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Because I Didn't Want To Call This A Diary.

Hey, y'all! I haven't written in a while, and it's because I've got stuff going on. Here's why:

• Betsy and I have gotten our driver's permits (even though I'm halfway through sixteen) and my parents have been letting us two cruise around town.
• I just played at World Outreach Church again this past weekend, and that should pay for my bad gummy candy habit (and the Palm Zire I'm looking at).
• Good work is coming in over at HarvillDesign; I'm currently working on three sites!
• I'm too busy wasting the rest of my time. How 'bout you?

A big thing for any of my readers that are still out there is that JW is in the early stages of reconstruction again. This renovation will have an improved layout, better compatibility, a cooler logo and slight change of colors. It will go up when I feel it's complete.

Have a good week! I'll try to keep you posted on the construction of the new version of the site.

What a week this past has been. The TSC youth group went to it's own camp in Pensacola Beach, FL last Monday morning. Continuing in the tradition our youth pastor, Robert, we left early - around 4:00 AM to be specific. The drive including rest stops, etc. caused us to get into our hotel rooms twelve hours later.

Overall this year's camp was great. We had a rockin' band and an entertaining speaker. My dad ran some of the technical stuff and that allowed me to help out, too. I got to be the camera man for the camp introduction film (which involved an pig and corny one-liners); I was also able to help out with slide-show animation stuff.

As far as the social part, I got to meet new people and form better relationships. I also didn't stay in my room as much as last year. One afternoon my aunt, uncle and cousins came to visit from Mobile, AL (not far from Pensacola).

On the I-like-to-complain side of camp I was sunburned twice, our toilet overflowed on the first night and my room I stayed in was totally trashed to the point that one of the maids who tried to clean it wore a mask. Wow.

After a whole week of that stuff dad and I left on the last night and drove until we got home the next morning. Needless to say it was great to be back; plus everyone else who came back in the vans and buses got home six hours later than we did.

Even though normal life now has to start up again, I'm glad because I can now watch TV and eat waffles. Life is good. I think I'll end this entry with a few odd cheers from camp:

"O-K-R-A! Okra okra okra hey!"

"Hey hey hey! Whatcha got to say today! Hollywoood..."

"Umm umm - sounds like dumb. Instead of saying "Umm" just pause!"

I don't feel like setting aside a whole hour to do this, so I'll just sum up what's been going on this week.

My family and I spent our 4th-of-July weekend in Birmingham, AL. We set off one hundred dollars worth of fireworks and went to see "Holes".

I was fortunate enough to get the chance to be recorded playing the drums on a demo for one of my dad's more hard-rocking songs.

We got our old Macintosh computer out of the attic, made sure it worked, and passed it on to my good friend, Jared. It took us until the next morning to finally get the thing to connect to the internet. While we were working on that, I also kicked Jared's butt at some TimeSplitters 2 (and the other way around).

I got to play the Jimbe (an African-type drum) for last night's acoustic youth worship service at my church.

There's going to be plenty more going on during the summer, so I'll keep you filled in as soon as I post news. Peace in the middle-east.

Obviously I've been elsewhere for the past few weeks, so now I'll try to sum everything up in this entry.

Almost two Fridays ago, the first half our youth group finally set out for our mission trip to Prince Edward Island, Canada. We all had to meet at the airport at 4:30 (who the heck is awake at that time?), and after all of the "check-in" stuff, board the plane at 6:30. We traveled all day, once coming so close to New York City that I could see the Statue of Liberty! We also took a ferry and drove a lot, too. After finally getting to our accommodations at The University of Prince Edward Island, I hit the sack like every other night that week.

After waiting for another day, the second half of our youth group came in. After that we had to wake up at 5:45 every morning Canadian time (3:45 Tennessee time) and drive about forty minutes or so to the place where the group would be working. Our mission was to renovate the upper part of an old building into a youth hang out, get the local youth to come to it, and to rock a few miscellaneous venues such as a gazebo and a parking lot - yeah, it's cool to be in the band. Our group (minus myself at times) worked hard, taking down a stairway and re-building it, insulating and dry-walling, putting in electrical work, knocking out a few structures and building a stage.

As far as sight-seeing and events, we got to visit the house where the Anne of Green Gables book was inspired, and the movies were filmed. We also walked on a seriously long beach that added around two miles overall to my life's walking distance. I also got to try fresh lobster and one mussel for the first and last time; I'm including these food memories because I will block them out of my mind soon.

Overall, the week in PEI was great. I saw and tasted new things, found chances to say, "Eh?", made some friends, and hopefully didn't offend people. If you decide to visit in the future, be sure to try some of PEI's orange soda, made locally.

