National Chimney Safety Week

Yes, today marks the official beginning to that one week a year where we raise "awareness of issues relating to chimney and venting safety."

Sorry for the lack of an update last week. It's getting to be that time of year where we might see a few of those in the coming months so just keep that in mind before starting the hate comments. Last week my mom, dad and I went down to USC to see their wind ensemble play. They sounded incredible (as expected) and played some really good stuff like John Adam's Lollapalooza.

We had out second football game on Friday. All went fairly well, or at least as expected. Music was fine, marching wasn't. Nothing new. We're about 9 sets away from finishing the show so we had most of it down. In the third song, there's a part where we turn around (can you say death and destruction?) and I get to run to the back and conduct. I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing, but apparently I bounce a lot when I conduct.

My sister was admitted to the hospital with preterm labor last week. Little Micah just couldn't wait but we're trying to let him cook a little longer for now. Hopefully all will turn out well. It's definitly been an experience passing Matt around these past few days.

I always thought Amazon was a nice peaceful company, but apperently it's different in Canada. Those darn Canadians. Or I guess you could blame MSN.

Leave it to DirectTV to call customers of the Do-Not-Call list and ask if they are sure they don't want to receive promo calls. Doesn't that kind of defy the point?

There are some pretty awesome Rube Goldberg Device videos out there that people have come up with, but this is by far the best I've seen. It goes on for almost 4 minutes doing some pretty crazy stuff. That thing probably took days to make.

While we're talking about doing nothing, it seems fit show this video of the Texas Legislature and how they vote. Scary thing is I can see it happening all over. I hate politicians.

That's it for now...it's almost nap time.

The Bavarian Club

I must say...It's been a very interesting week. The scary thing is, the weekend was even more "interesting," but thankfully in a different way.

I took the ACT for the second time on Saturday. I feel halfway decent about it...at least I was somewhat prepared for the science section this time. I don't know if it was really worth it (i.e. I did any better) but we'll see.

Saturday evening my mom somehow talked my dad and I into going to the LA Bavarian club. It was a very interesting experience. I'll leave it at that. I wish I knew how to speak German. It was very "cultural" but there were some pretty neat people there. Hey, the sauerkraut was pretty good.

We got home around midnight so the natural thing to do was call Karl and go for a run. We went over to AVC for the Relay For Life, and despite the fact we weren't really sponsored (or supposed to be there) and ran a few miles on the track. The weather was absolutely perfect and the atmosphere really cool. It was a lot of fun. I'll have to do 1am runs more often.

Luke got fitted for his DocBand yesterday. I haven't seen him in person yet but it looks pretty cool. He doesn't really seem to mind it either. He has to wear the helmet for a few weeks while his cranium is under construction. Good stuff.

Pig's are flying. Great...now a bunch of weird stuff is going to come true.

I came across this pretty awesome video of a guy playing along with the William Tell Overture on a drum set. It's pretty cool...and about time we found a set drummer with some class.

Speaking of YouTube, Pitzer College has begun offering a media studies class focusing on watching and commenting on YouTube videos. I wish I could get college credit for sitting here and watching these stupid yet addicting things.

That's it for now...fresh Tehachapi apples are beckoning me.

Ghosts Are Real!

There's finally proof...just keep reading.

Our first football game was on Friday. Since it was the first game, I stayed the traditional 17 hours at school. We had a nice little pizza thing (on Disney princess plates of course) and it was pretty fun. We sounded halfway decent at the game but looked a tad weak. We'll clean it up in time for the next game. QH actually won (amazingly) and shutout Rosamond 42-0, so that was quite nice also.

Karl, Jon, my dad and I saw the first Jethawks playoff game last night. It was a really good game and a fun time (despite my unremitting bloody nose). They pulled it off in the bottom of the 10th with a sacrifice fly...good stuff.

My Senior Project oral board is on Wednesday. It will be so incredibly wonderful to not ever think those two horrible words again (and even better to rub in in the face of those doing it this year). I'm not too worried...all I have to do is pass.

Local commerce tip of the week: Don't buy from Duke & Slims.

Our wonderful president has once again represented this country in a manner only he could. While speaking at the APEC Summit, Mr. Bush started off by calling it the OPEC summit, continued by insulting Australian Prime Minister John Howard by implying that he was part of OPEC, then moves on to insult the rest of Australia by calling them "Austrians," and concludes by walking off stage the wrong way. If you don't believe me or the AP, here's the video. I don't blame the rest of the world for hating us.

This is a neat little site will let you view 360° panoramas from the seven wonders of the world. Pretty cool stuff.

Finally, you may have watched shows like SciFi’s Ghost Hunter, but you’ve never seen anything like this. Everything you’ve seen up to now is either faked, misinterpreted or worse. But this, obviously, is real. Finally, proof that ghosts exist.

That's it for now...I need some food.

Horse or Moth?

Happy Day of Labor

Or, hopefully, lack thereof.

