Well that was one of the best weekends EVER! After Friday's Special Olympics, I was feeling pretty good. After school some of my favorite freshmen and I made sure that the TACO datamatch software was still working ok before making some changes in preparation for our second big valentine's day. I then went out and hung out with Erik for a while downtown. he was going to see a concert that I wasn't particularly interested in, so I went back home and had some quality conversation with Elizabeth Dyer and Christain Conger, who arrived early to my sister's slumber party. They had had a blow out on the bypass and were still a little shaken.

On saturday the family and I went to Atlanta to see Cirque de Soliel, which was AWESOME! It's the type of thing that you really really have to see. Sometimes they show it on Bravo, but it really needs to be experienced in real life. After that I went back to Athens and madeline and I met up with Erik, Nelle, and Ashley downtown, but only after the most helacious parking experience of my life. I circled downtown TWICE, including the streets so far away from anything that I would never under normal circumstances even think of parking there. I ended up in the parking deck, which is against my religion because 1) it costs money and 2) there are chemicals in the atmosphere of parking decks which, when inhaled, remove all driving ability from me. I instantly become a panicky 15 year old. Thankfully I didn't hit anyone.

Anyway, after a brief spell at Bluesky coffee, we went to this little free punk rock show at the 357 warehouse. The 357 warehouse is a "club" of sorts that was apparently at sometime in its ancient history a garage and now features condemned building signs. I'm not sure if the signs are real, either answer wouldn't surprise me. The band was good, but Erik and I had greater things planned. The Meat puppets were playing at the 40-Watt. The Meat puppets' great claim to fame is that Nirvana covered 3 of their songs on Unplugged and Incesticide. They also, along with the Pixies, basically invented grunge rock in the 80's, and on January 27, 2001, they put on one heck of a show. I'll be buying some CDs at some point.

Then came Sunday. My friend Michael Coenen, his sister Amy, and my sister's friend Cally, were in a local community theater production of "The Little Princess" I went and saw that. It was GREAT! I love little kids and there were dozens of 'em, singing, dancing, and acting, and all quite well. Amy and Cally did wonderfully as the owners of the school; Amy can play quite a villain! Michael was nothing short of astounding as the Indian servant. His musical number was one of the greatest experiences of my life. I haven't really stopped laughing. Great job guys. While at the performance, Sarah Morang invites me to her Superbowl party. Now I'm not too big on football, but social gatherings I like. It was a blast as well. I'm glad the game wasn't very good, because it allowed for a general atmosphere of joking and lack of seriousness which was quite enjoyable. Oh and the halftime show was so atrocious that I can't even begin to talk about it. The only way it could have been good would have been for a precision-strike terrorist attack to take out the stage, N*SYNC, Brittany, etc. and the 500 actors playing teenybopper fans holding "I (heart) MTV" signs. But aside from that the weekend was a huge success.

wow... sorry no post in a while... what needs to be covered? 1) academic team 2) presidential thingy 3) special olympics... here goes:

i don't know if i've ever posted anything about it or not, but i'm captian of our schools academic team. last weekend our A team (which consisted of my, john, michael i., and walker and amit rotating) got onto the semi-final round of competition, which is something that our school has never done in academic team. it was very very exciting, more than a bit nerdy, and invigorating for the team as a whole. we are suddenly itching with competitive spirit and are all actually studying to do well at state this year. hooray! well the innauguration (i just know that that's spelled wrong) happened. it's interesting to theink about. clinton was the first president i really payed attention to. i remember bush sr. and was vaguely aware that there was some guy named "reagan" but clinton was the first president i cared at all about. in fifth grade we had the little mock elections (i voted perot) but became a democratic supporter largely due to my parents' views. i'm fairly politically active for an 18 year old. i'll miss clinton. he was a good president. he certainly had a style all his own. i can imagine years from now history students asking me questions about what it was like. "odd" i think i will respond. and now, the opposition has a man in office. this should be a nice change. in debate it is much easier to attack than to defend, and eight years of defence is plenty enough.

today was our schools' service day, in which we all divide up and do nice things around athens. i (for the second year in a row) worked at the local special olympics at skate-around-USA. it was wonderful. i got to run around the ring holding up six year olds on skates. i talked to the kids. i made some friends. for many reasons, i think i often enjoy the company of six year olds more than anyone else in the world. Moses, Alberto, Christina, Rob: I know you'll never read this, but I want to say that I had a wonderful time today. good luck with everything.

so what's up for this weekend? i'll probably go see "Dancer in the Dark," the Bjork movie. my friend michael is in a play... and i have college interviews scheduled so... that should be... interesting. T.T.F.N!

