Creative Post Title #2

This is another story from my life.
Today, I took my little brother to his baseball practice. On the way home, I was driving down university ave when I had to stop because there was a really, really old lady walking down the road toward me. In the middle of the lane. I expected her to move, but she just kept scootin' along with her little walker right down the street. Luckily a cop pulled up next to her and explained to her that walking down the road generally isn't safe. I love old people.

Creative Post Title #1

I just want to share a story from my life. Today, I was doing tech crew for region choir, and I walked past a group of kids from a different school. As I walked by, one of them shouted, "Hey John!" So I turned to look at him and tried to figure out where I had met him before. Before long, however, he told me that he did not actually know me, but had read my name off my ballroom jacket, which had left me looking slightly foolish in front of all these folks. Hence, I decided to attempt to one-up him by guessing his name. I walked over to him and told him that this was my intention. "The first letter is in the second half of the alphabet." I said, and luckily, I was correct. At this point, the kid who was sitting behind him silently mouthed "Spencer" to me. So I made another statement. "The first letter is an S." "A lucky guess," he replied, slightly shocked. "Hmmm," I pretended to contemplate further, "Your name must be Spencer." This left him, and all of his little friends, in wonder and awe. After that I explained to them that I was magic (with a silent thank you to Spencer's friend,) and walked away. Win.

All I Ask of You

"No more talk of darkness,
forget these wide-eyed fears;
I'm here, nothing can harm you,
my words will warm and calm you.
Let me be your freedom,
let daylight dry your tears;
I'm here, with you, beside you,
to guard you and to guide you.
Say you'll love me ev'ry waking moment;
turn my head with talk of summertime.
Say you need me with you now and always;
promise me that all you say is true,
that's all I ask of you.
Let me be your shelter,
let me be your light;
you're safe, no one will find you,
your fears are far behind you.
All I want is freedom,
a world with no more night;
and you, always beside me,
to hold me and to hide me.
Then say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime;
let me lead you from your solitude.
Say you need me with you, here beside you,
anywhere you go, let me go too,
that's all I ask of you.
Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime.
Say the word and I will follow you.
Share each day with me, each night, each morning.
Say you love me...
You know I do.
Love me, that's all I ask of you.
Anywhere you go let me go too
Love me...
that's all I ask of you."

My Crazy Life

Today was a saturday. I was at school for EIGHT HOURS!!!!! It was very boring and tedious. I think I might be going crazy. But that's what happens when you try to do tech for dance company and read Grapes of Wrath at the same time. I don't think I would've made it if amazing people like Shelby Woolf and Zoe Morgan hadn't been texting me during it. Anyway, if I go insane, try to remember the good old days when I was... almost normal.

"Something has changed within me; something is not the same. I'm tired of playing by the rules of someone else's game. Too late for second guessing; too late to go back to sleep; it's time to trust my instincts, close my eyes, and leap!"

I just have that, and Phantom of the Opera, stuck in my head.

I need to sleep.

I love all you people! Goodnight!

PROM!!!!!

Basically I just want to say that Prom was absolutely fantastic! And probably one of the best times of my entire life. The reason it was so good? Only because I had the most amazing date in the entire world! Karli Ellis is a complete angel. She is so nice and sweet and caring, and she knows how to have fun and how to make things fun for others. I'm really glad I asked her and got this lovely opportunity to get to know her better.

Highlights:
"Hahaha. That was funny."
"My tux smells like cheesecake."
Sliding on the marble floor in the courthouse with super slippery shoes, and falling down (only once.)
Driving
Dancing with Karli.
Talking to Karli.
Seeing Karli in her amazing dress.
Just being with Karli in general.
Seeing everybody dressed up fancy!

I can't wait for pictures!!!

Thanks Karli!

Favorite Things (Part 2)

I have decided that a random list of some of the things I like does not do them justice AT ALL. There is no possible way that by saying one word I can truely (I know that truely is technically spelled T-R-U-L-Y, but I really don't like the way that looks. It looks harsh and insincere, so I'm changing it) convey to you how much I deeply love something. Therefore, I have decided to extrapolate.

I'll start out with something normal, just another thing that could be thrown into a list and attract little attention and provide virtually zero excitement.

