An adventure is waiting just beyond the horizon.

Sigh, marching band season is finally over for me...forever. It seriously feels like it was just yesterday I learned how to karaoke for the first time. I remember practicing pre-game on the tennis courts. I remember when Ruth forgot our saxophone when we had an away football game and how she baked me cookies to make up for it. I remember doing the most degrading catwalk for "Ain't No Other Man" and how I was in the very front of the block. I remember "Big C," "Bravura," "Fight For Cal," "King Cotton," "Party Rockers," and "Bohemian Rhapsody." I even vaguely remember winning my first drill down. I can remember these things now, but for how long? That's what scares me. Still, those misty August mornings will still hold a special place in my memory; those days when I struggled to fit eight steps within those five yards.

Right now, I am currently looking for a piece of music to conduct for the concert in February. I want it to be beautiful, exciting, and also fun-to-play so people don't complain about what I choose again. In other words, it has to be perfect. A perfect representation of the journey I've been on these past four years in high school and of the many adventures that lie waiting for me. I found this piece of JWPepper called "Beyond the Horizon" and it's just amazing. You know a piece of music is good when it just grabs your undivided attention and refuses to let go.

Lately, I've become more and more obsessed with aspects of my childhood. Whether it be Yu-Gi-Oh or something as simple as a song from a game I used to play when I was little, I've been trapped in a whirlwind of nostalgia and I think I have Art Club to blame for that! I've downloaded the Pokémon Red/Blue Soundtrack as well as the Gold/Silver one. There's just something about the "Bicycle Theme" and the "Route 42 Theme" that puts a smile on my face and a sense of adventure in my heart.

Short Circuit.

SAT scores came out today! Yay! I actually did better, too. First time I got 1880 and this time I got 1970. Sigh, so close to 2000, but oh well. I was surprised that I, the Grammar Nazi, did so badly in the Writing Section. Even more surprisingly, I did pretty well in Critical Reading. I think I did bad the first time because I was sick and the room wouldn’t stop spinning while I was reading.

I haven’t been writing much lately because I’ve found other uses for Computer class, like doing Spanish and Calculus homework and playing games on the emulators that I bring from my computer at home.

Oh yeah! Here’s a preview of my Art Club project. It’s just a picture for right now, but I’m hoping to finish filming this weekend. I couldn’t do it this past weekend or this past school week because the lighting in my room sucks after like 4:00 PM. So hopefully Vaughn will accept this, and maybe even one of my old videos, in the meantime. Even though the due date is today, I’m still determined to finish what I’ve started.

It's odd how life seems to just short circuit, and you find yourself in a different time and place without even realizing it and without getting anything done. Whoever invented procrastination deserves to be electrocuted.

I have the strangest feeling that I just can't shake.

Since I have to wake up early tomorrow for SAT's, I'll keep this post short...using bullets! Pew pew! Which reminds me, I haven't worn my Banzai Bill hat for a long time...

• I finally watched Whisper of the Heart and I thought it was really good! I always get so envious of the settings in movies like those and I always wish I could live those places. I've always wanted to live in a city or a town where I was free to explore every little nook and cranny of it. It'd be so cool to live in a place where everyday could hold a new adventure.

• I don't know how it happened, but I got back into Yu-Gi-Oh. After an almost two-year hiatus, the plague has come back. I wonder how long this fad will last this time...

• Tomorrow is SAT's. Whoop-de-doo. The only thing I really have to look forward are the fun times we're gonna have at 99 Ranch afterward...probably full of Yu-Gi-Oh talk. Dang, I feel like I'm in elementary school again. You would think after making an entire film project based on the theme of maturation that I would learn something from it, but I guess I haven't.

• The more I watch my music video, the less sense it seems to make. I suppose I could just say the meaning behind it is ambiguous, which it kind of is. Being a song without words (which is an oxymoron), loose interpretation is kind of expected. Everyone is going to have a different idea of what the theme is supposed to be.

P.S. There's a difference between Bullet Bills and Banzai Bills! Banzai Bills are giant and limbless!
P.P.S. I converted to Tumblr-ism today. Check me out here if you're so inclined:

http://clockwisefunctions.tumblr.com/

Every night has its day. Even forever must come to an end...I think...

The title above is a quote from Chrono Cross, but I can't remember exactly who says it...It still sounds cool and profound though.

I think my new favorite thing to do in Computers is to go on JWPepper and find music to download. I found some songs by Leroy Anderson yesterday, and now I can't stop listening to them. They're just so catchy! I especially like "The Typewriter" and we've played other songs by him before, like "Sleigh Ride" and "Bugler's Holiday".

Yesterday, I finished editing my music video and it turned out a lot different than what I expected. The theme of the video kind of got lost, but it didn't end up as bad as I thought it would. In my opinion, it's not as good as the video I made by myself, but it's still not terrible like some of my past projects. In the end, I suppose that I'm happy with all of the hard work that my group and I did. Next time, I should really plan out the filming portion of ideas better. I think a good idea would be to scope out the location first, because my memory of the place and the actual area differed. I hadn't been there in a while, so I had forgotten what everything looked like, making it hard to find good angles for filming.

Ah well, it should interesting for everyone to watch tomorrow at Film Club. I always get so paranoid and worried that Mr. Sanders's computer won't play my video. Hopefully it'll be able to play both of them, and hopefully I'll know what to talk about. I want to describe, in detail, everything that is wrong with my video and there is a lot. I really like the intro I "made" though. It's a little production animation-type thing that I'll put at the beginning of all of my videos from now on. I didn't make the animation though. I only added the title and music, but it's cool nonetheless!

I finally finished downloading the movie Whisper of the Heart over the weekend. But it turned out that it didn't have subtitles. So I spent a couple of hours trying to add them manually, but I kind of failed. So, I downloaded a different one yesterday, and this one actually has English subtitles! Too bad I have like no free time this week to watch it. Then again, the football game is away this Friday, so maybe I can spend a lonely Friday by myself watching it (assuming I don't sleep the entire time out of exhaustion).

Hooray! I finally beat Solitaire in Computers for the very first time! Geez, the draw three cards rule makes it so difficult to win. Well, I hope this a good sign for the rest of the day today. The luck gods have smiled on me this morning and hopefully today will be a fantastical day.

Also, you may have noticed that I changed the banner (again). I really like this one and it's much more mellow, yet still interesting. The name "Clockwise Functions" is just something I made it because I thought it sounded cool. Though, I think it would make a neat film productions name.

Which reminds me. I need to think of a good idea to do for my Art Club project. I have some ideas, but I haven't figured out how I would execute them. I think that's why I can't get many good ideas down on paper. I always worry too much about the how, instead of the what. If an idea doesn't seem realistic, then I'll kind of just forget about it. That's why I believe that keeping things simple is usually a good thing. Though, doing complicated stuff can be fun too! There's just something very rewarding about doing different, complex things and having it come together in a nice final product.

Sigh, I need to finish my Film Club project by next week somehow. I was planning on finishing it this weekend, but my mom wants me to stay home and study for SAT's. Maybe there's a way to do both...Either way, I'll probably be up late nights on Monday and Tuesday editing everything. I've also been trying to think of an idea for a new film project I could do by myself, but nothing's coming to me. I've been listening to music, hoping that inspiration would arrived on the tails of the music notes, but it hasn't been working so far.

I've been listening to the Whisper of the Heart soundtrack, and I really want to watch that movie. I may have to resort to downloading it onto my computer... Desperate times call for desperate measures!

A Boy's Dream.

I found myself sitting at the computer doing nothing again, and since it's too late to practice my bari, I thought I should finally write something for once.

On Wednesday, I went to Senior Boat Cruise and I think my poor virgin eyes were scarred forever. There was much dirty dancing going around, even some of the people that I were innocent began doing it. Luckily, I managed to stay clean and kept my hands to myself, except when Will made me dance with him. I originally took Daniel to Boat Cruise and Will took Schwanka, but halfway through, Will and I somehow switched dates. For the record, Will is a very dominant partner. The main reason I went to Boat Cruise was because I heard that the food was good, and it was. It was white people food, but it still tasted good. They had pasta, rice pilaf, bread, and chicken with a white people sauce, er, white sauce. There was even dessert. Yay, cookies! I think the best part of Boat Cruise was when Mr. Andersen danced with everyone. At the JSA conventions, we're all going to do the "Mr. Andersen" at the dances.


For the past couple of days, I feel like I've been eating and sleeping a lot. It makes me feel like...a Snorlax. But at least today was a great way to work off all of that "fat," by attending the annual Rotary Clean-Up at school. I got there at about 7:30 and I was the first student there...I think. Then, I proceeded to pick up trash for about four hours and 90% of the time, I was all alone. I'm kind of used to working by myself though, having completed a single-person film project over the summer. The only thing that's kind of weird about it is...myself. I have the most random conversations with myself when I'm alone. Of course, all the banter occurs only in my head, or else others would look at me with strong aversion. It's funny how un grupo de hispanohablantes just sat down and watched me clean up the side of the school (Talk about breaking the Mexican stereotype!). I think I picked up 3245 pieces of garbage today. Well, probably not, but it sure felt like it! I know I killed two spiders with a rake though; that was an accomplishment that I'm proud of.

Interesting things that I found while cleaning up: padlocks, film strips, a half-buried spork, disintegrating plastic, a water bottle with paint in it, and a silver spoon. There might have been other things, but I can't remember at the moment...

I have a feeling that I got really tan today. I hope I'm not darker than Trixy now...that would be terrible. I also think it's sadly ironic that people who helped out at the Clean-Up ended up littering at the end. I've also developed this habit of searching for trash on the ground now, except in my own room of course.

Note to self: I need to find my Yu-Gi-Oh cards. I want another shiny card to put in my ID pouch this week. I figure that I'll rotate between shiny cards every week, you know, to give all of my cool cards a chance in the spotlight. I also need to make my deck better. Haha, it'd be embarrassing to lose to Dyana's brother and his straight-from-China cards.


I'm also very interested in doing another self film project. The thing I like about working by myself is that there's no one to argue with about direction and there's no one else to blame for mistakes. Though, that's not to say I don't enjoy working with others (Having company makes things fun!). Anyway, I just need to get a good idea. It might be tough though since the weather might not be ideal for long. Let's face it, cold weather (even though I love it) doesn't exactly make for good filming weather...or does it? Hmm...I wonder...

P.S. Hopefully this post slightly makes up for my recent inactivity, though I think this post is a tad too lengthy.

P.P.S. The title is that of a really cool song by Jay Bocook.

Need food...

Oh my goodness, I'm so hungry...maybe I should eat more than half of a bowl of Cocoa Puffs for breakfast. I know I probably shouldn't be writing a blog in Computers, but I already finished my Photoshop project and I still can't win at Solitaire! I don't really like using Photoshop that much. I don't know, it feels like I'm cheating or something, especially since I chose to edit pictures that I, myself, took. My pictures are like my babies! I feel bad if I change them too much.

I'm so proud of the saxophones for all the hard work that they did last night. It was the most productive sectional I've ever had in all my years of being in Marching Band. I decided to give cookies to people who passed the playing test, something my section leader, Chris Gurray, did for me when I was a freshmen. But, it hadn't been done since then! I remember that he said his section leader baked the saxophone section brownies before. So, I decided to bring back this saxophone tradition. Also, I remember that at the end of the sectional, Chris decided to give the entire section a cookie, even if they didn't pass. So, I copied what he did and gave everyone a bunch of cookies for working so hard.

This Phoenix Wright orchestral medley that just came up on my Zune's shuffle reminds me that I still need to finish Apollo Justice. In fact, I haven't really played any DS games lately. I've mostly been using my DS to play NES games like Mega Man. I wanted to play the new Mario & Luigi game, but it apparently doesn't work on the R4 yet...I'm also very excited for when the English versions of Pokémon Heart Gold and Soul Silver come out! I think the Johto region of Pokémon is my favorite out of the four regions. It kind of seems the most Asian. I have so many good memories of playing Gold Version as a child. I remember that the graphics just blew my mind. And the color when you put it in a GameBoy Color was amazing! The entire game was such an improvement over the previous ones. I loved the bug-catching contests and riding the boat between Johto and Kanto on their respective days of the week. I wonder if I can wait until next year to play this remake of my favorite Pokémon game...

I love it when things go like clockwork.

Yesterday, I went to my very first official concert, and I must say that it was very epic. It was the San Francisco Philharmonic Baroque Orchestra and they performed three pieces: Haydn's 101th Symphony (otherwise known as the Clock Symphony), Haydn's Violincello Concerto in C Major, and Beethoven's 7th Symphony. Every single movement of every single piece was beautifully played and sounded so...professional. The best way for me to describe it was that it was like listening to 102.1, but being able to see the inside of the radio.

I also picked up on some concert etiquette:

-The conductor always shakes the hand of the principal violinist before and after every piece.
-The conductor leaves the stage and immediately comes right back out during the applause.
-It is almost a sin to clap or talk during the silence of two movements, but it's okay (maybe even encouraged) to cough and sneeze.

It's also occurred to me that a conductor of a professional band isn't really there to keep time. His job is to remind the players of their dynamics, articulations, and expression. They do so by hopping and danicing to the music. Tempo is less of a priority than it is in school band, except during rubato sections and fermatas and stuff like that. Well, that's the way I see it anyway. I don't know, maybe I'm looking too much into all of this conducting business. Even Mr. R has noticed how much I enjoy conducting. He says he'll let me do more in the future. Yay!

I really liked the 2nd movement from the Clock Symphony because it's where the piece gets its nickname. It comes from the "ticking" parts that keep time throughout the song. When I hear the song I imagine a small town and the villagers going about their daily business, and the steady ticking of the town's clock driving them through their routines. The townspeople buy food from the street stands while the children run around and play with the animals. The sun sets, the villagers go to bed, but the clock just ticks and tocks away.

In a lot of ways, clocks and orchestras are very similar. They're both made of countless small, yet equally important, components. If one part is missing, the performance of the entire thing suffers. It takes every single part of a clock and an orchestra to make it perform correctly. Everything works together to meet a common goal: from something as complex as making music or something as simple as progressing the stream of time.

Nine, nueve, 九.

That last one is a Chinese 9, just in case your computer (or you) can't read it.

Hooray! Today is September 9th, 2009, otherwise known as 09/09/09! I was told by several people that today is a day with magical properties. So I waited all day, in hopes of something magically delicious to occur, but alas, it seems as if this day is destined to end as mundanely as all the rest.

That's not to say that today didn't have its interesting share of priceless moments. While at Fiat with some friends, this crazy white kid assaulted us. He accused Will of being Tony's dad and called Lauren a skunk. While we were outside, he bit everyone's knee (Luckily for him, he didn't bite mine, otherwise he probably would have gotten some unspeakable bacterial infection). Tony called him mini-Dylan because they look kind of similar. The boy then started to stab balloons with a ballpoint pen. Ironically, Dylan rode past mini-Dylan at this moment and almost fell off of his bike due to the balloons bursting in midair. The little boy tried to attack Tony with the pen, but Tony took evasive action by jerking. Then, we all rushed to the Trader Joe's stronghold. Even the boy's mother could do little to quell the savage beast lurking within those giant blue eyes.

