Daily JPG 58

I know – another web comic. But this one is SO FUNNY. Because it would TOTALLY HAPPEN.

The mouse-over on the original reads “You can identify them ahead-of-time — they lead with their left foot when the music starts.” This, I think, is the part that made me laugh so hard I started crying – but then again, that’s usually the case with XKCD.

Daily JPGs 37-40

I are a slackr.

And at this rate, I’m going to use up all of my “backup” Daily JPGs. Gonna have to start taking some photos, no?

For Wednesday’s Daily JPG, I present the following shot. I have titled it “What the Heck am I Thinking?” It depicts my place in the world from 5:15-6:45 on Wednesday afternoons. Note to general public: I am not a percussionist.

Thursday was the first day I taught as the “real” teacher. It didn’t go particularly well. (There’s a blog entry in the works over at FOB, but I haven’t finished it yet.) In honor of that, I present a photo of my classroom’s new setup. It’s a subtle change, but it’s there.

Friday seemed like a good day to share a picture stolen from Cute Overload (taken by a rooftop webcam) instead of one of my own:

And finally, Saturday. Uhm… someone let the cat out of the bag? Or into the bag? One of those things…

(That’s Sophie. She’s in a bag.)

In Which I Compose a Symphony

So you take a pre-existing piece of music – or write your own, if you’re feeling particularly ambitious. Nothing too fancy, nothing too difficult. Make sure that it has obvious movements and delicate quiet sections, and isn’t too long. Ideally it should be performable by string or wind symphony, so that both bands and orchestras can reap the rewards of performing it.

You have your ensemble up on stage, but what the audience doesn’t know is that you’ve taken a large group of students – maybe your freshmen, or another ensemble – and planted them in the audience as well. They’re the second half of the ensemble.

The important part of the piece comes in with what you add in for this second half of the ensemble…

Several of them should walk in after the song has started and take seats in the middle of the front rows, loudly apologizing and stepping on people all the way to their seats, and then noisily adjust their seats/coats/purses before sitting. This should continue at random intervals throughout the first half of the song.

At quiet parts of the piece, have a large number of them loudly crinkle stiff cellophane for at least ten seconds’ duration.

Clap enthusiastically between movements and whenever else it (erroneously) appears that the stage ensemble is at the end of a piece.

At a choreographed moment, every planted audience member’s cell phone should ring. Some of them should turn theirs off after a moment, but a few people (strategically placed for high impact) should answer their phones and have full-volume conversations.

Loud, long-lasting coughing fits should punctuate all the prettiest parts of the song.

About halfway in, one person turns on a loud recording of a screaming baby. Do not turn it off for the rest of the piece.

Pairs of plants should have conversations mid-song about any number of topics, including the performance, their jobs, homework, and the cute guy they’d like to ask out.

Near the end, at a rousing part, several people should bring out the lighters (or cell phones, depending on the circumstances).

We’ll call it the Concerto Etiqueto, and the program notes will consist of a brief list of things no civilized concert-goer should ever do.

In Which I Remember to Post About BT20

I just realized that I said something about photos from the Blue Thunder 20-Year Anniversary and Reunion, and then never did even come back and say if it was cool or not.

It was. I’m kind of organizing my thoughts about it, because I’m supposed to write a 200-word article about it for some sort of campus newsletter. As a result, I’m really not sure what to say about it right this moment – other than it was a lot of fun to march again. I’m certainly not inclined to sign up for the 2008 season or anything (I’d almost forgotten how hard it all is!) but it felt great to get to do it again. Five or ten years from now when they have the next reunion will be soon enough for me to get back to it, though, I think.

Anyway, here are a few pictures, to make up for my total lack of anything to say.

In Which I Face a Tough Crowd

On Saturday morning I got up early, put a huge box of handouts and goodies into the car, and dragged Ryan out to Area High School so that I could teach a single-reed marching band clinic. We got there in time to watch an hours’ worth of field performances in the Unbelievable Horrible Brain-Piercing Cold, and then it was my turn.

Okay, so a roomful of fifty cold, hungry high school saxophone and clarinet players isn’t the best possible audience. For anything.

