Good morning, everyone. I hope everyone’s day yesterday/today (if you’re more of a “it’s not a new day until I wake up in the morning” kinda person) was a good one. I know mine was.
First off, as mentioned in my last post, I took a nap yesterday afternoon that I very much intended to take; however, the length was most definitely unintended, as it ended up lasting five hours. Needless to say, I was up pretty late last night (go figure), but this time because I simply wasn’t tired. I didn’t end up going to bed until around 3:30am, and it still took me a while to fall asleep from there. Once I managed to nod off, though, I slept better than I would have imagined, only waking up twice, finally waking up at around 6:30-6:45am wide awake. I got up, got dressed, finished up the milk in the fridge, prepared some instant green tea in a water bottle, made my bed, and made my way to my music theory exam, which took place at 7:30.
I felt really good about this test, before, during and after; I never stressed about it because I was pretty confident that I knew the material. I walked into the final exam room with a 94 in the class, and I made it a personal goal for myself to strive to do well enough on the final exam to bump my final class grade up to a 95, which didn’t leave much margin for error. Other than a couple of sections taking a while to complete, I walked out feeling great, knowing that I had done well. Sure enough, when I checked online to see if my grade had been posted just a while ago, I found that it was already graded: a 97, raising my class grade from a 94.35 to a 95.02. I made my goal; it’s a good feeling.
I had a bit of a break after my theory final, a break I spent in my room. Andrew got back from his first final exam a bit after me, and he felt pretty confident about his grade too (economics). Rockin. I hung out on my computer until around 10:15, when I made my way back over to the music building for the last marching band rehearsal on the band lot of the semester. It was set to last from 10:30-1 – something I definitely wasn’t looking forward to – but we ended up getting out about half an hour early. The first hour of the rehearsal was spent nickel-and-diming the first movement of the Dave Matthews Band, which we’re performing at the bowl game on January 1st. It dragged on for forever. Then we moved on to the third movement (we skipped the second since we don’t move and since we only have 6 minutes to perform), which took a lot less time than the first movement had, which was a blessing. After that, we got in position for Cotton Fields, the second movement of the Traditions shows (the very first show we learned this season), marching through that and the subsequent March Grandioso. Then we finished up with running through the pre-game sequence (why, you ask? We were all wondering too…we’re not performing it at the bowl game).
After band, I was free again until about 2:30, when I needed to head to the music building for the third time today to practice before my piano final at 3:10. During this time, I sat around on my computer, watched Family Guy with Andrew, and ordered Domino’s Pizza for lunch (I HAVE A PIZZA ADDICTION). The I made my way up to the music building, practiced my etudes that I was supposed to play, went over my I, IV, and V chords, and practiced sightreading with chord changes and transposition. When it came my time to take my final one-on-one in front of the teacher, I did pretty well, minus a couple of chord fumbles and melody mistakes. The professor seemed to take it easy on the grading though, judging less on pitch accuracy and more on technique, rhythm, and musicianship, so I got really good grades. We were given separate grades on each section of the final, and here’s what I got: Repertoire – 98, Harmonization – 99, Sight Reading – 93, Transposition – 100. Not bad. Averages to a 98 for all four. That brings my finals grades to the following so far: Aural Skills – 98. Theory – 97. Piano – 98/99/93/100 (98). Raising the bar. Rockin.
After piano, I was done for the day. I went back to the room and got back on my computer (bet you didn’t see that coming) and put Family Guy back on, watching it until I heard Andrew snoring once he dozed off; we both had to wake up early this morning. I messed around with an image morphing software for a long while, a software called “Sqirlz Morph” (it’s FREE! just search it on Google). Now, I, Chad Hopkins, present to you the fruits of my labor, a personal project titled:
CELEBRITIES I AM NOT
(open each picture individually in a new window by clicking “Open Image in New Tab” via right-click; give each one time to load, especially the third)
Doctor Emmett L. Brown – Back to the Future
Forrest Gump – Forrest Gump (/unnecessary)
Indiana Jones – Raiders of the Lost Ark
I hope you all found those amusing. I enjoyed making them.
Anyway, around the time I finished making these, Kate called me about something (it’s not my place to tell the story, so if you’re really interested, ask her and she can decide). I guess you could say we went out on an “adventure”. We weren’t finished until around 11:40, at which point Andrew and one of Kate’s friends, Rachael, had joined us. A little before midnight, Rachael and Kate went to wait in Kate’s room whilst Andrew and I grabbed us all a light meal from McDonald’s (irony intended), including my second night in a row of having their Caramel Mocha with milk (whole, of course; unless you’re drinking milk by itself, in which case 2% is the way to go). We went back to Kate’s room, watched another episode of Family Guy (we’re not obsessed or anything…), and then headed back to our room.
And that was my day in a nutshell…a rather large nutshell, I suppose. I have my calculus final tomorrow afternoon at 1:30; I’m a bit nervous since it’s quite a bit more difficult than the finals I’ve already taken, but I think I’ve got a firm enough grasp on the material and how to work it all that I’m fairly confident I’ll get at least a B…*knock on wood*. Just keep me in your prayers, and Andrew as well: he’s got his Animal Science final in the morning, and we take our calculus final together. Pray we do well, please. It’d be much appreciated, from both of us.
OH YEAH I ALMOST FORGOT SOMETHING. Ha, not like it’s really important, just something that I meant to include in this post. Another Twitter-related paragraph. I came across a Twitter feed run by a group of people who produce a Harry Potter-themed podcast called @HogwartsRadio. I don’t listen to it (@MuggleCast is where it’s at!), but they do one thing that I really enjoy: daily Harry Potter trivia. I LOVE trivia, especially when it’s something I’m knowledgeable about like Harry Potter. I have a strategy for whenever trivia time comes around every night: once they make the announcement that trivia starts soon, I have my phone open to the Messages application, “@hogwartsradio ” already typed in the text box. Since I get their tweets forwarded to my phone via text message, as soon as they send out the tweet with the question, the phone is already in the position to send a quick reply if I know the answer off the top of my head (which I usually do). If I don’t, I switch to my Wikipedia app or to Google, find it quickly, and send it off. I’ve been the fastest responder somewhere between 5-10 times; I couldn’t tell you exactly how many. It’s so much fun. I really enjoy it.
Anyway, that’s all for this post…it’s time for bed. I’ve been up since 6:30 this morning. Getting to sleep somewhat late in the morning is something I look forward to. Goodnight, everyone. I hope you all have a wonderful day.
Chad
P.S. – According to the poll I posted on the past two posts regarding whether or not “Linus and Lucy” by the Vince Guaraldi Trio is a Christmas song or not, more voters said that it was NOT a Christmas song than those who said it was. Of course, the vote was only 4-2, but still. Either way, I’m not going to force my views on anybody; you’re free to think of it as a Christmas song if you want, but if YOU try to tell me otherwise, I WILL argue my point. Haha. Now bring in the dancing lobsters.