A Memorial to a Great Man...

"Extra work is the key to life"

Yesterday I found out that the man that had founded and lead the camp I attended to become a better drum major, passed away suddenly on Thursday from a heart attack very close to where I live. I couldn't believe it when I heard it, and if I had to compare it to coming, it would be when I found out that Steve Irwin had died. Both figures seemed untouchable in my mind, but for different reasons

It's a surreal experience for me, because I had just met George this summer at the camp, and while the camp itself was very difficult to get through, at the end of the day, he always had a speech that would make me smile. He would teach us a lesson in a way that we could understand. He taught us how a real leader should act, and the thing is, even though he never yelled at us, we listened! My other teachers continually tore me down, but he would build us all back up.

No one knows what will happen to the Drum Major Academy without him. Will it just end? I mean, his name is in the camp! The George N. Parks Drum Major Academy! It's his brain child! I've never met a man more passionate for band, or a man that could have inspired so many young people in the short life he lived. They said the cause of death was a heart attack. I guess his was just too big.

"Starred thought: life never was worth it until you've inspired at least one person"

Well, his life had more worth than many people more famous than him.

I try to think of the UMass band, his band, which he had been traveling with when he died. They slept in a high school gym, and when they did reach their destination, the Michigan band played their Alma Mater in his honor.

I don't really know how else I can describe George, only knowing him for 4 days, and I'm not used to writing stories about death. It's a shame. I guess George can describe himself.

"You know how there is a football captain, basketball captain, and cheerleading captain, just to name a few? You are a drum MAJOR! YOU OUTRANK ALL OF THEM!!!"

"Did you want to be drum major to make the band better?To be a leader?

LAIR!!!
You want the uniform and for everyone to say your name!"

"If you have to tear someone down, you need to build them back up."

" 'I am the field commander; Field...GROW' "

"When things get tough, get good."

"Raise your right hand has high as you can. Now go two inches higher. THAT'S WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOUR LIFE"

"How many of you didn't think that a George Parks was actually going to teach you this week?" *raises hand* 

Every self respecting leprechaun has a beard, but that guy doesn't! *points to Lucky from Lucky Charms* I went through college, and I decided to shave my beard, and HE shows up! I feel like I should say 'Detail: Present CHARMS' !"

"Give me your eyes!"

"Detail, sparkle HUT"

Now he may seem like a total cynic, but all these quotes were in good fun, to make us realize who we really are as field commanders/drum majors. I'm honored to have been taught by him this year, and I hope his legacy lives on forever in all the people he influenced.

 

Paging Nurse Devon

Wow, I've been slacking off lately. Actually, no. I've been working hard, kind of. Working hard and moping around being depressed, which hasn't happened in a long time. I keep feeling like a fifth wheel with my friends, and it's really bumming me out, even if they say that's not true. When they have a choice between me and someone else, it's always someone else. I don't know what's wrong with me. Actually, I do. I'm no fun, and I'm not obnoxious or random or funny like the rest of my friends. I've found myself getting jealous of my friends, one for a concert and another for a boyfriend and the rest for friendship I don't seem to have. I only have one good friend and I can never see her because she's always traveling or working. I never tell her how much she means to me...

But I won't go into that, because it will probably get me in trouble

Today, I went to my orientation to become a volunteer at our local hospital, and I'm super excited for my first day, July 6th. I have to wait forever because of summer school, which I need in order to graduate. I'm not dumb or anything, but I'm taking gym then so I don't have to during the year. Anyways, I got to mingle a little with the other people in the volunteer group and it got me working a little more on my communication skills. I'll need to converse with patients, just make them feel more comfortable, get what they need, communicate with other nurses, and keep organized. I'm so excited to be in this environment, and to see if being a nurse is what I really want to do, but if my attitude stays the same, I'm sure it will be wonderful. It really makes me happy to know that I will be able to make people's lives happier and more pleasant if I do my job correctly. This will really help me in the long run, and I can't wait to get started!

Short entry, but I don't know much else to blog on

Happy Blogging!

-Devon

When you're a nurse you know that every day you will touch a life or a life will touch yours.

-Unknown

Gotta Catch 'Em All!

So what's the latest craze from grades 1-12? Silly Bandz! Rubber band bracelets shaped into various symbols, such as animals, princesses, medical stuff, military or food. Now the Silly Bandz are the animals, and everyone else has other brands. They go on your wrist in a squiggly line, and you can get a pack of 24 for $5, which is about 20 cents a band, making them a good toy for a child with thrifty parents. There's hundreds to get, and stores can't keep them on the shelves. I admit, I drove out of my way to get the medical pack at Target, only for them to be completely cleaned out! I was bummed.

