Band Camp

QH band camp was this last week. It went pretty good...we got 7 moves of the show down. The whole experience was about as exciting as 8 hours in the heat of day attempting to help the "unteachable misfits" (not my verbiage) can get. Life as a section leader is nothing too exciting either, unless you consider getting there early, leaving late, and staying up late highlighting and working out the charts exciting. Fun stuff. Back to it tomorrow!

I went to Wildwood again this year (hence the lack of updates the past couple weeks). Despite the vegan diet, rat infested cabins, and a few maturity lacking young musicians, it was pretty fun. It was cool to see some old faces and have the opportunity to play in some different groups (band, orchestra, woodwind quintet, duet, and clarinet choir...with the Eb!). If you're lucky I'll post the mp3's when I get them (if I remember).

My Dad, Karl, Jon and I went to a Dodgers/Nationals game last Saturday. Now that they're actually starting to win again, it was pretty cool. A Dodger game followed by Philipp's...it was a lot of fun.

Any day is a good day to bash the RIAA. Here's a list of some of the weird/hypocritical/just plain stupid things they do and some not so shocking statistics.

This is a pretty cool site if you're in need of wallpaper. It has thousands of free high res images. Too bad there's no need for backgrounds around here since there's Matt around.

It's a time machine for water called the Time Fountain. I won't even try to explain how it works, because frankly, I have no idea. It just looks cool.

There's a new record for speeding tickets out: Try 70 tickets in 5 months. That's gonna get pretty expensive.

Well, as painful as it is to say, school starts tomorrow. I must go mentally/physically (i.e. finish the summer reading) prepare myself and try to enjoy the few remaining hours of summer.

Off to Wildwood...

I'm off to Wildwood for a week. I'll be back in town Wednesday to take a final at AVC, but then I'm in the vegetarian music world again until Sunday (it's not all that bad...except for the food). Then it's rise and shine on Monday for band camp...see you there.

Super Shammy!

Monday's sectional went good. No complaints here. Actually, we even sounded a little better than I thought we would, so all is good.

We went to Vegas this weekend to see Matt (always worth the drive) and buy some Super Shammys! Oh yeah, and buff the 119° heat. I passed my CPR/AED test on Monday, so it's safe to die in front of me now. I also discovered that scrubs are the most incredibly comfortable clothing item ever invented. My Mom told me if I got into med school that she would make me custom scrubs I could wear every day of my life...now that's some incentive (no joke).

In Vegas this weekend, Karl told me about this guy who traded one red paperclip for a house. From his site, "My name is Kyle MacDonald and I traded one red paperclip for a house. I started with one red paperclip on July 12 2005 and 14 trades later, on July 12, 2006 I traded with the Town of Kipling Saskatchewan for a house." All the details are on his site...it's a pretty cool/interesting story.

Ever hear of "blunt-force advertising"? It's a short ad that repeats the same catchphrase over and over to forefully "embed" it in your head. Like many, at first, I thought this Head On ad was a joke, but apparently it's real. As weird as it is, the ad is obviously pretty effective.

In this week's "weird stuff to do if you're really, really board" dept: the 10¢ ring. Yep...you can make a ring out of a dime.

From an IT department far far away comes...
Cubicle Wars! A pretty corny, yet entertaining short film.

Good news: Only 1 week left at AVC!
Bad news: There's only 2 weeks of summer left.
I'll stick with the good news for now.

Sectional

To my fellow QH clarinets:

There will be a clarinet sectional this coming Monday, the 24th, from 3:00 to 4:00 in the band room. Let me know if you can make it...hope to see you all there.

150th Post

Already at post number 150...that's about three years. Wow. I need to get a life.

Sorry for the lack of an update this past week. You would think that a lazy summer would render me bored enough to have an urge to update, but apparently that's not the case. Part of it being that this summer is not really "lazy" between 3 classes at AVC, music, hospital, and all that other good stuff. And the other part being that the new computer arrived and I've been "busy" playing with all the new little gadgety bells and whistles (this thing is pretty awesome).

I started the volunteering thing at the hospital on Friday. I'm working in the pharmacy with some interesting folks who have really no idea what to do with me, but so far they've kept me busy. The extent of my job basically boils down to stalking drugs. Fun stuff (besides the little tiny ID numbers that are impossible to read, yet vital to stalking the heavy brown IV filled boxes in the correct spot). So yeah, it's all good I guess. For those of you still wondering why I'm even doing this in the first place, I'm still trying to figure that out myself, but I've come up with two decent reasons: (1) It's a good experience (lame, I know, but hey it works), and (2) It looks killer on a resume.

Other than that there's not too much new to report in my life. Just the same old Summer goodness. I got the QHHS registration packet thing in the mail last week...that's always depressing.

This is a pretty cool little video where a couple of skaters with green boards edited out the borads on the video, so it kind of looks like they're "floating." Pretty cool stuff.

From the Daily WTF, here's some "pop-up potpourri." It's a compilation of some pretty funny thisisbroken style messages.
^3 links in two sentences! I'm getting pretty good.

The RIAA has lost! The RIAA has lost!
Well, at least one lawsuit. It's about time.

Got a headache? Just ask Dr. Google. A few days ago a blogger wrote an article entitled "Dear Google, You’re Giving Me a Headache," so what did Google do? Send him some pain relief, of course! Hey Google, can you send me some cash?

Happy 4th

XPS 400

Out of the blue, my parents gave me the go ahead to order a new family computer (our old one was getting pretty decrepit), so I had to quickly scrounge up a decent system for a decent price, and decided on the Dell XPS 400 media box which I had been looking at for a while. Thanks to slickdeals I was able to finagle a pretty sweet gig though Dell EPP (employee purchase program). So basically I bought a temporary "employment" (or just the discount code) off ebay to get the 30% employee discount. If anybody else is interested, you can get a nice deal this way. Just buy the code on ebay, customize your system here, and you're good to go. I'll update when we get the box and I've had a chance to play with it a bit.

Just FYI to all those band people out there:
There is a full band rehearsal on Friday July 7th from 3:30 to 4:30 in the band room. Of course if you're reading this, you've probably already been contacted so that last sentence was pointless. Oh well....consider it a reminder. As of this time, I'm 2 for 14 on returned calls. I've left 14 messages yet only 2 people have gone to the trouble to call me back. [EDIT: Make that 3 call backs as of about 5 mintues ago] Not that I'm complaining...I really hate phones.

