District Music Festival

Last night was yet another concert: the District Music Festival; featuring music groups from the Pacific Grove Middle School and High School, as well as 5^th grade. We played the usual songs...What Is Hip? in jazz band and The Last Ride of the Pony Express in concert band. I thought we played Pony Express the best that we have ever performed it, but What Is Hip? turned out better at open house night. The only problem was some confusion of when to go to the practice rooms, come on stage, etc., because Ms. Priest gave pretty confusing instructions. It was interesting to see how much the groups varied from 5^th grade to high school.

The Big Sur Marathon

Today, in boy scouts, we volunteered at the Big Sur International Marathon, at the finish line. We got key lime green colored shirts, which really stood out and helped runners identify us. I had to get up about 5 AM to help set up the station, and we worked until about noon. My stepdad Brian ended up actually running the marathon, despite a hurt shoulder.

I worked at the water and Gatorade tables and filled cups for finishing runners. The Gatorade was really sticky and spilled everywhere, so it was a very messy job.

The BSIM provided a really good lunch for volunteers, with pesto noodles, tortellini, grilled asparagus, and for some people: tri-tip sandwiches.

Checkers' Carrot

We got Checkers a new toy: a wicker carrot filled with beans. It's actually meant for rabbits, but he likes it just the same.

RE: A Fish Taco Shirt!

At Tijmen's request, I made a "beef taquito" picture for the back of the shirt. If the front had the Bow Down to the Almighty caption, then it would say And This One Too on the back. I drew the beef taquito on the back of a spanish paper a while ago, but had not managed to make it on Photoshop until now.

We're probably going to order it on Cafepress.com because it is much less expensive than getting it silkscreened.

A Fish Taco Shirt!

Yann got the idea to make a fish taco shirt, so I made a high-resolution version of the taco picture with some revisions. We're going to order some at Central Coast Silkscreen on Lighthouse Avenue, and give one to Tijmen, Oliver, and others who like tacos.

It will probably have some catch phrase like Bow Down to the Almighty or It Pwns All or something like that, but we haven't decided that yet.

Here's the new fish taco image:

Open House Night

Last night was open house; and yet another band performance, this time jazz band. We have four more band concerts coming up really soon! Open house is the annual night when we come in with our parents and peruse around the classrooms looking at schoolwork. After a preview of the opening scene of Into The Woods, a play that drama is putting on, the chorus sang some songs from Mary Poppins. Then jazz combo played I Wish, the "b" beginning jazz band played Jammin' With Charlie and then we, the "a" band played What Is Hip? again. The band concert ended so late that we only had time to visit Mr. Gamble's (history teacher, really funny), Mr. Godfrey (science teacher, likes garden gnomes) and Mrs. Rookstool (english teacher, also teaches art).

Fun at Tijmen's

Today I went over to Tijmen's house for the first time. Oliver and Yann were there too. We started by playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl for a while, and then moved on to some claymation.

Tijmen has an iMac with iStopMotion, so it was way easier that the way I have been doing it. We made a video where honey comes out of a jar and becomes a little person, and then another little person comes and attacks it with kung-fu fighting moves. The honey was inspired by Oliver's messy honey sandwiches he gets at school, where the honey gets everywhere! Unfortunately, I had to go before we could finish, so I'll post the claymation when Tijmen finishes it.

Here's some more photos:

Abstract

Experimenting with the liquify tool in Photoshop, I managed to create this scene...

Music Competition

I just returned from our latest band performance: the Central Coast Section Large Ensemble Festival at Hartnell College in Salinas. We left around 9 this morning with the band and orchestra both packed on a single school bus because the second bus couldn't start. People sang random songs on the way up, like on all school field trips.

When we got there, we first listened to the school orchestra play, as well as some other groups from across the Central Coast. Everyone played three pieces. Finally, we went in the back room and tuned/warmed up, before performing. We played three pieces: Athenian Festival, a Greek folk style song with a trumpet and sax solo; For Our Heroes, a slower song in which we (the clarinets) got the melody for most of it; and The Last Ride of the Pony Express, a fast-paced, very fun song. I got to be 3^rd chair clarinet because Aaron, normally second chair, played percussion instead.

Both the band and orchestra got a superior rating: band with 90% and orchestra with 92½%.

Kayaking and Other Stuff

Today after church I went over to Matthew's house. After having a pancake breakfast with his mom's scrumptious apricot jam, we went kayaking in the bay across the street. His brother Michael and Michael's friend Sean were there too, in the other kayak. We got about 6 feet away from a young white harbor seal.

