Next Tuesday and Wednesday I have one final each day. And then finally it's SUMMERRRRRRRRRR!
Never in my life have I been so relieved to see the end of the semester. And now the blog will no longer be a place of me moaning about how much school stuff I have. Well, not as much at least. Homework is always fun to complain about.
Ugh. Never ever again will I take seven classes at once...
Thursday, one week from now, the first day of summer, I am trying to plan something. I've been psyching myself up for it for several months. And I'm finally ready. Now I just have to see if Thursday will be a good day for it. ^-^' May be that schedules won't work.
I was actually planning on doing this "thing" Wednesday, but that was when I got sick.
I would like to do it before Fanime. Cross your fingers for me.
And yes, I'll bet a couple of you have guessed what I'm talking about. Tell me if you have.
~*~
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Black/White 2 Trailer
This is actually pretty freaking awesome.
If this was a trailer for a new anime, I might even be convinced to watch it. But I think it's just trying to get attention for the new games. Sure got my attention! Though maybe I'm just excited to see N in animated form. He has a voice now!
The fan view of N still confuses me. Seems most of the girl fans see him as dashing and romantic (I haven't the faintest idea how they came up with that). Others see him as a creepy creeper. I don't buy either of those, but I really like his character. Can't wait to have him in my fanfic. It'll be fun because Cara will get along with him half the time, and want to strangle him the other half. Heheh.
Which reminds me. I need to read the Black?White manga. I want to see how they do N.
Animated N~
^-^
If he showed up in some of the anime, I might actually watch a few episodes.
If this was a trailer for a new anime, I might even be convinced to watch it. But I think it's just trying to get attention for the new games. Sure got my attention! Though maybe I'm just excited to see N in animated form. He has a voice now!
The fan view of N still confuses me. Seems most of the girl fans see him as dashing and romantic (I haven't the faintest idea how they came up with that). Others see him as a creepy creeper. I don't buy either of those, but I really like his character. Can't wait to have him in my fanfic. It'll be fun because Cara will get along with him half the time, and want to strangle him the other half. Heheh.
Which reminds me. I need to read the Black?White manga. I want to see how they do N.
Animated N~
^-^
If he showed up in some of the anime, I might actually watch a few episodes.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Siiick
So, yeah. Got really sick and so canceled plans from Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Although I didn't really have the energy to do anything, it's more free time than I've had all semester.
It's sicker than I've been in a long time. No doubt from trying to do too much. The three days off were an incredible relief.
I added the finishing touches to a picture that had been sitting on my laptop for a few months. it's not great, but I'm sick of staring at it. And I did a quick picture to enter in a thing.
Finally got around to playing a bunch of the game Crystal lent me. First games I've played in a long time. I forgot how quickly they can eat time! So now I must finish my homework for tomorrow. Heheh.
I found a thing. I'm not quite sure how it works. Can you play with it? Theoretically something will happen.
It's sicker than I've been in a long time. No doubt from trying to do too much. The three days off were an incredible relief.
I added the finishing touches to a picture that had been sitting on my laptop for a few months. it's not great, but I'm sick of staring at it. And I did a quick picture to enter in a thing.
Finally got around to playing a bunch of the game Crystal lent me. First games I've played in a long time. I forgot how quickly they can eat time! So now I must finish my homework for tomorrow. Heheh.
I found a thing. I'm not quite sure how it works. Can you play with it? Theoretically something will happen.
Friday, May 11, 2012
Monday, May 7, 2012
Fiction Class
I just realized that I don't think I ever did this post. And I've been planning it for a couple months now.
So, most of my fiction class involves three peopel per day passing out copies of something they wrote. Then everyone takes it home, reads it, and marks it up. In class the next day, we discuss the stories.
Now, considering this is, you know, a writing class, I figured that the people in it would be able to write.
Not so.
At least half of the stories I've read are completely full of errors. I spend so much time trying to fix their grammar and sentence structure that I barely get a chance to think about the stuff that's actually important, like character interaction and plot. Its really annoying having to fix the stuff they should be ablet of fix themselves. Seriously, learn to write.
I may sound a bit cranky, but you would be too after 60+ stories, some of which are very long.
And even ignoring writing skill, there's only a couple writers that do a good job. And there's only been a handful of stories that I actually enjoyed. Like one last week about this creepy circus that apparently steals peoples souls (figuratively, maybe)?
