Gūn's Scizor WINNER!

Gūn's Scizor WINNER!

I WON I WON I WON I WON I WON I WON I WON I WON I WON I WON I WON


(Real post tomorrow)


-David

Is this the title?

Hello, blog readers, I'm playing around with posting from my phone. I don't like standard SMS posting, because it doesn't include a title. I'll try email! I'll attach a photo, too, just to see.

-David
Sent from my BlackBerry Smartphone provided by Alltel

5 Months

It's been wonderful having Emily back in town. I've spent just about all of my time over at her house! :D

We saw Inception and Rocky Horror on Saturday, we've played a lot of Apples to Apples (We've tied both games. :3 ), and it's just been great having her back. I've missed her so much. She gets her wisdom teeth today. :/

I remember getting mine out. It wasn't that bad, but it was definitely not the best experience. I hope things go well. She's actually on her way to the dentist right now.
What a great way to spend our 5-month anniversary, eh?

Also, I have some news on the Nuzlocke front.
I beat Whitney without any of my Pokemon dying! :D It was a tough fight, but I managed to pull through. :3
...But then FUCK YEAH got killed by an unlucky Critical Hit on our way up to Ecruteak City. ;____;
Emily had to give me a hug, I was so sad. :'( This is my first Pokemon that's died since Sprout Tower, and the first one I've been really attached to! To make things worse, he was only a level or two away from evolving. :/

My team now is this:

Combo, the Slowpoke, level 10
Shandi, the Sandslash, level 22
Georgia, the Geodude, level 18
Togebrii, the Togepi, level 17
Isabella, the Quilava, level 19
Zippity, the Flaafy, level 17.

I also have a Metapod, Rattata, Nidoran (F), Sunkern, Sudowoodo, and the Stantler that killed FUCK YEAH in my box, too, all usable.
Well, I'm in Ecruteak City now, and I'll probably be training a bit to get my whole team as close to level 20 as possible before the gym fight. Without FUCK YEAH, this will be a hard gym. :/


-David

Highlight of the month

Emily comes home today. That's all.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥


-David

If life gives you Nuzlocke...

Okay, busy weekend is over. All of my awesome family has left, things have slowly returned to normal. :3

I sorted out some band issues with the school yesterday. Apparently, I forgot to tell them I planned to be in band. So I had to call them yesterday. Ooops!

But you guys don't care about that. You guys just care about my Heart Gold run, don't you? DON'T YOU?!
Well, I'm not one to disappoint. I made it through Union Cave and into Azalea. I didn't fight any wild Pokemon on Route 33 or in Slowpoke Well (In case I want to come back later, I guess), I took down Team Rocket and my Rival (God, Silver had much higher levels than me! D:), and managed to do it all without losing anybody.

My team right now:

Shandi (The Sandshrew), level 12
Zippity (The Flaafy), level 15
Isabella (The Quilava), level 15
FUCK YEAH (The Zubat), level 13
Georgia (The Geodude), level 13
Togebrii (The Togepi), level 13

I'm in the Gym right now. Hopefully I can take them down easily enough. I plan on using mostly Georgia and Isabella, I think. Shandi also knows Rock Tomb, which will help.

Also, after Togebrii hatched, I was walking back to New Bark Town to show it to Elm. As I ventured through the grass, I found a shiny Sentret. I broke the rules of my run momentarily to catch it. I don't plan on using it, it just went right into the Box. But still... fuck yeah, dudes. I named it Atton. My logic: Sentret sounds kind of like Sentinel. Sentinel made me think of Jedi Sentinels (one of the three classes of Jedi) and that made me think of Atton Rand, who you can turn into a Sentinel in KotOR2. So yeah. Complicated names! :D


Well, Emily comes home in just two more days. God, I'm so excited. ^.^
And, in about an hour, I'm going to lunch with Sam. Good times.

-David

Welcome home, son.

It is 4:15 and I am still awake.

Playing Pokemon, no less. I haven't been playing too much, unfortunately. But I've made some progress, at least. An update: Edgar died to a Crit in Sprout Tower. :'( I trained a bit, picked up the Event Jirachi (It's in the PC, don't really feel like using it), eventually went to the gym. Almost lost FUCK YEAH to a Fury Attack, but he survived. :3

Solo'd Falkner with Georgia, just spammed Rock Throw. Lulz, easy as hell. I got the Togepi egg, and luckily for me, managed to get a MAREEP, so I am EXCITED. I named it Zippity. So my team, as of right now, is as follows:

Isabella, level 14
Georgia, level 13
FUCK YEAH, level 10
Zippity, level 8
Egg


Not bad. On my way to Union Cave now!



Also, my grandmother's surprise party was today. I had literally all of my family on my mother's side here. It was ridiculous, I love my family so so much. Not going into details right now, so fuck off. :3

I'm going to bed. Might post tomorrow.

-David

Nuzlocke

So, it's been a while since I've blogged. But that's mostly because there hasn't been anything worth blogging about. I don't think you'd want twelve posts saying that I woke up, played Left 4 Dead 2, ate a sandwich, played more Left 4 Dead 2, ate dinner, played more L4D2, and went to bed. Because that's basically what I've been doing.

Of course, that's extremely oversimplified, but the point still stands.

Regardless, I'm posting now because I actually have something to post about!

Today is my Grandmother's 80th birthday! I'm going to run by her house later today to drop off a card for her and talk for a bit. :3
Her party's on Saturday, and I can't wait.


In the next few days, I have a lot of stuff to do. I need to pick up my room for when Matt (My cousin) comes over, clean out my car, mow the lawn (again), edge, lay some more bricks in the back yard, laundry, school stuff... Is that it? I'm sure there's more. Oh well, I'm sure my mother will remind me that I'm being lazy and give me more stuff to do.


On an unrelated note, I'm starting my Nuzlocke run in Pokemon Heart Gold. For those of you that don't know what that is, it's essentially a challenge run. You can only catch the first Pokemon you find in each area, and once a Pokemon faints, you have to release it. There are more rules if you want to make it more challenging, but I'm just going by the basic framework.




I picked Cyndaquil for my starter (Named her Isabella!) and eventually caught a female Geodude (Named Georgia) who KICKS ASS, a female Pidgey (I nicknamed Cherry. :3 It died. ;__; ), a female Zubat, aptly named FUCK YEAH, and I just caught my first male pokemon, a Rattata named Edgar. I'm in Sprout Tower right now, gonna challenge the gym pretty soon.

I think that's everything? I'll be blogging more often about my run and my Grandma's party soon, so... expect more posts. Woo?


-David

Defeat.

Germany just lost. To Spain. Fucking Spain.

I am dead. DEAD.


-David

Fairhope Fireworks Finale

FUCK YEAH AMERICA

First and foremost, Happy Birthday Sarah!

So, yesterday was Fuck Yeah America Day. Also called Independence Day and The Fourth of July. Which is dumb.

But before I can tell you about THAT, I have to tell you about THIS.

Saturday: Soccer Day. 9:00 CST- Germany v Argentina. 1:30 CST- Spain v Paraguay.

So, we all showed up at Macey's house at about 8:30. We being Wally, Erin, Kathy, Macey, and Myself. Vuvuzelas and coffee ready, we sat down to cheer for the match. I was also logged into Chatzy so I could talk to Tori during the game. First up, Germany vs Argentina.

FOR GERMANY: Me, Macey, Erin
FOR ARGENTINA: Wally, Kathy, Tori
VICTOR: Germany, in a COMPLETE RAPE of 4-0. Many lulz were had, and lots of cheering from Macey and me.

Then, to pass time until the next match, we rented the first book of Avatar: The Last Airbender and watched some of that. Some other people started showing up (Payton, Emily, Mrs. Michelle), and we got ready for the next game.

FOR SPAIN: Kathy, Mrs. Michelle, Tori
FOR PARAGUAY: Me, Erin, Macey, Wally
HAD NO CLUE WHAT WAS GOING ON: Payton, Emily
VICTOR: Spain, in an intense match. Final score was 1-0. I almost had a HEART ATTACK like SEVEN TIMES because of penalty kicks and fouls. It was a great match, even if we lost.

I was also talking to Mrs. Davis on the phone- she was keeping me up to date on Brad (Mr. Davis, a huge soccer nut) and many lulz were had there, too.

After the games, I went home and we had a nice dinner with family and friends! :D
My Aunt Sue and my cousin Nikki showed up, along with my grandma and grandpa,and the Davis family (Minus Emily, of course). We grilled steaks and had an assortment of other delicious foods! Good shit. I spent most of the evening with Aunt Sue and Emily's parents. Witty conversation is awesome. :3


And then, at last, it was FUCK YEAH AMERICA DAY. Rather uneventful at first, to be honest. Church (Nate/Shandi/Halle were there! :D ), then Cleveland came over and we chilled at my house. At about six we bought some fireworks (Lame stuff, mostly. Water Dynamite and Whirrers), got some Ice Cream, and headed to the Yacht Club. We all sailed out into Mobile Bay to watch the fireworks! They launch from the pier every year, so we always go out to watch from the water. Much better than watching from shore.

