Up and at'em.

Ok, there was no way I was going to stay in bed all day again today. I didn't go downstairs until like... 9.30 pm last night. And that was for an hour or two. I can do that for a day. more than that is excessive. So, I stayed in bed until about 2 today (didn't wake up in the middle of the night in pain, either), and then got up, took a shower, and put on some clean clothes. So, I'm functioning now. Not that I couldn't have yesterday, but I had no reason to. So, I'm clean and I don't stink anymore. I'm still a little bit high from all the (prescribed! It's in my pain meds) codiene (well, technically it's hydrocodone), but as long as I don't lean over too much I'm fine.

So, it's time for a normal blog post now.

I guess I'll mention a bunch of things that I've been meaning to mention...

New band. 30 Seconds To Mars. This one is also thanks to Kaisha. So good that I actually bought the CD the same day she told me about them. Again... On PureVolume. Actually, the entire album is on PureVolume. I think that's to make up for all the evil copy-protection on the CD... if you're trying to play that cd on a computer, good luck. The most uncooperative bastard I've ever encountered, really.

On that note, I guess I'll prop a bit of software that is quite nice... AnyDVD and CloneCD by SlySoft. Look them up. The first software I've gotten in a LONG time that actually worked *perfectly.* Allowed me to make a clone of the 30 Seconds To Mars CD without copy-protection so that I could load it onto the Ipod, etc... Don't download it until you need it, though, because the trial period is 21 days and the software itself costs upwards of $50. Just make a mental note.

When I posted that petition for Mr. Barnard (school board stuff, you remember) on Real World Blogosphere, I got a comment from one TattooDad... It looked a lot like spam, but it did have a reference to the actual post int he comment, so I checked out his site...

The Tattoo is an online newspaper by teens, for teens, etc. The writing is a little bit ameteurish, but the content is good, and something that really captured my attention was the Hurricane Journal by Samantha Perez. She lived in St Bernard Parish, Louisiana, right under the eye of Katrina. This journal logs her struggle from the day of the hurricane to the present. It's still being updated. Don't read unless you've got a lot of time, and be warned. It's pretty depressing.

I haven't written very much lately. I just haven't been in the right mood, really. I've been more in the Finale Notepad frame of mind... although, I have written one song (lyrics and melody only), but it's of the sort that the lyrics alone are pretty useless... It would only work if the entire song was attached to it. Which I haven't done. So no song for you.

I have done a few things with photos, though, and in case you have been too lazy to check out my DeviantArt, I'll post some stuff here.


This was once a view from the Dumyat walk near Alva, Scotland... I kinda butchered it, but I think it looks cool.


Just some random icons. Remember, if I want to describe my life, I write poems or songs. Icons... I just make randomly when they come into my head. So, don't make any assumtions about my icons being related to my thoughts. They probably aren't.


Just water dripping onto a plate full of water... Yeah. CURSES BE UPON AUTOFOCUS.

And that's that.

Now for some just normal blogging.

I feel like a party animal. Lol. I went to parties on the 17th and the 21st, and I'm gonna go to one one on the 31st, and possibly the 7th. Heh. That's weird for me. But I like it.

It's interesting how life goes on through Christmas Break, but it's so much more private. Nobody knows anything until they get back to school. Just a random thought there.

I think I'll be done here. This entry felt a little bit incoherent when I was typing it, but I can't be bothered to battle the codiene. So you'll just have to figure it out.

Well *this* is questionable.

Got my wisdom teeth out today... Stayed up until like 3 last night so that I could sleep in, because I couldn't eat or drink (no water, even) 8 hours before... and my appt was at 1... So yeah. I got out of bed at like 12.15, left the house at like 12.50, and What do you know, I'm in the clinic...

Wasn't really freaked out about the 'surgery,' cause they put me nearly completely under... Was a little nervous about the IV, though, cause I hadn't ever had one. My only pre-yanking question was "How big's the needle?" It looked kinda big, but it didn't hurt too much and it just was like a little pinch. Just like they said. heh. So yeah... I was watching the bag drip in... The doctor said "that wasn't that bad, was it?" And I admitted that it wasn't... then I saw him injecting something into my tube, and that was the last thing I remember. The entire thing is just reduced into a big blob of crap in my head. That was some good stuff. It was weird waking up... I vaguely remember soemthing about a wheelchair.... etc.

