Wisdom Teeth Removal (The Experience)

Howdy,

Sorry for the long outage. Been busy with school, scouts, YouTube, and other stuff. But I wanted to update about something. I guess you can tell by the title I recently (yesterday) got my wisdom teeth extracted (4 of them). I figured I would update and tell you about the experience.

First off, I was nervous about the whole thing. I was scared that either they weren't gonna drug me enough or I would die during surgery. Hey u can't blame me.

So yesterday I got to the oral surgeon at about 8:40AM. We almost had to reschedule because my mom let me have a little black coffee that morning because I was really thirsty. But after slightly lying about me only taking a few sips we got past the nurse. They said they would put some nausea stuff in my IV to help. So we sat in the waiting room while I watched the Black Eyed Peas perform on some news program. Then the dreaded moment... "Clifton? Are you ready to come back?" My mom stayed there while the nurse walked me back to a room. I sat down in a dentist chair whle she made me verify my birthday and reason for surgery. Then I had to get weighed (129 pounds) and then I sat back down. She put a blood pressure thing on my arm and stuck two stic ky wire things to my chest and one to my side. The heart monitor started beeping. That kinda calmed me down a little because I knew I was being monitored. She lied the chair back and asked me if I had ever had laughing gas before. I said no and she told me it will make me feel a little bit dizzy and floaty and giggly. She then put a mask over my nose and told me to take deep slow breaths. I closed my eyes at that point because I really didn't want to see anything. Well, I kept breathing but didn't notice anything but my heart monitor thing started beeping faster. I guess I was just nervous. Then the doctor came in and asked how I was doing and I said good. He asked me if I was feeling the gas yet and I said no. He kind of paused and then said to keep taking deep breaths. He put a rubber band around my arm and then told me I would feel a slight pinch. It wasn't that bad. But as I layed there I was wondering why I didn't feel high or why I wasn't asleep. I did little movements to try and let them know I was still conscious. But about 30 seconds later I guess I was out of it. I woke up in a different room in a bed. My mouth was full of gause and it was numb. My mom was in there and I tried to talk to her but I guess I couldn't be understood with a mouth full of cotton. I was fully aware though, and still didn't see any effects of the laughing gas. A nurse came in and told my mom to pull around back. She then walked me out to the car (even though I could walk fine) and we went home.

The rest of the day went pretty fine. The numness started to subside and I took my anti-infection medicine and my pain medicine. The first time I took them I was fine, just slept most of the time. The second time wasn't so good. I threw up at about 8:20PM and again at about 10:30PM. I felt horrible.

This morning I woke up with little pain and actually felt normal. The only problem I had was when I tried to eat beanie weenies and tasted blood but other than that I was fine. I am feeling a little pain right now but just took some Aspirin and feeling better. I didn't swell that much at all but can still feel a little pressure.

So overall, not as bad as I thought. If you have to go through this don't worry yourself so much. I was scared to death when I shouldn't have been. The worst part is after the surgery but even that isn't too ba. You will live. :)

So yeah, just wanted to get that recorded for you. Make sure to keep checking my youtube because I'm more accurate with updating that. I'm also on twitter (I'm addicted) so check that out at http://www.twitter.com/Slyth66 .

Have a great......time until my next update, lol.

Love yall,
Clifton

Not so sweet 16...

Hi Everyone!

I told you I would update again! Actually a lot has been going on, but I wanted to wait until it was all over before I updated. I'll go in the order that the events occured.

This Monday (5/4/09) I got an email from one of my scout leaders. It was telling us that one of our leaders had passed away that morning. I was shocked. He has had heart trouble for a while, and was in the hospital, but last I heard he was doing fine. They told us that the funeral was not yet planned but they would like us to attend. I felt bad for his son, who is 12 and also in my troop. I can't imagine what he is going through. This guy was a newer leader, so I hadn't known him too well personally aside from the occasional troop related stuff. But still, this is the closest person to me that has died in the past 8 years.

I got an email on Tuesday that the visitation service would be Wednesday night from 6-8 at the chapel in the funeral home. I've never been to one, so I didn't know what to expect.

So when Wednesday came along, I was very nervous. I didn't want to do anything disrespectful or embarassing. I got to the scout hut and was relieved to see other guys wearing jeans with their class A. We just talked outside for a few minutes until the bus came and we got on. Everyone seemed in a good mood, which I was thankful for. I didn't want to get to scouts and all the guys be upset, because I didn't feel that way. I mean, yes I respected him and yes I was sad for his family, but it didn't hit me too hard.

