Ya Sure, You Betcha!

2007-06-09T17:22:00.001-04:00

For those of you that haven't realized by now, this site has moved to:

http://www.540mbps.com/

Yay - my own domain!

Um, -they're- visiting my blog???

2007-03-21T20:23:00.000-04:00

I was viewing my stats page today and noticed a rather disturbing little fact. 57% of my page hits come from Apples. More than half of my users have macs!!! What the crap? Mac users represent only 6% of the computing community (Macworld) - it's thus quite an anomaly that I'm getting 10 times my share of them. I find this particularly odd considering my many posts bashing Apple (damn you iTMS...). For the last time: Apples are no longer any better at media editing than PCs. It's a myth. *sigh*

In other news, T-Tones and Sirens concert is on Sunday at 7PM in the CHS Black Box. Come on by! I think it's some sort of benefit for Women's History Month... don't really know, to be perfectly honest. I'm just a singer, after all. And speaking of singing, I'm gonna be the music director for this years' Dessert Theatre at CHS. Times are a changin', so I'm not sure exactly how much authority I'm gonna have with that title, but regardless, you should all come out and audition.

When: Wednesday, after school
Where: CHS Black Box
Sign-up for audition slots begins Monday
Bring a prepared song to sing a cappella or with accompaniment
(bring your own CD or pianist)
Have fun!
(I got in last year singing a song from
the Pokemon Movie soundtrack - be creative!)

Foolish wooden structures

2007-03-19T18:00:00.000-04:00

So I get to school today, and I find that we have wonderful new picnic tables in the courtyards where we eat lunch. Technically, we already have tables (gray plastic ones), but more seating is always welcome. But there are some distinct problems with having wooden lunch tables at a school with students who are... shall we say, less than angelic.

Problem 1: Vandalism. Wooden tables are just calling out to be written on, unlike plastic ones where most writing implements won't stick. Sure enough, I relay this observation to my friends when I first see the tables, and a few of them begin to write "Yo momma" and "Hello!" on the table.

Problem 2: Food. Ketchup spills on plastic tables are bad enough, but at least the rain washes it away in a week or two. With wooden tables, the ketchup soaks in, staining the wood and making you never want to touch it again.

Problem 3: Screws. They're everywhere on those tables! It'll be fairly easy to hurt yourself on them, let alone the splinters they'll cause.

Problem 4, and this is the big one: Fire. Let's be honest here - half the student population carry lighters to school for one reason or another. I've seen the melted sections of our current plastic tables. Now combine that with parched wood on a dry June day? This cannot turn out well...

Martian Chronicles is killing me. But I'm loving it nonetheless.

2007-03-10T18:07:00.000-05:00

My school is ridiculous. If you're late to class, the teachers are supposed to lock their doors and send you to the cafeteria, where you will disciplined [and likely not go back to your class that day]. First of all, is this really an appropriate punishment for being late to a class (for which there are many legitimate causes/excuses for)? Also, should that punishment be for the kid to miss the entire class of which they were trying to get out of? Smart. I didn't get to school until 5th period one day (my parents knew why I missed my first two classes - they were okay with it), and I tried to get into the building. Every single door, except for those at the main office, was locked. So, carrying three sets of clothing for my costume, boots, a full backpack and a case with a laptop and full voice recording equipment, I had to walk to the complete other side of the school to get in, then back across to where I was originally trying to get in to drop my things off. I'm sorry, but locking kids out of school just seems like a horribly stupid idea.

The Martian Chronicles is only four days away now, but I think we'll be ready in time. The sound design is more or less done - I just have to create the audio intro that will be played as people sit down in the audience. But I've got say - the cast is really pissing me off. Most of them are fine, but there are a lot of freshmen in it this year... Ordinarily, I'm the first one to jump to the freshmen's defense when people are bashing them, but with this particular group - man, they suck. I hate to sound like a stereotypical stuck-up theatre kid, but they have no sense of seniority. This is the first play they've been in, and some of them are trying to tell Juniors and Seniors how to say their lines.

Whew, it's only March and I'm already obsessing over my schedule for next year. I've been trying to get an internship at NBC29 for when I'm a Senior, but the internship-contact at CHS is harder to get in contact with than an administration member: she's never in her office, you can't make an appointment with her... I just have to keep dropping by randomly, hoping that she'll be there one day. Besides NBC29, I'd love to do an internship at the Music Resource Center for audio engineering. It'd be a great opportunity to get some experience producing music (on that note, Jay's been talking about doing some sort of internship for the Performing Arts Center next year, which would also be ridiculously awesome).

