Band-geek For Life

Band-geeks . . . there are more of us out there than you might realize. I just finished watching an episode of Grey's Anatomy where the character of Dr. Derek Shepard, Neurosurgeon, reveals that he used to be a scant 100 pound kid who played the sax in the marching band. This gets me to wondering if I have that much potential since I too played the sax in marching band? Alas, it is only a television show.

Nevertheless, we are many and we are proud and we live among you as ordinary people but we ARE and FOREVER will be . . . BAND-GEEKS!! So band-geeks around the world, let us stand up and unite, and show the world that we have made it . . . or just continue cowering in the corner like the forgotten losers that we were . . . that also works.

Question: How does one deal with the aftermath of having their wisdom teeth pulled?

Answer: Vicoden and Seasons 3, 4, and 5 of Scrubs. Okay so I'm not quite to the 5th season yet but it won't take me too much longer.

Somehting painful is afoot . . .

So I think today I finally reached the tipping point where being slightly annoyed and bored to being severely frustrated and going crazy!! Sorry. Let me fill you in with some back story . . .

So Saturday afternoon was the annual Sunday School picnic. Let me clarify now that I was not scheduled to attend this oh so exciting event as I had already promised my time and services to a friend in need of help moving. I got done with the move early and decided that I would make an appearance anyways.

When I got to the church I quickly became consumed in a game of basketball with Matt Preston and C.J. Marincus. You see, the problem with playing basketball at our church (and I told C.J. and Matt this before we started) is that the basketball hoop is located right next to a curb and it's really easy to land and roll ankles on this curb. Well, about thirty minutes later who do you think landed on the curb and sprained their ankle? That's right! Me!!

I am now the lucky recipient of a splint that goes up to about my knee and a pair of crutches. Below are a few pictures of the my foot. In the first you can see that my right foot is completely swollen and I now have one cankle. The second picture is pretty self-explanatory: knarley bruise!! And finally we have my splint which I must admit makes my injury look far worse than it really is. Maybe I'll play that up. ;)

Okay so if the date of my last Blog doesn't give away how long it's been since I last blogged, when I pulled up my page I had to stare at it for a few before I knew where to go to log in.

So anyways, I was tagged on this "meme" thing and while I don't really know what it means, nor am I going to tag six more people (that would just be mean to ask someone to keep a chain going) I have decided to post six useless facts about muah . . . we'll see if I can come up with that many.

1) I am addicted to music. There I said it! *CRINGE* Hey, admitting it is the first step to recovery, or so I hear. Anyway, I have upwards of 500 albums (CDs) and many more singles that I have purchased through the wonders of iTunes. I guess you could say "I Heart Music" which would still be an understatement but I can't help myself. I guess that brings me back to the beginning, I am addicted to music.

2) My car is Ghetto Fabulous!! I am the proud owner of a 1990 Toyota Corolla, four door sedan. The window cranks for the front two windows are broken off (leaving an exposed knob for each) and have been so for quite some time. Every time I by a new crank for to roll down said windows, it breaks, thus leaving back at square one with no knobs. I have managed to bypass this little hiccup by using a vise grip, which has become a permanent feature of my car. As I mentioned above, I love me some music and boy do I ever have a thumpin' sound system: iPod + portable speakers = okay so I guess that doesn't amount to much of anything. I could go on and on about my gem of a car but I thought I would just cover the finer details.

So I was able to come up with two worthless facts about myself. I guess that will have to suffice for now so tough cookies if you were sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for more 'cause there isn't. So go do something more productive already!! Have a nice day.

WOW!! I totally know how she feels.

Kobe Bryant Jumps Over Astin Martin!!

So last term was a miricle. I'm not really sure how to explain it. I was taking 18 credits and that is the most that I've ever taken before. With about three weeks left in the term I had resigned to the fact that getting B's and C's wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, after all C's are considered average and B's are above average so what's the harm in that.

One week after the term ended I anxiously awaited as the page loaded on the screen to see what my final grades would be. My best guess was that I would have three A's, one B and one C. To my shock and disbelief I had straight A's!! Even if I had aced my criminology final (this class being the thorn in my side for the term) the best I should have walked away with was a B, certainly not an A.

Needless to say I was and still am stoked that I miraculously pulled off strait A's in only my second term at SOU. Even though I statistically there is no way I should have ended up with those grades I'm not going to be the first student to actually argue that I should have received a lower grade. I suppose if I did argue that point I would be very deserving of those types of grades because I would have to be a complete idiot to do so!!

Grand Central Station Freeze

This is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time. Enjoy!

Javaslinger: December 22, 2004 - March 18, 2008

Born of an opinionated and at many times, over caffeinated, young man known to some as the "Blogfather", Javaslinger died yesterday at the infantile age of three. After spending seven long months in a coma, Javaslinger showed a brief sign of life on March 10, 2007 but never came out of his deep sleep completely.

Javaslinger will be forever remembered for chronicling the lives of two young roommates. Though related, some might say they were a modern day Felix and Oscar as they truly did appear to be an odd couple.

Javaslinger is survived by the architect of his creation, Bryan Hinkle. When asked to comment his loss, Hinkle just mumbled something about needing more Starbucks; there is no doubt in my mind that Hinkle will mourn this loss for some time to come. Javaslinger is also survived by countless friends. Through a Photographer's Eye, Gringa en Guadalajara, Talking Through My Sax, and If the Shoe Fits were just a few of the many faithful who looked forward to what he had to say.

