As I was meandering on over to Andrew's blog, I realized I haven't been writing much lately either. It's already July 10th. How is that possible? Dang it. That means summer is winding down way too fast. I have 41 days of summer left. That's not a whole lot in the grand scheme of summer.
I feel like in terms of productivity this has been a decent summer. So in terms of typical summers, quite well. I of course could be practicing more, or reading more books, or exercising (a lot) more, but overall I have got some stuff done. I've enjoyed myself mostly. Relaxed quite a bit. Hung out quite a bit. Not worried about money too much. It's pretty much how I think summer should be before I start college. I don't really want to be working too hard right now and wear myself out before stuff even really starts. Instead, it's all about doing stuff moderately. Not having too many plans. Being with old friends. Being alone every once in a while. Being classic. I don't know.
It's just summertime, and it's quiet right now. That's about all I have. I'm almost ready for Tacoma, full time.
Recent Readings:
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Recent Watchings:
Pulp Fiction
The Waking Life
(Part of) This Is Spinal Tap
Recent Listenings:
Frances the Mute by The Mars Volta
The Alchemy Index Volume IV: Earth by Thrice
Mmhmm by Relient K
The Bends by Radiohead
The Beautiful Letdown by Switchfoot
Old Crows/Young Cardinals by Alexisonfire
The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus by The Rolling Stones and Friends
Try! by John Mayer Trio
Friday, July 10, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Sweet Lady Liberty, you are the lost, though you are free (B144)
One thing I hate is my inability to complete halfway finished blogs. It is pretty rare that this happens, but it does go down from time to time. The other day I was definitely pumping out a blog about my day, but then I got tired and decided to finish it the next day. Never happened. Luckily, Andrew wrote a blog about basically the same thing (minus the rest of the day for me), so you guys can get the picture over there if you really desire to.
As people get older their tastes seem to change for a while and then sort of stop. That's my experience at least. Like my music taste from 8th grade to 10th grade was so shockingly different. And now it's different from 10th grade, but probably not as much of a change. It's kind of the same with musical equipment. I just bought this sweet Allegra snare drum, and I was telling my teacher about it and then we just started talking about gear. "Don't go too crazy right now. Your ears will change, and stuff you like right now you might not like in a few years." That was his advice. I guess it makes sense.
However, once people hit a certain age, they stop really changing what they are into. I mean someone might get into a new band or something like that, but the things that they find enjoyable don't really drastically change. No one spends their whole life liking Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd and then decides at age 52 that those bands really aren't that sweet. Similarly, no one hates the Beatles until age 52 and then decides they actually like them. It's really the same with other stuff too, music is just the best example I can think of.
My blogging tastes are changing. This used to be so random and disconnected. I have some purpose these days. I must be maturing or something.
Recent Watchings:
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Recent Readings:
Lord of the Flies by William Golding (still)
1st Corinthians by Paul (finished)
Jonah by ...unknown?
Recent Listenings:
Old Crows/Young Cardinals by Alexisonfire
Agaetis Byrjun by Sigur Ros
Kid A by Radiohead
As people get older their tastes seem to change for a while and then sort of stop. That's my experience at least. Like my music taste from 8th grade to 10th grade was so shockingly different. And now it's different from 10th grade, but probably not as much of a change. It's kind of the same with musical equipment. I just bought this sweet Allegra snare drum, and I was telling my teacher about it and then we just started talking about gear. "Don't go too crazy right now. Your ears will change, and stuff you like right now you might not like in a few years." That was his advice. I guess it makes sense.
However, once people hit a certain age, they stop really changing what they are into. I mean someone might get into a new band or something like that, but the things that they find enjoyable don't really drastically change. No one spends their whole life liking Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd and then decides at age 52 that those bands really aren't that sweet. Similarly, no one hates the Beatles until age 52 and then decides they actually like them. It's really the same with other stuff too, music is just the best example I can think of.
My blogging tastes are changing. This used to be so random and disconnected. I have some purpose these days. I must be maturing or something.
