Tuesday Afternoon with Tijmen

Today Oliver and I both went over to Tijmen's house for the afternoon. On the way over (I live about a 2-minute walk away from him), I came across this amusing graffiti on the ground with a deranged chicken holding a fish. When I got to his house, Tijmen's sister Emma answered the door because he and his mom were out picking up Oliver. I came in and played Super Smash Brothers Melee until they arrived. We tried out his new copy of Guitar Hero: World Tour which he got for Christmas, while Emma was playing Strawberry Fields Forever and other Beatles songs on the piano in the other room. World Tour was the first Guitar Hero game to include drums and vocals as well as guitar/bass. We switched off instruments, but for the most part I played guitar, Oliver did vocals, and Tijmen played drums. When we got tired of this, we switched to Mario Kart Wii, where Tijmen, Oliver, Emma, and I all did 4-player races. While we were playing, Tijmen's mom made some Gouda cheese-covered bread, and toward the end we also got some really good brownies that Emma made earlier in the day. Mid-afternoon we went up to the field by the David Avenue school where we played croquet for a while. We came back and played Tanks on Wii Play and I left around five.

Michael's Last Day in PG

Since Michael is moving to Cupertino (coincidentally, where I used to live), today was his last real day in town. We used a guest pass and went to the aquarium for the morning and got pizza for lunch at the Portola Café near the otter tank. He hadn't been there in a few years so I I came back around 3 and went on a run on Huckleberry Hill with Michael and his dad. I also helped him set up a Y! Messenger account so we can stay in touch during lunch break at school.

Lemon Squares

Ingredients
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup butter or margarine
• ¼ cup confectioners' sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ½ tsp. baking powder
• ¼ tsp. salt
• from 3 to 4 lemons:
```• 2 tsp lemon juice
```• thin round lemon slices
```• zest (peel grated)

Preparation
• Heat oven to 350°.
• Measure flour by sifting. Blend flour, butter, and confectioners' sugar thoroughly.
• Press evenly in square pan, 8x8x12". Bake 20 minutes.
• Beat eggs, granulated sugar, baking powder, salt, lemon juice, and zest together.
• Pour over crust and add slices on top.
• Bake 20 to 25 minutes more. Do not overbake.
• Cool and sprinkle lightly with confectioners' sugar before serving.

Makes 16 squares.

Christmas 2008 (a short summary)

On Christmas Eve I went up to San Jose and went to Melita's church, St. Andrew's Episcopal in Saratoga, for the Christmas Eve service, featuring hymns done by the talented choir and instrumental ensemble such as O Come, All Ye Faithful and Silent Night. Christmas Day I opened presents with my dad and Melita. I got my dad a pair of walnut salt/pepper shakers from Brinton's and Melita a green enamel frog pin. Then we went to Melita's daughter Zita's house, where we had lunch, opened more presents, watched Mamma Mia!, and had dinner. The next day I celebrated Christmas with my mom and Brian. I got my mom a pair of books and Brian a jumbo level and stud sensor. We made a "scrünchi mouse" mouse cat toy for Checkers out of a hair scrunchy with felt ears, a puff nose, and a shoelace tail (I took a video which I will post on YouTube). Some of my presents included some really nice photography books, some money (to put toward a dSLR), and an 8GB thumb drive.

Carmel River State Beach

Last night we went to the Carmel River State Beach near the Carmel River Lagoon. The sunset was really picturesque so I got some good photos while I was there. Unfortunately, my battery ran out before the sun got really low and colorful.

Hailstorm (Winter Begins)

Waking up on Monday morning, we discovered hail on the skylight. When I went out to see, everything was covered in what looked like snow, but was actually condensed hail. This was a first for me since living in Pacific Grove; it has only slightly hailed once before. From what I have heard, there is snow on Toro Peak right now, and I'll try to get down to the coast to see when I can.

Here are some photos to try to convey what it looked like...

The Winter Concert

Matthew Shonman tuning his trombone

This past Thursday night was our winter concert, featuring the chorus and orchestra as well as the band. Since the middle school auditorium, the usual venue, is under construction, we had to hold the concert at the high school multi, which was much smaller. Band went first, and we played quite a few songs: A Festival Prelude, O Holy Night, Procession of Nobles, A Chanukah Celebration, and A Christmas Festival. After our section came the chorus, singing numerous Christmas and Hannukah classics, and then the intermission.

