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Mysterious Minifig

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Blog Entries posted by Mysterious Minifig

  1. Mysterious Minifig
    I seem to be mostly better now. No fever and I have most of my energy back.
     
    It looks like the 5k will be a go. I'll have to start running again tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully the week of rest I've given my legs from running will do some good for my shin splints. Otherwise I may have to take an even longer break.
     

     
  2. Mysterious Minifig

    Sick

    By Mysterious Minifig,

    I've had a cough thing for the last couple of weeks, but now I'm probably sick for real. There's been something go through my family, two fo my siblings have had ear infections, one of my brothers had a temp over 100 degree, and my dad has pneumonia. I had a slight fever tonight, hopefully it's not worse in the morning because I really don't want to call in sick to work.
     
    I also have a 5k I really want run Sunday night. If I'm still sick it won't happen though.
     

  3. Mysterious Minifig
    This is what my troop's itinerary currently looks like. It's not final yet, but there shouldn't be any major changes.
     
    Friday July 23
    Lunch at Dulles Town Center Mall
    Udvar-Hazy Center
    Pentagon Memorial
    Air Force Memorial
    National Archives
     
    July 24
    Capitol Hill
    Arlington National Cemetery
    Lunch at the Pentagon City Mall
    Tours of the different war memorials and presidential memorials
    We also have an Illumination Tour of the Capital/Monuments in the evening.
     
    July 25
    Mount Vernon in the Morning
    Lunch at the Pentagon City Mall
    White House
    National Postal Museum
    Ford's Theatre and Petersen House
    Smithsonian Institution (We can pick one of the Museums)
    Alexandria's "Footsteps to the Past" in the evening.
     
    July 26
    No touring, just heading to the Jamboree.

     

     
  4. Mysterious Minifig
    I got a recently purchased a cell phone off of ebay. It's a Samsung T401G and it's pretty slick. It's got a slide out qwerty keyboard. It's a Net 10 branded phone, which is what I wanted. I wanted a prepaid phone and they had one of the best rates. 10 cents a minute and 5 cent (3 cent with my phone) text messages.
     
    My phone arrived yesterday. The listing said it was a new phone. When I opened it I broke a seal on the package. Apparently it wasn't the original seal however. I was suppose to get 300 minutes and 60 days of service free with the phones activation, but my account was never credited with it. After spending 15 minutes with Net 10's customer support I learned why I never got my minutes. The person I talked to at Net 10 said that sometime back in 2008 my phone was activated. She also said that there were still minutes on the phone, although I wouldn't be able to see them until I added service days to the phone.
     
    The phone's seller is sending me a minutes card equivalent to what I was suppose to get when I activated the phone. So once that arrives I should be good. In the future I might be more careful buying electronics, although this wasn't one of those "too good to be true" deals.
     

  5. Mysterious Minifig
    Tomorrow is the my school's True Team sections meet. I'm excited.
     
    I don't know if I'm running, but even if I'm not it's going to be an exciting meet. It's going to be at the North Dakota State University track. I'm excited because that's where I might be going to college. The team is taking two coach buses up there and we're leaving at 8:30 AM.
     
    For those of you who don't know, True Team has a special scoring format. Instead of the regular format, first place gets the most points and every place after that has one less point until last place, which gets one point. So if there is twenty people in an event, first place gets 20 points. This format shows how much depth teams.
     

  6. Mysterious Minifig
    Last two pieces of the grade puzzle fell into place today. I'm pretty confident that I got all A's for this semester. Both Trigonometry and my Intro to Engineering classes are A's.
     
    My English Composition class was the one I was worried about. I would have been happy with a B but I did a lot better then I thought I would. I had to take a trek through the rain to get my graded research paper, which ended up being an A. My revised paper is still ungraded, but that should be an A. It was a high B originally, but I fixed the main problem with it so it should be bumped up to an A.\
     
    Now I have to decided what's going to happen next year, both what classes and how many. Calculus and Physics are already predetermined, but then German or American History or both? It will depend a lot on whether I decide to do Cross Country. Either way I'll have even less free time in the fall then this semester.
     
