Uh oh.

I don't know where my flashdrive is at the moment.
I HOPE I left it at home, plugged into my computer there. But I don't see how I could have done that... I keep my flash drive on my keychain. The little attaching clippy thing is still there, but the flashdrive is not. I definately have my keys right here with me.

This is not good.

Not that I had anything vitally important on there.
Just my work for the last several units in English, all of which has been turned in.
But I'd still like to have it.

I hope I find it...

UPDATE:

It's not plugged in to either of my computers at home.

As much as I hate to be one of those people that says, "somebody stole it", I think somebody might have stolen it.

I have no concrete proof.

However, I definitely had it last night, because I got mad at it for not letting me put my music onto it to move to the new computer.

I keep it on my keys, and I still have those.

The clippy-thing that it was attached with is still there, and it's not the type of clippy thing that randomly lets things fall off of it. It hasn't fallen off once in the time that I've had it. The clippy thing that is still there is still in good condition, and isn't bent or anything to let it slip off.

The only problem with my theory is that I don't know when someone might have stolen it.

The logical time would be some time during first period, probably during the fire drill today.

I took my letter jacket outside with me... but were my keys in my pocket, or were they in my hoodie pocket?

I WANT MY FLASHDRIVE!!!!! It's really inconvenient having to email assignments to myself.

UPDATE 2:

Nevermind. My dad found it broken off next to where I park.

Family

Evidently, my family reads my blog.
Hi, everybody.
This came as a surprise last night, when my grandparents called to catch up with us on life and such. When I answered the phone, Gramps said something to the effect of, "Is this the blogger?"
Evidently, one of my cousins (hi, guys) told them about my entry on not wanting to go to Carolina.
Not that I care. I have nothing to hide. If I did, I wouldn't put it on the internet, anyway.

Hmm. How many people actually read this thing?

Anyway. My online teacher has posted the next unit in our class. HOWEVER, because she keeps extending deadlines, the time originally allotted for each unit successively shrinks with each unit.
Last unit we had 12 days.
This time, we have 8.
We're reading the first two chapters of Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet. But evidently, not the rest of it.
*sigh*

Oh well. I'm going to go to Calculus now. I've got a quiz to take.
Whohoo.

Forgetting and High School Musical

On Saturday, our marching band went to competition. In theory, we were going to perform for comments only, and not receive a score. In theory. Somehow, the judges scored us anyway.
We kicked Starmount High's butt. Accidentally. Without meaning to.
How awesome is that?
Anyway, the forgetfulness aspect is this: I LEFT MY PICCOLO AT SCHOOL AAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH
So yeah. I'm stupid. Oh well.
Lindsay's mom went and picked it up for me. I need to make her a cake to say thank you.
But we did REALLY well. It was loads of fun. We got to see some really cool shows, too, including:

• Cirque de Soleil (the drum major's outfits looked like clown costumes WAY CREEPY. But their show was good.)
• Something about asia. It was a blend of china and japan, so it wasn't really all that accurate, but it was COOL. They had one of those gigantic paper dragons, a samurai, and fire-twirlers, and the samurai fought with one of the instrumentalists, and it was AWESOME.
• Legends of rock show, which was awesome
• The Firebird Suite (kind of an odd selection for a marching band show, but it was pretty cool)
• Some school did a Wicked show, but we didn't get to see it. Their drum major was dressed as Elphaba, though!

Speaking of forgetting, I forgot that I had rescheduled my piano/voice lesson today. So I missed it.

Oops.

My little brother's face is swollen. We think it might be because of poison ivy.

His mother was just on the phone with him. He was reporting every single website he visited on the computer yesterday. *sigh* When will he learn?

High School Musical 3 was evidently a raging success.

WHY? Someone explain to me why HSM is enjoyable. I simply don't understand.

Slackers.