Anyways, on the way there, we rode by an ambulance. It didn't have it's lights on so I didn't really pay much attention to it. But then I noticed something once it passed by. There was an old lady in the back, alone in the bed with the light on over her. Her eyes were closed and her mouth was open. She was pale, thin, and lifeless... Tucker also noticed her. I think we were the only ones. Then we passed again and saw the same image. Honestly, that wierded me out more than the actual service. It was just unexpected and I wouldn't have thought that you could see in the back window, but we did.

When we neared the funeral home everyone was silent. One of our leaders talked to us and said how much Mr. Hyatt cared about us and how he respected us, and we should do the same for him. We got off the bus, checked our uniform, then approached the building double file. There were a group of people outside talking and laughing and as we approached they stopped and watched us. We were pointed to a door on the far end of the chapel, and a man greeted us and showed us in. We we entered the chapel to find several people sitting in the pews. We were led up to the choir stands, and sat together as a group. The man leading us jokingly said "ok, all of the tenors here, altos here, and supranos here". He then told us how honored the family feels to have us there and that what we were doing in scouting was one of the best things you can do for yourself as a young boy.

We sat and talked quietly. They were dismissing the people to go into the room by rows. One of our leaders came over and told us that it was open casket. I kinda expected it, but was still unnerved by it. He asked if any of us had to go to the bathroom and Tucker, Nick, and I went. We exited the chapel room and found the bathroom. We walked in, only to be greated by Christian, Mr. Hyatt's son, at the sink. We said hey to him. We were all uncomfortable, not knowing what to say. We definitely were not expecting him to be in there. He asked jokingly if we came there on a field trip and I told him how we met at the scouthut and came as a group. Soon after he left, and then we headed back to our seats.

When it was finally our turn to go to the room with the body, they dismissed us by row but all together. We joined a line in the hall and looked at several pictures of Mr. Hyatt and his family. It made me think again about his son and how he was dealing with it. As we moved forward, I could see into the room. The open casket was the main focus, up against the back wall suurounded by reefs and plants. All I could see was the face, but even that was hard to look at. We contuned to progress forward and entered the room and were watched by the members of the family. When we got to Christian some of his friends talked with him and he was being his normal self. That's good. Maybe he is handling it better than I had thought. Then we passed Mrs. Hyatt, his wife. She gave us each a hug and told us how proud Mr. Hyatt was of us and how pleased he would be to see us here. Then, there was the body. I cannot think of any words to describe it, but lifeless. Well a lifeless dead body, no-duh. But he looked paler than the average person would look. He had no movement whatsoever. It reminded me of a movie prop, made to look like a person. I only glanced at him, because I didn't feel I was ready to stare. But what I saw was enough. I had a few flashbacks in the next few seconds as I passed of his voice, his face looking at me, his eyes. That was probably the hardest part. But once we walked out we waited for the rest then joined back on the bus.

It was an experience I won't ever forget. I have never seen a dead body before. It wasn't scary, but I was just nervous. Now that old lady in the ambulence, THAT was scary.

Ok, now that the sad part is over...YESTERDAY WAS MY 16TH BIRTHDAY! Wohoo! I got my gifts Wednesday after the funeral because I didn't want to get up early. I was surprised for sure. No, it wasn't because of the card, or mousepad, or Hannah Montana Movie, it was the phone. FINALLY! I got my own cellphone. And I won't ever have to pay for it, wellk until I move out of course. Free internet, free text, and free minutes for me. YAY! I only have 3 peoples numbers in so far, but I will get more. I took it to school today but was SOOO careful. I don't want it taken away. The only time I pulled it out was when I showed Olivia at lunch, lol.

After school today we had a Drama Club meeting to help out with the pricing for our yard salE tomorrow morning. I don't think I will stay the whole time (6am - 12:30pm), but I'm planning to come from 10 - 12:30. It will get me thespian points and plus I need to keep in contact with my drama teacher because I'll have her again next year.

That's about it for this entry. It's kind of long but these were very big events in my life that I had to record while I remember them exactly. Other than that, everything is normal. We had a parents meeting last night for the Europe Trip in 2010 that my mom and I went to. I'm really excited about going.