We had a pretty full boat! My Aunt Kathy and Uncle Rick, Mum and Dad, Sarah, Cleveland, Kathy, me, Tully, and Mr. Garner all showed up! We had various snacks and we got in trouble with the coast guard for shooting off fireworks so close to other people! :D
The fireworks started at 9:00. It was a decent show, but once the "finale" ended, we were a bit confused- they were still shooting off fireworks, but only one or two every four or five minutes. It was weird. And then three fireworks exploded ON THE PIER without being launched (Within a span of about 20 minutes, not all at once) and the pier caught on fire and ambulances came and all of us were like "wut."
We think someone died, but we don't know.


So, we came back to shore, Cleveland spent the night, and now it's Sarah's birthday. All in all, a good weekend.

-David

Busy week, busy weekend.

A few things.

First of all, DON'T go see The Last Airbender. It was horrible horrible horrible. Horrible. If you want to know why, go read some of the reviews on it- It has something like a 5% on RT. Now, I'm not normally one to recommend Movie Reviews, but in this case, they can explain why it's bad much better than I can. As I watched the movie, I was kind of caught up in it, thinking stuff like "Oh, this isn't too bad..." but then once it ended and we were leaving the theatre, it hit me. And I died a little on the inside.

I've been a bit busy the past few days. I've had a lot of yard work and house work keeping me occupied. Mowed the lawn, moved and set a ton (literally) of bricks, cleaned my room, cooked dinner for the family, helped set up for Sarah's birthday party, organise people for Game Night and Game Day (Too bad Game Night was cancelled. All my work for nothing! D:) and then probably a few more things I'm forgetting. But I got paid for a lot of that (Mostly the bricks), so it's fine.

Sarah's birthday party is tonight. She's turning 14. Her actual birthday isn't until Monday, the 5th, but this is more convenient, I guess. I'm being kicked out of the house during the party. :(
I got her the Glee soundtrack as a present. I hope she likes it! :)

I'm headed over to Emily's house in just over an hour to go kayaking with some people. It's gonna be fun! :D

Tonight was going to be a Game Night at Macey's, but she texted me this morning and essentially cancelled it. But we're all still coming over to her house tomorrow for the soccer games! Argentina vs Germany at 9:00 CST, Spain vs Paraguay at 1:30! She ordered us some vuvuzelas, hopefully they'll come in by then. :3


I think that's everything? I'll be posting more in the near future, I swear.


-David

Dude.

Deep fried Hot Pockets.

Win.

Blah

It's not quite 3:00 AM and I'm waking up. I slept pretty terribly- waking up every so often, tossing and turning, various aches and pains.

But anyway. I'm waking up to take Emily to the airport. She's going to be leaving for a four week ballet intensive in Detroit, hosted by ABT. :D
I'm gonna miss her, but she'll have fun. :3

Picture:



Yeah, we all just kind of half-assed the costumes this time, but it still got us in for free. :3

I think that's it? I'm going up to Hattiesburg this afternoon to sort out some school stuff. Blech. Not looking forward to that.


-David

The charades and challenges of catching a charger.

Sorry for the half-assed alliteration in the title, it was the best I could do on such short notice.

I will now update you on my phone situation: As you all know, my phone is dead. Now, I thought it was the battery at first, because I'd plug it in and it'd charge for about five seconds before going "Nope, not gonna happen" and then stopping the charge. Well, my phone has been through a lot, so I figured the wear and tear and water damage (Plus the fact that my phone's battery life had gotten to be about 20 hours) made me think that my battery was just old. I ordered a new one and awaited anxiously.

Well, it arrived this morning. I quickly inserted it (*snicker*) and was overcome with joy! My phone, alive! Confetti flew, fireworks exploded, tears of joy cascaded down my face... until I decided to plug my phone in to make sure it could hold a charge.

...And it couldn't. It was still doing the same thing. So that meant one of two things: either my charge was a piece of crap or my phone was a piece of crap. I suspected the latter, but in a last-ditch effort to convince myself otherwise, I texted Meaghan (Who also has a Blackberry, and has helped me before) asking her if she was at home and if she could help me. I went over there and my fears were confirmed. I tried out multiple charges, all to the same result. My phone just didn't want me to charge it.

Discontent to let my suicidal phone continue its tendencies, I asked Meaghan how she charged her phone- her charger port was also messed up. She showed me her device, and I saw a small glimmer of hope. You see, it didn't need the charger port to work- it charges the batteries themselves, not the phone. I was in awe. After thanking her profusely, I went home and found a model that would work with my phone for a mere $15.95 plus shipping. The company I ordered from only had standard shipping (Another $2.90), so it'll take a while to get here, but I don't mind. According to Amazon, all the other companies were charging upwards of $30 for the same thing, so I saved probably close to $25 by NOT going with a more expensive company to get more expensive shipping. I'm sure I can wait a few days, anyway, it's only shipping from New York.

But yes. That's my tale. I figured it was dramatic enough to post it here.


-David

All hail Ken!

Hello, all.

I'm sure you've missed me in the past few months, but fear not! All is well with me. I didn't forget about my blag! I swear!


...I was just too lazy to update it. OH WELL!

Anyway, to herald my return to the Blogosphere (I hate myself for saying that un-ironically), I will tell you about today. Because today was a good day. :)


I woke up at exactly 8:23. I recall this because I was annoyed that I woke up seven minutes before my alarm was set to go off. Why does that happen? I know I'm not the only person that experiences (And is subsequently annoyed by) that. But anyway, I woke up at 8:23 and proceeded to lay in bed until my alarm DID go off at 8:30. Wouldn't want to actually get up before my alarm. It just seems a bit rude, I don't want to hurt my alarm's feelings. You know how it is. So I got up and got dressed, checked my email and my webcomics, read Cracked, etc. My normal morning routine. Then, at 9:00, I went downstairs to start my day.
It was dark out, because of clouds and such. I needed to mow the lawn (Mum had been on my ass about it the past few days, and I needed to be at least somewhat productive today), so I went out and got started. Unfortunately, not even fifteen minutes later, I was met with a thunderstorm. And you all know the age-old saying "You can't mow the lawn in a thunderstorm," so I put the mower up and went back inside. I'll finish the job later, I'm sure, but the TV man says that it'll be really wet the next few days.
After my failed mowing escapade, I talked to my dad about running some errands. You see, some things you need to know:
1) My driver's license expired on May 12th, and I'd been driving illegally for over a month. OOPS. Need to get that renewed!
2) My cell phone's battery DIED so I need to go buy a new one.

The plan? Stop by some stores to see if they carried phone batteries (Spoiler alert! They didn't) and then to the courthouse to get my license renewed. After getting a new license (But no new battery), we came back home and I decided to be EVEN MORE PRODUCTIVE. I promptly searched online and found the battery I needed. It's on its way here as we speak, and I should be getting it sometime tomorrow. On top of that, I arranged for a meeting with my piano teacher in Hattiesburg on the 27th. :D
My mother would be proud of my productivity!

After all of my BORING, MENIAL CHORES, I headed over to Emily's house (Yes, we're still dating. Fear not, worried followers!) to prepare to see Toy Story 3. You see, we were all dressing up to go see it. Maring and Kristen were Woody and Jesse, Chelsea was Buzz, and then Emily and I were Barbie and Ken.

Oh yeah. We got pics.
But there aren't any right now because Emily is a lazy, lazy girl. As soon as they're online, I'll post them here. Don't worry. :)

And we also got in for free! :D
It was surprisingly a VERY good movie. It was a brilliant sequel and I will definitely watch it again sometime. I cried so hard at the end! D:
And of course, dressing like Ken was the source of MANY lulz. ;D

As per our usual movie-going routine, we went to Waffle House to dine in style afterwards. Still in costume, of course. Well... mostly. Chels quickly discarded her Buzz get-up and we picked up Sara and Mason, but still! I had some hash browns (All the way, baby) and Emily had a chocolate chip waffle. All was right with the world.

On the way back to Emily's house, I mortified her by waving an American flag out of the window of the van and yelling "'MERICA" as loud as possible at helpless passer-bys. Sara, Maring, and I got many lulz out of this. Emily, being a freedom hating terrorist, tried to suppress our fun. >:|

We arrived at Emily's house to eat ice cream and watch Flight of the Conchords for a bit. Great stuff. Now, I'm back at home. Exhausted. Updating my blag so my poor readers can get their fix of David. :)

Anyway, that was my day! Now stop complaining that I don't update my blag anymore. >:|


-David

Penultimate blag post to my birthday blag post.

