Weird Dog.....

In case you, the reader does not know, I have a pet pug. His name is Doug. He is a bit taller and more fit than your average pug. Because of that we think he's not fully pug. He has a nice soft fawn colored coat. His favorite thing in the whole world is food, then humans, then car rides. He also has some pretty weird perks: licking for no reason for more than two minutes straight, being afraid of anything that is small and moves when he gets close (then sometimes he tries to eat it), chases cars, and many other strange things. One thing he always loved was cars and car rides. He even knows what the word "ride" means (along with "food", "treat" and "walk").

So usually he would love to go for a car ride, but today our van is in the car shop. So my dad is borrowing a small red car until the van is fixed up. He brought the car home and usually Doug would run out there, say hi to who ever was in the car and then try and get in to go for a ride. This time he ran away from the car, and acted as if he were scared of it. Dad noticed this and decided to slam the trunk shut after getting his stuff out. This made Doug even more scared, and it made the scene for us who were watching even more hilarious. Doug would try and get close, then suddenly run away again. This went on for a little while, and occasionally he would run up the driveway in fear of the car. I then tried to bring him back in by his leash because I had to continue my school. He wouldn't let me. I had to drag him. So instead of wasting my time I had to pick him up. He was terrified so he clung to me. Once we were inside I put him down and he ran away from the door and started barking.

In a few minutes, Dad then picked him up brought him to the car to go for a little ride. At first he didn't even go in. After about a minute or so he decided to try it. He went in for a second and turned tail and ran out. Then after Dad got in he decided to try again. He got in and Dad closed the door. He was a little scared, but ended up not minding. That concludes the story of my weird dog!

My Chess History

I've wrote a lot of posts about working out, but I not much about the nerdy part of being a nerdy-jock. That may be because I am more of a jock than a nerd, and know more about working out than..... nerdy stuff.

I guess one thing that makes me nerdy is the game of chess. I love chess. I started playing about 8-10 years ago. I never really cared about chess back then, it was just a thing my dad taught me so that I played once in awhile. I had almost no logic then. All I wanted to do is use my rooks to destroy the other player. My dad had at least some strategy and beat me every time. I got frustrated with that and decided to play my siblings. They all beat me, but Colleen and I were pretty even, and I soon became better than her. After getting frustrated with losing to Shannon, Abbey and Tim I tried playing Dad again. I lost most of the games, but was starting to get a basic idea how to play. After a couple years of playing like that I kind of gave up and didn't play much. I just took time off of chess and worked on school, sports and other easier games. I also got some more logic in my head through math (which I loved).

I then started playing again and was pretty even with my dad. We played after supper many times and eventually I started beating him more than he was beating me. Soon after that I was beating everyone in my family relatively easily. I then started challenging my friends in chess. The two friends I challenged most were Tucker and Richard. Tucker slowly became easier to beat and then I stopped playing with him and mainly did sports with him. Richard was still a challenge. He was very good with his knights and queens, while I was good with my bishops, pawns and rooks. There was a time when we both became busier and we couldn't play as much. During that time I played elders and our pastor in our church. I usually lost because I was still quite ignorant in the game. They taught me alot, and I applied it. I then started playing Richard again and was winning more games than losing against him. After practicing with him and beating him almost every time I challenged the elders again. I lasted much longer, but still lost.

So now I had people I was better than, and people who were much better than me. So I then looked into online chess. I played off and on there. It improved my game for sure. I also read a little about chess and then went back to the elders in my church. I lost and won games then. After about a year of going back and forth, I ended up winning almost every game.

We later moved to a different church and I played the leaders in that church as well. I ended up beating them as well. So now no one I knew was challenging me very much... but then I my uncle came to visit. He showed me up. He moved at almost twice my speed and played better. I lost games to him all the time. He then went back down after his visit with us and I was determined to beat him.

I played online a lot and learned quite a bit. One of the reasons I got so good was because in 8th grade I got some pretty bad shin splints and didn't even want to walk. So I played online chess all the time, and sometimes read about chess.

