience. I’ve also managed to have some good times with my friends amidst all the boredom.

And in between hanging out with friends, working, taking college entrance exams, and making important future career decisions, I’ve been recording the experience here. I see this summer-long blog project as a very productive endeavor. It forces me to write daily, allowing me to practice working with vocabulary and language regularly. This practice will sharpen my writing skills. It also allows me to record my experiences, thoughts, emotions, and everything else that’s going on during this summer. The benefits of this project seem endless…

The best is yet to come. When I look at the calendar for July, I see a packed month. August looks even more enticing, with the main-event of this summer, the week long road trip to Seattle (and other destinations along the way), beginning a few weeks before school starts. I’m excited for July to begin– it’s arrival signifies an end to the incessant boredom and idleness.

July also means that it’s time to start running and working out again. XC, here I come…

- Will

Hazing 101: How the Upperclassmen “keep it Fresh”

25 Jun

If my past three years of high school have only managed to teach me one thing, it’s that Freshmen are quite possibly the most naive, annoying, stupid, and short individuals to ever walk the halls of West High. Each year they get worse, entering West with a sense of entitlement. I think it’s time for the class of 2011 to remind the underclassmen who’s in charge at West.

We don’t have to physically or verbally abuse Freshmen– that isn’t productive or legal. We just need to remind them who’s in charge by bringing back a lost tradition that we endured when we were Freshmen.

At the beginning of the year assembly, when the Freshmen go to cheer for their class, we need to drown them out in deafening boos AND throw stuff at them.

We had stuff thrown at us during our first assembly as Freshmen. The seniors threw hot dogs, pickles, Twinkies, water bottles, and God-knows-what-else at us, and our class had the audacity to throw the stuff back at the Seniors. The class of 2011 showed the class of 2008 that we weren’t pushovers. We need to reinforce this message to the Juniors, Sophomores, and Freshmen at this years assembly by bringing this tradition back.

Why should we abuse the Juniors and the Sophomores in addition to the Freshmen? The Juniors and Sophomores did not have a single thing thrown at them from the Seniors of the past two years. This is completely unacceptable. We were hazed. We must take revenge by throwing stuff at people who had absolutely nothing to do with the people who threw stuff at us. Is it logical? No. Would it be appropriate or mature? Not really. Would it reinforce the message that the class of 2011 is a class not to be messed with? Heck yes!

This probably won’t happen though, because the faculty will threaten to cancel a dance and future assemblies, like they have in the past two years, if we throw things at the Freshmen during the assembly. Everyone will chicken out, and we will just boo the freshmen without throwing a single banana. So that plan is out.

Then how will we remind the freshmen that the senior class is a class of badasses? Simple. We get a mob of seniors to wear mirrored-lens aviators, bright orange vests with “Hall Monitor” written on the back, and mustaches (fake or real– your choice). These “Hall Monitors” will also carry air horns, silly string, and maybe a megaphone. Any underclassmen seen clogging the halls will be politely asked to move once. If they decide not to, then the “Hall Monitor” can take a vigilante stand for all the annoyed upperclassmen and decide either to deafen the freshmen with an air horn blast, cover them in silly string, or tell them to “MOVE!” with a megaphone. I’m imagining that clumping will decrease by 80% with this kind of enforcement. That’s a statistic that faculty can’t argue with.

That’ s it for today. I’m going to begin researching my “Hall Monitor Kit” and then catch some Z’s for an early day at work. See you on the flipside, yo.

- Will

P.S. All kidding aside, don’t physically or verbally harass the Freshies… they may be annoying, but that’s not cool. We can show them we’re boss without being completely evil and ill-willed. ;)

Snooze-day

22 Jun

Today was a day of sleep. I woke up later then usual at around 10 AM, rolled out of bed, and devoured two toaster strudels.* I watched some TV for awhile, then went back to bed and lazily floated between being awake and asleep until noon. I then attempted to do some chores before I had to get ready for work. On my way to work, I missed the turn to the usual road I take to get to work and I had to quickly re-route my way to work in my head to avoid construction detours. It was an interesting mix up in my usual routine, and I actually made it to work a few minutes early.

