1

Sometimes I feel that my first drafts are better than the final product, but the problem is that they never fulfill the requirements. Now obviously they aren't as "well written" as the finished piece of writing, but they seem to be much more raw creation and imagination. When I improve it it seems to just take away from what I was feeling at the time, so even though the point of improving it is to make it better--and I guess that it does help convey my message or my emotion better--it still seems to take away from the original reality of what I was writing.

P.S. This was a first draft, so even though it may appear to be really dumb or confusing, I fully understand what I was trying to say much better than I would if I had actually thought about it and read through and edited this piece of writing. I'm sure that if I went through and revised this, I would probably end up just deleting the whole thing because I wouldn't really care anymore, and I would probably think that second drafts are better or something.

The End.

Up-town

One day as I was walking back from cleaning the down-town sewage

I came across a man from up-town who was munching his up-townish stewage.

“Why so down?” He said to me, a smile on his face.

“It’s an up week, an up day, and up time right now; you must be up in this place.”

“I try to go up,” I said to the man “but gravity pulls me back down.

When I try to fly, and reach to the sky, I just end up back in down-town.”

“That’s silly,” said he, and put his arm around me, “You’ll only end up where you go.

 If you try to go up, with all of your might, I promise you’ll get there, I know.”

“You don’t know.” I argued; I thought I was right, but I didn’t know what he knew.

“Of course I do,” He explained to me, “For I used to be just like you.

I was born in down-town, I hated my life, I was sure I would die as a downer,

But one day I looked up and I saw a new life and I moved and became an up-towner.

“I had the same job; I had the same grief, and all the same troubles and strife,

But you see, I was happy because I looked up, and I now had an up-townish life.

I may have had the same problems, but I didn’t let them get me down,

I saw that I had many good things, and looking at them led me straight to up-town.”

“I think that I finally might get it!” Said I, as my heart quickly started to race.

“If I just see the good things instead of the bad, I can get out of this down-town place!”

I looked at my family; I looked at my friends; I looked at my electric toaster!

I looked and I looked, and as I looked up I realized up-town was closer!

I looked at the love and I looked high above all the dark and saw music and light.

I saw so much more with my eyes off the ground and I knew that my life was alright.

“I’m in up-town!” I cried with a tear in my eye, “I’ve been here the whole entire time!

I was caught up in my down and I failed to see that my life was extremely sublime!”

“You see?!” Said the man, “I knew that you’d make it; I saw you were already there.

Most men just don’t see that they are in up-town cuz they’re not looking up in the air.

So now that I’ve showed you this wonderful thing, it’s your turn to tell all the rest,

They’ll all be more happy if you help them see that up-town is truly the best.”

Writer's Block

Bryce and Zion

Oh yes, the unlimited excitement of the Bryce and Zion trip with the Germans. You wish you could have been there, but instead you'll just have to settle with looking at pictures and reading my descriptions.

Day One

We began our marvelous trip with a lengthy bus ride. All of the bus rides of this trip were absolutely marvelous, including chatting in English and German, reading, playing chess, playing other games, and eating. Homework was not allowed. 

After a while of riding in the departed bus, we arrived at the Fremont Indian reserve, where we got to look around for a while and learn about the Fremont Indians. I also remembered quite a few things from two years ago, which was kinda cool.

For the first few minutes we were simply milling around.

Then Stefan showed us how to use an atlatl.

 We weren't very good at it. Nobody actually hit the Styrofoam deer.

After that we checked out the museum. 

 Then we went hiking and looked at rock art.

After that we got back on the bus and rode over to Bryce Canyon.

This squirrel was fearless. It was like, sniffing camera lenses.

Then we went in the Bryce Canyon visitors center.

  Henry's vest is from the thrift store in the town where we ate lunch, where I got a suit coat for a dollar.

Bryce Canyon was really cool.

 It looks great upside down too.

That night we arrived at Ruby's Inn and stuff. My room was awesome because it was me, Josh, Henry, and Michael. What could be more fun? Anyway, we all went swimming, ate our Cup of Noodles and played Magic until pretty late at night. 

After that we decided to open the can of Libby's Potted Meat Food Product that came from Days. Not the best idea. We each ate some of it in the freezing cold parking lot with our bare hands. It was definitely the most disgusting thing that I've ever had in my entire life. I gagged upon touching it and I was a hair away from puking. It was vile. I guess that wasn't very smart. It was a humiliating and glorious moment.

 We decided that Libby is Potiphar's wife.

 We flushed the stuff.

Day 2

We woke up in the morning and headed back to Bryce Canyon where we actually got to hike into the canyon this time. It's such an amazing place.

 Sorry this video is sideways. It's pretty cool. It's me jumping down the switchbacks.

 The queen of England.

 Dr. Seuss's domain.

After our awesome hiking, we headed to Zions. This is as picture of checkerboard mountain. It's insanely amazing.

 Lunch.

At Zions we just looked around a little bit at the visitors center and such. We also planned a little of what we were going to do on the morrow. After that we headed to St. George.

We got to see the St. George Temple!

The motel that we checked into that night was much more ghetto than Ruby's Inn. One of the sheets on the bed had a nasty yellow stain on it, and there was a burn hole in one of the blankets.

 There was also some really kitschy artwork.

We only had one table and it was lame, and it was just a trashy room in general.

Right when we were about to go to bed the toilet flooded for no reason. We assume that it was Libby getting revenge on us for flushing it in the previous hotel. It followed us to St. George and attacked.

It took all of our cunning and the night worker at the front desk to win the battle. 

Day 3

In the morning we ate Rainbo Mallows, checked out of the motel, and headed back to Zions. I love national parks. They're so completely beautiful and amazing.

We hiked the Hidden Canyon trail, and I could remember a lot of it because it was the exact same one that I hiked last time I went. It's such a great hike.

 The treacherous stairway

There was lots of intense climbing and scrambling involved in this hike. I absolutely love going up stuff like this! It really makes me super happy.

It's intense to stand on stuff like this. You feel especially cool because you had to climb it to get there.

We ate an Angel Food Loaf at the top. Good stuff.

 Best group ever!

Overall, it was an absolutely amazing hike. Probably at least twice as much fun as last time, and last time was pretty great as well.

After Zions we came home, and now we're home. That was a superb trip. I really wish that I could go visit national parks more often.