Charisma!

Congrats to the San Francisco Giants on winning their first World Series title since moving West last night. Just goes to show what grittiness, charisma, hope, and the best pitching in the league can accomplish.

On Motivation and Free Time

I tried to do NaNoWriMo last year. It didn't work out so well. And this year, I thought I'd try, just for the sheer heck of it. Who cares if I finished or not? It would be fun, an experience. You probably learn something on the way to 50,000 words. It was all settled in my brain until about two days ago.

Then I started thinking about all that time I would be spending on it. In order to have any realistic shot of finishing it or even getting close, I would have to spend practically any free time I have on it. And then, continuing on this dangerous trend of thinking, I thought "What else would I do with my free time?" And oodles of possibilities popped into my head - I could dedicate so much more time to trombone practice, homework, reading things I've never read, learning things. There are a lot of possibilities. So I concluded that NaNoWriMo is a waste of time and that it would detract from what I really want to do in my life.

But then - you can start to see the back-and-forth developing in my brain - I woke up this morning, took a shower, watched some TV and listened to some music and did silly little pointless things. Next thing I know, I've burned a good two hours. Of my free time - which could have been used on anything. And then realization hit me: what kind of free time would I really have if I didn't do NaNoWriMo? I would have that kind of free time, the trivial kind in which you just kind of chill. Which isn't to say that chilling isn't bad. But my previous reasons for not doing it - I could do so much more if I didn't - were questioned. I wouldn't naturally use WriMoing time for these things - I would do silly things like chat and watch sports and blog.

The truth is, I could do a lot more if I didn't do NaNoWriMo. But I wouldn't. There's no pressing deadline for practice - at least not currently. There's never a deadline for reading, not talking about school. The motivation for those kind of things, the long-term kind of things, is a lot less tangible - which is why, a lot of times, it's hard to just do it and realize that its for the best. The motivation can't come from outside; one needs to generate it him/herself.

So that's my revelation of the day. If I'm not going to do NaNoWriMo, I need to motivate myself to at least make some semblance of use of my time. Which I think I'm going to do. And blogging is pretty counterproductive to that, but at least it gives me a medium to get my thoughts out.

Listening to jazz currently. Bill Watrous and the Manhattan Wildlife Refuge.

Oh also. I watched Rocky Horror Picture Show for the first time in my life last night. It wasn't in the whole cult-gathering cue-following movie-theatre atmosphere, so I can't really say it was an experience, but it certainly was entertaining. And strange.

Word of the Day: Motivation

Song of the Day: Spain - Bill Watrous and the Manhattan Wildlife Refuge

HEY BLOG IMMA POST YOU (On a Mac)

I ditched this blog for a while. But I feel like I should pick it back up. Just because I clearly don't have enough going on in my life.

And I'm at a loss for what to write about, but not for lack of material. I just have a lot of good halfbaked ideas swirling around in my head.

My old PC finally kicked the bucket. And then it came back from the dead. And refuses to re-die. It randomly crashed one day when I was checking my Facebook, so I turned it off. And then (the creepy part is coming, I promise) I waited for a few minutes. Ate a slice of pizza. Sent a text. And then I turned it back on. The computer complied in turning on, but the screen was just a black thing of blackness. So, doing the most intuitive thing that came to me at the time, I turned it back off.

And it turned itself back on.

And then I turned it back off.

And it turned itself back on.

The zombie computer was relentless; it took a complete shutdown of my power strip to finally bury it. At that point, my family basically gave up on it. We had put up with the suckishness of it, being slow to the point of being unable to play YouTube videos, or music on iTunes, or checking your email in less than ten minutes. Necromancy was the last straw, though.

So we got a Mac, about the size of my TV screen. So far it's fantastic; a lot faster and more intuitive than PC. The only complaint I have is that it didn't come with a legit word processor, although I can easily download iWork or Microsoft Office or something. GarageBand is also a bit of a bitch to work. Other than that the only bumps are getting used to the new commands and the smaller keyboard (damn you, tallperson hands). And the trackpad, but that's been fantastic so far.

I haven't been following the baseball postseason very closely, being heckishly busy with marching band and school (which started, btdubs), but I was really happy to see the Yankees and the Phillies lose to the smaller-market, championship-draught Rangers and Giants, respectively. The series is at 2-1 in favor of the Giants right now. I vote Giants in 7. The home field advantage in this series is a huge deal.

I'm debating doing NaNoWriMo. On one hand, it would be fun and probably rewarding even if I didn't finish. On the other, I could use my time for a lot more effective things, like practicing or homework or sleeping. I'm probably not going to end up doing it.

