Adventure is Out There

This is from my iPhone, so don’t expect much.

I took my final test in my education class this morning, and I believe that I did well. It’s nice to be officially done with this class.

In music theory, we performed our composition projects. My friend Camie played mine on the piano for me since I don’t play piano. I had originally intended for my song to be a choral song, but I feared I wouldn’t be able to show it to the class properly. However, another student used the whole class as her choir, which is something I wish that I had thought of. Oh well. Camie played it wonderfully. I was proud of my composition.

Music history was nothing, and then I went back to the room for a long while. Andrew and I orders both burritos from Chipotle and chips/queso from Chili’s, taking them back to the room and eating while watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crudad. Good stuff.

At about 6:50, I got ready for the scholarship concert that was tonight. I didnt want to be there, but hearing On the Transmigration of Souls, the song we’re singing as combined choirs. The concert lasted TWO hours, and we get to do it all over again tonight…oh goody.

After the concert, Conner had a party at his house, but I didn’t go until around 1, and I stayed until 2:15 or so. Don’t worry, I picked up my own drink on the way out there, so no alcohol for me.

Once I left, it felt so great outside that I turned off the radio and rolled down the windows of my car as I drove back to the room. It was great. I hung out with Andrew and one of his fraternity friends before we headed back up to the room and went to sleep.

The reason why this is just now being posted is because I fell asleep while typing it on my phone…oops. Anyway, I’ve still got a few more hours of sleep left in me, so this is all for now.

Have a great day, everyone!

Chad

P.S. – MercyMe song of the day: “Move”. Generous Mr. Lovewell. Super catchy. They opened their part of the Rock and Worship Roadshow with this. Enjoy.

Study time.

I’ve got my last exam for my education class in the morning, so I’m spending my time studying instead of typing out a full blog. Expect a better one tomorrow!

Goodnight, everyone.

Chad

P.S. – MercyMe song of the day: “The Generous Mr. Lovewell” from the album of the same name. Another great song.

Dash it all!

Yes, I forgot to post last night…:(. I am thoroughly disappointed in myself.

Anyway, today was a super lazy day; I mostly just hung around the room until about 7:50, when I left the room to meet the quidditch team at Spanky’s for dinner and officer elections. That went well, and then I went back to the room, where I did my harmonization assignment for aural skills, due tomorrow. I had to write out background chords for the “Kookaburra” nursery rhyme to be performed in class in the morning. Fun fun! It wasn’t difficult at all.

Once that was finished, Andrew and I met with Tessa and Jenny and went to Tinseltown to see Insidious, which Andrew and I had been wanting to see for a few weeks now. I had been told by friends that this was “the scariest movie ever”, and it didn’t disappoint. It definitely was the scariest movie I’ve ever seen, but it didn’t absolutely terrify me; scary movies don’t scare me easily at all. But yes, I really enjoyed it. Andrew and Jenny freaked out especially, but Tessa was pretty chill the whole time, minus a few of the more intense parts when she grabbed my arm. Enjoy this picture from the film:

Enjoy your nightmares.

You know, I never feel especially scared by “scary” movies, but I always worry that I’ll have nightmares after watching them, despite the fact that I haven’t had a nightmare in ten years or so (knock on wood!). Go figure.

Now, I’m back in the room, about to print off my harmonization assignment from Finale, and then I’m getting in bed. Goodnight, world.

Chad

P.S. – MercyMe song of the day: the first track from their latest album, The Generous Mr. Lovewell, “This Life”. Pretty much the theme song of my life now. I love it.

P.P.S. – Today, April 28, 2011, is my two-year Twitterversary. Two years ago today, I thought, “hey! There’s an app for that!” and downloaded Twitterfon (now Echofon) on my brand-new iPhone, creating a monster. I’ve made lots of friends on Twitter since then, including my penpal from New York, and I am thankful for that. Two years and nearly 14,000 tweets later, I still haven’t lost interest. Love you, Twitter!

Blimey!

/British expression

Today was a driving day, so don’t anticipate a long post…we’ll see.

