A Ripple of Color

Tests and Ice Age

2008-04-06T21:55:00.009-06:00

The weekend is over, and Science AIMS and Tera Nova standardized testing is this week. I absolutely hate standardized tests, and I don't think that I'm prepared well enough to exceed in every category. I heard somewhere that if you exceed on your AIMS tests that you can receive free tuition during your college years, which would be great if I did manage to exceed, but my dad is a college math professor, which still means I get free tuition in any college in my state, but still, doing well on your AIMS tests can also lead to scholarships, which, if was offered one, would be Awesome.

So anyway.. all I did for most of the day was study for these tests. And that was pretty boring, but I also played some basketball, and watched a Suns game against the Mavericks, but the Suns didn't win, so it's not much to talk about. I also listened to some music on my iTunes including a song by Rusted Root called "Send Me On My Way". Most people don't recognize it when the title is presented to them, but when it is mentioned in context with Ice Age, people begin to remember. It was by far the most memorable song in Ice Age if there were any, and it's easy to recognize because of it's catchy jingle at the beginning of the song. Also Ice Age is an awesome movie, definitely in my list of my top 8 animated films.

Send Me on My Way

Ice Age

45 Days Left of School And Rise Against

2008-04-03T22:37:00.008-06:00

The week is almost over, and the weekend is one day away! And there are only something like 45 days of school left! I can't wait. I've been working really hard lately to raise my grades, because I only have 45 days left to do so, but I think I can achieve that. Also one of my close friends is in a play called Our Town that is premiering tomorrow, and I heard it was funny, so I may go to that if I'm not doing anything else. This reminds me of when I used to be in plays such as, Peter Pan, and A Mid-Summer Nights Dream where I played Demetrius. That was fun a fun play, and the best one I've been in by far. It almost makes me want to get into acting again, but I'll have to think about it a little more.

So I know that my last post wasn't that great, but I hope you enjoyed the Simpsons Presidential Election parody. My vid today is of one of my favorite songs, by one of the best rock bands out there, Rise Against. The song is "Behind Closed Doors". This song has awesome lyrics, and a really addicting sound, almost making you want to head bang right there one the spot, but then you stop to listen to the lyrics that never lose relevance. Here's the vid.

Behind Closed Doors

Simpsons, and the Presidential Election

2008-04-01T22:38:00.006-06:00

Well today is gonna be a short post, I just don't have the energy to write much today. So as not to be entirely random, I've made sure to make my vid related with the 08 Presidential Election. And guess what? It's a Simpsons show! YES!!! OK enough with the enthusiasm. Anyway, personally I'm rooting for Obama, but if Hilary won, I wouldn't mind much. What's great about these two candidates, at least to me, is they are both democrats, and they both seem to have the same over all idea, make United States better for the people, so here's the vid. I'll try to get a little more into this topic tomorrow.

A Typical Day And "IZ"

2008-04-01T00:28:00.007-06:00

Today, what can I say about today except, it was typical. I went to school, went to basketball training, and then, guess what? I went home. I probably should have helped my friend move to his new house, but after basketball training I was just so sore, and I thought with my limited mobility I wouldn't be much help, but now I'm regretting it. I have helped my friend move a total of 3 times since I was in forth grade, and now, well I've broken the tradition. But I guess there is nothing I can do now, maybe help them unpack lol.

Well now that I've broken one tradition, I don't want to break another, so now on to the music. About five months ago I bought the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on iTunes, after hearing it off the iPod of a peace speaker who had visited my school. This version of the famous song was done by a guy named "IZ" or at least nicknamed that, I would have no idea how to spell his real name. Anyway, this is a very good song, and the vocals are amazing, and the only instrument used is a ukulele, it almost makes you wonder how the popularity of "IZ" would have grown if he didn't die of obesity, he was around 700 lbs. at the time. Anyway, the version of the vid also includes another popularly known song called "What A Wonderful World".

A New House, And A foreign Song

2008-03-30T14:23:00.012-06:00

Well Today is Sunday, which means the weekend is almost over, and Monday is around the corner. Hopefully it is a long one. Anyway I started to design another Building on Google SketchUp Today, it doesn't look very residential, but hey, it doesn't have to be. It's only a little bit done, may take a week or so for me to finish it. Maybe I'll make it some sort of museum or something.

Well I was playing Guitar Hero III last night, and I played one of the two foreign songs on it called Generation Rock by this German band called Revolverheld, or "Gunslinger" in English. From playing this one song I can say that it is a pretty good band, I haven't really listened to any of the other songs, but all my friends who heard Generation Rock liked it.

Generation Rock by Revolverheld

I've noticed over the years that popular foreign music is usually very similar to music from the USA, except, in my opinion, very often not as good. It's amazing how American music, movies, and what not have become the popular media all over the world. I think this has to do with the migration of African-American musicians between 1920-1950 to Europe where they played Blues and Jazz music, because they were rejected in the USA due to the color barrier. Then as the years wore on, the color barrier was broken, and music like Rock and Pop were derived from Blues and Jazz, and that spread through the rest of the world through the earlier connections created during the 1920-1950. Anyway, that's just my theory.

Jimi Hendrix

2008-03-29T16:41:00.009-06:00

Today wasn't that eventful, but I still have a lot to talk about . Firstly, yesterday I was listening to Jimi Hendrix's "All Along The Watchtower" which is a great song, and then when I looked for the song on YouTube, and I read someones comment saying that Jimi Hendrix's music was all the drugs, and that without them he wouldn't have been able to create such great music. I disagree, I think that the drugs he consumed may have influenced his music, by tearing down barriers that another non drug using musician wouldn't have been able to overcome. But in the end it all comes down to the artist inside. And it's very impressive how he taught himself to play a guitar left handed, with only a right handed guitar available. Usually "south paws" or left handed individuals buy left handed guitars so that the fingering of the strings is universal among all guitarists, going from the lowest note to the highest, but in the case of Jimi Hendrix, the way he played the guitar the notes went from highest to lowest, which means you have to reconfigure everything from the chords, to the strumming of the strings.