    Also, some projects will get posted soon, a Jamboree update and a new song on Piano.
     

     
  7. Mysterious Minifig
    Today's my last day of class. It will be a relief to finally be done with school for the year. Now I can finally get working on some other stuff that I've been putting off. Next year is going to be a nightmare though.
     
    I have two finals next week. Only one is really a final though, the other one is going to be a party. My English professor said he would have snacks and we would watch a movie during the final period.
     
    As long as I get an "A" on my research paper I'm turning in today I should be able to end the semester with a 4.0 GPA.
     

  8. Mysterious Minifig
    I attended another weekend of Boy Scout camp over last weekend. It wasn't really camping, per say, since we slept in barracks and we didn't do any cooking, but it was a council run event.
     
    It didn't live up to expectations. It rained all saturday, and none of the other participants were really prepared for the rain, except me. They ended up pulling everyone inside from my program right after lunch. After that we basically had a huge party in the barracks. The SPL for my Jamboree Troop was also there so I got to hang out with him a bit. There's a huge difference between out home troops.
     
    They also had call outs for Order of the Arrow, and so I'm now elegible (again) to attend the conclave and finally join.
     
    So much stuff has happened lately and there's so much to blog about, It will probably be at least a week before I get caught up though. Jamboree update coming when I get a chance.
     

  9. Mysterious Minifig
    I recently got a new MP3 player. My old one is probably on its last life right now.
     
    Picture
     
    The old one is black and the new one is the nice teal color. The old Nextar has a number of problems. It seems like the components behind the big silver button have shifted so the button is at a funny angle. Although you can't see it in the picture, the slider thing used to switch songs is also pretty much broke. It's jammed so that unless your concentrating when you try to switch songs you'll just end up fast forwarding. It's also pretty cramped with only 512MB of space.
     
    The new teal shuffle has almost 2GB so I have a little bit of room to grow. The only problem is that it doesn't have a screen, but I can live with that. Right now I have 1.66 GB of music on it. That will get changed thought as I shuffle the music around, deleting and adding stuff.
     
    I might do a entry about my music collection some time in the future, once my recent purchases arrive.
     

  10. Mysterious Minifig
    Someone send me a PM tomorrow before I get on and let me know what to expect. Whether it's a back to normal BZPower or some unrecognizable post-apocalyptic landscape. If it's the latter, let me know where a safe haven is.
     

     
  11. Mysterious Minifig
    For anyone wondering why I've been so inactive, no posts or blog updates.
     
    Track has started now so I have about 2 hours of practice every afternoon. I now past the point where I'm dead tired after practice but that doesn't change my work load.
     
    I also work about 10 hours a week so that's taking up time.
     
    School work is also taking up a lot of my time. My trig class is ending next week so I need to make sure all my homework and stuff is all in line for that. I'm getting started on the final project for my English composition course. It's going to be fun to have to try and write a 6-10 page research paper. My engineering class is also picking up, or maybe it's not and I've just been pushing stuff off too long. That I've got a bunch of things to do for. I have to give a five minute presentation on the future challenge of storing nuclear waste.
     
    I also had the March Jamboree Troop meeting, nothing big happened so there's no need for a full write up. We had swim quals and we picked up the stuff that we ordered and the troop is providing. I now have most of the patches I'll be taking to the Jamboree. My councils shoulder patches look great. Other councils are going to have a hard time topping it.
     
    My family is also putting in new carpet in the middle level of our house. We've had the living room carpet torn up since Saturday and the new carpet is getting put in on Friday.
     
    So much stuff is happening, I'm not sure how much time I'll have available for BZPower for a while. If you need to contact me drop me a PM, or even better, send me a PM through my profile. I usually check my e-mail at least once a day unless I'm really busy.
     

