Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Breaking


Alright people. I don't know about you, but I am on summer break. The reason I say this is because the readers of this blog, you being one of them, may or not be on summer break. Normally, students in school, as well as teachers, have a "summer break," but most of you working folk do not have a summer break. I guess it is reality. Do you miss a "summer break." I'll make this very general: it, as far as seasons go, is summer. Happy? I know I am.



Thus far, summer has been great.

One: no summer homework. Now, I am not going to boast, but because of AP and honors classes, I have had the "privilege" of summer homework for the following school year. Due to the recent graduation, I will not be enrolled in any more AP classes, therefore, I have no summer homework. This is exciting.

Two: my cousin Matt Hiett got married to Sheri Warkentin, now Hiett. I had the privilege of being a groomsman and it was quite the experience, a good time at that. It's awesome to have a new cousin and I'm super excited to see them grow old together!

Three: in two weeks, I am going to be playing drums in a band with my cousins Micah Hiett and newly-married Matt Hiett, as well as Dustin Laemmlen and Kailee Rodenbeck. We are going to be playing for Heartland Christian Camps for a group Jr. Highers and a week of High Schoolers. I am definitely pumped up for this because...it's a camp band! Really!? Playing for high school will definitely be kind of surreal because, well, I will be playing for my peers. Here's the thing: this is where I get kind of confused: when you think of "band," what do you think of? "Concert" perhaps? You see, with a worship band, the music and what is going on on stage should not be distracting. However, music is a whole lot of fun to play and it is a whole lot of fun to show that excitement physically. There is an obvious fine line here, but determining where that fine line is the trick. I do not want to be a distraction to those worshiping our God.

Four: I'm watching Sportscenter and typing simultaneously, this never happens, not that I can't multitask, it's that I never watch television.

Five: I am currently "making" a tank top. Here is the story: for winter drumline, part of our uniform consisted of a gray long sleeve shirt. This was fine for the show (fit quite nicely) but I had two objections: for one, it was a long sleeve shirt, I do not wear long sleeve shirts, especially if they do not have wicked sweet design. For the deuce, on the wrist section of the sleeves, purple "wrist straps," if you will, donned the arm warmers. This is not publicly acceptable so I took the executive decision to construct a tank top. I'm in the process, sewing is not an easy task.


So we'll have to see. Today was supposed to be the day of the "Tutu's challenge." Mr. Scott Weir and Mr. Joel Waddell were to be on a team and Mr. Kyle Dietz and myself were to be on a team in an attempt in downing 7 pounds of shave ice within a time limit.



I'll post more later.....

If I don't....please do not be angry.



Alright, I just got home from the highly anticipated "Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen." First off, here are some reviews from Rottentomatoes.com:

"Revenge of the Fallen is more like listening to rocks in a clothes dryer for 2 1/2 hours."

"It’s like watching a blender for two hours while someone shouts at you. And then the last half an hour is the same, except it’s more like having your head strapped to a washing machine while you watch a blender and someone shouts at you."

"If you want to save yourself the ticket price, go into the kitchen, cue up a male choir singing the music of hell, and get a kid to start banging pots and pans together. Then close your eyes and use your imagination. " - Roger Ebert

That's the scoop and these guys pretty much scooped perfect ice cream. Transformers, aside from the effects and certain sequences, was, in my opinion, WAY overrated. You see, the writers of Transformers took it overboard in forms of "funny." They thought not one but multiple scrotum jokes, obsessive unneeded profanities by the least likely, and unnecessary sexual and drug references would make the movie "funny" and liked by many. And, haha, boy they were right, the theater was laughing up a storm. This makes me sad. I can think of multiple instances in where I laughed out loud because of the absurdity of a situation, especially those that had NOTHING to do with the plot. Now, don't get me wrong, the special effects of Transformers 2 were astounding. Very very very impressive. With that, some of the fight sequences were astounding in their complexity and "awesomeness." Also, even though many people do not like Michael Bay, I do enjoy the certain grunge, sketchy look he makes his film, a turnoff for many people. I think I'm pretty much finished with this slam of a review. I will admit though, Transformers was made brilliantly. Roger Moore of the Orlando Sentinel has the final word:

"Is it the worst movie of the summer? Possibly. Will everybody see it? Probably."

Brilliant.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Finished


The year has come to a close. It is finished. Kapish. Really? All done? High school. Gone? Royal High School. Complete. How? Flew. When? A year, supposedly. On Sunday, we celebrated graduation. I held an "open house" at my house for a few hours and many people came, many more than I had anticipated, many more than I possibly wanted due to my personal disgust of parties revolving around me (I have my reasons/stories). Nevertheless, I appreciated everybody who came. It really was a celebration (Why? More on that later) and I thank each and everyone of you who came: Thank you! That same night, my church held a special service honoring the high school seniors, kind of like a baccalaureate, but, eh, not quite. There were five seniors graduating from my church, at least five that participated, so it was extremely personal and turned out a beauty. Our youth pastor Jimmy Nelson brought the heat, drilling us with encouragement. It was great. What was crazy to me is that my whole extended family, the Hietts, the McMahons, my Grandma, my Oma, my "aunt" Lorraine, and even my cousin from Germany, Linda, showed up to support me (why is this crazy? More on that later). Quite the group, I'd say.

