Bucket List

• Skydiving/BASE jumping
• Travel the world (at least 4 countries)
• Attempt a world record
• swim with dolphins
• Invent something
• Bungee Jump
• Go cliff jumping
• See the aurora borealis
• Become multilingual 
• Write a concept album
• Go backpacking over multiple days

Chasing Signals now available!!

Rundown Radio's new EP, Chasing Signals, is now available!

iQuest Update

Recently, things have been kind of hectic with all the college applications due soon. Luckily, many of the colleges to which I am applying for give me opportunities for experience in the process. That's why a lot of my recent free time has been devoted to writing scores for submission to music colleges. The downside is that this, on top of my job and school, leaves me with almost no downtime. So far this year, I have completed the soundtrack for two indie video games. The first is a mobile puzzle game called "Polygone", which can be found here: http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/19861 (note that only one song has been coded into the game so far, as it is still in the mid-early stages of development). The other is a platformer called Pointstar. Images can be found here: http://www.indiedb.com/games/pointstar/images. Almost all of my music has been posted up on my personal soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/joe-marchuk. 

And then there's everything with Rundown Radio. We've been playing all over the place lately, and will be playing this Friday at the annual Danville Tree Lighting. Most excitingly, our new EP, Chasing Signals, will be released soon. It is our greatest recorded work yet, and we're all really excited for it's reception. 

Most importantly, I'm having a great time doing everything--even during the hectic moments. Once college applications/auditions/interviews are all finished, any residual stress should be out of the way.

New website to view completed projects

http://musescore.com/user/131797/sheetmusic

^a website where people can read and listen to music scores.

Word Cloud

Holland code and Meyers-Briggs code

Holland Code: ASR

Meyers-Briggs Code: ENTP

                I found both codes to be close to what I scored myself before taking the tests. In fact, the Meyers-Briggs code was exactly what I anticipated. The Holland code seemed to be leaned  more towards career choice, while the Meyers-Briggs code seemed to be leaned more towards personality type. This is interesting, because after reviewing the results of both codes, I found that the Holland code gave more accurate results for career choices, while the Meyers-Briggs code gave me more accurate results regarding my personality.  

                My pre-test estimate for my Holland code was that I would be artistic, social, and investigative, but I after taking the test, my code showed that I was artistic, social, and realistic. To be completely honest, after reviewing the code, and reading about the similarities and differences between the possible codes, I didn’t find a very large or noticeable difference between the two.  Many, if not most of the suggested career choices that were recommended to me were careers that I have considered.  As far as the code descriptions go, it’s not necessarily that they were completely inaccurate, but that they do not seem to be a major part of the Holland codes, and were vaguely described.

                As for the Meyers-Briggs code, my pre-test estimate was that I would be ENTP. After taking the test, the results I got were an exact confirmation. On the results page, not many careers were listed. Those that were listed did not interest me much and were not careers that I had significantly considered before. There was, however, very extensive descriptions and explanations regarding the meaning of the code’s significance in terms of personality. I found that essentially every aspect of the description of ENTPs fit me perfectly. 

TED

After watching multiple TED talks, one in particular interested me greatly. The video, posted May 2013, showed musician Victor Wooten lead a talk in Gabriola Island (British Columbia, Canada) titled "Music as a Language". The concepts that Wooten spoke of really spoke to me. Overall, the talk is about the universal nature of music. It is not something that is supposed to be taught, or forced. It is something that is learned naturally, just as an infant learns to speak its first language. From the moment you are able to hear, you are learning to be a musician. Just as from the moment you are spoken to, you are learning your first language. Music is natural and collectively comprehensible by anyone. It doesn't need to be interpreted, or explained. It's just enjoyed, without any instructions. Towards the end, Wooten also speaks of how we can take concepts of music, and apply it to everyday life. For example, if five of the greatest musicians in the world came together, but each played separately, the sound produced would still be awful. In order to make something beautiful--something that works--people need to work together. If those five musicians listen to each other and play together, then that's when magic happens. This video was absolutely inspiring, especially as a musician myself. The way that Victor Wooten explains how musical concepts can tie into anyone's life is why I would still recommend this video to one who is non-musical.

Goals

            The first of my goals is the biggest. With the upcoming release of our EP, “Chasing Signals”, I have given myself a very measurable  though unpredictable goal. Once the CD is released, my goal is to have sold at least 400 units within the first six months through heavy advertising both during and in between gigs. As mentioned earlier, the primary complication for this particular goal is the fact that we cannot fully predict how the CD will sell. However, we are doing everything we can to get the message out to the public, fans and strangers alike. Using posters, announcements, social media, radio stations, concerts, giveaways, t-shirts, stickers, and everything in between, we are making sure that people know.

            My second goal, though insignificant, is important to me, personally, because it symbolizes procrastination incarnate. Blaringly obvious and a general nuisance, my car has been unnecessarily dirty for months now. Inside and outside, it has gotten to a point where I am distracted even while driving simply by being inside it. Within the next two weeks, I will take at least an hour of my free time to wash the outside of my car, and clean out the inside thoroughly and in an organized manner. To put in the best terms, I will give it a car wash, followed promptly by a colonoscopy.

            The last goal I will mention is a primary focus for any senior; college applications. Or to phrase it more correctly in terms of goal setting: college acceptance. Although I do not plan on going to college right away, I still plan on applying to college this year. In fact, I will—this month—apply to my top choice school; Berklee School of Music in Boston. My goal is not simply to apply, but to be accepted into the college. This hinges not just on high school classes and transcripts, but on audition and interview, which I will prepare for thoroughly. 

5 People, 5 Things

Five people who can help me achieve my goal and how. (I've chosen to avoid specifying names to prevent offending anyone on accident):

1. Parents--financial support
2. Boss--Providing me with a steady job and income while I pursue my goals
3. Bandmates--For obvious reasons, working together towards a common goal
4. Parents of bandmates--financial

Five things I've procrastinated on:

1. Starting college apps
2. cleaning my room
3. paying parking ticket
4. cleaning car
5. studying language

Who am I?

I'm Joe Marchuk. As a senior in high school, I have a lot of aspirations. This blog however, is about the intangible form of beautiful energy that intertwines and forms into waves of molecules which in turn intertwine within each other to assimilate into a flowing rush of sound that we humans like to call "music". In my quest to create this "music", I must travel into the multi-dimensional world within our own in which my mind must venture through to grasp the power of the infinite. In this pocket dimension, there is danger lurking around every corner, but if I make it out alive, Ill be able to continue doing what I love; writing music for media, as well as writing for the band Rundown Radio, in which I am a guitarist and background vocalist. For now, I have a good job teaching martial arts. I'm saving up money a few hundred at a time, so life will be a bit easier when I've moved out. As mentioned before, I play in a band called Rundown Radio. We just recorded an EP at Sunset Studios earlier in the summer, down in LA. We plan on releasing it later this year. We can be found on Facebook and Twitter, as well as our website: www.rundownradio.com
Aside from that, I've been experimenting with digital music composition and production. I've been making music for a few small indie video games. Most recently, I completed the music for a puzzle game called Polygone, which will also be released sometime later this year. I've been posting my finished creations on soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/joe-marchuk
So far, things are going well. Life is moving at a good pace, and I'm hoping everything continues to improve from this point on. To stay updated on my endeavor, just keep checking out this blog occasionally, and you can see what the infinite space of the dimension of my mind has to offer.