As I am writing this post (from the band hall) there is a theater kid by the black box playing an accordion. Very poorly. This incidence reminded me if a few music jokes I'd like to share with you.

What do you call 5 accordions at the bottom of the ocean?
A good start.

Dr. Palumbo quote from orchestra:
"Violists know three [hand] positions. First, third, and panic!"

Top Down, Windows Up

I can tell that cell phones have really taken hold on our society. People always have to be yammering on their phones, even while driving. Now that, in and of itself, is dangerous and stupid, but I'm not here to talk about that. No, I'm here to talk about one of the side effects of the cell phone addiction: looking stupid while being stupid.

I'm a car guy. I'm not a car-fixer guy, but for the aesthetic, stylistic and historic purposes of the automobile, I'm a car guy. The car is one of those canvases that's almost infinitely customizable. One of the greatest car designs, in my opinion, is the convertible. There's nothing quite like rolling around town or cruising down the highway in the evening in a sleek, sexy convertible. Drop-tops have been around longer than the car itself has. There's a stylistic component to driving a convertible. It's almost an attitude thing, too. People driving convertibles blatantly say to others, "I love to drive and I like attention." So, and here's my complaint, why is it that people this last couple of years have been totally ruining the whole idea of driving a convertible by driving with the top down and the windows up? Folks, if you're going to drive a convertible, roll the windows down. The idea of driving with the top down and the windows up almost totally defeats the purpose of having the convertible.

To bring my comments about cell phones into this, I think that's the reason people keep their windows up. They want to enjoy the open-air-ness of the convertible, yet still be able to chit chat on their cell phones while driving. Again, to a car guy, that doesn't make any freaking sense. I drive not only because I have to get somewhere, but because I enjoy it. I am coming up on 1 million miles under my belt, and honestly, in that time, I can't think of too many times I haven't wanted to be behind the wheel. I think that is lost in much of today's motorists. They simply have a car to get from A to B. Regardless of how nice their car is, it's merely a penalty box commuter. In my opinion, if you're just going to use your car as a commuter, why not just get some stupid little econo-box rather than a nice convertible. I think it's such a disgrace to such beautiful cars as the Saturn Sky and the Ford Mustang to leave the windows up while driving with the top down. Next time, people, just get a car with a sun roof on it. Then you can leave that closed as well as the windows.

'Nuff Said.

Jarrett Wheatley was here...

When I was in school, I cheated on my metaphysics exam: I looked into
the soul of the boy sitting next to me.
-- Woody Allen

Percy Grainger

Amen.

Wild WildCats

You may not have known it, but part of the Homecoming week was a free showing of the movie "Wild Hogs." The cool part is that they school sponsored a Hog ride from the Stewart Stadium to the Davis campus where the movie was being shown. Kristin and I met up with three other riders on campus and rode out there. I felt bad that we had such a small turnout of riders going out, but it was a blast nonetheless. The coolest part is when we paraded through the crowd on our rides and everyone (read: all the people who came in cars) cheered. Of course, the movie was funny and there were lots of laughs from everyone. I think everyone involved had a great time. I just thought it was fun getting a chance to show off a bit. :)

Okay, I'm done now.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Another unforgettable thing is that the bike that Kristin was riding has a starter problem so I had to push start the darn thing several times. It's one thing to do that with a small dirt bike, but another thing entirely to do it with a 550 lb cruiser.

Okay, now I'm done.

Thirsty?

Stressed?

I am not exactly sure how it works, but this is amazingly accurate.

Read the full description BEFORE looking at the picture.

The picture linked below has 2 identical dolphins in it. It was used in a case study on stress levels at St. Mary's Hospital.



Look at both dolphins jumping out of the water. The dolphins are identical. A closely monitored, scientific study revealed that, in spite of the fact that the dolphins are identical; a person under stress would find differences in the two dolphins. The more differences a person finds between the dolphins, the more stress that person is experiencing. Look at the photograph and if you find more than one or two differences you may want to take a vacation.

see picture

Thanks for the link to the Piratranslation site, Kristin. And for anyone who already misses Talk Like A Pirate Day, you can travel backwards in time by watching this movie. Watch it enough times, and eventually you'll wrap around to yesterday morning when it will look more like this.

AAARRRRrrrrrrrr!

So, I found th' coolest thin' as I be researchin' International Talk Like a Shipmate Tide. `Tis this website 'ere ye can translate anythin' into Pirate Speak. Thar`s e'en a field 'ere ye can enter a URL an' be seein' th' entire page in Gentleman-o'-Fortune. I thoroughly enjoyed re-readin' th' Band Blog that way. Give 't a shot, yo!

Shiver

It be National Talk Like A Pirate Day, it be.

"R"

Pool Party

No, not that kind. What I mean is that I've created a Band Geeks flickr group. Creating a flickr account is free, joining the group is open to anyone, and it'd be an easy way to do stuff like this. Anywho, feel free to participate (or not).

quote of the day:
"I call it...very close talking"
- Shawn from Psych

Rootisms!!!

There might be some confusion caused by the links to the left of this blog stating "The Root Cellar" and "The Temp Cellar." Let me just say, that as the steward, so to speak, of the famed Root Cellar, the "Temp Cellar" link is the real one. I started creating the page on the other link, but then lost access to that site, so it has not been updated in quite some time. It has fallen into the realm of the more cobwebby parts of the Web. :) However, the Temp Cellar is in good working order. The name needs to be changed and the old "Root Cellar" link dropped.

Now, as I say these things, I must stress that if you do happen to have more recent Rootisms, please submit them. :) Clicking on that previous link should open your email software and address an email to me where you can submit Rootisms. I have had a very fun go at collecting Rootisms for the last five years and would love any new ones that anyone happens to have. If you've looked at the "Temp Cellar" page, you will notice that I have some from a concert in 2006 in the Layton Commons Park. Even in the presence of a public audience, the famous remarks still keep coming.

If you don't have an email client software (such as Outlook Express or Thunderbird), you can use any web mail (hotmail, gmail, yahoo, etc.) to send to jason[dot]schill [at] gmail [dot] com.

Thank you for continuing a great tradition. I only wish I could be there to see them in person. I was planning on coming to the Homecoming game on Saturday, but I think I will be involved in a massive upgrade of my company's accounting software that may take most of the day. Darn these adult responsibilities.

Chao!!

Things are funny

...when reading them after midnight. Taking naps in the late afternoon enevitably causes weird things. One being the fact that I'm writing this. Another being that...hmmm...not sure. And yet another would be me trying to finish an essay for a Spanish class and end up reading the Rootisms. Go figure. Anywho. I hope you all enjoy the photos below. I guess you could call it my 'tribute to the band hall'...if you feel so inclined. I'm so happy that they installed a way to load pictures from your hard drive so you don't have to put them on a different website (or maybe I'm just WAY behind on all this technilogical stuff....it wouldn't be the first time). Anywho. As I was reading the Rootisms...I noticed that it is way, Way WAY outdated. I know some of you (ahem...Jarrett and Jessica) have been keeping notes. Share the wealth! :)

Isn't cheese great?

Pictures to commemorate the first blog from the band hall

A landmark day in the band hall

Today a first for the band hall, and the band hall blog. I am the first person ever to write a band hall blog DIRECTLY from the band hall now that it has wireless internet access. They installed it to increase productivity for people who rent the theaters for shows. What they fail to realize is that we will use it to watch strong bad cartoons, and looking at macgyver.com.

Saturday in the lab, Jarrett and I came up with our million dollar idea. Gravy packets! Think ketchup packets, but with gravy instead.

Game Over

Draughts, that is.

You maybe can't win.

fact from macgyver.com

Here is the fact of the week, maybe even the fact of the
month. According to probably reliable sources, the Coca-Cola people
are experiencing severe marketing anxiety in China.
The words "Coca-Cola" translate into Chinese as either
(depending on the inflection) "wax-fattened mare" or "bite the wax
tadpole".
Bite the wax tadpole.
There is a sort of rough justice, is there not?
The trouble with this fact, as lovely as it is, is that it's
hard to get a whole column out of it. I'd like to teach the world to
bite a wax tadpole. Coke -- it's the real wax-fattened mare. Not bad,
but broad satiric vistas do not open up.
-- John Carrol, San Francisco Chronicle