Recent Watchings:
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Recent Readings:
Lord of the Flies by William Golding (still)
1st Corinthians by Paul (finished)
Jonah by ...unknown?
Recent Listenings:
Old Crows/Young Cardinals by Alexisonfire
Agaetis Byrjun by Sigur Ros
Kid A by Radiohead
Friday, June 26, 2009
I know you know, that I am cold (B143)
I don't really know what my future holds, but I do have some back up plans career wise in case music fails for me. Here is my career possibilities list:
1. Musician
2. Writing
3. Politics/Law
4. Working with animals
That last one usually gets people when I tell them. "Cool... wait, did you just say animals? Why? Are you being serious?" Yes. I am being serious. The thing is, I just like animals, that's all. They are fun. But still, it's pretty unlikely. There's all that other stuff above it after all.
The thing about all of the things on my list is that they are pretty open ended. Writing could be all types of things. I don't think it would be books though. More like for a newspaper or magazine or something like that. The ideal writing job for me would be some sort of critic. Just watching movies, reading books, listening to music and writing about why they suck or don't suck. It would be such a sweet job. It's pretty tempting to pursue actually. We'll see.
Summer is the best time for doing all of those things. Reading, watching movies, and listening to music that is. Right now I'm getting down with Lord of the Flies. It's pretty wild. Kind of. Savage really.
Time to practice, but first...
Recent Watchings:
The Godfather Part I
Snatch
Recent Readings:
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
1st Corinthians by Paul
Recent Listenings:
Happiness by Dance Gavin Dance
Kid A by Radiohead
Sun Giant EP by Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes
The Everglow by Mae
Frances the Mute by The Mars Volta
Never Take Friendship Personal by Anberlin
...and the Battle Begun by RX Bandits
Old Crows/Young Cardinals by Alexisonfire
De-loused in the Comatorium by The Mars Volta
1. Musician
2. Writing
3. Politics/Law
4. Working with animals
That last one usually gets people when I tell them. "Cool... wait, did you just say animals? Why? Are you being serious?" Yes. I am being serious. The thing is, I just like animals, that's all. They are fun. But still, it's pretty unlikely. There's all that other stuff above it after all.
The thing about all of the things on my list is that they are pretty open ended. Writing could be all types of things. I don't think it would be books though. More like for a newspaper or magazine or something like that. The ideal writing job for me would be some sort of critic. Just watching movies, reading books, listening to music and writing about why they suck or don't suck. It would be such a sweet job. It's pretty tempting to pursue actually. We'll see.
Summer is the best time for doing all of those things. Reading, watching movies, and listening to music that is. Right now I'm getting down with Lord of the Flies. It's pretty wild. Kind of. Savage really.
Time to practice, but first...
Recent Watchings:
The Godfather Part I
Snatch
Recent Readings:
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
1st Corinthians by Paul
Recent Listenings:
Happiness by Dance Gavin Dance
Kid A by Radiohead
Sun Giant EP by Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes
The Everglow by Mae
Frances the Mute by The Mars Volta
Never Take Friendship Personal by Anberlin
...and the Battle Begun by RX Bandits
Old Crows/Young Cardinals by Alexisonfire
De-loused in the Comatorium by The Mars Volta
Monday, June 15, 2009
Oh, she's only seventeen (B142)
We're still the greatest. The greatest...
So here is my awesome story about sucking hardcore. My Dad sends me a text at some point when I'm in church tonight. I don't get it until I'm leaving and I turn on my phone. It basically says: "Hey I'm going to bed at about 9 15 tonight. Turn alarm on when you get home. Lock the side door, you have left it unlocked a couple times this week." That's the gist of the text. I respond with the classic "I don't know how to turn the alarm on." Oh wait, it's already 9:23. He is asleep. Dang it.
I get home around midnight. I come in through the side door. Keep in mind usually my dad turns on the alarm when he goes to bed, thus explaining why I never turn it on. Also this means the alarm "goes off" when I come in. This happens in the form of an annoying "Beeeeeeeep" as soon as the door opens until I type in the code to turn it off. However, tonight, my dad for whatever reason decided to not turn it on, also explaining why he asked me to turn it on.
