Visiting the Dream of Walt Disney

Could you imagine what is it like to visit an amusement park that started with a mouse; "I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing - that it was all started by a mouse"- Walt Disney
My family- dad, mom, little sister, and aunt, and I got to drive all the way to Florida to stay five nights in Walt Disney World, to enjoy our time off from work and worries. The resort that we stayed at was called The Art of Animation. The theme there that we stayed in was Cars; next to Finding Nemo. What we saw there was Mater, Lightning McQueen, Doc Hudson, Luigi, Sarge, Flo, Sally (she was being fixed), Ramone, Sheriff, Fillmore and Guido. Fillmore was more like my character, with the eco-friendly ideas and peace attitude. The rooms there are incredible, the designers kept the theme in full circle for their customers (one thing for sure, there were cones everywhere).
After we settled down in our apartment room, we began to look over the "To-Do" lists of all the rides to ride, the characters to meet, and what to explore at each park. What we planned on the first day was to go to Magic Kingdom and eat at Bell's castle for lunch. You may think that we could cover everything right, wrong. It was packed when we were waiting for the gates to open up after a nice welcome show presented by actors and characters. What my first thought was, "how old am I and am I a child again?" Yes I was, since the theme of the park is to make the vacation fun for the whole family. That was not just the only best part, the best part was when I saw the town and Cinderella's Castle in the middle of Magic Kingdom.
Day 1 (8/13): What we started off first was take a picture in front of the Mickey face formed from plants and grass. It was our first set of pictures in Magic Kingdom. The gates were calling our names to enter into the master work/dream of Walt Disney, which we did for after picture taking (once in a while, we would take a moment to take a picture as a break). We have done many rides and visited locations and people, which you will find them below.
Prince Charming Regal Carrousel
Met Repunzel and Cinderella
Found Belle's Castle
Under the Sea
Met Ariel
Mad Tea Party
Dumbo Flight
The Barnstormer Roller Coaster
It's a Small World
Winnie the Pooh
Lunch at Belle's Castle
Speedway Racer
Monster's Laughing Floor
Space Mountain
Stitch Ride
Big Thunder Mountain
Pirates of Caribbean
Splash Mountain
Electric Parade 
Fireworks- Tinkerbell Flying
Returned to hotel
That is the first day in Walt Disney World.

Day 2 (8/14): Next stop was Epcot, a park with rides and meet world locations.
Met 4 characters- Eyore, Goffy, Mickey, J. Worhtington Foulfellow and Gideon (Pinocchio villains)
I participated a street skit (Sir Galahad) on King Arthur and the Holy Grail
Visited France- watched a video on France
Morocco- met Jasmine
Japan- Naruto anime and Dragonball Z
America Adventure
Italy
Germany
Outpost- drums and African gifts
China- watched impressions/ reflections video
Norway
Mexico
Test Track Ride- designed our own cars
Finding Nemo- the sea with Nemo and friends ride
Talking with Crush and friends
Got our MINE MINE MINE t-shirts
Canada
United Kingdom
Fireworks- illumination show (around the world lights)
Returned to hotel
That is the second day in Walt Disney World

Day 3 (8/15): Next stop was Animal Kingdom, a park with animals all around it.
Pangani Forest Exploration Trail 
Kilimanjaro Whirl
Restaurantosaurus 
Kali Rapids (2x for me & my mom &John, 3x for my little sister and aunt)
Maharajah jungle Trek (female tiger)
Expedition Everest: 2x for me
Dino-Bite
Primeval Whirl: once for me, I was sleepy
Met Daisy 
Met Russell and Dug
Pin shopping
Returned to hotel 
That is the third day in Walt Disney World

Day 4 (8/16): Next stop was Hollywood Studios (wore our MINE MINE MINE shirt)
The Great Movie Ride
Shopping at the Writer's Store
Lights, Motors, Actions (started, then rained out)
Looked in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids park
Muppets 3D Show
Studio Backlot Tour
Mike and Sully Photo op
Toured Pixar Lot
Ate at Sunset Ranch Market
Walt Disney: One Man's Dream
Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
Animation Courtyard and Animation Gallery
The Twlight Zone Tower of Terror Ride (I didn't do it)
Oasis Canteen for Funnel Cake
Returned to hotel

Day 5 (8/17): The last stop was Downtown Disney
Reservations at T-Rex restaurant
Walked around downtown Disney
Stopped at Goffy Candy store
Create our own T-shirts
Returned to hotel to pick up car- drove back to Downtown Disney to pick up shirts
Pin shopping & photos with stationary characters (Mr. Potato Head, Buzz Lightyear)
Finished Disney by 6ish
Drove to Cabana Beach Bay Universal Hotel

That was the end of out trip to Walt Disney World. We then went to Cabana Beach Bay Universal Hotel for two nights. The rest of the time, it was at Universal Studios, on the road, and in Michigan.
The rides we did at Universal Studios were:
Minion Mayhem ride
Transformer's ride
Diagon Alley
Men in Black ride
E.T. ride
Terminator Ride
Shrek 4D show
Mummy ride
Disaster show
Twister Ride
We got to meet Betty Boop and Minion Kyle.