Phantom Regiment's 2008 DCI show is probably on of the most amazing things I've ever seen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg6tqrpMnm8, if you're into that kind of thing. Or if you're into epicness in general.

Another complaint about the Mac: it automatically underlines words that don't exist, such as "epicness", "fwah", "pwn", "suckishness", "mah", and "psh", which are some of the most essential parts of my spoken vocabulary. Curse your lack of lexical creativity, Steve Jobs (iPad, iMac, iPod, iPhone? very uniform :P).

iMah. That isn't underlined. Whuuut. You're trying to subliminally brainwash me, Stevie.

(whut is also a non-Jobsian word)

Yet non-Jobsian is.

Rant rant rant.

Song of the Day: 6.35 - International Trombone Ensemble

Word of the Day: non-Jobsian

British Comedy of the Day: The IT Crowd

Symphony of the Day: Tchaikovsky 5. Specifically, movement number deux.

(Steve Jobs doesn't like French either.)

Imminent Beaver Invasion

So I was sitting in my car, humming along to some Eagles song, on my way to lunch with my dad, minding my own buisiness on what had up until then been an obnoxiously uneventful day
and then
BAM.
There was a fracking beaver. Digging in the dirt. In the middle of downtown. This, for those from places like Wisconsin or New England or Russia or wherever the heck beavers are prevalent, is not a typical occurrance. This is as close to a metropolis as you get in my area. It was right outside this hugeass apartment complex and mall. And a country club. Relevence failures, dialogue!

Me: *double takes* There was a beaver back there!
Dad: Lawlno.
Me: Lawlyeah.
Dad: Are you sure?
Me: I suppose it could have been a badger. (For the record, I am completely unaware of what a badger looks like. I just said it because it sounded a little more believable.)
Dad: I don't believe you. But I'm going to take an extra five mintues to circle around the block and prevent both of us from getting lunch even though we've both expressed the sentiment that we're fracking hungry.
Me: Mkayz.
*awkward pause as we round block*
Me: Yeah, no. That's not a beaver. It's a ferret.
Dad: Yeah. No. No, yeah it is. A beaver.
Me: Yeah. No. Yeah.
Dad: No, look at its tail!
*people behind us patiently lay on their horns*

So we left. It looked like a beaver, except for the tail. It had a little stumpy furry one, not the big flat characteristic tail. So in effect it looked like a hamster. One that's bigger than your head. Giant mutant hamster.
I saw beavers last week too, on a date with my girlfriend. We were walking by this creek behind her pool, and there they were, two or three beavers just chillaxing. She, after hearing this story, agrees with me that beavers and hamsters and other smallish mammals of the sort are massing their forces. Starting my weapons and rations stockpile now.
I had to look up how to spell fracking "imminent". Clearly, my brain is ready for me to start school again.

Word of the Day: Badger
Song of the Day: Annie Dan - Speechwriters LLC
Dead Composer of the Day: Gustav Mahler
Honorable Mention: Camille Saint-Saens

It Sucks When...

-your feet are sore
-your pecs are sore.
-your mom ruins your evening and throws a hissy fit about a reading project that isn't due for another two weeks plus.
-people you care about aren't happy.
-your trombone sounds like a garden hose.
-your baseball team is getting pwn'd.
-you have days when you just aren't yourself,
-and other people notice.

My Life Isn't Interesting

My phone is on the cusp of death. I suppose it's entitled to be in such a state, it's been through a fair bit over the past couple of days. First, a week ago Thursday, I dropped it in a gutter during a frackinintense thunderstorm, where it was until it was found several hours later by a charitable cross-country runner. I should've kept better tabs on it, but in my defense, the gutter was a fracking white water river at that point, so I wouldn't have been able to find it even if I did notice I lost it. Luckily, the aforementioned C.C.C.R. gave it to a friend of mine, who in turn dropped it off at my house. And amazingly, although it was probly severely mentally (ADVERBS DO NOT WANT) traumatized by its experience, it still worked. The disconnect button didn't work, but I could function around that.
And then I screwed it over. In my Tuesday-morning rush to get ready for band camp, I pulled on the nearest pair of canvas shorts I could find, not realizing that they were an unwashed pair of converted swim trunks I wore at the beach ages ago. Being unwashed, they still had large quantities of sand - really really really fracking FINE sand, I might add - in the pockets. Oblivious to that fact, I proceeded to jam my pockets full of marching band supplies, most relevant of which was, you guessed it, my phone. By the time I realized this, my phone was basically a sour Skittle inside and out. Currently it's on life support - it'll only halfheartedly function when it's plugged in to a charger. Battery issue probs. I'll take it to a verizon store sometime soon, hopefully it was a good omen that my girlfriend got her iPhone replaced for free earlier this week.
In other news, one of my best friends moved to France today, he's actually probably in the middle of his flight right now. He's one of the cooler people I've ever met, but for some reason it hasn't really gotten to me yet, emotionally. It'll probably hit me once the school year starts, when his absence will be pointedly apparent. I miss him already though.
Marching band inside is kind of fun, especially when I'm an endpoint in a really complex and awesome move.

