it's still cold out like yesterday, BUT the sun is shining in theres a beautiful blue sky drizzled with clouds right now. There is only a sprinkling of snow on the ground to remind us of yesterday's.
As I may have mentioned, my dad will be retiring from his job of 40 some years in December. For as long as I can remember, every couple of months, he would be 'on-call' meaning that at any time they could call him up and tell him to go work at some station. For the family, this meant that we'd often get calls at 3am, but also that dad had unlimited use of his work vehicle. In recent years, this was of the utmost importance, because when he was on call, it all those complications of being a one-car family with 4 drivers all wanting to go places dissappeared. And let's face it, since Heather moved out, it has meant that I can use the car whenever I want because my mom doesn't go out on her own much during the week.
Now, tomorrow is going the be the last day that my dad will ever be on-call. To celebrate, I will be taking the family car to school today and certainly tomorrow (I am still not accepting the fact that I might someday have to take the bus to my 9am lessons.... gah!)
Hmm, piano practicing is still not at the desired level, but composition is coming along. I have the ending of the fourth variation fully notated and I made some executive decisions about developing the form of the final section of the other piece I am working on(ensemble).
Anyway, I should be off to school soon.... it's hard to get back into the swing of things after a four-day weekend.... not that I'm complaining at all.... YAY LONGLONG WEEKENDS!

It's SNOWING!!!!
Yay, I'm going to wear a toque and a scarf and mittens when I leave the house today! YAY!

In other news, I watched a movie today. IL POSTINO it was suggested to us by the conductor for this last WSO concert. The poem in the piece we sang was by Pablo Neruda, and this movie was about Pablo and his mailman, Mario. The movie was very good and i enjoyed it very much ,but... io non parlo l'italiano....
I did fairly well with following the movie and understanding what they were saying in general (thank you for good acting), but the main character Mario was so mumbly in his speech that it was especially difficult to understand him... and the nasality of his voice was obnoxious.
Anyway, the music in this one did the same thing as Brokeback mountain. Essentially one or two themes throughout the movie that just keep coming back, with barely any variation. It's kind of like the Leitmotif idea, hmm, not really, more like the love theme from La Boheme.. but there, Puccini does it SO MUCH BETTER. Oh well.
All in all, good movie; I just wish I understood Italian (or had downloaded the version with subtitles) so that I might have understood the intricacies of the movie.

So ya, this afternoon has been a throwaway for productivity. I woke up, ate and watched a movie... now I leave to work in less than an hour. I think I might get in a half an hour of practicing before I leave. Nevertheless, after I work, I'm heading to the school for the evening to get in some good practicing, and maybe even do some writing of that fourth variation.
Ooh, I'm also going to take back some library books today!! I realize that I've had some of them since the middle of second term last year....eep!

I just finished printing out the theme and four variations that I have completed of my set of piano variations. For those of you counting, I only have one more variation to do.
Yesterday and today, I spent quite a bit of time using photoshop to graphically edit some of the scores. Wow, it takes a lot of effort! I'm just doing simplistic stuff, but its very finnicky. Nevertheless, I think I did rather well and I'm very happy with the way they look.
This last variation (number 4 of 5) still needs to be written down on paper. I have some conceptual ideas and musical fragments, but I need to get it in a tangible form from which I can be more specific. Now that I have the printed forms of the other ones and they're edited and whatnot, I can focus just on this one, and practicing piano.
I am happy with the productivity I achieved this weekend, but I'm not going to stop yet. It's only 8 pm and that gives me time to practice some more as well as get started on the fourth variation. I wish I could have spent a little more time with my sister while she was in town, but we were both busy with either those concerts and work on my part, and shopping and travel arrangements on the part of my sister.
Hmm, maybe I should take a look at my academic courses and see if I have any assignments coming up.

In other news, I'm out of money for a while, but things aren't that bad... I already paid off my computer and one of the speeding tickets, now I just have to worry about the big speeding ticket and a little bit of random expenses on my credit card. Still, this will probably take me a few pay periods to clear up, but by Christmas, I should be good and ready to get back into debt, YAY!

I think I just read one of the most difficult phrases I've ever seen in french :
'trente autre retraites' - I'm sure a native french speaker would probably not have as much trouble as I, but still... wowee!

