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! :)

A New Start

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

New Song!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Verwirrung, Traum, and Maske