So....

I have a plan! (stunning right?) to get more CC students in on the blog. It involves deception, espionage, assassination, and a coup.... not really. The REAL plan (though not as cool as the first plan) involves ryan asking his mother to include the unofficial CC blog in next CC's announcements. Since its Thanks giving break we have some time to streamline this. All in favor of a UCCB public launch comment with an Yes or no, reasons why on this post. Also post suggestions to plan here.

The Unofficial Constitution

Hey fellow CCers! It's RB, and I'm here to introduce a CC constitution for anybody that wants it. I'll post it here, but if you want changes, additions, and/or removals, comment or email me. Or comment for my e-mail and then I will delete my comment when you've sent an e-mail. After that confusing introduction, here it is: THE UNOFFICIAL CC BLOG PREAMBLE!

We the Students of the Classical Consortium, in order to form a most perfect unofficial blog, establish cyber-Justice, insure online Tranquility, provide for the defense of this URL, promote the general blog welfare, and firmly secure the Blessings of cyber-Liberty to ourselves and all present and future CC students, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Unofficial Blog of the Classical Consortium.

Article 1 (concerning the powers of those who can post and of the admins) is coming soon.

See the changes?

HEYOLAH PEOPLES! It's RB, and I'm back to announce the obvious: I, with my admin powers, HAVE ALTERED THE BACKGROUND! Do you like the changes? BEN, DON'T ANSWER THAT! If you don't, take it up with me or Ben and we'll see if your arguments are logical for the overturning. ;D Embrace the background, taste the background. MY AWESOMELY SHORT POST!

The Life of a FEMALE L2 student

Hello Ya'll,

My writing skills aren't as good as Ryan's and Ben's so cut me some slack. You all know what it's like to be a 8th grade boy at CC; for girls, it's a completely different story. So here's my description of how L2 is coming along this year:

"TO LET ALL THE WORLD KNOW THAT JESUS SAVES!!!!" Every Monday morning, KLOVE is my alarm clock and BOY it scares me SO much. Slowly, I turn the radio off and walk very quietly to my closet, trying not to wake my sisters up, and start to whimper while getting the uniform on my body. Why does it have to be Monday?- I think to myself. After getting ready for the long day at school, a delicious, toasted bagel is sitting at the kitchen table waiting to be eaten. That sure gets me awake!

My sister, Rachel and I get in my dads shiny, new, red Acura. The whole way there, it's "Quaker party" time. Now let me explain to you guys what "Quaker Party" means. A lady I know grew up in a strange family. When she was younger, her mom would get stressed out because of the loudness in the house. So...she would yell, "QUAKER PARTY!" and the family would stay absolutely silent for at least 1 hour. To people who know me, staying totally quiet for 1 hour doesn't go well. Anyways, we pull into the church parking lot. The crates get out of the car and are dragged into the building. I pray, "Dear God, please help everyone at school today." and walk into the chapel room.

The chapel room is an interesting time of the day. There are many different groups that sit next to each other and talk during that day. During worship time, there is shoe-throwing, face slapping, and laughing. My friends, Summer and Hannah sit in the front row making funny faces at me while I'm on stage singing worship songs. My other close friends are usually in the bathroom making sure they look okay.

Then we get to the classes: I'm a girl so first i check my hair, make-up, and make sure I don't look too horrible. Then off to Critical Thinking. Here i will list a few ways to describe each class. 1. Critical Thinking: helpful, and there is really no other way to describe it. 2. Latin 1- ALIVE, the teachers quite funny (want some stories about her, ask me later). 3. Physical Science- fun, that's the class i have the most energy in. 4. Omnibus- satisfying and pretty easy. 5. Comp and Comp- enjoyable and fairly easy as well. 6- American Studies- factual, there is lots of information, and exciting. Those are the overall descriptions of the classes but it changes every week.

My friends at CC are Summer and Hannah. Summer is a very sweet, quiet (mostly), and caring girl. Hannah is a lot more outgoing, and is also very compassionate. They both share the same love for Christ which is always good. Of course, Hannah, Summer, and I sit next to each other every class and always have something interesting to tell each other. We pretty much talk about whatever we can possibly think of: what happened the past week, and how hillarious Jacob is...(hannah usually starts up a conversations about Jacob every week since her family is close to the Selvigs.) He has been mentioned in the past and here's how I can describe him: eclectic, "goofy", has ALOT of energy, and pretty NICE. Summer is a very sweet, quiet (mostly), and caring girl. Hannah is a lot more outgoing, and is also very compassionate.

