I just pasted some interesting shots of this cool looking lifeguard from Venus Beach Click site on MSN. I don't know why, but I thought the shots looked kind of cool. Would make a great avatar or something. Just something. The site is mainly an endorsement from Gillete Venus Breeze with MSN. The site offers a poll, mini-game, 10 live webcam shots of 10 beaches, photograph users uploading/rating thing, and other little things. Silly thing to blog about, but was just interested.

Gillette Venus is a brand of razors for women by the way.

There's only 12 days before school - which for most schools in Texas, including mine, starts on August 27, on a Monday.

When I'm talking about being unprepared, I'm talking about the school and pretty much everyone that goes there. The school just recently sent a 3 page letter to me.

What was in there was pretty much worthless. The first page talks about Project Prom 08'. Which in mind mind is dumb. I mean we're starting a whole new year, and the first letter is about asking for volunteers to help for Project Prom? Dumb! Also considering that I'm a sophomore this year, they should check to who mail their letter to next time. Especially when it's address to "Dear Senior Parent:". Just plain dumb.

The 2nd letter is somewhat useful. It talks about what to expect the first few days, kind of.

"We have found that we are able to distribute textbooks, lockers, emergency cards, schedules, ... through our home rooms the first few days of school. Parking is the only exception." - 2nd letter, JVHS News July 2007.

All I can say is, "Wow". Another beginning of the school year with chaos and mass confusion. I don't understand why they would bother waiting until the first few days of school to post out the info. students need. So on the first day of school, I'll walk in unprepared, looking around for which line to gather my info, glance around maps for room locations, schedule conflicts, chat with old friends who I haven't seen this summer, and a bazillion other things before the bell rings. Oh yeah. I can see how that works so much better than telling us RIGHT NOW.

And later, the next few days, the teachers will tell us what supplies we need to bring and get, and so it's already school, and we have to go to the stores (maybe again) to rummage through bins and shelves to find something decent to get. And considering that we don't know who our teachers are until the first day of school, teachers won't send us letter ahead of time (in the summer) to tell us what to know and expect, and to get. If you ask me, that's just being unprepared. The school that is.

Great, the first week(s) of school will just be a clutter. Thank you JVHS. As much as I love the school, the management team seriously needs to get revamped.

The next bit of news isn't better  - "SENIORS ONLY may come to JVHS for parking permits...". I don't drive yet or anything, but I find that unfair. The school (or maybe the district) has some stance on giving the seniors like practically everything first. I can see that seniors are in their last year and everything, but hindering the other students for the good of the seniors? That's just so cruel.

Then the next 2 paragraphs talk about the stupid rules, like music devices and cellphones not allowed to be 'seen' on campus during hours. And about wearing proper clothes.

Oh, and the 3rd letter is just about paying dumb fees for your Senior Prom and other Senior end-of-the-year stuff. Boring. Such a hassle.

So as you see, the system the school follows is pretty flawed, and is an obvious disadvantage to everybody. Well except the seniors of course.

Yes! My aunt persuaded my parents to allow me to paint my room. And now it's green!

It was last Sunday. Another boring day. My dad took my brothers and I to get a haircut, and when we returned home, my aunt was there. She greeted us, and my bros and I greeted her. We talked. Mainly she told us to be careful in the new house, and not mess it up - like my house right now.

I had to point my finger a lot at my brother - he's the one that messes it up so much.

Then she said that maybe we should start picking paint colors for our rooms. I was really excited, but I remembered what my parents said about it. I asked is she sure they're ok with it? She called my mom in the dining room and said fine. Great. She's ok.

I guess my dad said yes too, because the next thing I knew, we were heading to Home Depot.

We went to the paint section and we took a look. My aunt said that she was a pro at paint colors or design or whatever, and she was helping us pick them. I wanted a green, my 10 year old bro, Alan wanted a blue. So we spent like almost half an hour deciding what paint we wanted.

I was just interested in any green that wasn't too bright (too girly if it's too light green), or one that wasn't too dark (like a gunky disgusting green). In the end I picked on that's like somewhere between a mix of a medium green, lighter shade of green close to medium green, and a darker shade of green that looked more closer to medium green than dark green. I know - confusing. But that's how it looked like to me. I never had any idea on how many green pigment/hue-like colors there were. My aunt was asking if I wanted this one, and I said, "OK" and the next moment she's suggesting one just a shade lighter or darker, and I say, "OK". Really. There's just too many cool greens to pick from.

