Sarah's Padded Cell

New-ish Blog

2010-06-02T21:26:00.000-07:00

I've decided that Steve and I can have a joint blog like most other married couples have, so I'll post some updates there:

http://morleys2.blogspot.com

Good times!

Back to school

2010-01-19T14:24:00.000-08:00

We got a moment of relaxation with Martin Luther King, Jr. Day yesterday, but now I'm back at school. I didn't do as much homework as I should have, and unfortunately wasn't able to spend much time with Steve, but it was a nice break regardless. Steve has been working on the car (that my Grandpa Bruderer gave to us since he can't drive anymore) and it's been taking longer than anticipated. It's either do the work manually while buying the new parts for a good couple hundred dollars or pay someone else to do it for about $1400. We don't exactly have oodles of money to spend... so it's costing Steve his time. I wish I knew more about cars to help out, but I would slow things down by not knowing much of anything. Oh well.

What else of importance? I was considering just losing gavinmikhailfans.net since I stopped updating it and the forums were getting swamped with bots. I had closed down the forums and the domain name had expired... but I decided yesterday to just get it for another year anyway. Gavin is doing more now, and I think I could keep up with it. I spent so much time on the layout and it got a fair amount of traffic; I think it could really be something. Unfortunately, I should not have kept thephantomzoners.com since that has been abandoned with a lot of bots as well, but I guess I had set it to automatically renew so I've already been charged for another year. Oops. I'll set it so it doesn't do that again. Maybe this summer I can give Jephthah's Domain a new look. It's had that one for a while. I think I might change the color scheme to something more happy as well. I unfortunately came up with black and blue in high school thinking that black was the coolest background color there is. Eh, it's alright. But, I think white with maybe a dark blue and and yellow or something would be more eye-catching and exciting. Then people might be more motivated to actually stay on my website and look around. I've had it for a while and have definitely spent too much time on it to give it up. I can put whatever I want on that website. Yay for websites!

This all came up because my dad is coming up with another business. He wants a website for his Christmas light shows. He's making a program that makes it easier to program cooler stuff, and he wants to sell it. superstarlights.com has been bought and is waiting to be made. I've got a basic idea for it, but right now the roadblock is that byethost (my hosting) is having trouble sending me e-mails, so I still haven't gotten the information to login and upload things to it. I've contacted support... and we're getting there. Wow. I've made a lot of websites. I've got jephthahs-domain.com, spiderwebman.net, gavinmikhailfans.net, thephantomzoners.com (didn't do much to make this though, since it's just a pre-made forum), and now this superstarlights.com. A pretty good resume if I wanted a job making websites. In fact, my dad is paying me to keep up with spiderwebman.net (his other business) and superstarlights.com, so that's pretty cool. Extra money is always nice.

Wow. I think this could possibly win the competition for most boring blog post ever. Oops. I was trying to make these more exciting. Oh well. Maybe next time?

Classes This Semester

2010-01-12T15:03:00.000-08:00

How do you like the new layout? I'm not completely sold on it, but figured I should change things a little bit since I've had the other one for a while. Eventually I might make one myself so I feel more unique.

I'm going to complain a little bit about powerpoint. Students of all grade levels know how painful they can be, and I think in college they tend to be a little worse since they have more material to teach, and most of them have never taken a teaching course. They just know what they're teaching really well, not necessarily how to be a good teacher. I'm really thinking of my philosophy teacher in particular this semester. His slides are just bullet points of sentences that are very wordy. He could condense them into bullet points of what we really need to learn. Then he talks, and talks, and talks, and talks, and talks about things not on the slide and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to get from the slides. Sometimes he says things on the slides and says that we won't be tested on them, and sometimes we will. I don't know how I'm going to do in the class. The good news is that I do enjoy doing the reading--even if there is a lot of it. I really enjoy philosophy and thinking about ridiculous things using logic. I just don't know what I'll need for the class, and his presentations are really really boring.

My schedule is slowly getting more packed during the day with less time for work, which just means less money. I won't be able to go to as many reed classes as I hoped... but hopefully I can still go to Geralyn's reed class on Friday. I'm finding that my palm pilot is really helping out. It helps my brain not have to remember everything. Whenever I remember a random thing I'm need to do, I add it to my to-do list. It's great.

It's weird to think that I'm getting so close to graduation. After this semester, it's just another year! Then a semester of student teaching, though that will be a lot different from normal school. It's all one class I'll be able to focus on. Hopefully I can student teach wherever Steve goes for grad school. He just has this semester, and then two more. It's amazing to think where my life is now. I'm almost in my 4th year in college, married, and 20 years old. The 20 years old isn't as hard to believe. I still feel young since most everyone else I'm around is older than me, namely Steve and all of his (now my) friends. Steve's 24 and they are around the same age. But, that's alright. I've always seemed to like hanging around people older than me, and now I'll be "hanging around" Steve for quite a while. :)

I swear there are more exciting things happening in my life. I don't know. I think this will do for now. I'll try to make future entries happen more often and be more exciting. Yay. :)

I'm Married

2010-01-03T22:45:00.000-08:00

I suddenly got terrible at updating this thing. I was doing so well with the Sunday update thing, and then I left for Korea and Japan/got engaged and it all went downhill. Tons of new things to talk about!

First of all, I got married on August 28th, 2009 in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple to Steven Adam Morley. I am now Sarah Bruderer Morley and have most things changed to say that. It's still a hard question when people ask me what my name is, but it's getting better. :) I am definitely enjoying the married life. It was a little weird for the first month or so since it was really just us two. Two people in an apartment. No other roommates, no other distractions, just us. Not to mention that he's male! I'm used to living with girls and their perks, it's definitely different living with a guy, but I'm into the swing of things. His habits, my habits, and just our schedules. Now it feels pretty normal. :)

We finally got all of our wedding pictures as of today. It was annoying because our photographer said she would send us CDs of the pictures 5 weeks after the wedding for editing and whatnot. Alright, sounds good. Two months later, we have nothing. So I called, e-mailed, called again, etc. She wasn't very good at responding... anyway, we finally got our CDs about 10 weeks after our wedding to find out that about 5 of the pictures weren't written to the CDs correctly. So I called... nothing for about a week. I e-mailed, and then she responded in like an hour. It was quite unexpected. Anyway, we finally got them all. You can see almost all of them (except the 5 that didn't work) on facebook. This is a pretty good one:

What else? The semester has ended and the new one is starting tomorrow. I did slightly better than my GPA, so I guess being married hasn't been detrimental to my grades. :) I took CS 240 which was rather intimidating since it's known to be a very time consuming Computer Science class, but I ended up with an A! Yay!

For Christmas, Steve and I flew back to Texas and we actually got a white Christmas! That's absolutely insane! I've never had a white Christmas in Texas. The only times we had white Christmases was when we went to Utah for Christmas, which I think was only once. Maybe twice. I thought it was cool. Kind of interesting that the first Christmas Steve comes to Texas for Christmas, we happen to have a white Christmas. :P

I got some pretty awesome gifts as well. The biggest one was a palm pilot! I'm actually really excited about it, because then I should be more organized! I have my calendar all set up for my classes and such and hopefully I can just bring it with me and schedule things right when I hear about them, set it to remind me, and then I won't have to worry about remembering them! It's pretty awesome. I really like being organized.

This past week has been a lot of fun. We got back from Texas on the 29th and have had people over almost every day to play games and eat food. That's probably my favorite thing to do, just play games with friends and family. It was a little ironic that the only day we didn't have people over was on New Year's Eve since Steve wasn't feeling very well. We ended up just watching two movies and playing the game of Life. It's been a long time since I've played that game--a lot more luck is involved than I remembered. :P It was fun, though. Steve wasn't really up for a really intense strategic game anyway. It was just relaxing and fun.

So, happy 2010! I'll try to be better at updating this thing.

I'm getting married!

2009-08-20T17:13:00.000-07:00

I know it's been an incredibly long time since I've updated... but... oh well. :)

Anyone who is reading this probably already knows, but I'm engaged! Steve and I are going to get married on August 28th at 10 AM in the Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple. Yes, that's a week from tomorrow. Wow! It's coming so close!

Other than preparing a wedding, this summer has been pretty insanely awesome. After Winter semester ended, I had a week or so of staying at my Uncle Don and Aunt Debra's place until I left on tour with the BYU Wind Symphony to Japan and South Korea! Whoa! Yeah, I totally went to South Korea for a week and a half and then to Japan for a week and a half. It was basically an awesome experience, though I was sure aching the whole time to just go back and see Steve again. It probably took away from what I could have gotten out of the trip, but it was still awesome and testimony building. My favorite part was probably going to church in Korea and Japan and seeing how similar the church is EVERYWHERE in the world! It's amazing! I loved singing hymns in English while the rest of the congregation is singing the same melody in Korean or Japanese! The same spirit is there. Oh... such good stuff. I loved it.

I did also happen to see Steve in Korea for a couple days! That was awesome. It was incredibly hard to leave him again in Korea knowing that I'd have to wait yet another two weeks before seeing him... but I obviously survived. :) I love him.

After coming back from tour, I stayed with Ashley in her apartment for a couple days before going up to Idaho with Steve to meet some of his family on his mom's side. We still aren't engaged at this point... but everyone is expecting it. I'm just waiting on Steve to buy a ring and propose. :) That was a lot of fun--especially to spend some time with Steve that I had earnestly wanted for about a month. (The couple hours in Korea hardly fulfilled that desire to see him.) But, alas, it didn't last too long as I left a couple days after Idaho to go back to Texas for a couple days before going up Nashville with my mom for Fan Fair! We got to help run Billy Gilman's booth since I'm on the staff at BillyGilmanFans.com and meet up with Andrew and Greg again. Aww, such good times that was. At least my cell phone worked that time and I got to talk to Steve at night before going to bed. I also have many pictures from this, but I don't have my camera with me. I'll post them on facebook later. :)

After Nashville, we went back to Texas where we happen to meet Steve at the Dallas airport! Well, "happen" meaning we planned it all out and such. That was also great fun. He got to meet my parents and all of my siblings except Paul. He got to see the house I grew up in and the town I grew up in. Still not officially engaged yet and Steve is making all these excuses on why he doesn't have a ring and how he doesn't have any money. I know he didn't have much money and I was just hoping it didn't go on for too much longer since we really needed to get to planning if we wanted an August wedding. Okay... yes. We were planning things about 2 weeks or so before we were engaged. :)

So, we flew back to Provo together that Saturday on June 20th. That night Steve and I had planned a dinner and a movie date at his place at 7. I thought it was cute to actually plan a date since usually it's, "What should we do tonight?" "We could watch a movie at your place like we always do." "Yeah, alright. We'll have ice cream, too." Something like that. So, I show up at his place at 7 (he insisted on me not coming earlier) and he's standing at his door with this grin on his face. He's definitely planning something. Proposal? No... he doesn't have a ring! Right?

I walk in and he has dinner prepared with candles on the table and classical music playing in the background. Oh boy. Somethings up. So we have dinner, and during dinner he tells me that he got the movie we can watch tonight in the mail. "What movie?" "You'll see." He won't tell me the movie? What the heck? After dinner he gets it out and it's a special edition DVD of "V for Vendetta" which just happened to be the movie we watched on our first date back in February. Okay... I'm really suspicious now. So he asks me to go ahead and turn on the TV and put the DVD in, so I did. I turn on the TV... open up the DVD case and this is what I see:

(That's a picture of Steve and I in front of the Seoul Korea Temple)

I looked at it not knowing whether I should answer just then or what, and so I looked up at Steve and he's walking towards me and he has a little black box and opens it... a ring! He has a ring! Not just any ring... but a ring that's absolutely perfect!

I gave him a couple guidelines on the type of ring that I'd like, and he did a great job. :) :) :) You can see the video when he actually proposed on facebook if you haven't already. Just as a warning, though, there is a lot of a kissing. ;)

So, I called everyone I could of think of and explained that same story to a bunch of people and went home utterly excited and overwhelmed. I'm getting married. I'm engaged. I'm only 19! I'm going to turn 20 two days after I get married on the 30th of August. I honestly never thought that I would get married so soon. It just kind of... happened.

So, after that Summer term started and we dove in head first into this huge check list of things we need to get done for the wedding. I took English 316 and Computer Science 236 and planned a wedding. Well... helped planning. Steve and I both worked on things. He was working during the day while I was at school, and in the evenings we'd try to get things done. At this point pretty much all the big stuff is done! We just need to actually go out and buy the decorations and food that we've planned on and get it all setup. Tomorrow night I'm meeting with my Aunt Kristi to see how I want my hair done when I get married. On Tuesday night I met with the Stake President to get my Temple Recommend and Living Ordinances Recommend signed. That was an awesome moment as well. Oh man, I'm so excited. It's sooo close! A week from tomorrow! This week went by quickly... next week surely will too with all the planning. I'm going to be married before I know it. Wow.

Classes finished and I'm pretty sure I pulled off an A in English 316 and a B+ in Computer Science 236. Not too shabby. It was almost an A- in CS 236, but I won't complain too much about a B+ for a pretty hard and time consuming class.

Pretty much I'm just going to Education Week and learning a bunch about marriage and life in general (volunteering at it as well so I could go to the classes for free) and just anticipating the 28th. Oh boy. So close.

I think that'll be it for now. I hope to see you at one of the three receptions!

School's Out For Summer!

2009-04-26T20:20:00.000-07:00

I'm officially done with my 4th semester at BYU. I should have this nice feeling of release and freedom from being done, but instead I'm just kind of there. I think I'm just a little nervous about some of my grades. I'm not going to fail any of them, but I'm almost positive I'm going to have my lowest GPA so far this semester... which really isn't too bad... but whatever. :P It'll be good. It's mostly Calculus 2, which was a freakin' beast this semester. I failed every test, but managed to be just about the average every time. It's a matter of how much they curve. I'm hoping for a B of some sort... which for a 4 credit class won't really help me out much. Oh well. It'll be okay. :)

Yesterday I moved out of my apartment, since they kicked us out, and am now at my Aunt Debra and Uncle Don's place for the next week until I head out to Korea and Japan for the Wind Symphony tour. I'm really excited to head out, but I've also this certain level of aprehension of not knowing exactly what to expect, nervous that I've forgotten something I'm supposed to have gotten since I was kind of late jumping on the tour bandwagon and haven't gotten all the information I'm supposed to have gotten the entire semester/year. Not to mention I have this huge solo I just got the part for about a week or so ago. I mean, I can play it. It's a matter of having a good read and whatnot. Which, I don't really have oodles of English Horn cane to kill a bunch of reeds with. It'll be okay, I'll just keep telling myself that. :) We have rehearsals on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from about 9-4 or something ridiculous like that. It'll be like an intense All-Region that ends with going to Korea and Japan for 3 weeks and performing. Oh boy, I really need to get back into practicing so it doesn't kill me when we rehearse. I think I'll do that tomorrow.

As far as Steve and I go (the boyfriend I went on about last entry), everything is going absolutely fantastically. There was the "Traditions Ball" that we went to about 2 weeks ago, and it was a wonderful night. Here we are all dressed up and such:

Aww... we're so cute. :) I love that picture. Right now he is in Korea since that's where he served and mission just visiting and whatnot. Yes, he was just "happen" to be there when I am for the Wind Symphony tour. Basically I really miss him right now, but I'm able to talk to him on gmail chat, so it's all good. I'm really excited to go to Korea to see him as well. :)

What else is there to go on about? Well, I've got a lot ahead of me in the next month or so. So, I'm going to be here for a week, rehearse like mad at the end of the week, leave for Korea at 5 AM Monday morning (ugh), fly on a ridiculously long flight basically all day Monday and get there and settle in Tuesday, including a performance, I'm pretty sure. I'll be in Korea for about a week and a half, and then we'll go to Japan (which will include a wake up call at about 3 AM...) for another week and a half. Then I'll come back to Salt Lake/Provo for another week or so. (I was going to try to come back to Texas ASAP after that, but I'm hoping to use that time to spend with Steve after a while of not seeing him... yes, I'm somewhat pathetic. :P) Then, I'll come back to Texas for about a week, and then head up to Nashville with my mom for the CMA Music Fest again and hang out with Greg and Andrew. It'll be a lot of fun. :) Then, after a week of that, I'll come back to Texas for a couple days, and then finally go back to Provo a couple days before I start the Summer term and move into my new apartment. It's pretty busy and travel-filled, but it'll be a lot of fun. Traveling really is a lot of fun, although exhausting. I'm not suspecting I'll get much sleep the 3 weeks I'll be in Korea and Japan. I also suspect that I won't really fully adjust to the new time zone (which is like 15 hours ahead...) and then come back utterly exhausted and probably sleep for 24 hours straight. Ugh.

Alright, I think that'll do for this update. I'll try to remember to update next Sunday, but then I actually have an excuse to not update for a while since I'll be out of the country. I have absolutely no idea if I'll have access to a computer. I'm hoping so since I'll have a ridiculous amount of e-mail to go through... we'll just see. I'll be sure to take a lot of pictures. :)

Sarah has a boyfriend??

2009-04-05T07:42:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is very true. Sarah does indeed have a boyfriend. Weird! That's my excuse for not keeping up with my blog, as well. We are both rather busy during the week, so we really only get to spend that much time together over the weekends, which include Sundays. Oh well. Here I am before Conference and I figured I should try to post to catch people up with my life.

This week was basically incredibly busy. I kept staying in the Talmage working on this lab for CS 124 until midnight, only to not finish it in time. It turns out I spent a couple hours on something I didn't have to do... which, I did learn a lot from, but it's not like I have oodles of extra time to learn something I don't have to. I'm pretty sure it's done now, hopefully it will pass off tomorrow. I also had 2 tests I took back to back, with another test I'll take tomorrow, and I had to play my mock jury in Master Classes and attempt to practice with my accompanist since Hindemith is incredibly hard to play with the Piano. Oh yeah, and I had a concert Thursday night. But, no worries! The week is over! There's just this week, and then half of next week, and then FINALS! It's so freakin' close!

Okay, so I'm dating. That's was something else that was somewhat upsetting this past week as well. I was so busy (and so was he, with this project that never seems to end) that we could never do anything. I'd come home and see my roommate and my 5th roommate (basically her fiance) spending time together studying or on the couch, and I'd get jealous rather than annoyed. "She has time to spend with her boyfriend..." But yesterday we went bowling and then watched a movie, and today I'm going to his place to watch general conference. :)

Something that made this week bearable was April Fool's day. Steve and I (that's his name, by the way, Steve Morley) were "officially" dating on the 25th (last Wednesday), and then on April Fool's we figured it'd be fun to be engaged. Somewhat of an impulsive decision at about midnight in the Talmage labs the night before. Oh boy, it made April Fool's utterly hilarious. It all started with my mom sending me a text that morning that said, "Sooooooo I saw facebook. April Fool's?????????? Call me. Love, Mom" LOL! I laughed so hard! I called her back, and she was actually believing it. I had to actually say, "Mom, I'm not engaged. It's April Fool's." It's been a week! A week since we've been dating! I am at BYU, but I could never make a decision like that in a week. Steve was getting congratulations all day long, as well. Wednesday was the peak of my stress/business this week, and I happened to have a great day because of my fake engagement. Steve did mention that this was kind of crying wolf, which I guess it is, but it was fun anyway. :) I figure when I actually get engaged it'll be something people will be expecting, and it will most likely not be on April Fool's Day.

