|
Kafogahoga
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Name: Tod Blankenship
Birthday: 7/19/1991
Gender: Male
Interests: Basketball, music, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS!!!, ramen, Counter-Strike, Naruto, Gaara and Rock Lee (omghawt), Full Metal Alchemist, GREAT TEACHER ONIZUKA, Bleach, Pokemon, Box Lad, Chuck Norris, Dennis Rodman, KG, ALLEN IVERSON, Reggie Miller, Ray Allen, the color green, extremely hot females, tissue boxes, long walks on the beach, PB&J sandwiches, Kool-Aid, etc.
Expertise: Drunken fist fighting, two finger pushups, protecting cities from evil, eating cup ramen, competitive eating, trying to do cartwheels, being extremely hot, pole dancing, lying, trick-or-treating, telling weird jokes, making peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches, climbing walls, and eating fire.
Message: message meEmail: email me
AIM:  Kafogahoga
AIM:  Powercat 9000
MSN: kafogahoga@gmail.com
Member Since:
4/8/2005
|
|
| What originally started off as a last-minute reflective essay for our Lang final turned out to be something realer than I could have imagined. With the year coming to a close, I thought I'd share it with you guys. Enjoy :)
It’s funny to look back at how cool I thought I was as an eighth-grader. Many of you probably share this feeling with me, the feeling of invincibility as royalty in the hierarchy of middle school. When I first came to Saratoga High School, I, like everybody else, was slapped with a big wet trout of reality. We suddenly descended from kings and queens to court jesters, chants of “Go home, Freshmen!” echoing in our heads. Coming from Kennedy Middle School, I was extra new. I was lost, and quiet (well, as quiet as I’ve ever been), consumed by self-consciousness and insecurity. Even still this year, one of my truest, closest friends asked me where I had gone to school freshmen year. Indeed, I did breeze through freshmen year rather inconspicuously, going with the flow, careful not to disturb it. To fit in, even I, a habitual slacker, engaged in the popular trend of “studying,” an activity previously unexplored in my life.
Fast-forward four years, and a previously unwelcoming campus now holds memories dear to my heart. Sure, the campus color coordination remains bleak, and comparisons to Alcatraz are as true as ever, but along the way, something has changed. Maybe it was joining the cult that is Saratoga Band, or Wacky Hat Wednesdays, or the sudden school-wide epiphany about my stunning good looks. In hindsight though, while all of these did play a role of some sort, it’s the people along the way that have truly changed me these four years.
After all, as most of you probably know, I haven’t been the best student these couple of years. Poetry homework was put off for games of intense pick-up basketball; studying for finals was put off for furious Blockles matches, finger cramps instead of brain cramps. I don’t remember stoichiometry, and thanks to Alan Menezes, I never needed to know the date of the Boston Tea Party. Even the chain rule, the most basic rule in Calculus, is now fuzzy in my mind. However, it would be the furthest thing from the truth to say I didn’t learn in high school. It is truly amazing to recount how much simply hanging out with friends, playing the infamous Puerto Rico after school, going on early morning runs, and late-night sleepovers can teach you about others, the world, and most of all, yourself. Among other things, I’ve learned that for all our ambitious plans, it’s often the small unplanned events and details that prove most precious; that doing the right thing doesn’t always feel good; that the 911 challenge is never to be attempted; that horrible things happen when I pick up a trumpet.
Everybody has his or her own metaphor about life, whether it’s comparing life to a tree or a box of chocolates. To me, we’re all blocks of clay in the big game of life. Blocks of clay, in that every person we meet makes an impression on us, leaves his or her thumbprint, however small. Every once in a while, we’re lucky enough to be blessed by someone whose hands are strong enough to really mold us into something, a definite shape towards the eventual sculpture of ourselves, the person we want to be, the morals and ideals we choose to represent. The longer we stay exposed to air, the longer we go through life, the firmer we become, harder to shape and mold.
As we get ready to move on to college, scattering across the nation like sparks from a firecracker, there is a fear and apprehension in all of us. We will experience life with brand new people never previously met, with few familiar shoulders to lean on, ties to Saratoga not always as close as we want them to be. But think, we are simply moving on to the next batch of friends, teachers, and sculptors. For after all these years, we’ve started to slowly admire the sculptures we’ve created around us, our molding of our peers, and their molding of us. For now, there’s nothing more to do but to move on to new thumbprints. And if we’re lucky, maybe, just maybe, we’ll stumble into the hands of somebody who will knead and push us that much closer to the sculpture we’ll eventually turn out to be. | | |
| I saw this on Youtube and just had to share it with you all. Thanks to James Jiang for showing it to me!
