Action – Football Tryouts

During the first semester, I was looking forward to playing football again for the first time in four years. I had been actively engaged in ISK’s football team in Middle School. However, during my stay at a summer skateboarding camp, I managed to permanently damage my ankle. This led to my ankle being extra sensitive to injuries which led to my continuous absence during ISK’s football seasons. After four years of recovering, I was confident to be able to play again. I attended the football tryouts to see whether I was still as capable of playing. Everything was going extremely well, I found that I was still able to play and was not falling behind the other players. However, nearing the end of tryouts, I performed a slide tackle. Upon standing up, I realized that I had twisted my right ankle, preventing me from being able to walk. I fell and Mr Lotze came to my aid. Rather than being in pain, I found that I was disappointed that I may never recover. Therefore, I was unable to join the team. Nevertheless, I loved playing in the tryouts and found that I was still a capable player. My friends were happy to see me there for the first time in four years.

Service - ISK PTO Picnic

During the first semester, Artsco had organized the annual ISK picnic. Assistance was required from the seniors in order to maintain the various activities which took place during the day. This includes multiple food stands selling cake, hotdogs, burgers, and cuisine. Other games and activities were also present including shave the balloon, face painting, and hannah. Together with Namin, I decided to maintain the hannah stand for a certain time period. Two people had been hired prior to the event to do the hannah. However, they were significantly late to the event which caused various people to start worrying. Nevertheless, thirty minutes later, they arrived. I maintained the stand and the hannah payments for my shift. Once my shift was over, I was assigned by Ms. Bock to help out at the hotdog stands. There we made hotdogs and maintained the payments for a duration of time. Overall, the PTO picnic was a success as there was a great turn-up for the day.meeting with our advisors such as Ms. Bock and the students leading the event such as Bersi. This aided in keeping everyone up to date about the current standings of various occurrences such as the the Hannah tardiness.  

Service - Saint Nicholas Day Update

I have been updated about the Saint Nicholas holiday event that is taking place on 6 December. I have been been informed that there is no more room for volunteers for the event. I was quite looking forward to this event as it is a well-celebrated day in the Dutch community.

Service - Saint Nicholas Day Notification

This week I have been informed by my Dutch teacher about an upcoming Dutch holiday we may volunteer to partake in. As volunteers, we’ll dress up and give candy to kids on Saint Nicholas Day. This event will happen sometime in December so the details aren’t clear. I will update as soon as more information gets out.

Action - Personal Fitness Program

During the beginning of the year, I tried out for football. However, as I had suspected, I injured my ankle. For this reason, I cannot participate in ISK Athletic and sports department; instead, I get my physical fitness from my Advanced Physical Education course. Even though this takes part during school hours, the course itself requires one to put together a comprehensive physical fitness plan used both inside and outside school. I currently partake in my weekly routines by utilizing my Adv. PE class hours within school. The fitness department gives us access to the appropriate machines which we use to attain our fitness goals. Furthermore, I also utilize the facilities I have at home daily. My home gives me access to: free weights, a sit-up bench, a treadmill, a stationary elliptical machine, and yoga mats. Thus, because I am unable to partake in various ISK coordinated sports, I still utilize both ISK’s and my own facilities to attain maximum action hours in the form of fitness.

Creativity - Composers Club

               Namin and I have decided to continue to play together. We joined ISK’s Composer’s Club some time ago as it originally started in September. This is going to be different from what we’ve done in the past because usually we cover songs rather than compose them. For the last few weeks, I’ve been busy at home composing a few things which I hope to bring forth so that we can put something together. We have done multiple jams in the past which are based solely on improvisation and we believe we can actually manage to compose something. There have been rumors that there is going to be a concert sometime in January, so we have a significant amount of time to compose maybe one or two things. Further progress will be posted in the near future.

Creativity - ISK Talent Show: Verdict

The talent show was this Friday and overall I feel like we were pretty successful. Ringo came late with the equipment which created some definite tension and prevented us from having a proper sound check. Furthermore, we had some minor technical difficulties and during our performance, I messed up multiple times and even dropped my guitar pick. But even though we may not have won the prize money, I still feel like we did the best we could. There were multiple great acts at the show and I feel like artsco did a swell job at organizing the event. The coming together of the band has left me and naming to contemplate about playing again after this. We shall see what we decide upon.

Creativity - ISK Talent Show: Week 5

We did not have school this week as it was October Break. This gave the band and I some additional time to play together as the talent show is next week Friday. We had two practices, one of which Cole couldn’t make. I am confident that we are now where we want to be for the talent show. I’ve been busy contacting the music department and talent show organizers about the necessary equipment. I feel like we need the amplifiers the talent show organizers are willing to offer as it will most likely boost our sound quality. Again, this week’s practices were dedicated to enhancing our sound. This proved to be a success as teachers around the music department gave us positive feedback, claiming that over the past few weeks we’ve managed to improve. I hope we’ll meet at least once more before the show this Friday.