If any of you don't frequent facebook, I'll include some pictures for your enjoyment. :)

Aww, we're so cute. :)

Happy Belated Pi Day!

2009-03-15T19:51:00.001-07:00

Okay, so I missed last week. It'll be okay. Honestly, it will. Just to "make up" for it, I have some new videos to post. So, look forward to those at the end of this post. Or, you know, don't. You could just skip all of my ramblings and move on to the videos. It won't hurt my feelings.

The past two weeks have been pretty fun. I'm starting to actually like my CS 124 class, and Calculus seems to be getting better. There was finally a new episode of Smallville (which freakin' rocked), and I performed my newest composition in Master Classes last Wednesday. I recorded it, and I'll probably post it next week or so. It's more of a contemporary piece with some new things in it. I like it a lot.

In other news, yesterday was Pi Day! There was a Pi Day celebration thing in the Wilkinson center on Friday during my CS 124 lecture... which I totally skipped to go to it. :P The biggest reason being that there was a pi recitation contest and the overall winner got an iPod shuffle. I could seriously win this thing! In the past couple of days, Ashley and I added about 40 digits of pi to our knowledge. We are now up to 240 digits. So many! Ashley went first in reciting pi, and she just messed up right at the beginning of where we started adding digits (just skipped a set), but she was still in first place. After a guy that proclaimed before going that he was "guaranteed to win." He got to 174 digits... got me worried at first. They were about to skip me, actually. There were going to end the contest, and so I walked up and said that I had signed up. So, I went. I was so incredibly nervous! Yes, I had recited pi many many times, but they were checking while I was spouting off numbers which meant I had to go slower than normal. I kept practicing saying it slower. The first 150 digits or so I usually don't really think about what numbers I'm saying. It just flows out without me thinking. But, I managed to get to all 240 without messing up. It was awesome. Right after I recited everything (in a microphone in front of a bunch of people... holy crap), this girl came up and actually interviewed me for the Daily Universe. It was kind of weird, actually. She asked questions like, "So, do you memorize other things?" Umm... yes, I do. I usually try to memorize equations for my Calculus test I had earlier this week, syntax for programming, my friends and families names and birthdays, music theory, etc... Instead I just answered that I was thinking about memorizing "e" since I thought that it usually got left out. People just love pi. So, there's a chance that I'll be mentioned in the Daily Universe... for memorizing pi. Weird. Anyway, I did win the iPod. Though, it's exactly the same as the iPod shuffle I currently have, so I'm going to sell it on amazon.com or something and split the money with Ashley. (Since we both know the same amount.) Oh man, I freakin' love it all. Being a nerd rocks!

What else of interest happened? I went and saw a play with Steve last night, "Berenice." It was actually really good! I really didn't know what to expect. Apparently it was an adaptation written by a BYU student. Really intense stuff. Our theater department has some really talented people in it. There were a couple times that this girl screamed off stage... and it freakin' scared the crap out of me every time. One: because the first time I didn't think it was part of the play and I was geniunely scared that someone was in intense pain. Two: it was done really well! It was piercingly painful to listen to. Three: I just jump at that kind of stuff easily. :) Anyway, it was good times.

What's not good times is that it seems I'm starting to get sick or something. I can't really tell what it is, either. Like, I just feel kind of weak with the occasional feeling of nausea. I took a nap today, though. That seemed to maybe help. Hopefully it doesn't turn into anything else, but I don't really see how I could "catch up" if I took some days off from school. Ugh... that'd be bad. It'll be fine. :)

Okay, so here are some videos. I really don't remember being that weird. Sometimes I worry about myself. These were all taken the same night. The "random" numbers that we're talking about are from pi... yeah... weird. But, it just makes it that much more fun to watch! Or something.

Into March

2009-03-01T23:11:00.000-08:00

Here I am in March, still surviving my 4th semester here at BYU. Things are going pretty well for the most part. My most frustrating class by far right now is Calculus. I really think I'm going to get some sort of B or C in that class, which will of course lower my GPA a fair amount since it's a freakin' 4 credit class. Though, I figured it out and it really wouldn't lower it too much. It'll be okay... I really am learning a lot. The most frustrating part is that my grades don't seem to be reflecting that very much, and our teacher hasn't really structured the class to give you much credit for trying really hard. Well, I guess he kind of has... but it's not really working for me. I got really frustrated on Friday night. There was an online homework due and I had literally spent hours on the last 4 problems that I just could not figure out what I was doing wrong. Some of them I just flat out didn't know how to do, and some of them I felt like I did but kept getting the wrong answer. So I ended up getting about a 50 on the assignment and just wasting a bunch of time trying to figure out the problems and getting no credit for using that time. It was rather frustrating. Though, I know that it really did help me learn more to go through it, right? Sure. I don't know, I'll just be happy to be through with this class.

I was complaining about CS 124 before, but now life should be a fair amount easier in that class since I passed off my last assembly lab on Friday. Now we get to do labs in C! I'm so excited. We have our second test this week, and I'm hoping to do well on it. I have learned a lot from doing the labs. Let's hope that shows on the test.

As far as other things going on, it's great. :) I absolutely love Music Theory, I seem to be doing fairly well in Dictation, Sight Singing exists, I love my Music Education class, private lessons are surprisingly going well, and work is fun. It's just the two classes for my Comp Sci major. There's this nagging thought in the back of my mind that's saying, "Why are you doing this again?" Then I remember that I'll love having the knowledge and that I really do love to learn it all. It can just be frustrating at times. I promised myself I could do it, and I'm going to stick to the plan. I can do it, gosh darn it! Prove all the people that don't believe that I can do it wrong! Mwhaha! :)

In other news, I'm actually going on dates. I know, it's incredible. What's even more incredible is that it's with the same guy! Well, I least I think you'd call them dates. We haven't really officially titled anything, but he has paid for my food and such. He's another CS 142 TA, and we were chatting on gmail, and then he said that I should come over and watch V for Vendetta with him since we were talking about it. He hadn't seen it and I was telling him how awesome it was. He happened to have it. So, about a week or so later, I actually did come over and watch it with him. Then I ended up coming over for dinner a couple days later and staying until about 10 just talking and whatnot. Then we went to Taco Bell and got ice cream on Friday night (which was somewhat unexpected), and then today I went to his place with Ashley to have dinner and play Settlers of Catan. Oh boy, it's been fun. We'll just see where it all goes. :)

I have another song that I wrote that I've somewhat deemed "finished." It's called, "Suppression." Some of the things in it have been somewhat experimental, but I like it a lot. Hopefully I can play it in Master Classes sometime and maybe record it or something.

Alright, I should head off to bed. Until next week! :)

So Quick!

2009-02-22T21:56:00.000-08:00

It's the last Sunday of February. Weird! It's gone by so quickly! That means that it's almost March, which means that we're already more than halfway done with the semester. That's actually somewhat worrisome. I don't feel like I'm more than halfway done with some of my classes, but it's all good. :)

So what happened of great importance this past week? Well, I suffered through yet another Calculus midterm. I think I did better than I did on the last one, but we'll see. I at least did better on the multiple choice, so that's somewhat encouraging. I also finished my CS 124 lab and even did the extra credit for an extra point, so I got 11 out of 10 points. I'm actually getting assembly, it's great. There's just one more lab in assembly, and then we finally get to start programming in C. I'm so excited! I'll actually know what's going on, and it seems like the labs won't take me as long. I plan on trying to do the extra credit most of the time and turn in my labs early to make up for the exam and some of the homework I've only done okay on. I could still pull off an A fairly easily if I keep that up. Oh boy, it's such good times. It's hard at first, but I love having the knowledge.

What is kind of depressing is Calc 2. There was online homework due on Friday and I worked for hours on it... ended up giving up when I had spent two hours on two problems that I just could not get. So I got a 67 on it. It just doesn't seem fair to spend that much time on something to only get a 67. I really hate the way that the class is structured. It doesn't reflect how much time you put into it very well. I really miss the way it was last semester. Our teacher likes to get behind on his schedule, so we have to shove all of these little things at the end before every test. I like him, he's a good teacher and obviously knows what he's talking about. I just miss the way it was. I am learning quite a bit, I suppose that's what matters most. I have a strange feeling that this semester will lower my GPA. It'll be okay. Maybe getting a better grade in Dictation will make up for it. I got a B+ on the last pace test! At this point I really think I have an A- in the class. That won't quite make up for some kind of B in the 4 credit Calculus class, but it'll do something. Oh well, I'm okay. Learning is what matters, and I'm definitely doing that. :)

Oh, how could I forget?? It's now official that I'm going to Korea and Japan with Wind Symphony this May! They are going on tour there, and I wasn't going to go because they just don't take the English Horn player. It's a money issue. But I found out last week that one of the Clarinet players has been having some financial issues and couldn't go, which left open a spot for me. So, I'm going!! It's insane! It only costs $1000, and then there's the fees with getting a passport. It is $1000... but this is the chance of a lifetime. I'm never going to be able to do something like this ever again. It's insane to think about, actually. I'm so excited. Which, with that means that I have to go to this culture class at 7 AM on Wednesdays. It's a fairly small price for being able to go, but that means that I'm on campus from 7 AM to 7 PM, at the least. Last Wednesday I was on campus from 7 AM until about 10 PM taking my Calculus midterm. It was such a bundle of fun. So, anyway... that's exciting. I'm also going to Fan Fair with my mom a couple weeks after that again. Man, I'm just getting into this traveling thing this summer. It'll cost some money, which I fortunately have saved up, but it'll be so much fun. I love seeing the world and different cultures. Oh boy!

Alright, I think this'll do for now. Have a wonderful week! :)

A Week of Extremes

2009-02-16T23:25:00.000-08:00

I missed Sunday's update... but oh well. This'll do. :)

This past week I felt somewhat bipolar. Maybe not in the precise definition of the condition, but just that one day I felt somewhat depressed and sad about certain things, and then the next day I was exuberantly happy. It was kind of weird. Since, though, I've mostly stayed with "exuberantly happy." Wednesday in general was a very stressful day. I wanted to get my CS 124 lab done so I wouldn't have to worry about finishing it on Thursday (since it was due on Thursday) and I had to perform the first movement of the Mozart Concerto in Master Classes that night only rehearsing with my pianist for the first time an hour before we performed (not to mention I was basically just learning the second half of it), and I had a couple other things that were due that day as well. I just wanted it to be over. I didn't seem to have much done with my lab by 8 o' clock that night, and after performing in Master Classes, I felt like I didn't do very well at all. Right after performing I was rather proud of myself for just making it through since I had only really rehearsed it once and was hoping to just get the notes and rhythms right with a couple other things. And I did just that! The 3 or 4 hours before I had spent at work listening to various recordings of people playing the first movement on youtube so I could just get it in my head. It probably would've helped to have the music in front of me, but I had that thing stuck in my head like nobody's business. I was feeling pretty good. Then came the comments. They weren't terrible, it was just nobody said anything good about it. It was all, "This should've been more exaggerated, the style needed to be more this and that..." Someone mentioned that I needed to just get a recording to know how certain things go. I knew there was one spot that many people played a certain way, but I just chose not to. I guess that made her think I didn't know how it was supposed to go. I did play one half note as one beat because I had gotten in the habit of doing that in my practicing just out of stupidity. Maybe that's what she was thinking of. After sitting down I just felt like I had completely insulted a standard in Oboe literature. Like I should've just nailed it and failed. All I wanted was one good thing said, and nobody said anything. If anything, it was like people were eager to tell me everything I did wrong.

So, needless to say, I felt pretty down. I think in retrospect it's just that it is one of those pieces that everybody knows and so the whole time I was playing they had a certain recording in their head and all they could think of was how what I was doing didn't match what they had going in their mind. I'm not a terrible Oboist, I know that. It was fine. I'm just learning it, and it's a freakin' beast. It'll be alright. :)

I got home and was just thinking about how I really needed to finish my lab, and I just wasn't getting it. It's frustrating because with Computer Science stuff I normally get it. I've had so much experience with it, and I freakin' teach it to people every day. I feel like I should catch on quickly. But in CS 124, we are dealing with stuff that's completely knew. Gates, latches, MDR, Program Counter, etc. So much information to absorb. I've found that usually with this type of stuff, I feel slower than normal right at first. Like I just don't get it as fast as most people are getting it. Then, one moment, it just makes sense. It's like an exponential growth of knowledge as things click here and there. I'm finally hitting that point where things are making sense. But, Wednesday night, I was still at the beginning slow stage trying to figure things out. All I had to do was making a program that took single digit numbers until you pressed "=" and it would output the sum. Sounds simple. In Java I could code that up in about 2 minutes. But in this class, I had to do it in assembly. I was actually excited to learn how to program in assembly. It's like the base level of programming. You have to tell the computer how to do everything. Right at first, it's just giberish. It makes no sense. Well, needless to say, Wednesday night I finally got it to work! Things made sense! I went to bed happy.

Thursday morning came and life was grand! Except for the fact that I had an incoming Calculus test I didn't feel ready for, I loved it! I was at work and I was just giddy. I taught a help session for CS 142 and I think I was just a little too excited for the students to teach loops and conditional statements. It was so weird. I felt odd being so happy after feeling so depressed the day before.

Oh! I also had a Dictation Pace test on Thursday--I got a B+ or A- again! (I'm not completely sure, but right around there.) I keep feeling like I'm getting lucky. I might just be able to pull off a B+ in that class. That'd be so grand. It'd make up for whatever grade I'm going to get in Calc 2. Ugh, that class is the death of me. It just takes so long to do everything. I'm planning on taking the second midterm tomorrow night. It's going to be torture again, I just know it. I'm hoping to pass this one, but we'll see. I attempted to study today, and it took me two hours to do the first 3 problems on the review. Well, we looked at some other things. Oh boy. It'll be fun, I just know it.

Let's not forget that this was a three-day weekend! We had today off! I know it's somewhat rare to get President's Day off in college, but this will sadly be the last day we get off until the end of the semester. Which, in terms of working is good. In fact, I'm not too torn up about it because we get out so early. Oh wow... we are already in the middle of February. It's actually kind of worrisome that we are already so far into the semester when I feel like so many of my classes shouldn't be close to finishing. Like I haven't done enough to really sustain my grade where I want it to be. *cough* Calculus! *cough*

Oh boy, I'm typing quite a bit. Today there was a kind of Music 276 party again. It was fun as always! We watched "Much Ado About Nothing" and had pizza and cookies, as well as played Mad Gab. What a fun game. It was somewhat frustrating to hear everyone complain about Keanu Reeve's "terrible" acting everytime he'd come on screen since I was somewhat obsessed with him back in the day. I didn't say anything. I wouldn't say that the first thing I thought of when they suggested watching that movie was that it had Keanu Reeves' in it. In fact, when they first showed his face, someone said, "Oh, I forgot he was in this movie!" Then people went on to say how he was Neo, was a horrible actor, and his best movie was Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. They'd say that he probably didn't have any idea what he was saying and was just repeating lines he had memorized with certain feelings associated with it. If there's one thing I know, it's that Keanu Reeves is not dumb. He's actually very smart. I'm not gonna say he's the best actor I know, but I know that he's not as terrible as people make him out to be. Maybe I should've said something. It obviously kind of bothered me. Oh well! :)

Alright, I think I'll stop here and head off to bed. I've got to get up early tomorrow to do my sight singing homework. What a joy!

A Weekend in St. George

2009-02-08T20:28:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was the UMEA Conference. (Utah Music Education Association) It was fun! It did require me to miss work and classes on Friday, but that turned out just fine that I did. We didn't have a quiz in Calculus, and we didn't have homework due in my CS 124 class. It worked out quite nicely, actually. I also got someone to not only cover my work shifts, but to switch some times with me so I wouldn't lose the money I'd make at work on Friday. It did require me to skip Calculus to work... but that's okay. :) There was so much free food! I stayed at someone's house and their mom was so nice! I got up Friday morning and she had all this food set out for us to eat. Then we went back for lunch--same thing. Food everywhere. She offered dinner too, but we already had a free dinner at Chuck-A-Rama that night. It was pretty much insane. The conference itself was pretty fun. There were these different workshops you could go to about different things. I went to this one about sound recording and editing... oh man, it looked so cool. He had this midi-keyboard that he was using that was exactly like mine except small. Aww, man I really want to get some of that stuff. It'd be really expensive, though. It'd be so much fun, though. Oh boy. I also went to this one about how to avoid burnout as a teacher, which was really boring, actually. I was falling asleep... but I did manage to write down some good quotes he said. Then there was this Ukelele class, which was fun and a couple other things. Some good stuff. It was kind of weird. This was mostly for actual teachers, and the Collegiate members could come if they wanted. This is what the teachers go to! It's like I was a real teacher. It's like I'm growing up. Weird! Graduating seems so far away, but in reality I'm not really that far away from being in a classroom of my own. That is such a scary and exciting thought. Here we go!

So, funny story. I bought my book for CS 124 online at amazon.com on January 7th, and still haven't gotten it. So, I e-mailed the guy that I bought it from asking for a refund or something since I paid for nothing. No response after a couple of days, so I filed a thing on amazon.com for amazon to give me a refund. Then, I left for St. George. When I got back, I checked my e-mail and the guy I bought it from had e-mailed me back. He apologized profusely and felt really bad about it. He just didn't see that someone had bought the book until just then. I kind of felt bad that I made him feel so bad. I mean, I know it was really inconvenient to me and everything, he just felt really bad about the whole thing. He gave me a refund and everything. But this is the funny part. I got another e-mail from him that said this:

"I just checked your address and realize that you live just 2 blocks from my house. If you want I can still give you that book. Let me know what you would like to do. Again I apologize for this horrible event. If you would like to talk give me a call at -------. I am from chicago but going to school at BYU. Sorry again."

WOW! LOL... that is absolutely hilarious to me. This whole time I've been wanting this book, and it's been 2 blocks away from me. I could've just walked and gotten it from him. So. Funny. It's totally fine, though. I'm just going to take the refund money and not have a book. I've survived so far and it's been fine. The online notes and wikipedia are working just fine. I'd rather just have the money back.

I think that's all I have right now. I should try to go to bed tonight so I won't be tired tomorrow. Until next week! :)

Happy February!

2009-02-01T13:34:00.000-08:00

It's officially into February for the 2009 year. How thrilling. Let's see, what happened of interest this week? Oh yes! I took my Calculus exam. It was basically toture the entire time. It was so hard and took so long (about 2 hours and 40 minutes) and my brain just felt like mush. I don't think I did that well on it, but we'll see. I think I'll find out my grade tomorrow in Calculus. I know there's going to be a huge curve on it already, so that's encouraging. I'm still aiming to match the A- I got last semester. We'll see.

I also got my first Dictation pace test back. I got an A-!! Wow! I'm so happy! Maybe I can pull off a B+ in that class. If I keep it up, it'd be amazing to get an A-, but I shouldn't expect too much. I was really worried because it's so hard. Oh boy, that was amazing to see that.

Then there's Music Theory. Yay for Music Theory! We had our first exam and I got a 96 on it. The two things I got off for were silly. I misread the directions so I just didn't do something he asked to do, and then I misunderstood another question. That class is so much fun. It's going into these intense patterns in music and how to analyze things to death. My specialties! My professor is really funny and intelligent, too. I love it.

