Welcome to my world as a musician, a runner, and a "moose".

Category: Old Blog Posts (Page 1 of 7)

Be Gone Winter!

The sun is out, the skies are clear, and Spring is just around the corner. Winter is just packing up its case and getting ready to head down to the Southern Hemisphere for a few months. After about 4 months in the cold, we could finally strip down our layers and enjoy the warmth from the sun while receiving a cool breeze from the North or the South.
I am so happy that Winter is finishing up. The weather has been cold for far too long for me to be in. I had to wear at least three layers (a shirt, a sweater, and a winter jacket) to stay warm and not get a runny nose for me to continually blow every 10-30 minutes. I don’t know about your guys and gals, but I did enjoy Winter’s beauty through snow and ice in our backyard and on the neighborhood’s lake. Mother Nature has amazing talents in creating art and destruction at the same time for us to be amazed and to be infuriated at the same time.
Anyway, I am not here just to talk about the weather that many of us either enjoyed or hated, I am here to just write about what has been going on for me.
To start off, my school has finished trimester two yesterday. We, the students, did our final exams this week. My final exams were in these 4 classes out of the five: Economics, Government A, French 3 A, and Symphonic Band. My A.P. Physics class didn’t have a final exam this week because the A.P. test wouldn’t be given out until the end of the school year. It is coming fast this year, so you know what that means, I need to begin my studying. Wish me well y’all.
Next topic I want to write about is the ACT test.

For all the juniors out there, I bet you are telling me to not bring up the subject. But this a blog is about my life and experience, so don’t nag on me for writing about my life. Anyway, last week, I had to take the ACT testing for two half school days. Tuesday was the multiple choice (English, Mathematics, Reading, and Science) and the writing test. Wednesday was the ACT WorkKey. Did many of you juniors took these tests on the same day as I did? I bet that a majority of you would say “yes.”
On March 1, 2015, I ran the Portage Winter Blast 5k race in 23:45. The temperature was 10* Fahrenheit that morning. My fingers and toes were frozen at the beginning, until after a mile, my body heat started to warm me in my jackets. To add the frozen treat, my cross country assistant coach was there. Below is the picture of me and my assistant coach.

I was the only Loy Norrix student who ran the 5k race

On March 2, Pitch Zoo has done its last community meeting. It was the 2nd anniversary of the creation of Pitch Zoo that night. I was there to listen to the final “pitchers” that pitched their business idea to the audience and to hear advice from my dad and the audience on how to make their pitch better. If you want to learn more about this meeting, here is the link to the Pitch Zoo website: http://www.pitchzoo.com/
The rest is just about jazz band and the National Honor Society Recycling. Nothing too special about those. Future update though: MSBOA State is going to happen on March 21 and Japanese Language Lesson is going to begin on March 19.

 Sorry about not posting frequently. Things has been a little crazy lately with the tests, the school clubs, and designing the backpack for my Pick’n Run business. I am making a plan on how often I should post on this blog.
Anyway, that is all for right now. I hope that you enjoyed reading this post and I will see you in the next post.
Peace out brothers and sisters. -MNM

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” –Mahatma Gandhi

District MSBOA Performance 2/7/2015

Good afternoon. I am here to give a quick post about what happened yesterday at District MSBOA (Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association). I got a 1 on my ensemble performance on Presto from String Quartet Op. 18, No.3, which is my second 1 rating for ensemble performance in my high school years. 

For any of you that don’t know about MSBOA, it is basically when a musician or a group of musicians would perform a song in front of a judge for a rating. There are four categories that a judge would grade on: Tone, Intonation, Rhythm, Technique, and Interpretation. There are three ratings (from highest to lowest): 1, 2, and 3. To get the highest rating, you need to get at least three A’s in  three of the four categories. Yesterday, my sax quartet group got that 1 from getting those three A’s or more in those categories.  
I first thought that we wouldn’t do good because of the small number of rehearsals together, but we did it anyway, ending it with a good rating. Below is a picture of the medal that we got yesterday.
Since we got a 1 on that performance, we are invited to play our song at State level, which is the same idea of District. Tomorrow, I am going to talk with my group if they want to go to State again this year, because it is the same group that I formed last year for the sax quartet and got a 1 in both District and State level. I am planning to go to State to try to get another 1 rating.  I will let you guys/gals know about that choice.
That is it right now I guess. I hope that you enjoyed reading this post and I will see you in the next post.
Peace out brothers and sisters. -MNM