Work was actually enjoyable today. I had a five-hour shift from 2-7 PM, which meant that I did not have to close. I hate closing, so knowing that I didn’t have to stay that extra hour or more pretty much made my day. Also, the district manager is examining our store tomorrow, so the closing-shift workers probably ended up staying late, frantically trying to bring the store up to the minimum standards. Once again, I’m thankful that I did not have to close today. :)

On a mildly interesting note, I bought a new camera today! It’s a Kodak EasyShare C180. It’s a basic point-and-shoot camera with a few interesting features like video, 3x optical zoom, high ISO mode, and the other “special” modes for various scenarios. It’s listed on Amazon.com currently for about $92– I got it at Sears for under $25 with my employee discount. It was a display model that was placed out on the floor so customers could try it out, so technically it’s “used”, but it has no noticeable signs of wear. It takes pretty good pictures, and it’s very small in comparison to my other camera, a Kodak EasyShare Z8612IS. The Kodak EasyShare Z8612IS (the big, black camera) has way more features then the C180, including a 12x optical zoom, 480p video, and manual exposure settings, but it’s larger size makes it too conspicuous for spontaneous shots. That’s why I bought the C180– for it’s size and decent picture quality. The video feature was icing on the cake for this camera, but I don’t expect it to be good quality video. I plan to buy an Ultra HD Flip Video camera later this summer to expand the multimedia features of this blog even more. We’ll see how that pans out…

Here’s a stock photo of the Kodak EasyShare C180:

And here’s a stock photo of my other camera, the Kodak EasyShare Z8612 IS:

That’s it for today. As always, look for a new post tomorrow. Thanks again for checking out thefinalsummer.com

- Will

TORNADO!!!

20 Jun

(Above: Podcast about the day’s craziness.)

That’s right– a tornado touched down in Billings, MT today. It ripped through the Metra’s roof and destroyed several buildings and business in the Heights. During the tornado madness, a torrential downpour instantly flooded streets throughout Billings. Downtown Billings and the Heights are still reeling from the damage caused by the severe weather of this afternoon, with power outages affecting 1,100 houses in the Heights.

During all of this tornado madness, I was working at Sears. Sears is located near Downtown Billings, but relatively far away from the Metra where the tornado touched down in the Heights. When the tornado sirens went off, the managers at my store made an announcement that the building was being evacuated. Everyone in the store was ushered over to the Automotive building next to the main store. We sat in the tire showroom for a few minutes, and then we went down to the basement. I followed my fellow employees and a couple of scared customers into a break room in the basement with a TV that was on. We frantically searched for a local news station with weather updates, but most of the TV stations were down, and it was too recent for the tornado to make national news. Before we went down into the basement, I got on Facebook on my phone, made a quick wall post that my store was being evacuated, and then I looked to see what other people were posting. Basically every wall post made in the few minutes before mine said the same thing: “TORNADO! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!”

According to the Associated Press, the last time a tornado of this magnitude hit the Billings-area was in 1958.

It was pretty intense in the basement break room. Everyone was talking nervously about the tornado and the damage it could cause. During the midst of this nervous chatter, I discovered that two of my co-workers have the same phone as me. Crazy.

Here’s a video of the tornado from Q2 News. Footage recorded by “Major” Dan Miller.

As I mentioned in the podcast, my parents and I went by the Metra briefly. I was able to take one quick picture when we drove by. Here’s the pic:

As you can see, the roof is considerably damaged. There’s debris everywhere along Main Street from the roof’s insulation.

A few hours later, the sun came out and the skies were blue. The old adage, “If you don’t like the weather in Montana, just wait five minutes,” was definitely true today. :) Below is a few pictures I took just outside my house:

Sunny skies are here again.

That’s all for today folks. As always, thank you for reading this blog and make sure to leave your comments and criticisms below. :)

- Will

Conflict of Interests

17 Jun

I’m having a bit of a conflict of interests between I know I should do and what I want to do. The conflict: Should I spend the $100+ on the fancy podcasting mic I want for this blog now, and delay putting away money in my savings account so that one day I could by my own car, or should I put away the money I would spend on the mic in my savings account and by the mic sometime in early July?