My CS 124 class, which is doing Electrical Engineering stuff right now, is pretty hard. So far I've managed to do pretty well on the homeworks (29/30 and 59/60), but this last homework I'm not too sure about. If I just take enough time to do them and research enough about them on wikipedia and my notes, I get it eventually. It's starting to fit together nicely. There is a textbook for the class that I would most likely use to understand this stuff, but the one I bought from the bookstore I found online for about $50 cheaper... and I still haven't gotten it in the mail yet. I ordered it on the 7th of January and haven't gotten anything. I e-mailed the person I ordered it from yesterday to ask for either a refund or to just have it sent ASAP. I think I'd prefer the refund at this point since I'm already halfway through this semester of the hard stuff I'd actually need the book for. I could save myself 90 dollars. I'll take it. We'll see about that.

Oh, I said something about posting a video of myself last week... here we go. I just barely made this. Enjoy!

[Insightful Title]

2009-01-25T14:19:00.000-08:00

Another week has gone by and I'm surviving. :) I had my first private lesson of the semester on Friday. Friday at 9:00... PM. Yeah, it was rather exciting. We don't have Geralyn this semester because she's busy recording a CD and doing a mini tour thing with her trio. So, we have Sarah Holden for the semester. She's really nice and really knows what she's talking about, I just can't help but miss Geralyn. Sarah got a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Oboe at Juilliard. So she definitely knows what she's talking about. :P The only problem is that she has to arrange her schedule to fit her husband working so that at least one of them is home with her kids. So, she could only have lessons on Monday and Friday evening, and Saturday morning. I ended up being stuck with the Friday time at 9, which I actually switched to be at 8 now. It went well, though. She had some good things to say.

Other than that, Ashley and I got pizza Friday night and rented House Bunny. I've recently discovered the amazingness that is RedBox. It's so convenient! There's one about half a block away and Ashley and I can just go and rent a movie for the night for a dollar. I'm getting caught up on movies I haven't seen that I wanted to.

I had my first Dictation pace test last Thursday as well... I think I got a B+! I'm not exactly sure yet, but I got between a B and an A-. I was so proud of myself. I didn't do that well on the mock pace test. This semester is so different... and it's so much harder than the other semesters. I was getting worried, but if I keep this up, I'll get the highest grade yet in the class! Yay for that!

So far in Calculus, things are going okay. Our first exam started on Friday and goes until tomorrow, Tuesday being the late day. If I study I should do alright... there were just a couple things I wasn't exactly sure about. This semester doesn't require me to do all of the written homework, and I'm totally not. So I'm not doing Calculus as much, and it's not sinking in as well. Oops. I should try to get in the habit of doing that so I actually learn better. This class is structured a lot differently than last semesters was, it's taking some adjusting. I'm just going to hope for at least an A-, like last semester. I've got to really learn this stuff as well, since I'm taking multi-variable Calculus this Spring. It'll move faster and it seems like it'd be harder. If I just apply myself I can do really well at it, I know I can. It's just a matter of applying myself. :) It should be fun. I really do like math.

I started taking these online classes this summer: Biology 100 and Doctrine and Covenants 1. I didn't really do much... I only have until mid-May to finish them without paying an extension fee. They cost a lot of money! I just need to remember when I finish them I'll get reimbursed 75% from my parents... which would certainly be nice. It's nice to have money. I'm happy that I have quite a bit more money than I did at this point last year. Not to mention I'm making $1.40 more an hour than I was last Winter, and the same number of hours. I should be making a lot of money this semester! Maybe eventually I'll buy something big... like a laptop or a car. I really like my desktop, and it was a lot cheaper than buying a laptop, but the mobility would certainly be nice. I wouldn't really need it with the classes I'm taking right now, but this summer and on I could use it in my computer science classes. I can't decide if I'd want a Mac, PC, or a Linux machine. I want to get used to Mac and Linux like I am with Windows. I'm not sure I'd want a PC if it had Vista on it... or maybe I should so I can get used to that. Blech, I should worry about that later. Yay for having money!

Okay, I think that'll do for now. Maybe next week I'll have a new video to post since I do have a camera that can take videos now. Oh, that sounds like fun. Look forward to it! :)

The Long Weekend

2009-01-19T09:56:00.000-08:00

I didn't quite update yesterday, but I'll post today to make up for it. :)

Today was Martin Luther King's birthday... or what we decided to make it. Either way, I didn't have school today! Yay! I love being at college without having school. Then I just party, party, party and have a wonderful time. Well, I don't always party, but this weekend was definitely fun. Ashley and I rented some movies and watched them while eating some yummy food. We also went on some frigidly cold walks. I finally got to see "Eagle Eye" and "Wall-E." Both were really good! Eagle Eye didn't turn out to be quite what I expected, but I still really liked it. Wall-E was very interesting, and it was freakin' adorable. Pixar knows what their doing.

Just now I finished doing a "Biggest Loser" workout with Charlene (one of my roommates) and her friend Theresa. Oh boy, it was fun. :) I can already tell my legs are going to be so sore tomorrow. But within a week I'm gonna have this chizzled six-pack, baby. :P That would actually be kind of creepy. It'll be fun. I like to be in shape. It's a little hard to run out here, too. The air is so thin and it's so freakin' cold all the time! We also don't really like to pay that much extra for heating, so it's always really cold in the apartment as well. Right now, my right hand is so cold... and my feet. Maybe I should put on my slippers.

In the spirit of making lists, I'm going to copy Rachel's little questionaire thing and answer the questions myself. What fun!

Name: Sarah
Eye Color: Brown
Shoe size: 8-9
Height: 5'5"
What brands are you wearing right now? That's a somewhat odd question... I'm still wearing the clothes I worked out in: Champion athletic shorts and a BYU t-shirt.
Favorite Number: 2307 :P
Favorite drink: Probably water... nothing quenches thirst better!
Favorite Month: December--Christmas/Holiday time!
Favorite Breakfast: Cereal--I'll go with Oatmeal Squares. Oh, or french toast! That's delicious stuff.
***********Have You Ever*****************
Love/Liked someone so much it made you cry? I think for what this question is going at, no. I've never loved/liked another non-relative boy so much that it made me cry.
Been in a police car: I don't think so.
Came close to dying: Just the other day I was crossing the street and a car almost made a right turn into me. That was rather exciting. Fifth quarter sometimes worried me as well. :P
Been in a hot tub: Yes! Oh... that sounds so nice right now.
Fallen asleep in school: I did just on Friday!
Broken someone's heart: Maybe. Though, it was more like middle school/elementary school drama. Hardly counts.
Cried when someone died: Yes.
Fell off your chair: Yes! In fact, I have a video of me doing that.
Saved e-mails: Oh yes.
Ever been cheated on?: I'd probably need a real boyfriend to be cheated on.
***********What is-****************
Your room like: My room here is mostly clean. Right now I really need to do my laundry, so my basket is getting somewhat full. I also happen to have bananas hanging on my lamp. It's good decoration.
Last thing you ate? A bowl of Kroger brand corn flakes. Yum!
--------------------------Ever Had- ---------------------------
Chicken pox: I did when I was two or so. Don't remember it at all.
Sore throat: I'm not sure who hasn't.
Stitches: Sure haven't!
-------------------------Do You--------------------------------
Believe in love at first sight? I really don't think it'd be love. It'd be infatuation/attraction.
Like picnics? Depends on the weather--but usually yes!
Like school? For the most part--I love it! Especially here at college where I get to study things I'm actually interested in and be around people also interested in the same thing I am around the same age.
-----------------------Questions-------------------------------
Who was the last person you danced with? David! We were playing this game in Music 276--such good times.
Who makes you smile? Tons of people. Family, friends, the Oboe studio, Music 276 people... (not to say the Oboe studio or Music 276 aren't my friends. :P)
-------------------------Who---------------------------
Did you last yell at? Yell? Umm... I don't normally yell out of anger. The last time I remember doing that was this past summer, actually.
Do you wear contact lenses or glasses? Yes--usually contacts. (I'm not sure why this is under "who")
Do you like yourself? For the most part!
--------------------Final Questions--------------------------
Favorite song? That is impossible to answer. Depends on the genre, and my mood. Just now the song that popped into my head was, "Fight the Sky" by Gavin Mikhail.
What did you do today? I got up, ate breakfast, played Brawl with Ashley, talked with my roommates, took a nice long nap, ate lunch/dinner, worked out with roommate, and now posting on my blog!
----------------------RANDOM--------------------------------
Hate someone in your family? Hate? That is such a strong word. I dislike people at times, but I don't hate anyone.
Good singer? Sometimes I like to think I am. :P
Diamond or pearl? I'd probably go with diamond, but pearls are nice too.
Are you oldest? Absolutely not. I'm the youngest in my family, and usually out of my friends, too. The only time I was the oldest was when I played soccer way back in the day.
Indoors or outdoors? Lately, indoors! It's just so cold outside.
--------------------------Today did you-----------------------
Talk to someone you like? Umm, that's kind of weird. Yes, I did. I talked to my sister and my roommates. Though, if you're asking about a boy I "like", no. No I did not.
Get sick? Certainly not.
Sing? I did sing a little bit. Just heard a song I really liked and started singing along with it.
Talked to an ex: Ex-boyfriend? I guess that depends on your definition of boyfriend, but even then I didn't.
Miss someone: Yes.
Tell someone you loved them? I did! I got to talk to my nephew Mark and Kathy got him to tell me that he loves me and I told him that I loved him back. Aww... he's so freakin' adorable!
--------------------------Last person who---------------------
You talked to on the phone? That would be my sister Kathy!
Drove in the car with you? Charlene and Megan
Went to the movies with you? Charlene, Quinta, and Theresa! We went to the 12:15 showing of Ghost Town. 'twas fun!
---------------------------HAVE YOU---------------------------
Been to Mexico: Yup! Was kind of scary at times.
Been to Canada: I don't think I have.
Been to Africa: Nope.
----------------------Random--------------------------
Do you have a crush on someone: I think I do, unfortunately.
What books are you reading right now? Umm... Doctrine and Covenants, my Calculus book... no...not any real books. :P
Best feeling in the world: Performing for someone and having them react positively to it. (Even better when it's something I've written :))
Future kids names? I think it's a bit too soon for that. ;)
Do you sleep with a stuffed animal? I do! Aww, Freddy.
What's under your bed? Nothing that I know of. There's not really much room for anything.
Who do you really hate? Hate is such a strong word!
Do you have a job: I certainly do! I'm a TA for CS 142. I love it.
Ever liked someone you didn't have a chance with? Certain celebrities... perhaps. :P
Are you lonely right now: Depends on your definition of lonely.

Well, that was fun. :) Maybe I should start on some of that homework I've put off the entire weekend.

A New Start

2009-01-11T16:44:00.000-08:00

So I kind of stopped posting in my blog for the past couple of weeks... I guess because I was home and in my head the people who would be reading this blog were with me or something. At any rate, here I am back at college and I figured I should finally update this thing. :)

So, Christmas was splendid. My big Christmas gift was a midi keyboard. It's so freakin' cool! I sent it to myself up here and just got it yesterday morning. It actually got here Friday night, but it was in the office, so I waited until Saturday morning to actually pick it up. Oh, I love it so much. I bought Finale Songwriter which lets me just play stuff with a metronome going with the keyboard hooked up to the computer via USB, and it actually transcribes what I play! It's so cool, man. I really like just sitting at the piano and playing stuff. Now I can actually play something and get it as music without having to write it out or remember what I put. I love it so much. That, and I just have a keyboard with me in my room. I don't have to go to another piano and play on it. Granted, I don't have a pedal thing and I have to either play it on the floor or in my lap, but it's awesome. It can play like 120 different sounds (piano, harpsichord, oboe, saxaphone, etc.) and is pressure sensative. So, it plays louder when I press harder on the keys. Man, I love it! :)

Along with the keyboard, I also got a new cell phone (which wasn't technically part of Christmas, but I got it on Christmas anyway). Along with that, I got a new number. E-mail me if you would like it. :) I purposely picked out a Samsung phone that slides. It's very very similar to the phones that they used in the Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions. :P I always said that when I got a cell phone, I'd get one that was either Samsung or Nokia (what they used in the first Matrix) and that slides up like they do in the movies. I totally have! It's wonderful. It's got so many more ringtones, free weekends and after 7 pm, receive texts for free, and I can take pictures with it! So many more features and overall cheaper to use. It's great.

I also bought myself a new camera as kind of a gift to myself. I was already going to buy myself another one (that I plan on keeping/using for more than a couple months...) and I figured I might as well wait a little longer and get it at Christmas. So, I did just that. :) I also got Guitar Hero III (w00t!), Sing Star (another version), and some CDs. Oh man, I got this special edition CD of the soundtrack to the first Matrix movie and it's so awesome. I love it so much!! It's got this description inside about the composer, Don Davis, and what he was thinking when he wrote stuff and whatnot. It's awesome. :) I also got some oboe CDs, and a Weird Al Yankovic CD.

That basically sums up the big things for Christmas. Overall a good one. I officially left my job at the movie theater as well. (!!) I just worked for the two weeks I was there and told them that I'm never coming back. One, because I just don't really like working there and it doesn't really make that good of money in the first place, and two because I'm staying up here for the summer. I've got an awesome job up here as a TA that I enjoy more and that I get paid more for, so I'll just stick with that. Walking away from concession (which I had to work quite a bit of... ugh) for what I knew was the last time, was an incredible feeling. It was kind of funny because on my last day, they gave me a write up for being over on my till on the last day I worked in front stand. They felt kind of bad about it, and kept telling me it was just part of the paperwork and they needed me to sign it. I honestly could care less. The only danger about those is if you get too much, you could be fired... yeah, don't care. :P Too bad I don't get to see free movies anymore. I'll get over it. :)

So, being back at school is going nicely so far. Missing the first two days of school didn't really matter too much, but I don't want to do it again. I didn't like going to classes and not knowing what I had missed or anything. Ugh. This weekend I could care less about practicing (which I should probably really get back into doing...) and I went out Friday night with my roommate and her friends. (Who are now my friends. :)) We went to IHOP and then to a 12:15 AM showing of Ghost Town. I overall liked it. I probably would've enjoyed it a bit more if I wasn't falling asleep during the first hour or so. :P I still got most of it, but I definitely missed some parts at the beginning. It was fun! Then, I actually planned a party for Saturday night for Music 276 people. I had missed them over the break and really wanted to just talk and have fun with them! So, I called everyone and we all met at David's place and had soup and bread for a dinner type thing, and then watched a movie. We also played some games. Aww, it was so much fun. I really do love college. :)

Okay, well I think that'll cover things for now. I'll get back into the habit of updating this thing on Sundays again. Yay!

I'll Be Home For Christmas

2008-12-14T14:17:00.000-08:00

I've had that song stuck in my head for the past 2 or 3 weeks now. :P Every time I think about when I'm going to go home, I just launch off into singing it. Oh, it's so great. Things are really ending! At this point all I have left is my Music Ed final tomorrow morning at 8, Calculus at 2:30, and then my take home final for Music Theory. Right now I'm actually being pretty good and studying! I actually made a program where I put in the national standards for Music Education and type them all in order exactly as I listed them. When I finish I have a nice encouraging output of, "You'll ace the final tomorrow. :)" Oh man, I'm such a nerd. It's great, though! I've actually got them all down verbatim really well! I just keep doing the program and get it better and better ingrained. The exam is basically a bunch of short answers based off of pretty much everything we've covered. There's so much more to Music Education than you would think! So many things to think about when you're planning lessons and evaluating students and everything. It's pretty insane.

And then there's Calculus. I got an 84 on the last test. Not bad, definitely not bad at all. I feel like I should do well on the exam tomorrow. I just need to remember to look over everything. Umm... right. Everything. If I just do an example problem from every section we've ever covered I should be fine. Ugh. Okay, I'll try to get on that after this entry.

So the plan for this week is my two finals tomorrow and finish my Theory final either tonight or tomorrow night. Then I'm done! I'm freaking done! After that I plan on working as much as they allow me to on Tuesday and Wednesday to make some much needed money for the holidays. Then Thursday is off to Las Vegas for the bowl game! That should be fun... but I'm mostly looking forward to after the trip when I fly back home. Aww... home. Oh, speaking of home, I need to call the theater. Ugh. At least this'll be the last time I work there! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! That sounds so fantastic. Let's hope this time we have privileges so I can see movies for free. Oh boy, fun times.

I had my jury on Friday, as well. I suppose that's something to note. I did well! I think it was probably my best jury so far. I had a good reed (well, it sounded good and was in tune, it just was closed and was killing me to play), and they stopped me before playing all of the hard runs. Yay! I played mostly slow stuff. The past two juries I've gotten an A-, this time I'm hoping for that A. I think I'll find out tomorrow how that went. Oh man, that's so awesome to be done with. It's funny because everyone else still has all these finals, but I'm so close to being done! That's the beauty of being a music major. Finals typically aren't too bad. Good times, indeed.

I guess I should go and attempt to study some more. A week from today I'll be home!! Excitement!

I Can Make It

2008-12-07T18:14:00.000-08:00

I just finished my term project for Sc Ed 276 (my Music Education class). It was all about my reflections on the 4 lessons I had to teach to 6 students and how to be a good teacher and all that. It was concluded with a lovely paper about 5 pages long. It really wasn't too bad since I basically just rambled for 5 pages and then edited that. Thanks to my website I've gotten pretty good at just putting my crazy thoughts into words and sentences that go on too long. I was intimidated by the length, but to be honest 5 pages double spaced is just about a page more than my average Smallville Rambling. I just go!

There are 4 more days of classes left of this semester, and then it's just finals. Which, I only have 2 scheduled finals. The other ones are either take home or I don't have them. Oh, and then there's juries on Friday. Yuck. It should be alright... I just need to make sure I have a good reed. Ugh! I've been making so many reeds lately and I thought I had found one that was going to be good... and then it suddenly started sucking. I have my last lesson tomorrow and I'm just hoping my reed will be working then. I'm planning on getting to school early to work on some reeds/practice/do sight singing/do other homework. Like I always do on Mondays and Wednesdays. Fun times. The end is so near... I can make it. Then it's Christmas time! So close! I'm so excited to go back home.

I still don't know which Bowl game we're going to for Marching Band, which also means I don't know when I'll be coming home. I have a plane ticket for the 18th, but they'll be changing that ticket for me according to which bowl game we're going to. I should know by Tuesday what's going on... that'll be good times. The good news is that Christmas is on a Thursday, so if we go to the Las Vegas bowl (which it's looking like we will), then I'll probably come back home either Saturday night, or Sunday morning which is the 20th or 21st! Last year I didn't get back until Christmas Eve. Or was it the 23rd? Something crappy like that. This is earlier. I'm thinking I might just tell work that I can't work until the 26th. They already had my soul for the past 2 Christmases, I won't let them have it again! I'm not in that much need of money... I'd rather spend it with family. Awww... family. Fun times.

Let's see... all I have left now is my Calculus midterm (the 4th freakin' one!), which I have to take tomorrow for a 5 dollar late fee, Calculus final, Music Education final project (yeah... another one), Music Theory analysis paper, my jury, 5th dictation pace test and final, and the final concert for Wind Symphony on Wednesday. Oh boy, this week is going to be so much fun! Yay! Like the title says... I can make it! Wish me luck!

Two More Weeks!

