Back by popular demand....

Hey, it's only been one month.

It's amazing how much hasn't happened in the last month. Same old crap. Road trips with the band. Poker tournaments (at which I've done fairly well). Tons and tons of schoolwork.

Thanksgiving was fun. My cute little Scottish advisor asked me to her house, and I met all her cute little Scottish relatives, some of which were from eastern Ohio, i.e, close to home. Pretty bizarre.

In other news, I'm going to a formal this Friday with one of my friends from band. I'm all set to go with my borrowed dress and shoes. Since I didn't go to my proms (yes!), I guess this'll be my first one. We'll see if they're all they're cracked up to be. I doubt it.

And finally, after owning U2's new album for a week now, I think I'm ready to comment. Like most of their stuff, I think I've liked it more and more as I've listened to it more and more: a rare and pleasant trend as far as music goes. I don't think I'd rank it up there with their "three masterpieces," but it's a pretty solid album. What I can say is that it's much more personal than their average album. Where much of U2's music tends to be on the political side, this album is refreshingly lacking in social commentary, which is ironic considering its title, huh? I think I've always preferred their smaller scale, idiosyncratic, personal music, and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb is almost completely that way. It seems thoughtful, refined, and worth the four year wait.

More Band Blogging

Well, I'm back from fall break. It was a little boring, but I blame myself. I could have made the effort to do cooler things, but I kind of just slept it away. The highlight, I guess, was the stuff I did with the band when I got back to school.

We took a road trip to Cornell, which was fun but exhausting. We had to carry heavy baggage for miles across Cornell's insanely huge campus, and when I finally got to my host's room, her roommates were bombed out of their skulls, and continued to be loud until about 4:00 AM. It was such a drag.

The football game was fun, but the Cornell band was really annoying. They had at least one hundred more members than us, and they felt the need to rub it in on every occasion. At one point, while we were playing in the stands, they brought their trumpet section (which was larger than our entire band) over to our side and started playing behind us, drowning us out. So, to be funny, we countered by doing the same thing to them with our trumpet section consisting of three players. Needless to say, we didn't drown them out. It was really crappy. Usually, we make fun of the opposing team's band and they make fun of us back, and it's all really friendly and laid back, but the Cornell band seemed to take everything way too seriously, getting downright hostile at some points. And, to make matters worse, we lost the game by one point: a blown extra point kick. : (

Things got more fun, though, the next day (Halloween). We played in the Greenwich Village parade for literally millions of spectators. It was so exciting. Having recently being in Corry and visiting the high school, it made me think of how much cooler my life has gotten in the past couple months. I went from really bored with very few friends to being super challenged with school work (which I'm really enjoying), having a bunch of really awesome friends, and doing amazing things like playing in insanely huge parades in New York City. It gave me a big, happy feeling.

Unfortunately, today I've felt really exhausted, and maybe like I'm coming down with an illness. But, I felt a lot better when I got my midterm physics grade: an A minus! Hopefully the rest of my grades are decent too...