Anyway, what was I trying to get at?
Oh.
So, if you like to write, great. Write. Keep writing a lot. It's the only way to get better. Some of the people in this class didn't seem to be very skilled at it.
Also, read a lot. It will help you figure out how words work and how sentences flow. Make stuff easy to read. This seemed like one of the biggest problems. Also, learn about grammar, even if only basic grammar. I know it's boring.
And finally, before you show your stuff to other people, do your best to make it as good as possible. Why should people care about your story if you don't even care enough to edit it yourself?
So, most of my fiction class involves three peopel per day passing out copies of something they wrote. Then everyone takes it home, reads it, and marks it up. In class the next day, we discuss the stories.
Now, considering this is, you know, a writing class, I figured that the people in it would be able to write.
Not so.
At least half of the stories I've read are completely full of errors. I spend so much time trying to fix their grammar and sentence structure that I barely get a chance to think about the stuff that's actually important, like character interaction and plot. Its really annoying having to fix the stuff they should be ablet of fix themselves. Seriously, learn to write.
I may sound a bit cranky, but you would be too after 60+ stories, some of which are very long.
And even ignoring writing skill, there's only a couple writers that do a good job. And there's only been a handful of stories that I actually enjoyed. Like one last week about this creepy circus that apparently steals peoples souls (figuratively, maybe)?
Anyway, what was I trying to get at?
Oh.
So, if you like to write, great. Write. Keep writing a lot. It's the only way to get better. Some of the people in this class didn't seem to be very skilled at it.
Also, read a lot. It will help you figure out how words work and how sentences flow. Make stuff easy to read. This seemed like one of the biggest problems. Also, learn about grammar, even if only basic grammar. I know it's boring.
And finally, before you show your stuff to other people, do your best to make it as good as possible. Why should people care about your story if you don't even care enough to edit it yourself?
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Middle School Birthday Party
So, I wasn't sure what today would be like. I went to help at my cousin Dylan's birthday party (technically he's my cousin's cousin). He just turned 13, and 12 of his middle-school friends were there, including Sean, the cousin between me and Dylan.
Dylan has a lot of energy. And from what I knew, so did his friends. So it could have turned out to be a pretty crazy day.
I was a little dubious about going cause the place they went was sort of far away. Monday through Friday I had to do the 45 minute drive to campus, and on Saturday I had to do a 2 hour drive for a class trip. Next Monday through Thursday I have to go to campus, and then next Saturday I have to do exactly the same 2 hour drive to the same place, so another long drive was not something I was looking forwards to. Originally I was going to help them drive, but I didn't need to. I got a ride instead, which was great.
Actually, it turned out to be pretty fun! It was pretty crazy, but a different kind of crazy from the rest of the semester. A fun crazy. Got to put on my kid hat.
We went to this big trampoline place that had these huge trampoline areas. One of them had a huge pit filled with foam cubes, and you'd dive in and then attempt and fail to climb out. It's like the La Brea Tar Pits, where the animals get stuck and cant' get out. Pretty funny to watch the kids flail around like a turtle on their back. Dylan dove in head-first (because I told him to) and had his feet flailing in the air for a minute until he righted himself.
You can't keep me out of that kind of stuff. I figured out an easier way to climb out by imitating the water skipper.
And one of the trampoline areas was devoted to dodgeball.
I LOVE DODGEBALL. I haven't played in so long! It was sooo fun! I still suck at throwing, but I'm still good at dodging! Man, brings back memories of elementary school. Whenever I was the last one standing, the kids would shout at me to get out so they could play again. So I just stood there, and the kids kept missing even though I wasn't moving.
Back at home, Dylan unleashed some randomness by bringing out about 20 stuffed animals. So we buried some kids on the couch in stuffed animals and had stuffed-animal-fights and stuff. He had about five REALLY BIG Pokemon stuffed animals. And many more smaller ones. Makes my small collection of stuffed animals seem pretty tame.
Dylan's birthday cake was frosted blue with a rainbow lightning bolt.
Yep. A 13-year-old boy serving a Rainbow Dash cake at his birthday party, despite many of his friends saying that MLP is a girly show. I still think that's a stupid thing to say about the show. There's plenty of guy stuff that girls watch and enjoy. Why the hell are some things considered girly, so that only weird guys watch them?