The rest of the trip was meeting up with some friends in Georgia Traverse City, MI. My dad did his trail marathon in Traverse City. He was tired after that.

That was our trip for August. I had so much fun doing it with my family. I hope you enjoyed reading this and had a great summer.
Peace out brothers and sisters -MNM

From Conducting to Engineering Camps

Long time no talk brothers and sisters locally and far away. How is summer and life coming along for yourself and everybody else you know/met? Keep the good times in mind when telling everybody about your adventure.
Well, this summer has been the busies one so far in my life. I have participated five summer programs: Keith Hall Summer Drum Instensive- June 16 to 21, JazzStart- June 30 to July 2, Michigan State University Drum Major Clinic- July 10 to 12, The National Summer Transportation Institute- July 13 to 25, Introduction to Robotics Engineering at Michigan State University- July 27 to 31. Each links above explains each programs that I participated.
Two of them has to do with music, one has to do with drum major, and last two has to do with engineering.
What I got to do at the Keith Hall's drum instensive was learning how to play the drums in a jazz way. Training songs, trying methods that could help out with playing, talking with a special guest from New York, and enjoying my time there.
JazzStart was short, but it is almost similar to the drum camp, it is playing an instrument in a jazz form. However, this is just pure jazz and I got to play with a band with members from different states and cities within Michigan. What was fun about my band was that we had a name; which was called the Barbastic Batmen and the Queen (AKA BBQ). I didn't come up with that name, someone within the band came up with it. It was funny, as you can see. We learned how to become good musicians that can go on for ever.
After a couple of days of staying at home, my dad dropped me off at Michigan State University for drum major camp, which was three days of now stop learning on being a conducting, marching, posture, doing the bending back motion, and being a leader to our band and everyday. It did go fast, but I am planning to come back to do better.
The longest camp that I have done so far was first sitting just for 14 hours on a Michigan Tech Uni. charter bus from Kalamazoo to Houghton (we went left around, instead of going straight North). Not really my favorite bus ride, but when we go there, it was nice to take a tour around campus and get started for the next two weeks. It was mainly about civil and environmental engineering, which I might take consider of looking at in the future. It was busy there, trust me, they provide good activities and teachings. If you are interesting in civil engineering, check out the link above and think about attending there during the summer. It will help you understand the importance of engineering in humans. They do want more people to attend, which I recommend.
Coming back was not too long as the first bus ride, but we got to Kalamazoo in the morning.
After a nights sleep, my bag was all packed for a trip back to MSU and stay there for five days. Robotics engineering is what we got to learn and understanding the different forms. There was hand on activities of building two different VEX robots and do coding to program the robots. Check out the links above to see what I mean.
Overall, this has been the busies summer that I have been in my life time. Right now, I am in my high school marching band camp for five days this week from 9am to 5pm everyday. I am a second year drum major for a junior. The theme for this year is Queen; Freddie Mercury is the guy that really put up a life time show in his life as many of you know that are born around his year. I will tell you what songs we will perform this year in my next post.
Well thank you for reading this and I hope all of you have the rest of the summer in a positive way.
Peace out brothers and sisters -MNM

The Mackinac Bridge

Me after 2 hours and 30 minutes of dancing on my last day @ MTU

My Last Night At Home

Tonight is my last night here at home. Tomorrow is the first day of drum major camp at Michigan State University (in the Lansing, Michigan). I am going to learn how to become a better drum major in terms of commanding, sending out my voice to the marchers, and to conduct different time signatures. What I want to gain from this camp is everything that a drum major needs to know, which I want to obtain. It is just a three day camp (7/10-7/13), but on the third day, I am going to be home around 5pm to be ready for a bus ride to Michigan Technology University.
At 8:30pm is the time when the bus will arrive to pick me up and I am going to be at the university for two weeks. It is called the National Summer Transportation Institute, which is a camp about learning engineering. That is what I what, something to start early on on my engineer career in the future. That is my dream on becoming in the future, an engineer who reuses materials to make clean, style transportation for common around the world. So this is what I am looking for.
I am not finished yet, after coming home on July 26, I will receive a night's rest for the next camp at Michigan State. Robotics engineering is the activity there.
I am super excited for this month. I believe this summer is going to be the busiest summer that I am ever going to be in, for now. I said farewell to all my cross country friends today for my long trip and I will see them in August, until I have marching band camp and a trip to Florida with my family. That is my summer, so I won't be able to post any more on this blog until I get back home.
Well thank you for reading this and I hope all of you have a great summer.
Peace out brothers and sisters. -MNM