After a year or two I met a guy who was really good at chess. He ran a chess club in Lewiston and I played with him alot. I went to a local tournament with him and I was pretty darn nervous so I played quite badly and lost games I should have won. After awhile the chess club kind of fell apart and we went to a different chess club with MUCH better players. Like one of the players can 'own' another player who could 'own' me. Around this time I was helping Shannon babysit some kids. One of the kids was extremely smart for his age. I played him (and still do). I usually win, but he improved tremendously over a short time. He then started going to the chess club with me and Eric (the guy that I was going to the chess club with before). Eric ended up not coming much more and I only went with Mitchell (the guy I helped babysit) until that chess club faded out.

With in the past year or so my uncle came to visit again. This time I was a well trained chess player. I won 3 out of 4 games. I had finally become slightly better than him. I was satisfied with that and started playing less and less. Just recently I started playing again and realized I was getting rusty. Now that I shook off most of that rust I'm playing online again and loving it.

There were many other people I played that challenged me or I helped them with their chess skills, but I didn't really feel like mentioning every chess game I've played. 

Bad Game and a Funny Result.

Yesterday I had a game in Belfast. Belfast is about 2 hours away, so that was kind of a pain. Also, some guys fell asleep on the bus, which made them less alert in the game. We started off the game quite badly. We barely talked and had bad touches. In the second half we did much better with our touches, but still didn't gel as a team and talk. We lost that game, a close score though. Which also showed that we should have owned the field and won.

In the game, I played pretty well (but was guilty of not talking alot), I won a lot of balls out of  the air, some of which were drilled. I won most of them with headers, but I still got quite a few on my chest and my gut. I had the wind knocked out of me twice that game from drilled balls. One was on my gut, so it gave in, and knocked the wind out of me that way. The other was at the side of my ribs, just under my right peck (chest muscle). Ribs don't give way, so it took more power to knock the wind out of me. I didn't realize until I got home and took my shirt off for my shower that I had a soccer ball imprint right under my chest. I thought it was funny that it was still there five hours after the game. I find it even more funny that I still have it 18 hours after the game! I guess that guy kind of drilled the ball.

Light vs. Heavy

Once again, you find me blogging about working out. This time it's not going to be about how to do workouts and what muscle groups they work. This time it's going to be about light and heavy weights.

To start it off, your muscles have two kinds of muscle fibers: slow twitch, and fast twitch.

Slow twitch are the muscle fibers you get from high repetition with light weights, and jogging. Slow twitch muscles are good for enduring things, such as long runs, repetitive light work, some body weight workouts, and burning fat. Working your slow twitch muscle will also make you defined, and build a little muscle. Cardio workouts often work slow twitch muscle because they always keep you moving. Cardio burns fat (and help your cardio), hence why I said working your slow twitch muscles burns fat. An example of a slow twitch workout is when I was curling 20 pounds. I could curl them a ton of times, like around 30. Maybe more. That's high repetition.


Fast twitch muscle fibers are the fibers that make you faster, bulk up, get stronger, and increase explosiveness. The way you build fast twitch muscle fibers is by lifting heavy weights, or doing something you can only do 1-15 times. 2-10 is best because that way your aren't only doing it once, and you're still working your fast twitch muscles fibers. For example, I'm curling 40 pounds right now. I can only curl them 4-5 times per arm, so those are working my fast twitch muscles.

As you might be able to guess guess, I want to lift heavy weights because they will help me with my speed, and I'm already quite defined, but not that strong. Sprinters need fast twitch fibers to become faster. That's one of the reasons I bought the weighted vest and I want to get ankle weights. With those I can work fast twitch and slow twitch fibers with body weight workouts.

Victory.

Last Friday I had a soccer game against Oak Hill. We lost to them last time we played them, even though we controlled the ball most of the time. Between the game we lost to them and our game on Friday we practiced finishing. We played very hard for the entire game on Friday, and turned it into a win. It was quite an intense game, with a score of 2-3. I didn't score, though I got close. One of the reasons I didn't score though was because I had to cover Oak Hill's best player again. Overall, it was a great game and our first victory of the season! It felt awesome to win.

The evening after my game I received my hand-gripper in the mail. It's weighted 150 pounds. It's quite hard to close. I can only do it 1-2 times with my left, and 2-3 with my right.

