A Sudden Urge

Sudden urges come quite suddenly, and make you want to do a certain thing. For example, I have a sudden urge to play the drums, hear that song I just heard off Life FM again and I don't even know who it's by, and to run in the dark.
You normally get sudden urges when you're really bored, and you just can't find anything to do. To me, sudden urges make things more funner than they usually are. The thing I most hate about them, is when you really want to do it, but you can't.
Like bungy-jumping.
Sort of.
Nate

The Coolest ski day ever!!!!

Wowee zow my alarm clock gave me such a fright yesterday (monday) at 3 30 in the morning. I woke everyone else up (Jaws, Dan, and Josh) and we got dressed 4 skiing. Me, Dan, and Beka were going snowboarding, and Jaws, Josh, and Mum were skiing. I think Dad and Kezi were sledding.

Anyway, we finally headed off at 5:00. (would of liked to go earlier, but.........) We picked up Matt, and headed out of town.

The journey from Dannevirke to Fielding was...... silent. Probably cause I was listening to my mp3.

At 6:30 we stopped at a campsite we've camped at other years. We hadn't been there for three and a half years, but me, Jaws, and Dan were still pretty keen on finding our hut in the bush.
It was quite fun, wandering round in the dark forest, trying to find our way through with Daniel's pathetic, faint, torch.

We didn't get far though, and our stomach's were grumbling, so we headed back to the van and had breakfast.

We set of at about 7:30, and travelled through Taihape, and only stopped at Waiouru for a toilet break outside a BP station. (here I laughed. I'll come back 2 that later!=0)

Anyway, there was the meanest view of Mount Ruapahu there. Against a blue sky, it looked so beautiful and amazing:

There were also these tables just covered in ice. We threw it at each other for a while.

We soon set off, but were facing the wrong side of the mountain, so had to circle round it. There were heaps of amazing views:

So, we finally got up the mountain. As soon as we'd parked, me and Jaws started tossing snowballs at Dan and Matt. We went across the road, and slid down hills covered with snow, till we were covered in bruises. After putting sunscreen on, blue sky, not a cloud in sight, changed to thick cloud and fog. You looked around, and all the blue sky just............ vanishes in only ten minutes. Seriously. =0 Still, we walked to the office and brought our tickets. While we were waiting for them, we had a mean snowball fight, and threw snow balls at icicles hanging off the roof. Matt and Beka hit the high slopes, and Dad and Kez went to sled. Mum and Josh went down the mountain. And me and Dan? We didn't know a thing about snowboarding, so you can imagine how we looked. Much to our dislikings, we finally decided we'd have to have a snowboard teacher. (last time we went, we seriously waited a whole hour for our ski teacher, who was a Japenese, and not very useful). But me and Dan were desperate. We amazingly waited only ten minutes b4 our snowboard teacher came, who was a lot more useful than the other one two years ago.

After an hour of slipping, falling over, getting countless bruises and cuts, and being absolutely covered in snow, me and Dan took the ski lift up to the top. By then it was lunchtime. Me and Dan swapped our snowboards for skiis, and Beka did the same. The person who got our skiis was really wacko in the head. And I mean it. He sang rap to all the songs on the radio (something about singing along with bacon) and swore every time he dropped his pen! Me, Dan, and Jords finally hit the slopes once before lunchtime. Dad was getting lunch from the van, so we just had enough time. =) I wasn't bad at all, and didn't slip over once! For not skiing in two years, I wasn't bad at all. When we finally got off the ski lift, we skiied over to our lunch. Beka and Matt came down, as well.

After lunch, me and Jords spotted a jump, which actually turned out to be a steep as slope. We finally tackled it and did the next three jumps in a row sweet as. It was easily the best time down. When you took off your sunnies, everything was so bright (you normally did this waiting in line for the ski lift) and the scenery was just incredible! =0

After a couple more times down, we had to go. We took our skii's back to the wacko guy, and took the ski lift back up to the top. Then we walked back to the van and got changed.

