Ah, what a week. Busy, busy, busy. But here we are at long last, the promised day-Friday. And what a glorious Friday it is, because I am here to announce my latest project, several weeks in the making.
But first, let's get y'all caught up with what I've been doing since Wednesday. Thursday was an exciting day, although not much went on during the day itself. I went to school, went to work, blah, blah, blah. But later that night I was invited to join some of my guildies in Reported For Awesome in some flex raids. I had never healed with my shaman anywhere but LFR, but I decided, why the hell not? And all in all, I think it went pretty well. We did it a bit backwards, but we ended up clearing about half the raid (we actually started with Garrosh) and I got two 540 drops, which were pretty good upgrades for my shaman, seeing as he's only existed for a few weeks. Either way, it was a ton of fun, so shout out to them, and I hope I get invited back soon.
Today wasn't the best day ever, at first, but it got better. I got woken up by the sound of my mother barreling into my room. Apparently she had been locked out of the house for a half hour, and her knocking had not awoken me. She was therefore forced to call my grandfather to get her in. So that was fun.
As you might imagine, I was pretty irritable all morning, until I got my hands on a computer to do some work on this blog. As you may have noticed, I have a new page up called Overheard Poetry. Essentially, what I intend to do with this is take little snippets of conversation I hear going about my own life, and sew them together to form brief poems. I find it fairly exciting, and a fun way to get myself more into people watching. That page won't have set update days, though so be sure to check back often to see what I've overheard. Could be profound, could be poop jokes. Most likely the latter.
That was basically the highlight of my day until I went over to Nate's house to hang with the group for a while. I got there as they were finishing a Halo match (Charlie proved quite proficient at this, surprisingly, despite lack of experience) and we decided to play Cards Against Humanity. You can imagine how that went.
We were also gonna play Munchkin, but it got late and we decided to call it a night. We may do that tomorrow night, actually, but we'll have to wait and see. Either way, it was a really great night, and I enjoyed getting to spend some time with my friends who, because of my schedule, I don't get to see very often.
Well, now that you're all caught up, I think it's time for the big unveiling. Airing tomorrw will be the first ever episode of my new podcast, called Geek Council.
I'll break it down for you. It's going to be a rotation-based podcast in which I will act as the host. Every week we will rotate in a new guest from the usual suspects, possibly with the occasional guest you may not have heard of on here before. The podcast will feature some really excellent news, and geek related topics, as well as spoiler-free (mainly) reviews of all the things you hold near and dear! Also featured will be a segment that will change depending on our guest that week. I'll leak one now, as it is participation based. We will have an advice segment, so what we want you to do is send us questions, and my guest and I will do our very best to try and not make it worse. Pretty sweet deal, right? Yeah it is!
That's all I'm telling for now, so you'll have to check it out tomorrow night to see more!
Tacos!
Gladdstone
Friday, May 30, 2014
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Steampunk Curious
SAT scores were released the other day, and I'm not sure how I feel. I didn't quite break 2,000 and I'm considering retaking it. Call me a perfectionist, but my writing score was kind of pitiful. Didn't even break 600. I don't have far to go, either. And I won't be going in blind this time (I didn't study, sue me) so I think I could probably break through to the 2,000's fairly easily.
Yesterday was a busy day. After school I had to get down to the C-Lab for a robotics meeting. Nik and I are in charge of the website (we're not really hardware guys). For the past week I've been working on an animated rectangular prism that displayed a different picture on each side which is connected to a button. You hit the button, it displays the side. It took two hours to integrate, but I finally managed to get the damn thing working properly and I simply couldn't have been more excited. It is easily the most complex thing I've ever coded (not saying a lot).
This was, of course all in time for the robotics team director to inform us not 5 minutes after I had everything working that next week we were to begin work on rebuilding the site. From scratch. Now, I know I can just cut and paste the code, but seriously. I've put a lot of work in these past couple weeks. Of course, I can't really be upset about this. Truth be told, it's a great opportunity to learn more about coding and how it works, because as it stands, my knowledge is still fairly rudimentary. All in all, should be at the very least an interesting experience, if not a downright hilarious disaster.
Today was a fairly busy day, to say the least. I managed to completely miss lunch working on a project for English, and then I was beaten in arm wrestling by a pretty girl in my math class. Thoroughly emasculating. I ended up eating my lunch in the band room 9th period during my study hall (I should have been practicing, but food), and reading Christie Golden's new book War Crimes. I must say, that book is shaping up to quite possibly beat out Arthas for my favorite book of hers. Once I finish it, I will of course post a full review (I'll give some warning at least two days in advance for those wishing to avoid spoilers). I also had a presentation to make for a research project I've been working on, followed immediately by a violin lesson. It's been determined I will most likely need a new violin for college auditions.
Now, I must say, there are some who might call me sentimental. I love my violin dearly, and I've also named him-Watson. For I am his Sherlock. He's my first instrument I've ever owned and we've been through a lot together. I can't say I'm not a little saddened knowing he won't be able to see me through my auditions, but I certainly won't be trading him in. Not only is he not a particularly expensive violin, but I just can't bear to part ways with him. He'd be lost without his blogger. So with me he shall stay. Maybe not on the front lines, but always there for practice time.
I've found myself getting into steampunk recently. A few years ago I started to dabble, but never got much farther than carrying around a couple pocket watches. I do love pocket watches, something about them is so elegant and lovely to look at. Now that I think of it, I really should get my good silver one touched up. It's gotten a bit scratched, and I think a little love would do it some good. Maybe I'll even start carrying it again. Might be fun to mix up my wardrobe a little bit, at least.
