Your knife will fall out of its sheath, but you still don't like to leave before the end of the movie.

So I went to Minnesota to go canoeing for fifty miles and see some beautiful scenery, etc. I did all that. Here it goes. Some more players for your knowledge.

For all intensive purposes Zach Schmidt is equivalent to Andrew (my brother) basically.
Zac Hinds is a jock/hoss who is a pretty cool dude.
Jacob Yarling is the quiet straight man who can do anything
Jay Yarling is his dad.
Jerry Hinds is a military dude and Zac's dad.
Bill Thomas is a slightly challenged 54 year old who came as Schmidt's partner
Alex Duchak was our interpreter and now is just the coolest dude ever.

Also me and my dad went.

First of all, the entire time, it was beautiful. The weather was great and it was just beyond words how beautiful it was. damn.

Ok Saturday, we drove all the way to 45 minutes outside of Ely which is the outfitter town outside of the Boundary Waters. It's like 800 miles to there.

We watched the matrix, we drank energy drinks and Frappucino, we laughed, we listened to cake. It was an all around good time. Did I mention we had to wake up at 4 in the morning???

Ok, Sunday we stopped in Ely to do some shopping and messing around. I got awesome sunglasses. We had brunch at a cool little cafe. We drove to Northern Tier where we played some voyeuger games and I kicked a little ass. I went into outspoken/group activity mode. Jonah and Thomas have seen it. I'm normally in depressed teenager mode except when I do these kind of things. Summer Camp, Triennium, Youthfest, etc. Well Dad was kind of freaked out cuz he doesn't really ever see it. It was pretty cool to get to show that side around him. So we go and meet Alex and we get all set up for the next week. We shake down all our gear. We get our food. You have three grey whale bags with everyone's sleeping bags, the tents, and your clothes. You have two green bags with green plastic tubs inside them. One for food and one for cooking equipment. That makes five bags, four canoes, and nine people (see the pattern?) and one personal bag for Alex that he keeps seperate. The cabin we stayed in that night was like an oven and it was hard to sleep.

Monday we wake up and do our final pack, eat and get in the water. We had to wait until we got Jerry's seat that broke in his canoe (jerry's not a big guy) fixed and so we got a late start. We canoed 16 miles that day. The portages were slow and hard because we hadn't done it before. (portages are where you go from lake to lake and have to carry all your stuff. I carried a grey whale, so did Jacob and Zach. Zac carried the food box (heaviest.) Bill carried the Kettle box (other green bag.) Dad carried an Aluminum canoe. So did Alex, along with his bag. Jerry and Jay carried the Kevlars. (Kevlars are lighter, faster but more susceptible to wind) I was in an Aluminum most of the week. We got lost near the end of that day but we got to where we wanted to, leaving an easy day for tuesday.

Tuesday we only canoed 6 or 7 miles and got to Edy Lake where we stayed two nights. It was pretty easy. Dad took over the back for good ( i suck at steering but i'm great on the front where all you have to do is keep rowing) We spent the afternoon messing around and swamping canoes, going up waterfalls, and then crapping in them. Ok so i might need to explain that.
I was climbing the waterfall which was spectacular and i hadn't taken a crap for three days and i really had to and i couldn't get to the top or bottom so i took a dump and then washed off in the waterfall. While Alex and Zac were watching. Needless to say, everyone knows and it was the main topic of conversation the rest of the week. All in all. Good Day.

Wednesday we didn't pack up our gear, we just took the canoes and we went. We met the other crews from my troop along the way. We jumped off cliffs. We played battleship. For a detailed explanation of battleship, contact myself on aim or navarcus34 (alex.) its piles of fun. We found a US forest service cabin in the middle of nowhere. And behind it we found the latrine to end all latrines. It was dark, bug-free, and closed in. Normally we were going to the bathroom in a plastic cone out in the open. a paddle was the bathroom door. And then we headed back. We thought the day was over. So we ate and then started to pack so we could get an early start the next day. It turns out Jay left some of his fishing equipment (by the way he caught some tuesday and we had fish and oatmeal for breakfast wednesday morning. It was good.) at the cabin. So Alex and Zac, and Dad and I went out at 9:30 at night to go and retrieve it. It was twilight until about 10:30 and after that it was Dark, Buggy, and Awesome. We found it as soon as we got to the cabin. It was on the shore. We saw the the Northern Lights. It was just a great night. (oh most of the day, it was me and Alex in the canoe.)

Thursday. The day that will live in Infamy. We went like 19 miles. we basically got home almost but it was not smooth. We basically skipped breakfast. Jerry set a monstrous pace into the wind. Alex was getting pissed the entire today. I was duffing (sitting in the middle of the canoe.) in Jerry's canoe and people were falling behind. So i started paddling with Dad and Alex went with Bill and Zach duffed. That kept us pretty together most of the way till lunch. We were killing the portages. All of the ones that hurt us on monday went like cake. We found a nice place to have lunch and we were all famished. We ate and messed around for like an hour. And then without really reaching any semblance of a decision, it ended up that we left and kept going instead of calling it a day. We canoed more and got to the last portage of the week and that went badly. There was a group that was getting shuttled with motorboats on the other side and we couldn't get through so we were stuck carrying the heavy stuff for too long and that made us cranky. We finally got to our final destination and the camp was a piece of crap. The campsites out there are all very primitive but this one just sucked ass. And Alex was angry and he goes, "We should have F**kin stayed at the other campsite." Jokingly, not realizing he was really pissed, I say "Whoah, he's cussin," and then to him, "you're tired." He yells "F**k that excuse!" and points at me. Jerry goes ballistic on him and they have a little shouting match and its pretty awkward but it gets better. Everyone is fine now and we all miss Alex. One of the other crews from my Troop was within spitting distance and so most of our crew went over and stole all but 0ne of their paddles. That pretty much brought the morale back up.

