Brynejenta i Uniten

A blog about my EF High School Year in Wright City, Missouri.

Monday, November 28, 2005

Novus Ordo Seclorum


The Great Seal
Originally uploaded by lee holloway.

I wrote this today, after reading a little bit more of Angels & Demons (not done yet). Dad, in case you haven't read the book yet, I think this might make you want to read it. It's got stuff about the Free Masons in it, and it's really interesting! (We have the book, right? I think we have it in Norwegian)

Okay, so you're probably wondering why I have a picture of a part of the US one-dollar bill here. No, it is not because I am in love with money, or the US (although I am quite fascinated by both), but it is because of my newly found fascination with Dan Brown's book Angels and Demons, and it's connection to the Illuminati. For those of you who have read the book, you know what I am talking about, but if not, you should go read the book, because it is both educational and fascinating. Really.

Okay, so, over to the symbol again. The pyramid represents the emerge towards the ultimate source of illumination, and it is an ancient occult symbol. As you might know, a pyramid has got nothing to do with Americans or American history, so it is kind of peculiar that they chose to put this on the bill. Also, the triangle with the eye inside it represents the Illuminati's ability to infiltrate and watch all things. The triangle, representing the Greek letter 'delta', means 'change' or 'transition'.

Now, underneath the pyramid, it says in Latin 'Novus Ordo Seclorum', which means New Order of the Ages. It can also be translated into New Secular Order. In case your English your English is a bit rusty, the definition of 'secular' is (taken from Dictionary.com) "Worldly rather than spiritual. Not specifically relating to religion or to a religious body: secular music. Relating to or advocating secularism.
Not bound by monastic restrictions, especially not belonging to a religious order. Used of the clergy". So, in simple terms, it means non religious. So New Secular Order means New Nonreligious Order. Now, why would this be put on a bill, where 'In God We Trusts' is put right next to it? The reason for this, is because the one-dollar bill was designed by Vice President Henry A. Wallace, who was a Mason. So was his President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and when he asked Wallace what Novus Ordo Seclorum ment, Wallace simply told him it meant New Deal, because the dollar bill was new, and so was the design, so the President believed him.

Now that people have realized that this means, there has been quite a few debates about whether or not the seal should remain on the bill.

About The New Secular Order: The Illuminati (which means 'the enlightened ones') was an ancient brotherhood of scientists, who got together in secrecy because of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church felt threatened by science, because science questioned God's superiority, and they didn't want that. So they hunted down and arrested or executed all scientists claiming that God did not create mankind and the university, and also, that the sun was the center of the universe, rater than earth. Therefore, these scientists gathered in secrecy. One of the most famous Illuminaties, is Galileo Galilei.

The New Secular Order, aka New World Order, was the Illuminati’s plan of getting rid of Catholicism, and making science the main thing. Now, they never killed, or destroyed anything, like the Catholics did, they infiltrated instead. They infiltrated banks, universities, politics, etc. One of the most known infiltrations they did was when they joined the Free Masons. They had to hide from the Catholic Church, so they aligned with the Masons, in hope of hiding. But as the years went by, they started their own little secret society, inside the secret society of the Masons. They grew, and elevated in grades, and had great power inside the Masons' society. This is the way the Illuminati ran things.

Now people believe that the Illuminati are dead, that they don’t exist anymore. But one can never know, right?
Go read Angels and Demons, it will open your eyes to a new world. Also, if you like riddles, you should also check out Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code.

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Thanksgiving


Americana
Originally uploaded by lee holloway.

This is Ashley and I in front of the flag in Ms. Manning's room (our coach). We cheered at the game on Monday (Lady WildcatsVS Silex Owls), and unfortunately, the girls lost 20-36, but we still had loads of fun cheering.

Today is Thanksgiving, so I am going to Aunt Patty's house for dinner at 10:30am, and I think it's gonna be quite fun. Sam and Charles and everyone's gonna be there.

Anyway, got to go, Franci needs the computer. Leave some comments, people! :)

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Hei og hopp din sopp!


Ine in Cheerleading Uniform
Originally uploaded by lee holloway.

Because of my good friend Mr. Sivertsen’s lacking ability to post in Norwegian like he had (allegedly) promised to do, I thought I’d do it instead. So, here we go!

Først må jeg vende meg til det norske tastaturet igjen. Du ser, det er ikke så mange som vet det, men det amerikanske tastaturet er annerledes. Der ikke nok med å ta bort bokstav nummer 27, 28 og 29, men de må jo selvfølgelig også stokke om på alle tegnene... Uansett, nok om det.
GRATULERER SÅ MASSE MED DAGEN til min kjære tenåringssøster, Guro!! Håper du hadde en fin dag. Også: Gratulerer til RSK med tredje plass på Stavanger Open! Kjempe bra!