The logical side of my brain is shouting, “PUT THE MONEY AWAY IN SAVINGS AND BUY THE STUPID MICROPHONE LATER, YOU MORON!”

The other, less rational side of my brain is also shouting, “BUY THE MICROPHONE NOW! YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO! YOU PROMISED ALL OF YOUR BLOG READERS THAT YOU WOULD GET ONE TOO! DON’T DISAPPOINT THEM!”

So I’m stuck at a crossroads. I want to do what’s logical and just wait, but I also feel that if I wait, recording the podcasts will be pointless. A third of the summer will be gone by then, and Jon, one of my main friends I planned on recording my conversations with, will be out of town. So, I’m stuck. It’s not like delaying saving the money will delay my purchase of a car, so there really isn’t any reason to not go ahead and spend the dough aside from what I know about my spending/saving habits (I like to spend; I hate to save).

I think I’m going to just “dive in” and spend the money and save later. I know it’s procrastinating, and I will probably have a lot of difficulty in trying to make up for the lost money, but it makes more sense to buy the mic now rather then later. If I don’t buy it now, then I might as well not buy it at all and just ditch the whole podcasting idea altogether.

I really like the idea of podcasting, though. I think it would at a lot to this blog, but it’s becoming more and more difficult to see as a “real” option… I don’t know what I’m going to do. I think I’m going to sleep on it and see how I feel about it in the morning.

Today was another lazy day. All of my friends were either busy or stuck at home, and the weather was horrid, so I suffered through another day stuck inside the house. I’ve noticed that I’m feeling more pessimistic and depressed lately, and I believe that has a lot to do with two things: 1. Being bored out of my mind, and 2. Lack of exercise. So, in an attempt to cheer myself up, I walked a half-mile on the treadmill and then ran 2.1 miles (with the wind helping me and going against me in different parts of the run). After running, I went to work on the bench press and lifted the pyramid of various weights that I used to lift in my Fitness and Conditioning class that I took last semester. It was nice to get back into a physical-workout again, and I’m feeling pretty good now. All I need to do is get back on a regular sleeping schedule, and life should be cheery again.

That’s all for today. Look for another post tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that…. :P

-Will

5/22/2010

23 May

Today was the Saturday from Hell. I went in to work expecting to work my scheduled 8 AM to 1 PM shift and ended up leaving work at 4 PM. Our district manager visited the store today, which meant that my regular manager was twice as jumpy as usual. As usual, work sucked. Life goes on, and the world keeps moving.

The honeymoon is over. It has been for a few months now. I can barely remember a time where I actually enjoyed work and didn’t constantly check the time to see how much longer I had to wait until I could leave.

After leaving the store today, I came home and kind of zoned for a few hours. I didn’t really do much of anything and a few hours flew by very quickly. At around 8 PM I became aware of the time once again and decided I wanted to do something tonight. I texted Jon first and then Kristin, but Kristin was the first to respond. I called her and learned that her brother was about to go out on the roof to retrieve a ball he had gotten stuck up there earlier. I ran outside to the patio and snapped a few shots of him on the roof for blackmail. :D (*evil cackle*) Here’s the pics:

Kristin, on the phone with me, and Dillon, trying to get back inside.

From a distance, to show perspective.

After he finally went back into the house, Kristin came over and we talked about random things until Jon called to let me know he was off from work and able to hang out. He came over to my house a little while later with his girlfriend, Anne, and all four of us hung out at my house just messing around until about 10 PM when Kristin had to go. Then, Anne, Jon, and I went to Denny’s after a short debate over restaurant choices. We had a great time just talking and joking and eating some delicious cinnamon treats and the sampler we ordered until around 11 PM. Then we went back to my house and killed another half hour with occasional talk and awkward silence ’til they had to go. I then spent an hour on Facebook chatting with Kelci about the horrors of work and how basically every job we could currently get right now sucks other then becoming a lifeguard at a pool. We discussed the pros and cons of life-guarding for a while, and then ranted about our crummy jobs until 1 AM rolled around and we both decided sleep would be beneficial. And now I’m here, recounting the boring events of my day to a non-existent audience. Lovely, isn’t it? ;)

Basically, the beginning of the day blew, the middle was a blur, and the end was a blast (in comparison to the earlier parts). I did, however, take a few random pictures during the middle part of the day…

A lovely picture of Stella, my kickass electric guitar.

