Blog Challenge *Day 16*

16. What are your views on mainstream music?
Uhhh... what's mainstream? Is that pop? Yes? Ok.
Well I can tell you when it comes to music, I'm thoroughly stuck in the 80's. Really. 
Here's what my favorite Spotify playlist consists of (we'll do the Song [artist, album] thing again):
1. Owner of a Lonely Heart (Yes, 90125 Deluxe Version)
2. Hold On (Yes, 90125 Deluxe Version)
3. It Can Happen (Yes, 90125 Deluxe Version)
4. Pride/In The Name of Love (U2, 18 Singles)
5. Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of (U2, 18 Singles)
6. One (U2, 18 Singles)
7. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own (U2, 18 Singles)
8. With or Without You (U2, The Joshua Tree)
9. Running to Stand Still (U2, The Joshua Tree)
10. Bullet the Blue Sky (U2, The Joshua Tree)
11. Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Tears for Fears, Songs from the Big Chair)
12. Driven To Tears (The Police, Zenyatta Mondatta)
13. Hungry For You (The Police, Ghost in the Machine)
14. Re-Humanise Yourself (The Police, Ghost in the Machine)
15. Darkness (The Police, Ghost in the Machine)
16. Spirits in the Material World (The Police, Ghost in the Machine)
17. Beat It (Michael Jackson, Thriller)
18. Thriller (Michael Jackson, Thriller)
19. Celebration (Kool & The Gang, Celebrate)
Now let's see the original release dates for all of those:
1. 1983
2. 1983
3. 1983
4. 1984
5. 2000
6. 1991
7. 2004
8. 1987
9. 1987
10. 1987
11. 1985
12. 1980
13. 1981
14. 1981
15. 1981
16. 1981
17. 1982
18. 1982
19. 1980
Now let's analyze those statistics...

I made you a fancy graph. You're welcome.

84% of my music is from the 80's!!! Which of course means I'm not a sucker for pop. I know a lot of/most of the songs on the Spotify current hits playlist, but I don't like most of them. The super trendy sort of music doesn't tend to hit the spot for my liking. It's usually junk. At least The Police sang about important issues and stuff. It was actually meaningful music back in the day, not just love songs. Not to say those didn't exist in the 80's, but back then they were actually sort of bearable. 
Yea. I generally don't like popular mainstream music. It's about weird stuff too. Love and junk. Some are ok, others aren't, a select few are good. Mostly I try to avoid it.
The one exception I'll make is for Coldplay. I LOVE LOVE LOVE nearly all of their albums, including the one that just came out in December, so I guess that's more popular than some stuff I listen to. 
But other than Coldplay- I am very stuck in the 80's when it comes to music.

Blog Challenge *Day 15*

We're halfway done with the blog challenge!!! Today's prompt is this: Write 15 interesting facts about yourself.
Ok. It might go over 15 if I can think of that many.
1. I have never eaten at McDonald's and never plan to.
2. My eyes are an odd mix of blue and gold. 
3. I did competitive irish step dance for 6 years.
4. I haven't been to Disneyland.
5. I've never been outside of the 48 contiguous United States (that'll change in December).
6. So far in my 15 years of existence I've never kissed a guy, nor have I ever been kissed. It's quite inconsequential to me. 
7. I'm terrible at taking selfies, probably because my flip phone doesn't have a front-facing camera.
8. I'm exactly 6 feet tall. I should be playing volleyball but I don't want to. Or I should be running track and cross country, but that's too much work.
9. I'm pretty sure marching band is the reason I exist. *Not really, but it sure feels like it.*
10. I am a Gemini, and, according to my friends, a very typical one.
11. "Da trumpet don't hit things all schmancy like you do!" < I said that to my percussion friends. I'm not good at hitting things in fancy patterns. Also you probably shouldn't trust me with drumsticks as I might promptly break something.
12. I speak un peu de français. Je n'aime pas mon classe de français, mais je le parler chez moi avec ma mère. Un jour, je vais aller à la France, mais pas maintenant. Maintenant je veux aller sur les voyages pour l'ensemble de musique. Mes amis ne sais pas que le français est la langue d'amour. Puis-tu pas leurs dit qu'il est? Merci beaucoup. 
13. I know how to actually cook. Meaning not use a microwave or cake mix or any of that. I can actually cook stuff. 
14. Speaking of that, we haven't got a microwave in our house.
15. I own a single trumpet. Two is a good number, but I haven't got the money for that. Three is on the borderline. Four and above is way too many for one person.

And this is my advice to you.

I is Back

Hello, all. (Which probably means me on my home computer.)
THE BAND GEEK IS BACK.
School starts in 2 days and I'm back- at least for right this minute- for a few posts.
You're probably wanting to know what I did these past 3 months, which in all honesty have seemed like 2 weeks. 
Well, here you are: I...

• went to band practice every day in June (perfect attendance) and got tan #1 of the summer.
• did tie dye.
• wore my Hawaiian print shoes.
• marched parades.

None of these peeps is me, but anyway.

• did band stuff for July 4th.
• took pictures.

• Went to music camp and saw this thing- this thing being a contra bass saxophone. One of 12 in the world.

• Went to a Drum Corps International competition and saw drum and bugle corps including the Santa Clara Vanguard, the Blue Knights, the Blue Devils, the Cascades, Gold, the Columbians, etc. 
• Practiced and started working on All-State band auditions.
• Designed band uniforms.
• Saw the Santa Clara Vanguard pass through town in their awesome Bandwagons!!!