So as a female L2 student, life is a bit more complicated than guys. Knowing how to style your hair every morning, making sure you don't look like a clown before school starts, and making sure people won't judge you from a behavior stand-point. Overall, I love CC and even though it is hard to get up in the mornings, it is a lot better than being public schooled (I know that from experience) and i love my friends. The people there are very respectful and easy to get along with. Hope this wasn't TOO long and now you know what it's like to be a L2 student from a girls perspective.

Five Ways to Know That You Are An L2 Student

The title is self-explanatory, so I wont bore you with any introduction information. Here are the "Three Ways"! (Make that five...!)

1. You laugh when people ask if you finish your homework by Thursday.
2. You know the name of every Spanish conquistador from the 15th-century onward.
3. You tell others about deep theological concepts from Omnibus without thinking.
4. You crack up when people mention Andromeda from the greek myths...
5. You have deep debates about things like the amount of pizza you should have on Hot Lunch.

There you have it! This post was for all four L2's that follow this blog! Come to think of it, this was pretty pitiful. Oh well, I had to do a good natured fill-in post... (Ben, you little...)

About time for one of these......

Ok, this post is going to serve as the Chat room post. essentially, anything you want to talk about that isn't CC related, do so here. (thiny catch my rip on the Core briefings there?) So weather you want to talk about what u ate for lunch, what your Favorite Video game is, or the latest Gorillas song or whatever the heck that band is that RB and Mike have themselves hooked on, Talk about it Here!

Wow! Sour! Bitter? Gross?

Thats right. We're back to Nick-no, sorry- Rick Doherty. As habit, Rick chews on pens and pencils, though most normally pens. Now, no offense Rick, but you chew on them...not only yours but other's too. I learned that from experience. Anyway, I'm rambling now.

Down to the point ~ well for a while last year Rick's pen was malfunctioning. I really don't know what he did to it, but you couldn't put the point out automatically. So, Rick took the most sensible solution and took the small part of the pen that held the ink OUT of the pen. Of course, following habit, he started chewing on that. By the way, to those of you that might want to try this...don't. We were about halfway through the Omnibus class when from the back of the room we hear, "Ca uh go waf my mouf ough?" translated "Can I go wash my mouth out?". That's right, the ink "slide" if you will, had let go of its ink, all into Rick's mouth.

Unfortunately, Rick's tongue was ink-blue the rest of the day and I am pretty sure it didn't taste so good. Was it sour, bitter, gross? Probably a combination of all three.

And there you have it, Something's first post on The [Unofficial] CC Blog.

Writing Privileges...

Okay guys, so here's the deal. We'd love to have other people posting, so, if you have anything you want to say, just comment on this post, and leave your email adress (That's what I have to use to grant "permissions"). If you ask, and don't get an email in a few days saying "You Have Been Invited To Contribute" from blogger, one of a few things has likely happened:
1. My computer was stolen and Unofficial is now being run by a maniac
2. I was Shanghai'd by pirates
3. I was ambushed by ninjas
4. I was banished by Obama
5. I was really busy with homework...
Whatever the case, I WILL get back to ya sooner or later, so don't panic. Also, check your spam folder, just in case. And since I utterly despise technical stuff and want to get back to writing, I officially end this post.

Inside the Insane and Insignificant Life of an L2: Profiling, Part 2

So, where was I?
Believe it or not, there're MANY more characters you need to know about here- I'm not even halfway done. And while these characters aren't exactly Jacobs (he's really the one and only), I still wouldn't dream of leaving them out. Oh, and by the way, Ryan's gonna do some profiling to. So, whatever he says about me, don't believe it! ;) But no, however much I'd like to be the author who gets to sit back with my bag of popcorn and see how ridiculous, insane, and amazing everything, and everyone else is, we've gotta be fair here. As my readers, you deserve to know just what kind of maniac is telling you this stuff. Also, if RB tries to make me out as some witty, charismatic, outgoing guy- I'm not that great. (So don't try it RB!) In fact, I'm lucky to have friends like him.
Okay, so you caught me. I'm rambling again. But you've come to expect it by now, right? Eh, guess that's no excuse. Well, better late than never, here's Role Call, part 2.

