Poetry Recitation... Not My Thing

A week or so ago, I entered a poetry recitation competition after school on a recommendation from my teacher. It didn't go well. In fact, I would say it went disastrous.

The fact that I had to go first did not make me any more comfortable, either. So I walked into the room. Quinn (that's not his real name-- he lied to me!) Nguyen, Van Ry, and two other women I don't know are looking at me. After what seemed like an eternity (it was at least 5 minutes, I swear) of them writing stuff down and "getting ready", they tell me to go.

And so I launch into "It was not Death, for I Stood Up", by Emily Dickinson, and I must say, I nailed it. From the tricky pronunciation of siroccos to my many-times-practiced emphasis on the final line... to justify despair. I finished the poem, pleased with myself, although my legs were shaking beyond control.

After another eternity, it was time to do my second poem. You know, the one I had just recited perfectly several times in a row ten minutes ago? That one. "Sonnet 130" by the wonderful William Shakespeare. "My mistress' eyes look nothing like the sun"... and I drew a blank. I stared at the judges, searching for the second line. "Umm, can I start over?" I asked politely in a tiny voice. Four nods. "My mistress' eyes look nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red. If snow be white, why then, her breasts are dun? If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head".... And then I had recited four out of fourteen lines, and I could not remember a thing.

I had no idea what to do. Should I apologize, and leave? Should I wait for them to give me a line, even though they're not allowed to? I did the latter. And so I stared at the four judges before me, particularly the one with a copy of my poem. And they stared back. And what had to have been a full thirty seconds passed. And eventually, Quinn Nguyen fed me a line: "And in some perfumes..." "Oh! And-in-some-perfumes is-there-more-delight, -than-in-the-breath that-from-my-mistress... reeks!" I spurted out. And then I stared at them for another 30 seconds or so, until he unwillingly fed me another line.

And this is how it went, me saying a line excitedly when I found it, only to sit and stare at the judges. I left the room with the feeling I was disqualified, since they aren't allowed to feed lines.

And to all of you who didn't believe me when I said that I did terribly, suck it. I don't exaggerate about stuff like this. I hold myself in the highest regard, and do not just decide that I suck at something if I don't.

Of Sleeping and Caffeine

I have to say, I am now genuinely worried about my sleep habits. They've always been poor, but now I rely on my triple shot mochas more and more in the morning, and I find myself staying up later and later. It hasn't affected my grades or social life, but who knows when it might?

Oh well. For the time being, I've purchased some caffeine pills... I honestly only plan to use them when I need them. Like tonight, with my take-home English final. We'll see, though. At least if I get addicted, it's only $4/7200mg. A lot cheaper than those darned energy drinks. Caffeine pills are my new sleepover fuel.

So, I'll be taking the first of many tablets in four hours or so.

About Me

So, since I have one and a half readers not including myself at the moment, this post is intended for my thousands of readers to come. This is just a post to let you know a little bit about me, so you can get to know me better.

I am Dutty. Don't bother with my real name. Online, and half of the time in real life, I am called Dutty. I have had the nickname since I was an infant, and I believe it comes from me not being able to pronounce my real first name, Dustin, when I first learned to talk.

I am fifteen years old. My birthday is on Halloween. Upon turning 16, I plan to get my license and a job. The job would most likely be in food services, but not at McDonald's or anything like that. I think that I would enjoy working at a pizza or ice cream parlor. A restaurant would be nice, as well.

My family consists of my mom, an English teacher, and my dad, a retired pipefitter (overhead fire systems), my brother Andrew, 18, who will be graduating this year, and my brother Ruel, 20 in February, who attends WSU.

I live in Tacoma, Washington, and attend Wilson High School.

Now, enough with the factual stuff. Have some personality things:

I consider myself to be a horrible friend. Seriously. My friends must like being treated like shit or something. It is amazing to me how many friends I have when I am so rude to them. Don't get me wrong, I love my friends, I just don't always treat them as well as I should. I am a very hypercritical person.

Music a huge part of my life. Immeasurably huge. Astronomically huge. I listen to music all of the time. I do not limit myself to genres, I just listen to what I like. This means that I am a huge fan of everything from country to 70's R&B to heavy metal to dance (electric). I think that limiting yourself to a genre is just kind of stupid. Like what you like. Another way that music is a part of my life is playing it. I played to violin for three years, and I am going to be learning to play the guitar soon.

Some other things I like are sports (water polo, swimming, maybe field), video games (mainly on the computer), and computers in general.

I'm a pretty smart kid, although my grades do not always show it. You can hold an intelligent conversation with me, I promise.

