Web called ...

Web called yesterday in good spirits, he has made a new friend from Shanghai who is also a Baha'i. Wants you all to check out a performer called Sumi Jo who performed at Interlochen last night. She is a Grammy award winning South Korean lyric coloratura soprano known for her interpretations of the bel canto repetoire; a singing actor pianist, I think if Bernard could have his way, this is what he would wish to be. He's got one more week of camp and laments that after such camaraderie with his new friends, it is a shame that they have to part so soon.

My imagination

Everywhere I go

I take my time and look

At things all around me

On whichever path I took

But the best thing to look at

Are the sights right in my head

My imagination is so vast

So big and so widespread

Snowmen in the summer

In my best friend’s small backyard

And swimming in the winter

Diving for playing cards

Walking on the clouds

Or anywhere you please

Maybe watching clouds go by

While you glide on the breeze

Whenever I’m kind of bored

Or I’ve got nothing to do

I disappear into my mind

And go somewhere totally new

Bernard Farquharson 2005

Update from Web

Just spoke to Web this morning after a long spell of silence attributable to a hectic schedule of classes and practise during the day, concerts and performances during the evenings, no internet access and limited phone access. He is alive and kicking. Yesterday, his master piano class was conducted by concert pianist Jon Nakamatsu who is performing a concert at Interlochen tonight. He's also enjoying his Intro to Theatre elective this summer and is learning lots of interesting acting techniques to practise on us upon his return.
I have to admit that it was hard not to call the school after day 5 of silence but we restrained ourselves and waited until day 6 when we broke down and sent an email to his camp counsellor ... but in this case no news was good news so we are once again on even keel of yellow alert. On behalf of Web, thanks for visiting and please come again :)

Digging deeper

Have you ever scratched the surface?

Have you ever wondered why?

Is there life in space?

Why is there blue in the sky?

Ten percent of our brain

Is all we ever use.

I mean it’s okay, it’s normal,

I’m not trying to accuse.

Have you ever searched,

For the meaning of things?

For where the ocean goes,

Or how a telephone rings.

If we all looked further,

Who is the Grim Reaper?

We could find so many things.

Shouldn’t we all dig deeper?

Bernard Farquharson 2006

I Am Thankful ...

I am thankful
for many things;
for being alive
when the alarm clock rings;
for all my family
sitting around the table at breakfast
when we chow down.
For all my skills;
piano and smarts,
for my soccer skills (well ... no)
and I am okay at arts.
I am very thankful for my close friends
Brandon, Kristoph and Theo J.
The list never ends
Ethan, Cynthia and Gerrick
who happens to be my cousin too.
They're always there to make me smile
when I am sad or blue.
I am thankful for
the roof that sits above my head.
I am grateful for the clothes on my back,
and my warm and comfy bed.
I am thankful for enough to eat ...
never starved before.
There's always been enough for me
and usually more and more.
There's more each and every time
but sadly it has come to this;
I'm out of words to rhyme!
Bernard Farquharson 2008

Web in absentia

Web is safely ensconced at Interlochen arts camp. He left Nassau on Sunday morning in the care of American Eagle and arrived safely at his final destination after 7 nail-bitingly long hours of waiting on our part. He had a great trip, he had to wait for his bags which came on a later flight but other thank that all went well.
Yesterday was a day of auditions and registration so classes started today. He's already met up with two of his cabin mates; Jack and Tony from last summer and is already making some new friends. The boy who sleeps on the top bunk of his double-decker is from Alaska, a fitting foil to our Bahamian Boy!
He sounds really happy but misses posting on his blog, so he has generously allowed me to keep it going while he is away. Keep those comments coming as I will convey them to him each day along with his clustermap and sitemeter numbers!

One more Day

I leave tomorrow!! I almost finished packing. Today I got a haircut. It is so low i can almost forget i have hair now. I can hardly wait till my trip.

Check out these pirates of the carribean bloopers i found. They are very funny. They are located on the video bar at the bottom of the page not at the sidebar. Check out my Clustermap. I have people clicking on my blog from England, India, and Australia!

The future looks bright!

I hit 100 page views yesterday!!! I think I'm at 108 now. But sadly I'm leaving on Sunday for Interlochen (see earlier blog posts from last year) and I won't be able to post for 3 weeks. I hope everyone who comes to visit my blog don't stop. I'll be back with pictures and stories about interlochen.
Also, around late September I will be getting an Apple Mac Laptop from my school that has a built in webcam so I can take a picture and put it on my blog in 2 simple steps. Take the pic then drag it onto the blog. Isn't that cool?

Innoworks

On June 27th, I went to a meeting at Colina for the Innoworks camp. I had just been at Atlantis, so i hopped into the car, drove over the bridge and went to this meeting. They introduced us to our director, Peter Blair, our sponsors, and our mentors. Then we had some food and went home. Well, most of us went home, I went to Atlantis. Haha. On Monday, June 30th, I went to Colina and got on the bus with some people i would soon get to know and love. (Yeah right, it was only 5 days). The bus took us to St. Andrews School. Mr. Robert Wade, the principal of St. Andrews School was opening his school to the Innoworks camp so we could use their amazing labs. On the first day I met my teammates, T. Crystal Fountain, Talbot Mckinney, Alonzo Austin, and Tyvonia Adderley. My team captain was Danielle Turnquest. We had a lot of fun. My teammates were really cool. Crystal was a bit annoying, Talbot was funny (We called him Tally) Alonzo was nice, and Tyvonia was really shy. Danielle was the best. Each day we went to a different area of science. Body Expeditions (Biology), Extreme Biomes (Technology), Flight and Fury (Flight) and Extraterrestrial Excursions. In extraterrestrial we launched rockets and made robots.
Check out the video in the sidebar I found of a LEGO MINDSTORM robot solving a rubix cube. It is a bit slow but it's worth it. We built a LEGO MINDSTORM robot but it was nowhere near as high-tech as this. The second one is better!
Then on Saturday we had our open house. We showed all our parents what we did and had some fun shooting rockets into the sky. I got soaked with vinegar.
At the award ceremony I recieved Most Valuable Player on my team and my team won first prize out of the twelve teams in the camp!
Web, signing off

Performance pressure is a very real thing!

As you may already know I play the piano.

This year I changed piano teachers. I now study under Jai Kim. She is a great pianist and musician. She has a club called the Ars Nova Musical Outreach Program. This club has about 20 or so members including me. We have to study every day for at least an hour. This may seem like a lot but there are teenagers out there practicing 8 hours a day! A brilliant British pianist I know, Benjamin Grosvenor, practices for 8 hours. We had a piano concert on June 7th. It was great. I played Bach's Invention #1 in F major, Rhapsody by Margaret Wigham, and A Chopsticks Theme and Variations Duet. The duet I played with my teacher, Mrs. Kim. I will try to get a video of the performance and post it.

Oh dear!

I can hardly believe I haven't posted anything on my blog in over half a year! I apologize profusely to all (if any) of my adoring fans who have bit their nails clean off waiting for me to post.

Ok, that sounds big-headed but it was a joke, I swear!

Well, I've been quite busy the last seven months. It started with the math competition actually.



1,400 students from all over the Bahamas in grades 4-12 came to COB (College of the Bahamas) and took a written math test about 6 pages long. Then 30 of those 1,400 moved on to the finals. 10 kids from each grade group, 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12. I was a finalist in the 7-9 group. At our finals, we sat at desks in front of a screen that displayed our questions. I got 8 questions right out of 10 so i won. I got a nice HP Pavillion Desktop that i am posting from right now.



web signing out