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Step 1: pull out a book on the book shelf.

Step 2: Go to page 123.

Step 3: Read and write out the 5th sentence.

Step 4: Tag more people

I chose The Future of Freedom by Fareed Zakaria.

Elie Kedourie, an eminent student of Arab politics, wrote "The idea of representation, of elections, of popular suffrage, of political institutions being regulated by laws laid down by a parliamentary assemble, of these laws being guarded and upheld by an independent judiciary, the ideas of the secularity of the state . . . all these are profoundly alien to the Muslim political tradition."

I tag Dad, Gloria, and Dawn. That's all I really know on the blogosphere really.

Tag

A. Post the rules at the beginning.
B. Answer the questions about yourself.
C. Tag 5 people and let them know in the comment section on their blogs that they have been tagged - not doing that.

What was I doing 10 years ago? I was in the 8th grade and finally coming out of my intense unpopularity and went from being bullied around a lot to simply being left out. I even had a good friend by this point 10 years ago. Otherwise, I was 1st chair clarinet in the 8th grade band. We would have gone to the Columbine Festival for concert bands with Bob Chapman, our band director.

Snacks I enjoy: Candy! Skittles, Reese's Pieces, popcorn, granola bars

Five things on my to-do list today: Go for a walk, pay the rent, email Dan Silver to check status on his late letter of recommendation for a band director position, do the dishes

Things I would do if I became a millionaire: I'm pretty sure I'd become an arts patron. I would finance various professional and amateur orchestras, opera houses, theaters, and attend as many of their concerts as I could. Maybe I would write reviews and submit them to journals and newspapers. "The Tchaikovsky was simply stunning. The orchestra's passion, freedom of interpretation and immense poise fostered a truly satisfying emotional experience..." or "Two noses up!"

Three bad habits: Talking without being able to stop while saying the same thing over and over again in slightly different wording (can I get an amen?), verbally processing something I've been thinking about in a repetitive fashion, and saying the same thing without being able to stop using phrasing that differs a little.

Five places I've lived: Rapid City, SD; Brooklyn Park, MN; Littleton, CO; Boulder, CO; Denton, TX

Jobs I've had: Hugh M. Woods (hardware store/lumber yard), Target, Resident Advisor (RA), Basad (locksmith company), Office Depot, private clarinet teacher in Boulder and at Prosper ISD, and now Lake Dallas ISD as a student teacher/band director.

Things people don't know about me: I have an extremely keen sense of smell. This is usually not something that helps me.

I tag no one, because all of the blog people I know already tagged me. Now it is Dawn's turn.

Media, media, media

Today I have nothing eloquent to say. I've been working on my website, researching other ways to display media than simply uploading an .mp3 or .mov file (where it goes to another page), and otherwise enjoying lots of media that now works with our not-so-broadband internet connection (768kps). The Daily Show with Jon Stewart finally has its own website with a huge library of videos that I could spend hours and hours watching if I'm not careful. The first video listed here is one of my absolute favorites.

I also uploaded some old videos from 2006 when I played in the Marriage of Figaro and in Britten's War Requiem. The volume on the first video is pretty loud, so turn it down first.

Sweet

How 'bout them Rockies, huh? I haven't been keeping track of their progress, but I heard they made it to the World Series! I'm sad that a year after I move away from Colorado, something finally gets going for them.

Anyone planning on going to the home games? I'm going to try and watch at least one game from home, assuming it is on ABC, CBS, or UPN. That is about all of the channels I get here.

hats

I've never been a fan of hats because they've made my head look even bigger than it already is, but I think I finally found one that doesn't do that. What do ya think?

OMG new apt

UNT Setting Records

You know how some college football teams set records for winning games, or winning them in certain ways?

University of North Texas is not one of those teams. We set records for how badly we lose:

Sooners wide receiver Malcolm Kelly caught two touchdowns in the game, both in the second quarter. His first was a 65-yard reception,his longest catch of the day. His second touchdown grab came at the end of the first half, giving OU a 49-0 halftime lead. The 49 points is the largest halftime deficit for the Mean Green in the modern era. Texas scored 44 first-half points against the Mean Green in the 2004 season opener.

Thanks Gloria, for the tip. I didn't even know there was a game last night.

101 degrees

It's heating up here in Texas and it doesn't look to cool down for a while. I'm sure there are many other significant things on my mind that I could be talking about instead, but there you have it. I'm not riding my bike to work this week because last week I rode it while it was 96 degrees and 60% humidity (103 heat index) and I felt dizzy for a good 1/2 hour after I got home. And mind you, it was only a 10 minute ride. A crazy woman came into Office Depot the other day and told me that riding your bike to work is in vogue. I definitely felt in vogue with sweat coming from places I didn't know I could sweat.