Friday, it was me and alex again. We gave the paddles back and talked like pirates all the way till lunch. We ate, cleaned the campsite and officially got our fifty miler done. (you have to do 10 hours of service too) and went all of 3 miles that day. We had our rendezvous and we showered and we wished it wasn't ending. There was a hugful and almost tearful goodbye to Alex.

Saturday we drove all the way home. We got up at four again. Basically last Saturday backwards.

It was a great trip. Sorry for being so long. Talk to you guys again soon. Adios.

Wait, wait. You did what to that waterfall?

YEAH! Burnin that Gasoline. rinse. repeat.

Yeah, so today has been the most boring day ever. I got up at noon. I talked to Michelle on the phone. I've been on the internet. My mom's being annoying and nobody wants to do anything and it's too late now. I have to go shopping for Minnesota with Dad later and then thats the end of the day. WOOHOO! Life is great. sorry about the brevity of this post but that is how boring today is. That's all that has happened.

Oh, no! This is how the mutant carp will get you!

What I need seems so far away

(by the way my titles are parts of songs, all by artists I listed so you get a high five if you guess the artist, the title of the song is part of the title of the post normally)

Ok, back on topic. I slept on the couch last night. I personally love our couch because it is a.) longer than my bed so i don't have to do my cucoon impression and b.) is not as lumpy is my bed. I can't go to sleep before midnight anymore. I feel like I'm wasting precious doing stuff time. But I don't do anything productive after 11 anyway so I don't know what my deal is.

This is Mom's day off (wednesday) and so we went and got my physical. Apparently I've shrunk for I have lost an inch and a half since the last time I was measured. Meh. Aside from the coughing it was pretty much forgettable but coughing is always freaky so I remember that. Also I feel silly at the Pediatrician's office because if you added all the ages of the kids in that room up it still wouldn't be as much as me.

Then we went to lunch with Corri and Sally(corri's mom) and saw a crappy movie. Monster-In-Law is a complete waste of time. It's just my luck that the only showing of Batman was at 4 and that was out of range. Now I'm going to Nomads (youth group) where no one will be because Kyle, Neil, and Corri are going to a birthday party and Zach's in Mexico. And then to scouts. (yeah I'm a scout, what are you gonna do about it?) I feel hopelessly unprepared for Minnesota.

Did I tell you I'm going to Minnesota next week? No? Oh, well I'm going to canoe for fifty miles in the boundary waters and Dad's coming with. So I'll be gone for a week right after I start this little thing. Hmmph. Interesting. Well talk to you guys tomorrow.

Oh, no! This is how the mutant carp will get you!

If the world's at large, why should I remain?

Welcome to my life everyone! If you didn't know already, I'm Matthew Hogg. I went to triennium with Jonah and Nathan and Thomas and I roomed with Jonah. I'm 16 and will be a senior at Arsenal Technical High School this fall. I slack far too often but I'm quite intelligent but not quite creative enough. I'm here for a couple of reasons:
1. to see how you guys think my life is just based on this.
2. eventually do a story site (ala corndog and hopefully someday ala pants)
3. cuz I'm tired of the lack of response on my lj so please respond with your thoughts when you have them.

Ok, let me introduce you to the players in my life:

We'll start with my girlfriend, Michelle.
We met at Youthfest in February and we've been a couple basically ever since. She's very attractive and fairly intelligent though she would not give herself credit for either because she's very insecure. She's going to the International Business School this fall to study to become a Travel Agent. I've told her I love her and I think I do but there's some gray area there. I don't think she is who I will end up with but she's fun most of the time and she loves me and I'm just taking advantage of the situation. However bad that is.

Ok family time.

My brother is an asshole. His name is Andrew. I'm really sick of him acting like he has all the answers and I should listen to him. He's 14 and thinks he's better than me. This will change when he gets to high school hopefully.

My mom and dad are still together. They're pretty good parents and they give me everything I need. My mom overreacts and my dad's a little distant. But overall good parents

Friends:
Julia is my ex but we were just best friends from the start really. Never quite did anything except label ourselves a couple. She is an enigma. I can never tell what mood she's gonna be in but I've come to love all of her. She is a great person and hopefully she'll come to know it soon. She doesn't always make the best decisions. She is at the Indiana Academy for Juniors and Seniors in High School up at Ball State.

Val is her roommate there and she's my tennis/venting buddy. She really listens well and is fun to be around

Alex, Mario, and Vinh still go to Tech and are all good friends with Val and each other. I hang with them sometimes but am not really part of their little group. (alex from bangledesh, mario's parents were born in Mexico, and Vinh's Vietnamese)

Andy is also an asshole, but a sensitive one. He'd like you to think he's a punk skateboarder but he's very emoy and sensitive. He has ADHD so he's kind of frantic sometimes. He's been much calmer and better to be around since his gf broke up with him.

Karl is me if I applied myself and was a recluse. He reads a lot.

My church friends are Kyle, Neil, Zach, Abbi, and Corri. They're ok and I hang out with them a lot so they're getting old.

Essex (Last name, his first is Matt so you can guess why he's essex. I'm piglet) is a really cool guy and he's me if i was more comfortable with myself and others. He's great to be around.

Just as a recap: Essex*K + Karl*E=Me where K and E are constants and the absolute value of the difference of K and E is less than .5 Did I mention i like math?

Not every post is gonna be this long but I thought this little experiment required a solid beginning. Happy Blogging everyone!

Oh, no! This is how the mutant carp will get you!