…for “L”AST DAY OF CLASSES TOMORROW! /excited

Today was a great day. I slept until about 9:10 (yay for not having to worry about aural skills final this morning!), which meant that my first class today was Calculus. We turned in our homework, which I had understood fairly well, and we proceeded to talk about the things we absolutely needed to know in order to do well on the final exam. No worries; I think that I will do fairly well on the exam. I feel pretty prepared, for the most part. There’s a review sheet with a few practice problems, so I’ll definitely take a look at that.

After Calculus I had an hour and a half break (isn’t my Tuesday schedule wonderful?), so I went to my room, printed something out that I was going to need later, called up Landry, and the two of us headed out to Chick-Fil-A. Yes, there’s two Chick-Fil-As on campus, but they only sell fixed items; you can’t order what you want, and I wanted a spicy chicken sandwich. We drove out there, originally intending to just go through the drive-thru and head back to the school to make sure we weren’t late, but the drive-thru line was so long that we ended up parking, walking inside, ordering, and then leaving. We made it back on campus in plenty of time for me to eat my sandwich (I had eaten the fries while driving) and still make it to band on time.

Andrew is snoring…what else is new? /expected

In Goin’ Band today, we were inside Allen Theatre to record all of the music we played this semester; needless to say, by the time we were finished my chops were completely blown. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it, though; the horns had some good stuff to play this year, and the music was rockin’ overall.

Some guy is outside on the basketball court singing “I Believe I Can Fly” by R. Kelly. I think he lives on my floor. It is 1:15 in the morning. GO TO BED.

From band I went back to my room for an hour and a half, surfing the Interwebs and probably eating a Lofthouse cookie or two.

 

Who can resist Lofthouse Cookies?

At 3:30 I went to piano class, which was fun considering it was just a quick review-type deal and we were done super early. Then I had a quick 25-minute practice with my accompanist for my horn jury on Monday. It went well, despite the fact that my face had died playing my horn earlier that day (thank you, Goin’ Band). After that, we had our last horn studio of the semester at 5, where we went over some etiquette stuff, did course evaluations for our lessons, and, most importantly, ate some Little Caesar’s pizza.

 

Not to be confused with the Caesar who is about to be murdered in this picture.

 

As pathetic as it may seem, that was basically my whole day. The rest of the day was spent in front of my computer on my desk, looking up handheld laser prices (yes, I’m lame), watching Family Guy, and doing theory homework. And here I am.

 

On the subject of lasers, I’ve gotten obsessed with them in the past few days, and it’s not the first time. Lasers are some of the coolest things ever, especially if you can get a really good one; if you get a good, well-made laser that’s got the proper specifications, you can pop balloons, light matches, melt through electrical tape, and even melt some plastics/rubbers. I WANT ONE; unfortunately, most quality lasers will cost you at least $200, which is a bit on the ridiculous side as far as something as simple as a laser goes. Maybe one day. Actually, I did find these:

 

Pretty legit looking, eh?

These only cost $49.95-99.95 apiece (not bad at all, really). These particular lasers are 200mW, which means they can do all of that awesome stuff mentioned previously. They also specialize in stinging skin and burning retinas if used improperly. Anyway, I’m actually considering shelling out the money for one of these (probably the green one with the 200mW upgrade option) after Christmas/my birthday; I think it’ll be worth playing around with it. And no worries, I won’t set anything on fire. For educational purposes, here’s two videos of good lasers:

 

Moving on: I don’t know how many keep track of things like this, but today, December 8, 2010, is the 30th anniversary of the murder of John Lennon (“L” is for “L”ennon too!) by Mark David Chapman. For you uncultured people of the world, John Lennon was one of the four members of the Beatles, arguably the most influential rock group of all time. Lennon, along with Paul McCartney, helped to write the majority of the band’s catalog, and he even managed to maintain a successful solo career after the band’s breakup. He’s missed by many, including myself, though I wasn’t alive at any point when he was. He was a heck of a musician and it’s a shame he died so young. Rest in peace, John Lennon, and God bless.

And, in light of the Christmas season:

 

That’s just about all I have for tonight. At least, I can’t think of anything else off the top of my head. Let’s see: I covered my day, I had my little laser paragraph, I mentioned Lennon…hmmm. OH. I just thought of something.

 

How many of you knew that today (December 7) was the anniversary of Pearl Harbor before someone else mentioned it? Anyone? It seemed to me that hardly anyone noticed or that anyone cared, for that matter. It’s a shame. I wish that people paid more attention to the past, to events like this. “A date that will live in infamy…” Maybe eventually people will learn to care about our nation more. I sure hope so.

 

Welp, that’s it’s for me tonight. I’m off to bed before my last day of classes for the semester! Yay! I’m pretty excited. Goodnight, everyone, sleep tight, and something about bedbugs.

 

Chad

 

P.S. – Postscript.