6/23/15

Today was mom's birthday.  I got her some flowers and some chocolates.  She enjoyed them.  I took Esther to the mall while mom went to the college to take her test.  I got some new earrings but Esther didn't end up getting anything.  Then we headed home.  We just barely beat mom home.  She got a 98% on her test.  She has done very well in her classes.  Dad came home early so we could go to moms favorite restaurant for dinner.  It is called Trummer's on Main.  I got BBQ bone marrow to start, it was really good.  I have had bone marrow once before and I really liked it.  Then for my entree I had smoked pork cheeks.  While we were eating a huge storm hit and the power in the restaurant ended up going out but they still could cook.  The power was out at home when we got home too.  Sandy was really scared and didn't want us to leave her alone.  So I stayed downstairs for a while and read to keep her company.  The power finally came back on around 10:00.  At the beginning of the year Dad and I made a deal that if I could get a 3.5 GPA or higher for the year he would buy me a Macbook and my counselor emailed us telling me that I'd gotten a 3.7.  I am very proud of myself.

First Post of 2015

So, its summer again.  It has been a long year.  But I'll spare you that whole story.  Now that its summer, it is time to relax.  I do have some plans this summer so it won't be entirely unproductive.  I am going to Philadelphia from July 13th to August 1st for the University of the Arts summer institute.  I will be taking classes in the Music Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology course and at the end I will have 3 more college credits.  I am looking forward to being on my own for a while away from everything.  I am also working on an album of music.  I am hoping to release it sometime this summer.  Hopefully before I leave for Philly, but that's pushing it.  I want to make it as good as it can be.  I am also starting a business with some friends.  We are going to release music and make some shirts to sell.
I will be a senior next year.  It all happened so fast.  This is my last summer as a high school student.  That's kind of hard to believe.  I will be taking my music class again next year.  I am also taking AP Statistics as my math course.  I am a little nervous about taking it.  It is apparently the hardest math course Robinson offers.  Fortunately my favorite math teacher teaches it though.  Hopefully it isn't as hard as I'm expecting.
I will probably be visiting some more colleges this summer too.  I really like University of the Arts and think I will probably end up there.  However it is good to have other options.  I am planning to go into Music Business now.

last three blogs of the summer

Thursday
On Thursday I picked up my schedule for the upcoming school year.  My schedule is pretty good I am taking all the classes I expected. Apparently my teachers are pretty good.  I have my music production class every morning from 7:30 till 9.  Then on blue days I will have History of the Americas then Environmental Systems.  On gold days I will have English Honors then Calculus. I have pretty much finished my summer homework so I should be able to just enjoy the last weekend of summer.  I don't have any classes other then my music production class with any of my friends so I will have to make some new friends.   Hopefully It'll be a good year I am pretty happy with my schedule.  Esther got her schedule as well.  Her schedule is pretty as well.  She did however get the same teacher I got in eighth grade.  I hated her but hopefully Esther has a better experience.  She got one of the best teachers at Robinson for English this year however.  He is a lot fun to be around he helps out a lot with the middle school drama program.  I think Esther will have a better year then last year.
Saturday
I downloaded an app on my phone the other day.  It counts how many steps you take everyday and tells you have many calories you burn and gives you a step goal for how much weight you want to lose.  It has me working up to 10,000 steps a day.  I have been going for a few long walks each day some with Sandy some without.  I have been averaging about 6000 or 7000 steps a day so far.  If I keep walking everyday and eating healthier I am hoping to at least be close to my weight goal by my birthday.  The family went out to dinner tonight.  It was a pretty good place Dad had wanted to go to for a while.  It was pretty good.  It is an american food place with a lot of italian food as well.  Over all I would be willing to go again.  Sandy is also getting sick again.  She isn't as much as she should.  We are going to take to the vet on Monday.  The vet closes early on Saturday and isn't open on sunday's.  Hopefully she isn't that sick.  She ate dinner last night but she's been looking pretty sad and been sleeping a lot however.  She tends to get sick a lot but that happens a lot with her species.  She had been pretty healthy over all lately though.
Last blog of the year.
This is the finally blog of the summer.  I will be starting school on Tuesday.  I don't really have any plans for tomorrow.  I will probably hang out with some friends.  I also forgot to mention I am taking my road test on Thursday.  I will technically have my licence on Thursday.  However I won't be able to officially use it till the third week of October.  At least I will have it out of the way and won't have to worry about it in October.  Other then that not much has been going on.  I went to Guitar Center with my friend this morning.  He had to pick up a few things and I went with him to keep him company.  It was fun.  After we went to guitar center he brought me back home.  Then I went for a walk.  There isn't much else to talk about.  I will continue to update you guys through out the year.  I am kind of excited to be heading back to school.  I think it will be a really good year but I will let you know if it is.  Sandy still hasn't been eating that much.  We are going to take her into the vet on tuesday most likely.  Mom and Dad went out on the boat this morning.  Esther and I stayed here and slept in, in order to take advantage of the last two days of summer.