My online english class recently gave us 12 days to complete the following:

• Answer personal questions about our beliefs in regards to Macbeth
• Read and respond in a paragraph to two of five quotes, then respond to two of our classmates' posts
• Complete a KWL chart about Macbeth (how totally 3rd grade)
• Take two pages of cornell notes about Shakespeare's life
• Read Macbeth
• Respond to each act on the discussion board by posting two significant quotes, interpreting the quotes, and then asking a question about something we would like clarified about the play, then respond to two of our classmates' posts
• Take notes on an website discussing the historical context of Macbeth
• Listen to a podcast about a production of Macbeth, and the actors'/director's/crew's opinions about the subject matter of Macbeth, etc.
• Listen to an edited version of a JFK speech about secrecy
• Listen to the CSI themesong
• Read the wikipedia article about CSI
• Write a blog entry discussing how JFK's speech relates to Macbeth, and how Macbeth would make a good episode of CSI (which is blasphemy)
• Write two essays on Macbeth, one about an imagery motif and what it represents, the other on whether or not Macbeth's punishment was appropriate for his crimes, and whether or not he would have gotten the same punishment if he were alive today
• Create a powerpoint with a partner (which was supposed to be assigned to us, but was not) about literary terms and describing examples of each in Macbeth
• Read a website about the use of quotation marks (because we've gotten to Honors English IV by NOT learning how to write properly. However, there are people in my class who actually need this... there's one kid who still hasn't passed Algebra I. This is the kid that said, of Hitler's plan for Germany, "I have to say i disagree bout Hitler having good plans for Germany, because Hitler never tried and did anything good in his time. He was a very mean leader who took it for granted and knew what he wanted to do [sic]." I mean, sure, Hitler committed atrocious acts that have scarred the face of human history for all time, but if you're going to criticize him, do so intelligently. Please. Don't use the word "mean" when you speak of Hitler. It's like calling the sun "warm." And then there's that girl who said it was "ludacris [sic]" to ruin the world around us out of "ignorice [sic]". On second thought, perhaps it's a good thing that we're reading about quotation marks. Last unit's grammar exposure was about apostrophe's and possessives.)
• Complete the Vocabulary University assignment. (My vocabulary words this unit included, "gradually," "casualty," "momentarily," and my personal favorite, "emotional.")
• Create an Animoto video illustrating the theme "Appearances versus reality".

As my workload indicates, the teacher does not understand the concept of "quality over quantity".

Anyway, as of last night, I had not finished reading Macbeth. So I stayed up until 3:00 AM finishing the work assigned to me.

Today, all I had left were the two essays. I wrote one of them in second period (functioning on three hours of sleep) and finished the other one about an hour ago.

I go to turn it in on blackboard, and I see that my classmates have started a petition to get the deadline extended, since they're "busy" and "can't get the work done in time." (Don't talk to me about busy until you're preparing college auditions on three separate instruments, taking AP Calc BC, getting ready for Honors Chorus, and going to marching band practice every Tuesday and Thursday until 6:30 and a game every Friday until about 11, if you're lucky. Actually, don't talk to me about busy until you're in college.)

I also see that the teacher has extended the deadline to October 27th.

After I busted my ass to get my stuff finished.

Can anyone else see why I'm bitter?

P.S. I know the typing is weird with this one. For some reason the text has decided to continue on to the next line in the middle of words.

Macbeth

Macbeth needs to take a prozac. His wife, too.
We're reading Macbeth in my online english class, as you can probably infer.
We're comparing it to the JFK assassination and an episode of CSI.
I know. Blasphemy.
I have two papers to finish by midnight tomorrow. That's going to be a pain.
It's not as bad as it seems, though. My "teacher" doesn't actually grade worth crap.
Although she needs to go fix those grades that she said she would... a week ago.
I sent her 4 messages in the past two weeks about mistaken grades. She's responded to one of them.
I still need to learn my music for honors chorus. And find somebody to room with.
I wish I had a job at a coffeehouse... the pleasant aroma of coffee, the interesting discussions about literature, boys, gossip, drama, school, theology, the Revolutionary War, soccer, and musicals. All of this would be wonderful.
Actually, I just want to live in a coffeehouse. Not work in one.

Wedding FAIL

Worst Best Man Ever @ Yahoo! Video

This made me laugh.

School.

So. Homecoming was supposed to be tonight. But it got postponed 'til Monday.

The Symphonic Band Concert that was supposed to be on Monday got postponed to the following Monday. *sigh*

There is a generally large amount of discontent with this year's administration at school. (It's occurred to me lately that I can divide my high school career into 4 separate administrations: the Bridgewater administration, the Hedrick administration, the Powers administration and the Wallace administration. If you decided to include the month or so under Bost and Landry, that's the fifth: the Bost/Landry administration. Yay continuity.) General complaints (some are mine, some are not)

• We have homeroom EVERY DAY for 10 minutes. 20ish, if you include the break and the travel period to and from.  What a waste. In theory, the juniors, sophomores, and freshmen are supposed to be working on their Senior Graduation project (my class lucked out on missing that one). In actuality, people sit around and twiddle their thumbs. Or do their homework due later that day. Or eat.
• Every friday, there is a "Senior Breakfast" during this period, where the entire senior class goes to the cafeteria and gets food (crappy overpriced cafeteria food. Those poor lunch ladies. I remember when I was little and the lunch ladies were always the sweetest people you'd ever meet... and the food was actually half-decent. Now the food sucks, so nobody wants to go visit them). These "Senior Breakfasts" are supposed to be mandatory, but they don't take roll, and I have yet to actually attend one.
• S left. This is a source of sadness. J is here. This is a source of something that I have yet to identify (for me, at least). I mean... One on one, he's fine. As ***** would say, this is because he's got the mentality of a high schooler. Perhaps. Perhaps not. I'm not sure, yet. In class and in practice, however, there are good days and bad days. Certainly this is the case with every teacher, but it seems to me that the bad days are significantly more frequent than they used to be. Certainly this is not entirely J's fault. I mean, we had adapted to S. Working with S... (should I call him M? After GSE I'm not sure... I mean, he's not my current teacher anymore. I mean, he'll always be my teacher which is why I still want to call him S. But at GSE everybody called him M. I called him M in the third person, but S in the second. Probably still S to everybody at school. That would be weird if all of a sudden I was like, "I saw M at my lesson on Monday, and we talked about the North Davidson Festival." Everyone would be confused, and I'd sound slightly pretentious. Oh well. It'll work out. Where was I? Oh yes: Working with S...) ... was a very specialized set of skills. We're not quite sure how to deal with J, now that he's here. A lot of the bad stems from the awkward nature of that adaptation (the unexpectedness, general bad feelings... etc.), but not all of it. With regards to marching band, a portion of it stems from the bad weather we've been having... and a portion stems from general apathy, which I cannot accurately diagnose the cause of. Bad weather? Bad decisions on the parts of multiple parties? I don't know. All I know is that I'm starting to dislike playing the flute. I know it's a mental thing directly stemming from the general bad vibes around the whole Band situation right now. M wants to quit. L wants to quit. TONS of people want to quit marching. Argh. L can't quit. She can't leave me with ********. I can't deal with it.
• My online english class is a travesty. We've read selections from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Woolf's A Room of One's Own. We're currently reading Macbeth (in it's entirety, thank God), and we will be comparing it to JFK's assassination and an episode of CSI. We've done an assignment about Condoleezza Rice in the "British Women and their impact upon literature" unit, and evidently the majority of the students in this class don't actually do their work. I could fit all of the feedback I've gotten on my work onto a post-it note. I've BS'ed four essays the night before by this point, and I've gotten good grades on all of them. Why is this considered learning? Some of the people in my class... There's this fellow, B, who was responding to a quote that we had to respond to on the discussion board. Bear in mind this kid is in Honors English IV. His ambition is to pass Algebra I so he can get his diploma and be a car designer. This is the kid that denounced Hitler as "mean" and "a jerk".
• Mrs. London, my Calc teacher, is the coolest person ever. End of story. I can't wait for the trig party we're going to have at her house. That's how amazing this woman is: She makes me want to go to a trig party.
• I'm the Jester in our Madrigal dinner! I get to be a fool! I've always been so disappointed that that particular job description died out. I've always had this particular fantasy about this dashingly handsome jester and this dashingly handsome prince having an illicit love affair under the king's nose. I'm so wierd.
• Homecoming was postponed to Monday. Evidently the weather was "too bad." Now four of the nominees' fathers can't escort them, and one of them has to return the car she was using. When asked about this situation, Mr. Wallace said that he'd be "honored to escort one of you." That's not gonna fly, Mr. Wallace. Sorry. But Mrs. K talked to them, and made them feel better. She's amazing.