Later that evening us Clarkes went to benefit concert. There was a bunch of SMASHers at the concert. Colleen, Dad, Mom and I missed most of the concert because of soccer, but it was great to see some SMASH friends there!

Arms

I've talked a little bit about working out your core and a tad about weight lifting. Because I could spend hours writing about how to workout different muscles, I think I will start off with body parts. Judging from my title you've probably already guessed that I'm going to talk about arms.

I'll start at the shoulder and chest and work my way down to the hand. First off to work on your chest you could do bench press, which is probably the best for building chest muscles. If you go to a gym or lift weights, you probably already know what that is, and if you don't go to a gym and don't know what it is you probably can't do it. It's the same with a chest press. A chest press is a little easier and a little safer than the bench press, but that's usually only at gyms as well. There are many other chest workouts that require a gym, and I don't really feel like listing them all, partly because I don't know all the names of the workouts. Anyway, I think I will stick to workouts you can do at home. That will make this post much more simple.

One thing you could do to work your chest is flies. With flies you lay on the ground with you arms straight out on the ground while holding weights. Then bending slightly at the elbows, bring the weights in your hands together straight above you chest. Then put them back slowly so that you get a workout on the way down, and so you don't hurt your joints. Once your hands are almost to the ground, repeat.

Another workout is the push-up. The push-up is a great workout. Partly because you can do so many different kinds of push-ups. The push-up works your chest, shoulders, triceps, back, abs, Gluteus Maximus, and a little bicep. If you do the 'basic push-up', it works your chest the most. To start, place your hands under your shoulders (or a little closer to you torso), and get in the plank position. The plank position is the up-right position of a push-up. Your body should be as straight as possible. Then bring your body down until your arms are at a 90 degree position, then push-up and repeat. If you want learn some other push-ups, just comment on here.

Now for the shoulders. To it's a little harder to work your shoulders without a gym, but I'll give you a few workouts, starting with the shoulder press. With the shoulder press you grab two weights put them even with your head (while standing). Your arms should be to your sides, kind of making a W with your arms and head. Now that you have that position, push the weights until you arms are straight, and let them down to the W position. Repeat. When you're doing this, make sure your back is straight and your feet are slightly wider than shoulder width apart. You can strain, pull or pinch your back if your back is not straight.

You can also do handstand push-ups to work you shoulders. This is very hard and I would not recommend doing it without someone there who knows how to do it. If you live near me, I could help you. If you have no one around you that knows how to do this, don't do it.

Now, on to biceps. Biceps are one of my favorite muscles groups to workout. Probably because they make me feel stronger than I actually am. When I was younger I hated push-ups, but loved pull-ups and climbing trees, so I pretty much only did those. Because of that, my biceps are strong compared to my chest and other muscle groups (besides my triceps). The easiest way to work your bicep is to curl weights. Curling is quite simple. First, grab a weight (while standing) and relax you arm so your arm is straight. Then curl your arm until the weight just about reaches your shoulder. Then let it down slowly so you don't snap your elbow. Repeat.

Now for my favorite. The pull-up. The pull workout pretty much every part of you body besides your legs. You can do a variation of a pull which works you legs though. But the main muscle it works is your bicep. To do a pull-up just grab a pull-up bar (a strong tree branch or door frame would work), with your palms facing away from your body and hands about shoulder width apart. Starting with you arms straight, pull yourself up. You should try and bring your nose or chin over the bar. Don't jolt your body up, that can hurt you and it doesn't work your biceps that much. Once you get up there, let you self down slowly until your arms are straight (don't touch the ground), and repeat.

Some people mix up a pull-up with a chin-up. A chin-up is the same thing except your palms are facing towards you. This is easier, but can hurt you joints if you do alot.

 Now for the triceps. There are many workouts you can do for these, just like the chest and biceps. I chose only my favorite, which happens to be a pretty basic one. To start, find something solid that you can grip about a foot off the ground. Higher then that can be better, but higher also can make your elbows feel weird, which is probably bad. Once you find that sit with your back to the solid object you found, about 3-6inches away, legs should be straight so you can't cheat and use those. Then place your hands on the object and lift your self up until your arms are straight. After that, 'dip' down until your bum is just off the ground, then push yourself back up. Repeat. You'll probably start shaking, and will feel the burn quickly. Try and go on as long as you can. Triceps can handle alot. I'm warning you though, doing a ton of these will leave you sore for a few days.