Critical Thinking- where we think about our thinking, while we're thinking, in order to make our thinking better. That's a lot of thinking. And that's also very early in the morning. At this time, good old, store-brand, regular thinking is difficult for me. So you can probably imagine why critical thinking would be a bit of a struggle. However, I do my best.
Collapsing at the nearest table, I look around and get my bearings. Next to me is Jacob- looking wild as usual- yes, even shortly after dawn. Beside him, is Ryan, bright-eyed and and bushy-headed. I don't know whats in those vitamins he takes each morning, but I still don't know how he does it. (Yeah, this kid sends me emails at 6 something in the morning. Crazy stuff.) At the other end of the table, I finally find a kindrid spirit- Mike looks pretty dead too.
Back to the profiling. Michael, alias Pope. Yeah, I'm still trying to figure that one out too... Anyway, he's got pale skin, glasses, and dark curly hair, and bears a passing resemblance to a monk. At first glance, he pretty much seems like a stoic. On second, you realize you're wrong. His sense of humor is essentially the polar opposite of Jacob's: quiet. But that doesn't make it any less funny. To appreciate it, you would need some examples- and though I would so love to give them right now- I'm here for profiling. (Stay focused here, Ben) Anyway, Mike's the kinda friend you get to appreciate more and more the longer you know him. Plus, he owns on Super Smash Bros. Brawl. ;)
The remainder of Critical Thinking passes rather uneventfully, at least in light of profiling. So its not until I'm leaving class that I rub shoulders with our next character.

Yeah, I got to the point this time. This boy is Kyle. Kyle's a pretty straight forward guy. He's honest, care-free, and basically loves to laugh. Oh, and when Kyle laughs, his face turns some rather shocking colors- and since he's usually laughing, and he tends to be kind of red in the face. He's yet another chap with blond hair and blue eyes, but his huge smile sets him apart. Also, anyone who's at least vaguely aware of his existence knows (Knows!) that Kyle is a lizard lover and a manic Tennessee Titans fan. Trust me, he makes it known! ;) Oh, and he has an age-old Super Smash rivalry with Mike...

So I head to Latin with Kyle. And thankfully, I'm truly starting to wake up- which is good, since there are all of 5 people in our Latin class. It would be hard to bear a fifth of the class discussion with my eyes crossing. Again, Latin doesn't provide too many profiling opportunities, so I'm gonna gloss over this a bit.

Inside the Insane yet Insignificant Life of an L2- Profiling, Part 1

Well, lets hope no one gets offended here. ;) The people at CC are awesome (and no, this isn’t flattery…), so awesome in fact, that I felt compelled to write about you all. Trust me, so many things happen at CC that I don’t want to forget. Now of course, I can’t cover EVERYONE, so these are just a handful of people I probably encounter the most during my CC day. Plus, this is just part 1. And, RB is gonna profile some to- I guess its only fair that he gets to profile me… That should be interesting to see. ;)
Anyway, this is a recount of a CC day that actually happened- I’m just glossing over events and focusing on people. Because, you know, RB and I (plus any of you!) will be posting weekly (hopefully), telling about ridiculous, bizarre, or favorite CC memories. But we gotta introduce our characters first- at least how we see them. Again- hope no one gets offended. ;)
(Oh, one last note, parts of this were originally written for people unfamiliar with CC, hence the explanations of things that should be obvious to you all.)
So, without further ado, I present Role Call,
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Last you left me, I believe I was half-asleep in a Buick with the sun in my eyes. Well, as deeply touching and strangely satisfying as that ending was (learn to recognize sarcasm my friends. If you can't, don't read the writings of an 8th grader.), the story is only beginning.

So me and my loving pater are making the long voyage to CC. In a way, this time on the road is a sort of twilight zone in my day. Neither fully dark, nor fully light, and pretty much detached from everything else. And it’s always over before I know it. So I just have enough time to remind myself to start narrating this day in the first person before I'm thrown into the halls. Then all else is forgotten as I struggle through masses of loitering kids (Oh, I could say so much about that hall...).

