Crazy-busy-awesome week

Wow, I'm exhausted....

Lat Friday was the high school awards banquet. It was fun hanging out with most of the other senior guys, laughing at Coach Walker. I got the English award, which is surprising because I usually fall asleep in that class about once a week. Plus, when she asks if we liked a certain poem/short story/book I usually bluntly say no. Maybe she thinks I'm joking. :P  Also, I got the John Philip Sousa Band Award again! Now Geoff Adams won't be the only one on the plaque twice! Mr. Pollard got the President's Service award, which I think he definitely deserved. He's spend most lunch periods practicing with jazz combo, early Friday mornings with jazz band, and lots of afternoons with whoever needs to practice with him. He's a really great director.

After the banquet, I left to go on my last campout with my Boy Scout troop at Pedernales Falls State Park. We left my house at about 11 p.m., took about 8 wrong turns because Google maps told us to go through private property with "no trespassing" signs, and a cop we asked gave us bad directions too. We got there at about 3:30 a.m. and took a nap in the car. Then my mom left, and I set up my tent and slept. Shortly after waking up, it started raining, so a couple friends and I sat in my tent and played cards. Then, while it was still raining, we went and hiked around on some rocks, got completely soaked, and had a great time. We got back to the campsite, ate a cold lunch (cuz we were too lazy to cook grilled cheese), and I took a nap. :)   Then, since it had been raining all day, we packed up our stuff to leave. We went on one more little hike, drove to Dairy Queen(a tradition) and went home.

Sunday afternoon, I went to Lake Travis for my Youth Group's end of the year party. Mini golf, boat riding, swimming, and water balloon fights ensued. Fun was had by all. I threw ice at a priest(Father Rusty) who threw ice back. :P

Today(Friday), most of the seniors went to Six Flags, which was fun. I was thoroughly exhausted by the time I left. When I got home, I left to go perform at Brentwood's first annual "Jazz Under the Stars." Jazz combo played a bunch of songs, most of which we didn't know very well, the full jazz band played 3 songs, and jazz combo played some more. It was really fun, and everyone I talked to really enjoyed it. StuCo did a great job organizing it, and I think we raised nearly $1,000 for the band!

I have now finished my last year of Youth Group(except for one more retreat), my last Boy Scout campout(except possibly working a BSA summer camp), my last day of school(except for review days and 1 final), and my last BCS band performance. College seems ever closer,which is really exciting and daunting. I'm usually the type of person who sticks with the way this are because they are comfortable and predictable. Now I'm getting ready to leave my school of 9 years and my house of 15... overwhelming...

Owl Days

Tuesday after school I went to Rice for Owl Days, an event at Rice for students who have been accepted. I got there around 8 p.m., went to see a one-act, then hung out in the Jones 3rd-south lobby till about 1 a.m. which was fun.

Wednesday I checked in to Owl Days then followed Alex to his Thermodynamics class. The professor was cool, but I understood almost nothing he talked about. As I followed him and his friends to their Mechanical Engineering class, I mentioned that I'd kinda like to go to a class that I might understand. They then started saying that I should go to Gao's class because he's awesome. As they started explaining how to get there, someone pointed at a middle-aged Asian man carrying a box and said, "That's Gao, just follow him." which I did against my better judgment. I understood absolutely nothing he said because it was multivariable calculus. I guess that showed me not to trust Alex. Ever.

After lunch I went and heard about their engineering program and got a tour of all the engineering buidings. Then I did an official campus tour and heard about Study Abroad and Pre-Professional programs.

Then I went to Martel, ate dinner, and hung out with my host, Max, who was also the campus tour guide I was with. Then I went to see the Philharmonics(Phils for short) who are a really awesome a capella group. They did arrangements of all sorts of songs, including Aretha Franklin. At the end, they said they were going to do "Africa" by Toto as their big finale, and then proceeded to Rick-Roll us. It was awesome! Then, they actually sang "Africa."

After the Phils, I went to see Spontaneous Combustion (SpoCo), an improv comedy group. They basically do the same things as on "Whose Line is it Anyway," and they were hilarious. At 11 p.m. I went down to the Martel quad and played dodgeball until midnight. Then I went back to Max's room, played Halo 3 and watched Dr. Who, and went to sleep.

Thursday morning I went with Max's roommate Chris to a philosophy class, which was pretty interesting(and I actually understood what the prof was saying!). Then it was back to the room for more Halo 3. Then, I packed my stuff, took the metro rail to the Greyhound station, and took a bus home.

Nature Poem

Since we've been talking about William Wordsworth, the "nature poet," in my English class, we went on a nature walk on Monday. I wrote a poem, if it can be technically called that. I just did the last 5 lines, but everything before that was just spur-of-the-moment. I might make a version that rhymes at some point.



The symphony of birds and wind
Among the pillars of trees, the vaulted ceiling of leaves;
Rushing rivers, vast oceans, towering peaks,
Endless deserts, bottomless canyons;
Our beautiful blue sphere
Hurtling around the sun;
Countless stars, infinite planets
Across unimaginable distance
I am tiny, a speck of dust.
I am meaningless, unnoticed.