I think the most magical thing that happened for me today was the fact that I finally got a working reed for my oboe. I had no choice but to ask my dad to BUY a reed for me. I failed at making my own reeds...twice. I managed to crack one straight down the middle. So that makes a grand total of three completely cracked oboe reeds in the span of a week. Go me. I'm not used to store-bought reeds anymore; they're too free-blowing. It feels like I'm playing on two leaves stuck together. Ah well, it'll only be for a little while.

P.S. Is two hours enough time for something magical to happen? I feel kind of bad for wasting such a cool day like today. Sigh, I guess I'll have to say good-bye to 09/09/09 forever.

Life is a train, all aboard! Being a conductor is so much fun.

I meant to write a blog yesterday, but I kind of fell asleep for five hours. Well, I woke up once in the middle when my cat knocked over my oboe case. Anyway, I'm going to try to write something of some interest for once, since I'm not in my Computers class this time.

I feel like, as a senior, there would be more things to do and/or going on in my life, but I've discovered that this is not the case. This past week, I have found myself doing all of my homework at HOME! This was unheard of for myself last year and even during sophomore year. What I'm trying to say is that so far, senior year has been the easiest year of high school for me.

I know I should probably wait longer than a week to judge, since things will get harder once clubs and Theory class start up, but I just feel like there's nothing really to do anymore. I think my new favorite thing to do is practice my instruments. I could have sworn that there was this one time I was practicing oboe during lunch and I told myself, "I wish I could practice forever." Yeah, it's pretty sad, especially since I managed to break two of my reeds yesterday in Symphonic Band (probably from playing on them so much). They weren't just chipped either, both of them were cracked straight down the middle.

So since I couldn't play properly, I volunteered to conduct "We Shall Lift Lamps of Courage," since Tianna didn't really want to and was kind of sick. I had to do it from memory and from what I remember from listening to the recording so many times. Even though I messed up a lot, it was still a lot of fun. It's awesome to be able to listen to the entire band play a cool song like this; it's something you miss out on by playing inside the band. In fact, conducting is the only thing I really liked to do during my time in Drum Major try-outs (except for maybe giving drill downs).

But yeah...conducting Symphonic Band is amazingly fun and surprisingly tiring, too. I wonder if conductors secretly build up massive amounts of muscle in their arms by conducting songs? But keeping the music going is what drives me through the pain. Also, I should have known better than to use the word "easy" around Mr. R. I'll have to keep that in mind when I conduct the next song I chose to do, even though it really IS easy (It's mostly half notes and is very slow). Regardless, I'm very excited to conduct it and maybe we'll even get to perform it at a concert! It's one of my favorite pieces of music of all time.

The Great Gate of Kiev

I don't like to stand out!

Oh man...it's dark in here right now. The bright yellow, Mystery Dope background I put on my computer in Computer class is really hurting my eyes, too (For some reason, I'm seeing dark blue spots everywhere). It's the same yellow as our neon District 5160 Interact Shirts! Personally, I don't like wearing bright colors (I don't like to stand out!), so I volunteered to give up my shirt, since we only had a limited number of them.

Wow, what a coincidence. Mr. G just taught us how to change our desktops, so I was kind of forced to change the eye-burning background. I'll probably write most of my blogs in Computers now, since I have so much free time. Everything we've done so far has been very basic. The only problem with trying to write something in this class is how noisy it is. I can't really concentrate very well, but I'll still try my best to form coherent sentences and ideas! One of these days, I'll actually remember to bring a pair of earphones.

Yesterday, we had uniform inspection for Marching Band. Thankfully, the saxophone section wasn't the last section done for once! We barely beat out the trombones. Last year, Nez purposely skipped our section because, well, he doesn't like us.

P.S. I need to find a way to get some music in this class. Listening to my fellow peers makes me feel like I'm getting dumber by staying in this class...

P.P.S. Is it ironic that an oboe player doesn't like to stand out?

I forgot my password.

Woohoo! I managed to change my password for my account! I can't believe I forgot my password. This wasn't a problem at home because I had my computer set to remember my password for this site, but I decided to try to write a blog at school in Computers. Then I found out that I didn't even know my own password. So I changed it and now I can write stuff while I'm at school! It beats playing Solitaire and Minesweeper all day.

There's a lot of hok gwyh in this class; it makes me wish that I brought earphones. All they talk about are rappers, shoes, dance moves, and some of them even sing off-key. One girl even yells at her computer! Sigh, I can feel my I.Q. decreasing when I'm in this class, which is very ironic because I'm in a computer class. Ah well, it's an easy class and I really like computers in general. I always like finding new things to do with computers. It's one of the things at school that I'm actually interested in. Last week, I read the Computer textbook for fun!

I have to keep this short. I have to run to Calculus now!

P.S. I fail at Solitaire. I haven't won a single game in the three days that I've played it in class.
P.P.S. I was able to beat the beginner level of Minesweeper in 15 seconds. Crazy.

Zendagi migzara.

Today was the first day of my senior year, but it didn't really feel all that special. In fact, I thought it was slightly underwhelming. Normally, I would be nervous and anxious in bed on the night before the first day of a school year. But not this time; everything has become so routine after four years that I didn't feel excited or worried about going to school. It feels like yesterday that I was a freshman walking around cluelessly with a map of the school in my hands.

I'm quite content with the classes that I have this year. The most disappointing classes for me are my quiet 1st period and 2nd period classes. For the second year in a row, I have Ms. McGrady for English 1st period, and it seems like another year of sitting in a nice, well-behaved classroom. I wish I had an exciting, dynamic class like 2nd period (It's full of stimulating conversation and fun!). But, I have Computer Science 2nd period this year. Today, I think almost ten people showed up to the class! Oh well, I think I'll keep the class because I think I could do homework and relax during that period. It grants me a nice respite from the torture I endured in my classes last year...

I'm very excited to play in Jazz Band and Symphonic Band tomorrow. I missed playing my oboe in a band, and I hope that I've gotten at least a little better over the summer. Sadly, since Connor quit, I'm the only guy in the flute section...again... But on the bright side, I'm playing bari sax in Jazz Band for the very first time tomorrow! I'm excited and nervous about how I will sound; I have to fill some very large and purple shoes. Also, hooray for the scrawniest member of the saxophone section playing the biggest saxophone in Jazz Band!

It's been a little over a week since my bike accident, but my injuries are starting to heal! My face has reformed, save for a couple of pink spots. The skin on my arm is being replaced with newer, better skin. I feel like I'm a lizard man! I still have a couple of deep wounds left though. For some reason, when I'm cold, they turn a shade of lavender, which is slightly disgusting but still very fascinating (The shade of purple is very pretty).

P.S. I always seem to wake up in the middle of the night and find my cat on my bed. Maybe it's scared of the dark or something. I know I would be.


P.P.S. "Zendagi migzara" is Farsi, I think, for "Life goes on." Time and history wait for nobody, and we must do our best to keep up. If we don't, we may find ourselves trapped in our pasts, doomed to repeat our past mistakes forever. Zendagi migzara, and we must follow it and never let go.

No more bikes for a while...

As you all probably know, I kind of had a little accident yesterday. From my epic failure, I epic learned a couple of things:

1. Cars can parallel merge into different lanes, bikes cannot parallel merge onto a sidewalk.
2. Brakes are useful for slowing yourself when you're going too fast.
3. Buy a helmet; wear said helmet.

