… we don’t need no mind control. Teachers! Leave our kids alone!

Pink Floyd

There’s some Pink Floyd for you. For those of you who don’t know, my birthday was on Friday. Heck of a way to go, if you ask me. A day off of school and snow to boot. Unfortunately, however, that means that my most recent roll of film still has not come back to Kroger’s. I want it badly, because it has pictures from Winter Formal (possibly the only decent ones, I don’t know).

I had a great birthday. I got to sleep late, Marj came over, and we played pool and watched some TV. Then she went to her grandmother’s house to spend the weekend with her parents, which is just as well, because I’ve got work to do.

Anyhow, it’s getting very late and I’m going to cut this short. Um… I’m 18 now, my voter registration card is getting sent in, I finished the FAFSA (and registered with the Selective Service [groan] through it), and now I’m “legal.” I don’t feel any different, nor will I do anything differently because of it. Just another year on the growing stack. Getting left out of things is something that doesn’t go away with age either, as I found out. Oh well, I’ll get over it.

Have a nice night/morning, everyone. Bye!

So this week has gone well so far—at least in the eyes of students. We started Monday with a two-hour delay, ended Tuesday three hours early, and then started Wednesday with another two-hour delay. All said and done, we’ve lost (thanks Robert!) seven hours of school this week. And oddly enough, I’ve enjoyed it. Getting to school around 9AM is much more humane than going at 7AM. No questions asked.

But on some other notes, it’s strange what snow does to people around here. It clouds vision, sure, but it clouds judgement more effectively. The motivation of all students approaches none as snow begins to hit the ground. The more white they see, the less inclined they are to do any work, whatsoever. I can’t say I’ve been innocent myself, but I’ve tried to avoid this disease. It’s like acute senioritis, but it affects every student, not just the seniors—though the seniors are already made more vulnerable by senioritis.

On the technology front, I finally conquered Courier-MTA and Mail::SpamAssassin yesterday, so now all of my mail, from all of my accouts is piped to a single account, and checked for spam. It should make my life easier. I’d post the address here, but it’d get spammed, surely. And I got Courier-MTA working so that it sends mail out through RoadRunner’s SMTP server, so my dad can now do his semi-mass mailings when he needs to (no, they’re not Spam, they’re opt-in mailing lists for the neighborhood and such).

Scholastically, well, I’ve been floundering. Senioritis runs in my veins, though I try to avoid it. It’s also very easy for me to get caught up in instrumental affairs, since music is one of the hobbies I enjoy most. I have pit orchestra for Big River coming up, and then All-State auditions on March 6. Hopefully I’ll make it, in which case the clinic is on April 23. I’m up against stiff competition for once. I’ll be sweating bullets…

The walls of my room breathe more freely now; the decorations have been slightly modified and brought up-to-date. I took down some old certificates from middle school, which, for all purposes, were rather pointless. In their place, I have put up pictures of the 2002 and 2003 Enloe High School Marching Bands, so now I have the complete four-year collection. And then I hung up the two plaques I have left. A change in decoration is welcome occasionally.

And now I think a change in task is appropriate. This is all I’ll be writing for now, perhaps with more later. As of now, however, I have essays to work on, so I’ll be under less pressure this weekend. Oh, and my birthday is next week. Somehow, the “Big 18” doesn’t seem so wonderful anymore. Anyhow—time to work! Bye!

Oh, and as for Jack Frost? He can bite me! Hence the title. But he has failed Wake County students twice now, as everyone expected a day off, yet we didn’t get one. Oh well, that’s the joke in tonight’s headline. Have a nice evening, and I’m going for reall this time!

Yes, that’s right. This is extremely late. You might say that it’s rather difficult to bottle up an entire month into a few short paragraphs. Words can never do justice to the teller’s experience. It seems that I left off after All-District auditions which leaves far too many stories to be told. Surely I’ll leave something out, but I can try my best here. Most of my stories come from weekends, as school has been pretty bland since then.

All-District

The following weekend we had the All-District Clinic in Burlington, NC. Which, of course, wouldn’t have been so bad if Hunter hadn’t misdirected our appetites on Friday night. Yes, we were forced to eat at “Hursey’s Barbeque” restaurant, which very few people agreed with, besides Hunter, who counts as several people due to his mass. Anyhow, the music was wonderful, as were the people. There are some rough spots in the recording, but I like it overall. And of course, I’d like to thank Anna, Marj, Michael and Emily for coming to the concert… it made the evening much more enjoyable.

Winter Formal

Then the next weekend we had Winter Formal. Okay, so that goes without saying. I had a good time and it seems like everyone else did too. We stayed in their dorm afterwards, for the company and for the ease of not needing to drive back home on Saturday night. We had bagels on Sunday and then visited Michael, and had dinner in Lenoir and that was the end of my evening.

All-Carolina

Then the next weekend we had All-Carolina. We bummed in their room again. But I’m glad we did, or I would have gone insane. That was, by far, the worst band clinic I have ever had to deal with. The Triangle Youth Brassband had a rehearsal and a concert the same weekend, so all the good brass players were gone. We had a superb woodwind section and an atrocious brass section. No offense to those people, but please—do something.

The week

Anyhow, then we come to this week. Which has, for the most part, been an experience I’d never like to repeat. I was up late working on homework almost every night, not to mention three extremely early mornings. That would be Tuesday, for our first round of Prom tickets. Then Thursday, for our second round of Prom tickets. Then once more on Friday for our first and only round of decorating Robert’s parking space. Friday the 13th was, unfortunately, his birthday. Not so much the 13th being bad, but the Friday didn’t help! Anyhow, everyone got a kick out of it, so I’m glad I got up early (though these early mornings are quite taxing).

A weekend with Marj

And then this weekend was another story. I enjoyed getting to visit Marj again on Friday, but that was nothing compared to Saturday, which was definitely an experience. So basically here’s what happened. We went to her uncle’s house around, say, 5:30 in the afternoon. That goes without saying, since 5:30 in the morning would be ridiculous. Though the way my week had been, it might not have been surprising. Anyhow, we watched about an hour of Pirates until dinner was ready. Then we had dinner, and talked for a while. We died by chocolate for dessert. The food was great, although I think that was my fill of chocolate for the next decade. Then we watched another movie before everyone decided to leave for the evening. Then once we got back to UNC we walked around for probably an hour or more, and I got to tell stories, especially about my two years going to the UNC Tarheel Invitational(s). Reliving memories is fun too.

So I think it’s definitely agreed between the two of us that it was the nicest Valentine’s day either of us has ever seen. Or maybe I’m misquoting, and then I’m sorry. Anyhow, it was also nice how it wasn’t very cliché. That’s not the reason I did things as they happened, but it was just how things turned out. I had an absolutely wonderful time, and I’m glad I got to spend time with her family for once.

And now the dull, drab nature of school strikes again. I’ll post again sometime, and hopefully this time it will be sooner rather than later!