Deafening review using Google definitions.

(Contraction of it is) a (a small piece or quantity of something) (requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish) to (perceive via the auditory sense) the (set of words that accompany music, either by speaking or singing) for the (preceding all others in time) few lines.
I like the (yielding readily to pressure or weight) and (difficult: not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish) (passage: the act of passing from one state or place to the next) within all the (poetry: literature in metrical form). The (short musical composition with words) has a (pleasant or pleasing or agreeable in nature or appearance) flow to it. It actually goes (in or at or to some place) instead of just (borne up by or suspended in a liquid) and then (aimless wandering from place to place) off.

Ripped off from StephanieBrooks.com. just one of many worth co-opting.

1) Jobs, resumes, CVs, cover letters and teaching philosophies. That's what I'm buried in right now. Fun.

2) I'm bummed that I Want Sandy is shutting down. I joined Twitter but I'm not much of a fan. Or maybe I just don' t get it. I get blogging and slideshows and video content and all that - but Twitter seems like noise to me.

3) I'd like to make teaching __________.

4) Why'd I let so much time pass?

Found this photo via an old long lost Snapfish account. Nice pic.

My Workspace

Neal Schmitt

Music Program Adjunct Professor

Hocking College

740-753-9366

web.mac.com/professorneal

Quick Random

Re-discovering old friends is exciting and scary and the flood of
memories is simply invigorating. Thinking about the choices and
situations that led us where we are and who we've become is an
interesting process. I miss some of these people more than they know.

Spinning around makes me dizzy.
Exhausted
and just a tad nauseous.

Bruce at OSU

I didn't try to squeeze in too close, and looking at the pics, I
should have... but we had a nice spot to watch Bruces' six song
set. The event was really well managed and moved along pretty
quickly. John Glen made a quick appearance and introduced Bruce. In
addition to his numerous concerts, Bruce mentioned he had been at OSU
in 2004 for Kerry and someone in the crowd reminded Bruce he had been
in Columbus in 1973 - opening for Sha Na Na! The songs were great
(Thunder road, The Rising, etc) and _ I was ready to vote for Bruce
for something as he delivered a very eloquent, moving endorsement of
Obama.

Today's Lesson

Creative Writing

Quick shot of transition about 7am. About 600 total racers. I'd call this a medium sized race. I saw one racer who was 8 years old and another who was 71!

The leaves are just hinting at the oncoming color explosion, the
nights are much cooler and the last triathlon of the Ohio season is
recorded. It's been an interesting and invigorating summer, as this
is my second full season of triathlons. All told, I completed 5
races; 2 Olympics (1.5k swim, 40k bike, 10k run), 1 half (cancelled
swim, 56 bike, 13.1 run) and 2 sprints(1k/20k/5k). But those are
just the races.

I trained 5 or six days a week most weeks this summer. I had days
when I wanted to train hard and other days where the idea of running
or swimming seemed ludicrous. 50 mile bike rides are comfortable and
running an hour straight is a "medium" workout. I'm stronger and
leaner. I even got a bit faster, especially with my running. I like
how I feel and I'm even starting to like how I look.

I pour over Bicycling or Outside magazines and training bibles.
Watching the Tour de France was "must see" TV. I sold off some audio
gear to buy a new bike. My two hour bike fitting was another great
purchase. I've got my spandex shorts for my serious rides and I've
got my race outfit. I'm not obsessed but I am interested.

About four years ago, I considered seeing a nutritionist because I
was sluggish and tired. What was I eating that was making me tired?
Coincidentally, this was about a year after my ACL knee surgery. My
weight had climbed to 205. I've still got the number written down on paperwork at the
YMCA. Two oh frickin' five! Ugh. This morning, I weighed 166.5, the
lowest number I've seen, probably in twenty years. This can only be
beneficial, not only for me, but for my family.

I'm not saying the idea of an occasional nap doesn't bring a smile to
my face. . . or that I haven't had more than my fair share of ice
cream. But I know that I've earned it.

Here's just a few photos from my last race. Hurricane Ike didn't
deliver us rain, but a crazy 6 hour windstorm. 20mph winds with gusts
up around 60mph. Our power was out for a total of 51 hours and there
are still tens of thousands who still don't have electricity.

The swim was incredibly choppy due to the wind. No whitecaps, but it
felt like a speed boat kept racing by us, and we were swimming in
their wake.

The bike was tough. There are only 2 hills and it's incredibly flat.
But the wind . . . Wow! Of course, it was only at my back for the
short stretches, where reaching speeds of 27 or 28 mph was easy. Just
pedal and the wind will take you. But biking against the
wind . . .UGH!! That's tough and unrelenting. With the course on flat
back country roads, there was no hiding. Suck. It. Up. I was just
glad I was doing the shortest course.