2008-11-30T15:23:00.000-08:00

There are only two more weeks of classes, finals, bowl game, and then I'm going home for Christmas! It's officially the Christmas season now that Thanksgiving is over and I'm definitely feeling it. I went to Don and Debra's place for Thanksgiving and the day after Thanksgiving I help them decorate their house for Christmas. Now that I'm home, Ashley and I are playing Christmas music and slowly decorating the apartment. Ashley had some nice window Holiday stickers and she already put them up. Aww, I love Christmas so much. I'm so looking forward to going back home and being back with my family and seeing how much my nephews and neice have grown! Yay!

While I was at Don and Debra's house, I made some of Mom's delicious chocolate cream pie! Debra just asked what my favorite pie was, and I told her that chocolate cream pie was among my favorite. She immediately followed my answer with, "Do you want to make it?" Uhh, sure! Why not? So, I called my mom to get the exact recipe and ended up making it all from scratch Thanksgiving morning. Well, I didn't make the crust. Debra had some graham cracker crust she had bought and I just used that. I think it probably would've tasted much better with regular crust, but it was still delicious. I just ate the crust first and then would enjoy the wonderful taste of the chocolate cream. MMmm... so yummy. We had a total of 9 pies! It totally reminded me of home, and I even got to participate in the pie making! They had two pumpkin, two apple, two lemon meringue, my chocolate cream, and two pecan pies. Wow! It was great stuff. Thanksgiving is good times. :) It was even better that the food was free. :P

Right now it's just a survival game until the end of the semester. I had my 4th and hopefully final pace test for Sight Singing right before the break. Then there's one more dictation pace test (which I got an A- on the last one! Wow!) and then I have my Music Theory project/final to do. There's one more Calculus midterm and then the final, my jury, and then that's it! Well, I have a final project for my Music Education class, too, but I've basically finished that. I taught all of my lessons, and now it's just a matter of commenting on how I did and getting peer feedback. Which, I already gave my videos to two people to review. Speaking of which... I need to do that for someone else. Fun for me!

I gave a talk today in church. I got a call Friday evening from the Bishop while I was at Don and Debra's place asking if I could speak in church. Something about the Spirit... so I ended up speaking on "listening to the Spirit." There were four speakers, and the other three talked about being "led by the Spirit", "following the Spirit", and "living by the Spirit." I think he did tell us all the same thing, but we all ended up remembering it differently. He told me Friday and I didn't end up preparing it until Saturday night. Don't call me on procrastinating that... I usually end up writing talks the morning of. :P It turned out alright, though. I ended up telling about 3 or 4 stories to apply the topic I was trying to talk about. They always tell us in our Music Education class that there should be little information and a lot of application. You actually remember more and learn from the application more than lecture. And it's just more fun to listen to stories in Sacrement meeting than someone reading a General Conference talk to you again. I got compliments from people about it, so I guess it turned out alright. :) I was surprisingly not that nervous. I think all these performances they make me do as a music major are helping me not be nervous when I perform or whenever I speak. It's nice.

I should really try to finish some of my homework so I can try to get some sleep tonight! Yay for sleep! :)

I Fail

2008-11-25T19:23:00.000-08:00

I was doing so well at updating this every Sunday, and then I missed last Sunday! Fail! Oh well, here I am updating on a Tuesday night. I'm now free for a week! No more classes until next Monday. Good times. Most of my classes today were cancelled. It's funny because I think they were cancelled more because the professors knew that hardly anyone was planning on coming to class anyway. I would've gone, but oh well. I'll take the free time. :) I ended up just programming a calculator in my free time... yeah, I'm that big of a nerd. I'm working on a calculator with lots of complex functions. So far I've got it getting any sort of root (square root, cube root, 4th root, etc), inverse, power, factorial, and now I'm working on getting the log to work. Ugh, it's so hard. I'll get it figured out eventually. It's just so much fun! :)

The plan for this week is to go to my Aunt and Uncle's place (Don and Debra) for Thanksgiving. It should be fun. Free food, fun, and just being with family. Even if it isn't my direct family... it's just under a month until I'll be back for Christmas and be able to see them again. :) My mom sent me pictures today from a family get together this past Saturday. Everyone in our family was able to come (all the kids, their spouses and their kids) except for me. That was kind of sad to think about, but the pictures were all freakin' adorable! How did I get the cutests nephews and niece in the world?? Man, it's awesome. I'm so looking forward to seeing them all again this Christmas. Good times!

My excuse for not updating on Sunday is that I was having dinner with some family! I met up with my Aunt Bonnie and some of her kids (Jonathan, Jared, and Alena) along with Jeff and Nicole and their kids, Grandpa B, and Kristie and her daughter! Shawn and Coby weren't able to come because Coby wasn't feeling very well. It was so much fun! We had this awesome dinner of potato cream soup with some topping stuff (bacon bits, cheese, and green onions) and this delicious salad and some jello salad. Then there was dessert: cheesecake and pumkin chocolate chip cookies. Mmm... it was fun to see everyone again. After a lot of people had left and Jared was waiting for his laundry to finish (LOL... couldn't pass up the opportunity to do laundry for free), we played Apples to Apples. Such good times. It's great having family up here. Jeff reminded me a lot of my dad and Bonnie reminded me a lot of my mom.

So this Saturday was the rival game between Utah and BYU... long story short, BYU lost 48-24. At the half we were only behind 24-27. Just a field goal! Then Max Hall, the BYU quarterback, fumbled it which led to a touchdown by Utah. That just seemed to get him down and he ended up throwing about 5 interceptions after that... almost all of them leading the Utah scoring somehow. I've got to say, many of the Utah fans are just not nice. I was honestly scared wearing a BYU marching band uniform while being in that stadium. One of their favorite things to do was to give us the finger. It seemed like when Utah would make a good play they would cheer at us to rub it in our face more than to cheer on their team. We had this combined show with the Utah band and they were all really nice. One of their Saxphone players started singing, "Why can't we be friends..." So true! Why not? Man, they were all great people. It was fun performing with them. I remember one person looking at me and saying, "I'm sorry... " Oh, is this person actually being nice!? "...I'm sorry that you go to BYU." Oh, just kidding. He couldn't have the class to just respect me as a person. Oh well... at least I can sleep at the night knowing that I'm not rude to the Utah people.

Okay, I should try to finish my Smallville Rambling for the most recent episode, Bride, before I leave to Debra's place. It's gonna be so freakin' long... so much to talk about!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

More ramblings!

2008-11-16T13:59:00.000-08:00

Ashley pointed out to me the other day that this semester is actually very close to its end! There's this week, and then a 2-day week for Thanksgiving and then two weeks and then finals! The Friday of that second week being a "reading day" to prepare for finals. Which, for music majors is jury day. It's really so close! Then we'll have our bowl game and then it'll Christmas/home time. :) Yay!

This week I finished the 4 music lessons I was supposed to teach for my Music Education class, and I performed a little mini recital on Monday. It went pretty well, I guess. I got many complimentary things said to me about it. For me, though, it could have been much better. At least I had a pretty good reed I had just made that weekend. People were commenting on how good my tone was, so I guess that's good. :) There are just this high F that I've hit so consistently and it's like a climax, and I totally missed it. I was still getting used to the reed, and I was used to a reed that was dying that would hit those high notes too easily. Oh well... people didn't seem to care. At least it's overwith and now I just listen to everyone else in the class perform.

Trombone is a lot of fun! It's so much fun to actually use my air again. Though, the Trombone is much bigger than an oboe and has much less resistance. I have to take so many breaths... I run out of air so quickly! Now that I have some basic slide positions down, I can sound somewhat like a real Trombone player while I'm playing easy stuff. Aww, it's so much fun. I can't wait until I start my workshops and all that we focus on is playing the instruments. Well, I heard it's a lot about how to teach it, too. That's fine. :) In this class, though, we are literally just thrown into the group with the kids and just kind of learn as we go. It's great.

I'm trying to decide if I should take an Exercise Science class next semester. I'm thinking about beginning weight training. I was going to take that class last Winter, until I realized that it wasn't very convenient in my schedule at all. The only drawback this Winter is that I'm already taking 17.5 credit hours and this class would bring that to 18 hours. It would also take away two hours of time that I could work. That would add up to a lot of money by the end of the semester I'd miss out on. Not only that, but it'd be time at work when there would hardly be anyone in the lab: 9 AM. People are in class then. So it could basically be like a time to do my homework and get paid for it. I'd really love to be more in shape, though. It's be right after sight singing, too, so I'd have half an hour to get ready for it and leave early to take a shower or something. I can sign up for the class tonight... someone help me decide!

Okay, what else is new... I took yet another Calculus midterm. I felt pretty good about it, not as good as the last midterm, but pretty good. This one took me two and a half hours to take it! The other ones only took me about an hour and a half, probably less. This one I just kept checking things and reproving things I wasn't sure about. It took so long and made my brain so tired. Let's hope I did well on it! I should find out later this week. Either Tuesday or Thursday. I'm hoping Tuesday. :)

So I think it's decided that my camera is broken. Sad day! I went to the Kodak website and the fact that it broke after I dropped it makes the warranty invalid. Understandable. I got an estimate of what it would cost to repair it without the warranty... they estimated 70 dollars. Umm, I think not. They have refurbished cameras that are just about as good as the one I have that are like 75 dollars or so. I'm thinking I know something I'll get for Christmas. :) I'll try to be extra careful with this next one! What the heck is wrong with my luck and cameras! I need a camera, though. It's so nice to be able to take pictures and videos and share them with people. Not to mention I'm planning on going to Fan Fair again, and I'd really like to have a camera for that. It's just nice. If I could just stop breaking them then life would be grand. I even tried just fixing the camera myself... instead I just go some plastic pieces that apparently broke inside the camera to fall out. I don't get it. It's fallen down before, what the heck made it break so dumbly this time? The battery was dead at the time... so maybe I should try a new battery before completely junking the camera. I don't know.

Okay, I should really go and practice or something. I've got a lesson tomorrow and I've got some things to practice. Oh the joy of it all. :)

More than halfway!

2008-11-09T14:59:00.000-08:00

As we get into November and closer to Thanksgiving... I'm realizing that the semester is really getting close to finishing! Which also reminds me that I have yet another Calculus midterm that I should take tomorrow or Wednesday. Fun stuff.

Tomorrow I have a mini-recital thing for my Music Education class. I just have to play something contrasting for about 8 minutes. I've got the song picked out and rehearsed with the accompanist I'll be playing with tomorrow. I had to get a different accompanist than my normal one since I'm playing for the class at 9:00 AM... which just so happens to be the time that everyone ever has class. Well, in the school of music at least. :P So, I've got someone whose in my class playing with me. He's a vocal major, but he's a really good pianist too! It seems like everyone in the school of music is already a very competant piano player except for me. Oh well! I'm not completely illerate on the piano, I'm just not amazing like lots of people. I'm looking forward to the piano class I'm going to take the Spring term next year. Though I hear that's really more of a class on playing cadences in different keys and whatnot rather than real piano technique. Whatever, it'll be fun either way. :)

My camera doesn't seem to be working anymore. I was using it to record myself playing while it was low on batteries. It was propped up so that it was angled so you could actually see me playing. I had it leaning on its lens... the one that comes in and out and it turns off and on. So, while I was playing it ran out of batteries and thus the nice lens thing went back in, which caused my camera to fall on the ground. I didn't notice it had turned off until it had already fallen on the ground. This isn't the first time that my camera has fallen on the ground and I've had to snap it back together again to get it to work. I wasn't too worried. Though, this time when I put it back together, it wouldn't turn on. Well, duh... the battery is dead, right? I tried charging it, nothing. And I know that in the past even when it turns itself off like that from running out of battery, I can normally still get it to turn on again for a moment before turning itself off again from lack of battery power. I think it just knocked just wire loose that connects the battery to the rest of the camera when it fell. I'm not sure how to fix it, though. I would probably end up breaking it more if I tried to hard. So, I need to find a way to get Kodak to fix it for me. I have a year warranty with them. I'm just hoping that they'll still fix it even thought it fell and that's what caused it break. Oh well. I'll try not to dwell on it. I just don't seem to have good luck with cameras. I really don't try to mean to them. Bad things just happen.

I registered for my classes on Thursday night. That was a bundle of fun. :) I can't believe I'm going to be taking my fourth semester music core classes. I'll be in Sight Singing 4, Dictation 4, and Music Theory 4! Wow... I should know my stuff by then. Though, I heard that Theory 4 was just contemporary stuff and completely left any kind of rules or anything. I'm really excited for it, actually. I heard that the 3rd semester was the hardest... but I love it. I love it all! I love music so much, man. It's all so freakin' fascinating. Is it weird that I sit through Sacrement meeting analyzing the hymns? Some are much easier than others... and some are just awesome. I guess Music is a good major for me. If I could, I would try to major in every type of music major offered. I could do performance, education, composition, media music (recording studio type stuff), jazz (could be fun!), or whatever else there is. I'd love it all. I've vaguely considered doing composition, but then I remember how much I love Education and how I've already started the program and got into it and everything. Maybe I can do a masters in Composition or Theory or something. So much to study and learn about! Why can't I do it all?

I think this blog is turning into a "General Sarah Ramblings" place. It's my padded cell, man. It's where I can let my insane thoughts come out into words! Such a joy.

New Song!

2008-11-02T18:24:00.001-08:00

Aren't you all lucky... you get to hear a new song I've recently written. :) I've been working on it off and on for about a month or so. I finally got to perform in my most recent master class on Wednesday. This time I remembered to record me playing. So, I uploaded it to myspace videos. I tried youtube... but youtube only allows videos to be 10 minutes long, and mine happened to be 10 minutes and 29 seconds. I talked about for about a minute at the beginning... if I just hadn't talked. :P Oh well.

I talk much quieter than I play, so be warned. Since I have a bad habit of mumbling and you can't really hear everything I say at the beginning, I'll try to explain what they are all about here. :)

It's three movements: Verwirrung, Traum, and Maske. It's German for Confusion, Dream, and Mask respectively. It's like a progression of emotion when something dramatic happens to you. It could be like a death of someone close to you, breaking up with a boyfriend/girlfriend, maybe even losing a pet. Just something that really hits you hard when you first hear about it. The way I portray it in these songs is initially you're just really confused as to how it could have happened and just angry about it. Why? How? It doesn't seem possible! That kind of thing. Things just don't make sense. A somewhat disjunct melody with some nice dissonant chords to throw things out of whack.

After that stage of confusion... the whole situation starts to sink in and you start to realize what really happened. It feels like a dream. You feel like the world is moving and you are just standing there in the background watching. As the second movement goes on, there are moments of just feeling the magnitude of it all... just plain sadness. It kind of moves from a dream stage to just a stage of mourning and sadness. You now know what really happened and have at least started to accept that it really did happen.

The third movement is settling into life coping with this new situation. You don't really move past it, but you put on a mask to make it seem like you have. The third movement is actually in the key of F minor, but I don't use any notes that would make it sound minor. It's just a mask... it's supposed to sound major and happy, but the reality is that I'm still in a minor key. I'm still sad and mourning... but I'm putting on the appearance that I'm okay. A happy melody that just keeps repeating with some slight variances. I keep telling people, "Yeah! I'm good! I'm happy! Everything's great!" Eventually I get tired of it, and the true emotions start to come out. Then it finally ends with me shoving the happy melody down your throat. "Yeah, it hurts... no I'm HAPPY gosh darn it!"

Not really the happiest of songs, but it was fun to write. :) Please tell me what you think!

Verwirrung, Traum, and Maske

2008-10-26T15:49:00.000-07:00

October is really coming to a close. It's almost November! Wow, I have to register for classes for next semester in like a week or two. Weird! Next semester should be fun. I should be able to be more consistent with my practicing and such, and I'll be able to work more hours without marching band. Which means more money! I don't really need more money, but it's nice to have it. I'll need it when I'm paying for Fan Fair, which I've basically decided I'm going again next year. The plan is that my mom will meet me in Nashville and we can go together again. Since I'm staying for Summer and Spring and not really coming home for the summer... it's time that we'll be able to spend together. It'll be fun. :) I'm just hoping it won't be too hard to miss that school. I'll know ahead of time so I should be able to plan ahead so it won't hurt me to miss school. I'll need a break, man. I'm going to lose my mind. I'll be taking American Heritage then too... ugh. That class just seems like so much freakin' fun...

This week I'll be starting to observe and participate in a middle school band class instead of an orchestra. I'm going from Viola to... *drumroll* ... Trombone! We'll see how it goes. It'll be interesting because it has such a big mouthpiece! I'm not used to buzzing my entire mouth when I play. I'm used to the little mouthpieces with French Horn and Trumpet. It should be fun. I'm excited to be able to use my air to play again! The whole bow thing was just not as comfortable to me. Though, it was just starting to feel better, and now we're switching. :P It's okay, I'll learn more when I'm taking a year of String workshop... next year? I don't remember. If not next year, the year after that. Man, I love my major. :)

I finally talked to a counselor and told her of my plan to double major, and surprisingly she didn't seem to care too much. I had everything I needed for Music Education and she already signed this paper giving me permission to double major. The only problem is I need like 3 other signatures to do it. I also need to meet with the Computer Science counselor to make sure I'm planning to have all the classes I need for the Computer Science major. That shouldn't be too big of a deal. I don't need to be accepted into the Computer Science major. It's the secondary major. :P Man, that's awesome. I'm insane. It's absolutely wonderful.

I finally got a calling, too. I'm the Music Director for Relief Society. Sounds pretty important and exciting, but it basically involves either leading the music or making sure it gets lead on Sunday, and picking which hymns we sing and making sure the pianist knows what they are. Not too hard, and I get to lead! Man, it's amazing how many people don't know how to lead. Not that I'm great, but I at least know where the downbeat is and what time signature to direct. I assume I'll get better when I'm going to take my conducting class. :P

Anyway... I need to go to bed. I'm planning on getting up early to finish the homework I neglected to do this weekend. I ended up spending a lot of today trying to figure out what was wrong with The Phantom Zoners... I kind of broke them for a while. But, now they are working again. Goodness, such a pain.

Off to bed I go! :)

Sarah had a date??

2008-10-19T21:07:00.000-07:00

So, I had a date Saturday night. I know, weird! This guy randomly called me on Tuesday and he did just what you'd expect. "I was just wondering if you would like to go out with me this Friday night?" Whoa! Weird! "Well, I actually have a band social Friday night I was planning on going to..." "Saturday night?" So quick! So, I couldn't say no. "I'll pick you up at 6." Now, before everyone gets all excited and whatnot, this guy isn't someone I would really date seriously. He's a nice guy, but not someone I could really see as a boyfriend.

We ended up going to dinner at this El Salvadorian place and had some delicious food! I don't remember what it was called, but it was nice. And it made me think of Flora back at home. :) Our waitress didn't even speak English. Oh boy, it would've been nice if Flora were there to translate for me. Though, we were able to point and figure out what we wanted easily enough. After that, we went to this comedy show called "Divine Comedy." I'd heard a lot about it and how funny it was. It was great! I loved it. :) We got there about an hour early to wait in line, and it's a good thing we did. There were already 20 or so people there waiting in line for it. It was a packed show. They even handed out these little activity packets with a word search and crossword puzzle to keep people busy. So we ended up doing that while we waited. After the show, I thought it would be it, but then he offered ice cream. Nice! So we went to Baskin Robbins and he bought me a single scoop of Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream... yum. He was a real gentlemen and paid for everything. Free food! I always love free food. :) And there was no awkward moments when he wanted to hold my hand or anything. Man, that would've been really awkward. I hope he knows I wouldn't really want anything more than friends... man, I'm bad at this. I hate saying things I know disappoint people. Oh well, we'll see. :)

So, other than that I also had school and such this week. Thursday and Friday I normally go to schools to observe for my Music Ed class, but the Utah schools didn't have school! So I didn't have class!! It was wonderful. I got to sleep in and not have class until 10. Oh boy... it was so incredibly nice. Though, I realized about 10 minutes ago that I had a Sight Singing pace test planned Friday morning that I completely spaced about... I guess I'll have to make that up later. Yay!

