Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog

Just a quick shout-out to tell about my new slight obsession... Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog.  It's this internet musical that is pure awesomeness, about an evil scientist trying to get into the Evil League, all the while trying to get through to the girl of his dreams, who happens to be dating his arch-nemesis Captain Hammer.  The Capt. is a real idiot, whose head is bigger than his ability. It was free on the net for a while, and now can only be bought on iTunes.  I LOVE IT!!!

Not only is it a really good story, but the characters are so real that you feel real sympathy for Billy (the Dr.)  The singing is Phenominal!! There's the one point when Billy and Penny (the girl) are singing a duet, and it's written and sung so beautifully that it sends shivers up my spine.  Yay!

The Trailer Is Here!

The End of the Holidays

So, after a lovely week away from civilization at my cottage (a pity there's no internet there or I would have written a lot in this blog) we come back home.  To a few surprises.

1.  The dog has a bladder infection.

2.  It's raining.  Really hard.  And we have to get our luggage out of the car.  Pity.

3.  There's something wrong with the cat.  He's got  bald patch on his neck, which we think comes from the fact that dad gave him the dog's flea meds instead.

4. The yard is flooded.

5. The heater is on!  In July!  The house is HOT!

6. The heater won't turn off!

7. The heater won't turn off because it is submerged with water (!) because...

8. The basement is flooded.

Oh well, we're all quite cheerful, and the repair man is nice.  The weather reminds me of the day we moved into this house... "It rained like you wouldn't believe!"  "We believe!"  We were so tired that we decided it was impossible to cook anything, so we ordered pizza, found out they didn't do delivery, went to get the pizza, got stuck in traffic, and found we brought home the wrong order!  Such is life! :)  And life is beautiful!

On a funnier note, some how some kind of seed has made its way into my worm farm, because it's sprouting something :)

Saying Goodbyes...

The problem with saying goodbyes is the pain that they cause.  Take the second last day of the school calendar, which happens to be the last full day of camp-out, which happens to be called Sob-fest, which is where the entire school gathers around a campfire and "reminisces"( aka tells funny stories) about the past year, the graduates, and the experiences they've had.  I don't cry at The Fest itself, because it's quite hilarious.  But afterward...

You see, the people that I have hung out with every school day for the past two years (minus a couple months at the beginning of grade nine) have all graduated.  No joke.  Holly, Allie, Beka, Andrea, and the new addition Laura have been my constant companions and shoulders to cry on.  I have shared tents with them, bus-seats with them, secrets with them, and mostly, my food with them :)  So the fact that they all have graduated makes me, well, almost like a fish out of water.  Of course, I won't be bumming around by myself, because a couple months from the end of the year, all the other awesome people at my school finally discovered how awesome we are (ha ha ha ha... RIGHT...) and started hanging with us.  So, I'll have these friends to be with. And Holly and Andrea are close by, and have promised to visit regularly.

Still, it doesn't matter.  It's not going to be the same, you know?  If I suddenly have a brilliant (or not so) musical idea, I won't be able to sidle up to Holly and expound.  No choruses of "Green Girl, because you are green, I shall oppress you!" in the hallways with Beka.  No Gollum voices from Allie, or Cake Song from Laura.  And no more mooching off of Andrea's nacho dip while she eats my healthy food.  I don't worry about being friendless, but I'm not happy either.  I guess that's what goodbyes are, really.  Thanking God for the good memories, and crying over the separation.  Because you know that even while your heart is breaking, life is beautiful.

Awards

So... it was closing assembly today, and it was also the awards ceremony. The academic awards are awarded every two years, at the end of grade ten and grade twelve, so your school average has to be kept up over two years. And, hurray, I got an academic excellence award :) It means that I've kept an average above 85. In all honesty, my average is probably higher than this, but we don't know.

I am also the recipient of the Arts and Leadership Award, awarded at the ends of grade ten and twelve. I got the only grade ten one :) and my friend Alie got the grade twelve one. I wasn't terribly surprised, but I was very happy. I love the arts, and I've been hoping to get this award since I heard of it.

This is a link of the awards ceremony. Watch it, it's pretty sweet. Awards Ceremony

Overdue careers post (it's the last day of class and I've been procrastinating)

So, some of the jobs that I was matched up to with the career matcher profile were a university professor, a classroom educational assistant, a high school teacher, elementary school teacher, actor, musician and such.

I was certainly surprised by the university professor part... I've never thought of myself as a university professor type. If I were to be a teacher, I would like to be a grade six teacher, simply because my teacher for grade six was absolutely incredible, and I'd like to recreate the experience for a bunch of other kids.

I was also surprised at how far down the list musician was. I mean... they didn't even ask me if I played an instrument! I learned that it was because I had put that I didn't particularly want to work on weekends and evenings -times musicians do work- because I hope to get married and have a family.

Pic of the day... Fishmonger!

Fugue!!

This weekend I worked about 18 hours on my ISU... which happened to be writing a fugue for music class.  Writing a fugue is alot more complicated than I thought it would be... well, obviously I knew that it would be complicated, but there are alot of rules to follow that I think would be there.

For example... a fugue is a piece of music, more complicated than a canon (which is a more complicated version of a round).  It uses imitative counterpoint, which means that every time a new voice comes in it imitates the theme.  But what I did not know is that when a new voice comes in the fugue, it changes key.  Yep.  Complicated.  But, I managed.  Here it is.

Darn, it didn't work.  :(

My obsession with Ireland

I officially have a fixation with the emerald isle.

First of all, my dad's family's Irish. So, therefore, I have Irish blood in me. Strangely enough, I feel much more Irish than I really am... my great grandparents were the last pure Irish blood in my family. But as long as I can remember, I've had a strange fascination with the place, and I've had an intense longing to visit there ever since a was a small girl.

Perhaps it's partly my love of fantasy, or more specifically, love of the Faerie culture. Ireland is so rich with stories of the Downe Sidhe that the whole country is a mix of ancient and modern. There are high rises in Dublin, but you won't find many people who will willingly build anything on a Faerie mound. In Ireland, children aren't the only ones who believe, most adults will not ever willingly give up their heritage.

I love Ireland with every bone in my body, and I have yet to go there. If I could go to any country as an exchange partner, or to a a foreign school, I would go to Ireland.

More Careers Stuff: Schools

There are a bunch of schools that hover in the back of my brain. I'm still not entirely sure of any of them. Of course, I'm thinking of music here.

1. U of T. Uber competitive, uber huge, uber mean. My piano teacher says that if you go into the practice areas while people are practicing there, you'll hear one person start playing a Beethoven Sonata, then the next practice room over you'll hear someone else start to play it faster, and then in another practice room someone will play it faster. U of T breaks more musicians than it makes them. That's why the nickname is "factory of music" instead of The faculty.

I've heard of the prestigious violin program at Julliard. I haven't really looked into it. I would assume it's also uber competitive.

One place that has been hovering in the back of my mind for awhile is Hillsong University in Australia. It has a Praise and Worship program. I'd love to go there if I took a one year program or something. But would I be able to do four years away from home?