county fair work
today was mainly a priority type day. first i went to the county fair and after quite some difficulty, finally got the tags and i.d. sorted out. i have 4 photos and 1 drawing in the fair this year and i hope they will all be prize winners. there should be at least 1 that does place somewhere.

and then after that, i went to petsmart and bought turtle stuff. i bought this net for taking out excess food, "turtle clean" which is this stuff that dissolves waste and cleans the water, and some more turtle food. so i hope that "turtle clean" stuff will help keep the tank cleaner longer so i won't have to clean everything so often. at the present time i have to clean the filter every week and the whole tank every two weeks. whew!

then it was off to the pool with saif for a few hours and then i had to come home and have dinner and then go to the evening band camp. we got the end of the show finished and then we did a final run through with the guard and the whole enchilada out there and it looked pretty good. now we just need to set the first opening charts and we're going to do that tomorrow. boy my schedule is going to be filled these next few days. suddenly everyone is planning get-togethers and stuff. i guess it's because of school coming up in 2 weeks. where did the summer go?

kristin wants to have a get-together tomorrow night after band camp and then wednesday david wants to have a party at his house from noon until band camp begins that night and at the end of the week is earl's pool party. we get directions to his house tomorrow. and that new member's parent's orientation is tomorrow night also. so this week is busy busy busy!

ziggy

sunday
tomorrow starts the next week of band camp. except that this time it runs in the evening from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm. at the end of the week sometime, earl will have a pool party at his house and that should be pretty cool. tuesday is the orientation for new member's parents while we're out practicing and then we'll do a run through of the entire show for all of them. and sometime this week, kristin wants to have a get-together afterwards because we haven't had a good get-together since old home week. we try to have one every other week or so. when i say 'we' i mean my posse of closest friends which includes laura, kristin, and justin. we've been good friends since the end of school. justin and i tried to figure out a special name for our group by taking all of our first letters of our first names but then we realized all of our names begun with consonants so we'd end up being the "kjlz" group or something like that so that idea was bagged from the start. oh well.

today was mainly spent doing housework and stuff. we're tearing up the old worn out carpet in the computer room hear so we'll have a nice hardwood floor but there's still a lot of work to be done on that. and today i also worked on framing these 4 photographs that i am putting in the county fair this year. last year, i won 1st and 2nd place with my two photos and this year i am submitting 4 photos and a drawing so i'll have better chances of winning something. i have a good feeling this year.

i also cleaned the turtle filter and whatnot. the tank is staying pretty clean so far and we're gonna have to go out and buy an algae brush and a net for removing uneaten food. keeping a turtle is a very messy job. so i'll keep you up to date on everything that's going on, expecially the coming week with more band stuff and everything. i am looking forward to it.

zigy

day numero cinco (actually it was yesterday)
the last day of the first week of band camp went very well considering it was friday the 13th. lol. we pretty much finished the main bulk of the show and it went well. i'll start at the beginning...

i arrived around a quarter till 8 as i usually do. lunches go in the big fridge and then we went straight out to our warm-up spot. there, we hung around and i hacked the sack with derek, austin, troy, cory, ted, and swopey. and then mr. forney came out and we al got our instruments and warmed up (no marching basics that morning) and then we headed out to the field to practice the show starting from chart 35. it was kind of hard since we hadn't really gone over it thoroughly enough but it went well. the part where the trumpets form a triangle and then march forward while doing a goose step still needs work since none of us can properly do it!

then we worked on cleaning it all up and we practiced with the guard and then it was time to start setting charts 47-53 and this was the most fun and probably the easiest charts yet. all you had to do from chart 47 is walk to a spot (freeform) somewhere with the rest of your section (in my case, section 2). there were 3 sections in all consisting mainly of woodwinds and brass and percussion. and then for 12 counts we had to stage a mock battle and that was a lot of fun pretending to punch each other and then after that everyone dies slowly for 24 counts. and then everyone is laying on the field and all and dewayne plays these taps and everyone wakes up slowly and then we all go to these freeform positions with our sections and then we all run around while playing and that part is the bomb raid part. and then we all go into one big line and march towards the stands. and then that's about as far as we got. it's the big finish to the show lol.