In other news, there's another Calculus midterm that I'm planning on taking tomorrow. I feel like I should be able to do well, because I honestly understand all of the concepts and have most if not all of the things memorized that I should have memorized. If not... I should be able to at least figure them out from the other things I know. I'm hoping to pull off an A in that class. If I just keep up with the work and everything, I should be able to pull it off. Then it'll just be Calc 2 and all the other fun math classes I plan on taking after that. I really do enjoy math, though. It just takes up time. :)

Speaking of Calculus, I really should do my assigned reading and take the quiz that goes with it. Lucky me!

Here we go again

2008-10-12T20:13:00.000-07:00

Another week is approaching. I'm definitely glad that this past week is over, though. It got kind of insane. I actually just remembered something else I was supposed to do last week. All of the Education majors taking some form of Sc Ed 276 have to take this Technology test to make sure we're somewhat literate in Word, Powerpoint, Excel, and possibly Outlook. I'm not sure, though. I was supposed to take that last week, but I can still take it this week and it'll be alright. I just need to remember to do that...

Luckily this week we don't have band rehearsal Thursday or Friday! YAY! Theoretically, I should actually have time to practice then, or maybe even go to reed class... finish shaping my cane. Oh boy, I should be able to be productive this week. Key word: should. This week is the first midterm for CS 142 which means I'll have more time to myself. Like tomorrow... people will just be picking up midterms. I won't be constantly helping people. I shouldn't have a problem finishing the quiz and maybe even working on some of the written homework.

So yesterday was the homecoming game against the University of New Mexico. We won... again. :P 21-3, I believe. It was rather worrisome at first when they were the first ones to score a field goal. Too bad those three points were the only time they scored. I love having a winning football team. It's nice to cheer for a winning team. :) Though it was so cold! I couldn't feel my feet when we were walking back. We have these nice parkas that they let us use for the semester, but they are surprisingly not that warm. They are when we are parade marching, though. I was sweating in that thing. In the stands when we were just sitting there, though. I was freezing. I wasn't as cold as I was last year when it actually snowed at the game... but I was still pretty cold. Couldn't really move my fingers very fast and was probably playing about 20 cents flat all around. Good times.

The month of October is basically half over now, which means it's pretty close to November. Which means it's close to Thanksgiving break. Which really means it's not that far from the end of the semester! Right? No... I definitely shouldn't be counting down yet. That should happen after Thanksgiving break when we are actually close to finals and everything. It's kind of sad. I'm planning on staying for Spring and Summer. That means this Christmas is going to be the last time I'll be home for a while. In fact, I'm even planning on staying for the Spring and Summer after this one and then the following Spring after that too. It may sound like I'm setting myself up to disaster some sanity loss... which is inevitable for me... but, I really don't mind too much. I've really found that I like going to school. Of course I'm not a big fan of the stress, but I've realized I've grown accustomed to it. It's like I feel lazy if I don't feel that stress every once in a while. And I love being here on my own. Not that I don't like home and my family, I love my family. :) I just like feeling like I'm doing something with my life. Being home and working at the theater... doesn't exactly scream progression in life. I'm pretty excited thinking that this Christmas will be the last time I'll work at the theater. I even played with the idea of not even working this Christmas, though that'd be kind of silly. I might as well. It'd give me like an extra 400 bucks or so. Maybe even more. That's some money that's always nice.

Oh... speaking of money. I really need to pay my tithing. I definitely haven't paid anything yet this whole year, and I have made more money this past year than I ever have in a year. The good news: I have enough money to pay it. In fact, I have quite a bit of money. Especially compared to last Fall when I didn't have a job and was just spending money. It ran out fairly quickly. I like living at a cheaper place and actually earning money. It's nice. That and books weren't nearly as expensive as they were last Fall. Last Fall was absolutely ridiculous.

Okay, I think that may be enough rambling for now. Maybe I'll even go to bed on time today and won't be falling asleep during Calculus tomorow! Maybe! I could maybe even wake up early to practice tomorrow morning... it's an idea. We'll just see. :)

Until next week!

October is here!

2008-10-05T16:20:00.000-07:00

And I'm still surviving. :) I was starting to feel sick last Friday and Saturday, but am feeling much better. The cure? Walking in the rain for about 45 minutes to Smith's for some groceries on Saturday evening. So, it was only supposed to be about a 10-15 minute walk, but I guess I wasn't exactly sure where it was. I thought I did, but after turning into two or three roads and walking until I was sure it wasn't it, I ended up calling my mom and asking where the heck Smith's was. She led me to it, and I was able to buy some much needed milk for the cereal I was craving. I also bought some other things, such as a twelve pack of Slim Fast shakes (well, the Kroger brand), peanut butter, jelly, bread, apples, oranges, bananas, hot dogs, and bologna. I knew it would be kind of a pain to bring home, but if I wanted breakfast the following week, I need to those cans. It saves a lot of time. Let's just say it was kind of painful walking home. I can still feel bruises where the bags were on my arms. After I couldn't really feel my fingers anymore, I just had them hanging on my forearms while I held them at a 90 degree angle until I got home. I'm definitely sore. :P But at least I have some more food now! I should be set for at least 2 or 3 weeks now.

What else? Oh! I taught my first lesson to the middle school string players at Springville Junior High here! It was a lot of fun! I planned it out so extensively... in fact, I think it contributed to me feeling sick. I went to bed at about 1:45 AM Wednesday night, and I had run out of bananas, which I normally eat along with my shake for breakfast. So I had a smaller breakfast than normal, and I had woken up at about 5 that morning so I could get there early so practice the song I was supposed to be teaching. I had planned to demonstrate it to them, but I wanted to be sure that I knew what I was doing. So, little sleep, stress, and little food I guess made me feel a little sick. But I feel better now! I'll remember to try to take better care of myself in cases like that. :) Thus why I bought more food! I love food. :)

So I'm thinking about what I'll do with my life. I want to go on a mission sometime. I thought I would just go after I graduate, but thinking about it, I'd really want to just go right into teaching after graduating. So maybe I'd go in the middle of my major? The problem: I'm kind of young. When I turn 21, when I can actually go on a mission, I'll be starting my senior year. Granted, with the two majors I'll have two senior years... I don't know. I just wouldn't want to interrupt it. I can just see when I'm looking to get a teaching job when they see that I graduated in 2012, and it's 2013 or 14 and they see I have no teaching experience. "What'd you do?" "I went on an LDS mission." "So... you've forgotten everything you learned from your major?" Well, umm... no, not quite, but it is kind of rusty... uh... yeah. I don't know what's going on. But, besides the when I'll go on a mission thing, I was thinking about grad school. Which, I suppose could solve the mission problem. After I graduate, I could go on a mission, and then when I come back finish grad school, and then get a teaching job, or something. I was looking at the graduate music programs (well, and computer science, but I've basically decided I'd want it to be music), and the MA in Music Education looks interesting. There was one class: Psychology of Music. Oh wow... that just sounds utterly fascinating. It's honestly one of the most interesting things to think about. Why does music evoke certain feelings in people? Who decided that a minor chord makes people feel sad? Nobody! It just does! Nobody told you to feel that way--it just does! I really want to study how and why that is. Oh man... great stuff.

Oh, and Computer Science is pretty interesting as well. :P

Okay, as usual, I have homework I should be finishing. I'll get to that. :)

One month down

2008-09-28T19:32:00.000-07:00

Okay, not quite a month, but almost. Wednesday is the first and that marks the one month of this semester. How is it going so far? I have my first midterm for Calculus that I need to take by Tuesday (Wednesday if I want to pay $5) that I intended to take yesterday. I should study for that so I can take it tomorrow. That'd be nice. My Music Education class is still a lot of fun and it's starting to get more intense. We are starting to prepare lessons that we are going to teach to a group of 6 or more. We have to teach four 15-minute lessons at different times on different days. Just to get a small taste of what it's like to be a music teacher. We turned in our initial plans on what we were going to teach, and basically everyone was too ambitious--including me. I wanted to try to teach rythms, time signatures, and subdivision all within that time. Yeah. Right. I don't know what I was thinking. I'm pretty sure the majority of the group has absolutely not musical experience whatsoever--besides whatever they've done in church. I still need to re-write that plan and make some objectives for tomorrow... how fun that'll be.

Then there's the Oboe world. I had a lesson last Thursday that went well. I even had a reed that I made myself that was pretty good! She looked at it and complimented me on it. It's amazing. I might actually know how to make good reeds. The priority right now is to shape the cane that I gouged the other day (which took like 2 hours--freakin' insane) so that I can make more good reeds. Oh how wonderful it is to have a good reed to play on. :) Bad news is that the Thursday lesson was made up from Monday that she couldn't do. So everything she told me to practice that would normally be a week of practice would have to be until tomorrow, Monday. So I had to practice today (which I normally don't) to make sure I knew it. It's not as fast as I'd like it, but it'll be fine. I'll just ignore the fact that the good reed I had is really sharp... I don't have perfect pitch. Doesn't bother me when I don't look at the tuner. :P

Today was the first fast Sunday we've really had as a ward. We had a "break the fast" together. We all were assigned to bring a type of dish so we could all eat together. It was great! It was like a real meal... insanity. I love having food to eat. :) I've yet to get a real calling, though. We'll see how long that lasts. Last year I was a Family Home Evening Group Leader, or as they used to be known as--a mom. That was alright, but I'm hoping for something different. Then I don't have to worry about getting people to come and having something that people will like. I like other people planning that sort of thing. :P I'd really like to get a calling as a teacher, actually. It would take more time Saturday night (probably early Sunday morning), but it'd give me more experience being a teacher. It seems like it'd be kind of fun. I guess we'll see!

So my Dictation pace test--I passed! I didn't pass by much... but I passed. Hopefully I can do better on future pace tests so I can maybe average another B. That'd be nice. I really am getting better at hearing certain things. It'd be nice if the grade reflected that. :)

Yesterday we had our first cleaning checks. We got up at about 8 (on a Saturday morning... what the heck) and cleaned for about 2 hours. We all had different jobs we were assigned to do. It wasn't that much fun while cleaning, but it's nice to have a clean apartment. The area around my bed was getting rather cluttered.

Oh boy, I really need to get to working on my homework. I've got to do Sight Singing (which will probably end up being done in the morning), redo my Music Ed thing, Music Theory, read/study Calculus, and finish my observation sheet from my observation on Friday. Fun! I so should have done some of this yesterday... that's what I get. :)

Have a wonderful day!

Procrastinating is Phun!

2008-09-21T19:02:00.000-07:00

I should be reading my Calculus and taking a quiz saying that I read my Calculus, but I feel like procrastinating it a bit longer. Since I've written a blog the past two Sundays, I'll make it a goal to try and write a blog at least once a week--on Sunday. So here I am! Writing another blog. Good times indeed.

I took my first Dictation pace test last Thursday--not exactly sure how it went. This teacher, who is another grad student, grades them on his own. I guess to ensure that we don't cheat. But now I don't know what I got on it until Tuesday. A little nerve-wracking since I'm positive I messed up the last harmonic dictation part. I... had some weird stuff there. At least I'm pretty certain on the bass... and he grades nicely on the analysis. Even if the analysis is wrong, if we analyzed what we wrote as the chord correctly, we get points. I didn't do so well on the mock exam... I'm positive I did better on this one. Whatever. Passing the four semesters of dictation is my goal. I was able to pull off a B last semester--which was awesome. Having a B again would be cool. B+ to an A awesome--but highly unlikely. I guess we'll see!

I always have Calculus homework to do. Luckily, I mostly enjoy what I'm doing so it's not that big of a deal. It's just every night when I'm thinking of what I need to do for the next day, there's always Calculus on the list. I either have to read the chapter and take a quiz about it, or do written homework. There are also quizzes due on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays, but I luckily work on all three of those days and I usually just finish the quizzes then. I should try to get out of that habit though. There are going to be days that I'll be actually working the whole time and I won't have time to finish the quizzes. Not to mention the material is going to be getting harder and the quizzes will take longer. Calculus 2 should just be a load of fun. :) It is nice having a math class. I like math. In fact, I think I decided I wanted to minor in Math. Yup, a double major in Music Education and Computer Science with a Math minor. Three of the classes I have to take for the minor are already required for the Computer Science major, and one class can replace a class that's required for the Computer Science major. So really it's just a matter of taking 2 or 3 more classes. Not a big deal. I might as well, right? :) Somewhere down the road if I really wanted, I could probably get a job teaching Math. I hear those people are in short supply. That'd be fun.

I'm slowly getting better and better at the Viola. I got another oboist who also played Violin/Viola in high school to show me how to bow correctly. Now I actually play the instrument better! Now I just need to try and train my fingers to find the spots on the Viola for the notes so I can be in tune. Supposedly lots of string players are out of tune, even some string performance majors. At least that's what some people tell me. I'm not going to be one of them. :P I can try at least. I figure this is the time to try and get my fingers in the right places and train my ear to be in tune. I'm probably dreaming. Oh well!

My lesson last week went fine. Besides the fact that she asked me to play my E scale stuff. Which that just happened to be the one scale that I hoped she wouldn't pick. Literally, every other scale I worked on until it was back to where it was last semester. But 30-45 minutes later when I finally got to E, my mouth was getting pretty tired. I just ran through it until I played it right once. I didn't really get my fingers to remember sufficiently. It kind of came out with my fingers got confused up high. But, it's all good. I did practice it again so my fingers remember now. She'll probably pick another scale tomorrow--or forget. That'd be nice. :P I can play my freakin' scales. I practiced them to death my first semester. Literally, I played them an hour a day. For the first 20 or 30 minutes each hour that I practiced I would run through all my scales. I remember once spending an entire hour on just scales. It was rather boring and monotonous. Thus why I kind of am losing the will to practice them as much. I should try and be better about practicing. I scheduled practice rooms--but lots of them are in the evenings. Which means after I've already gone home and eaten and settled back in, I have to walk back to the HFAC and practice for an hour. It's not that big of a deal--it's just a matter of getting myself up and doing it. I need to get in the habit... habit... I just have so many classes this semester. Well, not really classes, just lots of classes that take up a lot of time. Then if there's anytime before 6, I'm working or practicing or something. I'm not like really stressed out, just have a lot to take my time. In fact, I'd say I'm pretty happy right now. I enjoy my classes for the most part, and I know how everything goes. Regardless, I'll be happy when this school year is over. :P I'll be done with the silly music core! (Music Theory, Sight Singing, and Dictation) I really like Music Theory, but I could definitely do without Sight Singing and Dictation. Oh... I just remembered. I have Sight Singing homework to do tonight. Blech... that'll be fun.

What else? Oh, I finally did my wash. Good for me. It costs so freakin' much here! I wonder if the prices went up at Helaman Halls, too. It cost $1.25 per wash, and $1.00 to dry each wash. I had three loads--it cost me a freakin' $6.75 to do my laundry! Insanity. Especially when you're used to umm... free. Oh well. I'll just remember to have more naked days. Anything to save money. Ooorr... I could just never do my wash. Be smelly! Totally worth the money.

I hope you all know I'm kidding.

I suppose I should end this post and do my homework. Fun!

A New Week!

2008-09-14T21:26:00.000-07:00

A new week is about to start. I have a private lesson tomorrow, and I'm not sure what to think. I always get nervous about them, and it always turns out just fine. I did practice what she wanted me to, and I have a fairly good reed. It just takes a bit to break in... so if I just warm up on it before the lesson or something, it should be okay. Right? I don't know. We'll see! :)

Calculus is turning out to be fun! I missed having a math class, and it's really not too hard of stuff. We just started limits, and it's making perfect sense. A nice review of what I once knew. I just need to make sure I have all this trig stuff down that I never truly had down in the first place. Let's hope I can pull off an A! That'd be awesome. Then there's just Calc 2 to worry about... but I'll worry about that next semester. Double majors are fun! :P

I taught my first help session for CS 142 last Friday as well. It was fun! I hope I didn't confuse people too much and that I actually helped. I'm pretty sure I did. They were all so quiet and attentive! Listening to every word I said and writing stuff down I said/wrote. It was crazy! I know when I actually get a teaching job (wow... that's so cool to think about :)) it definitely won't be that easy to have them listening. The help session is a special group of people. They aren't coming because they have to, they are coming to listen to get some help on the lab. So of course they are going to listen attentively and be quiet. It's nice.

Speaking of teaching, we've been going to schools and observing and I've officially learned the D major scale on Viola! They just taught us how to use the bow. Man, it's so many things to think about at once. Though, I don't think it'll be hard to get the hang of it. Just at first there's how to hold the bow, how to move my arm, where exactly to put my fingers/be in tune, what note is what fingering, and the freakin' clef! That took me by surprise. We first walked in and joined them and they were reading through this song. I look at the music... "What is an E# doing in here??" Oh! It's the freaking alto clef! Surprise! Okay, so a C is really a D... it's different. That's for sure. But it's oh so fun! :) If I could just get GOOD at it, that'd be even better. But I have a feeling it'd take a while to get good at it. I could just get proficient at it by the end of the semester. At least I have String Workshop to look forward to so they'll go over in more detail how to play a string. It seems like fun. You can eat while you play! Insanity! And there's to stinkin' reed to worry about!

Yesterday (Saturday) BYU had a football against UCLA. Which, I'm pretty sure is the team that we barely beat last year at the Las Vegas bowl. Yesterday, we smeared them 59-0. At the half we were ahead 42-0!! Insane! They just were fumbling and throwing interceptions everywhere! We just couldn't be stopped. It would have been more, but I heard we were playing all of our second and third string players during the last two quarters or so. Had to give our offense a break since they were playing basically the entire first half. We played the freaking "Cougar Cub" song that we always play during a first down so many times! That and the fight song for each touchdown and field goal. It was exciting. We have such a good football team this year. Yay!

Oh yeah, last Wednesday I had Master Classes and I performed my song for everyone. It went pretty well! Everyone seemed to like the song and Jesse played the piano part very well for not having it for very long. It had the tendency to go too slow (as opposed to too fast like in Sacrement meeting), but it was still good. Geralyn seemed to like it too and had some suggestions for me. But that's all they were, suggestions. She was encouraging me to keep adding to it and write some more pieces to perform in class. Yikes! We'll see how far that goes. :) Either way, I'm glad it's over and went well. Yay!

Well, I should try to finish up my Sight Singing homework before I head off to bed. Though before I do, I'll go ahead and post another video of a little snippet of something I wrote a week or so ago. On a whim I named it "Mixed Feelings." Just because of the switch from major to minor. Like I couldn't decide what it was supposed to mean. I don't know. Go ahead and listen or something. :P

P.S. I love getting comments. :) If you read this blog, please comment and let me know! It makes me feel like I'm not writing to a wall/myself.

