I am half Canadian on my mom's side and my dad is a born and raised American, although my great great grandparents on his side were immigrants from Germany.
I live in a certain place, my favorite place to live on the planet. Were bigger than a town, but we aren't quite a metropolis either. We have about 254,000 people in the area. Everything you could ever need is right in town, and nothing is very far away. For anyone who doesn't know, part of the original atomic bomb was produced not far from town. A remarkable number of businesses arond here take advantage of the "atomic" part of our location, including my high school. When anyone from here tells someone from somewhere else where we are from, they always tend to back away a little bit. I think they're scared they'll get a heavy dose of radiation from us and get cancer or something.
I'm a sophomore in high school. Our mascot is the Bombers, and our logo is a green "R" imposed in front of a mushroom cloud. There is a massive debate about whether or not that is offensive, but I think it's okay because we are so named because of the generosity of the people who worked at a nearby plant that contributed to the atomic bomb. In 1944, the workers at the nearby nuclear facility all gave up a "day's pay" out of their paychecks in order to buy a B-17 Bomber for the U.S. Air Force. It was christened the "Day's Pay." Go figure.
I love my school. I am a super band geek. I do Marching Band, Wind Ensemble, Pep Band, and Jazz Band. I was recently voted Outstanding Jazz Musician by the jazz band for the 2010-2011 school year, and I arrange popular songs for the pep band. In the spring, I made the school talent show and played a medley of Eddie van Halen solos on guitar for the student body. I also am proud to be a founding member of the RHS Timeout Band. This year, a friend of mine, Eric, got the idea to start a rock band to play during timeouts and intermissions during home varsity basketball games. We were extremely successful in our first year. I played lead guitar. We still have a traditional pep band with trumpets, saxophones, etc., but we gave them a little peace of mind. Once, when the rest of the pep band was off for a game, we showed up and managed to perform for the entire game without repeating any songs. I play in two other independent bands that are slowly taking off, and am a member in Bram Brata, a community steel drum band based here in the Tri-Cities. We are all high school or 8th grade students from all different schools. These people are my best friends. Our band has traveled all over the Northwest, and we performed for a week in Hawaii last summer.
I played football for the Bombers as well this past fall. It was fun, and I started for the better part of the season on the frosh team, but I decided that marching band is WAY more fun.
When asked what instrument I play, I normally say everything. Because I play a lot of instruments. But the big ones are guitar, tuba, marimba, piano and steel drums.
Below there are pictures of two of my guitars. The one on top is my Kramer 200 Striker decorated in my school colors. The other is a 2010 Fender American Standard Stratocaster I obtained this spring. I also have a 1947 hollowbody Gibson guitar and a Makala Ukulele.
Other than music, I enjoy poetry and writing the most. I've always been a decent writer. I would be the only kid getting "A's" on my poetry assignments in Language Arts classes. The poems on this blog are all based off of my own life experiences, spontaneous visions, and social distortions. While it may not seem like it from reading them, the majority of them have some level of severity, but are then tweaked until they become a little ridiculous. Of course some of them are just plain ridiculous. But I like to use my poetry as a way to make light of events in my life.
I was persuaded to start this blog by some of my friends in Bram Brata who also enjoy poetry. Thank you Philip, Matt, Emery, Jansen, and Tim! And if I missed anyone, thank you as well!
So that's me in a nutshell. I hope you enjoy my poetry!
Until we meet again,
Denin
My heavy metal guitar of choice, my customized Kramer 200 Striker.
This is my favorite guitar of all time.
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| My 2010 American Standard Stratocaster. This picture doesn't do the absolutely gorgeous finish justice. |
