Well, how 'bout that.

...or does a ? belong at the end of that title? We'll find out someday, I'm sure.

This semester was kind of a bitch. There's still a couple grades that haven't been posted yet, but I'm thinkin i'm gonna be ending up with a 3.25 for the semester. A in Band, C in Spanish, B in Early Brit. Lit. (I'll talk about this in a minute), B in Orchestra, B in Algebra II/Trig B, B in Chemistry (I'll talk about this as well), and B in US History. I guess I'll just go ahead and talk about all my classes then.

Band. Mr. Garmoe. It's a better class than I was expecting it to be at the beginning of the semester. Which, now that I think of it, went back quite a ways...August. Wow. Thats, like, 5 months ago. I guess the semester started with Marching Band. That was ok. We had pretty good weather, I'd say. Must be that damn global warming... I thought we had a decent show this year, but our band just wasn't quite up to the level of where it usually is. I think there were three main problems:

1. Drumline. We didn't have hardly any of the instruction that we normally do. Our drumline "adjunct staff" this season included Mr. Steinkey and...Mr. Steinkey. Mr. Bird helped out a little bit with some stuff, but it was mostly just supervision. No education from him. Marty McDonald, who is supposed to be the main drumline instructor, came and helped us for probably a total of 10 hours. Mabye. Without Mr. Steinkey though, we woulda been even worse. I wish I knew what happened to him...Anyway, the bass line was terrible this year. I don't know that there was anyone who could have done anything about that, now matter how much time they spent trying to fix it.

2. The Drumline's assigned role in the band/show this year. We were told that we didn't have a really flashy show because we were "supporting the band." There were some quiet parts in the show where it was necessary for the drumline to lay back a bit and just support the horns. Everybody knows, though, that the only part of the band that people like and come to watch is the drumline. And maybe the tubas and trumpet if they're playin some really crazy shreddin' high notes. But mostly drumline. And definitely not bass clarinets. Those are the worst. They actually drive people away from the show. This didn't give the drumline a chance to do any really showy type stuff, not that we could have pulled much off anyway, especially with the bass line how it was. (No offense to the people on bass line with facebooks, by the way. Y'all know it was just Zach...)

3. General lack of focus/caring throughout the year. One word: Chad. A couple more words: Freshman and Sophomores. Only some of them, though. Basically, nobody really cared this year. I think one problem was that we won last year, so we felt like it would be easier this year, so we didn't try as hard. Senioritis also seems to be particularly bad this year. Not that I didn't have a whole lot of fun, cause I did, but I just think we could have done better had we not been fucking around all the time.

Oh yeah, and we have terrible directors.

Ankeny was, of course, a disappointment. We didn't win anything. Except maybe colorguard. I don't think so, though. Of course there were good sides to the season, like Valleyfest, which is always fun. And obviously, the main reason I'm in band, friends. Always awesome, always there for me, always down for a game of ultimate or blockoff. Thanks, folks. :-)

Garmoe band's not that bad. I felt really bad for Fulton that he didn't make it. Still, I hope Jason beats him in the challenge...cuz...well, I don't want him to have to be stuck with Tanner for a whole semester. It would be nice if Aaron could just fill up the vacancy Paul's leaving next semester (good choice, Paul). It's really nice not having lessons this year. Garmoe seems to be liking my work in jazz band. I'm pretty sure he hears more of that than he does in concert band. I'm fucked for Perry. That's all I's got on that topic.

So, I guess I learned some Spanish. I had Sherwood, which was lame. Still, I think I learned some Spanish. Or I should say figured out stuff I had already learned. We pretty much just reviewed stuff we learned last year in Spanish II. I didn't remember anything from last year, so I'm glad we spent the first semester reviewing. Still, I think Sherwood needs to rethink her teaching philosophy: "It's more important that you can speak Spanish then that you get a good grade." False. It's more important that I get into a good college so I can go into a career that has nothing to do with Spanish then that I get a good grade in one irrelevant class that I'm only taking because it is required by state law. Or something.

I had some fun in that class though. Met a few cool people. Made a funny video...