Last but not least, the forearm/wrist/hand area. One thing you can do that is really simple, but looks dumb. Start off with your your fingers being held back by your thumb, then flick them all out. Repeat. This is really easy, so do it for awhile.

Now for a better workout. The forearm roller. To do this you need a forearm roller. They cost a bit, so I made my own. To make your own find a smooth tree or tree branch you don't mind destroying. You should barely be able to fit your hand around it. Or so you can barely not fit your hand around it. When you find the right width, cut off about 2 feet of it. Then peel off the bark. You can then cut a small grove at the mid point of the piece of wood. Once you have that find a strong string and cut a little over 3 feet of it off, and tie it tight in/on the grove. I stapled it for extra strength. Once you have that tie a 3-8 pound weight to the other end of the string. Now that you have it, hold your hands close together on the piece of wood. Keeping your arms straight as possible, roll it up... and then roll it down (slowly), make sure the weigh doesn't touch the ground. Once you rolled it down, roll it back up the other way. Repeat until you can't.

Lastly, the the grip handle bar. This this is super simple. Just squeeze it together, and release. Repeat. Once you see on, it makes complete sense.

Now to conclude this post I must remind you that there are many other workouts for your arms, and if you're serious about working out, then you should probably refer to a more knowledgeable person. Also, right after your workout, stretch, and with in a half hour of your workout eat some protein. This will help you build muscle and make you less sore. If you still end up sore, bananas and apples are going to be your friends. They have a lot potassium. Another tip to help you remain non-sore is making sure you breathe while working out. Your body needs that oxygen.

Weather, Hair and Soccer

To start off a conversation many people talk about the weather. That's what I'm going to do.

Up here in Maine where there are four seasons (mud-season, one month summer, fall, and winter), it is becoming fall. The temperature is dropping, leaves are changing and there is a sweet crisp in the air. Soccer is now starting to require under armor and warm-up jackets and pants. Soon there will be pie (and if I have it my way, lots of it!). Ah. I love fall... as one of my friends once said: "Autumn is definitely in my top four favorite seasons."

Even with this temperature drop, I wanted to get my hair cut. It was getting quite long and if I waited much longer it would be too cold to cut it. So my mom cut off about 3 inches of my hair. Now I have less than an inch. It's kind of funny now that my hair is that short, because my sideburns are about the same length as my hair.

Now on to soccer. My team hasn't won yet, but came very close. We lost and tied games that we should have obviously won. Tomorrow we play Oak Hill again. This is the team we should have beaten, but lost to. Last game against them we had about one and a half as many shots as they had, and nearly double the time with the ball in our possession. We just couldn't score. Tomorrow we are playing on our field (a bigger field, and we're in better shape) and we've worked finishing, so this should be a win.

SMASH

You may think that this post is about crashing, fighting, or something that causes smashing because of it's title. Actually it's about the acting group I'm in. SMASH is an acronym. It stands for: Southern Maine Association of Shakespearean Homeschoolers. It's quite a mouth full, hence why we call it SMASH. In SMASH we pretty much only do Shakespeare plays. So we get to act and learn some stuff about Shakespeare and older English.

In SMASH I have a bunch of good friends, some I met only a year or two ago, others I've known for almost 8 years. 8 years is half of my life, so they are quite close. Even some of the people I've only known for 2 or 3 years have become quite close.

Right now SMASH is having weekly classes on Wednesday's from 1-3pm to help us understand the play we are doing next, which is Much Ado About Nothing. I can't go because of soccer, but I believe they are doing the same classes later in the year after soccer is over.

I can't wait until SMASH starts to pick it up a notch... it's so much fun! Fellowship with great people, acting (also known as making a fool of yourself), and this year I'm playing the lead villain: Don John!

