Being a senior in high school it doesn't hit me that it will be my last for a lot of things. I just had my last High School drama performance earlier tonight, and once it was over I realized I would never do it again. There are tons of things that I will never get to do again. I'm just gonna list the things that I've done and will do for the last time.
Playing in the band at football games
Playing in the band at basketball games
Band, Chorus, Jazz Band, Jazz Combo performances
Fall and Spring plays
Wearing makeup for those plays (I won't miss that too much)
Indoor Track
Outdoor track
Band trip to New York City
Being with my friends in the class of 2014
There's probably a few things I'm forgetting, but these things were all really important to me. They've given me experiences and knowledge that I'll never forget. There are only a few things that I would have changed about my time in High School, and they're all things about myself. What I could have or should have done as opposed to what I did or didn't do. I made mistakes, but I've learned from those. The school and the people around me have shaped me to what I see as a better person. I can never thank them enough for everything they have done to me.
Even though it was rough at times, I don't think I would want to have done it with a different group of people. Sure, not all of us got along, but I think that in the end that doesn't matter. I grew up with a lot of people in my grade, and I hope I can stay in touch with them as life goes on.
Even though the Class of 2014 is important to me, there's no way I could have ever done it without the tight-knit group of friends that I still have today. They're the ones I have to thank for everything. They've stuck with me through thick and thin, I think it will always be like that.
Looking smart with Levi.
Can't forget these four goobers. Left to right we've got Chas, Jamie, Jason and Anderson
Liam doing his thing
Hanging out with Quin and Seth at a BBall game!
Seth and Nelly at their graduation.
Alex and Robin looking goofy in the hotel on a band trip.
This semester I'm taking an Intro to Engineering class. What it's trying to do is open up the engineering field and getting people interested in it. We're building a robot. As one of the heads of the computer department, I have to set up a wireless connection to the robot.
Along with that, we have to get the robot controller working, connected, and then programmed. For starters, we had to get the power problems out of the way. A 12V battery is hooked up to a power distribution board. That's where all the other components will be connected to as well. After that, the Robot Controller, which is a small black box, is connected to the power distribution board.
I don't have a wireless connection to it yet, so I have to connect it using an Ethernet cable, which gives the controller an internet connection. After that, it's hooked up to my computer with a USB cable. All of this enables me to program commands into the controller.
Once all the programming is done, it's as easy as playing a video game. I have an Xbox controller, so it's as simple as pressing buttons to make this robot go.
Now, what does the robot do? It throws yoga balls using a catapult. We're going to make it go through a goal, but I've been trying to convince Mr. Tripp to let me chuck it at the Freshmen. He says we can't, but deep down I know he wants to.
This project is really important to me. I get to work as a team with a bunch of different people to make this thing. It's something I never though I would be able to do, but this class is showing me what a team of motivated people can do. I'm loving every minute of it.
Here's a video of a robot from a competition that takes place every year. Our robot is similar, but it won't look exactly like this.
Lately I've been thinking about my future. I'm going to college next year at the University of Maine in Orono. My major is Computer Science and I want to minor in Music. I've also been invited to participate in Honors College there.
Honors college is basically saying that I did well in high school, so in college I take an Honors Class. In that class I'll read about a book a week and write a paper on it. At the end of each semester I'll have to write a larger paper. During my Junior year I have to write a huge paper, but I'll have someone helping me along the way.
That's a lot of extra work, but there's a huge bonus. Rather than living in the freshman dorms, I get to live in an Honors Dorm. I think I'm going to try to get the same building as my friend, who will be a junior. I don't know who my roommate will be, though. I think that maybe it will be better to get someone I don't know. It's really hard for me to meet new people, but I think that the first step towards getting better is living with someone. I want someone that's relaxed, but doesn't party. That's not really my style.
That's all I'm worried about, though, the social situation, that is. I can keep up with grades and stuff, but I'm not good with talking to new people. I'll get over it, though. I just need a bit of a push, which I think college will give me.
Other than than that I'll be fine. I already have friends there so even if all else fails I have them. I'm excited to get out of my house. Not that I don't like it, don't get me wrong. I love my parents (and my cat), but change is nice even if I'm terrified of it. It'll be a nice change of pace to get away from high school too. The people here are iffy at best sometimes, but I have to see them every day. At least at college I can get away from people I don't like for the most part.