So why the hard feelings about graduation? Just a warning: this might be a little offensive to some, it might sound like I'm conceded, it might sound like I have no heart, it might sound really lame, it might be spot-on..........you decide.

I honestly do not know why high school graduation is such big deal. Why is it? If you finish 12th grade, this means that you have finished Kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade, 6th grade, 7th grade, 8th grade, 9th grade, 10th grade, and 11th grade beforehand. Now, you might say, "We are celebrating finishing mandatory schooling!" This is true. However, why do we celebrate that? We went through the same "finishing" mode 12 times before this, why the massive celebration now? This is where I may be a little bit conceded, and I apologize in advance. I have never had a problem with grades. I do not know why; it could be hard work, good parenting, motivating teachers, or just smarts. Whatever the reason, I am blessed and am grateful. Now, because of this, I have never had a problem passing classes or worrying about if I graduate, and with that, neither has my family. So, because of this, graduation is going to be candy-coated, just another year of success. I need to commend some of my peers now. I know there are some students who come from families of high school dropouts. To these students, graduation may be a HUGE deal. Prove to the whole family that you are worth something, not just another dropout. To this student, the diploma is much more than a piece of paper, it is a declaration. So this is where my argument flawed, where I show my bias. I just know for me, school is not over, so why celebrate now?

Now onto graduation (anti-climatic?). I was involved with graduation. Why? I honestly don't know. To open up the ceremony, the Senior Brass played the Olympic Fanfare. This went surprisingly well, and even if it didn't, it probably would have beaten out last year's fanfare. Last year's was horrendous, so that was encouraging. We played decently well though and received quite the reception. Then we took off to our lines and waited for the epic "Pomp and Circumstance." Mr. Kelii Miyata and I led the pack on the east side of the stadium. Graduation had officially begun. Now for speeches. Following the valedictorian party, I had my cue to make my way to the stage. There was a problem, I did not have a chair, and neither did he. However, Mr. Kelii Miyata used his valedictorian smarts to share a seat with one of the other student speakers. I, on the other hand, stood on the ground next to the stage, next to Mrs. Donohue, under the "California Republic" flag that threatened to knock my "graduation cap" off. You can see my stance in the video. So here is the story:

I'd say a month ago, my buddy Mr. Kelii Miyata came up to me with this idea. He was going to tryout for the graduation speech and he needed me to beatbox for him. Yes, he was going to rap. I thought it was a joke, I thought it would never have a chance. Let's just say it did, and let's just say he got the speech. Absolutely insane! He was pumped, I was pumped, the leadership class was pumped, and a "few" administrators were pumped. After a few revisions, the speech would start serious, then change drastically into a bumpin' rap. Mr. Houghton, the lion he is, was told Mr. Kelii Miyata's speech was "creative"...and that is all. Our principal Mr. Houghton, with the flick of his wrist, could summon the sound guy (who was AMAZING *he worked with Obama's sound guy) to immediately cut the mic. That is power you can't buy. Mr. Kelii Miyata was in an interesting situation: should he throw some potentially controversial rhymes? It was up to him. I was just setting the beat. Here is the result:



This "skit" could not have gone better. The crowd (at least the first few rows of the graduates) immediately gave a standing ovation. Mr. Kelii Miyata confesses he did not know how to react. Couldn't have gone better and Mr. Houghton did not withhold our diplomas, which is always a plus. Following the ceremony, Mr. Ferguson, famous for his Richard Nixon impression, exclaimed Mr. Kelii Miyata's speech will be talked about for years and years and years. I guess we'll have to see.

The rap pretty much brought instant fame. People swarmed and proclaimed their spiels about the genius of the rhymes. Following the graduation ceremony, I went to a few parties with the rapper himself, and people were coming up right and left. I was astounded, Mr. Kelii Miyata was mystified. Whoda thunk?



Now I'm going to change it up a bit. Class of 09. What? I'll never see most of my "class of 09" ever again. This saddens me. We celebrate it up, enjoy it. We talked all night about the rest of our lives, where we're gonna be when we turn 25. I keep thinking times will never change, keep on thinking things will always be the same. But when we leave this year, we won't be coming back no more hanging out cause we're on a different track. The brilliance that is Vitamin C felt this way. To think that some of the people I sat and laughed with, I will never, ever see again.

