New Year

Well everybody, it is the end of another year.  It will never again be 2011.  You will never again be the same as you were this year.  Is that scary?  Well it shouldn't be.

I'm pretty sure it was the end of the 2008 marching season when somebody told me that the group I just spent my summer with will never be the same group again.  Members come and go, the show changes, the people evolve, etc.  Everything is different.  And it's true.  Everything changes, be it to the better or to the worse.  You just don't know until it happens. 

So I would like to take a moment and wish each and every one of you a healthy and successful 2012.  Whether the world ends or not is a moot point.  Take a hold of your life and do what you want with it.  Succeed in those New Years resolutions, travel really far away on vacation, jump out of a perfectly good airplane if that's what you want!  Live your life with no regrets.

Today I finished watching the first season of the show Dead Like Me with my mom.  The show aired in 2003-04 and it was about a handful of people who had died but instead of passing on to their next destination stuck around here and became grim reapers, in charge of guiding other souls to their destinations.  The second to last episode had one of the characters, Daisy,  give quite an interesting revelation; "We are all temps."  It's as simple as that.  No matter how much we do in life, or how much we impact others, we are still only temporary.  So instead of letting the little time we do have slip by, we need to live it.  To quote my favorite poet, e.e. cummings, "Unbeing dead isn't being alive." 

So on that note I would like to wish you all well with your New Year celebrations.  Have fun, be safe, and for goodness sake don't drink and drive.  I'll see you all on the other side!

Wooden Photographs

Hey everyone so I mentioned in my last post that I was making a bunch of presents for people and that I would be posting a blog especially to give you all step-by-step instructions on how to make your own.  Well here it is.  I made some picture blocks for my family members using some of their favorite pictures.  And you can just ignore the fact that the example is a picture of me.  Alright, so here is the final product to give you an idea-

So that's pretty snazzy isn't it? I think so.  So here is what you need to complete your own beautiful version of this:

Picture (black and white OR color) printed from a laser printer on regular paper
Block of wood (try for smooth and light colored, we used pine)
Gel medium
Mod Podge
Paint brush (and/or a sponge brush thing)
Water
Washcloth

Photo Contest Update

Hey Everyone! 

So I had a request (from my mom) to put up a post about the photo contest outcomes.  You can find the plea for votes here- Photo Contest.  Anyways, the final tally was taken on November 30 and what do you know but I came in first!  YAY!  So that is super cool and I just wanted to thank everyone who helped me out and voted.  Here is the winning picture...

Winter Break is Upon Us

And so the semester ends.  August 30 through December 17.  It feels great to be done, let me just say.  The past couple of weeks have been uber stressful, assignments up the wazoo, tests everywhere, blah blah blah.  Add to that the activities that every good student takes part in, like the A.S.S. bake sale fundraiser and the SGB Semi-Formal (story here- A Night at Sea) and a Holiday Concert!  And then came exams.  I, luckily and happily, only had two real exams this year, Gen. Chem. II and Ecology.  I had two papers for English II and Speech, and no finals in Band or Dance.  So, hurray!  I'm not sure when I'll be getting my grades, but I can't imagine it will take too long.  Int he meantime I have the holidays to concentrate on!

I leave for home tomorrow, taking a bus, a train, a plane, and a car to get there.  But wait!  I'm not actually going home!  Oh no, I convinced my parents that they should bring me straight from the airport to the 7th Regiment audition camp.  The camp actually started tonight (Friday) at 6pm but I couldn't get there as the Ecology exam is tomorrow.  Anyways, I felt it was right to try my hardest to get to the camp tomorrow.  And apparently I caught my parents on a good day because they agreed to take me as long as I found a ride home, which I did.  So BAM!  See you tomorrow night Regiment! 

After that lovely weekend I start my internship at Winslow Farm Animal Sanctuary in Norton, MA on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday up until I leave to come back here, DelVal, on January 17.  That's one full month at home for those of you keeping count.

