LONG TIME, NO BLOG!

WHAT UP PEEPS.

yea so i haven't blogged on here since.... i was still in high school WHOOAA. that seems like an eternity now haha!

so how's all your lives been going?

It was great being able to see the marching band strut their stuff on the field from the stands. completely different mainly because i could see all the errors that i would get on people's case about. like a baritone sax completely missing the yardline on a very long halt... dahah! yea seeing all that made me want to tech ayala. but would i really have the time for that? probably not.

theres a 4th year (i think he's 4th year) who is apparently teaching at Mayfair HS and i know him since we both play in saxophone ensemble together. i was very surprised to see that he was at the show. and in relevance to that, he had a masterclass that he played in and i wasn't very impressed since he's a 4th year.. oh well

anyways, it was great catching up with all the high schoolers i used to spend every lunch with haha. college has been great! i'm enjoying the freedom. however there's more pressure on every test that i take since each test is like a quarter of my entire grade and you really can't risk to mess up on any tests. so far the worst grade i've gotten on a test (out of 2 i've taken so far) is a 70% because it was out of 10 questions. eh whatever i'll do better on the next one. midterm is going to be crazy for anthropology. looots of stuff that can be covered on the test.

and for the music aspect, i've been enjoying it. i hate concert band because its like high school concert band all over again but it's a better group. we have some awesome flute soloists and i'm now principal tenor saxophone for the group cuz there was supposed to be one guy ahead of me but he never shows up. none of the music is difficult. one of the pieces i need to work out because its just something you can't just sightread no problem. I've been doing 3 hour practice sessions. which are usually at night or middle of the day since those are the times my practice rooms are usually vacant. it's been a good experience here in the music program.

i'm probably going to sell this new saxophone i just got. it's a great horn no doubt, but for the price, i could get something better such a selmer Mark VI which are considered the best horns on the planet.

everyone's blogspot is dyinggg

including mine lololol

wowzers

It has been a most eventful past few weeks since I've last blogged on here. Almost two months XD

So I'm going to make a blog on here just for blogspot!


Ok well I took a while to finally get around to writing this since I needed to do my english senior manuscript. but now i'm done!

I'm really excited for PROM thats in two days!!! So far everything is working out just great! =) I'm really glad I didn't have to do much planning this year such as dealing with the transportation and everything since that was always difficult. Also the location is much better this year. Dana Point Ocean Institute. I saw some pictures online and it looks really cool. Next to the beach I think it is. Party bus and everything wooo! =) and then the following day is kristen sang's bday party!!

Also, the stuff that I'm playing for senior talent show and also senior song is coming along great. I learned the senior song super quick since its really easy on guitar. talent show stuff has been fun. we had our audition today and it went pretty well i think. idk why but we all seemed to have gotten nervous lol. probably because we're used to the hallway full of just random people walking around.

I don't think i've mentioned on here but I'm going to CSULB for suure! I'm excited since I took a look around at the campus after my placement exam for english which was extremely easy haha. theres a lot of nice artwork all around the school. i should upload some pics i took while i was there. i'm very excited for the next few months in my life.

another note. i have some badass senioritis for trig class XD. i have like a 79.5 X_X. i could get my B back if i try to do really well on the next test. But not likely. we shall see. if that happens it would be awesome though cuz i might get a A in english!

ok I'm done writing for this. I kinda want to do some other things besides write.

Wow i haven't touched this blogspot in the longest time it seems like. i'm more active on xanga. i just feel better there.

http://i-own-at.xanga.com/weblog/

i should've picked a better url. that was back in the days of arrogance. well back to studying trig T_T

i question myself

I'm sitting here attempting to study for my Government AP course. The test is tomorrow. It has 70 something questions on it and I have only been studying for maybe an hour. It was a very unfocused study session that my back was very sore. I don't know why my back is sore after I run or just from school. Anyways, I'm actually writing a blog more like my other counterparts on wordpress and blogspot. With all the capitals and correct grammar you can think of. (not really)

I question myself wondering, "Should I have really taken Gov. AP?" In the first semester, it was much easier in that the tests for the first half were no larger than 40 questions. It has now since doubled that size and has become extremely difficult for me to be able to retain so much information. Especially since I also have difficulty retaining what goes on in class. No doubt, Mr. Christiansen is the best teacher I've ever had in my entire life. But the tests are whats killing me! 80 questions on one chapter???? Lately, my test scores have been lucky enough to reach a C-.... while almost everybody around me gets a B or better. I wonder at times how I would do if I was in a regular government class. I would definitely be getting an A. But how would it have affected my college acceptances? Perhaps not very much. The main factor for me I recall now is the fact that I HATE being in classes with stupid people all around me. Nothing worse than being the smart one out of a bunch of stoners... also a cause of distractions. I do tend to get distracted and trail off in my mind in Gov AP.