"And as our lives change, from whatever
We will still be, friends forever"

Time to move on?

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

The Last (gulp) Wednesday.


Today was officially the last genuine Wednesday of the 2008-2009 Royal High School school year. This is crazy is so many ways: to name two: there is less than a week left of school AND i will never ever be dressing up for Royal High School Wednesday's again. Mixed emotions. The story for today. Today is, in fact, the last Wednesday, so, naturally, it should be the biggest, baddest, craziest Wednesday of the year? This is what I thought. I did some brainstorming and was going to wear the suit I didn't wear for prom (click this to know what I'm talking about). However, late last night, I came up with this idea. The shirt sums it up pretty nicely:

"I WAS JUST THINKING.
TODAY IS THE LAST
OFFICIAL WEDNESDAY
OF MY HIGH SCHOOL CAREER.
WHAT IF I JUST WORE
SOMETHING
COMFORTABLE?
NOBODY WOULD BE
EXPECTING IT AND
IT WOULD MAKE A
GREAT MEMORY.
WHAT COULD BE BETTER?

SO I DID."


Pretty much a "read it and weep" statement. I'd say some people were disappointed, but they understood after they read the shirt. For the most part, it was a good idea. The one bad thing though was it took so long to read. I got relatively tired of waiting for people who wanted to read it. I'm sorry. I'm not going to lie though, I was quite comfortable. Sweat pants and slippers are the way to go.

I have a problem. Yesterday, or the day before yesterday, I had a phat list of stuff I would include in my blog. Guess what? I pretty much forget everything. Let's see if I remember as I continue writing (remember! stream of conscience).

I have a recent video for video production. I always like to post my videos on my blog in a certain format because it is more professional and looks good. This video does not deserve that kind of treatment, but, because I'm feeling generous, I will give it a chance. Here y'all go:



Sadie Hawkin's Dance (Internet Version) - (2009) USA/3:51 min


Summary: I made this music video for an extra credit assignment for school. I filmed it on a webcam in one take (made a few cuts in this version, the School Version is unedited), when I really wanted to do a sweet, complex music video to an awesome song by They Might Be Giants.

Filmmakers:

Morgan Lott - Everything


So that's it. I really wanted to do a complex music video, but I had no time whatsoever. I'm bummed. And I guess this turned out alright. People seemed to enjoy it, so my job is done.



Umm....in addition. I have recently finished my senior portraits that my parents desired. I had a little phun with the photoshop so are a couple. The rest are here.






The acoustics in that field were incredible. Not even funny at all. Not even a chuckle. It reminded me of the Roman Coliseum. That is all. Hope you=enjoy.

Lastly (I believe) is the yearbook. It is out and not bad. The thing is is that I have been in "annual" all year and I, along with Mr. Julian Ho and Mr. Pryce Ferona, worked on the yeardisk, our senior interactive version of the yearbook. Here's the story:

"we completely finish the yeardisk, all perfect and ready to rock. we show mr. lev. he says: "this is bad bad bad because we can not give the students access to the photos. the district does not allow it." So what does this mean? The entire yeardisk is ruined. BUT, we think about it...what if we hid all of the files so they cannot be seen by the students unless they are incredibly smart? So we try it....it works brilliantly on mac.....but not windows. we spend 3 hours trying to get it to work on windows. it's not happening.

so this is what we decided to do:

make the yeardisk only for people with macs

now, 90% of the seniors at our school probably use windows, so 90% of seniors will never see the senior yeardisk...."

This was a quote from a conversation I decided to save because it, I believe, accurately expresses my concern. Anyway, the day after, we got a working Windows version. However, that night was the yearbook distribution. So our work went down the tubes. So now we have working copies of both windows and mac 2009 Royal High School Yeardisks. So now we three guys can give them to whoever wants them. So all you Royal High School seniors! If you want a yeardisk, let me know! I'll get you one.

I definitely feel like I'm missing something other than a recollection of the entire year, the friendships I've made, the memories that have been strewn, and the little bits and pieces of personalities that have rubbed off on me and other people.

This is finished. I might add more later. Probably not.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009


Interesting. Life has been interesting. And as high school life is flying to an end, life is bound to get much more interesting. The last week has been nuts. You know the end of the year is coming up when you attend a graduation party. Yes, Ms. Jenn Larcomb is leaving for Tijuana before graduation, but the party is signifying a fellow senior moving on past high school. Moving on, past lawful education, past a dedicated schedule of schooling. Incredible. The end is near, ladies and gentlemen. I don't think President Barack Obama was addressing this issue in his moniker, but change is definitely imminent.

Today, I wore an outfit that has an interesting past. For one, I don't have a clue where the pants came from, but my pop (correct me if I'm wrong) wore them to a 60's party in the last decade. And the tie. The tie is not cut off. I'm assuming the square tie was a style, a poppin' style no doubt, back in the day. The reason this outfit is significant is I wore this to one of my first band banquets. My last one of my musical career is on Friday. You may be thinking "What!? Band banquet! You band geek!" Hold your horses cowboy, is there a snake in your boot? Number one, this is a harsh stereotype. Number two, the stereotype is most of the time true. HOWEVER, I have so much respect for the band geeks we all know and love because they truly enjoy what they are doing and having a blast doing it. With this though, behind the scenes, are the band kids who I believe should not be classified as band geeks. But, due to common society, anybody even associated with band is looked at differently. I joined band and kept with band and will continue playing because I like jamming on drums. Is there anything wrong with that? Is sound's like I would be classified a band geek. Tell me: am I a band geek? I guess that is up for you to decide. The whole band scene is quite interesting in that it really is like a giant family. Right off the bat, freshman year, I had friends in all grade levels, people saying "what's up" in halls. Pretty cool, even if they are the stereotypical band geek. I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but the last four years in band have been an experience and every personality that came and went, from Mr. Rob Fox to Mr. Harrison Dalrymple, made the experience <-------------------------> that much better.

Moving on. Tonight is my last night at "Chapped," the high school group at Simi Valley Community Church. So when I was thinking about college and the people I would be leaving, I went through most the people I know and I came to terms with leaving them and possibly never seeing them again, and I was alright with it. I forgot an important part though. The people at church. Now let me tell you, the people at my youth group are one of a kind. The personalities of every single attendee are unique and part of a big puzzle that makes up the youth group. It really is incredible. I am going to miss some of the people there SO much, you probably do not even know, unless you attend and I have personally spoken with you about this topic. I'm not sure how to express my feelings and memories and impacts that these people have made for me (does that even make sense?) and expression through text is hard because you can not detect emotion through text whatsoever. I could be exaggerating, I could be sarcastic, I could be weeping, I could be extremely serious, you would have no idea. So telling all you loyal blog readers about the people I'm going to miss and my memories with them, when, most of the time, you probably will not even know who they are: why does it matter to you? I don't think it should matter to you, so I'm going to stop with the wishy-washy miss-y memories and cut to the chase. You know what, now that I think of it, I began this blog for the sole reason of remembering my senior year. I have a fairly bad memory and I just wanted to remember. So, I guess if I explained every single thing that happened to me, I would remember in 30 years. But, i don't know, it kinda seems like a waste of time to type all of that. Plus, I would have to spend time remembering which is no easy task if you know me and my memory habits. I think I am just blabbering about random stuff as of now. I am sitting in the Royal High School library during my 5th period government class. I don't really want to play anachronism with the history buffs in my gov class. So I am sitting here, at a nice round table, with the intelligent Mr. Geobio Bo. I have a feeling this blog entry is coming to a close. It's one of the those times that I do not remember what I was going to right on, and that is a problem considering I am writing this to remember in the future: quite the concept. I'm probably going to end up writing more after "chapped" tonight.

Oh yes, more things. The talent show last Sunday was pretty rad. Mr. Sean Cook and I attempted at conquering last year's performance of "What If," a short film we compiled. This year we had this phat idea: "What Is." NOOOOOOO WAAAAAYYYYYY. This is what we expected. Let me tell you, we brought the heat. We made our psychological trip not only thought provoking, but relevant to current life, which is the step up from last year. I believe it really did get people thinking, even though the applause was no where near as loud at last year's. My pop said it is probably because the film was like a slap in the face. Possibly. Here, see for yourself:

WHAT IS from Morgan Lott on Vimeo.







Edit: "oh my goodness gracious.....will be added........this is the whole memory deal i was talking about, it's bad news bears. it will be written about. thank you so much for the memory jog." This is my reply, at 1 minute before midnight to Ms. Jenn Larcomb on Facebook. A massive happening took place at Royal High School today. For some reason, one of those giant green dumpsters decided to show up where I, we, they hang out for 10 minute passing between 2nd and 3rd period. It was gold mine ladies and gentlemen. Books upon books were being thrown away. I picked up a brand new geometry book (to sell on ebay), a "how to avoid a D.U.I." book, a "save $300 a year on gasoline" pamphlet, a never before used word search book for my sister, Ms. Melanie Lott, and one other book/poster/pamphlet/napkin that I can't remember: forgive me, it's late. Anyway, this dumpster appeared randomly on Monday as well, and I picked up a SWEET bag with "WEST" in capitals and "Make life choices" on the front. I picked it up thinking I would actually use it. After about a minute thirty seconds of use, I discovered I did not need it. So I gave it to Ms. Jenn Larcomb, who insists she will take full advantage of it when she goes to Mexico in a week. She, by the way, definitely struck gold today, saving at least 3 brand new text books and many more lovely goodies. Dumpster diving should be an Olympic sport.