Sigh.

It was a lot of fun, though, it really was. I got to try out a few classroom management techniques that I hadn’t tried (one actually worked!) and the kids who were plugged into what I was saying made up for the ones who showed blatant disdain.

 

The clarinets were a real challenge – mostly because I’ve never played clarinet a day in my life, and had no real idea what to advise these kids about reeds or mouthpieces or anything else. I did have an answer for “should I march my wood clarinet or my plastic one?” and I was able to demonstrate perfectly appalling clarinet posture – largely because they’d demonstrated it for me a few minutes before, out on the field.

Fortunately, about a third of the kids were from my old high school, and I won them early on by evoking that whole “rah-rah, alma mater” thing at the beginning.

Unfortunately, I’d been told that these schools were “pro-Boise State,” and so brought some band logowear for prizes, and wore one of my staff shirts. As it turns out, there was a lot of anti-Boise State sentiment in that room, and at least one kid left his or her very nice BT hat lying on the ground when the clinic was over. They did seem to like the BT CDs, though.

I’m complaining, because I felt like it didn’t go quite as well as I would have liked, but I know I’m being a bit hard on myself. There’s only so much you can do with a totally “off” class, particularly when you have no authority.

Ryan and I were talking afterward, though, and we’ve got a great idea for next year! I hope that we get to try it.

Regardless of whether it went off without a hitch, it was a great experience – and hey, you can always use an extra fifty bucks.

In Which We Walk the Plank

 

In Which We March Again

Today I’m at the 20th Anniversary Reunion of the Blue Thunder Marching Band in conjunction with Boise State’s 75 Year Anniversary and Homecoming. That’s a lot of capital letters. Reunions are generally pretty depressing affairs, if you ask me, but this is being kind of fun if only because I really know relatively few people. Twenty years worth of alumni is a lot of people to not know.

Plus, I get to wear comfortable shoes and – gasp – blue jeans! – which is nice.

There are a lot of cute band babies.

Hopefully today’s game will be more fun than last week’s.

It’s fun to play again, though. Ryan and I are skipping the homecoming parade but we’ll be marching pregame. Hopefully we’ll get some good photos….

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For the win! Someone got to my blog by Googling “kappa kappa psi AEA meaning.” Hey, guess what? You’re not going to find it here. Sorry!(Psst: it’s “American Emu Association.”)

In Which It’s Now September

My laptop finally arrived! Thoughts:

• I hate Dell. I really do.
• I love my computer, though.
• Even though it isn’t anywhere near as brown as I was led to believe.
• But it’s this really gorgeous copper-brown subtle color.
• The inside? With the keys and stuff? SO pretty. Everything’s silver, no black.
• I’m a real keyboard snob, and this keyboard is AWESOME. The touchpad mouse is actually usable, too! I can get by on this without a wireless mouse for quite a while, I think.
• Can’t quite figure out how to make the webcam work.
• Vista is weird, but I think I like it.
• Office 2007 is REALLY weird. But I think I’m (going to) like it.
• Oh, man, it is SO nice to have a laptop again. I feel like I might actually catch up on my e-Life again. You know how long it’s been since I posted on this blog, but did you know how long it’s been since I read any of my sites/comics/etc. or caught up on email? Ye gourds.
• Dell didn’t send my laptop case, but it should be here Monday. That’ll be nice; the bag I’m using right now is not designed for a computer, and really hurts my shoulders.
• Note to self: check out the speakers.
• Came with nice headphones.
• Still hate Dell.

I’m working at the high school as an “intern teacher” and have been steadily getting more integrated into the classroom. I’ve had the chance to lead the class a little, and I’ve had a few amazing adventures in other peoples’ classes that you can read on my teaching journal. (If you’re reading this, and don’t know where my teaching journal is, contact me…)

The football season is off and running. I have no comment on the Washington game, except BLAH. However, this does mean that my job at the band office is also off and running, and that’s its usual mixed bag. I LOVE working with the kids, but there are other aspects that are rather challenging for me. I think that the good things will continue to outweigh the bad for the short semester ahead of me, and then I’ll have another set of problems when I can’t work at all! Hooray.