So, yeah . Crazy but fun. As always, I turn into a kid during that stuff.
Had to work on chores a lot when I got home though.
Still got to write some stuff tonight to apply for graduation (I will be writing a separate post complaining about that). And gotta finish my homework too.
But I did watch my show. Once Upon a Time.
There's only one episode left. O___O
You should watch it.
Really.
Considering how much stuff you guys tell me to watch (hours, hours, hours, hours of anime and TV shows) you should watch the stuff I suggest too.
One of the cool things is that the characters are based off of fairytale characters. So even though they introduce a lot of them, you never lose track because you already know them all! I like their takes on the different characters. And I like the time they spend in the past.
I find Rumpelstiltskin really intriguing. I wanna know what becomes of him. And the Evil Queen. Is there still some good left in her, or did revenge totally eat her soul?
Only one episode left! How can they wrap this up in one episode? Curse cliffhangers!! O_O
That's one of the things about jumping on the anime bandwagon so late. All of the series I'm watching/reading are all or mostly done, so I don't need to wait for more episodes to come up (usually).
Not this time. You remember me posting about the 1st episode. It's the first show I've watched regularly on TV since.... I don't even know when. Definitely not since high school. Though I've been watching Korra too. I had to miss the last episode though because of the school trip. I hope they have it up soon, because Mom and Dad want to watch it.
So yeah. Second to last episode of Once Upon a Time. I really want to draw out pictures of some of my actions when I watch stuff.
A couple from today were:
"Emma, don't do it! Don't be stupid! Don't trust her!"
And
"Noooooo! Henry! Oh my God! TT^TT" (This is where the cliffhanger hit).
Dylan has a lot of energy. And from what I knew, so did his friends. So it could have turned out to be a pretty crazy day.
I was a little dubious about going cause the place they went was sort of far away. Monday through Friday I had to do the 45 minute drive to campus, and on Saturday I had to do a 2 hour drive for a class trip. Next Monday through Thursday I have to go to campus, and then next Saturday I have to do exactly the same 2 hour drive to the same place, so another long drive was not something I was looking forwards to. Originally I was going to help them drive, but I didn't need to. I got a ride instead, which was great.
Actually, it turned out to be pretty fun! It was pretty crazy, but a different kind of crazy from the rest of the semester. A fun crazy. Got to put on my kid hat.
We went to this big trampoline place that had these huge trampoline areas. One of them had a huge pit filled with foam cubes, and you'd dive in and then attempt and fail to climb out. It's like the La Brea Tar Pits, where the animals get stuck and cant' get out. Pretty funny to watch the kids flail around like a turtle on their back. Dylan dove in head-first (because I told him to) and had his feet flailing in the air for a minute until he righted himself.
You can't keep me out of that kind of stuff. I figured out an easier way to climb out by imitating the water skipper.
And one of the trampoline areas was devoted to dodgeball.
I LOVE DODGEBALL. I haven't played in so long! It was sooo fun! I still suck at throwing, but I'm still good at dodging! Man, brings back memories of elementary school. Whenever I was the last one standing, the kids would shout at me to get out so they could play again. So I just stood there, and the kids kept missing even though I wasn't moving.
Back at home, Dylan unleashed some randomness by bringing out about 20 stuffed animals. So we buried some kids on the couch in stuffed animals and had stuffed-animal-fights and stuff. He had about five REALLY BIG Pokemon stuffed animals. And many more smaller ones. Makes my small collection of stuffed animals seem pretty tame.
Dylan's birthday cake was frosted blue with a rainbow lightning bolt.
Yep. A 13-year-old boy serving a Rainbow Dash cake at his birthday party, despite many of his friends saying that MLP is a girly show. I still think that's a stupid thing to say about the show. There's plenty of guy stuff that girls watch and enjoy. Why the hell are some things considered girly, so that only weird guys watch them?
So, yeah . Crazy but fun. As always, I turn into a kid during that stuff.
Had to work on chores a lot when I got home though.
Still got to write some stuff tonight to apply for graduation (I will be writing a separate post complaining about that). And gotta finish my homework too.
But I did watch my show. Once Upon a Time.
There's only one episode left. O___O
You should watch it.
Really.