It didn't take me much longer, but I finally decided on a green called "Boston Fern" from Behr. It looked pretty cool to me. I could already picture it in my room.

However, Alan took a really long time with his. He wanted this blue called Rivera blue (he pronounced it as Riveria blue). My aunt kept on insisting that it was too blue to go into a bedroom. That it would make your eyes really dizzy when looking around. I could see what she meant. So they kept discussing about it, but my aunt just gave in. We were more interested in just getting the rooms painted today. It was already about 1:30 already. And we were looking for my mom.

We finally got to the new house pretty much half an hour later. We got to work.

My aunt, my bro, and I worked on fixing up my bedroom first. We put blue masking tape around the floor crown molding, windows, outlets, light switches, and the door. I had no idea it would take so long to do it. My aunt commented that was the hardest and tedious thing on a paint job - the taping, not the painting. I agreed. After all we didn't want paint to get on it.

My mom suggested that we leave one wall blank - so that the room wouldn't feel like being trapped in a box. With one wall left white, it would feel like you weren't trapped in a box. I was doubtful on that though, I preferred my room to be all solid. But my aunt suggested we at least try 3 walls first, and if it needed to, we'll paint the 4th wall. I was ok with that.

So it took us a pretty long time to paint. My aunt would brush the wall with this sponge-like hand brush, and I would hold the tray of paint up for her. My brother at first just chitter-chattered and was annoying. Later his job was just to wipe up any paint drops hitting the tarps - so that it didn't get stepped on and onto the carpet or anything.

It was like already past 8 PM when we were finished. Hard work, but I loved my room. It was so cool looking. I was really happy that we got to paint my room. Real happy. We're going to down Alan's room this Saturday, since my aunt has work, and there was no more time for painting another room. Athena and Alex (younger cousins) came and were impressed. They're jealous that there rooms aren't painted, and their mom is giving it some consideration (they were young of course when their parents bought their newish house). Although I don't know if she said it to make them happy, or really considering it. I hope she does. Kids should have painted rooms.

Well anyways, that's how it was. I took a picture of the green paint sample card. The first photo was taken with flash (to show the color better) and the other 2 are non-flash. The color I picked, Boston Fern, is the 2nd from the top.

It was awesome! Like really cool. I've been to Splashtown (another waterpark in NW Houston), and Schlitterbahn rocks way more better. My dad, my 2 bros, and I went there last Saturday (yes, I know it's been like 6 days already), because there was like a company picnic there.

It was a boring ride. But when I got there, there was excitement in the air. It was really interesting. There were slides, water, crowds, tubes, all your waterpark stuff. It was fantastic. First, we went off to find the white tent pavillion they set-up for the company picnic. The area under it was huge. Lots of employees have already set their stuff down. They would serve food later. But for now, it was fun time!

I went off alone, first meandering around the park, looking for what I could do. There were cool ride, water playgrounds, I don't know how to say it all, but there was a lot. I'm not much of a super slide person by the way. There were lots of hot people out there. Or that I thought I could see.

So I decided to hit the Torrent River. It's one of those float-on-a-tube river rides. The tubes were free - you just had to find one. I really liked it. It went around this whole roofed complex (although there was this branch-off section to take a route outside) and it was pretty neat. Especially when you get towards the end. Mini tidal waves start crashing around, and it sends the tubes up high and low. It was really fun. I stuck for at least 2-3 more rides. Then I went for lunch.

Lunch was ok. Your typical company picnic foods. I just got some hotdogs and lemonade. The lemonade was especially good. I only ate one hot dog, the other seemed undercooked. Compared to the other company picnic I went to, this one had some not so good food. Well I went off to go again.

So I did some people-watching, and some ride watching. There was this neat attraction called the Boogie Bahn. People of all ages rode on this boogie board, over some machine generated waves, in this ocean like environment kind of thing. It was pretty cool. Lots of people fell off in a few seconds, and had to leave. Once you end at the bottom, or wiped out to the top, you have to leave. It was pretty cool. It amazed me that some kids were able to stay very longer than most people.

