Ducky Does What Ducky Does

This frog was taking shelter from the rain last night by hanging out on my bike. (Note that those are the gears behind it, this was not a particularly big animal) 

Lip sync the night away, Ashlee S.

This article pretty much sums up what happened on SNL the other night , and the author really tears apart the entire idea of pop music as an "art" form. I also appreciate Mr. Simpson (Ashlee's Manager/Dad) saying that "Just like any artist in America, she has a backing track". Um, I don't think that every artist in America is lip synching. Some actual artists use a thing called talent to perform songs on a stage in front of people, using their real voices. Strange concept, huh?

I can't even explain how awesome the trip to Florida was...or can I?

The bus trip down: Not fun. I wasn't tired enough to sleep, and we got to our hotel about 4 and a half hours LATER than we we're scheduled to. We ended up spending about 14 hours cramped into the lovely charter bus seats (the bus company was called "Excellent Adventures" by the way). When we finally got there, we discovered the elevators were broken. This was an eleven story hotel, and we had 200 people trying to move all their luggage up stairs, at 11:30 pm. The stairs I decided to take had no exit on the 6th floor (where my room was), so I had to take another flight of stairs up to the room. From that point on, things got a lot better.

The first night: After I threw my bags to the floor of our room, I decided to check out the beach. Not a lot was going on that night, but we had an excellent view from our hotel room, and it also turns out that the adjacent room connected to ours, and turns out it was the rest of the MTSU quad line plus some other guy. We decided to make our rooms an 8 person suite, which most importantly gave us two bathrooms in case of conflict. After watching some TV, it was sleep time.

Gators VS Raiders: Guess who won? Even though our team seemed like they might be almost good in the first 5 minutes, that quickly changed. But more importantly, the halftime show was rather well received. We got a standing ovation at "The Swamp", and the Florida drumline had us over after the game for a little "Drum Off" (think "Drumline" the movie). After the game, it was back to Daytona Beach...

Swimming/Clubbing(Or not...)/Oysters: The ocean was cold. There were some pretty big waves. This wouldn't stop me or tons of other people from jumping in. Splashing around in the waves loses its effect sooner or later, and so when the boredom hit, me and some friends decided to check out the "family friendly" town of Daytona Beach. There was a club that seemingly EVERYONE was going to, so we decided to check it out. It was 10 dollars, and I'm cheap, so we decided to find something else to do, like eat. I ran into Ben and Lizzie and hit up the Oyster Pub, which was well worth it. Not only did we get "The Bucket" (48 raw, fresh oysters), but some guys from the Orange County Choppers were also there. Now I don't really watch that show at all, but hey, I saw famous people. And that's pretty cool. Eating 24 oysters will leave you tired, so it was back to the hotel.

Islands of Adventure: Somewhere along this trip, I decided (with a little peer pressure here and there) to spend the 42 dollars (out of the 120 the band provided all of us with for the trip) and go to "Islands of Adventure" in Orlando with a select group of us who also were willing to sacrifice a day on the beach. It was worth it after I rode the first coaster (Dueling Dragons). We managed to get on all of the best rides there, The Hulk, Spiderman, Jurrasic Park, and Dudley Do Right's log ride extravaganza (or whatever its called). This was followed by a great dinner at Pat O'Briens, and then ANOTHER bus ride back to Daytona Beach.

Swimming and not Sleeping At All: The night began with swimming again. Now, no surprise it lasted all of thirty minutes before it was time to find a place to eat. Sunday night in Daytona isn't the best time to try to find a restaurant, but Burger King did just fine. After BK, I went back to the room and thought the night was cooling down. Instead me and Sean had a few friends up to our room, and after hanging out on our 6th floor balcony for a few hours, it was decreed that it shall be an all nighter. So it was of course time for a walk back down to the beach and some pointless games went on there. After the beach, we busted out the cards and played until the sun almost came up. By this time I was tired to the point of being completely delirious, so as soon as I got on the bus and roll was called, I was out. Even when we stopped at McDonalds I got up, but I sure didn't feel awake. It took until we stopped at a rest area and I got some Mt. Dew in me that I regained consciousness. After a Kill Bill Marathon and some more less important movies, we finally got home.

And that's what happened, I guess.

crazy effects...

Just when I thought I had lost my CDs to some anonymous theif (a.k.a. "Most Possibly My Crazy Neighbor"), I found them. In my car. Where I had looked about 10 times before. But not until I was on the phone with my mom and got her to do a house-wide search back in Brentwood did I realize they were literally in my back yard.

So my good friend Nick from Ohio got to meet Mike Reiss tonight. Who's that? Next time you watch the Simpsons (a show that's been on for a while), check the credits. He'll be on there, more than likely. He's been a writer and producer since the show started. He did a lecture/comedy routine type thing, and apparently took time to talk to any fans that wanted to. And he signed autographs as well. That's a reason to wish I was back at Ohio, if only for one night.

In twenty-four hours, I will be (hopefully) packed and ready to go to...get ready...Florida. They can't cancel this one. Sunny and warm weather is in the forecast for Daytona Beach this weekend, and that will be VERY nice after this week's crap-tacualr weather in Murfreesboro. It will be my second voyage to the sunshine state this year (check this if you wanna').

I just downloaded my one free trial of Flash for this computer. Expect some changes on this site soon, while I can still use it. But it also requires a restart of the computer, so I will send more updates (for those who care about this site) hopefully before departure to Florida.

Today Andy gave a huge middle finger to the (already mistreated) flub line and is now making us play cymbals for the Veteran's Salute show. This is the thanks we get for learning the cadence in under 24 hours (as asked) and actually LEARNING the Rick James show (amazing that all of us actually did). Amazing. Not that I'm trying to say that playing cymbals is an insult, but I think that what Andy's trying to say is "Flubs, I just don't think you can learn a part while learning drill at the same time"

Of course, maybe he just was too lazy to write a new part for something we play (I think) once this whole year.

Hmm. What else. This Friday I will be leaving for florida with the entire band for "nerd fest on the beach" 2004. That will be an awesome weekend, I don't know if MTSU can win the game, but we still get to go to a sold out game at the swamp, and also have a generally good time.

There must be something else in my life going on that isn't band related...yeah, there is. But you don't get to hear about it. Ha.

...or study for a test?

Hmmm.