Checker Knights

Blog No. 196: Wednesday, 7/15

I went wandering across Youtube and found this:

Completely AWESOME!

It's the music "Checker Knights" as heard on the Halberd stage on SSBrawl.

I think I played this video about 50 times before I logged off. It really got me inspired to continue with Piano, which I was having some doubts as to actually continuing. Unfortunately, he doesn't have sheet music for it, nor does he plan to make any! DX

Just the same! I'm going to practice some music now! XP

Tap Dancing Wizards

Blog No. 195: Taka's and Abril's Grand Tap Dance Final Adventure, and, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Yep. A mouthful.

Taka and Abril asked a while back for me to come see their tap final and to record it on video. I was with them during their process of figuring out their moves in the cafeteria, (well it was half preparation, half trying to look up the ending theme of Captain Planet, XD). Originally, they were editing a sound bite of Mortal Kombat, which was as techno and cliched as you'd think it would be. Then, sometime between that practice and their final, Taka elluded to me that they changed it from Mortal Kombat to that House Disney song she found. I was hoping it was the Captain Planet song... The Power is YOURS! XP

So on Final day, I had arrived early-ish to hang out with Taka for a little bit. She was giving me the gist of their routine. Granted it's not broadway, it still looks pretty good. XD

We met up with Abril a while later, only we didn't know whether or not it was her because her blackness was well hidden in the shadows. XP

They lead me to the little dance studio next to the gym. It was pretty big, prolly bigger than the ones at my high school but not as nice. It had mirrors and a pretty loud sound system. The teacher was pretty cool.

Apparently, some alumni from Charter attends that class also. When I saw Shoua and Saman walk in, I was surprised! I noticed that Shoua recognized me, what with seeing me the most recently with the facial hair and the ponytail. However, I saw Saman do like a short double take, like she was confused as to who I was. Have I really changed that much? :/

It was really funny watching everybody. The instructor was teaching them a routine thing that I guess taught them some basic skills and was able to be accompany an old time jazz song. From looking at everyone tapping, it didn't look that hard. It was a matter of keeping time in your head and translating that into phsical movement in the legs. The instructor then pulled out some canes for them to dance with! It was hilarious! XP

Then Taka and Abril, after a decent hallway practice, performed their routine. I set up my video camera on my 30 dollar tripod and filmed it, just like the good ol' days in filmmaking... *sigh* Nostalgia...

It was pretty funny. Together, they were doing fun stuff, like chasing each other and sweeping arm movements. They utilized each other very well. Well I thought it was just fine and so did the teacher, (after I took a sneak peak of their grading sheets! XP), but Taka and Abril wanted to do it again, only in a more open setting in front of friends! You HEAR THAT? Yet another excuse to get together over the summer people! XP

Taka had to immediately leave right after for her camping trip, so Abril and I kicked it at the cafeteria for a bit. I bought her lunch as well as an Icee from the slushie machine for myself, (which we apparently have now... XP). The strawberry slush drink didn't really taste like strawberry. It tasted more milky... DX

Afterward, mom picked me up and took me home. I basically went of Facebook/play with my Wii until that night.

~~~

Audrey, John, and I dropped off Lennox at grandma's and went straight to Regal, where we saw the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

When we got there, my friends Achona and Brandi, or Chocho and Brando McVeal as I usually call them, walked up and surprised me. I basically hung out with them while John and Audrey got our seats. Chocho had a few sheets of paper that was basically the entertainment for the night. There was a scavenger hunt where we had to find all the people in costume as HP characters with distinguishing pins. They left out Arthur Weasley on that list, yet we found like 3 of those. Then there were obscure, random characters I hardly remember. We totally blanked on who Madam Malkin was! XP

Then Chocho and Brando took me to get sorted by the sorting hat, the long and common tradition amongst Potter fans. Apparently, the both of them had gotten Hufflepuff when they really wanted Slytherin. I usually get Hufflepuff as well, but this time around, I got Slytherin. Chocho was so mad at that hat! XP

Then a giant Death Eater appeared!

We also ran into 2/3 of the Matutis Clan, Angel and Ella. Ella's the one in my graduating class, Christine is a year older and Angel a year younger. They pretty much looked and acted the same. I asked how Christine was and they said that she stayed behind with the baby. XP

Ok I kept you waiting long enough!

~~~

Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Warning, if you have yet to read the book, GO see the movie while you still can! The movie strays so far from the series that it might as well just be a stand alone movie. It's impossible to compare the book to the movie, so don't even worry about it!

Lord Voldemort is alive, out in the open, and he is pissed! He comes up with a complicated plan that is seen earlier in the movie that involves Draco Malfoy. We also know that Snape gets involved by Draco's mother, Narcissus, with the unbreakable vow.