the past weekend

This weekend I went out to St Louis to visit my grand parents.  It was a lot of fun seeing them.  I hadn't been out there too see them a quite a few years.  While I was there I got to go to a few different record stores I found some really cool records.  My favorite two are a Nirvana single and the Goblin LP by Tyler The Creator.  I also got to go to a concert of a band I had wanted to see for quite a while.  The concert was really good although not many people went.  The picture I posted was of the band Widow.  They are releasing there new album this fall sometime.

Grandma also did a lot of cooking.  She is a really good cook.  I helped her make a fudge cake.  She gave me the recipe to take back home.  I made it today for my family.  It was gone before I could take a picture so I'm assuming it was good.  The cake it really easy.  When I got home from St Louis a record I had been waiting for arrived.  It is a really cool record.  It is a 12 inch record cut to look like a flower with a 7 inch playing space,  The record a split between two of my favorite bands Nai Harvest, and Playlounge.  They are both duo's from the UK.

On my last day in St. Louis we drove up the Mississippi.  The river was pretty wide where we drove but you could see the other side.  There were a lot of tug boats in  the water moving crates.  We stopped in a town called Grafton to get ice cream.  The ice cream wasn't anything special but it was still good.  Then we turned around.  They dropped me off at the air port on the way back to there house.  The flight was really easy.  It left on time and even arrived a little early.  It was a lot of fun being out of town but it was nice to sleep in my own bed again.  Sandy really missed me and mom.

On the plane ride home I finished my book for my summer assignment.  The book I read was called Brain on Fire: My Month Of Madness by Suzannah Cahalan.  The book was mostly interesting but it got boring at parts.  The book is a Memoir of the author.  When she was in her mid twenties she started to have seizures and suffer from many common symptoms of Schizophrenia but her and her family where convinced that wasn't what it was.  When she finally went into a coma for a month they figured out it was a disease where her body attacks her brain.   I am glad I am done with it but it is making me realize that summer is almost over. 

3 blogs

8/18
Yesterday I went to the concert.  I left for concert at 3.  I drove up there while mom was in the car and she drove back after the concert.  The drive was about an hour and a half but it was a really easy drive.  I got there about 4:30 and surprisingly I was the third person in line at the door.  The show was sold out.  But this venue only held about 350 people.  Since I was third in line I got right up front.  All the bands were amazing.  I got a 2 setlists from the bands.  Setlists are the list of songs they play that they tape on stage so they know what songs they are playing.  I got a setlist from the bands Ovlov and Superheaven.  I also caught the drummer of basements stick that he threw after there set.  Basement's set was amazing.  They were really good live.  Unfortunately I didn't get many good pictures because I was so close but it was a fun night.  I really like the venue and I will definitely be going back the that venue when I get the chance. I am really happy with how the night turned out.  That morning I had band practice with my band.  Practice actually went really well.
8/19