Then we had hot pies for tea, and headed back for home. In Fielding, Dad stopped to look at a car. Matt kept saying "BP!" cause he really felt like Coke. We finally went down the road to look for a petrol station, and the first one we saw was BP! So Matt finally got his Coke! =0 Haha We had such a fun time, and got back at around 9:30. By morning, I felt like a skeleton!

Yeah, but man, it was so much fun!!!!!!!!

Cya

Nate

Quite a lot about nothing

I have a complaint to make.

Why does the entire world seem to see New Zealand as being at the bottom of the planet? It doesn't make sense. We really could be at the top for all they know. I guess it dosn't really matter where you're placed though does it? The things we moan about...........

Well I had a happy day today. Most of it was spent doing nothing though. Except my all important guitar practice! I know how to play reggae now! (don't ask!)

But there's know fear of Mayday becoming a Reggae Band. Thankfully. The only reggae band I've heard happens to be Spacifix and even then I dislike it so much I've never fully listened to the whole song. So you can definatly rule out us sounding like reggae/jazz/funk. Which I guess you could have done before considering that I didn't even know how to play like that until 2 days ago.

On Friday (yesterday for all those who never bother to look at a calender) we had a mean band practice. Being in the mood to rock, we decided to add some distortion to our slow(er) songs, perking up Around and One Step Ahead considerably. And we made up a mean as opening for the latter. It was loads of fun. We missed out a couple of songs though but hey I guess it didn't matter. We were in the mood to rock and you can't really do that in a accoustic song or one which has no guitar in can you?????

I don't know. We didn't try to find out.

I've also decided that I need this other piece of equipment. It's kind of like an echoer and is used to great extent in August Rush and even Rapture Ruckus uses one to echo his voice in his song I Believe. It sounds really cool. I think Nate's got one on his keyboard, but he's never used it before.

So today we spent mostly getting ready for Monday. We're going skiing! At least some of us are anyway. Some of us are going snowboarding. It should be loads of fun. We've been waiting to go for like 3 weeks now but every time the weather's been really bad. But on Monday it's finally fine and sunny so we are all oh so excited.

Yeah.

That was a bit random. Oh well.

Jordan

Happy Day

Have you heard that song by Soul Survivor? You might not of, but it sure cheers you up when you're feeling down.There's always something to be happy about.

You could be happy that you got a new surfboard!!!

Or cause you got a nice electic guitar:

Or because you're just plain happy. For instance, I'm happy cause,,,,,,,

- we're playing the red's tommorow at soka - (finally, a team that doesn't cheat!=])

- we're going skiing (or snowboarding, in my case) on Monday!!!!!!! (finally)

- I'm me

- no school for 2, no, 3 days! Yesssssssss!!!!!!!

And heaps of others that I can't be stuffed typing down. So you see, the main idea of this blog, is not to waste your time, but to make you smile. Not droopy-faced, grouchy, cross, sulky, mad, fuming, angry, bleary-eyed, jealous, obstanate, or just not happy. Instead, do the opposite.

Nate =)

More about the rockin' drums

Well, I think it was pretty shocking that Jords had written about three pages all about guitars & I had only written one about my instrument. So if you don't like the drums, (which would be stupid) then don't bother reading this page.





But first you have to take a look at this mean picture:

I found it......... well it's a long story. To cut it short, I made some drum music 2 read 4 my drum practice, found a picture of the drums off the internet and stuck it to the box I put the music in.

One thing I'd like though. A book all about drums, like the one Jords got about guitar from the library. One day I'm going to write a book about it all.

Short and random post, but it's a post alright!

Nate

Some more about guitars.

Wow today's been really busy! We've actually done band practice (finally!) and it was really good. We did all our best songs (all 7 of them!) including The Complaint. It was loads of fun.