Anyway, I come in, and decide I should try to figure out how to turn it on. There are several buttons, blah blah blah. I see a button that says "On." Duh. How much easier can it get? I press the On button. 80 seconds countdown starts. That's fine. I remember that it does that when you set it so that you can close the door, get in your car, go to work, whatever. We're set. How much easier could it be? Now I am a little embarrassed that I texted my dad saying I didn't know how to turn it on. Any dummy could do it.
Eighty seconds later all hell breaks loose. The reason why two paragraphs ago I said the alarm "goes off" in quotes is because I found out what it really sounds like when it Goes Off. Sirens baby. Freaking loud sirens blaring through the entire house. Not an annoying "Beeeep." "WheeeeoWheeeoowheeee!!!" is basically what is now happening. I have no idea what to do. I run upstairs where my dad is standing at the upstairs keypad for the alarm. He quickly turns it off. Here is our convo:
Me: "I just pressed "On." That's it. Just "On."
Dad: "You didn't turn the motion detectors off?"
Me: "No..."
Dad: "So as soon as it saw you move, it went off."
Me: "Sorry..."
Dad: "It's okay. You have to hit "Motion Off" and then type the code in."
Me: "Okay"
Moral of the story; I now know how to turn the alarm on.
So here is my awesome story about sucking hardcore. My Dad sends me a text at some point when I'm in church tonight. I don't get it until I'm leaving and I turn on my phone. It basically says: "Hey I'm going to bed at about 9 15 tonight. Turn alarm on when you get home. Lock the side door, you have left it unlocked a couple times this week." That's the gist of the text. I respond with the classic "I don't know how to turn the alarm on." Oh wait, it's already 9:23. He is asleep. Dang it.
I get home around midnight. I come in through the side door. Keep in mind usually my dad turns on the alarm when he goes to bed, thus explaining why I never turn it on. Also this means the alarm "goes off" when I come in. This happens in the form of an annoying "Beeeeeeeep" as soon as the door opens until I type in the code to turn it off. However, tonight, my dad for whatever reason decided to not turn it on, also explaining why he asked me to turn it on.
Anyway, I come in, and decide I should try to figure out how to turn it on. There are several buttons, blah blah blah. I see a button that says "On." Duh. How much easier can it get? I press the On button. 80 seconds countdown starts. That's fine. I remember that it does that when you set it so that you can close the door, get in your car, go to work, whatever. We're set. How much easier could it be? Now I am a little embarrassed that I texted my dad saying I didn't know how to turn it on. Any dummy could do it.
Eighty seconds later all hell breaks loose. The reason why two paragraphs ago I said the alarm "goes off" in quotes is because I found out what it really sounds like when it Goes Off. Sirens baby. Freaking loud sirens blaring through the entire house. Not an annoying "Beeeep." "WheeeeoWheeeoowheeee!!!" is basically what is now happening. I have no idea what to do. I run upstairs where my dad is standing at the upstairs keypad for the alarm. He quickly turns it off. Here is our convo:
Me: "I just pressed "On." That's it. Just "On."
Dad: "You didn't turn the motion detectors off?"
Me: "No..."
Dad: "So as soon as it saw you move, it went off."
Me: "Sorry..."
Dad: "It's okay. You have to hit "Motion Off" and then type the code in."
Me: "Okay"
Moral of the story; I now know how to turn the alarm on.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Drum Major Blues Part 2 (B141)
If you are reading this you are probably either someone who regularly reads my blog or you are a band nerd. Am I right? That's what I thought.
In the past few years I have pumped out a good number of blogs. But Chris really pumped them out man. Way more hardcore than anyone else. It was a good seen. A couple times I have actually gone back and looked at his old posts. Not all of them, but just randomly a few. It helps provoke good memories and stuff. Makes you reconsider aspects of life that need to be reconsidered. During this little voyage to the past I remembered Chris and I having this sweet conversation about drum majoring, and then him writing a blog about it.