Now the thing is, schools all around are starting to ban these bands. Why? Because they're a distraction. Kids are trading them during class, and schools are notorious for banning collectible, tradeable things. Let's name some examples, shall we? There was the Pokemon card craze of the 90s, which was followed by Yu-Gi-Oh later in my school years. I'm sure there was a ban put on the silicon bracelets that had an underlying sexual meaning too, or they just faded away. Marbles were also put away, because kids would gamble with them. Then, there were always CRAZY BONES. Little monster of every shape and size that would sit up, and you'd take your best one and flick it at your opponents bones and the person with the last one standing one? Yeah, those. My friend always had a million of them. She had a million of everything I wanted, and she never used the stuff. She only had it because she could afford it. I had a good sized tin case of them, and we played at school all the time, me and my guy friends, until they were banned because people felt bad if they lost them or they were stolen or gambled away. Elementary school children are very crafty, they are.

Also, while I'm reminiscing, remember Aaron Carter? Nsync? Backstreet Boys? Dream Street? Video and Cassette Tapes? Walkmans? Now we have Justin Bieber, DVDs and iPods. Oh wait, there was something before iPods...

These bad boys!

Hit Clips, baby!

Happy Blogging!

-Devon

What a Wonderful Weekend!

My weekend was one to blog about. It wasn't the usual one, with me sitting around doing NOTHING, wishing I was doing something. It started early Saturday, and my mom and I went to my grandpa's house so we could take care of his flowers. He's unable to do it, and my mom's brothers that live at home just don't do it. Oh well, it gave us some time to all be together. Mom, my aunt and I worked really hard, and the guys couldn't work on anything we asked them to do for any length of time. Mom was right: guys can't work and talk at the same time. My grandpa came out and watched us, and he seemed like such an old man, just like a dad with his son with his "don't talk to me with that attitude!" I asked him to tell me some war stories, but he was ashamed because he said that because he wasn't on the front lines, he's not worthy to be a veteran. It's pretty sad, since he told me when he was giving me my "military service talk" that for every person with a gun, there are hundred's of people behind the scenes to keep everything moving. I don't think it's something to be ashamed about, being in World War 2. Part of me wants to go into the Air Force and become a medic, but the other thinks that I couldn't handle it, while I'm all for discipline. Anyways, we worked for a good 4 hours at least, and I feel it, My shoulder hurt from pushing the broom over and over again, and I did a lot of squatting, moving, and I've gotten pretty red, more than normal. I don't regret doing it though, even if I was exhausted in the end.

Then today, we had church as usual, with the last Sunday School class until next year. We had a pot luck breakfast, but I kept myself from eating too much, even though I had a donut, a waffle and DELICIOUS French toast casserole. I was pulled out early for bell choir, to play music I was supposed to look at, but didn't. I played it well when we were supposed to at least, but until then I was pretty bad...oh well. The service pretty much put me to sleep. After church, dad, my brother and I went to the Towpath to ride our bikes. We go a few times a summer usually, and today was an awesome day to do it, and we weren't the only ones with that idea. We bike 6 miles from the parking lot to a small town, where we stop to have ice cream (I declined...gotta lose 5 pounds in 3 weeks!) and then go back. I lead the way the whole way there, just listening to my music and enjoying nature. When I arrived in town, a Thomas the Tank Engine train was at the station, and it just made me smile.

I have a confession to make. Deep down inside, I love trains. When I was a kid, I had an obsession with Thomas, the foundation of my tomboy nature. Something in me was wakened today. A few minutes after I arrived, a huge engine called the Saint Lucie Sound pulls up, blowing it's horn and chugging along. The engineer waved at us and I just teared up. I'm a pretty sensitive person, but this just made me smile, and I was glad that I was sweating and wearing sunglasses, because I wouldn't want anyone to see me crying like that. I don't know what it was, and as I walked away, I was still filled with sadness, because it's only a matter of time before trains become obsolete and no other children can enjoy them the way I did, and still do to a degree. By the way, the picture is of the actual train!

