Happy Valentines Day!  For all you fellow Nuevans like me without a valentine, don't worry, there will be a lot more people in high school than the 33 we have in our grade, and much more of an opportunity to have a boyfriend/girlfriend.  Hopefully we can all enjoy the last few months we all have together, because I know I will miss each and every one of you when I go off to BHS, and I mean that.  I enjoy your company, and I love how bullying isn't much of an issue here, so I can feel like I am able to be myself without *too much* pressure to be otherwise.  I could write a paragraph of positives for all 32 people in our grade, easily.  So thank you all for being great.  (The 6th and 7th graders rock too .)

So away from the mushy crap (it's Valentines Day I had to do it), last Friday was the dance.  I had a ton of fun, and I thought the DJ was probably the best we've had.  I really let loose and was able to enjoy myself, and even though some people were having some problems, it was overall a good dance.  Hopefully the student council will put on another dance, we're gonna work for that.  Speaking of student council we met with the Hot Lunch commitee today, and hopefully we'll be able to work something out to improve the system for the future.  We talked about what we have, gave some feedback, and started brainstorming some new ideas, like having a buffet style hot lunch for the middle schoolers.  Right now we are getting all this food through this one vendor who distrubutes everything, so they have to pay him labor costs, and that's why the prices are so high.  I would just as soon get rid of that middleman step, and see what we can negotiate with each individual retailer, like Jamba Juice, Round Table, and World Wraps.  I think they would possibly work a deal with us to deliver, but it doesn't seem like that's even an option.  The impression I got was that the only reason they chose this vendor was because he had the lowest price.  My guess is that he has the lowest price, because he also has the lowest quality and the lowest quantity, so he still might be making more of a profit than some of the other vendors.  They said this guy is open to change thoughand he wants it to be better, so at least we might have something to work with there.  But really, Burger King served at school?  What was he thinking?  He was originally supposed to make the burgers himself, but someone complained about the smell so he just started getting it from Burger King.  So obviously, we're working on it, and although it's not likely many changes will be implemented this year, I hope we can figure out a better system for next year.

Our community service day was fun.  We went back to the same park as last time and got rid of some more 'invasive species'.  Then we took a hike around the park, and then we went bowling!  The same day was Trevor's birthday too.  Here are some pictures:

Saturday was Trevor, Riley, Kathryn, and Brian's joint birthday party, and that was fun.  We went swimming, and then I got to show off my mad Poker King skills later in the night .

Music rocks my socks, just so you know.

~Adam

Can you imagine?  Me, spelling bee finalist and on the Mathcounts team... at Nueva at that.  I'm such a nerd.  This was a while ago, but somehow I came in 3rd place in the spelling bee, losing on the word "cunctation."  I still don't know what that means...  Then later that week, they decided to give the Mathcounts test in math class as a requirement instead of during lunch as an option this year.  Astonishingly I got in the top 8 in the school, so I got on the Mathcounts team.   It's still funny to think about.  I was the only person on the team that didn't go to the practices before, so I pretty much knew nothing about it.  I was excited to go to my first nerd convention though .  The competition was last Saturday, and of course Nueva did really well.  The team part of the team (Terry, Alex E, Christian, and David Ko) did really well, and came in 2nd place, so they are going to state!  Ashu also did really well, he came in 6th place as an individual (Christian came in 8th and David Ko came in 4th, but they are going as the team), so he is going to state too as part of the all star team.  I did better than I expected, and got 28th place out of 129 kids total.  Then there was the countdown round, which is like a gameshow type thing where there are 11 people per round, and you have to buzz in to answer the question, and if you get it right you move on.  It's just for kicks (and trophies...), but it's pretty fun to cheer for your team when they are up there.  I couldn't beleive it, I actually got to the 2nd round!  I got this question the fastest: Using the numbers 4, 5, and 6, what is the lowest possible number you can get using the formula a(b-c).  The answer was -10, 5(4-6).  Christian did really well in that, and got to the final 4.  So for anyone considering Mathcounts, if you want to see some fememullets, Mathcounts is the place to be.  Those kids are pretty hip.