Ooo! I got my hair cut. Feels GREAT.

This is so stupid – I never intended for this to be a newsletter blog. I’m going to make a really earnest attempt to write decent posts for this site again – in fact, I may go to my “private” journal and see what I’ve written recently (not much) that might could be recycled. I haven’t had time to write ANYTHING lately, but I can do better.

In Which I Update! Eek!

Wow, I can’t believe that I haven’t posted on this blog for twenty days. I guess that’s just a sign of how crazy busy my life has seemed to be in the past few weeks. It’s hard leaving, starting, and getting used to jobs. Band camp is hard, too. So, as it turns out, is “intern teaching” – whatever that’s supposed to mean.

The worst thing is, I have very little to say…

I have the most awful blisters. Yesterday I tried to wear some cute new shoes to school – little orange leather slide-mules. Unfortunately, they made my feet sweat like nobody’s business, and I quickly found I couldn’t walk without stopping every few hundred yards to mop out the inside of the shoes with a paper towel. (Ew.) I guess that probably loosened up my skin just in time for me to put on heels for pregame; half an hour later, I was hurting pretty bad, and knew that blisters were starting. I wasn’t sure what to do, because I knew the orange shoes wouldn’t do much good, either. That’s about the point when I discovered Meredith’s flipflops under my desk and decided that they’d be an improvement. They were, too – all except for the tighter-than-anticipated toe strap, which rubbed oozing bleeding blisters between my toes. By the time I got home, I had silver-dollar-sized, teardrop-shaped blisters on the balls of each foot, and open sores between the big and second toes of each foot to boot. Today, I’m limping around in my plush slippers that – fortunately – actually look like normal shoes at first glance. I’m supposed to go camping tomorrow, and I’m really not sure what I’m going to be able to do other than sit in a camp  and whine. I definitely have to get some better shoes – there’s just no getting around it. No more Payless shoes for me.

You’d think I would have already learned that.

Yesterday was our season opener against Weber State. I’m afraid we beat them pretty badly, and broke one of their players in the process. Well, broke his leg, anyway, which isn’t as bad as it could have been. Unfortunately, the broken-legged football player was apparently scheduled to get married today, so that’s got to really suck. The band looked really good – and really big. Hooray, big band!

Owwww.

I’m not getting any reading, writing, crafting, cleaning, or anything else done.
Bleh.

That’s all for now. Got to go back to work. Smooches!

In Which I Stop and Look Around

Well, today is Tuesday, and Friday is my last day at MotivePower.

Earlier today I got tired of typing out procedures, so I decided to take down photos and posters from my cubicle walls. That, as it turns out, was a mistake. Now I’m sitting here in a depressing gray box, and it makes me feel sad and unwanted – even though I did it to myself. I’m tempted to print out a bunch of pictures of the workplace and put them up, if only to break up the grayness.

On Monday I go back to the band to serve as one of its graduate assistants for one last season. I’m happy and excited, even though I know it won’t be all rainbows and lollipops. (Rainbows and lollipops?! What the heck is that supposed to mean?) I really loved working for the band, and it will be fun to have one more season – particularly when it’s going to be as awesome a season as this one is shaping up to be. The band is going to be enormous, the team is going to kick butt, and – yeah. I’m excited.

(Also excited because my laptop ought to arrive sometime that week! Hurray!)

The following Monday is band camp, and I’m sure that will be an exhausting five days. They’re extending into the evenings two nights – looong days.

And the Monday after that, school starts. I’ll be working at the band office 20 hours a week, observing/student teaching at Capital High School, and taking nine graduate credits: English Teaching: Writing, Literature, and Language (T/Th 4:40-5:55); Teaching Secondary Students with Exceptional Needs (Th 6-9, yikes – Thursdays are going to be rough); and Content Literacy in Secondary School (Mon 6-9). Ryan will be in the Exceptional Needs class with me, which should be a lot of fun, I think.

Come January, I’ll be a full-fledged student teacher, and come May, I’ll be a certified teacher….

Well, I think I’m going to go home now. I’ve got some laundry to hang up (oooh, my aching wrists) and, hopefully, some pointless reading to do.