The dork in me resurfaced yesterday, as I found the old Pokemon forum I used to frequent back in the day. Ah, Pokemon Elite 2000... Thinking about the good old days of the turn of the millennium makes me miss Banjo-Fella's Breegull Aviary (a Banjo-Kazooie fan site) - they had a forum too, for which I eventually made moderator. Ten-year-old deleting posts by 17-year-old, telling them they're being immature... those were definitely the days.

Weekend of Audio

2007-02-25T14:02:00.000-05:00

So, I just had my first paying gig last night. I ran audio for the Bhangra Competition at the Charlottesville Performing Arts Center (it's a type of traditional Indian group dancing - pretty neat, actually), and I must say I didn't do a bad job. Heh, it ran about two hours longer than it was supposed to, but it was fun (and plus I get paid). Wearing a headset and counting down, "And, prepare lights for fade in 10 seconds. Lights in 3-2-1, aaaand fade out" - pretty much the coolest experience I've had in months. Maybe I can do it again sometime! Jay was actually talking about doing some sort of internship thing in the PAC next year... definitely would be interested.

Speaking of audio, I'm cranking down on the sound design for The Martian Chronicles tonight. I've picked up my mom's old laptop and I'll be installing Adobe Audition on it later today, and I'm about to go get some cables for the catwalk mixer. I was going to do this all last night, but how could I say no to my first paying engineering job?

I'm worried about WNRN. Ever since the Corner opened up, I've heard less and less people talking about it, and now there are all sorts of personnel problems at 91.9... The Spring Funddrive is soon - I guess we'll see what damage we've taken then....

Yay for Google rankings!

2007-02-22T17:55:00.000-05:00

So I watching TV yesterday, and realized something about car commercials (or "automobile advertisements," if you like that alliteration better) - they are some of the most expensive commercials to produce, yet those who actually sell the cars have the most pitiful advertisements ever. Just a thought.

w00t - I've finally made my way to the first page of results when you search for "michael strickland" on google (just slightly behind on my name without quotes, at number 11)! It really is a sad sign when your goal in life is to be the first result when your name is googled... Ah well, at least I admit it. I remember a few years ago when I'd put up my first websites (mostly fan pages for the video game Banjo-Kazooie)... I was so excited when I discovered I was number 80-something on a google search of my name. Well guys, only 9 more spaces to jump up! I will be very happy person if that ever happens...

short post.

I need to stop expecting so much out of the future

2007-02-19T00:35:00.000-05:00

I really shouldn't still be up - but I'm too hyped up on chocolate and Imogen Heap to be rational. Mary Poppins was excellent! It was hard to miss how similar some of the characters looked/sounded like their counterparts in the Disney movie, but I suppose that's not really a criticism. The set = amazing. It was essentially a gigantic doll house, with everything on cables; the acting was superb as well.

But of course I was a bit more excited about what I saw tonight. We were really bored and stopped by tkts to see what shows we could see - so I went to RENT! I'll admit that during the first hour, I was mostly thinking about how little movement there was on stage - kind of rediculous for a Broadway production. But, I got into it and loved the second half. It made me really annoyed that the online production of it was in never made it off the ground... But I was surprised at how many children there were there; seven- and eight-year-olds sitting down and watching a play about AIDS and survival - that's pretty intense.

Now in the theatre mindset, I've been obsessing over next year's musical, Dessert Theatre 2007, and of course, sound design for the Martian Chronicles.

Visiting New York always make me way too ambitious...

sigh I could go for some chocolate chip pancakes at the Tavern right about now...

2007-02-17T13:05:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm in New York, looking outside at the hopelessly cold air hitting the 15-story posters for Tarzan (you realize how big those image files must be? Someone's using vector-based-graphics...). And, using my mom's laptop, I'm using Vista. I really can't tell you what I think of it at the moment. For one, it's a business version, and it's also on a Sony Vaio (which my family seems to be obsessed with for some reason) which I despise. Your keyboards suck, Sony!

