Wow! What a Show

The other night I attended what is known as a collage concert. What a collage concert is a show that incorperates many different ensembles and the play one song back-to-back right after the other. They had some really interesting pieces. The wind ensemble was by far the best as well as the faculty jazz combo. they had a wide range of ensembles including Orchestras, brass quintets, some solosists and duets, as well an old time ensemble, a percussion ensemble, and a jazz band. One interesting part was when the wind ensemble play The stars and stripes forever the conductor dressed up as John Phillip Sousa comlplete with uniform and fake mustache. it was hilarious. It started around 7:30 and ended at about 9:30. I concluded the evening witha vist to chic Fil-a in the atrium of the cafeteria to get a late night snack and then went back to dorm did some homework and watched some TV and then went to bed. All in all not a band evening.

Sorry theres not much to this post but theres not much I can say to describe specifically what a show this was. It was a “Be There” Moment

This weeks wrap up….. for lack of a better idea.

I didn’t really have an interesting topic off hand. So instead I decided to just kind of some up this week. Monday – I spent most of my day on a bus trying to get to the mall to get my tux. Tuesday -  I had my first percussion lesson with Michael Wood in which I again came face to face with my poor mallet skills. I also spent the better part of two hours from 5pm – 7pm taking a survey for Pyschology class. Wednesday – I had regular class and then my first convocation. Convocation is time of anouncements and housekeeping with a few performances by the faculty. We had a vocal performance and Cello performance.  Thursday I went to class got my homework done and then went to Inter-varsity. It was also today that I signed up for praise band with IV and our first practice is Monday. Friday – This is my slack day I did absolutly nothing I went to class got the work done was able to leave early in one class and pretty much watched scrubs and played ping pong with George until late in the night. This continued on through Saturday and on Sunday I went to Awestruck Church a new church plant that is meeting in a middle school at 10am. That’s pretty much what happened the whole week if not for my long trip to the mall it would have been a pretty boring week.

My day trip to the mall…… Unfortunately

There were no classes scheduled today due to the labor day holiday, so I decided to go to the mall and get my tux for the many concerts I will have. I began my trip with a visit to the HEAT Bus stop just outside the caf. Once there I discovered that the bus wouldn’t be there for another 30min. This left me in a pickle because I was hungry but didn’t have time to go to the caf to eat before the bus would be back. So I went to the Elliot Center for quick bite. However when I got there I discovered that all the restaurants were closed due to the holiday. This meant that I was forced to eat a delicous and wholesome meal of Coke, and bag of cheese puffs. I then went out and caught the HEAT bus to the Greensboro bus depot only to be informed by the bus driver that bus I needed to catch could have been cuaght at another stop right at the university. However because I rode the bus to the depot my only means getting there now was on the No. 2 bus which wouldnt be there for another hour. Luckily thanks to my Zune I passed the time by watching a couple of epsiodes of Scrubs the best TV show ever. When the bus finally came I boarded it and rode another 15min to the mall it is now almost 4 o’ clock… I departed at promptly 2 o’ clock. After my two hour bus trip was over I finally found myself at the Four Seasons Mall. I then proceeded to go find the place that sold tuxes. It was a quaint little place ironicly enough named TUX! and was soon fitted. After fitting I was able to purchase a tux that was on sale and all in all only cost me $208.16 including tax and shoes! Not a bad deal at all. Of course though the tux had to be altered, which of course they didn’t do there and of course the guy that did alterations in the mall didn’t work on mondays (most likely due to the holiday) so this weekend I will be forced to take another day trip to the mall. Once I finshed at Belk (the place that did alterations) I decided with the hour I had left I would go visit Guitar Center across the street. Guitar Center don’t get me wrong is a pretty cool place. What makes it extremly uncool is the 12 year kids banging the exact same beat over and over again and using up the only pair of demo sticks. So after patiently wating to get my hands on a pair of sticks I finally got to play on some really neat equipment. After trying a few things out I decided to purchase a drumset, some new cymbals, and a couple snare drums. This came to grand total of $1200 which I put on my new Guitar Center platnium credit card! Just kidding mom you stop sweating. I did no such thing but it would be nice! Anyway so after Ii got done looking around there I noticed it was time to catch the 5:30pm bus. I showed up at the stop promptly at 5:25pm and waited. And waited, and waited, AND WAITED, AND WAITED, AND WAITED!!!!!!!!! TILL 6:20PM TO BE EXACT!!! Once the bus came I boarded and rode it around the block just end up back at the mall. Apparently the stop I was dropped off at is not the main stop of route and were I should have been at 5:30 was over by the main entrance of the mall. But after another 30min ride I finaly found myself back on campus and procceeded to walk all the way from Aycock Auditorium to the High rise area were my dorm was. For those you who aren’t familiar with UNCG. ITS A LONG WAYS AWAY!!! But it doesn’t matter I am here now and finally in about six hours (3 of them spent on bus our waiting for it) I was finaly home.

