Big Day

Yesterday (Thursday the 27th) was a big day. We had a half day in school. Mr. Rodgers also died. This is sad news for everyone who ever watched his program. R.I.P. O Sweater-Changing, Shoe-switching pedagogue.

After school, we had Musical practice after which Jerome, Katie W., Joell (sp?), Lea, Taryn, and Jill, and myself all went to Borders. I ended up spending $107 on books and cd's. Yipes. After that, Jill came over for awhile and watched Black Hawk Down. When I said, "Jill, I need a Hummer" (regarding the movie). She gave me the most horrified look. Very funny stuff. From six until nine, I went to a conference at the high school about planning MG's future. From there, I packed up my computer and hauled it over to Jesse's for the LAN party. As we were going to Danny's and then Marcus's to pick up some extra switching equipment, we stopped at Jill's, where there was a party going on. We were about to knock on the door, but there were a bunch of guys with large wooden 2x4's. So, I floored it in reverse, nearly missing a mailbox by 2 inches. Then Taryn and Jill hopped in the car, and I proceeded to pinch Taryn's hand in the window (automatic windows). Then we came in for awhile and returned to the LAN. Jill showed up for about 10 minutes. I stayed at the LAN until 2am. I am now leaving to go back there.

Today's Music
Merle Haggard & Willie Nelson - Pancho & Lefty

Stabbing Westward

Today's Title is a sort of double entendre. On the one hand, the name reflects my efforts to continue through the drudgery that is school. On the other, it is the name of one of my favorite bands, Stabbing Westward (insert duh here for slower readers). Nothing out of the ordinary today, but seeing as I missed yesterday due to the fact I was sleeping for 19 hours straight (woot), I am cloudy headed and as my voice teacher put it, thinking more "organically." It's time for me to insert a shameless plug in here for my voice teacher, Wendy Rowe, who rocks my world. She rules. If you have not seen her, see her! She rules! I've been working on my solo & ensemble solo a good deal lately. I really want to make it state-caliber. I'm not feeling too incredibly poetic today, so unless someone demands that I write some poetry, I will just insert a quotation from the mouth of Mr. Smith.

Today's Music
Stabbing Westward - So Far Away

Today's Quotation
"Flags are what they shrink-wrap your brain in before you die." - Some guy Mr. Smith heard
"If you want a symbolic gesture, don't burn the flag; wash it." - Norman Thomas
"It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees." - Emiliano Zapata

Misc. Additions + Poetry
A couple of links and such. Make sure to check out that Johnny Cash Video.

Music Recommendations
Audioslave - Like A Stone - Lyrics
Blindside - Pitiful
Soundgarden - Fell on Black Days - Lyrics

Poetry
Unfinished Symphony
Written to commemorate the passings of musicians:
Layne Staley, Singer and Guitarist of Alice In Chains, in my opinion one of the ten best rock bands ever (favorite tracks: Heaven Beside You, No Excuses, Man in The Box, Down in a Hole, Get Born Again, I Stay Away, Would, Rooster, Them Bones

Joe Strummer, Drummer, The Clash also a legendary rock band. (favorite tracks: Rock the Casbah, London Calling)

Waylon Jennings: Country Music Legend

The notes twinkle
they (both) stars in the sky
waxing and waning we can no longer touch them
their pinpoints of light still shine,
even though they are no longer with us,
will they ever burn out?
Will their cosmic contributions be forgotten?
Let us hope not...
and let us remember the work of those who came before:
LayneS, WaylonJ, JoeS
KurtC, JoeyR, JimmyH, JimM, KeithM, TomF, JerryG, Stevie RayV, JohnL, Selena,
Don't let the s t a r s f
a
l
l

Case of The Fri-Mondays

Time for another big update:

Friday was another chapter in my life as a Target employee (read abysmal suck). I worked for four hours, went home, watched the new Johnny Cash video, and went to bed late.

Saturday we had a Show Choir competition in Brodhead. I arrived at school at 7:30am. The bus broke down, so I went to Cuppa Joe to pickup a Creme Caramel Steamer and a cinnamon roll. Man, were they good. The competition was pretty dull. we took fifth. I went to the LAN party at Alex Reback's for about 45 minutes. Our buddy from Epicenter Lan, Liquidfire was in attendance as were: Greg, Matt (astonishingly), Reebz, and Curtis (my WWII hero). I gulped some Mountain Dew down and headed home.