Jane Rudy singing in Chorus

At intermission, Matthew and I helped Michael Yanoska carry the large timpani around the building in the dark to the band room since it was too big to use the inside route. After putting away our instruments, we went to the snack bar in the back where some middle-schoolers (including Michelle Watkins and Emma Teering) led by Tijmen's mom were selling snacks.

Following the intermission was the orchestra's performance. They first did a suite by Edvard Grieg featuring the band's percussion section and some other classical pieces, and then performed a really neat tango piece involving improvisation.

Michael Yanoska Drum Captain

Kristen Sanchez Senior Flutist

The Percussion Section Brent Smith, Matthew Johnson, Taylor Jones, Michael Yanoska, Leif Swenson, Andy Bieman, Cory Jones (front)

Thanks to Oliver Bunten for the photos.

Holiday Parade of Lights

Last night we played in Pacific Grove's annual Holiday Parade of Lights for marching band. This was the first event in which we wore the formal uniforms with the big brass buttons, suspenders, and feather plumes. Being a clarinetist, I had to cut off the fingertips of the gloves because air leaks from the holes in the clarinet when you try to play with gloves. We donned the uniforms and got in line around 5 and left to march down a half hour later.

We began by marching in a single file line with drum cadences from the school to Pine Avenue. We rested here and watched the North Monterey County Marching Band, also in the parade, practice. Finally, we got into the block formation. Mr. Hoffman moved me around the formation quite a few times, and I eventually ended up in the back next to Kristen Sanchez and some other flutists, with Riley a couple of places away and most of the other clarinetists in the next row. The parade began and we marched down Fountain Avenue, over on Lighthouse, and then back to the school up Congress. We played Santa's Parade, a conglomerate of Joy to the World, Jingle Bells, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. We repeated the song about 10 times, with a drum cadence with horn swings in between each repeat.

Heading back up to the school on Congress, we began going faster and faster and everyone was yelling to Marcy, the drum major, to slow down. Eventually we lost all order and everyone started singing. The tempo clicks stopped and we pretty much just walked back the rest of the way.

A map of the marching path from Google Maps:

Cinnamon Crêpes

These cinnamon crêpes were an extremely tasty dessert. We used vanilla soy ice cream (Trader Joe's Soy Creamy) instead of the frozen yogurt. Using just the batter without the filling makes a great breakfast as well.

Ingredients
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tbsp. light brown sugar
• 3 tbsp. ground cinnamon
• 1½ cups low fat milk
• 2 tbsp. canola oil
• ¾ cup all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup whole wheat flour
• Cooking spray
• 1 cup low fat vanilla frozen yogurt
• 1½ cups frozen unsweetened berries, thawed
• Powdered Sugar (optional)

Preparation
• Blend eggs, brown sugar, cinnamon, milk, and oil on low.
• Slowly add flours ½ cup at a time.
• When the batter is the consistency of heavy cream, pour into a bowl.
• Refrigerate for at least 45 minutes.
• Coat an 8-inch nonstick skillet with cooking spray. Place over medium heat.
• Pour ¼ cup batter in the pan and spread with a spatula into a 6-inch circle.
• Cook crêpe until lightly browned and crispy on the edges (about 30 sec.)
• Flip with spatula and cook until second side is light brown (about 30 sec.)
• Repeat with the remaining batter, respraying between each crêpe.
• Spread 2 tablespoons frozen yogurt on each crêpe.
• Add about 3 tablespoons of berries.
• Roll up and serve with powdered sugar if desired.

Makes about 4 servings.

Baked Shrimp Scampi with Rice

Our Thanksgiving main course was this baked shrimp casserole with white rice.

Ingredients
• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 cups rice
• 4 tbsp. unsalted butter
• 3½ to 4 cups vegetable broth
• ¾ tsp. salt
• ¾ tsp. pepper
• 1¼ pounds large shrimp, shelled
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• ½ cup dry white wine
• 2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
• 3 tbsp. chopped parsley
• 3 tbsp. fine unseasoned dry bread crumbs
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• Cooking spray

Preparation
• In a large saucepan, warm 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and sauté until golden, about 5 minutes.
