update:

Late nights and early mornings makes 'drew a wired boy. And I think I like it.

In other news, I finally put exactly three links into the sidebar of my blog. I have been putting off doing this since I had first got the blog for the soul reason of the answer that I immediately got when I first put them up: "Hey, how come I'm not in your link bar!!!". Therefore, I shall now explain my reasoning for the 3 links that I put there so that I may be harassed no more.

I have put threeeee links up there, and the number of the links is threee. No more. No less. Thou shalt not count two links, lest thou shalt continue on to count to three. Five is right out.....

The first link up there is a like to SvenLabs. Sven has a neat-O blog, and he is a good buddy. Even though he is a rather new blogger, he already has a rather large fan base, I would say. But even so, in order to grow and popularize, this link should plug him into the Greek (geek?) net, especially with the addition of the next link on my list.

The second link on my list is a link to buddy Markus (who I might add, is NOT a panda). Along with being very tolerant of my HTML inquisitions and requests, his blog contains a link to just about every other blog in the universe. Therefore, my blog can be connected to the world in a somewhat roundabout way without being cluttered with links.
Therefore, he is a good choice.

And, of course, I have to have a third link. Two links looks small and goofy. Four links looks cluttered and has the appearance that I could add more, which I do not want to do. Since I have already covered all my bases in links #1 and #2, I add a third link that contains absolutely nothing, yet has all the information in the world at the same time. How can you go wrong with it?

Super powers in unlikely places

This one is going out to Lael.

In the case that you haven't heard, or did not know of Lael, he was our youth director for our church, and is now in the process of moving his housing up to Maine.

Lael knows where it was at. He isn't an imposing figure and doesn't really have a natural "in-authority" look to him. But he always has a grip of what is going on and what is needed to be done. In the same way, he always has a way of being persuasive in a positive way to everyone, and even to people who might be being irrational at the moment.

His organizational skills, especially compared to the people at our church, are unparalleled for the scope of things that go down. He somehow managed to be able to maintain 3 separate teams of people running the Backyard Bible Clubs while only attending one of them the whole time. During the Pre-Teen Camping Trip, he was constantly juggling food shortages, people not at their posts, disputes between people, supplies, fires, and everything imaginable. All while people asked him to micromanage their trivial troubles that arose.
And we managed NOT to (intentionally) leave anyone behind at any point in that trip.

He has a way of being able to explain complicated things in a way that sounds very simple and accurate. I always try to anticipate him and see how he will go about explaining such things, and every single time he seems to find a simpler way to voice it. Yet, odd and funny enough as it is, he also seems to find a way to over complicate simple matters when trying to explain it. eg. Explaining the day to day point scoring system of the Camping trip. I swear that he could have written a full scale rule booklet on the subject (section 13, paragraph 6: "Showdowns" .... you catch my drift).
And the pre-teen camping trip for the year after that: "There is a hurricane on the way that is going to hit us full force tonight in our punny tents. Stay here, or leave for home? Hmmmmm....". Granted this problem involved packing up a full camp 2 days ahead of schedule and getting logistics organized, but that is still Lael.

There is so much that can be said about Lael that I don't quite have the time for right now, and probably will never have. But Lael was, in my opinion, the best thing that could have happened to our church and our youth group. We are all very greatfull for his service.

I'm going to miss Lael, but I'm not sad to see him go. He is in God's will right now, and that is were he is suppose to be. It's all going to be over and done with in a few moments anyway, so what is the big deal, eh?

MuSac

We had our dress rehearsal the other night (Monday) for my orchestra. No, nobody was dressed up, but we did practice in the hall that we will be preforming in. It is a really nice hall in a high school that has all of the acoustic doodads that make for a nice warm and focused and crisp sound.

I would be the first to say that there were mistakes and problems between myself and others, but playing that night was extremely satisfying for some reason. The hall was nice in that I could easily hear everyone who was playing. I could pick out specific people who were playing specific things and I could hear people easily on the other side of the room. I realized how many people we had that were playing so tightly in unison time wise and tone/pitch wise.
There are six people in our 1st violin section. We are all expected to begin making sound at the precise millisecond and then cut out at the exact same time. We are also expected to maintain tolerances of hundredths of an inch along the string.

Naturally we rarely achieve such tight tolerances between absolute pitches and variable tempos (After all, if we could do it every time we would be getting paid for this), but when it happens, even if it is just for a second, it is so very satisfying to think that we are all in sync for that very moment. To think that the same hands that we use to smash nails through wood can be capable of placing a finger down on exactly the same spot every single time with only a vague positional reference that cannot be "measured" in the absolute sense of the word.

And then we had a whole orchestra behind our section producing colorful tones and beautiful processions and volume changes, it is an amazing feat that I would never have guessed was possible if I ever had to study the mechanics of playing a violin (or any instrument for that matter). The mental audio processing that goes on to separate, time, compare, adjust, and analyze every single sound in the air. The visual processing of separating hundreds of dots and lines and visual cues of the person to your right, to your left, across the room, the conductor, and bows moving up and down. Let alone all physical movements that are necessary.

Being in such a large group, there is some feeling of insignificance: what I give out will add only only a little to the overall total. Yet, if only one person screws up, it echoes around the whole place and can be heard. And, after all is said and done, you still need every single person to give everything they got to make it work. I guess you could call this one sort of a definition of a team. Thinking of this as a team, it occurred to me that playing in an orchestra is much like any other sport such as football, basketball etc. I think that I like the idea of participating in an orchestra as a sport. It makes everything and everybody seem more critical to the overall total. And it defiantly beats the crap out of playing baseball in the rain, or something like that.


