Fitch Invention

This Evening

2010-05-21T15:49:00.000-07:00

This evening we are doing tons of things that I am looking forward to. First, we will make a fire on the nicest summer day of the year. Next, after grilling it we will have gourmet chicken covered in sauce followed by an appetizing potatoes.

Graph Paper

2010-04-21T04:04:00.000-07:00

When I got some new pens and some graph paper, I came up with a building that I called "The Old Bank"

Here it is:

Making Progress

2010-03-05T07:06:00.000-08:00

I am learning how to play a guitar. It is coming to me slowly but surely. Here is a picture of me on the guitar. My dad bought this nylon string guitar in Tucson at the Chicago Music store. I also have a steel string guitar that my Grandpa gave me. The nylon is strung righty but since I am lefty, I play it "upside down". What is your advice on that choice?

N FR FBJXTRJ, FSI MYRGQJ

2010-03-05T06:41:00.000-08:00

In Math Class I learned about functions and how to write codes using a graph. If you'd like to figure out what I've written above, download the attached key.

No clues. I know you can do it!

What He Found in the Ice

2010-02-10T08:18:00.000-08:00

It was winter in Southern Cropus Maximus and the people there were at a loss. They had nothing to do because they lived their lives to grow things and to live at peace. They were not trained at to do battle, nor did they have any weapons to defend themselves. The two things that they had were their brains and their hoes. This year in particular was a marker in their history because of the large quantity of wheat and grain.

Now, our main character is snowed in at home with his dull witted cousin and is barely able to get out.

“Your move,” said Rickey to his cousin named Jake.

They were playing an intense game of chess. Rickey prided himself on his chess playing skills. He was a smart boy with intelligent gray eyes and loved strategy.

“You’re too good for me,” complained Jake.

He was eager to beat Rickey, but he did not have the patience. He could not stand the torture of sitting and waiting for hours on end.

There came a knock at the door. The caller turned out to be his mother. She had quite a journey getting across his messy room.

“ There is a caller on the phone for you,” she said calmly.

“I’ll take it up here,” responded Rickey.

He was very proud of the new phone that his uncle from Endarsus gave him. They were the most advanced out of the the three countries of Upper Earth. Their country has it’s own story in which they start a war and lose to Dominus Totalus. There are misunderstandings about their country that they are traitors or something.

Rickey took the call in his room and he was completely surprised by the loud screech that greeted his hello on the other line.

He quickly dashed downstairs and right to his mother leaving his confused cousin looking bewildered in front of the board.

“Did you hear anything odd like an EAR PIERCING SCREAM on the other line?”
Rickey was clearly upset.

“No, I heard nothing of the sort,” said his mom.

Rickey looked thoroughly confused and frustrated at the same time. Suddenly, he looked out the window and saw a white camouflaged figure in the snow pounding on his door! He rubbed his eyes. Still there.

Once he gathered his wits, snow shoes, and coat, he dashed outside in the freezing cold. He was amazed at first to feel the cold air on his cheeks. He silently crept along the side of his house. When he peeked around the side of the house his foot hit something in the snow. It was something like the tales that his uncle tond him about the new device that the King’s inventor came up with. It was called a cell phone.

Could this be who the mystery caller was?

Finally giving up effort to knock down the door, the beast,who had matted white fur and muscles like basketballs, left the house with the same screech and a frustrated grunt.
Rickey dropped the phone and ran back to the safety of his room.

“Did you hear that?”

“No, I didn’t hear any thing. All I know is that you dashed out of the room in a whirl.”

Then it all came to him. He was the only one that could hear or see the thing. It was the thing that called him. How did his mom know it was for him?

Maybe it was a shape shifter. That was it, the Abominable Snow Man was a shape shifter and he was out to get Rickey and he was the only one who could hear or see it. Yea right.

BOOM...

The last thing he saw was a round mass of black breaking his window.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Check-Mate!” declared his cousin in triumph.

“What!” “W-What happened?”

