The fires

Hey everyone I know that most of you had to be evacuated and so did I but I just like to tell you that all my prayers are with you and all of those who have been affected by these fires. I would like to thank all the fire fighters, police, and all the men and women helping to fight this fire. God will help us all to get through this and I encourage to lend a helping hand to your neighbors or to donate to those in need. I hope a pray that these fires will soon be over and everything will return to normal.

YAY ME!!! :-)

i have a myspace. Im still a little confused on how to use it though. I could use as much help as possible. sweet! :-)

HTH retreats really random stuff

I think that our reatreat was soo frikin awesome!!! From the the food to the ropes course that place was awesome. I think that we should definitly have another one. Im sure all the other students would agree with me. I bunked with Brenen, Wesly, Cody, Evan (aka slayer), and Raef (srry if i selled it wrong) so I really didn't get much sleep. Cody and I were the atemted pranked of our little group. So ya we didn't get much sleep. On day two I walked out onto the stairs and saw a bunch of girls on the front balcony thingy of Mrs. Peirces cabin and Rachel and Krista yelled HI DEREK!! so I yelled back HI LAIDIES!! So ya a bunch of people know me now. Pretty sweet. Anyways I got to have the privilage of getting to know others better. Not gonna name names you know who you are. We had a bunch of hilarious moments in our cabin with Senior Gaines but What is said and done in the cabin stays in the cabin. Day three. Me and Bernie are on the rope bridge of the ropes the course and we get a little shaky so we start singing which was pretty funny espeacially cause we're horrible singers. Haa good times... The dance was pretty fun except there wasn't much music to dance to but the t shirt thingy was cool. By the way Mr. Miller is pro at rock, paper, sicciors even though he probaly cheats and I lost all three games......CHEATER!!!!!! Other stuff that happened Wesley, Cody, and Evan all were able to drop in on the half pipe by the end of the retreat. I tried it but fell all three times i did it which sucked. The thingy with spinning around with a bat to your forehead was fun. I did it abotu seven more times wow I got dizzy. The food was gteat though. The ropes course was fun also man that was high off the ground. Brett and I played soccer alot on the second and third day which was pretty fun except for the fact that I got owned by Gabby about fifty times!!! The no talent show was pretty fun also We did the rock movments one which was the most talented untalent evur!!! O yea and the night that a bunch of people jumped in the pool with all their clothes on was pretty cool I got to see the moon disappear OMG!!!! It was red ant in the shape of a cresent so then I turn around watching other people jump in then I turn around and the moon is gone OMG!!! The bus ride was long though hahaha and the fag rock. Yup that pretty much sums it up. If you didn't follow this then whatever I said this was random.

Your fellow student,
Derek




P.S. I RULE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

Calling out to all Holland and Denmark

Alright Holland and Denmark you guys rule! Both of my parent's parents lived in holland and denmark and I think that you guys rule. So please feel free to post a comment on my blog. This is a contest we're having at school so it would be really awesome if you do post anything...even if I don't know WTF (welcome to finland) you're saying. Bitchen!

Writing in reverse paper: The best day of his life

This is Greg Martin. Greg Martin is a 32 years old Christian man is married and has two kids . He and his family live in New York. Today would be the best day of Greg's life. This morning Greg woke at 5:00 am to leave for work and remembering that today was his 5th wedding anniversary he decided to leave a note to tell his wife he would be home from work early. Greg wanted to take his wife to a romantic dinner so they could get away from the kids for a few hours and enjoy their anniversary. He rode to work on the subway and arrived a little early so he decided to head to the Starbucks across the street to get a cup of coffee. While in Starbucks he found a hundred dollar bill on the floor.

He asked who the money belonged to but nobody claimed it. When Greg finished his coffee he headed out of the Starbucks and crossed the street. In front of the huge building he worked in he saw a poor old homeless man begging for money. Greg decided that God would want him to give the hundred dollar bill to the homeless man. The homeless man was so overjoyed that he jumped for joy and earnestly thanked Greg for his over generous gift. The homeless man swore he would repay him someday no matter what it took. Greg smiled as he walked into the building and took the elevator up to his office on the fifth floor.