Tacos,
Yesterday was a busy day. After school I had to get down to the C-Lab for a robotics meeting. Nik and I are in charge of the website (we're not really hardware guys). For the past week I've been working on an animated rectangular prism that displayed a different picture on each side which is connected to a button. You hit the button, it displays the side. It took two hours to integrate, but I finally managed to get the damn thing working properly and I simply couldn't have been more excited. It is easily the most complex thing I've ever coded (not saying a lot). Today was a fairly busy day, to say the least. I managed to completely miss lunch working on a project for English, and then I was beaten in arm wrestling by a pretty girl in my math class. Thoroughly emasculating. I ended up eating my lunch in the band room 9th period during my study hall (I should have been practicing, but food), and reading Christie Golden's new book War Crimes. I must say, that book is shaping up to quite possibly beat out Arthas for my favorite book of hers. Once I finish it, I will of course post a full review (I'll give some warning at least two days in advance for those wishing to avoid spoilers). I also had a presentation to make for a research project I've been working on, followed immediately by a violin lesson. It's been determined I will most likely need a new violin for college auditions.Now, I must say, there are some who might call me sentimental. I love my violin dearly, and I've also named him-Watson. For I am his Sherlock. He's my first instrument I've ever owned and we've been through a lot together. I can't say I'm not a little saddened knowing he won't be able to see me through my auditions, but I certainly won't be trading him in. Not only is he not a particularly expensive violin, but I just can't bear to part ways with him. He'd be lost without his blogger. So with me he shall stay. Maybe not on the front lines, but always there for practice time.
I've found myself getting into steampunk recently. A few years ago I started to dabble, but never got much farther than carrying around a couple pocket watches. I do love pocket watches, something about them is so elegant and lovely to look at. Now that I think of it, I really should get my good silver one touched up. It's gotten a bit scratched, and I think a little love would do it some good. Maybe I'll even start carrying it again. Might be fun to mix up my wardrobe a little bit, at least.
 |
| Maybe not this much |
Gladdstone
P.S. Don't forget to check back for my exciting announcement Friday!
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
One Short Day
Welcome back, friends. I hope you all had an excellent Memorial Day. For those of you outside the United States who don't celebrate, I hope you had a great...Monday. Anyway, here is my delayed post, as I promised, and I have been waiting so long to finally get this out here. Exciting things. Let's jump in, shall we?
So, Saturday morning I rose (reluctantly) at 7am to get in the car and drive the four hours to New York
City where I had the distinct privelege of seeing my all-time favorite musical, Wicked.
Now let me just say, the first few times I went to the city, I was distinctly unimpressed. It always just sort of came off as crowded, and dirty, and smelly. But every time I go, I find I like it a little more, and this past time I thought maybe, just maybe I could even live there someday.
We got into the city around 11:30. The show wasn't until two, so after getting lost briefly, we found the theatre, parked and found a restaurant (Applebees). We finished eating around 1:00, and my sister wanted to go to the Hershey store that was a few blocks down. It's a cute little store, but I didn't find anything particularly exciting about it. By the time we got out of there, it was 1:30 so we headed back to Gershwin Theater, got in and found our seats. I did manage to get a few crappy pictures of the set before the show started. It was really quite awe-inspiring to see. Everything was very steampunk, and the way the dragon at the top moved (yes it moves) was just so smooth you would never think it was attached to ropes.
The show itself was absolutely stunning. Christine Dwyer as Elphaba was absolutely incredible, and she just meshed so well with Glinda. We sat up at towards the top of the theatre. The seats weren't great, but there really didn't seem to be any bad seats. If I had to make one complaint, it's that the audio wasn't quite up to par with Phantom. Now that may be a little much to ask, because no one had a mic in this show, and everyone can't be expected to project the way that the Phantom did in that show (he just filled the entire theatre with sound. You could practically feel him singing. Oh, to have that kind of voice).
Despite the sound being a little less than ideal, it was an incredible show. I expected to tear up during Defying Gravity, but there were just so many other little moments that really, really moved me. Moments where the audience laughed, I saw something completely different. I feel like people thought that the show was funnier than it was meant to be. To me, it's a tragedy. To most other people, they seem to think it's a cute little show that gives a new spin on an old story (trying to remain spoiler-free. It's an old show/book, but still).
All in all, it certainly lived up to everything I hoped it would be, and honestly, may have been even better than I even could have thought. If you ever have the chance to go see a Broadway show, this is an absolute must-see.
Looking ahead, Friday you can all expect an announcement regarding my new major project. I am currently getting together plans, and people, and the like. We're looking to launch in mid-June, but the official unveiling is scheduled for Friday, so stay tuned!
I'll talk to you all tomorrow!
Tacos,
Gladdstone
So, Saturday morning I rose (reluctantly) at 7am to get in the car and drive the four hours to New York
City where I had the distinct privelege of seeing my all-time favorite musical, Wicked.
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| source: milwaukee.broadway.com |
 |
| source: my iPhone |
The show itself was absolutely stunning. Christine Dwyer as Elphaba was absolutely incredible, and she just meshed so well with Glinda. We sat up at towards the top of the theatre. The seats weren't great, but there really didn't seem to be any bad seats. If I had to make one complaint, it's that the audio wasn't quite up to par with Phantom. Now that may be a little much to ask, because no one had a mic in this show, and everyone can't be expected to project the way that the Phantom did in that show (he just filled the entire theatre with sound. You could practically feel him singing. Oh, to have that kind of voice).
Despite the sound being a little less than ideal, it was an incredible show. I expected to tear up during Defying Gravity, but there were just so many other little moments that really, really moved me. Moments where the audience laughed, I saw something completely different. I feel like people thought that the show was funnier than it was meant to be. To me, it's a tragedy. To most other people, they seem to think it's a cute little show that gives a new spin on an old story (trying to remain spoiler-free. It's an old show/book, but still).
All in all, it certainly lived up to everything I hoped it would be, and honestly, may have been even better than I even could have thought. If you ever have the chance to go see a Broadway show, this is an absolute must-see.
Looking ahead, Friday you can all expect an announcement regarding my new major project. I am currently getting together plans, and people, and the like. We're looking to launch in mid-June, but the official unveiling is scheduled for Friday, so stay tuned!
I'll talk to you all tomorrow!