While I might be a phone phobic, at least I'm not afraid of pickles. I don't know how many of you have seen this clip, but I can't watch it without laughing, as bad as I feel laughing. Pickle Phobia...that's a new one.

After a surge of controversy, Microsoft finally dropped its "Windows Genuine Advantage" checks. "Genuine Advantage" meaning "we know that you pirated this copy of XP and we're trying to prove it so we can sue you." It got to the point where you couldn't download Windows Update or any other Microsoft downloads without an annoying "WGA" check. So a class action lawsuit later, there's no more WGA.

Here's a neat little hack to boost hard disk performance. Apparently it's supposed to boost performance up to 6x. I haven't noticed anything too significant yet, but I'll keep you posted. Just a warning, it takes a little tweaking so just don't go around trashing the registry.

That's it for now...have a happy 4th.

Taco Town!

Animator vs. Animation

My favorite find of the week: When CGI characters try to escape.

Besides hilarious escape attempting animations, the summer has been decent so far. Nothing too new at the college...Spanish is Spanish and Matalon is Matalon. The textbook definition of a good summer: lazy and relaxing, but not overly so. Sleep, food, eb clarinets, ER reruns, and Linux...the good life.

Speaking of Linux...I'm going to take this opportunity to plug a new (for me at least) distro. Kubuntu: its the KDE version of Ubuntu (probably the most popular distro out there now). It has a great live CD that lets you test drive it, and if you like, do a full install straight from the live CD. The latest version is Dapper Drake- check it out...it's pretty nice.

There's a section leader meeting tomorrow where we're supposed to get the music and rosters. Sectionals shouldn't be too long after that (gulp). Stay tuned for updates on that front.

DirecTV is offering a new programming service: DirecTV Titanium. Now, what exactly does Titanium get you? Try every SD and HD channel, all pay-per-view offerings, all sports, up to 10 HD DVRs, and a 24/7 "concierge service." All yours for only $7500 a year.

A few weeks ago I head a mp3 online of a guy trying to cancel his AOL account...and needless to say he had a fairly difficult time. I never got around to posting it, but this morning I heard him on Today talking about his "experience." Apparently he's finally brought forth a pretty big problem...and it's about time. This particular incident actually ended up with the AOL rep getting fired. Here's the original audio and the Today clip.

That's all for now...I have to go rig up a PA for some horse racing gig that's going to take over my house Saturday. Don't ask.

La Clase de Español

School gets out...and then starts again.

Spanish at AVC started today, and between the course itself and the people in the course it will be...well..."interesting." [EDIT: But, we also can't forget those who keep me company and are always filled with the hilariously witty and cynical comments that contribute to my summer sanity.] I have to admit, I don't mind it (yet). It's actually kind of nice to have something to do. In addition to the Spanish, I'm also taking First Aid & CPR and Intermediate Jazz Ensemble.

I couldn't contain my excitement last night after winning the Ebay bid on my new Eb clarinet. Even though I've never actually played one, it looked like too good of a deal to pass up. Within the next few weeks I should be in possession of Tiny Tim...a Leblanc Noblet Eb Clarinet (aged grenadilla wood, 14.85mm bore...all that good stuff you don't care about). So, needless to say, I am very happy.

If your fake government ID says you live on "123 Fraud Blvd" in "Tijuana, B.C." you can apparently stride right into the Homeland Security offices. Maybe stuff like that will work for the required ID's we have to wear at school next year.

This is a cool little site that will let you listen to practically every radio station in the world. It's a pretty nice little find.

I was browsing though YouTube and came across this old Screen Savers clip of Leo and Pat overclocking a P4 with liquid nitrogen coolant. Maybe if I get really bored this summer...

Google released a new beta of Google Earth yesterday. It has a ton of updated imagery (including the AV). It's a nice, beefy update, but beware bugs and don't even try if you have under 512MB ram.

I find this just plain amusing: Some geek out there (like me) developed a ring tone that is inaudible to adults. The purpose: texting in school...and the teacher can't even hear it. It is a high pitched "buzz" that can only be heard by kids because adults lose the ability to hear high pitched noises as the ear ages. Good stuff.

Leblanc Noblet Eb Clarinet

The newest member of my clarinet family:

More details coming soon...

US Border Patrol

http://www.break.com/index/theboarderpatrol.html

Hilarious interview with George Bush talking about the US stepping up our efforts to increase border patrol with Mexico. Keep a close eye on the fence in the background during the interview.

Section Leader!

The Band Banquet was Tuesday night, and if you read last week's comments (or just read the title of this post) you probably realized I made clarinet section leader for next year. Although unexpected, it's still pretty exciting. Despite dealing with some "issues" (gotta love band drama), I guess I'm looking forward to it although it will be a new and challenging experience. The rest of the banquet was good with the wonderful mixed aromas of a potluck, the video which was awesome (as usual), and it was just neat to see the year pull to a nice close. We're doing a Zorro show next year (you can listen to it here) so that will be pretty cool.

Only one week to go...then school's out! I can't wait....I just have to survive through finals this week and then we're home free...until band camp at least. Summer will be so nice...except for the heat. It's already 100° outside. Ugh.

On kind of a cool note, the QHHS Rebel baseball team took home the CIF-Div. 3 championship yesterday. They are the first ever from the Valley to do so...so that's kind of cool. It would have made it even better if they didn't play "Take me out to the ball game" every passing period.

The Windows Vista sneak preview of the week: Only seven simple steps to simply delete a file! Oh boy...that should be fun! Hopefully they get that fixed, because I'm already dreading having to give Windows "permission" every five minutes.

Cool videos for the week:
An amazing hole in one...I had to watch that a few times to believe it. Too bad stuff like that never happens to me (not that I've been golfing in the past 4 years).
I haven't been flying remote control airplanes either, but this is some pretty awesome piloting.

That's if for now...I'm off to go cram for Chem.

Memorial Day

Hope everybody enjoyed their day off.

Well, only 9 days (and 5 finals) to go. We finished filming how to make "los tacos pecadillos" today for Spanish...and that was quite interesting. So if you ever want to know how to make "sinful tacos," and happen to speak really bad Spanish, let me know and I'll get you a copy.

Matt was baptized on Saturday.
We went down to Vegas (on Memorial Day weekend...so you can imagine how fun the traffic was), and saw a whole bunch of cool people I haven't seen in a while (and realized my readership here extends farther than I thought). There's a pic of everybody to the left, and there should be more on my flickr soon (I exceeded the limit for the month...woops). All in all,it was pretty cool, and, as I have said many times before, Matt is awesome.