A New Years Has Came

Hey hey hey hey! Long time no talk. Sorry for not posting for a while nor on New Years Day.
I hoped that you all had a good Christmas break and a New Year. I wonder what you all did. I am here to describe what I did for my break outside of blogging.
For me, I had a wonderful time with my family up in Colorado for about 3 weeks. The first part of the trip was driving for two days to my grand-mother’s house up in Colorado Springs and staying there for a week. My uncle, aunts, and nephews came to stay at my grand-mother’s house for about a week.
It was a good feeling to see them again after seeing them in person about 1 to 3 years ago. Just seeing how much they had changed while my family and I were living in Michigan just left me speechless. Anyway, we all caught up with each other about our lives and celebrated Christmas on December 23. My uncle and mom had to get back to their job. My uncle had to fly back to Texas, for he works as a helicopter pilot in the PHi Air Medical. While my mom flew back to Michigan to work back in the RadissonWe didn’t see him until New Years Days (9 days after he left) we met up at his wife’s family’s house up in the mountains. The trip up there was quite snowy and windy. It took us about 4 hours to drive through the sunny and cloudy hours to get to my grand-pa’s house in the mountains.
When we got there, we planned to sled everyday by ourselves and with my nephews. The depth of the snow on the golf course was about 3 feet up to my knees; the perfect depth for sledding on small hills, all while making it hard to walk out onto the pathway. Two nights, we would head over to my aunt’s house nearby to have dinner and relax in the hot tub. Nothing but easy going with the family.
For New Years Day/Eve, we just had hot chocolate and played some board games. We did miss the ball fall on television in New York. Whoopps.
After our family time up in the mountains, my dad, little sister, and I drove back to Colorado Springs to spend one more day with my grand-mother before driving back to Michigan. The rest of the time was just driving back to Michigan.

That was my break. I hoped that you all have plans for this new year. Keep going and never stop going forward.

That is it right now I guess. I hope that you enjoyed reading this post and I will see you in the next post.
Peace out brothers and sisters. -MNM

Fresh Start with the National Honors Society Election Night

Last night a special night for me and for others at my school. It was the celebration for the newly elected students in the National Honors Society. If you remembered from previous posts, I filled out applications required to participate in the program and I found out that I was among the elected students. It was such a pleasure to be elected in this big opportunity of a life time.
So what happened was that a special guest named Mr. Jon Hoadley, State Rep. of Michigan, spoke to the audience about his history, leadership, character, service, scholarship and inspirational quotes about being in the NHS. Along with the guest, our principal, program leaders and students officers gave their own speech. After the speeches, each elected students came up on stage and signed their agreement sheet, shook hands with people and signed the NHS book that was first signed somewhere in 1965.

You could see me signing the book

To top it off, we spook the NHS pledge and my mom took pictures of me with my signed certificate.

Me with my signed certificate

I hope that everyone had a good Thanksgiving, because I did have a great Thanksgiving with my family and friends. 
Are most of you in your next section of school right now, or are you still in a section? Monday, I started my second trimester with some new classes. Either one, still work hard in education and in life to make amazing choices in life. 
Before I forget, tomorrow, I won’t be able to post anything, because for the whole day, I will be with my DECA group will be working with the basketball managers for a basketball game that we will get to watch after words. I won’t be at home until 12:30 in the morning (which that is what my director said), which I am going to be dead tired when I get back. I will take pictures on my camera of the event and post them on the next post to show you . 
That is it right now I guess. I hope that you enjoyed reading this post and I will see you in the next post.
Peace out brothers and sisters. -MNM

Happy Thanksgiving

Hey everybody. Happy Thanksgiving to you all. If some of you don’t celebrate thanksgiving, I still want to say that today is a good day to appreciate what we have in life (not material things, but to our families, friends, pets, love, our religion, etc…). Be thankful for everything, from the bottom of the heart. Lets have a moment to think about peace, forgiveness, love, understanding, pureness, life, friends, family and even smiles. Just close your eyes and just think.