Tacos,
Gladdstone
Friday, May 23, 2014
Wicked Cool Weekend
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| Celebratory Bulbasaur! |
The past two days have been really nice, quite relaxing. Thursday was the junior class trip, and I elected to stay home (my classes were going to be empty, anyway). I got quite a lot done. I practiced Beethoven's 5th Sonata quite a bit, as well as my double stops.
I also played a fair amount of Hearthstone, but I didn't make much headway in the ranks. I'm still fielding the same general shaman deck as I was before. I'm not sure what the issue is with it, but it seems to have a 50-50 win rate. I just need something to bump it into that 51-50 win rate, so that I can at elast move forward, albeit slowly. If anyone's feeling particularly like helping, contact me on Twitter or the like and I'll be happy to share my deck list with you.
In the World of Warcraft, my troll shaman finally broke 500 item level through LFR, and I'm into Siege of Orgrimmar at long last. Not to say that I don't enjoy that raid, but honetly, it feels a little underwhelming. Let's just see what it's competing against. Last expansion, during the final raid we rode on Deathwing. We rode a fricking dragon and busted armor off of him! We then stood on a lava, rocky terrain and fought off all kinds of massive evil monsters until we finally slayed an ASPECT. Now let's back up to Wrath of the Lich King. The Lich King. Arthas. He had some of the absolute coolest backstory in WoW. There is no feeling that could compare to the first time I brought him down. WotLK was the expansion that I first came in during, and I worked really hard to get to Icecrown Citadel. The whole fight, vent was just on fire. People were screaming at each other, tensions were super high, and we were just channeling all this rage at the Lich King. Suddenly, BOOM. He's down. The server just completely explodes. It was just insane, nothing has ever been able to compare to what I felt in that moment.
Today I actually got out and did some stuff for a change. Hahaha. No, seriously! I helped my grandfather open up his pool for the season. It was pretty nasty when we first started, but there was something really pleasing about scraping the algae off of the pool because it covered literally the entire pool, so there was just little streaks of light blue (the pool lining). I also had to work tonight, which wasn't too bad, surprisingly.
But now to the big news. Guess who's going to see Wicked tomorrow? On Broadway???
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| This guy! |
Speaking of which, it's getting late, so I should be off to bed.
Tacos,
Gladdstone
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Much Music. Very Practice.
Geez, these past couple of days have been killing me. BYSO concert/rehearsal fiasco over the weekend, then the orchestra concert Tuesday, marching band rehearsal tonight, which was then immediately followed by a two hour private violin lesson.
On the bright side, however, I did finally pick a sonata to prepare for my college auditions. I'm going to be playing Beethoven's 5th Sonata (Spring). In a few weeks, I plan to pick out a piece from the collection of Bach Sonatas and Partitas. Then I just need some etudes and get my minor scales down, and I'll be all set!
Marching band rehearsal tonight was really fun, it was great to see everyone again, and Mr. Bill showed us the footage for the spoiler of next year's show titled, Home Sweet Home.
Something about that really got to me. Next year is going to be my senior year, and it seems that after all this crazy journey, starting with Haunted Carnival 4 years ago, to New York, For The Birds, and Tonight. And after all of this insanity, I'm back where I started. My home. The band is my home, it's where I belong. No matter what happens, I always feel good when I'm in the band room, or on the field. I know that I'm going to absolutely bawl the first day of band camp this year. After all I've done in this band, I just don't feel ready to leave. Even watching the video, all the old friends, all the memories, everything. I'll be honest, I teared up a little. I don't want this to end, I've never really felt at home anywhere in the way I do in the band. Even the people I don't like, I would still do anything for. I'm not sure what I'm going to do.
Getting back to everything here, however, I've got some big, big things in the works. I've picked up the iPad again and started drawing, so hopefully I can get some nice stuff up here pretty soon. What I really would like to talk about, however, is the idea of a Nerds Under Fire podcast. Now the issue we've run into before, is scheduling. My initial thought is that I will host the show solo along with a different guest each week. At this point in time, my schedule never matches up with anyone's regular schedule, so what I intend to do is bring in a new guest each week. Our most common rotation will most likely include the regulars you hear about-Nik, Alex, Charlie, Nate-but I also have a few friends dotted around the country I've met in various fields of nerd-dom who I would love to have guest on this show if they're interested.
This is all still in the preliminaries, of course, nothing is set in stone, but I've got plans and they will be coming together within the next couple of months.
Stay tuned, and I'll see you all Friday.
Tacos,
Gladdstone
On the bright side, however, I did finally pick a sonata to prepare for my college auditions. I'm going to be playing Beethoven's 5th Sonata (Spring). In a few weeks, I plan to pick out a piece from the collection of Bach Sonatas and Partitas. Then I just need some etudes and get my minor scales down, and I'll be all set!
Marching band rehearsal tonight was really fun, it was great to see everyone again, and Mr. Bill showed us the footage for the spoiler of next year's show titled, Home Sweet Home.
Something about that really got to me. Next year is going to be my senior year, and it seems that after all this crazy journey, starting with Haunted Carnival 4 years ago, to New York, For The Birds, and Tonight. And after all of this insanity, I'm back where I started. My home. The band is my home, it's where I belong. No matter what happens, I always feel good when I'm in the band room, or on the field. I know that I'm going to absolutely bawl the first day of band camp this year. After all I've done in this band, I just don't feel ready to leave. Even watching the video, all the old friends, all the memories, everything. I'll be honest, I teared up a little. I don't want this to end, I've never really felt at home anywhere in the way I do in the band. Even the people I don't like, I would still do anything for. I'm not sure what I'm going to do.
Getting back to everything here, however, I've got some big, big things in the works. I've picked up the iPad again and started drawing, so hopefully I can get some nice stuff up here pretty soon. What I really would like to talk about, however, is the idea of a Nerds Under Fire podcast. Now the issue we've run into before, is scheduling. My initial thought is that I will host the show solo along with a different guest each week. At this point in time, my schedule never matches up with anyone's regular schedule, so what I intend to do is bring in a new guest each week. Our most common rotation will most likely include the regulars you hear about-Nik, Alex, Charlie, Nate-but I also have a few friends dotted around the country I've met in various fields of nerd-dom who I would love to have guest on this show if they're interested.This is all still in the preliminaries, of course, nothing is set in stone, but I've got plans and they will be coming together within the next couple of months.
Stay tuned, and I'll see you all Friday.
Tacos,
Gladdstone
Monday, May 19, 2014
Freaking Fridays
Hey, all. I know I missed Friday, again. I don't know how this keeps happening-I guess I just get busy and it slips my mind. Promise I'll do better this week.
So anyway, it has been a fairly normal past couple of days, as usual. Wednesday was the US History AP and...yeah, I already talked about that, so let's not revisit it.
Thursday, I got out of school for a competition with my school's wind ensemble. We had prepared three pieces, and we took gold, which is just one rank below top, so we're all pretty excited about that. Things are starting to come together in marching band, and I've gathered some very fascinating information about this upcoming year that I won't share just yet. But let me just say, Mr. Bill has some really cool ideas, and I hope the other directors agree with him, because we could really have a shot at first place this year.
While we're on the subject of marching band, I am still working on the euphonium, despite the fact that I probably won't be playing it next year, I will definitely be playing it in college, which seeing as I have to be good enough to compete with some really fabulous players.
Agh. I just got in from mowing the lawn and my allergies are killing me. My eyes itch so bad I want to rip them out of my damn head. Also, I'm going to take a moment to say I find the show Two Broke Girls annoying.
Moving on, I went on a little adventure Saturday, and let me say, it is quite the tale. Let's start from the beginning, shall we? I am in a youth orchestra. It's actually quite an impressive group-it's made up of the top players in the area. Well, we had a dress rehearsal for our concert Sunday on Saturday. I live about 30 minutes away, and it was at 12, but I had to go get my car looked at on my way so I left at 11. I ended up getting out of there fast, so I grabbed Subway and drove over. I got to the high school, only to find absolutely no one there. Then, to make matters worse, I got lost in the school. Yup. Finally I found a door that led outside. Now here's the thing about this school-they've got gates at every entrance and these ones just so happened to be locks. Now irritated, I tried to get back in only to find all the doors were locked. So-you guessed it-I had to jump the fence. With a violin. Yeah. Then I had to walk all the way back around the building to my car. So now I was a little pissed, but figured it must be at the West Middle School, which happens sometimes. So I set the GPS in my iPhone to take me there, seeing as I don't head that way much. No sooner did I get there, than I realized it had sent me to the East Middle School. Pretty angry now, I told it to take me back to the high school because I thought maybe I could figure it out myself from there. Well, an hour later, my phone could not get me back there because of constructions and detours. Now more lost, I told it to take me home. Thirty minutes later I was calling my mom and she was telling me how to get home. So essentially, I was driving aimlessly for 2 hours. Did I mention my car has no AC? Oh I didn't? Well it doesn't, and I wasn't sure I was going to make it.
In summation, the website was wrong and the dress rehearsal was before the concert Sunday. Wonderful.
The concert was very good, at least. We played Rumanian Rhaphsody No. 1, which let me just say, is an insanely hard piece. We also played an excellent Mozart flute concerto among a bunch of other fantastic pieces. It was our last concert of the year, too, so no more driving 30 minutes every week for 3 hours of practice! Yay!
That's about it. I've got robotics tomorrow-Nik and I are going to be working on the website. See you Wednesday!
Tacos,
Gladdstone
So anyway, it has been a fairly normal past couple of days, as usual. Wednesday was the US History AP and...yeah, I already talked about that, so let's not revisit it.
Thursday, I got out of school for a competition with my school's wind ensemble. We had prepared three pieces, and we took gold, which is just one rank below top, so we're all pretty excited about that. Things are starting to come together in marching band, and I've gathered some very fascinating information about this upcoming year that I won't share just yet. But let me just say, Mr. Bill has some really cool ideas, and I hope the other directors agree with him, because we could really have a shot at first place this year.
While we're on the subject of marching band, I am still working on the euphonium, despite the fact that I probably won't be playing it next year, I will definitely be playing it in college, which seeing as I have to be good enough to compete with some really fabulous players.
Agh. I just got in from mowing the lawn and my allergies are killing me. My eyes itch so bad I want to rip them out of my damn head. Also, I'm going to take a moment to say I find the show Two Broke Girls annoying.
Moving on, I went on a little adventure Saturday, and let me say, it is quite the tale. Let's start from the beginning, shall we? I am in a youth orchestra. It's actually quite an impressive group-it's made up of the top players in the area. Well, we had a dress rehearsal for our concert Sunday on Saturday. I live about 30 minutes away, and it was at 12, but I had to go get my car looked at on my way so I left at 11. I ended up getting out of there fast, so I grabbed Subway and drove over. I got to the high school, only to find absolutely no one there. Then, to make matters worse, I got lost in the school. Yup. Finally I found a door that led outside. Now here's the thing about this school-they've got gates at every entrance and these ones just so happened to be locks. Now irritated, I tried to get back in only to find all the doors were locked. So-you guessed it-I had to jump the fence. With a violin. Yeah. Then I had to walk all the way back around the building to my car. So now I was a little pissed, but figured it must be at the West Middle School, which happens sometimes. So I set the GPS in my iPhone to take me there, seeing as I don't head that way much. No sooner did I get there, than I realized it had sent me to the East Middle School. Pretty angry now, I told it to take me back to the high school because I thought maybe I could figure it out myself from there. Well, an hour later, my phone could not get me back there because of constructions and detours. Now more lost, I told it to take me home. Thirty minutes later I was calling my mom and she was telling me how to get home. So essentially, I was driving aimlessly for 2 hours. Did I mention my car has no AC? Oh I didn't? Well it doesn't, and I wasn't sure I was going to make it.
In summation, the website was wrong and the dress rehearsal was before the concert Sunday. Wonderful.
The concert was very good, at least. We played Rumanian Rhaphsody No. 1, which let me just say, is an insanely hard piece. We also played an excellent Mozart flute concerto among a bunch of other fantastic pieces. It was our last concert of the year, too, so no more driving 30 minutes every week for 3 hours of practice! Yay!
That's about it. I've got robotics tomorrow-Nik and I are going to be working on the website. See you Wednesday!
Tacos,
Gladdstone
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
This is the Title of This Post
Back again, I see?
It is Wednesday night, and you know what that means-it's time for a new post. So let's jump right in, shall we?
Today I had the absolute pleasure of taking the AP US History exam, and let me just say-fuck. Seriously, that was absolutely awful. I don't even know where to begin. 80 questions, 55 minutes followed by a DBQ and two regular essays in 2 hours. Not to mention I didn't know 90% of what was on that test. I'll be completely amazed if I passed, frankly. But, we won't know until July because who the hell knows.
To make matters worse, Netflix is not working for me and I am about to lose my cool here. I put up with so much from them, and they never deliver. I have never been happy with the service they provide, but they're (amazingly) the best. SO I guess I'll have to put up with it for the time being. I'm trying everything
because all I want is to rewatch the goddamn Office. It seems to be my wifi, but I can't figure out what's wrong because my iPad is connecting to everything else, just not Netflix. It's working fine on my computer, so I don't know what's up here. I'm really pissed off about it, though (in case you couldn't tell).
Anyway, back to important-ish things. It's starting to look like I'm probably going to stick with my fluties for my senior year of marching band. I think I would just miss them too much to leave them.
I'm just going to interrupt this moment to say Netflix is working on my iPad again. Yay.
Back to the flute section. I really do love the section. They're so much fun, and I think I'd just be happier sticking with my guns. Not to mention the euphonium is a bit of a pain in the ass. I'll certainly work my way up to being fairly decent at it, because I'd really like to continue in a drum corp after high school. I think I love marching band too much to just let it fade away like that.
That's just about it in my life. These APs have been taking up most of my time. Thankfully, they're finally over so I can get back to not beating useless information into my head.
See you all Friday.
Tacos,
Gladdstone
It is Wednesday night, and you know what that means-it's time for a new post. So let's jump right in, shall we?
Today I had the absolute pleasure of taking the AP US History exam, and let me just say-fuck. Seriously, that was absolutely awful. I don't even know where to begin. 80 questions, 55 minutes followed by a DBQ and two regular essays in 2 hours. Not to mention I didn't know 90% of what was on that test. I'll be completely amazed if I passed, frankly. But, we won't know until July because who the hell knows.
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| My OTP. Seriously. |
because all I want is to rewatch the goddamn Office. It seems to be my wifi, but I can't figure out what's wrong because my iPad is connecting to everything else, just not Netflix. It's working fine on my computer, so I don't know what's up here. I'm really pissed off about it, though (in case you couldn't tell).
Anyway, back to important-ish things. It's starting to look like I'm probably going to stick with my fluties for my senior year of marching band. I think I would just miss them too much to leave them.
I'm just going to interrupt this moment to say Netflix is working on my iPad again. Yay.
Back to the flute section. I really do love the section. They're so much fun, and I think I'd just be happier sticking with my guns. Not to mention the euphonium is a bit of a pain in the ass. I'll certainly work my way up to being fairly decent at it, because I'd really like to continue in a drum corp after high school. I think I love marching band too much to just let it fade away like that.
That's just about it in my life. These APs have been taking up most of my time. Thankfully, they're finally over so I can get back to not beating useless information into my head.
See you all Friday.
Tacos,
Gladdstone
Monday, May 12, 2014
That Damn Euphno-whatsit
Here I am! I'm back! It's a Monday, and I could not be more pissed about that fact.
Anyway, it didn't even occur to me until today that I didn't put up a post last Friday, so my apologies. I'll make it up to you somehow (no I won't).
So let's talk about the last four days, or so. Lately it's seemed like everyone has something going on but me. Every time I talk to one of my friends they always say "you won't believe what I did yesterday/this weekend" and then they recount the epic tale while I sit there, reflecting on how I sat around doing nothing all weekend. The real trouble, though, is that I can't even make plans to go do something with anyone because everybody already has plans. It's enough to drive a person mad. You should see what I have to go through just to set up a night for my Dungeons and Dragons group-it's like pulling teeth. So-and-so has this, and she has that, and she won't come if she isn't going and by the time it's all done there's three people and we just end up sitting around playing video games because there aren't enough people to play a decent game.
So I'm laying down the law, there. I'm requiring so much time ahead of time for a person to tell me they can't make it (as opposed to the night before) because I just can't play these games anymore. I understand plans can change, but this is a matter of they're just not bothering to find out if they're free or not until the time is essentially upon us. This is not just a problem for the rest of the group scheduling-wise, but I and other members will go out and buy snacks and the like so we have some munchies and drinks while we play and when people cancel last second, what are we supposed to do with all this crap? I like to think I have a pretty valid complaint here.
I severely tempted to just step down and hand the DM mantle off to someone else, but I am 100% certain that if I did that, the group would never meet again. So as it is, I'm stuck if I want this to keep going, although God only knows how much longer I'll bother to keep this breathing. It might be time to pull the plug on this one, and that makes me kind of sad.
On the marching field, I've continued trying my hardest to get the hang of this damn euphonium, and I'd like to think it's going fairly well. Fun fact: blogger does not recognize the word euphonium. Weird. It seems to upset some of the flute section that I may be leaving next year and it makes me sad. I remember all the weird times I've had in that section and, frankly, I don't know if I can actually bring myself to leave. I really do love them all. My fluties have a very special place in my heart in a way that I don't think a lot of people will understand. The band is very much my family, even though I don't necessarily talk to, or even know everyone, it's a place where everyone is accepted and everyone has their own little niche. Maybe I'm just nuts, but that's the way I've always seen the band. They're very much one big, dysfunctional family.
I think that will do it for today. I've got work after school today, and then I have to go to a concert right after, so I'll throw this up when I get home for the sake of consistency. I'll see you all Wednesday.