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
While I won't be as corny as one of my friends (not that there's anything wrong with that), I would like to say thanks to everyone:
I am thankful for everyone who reads my blog.
I am thankful for those who comment on my blog
I am thankful for cutting and pasting so I don't have to type "I am thankful for" a billion times
I am thankful for great friends who accept, understand, and improve me; each in their own way
I am thankful for a wonderful family that is supportive and loving
I am thankful for some of the lowest tuition fees in the world
I am thankful for music as a means of personal expression
I am thankful for music as a means of creative outlet
I am thankful for being able to study music and always learn more
I am thankful for all my experiences in the past which have led me to become the person I am today.

Thank you!

So, that piano lesson didn't go badly at all. He was quite happy with the fugue, and seeing how thats the big movement of the entire Bach, he's not worried about me getting the whole piece together at all. Being able to maintain concentration through 30 minutes of Bach is another issue...
That wil be the big challenge of my recital this year.... all my pieces are signifigantly long! and the comment on my recital last year was that I lost concentration on my mozart which was only 20 minutes... this year, I have 2 pieces longer than that....
the bach portion of the lesson did last about 40 minutes... and then I suggested that we do intensive practicing on the hard sections of my music. He said he'd need a little break before that so he made tea and went to the washroom while I was to choose what section we'd work on. I chose the passage of parallel fourths in the middle of the fugue in the fourth movement of Beethoven. We worked on it for just over an hour - 4 bars of music. It was a great refresher of how to approach practicing. It was incredibly productive....we basically got the prep work done so now I can practice that section in the same way as I practice everything else.
Lessons this year are going well!

I haven't posted much lately cause it's a busy life at the moment. Mostly, I have been practicing at the school at nights despite my hope to avoid doing that... But it's been good.
The theory is that if I do my practicing during normal waking hours - ie the day - then I can do my composition work at home at night. Most of the work is with the computer anyway, so I don't have to worry about the time or waking people up. Thus, I can work at home and not have to spend extra gas money. The problem with this theory is that I haven't had time during the days to practice, so I've had to do it at night. The other shortfalling was that I didn't practice all last weekend, or really during the week either.... oops.
This week will be different. I'm going to come earlier to school and make use of my reserved practice room time to get my practicing done during the day and then I will have my nights for composition.
I've been busy with a performance with the WSO this last week. Tonight is the last performance, and then I can have my life back. It has been an interesting experience, New Music and the like. Great piece and it's been fun performing it, though vocally tiring.

I REALLY NEED TO FINISH THE PIANO VARIATIONS, ARGH!!!!!!!!
I should have them done by the end of the week if I reasonably want Diane to learn them for November sometime. The theme and last variation are done, and she has them to start learning. Two fo the variations just need to be photoshopped a little and then I will have them done this weekend. One of them, I need to figure out an approach to doing it in photoshop... so just basically decisions and then doing the actual editing. The other one, I need to actually write... I have monday off... so I'm going to do a heck of a lot of work this weekend!!!

wow, when I decided to do this post, I was in a worried state. but I will end the post in a better mood because of the little walk I just took...
I'm worried because I only have one piece that has made enough progress since it's last appearance in lesson that I can play for my lesson tomorrow. The reason is poor prioritzing both of practicing itself as well as the work I did during the practicing. The Bach. While there was a large section in the middle which I had not touched as of last week, I now have the whole fugue learned and 10 metronome markings faster than the bulk of it was last week. This was a good accomplishment, BUT it translates into at the most - half an hour of lesson time- if I'm lucky.
I haven't had a full 2 hour lesson since I started back, because I just don't have enough of the rep under my fingers yet, to work on for that long of a lesson... but I do this forever... I want to be taking advantage of my lesson time. Even though it is neither David nor my favorite thing to do, I think I will have him do guided practicing with me tomorrow on the most difficult parts of the pieces. This way I know I have a secure and good start on those sections - also there is a theory that it will give me incentive to do the work on my own in the future, so I won't have to do that at my lessons.

Now, for the happy news... I found eggnog in my fridge!!!
I didn't even know they made it this time of year, but it suppose it is close enough to thanksgiving... regardless, YUMMY

more good news. I have picked my pianist to premiere my piano variations!
Diane!
I had wanted to hear a few of my colleagues play it and make a decision of who I wanted. I heard one and then one of the people told me today that he wouldn't be able to do it...I was a little worried because I had a preconception that he would be the best to play it (pretty much unfounded). Anyway, I had my Korean sister Diane play it for me tonight -
She had the character and the phrasing down perfect - just as I felt them, but I hadn't notated those things or told her. I also had her play it in a few different manners - using the music as a shell and expecting openness to change and some kind of improvisation. Needless to say, I was very impressed with her playing of my piece and I am excited to work with her on this project! Now, I need to really buckle down and get the music finished up so she can start learning the rest of it.