He looked up, yawned, and guess what, it really was check mate.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Mom, I’m having strange dreams lately,” Rickey declared at dinner a few weeks later.
There were many others after the first. They got stranger and stranger every time he dozed off.
By the way, Rickey lived in the only mountain range in Cropus Maximus.

Then he thought of something, he would ask his father. He was an important man in the Cropus Maximus Circle of Council. These men were the people who you would come to when you were having troubles in dreams or any other matter that you were concerned with. If anyone could help him it would be his father.

His father listened intently and surprisingly, he believed him thoroughly. He was not surprised either. This was confusing to Rickey because nobody so far would buy any of it.

“ This has happened once before and it was not a pretty site. The beast that you speak of is indeed called the Yeti. It is more commonly known as the Abominable Snow Man. They are half gorilla and half human. None of the people here know about their history or how they came into being. They are known for being wild and vicious. There are a select few that can hear and see the Yeti. These people and only these people can bring peace between them and us. The last one that we had was killed and the Yeti now have a taste of human blood. They want more and they will only take it from the select few that I was telling you about. You are one of those people. Do you accept the challenge of destroying the race of the Yeti? If you do accept, you will need a special weapon to even challenge the Yeti. It is the called, “Peace Reaper”. Will you accept?”

“Great, now I’m a hero” moaned Rickey. He had no intention of saving his own country, but he decided it was all for the best.

At once, they packed their metal detectors and food and set off for who knows what.

They had a good idea of where the sword was from the last attempt at the same mission, so they set to work in the cold ice.

After a few minutes, Ricky's detector started to beep like the dickens. They unpacked their ice picks and started to dig.

After a while, their efforts were rewarded when Rickey struck something solid. He picked it up and held it up. It was only a small dagger of about a foot. He knew at once though that it was the Peace Reaper because of the surge that he felt when he held it. This was all? All these myths and legends and it all lead to a small dagger?

On their way home, they cheered and whooped about how their settlements would not be destroyed.

In the midst of all this Rickey did not notice the bulging figure of a Yeti that was in mid-leap to his father!

A mass of white, a roar and a screech and it was on his dad. Then he realized that his dad could not see or hear the Yeti. He could not fight back under the weight of the thing.
Rickey ran and leaped onto the beast. He had no fighting skills so he simply plunged Peace Reaper into the back of the Yeti. It roared in pain and evaporated in an instant. It was done. There were no more Yeti to terrorize their villages. His father had told him the the first blood of the Yeti would be enough to bring peace between them. That was it, that was what he found in the ice. There would be no more attacks or deaths only peace like before.

Art

2010-01-26T14:05:00.000-08:00

I was inspired by the modern art work at a museum and I discovered that I can't draw real things. Here is one of about 13 drawings that I have done instead.

RubiK's Cube

2010-01-26T13:45:00.000-08:00

These past few weeks, I have started to learn how to solve the Rubik's Cube and I am proud to say that after many days, I know how to solve it. Here is the before and after picture. My record is two minutes and thirty seconds so far:

Lamborghinis

2010-01-03T17:36:00.000-08:00

Did you notice the new picture widget to the right? I was experimenting with what I could do with blogger and this is what I came up with.

I don't really know a lot about Lamborghinis, but I know that they are nice looking and they go pretty fast.

The rotating picture is a widget. All you do is choose slideshow from the widget menu. Then you type in the keyword you want, like "water" or "snow." You get the point.

Try it yourself and see what you can do.

Vacation

2010-01-03T17:08:00.000-08:00

I had a very merry Christmas and, so far, a happy New Year. I was looking forward to a really grand holiday season, and I got my wish.

But now, after more than a week and a half of vacation, tomorrow I go back to that dreaded place called SCHOOL!

Good news, though: before Christmas, my progress report came in the mail, and I am getting an A in math. But, going back now, I hope that I did not forget anything because I will be in big doo doo.

My first Christmas present in New Jersey was SNOW. I think it snowed more than two feet the weekend before Christmas. The first snow, which I wrote about below, was nothing by comparison to this BLIZZARD.

I have spent a lot of time on a few other presents I received. For example, the yo-yo that I now have is my favorite toy when I have nothing to do.

My Rubiks Cube was fun until my dad messed it up. Oh well, I guess I have to figure it out myself now.

I love my new Wii game--Indiana Jones Lego--but, it was easier than I thought and I'm already 81% of the way done.

Speaking of Legos, I received a Technix Go Cart--its green and about 8 inches long. But, it wasn't very hard to put together: I finished it while watching Up, the movie.

So, I'm feeling the Lego itch to build something new, but I need some inspiration.

Ideas, anyone?

My First Snowball Fight

2009-12-11T17:11:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, my brother, Noah, and I had a "snowball" fight in our back yard, on the porch.

It was really fun. Here's what happened.

First, we looked out the window and saw "snow"! IT wasn't really snow, but really more like frozen water. We didn't know that it wasn't really snow, though, so we rushed outside anyway. As I ran outside, I yelled, "Holy Cow, its snowing!" I was wearing my new winter jacket that was so big I could hardly move in it.

As soon as I got outside, Noah had already made a snowball and he was ready to throw it at me. It took me a long time to get my big stiff coat on, as well as my shoes and gloves. After he hit me in the face, I said, "Bring it, baby!!!"

So, the war began.

Once Maggie, my 10-year old sister, came outside, she was mad at me. Noah and I ganged up on her and hit her in the face. Then, one of my friends named Kevin came over. He joined us in the war.

The teams were Maggie vs. Noah. Kevin and Lydia were in the middle. I was jumping in between the teams because I thought it would be funny to gang up on Maggie, then Gang up on Noah, and then Maggie again. Plus this seemed fair to me.

I hit Maggie in the leg multiple times when she was on my team making snowballs. I said, "Thank You Maggie," because she had just given me more ammo, but then I pegged her in the leg.

Personally, I thought this was funny. But she obviously didn't, since she yelled at me afterwards.

The highlight of the fight was probably when Mama called us in and I pegged Maggie and Noah one last time. Sometimes, I love being a big brother.

My Memoir for English Class

2009-10-24T14:01:00.000-07:00

Fireworks by the Castle

“We are going to Disneyland,” I shouted at my best friend, “Can you believe it?”
I was jumping up and down in a trailer at my school of twenty-one kids. My friend
was high-fiving us all around. It was Friday and I couldn’t wait. We were going to ride
everything. We were dancing in the car listening to John Coltrain’s Blue Train.
At first we were noticing all the gargantuan rocks along the highway. They looked orange in the afternoon sun. But, after three hours, even the music on my teachers iPod was repeating.
Then, he had an idea. “I challenge you to sing ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall.” If we sang the whole thing, then, he would give us all jelly beans. “Bring it!” I said.
An hour later we all had head aches but were all happily munching on jelly beans.
Once dinner came around, we had cold pasta on the side of the road and would soon be sleeping in sleeping bags in a old church. Were we whining? No. We were looking forward to the next day.
When we got up, we traveled the rest of the way to California. We got there about midday, dropped off all of our stuff, and went to the beach. We played in the sand and built “indestructible cities.”
“You need to strengthen those walls!” my teacher joked. He was just sitting there watching us building and rebuilding, while his castle, on the other hand, was defying the waves.
The next day found us on our bus to Disneyland.
“Have you ever been to this park?” my teacher asked.
“Only for a few hours,” I said truthfully.
Because he is a big fan, he thought this was ridiculous.
We were stuck in line to get our tickets, but my heart was beating fast. The climax of our trip was approaching!
On the way in, my teacher had a plan: ride all the rides. I thought it was the best way to do it. By nine o’clock, we had ridden all of the rides, including the roller coaster and even the kiddy rides.
Now It was time to shop. My friends bought tons of candy and pins, but I didn’t buy anything accept for a little drink. Now, I wish I had souvenirs.
We were all tired. But, an announcement came over the loud speaker, “Fire works will be held at ten o’clock in front of the castle.” This motivated us!
It was the best show I had ever seen and will ever see. When I told my family about my trip, my sisters seem to think they have seen better. They are totally wrong.
When the “grand finale” began, I remembered all of a sudden that I was moving. I realized, “I’m not going to be here for ever.” I turned to my best Friend and said, “Let’s stay in touch.”
Earlier this summer, I was on the road to New Jersey in the same van. I thought back on my friends in all the places I’ve lived. I took it all for granted. I was oblivious. Now that I was moving, my friends were all gone. I had to start over. I said “Bye” to them and now I hardly remember anything about them.
Will I remember them this time? I am hopeful.

