Band Booklet Article

To spectators, the Marching Band is not a collection of instrumentalists. To them, "The Band" is a single loud, powerful entity that breathes life in to the college sporting atmosphere. "The Band" moves around the field, creating shapes, words, and school logos at every game, without fail. "The Band" is the spiritual center of the student section, dictating when to cheer, when to chant, and when to sing. "The Band" mysteriously shows up, does its thing, and goes home with no indication to the process behind it. But, from the inside, "The Band" is much more than all of this.

Band is People. Members of the Minnesota Marching Band are drawn together like no other group. Not just because of the time spent together; many other teams and organizations spend just as much time practicing and performing as the band. The band is not only the sum of individual efforts; it is also collaboration on the part of every single one of its members. Every member of the band has a very specific individual task that, done on its own, has no particular meaning or impact to any person: moving to a set of places while playing a sequence of notes. However, when all of the band members perform their small tasks together, they become more than the sum of their parts, and collectively have the ability to invoke joy, tears, reverence, or any number of the most powerful of emotions. No single person’s performance can greatly improve the band’s performance; greatness must instead happen together. It is this collective responsibility to each other and the organization that forges the camaraderie and community that is the lifeblood of the Minnesota Marching Band. In my time here, I have had the privilege of making friendships with some fantastic people that I will never forget:

Trombones: Thank you for this year and all the years before it. Your hard work and tireless energy made it all worth it. Here's to the best section in the band!
Boof, Bill, Austin, and KatieJones: I can't think of anyone I would rather have gone through these four years with. Not only on the field, but outside of band as well; you were my first friends in college, and were always there, no matter what happened. Thank You for everything.
Mandi, Andrew, Adam, Rachel, Sam, Craig, Trevor, Ranger, Aubree, and Kenny: You are the best class of third-years I have ever seen. You all love what you do, and it definitely shows. Keep it up!
Amanda, Megan, Cathie, Codey, Steve, Boone, and Doug: My first rookie class! It has been a ton of fun watching you guys learn and grow over the last two years. As the band goes through the changes of the next few years, you are the ones that will guide it through.
John, Julia, Jennifer, Ross, Andy, Robert, Donald, Matt, Mark, Mitch, and Quentin: Thank you for your incredible effort this year. This year was tough to be a rookie, but next year is when you start making your mark. Make it a good one.
Old Bones - Stepnick, Beyer, Kim, Alex, and Smude: Thank you for teaching me what it truly means to be a Trombone; that identity will stay with me forever.
Bone Leaders: Thank you for making this year the best one yet, even though I wasn't there half the time.
Becky: Pregame Buddies forever! People around us came and went, but there we were, game after game, doing our thing. The fist bump in the tunnel was one of my favorite traditions. P.S. we finally got rotation to work!
Pregame Flutes: Long live the diag! Who knew that a Trombone player would end up leading the flutes? Thanks for being my adopted section for all this time.
ScottyT: If someone had told me at the beginning that my best friend in band would be a Trumpet, I would not have believed them. Your hard work and dedication have truly been an inspiration to me.
Angela and Brett: It has been 8 wonderful and memorable years since we first stepped on to the practice field outside of Olson, and we are the only ones that made it all the way. I am honored to have shared that time with such fantastic musicians and people as yourselves.
Meg: It still baffles me how someone like you could end up with a nerd like me. For all your support and confidence, putting up with me, and always being there, thank you!
Dr. Neal: You are a terrific addition to this band. It was a lot of fun to see you step up to the plate swinging. After one year, I truly believe you "get" this group.
Skeeter: Your knowledge and skill of everything band continues to amaze me. Thank you for being an excellent role model.
Dr. Diem: Thank You. Thank you for the opportunities you gave me; thank you for all your hard work; thank you for your wonderful attitude towards band and life. You claim that the band is what the students make it, but you are really the one that makes this band what it is.