after we died a few times on the field and i accidently landed on my chapstick while dying and jabbed myself in the leg really hard, it was time for lunch. that was pretty normal and then after lunch i always have like 30 minutes of free time and we watched the talent show that austin and ted were in and they played 'one' by metallica. and then they played the tape a few more times after that.

it was back outside immediately after our hour break for lunch and went to where the pit usually practices outside and we warmed up and practiced playing there. swopey and i agreed that it was getting hotter and the sun came out from behind a cloud and we began to roast suddenly. then the sky began looking really ominous and dark and this big black cloud moved over head. we all felt a few drops of rain but it never really amounted to anything and it moved on. after that, we went back to the field and marched from cahrt 35 to 53 and practiced that over and over and then we did a final run through of the entire show and it was great.

a few funny things happened that day and one of them occured right when i arrived. as i was walking inside, i noticed all these marbles everywhere and it turned out that the seniors had put all these marbles over the door so when mr. forney opened it, they would all drop onto him. and mr. forney is always going on about 'squeezing your marble' and stuff while marching so we all found that rather amusing. and then out at the field someone had painted all the lines and hash marks pink and purple and dumped all these froot loops on the ground and took ketchup packets and placed them in strategic positions on the field so someone was bound to step on (which i did unfortunately). and on the fence, dewayne (although he doesn't admit to doing it) took these mcdonald's bags and ripped them up and taped them to the fence so they spelled out 'miss saigon.' and also on the back wall of the concession stand someone had taken duct tape and spelled out 'class of 2005.'

later in the day, i found earl's trumpet (a wonderful silver and gold plated bach) lying on the ground just outside the field and mr. forney just happened to walk by too. and i said:

"hey, isn't that earl's trumpet?"

and he was like "yeah i think it might be his."

and i said "gee, it looks like someone just stepped on it."

and mr. forney was like "yeah ziggy i think you're right."

and i said a bit louder "i think someone must have bent the valves. look they're all messed up."

and by this time earl jumped up and was like WHAT??? and we all laughed because it was such a funny joke to play on him.

after band camp was over, david, swopey, nate, matt, and i all went over to dave's house and hung around and played on nate's x-box and we had a ton of fun. then we played halo (which i had never played before) and i sucked really really bad at it but we all had a good time. and then it was time to go home around 10 and go to bed because i had to wake up early today and go to work.

nothing special at work today really except that lisa sims who used to work at the coffee roasters returned and i got to meet her and she has these wild dreds. so that made for an interesting day and it wasn't too busy at least.

ziggy

day numero cuatro...
another great day of progress made at band camp. and a lot of real funny stuff happened today too. i'll go into all of that while i explain what happened today...

the first thing we did was arrive, put your lunch into the big walk-in fridge in the kitchen by the cafeteria, and head straight out to our warm up spot. and while waiting for everyone else to arrive we played on the fitness trail monkey bar thing that was there and we were swinging our hands all around and eventually our hands hurt so we stopped. and then mr. forney came out and we begun. we started with marching basics and stuff. we were taking this water break when all of a sudden i see troy tearing out into the alley for some strange reason and he comes back with this hub cap. see it had fallen off the car that had just drove by and everyone was yelling at it but they didn't hear us and they drove off without their hub cap. troy decided to keep thje hub cap for himself and he wanted to put it up on his wall but later the car drove by again. everyone was yelling and waving their arms around but the guy in the car just stared at us and kept driving. i guess that hub cap is going on troy's wall after all.

that all went on for less than an hour and then we warmed up our instruments and headed over to the field and we marched from charts 27 to 34 which we had learned yesterday and that took some getting used to because most of us forgot the moves. but we worked on cleaning it all up and eventually it was as smooth as butter. and then it was time to set more charts and we marched to that and that was pretty difficult because i kept forgetting where everything was but eventually we had charts 34-40 memorized alright and we played to that and it sounded pretty cool. and mr. forney had this bird crap on his shoulder and everyone was laughing and he had it on his shoulder for like 30 minutes. and he finally washed it off during lunch.

then we had lunch and all and that was pretty normal. there were 10 people sitting at our table today which made for great fun whenever we do this trick where we all stare at some table and see how long it takes for them to notice. and what's weird is that people seem to know when they're being stared at even when they're not facing you. it's a weird psycological thing i guess.