Now why I like "All Along the Watchtower" so much is because, it has so much emotion implemented within the memorable riffs of the guitar, and the lyrics of the song. And, at least for me, when I listen to it, I don't know if I should feel exited, happy, or sad. Here's the vid.

All Along The Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix

The Weekend, Finally!

2008-03-29T01:33:00.009-06:00

Well, after a long awaited in hail of breath, I can finally say... It's the weekend! And I hope it is a restful one, because I've entirely run out of gas, and need to refuel. I don't know what I plan to do this weekend, but I look forward to at least hanging out with some of my friends, which I have already partially checked off my list, and playing some basketball. I also want to clean up my house a little bit, even though I hate to clean, but its worth it for the benefit of being organized. I may also design another house... That should be fun!

I may find the time in between some of my other activities to redo my room. Just so it's a little more efficient, and my lack of a desk has really made it hard to get my work done, so I hope I get one of those soon. I also want to buy some ceiling lights so that I want have to use standing lamps, or table lamps that take up space, and my room is pretty small so I need all the space I can get. Additionally I may plan to paint my room a different color, not that it has any color now with its bland white walls, but I think that my pictures and posters are working well and adding needed excitement , and texture to my room, but as always, it could be better.

Oh, by the way, the Simpsons ROCK!

An Award, and Music

2008-03-27T20:39:00.011-06:00

Well I've been pretty busy and lazy the past couple days, probably why I haven't been posting to much lately. Anyway... I've been playing a lot of basketball the past week, and just yesterday I received the "Biggest Heart Award" from my former basketball coach for my contributions, and effort during the basketball season. I was pretty surprised when he gave it to me, after not going to the award ceremony a couple weeks ago, and not hearing of any news that I was awarded anything, but it's always nice to be recognized for your effort. So that added a lot more self confidence in my game, and everything seems to be getting easier, which is good.

Well.. I have been thinking a lot about music lately and I've noticed that more of the exciting music, like hard rock and metal, don't really appeal to me as much as they used to. I think a lot of people go through this, and I think it's because of your mood. When you are younger, everything exciting is appealing to you, but when you get older, I think that your mood starts to become a little more mellow, although doing things exciting is still great, but being mellow is more of a constant. Also, I believe with age comes more education, which may cause people to center their thoughts more on the lyrics of the music, and in most metal music, lyrics have little to no significance. So anyway, that's my opinion. Also, over the past couple months I have been noticing that the Red Hot Chili Pepper's lyrics, really don't make much sense at all... But they are still one of my favorite bands, which I guess contradicts my opinion I stated earlier, but oh well.

Snow [Hey oh] by the Red Hot Chili Peppers

School, The Phoenix Suns, and Michael Jackson

2008-03-24T22:44:00.013-06:00

Well its almost the end of they day... I have to admit that I thought my first day of school back from spring break would be much more of a torture than it actually was. I didn't really receive that much homework from my teachers, off-season basketball training was canceled for the day, and for my first class all I did was watch a fairly interesting movie called "GATTACA". I also was able to talk to some friends from school who I hadn't seen over spring break, so that was nice as well.

And I just got done watching a Phoenix Suns basketball game that was very good, but... the suns lost due to some questionable calls made by refs who seemed to be daydreaming, but I'll get over it, and there is another game against the Boston Celtics tomorrow that should be pretty interesting. Anyway.. after the game I watched this thing on Michael Jackson that was pretty interesting, and I know that to most people when the topic of Michael Jackson comes up the first thing that comes to mind is "He's a pedifile", But it's actually interesting how he influenced and shaped the "Pop" industry, and I have to admit that Thriller is a pretty awesome vid, even though the pop genre generally isn't my thing.

Thriller

Oh! And I have almost finished cleaning my room. That should be a positive step toward the rest of my week!

A House I Designed

2008-03-23T19:28:00.010-06:00

Oh! I almost forgot... I designed a house over spring break too on this program called Google SketchUp. It's really a great program, and easy too. Took me a while to create all the details, but it came out just fine. To bad I couldn't create a nice interior. If you have any questions about this program please leave a comment with your contact informations so that I can contact you with the answer. Hope you like the house!

Google SketchUp Link

Welcome!

2008-03-23T13:45:00.007-06:00

Hello everyone, welcome to my blog. I will most likely use this blog as a sort of journal, where I can write about my day, and its happenings. I will also talk about my favorite music, movies, and any type of media that I find interesting at the time and, if I can, I will post a video or a link to the media in question so that you can experience what I'm talking about.

To start off I am 15 years old, and I live in a small city south-east of the Grand Canyon called Flagstaff. It is a very nice city, although increased drug use among its population is becoming increasingly prevalent, Especially in it's high schools. But the stereotype of high school either being the most horrible experience so far in your life, or the best, does not apply to me, I mean it's nice and being independent feels great, and the sports are awesome, but it's not perfect. I myself play basketball, I'm not the best player, but its fun, and I enjoy it, but as always it could be better. Basketball season is over now though, and at the moment I'm just training for next season.

Spring break was nice, didn't do much but hang out with some old friends, and go to a birthday party, but the rest I got from it was good, and the break from school was even better. And now I have to create a plan to get organized before school starts again, so it wont be as crazy as the last few months of school.