  12. Mysterious Minifig

    A Musical!

    By Mysterious Minifig,

    Last night was the opening night for the musical the local homeschool group is doing, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. I'm not doing anything with, but two of my siblings are on the stage crew. It was pretty good although there were a lot of set changes, almost to the point of being too many. This will go down as another great Homeschool Theater production on of all the other great plays they've done in the past.
     
    Next year I'm going to be on the stage crew of what ever play they decide to perform. I got offered a spot this yeat but I turned it down because I thought there was going to be track practice and I thought I would have some extra hours at work. Neither of those things ended up happening.
     
    Someone needs to knock some sense into me if I try to get out of working stage crew next year.
     

  13. Mysterious Minifig

    Sunny

    By Mysterious Minifig,

    Lately the weather has been really nice out. Upper 30's, lower 40's. All the snow is starting to melt. The only downside to this nice weather is that the sidewalks around the college have all turned into ice. While normally don't have a problem with I don't really like it.
     
    Running has gotten off to a good start too. If it stays nice like this should have no trouble getting ready for track.
     

  14. Mysterious Minifig

    Painting

    By Mysterious Minifig,

    Most of yesterday and today was spent painting the two largest rooms of my house. Actually it would be one room, but the fireplace breaks it in to two rooms. The top of the two rooms is pretty high, over twelve feet. It was pretty interesting crawling around on boards that we had set up, trying paint.
     
    For some odd reason our large (and overfilled) living room looks smaller when there is nothing in it.
     

  15. Mysterious Minifig
    Another Track season is fast approaching. There's going to be a parents meeting on March 1st. The first practice is going to happen on March 15th.
     
    This year they're not going to have morning practices during spring break, probably because they only had half the team at the spring break practices last year.
     
    Hopefully I'll be able to participate in the pentathlon the team is doing. Last year everyone in my family had the stomach flu, which wasn't fun at all.
     
    It will be interesting to see where I'm at this year. Last year I started off right where I left off in terms of race times. I think for this season my goal is to run the 800m under 2:30. My personal record from last, set at the last meet of the season, was 2:42. I think a 12 second drop is a reasonable expectation. I also ran more after track ended so I'm a lot better off this year then last year.
     

  16. Mysterious Minifig
    So goes another contest I've failed to enter. I thought about entering but most of my Technic pieces are white (NXT). A lot of my older stuff is black but apparently it doesn't count as Technic, which it is.
     
    There are a lot of cool MOCs this time, but nothing as amazing as the friction pin cycle from the last contest. I'll look forward to vote, if I remember it this time.
     

  17. Mysterious Minifig
    I went for my first run of the season today. I was testing the waters, both figuratively and literally.
     
    I think it went pretty I'm no where near the shape I was in at the end of last year but I'm still in a lot better shape then the beginning of last year.
     
    I ended up going through a puddle. I thought I would be able to get through it. Turns out it was deeper then I thought so my shoes are soaked. Hopefully they'll be reasonably dry by the end of this week.
     
    The two things I need most are a warmer light weight jacket, my current one is just a shell, and a new pair of shoes. I bought my current one over a year ago.
     

  18. Mysterious Minifig
    This is the reflective essay I needed to write for English class. Normally I wouldn't post papers here but this one is sort of a personal narrative. I'm going to claim it's a great piece of writing and I know it doesn't get everything across that I wanted to, but I think it has a few moments that just click.
     

     

    The Camp that Enthralled Me 
    When I first visited Many Point Scout Camp in northern Minnesota, it was a new experience. Previously the only camping trips I had gone on had been weekend trips. This was my first time at a weeklong resident camp.
     