Here is a picture of the setlists and the drum stick I got from the concert on Sunday.  The setlist on left is from the band Superheaven.  They just recently changed there band name.  They used to be called Daylight but had to change there name because of copyright reasons.  They put on a pretty good set but the singer lost his voice so they did mostly instrumentals.  It was pretty good for being all instrumentals though.  The set list on the right is from the opening band called Ovlov.  They were really good.  Probably the second best set of the night after Basement.  After the show was over I bought there album from there merch table. The band members were hanging out at the table and they were pretty cool.

An Extra Blog

Today I hung out with my friends Chase and John.  They are the guys in my band.  We worked on making a custom guitar mostly for fun.  Chase had an old Fender body lying around so we are going to paint it and put new electronics in it.  Today we only had time to paint it.  The picture that I posted is just the base coat.  We painted the whole thing read and then we put the tape on and painted black over it.  Tonight John is going to paint a gloss coat over it to seal the paint and add a shine.  If everything works it'll be black with red stripes.  Tomorrow once its down being painted we are going to put the new pickup, neck, and volume knob on and it should be ready to play.

8/16 and 8/17

8/16
I didn't do anything productive today.  I woke up around 10 or so and laid in bed for a few hours and went on my phone.  After I finally got out of bed I watched some TV.  Then I took Sandy for a walk.  Esther and Mom went to one of Esther's friends performance.  Her friend gave her the wrong time however and they showed up an hour early.  The couldn't stay for the actual performance but they got to see them warm up.  I think Esther was kind of bummed that she couldn't see the actual performance but it was the thought to see her friend that counts right?  Here is a picture of the band I am seeing tomorrow.

 8/17
Today I am having band practice.  We are planning to start at noon.  I am writing my blogs early today because I will be busy most of the day.  We are planning to practice until 2:45 or so and then I am leaving for my concert at three.  The concert is in Baltimore which is an hour and a half or so from here.  But we will probably hit some traffic.  I am hoping to get there around five or so.  Doors open at six.  I am hoping to get towards the front.  I have never been to this place before but I have heard good things.  I have been looking forward to this concert for quite a while.  I probably won't be getting home till after midnight.  So that is why I am posting my blogs now.  I will be sure to write about the concert in my blog on Monday or Tuesday. I may be trying to complete my blogs early next week so I have some extra money for my trip.  Mom is leaving the same day as me except she is going to California to see her parents.  So Esther and Dad will be here alone for the long weekend.  I think it will be a fun weekend for the whole family even though we won't be together.

blogs

blog #1
I am getting really excited to see Basement on Sunday.  After I see them there is only 1 of my favorite bands of all time that I have left to see.  The last band is called American Football.  They are by far my favorite band of all time.  They released on album in 1997 and played 12 shows before breaking up.  They have recently gotten back together and are playing a few shows this fall but all the ones near me are 18 and up only.  I am hoping that they will add some more shows this winter or early next year.  I listen to there album at least once a week if not more.  When they got back together they released some old demos that were never released.  They are pretty good most of them were just early versions of already released stuff.  I am hoping now that they are back together they will release more new music and play more shows really soon.   My dad really enjoys there music as well.  He says it reminds him of old Genesis stuff.  American Football's music is very melodic.  After they broke up the members went on a did stuff in other bands but I think the American Football album is there best work.
blog #2
I don't have much else to report from around here. Yesterday I traded in my old bass amp to Guitar Center and got $300 for it.  With the money I bought a PA system for the band.  A PA system is basically a microphone amplifier.  You need one to play shows almost anywhere.  Also we will be able to have full practices now.  We are going to have practice on Sunday before I leave for my concert.  I think tomorrow will be a great day.  Since I traded in the amp and bought something else from the store I got a 10% discount and no tax on the purchases so I got to pocket $30 of my own as well.