I'm sure I've told most of you by phone, but for those whom I haven't: Dawn got a job! Dawn has been looking for different jobs for the last couple of years, and finding this job took 3 full months. She'll be starting work as a Service Representative at the Social Security Administration office on the 20th. She'll be working about a block away from Office Depot, where I work. It is a full-time, permanent position with great benefits that she will probably get to keep for a while as she attends graduate school at night. We're transitioning from that period where we had free time but no money to having money and no free time. Yay!?

I love cats

For your entertainment

Here's what could happen if you talk on your cell phone during a classical music performance. . .

Deadbeat

Yes, I'm still obsessed with technology. Here I am playing with my mother's new laptop webcam which is something in which I would now like to invest. The laptop, too.

I don't feel much like writing, thinking, or moving this morning. I suppose I'll have to journal about why that might be. It has helped tremendously to get thoughts down on paper, because they tend to stare back at me. I can't ignore them as easily.

We were visiting the family for the past several days and it was a blast. Otherwise, I don't have much to talk about. Slanderwoman has some great posts and pictures of us while we were there, and it turns out that Phil Keaggy has a free podcast. From what I've heard so far, it is a bit cheezy, but I suppose he always has been.

I'll be back soon, when I'm done being a deadbeat.

Google game, etc.

Dawn forwarded me this really fun game this morning:

Rules: Google Game: Go to Google and type in quotation marks your name and then "likes to" (eg. "Georgina likes to"). Type in the first ten things that come up and repost in your own note.

1. Justin Likes To Say Hi.
2. Justin likes to do graffitis and Jonathan fully supports this.
3. Justin likes to watch basketball, but his favorite thing to do is swim.
4. Justin likes to write poetry and fix and build computers.
5. Justin likes to play soccer and swimming is his favorite summertime activity.
6. Justin likes to play with his rattles and vibrating toys.
7. Justin likes to go snowmobiling and they also go to Keystone, Colorado whenever they can to go snowboarding and skiing.
8. Justin likes to be busy and does not like sitting without anything to do.
9. Justin likes to play pool at his house with friends.

And my personal favorite:
10. Justin likes to color, draw, play outside, look for bugs (especially roly polies and lady bugs), and play video games on his Game Cube.

Also, I'm obsessed with weather. I woke up this morning to the sound of thunder and it was still dark outside at 7:00. I got up to open the blinds and saw the lightning and was quite excited. Of course, the first thing I did was log on to weather.com to look at the radar. I love watching the storm approaching and seeing its path. Or maybe I just love all the pretty colors. Anyway, I did all of this before taking my bath. Dawn noted that there are few things that will get me excited enough to do before I get clean in the morning. Lately it has been the weather and a finished Drum Corps DVD. I am a total dork, but at least my wife thinks I'm cool.

Thunderstorms

I love thunderstorms. I woke up this morning to darkness at 8:00am and found that we were about to be hit by this huge line of storms being blown out of the north. I'm not sure I've seen that much red on the Doppler radar before. I took a video of the clouds with my Palm. So, I'm blogging until the power goes out. I love the autosave feature they put on blogger. I can't lose much that way.

I really enjoy being inside during a thunderstorm and watching the clouds and lightning and hearing the thunder. I'm a big fan of clouds, too. I took several pictures from the plane on the approach to Dallas a couple of weeks ago. It is too exciting. I was a big fan of the movie Twister growing up. There is something about the idea of winds so powerful that they can pull large, heavy objects and throw them several yards or even carry them several miles. I'm in awe of that.

It has been raining almost every day for the last two weeks here. We are well out of our drought. For the month of May, we've gotten almost eight inches of rain, which is like five times as much rain as last year, apparanetly. It has been cloudy and dark for a while, and I've been home most all day during that. I can't say that I've saved much for a rainy day, much less 10 rainy days.

Addicted to media

Did you know that you can embed all of your favorite videos on your blog? This is too exciting.

lot on my mind

Summer has been hitting me over the head lately. No commitments other than finding a job. I have unofficially been offered a part-time job at Office Depot that pays $8.50/hour. I will probably take it if, by the end of the week, nothing comes up that offers higher pay and more hours. It feels good that my work wasn't in vein, though. I started the process with Office Depot like 5 weeks ago. Money might still be an issue through the summer, so pray that God will provide and I don't have to delay my schooling.