So basically what happened: I was riding down my hill past Collins on the way to band in the morning, like I normally do. When I got to the bottom, I wanted to go onto the sidewalk. So I drifted toward the dip part of the sidewalk to get on, but I didn't go at a sharp enough angle. Both my wheels got caught in the groove of the sidewalk ramp and my bike capsized to the right. My face hit the ground first and I think I continued to travel several more feet. A lot of things went through my mind at this time including, "How much of my face is missing?" and "How am I going to get to band?". I was scared I was going to end up like this guy.


It all happened so quickly, I was kind of confused and didn't know what to do (especially since I couldn't find my glasses). I was more panicky than I was in actual pain. I wasn't sure what to do. I wanted to get to band, but I knew I had to clean myself up. Luckily, there was a pregnant lady who saw me fall (and probably heard me shout several obscenities), and she offered me a ride home. Her husband was even kind enough to wheel my bike back to my house.

I can't get over how lucky I was. When you think about it, the injuries I got could have been much, much worse. I'm very fortunate that I didn't break any bones or hurt my neck or head. Luckily, my sprained left ring finger didn't keep me from playing my saxophone today! Hopefully it'll get better before I'm married and I have to put a ring on it. Sadly, I'm not sure if my right wrist fared better. I doubt I can play badminton with it, unless it gets better (No more smashing for me).

The thing that upset me most wasn't the fact that I was in so much pain. The physical pain was nothing compared to how guilty I felt for letting everyone down. I felt like I let my section down and the entire band down. My dad even had to leave work early because of me. Even the nice couple went out of their way just to help a poor boy who can't even ride a bike correctly. I'm still very much in their debt for their huge favor. Unfortunately, I highly doubt I'll ever meet them again to pay it back. Therefore, if I ever see an injured person on the side of the road, it's my obligation to help them, just as that nice couple helped me out. That way, I'll be able to Pay It Forward (I want to watch this movie someday).



Much to my surprise, I was able to get 1st place in the drill down today, despite being barely able to bend my right knee (I can't even make a fist for Parade Rest!). I hope no one was going easy on me, just because I'm handicapped!

P.S. One of my vacation pictures from Flickr was selected to be used on an online travel guide. See it here! (It's the Chinatown one, with my name):

http://www.schmap.com/boston/sights_outandabout/#p=68361&i=68361_25.jpg

Holding My Thoughts In My Heart.

After three days of marching band, I am happy to say that I am feeling much more comfortable with my section. Though, I must admit that there are times when my mind blanks and I have no idea what I should do next...especially during sectionals. But, I've started talking to my freshmen a bit more. They're already starting to laugh at me and hit me! It's great!

Doing drill downs this year is much more difficult for me because there's so much pressure on me. Everyone expects me to do well (because I'm technically "Drill Master"), when in reality, I can lose just as easily as anyone else. Whenever I do a drill down, my legs shake like crazy; sometimes I feel like I'm about to fall over. I can feel everyone's eyes on me, and I know that a lot of people are wishing for me to mess up.

I also blame my loss today on Yohanna and Denisse! They kept telling me to lose on purpose so that the freshmen wouldn't hate me! I told them that I would mess up on purpose if I made it to the final three, because I've never gotten a 3rd place ribbon before. I think that got to my head and distracted me during the drill down. Sigh...getting 4th place is like a slap to the face (so close, yet so far!!). Oh well, no one really to blame but myself. More reason to do better next week!

I went to the dentist's today, and I didn't contract bacterial endocartitis due to my muscular ventricular septal defect! Woohoo!

P.S. I like how a good piece of music can make me forget about all of my troubles, well, almost.

P.P.S. Today's title comes from the sad and dream-like song in Final Fantasy VII.

Fire is surprisingly hot and water is wet, strangely.

I'm kind of sad that no one seems to blog anymore...I feel like I'm talking to no one! It's like when Amir talks to his Baba (Well, probably not QUITE like that) in The Kite Runner. Which reminds me, I should really be doing homework right now...

Well anyway, today was a very...interesting day. It's my first day of being a section leader, and I already question my teaching credentials (More than I previous did). I think was more nervous than the freshmen that I was coaching because my mouth got very dry, very quickly. I'm not used to raising my voice around people, so this was a big learning experience for myself, as much as it was for the Marching Band rookies. Hopefully with a day of band under my belt, I can be more confident in what I am doing. My biggest fear is that I end up over-complicating things for everyone. I have a tendency to explain things in ways that seem to only make sense to only myself. Half the time, I feel like people have no idea what I'm talking about.

I barely got any sleep last night because I was so excited and nervous about the first day of band. I looked in the mirror a little while ago, and I saw dark rings returning to my eyes. I look like a raccoon, but thankfully, I have large glasses to camouflage my dark secret.

Fun fact: I like to listen to a 17 minute song, just for the minute and a half finale.

P.S. The title is just me being weird.

Am I a butterfly dreaming I'm a man? Or a bowling ball dreaming I'm a plate of sashimi?

Never assume what you see and feel is real!

Gasp! I'm actually writing something for once! And it's only been like three whole weeks since my last post! Luckily, I don't have any coffee in me today, so my writing should make a little more sense.

During the past couple of weeks, I got to play badminton at GGBC. I even got to use the Yonex bag that my aunt bought me from China. It's so cool; it even has every single one of my favorite colors on it (blue, black, gray, and white). The large bag creates the illusion that I'm a much better badminton player than I actually am. I love playing badminton a lot now, but it's a shame that I get tired so easily from playing. I really want to get a new racket, because I feel like it could make a big difference in my playing. And goodness knows that I could use anything to help out my badminton game.

Another strenuous activity that I've been occupying myself with lately is Pokémon Stadium on the N64 at Brian's house. We all like to do competitions with the mini-games, and things can get very intense. During the many days of playing it, we've experienced: foot cramps, flying controllers, sore throats, various swear words, bruises, loss of breath, non-stop yelling, lots of glistening sweat, and at one point the N64 was flipped upside-down. Yes, things may get a little competitive, but I think it's the most fun I've ever had while playing a video game.


Thanks to Schwanka, I finally have a State Alchemist's pocket watch! It's one of the few things that I've ever really, really wanted in my life. It's also one of the very few times that I've gotten something that I've really wanted. Now, I have two pocket watches, but only one real pocket to hold them in. Ah well, I've sort of found a way to keep them both with me. Though, some people might mistake me for some sort of emo child (How dare they!), since I have so many chains. But what can I say? I love clocks...and that's with an "l" (I'm no chicken lover!). I would call myself a "chronophile", but I don't because I know there's no such thing.....Well okay, never mind. I just Googled it, and apparently it IS a real word. I kind of want to start wearing a wristwatch again (For triple the time-telling fun!), but they always get in the way when I play badminton. That's one of the many reasons I like pocket watches more.

I've been getting these headaches for almost an entire week now, and I don't know what to do. I suppose I should be taking some sort of medicine, but I'm just curious as to where these pains are originating from. Also, I've kind of been able to remember some of the dreams I've been having lately. Strangely enough, I've also kind of been having recurring dreams. Though they each weren't exactly the same, they had to do with the same thing, which is odd. I've never had recurring dreams before (Not that I can remember anyway).

P.S. I want to see Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea!

P.P.S. Today's title is a quote from the game Chrono Trigger, one of my favorite games ever. The characters and locales are just so diverse/wacky/insightful/thought-provoking/plain awesome.

WARNING: This was written on a caffeine rush.

