Kronk!

Yzma: Take him out of town and finish the job now!
Kronk: What about dinner?
Yzma: Kronk, this is kind of important.
Kronk: How about dessert?
Yzma: Well, I suppose there's time for dessert.
Kronk: And coffee?
Yzma: All right, a quick cup of coffee. Then take him out of town and finish the job!

Why Would I Make It Up?

Ok, some people think I'm making this whole Antarctica thing up. Well here's the truth:

Everyone knows the internet is a dangerous place. Predators, trojans, viruses, spam, and lots more. So it only makes sense to make a cover story. That's why I pose as a FSU student. Come on, seriously.

But Antarctica really is a cool place, so here are some of my favorite pics from my homeland:



Chasferris' best friend, Sisika.














My beautiful homeland from space. Now isn't that the most exciting place you've ever seen?












A beautiful view of the coastline. Ahhh.
















Chasferris hanging out with one of his pals.

Fun Weekend!

Ok! This past weekend was very exciting. I woke up on Saturday around 9 AM. My objective was to actually practice before the football game. I went over to the music building around 11 to practice and then left approximately at 12:30. Then I ate lunch, suprisingly enough. This part wasn't really exciting. After lunch I decided to clean the floor in the room and clean the bathroom. After that I went with Aloysius, Amanda, and Ryan to the FSU v. Maryland football game. Unfortunately the game was really hot for the first half but this time I wore sunscreen. Our team got off to a good start going up 14-0. But then Maryland slowly crept back and by the end of the first half they were beating us 21-14. We did not give up. In the second half after Maryland made a field goal we made a field goal to keep the difference the same. Then we scored two touchdowns to take the lead 28-27! All of the FSU fans were really into the game after that. We went on to win 35-27. This was probably more exciting than the Miami game.

Later Amanda, Ryan, and I went to The Loop one of the best pizza places. I think we determined that this is a real cool hangout for football games. So, we might go there when the Clemson game is away. After we ate we went back to the Ritz and watched a movie with Sabrina. It was the most hilarious Disney movie ever. The Emperor's New Groove! Kronk is by far my favorite character. Then we had a nice political discussion. As Amanda said, at least the room was split evenly, Right and Left. Then I went to bed.

This morning I went to church with my bro at Wildwood. I was excited to start playing again for the first service. My favorite hymn we played was, "How Great Though Art." In the second verse it talks about God's creation and the birds. It was neat because the music director wanted me to added bird chirps on my clarinet when that part of the verse came. Another part of the service I really enjoyed was when the music director read Psalms 57. Since I had not eaten my brother and I went to eat after church. We went to Andrew's Capital Grill and Bar downtown. It was a nice restaurant and they were serving brunch so that made it great. The service however wasn't quite efficient. When I got back to the campus I worked on homework and also practiced. That was pretty much everything worth mentioning for the weekend.

Have a great week! God Bless!

Friday Day and Night

So today I was really excited because I had the opportunity to sub in for a friend in the musical "Sweet Charity." I really always loved playing in musicals in high school so it was really neat when I was asked to sub in for the first half of this musical especially since I am only a freshman.
Anyway, I started my day by going to a different class for music theory. It was one of the sections taught by Mrs. Rogers. My friends Sabrina, Amanda, Ryan W., and Jaimie(spelled right?) along with some other people are in that class so I was glad to at least know some people. Personally I think Mrs. Rogers is a good teacher and very thorough but she does not compare at all to Dr. Shaftel my theory teacher. How many people would believe me if I said I was always excited to go to theory because I have such an enthusiastic teacher. Dr. Shaftel takes theory, which is about as appetizing as burnt toast and turns it into filet mignon.
After theory I went back to my room to eat breakfast. Since I was out of milk Amanda let me have one of her oatmeal packets. Thank you Amanda for satisfying my hunger. Then I went to Thagard Health Center to get checked by the doctors because I've been having upper respiratory problems. Well they finally gave me a prescription after I had already been there twice this week and told me I was fine. Next I had lunch. Later I was trying to get into Fallon Theatre to get the music for this musical but the pit area was locked and I didn't want to climb in through the front. Then I came back to my residence hall and Douglas and I helped Amanda switch rooms. After all of this and after going to Walmart with Douglas I finally went to the musical. Yay!

