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.

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.

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.

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^rd 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.

Pacific Grove vs. Aptos High School

The next football game that we played at for band was versus Aptos High. Unlike the last game, it was in the day time, which was not nearly as nice as the previous night game. It was a very hot day at MPC, our temporary home stadium, in the upper seventies. Billy Breaker, our mascot, didn't show up unfortunately.

We did just about the same routine as last time, playing stands music for the first three quarters and then leaving. We once again also did the halftime show, in collaboration with the dance team. We played Hold On I'm Comin', Bend Me Shape Me (which the dance team danced to), and School's Out. Unfortunately when we left our team was losing 22 to zero, so it was pretty much impossible that the Breakers could have won.

The First Football Game

Last night was the first football game for Pacific Grove this year, versus Ann Sobrato High School in Morgan Hill. We all went as part of band so we could play stands music and also at halftime. Since the PGHS stadium is being redone, our home stadium for this year is at the Monterey Peninsula College.

We met at the school at 5:30 and got our informal band uniforms, consisting of a polo shirt and a sweatshirt with black pants and shoes. Then we piled on the school bus and drove over to MPC. When we got there, everything was chaotic and Marcy Schaeffer, the drum major, reenacted the parting of the Red Sea to organize us into lines. After warming up and playing the national anthem and school fight song PG Will Shine, we entered the stadium and the first thing we saw was someone dressed up as our mascot, Billy Breaker, who skipped around the track and danced during the whole first half of the game. Every once in a while he would go around the audience in the front row and high-five everyone.

Our band took the spot in the bleachers with some assorted blips of music to play when something good happened in the game, such as Iron Man, Go Big Red, The Hey Song and many others. I have no clue how the game is played, so it was hard to know when we were supposed to play something. It was difficult because we were all extremely tightly packed in the stands, and we were required to wear the sweatshirts on top of the polo shirts, which was really hot even at 9 at night.

At halftime, we marched down onto the track and played three songs in the concert arc formation: Gimme Some Lovin', Green Onions, and Birdland. We followed this with PG Will Shine and then marched back into the stands. We had third quarter off to mill around and talk to spectators. During fourth quarter we mingled with the band from the other school. Unfortunately, we had to leave before the game was over because of transportation issues.

When we got back to the school, everyone was informed that there was going to be a band party at the home of Kristen Sanchez so we all walked down from the school. They had assorted party foods, including chips and guacamole, and a really good punch mixture of ginger ale, orange creme soda, and orange sherbet. The house had a Wii with Guitar Hero so we all crowded in the living room and played that for the remainder of the party. Tyler Chisman challenged Riley to Through the Fire and Flames, the hardest song on the game. Tyler did it on Hard and Riley on Expert. Unfortunately, it was so packed that I had to leave before I got a chance to play.

The PG Triathlon

Today was the Triathlon at Pacific Grove which the scouts volunteer at every year. I was working the station with Matthew, his brother Michael, and Oliver. This year we came on Saturday instead of Sunday, which proved to be a lot easier than the latter. Like always, we handed out cups to athletes, but since Saturday is the elite day, most of them were in too much of a hurry to want water. The last of them came through around noon.

Around the aid station there seemed to be way more squirrels than normal. Everywhere you looked, there were at least two or three, which I managed to get some photos of. I also got some nice macros of the bees which were swarming over the lavender. After we were done working, the triathlon provided a free lunch buffet to the volunteers and athletes, with pasta, salad, and assorted fruits. The t-shirts this year were blue, which was a nice change from the mint green that they traditionally give out. I probably have four or five mint colored triathlon shirts now.

Some of the local "wildlife"...

Mac

This morning I went on a cross-country run with Michael on the Huckleberry Hill course, which took about an hour, and then went over to Matthew's house. It turns out that he found a kitten on Friday in their yard. They couldn't find an owner and no one has responded to the ad yet, so the kitten, named Mac, is staying in their house now (much to the jealousy of Pounce and King). He is an energetic little kitten who seemed to like to attack my camera:



After playing around with Mac for a while, we jumped on the trampoline and played Star Fox: Assault on the GameCube.