Band is Tradition. Tradition links members of the band across years, decades, and generations. It becomes a common ground that represents the legacy of the band to hundreds, if not thousands, of people. Because of this, unremarkable (and sometimes just plain silly) actions take on an entirely new and higher meaning. Tradition is anything from saying "beef" when someone drops their mouthpiece, to singing "Hail! Minnesota" in the lobby of Northrop. Regardless of what it is, what it means is more important by far. Possessing the knowledge of exactly what these rituals mean creates unparalleled unity on scales from small groups of people, to sections, to, the band, and beyond. It is the catalyst that builds a community, but remains well after they are gone to start the process over again. Pulling on the uniform every Saturday, as countless band members before you have, pays homage to what is, what has been, and what will become.

And, finally:
Band is Forever. It is absolutely fascinating to me to think what the Minnesota Marching Band has been and will become. In 117 years, its members have literally been witness to history: through the world’s ups and downs, the band was there. At the turn of the century, when the State of Minnesota was only 50 years old and the University only covered a few blocks of the City of Minneapolis, the band was there. In the 1940’s, when many joined the armed forces instead of going to college, the band was there. And now, while our society continues to change and evolve before our very eyes, the band continues to exist, the same as it always has. I look forward to the times 10 years, 20 years, or 50 years from now when I will be able to return, and the band will still be here.

Thank you for four incredible years!

It's that time of year again...

...when I wonder if I'm taking on too much for the amount of time I have. On the docket this semester:

• School, including
• Senior Design: yet another design project, expected to take ~15 hours/week
• Aeromechanics Lab: A massive amount of data to sort through, several lab reports, etc.
• Thermodynamics: never really grasped this subject, been dreading taking this class for a couple years now
• Marching Band: winding down my last year, getting ready to be done but still enjoying it immensely.
• Work: getting in some hours in the morning, but not much
• Social life: living with the people I've hung out with for the last three years takes time! Plus, GF living 30 minutes away doesn't help
• Solar Car: somehow became Project Manager, feeling like I'm not doing enough in that role right now
• Job Search, aka "the new one:" still getting used to the whole "I'm going to have a career next year" thing. Slowly working on my resume, but this is going to have to ramp up quickly in order to get done. The rest of my life starts now.

Thoughts right now: slowly working in to a routine and figuring out how to use my time, but it's looking like work might have to go. We'll see...

Fun Quote

Me (teaching Cascade): "Forward 8, 270, forward 4, mark time 4, left flank"
Ross Kaner: "Story of my life"

so true...

New Music

Found a new band through Pandora:

Symphony X

Kind of a cross between Dream Theater and Avenged Sevenfold. Pretty sweet.

...and it's over

No more solar car for the rest of the summer.

I have no idea what to do with myself for the 8 hours of free time that I suddenly have.

Marching band starts again (for the last time) in two more weeks.

It seems like I have some need for myself to be chronically busy, otherwise I'm just confused.

Holy Crap

We leave for the Solar Car race in 7 days.

7 days.

I'm really excited and a little bit scared. I've been working towards this event for three years, which probably makes it the longest single project I've ever worked on. Three years of giving up time to hang out with friends and study.

It's really, really cool to see it finally be (almost) finished, but at the same time I'm worried that we've somehow completely screwed up, nothing will work, and we aren't living up to the standard set by previous teams.

On a somewhat related note, this will also be the longest (duration) trip I've ever been on.



...7 days...

Wait, what?

I'm unusually motivated today, for no particular reason. So this is what that feels like...

Summer Anti-Break

How is it that I have less free time now than I did during the school year?

Priorities

Why is there a U.S. Senator holding a news conference about the New England Patriots' videotape scandal? Don't they have more important things to do?

Wow, it's been a while

It most certainly has been a while since I posted anything, especially considering my goal was to make several posts per week.

