Frustration and The New Hottness

State was yesterday, not a good result though. The kids were nervous. I've never seen them this way before. I could actually hear the quivering in the long tones. Not sure why they were so nervous but they certainly choked. It's a bummer because up till then they were performing with a high level of maturity and excitement. We finally arrived at playing with a good quality of sound standing still and we achieved that same standard while moving...which I personally thought was not going to happen this year...but we couldn't relate a sense of confidence. I don't know how to teach that, and none of the staff were stressed during the performance. There was not a sense of urgency though through the entire day. Warm-up was really scary. We did the physical warm-up but they still acted dead. No sense of a gig, just flat lined boredom poured out of their drums. Some people didn't even have the pride to be in full uniform or mark time during warm-up. I don't get that. I loved to perform and tried to recreate that every rep. I wonder if they thought they had the "I" no matter what and were over confident. But these people were still lazy about stuff.

This was one thing, but the thing that made me most frustrated about yesterday was the drum judge. Things that we have been praised for as being our best qualities were highly criticized yesterday. These issues were technique and tuning, both of which do not change from week to week. Both of which are my responsibility, and from what we've learned both are now subjective. What two people think are really awesome, one man can think the opposite and the kids are screwed for it. That makes me mad. He thought our drums were tuned too high, what does it matter if they are tuned the same? Further more, the tuning was quoted as "tasty" last week by two separate judges. Just frustrating. It is my fault those things are "incorrect", I hate that my decisions were a large part of the issues. Even though the rep was poor, I still played a major role in the negativity. I'll hear the tape tonight and find out more of his problems with my work.

On a good note the season progressed with great strides. The kids learned a ton, and the rehearsals were always awesome. P was calm and relaxed and the marchers had a good time. The group was so great that way. By far the best group I've been able to work with. Lauren agrees, the kids are fun to be around. I think they are finally over the rating phobia and are more concerned with the season as a whole. While it always sucks to not achieve your goal, it's even worse to equate the quality of an entire season on one 10-minute performance and the opinions of 10 stuffy band directors.

If you're my student reading this, great job this season. I have never been more proud of a line. More than ever before I wanted to strap on a drum and march with you. You made it exciting to come to practice and you drove me to be a better educator. Thanks for never letting up and pushing through the distractions. No matter what happens in the future, you hold the keys to success, keep the motivation high, the attitudes hyped and things will be tasty from now on.

Quickie

So, my roommate is driving me f'n nuts right now. Elisabeth is on her way here, ten minutes away maybe. I have not seen her in five weeks. I cleaned this apartment top to bottom last night so it would clean and he has already destroyed it. He cut up a stupid ass cow costume and now there is white shit all over the entire apartment. All the dishes were clean and now 3/4 are dirty. This guy is a huge slob and it's starting to drive me nuts. The other two guys left out of mutual respect for Elisabeth's coming. This guy gets no loving so he likes to listen to others. He broke in on the other roommate last weekend when he had a girl over. He's becomming VERY rude and inconsiderate. Now, within ten minutes Elisabeth's going to be here and he just invited like ten people over to pre-game before their big party. I just got back from a 13 hour class and Elisabeth had to work, physical therapy and drive 7.5 hours to here...f'n 19 yearold punk.

Tomorrow is state and I think we'll do very well. I'm proud of P for being so calm and positive to the kids...first time in history i think. I'll let you know how it goes.

Today's Summary

The annoying guy wasn't in class today. For as much verbal masturbation he does about how much he loves that class, I was simply shocked not to see him. Overjoyed none-the-less.

I went to see Blast! tonight. They were performing at the university, this was my first time seeing them live. I had seen parts of the video before, that was a mistake. The whole first half of the show was much better on video. The horn players tonight blew a lot of fast sections in the opening segments. To make things a little more dissapointing there were two average snare drum soloists. The licks they played were rehashed excerpts from long ago. There is no doubt that with a couple hours rehearsal Jeremy, Zaddell or myself could have played the notes they were playing. Another thing that really bugs me is the non-tempo solos. They just ram random passages they stole with disregard to any consistant tempo. Nothing is fluid or congruent, very chopy. The really cool backsticking they do with the lights off was really really dirty when the last four guys entered.

With all that aside, the last 2/3 of the second act was incredable. I have always dug Land of Make Believe and ever since my shaker solo in 1996, Malaguena holds a special place in my heart. (For those of you that remember, it was the head bob kept me in time.) Even though I have the Spiritual of the Earth memorized, it was still really cool. I love that cow bell section, I like the sound of metal. They also had a didgerido section and the soloist quoted Strong Bad. I was the only that cheered crazily loud! I hate that I'm so criticle of these things. When it came to the guard sections I had no beef at all. Almost everything they did I really enjoyed, even when I knew it was very easy to do and still dirty. I know that I can't do that. I've tried to spin rifle and sabre before, but I can't. I got knocked out by a rifle once, and since then I have a huge respect for them. But when it comes to percussion, if it's something I can execute, I'm not impressed...especially when it's dirty.

LOL, my roommate just took his laptop into the bathroom. He's taking a bath and watching Prime Time Bucks 9! These new roommates are so hillarious. Young guys do stupid things, and that makes me laugh. hahahaha...a bath and hunting, mmmmmmmmmmm. Wonder if there are going to be bubbles?

He did ask if I wanted to join him....

Two sleeps left until I get to see Eilsabeth. It's been five weeks since we've seen each other. The long distance is hard, but we've been doing it for awhile now. In March I'm moving to North Carolina...unless Luke kills me in my face first. I hope not, I like my face and Elisabeth.

Boys Night Out

For those of you that don't read Luke's blog, here is what happened last weekend when the women let us out of the house:




http://www.weddingcrashersmovie.com/crashthistrailer/index.htm?id=204801

Pills of Darkness

Have you ever feared you would stop breathing at night? When I was younger I thought that when we slept we stopped breathing. I never feared this, it's how I understood sleep as a child. Even though I now know better, it sometimes keeps up at night. Not in fear, but just as a reminder. Last night for instance I was having a hard time falling asleep. To make things worse, when I would get close I would notice that my breathing was slowing down. I started to think of all this again and it made it even harder to fall asleep. Then I get frustrated and roll over a lot in search of the perfect position...it is never found. After three hours of tossing I took a sleeping aid pill from Elisabeth. Within 20 minutes I was out.

Here is where it gets out of control. I began to dream skewed and distance futures. Elisabeth and Luke were there, we were sitting around and all of a sudden Elisabeth stood up and a child fell out, a newborn of course. There was no screaming from either of them, it must be due to your childbearing hips, babe. She reached down and handed the lizardly child to me and walked out. Luke's face was priceless and I was so shocked and unprepared I held the child by the feet up side down. This child was somehow born by an immaculate conception…it was outrageous. Elisabeth wasn't even fazed and Luke was MAD. You were really pissed that I held "my first born" by its feet. Being the ever-protecting natural father you are, you grabbed my "thing" (it was so pruned and red it was impossible to declare a sex) and took it to the other room and placed atop a bunk bed. I went looking for Elisabeth and couldn't find her, but a bottle of Jim Beam was missing from the cabinet. *Shifty Eyes* I returned to the bedroom just as the kid rolled off the bed and onto the floor. I didn't even flinch. I just walked over to it and picked it up by the feet again. At this time I saw the umbilical cord for the first time.

This is when Elisabeth called to say good morning, about 6 am. Seeing as how I still had three hours till I had to get up for class, I went right back to dreaming. The dream took a delightful turn of pace though. No longer was it a disturbing look into the future, but rather a plethora of happiness that flooded over mind's eye. It was like a picture book though; I was no longer involved in the actual happenings. They still made me silly with happiness. I could see pictures with all our friends and families gathered around, it actually looked like a child this time. And at no point was I holding it by the feet.

It was a nice ending to an otherwise uncomfortable night of dreams. Luke, don't be mad man...I never held Mikey like that. I wonder if it was from the pills.

