Holly celebrated her 15th birthday as I tried to hurry and snap a few pictures of her before she completely grows up. UPS delivered her premiere gift, some Ugg boots, to her Nanny’s doorstep less than an hour before the party was supposed to start. There’s a small gallery of photos here.
We got a new HD camcorder (Canon Vixia HF20) recently and this weekend, Ace and I went out to make our first boomerang video. It was over 100 degrees and the winds were gusty and shifty. To make matters worse, the field we were on was near trees and we were getting some crazy turbulence. Two throws that I would feel were identical might end up 50 yards away from each other. All this added up to a brutal afternoon with way more throwing than catching.
Here’s the video that Ace put together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBwXt19XU_4&fmt=22. If your computer and bandwidth are up to it, make sure to click on “Watch in HD”. YouTube down-converted our video from 1080i to 720p/30fps, but it’s still reasonably high-definition. Unfortunately, the boomerangs we used the most were unpainted, but you can still make them out pretty well.
One new thing we tried was using a fish-eye lens to be able to keep the boomerang in the frame more easily. This worked pretty well for fast catch.
Saturday was the 3rd Annual “LD in Big D” long distance boomerang tournament. Once again, Ace, Cameron, and myself competed. Ace and Cameron had difficulty getting things dialed in, but still managed decent throws of 95 meters each. I fared better with a new personal best throw of 113 meters! This was enough to tie me for second place in the tournament, the best I’ve ever placed in an LD tournament. I actually beat my previous personal best of 107 twice during the tournament. My first scoring throw was 108.
Tom Wythes ran away from the field with some really consistent throwing. He tied his personal best with a throw of 140 meters.
Click here for a small gallery of photos from the tournament.
Ace performed in his first show ever on May 21, 2009. It was at the Opening Bell Coffee Shop at Mosaic in Dallas. Ace did a great job and got lots of good feedback. If you click this YouTube playlist link, and click “Play All Videos”, you’ll feel like you were there. My aging camcorder didn’t handle the low light very well, but the sound came out pretty good. Be sure to leave comments on YouTube. Thanks!
There’s also a photo gallery available here.
He’s really gonna do it! And it’s only a week away.
Next Thursday, 5/21/09, Ace will be on a stage alone with a mic, an acoustic guitar, and 20 minutes to entertain the crowd. The name of the club is “Mosaic” and it is at 300 North Akard, Suite #300. Here’s the Google Map. Make sure to click “Street View”. Looks like a cool area.
To get a taste of his tunes, check out his MySpace music page: http://www.myspace.com/acezbeatz. My favorites are “12:09”, “Lyrical Love”, and “Just Dance”. Lately “gdntbby” is starting to grow on me.
He’s been told to do 3 or 4 originals and 1 or 2 covers. He’s been working on a really cool version of Gary Jules’ version of Mad World. If you plan to come, be there early, because I believe he’s the opening act.
To get the official scoop, you can check out the promoter’s site here: http://artists.aftonlive.com/. Click “Calendar”, then locate Texas on the map and click it. Now scroll down to the “Dallas” section and finally, find May 21st. If that’s too convoluted, here’s what you’ll see:
May 21st
MOSAIC 300 North Akard Suite #300 Dallas, TX 75205 Show Time 6:15 PM All-ages & Bar w/ID $8.00 Adv Tix, $10.00 Door
Bands: Ace, Faction, The Brighter Side, Brian Shuck, Mental Dentist, Close Enough, Zeal
Andrew has been creating some pretty good art lately. Here are a couple of the better ones:
Our house is on the market and we had a photographer come out and take pictures for a “virtual tour”. There are lots of good shots, but there’s no cool rotate-around-360-degrees stuff until the end of the slide show.
http://vt.realtour.biz/?P=44233
(Please excuse the cheesy music.)
Holly tried out and was selected to play on the Ellis County Juniors club volleyball team. They’ve been practicing twice a week, and this weekend they had their first 2-day tournament: The MLK. The first day, they showed some great individual effort and skills, but had trouble getting it together as a team. Because of this, they only won one game and were placed into the Bronze bracket for day 2. Day 2 was a whole other story, as they pulled together with excellent teamwork and won every game. This made them the MLK Bronze Champions.
Following a tradition of more than 50 years, tonight the Midlothian Cubs crowned their Cub Football Sweetheart. Every year, the 8th grade football team members nominate the 8th grade girl of their choice during the week of the High School Homecoming which is in September. Then on the day of their final home game, the Cub football team members individually vote on the nominee of their choice by secret ballot.
And the 2008 Cub Sweetheart is… Miss Holly Michelle Armstrong!