So yeah, that's about it!

Everyone have a great weekend!

Clifton

PS: I just remembered, I'm a finalist in the Danimals Video Promotion contest! One of 10! The finalists videos will be voyed on by Dylan and Cole Sprouse and the winner will get a trip to Los Angeles to meet them AND 10,000 dollars! I WANNA WIN! :)

Distant Update....JEANIE BREAK!

Over a month....Wow!

I guess I can blame it on school, homework, YouTube, and laziness all in one. I haven't found the time to just sit and write. I'm not much of a writer anyways. Sure I like to get things off my mind but I also don't like feeling like something is a waste of time. The main reason for this "Journal" as I call it was for me to be able to look back on my past later in life. Important events, lessons learned, and memories I want to cherish forever. Over time, it has become a place to communicate with my friends and let them in on my life. But now, as far as I know, I only have 2 regular readers. I tried to connect this with my YouTube, but didn't seem to pick up any new readers. Do I want to give it up? Of course not! But I need to find a way to keep it alive and keep my interest. Any suggestions.

A lot has happened this past month as I think back. HSAP Testing, Parents calling cops on brother (Wouldn't come in the house, so the cops came to talk to him about responsibilities and respecting parents rules), YouTube videos (over in the sidebar ---->), and I guess a lot more than I can't think of.

School was ok for a while, stress-free again. But now, my English teacher is trying to load us down again, and I am failing math. Yes, this time actually failing. Last quarter my grade in there was a 96. Now, I have a feeling it will be 60s - 70s. I'm hoping I am forgetting about some grades that will bring it up. I missed 3 days of class because of HSAP testing, and since I was the only 10th grader in that class, she didn't go back and reteach. She gave me a paper with notes on it, yeah like that will really help me. But when I think about it, I don't know if that is the only reason. I had trouble understanding the previous lesson, and made an 88 on the quiz. But to make that I had to understand something. But a 60 on my last test, that makes me feel horrible. We are able to do "Rebates" and get a few points back, but not enough to make me pass. I've never made that low on a test in any class. Math is usually my best subject too. Progress reports come out next week, and I really don't want to see what my grade is.

Speech is still fun. We have had a sub all week though. I don't like him. He's too laid back. He puts his feet up on the teacher's desk and texts in class. I miss Ms. Nelson, ready for her to be back.

(JUST TOOK A BREAK TO WATCH I DREAM OF JEANIE ON YOUTUBE)

The Webelos moved up Wednesday and are with us visiting until they join the troop. There are about 6 guys. They seem to have potential.

There was a troop campout that I skipped this past weekend. We went on the same thing last year and I had already gotten the patch they went for.

I'm also going to not go to summer camp this year. They only have one thing I need (swimming) and I don't want to go just for that. Besides, I want to look for a job.

OH YEAH!
I may POSSIBLY be going to Europe in 2010!!! There is a school trip and my history teacher is leading it. They are taking a group of 40 kids to London, France, Rome, Switzerland, and Florence for 12 days in the summer. It is 4,000 dollars but my mom said if I worked for it, she would pay for the rest. I have always LOVED to travel, and Europe was the #1 place on my list. This may be the only opportunity I have to go for decades.

There is an issue though. Its the week right before the National Jamboree with scouts... Something I've looked forward to for 5 years. I went in 2005 and loved it so much. Ever since then I have been dreaming of the day I go back. And of course, Jake and I had talked about maybe meeting up there if we had the chance.

Well, I may have to drop it once I make a final decision on this trip. I mean, I would love to go back to Washington, but I don't know if I could pass up an opportunity like this.

I'll get more info to you as it comes in and let you know about my decision.

Well, I'm gonna go and take a shower. I have a research paper (6-8 pages) due Tuesday for our rough draft, and I haven't started. I have all the info though, I just haven't pieced it together. Ahh, I'll do it tomorrow, lol.

Have a great night. I'll update when I feel something important enough comes up to write about. Until then, I hope everyone is well! Especially you Jake (talk to ya this weekend maybe).

-Clifton

A Cyber Weekend

Wow, this weekend has gone by WAY too fast. Can I have it back?

Last week was good. Nothing really special happened that I can remember.

Yesterday I filmed most of my new video. It is almost entirely green screen so filming was the easy part. It was fun though putting on the different outfits and becoming the characters.

After I filmed I helped out my friend Chance with the audio for his new parody. He sent me 2 audio files with singing in them and I had to copy and paste them onto the instrumental. It was pretty fun. I think it turned out pretty good.



I watched the Kids' Choice Awards at 8pm. They were ok. I thought the best part was when Miley went on stage to accept her award. Although I think she deserved it, it was to good to pass up the opportunity to spoof:



I made that last night at like 11PM, so it's not that great, lol. That's why I put it on my side channel.

TODAY:
I finished the filming of my video! I did the Amy part. Oh yeah, the video is a music video spoof of "If U Seek Amy" by Britney Spears. It is a cover of the song, because it is already funny lol. By the way, if you ever wanted (or didn't want) to see me as a chick:


I know, I'm hot (NOT) lol.

After that I saw that one of my favorite YouTubers theoriginaltyler needed someone to edit the audio for his video. I jumped on it! He gave me is AIM (which I never use) and we talked about it. After about 3 hours of work I finally finished it! I think it turned out great. Haha, here is his video:



Lol, he is awesome.

Well that's about it for this weekend. I will try to update more often throughout this week. I emailed "Jakers" Thursday but haven't heard from him this weekend. Jake, hope your weekend went awesome! You are still my best online bud! Have a great week bro!

I'll update this week (hopefully!)
Clifton

Sarah Panzau

This entry is going to be a little different from my regular entries. I wanted to take the time to tell you about a woman who came to speak at our school today. Her name is Sarah Panzau. You can see her website here:

www.SarahsJourney.com

This is taken from the site:

On August 23, 2003 I was in a near fatal car accident which changed my life forever. On the road, I was clinically dead and was given a 0% chance of survivability. I did not have a blood pressure or a pulse and was no longer bleeding. A policeman (who was on an East St. Louis over-pass picking up shell casings from a shooting the night before) and an ambulance crew (that was returning to Illinois from a transfer) just happened on my accident. While I was lifeless on the road, considering calling the coroner, they witnessed an agginal breath, and I was immediately intubated. I was stabilized and air lifted by helicopter to St. Louis University where I lived the next 6 weeks. 2 weeks in a coma and 4 weeks in intensive care and on a ventilator.

My injuries were: a traumatic left arm amputation, a LaForte type II fracture of the maxilla, a fractured mandible-in 7 places, a degloving (scalping) of the whole back of my head and left neck down to the carotid artery and jugular vein. A right sided flail chest, left knee disarticulation, severing 3 major ligaments, fractured left clavicle and scapula, a degloving down to muscle of the left scapular area, bilateral hemo thorax, bilateral pnuemo thorax, 3rd degree liver laceration, half way severing my right ear off and multiple other lacerations. I had a pulmonary embolism, which required a thoroscopy and eventually a thoracotomy. All totaled, I initially spent 77 days in the hospital. Those 77 days were just the beginning of many more hospitalizations for life threatening infections and many more surgeries for the next year and a half.

But after near 40 surgeries, I am here to tell my story. It was a miracle that I survived the accident. I was out with my friends (the people I thought really cared about me.) These so called friends let me get into my car with a blood alcohol level of 0.308. That is almost 4 times the legal limit in the state of Illinois.

Prior to my accident, I only lived for today. I lived like I would never die. I had turned my back on my family and I had very little purpose in life. I had quit school, and gave up a full ride volleyball scholarship. A two-time all American Volleyball player to bartender! I had no direction in life.

My life has totally changed and I have started public speaking to teens and young adults about drinking and driving, making good decisions, what is important in life, and the importance of parents and family. It is a presentation of courage, determination, and the celebration, that emphasizes making the right choices in life. I am speaking to area junior high and high school students concerning underage drinking. I just recently signed with Anheuser Busch to be apart of the AB speakers Bureau. AB will allow me to take my story from coast to coast. My presentation is not like any prevention lecture ever given. All in all, I have given my presentation to 90,000+ area teens and young adults. I would LOVE to continue to share my story, “Sarah’s Journey”, to young and old alike because if it can affect just one person, I will have considered my life a success.

Her story was really inspiring and makes you think how fragile life is. You never know what is going to happen. You think because you are young that "This will never happen to me". That's what Sarah thought. One bad decision changed her whole life. She found out who her true friends were that night.

