Creedum

So, I decided to write a creedum. Whatever the hell that is.

So here goes:

Hither tither
yonder you

What holds and beholds the truth to you?

What light?
What sound?
Has broken yonder window over there?

Ok, I admit, it sounds like random jargon.

A second from Death

Well, this blogger almost died tonight.

If you want to hear the story, keep reading. Otherwise, keep scrolling down for the previous entries or use the handy dandy link to post bar on the side.

So tonight on Tuesday 16, 2006. I was on my way to a city-council meeting at City Hall. Problem was, I was there about an hour too early. So I decided to walk over to Sally's house and the problem was, I didn't want to wait to cross the lights at Santa Clara since I had just missed them. So I remember, there's a crosswalk on Webb and I run for it, hoping to beat the traffic incoming from Lincoln Avenue.

So I start to cross, and I notice the traffic coming from the Santa Clara side is starting off. No need, I can cross in no time. But since I'm in a hurry, I dash forward and apparently, this was the same time a Cadillac LaSalle decided to speed right before a pedestrian crosswalk.

So I start to run across the street which is pretty stupid, And I'm wearing rather dark clothes, but there's this Cadillac that comes hurtling down the street at break neck (30 or 40 mph) speeds and I realized, I'm right in it's path and i'm going to be hit by a Cadillac, a block away from my friend's house. What if I die right here at this very moment. But accordingly, there wasn't a single moment to waste thinking about that sort of stuff so as quickly as I could using my sharp reflexes, I jumped my legs forward and my body came with it a little after, but doing that, I just barely missed being hit my that dick head who drove the stupid car.

Afterwards, I was pretty shaken by the whole thing. I was still shaking there at Sally's house and it took awhile to calm down a little.

So today, lesson learned. Never cross in the dark, wearing a dark blue coat and running in front of a Caddy LaSalle. Although, this whole incident has given me an entirely new outlook on my eventual mortality and my futility of life. The fact that we could be mere bones in the ground in a matter of seconds, or an incapacitated corpse in the hospital. Also, when you get the opportunity, cross at the lights for safety. The world is filled with dick head drivers who think pedestrians are nothing more than mere inconveniences. Imagine me... a dead inconvenience...

I laugh at the mere thought of being dead.

New Banjo Building Blog

I have decided to finally start up another blog to show construction progress for my Senior Project banjo!

here at:

www.banjoaqap.blogspot.com

Another top list?! Top 10 Composers

So, Why did I bother again to write another top ten? The same reason why people read "Dub" magazine. To look at other people's lives and wish we were living their life. But pimped out cars and baggy clothing aside, I decided to have a little looksie at my top 10 favorite composers.

So how, of the hundreds of composers in the world, did I manage to pick my top ten? First off, i'm very partial to Martial Music. The more he wrote, the more I like him. The better he wrote, the more I liked it. But there were also a few composers in here that dont really fit under the martial music type fellows. But understand, you're dealing with me! Not some schmuck who listens to nothing but raps and shuns every other form of music aside. So let's get started before I diverge.



#10: Kenneth J. Alford.

The man's famous for writing the world known "Colonel Bogey March" featured in the whistling movie, "Bridge over River Kwai." If you noticed, it was mentioned as number uno in the previous post, but I'm not that generous when it comes to non-movie music.

#9: Karl King

The Iowa king of Marches! Although he has written like 50 more marches than Sousa, his marches never acclaimed their fame since he was the more, well how do you put this? Suckier? Not entirely that sucky, but he wrote some pretty worthwhile pieces.

#8: Sir Edward Elgar

The man who wrote that annoying song that us band nerds have to play over and over and over and over and over again at the graduation ceremonies in June. At first, I would have been ready to slap this man in the face, but when I heard his Enigma Variatons, I would rather just hold his hand and commit no acts of violence.