And today I've also been studying up my guitar knowledge. I've finally decided that I really can't pretend to be a half decent guitarist if I don't even know what a Gibson Les Paul is. Which I do now. I even know that my guitar is a cheap copy of a Fender Stratocastor. Which is one of the greatest and mass-produced guitars ever. Don't even get me started on the list of great guitarists who play this instrument! (Actually I knew most of this before. But only cause someone told me.......)

Now next time someone engages me in conversation about guitars hopefully I won't be as awkward!

As you can see this looks very much like my own precious guitar. Except much much flasher. It's kind of like comparing a fake diamond to a real one. But when you're on a low budget the fake will do =).

Now this is one of the famous Les Paul's. You can tell the obvious difference can't you. The Stratocastor looks cooler.

Now there's only one thing to say about this. Stunning. Almost as cool as Switchfoot's guitars, which have the cover from their latest album, Oh Gravity all over them. I would love to own one of them. This is a Gibson 'Flying V'.

Yes, so I've told you most I know know about guitars. Which is most of what I've talked about this month.

Today me and Nate sat down with my eletric gutiar, turned the sound up high....................and blew the amp to smithereens! Na I'm kidding. We fiddled around with it and tried to make up a cool introduction by playing it like a drum. (If you've seen August Rush yet you'll know what I mean.) Well Nate did a fine job if it, as he is a drummer. Me, well lets just say I have a hard enough time as it is to keep time, and I couldn't reall figure it out. But then I tried something else: I rubbed the strings to make this mean fast sound. Now that's something you can't do on an acoustic!!!!!!

Night,

Jordan

P.S I guess the reason I've been getting in o my guitar lately is because I've figured out that I've been playing gutiar for a year. Rock on!!!!

Music...

So, you're probably wondering why most of the last pages have been about music. Well, carry on wondering, if you like, or else you can read this article, which is all about.... music.

I describe music as one of the most beautiful things on earth. I have no idea how it was found out, but the dude who "discovered" it must have been some special guy.I mean, seriously, who would think of creating a sound by hitting a cylander box with a stick? (Jord's idea of playing the drums. Yeah right). Or twanging away on a stringed instrument? Some guy with a few extra brains.

So, music. Only one word for it: Stunningly, astoundingly, incredibly, unbelievably, astonishingly, amazingly, wonderfully, awesomely, cool! Some instruments, though, sound..... different. Others, sound mean. Like,,,,,

Drums: Seriously cool.

Guitar: very cool.

Bass: Really clever, but the shapes a tad copied of the electric guitar.

Violin: squeaky, (sorry Dan).

Organ: Very nice - especially the pipe organ.

Flute: Booming & soft mixed together.

Recorder: A cheap product.

Piano: Different, but nice.

Clarinet: Weird.

Trumpet: Shrill, but okay.

Trombone: Like it's shape.

Double Bass: Too big.

Harp: Soft, twangy, and random. (it just is)

Glockenspiel: What a stupid name!

Hurdy-Gurdy: Even stupider than the glockenspiel!

So, as you can see, some instruments are stunning, other's just plain random, and some just weird. But most music has something about it that just stands out........ stunningly. (I really like that word.) If I had never been introduced 2 soka, music would be my favourite sport, if it is a sport, that is.
Well, what have I said about music that isn't my opinion of it all?
Not really anything.
But then, me and Jord's articles are mainly about nothing....... much.
Not that this article's not interesting.
But it's definetly getting boring!!!

That's it 4 this page, nate

What's in a name?

I reckon there's a story behind everything, and there's definitely one behind our band name.

Well, when we started our band we didn't know what to call it, until I came up with an idea: Mayday. Nathan and Daniel didn't think that was so cool though- they thought we should call it Cut it Out! Kind of a weird name for a band if you ask me. In the end it was the opinion of Beka which swayed the vote. Mayday it was.