If you're ever possessed to make a jumping spider out of dollar bills, here you go. It does cost 5 dollars, though (the spider...not the website).

If you have enough time to make spiders, check out this online custom font maker. You can even submit your own font for download (assuming you had the time to create it...which I really hope nobody normal does).

Windows Vista is inching closer to shipping. Here's the latest on the Beta 2 features.

Here's a nice little article taking about how the iPod rules the world (not really). It goes into the "You can have anything you like so long as it's Apple" idea, and is an interesting little read. I'll stick with my H10, thanks.

A student in Pennsylvania was suspended for giving another student caffeinated chewing gum. Huh? It's gum people...what makes it so different from soda? Please.

That's it for now...I'll be back (on time) next week.

I Passed?!

Well, I have my license now. I can actually legally drive. Probably a very disturbing thought/reality for many of you (myself included). I got 4 "errors" on the drive test, and you can get up to 15 (except for the auto-fail stuff). Like everybody says, the feeling is just kind of "weird." Just thought you all ought to know so you can keep an eye out and duck for cover if needed.

Matt came up this weekend! Oh..yeah, Andi and Karl, too. He's doing good, and he's a really cool little dude. It was definitely one of my weekly highlights to see him in person for the first time.

I saw Streetlight Manifesto and The Aquabats play in Lancaster on Thursday. Now that the tinnitus has worn off, I must say it was pretty awesome. It was cool...I have to say that Streetlight was the definite highlight. The Aquabats were pretty funny, too. Despite the cramped bar corridors and some of the unique ska fans we tend to attract in the good 'ol AV, it was a really good show.

Only 3 weeks of school left! Time flies when you're procrastinating on prepping for finals.

In case you've ever been inspired to hollow out a light bulb, here you go. If I get bored enough this summer I might give it a try.

While watching the Napoleon Dynamite outtakes this weekend, Karl showed me this clip. It's the "evolution" of dancing as demonstrated by one guy from the times of Elvis to now.
By the way, if you want any 1961 Topps baseball cards in the next day or so, there's this really good seller on ebay you should check out...
(I should get some commssion for that plug, Karl)

You have to check out this interactive mosaic thing. Just keep zooming in...and in...and in. It's pretty insane.

It feels like Summer

It's currently 94°... and rising. High next week? Near 100°.
It's not supposed to do that so soon. Oh well. Look at the bright side...it just means school is inching closer and closer to ending.

Call me crazy, but I signed up for summer school (sort of). At this point I'm doing Spanish at AVC (to get a 3rd year in the easy way...or is it really that easy? Anyways...), and maybe Psychology. On top of that I'll probably be taking an EMT-B course through ROP (just for the heck of it...I know, kind of random, but why not?) in addition to working on computers and hopefully teaching clarinet. I also just got a membership to 24 Hour Fitness today, so that will be nice considering I can't really run on my stupid hip.

Our last band concert of the year was on Thursday. I played in Symphonic and Wind Ensemble, and both sounded pretty good. Concert Band, to put it as my dad said, sounded a little anemic. It was sad to see the seniors at their last concert, and as always, that bittersweet feeling knowing the year is nearly over sunk in.

Well, next week at this time I'll probably have my license...not by choice. I go for my drive test on Saturday bright and early at 8 am. I'm not really looking forward to it, although I guess it might be nice. I'd say I was nervous, but to be honest, I'm really not.

Remember the finger in the chili? Well, now we get an human arm in the sewer. What's next?

Here's a clip of a guy trying to steal some woman's purse from an elevator. Needless to say, he fails.

Are we going to use sewage for electricity? Something actually beneficial may come of that...stuff.

I'm off for now, until next week-
`C

The Countdown Begins...

Only 24 days and counting until summer...

Wow, this has been a pretty busy week. I don't think there was one day I got home before 8. It really starts picking up this time of year. Finals are fast approaching, but at least the year is almost over, as short as it seemed (to me at least).

There are a few New York pics up on my Flickr, but I have a 20mb upload limit, so I could only upload a few. If I'm feeling ambitious I'll get some more up on another host soon.

Last weekend I went to the LA Times Festival of Books with my sister and her husband. It was huge and pretty cool, but to really get anything out of it you need a plan (which we, of course, didn't have). I even got to meet Tim Meadows from SNL and *shivers*...Dr. Laura. As scary as that was, it was still kinda cool.

A guy in Florida is currently living with no heart. Pretty freaky, but true. It's even weirder that he's stable, alert, and talking.

It was bound to happen sometime...a bum got stuck in a garbage truck. Well, at least he wasn't arrested for randomly licking people's feet.

Apparently Steven Colbert was quite the Bush-bashing hit at the White House Correspondents' dinner last week. I still haven't had time to watch the whole thing, but Colbert, as always, is pretty hilarious.

That's all for now...I'm off to play with Google's new SketchUp.

Back from the Big Apple

New York was awesome! We had a great time. We did so much that it's hard to sum it up in one post, but I'll give it a try:

Day 1

Despite the 3am start, everybody seemed awake. We rode down to LAX, and took off in time. It was a pretty long flight, and painful descent, but we arrived about 4 in the afternoon. From there we went straight to Manhattan, ate some Papaya Dogs, and checked out the Empire State Building...the view is pretty awesome.

Day 2
We got an early start (after Robbie's 45 minute shower) and saw Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty and walked around the other major parts of NY (Wall street, Ground Zero, etc). We then went for a backstage tour of the State Theater in Lincoln Center and saw Don Giovanni...a very slumberous yet cool opera. Later that night (or the next morning) we were driving back around 2am and Mom (our bus driver Harriet) decided to stop for food. Harriet was by far the best and coolest bus driver I've ever had...not to mention that woman could drive New York style.

Day 3
We left early for Riverside Church to play at the festival. Symphonic band could have done better but we still got a silver so that's cool. Wind Ensemble kicked some butt, and we got a Gold 1st place, and an invite to Boston for next year...Boston Invitational, here we come! Percussion also did really good getting a gold. After that was the "dinner cruise" which was...interesting to say the least.

Day 4
It was pouring rain all day, but we still left early for Rockefeller Center and the other stuff around there. Since it was raining so hard, we had to make a stop at the hotel for a change, skipping Central Park. Later that afternoon we saw Drumstruck, which was cool...and loud. From there we had a MEGA sandwich at the Carnegie Deli and went to Time Square for a few hours before returning to the hotel.