BOATS!!!!!!!

2009-10-12T07:17:00.000-07:00

I have a new interest, that interest is in boats. here are some pics of some that I made up!

The Black Eye

2009-06-27T18:55:00.000-07:00

Well, it goes like this...it was a dark alley. There were five of them. They went for my sister...if you think this is bad, you should have seen them!

Seriously, I was in the basement playing very rough with my little brother. He accidentally kicked me in the face. This is the sad result.

Trimumphal Entry into NJ

2009-06-27T18:05:00.000-07:00

Instead of driving into New Jersey, we went up to Lewes Delaware and rode the ferry across the Delaware Bay into Cape May, NJ.

I explored the boat and found two decks of bars and restaurants and two arcade rooms.

While on board, we saw about ten jumping dolphins. I've never seen anything like that. It was very pretty. I also saw huge cargo ships in the distance.

Mama took a short video of when the ship came into the bay.

When I got to New Jersey, I started jumping up and down, hip-hollering with everyone else. We then went to Mama's uncle in Cape May and to the beach at sunset.

Staying in Illinois

2009-06-27T18:02:00.000-07:00

We stayed in Illinois for 2 nights and 1 day. In that time we saw my mom's friends the Wiersmas in Peoria and my old school buddies Drew and Alex. We had a lot of fun. It was good to see them again.

We had dinner at Ben Harding's house in Hanna City. There was a power outage and we all had to eat "in the dark."

The New Mexico KOA

2009-06-27T17:57:00.000-07:00

The first night of my move, we drove 11 hours and we arrived at the Las Vegas, NM, KOA at midnight. Because it was really late, all we did was unpack our bags and go to sleep.

We slept in 2 cabins. They were small. Each had three beds: one bunk bed and one regular sized bed. That's all.

In the morning, Maggie, Noah, and I all rented little recumbent bikes. We used money from our next-door neighbor in Tucson, Miss Sandy. It was really fun!

Before we left, my dad unpacked THE WHOLE TRAILER and van. It was crazy but I'm glad.

Lake of the Ozarks

2009-06-27T17:52:00.000-07:00

I went to my great Aunt Lindy's and Uncle Weldon's resort and stayed there for two nights and one day. They had a large indoor pool and a huge warm lake to swim in. You could also rent boats.

Although we got to swim in both the indoor pool and the lake, we did not get to rent a boat. It was fun anyhow. We also got to see Great Grandfather Tex and Great Grandmother Betty.

One morning my dad took us to the entrance of the resort and we all had a race to the top of the hill...and down. The prize was extra cinnamon toast waffles. Guess what? I won and my older sister, Lydia, almost passed out.

My Aunt Lindy and Uncle Weldon had two dogs. The dogs' ancestors were sheep dogs and they scared Stasi. I thought they were small and very smart.

My Ride in the Boxter

2009-06-27T17:39:00.000-07:00

I just visited my grandpa's house in Ft. Collins and we stayed in a nice hotel. The highlight of my visit was when Grandpa Bob took me out in his Porsche Boxter!

We went on a mountain pass that was very curvy and hilly. The car handled very well because the weight is distributed evenly in this car.