This past weekend was quite busy for me. On Friday I did my school, and then had an intense game with Oak Hill. I was chosen by my coach to mark up on their best player. That's all I had to do, because if you let him run loose with the ball, you're a goner. He is fast, has great ball control and can shoot from half field. I had a good game and had him locked down most of the game. Sadly, Oak Hill scored the first goal on a slight break away. We scored later in the first half, tying it up. In the second half we could not score, even though our team had the ball nearly 75% of the time. We just couldn't finish.

With 23 minutes left in the game I was on a roll. Oak Hill's best player could barely get his feet on the ball, but in a few minutes I received a pass to my far left. I was off balance, and it was a crisp pass, so I made a lunge at the ball because the guy I was covering was right behind me. It was a rather cold day, and my muscles were stiff, and a few were bothering me, such as the one I stretched out when lunging for the ball. Due to those temperatures I pulled my groin muscle when I received the pass. I finished the play and then called for a sub, which can moments later. I was out for the game, and now Oak Hill's best player was being covered by someone a little slower then me who usually played offense. A few minutes later Oak Hill's player realized that the new guy was slower and wasn't as good at defense, and ended up having an assist and a goal.

I was quite frustrated with myself for lunging at that ball. We only scored once more that game so we lost 2-3. In the game, we had almost double the shots, and we had twice as much control over the ball, but that doesn't mean alot if you can't finish. We play them again this Friday. This time the tides better change.

Friday night I spent the night at the Richards' so that I could work with Tucker on Saturday. We worked on some stuff at their house, and then I worked from 12pm-4pm with him and then went home just to find Casey and Sarah visiting with my sisters! So after my shower we ate burgers, talked and watched a movie. The movie was pretty good, it was called Soul Surfer. After the movie Casey and Sarah left, I then went to bed. I was exhausted. The next morning we went to church and after church Colleen took pictures for the church directory. When we went home I just relaxed and nursed my injuries from my soccer game. It felt great to relax... That night we watched some Doctor Who. I must say, that is a hilarious TV show. It also has some pretty good plots. It can be quite odd sometimes, but it's still awesome.

On Monday I worked for Tucker again, had soccer practice, did some school that evening and then watched some more Doctor Who.

Now I have come to today. Where all I really did was some school. But in a few hours I will be playing a soccer game against Mt. View. Should be interesting. The trainer said I should take it easy on my injuries, but we'll see how that goes.

Your Core

Do have bad posture? Well, that could be because you have weak core muscles. Or, uneven muscles in your core. Well, a good way to work on posture is core workouts. These usually don't seem too hard, but will leave you with a sore core until your body is used to it.

You may wonder why I didn't say ab workouts instead of core workouts? That is because your abs and your core are different. Your abs are a part of you core, but not the only part of your core. If you only strengthen your abs, you will probably end up with bad posture. That happened to me: A few years ago I really wanted to get strong defined abs. So every day I did ab work... but almost no core workouts. So I ended up with my strong defined abs, but I noticed my back was getting sore alot and I always seemed a little hunched over. After that I got kind of lazy and worked out less, so my posture stayed where it was. Luckily, my freshman year at track I had a really good coach and he talked about the difference between core and ab muscles. He also made us do core workouts, which were quite hard. So after that year of track I worked on my core a lot and now have pretty good posture. Not perfect, but much better since my uneven core muscles.

Now why did I have bad posture with strong abs and a weak back? Well, in case you didn't know, every muscle has a counter muscle. For example: your bicep and your tricep. If you have extremely strong biceps, but weak triceps, it would be very hard to extend your arm. Another example is your quadriceps and your hamstring. If your quadriceps are too strong while your hamstring is too weak, you could pull you hamstring very easily, and it would be very easy to hurt your knees because your legs would be extended  most of the time and maybe even hyper extend. Now that you can see there is a counter muscle for pretty much every muscle, what counters your abs? Your back. Your back is like you triceps or quadriceps. It extends your core, while your abs contract your core, like you biceps or hamstrings. So you want to keep all of those muscles pretty even.

So if you plan on working out your abs, make sure you fit in some core workouts. They won't make your abs look much better, but it sure will help your back, and your over all strength. Here are a few good core workouts my coach gave me:
Staggered hand, stacked foot push-ups. In this workout you will get in the push-up position (also known as plank position). You will put one hand close to your side, near your waist. Your other hand will be going out to the side, a little farther than your shoulder. You can stack your feet, but that's optional. Once you have the position, you should do 5 push-ups, then switch your hands around and do 5 more. Repeat until you lose form.

