Track @ Carmel

The past two Thursdays were our first track meets of the season, both held at Carmel. The first was not scored, and I got out of Biology around 1:00 to go over on the bus. At this one I ran the 1600-meter (mile), 800-meter (½-mile), and 4x400 relay. My relay team was Addison, Peter Sujan, and Victor Saucedo. I got a PR on the mile at 6:04.70. Yesterday's meet started later, and featured the addition of the 3200-meter (2-mile). I ran the same races as the previous weeks, but did a regular 400 (¼-mile) rather than a relay.

3/20/2009 4x400 Relay Leif Swenson, Addison Miller

Kyle Lundquist 200-meter dash

3/20/2009 4x400 Relay Team Peter Sujan, Casey Reeves, Addison Miller, Leif Swenson

Alpha-Omega Concert

ΑΩ

Photo © Nate Phillips

Last night was the Alpha Omega concert, in which both high school band and orchestra and fifth grade band played. Nick Reyes, who recently moved from PG to Monterey, received special permission from Mr. Hoffman to continue playing in the PG band until this concert. Nate came along with his dSLR and 70-200mm lens and took photos of the concert. The concert began at seven with the orchestra, and on their first piece the oboes, bassoons, and french horns accompanied them. After intermission we listened to the fifth grade band and then got on, playing Sevens, Sleep, Armenian Dances, and Raging Machines. The concert went really great and the music was some of the most fun to play that we've had.

See the entire album at Nate's Blog:
http://natephillips.wordpress.com/people/alpha-omega-concert-2009/

New Blog Design

After having the same theme for quite a while, I finally got around to changing it in favor of a more toned-down theme. I will probably still edit it more soon but updated it like this for now. The logo uses Adobe Nueva Std, one of my favorite serif fonts. Blog and the background text is in the font Olho de Boi. I also updated the icon to match.

The Old Design:


Intermediate Design:


Final Design:

History Project: Minority Rights

Here's some Photoshop pictures I made for a history project on minority rights that I'm doing with Nate: (edit: condensed into one post)

Separate but Equal: / Jim Crow Laws:


Civil War:

Michael's for the Weekend

On Sunday over President's Day weekend I went up to Cupertino to visit Michael for the first time. His dad had business to do in Monterey, so he came down and we played Super Smash Bros. Melee at my house for about an hour until he was done. Then we drove back up to his house in Cupertino, which was really close to where I used to live in 3^rd grade. It was pouring rain the entire time, and did not ever fully stop for the entire trip. We had pizza for dinner and caught up on everything that's happened since he moved, including the CCS concert. Then we played Halo 3 on his fairly new Xbox 360.

The next day it was still pouring rain. We drank Chai tea and hung around at the house for quite a while. Katie left around ten to go to the mall and a movie with her friends all day. Since there wasn't much to do outside, we stayed inside and watched the Puffy Shirt episode of Seinfeld, among other things. At one point we went on a small walk around the area when the rain lightened up a little. In the afternoon we came along when his mom was picking up Katie and drove by my old house in Cupertino. I still recognized all the stores and parks. We had pasta for dinner that night.

On Tuesday we left around eleven to drive back to PG. We stopped in Gilroy at Predator's Archery because his mom had to take her two bows in for inspection and repair. We stayed there for about an hour and watched people shoot in the small range inside the store. Then we continued back and went to Matthew's for a couple of hours before I went home.

Big Sur

For my mom's birthday on the 13^th, we went down to Big Sur and had lunch at Nepenthe. I had not been to Nepenthe since the China Camp to Big Sur hike a while back, when I went with Matthew. I had the vegetarian ambrosia burger for lunch which was really good. After we ate lunch and went to the Phoenix Shop, we went to the Garapata area where I took some nice photos. Then we went to the Succulent Garden at the Barnyard in Carmel and my mom picked out a nice stone lion head for the garden.

RE: CCS Honor Band 2009

From the Cedar Street Times, regarding our CCS concert:

CCS Honor Band 2009

The Central Coast Section honor band this year was at Salinas High School. Our first rehearsal was Thursday evening. When we got there, it was pouring rain and nearly dark outside. We got to the SHS band room almost an hour early, but finally the rehearsal started. Our conductor was Paul Bambach, a clarinetist and conductor from UC Santa Barbara. For the past couple of weeks, we have been rehearsing the CCS music since PG makes up over a third of the band. The first piece was Fanfare for a New Era, in honor of Barack Obama's presidency, followed by Scenes from the Louvre, a multi-movement piece based on music of the period when the Louvre was being constructed. Cloudburst, the third one, was a conceptual one imitating a rainstorm, with finger-snapping and bass drum "thunder" rolls. Last was Nitro, a frenetic fast piece with a lot of complicated fingering. We got back from Thursday's rehearsal after 10pm.

Friday was the biggest rehearsal, lasting all day. It was nice to take a break from regular classes and get to miss a day. We met at 8am and once again took the bus over. I sat in the back of the bus with some sophomores also in cross country (Alec Guertin, Matthew Shonman, Leif Swenson, Peter Sujan), as well as some seniors and juniors (Michael Yanoska, Kristen Sanchez, Emma Nuss, Cory Jones)*. Michael Y. brought an iPod dock and both on the way up and back played songs on the speakers which we sang along to (at least, the ones I knew—these included Coldplay's Viva la Vida and a couple Beatles songs including Help!). On the ride back we sang Viva la Vida switching all the L's and R's—a surprisingly difficult endeavor.

This was the most wearying rehearsal, lasting for over six hours (with an hour lunch break). For lunch, we all walked across the street where there was a Subway, Foster Freeze, Jack in the Box, and other places. I went to Subway, along with a couple other. I went back and ate outside the band room with Michael Y. and Enoch Matsumura (concert master; 1^st chair clarinetist). Later on a few others arrived, including Nick Reyes and Leif and Alec.

Today (Saturday) was the day of the concert. We met at the school once again in the morning planning for the bus to leave at eight. We waited outside in the slight rain until about 8:40 for the bus to come (the one we had yesterday had a bulge in the fuel line or something like that). Finally we were on our way, but arrived late: about a half hour into the rehearsal. Rather than rehearsing at Salinas High like previous days, we did it at the Sherwood Hall where the concert would be.

We ran through all the pieces and made some minor changes, and then took a lunch break. Coincidentally, there was yet another Subway across from Sherwood Hall, so almost all of us went there and got subs. Then we went back into the lobby and ate. I sat with Nick, Cory and Emma, who were listening/singing to music on the iPod dock. Then we changed and got ready for the concert. First we watched the choir and orchestra perform, and then performed our songs. During Cloudburst, Cory played the bass drum behind the audience and Michael on the stage, creating a surround-sound thunder effect. After the performance, we headed back on the bus, although many people got rides with their parents instead. We stopped at In-and-Out and got food such as shakes, and then continued on the way back with the usual singing in the bus.

Michael and Kristen don In-and-Out hats.

Progress on Breaker Stadium

Our new school stadium is nearing completion, scheduled to be finished in April, with the major remaining task being the track. The turf is almost completely laid down, the lights are back up, and restroom/concessions buildings are in progress.



Previous photo of stadium progress here.