We drove past a lake called Horseshoe Reservoir. The top was down and the day was sunny. When I got back, all I could say was "Wow!"

LEGOS

2008-11-26T11:41:00.001-08:00

Here is my new lego flag ship

El tour de Tucson

2008-11-26T10:23:00.000-08:00

A few days ago I rode in a bike race with my grandpa. here is his report.

Well we beat our time from last year, but probably came in 4th or 5th. Here's the story. We got a good position on the starting grid. There appeared to be 4 tandems ahead of us so our plan was to just count them off as we passed them. The team just ahead of us was the father daughter redhead team that beat us by 19 sec last year so we thought we were in a good position. We passed the 4 tandems we thought were ahead of us within the first few miles and were only worried about the redheads. About at the bottom of Tangerine we were passed by a young 35 mile husband/wife team (the only bike of any kind from any race distance that ever passed us). We drafted them some and they drafted us some for a while, but when we hit the flats I knew they were going to be faster. So when they went around us for what I knew would be the last time I turned to Fitch and said, "Fitch, I think we're toast." He didn't react for a few seconds then he made the quote of the day: "Grandpa Mike, do we have a plan?" I didn't really have a plan and said "we'll just ride hard." I don't think he was satisfied so he suggested "let's just keep them in our sights till we get closer to the end." Fitch obviously did have a plan. This was before the start of Silverbell yet! As we progressed down Silverbell he asked for assurance several time that I could still see them. Pretty soon I had to admit I didn't. This was not the end of the drama, though. About the last time he asked if I could see them I noticed a father/daughter team where the daughter couldn't have been over age 7 was drafting us. At that point I told Fitch I thought we had a bigger problem than chasing down the now very distant husband/wife team. They kept drafting us. Fitch became concerned that we weren't in the right position letting them draft so we slowed and let them pass a couple of times. Each time they slowed and we went around - cat and mouse had begun. Finally they made their move before we turned on Congress from Silverbell and we stayed on their wheel w/out much trouble. About half way down Congress and told Fitch to give me what he had and we exploded around them. I was about burnt out by the time we got to the freeway light which we had to stop for. So, now it's a 200 yard sprint to the finish. By that time Fitch was fully aware of what was at stake (being beat by a 7 yr old) so we both came off the light at full power and stayed ahead all the way to the finish thinking we were in second place. Well, second place was not to be. Apparently there were two father/son teams at the front of the grid we never saw. Sue reported they got in 8 minutes ahead, possibly the first finishers in the 35 mile and in a stand up sprint to the finish w/ the other father/son team. We talked to one of them after the race and apparently they had raced semi-pro if there is a class for father/son tandem semi-pro. They were obviosly strong from looking at them. At our finish "celebration" Fitch was a little subdued. I asked Polly what was up and she said she was pretty sure that Fitch was really bummed that we were beat bad this year - quite the competitor. So, I offered him the counsel that we road our race plan, beat our last year's time w/o a tailwind on Silverbell and it was my fault that we didn't win. I'm not sure he was buying my argument that a thirty year age difference between captains would be a factor.

Otherwise a great day, mid 70's and no wind. Can't wait for Jerry's report.

Mike

Do I Want to Be an Architect?

2008-11-17T18:54:00.000-08:00

I'm amazed at what technology can do these days! I found an application with my dad's help called Google SketchUp. You can make 3D drawings on your computer and share them with the world. I'm still trying to figure out how it works, but I'm hoping to make some drawings and publish them soon.

Here's a quick try from something my Dad and I tried. Pretty "cool."

Trip to NJ

2008-11-02T16:01:00.000-08:00

My Dad went to New York and New Jersy this past month. Here are a few shots from his iPhone. Cool!

Imprecatory Prayers

2008-11-02T15:46:00.000-08:00

Today I was reading the psalms and I noticed the imprecatory prayers. I wondered why David called judgment down upon his enemies, but he also prayed for them.

