School's Out For Summer!

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. :)

Happy Belated Pi Day!

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.

A Week of Extremes

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!

[Insightful Title]

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

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.

I Can Make It

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!

More than halfway!

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.

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! :)

Here we go again

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!

Insanity Must Be Hereditary

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

Life is almost awesome

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!

I can feel it now

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...

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.

Another Day

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.

I'm kind of odd

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!

Suddenly today became awesome

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

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.