Sunday morning included a Les Mis cast brunch at the Hoppe's house. I left for Target. I worked from 1:30pm to 6:30pm. After work, I went direcly to Musical, which lasted 'til 8. I stayed on AIM for quite some time talking to various people including Tamara, who I stayed up helping until about 11:30pm.

Monday (today) was a normal school day. I felt a little bit under the weather for most of the day. The school was frigid as usual. Also, we began senior projects today. After school, I took a little bit of a nap and went to musical. Practice lasted until 8:00pm tonight. Afterwords, I practiced my vocal solo for Solo & Ensemble competition.

Today's Music Note: Watch the Video! It will leave you speechless.
Johnny Cash - Hurt
Watch The Video

Today's Poetry
Art
Scratches and Scribbles
Hashes and Lines
Straight and swirving
the scrawlings and stencils,
swirl and sweep,

funny how simple sweeps of the pen
pencil or brush. Things so small
slowly synthesize to someting greater
some higher purpose
something so perfect

Like characters, fonts caligraphy, text
Bibles, books, papers, magazines,
articles, opinions, ideas,
or
Paintings pictures, outlines, sketches, doodles or stencils

But never fails to upset
someone
The precise arrangement of syllables - strokes - shapes - sigmas
arouse such a response in some
this is the most amazing thing
sharper than the sharpest knife
shapelier than the most beautiful man or woman
stronger than the most powerful weapon
the sketch - the art - the word
spreads
shooting out - electric spider Webs
the structured suggestion of the mind
Like This...

Whoosh

Like so many of my previous titles, I have no idea what today's signifies.

When I got home after Musical practice today, I stepped in the door, threw down my backpack, and remarked, "what a great day." I haven't said something like that in I don't know how long. A year, two? three? four? I feel great. Today all the gears linked up. I woke up a little late this morning. I did not want to go to school at all, I was that tired. I packed my lunch for my lunch detention and headed off to school. Once there, I dropped off my sax, etc. etc. First hour went well. We watched a great video about the falling of the Berlin wall. I felt a surge of emotion rush through my body as hundreds of thousands of people protested, danced, and tried to escape East Berlin. I remember very little about the fall of the wall, just a couple of still images in my head and of course, images of Mikhail Gorbachev, whose country-sized birthmark caught my eye. Physics was fantastic, too. I got all the right answers to the questions on the practice sheet. Study hall went well as well. I got more done than I had planned on. Then it was onto English class, where the class corrected its multiple choice tests, which I was fairly confident about. Surely enough, I scored a 20/26, absolutely fantastic!!

Lunch detention was medicore. The sandwich meat, cheese, and yogurt was a little warm, but all my friends at my table waved to me from the commons below, which was at least funny. A lot of other well-wishers came and waved / taunted me from outside the SSRC. It's very antithetical, I think that I should have lunch restrictions.

Band went pretty well. Jerome and I practiced our duet for most of the hour. Choir was less good, but I enjoy the songs we are singing, so that helps. I had a decent time in Spanish, too. I got my project done very early, which always brightens my day. Calculus proceeded to meet my expectations. I got a more solid grasp on the topic we were covering. Always a plus. Musical practice was short - only until 5:30pm. All my solo's went well. I had a good time goofing off with people (Taryn, Meghan, Seth, Jerome, etc.). At 6:15 I am meeting Jerome, Kathleen, and Joel at Red Robbin for Dinner. It should be a fun night! That is except for the fact that I have a pretty sizable load of homework to do. Oh well! I'll make do.

Today's Music
Fuel - Won't Back Down

Today's Poetry (this was a major quickie)

I trudge through the thick sticky muck
My backpack weighs me down,
It pushes and pounds, jostles and hurts,
I stare at my bloodied hands, the timeline of all the torment and agony,
They are sick, disgusting, painful, dry, cracked, bare, worn to the bone,
I look in the mirror, the object of my undoing, and I long for yet more pain.
My eyes howl with infernal rage. They long to shirk their given duties.
But I keep them focused for as long as mind triumphs over body.
I sink into my font. The pain whooshes out.
The alarm rings.
I bear the yoke again so that I may write another chapter in my history.
So that in my hands there is etched a new journal entry.
It jumps at the reader.
It Screams one word,
Pain.

Evanescence

Today's title reflects not only my current state of affairs (being that my time is evanescent w/ musical and all). But it also reflects today's Music o' the day, which comes to you courtesy of the Daredevil soundtrack. Evanescence's album should be out on March 3rd.

Anyway, apropos of the whole school deal, here's a quick rundown:

Monday: I overslept. I got to school at 10:30am. Unfortunately my mom called me in as "overslept" intead of "sick", which caused me to receive a wonderful sentence of 5 restricted lunches. I didn't spend much time in school on Monday because Jazz I played in Verona at conference Jazz Solo & Ensemble. We earned a 1st ranking, not a starred first, which is what's required to get to state, but I believe it was an apt ranking. Monday night I had show choir practice, which went pretty well with the exception being that we now have to wear ocupational hats that make us look as though we're three year olds flailing to some awful music and dance number created by Yanni and Philip Glass.

Tuesday: Not a whole lot to report here, either I'm sad to say. First full day back since the oversleeping debacle. We watched a pretty cool video in Social Studies entitled Nuclear Cafe. I took the 45lb weight out of my trunk and put it under Matt Olig's car (keep this in mind for later). I had musical after school, which lasted until 8:30. I went home, did Calculus, read some Crime and Punishment, and fell asleep.

Wednesday (Today): Um.. I'm tired. Had a tough time staying awake in physics as well as in Spanish class. I had to write an English impromptu. I don't think it went very well... I served a lunch restriction, which was interesting, I guess. After lunch, I practiced our Gershwin piece in band, sang in choir, where Matt Olig brought the aforementioned 45lb weight o' death back to me. After choir, I was forced to lug the damned thing into Mrs. P's room and then back down to the Band room and then to my car!! It was heavy! After school, I had jazz band until 4:15. After that, I went to get gas, went home, practiced my music pieces, took a nap, ate dinner, went to musical which was delayed an hour and a half for unknown reasons. After musical (7:30-9:30), I did my physics homework and updated my blog.

Today's Music
Evanescence - Bring Life To Me
Special Note: There is a guest vocal by the lead singer of 12 Stones on this song

Today's Poetry

I trudge through the thick sticky muck
My backpack weighs me down,
It pushes and pounds, jostles and hurts,
I stare at my bloodied hands, the timeline of all the torment a

So Sorry

It has been a long while since I updated. I was tired Wednesday and can remember little else about that day.

Thursday marked the announcement that there would be cake and punch for students on high honor roll, which was something I had written in my article to the Eagle Post, but was omitted by the editors. Nonetheless, I take credit for its re-introduction.

Friday, Jill and I got the whole Twirp thing resolved. I went to Target with Greg and Curtis. Then we went to EB to pickup a copy of Road to Rome. Curt also showed me how to use the overdrive feature of my transmission - a hearty thank you goes out to him.

Saturday, I had Jazz band all morning and afternoon. I had to be at school at 7:30am. The clinic was in Sun Prairie and was well worth the trip. Of special note were an absolutely exceptional student guitarist and the basic improv. clinician, Ron Carter, whose "Shoogy Shoogy Wah Wah" lick theme is still stuck in my head. I can't say enough about this guy. Upon arriving home, I learned that TWIRP was a no-go, for various reasons. So, I stole my dad's car and went out to Olive Garden on the East Side and met up with Tamara, Elena, and Jerome. From there, we were off to Dairy Queen to buy Danny a birthday cake. After that, we hightailed it to Tamara's where we watched Kundun, messed up Danny's b-day cake pretty badly (note: it had duckies on it). Danny, Emily, Rita, and Buffy joined us after Twirp. Danny opened his presents, which included a pirate hat, cutlass, eye patch, and a light-up dreidel that was DOA. Josh Olsen and David Aurie joined us after that, but it was time for me to go home.