• Stir in the rice, 2 tablespoons of the butter, 3½ cups of the broth, and ½ teaspoon each of the salt and pepper.
• Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.
• Uncover the rice and allow any excess broth to boil off, and add some water if the rice seems dry.
• Cover and cook until the rice is tender and all the liquid is absorbed, 5 to 10 minutes.
• Remove the pan from the heat and keep covered.
• In a large nonstick skilled, warm the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and sauté, stirring, until golden, about 3 minutes.
• Add the remaining 2 tablespoons butter, the wine, lemon juice, and remaining ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper. Cook until the shrimp are just opaque, about 5 minutes.
• Sprinkle the shrimp with the parsley and bread crumbs, and cook for 1 minute.
• Pour mixture into a casserole dish and top with Parmesan and bread crumbs. Spray top lightly with cooking spray to prevent burning.
• Cook at 450º until lightly browned on top, for about 6 to 8 minutes. Serve hot.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Tomato and Eggplant Bulgur Wheat Salad

This was our appetizer for our Thanksgiving dinner this year.

Ingredients
• 1 cup bulgur wheat
• 1 eggplant, thinly sliced
• 5 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 pound cherry tomatoes, cut in half
• 1 tbsp. red wine vinegar
• Salt and Pepper
• ½ cup basil leaves, torn

Preparation
• Heat broiler.
• Cook the bulgur according to package directions.
• Arrange eggplant slices on 2 baking sheets. Brush both sides with a total of 3 tablespoons of the oil.
• Broil the eggplant 1 pan at a time until brown, 2-3 min. per side.
• Transfer into a large bowl. Stir in tomatoes, vinegar, remaining oil, ½ tsp. salt, and ¼ tsp. pepper. Fold in the basil.
• Transfer the bulgur into a large bowl and top with the mixture.

Makes about 4 servings.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving I went on the Turkey Trot in cross country with Alex Schramm, Alec Guertin, Peter Sujan, and Leif Swenson, as well as my mom and stepdad Brian. I ran/walked from the school to the aquarium and back, which turned out to be about 8 miles. When we got back we began work on the Thanksgiving dinner. Rather than the usual Thanksgiving menu, we had a shrimp scampi casserole (▶), a tomato eggplant salad (▶), and cinnamon crêpes for dessert (▶). After dinner, we watched House and Survivor.

Speed Bump by Dave Coverly

RE: Asilomar Sunset

Here's another neat photo I took tonight at the boardwalk near Asilomar State Beach.

Photoshop Cat

This is a cat I made on our Mac G4 about a month ago, in Photoshop 6.0. It was a pretty simple design, using basic shapes, with the shading done using the dodge and burn tools.

League Meet and Big Sur Half Marathon

Last Thursday was the MTAL League Meet for cross country. I beat my previous time by about a minute, and overall our team did pretty well. Even so, Carmel completely demolished all the other teams and ended up winning for varsity.

The Big Sur Half Marathon was today, and instead of volunteering for scouts like I have in the past, I did it with the cross country team. We pioneered the new BYOB (Bring Your Own Bottle) station in which we would fill up runners' bottles with water and Gatorade. We met at the Fishwife restaurant around six and walked to the station, at the turnaround point on the course. We got breakfast burritos with egg, refried beans, and cheese on a spinach tortilla, and then the runners began coming around 7:30. Casey, Addison, Michael and I filled up pitchers to give to the rest of the team who were pouring water into the cups. We also took turns holding signs saying "BYOB" Ahead. Michelle, Coach Watkins' daughter, also helped out with the filling. About halfway through it started raining quite hard, so we were all soaked upon leaving.

Pacific Grove vs. King City

Last night was the last of the football games that we would play at for band. We met at the school at about six, and I was almost late because the computer's clock was off. About a half hour later, we arrived at MPC, by which time it had already become completely dark. We warmed up and went out onto the track, while the JV football team was still playing. The wait took a really long time; what seemed like over a half hour. Finally, it was time to march out and play the national anthem and P.G. Will Shine.