Hello, all.

This has been one of those weeks where SO MUCH STUFF HAS HAPPENED so I have no clue what to say here. I've forgotten most of it because I'm terribly unreliable when it comes to updating these things.

Uh, car search is still ongoing, birthday coming up (More on that in a second), and I've been playing Left 4 Dead 2 a lot. School has been school, I guess. Blah, I don't know what to talk about.

I'll talk about my birthday. This weekend is going to be awesome. I'm headed home Friday afternoon, celebrating my birthday with friends on Saturday afternoon, going out with Emily Saturday night, and hanging out with Emily Sunday morning and afternoon. It's gonna be awesome.


Also, I'm really sorry for how short and uninformative this is, I just don't have it in me to blag right now. I'm sorry, internet. I'm sorry for not blagging.


-David

Okay, I lied about a real post

I present to you, the best burger evar: The Davidio.

Bun, pickles, hot sauce, meat, pepperjack cheese, bacon, sautéed mushrooms, guacamole, bun.

BAM.


Are you man enough to handle The Davidio?

Oh god oh god oh god

Nintendo announced the new Pokemon games: Pokemon Black and Pokemon White.



http://www.pokemon.co.jp/bw/index.html



...I will have a real post later today. But this is... Awesome.

How to summarise your weekend.

First and foremost, happy Zombie Jesus day, everyone. I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter of stapling rabbits to crosses and throwing eggs at it (That is what people do, isn't it?)

Well, it has been a spectacular weekend. I've been driving around in a 2009 Toyota Corolla (OH GOD THE ACCELERATION AHHHH I'M GONNA DIE) because as you all know, my car is in the shop. Hurray for rental cars, I guess? I'm actually surprised they rented it to me, I thought you had to be at least 25 to do that. Maybe I'm just special.

But yeah, so I came home this weekend for ZJ Day, and I brought some other musicians from Southern Miss with me to play at my church. Their names are Nathan and Stephanie and they are pretty okay people! Stephanie plays the Horn and Nathan is a Tenor Trombone kinda guy. They stayed at my house and had to put up with my crazy family for a weekend, I am SO SORRY for them.
I do love my family, though. It's pretty obvious where I acquired my sense of humour from. I mean, we talked about how my aunt almost got into a fight with a hooker in New York. Everyone in my family has my sense of humour and it is wonderful.
There is never a dull moment at the dinner table.

So, the reason I came back was to play at my church for Zombie Jesus day (Or I guess "Easter" for all of you more conservative people). We played at the 8:00 service AND the 10:30 service today, with me and Nathan on trombone, Stephanie on horn, and some kid from Daphne on trumpet. He was actually pretty good! I was relatively impressed.
And we each got a nice $200 check after the service was over, which is a very pleasant paycheck. And Emily even came to listen to the 8:00 service. :3


Speaking of Emily, we got to spend a little bit of time together this weekend. Not as much as I'd like, but still enough to make me happy (Although, ANY amount of time with her does that).
After I finished dinner on Saturday night, she and I went up to the Premier Theatre in Malbis to go see "How to Train Your Dragon" with Nathan and Stephanie. Emily had already seen it, but she was more than happy to go and see it again, and I can see why.

It was an adorable movie! Easily one of the best movies that Dreamworks has done. I laughed, I cried (Don't judge me), and I got to see it with the most wonderful girl I know. It was a great night. :3
I'll be seeing her again tonight, right before I leave. Not for long (She has a paper to write), but I don't need long to say goodbye. Like I said, any amount of time is better than no time.

Well, I'm sitting at the Coffee Loft right now, drinkin' a Pooh Bear and blaggin' on my computer. Macey was here when I started, but she left and now I'm here with Kathy. I guess I just have interchangeable friends. :P

But that's all I really have to say! I hope your weekend was as good as mine has been. :)



-David

You're the fool!

So, today is April Fool's day. Hurray, I guess.

This has always been one of those holidays that I've always wanted to really get into, but was always too lazy to form an elaborate prank and just let the day pass. It's tragic, really, because anyone who knows me should now how awesome I could make this day!

I mean, look at /b/. It might even be all of 4chan, but who cares? It's on /b/ and that's what matters- Moot installed "Facebook Connect" on the site so every post is also posted to your Facebook- fucking hilarious.

See, I always read about these SUPERAWESOMEOMEGA pranks that people pull, and I always say to myself, "Next year, that'll be me. I'll be the one pulling the strings. I'll be remembered for my awesome pranks."
But I always neglect that promise.


Hell, even this year, I had planned to do something epic but then completely forgot about it until about 11:00 last night, when Crim pulled his prank on the Chatzy.
So far, my "pranks" have been a few stupid tweets and a text message to Emily. I'm such a prankster.

Oh well, maybe next year.


-David

Nicknames

I just realised that I have quite a few names that people (have) regularly call(ed) me.

-David
-Dave
-Davido
-Davidio
-David-io
-Dale
-Will
-Lennon
-Rhymes
-John
-Spoons

Score!

Taken from an article on Cracked.com:

"According to a study of 6,000 people, men named Michael, James and David are the clear winners, with all three placing in the top ten for Most Successful, Luckiest, and yes, Most Attractive names."

Hell yeah.

You must be an illusion.

So, Prom was simply amazing.

I spent most of Saturday morning filling out insurance forms and running errands. Blah, that's never any fun. I picked up Emily's corsage up in Daphne, burned a CD, and vacuumed my mum's car (because my car was too trashy to take to the dance after the accident).

Around four o'clock, I hopped in the shower and started getting ready. Mum and dad were ridiculous about pictures, blah, and I left the house at around 5:15.
Got to Chelsea's house right at 5:30 and met up with everyone else there. MORE PICTURES WOOOOOOO.
Also, Emily was simply gorgeous. I don't know what I did to deserve someone as amazing as she is.











After a shit-ton of pictures at Chelsea's house, we went to the Yacht Club so we could take MORE PICTURES before we ate dinner. I swear, I'm going to punch every camera I see for the next week. I'm SICK OF GETTING MY PICTURE TAKEN.
Anyway, after what seemed like forever, we went inside and were seated.






For some reason, the Yacht Club was overcrowded and understaffed, so the service was slow. But the company and conversation were delightful, and we had a blast. The food was also very good. And not too expensive, either! :D
Anyway, after we ate, Chelsea and Mason left so they could go to the Senior Callouts, while Maring, Thomas, Emily and I went for a nice walk. And then we went to Mr. Gene's Beans downtown.
So many people were complimenting the girls' dresses, it got annoying pretty quick. For me an Thomas, at least, I'm sure they loved the attention, haha.

Anyway, around 9:00, we went to the Civic Centre and DANCED THE NIGHT AWAY AWWWW YEAH.
I'm not going to go into too much detail about the dance itself, mostly out of laziness and somewhat due to my terrible memory.
I will share one anecdote, though:

Mason and I went up to the DJ and requested Bohemian Rhapsody. I mean, that's the best song ever, everyone loves it. Well, the DJ said no, because apparently it's not a "crowd pleaser" (which is bullshit) and that he had to play music that everyone would like. Mason and I grumbled and walked away.
So, the next song comes on and guess what? Everyone leaves the dance floor.
What was that about pleasing the crowd, Mr. DJ?


Anyway, we ended up leaving the dance a bit early, around 11:30. We all went back to Chelsea's house again, and we all cuddled up in their living room and watched That 70's Show. As weird as this sounds, cuddling with Emily and talking with everyone was probably my favourite part of the whole evening. <3
And then we all ate an amazing midnight breakfast (courtesy of Chelsea's parents) consisting of cheese grits, bacon, sausage, pancakes, waffles, biscuits, fruit, and probably even more stuff. It was delicious! And then everyone changed out of their fancy clothes and returned to the living room for an encore of earlier.
Around 1:00, people started leaving, and Emily and I were fairly quick to follow. I took her home and walked her to the door and all that jazz, and then started heading home. But then I realised I still had her camera and purse, so I had to go back and give those to her. :P
I got home at around 1:30 and went to bed a 2:00.


When I woke up today, I was still pretty smiley from the night before. :)
I went to church and caught up with Kathy and Bobby. After church, Kathy and I picked up some Pizza Rolls and went over to Macey's house to have a MIYAZAKI MOVIE MARATHON. We watched Ponyo and Howl's Moving Castle. It was a great way to spend the afternoon. :)

I went home around 5:30, packed, ate dinner, ran some last minute errands, and then ended up leaving about 7:30. I stopped by Emily's house for a bit, to see her before I went back to school, and then got some gas and some coffee for the long drive back to school.
And here I am. :)


There are plenty of things coming up, but that's for another blag post. I'm done for now. Goodnight.


-David

We're falling right into the dénouement...

