Well, hello everyone! It's been two weeks now since I last blogged, and I can't let my blog pass into the second page of my favorites list now can I?

So anyways, my last blog post was written just before I left to go on my youth group's mission trip and I thought I would blog about how that went. If you want to skip down to the section where I talk about what's been going on since then (I talk about the Wii and Brawl there), or down to where I talk about Bionicle/BZPower, then feel free to do so. I've marked them.

The Mission Trip:

The trip began at 9:00 on Monday morning where we met at our church. Unlike many mission trips where you leave and go somewhere far overseas, we were on a mission to the downtown of our city. We would be working with RIFA, which stands for Regional Inter-Faith Association, and they are the main outreach organization in Jackson I believe. Proceeding to the headquarters, we met with Shawn who is one of the coordinators for repairs outreach. Our job would be to re-paint the outside of an elderly lady's house, which was about 100 years old and was in good need of repair. So basically, the whole week was comprised of scrapping of old pain, applying a coat of primer, letting that dry, and then applying one coat of paint. I know that sounds simple and easy, but it wasn't; the whole process took us the whole week, and there were 15-20 of us on the trip. Oh, and not to mention that the heat index hovered around 100+ degrees (the worst day was Tuesday, when the heat index hit 115 degrees)

Interestingly, I was on a ladder most of the time due to my being one of the oldest in the group. This is funny due to the fact that my family has for a long while been allergic to ladders. You look confused. Yes, well that's because it's an inside joke! Hahahahaha...ha.....ha... oh whatever. My dad fell off of a ladder several years ago (I was present) and was in the hospital for a good while. Ever since then my mom has been overly protective of my dad and ladders. He's only been on one once since then (it was actually last weekend). Thus, it has become a pretty big joke in our family that we are all allergic to extension ladders. Oh, and btw, I'm not actually scared of them in the slightest; I made sure that it was set up properly (Which was something we failed to do when my dad fell. He was at too large of an angle with the ground on a slightly sloped gritty driveway which = bad setup) No, I didn't fall!

Oh, and one of our leaders was involved in a minor car wreck the first day on our way from RIFA to the elderly lady's house. Due to that small delay we didn't start working until 1ish or something. Yay for adventures!

And thus we worked from 9:00 AM to about 4:00 everyday (Mon. to Thurs.) What did we do in the evening do you ask? Well, we all took showers (that was an adventure in-and-of-itself; we were all sharing two showers in the house of a lady from church, and one day the girls took so long that the guys had to take a shower in the mop closet of all places!), we had a devotional time, and then... we played games! My favorite thing that we did was we had a dodge-ball tournament all week long, and although my team didn't win it was still alot of fun! The best part (and the worst part) were the girls vs. guys matches. You see, there were 10-12 girls, and only four guys. The worst part is this: when you catch the ball not only the person who threw it is out, but your whole team gets back into play. Thus, we would whittle the girl's team down to one or two individual and then they would inevitably catch it, bringing all of the girls in who had been sitting on the sideline for a while. This happened innumerable times the first night, and the guys got extremely drained of energy (the girls had time to recharge) Sadly to say (and to our shame) the girls beat us three times in a row. Sad day. And then they beat us again the next night! Well, we were determined to arise victorious, so we ended up going all-out the last night and we creamed them five times in a row! Hehe. I don't know if it was due to our finally adopting a strategy or because our adrenaline was going crazy (or both) but we licked 'em good. Oh yes, we did! (no offense ladies)

We also played other games such as Sardines in a Can, Mafia, and Underground Church, which were all great fun! Still, the dodge-ball was the best.

By the end of the week (as could be expected) we were absolutely worn out. It didn't help that we went to bed at 11:30 and we got up at 7:30. Ah well. I loved it anyways, and I think that it was a great learning/growing time for all of us. The week went wonderfully, and I highly enjoyed being able to be a servant to others. Interestingly, we made faster progress than Shawn was expecting, and we were able to do the lady's porch as well!

Since then:

Now back to "normal" life, I have been catching up on rest (which I believe I attained today), playing the Wii with my sis, doing yardwork from when I was gone (the yard was a jungle) and I'm in the process of moving from rest mode to productivity-in-the-summer mode. Today I made up a schedule for myself; next week I am going to start on several projects. I have some catch-up school work to do, I am going to start preparation for the next season in Dollar for a Drink (my non-profit organization which is raising money for wells in Sudan) and I am going to start working in earnest on a trilogy of mine which has been floating around in my head for years now. In addition to these things, there are numerous other small things to do which needed to be accounted for as well. Thus, I made a schedule for myself today which is going to fairly flexible but will at least give me some structure to my week, something which has been lacking since our return from D.C. I am a creature of habit and I just can't go throughout a day without some sort of plan effectively.

At any rate, Brawl has been sweet. My sister and I unlocked all of the characters Tuesday I think, which was just two weeks after we got it (and I was gone for four days in the middle of that). The reason for getting them so quickly is all thanks to the Subspace Emissary; which, in my opinion, is an excellent adventure mode. My current top three favorite characters are: Lucario, Lucas, and Sonic. If I'm going for the kill, I'll pick Lucario due to his excellent air attacks (down A to be exact) and the fact that his attack strength attains a super boost when he reaches 167%. I'm just now starting to like Lucas alot; I still need to master his barrage of long range attacks, but both his up and down A smashes are devastating. Although he's not my best, I enjoy playing as Sonic just for the fun of it; He's so fast and light. The only problem is that all of his moves are so similar; he takes a bit of time to get used to. Meta Knight is pretty neat too, I love his recovery and speed attacks.

Today I unlocked Spear Pillar, Hanenbow, and Mario Bros. My three favorite levels would have to be: Frigate Orpheon (of course that may just be due to the music), Spear Pillar, and Final Destination. The Pirate Ship is pretty neat too.

What's my overall take on the game? It's superb as far as "upgrades" go. Sure, it's the same game as the first Smash Bros. at heart, but the producers did an excellent job of expanding it and taking Melee to a whole new level. I love the game, and the addition of new characters, the smash ball, and many new features make for a truly addictive and fantastic game!

Is there anyone else out there who's a Brawl fan? If so, we may have to exchange codes and play! (Providing I semi-know you of course)

Now, on to the last (yes, I mean it) topic I wanted to blog about, and it'll be brief.

Bionicle/BZPower:

First of all, I debating whether I should renew my Brickmaster subscription. Let me ask this right up front though: can you get Bionicle comics with the regular magazine? If so, then I probably won't subscribe... I just don't think it's worth it anymore.

Secondly, I realize that I missed most of the voting, but I'm pleased with how BBCC #54 turned out! I'm not surprised at all at how the Semis went (and I just had to get stuck with Roa!) Ah well. I can't wait to see the prizes, and I can't wait (ok, perhaps I can) until the next contest. It's probably just as well that it's not until August. I wonder what the theme will be though.... Also, apologize if I came across as copying Arpy; I truly wasn't. That's just what popped out of my head! I will grant Dandezille for the inspiration of the treads though.

And finally, I am planning on placing a larger-ish order from the you-know-which site soon. I really need to expand my collection of small (half-width) liftarms and other small bits. Building in micro-scale (and on a larger scale with my incomplete robot) has really showed me that I need more of those, and not just in black either. I hope to get to work on my latest idea for a white/purple mech/robot thing.

So anyways, that's what's been going on in my life. If you read the whole thing, then I congratulate you!

My how the fingers can run...

GBG