FIRE!!!!! Not Really.

I just came from one most retarded things to waste your time. A fire drill. Because someone left thier curling Iron on and went home for the weekend, I spent a good 45 minutes outside trying to block the sun from my eyes. However the rest of the day went pretty good. I woke up early this morning at 7:59am to go to my 8 o clock class. (still dont know how I manged that!) and finished up promptly at 9:50. I then do to lack of breakfast ate an early lunch which consisted of a chicken sandwhich, a cheese loaded salad, a toasted ham and cheese sandwhich (oh so good) and for the sake of mother some corn (your welcome). After that I went back to the ol’ homestead to kill some time before my one o’ clock class ENG101. At said class I and the rest of my group got together to go over our assignment and do to the teachers absence promptly left. It was then that I had this overwhelming feeling of joy. I’m done with school by 1:30pm and only spent another hour this morning in a classroom and it’s friday! Then I went to my percussion ensemble class which I don’t consider to be school and played a percussion quintet song called SHOCK FACTOR!!! No really I had to shout that several times throughout the piece which was kind of embarresing, but not nearly as embaressing as just banging away at the bells not having a clue what I was playing do to lack of critical melodic reading skills(gotta work on that). What was so cool was is that I slowly lifted my hand and said “ummm…. I can’t read this” to which my teacher Mr. Beck said that’s ok its not a tune anyway just play whatever. So I did. As I was standing there banging away at whatever note my mallet happened to hit. I realized how incredibly awsome this was. I was going to a school where chief goal is to be the best at something I enjoy doing and am continuing to enjoy. The only thing I have to worry about at all is being at the right place at the right time with the right materials.

Psycho-ology….. well maybe

Today I had my first lecture in my general Psychology class. We had an interesting disscussion in which I made one of the more intelligent contributions (pause for a pat on the back) to our disscussion about the mind. My professor Mr. Korotisch asked what the mind was. A lot of people didn’t have an answer right off and neither did I but as the class started to warm up we talked about it being the brain, or not being the brain or the mind being more like the soul. I speculated that the mind was a product of the brain just like arm or leg moving. Which led to further disscussion about the mind and what it was. The main argument in the lecture was whether the mind was or was not part of the physical world. In Pscychology there are two main ideas about the mind: Monism and Dualism. Monism says the mind and brain/body are one and the same (therefore in the physical world) and dualism means that they are two seperate entities (one in the physical world one out). It became even more interesting when my professor said “So how many of you are monists? (A couple of people raised their hands.)” “and How many of you are duelists? (again a couple of people raised thier hands)”. Then he asked “what do you think Pyschologist are Monists or Duelists?” Nobody had an answer. He then tried to further coax us into the direction he wanted to go in by asking what science was in general. Somebody said “The study of the physical world” which was right. He continued to say “well then if were are to study something in the physical world then we would have to be monist right?” Then he said something I wasn’t expecting. I don’t know maybe it was just the way he said it that made it come across that way, or maybe he actually meant it but his next phrase was “Science can’t study things in the physical world. Think about it. Is there a way to measure anything spiritual, is there a way to measure God.” It sounded like he excepted God as a thing in this universe as legitamently as the mind. He didn’t continue to mention other gods from variuos other religions he only mentioned one God. I thought that was neat that a Clinical Psychologist and a college professor of a fairly large public university whether he believed in it or not recognized one thing that was bigger than us in the universe. Something that affected things on earth and he called him God. I was amazed.

