History Lesson

A creepily little history lesson, compliments of Karl:

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
Both Presidents were shot in the head.

Now it gets really weird.

Lincoln 's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln .

Both were assassinated by Southerners.
Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln , was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are composed of fifteen letters.

Now hang on to your seat.

Lincoln was shot at the theater named 'Ford.'
Kennedy was shot in a car called ' Lincoln ' made by 'Ford.'

Lincoln was shot in a theater and his assassin ran and hid in a warehouse.
Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his assassin ran and hid in a theater.

Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

And here's the kicker...

A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe , Maryland
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.

All State

Countdown to All State

Only 3 days until game time...

We leave about noon on Thursday. I'm kinda of nervous/excitied. I tried to bust out all the scales (majors + melodic minors) followed by the full piece and I realized I'm a bit out of shape when it comes to the Mozart, but I should be ready by Thursday.

The Grace recital festival thing was yesterday. I did a solo, duet and trio and they all turned out pretty decent despite the light, or lack thereof. I'm also busy picking things for Solo & Ensemble in March so it seems all I've been doing lately is practicing.

The AV Press ran a photo of us honor band folks on Friday. Apparently they're doing a feature thing in the AV Lifestyle magazine coming out on the 22nd (hey something seems familiar about that day...oh that's right, its George Washington's birthday), so I'll post that when it comes out.

It rained last night which was quite needed and nice. Unfortunately it wasn't a "good" rain but nonetheless it was rain. I wish it would rain more often. I like that "suicide weather" as my father so wonderfully puts it.

Test your reaction time by tranquilizing sheep. It's quite entertaining. My average time is 0.2038 seconds (without coffee). If you give it a try it's probably smart to keep the sound off. Those "sheep" are quite annoying.

There are either really clever or really stupid people out there who make these signs. It's just a various collection of funny signs from around world.

Microsoft has a list of recommended basic music making software for your PC (note the "PC" part). At the bottom: Garage Band. That's real logical. Good move.

By the way, I hope everybody has a joyous Valentine's day in a few days. I think I'm going to join the 3% of Americans who give their pets a Valentine.

Well, I need to go practice/pack...see you next week.

AV Press

Click for larger image

Super Bowl Sunday

I write as the 41st Super Bowl commences. It's on basically so I can say I watched it and intelligently discuss the commercials later. I have to admit; this thing in HD looks/sounds pretty awesome. There's a bag of Chex Mix, but unfortunately we're not consuming any of the 8 million pounds of guacamole that will be consumed this day.

This weekend marks the beginning of a streak of three three-day weekends. Tomorrow is Disneyland with band, so I'm looking forward to that (the Disneyland part...the band part will be somewhat anemic). This Saturday is that Grace recital gig. I somehow managed to get myself involved in three different things including a 15 minute solo. I might want to start practicing. We're also bringing back the Clarinet Polka..always a crowd pleaser.

Vista was released Tuesday...finally. Despite borrowing half of its new "original" features from OSX, it looks fairly promising. While MS seems to have simplified many things, apparently the pricing tier wasn't one of them. I believe there's about 8 different combinations you can get from "Home Basic" to "Ultimate." Ultimate? That's real explanatory.

Along with the release of Vista comes all the mockery. Bill Gates was on the Daily Show a few nights ago and left quite quickly. Apparently this is what really happened.

I love Photoshop. Some of the stuff people can do with it absolutely amazes me. Who thinks of morphing a cat and piranha? here's a whole bunch of morphed animals...pretty amazing.

A cockroach can live for 10 days without a head. Just thought you'd want to know. For other interesting facts, here's one of those "strange but real" lists. Pretty cool stuff.

That's all for now...I'm going to go munch on some more Chex Mix.

Happy Groundhog Day!

It's Punxsutawney Phil!