So to wrap up, I'm sitting here with my upper back thighs screaming at me. They don't want to walk, and they hate that I have to march tomorrow. It's my last parade! D=. It's all coming to a realization that I'm going to become a senior next year. It's so crazy...I can't believe it. It's so close, yet so far away. I can't wait to go to college, and yet I'm scared that I won't be able to support myself and stuff. Only time will tell, and hopefully soon I'll have a job to get myself a car and stuff. I still have time to work!

Happy Blogging!
-Devon

Pocket God: The World In Your Hands!

So yesterday I decided to spend my $1 in iTunes money, and this app cost $0.99. It's called Pocket God, and it's strangely addicting, probably due to its pointless nature. Bolt Creative brings the world a game where everything is completely in your control. There are five island areas, but the game updates often, so that is subject to change, where 6 little islanders called Pygmies can roam. They can go fishing, swim in the ocean and dance about as you please. Now, sounds sissy right? WRONG. This is where the God part comes in. You can control their demise, and then just bring them back with the touch of a button. You can chose to have a T-Rex come and swallow them whole, spear them through in the ocean, or use them as shark bait, as well as many other things. It's all there for you to explore! Each Pygmy keeps a tally of their "gifts" and "sacrifices". Gifts can be catching a fish, going "Into the light" as a ghost or just becoming a ghost, while sacrifices deal with death such as getting caught in an explosion, drowning or even holding in urine until they explode! It's fun to see what all can happen when you're not even expecting it, and the little Pygmies are just so cute you can't help but love them in spite of your violence toward them. It's a good game for when you're feeling particularly vengeful or just having a violent mood. I use this app a lot more than I do most of the other apps I pay for, so it was a wonderful deal. The thing is though that it's kind of a battery drainer if you play it a lot, unlike many other apps I have, so if you get addicted, you'll find yourself needed frequent charges.

Happy Blogging!
-Devon

Stick Shift Troubles

My family has a truck. That's all it is, a truck. An appliance white 1996 Ford F150. I hate it. Mom hates it. We've tried to sell it, but no one wants it, so it sits idle in our driveway half the time, and we store it in the winter. What a life huh? Still, my parents insist on me learning how to drive a stick shift, because it's a skill I'll never forget. If I stay in the US, I don't see why I'll ever need it, because sane people buy automatics. If I go over to Europe, there is more of a chance that I will get a stick shift, but even that is a stretch.

So anyways, I started to learn to drive the abomination a few weeks ago in the nearly empty high school parking lot, and I was able to shift to second gears, turn, "park" and all the jazz. I just can't start from a dead stop, which is kind of important, especially when you have impatient people behind you. However, I did drive the whole mile home after that lesson. Then my next driving experience came on Friday, after an NHS meeting. Dad drove the truck to school to pick me up, so I thought I could drive home. With the younger NHS kids watching, I managed to stall twice, and I gave up. Little did I know that the parking brake was on. I'm so good. Then there was today. Dad drove me around the neighborhood and I watched his feet the whole time. Regardless, I stalled about a million times as I followed his route, twice at a stop sign in front of my neighbor's house, with all of them outside, and then about 4 times at another stop sign with someone behind me. I sat at one intersection for about 5 minutes, because I couldn't start and I would wait for cars half a mile away to pass before I tried to go again. I messed up a lot, but I can still shift gears. It's at the point where I don't know if I'm stalling, or if it will buck and keep going. I went in a big loop, but at least I got that far. I just can't start the damn thing. That would be really nice. I need to learn how to drive the thing so I can drive it during band, hauling the heavy stands to and from the football field a quarter mile away. We've been mooching off another girl and her truck for a year, but she's graduating, and I don't trust her little brother, so I gotta trust my undriving abilities.

Happy Blogging!

-Devon

Back in the mid-1970s, we adopted some fairly ambitious goals to improve efficiency of our cars. What did we get? We got a tremendous boost in efficiency

                      ~Jay Inslee

All Is Fair in Love-

One of my defining characteristics among my friends is my love of rainbows. I mean, I LOVE. RAINBOWS. I don't know what it is, but something about the way that all the colors are arranged just awakens something in my brain and it's pleasant to me, but they have to be done right. For example, this picture isn't quite right, as the rainbow has almost no green, so it bothers me a little bit, but the picture does represent my feelings. I have many accessories and such with a rainbow theme, and during my trip to Europe, I just about fainted with how much more they had. I bought a belt, socks, and I wanted to buy a rainbow hoodie, but I didn't for some reason. My first day of marching band, I wore my rainbow belt, and my whistle was on a rainbow lanyard. After the practice, a girl that came back after a year away came up to me and said "I was going to ask you something, but it might offend you." So I replied with "No, what is it?" and she asked in a hushed tone, "Are you like...a lesbian or do you just like rainbows?" Now this girl is awesome, and I know she would never try to offend me. There wasn't any tone of disdain in her voice, and I just laughed and said "I just like rainbows"


