Thursday January 6, 2005, 5:45AM

Well, after I was finished scanning Chris, I found myself feeling positively ecstatic. The joy and pride of having done a successful scanning had left me feeling a sort of mental high. I was full of so much energy, it felt like, and I knew that after such a success I wanted to practice some more. So I decided to go back to the PsiPog chat and see if anyone was up some practice. A guy named LoneWolf wanted some people to practice with him, but he needed the PsiPog chat moderator’s permission. You see, he wanted to practice shielding with some people, but in order to do that, there was some risk involved. You see, if you practice shielding with somebody, one person has to shield themselves and the other has to attack the shield with psi balls. It’s a test of programming and strength on everybody’s part, and is actually a fun thing to do. However, it’s pretty much psychic combat, which is forbidden on the PsiPog chat, even if it is in good spirits without intention of harm. He talked to a mod, but they said that we’d have to practice elsewhere. We ended up getting on MSN (another instant messaging service) and practicing there. First, I signed onto MSN and started talking to Wolf, who explained the idea to me. He explained that it was slightly dangerous, naturally, because we were still attacking each other. However, we were to program our psi balls not to attack anything beyond the shield, to make them just attempt to shatter the shield. As long as the person under attack was responsible and told us when damage was done, everything would be fine. So, after all of that was taken care of, Wolf invited me to Tom and his conversation window. He warned me before doing so, however, that Tom had his doubts and was afraid of (or at least more aware and cautious about) the risk involved, although Wolf obviously convinced him to at least give it a try. When I’d joined the conversation, I let Tom know that I was most likely incapable of harming him, meaning that I would be unable to with my lack of strength in actual manipulating of psi. So, Wolf then established the rules. He told us that we had to make sure we spoke up if we got a headache, because it would most likely be caused by a shield collapse and the attacker had to know to stop. So, after e decided to stick with the basic bubble shield, it was time to get on with the show. I turned off my music and closed my eyes, picturing Wolf standing about half a football field’s length away from me. I then created a metallic psi ball, as if it were solid steel, and pictured it just growing denser and denser, building up more and more pressure behind it, until I finally thought it was ready and “let it go.” It was like snapping a ball from the cup of a slingshot. I released the psi ball and it shot forward (zinged forward was the phrase that came to mind at the moment), heading straight for Wolf. It crashed into his shield, so I quickly created another one and shot that one, building up speed until I was firing in rather rapid succession. Honestly, these psi balls looked as though they were traveling mach speed. I’m not very accomplished with psi balls, so I didn’t waste my efforts trying to program my psi ball to do some complex destroying thing-only to crash into Wolf’s shield as hard as fast as possible in order to break his shield. I did this for somewhere between 30-60 seconds before Wolf informed me that I had put a hold in his shield giving him a 3 second stomach cramp. I was so amazed, it was unbelievable. I felt so happy, I couldn’t believe that I’d actually done it. But I had, which was the point, even though his shield didn’t collapse. Anyway, I had to go soon because my mom was going to be getting up around 5:30, and she doesn’t necessarily approve of me being awake that early. So, I took my turn shielding next. I visualized myself putting psi up in a bubble around me, like one of those plastic bubbles. The kind where you squeeze a small ball of plastic out of the tube and then blow it into a bubble with the straw. Well, I did it like that, starting off with a full ball of psi around my abs and chest and expanding it until it covered me but was hollow. Then I reinforced it by visualizing it becoming more solid, thickening and hardening. When I was done this, I let Wolf know I was ready. He started sending, and after about 2 minutes he asked me whether anything had happened. Throughout the 2 minutes, a certain kind of pressure grew in my head, causing me to feel some vague dizziness. But it was really vague, impossible to detect if I hadn’t been keeping my senses open for any signs of accomplishment. I couldn’t tell if my shield had been damaged or anything, mostly because I need a lot of practice with my shields because I really can’t feel the psi. Tom scanned me, however, and said that it looked normal, but up close it looked different. He didn’t know how to describe it, but I think I know what he meant, You see, Tom programmed his psi ball to make a hole in my shield and then weave in and out of it to make it unstable. He probably never fully made a hole in it, but the psi ball attempted to weave in and out of my shield anyway, either forcefully bumping into it a lot of something else, in the end weakening it but not causing much damage. Anyway, we had a quick chat about psionics, and then we decided to give it another try. Since I only had a few minutes left, we decided that it was okay for me to take the turn. I was going to send and Tom was going to shield. He built up his shield and told me he was ready, then I began sending. I decided that this time I’d try something new, just to see how it would work. Instead of making my psi balls metallic, I made them the same type of molten metal that I usually do. I imagined zinging them into Tom’s shield and having them splat onto it, melting it down and eating away at it, causing it to collapse. Unfortunately, after all of the practicing I had been doing, I was tired and had trouble holding onto the image. My concentration kept slipping, so after sending one psi ball, I stopped. He didn’t feel anything, so it didn’t work, although I wasn’t surprised. Halfway through my sending, my mom’s alarm started going off, which was quite the distraction. I then said goodbye to everybody and left, heading upstairs to my room where I am now writing this. I think I’m going to take an hour nap or something, so I have some rest before school.