Obama for President...

- America has Chosen Wisely! -

I know, I know... I live in Utah! What am I doing supporting Obama?

Well McCain ran an ugly campaign, and votes with Bush "90% of the time" so I don't want him in the White House. He did however give a very nice final speech, in fact it was better than any speech that he gave during his campaign. That is a weird campaign plan...?

Oh well, we will soon have a good man in the White House. Go Obama!

***YES WE CAN***

- Quote found in ABC News -

Yay, I got out and Voted. I voted first thing this morning on my way to work. It took about 45 minutes and was as slick as it could have been.

I am now watching the results on the Internet and on the TV. Crazy stuff! It looks like Obama has taken several key states, this could be fun...

2008 Band Tour

After a long over-night bus ride we finally arrived in California. We had lunch and quickly cleaned up to get ready to go to Universal Studios.

Day 1: Universal Studios
At Universal Studios we rode all the rides that we wanted to. It was a weekday, so the lines were pretty short. My favorite was probably the Mummy and the Simpson's ride. We were also able to drive by Wysteria Lane, the set used to film the Desperate Housewives television series. We had a good time and the weather was perfect!

Day 2: Disneyland and Main Street Parade
Friday October 31st we loaded the busses with instruments and performance gear and headed to the happiest place on earth! Disneyland =0] We played around in the parks until about 2:00 when we had to meet in Mickey's Toon Town where we were taken backstage to prepare for a parade down main street.

It was fun finally going back stage, but it was true that the magic stops at the gate...

After everyone changed and warmed up, it was time for the parade. It was a short parade, but it was a blast for the students. I waited at Main Street Square where the band to pass so that I could do backstage again to chaperone all of the students that we were with. They did a great job and once again I think that it was a really great experience for the band members!

Here are some of the pictures that I was able to snap:

Banner followed by the Color Guard

Drum Majors followed by the
Pleasant Grove High School Marching Band

Drum line and the director; "Mr B"

Day 3: Riverside Community College Marching Bank Competition
Today we woke up early, loaded the busses, and headed to Riverside Community College for the Marching Band Competition. We got everything ready and started warmups. At about noon we headed to a warm-up area in preparation for the competition.

I didn't get any pictures of the competition because I was helping get setup on the field, but from where I sat it looked like the band did a great job. In the end though we didn't end up bringing any awards home. We were given a video of the competition and we could see that the students kind of fell apart a couple times and the energy wasn't there that should have been. They didn't suck, but it wasn't the best competition. Oh well, it was still fun.

Once the high schools were done with their competitions, the RCC Marching Band took to the field to give us a show. This was the 25th anniversary of the school or the competition so the team did a Beatles compilation, which was incredible. I wanted to watch it so I didn't get video. I did get a clip of the Drum Line after the show as the awards were being prepared. Check the video out below. It is a low quality recording, but it was a great performance for the drum team.


Medieval Times - For dinner we headed to the Anaheim Medieval Times dinner and show. We were assigned to cheer for the Yellow knight as seen below in the picture.

The Yellow Knight, Our Knight...

The show was really fun and we had a good time.

Day 4: Drive Home
Today we took off at about 9 and headed home. We stopped every couple of hours for bathroom breaks, so the trip took a while. It started to get cold and that is how I knew that we were getting close =0[ (i hate the cold, fyi) We finally got home late Sunday night/Monday morning, and I just went home to go to bed and go to work the following day. =0)

Fun tour, I think that everyone had a good time, and we didn't have any huge issues, Yay for a good tour! =0)

California... Here We Come!

Well it is time for Marching Band tour again. I didn't know if I was going to be able to go, but it looks like last minute I was able to go. We aren't leaving till Wednesday night, but I have a lot to do to get ready to I figured I would drop this in while I was avoiding my homework, oops!

I went last year for the first time and it was a blast. Mostly because I had great kids that I was in charge of (some may argue that the drum line guys are difficult... Not last year! They were great) and because of the other great chaperones that were able to come. This year will be a different crowd, but we should still have a blast!

Itinerary:

• Disneyland (of course) from 8:00am through 12:00 am (midnight)
  
• Disneyland parade performance (Small World to Town Square)
• Universal Studios (haven't been there in a long time?)
• Riverside Community College Big Orange Classic Competition
  
• Medieval Times dinner and show (this will be a first)
• And of course one hell of a bus ride (with tons of high school students...)

So we should have a good time, and I hope to get some pictures posted this year. I am really excited about the Riverside College Competition. They did an incredible show. Check this out:



I was there to see that show, it was an incredible show. So many talented students out there. I guess this is the marching band that it used in movies quite often since they are so close to Hollywood. It was fun to see and I can't wait for this year's show.

Happy Halloween!!!

Well today after visiting with my dad and helping my brother move a bunch of pre-wedding gifts to a storage facility, I went to visit my old adopted high school family! They were so good to me while I was in high school, and still continue to dish it out today, THEY ROCK!

Anyway, I was invited to a Pumpkin Carving party, how cool is that? Since I had another friend that gave me a couple tiny pumpkin plants earlier this spring, I was even able to supply my own home-grown pumpkins, I just brought two (but they were among the largest pumpkins at the party).
I carved the "Egg Head" on the left, and my friend Bobbie carved the crazy design on the right there. You may notice that there is a cool little mouse character in her design, that could be why she choose it? ;)

Oh yeah, Daisy was a great help too with the pumpkins, not Daisy the Dog (she helped with the door bell though)!

And the Final Product of the night. A new design that I had never seen is that of the pumpkin on the top right. It was really tough, so Art used a drill to drill a bunch of holes in it and called it good... They were thinking of calling it a Disco Pumpkin, pretty creative though!

Thanks to my Adopted High School Family,
Love you guys!

My Front Yard

So I mentioned a long time ago that I was working on my front yard landscaping. Well here is a shot of what I did with the help of my dad and my younger brother Brad.

I did this all over fall break weekend when I didn't have to do homework. =0) Who needs free time anyway...
And if you look closely you can see the pumpkins that I grew in my garden! =0) I know, I am a geek...

Utah Shakespearean Festival

This week I was able to spend a week out of the office.


I spent the first three days down in Richfield, UT on Snow College campus with the UEN UtahSAINT (Utah Educators Network - Security Advisory and Incident Network Team). I went down with a couple guys from my office. The conference covered most of the network security issues that educators are seeing in the state. There were several proposals of what can be done to help protect UEN Networks and prevent unauthorized access to networking devices.


Now for the fun part... =0]

Thursday morning I met at Pleasant Grove High School with the Shakespeak Drama Team. We gathered and jumped on a charter bus and headed to Cedar City, UT for the Utah Shakespeare Festival High School Competition. we went down with some great scenes from some of the great Shakespeare writings.

We actually ended up taking home only one trophy (Duo Dance I believe), but we should have taken several other awards, but the judges were on LSD (we just don't have proof), and we were outscored by some freaking weird ensemble scenes that had nothing to do with the competition. It is sad, but the judges do what they want.


While we were down there though we were able to go to two of the current shows. The first show that we went to was Moonlight and Magnolias which is a hilarious play about the writing of the script for Gone with the Wind. The second show that we went to was Gaslight which is a suspenseful show full of mystery, murder, and memories. They were both great shows and I think that all of the students had a great time.

Something really cool the the group had the opportunity to do was talk with Fred Adams, the founder and executive producer of the Utah Shakespeare festival. we met in the Randall L. Jones Theatre, in a room that is seldom visited by High School Students. I don't remember the name of the room, but it was incredible, usually only reserved for VIP high donors. The items in the room were several hundred if not thousand of years old. It was immaculate!

Fred was great with the students, sharing stories and life long lessons that he has learned and lived. He was fun to listen to and gave a great presentation to the students.

Overall is was a great opportunity for the students and chaperones alike. I think that we all had a good time even though we didn't win everything that we were planning and hoping to win.