Brice’s Blog

” Life is like a box of chocolate, you never know whatcha gonna get.” Forrest Gump

Ralph the mouse lives and plays in the walls of a hotel, but his mother does not let him go around the hotel. When John comes along, things change. He sees one of John’s toy motorcycles on a table, and decides to ride. What he doesn’t know is that when he makes the vehicle’s noise the cycle starts to move, and it falls into a waste basket. Once John saves Ralph they become great friends, and every night, Ralph got to ride around the hotel and then returns it under John’s bead.

Ralph on his journeys has to deal with vacuums, pest killers, dogs, owls, and guests of the hotel. Ralph looses the motorcycle when it gets sucked up into the maid’s vacuum. John later on in the story becomes very ill of the flu and, Ralph knows he must repay him for losing his motorcycle, so he decides to drive John’s toy ambulance all over the hotel to find an aspirin. Once John is about to leave the hotel he gives Ralph a new motorcycle!

This book is about friendship, and bravery and I would recommend it to readers of all ages.    

The referee gave the signal that we had two minutes to find a hiding spot. I and my three chosen body guards walked out onto the field not knowing what to expect. Holding my Spyder MR1, cocked with the safety off, I was ready to go, or so I thought. Butterflies in my stomach since this was the first time I played president.                 Moments before I was sitting at my picnic table with my friends Shane, and Josh waiting for the next round of paintball, filling my hopper and pods, when one of the refs came over with an orange vest, when he put he put it on the boy sitting at the other table, which meant he was now president. The object of president is to pick three body guards to defend you at any means necessary. Next you would have two minutes to go into the woods and hide from the rest of the paintballers                      without hesitation the boy threw off the vest and wanted no part of being president. Sure, the point of the game was for the president to be the target of everyone else, but like all stupid people I go over and put the vest on myself. Oh yea I wasn’t afraid of anything, or so I thought.                                                                          As we walked through the woods two of my body guards split up from our regular pack, which I knew was a bad decision, but didn’t say anything. We kept walking about a mile until we were about at the edge of the forest, or so it felt like that far. Sweat was rolling down my face, opening my face mask so that air could sweep underneath and cool me off from the blazing 80 degree sun. Once we reached the spot I had to get almost as small as a mouse to fit in this spot between these two barrels, but I must admit it felt pretty safe, as my body guard squatted down in front of me tell me the plan, as the very first gunshots go off in the distance. The sound kept creeping up behind us and we knew we had to move. I got on my stomach and started to crawl trying not to reveal my florescent orange vest. Standing still at times to check for anyone at rear, as the body guard checked the front. When we made to the bridge I looked over the brush and briars and saw that the coast was clear. The body guard waited for the signal and told me when to make a run for the other side of the bridge. When he gave it I made a break for it as paintballs flew past my head as I jumped into the closest bunker.                                       The clicking of paintballs on the wooden walls was the only sound I heard, looking out the window seeing about ten head standing around me shooting with all force. I knew I should have thought twice before picking up that vest. The moment my body guards were gunned down I knew that was the beginning of the end for me. Through every window I blind shot at everything that moved, until I ran out of ammo. The game was over as I raised my gun and walked off the field. I may not have won but I felt very proud that I was brave enough to take the position of president.

Brice Ingram

Jared, Simon, and Mallory Grace are three different kids who discover a dumbwaiter that leads to a secret room in the Spider wick estate. During their adventure Jared discovers in the secret room a riddle, which leads him to a Field guide in the attic.          In the field guide Jared discovers what was playing tricks on his sister, Mallory, who had her hair tied up on the head board of he bed, and his brother, Simon, who had his tadpoles were frozen in the ice box. Because of Jared fighting at school, he was blamed for this. He knew he had to redeem himself.          He read, and read every night until he found the answer to his problems. He exposed that when the Grace children found the dumbwaiter, they did not realize that they had destroyed the fairy’s house, which was a nest filled with different types of objects.          The Graces all head upstairs to the secret room and all of them decide to put together a house for the Fairy.

In this episode the students of South Park Elementary visit Pioneer Village. Each of the students was paired up into partners, Kenny and Clyde, Kyle and Jimmy, Stan and Wendy, and Cartman and Butters. As the people of Pioneer Village were telling the students about 1864, Cartman decided instead of sticking around, he was going to Super Phun Thyme; Butters who refused to let go of Cartman’s hand until they got back on the bus decided to come as well. As they were at Super Fhun Thyme what they did not know was pioneer village being used as a hide out for people who robbed a Burger King. The Staff of Pioneer village would not break character; students did not know how to get outside help because the villagers refusing to tell them about any exits, or phones.          The police finally came and when Butters and Cartman were heading back to the village they thought the police came because they left, so they had to find a way to get back to the park. Meanwhile back at the village the police stormed in and arrested the robbers; just in time for Butters and Cartman to get back to the village.          When the clock struck 5:00 and the village closed all the towns people broke their character and told them how to dial out, and where the emergency exit is.                               

