With the craziness of the first weeks of school, the first weeks of soccer, and cross country thrown in, it’s been pretty frenetic this last week, but now it’s the weekend, so here’s a little update.

Classes:

1. College/Career Planning (+Tech.)

2. French !I

3. Geometry

4. English I Acc

5. Biology

6. Cross Country

So far schools been something like what I would describe as “insanity incarnate…”, you’ve got 3,200 kids in a school where all the classrooms (save music, foreign language, and drama) are arranged into 9 “hallways,” these “hallways” are long corridors with doors on both ends (for entrance) and lot’s and lot’s of classrooms on either side with banks of lockers in between, now all 9 of these “hallways” branch off of a central corridor which is about 30 feet wide with planters and pillars in the middle. So, this Leads to tremendous congestion in the hallways and corridors and if you ever half to get back up them, say to your locker,  (against the “current”, yes, there is somewhat of a directional flow) then you’re literally swimming and weaving through throngs of people. To make it worse, there is no “break” like there was at middle school, just ten minute passing periods (time to get to your next class) and tutorial (a free period for studying, etc.) on block-days (days when you have half of your classes for twice as long), which at first I disliked, but am now coming to value.

The last few days have been to busy for an update, but I will try and sum it up. With cross country practice, tryouts, a midterm for my independent study course, and many trips to the beach,the past week or so have been full to the brim with all sorts of activities.

On Friday we went to the Montage again, and although we were anxious of getting another, yes another, parking ticket, we left before the meter maid could ticket us this time. Yesterday was spent touching up the backyard with some painting, gardening, and construction of a little path.

The midterm was pretty easy considering it is meant to test you on half a semester worth of info, all of which I went through in about a week.

Cross country practice is getting more difficult, and although I didn’t make the cut off time at the try out on Monday I am sure I can make it at the next tryout which will take place at the end of the last week of school next month.The varsity potential team is up in big bear this week for some altitude training, and for once I am glad I’m not that fast…..Anyway, were heading off to the coast today for some fun in the sea before more cross country practice and studying next week….

I’m excited to hear we may be planning a vacation in October (and probably one more before summer ends) since dad didn’t win presidents club officially, even if he did on paper…..

RSS Feeds:

Do you get tired of checking blogs and news letters? There is a simple solution! Just set up an RSS feed so you can automatically receive updates when the site your interested in publishes something new, then, you can few the new item (some of it at least…) without even opening a browser (unless you want to see the whole site…).

Shrapnol highly recommends you set up a Shrapnol RSS feed so you’ll know when there’s new stuff!

Shrapnol, the bit’s and pieces that are worth remembering, your condensed summaries of issues worth noting!

Setting up an RSS feed for Shrapnol:

Getting Shrapnol through an RSS feed is simple, just follow the steps below:

1. Go to the Shrapnol Home Screen (Home Tab)
2. Scroll down until you reach the text on the side bar that says “PORTAL”
3. Click where it says “Entries RSS” or “Comments RSS” (depending on whether you want an RSS of comments or entries here at Shrapnol, Shrapnol recommends “Entries RSS” for most viewers…).
4. Depending on your installed software, an email client, internet browser, or other RSS capable program will prompt you on whether or not you trust the site, (click yes) and configure any settings necessary.

a screen shot of Shrapnol showing whereto click for an RSS feed

Now, depending on what program you used, you should be able to view  all posts from Shrapnol as they are published in your email client (under feeds, or RSS feeds, etc.), ot in the favorites folder of your browser (once again, under feeds, or RSS feeds, etc.), or in whatever other program you used.

Hope this Helps! Check back (here or in an RSS view) for more Tutorials, Journals, Articles, and Updates!

An awesome video we stumbled upon! It’s pretty cool, reminds us of how we areall one…

As many of you may be squinting to read this line, and as I have had a request for larger text here at Shrapnol, I have decided to enlighten any and all readers to a quick and easy solution (for me and you…).

Assuming your on a windows computer, as I am unsure of how to do this on a mac, there is one very easy way to enlarge or shrink the page you are looking at.

