Not DeLongest Post

   Here we are, the day of leadership auditions. As I type this, I sit in the band room waiting for my name to be called. They had us all fill out short little forms detailing what were auditioning for and of course, it took all of 15 seconds. Right now Kayla is in there, and I believe I'm next. Oh boy. Super nervous, but I think it's going to go well.
   I listened to a lot of I Fight Dragons today. God, I love that band. My favorite song by them has got to be The Geeks Will Inherit The Earth. Although Fight For You is a very close second.
   Whatever, I've liked alternative rock for all of two days and it's probably getting annoying so I'm just going to stop now.
   Well, looks like I'm up. I'll be right back...

   I think that went pretty well. I was shaking a little bit when I came out, but what else is new?
   It's actually been several hours since and I'm now home working on, guess what? A violin cover of Blink-182's song I Miss You, per the request of my friend Amanda.TECHNICALLY I should be working on the solo I'm supposed to be writing for music theory, but ehhhh.
   So like I said, I've now listened to the first 8 measures of I Miss You 15 times now, and I've almost got it all (I work pretty slowly).
   Previously, I tried to build a new shaman deck in Hearthstone although I'm not even level 10 with that class yet (yeah, I know. 100 gold for getting every class to ten. Blah, blah, blah, lazy) and it actually worked out better than I thought. I've only won a couple matches, but that's a couple more than I expected.
   I really enjoy the way the shaman plays, so we'll see how this goes once I've got all the basic cards to work with. This deck is sort of missing a couple big hitters.
   Anyway, that cover is calling my name again, so short post tonight.

Tacos,
Gladdstone

My Homie, Vivaldi

   Ugh...Mondays. Never fun.
   It doesn't help that my apparently incredibly sadistic chemistry teacher always schedules his quizzes for Mondays. I mean, it's not a difficult subject, but come on. Common courtesy, am I right?
   Anyway, interesting weekend. I went on that community college tour, and as much as I'd like the extra two years with a couple friends, it's kind of a crap hole. I don't think it very likely that I go there. I didn't even get a chance to check out their music/arts building. Not only could we not find it, but we couldn't even get a second to talk to the arts representative at their little presentation area. She just stood there for 30 minutes talking to these two guys, so eventually I gave up and we left.
   Nik seems pretty excited to go there. Despite the crappy school itself, they actually have some pretty cool activities going on there. His dad works at the college and runs the paintball club, so there's always that if I do choose to go there for a year or two. I really need to meet the violin teacher there before I do, though. I can't risk getting stuck with a teacher who is going to make me hate my instrument.
   So just tonight someone introduced me to the musical genre of alternative rock. I did not think I would care much for it, as I tend to be a bit of a Vivaldi, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, etc kind of guy, but I do really like the bands Fall Out Boy and Sleeping With Sirens. Dance, Dance by Fall Out Boy really struck a chord (ba-dum tsss) with me. Not sure why, but I liked that song, as well as the music video. As I type this, I'm listening to Pandora and The Anthem by Good Charlotte just came on, and damn I really like this song.

Antonio got all the bitches.

   I did get quite a lot done in WoW this weekend. I decided to finally use my 90-boost on a troll shaman on Wyrmrest Accord. Currently I'm gearing him up to be an alternate healer for my guild's raid teams. I've never healed outside LFR before, so this should be an interesting experience.

   I'm really enjoying the resto shaman play style, but I must say, I was really overwhelmed when I first boosted. They just sort of drop you in. I really wish there had been some sort of Death Knight like area to learn your class in, and I imagine we'll see that when the expansion is actually released. It seems like they would have to, because even as a veteran on Azeroth I was intimidated by the amount I had to learn. If the purpose of this is to help get new players in the game, the learning curve could prove a massive obstacle.
   My only other complaint regarding the 90-boost is you don't get any flight paths. You have to go run your freaking ass off and pick them up as you happen to wander by. This drives me nuts because I am incredibly lazy and use flight points instead of my own mounts quite a lot. So that is a gigantic time suck. The Timeless Isle has proven my best friend these past few days, as it has really helped me get geared and basically jump straight into LFR after just a few heroic dungeon runs to learn my rotations.
   More on this will be incoming as I start to get settled in. Until Wednesday!