Considering how much stuff you guys tell me to watch (hours, hours, hours, hours of anime and TV shows) you should watch the stuff I suggest too.
One of the cool things is that the characters are based off of fairytale characters. So even though they introduce a lot of them, you never lose track because you already know them all! I like their takes on the different characters. And I like the time they spend in the past.
I find Rumpelstiltskin really intriguing. I wanna know what becomes of him. And the Evil Queen. Is there still some good left in her, or did revenge totally eat her soul?
Only one episode left! How can they wrap this up in one episode? Curse cliffhangers!! O_O
That's one of the things about jumping on the anime bandwagon so late. All of the series I'm watching/reading are all or mostly done, so I don't need to wait for more episodes to come up (usually).
Not this time. You remember me posting about the 1st episode. It's the first show I've watched regularly on TV since.... I don't even know when. Definitely not since high school. Though I've been watching Korra too. I had to miss the last episode though because of the school trip. I hope they have it up soon, because Mom and Dad want to watch it.
So yeah. Second to last episode of Once Upon a Time. I really want to draw out pictures of some of my actions when I watch stuff.
A couple from today were:
"Emma, don't do it! Don't be stupid! Don't trust her!"
And
"Noooooo! Henry! Oh my God! TT^TT" (This is where the cliffhanger hit).
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Concert
So, just got back from my band concert.
We had a really great repertoire this time. We had a couple songs from Riverdance, as well as a selection of Star Wars songs. And three other songs as well.
I had a solo in Riverdance - the opening theme to the entire show (usually played on a tin whistle). I'll see if I can find a recording.
Originally I was going to play a small solo at the end of Yoda's theme. But it was made up entirely of long notes, so every time I shook, the notes sounded horribly wobbly. I kept hoping I'd get over it. There were three rehearsals where Christina (1st flute, and an AMAZING musician) was away, so I took over all her solos - like Princess Leiya's theme. It was good practice for me to play i front of the people, and I did pretty well. But even after that, I was still wobbly on Yoda's solo (despite me being able to paly it perfectly at home). So, finally a little over a month ago I said to Christina "you'd better take this solo, or I'm going to screw up the piece."
So when we next rehearsed it, Mr. G said, "Christina, you take Yoda's solo. Tara, you take the Riverdance solo.
There are two solos in Riverdance - the beginning one, and then one during the main Riverdance theme, which is fun and fast and which I can play fine, since it's fast enough that I don't shake on it). Except he had to shorten the piece. We had so much music that if we played the whole thing, our concert would have been raeallly long. So the second solo was in danger of being cut. I wish we could have played the whole thing, but the parts we did play were really fun.
So, I asked which solo was mine, and he said the opening solo.
Mentally I was going "why would you do that!" because that has long notes in it too, which will sound horrible if I start shaking again. But it's a beautiful piece, and I loved to play it.
I could play it perfect in the solitude of my living room. But during several of the rehearsals, I did shake on the long notes.
Then on Tuesday, I discovered that our concert was the following Thursday, AKA today (I thought it was the next week). So, it was my last chance to rehearse my solo with the band. We played it twice. The first time, my stupid nerves had me shaking all over the place. But I did really well the second time. Maybe because Christina got me to laugh a lot and relax, and maybe because I sat up straighter. I dunno. Either way, I got it during the last rehearsal. ^-^'
Dad really loves Riverdance, so I kept our performance of it a secret. I only practiced my solo when he wasn't around. And I set him up for it by getting him to watch Riverdance with me last night.
Riverdance was the second piece in our set. And it started right out with my solo. I did pretty good. I think I shook on a couple of the long notes, but apparently it wasn't really obvious. The ornaments (bends) helped to disguise it. Slightly less than most of my practice runs at home, but pretty darn good. People said I did really good, so hopefully they were being honest instead of polite. Heheh.
Dad was really surprised about Riverdance. I set him up sufficiently. ^-^
Whoo. I need more practice at solos, just so I stop freaking out about them. ^-^' Just dump me in front of a room full of people and make me play for about an hour.
On the plus side, it's made my speeches better, since speeches aren't nearly as nerve-wracking as solos (because in class, no one is really listening to you. Heheh. You know it's true).
I can't seem to find a good recording of my solo. Most of the youtube videos have cut the beginning off. Either that, or there's annoying narration over it. Anyway, it's the slow solo at the beginning of Reel Around the Sun.