I would really like to post a link to the contents of that blog, but I can't really do that considering the current circumstance in blogging. However, I do have a particular excerpt worth sharing:
"Now picture this. You have a person standing. And all they are doing is big circles with their tounges. Every third circle they do they make an X shape. And after making three X's with their tounge they start to spell their name in the air with it. They finish off by Air-drawing a picture of their mom with their tounge. ....And you're suposed to know where the beat is in that."
How many of you tried to do this with your tongue as you read it? Yeah, me too.
Here's the point though; drum majors all inevitably suck at conducting. And during pep band and marching band and whatever else, the drum captain is honestly not going to pay attention to the drum major. This problem was especially prevalent this year. Randall and Brittany Pursinger don't really do tempo. Shauna didn't actually come.
Chris was pretty nice about this whole scene and kind of didn't say anything until afterwards. I was really honest. "Hey drum majors, you suck at setting the tempo. I'm not even going to pay attention to what you are doing. I probably know better. No wait, I definitely do." I'm such a jerk.
If I had to rank all the drum majors I ever had, it would look like this.
1. Fifi
2. Everyone else is not as good as Fifi
That's all I have. I'll end with another excerpt from Chris' drum major blog:
"A friend of mine brought up an interesting idea. Why not have the most inexpirienced band kids be drum major. Since all that matters is the count offs...just have them spend a bunch of time working on counting off then they will be ready to drum major. Who cares if they can't flap in time or with each other? See...the benifit in this is the drum major section wouldn't suffer...but we could get the more expirienced musicians playing their instrument and helping out the band."
(I am the friend)
In the past few years I have pumped out a good number of blogs. But Chris really pumped them out man. Way more hardcore than anyone else. It was a good seen. A couple times I have actually gone back and looked at his old posts. Not all of them, but just randomly a few. It helps provoke good memories and stuff. Makes you reconsider aspects of life that need to be reconsidered. During this little voyage to the past I remembered Chris and I having this sweet conversation about drum majoring, and then him writing a blog about it.
I would really like to post a link to the contents of that blog, but I can't really do that considering the current circumstance in blogging. However, I do have a particular excerpt worth sharing:
"Now picture this. You have a person standing. And all they are doing is big circles with their tounges. Every third circle they do they make an X shape. And after making three X's with their tounge they start to spell their name in the air with it. They finish off by Air-drawing a picture of their mom with their tounge. ....And you're suposed to know where the beat is in that."
How many of you tried to do this with your tongue as you read it? Yeah, me too.
Here's the point though; drum majors all inevitably suck at conducting. And during pep band and marching band and whatever else, the drum captain is honestly not going to pay attention to the drum major. This problem was especially prevalent this year. Randall and Brittany Pursinger don't really do tempo. Shauna didn't actually come.
Chris was pretty nice about this whole scene and kind of didn't say anything until afterwards. I was really honest. "Hey drum majors, you suck at setting the tempo. I'm not even going to pay attention to what you are doing. I probably know better. No wait, I definitely do." I'm such a jerk.
If I had to rank all the drum majors I ever had, it would look like this.
1. Fifi
2. Everyone else is not as good as Fifi
That's all I have. I'll end with another excerpt from Chris' drum major blog:
"A friend of mine brought up an interesting idea. Why not have the most inexpirienced band kids be drum major. Since all that matters is the count offs...just have them spend a bunch of time working on counting off then they will be ready to drum major. Who cares if they can't flap in time or with each other? See...the benifit in this is the drum major section wouldn't suffer...but we could get the more expirienced musicians playing their instrument and helping out the band."
(I am the friend)
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Victory/Fred/Murray? (B140)
I watched Fight Club for the first time like two years ago. I was wowed. It's a crazy movie. So of course when I found out there was going to be another movie based on a Chuck Palahniuk book, I figured it was going to be sweet. I finally got around to watching it last night. It's called "Choke" if you don't know. It was terrible. Here's why:
1) The acting wasn't really very good. They all looked and acted like B movie actors.
