Language lab

So, in the end, language lab was nothing more than going there and look at what we got assigned at the lab last week and doing that, as well as learning a bit of pronunciation for Japanese. I have a decent ability to pronounce Japanese already, so it was not all that difficult.

This morning, after I had taken my shower, I found a spider crawling around in my armpit. It was quite startling, and so I flicked it off and ran away. It was a average sized spider, one that we call a "Spike".

Orchestra audition

I did quite well in my audition. For my scale, I was stopped halfway through going down the second octave, and Mrs. Hasbun said that Teacher Ellen got an A for teaching me, and that I got an A too for that. For my piece, Mrs. Hasbun stopped me at the part where it just repeats from the beginning, and told me that I played it so well I made her day. As I walked out, I heard a whisper of "Great!"

rockslide

So, as of this week, due to my extreme lack of ability to come up with good ideas for more than about two days a week, Mom is now having me do blag posts with subjects. Today's subject is: rockslide.

Rockslide
1: An avalanche of rock.

2: A slightly chunky cat that is afraid of everything.

Yes, Today I have been told to talk about my cat. He is, as I have stated a good number of times, afraid of everything. He is especially afraid of sudden loud noises, strangers, and people getting within two feet of him. He enjoys curling up next to me for ten to thirty minutes at a time and getting pet before running and coming back ten minutes later. He will sometimes roll over onto his back in order to have me give him belly rubs - he really likes belly rubs. He also enjoys annoying his older brother and keeping his queen happy.

Wow.

Look at that. I have survived the second week of school. Tomorrow is the weekend. I had fun at my first Japanese class, made a decent bowl at my clay class, and my lesson went nicely. We now know not only what piece I am doing, but also what scale. Now all I have to do is wait until Monday.

Wow.

Today is going to be a long day. First, I am going to go to a doctor for an appointment in San Mateo. Then, Mom is going to a foot doctor for her broken little toe. And then after that, I have a cello lesson - the last one before GGP auditions.

I am going to hopefully work out what few kinks remain in my audition piece during my lesson, and play a very good audition for the orchestra.

Japanese class.

Japanese was fun. The person sitting next to me was writing her notes in japanese (she outright stated that she was taking the class for the credits), and so she helped me with writing the hiragana and katakana properly. I learned a lot, I think. I now want to go to Hokkaido, a region in Japan where it is always snowing.

Hello.

God, I hate syncopation. Why? Imagine a metronome. Count the beats. Normally, in 4/4, you are accenting 1 and 3 with a slight accent on 2 and 4. Now, when you have eighth notes, it goes:

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +

With accents on 1, 2, 3, and 4 as the beat. Syncopation is where you accent the 'and's (the plus signs. The and of 1 is halfway between beats 1 and 2.) So you have:

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +

My current assignment from my teacher is to practice clapping syncopation, which essentially means clapping after the metronome beeps. Which is quite frustrating.