Google Earth and its 3D Warehouse have been of great interest in the past couple weeks. They have this tool called Google SketchUp which can model almost any 3D object with little effort. The program is so intuitive and easy to use, I wish I'd had it as a kid. I might be on a totally different career path by now if that were the case. I say that because I love 3D modeling. I've always loved sketching 3D houses, castles, or other objects and I figured most modeling programs would require a class to master.

After a week of going through tutorials and learning how to use Adobe Photoshop CS again, I modeled my own apartment building. Its pretty exciting, though a couple of the textures don't load correctly in Google Earth. I don't know exactly how to troubleshoot it, so I'll leave it as-is. It didn't take me long to realize that if my career in music education turns out to be a flop, then doing something with computers, especially building them or using software like SketchUpPhotoshop would be a lot of fun for me. I realize it is just as competitive of a career.

On the subject of technology, Dawn and I just burned our first DVD! It is pretty awesome. With Windows Vista's DVD creator, we made our own menu with its own music, and burned four downloaded episodes from The Office: Season 3. Pretty amazing, and it saves a lot of disc space. We love The Office. It has very believable stories and characters. I'm sure that the writers created these characters from people they actually knew or their friends knew. It seems that reality is so much more funny than fantasy could ever be.

Finally, a friend of mine from church suggested that all of my thoughts and bitterness toward God might be helped if I meditate or read about Jesus. When I think of Jesus, I remember how kind and caring he is, going after the poor and oppressed and shunning the rich and self-righteous. I don't think of someone who is a control monger that wants to be Lord over every part of me. I don't think of Jesus as a man who will do what ever he wants without regard to my thoughts or feelings. I think I can love Jesus.

Family

Well, here I am all doped-up on dramamene on the flight back to Dallas. Last weekend I visited Springfield, Illinois via St. Louis to go to my cousin Chelsea's wedding. My dad flew in from Denver and we rented a car and drove out for a day. I have extremely cool cousins who love the Lord and turned out really great, despite my uncle who was probably not a very good father. Or older brother, for that matter. All four of them seem like genuine, honest, fun-loving, mature adults.

It was because of may dad and my uncle's bad relationship that I didn't get to see my cousins very often. It is really a shame, because I think we would have gotten along very well. I told my oldest cousin, Chad, that I would love to get to know he and his wife more and make up for some lost time in childhood. I found out that she has family in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, so they are in town fairly often. I hope we'll get to spend some time with them again.

I've admired Dawn's family because they are still quite involved in eachother's lives. There is a considerable amount of drama, but mostly they just enjoy spending time together even though they are separated by several states in some cases. When someone dies or gets married, the whole family rallies to support those affected. Right now, in fact, my parents-in-law are out in Kansas to go to Grandpa's birthday party, install new central air-conditioning systems in one sister's house, and build a deck for another sister. I think that's cool.

I've often wondered what it will be like to raise children in the same city as my parents and sister. I'm excited for when that time comes. Until then, its back to looking for a summer job.

You gotta see this

If you're like me, you're sitting at home at the computer thinking to yourself, "It is so hard to find good jazz bassoon music these days." Well, guess what!?! I found some. This is most of the bassoon studio at CU-Boulder playing a student arrangement of Cold Duck Time. It is not only really fun, but there are some comedic parts in there too. Click the picture and enjoy!

WeeMee

Here is my WeeMee. I'm not sure why I chose to be under water, but it is funny with the fish flying by. I enjoy my iPod. Yes.

Networking

Today I watched the keynote address webcast from the 2007 International Consumer Electronic Show (CES) that occurred on January 7 in Las Vegas. The speaker? None other than Mr. Bill Gates. He demonstrated the new Microsoft Windows Vista (computer operating system) among other new technologies they were developing as part of their "new generation of connected experiences." I was interested to find that, among other goals, Vista is designed to help people get connected to one another better. It seemed so noble, until just a few short minutes later when they announced with pride that gamers world-wide had played 4 billion hours of Xbox Live since its release in 2002.

It seems to me that they are creating their own supply and demand, the thing every good monopoly should do. They provide more entertainment than is ever needed in a day, creating temptation to neglect relationships, optimize efficiency and productivity in the workplace, and justify it by providing the illusion of stronger connectedness. Ooo, they're good.

Of course, I wouldn't fall for such temptations. Nooooo... If you feel like getting me a belated birthday present, there's still time! Windows Vista comes out January 30th.

Personal Website

I haven't had the time to write lately because my life is getting fairly complicated and busy. However, I have just completed a website that I designed and coded from scratch for my Music Technology class.

It is one of the first projects that I actually completed more than a week in advance of the deadline. Maybe there is hope for me yet. I will add much more to it in the coming weeks, but until then, enjoy!

https://webfiles.colorado.edu/mathisj/index.html