DT #2: Don't get stuck in a not-so-hot-spot.

First of all, I promise that a regular post will be coming soon. Hopefully by the end of this week. Now, let's jump into the DT:

With the Nintendo DS portable video game system going Wi-Fi, lots of talk about playing games with people across the globe has been around on the internet. However, more than anything else, one question sticks in my mind: Why Fi?

Wi-fi, Hi-fi, Sci-fi. To be perfectly honest, I'm only certain of the meaning of one of those (Sci-fi = Science Fiction). I think that Wi has something to do with wireless, but I have no idea what Hi means. Something with a TV, I think.

I think it's pretty safe to say that the “fi” in Wi-fi and Hi-fi does not stand for “fiction.” Now, probably, computer-literate people know what Wi-fi stands for. But I don't. And I'm sure that there are many people in the United States of America who are just like me in that respect.

Of course, pretty much all it would take would be going to Google and typing in “wi-fi” to find out. But that would be the reasonable way to do it, and since when have I done the reasonable thing? Instead, I call my brothers-in-ignorance to join me in my crusade to get a better meaning, to rally behind my banner desiring a clearer path, and to stand up for the slogan: “Why Fi?”

Using “fi” will cause confusion among the readers who are confused. “Fi,” they will say, “Fiction.” Much as I touched upon in the beginning of this post. They will then look at the first part of it. “Wi,” they will say, “uh . . . wireless? Yes, wireless. Wireless fiction.”

Which really isn't so bad an idea . . . just imagine being able call up the great works of fiction on your laptop or mobile phone. The power of a library . . . in the palm of your hand.

But that's an entirely different ballgame, because the fact is that Wi-fi, whatever it does stand for, does NOT stand for Wireless Fiction.

Also, among the younger members of our nation, there may be some confusion about the “Wi” part of it. If they can't QUITE read yet, they might read it as “why fi,” my slogan for reform. Which may lead this poor, impressionable young child to believe that the Nintendo DS has gone activist, has gone anti-fi. And they shall quickly run to their mothers, shouting, “Mommy! Mommy! What's fi? Is it bad?”

Naturally, their mothers will probably have no idea what they're talking about. “Fye?” they will say, “Like, Fe Fye Fo Fum?” Child: “I - I don't know, mommy, but my Nintendo Power says that the DS says 'why fi?'” If the mother is not overly computer-literate, they will probably not immediately identify “Wi-fi.” “Hang on, Billy,” says Mom, “Let me call your brother and ask him.”

The mother might not be computer-literate, but she's not dumb. She knows that if it has to do with Nintendo, probably a teenager would know more about it than she or her husband. So she calls up 15-year-old Joey, who is at school: “Joey? Hi, this is Mom . . . Billy came across a term in his video game magazine, and I'm not sure what it means. Fi . . . you know anything about Fi?” “Fi? As in, Wi-fi?” “Yeah.” “Uh . . . I think it has something to do with playing online.”

And this, dear readers, is the tragic conversation that is brought about by the term Wi-fi. A new age is dawning! A new time has come! We must stand united, united for peace, justice, liberty, and clarity! GIVE US A NEW SITHIN' ABBREVIATION FOR WIRELESS PLAY!

WP would be fine. Wi-P. Wi-Pl. Still want it to rhyme? Then use the best of all: Wl-Pl. Because, then, see you get WireLess PLay. Which is cooler, to me.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the time has come to end the tyranny. To end the confusion. To shine the light upon this dark age. We must all take a stand, we must be true. We must support Wl-Pl. We must start an e-mail chainletter saying “Sign this petition supporting Wl-Pl instead of Wi-Fi, or you shall have bad luck in your love life until you're 77!! Because, believe it or not, we control your love life! GWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!”

Why Fi? Heck if I know.

*insert awesomely witty and hilarious title here*

Goodness gracious me . . . you don't post for two weeks, ya get 17 comments. Wow. It's amazing what people starved for entertainment will do :-P

In any case, I suppose I should probably get y'all up to speed with my life, eh? I do believe I left off after weekend #1 of Esther . . . So I suppose I've got a little bit to catch up on.