2) The way they filmed it was bad. It looked like a made for TV movie from the late 90s or something.
3) The dialogue just wasn't that funny; is that the fault of the book or the people who adapted it? Probably the people who adapted it.
4) The story was sort of hard to follow. I looked it up on Wikipedia afterward and I definitely missed some key points.
Oh well. Just another night wasted on a bad movie. That I rented. With my own money. At least I didn't pay 8 dollars at the movie theater...
Which brings me to the goals of summer. Here are the general ones:
-Read a lot of books
-Practice a lot
-Make some money
-Spend some money
-See my friends (and family) a lot before college
-Become a better person
That last one is open to some interpretation. What can I say? Time for more House of Leaves.
1) The acting wasn't really very good. They all looked and acted like B movie actors.
2) The way they filmed it was bad. It looked like a made for TV movie from the late 90s or something.
3) The dialogue just wasn't that funny; is that the fault of the book or the people who adapted it? Probably the people who adapted it.
4) The story was sort of hard to follow. I looked it up on Wikipedia afterward and I definitely missed some key points.
Oh well. Just another night wasted on a bad movie. That I rented. With my own money. At least I didn't pay 8 dollars at the movie theater...
Which brings me to the goals of summer. Here are the general ones:
-Read a lot of books
-Practice a lot
-Make some money
-Spend some money
-See my friends (and family) a lot before college
-Become a better person
That last one is open to some interpretation. What can I say? Time for more House of Leaves.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Exoskeleton... blah blah blah (B139)
I am officially on the search for a laptop, aka a lappy. I am going for the PC. Most of my friends are into the Mac scene, but it's just not for me. The advantages of the PC outweigh the advantages of the Mac in my book. I know, I'm not all hip. But I am going to get a solid computer for a lot less money.
I love seasons of music. Everyone goes through seasons. And I don't mean like genre seasons. Well maybe for some people, but not me. Here's what I mean; there are only like a couple bands that I pretty much am always listening to. Radiohead definitely. Kind of Thrice. Kind of Emery? I don't know. But then I cycle through everyone else. It's so good. And it's not like it's a set cycle or anything. I just realize it's been four months since I listened to whatever, and then I slam it on again. Sometimes for an evening. Sometimes for the day. Sometimes for the week. It's so prime. Tonight Britt and I went to Coffee Time and they were playing De-loused in the Comatorium. I was like "Wow, I totally forgot about how great this album is." Guess what I am listening to now? Yeah, that's right.
I have three goals for tomorrow:
1. Pick up Marimba from RMS.
2. Practice for like 3 hours.
3. Go to the dentist.
4. Read a bunch more of House of Leaves.
Okay I lied, it was actually four goals. I don't know what I was thinking.
I love summer. I like life a lot right now. Wow. It's weird for me to say things like that in a public forum. Feel special everyone.
I love seasons of music. Everyone goes through seasons. And I don't mean like genre seasons. Well maybe for some people, but not me. Here's what I mean; there are only like a couple bands that I pretty much am always listening to. Radiohead definitely. Kind of Thrice. Kind of Emery? I don't know. But then I cycle through everyone else. It's so good. And it's not like it's a set cycle or anything. I just realize it's been four months since I listened to whatever, and then I slam it on again. Sometimes for an evening. Sometimes for the day. Sometimes for the week. It's so prime. Tonight Britt and I went to Coffee Time and they were playing De-loused in the Comatorium. I was like "Wow, I totally forgot about how great this album is." Guess what I am listening to now? Yeah, that's right.
I have three goals for tomorrow:
1. Pick up Marimba from RMS.
2. Practice for like 3 hours.
3. Go to the dentist.
4. Read a bunch more of House of Leaves.
Okay I lied, it was actually four goals. I don't know what I was thinking.
I love summer. I like life a lot right now. Wow. It's weird for me to say things like that in a public forum. Feel special everyone.
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