Inspiration

It's late. I've been moody batooty all day (even if I haven't shown it except to Mom--thanks Mom for dealing with me) and I think I'm realizing why as the night turns into morning. You see, I'm upset because I can't remember the last time someone was truly proud of me. I know people always say "oh you did so good!" or "oh you make me so proud" but that just doesn't do it for me. Ever since I can remember, from playing little league baseball "oh I'm so proud of you!" to playing music in high school "oh that sounded so spectacular" it's just hard to come by someone being truly proud of me nowadays. I know these are sentiments, and very sweet ones at that, but I feel like they are mere words and they don't compare to my feelings and emotions when I find myself proud of someone else. I know that, whenever I am wholeheartedly proud of someone, I let them know it and I could only hope to evoke emotion over them as some have done for me when uplifting me. The closest thing to it more recently was a compliment from one of my very dearest friends who is actually my only follower/reader whatever you want to call it of this blog I keep. Carolyn told me something very special that I have cried about because it made me feel so warm and comforted on the inside, like someone is proud of me. This is the same unexplainable emotion that I get one I feel proud of someone, almost like a mutual emotion. Another time was when I was receiving letters from family member's doing a period of transformation in my life (can't talk much about that program because it's a secret to some possible readers who haven't experienced it themselves!) and I got a late-letter apart from the others that I was expecting to get previously but didn't. When I found out it was waiting for me after the conclusion, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it, it's all I could think about. It was the letter from my Nana and Poppop, basically explaining how proud they were of me. Although most letters made me feel special and happy and loved, this one took it to a dimension of gratification that words cannot begin to depict. I think I'll find that letter right now, in fact, and re-read it.

Forget everything I've said. I'll write about the title of this post sometime else. Love you.

Oh my heavens!

Hello, stranger danger! Just kidding, but really, it has been forever, like over a month, since I've even gotten close to posting a blog. Whoops. Smack me now *smack* ouch. Ok, we're even.

I know what you're thinking... "How does he call this being BOLD?" Well, I'll tell you. I've been busy being BOLD and haven't had a single second to post on here. Sorry folks. That's all I got for you there, but here, I've got a whole special super awesome post of spectacular... things. In other words, I'm gonna write a really long blog.

Let's start with my good friend, John Heald, the cruise guy that I follow like a GPS. He's doing... alright. Let's just say that on Monday morning, his ship, the Carnival Splendor, had a small engine fire (ok, a BIG one) and they were stranded out in the middle of the ocean (not in the middle, but far enough to make a difference) and to give you a cliche, they were up a creek without a paddle. For about two days they didn't have cold running water or flushing toilets. You can read more about the whole situation on www.carnival-news.com it's more official and I'm lazy and don't feel like typing it all out here. John wasn't able to post until today which was sad but I know he had things to be doing and they didn't have internet or phones or anything so instead of John posting we just got updates. Today, though, he relived all of his readers with a short update promising lots of postings on the way about everything that happened and with a firm reiteration that everyone is perfectly fine, no one got a scratch on them, and everything is being taken care of. I know it's kind of sad, but after following John for quite a while I've grown to love him and care about him, I was truly worried whenever I heard about the Splendor and I felt so bad for him and everyone else on the ship. It's all I could think about for a while, but it's all good now, just waiting for him to get some internet back on the ship and get back to posting, I miss it so!

Our next topic... Ms. Emilee Bannister! For those of you who don't know, she is my trusty, loving, caring, sweet, beautiful, (put simply) amazing girlfriend that as of last Thursday, has been my trusty, loving, caring, sweet, beautiful, (put simply) amazing girlfriend for exactly one year! Crazy! Time has flown by like a Space Mountain ride and it seems like just a couple of weeks ago I was asking her out to homecoming over BANDoGRAM. Please, don't remind me, I know I'm good :P I can't wait for the next year and whatever time to come with Emilee and I love her more than Cruise Ships... yes, I just admitted that, bahahha. In all seriousness, I love you Emilee! Also notable was her 19th (COUGAR!) birthday on Monday, so Happy Birthday! Speaking of birthdays, I'll go ahead and mention Austin's birthday and Ms. Tracee's birthday, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! November is a Bannister Birthday month, lemme tell ya! Another note, November 20th is my half-way-birthday, so whoohoo to me, only 6 more months till the big ONE-EIGHT.