I'm watching Miss Cogeneality right now (wonderful movie) waiting for us to go see Mary Poppins - apparently, it's a darker version of the story. These next few days are going to be way too busy... And on top of that, I'm missing both a history and english test on Wednesday, for which I'll have to find a time to make up. Starting to panic a bit about college applications. It's quite scary. I don't want my grades over the next few months to determine what college I get into. Damn the application process. You can't judge me based on a few letters given to me by teachers over which you have no control...

Note, I realize that my coplaints against the American education system are largely based on my attempts to rationalize the "C" I have in AP US History. But hey, at least I admit it.

I hate to sound like a stereotypical teenage girl, but what the crap is with New York having so many cute boys? It's pretty rediculous. Did I say pretty yet? Okay, I'm gonna shut up now before I start sounding like a complete idiot...

Anyway, what's everyone doing this long weekend - going anywhere, seeing anyone?

Despite my efforts, school still remains at the center of my life...

2007-02-15T21:48:00.000-05:00

Haha - I didn't realize SAT scores would be back this soon - it hasn't even been three weeks! I'm not entirely sure how to put my number in perspective, but I think I did pretty well - 2160. Not exactly level with my letter grades at school, but I've already spoken about the inaccuracies and biases concerned with tracked education. My college search process kind of officially begins this weekend, since I'm going to New York to visit NYU. Yes, it's a cliche: a film/media major looking at NYU. But whatever, make fun of me on your own time.

Since school was canceled yesterday due to snow, we presented the a cappella valentine's day serenades today instead. I'd like to point out that our group had the most to present (47 - we rock). I hadn't realized how much fun it could be to literally run around the school all day singing Backstreet Boys to students and teachers of all genders. I'd post a clip of a song by us I recorded, but Blogger doesn't host audio...yet... But I have to say - stripping down to muscle shirts may have been a bit too much for some of the teachers. I realized this when Mr. Irani came up to us and told Patrick to "stop gyrating."

I'd like to take this opportunity to express how impressed I am with Monticello High School. For the past month, I've been feebly trying to get an interview with a chemistry teacher or administrator that deals with curriculum development at the Charlottesville City Schools - they'll have nothing to do with me. Even though I'm in a rather unique position to offer an unbiased account of their curriculum reforms by someone who's very well informed on the educational reform movement. But Monticello, on the other hand... I emailed their principal Tuesday night at 10PM. Within 12 hours, I had a response with the phone number of a curriculum supervisor to request permission for interviews. Keep in mind, there wasn't even school that day. To the administrative staff of MHS - I salute you.

Kudos to people that actually responded to my last post, by the way. Waldo - I had no idea you'd read my blog. Anonymous - I won't lie, that was a little creepy. But all's well.

Say Something!!!

2007-02-14T00:21:00.000-05:00

So, I feel like I want to get to know my readers better (all, like, 2 of them). Thus, this post is about you wonderful people that can't find anything better to do than read the rants of a 16-year-old kid who spends way to much time gawking over XLR connectors. Who you are, why you're here, plug your own blog...

I just looked at the TV and saw a commercial for cellphone wallpaper. Apparently, you can text "BLING" to 44644 and get some shiny wallpaper for your $500 phone. I no longer wonder why you're reading this as opposed to watching TV...

But yeah, drop a comment or two, get a conversation going. Remember the late 90s, when forums were all the rage and everyone participated? I miss those days. Back when coding using straight-up HTML was the way to go, and mentioning the words, "Microsoft FrontPage" got you booted out of a chatroom. *sigh* You know, I was a moderator at 11-years-old... I was so proud...

Hey, does anyone remember Coranto (formerly NewsPro)? It was this wonderful content management system I used back at millennium on a video game website I wrote reviews for. As a 10-year-old, it took me a little while to set it up on my server, but it was perfect for updating and archiving websites painlessly. Looking back, it honestly was one of the privative forms of blogging: you could design themes, designate categories, have multiple users... This was blogging before anyone had heard of it. I'd probably still be using it today, if the Charlottesville City School's server supported Perl...which it doesn't...which is really lame of them...

Haha, I wasn't supposed to really talk at all for this post. Ah well. Buy anyway, the lesson for today: Communicate! That's what the internet was like in the days of Leo Laporte - I tell you, ever since G4 bought TechTV...

Web Spotlight: Laura Diehl

2007-02-08T22:00:00.000-05:00

In some random mistake of the universe, I actually found myself done with homework and podcasting before 10PM! So, I'm taking the opportunity to give some credit to a wonderful local illustrator: Laura Diehl. A few months ago, I was browsing around Facebook, and came across this women that had a whole lot in common with me. So, in the true spirit of Stalkerbook, I went to her website.

