Weekend?

Where did it go?

Friday was one of those famous 17 hour Football Fridays, followed by a competition on Saturday. We went to Simi and did ok. In most areas we got 3rd out of 4 in our division (all within a few points), but in music we got second highest overall. So that was kind of cool. To top it all off, I had to play with Bells this morning at 7. A few hours of homework later, here I am.

Andi, Karl and Matt were here this week. Matt was pretty hilarious...if you haven't seen the video, check out the short version (see last post), or full length. If you have seen it, go watch it again. It's worth it.

Well, both the Dodgers and Twins got swept in the first round of MLB playoffs. It's kind of ironic because both looked really great toward the end of the regular season. It's to bad...but I'm sure we'll get over it. Maybe.

This is a pretty cool image showing the "barrier between heaven and hell." It's kind of a neat, ironic occurrence in nature, if it's real, but I'm not too sure how real the photo is.

This site is pretty cool/creepy. Make sure you have audio on. It's described as "musical realization of motion graphics," that probably doesn't make much sense, but just read it on the site. Pretty cool stuff.

This guy took a picture of himself every day for 8 years and compliled it into a video. Interesting to see how much of a change there is. It gets pretty cool towards the end.

That's all for now...I think I'm gonna go sleep.

Laughing Matt

Dodgers Clinch the Playoffs

After sweeping both the Rockies and Giants, the Dodgers won the NL Wildcard. Looney looked pretty awesome on Thursday with 2 home runs (including a grand slam) and tying a franchise record 9 RBIs. Looney will be around for a while...the last game I went to I got him to sign a ball (my pic at lower right). Pretty cool stuff. Playoffs start Wednesday with the Dodgers at the Mets.

My weekly highlights include the Dodgers (of course), getting to play my Eb in the march, having an IV of Dextrose explode on me, finishing the field show, and Jon dropping his new Bluetooth headset in the toilet. Other than that, school is...well, school. And life is...life. I'm just continuing to trudge forward as usual.

Why they would put a rap questions on Jeopardy beats me. Maybe its just so we can laugh at Alex Trebeck trying to rap. Pretty funny/disturbing.

Leo Laporte (2006 Podcater of the Year) is making a move to change the name of Podcasting of the more accurate Netcasting. Since current Podcasting has really nothing to do with iPods, I think that's a good idea. Hopefully it works out.

Is the one and only time-waster Windows Solitaire rigged? Even though I've beaten it a lot (just try Alt+Shift+2), it's still an interesting idea that could be the child of bored Microsoft programmers. The video may be rigged, but still interesting.

Finally, this is one of the best political ad I've ever seen. And it's accurate, too. Pretty funny.

That's it for now...I have to go test out a toilet-washed headset.

Mac Mistakes and Airport Security

We'll, we've successfully completed 5 weeks of school. It seems like a lot longer, but oh well. Nothing too new this week. Just the same old stuff. We had our second football game on Friday which went halfway decent for us, and the football team actually won, so that's good.

I got recruited for the handbell choir at church, so that has been interesting. I wouldn't exactly call myself a natural, but I'm surviving so far. We had our first "performance" this week which went pretty well.

On Saturday I saw The Price Duo at AVC. Dr. Price (the clarinet dude) and his mom played. It was pretty amazing/degrading/motivating...all at the same time.

See that Dodger game this afternoon? Tie game, bottom of the 9th, bases loaded, 2 out and Garciaparra knocks one out. Pretty sweet...now let's see if they can keep it up.

Here's a guaranteed way to ensure your luggage doesn't get lost. Just pack a starter pistol and register your luggage with a firearm. They're gonna make sure they don't lose it. Pretty slick idea.

On the same topic of airport security, here's a time waster where you can be the TSA. It's a fun little (addicting) game. Enjoy.

I haven't done some Mac bashing in a while, so I don't feel too bad about this. Everybody has seen the videos of XP crashing under Bill Gates, so here's some clips from Apple Conferences where things didn't exactly go as planned, or just didn't work at all. Pretty funny.

Finally, our quote of the week:
"Rap is an incomplete word without the 'c'"

Well said Mr. McQ.

The Band Plays On...

It's marching season again.

We had our first football game on Friday. We did as well as we could. It was really weird: I noticed when we were marching that the crowd kept cheering...at a football game. That's quite...rare. Then it hit me, they were cheering for our new freshman prodigy baton twirler guy. That dude is pretty amazing. It's good to know that things haven't changed too drastically.

Then the next day we had a 3 hour morning practice followed by the exhibition show, to further prove the weekend dominated by band. The practice went surprisingly well, even with me adopting the entire low brass section since their leaders were mysteriously missing. The show that night went pretty bad. At least that's how I felt, but I'm told it was halfway decent. It was a pretty fun evening and Matt's fan club finally got to meet him.

The new ipods came out last week. And not to disappoint they are, you guessed it, smaller! It seems that whole Steve Jobs "ipod pequeno" SNL skit is coming true. iTunes 7 also came out with some newfeaturess and a new UI.

AMD teamed up with Streamload and is offering 25 GB of free online storage. Not only is it storage, but you can share media, and even use it as a hosting service. Pretty sweet.

For our baseball fans out there (ahem...Karl), here's some 1864 baseball. It's a pretty hilarious Conan O'Brien clip. It's kind of long, but worth the watch.

That's it for now...

Introducing The Donut Bacon Cheeseburger!

Now, doesn't that look appetizing.
Don't forget to wash it down with some deep fried coke.
Yummy.

