Wow that week went by fast.
Thursday I went to the first band leadership meeting of my last year. We managed to turn 15 minutes worth of information into almost 2 hours of fooling around and laughing, adult staff included. I'm super excited for the dynamic between the 2 fairly young people who will be running the program this year since we're still searching for a band director. I don't have any concerns about that lack though because these 2 have nearly perfected "getting the job done." Although I will miss having one of them there for the first week of band camp because no one else can scare the freshmen that well with his intimidating drill sergeant style on the first day. But hey, at least being woodwind sergeant and not a captain this year means I might be able to get out of those grueling periods of block, to walk around and check people. Plus I'm ready to be in shape again. It should be fun exercising out in the heat for the same two weeks as the olympians.

Speak of the devil, I really liked the London ceremony. The music, signature British humor, and the imagery made it feel very intimate. I do wish Doctor Who had gotten a bigger nod than just 2 seconds of TARDIS noises, but oh well. Since 2016 will be in Rio de Janeiro, I have even more motivation to learn Portuguese after improving my Spanish.

Today will be mostly shopping, tomorrow brunch and the humane society, then band camp bright and early (but at least 9am and NOT 7am this year) on Monday. I'm way behind on summer assignments, so this weekly posting might be the norm for awhile.

The Dark Knight Rises

(spoiler warning)

Undeterred by unfortunate events, I went to see The Dark Knight Rises on Friday night. I wasn't sure how it was going to affect me compared to my recent immersion into the Marvel films.
It perfectly complemented it.

Much has been said about DC characters being too powerful or perfect while Marvel's each have their own humanizing flaws. I partially agree with this and tend to lean towards Marvel myself, however, TDKR and The Avengers have contributed to a bit of role reversal. Nolan definitely puts far more effort into portraying the pure myth of Batman in the last 2 films over the personal story of Bruce Wayne. Before really analyzing either film, I viewed TDKR as a grandiose show of good vs. evil while The Avengers highlighted the down-to-earth humanity in every character. Now after much thought I've seen a completely different perspective. While the previous statement remains true, it is, in other ways, false. TDKR goes into far greater depth about humanity's will to survive and the heart of societal problems. When I reflect on it, in contrast The Avengers is really only focuses on an upper echelon fighting off an evil that is beyond the common man. While I still favor The Avengers for its cast and overall hype, TDKR embarrasses The Avengers with its sheer comprehensiveness. Kind of ironic when comparing a team of superheroes to a sole protector. That being said, where one movie fails, the other makes up for it. I'm glad they were released so close together.

The cinematography, CGI, and overall visual effects were inevitably brilliant. Due to his role in relation to the plot twist, Bane is not comparable to the Joker but compelling once you realize his true nature. Joseph Gordon Levitt was quite the scene stealer. You could hear half of the theater take in a sharp breath of joy when his 'true name' was finally revealed. Christian Bale's performance felt like Batman finally matured morally and socially. My favorite scenes were definitely Wayne's struggle in the prison, which brings me to the single best aspect of the movie:

The music.

It's hard for me to put myself in the shoes of the average non-musically trained moviegoer and try to imagine how easy it is to miss the subtleties in various different film scores. Hans Zimmer's work for The Dark Knight trilogy is on a different level. It will take many years, if not decades, for the Dark Knight (musical)motif to leave the ears of the public. If you don't know what I'm talking about, simply click here and listen to the first 42 seconds.

0:21-0:27, a simple interval, is Batman beginning.
0:33-0:42, a powerfully uplifting chord, is The Dark Knight rising.
At least that's how I see it.

And the beauty of the music is that it is so well intertwined with the film that after the first two movies we've been conditioned to respond to that simple harmony. How does that play into TDKR? When Bruce Wayne finally rises from "hell," cheered on by a primal chorus, and takes his first steps back into the light, everything builds up to the Dark Knight motif, finally unleashed on the audience in full force.

You can't help but shiver in triumph.

If Nolan set the bar for superhero films, Zimmer built an impassable mountain for superhero scores.

I've been seeing way too many films twice recently, but I might just have to go for one more.

Wow, where did that week go.
I spent Thursday, Friday, and Saturday morning volunteering at the opening of a new thrift store for my local Humane Society. Thursday and Friday were mostly helping out with retail related things, while on Saturday I got to escort a dog from the shelter to the store and get it adopted! In my free time there I also found a bunch of ridiculously cheap things including a great beachy-style dress, tanktop, Spanish poetry and a John Grisham novel in Spanish, 2 wireless routers, a chuck-it ball thrower, and a Kodak Ektralite 10 camera. All of this came out to a grand total of $18.
Here I come, other thrift stores, and pawn shops, and such.

Friday night I went to Chipotle and to see Ted again with friends so the one friend that got kicked out last time could see it. Most of my laughing the second time was due to his hysterical laughing. We ended the night with ping pong.

Ah! Rewind! Thursday afternoon I convinced my mom to go to Petco to buy new filters for my fish tank and we walked out with 4 new Glofish and a snail. Unfortunately, that snail was dead before I even got it home. This was solved with a trip to Petsmart the next day with an employee that actually cared to check if the new snail I got was alive or not. Now I'm happy to say that my snail (Steve/Captain America) is thriving in his new home along with my 3 rosy red minnows (Bruce/Hulk, Tony, and Pepper) my lemon-lime and blue Glofish (Loki and Thor) and my purple and fuschia Glofish (whose names will most likely be Clint and Natasha).