High School Begins

Today was the first day of school at Pacific Grove High. The first stop was to put all my books and backpack into my locker. A couple of nights ago was orientation, where we got our books, locker assignments, and school pictures. Since my locker was bright pink (a lot of people's were), we came in the next day and repainted it dark green, which apparently is allowed. The lockers are slightly smaller than the middle school ones, but not too bad.

When we arrived, we were ushered into the gym where they were playing Welcome to the Jungle on repeat. We were put into groups with "Breaker Buddies," two juniors or seniors who were assigned to show us around. My group had a few people I know, including Casey Reeves and Callum Gilchrist. We did some icebreaker activities and then went to a rally back in the gym. This included some very random games. First of all was an awkward sort of activity (volunteers only, luckily) where the object was to pop a balloon by hugging with the balloon in-between. The next was something that looked like a pie-eating contest. One person from each grade came up (ours was Cameron Barretto) and used their mouth to find a stick of gum in a tray of flour, then blow a bubble with it. Finally, even more awkward than the first was a variation on musical chairs that involved the girls eating cookies out of the boy's mouth. I'm glad I wasn't chosen for that.

After these activities was lunchtime, where we got free pizza and cheetos. I sat in the outdoor amphitheater with Riley, Michael, Matthew, and Oliver. Following lunch was a short introduction to each class, with little over 15 minutes for each class. My first period is band, with Mr. Hoffman my 5^th grade band teacher who first taught me clarinet. We didn't play, but just talked about complications this year with budget problems. Hopefully we will begin playing by next week.

My second period (homeroom) is the honors history class, American Civilization, with Ms. Griffiths. She seemed nice, but very strict at the same time. Next was Geometry, taught by Ms. Chupka. I got to be in the same class as Riley this period, which was nice. P.E. with Mr. Buller was fourth period, and fifth is Spanish 2, taught by Señora Buller (the P.E. instructor's wife). I got my same Spanish nickname as last year, Guillermo. Most of the same people as last year's Spanish 1 were in this class, and I was seated next to Emily Long. The entire period, Sra. Buller spoke only Spanish, which at first was confusing as I was out of practice. However, it seems like a very effective way to teach the class.

For my 6^th period I had Mr. Bliss for Biology. He was very nice and turned out to be a world traveler and an environmentalist. Tomorrow and Friday we will be watching Dead Poet's Society in class (the phrase Carpe Diem from the movie is plastered above his door). I also got to be with Riley in this class. My final class of the day is honors English I, taught by Mrs. Selfridge. English is usually one of my least favorite classes, but I'll keep my mind open. After all, I was surprised last year that history (with Mr. Gamble) turned out to be my favorite class.

After school, I went to the first official cross country practice, which I am doing with Michael. We have three courses that we do: a loop through the Rip Van Winkle Open Space (our home course for meets), a run down by Sunset Avenue and along the old railroad track, and a third from the school through Pebble Beach and looping around the old quarry near my house. Today we did the quarry loop, which takes about 45 minutes to 1 hour. I got home around 4:15 to do a small amount of homework from Ms. Griffiths and to get a couple of additional school supplies.

Lord of the Rings meets Warhammer

Yesterday I went over to Michael's house and he gave me a very late birthday present, a set of Lord of the Rings Orc miniatures similar to Warhammer, along with a paint set. He also gave me a small bag of static grass to use for the base. This morning, I got up and painted three orcs: one spearman, one infantry, and one archer. I also super-glued the arms onto some of the miniatures that came in separate pieces. Later on, I will add fake landscaping to the bases.

After lunch I went to the Monterey Sports Center to finish up the Swimming Merit Badge that I had a partial on for a couple of years. I had to jump in the water with a shirt and pants on and inflate them. All I had to do for the shirt was blow in it to fill it with air. For the pants I had to take them off (with a bathing suit underneath, of course) and inflate them into a buoy.

