Tomorrow is Work Day

I've always loved Saturdays. Fridays are pretty cool, but Saturday is awesome.

Sunday...not so much. It's the day that I have to do all the homework that I've stalled on, and I have a LOT of homework this week. I have to make a stupid practice test over Animal Farm---with 5o questions---due Monday! I'm NOT going to forget the answer key this time and get a 50% on it, as I'm a third done and it's taken me an hour. Hopefully, typing will make it go faster.

I also have a few math problems. No problemo: that's what calculators are for, right?

Then there's practicing piano and bassoon. I have TWO concerts/recitals this week, a band concert on Thursday and a piano recital on Friday. I'm playing bassoon in the concert, and I need to look at my sheet music. Come to think of it, I also need to email my band teacher and ask her if she wants me to bring my bassoon rather than my oboe on Monday.

Finally Friday

And it's about time! I've been waiting for today all week, as now we only have two more real weeks of school.

The annoying thing is, I've finished all my work for the rest of the year in Computer Apps. My teacher offers extra credit, but I have an A+ in her class. Therefore, I have 12 hours ahead of me of study hall. However, usually I spend most of it going over one question: homework?...or Solitaire?

I'm a Snowball!

Not literally, but not quiet figuratively either. I finished Animal Farm for my Language Arts class today, and I'm surprised to say it was actually quite good! I compared some people to characters in the book, and I came up with Maya as Clover. I would probably be Snowball, but I don't know.

I was rather impressed with the ending. I liked how it was a blend of Russian history and out-in-the-country England. The way everything seemed to dissolve under the power of the aptly named Napoleon was rather interesting, as was Squealer's little rants and raves. Towards the ending (Starting in chapter seven), I was starting to get annoyed, as this were dissolving a little TOO much. However, in the end, it was all good.

All in all, I'd suggest you read this if you haven't! It's interesting, and the characters are all lovable...in their furry, possibly tyrant-like way. (Gotta love them Stupid Sheep, though!)

Rehersal: CANCELLED

Well, I was SUPPOSED to have rehersal for Beauty and the Beast today, but the vocal teacher/pianist wasn't here. It took everyone until about 6:30 to realize there WAS no rehersal, and that we had spent an hour and a half doing nothing.

Mostly nothing. We were supposed to bring a notebook and a pencil, so most people wound up drawing. I didn't do much---just a really bad sketch of Beast and a random drawing of a random person I randomly made up. Surprising, this one girl seemed to really like the way I drew people, and wanted to know if she could copy it to have a replica. I shrugged, and when I finished (I was about to head out the door), I just gave it to her. She can keep it, throw it away, forget about it, whatever: we all win!

Bird Problems

The birds have been getting bigger, and I will admit they're pretty cute now:



There are a few little problems, though.

• The birds are getting too big for the nest, despite the new wing.
• The birds are learning to fly, therefore making it nearly impossible to get them back IN the nest when they fall out
• We're not sure if all the birds are going to accept the new nest we've been preparing for them: a laundry basket with a towel in it.

I just tried to help my mom load the birdies back into their nest, but they just kept flying/falling out the other end. Ugh.

So, if there are any other bird people out there, what would you suggest?

Home again!

Well, we finally made it back from Alabama. IT's weird: the trip back up from somewhere never seems to take as long. Anyway, it's great to be back. What's NOT great is that we still have three weeks of school! Still, it's May, and the end of the year is marked on my lovely Good Charlotte calendar. That's a rather encouraging thought. Still, I just want summer to be here!

Pictures will be coming tomorrow, as my day will be rather boring.

Photos Coming Soon!

I saw one of my best friends, Ally, today. It was great to finally meet her! As expected, we did he usual "Mischa-Gwen-Mark-Danika-Oh-my-gosh!" talk. It was a lot of fun, and I hope we can get together again sometime.

Considering we're still in AL, I can't post photos. Howeverm we have them, and I'l hopefully be able to post them soon.

From the Files in the Dark Office

Yes, I'm still feeling too lazy to turn the lights on. My laptop has NOT had a miracle from the Gods, so it's still not working. Oh well.

Today I did the stupidest thing you can imagine: jumped into the lake. It was about 70 degrees outside and pretty windy, and it was cloudy, too. Not incredibly warm. The water was ALSO about 70 degrees, which a lot of people know isn't very warm.

Still, I decided that my trip wasn't worthwhile unless I went swimming. I wound up staying in the water for about 10 minutes, as it was COLD. Add this as number 3298 on the great list of Stupid Things Alicebelle Has Done.