    The journey to camp started off at the school where my Boy Scout troop has its Monday night meetings. We met early on Sunday morning. Parents came to drop off their sons and to give them a final farewell. Most of the boys were camping veterans; this would be their third or fourth trip. For my patrol, the Chiefs, this was our first trip. After all the troop gear was loaded and final good byes said the troop caravan rolled out.
    Once we got to the front entrance of the camp, I got my first impression of the camp. We entered the forest, which would be our home for the next week. The forest was populated mostly by oak. Tall and majestic, the trees’ green leafy foliage towered above our caravan. Interspersed throughout the oak were graceful birch and sturdy pine. There were also a whole host of other trees, which I couldn’t identify. As light filtered through the tree top canopy, it created intricate patterns upon the dirt road. It felt as if we had entered into another world.
     
    Eventually the forest pulled back and we drove into a parking lot. On one side scouts were playing. Parking on to the other side, everyone climbed out of the cars. As we stood around stretching our legs, a tall lanky staff member ran up to us, yelling, “Come on! Let’s go play a fun game!”
     
    My patrol was ready to run over and play, but the older boys weren’t nearly as enthusiastic. We eventually joined in the games they were playing, until one of the adult leaders came and told us it was time to go. Climbing back into the cars, we started moving again. Right away we drove past the camp’s fire tower, almost one hundred feet tall; it dwarfed all the nearby trees. Thin spidery metal legs supported a dull red box at the very top. Unfortunately, we couldn’t stop to climb to the top.
     
    The further we drove into the camp, the more the forest changed. Gone were the majestic oaks and in their place birch had become the common tree. Eventually we got to a “T” in the road. Turning, we drove along the road that would take us to Voyager, the sub-camp where our troop was staying. As we drove the trees pulled back and we could see a small bay. Floating out on the blue water were two large rafts. Soon the forest sprung up again and our view of the lake was obscured as the shore turned away from the road. Turning off the main road we finally got to the camp site.
    Getting out of the car and walking into the camp site, I could see that our site was next to a lake. A call from another troop member brought me back to reality, “Come help unload the cars.”
     
    With the cars unloaded and headed back to the parking lot, the troop assembled in front of the flag pole. Ryan, our leader who towered over all but the oldest scouts, turned to face the troop, “All right gentlemen, this is the plan. We need to get the patrol sites and some tents set up. Then we have to get changed into our swim suits for the swim quals. Let’s get to work.”
     
    Grabbing a tent, Chris, one of our patrol’s mentors, yelled, “Come on Chiefs, Alex and I will show you how to set up one of these.”
    Set up went fairly quick. Almost all of the tents were pitched. We also arranged the patrol site. The patrol box with the cooking gear sat next to a tree with the stove next to it. In front of that sat the two tables and overhead hung the green canvas rain fly.
     
    Assembling by the fire pit, the whole troop started walking to the beach. As we walked I could see dark clouds slowly rolling in. As we got closer to the beach my initial excitement began to subside as a knot formed in my stomach. After the beach director gave his talk about the beach rules and the three swimming skill levels, everyone went and lined up along the shore to take the swim test. The swim test was important because it would allow us to use the many different boats that the camp owned. One by one everyone made their way out to the docks as staff members called them. I was one of the last people in line; by the time I got out to the dock I was terrified.
     
    “Hi, I’m Ben, what’s your name? What test are you going to be taking today?”
     
    “The beginners test.”
     
    “Then, jump in right here.”
     
    As I waded out of the water, headed hung dejectedly, Ben called out, “You’re going to be a learner. Don’t worry about it, though. If you come down here during instructional swim, you’ll be a swimmer in no time.
     
    By the time we got back to the camp site it had started to rain. Scurrying around the camp site, fellow troop members pulled their gear into the tents that had already been pitched. Although the rain had stopped by the time we had supper, the dark clouds remained overhead. After supper we finished setting up the camp. Cots were put together, sleeping bags unrolled and mosquito netting hung.
     