When we left I went over to Michael's where Matthew and his brother were too and we played guitar hero. I got a 277-note streak on Rock You Like a Hurricane on Medium. Later today, we went to SaveMart and I ran into Mr. Bell, Riley's dad, and Yann all within 5 minutes. Weird.

Spanish Bay with Matthew

This morning around 9:00 I went over to Matthew's house. I helped him with some effects in Photoshop and played SSB Brawl and Mario Kart Wii. Then a couple hours later we went swimming at the pool at the Spanish Bay Inn located in Pebble Beach.

One of the best thing about the Spanish Bay pool is that the water is non-chlorinated (just heavily filtered), so you can open your eyes underwater for a long time without any stinging. We took a break around noon and got food. I got a cheese quesadilla with guacamole, and Matthew and Michael (his brother) got burgers. After we were done swimming we went into the hot tub and then left back to his house, where we jumped on his trampoline and I helped them set up blogs.

Matthew's Blog: http://midnightsun1994.blogspot.com/
Michael's Blog: http://michaeljohnson-blog.blogspot.com/

Camp Chawanakee

The first camp of the summer was Camp Chawanakee on the beautiful Shaver Lake in California. It was a four-hour drive up to the lake, and I rode with Matthew. We watched both National Treasure movies on the car DVD player on the way up. Saturday and Sunday were basically both days to get situated and get familiar with the site. I went to Chawanakee last year so it wasn't that hard; I already knew where just about everything was. We slept in tent cabins with noisy cots that would creak as you moved at night.

It turned out to be a rocky start when late Sunday evening a certain scout in our troop whose name will not be mentioned threw a trash can in the lake. He then fished it out, threw the lid in the lake, and fished that out too. However, Scoutmaster Randall found out and our whole troop got in a lot of trouble. Also, Dean Randall, the previous Senior Patrol Leader, got in a bit of trouble and was replaced by Matthew, who did a great job for never having been SPL before. Not that anyone listened to either of them.... These incidents put everyone on high alert and our troop's behavior turned out to be pretty good for the rest of the week.

Merit badge classes started on Monday. My first class was Environmental Science, taught by Natti. Even though it wasn't the most enjoyable, it turned out to be the best Eagle-required badge I have done. We discussed methods of conservation and the effects of erosion on the environment, and also did a decomposition experiment with orange peel, paper, and styrofoam.

The next period was Nature merit badge, which turned out to be my favorite. The instructor was Sam, and it was basically an overview of all the nature things they offer, including a nature hike where we identified different plants, and a plaster casting of a grey fox footprint (the bobcat and cougar were already taken). I also took some really cool macros of the plants we identified.



Cooking, my only ScoutCraft class, turned out to be much of a disappointment. The time in class was pretty boring because the instructor Chris would ask everyone the same exact question and it would take an entire class period to finish one requirement. He was funny and nice outside of class, but I think he was assigned to teach cooking at the last minute, since he didn't know anything about it. Much to Oliver's annoyance, he pronounced Oliver's last name Buiertin, to which Oliver would yell, "IT'S BUNTEN!!!" and Chris would follow with "whatever." On the last day of class, we watched him pour brownie mix into a dutch oven and then he said to come back in free time to get the brownies. Free time came around and he said to come back at 7:00, and when we came then he showed us a rubber hand and said, "this is the hand of the last scout that asked for my brownies."

It was also pretty odd because the people in ScoutCraft put up a giant Republican flag next to the American flag at the entrance. Why? "Oh look! An elephant flag! I like elephants!" Very odd....

4^th period was Soil and Water Conservation, my second favorite class. I had the teacher, Grace, for my Geology merit badge last year. She enjoys going off on tangents about random things and was very fun to talk to. We learned about topics of erosion, water treatment, and other such things. When we were to draw Animal Erosion, I drew some Generic Quadrupeds in the picture, and Grace loved them so much that she showed all of the staff.

At lunch, one patrol every day would be assigned to go get the lunch tubs from the mess hall. My favorite lunch was the bean and cheese burritos with peppers. There were Lays potato chips available every day. Mmmm....

My final class was Reptile and Amphibian Study, also taught by Sam. We learned about differences between reptiles and amphibians, frogs and toads, lizards and salamanders, etc. We also met Cherry, the rubber boa in the nature lodge. She would wrap around Sam's finger while she was teaching and stay there the whole time. One of the commissioners also brought in a king snake to show us. The only thing I have left to do is take care of a reptile for a month.



Free time after 5^th period was very fun, and we would spend a good portion of the time playing the card game BS. People would often try to kidnap Oliver's pillow, dubbed "Mr. Puff-Puff" by Matthew. During free time, Malcolm taped ears to his hat to look like Batman, and he would turn it to the side and do a "Pimpin' Batman Rap" which I videotaped. Another funny happening was Wednesday afternoon when I found a rubber rattlesnake behind my tent. I gave it to Ryan, Matt Helms, and Anthony, who proceeded to put it in Dean's sleeping bag. That night at 10:00 we all heard a yell: "IT'S A RATTLER!!!" followed by a huge commotion, before everyone realized that it was actually fake.

One night during free time, I found out that they sell Totin' Chip badges at the trading post, but that you need your card to get one. The Totin' Chip gives permission to use a knife, saw, and axe. Michael and Mackenzie Ryan taught a refresher course which was really easy, but enough to get a card. For some reason, when I got my Totin' Chip at Pico Blanco last year, I didn't even get a card, even though the requirements were signed off.

For dinner, as well as breakfast, a person from each patrol would be selected for stewards, and they would go 30 minutes early to set up the tables. The food was very good; much better than Pico Blanco's, but the problem was that they only gave us 7 minutes to eat. When I was a steward, by the time I sat down and started eating my food, they were already calling for dessert. It was very stressful.

After dinner on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday were campfires. Monday's was at Eagle Point by the lake and the staff sang songs and did numerous hilarious skits. Wednesday's fire bowl was up on the mountain, and it was short. The purpose was to pick out scout-led skits for Friday's. Kyle sang the song "Stand Out" from the Goofy movie. The fire on Friday was very fun too, and the scout's skits were enjoyable, even though they weren't all quite as funny as the staff's.

On Friday night, my dad came to stay and Saturday morning we drove back down to San Jose to prepare for the Walker River trip the following week.

Goblin Green

After going on a morning walk around Asilomar and 17 Mile Drive, I went over to Michael's house. Aside from the usual activities... Guitar Hero, trampoline, and Rome Total War (as well as practicing clarinet/bassoon for almost an hour), I helped him paint some of his Warhammer miniatures. Warhammer is a fantasy battle game that Michael, Riley, and Matthew all play. It involves painting small miniatures, usually about an inch tall, and playing a huge battle game with them that can sometimes last all day, using dice, measuring tape, and a terrain table (the dining table covered with fake trees and grass).

I personally don't care much for the game; it is extremely pricy and turns take way too long in my opinion. However, painting the miniatures is still a lot of fun, and I ended up finishing four goblin archers in the half hour or so we were painting. I used, as would logically be expected, the color Goblin Green for the skin, and the cloak was Bestial Brown with a red ink wash. Various other paints were used for the weapons and such, including a metallic gold (what the "official" name is I have no clue).

Michael invited me back over for more of the same sort of activities.