At first glance, I couldn't help but be completed astounded at how talented Ms. Diehl is. Her rendition of Lyra from the Golden Compass is honestly one of the best pieces I've ever seen - suddenly, that whole idea of creating a mood with a painting made complete sense to me. You owe it yourself to check out her website. And while you're at it, check out some of the other artists she links to. Who cares about blogs? This is what you should be surfing the web for.

Parental Advisory Suggested

2007-02-04T17:23:00.000-05:00

You know why I want to get out of high school? To get away from everyone that wants to leave because they think they're "better than high school." See, that arrogant attitude is just what makes you all exactly like the other teenagers you condemn.

It's almost every day now that I feel as though everything I hold important doesn't mean squat to the rest of the world. I don't smoke, I don't get high, I've never been drunk. Never even thought about doing any of those things. And yet who freaking cares? It's doesn't mean anything in this society. Maybe it's from growing up watching 70s and 80s tv shows, but I always thought it should be at least few weeks before you kiss someone. You do that now, and it's seen as weird. Okay. I think that's kind of cute. But whatever.

I'm reminded of a recent study that found 9 in 10 adults in the US had sex before they were married. Now, I'm not gonna criticize everyone that's had premarital sex - but if you're 16 and in high school? Sorry, you just shouldn't be going out giving hand jobs. Sometimes, I feel that if our teachers actually knew what kids did on the weekends...

Over the past few months, I've been drowning myself in volunteer work so I don't have to sit around my bedroom thinking about how similar my high school actually is to a show like Degrassi. That's just pathetic. I can think about half a dozen people I know that haven't been drunk. And I know a lot of people.

A few months ago, I posted a similar rant, and a reader gave the advice, "Hate the sin, love the sinner." I do try, but let's be realistic here - there's something about that person's personality that allows them to do that type of thing. Yes, it was their situation growing up that set them on the path where they are now - but that doesn't mean it's always possible to love them.

Honestly, I don't think my standards are unreasonable. But let's see now... If I want to be in a relationship with someone: 1. They have to be a guy [we're at 50% percent]. 2. They have to be gay [now 5%]. 3. I'm not sure how well I'd do with someone that smokes pot or regularly gets drunk [not really sure, but I can tell you it's waaayyy lower than 1%]. Criterion three probably brought the pool down more than either of the others. Do you realize how depressing that is? Keep in mind this all came from a hard-left liberal.

You know what, Apple...

2007-01-31T20:28:00.000-05:00

So 16 Robert Santangelo is preparing to sue the RIAA over a law suit they brought against him for illegally downloading music. A little preamble: I've always thought it was kind of crappy for people to download music/copy DVDs/steal activation codes, etc. Especially now that you can download a song for a buck off iTunes, stop whining about music prices. Legal music download sites like iTunes and the new Napster have done a lot to combat illegal downloads of music - honestly, that was the perfect direction to go in. But I definitely see why that's not enough for some people to stop downloading the illegal way.

iTunes led the way in legal music downloads, and provided a cheap service with a wide variety of products. But the methods Apple has been using to go about this with are turning many others away these "easy to use" sites. iTunes is pretty much the only music site I'd trust to give my personal information to - Apple has a very nice monopoly over me in that regard. But I don't have an iPod. Which means any music I download, I have to burn to a CD and re-import to be able to hear it on my MP3 player. When you've got hundreds of songs you've bought off iTunes, that's not a pretty sight. Plus, there was the whole, "let's not let customers play any old AVI file on their Video iPods - only the ones they buy from us!!!" thing. Completely ruins the point for me.

Apple has pissed me of because of this. I got so fed up over this ridiculous policy (which France was working on, but I don't think ever got anywhere...) that I ditched my iPod Mini and got a Creative Zen Vision last summer. I've gotta say: it's a whole freaking lot better than an iPod. It was the same price as a 30GB iPod when I bought it, had the same capacity, used swappable batteries, four times the pixels and the screen size was doubled. Haven't had a problem with it yet.

A year and a half ago, I was thinking about switching to a Mac. But now that I've opened my eyes to the vertical integration of their manufacturing process, reminiscent of late 19th Century monopolies, I want to tell Apple to go shove itself up one of their SuperDrive slots.