Tacos,
Gladdstone

So College is a Thing

Pictured: Places I actually have no interest in attending

   Yikes, somehow I forget how little time I have left in high school. Even now, as my junior year begins to draw to a close, I'm experiencing the first of many lasts, as well as the first of many more firsts. Tomorrow I go to my first college open house. Granted, it's just the local community college, and I don't really plan on going there at this point in time, but hey-can't hurt to go look and get a feel for the place, right? Hopefully I'll get to talk to some people from the music and computer science departments and get their opinions. Who knows? It could be a good thing, it would certainly save me a lot of money. Plus, I could stay with my current private violin teacher for another two years, which I would absolutely love.

Because this looks
fun to me.

   Right now I'm thinking I will probably major in music ed with a minor in some sort of computer science field. I'm not sure what, but I really want to get a hang of working with computers. I definitely plan to make this a big part of my life, and being able to code my own website, and maintain my own RSS feed is something I'm definitely interested in learning to do.
   As for lasts, next week is a biggie. That would be leadership auditions for the marching band next year. Seeing as that will be my final year, I will get a position. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. It is quite simply, a fact. I'm going out for both flute section leader as well as drum major and one of those spots will be mine, that I promise you.

Pictured: Awesomeness

   I especially want to be drum major though, and here's why. When I was a kid, my grandmother (now deceased) would take me to go see the parades throughout the year. The street they were on has a Wendy's on it that at the time had a big open window area looking out onto the street. So that was where we would sit for every parade, and it was a great way to watch. Every time the marching band went by, I would think about how much I wanted to do that someday (I was somewhere between 5, and maybe 6 or 7 when we did this), but more than anything, I wanted to be the person who was conducting up front. I would always turn to my grandmother, pointing at the drum major and say "Someday, I want to do that." and she would smile at me. 12 years later, and I still want to do it-scratch that. 12 years later, and I will do it, and there is no power in this 'Verse that's gonna stop me, goram it!

TACOS
Gladdstone

Can't Sleep, Must Post

   Hey! Hey! What day is it? Hum-NO. It's Wednesday. Just Wednesday. If I never hear anyone reference that commercial again, it will be too soon.
   So here we are again, my usual mid-week post. This is always a toughie. I never have a lot going on, or I'm too damned busy to write a decent post, so let's see just what we can get out of this one, eh?
   Tuesday, my school district was back in session. So that was...fun. Probably not the best word for it, but whatever. That took up the majority of my day, almost immediately followed by work (and by almost, I mean just immediately). I wish I could tell you I had a funny story, but alas, I do not. After work, I went home, cooked myself a quick dinner, and basically just went to bed. Hey, can you blame me? First day back from break-I wasn't really in the mood to do much, although I did bring my hunter on Wyrmrest Accord to 38 before I finally conked out around 11:00, which is actually pretty good for me.
   I've been trying to get to sleep before midnight recently, because 7 hours of sleep just wasn't doing it for me. 4am was fine and dandy for me during spring break, but that's obviously not something I can do when I have to be up at 7:30. So, 11:00 is the new bedtime which I am violating at this very moment. Not a second after my head hit the pillow did I think "Shit, I've got a blog. I need to post." So here I am blabbing about nothing, and having unnatural thoughts about the soft caress of my bed sheets.
   Moving on to today, another slow day. Just getting reacllimated to this whole "get up and do shit" thing, so not a lot going on. I worked over Meditation by Massanet for my college auditions that are coming up in a few months, and I did some coding because damn do I need to practice (HTML, if you were curious. I know, you were just dying to know).
   Wonderfully enough, I left my laptop in my band locker after school today, so not only am I typing this from my iPad, but I also can't level grind tonight like I'd been planning to do. I'd really like to ding 90 on this hunter before the beta of WoD launches, then use my boost on some sort of healing class. I'm not sure what yet. At first I was thinking monk, because of their versatility, but I also kind of like priest, because they're doing really well at the moment. I should check the alpha patch notes, though before I make a decision. Wouldn't want to pick a great class in MoP and have it nerfed to hell and back when WoD drops *cough* death knights *cough*.
   I've still just been playing a bit of Hearthstone here and there. It's been proving quite difficult to form a decent streaming schedule, thanks to my ever changing work schedule. I really do need to get that sorted out. Before I changed my availability I had a good, reliable pattern. Sunday mornings, and Monday, Wednesday, and Friday after school. Now that I changed it (for some reason I can't even remember) there is neither rhyme nor reason to how my hours are structured.
   All well. Things will be easier once the summer hits and I only work early morning shifts (if all goes my way, at least).