I hope that everyone has a simple thanksgiving today. It doesn’t have to be something big or special, just give thanks to what you have in life that could not be replaced with material things.

Well, that is it. I hope that you enjoyed reading this post and I will see you in the next post.
Peace out brothers and sisters- MNM

Reward for Final Exam

How are y’all doing at this time? Been busy with school or what?
For me, I have been busy with my school’s final exams. That’s right, my first trimester is coming to an end for me in my junior year. Though, it is not completely done yet, I still have to do two more final exams in two classes: AP Physics (a) and Marching Band. After Monday, I will be free from Tuesday to Friday. The first three exams were not that hard to complete. I was able to finish them before time finished and to dance after school in completing them. Are you guys/gals doing the same thing in terms of final exams? If so, how is that coming along? I hope it is going good for you.

Also, yesterday night, I got to attend my cross country end of season party at one of the member’s house. We had snacks and drinks to celebrate for our hard work. Our coaches were there to join in the celebration. It was good to see them after cross country season was over. Now we made our coaches a little surprise that is different from previous celebrations; we used to buy gift cards to a restaurant or a store, but we bought a t-shirt with a quote on it that one of coaches made, “It’s a beautiful day to run in Southwest Michigan!”- Coach Savicke. I could tell that they loved it. It is good to pay back our coaches for their time and hard work to make us better runners. To add on the surprise, one of our members made this video of our season: Loy Norrix Cross Country 2014. You could see me in some scenes, both in a race and during practice. Try to find me. 🙂

Well, that is it. I hope that you enjoy reading this post and I will see you in the next post.
Peace out brothers and sisters- MNM

Dinner With a Louisville Friend

It was a long day today, in terms of classes and after school program. In my Honors English class, five students presented their book-talk power-point to us. They are very interesting, I might read some of them for fun during my free time.  Tomorrow, I will get to present my power-point to the class on my book, Three Cups of Tea. Many of you may know the book.
All the other classes are just learning something new and reviewing old lessons. Like I am extending my knowledge on geometric and arithmetic series in pre-calculus, while in AP physics, I learning electricity (current, volts, resistance, circuits and Kirchoff’s law). Have many of you learn these things? How is it?
Anyway, this morning, I was feeling kind of negative about certain things in life. My parents got me back into my positive self and music brought back my smile. So I was able to be my normal self in school and learn. 🙂
About two hours ago, a friend of ours from Kentucky came over for dinner. It has been a long time since I have seen him. My mom and dad made a good dinner for us to eat. Michigan black cherry ice cream is what we had for desert (delicious it was).
So, nothing big happened today, although a WMU student gets to barrow my acoustic guitar for a month.

Yeah, that was my day, I hope you had a good day and I will see you in the next post.
Peace out brothers and sisters.- MNM

Veterans Days

You know what today is, it is Veterans Days. It is time to honor our veterans that served our country for years. I would like to honor three veterans (two of which are within my family and the third on is an interviewed veteran that I have done as a project) for serving our country: John L. Locke (my great-great uncle), Randy Mueller (grand-father) and Mike Leatherman (a navy veteran that I interviewed). 
I left a link above that you can check out about my great-great uncle. Currently, I can’t add a link to my Living History project. All I could do is give you a sample of the project below. I hope that you like it, because I put many hours into this project to make it worth holding on to for Mike Leatherman’s family. Just reading it again, just makes my smile for my interviewed veteran and for my dedication to make this report perfect. 