Got home, took a painkiller.... slept a bit...projectile-vomited a bunch of clotted blood.... Not much else. Oh, spoke too soon. Just threw up more. There went my soup. Hmph.

This is such a hassle. It doesn't even really hurt that much, with the medicine and eerything. It's just the not eating and vomiting and the IT'S STILL BLEEDING that are gettig to me.

Raarr.

Christmas Eve

I don't know what it is about this year, but everyone I talk to seems to think it doesn't feel like Christmas Eve. I agree. I've been feeling the same way lately... It just isn't the same anymore. It's not as exciting... I'm involved in all the Christmas plots (We'll get you this, and her this, and Mom this, then we can all trade three months later), our lights display, normally so elaborate, was dead on arrival, and there seems to be an abnormal amount of tension surrounding everyone. We've all forgotten how exciting Christmas used to be, and we're all caught up in our grown-up troubles and thoughts.

I kind of miss the old days, but I know it's time. It'll never be the same. No use dwelling on it now.

What can you do.

I went to church tonight. Real church. Catholic church. No offence to all you protestants and "other"s, but your churches just don't do much for me. It could just be my obsessiveness talking, but the ritual and the humility of the Catholic church is really comforting, even if I don't really believe what they're saying half the time. I could actually see myself becoming Catholic, and suspending my agnosticity every Sunday morning, just for the sake of peace of mind. You could almost say it filled a little of the spot where Christmas used to be.

Seems a lot of entries today have been of a depressing tone.

Sorry I couldn't be the exception.

At least tomorrow, I can suspend it all. Just stay in the moment. No worries on Christmas.

Right?

The Controversy Continues

Support
The Student Voice
In an article in Friday, December 23’s Republic, An article was published on the front page regarding the censorship of Columbus North’s Triangle and our own Oracle.

According to the proposal by school board member Russell Barnard, any material published by the student papers would have to be fed through the school principal and the superintendent.

Although our schools are supposedly about the students, the students only have one legitimate voice. This is the Publications Department. Through the Oracle and the Altis, our opinions are expressed. If the newspaper is censored by the administration, this voice will be smothered.

We will be left with nothing.
Support The Student Voice.
Write a letter to the School Board.
Sign below.

We, the students of Columbus East High School, oppose the censorship by the administration of our only true voice: The Oracle. We believe that if something is "inappropriate," the Editor of the publication will put a stop to it. Otherwise, the newspaper is ours to publish.

Signatures.

With my name signed on the back.

This, my friends, warrants a stand of some sort. The administration needs to regain sight of who they are serving. Not the parents, not the government, not the community feeling. The Students. Without the students, they would be without a job. In my opinion, they have never even been in sight of this idea. The students have no say in anything that is imposed on them. The least they can do is let us vent. But if they have power over the newspaper as well, then we lose our last voice. It becomes theirs. That's injustice if I ever saw it.

If you go to CEHS, look for these fliers hanging in the stairwells, in the library, or in Band or Drama on your first day back.

Yet again.

It's time for another music post!

I've found some new bands since we last spoke, thanks to PureVolume (and, of course, my portal to all things alternative, Kaisha. Props). All of these bands have a substantial amount of music on PureVolume, which, for those out there who are out of the loop, is a site with songs availible for streaming and sometimes download, with songs submitted by the artists themselves, so it is legal. Generally just find songs from "alternative" artists, because once they get big, they don't want their songs availible for free download any more. :/

First off. Death Cab For Cutie. I know, I might've mentioned them before, but I've solidified my fandom, so they deserve another, wholehearted mention.

Panic! At The Disco. The vocals are very good, and the instrumentals are upbeat without being peppy. This is good. And there is little or no screaming involved, which is a good thing in my book. Also, the lyrics are fun to listen to... "What a beautiful wedding. It's too bad the groom's bride is a whore. "

On the topic of screaming, Silverstein gets a half-mention. I like the songs, but they scream a lot in every song. That just really grates on me. Otherwise, though, I like them. I just can't listen to them for all the screaming. But really, it's not that much, and if you're into that kind of thing, knock yourself out.

