Happy halloween. October 31st 2000. Remember today. Some guy on a russian rocket is going to the international space station as I type. NASA plans to allways have people up there for the next 10 to 25 years. By then, other space stations could also be in place. This morning may well mark the last time that all of humanity is earth-bound. i'm not kidding here.

We have school off tomorrow. I don't have any big plans. Stuff with friends. chillin' I need to getmyself organized in so many ways. I've been making some cool stuff in Flash 5 (saving up that $300 for it was terrible *wink* *wink* ) and I might just have to post it.

Oh yes, a few nights ago, I got a call from my friend Michael's dad. He told me to meet him and Michael and some others downtown for a dinner, his treat. Well, I couldn't say no to that, so I drove downtown and when I was there I saw a small crowd of a few hundred people or so infront of the old hotel. I parked. I walked to the crowd and Michael was there. A few minutes later, REM came out! and gave a short (3 song) free show in support of the "stay green" land use policy or something like that. It was awesome, they played something new, something really old, and "Losing My Religion." we (that is me michael, and others) then ate at the Taco Stand. It was a good evening. Thanks, Mr. Coenen.

ok some updates on recent events...

the burning effigy... well like everything i'm a part of it goes 97% successful. The wax / paper / plastic Blue Devil looked amazing. Our design for the scaffolding worked perfectly. We hung the thing up by its wrists from a chain and built the fire. After the pep rally, we were all ready. Everything went perfectly, just as we had predicted, except... the amount of time it took for the fire to burn.

once a few people had made their way down to the bonfire, we lit the thing. our concern had allways been that it might take too long to burn and be really boring. It got going slow... very slow... so Adam Brooks put a little bit of lighter fluid on it (no, actually a lot) and well... it went. within five minutes we had a sixteen foot towering inferno about a foot infront of the effigy. it melted and burned and fell from the chain. the only problem... it all happened so fast, not that many people actually got down and saw it happen. at least they got to enjoy the bonfire afterwards... but man, you should have seen it.

Elliott Smith was sooooo cool. We had a little bit of a problem finding the place (note to loyal readers: mapquest.com is quite literally worthless) and we missed dinner, but we got in and found a really good place to stand. the show was shot but amazingly good. he didn't play only from the new album and really really knew what would please the crowd of loyal fans. i also ran into Santiago from GHP, which was cool.

Today was my last real Cross Country meet. I'm glad that it's over. To tell the truth, I really just stuck with it this year because I needed the PE credit. It was hurting my grades, and I'm getting progressively worse as a runner. But the team is full of nice people. After the meet we all went to Mexicali Grille and had an absolutely fantastic dinner. Everyone was being loud and obnoxious and simply hilarous. I'm going to miss all these people so much when I go off to college.

and there I go again! I get nostalgic for things that I haven't even lost yet. Thing that I still have months to enjoy in the moment and not treat like old memories. bad carter bad, living in the past is one thing, treating the present like the past is innexcusable.

yessss the burning effigy is going soooo well.... i'm going to have to take a picture of the head and post it. this is going to be john and i's greatest moment ever... tomorrow... athens academy gets demonic

tomorrow is the big homecoming dress up, build a float, etc. etc. day. we're missing half of our classes for that. i'm not dressing up this year; i always have before. Our theme is the Wizard of Oz and that's tough to do without cash. I don't even own overalls. Ah well...

This is going to be the most fantastic weekend. Friday: Pat's party and then the homecoming game. Saturday: something then dinner and Eliot Smith. Sunday: I'll do something I'm sure.

Man I've got to finish this college application I'm writing and fast.

we just ran in a cross country meet. i didn't do so hot. it was fun and all.

when i was finishing the race i heard someone yell to another runner "run it hard for the LORD!" ...
i don't know what i think about all of that. i certainly think that religion is a positive thing, but bringing God that far into everyday life... i just don't know. perhaps you are doing the creator of the universe a disservice by associating him with the Riverside junior varsity cross country meet. and what's wrong with running it hard for yourself? at the gates of heaven nobody will say "hey way to sprint it in back in 2000." but then again, he did run faster after that guy yelled that.

all of the jesus t-shirt, slogans, and young life type stuff just kind of bothers me in general. they take something intimately private aspect of life and turn it into a mix of support group and social club. it kind of cheapens everything. but then again, i'm not very religious at all, i'm probably not the best judge of sincerity on the matter...

i have some biology to do, i need to get some more sleep.

well i did it, i updated the page.

it doesn't work in non-internet explorer browsers yet, and knowing microsoft, that means it probably wont work on non-windows platforms yet.

school's been going, i guess. i've got this crazy english project to do, as well as some major math and latin.

john and i have seized control of the comitee to burn an efigee at the pre homecoming celebrations. if this thing even goes HALF according to plan, it's going to be amazing.

ahhh yes, homecoming. anne and i have elected to skip that accursed dance (dances at our school really really suck.) and go see eliott smith perform in atlanta. that should be rad. wow that's less than two weeks away now... better buy tickets.

i'm scrambling to get an early action application in right now. wish me luck.

what else... hrm... i need to do a suffocate project.