These next few weeks are going to be hectic, but hopefully a lot of fun and the best end-of-year yet. The solar car is almost "done," we're unveiling it next Thursday. Thus, my schedule for the next two weeks are:

Tonight: go to shop, install mechanical components of the car
Tomorrow: all-team meeting, work more on car, attend Meg's freind's wedding in the evening

Sunday: Frisbee, maybe homework, maybe solar car
Monday: Class, solar car
Tuesday: Work, solar car, homeworks
Wednesday: Class, LOTS of solar car, more solar car
Thursday: Unveil solar car (10:00AM, McNamera Alumni Center), show off car all day
Friday: Last day of classes, continue work on car
Saturday: More solar car

Sunday: Frisbee playoffs
Monday: Study for finals, work on (finish?) Flight Dynamics final project
Tuesday: Aerodynamics Final Exam
Wednesday: Insturmentation & Structures Exams
Thursday: Leave for St. Louis for solar car inspection event

Uff-da.

Here it is...

...that one week every semester where everything in all your classes seems to line up in the most inconvenient way possible. I have 2 midterm exams and 1 quiz on Wednesday, plus a large project due on Friday. Not to mention that motivation is falling off a cliff due to Spring Break starting in 4 days. At least it won't continue in to the next weeks like it always seems to do...

"Hold on to your butts!"

Slow [E-Mail] Day

Is it bad that I get kind of down when I've only received 4 [non-subscription] e-mails before 1:00PM? I average 8-10 per day, and sometimes I'm literally flooded with new ones.

Is there a support program for that?

..or maybe I'm just bored at work again and need something to do.

Projects

Got 2 projects assigned last week, I'm actually starting to write up one of them 10 days before it's due!

...this is probably a first for me.

New Toy!

I ordered myself a new camera last week; it came in the mail yesterday!

After playing around with some of my friends' cameras, it became apparent that I really liked photography and I should probably get a camera of my own since I'm doing so much interesting stuff in the next year or so. It's a Canon Powerhot S5 IS, which is just about as nice as they come without going up in to the $600+ range (waaay more than I would spend on just about anything).

Hopefully I can make my life well-documented; I post my photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mnskyscraper.

Night Off

Taking the night off for once... 'tis nice.

Now if I can just get a whole day off...

Evolution of Homework

I'm working on my first homework assignment that consists of one problem, and one problem only. Remember when homework was something you could pound out in an hour? Yeah, that was nice.

Welcome to engineering school: land of the 3-hour homework problems.

Mmmm, cookies....

Tonight was Hockey Mom cookie night, when the Hockey players' moms make the band cookies for the game.

It's nice to know we're appreciated :-)

Homework

I spent the entire night working on what is legitimately the most difficult homework assignment I've ever had. Period. After 4 hours in the afternoon of bumbling through algebra that should have taken me 20 minutes. Pissed off at half my classes. No time to see Meg. Have to get up early tomorrow morning and work all day.

Break is needed, but will never come. That's the life I've built for myself.

Edit Feb. 20: Lost my mp3 player today. Screw you, life.
Edit Feb. 21: Finished the homework, found my mp3 player!

Downfall of Society: Part II

How can making a game show about losing weight a profitable enterprise? 1) most current TV shows are crappy, and 2) people don't take good enough care of themselves.

Classical Music (in more than one sense)

I was bored, so I thought I'd bust out the ol' mp3 player and see what I haven't listened to in a while. Most of the music I've been listening to lately is my "walking somewhere" music - usually Metallica, Dream Theater, Dragon Force, or Rammstein; or my "doing homework" music - Pink Floyd, Blue Man Group, or some film soundtrack.

I scrolled down to find Holst's "The Planets" Suite - it's been a while for this one. I turned it on (with headphones, no distractions) and just laid in my bed for a while with nothing else to think about; this is the most relaxed I've been in longer than I care to remember.

(BTW: my favorite movement is Jupiter, for those of you who care)

V-Day

...was nice :-) We exchanged gifts (and cards), then went to dinner at a nice restaurant. I was a little nervous, as I've never needed to do this before (this xkcd comic comes to mind), but all went well. How it should be.