Today, Sunday, I awoke around 10:30 (went to bed at 2:30am). I read Doll House by Ibsen for an hour; by no means my favorite play. Then I got all dressed up to go to the Chili dinner at the High School where I played my Tenor Sax in Jazz 1. I had three solo's, which all went pretty well. The luncheon was immediately proceeded by the band Pop's Concert, which went well. Everything ended up around 3:30pm. I gave Jill a ride home and fell asleep while my Grandpa came over and talked to my mom. I woke up from my nap around 5:35, ate a half-hearted microwaveable thing of Sweet and Sour Chicken, some cake and a brownie, and headed off to musical. Musical, as usual, was a complete waste of time. My scene got finished around 7:35pm. I got home around 7:45 and watched the Simpsons 300th episode (what was left of it). My mom was supposed to tape it for me, but she messed it up. It's ok though, I forgive her. She's not too good with anything above low-tech devices. Then I did my Soc., Math, and Science homework and wrote this.

Today's Music
Dredg - Sanzen

Today's Link
Imagination at Work - a very nifty web-site done by GE in flash 6.

Snow Day Lan

We had a half day today. And then we had a LAN at Danny's. Attendees included: myself, Marcus, Greg, Mark, Jesse, Craig, Curt, and Danny. We played a lot of Battlefield 1942 and then it snowed. It snowed like some ungodly freak of nature. Curt then abandoned us for the snow of the boarding and the what not.

Today's Music
The Clash - Rock the Casbah

Alex Reback's LAN Quotes of The Day:
"The Jackal of death is here and he's unhappy w/ my performance in bed!!!!"
"Move Over Celica!! Butt hump the Celica!!!"
"He's heading back toward his base, kill kill kill!"
"Operation go around the map!"
"Uhh Ramius I know what you're trying to do. Oh Shit!"
"We're all on the brink of winning except for Ray-Ban and Ramius"
Ramius: "Shut Up"

Tedium

I went to bed at 2am last night after the LAN and awoke at 5:30am. I couldn't sleep. I read some and finally got back to sleep sometime later. I woke up at about 10:30. So, I feel a little tired. My hamstring hurts a bit for some unknown reason. I also filed my taxes today, which was an experience. After that, I played some Warcraft III, picked up my room, went to Target to buy some cereal / goldfish crackers / put in time off requests, went to Goodwill to drop off a weight (note: Goodwill doesn't take single weights), and finally went to Best Buy to pickup Battlefield 1942: Road to Rome, which is only $15 this week! Make sure to snag it.

Today's Music
Dredg - Whoa is me

Today's Poetry (by me)
Drive

Slamming the accelerator
tires loosing their shrill shrieks
groaning and gutteral
gasoline-induced glory:
acceleration

she grabs the road
hugs the corners
dances the fandango
wails under duress

pure beauty
raw emotion
unadulterated
immaculate
drive

Fleet

Whisking gently along gently
The green blades of glass sway
A soft, waxy texture underfoot
the swish of the weeping willow
crying on its pillow
maybe it's crying for me?

The evanescent winds of time
pass unceasingly
fleet of foot and keen of sight
their ken is limitless, all-encompassing
omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, are their
equivalents of hammer, sickle, and plowshare

I hear them singing:
in the thickest forest
on the highest snow-covered summit
in the deepest canyons
their melodic cries echo unceasingly,
for all to hear.

One day, I too will make the melody of the wind,
when will that day be?

Lannage

Today marks another historic day in my life in that I have wasted another day sitting in a dark room filled with white males playing computer games for about nine hours straight. Yes, that's right kiddies, it's a LAN part (for more info check out This Website). But before that I did sort out the change that was lying on my dresser (total: $53.00). Then, I went to the bank.

*Now, Back to the LAN*

-I took 3rd Place in the Warcraft 3 Tournament

Kerry's Disturbing Facts of the Day
-Wal-Mart is the largest employer in the U.S.
-Wal-Mart is the largest seller of CD's in the U.S. (note: Wal-Mart also censors many of their cd's and has a selection of cd's that lie almost entirely in the mainstream of music (*cough* *utter fecal material*)
-Wal-Mart employs as many part-time employees as possible, so as not to have to pay their workers benefits (insurance, health care, etc.)
-Wal-Mart does not support Union Labor
-Wal-Mart is now venturing into the circle of grociery stores - a field that has been historically unionized. This can only mean bad things for one of the last bastions of unionism.