Another is banana rolls. They sound funny, but after doing a few, you will not think they're funny. First start off by laying on your back. Then you lift your legs a few inches off the ground, and the same with your arms. Hold that for 10 seconds, then roll to your side, keeping you legs and arms barely off the ground. Hold for 10 seconds, then roll to you stomach, still keeping legs and feet off the ground. Hold for ten seconds, then roll to your other side, still keeping leg and arms off the ground. Hold for ten seconds, then roll on to your back still keeping your legs and arms off the ground. Now do the same thing in reserve so you end up in the same spot you started in. You just did one. How many do you want to do?

A tough one is grand circles. This one you start off laying down again. Now lift you legs about 6 inches off the ground. Now in a slow, controlled movement, swing your feet around clockwise around your body keeping them as close to the ground as possible (without touching the ground). When you return to the starting position, go the other way. Put your hand where ever you feel the most balanced while doing this.
When ever you workout, remember to breathe. Holding your breathe is one of the worst things you can do for yourself.

If you want more workouts like this, Google core workouts, or comment on this and I will try to help you... Actually, if you have questions about working out, comment on any of my posts about working out and I will try to help you!

Winslow

Yesterday afternoon I had a soccer game against Winslow. Their team is a little bit more skilled than ours, and in better shape. We played a good game until the last 20 minutes when we got tired and gave up. In the first 60 minutes we did well and had the score at 1-1, then it became 1-2, then 1-3, until it reached 1-5. So we lost 1-5.

My ankle hasn't really gotten better since my first injury (if anything, worse). At least I saw the better trainer after the game to help me get some treatment.

Workout Equipment

 Ever since I joined track I had a want to become faster and stronger. Because I'm a sprinter I wanted to build fast twitch muscle fibers. Fast twitch muscle fibers help you run faster, but not for long distance, which is what I want. The main way to build fast twitch fibers is heavy weights, sprinting, plyometric workouts and resistance training.

In case you don't know what resistance training is, it is a way to give you a resistance while doing a workout. For example I have this weighted vest, which gives me a resistance of up to 40 pounds when I'm running. It is also good for doing pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups or some other body weight workouts (such as plyometric). The added weight is nice because push-ups and pull-ups have been becoming a cardio workout before I bought it. Now they are more like a fast twitch muscle fiber workout.

Lifting weights is also very good for getting faster. Not just any weights though. Heavy weights. Light weights tone muscle, while heavy weights build muscle. I was given two 20 pound dumbbells 2-3 years ago. When I was given them they were a great workout! I could only curl them about 10 times and shoulder press them 15 times. Now I could do either of them for a long time without getting that tired. If I lifted them for a long time for a while (like a month), I would have had very toned muscles, but not that strong muscles. Because of that, I put the weights together and curl them about 5 times. Because it's a little hard to grip, I don't trust myself doing a shoulder press. Which is alright, but it would be nice to be able to add weight without getting new weights, because they cost alot and take up alot of space. It would be even better if I could use them with weights and with body weight workouts. The weighted vest just adds weight to my chest and torso, while if I get ankle/wrist weights I could do shoulder press with more weight, safely. I also could put them on my ankles and do leg lifts and other leg and ab workouts. They would be extremely helpful in plyometric workouts as well.

Last but not least: hand grippers. I have built some pretty good muscle in my arms and legs over the years, but I never could really work on my grip and wrist strength. I have a homemade forearm roller, but that doesn't seem to build alot of wrist or grip strength. Granted it makes them a little stronger, but that's because it mainly builds forearm strength. My hand in its self isn't very strong and neither are my fingers or wrist. You might say: "Why do you want to strengthen your wrist and grip if you are mainly working out for track?" I would answer you with: "Grip and wrist strength help me lift weights, help me in my day to day stuff and they would help with my starts."