....take a deep breath because there is still a lot more...swooo...

I arrived at the theatre at approximately 6:50 PM and went backstage to set up my intruments. After setting everything up I then waited till the call at 7:30. Overall my performance went really well. The overture I hit pretty well and I got to wail out this big clarinet solo which was cool. The second piece I accidentally missed because I forgot that we started in the middle of the piece. It wasn't a big deal since I had a very minor part that I shared with other people. One of my favorite songs was "Rich Man's Frug" which has some awesome sax licks in it. I also really loved the song, "There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This" because I get to carry the melody the majority of the time on clarinet. We finally got done with the first half and then Kyle took over for the second half.
After intermission I sat in the audience and watched the second part of the show. It was funny because when you're in the pit you don't really pay attention to the lyrics or what's going on. When you sit in the audience you get an idea of what the show is about. Before I played in the musical I went to the official website for the musical and was reading the synopsis for the show. It said that it was appropriate for children of all ages. After the first scene of the second act I was somewhat in shock at what I saw. The first scene has a song called, "The Rhythm of Life." Charity and her new boyfriend go to the "Rhythm of Life Church" after reading about it in a postcard. Well this church happens to be more of a hippie church where the congregation pretends to get high and hug on each other and just act like hippies. It was a little appalling that on the official website it would say the musical was appropriate for all ages with scenes like this. But, I suppose the director could have had something to do with the inappropriate sexual implications.
Another scene two women at this dance hall where Charity works sing a song about Charity's future. The thing is the two women act like they're getting drunk the whole time, pretending to chug booze. What's funny is, as I listen to the song they were singing from the 2005 Broadway production, the women in that recording don't sound drunk at all. They actually sound sobre. Also it was appalling when the two women in this production that I watched started making sexual gestures at each other. I think the director took things a little too far.
The musical wouldn't really be all that bad if it didn't include certain elements. The dance hall that Charity works as a secretary at is actually a place where men come and pay to dance with the women. Also there is a point where one of the women from the dance hall gets mad at the manager and she makes a choice gesture in response. Overall the music is great and the storyline contains some great positive notes but I think the director of the FSU production took it a little too far. Even though I did not completely enjoy the musical it was still really fun to play and I get a little stipend out of it all.
Tommorrow is the football game against Maryland so I will be going to that. Go Noles!

Everyone have a great weekend. God Bless.

I thought everyone would like to see me in my home continent

This is me going through my regular day.

















These are my three brothers. They're a little nutty.












This is my pet seal, Chasferris.













This is where I live.












I hope this gives everyone a good idea of my family and home.

I'm Waiting

So I'm still waiting for Aloysius to get a facebook account. Waiting....Waiting...Waiting....

I Don't Know Why

I don't know why but whenever I post these blogs I speak as if I am talking to a large audience when in reality I only know of two people who read this blog. My roommate formerly known as *&@%$^s, now known as Aloysius and my friend Amanda.

Anyway, for all who were wondering because there are so many of you, my parents survived the hurricane. Some trees fell in the yard including a huge, I mean HUGE tree in the backyard and a large pine tree. Fortunately nothing hit the house or the car. The mailbox blew over which isn't really a big deal at all and I didn't like it anyway. I believe God was watching over my parents. My grandparents who live in South Florida are fine too.

Guess what! I am loving it in Tally right now. It is cooling down a lot and it feels like Christmas! I can't wait till Christmas because it is the best time of the year. Tonight I heard the FSU Gospel Choir at the Wesley Bomb Shelter Foundation (it really looks like a bomb shelter). It was so good but loud. I think if I stayed more than about 45 minutes I would have gone death. Now that I have finished my homework I am going to jam out with Erik and Amanda out by Landis.

That's all for now. God Bless.

Weekend Review

Well my weekend was very exciting.