So today was free mocha Monday at McDonalds, and I somehow I got my hands on three free cups of iced coffee. I'm having a little trouble typing right now because of all the extra letters that I'm putting. Since I haven't written anything for almost two weeks, I should probably make this entry kind of long. I'll try not to be too boring though...hopefully.

Let's see...the first most important thing that I can think of to talk about is the completion of my personal solo video. It's called "This Past Feeling" because of the song I used and the theme of the video (I'm so creative!). The song, called "This Feeling," is a remix of the First Victory song from the first Phoenix Wright game. I chose the song because it was happy and upbeat, without being too, uh, girly. The second song, "Dear Friends," is from Final Fantasy V and made me think of how far I've come since elementary school. I've made so many dear friends in my life, and I think it all started on that playground, too.

Interesting things about the production of the video: Much tape was used. No, not film tape, but electrical tape. I used it to hold my camera onto various objects found around the set. Having a small camera has some advantages, but lots of tape on a windy day equals a lot of frustration. I'm surprised how durable my camera is; it fell onto cement twice and into a water fountain once. The water fountain actually cleaned the screen of the camera, so I guess that wasn't such a bad thing.

Oh yeah...about the new banner. Um, personally, I think it's pretty. It's a lot more exciting than my previous banners at least. The only thing bad is probably the broken and/or made up Latin that I used. It's probably easy to guess that the first line means "Irreplaceable time flees." But, I had to look up a Latin translation for "like" and came up with "velut". The title is supposed to mean "Irreplaceable time flees like a fantasy," but it probably doesn't. Also, I couldn't find a Latin word for fantasy... Ah well, it looks nice at least.

I've also changed my lifelong goals list to a Final Fantasy progress list. It lists my approximate progress in each game. Hopefully I'll get one of those to 100%! I bought Final Fantasy: Dawn of Souls the other day, which is the GBA version of numbers I and II, and I think I angered the game somehow while playing it though. While in a dungeon, I had NINE random encounters in a row. In other words, that's nine battles in nine steps taken. It was incredibly frustrating, yet hilarious at the same time. I think the game's God (aka the Random Number Generator) hates me.

For the past week, I've been watching The Speed Gamers Final Fantasy marathon, which was streamed live. They're a group of college students who played Final Fantasy games for an entire week and raised over $50,000 for autism care and treatment. See? Who says video games are a waste of time? They were even featured on the CBS news. Their next project is a Mega Man marathon starting August 14 for earthday.org. Man, if only we could do this for WE at our school.

I went to Angel Island with my grandpa and my other relatives from China yesterday. We took a ferry from Tiburon, the birthplace of the mountain bike, to get there. Then, we hiked half an hour up steep stairs and winding roads to get to the Immigration Station (Wow! More creative names!). It's the biggest attraction of Angel Island and is where Chinese immigrants were detained and interrogated. In one room, there are almost 100 different poems carved into the wooden wall. Sadly, a lot of it has been painted over and is barely legible. It's still nice to see them in person though...even if I can't read it.


Oh no! My senior picture day is tomorrow! I'm nervous because I'll be getting a haircut right before I get my picture taken. What's so bad about that? Well...I'll be getting a haircut at a place that's not my bathroom for the first time in like a decade. I'm feeling very anxious, but it just might be the caffeine. Hopefully they won't cut it too short; I need long hair to hide my forehead.

It is impossible to predict what the future has in store for any of us.

That is precisely why people feel the need to judge the past.

Ah, this quote makes sense. Since we don't know what lies ahead in the future, we tend to look back at what has already happened to search for some hints. This can cause people to dwell in the past and let it control their futures. I hope I don't let that happen to me.

I hope I am more careful about how I ride my bike in the future as well. I made a man very angry today when I came out of nowhere into the middle of the road. It's my fault for blasting my Phoenix Wright tunes, even if I only had one earphone in. I was more concerned about cars coming down the hill that I completely forgot that there are some cars that actually climb up the hill as well (go figure). If I had ridden onto the road even a couple of seconds later, then he would've probably hit me. I should've realized that my bad hearing would get the best of me someday. I don't think I should be allowed to listen to any sort of music while riding my bike anymore.

Also, about my hearing...for some reason, I have trouble hearing people sometiems, even when they're right in front of me. A lot of times, I'll just smile and nod, pretending to have heard what they said. Usually, this only happens when there's a lot of background noise, like at a party or even at school. Most of the time, I'll go "What?" and/or stick my ear in front of your face. I apologize in advance (and for the past) for when I do this to some of you. Though, I know I've done it to pretty much all of you already. This may also be a result of blasting my jamz too loud.

Now that I think about it, maybe my hearing isn't bad. Perhaps it's just my inability to read lips. In case you already haven't noticed, I have this problem of not looking at the person I'm talking to (unless I feel really comfortable around them, which is rare). I'll usually not look at that person's face and stare off into space. I think the only person who has commented on this about me was...Mr. O'Shea...

P.S. About today's quote...it's from Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations. I'm finally almost done with the game and Godot (the prosecutor) gave this statement, which I found to be a very true reflection of human nature. At least, I think it is. This is Godot...listening to some Phoenix Wright tunes, no doubt.

How far I've come from my childhood home!

There will come a time when my troubles are gone
And when I shall not be all alone—
Till then, I dream of my home, sweet home

Lately, I've been feeling kind of empty inside, like my life lacks a purpose and meaning. I've been feeling like the things I do won't really matter in the long run. I need some sort of motivation to keep me going and doing stuff. Normally, people have a reason to do what they do, or at least have some sort of goal to reach. This must be like some sort of mid-teen crisis.

It seems like I've been losing a lot of things that have been close to me. If Nez isn't going to be there next year pushing me to do my best, who will be? If the school is going to go on strike in the beginning of the year, is there any point in trying to learn this year? A lot of things that used to be a big deal now seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Lately, I've been worrying about where I'm going and how I'm going to get there. I've also been wondering about who will be joining me on the trail through darkness known as the future. Hm, maybe I'm just talkin' crazy talk or maybe the summer heat has gotten to my head. My mind HAS been getting lost in these summer doldrums.

I suppose no matter where I go, I'll always have music to accompany me. I downloaded all three of The Black Mages' albums today. For those of you who don't know, The Black Mages are a Japanese rock band who cover Final Fantasy songs (The composer happens to be the keyboard player). Brian also introduced me to this very pretty song called Flowerdale. It features an all brass ensemble and a solo cornet. The high notes that the cornet hits are just crazy...and very, very pretty.

P.S. I feel obligated now to explain where my titles come from. This one comes from the lyrics from a Final Fantasy V song called "My Home Sweet Home." It tells the story of a boy returning to his hometown after leaving on an adventure for a long time. So basically, the song is all about remembering the memories of the past, after having come a long way into the future.

Here we go now, on the offense.

I should really consider writing more frequently. It's gotten to the point where I only post once a week, and that's not cool at all. I guess I should recount the highlights of the past week, assuming I remember it.

The most depressing thing that happened was, of course, hearing that Nez retired. It was like losing a family member, even though I know I'll still see him. Still, I was surprised how much it saddened me when I found out. I thought about everything that he taught me, and how much I learned to appreciate good music and the lessons that can be learned through simply stopping to listen for the story of a song. We're apparently supposed to write a letter to him full of good, positive words and memories, but I can't seem to think of anything to say that isn't sad.