after lunch we went out and practiced for a while outside standing up for like an hour and then we worked on the show for the rest of the day. and then at the end we did one final run through of everything up to chart 47. only 10 more to go! and next comes the mock battle sequence and stuff we'll do next week. tomorrow is the last long day and then it's just 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm next week.

ziggy

day numero tres...
geez i can't remember how to exactly spell these spanish words lol. well day number three has come and gone and you know i'm noticing this trend where everyday something funny occurs with an insect. like the first day (i may have forgotten to mention it) austin found this praying mantis in the grass during a water break and he tried to pick it up. and then it took off and we were chasing it all around the field and stuff and it flew at kassie and tried to land on her head and she freaked out and screamed so it changed direction and decided to land on kristin's shorts. and kristin didn't know what was going on or why kassie was screaming and pointing at her until she looked down and saw this insect the size of a b-52 bomber on her pants and she screamed and brushed it off and then we chased around some more. the funny thing was that you could spot it flying around from like 50 feet away because it was so large.

then the second day there was the wasp incident where we were chasing wasps around and swatting at them and stuff with our shoes and today was more of that and this time i actually killed 2 of them (however swopey pointed out that the one didn't count because it's wings weren't working). and then later in the day while we were setting charts and stuff out on the field, there were these large grasshoppers hopping around and stuff and john janson caught one and was holding it and he took it and threw it right at kristi and it landed right on her chest (*cough *cough) and so she was running around and it was pretty funny.

so who knows what might happen tomorrow. the band might be attacked by a swarm of angry locusts or something worse. time will tell. it may actually rain tomorrow though too. oh and austin and i have this cool secret hand shake which involves a lot of crazy stuff that we invented and we're gonna have to add more to it tomorrow. it's pretty funny actually. we always do a run through of everything from the beginning to the final charts that we have learned that day. and we ended today at austin's solo and after he did the solo, he did the secret handshake thing and it was so funny.

we made it to chart 36 today and that puts us about 10 charts further from yesterday. so we're averaging about 10-12 charts per day which is good progress. today was mainly spent cleaning up the beginning part of the show and then learning a few new moves. see there's this one time where we have to do a slow horn lift during an about turn and then we do a 360 degree turn real fast for 4 counts with the horn lift, drop the horn life, and then the trumpets (which is the group i am in) has to move backwards into a circle in about 8 counts. sounds complicated? try doing it without music. lol. that's right. we had to actually do without music up to chart like 26 or something and that wasn't too bad. and also we have to a free form move that's 16 counts to a far away position during laura's solo and you have to really listen to her and the music so you know when exactly to come into position because you're going freeform and that means that no one is in step. so that's sort of awkward and we have to walk around each other and i think david tries on purpose to mow me down lol.

and speaking of mowing down another person. earlier in the morning we were doing our marching basics and stuff and we have to get in our groups according to our instrument played. and then our student leader of that group will help us practice marching around and stuff and they give us commands. in this case, lindsay is our student leader and we have about 5 or 6 in our section group. and we were marching and minding our own business and suddenly here comes the trombone section and their leader, john janson, and they were headed straight for us and i could see that laughing look in john's eyes which was a bad thing lol. so lindsay changes our direction and then john changes the trombone's direction and they are still heading towards us. so we change again and move backwards and then forwards again but they are still inches away and then suddenly we all collide. but a few minutes later, lindsay and all of us spot the trombones talking to the saxaphones a ways away. so lindsay puts us into rank and then she says that we'll be practicing our slow 8 count step and then change to our fast 8 count step. and so we're off headed straight for the unsuspecting trombones and saxaphones and suddenly we're about 10 feet away and lindsay orders a double quick 8 count step and we charge into them and i knock into david and we're all clashing again. but our excuse was that we were only following orders to "seek and destroy" lol. so tomorrow there will be more of that and next year, i want to be a student leader and attack the clarinets with a double quick 8 count step lol.

ziggy

day numero dos...
gosh i hope i spelled 'dos' right. oh well. today went good and it was almost the same as yesterday. we got there at 8:00 am as usual and took our stuff out and did our marching basics and warmups and then we had another marchoff (we had one at the orientation for new members; i won that one!) but this time id didn't win. lol. so that was the morning session and during water breaks and stuff, derek and i found some interesting things to do.