Day 5

Despite the fact it was still pouring rain we left early. Rain or shine I wasn't missing the Today Show. At 9am, I made my national TV debut for a whole 3 seconds of fame. Despite the rain, it was really cool. If I ever get a hold of a copy, I'll be sure to post it. After that we made up for lost time the day before and went to Central Park for a while...it was really nice to see another side of NY. Then it was all over...to the airport, the flight to LAX, crashing once I got home, and STAR testing the next day.

All of us had an awesome time...NY 2006 was truly an unforgettable trip. More pics coming soon.

Off to New York!

New York...here we come!

I'll update when we get back on Tuesday...if your not going, see you then!

All State Music

A while back I promised I'd post some of the music I played at All State. The CD came a few days ago, and I finally got it online, so here you go:

1. George Washington Bridge- A long, very dissonant William Shuman piece.
2. Contre Qui Rose- Another Morton Lauridsen (remember O Magnum Mysterium?). Uses the same harmonics, which I personally think sound really beautiful.
3. Fanfare- The first of 4 movements we played from Shafer Mahoney's symphony for band.
4. Blue- The second movement...there's a lot of nice blues chords.
5. Clang- The "clanging" third movement.
6. March- A very Copland sounding finale to our part of the concert.

Also, there was a neat piece the middle band played that I liked. It's by a guy out of LA named John Mackey. It's really cool...check out the Redline Tango.

Happy Easter!

I hope everybody had a great Easter.

Only 3 days until New York. I'm really looking forward to it...I bet we'll have a blast. I'll try to update before we leave.

The CD from All State arrived in the mail. I want to post some of it here, except I need to find a free reliable host for it, which is proving to be a challenge. I'll play with it some more and hopefully have some of the music posted soon.

Matt is home and well as of Tuesday. The little tyke is looking good (even though I still haven't seen him in person...which is quite frustrating). Pending parental permission, I might post some updated pics soon.

Since the RIAA obviously has the intent of making everybody's life miserable, why don't they go after George Bush? Here is his iPod showing songs from the Beatles. Since no Beatles songs have been licensed on iTunes yet, they must have been ripped from a CD, which according the RIAA said was "illegal" to a federal agency last February.

We've seen Star Wars in ASCII, now it's time for the Incredibles. Pretty awesome...I just dream of having that much free time.

Lastly, I want to say that my grandma passed away to join God and her husband in heaven yesterday afternoon. She was a wonderful woman who lived a full and great life. I really admired her ever-present witty ability to make anybody smile. I love you Grandma Dubs... you will be greatly missed.

Good and Bad News

The good news is that there's only 9 weeks of school left. The bad news is that there's sill 9 weeks of school left. But, hey, only 2 weeks until New York. I'm really looking forward to that...It should be a lot of fun. I'll try to post an intinerary when we get one, but we're doing most of the standard NY stuff. Although it's crammed in to 4 days, it should still be really good.

One thing I'm really looking forward to is visiting the Today Show. I've always wanted to, and it will be especially neat to see Katie Couric on one of her last appearances. It's too bad that she's leaving...although I wish her the best for her new ventures, it is still kind of sad.

Baseball season is now in full swing (sorry...couldn't resist). Our Dodgers are looking halfway-decent so far despite the many new faces (practically a new team). Hopefully this will be a good season...much unlike the last.

Check out this video. Kinda creepy. Real or not??? You decide.

Who Wants to be an Idiot?! Uh...I meant Millionaire. Well, "idiot" fits better in this video. Pretty funny. Just FYI jumping backwards a bit, Meredith Vieira (the host) is apparently supposed to take Katie's place on Today.

That's all for now...I'll update later when my new camera arrives.

It's over already?

Urg.

Back to school tomorrow. That break went way too fast.

I spent most of my break either in a car or sitting doing nothing. It was nice to loaf for a week. I went up to Vegas on Wednesday and saw Andi and Karl who are doing pretty good, and Matt who's doing a lot better. With luck he'll be home soon.

On Saturday I went down to Tesoro High School (some really rich school) with Joe Walker for the State Science Olympiad. Although they didn't do the best, it was still a lot of fun. Ben, Jamie, Emily and I all got the wonderful job of standing in the rain and helping out with Storm the Castle (sort of a catapult thing) whilst dodging flying golf balls. Besides the cold and rain there was lots of free food, so that combined with all the other good stuff made for a fun day.

Google Earth played a little April Fools joke. Apparently there really are aliens at Area 51.

Speaking of April Fools, here's the list of the top 100 April Fools gags of all time. Some a tad more disturbing than others.

This little puzzle thing is pretty awesome. It's one of those things where you come up with a number, it tells you to do stuff to it, and then it guesses the right number, except this one is way more complex. Pretty cool find...thanks for the link, Tani.

That's all for now...I need to go finish up some last minute spring break HW.

Spring Break

What a wild spring break I'm having:
I'm sitting here watching MSNBC, eating cookies, and recompiling my music library.
I need to get out more.

After three long months without a break, spring is finally here. I actually survived the final week which was sure enough full of tests and presentations. So, here I sit, enjoying my break doing absolutely nothing. Good times.

Tomorrow I'm heading off to Vegas to see Andi, Karl, and Matt. Matt is doing a lot better after a few problems over the weekend, but all should be good. There’s a few new pics up on my Flickr, for anybody interested.

This is pretty fun. You chose 10 notes on a piano, and every time the software encounters the number of the note you picked going through pi, it will play a note on the piano corresponding to that number as it progresses though pi. Kind of confusing, but just try it.

Check out these Lego stadiums...pretty awesome.

In the future you won't have to choose which soda you want, it will all be programmable. At least that's this guy's idea. Pretty cool concept.

Finally, the classic Chinese takeout prank. It's been around for a while, but still funnier every time. Take a listen, if you haven’t heard it before.

That's about it. If I get bored enough, I'll update again soon.

Barstow: 29 Miles

I’m writing on the way home from Vegas, so I’ll probably post it when I get home in a few hours, which won’t matter too much for you, because I’ll be home by the time you are reading this anyway. I know…this whole time lapse post thing is beyond me too.

I have to admit…this was a pretty awesome week. On Wednesday I became an uncle. Karl and Andi had Matt a few weeks early, but all is good. We left for Vegas right after Solo/Ensemble on Saturday to see him. Apparently I’m not of close enough relation to him so I couldn’t see him because he’s in the NICU (I just sat in some waiting room and watched some Jackie Chan movie…but it’s all good), but it was still pretty cool.