#7: Gustav Holst

Oh man, this guy is so awesome. And the Planets suite? Oh man, oh god, oh yes! And dont get me started on his first suite in Eb for Band. *cough III. March *cough *cough cough * oh, sorry about that, I ought to watch where I'm coughing sometimes *wink wink*

#6: Jan Sibelius

The man at first, seemed nothing more than a pudgy pile of marshmallows until I heard his early work. Finlandia. Ohmigosh! It's so amazing! No words can describe it, apart from Freaking and Amazing.

#6: Richard Strauss

The little known son of the waltz king. I bet if you ever mentioned the Blue Danbue in front of him, he's probably spit and just be all huffy about it. Kinda like Will Ferrell as "Franz Liebkind" when describing Churchill. "YOU WERE LED ON BY THE B-B-C!" Well, maybe not, but he's written some pretty awesome pieces such as that one that was used in 2006 a Space Odyssey.

#4: George Gershwin

The man's got Rhythm. *haha, pun*. Singlehandedly, he's written three of some of my most favorite pieces. Rhapsody in blue, an amazing piece of rhythms as well as harmonies and catchy bits of virtuosity.

#3: John Phillip Sousa

The first thing that comes to mind, when you say his name, The Stars and Stripes Forever should be playing over and over in your head. Forever so to speak. Heh... Well, like I said, I'm a big fan of Martial music and what better than the man who's written in the vicinity of 130 marches. Sure 130 doesnt sound like much, but have YOU written anything?

#2: Dmitri Shostakovich

The man who stuck it to the Stalin Man! Shostakovich is one of those type of composers you either hate or love. And apparently, I love him! His symphonies are amazing pieces of work, espically No. 5, 7, 10, 11 and 13. I have yet to find a copy of 14 and 15. But not only did he write such stirring pieces of music, you can also accredit him for writing very light and bouncy pieces such as his Galop from Cheremushky, and his Jazz Suites. Sometimes, he got quite romantic as seen in the second waltz from Jazz suite no.2.

And topping the charts at #1: Leroy Anderson

The Swedish composer who typed his way into my ears. I first picked up his CD at the San Francisco library and at first, I was kinda reluctant to check it out since I had no idea who this guy was, but I took a chance and listened to him. The first song I scrolled over to, "The Typewriter" was amazing. I had not expected what I was about hear. It starts off as pretty light music then all of a sudden, a typewriter starts playing. I highly recommend everyone to find a copy of Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride" and listen to it. If you didnt know already, he was the guy who wrote the Sleigh Ride piece. That one you always hear in the winter.

"Lets hear those sleigh bells ring-a ling
ring ting tinga ling ling...
Come on it's lovely weather for a
Sleigh Ride together with yooouuuu...."

So that's it. My top 10 composers as of January 2007!

Zach's top 10 favorite Movie Opening/Theme musics!

Number 10: Opening overture to "Battle of Britain"

In my honest opinion, I really like this song even though it's just a movie march. As Will Ferrell once put it:

"Russian Folk songs and French Ooh-la-las! cant compare to the German Oomph Pah Pah!"

And that's really the best way to put it.

Number 9: Theme "The Great Escape"

This is a easily recogonized piece of music. G, c, G, e, d, c, A. Everyone knows the tune as Steve McQueen walks into his nazi holding cell for his bad conduct. Heh, heh, good ol' trouble makers.

Number 8: Theme from "The Pink Panther"

Ooh, sexy. There's not much to say about this piece except it's world wide recgonition and acclaim. You cant help but be sneaky when it starts to play on your MP3 player. Causing everyone about you to wonder what the hell you are doing.

Number 7: Theme from "The Godfather"

Ah, a timeless classic. The one song if ever played, will strike the hard chiseled features of Marlon Brando's face into your mind and cause everything else to just leave. Strikes fear into every non-coreleone member of the family. *rat-tat-tat*

Number 6: The opening song from Disney's "The Adventures of Robin Hood"

Man, No one can forget that singing rooster.

