To much of a good thing

Never, in your days swarm yourself with more then you can handle. What I am talking about is loading yourself full of so much you wish to do as a hobby, to the point you are overwhelmed and cannot do it at all. For me, I am talking about having to many pen-pals. To much, of a good thing.
I started pen-paling over a year ago, last December. I danced around the idea for some time, thinking of how much fun it could be, and not to mention educational. So, it started with one, when I put my name on a public list for a pen-pal. One quickly transformed into two. From there, it just went out of control. I guess the U.S.A. and Korea (R.O.K.) are top dogs when it comes to doing pen-pals. It soon turned out that people from all around the world started contacting me, all the way from Ghana and Thailand. It got to the point where I had to start turning people down, I felt bad, but I could not keep up with floods of emails.
I only had two snail-mail pen-pals which is nice, because gift exchange is hard. Even writing letters, is somewhat of a challenge. On the virtual side, I can not even count, its hard to keep up with. Some mail you, and then never reply to you again. The best ones, keep up at all times. And let you know when times get tuff, and they have to step back for awhile.
Now, I sit with about three good pen-pals, who keep up. It's nice that it has slowed down. I can catch my breath! Never in your days, continue to take more then you can handle. Why did I not cut my name before it got out of hand? My name still stands on several lists, and I still get contacted all the time from people, mainly S. Korea...

-Takahashi

John Adams in the Best President Ever

Recently in my U.S. Government class we had an assignment, of which we drew presidents names out of a hat, and prove that that president was the best to have ever served in U.S. history (by trying to "sell your president"). I as you may have already been able to tell, drew the founding father, John Adams.
Now it was a very difficult to get a whole lot of information on John Adams presidency, and more so specifics about other aspects of his life. I researched a truck load of information, to find some good solid facts. Not just those silly "interesting fact about so and so."
The brackets were set up like that of March Madness for college basketball, something that was somewhat new to me, the real challenge was filling out the bracket for extra credit, just like gambling on a team. Something that I never have done before, seeing the fact that I do not really fallow college basketball. John Adams was listed as a 3rd seed, so I had somewhat of an advantage, but I'd still have some very hard challenges up ahead.
I was given the spotlight. I had a total of three match-ups which turned to be agents Truman, F.D.R., and Teddy. All pretty good ones, but hard to win over. Truman was a give me, he is not the best president, and the person whom was presenting him (although my friend) was not the best as giving a speech. F.D.R on the other hand was being sold by a very flamboyant gay, who is flowing with charisma I must say. He was quite a challenge to topple, in fact I do believe I should have lost this match. All of my speeches were improve, but I am really good at it. This match-up though, I just blew it, I just sounded boring. I did not even really get the audience in on is to they just go bored of it. In the end though, I won by just one vote. I got so excited I flailed my arms into the air with my fitted blazer on and buttoned I popped off the top button!
After this I was in the final four, pinned up against Teddy. Which I knew if I did not do something fantastic, I would, without a doubt, loose. So I spent lots of time before preparing, a nerdcore rap about the great John Adams. The lyrics giving insight on his life, and his actions before, during, and after his presidency. I performed it live in class, for everyone to see. I ended up killing my opponent which I felt kind of bad about, here it is the match before I suck, and I stepped up my game and dominated. I felt almost like I was hustling a bit. In the end though, it turned out to be a huge success, everyone liked it, and word of it quickly went around the school. GVTV even came in and recorded that sucker, as well as my friend Donnie. I have the tape, and I am going to upload it, look for it tomorrow, hopefully.
The Final, I made it, it felt fantastic. Absolutely amazing, I was astounded that I made it here from everyone in the class. John Adams vs. Ronald Reagan, that was it. Reagan has so much more information, and she did great in her speeches and performances. Worst of all, I was sick the day before, and the day of this. In fact I only came to school to do this, then I was leaving. So because of this, I did not prepare anything, and I had already used my best material being my speech on the last round. What was I to do. I was up first, so I walked on up. Thinking to myself, how on Earth can I pull this off. How am I to do this? I started off by stating my thanks for being up here, this far. Then I preceded to talk about the rap, and of which I read the lyrics out loud as if it were a poem. I did this stating that many of my peers did not understand what I was saying with all the commotion and the pace of the song. After this I talked about Adams, and how humble he was, mainly who he was as a person. It worked in the end, I won by just one vote. It was a great match, and I did it!
Now as for how well I did on the bracket, I tied for the top two best filled out ones in the class. I gave it to the other person, after all I had already gotten a slew of extra credit for the wins. She also did put the percentage of the victory, something I failed to do on mine. But who cares, it happens.
So that was that, something very exciting indeed, like I said, I'll have the video posted later for all of you to enjoy, and don't forget tomorrow is free pancake day at iHop!
-Takahashi

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Woo Woo, Seattle Washington.