The Fourth of July Week

From June 29 (Sunday) to July 7 (Saturday and it's today), I have been experiencing jazz for three days from 8am to 6pm at Western Michigan the western campus. Those three days was a jazz program created by my high school jazz band teacher, Benje Danceman, his wife, Ashely Daneman, and a pianist, Nich Mueller (FYI, he is not part of my family).
Each one was a teacher for an instrument group, a theory group, and a band group. Benje taught the horns, Ashely taught the singers, and Nich taught the rhythm section. Three teachers for 23 students is something that is worth doing for other people to learn, play, and make new friends to play jazz. Just like how I experienced, learned and played jazz, and make new friends to play gigs with.
While that happened, on 7/2 was the Jazz Start Performance for us students at the Union. Three bands got to play two songs that is either jazz or songs that was "jazzed" up by us students. I can't really explain everything of that night, but I got to meet new teens and adults that are either locally or far away in Michigan. I was sad when some of them had to go back to other cities in Michigan.
Fireworks is fun and dangerous at the same time at a near distance. For example, two large fireworks exploded at about 30 feet that made my head spin and ears ring by a little bit. It was fun and excited to see and light the light show. Many of you would say that you have done the same thing, got for you, as long it is fun to do.
So that is my week. I hope you all had a good week and a fourth of July.
Thank you for reading this and keep a look out for the next post of my life.
Peace out brother and sisters. -MNM

Two Parties in One Day

Two parties in one day, it not the first time that I have done that. To begin with, I went to a graduated friend of mine named Joey. He is a cross country and track runner for his four years in high school. There were many familiar faces at his party; many which are graduate friends and current high school friends. The weather was gloomy and dark clouded for about one hour, until the sun came up to settle down the scene.
Just looking at Joey's school year pictures made me surprised on how much he has changed throughout the years. For two years I have known him through school and cross country. Now that he graduated, he is moving on to University of Michigan Dearborn.
The other party that I went to on that same day, was a concert of Keith Hall's Summer Drum Intensive (there was a second week for pro/advanced players to participate) at the Union, same location where week one people performed at. It started at 7pm and ended at around 10:40pm; just hours of drums, piano, bass, singing, and trumpet were heard. There were two new piano players and one new bass player that I have not met before, Sam was the only bass player that stayed with the Keith Hall for the second week. The restaurant was packed with strangers and familiar faces that night. Some were my drum friends and others were the staffs [including Keith Hall]. It has been a week since I have last seen them. A pleasure welcome came from them as I stayed with the concert and to learn from the pros on the drums. Among the students, there was a 67 year old man who could really play just like that with no problem. I was surprised by that and showed me that the elder still has the stuff in playing instruments today.
I was glad for participating those two parties for a day. Seeing people that I will see again in the future through running or playing jazz. It was a pleasure in making a good friendship with them for years to come.
Thank you for reading this and keep a look out for the next post of my life.
Peace Out Brothers and Sisters- MNM

Yesterday was a special day for a family member of mine. It was my grand-father’s birthday; which I got to talk to yesterday. It is a pleasure to hear some family members all the way from Texas, a state that I have lived 2 years of my life. Most of my family members live there, which I wish I could stay for a while there.

Anyway, my family and I got to call him and sing happy birthday. My little sister drew a couple of cute characters that she learned to draw in her online drawing class. My dad sent it by email to one of my uncles for him to give to my grand-father. We have another gift to send, it is a song that I chose to play; Hey Brother by Avicii. I play the guitar, my dad plays the piano, and my little sister sings. We got to rehears it today in our “music studio” in our basement. We were able to record the song and we got this man. 

Along with the present for my grand-father, I called my aunt from Colorado to check up with her from her knee surgery and how things are going for her ever since we left to Michigan. For the past couple of months, our lives has been different, but hearing each other’s voice made me feel that I recently seen her. It was good and such a pleasure.

The next post will be about what I got the do today.

The Truth About our World

Do you think your country is "good"? Well guess what; I disagree with it. There are a very few country that are "good" in certain categories, such as Science & Technology, Culture, Int'l Peace & Security, World Order, Planet & Climate, Prosperity &Equality, and Health &Wellbeing. My dad sent me this article to read and understand which country does the most "good" in those categories.

Ideas.Ted.Com is the website that is in on.
However, just because that country does the most "good", doesn't mean that its people and other countries are doing "good" deeds. As the author said in two main quotes: "Countries still behave as if they weren't connected; they still measure their performance entirely inwards" and "Countries perform better and better, but the world and planet and humanity in general are getting worse and worse." 

Take consider and read the article above to understand what the writer is trying to tell every single on of us. I could tell you one thing, as a human being of this one only home planet, we are far from complete and perfect; we need to change almost everything in our minds and what we do towards everything. Technology, politics, culture, health, climate, world order, and much more that I could go on and on right now, needs to be fixed right now and for further on. There is a key to do that; it just starts with a step out into the world and dig your way into society to find good and mindful people that are trying to make a difference in this unfinished world.  There are people out there, such as me, that want to change the world in a way that may require some arms and legs (just a metaphor), but the reward/outcome could be or is something beyond our dreams and what we get from our "lazy-way" rewards.

Take a moment right now, and think what you could make a difference in this world; it doesn't have to be big, start off small actions then to big actions, from yourself-to your family-your friends (locally or foreign)-your community-your state-your country-your world. Dream big that is good for yourself and to the world, both humans and nature.

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams" -Eleanor Roosevelt