The AV Fair ran last week. I didn't really spend too much time inside the fair (other than a quick walk through and a deep fired Twinkie), but spent plenty of time riding around the parking lot. I worked the trolley for about 2 and a half shifts. Luckily I didn't get the horrid weather shifts (although there was some pretty gnarly wind on Sat...check out the funnel cloud), and there weren't to many drunks either. So nothing overly exciting there. Karl drove on Saturday, and I think he actually somewhat enjoyed it (either that or he was too busy laughing at Josh and I havening to walk confused old ladies back to their missing cars). For the most part it was pretty fun.

Band finished the drill for the first song last week. We're moving along at a really good pace and actually sounding halfway decent (which is much improvement over last year at this time). Our first football game is on Friday. It'll be neat to start the good 'ol football season again.

College application season is in its infancy and my head is already spinning. For some odd reason, I was inspired to organize the paperwork/online junk/essays I have to do this weekend. I took a two hour nap after that one.

I'm going to think twice before biting into Chinese chocolate. Recently some chocolate has become "contaminated in the manufacturing process." In other words, it's now infested with live worms. Yummy.

Google Earth never ceases to amaze. While it's a third party add on, you can now use Google Earth as a flight simulator. I haven't played with it yet, but it's gotta be pretty awesome.

I guess it's too much of a burden to actually look at the ad before placing it in public.

There are some weird commercials out there. I'm not a huge fan of those don't even hint as to what they are trying to sell, but this one is just plain weird. Keep in mind it's an ad for milk.

That's about it for now...enjoy your day off.

Hoof Hearted

Complements of Karl-

The Last Fair Parade!

Never again will I have to fumble down Lancaster Blvd with 500 loud and pain inducing band students from around the Valley! This is a wonderful feeling.

The school year is pretty much settling into a routine. AVC started last Monday (I'm taking Band and Clarinet Chior). The band literature looks pretty nice for this semester...should be fun. Other than that, school is school and life is life. Worked in the ER yesterday and experienced a dislocated wrist, the most intense vomiting I've ever seen/heard, and a few gnarly dog bites among numerous other highlights. Fun stuff.

Besides walking down Lancaster Blvd yesterday, I went with Karl and my dad to the Jethawk game that evening. They were very unjethawk like and got demolished fairly severely. Regarding that whole Los Angeles major league baseball team...well I'd rather not talk about it. We ran over to Matt's house this morning and...well that's about it (besides that whole "homework" and "studying" thing. But I'd rather not talk about that either).

A New Jersey teen cracked the iPhone network lock last week so it is now possible to use the iPhone on other wireless networks avoiding AT&T's $80 bucks a month (or whatever it is). I bet ol' Steve is happy about that one.

I came across a blog that has influential pictures images that "changed the world" along with a description of each. Many are well known photographs, and some very graphic, but it is an interesting and somewhat emotional experience to look through them and and read the stories behind them.

On a lighter note, you have to love English sign translations in foreign countries. Some are pretty funny.

This has to be, by far, the most idiotic response to a question I have ever heard. It speaks highly of our education system here...or is in South Africa...or Iraq? Well, whatever. My recommendation: just go for World Peace next time.

That's about it for now...I'm gonna go study a map and make sure I can locate the US.

My Politcal Compass

Economic Left/Right: -0.63
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 0.00Gotta love AP Government.
Check it out...pretty interesting stuff.

6 Loaves of Bread

All for free. That's about 6 months worth of sandwiches.

Well, school started this week. I was trying to come up with an adjective to describe the week but could only come up with "long". Hey...only 35 more to go.

My schedule didn't change too much from last week. Instead of dealing with the parking fiasco with no first period, I decided to TA for anatomy instead. So far its been pretty fun.

My mom's work had some group thing at the Jethawks on Friday. It was a good game..they came from behind for a nice win. Apparently if they win on a Friday fans get a free loaf of bread at the end of the game. Somehow we ended up with six loaves (that really doesn't look like the right spelling but apperently it is), so that was kinda cool.

For Casey's birthday last week, a few of us went to see Superbad earlier today. The contents of the movie are pretty well described by the title. It was purtty dang horrible/vulgar/just plain dumb.

For our coffee connoisseurs out there, a new flavor has emerged. The rare type of coffee is made from the droppings of the civet cat. The droppings apperently "enhance" the coffee to provide a "superb" taste. No thanks.

It's comforting to know the emergency exit will lead to a safe environment.

Directions on a clothes tag: Machine wash warm, inside out with like colors. Use only non-chlorine bleach. Tumble dry medium, medium hot, iron. OR Give it to your wife.

This has to be one of the most amazing hands of poker ever dealt. One word: Wow.

That's about it for now...tomorrow's shaping up to be one of those wonderful Melancholy Mondays.

Don't Park Under Trees

Back to School

I hate typing those words.

