Gray Area

In 6^th grade, I had my current spanish teacher, Mrs. Terry, for math and science. In science, we did this activity called Environmental Detectives, which was based of this map of the "Gray Area," an old photocopied picture of a town with landmarks such as the Mistersippi River and other parody names.

A couple of days ago, she asked me to color in the map in Photoshop. It was actually harder than it would seem, since the original was a scan instead of solid colors. Using layers and the magic wand tool, I managed to fill it in fully. The reward: really AWESOME chocolate chip cookies.

Another Heat Wave

It appears there is a high pressure system with no rain or clouds which is trapping hot air and reversing the flow so warm air comes in from inland, heating the area beyond normal temperatures.

Basically, Pacific Grove (our foggy land of 65º weather) was up over 80 degrees. By Saturday, it's supposed to get up to 100º inland, and pretty hot even here by the coast.

Meet Melvin

Today was the start of the flour baby project in Science. For years in younger grades, we watched the 8^th graders walk around with bags of sugar, flour, or potatoes for a week. In the past we have served as "babysitters" for the older grades, but now we finally got to have our own "babies." Yay...?

We have to carry our 5-pound "babies" around for approximately the next week and get graded on its condition. This year, potato bags weren't allowed, and I chose a sugar bag because we were in need of sugar, and it was way cheaper. I named mine Melvin for no reason, just because. I made it―him―a nametag in Photoshop and put it on the front.

It's a kind of a drag to carry it around all the time because you have to hold on to it while you're doing anything or they'll take it away to "child protective services", aka Mr. Godfrey.

San Lorenzo Park Campout

This weekend was an awesome campout for boy scouts in San Lorenzo Park, down by King City. The main theme of the campout was patrol cooking, where each patrol fixes all their own food. Each patrol got their own campsite, and ours was called Cougar Cave. While we were there, we developed a patrol cheer with a bit of humor:

Cobras, Cobras,
in the grass.
Mess with us,
we'll bite your... ankles...

This was in addition to our normal patrol yell, Don't hiss us off!



We took turns cooking different parts of the meals. All the adults of the troop flocked over to our patrol because instead of things like hot dogs for dinner, we had cappellini noodles with butter-parmesan sauce and garlic bread.



On Saturday, when we were not cooking, we went on a hike around the park, and also looked at some historic agricultural museums...



...and had fun in the water. First we had a water balloon fight, but it lasted for about 5 minutes because we didn't have enough balloons. Then Malcolm revealed he had brought his Slip-and-Slide, so we had a lot of fun on that. We couldn't get it to inflate, so we just had to spray it with water to get it working.

Preparing for the Weekend

Today I went to Save Mart with Matthew and we picked out $75 worth of food for our scout patrol. This weekend is the San Lorenzo Park campout, and we have to do our own cooking. Our patrol consists of Matthew (patrol leader), Oliver, Sean McKeon, Kyle Gatward and I (at least, these are the people who regularly show up to meetings), but Sean isn't coming to the trip

For breakfast, we're going to have breakfast burritos with scrambled eggs and potatoes. When we got back, Matthew and I chopped and cooked the potatoes with seasonings. Lunch will be do-it-yourself sandwiches, and dinner will be cappellini noodles and garlic bread. Of course, we also got orange Tang (a powdered sugar drink - just add water) which is a scout tradition to have at campouts.

A New Wall-Eyed Weirdo

Matthew and I made this update to the old Wall-Eyed Weirdos Make The World Go 'Round design and put it on a shirt. The original design was used on a birthday card for Riley, but I decided the wall-eyed weirdos on it were very crude looking, so we revised it. In my opinion, this is the best wall-eyed weirdo picture we have made.

You can buy the shirt at http://www.cafepress.com/
walleyed.261547584.


View with transparent background.

RE: Music In The Parks

Huzzah! We got a superior rating in both concert band and jazz band, and both groups also got the "best of" award.

Into The Woods

Today I went to see the school play, Into the Woods, at the Pacific Grove performing arts center, which happens to be our school auditorium. Into the Woods is one of those fairy tale stories with parts from different classic fairy tales, with elements from the stories of Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, and others. Yann played the part of Jack, and in one part he sang a song called Giants in the Sky. Sean McKeon, our scout Senior Patrol Leader, played the baker, who had to find certain items to be able to have children.

Here's the summary from the program description:

Into the Woods is the story of: Cinderella, who wishes to attend the King's Festival; Jack, a lonely and impoverished young man who wishes that his beloved cow, Milky-White, would give milk; the Baker and his Wife, who wish they could have a child and Little Red Riding Hood who buys some bread from the Baker to take to her grandmother in the woods. An ugly old Witch visits the Baker and his Wife, revealing that the Baker's father had stolen from the Witch's garden to feed his pregnant wife, taking some of her magic beans. The Witch cursed the family, making them barren, and imprisoned their daughter Rapunzel, the Baker's sister. The Witch explains that the spell may be reversed if the Baker and his Wife can find the four ingredients she needs for a certain potion: "the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper pure as gold", all within the next three days.

The play was very enjoyable, except for the technical difficulties where the body mics kept giving out and going all fuzzy.

Mushroom Patch

I actually did this painting a while ago in my dad's studio, but I keep forgetting to post the picture. It's oil on canvas, and took about 1½ hours to paint.

Music In The Parks

Today was the latest music competition, Music In The Parks at Milpitas High School. At 7 in the morning, we met at the middle school and split up onto three buses. Oliver brought his DS and played Pokémon Pearl on the ride.

We were running a bit late so when we arrived, we went straight on stage and played For Our Heroes and The Last Ride of the Pony Express. This time, we didn't mess up on the half tempo part, so hopefully we got a better score. Since our first chair trumpet Tyler was absent, Tijmen had to cover the first part.

After packing up our instruments, we watched the school orchestra play Capriccio Italian and Furiant in the gym, where we would later play in jazz band. After waiting around a bit longer and warming up in the back room, we played Count Basie's Jumpin' at the Woodside for Jazz Band, as well as our usual What Is Hip?.

Later on, most of the people went to Great America, to return at 9:30 PM, but I didn't want to because I don't really care for theme parks. I got a ride home with Michael, and we watched a South Park spoof on World of Warcraft on his iPod Touch and listened to music. Yann also had to leave early because he had a part in the school play, which is airing tonight.

The awards ceremony is at 6 this evening, so I'll post the results when I can.

TacoWear is up!

I finished making the CafePress shop, TacoWear, where you can buy bags, shirts, etc., all adorned with fish tacos. It can be found at http://www.cafepress.com/TacoWear. The latest item is an FT book/laptop bag, requested by Daniel Kim from school:

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: