Well, this is my friend Ogor. I pass by him everytime I go downstairs.
Hmm, I've never looked this closely to the darned crappy plaster job... oh well. You are getting a glimpse into my dwelling!
So I have officially said my good byes to the three close friends of mine that are moving away and leaving me for substantial periods of time. It will probably hit me later this year when I realize how far away they are, but for now I am excited for them, and admiring their accomplishments and success in making it out of the Peg.
I'm very excited to be moving on in my life - hopefully in another city as of next year. Fortunately I have lots still to do in Winnipeg, so it's not like I'm dying to get out of here.
I'm interested to wait and find out where my sister is going to have her wedding... or any of the details really.... She's from Winnipeg, he's from Montreal, well Guatemala originally... but ya. His family is religious, Heather all but refuses to set foot into a church. Nevertheless, we know that there will be a wedding social in Winnipeg, because really... where else has socials!
Everyone out there reading this, or otherwise is invited to the social!!! I will have details when they start coming in!

so yay, I'm still super happy about my sister's engagement.
I have so much happening in the next little while. I have ensemble auditions for school, I have appointments for massage and doctor.
Eeep, I'm fretting my diabetes appointment in just over a week. I know that my control has gone to shit. So I'm taking the initiative to figure out what I'm doing wrong now, before the appointment so that I can forego the sitting there saying I'll try to improve. It always seems pointless that way, and it is because there's not enough time to explain what exactly I should do, and I don't have details for him as to what I've been doing wrong. So the solution is that I'm starting to actually keep track in a booklet what my sugars are, what I'm eating and what I'm taking for insulin. There's a long standing theory that it might actually improve my control....which won't be noticeable at the appointment, but at least it's a start...

I'm so happy!!!

YAYAYYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYYAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My sister is engaged!
Fiona and I have been waiting for this moment for such a long time.
Ooooh golly, I don't even know what to say, but ya, I'm super excited!

Also, My spider friend has reappeared..... theres a long line of spider friends.... there were quite a few Egors, then I started calling them Igor, and now this one will be Ogor. As usual, he looks scary, but he's still my friend...

So many of my friends are leaving me this week. I spent some time with my soon to be german friend, and my Chinese friend left on monday, and my french friend is leaving on thursday....

The government almost made a worthwhile improvement...

So, it's getting close to my birthmonth which means that thegovernment is getting ready to rape me for driving again.... But apparently this is the last time the government is going to acknowlege that they aware of my birthday. They are switching over to a new system where everyone in manitoba renews their licenses at the same time!!!! gah! oh well, they seem convinced that it won't cause backlogging and general stupidity, so I will give them the benefit of the doubt.
Once immediate benefit is that I only have to pay 18$ at the end of Sept!! Yay me!
I got SO excited when they pamphlet they handed out started talking about this new photocard that you will be getting. I allowed myself to believe that they were switching to a one-piece driver id system... But after checking the website and double checking with a phone rep, it's clear that it will still be a 2-piece id system - just as inconvenient as ever. Especially since they are putting so much effort into this new photocard, it should at least be able to stand as a single piece of id. I understand that for licensing people and police and whatnot, I'll give them 2 pieces, but in terms of just a photo id, I've never understood why you need to give them both parts to be a valid piece of id. Gah, oh well.
It really won't make any difference to me - just another one of Manitoba's gimmicks to make people think they we are effecting real change.... Conveniently, the new picture card has the same ugly Manitoba font that puts it in line with the Spirited Energy branding campaign.

Now on to better stuff. Yesterday I got a haircut... AGAIN! I know, it's getting ridiculous, but I have not enough hair left to get a haircut for quite a while. "So Mikey, why did you get one?" Well Billy, yesterday they were having a fundraiser for both the Humane Society and the Juvenile Diabetes Association - two wonderful causes that are close to my heart and pancreas respectively. With a donation you could get a free haircut by a stylist and a mini massage. I took full advantage of these opportunities and now I have styling hair!!! tee hee I went for lunch with my friend Sandra, and we discovered these flyers so that how we spent our post-luncheon time.