Solo/Ensemble was a success. Even though I thought I could have done better (I can see half of you scowling at me now), I walked away with a superior and two CP’s. I even sight-read a duet half-way successfully for somebody. Despite the intonation issues on my solo CP, the day was a lot of fun. I helped out, ran music, and networked with judges, not to mention playing, all day, so it was a busy one.

I’m sitting in a cramped car right now, so finding links is kinda hard. Sorry...check back next week.

Welp, I think I’m gonna stare out the window at the desert until I fall asleep.

I'm an Uncle!

At 7:18 Wednesday morning, Matthew Crane Stutelberg entered into this world.

Happy Birthday, Matt!

Click Here for Pics!

As Winter was Just Beginning...

Wait...wasn't that supposed to be 3 months ago?

I guess Phil got it right this year...this is one of the better storms to hit around here this late in the year. It was actually real snow. It actually snowed. How awesome is that?

A little edit on last Sunday's post-
Buffy is actually coming home this week. Tomorrow, to be exact. It'll be nice to actually be able to play for a change. I'm getting tired of this playing on plastic stuff. Its good I'm getting it back...Solo/Ensemble is next Sat, and I kinda need to start practicing.

Not too much else new in my world. I got new glasses/contacts, so I can actually see now. It's quite nice not being blind, to tell you the truth. I'm now up to 20/300, and getting worse by the minute.

Google hired some 15 year old kid as a manager just from reading his blog. Now, why can't that be me? Oh, I need to know JavaScript and AJAX...that's right.

In case you ever get the urge to search Pi for your phone number (or whatever) here you go. Another great timewaster. The string "916(my cell #)" was found at position 2,967,495 counting from the first digit after the decimal point. Just in case you happened to be wondering.

Well, that’s about it for now. I'll best be off to start my search for asteroid impacts on Google Earth.

Snow!

Buffy's Coming Home!

I don't think I even mentioned it before, but my R-13 (my really good clarinet), named Buffy, is down in LA being repaired for a hairline crack. The whole crack thing sucks; it went through two tone holes (that's twice the price), but it didn’t go through to the bore, so that’s good. With luck he'll be coming home tomorrow, (almost) as good as new.

Wow...this was a busy week, but nonetheless a good one as well. Band/Orchestra festival went pretty superiorly. Symphonic got a superior on both the performance and sight-reading, and Wind Ensemble got a high superior on the performance, but we got a really funky sight-reading piece and everybody kinda fell apart, so we got an excellent.

Yesterday I went down to Cal-Poly Pomona with Joe Walker for Science Olympiad. It was a lot of fun catching up with everybody and seeing what the team has become since The Dynasty. We got to run Bottle Rockets (since apparently nobody else knew how), and got a free lunch (definitely one of the highlights). I had a great time (despite the fact I was getting sicker by the minute and ready to pass out a few times), and will definitely go again.

Can you really die from laughter? I guess so.

If you're ever planning on robbing a convenience store, just make sure this guy isn't behind the counter. Pretty funny to watch him describe it.

Finally, take a look at this. You have to look and listen very carefully and it takes a little while, but it's worth it. Thanks for the link, Karl.

I'm pretty dang sick, so I think I'll switch on the Oscars and fall asleep.

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!

Happy New Year!

Chinese new year, that is.
Today marks the start of year 4703...the year of the dog.

The AVHSD honor band concert was on Friday night. It went surprisingly well...we actually sounded halfway decent. I was pretty pleased. My solos came out decent and everyone as a whole did great. They were long rehearsals, but they paid off. The back of my head even made the paper, I'd post a pic, but my scanner is being rather uncooperative.

Face transplant? Umm...no thanks.

Finally! A DIY T-shirt folding machine. Pretty awesome stuff...I gotta make one of those.

Band goes to Disneyland on Tuesday, so I'm looking forward to that (and missing school!). But meanwhile, I'm off to make my t-shirt folding machine.

Minor Scales, Ska, Cats and More...

Life's trudging on as usual. Same old stuff at school...no new bomb threats to report on. I'm practicing my guts out on my melodic minor scales for All State...I have to have them memorized for a live audition. Ugh.

The honor band concert is Friday. We're playing some pretty cool pieces, so hopefully it turns out well. We have yet to actually "rehearse" as a full band, so who knows.

I'm in a ska band! The legendary Chase Wells invited Casey and myself to join his garage/ska band. I'm on sax/clarinet (maybe even flute...who knows), Casey's on trumpet, Chase on bagpipes (yes, pipes in ska...pretty awesome if you ask me) and we have a keyboard, lead guitar, bass, and set. It's pretty cool, but we're just starting. If you know any low wind players who are interested, we need 'em.

Check out the 101 dumbest moments in business. It's a list of the stupidest things companies have done throughout 2005; some are pretty funny to look back on.

Did you see Kobe's 81 point game?! As much as I dislike the guy, I have to hand it to him...that's pretty dang good.

Finally, proof that cats are more fun than dogs. Sorry Emma, but cats rule!

Windows WMF Backdoor?

Did Microsoft intentionally place a backdoor in Windows Metafile to gain access to machines? Security expert Steve Gibson thinks so. Recently this "vulnerability" has been getting a lot of press, so people have started looking into it. Some think it's more than just a programming error, but an intentional backdoor. Take a listen, and see what you think.

We went to Vegas this weekend to see my sister and uncle, as well as take home Princess the dog. The visit was short, but good and the food was awesome. I finally got to eat at the Hofbräuhaus, which was really cool. The dog has a nice new home (not ours...my family+dog=I don't think so).

If you wanted more info on MacWorld, TWiT did a nice podcast covering most of it. Check it out.

I haven't actually tried it yet, but this little app looks to be pretty cool. It's a space simulator, and from what I hear, it’s another hour killer like Google Earth (new version available).

Back to school tomorrow...hopefully I won't get blown up.

More Threats Plague QHHS

We made the news again...

Rumors of Friday the 13th violence spread like wildfire around school. Apparently there was supposed to be pipe bombs set up at various locations, but it turns out that was a hoax. The only "bang" heard at lunch was a M80 (nothing too unusual for the 100 quad at lunch). I would say that only about 60% of the school had the guts to show up today, in my Photoshop class there were only 13 people (out of 35). All this while everybody’s still freaked out over last month's little episode.

And on it goes...

Back to it...

School started again on Monday. I have absolutely no idea how a three week break flew by so fast. Oh well...at least it was a good one.

Everything at school is pretty much the same. Back to old studying schedules and procrastination habits. At least math appears to be slightly easier (as I begin pounding on the nearest wooden object). We actually have a "real" PE teacher this semester. At least I got to enjoy one year of PE McQ style, but so far this new "real" teacher is placing herself in the same PE teaching league as McQ.

As noted by my last post, I made All State! I was the only one from QHHS this year, and possibly the first ever. It'll be tough, but I'm looking forward to it.

MacWorld Expo began yesterday with Job's announcement of the new MacBook (could they think of a stupider name?) and iMac with the new Intel Core Duo (talk about stupid names) chip. Pretty exciting for all those Mac freaks out there. CES was also last week, but apparently that was kind of a flop this year.

Links of the week:
-DIY lockpick...truly geek style made from an old toothbrush
-Update your XP look & feel...pretty smooth, I like it so far
-Glad I'm not at the U of Alabama...a glitch sent an email the every student telling them they were dropped
-And of course: 25 reasons to switch to Linux

I MADE IT!!!

I'm Back

No broken bones!
All limbs are fully attached, unlike this time last year.

Colorado was great. Between the cabin, snow, movies, reading, skiing, burning food, and 8x8's from in-n-out, it was truly an awesome trip. As requested, I posted some pics from the trip on my newly created Flickr. Check them out...some are self explanatory, others not so much.

By the time your reading this, there's probably a totally different feel to the blog. I found a new template, wrote in some changes (talk about an html headache), and whala: a new feel. Hope you like.

That's it for now...I'm gonna go enjoy the rest of my winter break doing my favorite activity:
absolutely nothing.

Happy New Year!

Off to Colorado...

I'm off to Colorado again with the whole family. We'll be up at the cabin for a few days of relaxing and skiing. Hopefully this year I'll return with all limbs attached and where they're supposed to be.

Hope you all had a great Christmas, and have a happy new year!

Merry Christmas!

Hope you have a great Christmas!

"Colombine Type Assault" Plotted at QHHS

LANCASTER, Calif. -- Two boys accused of seriously planning a "Columbine-" type attack on Feb. 14, Valentine's Day, at the 3,400-student Quartz Hill High School have been arrested, authorities said Friday.
An investigation began on Wednesday when a student contacted the vice-principal and said two former classmates were planning a "Columbine-type assault" on the campus, said Sgt. Darrel D. Brown, of the Lancaster Sheriff's Station. Read More...

Here's the frontpage story from the AV Press.

Pretty freaky stuff.

So Close...Yet So Far...

Welp, we lost Grand Champion by 1.6 points. Yes, 1.6. We beat 'em fare and square last week, so I guess we got what we wanted, but a Palmdale banner would have been nice. Oh well...there's always next year.

Finals next week. Grrr...don't remind me.

Three week winter break in one week! Yes! Remind me!

0% Christmas shopping completed. Compared with last years 0% at this time...we're right on schedule.

Only two weeks, then:

• Colorado!
• Cabin!
• Snow!
• Skiing!
• Christmas!
• Any other great thing I forgot!

Finally...somebody sat down and actually wrote out the difference between a Nerd and a Geek, and got it right. Maybe people will stop calling me a nerd, and get it right: I'm a Geek (and proud of it)!

Grand Champion...Almost

If a place known as Santa Monica didn't exist, we would have taken grand champion yesterday at the AV parade and field tournament. We did the best we've done in at AV in a long time...first in parade and second in the field. If we keep it up for next week, (and my rank learns how to flippin guide...but that's a rant for another time) we're looking at Palmdale grand champion, so hopefully I'll have the same title next week sans the 'almost'. It was a long, cold (make that extremely cold and windy) yet, as always, fun day.

Only two weeks of school left! That's the good news, the bad news is only one week before finals. Argh.

You know all those annoying Microsoft 'Send Error Report' windows? Well, you ever wondered what they do with them? Check it out...its pretty funny.

This site has all of the real games from the golden age of gaming. Tons of games from the 80s and early 90s. Lots of Nintendo and arcade games run right on the site... a great way to kill a few hours.

Tis all for now- see ya next week.

Black Friday

By far, one of my most favorite days of the year. This year was awesome. Karl and I got up at a quarter to four in the morning and waited in line at Best Buy for an hour. It was definitely worth the early morning wait; we both came out with a Sandisk Mp3 player and an external 160gig hard drive, together coming out to under $120. Pretty good, if I do say so myself.

Thanksgiving break was great...although I wouldn't complain it were just a wee bit longer. Hey...only 3 weeks until Christmas (oh...excuse me..."winter") break. You always know how a few days off are going to be by the first few hours. Tuesday afternoon I had a camera stuck up my nose and down my throat (laryngoscopy...always so fun), so you could tell it was gonna be a good one. My entire Mom's side of the family was here, plus my sisters and the guys that usually tag along with them. We had a good time, and it was a lot of fun.

The great mystery of why ketchup first will not come out, and then gushes out may be on the road to being solved. A very interesting read and examination of people with way too much time on their hands (sorta like me).

Welp, only 27 shopping days until Christmas...I better get to work.

Happy Thanksgiving

Have a happy turkey day!

Happy Button Day!

Yup...button day. Your guess is as good as mine. Too bad I missed National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day (Nov. 15). Hopefully this Saturday you won't have a bad Have a Bad Day Day.

Life trudges on as normal. Not too much new to report. This Friday will be loads of fun: Algebra II/Trig test, Spanish presentation, English quiz, and Chemistry test. Can't wait.

Apparently future Intel P4's will allow for multiple OS's to run simultaneously. Now that is just plain awesome. There's no other way to describe it. Do I see Vista, OS X, and Linux running simultaneously on one box in the future???

Check out the 200 gig Nano.

A province in central China has found a new way to get wanted criminals known in public: put their faces on playing cards.

Of course we can't forget the $130,000 truffle, the sparrow that knocked over 23,000 dominoes, and the first dog to get a prosthetic limb.

That should keep you busy a while.

1:43:03

One hour, forty three minutes. That was my official time on for the Santa Clarita Half Marathon that I ran on Sunday. I ran the 13 miles with Karl (my bro in law), and my dad. It was a lot of fun, and I think it may turn into a family annual event.

The night before (Sat.), band competed (well, maybe "played" is a better word) at the annual Heart Rampage at College of the Canyons. Although it was fun as it always is, we did pretty badly. Actually, we did really bad. Oh well, there's always next time.