The Decemberists. Very different, but in a good way. Gotta hand this one to Kaisha, without her there is no way on earth I would've found them. We're talking 60 plays per day on purevolume (versus over three million plays per day for Panic! At The Disco). Heavy emphasis on instrumentals, but still good voices and lyrics. The vocals are reminiscent of the 70s, I think... Interesting.

4 new bands for you. Maybe. At least one, for sure. Except... maybe not for you, Kaisha. You've probably already heard all these guys.

I made it!

I'm a good mood. I have been, lately. After the choir concert, it was set. The climax of the semester is over. For sure, now. Now it's just finals. Easy. Just 3 more days, and it's break time. No more choir concerts, auditions, or anything besides Chemistry to worry about until January. For now, I'm quite pleased.

If anyone has $129.88 they want to spend on my Christmas present... I'm not weirdly obsessive or anything, looking online for hours till I find the right one... Like I normally do... this one was sitting out in K-Mart, so of course I had to go up and play it. My God, it sounded good.

Choir Concert last night. We were by popular opinion the second best choir (show choir was the best, and is always going to be the best, because they a)have more people, b)are more balanced between male and female, c) audition to join, so they actually work and d) they dance to disco songs. So, considering we were up against that, and came in second, we did reasonably well. Of course, we just beat the 7, 8, and 9 grade choirs. Which isn't saying a lot. The 7th graders were talking during the performance. *their* performance. They were on stage, song filling the air around them, and they were talking to each other. The 8th graders were decent, except for the 8th grade soloist, who was FUCKING INCREDIBLE. Oh my god, she was good. The 9th grade soloist was singing in a different key from the rest of the choir (for those of you who are completely tone-deaf, that means OUCH FOR THE EARS and CRINGE for the SOUL)... So yeah, we were without any major problems. Actually, we were without almost any problems. We did pretty well, overall. I'm proud.

I have my christmas shopping done. I think. ..... I hope. :/
I know the first page of Moonlight Sonata. My version has 3 pages. So, I'm doing well enough. Heh.
I downloaded two more jazzy-bluesy sheet music things today... Greensleeves and Scarborough Fair. Both sound really cool. Well, on the mp3. My keyboard is completely touch-insensitive... meaning that there are two positions for each key--off, and loud. No P and MP and F and what have you. It's I and O for me. That's why I want my new keyboard. Byt anyway... doesn't sound as good. Can't play as expressively.

Ok, enough music rambling, for sure.

................

Hmm.

......................

I'm such a nerd.

My Life

I guess I should update, right?

Let's see. I'm really not auditioning. Well, I guess it's past tense now. Kind of a relief, but at the same time, it's kind of sad. Hmm. Not really sure.

I was very tired yesterday. I fell asleep at 4-something pm and woke up at 6. I never do that. Like.... ever. It was weird. Then I went in my room to go to bed at 9, but didn't actually get to sleep until midnight, and even then it was fitful. You know, the kind of sleep that you're not even really convinced is sleep until you get up and eventually wake up fully and you know you had to get some amount because you aren't dead. That kind of sleep. Ug. And I had no coffee this morning.

You know what I'm gonna do? A class runthrough. It's been too long.

Olympain Flame: Nothing much, really. Just did a lot of thinking, mostly. Realized that in there, I pretty much just sit there in my own little world, and don't really talk to anybody. That's why I'm considering not taking it next year. I don't know the people that well, and I don't have nearly as much fun in there as I did in TV Prod last year. I know, cop-out. But there are things I would rather do.

Chemistry: It was large group today. I paid attention for about 5 minutes, then decided that it was all either irrelevant or I already knew it, so I just copied down the notes mindlessly and wrote notes back and forth with Darlene, Taylor, and Travis. So much more interesting than taking notes from Mrs. Goshorn. Btw, thank the dear lord that I don't have Mrs. Goshorn. She just can't really teach. I don't like her. Grr.

Japanese: Nothing really different today. We made origami reindeer. Just like we did yesterday. That's the thing about taking two years of Japanese at once... we kind of tend to repeat stuff. But anyway, origami. Again. The usual hilarity ensued, but I don't remember much of it, really.

Resource: The library was closed for resource today, so Taylor and I went to drama resource. The Olympian Choir was practicing in the auditorium today, to which Drama Resource is attached, so we just went out in the house and listened to them practice. We really are better disciplined than they are, even if they were singing better today.

