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.

Into March

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

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

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

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

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

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

So Quick!

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!

A Weekend in St. George

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

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

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

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

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

Happy February!

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

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

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

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

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

[Insightful Title]

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! :)