8.01.03- Eleven more days until school starts up.. I'm freaked out. I'm already halfway through high school... I'm out in the real world in the time it took to get from beginning of freshman year to now. Wow. Hard to think. It's been a while since I've done an actual blog (most of these things have been little updates for the band and what not. Ack. My dad got a new desk and found a bunch of old stuff, like my yearbook from fifth grade, some cool pictures of me at the beach in the summer before eighth grade. Lol, he even got one of my cat when she was like a little tiny baby.. not like now where her gut drags against the floor. But our cats are cooler than your cats. Miau! Anyway, band camp has worn me out for the day, so I plan to get off of here in about ten minutes, but will probably end up staying on here for another hour or two. Stupid lack of self-motivation.. I can't even put myself to bed. Man, am I going to miss all these days when I get to sleep in. Especially in two years.. *sigh*.

7.30.03- I talked to Kevin Frost a couple of nights ago, and he's doing really well (for those of you who don't know who he is, he is a composer/trombone player who went to CHS last year and wrote some really cool music). He sent several MIDI files of new songs he's written, and each of them are very cool, so I've put them in the "mp3s" section. If you're in a hurry or something, at least listen to the song called "Peace in Time", which is really awesome. 24 sets are down on the marching field, and we're kicking butt. The closer should be printed out and ready to play tomorrow, at least Mr. Jackson is trying for that. Anyway, I'm tired. I feel like going to sleep now.. and it's only like 7:00. Maybe I'll take a nap or something and wake up at like 2 AM. Yay.

7.29.03- Sorry for the lack of updates. As a consolation, I put up a ton of new mp3s and stuff... but I had to take a few off. Band is going extremely well; our drill is absolutely insane and our music is sounding wonderful. I'm hoping to take a few pictures with my video camera and then put them up on the site or something. Maybe even some video. If I can bum some more space off the host that I have (I've already filled up 50 MB) I might be able to put a bunch more stuff up here. Two of my favorite All-State mp3s are up, two Christian Lindberg mp3s (including the almighty "Flight of the Bumblebee") and a Duke Ellington piece with a killer T-bone feature. So check it out. Dag!

7.26.03- Today was fun. I went to the movies with a friend of mine (you can call it a date, I guess), and saw The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It sucked, really. But the whole meeting up with her was fun. I met her at Axis like a year and a half ago and we'd just been talking online for that whole time.. except I saw her at Central High's band comp. last year. It was good to see her again. Almost passed a song called "The Legend of Max" today on DDR.. pure craziness. Bar rape/barefoot. What's bar rape you ask? Lol, when you hold onto the bar with both hands behind you and put most of your weight onto your arms. Really hard and stuff. Wee. That's pretty much all that happened. Still no finished closer yet. Tomorrow it should be done for sure. See ya.

7.24.03- Wow.. band camp was amazing today. It was so great to see everyone after two months of.. well, not seeing anyone. This season bodes well, and I really think that we can make BOA finals this year if we keep it up. Coolness. So on a much different note, I finally found out why I'm not going to get my permit. This whole time I thought it had to do with my responsibility as a person.. so I talked to my dad about it. Apparently, insurance is a big deal with this type of thing, and it's really really expensive. So I'm sure there are other things that 150-200 dollars a month could be spent on. Man, I'm really tired! I'm going to go to sleep at like 9:00 tonight.

7.23.03- Today I went to Office Max and picked out a computer desk for my room. It's really nice, actually, and it holds a bunch of stuff. I put it together all by myself, and it took about 3 1/2 hours. Fun fun. Since Mr. Jackson hasn't finished Mvmt. III yet, I went ahead and put the unfinished version of it up on the site; it's in "mp3s" with the others. Band camp starts tomorrow for me (today was section leader/freshman/percussion/ colourguard day). I can't wait until tomorrow, although I should've practiced a lot more today so I wouldn't sound bad or anything. That's all that's up with me. Bye.

7.23.03 (1 AM)- Will someone please post on the forum?

El campo de banda starts tomorrow (Band Camp), and I'm really excited about how it's going to turn out. Unfortunately, I'm not going tomorrow, but the day after because my dad has to go to school and take a DANTES test. So today I cleaned up the house and Gracie came over at about 6:00. We watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail (she'd never seen it before, amazingly). Lol, there was absolutely no furniture upstairs, and so we had to sit against the wall for the entire movie. It wasn't too bad though. Eh.. still no Mvmt. III, but if he doesn't send me it tomorrow, I'll just put up what I have so far (I'm guessing 2/3 to 3/4 of the closer). So just hang tight. Later.