first and foremost was the newest discovery that there's this wasps' nest right by this light pole and it was underneath this metal thing at the bottom of the pole. and if you lifted it up, about 20 wasps would come out and chase us around and stuff and the trick was to see how close you could get to them and take your shoe off and try to swat them with it. it was a pretty fun time and, luckily, no one got injured.

after our morning session we had lunch and then we played inside for a while and then went back outside. we made it to chart 27 today and we're averaging 12 charts a day just about and that's really good time. by the end of the week, mr. forney wants to have it all down. tomorrow, we'll clean up the opening and everything move by move which is a good thing because i forget charts 19-22. lol. more improvement is needed!

ziggy

day numero uno...
wow what a long day it was. i got up at 6:45 am to get ready for band camp and then it was off to the school at 7:45 am. band camp begins at 8:00 am and runs until 12:00 pm which is when we have an hour lunch break. then after that, there's another session which runs from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. so it was some long hours out in the sun (luckily i had sun glasses with me).

first, we all went out to the field and did warm-ups and stuff and then we did our marching basics for like 3 hours. that consisted of marching backwards, different turns, and also practicing a high step thing that will eventually be part of the show. after that, we begin to set charts (which means finding your positions on the field. we found the first 12, i believe, during the sessions today. then once we practiced marching to them, we got our instruments out (this was after lunch) and we played for a little while inside and then went back outside where we played while marching to the charts on the field. it went really well and practice will only make us better.

ziggy

tomorrow...
...is the beginning of band camp. i gotta find markers (canning lids) to use in field band so you can remember your different places on the field. we have to end up memorizing like 57 different positions throughout the entire show. so that'll be quite an experience.

i went and visited my grandmother today out in philly. i got to listen to good music in my headphones lol. and we got our van back! that's right. it's all fixed and everything and it turns out it needed a new transmission and one of the front tires was loose. someone forgot to tighten it which meant that if we had ended up driving it down to the ocean, we would've got like 20 miles down the road, the front tire would pop off, and we would've probably broken the front axle if not all of the bones in the our body. so it was a better idea after all to take someone elses car down. but it's great to have our comfortable van back again.

old home week has just about come and gone. wow so quickly too. and to imagine that the next old home week will be when i have graduated from highschool! i'll be off into the world the next time i have my picture taken. gosh i don't know where the time will be. i don't know if i'll even have this blog here then. time sure does flie when you're having a good time. i mean it seems just like a few seconds ago that kassie, jeremy, swopey, and i were hanging out down on the square, that i was running back and forth to each side during the picture, when i was dying from heat exhaustion from marching nearly 4 miles, when the fire got so hot in our backyard that we had to stand like 10 feet away from it (and we still felt like we were gonna melt), and finally when i spent the entire day with justin and watched the fireworks and all. time sure does fly and well i think it's time we catch up. i shall start on thursday since you don't know what happened then...

thursday morning i woke up like towards noon i think and then i just hung around the house for like all afternoon until it was 3:30 and time to set up the little canopy out front where my parents were putting the food for the people we invited over for the parade. that wasn't too hard except that the dang thing has about a million metal tubes you gotta put together all in this certain order and stuff. and there were about a million chairs across from my house and all up and down the entire street. it was a little unnerving to think that several thousand people were going to be watching you march in a few hours.

i took a shower at 4:00, at a sandwich at 4:30, then headed over to the school at 5:00. no one was out in the parking lot (which is odd because usually you see a few cars pulling up and letting off band people and stuff). it turns out, everyone was inside so i was at least on time.

we marched all the way down to the starting point and everything and we were unit #12 out of over a hundred others i think. we stood around for awhile and then we marched all the way through the length of town and then back again. it was one of our town's longer parade's. everyone was drenched in sweat by the end and my mouth was really dry. we all got back to the school and i changed into my normal clothes and whatnot and then justin, laura, kristin, and i all walked back to my house. we hung out there and justin lit this huge fire in the fire pit out back. the flames got around 10 feet tall and the heat was almost overwhelming. around 10:00 pm it started to rain and we had a cloud burst and we ran inside to the porch and we went upstairs to my room and hung out there for a while. then we decided to go for a little walk.