Usually in my blogs, I don't tell everyday stories, but today I think I will. For those of you who love Owl City, I'd suggest you put on one of my favorites, Dental Care, to get a full experience out of this one :D Yes, that's right, I went to the Dentist today, my second time at this one. I don't know why, but I have never stayed at the same dentist for very long. We usually switch with each cleaning. I don't know why, but we do... Mom probably has some secret reason, and I'm sure it's a good one. I honestly don't mind because I like going to each different one and seeing what different equipment they use. I think that's a little weird because most people despise the dentist, but I truly don't mind it, so long as I've got a good numbing of the mouth. Well my story begins with waking up from a nap. I have to be at dentist in ten minutes (it's 15 minutes away, whoops) and so I freshen up (this is code word for doing absolutely nothing, by the way) and head out. I get there and sign in after waiting an extra three minutes because some hispanic family was complaining that they charged too much. I didn't put hispanic there for any reason, I just realized that they were speaking Espanol and not Castillan so I thought I'd add in the descriptor, no connotation at all. None. At all. Anyways, they buggered off (John Heald's british lexicon is getting to me...) and I signed in. About ten minutes later, after sitting and watching a Disney Channel show that I didn't recognize because I haven't watched Disney Channel since I wore whitey-tighties, I get called into the room. Take a right, take a left, go straight into the room. Turn TV on. "You can change the channel, I don't think you want to watch Soap Operas..." She was right, I didn't. I struggle to change the channel because the remote controller receiver thingy was behind me and it seemed to only work within a about a half inch radial space suspended randomly midair and would only, ONLY work if it was in that exact position. It was Bright House Networks programming (what the beep, who even has Bright House any more?) so I didn't know what channels I was on, getting close to, or going to get to. I finally stopped at HLN which I'm not a fan of because 1. It's the News and 2. It's an affiliate of CNN. Blech. Whatever, it was better than Soap Operas or Tyra. I leave it on and start to drift off. The one thing I don't like about this particular dentist is that I spend a majority of my time sitting in the chair pretending to enjoy the television. Last time I fell asleep in the chair waiting for someone to come and clean my teeth for 40 whoppin minutes. This time it was only about 15 minutes, but it still took forever, and I still felt dreary, thinking as I did before that they must have sleepy gas in the rooms to make patients fall asleep and they leave you there so it has time to take effect then they come back in and work on you. If this is the case, I resisted both times and stayed awake, minus a few drifts into the land of ZZZs. Finally, Dr. India (ok, that's not her name, but she's apparently from India and I don't know her name so Dr. India will work) came in, said hello, and inquired if I liked the News. I said sometimes, and she appropriately rebutted with my obvious true feelings "When you're bored..." I merely laughed and she began working. "Open." I always have a problem with this. My mouth is small and I hate dry mouth. I here the same thing over and over again like the sound of my many alarms attempting to wake me in the morning, failing just as the dentist does. "Open Wider." "Can you open a bit wider for me?" "KEEP YOUR MOUTH OPEN OR I'M GOING TO LOSE MY PATIENTS!" Get it? Patients? HAHAH ok that last one I made up, but that's probably what Dr. India was thinking. She numbed my back teeth and said she wouldn't worry about numbing my front teeth. Great. And so I waited another ten minutes. She did some drilling which actually hurt more where she numbed (hurt like POOP actually) in the back and I didn't feel a thing on the front teeth where she didn't do a bit of numbing. The interesting thing about all of this was that while I was getting my teeth worked on, HLN started shouting about The Carnival Splendor being stuck out in the ocean and being tugged back in. Well of course she had to comment on this one. Even though I was struggling to swallow, had cotton balls here there and everywhere in my mouth, and had metal pain machines operating at full blast in my mouth, I explained the whole thing to her because I knew everything about it and, although it probably sounded like a bunch of BLAHGHAGDAHGBLAHGAGBLAHGBLAHG to her, in the end she said "Oh well I will think about going on a cruise then." Yes, I think you will, Dr. India, and you will experience the greatest thing in your life, better than causing pain to people's teeth that you've numbed and still cause pain to. Grr. I finished up in there and went home to nap again. That's the end of that story. I know it was so compelling, and if you were looping Dental Care by Owl City like I said you should, you've probably listened to it 6 times by now, sorry.