Weekend #2 started the day after my last post, and I don't seem to recall any major events happening during that time . . . although I could be wrong. My memory isn't the greatest.

Well . . . check that, something did happen. On Saturday night, David came to pick Sarah up, and we were talking, and one thing led to another and I went to Trinity the next day. Again, not the greatest speaker . . . but he used movie clips from Return of the King, so you've gotta give him something.

And . . . let's see . . . after the high school service, I went to the regular service, which was cool, it reminded me of the River somewhat. Yes, David, it reminded me of the River. Get over it. The sermon was your basic “you can be saved right here, right now, ask Jesus into your heart, say yes” type thing. Not bad, although his final illustration was a bit weird . . . he used the end of Air Force One, talking about how we need to change our callsigns . . . it was weird.

Um . . . my apologies, I'm not thinking very well right now. I'm a bit sick, so my mind isn't what it usually is . . . which isn't really saying much . . .

Ah, of course, how could I forget? We had a crazy, once-in-a-lifetime event this year. Three holidays, all in a row. Crazy times. What were these holidays, you ask? The first was that Sunday, the 30th: Reformation Day. The second, of course, was the day after it, Monday the 31st: Halloween. The third was just as widely known, but probably not as celebrated . . . Tuesday the 1st: Star Wars Episode III comes out on DVD. I, unfortunately, didn't get my hands on it until Thursday (and didn't get to watch it until Monday), but I rejoiced with our nation anyway. Oh, stop rolling your eyes, Megan, you know it's true.

Anyway, if I may skip back to Monday. Halloween. Usually, the Pelevs invite us over, and we go up and have a party. But, for whatever reason, this year they didn't. So nothing was really planned . . . then I got a call from Rachel, telling me (not asking me, telling me) that I was going to her apartment and hanging out with her and Preston. In costume, of course. So I had to throw together a costume . . . I had planned to go as Mark Twain, since I've worn that costume so much that it takes no time at all to put together.

There was just one problem: my spirit gum was at Lifehouse. GAAH! No Mark Twain for me. I wasn't about to be like Rae and use “gap-a-goo” . . . So I needed a costume, and I needed one fast. I scanned my room, scampering around trying to think of something. Then, something caught my eye . . . *gasp* There's a lightsaber handle on my file box thingy!! Ten minutes later, I was Obi-wan Kenobi from Episode I. Problem solved.

I headed over to Rachel's at about 6:30, to find her still getting into her costume, an abstract representation of fear. She was pretty freaky, too . . . he had her hair spray-dyed black, and was wearing all black clothing, and her face was completely white except for around her eyes and mouth, which were black.

A few minutes later, Preston showed up. He walked into the room, and I was eager to see what costume he'd come up with . . . he looked surprisingly like Preston in pajamas. After repeatedly being told he was a dork and a loser for not having a costume, he said, “well, I brought a cape . . .” So we made him put it on, and he became Preston in pajamas with a really cool cape.

After hanging around talking for a while, we decided to go outside and walk around, and see if maybe we could freak out some little kids (yes, we know, we're impossibly cruel). Unfortunately, there was nobody around, so we had to settle for freaking out a Stater Bros. worker instead. She was gathering karts in the parking lot, and the three of us came walking by, and we randomly start running in circles screaming our heads off . . . then Rachel and I stop and keep moving, but Preston keeps running around screaming. The worker just kind of shook her head and started working faster. It was awesome.

Maybe five to ten minutes later, we ended up at Preston's house. “Hey,” we said, “It's Preston's house.” So we decided, hey, as long as we were there, we might as well do some trick-or-treating. Then we realized that we had no bags. “Hey!” I said. “Let's use Preston's hood!” And so we did. We went up to the door and rang the doorbell, and his mom answered it. She laughed, then invited us in. Since we were friends (and family), she decided to be nice to us, and gave us a handful each of whatever our candy of choice was. Rachel got Milky Ways, I got Reeces (or however you spell it). We put them in Preston's hood. Then he got a whole bag of butterfingers, and we put that in, too. At this point, he was finding it difficult to breathe.