Progress on my video project is actually going pretty well. I'd say I'm over halfway done. The hardest part is probably choosing a song for it. There are two completely different directions that I can take this video, and I'm not entirely sure which one I should traverse. Maybe I'll just flip a coin, Harvey Dent-style.
As for my little dream project, things could be worse I suppose. I was able to recall a couple of dreams though. I even wrote them down, well, the parts that I could remember. There was one where I was driving an empty bus in the desert by myself, and another dream where I broke an old lady's giant bonsai tree.

Hanging out with friends on Independence Day was fun. I was tempted to call it "Independence From Women Day" since it was all guys. Swimming in Will's pool was painful because it was so freezing cold. My entire body was literally turning purple. We played frisbee in the park by the bay in Hercules, but for some reason, I kept getting distracted by...ah, never mind. It's not important. The fireworks were okay, I guess. I think watching the Disneyland fireworks show over five times has spoiled me. But, once I started listening to some "Star and Stripes Forever" and "The Star-Spangled Banner", the fireworks in Hercules became ten times more interesting and immersive. Being near the bay reminded me of when "The Star-Spangled Banner" was written: in Fort McHenry, on the Chesapeake Bay. The fireworks were reminiscent of the bombs bursting in mid-air, as written by Francis Scott Key.

Having very little Interact experience and having not done anything Interact-related in almost two years, I have been chosen to act as the club's Secretary...of War. I don't know why, but the position of secretary is appealing to me. It's the job in the shadows, which fits what I like to do. And no, that's not stalk people.

Son of a submariner!

I'm officially obsessed with Final Fantasy again. Hopefully I'll be able to finally, FINALLY, beat a game from the series this summer. By the looks of it, I think it'll be VI. I've set the personal goal for myself to beat every single game in the series, well, the ones that matter anyway (that would be numbers one through nine). I still haven't decided whether I want to beat them in numerical order or not. Maybe I'll do that sometime in the far future, when I've beaten them each at least once. A marathon Final Fantasy run sounds kind of fun...considering I lack what some people call "a life."

Speaking of how bored I am, I finally discovered the mind-blowing concept of "lucid dreaming" today. I can't believe no one has told me that this exists! If you've been living under a rock (like I have), then I should let you know that lucid dreaming means you have the ability to control anything that happens in your dream! With practice, you'll be able to do anything you want like fly, talk with your own subconscious, or even live out weeks at a time in your sleep! Bottom line is: you will have more spare time to do anything you want.

Apparently, the first step to harnessing this ability is to remember your dreams. Sadly, this is something that I can never do. So...starting tonight, I'm keeping a journal of my dreams. This is assuming that I can remember them long enough to actually write them down. It's recommended to tape record yourself, but I don't want my mom to think I'm crazy. I probably sound really crazy right now, but I mostly want to see if this actually works. Scientists have proven this concept and people on the internet say they can do it, so why not? They're never wrong!

Even if I can't have lucid dreams, at least I'll be able to have a journal of my dreams. I really want to be able to remember the dreams that I have. Whenever I think back to an event, sometimes I can't even remember if what happened was a dream or reality. Hopefully I'll be able to keep an accurate account of what goes on in my subconscious mind.


I really need a big roll of duct tape. I would tell you why, but it's a secret! But I CAN tell you that I am kind of planning a video that I want to make. I've also come up with a couple of rules for myself, too.

Rule 1: I have to do all filming, editing, and planning by myself.
Rule 2: I can't use a tripod (mostly because I don't have one. Heck, I don't even know if my camera will fit on one).

I enjoy setting limitations for myself, because I like the challenge...either that or I'm a masochist. It also forces me to be a little more creative in how I go about things. This will be my first attempt at filming an actual video, ever. Doing it by myself will be good, I think, because I can learn from my own mistakes. So yeah, this project is pretty much a big test. It'll test: how well I can operate without other people telling me what to do, whether my new editing software works, and what the video quality of my camera looks like. So don't expect it to be an amazing video, since it's really just a test video.

Luckily, I've got myself a couple of tiny notebooks to write down ideas (and maybe dreams?) in. The best part is that they fit in my back pocket! Now that I think about it...I have a feeling that I'll break them if I sit down. Darn...that's how I broke my library card.

Oh man, there's a long story behind this picture. I'll just say that it was very difficult to achieve the angle that I needed. I had to use everything in my pockets, including my DS and a lobster bib.

P.S. I reread my post, and I realize that I make a ton of mistakes. I fixed most of them in this one, but I probably say a lot of things in other posts that make zero sense.

A hole in the heart is preferable to one in the head.

ARGH!!! It's been another week since I've posted anything. It must be due to my Summer Sloth Syndrome. I meant to write something yesterday, but I think the heat waves killed off what little is left of my memory cells.

For me, a summer tradition has been to play Fire Emblem (the 7th one in the series) on the GameBoy Advance. Playing it reminds me of back when I was...uh...let's see...fourteen years old! I still remember coming back from my first day of Marching Band camp with my decrepit school-owned saxophone, downing an entire bottle of Gatorade and then retiring to a game of Fire Emblem. It's hard to believe that it's been three years since I've first played the game. I suppose it's even harder to believe that I never get sick of it! I love starting new files to relive the memories of playing the early levels. It makes me wish that I could start a new file in high school and relive the early years. If that was possible, imagine all of the things I could do differently, having all of the experience that I have now. That's why I like replaying video games; you can make less mistakes on your new file, having made many the first time you played.

Reading Dyana's blog made me realize that my family must not care about tradition at all. Though, my mom DID warn me that Schwanka's parents might not let me go to their house, but I convinced her that she was crazy and I got to go anyway. Sigh, that makes me feel a little bad now. After my grandma died last December, I broke every single rule that Dyana wrote down. Let's see...

-I went to Schwanka's house.
-I invited people to my birthday party.
-I had many fun.
-I ate meat everyday. Heck, the funeral after party had meat! At least, I think it did.
-Oh wait, I don't think I wore anything with animal fur...did I? My memory is so bad...
-I wore a red Santa Hat. Man, that's not fair. That one shouldn't even count.

Though, I guess skipping Christmas for the first time ever balances things out. Maybe? Sigh, probably not. I bet my ancestors look down upon me with much disapproval...like in Mulan.

Man, my entire week has been kind of boring. I guess the most interesting thing that happened was my little visit to the Children's Hospital on Thursday [Crap, I meant to say Wednesday. I lose track of days]. It was funny how much older I was than all of the other patients. It's for kids under 18, and I guess I just made the cut-off. I'm not gonna lie, I was really scared and nervous when I was there. You know, for a while, I had completely forgotten about the blood tests and stuff I had taken back in April. But, they came back to worry me this week.

I normally tell my friends like everything that's going on with me, but this is one of the first things I've actually kept a secret from them. I just didn't wanna worry you guys! Well, I think I was just making Mt. Moon from Diglett's Cave (i.e. getting worked up over nothing). When I was at the hospital, I had to take two different tests: both involved me without a shirt and with cords taped to my body. It was all sorts of awkward. The electrocardiogram lasted all of ten seconds.

I had the coolest doctor. He was Japanese, I think, and he's a CAL graduate! AND, he was in the Marching Band! AND, he said used to carry around a pocket watch just like me! AND, he has tried playing badminton before! Ah, so cool. Anyway...he told me that my electrocardiogram was 99% normal. Then he listened to my heart and told me that since I'm so skinny, he can hear all four valves of my heart opening and closing. Neat.

After that, I had to take an echo cardiogram, which is an ultrasound, more or less. I felt like a pregnant woman. Luckily, I got to watch T.V. while an Indian doctor searched my heart for problems. It took her two Spongebob episodes to find something. Apparently, I have a muscular ventricular septal defect (what a mouthful). It's basically a small hole in my heart, literally. It's nothing to worry about though. The hole is smaller than the name that describes it. The doctor said it won't affect me in anyway, except I probably have to take penicillin before my dentist appointment to prevent the teeny-tiny possibility of a heart infection. He says I can still be in marching band, ride my bike, and play badminton normally! Hooray!