Gasping for breath, I'm thrown from the great mass of humanity, and into the relative quiet of the gym. It also subs as a place for lockers and a lunchroom. Considering the fact that I'm still recovering from motion sickness, kind courtesy of the hall, I'm here for the lockers. Throwing my backpack down (My shoulder was just starting to heal, too =/), I turn in my homework, grab my oxygen tank, and brave the hall once more. I'm hoping I'll end up in the Chapel Room.

Several long seconds later, I find myself standing in that very room. Huh. Guess I got lucky. Anyway, the Chapel Room, is well, the room where we start the day with a chapel service (shocker)- including devotionals, worship, and a pep talk- and is generally the preferred place to catch up with friends. Trying not to look too beat up, I walk over to the seats, and collapse next to RB. You guessed it, profiling time.

Really, his name is Ryan Burns. But that just sounds too formal. I call em RB. Come to think of it, he's called many things including Root Beer, Rooty (long story on that one), and of course RB- anything but Ryan. His skin is pale, his eyes blue (turquoise maybe), and he generally looks nothing like a chilled mug of Barque's. But his hair is by far his most distinctive feature. It’s as if somewhere along the way to CC, his scalp had some serious mishap with an electric fence, car battery, or generally anything else containing dangerous amounts of electricity. Combine this with his blond hair color, and you have a guy that's pretty easy to spot. Other than a victim of voltage, RB is also an aspiring writer, has a fetish for quotes, and will likely one day be President of the United States. He's smart for sure, if not a bit random, and essentially my right hand man. He's gonna protest that by the way. Maybe I'm at his left hand instead.

He's currently humming "Over My Head" by The Fray- one of his favorite songs (Yet another topic to revisit). He’s a keyboardist, guitarist, and generally a wannabe rock star. What can I say; the boy’s a Renaissance man. He pauses briefly, giving me one of his signature "Hey Ben"s, then resumes singing. Before long, I'm singing too. Hey, it’s contagious. Together, we produce something that vaguely resembles harmony. Music is a wonderful thing. =)

Before we completely finish our melodious croaking, someone else enters the chapel. Profile Numero Dos. He's wearing khakis around four sizes too big for his anemic legs, a clip-on tie, and a suit coat. Brown hair, tan skin, hands in pockets. Whipping a lime green yo-yo out of his pocket, he proceeds to stroll toward us, throwing out a casual greeting of "Hello froobizoids." Classy? Maybe. Insane? Of course. Meet Jacob. My left hand man, I guess. And you've probably got him to thank for the existence of this series of stories. It wouldn't be CC without him. He’s also good on a guitar, deadly with pressure points, and sure to have some gadget (the yo-yo being the example of the day) up his sleeve. Also, feeding him anything that contains higher than 2% sugar content is flat out dangerous (again, a topic for another time). Just be warned.

During worship, Jacob yodels, I try to figure out just what octave I should be singing in with my cracking voice, and Ryan out does us both. By the way people, the amazing thing is that God heard all three of us out. =)

After chapel, chaos ensues. This chaos is supposedly folding chair cleanup- but it feels a smidge like trial by claustrophobia. It’s through these crowds I see Christopher.

At least, I hear him. It’s hard not to- he and I have an unspoken law. Practically a sacred rite. Every time he sees me, he cries, (and I quote) “Beeeeeen!!” And of course, I yell back, “Chriiiissssss!!” A high-five, or something along those lines follows. This brings me to my third profile: Christopher. He, like Ryan, has very blond hair. But unlike Ryan, its not standing up on end, his skin isn’t as pale, and his eyes are most definitely blue. Anyway, imagine the most random and light-hearted guy you know. Okay, triple those attributes, and you have something close to an unimaginative stoic compared to Chris. Its hard to bring him down- that’s what I like about him. Like me, he’s a Lego fanatic, but he’s also good with stop motion videos. The results are pretty amazing. He’s actually in the grade above me, but hey, who cares? In short, if you need to lighten up, he’s the guy for you.

So Chris and I have actually managed to get close enough to high-five when I get caught in a riptide of backpack bearing kids and thrown back into the hall. So much for that.