They help with lifting weights when you get to heavy weights. You need to grip the weights, and if your grip is too weak, you might not get a good workout. Or you might drop the weights, which could cause injury or damage to your surroundings. The wrist is important as well. When lifting weights, you could bend you wrist too much due to weak wrists and then pull, pinch, or strain you tendons. That would disable you from lifting. By the time you heal you probably would have lost all that you gained.

Both grip and wrist strength help you in your daily life: Grabbing something heavy or awkward shaped, shoveling dirt, weeding your garden, working out, writing, typing, etc...

Hand strength and wrist strength help you with sprinting, believe it or not. In track sprints you start in blocks. If you ask why? I say because it's faster. The way to get the most out of your start is by being straight as possible, having your legs in the right positions, being able to explode out, and being as close to your 'drive' position as possible. Stand up starts don't give you the drive or explosion, so that's why blocks are faster. The problem with block starts is if your hands are flat to the ground you aren't driving straight, but a little downwards. That is a little slower than with your hands being in an arch position. You need some good hand strength to hold that arch position because the starter guy says  to you and the other runners: "Runners to your marks (go to you blocks and do some last minute warm ups), get ready (get in your blocks, relaxed), set (get tense, arch your hands, and don't move or you have to restart the whole process. Sometimes he waits for almost 10 seconds,which is why you need hand strength)". Then he fires the gun and you run.

As you probably have already read, last weekend I spent on the battleship USS Massachusetts, at Battleship Cove. My family went down with a bunch of great homeschool friends of ours: Mr. Estes, Nick, Joel, Kenan, Linnea, Catherine, Mr. Richards, Mrs. Richards, Tucker, Rebecca, and Colin. The people form my family that came were Shannon, Dad, Colleen and I.

First off, we had a couple hours of driving Saturday morning to get to Battleship Cove. It was a long, but very enjoyable ride. We talked, played games on iPhones, and ate snacks. By the time we got to Battleship Cove it was almost 1:00pm. It took a few minutes to sign in, but once we finished we headed to our bunks and and unloaded our sleeping stuff and bags. After unloading we split up and explored the other ships at the in the Cove because they were going to close those ships after the fire drill at 4:30pm. The other ships there besides the American battleship were an American Destroyer, an American Submarine, and a Russian missile cruise ship. I pretty much hung out with the guys when exploring and reading, and occasionally with the girls. We spent a couple hours exploring the smaller ships and went back to the battleship for the fire drill.

When we were finished with the fire drill I went exploring with different guys throughout the hour or so we had until supper. One of the coolest things to explore were the 16 inch turrets. They we about 5 levels deep and required 79 men to operate! They could also fire their shells (which weighed hundreds of pounds) 20 miles.

Well, I could continue writing everything I did, but I'll just skip to the more notable parts so I don't spend hours writing this...
Well, one of the big things was the 9/11 memorial service. I was pretty impressed by that, but sadly we got there a little late and couldn't  see much of what was happening. I think the most impressive thing they did was have a 21 shot salute one of the twin 5 inch turrets. The sound was almost deafening, even though I was pretty far away... and they were only using 1/15 the powder they use in battle. That was epic.

Here is a picture my twin Colleen took when they were firing:

Another notable thing was just the pure size of the battle ship! Sometimes when I was with some of the guys we would get lost. It wasn't too hard to find my way back, but it was still pretty funny. Also one time I found Rebecca who hadn't explored the battleship as much as me asking me to to show her to the nearest stair way (more like a latter) so she could find out where she was. Just on a side note, only 30% of the battleship was open to public. Yeah. It was huge.

Around 3:00pm on Sunday we had to leave to head home. On the way we visited a Deerwander family (the Vandykes) that we knew! Turned out they had a youth group that night and a bunch of other Deerwander kids ended up coming and seeing us! We played a short game of Ultimate, talked, ate a grand supper, gave hugs and left for Maine.

On the ride back we all became pretty tired and goofy and made said all kinds of... how should I put it? Dumb things. I'd try explaining them, but they'd make no sense to you.

Sleeping on a Battleship

Just to start off this post I'll tell you how my game went yesterday. First off, we lost: 1-4. Despite the score, it actually was a pretty close game. We held them 1-2 for a long time and had scoring chances. Our problem was we lost it in the last 15 minutes, which gave them the 2 goals. We play another Maranacook this afternoon. Should be interesting.