Well, it's back to it tomorrow. This summer seemed to go by especially fast. This coming year is shaping up to be slightly busy. My schedule (as of now):

1. None
2. AP English Lit & Comp.
3. Calculus IB
4. AP American Government
5. AP Biology
6. AP Physics
   
7. Marching Band

The above is in addition to band at the college. I know, it's kinda suicidal...but hey, why not?

Band Camp went relatively successfully last week. Although we didn't learn as much of the drill as intended, I think we got very good M&M basics down. Kemper and The Asian are doing pretty well and our freshmen are catching on very quickly. Looks to be a fun year.

We went down to Luke's place on Saturday. The cousins bonded (i.e. stared at each other) while everybody else went swimming and I stayed in the shade highlighting charts after receiving a tad too much sun during the week. Today I got to chase Matt around Aven's. We got to stop and look at every balloon and that kid and I discovered parts of that store I never knew existed.

I love it when police have a sense of humor. It's even better when it turns an advantage of a drug dealer into an advantage for the cops.

A man was caught smuggling a small marmoset monkey to Florida on a flight from Peru last week. The best part: he was keeping it under his hat.

Finally, one of the more flavorful things I've seen this week. A list of 101 Frightening Ice Cream Flavors from Around the World. I have to say its a tie between Squid and Ox Tongue Ice Cream for my favorite.

That's about it for now...I must go mentally prepare myself for tomorrow.

Band Camp

Tomorrow it shall commence.

Freshmen band camp on Friday went pretty swell. I don't want to speak too soon (it is a tad early) but it looks like we may defy history here and have a good group of freshmen. As for the clarinets, there are four freshies that have made themselves known at this point. We could have another 2 or 3 come along, so final numbers for the section put us in the low 20s. The BBQ went well also; there was a really nice turn out. Matt came along and did a face plant in the band room but all is well. That reminds me...we need to start him on tuba lessons.

I spent the day with Weezie, Jon and Luke on Wednesday. Luke had an appointment down in LA, so I decided to tag along. I rode the metro down to their house which was somewhat of an enlightening experience. Apparently the prison releases the new ex-prisoners at the Palmdale metro station so they can ride down to see their buddies in LA (hey...at least there not sticking around here). That was a somewhat interesting ride. I'm alive and well so all is good. As for the appointment, we waited about three hours for a five minute visit. It was still fairly fun overall. Luke is a pretty happy little dude most of the time and ranks up at about a 10 out of 10 on the awesomeness meter.

There are many simple things people can do in life to make it easier. I won't get into them in great detail but this is a very good example of why people should always read the fine print.

When you have a complex device such as the iPhone, you would expect to receive a complex tool to troubleshoot a problem. Oh no...not when it comes to dealing with Apple.

As annoying as they can be sometimes, cell phones do hold many purposes. You can call somebody, check the time, take pictures and video, use them as a stop watch, and use them as a light sources during surgery. Gotta love improvisation.


Bumper sticker of the week:


That's about it for now...apperently I have to go make cookies.

Leave it to CLU

A New Look 'n Feel

After helping my sister out with her new blog yesterday (plug!), I decided to give mine a little face lift. I didn't realize that I was still living in "classic mode" so I upgraded and a some things had to change. Sorry if a few things don't look right...just keep in mind it's still under renovation.

The Deathly Hallows

Don't worry...I won't divulge anything.

Last week we made our biannual trip to Colorado. It was a good trip; my grandma is doing much better and we got to have some nice cabin days. I also learned that it takes 4 cans of John Deere Green to paint a fence. There's a deer in the pic at left if you click on it to get the full res version.

On our way home we stopped by Zion. Those canyons are pretty breathtaking. We did some nice hikes, ate at the same restaurant where my sister spilled her milk twice 20 years ago, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

On the night of the Deathly Hallows release, my dad and I made the midnight trek to the local B&N. While it was pretty crazy, I think it's safe to say that we're a lot worse in California. Those darn Californians. I finished the book on the way home, and it is very safe to say that it is by far the best Harry Potter out of the series. Very well thought out, well written, and an awesome ending.

For all you band folk out there (I don't know why I post this stuff since the people who deign to read this know what's going on anyway, but whatever):

• Freshman Band Camp: Friday, August 3 from 8am-12pm. Only freshmen. So if you're reading this, don't come.
• BBQ/Info Night: Saturday, August 4 at 4pm. Be there.
• Band Camp: August 6-10 from 8am-4pm. Be there.

A woman in New Jersey woke Wednesday morning to find that her family's inflatable pool, hip high and 10 feet in diameter and filled with water, was stolen from her backyard in the middle of the night. There is no evidence that the water was poured out, pumped out, evaporated or drunk. I hate it when that happens.

I came across this video the other day. While it's not really a "feel good" video, it is definitely thought provoking about the direction the world is heading.

This is one of the more interesting finds I've seen in a while. I think it's supposed to be sort of a game. To be quite honest, it is quite entertaining and pretty funny.

That's it for now...I'm gonna go try to enjoy what's left of my summer.