On the subject of school, it's going GREAT. It's easy. It's kinda fun. It's fast. It's educative. It's school. And that, is that.

Church is splendid! I had a speaking to do a couple of weeks ago and it went superb! I had to do it in front of the whole church, which I'm terrible at public speaking and even when I read in class it's a mess of me reading like this... "The Cow HUUHUHUH jumped HUHUHUH over the HUHUHUH Moon." Those HUHs are breaths of air that always find a way of alluding me in these trying times of reading in front of the class. Somehow, though, I pulled off my whole speaking while being natural, smooth, and no huge gasps of air necessary. The little prayer to God beforehand couldn't have hurt the situation, for I know God gives me strength and courage and security, which I can't thank Him enough for. Other than that speaking, bible study is going great and so is youth group. OH YEAH! I'm apart of the Christmas play again this year with the little kiddies. It's called Good News, Christmas Cruise (by far, the best concept for a show EVER) and guess who is the Captain of the ship? Charles Zachary Powell. Yeah, that's right, I'm the El Capitan! Bahahah, it's going great so far and the kids are having fun and worshipping, which is what counts! I'll letcha know how this goes in December.

Band. Band. Oh my goodness gracious, Band. I was asked today at Bible Study where I feel like I'm most accepted, where I most fit in, and where I feel like I can be myself. The only singular word I could think of was Band. It truly is the blood to my heart and ocean to my cruise ship. Everyday single day I live it, learn it, do it, and since my last posting, so much has happened with band. Besides competitions, games, alumni night, parties, middle school band night, concert, and even a visit to a middle school, one night stands out like a McDonalds at the health convention, except not in a completely horrible way. Our last and final game of the season, aka, My last FootBall game. What a kick in the rump. It really wasn't all that bad until Allgair split up the band and had the Seniors come talk with him. That's when I started thinking "Poop, here comes my emotional side." And what a tear jerker that Jason Allgair can be! He made all of us feel so special, needed, loved, significant, spirited, and joyous to be a part of what he has created into a special part of mine, and my fellow members lives. From that moment, I couldn't stop thinking about how this would be the last time I perform on that field, the last time I get to dance in the stands, the last time I get a third quarter break and have to run back to make it back in time, the last time I warm up on the track, the last time I go meetandgreet with the other school's leadership, the last time I get to walk in the a line from the band room to the field and back, the last time I get to say YESSIR in dismissal after a fun time in the stands and get chills up my spine from it. It's all so sad, really, and I can't believe that over the last four years, I have spent more than 52 Friday in the stands - dancing, playing, talking, laughing, cheering, booing, screaming, watching, joking, jiggalowing, smiling - doing what I love the most, with the most amazing people on Planet Earth. That's a year's worth of Fridays, if you were wondering. The stands was what got me hooked on Marching Band from middle school band night, and my first experience from middle school band night, even though I didn't know it, was just the crack of the egg. Like I said, the last game was a significant day for me, and it is one that I won't forget. With this last game, and the coming of our final competition, I'm beginning to realize more and more how simply fantastic my bandmates are, and realize how people are growing up and how much I don't want to. This is most apparent in the Freshman/Rookies/Noobies that I got to work with for the first two weeks of band. Jaw-dropping is how I can put it, because the little kiddies that I got to see break out of their shell have grown into Eagles that are soaring like no other, which I hope is as exuberant as my soaring is. I just want to hug each of them and tell them my first impressions of them and how proud and impressed of all of them I am and how I've grown to love, adore, and look up to each and every one of them, seeing myself in them. They make me want to go back and do it all again, be the kid that I know I am, and make me never ever want to grow up and just stick around with them. Garsh. Enough mushy gushy. Basically, I LOVE YOU ALL and expect something at the end of the year.