So... school

2008-09-07T16:10:00.000-07:00

I've finished my first week of my sophomore year in college. Yup, sure have. I did my audition on Tuesday, which went just fine. I ended up making Wind Symphony playing English Horn! I'm so excited. I know that Wind Symphony is also going on tour to Japan after next semester... but I don't know I get to go on that. But, you know what, it's all good. It'd cost like 600 or 700 dollars to go (for a foreign trip... holy cheapness) and it would cut into the Spring term that I want to stay for. I'm just excited to be in a band that meets on Tuesday and Thursdays because it works out much better for my schedule. Oh, and being able to be in the same ensemble as Natasha... again! I can't believe it! We'll have a blast. :)

My Music Education class seems like it's going to be pretty fun. We get to go to middle schools and observe the teachers and take notes and such. Oh, and we get to learn two instruments: one string and one wind. We've basically split into two groups for the two middle schools, and one starts with the orchestra and the other with the band. I'm in the orchestra group first and I just found out that I'll be learning the Viola! So, that'll be fun. It doesn't seem like it'll be too terrible. Just takes up a lot of time since it's every morning for two hours, and for when we go to the middle schools we have to be there by 7:20 or so. But, it's fun. Great fun.

Calculus so far isn't bad. Just a review of trig and algebra, really. We'll be getting into the good stuff soon, which should be a review of the Calculus class I took in high school. So far I have an A in the class. The whole two online quizzes that I took that you can answer until you get it right. Yeah... we'll see how long that A will last. :P I shouldn't be too hard on myself yet. I could pull it off if I work hard enough.

So my song that I wrote this summer for sacrement meeting... I brought it up to my Oboe professor during my audition as a way to not talk about the fact that I didn't really practice that much this summer. She asked if I would play it at Master Classes this Wednesday. In front of all of the other oboe players and herself. So, I am. I just finished adding in all the dynamic markings I should have added in the first place, and I re-wrote a couple other parts. There were some parts that could sound basically the same (if not better) and be easier for the piano, so I changed them. And the end. I changed the end a bit. I'm probably going to end up showing the music to my professor tomorrow in my lesson. Nervous? Yes. She only has a doctorate in music and has analyzed a bunch of music written by real composers. We'll see what she thinks. I don't think she'll be too hard. It'll be interesting to see what she has to say. I'll guess I'll just wait and see!

So right now I'm in my room writing this blog while Ashley is off with her brothers and such visiting their grandparents and having dinner with them. My roommates and some of their friends are over talking and having a great time in the living room type-room. This is fairly typical. I tend to just kind of be in my room doing whatever on the computer or working on homework while they are out socializing. Interesting. I swear I'm not that anti-social. Every once in a while I semi-awkwardly walk out and just say hi or try to be part of the conversation somewhat. I just don't really know them very much. I guess if I just interjected myself into the group I would get to know them. Whatever. I like having the time to myself. My introverted self likes having that alone time to not have to talk to people.

Speaking of being social, Anthony and Curtis have come over every day for the past couple of days to play games and just hang out. It's been great fun! Too bad it prevents me from getting things done such as homework, practicing, or sleeping. But it's still a lot of fun.

I have little songs for each of my two nephews and now my neice! I'll go ahead and make little videos of them and let you all listen to them! Awww... they are all so freakin' cute. :)

Back at School

2008-08-31T13:29:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again -- school starting. Classes start on Tuesday and the week of marching band is now over. It was literally taking up all of my time. 8-12 morning marching rehearsal, then 1:30-5 more marching rehearsal, then 7-10 inside music rehearsal. Rinse and repeat. That was the schedule for Tuesday and Wednesday, anyway. Thursday we had a performance and they served us lunch and dinner (yay for free food!). Friday morning we had off so the freshman could go to part of orientation. (I'm so not a freshman anymore! Wow!) Then Saturday we had a game with a nice morning rehearsal before we had to meet at 2. We smeared the other team (North Iowa University) 41-17, I believe. So, that was fun. The shows seemed to be fine as well.

The only problem: I also play the oboe. In fact, that's the instrument that I have to play one on one with a professor every week for an hour and have an ensemble in. Have I played it at all this week or much over the summer? Not really. I did play it some over the summer, and I wrote a song that I played in church. I figure that writing a song kind of makes up for the lack of practicing. I also performed a couple pieces at our family reunion. So tonight I'm meeting with another fellow oboist, Jessie, to make reeds and hopefully practice some. Oh yeah... I have an audition on Tuesday for which ensemble I'll be in this year. Though, it's not as intimidating as it sounds. She already has in mind who she wants where, it's mostly just a check to make sure we suddenly didn't suck or get some bad habit. So, I'm thinking if I just pick two contrasting songs (like I'm supposed to) and play through them, it'll be okay. She had me play the first line or so of each piece last year. Not much at all. We'll just see how it goes.

Oh, and I need to sign up for practice rooms. I don't have the luxury of having practice rooms in the basement of my dorm rooms. I actually have to go to the HFAC and use a practice room like most other music majors. And they are almost always full. Let's just hope I can sign up for them. But at least if I only practice at the HFAC it means I can leave my oboe there in a locker I'll rent out and not have to carry it around back and forth like I did last year. That would be absolutely wonderful.

I've met my other two roommates and they seem really nice and fun people! One of them brought a bunch of stuff I forgot to buy and didn't expect to have. For instance, she has a blender, a bunch of pots and pans, a silverware holder thing, oven mitts, pillows for the couch, paper towels, and (this is my favorite)... an ice cream maker! Yeah! Who would have thought I'd have an ice cream maker in my apartment my sophomore year in college? It's pretty awesome. I'm thinking we'll be having some parties. :P

I am now officially in the cell phone world, as well. I've got a go phone! It charges me a dollar a day for each day I use it and 10 cents a minute for each minute I call someone who isn't with AT&T. I can also text, but it's 15 cents a text either sent or received. If I really wanted, I could use the internet as well, but for the 30 seconds I used it last Sunday, it cost something like 61 cents. So... I'll try to avoid that. :P

Right now my room is a total wreck. You want to see how it looked yesterday at the peek of messiness?

It does look slightly better now. It's just a matter of lifting my bed up on cinder blocks so I can put stuff underneath it and moving those boxes and suitcases to the convenient basement they have here. That's what's taking up the most room right now.

Oh, guess what? Yesterday was my 19th birthday! Good times. :) A person in the horn section in marching band made me a cake and they all sang to me at the end of the morning rehearsal on Saturday. Aww, it was so sweet! Not only that, but when I got home from the football game my roommates had made me a cake with candles and they all sang to me! They even had some trick candles! Ha! Just like home! :) I definitely felt loved. I also got many many comments on facebook wishing me a happy birthday as well. Pretty awesome.

I'll try to get back into the habit of updating this thing during school. It's nice to have a place to record my thoughts and happenings of my life for all to see. :)

Insanity Must Be Hereditary

2008-07-26T21:24:00.001-07:00

So, my family is basically redesigning the entire house. We've repainted pretty much every wall we could and are going to get new carpet next week for the upstairs. When I was gone at BYU this last semester, they already took out the carpet in the living room and dining room and put in tile instead. Pretty crazy. So we are basically taking everything out of the rooms upstairs and either throwing it away or putting it downstairs so we can get the new carpet next week. It's tons of fun, I've got to say. Though, we do have a ton of junk, so we really needed to go through it and just throw it away or give it away. My room was already taken over by Mark and Flor, so my stuff was already in boxes and various piles. It's just a matter of going through it and deciding what to do with it. So far we've thrown away quite a bit, and I know we'll throw away even more as go finish going through everything when we move it all back upstairs. Hopefully the house will be much more clutter-free with no random boxes of stuff in the way. I'm looking forward to it, but also sad to think that the look of the house that I grew up in is slowly fading away. Though, if I really think about it, it's been like that for a while. That's what happens... things get old and need to be replaced. So, I'll get over it.

BUT, that isn't really the point of this post. My dad was painting the ceiling white to cover up the water damage we had there, and he had some extra white paint. He didn't want it to go to waste, so what did he do?
Why, he painted his face! It would be a waste otherwise, right? He asked if I wanted my face painted... well... it would be a waste if I didn't. So...

He just painted my face white... no way! Yes way.

So, especially after watching the Dark Knight and with all the hype surrounding it... there's only one thing that would come to mind when your face is painted white like that.
My mom found some old lipstick and mascara and this is what happened. I've got to say my dad looks like a much creepier joker than me. He smeared the lipstick better to make it look like he had the scars, and having the shirt with paint all over it helped too. :P Here's some more pictures just for you!

This is my Dad during the day... with his glasses no one can tell he's the Joker! Bwhahaha! Yeah... I thought it was pretty funny. Though, he did go on and continue painting and cleaning things up for the next couple of hours and ate lunch with the paint and make-up on. Kind of odd, but hilarious.

And why have an update without having some more of cute little Alex!
Awww!! He's so freakin' adorable. That picture was taken right after I took this video. I came downstairs and he was just giggling and smiling while his mom, Flora, was trying to feed him. He was too cute to not take a video of. Unfortunately, when he got sight of the camera, he got interested in that and stopped smiling, but you can still see his cuteness. :P

My New Toy!

2008-07-19T21:26:00.001-07:00

As I said in the last update, someone stole the camera that I won at work this past Christmas. Sad day, indeed. So yesterday my mom was at Costco and said that she found a camera for $130 that was originally $160. She gave me the make of it, and I saw its specs and how it looked at Kodak.com to see if I liked it and if it was worth it. First of all, at Kodak.com it was priced at $180. My other camera was 5.1 megapixels with 3x optical zoom and no digital zoom. This camera was 8.1 megapixels with 3x optical zoom and 5x digital zoom. It also has a zillion settings for different lighting situations and has a much bigger LCD screen on the back and many more little features. So... I went with it. :P My mom bought it and I'll pay her back. So now I have a new toy!! It takes videos just like my last camera, but they are higher quality. It can take panoramic pictures, which I have absolutely no experience with, but it looks really cool. Oh boy, it's awesome. Totally worth the $130. It also came with a nifty camera case thing and a 1GB SD card. It's not just silver like my last one, either. It's this icy blue color and silver. Basically it just rocks my socks off. Look forward to some more silly videos and pictures this next year. I'll try to not get this camera stolen. :P

So... I can update

2008-07-03T15:35:00.000-07:00

I haven't been so good at the updating lately. Oh well. Here's a little filler on how my summer's been going lately.

I've mostly just been working at the theater and watching little Alex. I practice the piano on occasion, and haven't really been practicing oboe. Oh well, I will when school comes closer (probably in August) so I can look like I haven't been slacking off all summer. I did go to Fan Fair in Nashville! Sure, I'll post some pictures from that. :) I recently became one of the moderators at Billy Gilman Fans, and because of that I was special enough to help run his booth there.

There's me in the booth with Andrew -- one of the admins at Billy Gilman Fans. People were constantly asking him if he was Billy when Billy wasn't there. LOL... it was funny to me.

But, besides Billy I was also able to see a bunch of other big artists perform at LP Field! Some of the highlights included:

Faith Hill! :)

Keith Urban! He was a surprise appearance. I had heard of him, but didn't really know much about him. He did a great job and really got the crowd pumped up.

Rascal Flatts!! They weren't listed to appear, and I really wanted them to, but I had conceded to just try to make it to one of their concerts eventually... and then they just popped on stage with "Me and My Gang" as a surprise! I was so happy! They did, "Me and My Gang," "Every Day," "Bob That Head," a part of "I Melt," "Take Me There"... and I think that might have been it. Oh my goodness it made my summer to see them. So awesome...

Taylor Swift! I was really excited to see her perform, and despite what some people say about her live performances, she sounded great. She did "Picture to Burn," "Should've Said No" (with an awesome drum thing she did...), and "Our Song." (I'm pretty sure... maybe one other) It was funny before she sang "Should've Said No" she introduced it with, "You know, I try to be a nice person. I really do. But if you break my heart, I'm just gonna have to write a song about you!" Or maybe that was to "Picture to Burn." Hmm... I remember her saying, "This next song is about choices..." So, I guess I don't really remember. :p But, of course... it was awesome! :)

Sugarland came on to the stage in these balls. They rolled back through the crowd and then back to the stage. It was weird. LOL... but they did pretty well. I wasn't too familiar with them, but I know I had heard at least one of their songs.

And Carrie Underwood! She did "Last Name," "Wasted," "Jesus Take the Wheel," and of course "Before He Cheats." I'm pretty sure she sang at least one other song, maybe two... but I don't remember. :P She was awesome. :) (Maybe I should try to find another adjective other than awesome)

Of course, from running Billy's booth I was able to meet him for the first time.

Little does he know he was pretty much the only music that I listened to throughout middle school and the beginning of high school. I got his CD (Dare to Dream first) and then my sister got me the Dixie Chicks first CD (Wide Open Spaces) and it was pretty much just Dixie Chicks and Billy Gilman. I was the typical 11 and 12 year old that was crazy about him. I thought I was going to marry him one day. Don't worry, I've definitely grown out of that phase, but I still like him as an artist. (and still have all of the lyrics to all of his songs memorized...) I'm especially excited that he's started to write his own music and seems to be getting close to getting signed to a major label again. His new songs really sound great. The one that seems to be the most "controversial" is the song called "Damn." I know! Billy Gilman saying the word "damn!" It's atrocious! *cough* It's actually a really rockin' song. I really like it. ;) Some other songs he sang include "It's My Life," "I've Changed," and "This Time." I'm pretty sure there was at least one other song he sang that he said was literally just a couple days old, but I don't remember the name of it. All of them are awesome. Much better than the popish sounding stuff he did at first.

Anyway, at the booth when he was there to sign, I was the person to take pictures of people. They would come through the line, give their camera to Andrew, who would then give it to me, and then when they had gotten Billy to sign whatever for them, I would take the picture for them. Andrew purposely gave me this job so that he would definitely notice me... since he had to look at me for the 3 or 4 hours that he was there signing. It worked. :P He was making fun of me for being the "sloppy camera woman." (Just from maybe two or three times that I was distracted and wasn't ready right when they needed me to be to take the picture.) Once he actually said, "Sarah! You know I'm joking, right?" "Yeah." He actually knew my name! I didn't know that he did. So, that's like... unbelievably awesome actually. The 12-year-old inside of me is kind of spazzing out at the thought of it. What really struck me about him is how incredibly nice and outgoing he was! He always seemed to have all this energy and made an effort to be as nice as possible to every person that came to the booth. It's not something that can really come across in interviews or performances. He's a genuinely nice guy. He made an effort for everyone to thank us (the BGF staff) for putting together the booth and getting everything together. And he had a firm handshake. I was very proud of him for that.

Oh yeah, and at Fan Fair someone stole my camera. Good thing my mom was the one taking most of the pictures. The exhibition hall (where the booths were) had already closed and people were just leaving (there weren't many people left), and my mom had just handed me my camera. I put it on the table, and then the next thing I knew it wasn't there. We looked everywhere and couldn't find it. We contacted security about it... nothing. So I guess one of the few people left decided to get a free camera. Granted, I got it for free... but now I'm cameraless again. I really just liked the video option on it. Hopefully I'll win another free camera sometime in the future... *cough*

Okay... enough about that. What else happened?

Well, my grandfather turned 90 years old. We kind of had a family reunion type thing in Utah a weekend or two ago for it. My entire family was able to make it! Kathy and Craig with little Mark, Lisa and Byron with little Kayla, Mark and Flora with little Alex, Paul and Brittany, and then me and my parents! And of course many other cousins, Aunts and Uncles, and some other people that I don't really know very well. :P It was so much fun to see little Mark again! I hadn't seen him in a while, and he's gotten so big! He'll turn 2 in August and he's just learning to talk and do things independently. He knows what his sippy cup is and calls it "cupa." (cup-uh) So adorable! Kathy thinks it's because she would say, "Do you want a cup of juice?" Or something to that effect, and he interpreted that to be "cupa." He knows his eyes, nose, juice, cup, door, water, avocado (that's cute to hear), banana, "what's that?", "yay!", flower, shoes, and some other words. Of course, most of these words are kind of various versions of the word. Like banana is "nana," and water is more like "waer." It's so adorable to see him say "yay!" He does that a lot. Like in the car I was with him in the back, and Kathy and Craig were in the front. They put on some karaoke song and sang a duet, and at the end he would always say, "Yay!!" They said they knew they had done badly if after they finished he just looked at them and didn't say anything. LOL

I could probably go on forever about all the cute things he did, but I'll stop. :P This Saturday I'm going up to Kathy and Craig's house for the fourth of the July and I'll get to see him again! I spent a lot of time with him before, I'm hoping to just hear him call out my name to know that he really knows who I am. His cool Aunt Sarah. :) Awww!!

Okay, this entry has been ridiculously long enough. It kind of makes up for the lack of updates...

Alex is freaking adorable

2008-05-12T22:58:00.001-07:00

Life has gone on. I work at the theater (which is, of course, an absolute pleasure) and I just do whatever at home. I should sign up for those online courses I keep saying I'm going to take. Yes, I will do that sometime... perhaps this week. We'll see.

But for now, I shall show you some adorable videos of little Alex. He's actually here at home now! Well, Mark and Flora go back and forth between here and her parent's place, but at least half the time he's here! So I get to help in taking care of him. :)

My new nephew!!

2008-04-29T20:04:00.000-07:00

So, I got home last Wednesday! w00t for that! I've survived finals (and did pretty well) and survived my first entire year at BYU. Go me! So far from being home I've had the privilege of painting our entire living room. Both coats. That pretty much consumed yesterday and today. It was tiring, holy cravitz, but it was nice to get done. My parents are kind of redoing a bunch of stuff in the house. Replacing lots of carpet with tile, and apparently they are going to replace the carpet that's left with some new carpet. We need it, too. It's old and kind of falling apart in some places.

Oh, and before I get to the incredible cuteness that is my new nephew Alex, I've got to mention the fact that I'm going to a Josiah Leming concert tomorrow night. He just happens to be coming to Dallas! Holy cravitz! Yay! Despite my whining about him in my last entry, he still rocks my socks off. The ticket was a whole 10 dollars... I can deal. :) I'll post pictures and videos for sure after tomorrow night.

But, for now we get to see little Alex! He was born today at 5:38 PM and weighed 6 pounds 12 ounces, and was 20 inches long.

Holy cuteness! His little face... you can definitely see both his mom and his dad in him. My camera was running out of batteries, but I was still able to get a little video of him. He's just sleeping... but, holy cravitz. He's so adorable.

A Little Rant

2008-04-19T16:23:00.000-07:00

Yeah, this could be a Random Rant on my website... but whatever. Maybe I'll move it there later.

Okay, so like I said before I really like Josiah Leming. He's incredibly talented and can compose some great songs with great lyrics. Though, I read a couple weeks ago that he doesn't really actually write out music or read it. If he had a week or so he could figure it out, but he doesn't really read it. Quote...

"well, i picked up piano REALLY easily, it was second nature to me, almost like breathing and walking. after i started playing, my parents hooked me up with a year of fundamental lessons, with a local elderly lady, who hated the way i didn't practice the songs she gave me lol. i was always all about writing my own stuff on piano, and had no desire to learn songs that were already written. i play by ear, but i can read notes very poorly. put a piece of sheet music in front of me and it may take a few days, but let me listen to it, and i can usually play it note for note in a few minutes. if i'm feeling lazy i get the guitar chord tablature, bc i know all the chords and that jazz."

