7th graders and tuba solos

Wow, I've been posting a lot. My life isn't usually this exciting...

Monday morning I was at Brentwood at 6:30 a.m. to leave for Camp Buckner. I was a counselor on the 7th grade retreat along with Colleen, Catherine, Ben, and Jay. Each of us had a group of 9-10 7th graders and a teacher sponsor. I was with Mrs. Morin, and our "low ropes" team-building exercise was disaster. We were attempting group juggling, and most of the guys were completely uninterested and wouldn't cooperate. After lunch, we found out that one of the groups would have to be split up because there were only 4 high ropes courses. My group split up, which worked out pretty well. During the high ropes, I was amazed at how far some of these kids were willing to push themselves. The first one we did, we had to walk across a steel cable only holding onto ropes hanging from above us. This wouldn't have been too bad, but they were pretty far apart, making it hard to grab onto the next one. Our instructor was Robert, an 50-ish black guy who was about 6'4." When we were preparing to climb and going through the commands, whenever we said, "Climbing," instead of saying, "Climb on," he would say, "Climb on witcha' bad self." For some reason, this entertained me to no end, and I doubt I'll ever forget it. Next was "The Screamer," which was a 40 foot high pole. The whole group would pull a rope to pull you to the top of it, then you would let go of the rip-cord and swing toward the other pole. This was the easiest, but most fun. That night, I led a devo for the guys in my cabin, which had me really nervous. Shockingly, all 10 of them stayed quiet for the whole time. Tuesday morning after breakfast, we did the other 2 ropes courses. First, we did the "Power Pole" which was a 30-foot pole with rungs on it. We had to climb up, stand on the top,(which was about a foot across) and jump to a trapeze bar. I was really proud of Co Ho, who stopped climbing before he got to the top and said he was coming down, but when we cheered him on, he eventually made it, jumped, and grabbed the bar. Unfortunately, I got one foot on the top, lost my balance, and fell. The next course was a 30-foot high balance beam, which Mike Lee and I crossed blindfolded. Good times.

After getting back to Austin, I went to UT for a tuba recital by Oystein Baadsvik, one of the best tuba players on earth(www.baadsvik.com). He played Carnival of Venice at a speed that would have been really impressive on piccolo. Then, as the second encore, he played Fnugg. Fnugg is so awesome, it cannot really be explained. It must be witnessed. Fortunaltely for those of you who weren't cool enough to be at the recital, a really good arrangement of Fnugg is on Youtube. Listen carefully and you will hear that he is singing through the tuba while playing.(multiphonics)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHMyrhilkdo

There is also a good recording of Carnival of Venice played by Baadsvik on Youtube.

Another strange story from Ninja Pirate

Yesterday I found out that one of our regular customers, Bo,(or Beau or Bow or something) had, for no apparent reason, set Brandon's(another regular) beard on fire. It was caught on the store's cameras and he spent about a week in jail. I'm not sure when(or if) the trial is. When people asked Brandon why Bo/Beau/Bow did it, he responded, "because he's a douchebag."

Oh what a strange world we live in.

Start it off with something deep

Just as a disclaimer, I will likely be "thinking out loud" a lot of the time, so please don't start arguments. I like to throw out a lot of "what if's."

I decided to start a blog for various reasons. I don't really feel like writing all of them. Based on past experiences, I will either lose interest in this within a few hours/days/weeks, or become obsessed and post blogs 12-30 times a day. :P

One recent thing that made me want to start this was something that happened while I was at work on Saturday. I work at a comics and games store called Ninja Pirate, for those of you who don't know (http://www.ninjapirateland.com/)

It was about 6:30 when Chris Duran, one of the regulars at the shop showed up at with his face and arm covered in blood and bruises. A middle aged woman, who none of us knew, was frantically helping him keep pressure on his head while asking for paper towels. I rushed to get some, and she explained that she had driven up in front of the Subway(a few doors down) to see Chris on the ground, surrounded by 5 or 6 guys, and being beaten up by one of them. She yelled at them, causing them all to jump into their pickup truck and speed off. While Amy(one of the store owners) was calling 9-1-1, Chris was saying that he didn't even know the guys. He just looked at them and they jumped him. As far as we could guess, they were probably racist rednecks who attacked him just because he's hispanic. Soon, a fire truck, ambulance, and police car showed up. They checked Chris out, saying that he would need a few stitches, and took him to the hospital. One of the witnesses gave the police a description of the truck and the liscense plate number, and there was soon a helicopter circling in the direction they had driven. Apparently, several other similar incidents had happened that day, probably all the same guys.

There are several things from that incident that really made me think. First, I was stunned that people could be so cruel as to beat up someone based on race. They may have just been drunk or complete idiots, but with this financial crisis, they may be going through hard times, and wanted someone to take out their anger on. It doesn't excuse their actions, but if things keep getting worse, I wonder if we may see more incidents like this all over the country. History class discussions of the Holocaust came to mind. If we really go into a depression, people will get desperate. I can see how an inspirational leader like Hitler could convince his people that if they just got rid of the Jews, their lives would get better. People like to find scapegoats for their problems, rather than just accepting that life isn't fair and trying to make the best of their crappy situations. One very true cliche which I like very much is this: "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Don't go around throwing lemons at people who aren't the reason you have them.

The second thing is that I was amazed at the kindness of that woman. She saw someone who needed help, and she did whatever she could to help him. She stayed for half an hour, helping him clean up, talking to the firemen, police and paramedics, and trying to contact his dad. I also have a new appreciation for firemen, policemen, and paramedics. After seeing them in action, showing so much kindness and care to that traumatized young man made me realize the truth in another cliched saying: they are the real heroes. That kind of selfless kindness, from them and that woman, gives me more faith in humanity, especially after something like that.

On a much simpler, less profound note, head wounds bleed a lot! No kidding. If he hadn't gotten direct pressure on the wound so quickly, he probably would have passed out and needed a blood transfusion, all from a cut that will only need a few stitches.

Please pray for Chris, for physical and emotional healing, but also pray for the guys that did this terrible thing to him, for whatever reasons they did it.