Smooth Translation from September to October

So, to make this post not too long, I will give short descriptions of the dates that I want to tell you about:

September 27:

• 9am-12pm was our Loy Norrix HS cross country fundraiser- we had 3 hours to run 50 laps around our quarter mile track and each lap would increase the total amount of money that we will receive from people who put pledges of each cross country member. So far, a majority of people ran 50 laps (12.5 miles) and boy, I was proud of my people.

September 30:

• 5pm-6:30pm was our cross country race: SMAC  Jamboree @ Linden Grove Middle School. There, a few people got season and personal records, including one of my friends who finally under 20 minutes (but I beat his record in a different race).
• 6pm-8pm was my Loy Norrix Marching Rehearsal. What we were working was improving our marching, music, posture, and much more before our marching festival.

October 3: 

• 5:45pm-9pm was a home football at my high school. The game was Loy Norrix vs. Mattawan. I don't remember if we won or lost, but it was a long night. To to mention that we performed all of our Queen songs during the half time show through our marching.

October 4:

• Early in the morning to somewhere in the afternoon was another cross country race at Portage Middle school.

October 6:

• 6:30pm-8pm was college night at KVCC. We got meet college representatives to know their college better.

October 7 and 14:

• 6pm-8pm are other marching rehearsals.

October 8 and 16:

• 7pm-8pm was saxophone lesson for me. Every Thursday, I have saxophone lessons at Western Michigan University.

October 9:

• 7:10am-7:23am was the Loy Norrix National Honor Society meeting. I am doing the application of it, because I want participate in a program that will get me in activities that is worth while.

October 15:

• 7:15pm- 10:30pm was the day of MSBOA festival. It was a big day for the Loy Norrix Band. It took at Battle Creak Central's football field and we got to play our Queen theme. I was dressed up as Freddie Mercury: which you will see the costume below. Along with the pants and jacket, I had white marching band shoes, a marching band hat, and a fake mustache (even though I have a real mustache). What we got was a 2 in our performance. We were going for a 1, but we were so close. Music was a 2 (better than last year, rate 3), a 2 in marching picture, and a 1 in marching (much better than a 2 from last year). 
  
  
  
  

October 18 (Today): 

• 10am-2pm was my morning, running the SMAC Conference, but instead, it was more like a Jamboree because of the call that there was a storm coming near by. So, all the boys ran together and same thing with the girls. The course was fun, fast, and flat, I loved it! I got a season record, I think it was 19:32. Everyone was wet from the rain before, during, and after the race. I also got a t-shirt for $15 that is for the race. The creator of the shirt made our school's name wrong, instead of Loy Norrix, it spelled Loy Nitric. I didn't care about, it is a nice t-shirt to have.
• 2pm-4:45pm was my afternoon, helping the Loy Norrix Band with the chicken dinner serving and the silent auction. It was a fundraiser for the band this time. We sold about 400 chicken dinner tickets, that is 100 more than last year. The chicken and the food there was really good! I ate two quarter chickens, salad, and other delicious foods. At the silent auction, I bid a spray picture for $6 and bought a bracelet for $5. 

  

  This spray paint picture was made by a friend of mine the my high school band. I think this art work is called Three Sun Planets. He started this hobby this May. What do you think about this art work? 

  
  
  

So you know how my two months have been going so. Not to mention that we were in our 7th week and had our parent-teacher conference. 5 more weeks until the first trimester is over and the second trimester begins. I hope things are going good for you teachers, students, and parents in school. Keep strong and keep doing well on your education and after school programs. Make me proud and make the future a brighter for the billions of people on this planet.

Peace out brothers and sisters- MNM 

Watch Out People Who Litter

Do you ever hate when you see people just littering in front of your eyes and you feel you can't teach them? I do hate that a lot, especially when I know that they would angry for trying to tell them that what they did was wrong to Earth. Well, I want to show you this video that there are people out there in this world who are willing to risk to teach the people who litter a taste of their own trash. 

Vigilante Biker Gets Revenge on Drivers Who Litter

This video made me so happy and confident that people who do care for our planet are the ones that will always win. This woman shows that people who litter will get the punishment for not listening to the changes. Lets all give a hand in achieving this action by cleaning up this world every small action as possible. For the people who don't want to do the change, you are not going to win!

Peace out brothers and sisters- MNM

School Combine With Education, Sports, and Music

        For the past three weeks of school, I have not been posting about my first day of school, first cross country race, my first trimester classes, my first marching band show, and much more. I will explain what has been going on on my other posts.
To start off, I got to meet my teachers in my classes; which the classes are Honors English 11, Pre-Calculus, Computer Applications, A.P. Physics, and Marching Band. They are the classes that I need to take for the credits of my graduation and life. I am enjoying my classes so far right, but the year is going too fast for me to believe that. Currently I am reading Beowulf  in Honors English, reviewing Algebra 2 works, doing computer assignments on the school's new computers, and polishing up our marching/sound/posture.
This year is going to be the year where Loy Norrix marching band makes history in getting a one in performance. How do we know? 1. We are way ahead of schedule in marching with all of our songs
2. We are now fine-tuning the songs to make it sound like Freddie Mercury's way (Crazy Little Thing Call Love, We Will Rock You, and Bohemian Rhapsody) 3. A majority of musicians are leading the band into success We have the upper hand! I am putting time into my drum major position for the band. Our perform is going to rock the audience and the judges on October 15. If we do get a one, we would be so happy and prove to other people that Loy Norrix got what it takes to go big and succeed.
Cross country started out okay for me, but I am making my way to getting 18:30 as my time. I have done three races so far. The recent one was not easy, for which there were mainly hills, and I mean hills that could make you fall forward without knowing. To know where and what my times were, I will post them after the cross country season is over.
Well, I hope that school is going out okay for all of you. Let me know if you want me to change anything about this blog and I will try to make it happen.
Peace out brothers and sister. -MNM

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