Muttering darkly about traffic control, I’m halfway down the hall when I realize my first class is in the other direction. Let’s just say I step into Critical Thinking a bit battered.

And there you have it. Okay, I’m just a lowly L2, so if anyone has any insight on these people to add, let’s hear it. =) Any other thoughts, suggestions, questions, whines, or rants are appreciated, believe it or not. (I get a bit of all five from RB… Now don’t take hard RB, it was only a joke! ;]) So yeah, I have nothing more to say- I’ll shut up now. So long, folks. =)

Just to Kick Things Off Here

Okay, now I know there are plenty of early risers in CC. And I respect that. But that's just not how I am. I don't know if anyone can sympathize, but Monday mornings can seem pretty bad. Here's my feelings:

So its Monday morning. And I’m using the definition loosely. It’s dark outside, cold as heck, and the rooster’s still out cold. Don’t get me wrong: I have nothing against Mondays. It’s the mornings that irk me. So anyway, there I am, sawing logs, just minding my own business. A nudge on the shoulder and a feeling of dread greet me as I wake. Though now conscious, the hatches of my eyelids are firmly nailed closed. I stumble out of my bed like a ship with a schizophrenic at the tiller, nearly running aground several times as I stagger about on my two left feet. After narrowly navigating through the doorway, I flop down the stairs, leaving my heart, mind, and many other vital internal organs under the covers.

Having miraculously survived the trip downstairs, I slog toward the table. Dad pushes some breakfast in front of me. The lumberjack special: a piece of toast, with a drop of milk to drink. Oh, before you can fully appreciate my breakfast experience, you need to realize something. When I say a drop, I mean it literally. Don’t get me wrong: my dad’s awesome. But when it comes to drinks, well… The amount of liquid he gets by on would leave a cactus with a dry throat. A camel would be choking. And sometimes I think he forgets the rest of us need proper hydration to survive. But anyway, moving along…

So, due to the culinary drought, I leave the table with a mouth plastered wall to wall with peanut butter. I mean, I had some true interior-decorating going on: shelves, roofing, and maybe even some carpet going in. Impressed but choking, I scale the stairs (not without mishap) and stagger into the bathroom. Prying my sticky jaws open and mentally noting to keep a crowbar by the sink, I thoroughly saturate my mouth, rinse, and repeat. Then, loading down my toothbrush, I scrub away, thankful that my taste buds are not yet fully connected to my brain, preventing me from tasting the scrumptious blend of peanut butter and mint.

Offering up a prayer of thanks after again safely traversing the stairs, I gather my school stuff. Wincing as I sling the overloaded backpack over my shoulder (nearly ripping it out of the socket in the process), I head out of the house and collapse into the idling car.

Having been on the road several minutes, the sun finally rises. In our eyes, that is. But hey, it was still beautiful. By this time, the fog in my mind is starting to clear. With I smile I recall a certain quote:"

“On Monday mornings I am dedicated to the proposition that all men are created jerks.” (Me included)

H. Allen Smith

Alright, I'll admit- that was a little exaggerated. But honestly, its not too far off. The wake-up will always be my least favorite part of CC, but hey, watcha gonna do? =/

Have any Monday morning experiences or thoughts you care to share? Do tell. ;)

Welcome To The CC Blog!

Hey, it's Ryan Burns, and welcome to the Unofficial CC Blog! This is a blog where all CC students can comment and share experiences. I mean, we all have classes on Monday, we hang out together at Lunch, and mill about aimlessly after school's over, but me and fellow CC student Ben Krapohl have teamed up to form a place for those who wish to engage in further conversation with others from the Classical Consortium. Now, we will post at least once a week, even more if we have time and energy after those assignments on the spreadsheet! Me and Ben will try to keep this stuff CC-related, but I will warn you that we are both pretty random, so catch us if we go astray. But this isn't all about our posts, it's about what you have to say. Leave suggestions, likes, dislikes and whatever else you want in the comments for any posts. I have a single rule (and it's from Ben, not my mom!): No complaining about CC on this here blog, see? I won't talk to you like a 20's CEO anymore, but this rule should not go unheeded. Other then that, you are free to explore the blog! Welcome to life after CC! And with that, BE OFF!