11.2.03-12.27.03

12.27.03- Hey... sorry for the lack of updates.. I guess I should get you all up to speed, since you all have the burning desire to know what's going on in my world. I did a bunch of gigs the past three weeks for Christmas and what not, and did the school concert. By the way, I really really really did not like my solo. It SUCKED... HARD. The second one wasn't as bad, but it still SSSUUUUCCCCKKKKEEEDDD... I'm never volunteering to play for concert band before a jazz band solo. Russian Christmas Music totally blew my chops, and I couldn't play what I really wanted to. Well, now that that's off my shoulders... Christmas was fun too. Oh, before I get into that, my dad cut off all of my internet access, and that's why I couldn't get on to update the site. The school has it blocked, and I couldn't manage to get to the library to update it from there. I wouldn't have tried so hard to do it had my dad actually told me I couldn't use the internet because I was grounded(lol), but instead he just kind of made it so I couldn't use it upstairs and blocked all the internet programs downstairs. And now I'm at my mom's in PA, and I can finally update it. Anyway, for Christmas, I got a Harvard Dictionary of Music (which has pretty much every musical term you will ever see on a piece of music, short of a rough description in Polish), a trombone stand, which you will most likely see when I bring it in the Tuesday after next, a CD rack which is about three feet tall, carved completely out of wood with a tribal dude behind it (yeah, that one may take a little more description.. I'll ask Mike if he can give me a link to a picture of it or something), and some clothes, a beanie, a couple of DVDs and games, and some money... I think my balance is at like 250.00 or something now. Which will most likely be used to buy trombone books, CDs, and much fun time at the mall. Hehe. Oh yeah, I have to play DDR when I'm up here. Their machine at the mall is really great, the arrows register all easy and stuff. Hmm... that's all I can really think of... holy crap, I haven't practiced in over a week!!!!! AAAAAAA!!! Looks like I'm going to be putting in some serious hours when I get back from PA.. and All-East auditions are on the 10th! AAAA! See ya.

12.03.03- Wow.. what a birthday it was. I got a chance to play with the UT Trombone Choir that night, and man.. it was amazing. I really can't wait until I get to do it again, on the ninth. They're going "caroling", and I get to go with them, but I'm not sure where they're going to be at. But I'm excited either way. I can't believe it's only going to be a year and a half until I'll be playing with them full time... possibly even a year! Don offered Erik to play with them full time next semester, and he's a Senior at college, so I'm hoping that I can get in the same shoes he's in. Oh yeah, I don't know what happened, but I totally kicked that etude's butt last night.. you know, the one I've been ranting on and on about for three weeks? I also got my sound and my chops back. No idea how, but I guess I'm doing a lot better now. I'm actually looking forward to the lesson on Monday so I can dish out the 4 measures of triple tonguing that's in there and have Don (hopefully) be like,"Hey, good job, Shaun!" I guess with practice comes skill. OH YEAH... I found out today that Mr. Jackson is having the Halls Shopper write a whole article about me making HBOA... can you believe that? A whole frickin article about something I did musically! Wow. I'll have to post that one on my wall or something. Maybe I'm on my way to becoming an excellent trombonist. Hee hee *spaces off and daydreams about new Edwards trombone*... huh? I'm back. Anyway, I gotta go... whoever knows Sarah Trotter, please remind her to send me the 5th band story... she said she'd send it to me like two weeks ago. See ya!

12.01.03- Happy Birthday to Me... Happy Birthday to Me... Happy Birthday to....mee......... Happy Birthday to Me *funky trombone solo*. MWUHAHAHAHAHA tomorrow I wake up at 7:30 AM, turn the speakers all the way up, and run around the house in my underpants. Then run to the mall... in my underpants! Wee, birthdays are fun... I've been 16 for a mere 32 minutes, and I'm happy. Next time you see me, ask me how old I am. "How old are you, Shaun?" "Why, I'm 16, of course, thanks for asking" How old am I? I'm 16! That would be how many years? Sixteen years! Where am I going? I'm going to P.Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney! Hehe. *Boing* Buy me an Edwards, now.