Ugh, yesterday was terrible.

Class was fine, I guess. Theory was Theory, and I just played Pokemon in Anthropology.
And I WOULD have been able to leave school and head home around 11:00 in the morning, but noooooo I had to go to a required Master Class at 3:45. So I had to kill time for four hours. I couldn't practice, either, because all the practice rooms were occupied by Horn students. Blech.

And then, when I finally got on the road at 5:30, I got rear-ended in Mobile. My trunk is fucked up now, which is JUST what I needed. Some idiot sixteen year old girl was too busy staring at her boyfriend to realise that there was a red light. And of course, it took a good hour before the police actually showed up. I didn't get home until after eight, ughhh.

So I've spent most of the morning dealing with insurance stuff. Blech.


But at least the rest of last night was pretty fun! After a quick dinner at home, I went to Chis's house and played COD MW2 with Chis and Cleveland until about 2 in the morning. It was a pretty lulzy experience. :)


Oh, and now it's time for your Heart Gold Update!
I'm in Blackthorne City, but I haven't challenged the gym yet. I've been training and messing around with the Pokeathelon a lot, so eh.
But my team:
Lvl 41 Feraligatr
Lvl 40 Espeon
Lvl 40 Scizor
Lvl 38 Pupitar
Lvl 37 Dunsparce

And then some HM slaves that I occasionally swap in and out of my team. Oh, but I've come in first in every event in the Pokeathelon (Except Pennant Grab, fuck that one) and I've won every category a few times. It's a pretty addicting minigame, much better than contests. I really hope they expand upon it and include it in other games.



Well, tonight is Prom. I've been looking forward to this for the past month, and I am so excited. Like, you don't even know. I find it funny that in High School, I couldn't care any less about Prom (I didn't even go senior year) but now it's like the highlight of my month. Funny how that works. :P
I picked up a gorgeous corsage for Emily this morning. I think it'll look great with her dress and I'm sure she'll like it too. :3

I'm not quite sure on the details beforehand, but I know we'll be having dinner at the Yacht Club at 6:30. And then we're going to the dance after that, so woo. I'm really out of the loop with all the planning, haha. Oh well. It'll still be a blast.
And my mum's letting me drive her Civic, because my car is a piece of crap (Even worse now). I need to vacuum it soon, after I finish this blag post and after I finish filling out this INSURANCE PAPERWORK GAH.


Well, I'm fairly certain that's all for now. I hope all of you have a great weekend! I'll post some pictures tomorrow, methinks. :)


-David

I return victorious!

So, I am back at school now.

It's so nice to be back in my crappy dorm room instead of in nice hotels and with host families. Haha.
Actually, I just care about INTERNET and NOT SPENDING HALF OF MY DAY IN A CAR.

But here, let me sum up the highlights of the past few days:

Heart Gold: I've just beat Team Rocket at the Goldenrod Radio Tower. I haven't been playing too much, really- Tackitt is much farther than I am. But my team is still higher-leveled. I find that amusing.

My team is Feraligatr (Nicknamed "Pan"), Dunsparce, Scizor, Espeon, Farfetch'd, Red Gyarados (HM Slave). Pretty badass.


Eastern Trombone Workshop: Well, it was pretty okay as a whole. I spent most of my time with Tackitt, playing Pokemon. xD
There were some amazing trombonists there, though. I am STILL in awe of some of them. It was great.

Our performance was a disaster, unfortunately. Basically everything that could have gone wrong did. Oh well, what's done is done. I had fun on the trip and I enjoyed my time at the ETW. Isn't that the point?


Oh man, I have so many stories to tell. I don't think I can tell them all. D:
Let's see... We left Adam Johnson on the Army Base, my bookbag got ran over, my slide fell off on stage, Eddie "pulled a Byron," I mooned Eddie on the drive back, Andrew has the bladder of a twelve-year old girl, terrorists, Adam is a whiny little bitch... uh... I'm sure there's more, but I'm a bit tired. It's been a long day.


I got back and read the letters that Emily mailed me while I was away. It really made me glad to be back, and I feel so lucky that someone as amazing as her actually likes me. :3
This weekend is Prom, and I am looking forward to it more that pretty much anything else. This week needs to hurry up. <3


Anyway, I think that's it. Excuse me, I'm gonna go pass out.

Blah blah blah trip.

Quick post.

Heart Gold is awesome. Tackitt and I have been playing (We each got a copy) and it is sweeeet. My team right now is Croconaw and Dunsparce HELL YEAH.

Also, my phone died and my charger broke. :(

We were in Pittsburgh yesterday, and I've deided I don't like Pittsburgh. I did like Duquesne University, though.
We spent today at Penn State, and that was a neat school, too. Tomorrow we're going to Altoona, PA. Woooo.

Anyway, that's about it. Later!



-David

I'm alive!

Oh hai there.

I'm currently laying in a bed at a host family's house in Greensburg, PA right now, blagging on my DS. I have internet here, so I figured I'd let you all know that I'm alive. :3

It's been a great trip so far. Drove about twelve hours on Friday, stayed in a really fancy hotel. My room consisted of the four Freshman boys and Melissa, the only girl in the trombone choir. Poor her, haha. :p
But we all had fun.

I can sum up the next two days in a mere two words: Ohio sucks.

Seriously, worst state EVAR. But now that we're in Pennsylvania (I just know I spelled that wrong), it's all good.

Also, my internal clock is ALL MESSED UP. We lost an hour switching to Eastern Time, and then another for Daylight Savings. Blech.


Pokémon Heart Gold came out today. I want it. To get me in the mood, I've picked Platinum up again. Trained my Giratina, my Shaymin, and an Anorith I found, haha. :p


I think that's about it. I hope all of you are doing fine. :)
Don't worry about me!





-David

Also, WHAT

I can't decide if this is going to be Totally Awesome or completely Flopsy.

(See what I did there? I just referenced two different Starkid productions? Oh, you didn't catch that? >_____> )

Oh well. I'm excited to see what it will be about.


On a side note, I am done with class, done with my midterm, done with mail, done with my homework, and done copying my music. I have two loads of laundry going right now, too, and I'll go practice when those are finished. Being productive SUCKS.


-David

The Back Row is Cursed.

So. Today is the day before I leave for Spring Break. But before I get into that, a quick recap of the week:

I had to perform in two concerts this week, on Tuesday and Wednesday night. On Tuesday, we had the Concert Band concert, and Wednesday night was the Trombone Choir.
My dad got videos, perhaps I will post those later. I'll at least link to them, if they make it online. Both concerts went pretty well! And my family was in town to watch them and to buy me delicious food, so it's been a good week.

And speaking of good weeks, this week has gone by ridiculously fast. As the week before Spring Break, you'd expect it to just draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag, you know? But nope nope nope, it's been flying by. That's a good thing because I want it to be two weeks from now, but it's also a bad thing because I have SO MUCH TO DO.

So I get to do everything today. I have my Anthropology midterm today, I need to do laundry and pack for my trip, I mailed off some stuff, I have to finish my Theory homework (eh), I have to go to the library and check out a copy of my Jury piece, copy it, practice it, I have to go to a concert tonight, and I'm positive I'm forgetting something else, but oh well. This paragraph is still filled with enough commas to get my point across! My point being that today is busier than it has any right to be. >:(


So, my trip. For Spring Break, the Trombone Choir is going to be going up to the Eastern Trombone Workshop to perform and watch other people perform and such. On the way up and the way home, we're going to be playing at various schools and churches.
An itinerary:

Friday, March 12- Head to Louisville, KY
Saturday, March 13- Head to Bowling Green, OH*
Sunday, March 14- Head to Greensburg, PA*
Monday, March 15- Head to Pittsburgh, PA*
Tuesday, March 16- Head to Penn State University*
Wednesday, March 17- Head to Altoona, PA*
Thursday, March 18- Head to Washington DC*
Friday, March 19- Chill at the ETW
Saturday, March 20- Our performance at the ETW*
Sunday, March 21- Head to Lexington, KY*
Monday, March 22- Head back to Hattiesburg, MS
Tuesday, March 23- School, blah

*- denotes a performance that day


So, that's the schedule for my trip. I won't be blagging at all that week because I won't be bringing my laptop. (No internet for 10 days? Noooooooooooooooo)
Gonna be playing a lot of DS, listening to a lot of music. Road Trips, woo.

But yeah, that's all for now. I'll tell you how things went when I get back on Monday. ;D
(Maybe Tuesday if I'm tired)


(Our performance will be at 3:30 EST on Saturday, March 20th, and will be broadcast live. For a complete schedule of the Eastern Trombone Workshop and a link to the live performance, go here. If you look, you should be able to find it pretty easily. Hope you watch!) ;D


Text me while I'm gone, since I won't have internet!


-David

So give it up, give it back to me.