Tacos,
Gladdstone
Anyway, it didn't even occur to me until today that I didn't put up a post last Friday, so my apologies. I'll make it up to you somehow (no I won't).
So let's talk about the last four days, or so. Lately it's seemed like everyone has something going on but me. Every time I talk to one of my friends they always say "you won't believe what I did yesterday/this weekend" and then they recount the epic tale while I sit there, reflecting on how I sat around doing nothing all weekend. The real trouble, though, is that I can't even make plans to go do something with anyone because everybody already has plans. It's enough to drive a person mad. You should see what I have to go through just to set up a night for my Dungeons and Dragons group-it's like pulling teeth. So-and-so has this, and she has that, and she won't come if she isn't going and by the time it's all done there's three people and we just end up sitting around playing video games because there aren't enough people to play a decent game.
So I'm laying down the law, there. I'm requiring so much time ahead of time for a person to tell me they can't make it (as opposed to the night before) because I just can't play these games anymore. I understand plans can change, but this is a matter of they're just not bothering to find out if they're free or not until the time is essentially upon us. This is not just a problem for the rest of the group scheduling-wise, but I and other members will go out and buy snacks and the like so we have some munchies and drinks while we play and when people cancel last second, what are we supposed to do with all this crap? I like to think I have a pretty valid complaint here.
I severely tempted to just step down and hand the DM mantle off to someone else, but I am 100% certain that if I did that, the group would never meet again. So as it is, I'm stuck if I want this to keep going, although God only knows how much longer I'll bother to keep this breathing. It might be time to pull the plug on this one, and that makes me kind of sad.
On the marching field, I've continued trying my hardest to get the hang of this damn euphonium, and I'd like to think it's going fairly well. Fun fact: blogger does not recognize the word euphonium. Weird. It seems to upset some of the flute section that I may be leaving next year and it makes me sad. I remember all the weird times I've had in that section and, frankly, I don't know if I can actually bring myself to leave. I really do love them all. My fluties have a very special place in my heart in a way that I don't think a lot of people will understand. The band is very much my family, even though I don't necessarily talk to, or even know everyone, it's a place where everyone is accepted and everyone has their own little niche. Maybe I'm just nuts, but that's the way I've always seen the band. They're very much one big, dysfunctional family.
I think that will do it for today. I've got work after school today, and then I have to go to a concert right after, so I'll throw this up when I get home for the sake of consistency. I'll see you all Wednesday.
Tacos,
Gladdstone
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Sharpie Face=Passing Grade?
We've finally reached that blessed halfway point in the week where the weekend begins rapidly approaching. The only downside here, is my English AP Exam is scheduled for Friday. Kill me.
The good news is Krieger says that you only need about a 6 on each exam to pass as well as roughly 46/55 multiple choices (subject to change depending on the number of questions and the curve). I feel pretty confident that I can nail this. As for the American history AP...well, you win some, you lose some, eh? I'm really banking on John Green to get me out of that one. For those who don't know, John Green has an entire video series out that covers the entire course and it is a truly beautiful thing.
I thing it's only fair to warn you, this is gonna get a little personal for a paragraph or so, so feel free to skip over this bit. In fact, I even encourage it, because it's really more for me than you guys.
Sometimes I just get sick of being single. And by sometimes, I mean all the time. For a while I just ignored the entire dating/crush thing, and it served me well. But after a while, I just started to get lonely, and it sort of makes me regret that I ever started dating in the first place because I know if I hadn't, I wouldn't have this unique sort of loneliness. I'm always surrounded by good friends, but now when I'm single, there's that little emotional void that nothing really seems to fill. Don't get me wrong, I don't totally regret ever having had a girlfriend because some wonderful things have come from my relationships, and they've caused me to grow as a person. But for several months (almost a year, I think) now, I've been consumed with this awful regret, and I can't seem to figure out how to approach it. i made a really terrible decision one day, just out of no where and I don't understand why I would do it, but I did, and I went with it without thinking and I've never hated myself more. It's just one of those things where you can't seem to find a way to broach the subject, and just spend your time desperately trying to build up to it even knowing that you'll probably never reach that point.
Anyway. Let's pick the pace back up, shall we? In the world of music, I had a violin lesson tonight with my private teacher, and we discussed my college plans for most of the time I was there. But what's really interesting is I've finally gotten to pick up a brass instrument. Specifically, low brass. Specifically-er, euphonium. This is because, as a flute player, I can't continue in marching band without picking up a different instrument. Another factor, was that Mr. Bill had been pressuring me to do it for a while now. Apparently we'll be low in that section next year, so it's looking like that's where I'll be spending my senior year, which I find kind of exciting. I think it will be fun to relearn all the parts for those couple songs that pop up every year.
Speaking of exciting, ho-boy did something exciting happen today. at long, long last...it has been announced...by Nintendo...that coming soon...in November 2014...is the long awaited Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire remakes! Words simply cannot express how excited I am about this. Along with the announcement came a short, 30 second video. There's nothing super exciting in the video itself, but this is incredibly exciting. I, personally have been waiting for this since Heartgold/Soulsilver and I could not be more excited that it will (most likely) be running in the new graphics engine-although I wouldn't say no to a return to the old style, either. For those who haven't seen it, here's the video.
Beyond that, I don't have too much going on in my video game life. I should be wrapping up this crazy music writing stuff in the next week or two, and then I'll be back to screwing around.
This site is looking pretty sparse, and that's something I plan to work on soon here. If you guys have any ideas of what might be cool, feel free to leave a comment below!
Tacos,
Gladdstone
 |
| The man who I'm relying on to help me pass APUSH |
I thing it's only fair to warn you, this is gonna get a little personal for a paragraph or so, so feel free to skip over this bit. In fact, I even encourage it, because it's really more for me than you guys.
Sometimes I just get sick of being single. And by sometimes, I mean all the time. For a while I just ignored the entire dating/crush thing, and it served me well. But after a while, I just started to get lonely, and it sort of makes me regret that I ever started dating in the first place because I know if I hadn't, I wouldn't have this unique sort of loneliness. I'm always surrounded by good friends, but now when I'm single, there's that little emotional void that nothing really seems to fill. Don't get me wrong, I don't totally regret ever having had a girlfriend because some wonderful things have come from my relationships, and they've caused me to grow as a person. But for several months (almost a year, I think) now, I've been consumed with this awful regret, and I can't seem to figure out how to approach it. i made a really terrible decision one day, just out of no where and I don't understand why I would do it, but I did, and I went with it without thinking and I've never hated myself more. It's just one of those things where you can't seem to find a way to broach the subject, and just spend your time desperately trying to build up to it even knowing that you'll probably never reach that point.
Anyway. Let's pick the pace back up, shall we? In the world of music, I had a violin lesson tonight with my private teacher, and we discussed my college plans for most of the time I was there. But what's really interesting is I've finally gotten to pick up a brass instrument. Specifically, low brass. Specifically-er, euphonium. This is because, as a flute player, I can't continue in marching band without picking up a different instrument. Another factor, was that Mr. Bill had been pressuring me to do it for a while now. Apparently we'll be low in that section next year, so it's looking like that's where I'll be spending my senior year, which I find kind of exciting. I think it will be fun to relearn all the parts for those couple songs that pop up every year.
Speaking of exciting, ho-boy did something exciting happen today. at long, long last...it has been announced...by Nintendo...that coming soon...in November 2014...is the long awaited Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire remakes! Words simply cannot express how excited I am about this. Along with the announcement came a short, 30 second video. There's nothing super exciting in the video itself, but this is incredibly exciting. I, personally have been waiting for this since Heartgold/Soulsilver and I could not be more excited that it will (most likely) be running in the new graphics engine-although I wouldn't say no to a return to the old style, either. For those who haven't seen it, here's the video.
Beyond that, I don't have too much going on in my video game life. I should be wrapping up this crazy music writing stuff in the next week or two, and then I'll be back to screwing around.
This site is looking pretty sparse, and that's something I plan to work on soon here. If you guys have any ideas of what might be cool, feel free to leave a comment below!
Tacos,
Gladdstone
Monday, May 5, 2014
It's a Brand New Day
Monday evening again, and here I am again. It's good to be back, like slipping back into a familiar coat.
Friday was an interesting day. It appears I am now the Pam of the marching band ((go watch The Office if you don't understand, you uncultured swine). Not sure what I do, but whatever. Should be a good year nonetheless.
Saturday was, as I'm sure you all know, Free Comic Book Day. For me, the day has become less about free stuff, and more about meeting new people. Nik, Nate, and I all went to the mall and enjoyed talking to some likeminded nerds. We even saw a couple cosplayers. Power Rangers. I stopped in the middle of the mall and saluted them exclaiming "God bless America." because what else could you possibly do at a moment like that?
Slightly less exciting than that was that I had to take the SAT first. Let me say, that was the most absurdly stressful thing I've ever done in my life. And I had to pay money for it.
Don't get me wrong, it was incredibly easy (never even picked up a review book), but the time constraints were absolutely killer. The math portions were less difficult, and more time consuming. Sort of so that one brief mistake could cost you the time to do an entire question.
Enough about that, though. Let's talk music! I haven't quite found the time to finish that violin cover of I Miss You yet, but let me tell you, words cannot describe how excited I am to finish and perform it. It's going to be so fantastic. The intricacies of the parts and the way they fit together are just so great.
Speaking of which, Rivenburg (orchestra teacher) had a guest violinist in today. And not just any violinist, a rock violinist. Yeah. Think about that. Basically what he would do is he'd set his equipment to record from his acoustic/electric violin and then loop while he played the melody. It was all dne live, too which made it all the more impressive. He would lay down the bea, then base, some decoratives, and go to town. It was truly incredible. If you want to check him out (and I highly recommend you do), his name is Andrea di Cesare. He's an Italian violinist, and he didn't speak much English from what I could tell. It wasn't too bad though, I know enough Italian to get the gist of what he was trying to say. I must say, though, it really got me excited to try broadening my horizons with my instrument a bit.
Speaking of broadening my horizons, tomorrow I'll be picking up a low brass instrument for the first time. For the marching band, or course, just like basically everything else I do. I love my fluties, but it looks like the low brass are going to need warm bodies, and Shannon and Megan have it all in good hands. I'm sure they'll get along fine (read: better) without me.
That oughta do it for tonight. I'll see you all on Wednesday.
Tacos,
Gladdstone
Friday was an interesting day. It appears I am now the Pam of the marching band ((go watch The Office if you don't understand, you uncultured swine). Not sure what I do, but whatever. Should be a good year nonetheless.
Saturday was, as I'm sure you all know, Free Comic Book Day. For me, the day has become less about free stuff, and more about meeting new people. Nik, Nate, and I all went to the mall and enjoyed talking to some likeminded nerds. We even saw a couple cosplayers. Power Rangers. I stopped in the middle of the mall and saluted them exclaiming "God bless America." because what else could you possibly do at a moment like that?
Slightly less exciting than that was that I had to take the SAT first. Let me say, that was the most absurdly stressful thing I've ever done in my life. And I had to pay money for it.
Don't get me wrong, it was incredibly easy (never even picked up a review book), but the time constraints were absolutely killer. The math portions were less difficult, and more time consuming. Sort of so that one brief mistake could cost you the time to do an entire question.
Enough about that, though. Let's talk music! I haven't quite found the time to finish that violin cover of I Miss You yet, but let me tell you, words cannot describe how excited I am to finish and perform it. It's going to be so fantastic. The intricacies of the parts and the way they fit together are just so great.
Speaking of which, Rivenburg (orchestra teacher) had a guest violinist in today. And not just any violinist, a rock violinist. Yeah. Think about that. Basically what he would do is he'd set his equipment to record from his acoustic/electric violin and then loop while he played the melody. It was all dne live, too which made it all the more impressive. He would lay down the bea, then base, some decoratives, and go to town. It was truly incredible. If you want to check him out (and I highly recommend you do), his name is Andrea di Cesare. He's an Italian violinist, and he didn't speak much English from what I could tell. It wasn't too bad though, I know enough Italian to get the gist of what he was trying to say. I must say, though, it really got me excited to try broadening my horizons with my instrument a bit.
Speaking of broadening my horizons, tomorrow I'll be picking up a low brass instrument for the first time. For the marching band, or course, just like basically everything else I do. I love my fluties, but it looks like the low brass are going to need warm bodies, and Shannon and Megan have it all in good hands. I'm sure they'll get along fine (read: better) without me.
That oughta do it for tonight. I'll see you all on Wednesday.
Tacos,
Gladdstone
Friday, May 2, 2014
Pride (part 2)
Band secretary.
...better than nothing, I suppose.
Better than nothing, I suppose. See you all Monday.
Tacos,
Gladdstone
...better than nothing, I suppose.
Better than nothing, I suppose. See you all Monday.
Tacos,
Gladdstone
Pride (part 1)
Thank God it's Friday. This has been a long, and stressful week.
I'm in chemistry, right now, not paying attention. I have to work right after school tonight, so I'm trying to take care of this post during the day so I'm not up all night. Normally that wouldn't be an issue, but I have SATs tomorrow, so I should probably try to get some sleep. I'm shooting for 10 tonight, if not 9:30. The test is at 8 so I'll probably have to be up around 7, depending on if Nik passes his driving test today. He takes it at two.
Speaking of this afternoon, Mr. Bill announced today that the results from leadership interviews will be posted 9th period today. I have been completely unable to focus since then, because I am just absurdly nervous. Last year's flute section leader Shannon said she was in her interview for a half hour (they were generally about 10 minutes). She was going for drum major too, so that makes me a bit nervous. Mine did last about 20 minutes, though, so that could be a good thing, who knows?
I also put a bit more work into my cover of I Miss You by Blink-182 for three violins. It's pretty frustrating to write out, because all I want to do is play it. But I kind of have to write the piece first. The good news is it's really coming together well.
I've also been asked to do an orchestral arrangement of Cry Me a River by Michael Buble for someone's senior song (in our orchestra, for our last concert of the year the seniors each pick out a song, and we didn't have the music for that one). Talk about a good song, but my God is it tough to get the right rhythm out of the vocals. This one I have to write out all they way, too. As opposed to the short hand I'm writing I Miss You in, because I'm the only one who has to be able to read that. Hopefully, I can get this done and convince my music theory teacher Mr. Mueller to help me record it. He has a fantastic electric violin and is an absolute wizard with Garage Band (which makes sense, because that's basically his job).
In Blizzard's domain, I spent some more time on my troll shaman. He's almost done with LFR ToT, and then all that's left is Siege of Orgrimmar and some item grinding, then I'll be all about set to start at least as an alternate healer for my guilds raid teams. After that, maybe I'll try out elemental shaman, because apparently they're pretty powerful right now.
Before I forget, when you boost your character to 90 using the WoD boost, you get all Embersilk bags. Yeah. I didn't know that, and now I have more bag space than I know what to do with. It's insane.
In Hearthstone, I've leveled my shaman (lots of shaman this week) and the deck I built is actually working fairly well. It has a low win rate, but I can tell where the problems are so I think once I so all I need to do is switch a couple cards out. The issue is really I have a lot of board control, but I never have anything to finish my opponent with once I've got tempo and board control.
Agh, this is absurd. I can't focus. Time for another intermission. I'll put out a second post later after 9th period.
Wish me luck,
Gladdstone
I'm in chemistry, right now, not paying attention. I have to work right after school tonight, so I'm trying to take care of this post during the day so I'm not up all night. Normally that wouldn't be an issue, but I have SATs tomorrow, so I should probably try to get some sleep. I'm shooting for 10 tonight, if not 9:30. The test is at 8 so I'll probably have to be up around 7, depending on if Nik passes his driving test today. He takes it at two.
Speaking of this afternoon, Mr. Bill announced today that the results from leadership interviews will be posted 9th period today. I have been completely unable to focus since then, because I am just absurdly nervous. Last year's flute section leader Shannon said she was in her interview for a half hour (they were generally about 10 minutes). She was going for drum major too, so that makes me a bit nervous. Mine did last about 20 minutes, though, so that could be a good thing, who knows?
I also put a bit more work into my cover of I Miss You by Blink-182 for three violins. It's pretty frustrating to write out, because all I want to do is play it. But I kind of have to write the piece first. The good news is it's really coming together well.
I've also been asked to do an orchestral arrangement of Cry Me a River by Michael Buble for someone's senior song (in our orchestra, for our last concert of the year the seniors each pick out a song, and we didn't have the music for that one). Talk about a good song, but my God is it tough to get the right rhythm out of the vocals. This one I have to write out all they way, too. As opposed to the short hand I'm writing I Miss You in, because I'm the only one who has to be able to read that. Hopefully, I can get this done and convince my music theory teacher Mr. Mueller to help me record it. He has a fantastic electric violin and is an absolute wizard with Garage Band (which makes sense, because that's basically his job).
In Blizzard's domain, I spent some more time on my troll shaman. He's almost done with LFR ToT, and then all that's left is Siege of Orgrimmar and some item grinding, then I'll be all about set to start at least as an alternate healer for my guilds raid teams. After that, maybe I'll try out elemental shaman, because apparently they're pretty powerful right now.
Before I forget, when you boost your character to 90 using the WoD boost, you get all Embersilk bags. Yeah. I didn't know that, and now I have more bag space than I know what to do with. It's insane.
In Hearthstone, I've leveled my shaman (lots of shaman this week) and the deck I built is actually working fairly well. It has a low win rate, but I can tell where the problems are so I think once I so all I need to do is switch a couple cards out. The issue is really I have a lot of board control, but I never have anything to finish my opponent with once I've got tempo and board control.
Agh, this is absurd. I can't focus. Time for another intermission. I'll put out a second post later after 9th period.
Wish me luck,
Gladdstone
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