It's a blessing

Coming to you from stiflingly hot Lake Charles, Louisiana, this is reporter Steven Holmes live from Governor's School.

Arriving on June 8, 2008, I was thrown into this riotous mix of geeks and freaks, nerds and turds, the rejects of popular society. These intellectual vagabonds come from all over the great state of Louisiana to meet in socially unacceptable harmony. The artists obsess over their art, the scientists poke at bugs under glass, and we - the few, the proud, the senior Logic students - pick apart arguments and natter on about the ethics of using cheat codes in Diablo II. However, with last Tuesday's ladder reset the point has become moot. For you viewers at home who have eagerly awaited the answers to the questions: I am easily acing logic, frustrating that one girl who gets much too emotional about her arguments (I think her name is Natalie), and Sklig the Barbarian is now level 36.

This reporter will remain in the field until July 26th, at which point the Latinmobile will roll back into Apple Creek for a few weeks chilling with the homies and kickin it by the riverside until the siren call of school lures me back to the institutional yellow halls of Apple Creek Senior High. Until then, ladies and gentlemen, this is Steven Holmes signing off. Good night, and good luck.

My best friend is Tony Marks. I met him in 8th grade, when I first moved here from Jersey. (Pennington, NJ, by the way - not Yankeeville, which is not a real town.) I didn't talk much, and of course Tony talks a lot, so at first our frienship was mostly based on me listening while he pontificated. Later on, he discovered that I was capable of speech. I found his iPod and he has been eternally grateful, because where would Tony Marks be if he could only text, eat a sandwich, and drink a pepsi while he drove the car? He needs to be able to change the song on the iPod as well.

Other important bases of our friendship include sarcasm and pretention. Also, I'm friends with Tony because he's intelligent, sharp, and interesting. I get bored quickly, but Tony and I have hung out a long time now and haven't gotten bored yet.

Being friends with Tony is a little like being friends with a Jack Russell Terrier. Very high energy, constant movement, and if you're not DOING something he will come up with something for you to do. Luckily he does not demand that I repeatedly throw a ball like my Aunt Polyanna's JRT does.

Someday Tony should have a motorcycle. It would fit his Debate Team Lone Ranger image. On the other hand, I don't think he could text while he drove one, so maybe not.

Tony is the best debater I know. Also, he makes sure I study the boring parts of history. It's a good thing for him he has me to figure out the execution of his Halloween costumes, though.

I just got an awesome Halloween costume idea, but I can't tell you about it right now. Later I'll tell my best friend and we'll begin the process of roping in a few other participants, because it's brilliant. Tony will go along, because one of the reasons we are best friends is that we almost always recognize the brilliance of each other's ideas.

Done.

[Scribbled in Steve's Notebook]

Fact: Jenny MacBeth has been declared prom queen.
Fact: Jenny MacBeth is an incredible bitch.
Fact: Jenny MacBeth is clever and manipulative

Question: Given the assortment of other junior and senior candidates for the position, who would vote for Jenny MacBeth?

Fact: Student usernames and passwords could be easily hacked.
Fact: Given previous, it would be very easy to rig prom voting.

Question: Do I care enough to investigate?

I'm Steven Holmes. Typically I don't talk a lot, especially not in front of a ton of people. This is a little bit nervewracking. My classes this semester are AP Music Theory, AP English III, AP Statistics, and Orchestra II. Music Theory is my favorite, English III makes me work the hardest, Stats is easy, and I'm Concertmaster of the Orchestra this year. We've started working on the music for Camelot, which is simple but a lot of it is really beautiful. I especially like "If Ever I Would Leave You".

Regarding English III, I need an editor for this essay. I've got it done and I'm happy with the content, but I need someone to check for grammar and organization. I have a bad habit of writing things that all make good sense to me but don't come together in a way that makes sense to anyone besides me.

Quiz Bowl is going well this year, and so is debate. My April08 playlist is made up of Architecture in Helsinki, The Awkward Stage, The Essex Green, The Finishing School, The Flaming Lips, The Mars Volta, and Spoon. I'm currently reading The Devil in the White City. And that's really it.

"From a drop of water, a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara ( without having seen or heard of one or the other. )