I woke up this morning and finished loading the rest of my stuff in the car (minus the foodstuff, which I came and got before leaving town), taking Blake up to the school at around 8ish. I just dropped him off, and then I went to Beasley to get something notarized for the bank. After I had gotten that done and said goodbye to Mom, I went back to the school, getting into the band hall right before class started. I said hey to Mr. Coulson and shook his hand, as well as Mr. Kath and Mr. Newman, and Mr. Coulson asked me if I wanted to read with them, so I went and got my horn out of my car and got to play with Mr. Coulson as my director one more time…it was awesome. I was so glad that he asked me if I had wanted to do that. Before class had started, I had talked with Mr. Newman for a few minutes about visiting the Kimbrough horn students and playing for them a bit, as well as talking summer lessons and such…hopefully all of that turns out. I love teaching lessons: it’s good for my growth as a teacher and, heck, it puts money in my pocket!

I left the school after honors band and went to Andrew’s house. Andrew’s mom paid for a spicy chicken biscuit from Chick-Fil-A for me as a light lunch, and we just hung around their house and talked for a while before Andrew and I went back to the school (with Andrew’s stuff now in my car) to hear the choir. They sounded pretty good for the most part, but they still have a lot to work on: balance, accuracy, etc. Of course, I’m even more critical now that I’ve been with the Matador Singers for a while, so I have to remember that they are still high school students, in which case they sounded pretty good. They have two weeks until their concert, and so hopefully they’ll get enough practice in to fix the things they need to fix. It was great to see Connor and Becca and a couple of others again, as well as Mrs. Westgate and Mrs. Shotts. I’m so excited about the concert in two weeks! I’ll get to sing with Variety on one song and Chorale on another. 🙂

And here is where everything condenses: we left the school, got those couple of things at my house, filled up my car and got our snacks/drinks, and then we had to stop by my dad’s work so that he could put my new vehicle registration tag (or whatever it is that was expiring) on, and then we were outta there. We managed to avoid any storms (or rain whatsoever), which was a blessing, but we DID run into a wildfire several miles before reaching Post, causing us to detour through some weird mountain pass before reconnecting with 84…the only thing that really worried us was that my car was starting to run low on gas (I was holding out for Post to fill up), but we made it fine, so no worries. Gas in Post was $3.85 a gallon, so I only put $15 worth in and then filled up once we got to Lubbock at a place that was selling for $3.61 a gallon – definitely better.

Once we had unloaded everything from the car to our room, I put all of my stuff away and began to play Portal 2 some more; I started at the beginning since Andrew hadn’t seen it yet, and I eventually got way past where I had stopped yesterday, so that’s really cool; it makes me happy that I haven’t finished yet. The original Portal game takes me just over an hour to completely beat, and, even when I played it the first time, it took me no more than 5. So far, I’ve at least spent 5 or 6 hours on trying to beat it, and I think I MIGHT be halfway; I haven’t spoiled the plot for myself, so I’m not certain as far as that goes.

Anyway, I did my homework after playing for a while, and now I’m off to bed. Goodnight, everyone. Two more weeks!

Chad

P.S. – MercyMe song of the day: “Finally Home”. All That is Within Me.

Don’t want no short people.

I hope that everyone had a fantastic Easter Sunday! He is Risen!

We were a couple of minutes late to church this morning, but it was fine; I think that Blake and I took our seats during the first song, so no biggie. The service was great: worship closed with “Revelation Song”, my favorite worship song, which was very emotional, and then Brother Jimmy’s message was great too. I can’t wait until I’m home for the summer so that I can hear him preach every week; don’t get me wrong, I like the church I go to in Lubbock (technically, Wolfforth), but it’s not home…I’ve gone to the same church back home for 13 or 14 years. I love it.

Sunday school was better than usual (my one complaint about FBC Forney now is my college Bible study class), as we had a discussion about politics and how they should be viewed from a Christian perspective. It was entertaining.

After SS, Mom, Dad, Blake, and I found Poppa and Granna and regrouped back at their house in Terrell. We do Easter gifts in our family (at least, the younger people get gifts), and mine this year included Portal 2 on my PS3 (which also came with a code for me to play on my PC as well; oh happy day!) and The King’s Speech on Blu-Ray. I haven’t seen that before, so I’m looking forward to watching it sometime this week.

We had our big Easter lunch/dinner combo, consisting of ham, my favorite creamed potatoes (thank you, Granna!), some tasty rolls, and some mac and cheese. It was a good meal, and I definitely over-stuffed myself.

At this point I played Portal 2 for a bit, which is just fantastic. I’m REALLY enjoying the single-player story mode, and I can’t wait to see where it takes me. Of course, can’t wait to try out the 2-player mode too!

A couple of hours later, the whole family gathered in the living room and I introduced them all to the Social Network (I know, I’m obsessed). Granna in particular had been wanting to see it, so I was all too happy to oblige…haha. I think they all enjoyed it (for the most part), but I had to explain a couple of things here and there when they were unable to follow the plot, which is definitely understandable.

Pretty soon after the movie ended, Mom, Dad, Blake, and I loaded up our stuff and headed back home, racing the storms the whole time. We were able to get home and unload the car before it started pouring rain, so that’s great. Blake got ready for bed since he has school in the morning, while the rest of us just hung around and watched some TV before packing up my stuff and loading it into the back of my car. Tomorrow, I plan on taking Blake to school in the morning and sticking around for honors band to hear the ensemble play for the first time (I’ve not been able to hear them this semester!), and then I will meet up with Andrew and let him load his stuff up in my car. Then we will probably go eat a light lunch (I say “light” because I have to stop at the Subway in Abilene as always, of course!) before heading back to the school so that we can hear the choir sing. We’ll leave the school before choir is over, getting on the road back to Lubbock at around 1:30.

Now, I’m listening to some Randy Newman as I type this up (I ended up not listening last night in favor of more sleep, and I’ll still be in bed at a decent time tonight), and now I’m almost done.

Goodnight, everyone, and sleep well! Update you when back in Lubbock…two weeks left!

Chad

P.S. – MercyMe song of the day: “My Heart Will Fly”. All That is Within Me.

Happy Easter, everyone.

I woke up this morning at 11-something but stayed in bed until Mom woke me up at noon-ish. Granna came into town to go shopping for stuff with Mom. After they had left, I fixed myself a cup of coffee and watched the Goonies on TV in the living room; LOVE the Goonies.

Around 2:30 or so, Dad, Blake, and I left for Terrell where our travel trailer is so that we could clean it up and make sure everything was in working order for my camping trip with Andrew and Seth to Lake Tawakoni State Park in a couple of weeks. I’m SO excited for this…I had thought it up last year, but I never went into planning mode and talked to the guys about it other than in passing.

Anyway, we stopped at Sonic for lunch and a few route 44 drinks on the way out (don’t worry, I got sweet tea!), and once we got to the storage facility where we keep it we hooked it up to my dad’s truck and drove it to Granna and Poppa’s house to wash it and such. I got to use this gas-powered high-velocity power washer to clean, and it was lots of fun; I felt that, had I pointed it straight at the ground and sprayed, I would have hovered like Mario in Super Mario Sunshine for the Gamecube (what a great game, eh?).

We left Granna and Poppa’s house a few hours later and made it home in time for Mom to start dinner for us…they fixed me spaghetti because they love me. 🙂 My mom’s spaghetti is my favorite food, so they always try and make sure they fix it whenever I’m in town. We all ate in the living room so that we could watch Criminal Minds together, and, let me tell you, both episodes we watched were super creepy. I mean, there’ve been some weird cases in the past, but the ones we watched today just kinda freak me out a little bit…oh well. I love that show though; I have the first season on my computer, and I can’t wait to start watching through. Mandy Patinkin (Inigo Montoya from Princess Bride) is in the first couple of seasons, so that’s awesome.

Once the episodes were over, I took a shower and now I’m about to go to sleep, but I’m going to listen through Randy Newman’s Little Criminals album (featuring his amusing song “Short People”) on vinyl before I officially hit the hay.

That being said, goodnight everyone, and have a very happy Easter…praise God, for His Son has conquered death; from the grave He has risen!