Wowza, did I say this was gonna be a long blog post or what? I hope you enjoyed it, because I need to go to bed so I can wake up bright and early on Veteran's Day and do a parade for some very special people of this great nation: the people that fought to keep us free. I hope you are being bold as I try to be myself, and I will hopefully be posting soon to update you on anything I didn't touch on tonight like my friend that I'd like to be better friends with and other things.

I Love You, Jesus Loves You, and I hope to be typing to you soon! Go Bold! :)

Where's the Love?

Tonight, I have nothing to do really in the morning to wake up early for, so I thought I'd blog. I haven't in a while and I really do enjoy it so... BAM here we go. First, I'll give an update on mysterious-want-to-be-good-friends-with-kid. Yeah, made a leap of progress since my last bloggings, and I think I need to really take it further soon. A work in progress indeed. Also, a lot of other new friends that I really want to become better friends with. I love friends :)

My question to you is this: Where is the Love? More like, WHERE THE HECK IS THE LOVE? Yeah, tonight was just a big slap in the face to me. Everything I do, everything I work for, is an effort to make people smile, be happy, glisten, and in turn that will turn my frown upside down. But like I said, tonight was just a slap in the face, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it and I don't know when I will be able to stop. It's like Robot Unicorn Attack, it never really ends. Basically, a group of people were talking about their own group of people in band, which mostly included vets talking about newer people. Can you say old school and so yesterday? I thought we had eradicated all of this pure crap. That's all it is, crap. Shut your trap about other people, especially at a public place where the people you are talking about are there. If you don't have much nice to say, don't say much at all. OK OK if you don't like someone or are upset with someone, spit it out I don't care, but end it there. Redirect your stupid crappy negative energy to be happy, maybe in a sense of MAKING THE "CRAPPY" PEOPLE YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT BETTER SO YOU DON'T TALK CRAP ABOUT THEM AND MAKE A FOOL OF YOURSELF. FOR ALL YOU KNOW, THEY COULD BE LISTENING AND CRYING AND WANTING TO KILL THEMSELVES. Jerk. I'm completely serious. Why do I say that? Because if you're reading this and you're laughing, you're probably one of the fat jerks. As my great girlfriend would say... if I could cuss, I would. Ughh. People just anger me. If there any place in this world where I can get away from all this negative thoughts and energy and this pursuit of disgrace? If you ask me, it's on a cruise ship. I love cruise ships :)

Cruise ships are just amazing. They are solid, free, beautiful, memorable, splendid, miraculous, pure joy to me. To everyone that steps foot on them. They are what I want to call home someday, and I can only hope that there is no negative energy on the ship throughout the crew. Though this is highly unlikely, it's a dream, like many others, and I'd like t0 see it come true. I love dreams :)

Dreams are. That's just it! They just... are! When I dream, it doesn't necessarily have to be while I'm sleeping, but those are still good. Some of the best dreams are conjured and lived out while listening music, being on a cruise ship, pooping, long-car-rides, and other settings. I can dream about true love, the future, the past (woah now...) and even nothing. I love it, and I will do it forever. Woah, another thing I love, Forever :)