However, I'm still wondering if this explains why I sometimes feel like something is stabbing the tip of my heart. This hasn't happened in a long time (though, remember that my memory has been sucking lately). I just mostly remember this happening when I was younger. Ah, who knows. It could probably just be cramps or something. Or gas, that seems to be the root of a lot of problems for people.

P.S. If you like this, check out my Flickr for more updated pictures!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/intotheair/sets/72157619650182553/

Cross your heart?

I haven't posted for over a week! Again! Well, at least I have an excuse this time. Being two thousand miles away from my computer is a good reason, right? First off, I want to give this. It has pictures from the first two days of my trip:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/intotheair/sets/72157619650182553/

I also saw Up today! Even though it was of questionable quality and had Russian text, I still loved it. I think it ranks with The Pianist as one of my favorite movies. I really took notice of the music and how it amplified all of the emotions in all of the scenes.. Hmm...if only I could learn how to do that in the videos that I edit.

Quote of the day (which I came up with all by my clever self):

"One shouldn't take directions from a blind man."

Well, in my case, a blind man shouldn't tell another person where to go. I have no idea where I'm going; therefore, I shouldn't direct the path of another. Ah, it makes so much sense!

With Quiet Courage, We Shall Lift Lamps of Courage to guide us through these Shadows of Eternity and Into the Light.

Those are just a few songs that I think can accurately depict the mental image I have of this past school year. Though, I think the one most pertinent to the events that have happened over the course of these ten months is, oddly enough, Shadows of Eternity. As I've described before, that song is all about how life and history repeats itself, and how your world can turn upside down, just when you least expect it. An important lesson that I learned from the song is that where there is light, there will always be shadows cast, but so long as you always travel with a light, you will never get lost in the darkness.


Even though my memory has developed the habit of blocking out the events of the past, I'll try my best to recount what has happened without stating what is not the truth. I think a good place to begin would be marching band camp (Coincidentally, it's also the best place to begin high school). Now that I was a junior, my responsibility in the band had increased and I had to make sure that I set a good example for everyone else. I got to lead the lines in the saxophone section and everything! I even went on to win (tie Robert for first) in the drill down competition. I feel kind of greedy and I'm hoping to win another plaque next year.


I can't say that I was huge fan of the songs that we played this year in marching band. But, I'll go as far as to say that I hated playing China Grove and Oye Como Va. Smooth Criminal was almost just as repetitive as those two. I think the only songs that I really enjoyed were Crosstown Traffic and Conga. I really hope the saxophones get better parts in the songs for next year. If we don't, then I really don't have anyone to blame except for myself, since I'm a section leader now.

Once school started, life really began to go down the toilet. All of my classes looked innocent enough, but little did I know, I would be trapped in their suffocating grasp for nine months. Let's take a look at some interesting points from each period:

A period - Jazz Ensemble: What a way to start the morning. Blues scales that I didn't even know, and I still don't know. Solos that I was terrible at doing and is the main reason I switched to bari sax. Music that didn't make sense to me half of the time. It was an entirely different band. Jazz is a form of music in which the player has to read in between the lines. If you're like me, then you'll simply play what's written; no more, no less. That, however, is completely wrong. There's a style to jazz that I still need to figure out for myself. I'm a senior next year, and there's still so much to learn. When I think of the beginning of the year, I think of the song Take the "A" Train. It just embodies the feeling of starting new in Jazz Band for me. When I think of the song, I still get filled with that same feeling of cluelessness that I had in the beginning of the year. However, I'm glad that I was finally able to play my solo in Dance to the Music correctly by the end of the year, even if it wasn't in front of an audience.

1st period - English 3, Honors: Ahh...I remember doing the entire summer assignment the day before school started. I think that may have been the start of our study groups (and I use the term loosely). Despite having a lot of work, I still liked the class because Ms. McGrady made all of the books we read interesting. My favorite book from the class was probably The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Night by Elie Wiesel. Also, please ignore the fact that those were the two shortest books that we read. We also watched several movies that I thought were really good like The Pianist and Life Is Beautiful. Sigh, it's such a shame that we couldn't finish Life Is Beautiful, but I think I can say that The Pianist is one of my favorite movies. I'm not sure why exactly, but there's something about it that I really like. It's just different from every single movie that I've seen before.


2nd period - Pre-Calculus, Honors: Oh my goodness, here's where the day starts to get a little depressing. I like Mr. Sanders as a person; I mean, we have the same taste in music, but it's almost safe to say that I didn't learn anything math related from him all year. Well, that's probably not all entirely true, but it's pretty darn close. He does have some cool pieces of technology in his class though, like his school bus yellow calculators and his projector along with his Mac. I still want to ask him for his library of music...

3rd period - U.S. History, AP: I loved this class because Mr. Wilson never made it boring. I just feel really guilty because I feel like I could have done so much better if I wasn't so lazy. If I had read the book or done the study guides by myself, maybe I could've gotten a grade better than the A- I maintained all year. In this class especially, I felt the year speed by quickly. One moment, we were fighting for representation in Parliament, the next we're protecting the world from Nazi Germany. Before I knew it, John F. Kennedy had been assassinated and Bill Clinton had created NAFTA. Mr. Wilson is such a great teacher; I feel really sorry for anyone who doesn't ever get the privilege of being taught by him.

4th period - Symphonic Band: Ah, my favorite class of the day. I know it's my favorite because I am never unhappy to go to it. We played a lot of good songs this year: upbeat ones like Percussion Espagnole and more serious ones like Jupiter. However, the one that everyone loved was Into the Light. It's one of the most beautiful and memorable songs that I've ever played in my life (With Quiet Courage being one of the others). I think I've mentioned before how the oboe solo in Into the Light is like the bridge between the slow beginning of the song and the rush to the end. To me, that represents the bridge between junior year and senior year in high school. I'm at that bridge now, and just like when I'm playing the song, I have to make sure that I take a deep breath before I cross.

5th period - Biology, AP: This class would have been really depressing if I was awake for more than 50% of it. I tried my best in the beginning of the year. No, honestly, I did. But, once we changed seats and annoying Jeannie was no longer an option, things got really boring, really fast. Since I was sleeping for most of the year, I don't have much to write about this class. I did pull off an A for the 2nd semester, so I guess you could say that I can get A's in my sleep.


6th period - Spanish 3: This class was such a big joke, I don't even feel like talking about it. Though, I really liked this period because of our little band corner. We used our combined strength to cheat on tests and projects, skip class, and do pretty much whatever we wanted! Also, let it be known that I forgot more Spanish than I actually learned this year.

Now that classes are done, how about some of the extracurricular activities that I did this year? I joined a lot of new ones this year, and continued the old ones. Badminton was more or less the same. Being my third year on the team, I got used to losing...a lot. I should really find some time to practice over the summer. At least I had a lot more friends in badminton this year! I remember I only really talked to two people on the team when I was a freshman.

A club that I joined recently this year was WE, but I feel bad for not being a more active member. Hopefully next year I can do something worthwhile for the club. I like the T-shirt though!

JSA...what is there to say about it? I went to all of the conventions this year, so I guess that makes me an active member. The conventions are fun, as long as I can stay awake...without the assistance of coffee and coffee flavored energy drinks. Sigh, I still don't think that caffeine is out of my system yet.