Hello, all. It's been a lovely weekend. The weather has been absolutely amazing! And of course, Friday and Saturday nights were splendid, too.

I've already told you all about Friday night, so I'm not going to go into any more detail on that. But then last night was fun, too. A little after six o'clock, I went over to Emily's house to hang out with her and eat dinner with her family. We had some delicious gumbo, some bread that wasn't cooked all the way (hahaha) and a ton of hilarious conversations while we ate. It was a great meal! :3

After dinner, we retreated to Emily's room upstairs and watched The Nightmare Before Christmas, 'cause Emily has never seen it before. I know, she's never lived. >:|
But she's seen it now, so things have been made better. :D
She loved it, and we had fun watching it together. My dog was annoying, though, but in the cutest way possible. Sigh, I swear my dogs are insane.

We then listened to some music a bit, and we talked while she finished sewing. Meanwhile downstairs, her parents were watching this crazy Swedish film called Slim Susie. When we came downstairs, they were probably about halfway through it. Emily and I ate some coffee ice cream and watched the rest of the movie with them. There were some... interesting scenes, and the movie was very confusing and unintentionally hilarious (I think I'm going to start saying "schmort" now), and it was pretty fun. By that time, it was pretty much 11, so I headed home and killed time on the computer for a bit. It was lovely. :3


Today was Colin's Eagle Scout ceremony. It was a pretty okay ceremony, very tongue-in-cheek (which I like). I left pretty early after the ceremony, though, and now I'm at home wishing I could take a nap. Oh well, maybe I can convince one of my friends to buy me coffee? :D

Anyway, midterms are this week. Wish me luck. :|


-David

I'm afraid you have, you've gone totally bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret: all the best people are.

Tonight was spectacular.

I finished classes and then headed to Fairhope for the weekend. You see, I was going to the movies to see Alice in Wonderland with Emily, Jen, Sara, and Chelsea. And we were all dressing up.

So I got to town, and picked up my costume from Aunt Pagan. Yes, I was Alice, and yes, I borrowed the costume that the Creative Outlet uses for Alice. Oh well. ^_~

I chilled at the Coffee Loft until around four thirty and then headed over to Emily's house. We all got costumed up and ready to go, and left for the movies just before six.







We got there, people were amazed that I was a guy, we watched the movie. It was spectacular, and we all enjoyed it immensely. But the -real- fun didn't start until after the movie!

Afterwards, when everyone was leaving the theatre, I was surrounded by girls who wanted pictures with me. It was scary! D:
And everyone abandoned me, too. >:(

But I mostly avoided taking pictures with strangers because I saw Tony and Mason and Savanna and Logan and I kind of used them as a human shield.
The bathroom was an interesting ordeal, too. Using a urinal is hard (And awkward) when you're wearing tights and a skirt. I'm just glad no strangers walked in. >_____>;;


Anyways, we all met back up, had some more pictures taken, and then went to the Fairhope Waffle House. I don't really know how to describe what happened there... I don't think I'll discuss it, if not solely because I know I can't do it justice.
But we did meet Ted and have an all around good time.

Overall, it was a great night. I'm looking forward to tomorrow. And I'm sorry about how terrible my typing is tonight, I'm exhausted. -___-
Goodnight!


-David

More vidja games

Other vidja games coming out this month that I want:

Dragon Age Origins: Awakenings - $40




Pokemon: Heart Gold - $35 (Already paid a $10 for it)




Left 4 Dead 2 DLC: "The Passing" - cost unknown





And I'll also be needing a Harddrive for my 360, as well as the other Dragon Age DLC. Blah, luckily no other good games come out for a few months (As far as I know, at least) so I'll have plenty of time to get these bad boys. :P

-David

Oh God... Muscle March

Not much has been going on these past few days that's been worth blagging about, so pardon my lack of updates.

So yeah, some things that are coming up: This weekend is going to be great. Saturday morning/early afternoon, I'm going to go see the new Alice in Wonderland with Kathy and a few other people. It's going to be pretty sweet, I think! And that evening I'm going to be spending some time with Emily. :3
Saturday's gonna be fun.

Then Sunday is Colin Byrne's Eagle Scout ceremony, so I'm going to that. And then I have midterms next week (Bleh) and then it's SPRING BREAK!

But Spring Break is going to be eh because I'm going to be spending the whole break with the Trombone Choir on a trip up to Washington DC. I mean, it's not that bad (I'm kind of excited) but there are other things I'd rather be doing, you know? Oh well!

And then I'm going to be going to Fairhope's Prom at the end of the month. That should be exciting. Hopefully it won't be lame but I can manage to have fun if it is.

"If it is" is a fun phrase. Three two letter words starting with 'i'? Ooooh, I could make it "If it is in" and that would make it even MORE awesome! I think that's about as good as it can get? Unless I'm allowed to repeat words, making the sentence "If it is in it" and thereby COMPLETING THE CIRCLE OF AWESOMENESS

...An odd tangent to go off on. I apologise. But yeah, so all of that is happening this month(!), so it's going to be pretty hectic.

But, stress doesn't worry me, because I just bought the best game ever. It's called "Muscle March."



Just... wow. It's amazing. Words can't describe how much fun it is. Seriously. And for just $5? (I already had $9 credit left in my Nintendo account, so I didn't even have to spend any money [right now] to buy it!) Great deal. It's colourful, upbeat, quirky, and fast-paced. Fun stuff.

But yeah, that's about it. :3


-David

Saturday

Tonight was a good night.

<3

They're all hookers when they're dead!

I am in Fairhope for the weekend! And I got my weekend started off RIGHT.

I went to Theory this morning at 10:00. We got our tests back (I made a 91) and then went on a FIELD TRIP!
But the field trip was boring as hell- we got to sit in on a MUSIC THEORY CONVENTION. It's about as exciting as thirty Theorists sitting in a room talking can be, unfortunately. But there was a refreshments table, so it was worth it! And being bored outside of class is much better than being bored in class, anyway.

After that, I went back to my room and threw all my stuff together. Packed it all up, got in my car, and hit the road around 11:30. Made it back to Fairhope just after 1:00 and made a beeline to the Coffee Loft. I got myself an Iced Coffee and a Hummus Bagel (So good) and got back to work on Lucidity for a bit. Tom and some girl showed up and hung out with me while I worked, and then after about two hours, I finished! So I invited people to come, and LOTS OF PEOPLE CAME.

Within almost no time, there was Macey and Hannah and Lowell and Tom and Cleveland and Wally and Dane and Taylor and Houston a few other people I don't know/don't like. :D
It was a real party.

After spending a good five hours at the Coffee Loft with people, we ("We" being me, Hannah, Kathy, and Wally) went over to my house and played some Left 4 Dead 2 all evening. Lulz were had when I stole Sarah's Coke and more lulz were had when Wally and I talked to Bulger over LIVE. They all ended up leaving around 11:00.

Overall, it's been a GREAT Friday. I can't wait to see how the rest of the weekend turns out. I'm hoping... <3


-David

Classy.

I have a new favourite thing to do to relax. Make myself feel classy.

First, I go here and start listening. Then, I open up this playlist and just sit back and enjoy.

Makes me wish I had a pipe and a nice glass of scotch and was sitting in a lounge chair in front of a fireplace.

Oh well. Tea will do.

New nightly ritual? Damn straight.
I hope you can enjoy it, too.


-David

Lucidity

I dunno why, but I was sitting in class today and this came into my head. As soon as I was able, I went back to my dorm and recorded it. I'm sure I could easily expand upon it later, but I just wanted to get something down, you know?

And, after many edits, you can download the MIDI file here.

Alas, I haven't been able to record it yet, but it will sound a lot better when I do. I'll keep you guys updated. ;)

-David

My love is like a red red rose...

I love this song, but this is by far the best version of it I've heard.



Such a gorgeous song. <3


-David

Everything is subjective, and that's a FACT

Davidio leans forward, gently wiping the tears from your eyes. You look up at him, and he gives you a dashing smile and a wink. And then, with a nod of his head, he teleports away.

He's gone.

15 albums that you should have on your iPod.

Hello there.

I know, I know, I haven't blagged in a while. I apologise for that, but I feel like you guys wouldn't really care about my mundane life (I know I don't), so I tend to only post EXCITING THINGS or other things of general interest.

So, as all of you know, I'm pretty big into music. I mean, I'm a Music Ed major, I rarely go everywhere without my iPod, and I know all the words to "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls. It's fair to say that I know my stuff, I guess.
And while I only have ~8500 songs on my computer, I'd like to make this list for you.

In no particular order, these are 15 albums that everyone should get.


