Calm, you say? Well, I’m not planning on watching the Superbowl this year: don’t care much for the teams, and I can just watch the commercials on the internet. Besides, it’ll feel good to avoid it.
Yesterday was pretty awesome for waking up at 530 to go to a Science competition. Even though I hadn’t planned on doing it, I got drafted into doing Science Bowl by Willie about three weeks ago (Fairley and Tom, 2 weeks ago), and with free donuts and pizza, who am I to complain? We had two teams of Willie, DNev, Evan Kornacki, and Aditya (AKA super pwnage) and then Tom Crockett, Fairley, Petri, Kosine, and me (AKA super pwned). We went in there with basically no plan and almost no experience, and then came out tied for 9th out of 32 teams. Not bad, I say. I would like to congratulate Mr. Crockett on his 18th birthday, a failed lottery ticket, and perhaps the most incredible guessing ever. The other team, however, owned. They won every single match, and then won the last match in “overtime”, with DNev playing his typical role as hero. They’ll be going to Nationals in DC at the end of April. If you ever see any of them, it is perfectly fair to start singing “We are the Champions” and then ask them for the incredible story.
Friday school was pretty sucky, with an essay, test, and DBQ 1,2,3. I can see that going either way. After school, I had Solo & Ensemble. The ensemble was, I thought, pretty good, considering how little practice we managed. My solo was different. Here’s what he said afterwards:
Judge: This is a fun piece. It’s a hard solo, yet still kind of tongue-in-cheek. *looks up* You have really great sound, technique, tone… you’re note accuracy was absolutely incredible. You play at an all-state level, and I think you did a lot of great stuff in a solo that many tuba players can’t play.
Me: (confused) Thanks.
Judge: That being said, however…
Me: (Thinking “shit shit shit shit shit”)
Judge: anytime there was a 16th note run, I couldn’t hear it. The notes were not clear, and you seemed to fumble your way through it. For a player at your level, it should have been much better. It sounded basically like an all-state player (I still don’t know why he kept saying “all-state”) who didn’t practice this particular piece enough. Am I correct?
Me: (fumbling) Well, I don’t think that was a representative performance.
Judge: (pauses) I really wish, then, that you had had a representative performance, because as fun as this piece is, I think it could have been more.
Then it was the “blah blah thanks blah blah”. If you didn’t read that, it basically went, “I think you’re a great played, but you seriously effed this up”. Oh well, I’ll deal.
So, about the future. Now that Willie, Aditya, and David are going to Science Bowl nationals (no possible reason can stop them, nor will I let it stop them), I looked on the net for dates, since I know that that time of year has really terrible conflicts. Well, the Science Bowl team needs to be in DC by April 27th and leaves May 1st. TCEA State (computer science, which me, david, and willie won last year) is April 29th, and we typically leave friday during the day and come back saturday afternoon. UIL for Wind Ensemble is either the 28th or 29th. This situation, I like to call “fortississmo” (triple f). While you’re singing “We are the Champions” to them, wish Willie and David luck in surviving the fury of Janda and Cunningham.