Now that you are thoroughly sick to your stomach (with disgust or hunger?), we can move on. Last week was pretty nice in terms of school (or lack thereof), Monday off, short Wednesday, short Thursday, and the normal Happy Friday. I'm afraid this week won't be quite as short and sweet, but I'm sure we'll live.

This coming Friday is the first home football game, and Saturday is the annual QH Field Preview Show. Despite the fact we lack uniforms and 2/3 of the field show (and probably will acquire neither by Friday), it should still be pretty cool. It's marching season again!

Just for clarification: the picture above my name at the top of the page is not me. It's Matt. I know there was a bit of confusion there, so I hope that clears it up.

Here's some pretty cool paper cut art. I've never really seen anything like it before...it has to be pretty time consuming, but looks really cool.

The next huge fad: light emitting shirts. Those look pretty awesome, except Wired says you have to carry a battery back around. Anyway, the idea is interesting...I wonder if it will ever take off.

If the thought of deep fried cola didn't make you dizzy enough, here's a site with a bunch of different optical illusions. A good time waster.

That's it for now...go find yourself one of those delectable 1000 calorie donut bacon cheeseburger.

OK Go

Pretty cool...thanks to Karl for the link.

Life on the Trolley

I write as I prepare to embark on my 4th AV Fair Trolley experience this year. Yes, 4. Don't ask me how, but I'll soon be beginning trolley hour number 10. The previous 9 have been fairly uneventful with only one security "incident" (sort of). Other than that it was a pretty normal week: school, band, homework, and sleep (if I'm lucky). This coming week should be pretty good...no school Monday (happy Labor Day folks), and short days Wednesday and Thursday. Nice.

R.I.P. Steve Irwin. Early this morning, the one and only "Crocodile Hunter" was killed doing what he loved best...chasing dangerous animals. He truly loved what he did, it's a shame.

Talk about modern art: "99 Wolves Crashing into a Wall" was put on display in Berlin. The 99 life size wolves follow the pack into a glass wall. Interesting.

Along with many reasons you will never find me on a carnival/fair ride (ahem...carnies), here's just one more. This is a video of a kid almost falling off one of those "ejection seat" type rides. As he's being held on by his chin, the lady next to him looks over and starts laughing. At least he didn't actually fall off.

Finally, our stupid person of the week. What do you do when your Western Bacon Cheese burger isn't made correctly? Call 911 of course. Some people in this world amaze me. Well handled by the call taker.

Off I go to ride a trolley!

Train

Matt and the crew (that would be Karl, Andi, Weeze, Jon, my Dad, and me) saw the band Train open the fair Friday night (ok, maybe Matt didn't go, but the "crew" did). It was a really cool show, but it was too bad that there we're a lot of empty seats. On the other hand I guess it was good for us because we could spread out a little bit and attempt to avoid some of our overexcited "AV's finest." I took about 120 pics, but being it an outdoor concert setting only about 10 turned out. I'd upload more to my fickr, but I already busted my bandwidth limit.

Band marched in the AV Fair Parade on Saturday. I think it's better known as the "AV Fair Death Walk/Run (or swim towards the end...in sweat)." It was really hot. And early. But other than that it turned out pretty good.

Thought your myspace was as safe as it gets, just because your little profile is "private?" Think again. Not that this is anything new, but its just another one of my disgruntled attacks on social networking.

In the midst of the Global Warming craze, here's something on the other side that you never saw coming: Global Cooling has begun. Probably just about as accurate as myspace is safe, but an interesting read regardless.

Here's an old clip from that show Family Feud. I see it on TV sometimes, and some of the responses are so stupid I wonder how those people actually make it on TV. This clip is great; the host loses it and even asks the lady how she made it on the show. Gotta love Family Feud.

That's it for now...I'm going to go enjoy my free Starbucks.

Free Starbucks

Print out the coupon, and you can get a free Starbucks iced coffee through September. Enjoy!

Back to School

Well, we've been back to it for a week now, and I don't know about you, but I'm ready for summer. Too bad I'll have to wait about 9 months. For anybody curious I'm taking Anatomy/Physiology, Symphonic Band, AP English Lang & Comp, IB Math Methods, AP US History, and IB Music. I had the choice of IB Music or IB Physics for 6th period, and considering that sanity is a good trait to keep, I decided to go with Music.

Band played at the Jethawks last night. I thought we sounded sort of anemic, but apparently you couldn't hear us too well so what did come out was somewhat decent. I got to play tenor in pep band also, which was cool. We stayed the whole game (and saw Craig Counsell on a rehab assignment)...it was pretty fun.

Anybody going to see Snakes on a Plane? Whether or not its supposed to be a comedy (hopefully not...that would make it all the better) it looks to be pretty hilarious. Samuel L. Jackson...he's quite the "interesting" character. What's next...Elephants on a Bus? Bigfoot in Space? (My thanks to the Kemper for those).

Here's a cool slideshow of some well known "pictures that lie". They were actually unknowingly photoshoped and published. Interesting stuff.

TechTV is coming back? Apparently UndoTV sees a future as starting up new, organized tech programming. If it all falls into place, it should be pretty cool.

Here again is yet another example of when a liberal editing wiz gets bored. Check out Evil Bush's State of the Union. Pretty funny watch.

Question of the week:
What are Adam's Apples made of?
Just curious.

America

My dad and I saw the band America play at the Marie Kerr Ampatheater last night. It was a pretty cool show despite the wind. Here are a few pics I took (before getting kicked out of the front) and there is some audio (should open in a new window). Enjoy!

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.