I don't remember much the first days after getting back. The Sunday after, our youth band and choir led morning worship along with the adult band and choir plus the children's choir. I also got to pass out communion (twice - once by mistake, and the other with my dad) for father's day.

A few days ago I bought some gummies, headphones and the game, Freedom Force (only $12 at Wal*Mart, but which has yet to work on my computer) - and with my own earned money. Just yesterday I also bought my own shoes (Vans Mavericks) for the first time. I also bought a shirt to go with it.

Well, amigos, that'll do for now. This is probably the longest entry on JW so far; you have to understand then when you ask me to post one (*cough* Kyle), it goes all the way.

Until the next entry, peace out, my trendy brethren.

I've decided to post another update. A little bird told me to.

Now that most kids are out of school for the summer, there is more opportunity to do things outside of sleeping in. I mowed the whole back yard on Tuesday; I even cut the edges, too. The weed eater shut down on me a few times. I guess I was too proud, because the weed eater shut down on me a few times. Dad humbled me by getting it started again. I finally finished and had some nice chicken for dinner.

That night dad and I drove to Murfreesboro to practice for this weekend's worship service at World Outreach Church. We had a good, long practice, and afterwards, we were nicely treated with Nutty Buddies (however you spell that crazy title)! I'm going to use the money I make to go towards my Canada mission fund. It's almost complete!

After my family had lunch with some old friends yesterday, I spent the afternoon at the church (not WOC) practicing new songs with the youth band for Canada. We debuted them last night during the youth worship service. Pretty good turn out, but after sitting on that darn drum throne all afternoon, my "backside" hurt for a while.

Sorry to my friend, Kyle. I attempted to "help" the guy hook up a DVD player over AOL Instant Messenger. It's about as simple a process as something that's not simple, simply.

Looks like I won't be bored very often this summer, with the trip to Canada, lawn work and DVD players to worry about. I wonder what else is in store.

Along with my youth group, I've been trying to raise money for our June mission trip to Canada. This has been going on for a while now, and the money wasn't quite coming in for some of us. We all had a meeting last Sunday morning at the church, and my youth pastor decided that we would just pray. Well, after getting in groups, we asked God that the money would be provided.

Yesterday morning, my mom came into my room after coming home from some friend's house with a $200 check for Bets and I! Thanks to that check, our mission funds for Canada are almost all raised! The LORD provides. Many thanks to everyone that has already been praying for me; it's obviously helped.

By the way, HarvillDesign is completed! The website is up and running, and it works as far as I've seen. I'll probably tweak the site a little before I really tell people about it. Otherwise, I'm happy with everything.

Also, I will be playing again at World Outreach Church this Saturday night and Sunday morning. Last time, I only played on Saturday night.

Hope you're all having a great summer break. I am!

I've completely re-done the intro above. Read it and tell me what you think.

Just got back from the mall. We had some truly scrumptious steak for dinner and hit the road right after. When we got there, we looked at the general stores, and then when Betsy wanted to look at shoes, I suggested to dad that we go to fye. It turns out when we get there that DVDs and CDs were 40% off, and electronics were 50% off! I can't remember the last time I found a deal like that.

The only problem with my situation was that I couldn't believe that all that stuff was so cheap; therefore I couldn't remember what I had wanted to buy. Also, people started piling in there and the pressure to find something was crazy! All I had was 40 bucks and a mind to snag something. It was on.

So dad and I keep looking around for probably an hour or more (and this is a fairly small store). It ended up that he got 2 DVDs and 3 CDs (all soundtracks for my mom) and I bought a CD and some CD-Rs. I'm pretty happy with what I got, but I wish that the sale could go on forever!

Enough about "the root of all evil". I'm going to be playing drums this Saturday night and Sunday morning at World Outreach Church in Murfreesboro. I've been listening to our rehearsal tape so I can learn some new songs. The band will also be playing a cool patriotic groove for memorial day. It should be a good set.

HarvillDesign is about to be finished. The layout was already done. After starting work on the content of the pages today, I've gotten it pretty much out of the way. HD isn't going to be a big website, but at least it will be up. I do need to pay for another month of hosting, though, to keep it up.

Well, I'm getting out of school for the summer tomorrow. I will probably be finishing up the last units after school is out. Who knows. 10th grade has been fun, though. Now that it's going to be over, I'm half way through high school. I need to start looking at colleges, but I think I'll be attending MTSU here in TN.