Song of the day: Taller Children - Elizabeth and the Catapault
Words of the day: Doubt

What I've done today:

Demotivational Sandals

While North Face is better known for their winterwear, jackets and such, they make apparel for other seasons as well. In fact, my favorite (i.e. only) pair of sandals are a mediocre pair from North Face. They do their job, they're pretty comfortable, so I wear them I fair amount. Therefore, they get a fair bit of wear on them. Their slogan - "Never Stop Exploring" - has worn off a bit where the balls of my feet rub against the sole, so now one reads "Stop Exploring" and the other reads "Never Stop Explod", the capitol R wore off to just the round bit on there. So I have quite demotivational flip-flops.
In other news, my back is like tree bark currently. I got the nastiest sunburn when I was down in Myrtle Beach with my girlfriend last week. That night was actually quite terrible, I think I had a touch of dehydration sickness as well, so I was in a half-awake state of pain and delirium all night, collapsing in fits of hysteric laughter every couple of minutes. It was definately an experience. But in any case, it's better now. But it's peeling like heck. And I went to a party last night, and wouldn't you know it, a Truth or Dare dare required me to take off my shirt and hop like a bunny. In my case, a shaved bunny with a bad case of shingles. It wasn't pleasant for all involved, I'm sure.
Started listening to the Scott Mills Daily this week, I appreciate their Britishness. And just about everything else about them. Anyone who's brilliant enough to combine the Jason Bourne trilogy and the music of ABBA in a one-man show is worth listening to, in my book.
My iPod is annoying when I want to listen to music on shuffle and something that my middle school band played years ago comes up. Or vise versa. But usually the former.

Song of the Day: Melectric - Ramona Falls
Word of the Day: Collective
Webcomic of the Day: Natalie Dee analyzes the itsy bitsy spider.

6 lists

6 observations from Europe:
1. German and Austrian waitresses are all too willing to serve teenagers large amounts of alchohol.
2. Switzerland looks like Eastern Kentucky, but with more castles.
3. England is like Seattle, but with more castles.
4. Paris is the geographical equivolent of the butt of the most expensive cigar ever made.
5. Nick Jonas is well appreciated in Great Britain too, never fear.
6. String guys are intimidating.

5 favorite albums:
1. Let Live and Let Ghosts - Jukebox the Ghost
2. Origin of Symmetry - Muse
3. Parachutes - Coldplay
4. Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum - Tally Hall
5. The Bull Moose After Party - Speechwriters LLC

4 favorite musicals:
1. Les Miserables
2. Phantom of the Opera
3. Peter Pan
4. Chicago

3 pretty words:
1. Serendipity
2. Horchata
3. Precisely

2 instruments that bug the heck out of me when played badly:
1. Euphonium
2. Violin, paticularly 2nd violins.

1 is the lonliest number that you'll ever do:
Yeah.

Of Fatigue, Pitchers, and Jackwagons

So I'm blogging. Because my girlfriend was all like "Guess who hasn't blogged for a while?" and I was like "aaaack". My face was falling off today, I played an hour-and-a-half concert in preparation pour my trip to Europe for which I leave on Thursday. And my orthodontist had screwed over my braces with a powerchain across the front, which wouldn't have been an issue if I had gotten to do some lip slurs, which I didn't, which meant that I was screwed over, which yeah I'm being a nerd currently. But this blog is TROMBONES and Diet Coke, I guess.
I'm watching the All-Star Game. Kuo (who?) just single-handedly gave up the first run to the American League, with a walk, an error, and a sac fly. Just putting it out there, wouldn't everyone prefer to see Stephen Strasburg give up the losing run instead of a no-name injury replacement middle reliever? Or Mat Latos? Or Roy Halladay, for that matter? I'm not sayin', I'm just saying. (that charliemanuelisaclown) What?
I desperately want to see Inception. Ellen Paige + psychological thriller = total weirdness in my brain.
Speaking of movies, The Last Airbender was horrible. M. Night Shamallama obviously takes himself way too seriously. And the altered pronounciations? I don't understand it. The effects, the much-lauded mega-millions effects, were actually pretty terrible in places, at the most satisfactory in others. Terrible acting. Especially from Noah Ringer, just awful. He looks the part, but that's about as far as he gets.
On an unrelated note, this one Geico commercial is absolutely brilliant.
"Could switching to Geico save you up to fifteen percent on car insurance?
...
Do former drill sargents make terrible therapists?"
"And that's why yellow makes me sad, I think."
"That's interesting. You know what makes me sad? YOU do! Maybe we should chug on over to namby-pamby land where MAYBE we can find some self-confidence for you, yah JACKWAGON!"
Cracks me up every time.