So instead of homecoming, I went to Dino's. Then I sat in the Dino's parking lot with J and J for like 2 hours, came home, went to Moby's to see G (I like G. G likes me. We don't work out that way, though. Which is a shame...) and then G, K, K, and I went bowling.

It was fun.

I probably won't be able to go to the state fair tomorrow to see all my GSE friends. I'm disappointed, to say the least.

GRR.

Stuff

Things I like:

• Coffee- particularly when it's got chocolate in it
• The cute shirtless guy with the skateboard I saw while driving home from Five guys today
• Five Guys burgers and fries
• Eric Whitacre- especially "What If" from Paradise Lost. Go listen to it. It's on his blog. At the moment, it's the top entry. Go. NOW.
• The part of my Bach Fugue that I've already finished
• Mrs. London, because she's awesome and gives us candy when we take tests
• Strings
• Brass
  
• Woodwinds
• Chamber music
  
• Burt's Bee's Chapstick
• Podcasts
• All of my current piano repertoire should be finished VERY soon, if all goes according to plan, meaning that I'll get to start new stuff and fun stuff afterwards.
• Whit
• Cayden (these two are not listed in order of preference, they're listed chronologically)
  

Things I don't like

• How expensive coffee is
• the cute guy I saw is probably straight. Just like the majority of the other cute guys I've got crushes on.
• My general lack of confidence when it comes to guys
• Paradise Lost premiered in California. The CD is STILL not out. There's no easily obtainable recording of several of my favorite Whitacre pieces.
• The part of my Bach fugue that I haven't finished yet.
• My online english class
• My school has no orchestra program
• I don't actually have time to listen to podcasts, generally.
• I'm going to have to SLAVE to get my piano repertoire finished by the time Elizabeth's shooting for.
• Lillian had the NERVE to ask where I was going to college. Why does she not get that I don't want to have anything to do with her? I TOLD her as much.
  

Auditions

Elizabeth informed me today that because of my hectic schedule, my recorded college pre-auditions have to be finished by November 2nd.
Holy crap. I have to finish the Bach. And the Beethoven. And the Chopin. And the Brahms. And the Vaughan Williams. And reconsider the aria.
I'm not going to have much of a social life for the next few weeks.

Harvard University

Harvard has the most unhelpful website in the world. What kind of university doesn't have a faculty list linked to the front page of their website? It's ridiculous.
All I wanted was this one lady's email address.
I still haven't found it.
Of course, it's possible that it's not on there at all... I'm not entirely sure if she's a professor there or not.
Oh well.
I'm in my online class right now, and the videoconferencing psych class is going on behind me. The teacher is talking about Freud, and how he thinks kids want to do it with their parents.
To quote her, "eww."

To the girl I passed on the way to Calculus today

Dear madam:
While I'm sure you love your boyfriend very much, it is generally considered inappropriate to shove your tongue down his throat in the middle of the hallway while pinching his nipples. Kindly refrain from doing so in large, moving crowds of people, as it not only holds up traffic, but is slightly gross.
Thank you.

________

Evidently, the Agence France-Presse (basically, France's version of Associated Press) used a photo of Tina Fey impersonating Sarah Palin in the place of a picture of Sarah Palin. Oops.
http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/10/01/oops-newspapers-around-the-world-use-snl-pic-as-official-palin/

Mario paint is amusing.

So anyway, Eric Whitacre has written an electronica opera. And I really wish I could see it. Too bad it premiered in California.

But there are rumours of a CD in the works.

The mario paint transcription of "What If", from his opera, should be above (if I embedded it right.)

A New Name

The old one was a product of me thinking "I don't want to come up with a name right now."

I realize it's slightly inconvenient to the (maybe) two people that read this thing, but hey. You can come yell at me if it bothers you that much.