Ooh, I'm applying for a T.A. position at the university. It is for the theory 1 and 2 courses, so it will last the year. And, what better way is there to prepare for grad school entrance exams than relearning the first half of the theory text?!? It will also look good on grad school applications and whatnot.
YAY!

Wow, amazing experience!

I am so happy!
The two things I love most about music and performing are:

Sense of enesemble between performers and
Improvisation

Tonight I had those two in spades!

I remember once having a random improv session with someone that I strongly disliked. While it was happening and for a short while after, I had respect for him and enjoyed the experience.....

Tonight, I was having an experience like that but with skilled improvisers who are good nice and enjoyable people! I can barely describe how elated that left me feeling. This was the group I had mentioned before - primarily dancers but also a few musicians who get together for Jams. In theory it could be scary - 10 dancers, a pianist, bongo player, guitarist, random percussionist and a painter/sketch artist getting together and each improvising something.
I was amazed at how much cohesion there was within the group. Musicians were all doing a great job of communicating within themselves and the music as a whole was speaking to the dancers. At the same time, the dancers were speaking to the musicians and there was a conversation between individuals. Sometimes the dancers were individual, sometimes they came together in similar movements and formed one entity. The sketch artist was drawing images of what he was seeing the dancers were doing and then other dancers would see/dance with the pictures and bring them into the organism that was developing. It must have been about 45 minutes long, but it barely felt that long - every change was organic and it felt like one idea that changed and morphed as the jam went on.

In order to warm up / get everyone to open themselves up we played a game/exercise which was amazing and fun! There were 2 versions which we did and they made everyone feel at ease and laugh.
First - We all stood in a circle so we could see everyone. The game was about passing and recieving. Someone would 'throw' and action and a noise across the circle to another person. The other person would recieve the action by mimicking the motion and the noise. They would then pass another action and noise to someone else.....etc. Quickly, people were laughing and losing their inhibitions and then it was getting too fast for people to realise what was going on and it ended up in a pool of laughter.
Next - A more serious version of the game where you passed the 'tone'. The starting person would hold a note/pitch/sound and then pass it to someone. To recieve the note, you had to emotionally connect with the other person by imitating the gesture and sound along with that person until they felt you were inline with them. Once you had recieved the tone, you would transform it by some emotional reaction in terms of sound and body and then pass it along to someone else.
Both of these activities were amazing. It necessiated direct eye contact in order to communicate who was being sent the action. The second activity also made it so you would try and understand the other person and then take the time to reinterpret the sound.
As you can guess, these were a great starter to get people into the realm of non verbal communication and from the jam that came after, I feel it was very effective.

I'm very excited to do this again next week, and hopefully throughout the year. I'm so glad to have stumbled upon this group!

My sister came in last night from Thompson. I'm so proud of her, she is doing the MS bike tour from Stonewall to Gimli today, and then the return trip tomorrow. She raised about 600$ for such a great cause! And also the fact that she's doing a bike marathon - that's no easy feat.
I got to hang out with her a little last night, and finally got to hear some things about her road trip this summer. My parents also went to Gimli to volunteer for the bike tour.
It is so quiet in the house, and I love that! Since getting back for the summer, my dad has had a lot of days off and my mom's work situation is a little unstable to say the least, so I haven't had many days with the house to myself.
This is nice, but it means I have no car for the weekend. Therefore I had to turn down an accompanying gig at the same church, because I'm not going to wake up super early to bus across the city. I would have liked to have been able to drive tonight, so Jon could be free to celebrate his last few days in Winnipeg/Canada, but I guess we'll have to make do. Other than that, I'm used to the bus, so it's not a big deal.
Tomorrow evening, I'm going to a dance improvisation thing! I met with a couple people from a Winnipeg Dance collaboration group and it went very well. We talked vaguely about the dance community, performing arts in Winnipeg. They're open to having me take part in the jams and some collaboration opportunities too. As I'm sure I have mentioned, I'm very excited about this opportunity for learning and experience.
Yippee

Who the frick decided mornings should start so early?!?

So, it's gawd-damned 8 am in the morning and I don't want to be awake. Nevertheless I realize school will be starting soon and I will have to be up this early on a quasi regular basis....
It's just so hard!! I'm really not a morning person.
To top it off, ten minutes ago, I decided I wanted to have some fruit and I was led to believe that there were bananas in my kitchen...
My mother has gone to a new extreme in her selection of small bananas... If I hold it up to the keyboard, one end on "A", the other end rests on "k" - and those are the outer extremities!!! This is like an uber-contra-plantain!!
This is a sad sad day, in a sad sad world where I hope and pray to golly-gosh that a man's manness is not reflected by the size of his fruit....
On the bright side, today is my last working day of the summer, and I get paid for the last 2 weeks of working - yippee!

I don't want to be a tenor

So ya, this is how I feel right now.
Aside from the personality defects related to being a tenor, I don't like the range thing. I want to go back to being a high baritone.
I wish I had thought of this plan... but it seems like more of a reality than anything... - I should go into my audition for vocal ensembles and just crack all of my high notes, and then they'll realize that I'm really not a tenor... I'm a fucking pianist!!! Why the hell can't I just get credit for playing piano for the ensemble! Oooh, choral accompanimnet - so much better than having to do choral singing. Then I don't have to put so much effort into being insistant about TUNING in the tenor section.
Oh, I'm also hating Photoshop and the fuckness of stupid! argh oh man does it make me angry!
I hate technology with the bloody passion of a thousand fiery corpses!

Well, I had the day off from work and it was very nice and relaxing. Not to say that work is at all stressful, cause it really isn't but today was a very nice day so far. I slept in, which was very nice after last night, and then went for a late lunch with Scotty and Fiona and then came home to knit for a bit. Tonight I'm going to head to the school to take care of some major productivity!
Last night, I went drinking for Scotty's birthday. We went to a local little lounge where they have free unlimited popcorn and then we went for karaoke at the sals, which if I had been sober, I would have been morally opposed to. The only downside to the evening was that even though fiona and I started drinking before going out in an attempt to save money, I still spent about 50 dollars on booze... I can't afford this lifestyle! It was a delightful time with the karaoke... I sang my two standard karaoke numbers:
Tina Turner - Private Dancer
Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On
of course, liquor makes my performance even raunchier than one might expect, but that's all part of the fun. I dedicated both of the songs to Scotty for his birthday and I think he really enjoyed them... maybe even as much as I enjoyed singing them for him. One thing did strike a chord of sadness in me.... As per tradition dating back to my 18'th birthday, I sing the Celine song in her octave. But ever since I started singing tenor 2 or 3 years ago I've noticed little signs that my falsetto is decreasing. Sadly, I have to admit that I can no longer use my falsetto; my dreams of being a countertenor have been ended.
Anyway, the moral of the story is that I had a wonderful time last night. I woke up this morning with a very minimal hangover, and then we went to the Olive Garden for the all you can eat breadsticks, salad and soup combo - quite resaonably priced and very filling.

Well, I seem to be in much better spirits lately. It seems I have been having bad cases of PMS (Pissy Michael Syndrome, for those who aren't familiar) lately.
As a result, I have neglected to mention some things.
- I am really enjoying my work over the last week and a bit. It is such a contrast to what I do with musical theatre during the year. Previously I had only worked with very young kids who are pretty much only interested in the dance aspect, and they can't really sing and they are obnoxious little hellians. Well, at this camp, the kids are old enough to be there because they want to. For the most part they are reasonably musical and they are really interested in the music and lyrics. It is whole different world when we can move beyond simply trying to sing through the song. These kids pick up so quickly and they have great ears on them. Often they don't even need the sheet music, they hear the melody once and it's in them! Not to say that they're challenging melodies, but its still wonderful, it's just a matter of memorizing the words. Plus, the music they are working with is more challenging, beautiful, interesting... whatever.

-Composing is actually starting to get in motion. It had been very slow moving, not to say it still isn't, but now I'm able to work out specifically what I want for certain effects rather than doing a lot of the brainstorming I had been doing in starting out each of these variations.

hmm, tonight I got my Beethoven sheet music - my sonata in the Henle edition. It's so pretty! well, not really but ya!

Oh, God DAMN am I ever in a pissy mood.
I was fine most of today, but then on my way home after work I got on the bus and I go soo angry!
Nothing specifically happened really. The bus was full, so I had to stand.. but that was fine, I was still happy up til then. I was happy to stand, as sitting on a piano bench for 3 hours isn't my idea of heaven. What got me was the guy in front of me. We were the only 2 standing on the whole bus, so you'd figure he would take his own space.. .but NO!!! the fucker!
I was standing sideways so I could hold onto the yellow bar and look out the back door windows. Those of you who know me well, know that I can get a little clausterphobic in crowds or around people, and today was certainly not an exception. Fuck, he was so obnoxious - standing there- and he actually was inching backwards as time went by. Gah, I just wanted to push him! Add to this the fact that rush hour traffic was moving nowhere so the downtown leg of the bus ride was taking FOREVER!
Finally we got to Polo park and a spot opened up for me in the front row of the upper level on those new fucking busses (don't even get me started on those badly designed chunks of shit-box horse-ass). So the guy I sat beside had his legs spread so much that I couldn't sit full on the seat. Nevertheless, it was still better than standing by that other assy dumb-head.
In my attempt to put my legs/feet somewhere where I could both be comfortable and maintain a sitting balance, I accidentally nudged the leg of this lady who was sitting in the sideways-sitting seat across the back door. She gave me the most heinous bitch face look I've ever gotten.I mumbled "i'm sorry" to her, but that didn't do much.
Finally, I got home, and I just can't stop being a bitch, I have my shit all in a knot because there were tomato seeds in my salad and Canadian Idol is on tv, which naturally makes me angry and gah gah agh!
Anyway, enough ranting, I should stop typing cause mumbly, who cares!
BUT, I'm still fucking waiting for someone to justify to me how red-light cameras are a violation of privacy rights.... I don't care if they are morally right or wrong... I just want to know why and how they violate privacy rights. I simply want to hear a well formulated argument that follows logically.

Oh, God DAMN am I ever in a pissy mood.
I was fine most of today, but then on my way home after work I got on the bus and I go soo angry!
Nothing specifically happened really. The bus was full, so I had to stand.. but that was fine, I was still happy up til then. I was happy to stand, as sitting on a piano bench for 3 hours isn't my idea of heaven. What got me was the guy in front of me. We were the only 2 standing on the whole bus, so you'd figure he would take his own space.. .but NO!!! the fucker!
I was standing sideways so I could hold onto the yellow bar and look out the back door windows. Those of you who know me well, know that I can get a little clausterphobic in crowds or around people, and today was certainly not an exception. Fuck, he was so obnoxious - standing there- and he actually was inching backwards as time went by. Gah, I just wanted to push him! Add to this the fact that rush hour traffic was moving nowhere so the downtown leg of the bus ride was taking FOREVER!
Finally we got to Polo park and a spot opened up for me in the front row of the upper level on those new fucking busses (don't even get me started on those badly designed chunks of shit-box horse-ass). So the guy I sat beside had his legs spread so much that I couldn't sit full on the seat. Nevertheless, it was still better than standing by that other assy dumb-head.
In my attempt to put my legs/feet somewhere where I could both be comfortable and maintain a sitting balance, I accidentally nudged the leg of this lady who was sitting in the sideways-sitting seat across the back door. She gave me the most heinous bitch face look I've ever gotten.I mumbled "i'm sorry" to her, but that didn't do much.
Finally, I got home, and I just can't stop being a bitch, I have my shit all in a knot because there were tomato seeds in my salad and Canadian Idol is on tv, which naturally makes me angry and gah gah agh!
Anyway, enough ranting, I should stop typing cause mumbly, who cares!
BUT, I'm still fucking waiting for someone to justify to me how red-light cameras are a violation of privacy rights.... I don't care if they are morally right or wrong... I just want to know why and how they violate privacy rights. I simply want to hear a well formulated argument that follows logically.

so full of Indian food goodness

First of all, a reminder to Fork that I still expect that response as to why photoradar is an invasion of privacy....

I went for an Indian food buffet tonight with a friend from school. It was good not only because of the food, but cause I haven't seen him all summer and it was good to catch up.