11.29.03- Only one more day until I'm 16... yay. I can't wait. I think I might go to the mall or something like that on Monday so I can get tokens from people because it's my birthday. Hope I'm not the only one there. Anyway, I just got back from Illinois and I have the random urge to change my bio around from just some stupid random stuff.... maybe people might actually want to know something useful about me or something like that.. yeah right. Either way, it's going to change. I'm also going to put a picture of the trombone I so badly want, and am going to get this summer up here too. It's so beautiful *drools*... I miss Sarah. I miss.. uh.. no, that's about it, I just miss Sarah. Band is alright too. Oh yeah, Katie Woods told me that the symphonic band was going to play Persichetti's symphony No. 6 for festival next semester. I would be FINE with that. He's like my new favorite composer now. Hehe. Not really, but I like his works a lot so far. Oh, by the way, I'm going to be in Symphonic and Concert band next semester for you guys that don't know yet. Yay. That is probably going to suck really bad, but hey, maybe I can keep the trombone section in line, at least. Show that maybe I can be a good section leader after all. I know that so far, I haven't shown Mr. Jackson that I'm really up for it, and who knows, maybe this year I really wasn't. I'm not even going to ask about the Drum Major thing, probably, because it seems that he wants three beautiful, graceful girls to be drum majors for next year, and I don't quite fit the description. Besides, I'm probably better off playing anyway. I wonder how many hits this site gets per day, now. It's a lot from what I can see on the counter, but it might just be from people refreshing the page or something. Well, I'm off here now. See ya.

11.23.03- Hehe, the busride was a lot of fun!!... oh yeah, the game was alright too. Smiles all around :-D. But today I'm frustrated. I have been working my butt off on this etude that Don gave me to work on.. 3 or 4 weeks ago, and the more I work on it, the worse I sound. Ughh... and my all around sound is getting worse for some reason, too. I don't know why, but I can't do staccato notes like I used to be able to. I've seriously been practicing a lot, but for some reason I still can't get myself up to speed on this. It's such a pain in the ass. My dad says that I should take a break from it.. but I don't know if that's the case or not. Either way, I'm fed up, and once again, I'm going to go into a lesson, be unprepared, and piss Don off. I just wish I could get as good as he wants me to be. I'm doing the work.. it's just not working. [/frustration]

11.18.03- Thursday I will be going to a Concerto being performed by my friend Erik Schneibel. Awesome. Deanna's going to take me, but I've got to drive all the way out to Papermill just to meet up with her. Blah. That should be a lot of fun. Even more fun will be the Maryville game which is this Friday! I bet all of you band geeks out there are excited too. Who am I kidding.. I bet no one even comes here anymore besides Caitlin, haha. I love you Kaati! Anyway, the game will kick some serious butt.. and I get to spend the whole busride with Sarah! Yay for me! Anyway, I love the weather, and I think I'm going to go to sleep really really early tonight so that I can be ready for tomorrow. Haha.. like that's ever going to happen.

11.15.03- Today I woke up early to go to a Jazz Clinic audition. The audition overall went pretty well, and I got lead trombone over 28 others. Yay for me! Not to mention I beat two really good players, Deanna Moreland and Hunter Mullins. This was the first audition I did better than Deanna on, which is pretty cool. Took a nap, cleaned the house, and hopefully tomorrow I'll be on my way to the mall after I complete my homework with the satisfaction that I've done something constructive and that I can just hang out without any worries about school or anything like that. Although Monday I have a KYSO concert.. if any of you guys would like to show up for a good concert, it is at the UT Alumni Hall (down the street from Neyland Stadium) at 7:00 PM, and it's free of charge. E-mail me at Dirtyvert@yahoo.com if you need directions/other info if you want to go. Support from anyone from Central is always good. What an uppity entry, eh? It's all... not depressing and stuff. By the way, my birthday is in 2 weeks, on December 1st. All gifts and cash are appreciated. Lol. Also, I added 14 names to the CHS AIM band list. Some celebrity names include the following:
Mr. Christopher Bryson
Ms. Madeline Kulpa
Ms. (Mrs.?) Christina Leaper
Yay for random names on public domain. Well, I'll see everyone later. =I :-)Xx (amish smiley)

