Wednesday 16 June 2004 at 11:09 pm
I am now in full Corps mode. There is almost nothing else in my
life now. On Saturday at 8am I am moving into corps and onto the
tour bus. I will not return until August 10th. For more
information look up http://web.pdx.edu/~drr/OC ,
http://oregoncrusaders.org and http://www.dci.org
Webserver should remain active.
I decided I don't want a relationship with Dusten, so I am going to have to tie of that knot soon.
This is David, more or less signing off for two months.
Sunday 13 June 2004 at 11:07 pm
Finals are done. School is out. I had two days of spring break and now my Drum Corps season truly starts. This weekend camp was interesting. We performed our first public performance for the Rose Festivle of Bands. We just did a standstill of the closer though, we were not ready to perform that. A review of that performance by an ourside source can be found on a
Corps Fansite I dink with. The run was shakey, but we had 2 weeks between last practice and only an hour to get the show back into our heads. Honestly our corps seems to do quite well underpressure. Last year we learned 79 pages of drill in 4 days and then 3 days left to clean before the first competition. We were the first corps in Division III to score a 60.
What I am finding interesting is the love interests that are starting to happen. I know of around 3-4 possibilities where relationships may happen on tour. I will explain the phenomenon known as Tour Goggles when I do a little more research on it. Nine days until Woodburn, the first competition.
Tuesday 08 June 2004 at 5:40 pm
I AM DONE FOR THE SUMMER! My musings will come later. AS of right now I am too tired.........
Sunday 06 June 2004 at 10:08 pm
Today is my completion of 30 hours practicum. The beginning lesson was on cause and effect logic. Once again the teacher and I were both impressed and praised all of the students for their attention and participation. It was once again an energized class. As a kind of reward for the students work in class we watched a movie. The problem was it wasn't a very good movie (one of WB failed attempts at a animated musical). I don't blame the student's attention waining away to other tasks. As the movie finished most of the class was assisting the teacher and me cleaning up and some reorganization of the classroom. It is the end of another chapter in my experience in education. I am excited to start another.
-David-
Sunday 06 June 2004 at 2:00 pm
Here are my thoughts posted on another web page:
I for one happen to like it. It adapted from book very well and very much enjoyed the visual symbolism and presentation. Character development was a tad bit on the weaker side, but this was just a 2 hour move. It felt too short though and I think a little more detail could have been added because as much fun as the movie was, it felt a tad bit on the empty side. A lot of details were symbolised and not in the script though. It depends how you look at it. Having read the books I'm also a bit biased from having information, so I wonder what the poeple who haven't read the books though about the movie.
From the other posters that reflect my feelings:
It's way better than pt. 1 and pt. 2. The new director was a good choice. It is a very enjoyable movie, even for grown ups and basically everyone who likes the books. HP3 focuses more on the story and less on the repetition of things for people who haven't seen the previous movie or read the books.
Has anyone noticed the wizard reading "A Short History of Time" in the Leaky Cauldron (pub where HP is brought to by the Knight's Bus)? Some details are really good ideas and seem to come from the director and not from JKRowling. I also liked that there is less Quiddich. The bluebird and the Whomping Willow story is also getting some anarchy into it, things like these make the movie worthwhile.
The characters really have evolved. Malfoy has become a juvenile badass and is really believable, HP and Hermione are acting way better than in the other parts. Unfortunately McGonnagal and Snape have smaller parts, but Lupin and Black are also quite good.
The only thing that is a semi-letdown is the "new" Dumbledore; he hasn't the same weight and authority as Richard Harris.
If you liked the old ones, but felt they were to baroque and made for kids you are going to like this one, if you didn't like the old ones you might get into the movies with this one.
Anything that makes a 100 million people read books is fine by my regard.
Thursday 03 June 2004 at 11:39 pm
Summer is approaching fast. The students feel it, I feel it, and the teachers feel it. It creates a long of unrestfulness in the classroom. The class I work is was also at
Outdoor School last week and they are still a bit hyper from it. The lesson today was different from the
grammar lessons of the past. Today it was about fallacies and errors in
logic. The teacher asked if I wanted to teach. I politely declined. Three minutes to prepare a lesson while doped up on allergy medication was not going to work well with me. The teacher saw the "not all there" look in my eyes and she was empathetic to my predicament. She taught the class and the students understood the concepts better than they did with grammar.
The teacher seemed more fluid and graceful in disciplining the students while instructing. She promoted and encouraged good behavior by complimenting students and told misbehaving and disruptive students that she was not liking their behavior. The entire class seemed more energized as well. While there is great potential for disruptive behavior in such classroom conditions but also great potential for student engagement. In my experiences in other classrooms these spontaneous energizations seem to be pseudorandom. I think having been to Outdoor School and upcoming summer and a new subject to learn about helped this to happen.
Tuesday 01 June 2004 at 9:56 pm
We finally, FINALLY have our show on the field. This is unheard of for a Division III, II, and even many Division I corps for the Memorial Weekend camps! And we had our first runthrough on a Saturday! We are still two members shy (a bari and a contra player) from a full 60 member corps. As always:
PICTURES