In his office he finds a note on his desk from the secretary, his boss has requested to see him first thing, Greg wonders why the boss might want to see him as he heads back to take the elevator to the corporate office on the hundredth floor. When Greg arrives his boss asks Greg to sit down and proceeds to tell him that he is getting a promotion to assistant manager. Greg is stunned and thrilled, he spends the rest of the day moving into his new office. At the end of his day Greg takes the elevator back down to the lobby and thinks "this day can't possibly get any better" but it does.

In the elevator is one of Greg's best friends. Greg asks how his friends day was. His friend replies " it was long." Then Greg tells his friend about his promotion. His friend congratulates him. His friend asks Greg if he wants two tickets to an Eagles concert for that night. Not only are they Greg's wife's favorite band but the concert starts an hour after his dinner plans with his wife. Greg asks why he has to get rid of them, his friend tells him that his wife had come down with a bad cold and he couldn't go without her.

Greg arrives at the first floor and thanks his friend for the tickets, and tells him he hopes his wife is feeling better soon. Greg heads out of the building and sees the same homeless man that he had seen earlier this morning. He walks over to the man and sees that the man is curiously paging through an old and tattered Bible. The man notices Greg and quickly stashes the Bible away. Greg asks the man if he understands what he was reading. The man says that it was about a man named Jesus but he doesn't know what it all means. Hearing this Greg decides to invite the homeless man to come to his church on Sunday. The man says he would be willing to go.

Greg hands the man directions and the address to the church. He then walks towards the stairs that lead to the subway and walks down them. He passes through the turnstile as he does everyday on his way to work and boards the trolley. He takes the only unoccupied seat in the car. When the subway makes its first stop an old and frail lady walks in and sees that there are no seats so she hangs onto a railing. Greg gets up and offers the lady his seat and the lady gladly takes it and thanks him. Greg gets off at his stop and walks the rest of the way home and when he's halfway home he realizes that he has left his briefcase on the subway and decides it's too late to get it back tonight so he continues to walk back home.

When he arrives home, he calls the babysitter and waits for his wife to get home. His wife arrives home and they leave the kids with the babysitter and get in the car and drive to the restaurant. While in the car his wife asks him how his day was, he says it was good. Then she gets curious because he keeps smiling so much. He tells his wife that she'll find out soon.

When they arrive at the restaurant and take their seats Greg tells his wife about his promotion. His wife is overjoyed and tells him how proud she is of him. Greg also shows his wife the tickets to the Eagles concert. After their romantic dinner they head to the concert while at the concert his wife is chosen to go up on stage and sing a song with the band. On their way home they talk about how great the concert was, and what a memorable anniversary this is. When they arrive home they see that the babysitter has gotten the kids asleep (on the couch) and he pays her.

The babysitter also runs into the kitchen and bring Greg's briefcase. Greg is surprised and asks where it was. The babysitter tells him that she had found it on the front door step when she was taking out the trash, she shows him a note left on the briefcase. Greg reads it silently to himself. The note reads ( found this on the subway it had your name on it) (p.s. I'll see you at church). Greg laughs and his wife asks him why he's laughing, he tells her about meeting the homeless man. After putting the kids in their beds Greg's wife says she going to get ready for bed and gives him a kiss. Greg stays for awhile reflecting back about his day and he bows his head in prayer. He climbs into bed and thinks to himself what a lucky man he is (this was the best day of his life).

My joke: The world's smartest man?