Preston's mom: “Hey, you guys want some Twix, too?” Rachel and I: “sure!” Added to Preston's growing stash. Preston started to complain about being choked, and he ran away to avoid more being put in there. Rachel and I ran after him, and finally found him in his room, the candy scattered on the floor all around him. Rachel and I picked it up and put it back in his hood, then Preston's mom drove us back to Rachel's.

Once back at Rachel's, we pigged out on candy and talked for a while, then we started playing Scategories. Or something like that. It's a fun game, and I was really good at it, 'cause all you need in order to play it is a lot of useless knowledge. Naturally, I won. Preston actually kept it pretty close, but then I scored like 9 points in a round (the average was probably 5), and from there I began to pull away. Gwa-ha-ha-ha.

It was awesome, too, 'cause . . . well, like, not to brag or anything, but I think I'm a little smarter than they are, and so they just assumed I was right in most cases . . . like, we had to come up with something in the desert that began with an “L.” I couldn't think of anything, so I just put “Llama.” And they LET ME HAVE IT!! DOES THAT ROCK OR WHAT?? (Just to be fair . . . that was the only case like that, and I won by more than one point.)

Then we told scary stories for a while, then my mother came, and I went home.

After that, I don't recall much of the week . . . kind of a blur of doing lots and lots. I do recall Thursday, which was auditions for Cinderella. I was somewhat nervous, since, lacking an accompanist, I hadn't practiced much. But I think I did all right. I never have good auditions, but this was probably one of my best. Of course, I do well on the one that I don't have a specific part I want . . . come Tom Sawyer I'll probably suck again.

In any case, shortly thereafter it was time for fencing and then another weekend of shows. Actually, dance was first, but I don't remember like anything about it. It might've been the week we only had three people . . . I can't recall. In any case, fencing . . . fencing . . . ah yes, at fencing, Cavarno was there, and Peter and Daniel. Yes. Daniel Milligan actually picked up a sword and was fighting Aaron. It was an awesome sight . . . In any case, David showed up about an hour late, and Josh and I had come up with a new routine by then, which we taught to him and Cavarno.

Then 'twas time for the show . . . again, nothing special that I remember. Saturday . . . now that's another story. The afternoon was nothing special, but . . . the night . . . so many things happening all at once . . . Firstly, it was the ASL translated show. Secondly, it was video night. Thirdly . . . AJ and his compatriots came. Which is most of you. I shall try to do your visit justice.

The first act went well, as far as I can remember . . . nothing really bad happened, I don't think. Then came intermission. I went out into the audience, to harass them, as usual . . . I was following Zemos around, and we went outside, then back into the lobby, me telling him to buy me a cookie. Then, all of a sudden, I had two Ls at my head . . . I turned, and there was Stephen, and AJ right next to him. There was a little bit of talking, in which it was decided (somehow) that I had a Babylonian accent . . . then, as the show was starting again, I asked Andrew if he could scoot over so I'd have a seat for the second act . . . I expected a long argument. Instead, he happily complied and jumped onto AJ. I tried reaaaaally hard to keep a straight face, but I think I probably failed. In any case, I had a nice big seat all to myself for the start of act two. The rest of the show went well, I think . . . and at the end, Wayne was doing a little thing of talking about some people who'd grown up at Lifehouse, and the experiences that they'd had. In the end, it all turned out to be leading up to Ben proposing to Heather, which was really cool.

Then there was some hanging out onstage after the show (and some rude people picking me up and carrying me backstage . . . *glare*). Then there was some going home, and some eating a (really) late dinner, and some more hanging out. We had some interesting conversations . . . we played some really weird games of telephone . . . Jessica and I tap-danced, Will tried to kill me on multiple occasions, I did some logical chains . . . turns out that Stephen is the cosmos *gasp*!

Eventually, everyone left, and I went to bed. The next day, church happened. Dad was preaching, but it was a sermon I'd heard before, so nothing special there. After church, there was another show, to which David came again, and Carly came again, and Megan came. And it was a jolly show . . . whatever the heck that means. That just kind of came out.