11.12.03- Yay. Stuff. Woo-hoo! Today's Pre-Cal class had to be by far seem like the slowest class I've had this entire year. I don't know what it was, but the entire class was tired and bored, and some were moderately hungry as well (me!). Anyway, I I put story #4 up on the site, so if you guys have been reading the Band Fiction part of the site, you might want to check that out. I'm about to go and be amazed by our surround sound system.. again. We rented T3. It's going to be so weird watching Governor Arnie shooting "bad guys". See you all later.

11.11.03- Go figure.. I had a pretty bad lesson on Monday. But I got better. 3 hours for today. Jeez. I'm really pushing this whole practicing thing. I don't know how I do it, really. Oh well. I'm a little more excited about the audition, now that I know I don't suck and am performing up to MY expectations. Lol, it's like sometimes I'm not good enough for myself or something. Like Tim Allen said by accident once,"I am my own wife." Confusing. My counter on here isn't working anymore, so I can't tell how many people are coming by the site anymore. Does it matter? I'm still going to get on here and vent and vent and vent and vent until I vent my lungs out (haha, get it?). Got another gig opportunity from Tom Lundberg.. I'm just hoping it's paid this time. I'm kind of tired of not getting paid for gigs. Everyone asks me to play, but nobody wants to help me out any. Then again, I'm sure you're like,"You should be happy that they want you to play!".. but it's been like this for about a year and a half. Sure, I don't mind playing for something I'm affiliated with.. but when it's everybody elses church (besides Central Baptist because my friends go there and they let us use their rooms for Brass Quintet last year :-D), it kind of gets old. I don't want to turn down opportunity.. but my dad is driving me around waayy too much.

11.9.03- Man.. I practiced 4 hours today.. and still nothing. I've not gotten much of anywhere on this piece that Don gave me to work on, and I'm probably going to screw it up and get about halfway and make up some useless excuse on how I still am having trouble playing it after a whole week, which I should've been practicing it during. I really really want to be good and practice all day every day, but I can't because I have so much other stuff going on. Sometimes I wonder why I want to become a musician. I love music to death, but what is the cause of all of this? Is it that I want to be the best at something? No, because I could just randomly pick something out and try that. Some people wonder why I'm "naturally" good at just about everything. It's not natural talent, but just work ethic. And some people think that practicing 2 hours a day is hard.. and I'm like,"Man, you should meet my friends.. they think 2 hours a day is a break!" I guess here's my whole idea about everything. You can do anything you want to if you just do it. That's the only way it's going to happen, is if you just do it. Just get out of bed, figure out exactly what you want, and are going to do that day, and do it. It's really easy! I figure if I follow that and just do everything I want to do, I will be happy in life. Boy this was a random post. I put caution tape and duct tape that looks like aluminum foil on my trombone. It's very cool, because when I walk forward, the light reflects off the foil tape on the front and makes a light up in front of me.

11.8.03- Fun fun. I'm slowly becoming a mall rat. Ah well. It's not like I have anything better to do, haha [/sarcasm]. I'm going to watch Finding Nemo now.. but I'll update longer later. Bye!

11.2.03- Hey, I'm back! Disney World was fun. The hotel rocked. What can I say, I'm in a good mood. Ack! Will finish update later, Simpson's halloween special is on. See ya.
P.S.- "October" finally works now; I've got it on this site in mp3s. Check it out, because we're playing it next semester for you symphonic band kids.