ANyway, off to bed with me, it's an early morning and a very long day ahead of me!

good times all around

today is my day off.
woke up early, drove parents to work (ie. slept in car until we got to my dad's work and I had to drive home) then paid my license and came home and went back to sleep. Slept the rest of the morning away and part of the afternoon. Did some practicing, and editing of my composition(I'll get to that in a bit)
ok, time to talk about it.... (it was a little bit) Composition lesson yesterday was very good. He mentioned that I should carry on with the graphic editing I was doing in some of the other movements, and how it was applicable to the newer ones.... it will be fun, but more work, but more room for creativity.. although I'm definately not a visual artist.... and I don't know how to make the music program do what I want it to do... so I will be doing it in Photoshop.
I had a talk with a friend last night - it had been long enough communicating only through small talk. From what I gather, we are now in a place where we can be comfortable around each other and actually have a friendship. I do believe this is a happy ending, or a happy beginning... Either way, I think things are now in a healthy place.
Tonight my sister is coming into town until next monday..... yay! except she is having wisdom teeth out, so some of these days will be less than pleasant for her, but at least it will be a nice opportunity to visit and spend time with her.
Oops, time to go pick up my dad from work, I'll write more later perhaps.

it's always good to have feedback on things that we create:
-compliments on performances are nice
-it's great to see someone enjoying a dinner or baking that you made
today I got some constructive comments on my thongs. Apparently, they should not be worn in a hottub. The new material I have started to use tends to stretch to about 4 times the regular size.
A friendly reminder that thongs made and distributed by MH2YC designs should only be handwashed in cold water.

I totally missed out on productivity this weekend. I had great fun, but both friday and saturday, I was out having fun. It is the beginning of the year, and I should be able to excuse myself, but I really wanted to get a lot done this weekend, and as it turns out, I haven't practiced piano since thursday.... eek!
I think I'm going to not go to the dance jam tonight, rather I will stay home and force myself to finish up some parts of this composition for piano variations and maybe go to the school to practice later. Or maybe I'll practice this evening at home some time in the middle.

woopsiedaisy

so i forgot to renew my license... I think i did that last year too...
it's just hard to keep track of the things I need to do. Especailly when I no longer have the car onm days off, I can't just up and go to the lincensing bureau... so i'm gonna make sure I do it this tuesday...
I also need to do tons and tons of composing tomorrow for my lesson which is monday morning. Eep, I seem to have not been productive again this week.... uh oh.
I made a pact with Lacey from school that neither of us will swear until wednesday morning..... at which point we will go drinking to celebrate!

so, I wasn't really pissy today. I was a little mumbly if people brought up the ticket topic, but other than that, I was sunshiney.
I made myself special hot chocolate, and the thermos kept it hot until after my piano lesson.
Piano lesson went very well. It was short, but we covered the Bach first movement. The intro section was good. I know the notes securely, but now I have to change it quite a bit to allow for the proper double dotting of the rhythms... the notes don't even closely line up as they look like they should on the page... oh wel! The fugue - David has always said he'd perfer to hear things perfect at a slower tempo.... but when I tried to play the fuge at about 2/3rds tempo, he stopped me and told me there woulnd't be anything he could say about it if it was that slow.... so I played the end of it much faster than I had learned it accurately - it wasn't overly sloppy actually. He excused the mistakes because he knew what point I had them learned to (tempowise) but this way he could hear the musical intentions and thoughts. There is a lot of reworking I have to do in this piece in terms of articulations... GARH! Nevertheless, it should be reasonable to change them now that I have somewhat securely learned the notes.
We also talked about the Diana McIntosh piece I'm playing. He played through all the different sections, which was good, now I have a certain aural image to go by. I hadn't even started learning notes enough to play it in a lesson, so it was a conceptual lesson taught on the piece. I'm super excited for this piece... it will be such fun. He doesn't want me to put the piece off, but he's not worried about me learning it. While it is fully notated, it is improvisatory in nature so the figurations don't require as much thought and effort as would compositionally sculpted musical fragments.
Luckily my special hotchocolate helped me through the pedagogy class....gah it was boring and I don't like the class. Choir went remarkably well, the conductor was in a good mood!
After choir, some friends and I went to the bar on campus for some drinks and nachos! yummy! good time!
I then bought my orchestration workbook, bought a bus pass, worked a few hours and went for dinner with my parents, came home and hung out with fi for a short short whle, and nw I'm here.
I have to still do some reading for an orchestration test tomorrow, so I'll leave you there...
All in all, a very good birthday!