Now me, being smart, actually happen to know what the word means. Contrary to belief, it dosn't mean the first day of the 5th month of the year. This type is Mayday not May Day, and it is the standard call for help from airmen (kind of like a SOS). And it's from the French word which is translated into 'Help us. ' I reckon we do need help. And God's the only one who can help us. So that's a great name really, it means we're crying out to God through our music. Well in some songs anyway. It's been a massive experience being in a band even if we haven't enjoyed much success, we keep going from strength to strength and we're not giving up anytime soon. Here's to another year. Or two. Or three =).

So that's the story of our band name.

Jordan

August Rush

Wow! I'm amazed with myself because I actually know what to blog about. It's astounding. Really it is.
Yesterday, after I wrote that blog about guitars, we coincidentally watched this movie. Which had guitars in it.
It was called August Rush, and it was seriously the most heartfelt movie I've watched all year. And the guitar playing was so astounding. There's this awesome scene in it when the dad meets his long-lost son, even though they both didn't know they were even related, and they have a jam together. Quite random aye, but hey that's movies for you. It actually worked really well. And these two guys, they were seriously good at their guitar. The kid was whacking the side of it like a drum and producing the most amazing sounds. With the help of some special effects thing which echoed and amplified the sound. Oh, it was just amazing. And then the dad said this awesome thing: Never give up on music, cause it's the only thing which can get you through the hard times. You can retreat to it whenever you feel lost. (or something among those lines). And i agree with that 100%. Then the kid(August Rush) was playing on the piano and organ as well-which I didn't relate to quite as well aye.
You'll really have to watch it yourself. Honestly you won't regret it. Unless you hate guitar. But then I suppose you could still watch it. Because in one scene this other kid smashed a guitar over this man's head [saddest part of the movie =) !!!!].
Anyway if you hate guitar what are you doing reading our blogspot? Haha.
And the funny thing was, we watched it in August. Isn't that weird?
So today we had to watch it all over again.
So that's kind of a follow-up from yesterdays blog. And I spent most of it writing about a movie. Oh well that's life for you.

Jordan

PS. Save the planet: it's the only one in the universe with chocolate!

Why I love the guitar

Everything about the guitar is just amazingly cool and the more I learn the more I appreciate it. I wish I could meet the first person who invented it. Playing the guitar is one of my favouritest things to do. Ever.

The sound of distortion on electric guitars. The smooth clean sound of acoustic guitars. I really think no band is complete without a really good guitarist. They make everything sound so much better. In fact, I could go on talking about them all day.

But I won't. Cause that would be boring.

Of course, I wouldn't have thought so if one of the band members hadn't suggested that I take it up. And I've never looked back. Pretty soon I was using it in the band. Those were those low-tech days when I was strumming my Mum's old, battered 3/4 size guitar (with plastic strings [Arggghhhhh!] ) But I still enjoyed playing it. Pretty soon I received a brand-new RED acoustic guitar. It's beautiful. Then I got my electric one, as I finally decided we couldn't be a real rock band without an electric guitar!!!!!!!

Sorry I got carried away there. I happen to do that a lot nowdays. If I wanted to I could probably spend the entire day on my guitars.

Okay. We've heard enough on my guitars.

Today. Umm....well we played soccer. That's right. Pretty much all day. Which was quite fun, as we're all into soccer. Some of us even more than others. I also did my guitar practice..... =)

We also watched Alvin and The Chipmunks. I was wondering what wacky person came up with the idea of singing chipmunks? What a crazy idea. Seriously. How would you like it if the lead singer in your band was a chipmunk?

Not that I have anything against chipmunks.

So yeah. Of course, I wouldn't know anything about the guitar y now if it wasn't for my awesome guitar teacher Daryll. He also taught the entire members of Ground Zero their instruments. So thanks Daryll. (You rock!)

Oh wasn't this random. Of course, I have no further updates to do with band practice so I ended up just raving on about my favourite instrument!

Jordan