LAST DAY!

today was the last day of classes before Christmas break! And we get 2 WEEKS of this year!!! I can't wait!! I'm not doing ANY homework the first week. I'll do a ton of clarinet, piano, scrapbooking and probably have the House MD marathon sleepover I've been planning for several months. It's so exciting to de-stress for a while. I haven't felt this great in quite a while. It probably has something to do with the fact I turned in my Extended Essay on Thursday. I still need to re-work the abstract AFTER break. Basically on break I've got to do my HOA IA. But it's a rough draft, so I'm not going to worry about it.

I got into the Presidential Music Scholarship Competition at my top college!! If I win, I'd get $12,500 a year!! And if I don't, I'll still end up with mucho financial aid. Really looking forward to that!! : D

I really want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Remember that it's not about the holiday stress, the commercialization, or even the fact that IB has found a way to keep us busy for 2 weeks when we don't have school. It's all about God's Son coming to Earth to change our world forever.

Here's a great, hilarious video. It's a group calle Straight No Chaser. It's an accapella group that did a parody of the 12 days of Christmas. It's fanastic!!

Everything can be explained by cows:

World Ideologies as Explained by Reference to Cows


Feudalism
You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.

Pure Socialism
You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. You have to take care of all the cows. The government gives you all the milk you need.


Bureaucratic Socialism
Your cows are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and eggs the regulations say you should need.

Fascism
You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them, and sells you the milk.


Pure Communism
You have two cows. Your neighbors help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.

Real World Communism
You share two cows with your neighbors. You and your neighbors bicker about who has the most "ability" and who has the most "need". Meanwhile, no one works, no one gets any milk, and the cows drop dead of starvation.


Russian Communism
You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk. You steal back as much milk as you can and sell it on the black market.

Perestroika
You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the Mafia takes all the milk. You steal back as much milk as you can and sell it on the "free" market.


Cambodian Communism
You have two cows. The government takes both and shoots you.

Militarianism
You have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you.


Totalitarianism
You have two cows. The government takes them and denies they ever existed. Milk is banned.


Pure Democracy
You have two cows. Your neighbors decide who gets the milk.

Representative Democracy
You have two cows. Your neighbors pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.


British Democracy
You have two cows. You feed them sheeps' brains and they go mad. The government doesn't do anything.


Bureaucracy
You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. Then it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.

Pure Anarchy
You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbors try to take the cows and kill you.


Pure Capitalism
You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

Capitalism
You don't have any cows. The bank will not lend you money to buy cows, because you don't have any cows to put up as collateral.


Enviromentalism
You have two cows. The government bans you from milking or killing them.


Political Correctness
You are associated with (the concept of "ownership" is a symbol of the phallo centric, war mongering, intolerant past) two differently - aged (but no less valuable to society) bovines of non-specified gender.


Surrealism
You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.
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In far less interesting news, I've finally made-up all the tests that I missed because of All-State. And I really need break to come because even though a ton of my major project deadlines have passed, I'm about ready to collapse.

Congrats to all the choral students on a great job at the concert last night! (my page turning abilities were pretty incredible, I must admit)

And I'm very excited because tomorrow is the last jazz band rehearsal I have to lead! As much as I enjoy bossing people around, I'm not very good at it when it comes to the jazz band. On top of that, tomorrow is another percussion ensemble rehearsal! Yay!

Snow Day!

today was the first snow day of the season. Yippie! I really needed the day off to get caught up on stuff. did I? Of course not! Every moment of free time I ever have I feel like I am forced to decide whether I work to get caught up on everything or take some time to relax so I don't go insane. That debate, of course, causes me to go insane. I honestly can't wait until I'm done with IB. Right now I think it's doing me more harm than good. Especially since I have no clue when I'm going to start reaping the rewards of all this stress.

The Bio trip yesterday was ok. I was a little more than freaked out by the exhibit. I'm not big into dead bodies and dead body parts. There were other parts of the museum that were cool, and not sitting in classrooms all day was pretty cool. But I think I would have prefered to just skip school.

We're so close to having a band director it's driving me nuts. Everyone knows who it is, even though we're not really supposed to talk about it since nothing's official. Arg. I don't like the fact that it can't just be out in the open.