Oh, and by the way, Apple? Adobe, -so-, does not work better on Macs.

short

2007-01-27T16:52:00.000-05:00

This was an insanely busy week for me. I was at WNRN a few nights for DJ training, managed to anger a high-ranking publisher in Manhattan, got snubbed by a half-dozen teachers at school, and just finished taking the SATs. So, some of my thoughts from the week:

I hate .aiff - you're killing my sound design ideas, apple!

We'll need to borrow the mixer from News Live...

Urg, I need more XLR cables!

Hollywood better get back to me soon...

Dude, I can't wait for July.

T-Tones need to practice more.

If we don't start this music video soon, I'm gonna lose interest...

A last thought: I'm actually rather enjoying the "Hellogoodbye" CD. Check it out.

Waiting...

2007-01-12T23:55:00.001-05:00

Well, my entry for this years' American Cinema Editors Student Editing Competition is off in the mail, and our of my hands. Finally. I can't believe it's been four months since I started obsessing over this thing last September. I waited sent in my entry, then waited a month before finding out I was actually in the competition. Wait another month, get the dailies to edit. Spend a month editing them, send them off, and here I am now. Now, it's easy to say that, as one of fifty entrants, I've got a 1-in-16 chance of getting nominated for the award - but let's hold that thought. You see, I am a sixteen-year-old Junior in high school. Virtually all of the other entrants are in college or graduate school (or even more intimidating - the American Film Institute). Ha. It's quite funny, actually. Now come the weeks of waiting for the nominees to be posted on ACE's website - probably the most nerve-racking, considering there's no longer anything I can do about it.

Speaking of random theatre-related high-stress things I have to wait about, I had my Theatre Governor's School audition last Saturday. I've gotta say, I think it went fairly well - my monologue went well, and actually managed to sound half-intelligent during the interview. Unlike the American Cinema Editors however, who seem quite humane in comparison, the Governor's School people are making me wait until mid-April to know if I'm in the program or not. The odds for it aren't that good, either - about 200 people audition, and they let in less than 50. I win either way though - if I don't get in to Governor's School, then I get to go to Otakon in July (and avoid the voice actor I never got around to sending my recording of his panel to...).

Fingers crossed!

Rant

2007-01-02T20:40:00.000-05:00

Those of you that know me personally have probably heard me rant about differentiation at some point, and the effort to de-track the school system (that is, having all students mixed together in the classroom, as opposed to separating them into Advanced, General, AP, etc.). But now I've come to rant about the school's grading system in particular. Now entering my sixth semester in high school, the grades I'm about to earn will be the most influential in determining what college I can get into. So first, an overview of the Charlottesville City Schools' grading system:

On the right, I've highlighted my current AP US History grade ("C"). On the left, I've highlighted the grade I would likely get were I to switch down a level in history. Now, the basic principle behind the weighted-GPA (making higher level classes worth more points) is to encourage people to challenge themselves and take more difficult courses. Their reward: a higher GPA. Yet for me, this system has become the only reason I'd ever consider not taking an AP class. As you can see, the difference between these two highlighted grades is 1.25 points, yet it's virtually the same student putting in the same effort to get these two different numbers.

In short, I've done what the school wants me to do: challenge myself - and now the school's punishing me for that with a lower GPA.

Normally, I'd say, "Who cares about my GPA - I'm learning more in the AP class, so I'm sticking with that" (And that's still technically my stance). But my parents have become worried that a C in history is going to hurt me getting into the college of my choice. So, the situation I'm in directly concerns my GPA. I find it very difficult to justify spending an hour more per day on history (sacrificing the fact that I've been more happy this past quarter, not worrying about grades as much, than I can ever remember being), when I could raise my GPA even higher by simply switching into Advanced US History, without any change in effort.

This leads me to something my parents always say to me. I'm always told that they don't judge me based on what other kids are doing, just on my work alone. Theoretically, if I'm getting a C in history right now, I'd be getting it no matter who else was in my class. Unfortunately, grades are like Capitalism - they'll stabilize things out on their own, but it often has unwanted side effects for certain parties.