When it rains it pours…. Literally!

Today is the third day in a row it has been raining at a constant down pour. I am just about to soak through my second hoody in a row and  am writing this from the student lounge in the music building because I do not care to soak through a third. Today was first day of real class in music fundamentals. We covered note heads, (yawn) the staff, (yawn) and identifying keys on the keyboard (also yawn). This wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t already being covered in my 1st level piano class (yawn so big my jaw hurts)! Seriously my piano 1 class is so boring. Yesterday we covered what the numbers of the fingerings were for our hands. We actually traced our hands on a sheet of notebook paper and wrote the numbers of the fingers. We then proceeded to find middle C and play C-G on the keyboard in both hands (oh so hard!!!) So as of right now my only seriously engaging classes so far are English 101, Orientation Music Ed. and Psych 101. however not to worry parents I have plenty of others things to fill my time up with I.E. party’s, girls, video games, and staying up all hours of the night…… HAHA just kidding. I will be spending most of my free time practicing and studying for sure (dramatic pause). Well it now almost time for my next MUS 107 or for you non people with the undergraduate bulletin in front of you, Technology for musicians.

Oh yeah were now under a flash flood warning. It probably could have been in effect 12 hours ago

I think is the biggest post I have made so far.

Here we go…. Again!

I’m writing this to you on the eve of the next biggest day I will have in a long time. Tomorrow august 25th I begin my classes at UNCG starting with music theory or fundamentals depending on the results of my theory placement test. However all that aside it has been a great couple of days leading up to this moment. Today I played another mean game of ping pong with my roommate George against two other guys Brad and Chu.  Needless to say  they were fairly quick games but they were a lot of fun!!! For dinner tonight they had a  cookout to celebrate  the new coming year following convocation. This included an excellent performance by the Jamestown bagpipes and drum corp as well as a riveting speech by our new chancellor. It concluded with the ringing of the ceremonial bell and a very moving acopella (I know it not spelled right Mom!) version of our alma mater. All in all it was a most enjoyable evening. Now back to what I was originally saying tomorrow is the big day and I will be sure to let you all know how it turns out.

GO SPARTANS!!!!!

Today I write you from the 63rd room on the 4th floor of Reynolds hall, a dorm on the campus of UNCG. Today me and my cool new roommate George Riess went and found all of our classes today. That involved walking all over campus and about three hours of our life. However now knowing where all my classes were I feel much better about the coming days which tell what kind of experience I will have here. Right now I’m having fun but I keep telling myself you haven’t even started class yet! I’ll feel much better after my placement audition which I feel mostly prepared for but as always the unknown is never certain. For now though I just hope everything goes well.

Kickin it with the 5-0

Today was pretty cool, I got to ride around with deputy sheriff as part of the Pasquotank County Youth Council job shadowing day. I know what some of you were thinking. How lame, but just give me second to explain. First off there is a lot of people that do not think highly of our local law enforcement, and at first I thought this too; but the gentleman I got ride to ride around with was a pretty good guy.  It was real neat to  see all his  cool equipment and I was even able to go on scene at an accident down Pear Tree Rd. Relax no one was killed but it was pretty freaky. The vehicle was flipped upside down.  All in all it was an exciting day.

New Blog

Hey every one

This is an attempt at starting something I have never tried before. A blog. I hope will work to provide a way of communication for the folks at home while I’m gone, as well as neat way to describe my feelings and maybe share a fun story or two. So bear with me as a I try to do this. Hopefully it will turn out.