Worst Present Ever!

FUCK!!!!!!!!
Stupid ass-faced piece of crab-ridden monkey cunt oozing puss and scabies!
Who actually gives out a speeding ticket less than an hour before someone's birthday?!?
fucking 250$ ?!?! ARGH!
add that to the 175$ one from the photo radar... and I officially can't afford to live..... I certainly can't afford to speed anymore... therefore, I can't afford to drive anymore. I'm going to cut myself off. I'm going to stop going to the school to practice at night, my parents will have to live with me practicing. Either that or I will just spend more time at the school instead of bussing home and then comign back later.
I also can't afford to have spent 20$ at moxies tonight - bastard!! fuck! if I hadn't gone, then I wouldn't have been in a rush to get to school, and I woud have been there 2 hours earlier and most likely wouldn't have gotten a ticket at all.
It's doubtful whether there was any benefit to even going to practice tonight. I was far too pissy to concentrate well. I'm far too pissy right now, and I still have to sleep before my fucking twat-ass early lesson tomoroww fucking morning at fuck fuck rfuck fuck fuck 9 fucking a!M
my special hot chocolate better fuckin well make me happytomorrow.
GAH MUMBLY!
I'm going to be pissy tomorrow, there's no way around it.
Be Warned!
PMS at its finest!

I just took a glance at the list I made myself yesterday, and it wasn't a very successful day. I did a little bit of practicing in the afternoon, but I didn't end up finishing my assignment until midnight at the school - where I had intended on practicing.. but nope.
I completely forgot about the speeding ticket.
Today the composer of that piece I want to talk to is performing at the school, so I will track her down there and either talk about it then, or set up a time to meet and discuss it later.
I also have only a few days left to renew my license..... eeep, I don't think I have time to get there during their dumb-ass business hours.
I did go to that diabetic meeting thing, which was fun. And since it's a sponsored event, the tea I had and whatever everyone else had was free!
Nevertheless, I'm off to save the world again! or go to school... I'll decide while I'm on the bus!

Today is my day off and Idon't have anything to leave the house for today until about 7pm. I also don't have a vehicle during the day, so that limits what I can do, or rather what I'm willing to take the bus to.
As per usual, I have lots to get done on my productivity tuesday -

Orchestration assignment - I actually did a bit of thinking about this already while helping a friend, and playing through it. It's now just a matter of sitting at the computer and making it happen. This time it's a 20 bar segment... far longer than the previous 8 bars!

I need to remember to phone and pay my photo radar ticket today. Thats right, I was speeding, and as can and should be expected as a citizen using the PUBLIC roadways of Winnipeg, my actions were recorded and I am thusly punished. While I am not happy about the excessive cost of the ticket, I will pay it because that is my social responsibility.

Practice, practice, practice! I've been working lots on my Bach, it would be nice to be able to play through the entire first movement, but I'm not sure if I'm quite there yet. Actually, I know that I'm not there yet, but the question is whether I can learn the rest of it for thursday. At the same time, I haven't done any work on the other pieces since my last lesson, and 2 hours is too much time to spend exclusively on Bach...

I also want to call the composer of the modern piece I'm playing at my recital - there are two different versions of her piece and I want to know if she is partial to either or if there are any considerations I should use in choosing which to play, or which parts of whichever I play.

Tonight at 7, there is a group of diabetics that get together for coffee/whatnot. I have avoided it for a couple years now, but I think I might go to try it out tonight.

Anyway, enough of this typing, it's taking up valuable productivity time!!

wallet shopping

I bought a new wallet today.
This is a big deal to me, I had grown quite attached to my previous one. Nevertheless, when my deputy sherriff badge finally ended its long standing partnership with my wallet, I know it was time to say adieu.
Even shopping for it was complicated, there are so many options in terms of sections, see through compartments, bill section separators and coin sections. Then theres the type of leather/finish and colour...I made the decision to no longer have a coin section in my wallet, it takes up too much of my ass room and thats usually the first part of the wallet to show wear and develop holes.
Now I have two options: I have a little coin pouch that I could use that also has room for keys, then I would have all my pocket contents in one location,but I'm not sure if that is effeminate....even for me.... The other option is to avoid change in general. I've given this a little thought and it would be a mix of giving more to charity, tipping that little bit more generously as well as keeping a piggy bank at home, I might actually save up a little money.
So, I ask your advice, should I be willing to be more effeminate, or should I say nay to loose change...?