    Later that evening the troop hiked up to the big staff camp fire. When we got there, all the benches were filled so we ended up sitting on the steps that led down to the campfire ring. About halfway through the evening, the sky was lit by a bright flash of lighting. A deep roll of thunder followed.
    That’s when the rain started. Turning, I spotted an unlucky scout who forgot his rain coat. Water was running over his head and into his eyes. His hair was plastered to his head and his spotless uniform began looking more and more like a soggy dishrag.
     
    Everyone jumped up and rushed for the exits. In the confusion that followed I got separated from the rest of the troop. I somehow managed to keep up with Sean, one of the older boys. If it hadn’t been for him I would have gotten lost.
     
    The next morning I awoke to the sound of four or five of the adult leaders singing “Oh What a Beautiful Morning.” Crawling out of the tent, I joined the growing number of scouts already assembled. Everyone was bundled up in the warmest clothes they had, usually a sweatshirt and jeans, or maybe a light weight jacket and a hat if they were lucky. Although it had stopped raining during the night, we could see our breath hover in the air, which wasn’t much of an improvement.
     
    When it came time for our flag ceremony our leaders took a count to make sure everyone was up. Usually there were two or three scouts still in their tents. Most of the time, they were from the Chiefs patrol. Either they had overslept or they couldn’t find their uniform. On Thursday, however, two of the older boys decided they just weren’t going to get up. Ryan wasn’t too happy about it, and the two of them ended up on latrine duty.
     
    Merit badges were the first thing we had in the morning after breakfast. For the first session everyone in my patrol was taking the Leatherworking and Basketry merit badges. This was taught in the open air handicrafts building. The hardest parts of the two merit badges were the projects, one leather working item, two baskets, and a stool, that was good for nothing other than looking at.
     
    The other thing we had in the mornings was First Class Adventure. All the boys in the program were mixed together and split into four F.C.A. patrols. One of the first things the patrols did was pitch tents in the patrol sites. Inside these we crouched, as rain dripped down outside. During First Class Adventure we were taught basic scout skills, how to use a map and compass, knots and lashings, basic first aid, and the like.
     
    After First Class Adventure everyone rushed back to the camp site to make lunch. Depending on how complicated the meal was the patrols would start eating around the same time or in some order ending with my patrol. Even with Chris and Alex helping our patrol, it took quite a bit longer to get anything done.
     
    Afternoons were spent doing different troop activities. One afternoon we had Dutch oven cooking and rifle shooting, another we had water polo and archery. We also had sailing one afternoon although I didn’t go. It must have been fun though since Evan, my tent mate, couldn’t stop talking about it, “It was amazing! Once we got the boat out in the water we could really cruise. It was so windy we almost tipped a couple of times. There were a couple of Eagle Scouts who got their boat stuck so far in the weeds, even the motor boat couldn’t get to them.”
    “That’s great,” was my only reply.
     
    After troop activities there was instructional swim. All the scouts had to go to the beach to receive some sort of swimming instruction. I managed to avoid going for most of the week since it was so cold out.
    After that was dinner, the longest meal of the day. There was an extra incentive to get done quickly. Seven o’ clock was the start of the camp’s free time period. If your patrol was still eating or cleaning up you couldn’t leave the camp site. The first two nights I went up to the climbing tower. When the tower director opened the tower at seven he told us, “There probably won’t be any climbing on the tower tonight. If you want to use the bouldering wall, however, you can come in.”
     
    For the rest of the week, I spent free time working on my leatherworking and basketry projects.
    That’s how the whole week went. It was hard to believe that it was almost over when Friday rolled around. The final campfire was that night. When our troop arrived we were greeted with an empty camp fire ring. Some other troop would end up on the steps tonight. The evening progressed quickly. Various awards were handed out and every troop performed a skit. At the very end, with the fire slowly dying in the background, the staff sung the Ballad of Many Point.
     
    After the last note died, the staff silently glided up the steps. Slowly everyone walked out after them. Out on the road each staff member held a candle, which illuminated their face in the dark. Everyone slowly filed past shaking their hands.
     