To put it bluntly, half the kids in my class cheat. Whether it's looking at their siblings' corrected quizzes beforehand or simple plagiarism, a large proportion of the class has an unfair advantage over me. Now, if suddenly all the quizzes changed and no one could cheat anymore, there would be a whole lot more C's and D's in my class. Suddenly, I'd be in the top half, not the bottom. Either through curves or changes in test difficulty, I wouldn't have a 75 any more - probably closer to a low B [For a more extreme example: if the highest grade in a class is a 72, the teacher's going to make than into an A, no matter how strict they are - it's just a simple fact of the school system].

Thus, if you try to use my grade or GPA to compare me "just to me," it's virtually impossible to do so. Any grade a student receives is always related to the rest of the class - and in most cases, the cheating that occurs there.

And I'm sorry to say that, I don't have a solution for this. There's no academic movement for this type of thing, since no one's thought up a better system. We're stuck with it, unless we want to turn the education system upside down. Good luck...

First Night

2007-01-01T20:22:00.000-05:00

Well, if I remember correctly, my Governor's School audition is this Saturday... Hopefully I'll get to practice in front of the Cville Players class a few times this week before I go off to Richmond.

Anyway -- I went to First Night on the downtown mall yesterday, and recorded a piece about First Film for the Charlottesville Podcasting Network. Yes, I spoke too quickly, but hey - it was my first one, give me a break. It was kind of ridiculous carrying around my camera all night in the rain just to record audio, though. I need a miniDisk recorder or something...

Poster

2006-12-30T23:48:00.000-05:00

I made this last summer, so I suppose I should post it.

Promotional Poster for The Ring Thing

Screenplays and College

2006-12-26T18:08:00.000-05:00

Oh, Christmas. For me, this meant that I'm no longer in debt up to my eyeballs - now it's just to about my upper-chest. Adobe, why must you be so expensive? Ah yes, because your products rock... Anyway - this was a nice week, quite relaxing. I think this is the first time I actually haven't had any homework over the winter break (minus the three books due a week after I get back, of course).

After filming an interview over the weekend for some Richmond-Architectural-Development-Conference-thing, I started to miss the screenplay I'd written over the summer. Background: I wrote a parody of The Ring designed to be amusing to anime fans [and about no one else], about 60 pages/minutes long. I was planning on filming it this fall, but I ran into some trouble with actors' parents not letting their children participate (heh, like I had time, anyway)... But now that the panic that is the first semester of Junior year is over (and now that certain actors have dropped out of certain AP classes) I'm going to give shooting this another try. It'll have to wait until after this semester's officially over, anyway (in about three weeks), since I still have Governor's School auditions to worry about. I just really want to be able to finish this by the summer, since I was planning on premiering it at either Otakon or Anime Expo this summer (essentially my only chance to get 1,000+ of my target audience members to sit down and watch my movie at once) - both of which are in July. Let's hope... Heh, if any of you are interested in the screenplay itself, feel free to read it. It's quite possible the school would frown upon me using their server space for this, but it is technically related to theatre...

Eh, First Night Virginia's coming up this Monday - I don't know if I'll go yet; I'm still trying to decide whether or not to shoot a segment on it (I could probably work it into CHS News Live on Wednesday...). Ah yes - I got a video light for my camera for Christmas as well, so know I don't have to worry about filming interviews at night.

We got PSAT results back a few weeks ago - 221! Yay. Yet another example of how varied the different forms of assessment are in this country. I got one of the top 1% of PSAT scores in the country, yet I believe I'm still somewhere around the top 20 or 15% of my class at CHS. Ladies and Gentleman, GPAs are utterly pointless. This has forced me to start thinking about colleges as well - I'm signed up to take the SAT exactly a month from now. Guh, don't get me started about the problems with standardized testing...

I've got a college list, though. In no particular order:

Carnegie Mellon
UNC: Chapel Hill (Colin Campbell goes there...)
UCLA
NYU
UVA

Carnegie Mellon has great film and computer science programs, and so does Chapel Hill; NYU, on the other hand, has the Tisch School for film, which would pretty much be my dream program. *sigh* Welcome to the next year of my life...

driving...

2006-12-23T16:36:00.000-05:00

My first week of driving by myself has made me learn a few things:

1. Don't leave your lights on
2. Lock your car when you have a camera in it worth more than you make in two years
3. Learn how to take the key out of the ignition
4. The layout of Charlottesville is the most messed up thing in existence

But yeah, I managed to deplete my battery while making gingerbread houses yesterday. It was raining, and I had to get Savanna's dad to jump start the car [it took me a while to figure out how to open the hood]. And today I was filming an interview with Maurice Cox, which had me running all over the city - I got my key stuck in the car so much, a few times I ended up just leaving it in there while Laura and I went inside (smart, I know).

