Tag Archive for 'concert'

Free Askar

National Flag

The Democratic States of Free Askar

“Without personal liberties, we are nothing.”

UN Category: Inoffensive Centrist Democracy
Civil Rights:
Excellent
Economy:
Good
Political Freedoms:
Excellent

Location: The North Pacific

The Democratic States of Free Askar is a tiny, socially progressive nation, notable for its burgeoning askarian eagle population. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, intelligent population of 5 million have some civil rights, but not too many, enjoy the freedom to spend their money however they like, to a point, and take part in free and open elections, although not too often.

The large government juggles the competing demands of Healthcare, Social Welfare, and Law & Order. The average income tax rate is 23%. A large private sector is led by the Cheese Exports industry, followed by Woodchip Exports and Door-to-door Insurance Sales.

Crime is a problem. Free Askar’s national animal is the askarian eagle and its currency is the askot.


Ian got me hooked. I don’t like the bit about the cheese, but there’s not much I can do about that. Meh.

I got back from PLU yesterday. It was all right. I was planning to rant on how I’m doomed to mediocrity because I’m not some rich snob who can drop a few thousand dollars on quality equipment, but I realized that would be whining, and I’m not much of a whiner. But I have decided I’m not continuing on with concert performance in college. No more clarinet for me, until I’m filthy rich and can afford a really good one. Instead, I’ll concentrate more on marching band. I think I’d have a lot of fun playing at football games and doing field shows. Yeah.

I also got new glasses. They’re snazzy.

Talk to my agent

Hmm, I can’t seem to use the rich text editing box. Probably a problem with Firefox, but I just can’t figure it out…oh well.

I’m off to PLU tomorrow for a glorious two-day adventure in playing music I’ve probably never seen before! And I’m still rusty on my audition materials! Big surprise there. Anyways, I’ll be gone all day Friday (we leave at 5:00 in the morning… *groan*) and most of Saturday, so if I don’t return your calls, don’t think I hate you. It’s just that my agent is an anti-social person. Kidding.

So who watched the Rose Bowl? Oh, I don’t care about the game. I just watched it for the USC band. That’s the kind of stuff I want to be doing. I’m serious. I’ve always wanted to dance like Michael Jackson in the middle of a football field. Really.

Band contest

Quite the contest we had today. For those of you not in the know, our bands compete in an annual band contest (the name of which escapes me) against other bands in our general area. I was slightly worried that we wouldn’t be quite ready, but apparently I needn’t have feared. The other bands were, to put it nicely, unpolished. Actually, unpolished is a little too kind. Horribly is a better fit. None of the oboes were in tune, clarinets had awful sounds, and trumpets were bright all over the place. Not good qualities you want in a band. Also, have any of them heard of uniforms? This one band had a trumpet player in jeans and sneakers, while another had a girl in a zebra-pattern halter top…with no back!

Our Concert Band was the first good music I heard. And good it was. That was probably the best Concert Band has every played. Then there were more crappy bands. And then the Wind Ensemble got to leave to prepare to play. We did excellent, if I do say so myself. Yes, there were a few bumps and wrinkles and missed notes (two on my part, a record high), but the judges liked us. And Pageant (one of our songs) was the best I’ve ever heard! Especially the end, except for the last note, which was almost missed. But people just thought it was extremely quiet, which it’s supposed to be anyways, before the crescendo.

Unfortunately, we didn’t muck around enough to skip 6th period, so I had to go take a rather large math test, which I didn’t sweat over at all. I don’t know why I worry so much about these tests when I don’t even remember the last time I failed one. Of course, there was that one AP Chem test on which I got a 70…I try not to remember that one.

So tomorrow is a regular day. Pity. Oh, that reminds me, I need to fill out my Job Shadow stuff before next Wednesday…better get working on that.

Also, I’ve probably said this before, but Napoleon Dynamite is an awesome movie. If you haven’t seen it, you’re a flippin’ idiot. Gosh!

Star Trek RPGs

Haven’t updated in a while. I haven’t really had anything to say…yes, I know it’s odd. But tonight is the big night! The B-E Bands Winter Concert. Yay. The songs haven’t been all that tough, and they’re all “Holidays-y”. Duh, it’s the holidays! I kinda miss having Christmas Break though. Instead we get to have Winter Break! Oh joy! Anyhoo, I joined two more Star Trek RPGs along with Devestator. I’m an engineer on Federation Outpost Regal 1 (part of SLA sims) and chief engineer onboard USS Sentinel A (part of the Star Trek PBEM Network). Very interesting. However, I have no clue what’s going on in either. Sweet.

Only semi-demonic

Agh! I’m soooo tired. Yesterday was the all-day SJMEA rehearsal and concert (there was another rehearsal last Wednesday but only for two hours). Everything totaled up: I was away from home for 16 hours yesterday, and playing my clarinet for 10 of them. No wonder my lips are so chapped. The concert went very well though. As an added bonus, I had to get to school at 7:00 (a half-hour earlier than usual) for an AP Chemistry lab which was moved to Wednesday but I didn’t know because they decided it while I was at SJMEA. So I have to wake up early to get to school early tomorrow. Man, I’m so wasted now. Plus I have monster amounts of homework that I missed Monday. On the up side, I got me some more country CDs. But what really bums me out is that at the latest count, Bush had 34 electoral votes, and Kerry had 3. Not good. Of course that’s only MSNBC’s projection. And Kerry only has so few votes because the only state he’s won so far is Vermont. I sure hope he wins. Bush had his chance. Normally, I’d go on a liberal rant about the evils of the right-wing and how Bush is evil, blah blah blah, but I won’t because I don’t think the right is evil. Only semi-demonic.

 

May 2012
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