Number 5: Opening credits music from "Games Gamblers Play"

Very few people who are white will know of this movie. So understand, it's sung entirely in chinese and alongside flashing lights and animated chickens, the theme song is really cool. Also, it's written by the actor: Sam Hui

Number 4: Theme from: Aces go Places 1 thru 5

Again, see above

Number 3: Opening music from Disney's "The Aristocats"

Hehe, Love it.

"Oh zer is nuthing like zeh Areeisto-cats"

Number 2: Casablanca's "As time goes by"

Instantly recogenized as the song that we all want sam to play it again. Also, for you BBC buffs, the theme from the TV show... "As Time goes by". Haha!

so, here's that I say: "Play it again Sam"

and last, and definetly not least

Number 1:

*Commercial Break*

Do you need teeth? I am good doctor, needing patients to operate on for practice. Only 9.95!



yeah.

So At number one:

Bridge Over River Kwai: Colonel Bogey's March

One of my all time favorite movies, the Bogey march was written back during the great war by the man behind the pseudonym Kenneth J. Alford who would later write several more influential marches.

So everyone, that's my top 10 and I advise you all to maybe write down your top 10 or so and see how others feel.

Either Lovesick or sick of Love

Well, almost Feburary. Everywhere I go, all my friends (the cool ones) have girlfriends and they all look so happy. It makes me sick in the gut. I'm either missing the old feeling of holding someone in my arms when we walked, or maybe it's the disgust I feel of seeing all the PDAs everywhere. Blech, I was on a bench once, someone rolled onto me while making out with his girlfriend.

Some open letters

Dear Calculus,

I hate you. No wonder why so many people in the world hate you. You suck, that's why. I take one look at you and I cant help but throw up. Even throw up that throw ups. Look, if you want to get people to take you, be a bit easier. Well, I cant blame you entirely. It's probably that mistake of a teacher Sigmon who's ruined you. I'm sorry if that's the case. I'm sure you're fun and all, but you've driven away my friend Bobby... In his Galant...

yours,
Z

------

Dear BMW lady on Webster

You suck at driving. Who the hell double parks on webster? Just to drop off mail? If I could, I would have just rammed into your car and that'd be the end of you. But no, I cant. Oh btw, go home and lose some weight. You're probably fat or soemthing.

yours,
Z

------

Dear EA Games,

Thank You

yours,
Z

As of Late

Yeah, so I know I havent been writing too much lately, and I cant blame myself. Life is boring at times. It's like living out in Witchata, Kansas. Although, the just had some pretty kick ass Freezing rain.

So let's git-r-done!

Lately, Senioritis has hit me hardest in the past week. Lack of doing homework, watching youtube alot, spending too much time blogging, masturbating. Just kidding about the last one. But It's rough, you're living in constant fear that you're GPA will just drop and you'll never get ahead in life and yet, you dont do a thing about it. Ie, doing my work. I will on occasion do my english work and science work. But that's me. I live for the A. I starve for it. I fall in submission before it. Writing and naked before it. But that's me.

Big news as well, I havent finished my community service for Gov't class. Damn you! So now, i'm mostly going to end up stuck in a city council meeting throwing paper airplanes across the room. Haha! I hit the speaker in the eye! 3 points!

Also, my portfolio is due friday. But! I'm still missing alot from it. Holy sihit *that's supposed to be a bad word* and yah, I'm not too proud of the writing portions in it. The only thing i've done good on is probably the resume.

Senior Project is also drawing close. I'm not sure if I should assemble the banjo and build one in CAD or just turn in my bill. Hm... decisions decisions. I really want to do the banjo, but i'm really strapped for cash. I've been sending alot of mail to Pennsylvania. And packages dont send for cheap you know!

Well, that's all I have to say now. Goodnight everyone. I'll see you on the 8th or so

You cant help but wonder, how NAMBLA is legal

The words Man/boy love is a big tip off if it doesnt disgust you.

Semi-Dissapointing bowl game season

I am sad... but not entirely... the teams I like, most of them lost

Wake Forest, Notre Dame... all wiped clean

both by Louisiana State



But the California Golden Bears wiped San Diego with texas A&M!

Take that bitches!

I believe!

sorry about this, I'm late by a few days. So let me tell you the miracle of Santa Claus. So it's christmas day. I'm not doing anything at all this year on christmas since I had it early. So it's around 7 PM and I notice my sock still hanging on the fireplace. Mind you, this is just an ordinary tube sock. So I walk over to it, but I notice now, that it's been put under the heavy flower pot. So I lift the pot and pull out the sock and it's heavy. To my surprise, I reach in and pull out a tangerine! It's a christmas miracle! I had mentioned the day before (saturday) that I was putting up my sock in hope for a tangerine and some chocolates. Well, no chocolates, but a lovely tangerine. So i'm tearing this thing open and I look at every single piece. Not a single seed in the thing. And I ate a piece. It was the perfect tangerine. It was the best tangerine I have ever eaten. The only one without seeds I might say as well! Obviously, he cant let you go and replicate his perfect tangerine, so he uses magic to take the seeds out.

So that's the truth. I wish I had taken photos of the tangerine. But I ate it and shared it with my family. If you dont believe me, ask the 4 other people who had a wedge of it.

My Colorizations

Howdy there folks! I'd just thought I'd leave you all with a little christmas present before the new years. Sorry, i'm late as usual... But here they are, Colorizations!

Before I talk about these pictures, I'm going to lay a few of my principals when doing these.

Rule 1: Find humor in every subject
Images can be pretty dull at times. So when you color, give what would be a naturally dull subject (i.e. bishop of Washington D.C. or Stonecutter) a little flair with color.

Rule 2: Find beauty in every subject
This is very important. Even the lowly delivery boy can have an aura of romance, and nostalga if you color it right. Show that he wore a red shirt because it was St. Valentine's day

Rule 3: Use black and white photos
Yah, just a no-no if you try to color color photos

Rule 4: Bring your subject to life with color. Make it seem as human as possible
So, when you color, you don't really just color everything black or grey. You do as much as possible to give everything an edge, a motive, a life.

Rule 5: The sky is your's to color
You have full interpretation of each subject. You're only limited by yourself. You have the choice of being deadly accurate, or light hearted by coloring a picture of the Empire State building purple.

Rule 6: Have fun with it

So let's get started! First up is an image of President Herbert Hoover's schnauzer puppy. I dont remember it's name, but I found this cute image of him. Sitting on Mr. President's medicine balls. At first, the color seems pretty cute as is, but look at what can be done with a touch of color.

By coloring the balls and the puppy itself, you give each item life. Also, I whitened the wall since it was the white house you know...

This is where the Humor Philosophy comes from. Take a rather uningenious character like Calvin Coolidge, and show him playing and exercising with the speaker of the house.

Breathe in a little color, and it seems they're really exercising.

Subjects, such as this one of Matthew Brady usually can be a bit monotone, and by coloring each article of clothing a different color, You get a bit more of an interesting result.

A more realistic, and life like Matt Brady

The Beauty Philosophy comes from this little pretty picture here. We've got John Coolidge riding a horse. Seen it. Millions of other pictures look just like it. Wrong. A shade of chestnut brown, then another coloring for the trees, grass and of course, young master Coolidge.

You end up with a more Photographic, colored, realistic result. Although I admit, sometimes some things dont look real at all.

Rule five comes from here. Here, i'm set up with a slight Dilemma here. The colors of the jackets should be blue like Union colors, but to give this image the life it begs, you stray from the norm. It's ok. You have the option of coloring whatever you want, whatever you want. So, everything else is pretty normal except for the color of their cloth. Also, as an added subtle feature, the two gentlemen are the only colored thing in the image.

With a touch of red, these two men seem to bring out a bygone era of gentlemen warriors.

Every so often, you choose to take a rather large idea and really just color the hell out of it.

Like this cigar shop, I touched it up and gave each individual box a bit of color.