Spring Semester, v3.0: Update

Classes so far are going pretty well. My only major "issue" is that, on Wednesdays, there's a weekly quiz in Flight Dynamics and Control and homework due in Aerodynamics. Going to class for 6.5 hours, 3 days a week is working out pretty well, as it frees up just about everything else. As for individual classes:

• AEM 4303W - Flight Dynamics and Control: This has turned out to be the most interesting class of my four. Not too much new material (we've covered most of it in AEM 2301 - Mechanics of Flight), but that should change pretty quickly. The professor likes to mumble a little bit, but I can here him most of the time.
• AEM 4202 - Aerodynamics: Also a pretty interesting class, it's nice to see that there's actually math behind all the stuff that makes an airplane fly, not just unsupported imperical evidence. Homeworks for this one take a while, but it's still managable in an evening. The professor is liable to make mistakes writing euqations on the board, which makes lecture a little frustrating.
• AEM 4501 - Aerospace Structures: It's kind of interesting to expand on the knowledge of a previous class and see where stuff comes from, but (so far) that's the limit of this class. Unfortunately, there's no [reliable] textbook for this class, so I have to mostly pay attention in lecture, which is difficult at times since it's right after lunch.
• AEM 4601 - Insturmentation Lab: Remember the first week of lab, when you learned how to use the equipment in the lab, and then answered a few simple questions about it? That's this class, but every single week. I find myself doing a lot of homework and/or solar car in lecture, especially since most of the information that goes on the board is handed out at the beginning of class. The lab is a bit more interesting, but like I said, "advanced lab orientation" is what this class should be called.
• SVP 35 - Solar Car: We've really started building the car! Every week, the random collection of parts in the shop gets closer and closer to looking like something drive-able. Accordingly, it's also taking up more and more time every week; most of my weekends have had some form of solar car in them, if not the whole weekend. Tuesdays and Thursdays are falling fast too... time is going fast...

Can Life Be Too Good?

How come life seems to be going so smoothly for me, but not for my freinds? It always seems as if I'm significantly less busy and less worried about things in my life like school, work, and how much time I'm spending with my freinds, despite it appearing that I have the same amount of stuff, if not more, going on in a given week.

I hear them commenting (I won't use "complaining," since they're perfectly justified; I do it too) on how busy they are, and I typically try to give advice for them to deal with what seems to be a similar situation to me. When this happens, I typically realize after a while the content of what I'm saying; it nearly feels like I'm bragging about how well my life is going relative to those around me and giving "better than you" advice to them. Then I start feeling guilty and try to avoid the subject, without completely blowing them off.

I have no idea why this is or how it came to be. Is it because I somehow have an ability to deal with a large number of things on my plate? Or perhaps I somehow deal with the stress of being busy in a different, less reactive way? Or is it just that I'm too concious of how I think people percieve me?

I need to figure this out; as we become older and advance in school, it seems like it's becoming a more common problem. I don't want how my life is going to affect the way I interact with people.

Uh Oh, Tax Return Time

Since I actually had a full-time, well-paid job this summer, I made more money than I ever had before. As a result, I also have a sizeable tax return: $850 this year. History has shown that when this happens, instead of saving the money, I like to buy new toys (last year's "investment" was an mp3 player). I plan to buy myself a digital camera (finally!), mostly so I can take pictures of solar car.

Unfortunately, this only accounts for about $300 of the money. Aside from saving it, on this year's 'maybe' list:

• 2nd computer monitor
• LEGO Millenium Falcon, the largest LEGO set ever created
• Desktop PC, so I can play computer games that are less than 3 years old
• TV of decent size for future apartments
• Stereo Amp for the speakers that I own but can't use

Caution: Slippery when winter

After 4 months of successfully walking on all manners of snow, ice, slush, and wet pavement this winter, I have now slipped and subsequently fallen on frozen water twice in the last week.

Maybe I need new shoes, with better soles? Or maybe just a lower center of gravity.