Rocks. I love rocks. Absolutely love them. Yep, me and them rocks go waaaay back to the stone ages. I don't think that people truely appreciate how much rocks do for us, or how much rocks are a part of their lives. You encounter rocks on a daily basis, believe it or not. Maybe you're walking along and kick a rock down the sidewalk as you walk. With your rock. Or maybe you're riding your bike down the sidewalk. Well, if there weren't rocks, there wouldn't BE a sidewalk for you to ride down. Or maybe you're driving in your car, and you turn on the radio; voila, more rock.
      I also have some special experiences with rocks. I remember standing by a lake when I was just a lad, watching intently as my father selected a smooth, flat stone, took aim, and carefully spun it out into the water. You can imagine my elation as the stone, dense as it was, bounced off the water as if made of rubber. Of course I immediately wanted to try this myself, and I only succeeded at sending several stones spinning to the depths of the treacherous lake, along with my left shoe. It wasn't til' seasons later when I finally mastered the art of making rocks ricochet off water, but it has fascinated me ever since.
And you cannot forget the time when I, still just a tot, decided to go off and seek my fortune, and by that I mean gather rocks from my back yard, load them in my little red wagon, and attempt to sell them to the neighbors. I think I got about ten bucks. (They were cool rocks, okay?!?!? ) It rocked. Sorry. It's getting hard to think of concrete puns here. Of quartz, I am a professional, so my puns are gemerally pretty solid. Anyway, that's beside the point.
      The ultimate greatest thing about rocks, though, is that from them flows one wonderful gospel principal. The wise man built his house upon a rock. Rocks are the foot of foundations, the basis of buildings, the plot for palaces! Our very testimonies should be like rocks. Never wavering, always steady, stupendously solid. How many times are rocks mentioned in the scriptures? It's a lot.

So really, go back and read my favorite things post. Contemplate the complexities of each item as it appears. They are much, much more than just a word. Everything has more meaning if you look into it more, but really, one can only reap what they sow, so sow a lot.

And remember, diamonds are rocks too.

Phone Pictures! (Finally)

This is a picture of the Symphonic band on the Tuacon stage. Hooray for my second time performing at Tuacon!

I just think this is funny.

This is the radial Chessboard Riley made. I'm the white pieces, and this is actually checkmate.

My little siblings.

I etch-a-sketched a dragon fly.

Uh... This is what happens on the Drama bus.

I don't even know.

Yep.

I forgot who did her hair, but whoever it was has some awesome skills.

I like this color.

My MC-Etcher-sketch

Yeah, I'm on my roof.

This is pretty cool.

These are all my trophies.

Just kidding, they belong to the BYU chess club or something like that.

Myrup's Mineral

This is what I do during english.

I love the Temple!

He thinks he's cool.

This is from when the AP Bio class went and judged science fair projects. That was so fun!

This tower is a little screwed up.

Yum

This is what happens when I'm sad.

They are totally twins! Weird!

I like rivers.

This picture is pretty cute.

This is probably my favorite picture.

MY 30 day challenge

I've seen a lot of people doing a thirty day challenge thing, but it seems kinda pointless, so I made my own thirty day challenge that seems more productive.

Day 1. Smile
Day 2. Say something encouraging to someone
Day 3. Compliment 5 people
Day 4. Be an optimist
Day 5. Reach out to someone who you don't know very well
Day 6. Do something extra for your family
Day 7. Develop a new talent
Day 8. Listen to MOTAB
Day 9. Talk to 3 people who aren't very "popular"
Day 10. Cheer someone up
Day 11. Read a conference talk
Day 12. Learn something new
Day 13. Make a list of your favorite things
Day 14. Don't procrastinate today
Day 15. Make a new friend
Day 16. Make something useful
Day 17. Be extra loving
Day 18. Write a note to someone
Day 19. Try to share the gospel
Day 20. Do something fun with a friend (YOU have to plan it, don't sit around and wait for someone to call you)
Day 21. Read another conference talk. Or two. They're really good
Day 22. Smile even more
Day 23. Try to be nicer
Day 24. Get better at something
Day 25. Don't complain today
Day 26. Sing a song
Day 27. Improve your surroundings
Day 28. Make at least 5 people happier
Day 29. Do something good that you don't do very much
Day 30. Tell the people you love that you love them. It can make their day.

Names

A lot of people have the name John. Thence, usually when people shout out, "Hey John!" they aren't actually talking to me. So, a lot of the time I simply do not respond to my name anymore, so I highly encourage you to come up with a nickname for me and refer to me by that.

Here is a list of some of the nicknames people have given me. Feel free to use them.

Merlin
Turtle
Oldroyd
Johno
Dear John
Phabio
Miley
(I'm really not sure how I feel about those last two...)
Bob
Flynn Ryder
The Techie Kid
(Don't really like that one either)
Hiram

I actually probably will respond to "John" because I really like my name, but I really, really like good nicknames, and, as you can tell, I need some new ones, so please feel free to make up somethin' catchy to call me.
But you should still call me John mostly, because that IS my name.

Moment of Silence

Let us all take off our hats and have a moment of silence for one of our dear friends who has passed away. Yes, he was good to us all, giving us many things that we needed, like a chance to catch up on homework, get some extra sleep, and hang out. It is indeed a sad thing that our friend Spring Break is no longer with us, but I have a feeling he will be back around this time next year. Let us honor his memory by sharing some of his greatest moments.

Chess
I must have played chess for at least ten hours this break. Probably more. Chess can actually be really exciting if you play it with the right people.

Nutella
I hat Nutalla for the first time this break, and then I had to go buy some and eat it with everything.

Sword Fighting
Awesome foam swords and cool wooden shields = insane sword fight with Riley Budd.

Drama
State one act did really good! I'm proud of them. My monologue for state drama was, well, not as good, but that's okay!

Homework...
Uh, ..........
       
Indexing
I indexed 750 names, so be proud of me.

Reading
I love books! Finally an opportunity to read more than usual.

Writing
Writing is the best. I get to choose what happens.

Pool
I played pool with Mike, and we discovered that Solids ALWAYS win. Which isn't fair because he was solids three times and I was only solids twice....

Tangled
I saw tangled way to many times, and now I don't want to watch it for a long time. Guess what we're doing for mutual?

Overall, I miss this guy already and he's barely gone. But hey, we're in fourth term! Maybe I'll survive.

These are a few of my Favorite Things

I'm feeling greatful right now, so I'm going to make a list of soe of the things that I love.

The Gospel
My Family
My Friends
Music
Books
My House
Light
Warmth
Sushine
Dragons
Food
Music
Sound
Laughter
Chocolate
Animals
Adventures
Paper
Ideas
Wood
Happiness
Music
Birds
Learning
Instruments
Acting
Dancing
Singing
Band
Writing
Reading
Ancient Manuscripts
MAGIC
Music
Llamas
Textures
pH
Jimmer
Einstein
Dr. Suess
Mozart
Luck
Color
Rivers
Metal
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things
Cream colored ponies and crisp appel strudels
Door bells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on ther wings
These are a few of my favorite things
Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things
Spring
Summer
Winter
Fall
Weekends
Weekdays
Dimensions
Music
Love
Life
Birds
Bread
A Newton's Cradle
Fuzzy Fabric
Clocks
My Metronome
Technology
Horses
Fruit
Glue
Bridges
Calendars
Punctuation
Wizards
DI
Rocks
Tinfoil
Lemondrops
Candy in general
History
Flowers
Music

And most of all.... YOU!!!!!

There's more, but I don't have time to say everything that I love.

Life of a Spider... on Drugs

I just think that this is interesting.

These are pictures of spider webs after the spider was fed various substances.

This is why drugs are bad. Even caffeine. This is why I don't drink energy drinks.

Anyway, follow the word of wisdom, and you'll avoid sticky situations.

Tangled

So basically I love Tangled.

If I was a wizard, Maximus would be my horse.

I love Rapunzel.

Wouldn't it be awesome to live there?

This scene is so cute!

This is pretty much just grand.

I wish I was him right now.

I just want to go on an awesome adventure and have awesome skills and awesome battles and rescue a princess. And I also want to battle a dragon. I'm gonna go pretend to have an epic adventure right now.