Choir: Just stayed in the auditorium, cause our class was there today as well. We had the customary AWFUL pre-show practice (concert is tomorrow!), and that was that. Now we're all a little nervous. Hopefully.
Taylor was my tumor. Heheh.

Lunch: Don't remember much besides the fact that we were playing a messed up version of spin the bottle... No kissing involved, but whoever the bottle pointed to got various STDs, transmorgified into Transsexual British Satanists (or something like that) and.. other stuff.

English: Did my oral book report. I got a 92... Grr. Must have forgotten something, cause everyone else was getting like 95 and 98... Well, not everyone. Just lots of them. Sigh. I can't present.

Geometry: Certain class members decided that if we asked enough questions and distracted Campbell enough, he would run out of time and we would be quizless. Well, we were quizless. I guess it was a success, but it involved a very pissed-off campbell at the end of the period, and I really wonder if it was worth it, because we're taking the test tomorrow anyway. Sometimes I just don't get my classmates. But ok.

Theater Arts: We made up stories line-by-line... Runge fed us half a sentence, we finished her sentence and we went from there. We got some pretty messed up stories involving mermaids, cows, aliens, dolphins, cow-people, mermaid-dolphins, CHINA=DEATH, and the great world cucumber shortage. I love that class. Then we played murder. I got picked twice to be a murderer. Fun fun.

There's my day. Now I'm done.

The Musical Revolution

... within me.

I have suddenly become re-interested in Piano. I wrote that thing on tuesday, then I downloaded fur elise and moonlight sonata sheet music, and taught myself fur elise from that.... Then yesterday, I wrote another piece... 2 minutes, 12 seconds. I might upload a low-quality conversion of it onto the web, so y'all can listen to it. I like it. Anyway, I've been teaching myself to play *that*, and teaching myself moonlight sonata (yeah, I've had a grand total of 6 weeks of piano lessons and I'm desperately trying to play beethoven. Mixed up? Not at all. I despise primer level songs. So... so much. So much). I've learned a sixth of that so far. That's nine measures. But these are long measures! Lol. It seems like more when it's being played.

Hmm. I'm taking a break from girls. Friends, ok. But I'm resolving to not 'like' any of them for at least a month or two. Too much work.

Now.. for that piano thinger.

Here for file, Here for page.

Snow day today. Woohoo! 3-day weekend. ^_^

Yeah... this is kinda bad, though. I can't go in to school to find a song for auditions. And this, along with the exhaustion mentioned in the previous post, and the fact that I just need something of a break, and that I have always wanted to do what I'm about to say I'm going to do... I think I'm going to do tech for this play, and skip the acting. I need a break from it all, and panicking about the auditions, finding a song the day of, and the play itself, won't help. So, I'll do tech, just so I can decide if I like that, and still hang out with all the super-cool actors, but not get into it myself. It's best that way. But look for me at the The Romancers auditions.

That takes such a load off.

And now... I'm going to end it here.

Ah, but it's been so long.

I am still recovering from Midsummer Night's Dream. A good week of solid vegging out would do it, but we've had company since the play, and homework, thanksgiving, presentations, and love life issues, none of which are relaxing, and all of which add to the post-play exhaustion... and here I am, two weeks later, and I'm still fogged. Jeez. And auditions for Fiddler are next week. If I hadn't already essentially committed myself to them, I might consider skipping this play. It's that bad.

On a lighter note, I am feeling quite creative today... Wrote a 30-second piano piece, completely by myself, and I've been cropping some old photographs and submitting them to my DEVIANTART which I got... what, sunday? Monday? Who knows.

Hint. Go check out my deviantart. Link's on the sidebar.

Anyway, school. Nothing really important to report... I'm going 17th out of 18 on my oral book report in english... Mr. Lykins' inattentiveness combined with my foggyness and I ended up doing a Third Year Japanese worksheet. That took a while. And I didn't know it was third year. Don't ask. Just don't.

I'm doing weather for the Olympian Flame this week. More fun than anchoring, just cause you get to make everything up. I did not-so-greatly today as I did yesterday... :/ Ah well.

Anyway, I'm tired of this. I'll upload my piano thinger on geocities or something...

EDIT:

Uploaded. It's here, or alternatively you can go here and listen to the background music.