That's all I can think of at the moment. I think I'm going to paraphrase this and put it on my right sidebar.

www.wheresgeorge.com

Have you ever received a bill with a stamp on it, something about tracking it, or a url? Well, that's what this post is about-- free advertising for www.wheresgeorge.com, a website that lets you enter serial codes from your money, and track it as it moves around the country. When your measly one dollar is found in a bar in Boston, or when you find an already stamped bill to find out that traveled all of the way from Tennessee, you'll be pretty impressed. I have used this website for years, and many of my bills have been found. Just don't write "track this bill at www.wheresgeorge.com" on your bills. Don't do it. It's illegal. It's also how the bills are found. DON'T do it, cough cough.

There's also a version for Europe and Canada I believe. Info will be at the website.

I don't talk about how much I like a website very often, but if you have patience, this site can provide you with a lot of entertainment in years to come.

www.wheresgeorge.com

New Year's Resolutions

Ah, do you smell it? I do. It's that new year smell-- fresh off the lot! I hope that this will be a good one :).

Anyway, on to the point of this post: my new year's resolutions! I'm keeping it fairly simple this year. I'm sticking to three major ones: wight loss, grades, and water polo.

There's no getting around it-- I'm overweight. However, something I am very proud of is that I have already lost 15 pounds this school year. Around December, though, I lost my focus on weight loss, but I want to change that in 2009. I'm not aiming for a specific weight, in my opinion that's just discouraging and kind of stupid. I'm just going to lose weight until I feel comfortable where I'm at. I think that will probably be another 20 or 30 pounds, but I can't really be sure. I'm not looking to be thin, I just want to be not fat. I really don't have much of a game plan other than to exercise and eat healthier and less. After all, that is how I lost 15 pounds earlier this school year. Wish me luck, as this is the most important of my resolutions! :)

My second resolution is to improve my grades-- drastically! I won't say just how bad I did this semester, but I screwed up bad. Really bad. I could blame it on many things, but I think it all comes down to being unprepared. The change from Truman to Wilson was... astounding. I went from getting A's by doing two or three homework assignments a week, to getting B's and C's with three or four assignments a night. I'm going to start doing better, though, I promise. In fact, I'm challenging myself to get a four point next semester. I know this might not happen with teachers like Van Ry and Rehberg (my tough English and Science teachers), but hey, if I aim high, I'll land just a little lower. Or who knows, maybe I'll get that four point. My tally of classes that I have to retake because a screwed up so badly includes: Algebra 1/2, Geometry, and Spanish 1. Maybe Health, I'm not sure about that one. It's not that I failed those classes, it's that I didn't get an A when I could have. After all, every A counts when I'm trying to get into MIT, right?

My third major resolution isn't really all that complicated-- I just want to continue playing water polo, make varsity, and go to state. This is the first sport that I have ever felt passionately about, partly because I'm actually good at it, and partly because I find it much more fun and challenging than running around bases :P! I can't even explain how much I love this sport... it has made me hate swim team because I can't play polo in the pool any more! I'm going to do Spring and Summer seasons with Puget Sound Polo, and I think that by then I'll be good enough to make varsity. I am not planning on being first string until 2010 (we've got some good sets who won't be gone until the 2010 school season), but nonetheless, going to state with our varsity would be awesome. I will also be doing track and field (specifically, field) to help stay in shape, and lose wight (see resolution #1).

Well, that concludes my worthwhile resolutions. Some smaller ones off of the top of my head are: stupid stuff related to video games (RuneScape, hehe), start to save for my 2012 summer trip to Europe, work for my uncle and take driver's ed this summer, get a job and a license in October, learn to play the awesome guitar I got for Christmas, and to maintain this blog. I may invest in a webcam for vlogs. I may also start writing poetry and doing artwork again. The last two are iffy, so I can't really resolve to do them.

That's all I've got for you right now, but you can expect more entries with the new five minute logout timer. Enjoy your 2009 :)!

Long Time, No Post

Hello, readers. And by readers I mean Phillip, possibly David, and myself. But hey, maybe that will change someday.

This is just a post to let you know that I plan on posting some entries again. I really kind of let this blog die... but that will soon change! As was the case with my past attempt at blogging, my posts will be irregular in both timing and subject matter. I'll be telling you about (mostly) everything in my life. Some frequently recurring topics will probably be music, gaming, and sports, but other than that, you'll have to take what I give you. I might incorporate a vlog, or updates to my deviantART, but no guarantees.

So! What have I been doing since my blog became inactive? Homework. That's pretty much what I did in between my last post and this one. A lot of homework... boring, I know. I also played water polo, which was really nice, and my first high school sport experience (I'm in swimming right now, and field next season). High school is fun, but I was really unprepared. That's really all I have to say about school right now; it's a three day weekend, and I'd rather just forget.

So, I'll see you guys in my next entry... probably later tonight or tomorrow when I am bored.

Here, have a link to the song I am addicted to at the moment:
Who Knows Who ~ Muse and The Streets