Headin' Down to Alabama

I'm writing this from the dark office at my grandparent's house. It wouldn't be dark if I turned the lights on, come to think of it, but I'm being lazy. I give myself a little slack: we just drove for 8 hours, and I'm still a little sick.

My stupid laptop isn't working either here or in the car, so I had to go to my last resort: homework. Ew. I officially have a grudge on the continent of Africa, because it has so much freakin' stuff to put in my stupid map! Today was South Africa, and it didn't fail to impress me with its too-much-stuff-in-too-small-a-space-ness.

We're going to be here until Monday, so I'll be having relatively short posts from this dark office. (That is, unless some miracle happens and my laptop begins working again. But that's wishful thinking.)

Concerto Number II

Today was the night of my second band concert. It was a bit shaky at first, but it turned out really well!

First problem was that my oboe decided to go a half step flat. It didn't matter as much in the concert music (I'd be drowned out by 5 clarinets and 4 flutes anyway), but my friend Kari and I were doing an oboe-flute duet. It was going well until today, when WHAM! It sounded horrid.

My band teacher looked a little mortified as I told her that I didn't think I could use oboe for the duet. However, all was not lost. I pointed out that I could also play the flute, and I might be able to play my part of flute. She shrugged, handed me her flute, and we tried it. Behold! It worked.



I did mess up in a few parts, but bear in mind: I practically sight-read that thing. I had played it once on flute before, and that's it. However, my friend Katie was rather impressed, and she's a REALLY GOOD flutist.

After our songs, I was feeling a bit deflated. I had (What I thought) messed up major-time on my duet, and my oboe was STILL freakishly flat. I sort of felt like crawling under a rock and dying. Then again, I also felt like sending the flute over to the Salvation Army's metal collection, but I refrained from both tempting urges.

At the end, Mrs. Redmon was giving out awards. I wasn't really expecting to win Best Woodwind (I didn't), and I wasn't that upset about it. I play three different woodwinds, one of which I taught myself, so I knew I was one heck of a woodwind player, and didn't need a trophy to prove it.

However, Mrs. Redmon also gives out her own awards that aren't voted on by the band students. She gives out awards for Most Improved and Most Outstanding Musician. I think it was two awards for Most Improved (one for seventh grade, one for eighth). The Most Outstanding had four, two for each grade level. Imagine my surprise when she looked in my direction and called me up to receive my award:



THAT, my friends, was a truly awesome night!

Blog365: Day 120

Whoot! My stupid freakin' cold is finally over, and I'm going back to school tomorrow. I thought it was very cool that my social studies teacher trusted me enough to take my big 2-chapter test at home. (In case you're reading this, Mr. Mullins, thanks! I didn't cheat.)

I was able to finish most of my Photoshop project, and have written the rough draft of the dreaded free-verse poem for Language Arts. Usually, I'd raise a little chaos to be allowed to turn in a rhyming one, but my free verse isn't half bad, so I'll just let it be.

Blog365: Day 119

All right, so I didn't suck it through today. I wound up feeling like uber-crap about halfway through frist period, and had to call home. I'm not 100% sure if I'm going tomorrow, but I do know I'm going Thursday. It's my band concert, and I really need to practice with the band at least once before.

Blog365: Day 118

I was home sick today, and you know what that means? (What?) I'm going to have to make up THREE tests tomorrow, along with a lot of other stuff! I'm still not feeling that great, but I'm probably going to force myself to go unless I get a sudden case of hypothermia in the middle of the night.

I spent most of the day doing geek-related things I enjoy: watching Lord of the Rings, spending way too much time on the computer, and writing a bit. All right, so writing isn't geeky, but it sounds better than "Mostly geeky things with one non-geek activity".

I finished chapter one of my book, and so far, I've got about 2700 words written, give or take a few. I also have the prologue done, which isn't nearly as long as the chapters will be/are. Because it's short enough and I have nothing else, I'll post it:

People must have thought I was crazy.

In fact, I probably was. What would a “properly raised” Jewish girl from Russia like myself want to do with someone as harsh, cold, and possibly dangerous as him? Him refers to the street boy who lived about five blocks from my tenement. He had mysterious scars running up and down his arms, untamed and wild brown hair, and gray eyes that were both shallow and deep---for separate reasons, of course. Chances that he was Jewish himself were slim, yet chances that he followed any religion were slimmer.

