Today is a rather boring day. We didn't do anything in first period, so I sat on the computer. In 2nd, again...nothing. I went to practice. In 2rd we had a vocabulary test...I did "ok." In 4th period, Tech's trombone choir came and played for us. They're really good. I got to see Fred, Steven Polk, Perfect-Pitch Pete, and some others. We played a little bit, but not long. Lunch is really boring. 5th period, I didn't play much. I copied some music, worked on mid-state/Strauss a little bit. (High Bb's are dangerous!) 6th period, I'm pretty sure I feel asleep in Dukey's lap. Right now I'm just sitting here eating leftover Chinese food.

Tomorrow is brass festival. I'm excited, but I just hope there will be people there I know...but I'm sure there will. After that I'm going to see Nashville Symphony play the LOTR Symphony. I'm majorly excited about that. I have rehearsal on Sunday....

I just got an e-mail from some lady that is going to start a horn club in Memphis and she wants me to be in it next year. Having a simi-reputation is good.

The American Horn Quartet makes me happy. :-) It is funny though, they call themselves the "American" horn quartet...even though all four of them live in Europe and play professionally there. Lol. Yeah...Kyle's a little horn-obsessive...

I went job hunting Yesturday. I put in an application at the Music Stop and at the Music and Arts. The guys at the Music and Arts seemed impressed with my resume, which is a good sign. They said they'd call me when they want to interview me, which won't be long. I think tomorrow I'll go apply at Hastings and some food places...even though I don't really want to work at food places...

I went to go pick my mom up from her shop later and take her to her car...which is getting fixed. After that, I went to MYO! Fun (not really). I didn't get to leave till like 9:30 because I'll be doing chamber music until then, but it's ok...I get paid $10 to do it, which will go toward my hand-rest. Yay.

Next Wednesday Ruth and I are taking the horn section to the horn ensemble recital at Tech. I'm excited, it will show them what kinda stuff we'll be doing. We're going to eat Chinese food before we leave, I'm more excited about that...

I just love days in the music theory class when there is nothing to do so we sit on the computers in the back of the room and goof off. He.

Ok, so my bird was like, acting crazy last night. It all started when something in the music I was listening too (the bass drum hit, pro'lly) scared her and she just started flying around like crazy. But it was fun, I caught her in the air and she was all "AH!" Hehe. Next part, I turned off the TV so I could go to sleep (I was watching Ellen) and she got mad at me. How does a bird get mad at you for turning off the TV? She wouldn't shut up until I turned it back on. I wasn't happy...

Erin is complaining about freshman band while listening to a CD with a guy playing some hand-horn music. She's like "What?! No valves! I guess hand position really does matter..." I'm going to get one of those when I'm in college and play it in my recitals, pro'lly Mozart or something. In symphonic band today, Mr. Rhody just kinda complained with the percussionists the whole time. Pretty sure we didn't even get to measure 20 in a 3 movement piece. Yeah...I was bored. And then in 5th period band, we worked on the music we're playing at some ceremony next Thursday at one of the elem. school. Patriotic, my favorite (yeah right). In 6th period band, Emma helped me with some tosses for my guard audition for college next year...if I decide to do it. Then we played the toss game.

I have to work on my memory passage for tomorrow morning in English. And omg, I hate when I go into the bathroom and the people that use the toilet before me don't flush! It's so annoying.

MYO tomorrow night...blah. I hope we get new, more interesting music. Watered down March Slave is not gunna cut it...maybe I'll go to pep-band instead...but then I won't get home till like 12 tomorrow night.

So I copied off the music for the horn ensemble today. I'm going to shoot for Nov. 16th to be our first rehearsal and just read through some of the music. Ruth said she'd have somewhere for us to play in December, so that's what we are going to go ahead and prepare for. Mr. Medford's going to get Adam, me, Chad, and a trumpet player out of school to go play some patriotic music somewhere. I'm excited. I can't wait till I can get paid to go play and stuff.

Lord of the Rings Symphony Saturday night! I'm excited about that. It will be after the brass festival at MTSU, so I get a free bus ride and stuff. I do indeed like me some LOTR music. Radu said that in the music they've written in stuff like "kill me now" and "keep it up for 5 more minutes!" because it's really hard. Shoot, if I had to play a two-hour long piece of music, I'd be wanting to die also. They are supposed to have a screen behind the orchestra with sketches and artwork from the movie/book to go along with the music. I can't wait!

OMG, GREEN TEA IS AMAZING!

I'm happy to say that I've had my first lesson with Radu where I've walked out of the room smiling.