Har hatt en ganske travel, men bra uke. Hadde min første cheerleading trening på mandag, og fra første stund har vi øvd på alle ”chants”’a som skulle fremførest på ”the chant test” på fredag. Vi hadde ca. 45 chants i alt. For dere som lurer på hva chants er, så er det omtrent det samme som cheers. Det er noen man sier imens kampene foregår. Nesten som en liten monoton sang, med koreografi. Nei, det er ikke dans, for alle bevegelsene skal være stive og bestemte. Cheerleading er hardere enn en skulle tro!
Uansett, alle 45 chantene ble innøvd (ihvertfall nesten. Hallo, 45? Litt vell mange!). Jeg hadde prøven sammen med Amber Adams, som allerede har vært cheerleader ett år. Men heldigvis så gikk alt bra, og jeg bestod, noe som betyr at jeg får cheere på mandagens kamp (girl’s basketball mot Silex Owls). Det blir gøy!

Har også fått lånt en crop top (det vi har under uniforms toppen) og ett par med spankies (shorts under skjørtet, siden det er så kort så er de litt fine å ha når man hopper...). Vi har på oss uniformen hele dagen på skolen, med jeans under skjørtet, og så tar vi på spankiesene rett før kampen.

I dag har jeg snakket med familien, fått en koselig voice-mail melding fra far, og vært i Winfield med koret. Vi sang i Conference Choir, sammen med alle de andre korene i distriktet. Ble kjent med en jente fra Clopton som het Katie. Hun var faktisk født i Irland, noe som var ganske kult.
Her er sangene vi sang:
• With a voice of singing
• Agnus Dei (Lamb of God)
• The storm is passing over
• You raise me up (yippee! Den liker jeg!)
• Bethlehem (på Swahili)
• Neighbour’s Chorus (opera)

Konserten var bra, å alt gikk som smurt! Nå er jeg bare hjemme og slapper av, og gleder meg til å høre hjemmefra i morgen, og til kampen på mandag.
Foresten, har forandret innstillingene på bloggen, så de som vil kan kommentere nå, selv om de ikke er registrerte på Blogger! Knock yourselves out!

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Bruce Springsteen on the Big Screen


Bruce Springsteen on the Big Screen
Originally uploaded by lee holloway.

So I went to the screening @ the Mills yesterday, and I've got to say; it was great! First, there was a movie/documentary called Wings for Wheels (as in the lyrics to Born to Run "trade these wings for some wheels"), which included interviews with all the original members of E Street, Patti, AND of course, the Boss himself. There was also a lot of never-before-seen footage from the making of Born to Run, which was really cool.

Then there was a remastered video recording of Bruce, the first time he played in Europe, at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, 1975. Great performance, I've gotta say. Go buy the DVD!

Saturday, November 12, 2005

End of tryouts


Cheerleading practice
Originally uploaded by lee holloway.

Yesterday was the last day of tryouts, which ment that we had to show our newly learned skills to both coaches and both captains. I was a little bit nervous, and when I found out that I was trying out with Heather (she's been a cheerleader all through middle school) I got kind of worried. But I thought, 'do your best, and it'll be okay'. So I went in there, and did my best. Mrs. Manning (the JV coach) said that she would only call the ones who made it, and she would call before 6pm.

So I left school, and Franci and I went to Wal Mart to pick up some pictures and do some grocery shopping. On the way home, we stopped at Sonic for some food, and I remembered the call. It was around 5pm, so I figured that it might be worth a try. So I asked Franci if she could call the answering machine at home an check. So she did, and when she was done listening to the messages, she handed me the phone, and went "hear this". When I heard "Hi Schwartzes, this is Ms. Manning from WCHS" I went "YEAAAHHH!! I MADE IT!". Woo-hoo! So out of 12 girls, they decided to pick me, Heather (I called her) and one other girl. I'm guessing it's Natalie. Oh well, I made it and I am SO happy!! (And a little bit proud of myself). All I have to do now is learn the split, so that I can do the Scorpion.

Practice starts on Monday, and uniform fitting is on Tuesday. I'm not sure when the first game is, though... By the way, in case I didn't mention it, I am on the JV (Junior Varsity, because I haven't done it before, I couldn't be on Varsity) Basketball Cheerleading Squad. Yessss...

Friday, November 11, 2005

Tryouts


Go Wildcats!
Originally uploaded by lee holloway.