Well, that's great and fantastic. It's an awesome gift to be able to play by ear, but that's no excuse to not practice the stuff that's already written. By learning to play music that's already been done you learn more about music in general which could help you compose better. But he does play other music... just by ear. That is very true, and I'm sure that's how he's picked up various techniques and sounds, but it leaves out the possibility of other people playing his music (unless they can also play by ear) and being able to read and write music is a vital part to the whole music world! Why did people come up with a way to write music in the first place back in the days of Gregorian Chant... oh, so it could be done the same way without people forgetting how it went. It's a way to record the music that people make, and to keep it going throughout time. It's skipping a vital part to music. Part of being better as a musician is practicing the "boring" stuff and getting through exercises. It may seem pointless at first, but it really does help you play better. I've had to drill scales my entire musical life, and it honestly helps. Especially in music where they have runs that are really quick. I've practiced the scales so many times I see it and think, "Oh, that's a Bb ascending scale from F to C." So my fingers just do it.

You've got to be able to play Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Haydn, Liszt and all the other great composers. (even the not so great ones) The great composers of our time wrote down their music to be heard and played. You don't want to spend your time to learn to play it because you want to work on your own stuff? His compositions, as great as they are, could still and always get better. Rather than having a part of your music be there because you know that it sounds cool that way, you can think, "I want the listener to have a feeling of longing for the chord to resolve... how about a deceptive resolution, or modulate to a minor key." Rather than... "How about this chord? Yeah, that sounds cool. I'll go with it." You might have chosen a deceptive resolution, but you weren't thinking it. What if you wanted the same sound, but didn't know how to get it in the different key? It might take longer to figure it out, but if you knew the theory behind it, you could do it quickly and know exactly what you're doing.

It seems like Josiah is an inspiration for other people, too... (another quote from someone on youtube)

"I just love how you can play by ear. I've been playing piano for quite a while, but I just sorta lost interest in it because all my teacher makes me play are songs from books. Hah." (not talking about Josiah, but someone who made a "tutorial" of Josiah's music also by ear)

Yeah, those dumb teachers making their students play songs from books. Ha! They are so silly and don't know what they're doing! Why don't all people just make up their own music all the time, blah blah blah... silly theory and scales and simple songs that will do me nothing...

NO.

Those exercises from "books" are there to build various skills and make you a better pianist. It may seem boring, but it honestly does help. Then you'll be able to play harder stuff and move on as a musician. People didn't make these books to make students suffer. They made them to make students advance and become better. By not doing them and just doing your own thing, it's like you're telling them that they are useless and you are better without them.

A response to Josiah's comment I quoted above, "Be glad you don't require formal lessons as they can sometimes be a royal pain in the [butt]."

Yeah. He doesn't "require" them. *rolls eyes* Everyone could do better with lessons. This is a case when Gavin Mikhail wins over Josiah. Check out an answer on his FAQ...

"I started classical piano and pipe organ when I was 7 and played/competed until I was 19. Started singing when I was about 9 or 10. And yeah, lessons were part of the deal. My Mom was MILITANT about me practicing (think 5am wakeup call to practice before school :), but honestly, even though I hated it at the time, I really wouldn't trade it now. That training has become much of who I am as a writer and musician, so I definitely recommend taking lessons if you can. Don't get me wrong, there are some amazing self-taught artists/writers in the world (and you may be one of them), but I think even if you're self-taught, having a few lessons under your belt can only add to what you already do..."

There is the point I'm trying to make right now. "Even if you're self-taught, having a few lessons under your belt can only add to what you already do." Holy cravitz Gavin! He's obviously a very talented musician, but even he had strenuous lessons that he wouldn't give up for anything. It only added to what he could already do. Yes, you can do fine without it... but in my opinion, it's kind of arrogant and shows that you aren't willing to expand your horizons.

...that's my two cents for the day. :p

One More Week!

2008-04-16T22:34:00.000-07:00

So now that it is the end of Wednesday life is pretty good. :) My jury is now over, and it seemed to go pretty well. I didn't really mess up anything. A couple little things, but they're forgivable. :p So now I just have to do my other finals, which are significantly less worrisome. I've basically taken it easy the rest of today, though. Tomorrow I'll try to actually study and finish some finals and whatnot. I'll try to be done with my finals by Monday. Yay! :)

So a week from today right now I'll be back home with my family. I'm so excited! I was planning on driving back with Ashley, but suddenly her brother changed his mind and is not going to stay Spring term. That means I'm no longer required to driver back with her because her brother will be there. That means it's cheaper (with my Dad's flying benefits), faster, and easier for me. I'll be home on Wednesday rather than Sunday. Wow. I'm unbelievably excited to be back home for the summer. It's so close! SO close...

Okay, so right now it's about 11:38 PM and I have no idea what time I'm planning on going to bed. Though, I do know that I'll be sleeping in tomorrow... yay for sleeping in! I love getting sleep. Though, it's nicer when I have cool dreams. Last night I had dreams about Computer Science. Not really exciting at all. I guess that's what happens when I help people with their programs for CS 142 for about 9 hours in one day. Yeah, I stayed until a little after midnight Tuesday night helping people since it was the last day to pass off labs and such. It was good times. That'll somewhat make up for the hours I'll miss on Thursday since it's a reading day and I normally work for 5 hours on Thursday. Yay for getting money! :)

Alright, well I guess this is it for now. I can't think of anything else significant to say... so until next time! :)

Life is almost awesome

2008-04-12T23:43:00.000-07:00

After Wednesday I shouldn't have too much to worry about. You know... just the rest of my finals. That will include Music Civ 202 (which is online), Book of Mormon (as long as I do the review... I should be good), CS 235 (which shouldn't be too bad), Music Theory (which is take home... shouldn't be too bad), and Dictation. As long as it's a good day for Dictation, it should be alright. If I get an 85 or so, I'll get a B in the class. Let's hope for that. It's much better than a C-, that's for sure. :) Last semester I was hoping to pass, this semester my goals are a little higher. Yay! :) So, those other finals shouldn't be too bad. It's just that and working. Just grading CS 142 finals. I'm all for getting more money. I wasn't counting on getting money for working during the finals week. So, yay for more money! I suddenly have realized that I have a good amount of money. Well, a good amount considering I was basically out at the beginning of the semester. Good thing I got that job. :) I think this'll be the only semester that I'll be able to pull off working 17 hours a week, though. I just don't think I'll have the time otherwise. Either way, I should be able to make enough money to go through college without debt. That's my goal. I think we'll get there. w00tness!

What else? Oh, so I am capable of making good reeds. I ended up making a pretty good reed on Tuesday, that worked okay at Master Classes. It just wasn't quite broken in enough. Geralyn did make a comment after I played about how the reed wasn't good enough for me. Eh, it's a lot better now. It's not perfect (I don't think the perfect reed actually exists) but I think it's pretty good. I'm trying to make some other good reeds... but so far it's not working too well. We'll see where that goes. Oh, I need to call my accompanist and run through my jury again with her. We really need to work out a couple parts in the Hummel. I thought we got it worked out before Master Class on Wednesday, but then at the performance, it wasn't together. Ugh. Hopefully that doesn't happen this Wednesday. I guess we'll see. Even if it does... whatever. I'm not going to fail my jury. I'm just hoping to end up with an overall A.

Wow, this semester is actually ending. I've pretty much survived one whole year at BYU. I had a really hard time seeing this in August last year. I was so intimidated by college. I didn't know if I could handle it and be able to practice and whatever. It's been fun! Yeah, I get busy at times, but it's mostly fun. I enjoy pretty much all of my classes, I have my own computer, and I get to completely manage my own time and schedule. It's lovely to have freedom like this. Though, of course, as much as I love it, I'm excited to go back home for this summer. Just to be back with my family and not stress about school. I think overall I'm less stressed here at college than I was in high school. Eh... that might be a lie. I think I'm just overall happier here. Yes, I think that's it. There isn't the politics in band like there was in high school, and I just love the fact that the church is mixed in with learning. Almost everyone is Mormon! It's crazy!

Okay, well I still need to read about 60 pages of the Book of Mormon in about 2 days, so I'll get on that. :) I love it, it's just time consuming.

End of semester, here I come!

One week left...

2008-04-08T10:48:00.000-07:00

A week from today is the last day of classes. Then we have "reading days" which are supposed to be days for studying for our finals. For music majors, though, it means jury time. A week from tomorrow is my jury... and I'm in need of a good reed. I made a good reed about 2 or 3 weeks ago, but guess what? Yeah, it's dying. That's what happens to reeds. I'm surprised how long it lasted, actually. It still plays... okay... I guess, but I really need another one. Just now in the past hour I attempted three. They all have the same problem: FLAT. I would love them if they weren't 50 cents flat on every note. There's something that I'm doing wrong... consistently. I thought I had it figured out with the last good reed I made, but I keep doing something wrong. I don't get it. I'll probably just come begging to our grad student for help and get something good for Master Class tomorrow. Yeah, I'm playing AGAIN. I played the past two weeks, and I get to play again. And guess what I'm playing? My jury. I'm playing two movements from Telemann and the Hummel. Not only need I need to practice them to make sure I still know them (which, I do, but... whatever) but I need to have a good reed. My good reed that was working so well, suddenly didn't work well last week when I played. I definitely can't use it again. And I need to rehearse with my accompanist and make sure we have some parts that are hard to get together...

Basically, it's be nice for it to be a week from Thursday. :)

Anyway, in other news I finished sight singing today. I turned in my last two assignments, had my last pace test, and was told I had an A for the semester. So the optional last pace test that could replace the lowest score... I'm definitely not taking. So, that's one class down. Well, actually two classes down. My Music 176 class ended back in February. Anyway, I just have the rest to worry about. :P If I just get an A on my final in cs 235, I'll have an A in the class. I turned in my last lab on Monday. I just have one more homework assignment due on Friday (which I'll try to actually turn in on Friday this time) and then the final. So... hopefully I can pull that off. I deserve an A in that class. I understand everything, go to lecture, and turn in my labs on time. It's just my homework I kind of slack off on. But, I slack off in a way that still gives me credit for it. :p

What else? Oh, I made a video of Allison Mack's challenge on allisonmack.com. She challenged her fans to make videos of their favorite scene from a TV show, movie, book, or whatever, and recreate it! So, I did. :) I remade the scene from the episode "Justice" from Smallville. The scene between Bart and Lex. Ashley was gone at work, and I didn't feel like working on homework or reeds or practicing (which I should have done... but whatever) so I used my lovely camera and filmed myself playing both Lex and Bart. Then I just quickly edited it using Windows Movie Maker and picked a song. Voila! I have a nice scene of me playing Bart and Lex from "Justice." I'll go ahead and post it here for your viewing pleasure. :) Yay!

It was a lot of fun to make. :)

I can feel it now

2008-04-02T15:06:00.000-07:00

There's just under two weeks of classes left now. The end really is coming. Two weeks from yesterday is the last day of classes, two weeks from today is my jury, and then after that I just have my finals... and then sweet freedom! I'm really looking forward to this summer. I'll have my own computer in my own room with my own internet. Well, it's my parents internet... but it's not blocked or anything! I'll finally go to myspace, youtube, and any other streaming video site at my own free will! This should be the last year to worry about it, too, because I'm definitely not planning on living on campus for the rest of my college career. Yay!

Some other good news is that I finished my AVL tree lab for cs 235. It was rumored to be the hardest lab of the semester, and I finished it early! So, I got a 102 on it. :) Yay! Though, it did pretty much consume my entire weekend. (Mostly Saturday) There's just one more project, and 2 more homeworks. Though, the homeworks always turn out to be really easy. It's actually really funny. There was a homework due last Friday, and I turned it in Monday morning before the TAs got there. Oh yeah, and on their website they have in bold that there's NO LATE HOMEWORK ACCEPTED! Yeah... I turned in homework due on Friday on Monday morning... full credit. Well, actually I missed two points on it because apparently I thought that 7 was greater than 9. Whatever.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to maintain my GPA this semester, but at least my Dictation grade is significantly better! I have about a B in the class so far. Yay! I had barely a C- last semester. That is really good news. Though, I'm basically guaranteed to not get an A in Music Civ 202. I can hopefully pull of an A-. Book of Mormon, surprisingly, I'm really hoping for another A-, but it's probably going to be a B+. Burn. I thought religion classes were supposed to be easy. Oh well. At least I'm learning a lot from it. :)

Oh, and it's official. I'm going to Fan Fair (or CMA fest... whatever) this summer! My mom and I bought tickets and booked a hotel yesterday and the day before. If I didn't go now, it would be a drastic waste of money. It's looking like it will cost me about 700 dollars. It seems like a lot of money... well, it is a lot of money, but I was expecting to pay about 1000 dollars, if not more. So, I'm pretty excited. It should be so much fun. :) YAY! This summer is going to rock.

And since I'm sucking at life at posting in this blog, I'll go ahead and post another video. Yay for videos!

I just turned on the camera, and apparently the room spun around me. It was all rather thrilling.

The End is Coming...

2008-03-18T21:17:00.000-07:00

So, I haven't been that great at updating this. Maybe I'll try to be better from now on. Or something.

So, the end of the semester is coming. I shouldn't be thinking that the end is coming, though, because then it makes me think of the summer and not having to worry about school and everything. So, then... I'll stop worrying about school now. :p So, the end isn't near as far as I'm concerned!

Right now I'm working on a CS 235 lab. XML Parser. They give me XML code (a lot like HTML code) and I'm supposed to parse it into a tree linking the different tags and stuff. It seems to be going pretty well so far. You can put stuff into it and print it out, but it just doesn't quite work how they want it to yet. Hopefully I can finish it tonight so I can turn it in tomorrow for one point extra credit. I'm looking forward to it.

The good news is that this weekend I finally made a good reed. It's not perfect (if that even exists), but it mostly plays in tune and plays soft and loud! It's response is pretty good too. I'm proud of myself. Now I should try to make the other blank a good reed. Then I'll have two good reeds at once both made by me! Oh wow... that'd be incredible. We'll see if that happens.

Today I also broke my flash drive. Sad day. I just had it in my computer and then my leg bumped it and... it broke.
It looks like it might still read, and yet... no. The good thing is that there isn't really anything on there that I really need. With the last lab I had actually done my work on the flash drive and just brought it back and forth between TA-ing and being at home. This time I worked on it on my hard drive, and then copied it on the flash drive to work on at work. So, I didn't lose any work. I'm just going to buy another one. In fact, I already have. I bought a 4 GB one for about 9 dollars. w00t w00t! It was actually like 19 dollars, but I got 10 dollars off for being a first time customer. I'll take it. :)

So, since it's been so long since and entry, I'll include a nice video.

Josiah Leming

2008-02-29T11:42:00.000-08:00

So, I happened to fall upon a myspace for this guy Josiah Leming that apparently lots of people had known about from American Idol, but since I don't really watch TV (except for Smallville when there's a new episode) I certainly didn't know anything about him. Just from reading people's comments and such I had gotten the impression that he was this really talented kid but was a brat, or overconfident or something like that. Perhaps full of himself. I looked him up and tried to find as many videos of him as I could to see just how talented he is, specifically the American Idol videos. I watched them all and... wow. He's incredible.

He doesn't come across as a brat, stuck up, overconfident, conceited or anything at all to me. His second audition wasn't his best, but I feel it was just an unfortunate situation. Check it out:

See, from that video I don't think he was being overconfident or thinking that he could pull it off by himself without the band. He was trying to come up with the best solution to do his best. He had never run through the whole song with the band before, and they weren't playing the song how he heard it in his head. It made him more uncomfortable to sing with them. In his mind, he'd have a better shot if he just didn't sing with them. That way they wouldn't get off and he wouldn't be singing it in a way he didn't like. Unfortunately for him, this song wasn't exactly for him and he does better when he's playing at the piano. It was already hard for him to just have to sing while not doing anything in the first place, but it was even harder to have to play with a band that wasn't playing it the way he wanted it, and he had never actually completely rehearsed everything all the way through. It makes sense to dismiss them. Now, I suppose Simon called him annoying thinking that Josiah was referring to the fact that Josiah said that it took a lot of guts to get up there. I think that Josiah was referring to the fact that it took a lot of guts to dismiss the band like he did, which he's right. I wouldn't have the guts to tell them to leave and sing by myself, though at that point it did look like the best option.

Now that I've beat that completely dead, people also made fun of him for crying. But, let's see, what was he crying about? First of all, he cried about having to live in his car for about a year and being lonely. I don't know about you, but that's a pretty good reason to cry. Second of all, he was crying when it was in the middle of the night and he was getting frustrated about choosing an appropriate song to sing and getting it rehearsed with the band and it just wasn't working. He was tired, nervous, and just trying to do his best and it wasn't working. Not to mention what he was trying to work out was for something that could determine his future and getting a record deal and all that jazz. (Which, it looks like he's going to get one anyway... yay!) That also seems reasonable to cry. Then, when he actually performed it and the judges were all in agreement that it wasn't very good, and then Simon calls him way overconfident which wasn't right at all... I started crying just watching the video. I would have cried for sure in his position. He's awesome. I'll definitely buy his first album that comes out. I'm actually kind of happy that he didn't make it to the top 24 on American Idol because his style is just so different than what American Idol looks for. To be honest, I don't think that he's the best singer out of all the contestants. Actually, I'm going for David Archuleta--he's an amazing singer. Though, Josiah's incredibly talented at composing music and expressing himself with it. It's awesome. Just plain awesome.

Anyway... I think that'll be all for this entry. Maybe later I'll post an entry that's actually about my life. We'll see. :)

Another Day

2008-02-26T23:32:00.001-08:00

So, another day has come and gone. I was able to finish my lab for CS 235 this weekend and turn it in today for a 100. I had it finished yesterday, but the TAs leave early on Mondays for FHE, so I turned it in today for a 100 instead of a 101. It turns out when you try to turn in a lab fairly late at night (pretty much the only time that I could today) on the day that it's due, it's kind of busy. So, when I got there I had to wait in line for the one and only TA to help some other students before passing me off. That's okay, I didn't have to wait too long. As long as I was able to pass it off today I was happy. Yay. :)

I also didn't have sight singing today. Last week we decided to change the way we have class. Before, our class was split up into two groups. One group met for the first 25 minutes, and the other group met for the second 25 minutes. I'm in the second group. So, usually I would just do some other homework for 25 minutes while the other sight singing class was going on, or take a small nap. The other group also decided that they would do the "fast track." Basically, they went twice as fast as us so they could finish the class half way through the semester. So, they just finished last week. We decided that we would meet for an hour on Thursdays and turn in two assignments, and then not meet on Tuesdays! Good plan. So, now I only have Dictation on Tuesdays. Good times! It gives me some more time to get homework done/practice/make reeds/whatever. Yay. Today in this time I was able to buy a new plaque (for oboe reed making) so I can finally give Becka her plaque back since I lost mine last semester. It cost a little under 2 dollars; I can deal with that.

I also finally did my wash. In fact, that's what I finishing up right now. I'm waiting for my clothes to finish drying, and then I'll put them away. I basically have to put them away because it's either that or they end up on the floor. I don't have an extra basket to keep them in like I did at home. It's a good habit to get into anyhow. Then, following that I hope to start and finish my CS 235 homework that's due tomorrow by like... 9 PM-ish and do my 30 minutes of reading. So far it's look like I'll get somewhere around 5 hours of sleep. Not too shabby, I'm thinking. It's better than say... 3... or 2. Yeah, that's not such good times when I get 5 hours of sleep in a 48 hour time period. I'll try to avoid that.

