Sunday, March 18, 2007

Six for Six

Those of you who told me I was crazy for doing 6 things at Solo/Ensemble, I now agree with you. That was pretty insane. Just imagine my shock in the morning when I found out that the three of my AM performances got Command Performance. Now imagine my shock that afternoon when I discovered that all six of the day's performances got CP's. Yeah, that's a lot of playing and luck). Try 14 times (the judge wanted his wife to hear the duet with Tani and the duet with Becca). As fun as it was, it was equally exhausting. I was beat at the end of the day.

This past week has been pretty nuts. Whether it was the 5 minute stomach flu on Tuesday or the discovery of Viral Keratitis on Wednesday, God apparently didn't want me at school either days (At least I got my Holocaust Arts/Lit Competition piece done). As for my eyes, I'll be on ophthalmic steroids and without contacts for another few weeks until this stuff clears up. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

For the fist time in the history of the show, there was a three-way tie on Jeopardy last Friday. Check out the video (link compliments of Karl)...it's pretty cool. I guess great minds do think alike.

For the Jerry Seinfeld fans out there, here is a compilation of the top 30 funniest Seinfeld quotes.

There are always those photos out there that were snapped at exactly the right moment. Some of these are funny, others "wowish," but in each of them somebody with a camera got lucky.

Donald Trump is an idiot, but says some fairly accurate things. He appeared on CNN bashing Bush the other day. I'll post the link to the video, but that's all I'll say before I get in trouble.


I hope everybody had a Happy St. Patty's day filled with corned beef and cabbage. Good stuff.

Well, I'm off to the Wonderful World of Homework.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

My Eyes Hurt

Word of the day: Keratitis.

Fun stuff.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Mystère

This week marks the first year of life for Matthew Stutelberg. In celebration, his birthday party was earlier today (Sunday). There are some pretty cool pics (more coming soon) of the whole cake thing. As Karl’s friend Ron put it, we Americans are extremely strange with our bizarre customs for first birthdays. Needless to say Matt preformed perfectly by smearing his cake in all possible places with an astonished look on his face at this new treat of ice cream.

After I completed four hours of standardized anguish that is better known as the SAT on Saturday, we left for Vegas. Upon arrival we took a quick power nap at my sisters before departing for Treasure Island (yes, we decided to battle the strip) and in a three-way birthday present saw the original Vegas Cirque Du Soleil, Mystère. Before the show starts, one of the “clowns” poses as an usher, leading people to wrong seats, throwing popcorn around, etc. Well, my mom, dad and I happened to be in the opportune position to get showered with three buckets of popcorn as this guy attempted to balance them on the head of the person next us before proceeding to kick the stack our direction…on to us. Ever had a bucket of popcorn down your back? Fun stuff…at least the audience thought so.

Anyways, the show can be summed up in two words: simply amazing. The agility, precision, dexterity, teamwork, and astounding strength of those artists was simply incredible. Vegas didn’t disappoint; that was probably one of the best 120 minutes of entertainment I’ve experienced. So if you’re ever off to Vegas you know my recommendation for entertainment (besides Matt of course).

So we “sprung forward” three weeks early this year. If I’m not mistaken, this was due to Congress’s Energy Policy Act, which is supposedly intended to save energy. I’m not getting something here: how does confusing the heck out of domestic America by quietly changing Daylight Savings and creating a Y2Kish scare all over again save energy? If somebody cares to enlighten me I’d love to hear it…I’m sure the reason is just as logical as the rest of the perplexing principles behind our bewildering governing body.

Random thought for the week: Philip Glass has some really cool stuff our there. I think I’m taking a liking to this whole minimalist thing. You people should check it out.

So that was my weekend. Since I am currently about 20 miles out of Barstow, you’re getting the abridged, link-less version of TCF this week. I apologize for the somewhat lengthy narratives/ranting (I’m kinda bored) and the lack of links. I’ll be back to normal next week. Hopefully.

Birthday Matt

Sunday, March 04, 2007

I'm Back

Yes, I am still alive. My apologies for the lack of updates. Two weeks ago was All State, and last week I was not feeling too hot, so I never really got around to it.

All State did not disappoint...it was an awesome experience. It was especially cool to have Julian and Tani there. Julian (in typical Julian fashion) made 8th chair in the Wind Symphony (which happens to be the top band in the state) while Tani and I got 5th and 14th chair in Concert Band respectively. The conductors were cool and the people very band geeksih, so I felt right at home. We played some nice stuff, I'll post it when the CD's arrive.

My 17th birthday came and went last Thursday. So you don't have to ask the question, it doesn't feel any different. I received loads of junk food (good stuff), books (to put in the growing "read this next" pile), geek gear (a pi shirt!), and a very generous gift from my awesome freshmen. Oh yeah, and a sock.

Matt White, a long shot minor league Dodger picture bought a piece of land for $50,000 three years ago. After realizing there was a lot of rock laying around, he decided to have the land surveyed by a geologist. Little did he know that that 24 million tons of rock is worth $100/ton. Do the math and that is $2 billion dollars worth of stone. That is a lot. Maybe luck didn't find him as a major leaguer, but it sure did off the field.

There are some pretty cool billboards out there, but this one beats them all. That is just plain cool.

An Italian substitute elementary school teacher got a little bit frustrated with one of the more talkative students in the class, so she decided to take action. What's the most logical thing to do? Well, cut off the tongue of course. Now if that were to happen in America (or maybe band, but that's just wishful thinking), somebody would be able to join Matt White as a multi-billionaire.

Since there is no time like the present, I thought it was time to present this present. My present to you is a list of some of the oddities of the English language(yeah corny I know, but that's the best I could do).

Well, Microsoft tried. I'll give them that, they honestly put a good attempt into make Vista crack-proof. But they failed. It was bound to happen.

Well, food calls. Next week is Matt's birthday party, so I'll have fresh pics.