7.22.03- Hmm.. still no Mvmt. III. Mr. Jackson's moving from Lexington to Knoxville today though, so he's probably getting stuff settled in his new place. I did a ton of yardwork today, and I'm finally done. Not much else going on, but I'll let you all know when the closer's up. Later.

7.21.03: Later that.. early morning- It's 1:56 AM and I'm tired. I stayed up for three hours making a CHS Band Forum. It's finally up now. Also, I have part of Mvmt. III on my computer. It's just amazing. It's too bad all you guys will have to wait until he finishes it and sends it to me early tomorrow.. err.. today Keep checking in though, and post on the forums; it's for all you band geeks out there. Maybe I can get the whole band to be on the forums so that we all have a place to talk.. and stuff. Man.. I really do need to get to sleep, though. Night. Err.. morning. Eh... Me go sleep now.

7.20.03- I've recieved an update of the ballad already from Isolation, w/ the segway into the third movement. Just from the small segway part, I can tell that Mvmt. III is going to be very promising. The updated Mvmt. II is up now, and Mvmt. III should be up later tonight. So I have a feeling all the CHS band nerds are going to bookmark my site now, maybe I can finally get some more traffic coming here. Hola to anyone in the CHS band.. sign my tagboard or my guestbook! I'm back in Knoxville finally, home is good. Today I realized that I've only spent one night at home in the past two months. Isn't that sad? But I'm here for good now. My dad's going on this new low-carb diet because he's not of "ideal weight" for the military. Ideal weight in the military is nearly anorexic. Oh well. No more bread, pasta, or sugary stuff for him. But this diet is really great; everyone up in IL has been on it for a while.. my grandfather lost 30 pounds, my uncle lost 40, and everyone that's been on it has felt a ton better. So maybe this is a good thing. On the other hand, I get to eat all the stuff that he isn't going to eat, so maybe I can get some meat on my bones. We're eating a bunch of salad now, which I'm definitely okay with. I need to eat my veggies anyway so I can get my daily dose of vitamins.. and all that other nutritious bs, lol. Band camp starts in 3 days! Woo-hoo!

All blogs from 3/27-7/6 are posted here

7.19.03: Later that night- I now have two of the three MIDIs for the new show "Isolation". Check my mp3's section.. even though they are MIDI files. Understand that they are only for a basic idea of what notes are going to be played.. and it will sound much better when not played by computerized instruments. Mr. Jackson says that he will probably make many changes to it, and will send me the updated MIDI files each time he changes some stuff .. so I'll post them whenever he does. And tell you about it so you don't have to listen for any new random changes. Drive happy.

7.19.03- Last night, I was informed of some very awesome news about our band.. our new band director is writing an original show for us.. as in writing all new music and writing all new drill! The theme is going to be called "Isolation", and it's going to be a drum-corps style show. Hee hee, lotsa fast runs (2 to 5, let's go!), and other cool stuff. I wonder if we're going to dance. I don't want to steal the already-cliche drum break dance like the Cavies had in 2002, but maybe something new. As you can tell, this is pretty exciting. For some other news, I came up with a good idea that I hope my dad will let me do for next year. This whole summer, I've been trying to figure out whether I want to do Knoxville Youth Symphony Orchestra or Knoxville Youth Jazz Orchestra.. a very tough decision, and he won't let me do both, which is understandable. However, I think I may be able to do Youth Symphony the first semester, and both Youth Symphony and Youth Jazz the second semester. My second semester is a ton easier than the first, and by then I may have my license (outcome purely riding on my dad's shoulders for that one). So that's another thing that's going on. I'm ecstatic about the upcoming Marching Season now, and I just can't wait to see how this turns out.