1) The Hazards of Love - The Decemberists



2) Far - Regina Spektor



3) Armistice - MuteMath



4) Bastards of the Beat - The Damnwells



5) The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place - Explosions in the Sky



6) Let Live And Let Ghost - Jukebox the Ghost



7) Lungs - Florence & The Machines



8) Maroon - The Barenaked Ladies



9) Get Away From Me - Nellie McKay



10) Razorlight - Razorlight



11) Soul Vaccination: Tower of Power Live - Tower of Power



12) Texas - Playradioplay



13) We Gave It All Away... Now We Are Taking It Back - Mungolian Jetset



14) You And Me Against The World - Apoptygma Berzerk



15) Junior - Röyksopp




And there you go. All of these get my stamp of approval and you should definitely get them if you aren't already listening to them.


-David

Sigh.

So, I'm single.

I really don't want to talk about it, but I figured that this is a pretty big thing and that you guys should know. So there it is.

Two months and twenty three days.


-David

Haircut? More like HairCUTE!

I swear to God, I'm going to use that "Haircut or HairCUTE" until everyone hates me.

But yeah, new hair. Awesome.

-David

This is what happens when I try too hard:

You Complete Me.

I didn't make this, but I love it nonetheless.

L'amour est dans l'air...

Today is VALENTINES DAY which means that everyone who is in a relationship should DO NOTHING EXCEPT TALK ABOUT HOW MUCH THEY LOVE THEIR SIGNIFICANT OTHER and everyone who is single can't do anything except BITCH ABOUT HOW MUCH VALENTINE'S DAY SUCKS. Those are the rules.

But I actually like Valentine's Day. I don't know why, really. I mean, honestly, it's no different than any other day except with more chocolate. Maybe that's why I like it, the chocolate. But regardless, I don't mind it. And I don't see the point in bitching about "how much it sucks" or how "it's nothing but a gimmick to try to market love" and such. It's just a day and if it sucks it's YOUR FAULT, not the holiday's. People need to learn to enjoy themselves.

Which is what I've been doing these past few days. Because it is Mardi Gras! So I've been partying and parading. I walked alongside a float in the MOJ parade on Friday, and I played my trombone in the KOMM parade. Luckily, I don't think I'll be conned into participating in any more parades, so I can just relax and watch the ones coming up. It'll be fun.


Speaking of relaxing and having fun, I'm going to Ben's tomorrow. With the gang. It'll be awesome. I mean, -technically- they have school, but the school board is dumb (for more reasons than just this) so pretty much everybody is skipping anyway. So, yeah, tomorrow is Ben's and then another game night at Macey's. Hurray!


Also, I went to the movies today with Emily, Jen, and Sara. Saw Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, which is apparently based off of a book that I've never heard of. My thoughts on the movie:
Enjoyable and entertaining, but it suffers in terms of characters, I think. Well, the main character. The biggest flaw of the movie was that Percy, who JUST FOUND OUT TWO DAYS AGO that he's a Demi-God (Spoilers?) is kicking the ass of people who have been training ALL OF THEIR LIVES. The second he's introduced to people, he's put up on a pedestal when that shouldn't be happening. It really took away from the immersion, I thought, because instead of getting into it and really enjoying the film, I was caught up in the scepticism. Overall, I'd give it a 7/10.

And that's about it, really. Have a good Valentine's Day, I suppose.



-David

Pokémon

So, they've confirmed that a fifth generation of Pokémon games are on the way, and have posted pictures of the first Pokémon from Gen V:



That's Zorua on the left, which evolves to Zoroark on the right.

First of all, I think that's pretty badass. On February 7th, they showed a silhouette of Zoroark (I love this name, by the way- it's right on par with some of the genius names they usually have. More on this in a sec.) and I managed to accurately predict that it would be a Fox and that it would be Dark type.
Which is where the name comes from. "Zorro" is Spanish for fox, and the "ark" at the end of his name likely comes from the word "Dark." Thus, he's a dark fox. Fairly creative, I'm impressed. Although, the creators of Pokémon don't get nearly as much credit as they deserve.


Which brings me to my next point: the social stigma of teenagers (and older) playing Pokémon games, when they're clearly marketed to kids. I don't know how many times I've gotten a "Aren't you a bit old to play Pokémon?" or "Yeah, I played Pokémon when I was a kid, but I play games for my age group now. I've grown up." comment from someone, and I find it amazing how incredibly stupid these comments are.

As a comparison, I'll use Disney.


As you can see, pretty much anything you can say about Disney applies to Pokémon.

I mean, the Pokémon games have the exterior of friendship and love, but if you look past that godawful message and ignore the stupid (lack of a) plot, Pokémon is one of the most extensive and in-depth competitive RPGs in existence.

I link you to sites such as Smogon, The Libelldra Forge, and Shoddy Battle as examples of how large the competitive Pokémon community is. The mechanics of the games are extremely complex and the metagame is constantly changing. It's a game of prediction and skill, kind of like chess but more difficult. Like Disney, if you look past the kiddy façade, there is a ton of stuff made just for older gamers.

And then you have the purists, who believe that the designs for the newer Pokémon are getting more and more lazy and uninspired. I can't help but to disagree there as well- the original 151 have more lazy, lackluster, and uninspired Pokémon than any other generation. I'll give you a sample of a debate I was in earlier today:

In each newer generation of pokemon, the pokemon are always lamer and less-creative than the previous generation. so i'm kind of scared to see what they come up with this time considering they started to make pokemon out of inanimate objects in the 4th generation.

To which I replied

That simply isn't true.

For one, they've had Pokemon based off of inanimate objects in 1st Gen (Voltorb, Electrode, Magnemite, Magneton, Grimer, Muk, Porygon) and the first gen was extremely uninspired and lazy (Seel/Dewgong and Jigglypuff/Wigglytuff are some of the most uninspired Pokemon I've seen; Diglett -> Dugtrio is lazy, along with Magnemite -> Magneton, Grimer -> Muk, Voltorb -> Electrode, Poliwag -> Poliwhirl -> Poliwrath are all examples of laziness in designing evolutions for the original Pokemon.)

Also, the simplistic nature of the first gen is something that simply doesn't exist in a natural setting- the newer Pokemon are much more detailed and defined.... See more

And that's just in the first gen. There are good and bad Pokemon in each Gen, but if you look at it objectively, you have to see that the first gen was the worst. Each subsequent game improves the gameplay mechanics and the concepts. Take off the nostalgia goggles.

And lastly, the Pokemon they've revealed for Gen V so far are extremely badass: http://www.serebii.net/generation5/

If you're going to make a point (Newer pokemon are inferior to older Pokemon) at least cite some examples. :3

(If you'd like some examples as to the aesthetics of the Pokémon in each generation, you can look here for the sprites of all 493 Pokemon, divided by generation)

Arguing Pokémon like it's srs bsns. Awwww yeah.

I really don't know where I'm going with this. I guess TL;DR is that if something is fun when you're a kid, don't limit yourself by societal standards. There's no reason you're ever "too old" for something that you love, and if other people tell you that you are, they're idiots. You can never be too old for fun.

And that's why I still play Pokémon.


-David

Show your Valentine that you really care. Use a condom.

MAN this weekend was exhausting. I really don't know where to begin. We had Trombone Day on Saturday, so that was a pretty big deal.

Friday, I got to sleep in because there was no Theory. Sleeping in is always a plus. So, waking up at 10:45, I strolled over to Anthropology sat through another boring lecture. And then, at noon, I was free! I went and grabbed some lunch before heading over to the Performing Arts Center (PAC) to get out my horn and practice before a lesson with Tom Riccobono, a renowned trombone player visiting for the weekend.


Tom Riccobono


He's an extremely nice guy, and in the short amount of time I spent in the lesson (Only thirty minutes), he taught me quite a bit about how to better my breathing and tonguing technique.
After my lesson, I went down to the lobby and began constructing my BRAND NEW BASS TROMBONE.

I met with the guy from Sheridan Brass, and we began picking out slides, leadpipes, bells, valves, mouthpieces, tuning slides... Basically, building a trombone from the ground up. My parents arrived shortly afterwards, and we spent a good two hours mixing and matching until we got one that everybody thought sounded great.

Eventually, we decided on a horn with a gold alloy coating, a B1 1Y bell, a 2G mouthpiece, and a Tru-Bore valve system.


Not mine, but a Tru-Bore valve with a B1 1Y bell.


Overall, it was a very sexy (and expensive) horn. I got to really play on it that evening at the dress rehearsal and the difference was astounding. It sounded great and it played very well.

After the dress rehearsal, I went to have an amazing dinner with family and some family friends in town. It was a great dinner, and I ended up going to bed early.
I woke up the next morning at 8:00, and I headed over to the PAC to get ready for Trombone Day.

There were some warm-ups, some master classes, blah blah, nothing that exciting. Got some Mexican food with my family for lunch, and then back to the PAC. The afternoon is when things started to get exciting. Mark Mullins, the principle trombonist for the band Bonerama, gave a masterclass and showed off some of his electronic gear.