As far as my Spanish progress, it took a backseat to all of this volunteer time and growing my 125 sunflowers for Biology, but I fully intend to resume very soon.

Today will include brunch and lots of dog-walking. Happy mid-July, better known as "oh crap, where did the summer go?" day.

Eeek, 4 days. Just act natural everybody.

I'll rewind to Saturday: a beautiful relaxing afternoon at the beach where I became my friends' 3 year old cousin's new best friend.

Sunday I was up early and off to my final mentoring session as a dog walker at the Humane Society! Then regular brunch with my grandparents, followed by the pool.

Yesterday entailed even more running around. After dropping my mom off at work, I took a 40 minute walk (with partial jogging) then attempted to go to the pool. I swam for maybe 15 minutes then decided to try to tan a bit. As soon as I laid down on the chair it started raining. Typical Florida. So I sat under the canopy and waited for it to pass. 10 minutes later and the skies had cleared, so I went back out. The second my back touched the chair a great boom of thunder sounded. The forces of nature are out to keep me pale. Afterwards, I ate and caught up with more of Covert Affairs.

The next order of business was stopping by the Humane Society to get my official shirt and tag. Working there must be fantastic because the lady I had to speak to had a cage blocking of the entrance to her cubicle which allowed a tiny kitten to run around inside. She also let me know about an opportunity to help out this weekend where I could work with cats!

Next I drove straight to my friend's house to give him a ride to the soup kitchen we've been helping out at. Unlike last time, I wound up unknowingly volunteering to dry dishes in the back of the kitchen without air conditioning. Not fun.

On my way home, my mom and I stopped to get dinner at Quiznos and the lady who works there is really friendly and loves talking to my mom. As we walked in she was about to put up a "Now Hiring" sign. We talking for probably half an hour about me working there and it would have been perfect, except I can't work the hours she needs because of band camp. I feel bad that I haven't been able to get a real job yet, and that probably won't happen until I have free time again after marching season in November.

I'm off to the pool right now to try to beat whatever weather may come.

Sweet victory. IB scores came in today and I got a 6 (out of 7) on Spanish SL! *confetti cannon*

It's been a few days since my last post, but I'm still remembering to post, so, progress!

Anyway, Independence Day was humbly enjoyable. I had dinner at grandparents' then watched fireworks from a distance in my neighborhood. Yesterday I breezed through Intermediate B1 Spanish on busuu, watched Telemundo, and then had a night out with my best friends because one of them just got back in town.

I watched the pilot episode of Covert Affairs, which just furthers my interest in working for the CIA and makes choosing a career path even harder. Finally, this morning I got things moving relating to my responsibilities as Woodwind Sergeant for marching band.

Wow, sorry this is such a laundry list of events, but I haven't had any complex insights lately. I could have sworn I had a really interesting dream last night, but it's been blurred about by consciousness.

Ahhhhhh today.

Today I had plans that were cancelled, but they weren't horribly time-relevant anyway.
Then I almost had amazing plans cancelled as well, but thankfully not. This meant that I took my grandpa to see The Avengers: his first time, my third. It was oh so pleasant to finally not be either a) horribly distracted by demon spawn children, or b) struggling to stay awake through long dialogue scenes at midnight. I can look back on this time in my life and laugh maniacally as the future generation envies the fact that I got to see this masterpiece in a movie theater.

Then I stopped home to pick up my mom and drove back to see The Amazing Spiderman. Cheesiness aside, the added "amazing" is necessary. I saw it in 3D which was perfect for all of the swinging and jumping. Andrew Garfield's portrayal makes Tobey Maguire's seem geriatric and melodramatic. His chemistry with Emma Stone was delectable and made me want so much more out of their onscreen relationship. I'd have preferred that they spent more time focusing on his emergence into the public eye, but maybe that will come with the inevitable sequel. Overall it was a perfect popcorn movie with a great balance of drama, action, humor, heartache and all those good things. In my opinion the script isn't as clever as Whedon's, but there are definitely funny moments.

I'm sufficiently energized and awed for the day. Perhaps it will carry into tomorrow's giant patriotic rampage.

Woohoo! A productive day at last.

My morning began at about 9 as I woke up and prepared for spending 10-12 at the Humane Society, getting mentored in their dog-walking program. There were so many sweethearts and I'll definitely have one more thing to look forward on Sundays. After, I went to brunch at my grandparent's house, a tradition that's gone on decades before I even existed. It's typically filled with egyptian eggs and humorous, intelligent discussions. We bordered on the silly side today as my grandma laughed for nearly 5 minutes when my mom asked if the ant traps we'd been given were expired or not. My mom didn't comprehend our humor and kept on reading the package as my grandma and I had nearly capsized, laughing about how ridiculous the idea of worrying about giving ants something spoiled is.

Driving back to my house after brunch, we came across a stray dog who thankfully had a collar. A few phone calls and a short wait later, and "Bentley" was back in loving arms. My deed to society was fulfilled for the day.

As far as Spanish progress: I've only had time to translate a few documents on Duo Lingo, but at least they've been entertaining.

After dinner I had plans with my 2 girl friends and guy friend to see "Ted," mostly due to the interest of
the guy. We all are 17 except for the boy, and despite our suggestions to buy a ticket online, he took the risky route and ultimately ended up not seeing the movie. The most surprising aspect of the night however was how funny the movie actually ended up being. I expected the watered down primetime TV humor typical of the Land of the Free but walked out adequately amused and entertained. The plot is nothing new, but the jokes are just plain fun.

Overall today was pleasant and I'm looking forward to a decent amount of plans throughout the week.