And the run. Again flat and you wouldn't think the wind would be a
concern. You're only running 5 or 6 or 7mph, wind resistance doesn't
kick in until about 17mph, right? Today, you'd be wrong. Another
wow! Plus, my legs felt wasted from the pounding on the bike AND I
probably didn't have enough food in me. Excuses I know but I couldn't
push like I wanted. It just wasn't in me. I also know I'm just not
that mentally tough on the run. Me and running, we're tolerant
friends, but I know what I need to work on.

1:26:08
26/195 - overall
4th our of 12 in age group

places for each event
31st swim
15th on the bike
65th run

Coffee by candlelight. I manually ignited the gas stove and luckily I
have a French press to make my morning cup. Mmmmmmm.

Still in the dark at 6am, getting my bike off the car rack.

A little late summer Blackberry picking for the Schmitt's

I'm picking, Holden's eating

Great Buckeye Challenge

Results are posted for the Great Buckeye Challenge and I'm pretty
happy with my effort, especially since I worked the event as well.
Overall 32/209 - which is great for me. 3rd in my age group. I've
never placed before.

34/209 swim - I'm usually a little better than that, but not bad.

22/209 bike - this is a big improvement for me and in hindsight,  I
think I could have gone faster. pretty good

87/209 run - ouch. slow, slow, slow - last year this would have been
187/209, so improvement but I need to get better.

Heres the transition for about 700 racers. Beautiful morning.

Fwd: update

> Just a few picture updates. Little Holden is part rabbit, I'm sure
> of it. On a side note, I'll be racing at Buck Creek on Sunday at
> the Great Buckeye challenge. Just the sprint.
>
>

Vintage Press photo circa 1988. Echo and the Bunnydorks.

update

Just a few picture updates. Little Holden is part rabbit, I'm sure of
it. On a side note, I'll be racing at Buck Creek on Sunday at the
Great Buckeye challenge. Just the sprint.

CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO HEAR EACH BAND'S MUSIC

Rockin' week-long camp strums final chord
By MATT GALLAGHER

Published: Saturday, July 26, 2008 3:00 AM EDT

NELSONVILLE - The guitar crackles like lightning, backed up by the rhythmic thunder of the drums. The bass throbs like a pulsing vein, rattling the speakers like a heartbeat. All of the week's work at Hocking College's Rock 'N' Roll Camp is finally pieced together, each individual track of guitar, bass, piano and drums segued together into one song, the pieces finally becoming a band.
"Starting to sound like a record?" music teacher Neal Schmitt asks rock 'n' roll camper Paul Smith.
Schmitt leans back from the soundboard controls with a satisfied smile. "That does sound pretty cool, a little sloppy, but I think it's got what it takes," agrees Smith. The Rock 'n' Roll Camp at Hocking College is about giving music everything it takes. For a week, high school students from across Ohio get to play rock stars with recording studios and tools and tricks of the trade at the tips of their fingers. The students form bands and make a song from scratch - writing lyrics,
crafting guitar licks and matching it with the drums and the bass.

The bands then post their music on Internet sites like MySpace and PureVolume, ready for the world to listen. The week-long camp, which ended Friday, was held at Hocking College's Washington Hall. This was the second year of the camp, which gives kids the chance to roam of a host of recording studios and equipment, all the ingredients for great rock 'n' roll.
"Not everybody wants to do archery or ride horses for the summer," Schmitt said. "Some kids want to spend the summer making music and being rock stars." Schmitt teaches music technology at Hocking College during the school year. Because the college's music
studios sit empty during the summer, Schmitt thought it would be a fun time for educational experience for high school students to take a shot at making their own music, providing an alternative to the traditional summer camp experience. "My high school experience was defined by playing music," Schmitt said. "Music is what made high school tolerable for me. I wasn't a jock. I wasn't going to be valedictorian. Music is what I did. I wanted other kids to experience music, learn what music can do for you."

What's great about Hocking College's Rock 'N' Roll Camp is there are no auditions, Schmitt said. All levels of ability are welcomed. Some kids have been playing music for years; others just learned how to hold a guitar. Some campers didn't play an instrument, and helped out more on the technical side or wrote lyrics. Many of the campers had never made music with other people before, Schmitt said. "We've got this camper who just learned guitar two weeks ago, and now he's going to have a guitar solo on MySpace," Schmitt said, as the camper's guitar chords screeched from behind the closed door of a practice studio. "How cool is that?"