Maybe it's because I constantly have a song in my head, or just thinking about random stuff. High school has officially become boring to me. However, Salvation is soon to come.

back to the norm

so today was a lot better than yesterday XD. i woke up around 9. i just relaxed and took it easy getting ready for school. normally it takes me a while so i really took my time. it was very very nice =)

showed up around 10:15ish and found all the other people who are in my 1st period inside the band room since thats where were lead to yesterday after the sub had to leave. so upon showing up in there i went into stone's office and talked to him about my acceptance to both CSULB and APU.

we talked about the teachers, location, education, costs. he said go to the school with good teachers. CSULB definitely has good sax teachers. the two main ones (Sal Lozano, and Jay Mason) play in the Gordon Goodwin Big Phat Band. which is probably the best big band in the world. no joke. APU has Rusty Higgins who is also an amazing player. mr. stone said to help me out even more i should make a pro's and cons list for each college. so i think i'll do that here. they both have great jazz ensembles too.

CSULB

pros cons

-decent dorms -farther drive
-good distance from home -no commercial music study
-nice location (irvine XD) -higher demand in music department
-conservatory of music -only one scholarship for lessons ($550-1000)
-overall cost around $15,000 - dorms might not be that great
-lots of clubs and activities -campus doesn't look that great
-great teachers
-lots of opportunity for the future
-voted 3rd best value in the nation
by priceton

APU

pros cons

-nice dorms -christian affilation
-already ahve 10 grand in scholarships -close to home lol
-very nice faculty -private university= $$$$$$ (36 grand)
-nice facilities -campus is at two sites
-christian affiliation -not sure how good their music really is
-commercial music major -not sure about success afterwards
-close to home
-they actually call me about stuff

so i'm probably gonna add more to this list tomorrow when i have more time to think. i should be heading off to bed soon since i wake up so dam early! X__X

oh and i checked UCLA admittances today just for the hell of it. cuz if you have seen my last few blogs, i never even auditioned for them. so i went on and there was a very courteous message saying, "we regret to inform you that you did not make it into UCLA." pfftt. hahah i didn't really care to go there anyways though. especially since they didn't even give me a chance and its kinda far.

saturday is chill

i'm soore today from working out and i'm likin it =) i need to work out my pecs hahaha! so when i work out now i'm going to really focus in on the pecs cuz thats what makes you look big. for guys i'm talkin about XD today was fun. i had to go to school at 6:30 am which wasn't the fun part. it was for esperanza jazz festival. the jazz 2 band sounded fine. they won first in their division. good job! and jazz 1 we had some disturbances in the force as mr. stone said but we did well nontheless. we got 2nd by .3 but who cares about scores when it comes to jazz bands honestly. i'm considering it as a gauge of our progress rather than how we do against other schools. i got to hear some heavy class jazz bands. westlake has an awesome band. they played cut n' run by gordon goodwin which has a crazy lick in the beginning for saxes and they played it and it had a lil bit of clarity issues but its definitely better than what we could do XD. before awards there was a combo playing which was composed of the fullerton jc faculty. they were AWESOME! they're some serious pros mann. they played so in tune to each other like their ideas and what they do. it would take a while to explain so just ask me what i mean later haha! the alto sax guy was amaazing. actually everybody was in that combo. thats the level i would like to reach someday. to be able to improvise and write music like that MAN! very inspirational performance for me =) now i'm home just chillin. i got a letter from CSULB saying i got a scholarship for lessons. so it will come in the form of a waiver fee from private lessons. its worth from $550-1100 a year. i was hoping for something that was worth more... but its better than nothing. and so far APU even with all the scholarships they gave me, would still cost me 25 grand. i still believe theres more opportunity at CSULB though. i'm gonn have to talk to Mr. Stone and my teacher, ray, about my final decision.