The new wallet is pretty darned cool. Similar to my old wallet, it has a section for my student card and bus pass - but it's removable!! If I didn't need everything in my wallet, or if my bottom were feeling particulary sensitive, I could considerably downsize and just carry around the mini wallet... but I'm not sure how much I want to diversify quite yet, it could be dangerous.

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my tongue hurts

mmmmm jello shooters!!
last night kyle made about 160 jello shooters spanning all the colours of the rainbow and then an extra red colour. I had mentioned that last night, but I left out one aspect.
In order to get a jello shooter out of the little plastic cup, you need to either use your finger to go around the inside edge or else it sticks. The other method is to use your tongue. This was the method I chose and I was quite good at it. The problem was that I have a short tongue and I'm partially tongue tied. The distance between the tip of my tongue and the skin thing that connects the bottom of your tongue to the bootom of your mouth is smaller than the height of a shot glass. As a result, that connector thingy really hurts today. Oh well, a small price to pay for delicousness!

I still haven't taken theplastic protective cover off of my laptop,
I still haven't decided if or when this will happen.
Apparently they tried to deliver a package to me today, but I was not home, so it will be available to me after 1 pm tomorrow at the local post office. I think it is a new blood glucose meter.
I love new blood glucose meters - I have kept up-to-date on all the developments over the past 10 years. I think I have had almost every new one that has been available to diabetics in Canada. They make fun of me at the pharmacy. I also keep all of my old meters so that I can one day donate them to a museum for a display on the development of blood glucose testing since michael was in his mid teens.
This new one is what I have been waiting for for a long time. The biggest problem for me is their portability... it would be easier if I had a purse. You need to have the meter, the strips as well as the lancer (aka make-finger-bleed machine)in order to test your blood. Most of them have carying cases so you can keep them all together, but the case is too bulky to fit in a pocket. Therefore, I either have to carry a backpack with me or I just don't bring my tester... This is obnoxious for going to restaurants because who wants to take a backpack to anywhere nice,,, and it's important to know your blood sugar before eating... so I never win. It's better in the fall or the winter when I have a jacket with pockets. Otherwise my pants are heavily weighed down with the testing machine, the strips, the lancer, the insulin pen, the needle caps for the insulin, my keys, my wallet and my cellphone.
Eventually, I want them to make a cell phone that doubles as a meter, but I'm not holding my breath.
This new machine that is hopefully waiting for me at the post office has strip cartridges, so you don't have to carry them separately, and the lancer is either built into the side of the machine, or it attaches securely, so it is essentially a one piece contration. It's a theory...
Well, so much for not writing long posts....
Good Night Again.

Tonight was delightful. I had far too many jello shooters and far too much spinach dip. I am home quite early, but that is a good thing considering the long day I always have on saturdays.
I got caught up with a few friends and had a jolly good time all around.
In regards to my blogging, I am going to continue to post -for the good of the nation- however...
I will aim to be concise in my posts. I will not let myself waste the time typing for half an hour and filling up pages and pages of internet space. The majority of people who read this see me regularly anyway, and I end up explaining things on here as well as in person, so I will figure out what things will be coming up in regular conversation and limit the scope of those topics here.
Good Night.

An open letter to anyone

Hmm,
I'm thinking of giving up on this blog.
I have been rather obsessive in posting and it seems that noone reads or cares except for maybe Tiffy, my only faithful commenter.
If I spent the time/resource that I spend on here doing other more productive things, I would have so much more to show than a random snippet of the internet which really makes no difference in the world of interwebgarble.
Let me know what you all think...

Partay tonight!

Tonight will mark the end of an era.
(haha, i accidentally wrote 'ear'-slightly less profound)
For years and years and years my friend Kyle has been having parties. big extravagent parties with decorations and lots and lots of food. He would always invite the whole gang from high school (note- I was not involved with gang activities in high school). It was always a nice thing to catch up with some people you wouldn't otherwise see.
Tonight will be the last of these parties. Kyle is leaving very soon to move semi-permanantly to Germany. Even if he does come back in a few years, he most likely wouldn't be living with his parents and having parties in their house. Plus, many of the people who have moved away, and I'm not planning on still living in Winnipeg when he comes back...
Tonight, I will eat spinach dip like I have at (almost) everyone of Kyle's parties...... sooooo delicious!