The concert went really well Monday night. Even though I explained to several people that it was nothing like what I expected my senior year Christmas concert to be like. I thought we'd still have Borsz, be in 2 bands, have a (comparatively) huge jazz band (that I wouldn't be part of), we'd have a "mysterious guest conductor" lead Sleigh Ride, and then cookies afterwards. Instead, I was there an hour early, rehearsing with some small ensembles, rearranging the decorations in my concert dress with Eleanor, leading the jazz band (while doubling on my clarinet on the last second), participated in all the ensembles expect for one, have one large band under Ms. Bergstrom (because we don't have a director), and everyone knew who the guest conductor was about a month before that. The only thing that was the same was that we played Sleigh Ride and had cookies.

The percussion ensemble had another rehearsal on Tuesday. We had 2 more people join the pit (yay!) and Ms. Thomas came in to hel pout with the pit rehearsal. Consequently, we sounded really good. And it was awesome for me to take part in an ensemble where I got to be a student, not a leader and I got to mess up and ask questions. It was AWESOME!!! Dorothy and I have decided we need to make t-shirts for the pit (since we're way more amazing than our drumline counterparts.....: P)

As we discussed in ToK the other day, you have to hit rock bottom before things can start to get better. Maybe that's finally happening for me.

Dome video and College Visit

I got a copy of the Dome video the other day. I think it was Thursday. But that's not really revelant. It actually turned out quite nice. The quality was a lot better than the ones in the past. We sounded really good and they didn't show too many spots of us marching, so I couldn't tell. All in all, I thought it was good.

The other day I went on another college visit to Roberts Wesleyan for their Music Preview Day. I really enjoyed the visit. During the registration time I hung out with some other prospectives, and it turned out that 3 of us were all wearing the same chromatic watch (it's a music geek thing). The first class I went to was Music Theory I where they discussed phrasings and then reviewed for the final exam. it was scary because they actually use the same textbook we're using in class. After that I watched a presentation by an admissions counselour on the college. Then I watched a clarinet lesson with the professor (I've had a lesson with her before) and that was very interesting. The really cool 2 parts were next. We got to listen to a student and faculty recital which was awesome. They had a woodwind quinet, clarinet soloist, classical vocal and jazz vocal and a piano duet. I then went to lunch and discussed a ton of stuff with the clarinet professor (and another prospective clarinet student). Then I was talking with another professor about 'Dido and Aenas' so that was awesome. Next I had Music History and Literature II where they talked about Berlioz (memories of All-State) and Mendelssohn (I'm giong to see a performance of Elijah soon, and we're playing Fingal's Cave in YO). Next I watched the Men's Chorus rehearsal for a bit then went on a tour of a dorm room and the new library. Finally I got to watch the Wind Ensemble rehearsal. Oh my goodness. They are incredible. They started out with Sleigh Ride and it sounded AMAZING (especially compared to EHS playing it) then they did Russian Christmas Music (which we did last year). They sounded great. All in all, it's going to be very difficult to decide where I want to go to college. It's going to involve a lot of prayer, and some serious financial aid issues.

Yesterday I went to Lauren's birthday party which was at one of the many coffee shops in the area. I hadn't been to this one and it was great. Plus I got to hang out with some people I hadn't seen in FOREVER. Happy birthday Lauren!

Today I played a solo (w/ CD) in Church. I hadn't done one in a while, so I was really nervous. It went great and I'm very thankful to God for that.

This week I'm actually going to be at school on Friday! WOW! However, I'm taking a field trip with the other Bio students on Wednesday, so I'm having another 4 day week. Unless of course we get a snow day or something tomorrow. Which would be very cool. Except for the fact we'd have to figure out a way to reschedule the band concert. But that's fine with me.

Etc

I survived my last Festival of Lights parade. We did a row of 4 across this year, and in the front line there were 3 freshmen. Yikes! I'm slightly concerend about parade season, but that's several months away. Thank goodness. For once I didn't run into the colorguard and I kept us on camera for a ridiculously long period of time and I'm very proud of that. We've managed to lost one part of the Christmas tree costumes. There was one still in the ceiling (it was actually Jenna/Chase who hid them there, not the drumline), but we're missing the top part of the one we pulled down before. So now we're going to have to go on a quest to find the other top.