While Bryan Hinkle is grateful for all of the many friends and supporters of Javaslinger he has decided to have private service where Javaslinger will be removed from the Blogger community.

"A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members."
-Mahatma Ghandi

I'd say that we have a long way to go before we achieve greatness.

A Politically Correct Christmas Carole

So since Christmas is right around the corner I've started listening to Christmas music. YAY! Anyways, it got me to thinking about how our country has become so annoyingly politically correct. I wonder what Christmas songs might be like in a completely PC country . . .

White Christmas

I'm dreaming of a Caucasian holiday just like the ones I used to know
Where the tree tops glisten and children listen to hear sleigh bells in the snow
I'm dreaming of a Caucasian holiday with every holdiay card I right
May your days be merry and bright and may all your holidays be Caucasion

Hmmm . . . not quite the same affect as the original.

Research Baby!

Okay so way, super, exciting news!! Well, it is for me at least. One of my professors has invited me to do research with him for research credit. He's writing a book and he said that he thought that I do really well in class and that he likes my energy. I'm so stoked. I never thought that I would ever get to do something like this.

Added bonus: looks great on resume and application for graduate school!

So I just blew about an hour an a half playing with Google Earth. It's really quite fascinating. You should try it some time. Just go to www.earth.google.com and download Google Earth, you'll be amazed at how little you accomplish, and how much time you spend doing it!

5 Taverns, 4 Pawn Shops and a Strip Club

It is such a beautiful day! Okay so its probably about 60 degrees and foggy but I love it! I've been waiting for this weather for quite some time now and I know that the fog can be dangerous but it just makes everything around us look so cool (e.g., the trees and mountains).

Anyways, its been about a month 0r so since I last posted and I didn't want to leave everyone hanging as to what I've been up to ('cause I've been bombarded with e-mails inquiring about this . . . not).

So I'm finally out at SOU which I absolutely love! Finally I feel like I'm at a real college. Not that RCC isn't but there is something about getting run down by cars walking between classes in the middle of town near 5 taverns, 4 pawn shops and a strip club that doesn't exactly scream out college campus.

I'm taking 13 credits this term and learning that upper division classes really are tougher and that I still hate reading but now I hate it even more! Fun classes though: Social Psychology, Learning and Memory, Abnormal Psychology, and The Psychology Major (that's right, it's called "The Psychology Major"). Notice a small trend here? Actually I'm quite excited because I've been waiting soo long to be able to take all the classes that I want to take instead of just required classes. Granted, some of these are required for my major but they aren't boring basic level classes.

Well, I think I've written enough to keep me covered for at least another month (just kidding I'll try and post more frequently). I should probably get off and do some studying since I have two exams next week.

I think that I must be some kind of freak or something. I mean I'm the only person I know of that wants school to start a good month and a half before the summer is over, I love to go shopping for new school supplies, and to top it off, I just added all of my Christmas music to my iPod . . . I am a strange, strange man.

BRITT 2007

So originally I was planning on going to one concert this year but I ended up going to two in three days! Mandy and I got to go see Chris Botti last year at Britt and had so much fun that we decided to go this year and make Britt an annual event.

On Thursday Chris Botti was back at Britt and Bryan had an extra ticket so that was a real treat. Botti is an exceptional jazz trumpet player and he happens to hail from Corvallis, Oregon. Unfortunately our concert was called off a little early because of the thunder storm that was brewing, though I'm not so sure half the people realized it because they were so tossed. Nothing like the smell of alcohol and B/O to liven up a concert under the stars.


This is Chris Botti and me after the concert. I felt kinda retarded at first but that didn't last too long because it's not every day that you get a photo with a famous musician . . . plus if he becomes a legend like Davis and Armstrong (which I'm sure he will) then I will have a photo with him . . . go me!

The second concert was none other than the CMA Award nominee Josh Turner. Now this guy can sing and I'm pretty sure that if he would have come into the crowd he would have been mauled by every women in the place. Wish he would have stuck around for a meet and great but I'm sure he has somewhere else more important to be than Jacksonville, Oregon.

Okay so it's been a while since I last blogged so let me get all of you up to speed on what I've been doing . . .

• Finished my last term at RCC with straight A's
• Graduated from RCC with an Associate of Arts Transfer Degree
  
• Started work for the Medford School District cleaning off all of the school roofs (40 hours a week with temperatures usually in the high 90's to low 100's).
• Turned 22
• Took a week off to go to Camp Meeting
• Went to midnight release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, got two hours of sleep, then worked for 8 hours the next day.
• Got a new toy . . . 30 GB Video iPod!!
  
• Saw Transformers.

Yeah that's about it.

Starving Little Children

Okay so it's 3:00 in the morning and I can't really sleep right now and one of those annoying infomercials just came on saying, "for only pennies a day you can feed this child and put shoes on her feet." So does anybody else find it just a little disturbing that they go over to which ever impoverished country it is, and instead of helping the children, they pull out their fancy shmancy cameras and FILM THEM WALKING BARE FOOT AND STARVING!! Is that not just the slightest bit cruel! And then they have the nerve to ask ME for money. Please!