Attempted excuse: everything thawed and then re-froze last week, making it all extra slippery. One "incident" was in the dark and I didn't see the ice, and the other was today when it was snowing.

Sports Fan

Why do we watch sports? Moreover, why do we pay significant amounts of money to watch sports? Why do tens of thousands of people gather on a weekly basis to watch a few dozen people try to best eachother in events of skill and strength?

Theory: we, as humans, have the need to identify ourselves with a group of people that means something to the rest of society so, if nothing else, society will recognize us for that. Be it a fan of a sports team, from a city, or even a member of a race, we feel compelled to make sure that our peers remember us for something more than what we make ourselves to be.

Downfall of Society: Part I

Why is there an entire industry based on following around celebrities?

Pro Football...Question Mark?

One of my co-workers asked me today if I had any big plans for the football game this weekend. I was momentarily confused, until he specified that the game in question was the Super Bowl.

Yeah, I suppose I'll watch, but you can't make me care.

Reading

One of my freinds mentioned that he didn't have anything to do tonight, so he went to a cafe and read a book.

I haven't read a book recreationally since last summer when I was commuting to work, and only then before I got my mp3 player. Before that, it was the summer before. I need to do that more often, I just spend all my spare time on the computer or watching TV. Maybe it'll make me more relaxed.

Spring Semester, v3.0

And so begins the Spring Semester of 2008.

Classes are as follows:

• AEM 4303W: Flight Dynamics and Controls, A.K.A. "How Airplanes Work." I'm really excited for this class, I'm hopefully learning basically what I want to do for a career.
• AEM 4202: Aerodynamics. The academic side of AEM, all about airfoils and the like. Still pretty interesting.
• AEM 4501: Aerospace Structures, A.K.A. "Deform on Steroids." I've always been at least a little interested in mechanics (Dynamics, Deform, etc.) so we'll keep an eye on this one, it has potential.
• AEM 4601: Insturmentation Lab, A.K.A. "How to do actual scientific experimentation." This one seems to have a lot of EE and I haven't learned a whole lot yet. This one seems the least promising of all my classes.
• MUS 3490: Men's Hockey Band. 'Nuff Said.

Thoughts:

• Yay for being done with Lib-Eds! All Engineering courses, all the time from here on out.
• Upside: No Class on Tuseday, only a lab on Thursday. Downside: Class from 9AM until 3:30PM Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This means half the days feel like high school again, and the other half feel like full-time work.
• All classes are in the same department, and thus in the same building. I'm bringing lunch to class this time around so I can get fat by not walking enough.

Welcome!

Welcome to my little personalized corner of the Internet. It is here where I aim to chronicle stories, antecdotes, opinions, rants, and random thoughts that occur throughout my (seemingly) uneventful life.

Spring Semester Starts

Hmm... I don't like this new UI. It took me 2 minutes to figure out how to add this post. Turns out a post is actually called a "weblog" now. Interesting... Looking around, I'm actually just now deciding that I'm considering a move over to blogspot, which doesn't try to be a social community, unlike here. I'll look in to that.

I have a new account over at flickr, www.flickr.com/photos/mnskyscraper. I've really only posted pictures from my Ireland trip in 2005, but I should be investing in a nice new digital camera soon (Canon PowerShot SX100-IS) that will allow me to get a lot more pictures up there.

All of winter break was spent on Solar Car: except for the week sorrounding Christmas, I was at Northwest Airlines' Composites Shop working on building the body of the car for 8-10 hours a day. It's nice to be done with that now.

digg.com is a wonderful website. I spend way too much time there.

Spring Classes:
*AEM 4303W Flight Dynamics & Control
*AEM 4202 Aerodynamics
*AEM 4501 Aerospace Structures
*AEM 4601 Insturmentation Lab

Thoughts on Spring Semester:
*Hooray for no more lib-eds!
*No class on tuesday, only a lab on Thrusday = more work hours
*All of my classes are in the same building complex. I don't have to leave there for 7 hours. feels like high school.
*Upper division rules. I'm actually interested in most of the material now!