7.18.03- I'm in Illinois up at my grandfather's house.. having a load of fun up here too. This whole summer has been nothing but goofing off and having a great time. I'm so glad I didn't sit at home and watch TV for two months. Today, we went to a skatepark in Decatur, which was pretty nice. Lol, I saw one EXACTLY like it in Ocean City, New Jersey, down to the crooked rails on the side. Landed some cool stuff today, including a really smooth christ air off a "flybox" (which was actually a 4' quarter connected to the deck of a halfpipe) and a sacktap which was really high (the trick is exactly what it sounds like). I should've gotten some pictures from my grandfather's digital camera, but I didn't think of it. That would've been kinda cool though. So we have some other ideas for the house too. Basically, we're done with all the basic stuff around the house which we've been trying to get for the past 4 years, and now we're getting to all the fun stuff we've always wanted. We're thinking about a ping-pong table, a mini-fridge, and some cool movie posters for the den. It's so great to be settled into a house. The ping-pong table is sounding better and better every time I think about it; we could put it in the garage, and we'd be able to use it whenever. Hehe, my house is going to be a cool place to hang out though. Our band director apparently has every single DCI video since 1985 in his collection.. I wonder if he'd let me borrow any of the good DVDs. With my setup, that would be pretty f-in cool. Band camp starts in less than a week, and I'm pretty stoked about it. I think the morale of the band is going to improve greatly with the new band director we've got. Well, that's all that's going on with me. I'll see everyone when I get back!

7.15.03- Holy crap. Man, did my dad suprise me when I got back today. So we're driving home from the airport, and then he says,"Oh yeah, I got you something in your room, nothing big, but you'll like it." I get home, look in my room, and I realize I have cable internet hooked up to my computer, which used to be downstairs and is now.. well, in my room. Was pretty stoked on that. So since he had plans on cleaning out the downstairs anyway, I was wondering what was down there, and so I went downstairs with him and said, "Hmm... wonder what's left of the room." He says,"Well, I'm just cleaning up, it's kinda messy now. I open the door, and there lies a 57" 1080i HDTV with surround sound, and a new metal DDR pad. You can't even imagine what my reaction was. And the thing was, it was his birthday today! Here's what suprised me after a while. All this new stuff took about two weeks to put together and wire and all that stuff. There is so much wiring through the house for stuff like this, it's not even funny. He did it all himself! Every bit of confusing cord was strung by him. He even routed our computers and put a line up into my room. Wow. It's amazing what boredom will push you to do, lol. I'm going to go play with all the new toys. Lalalalalala! *runs downstairs*

7.14.03- One day left in PA. Wonder how I'm going to spend it. I'm supposed to be trying to hang out with someone I met at the beach that lives around here, but we keep on doing the whole phone-tag thing. Dag. I did a basic fix on the links page. And did some more internet quizzes. After I get back from PA, I'm going to be in Knoxville for one day, and then I'm going to Illinois to visit my grandfather for a while. Must practice trombone!!! Well, I'll see you guys sometime soon. I miss everyone down in Knoxville.

7.13.03:later- Ok, didn't fix the links page, but I stole something from Megan's page that I really liked. The whole internet test idea. I feel bad that I use so many of her ideas. Lol, I wouldn't even have a site up if it hadn't been for her being like,"Oh yeah, there's this host that lets you have 50 MB of space for free." Ah well. I like it though. But I'll find some of my own web tests instead of using all of hers. Check out the new link. See ya.

7.13.03- Should I even bother telling about all the fun things that happened in Sea Isle? Nah. I think I might actually fix my links page today, instead of having a bunch of goofy pictures on it. But then again, how much fun would that be. Ok, fine, I'll fix it. Two more days up here, and I'm back in Knoxville. When I get back, I really gotta crack down on playing trombone for sure; only one week till band camp. Oh yeah, some good news for a change, though. A new skatepark is attempting to be developed in Knoxville or Alcoa. They're calling it Woodland skatepark. And if any of you guys from Axis remember a familiar name- Jamie Smith, of course- he will be managing the new park. Hehe, that's what I've been saying for a year now, he knows how a skatepark works, and he should manage it. If you wanna check out a site that's got a little bit of info about the whole thing, go to skateknox.port5.com/main.htm. Yeah, go there and talk on the forums. See ya.

7.12.03- And... I'm back. Sea Isle was a load of fun, for sure. I'll actually be back in Knoxville in about three more days. I miss everyone back there, too. So after this whole Ms. Borchert mess (our band director moved to another school... a rival school... after our band director from two years ago moved to it), I found out that we aren't even going to be competing in Bands of America this year. Now I understand that we would actually be competing against our rival school and after all of this mess, they don't want us to get our hopes up on beating them.. but I really wish they would realize that BOA isn't about winning or losing, but really about seeing what good bands are made of. No matter how we place, we still have to have good sportsmanship.. not to mention that the good portion of us would still probably want to go. Instead of the band boosters making all of these durastic decisions for us, they should take a poll from the band, especially since these changes affect us. Speaking of, I'm filling out for a position to be the webmaster for the CHS Band site. I hope that works out, because the last webmaster didn't update it very much.