The different levels of proficiency help the students feed off each other, Schmitt explained.
"Some of these kids have never heard of The Who; some live and die by The Who," Schmitt said. "These kids throw their different musical philosophies together and grow from it. I am really just there to guide the process. The real direction the music takes is all up to the campers."
The kids came up with names for their bands and took promotional photographs for the fun of it. The two bands formed from the camp include Property of Us and Badical, a combination of bad ass and radical, Schmitt explained.

"It's an experience where you get perspective from all sides," said Smith, a camper from the central Ohio area. "You can't just do your own thing. You have to coordinate your music with everyone else." While music might be a collaboration, actively pursuing it is what counts, Schmitt said. "I tell these campers that Prince had a No. 1 song and a No. 1 album all by the age of 25," Schmitt said. "I then ask them how old they are and what are they going to do with the next five to 10 years of their life?"

mgallagher@athensmessenger.com
Copyright © 2008 - Athens Messenger

Fwd: Race photos

>
>

This is my second summer of Triathlons and my first attempt at a half Ironman, or as it's called officially, a 70.3 race. (70.3 being the total miles covered. 1.2 on the swim, 56 on the bike, 13.1 on the run)

We had driven up to Benton Harbor on Friday for mandatory early registration and to drop my bike off. The sun was hot but the weather would have been perfect and the water looked super inviting. The race site is at a huge public, gorgeous sandy beach. There was a free dinner for athletes but Tracy and Rowan ate most of my plate as my nerves worked overtime, not so much out of fear but anticipation.



Race morning started with a 4am wakeup . . always pleasant. We loaded the brood up and drove the 35 minutes to the race site in the dark. The very first thing I noticed after getting out of the car was the strong, cool wind. So much so, that I grabbed a sweatshirt I had thrown in the trunk "just in case". We parked about a mile away from the race site and while there were shuttles, we had a wagon to transport the kids, so we hoofed the bundled up kids over to the park.

My bike was already set up but I needed to get my other gear ready. About 30 minutes later, I made my way to stand in a long bathroom line before making the 1 mile trek down the beach for the swim start. As I crested the slightly inclined narrow path that leads to the beach, I saw the effect of the cooler winds on the water. Whitecaps and waves on Lake Michigan . . . frankly calm if this were an ocean but certainly worth noticing.

As I'm standing in line, I heard all sorts of comments like "This is going to suck." and "Oh Shit". While still in line I hear the words that I was afraid of . . . The race promoters canceled the swim. The triathlon will now be duathlon . . run,bike, run. I'm fairly bummed and disappointed. I want what I signed up for. However, as I watch the safety kayaks surf in to shore and the seadoo's fly in the air from wave to wave, I realize that the boats would have had trouble watching the swimmers, let alone keeping themselves in position and upright. So, would-be swimmers are heading back to transition and a duathlon we will have.

The 7am start was then changed to a 8am start and since I'm wave 15 out of 17, I probably won't start until after 9am. I've got some time to kill . . except over the PA system the announcer is telling everyone to be at the new run start by 8am as they arent' sure if they are going to keep the same wave start times. I find Tracy and the kids, who are sporting their new Team Schmitt shirts. We hang out a few more minutes, then I make my way 3/4 mile up the road to the new starting line.

And . . . I wait. and wait. And watch about 2,000 nervous racers turn this small stretch of secluded park road into the biggest pee festival. Pretty gross but what other option was there.

Anyway, the race directors finally starts wave 1. Only 14 more to go. So I wait some more while cheering on the runners as they come back through the crowd and make their way down to the transition area.

To the sounds of AC/DC's "For those about to rock", wave 15 is off. First up, a 2.1 mile run. Now, this is an interesting choice and one I'm not sure I get. We were supposed to swim 1.2 miles, bringing the total event distance 70.3 miles. so, now the total is 71.2 miles. In an Olympic distance duathlon, the distances would be a 5k run, 40k bike and 10k run. So, why such a short distance? I don't know but since the run is my weakest sport, I'm not complaining. 16:41 for 2.1 miles. Not fast but I already knew that.

1:35 later, I'm grabbing my bike stuff and heading out. I see Tracy and Rowan as I leave the bike area. Yeah!

56 miles. I wanted to complete this is under 3 hours, which means an average speed of just over 18 miles an hour. Not exactly flying but there are enough rolling hills that I had to push in the flat stages. Riders from group 16 and 17 caught and passed me about 5-10 miles into the bike. I was catching a few riders myself but I knew it was a long ride. About 15 miles in, I pass a scene where a bike is laying on the left side of the road, a front tire is on the right side of the road and a car is stopped about 50 yards up the road. Everyone looks OK but that still sucks. I press on. I see an occasional rider on the side of the road changing a flat tire or taking a pee break. Mile 20 has the first aid station. As someone who has volunteered at a running event, I give the bike aid station volunteers a lot of credit. It's one thing to hand a cup of gatorade to a runner, but another to shove your hand out as I come racing through at 15-20 MPH. We're biking on pretty country roads that are fairly empty if not choppy and bumby. A couple of intersections have 10-20 cars waiting to turn but on this day, the bikes have the right of way.