That should keep me properly occupied.  I also have some Christmas presents that I need to work on before the big day, so that gives me next week.  That should be enough time.  I'm making some pretty sweet things.  I'll be sure to take some pics and post them after Christmas.  Maybe you guys might want to try!  We'll see how mine come out first...

So yeah.  I don't have an excessive amount of other stuff to talk about at the moment.  I'm just so excited the semester is finally over and I get to go spend some quality time at home.  So, more posts to follow soon!

A Night at Sea

Well as most of you probably DON'T know I am in the Floral Society here at DelVal.  I'm actually the Treasurer for the next year.  As part of Floral we are often asked to do flowers for various events on campus and this year we again participated in the SGB (Student Government Board) Semi-Formal, A Night at Sea.  So we put our heads together and ended up with three different centerpieces, each going on 7 tables, and a couple extra for the bar.  In addition we put together an anchor for the photo area.  Check it out-

Undergetting (un)Square, Take II

I am a blog posting machine right now!  Muahahahahaha!!  Just kidding. But really, this is my third post of the night that I'm writing.  I don't think I will be posting it tonight as I have other responsibilities calling me but I figured I'd get started on this one.  I had a request today to write another blog about drum corps and I thought that was a wonderful idea.  My only issue now is what exactly should I write about?  Drum corps is a very general topic.  It is difficult to sum it up quickly besides simply saying that it's marching band on steroids.  Which I love to say.  Sometimes I switch it up and say that it's marching band on crack.  Either way the listener usually gets the picture. If any of you have some drum corps knowledge, or not, and you haven't seen it yet, you should check out this video on corps- What Is Drum Corps

Drawing inspiration from the music I am currently listening to (Radiohead) I guess I'll talk a little bit about this past season since I didn't get much of a chance to do so over the summer.  I did a post not too long ago (okay it was three months ago but whatever) entitled Undergetting (un)Square.  What I did not really do in that post was elaborate on what the title meant!  My goodness what an oversight that was.

So if you don't already know, the 7th Regiment's 2011 program was entitled un(Square) and it featured music by Dave Brubeck and Radiohead (thus the aforementioned inspiration).  The song lineup was as follows: 1) Everything In It's Right Place, 2) 15 Step combined with Take 5, 3) Creep, 4) un(Square), 5) Creep reprise.  It was an awesome lineup.  I once described the theme of the show to a drum major of another corps and he responded with "Woah, that's deep."  I'll try to explain it in a similar fashion here.  un(Square) is about breaking out of the mold.  The show begins with a square, signifying conformity (EEIRP and 15/5).  As the show continues the audience is led through an identity crisis where the main character is being scolded for being who she really is.  She is shunned and abused by her peers (Creep) but soon learns that it's okay to be different (un(Square)).  Everybody is unique in their own way and it's okay to be un(Square).  By the end of the show we are reveling in our differences (Creep reprise).

So that's not anywhere near how I described it to that drum major, but I think it will serve it's purpose.  Often times a drum corps show is taken at face value.  And sometimes that's okay.  Like in '09 when our show was Excalibur.  It was pretty easy to see the theme there, Lady of the Lake and King Arthur and the Sword Excalibur all did a pretty good job of that.  But when a corps puts on a concept show it becomes a little more difficult.  Our show this year was a concept show but I think that if people put just a little bit of thought into it that it was easy to understand.  Other concept shows involve too much thought.  They are a little too deep to understand without a bit of explanation.  I personally think the best shows are the ones that are easily understandable but still involve thought and planning and cleverness.  I LOVE clever shows. 

On that note I will turn away from the subject of show planning.  I don't want to upset too many people and honestly I'm pretty laid back about it so I don't want to get too into it.  So I really should get going now.  I will continue on with my drum corps discussions in the near future, however.  If any of you have any questions or ideas on what I should write about, just let me know!  I love suggestions!  And comments.  The more comments, the merrier!