Memorial Day

I hope everybody is enjoying a day off.

Andi, Karl, Matt, Louise, Jon, and Luke were here this weekend. The place was a baby zoo, but it was really nice to see everybody. Karl started to teach me how to drive a stick (I can get it out of first gear...woohoo!), and I had to go shopping with my sisters (lucky me). It actually wasn't that bad (except for the lesbian couple with a fake leg in the dressing room next to me). My dad, Karl, Jon and I went to a Dodgers-Cubs game on Saturday. They lost, but it was still a good game and a lot of fun. Overall it was a really nice holiday weekend.

Only one week to go. We said farewell to seniors on Friday, so that was pretty sad. This time of year always has that bittersweet feeling, although this summer is probably going to be pretty busy. I'm in the summer Senior Seminar, probably going take Psychology at the college (anybody want to join me?), and hopefully will find some way to earn some cash.

Our field show next year is the music from Disney's Fantasmic, so that should be a lot of fun. No word on section leaders yet...

Snakes on a Plane almost became a reality in Cairo as a man bound for Saudi Arabia tried to smuggle 700 live snakes on a plane. Now don't try to tell me that real life doesn't imitate the movies.

While we're oversees, be sure to look before you cross the street in India. Well, you better just jump out there and pray you defy the odds and don't get hit.

As the post on Digg says...words can not describe this. It is simply the best cursor ever.

Enjoy the remaining hours of your Memorial Day weekend.

A Fair(y) Use Tale

Everything you ever wanted to know about Copyright and Fair Use.

Fantasmic!

Our field show for next year has officially been announced:

Selections from Disney's Fantasmic!

Hear:

• Song 1
• Song 2
• Song 3

See:

• Animated Drill Sample
• A live performance
  

Next year is shaping up to be great.

Blue Shades

Only nine days of school left. Then...Summer School! I got lucky(?) enough to get a spot in the Summer Senior Seminar, so that means I need to start thinking of a Senior Project. Any ideas?

Last Tuesday was the band banquet. It ran fairly smoothly and the fried rice was good. The highlight of the evening was definitely the announcement of next years Drum Majors: Andrew "TheLord" Kemper and Tiffany "TheAsian" Inabu. Good choices. Next year should be swell. The show and section leaders haven't been announced yet but I'll keep you posted.

This weekend was nice any busy; filled with lawn mowing running, calculus, Stravinsky, cream puffs, communion assisting, more calculus, and LUKE! I like to save the best for last.

AVC Band and Clarinet Choir (including yours truly) are playing tomorrow night at 7:30 at LPAC. All in need of some hot Monday evening entertainment are welcome and encouraged to attend (Ticheli's Blue Shades is on the program...there's a little incentive for you).

If you've ever wondered what would happen if you scanned a mirror and were too afraid to try, well, here you go.

Those darn Aussies. First they write weird math books, then the start using cat excrement in coffee.

I'm not sure if your too familer with chat bots, but recently two of the main ones, ALICE and Jabberwacky, were set up to talk with each other. The result: a very interesting/scary conversation between machines.

That's about it. I best be going off to study...you guessed it...math.

Happy Mother's Day

It's interesting how this Mother's Day happens to coincide with Frog Jumping Day. I don't exactly know what the point is, but it's interesting nonetheless.

The pic at left has to be the best Mother's Day pic you've ever seen. It doesn't get better than that. Little Luke is doing well. He sleeps 22 hours a day, eats, and preforms other actions that involve the word "diaper." Sounds like the ideal life to me.

Tuesday is the band banquet with a 007 theme. That means yours truly has to dress up in a tux. Wednesday is the AP English Language Exam (US History was last Friday...that was "fun" to say the least). Enough said for that. The rest of the week should be normal (normal=hectic), so fun stuff indeed.

In these confused days that comprise test season, they always say that if you have to guess, go with choice C. Well, that's not always your best choice. Especially if the final is true/false. As the professor of this idiot says, "B is the new C."

Researchers have come up with a machine that can make you go to sleep with the push of a button, then gives you the equivalent of eight hours of sleep in just two or three hours. Hey, we trust just about everything else with a machine, so why not sleep?

Optical illusions are strange things (hence the "illusion" part). This this "motion binding" thing especially boggling/captivating. Don't stare too long...you might get dizzy.

Well, I'm off to go throw together an almond basket.

San Francisco

It's been a while since I did a good update, so I'll try to hit the major points here.

The band trip to San Francisco was cool experience and fun time (as expected). We played really well and got a Gold, plus another Boston invite. We hit the major points of the city (Golden Gate, Lombard St, Ghirardelli Square, Fisherman's Wharf, Alcatraz, etc), all of which were pretty cool. Even though there was no Leo Laporte sighting, we had a really fun time. I uploaded a few of my 363 pictures (yeah I kinda went overboard) here.

I'm an uncle again! Luke Fitch was born on May 3rd at 7:56am. Even though he took a while to emerge, that little dude was pretty active from the getgo. He's a fast learner too. Probably a sign of genius...especially with Jon reading to him at 2 days old. Luke's being a perfect little newborn screaming on schedule every two hours and driving his parents nuts. Now we officially have Matthew, Clark, Luke, and Jon in the family. There are a few pics of the latest addition here.

May is arguably one of the worst months school-wise. Summer is so close...yet so far. First there's STAR testing. Then SAT's/ACT's. Then AP tests (English Language and Comp. and US History for me). Then Finals. The month of testing. Oh joy. But hey...only a month to go.

It is interesting to compare how the same school related scenarios would be handled differently in 2007 as opposed to 1973. These were originally intended as jokes, but the scary thing is that they are kind of accurate.

Apple people scare me. No only are they part of the infamous "cult of the mac" but they do stuff like this in their free time.

This is just plain mean. When you really gotta go, you don't have time to carefully read the sign, but in this case let's hope you would.

That's about it for now...Matt is crawling around my feet and getting a tad restless.

Happy Birthday Luke!

At 7:56 this morning Luke Edward Fitch came into this world weighing 8 lbs, 2 oz at 20.5 in long.