Now I've been told many times by several friends that it wouldn't surprise them if I turned out to be at least bisexual, and my other friend says she's waiting for that day to come for some reason. I don't have any problems with gay people, or gay marriage, because I believe that everyone is special in their own way and they all deserve the same amount of happiness. Heck, even the Declaration of Independence says that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Now my dad has stressed the "PURSUIT of happiness" bit, but we're not guaranteed it. You're allowed to work for it. But I digress. My dream for years and years has been to marry a gentleman, and have children with him, and live with him till death do us part. The man is the constant in the equation, yet at the moment, I feel like I lack a sexuality. I don't feel attraction to either side, though last year I was like BOYS BOYS BOYS. I've come to the realization that men are imbeciles, at least in high school, so I just shouldn't waste my valuable brain power on them. Another thing is that my dad is a homophobic, and if I ever became a lesbian, than the relationship between us would probably break completely. In the long run, that would be bad...


So I plead that one day things will change, and that one day headlines with read "GAY MARRIAGE LEGALIZED IN THE US" and cheers will be heard around the world, though it might cause travel to decline to areas like Belgium and Niagara Falls, but I hope not because both places are beautiful!


Happy Blogging!
-Devon 

Who would give a law to lovers?  Love is unto itself a higher law.

                          -Boethius

Clarinet Chaos

Seven years ago, I took the step in middle school to join the fifth grade band with about a million other people, and me, being so lucky, was chosen to play clarinet with about 20 others. My two best friends across the street played clarinet, and I wanted to too! Little did I know what a hassle it would be for me now a junior in high school. (almost a senior, can't forget that!) Last week, we received our audition music for next year, something new. Usually, we don't do auditions for concert band until after marching band, but my band director finally decided that this would be better because it better shows our playing abilities and some people don't play the same instrument in marching band as they do in concert band. That KILLED me this past year. It was my first year as a drum major/field commander/student director and therefore, I didn't play my instrument for about....5 months. I went down six chairs placements, from 5th chair and playing 2nd part, to 11th...last...playing 3rd. Now for all of you who aren't familiar with all these band terms, even though the directors say that's not the case, chair placements show one's proficiency within the band. First chair is the best player in the band, and last chair is the "worst". Also, there are first, second and third parts, with the first part being the hardest and the third part being the "easiest". While still in the top band, being last chair made me feel horrible, so I signed up for lessons to prevent this next year.

Lessons were awful. I'm a very sensitive person, and I was on some major hormone pills, which made it all the worst. Every Wednesday (pretty much) my mom would drive me out to my teacher's house, and we'd play. I'd feel horrible about my lack of ability, because he would always play complicated pieces from memory, and he taught the best 3 players, as well as the only freshman in the top band. Here I was, a junior, last chair, while the top player was a junior and had only been playing the instrument for a year. Yeah, I felt like crap, often having to hide tears. We stopped the lessons after about 2 months, and I felt even worse when I was called a quitter. Part of me wants to go back, now that I'm a bit more chill, but another just says "save your mom's money." After all, I'm only going to be in band for one more year, since I probably won't play in college.

So now, I'm wetting my new reed and getting ready to practice my music. The chromatic scale is going to kill me, because I never learned it all the way up and down, while other people just zip up and down the whole thing. I feel like I should ask for help, but when? Yeah, it's just a huge fiasco, and hopefully I won't feel as emotional and crappy once I get my destined last chair once more. I hate being pessimistic, I really do, but it just slips out sometimes. I hope I don't get last chair, because we're graduating five seniors in the section, but we're also getting a bunch of kick butt freshman apparently, and there are a bunch of soon to be juniors and a soon to be senior in the other band that have a change to come up. I just gotta work at it! Tryouts are the week after Memorial Day, wish me luck!

Happy Blogging!

-Devon

I look at my clarinet sometimes and I think, I wonder what's going to come out of there tonight? You never know.