During the first and second quarters, we were completely demolishing King City. At halftime we came down and played three songs: Everybody Needs Somebody to Love, Messin' With the Kid, and Mr. Pitiful. Following this was the senior salute, in which all of the seniors in the band did some sort of salute, dance, or other such thing. Roy Chan, a previous scout of Troop 90, probably had the funniest one, in which he got the trombones to play a background while he sang Can't Touch This. When these were done, we played a fourth song, Rescue Me, and then left for free time during third quarter.

A video of us playing Messin' With the Kid taken by Michael Yanoska:


While the halftime show was in progress, a huge blanket of fog began pouring into the stadium, and it felt like it dropped ten degrees. Within ten minutes, you couldn't even see across the field to the King City bleachers. Our music was fogging up so fast it was sometimes hard to read and the pages would stick together.

At the immediate start of fourth quarter we began playing Tequila from the stands. By this time, King City had caught up quite a bit, and soon the score evened out to a tie of 29 to 29. A referee came over and made some comment to Mr. Hoffman that we couldn't play while they were kicking off because it gave PG an "unfair advantage." The game ended with the tie still in place. We didn't get back into town until after eleven.

This was probably one of the most fun games. The only problems were the fact that we had to wear jackets which made it way too hot, and also the abscence of our mascot Billy Breaker.

Asilomar Sunset

This evening I got these nice shots of the sunset on Asilomar State Beach.

Obama Victory!

Huzzah! After nearly two years of campaigning, Obama will be the next president!

In Biology yesterday we had the election coverage on, and I kept watch of it after school as well. In the middle of our movie, we switched to NBC News to the sound of loud cheering and the headline BARACK OBAMA ELECTED PRESIDENT. After the news was announced, McCain did a speech (▶) recognizing Obama's victory that I thought was very gracious despite the booing from his audience every time he mentioned his rival's name. Following was Obama's acceptance speech (▶). The final electoral votes were Obama 349 and McCain 147.

Jack-o'-lantern

A bit late, but we finally got around to carving a Jack-o'-lantern for Halloween:

The Rain Has Come in PG

Finally, for the first time in months, rain has finally come, accompanied by wind and fog. This was perfect weather for Thursday's Cross Country meet against Stevenson, Carmel, and Catalina, in which I beat my last time by about a minute. At long last, this extra hot summer is finally over and winter weather begins.

Significant rain event underway for northern and central California

Low pressure off the northern California coast is pushing rain bands onto the northern California coast by dawn Saturday with a vigorous cold front expected to pass the San Francisco Bay area early Saturday afternoon. The atmosphere turns unstable with the cold-frontal passage and a chance of thunderstorms will develop at that time and continue into the evening hours. Locally heavy rainfall is expected with the frontal passage across the area beginning in the morning in the north bay and extending through the afternoon for the remainder of the central coast. Locally gusty winds and heavy rain will accompany any thunderstorms. Heavy rain may cause ponding on roadways creating hazardous driving conditions.

Concern remains high for the threat of mudslides due to heavy rain expected on the Santa Cruz mountains and Monterey County burn areas. By midnight tonight showers are expected and then persist into sunday morning.

Listen to a recording from yesterday afternoon (mp3)

My name in...

Binary:
01010011 01101011 01111001 01101100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01001100 01100101 01110111 01101001 01110011

Hex:
53 6b 79 6c 65 72 20 4c 65 77 69 73

Character Codepoints: (alt+__ to type)
83 107 121 108 101 114 32 76 101 119 105 115

Base64:
U2t5bGVyIExld2lz

(source: http://www.paulschou.com/tools/xlate/)

Facecake or Face Salad?

Homecoming 2008

This last week was homecoming week. Tuesday through Thursday were spirit days which included dress-ups for "Nerd Day," "Robot Day," and "Neon Day." Riley won the school wide Rubik's Cube competition on Nerd Day. On Thursday we had a cross country meet at Toro Park which was very hot and tiring, and I got about the same time as the last Toro meet. Yesterday concluded the week with a pep rally in the gym with music, guest speakers, competitions, and a really random video of a hypnotized Billy Breaker holding all the football players hostage.