Hello Mr. Coolidge. Well folks, thanks for reading this much. Enjoy these images I have done for all of you. Just kidding. I was bored as hell.

Colored:

Rating Punctuation

Hey all, I felt like doing this post since there was nothing better to do.

The Exclamation Point [!]
2/10
What more can I say. You stick it to the end of a sentence, it's instantly tacky. Such as:
"I know what you want you see!"

The Question mark [?]
10/10 (Z Choice)
It's ruggedness, versatility and great use makes it an all round excellent piece of punctuation.

The period [.]
8/10
Sometimes you dont know when to use it just right, but when you do, Oh boy will it sting! It's a great one, but sometimes, you feel it just doesn't belong sometimes.

The apostrophe [']
5/10
A confused little thing, it apparently is the substitute of missing letters in words: O'er, 'is, 'eer. Dont get me started on contractions and possessive use. Jane's, Bob's, Dave's, Don't, Ya'aaaaawl. What's up with that?

The quotation mark ["]
6/10
Useful alot especially when quoting people. haha! <-- tacky [!]

The Tilde mark [~]
3/10
Aparently, it makes several people horny, but in other cases, useless. But more entertaining than using the [!].

The backwards apostrophe [`]
1/10
Never used it before

The at symbol [@]
10/10 (Z Choice)
Super useful and good job with the swoosh thing.

The pound sign [#]
4/10
It comes up occasionally but other than that. Utterly useless, but useful when needed.

The dollar sign [$]
8/10
Who doesn't want this?

The Percent sign [%]
6/10
Kinda sexy with it's provocative "o's"

The carrot [^]
5/10
Unless i'm typing up math on the computer, I find this as useful as a pile of doggy doo doo

The And swooshy thing [&]
9/10
If you look carefully, it's like Rodin's thinker. It's a great piece of work. Especially with it's brother the "e" shaped and.

The Star [*]
10/10 (Z Choice)
Great for typing up emotions. *whimper* *fart*. Catch my drift? *fart*

The parentheses [(] [)]
7/10
Meh

The underscore [_]
8/10
Great for writing incredibly long email addresses and URLs

The dash [-]
8/10
Nothing fun about it

The plus [+]
6/10
We're deviating too far from real punctuation

The bracket [[] []]
8/10
Useful in that my bracket's are bracketed

The sexy bracket [{] [}]
9/10
Brackets with nipples! *laughs*

the back slash [\]
6/10
The button is hard to find.

The watchamacallit [|]
2/10
Not useful at all. This is the loner, black sheep, retard of the punctuation family.

The colon [:]
8/10
Hee hee... colon

The comma [,]
9/10
Useful, but dangerous if over used. I'm surprised i'm just writing about them now...

The arrow thingies [<] [>]
7/10
Somewhat useful, but other than that, you'll never use them. Ever. Except that one time involving that Chick we picked up in Yonkers...

The Slash [/]
10/10 (Z Choice)
The bigger, better brother of the \. It's better used and it's easier for my finger to find.

The semicolon [;]
(0/10)
Useless! I don't even know when to use you! You suck. You fail at life!

The upside down question mark [¿]
6/10
It's fun to throw off loved ones with this little toy

The Music note [♪] [♫]
10/10 (Z Choice)
Yay! Music nerd ooberness!

The Female symbol [♀]
9/10
Not punctuation...

The orange with cloves [☼]
♠/10

Ok, I think we're waaaay too far from the true definition of punctuation... Well, that about wraps it up. Goodnight and Happy Festivus

"Why Didnt you do something?" said the bitch

So i'm at my friends house today when I'm helping out a little in their front yard, cutting branches from their mulberry tree. When this woman with some sort of large bulldog or boxer walks by. Out of nowhere, his dog runs towards the larger boxer and starts to I suppose mingle with it. But the boxer explodes and attacks his dog and naturally, his dog will fight back. Like 10 minutes earlier, his dog had encountered some other dogs and was fairly friendly, but I suppose when that boxer saw the dog charging out to play with him, he started to attack. I should know, i've been to his house on several occasions and when I ring the bell, the dog usually runs up to me and barks. I know better than to ring the bell from now on. So after staring at the little tiny woman struggling with the dogs he pushes his dog away and scolds it.