Mark Mullins.


Yes, electronic gear. You see that mic connected to his bell? It goes to a gateway connected to a floorboard with a Wah-Wah pedal and a Harmonizer, leading out to an amp. Essentially, an electric trombone. It was awesome.


Here's an example.

And then, a little after two, there were some concerts. First, Tom Riccobono performed for us, mostly classical etudes and such. It was great. And then, Mark Mullins played with the Hub Bones, playing some jazz, funk, and rock. It was amazing.
After the concerts, we rehearsed again for the final concert, and then dismissed for dinner.

My parents and I went to Raising Cane's for some chicken fingers before going back to campus. There, we got ready for the final performance, featuring both guest artists, the USM trombone choir, the USM Hub Bones, and the festival choir of all the trombone players that came up for the day. It sounded great, and everyone liked it.



The Trombone Choir playing with the festival choir for the last piece. Try to find me!


Afterwards, we cleaned up and went back to our rooms. I got to talk a bit to both the guest artists some more, which was neat, but I ended up going to bed fairly early again.

The next morning, Sunday, I woke up at ten to go get some breakfast with the parents before they headed home. We went to IHOP and had a pretty great meal. But they left and I went on my way. I did some homework, but then I went over to Gamestop and picked up Left 4 Dead 2. I've been playing that since. It's a great game.


EDIT: Oh, and the title. I'm sure you're wondering about that. In the Hub, they had a table giving out condoms to promote safe sex for Valentine's day. Not very funny in itself, but the sign they had said what's quoted in the title. It made me and my friends laugh.

I lol'd.

A quick little funny story.

I went to log on to /b/, but found out that the IP was banned- someone else at the school had done something stupid and ruined it for everyone. However, there is a "Contest ban" form at the bottom.

Well, this is what was there:

"This IP is from University of Southern Mississippi wireless internet for students. Any of several thousand students could be using it on any given day. Please unban. Thanks.
(Update) This ban was placed on me as well. for the same reason.
(Update 2) I am also affected by this ban.

Original offender here, I would still like to know when this spamming happened if possible. And to the USM students who keep checking this. Problem, Golden Eagles? *trollface*

Update: Original offender is an awesome bro doing the students of USM a favor.

Update: Successful troll is successful?"


Successful troll is VERY successful.

Said Sytherin, "We'll teach just those whose ancestry is purest."

Thursdays are blah. Especially when it's cold, wet and dreary like today is.

Some things I thought I'd let you all know:

Regarding the title of this post, I recently found an AWESOME Hogwarts House test. It's pretty in-depth, and instead of just saying which House you'd be in, it gives you percentages of each house, so you can compare.

My scores?
Slytherin - 79
Ravenclaw - 73
Gryffindor - 65
Hufflepuff - 50

It's pretty close to how I imagined it, so hurray. Here's the link, if you'd like to take it, too. Tell me your results! :D

Another kickass Harry Potter resource, while we're on the subject:

The Parselmouth

It's a website that lets you put in any word, and it TRANSLATES IT TO PARSELTONGUE and then plays it back to you. It's useless, but that's what makes it awesome.


Also, the Brawl tourney is going to start tonight, and it'll last throughout all of February. The rules are as follows, copied from Crim's blog:

*3 STOCK
*LOW ITEMS
*NO HAMMERS/GOLD HAMMERS
*SPAMMING MOVES OR STAGES AND LEDGE GRABBING ARE FROWNED UPON
*TAUNT AT YOUR OWN RISK
*PLEASE TRACK YOU AND YOUR OPPONENT'S NUMBER OF LIVES AT THE END OF A MATCH AND TELL ME
*YOU WILL FACE EVERYONE TWICE BY THE END OF FEBRUARY
*WIN BY SUICIDE MOVES WILL BE CONSIDERED A LOSS IF YOU BOTH HAD ONE LIFE
*ANNOUNCE A SP GRANDE MATCH AT THE CHATZY FIRST!
*YOU CANNOT DO BOTH MATCHES AGAINST SOMEONE IN THE SAME WEEK

Pretty meh rules, but definitely do-able. Personally, I'd like no items except for the Smash Ball, and move-spamming and ledge grabbing are both techniques that are easily avoided, so I don't see why they'd need a specific mention. Other than that, it's going to be a pretty alright tourney, I think.

The participants:
Crim
Isaac
Kat
Ang
Argol
Nights
Davidio
Crimshad
Fridge(Will possibly try)


I'll try to do one or two of my matches tonight, so expect another post later.


Last thing: Tomorrow I start getting ready for Trombone Day. And my family is coming to visit. D'awww.

Have a good Thursday!


-David

But he never expected the ninja to vanish... With his heart.

Today has been an alright day so far.

I actually woke up and STAYED AWAKE, meaning that I could get breakfast BEFORE noon today! It was wonderful. Theory was boring, Anthropology was boring, then in the hour between that and piano, I had to sort out some problems that the School of Music was having with me.

If you failed to turn in all of your marching band uniform before a specified deadline, they'd put your account on Hold and charge you a late fee. I think it's pretty reasonable. But when I turn in everything A MONTH BEFORE THE DEADLINE and they STILL put my account on hold and charge me, I get kind of pissed off. >:|
I talked to them about it, and they said "They'd check."
Man, screw them.

Piano was piano. I should probably start practicing more, but eh. I really don't feel like it. Oh well.

After piano, I went to Subway and got the most delicious sub: A footlong on Italian Herbs and Cheese bread with Roast Beef, Pepperonis, Bacon, Monteray Jack cheese, Mustard, Mayo, Jalapeños, cucumbers, pickles, spinach, and tomatoes. Om nom nom. I also got some Barbecue chips (Lays, of course) for later and some Vault. Awesome meal.

And now, I'm debating starting on my Theory project, registering all the crap I need to register for Anthropology, or working out OTHER things. Hurray for too much to do!
And on a side note, still no word (yet) on the Jonathan Coulton concert. Hmmm. It's starting to look iffy.

Upcoming events:
-This weekend is Trombone Day. I'll be getting a private lesson with one of the guest artists on Friday (Hopefully with my new horn) and my family will be coming up for the weekend. Then busy all Saturday and I don't know what'll be going on Sunday. Some friends want to visit, but that's kind of a weird day. We'll have to see.

-Also, more on Operation: Zombie Apocalypse at Wal-Mart. Wally and Chis aren't in, but I still have Mosher and Macey saying they're willing to do it. It'll have to take place in the evening, because I'll spend the morning at the KOMM Mardi Gras Parade down in Point Clear. I think this Mardi Gras break will be spectacular.

-And then, we have Valentines Day after that. I won't be able so spend time with Rin, so I'll be participating in Operation: We've Got Love. I haven't made any plans yet, but eh. I'll think of something.
(Video for details can be found here)

-No word yet on the Brawl tourney.


So... yeah. I think that's all for now. Time to stop slacking and get busy doing SCHOOLWORK. Pfffft, as if.



-David

Third post's a charm...

Three posts in one day? What is this madness?

Well... I need money. :|

Things coming up that I'll need to spend money on:
-February 12-15: Going home for Mardi Gras. ~$25 for gas, and then maybe another $15 for spending while in town. Total = $40
-BEFORE February 15: Tickets for DragonCon this fall, $70. The price goes up to $80 after the 15th, so I'll need to get them soon. More info on DragonCon later. Total = $110
-March 4: Jonathan Coulton and They Might Be Giants IN CONCERT in Birmingham. I'll only be going to this if friends go, and that whole situation is complicated* so I don't know. Tickets are $21 (!!!!!) and then there's gas and food money, which would probably be about less than or equal to $30 (Assuming people can all chip in for gas, the more friends that go, the less I spend). Total = ~$150

Blargh.


*It's at 7:00pm on a Thursday night, and I have class until 2:00- I'd have to leave pretty much right after class because it's ~4 hours to get to Birmingham from Hattiesburg. Not too bad, right? Well, like I said, the only way I'll be able to go is if friends can go, too. I've asked a few friends and none of them are interested. Well, none of my COLLEGE friends, at least. Cleveland and Wally might be able to go, but that presents even MORE complications because they are STILL IN HIGH SCHOOL. So this one might be a no-go. Sigh.



Oh well. Enough complaining for now.


-David

Dohohoho!

So, I think that Concert band is going to alright. Today was our first rehearsal, and I don't even care that it sounded terrible. I got to make two "Statler and Waldorf"-esque jokes, just like back at Fairhope.

The first one was after reading through a song called With Quiet Courage. When the song ended, I turned to Nathan next to me and said "The audience is going to need some courage to sit through THAT! Dohohoho!"

And then, later in the rehearsal, we played Rolling Thunder, which got a "Rolling Thunder? That was more of a Rolling BLUNDER if you ask me! Dohohoho!"