I feel like ranting, so here goes:
I hate sitting in the front row. Not only is it in the front (which sucks for obvious reasons), but your right there where the teacher can see, breathe, spit, cough, sneeze, or whatever else they might do on you. Especially when they are sick. Thanks to a certain English teacher (who's really not all that bad as a teacher), I've been battling this cold for a week. Fun.

Happy 1st birthday, Firefox! May you live long, prosper, and continue to take back the web.

Just FYI- Clarkville is down for some odd reason. I'll get around to fixing whatever the problem is this weekend.

Well, off to prepare for my 15 hour day tomorrow. It's the last football game and everybody is riding the whole day out. Three day weekend coming up!

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

The fear of long words.

How ironic is that???

Overall, last week was a pretty decent week. No complaints besides the usual (school, hw, etc). A good weekend, too. Andi and Karl came up, and Karl and I ran (almost) 11 miles on Saturday. Oh the wonderful feeling of sore legs and crunching hips. Then my other sister had a pumpkin carving thing last night, so that was fun.

Next week is the Santa Clarita half! I'm running with Karl, so that's why I'll be a walking corpse on next Monday. That is, if I'm walking.

Dodger owner Frank McCourt decided to dump the guy responsible for purging practically the whole team last year providing for this year's pathetic close. That's right folks, Paul DePodesta is gone. It's about time.

In the spirit of Halloween, check out the Pumpkin PC. Some guy had way too much time on his hands.

Check out the first laptop ever. I gotta get a hold of one of those.

That's it for now.

100th Post

Yep, it's TCF number 100.
I think...I didn't actually count; I'm trusting blogger on this one.

We took 1st in our division the Apple Valley band competition yesterday, but no sweepstakes. Barstow was nice enough to take care of those for us. It was a very long (try 11 hours), yet fun, day.

Everything else in my life is pretty much the same, that is: busy. Very busy, but I'm still here, every Sunday and the occasional Wednesday. I'm really looking forward to a weekend...oh wait...we just had one. Oh well, there's always next week.

Mandriva Linux 2006 came out a few days ago. It's their latest big update to the OS since 10.0 came out a few years ago. I'll probably get around to installing it over Thanksgiving break.

For those you still in Redmond, check out the top ten reasons to switch to Linux.

On that note, happy 20th birthday, Windows! PC Mag had a special this month...it was really interesting (for some of us at least) to see how it all developed from Windows 1.0 to the upcoming release of Vista.

Well, that wraps up the 100th post.

The Video Ipod

It happened. Apple released a video ipod. Only 5 weeks after the nano, here comes the fifth generation ipod. Check out all of the new specs.

I went to Vegas last weekend to see Andi and Karl (my sister and bro in-law). It was a lot of fun...we went to a renaissance fair, Fremont Street, and of course, Fry's. I ran with Karl on Sunday and was actually able to keep up; we did 7 miles in under an hour, which is pretty cool.

Check out the 100 most requested/downloaded fonts. Pretty awesome.

I'm beat, so that's about it for now...while you run out to buy your $50 1gig flash drive, I think I'll take a nap.

Wednesday's Wanderings

Time for a quick Wednesday update/break in the middle of conjugating 50 verbs (in three tenses each, folks) for Spanish. Argh. It would have been nice to know it was due tomorrow.

Band played at homecoming last Friday. It was pretty fun, minus playing "When you wish upon a star" 20 times at half-time. Of course I was as close as you could get to the court thing, so I'm in the background of all the stupid pictures. Joy. I also got to loan my clarinet to some guy named Clark who graduated in 02 so he could play with pep band...so that was cool.

Is there a video ipod coming soon? According to Engadget and a BBC slip there is. I think it's sort of stupid for Apple to come out with a video ipod while the regular ipods still so successful. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

If anybody watched Tuesday's "My Name is Earl", did you catch the easter egg? Too bad if you like me and don't have HDTV. It's pretty cool/funny. Check it out.

MIT's $100 Laptop

This thing is absolutly amazing. Not only is this laptop insanely cheap, but its design is very well thought out. The battery doubles as a handle and the shoulder strap is the power supply and plug. When you run low on battery, you can even hand crank power. And that's not all...check out the article for more info. When these things come out in late 06, I'll be first in line.

The Zombies are Attacking...

Another uneventful week in the can. It actually rained on Tuesday to the great surprise and celebration of everybody. That was nice...I could go for more, but it doesn’t look like it too soon. Although, Thursday was the first official day of fall, so off we plunge into that time of year.

We had our field exhibition show last night at QHHS. It was pretty fun, and we actually did half-way decent. Only one more drill left to learn and a massive amount of cleanup and we might actually know the show.

Hope I didn't freak you out with the title, because it actually does tie in. A high school student was arrested Tuesday for plotting a scheme to "raise a zombie army and attack his high school." Wonderful.

If that wasn't enough Zombie news for you, here's a simulation of what would happen if the world was suddenly attacked by zombies. Shouldn't we be putting our recorces in to planning naturl disasters, instead 'zombie attacks'???

Even though it looks like it, apparently you can’t snap the new ipod nano in half, but you can apparently scratch the screen up pretty good. Check out the chronicles of the screen scratch truama.

Microsoft's goal with the upcoming Windows Vista is for the system to "start and shut down as quickly and reliably as a television, typically within 2 to 3 seconds." Wow. That's fast.

Talk Like a Pirate Day

Ayyy Matey

Avast, me hearties-
Tomorrow is International Talk Like a Pirate Day!
Arrr...just letting you know early, so you can greet everyone correctly.
Avast- I'm off.

Driving School and 16 gig Flash Drives

Sounds like some sort of twisted horror movie.

Not too much new in my world. I had my first driving lesson last week. No casualties yet, so I guess I'm doing pretty good so far. My instructor guy was good ol' Bud at Adrian’s Driving School- the biggest dump on that side of Lancaster, but I'd never have it any other way. That place is pretty awesome (especially to a junk hoard like me).

School continues to play the wonderful part of Dante's Inferno on this rotating spherical habitat on which we reside. Homework arrives by the craploads, but it's all good. Not really, but oh well.

We had our first field show performance last week. "They" said it looked "good". There's room for improvement...trust me. I think our next performance is the exhibition show on the 24th.

16GB flash drives? Yup, Samsung is going to start shipping them next year.