Mile 30, 1:30 into the bike and I'm feeling pretty good. I'm doing a pretty good job of eating and drinking. It wasn't until after the race that I entered the facts at bicycling.com but I used between 2,500 and 3,000 calories on the bike. Mile 40, still OK and I'm starting to catch a lot of riders. About mile 46, I see an ambulance and a cop car on the side of the road. Someone's in the ambulance but I can't tell what happened. I press on. I'm catching a lot of riders now. The last rollers seem longer and bigger, but they're probably the same as all of the other hills, I'm just tired. I've switched to water, as the sugary gels and gatorade are too sweet for me to consume. I see the Mile 50 sign and I know that I'm close to transition.

By my computer, I pull into the park after 56.05 miles in 2:36:22, I dismount and run to park my bike. I pop 2 Excedrin, change shoes and after 1:48, I'm off for 13.1 painful miles. I missed seeing Tracy and the kids. They're busy I'm sure.

As I leave transition, I see a homemade sign being held aloft with a picture of Will Ferrell as Anchorman with the lines, "It's so damn hot . . Milk was a bad idea." I want to stop running I'm laughing so hard.

Now, I ran a half marathon in April, so I'm a bit familiar with the distance but there is something very different about running after biking. It takes about 10 minutes before your legs feel like legs and not like tingling logs attached to you butt. My plan is to run 9 minutes and walk 1 minutes. About mile 1, I see the leader flying down the road. "Wow, he's only 2 hours ahead of me. He's doing pretty well" I think to myself. I see the female leader flying down the huge hill I'm shuffling up. "Go runner" I yell between gulps of oxygen. "Thanks" she calmly replies with a smile and turns the corner. I wish I could A) run that fast and B) smile that calmy after what I'm about to do. I'm impressed. (BTW, the female leader was 4th overall, that's awesome)

The promoters did an excellent job with their aid stations and I'm guessing have learned from the Chicago Marathon fiasco last year. (With record high temperatures, most of the aid stations ran out of fluid, eventually causing the race to be canceled four hours in, and before thousands had finished.) My 9/1 survival technique works for awhile. That is, until I start walking the aid stations as well. so basically, I'm running 4 or 5, walking 1 . . which is fine. I want to live through this run and survive to run another day. Mile 4, turns to mile 6 . .I'm actually feeling good cause I've slowed down to keep my heart rate down. Mile 10 . . . only a 5k to go. Mile 11 . . closer but my calves are aching pretty badly. Mile 12. "Oh c'mon already", I'm pleading inside. Mile 12.5 I get called out by my number by a cheering spectator "You've only got half a mile to go 2434, you can do it". I start running. Thanks spectator.

I turn the corner for the last 1/4 mile, which I know is through sand. Running in soft sand sucks. I take one more walk break and turn onto the sand, where I can hundreds of cheering spectators. "Oh crap, I can't walk anymore" I think. Press on . . . . I see the finish line but no Tracy or Holden or Rowan. I cross the threshold and stand still. "Nice job" I tell myself. 2:26:53 for the run, just over an 11 minute mile. One volunteer puts an ice cold towel around my neck . ."ooh, that feels great.", one puts a finishing medal on my neck and a third grabs my timing chip. I see something 10 yards in front of me that looks simply awesome. A shaded chair under a tent. Nice. I take just a minute to sit before I go looking for Tracy. When I do find them, I find another chair.

After about 30 minutes of downtime, we pack up and head out. My finish time is 5:23:17, which, had I done the swim, would have been around my goal of 6 hours. That's pretty cool.

I "placed" 1183 out of 1888.

The kids had a great time but were exhausted as we made our way back to the car.

My ice cream that night tasted delicious.

Thanks for reading,

Neal

Midterm time during the quarter.

Problems I'm encountering:

1) Lack of preparation. Waiting until the night before to work on an assignment breeds trouble. Issues arise that impede progress. The printer, which was working all week will run out of paper or ink. The computer will act funny. It's going to happen. I learned this phrase in High School and it still rings true . . . Proper preparation prevents a poor performance.

2) Lack of organization. Besides the three week ramblings of Kerouac, nobody spits out gold on their first try. Plan, research, attack, step back, proofread.

3) Wiggle Room. Life's got and students want it. I'm stingy with it . . for very selfish reasons. It complicates my life.

Neal Schmitt

Music Program Adjunct Professor

Hocking College

web.mac.com/professorneal