This morning I played a church service. I could get used to this kind of work - not in the sense that I want to work for a church.. cause we all know how I felt about that the first time... Rather, I quite enjoyed the aspect of walking in there 15 minutes before the service, looking over the hymns to play, then starting the service and then leaving. The service was only about an hour long and as I was leaving, I was thanked by many of the little old ladies and other people of the congregation who value the musical element of the service. The work pays very well and isn't all that taxing whatsoever. When I was playing at one specific church and that was my job, I put effort into learning preludes and postludes. Today I simply improvised the preludes and the postlude, and the hymns didn't involve the kind of practice I used to put into learning them for the organ. It's so appealing because I'm getting paid well by the hour for the time that I put in....
In terms of accompanying singers or instrumentalists, they pay you for the time you spend with them and then the performance, but what about the time you have to spend learning the music and rehearsing it on your own, before the other person enters the picture. To do this job dilligently, one might spend 8 hours of their own time and only be paid for maybe just 2 hours that the singer uses you for. As you become a better pianist and gain experience as an accompanist, or even having previosuly learned a piece, the amount of time you need to spend to prepare yourself for the rehearsals and performance decreases - therefore your time becomes more valuable as the years go by.
I'd like to think that this is the stage I have come to in terms of accompanying church services, where it takes me far less time to prepare than it did previously.

Hmm, what else did I do today.... Oh yes, I knit a hat. I'm very impressed with how it turned out and I might wear it as part of my back to school fashion outfit (HA!). Hmm, that reminds me that I should get some new clothes for back to school. Not that it should be time specific, but it is a justifiable time to buy new stuff for meself. Time for Value Village!! Oh and while I was knitting, fiona was eating chocolate and reading excerpts of Cosmo to me! what a life! that magazine is so funny and as if some of the articles aren't risqué enough, but Fi reading them takes them that extra little level of dirty.

Before we knit, Fi and I went to Wallymart to buy a birthday card. I ran into someone who I thought I might never have seen again, and it brightened my day to no end! His name is Regent, and I can easily say that he was the most influential part of my mid-late teenage years. In high school and for a bit after, I worked at a local pharmacy every weekend and a few evenings a week and Regent was one of our regulars. Every saturday and sunday morning all through high school, I would see and talk to Regent. In the summers, I would sometimes see him everyday. He was old, blunt, opionated, stubborn, smelly, funny, knowledgable, and certainly inappropriate at the best of times. As a retired man, he rarely had anything pressing going on so he would always spend sometimes upwards of an hour visiting the staff and customers. While many of the girls I worked with didn't enjoy his company, I always found something enjoyable about crazy ol Regent. I think my favorite quote that I heard so many times, and he probably still says, was "I'm the nicest guy you'll ever meet, and I'll beat the shit out of anyone who says different" or something like that. Anyway, he was an endless source of stories and lessons - even when they repeated themselves over again - during that time in my life. He taught me so much about life and it was great to run into him and chit chat for a very short time.

Hmm, tomorrow it's back to musical theatre! Unfortunately, this sightreading won't be as relaxing as the hymns, but I look forward to the challenge.

Today made me feel very valued as a pianist/musician. When I awoke from my sleeping in today, I had two messages on my voicemail - almost making me regret having turned my cellphone off last night.

Message 1 was from a woman who needed an emergency vocal coaching before going off to Toronto for an audition. Her normal coach was unavailable. This woman had called up the musical theatre goddess with whom I've been working this last week (and this week coming up) and asked who she could call, and she gave her MY number.
There could not be a nicer hint that I've been doing a good job this week.
Unfortunately, by the time I called her back, she had been able to find someone else to do it, but I still felt honoured. The woman did however want to know if I was available in general as her regular coach will be moving away this year, I told her of course!

Message 2 was from my favorite pianist/fluter who wanted to know if I could substitute at a church tomorrow morning. I called her back and was able to do it. Yay for extra business. I haven't done a church service in a while, so it seems about time I go and visit the United version of God.
This message also made me realize that my voicemail message was still set to my 'out of town' greeting - oopsie! I fixed it right away. I wonder how many opportunities I missed because my message has been telling people I was unavailable all summer. I know I had (thought I had) changed it even before I came back to the city.... I guess I didn't select the new message as my current outgoing message or something silly like that.