I started Friday by doing a bunch of nothing in the afternoon and then going to Walmart with my roommate and Amanda my friend who's a music student. After Walmart we made a quick stop at the Governor's Square Mall to eat at Chick-fil-a. Apparently this weekend was FAMU homecoming so everyone from FAMU goes to the mall on Friday afternoon. It was very crowded and I felt very outnumbered. After that we stopped at Borders so my roommate could pick up a present for his mom's b-day. Then we made it back to FSU for a concert at the College of Music. Afterwards Amanda, Ryan and I went to the Union to see the haunted house which ended up being closed. But I felt really dizzy so I had to sit down for awhile to recoup. Then we went to Starbucks on Tennessee St. As a part of FAMU homecoming all the students drove their cars back and forth on Tennessee for some odd reason. When we returned to the dorm we watched Elf in Amanda's room. Then I went to bed just to get up early.

Saturday I woke up at 5:30 in the morning to go to Gainesville to get my clarinet overhauled. My roommate and I drove there and finally got there at about 9:45 after being detoured off the interstate for some reason. We then went to his house and then to his grandparent's house to celebrate his mom's b-day. There we ate dinner. It was good home cooking. Even though everyone was tired we had to leave to get back to Tally. We picked up my clarinet and headed back. After returning to Tally we went to the University Symphony concert. It was a tribute to the late cello professor here at FSU. In the concert they played Silent Woods by Dvorak which I enjoyed a lot. Dvorak is one of my favorite composers. They also played an overture by Kabelevsky which I really liked. Their last piece was Symphony No. 7 by Dvorak. This was also good. After the concert everyone went to Subway. Later a bunch of us played cards while eating cookies.

Sunday I woke up to go to Wildwood Presbyterian again! Yay! The service was very good. Two songs I really enjoyed singing were "How Great is Our God" by Chris Tomlin and "The Victory Song." The sermon was on David and Goliath from 1 Samuel 17. Pastor Evans used the analogy of how Jesus was much like David in defeating his enemy and how we are like the Israelites waiting for someone else to fight for us. After church I went to Fresh Food Company with Amanda, my roommate, Nik, Stephanie, and Armani. There I had my first omellete in awhile which was very good. I also had a delicious banana nut muffin. Later in the afternoon I went with my friend Channing who evacuated from Naples to the Governor's Square Mall. It was cool to catch up on old times with her and hear about my old high school. Later I played chess with Amanda which ended in a stalemate. Yes, Amanda it was a stalemate, LOL. Just kidding. Then the two of us went to hear this soprano at Opperman Music Hall which was very unique. Some of the opera selections I enjoyed and I also liked one of her selections "My White Knight" from The Music Man. Then I came back here to do more homework and also to talk to my parents.

If you've been paying attention to the weather Naples is probably going to get slammed tommorrow by Hurricane Wilma. I'm very glad that they're all boarded up and prepared. In Unveiled this week we started a series based on the book by Matt Redman called "Blessed Be Your Name." It was very timely with this hurricane hitting my hometown. The basic theme is that no matter what storms you face in life there is still reason to glorify and praise God. In the first chapter there was one quote that I particularly liked. It was from an inscription on a wall at a Nazi concentration camp. It goes as follows:

I believe in the sun
Even when it is not shining
I believe in love
Even when I feel it not.
I believe in God
Even when He is silent.

These words along with the overall message from the book are very comforting to me as the storm hits. I know no matter what happens tommorrow God will still be there.

I hope everyone has a great week and God Bless.

Let the Blogging Begin!

So, my roommate, *&@%$^s (I can't say his name), really wanted me to start a blog. I decided to give in, as long as he makes a Facebook account. You can probably tell by my name I play clarinet. This is something that I enjoy very much. Hopefully one day I will play in a professional orchestra as long as everything works out.

I suppose a good way to start is to introduce myself. I am a music performance major at Florida State University, currently a freshman. I am from beautiful Florida (although if you have been paying attention to the weather recently in a few days it might not be as beautiful). I am a strong Christian and love the Lord. As I said before I hope to be in a professional orchestra someday but that also depends on where the Lord leads me.

I am really loving it here at FSU and I have great friends and teachers. My clarinet professor is awesome. I have learned so much since I have been here. I am especially excited because I just finished midterm exams and I believe I did really well.

Besides playing music I love participating in activities outdoors such as white water rafting and backpacking. Racquetball has come to be one of my favorite sports. (The picture is of me standing on the Continental Divide in Colorado)

That's all for now, everyone have a great weekend!

Isaiah 43:2