Imagine
yourself as young adult who was first drafted into the Marines, but found a way
to get around that by serving in the Navy, so that you don’t get into combat in
the Vietnam War. Your dreams of avoiding a horrible war turns to a nightmare as
you became a CE (construction electrician) to build forts, road ways, command
centers, supply centers, and other building needed for the war, in the middle
of a battle field. During the sunny days while working on road ways, you hear
and see big C-17 planes landing so close to you, that you could just stand and
touch it with your tough, leathery callous hands. During the humid nights, you
hear bullets whizzing by your ears and just see a body lying still, with his
head blown, 5 feet from you. Maybe that was your buddy that you just made 3
hours ago. With the enemies coming close, you have Caliber .45 Pistol to shot
them off to live another day. Everyday for 24 hours, you make friends that few
will live, build something for the military effort, and even fend for yourself
to go through it again. Mike Leatherman was one of the many American Heroes who
built and fought during the Vietnam War, but not in full combat as the Army
would experience. Now that doesn’t mean that he went through something that
nearly killed him. This is his story that he wants to pass down for people to
read about his life before, during, and after his service. 
Make sure that you give thanks to your veterans for putting their life in protecting America and give them a big salute. Enjoy the rest of the night and I will see you in the next post.
Peace out brothers and sisters (and veterans). -MNM

Past Memories and Present Actions

I got something to tell you who are reading this, yesterday after school, I was elected into the Loy Norrix National Honor Society! You have no idea how happy I was to hear/see it; to not have to explain it in detail, I was dancing outside of a classroom with joy without anyone knowing it. I believe that about 20 members were elected into the program, but I am among them! Many of you who are in high school, do you have a similar program of ours or exactly like ours? If so, what do you get to do? You can leave it in the comments for me to read and see how it is similar or different from ours. 
The application was not that hard to do. I just had to think about what I have done that goes into those four qualities throughout my high school years. I was hoping that all the summer programs and high school sports that I participated in has a majority of the qualities. Some of them did, but not as much as I expected. During the essay part, I had to explain why I feel that I should participate in the program. My main reason for me to be in it: everyday, I am looking for ways to improve my leadership skills, self character, educational opportunities, and service acts. As Cardinal J. Gibbons quotes: “There are no office hours for leaders.” I improve everyday to become better than I was yesterday. 
Character is my biggest quality that I have throughout my life time. I stay who I am, not allowing others to change who I am that does not fit who I am. Going forward to change a friend, teacher, school, community, state, country and the world, is what I want. John Quincy Adams quotes this like what I said: “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” That is how many are making a change in this world. I want to be one of those people. You will see. “Great leaders don’t tell you what to do… they show how its done.” 
Along with the surprise, I found this song that I heard during my elementary years in Colorado. It belongs to a TV show that I used to watch for fun in the past. It is called Code Lyoko. Many would probably know this show. 
There are other series of episodes that still has the same name

Brings back many memories of my childhood. How I wonder about animation and the different types of it. During that time, it is also where I found the famous series, Naruto. Without those shows, I would have never reminded myself how much I came through my younger years. I am happy to see Code Lyoko and Naruto in my life.

Well, I hoped that you liked what you read and I will see you in the next post.
Peace out brothers and sisters.- MNM

My First Poem Post Online

I made this poem at the beginning of the school year that has to do with our choices in life and I thought I would like to share it with you. Now when you read it, don’t feel that I am being negative to the world. This is just showing what I am seeing that needs to be fixed before its too late. I am just saying that we as the people of this world needs to start making right decisions that is meant to be.
In the mean time, hope you get the message from the poem and start thinking about what you can do to change this world in a good way. Below the poem is a music video that kind of sings what I am trying to show you.

Everyday 7
Born at the dawn of the human race
Wrath, sloth, pride, lust, envy, gluttony, and greed
Wrongful wrath creating wars
Silent sloth slowly seizing
Powerful pride pounding the peace
Lurking lust luring away purity
Endless envy eyeing others plenty
Gushing gluttony grabbing relentlessly
Grabbing greed grinning at the weak
Seven deadly sins at the core of tyrants creed
They form a circle, a repetitive circle 
Grabbing a majority of humans and making them hurtful
Though the hold is strong
Some are trying to find a way out
It takes a lifelong scout
Choose you fight

-Martin Mueller
Peace out brothers and sisters- MNM
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