Even with her disability she continues to follow her dreams. She played in the 2005 Paralympics and represented the USA. Her biggest passion now is to speak to teens and tell us about how dangerous some decisions can be like drunk driving.

Here are 3 videos about her that you may find interesting:




I don't really have much more to add. Please check out her website. I was really hit hard by her message and hope that you are too.

I'll try to do a regular update tomorrow.

Stay safe,
Clifton

Family Gathering

Hey guys. It's time for my weekend update!

Friday: After school I went to the middle school beside my school to help out with a "Bingo Night" thing a kindergarten/elementary school was putting on. We went as a group (Beta Club). I didn't really know anybody there though. It was kinda weird at first, but once we got to work I enjoyed it. I started out helping with making sure the kids didn't make a mess in the drawing area, and then I moved into where they had a bunch of inflatable carnival games. I spent the whole time helping out at the "Baseball" game. It was hard trying to keep all the 3 year olds from walking in front of the person hitting the ball. There were a couple times that all 3 of us running it were like "Crap, that was close!" lol. But no one got hurt. I left at 8 and my mom came and picked me up.

Saturday: We went to my aunt and uncle's house in Gastonia for my uncles birthday. It was more like a family gathering type of thing. A lot of the people I haven't seen for years. And my cousins are weird. But in a good way, lol. We stayed there for several hours and then came home. Oh yeah, my mom scratched my other uncle's car on the way out. It was so small but she made a big deal out of it. But I think he knows someone who can fix it for free. We got home about 4 and I didn't really do much the rest of the day.

Sunday: Didn't wake up until 11:30. Went to bed kinda late last night. I spent pretty much the whole day working on a video. I came up with the idea late Saturday night, and got the whole video done today.

First, here is what I'm making fun of:


And here is my version:


Lol, I think it turned out pretty good. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment and rating on the video! I can't believe I did it all in one day. Normally a vid takes me a week or two. I stayed busy for about 6 hours straight working on it.

That's about it for this update. I hope Jake is doing ok. We wrote each other on Saturday I think. I hope I hear from him again tonight.

GAHHH! I don't wanna go to school. It's a normal week, and I don't really have anything to look forward to. At least not yet. Hopefully something will come up.

Talk to you later.
Clifton

I'm Just A Bill

Hey!

Today was pretty good. My English teacher came up to me this morning before the bell rang and asked me how I was liking Scarlet Letter. Why would I want to talk about a book at 8AM???? lol. I just told her I liked it better than the last book (which is true).

Math was a review day for our test tomorrow. I think I'm pretty ready for it. We had several pages of review questions to do and I don't think I had any problems and finished it all in class.

I almost fell asleep in History! Not that it was boring, but I was just really tired for some reason. I actually went to bed kind of early last night (midnight, lol). We did an activity where we were given cards and we had to get in order to depict the process it takes to make a law. We watched this video like 3 times, lol. OH YES!


I love it! It actually gets stuck in your head, lol.

In English I did most of my homework for that night. I couldn't hear the teacher anyways, I sit beside the AC and it was going crazy today. We didn't do anything really anyways.

In Speech we went through the first round of PowerPoint Speeches. Only about half the people did them though, because the rest didn't have them done or hadn't even started. How could some students be so dumb? On the most part, they were good. None with sound though, so I hope it doesn't take off points.

I still haven't taken a shower so I better get going. Haven't heard from Jake but it's gotten to where we only write on weekends. I hate how it's so little, but life gets busier. When we first met we talked for at least 3 hours or more chatting. I have some guys I do that with now (Ryan and Steven) but we don't really talk much. Just the occasional "hey...whatsup?" lol. They are cool though. Oh and in case they ever read this, here is their shoutout so I can say, I even wrote about you in my blog! lol.



There ya go guys, lol. That actually looks awesome, wonder what mine looks like?


Neat-o!

Have a great night and I'll write again tomorrow if I have time!

-Clifton

"Where'd I Go?" Asked My Readers.

Where to start???? I know I haven't updated in over a month! I'm really sorry about that. School has been super busy this semester! But my absence has also been a result of my laziness. I have had several chances to update, But I just put it off. I don't know why. Most of my online time has been spent with my YouTube. Last time I updated I was announcing my 1,000^th subscriber, and now with over 1,500 I am quickly becoming more popular. No, not a celebrity yet, lol. Maybe one day. But the more viewers I get, the more it inspires me to work on my vids and promotion. I applied for Partnership (where I get paid for making my videos) last Friday and received my rejection letter today. It was pretty disappointing because I thought I would for sure make it this time. Oh well, it gives me more time to work on improving.