Tacos, my friends.
Gladdstone

Happy Easter. Blaze it.

   Yeah, I don't really know.
   Welcome back to Under a Happy Rock, the blog following the exciting exploits of the mildly interesting Gladdstone, AKA Joseph Farrell.
   While I'm thinking about it, I don't do drugs. I just sorta did that in the title because.

Because apparently I'm Cartman now

   I hope you all had an excellent Easter, and for those of you still in school, a totally tits spring break. My school is back in session tomorrow (kill me now). I feel bad for all of you who had to go into school the day after Easter. I don't know about you, but I definitely need a day to myself to recover from all the socialization. This Easter especially. It was actually a bit of a rough day, there was a lot of family drama and it just wasn't a good situation.
   Well, holidays are tough. What are you gonna do, right?

Because apprently I have
an Irish accent now.

   I've spent the vast majority of my days doing various spring-y type things, and during the night, I would sign onto Skype and hang with my friends because, who needs human contact, am I right?
   Most nights we would do something like play Minecraft, or do an online version of Cards Against
Humanity (think of it as an 18+ version of Apples to Apples). We also played this really weird online board game. I can't even remember the name, but we would play into the wee hours of the morning. So most nights I was up until at least 2am if not 4am. It was really a killer on my sleep schedule but, hey. Nothing to be up for, right?
   Nik was usually the first to go to bed (by usually I mean always). He's a total wimp. Generally by midnight, it was just Tiana, Amanda, and I.
   I don't think I've mentioned Amanda on the blog before. She's a good friend of mine, and for some unknown reason, an avid fan of Homestuck. She's also the person who first introduced me to Doctor Who, so you can complain to her about that. We went out for a while, but that's really a tale for a different day.
   So anyway, that would also be my excuse for not streaming anymore Hearthstone. I actually did switch to a Zoolock deck that's working out pretty well for me (just in time for the end of the season). Hopefully I can get some streaming in this week at some point and show it off-or more likely, fail horribly as soon as someone gets in the chatroom (let's just pretend I didn't totally cost myself multiple games because I kept forgetting about my hero power).
   I'm sure I mentioned Super Mario Sunshine on Friday. Yeah, I'd rather not discuss it until I finish it.  This game is fucking frustrating and I'm just gonna keep it out of my regular life. I really can't wait to talk about this game, though so I'll try to finish it as fast as I can (buckle in, kids. This will be a long one. There's about 60 shine sprites or whatever in that goddamn game).
   That'll do for tonight, I think. See you all Wednesday.

Fuck yoooooouuuu!

Tacos,
Gladdstone

I'm Not Late, You Are!

   ...Shut up,
   Welcome back to my blog! I'm honestly surprised you're still here. Without any further ado, let's get to the news for the past two days.
   As always, we'll start with my personal life. I'm single, as I'm sure many peole know, and recently I've come to a very strange juncture in my love life and it's making me quite uncomfortable. I'm not quite ready to talk about it here, but that's what's been occupying a lot of my time.
   College is creeping ever closer and closer. My private violin teacher is urging me to pick a few schools to audition for because I have to start preparing now. Curse you non-music students who get to put it off! Auditions for me start this year!!! My Spring concerto needs a lot of work, as do my scales, particularly minor scales. I've had this weird issue with my intonation too. Whenever I lose concentration, I've been going roughly a quarter step sharp fairly consistently for about a week now and it''s driving me absolutely mad. I absolutely must fix this before next Wednesday (lesson day).
   Spring break has treated me well. One day, Nik, Nate, and I all went mini golfing at this place across the bridge from my house. We ran into my health teacher and a friend from marching band. Also, some veeery good looking French Exchange girls.
   Needless to say we didn't actually talk to them.
   I've also been up late most nights on Skype with my friends, seeing as we don't have to be up in the morning for anything. All in all, things have been going quite well and I'm very happy.
   Leadership auditions are creeping closer, and closer. Just typing this, I can feel my stomach churn, and my heart beat a little faster. This is my last shot at drum major and-I'll be completely honest here-if I don't make it, I will be devastated. It's always been my dream, and honestly the only thing I really want out of high school. I would be content friendless as long as I got to be drum major. When I was a little kid, I would go to parades with my grandmother. We would watch from inside a Wendy's because she liked to sit and I would always love to see the marching band, particularly the drum major. I always told myself I would do that one day, and, god damnit, that day is TODAY! I really do feel good about this. I think I finally know everything I need to know, and I really do believe I could lead the band. Hopefully the band director feels the same way.
   On a video game note, I refuse to stream Hearthstone until I break this losing streak, goddamnit. So buckle in, because this is gonna be a long one.
   I also recently started playing through Super Mario Sunshine again, and all I can say is fuck. I forgot how mind crushingly difficult that game could get. I finished the sand bird in only a few deaths, but some of those "parkour" (platform jumper) levels are killing me. If I find a way to record it, I will because some of these fails are pure gold.
   That's gonna about do it for me tonight. I'll talk to y'all Friday!