Meanwhile, Harry works closely with Dumbledore to try and get an understanding of Voldemort's motives. This involved Harry trying to manipulate Horace Slughorn, the new potions master, to relinquish a revealing memory in his and Voldemort's past. This time between Harry and Dumbledore is the transition to Harry's final mission in the seventh book. He learns of the Horcruxes, each holding a piece of Voldemort's soul. It shows what lengths Harry will have to go to in order to defeat Voldemort in the final book...

Oh! And Dumbledore dies. XP

Each of the important characters in the book has face time in the movie. It focused some of the attention on the hidden emotions of Draco or Snape. They may have had some extra time in the book as well, but the movie seemed to emphasize this a little more. It showed how Draco's emotions reeled back and forth between total hatred and immense fear.

It emphasized on the love and the danger in this movie. Some scenes were added for a visual and dramatic effect that evil is on the horizon, like the pedestrian bridge scene in the beginning. Most of the movie is in complete darkness. The only spackle of any color is that of the Weasley joke shop run by the Weasley twins. It also emphasized a lot of the love triangles that went on, like Harry's jealousy over Ginny, Hermione's jealousy over Ron, and a lot of back and forth with a few of the extras. That Lavender Brown is one creepy chick.

3 Out of 5 Thumbs Up--> Great to see if you're a Harry Potter virgin!

*Singled Out: Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood

The picture really says it all doesn't it?

Luna Lovegood provided a lot of the comedic humor for the story because of her weird and out of the ordinary personality. They pulled off the scene of where they introduced Luna in her Gryffindor lion head very well! In the scene where Harry has to find a date to Slughorn's party, Harry shows an immediate and almost sarcastic response, "I know the perfect person!" Cut to Harry walking down the hall with Luna, who prattles on about how she wears shoes to bed because she sometimes sleepwalks. XD

She certainly is not afraid to be herself! Luna, you've been singled out. XP

~

I'm tired of this blog now. TIME TO POST IT! XP

Kaylah's Closet

Blog No. 194: As The Monday Turns...

King left last Friday to go on his camping trip with his youth group/church thing. It means that all this week, he would be absent from class, (lucky...). XP

It also means that I'm left behind most of the time. King was the one who gave me rides home and rides before class to various places, like their home, the tennis court, Burger King, etc... Not only was he a means of transportation, but also a means of entertainment...

So when my mom dropped me off at the usual 3 PM, I had nothing to do except sit in the shade by the tennis courts...

...

So I decided to call up some folk. I called JT, but he didn't answer, I figure because of work. He did text back, which our conversation consisted of 2 parts confusion and 2 parts Ragnarok. No idea why...

I called Piper, and we talked for a bit. She was basically telling me about her time the night before when her and Tom went over to JT's for an RO session. Kinda makes you wonder if RO is an online game then why do you do it in the same room as other people... It's kinda like calling your number with someone else's cell phone, then continuing to have an actual conversation with both phones at both ears... It's pretty insane, really. XP

Then I called Taka to see what she was up to. I heard music in the background, which meant that her and Abril were practicing their tap routine for their final performance tomorrow. So I let them practice and hung up.

Finally, I called Kaylah. Kaylah is the basic southern white girl. I made fun of the 'southern', I made fun of the 'white', but I never thought I'd get the chance to make fun of the 'girl'. Kaylah was basically complaining about her 3 bags of shoes, how she couldn't find the shoes she was plannig to wear that day for her chef job, (pardon *cough* chef MANAGER job *cough*), interview. She also doesn't have any of the furniture set up in her room yet! She justified having these shoes with, "well, I need a certain shoe for each outfit!" which begged the question of, "well, how many outfits do you have?" and that, my friends, was where she was speechless. XP

She only broke the silence to reply, "well, it's not that I have too many clothes, it's that I don't have enough room! I swear, when I retire to a two story house, I'm dedicating a full room as the closet!" She can be such a girl sometimes. XP

I was telling her that I, too, have realized how much clothes I have, only I admitted I have to give away some of these clothes. I also complained back to her about having too many shoes as well, (only I had 3 pairs, not 3 bags). I made her fussy by that remark. :P

"That's not even counting the boots!" XD;

An hour and a half later, I was feeling the sun light burning my face, so I retired inside Davies Hall. There, I sat in the hallway in front of a classroom adjacent to my own. When the teacher arrived, I used the door handle to prop myself up, only I was surprised to find out that it was unlocked... Something to remember for later... XP

Jardine gave us our quiz. He talked about Christianity. I was spacing out, thinking of images of Monty Python, the cheshire cat, and chest wax...

Then my mom came by and took me home!

... The Monty Python--> Cheshire Cat--> Chest wax tangency made sense in my head... XP

A Weak Back? When Did You Hurt It?

Blog No. 193: A Week Back! *Buh-DUM-tss*

A while back, (pardon the puns), I proposed a deal with Dustin and Patric to help me paint my room. We talked about it through Facebook that, in exchange for their manual labor, I would treat them to lunch.