Pride and the Priesthood

I've been thinking about pride and humility a lot lately. Mostly due to President Uchdorf's talk from the priesthood session of last year's general conference entitled "Pride and the Priesthood." I highly encourage anyone reading this to go and read that talk right now. http://lds.org/general-conference/2010/10/pride-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng&query=pride  I think that link should get you there.

Anyway, I'd like to sum up some of my thoughts about this subject in a few exceptional quotes.
"With one tiny exception, the whole universe is entirely comprised of others." Think about it for a second. How much time do we spend immerged in ourselves when there is a whole universe of other people and other things to think about?

"At its core, pride is a sin of comparison, for though it usually begins with 'Look how wonderful I am and what great things I have done,' it always seems to end with 'Therefore, I am better than you.'” In the words of Hank Smith, an EFY speaker, the world always seems too caught up in "comparison, competition, and never being enough." All of these things have to do with putting oneself above others.

 "We don’t discover humility by thinking less of ourselves; we discover humility by thinking less about ourselves." I think that sometimes people, in an attempt to be humble, try to put themselves down. I have often heard someone, after being complimented say something like "pshhh, that's a lie." It always makes me sad to hear that. I think that the main problem with thinking less of oneself, is that it is still centered around them, and therefore, still prideful.

Oh, what a wonderful talk President Uchdorf gave. I need to go back and read it more often. Don't you just love the gospel?

Morp!

I have craftily obtained some pictures from Morp. Which, I might add, was one of the most fun times of my life.

This is the entire group. It's pretty epic, and I've got to hand it to the girls who came up with that fantastic theme and so many "mis" words to go along with it.

Another picture of the whole group.

Some of the group. The rest of them are up there, out of the picture.

All of the many miscellaneous men.

Cowboys vs. Indians.

You have to admit, this is cool.

Cowboys and Indians.

Me and my square dancin' partner.

I put this one on here just because it's super adorable.

This one too.

I think these two win best costume award. 

There are more pictures, but I think this is enough for now. Thanks for a great date Hannah!

This is from sweethearts forever ago, and has nothing to do with Morp.

Spring Break!

The smell of springtime is in the air, and the beautiful bright colors of spring swirl around us. Birds sing and happy fluffly squirrels play with each other among the leafy tree-tops. It feels great to be alive and feel the warmth of the sun on your face as you gallivant freely through the wonderful wonders of nature.

I have some pictures of this lovely spring morning.

This is my neighborhood. I can smell freshly cut grass.

The beautiful spring flowers.

See the bees buzzing happily among the bright lively petals?

The full colors of spring, bursting into bloom on the bushes.

My lovely lawn. Nothing better than bright green glass to lay down in as your sip a soda and watch the clouds float across the sky.

Anyway, I'm very glad that I can simply sit outside and relax during this wonderful spring break.

Happy Spring everybody!!!!!!!

The Cure for Cancer

A while ago, Riley and I discovered "the cure for cancer" during AP Biology. Here is what we deduced:

The Cure for Cancer

By Riley Budd and John Oldroyd

            Throughout the history of the world, scientific theories and speculations have been cropping up everywhere in order to answer several of life’s most puzzling and significant questions. Unfortunately, however, one important question has—until now—remained unanswered: How does someone prevent or effectively treat cancer? Blasting it with radiation, cutting it away, or even radically attempting to vibrate it at a specific frequency to kill it are all methods that have been employed in an attempt to remove this deadly malady, but none have even come close to being as effective as hoped, and all concentrate only on removal as opposed to prevention. In an attempt to do good to all mankind my esteemed colleague and I put forth our most valiant effort to discover how to stop this devilish army of harmful cancer cells.

            The first thing we did was go straight the root of the problem, the cancer cells themselves. A normal, healthy cell will carry out all of its processes when and how it is supposed to and it will only divide when new cells are needed. In order for a cell to divide, a complete copy of the DNA in the cell must take place, which can only happen if tRNA makes a complete transcription, or copy, of the DNA. This can be likened to Monks in a monastery making a transcription of the bible. They only do it because they have faith that they are doing the right thing in copying it. tRNA of course has no idea why it is making the copy of the DNA, for it has no way of knowing for sure that the cell needs to divide in order for the body to stay alive, so it only does what it does because it has faith.

Now, a cancerous cell, on the other hand, is one that does not do what it is supposed to when it is supposed to, but it does whatever it feels like because it doesn’t believe in the body and doesn’t know that carrying out its function properly is what keeps you alive. Therefore, we could simply say that a cancerous cell is an atheist cell that spreads its anti-religious falsity around until an entire colony of non-religious bio-matter begins to take over and kill the body, which it doesn’t believe in.

Our second step, now that we had uncovered the problem, was to figure out a way to restore faith to these rebellious and prideful cells, or to prevent them from dissenting in the first place. The answer to this question is actually relatively simple. All that we must do is send cells with strong faith, those who know it is vital to only do what they should when they should, to teach the cells that have divagated from the straight and narrow path. I call these special cells “Missionary Cells” and they contain all the proper enzymes and spiritual tools to correct the poor souls, uh, cells that have been mislead. When all the cells finally firmly believe in a greater being, all is well, and cancer is no more.



Anyway, as entertaining as that was, later on we realized that we might actually be on to something, as we have been learning about viruses. We realised that a virus could play the part of the "missionary cells" by being engineered to specifically bind to cancerous cells and inject normal strains of DNA, making the cell correct its crooked behavior. We'll have more on this subject later.

Memories

A long long time ago, I was instructed to write a short story on the topic "mousetrap." I remember thinking of some pretty intense figuritive ways to interpret that topic, but then I decided I would simply write a cheesy (duh dun, crash) literal mousetrap story.

Recently I rediscovered said story, and I find it quite entertaining, so I will make it open to the public.

Here goes, a sample of my prehistoric writing:

P.S. If you don't have time to read it, or simply don't want to, then feel free to not read it and skip to posts waaaaay down there.

Bartholomouse

            Bartholomouse stared intently at the perfectly square piece of cheese placed carefully on top of the metal square which would release the hard cold bar that was so notoriously known for crushing the life out of many a mouse. How had Mousculease defeated the Nemean Cat? How did Jason and the Argomice avoid the rat poison and retrieve the Golden Cheese? How did Mousdini escape all of those mouse traps? Bartholomouse knew all the stories; they had done it through their great strength and cunning. “But how can I get to the cheese without that hideous trap snapping my neck like a twig?” He thought to himself. “I know I’m not fast enough to get it before the trap is sprung.” He looked around the room for something else to eat, but he already knew there was nothing. Suddenly his eyes fell upon a small bouncy ball. Could a simple child’s toy be the answer to fighting starvation? It was certainly worth a try. He scurried over to the ball and rolled it toward the mousetrap, hoping against hope that this time his idea would work. SNAP! Sweet success! The trap could only snap once, and this time its victim was not a mouse.

            Back in his mouse hole he started to boast to his brother that he, Bartholomouse, had discovered how to defeat the dreaded mousetrap. “I have the cheese to prove it!” He concluded, holding up his delicious prize.

            “I want to see for myself.” His brother demanded. “You could’ve gotten that from anywhere.”

            “I promise I got it from the trap, but if you really must see, I can do it again.”

            “Good, there’s that really annoying one by the back door that we always have to go around. It would be wonderful to be rid of it.”

            Bartholomouse eagerly lead the way, and upon arrival, scanned the area for something to use to trigger the trap. His eyes fell upon a small stick which he picked up with his mouth. “Ar ou aachig?” He mumbled.

            “Pardon?” Inquired his brother

            “Sorry” he said, spitting out the stick. “I asked if you were watching.”

            “I sure am.”

            Bartholomouse carefully picked up the stick and demonstrated how to hit the mechanism to make the trap spring.

            He was a big shot now. After demonstrating his incredible feat several more times for different mice, his fame spread like butter on toast. Currently Bartholomouse was at a party held in his honor, where the Mouse Mayor himself was present. He went over to the buffet table and helped himself to more cheese. “Bartholomouse!” yelled his friend Tomouse over the Micecal Jackson music. “The Mouse Mayor wants to talk to you!” Bartholomouse was scurried up to the stage where the Mouse Mayor awaited him. Then, the room grew silent as the Mouse Mayor addressed him. “Bartholomouse,” he said, with a grin so big that both of his teeth were showing. “You have surprised us all with your incredible cunning and daring. Therefore, we have decided to bring you on as our new Head of Mousetrap Removal Squad. The previous Head of Mousetrap Removal Squad is… uh… on vacation. In heaven. There was a great squeaky cheer from the crowd and many mice scuttled over to congratulate him.

            Very soon all of the mice in his department were very well educated on how to remove traps. No trap was able to last long in Bartholomouse’s kitchen! Now, every time that the metallic SNAP was heard, instead of being gripped by fear that another mouse had lost his life, the mice knew that a trap had just been conquered. Spirits rose, and so did the number of mice. Then, one day, the traps were gone. The Humans simply stopped putting them out. In fact, the Humans seemed to have completely given in, because they put out little plastic boxes with food in them. They were giving the mice free food. Oh, but the Humans were cunning, and crafty, and cruel. Bartholomouse’s squadron soon found out that when a mouse entered a box to obtain the free food, he would be unable to exit the box.

            Soon Bartholomouse found himself snout to snout with the Mouse Mayor yet again. “We need you to solve this problem Bartholomouse.” The Mouse Mayor stated.

            “I know, I’ve been thinking! This trap is just so tricky!”

            “Well how did you defeat the last one?”

            This got Bartholomouse thinking. “Well, I… I made it capture something other than a mouse. But that won’t work with this one, because it can capture more than one thing.”

            “Well,” said the Mouse Mayor disappointedly, “please try and find a solution. We can’t let these mechanisms murder many more mice.”

            With that he left Bartholomouse alone to think. “We can’t let them capture more mice…” He repeated to himself. “can’t let them capture…” And just as it had for the first trap, an idea came to him. He ran over to the nearest one of the box traps to test his theory, and saw that one of his friends was trapped inside. “This better work.” He thought to himself, as he selected a large splinter of wood on the wall and ripped it off with his teeth. He went over to the trap and opened the door, then propped it open with the splinter. The mouse ran free. Oh yes, it had worked. He figured out a way to “Not let them capture more mice.”

            Soon, with much partying and celebrating, things were going along perfectly again. In fact, the Governor of Mousity had personally presented him with an award for his cunning, and told him that he had saved the lives of thousands of mice. More parties were thrown in his honor, and there were even songs written about his great mouse mind. However, barely a week had passed before he was summoned by the Governor and told that yet another trap had come into existence. This time it was a bucket full of water with a bridge across. There was a piece of cheese on the bridge, and when a mouse went out to get it, the bridge would tip to one side and the mouse would fall head over tail into the bucket and drown. By now, Bartholomouse had figured out a system for defeating the traps. First, he would figure out the threat, then he would figure out how to remove it. Within a day he had discovered that the way to beat this trap was simply to tip the bucket over. No mouse could drown in a puddle of water on the floor.

            Several months, and several traps later, Bartholomouse was revered above even the greatest of mouse minds. No trap was too much for him. He soon was able to figure out how to render a trap harmless in under an hour (his record was thirteen minutes.) Mice were flourishing as they never had before. There were literally millions of them in Bartholomouse’s home town now. The country was practically overrun. Most of the humans had left the country to find somewhere a little more… sanitary. A couple had stayed though. A few brave souls had decided that they should fight the mice. They had nearly run completely out of trap ideas, and nothing seemed to work in the slightest. Finally, they held a very important meeting. “Desperate times call for desperate measures.” Said the leader of the Humans.

            “But can we pay him?” said one of the others.

            “We’ll use all our gold. That’s the one thing the mice haven’t eaten.”

            “I’m sorry about your mother, by the way. But you have to admit, she smelled like old cheese.”

            It was settled. By the end of the meeting, the letter was in the mail. The Pied Piper would be arriving within a few weeks.

            Bartholomouse was stricken with fear. He could not do it this time. There was no way to defeat the Pied Piper. He had heard the stories. He knew how the Piper would lure mice into the mountains and trap them all and leave them to die. He had to evacuate. He had to leave. He needed to get out before the Piper came. “But I have complete confidence in you.” Finished the Mousident. “I’m excited to see how you defeat the Piper. We hired a professional cameramouse to video your solution and the whole thing will be live on channel 5 tonight.”