it was a dark night out and we walked all the way through moss springs developement and then back by the park and up through the ballfield back to my house. the developement was really creepy because hardly anyone had any lights on or anything. as we were going past the park back in that alley by the hardware store, someone began to set off these fireworks and they were curving up over us and cracking really loud and flashing and they were setting them off one after another. and then about the 12th one they set off went off course and flew towards a house and some trees and bounced off the house. justin and i thought the trees were gonna catch on fire and that's when the last few fireworks began to arch up over our heads. it was a little freaky because we'd only have a few seconds to react if a stray firework came our way. after they were finished going off, the air was filled with all this smoke.

luckily, the trees didn't catch on fire and we didn't get blown up or anything and we made it back to our house and hung around the fire pit some more and then kristin, justin, and laura all got a ride home from kristin's older brother. so that was the events surrounding thursday night.

friday was a long day. once again, i woke up around like 10:30-11:00 and as soon as i awoke, i got this call from justin. he told me that we should go swimming down by the bridge and we decided to meet there at noon. my dad drove me all the way out there and dropped me off and justin and i stood around for a few moments trying to contact kristin and laura but the antique cell phone that justin had didn't have any signal.

so we walked up the hill towards past kristin's house and towards laura's house and we finally got a signal on the cell phone as we were walking up laura's extremely long driveway. then we had this idea that we should call laura and tell her that we couldn't come over or anything and stand right outside her window while we called her. but we didn't make it all the way to her house because laura spotted us and it turns out that kristin was over too. so we hung out on laura's front porch for like all afternoon.

then, kristin had to go home and it was just laura, justin and i there and we went inside and i listened to laura and justin play the piano for an hour and then justin and i decided to go to justin's house. we borrowed laura's bike and laura's mom's bike and we were going really fast down the hill towards the bridge and then up the other side and back through all these long roads and developements until we were at justin's house. the entire ride was around 5 miles. justin hit 30 mph down the hill towards the bridge and i couldn't go as fast as him because 1. i hadn't ridden a bike in like 6 months so it felt weird 2. this was a mountain bike i wasn't used to and 3. there was something wrong with gears 5, 6, and 7 on laura's mom's bike. i got it up to warp speed and gear number 5 would not click into place. so i had to stay in 4th the entire time which was too bad.

justin showed me his house and then we had to make important phone calls and stuff and then laura called again and said that she wasn't going to the fireworks. and kristin wasn't either! which was odd since we had been planning to all go to these fireworks in town as a group since monday. it turns out that kristin didn't feel like going and laura's mom had suddenly decided to take laura and her sister sarah out to dinner. so that was kind of a bummer. but we had to ride back to laura's and give her the bikes back and then laura's mom gave justin and i a ride back to the town and dropped us off at the library.

from the library, justin and i walked to the school and stuff and we waited around for the army band to play at 7:30. so we had an hour or two to kill so we took a walk back to this birdwatching stand out in the woods and we saw where the fireworks were going to be set off from and this sign that was going to spell out 'goodnight' in big fiery letters.

once everyone began arriving, justin and i hung out with diana and troy and david all evening and we watched the fireworks which were the best fireworks i've ever seen around here. it looked as though they had spent a lot of money preparing for it. the fireworks started at 9:30 and were over a little after ten. i waited around for a while after everyone (including troy, justin, david, and diana) had left and then i walked home from the school back to my house by myself at 10:30 at night. and then i had to crash and get up for work the next morning (saturday).

but i should end there because this entry is ridiculously long already lol. i think that this might be the longest one ever, i'm not sure. but tomorrow is the start of band camp and all and i guess i feel ready; how bad could it be? you just spend a day with your friends and have fun and are mercilessly drilled by the drum majors for 4 hours in the afternoon. i'll have to write an entry about that tomorrow. but for now, i have to go to bed!

ziggy

thorn

well there's my best drawing of rose thorn ("thorn") so far and i hope you like it because you just better. no questions lol. but i did work pretty hard on it for two days last week (thursday and friday) and it turned out better than i suspected it would.