Hmm, what else to say. I'm not quite as ranty today as last night, but I would like to address the comment I recieved.
The commenter stated that the redlight cameras are a violation of privacy. I was quite dissappointed that she was too lazy to give reasons, as I would be quite interested to hear such a justification. Nevertheless, I would like to present my thoughts on why they are not as such, a violation of privacy.
Firstly, is driving a private action? Perhaps the conversations you have within your vehicle could be deemed private, but I hold that the act of driving is indeed quite the public event. When you drive, you are controlling a large chunk of metal which is maneuvered around public and private property as well as people; out in public. This is why there are laws governing driving.
I struggle to see how the speed cameras are at all involving privacy. They simply measure an action and record those items that take part in said action.
Looking up the word private, there are several definitions that make reference to being 'out of sight', 'intended for one's exclusive use', or ' not available for public use'. I can not logically apply any of these definitions to the act of driving.

In terms of the choice to speed or break any other traffic law, I don't understand how the presence or absence of a person/police official makes a difference as to a driver's relation to the laws. When someone speeds, it is undeniable that there could be a police officer with a radar gun at any point. Is this a violation of privacy?
If so, then why do we have these laws? Or are you only breaking the law if a police officer sees it happening? Does a tree make a sound if it falls in the woods and a police officer isn't there to hear it? Better yet, is a police officer still vegetarian if they don't realize that they've been eating meat in something all along?!?

Once again, I plea to my readers, and especially my commenters, do tell me if I am wrong. but don't simply do it to gloat or to put me down, I am here to learn. I want explanations and reasons for what you think. I do want to know why these cameras are a violation of privacy. Please Please tell me why!

little rant....

so, I've been seeing ads lately that piss me off and disgust me.
-Impaired Driving-
they basically are advertising... if you were drinking and decided to drive, then don't worry about the tons of time and effort that have been put into 'don't drink and drive' ads.... we'll make sure that you can keep your license so that next time you can do some real damage!!
now, before you get all defensive on me, I realize that sometimes machines do make mistakes and it is possible that the breathalizer may yield a higher result than what alcohol was actually present in the blood. BUT - I also realize that at some points, I can drink a few drinks and feel right tipsy, yet my blood alcohol would be within the legal limit.... just as easily as you can have a few too many yet feel more sober than you are.
Nevertheless, I don't want to be a bitch about the technicalities. I'm here to bitch about the fact that it is advertised.
"so what if it's advertised, shouldn't those who are wronged by the injustice of our faulty judicial system have the right to find a qualified specialist who can assure that their innocence is upheld to the full extent of the law?!?"
Why yes Billy, of course they should! BUT if this were aimed at the few instances in which people were wronged, the advertisements would not be warranted, there wouldn't be enough cases in order for the lawyers to go this much outof their way to make themselves known.
Nevertheless, these ads do exist implying that there is a larger target audience - which I am certain are those who are looking for a way out of paying the fine or losing their license and vehicle.
Once again, I realize the fault of my passion on this topic (bitching, that is) and see that I have no proof that all the clients are guilty, and I shouldn't jump to such outlandish conclusions, no siree bob!
Nevertheless, I stand by my disgust at the mere fact that there are advertisements for "Impaired Driving". and why, why does it matter that there are advertisements/!

THE ANSWER-
Do we actually believe that fast food advertisements exist solely for those who are already hungry for that mouthwatering juicy beef slapped between two hot toasty buns leaving you hungry for.... oops, a little off topic... tee hee hee, anyway, are those advertisements only there for those who already know what they want, and perhaps just forgot that they can go out and get it?!? ... I think not!
Advertisements serve many purposes, one of those is to inform the market of what is available from the company paying for the ads. Another equally important purpose, and of more interest to the business sector, is the goal of increasing the client base.
The aim of those advertisements is to reach out to those people who don't even know they want something, and to convince them that there is a want where there was no need before.
This is why I am disgusted. Whether it be the primary intention or not, the advertisers are putting into effect incentives for people to drink and drive, countering the 'dont drink and drive' ads which came before. Where someone should think "I've had 3 drinks in 2 hours, I might be close to the legal limit; perhaps I will call a cab to play it safe", they might think "I've had 3 drinks in 2 hours, I might be close to the legal limit; close enough that I could probably fight my way around the charges thanks to my friends - the pro-drinking-and-driving-lawfirm".

