SHAGGY

3/11/13    El Zota Biological Station

I set the alarm a little early this morning so I could be sure to be up and dressed while the Howler's were still calling.  Well they barely called at all this morning, at least right here in camp anyways.  I could hear them off in the forest.  After walking around for a bit I got my chance when they called from right behind the kitchen.  There were 3 adults in one tree.  The lighting wasn't the best, however, so the pictures I attempted weren't that great.

Breakfast was served at 6AM and we in the army truck and on the road to the primary forest by 6:30.  The path that would have taken us 1-1.5 hours walking took all of 30 minutes driving (very slowly).  Both groups went on this hike so we split up, our group going with Israel down the trail head, and the other group down the back side of the trail.  When we met on the trail we traded guides and continued in the same direction so we both walked the full trail.

This walk was unique so far because of all the herps we saw, including 3 species of snake and at least 3 species of frog.  The first snake was quite small and I was surprised Israel saw t at all.  And his moves to catch the critter were really impressive as well.  The most impressive find was the poisonous fer-de-lance that Dr. George spotted.  It was only a juvenile, but they can actually be more dangerous because they bite and inject poison into anything that moves.  The adults can at least control their poison injecting so you have some chance of surviving.

Day 4- Dut Dut Out

I spent the entirety of today with the Central Bucks South High School Marching Titans.  They competed in the USBands National Championships in Annapolis, MD.  The first picture below is the screen when they marched onto the field.  As you can see the name was misspelled. They changed that very quickly though.  The second picture is the group setting up for their professional pictures just after the performance.  All in all they placed 2nd (out of 15) in Class 4A.  Drums won their caption and colorguard placed second.  It was the best show I have seen the guard perform.  I am extremely proud of these 25 girls and want to thank them for a wonderful season.

Day 3- We Are the Titans

I spent the majority of this evening with the marching band I'm teaching this season, Central Bucks South Marching Titans (Warrington, PA) and so decided to base today's pictures on their performance at the football game.  In fact, I am traveling with them to Annapolis, MD tomorrow where they will compete in USBands National Championships.  Good luck South!

DCI Montage 2012

To add a little bit more context to what drum corps is, this is Drum Corps International's 2012 finale montage. I hope you enjoy it.

The Other Side...

Well, I've kind of been avoiding writing this post because it will mean that the drum corps season really is over.  It also means that my drum corps career is also over.  I am officially too old to march in DCI.

This season marching with the 7th Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps was a total rush.  From the very beginning we knew big things were going to happen for us and I was so proud.  I've been with the corps for 5 years, and every year just shows more and more progress.  Every year pushed us in a different way, pushed me in a different way.  This year was no different.

Our show this year was titled 24601-7R.

The 24601 refers to the prisoner Jean Valjean, though the show has no real ties to Les Misérables.  The 7R is simply a referral to the corps name 7th Regiment.  The show itself was "a unique, creative vision that battled with themes of oppression and conformity" (taken from the 7th Regiment Press Release written by Kathleen Schassler). In a recent newsletter, Reporter Ken Mason, Drum Corps World staff, had this to say:

"7th Regiment continues to exceed expectations, not just improving, but doing so at a faster rate than their competition.  This corps uses everything from head to toe in performing visuals.

While not one of the larger units in this contest (21B/14FP/8PP/14G/2DM), their field musicians projected a stronger sound than the groups that preceded them. Brass has been bowling people over all year. The battery plays with a very wide dynamic range, from the stickless hand strokes on the snares in the ballad to the highly exposed -visually and musically- full-arm accents, climaxing drum features."

We competed in Open Class World Finals on August 8, 2012.  We placed 5th out of 14 total corps with a score of 86.35. 

In addition to all of that, it was fun.  I had a wonderful colorguard made up of 14 amazing people.

We had an amazing seven person guard staff (six pictured below) who really pushed us past personal limits, making us better every day.

Call Me, Maybe?

Hey, you just got here, and this is crazy, but here's my blog, so subscribe to me maybe?

That's right folks, this post is about the entertaining and utterly catchy song 'Call Me Maybe' by Carly Rae Jepson.  Now, before you turn away, this isn't about how much I love this song or how amazing it is.  It is, instead about just how many other recreations it has spawned.

I don't believe that the lyrics are the best ever written, but the tune itself is outrageously catchy and the song is just fun.  Not to mention the cute video that goes along with it.

The song was originally released in Canada in September 2011.  It's major popularity began when fellow Canadian star, Justin Bieber, uploaded a video of himself and a few other celebs dubbing the song. 

Soon after this was when the mayhem began.  Parodies appeared everywhere, videos of fans dubbing the song began appearing at an alarming rate!  It was madness!