This was simply a “right place, right time” picture. The slow shutter speed made her tongue a blur.

And this last picture is a picture of me after I finally got home from the visit to Denny’s… God bless Suki for putting up with my me and my jackass friends. She definitely earned her tip that night.

I really wanted to go to bed. Like really bad.

Thank God Summer is almost here. I can’t wait much longer to be free from school. I also cannot wait to go to sleep, so I’m going to end this blog here. Goodnight.

-Will

I’m Ready for Summer to Begin… NOW

19 May

Dear Summer,

What is the freakin’  holdup? If I have to sit through one more movie in my U.S. History class while my teacher talks on the phone, I’m going to lose it. Please send me a time machine to skip the next two weeks or just begin now. That would be great. Thanks.
- Will

Two more weeks of school left until Summer begins and the currently large waste of time, school, ends. Basically, there are two more weeks of school until freedom. :) Thank God.

What’s keeping me sane during this seemingly endless wait for Summer? Little things. Thinking about what’s coming. Going outside and enjoying the fresh air. Dreaming.

Unfortunately, I can only show you the “going outside and enjoying the fresh air” part through photography. It was nice to get out and enjoy the warm weather, blue skies and green grass. My cats were also thrilled to get outside and lay in the hot sun. I tried to read The Grapes of Wrath, the book we’re reading in my English class, but after a few pages I capitulated to the desire to take pictures instead. I also brought out my SAT prep book in the hopes of doing some studying, but alas this never occurred. Perhaps I’ll absorb its knowledge through osmosis… That would make carrying it everywhere worthwhile.

‘Twas sunny.

I love random shovels.

KITTY!

Hurrah for Color.

So much for studying…

(Random Note: I wouldn’t consider those pictures to be “world-class” photography or even somewhat good photography, but they add a nice visual to the blog, right?)

So that was my day… yesterday. It wasn’t really interesting, but it was nice nonetheless. On a more positive note, I have Friday off from work (a very rare occurrence) and I’m hoping to go stargazing again with Jon, Anne, and possibly Kristin. If the skies are clear and it’s not too cold, it should happen. I’ll post some pics and possibly a podcast/recording of our random conversations during this event if it actually occurs. The last time we recorded this was about three years ago when we were all Freshman… It’s hilarious to listen to now and we’re hoping to record some more good times like that. (Maybe I’ll post the first stargazing recording on here…. Hmm…)

Well that’s all for now folks. Look for weekly posts on Wednesdays until the Summer officially begins on June 5th*. Until next time…

-Will

* I have my SAT test on June 5th… FML.

A Pre-Summer Update for the Anxious

12 May

I’ve been thinking about random things I would like to post on this blog quite a bit lately. I believe my eager desire for summer to come influences this increased interest, and that means I will probably post a few more updates in here before the summer officially begins. If you’ve been eagerly waiting for this blog to develop, then this is good news. If you really don’t care and you just happened to stumble upon this page… well, at least there’s another post beyond the introduction. :)

Now to the actual “update” part of the blog: I finally purchased some frames for the numerous posters I’ve had laying around my room for several weeks. I originally purchased some posters with black and white pictures of New York City to add some content to the empty, white-colored walls of my bedroom. After they arrived I was excited to put them up in my room without a frame, scotch-taped to the walls. My mom, however, was not thrilled with this plan and “encouraged” me to purchase frames for my posters. I grudgingly purchased frames for most of the posters this weekend, and now three of the four NYC posters are happily residing within their frames, anxious to find a place on the wall. I still need to buy frames for five or six more posters before my entire collection can be displayed within my room, but having these three framed gives me a sense of accomplishment. It also gives me hope that eventually they will all be up on the walls in my room, thus eliminating the “blank-wall” syndrome.

I bought the frames at Wal*Mart on Mother’s Day. They were fairly inexpensive (Under $10 for the smaller frame and around $15 each for the two larger frames) and look pretty nice. The glass/plastic is clear and the frame looks aestically pleasing for a cheap price. Although the frame is actually plastic, it would be difficult to tell if you seen it on the wall. It’s also pretty sturdy, so no worries about flimsy frame issues.

