The Penguin.

It was a dark and stormy night and...

Me and my brothers were getting ready for Halloween. Hannah (my slightly deranged neighbor that I've known for longer than I've known either of my brothers) got the idea to be a scarecrow, which my brain interpreted as "the Scarecrow" (a Batman villain with fear-gas powers). I then decided to fit in with this Batman theme and proudly proclaimed myself as the Penguin: Flightless bird-inspired evildoer in a three piece suit and with a .45 caliber umbrella. Obviously, I am awesome. Some of my accessories:

Actually, that last one includes Mallory of Lyricsyrup, wearing a Joker shirt, which brings me to my youngest brother's costume.

Devin was the Kid Joker, complete with creepy makeup, green hair and bow-tie. It was hard to even be in his general vicinity without feeling the need to run for the hills. Dawson, the other brother, dressed up as the Riddler, an insane puzzle-obsessed baddy that can't help but leave clues for Batman and friends. 

And that's how I went to school dressed as the Penguin. Expect an update/subsequent post with Trick-or-Treat pictures.

Regionals = dissappoint

So we went to Regionals last Saturday with the intent of making it to State Semifinals in our heads and freakish amounts of excitement in our hearts. The seniors gave emotional speeches and the director assured us that if we did our best, and the judges did their jobs, the scores would take care of themselves. The entire band tried their best, and before we knew it we were standing on the sidelines anxiously awaiting our scores. In performance order they rang out: (eight bands make the cut)
1. Owensboro Catholic
2. McLean County
3. Murray High School
4. Russellville High School
5. Mayfield High School
6. Metcalfe County
7. Cumberland County
and...
8. Hancock County

We were crushed. Half of the band immediately started crying, a quarter was speechless and holding back tears, and the other quarter were frantically ranting and raging about how "there is no reason to be crying" and "we know we did our best". I wanted to destroy the last quarter. So we all went home and had emotional speeches and cried and were depressed and we all went home and died. THE END.

On a completely different note, next year band is going to be much more legit. I myself am going to be one of the two Section Leaders for low brass, along with Kaci Beard. This means I'm going to have to be awesome and have responsibilities and stress and stuff. Go me.

Regionals Week.

So last Saturday, the CCHS Rocket Regiment traveled to the Hopkinsville Stadium of Champions to compete in the band competition there. The setup for the event was as follows: Preliminary Competition, followed by Finals competition for the winning bands. Since their was one other band in our category, we were guaranteed a spot in Finals. The preliminary run wasn't very good, but everyone thought the Finals performance was our best ever.

Apparently, we were wrong.

The announcement came back that we had gotten 9th place out of 10. We were completely speechless. The band we beat was all but a joke in KMEA, so we knew we weren't that good. Turns out, that run was one of our worst visually EVER.

Regionals is this Saturday, and we most certainly have a chance at advancing. So we are actively working our tails off. Wish us luck.

Music.

So recently, I have been learning the to play a new instrument, the baritone.

The technique is different, but the valves correspond to positions on the trombone, which is my main instrument. I've kinda just been playing it by ear for a while now, but this past weekend I actually sat down and practiced it with the trombone music I already had.  I know have a basic understanding of how the baritone works. Go Music!

9-11

So I had to watch a conspiracy documentary yesterday about 9-11, and as a result I truly believe the government had something to do with the terrorist attacks on the WTC, Pentagon, and the Flight 93 crash in Pennsylvania. As such, I have pretty much lost faith in our government I may have had in the first place. I am not, however, someone who plans to destroy them or something. I am simply concerned that our elected officials may be more concerned with monetary gain the the protection of American lives, and also their tendency to lie and keep information from the under the radar. Such as Former President Bush saying he saw the first plane hit on television, when this was never televised. (The only video was a private one.) Not that I really believe Bush is intelligent enough to keep up a national conspiracy for 10+ years, but it does explain his strange behavior on the day of the attacks. I will end this post with a quote  from the documentary, and also a random picture of a basket-esque building.


"America... where do you draw the line in the sand?"

Football is not my sport.

Once upon a time, my dear father decided that his sons needed some time "throwing the pigskin". I, being of course a band geek and member of the speech team, was reluctant to join in. Maybe blatantly opposed would be a more accurate term. My father ran back spiritedly, throwing the football through the air straight at me. At first I sidestepped the incoming projectiles, but on penalty of eternal torture, I stepped forward and caught the ball. My smaller brother was not so lucky. Here's a picture of what happened:

My brother caught the ball.. with his face. 

Sports are not for me.

Compulsory post for this week.

So our teacher is making us blog once a week, with the result being a class of 20ish students get to play on a computer and type about their lives.
I will most likely use this blog to ponder the meaning of life and post developments in my story (which by an odd coincidence was assigned by the same teacher.) For your regularly scheduled programing, please refer to my other blog.