Link of the day! Click on the red text to move on.

Song of the Day: Bluish by Sondre Lerche, covering Animal Collective.

Entanglement

So I've been listening to Apparatjik - the side project of Coldplay bassist Guy Berryman, including memebers from a-ha and Mew - and their new album, We Are Here (on iTunes). They're pretty darned weird, pretty darned experimental, and pretty darned good. Try to imagine a fusion of a techno Mika, early-Coldplay (especially some of the guitar riffs), and the trippyness of Animal Collective. And also something techno and cerebral and different. My personal favorites on the album are "Datascroller", "Look Kids", and "Deadbeat", although the most accessable song on the album might be "Snow Crystals".

One thing I'll touch on is a central theme of the album - on the tracks "Arrow & Bow" and "Electric Eye", a strange term is used - "Sub-Particle Entanglement Theory". It sounds like something that they just made up, to give a cerebral effect on the album. However, entanglement is a real thing - a certain theory not quite understood by anyone. Albert Einstein himself refused to deal with it, dismissing it as "spooky action at a distance", even though his theory of relativity suggested it.

I won't, of course, get into any of the real math or physics about it - I don't understand any of that. But the theory goes a bit like this, in common terms: if you take two very small particles, and "spin" them a certain way (I would explain what this means, but it makes my head hurt), they become practically one and the same, while still being seperate particles. Anything that you do to one particle, "spin" it, blow it up, dress it in a tux, will happen identically to the other particle - instantaneously, no matter how far apart. The two particles are "entangled".

Now, this might not seem like anything groundbreaking on the surface. But the real idea here is that everything in the universe seems to follow one common speed limit - the speed of light. Einstein's famous equation E=mc^2 dictates that when objects get close to the speed of light, they gain mass, and therefore take more energy to move. In theory, when a object is moving at the speed of light, it would take an infinite amount of energy to move, which is impossible. This applies to not only physical objects, but things like radio waves and light - information. They all cannot pass the speed of light .

But now, with engtanglement, the two particles act on each other instantaneously - meaning that information about one is passed to the other, bypassing the speed of light. If we could make these entangled particles act as, say, a television, you could get TV on the Sun instantaneously as it was being broadcast, while radio waves would take a whole 8 minutes to reach the sun. This might not seem signifigant, but if you're talking about interstellar distances, it could provide the communication needed to reach the astronauts orbiting a sun on the other side of the galaxy - instantaneously.

Hope I didn't loose anybody there.

Anyway, I just thought it was cool that they referenced that and all. I totally recommend Apparatjik, if you're willing to listen to something less than normal. Also, if you want to read more into entanglement and other stuff like that, A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking is a comprehensible and relatively (no pun intended) simple insight into the universe.


Song of the Day: Snow Crystals - Apparatjik
Word of the Day: Entanglement

This blog is a BLOG

So this is a blog. Chyeah. All kinds of wonderful things are discussed here - music, sports, teenagerhood, love, hipsters, sarcasm, life. From yours truly, a teenage guy trying to get his act together.

So I'm pretty much at a loss on what to cover here. World Cup, maybe? The only opinion I have on the wonderful vuvuzelas (vuvuzela? vuvuzelae?) is that it sounds way to much like vulva to be taken seriously. Which is why I laugh at people who get angry at them.

Also, I watched part of the Portugal-North Korea match today in French, in which the Koreans' goal was hardly a demilitarized zone - Portugal won 7-0, six of those goals coming in the second half, one of which coming between the legs of the Korean goalie, another of which coming off of a sweet (lucky) neck juggle by Christiano Ronaldo. I'm not going to make any of the obligatory Kim Jong Il-shoots-the-goalie jokes, but I'll be curious to see the reaction that the native North Korean fans give to the team returning to the country, since it'll be televised by -- oh, wait. Nevermind.

I'll leave it at that for today. Summer in four days. Going to a John Green book event on Thursday.



Word of the Day: Hourglass

Song of the Day: Resistance St. - What Made Milwaukee Famous (link goes here)