If you are having a bad day and nothing else is working, watch this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbk980jV7Ao
It's pretty lengthy, but it will make you smile. | | |
| I feel guilty for not writing a post in so long, but due to senioritis, I can't actually will myself to write one at 12:08 AM.
So we will compromise.
I will repost an old Facebook note and you guys will pretend that you've never read this before. And if you haven't, then it works out well for both of us!
This was that 25 random things about yourself tagging game. Here goes:
1. When I was little, I used to change my favorite color every week depending on which Power Ranger or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle was the coolest at the time. It was red for a long time because Red Ranger's name was also Jason. And Donatello was a BAMF so my favorite color was purple for like 2 months. That's right, purple. My favorite color is now green and has been for about 8 years.
2. I played piano for 14 years before quitting last year. I still play a lot because I miss it - there's something so rewarding about finally nailing that piece you've been practicing for weeks. It's a feeling that can't be replaced, to hear a beautiful song and want to play it, to work towards it until you have the power to express feelings and really make music to move others the same way you were moved when you first heard that piece.
3. Relating to that, music is a huge part of my life. My favorite band is the Red Hot Chili Peppers, closely followed by artists like Andy McKee, Joshua Radin, Radiohead, Bon Iver, The Shins, Dispatch, The Strokes, John Mayer, Fleet Foxes, etc. etc., I could go on all day.
4. I need to really like/be interested in something to try hard and work for it. I continually and invariably blow things off that I don't care much about, the most obvious example being school. I don't mean to sound in any way conceited or full of myself, but I know that I could get straight A's if I wanted to and worked for it. It's my belief that things like grades are attainable through hard work by anybody. It's weird because while I know that many people would be happier if I tried harder in school (parents, uh... okay yeah just my parents), I also know that I wouldn't be able to forgive myself knowing that I threw away my high school years studying feverishly for SAT's instead of playing ultimate frisbee with my friends.
5. I just found a cracker on my floor and I have no idea where it came from or how old it is.
6. I open up really easily to people. It's easy for me to feel comfortable around people even if I haven't known them that long, and I can share things that would normally take others some time to communicate. I'm trusting of people until they prove me otherwise.
7. I believe that humans are inherently evil, fueled by self-interest, want, and greed. The only thing that can override this is shaping during growth, be it by society, parents, friends, etc.
8. That being said, I'm amazed at the amount of goodness in the people I meet and the friends I have and cherish. I feel loved and wanted by such a huge group of people and there is nothing that I would trade that for.
9. My brother inspires me to be a better person every single day of my life. He's always been the good little brother, and I've always been the bad one. Some siblings hate each other for that, but I think it brings us a lot closer. We feed off each other a lot, and I've looked up to him all my life. I guess it's weird for me to look up to my younger brother, but it's never felt that way to me. A lot of the times, we'll both feel the same way about something, but I'm the one who says it because I'm less afraid of being an asshole. Sometimes I fall short of being a good person, but he keeps me in check and isn't afraid to bitch me out when I lose sight of what kind of person I want to be.
10. I have so much unfinished poetry homework right now that it's not even funny.
11. I also have not done any Chapter 11 Stats homework yet. What’s lunch for anyways? I guess I’ll study during 1st period… I should probably be more worried, but see random fact #4 above ;)
12. There is something so sexy about a girl being comfortable in her own skin. Yeah, sure, Megan Fox is a total babe, but there is nothing more overwhelmingly beautiful than a girl in sweatpants, no make-up, not afraid or ashamed of who she is and not trying to impress anybody.
13. I used to be disgustingly shy in elementary school. Think opposite current me. Yeah. It was bad. I had one friend through all of elementary school and I spent my time trying to be friends with the popular kids. I was such a tool.
14. I own a lot of shoes, but most of them are fake ones from China. Those Black Jordans I wear were about seven U.S. dollars. And you guys didn’t even know =P
15. I hate it when people tell me I can’t take things seriously because I make jokes all the time. It’s not that I can’t take things seriously. They just hit me too close to heart and that’s my way of dealing with things. Sometimes it hurts too much to let something sink in, and it’s easier to make people laugh than to just sit there feeling sorry for yourself. If something really rattles me, I can’t really cry or feel sad about it until I’ve accepted it, and the way I get myself to realize the realness of it all is to make jokes about it until I’m completely empty and numb. It’s twisted and I’m pretty sure this will completely fuck me over someday.
16. I wonder why people are surprised when they find out I don’t drink or get stoned. I know for a fact that half the underclassmen in band thought I partied hard. I always get the, “Really?! You don’t?!” accompanied by the scrunched up face of disbelief. Is it how I look? How I act? Please enlighten me.