After school yesterday was the homecoming parade which we played in for band. We marched down to Pine Street in a straight line while the percussion section played drum cadences and the rest of us did a horn swing with our instruments. Once we got to Pine, we got into the block formation and played alternating school fight songs: PG Will Shine, Go Big Red, and Red and Gold, broken up by a cadence in between each song. We went down to Lighthouse Avenue and then back up to school on Congress.

Today was the homecoming football game against Robert Louis Stevenson School. For the first time, we actually got to stay for the whole game instead of leaving after 3<sup>rd</sup> quarter. Before it started, I went over to say hi to Tijmen, who was selling candy and pom-poms with other people from the middle school band. During the game we played the usual Hey Song, Go Big Red, Iron Man, and the other usual stands music. For the halftime show, we played Beethoven's Fifth, Roll Over Beethoven, which the dance team danced to, and Escorpión. Before the second quarter began again, they announced the homecoming king and queen. Our team won 34 to 6 against the Stevenson Pirates, continuing our league winning streak.

Youth Group Movie Night

Last night Michael and I went to the church Halloween movie night in the Youth Group room. After eating pizza and talking about random things, we voted on a movie. Unfortunately, I had seen all of the choices. My vote was for Firefly, but the vote turned out to be for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It was still quite enjoyable, even though this was the fourth time I'd seen it.

A completely random Halloween picture:

Monterey Sports Car Championships

This morning was another volunteer session at Laguna Seca for the championship sports car race. Once again, we checked and sold tickets at the "B Road" entrance. I worked there for about four hours beginning around six in the morning. When we got there, it was still completely dark and the moon was out. Crowds started coming in around nine or so. Sam Pontarolo and his family were in charge of the station, and others there were Michael and Mackenzie Ryan and Andrew, Michael, and Thomas Paxton.

A photo I took of the moon in the morning...

Roughrider Invitational

Yesterday for cross country we drove up to Fresno for the Roughrider Invitational in Woodward Park (sponsored by McDonald's, oh joy). I rode in Coach Watkins' van with a group of sophomore boys: Matthew Shonman, Leif Swenson, Alec Guertin, and Peter Sujan, as well as Casey Reeves from my grade. The car ride lasted about three hours, and pretty much all we did was listen to assorted music brought by Alec and Leif. The first thing we listened to was a CD called Shake It Up! With Fruits and Veggies, an album recorded by some LA teachers about eating fruit and vegetables. It was completely absurd and funny in a sick way, with songs such as I Wanna Eggplant and Bananas for Bananas. After finishing that album, we moved onto more sane music such as the Beatles.

When we arrived, we had a couple of hours to walk around and watch the middle school races. The course was only 2.2 miles, but the fact that it was about 90 degrees made it a lot harder. The frosh/soph girls went first, and Isabella got a medal for 17<sup>th</sup> place. My race was next, and I got somewhere around 16 minutes. Alex Shramm got 2<sup>nd</sup> place.

Once we had time to rest, we drove back down to Los Baños where we ate dinner at a Basque restaurant called Wool Grower's. After dinner we played tag in the park across the street and then drove back to PG, getting back around 8:00.

Making a Custom Photoshop Brush

Today I figured out how to make a Photoshop brush out of a custom picture. I used an old Hoppie picture that I came across in my folder. Here's how:

1) Select the part of the picture you want to use. Dark parts will be more opaque, light parts will be more transparent. Use black to create a completely opaque brush.
2) Go to Edit » Define Brush from Selection...
3) Name the brush and save it.
4) Go to "More Options" in the brush tool.
5) Adjust settings the way you want.
6) Change the size to the way you want.
7) Under the brush selection, go to "Save Brush..."
8) Name the brush, save it, and delete the original brush.

Lovers Point Beach Wildlife

An outing to Lovers Point Beach today turned out to be a great chance to get some photos of the wildlife.

First we went to the tidepool area and looked at the sea stars and hermit crabs. Unfortunately, the sea stars didn't photograph well but I got some nice ones of the crabs...



There were a ton of seagulls hanging around the park who were so used to people that they would not fly away. I got only 2 or 3 feet away from this gull to take this photo:



Finally, on our way to leave, I heard cries of "Seal!!! Seal!!!" coming from the main beach. A seal came up all the way to the edge of the sand where all the people were before it got frightened and swam away. This photo was from above on the pier when it was first coming toward the beach: