The recital yesterday

I think the recital yesterday went very well. Both my quartet piece and my cello group piece sounded really good, and I noticed that Federico sounded pretty good in his solo, too. Being on the stage crew was fun, so I, in the end, think that it was a good recital.

Snow.

Apparently, there is a small chance that it'll snow today. That's global warming for you- global climate change. The last time we had something resembling snow was like nine or ten years ago, and it was frost. On the roofs. Of most of the other houses. I have both a cello lesson and a swimming class today, so I honestly hope for no snow.

No ideas.

I am a blank. I have no idea what to blag about, none whatsoever. I just can't come up with anything. I am a creative person who is stuck on a creative blank. Oh well. I guess I'll just go read history.

Gamestop

Gamestop is a rather nice store to go if you want to go into a physical store for picking up a video game. They let you pre-order games that you want, and if the game is out but the don't have it in stock, they can order it for you. Sure, it sounds like amazon, but the have friendly, helpful people there and they know their stuff, plus the can help you out and give you recommendations if you ask. I find it nice to go into once in a while.

Buying new shoes

Is harder than one might think. The store that we went to, which previously had whatever we wanted plus other options and a good sales guy who would always bring out two other valid options when we ask for one thing, was using some new guy who couldn't even get the brand right. It was a less than satisfactory visit, so we ended up leaving without buying anything. I think there are few salesmen who wouldn't get in trouble for letting a customer leave without buying anything, and I think Mom said that she saw him getting lectured as we were leaving.

Rain

Rain is icky. Rain is bad. Rain is annoying. Rain is sad. It is wet. It is cold. It is windy, and, if it lasts long enough, old. Okay. No more rhymes. They have had enough time. Darn it. I give up. Haha, I didn't rhyme this time! Crap. Okay, today I feel weird. So I'm putting away my rhyming shovel, and leaving now.

Japanese

The Japanese Language is an interesting and difficult one to learn. For one thing, it has, between the two writing systems, over 70 characters that just represent sounds, all of which you need to learn. Plus, there are all of the kanji that you must learn, of which most adults know at least 600 or so. The word order is completely different, too.

Orchestra

Orchestra went as usual: I mostly played the Brandanburg 1st movement without trouble, but did really badly when trying to do the second movement. So I've been practicing it quite a bit, and I think I can almost do it up to tempo now, so that's good.

COSMOS

COSMOS is an interesting looking month-long summer camp that takes place in UC Santa Cruz. It is for all students inside of the California state school system that are in highschool, and it has a number of programs. The programs that I am interested in are mostly sciences. The way it works is that you go there, stay at the college, and take your classes. Classes require a college entry exam-like process to join, and they look at GPA, what you have done, if you meet the requirements for the class, an essay that you write explaining why you want to go to the class, and two letters of recommendation from teachers. I plan on hopefully getting in to the video game design class this year.

Being in an orchestra

Upon further examination, I have realized that, in reality, a section of instruments in an orchestra is more like a team that anything else. A team of musicians. And I think that that also explains what Mrs. Hasbun has been having the cellos doing these past couple of years: Building us up as a team. Working on cello ensemble pieces has caused us to become more independent from the other sections, so that we can learn our pieces more easily. So, in the end, a section is like a team. It's not just who you make music with, it's who you learn with and who you hang out with.

Japanese

Yesterday I had my first Japanese quiz of the new year. It was actually not that hard. I have memorized all of the hiragana, so I could write in it easily. I found the test to be rather refreshingly easy, with all honesty.

Orchestra

As usual for Mondays, yesterday was orchestra day. We were missing almost half of the cellos, but we at least had one cello on all of the parts for pieces that had multiple parts. Poor Lucas, however, when we were doing the Brandenburg, was on his own. He did fairly well, however, so I think he's fine.

LARP

LARP yesterday with Chris was fun. The first mission that we did was this urgent thing with with bandits. At this point and beyond, I was officially a Storm Mage, and I used those abilities quite a bit. At one point, there was a baddie chasing after this other player, and I threw my Ice Ball at him, which flew forward and landed perfectly on his chest. He stopped. I left, know that as soon as he was no longer frozen, he would be wounded by one of our guys. We cleared out the bandits really easily. Then we fought another wave. They managed to kill our only life mage, so we left for a temporary strategic retreat. After that, it was dealing with a group of Death knights and ghosts. In that one, I almost got killed by this ghost troll. As in, halfway through third killing blow, then a guy runs up and attacks the ghost troll, forcing it to leave. I then got healed and kept on going. Of course, the next mission was another group of bandits, and that time, I got death rayed by a necromancer, so I ended up having to draw from the death bag. I drew no stones, so I was fine. Then we did more geb bandits. The first round, we owned all of them. The second round, we fought against their strongest men. They all had maxed out equipment, and were all second teir. It was a hard fight, and with the wild creature that was lie, near immortal, we almost beat them, but in the end we lost. All of the people with the most valuable equipment lost everything, and everyone lost all money that they hadn't banked. In an overwhelming vote, we voted to go and try to get our equipment back, but everyone who died was going to have to be a baddie. There were a lot of baddies. I was a teir two veteran, which means that I had unbreachability, or, in other words, immunity to AV0 on any place covered up with armor. I had full plate, which meant that I would only be damaged by regular attacks in the stomach. I had a helmet, which meant that I couldn't be knocked out, and I had a medium shield, to protect my stomach. In my other hand, I had a katana. The level of win that was occurring was pretty epic. In the end, I think all but like two of the goodies ended up dieing.

Now, as to the thing that happened to me with Kate and the whole permanently charmed thing, If I vote for something and can see her, and she's not voting for it, I have to quickly put my hand down. The opposite is true if I'm not voting for something, but she is. Also, if she PD's, so do I. After the nasty long mission, Stone, Kate, and I all drew from the death bag, and we each got two stones. We all got divine intervention, but not from Hel, who is a goddess that we had been worshipping for a while, or, at least, stone and I have. Hel's divine interventions make you more undead, these seem to be making us less. Stone and I are no longer permanently charmed by Kate, but if she PD's, we feel as though we will PD too. She also feels as though she will PD if she ever uses her charm ability and then dies. Also, we feel as though if we ever make a sacrifice to Hel again, we will die. I asked Chris if, since I am a Storm Mage, I could identify the god who gave us the divine intervention. He said we feel as though the god was neutral, and connected to the universe.

Reading on the radio

On Wednesday, I read the first two chapters of my novel from November on the radio. It was an interesting experience. I had a little interview, and then I did the reading. I used different voices for all of my characters, or at least tried to. After the interview was over, during the time when nobody was on a mic, Ann (the DJ) told me that she really liked the effect that I got with the voices. The link can be found here. My interview thing starts at around 30:45.

Getting enough sleep

Getting enough sleep is very important. If you do not, you may find yourself spending your waking hours in a dream-like state. While walking around, you'll find yourself unable to do much of anything, or crashing into walls and then trying to get them to move. With your sleep-deprived mind. Then, after managing to navigate the maze of walls and other solid objects, you sit down, and nearly fall asleep. Then, realizing you haven't yet, you get up and try to practice your cello, only for everything to hurt and not work right. So, there you have it. Always get enough sleep.

What I am learning about in History

Currently, what I am learning about in History is World War II. To be precise, the U.S.'s entry into World War II. I mean really. Japan, when they were bombing pearl harbor, deliberately left unharmed the oil storage and ship repair docks on pearl harbor. In other words, they left all of the things the U.S. needed to rebuild their navy unharmed, even though Japan was bombing the U.S. precisely because they wanted the U.S. out of the pacific. All they really did was make the U.S. really, really mad. After that point, every able-bodied man in the country was ready to enlist. It was a big mistake on Japan's part.