I have probably lost a lot of my regular readers, and I really apologize for that. Especially you Jake. I have been updating you in little portions in my emails, but you deserve more. Also, same goes for my new friend on YouTube (you know who you are...”manager”, haha). I am going to try and commit to update daily again. Even if it's only a few sentences, it's better than nothing. I was reading some of my older entries and they were really cool to see how much I've changed. Well not really changed, just matured. I guess that's the right word. I started my journal in December of 2006, when I was 13. Doesn't seem like that long ago, but it really was. My interests have changed, my friends have changed, and my way of thinking has changed. But deep down, I am still the same person I was back then.

So an update on school. Algebra 2 Honors is going good. I was lost earlier in the year, but I think I have caught on now. It's not as hard as it seemed at first. Although I still don't have any friends in there. Well there are two girls from my speech class, but we aren't really friends.

American Govt./Economics Honors is pretty cool. Definitely more entertaining than Survey of American History last semester. The teacher is really nice. She likes for us to do activities to learn instead of just sitting in desks taking notes (which we still do some times). I'm doing pretty good in that class.

English....Blah. The teacher is nice. That's pretty much the only good thing I can say about that class. The teacher assigns us way too much work, and grades very strictly. It's like she doesn't think we have homework in other classes! And although we have been done with “The Great Gatsby” for over 2 weeks, we are still talking about it and doing assignments on it. Give it a rest already! We are starting on Scarlet Letter now. I hope she doesn't take that one as far.

Speech. Ahhh speech. Lol, I love it. My favorite class. It is teaching me a lot, and is very helpful in getting me used to making presentations in front of people. We have another speech that I will have to present on Wednesday. It had to be a PowerPoint presentation. Here is my practice vid.


Scouts is going good. We are changing out positions in a couple weeks. I will be kinda relieved stepping down from SPL. It was a lot of work, and I want to take some time just being a regular scout. I really did like being a leader though. The Jamboree is coming up next summer, I'm really excited about that. I'll be 17, lol. Not excited about growing up, but just going. I love to travel, and had so much fun when I went in 2005. I have a bunch of pics. I used to have them on my old website, but I may rescan some of them some time and put them on here. Oh yeah, and I may get to finally meet my pal Jake there :) That's one of the most exciting parts!

Well, this entry is getting long. I guess I will close here. I hope everyone has a great night, especially you Jake. I'll try to update tomorrow. See ya!

Clifton

Achievements and Updates

Hey guys,

Sorry for going so long without updating. These past 2 weeks have been amazingly busy, and I barely have had any free time. Last week I moved up from English 2 to English 3, and along with that I had to take American Govt./Econ. These are both honors classes. So now I have those, Algebra 2 honors, and speech. I am very lost in math. Chapter 1 was ok, but I am so confused in Chapter two. These kids know this stuff from Algebra 1, I was never taught it. Plus the teacher is giving us extra hard problems because "We are honors kids, we should be able to do them". Yeah right! We have a "MINI-TEST" tomorrow that I have a feeling I will fail. If so, I'm going to have to consider tutoring or something, because I can't go all year like this.

I have had so much "catchup" work in English. We are reading "The Great Gatsby", and being 6 days behind everyone else, this past weekend was spent almost entirely with reading and catching up. I finally did it but I'm still loaded down with work in that class. It's really frustrating and stressful.

Speech class is awesome though, I love the teacher. She's not nice and easy going, but very professional. She used to be in the Broadcasting industry. Today and last Friday we did our 2 minute speeches which were the first graded speeches. She told us to not expect anything above an 80. She said she is grading us strictly so we can improve. If you want to see my speech, here it is. I did this as a practice last night:



I was very nervous but think I did ok. I made an 82, but like she said, anything above an 80 on our first speech is outstanding. She said that she could really tell that I was a theater student because of how I presented myself in front of an audience. She said that really helps with public speaking.