That should just about do it for this update. By the way, I will be adding more photos soon, so don't think of it as complete quite yet. Also, did you know that the Xbox and PlayStation 2 have been reduced to $180 each?

First off, I am sorry that I haven't updated the news lately. It's been over a week, and that kind of leaves you guys hanging. Adding news is like an appointment with your orthodontist - you've just got to do it.

Anyway, I've been doing a lot lately. Last Tuesday my family went to see my friend, Will's school presentation of Brian Wilson songs. I've never heard of that being done before, but it's a good idea. It was a great show, and I appreciate The Beach Boys' music.

Last Wednesday, dad took me to a studio with him so I could see how recording an album goes about. I've recorded in a studio before, but this was still a great experience. Plus, there was a stocked fridge, so I drank a lot of drinks and ate a lot of snacks.

My money fund for Canada is finally getting up there. Thanks for all your donations and prayers. I don't know my current amount, but my youth pastor says it's looking good. I'm glad because I only have until the end of the month to raise all of the money.

I'm learning new techniques in Web design - specifically, a thing called CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). CSS sets up the styles for everything on my website, and without it, you wouldn't recognize this page. Thanks to the style master, Eric Meyer, I'm getting new ideas for my work and for the future of Josh's Website.

By the way, If you're reading this update, I've hopefully also updated the Photos page with one photo to start. My friend, Kyle, told me that I needed to add something, so I made a little effort.

My tenth grade year is finally coming to a close at the end of this week. A lot has happened since it started last August. I've learned a lot (and forgot some of it), made new friends, turned sixteen, got my braces taken off, and hopefully matured a bit.

Well, dear friends, I think I'm going to do some school work now. Have a nice day, and don't spoil your dinner.

Howdy, friends. Just thought I'd add an entry before this day is over.

Often on Fridays, my friends and I get together and hang out, etc. Well yesterday (a Friday), we went to my friend, Kyle's house; he's got a drum set and a bass so we can all jam together. Well we played various songs (including a swing version of Crazy Train) and, since there were trumpet and saxophone players present, even some ska tunes. The bad part was that we were all sweating like crazy.

See, Kyle's house has apparently been without air conditioning for a week. It's a bad situation to be in - believe me; especially with a bunch of crazy kids playing music in one room. We went outside at one point and played tag-type games in the dark. It was much cooler outside which was crazy.

Well I eventually fell asleep on the couch after coming back inside. Unfortunately I woke up later with apple cider vinegar in my mouth. Dang it! This was not the first time that my friends had pulled something like this on me. I once fell asleep on a recliner at my friend, Will's house and woke up with some serious kind of hot sauce in my mouth. Words of wisdom: don't sleep with your mouth open.

Today we had another car wash to raise money for the youth group mission trip to Prince Edward Island, Canada. The cars just kept coming. We had around eighty or more cars come through and it brought in around seven hundred bucks overall. There were also free burgers, chips, and drinks for the people working. Even though I was exhausted and partially sunburned, that made the day.

I'm gonna sign off now, so have a nice rest-of-the-weekend, y'all.

Well, I'm back from Alabama. My grandfather had a great 65th birthday! I didn't tell you guys this before, but we visited as a surprise; he had no idea we were coming! Good or bad - I don't know. I do know that there was plenty of food to eat - and I enjoyed it.

My aunt also came as a surprise with her fiancée, and I finally got to meet him. He's a good guy, too. They wed in a few months.

We drove back in one heck of a storm yesterday. If you were watching the news last night, you might have heard about a tornado here in Tennesee. Apparently there was a sighting, but we were thankfully far enough away not to get hurt.

By the way, HarvillDesign is now online at www.harvilldesign.com. The website isn't quite up yet, but you can at least enjoy the cool-looking logo and send an e-mail to me.

I've been playing around with the website layout again. I seem to have a problem with being satisfied with these kinds of things. Though, this is my website, and I want to make it "chillin'" as I learn new stuff.

In other news...my friend, Jared told me that I should have a "shout-outs" page. That type of page is usually reserved to say a quick message to your friends (and to compliment the girls you like). If I did do that, I probably wouldn't call it "Shout Outs", though; also that whole thing isn't my style, anyway.

I'm in the stages of building HarvillDesign - my small business. Since I've got some jobs making websites for other people, I figured I better have my own. Of course, Josh's Website will remain my true home on the internet ;-).

By the way, I'm feeling much better now. It's a good thing, too, since we're driving to Alabama for my grandfather's birthday this weekend. That way I can run around on my grandma's beach with a rubber duckie.

And The Old News?

All past news additions have been moved to the news archive.