17. I hate how many conclusions can be drawn from personal image alone. I’m guilty too – it’s hard not to judge somebody based on looks, but I really try to get to know somebody before I conclude anything about them. I remember when I had a mohawk over the summer and Asian moms at Marina Food would literally veer their carts away from me. And I was like, can you fucking talk to me or ask me a question, get to know me before you tell yourself that I’m a criminal mass murder child rapist just because of my hair.
18. My parents are racist – not out of spite or hate, but culture. I’d say it’s the same for most immigrant Asian parents. Someday I want to bring a black girl home and see the looks on my parents’ faces.
19. I know I’m a really bad singer, but I’m going to sing anyways. Suck it.
20. I need to think more about what I say before I say it. I still need to find the line between honesty/straightforwardness and being a humongous dick.
21. Sometimes I’ll spell color colour and favorite favourite, just so I can feel more sophisticated for a second. Then I remember that I’m not British and realize that I’m an idiot.
22. I love basketball and I’ve been playing it since I could pick up a ball. When I was little, I used to pretend I was Michael Jordan beating the Lakers all by himself. I’d draw plays using pieces of binder paper and dunk it all over Kareem’s face. Take that, Kareem. I used to be really good in elementary school and middle school, but I haven’t improved since 8th grade. It’s still one of my greatest hobbies though.
23. I collect interesting bottles and cans. I’m pretty sure my mom hates it because I have about 30 sitting on my bookshelf.
24. I feel guilty for the life I have – I haven’t done anything to deserve the house I live in, the car I drive, the clothes I wear, the cash in my wallet. Sometimes I wonder why life has been so good to me.
25. I think life is so much easier when you’re willing to take everything with a grain of salt. I’ve discovered that being able to poke fun at yourself is one of the most liberating things in life. Don’t take things or yourself too seriously – you’ll go crazy. | | |
| Sorry - this is a bit late but I hope you can forgive me
My internet's been totally crazy for the past couple of days
Wanted to wish you kids a Merry Christmas and a joyful New Year's
As 2008 dwindles away and 2009 creeps in, I just wanted to post some of the things I've really enjoyed with you guys this year, the memories I'll cherish. These are in no particular order - just wahtever jumps to my mind
- getting dropkicked by black kids
- making lip sync videos in utah hotel rooms
- sniffing erasers in stats
- running all the way to congress springs during fugitive with kshimizu
- crazy mosh pit band battle after that band competitioin
- hiding in the "staircase" in sandeep's pool house trying to scare people
- 100 m dash vs. andrew after band rehearsal
- top cafe/ wei telling us his family history and giving us free soup
- playing the eye game in stats and on the marching field
- sandra and kevin: remember when we ran ahead on the trail and hid to scare the others? and sneaking up behind them and making julia scream hahah
- long talks on the rock
- hanging out late at night in downtown los gatos
- mission peak in the pouring rain
- mission peak in nice weather/ taking a "shortcut"
- moviefests
- making it from school to in-n-out in 7 minutes
- anniversary
- playing scrabble at red mango
- kissing chris chung in gay chicken
- owen's homecoming dance
- party city before hc
- arabian nights with lewis owen tak in the parking lot
- same cop 2 times for the wreath
- austin's two bite burrito
- chinese dragon :)
- failblog
- getting a mohawk
- looking at old yearbooks
- arguing with sally about elf
- saran wrapping mr. drennan's car
- corner of ignorance
- mr kelly's random expletives and sexual stories about his asian wife
- austin's asian dad photos from san francisco
- the amazingness of phantom of the opera
- completely lip syncing a choir song
- santa baby in stats
- arrested development
- unsuccessfully cutting off austin
- jenna reading rainbow fish while in a bad mood
- claire's surprise in the band quad
- almost getting killed by that huge dude after jeff talked to his "girls"
- vincent almost dying after falling down/through the stairs
- sandeep sitting on wet cement
- random cartwheels
- ms mac's crazy astronomy story
- tackling austin after convincing him to close his eyes
- sandeep slamming his head into the bus ceiling
- andrew's extreme wii fit hula hooping
- learning chestnut
- cooking party - chicken, pasta, and pulp fiction (good times!)
- mrchicity videos and finding a huge bug right after that
- making fun of jamie about WoW
- blockading flex
- 911 challenge :(
- cheering for jamie owen and johnny at the basketball games
- matching 2girls1cup shirts
- ruining "kiss - because i'm a girl" for owen's birthday
- portable scrabble
I'm sure I've forgotten many things, but these were just the first things that popped into my head
Thanks for this year guys - here's to a great 2009
Love Jason
P.S. Resolutions:
1) Be more on-time to things
2) Be a better person
| | |
| I'm beginning to lose hope in humanity. Or maybe I already have. Who knows?
| | |
|