Want to call Santa!?!? Well, just call the WNRN studio line (979-0919) tomorrow between 11AM and noon, and you can! Yeah, on the Wake-Up Call tomorrow, we're doing the Christmas show. Essentially, I'll be the WNRN Elf - sweet. Speaking of which: wow, Christmas is in two days... I need to get a grip on time.

And while I'm at it, let me just say how furious I am over Allen's comment about the Muslim Representative in Minnesota. For those of you than don't know, he warned that (I'm paraphrasing, here) "Unless we tighten our immigration laws, we'll end up with more Muslims in the Senate and House." Now, that's a horribly racist comment by itself. But what I find completely idiotic about it is that, "The Muslim" was born in the US, and converted to Islam in college. So uh, how does immigration fit into that, exactly? To me, him saying that higher education will cause more Muslims to be in Congress makes more sense...

Exams

2006-12-20T20:40:00.000-05:00

Midterms for this year have come and gone, and I must say I'm quite happy about that. Our acting class is going out tomorrow to perform Silver Packages at local retirement homes and elementary schools, which should be fun. We're also singing holiday songs, and I have the solo for Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer. Problem: I don't know the reindeer names... I know, I know - I was born a Christian and I don't know if Dasher comes before Blitzen. Shame on me.

Unfortunately, the end of the first half of Junior years mean I have to start getting serious about college. Now, I know I don't really have to be worried; my involvement in theatre alone gives me more extracurriculars than most other people, not to mention my volunteer work... But looking through collegeboard.com, I realized that the five or so colleges I'm seriously thinking of applying to are all in the top 25 in the nation. Ha. Hahaha. Haha. See, this is why it would be great to be nominated for the American Cinema Editors Student Competition I'm in. That = pretty much the best thing anyone can have on an application for film school. But let's be realistic here - I'm an 11th grader who's editing experience constitutes a few music videos and the random scene or two; I'm most likely going up against graduate students at the American Film Institute. Cue nervous laugher a second time.

I need to learn how to park...

Testostetones Concert

2006-12-18T20:07:00.000-05:00

Yes, I post in clumps. Whatever.

A few weeks ago, the CHS Testostetones opened for the Sirens in the Black Box [we're a male a cappella group]. For those tragic few that missed the performance, someone was kind enough to film it for us, and it's now on YouTube (*sigh*, when will people be smart and start using Google Video...). Please ignore the horrible filming technique the cameraman used; still not sure how the camera managed to get turned upside-down so many times...

Center of Attention - Guster

Lonely - Akon

Yes, that's me doing the solo in Lonely...
Thank goodness I didn't have to do the rap part at the beginning of the song...

Drivers License! (kind of...)

2006-12-18T19:55:00.000-05:00

Wow, I can officially drive by myself now... scary, isn't it? When I first started this blog over two years ago, I think I mentioned something about how my cousin had just gotten his license at the age of 15. After seeing how many of the people in high school drive, I must again press this upon you - IT IS A MINDBLOWINGLY STUPID IDEA TO LET MIDDLE SCHOOLERS DRIVE! Just my opinion...

Little did I know that when I signed the papers for my 90-day Provisional Drivers License that I would have to initial a few things. This may seem like a very simple action, but as a 16-year-old, I rarely have to initial papers - sign them, yes, but not initial them. So I start to sign, and out come... my mom's initials. For some reason, instead of writing MCS, I started to write CAS. This reason, upon closer examination, ends up being the amount of times I've forged my mom's initials. She knew I did this - it wasn't for anything serious, just the occasional permission slip or two I'd forget at home. I'm just picturing myself signing a marriage certificate, and accidentally signing my mom's initials... Embarrassing.

So I'll be driving myself to school tomorrow.

Enough!!

2006-12-13T19:51:00.000-05:00

Man, I need to stop doing things. I've kind of completely overloaded myself over the past few months. I don't think I've posted since the spring play has started, actually, so...