The new i-pod nano is shipping. It's thinner than a pencil with 4GB of flash memory and a color screen. Not that I'm endorsing it or anything. Now with our 16GB flash drive (see above) we may see something every interesting in the future...

An 85 year old grandmother in Nebraska leapt out of a plane the other day. She kept her promise to sky dive on her 85th birthday. Wow. Let's just hope my grandma doesn’t get any ideas (those in my family are now cringing at the thought).

That's all for now folks.

I'm Street Legal

Well, folks, it's happened. I passed the written DMV test. I have a learner's permit. I can legally operate a motor vehicle (under supervision). If that's not a scary thought, I don't know what is.

The test had 46 questions, and you can miss up to 8. I was shooting for a perfect score (just to annoy everybody), but missed two. Darn those freeway exit lanes and marked extended cargo regulations.

I go for my first behind the wheel training thing on Sunday. Quite frankly, I'm dreading it.

A big happy birthday is in order for one of my best friends:
Google is 7 years old!!!
If Google were a person, they would have started elementary school late last summer (around August 19), and today would have just finished the first grade. Awesome indeed.

Give Katrina Victims $1 for Free

It might not be much, but I'm sure every little bit counts. Since I know a lot of us can't really do much, this is kind of neat. Click here, look in the lower right corner, check the box and click donate. Way to go, Clorox for sponsoring something like this. Spread the word!

Back to Reality...

School started last Monday.
Need I say more?
Back to annoying teachers, long days and homework. Joy.

We're making slow, painful progress on the show in band. It's a pretty hard show, but we've got some of it. I think the first game we play at is on the 9th.

The new Walmart Super-Center opened today. Louis and I had a plan: we were going to wait in line to get in opening day, run in, grab a stick of gum, buy it, and become their first customers ever. Too bad school started so early this year.

Ever wonder what happens when some guy with too much time on his hands buys a chunk of pure sodium off ebay and attempts to blow it up any way possible? Check it out.

Microsoft released beta 1 of Windows Vista (the next version of Windows). It looks to have some cool new features, but doesn't quite look like the original Longhorn was supposed to. You can watch a video review by Patrick Norton here, or read the PC Mag review here.

The Worlds Largest tomato fight started in Spain. Every year tens of thousands of people hurl thousands if tomatoes at each other. Sounds pretty fun.

Three day weekend coming up! I'll try to update then

The Dreaded Return to School

Not to depress you or anything, but only one (half by now) day of freedom left. I guess it’s back to it tomorrow. Oh well. Only 180 days of school left till summer again.

QHHS band camp was last week. Hot and hectic as usual, though it was nice seeing everybody again. This year we’re doing the Incredibles field show. The music is fun, sorry to say I can’t quite say that much for the actual show. I’m sure it will get better once we actually get it down (which, at the rate we’re going, will be a while yet).

Here’s a scary prospect for you: I could be driving in a few weeks. I’ve been taking an online driver’s ed class the past few weeks (not by choice, mind you) and just passed the final. I should get the certificate in a few days, and within a week or two take the DMV test. I find the whole idea very disturbing at this point.

Google Earth came out with a new version a few days ago. It has updated images and improved resolution for most major cities (and Area 51…go figure).

Obsure site for the week: Facts on Farts: “Everything you ever wanted to know about farting. From where the gas comes from to why it stinks. It is quite a technical explanation and is sure to answer almost every question you've ever had about flatulence.”

Great.

That’s all for now. If I’m not plagued with HW (argh), I’ll try to get on next week.

396306

http://counter.li.org/

I'm Still Alive...

Sorry folks, I didn't die. The starvation almost took me, but I survived the vegetarian diet. I just got back from a week at the Wildwood Music Institute thing. It was a lot of fun; I got to play in a bunch of ensembles, a woodwind quintet, and an orchestra among many other things (try 8 hours of playing each day). It was especially nice to be with others who were serious when playing, but geekishly dorky like me when they're not. It was a really cool experience, and I'm looking forward to going again. If I ever get around to it, I might post some mp3's.

Back here in reality, there's not much going on. LCLC Productions is announcing Re-Revolution coming soon. More details to come when we figure them out.

Just in case you were worried about the slowing of the earth's rotation, have no fear because an extra second will be added to 2005 to accommodate for that. I can just see the y2k mess starting all over again...

Depressed because there's not more Star Wars? Don't worry, not one, but two, Star Wars TV spin-offs are on the way.

This is the coolest pop-up you'll ever see. I'm still trying to figure how they made the window resize. You might have to do it in IE, and make sure you enable pop-ups temporarily if you have SP2 installed.

That's it for now...more shall come as soon as I'm bored enough to feel obligated to update.

Coming Soon...

Nice work, Mitsch
Check out the LCLC Blog

Google Earth

For those who haven't already found it, you have to try Google Earth. It's one of the coolest little apps I've ever seen. It is a satalite imagry program based off of Google Maps, but the images and interface are amazing. So, give it a try.

Of course with every new application comes hacks, too. Be sure to check out Google Earth Hacks, you can find almost anything from Donald Trump's house to in flight cruise missiles in the middle east. You can eaisly burn hours finding anything and everything.

In case you happen to be wondering, Google Moon exists also. Be sure to zoom in all the way to discover what the moon is really made out of.

I'm Back

We got back from Colorado a few days ago, and no, I did not go skiing. It was nice to relax, enjoy the sky and enjoy the music of the Aspen Music Festival. I got to hear Josh Bell play, and got him to sign a program, so that was pretty cool. Well, only 5 more months before more Colorado sky (and Grandma's food)...I can't wait.

Driving past Death Valley on the way home was a tad warm to say the least. Try 126° F. I have proof if you need it.

I picked up my copy of the 6th Harry Potter on Sunday and just finished reading it today. It was good, but definitely not my favorite. It was a little darker and had more "undesired fluff" than the previous five. I still can't believe what happened towards the end. For those yet to/still reading, prepare for some mourning. Overall I'd say it was pretty good.

On the LCLC front, we are, ah-hem, still working out some kinks. Stay tuned for more.

That’s it for now, but I'm dead bored so expect more soon.

Off to Colorado

We'll be starting off to Colorado later today for a week. I'll try to get online and maybe post some pics. See ya'll later.
`Clark

Happy 4th

New Movie Coming Soon

LCLC met at Barns & Noble on Saturday to organize our next movie. Production on our next film will begin on Tuesday. I'm not sure if I can relase too many details now, but stay tuned to the LCLC Blog for more to come.