This past Friday I want to Hampden Academy to compete in a Jazz Combo festival. The five of us competed against six other jazz combos from our class. In my opinion I looked pretty damn classy. I don't usually wear a suit and tie, but I think it looked good. As for the music, it was a blast. The best feeling is getting up on stage and having fun. We all played well.
Being a state competition, the judges are tougher. Going in I expected us to get about the same score as last time, which was a 74. A 74 sounds, bad, but it's scaled to a rating of two out of six, where the best you can get is a one. So basically we did pretty well last time.
This time however, even with the tougher judges, we got an 82. We didn't get a one, but each of us had fun. It was totally worth the time and effort that went into practicing for this. (Yes, even the terrible blisters I got on my fingers... again.)
I'm going to see if I can get my hands on a video or a recording of our performance so I can upload it here. I think that my solo could have been a bit better, but the judges being a bit more strict I didn't get a one like last time. I was rated as a top soloist the at the regional competition as well as Doug. Unfortunately neither of us got a one at states. I honestly think that Doug deserved it, though. His solo rocked as usual.
The toughest part about going to festivals and competitions, for me, isn't the competition itself. I play music all day, but when you ask me to socialize it's a no-go. At festivals you're expected to go and talk to the other musicians/artists and the like to go and get to know each other. It's part of the spirit behind it all. This is where I fall short. As my friends go out and talk to others, I take a sideline seat and watch it all happen. I find these kinds of things physically draining. Not because it's been a long or hard day, but because it actually stresses me out to talk to the people. I've spent most of my weekend by myself because I'd rather not deal with people. This is probably a topic for another day. I'll have to keep this in mind.
As for some media, I have no idea what to put here for today, so I guess I'll just throw in another song that I really like.
I've talked about how I've been playing guitar for a while now, but I don't usually talk about why I started playing. I think it's a pretty funny story, actually.
My Sophomore year of High School there was this girl from another school that I had a crush on. We were talking about music and what instruments we wished we could play. She mentioned she loved guitars. Well, I, being an idiot teenage boy came up with a fool-proof plan. "Y'know what? I'm gonna learn guitar. It'll be easy." What could possibly go wrong? You get a guitar, you learn the notes and you play it. Child's play, right? Wrong. I was terrible. I hit wrong strings and notes, I muted strings; every thing you could think someone could do wrong I did.
Needless to say the thing with that girl did not work out. It wasn't because of my guitar playing, but that's another story. I put my guitar down for a while. I didn't think I was any good and didn't have the faith in myself to get better. I just figured I could never be good at it. After some time and thinking I decided that all I needed to do was practice. It was mostly because of a single guy on youtube. His name is Eric Calderone, and the name of his channel is 331erock. I watched one of his videos and was hooked. He inspired me to be the player I am today. Of course, I'm still not at his level. That will take quite some time.
That was a huge step for me, though. Realizing that I could play that instrument and rock it has made me so much happier. When I'm having a bad day, I just go home, plug in, turn up the volume and distortion and just rock out. Being able to take an object into your hands and make music is one of the best things in the world to me, but I never would have been able to do it without working for it. My fingers are callused, and I'm getting even more blisters on them. It's all worth the pain though. Playing until my fingers bleed doesn't seem bad at all when I think about good I can get after it's all over.
Here's a video of one of Eric Calderone's videos. I think it's pretty obvious why I wish I could play like him.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
So here it is. This is a blog. I've never done one before, but I guess English class is a good way to start. Unlike most homework, I think that this project will be fun. I've always kind of wanted to start a blog, but I've never had the incentive to do it. I guess this little push will be a good way to get going.
To start, here's a little about me. I love playing video games, and I love playing music even more than that. I play Trombone really well. I've been doing that for around 8 years. My second instrument is guitar. I've "played" that for 3, but I only got serious about improving at the start of the 2013-2014 school year, so I've pretty much only known how to play for 6 or 7 months. Music is my passion, and It's shaped me into who I am now.
As for what music I listen to, my favorite genre is metal. If you really want to get specific, my favorite band is Sonata Arctica. They're a power metal band from Finland. I will pretty much listen to anything except for country and rap, though. I actually have surprised people before. My friends know I love metal, so when I told one of them about how I was listening to a ton of The Goo Goo Dolls they were really shocked that I listened to stuff that was softer. Go figure.
Anyway that's pretty much what I do. Here's a link to a song I haven't been able to stop listening to lately. I think we have to do this three times a week, so this will be pretty regular. Have a good one!