the eyes are probably the most realistic eyes i have drawn on any protrait and this is by far the best portrait i have done so far. the hair was fun to draw. since i learned how to draw hair properly, it's actually quite easy. see all you have to do is shade the hair first as though it was a solid shape. you don't draw individual hair strands as most people will make the mistake doing. next, you draw the hair strands in over the shaded parts (and be sure to leave some bright highlights because hair is very reflective) and then some darker strands too.

if anyone reading this cares to see some of my other works, just send me an email and i will be sure to send some of them to you. remember, the scanner doesn't copy the exact contrast levels of the original drawing so it isn't the best reproduction of the work. geez, technology these days.

ziggy

5...
...days until band camp. boy it's sneaking up on us already. am i ready you may ask? yes i am! i think it'll be a great experience. i can't wait until we set a few of the charts down (like maybe the first 10 or so) and march to them because that will just be the coolest. and i also hear that we have a morning session during band camp which starts at 9:00 am and runs till 12:00 pm and then we get an entire hour for lunch which is totally cool and then we have an afternoon session from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. so that's like 7 hours of band goodness lol.

well today at 11:30 am was the big old home week picture down on the square. it looked as though the entire freakin town was there this morning and everyone like went ina big circle around the lightpost that is in the center of the square. and i thought "gee, these people sure are stupid. i mean if the camera has to swing around in an arc, wouldn't you think that that light post just might be in the way?" oh well. we needed a sheep dog real bad because without any sort of direction, all the people in the town would've just wandered around and eventually died like ants or something.

but fortunately, our sheep dog or person with a megaphone arrived and told us to stand in certain places and stuff and kassie and jeremy decided not to be in both ends this year but david and i wanted to. you see, everyone stands in this big 'u' formation in one corner of the square and the entire thing takes up about one side of the square. and as the camera starts at one end, and then pans around, you can run from one end of the 'u' to the other and then boom! you're in both ends of the picture. it's pretty interesting actually. a bunch of other kids were running too.

they took the first camera run and they started at one end and david and i were in that and then the camera passed us and we charged across to the other side with about 20 other kids and we just barely stopped in time before we would've plowed a couple of old folks down. boy that would've been good at all. then, they took a second photo and we had to run back to the starting positions again. and then, after that they took a third photo and david and i began to realize how incredibly hot it was getting since it was nearly high noon.

and then the photographer up on the big ladder and his assistant were like, "oh hey in that last one, there were too many people moving so we're gonna have to take one more." it turns out, no one from the back of the crowd could hear the megaphone so they figured it was over after the third photo. so we had to suffer once more running back and forth. that was my old home week photo experience for this week.

now i have finally been able to be in the photo twice! whoopeee for me! and david! lol. too bad kassie and jeremy didn't want to do it at the last moment. guess they'll have to wait another 3 years for that to happen. and tomorrow is the parade and i'll explain more about that now.

reporting time for the parade tomorrow evening is 5:15 pm (i'm always like 20 minutes early lol) and we have to wear our band shirts, our blue pants, black shoes, and black socks. but thing about the shoes is, they have to be black and i don't have any black shoes. so i ended up spending $43 on a pair of shoes that i would most likely be wearing one time in my life. well for band at least. there might be a "formal" occasion sometime so i'll probably wear them for that.

the funny thing is that when we went in the shoe store, we said to the shoe guy "well we need a pair of shoes, black laces and everything, tomorrow for the parade and..."

"that's quite interesting," said the shoe guy, "because the zimmermans were just in here and they said the exact same thing."

that made it easier for the guy because he already new what we wanted. marty zimmerman and i were friends way back in middle school and i remember he was in the rank in front of me and he had this absolutely perfect posture and all and i would try to march like him and stuff. so yeah that was the somewhat strange occurence for the day.

and that's about all for me right now. tomorrow night after the parade, kristin, laura, justin, and i will walk home from the school to my house (not that we'll really feel like walking after almost 3 miles of marching and playing). and we're just gonna chill at my house tomorrow night till around 11 pm and i'll write about that when i get around to it. friday is when the army band plays down on kaley field and then they have fireworks so i'll take a look at those. but otherwise, that's the latest news.

ziggy