Ok, I'm going to remember to bring a movie for 5th period tomorrow because we've been planning a movie day for like two weeks.

I have a lesson at 4:30. I got lectured on scales last week and how I should play them more than I do, and how I need to do the etudes he gives me and not be like his college students who "forget." I don't forget...they just slip my mind.

Halloween is tonight. I was watching something on how it is really a pagan holiday that the church wanted to use as an excuse to get all the non-Christians in Ireland to convert. The same with Chirstmas, but we'll wait till December for that.

"So how about them smoke'n mellos?"

I think I cut the bottom of my tongue on my teeth...it hurts!

I'm sitting here helping Jazz do her memory passage for this six weeks. She's really good at this stuff, has puases and artistic stuff. Really good stuff.

This is my rents and me during senior night.

And then me and Chip acting silly in the stands. :-)

So at band practice yesturday my allergies started upsetting me from the grass that's on the football field and I had to sit out for the last run. It was really cool. Our horn shirts are lime-green and we all had them on (but Kaelen) so it was really cool in the lines and stuff...because they were lime-green.

Omg, we did amazing at VMI (I cried when we were marching off the field, I'm such a pansy). We ended up winning overall, which makes me happy. I never get to run the show again...which is a good and sad things at the same time. Oh well, college marching band is not going to be the same. But I'm still going to go to VMI and any other contests that I can to watch my school compete, because they will always be amazing as long as everyone has their heart in the show, and lets it bleed when they play.

I want a cat.

Is phusebox acting funny for everyone else, too?

I'm having one of those "why don't I give up music days" that everyone has. Oh well. It's boreing having a rehearsal after school everyday- excluding band, that's a different story. I dunno, I just kinda feel like I should just be a Spanish major instead of a music major, but I'd miss playing too much. I'll be better next week, so it's all good. But it doesn't help any that the music in MYO is BORING! It's all very watered down and stuff. I was hopeing the Harry Potter would be good, but it's not. Shoot me.

So how do y'all like the profile picture?

I had a lesson tonight (first one in a month!) and it was good. He said I'm turning into a college student because I didn't work on one (of 3) of my etudes. Oh well. I'm happy though, my horn's high Bb is not the fault of the horn! It's me. Why good? Because you can fix me, but not the horn.

Looking for a duck's foot.

So the concert last night went great. The bass trombone player in the back fell off the riser...it was funny after we knew he was ok. I'm just glad we don't have to play the picnic by the river any more. Yay!

We get our new music tomorrow...I know two of the pieces are March Slave and Harry Potter Suite. Much excitement, both have awesome horn parts.

I'm happy. I get to start copying our concert band music tomorrow.  I looked at the score for one of the pieces and it's really cool. There's a horn solo, but Ruth gets to play it...unless she remembers that we're going to rotate 1st and 2nd, but she pro'lly forgot. Oh well. I looked at some horn quartet music too, but I didn't find anything good.

I tossed my flag wrong today and it hit me in my eye...

Haha, so I was playing around on my geocities website (which now has a guestbook, so you should leave me a comment) and I did this thing where a sun would follow your mouse around, and lil angry clouds would just pop up randomly...it was annoying. So I got the sun to go away...I'm still working on the sun though.

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Submitted by Jonathan Quist:

Hoping to demonstrate the value of music education as a replacement for video gaming, a psychologist arranged for the controlled education of two similarly-qualified high school students. The first student was provided with a 4 year education at a major university, unlimited access to a video arcade and an inexhaustible supply of quarters. The second student was provided with a 4 year education at a major music conservatory, unlimited access to a horn teacher, and a professional quality double horn.

The study was summarized as follows:

Student A became obsessed with and spent 8+ hours a day playing PacMan. Normal personal hygiene and social skills declined, and no friendships were formed, except with students similarly obsessed. Student A did not find regular employment after graduation, preferring instead to continue his long hours playing PacMan. After three years, he began to understand that he could not earn a living playing PacMan, and after 5 years, Student A has obtained reasonably secure employment as a computer programmer.

Student B became obsessed with and spent 8+ hours a day playing his Paxman. Normal personal hygiene and social skills declined, and no friendships were formed, except with students similarly obsessed. Student B did not find regular employment after graduation, preferring instead to continue long hours playing his Paxman. After three years, he began to understand that he could not earn a living playing his Paxman, and after 5 years, Student B has obtained reasonably secure employment as a computer programmer.

Conclusion: There is no significant difference between an undergraduate degree in horn performance and 4 years of intensive video gaming.