1. Simply hold down the control key
2. The press the “+” key to zoom in, and the “-” key to zoom out.

Note: Do not zoom in too far when viewing the this blog, as when you are ridiculosly close, the graphics are slightly off….Although I doubt anyone would want to zoom in that far.

The above technique works on Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari for windows (although not as well as the others), however, it does not work with Opera.

45. Act naturally
44. Found missing
43. Resident alien
42. Advanced BASIC
41. Genuine imitation
40. Airline Food
39. Good grief
38. Same difference
37. Almost exactly
36. Government organization
35. Sanitary landfill
34. Alone together
33. Legally drunk
32. Silent scream
31. Living dead
30. Small crowd
29. Business ethics
28. Soft rock
27. Butt Head
26. Military Intelligence
25. Software documentation
24. New classic
23. Sweet sorrow
22. Childproof
21. “Now, then …”
20. Synthetic natural gas
19. Passive aggression
18. Taped live
17. Clearly misunderstood
16. Peace force
15. Extinct Life
14. Temporary tax increase
13. Computer jock
12. Plastic glasses
11. Terribly pleased
10. Computer security
9. Political science
8. Tight slacks
7. Definite maybe
6. Pretty ugly
5. Twelve-ounce pound cake
4. Diet ice cream
3. Working vacation
2. Exact estimate
1. Microsoft Works

Submitted by Peter Fenn

—Pretty Funny Stuff Huh? Just had to pass it on after it was posted in a comment.

Today, I spent the day helping out at my mom’s work in Rancho Santa Margarita, by packing meals for the meals on wheels program, doing secretarial work, and some accounting.

I was then dropped off at Circuit City where I spent about 45 minutes browsing Xbox 360 games and accessories, PSP games, Computers, and TV’s. As I have been saving up for a laptop, I spent quite a bit of time in the laptop section where I came up with two clear contenders.

Laptop Links:

1. HP Pavilion dv6928us 15.4″ Widescreen Entertainment Laptop
2. HP Pavilion dv6910us 15.4″ Widescreen Entertainment Laptop
3. Laptop Comparison

I then wandered over to Walmart, briefly reviewed their software, games, and hardware before being picked up and heading home.

Today, after completing a fairly difficult cross country run and hanging out at home while finishing lesson five of my online Health course, hanging out and eating at the Perkins household, and playing Xbox 360, we all (Kenny, Camille, Matthew, Mom, and I) headed off to the beach.

We all had a great time in the shadow of the Montage Resort Hotel, splashing in the waves, exploring and what not. After enjoying the surf, snacks, drinks, and a good exploration of the tide pools, we were excited to see Dad descending the stairs with Ellie (the Dog), as soon as Ellie heard me calling, her ears pricked up as she realized we were all there. As soon as she was let off the leash, she ra down the last few steps coming towards us.

We spent the rest of the excursion playing catch with the dog, and having a last swim before we headed back to drop of the Perkins’ and get  home for dinner

<–Aerial View of Montage

The Montage Hotel is the large gray/brown structure flanked by pools and path’s on the coast line. We were on the beach just south of the tide pools (dark Brown) next to the montage, It’s a great spot, fairly uncrowded, beautiful….

A new tab (or page) has been added, if you glance at the tab bar, you’ll notice the new “Overview” tab.

The “Overview” tab contains summarized views of various events that could fit into different categories alone, but have been placed here due to lack of pictues or writing motivation.

Look here for more condensed summaries on various topics.

Check out the Q3 Economic Report in the Overview Tab (or Page):

http://shrapnol.wordpress.com/overview/

Welcome to Shrapnol, your condensed view of the bit’s and pieces of news worth reading.

Formerly planned as an RSS feed or Newsletter, I am proud to announce this marvelous web blog instead. Please explore the various tabs at the top of the page to access are various stories. To learn about Shrapnol, click the “About” tab.

The most effort is usually put into the gaming article, as gaming news is our main purpose, so don’t expect massive articles in the other tabs, but feel free to browse through them, as they are usually condensed stories about memorable events in the past week.

-Please comment, as your feed back is appreciated!

Once again, thankyou for visiting Shrapnol, we hope you enjoy your stay.