The book that I read talks about different types of rats, how they live, and where they originate. For instance people mistake rats for being dirty mammals but really they are not. They get up every morning and clean their selves with their tongues. Face, claws, and all.          People ask, “How can a rat get into your home?” Well it’s simpler then it looks. Rats can collapse their bodies to fit into spaces the size of a quarter. They can also walk on telephone wires like circus performers, using their tails like people use poles to balance their selves up top the wire.          Rats have a very keen sense of memory to move about buildings walls in the pitch black dark, never missing a step.          Some rats storm away to sea with sailors, yea that’s right. Rats have a keen 6^th sense that humans do not; they have the ability to notice whether or not something is wrong with the ship, or if something will happen. Sailors do not mind there visitations for if the rats notice them scurrying off the side of the boat, sailors will sometimes refuse to aboard. You ask what happens to the rats after they jump off the rats can swim up to 2 miles using their tale as a type of paddle.This was a great book that I read; it had so much information about rats and the way they live. I have a totally new prospective on rats after I read this book.

For 7 years I’ve been striving for that one thing, that one thing that I love to do and that is to race. Since that Saturday night in 2001 my dad took me to see my very first go kart race. I can still remember driving that old blue Chevy truck riding down the pits, holding my ears from the loud 2-horse Briggs, which would soon be music to my ears. I would watch them go around and around the track loving what I was seeing. When it was all said and done and we were all packed up my dad said to me the words that would change my life, “Would you like to race one of these?” Without hesitation I said yes, and that was the start of my racing career.A few weeks later we came back to the track with a new pee wee go kart, white body, phantom chassis, taking the number that my uncle sported on his Micro Sprint in the 90’s, the number 28. At 7 years old I did not know what to expect. Sitting there on the grid, my legs were shaking, my stomach with butterflies, but still anxious to get my chance. Finally the flagman waved us onto the track, all my nervousness blew away. As we rode off into turn three as we paced to the starting line. The green flag waved and I was on my way, passing everyone in my site. Every lap flew by one after another, finishing in the top five. The following weeks were also a great success taking every checkered in the process. I felt like I was on top of the world. The year ended with me winning the championship. I knew I could be the best, I was determined to do just that.The winter flew by in an instance and I was ready to go in 2002. Still racing in Pee Wee, skipping around a few new tracks such as, Fairlane Acres, and Mardella I would not win the championship that year, but would win 9 races. That same year at Mardella I was going for the best race of that time, it was a 15 lapper with a bicycle on the line. I started the race in the 3^rd position, running through the laps, moving from top to bottom looking for the best line, passing cars anyway necessary, until I was at the front of the pack. With the checkered in my site I could just see the bike in my eyes, coming off of turn four the last lap I got loose and spun out. I was so upset with myself, kicking my butt the rest of the night. My dad said you will have your good nights and you will have your bad, this was just one of those nights. Only winning a lousy RC car, I learned from what my dad said.The next year was not as most expected, it was a new class, Jr. 1. It seemed like a lot more car then Pee Wee. Week after week we ran in the back of the pack, finishing only 5^th in points, and struggling. It wasn’t me that was the problem it was the car that wasn’t running up to performance, so we bought a brand new 2004 Shadow chassis, and moved to new track, Fairlane Acres.It was smooth sailing in 2004 where we were leading the points for most of the first half of the year. I thought we finally found the solution to our struggles, when the motor started to run wrong. My popup who had built my engines since I started to race, refused to believe that it was the motor missing. The next few weeks we ran in the back and lost the lead to Robbie Emory. We finally dropped Russ Racing Engines, and went to and bought a brand new one from Radical Racing in Florida. At the end of the year it came down to a fifteen point interval between Robbie and me. The final race was hear and I took the lead early off with Robbie in third, I took the checkered and won my second championship.2005, I was sure to come out in a big bang, I one the first race, but later that year the tech man left to go to a new track, so it was pretty much who the best cheater was. We moved from track to track finding the right place to race, but never found it, so we took off the rest of the year.Just a little ways down the road from home was little, old, Club Milton Speedway. We knew about it but never tried it. Already missing a few weeks of racing there we decided to head down, and check it out. The first few races there were a lot of competition, including points leader Lauren Knowles who had won 6 races in a row. Week 9 I wasn’t going to stand for any more 2^nd places, so when the green flag waved we headed into turn 1 with a lot of momentum, Lauren and me fighting lap by lap, swapping paint, back and forth. With three laps to go I was in the lead, coming off of turn four I went in a little to hard and slipped up for her to take advantage. Side by Side I turned left and pushed her out of the way and went on to take the checkered, and 50$ for her bounty. Later that year they inverted the 16 year olds in Jr. 2 into Jr. 3, and one of them was Lauren, leading the points I went on to take my 3^rd championship.I felt like I was ready to take on bigger and better things, so I moved up to Mod-Lites a 600cc Suzuki motor cycle engine, able to get up to 80mph on the straight-aways. We started the year off struggling running in the middle of the pack. We later on through the season got help from some of the other teams, including Paige. By the time we were up and steady it was late in the year we knew we had enough for the other drivers, and I had enough confidence to win. I rolled off the grid in the third position, ready to go. As the laps wined down with about ten to go I swept under leader Clint as he drove up the race track, I took advantage of it and took the lead. It was so nerve racking, but still with a smile on my face, the caution came out for a spin out in turn three. Pacing on the track I heard a very loud ticking noise, one of my headers broke, but I could still go on. With a couple of laps to go, the green flag waved and I was sure I had it rapped up. Going into turn one the unthinkable happened, my spindle broke, and I rolled off the track. More upset then ever I got my stuff together and remembered what my dad had said. I walked off the track with my head held high, and said to myself I will get them next week.For seven years I have been racing, in the prime of my career, still in the Mod-Lites. Clicking off top 5’s every week. I know that day will come when I get my picture taken in victory lane. With 50 wins, and 3 championships, yea, you could say this was my greatest accomplishment.