I guess that would bring us to Film Club. For some odd reason, I became the Secretary of the club. Though, I guess that fits my personality the most since I'm more of a behind-the-scenes guy. I've also found my niche as an editor and I've "successfully" edited two whole videos for Film Club this year! Yayyy. I hope I'll do more next year, especially with the new software I got today (assuming it'll actually work). I also hope that I haven't single-handedly jeopardized my entire summer project...

Of course, one of the biggest highlights of the year was going to Disneyland. It was so much fun hanging out with [almost] all of my best friends at the happiest place on Earth. Performing with Jazz Band was such a blast and recording with Symphonic Band was so cool. It would be fun to do that for a living. However, I think the funnest thing I did was ride with Nez and other band kids on Tower of Terror, California Screamin', and Space Mountain


This year, I started blogging and taking pictures. They serve as outlets for my, er, "creativity." I blog because it's more worthwhile than simply talking to myself all of the time. Before I blogged, I found myself having conversations in my head at the end of the day about random things. I take pictures so I can look at things in ways that I normally can't see them. Hopefully, I can expand my picture repertoire to things outside of, well, random stacks of stuff.


This year, for me, has truly been the paragon of opposites and cycles. While I've made a lot of new friends, I've slowly stopped talking to a lot of my old friends (especially the ones that wear black all of the time). The year ended almost the same as how it began: I found myself at Red Onion with the guys, gathered there for almost the same reason both times. The bond between us guys has certainly grown very strong this year. Every single one of us had/has our own different problem, and we all do what we can to help each other out (whether we like it or not). Our study groups are a time to talk about things that are on our minds and play video games. It's like therapy and a bunch of teenage boys are the psychiatrists. The Magnificent Seven; each individual is a symbol of either Courage, Friendship, Love, Sincerity, Knowledge, Reliability, and Hope.

For this past year, "Change" seems to have been the theme for the rest of the world, too. In a lot of ways, I know I've changed a lot from the beginning of the year. I've become much more mature, but at times, I feel like I act the same as I did when I was a sophomore. I try to act more responsible, but I sometimes end up screwing everything up in the end. I want to become more social, but my self-consciousness gets the better of me.

Cycles, up and down, like and love, black and white, open and closed. How can things be so different, yet so similar? Why does history repeat itself? Why do things fall apart just as they reach their highest point? Though I've traveled a thousand miles, why have I not moved an inch? These are questions that have popped up this year, and though I don't have any answers, perhaps things will become clearer during senior year.

Who can say if I've been changed for the better?

But because I knew you, I have been changed for good.

I feel like such garbage right now, and I just want to sleep, but I want to write my 99th post tonight. That way, I can reserve my 100th post for my big annual end-of-the-school-year reflection. Sigh, this year's might be tough. Now let's see...what interesting things have happened this week, well, the ones I'm allowed to talk about anyway.

We took finals this Monday and Tuesday and I did poorly in almost all of them. Much to my surprise however, I managed to scrape by with A's in History and Biology. I already know I have high A's in English and Spanish, so I just need to worry about Math now. Sigh, the Math final was open book, and I still wasn't able to finish it even though I had three days to do it. Maybe Mr. Sanders will cut me some slack, just out of favoritism.

We performed two graduations today, but I got sad when I realized that it was my last year ever playing Pomp and Circumstance and Music For a Ceremony. I think for most of us, playing "Into the Light" was the highlight of our nights (Wow, lots of rhyming). That song really IS powerful; I had goosebumps like the entire time. I'm also glad that I didn't mess up solo. That's always nice.

For some reason, I've been getting these massive headaches and stomach aches lately. I've also had a loss of appetite at home and at school, too. I'm afraid that I'm going to lose weight...I'm already falling under 110 pounds! Sigh, oh well. I just feel like sleeping right now...I can't think straight. I think I should stop before I start writing even more nonsense.

So now we fly ever free, we're free before the thunderstorm.

On towards the wilderness, our quest carries on.

Hmm...two blogs in one day. I must REALLY be bored. Though, I really do need to write something, since I haven't in a couple of days. And, so many exciting things have happened during that time gap! Now...where to begin?

...great, I can't even remember what happened on Thursday. I really think I was dropped on my head when I was a child, because I forget the most recent things, but I remember the most random things from a long time ago. Let me think...hmm...I THINK we got yearbooks on Thursday. Yeah, that's right, and they're terrible! Well, they're actually alright; they just have like a million mistakes. They misplaced the Jazz Band picture...twice. They mixed up the Homecoming float winners (I bet they're just mad that the Juniors won). Students and teachers were put into the wrong sections and club photos were swapped. Heck, some didn't even show up at all! Haha, ahh...Forensics.... Well, the only reason I ever buy yearbooks is for people to sign them, but I'm always too shy to ask anyone to sign mine, so I usually don't end up with much writing (Haha, but this year is different already!).

Let's see...yesterday, I went to the Walk-Out Rally for the first time ever, but I kind of regret it. The bleachers are surprisingly uncomfortable without Marching Band pants and everyone around me was screaming about how much they hated everything. Though, I did like that runner showing off his speed and agility in front of the school. The giant mob of people on top of the field at the end was interesting though; I never knew that happened at the rally. I kind of stayed off to the side and watched everyone attacking and hugging each other. And then, I started looking down and at the field and started feeling sad because I realized that I only get one more year to march on it.

Afterward, I went to Happy Sashimi and then met a security guard that convinced me that benches are meant to be looked at and not sat on. Then, I went to Daniel's house to film our project. If I recall correctly, it involved me wearing a Pokémon hat at one point and playing with a slinky...slinkie...?

After that exciting episode, we mosied on down to the school listen to the seniors perform at the Senior Recital for Conservatory. Just listening to them made me nervous for my turn next year. I'm already pretty sure I know what I'm doing and it's fairly, uh, challenging. I just need to get those 32nd notes down...and find a way to not be so nervous all the time when June 2010 rolls around. Sadly, I'm sure that time will creep up behind me way before I realize it.

Finally! About today! I awoke early this morning in order to prepare for my US History Subject test, which was to be administered at Oakland High School. However, there was an unforeseen obstacle that arose in the form of a malfunctioning electric pencil sharpener. Luckily, my mom was able to conjure a hand pencil sharpener, seemingly out of thin air. It was in the shape of a train, but since it was made in China, it didn't work very well, but at least it was able to get the graphite out of the wood.

And with that, I was off. Back to whence my father came! Er, at least, back to where my dad graduated high school. The test was hard; maybe it's because I didn't eat enough, or maybe I didn't get enough sleep. Anyway, after the test, Tony and I roamed about the three floors of the school. He discovered that there's light switch in the bathroom and decided to turn it off as we left, leaving two unfortunate boys in the dark...literally.


Once we got back to Pinole, I had myself a little bike adventure. I rode from Hercules to Fernandez Park to Collins to Red Onion to Tony's house to Daniel's house and then back to my house finally. I'm guessing that I rode about four or five miles today. This includes the dozens of times I had to ride up and down Canyon Drive for filming. On the way back home, I pulled a muscle in my leg and I could barely bend it at all. I think I started whimpering like a little sissy boy. Now, my legs feel like jelly...and my fingers are tired.

Tomorrow, I have to work on editing our video and maybe if I have time I'll find a way to install new video editing software! Hopefully without crashing my computer! And without contracting a virus! I'm using a lot of exclamation points, and I didn't even drink any coffee today!! I feel like I could write a lot more, but my fingers are getting tired from typing. Gosh, why must my thoughts be constantly stifled by my weak fingers?!