And then came the memes.  For those of you who don't know what a meme is, according to Urban Dictionary, a meme is "A pervasive idea within a given culture. The idea may be spread through all channels of communication (word of mouth, photography, ad campaigns, television, &c.). The goal of the meme is to change the thought patterns of the populace."  The ones I usually find most amusing are in picture form.  Take the following examples:

And even after all that awesomeness, I still like this video the best...

Now that you have had an obscene dosage of Call Me Maybe, it is time for you to go forth into the world and sing it ALL DAY LONG!!  Have fun!



P.S.  If some of you out there have never seen Labyrinth with David Bowie, it is officially time to do so.

Z is for...

?????

Well we've reached the final post on the Blogging A to Z Challenge, April 2012! Woo! I can't believe it's the last day of April, though... where did the month go? Anyways, in celebration of the final day of the challenge, the topic is... Zoot Suit! 

What is a Zoot Suit, you may be asking?  According to the free online dictionary, a zoot suit is "A man's suit popular during the early 1940s, characterized by full-legged, tight-cuffed trousers and a long coat with wide lapels and heavily padded, wide shoulders"

Cab Calloway

The style originated in the Jazz Age of the 40s in Harlem and spread through ethnic communities across the country, primarily worn by Mexican- and African- Americans.

D is for...

Dad.

Now before you stop reading, thinking this is going to be a tribute to my father, hang on a second and hear me out because this is really a story about Mike.

In high school, my dad started working at his current company.  Taking on this position meant he had to get up at 4am, meaning he went to bed at 8pm.  Well my high school concerts (3-4 a year) were always night concerts, starting at 7pm.  The band usually didn't go on until the second half, usually after 8pm.  You can see for yourself that this usually meant my dad would not get a chance to come to my concerts for the later years of my high school career.

My friends, being crazy, decided that the winter concert of my senior year was a great time to bring my dad to a concert.  Except they didn't really bring him.  Instead they hatched a crazy plan to get a picture of him, blow it up, glue it to a life-size cardboard cutout, dress it, and put it in the audience.

What they didn't realize was that I knew exactly what they were talking about from day one.  It really wasn't hard to figure out when they would talk about it in front of me, trying to make me mad because it was this big secret.  They even had code names.  MCKD= Mr. Caitlin K's Dad and MCKM= Mrs. Caitlin K's Mom.  Despite the fact that I knew what they were up to, I didn't realize the extent of how funny it was actually going to be when they finished the project.

So it's the night of the concert.  My mom and dad know, the band and choral directors know, almost everyone in the band knows, and they all think I don't know.  Well, I try my hardest to not go looking for it the moment I step onstage with the first ensemble.  Due to the lights it really wasn't that hard, since I could hardly see the audience anyways.  After leaving the stage I was walking in front of the audience when, bam!  My mom yells my name, I turn, and I see this guy-

Generosity

So the topic of my weekend (and the whole month really) was generosity.  The generosity of others aimed at me, mostly.  Before I start blabbering on about whatever I ramble off to, I just want to say thank you to the two wonderful ladies who helped me out this weekend by giving me work to do to earn some money, and paying me (what I feel was) too much for those services.  So, Thank You SOOOOOOOO much.

When the whole New Zealand trip thing was finally decided upon, I realized, "hey, I'm gonna need some money for this trip."  So I typed up a flyer, recruited my mom, called my summer job location, and re-instated my care.com profile.  Out of all of this I have received some of the most random work that I have ever done, and that's saying something.  But do I really care?  Nope.  I mean, what else am I going to do with my time on vacation?  Last year I did a lot of baking.  I wouldn't have minded that again this year, but I'd rather not put on 10 pounds.  Instead, I took my time and put it to a good use.  Work 4 days a week at my 'home job,' weekends doing random work for people, and semi- on call babysitting.  I think I've earned more in the past three weeks than I did the entire semester at my 'school job.' 

Now to the generosity.   I feel like some of the work I did for people was not quite up to what they paid me for.  But at the same time, they were ridiculously enthused about the whole thing.  So either I did more work than I thought (doubt it) or they are very generous to my plight, if not my work abilities.

Speaking of my plight, we are now T minus 10 days until I leave.  Wow.

Again, I would like to thank everyone who helped me these past few weeks, I really appreciate it.  Also, I would like to encourage all of you to be generous.  With your time, with your money, but mainly with yourself.  You never know when someone is having a terrible day.  A little kindness can go a looong way. 



Side note: While writing this blog, I am singing in my head the lyrics to the song "The Frown Song" by Ben Folds.  Whoever the person is that he describes in the lyrics?  Yeah, don't be that person.

Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaylwF4qo38&feature=related
Lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/benfolds/thefrownsong.html