Yet, despite all that, there was a simple answer to my madness: jealousy. He had everything I had ever wanted. He had freedom, independence, and seemed fearless. He had no rules to follow, nor did he have anyone to obey. He was simply controlled by himself, a power I had wanted for as long as I could remember.

To think that all those predictions turned out to be incredibly wrong. Mama always said that I was quick to make assumptions, and I guess she was right. I, Temira Degan, was completely wrong about the person I had figured lived perfectly. During one agonizing year, I learned about his scars. He turned out to not have all the luxuries I figured living alone brought. In fact, he didn’t even live on his own. I learned that along with many other incredible and horrid truths in the year of 1916. Some of those truths weren’t even about the boy (Who’s name I also discovered: Mikhail Melor, Mischa for short), but were simply about human life.

I learned that neither the Tsar nor the Romanov line would last forever, and would one day fall. On the other hand, I saw that when something falls, something else must take its place. The Soviet Union, lead by a mix of Marxists and Communists, sprang up in the place of my beloved Russia.

Most importantly, I discovered that life goes on, whether you’re ready or not. That’s just part of growing up: facing the world no matter what.

(It's in its awkward early phase, and I really need to do some historical accuracy-checking. Otherwise, I don't think it's that bad.)

Sick Sunday

I've been sick all day, and will probably be so tomorrow. I took it easy today, mostly spending it on the computer (As usual).

However, I also finished another character piece. I present to you Kiara, Gal's girlfriend:

Blog365: Day 116

Today was rather average: cleaning the house, walking the dog, getting sick, etc.

Seriously: I think I inhaled too many chemicals while cleaning the bathroom, because I feel like absolute crap. I've spent the majority of the day either drawing or on the computer, as there hasn't been much of anything else to do. I did some more Youtube surfing, and that's about it. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a bit more interesting.

Christmas in April

I was bored today, so I wound up searching Youtube. Neil Cicierega has always been one of my favorite video directors (As the creator of Potter Puppet Pals), so I decided to check out some of his non-Harry Potter movies.

They were all funny, but one that really caught me was "Neil Saves Christmas". It's by far the funniest Christmas video I've ever seen, and I think it might even overpower Frosty the Snowman:

Part one:



Part two:

Mike Todd

As you know, Mike dressed up as Beethoven the other day. Here's one of the pictures:



Although he does look an awful lot like dear old Ludwig Van, I thought that with a bit of tweaking, he could look like Johnny Depp's Sweeney Todd:



Boredom and curiousity set in, and soon I found myself in Photoshop. Today, my masterpiece was finished. Presenting Mike Todd, the Demon Barber of Fort Knox:

Bassooning Beethoven

Two-meaning title.

Part one: Something I typically never do; spend the entire afternoon bassooning! I printed out the music to "Sorcerer's Apprentice" and have been all over that. I've also been looking at my two pieces of concert music and plan on asking my band teacher for the other two tomorrow. We're doing a concert a Six flags later in May, and although I can't play bassoon in the school concert (Which is six pieces to learn on seven days) I might be able to to KY Kingdom. That's about three weeks away, and I only have four pieces to learn, two of which I'm working on. Not to mention the fact that I will have a few bassoon lessons between now and then.

Part two: What can I say? Mike is Beethoven:



Sadly, not all things went well for him. Here he is having Composer's Angst:

Bassoon Lessoon

Today was yet another bassoon lesson (Commonly referred to as the 'bassoon lessoon'). We did our usual stuff: did a bit in the method book, mostly worked on tone quality and getting the certain notes out. Towards the end, I asked my teacher what 9-8 time even was, as it was coming up on the next page. He explained rather well, and came up with an example: "The Sorcerer's Apprentice":



As he hummed a few measures, I was sort of in shock: THAT'S the song I heard in fifth grade. I had gone all this time thinking it was "The Heffalump Song", when in reality, it wasn't. He assured that "Sorcerer's Apprentice" is a very common bassoon song, so that probably is what I heard.

Now I know the actual title for the song that I want to play. On to 8 Notes!

Not a place-holder

I've noticed that sometimes, I have to post things that hardly even count as posts. Look at January alone:

Real-posts-tomorrow's: 2
Youtube videos: 10

Well, there are fewer than I thought in January, and some of those videos actually have content. Then again, most of those videos are also not working anymore...

I think that I might go back and actually add something to those posts. I hardly think that "Real post tomorrow" should count as a post...even if I AM guilty of writing them.

I think I might have a lot of LOLcats, too, come to think of it...