Yeah, whatever, I got a B- on that project. And a C in the class. Eh.

Early British Literature. Schebel. He's a great teacher. It was a great class. I should have gotten an A in it. But I totally screwed myself over on the final. Grrr. That was really dumb. Anyway, the class was great. We studied early English History, like the Celts and Druids and the Norman Invasion and that, studied Beowulf, one of the earliest epic poems, moved on to other classics like the Canterbury Tales, Gawain and the Green Knight, various Arthurian legends, Fables, and Macbeth. Now that I think of it, the whole second quarter was Macbeth. But yeah, good class, you should definitely take it.

Orchestra is awesome this year. Buncha cool new people in this class too, lol. We're going to New Mexico next month, so we've been working on the music for that all year. We're supposed to be doing a concert in town somewhere sometime, so I'll try to get some videos from that on YouTube. And videos from the actual trip, of course. I played in a thing at Travis' church back before Christmas with some more orchestra and band people, and I got paid, so that was fun.

The main solo I'm working on this year is the Concerto for Double Bass in A major by Domenico Dragonetti. Here's what it should sound like after a while.

I'm playin' it at the Hey Jude thing 1/25, but don't expect it to sound quite like that. I'll put a recording or a video or something up sometime when I get it soundin' alright.

Oh yeah, and I made All-State.

That's me at about 0:13.

Yup. Good times.

Math was alright. Algebra II/Trig B, I should say, was alright. I had Aanonsen, who is the cheerleading coach. She yells all the time. Not like mad yelling, but just, like talking really loud. Which sucks cuz the room is like 20x20'. It was sort of a boring class though. I'm pretty sure I could have just read the book, done the homework, and taken the tests and quizzes, and not come to class, and done alright. Except then I wouldn't have been able to opt out of the final.

Jazz band...I dunno. I'm not sure if I like Mr. Turner more than Kobbs. I'm not sure I like the music we're playin this year. It's definitely getting better now than at the beginning of the year. We've gone through a crapload of music though. There are about 50 songs in my jazz band folder right now. I really think I like little combo playing a lot better than big band. The schedule is a lot more flexible with that. There's this ski trip we go on for youth group at church every year, and I've been on every one. This year, though, we're doing some clinic for Indian Hills or something. That same weekend. And Turner still hasn't told us what time it is or anything about it. It's that Saturday, and for the ski trip we leave Friday and come back Sunday. I was hoping we might be able to change the jazz band thing to Friday night so we could just go up early Saturday morning, but of course that's impossible. Grrrr. On a slightly related note, I'm got suckered into playing bass for vocalese this year. It's a whole bunch of a time commitment, and no pay, and theres a buncha other stuff I could be doing, so I'm not too thrilled about it. But Travis has to suffer through it with me too, so it's not quite as bad. We're going to Chicago for a jazz festival next month for jazz band. That's gonna be sweet. I've also been playing with the Saturn V a bunch latley as well, I'll talk about that later.

On to Chemistry. Whee. This is the only class I have with Heather. Which sucks. It's a decent class, and I'm learnin stuff, but the teacher has the charisma, and the physique, of a toad. Not much to say here. It's chemistry.

US History. It's a cool class. I kinda dugg it. I think I could definitley have gotten an A in here if I had studied for the tests better and taken better notes. We covered a huge amount of material last semester-Constitution through the 1930s. Pretty hardcore. I had a good teacher, Mrs. Hinton, but I've heard the one I have next semester-Mr. Hudson-is even better. There were a lotta cool band geeks...wait...band geeks in my class last semester, and I know Miku and Daniel are in my class next semester. So that should be fun.

I ended up with a 3.375 last semester. Alright.

Let's see...here's what I'm gonna do. This is like 1,600 words already, and I don't think anybody wants to read anymore, so next time I have a large chunk o' time at my disposal, I'll give youse all another novel to read on topics and other activities I am involved with other than school. So there ya go.

Also, I need to do another one of the ones where I just type a whole buncha random, erratic, unrelated sentences. That one was fun.

I could definitely go for a box of chocolates right now.