I love forever because I know that I am going to live a life eternal with my savior Jesus Christ and the Lord my God! Now that is gonna be that place to go... heaven, where everyone is happy and positive and no negative and no stupids (LOL). If you are asking the question, like the Black Eyed Peas, Where's the Love?, then Jesus is your destination. I am going to head to bed with these great thoughts of cruise ships, dreams, God, and stupidfatjerks (the lesser effort of thinking being put into the latter.) I hope you have a wondrous time living your life, and please, please make an effort to be positive as much as you can. If you must be negative, do it by yourself or with maybe one other person and compliment it by being happier longer than you are angered or sad. I love sleep :)

Sleep is where I'm headed, with a pillow under headed. Jesus loves you. I love you :)

I love this!

OK OK STOP THE PRESSES WE'VE GOT SOME VERY IMPORTANT NEWS. Haha I got that form Mr. Harris, what a great teacher, can't believe that was two years ago. I love this!

Anyways, news? What is it? I WAS SUPER BOLD. Yeahhhh! Let's just say this friend that I want to be better friends with, well, we conversed and it was good conversing! Bahaha I'm so vague. It's probably sounding like I'm crushing on someone, and that's totally not the case! For one thing, it's a guy, and for another, well, the first one should explain everything enough lol. Anyways, we did have a bit of a conversation, and although it is a very, VERY small step, as in, microscopic step, it is a step forward and that is better than a step back. I love this!

Next up? John Heald! Yeah, the cruise director guy that blogs and I follow it religiously. You can find it HERE and if you go to today's post (September 2) then you can see a question that I posted about a month ago... AND HE REPLIED TO IT! I love when things like that happen. He said I was a great writer and that I should start my own blog (ha!) and also said he would interview a person on the ship that deals with computers and let me know all about him! That is just so cool! Ahh! I love this!

Last but not least, band. Yes, MARCHING BAND. It's what makes up most of my life, and tomorrow is like, one of our first big days. First, we have a pep rally, which is exciting. Second, we have our first game, which is ALWAYS super awesome fun whoohoo! Bahaha it's an away game (which in some ways is worse, but in more ways is so much better lol) and I can't wait! I love this!

I hope you are living life like nothing matters, because in the end, nothing really matters except you and your relationship with God. Get it? Got it? Good. Now, back onto the subject of you, if you're reading this blog, than that probably means I could write a whole paragraph about you, like the ones above, and it would probably end with a certain sentence like the next one in this paragraph. I love this!

A super busy weekend ahead, HAPPY FRIDAY, and I can't wait because I've got parties and outings and anniversaries and DISNEY and sleepovers (ruh-roh!) and everything in between. I LOVE THIS!

God loves you, and so do I! Remember this: the more you lower your head, the higher you can raise it.

SuperPower? To The Sky!

If I could have one superpower, any choice, it would most undoubtedly be the ability to Fly, and boy would I fly high. Just the thought of ascending, descending, gliding through the sky, it's simply unreal. The feeling of flight, to me, can only be conjured in my dreams, which unfortunately I can't control. But those flying dreams, ah! They always do the trick! Tonight, I will long to have a flight dream, and only in the morning will my memory remind me if I had one or not, regardless if I had one or not. Amazing, our minds.

Anywho, this was sparked by a new song by Owl City called To The Sky. It was made for the new movie coming out called Legends Of The Guardians, which, if you ask me, looks pretty decent. Regardless of the quality of motion picture, one thing is for sure, and that's the fact that Owl City's song for it, To The Sky, is so flighty and whimsical and pure wonder. I love it.

Today was a decent day. I got everything done EARLY. I got a Beta Point. I helped a friend. New (and rather awesome) Apple stuff came out today. And finally, something special happened. It deals with a certain friend that I'm not completely close with but I'd love to be. Maybe I'll elaborate more someday. I most certainly want too, but I'll keep you on your toes (UP-ON-RELEVAE-IN-FOUR!) till I let you know. I must admit, it has been one of my big boldness-thingies and boy, have I been bold. I yearn to be good friends with this person. I mean, I share this feeling with many people, but some people it's just like BAM yes! If you didn't notice, my friends are one of the most important things to me. My friends make me smile. My friends make me feel all gushy inside. My friends make me feel better about my quirkiness by sharing it with me. My friends make me cry tears of pure golden joy. My friends... make me. I love each and every one of them, and every day I live to make more friends, only expanding myself in the whole spectrum of things. Ahh, it's amazing, friendship. Just makes me giggle.

Anyways, I must still be bold! Like I said, I've been bold, and it's certainly payed off, but I've still got sooo far to go! Right now, I'm going to be bold and go to bed semi-early.

I love you. Jesus loves you. Smile, cause' you're my friend :) and I hope we share the rest of our lives together splitting an eternal smile.

You know, I'm not always happy.

Look at Zack. He's so happy. His life is so perfect. He's always smiling. He's never mad or angry.

Wrong.

I hate when people think I'm perfect and I've been innocent from the day I was born. Growing up in an... unreserved family of sorts, I've come to know a lot of things. See things. Hear things. Experience things that your normal average day kid/teen/youngin' experiences. I have experienced so many impure things that I hate it, but I have, and I'm only stronger because of it. Yeah, I look at things a lot differently than the average kid might, but maybe with this greater understanding, I can see it in a different, better way.

Sorry. I don't mean to ramble on or make anyone feel like I'm better than them because I've experienced more. That's not true at all, if anything, it probably makes me a much worse person than you. It's just, I hate when people ask me if I've experienced something, which chances are I have, and it's not the cleanest, brightest, most innocent thing on earth, and then they tear that thing up, from my past, and throw it in my face like the person I am today was the cause for me doing that. SHUT UP. My past is my past, and while there are loads of beautiful gracious moments that I will precious forever, there's a fair share of dark, ugly experiences, and a lot of those I won't mind bringing up, but I certainly do not want to go onto vivid detail about them. So just zip it. Don't ask me more. If I want you to know, I'll letcha. It's that simple.

I love you. God loves you. Smile, and be happy. Don't dwell in the dark alone, you'll get lost and may never find your way out. Always bring a light. Always bring the light of God with you. It shines as bright and everlasting as the Sun. And remember, the light of God isn't always what you think it is.

Goodnight, bright people.

Quick, for realz this time

Alright, first day of school, whoohoo! Classes are dullish, I mean, it'll be an easy year, but some people in classes are just... UGH. I've been using that expression often of late. Anywho, this is quick so I will get to the quickness, quickly, now!

Three Main Goals for this school year.

1. Ready. Basically, I don't need to procrastinate, I need to be ready, not slack in a sense of time, and have everything done when it needs to be done. I also need to remember many things to be prepared for whatever question may come about! Not doing so hot on this one, as seen in my procrastination of Summer Reading.

2. Healthy. I need to eat healthier, that's that. I suck at eating bad, and I've suffered more recently because of it (high blood pressure) and I've also witnessed, very expressively, the pain associated with bad eating habits. I'm doing pretty good on this one, preparing a healthy lunch for myself the first two days of school GO ME!

3. Aware. I need to be in contact with everyone as much as I can, as we all know I suffer from this anyways. I absolutely SUCK at getting back to people on a short-hand basis. Recently, however, I have been doing great at talking to relatives on Sundays as they are an easy going day on most people so it makes for good calling time. Still working on the short-term responsiveness.

These goals will only work towards my status of BOLD. Whoohoo! With all of these things being said, I close with this: Mind, Body, and Spirit are three key parts to mastering life, but mastering them can only come when all have equal attention at a supreme level. When one lacks, the others lack in compensation for the prime lacker.

Wow, my wisdom is bad when it comes to spark of the moment thoughts. Oh well, works for me!

So long, fair well, until we meet again!