Chad

P.S. – MercyMe song of the day: “Alright”. All That is Within Me.

Happy

Only thing I really want to say tonight is this: home sweet home.

I know you all deserve a longer post than that after the short updates of the past two days, but I’ll be back within the next couple of days.

Goodnight, all!

Chad

P.S. – MercyMe song of the day: “Grace Tells Another Story”. All That is Within Me.

I lied to you.

I totally pulled an all-nighter, but I had legitimate reasons for doing so.

As stated in the short blog post from last night, I had absolutely no intention of staying up all night to work on this paper, but, the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. The only two classes I had today were my two easiest, so I wasn’t worried about showing up to them with no sleep, and I figured it was better to get no sleep last night and knock out my paper early today than to stay up late both last night and tonight in order to finish on time, risking me being super tired on the road during the drive home tomorrow. This way, I’m nearly finished with my paper now, so I’ll be able to get in bed relatively soon after I finish, and, trust me, I will: I’m exhausted (though I’m still thinking critically for my paper, so no worries as far as content goes), my depth perception is out the window (I swear the wall moved earlier), and I’m shining my desk lamp in my face while I work to prevent me from dozing off at the computer. This is serious business.

That being said, I am off to finish my paper; I have just over two and a half pages left, which is nothing in the world of paper writing, so I should be done within an hour or two, leaving me free to eat dinner, quickly pack my things, and then go to sleep.

So have a great evening, everyone, and don’t do drugs.

Chad

P.S. – MercyMe song of the day: “You Reign”. All That is Within Me.

Researchin’ it up.

Regret to say that there won’t be a real post tonight, maybe tomorrow night, due to this research paper. It’ll be done on time, but I’m hitting it hard tonight; only two classes tomorrow, so I’m not worrying myself about not getting a ton of sleep (don’t worry, I won’t pull an all-nighter…that would be foolish).

That being said, goodnight, all.

Chad

P.S. – Mercyme song of the day: “Sanctified”. All That is Within Me.

Early Night

Hello everyone.

Today was probably my busiest day all semester. Class was the same as usual, with me getting breakfast between aural skills and piano as usual, and I didn’t do any practicing since I had blown my chops yesterday doing recording stuff for horn studio. After band, I went to my lesson, where we just played through some of the recording stuff to make sure that I had recorded them correctly (playing them the right way)…I did, so no worries! At the end of my lesson, the guys who I’m playing in a trio with came in so that we could play for him and make sure we were ready to perform it on Thursday at the recital.

After we had finished that, I went back to the room for a little bit before studio, reading some more of the Shining; I’m almost done! Less than a hundred pages left. Studio was fine; we performed our trio for the rest of the horn studio after a couple other small groups went, which went relatively well. Once studio had ended, I went back to the room, sat on my bed and did nothing for a bit, and then got ready for my last band concert of the semester…what a relief! I played pretty well despite my blown chops (I’ve played SO MUCH in the past 48 hours), and it’s relieving to know that tomorrow I don’t have band class. My horn responsibilities for tomorrow are restricted to practicing with the trio.

From the concert I went back to the room, got a small dinner downstairs, and came back up to the room to eat. I’ve just been hanging out tonight, adding a bit to my research paper, but tomorrow is when I’m hitting it hard; I have three hours of work time between history and choir, and then I don’t have anything from choir onward. I plan on it being a VERY productive day. I’ll be in the library most of the day, I think, and hopefully I’ll knock out most of it; who knows, maybe I’ll get lucky and somehow finish ALL of it (though I doubt that; as long as most is done tomorrow, I have no problems with working on it on Thursday).

Friday? HOMEWARD BOUND. Can’t wait!

For now, I plan on taking a quick shower, getting in bed, attempting to finish the Shining (but not if it takes too long), and then getting in bed. Goodnight, all!

Chad

P.S. – MercyMe song of the day: “God with Us”. All That is Within Me. If you know any songs from this album, this is definitely the one you know. “Like a hinge straining from the weight, my heart no longer can keep from singing! All that is within me cries to You alone, be glorified, Emmanuel, God with Us.”