Get your eye-glasses ready

Do we know anyone that was recently arrested and placed in the Lake County Prison? Around 11:30 pm on Thursday night I received a call from the prison. Now, Thursday nights are fun, and I was a view beers into the wind when I got this call. The shock of a machine asking if I wanted to accept charges instead of responding to my "yellllllloooooooooowwwwwwwww?" confused the hell out of me. By the time I tried to listen carefully it said, ....from "mumble mumble (incredibly low voice) mumble, do you accept this call from Lake County Prison?" I was so thrown off I hung up before I knew what happened. After a couple seconds the recent happenings began running through my head and for the life of me I can't make out the name. At first I thought maybe Luke had been arrested and needed bail. But then I thought he knew where I was couldn't go and bail him out. (I figured he was arrested for indecent exposure.) Then a plethora of others flooded my mind, the obvious of course, but to now avail no recognition. That voice of SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO low and deep, it was crazily creepy. I really hope no one I know had to spend a night in jail b/c of my dumbass. Now that I think of it, it was probably Tim.

(Luke just told me to tell everyone Hi.)

Has anyone ever taken a class where there is one guy that drives the entire population absolutely NUTZ? The class is 3rd World Politics and the douche bag sits right in front of me and I am within earshot of all his remarkably poor anecdotes and personal jargon that only a select few of us are graced with. He treats the lecture like a stereotypical Baptist Church Revival you would see on TV. Complete with the halleluiahs and amens. Only he substitutes them for yes, mmhhhmmm, wow I never knew that, that's fascinating, how could we ever do that to someone?...etc. He agrees with EVERYTHING this guy says. I get the idea he believes that this lecture is addressed to him and we are merely hallowed with his grandeur and he merely allows us peasants to sit idly by and listen to his auspiciousness. b/c he responds after every statement. It's becoming unbearable. I can feel my blood pressure rise and the urge to strip his Mickey Mouse watch off his wrist and beat him with it. He looks like an old Rock-A-Billy from the 50's(?). I found this picture and added the thick black glasses, shotty side burns and unreasonably large mustache. He actually wears bow ties, too…but not with suits, with polo’s. His sense of class etiquette really eats away at my soul. He refuses to let others have opinions and repeatedly cuts off the prof in order to insert his views. His voice sounds like that of a cow...if it could talk. Only muted and slightly arrogant, which is ridiculous b/c he's an enormous idiot. I want to kill him in his face.

Hot Shots and Dancin'

So I play this Hot Shots Golf: FORE all day long now. It's a game I am semi competant at and I am begining to enjoy that. It turns out though that trying to dance along with the music and golf is incredibly difficult!!

This blog thing is fun. I check it a lot in hopes of comments. It's the next email for me, I check that a stupid amount, too.

Tonight I ate squirrel meat for the first time. It had been boiled in salt water and pealed from the bones. Onions were minced, potatoes grated and bread crumbs added. A nice patty of meat and veggies were fried. All was placed a top a honey brown bun and golden mustard...it tasted poorly. I couldn't finish it. However, Dylan did bring over five pounds of Jolly Ranchers that had been laying around for over a year. They are now soft...chewy...very delicious! (This is not how the squrrels were caught...they were traded for snapping turtles!)

!!!!!!!!!!THE ASTRO'S WON!!!!!!!!!!!

Inaugural Post

Golly this is increasingly more difficult for me! This is now my fifth attempt at a successful post. Whenever I try to spell check the damn thing closes due to error...so bear with me if there are ever spelling issues.

I really enjoy this "blog" though. Not sure what a blog is, but it's much better than a LiveJournal or Facebook. Not that I've ever used either, but at least with this I'm not bowing to social norms as heavily as with the others.

I can't figure out how to post a photo though for my profile. Just think, a little picture of me could be smilling back at you just to the right of this everytime you sign on. It would be cute, no worries. Alas, I can't get it to work though. I downloaded that Hello software, it's not functioning like I want it to though. I need to figure out how to publish things to a website so I can use the URL for the profile picture...that is far beyond my knowledge, maybe Luke can suggest a solution.



This entire blog is due to Luke's generosity, thank you Luke. It's free, but from Luke. This is a rather cute picture of Luke from Laugh Fest '05: Allentown. He still owes us a list of top ten crazy things said, but he's an incredably good slacker.








Oh man, I hope this works this time. Someone let me know how things look and how easy it is to post comments.

Here goes nothing...