In any case, after the show was the cast party. Earlier, I had announced that for once I had no skit to perform. Sarah and Taylor were infuriated. They made me (with their help . . . immense help from Sarah, she pretty much did it herself) write it during and immediately after the show . . . and then we performed it. Gosh, it sucked. I wish I hadn't done it. I may have soiled my reputation . . . That just makes me all the more determined to do something good for Cinderella . . . if only Zach were in that . . . but alas.

Anyway, after the skit, we had a prayer time and a short worship time, and then just some hanging out until it was time to go home. My shirt was totally reduced to trash . . . one part of the skit (Taylor's idea, of course) had been three girls attacking me and putting make-up on me (which didn't go too well, 'cause 1) they got powder in my eye and 2) they didn't do enough, so it wasn't funny at all). Well, Taylor, in trying to put lipstick on my face (but NOT on my lips . . . I made sure of that), somehow managed to miss my face entirely and got it on my shirt . . . along with a bunch of powder and some blue eyeliner . . . so now there's a giant pinkish mark on the shoulder of my shirt, and some weird blue lines.

Then, during the hanging out time, I got a bowl of ice cream (completely covered in chocolate syrup and peanuts and sprinkles . . . yummy), and was eating it when David came to pick up Sarah (who was sitting next to me talking to me while we ate), and I started talking to David, and was gesturing with the hand that held the ice cream . . . BAAAAD move. Never do that. Now, to accompany the pink and blue, there's a nice shade of brown running all down the front of it. On a gray shirt. Which I really liked. *sigh* Sometimes life just sucks, doesn't it?

So then I went home, and AJ was here. 'Cause his car wasn't working. So he was crashing here until it got fixed and he could go back to Fullerton. So he was here, and we hung out for a while, then it was bed-time.

Then, the next day was Monday. School. Wahoo. But also the most awesomest day in quite a while, because I FINALLY got to watch Episode III. Ahhh . . . good times. Then Monday night, I started to get a sore throat. “Uh-oh,” I said. Or thought, anyway, 'cause it hurt a little to talk. Tuesday came, and I felt pretty lousy . . . but I started feeling better as the day went on, so I went to Algebra class anyway. Wahoo. About halfway through I started feeling lousy again. But by then it was too late.

So I went home and took it easy for the rest of the day, and then I didn't go to debate on Wednesday. Thursday was a really bum day . . . 'cause I had Torrey class, and I had to finish a paper before it . . . so even though I felt REALLY lousy I still had to do school. *sob* After that, I just took it easy all day until six or so, at which point I went to Lifehouse, feeling a lot better.

Doing the show actually made me feel a LOT better. I don't know why, it usually makes me feel worse. But I felt a lot better afterwards. Then today . . . I feel better today, my throat is feeling better, although my nose is very clogged . . . *sigh* I hate being sick.

Anyway, today I slept in, and didn't go to dance (partly because I wanted to play it safe, partly because it was cancelled). I'm not going to go to fencing, either, just to make sure I feel okay for the show.

And tonight is Lit. Club, which I won't be able to go to . . . . AAAAHHH!!!! I READ THE SITHIN' BOOK IN FOUR DAYS FOR NOTHING!!! NOTHING AT ALL!!!!!

*ahem* So yeah. Now you're caught up. On to comments!!

((again, skipping a few))

David: “running running running like a constipated weener dog” is from a Weird Al song. It wasn't supposed to make any sense.

Rae: Yeah, I think that Esther is Lifehouse's best show, personally. If you come to see another one, it might be kind of a letdown after Esther . . . just to warn you. And stop using the accursed word!!! It was in my vocabulary, too, but I was able to get it out with ease!! (As were most of my friends . . . most of them don't say it around me anymore unless they're trying to bug me.)

Jessica: Ah! Jessica has returned to my blog! Huzzah! Yes, we did put quite a bit of work into it . . . especially Randy (who did all the lighting). Anyway, yeah, tap-dancing with you was a lot of fun. Bring your tap shoes next time! (And you like that picture WAAAY too much . . . my face is soo stupid . . .)

Megan: Will you shut up about the stupid tango men from New York?! I already told you, it's Dustin, what do you expect? (You gotta love the question mark, though . . .)

All the evil spam comments: *Strong Bad voice* WORD VERIFICATION'D!!!