Tacos!
Gladdstone

Don't Be a Pansy, Get in the Cart!

   I'm not dead yet!
   Close, though. I didn't make a post Monday. because of how sick I was. On Friday I had an awful sore throat, which evolved into a horrendous head cold over the weekend. That's also why I haven't streamed since Saturday. I've just generally been incredibly inactive, and I'm sorry. I did play video games, but when you're sick like that you just don't have the energy to do that kind of thing. You all understand, right?
   ...
   Well screw you, too.
   Seeing as I haven't been streaming, I should catch you up on Hearthstone. All I have to offer, however, is bad news. Amazingly, I am still stuck at rank 17. Clearly something has to be done about the rush hunter deck I've been using-there's just too many counters. Now may be a good time to pull out my mage control deck. I won't be able to stream tonight, either, as I have a concert. You can expect that to pick back up Thursday, though.
   In Azeroth, I've spent most of the week seeking out a new raid team for when WoD drops. When i find one, I intend to use my 90 boost to fill whatever role they need. I'm currently looking at a team on Wyrmrest Accord, but they're first team no longer has an opening, and I haven't had a chance to contact the other raid leader yet. Fingers crossed, eh?
   In the mean time, feel free to contact me if you're raid team is currently looking for a new member, particularly a healer, although I can also dps. I could probably tank, but I'm pretty rusty on tanking, so who knows how that might go.
   On the handheld, nothing much has happened, although I did finish the Egyptian level in PvZ2 at long, long last.
   Although I didn't play much, there is exciting news in the world of Pokemon X/Y. Nintendo has announced an event in which two new Mega Stones will be released. These will be none other than the great Latias and Latios (two of my favorite legendaries). I've seen no news on the appearance or stats as of this moment. There is also talk of new Vivillion and Floette forms.
   Short post today, but it's been a slow week. I'll see you all Friday.

Tacos,
Gladdstone

Movin' On Up

    Well look at that, another late update. All well, what are you gonna do?
   Not a lot happened since I last posted-OH WAIT. The iOS version of Hearthstone totally came out! Well, in Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. As a side note, apparently New Zealand isn't real because my spell correct has Zealand underlined. Weird.

Do Canadians even have computers?