Now to the Battleship part! Tomorrow us Clarkes (besides mom, she has to work), most of the Richards and most of the Estes are heading down to Battle Ship Cove in Massachusetts. At Battleship Cove they have a few out-of-date ships. The biggest and coolest one is the Battleship, hence the name: Battleship Cove. When we are there, we are free to explore the ships, parts of which have been turned into a kind of 'museum'.  Saturday night we will sleep on the Battleship where the sailors slept. It's a pretty neat experience and I plan to write another post on it when I get back!

Rain and Colds

Due to this rain us Mainers have been having, my soccer game that was scheduled for yesterday was postponed to today. It's raining again today, so it's going to be rather wet out there. I usually won't mind a game being postponed, but I also have a game tomorrow. Having two games in a row can be fun, but also exhausting. It's worse for me though, because of my ankle injury, and now I'm sick with a cold. It's going to be a hard one.....

Injuries and Birthday Parties

To start it off, I was at soccer yesterday, late in the afternoon. I was just practicing with my team and my ankle which was bothering me last week got worse. I believe I pulled a tendon in the back of my ankle. So I told my coach and he told me to go find the trainer and talk to him about it. I looked for him a good 15 minutes, but I could not find him. So I told my coach, and he said just take it very easy and don't do anything that hurts. So for the rest of practice I felt very lazy. Oh well, if I my game isn't canceled from the rain I should see the trainer today. I'll probably just have to wrap it everyday.

After my practice I drank a protein drink, went home, showered, and ate a whoopee-pie (oh yeah, that's right. A whoopee-pie.). After all of us Clarkes were ready to leave, we left for my big brother's. At my brother's (Tim), we hung out and talked to him and his wife (Angie), and laughed with and at my nephew (Gabe). A little while later we got to the good  part: the food. Tim and Angie made a ton of food. After my first bite I started regretting drinking the protein drink. I wish I left my stomach completely empty for that meal. I only had two servings, wishing I could have had three or four. Once we were done eating we talked and then tried out some of Tim's video games. One of which was Tony Hawks Shred. Now that was a cool game. It was kind of like the Wii, but with a skate board! Once we stopped laughing at one another, had dessert. That was awesome. We had angel fruit cake with strawberries and whipped cream! After and few laughs and talks, we ended up leaving. Even though I had a great time, I didn't really mind leaving. My allergies were getting to me and I kinda just wanted to go to sleep.

"The About Me Post"

I'm a nerdy-jock as you can probably tell form the name of my blog. I'm in a family of 7. I'm the second youngest with my twin sister right behind me.

I'm homeschooled. I live in Maine and play sports for the local school. I love to play pretty much any sport, but I'm not much of a fan of football or any 'girl only sport'.

I'm also one of those weird people who kinda like running, hence why I do track. In case you are a track fan and want to know what kind of events I do, I pretty much do anything under the two mile. I have a better build for sprints rather than endurance runs, which is short and as some friends of mine said: "compact".

I also love soccer. I'm not a grand player, but I can hold my own. I think I enjoy soccer more than track, but the injuries that come with soccer can get on my nerves.

I also in joy tennis. I'm a newbie, but it's still pretty fun to play.

Last but not least, my favorite sport: Ultimate Frisbee. I really love game Ultimate... but sometimes I wonder if the reason I love it so much is because of the people I play with. It seems like whenever I play Ultimate I'm always with some of my best of friends.

I could continue listing all the sports I do, but I don't have all week to work on this. You'll see some of my athletics in my blog anyway.

Now on to my nerdy part. I love to play strategy games. One of my favorite is chess. I used to play it all the time, but that's when I had an injury that required me to rest all the time. Because of that I got pretty good at it and now only find challenges from not-so-local friends, or online chess. If you happen to love chess, want to learn chess, or want to own someone at chess, go to: Chess.com, and challenge "Billy3". Just tell me what's your level of experience and I'll see what I can do.
I play many other strategy games, such as: Settlers of Catan, Cities and Knights, Pentago, Starcraft, Checkers, and many more...

If you want to learn more about me, read through my blog!