And yet, I stand a behemoth among the grass;
A tiny pillbug makes its way between my feet.
Pebbles are as boulders,
Mounds are mountains, ruts the greatest canyons.
A grassy field is as a ceaseless, ancient forest.
A pile of rubbish, branches and logs,
A hidden world all its own.
Fallen leaves a massive canopy; vast, unreachable,
Shelter from the sun and storms.
A hill drops off into a whole new world:
Dry to moist, light to darkness.
A whole world beneath my feet,
I am too big, too important to notice, to care.

I am the tiny speck of dust lost in the infinite universe.
I am the behemoth above the world in the grass and dirt.
I am man.

TAPPS

Today was my last TAPPS district band/choir contest. Brentwood did really well. Anything rated "1" goes to state, and the only things that got 2's were one of my trombone trios and the Jr/Sr girls' choir. That means that, at state, I will be competing in concert band, sight-reading, jazz band, jazz combo, a trombone trio, and a percussion quintet. Woohoo! I had a blast, even though I had to be at school at 6:30 a.m. and didn't finish unloading everything back at Brentwood until 7:30 p.m.

All-Region Band and Saving Lives

Last Friday and Saturday I went to the ATSSB All-Region Band Clinic and Concert. It was awesome! Our director was Robert W. Smith, a pretty famous composer. He was a great director and was pretty funny, though a bit long-winded. :P Our finale was a song he composed called Inchon, dedicated to his father and other veterans of Korea and Vietnam. It was based around a Korean folk song which Polly and Lucy Park know, which was pretty cool. There were some great sound effects, like using timpani heads to sound like helicopters, which actually worked really well. Inchon is definitely my favorite song that I've ever performed.

On Wednesday I donated blood for the first time. A big tye-dye bus came to Brentwood and most of the seniors gave blood, along with a few junior and teachers. It wasn't too bad, though it was kinda weird because I could feel the needle going into my vein. Plus I got a free tshirt and some food. That's right, I'm a hero. Saving lives one pint at a time!

So, the Superbowl is tomorrow, and as usual, I really don't care who wins. Football is overrated. Once they make professional ultimate teams, let me know.

Homecoming Week

Last week was Homecoming week. Yes, it is during basketball season due to the lack of a Brentwood football team. (Hence, when we were all making posters for the gym, I made one which said, "BRENTWOOD FOOTBALL STILL UNDEFEATED.") The week's costume theme was "Fun and games," and I worked hard on my costumes. I was a domino on Monday, pirate on Tuesday(Josh Porter's twin), and Pacman on Wednesday. Well, I once again didn't win any of the prizes at the end of the week, though I've tried hard almost every year. I'm not sure whether StuCo just doesn't like me or the universe just doesn't like me. :P

Friday night I went to Chris Williams' birthday party. Once everyone got there at about 8:30, we drove some cars out to an empty field behind the farm (his family runs a farm), and played the most epic game of ultimate ever. It was completely dark except for he 3 cars' headlights, about 40 degrees, and we were playing shirts vs. skins. It was awesome. It was so awesome, in fact, that my frisbee didn't survive the game. :P

Unfortunately, I needed to actually sleep at Chris' house since Saturday was the first of 2 Super Senior Celebrations. This is an event where the seniors each have 2 classmates and a parent talk about them, interspersed with delicious food. We also wrote notes to each other ahead of time and some of the parents put them together into scrapbook type things. As cheesy as this sounds, it was a really great experience. A few people have been going to Brentwood since Pre-K, and even those who came recently are really close to the rest of the class(with a few exceptions of course). Our entire class is only 38 people, so I've gotten to know most people really well, even those I'm not really friends with. There were lots of laughs and a few tears. I will definitely miss half of them half as much as I should like, and I like half of them half as much as they deserve.....

Wait, no, that's Lord of the Rings....

The Epicness of TSO

Well, on December 30th I got my splint off. I've noticed that my middle finger is noticeable shorter than it used to be. It's kinda weird. I didn't do anything special for New Year's Eve, but on New Year's Day I went to an annual party held by one of my dad's friends. I helped set up the pinata and laughed at kids who got hit in the head by the pinata after they hit it. :P

My dad got 4 tickets to last Sunday's (January 4th) Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert, and since Victoria didn't want to go, I invited Adam Cammack. It was undoubtedly the most EPIC thing I've ever seen. We were seated somewhere in the lower stratosphere, but that was kind of a good thing because it gave us a great view of all the lasers. It was the last show of the tour, so it lasted about 3 hours. One part, the lead guitar player(I think) introduced the 2 pianists, talked about how awesome they were, and let them show off for a few minutes. The first song they played was Toccata and Fugue, followed by some crazy jazz. This video of that part has terrible visual quality but decent sound, though it's only part of that section:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ-b-IOWl_U

There were also some 20 ft. tall jets of flame that changed colors, Flight of the Bumblebee played on electric guitar, and some more general epicness. I can't think of any better way to spend $25-$30 and plan to go at least once a year until they stop doing tours(if that terrible day ever comes).

Yesterday (January 10th) I went to the ATSSB All-State Band audition. I made 5th chair out of 11, but only the top 2 made it to state. I did, however, beat both of the people who beat me at the All-Region audition, which was cool.