I got into The Martian Chronicles which we'll be performing at CHS in March. And in a random surprise twist that would leave me even more swamped than I ever thought I could be, Mr. Small asked me to be the sound designer for the show as well. Don't get me wrong here, that's like a dream job of mine - the play has so many great sound effects to create. But how will I find the time now that I'm in the Testostetones, Producing the Wake-Up Call almost full-time, helping podcast Charlottesville-Right Now, studying for exams next week, acting in the play, producing music videos, participating in the ACE Student Editing Competition, and voicing a character for a radioplay?!?! I'll manage... Somehow...

I've realized posts don't have to be 500 words long.

Understanding You

2006-11-29T01:08:00.000-05:00

As a sixteen-year-old that’s fairly well liked in school (at least so I think…), I should have a generally rose-colored view of my surroundings. After all, who doesn’t want to be the eleventh grader whose French teacher reads their blog. Ahem. Yet as I’ve moved through the grades, the supposedly pink filter over my eyes has gotten a bit too saturated, and turned into a blood-red magnifier that points out everyone’s faults. It’s not a good thing, I recognize that – but it would be better if people didn’t give me so many causes to do so.

You see, there actually are reasons I hold the world in – shall we say – less than Puritanical regard. It was just earlier this year that one of my gossip-loving friends and I sat down to eat at Marco and Luca’s on the downtown mall. The dumplings filled me with joy – the conversation did not. For it was on that fateful Friday evening that I learned just how many of my peers (I’m going to be blatant here) smoked pot, had sex, and did drugs. Despite the delightful flavor sensation exploding in my mouth from the recently consumed morsels-from-God, the rest of my body became a bit disappointed. Several of the few remaining dregs of respect slipped from me like leaves out of an overturned tea cup (the respect I hold for chefs, however, remained strong).

Up until that point, I’d been living under the carefully constructed worldview which the Peabody School crammed into my head of happy schoolchildren on the downtown mall, there to eat pizza – not pot. Though of course, upon further examination, I realized not even the sheltered rich kids of private schools always escape the seemingly inevitable pitfall that used to be reserved for, “those urban, gay rave-kids.” Though, as a gay kid that occasionally listens to rave-style music, I’d always found that be a nasty stereotype. Over the next few weeks, I was filled in on the realities of teenage life for most, compared against the smiling, multiracial group of kids always shown in those science videos from middle school. People I had thought were pretty cool suddenly dropped a few rungs on my Ladder of Respect. By the way, if any one reading this falls into that particular category, I’d like to apologize – not all drug addicts are idiots, they just come off that way sometimes.

My realization reminded me of exactly how I was able to make it through the past few years of high school sanely. I’ve never really taken anyone seriously, including myself. However good of an aspect that might be in the Black Box acting like an idiot, it ends up being a wonderful blindfold to my surroundings, which I enjoyed for a very long time. But now as I start to think about my future, the blindfold is coming off and my overexposed eyes are reacting unhappily to the “light”. To me, it was just another discovery of people’s faults, with no attributes making it through the filter over my eyes.

I’m probably coming off as a bit of a snob right now, talking about how messed up some people’s lives are. Don’t get me wrong here, I have a lot of respect for anyone that’s able to get through the problems that many teenagers are facing – divorce, poverty, abuse. I can’t pretend to understand the stress they’re feeling or what they’re going through. But considering I’m an obsessed kid taking five AP classes and the only boy I know of at CHS that’s ‘out,’ I do have a slight understanding of stress. But I’m still sober (I got my sixteen-year chip last summer!).

Despite all the things that have disappointed me in people this year, I did see a glimmer of hope for humanity a few months ago. Coming out – typically a painful process that can get you kicked out of your house – was relatively simple for me. Maybe it was the cloudless, sunny day outside, but the first person I came out to actually scared me a bit with her enthusiasm.

“Oh my god, you’re gay?” She asked.
“Yeah…”
“AWW! I don’t know whether to have a celebration or just start talking about boys right now!”

For a minute there, I thought about giving the population as a whole a second chance. But then the weeks went by and I began to notice the [inadvertently?] homophobic conversations as I walked through the hallways between classes. Some of these people were even my friends. So much for that glimmer of hope.

I’d really like to think better of people – I really would! But before I can do that, I need to stop being disappointed in them (easier said than done). Sometimes I just wish I knew what went on inside people’s minds – how being a liberal suddenly means you can do illegal drugs, or being conservative gives you a right to hate gays. These are things I don’t understand, and may never understand. But I’ll keep trying, hoping that one day I can love the world for all its people – regardless of what goes on inside their heads.