Classes This Semester

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. :)

Sarah has a boyfriend??

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. :)

So Quick!

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

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!

I'll Be Home For Christmas

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

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!

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!

Procrastinating is Phun!

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!

One More Week!

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

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!

Preparing for this weekend

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.