But what's worse is afterwards, she looked at me. And then to his uncle who was working with the long loppers and started asking: "Why didnt you do something?" She said that several times again and what was I to do? I stood there blinking. Look lady, I dont own a dog so what the hell do I know about dog rearing? You're the woman with a fucking boxer. You should be able to handle it. Why cant you hm? Cause you buy a god damn huge dog and live on bay farm. Your idea of walking the dog is to drive your damn dog out to the main island, that way you can shop and look at crap you wont buy. Seriously, i've never seen dogs fight until that moment. I've seen a dog chase a cat, but that's about it. It's almost like watching a nature program. I'm not likely to interfere with nature. I dont walk up to the television to try stop the lion from eating the gazelle. No, I watch since men have this weird almost inevitable fascination with fighting animals. Seeing this was almost like watching a nature program. It's all new to me. So you tiny whore with dog, you manage yourself. You're on their property.

I dont even know why people buy big dogs. I believe there should be some sort of regulation over the size of dog you can own. I mean come on, this woman looked like she weighed about 110 lbs and could barely lift a crate of light bulbs. And yet, she's walking in the street with one of the feistiest dogs on the earth. It's like a person, trying to live in a studio apartment with 40 cats or 2 great danes. Granted, if the person was a tall strong person, then yeah, they could manage the dogs. But this woman cant even control her dog. Lest even put on it's collar properly. It had also slipped out of it's collar. I watched as she slipped it on, over its ears easily.

As she walked into the depths of hell, she stopped by one of my friend's neighbors and told the whole story from her viewpoint. *gaah! what a bitch!* And then she drove off to her cow shed on bay farm. I still cant get over the fact that people drive their dogs to their walkies now. What is this world coming to? I thought there was a ban on bulldogs and boxers. They're known as fierce animals. Yet this tiny woman has one. Honestly, who would have won? My friend's smaller Jack Russell Terrier? or her Larger Boxer? From what I know, his dog is very friendly. After the initial barking, he's calm and has those puppy dog eyes when I sit at their table.

She had the Chutzbah to call Animal Control afterwards.

Handless Christian

There technically is no purpose. I just thought the fact that his hand dissappeared during the photo was fascinating.

Happy Festivus!

Now folks, It's that time of year again. Where we get our poles out. No, not that one you perverts, the aluminum pole of festivus. To stand and aire our grievences and finally let things off our chest!. Here's Drafting 2's Festivus pole.

Haha!

Well folks, i've gotten all my stuff back. My keys that I had lost on monday and my piano bag which I lost on last thursday. It's all home again.

weirdo...

Last night, leaving the restaurant we were eating in oakland before dropping me off at the school, a weird chinese man popped up in his toyota and said: hello. But this is the thing. He said it in such a creepy way, you couldnt help but laugh. I laughed for about 1/2 an hour or so before the play. That was funny....

Stupid Bad Awful day

Hey folks, I've lost my piano book bag. I'm so god damn mad about it. I dont know what'll happen. Espically with my joplin book inside it.

Why I own a Stanturd shirt

I know, I know, it's a horrible thing that I own one. Of all people, I should own both sweatshirt and tshirt. I'm ashamed so dont blame me. It was last year. I had come home to my mother and she said: Oh look what I got you for 10 dollars. A Stanturd shirt and a matching tshirt. Back then, I was happy to get anything collegiate. Now, everyone knows i'm a bears fan.... but... How could I? Well, there are several options. Write the words: Sucks underneath Stanford as well as correct the spelling to 'furd'.

Or, just never wear the shirts again.

Now, if only I can explain why I have a Notre Dame football jersey...