8th Grade in Review

Favorite Music Led Zeppelin Rush Queen The Beatles	Teachers Period 0) Mrs. Murphy; P.E. Period 1) Mrs. Rookstool; English Period 2) Mrs. Terry; Spanish I Period 3) Mr. Gamble; US History Period 4) Mr. Godfrey; Physical Science Period 5) Ms. DeMarco; Algebra I Period 6) Ms. Priest; Advanced Band
Popular Music Rap and Hip-Hop Genres

Friends

Michael Woodruff	Matthew Johnson

Tijmen Teering	Yann Brown	Austin Myers

Riley White	Oliver Bunten

Caledonia Park Picnic

Today was the last day of school, and the promotion picnic for 8^th graders at Caledonia Park, near the post office in PG. I woke up around the normal time, 6:30-ish, and wrote the entry for last night, and then got ready to leave. I got to school around 9:15 and waited for 20-or-so minutes for us to group in our homerooms before leaving. Cody stopped to listen to The Final Countdown on my iPod and was singing along through the whole song. The walk took about 15 minutes total, and we talked about numerous things on the way, while Oliver played his Nintendo DS while walking.

After we walked down, Oliver began taking pictures of everything and I, after eating a chocolate muffin, played catch with a football with Riley, Michael, and later Matthew as well. This lasted for the majority or the picnic and was very enjoyable. Other people were playing with giant beach balls that had somehow come into the vicinities. Later on, as Oliver joined in, we began a game of "monkey in the middle" with Oliver as the monkey. Mr. Godfrey, Mr. Gamble, and Mrs. Riedel were the only teachers I saw there, as most others had classes in other grades as well.

We took a break at a picnic table and Oliver and Matthew began playing a game of checkers on a huge checkerboard on the table. It soon turned into chaos, and checkers were scattered all over the grass. Nikki began listening to my iPod and singing along... "Riley in the Sky With Diamonds" and "Riley's Garden" along with other songs by the Beatles with Riley thrown in.



At noon the picnic ended, and I rode back to Matthew's house, where we had fish sticks for lunch and then played Wii and jumped on the trampoline. I also helped him set up a new Yahoo! email address.

Promotion Ceremonies

Last night was the 8^th grade promotion ceremony, and it was one of the last times I'll be at PGMS or see my friends in 7^th grade for quite a while. For the past few days in school, we had been rehearsing the ceremony for a couple of hours a day. I was wearing basically the same thing as my band uniform, but with a red shirt instead of white.

Mr. Bell, the principal, told us all to arrive at 5:30 so we would have time to get ready, but we actually ended up waiting for about 45 minutes in line in front of Room 13, the home-ec room. Cody Lee stood next to me and was singing Europe's The Final Countdown for almost the whole time. After a hugely long wait, we started walking out to the front of the school. Mr. Gamble gave us carnations to hold during the ceremony.

Download MP3 | MIDI

The "promotion ensemble", consisting of 6^th and 7^th grade band and orchestra members, began playing a fanfare followed by the classic Pomp and Circumstance. We began walking down the aisles and took seats on the stage. Ally Campion, our student-body president, announced that Cindy Chu and Hsinyi Shen would be playing a piano duet, Rondo á La Turk. Lindsey Morin, who I have known since 6^th grade gave a speech entitled Moving up the Ladder and four members of our chorus, Sean McKeon, Jackie Choi, Jane Rudy, and Mariah Cosgrove sang Seasons of Love. James Thomas gave a speech entitled Don't Walk Alone and the section closed with Aaron Shi's piano solo of Numb, which I thought he played really well.

After the performances were over, Ms. Riedel began reading off names. At the name Matthew Johnson my row was instructed to get up and went off to the stage-left wing. At the name Cody Lee who was right in front of me I went up to a piece of blue tape on the stage to wait, and then I was called up. Mr. Bell shook my hand and the superintendent gave me a blank piece of paper saying Diploma of Promotion.

After everyone had received their blank pieces of paper, we threw our carnations out into the audience and processed back down the aisle while the ensemble was playing Rites of Tamburo. After saying hi to Ms. Priest, Tijmen, Yann, and assorted parents, I went over to the gym for the dance.

The first song was a slow song that we danced with our parents, who were then instructed to leave so, as the flier said, the party could begin. Other than the really annoying hip-hop and rap music, it was quite fun and went by really quickly. There was a food table with really good chips and salsa, pizza, and sushi. At the end, Michael's dad dropped me off at my house around 10:00.