   Anyway, as you might imagine, I totally made a Canadian account for my iPad and immediately downloaded it. Although my school wifi blocks it, I still find this to be more fun to use than the desktop version, not sure why. I just really like it. Maybe it's something to do with it's as close as you can get to actually touching the cards.
   So on to the meat of the topic, which is: how is it? Answer: excellent. I am playing it currently on the iPad Mini w/ retina and it looks absolutely fabulous. Just as good, if not better than my (admittedly crappy) PC.On the flip side, it is still obviously not ready to roll out everywhere yet. There are a few bugs, although I have yet to encounter anything game breaking, just a little inconvenient. The game does occasionally crash, but never during a match, only after one has just ended, usually just before the loading screen. Load times are actually fairly good, depending on your internet connection.
   If I had one complaint, which isn't really a complaint because I can't think of a way to do it better, it's the deck building interface which makes you swipe to remove cards. It's a little inconvenient, but again, I can't think of a better way to do it. When you tap the card, it gets enlarged so you can read the text, so no tap to remove.
   Other than this, the game is almost identical to it's PC counterpart. The only thing that surprised me is it didn't launch with mobile Twitch streaming, which I found slightly disappointing, but not completely unsurprising. I imagine it will be integrated eventually, just not with the slightly unstable version they have out now.
   Speaking of Twitch streaming, I am now streaming my ladder grind. My username is Gladdstone. Give me a follow, and tune in, generally after 7PM EST to cheer me on. You can also follow me on Twitter @Pithpifth. I'm currently working my way through with a rush style hunter deck (I know, I know. I'm sorry).
   In other news, Churgo (Nik) and I recorded our first Let's Play of Minecraft tonight. It was more of a dry run than anything else. We played some mini games, sang some songs, then he went to bed, and I streamed Hearthstone for about an hour. I'll have more details about the Let's Play on Monday, and you can expect a post to go up on Nerds Under Fire sometime this weekend.
   I think that's about hit every topic. I'm going to keep it relatively short tonight as I do have to be up in the morning for NYSSMA (the solo competition). Gotta get my violin tuned, and run through my solo a few more times before the judging. My time is 10:30, so I'll probably head up around 9:00 to practice, and then I'll be back shortly afterward, at which point I may or may not stream Hearthstone. I almost added before I have to be at another rehearsal, but tomorrow's Saturday, not Sunday. The weekend hasn't even started yet, and it's already flying by.

Meat filled shells with salsa and cheese,
Gladdstone

Better Late Than Never

   Late update today, but hey, see the title.
   The past two days for me have seen a massive reduction in one kind of stress, and a huge uptake in a different kind of stress.
   I'm back at work as of Monday evening, but that isn't a big deal. Annoyance, yes, but it's retail, and cashier at that-hardly stressful, most days.
   The big thing is NYSSMA. For those who aren't familiar, it is a New York solo competition in which classically trained music students prepare a solo and get graded on their performance by a single judge. I've spent the past several months preparing Vivaldi's Spring Concerto with my private teacher, and I perforrm on Saturday morning. This will be my first NYSSMA under her tutelage, and I'm really anxious to impress upon her that I'm really serious about my music.
   On top of all this, the clock is ticking on my independent research, which I won't talk about too much. Suffice it to say, it's very over my head and proving very difficult to grasp. But, I'm getting there, slowly but surely.
   In the digital world, ranked season 1 of Hearthstone launched Tuesday, and sadly, I was incorrect about the launch of the tablet version. I'm a bit disappointed, but they're promising soon, so I'll keep playing PvZ2 until then.

   Speaking of which, maybe it's just me, but I feel like they really ramped up the difficulty in the sequel. I could completely breeze through the original, but this sequel is proving to be a bit challenging at times. Just today I reached the final boss fight for the first world (Ancient Egypt) and I just cannot get past it. I don't know what it is, but it's a tough fight. I'm sure I'll get it soon. The fact that it's more challenging has made it more fun, really.
   On the handheld, I'm still playing through Pokemon Y. I've also been watching the BW anime on Netflix, like I said last week. In my opinion, there's nothing quite like cuddling up with your Pikachu plush with your 3DS to watch the Pokemon anime. As someone who grew up on Pokemon-I've been watching since about mid-Indigo League, but I mostly focus on the games, no other series has ever quite matched that feel. I've almost always stuck by the Pokemon franchise regardless of what they do (except Trozei. Never forgive), even though we still haven't gotten our RUBY AND SAPPHIRE REMAKES (HINT F*CKING HINT).

   In Azeroth, I've officially rededicated myself to the legendary cloak quest on my pandaren mage. I'm only on the first chapter, and I am determined to get this damn cloak before the WoD beta comes out. But damn, 3,000 valor is a lot for someone who doesn't raid regularly, although I would like to very much. I've also been trying to pick what I'm going to boost to 90 when I get my Collector's Edition (I like the art books, the Digital Deluxe isn't worth it, to me). I'm probably going to roll Horde, and I'm definitely not rolling on Blackwater Raiders (my current home server) because it is all but dead, and I really would like to find a raid team for the new expansion.
   Hmm...I think that's about it. If I missed anything, all well. I'll catch it on Friday.

Tacos, my friends,
Gladdstone