So some crazy crap is going down at school. Apparently some administrator received one of those lame "humorous" e-mail forwards. It was entitled "The Night Before Christmas in Ebonics" or something to that effect. Mr. or Mrs. Administrator then forwarded it to a teacher, who somehow forwarded it to some person outside of the school who WROTE THE NEWSPAPER ABOUT IT. And now there is a world of hell for our school. Just what every small upper class southern private school needs: accusations of racism. As anyone who goes to the school will tell you, we aren't racist, we have a fairly multi-ethnic student body (given local demographics) and we strongly stress tolerance, etc. But it's certainly bad P.R. and we're going to be getting our fair share of sensitivity training and whathaveyou in the next few weeks, I'm sure.

This weekend was really fun. Our cousins Lon and Max, and Aunt Gail and Uncle Jimmy came in from Baton Rouge. We went downtown, ate out, watched Dragon Ball Z, and played a lot of Balderdash and Cranium. On Sunday after they left, Erik, Madeine, Nelle, and I went downtown, ate some Mellow Mushroom, and then sat around the UHS (it was lovely weather) commenting on strangers attractiveness. After that Erik and I came home and watched the (really excellent, in it's own way) Transformers Movie -- yes the original one from the 1980's, with Orson Wells doing the villian voice and Weird Al on the soundtrack. Monday was devoted to suffering from minor illness and filling out my last college applications. Yay! it's over!

School's back. Yesterday was fun. Erik has been having a baaaaad week so we (Him, Madeline, Nelle, and I) decide to have an awesome day. We drove to Atlanta, ate lunch at a good vietnamese place, and went to the World of Coca Cola. Those of you that don't live in Georgia (is there anyone who reads this who doesn't live in Georgia?) then perhaps you don't know of the World of Coca Cola. It is a three story museum/commercial for everyone's favorite Atlanta based soft drink company. The really interesting thing about the place (other than the crazy 1980's promotional videos) was the fact that nowhere is there any mention at all of Coke 2. They're pretending it never happened. So yes, that was amuzing. We then walked around Underground Atlanta, which is really struggling. And then we went home. Madeline had a date (ooooh) I'll let her tell you how that went (her page) and Erik Nelle and I watched The Iron Giant which was really really good. We topped off the evening with an amuzing little conversation at the waffle house. It was great fun.

Well newyears was fun. Once again there was a party at Sarah Morang's house. It seemed the entire junior class was there, which was a little odd. Things got a little rowdy. After the countdown I ate at the waffle house with Johnathan, Isley, Anna, and Jim. No man-ass this year (see first post of january 2000).

I can't believe that y2k is over allready. It hasn't seemed that long. How to best recap? A best of list. so, without further ado, here is

Carter's best of 2000 list:

Events, in no real order:
1) The college application process. - crazy, eye opening, horrible.
2) The Magnetic Fields concert. - wonderful beyond belief.
3) GHP - hi everyone.
4) Voting - i lost, but whatever.
5) Trip to San Fransisco
6) Turning 18 - odd beyond belief
7) The night at the UHS with the car crashes - you had to be there
8) TACO datamatch - computer dating, brought to you by yours truly
9) The Flaming Lips concert - yee-haw
10) The new york trip - the most fun i've ever had with my classmates
11) Spending time with Hallie and Lucia (my 5 and 7 year old cousins) - you are so wonderful I want to kidnap you.
12) The burning effigy - almost a total success
13) Homecoming Elliot Smith concert with Anne and Nelle - creative ways to skip school dances.
14) The Theo connection - you know him too.
15) Building Erik's computer - it works!
16) The Emperor's New Groove - it's fantastic! supergenious!

The worst things:
1) Realizing just how much it sucks that I should be in college right now, but I got held back in 8th grade. Grrrrrrrr.
2) Relationship mess occurring to almost everyone I am close to. - will rock your social world.
3) Having $100 worth of CDs stolen at GHP. - crime sucks.
4) Social Rifts - see number 2
5) Two weeks of depression. - it happened in November, that was no good at all.
6) The graduation of the class of 2000 - I miss you guys.
7) Sleep problems. - what's wrong with me?
8) Sucking at Cross Country - discouraging.
9) Getting in a wreck - it was minor, but it sure didn't make my day.
10) Idiotic actions of my dilenquent friends - you know who you are.

culture: 1) Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - definitely my album over the year.
2) Akira - the movie of the year, thanks Erik.
2) Belle and Sebastian - still going strong.
4) Godel Escher Bach - will change the way you think.
5) A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - wonderful.
6) 69 Love Songs - the album of last year, it's still good.
7) Mrs. Dalloway - i liked it.
8) Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth - moody, atmospheric, sad, beautiful.
9) Beatles Nostalgia - there can never be too much.
10) Rage Against the Machine - yes!
11) Outkast - the best rap group.... ever?
12) Magnolia - elitist fun!
13) this list could go on and on, so I'm terminating it.

Person of the Year: Erik Person - the name pun is only a coincidence. Erik, you're such a great guy.

Well, 2001 is upon us. Have fun everyone.