I find this situation quite similar to the traffic ticket specialists who blatantly advertise that they get you off scott-free from speeding tickets. Once again, aside from the possibility that the radar gun was off by however many klicks... mumbly mumbly, it all boils down to people not wanting to accept the punishment for the crime. I'm not here to debate the value of speed limits or safety concerns because I speed just like the next person, BUT... We all know that there are speed limits and we know that there are fines for speeding,at the same time, mostly all of us gamble now and then. The majority of the time we don't get caught and we break the law openly and feel pretty good about it. Then, you get caught and boom it's an outrage and you have been violated. Or even worse those pussy ass fuckheads who claim that red-light cameras are a violation of privacy and shouldn't be legal.... FUCK YOU ASS TWAT! suck it up and pay the ticket.
Oy, now I've gone from mildly ranty, to just plain pissy.
oh well, that should be enough for tonight... I haven't writtena long entry in a while, I hope it has been as delightful to read as it has been to write.

worky worky worky

It feels good to be back to some kind of work. It's getting me back into some kind of a schedule as well as into productive mode for school.
Also the fact that I usually only work in the afternoons is a good schedule for me to be on. Tomorrow though, I work in the morning which means that I will be able to get to the school and the library. I'm not sure exactly what I need to do, but I will find something productive when I get there. Oh yes that's it, I need to take out music for a song to sing for auditions and also book a time for auditions.
Ok, thats a fair bit of stuff to get done tomorrow, yay!

Hiatus is over!

I think the last thong I knit was last summer some time (probably over a year ago).
I'm not sure what happened, but I lost my way, I lost the inspiration that had seen me through making dozens of them.
Today not only did I finish making one, but I taught my friend Fiona how to knit a thong.
I feel like I have made the world a much better place.
However, I need to make sure that my artistic creation of thongs does not interfere with my artistic creation of other things like music.... therefore, once school starts I will limit my thong knitting to the time I spend on the bus or in class.
I need to decide whether I should try to sell this thong on the internet. The last time I tried, I only sold one and it went for such a low price that it almost wasn't worth the effort. Although, I can say that I have officially sold thongs on ebay - which is a redeeming factor.

ok, normally I don't post random dribble like this, but it was too funny to pass up.
You can try it, just go to google or any search engine and type in "(your name) looks like" and see what your results are.
Here are mine.

Michael looks like drag queen in one of Pauls porn videos.
In some of those photos, Michael looks like he's playing naked.
Michael looks like a penguin.

Those were really the only ones that made sense/complete sentances on the first page, but those alone were enough to brighten my day!

I've stopped washing my hair

No, I'm not going for dreadlocks or anything like that. It's not even that I want dirty hair. Rather, I have stopped shampooing my hair, although I still wet it in the shower so that I don't get chunks of say,... birdnest in it. The reason is that my hair is very oily so it can get quite greasy if I don't wash it within 24hours of its previous shampooing, or even sooner. My theory is that if I let the oils build up for a while, my scalp will slow down the rate of oil production so I won't need to shampoo the oils out every day(as I have for the past many years).
Once again, this is just a theory - I'm going to try and last as long as I can before the oily hair drives me insane. But ya, I have relatively short hair at the moment; I certainly couldn't do this with longer hair. I don't think I ever want to have long hair again. Seeing some pictures of me with long hair, and I'm not a fan. I'm enjoying the plyability of my hair with the slight excess of oil though at the moment... I don't even really need gel to make it into a fauxhawk or make the front stand up.
Ok, enough about my sexy sexy hair. I've started reading again, after having given up on that over the summer. I went to bed last night reading some Shostakovich. Not exactly relaxing reading, but it was good. It actually got me riled up about the idea that music and creating music should do some good for the world. All great art should have something to do with the common themes of humanity. He also wrote about the ill of american society and the trend that the arts should entertain and nothing more. It's a little concerning that so much music currently treats entertainment as the only purpose for music. Instances he used as examples are of how Orchestra concerts lose their variety and quality when the programmes are decided by the same people who are concerned with the finances - what they present is dictated by the dollar which is influenced, nay dictated by the flippant desires of how the audience wants to be entertained. His stance is that every programme, ever concert should have something that challanges the audience/listener - it is not a bad thing for the audience even to hate a small portion of the concert....
I agree! If you go to a concert and you like everything, then how can you qualitatively compare one thing to the next... Then you become Mr.Winnipeg and you stand up to give a standing ovation at the end of every performance because everything was good, nothing was bad; but at the same time, nothing was exceptional.
I love this, reading and thinking about the thoughts and ideas of the authors, especially when they are composers and are writing about what I want to do with my life. Yippee!
Anyway, I want to hear some thoughts on the idea of music as a means of purely entertainment.... feel free to comment.

Welcome home mikey!

Well, I wasn't really in the city long enough after my job to feel like I was at home, but now I am here more permanently.
As I said, the road trip was wonderful and it was great to see some family and a wonderful city. The scenery along the way was extraordinary and no matter what I say, I'm glad I went.
With that said, I feel so guilty about having gone. I had wanted so badly to make up for my lack of productivity this summer as soon as I got back to Winnipeg, but then there was a road trip and BOOM! there goes another week and a half of not getting anything done that I've needed to this summer.
Oh well.
But now it is time to get my butt in gear.
Next week, on Monday I start working for 2 weeks with the Musical Theatre Camp. I will be working for just 3 hours a day in the afternoon - perfect timing for me as I needn't wake up early and I still have my evenings free. I will also be doing a few mornings, but that's fine.
Since yesterday I've pushed myself to start working on the Bach Fugue and it's starting to move along...slowly. I think I've done enough work on the Beethoven before the start of the year. Now, I'll just do the upkeep on the 1st and 3rd movements- there's other pieces which I have to learn first , namely the Haydn Sonata. I would love to have that one completely learned for the beginning of school, but it's doubtful - rather, I will aim to learn the finale and make some headway on the other movement. What else, Liszt I think will be one of those pieces that I'll make slow consistent progress on. And the MacIntosh piece, I'll get around to that one later. eep.
Composing - eep, I need to do that too. I've gotten my ideas a little more organized for the variations, and I still aim to have that completed or structurally sound in time for my first composition lesson this fall. I think that is pretty much all I can reasonably expect from myself this summer, but if I can get a start on anything else, that would be wonderful.
Anyway, it's good to be back and I'm excited to go back to school next month. Now I just have to do a lot of work so that excitement is warranted.

so this has been a super-awesome road trip thus far, for a few key reasons:

cheap- we haven't overspent our gas budget! also due to...

family- we haven't had to camp or pay for accomodations yet. After the first night staying at Binky's dad's, we stayed with Jonny in Calgary, my aunt in Vernon, and my cousin in Vancouver (presently). Besides the savings, I'm so happy that we have visited with these people.I rarely see family often enough to even keep up with what's going on in their lives, so a few days with them is a wonderful opportunity!

Beautifulness- Wow, mountains and the West Coast in general are breathtakinglybeautiful! So many pictures of pretty and the trip's not done yet.

In conclusion... I will be applying at both University of British Columbia AND Simon Fraser so as to double my chances of moving to Vancouver. I think I have fallen in love with this city and then some. The only bad thing about the city is the cost of living... but in reality... I can't stay at home with my parents in my home town forever and no matter where I am looking to move, the cost of living is going to somewhat interfere with my.... well, living.

Anyway, that is enough gibbergabber from me for the moment. I will be leaving Vancouver on tuesday morning and in theory, I will be back either late Wednesday evening or Thursday sometime. From there, it's up to Thompson to visit my sister.
well, so much for getting myself well prepared for the upcoming school year....(oopsie)