            This time he was trapped. His brain could not think of any solutions. Steal the flute? Impossible. Kill the Piper? How? He just couldn’t think of anything. His time was running out. The Pied Piper was supposed to arrive later that evening. He just had to tell everyone that he couldn’t think of a way to defeat the Piper. But he couldn’t. Everyone believed in him. He was too important, too clever, too famous to warn the town that he couldn’t stop the Piper. He was terrible, he knew everyone would die. But he couldn’t let everyone think he was incapable of doing something for once. He was trapped between a cat and a hard place.

 All of a sudden, he was graciously saved from his terrible thoughts. He heard the most beautiful music floating toward him on the air. Nothing mattered to him but that music. He had to follow it. And so he did. All of the mice in the town seemed to be thinking the same thing. Everyone, from the Mousident down to the smallest mouse baby was completely trapped by the music, scurrying to find the source of the wondrous sound. It was like cheese in the form of music. It reminded a few of the older mice of the classical music that helped them navigate their way through mazes they had been trapped in. They were led down the road, over the bridge, and out of the town. They were led right up into the mountains and into a cave. Then there was nothing. The music was gone, the light was gone, the Piper was gone, and the cave entrance was gone. They were all trapped inside the mountain.

            Indeed, for the third time in a single day, Bartholomouse was trapped. He had never been trapped before, but now he was trapped beyond escape. The cavern was in uproar. Everybody knew what had happened. Bartholomouse had failed them. “I will get us out.” He thought. “This is my fault, I will set it right.” And with only one thought in his head, escape, freeing these mice, he started digging. Seeing what he was doing, the other mice joined in. They were slowly but surely eating away at the wall of dirt that used to be the entrance to the cave. Literally. Yes, because they had so much practice eating human food, with of its artificial preservatives and sweeteners, they were able to digest rock and earth as if it was mush. They feasted for an entire day, but there was always more dirt. Soon, mice started to grow weary (and fat) and give up. “This is madness!” squeaked one mouse. “You have killed us all Bartholomouse!” But Bartholomouse just ignored him and kept digging. He dug, and dug, and ate, and dug some more. Before much more time had elapsed, he was the only left digging. But still he kept on. Minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day, until finally, too weary to continue, he collapsed, but not before he saw the light and heard the joyous cry of freed mice. “His plan to dig out had worked after all!”

            There was only a sliver of light penetrating the cave, but that was enough. The mice gave all their effort in one gigantic rush at the soil, and they were through! The wall of earth gave way and the legions of mice poured from the face of the mountain. Soon the scene was empty, all except for one mouse. Bartholomouse’s still form, lying on the ground just outside the cave. There he lay for several hours, before finally mustering the strength to wake. He opened his eyes, then stared toward the village where all of the other mice had returned to. The mice that he had just saved, yet again, from the Pied Piper none the less, who would be bound to have a large festival planned in his honor. He would be more famous than ever. He would be a king, an emperor. Then he paused, and he thought for a moment, before scampering in the opposite direction. He decided to go somewhere where he was not famous. He never wanted to be trapped again, no matter whether it was by wall, thought, or fame.

            There is a very important moral to this story: A mouse a day keeps the doctor away, and just about everybody else too. Or maybe the moral is: A trap in time saves nine. But the most important moral to this story is: No matter what happens,

The End

Deep Comtemplations....

As I have seen other blogs around, I can't help but notice that everyone else has super awesome long blog posts with pictures and happiness. My posts are all like, this long.

PROM

Well, I finally asked to Prom. And the day after I asked, someone else asked the same girl, so now I feel bad. Maybe I should tell her to go with the other guy. Eh. Whatever.

Anyway, life is good.

Spring Tour!

As you can all tell from my very joyous expression, spring tour was super awesome. I learned some things and had some fun, and most of all, I think I did a pretty good job performing. The best part was probably the party at the end of the second day, and the worst part, for me anyway, was touring Dixie State College. I cannot express how much I love the symphonic band and everyone in it, and I thank you all for the kindness you have shown me.

I will also try to get more pictures of tour. For some odd reason this is the only one I could find, besides the ones on my phone, and I cannot figure out how to successfully transfer pictures from my phone to my computer yet.

Life

Well, I decided to start my blog over, so maybe I'll actually use it this time.