I first started playing with these people last year, not knowing any of them save my cousin that was on another violin. We are now making music together in such an awesome way. I can't explain it, but it felt really really good that other night. Hopefully everyone will be back next year. I know that our concert master, Matt, will not be there. He is graduating. That is going to be a blow to us, and I will miss him.

Let Daniel have a crack at this one...

The other night was a flurry of activity in the dream arena. It was one of those nights where the dreams just kept coming and coming, and they were all linked to the same epic proportion plot. Unfortunitally, the instant I woke up I could not remember any of the plot, even though I knew that it had existed and it had seemed to have been a rather interesting one. Very vividly, though, I remember one specific scene of the unfolding saga. I was standing in the front yard on my way to some other story objective while engaging in conversation with (I am pretty sure it was) Stephen B. At that time, I took a glance toward the other yard and noticed something. I laughed a little and told Stephen to check it out too. He turned around to see the man who was dressed up in a 100% accurate and enthusiastically hairy Chewbacca suit, while mowing the lawn. We gave him a friendly wave and he waved back. We both chuckled a little, then turned to continue on with our business.
Walking away, I thought in passing, "heh heh, guy in chewbacca suit Mowing the LAWN!". Then I started laughing. I laughed so hard that my knees started to buckle, and I fell on the ground. I started rolling around laughing like crazy, and I couldn't stop. Chewbacca was mowing the lawn! Come on! It's hilarious! I think I woke up after that.

That was probably the most that I had ever laughed in my life, and it was only a dream. I feel so dorky.


I forgot to add, this is a two part rant. On another note, I got my wicked awesome combat boots in today. Pure 100% thick leather means that I finally have a pair of shoes that will not admit water at the same rate as a dry saltine cracker in the sahara desert immersed in chicken soup. And for twenty bucks, these shoes will probably last me for a number of years (I can hope). Anything is better than the walmart shoes that I got just prior to the winter onslaught. It has only been 3-4 months and they are almost gone. All for the same 20$.

Now, the walmart boots that I had prior to those were amazing. I would venture to say that they were the best pair of shoes that I ever had. Very water resistant, very durable to work in, were not white (they don't look as dirty all the time, heh), and they fit me like, well, a shoe. Tough as nails, yet comfortable as indian moccasins.

They did wear out, but not until neigh on 12 whole months. And, of course, walmart had to cease selling them by the time I needed another pair. Hence the sequel crappy pair.
Now I have a stylish comfortable AND functional pair of shoes.

Phear my 1337 bootz.

Yeah, so I play with barbies. Whats it to you? Is there something wrong with being comfortable with my inner manliness and technological ingenuity?

*****. Cute pop culture, or pure evil. You be the judge

There are a lot of people who are not familiar with the term that I am going to present them here. It is rather unfortunate, seeing as I now have many people stationed across the country whose soul job it is to spread the good news.

But I am trying to put an end to this sub culture, and make it pop culture, so pay attention. The word I am putting forth here has a number of different meanings, all of varying severity. If not used correctly, it could result in calling someone something that you did not intend and it would become a very embarrassing situation. Even destructive to the friendship, depending on the stuffieness of the recipient.

The word that is being referred to here is "Panda". Before you go calling me a panda-hater or a redneck or intolerant (which I am of a lot of things ;) ) or anything like that, keep in mind that this has nothing to do with the species of panda itself (although some may beg to differ, but that is up to them to decide). It is just a way of expressing oneself. It does seem a little awkward the first few times you use it, but just let loose! Soon it becomes second nature, and it just seems to fit when you call someone a panda.

By itself with no modifiers, the usage of the word "panda" is relatively simple. It is a slight insult, most often used in a playful manner.
eg. "Dude, you spilled cottage cheese on your shirt. You're such a panda".
Compared with, "Dude, you spilled cottage cheese on your shirt. You're such an idiot".

Simple enough. Now we introduce the post positive modifier, "ryda". It is not as hard or exotic to say as it may first appear. Think of the word "Rider" and place a heavy New England accent on it and, huzzah! But note, the word must ALWAYS appear in the form of "ryda", and nothing else. This is very important. The usage of this combination has a more forceful feel to it.
eg. "Dude, that panda ryda just cut me off!"
compared with. "Dude, that stupid idiot just cut me off!"

And finally, there is the extreme negative force variation of the word. Only use this one if you wish immanent death, or something similar or worse, upon the subject.

eg. "You killed my father, you butt panda!"
eg. 2. "Get out of my way butt panda or I'll punch your face in"

I will not compare this one to lay terms, since this is intended to be a rated G blog *with some mild violence and mentally damaging humor*.

I must credit the inception and development of this one to Mark. It would not be here without his continual linguistic labors in this area.

There you have it folks. Learn and use. I want to see Judge Judy calling people Pandas by the end of this year. I want to hear Ice Tea (or Ice Cube, whatever his name is these days) calling people butt pandas in his next explosive feature film. I want to see women tearing each others hair out in Opera while bleeping out the expletives Pan**! Pa**a!
At the moment, we currently have operatives spreading the word in Texas, Maine, Ohio, Colorado, Rhode Island (possibly?), Massachusetts, New hampshire, Arkansas, and an extra zealous thrust in Virginia, and there is a remote possibility of one in England (Thats in Europe!). I am working on some strong international operatives too.
If you are spreading the good word also, let me know so that I can add it to my list. Alone we are strong, together we are invincible! (ehem, if you have heard this before, don't tell the publishers. please)