Framing My NYC Posters

A Close Up Of NYC Poster Frame

(Disclaimer: I did not take, nor do I claim to have taken, any of the pictures within the frames.)

Not bad for $35, huh? :P I can’t wait to hang them up on my ridiculously empty walls.

Moving along to a completely unrelated topic, I’m preparing for the SAT & the ACT coming up in June. I purchased a couple of test prep books from Amazon.com on Friday and they just came in today. They’re a lot bigger then I expected, but I can’t wait to get studying so I can ace the tests. The SAT is on June 5th and the ACT is on June 12th, so I only have about a month to prepare. These books are pretty big (except for the much smaller “Crash Course on the ACT” book on top of the stack), as you can see, and will take some time to get through. I started reading the SAT book tonight and hope to finish it next week so I can have roughly the same amount of time to prepare for the ACT. Hopefully all of this preparation will lead to some good scores…

Well, that’s all for tonight. I need to get some sleep so I can hope to stay awake through History class tomorrow. :P Look for another update soon!

-Will

The First Post: An Introduction

28 Apr

Dear Reader,
Hello. Welcome to the blog. In this introduction, I plan to explain to you what I will write about in this blog, and also provide more of a background as to why I am writing this blog. I do not plan to start off every blog like this, but I feel that a letter format for the introduction to this blog is fitting. So let’s begin, shall we?

The main goal of this blog is to provide a record of my true “final summer” of high school. I plan to use this blog in combination with other things to express my creativity throughout the summer. I also plan to use it as a log of the things I did during my summer vacation of 2010. So yes, you could say this blog is doomed to end at the end of the summer, but all good things come to an end, right? And regardless, I have several other blogs that I write in all over the internet, so you’ll have more to read if you like what you see. :)

Expect to see lots of writing in various forms. You can also await pictures and videos and other assorted goodies. Perhaps a Vlog or two, but I wouldn’t hold my breath in anticipation (haha).

Basically, this blog will give you a fairly unrestricted view into three months of my life. I’m not sure how I feel about that at this moment, but I think it will turn out quite well. It should be interesting to read as I update it and later in the future to remember this summer. I’m excited. I wish it were summer now…

The idea for this blog came from a conversation via text messaging that I had with one of my best friends, Kristin. Here’s what was said:

Me: Hey! So I’m hoping that you’re not going to be ridiculously busy this Summer. Lol I really want to make a new skippy and jar vid

Kristin: Haha. Well yes the old one is getting really old. And hopefully I won’t be. But I’m trying to get a job and all that wonderful shit. Lol.

Me: I know how that goes… I just don’t want to work through my last summer here. I want to do a ton of fun stuff. :)

K: I know. Only got a few more summers ’til we’re all off at college.

Me: Err more like one for Jon, Kendra, and me. That’s so crazy to think about… Gah.

K: Lol…. I have a feeling you’re gonna love college connor.

Me: I think I will too haha but it just seems like everything is going too fast.

K: Haha. Ya I know what u mean. It kinda seems like just yesterday we were all chilling as canyon creek kids.

Me: Exactly! Haha it seems like yesterday we were all bitching about how shitty Canyon Creek is and how we can’t wait to leave and here we are so close to being out on our own…. It’s crazy.

K: I know. But it’s kinda exciting at the same time…ya know?

Me: Yes, I know exactly what you mean. It’s an exciting thrill-land of possibility and a scary world of unknown all in one messed up circus tent.

K: EXACTLY! Lol.

…and that’s basically the bulk of the conversation that got me thinking about how I wanted to spend my summer. What I wanted to do before it was “too late”… When I put it that way, it seems like I’m dying of some horrible illness and this is my last summer with my friends before I die, but it’s not. We’ll still see each other and life will go on. But I still want to make the most of this summer.

So that’s it. That’s what this blog is going to be about. Is that interesting enough for ya, or would you like to see something else? Leave me a comment with your thoughts and opinions. Criticism is also appreciated as it helps to perfect my writing.

See you again soon!
-Will

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