It was a good rehearsal.



-David

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Yes, that's right. Today is GROUNDHOG'S DAY.

Which means that after class is over this afternoon, I'm going to watch the movie "Groundhog Day" this evening to celebrate. Hurray!

Now as for the actual event, there are some mixed news results as to whether or not we'll have more winter. Copied from the Huffington Post:

"Most local groundhogs did not see their shadows on Groundhog Day 2010, even though the most famous one of all did.

Punxsutawney Phil's Groundhog Day 2010 prediction was six more weeks of winter, as he did see his shadow.

But how about Buckeye Chuck, Staten Island Chuck, Jimmy The Groundhog, and General Lee Groundhog?

None of them saw their shadows."


Now, I've never even HEARD of any of those other guys, but some research shows that they've all got quite a following in their home states. But, who cares, right? Punx Phil saw his shadow AND THAT'S WHAT MATTERS, DAMN IT.


Also, I got to sleep in this morning, which was a nice Groundhog's Day treat- Aural Skills was cancelled, Dr. Tychinski is out of town so I didn't have a lesson, and then Recital class wasn't until 11. It was nice to actually get some sleep (for once).

And that's why I love Groundhog's Day.



Coming up: Operation: Zombie Apocalypse at Wal Mart.
All the details are here, and I'm hoping to amass quite a showing at the Fairhope Wal-Mart. So far, I have Macey and Cleve in on it, but we haven't made any plans yet. If any of my Fairhope friends read this and want to participate, let me know.


That is all.
Happy Groundhog's Day, everyone!



-David

Ask me anything!

http://formspring.me/sirdavidio


Yes, I've gotten myself a Formspring.

You may now ask me any question you'd like, completely anonymous. And I'll most likely answer it. If you've always wanted to ask me a question, but never got the chance, well, here's your chance.


-David

It's curtains for you!

Lacy, gently wafting curtains...


I'm thinking of rewatching Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog this afternoon, so I'm listening to the music while I do my laundry. I was singing "Freeze Ray" aloud earlier, just because of the first line ("Laundry day, see you there, under things tumbling) and because the setting is in the laundromat. It's weird how the mind works, isn't it? Doing laundry makes me want to watch a movie, ha.

Anyway, this is going to be a fairly short post, as I haven't been up to anything exciting.

First things first: Brawl.

So, as I mentioned here a week or so back, I've started to talking to Crim, Argol, Suichi, Angie, and all of them again, and we're having a Brawl tourney sometime next month.
Well, I'm not exactly the best player at Brawl. I mean, I hardly ever shield, I have trouble dodging, and I rely too much on my smashes. -__-;
But nonetheless, I'm entering the tourney. So I'm going to need to be practising. I think I'm probably going to enter as Snake, since I seem to be the best with him.

To test my school's connection, though, I had a few matches with Angie last night. The connection was surprisingly good, no lag whatsoever. We played probably close to 20 matches, and she slaughtered me. ;____;
Seriously, I only won one match. (And even then, it was close!)

So.... yeah. I need practice.


And now, I must move my laundry from the washer to the drier. Joy!



-David

Team Edward and Team Jacob are *so* last year...

There is a new team to root for...

Team David Hale.

Need I say more? If you have a Facebook, you should become a fan.

Also, it appears that the Night of the Great Shuffle is over, because my iTunes has gone back to its typical "Meh" attitude when it comes to selecting songs. It was short lived, but an amazing experience. I hope it happens again soon.

That's about all I have today. Later.


-David

The Night of Great Shuffle

Tonight is the night.

The night that the Shuffle Function on iTunes selects nothing but the best music.

To demonstrate my point, I will show you all the songs mine has played:

I selected "Jennifer B" - Andrew Pants
It then went to:

"Existentialism on Prom Night" - Straylight Run
"Madi Don't Leave" - Playradioplay
"Here (In Your Arms)" - Hellogoodbye
"In The Morning And Amazing..." - Circa Survive
"This Love" - Maroon 5
"Working Class Hero" - John Lennon
"What You Get" - The Damnwells
"Hold It In" - Jukebox the Ghost
"Far Away" - Ingrid Michaelson
"Six Feet From The Edge" - Creed
"The Curse of Curves" - Cute Is What We Aim For

And then I turned it off, because I need to go to sleep. But I figured I'd need to spread the word of this awesome event.
Also, it was happening to Emily, too, so it's not just a freak accident. You should try it out, too. I don't know how long this will last.

Goodnight, world, and may your shuffle function treat you right.


-David

A few things.

Just a few things, really. Should be a fairly short post.

So, last night I realised how much I hate fire alarms. It was about 10:00, and I was planning on going to bed early. I'd had a rough afternoon and was tired. So I shower, get in bed... and the alarm goes off.
I have to get dressed again and go outside (and I forgot to bring my phone. D: ) and wait around for a bit. I don't even think there was an actual fire, but it wasn't a drill, because they had people go in and we weren't allowed to enter again for about forty minutes. Blech.


Also, today, I realised something about coffee shops that aren't named "Coffee Loft."
I learned that their baristas are idiots.

One of my favourite drinks for a hot day is an iced coffee (with milk) with a shot of Hazelnut in it. It's not a hard concept: You get a cup, put a shot of Hazelnut flavouring in the cup, then add some ice, pour some iced coffee in there, then add a little bit of milk. It's extremely simple. Yet, EVERY TIME I try to order it (except for at Coffee Loft) they manage to screw it up. Whether they forget the milk (which isn't too bad) to confusing it with an Iced Caramel Macciato (I don't even know how they came to that) to forgetting the flavour shot, NO PLACE I'VE BEEN TOO CAN DO SOMETHING AS EASY AS MIXING THREE LIQUIDS IN A CUP. I honestly don't get it.
Pisses me off.

Also, look what I taught myself how to play this afternoon:



Wooooooo.


So yeah, that's about it.



-David

The right way to start the day.

Going over to Krispy Kreme while the earth is still dark and the doughnuts are still steaming.

This will be a good day.

The colour of infinity inside an empty glass...

Whew. It's been a busy few days.

A few things to talk about tonight. First on my agenda will be school.
I have a relatively light courseload this semester (Only 13 hours ;__;),so I have a lot of free time to practice (Which I really need to get into the habit of doing) and to relax and play some video games. But more on this later.

My classes aren't too bad, really:
-Music Theory 102: MWF 10:00
How much I like it: 6/10
-Anthropology 101: MWF 11:00
How much I like it: 5/10
-Piano 201: MW 13:00
How much I like it: 8/10
-Trombone Choir: M 19:00
How much I like it: 8/10
-Aural Skills 102: TuTh 8:00
How much I like it: 9/10
-Trombone Lessons: Tu 10:00
How much I like it: 6/10
-Recital Class: Tu 11:00
How much I like it: 5/10
-Jazz Bones: Th 11:00
How much I like it: ?/10*

*I haven't had this one yet, so I can't judge


Anyway, those are all of my classes. Like I said, a fairly light load. Most of my teachers seem to be alright, so that's good.

You may have seen above that I said I've had more room for practising and playing video games. Which is true. Over the past few days, I've gotten back into Mario Kart, and I've been playing online for a while each night. I've mostly just played with Vaati or on random Worldwide VS Races, but it's been fun. Stuck at about 8500VR, though. >:|

I recently talked to Argol online again, and he gave me the link for a chat that has a lot of my old friends from when I was a member of the Semi-Pros. So, it's been nice talking to Crim and others again. :D

Also, voice chatting. I want. For some reason, I just got the urge to get into voice/video chatting again. Which means I'll need to pick up a webcam. Those are only like $20, right? >___>
Either way, I'm going to be getting one soon. I really don't know where the urge came from, but it'll be fun. :D
And I'll be able to talk to friends while I'm playing Mario Kart, instead of saying one or two sentences between races. Or use it to talk -during- races, even!

Sigh, I need to get my mind off of Mario Kart. Seriously.



And now, for something completely different.

There are a few things coming up. First and foremost, not this weekend, but the weekend AFTER is Trombone Day, which is kind of a big deal. And it's an even bigger deal for me, because I'll be getting my new Bass Trombone! :D
You don't know how excited I am.

Also, in a few more weeks, I'll be coming home again for Mardi Gras. I'll leave school after classes on the 12th, spend all of the 13th helping with and playing the the K.O.M.M. Parade down in Point Clear, and then I don't really know what I'll be doing on Valentine's Day. Rin won't be in town. Sigh.
And then I have the 15th and 16th off, too, so I'll be hanging out with friends and such. There are a few people I haven't seen in ages that I -really- hope I can spend time with.

And I think that's about it for tonight. I've been thinking a lot recently and I need to stop. Thinking about feelings. Blech. No good can come of this.
Goodnight, all.


-David