Then I went pack to the pavillion, and I took my 5 year old bro with me. My 10 year old bro is a real brat. He wanted to go to the beach, first thing, but we had to keep on insisting that this was more important first. Then the beach. But nope, he was real whiny. Just sat there the whole time it seemed, and didn't really leave the company pavillion. Whatever. My 5 year old bro is much more cooler - sometimes.

I took him to some little water playgrounds. I brought a camera and took a lot of pictures - of the area. Not really pictures of him. It was cool. He had a lot of fun. Although he kept giggling a lot and said - I can't swim! I can't swim! - In one of those cute 5 year old ways.

Well all things come to an end of course. My 10 year old bro was so whiny, that we had to go home. Dad couldn't take any more of that. I was kinda angry of course, because it's not like we'll be ever hitting this place again. It's pretty far away from NW Houston. Although it is surprisingly opened during the winter, at least the indoor part. But we left. My dad asked if still wanted to go to the beach, but my brother still stubborn from not going in the morning refused. I had a bunch of old yucky cereal ready to toss at the pigeons, but I assumed we weren't going, so I tossed it out into the trash can, before we left the parking lot. Rats. So I had to say no too. Besides, the beach isn't that fun as a waterpark. I think.

I also got a little sunburn on my pectorals. I already knew that while I was there, because my 10 bro pointed the red spot out.

Well anyways, it was an overall fun trip. I hope we might get to go there during winter. It might be tons of fun. Check out the pics.

You can check out my photo album too. It's pretty neat.

Ugh. The new house is great and all. Much bigger than our old house, and looks real nice. But there's some stuff that I'm not liking.

My parents won't allow me and my brother to paint our rooms. I want green, he wants blue. Dad says no. Too much more money, work, and it will lower the value of the house. He says he already picked the house's wall color (beige) and we're keeping it that way. Painting my room green wouldn't fit, and if we tried to sell it, it would lower the value and whatnot. Plus we're just barely well-off. Painting would cost too much of our money and time.

I've always wanted my current room to be green, but that was always a no. So I was hoping before we moved in, my new room would be green, but it won't. It kind of made me real sad. I really wanted it green. Really. It would have made me so happy. Oh well.

There's other stuff too. The model home I visited, and the house we got is kind of different than I wanted. The model home was the preview home, and it showed off what our house would look like, and it was furnished with furniture too. It looked real nice.

Sadly some of the nice stuff didn't come with our house. The nice porch I saw didn't make it. The windows near the front door, and even the keyhole are missing. So it's hard to tell who's at the door (yet again). And other little stuff.

There were also house features that I wanted. We have some bay windows, or at least a nook near the windows you can sit on and look out. For some reason, they didn't consider adding storage under there. No shelves or anything. It just sits there unused. I really wanted the light switches that were flat, broad and smooth like. The bigger ones. Not the light switches that are smaller, and flicks/sticks out. The bigger broader ones are much more nicer to turn and flick on than the old fashioned one. Small design thing, but still important.

I also have a wood fan (or dark wood-like look) against my beige ceiling, and it kind of clashes. Kind of ugly to look up. Dark wood against beige is kind of disgusting. They also included a conventional oven/stove with the house. I was hoping for a more faster, safer, and efficient induction cooktop, rather than the old fashioned way. At least a Microwave/oven combo - where the Microwave is right above the oven unit - would have been nice.

An Energy Star certified home would have been better too. They waste less energy, and in the end, lower down our utility bills. Sadly, it's not more wide-used.

And we have ceramic tile floors in some areas, like the entrance and the kitchen/breakfast nook. I wanted wood, or a wood-like flooring. Feels much better than walking on ceramic tiles.

I know I'm being fussy, over a new house, but I kind of wanted it to be perfect, or at least as good as it can be. This house costs a lot of money, and it's not worth it if it's poor in some areas, and doesn't seem to be that great. The money could have been spent on vacations, or college tuition, or whatnot. Instead of a house that didn't seem worth it or pleasing.

I'm grateful for a newer and bigger house, but I still wanted it to be better. I guess I'll have to live with it.