Today, I was offered by the drama teacher, to help out with running the lights for the show they are doing. She said I was one of the only guys that she could trust with that and got along well with the cast members. I felt a little weird since I was kinda hoping to drop out of the drama club until I took it again next year. Another thing, if I do this also have to come with them to a state championship in a couple weeks, which will be a 2 night trip. I think it will be fun, but again I will feel kind of like an outsider since I didn't even audition for the play. Oh well, I think I'm gonna do it and it will earn me thespian points, which will be enough to get me into the National Thespian Society. I think I am like 3 points away from that. So I am planning on helping out and going. She told me to see her during my lunch tomorrow.

Ok, so now it's time for some YOUTUBE NEWS!

On January 25th, 2009, at 12:17PM, I reached my 1,000th subscriber on Youtube!


Here are the entries I have received as responses. Thank all of you guys! I loved them!

sadlztube (Love the song! One of my faves!)


jtankte (Wow, 2 videos? You are awesome Jake!)



veronacz (Haha Steven, you always crack me up!)


Titanicluver (Another one of my favorite songs...remixed!)


corkeyboo (Haha, slow down next time! ;) )


lassy98 (You are very random... and that is cool!)


Randomjuan (Thanks for the advice! As you can see [further down] I already used it!)


YOU GUYS OFFICIALLY ROCK! :)

I am also working on a collab dedicated to my favorite YouTuber, VenetianPrincess. It will be a spoof of one of her spoofs, lol. I have been emailing her and she is "honored I am making this"! So I want to make it the best it can be. If you haven't entered, please do!



I have received about 10 entries so far. Plus, I have been talking with another Internet celebrity and he really wants to be a part of it so hopefully he gets time to enter it. I don't want to give out his name because I don't want people to enter for the wrong reasons, but trust me, he is a VERY big name.

I guess that's it for tonight. Sorry for the long entry, I had a lot of catching up to do. Jake's little brother is in the hospital so please keep him in your prayers. They don't know what is wrong with him yet but hopefully he gets better soon :( I'm praying for ya dude.

Everyone have a great night, especially you Jake!

- Clifton

VLOG - January 21st, 2009

Vlog entry to replace my blog entry for today :p Watch if interested!

Crap, YouTube cut off the last minute of video. I love speech class. Scouts was good, we straightened up the hut some and cooked some left over food. We introduced 3 new guys (1 from my first block) who may be joining our troop. Jake has left for his trip which I hope goes amazingly well. I wish I could have gone. I bet he is having so much fun!

I'm working on a parody, it will be out Friday!

See ya!

First Entry of 2009...Wow, lol

Dang, this is my first entry of 09. A little late aren't we? Lol. Maybe I will only update when important things happen. Like things I want to remember, not just the every day stuff. Which I like doing every once in a while but it gets a little boring to write and read. But this whole upcoming week is important because we are starting our new semester in school. I think the last one went really well. I am gonna miss everyone though, especially these guys:
(Click to Enlarge)


Hmmm, yeah it's gonna be a bummer without them. Oh well, hopefully I will see them other times throughout the semester.

So my classes are going to be:
Health/Success
English 2 Honors
Algebra 2 Honors
Speech

Not necessarily in that order because I don't have my schedule yet but something like that.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot the point of this update. This weekend we went on our Polar Bear campout. Well, THEY went Friday night. I kinda wimped out and came Saturday Morning. HEY, I wasn't the only one. It got down to 9 degrees! HOLY CRAP! That's the coldest it has been in 4 years here. I bet our guys froze their butts off!

So I got there around 8:30AM Saturday morning. Reagan was supposed to come in at that time too. I got there and unloaded my stuff at camp and my mom left. Of course, I went through the much expected "you finally decided to show up" stuff from the guys and leaders, lol. Of course they were only joking around. About 10 minutes later it was time for the SPL meeting and my assistant, Reagan, still wasn't there. He was bringing our tent so I was starting to get a little nervous, lol. I got Brian to come with me, actually he wanted to. On our way there we saw Reagan and his bro pull up so I felt better, lol. By the time I got back from the meeting they already had our tent set up. I put my stuff in and then made sure everyone had their Class A's on for the Flag ceremony and got down there.

They told us about what was planned for the day and then gave us a HUGE break until after lunch. We just kind of went back to camp, chilled by the fire, drank hot chocolate, the usual. Then we had sandwiches for lunch. I found out we missed the 1PM SPL meeting because we were eating. We told one of the leaders and he told us to go talk to Brenda, the camp leader lady. So we nervously went up there and told her we missed the meeting. She was like "I NOTICED!". Then she said there were only 5 troops that came anyways out of like 17, lol. She told us about where we were supposed to meet for the first missions and what we were going to do. So we took the info back to camp and made sure each of the patrols had all the equipment they needed packed up and ready to go.

