Hitting the Big Time

As a few of you know, myself, David, and Erin were featured in a segment on AV3 Thursday night. That's right folks...I was on the Channel 3 News. Yep, I'm just about a celebrity along with Mitchell Chase, "'You found a friend' Bob Montague", and the few other poor souls at Channel 3.

The segment looked like something similar to a home movie with the cut off heads and such, but, hey, it was local news. I wasn't clean-cut this time, but good 'ol Bob called us "prodigies," so that’ll suffice, I guess. It gave you that hokey small town wanabe news feeling, at which AV3 never seems to let you down. It was still nice, nonetheless.

My 16th birthday was on Wednesday. Off into that great stereotypical age. Some of this years highlights include: grow-a-geek, a Bob's Big Boy bank, socks, and cold hard cash.

Not too much else new in my world. Why does it seem that Florida and Texas are always doing the weirdest things? Florida wants to make it so Dogs can eat in restaurants. Wha???

And in Texas, we of course have our weekly occurrence of the school principal firing a bullet through the wall in his office. Wonderful.

A good AP copy editor always know to make their headlines short, concise and to the point. That's one of the better ones in a while.

That's about it for now...Band/Orchestra festival is later this week. Hopefully we pick out what we're playing soon.

`C

All State

All State was an awesome experience. It was a load of fun, and I had a great time. Not only was just the band great and some of the players phenomenal, but the entire experience was incredible. For those of you who are more visual, here's a few pics (there's more to come).

Seeing as my audition for band and seat didn't go that well (actually I screwed it up pretty bad), I made 2nd part in the Concert Band. I was still very pleased, after all, regardless of the band, this was All State.

16 Hours of rehearsal was a lot, but it all paid off in the end. It was amazing how talented and responsive some of the players were. Even though our conductor wasn't the nicest guy in the world, it was all good.

What made the experience real nice was that it was more than just one big long rehearsal. There were tons of other activities, like the CBDA Expo, colleges galore, and some great concerts. On Friday night we got to see the Boston Brass...they were absolutely incredible. All of this not to mention some of the great, talented people I had the chance to meet.

I had a blast at All State...and was dead tired on Sunday. Hopefully, with some luck, myself and a few other QHHSers will make it next year. Best of all, I didn’t get hurt of killed by all the Asians!

Here are some of the pics I do have, and I'll try to get some audio up as soon as I can.

Ready or Not...

All State, here I come.

See all of you when I get back on Tuesday.

`C

3 Days Away...

Only three days until I leave for Fresno. I think that I'm just about as ready as I'll ever be. The only thing that might hurt me is the sight reading, even though I've been trying to prep with that evil orange book by that poor man named Klosé. I'm kind of nervous/excited about the whole thing, and hopefully I won't get too roused by the mass infestation of Asians.

What is this world coming to? I mean, really, our own Vice-President shoots a guy. Honestly, I know the Cheney is ignorant, but to "accidentally" shoot somebody? Did his buddy look anything like a duck?

This is pretty hilarious. It's the second installment of Leno's "free" photo both. Definitely worth a click.

I always want to follow the Olympics, but never have time to watch them. NBC's Olympic site is great this year. You can just glance at it for results, or watch the previous day's events online.

Welp, tomorrow is the infamous "2/14." Let's hope the safest day of the year tomorrow is also the most entertaining.

Clean-cut???

If anybody even mentions the words "clean-cut sophomore" to me one more time, I swear...

Well, we made the front page (obviously). I was sort of expecting a short little human interest thing on page E-36, but hey, I'll take the front page any day. With the exception of the snickering "clean-cut" comments, it's been a cool experience. But as my dad says- today's news is tomorrow fish wrap.

Fish wrap or not, All State is approaching...fast. Only 7 more days, and a lot more practicing to do.

Disneyland last week was pretty awesome. Literally no lines, so we got to do pretty much every major ride, even some twice, in only 5 hours. It was a lot of fun, and I have to admit, the best part (besides the clam chowder) was hearing us announced in the "Disney" voice down the parade route.

Vista has a release date...mark your calendars for December 1st.

The annual race to the top of the Empire State Building was today. The winner of the 2-mile, 1,576 stair race was from Germany with a time of 10 minutes and 23 seconds. You gotta try that next year, Karl.

Finally, for those inquiring, here's everything you ever wanted to know about Phil the groundhog.

Front Page!

Click on the images to get them larger. If you still have trouble reading the article, ask me for one of my 16 copies, or it's posted on the Valley Press site for a few days.

Happy Groundhog Day!

Phil Says Six More Weeks of Winter!