ALL-STATE

It was incredible and I loved it!! Here's my disseration:

We got to ride in a monster van which was really funny watching HC try to park it in the Dunkin Donuts parking lot. I have trouble parking in the mornings with my own car which is about half that size. And no, it's not because I lack parking skills, despite what others may say. The ride up to Rochester was interesting because there had been a pact made not to discuss Les Mis (since all 3 vocalists are going out for Les Mis and the auditions are this week and 2 of them are going out for the same lead role). So what did we talk about? Les Mis. Eleanor and I couldn't hear half of the conversation since we were in the last row of the van. When we got to the hotel I felt like such an expert because I actually knew what was going on. It was pretty awesome. After I registered I bumped into the West Genesee kids, including Katie who I hung out with last year. It was a lot of fun visiting with her until HC grabbed me. So then I went to my room (yeah, I know this is getting overly detailed, but you just have to deal with it) where I met one of the roomies. They've done some renovating of the hotel, so we had one king sized beds and two cots, so we rotated who slept where each night. I was really smart and decided to have the bed Saturday night so I could be well-rested for the concert. Or comparatively well-rested.

I practiced for a little bit then went to my audition site. There were 2 firsts, 2 seconds and one bass player. I remembered one of the firsts from last year (she ended up getting first chair) and the other one was a junior who had gotten a 100 on the same solo I did. I didn't think anyone else even knew of the Cahuzac, let alone played it. After my audition (I ended up getting 2nd chair) I hung out with the Wind Ensemble sax players who were also auditioning in the same spot. One of them is actually from Copiague, another competitive marching band, so it was really fun talking about that with him. The other second clarinetist showed up late (because he's from the Rochester area or something) and I heard his audition. I knew right away that he beat me, but I knew that was going to happen before I even got up there. The Berlioz (Roman Carnival Overture) was just too much for me to handle at the playing level I'm at right now. AKA I couldn't play it all weekend because it was too fast for me to articulate.

The first rehearsal went really well. I really loved our conductor and I knew right away that I'd like the Hindemith more than the Berlioz. Friday was a really, REALLY long day. During the afternoon session we had sectionals, but we weren't allowed to go back to our hotel rooms (or even leave the floor) so we had nothing to do. Therefore, I took a nap. That seems to be my default activity whenever I get bored. Even though we had sectionals, it was still a lot of work, I was really tired by the end, but a ton of fun. I had quickly made a group of orchestra friends to hang out with which was a lot nicer than not knowing anyone like last year. After dinner I ran into the C-town folks (including the Griffins) and I was talking with them when Borsz showed up. Apparently some of the Zone 15 people begged him to stop up for dinner Friday night since he wasn't going to the conference. Eleanor went completely nuts, it was so funny. I restrained myself and merely insulted him the entire time. I have to say it was really great getting to see him since I hadn't seen him in a long time. The bass clarinet player I was sitting to was hilarious and since he didn't play during the Berlioz he turned my pages for me, but I couldn't understand him half the time because he was from Long Island. I noticed that just about everyone was either from Rochester or what I now refer to as "downstate" that way I never mess up people from NYC and people from LI.

Once again I enjoyed getting to talk music with other music geeks. I was standing in a line waiting to pay for some sheet music (part of my Christmas gift was sheet music shopping money) and I was talking with a bunch of bass players about bass music/parts (I actually learned quite a bit) and then discovered that one of them was actually in IB Music HL2. We discussed our compositions and our comparative music papers which was cool. I also got into some deep 20th century music discussions with 2 flute players I hung out with, and we argued about which styles of music we preferred, likes/dislikes of composers, etc etc. One of them composes for the fun of it and really wants to take a look at my 12-tone piece when I'm finished. Everyone was really nice up there.

Music-wise I loved the Hindemith a lot more than the Berlioz. Mainly because the Hindemith had some really awesome wind parts whereas the Berlioz was mainly for the strings. Plus I had to fake-it on the Berlioz because the tempo was way too fast for me to be able to articulate it cleanly. I knew that was going to happen because articulation is my weak spot right now and it drives me nuts. The only thing that bothered me in the Hindemith (which you warned me about) was the trills. I swear I never want to play another trill in my LIFE. Or a triple for that matter. My favorite part to listen to was in the 2nd mov't with the big brass section (letter Q). It sounded so cool, especially since I was sitting right in front of the French horns. I was sitting pretty close to the timpani as well, and that had to have been the coolest part in the orchestra in several sections in that mov't. I had listened to the recording before, but it was so much more alive sitting there and actually playing it. And our brass section was incredible, along with our percussionists who apparently didn't have part assignments when they showed up to the first rehearsal. Out of the woodwinds, while all the principals were excellent, I loved the English horn soloist in the Berlioz. Her tone and musicality were incredible. When we performed in Eastman, she sounded beyond amazing.