When we got back, we did math homework (a PoW problem of the week) and then relaxed in the hot tub for a while. Then we jumped on the trampoline, playing "bacon", "eggs", and other games, and finished it off with Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I also helped him learn how to use Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.

As I was leaving, we saw a large whale off the coast pretty near the shore. It was slapping its tail against the water (much like a beaver does) and spouting a lot.

Good Old Days

Today was Pacific Grove's long-awaited Good Old Days celebration. I played clarinet in our school jazz band in front of the local 17th Street Grille (home of really good pesto wraps) in a small white tent. We played songs including Blue Midnight, What is Hip?, In The Mood, and Wipe Out. Afterward, jazz combo, a group of about 10 musicians with Tijmen on alto sax and Yann on trombone, played Europa and I Wish.

It was very enjoyable, but also really exhausting because we're having a heat wave right now. The temperature got up to nearly 90 degrees in the middle of the day (unusual for a town where the weather is usually 65° and foggy or overcast).

I'll try to find some pictures and post them when I can.

Check with a Check

I took this photo a while back of Checkers... with a check. This was actually the entry fee for an upcoming music festival in Milpitas.

The only editing in Photoshop was removing the bank account number, for obvious reasons.

Del Monte Forest Nature Photography

I took these photos in Del Monte forest, a wooded area nearby my house.

Feeling Depressed?

These images will make you even more depressed!

I'm not quite sure how I found these, but they're funny, so I figured it was worth putting up.
Courtesy of despair.com.

Kentucky Speed Snail

There's not much of a description I can put to describe this...

"The Animals"

Another claymation that I started on Saturday. It turned out pretty well, except for some problems with the auto-exposure on my camera. I tried out a faster frame rate to make it a bit more realistic.



I'll start posting all of these on Yann's site, CoolClay.

Claymation Experiment

I just finished an experiment with claymation:

Honor Jazz Band Concert

Last night was the honor jazz band concert at the Golden State Theatre. A bunch of people I know were in it, including Tijmen and Yann. Yann had a solo on the song Sidewinder. Great job, Tijmen, Yann, and everyone else in it!




Saxophones
Matt Pardue - alto, Carmel Middle School
HaYoung Youn - alto, Pacific Grove Middle School
Ben Bransford - tenor, Carmel Middle School
Isaiah Bindel - tenor, Pacific Grove Middle School
Tijmen Teering - baritone, Pacific Grove Middle School

Trombones
Yann Brown, Pacific Grove Middle School
Teddy Calderon, Carmel Middle School
Julian Thompson, Pacific Grove Middle School
Marshall Murphy (bass), Pacific Grove Middle School

Trumpets
Michael Cho, Pacific Grove Middle School
Kevin Zischke, San Benancio Middle School
Estaban Sanchez, Santa Catalina Middle School
Joe Kochevar, Carmel Middle School
Brayden Tollefson, Palma Middle School

Rhythm
Chance Breaux - piano, King Middle School
Amos Kim - bass, Pacific Grove Middle School
Nathan Hardoin - bass, San Benancio Middle School
Tom Kochevar - guitar, Carmel Middle School
Taylor Jones - drums, Pacific Grove Middle School
Patrick Murphy - drums, Carmel Middle School
Olivia Sedoryk - vocals, Walter Colton Middle School

Strawberry Crêpe Rollups

To try something new (instead of the usual cereal, egg, or oatmeal) for breakfast, we made some delicious Strawberry Crêpe Rollups, loosely based off of a recipe on Yahoo! food.

Ingredients
• 1½ cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1 tbsp. melted butter or margarine
• Strawberry jam
• Confectioner's (powdered) sugar

Preparation
• In a blender, combine the milk, eggs, flour and salt. Cover and process until smooth.
• Heat a lightly greased nonstick 6-in. skillet.
• Add ¼ cup of batter. Lift and tilt pan to evenly coat bottom.
• Cook on each side until golden. Repeat with remaining batter.
• Spread one side of each crêpe with strawberry jam. Roll up and slice the roll in half. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.

Wall-Eyed Weirdo (in Photoshop!)

Matthew was over today because he missed the bus, so we did homework (a BUNCH of math and some history on pre-civil war slavery) and then made a Photoshop Wall-Eyed Weirdo.

I mainly did this to show him how Photoshop works, but it turned out good enought that I put it online.

New Browser Setup

For a while, I've been simply using Internet Explorer 7, and avoiding the Yahoo! browser provided with our DSL. However, I recently decided to switch to the Y! browser. Even though it lacks a couple features, like being able to zoom, it still displays pages like IE, which is good because that's what most sites are designed for. You can also have a cool sidebar with bookmarks, history, addresses, mail, or anything else...