I’ll have the Caramel Hazelnut Macchiato, please.

Good day, everyone. I hope everyone is in a good mood and I hope that my fellow college students are doing well with their finals.

 

Speaking of finals, I only have three more to go (well, technically two plus a horn jury): my jury is tomorrow morning (don’t worry, I’m about to go to bed; I’ll be fine), my SHMRG final is Tuesday morning bright and early, and my History final will be Wednesday afternoon, unfortunately; I wish it was earlier so that I could be home earlier, but oh well. Nothing I can do about that except for skip, and I’m definitely not going to do that.

 

Today was decent. Woke up around 9:30-9:45 or so, got dressed, and made my way over to Conner’s house. He hopped in my car and we made the twenty minute trip to Wolfforth, where the church we go to together is located. The normal pastor was back today after a three-week hiatus (I’m not sure where he had been), which was great. Don’t get me wrong, the man who spoke last week was decent, but you could tell that he was doing something he wasn’t entirely comfortable with/used to. Today’s message was titled “Missing Christmas While Waiting in Line”, which is pretty self-explanatory – we need to make sure that Christmas isn’t about what presents we get (though I’m not saying that those gifts are the root of evil or anything like that), but rather about the people we get those presents from. Most importantly, however, it’s about God and how He sent His only son Jesus down on earth to be born to a virgin and later to save us all from our sin and from the fate we all deserve. Be thankful for your situation in life, whether you’re poverty-stricken or well-off, because God loves us all and He always provides for us.

 

After church, I dropped Conner back off at his house and headed back to the room. I called Andrew on my way back to see what he was up to and to let him know that I would be there soon, but he didn’t answer. I shrugged it off, thinking he might have gone to his church’s 11am service. After I had parked in the parking garage and had started to make my way back to the room, he called me back: believe it or not, Andrew had just woken up. Blew my mind. You see, Andrew is NOT a late sleeper at all; this is the only time I’ve seen him sleep past 11, and I’ve rarely even seen him sleep past 10 at the latest. It was definitely a landmark in the sleep habits of Andrew.

 

Once I got back in the room, we just hung out for a while, had a glass of milk, ate a cookie (Lofthouse, of course!), watched Family Guy, the usual. Oh Family Guy, why do you amuse me so?

 

Speaking of amusing, here’s something that’s NOT. It’s a Flash game called “QWOP”, and it’s the hardest Flash game I’ve ever played. Basically, you control a runner at the Olympics, and your goal is to finish a 100-yard sprint. Simple enough, amirite? Wrong. To make the run, you have to control of each the runner’s leg muscles separately; the Q and W buttons control his thighs, while O and P control his calves. If you don’t time it correctly, you fall over and crack your head (you don’t see it, but the sound effect for some reasoned sickened me a bit). The best I could do was 32.2 meters. Here’s the link below; see if you can get any farther than I did:
Clicky

 

Anyway, after a while of failing at that game, I decided that I had put off my laundry for long enough, so I put everything in my hamper, packed my laptop in my backpack, and trekked down to the basement/laundry room. Andrew would have joined me, but he had student mass at his church at 5pm, so I went alone. The laundry room was pretty busy tonight; I was only able to snag two washing machines at a time. Laundry was pretty boring (not that I expected any different), and as soon as I finished and had gotten up to the room to put everything away, Andrew called me asking me to pick him up. You see, our friend Megan was accepted into the Disney College Program and will be working at Disney World in Florida as a paid intern next semester, so we won’t see her for months. We decided (well, it was Andrew’s idea) to get a few of us to go out to eat and then go see Tangled at the movie theater as a sort of “send-off” shindig; however, plans changed, and we ended up just going out to eat at the Olive Garden. I had raspberry lemonade to drink (very tasty, as our waitress could tell you; she refilled my glass countless times throughout the evening) and ate lots of bread sticks before our meal came out; everyone knows that the bread sticks are the best part about the Olive Garden. For my meal, I ordered what I normally get there: the fettuccine alfredo. Good stuff. When we had first looked through the menu to order, we saw the dessert menu, listing several delicious items sent down to the restaurant by God Himself, including the Caramel Hazelnut Macchiato.

SO GOOD

Now, since I’ve gotten into coffee lately, I was all too eager to try this macchiato, so I resolved to order it after my meal, as did Jenny (one of the girls we were with). When it finally came (without whipped cream, of course; whipped cream is disgusting), it was delicious. I didn’t have to add any creamer because of the caramel and hazelnut syrups already mixed in. Very good stuff; Andrew decided to order one too, and, as we drank it down, we made sure to keep it classy by keeping our pinkies out. Would you expect anything less of us? Haha.

 

After dinner and dessert, we went back on campus, where we all re-grouped in Tessa and Jenny’s room (they have the big TV set), where we proceeded to play with the Wii, games like Mario Kart (Tessa wins), Super Smash Bros. Brawl (I win), and Just Dance 2 (I did not participate in such shenanigans). We played that until about 1:30am, when I said, “Listen, I’ve got a jury in the morning and I’ve gotta go. Goodnight.” Gave Tessa and Megan hugs, Jenny a high five (she was lying on her back on the ground, exhausted from dancing), and then Andrew and I headed out the door and went back to the room. And here I am.

 

I think I had mentioned the other day that my voice teacher had talked with one of the voice professors at Tech, Prof. Dent, and that he would get in contact with me to talk about a choir audition. Well, after waiting somewhat impatiently, I received an email today from Prof. Dent, who proceeded to set up a time for me to meet with him and get things in order. We will be meeting tomorrow afternoon at 2:30, at which point I’ll sing for him a bit of a song I have prepared, and I’ll also sight-read a bit. In other words, nothing I haven’t been doing for two-thirds of my life (singing in a choir, at least; I’ve only been sight reading since seventh grade and performing solos since fifth grade). I’ll keep you all posted as to how it goes.

 

Random: I want to learn how to rip a phone book in half. It’s not a particularly difficult feat, and it doesn’t require a lot of strength if you know how to do it properly. So I will learn, and then I will record myself beast mode-ing it up, and then I will post it on here for you all to see. Sound like a plan? Awesome.

 

For some reason this post seems shorter than normal, but, according to the word count below this box, I just passed 1200 words, which is around the same general amount as usual. I could probably keep going at it, but I have my horn jury in the morning and I want to be able to wake up on time, not be in a hurry, and do well. I’m not too worried about the jury itself; I’ve practiced what I’m going to play and I know how to do it well, so it’s just a matter of doing it.

 

Anyway, that’s all for this post. Goodnight/good day, everyone. I hope it’s a good one.

 

Chad

 

P.S. – Two more days.

Image Humor at Its Best

Where’d the day go?

Woke up this morning feeling like P. Did- No. I didn’t. I woke up this morning pretty tired considering how late I had stayed up without really realizing it. I didn’t have to wake up when I did since the calculus review this morning at 9 was only optional. By the time Andrew and I woke up, I had only gotten about three and a half hours of sleep (in addition to the two-and-a-half hour nap I had gotten earlier). We went to the Student Union Building (SUB), got Blue Books to give to our calculus teacher for the exam, grabbed some Starbucks at Barnes and Noble (Venti Cappuccino Vanilla Latte; yummy), and made our way to the math building. I was actually pretty okay with post of the stuff we learned this semester, so I didn’t have many questions and just followed along with what she did on the board as she went. It helped a bit, I suppose.

 

When the review session was over at 10, Andrew and I threw away our empty coffee cups and made our way back to the room. I had originally planned on sleeping another couple of hours at this point before I had my jury rehearsal with my accompanist at 2, but the coffee destroyed that plan. Instead, we just sat in the room for a while, watched a few episodes of Family Guy, and then, around 12:30 or so, we decided to walk to the Subway on University Dr. and use our gift cards (thanks, Granna!) to buy dinner. I got my usual; a foot-long Subway melt (ham, turkey, white American cheese, and bacon) on Italian Herbs and Cheese bread, with lots of black olives and Parmesan cheese (the candy of cheeses) on it as well. Good stuff. With a large pink lemonade and a bag of kettle-cooked jalapeño potato chips, it made a great meal.

 

We finished relatively quickly and made it back on campus around 1:20, where we split paths at the music building (where I was to have my accompanist rehearsal); he went back to the room. I went inside and warmed up a bit while I waited on the accompanist to show up, and, once she did, we played through all of the Strauss horn concerto I was planning on playing for my jury. I timed it from start to finish, and, unfortunately, 16 minutes and 57 seconds is far too long for a jury, so we’ll have to skip around a bit. Oh well. Hopefully, whatever I play from it will sound alright. Who knows, maybe it’ll sound better since I won’t be playing the whole thing start to finish! Gotta consider the possibilities.

 

After accompanist rehearsal,  I re-joined Andrew back in the room, where he was working on Chemistry homework and I just sat on my computer for a while (which is still functioning marvelously, I might add). Around 4:15, I decided that it was due time for a nap, so I shut down my computer, ate a Lofthouse cookie, put on my favorite radio station from home (TuneIn Radio app for iPhone, if you’re interested), and went to sleep…and didn’t officially wake up until 9:15. WHAT THE HECK. When I woke up, Andrew was gone and I only had my Christmas music to keep me company (I think it was around this point that Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” started playing). I texted Andrew the following: “HOW COULD YOU HAVE LET ME SLEEP SO LONG” (word-for-w0rd, caps lock and everything). I laid in bed for a while, messing around with Twitter and Facebook on my phone, and then, around 11:15-11:30 or so, I decided to walk to the parking garage, get in my car, and drive to McDonald’s down the street for a late dinner (since I had slept through the time when normal people eat dinner). I got my usual there as well: two McDoubles, plain and dry with a large fry, and I decided to get a Hot Caramel Mocha, with whole milk, to drink. Lemme tell you, that is some good coffee. I really enjoyed it (am I turning into a coffee addict?!).

 

Speaking of drink obsessions, I am proud to announce that I have officially been completely soda-free for nearly four months now, since mid-August. I didn’t think I could do it, but I’ve pulled it off so far. I think I’m gonna try to shoot for at least a year and see where I stand at that point. You see, there are a couple of reasons why I gave up soda. The first reason had to do with the fact that I was becoming over-dependent on it. When I woke up in the morning and was tired, I’d grab a soda. Headache? Grab a soda. Feeling sick? Grab a soda. Eating? Grab a soda. Woke up in the middle of the night? Walk to the kitchen and get a swig of soda from one of the 2-liter bottles. At Poppa and Granna’s house? Grab five sodas. You get the picture. I was too reliant on the effects of the sugar and the caffeine, or maybe even the carbonation. Who knows? My other reason was inspired by Logan Mitchell, a good friend who I mainly keep in contact with through Twitter, who gave up soda more than two years ago, losing him a lot of weight and making him look super great. Now, I’m not saying that I’m fat or that I’m super chubby or anything, but I could definitely stand to lose some weight, and, since eating habits are more difficult to change since I’m a generally picky eater and I really enjoy my food, soda seemed to be a good first step on the path to being skinnier. So far, I haven’t noticed much difference, but I don’t think I’ve gained much either, which is a plus. Maybe the change is more long-term than just four months. I’ll find out, won’t I?

 

Anyway, by the  time I got back to the room with the burgers and coffee (I had eaten the fries during the drive back, like you’re supposed to with fast food French fries), Andrew was back from doing whatever he had been doing with Chi Ro (I believe they were studying together). After eating and watching a few YouTube videos, Andrew went to bed and was asleep less than five minutes from the time he stopped talking, and I began typing this out. You know, I’ve been keeping up with this blog more than I had expected; my previous attempts at blogs were basically complete failures. Oh well. I really enjoy typing this out; it’s fun to talk about my day and put other thoughts out there for others to read. That’s why I like WordPress a lot more than I liked Tumblr (which, incidentally, I didn’t like very much): it allows feedback on my what I type via comments and the like. It’s great. I hope you all enjoy reading these as much as I enjoy typing them; at least, I assume there’s several of you who read this since I’ve gotten 144 profile views since I made this just over a week ago. In fact, if you read this, how about you let me know (if you want) via a comment on here, on Facebook, through a mention on Twitter, any way you’d like. I’m just curious. I know that my Granna  and my Memaw both read it, but they’re the only ones I know of for sure.

 

After mentioning Twitter, I’d like to stress to you all how much I enjoy it. I first made it back in April of 2009 when I first got my iPhone, just because having an iPhone with a Twitter app made it easy to tweet frequently. I started off slowly, but after getting back in contact with Logan Mitchell via Twitter and interacting with him and others, I got to where I tweeted more and more, and now I’m at nearly 6300 tweets. What’s so great about Twitter is that it’s a lot more personal than Facebook is; on FB, I have 440 friends. On Twitter, I follow 97 people and 122 people follow me, but most of those people, both sides, are not really people; I follow CNN Breaking News, a deals site, a couple of various news sites (BTTF.com [Back to the Future news] and Mugglenet [the best Harry Potter fansite]), as well as a couple of Harry Potter-related Twitter accounts that have daily trivia that I enjoy participating in and stuff like that. It’s really cool. With Twitter, I don’t have to be careful with what I say (not that I say anything that I SHOULD be careful about, I’m just making a point) so as not to offend people, and if someone annoying is clogging up my Twitter feed I can unfollow them and there’s no harm done or questioning of friendships; honestly, most people you interact with on Twitter are people you don’t know, and you make friends that way. Based on what you tweet about, people with similar interests can find you and follow your feed. A lot of you may think that Twitter is stupid and may not understand it, but if you give it a try you just might like it; it just takes some getting used to. It’s not about telling people about everything you’re doing all day long; it’s much more than that. You can keep track of news, share an article you’ve been reading, keep up with celebrities via their Twitters, and other stuff like that. It’s a great online experience. I urge you all to at least try it. My Twitter feed is linked below. Be warned: if you follow me, I’d recommend not getting my tweets forwarded to your phone; I tweet a LOT:
@Chadadada

 

I had a mini-conversation with my good friend Regan on her status on Facebook on Internet abbreviations, namely the ones relating to laughter. I had jokingly said that something she had posted had “made me rofl”. Now, I’m a well-educated person, and I am what I like to think of as a gifted writer; that’s not to toot my own horn at all (get it? I’m a horn player!), but instead just stating fact; I’ve always made good grades on papers, whether the content was good or not, simply because I’m good at wording things in a way that makes it sound like I know what I’m talking about. Anyway, the point: I use proper grammar and proper English language when I write, say, or type anything. I feel like it makes you seem stupider when you rely too much on abbreviations on the Internet. Now, I realize that on places like Twitter, where you only have 140 characters to say what you want, you do what you can to make it all fit, calling for bad grammar and spelling liberties. But Facebook? Come on, people, is it too hard to spell things out, and spell them correctly? “lol”, though a term I use often (e.g. “That video made me lol”, “I lol’d pretty hard after reading this”), is a stupid term and one that is used far too often, which is why I stick to some variation of “haha” when I think something is funny. That way, I’m not lying (who ever actually “laughs out loud” every time they post that?), and I don’t look stupid. Also, who ever is literally “rolling on the floor laughing” when they type “rofl”? I don’t understand. Learn2English, people.

 

Anyway, this blog post ended up being a lot longer than expected, though I don’t mind at all. Like I said, I really enjoy this. That’s all for tonight, though; I need to try and get to sleep (despite the excessive nap I had earlier) before my theory final at 7:30 in the morning, with band soon after. Goodnight, everyone.

 

Chad

 

P.S. – I’d like you to still cast your vote in the poll on my last post regarding whether you think “Linus and Lucy” by the Vince Guaraldi Trio is a Christmas song or not: read my argument in my last post, but decide for yourself and cast your vote. Here’s the video and the poll. Make sure you listen before you decide, and ignore the fact that the background is from A Charlie Brown Christmas – my point is that just because it was composed for the Christmas special does not make it a Christmas song, nor does the fact that people associate it with that Christmas special. It was used in all of the subsequent specials as a sort of Peanuts “theme song”, so it’s not solely Christmas. Anyway. Here you go.