So, I looked a few things up on the Internet and here are some quotes from an article on the imprecatory psalms by David Powlison.

Two things goof up the imprecatory psalms.

The first is to see myself as righteous, and to view others as the bad people over there, or those people who don’t do what I like, or those people who aren’t part of my group or nationality. Those are the bad people and I’m perfectly content to allow God’s wrath to be on them. But I am the good. That’s standing outside the problem of evil, rather than as a participant.

The second view is to say, “I’m just too nice and kind of a human being to go for all that primitive, un-Christian venting of violent emotion.” Those who believe the Bible is the Word of God are embarrassed about those sentiments, and apologize for them. The people who criticize the Bible reject the imprecatory Psalms as primitive, barbaric, un-Christian sentiments. Either way, we put ourselves outside the problem of evil. The fact is, we cannot understand the imprecatory psalms unless we stand inside the problem.

Trip to New Hampshire

2008-10-09T19:41:00.000-07:00

I saw this bridge on my way from New Jersey to New Hampshire. I think I was in New York. I was going to visit my cousins Gavin and Allen and Tad. They live in New Hampshire. We went to a place called Stoddard. It was one of the funnest trips I've ever taken!

My New Air Soft Gun

2008-10-09T19:27:00.000-07:00

This is my new Air Soft Gun. It is 300-350 fps, which stands for "feet per second." It is a pretty decent gun and I'm really happy with my choice. To fire, you cock the gun and pull the trigger. I usually hit milk cans and go out in the wash in our back yard to shoot it. My friends and I sometimes have Air Soft Wars.

Sit Board

2008-08-24T15:53:00.001-07:00

Someone broke my skateboard so I decided to use common sense. Here's what I did. I took the trucks off of the bottom of the broken board and I screwed them to a piece of plywood. Then, I screwed another piece of plywood to the first. Here is the result.

How did it turn out? Well, you just sit on it and roll down a hill. Its quite fun.

More Cars

2008-08-24T15:50:00.000-07:00

Here are some more cars that are very fast and rare. The first one is a Bentley Continental GT Speed and the second one is a Maserati. I saw these cars in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

My Family

2008-08-24T15:47:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures of my brother and sisters at the Jersey Shore in Ocean City, NJ. (My brother's picture is on a trolley in Philadelphia.)

Meeting Buddha

2008-08-24T15:14:00.000-07:00

We went to a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown in Philadelphia. This statue of a Buddha was right in front of the entrance. I decided to hug it. Hee hee.

Cars

2008-08-02T19:14:00.000-07:00

Here are some cars that I am interested in. This one (yellow) is a Lamborghini Diabolo.

This next one (below) is a Ford Shelby concept car.

This next one (below) is one I took. It is a 2006 Corvette. I'm not sure if it is a Z06 or not.

A New Spaceship

2008-08-02T19:12:00.000-07:00

This is the latest Lego ship I've made so far. Notice it is modeled after the A-wing fighter from Star Wars.

Trampoline Tragedy

2008-08-02T18:56:00.000-07:00

I was at a slumber party at my friends last night, jumping on the trampoline this morning. Suddenly, my foot slipped out of the opening of the trampoline and was cut on two screws protruding out of a pole. I went to the emergency room and got six stiches. What a way to end a summer party!

A book on Hercules

2008-07-04T15:59:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite genres of reading is Greek mythology. I just finished a book on Hercules called Hercules: The Complete Myths of a Legendary Hero. In the book, Hercules promised that he would complete all the labors. If he didn't he would die. I especially liked how Hercules persevered and didn't quit!

Battlecruiser

2008-07-01T17:16:00.000-07:00

I made this creation by myself in about an hour. As you can see, I am very much into Legos!

My New Blog

2008-06-30T08:05:00.000-07:00

On this blog, I'll put things I like or things I make. That's why its called Fitch Invention.

I was taught about Greek history in my third grade class and now I am fascinated with it.