Page 1

All in all, it was all just bricks in The Wall….
- Pink Floyd -

Sunday July 27^th, 1997

First Entry

Hello journal! This is my first diary/journal/rambling collection ever!!!! Since you're here, you may as well know the story! Ms. Matheson, English 10 gave her up and coming sophomore class a summer project. A journal. Well, a few weeks late, (I'm sorry for that one, truly, the lure of the beach was too much to ignore) and here you are!

My very own journal (hooray)

So, what to write, what to write. Okay, how about this; Karen and I (going steady for two months so far) have decided that 10^th grade is definitely going to be the best experience for either of us!

Okay, sorry for prattling so, but hey, that's what you're here for, no? Nevertheless, we were told to write whatever we wanted to in here, from current events to our own feelings. So hey, who knows right, there might be a lot of different things in here for you (and Ms. Matheson, who by the way, I think you're already my favorite teacher) to read!

First and foremost, my vacation at the beach. First off, it was GREAT! I've never been to the beach without my parents in tow, so for ONCE, I was able to enjoy it without being subjected to boring historical litany! I went with Brian, my neighbor (and best friend, watch out for us Ms Matheson!) and we frequented the arcades on the boardwalk for most of our trip. He kept on trying to get me to go under them, knowing full well that a movie from our childhood (The Lost Boys, starring Corey Haim and Corey Feldman, great teenage vampire hijinx) had scared me each time we watched it.

Other than that and staying in our room and listening to music nothing much happened.

Well, I personally feel that for a first entry, that isn't too bad! I'm starting to get tired, so I'm going to put this aside until tomorrow night.

Tuesday July 29^th, 1997

Hello once again journal, how they hangin'? Today has been a REAL scorcher; the high was 102 at the airport! Karen came over today, and we watched some Star Wars, she kept on asking questions about it. I was patient with her, knowing that she isn't a geek about those kind of things like I am. After Karen left, my dad took me out driving with him. He said that this Saturday, I can drive him to the gun-show in Kingston, if I want to go with him. The way I see it, it's a good chance to drive somewhere. I'll probably have to endure all that useless drudgery, waiting on him to finish up so I can drive back, but that won't be so bad I guess.

Tomorrow, old Ms. Anderson wants me to come and mow her yard. My mom is making me earn money for a car this summer, according to her: "Your father and I will gladly help you with a car, but we won't buy it for you." Eh, I guess it's an okay deal. One heck of a motivator at the very least!

Well, if I'm going to mow tomorrow, must go to bed now! Like Franklin said, "The early bird gets the worm." Sounds like the birds are getting shafted to me.

Wednesday July 30^th, 1997

Holy shit! While I was mowing Ms. Anderson's extremely crummy yard, she yelled at me to come inside and help her. Now, at first I had thought she had fallen or something, but it turns out that the old bag had just lost her remote and wanted me to turn up the television. I thought she was missing the climax of her Matlock or something, but the news had pre-empted the show. Well, when I turned up the volume, I was in for a surprise!

It turns out that several (very strange) convicts had broken out of a maximum-security asylum, and were roaming the countryside, "wreaking havoc" and "committing acts of vulgarity". Ms. Anderson cussed at the television, and said she thought it was something important, and bade me to turn it to the shopping channel. But that's when it really hit me. Because all of the channels had been pre-empted.

Early Morning Thursday July 31^st, 1997

I awoke this morning to more strangeness on the television. My mom and dad had already gone to work, so I figured I'd have the TV to myself, at least up until 3:30 or so. Boy was I wrong!

All of the stations were now reporting a "virtual army of assassins" who were killing people for no apparent reason. And in some cases, they were actually eating their victims. Is this some kind of joke, or what? I mean, this seems like a dream. If I didn't know better, I'd say this was some kind of prank. But if it is, it's the best ever. The phones don't even want to work; you can only get through every forty-five minutes. They called this "selective partitioning" on the television, I guess it's for the government or something.

[ Continue to page 2 ]