    “Have a good summer.”
     
    “See you next year.”
     
    Towards the middle of the camp ballad, this line appears, “A Scout will come again and again. Now he’s a boy but he’ll be a man.” Since that first trip, I have been enthralled by Many Point and I have gone back “again and again.”
  19. Mysterious Minifig

    Peer Review

    By Mysterious Minifig,

    We had peer review today in my writing class. Luckily I managed to throw the rest of my paper together last night. I had most of it written before that and I was done by nine, so this wasn't one of those all nighters I keep hearing people talk about.
     
    You know, I don't think my parents would let pull an all nighter, even if I tried.
     
    -Michigan J. Frog
  20. Mysterious Minifig

    Ackar

    By Mysterious Minifig,

    I picked up Ackar from Target today. I originally went in there for the heat vision rahkshi, but they had Ackar so I got him instead.
     
    It goes a nice compliment to Mata Nui and my Tahu Stars. There's nothing complicated about the build. I like the color scheme, for some reason it seems like I'm partial to red sets.
     
    Next on my Bionicle to get list is the Stars Rahkshi. Nothing else really interests me.
     
    -Michigan J. Frog
  21. Mysterious Minifig

    Opps

    By Mysterious Minifig,

    It turns out that my Premier Membership ends either tomorrow or on Friday, not the 28th like I originally thought. I just filled out the form for a lifetime membership and the money will get sent a little later today so I'll be back pretty soon. I have gotten to 156 entries now so I've made almost an average of one entry every two days.
     
    When my Premier runs my inbox will overfilled so you won't be able to PM me. Not that anyone ever PMs me, I'm just sayin'.
     
    -Michigan J. Frog
  22. Mysterious Minifig
    I'm going to have about 10 days starting tomorrow to write an essay reflecting on some event in my life. It has to be 4-6 pages long.
     
    I don't know what I'm going to write about. I have a few ideas but none of them are very promising. The top two are track and the 5 weeks I spent as a CIT in 2008. We're suppose to use dialog but I don't know how I'm going to do that either.
     
    -Michigan J. Frog
  23. Mysterious Minifig

    Rpg?

    By Mysterious Minifig,

    I'm going to try RPGing here at BZPower. This will be the first RPG I've ever joined. I'm not sure how it will go but it should be a fun experiment.
     
    Don't look for me in Bionicle RPG, though. It's going to be the Rock Raiders RPG in LGD that I'm going to join. I've always liked that line, although I don't own any sets since they always go pretty high on ebay. It's also relatively new so I shouldn't have any problems integrating.
     
    -Michigan J. Frog
  24. Mysterious Minifig

    So Busy

    By Mysterious Minifig,

    Since classes started I've been extremely busy. Most mornings are now spent in class at the local university and afternoons are spent doing homework. I haven't had time to much on the computer at all. Hopefully I'll adjust to the work load eventually but until that happens I won't be posting on here much.
     
    It also doesn't help that the internet on my computer stopped working yesterday. I had time yesterday but my siblings were using the only computers.
     
    I'm probably going to pick up the Rahkshi as my other Stars set. This picture pretty much convinced me. I don't own any other Rahkshi right now but I think I like that set the best after Tahu. I might also pick up Ackar if Target still has him.
     
    -Michigan J. Frog
  25. Mysterious Minifig
    Ah, yes back to school on Monday. It was a nice vacation but I'm ready to get back to school. Too bad my first class is at 8:00 AM. At least I won't have to pack any lunches. Then I really be tired.
     
    I had an entry on my class schedule partially drafted but I haven't had time to finish it. Maybe on Monday afternoon. Suffice to say I have at least 1 class every morning except Thursday. I'm taking three classes this semester and the writing class is going to be the worst.
     
    I'm also going to be up until at least midnight tonight. Yay for monthly youth retreats/rallies.
     
    -Michigan J. Frog
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