Today's Music
Beautiful Mistake - On Building
Note: Check out the video for this song on Launch.com

Today's Latin Quote
Quod erat demonstrandum - Which was to be proved

Stupid Alarm Clocks

I got to sleep at about 12:45 last night. I had jazz band this morning, and I was slated, as usual, to wake up at 5:45am. However, I set my clock an hour forward somehow and woke up at 4:45. Not cool! Not cool at all! So, I was really horribly tired today in school. It was absolutely wacky. School was just a fight to get through the day and to make it home. After school, Danny, Greg and Tamara came over for a while. We went to Target, then Circuit City, and finally to Best Buy. I picked up cd's by The Juliana Theory, The All-American Rejects, and Dredg. I'm very pleased with all three purchases thus far.

Today's Music
The Juliana Theory - To the Tune of 5,000 Screams

Today's Latin Quote
Casus Belli - The Cause of War

Ergo (Latin for Therefore)

Don't ask me about the title. It really has no pertinence whatsoever to the topic at hand. I stayed home today due to my strep throat infection - good times. I feel fine, but I guess I just stayed home because I was contagious and because I felt like sleeping? So, as you can probably surmise, I did not do much today. I did read some of Crime and Punishment, by Dostoevsky, whcih is slowly getting more enjoyable (now that I'm 200/470 pages thru). I guess that's about it.

Today's Music
Crazy Town - Beautiful

Today's Poem (By Me): Sick Day

Wake up laze
Cloudy head
Mental maze
Eat some bread
Lift some weights
Watch some tv
Contemplate
sleep until three
Masticate
Am I really sick?
Probably not
Just watching the hands of the clock

STOP

Tri-Ninja Tri-Strep

Today I was tired (no surprise), but more on that later. I could barely stay awake during the USS12 video. Nothing really interesting happend today - that is until after school. We had some "Tri-Ninja Shovel Action." That is to say, Mark, Danny and myself shoveled Danny's driveway. Then everyone came over to my house, where we raced recycling bin sleds down the driveway. Danny lost in a last second bail. After that, I learned that I had strep throat, which might explain the whole "I'm tired" thing. I slept a little, played some vice city, some Warcraft III (I won), and that was pretty much it.

Today's Music
Gov't Mule Feat. James Hetfield - Drivin' Rain

Break it Down

Friday was an ok day. I had an orthodontist appointment, which ate up a good portion of my day. After school Jerome, Ashley, Andrew Jones, Reina, Sam George, and myself went to shop for room decorations. We were at school doing show choir-related stuff until about 11:00pm. Saturday, I arrived at school at 7am, DDR in tow. Most of the day was spent reading dostoevsky and doing other pointless things. Oh, in case you didn't know, there was a show choir competition on Saturday. Nine show choirs. Fort Atkinson won, so kudos to them. I was monitoring Madison East's room for most of the day. Our show choir performed twice, with the second performance being easily the best we've had thus far this year. I'm looking forward to our upcoming competitions, as I'm hoping we've finally gelled - but I still have a few doubts. The competition finished around 10:00pm. Amazingly, we had everything cleaned up by 11:10. It was a miracle.

Sunday (today) I called in sick to work, cleaned my room, went to Urgent Care, bought the Exies CD, which I have yet to listen to - I'll keep you posted. I also bought Greg The Ministry of Sound's Annual 2003 mixed by DJ Sammy for his b-day. We had a surprise party at Angelo's for him. It was a great time, but everyone seemed to be ill (Nathan, Kathleen, etc.).

Today's Music
The Juliana Theory - Would You Believe Me?

Special Addendum:
I would just like to issue my condolences to the families, relatives, and others who were involved in the unfortunate destruction of STS-107 (Space) Shuttle Transfer System #107 (Columbia), with which NASA lost contact around 8:00am on Feb. 1st 2003. All aboard were true pioneers - let us not forget their sacrifices.