I am pleased to present to you the new Emerald Brigade Website for 2007, our third year online! It doesn't matter whether you are a previous acquaintance of mine or soon to be one. Please visit us here every week for all of your musical needs and many new features that we have in store for the band's sure to be thrill-filled season! ~ macgyversfriend (8/12/07)
Dear Friends,
It has been precisely four years since I marched in my first 4th of July Parade, and so it is on this day that I would like to say goodbye to my websites and everyone who I have met over the years. My experiences with the Emerald Brigade have had their ups and downs, but in the end, everything worked out because of your support and friendship. And for those of you who I do not know, I have created a final page just for you called, A Tour of the Emerald Brigade! It features a comprehensive wealth of pictures, videos, and information about Poway High School's music program, as an introduction to incoming students and parents. I have worked on this page for three months and I hope that it serves to keep the furnace burning brightly into the future.
In addition, please visit www.ALoveForMusic.com for future updates and check out my YouTube channel for a complete video record of all of Poway's field shows, parades, and other events, from 2004 and onward. And with that, I must officially conclude this project, which I hope is only the beginning of my life's work. Keep believing in the musical spirit and congratulations to my Class of 2009!
Off on a New Adventure,
Joshua Hoh
Wednesday, December 17, 2008 ~ aloveformusic.com
Surprise! I have posted the first page of my new website, www.aloveformusic.com! Although the full site will not be launched until January 1, 2009, I wanted to commemorate a cool article that I wrote 7 years ago as a premise for my goals this year. Enjoy!
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 ~ A New Beginning
First of all, if you are reading this, thank you for checking my site after such a long absence of updates! I needed to focus on my college applications, my classes, and other responsibilities over the last few months, but I promise that my website will be opened in one month and fully running by January 2009! In fact, my music resource website, which is also my Senior Project, will now have it's own domain name and will NOT be a part of macgyversfriend.com. *sniff, sniff* Instead, the site will be an active resource for you and absolutely anyone who wants to read, play, or get involved in music. When the time comes to open this new site, I will make formal announcements here, at school, and through email. Again, thank you for your patient support and I hope you are exited as I am about a new beginning for what a sure to be a new and awesome adventure...
Your Faithful Webmaster, Joshua
P.S. The picture at the right was my "Neo" Halloween costume this year. Dare to be different!!!
Monday, August 11, 2008 ~ The Future
Dear Friends and Fans of macgyversfriend.com,
Summer has been very relaxing and exciting for me. I saw Weird Al live in concert, anticipated the premiere of WALL-E, Avatar: Sozin's Comet, Monk, and even attended all 4 days of the Comic-Con. However this summer has also been a significant rite of reflection, enlightenment, and divergence for me. Unfortunately, what this means for the website is flat-out postponement. The sad reality is that I just have way too many things on my Senior plate that must come before pictures, updates, and the website. Believe me, this was not an easy decision. But what's important is that a brand-new music based website is still on for my 2009 Senior Project which, as of now, could begin as early as December! No promises, but I have plans that will hopefully be bigger than anything ever before! For now, please be patient and keep playing music. As long as the musical spirit is kept alive, you will never be alone. Thanks for all of the support over the years.
Sincerely, Joshua a.k.a. macgyversfriend
P.S. Let's have one last great marching season Class of 2009...
Saturday, June 21, 2008 ~ Goodbye!
After three years in the business, I am extremely proud of these unbelievable grand totals for the year:
1500 Pictures 36 Photo Albums 120 Audio Clips 20 Videos 68 Total Pages 125 Individual Updates 30,000 words in Updates
I most certainly gained a knack for writing this year, didn't I? But above all, our viewership skyrocketed this year! The counter at the bottom of this page currently reads over 7600 hits. (This counts visitors, not page loads.) That is three times as many hits as last year and I sincerely thank you and all of our faithful viewers for supporting us over the last 10 months! Without you, I would have no reason to continue running my website. Even though my plans for next year's music site will be immensely different and tricky to pull off, I have decided to stick with it for those who are united by music. Goodbye and have a relaxing summer everyone...we deserve it!