                                    -Acker Bilk

Blast to the Past

Today was a pretty lazy day. I slept through church, a treat for me, since my brother didn't need to go. Once I got up from that, I sat around and plays some Sims 2, not getting much done on that either. There was lunch after the boys left to go play baseball, and while they were out, I made a trip to Barnes and Noble to buy my 3 summer reading books for AP English, putting me back $50. I thought that the coupon my teacher gave us was going to give us a discount, but instead a percentage went to after-prom, which I'm not even going to! Well, I hope my senior friends have fun with my money! I had to buy "All the King's Men", "The Things They Carried" and "A Brave New World". I have so much to read and for once I'm not particularly looking forward to it, but it will get done, as it always does. While at the bookstore, I read through the second Black Butler manga, which I will buy eventually, and then I just headed home. I got home and my neighbor mistook me for my brother, and I stayed inside most of the day.

But you may be thinking "why is this titled 'Blast to the Past' if it's all about what you did today?" Well for one, it is the past now, but the real reason is due to the fact that I watched The Brave Little Toaster on Youtube today! I remember watching that movie to death as a kid, but I never realized that it was more of a grown up animated feature. The references aren't those that children would understand, such as the historical allusions made by Radio (who has to be my favorite character) and Lampy even made a reference to the Holocaust when he said "when my first lightbulb burned out, I thought I was done for, 86ed, TO THE SHOWERS" and I was just like WOW (that's a low price!). Anyways, it's also pretty scary! I remember being scared of some parts as a kid, but I never realized how dark it was! I mean, exhibit A, the nightmare sequence, when Toaster dreams of seeing his "master" again, only to have the whole thing go up in smoke, and have THIS GUY come and show up! I'm not scared of clowns, but that's just WRONG. And then there is a whole part where the Air Conditioner gets furious and starts shouting and then blows a fuse and DIES. It caused a whole bunch on controversy, but it was made when animated films were made to be much darker than today's rainbows and unicorns and Barbie and everything is happy all the time. I mean come on, it was made in 1987 (another thing I didn't know. It had to be at least 10 years old when I saw it!).

All in all though, it was nice to see it again, even the disturbing bits. If you want to, you can see 10 of the 11 parts on Youtube, because the first broke copyright laws or something. If you didn't watch it as a kid, just spend an hour and a half of your time on a lazy day like today and watch it then. It's so amusing!

Happy Blogging!

-Devon

"Memory is a child walking along a seashore.  You never can tell what small pebble it will pick up and store away among its treasured things"

-Pierce Harris

Der Eyes Wuz Watchin' God

Since I am an avid reader, part of this blog will be book reviews and such things. I have a hard time reading more than one book at once successfully, these will be not few, so much as far between. Today's book is "Their Eyes were Watching God" by Zora Neal Hurston. I found out today that it was made into a movie staring Halle Berry, but I'm a bit scared to see the movie because I have a love/hate relationship with this book. I like it because it is a love story and it's actually starting to get cute. I hate it because of the dialect that they use. It's heavy, uneducated sounding Florida speech. For example, "I" is "Ah" and "with" is "wid". It was hard in the beginning, but now it's more normal, but that doesn't make it any more fun to read. I find myself reading with a black woman's voice in the back of my head. What makes it all the more amusing that my English teacher says some of the dialect, but uses a normal "Ohio Accent". It's like...Spanglish in a way.

Anyways, the book is starts off with the protagonist Janie Crawford returning to a town she had left for a while. She is forty years old, and the people in town knew that she ran off years ago to be with a guy named Teacake, and now he's not in the picture. Janie goes to her friend Phoeby, who asks what happened, and Janie, to tell what happened to Teacake, needs to tell the whole story of her marriages. And so begins the story of Janie, starting at about 16 years old, pressured by her Nanny (Grandmother) to marry soon. It's a tale of heartbreak, wealth, hardships and love. I'm not done reading it yet, but that's what makes this exciting. You don't know what happens, and neither do I! I still don't know what happened to Teacake.

This book is slightly confusing, but that's mostly because of the language. If you are up to the challenge, read it independently, but otherwise, have an expert (or Sparknotes) lead you through it and help you realize what's really going on in the story. It says on the back of my copy that this book is as good as a Hemingway, or a Fitzgerald, and perhaps it is, but in a different way. I haven't read much Hemingway and no Fitzgerald, so it's hard for me to judge. This wouldn't be a book that I would just pick up at the store, because it's not exactly the genre that interests me, but I probably wouldn't have read The Scarlet Letter either and I love that book thanks to English class.

Happy Blogging/Reading!

-Devon

"Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life."

 -Mortimer J. Adler