In other good news, my sister and her husband were able to bring home little Kayla last Friday night! Yay! Also, my mom is going to come up here to visit her sister, and so she'll be able to come visit me too! I'm excited. :) We'll probably end up doing something fun, and maybe go out to eat somewhere and see a movie or something. Aww... such good times. Apparently Ashley's mom is also coming in town this weekend. Kind of odd. Though, her mom is coming to visit/take care of Ashley's... grandmother? Something like that. I don't quite remember. So, Ashley is probably going to just leave and spend the weekend at some relative's house. We'll see how that goes. There's even a small possibility of me being able to finally launch Gavin Mikhail Fans this weekend. I've made 3 wallpapers for it in the past couple of days. Aww... they make me so happy. I'm excited for this website. Finally, a website that has a good focus that hasn't been done over and over again by someone else. I haven't found any other actual Gavin Mikhail fan website. I've seen one forum for him, and that's it. So, hopefully this'll be able to be something successful. I'm hoping.

Alright, I'll go ahead and end with another weird video from that one night a week or so ago...

Yeah, I'm kind of a freak.

More Pictures!

2008-02-22T09:15:00.000-08:00

My mom sent me some more pictures of little Kayla ... aww...

My new niece!!

2008-02-19T21:11:00.001-08:00

I'm a failure as an aunt, because I keep forgetting to put pictures up of her. She's adorable!

She was due on March 17th, but was born on Valentine's Day! But, even though she was premature, she weighed a whole 6 pounds and one ounce! She's still in the hospital for another couple of days until her lungs are matured enough for her to breathe on her own, but overall she's doing great.

Meet Kayla Nichole Price!

And the proud father!

She is just too freakin' adorable. I can't wait to see her. :)

I'm kind of odd

2008-02-19T20:35:00.000-08:00

So, after finishing a fantastic 3-day weekend, a new one begins with a Tuesday that's pretending to be a Monday. Last semester I would have been thrilled to skip a Tuesday, but this semester Tuesdays and Thursdays rock, so it kind of sucks that I get a Monday and Wednesday back to back. Oh well, it'll be okay.

So, tonight I was in a kind of odd mood. What do I do when I'm in odd moods? I make weird videos. Tonight I felt like dancing. Ashley suggested dancing to a freakin' awesome song, and I agreed. She started the song and I just went. Enjoy! Hahahahaha!

The week is almost over

2008-02-14T23:19:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is Friday. Well, actually it's already Friday, but it's only been that way for about 20 minutes. I'm looking to get about 5 hours of sleep tonight. Not too shabby.

Tomorrow will also begin the 72-unsleep-a-thon. We've even made a blog for it:

http://explodingslush.blogspot.com/

Yes, Exploding Slush. I considered having that name for this blog, and then figured it was too random, or something. I like Insanity Lane. Anyhow, Exploding Slush came from the fact that it's everywhere here. Whenever it snows (which seems to be all the time nowadays) and they melt the ice/snow on the sidewalk for us, it kind of makes this slush stuff, and it explodes when you walk on it. You just take a step on it, and BOOM! All this slush just explodes outward from under your foot. Exploding Slush. It seemed like a fun website name.

So, yes. Now that I've sufficiently rambled about slush that explodes, I should really move on to homework so I can get as much sleep as I can... while I can. So, on to bigger and better things.

2008-02-12T23:36:00.000-08:00

The week is almost halfway over. Almost. I've gotten through Tuesday. I had my pace test this morning... it was alright. The good news is that I passed it. The bad news is that I didn't pass it by much. Oh well. It'll average out. Even if I get another C in that class, it won't be too bad. What really matters is just passing. And it's only a one credit class, so it doesn't affect my GPA too much So, good times indeed.

Though... I've been terrible with sleep this week. So, Sunday night I went to bed at about 3:20 or so, and got up at about 7. Not too great... but manageable. I thought that I might be able to get some more sleep last night to make up for it. What did I do? I went to bed at 4, and woke up at 6. What the cravitz, Sarah. You suck at life. Andrew was online and we were having a really good conversation that I couldn't just leave. Now, he's online again and it's 12:40. It's not looking too good, again. At least I'm kind of building up for this weekend of no sleep at all. I plan to get some sleep, real sleep, Wednesday and Thursday night. Andrew will be out of town then, so I should be able to. It's not that he forces me to stay up really late, it's that I get caught up in a conversation and suddenly it's 2:30 in the morning and I still have homework to finish. Oops. Whatever, it'll be okay. This weekend should be very interesting, though. I can already tell that I'm losing my mind from the lack of sleep. Like, this morning when I was taking ma shower... I was so confused. Honestly. I was trying to do some sort of math problem with the shower and water, but it never added up right. I kept thinking that I had to wash my hair a certain way or do certain things to make it work out how it should, but I was never doing it right. It doesn't quite make sense... but all I can say is that I was really confused and finally just turned off the water. I realized that I was just making up everything and that I didn't have to solve the shower. How... confusing.

At work today, it was insane. I was helping people the entire time. Just explaining the same things over and over again. I started to lost my voice from all the talking. Don't get me wrong, though, I love it overall. It's fun to see how different people coded it differently. I think it's making me a better programming being a TA. Not to mention I get paid. That makes it fun, too. :p

Today I had to go to a woodwind sectional/rehearsal at 9 PM. What the heck? Apparently the principal flute player felt like we needed some extra practice, so she arranged for us to get together and practice. Though, it turned out not to be too bad. It did make more of my night kind of disappear, but I think it might have helped a bit. Just to know how everything fits together. We'll see if there's any noticeable improvement tomorrow in Orchestra.

I think that's all. I'm tired. Perhaps I'll go to bed. Sleep is nice...

And, I'll go ahead and post another video. It should be good times.

Hi-yah!

Survival

2008-02-11T22:55:00.000-08:00

So, I got through today. I swear today has felt like a week. It just wouldn't end. In fact, it still hasn't quite ended. There's still a whole 4 more minutes of Monday. Though, by the time I finish this entry, it will be Tuesday. Good times.

So, I was able to start and finish my theory homework in Music Civ without too much sweat, and I finished my silent dictation in the 20 minutes I had between Orchestra and CS 235. Luckily we got out a little early today. Then, I started to get nervous about teaching a musical concept tonight. I had a plan of teaching different rhythms, or just different subdivisions of the beat using different fruit names. It sounded like it could be fun. Though, I was terrified that these college students that I would be teaching would think that it's really childish and not want to go along with it. But, it was actually the opposite! They got so into it! They loved it! We had all 8 of them saying different fruits with different rhythms... oh, it was great. I hope it was what they were looking for in teaching a musical concept. Either way, I had a blast doing it. :) Maybe Music Education is a good major for me. :p Now all that's left in the application is writing two papers, making a portfolio type thing, and record myself (ideally accompanied) playing the oboe. All by Friday. It can and will be done. I'm looking forward to Friday being over.

Tomorrow I have my second Dictation pace test. I'm hoping to get some sort of B on it. In fact, I'm hoping to get some sort of B in the class. That would be much better than a C-. It would be unrealistic to hope for an A, so I won't set myself up for disappointment. :p We'll just see. I seem to be on or off with Dictation. I just question myself so much during the pace tests. Whatever. I guess we'll just have to wait and see! :)

It turns out the program that I thought was finished wasn't quite finished. I fixed it (at least I'm almost positive that I did), but the TAs were already gone. So, I guess I'll just have to turn it in tomorrow for 2 points extra credit. I'll deal with it.

I'm going to be really tired this weekend. Though, at least the first night shouldn't be too bad. In fact, it'll be fun! :) I've done my share of all-nighters that it doesn't seem to be that big of a deal anymore. It's the second night that I've never completely gotten through... I don't want to imagine what the third night is going to be like. Blech. Whatever. It'll be fun when it's over and I'm sleeping... mmm... sleep...

Okay, this closes this entry. I'll not post a video this time, just to make it that much more exciting the next time that I post a video. ;)

Preparing for this weekend

2008-02-11T01:49:00.001-08:00

Yes, it's currently 2:49 AM Sunday night and I've yet to go to sleep. Though, I did finish my Boggle project for CS 235. That's a plus. I can get extra credit to make up for my late LZW lab. I suppose this way I'm preparing more for my sleepless weekend. Man...it's going to be so hard. But... fun. Yes, it will be FUN!

Umm... today was good. I got to eat Kix for breakfast. Usually I don't get breakfast on Sundays because the cafeteria doesn't open until noon, which is when church starts. Very inconvenient. So, we have to wait until after church, at 3, to eat. But, we bought some Kix and milk and finally got some breakfast. Yay! I love having breakfast, and it was cool to have it in our dorm. It was a taste of what it'd be like next semester when we'll be in an apartment and all the food that we'll eat we'll buy from the grocery store. Odd... but it should be good. And cheaper. I'm looking forward to that. Though, I imagine it'll be a pain to have to go to the grocery store to buy the food, but that's okay. I'm sure I'll get over it.

What else? This week is going to be pretty hectic. I've got to finish a project for Music 176, do homework for CS 235 (not the project), a Book of Mormon quiz, a Dictation pace test... oh cravitz. I just remembered something else I was going to finish tonight. My silent dictation. If I turn it in by tomorrow at 5, I can get an extra point on my pace test. Which, since this is the class that I got a C- in last semester, it seems like a good idea to get as many points as I can. I'll see if I can do it tomorrow morning or something... I can just whip it up really quick. Or something. We'll just see. Anyhow, yes. This week should be busy. It'll be good when it's over and I won't be sleeping all weekend. Mwhahaha!

Okay, I think I should go to bed/work on silent dictation/work on theory due tomorrow/do my Book of Mormon reading. So, I'll end this post with yet another fantastical video:

Don't get too scared.

Suddenly today became awesome

2008-02-09T00:20:00.000-08:00

So, I woke up this morning at about 7:00, like always, and Ashley needed to print something real quick from my computer. So, she got on my computer and just checked her e-mail out of habit and saw that she had gotten an e-mail from our Music Civ professor -- we had no class today! Apparently he got sick, and couldn't make it. *snap* Too bad. And, I got an e-mail yesterday from my Music Theory professor, and apparently he was sick too! So, I had no 8:00 or 9:00 class today. The only class I had was CS 235 at 3:00, and I worked from 12 to 6 with my 3:00 class in between. So, it was good times. Ashley and I got up and ate breakfast since we were already up, and then came back and took a two-hour nap during the time that I would normally be at class. Mwahaha! It was awesome! I love naps... they're so refreshing.

So, I went to work and then came back. I practiced for 2 hours (which went by unusually fast) and now here I am. Posting on my blog at 1:24 AM. I'm still not doing so well with the sleeping thing. Though, Ashley and I are planning on staying up for 72 hours next weekend on Kokiri Kids, so I guess this no sleeping thing is kind of in preparation for that. I figure I'll already be used to getting not very much sleep, so my body will be more accustomed to little sleep. Granted, it'll still be hard and suck when I'm sooo tired and just want to go to sleep. But, it'll be fun to look back on, and it'll be an awesome record to be able to tell people. Right now my record is something like 42 or 43 hours of no sleep. That was hard, especially since I was doing it by myself. I would have stayed up longer, but there was something else I had to go to the next day that I figured I should be awake for. Oh, and I was really freakin' tired. But, this should be fun since I'll have Ashley with my to keep me awake. We'll keep each other awake. We were considering making another blog just devoted to that. We'll have like hourly updates or something, and possibly post videos of how insane we'll be from lack of sleep. It should be fun. Yay!

The creepy caller didn't call again, either. I almost miss him/her. Why did they stop calling? Why were they calling in the first place? I just want answers...

So, to close this amazingly awesome blog entry, I'll post another video from last night's insanity.

I meant to just rock forward slowly, but I ended up falling instead.

I'm Insane

2008-02-07T22:14:00.000-08:00

Today was definitely a good day. First of all, all I had today was Dictation. We had a mock pace test, which I did okay on. Then, there was no sight singing, so I was done! Then I had practice time, lunch time, and then work time! We weren't busy at all again, so I got to work on some programs and talk to people on gmail. It was good times. Like I said before, I had no TA meeting, and so I was able to just go back after 6 and eat dinner and watch a new episode of Smallville! They indeed had Hawaiian Haystacks, which were absolutely delicious, and then Smallville! I loved it! Oh man... it's getting good. I'm glad that the writer's strike seems to be close to an end. I want this season to finish the way it's supposed to. Anyhow, this isn't the place to ramble about Smallville. That would be my Smallville Ramblings on my website. I should have one up by this weekend...

Then, after Smallville I got really hyper. Ashley suggested that we make a funny video. So, I gave her my camera and she would just record and I'd just sort of... go. We ended up making about 15 videos. Though, I'll just show you one that I thought was funny.

This is Insanity Lane, right? *looks up* Sure is.

Oh, and the creepy caller didn't call at all today. I'm not sure what's going on. Though, there was a telemarketer who called this morning at about 7:35, but they left message for what they were telemarketing. It makes sense. Maybe I'll get another call tomorrow... I play on being in my dorm at 11. We'll just wait and see.

Creepy Phone Calls

2008-02-06T18:54:00.000-08:00

Today was a good day. All last month Wednesdays sucked because I was basically swamped with stuff to do and things to go to all day long. I had a class from 7:30 to 9:00 PM that only met four times, and now it's over! Well, we aren't meeting anymore, anyway. We have a final project due by the 15th, which is basically just our application to get into the Music Education program. I'm hoping to make it in... it doesn't seem like I should have too much trouble, but you never know. But, even if I don't it's not like I don't have enough classes to take to fill the void. It'd just throw off my schedule a bit.

Anyhow, about today. I didn't have Music Theory! I just went to Music Civ, and then finished my Theory homework, turned it in at my Professor's door and took a nice 20 minute nap on a bench. I met Ashley and we went to Book of Mormon. It was a fun class, too. Today our personal application papers were due, so it was nice to know that it's done with. Not that it was very hard, at all, but it's nice to be done with it all the same. After that Ashley went to class and I had lunch. Mmmm... they had such delicious choices for lunch. Chicken Fajitas Wraps and Navajo Tacos. Those are two of my favorite lunches ever.

Orchestra was pretty much the same as always, and CS 235 was thrilling as ever. Actually, it was interesting. I normally find that class interesting... I guess that's why it's one of my majors. :p Anyhow, we talked about "Big Oh." It's basically estimating how fast an algorithm runs. It reminded me a lot of limits. It was like being back in a math class. Aww... math, how I miss thee. No worries, I won't miss it much next semester and the semester after that when I'm taking Calculus 1 and 2. It'll be hard, that's for sure, but I'll be glad that I took them in the long run. I like knowing Calculus. It's actually a lot of fun once I get it. If I don't understand the concept... then it's just confusion to the max.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. There's a new Smallville, there'll most likely be Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner, and I don't have a TA meeting at 6:30! We usually have TA meetings from 6:30 to 7:30 on Thursdays... which very inconveniently conflicts with Smallville. Though, I've just been finding streaming links and watching them online. Though, it's just that much more fun to watch it on a TV right when it first airs. It's just cool to know that you're watching it for the first time with so many other people. So, yeah. Tomorrow = good times.

In other news, I've been getting creepy phone calls. The caller ID just says "Unknown Number" and they just call and leave a silent message. They called on Monday at about 11:00 (I believe), and then twice on Tuesday at 11:00 and 3:33, and then three times today at 11:00, 3:41, and 5:48. All at times that I'm not at the dorm. A couple times I can hear something in the background, like faint voices, but it's so quiet I can't make it out. So, I'm suspecting they'll call again tomorrow at 11:00, and I'll be there this time. I'm going to answer it this time and figure out who it freakin' is. I was asking some other oboists at master classes tonight about it, and one figured that it was just telemarketers. Which, that makes a lot of sense... but why not leave a message? That'd be very disappointing if that was it. Though, I'm not sure what to expect otherwise. What if it was something "exciting?" What if it was some creepy stalker guy? Yeah, right. It's probably something dumb. I guess I'll just have to find out! :)

First Entry

2008-02-05T14:37:00.000-08:00

So, I've conceded and decided to make a blog. I've already got a livejournal, and about 4 other websites, but no blog. I guess the livejournal will have to be left behind. I hardly every used it anyhow, and I like this blog idea. It sounds more "adult" than having a livejournal, even though it's basically the same thing. Whatever, here is me. In a blog.

It took forever for me to decide on a title for this dumb thing. It was driving me insane, actually. Which probably led to the title that I finally decided upon: Insanity Lane. I like it enough. People have called me insane numerous times, so it seems to make sense that my blog would be Insanity Lane. *shrug* Whatever...

Tuesdays and Thursdays basically rock. I have two classes, Music Dictation and Sight Singing and then I work for 5 hours. Now, this isn't working at the theater, this is being a TA for CS 142 which is the Intro to Computer Science class that I took last semester. Actually, I'm working right now. But since there isn't a lab due this week, we've been dead the entire time I've been here. I haven't helped a single person. And I get paid $9.60 an hour for it. Yeah... it's pretty awesome. Though, on days when we are swamped, it's not as awesome. I'm just constantly getting people off of the help/passoff list and talking all the time. I start to go hoarse from talking so much. It's fun when the people catch on quickly and actually learn concepts. It's not fun when they don't care about learning at all and only want to get the answers to the lab. They don't listen to me, at least I feel like they aren't listening to me, and don't catch on to anything I say. I try to explain one concept about 3 different ways and they still don't get it. Eventually after working with them enough we stumble on the right answer, but I can tell they don't entirely get it. *rolls eyes* Whatever... maybe it'll make sense eventually. But, overall I love it. I love programming, and I love helping people out and I'm aspiring to be a teacher. This combines all of those. And if we aren't busy, it gives me time to work on programs for the CS class I'm taking right now: CS 235. Which, doesn't seem to be too bad. Though, the last lab took me a bit to wrap my head around. But, once I got it I was able to finish it. That was a joyous occasion. A victory dance most definitely occurred.

What else? What else? I haven't been as good at practicing for 2 hours every day. I practice enough to know everything I need for lessons and everything, but not quite 2 hours every day. Like, I usually end up practicing for only an hour on Saturdays, if at all. If I have something else that's urgent to do, then I drop an hour of practice off that day. Granted, I still get enough in, it's just not quite up to par. I'm hoping to get better enough by the end of the semester so I can put 12 hours of practice a week on average at my jury with good conscience. Did that sentence make sense? If you read it enough, you'll probably get what I was trying to say. Anyhow, it'll be okay.

Though, I'm also not doing so well with getting sleep. I keep going to bed at like 2 or 3 AM and getting up at about 7. Yeah, it's about 4 or 5 hours of sleep. It's not too bad, but I'm not even being productive. In fact, all that I'm usually doing is talking to Andrew. It doesn't help that he lives in Washington and so he's an hour behind me. So, my 2 AM is his 1 AM. And he usually skips his 8:00 class and sleeps in. But... whatever. I wake up the next morning and go to class, and then if I start to get really tired, I promise myself that I'll go to bed earlier the next night so I won't be tired... but then I don't. I don't feel tired at night. Oh well. It's not really affecting me that much. I went through high school with 5 hours of sleep on average. :p

Anyhow, I think that's enough for now. I'm planning on writing in here fairly regularly. We'll see how long that lasts.