~ Joshua a.k.a. macgyversfriend
Well, this update officially wraps up emerald07! But as a final additon, I would like to give two more pictures to some of my good friends. The three individuals pictured (excluding myself)
are all extremely wise, talented, and determined to be successful, both in the world and in life. As young adults, they have taught and inspired those around them to become better musicians and better people, and in the future they are sure to do some extraordinary things! Thank you Emily, Rachel, and Nafisah, for keeping that furnace burning brightly for the future!
Thursday, June 19, 2008 ~ Awards Night Album
At long last, I present our last album of the year: Band Awards Night! It includes the new Class of 2009 photos and many others that I edited personally. I am happy to conclude another great year of photography with this semi-sweet album!
It has been a long road from Band Camp to Arcadia to Italy to Awards Night, but I am proud to announce that this has been the biggest year of photography yet. Why? because the grand total of frames on emerald07 is: 1498 Pictures! This number surpasses that of emerald05 and emerald06 put together! But, in order to make it a perfect 1500, I have saved two final photos to share on Saturday as a dedication and closing to emerald07...stay tuned, the end is very, very near!
Sunday, June 15, 2008 ~ Warning: 2008 Spoilers!
At this time, I would like to disclose some of my plans for next year. Normally, I would keep things a secret until the fall, but I want to get you interested and maybe even involved in next year's website.
The most important and decisive change about next year is that our official name will not be "Emerald Brigade Unofficial," nor will our url be "macgyversfriend.com/emerald08." It was a tough decision, but I have decided that I would like to pursue a more universal audience rather than restricting myself to current Emerald Brigade events.
All of my past websites share a common flaw: their content quickly becomes obsolete as seniors graduate and a brand new audience fills their place. As of now, a drop in news coverage and pictures for next year seems likely. Of course we will still be band-related, but our focus will be shifted to music and written resources!
The other major change planned for year's site will include significant upgrades in web design. This whole thing is to become my Senior Project next year so I will be experimenting with advanced page layouts this summer. This, along with a new logo, will give the site a completely new and professional look. Think silver. To top it all off,
I am looking for more Staff Members for next year, specifically those who can write and have a lot of ideas about music and band. If you want to make a difference and are willing to make the time commitment, I strongly urge you to contact me so that I will know of your interest! Please take this offer seriously.
In short, anything and everything will happen next year. But by being independent of the Emerald Brigade, we will be able to do things that we were not able to before, such as make t-shirts! Although these changes are uncertain, these are risks that I am willing to take to make my website more effective now and in the future. I hope that you are as excited for next year just as much as I am!
Sincerely, Joshua
Thursday, June 12, 2008 ~ School Photo Album & Graduation
School's Out!
Hooray! School's out and the refreshing summer days have arrived! In honor of a long and rigorous year, I would now like to present our second-to-last album of the year: The First Day of School! It is a small album but it has some nice Class of 2008 pictures. But that's not all because we have one more album to be released next week...start guessing!
Graduation Day!
And so at last, the Class of 2008 graduates from Poway High School today and it will certainly be heartfelt. I have known some of these wonderful people for three years and it is hard to imagine that they all will be off to bigger and better things and that we probably won't see some of them again for many years. But the best part is that good friends can influence each other even when not in direct contact in this vast universe of ours. Bonds and connections never go away if you want them to remain, which is what makes the human experience so powerful. And on that note, I would like to say goodbye to all of the graduates of 2008 and wish them well on their way to success in life and happiness with who they are. See you at the graduation ceremony!
Summer Break!
Finally, the end of the year means the closure of another great year here at macgyversfriend.com. I will do one more week's worth of updates before we shut down for the summer. But not worry, because we will be back in August with a brand new MUSIC website for next year! Please stay tuned for one more week and I will share some of my new ideas for the 2008 marching season...which believe it or not, begins in less than two months! Are you ready for "The Hypar Effect"?
At long last, I present our last album of the year: 
Hooray! School's out and the refreshing summer days have arrived! In honor of a long and rigorous year, I would now like to present our second-to-last album of the year: