I suck at photography

Welcome to Paradise

Can't Touch This (Silver Sword or something like that; I wasn't in Hawaii to learn)

Purple Haze

Mmmm Morning View

Past the road to Hana: lush beyond belief

Little Neilson

Sunset Boulevard

This is true art (I'm a real photographer)

Sean, competition?

Rights to edit and fix these crappy pictures reserved by Brad Neilson.

I tear my heart open, I sew myself shut

I arrived back from Maui on wednesday morning, for I flew through the night back home. I had a wonderful time, but almost cried at customs, because I love Canada so and was glad to be back. For those who have seen me, they realized that I got burned. I used no sunscreen on the last two days, and just lay in the sun, as to get a nice burn and, eventually, a souvenir tan.

I am truly refreshed from my vacation and my state of mind is quite content. :D School is a little bit of work but fun, I won a bursary for piano & I got into SFU with at least a $4000 scholarship. I'm also hoping to make this summer an awesome one with much travelling and hanging out with friends. Of course I must save up money before then, so I need to either pick up more tutoring students or get some ridiculous part time job.

Some highlights from the Maui excursion: going up the 10,000 foot volcano, Heleakala, in the early morning (4am) and, from above the cloud line, watch a stunning Maui sunrise; driving the most hardcore road I've ever been on (highway with only one lane in some places (for both directions) and hairpin turns every 20 meters) to travel to Hana and the Seven Sacred Springs; seeing large waves at Ho'okipa and Paia beach, but daring not to venture into them. I took almost 300 pictures, soon to be narrowed down to the 4 or 5 that you will see :P Hopefully, one will be good.

Ah yes! The shopping was also good. There was lots of board stores (Billabong and Quiksilver Boardriders Co.) and some stylin' stores like Banana Republic and Guess. I probably spend about 150 USD on various articles. We rented a 3 bedroom, 2 washroom, full kitchen, living room and lanai condominium for a reasonable price. It was located about 2 minutes from Kamaole beach 1 in Kihei and had a wonderful view of the sunset as we were on the southwest of the island.

On Easter Sunday I went to a local church, and proceeded to a wonderful buffet at the 5 Palms restaurant. For 30 USD per plate, we got all-you-can-eat catered food. Everything from fresh fruit to buns to crepes to belgian waffles to custom omlettes to bacon to prawns to cheesecake was served. It was some of the best food I've EVER had and was worth every last penny.

I quickly found the new rock station in Maui and tuned in regularly. As a result of that, "Scars" by Papa Roach, a totally whiny emo song, became my favourite song. I also heard new NIN, Beck and Unwritten Law. They play a lot of Three Days Grace in Maui and I cheered every time a Canadian rock song came on.

"My weakness is that I care too much"

I love the cephalization of humans and how the reams of brain cells can allow what appears to be random thought. It allows me to keep coming up with new ideas constantly and use the good ones and throw away the bad ones even though my mind cannot fathom the process of its own workings. Anyways, the current organization of my head probably has some effect on how good I'm feeling right now. Props to good friends; it is good to be back.

P.S. I'm still catching up on my computer things so my apologies if I am delayed in response to people's emails or neglectful of their blogs.

Middle of the Pacific

I'm in Maui right now, so posts may be to a minimum. :P The internet connection is surprisingly fast. I just had to buy a smoothy so the internet cafe guy would let me continue surfing. hehe

Hopefully, I'll meet some cool people here, acquire some material assets and bring back some good memories. SFU is being a punk and saying they don't know my Gr. 12 final marks, when, in fact, I reported them two days before I left. Now I'm messed, cuz I don't have my SFU # here and therefore, I can't log onto my account. >:(

I'm off. Probably no posts, unless I somehow manage to solve all of this SFU crap or solve some other unnamed quarrels while abroad.

American Beauty

Part of the mission of going to Roger's on thursday involved renting a movie. I though of American Beauty, but it turned out that they only had it for sale. I ended up buying both "American Beauty" and "Forrest Gump" on DVD. Two academy award winners. I had never seen AB before so it was a gamble, but usually the best picture is at least half good. (ie. Braveheart, Gladiator, Sound of Music, Forrest Gump, LOTR: ROTK, Rain Man. just to name a few good'uns).

Anyways, I watched American Beauty this evening and I loved it. I thought it was an awesome movie, if not random. No, not random like Constantine. It was random in a touching way. There was a wide variety of characters played very convincingly. In fact, a couple of the characters would have seemed cheesy, had they not been cast or acted out well. It was set relatively close to home, in a metaphorical sense. The plot wasn't predictable and usually the characters acted as one would expect them to in real life.

It was a really influential movie. I can see it making people examine their life. Out of the 10 or so main characters, most people could find one to relate to. I highly recommend the movie to people and if you make fun of it, then you missed the point. There are parts where it almost turns corny, but on the flipside, the part that seems corny is quite serious and pertinent to the movie. All in all, the backbone of that movie is virtually identical to the backbone of my philosophy and if I could die the way Kevin Spacey did, then I would be one happy man.

5 Stars

Whistler

Woah its been a week since my last post. A bunch has happened since then; however some stuff is the same. Once again, I went to the weight room today after school for heavy arms. Last thursday evening was one big mix-up. Some people got invited to my house without my knowledge, then I found out and said it was okay, then some decided not to come, then I told some others not to come. Eventually, it was Alana who came over and Alleah and Sean showed up. We walked to Roger's and Save On. Mostly we just talked a lot and it was one of the funnest nights that I'd had in a while.