In the morning before they arrived, I was frantically trying to clean and clear my room out some more. I was trying to do stuff in between my spackling last night, only my sister had complained about the noise coming out of my room. Next time, I should try and not spackle with a butter knife... XP

I carried out my clothes, my shelves, and my desk stuff out of the room. It's sometimes hard to realize how much stuff you have until you pull it out of your room... Then I vacuumed the hell out of the carpet, which took about an hour and a half to do to prevent a sudden overload or a vacuum implosion.

Then the guys arrived and we started going at it! XP

We really had no experience painting before. I only painted canvases and paper, and the one time I painted, (during my volunteer work at the PTK job on Fort Natomas), I only painted one plank of wood until someone pulled me away to lift something heavy... Like a hand saw... XP

So we just started to work. We pulled the big things I couldn't lug out to the center and covered it with plastic. Patric opened up the can of paint and we started painting with our rollers. Dustin had played some "painting" music for the mood. If you heard his usual playlist, you'd know it be full of J-Rock/Mainstream music. A few songs were Spice Girls, a few were GREEEN, yada yada. I swear, the song "There She Goes", (the Sixpence None The Richer version, not The La's), kept popping up again and again...

There she goes... There she GOES again! XP

Anyways, after the majority of the wall was painted, the can of paint was almost empty. So, we decided to take our break and move on to lunch at In n' Out. The both of them had something called 'Animal Fries', which was what Terry had gotten on our last Kaylah Day. I had tried theirs too, and remarked the same thing about how it looked, only I cleaned it up. The animal fries had the cheese, onions, and secret sauce that did not combine to a very eye pleasing color. I described it as, "it looks too pink to be considered food," and spared them the "something that bleeded, amongst other things, in your pants" reference I had made with Kaylah and Terry. XD

As we headed to the car, some lady in her car asked us to help her with her business class. Basically, she had us try some samples of cologne, like those annoying Macy's attendants at the mall. We left after the third spray around...

Then we went to Home Depot for the paint.

We were joking around a bit. Somewhere in Dustin's thought process, he made the plan of chest bumping the wall with his blue painted chest to leave its imprint behind. In my mind I was thinking he wouldn't go through with it. Then he showed me his hairless chest. Apparently he shaved for the occasion...?

So I agreed, at first, to see if he'd actually do it. All he told me was, "pick out the blue you want, Rabbiman, and I'll do it!" So I picked a darkish blue I could see against the green wall. I asked the guy for the smallest can of that color, which he made and gave to me along with another gallon of green. I looked at Dustin and he didn't protest about it.

So there we were, back at the house, continuing to paint the room green. When we finished, Dustin took his shirt off and started taking pictures with his phone while Patric was getting the blue paint ready. First, Patric drew a weird face on Dustin's chest so that I could take a few pictures to send. Then Patric and I dipped our hands into the blue paint and started smothering the stubly man chest...

My wall, feeling up Dustin's boobies... XD

Now if I only I had female friends that would let me do this... XP

Then Patric, with his already blue hands, added his hand print and other things on the wall. While doing this, Dustin hugged Patric from behind, making a blue blob on the back of Patric's white shirt. XD

I, too, made my mark. XP

After cleaning our hands and Dustin's chest, we played some Brawl on my wii in the computer room. I found out a few things during that Brawl session, like Dustin has a lot of time on his hands, or that I can pwn Dustin's Olimar with my Olimar, or that Wario is able to EAT his own motorcycle... Odd. XP

All in all, it was a pretty good day!

Now I have to put all my stuff back into my room.............................. DX

Caught a Few, Threw a Few

Blog No. 192: Frisbee Day

The basic highlight of this day was another round of Ultimate Frisbee (UF)... Yes I decided to use an acronym... XP

The gameplay wasn't really remarkable this time around. We had the usuals plus a few people. I find it somewhat awkward to meet new people, being the awkward person that I am, I don't usually give off a nice first impression. However, I noticed that I didn't care after a certain point because I end up introducing myself with a handshake to the newcomers, then pile driving them into the ground a few seconds later... I also noticed I did run a lot more than I had when I started this thing. Although I ran a lot, I didn't do much to affect the tide of the game.

During game play, my foot immersed into a gigantic mud puddle, much like what happened on one of my Oolong Days, but it wasn't deep enough for a pool of water.

Bryn brought her dog this time. He kept barking and calling for her, and he almost ended up on the field a few times. I thought it had wanted to catch a frisbee, but all he wanted was to run around and play with his owner.

By the end of the game, it started to sprinkle a little bit, which was odd because today was supremely warmer than any other day of UF... The acronym is fun saying aloud... XP

Anyways, after the game, JT drove me to home depot for a spackle run. Along the way, he invited me to come over with him to hang out while he played that Ragnorok Online game. He was trying to entice me to get into that game, which seemed really annoying and mundane when I saw Taka and Fishie play it a couple of times... So I said I'd think about it. XD

So he dropped me off at home, and I spackled my room for a bit, preparing for the painting day tomorrow! :P