A pilot, Michael Jordon, Bill Gates, a priest, and a boy were all in a plane together traveling through stormy conditions. Suddenly, the pilot came running back to the passengers and announced that lightning had hit the plane, and they were going to crash in a matter of minutes. "There are only enough parachutes for four of the five of us," he says. "Since I'm the pilot, I get one!" After saying this, the pilot grabbed a parachute and jumped out of the plane. Michael Jordon says "I'm the world's greatest athlete." "This world needs great athletes, so I must live." Michael Jordon then grabbed a parachute and leaped out of the plane. Bill Gates says "I'm the smartest man in the world,". "The world needs smart men, so I must also live!" Bill Gates grabbed a parachute and jumped out of the plane. At this point, the priest began to speak. "I have lived a long life compared to you, and you may take the last parachute". "I will go down with the plane.""You don't have to stay here!" says the boy "The world's smartest man jumped out of the plane with my backpack." :-) ha ha!

Stupid but funny

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson went on a camping trip. After a good meal and a bottle of wine, they were exhausted and went to sleep. Some hours later, Holmes awoke and nudged his faithful friend. "Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see." Watson replied, "I see millions and millions of stars." "What does that tell you?" Holmes said Watson pondered for a minute. "Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Timewise, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Theologically, I can see that The Lord is all powerful and that we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have, a beautiful day tomorrow. What does it tell you?" Holmes was silent for a minute, then spoke. "Watson, you idiot, Some ruddy bastard has stolen our tent!"

Ending to Spider Creek story

He starts to ride the horse through the river . Halfway through the horse gets jumpy but the man keeps urging the horse forward. He thinks to himself " well this is the end" and prepares to get bucked off the horse. They reached the other side of the river safely. He rides the horse into a nearby hunter camp. the hunters bring him to the hospital. He see's his wife and is thankful that he made it through. While he was in the hospital he thought to himself " shoulda taken the truck".

Vocab words

I chose this image because its a picture of a vast amount of frozen land.

I chose this picture cause this guy is in outer space which is calm and peaceful .

I chose this picture because it's fancy and curvy.

Library of Dust: Story of Jonas Sharp

Jonas Sharp was your average healthy 32 year old male. He had a good job, friends, and family. Jonas was adventurous, and loved the thrill of a challenge. One day his whole life changed forever. One of his friends Rob Thomas mentioned an article about sea cave exploring and thought it would be cool to try it out. The next day Jonas and Rob headed off for the coast. Being inexperienced they took lessons and were told about the of sea caves in the area. The instructor had warned all the divers that they would all be going in the same cave one group of two at a time. Jonas being adventurous wanted to go into the deepest cave and convinced his friend that it would be fine to leave the assigned cave and go into the darker, deeper abyss. Halfway down his friend decided they shouldn't go any further but Jonas could not turn away he wanted to go deeper. They finally reached the end of the cave and started heading for the surface when all of a sudden the cave collapsed on his friend. Jonas tried with all his might to free his friend but it was useless. Jonas was running out of air quickly and his friend motioned him to leave him. But Jonas refused and then started to black out. The last thing he saw was the look of terror on his friends face as he became lifeless and sucumbed to drowning. When the rest of the group finally found Jonas he had been without air for six minutes. It was well known that being without air for that amount of time would cause serious brain damage. Jonas was in a coma and hospitalized for 3 weeks, when he awakened he could not speak and had lost most of his memory except for the moment of terror when the cave had collapsed on his friend. The doctors finally came to the conclusion that they could do no more for him and committed him to an asylum because he was considered insane and no one could care for him. Jonas was in the asylum for 15 years. Every night he would relive that experience, that moment and he'd yell and scream in agony for his friend. Jonas finally went mad and strangled himself to death. The canister above which holds Jonas's ashes for eternity, lives out the scene of terror that became his doom. The swirl of the sea and the dark hollows of the cave are shown and an image of a beautiful red fish that we hope is the spirit of Jonas, finally set free from his nightmare . Go to http://www.davidmaisel.com/works/picture.asp?cat=lod&tl=library%20of%20dust to see this canister and many others and more of David Maisel's photos.