On the weekend I went up to Whistler for some quality "guys time". It was me, my brother and my dad and his brother who ended up going. We watched a few movies, ate pizza and went skiing. The mountain was rocky, icy, warm, sunny, slushy and not very busy. Nonetheless, it was good to get up skiing. Hopefully, some freak snowstorm will be thrust upon Whistler or the ski season will have to close early. I was pooped after the trip and had a satisfying 10 hour sleep when I got back.

Relying on Others to

Today, I just noticed myself leafing through other's blogs looking for interesting tidbits on their lives, when I haven't posted for a while. This reminds me of "Rights and Responsibilities" which we learned about in Socials 11. I have the right to feel safe and the responsibility not to hurt others. Of course, this point is going nowhere, but I have the right to these thoughts and the right to speak them.

I love how I can constantly evaluate and revise my life philosophy without being called a hypocrite. I appreciate friends who realize I make mistakes, forgive me for them and allow me to change. I think this is part of an ideal way to grow up, being allowed to make mistakes w/o devastating consequences and piecing together a reasonable way to live one's life. There are times when I find the rules by which I live to be flawed, and then I tweak them so I am satisfied. Right now, I'm at one of the points when I am satisfied.

I just got back from school after pumping iron in the weight room. Also, I participated in a business-type meeting when the district review team came to our school. (This is in place of accreditation.) I found out that I got 50/50 on a Biology test that I essentially prepped myself for after missing all of the lessons when I was in Idaho. Now I have a relatively free evening ahead of me due to hard work during the day.

But so anyways. lol . I worked on writing another song yesterday. And I'm also working on learning some Pantera. Unfortunately, whatever meek guitar skills I had have declined steadily when I was working on piano and drums more. erg. mreh. now i'll add some email links to my blog.

Etymology

I love etymology and wish it was a reasonable career option. I love it when I go to the dictionary and find the latin roots of a word and how it fused with old/middle english to give us a word today. Actually, I just love dictionaries. The joy of acquiring a pre WWI unabridged British or Canadian dictionary would be equivalent to that of acquiring a Pearl 6.5" maple snare drum shell. I think that was when our language was best. We have so many stupid words now like "sup" and "astronaut" and "poser", but lots of good words have either lost their meaning or have become obsolete. I'm quite happy to be speaking such a sophisticated language.

Last night was interesting, I have to say. Randomly, April, Alana, Sean, Alleah and I went to chill at Whitney's house as I was bound to a promise I made a couple weeks ago. In addition to the adverbial form, I'd like like to say that it was quite random.

I can't fathom this persistent fad of removing blogs, just like the fad of starting them. Sure once in a while you have a decline in readers, but in that case you need to advertise. (no, don't become a sell out and put those ads on your blog). Just write what you consider and awesome post and then tell everyone about it. I know it can be dispiriting when standing in the shadow of Alleah's massive 50 comment entry, but be strong. "I AM STRONG, when I am on your shoulders". The way Alleah got that many comments was through controversy, people voicing their true opinions and then massive promotion on Alleah's part. I admit lots of times I don't read everyone's post and I miss some of them, but I understand if you glaze over mine once in a while. You should be writing the blog for your own pleasure and if other ppl enjoy it then that is a bonus...

. . .

posers

Spasmatic Performances

David loves that word. I finished the music festival today. There was 8 ppl in my romantic Grade X category, then Rahim randomly dropped out. I played first and was incredibly happy with my performance of Chopin's Nocturne in E Minor, Op. 72 No. 1 (published post-humously). It was the best I ever performed. Then Akari comes right after me and busts out a Chopin Scherzo; for some of you, that ruined the punch line, but for others, it is still coming. Ayaka played a crazy song and so did Kumi. The other kids in my category played pretty well too. Then Mr. Dupuis, the most random adjudicator ever (quite cool though) comes up and says, "well this was a really interesting catergory. 3 people played ARCT songs."

I laughed silently to myself, but my mom was pissed. She ranted on and on after about how they were cheating. It turns out Akari is studying piano at the college and she is CLEARLY in ARCT though she is winning all of the grade 10 categories. Anyways, they got disqualified and didn't get a mark. I won that category, but it wasn't as satisfying a win as it would have been to fair and square own the random cheating kids. The moral of the story, is to be one with the piano when playing your song and play what you feel inside of you.

I got my provincial marks and was mildly surprised. very mildly. like the mild acidity of tap water. My average is nothing altogether impressive, but sufficient for what I need to do: 96. Laura Buzzard and Laura Rodgers both got the same mark on the English provincial and pwned me. I mean, I knew LB would, but LR? ack.

The stress of piano is off and I've never had much trouble with high school so I'm free. I got a Brahms book today with many pieces including a Scherzo by him and numerous intermezzos. Now I can just bust out tons of fun romantic songs as opposed to messing around with 20th century. bartok. psht.

Time for chilling.

Sup

I got back from Idaho on Sunday. There is so much to talk about from the trip. There was so many amazing jazz musicians and drum kits to play on. I think I might have to get a Ludwig bass drum. Luke was right: they rock. We went to WSU on friday to practice with senior jazz band and I learned a bunch from the percussion instructor there.

I met about 5 ppl on the trip. I hacked with some random ppl as well. I bought a bunch of stuff that is less expensive in the US. I think I'll be writing some more songs soon. I can't wait until festival is over. Speaking of festival, I botched my first two songs, but somehow got a 2nd place anyways.

I'm looking forward to so much stuff this year, graduation, dry grad, prom, summer, world ski and snowboard festival, hawaii, university, provincial exam marks in two days. lol. i'm out for sake of sleep.