Creativity - ISK Talent Show: Week 4

This Friday Namin and I were in a dispute. Mr. Ligon was kind enough to point out the fact that Namin may be playing a little too loud and as a result was stealing the singer’s limelight. This resulted in a conflict as Namin suggested that the amplifiers were not powerful enough. This to some extend may have been true but accessibility to other amplifiers is limited. This led to us realizing that Cole may be singing a little too soft as well. Whether this was connected to Namin’s ‘loudness’ is still up for debate. We resolved the conflict by all adjusting our volume to find a balance and minimizing the resulting fuzz. Next week is October Break meaning that we’ll have time for some more practices. The plan is to meet at least twice.

Creativity - ISK Talent Show: Week 3

This Friday’s practice was a success. I am very pleased as we have practically finished the entire song. Of course there is still a lot of perfecting we need to do. David has proven himself on the bass guitar as he had composed his entire part. I however did notify him that he should most likely get the legitimate version of his bass part to ensure that we are all on the same page of the song. Further perfecting also applies to the song’s intro which I play alone with Cole. I’ve had some difficulty grasping the part as my timing is a little off. This has to do with the fact that there is no drummer or bass which I usually rely on. Nevertheless, I’ve spent a large sum of my time practicing the part yesterday and I am confident that it’ll sound significantly better than on Friday.

Creativity - ISK Talent Show: Week 2

We have had a total of two practices now. Significant progress has definitely been made but it’s obvious that we still have a long way to go. David was absent at Fridays practice because he had to attend a football game. We realized that his participation in sports may prove to be a problem as he’s prone to absences in the near future. There are however some technical difficulties as my brother Ringo’s guitar amplifier doesn’t have the appropriate sound required for the song. We’ve talked to some of the ISK Music Department staff concerning what available equipment there is. Mr. Ligon has given us permission to use some of the ISK amps which I tested and approved as a suitable substitute for Ringo’s amp.

Creativity - ISK Talent Show: Week 1

               Friday’s first practice proved that we are definitely a little rusty. Namin no longer has his own drum set meaning that he can’t practice in his own time and has subsequently not played since summer. I am however confident that this will not be an issue as he is capable of easily picking up his bit without any practice beforehand. I found that we didn’t get much done in our first practice as we were collaborating about the structure of the song for the majority of the time, like we usually do. Cole was not present at our first meeting but this was also not a problem as we hadn’t come to his part. David, who I have not previously played with before, impressed me concerning his skills. I look forward to what is to come next week.

Creativity - ISK Talent Show Performance

Having played guitar for a total of 5 years, in recent years, i have been in various rock bands with friends of mine. I started 3 years back with an old friend from Braeburn who went to Hillcrest and played the drums and my brother who also plays guitar. We started playing and ended up performing in various local concerts and venues including Tamambo at Village Market. The year was comprised of many memorable moments as I had never been on stage before. As I had suspected, I messed up multiple times while performing in the limelight. Nevertheless, I learned what it was like to play with other musicians and play together in a group effort, while at the same time greatly enhancing my guitar skills. I did not have, nor do I now, any knowledge concerning the theory of music as I cannot read notes. Through these experiences, I have learned music not by reading notes off a paper, but by playing by experience and the heart. I have recently stopped taking lessons as I feel that I can make sufficient progress by self-teaching.

               A year later, the Hillcrest drummer left to England, thus leaving us to recruit a new drummer. Conveniently, Namin, a friend of mine from ISK, played the drums as well. We picked up from where we left off for a year or so, until, conveniently enough, he too left the country.

               The following year my brother and I realized it would be too much trouble to recruit a new drummer and relearn all of the songs, thus putting us on hold. A few weeks into the new school year of 2011, Namin gave me a pleasant surprise by coming to my doorstep to tell me he was staying. Shortly after that, we deliberated about picking up the band from where we left off. We then heard about the upcoming ISK Talent Show which would take place on Friday 18^th October. The band had also participated in last year’s show, playing a 70s rock song called Rock Bottom. The song itself was a success but the judges were not fond of it as it was a guitar centered song. This is because 3 out of 5 minutes of the song were comprised of guitar soloing performed by me. Sadly not even the part where I played behind my head was enough to convince the judges, but nevertheless did win the crowd.

               We decided to get to work straight away hence recruited our old singer Cole and David as bass player. We also decided on a song: The Pretender by Foo Fighter. The genre of this song is relatively Hard Rock and requires fast playing of all the members. Having learned from my mistakes last year, this song is very all-around making it more singer-centered, thus demanding a lot of the vocals. Further collaboration proved that Cole was okay with ‘high-vocal demand’ aspect of the song. Another notable aspect is that David is by origin a guitar player, making it somewhat awkward for him to be playing bass. Nevertheless, he was more than happy to participate in our band and play the bass guitar.

               This brings us to our practices. We calculated that we had around 6 weeks till the final show. If we practiced once a week plus various times in between, we would have enough time to perfect the song. Our first practice will take place next Friday 30^th October. Since Namin no longer has his own drum kit, we have to practice in the ISK music room. I will write an entry every week of practices