• Went to band camp, which turned out to be a 3-day festival of sunburn, fractured singing, grunts, and foghorn noises. There's a reason these things aren't made public.
• Took out a subscription to Halftime magazine- the magazine of the marching arts. I AM SUCH A BAND GEEK. 8)
• Did online classes.
• Ran a few miles.
• Visited my friend's new puppy.
• Went shopping.
• Sewed myself a pair of shorts on the new sewing machine my mom bought. So far I've done more sewing on it than her- and I generally don't sew. 

Yep. Hello again. And probably goodbye for a while. :)

Blog Challenge *Day 14*

What is your earliest memory?
That's a hard one. It might have been sitting on the floor of my room in our old house in Arizona, while my mom leaned on the doorway and read me words out of a Russian dictionary or a science book (we legit did that a few times). Or it might have been watching our Toyota go through a car wash in Arizona. It was a car wash where you get out of the car and they put it on an automatic belt-thingy, and then you could go inside the gas station's convenience store and watch your car get a wash through the windows. 

Le Toyota which I named "Herbie" when I was 4.

Or it might be riding my tricycle down the sidewalk in Arizona. I'm not sure which order all of those things went in, so I don't know for sure. But you get the idea.

Blog Challenge *Day 13*

Where would you like to visit/live one day?
There are lots of these. If you haven't read my Travels post, that one is a great overview of some places I've been and where I'd like to go. But for convenience I'll list some here too.
Something about me loves costal areas. I have a constant craving for warm, sunny, tropical, ocean-side places, especially in the winter. Thus, I'd like to go to:

• Hawaii. Obviously; lots of people want to go there. The best part, though, is that I DO get to go to Hawaii- in, like, 4 months.

www.theknot.com

• California. My dad grew up there and I'm jealous. Living in a landlocked state just isn't the same.

www.travelchannel.com

• Florida. My mom used to take trips down there every spring.

www.diytransport.com

• France. The French like the beach- Marseille and Nice are actually beach towns.

www.best-beaches.com

• Australia. They have great surfing and snorkeling.

vegansparkles.com

• And many more.

Did you notice a pattern? I did. I think it's called, "I-need-sun-and-surf." Or something much like that.

Blog Challenge *Day 12*

Bullet point your whole day.
Ok. 
Well, today is a Sunday but because this is on auto-post it'll show up on a Monday, so... this is a typical Sunday.

• I wake up at 8:02 a.m. because the sun is very nicely shining in through my curtains.
• I get up, get dressed, and wash my face with cold water, further waking myself up.
• I eat breakfast with my parents- biscuits and bacon. 
• I make a strawberry smoothie.
• I dry the dishes as my dad washes them.
• My dad goes to church. He's the only one of the three of us that goes.
• I brush my teeth and hang up a pair of jeans I accidentally left in the washer overnight.
• I proceed to do work until 12:53. This work consists of 3 hours of trawling through old math notes and creating a study guide for a math test, which is on Thursday.
• My parents play that word game Quiddler while I keep doing work.
• I eat a late lunch that consists of a broiled hot dog, leftover pasta, and celery.
• I go downstairs to our unfinished basement to paint my nails a color that I named 'Marching Band Purple'.

They call it Sultry. I call it Marching Band.
From Revlon

• I go into my dad's office and annoy him while he does work on his YouTube channel.
• I come back upstairs and work on this.
• Dinner.
• I practice trumpet.
• I do more work, this time on maps for a Geography test. And I study vocab words for another test on Thursday. 
• Shower
• Pack school bag
• Goodnight.

The end!

Blog Challenge *Day 11*

Day 11 is hard. It says: Put your iPod on shuffle and write down the first 10 songs. Since I haven't got an iPod, how about I write down the first ten songs on my "Misc." Spotify playlist? It's about as random as shuffling an iPod.
I'll do it in the following format: Song Name (Artist, Album)
1. One World (The Police, Ghost in the Machine)
2. Zoo Station (U2, Achtung Baby)
3. Clocks (Coldplay, A Rush of Blood to the Head)
4. Radioactive (Imagine Dragons, Night Visions)
5. Gold (Imagine Dragons, Smoke and Mirrors)
6. I'm So Sorry (Imagine Dragons, Smoke and Mirrors)
7. A Sky Full of Stars (Coldplay, Ghost Stories)
8. The Miracle (U2, Songs of Innocence)
9. This is Where You Can Reach Me Now (U2, Songs of Innocence)
10. Princess of China (Coldplay, Mylo Xyloto)
But 8 times out of 10, I wouldn't listen to all of those first ten songs. I'd probably listen through A Sky Full of Stars and then skip the U2 songs off Songs of Innocence because I don't like them all that much. But yes. That's my very random playlist. It also includes music from Yes, Tears for Fears, Queen, and Owl City. Yes, I know. Very random.
Then I have some other playlists: Best of U2 (my favorite songs from them), Old but Good (music of the 70's, 80's, etc.), Quiet (quiet), and Peppy/Party (louder). My favorites are probably Old but Good and Best of U2, aside from the Misc. playlist, since that's a bit of everything.
But yeah. When it comes to music I'm very random- plus stuck in the 80's. More on that later.
Here's some things you should go find and listen to RIGHT THIS VERY SECOND:
(All of les album covers are from Spotify)

IT RULES OVER EVERYTHING.

Excellent.

GIVE ME MORE, NOW.

Best album of the past year.

Yaaaaaas.

I'm serious. Go find and listen to them now.