Speaking of our performance, it went really well. I can't wait to hear the recording of it. It was kinda difficult for the winds/brass since they didn't have risers for us, so we had to up the sound level and we were really far away from the conductor (in comparison to where we were during rehearsals). It's hard to judge how well something sounded when you've been playing it for more than 20 hours during the course of 4 days. I felt my personal performance went well, so that was nice.

PLUS:

I'm playing vibes for the new percussion ensemble : P

3 days!!

AHHHH!!!!!!!!! I CAN'T TAKE THREE MORE DAYS OF SCHOOL BEFORE THANKSGIVING BREAK!!!!!!!!!

Okay, so here's a quick overview of what's been going on:

Band- We're all combined together under the direction of Bergstrom. It's been...um...interesting. It's really different for someone who has been in Wind Ensemble since their freshman year. Sleigh Ride is REALLY different, especially compared to freshman year (when we had Steve, Brian, Brice, Caylynn, etc etc etc).

English- I've survived Hamlet and we're into poetry. I'd take more Shakespeare over poetry, though I do like some of the Wordsworth. I just have trouble marking it up.

Music- Basically, I love this class. We're sort of doing an independent study of sorts. Marty and I both want to write our second composition in the the style of 20th centruy music, so that's what we're working on. We're doing twelve-tone first, which is what I'm writing. Marty still hasn't settled on his style, but it's probably going to be some sort of minimalist thing. I'm finding that I really love writing 20th century music because all you have to do is follow the rules and you don't have to come up with some creative melodic line. It really takes the pressure off.

Bio- Well, it's Bio. Lots of confusing labs and topic sections. I'm just not a science person. I'm doing okay in the class, so I must be understanding some of it (even if I don't feel like it).

Lunch - Well, Mr. Potter (our long-term sub) doesn't keep the bandroom open, so we have to find someplace else to eat. Last week Katie, Sarah F and I were selling tickets for Drama Club so we were in the cafeteria. I have no clue what we'll do this week.

HOA- We've been doing PROJECTS! Yes, I've decided that in Hurd's class we will always either be watching a video, doing a project or taking an essay-test.

TOK- We've been doing a PROJECT! It's a project based on learning from a play we read.

Spanish- I survived my first informal speaking on the problems of my senior year. I ended up with a 29/30 because I didn't use all the upscale grammar that we've learned. And we've learned a ton. Which is pretty much what we're working on right now.

Studyhall - I've been in the bandroom - DUH!

The first weekend of November I visited Houghton College. It was an awesome time! I'll write more later when I have more time.

This past weekend I went and saw the fall play "Rumors" I LOVED IT!!!! It was AWESOME!! Everyone in the cast did a great job and it was hilarious. I could not stop laughing at several points. At intermission I was talking with some of my friends and we couldn't figure out how it was going to get funnier, but it did. Congrats to the cast!!

This weekend in Area All-State and I get out of school after period 4, so I get to miss gym class! YES!!!!

All-State is in 16 days which is highly exciting.

The Jazz Band has become student run which is pretty interesting since I've been in charge of things. Yeah. It's been very interesting. I think we're going to sound good at the concert. I'm a little nervous because we only have 4 rehearsals left, and I have no clue what I'm doing when it comes to leading a jazz band : P Eleanor is going to come in and do vocals on one of the songs which should be cool.

Les Mis is being obsessed over by everyone in the school. Of course! Anyways, I found this really funny video of Neal Patrick Harris and Jason Segel singing "Confrontation".



Anyways, I can't wait until BREAK!!

Go Figure

Well, this is just a short update. We found out on Tuesday that Mr. Benson has taken another job at another school district. He's still living in the area (same house, etc). And of course, I would be going on a college visit on his last day. So today was my last day with him, and I stayed afterschool to talk to him, etc etc. And my parents came (of course) since it's their last time with him too.

Until the December concert, we're all going to be together as one big band. Which is going to be nuts. Especially for Sleigh Ride.

That's about all I feel like writing about now, but I figured I should post that update.