Anyone who hasn't seen Riverdance should definitely see it. I can't recommend it enough. It's AMAZING. Especially the original (which, unfortunately, I don't believe has been released on DVD). But the two original main dancers are insanely amazing. Let me see if can find a video of the guy. He held (still holds?) the world record for fastest footsteps. The DVD version is sort of a mix of several different performances. It has clips from the original. And it has some new pieces too. Like Shivna. I really like that one.
I got to see this live a while ago. I posted about it. Though the two lead dancers weren't as good as the original, a lot of the other acts were better than the original.
Ah, here's the finale. This will do.
We had a really great repertoire this time. We had a couple songs from Riverdance, as well as a selection of Star Wars songs. And three other songs as well.
I had a solo in Riverdance - the opening theme to the entire show (usually played on a tin whistle). I'll see if I can find a recording.
Originally I was going to play a small solo at the end of Yoda's theme. But it was made up entirely of long notes, so every time I shook, the notes sounded horribly wobbly. I kept hoping I'd get over it. There were three rehearsals where Christina (1st flute, and an AMAZING musician) was away, so I took over all her solos - like Princess Leiya's theme. It was good practice for me to play i front of the people, and I did pretty well. But even after that, I was still wobbly on Yoda's solo (despite me being able to paly it perfectly at home). So, finally a little over a month ago I said to Christina "you'd better take this solo, or I'm going to screw up the piece."
So when we next rehearsed it, Mr. G said, "Christina, you take Yoda's solo. Tara, you take the Riverdance solo.
There are two solos in Riverdance - the beginning one, and then one during the main Riverdance theme, which is fun and fast and which I can play fine, since it's fast enough that I don't shake on it). Except he had to shorten the piece. We had so much music that if we played the whole thing, our concert would have been raeallly long. So the second solo was in danger of being cut. I wish we could have played the whole thing, but the parts we did play were really fun.
So, I asked which solo was mine, and he said the opening solo.
Mentally I was going "why would you do that!" because that has long notes in it too, which will sound horrible if I start shaking again. But it's a beautiful piece, and I loved to play it.
I could play it perfect in the solitude of my living room. But during several of the rehearsals, I did shake on the long notes.
Then on Tuesday, I discovered that our concert was the following Thursday, AKA today (I thought it was the next week). So, it was my last chance to rehearse my solo with the band. We played it twice. The first time, my stupid nerves had me shaking all over the place. But I did really well the second time. Maybe because Christina got me to laugh a lot and relax, and maybe because I sat up straighter. I dunno. Either way, I got it during the last rehearsal. ^-^'
Dad really loves Riverdance, so I kept our performance of it a secret. I only practiced my solo when he wasn't around. And I set him up for it by getting him to watch Riverdance with me last night.
Riverdance was the second piece in our set. And it started right out with my solo. I did pretty good. I think I shook on a couple of the long notes, but apparently it wasn't really obvious. The ornaments (bends) helped to disguise it. Slightly less than most of my practice runs at home, but pretty darn good. People said I did really good, so hopefully they were being honest instead of polite. Heheh.
Dad was really surprised about Riverdance. I set him up sufficiently. ^-^
Whoo. I need more practice at solos, just so I stop freaking out about them. ^-^' Just dump me in front of a room full of people and make me play for about an hour.
On the plus side, it's made my speeches better, since speeches aren't nearly as nerve-wracking as solos (because in class, no one is really listening to you. Heheh. You know it's true).
I can't seem to find a good recording of my solo. Most of the youtube videos have cut the beginning off. Either that, or there's annoying narration over it. Anyway, it's the slow solo at the beginning of Reel Around the Sun.
Anyone who hasn't seen Riverdance should definitely see it. I can't recommend it enough. It's AMAZING. Especially the original (which, unfortunately, I don't believe has been released on DVD). But the two original main dancers are insanely amazing. Let me see if can find a video of the guy. He held (still holds?) the world record for fastest footsteps. The DVD version is sort of a mix of several different performances. It has clips from the original. And it has some new pieces too. Like Shivna. I really like that one.
I got to see this live a while ago. I posted about it. Though the two lead dancers weren't as good as the original, a lot of the other acts were better than the original.
Ah, here's the finale. This will do.
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