David, Terry, Christian, Alex (the team)

Ashu, Duncan, Cassandra (the individuals, plus me)

Later that night I had my rockin partay Kleinster style.  It really was Kleinster style, it was three weeks after my birthday, and everyone came late .  After everyone get settled, ate, and the especially fashionably late people arrived (about 40 minutes later, no less), we went on a scavenger hunt around Burlingame Avenue.  I had put some teams together, and I got a lot of really cool ideas from Rush (SEL teacher).  Some of the stuff was like getting a picture with a policeman and the starbucks manager, finding something you need emotionally, and something you need academically for HS, get a picture of your team in a brand new car, find a photo of Donald Trump, get a job application from blockbuster, have someone on your team try on a shirt at a maternity store, and create a pyramid with your bodies being just a number of them.  Afterwards everyone came back and we just hung out for a few hours at my house.  Almost the whole 8th grade was there, but we missed the few that couldn't come.  I know I for one had a great time, thanks for being good and not using my garage this time.   Here are some pictures from Saturday night:

Almost done... stick in there.

Whew... that was more than I anticipated.  Poor dial up people...   I'm sorry for that, I really am.

Anyway, tomorrow we have another day of school where we don't really have school.  That's a big thing I'm going to miss about Nueva.  In HS I'll actually have to have school EVERY day! THE HORROR!   At Nueva we barely have school, and then when we do, we still don't, if you get that.  After we go to that park again, we're going to go bowling .  I bet most people can't say they get to go bowling during school, huh?  Didn't think so.

Gotta go, tonight was the 2-hour finale of Amazing Race 4 (thank god for TiVo)!  Time to watch... even if it 10:30 .  And get ready... 9 days until the premiere of Survivor 10: Palau!  This time there are 20 castaways, and as I predicted correctly, they are going to start as one tribe.  It really will change the game, because alliances will be less useful, and I think it should make it more like season 1, with everyone voting whoever they want.  Thursday February 17th, 8 PM.  Be there.

Peace,

~Adam

You guys know I never post these things, but I couldn't pass this one up.

You Know You're Addicted to Survivor When...

When you lose a game of pick-up basketball, you turn to your teamates and dejectedly say "Well, I guess we're gonna have to hike up to Tribal Council tonight." Your friends begin to wonder why you always say "I like you guys...but not in a homosexual way." When your math teacher threatens to kick you out of class for talking to much, you proudly shoot back "You can't. I have immunity." You buy a Canadian Alliance membership since "the only people who ever win are those in an alliance." When giving out your phone number, you give people your cell number, pager number, and coconut phone number. When someone tells you you're going on a picnic, you immediately assume that all you'll be eating are Doritos and Mountain Dew. You scour the local health food store for chicken feed. You deliberately cook all your rice mushy because you know it will "piss Jerri off". Whenever your girlfriend so much as mentions chocolate, you stand up and shout "The Colbster (or Danster, or Jamester or whatever your name is) is not a Hershey Bar!!!" You throw buckets of water on people you don't like. You justify all your actions by saying: "It's what Mike would have wanted us to do." You think the Gore-Bush deadlock should have been decided on "previous votes." At 12:50 every day, you announce: "The tribe has spoken. It's time to go...to Biology." You plant beef jerkey in your friends backpack and when he leaves you tell people that you think he's been smuggling jerkey "behind our backs." You find the mere mention of beef jerkey funny. When voting in the provincial election voting booth, you neatly print "RALPH" on your ballot, then hold it up and say: "Ralph, if you were dying of thirst in the..." You force yourself to watch VH1 Rock 'N Roll jeopardy just to see more of Jeff Probst. Whenever you use a candle snuffer, you insist on saying: "The tribe has spoken." You get the innexplicable urge to wave your finger in the face of any vegetarians you know. You no longer talk to anyone you know named Jerri. You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends who are addicted to Survivor.