My cheerleading tryouts started yesterday (Wednesday), and cheerleading is actually a lot harder than one would think! First of all, there's all the stretching, then there's learning the cheers and chants, and then you have to scream loud AND remember to keep every single body part in the right position... Wow... But I'm getting the hang of it.

The first thing we did was to stretch out in a circle. Staci (my homegirl) was the leader, and everyone was about to give up when she pulled her leg up behind her back and around her neck... Then she proceeded to stretch her legs out and put her head down on the ground... Flippin' acrobate! She's good though.

Then we learned the chant and the cheer, and about cheerios and donuts and buckets and birds (don't ask). The chant goes like this:

Take it away
DEFENSE
Take it away
(2 claps)

And it's gotta be really loud. And then there's the cheer:

Wright City!
We're #1
The cats are here, let's hear you cheer
Yell blue and gold (come on!) blue and gold
YEAH!

Yay! I love it! And today, we learned stunting. First we did a simple lift up, and then we cradled. I was kind of nervous about the cradle, because I was backing up the girl who was being cradled, and I was the one responsible for catching her... Anyway, it went fine, and I caught her.

We also had to show our cheers and chants and toe-touches (arg...) to the tutors (in my case, Waymond and Greg), and that was pretty embarrassing... But guess what! Greg, Lauren, Staci and Waymond said I was doing really good! I really hope I get one of the three spots on the squad... Oh well, I'll do my best on the tryouts tomorrow, and we'll see what happens!

Wish me luck!

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

The Boss and I


The Dark Side of the Street
Originally uploaded by KBlood.

Guess what! I am So excited! I got a newsletter from Brucespringsteen.net today, saying that they are putting up a screening of his new DVD (released on November 15th), and it's a one night only kind of thing. So I went to the ticket site (http://www.bigscreenconcerts.com/subpage/index.asp?eventID=558) and looked up my city, to see if they were showing it somewhere nearby. And guess what, they're showing it at the Mills in St. Louis!

So, who got online and got a ticket after school today? ME! I'm gonna go see Bruce on screen! yay! I am so happy!!

Monday, November 07, 2005

We are the champions


Parking lot fun
Originally uploaded by lee holloway.

We won the game. In case you didn't know. We flippin' beat Windfield 28-14! And that makes us DISTRICT CHAMPIONS for the first time, EVER (we've only had a varsity team for 4 years...). It felt GOOD!

My performance of the anthem went good. Everyone was cheering for me, which was really cool. And Senior Night was cool too.

We went to UMC (University of Missouri, Columbia) aka Mizzou yesterday, and we won the priliminaries, which makes us the best 3A band in the state of Missouri. We also went on to finals, but they were cancelled, because of a Tornado Watch. So after doing some shopping at Columbia Mall, we went back to Wright City.

We were planning on going to watch a movie (all the seniors) but the lightning never stopped, so we went home instead. I watched Saved (with Jena Malone) and then went to bed.

Today we went to grandma Dolores to celebrate Stuart's birthday, and then we went on the Katie Trail for 4 miles. By the way, I got to ride in Rick's tailgate! Hillbilly!

Friday, November 04, 2005

The Game


The Gang
Originally uploaded by lee holloway.

Today we're playing for District Champions, and I really hope we win. We got 10 minutes off from 3rd period American History, to listen to coach Weir being interviewed on the radio. It was pretty neat.
If we win tonight, we go on to State!

We're having a pep-rally in 5th period, so the band's going to play in front of the entire school. Yay! And also, mr. Dreyfus asked me if I wanted to play the anthem tonight, at the game. Mr. Dreyfus, Mr. Schaffer and Billy always plays it, but he wanted me to play it tonight. Ahh... in front of all those people!

Tomorrow's the last competition of this season. We're going to UMC (aka Mizzou) and playing in a 3A class. I really hope we make finals!

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Halloween 2005


Shanon's Halloween Party
Originally uploaded by lee holloway.

In case I didn't tell you: We won everything at Potosi last weekend! We won parade (all captions too), field (and captions), grand champion parade, 3rd in finals and grand champions of the entire thing. It was SO cool! We celebrated all the way home!!

Sunday I went to Shawn and Shanon's Halloween party, which was kick-butt. We watched House of Wax, which was really cool, and then we just hung out, talking and munching candy. Franci came and picked me up at 10pm, but most of the guests were already gone by then.

Yesterday was Halloween, so we went trick & treating. I went with Kayla, Madelyn, Mattie, Anna and Nathan. Wendy, Anna and Madelyn's mom was driving us around. We got tons of candy, and we had fun. Madelyn and I were Dorothy from Wizard of Oz, Anna was a clown, Mattie was a prom queen, Nathan was the Tinman from Wizard of Oz, and Kayla was The Corpse Bride.