We walked across the camp road to another large, empty field. There, they divided us up into 2 groups, ones talking photography, and ones taking fingerprinting. I went with some of my guys to photography. There, they split uus up once again. Half went to Mission one and the other half stayed at photography, then we switched off. We went to the mission first. It was "Diffuse the Bomb". The guy leading it was using a funny terrorist accent, lol. The group in front of us messed up the bomb by pulling the wires out when they were only supposed to push the buttons so we had to wait until it was fixed. After 10 minutes of not solving it, they blew up, haha. Then it was our turn. Guess what? We diffused it in 1 minute 29 seconds. BOOYAAAHH! We figured out how to do it and then tried it again and did it in less than 30, but that didn't count.

Then we switched over to the merit badge. It wasn't that great because the guy leading it said he had just been told 15 minutes ago that he was gonna be doing it. He just went over the requirements and let us take pictures. He told us some stuff though so he had to know some about photography. We have to make a collage and label the photos on it and show it to our SM. Sound familiar? Oh wait..maybe not. For our Spanish exam we had to make a photo collage in the same way.

After that we went to one other station but our other patrol/group had already done it so we skipped it and went back to camp. I think we just hung out there until dinner which was hamburgers. My patrol cooked ours over the fire and it was yummy.

Then we had another SPL meeting. We discussed RISK and the missions later that night. Then they got the captains ready to play.

So we went out in the big field again and found a random country to stand in. Like last time, it was boring. We decided to get our troop back together and then kind of walk away to the bathrooms until it was over lol. I don't like that game because if you are captured, you have to go by yourself with a group of strangers for the whole time. After that we started off on the missions. The first one was a laser maze type thing but only 3 people could do it. The next was an orienteering course. Which...we sucked at, lol. We even had one of the cool leaders with us. He taught us how to read the compass and stuff, more like retaught us, and then fallowed along with our guides. I have always thought a pace was 2 full steps, which is the way our troop has been taught. Even the leader though that, but i guess not because we were supposed to go 210 paces at the beginning and at 150 we were stopped for going WAY too far. I'm not gonna run through the whole thing but basically, we did really bad, mainly from over thinking stuff and changing our minds when we were right the first time. We got a 6 out of 20, lol.

After that we went to another rescue type mission but it was already 11 and our guys were tired and everyone was waiting forever asnd it just got cold and boring. So a group left before the 3rd one. Actually according to the time we were supposed to be on our 5th mission at that time but it was really screwed up. Anyways, a lot of us stayed behind and continued on. That 3rd mission was boring. We went in the woods to rescue some spy agent who had crashed into the woods with a broken wrist. WTF? Lol. We had to use a gps to find the spot we were supposed to take the hurt guy.

We went to the next mission but only 5 of our guys could go through. And it took them more than 20 minutes to go over the instructions with them. So the leaders let me, Reagan, and Alex H. go. The leaders were tired too lol. So me and Reagan went back to camp, set around the fire for a little bit and then got ready for bed. His little bro was already in the tent sleeping. He sleeps through a lot. He got pushed in his sleeping bag and Reagan even put his toboggan on his head while he was sleeping!

Reagan woke me up in the morning because a lot of the guys were up and it was sleeting/freezing rain/ whatever u want to call little round balls of ice falling from the sky. Packing up was boring, cold, and miserable like always. But we finally got it done. We planned to go to chapel and award ceremony but they announced at 9:30 after we were packed that it would start at 11 so we were like no way, we are out of here, lol.

When we got to the scout hut we set up the tables and unloaded the trailer. Then we set up stuff for sandwiches and the leaders were making some kind of rice and chicken stew. I called my parents and ate while i waited for them to get there. The rice was good, but i got it before it was done cooking so it was cold, lol. In a little bit my mom showed up and we headed home.

Once i got home i got straight in the shower and soon after took a 3 hour nap. And I'm STILL tired. Hopefully I'll catch up on my sleep tonight. We are off tomorrow but I have a dentist appointment early.

I guess I will close here. I 'm talking to Jake now but everyone have a GREAT night and until next time, have an awesome...couple days! :p Jake have fun on your trip.

Clifton