Lonely Day

Sometimes it feels like no one is reading this except me.  Being anonymous is harder because you can't promote your blog to people you know.  And I don't have facebook, the main place for promoting non-anonymous blogs.  And it doesn't seem like I'm posting stuff that is extreme or really personal yet, so why do I feel the need to be anonymous?  I need to dig deeper.  I still want to remain anonymous.  If no one reads this, it's ok.  It's just for fun.  It's like an online diary that can only be read by strangers.  An organization of my thoughts and work.  It's still helpful and enjoyable to me.

Besides, I get my attention fix from writing fanfiction.  They really seem to like my stories.  Or maybe they just generally go crazy over everything on there.  Nevertheless, I enjoy that site.  I'm thinking if I ever have any good fiction that isn't fanfiction to post, I'll get an account on Writer's Cafe.  It looks like an interesting site.  The reviews go into more detail there.

Whenever I write on here I tend to not be able to stop.  So many thoughts to express.  I'll talk about my day.  That's why I decided to blog tonight.  To rant about my crappy day.

I woke up early (for me) at 9 am, thinking I had a lesson at 10 am, when my lesson was actually at 11 am, so that was probably one of the best parts of my day, because I got extra time to do stuff, like check my email and watch Nadia: the Secret of Blue Water, which I did.

I got to my lesson five minutes early, which was unusual for me.  And when I got to my lesson my teacher was there.  I half expected her to be just as late, because I am often late, so she shows up just as late to show her disdain for my bad time-management skills.  She's passive-aggressive like that.  I admit being late is rude, but it's just so hard for me to be on time for some reason.  I've been bad at getting to things on time as long as I can remember.  It's my main bad habit.  That, and sleeping in.  So I'm early and she's actually there to appreciate that, and this is putting me in a good mood.  But she actually turns out to be kind of mad that I'm early.  She says she has to quickly check her mail, otherwise she'll be in trouble.  Tells me to warm up or relax.  And then she comes back, 10 minutes later.  So I show up five minutes early and our lesson ends up starting five minutes late.  It's rather infuriating.  But I'm too shy to speak up about these things, although they have happened before.  I could write an entire entry on the unprofessional-ism of my singing teacher this year.  Maybe I will.  Anyway, I will give you one example of how she has wasted my lessons.  This has happened twice during lessons with her and my accompanist-coach.  They send me out into the hall so they can talk about secret things I don't need to know.  The second time this happened I was waiting out in the hall for fifteen minutes!  I think they're probably talking about a girl in our studio who recently dropped out of the music faculty.  But it could be me.  Or just randomly gossiping about other teachers and students.  I don't really give a fuck.  Unless it's an emergency, I think it can wait.  I don't know why they don't arrange a coffee date outside of class.  It's just so unbelievaly rude and unprofessional.  I guess because I don't speak up they think it's okay to treat me like this.  If I were them, I would feel bad about it.  If or when I teach, I will treat my students with respect.  My previous teacher was extremely professional.  I think one lesson he left for a minute to refill a water bottle.  That's it.  I really miss that teacher.  Previous teacher, if you know who I am somehow and you are reading this, come back!!  I'm begging you!  Yes, it's that bad. 

Anyway, I have gone off on a tangent.  Back to my bad day.  After the initial suckyness, the lesson went fairly well.  But I had another lesson an hour later (with my teacher and accompanist).  I wasn't early but slightly late.  The problem was that I had just learned the Bach piece I brought in a few days ago and it was barely ready to be worked.  So I think I made a lot of unnecessary mistakes and they were losing their patience with me.  I lost some of my previous confidence in myself for a while after that lesson.  You have to work so hard to sound half decent in the classical world.  I don't know if I will be able to bring that to the table for my vocal jury.  I hope I can.  I'll just have to keep trying.  So that depressed me.  My teacher also said something in the earlier lesson that resonated with me.  She said that I need to really feel the emotion of the piece and bring it out and that I'm not yet confident in my body.  That is definitely true, but it kind of hurt to hear it from her.  Sometimes I take criticism too harshly.  I'll just have to work harder.

So I went home and had lunch.  I finished the Nadia series which was sad, but also a relief.  And I wanted to go to a masterclass, but I didn't get ready to go soon enough, so I missed it.  That depressed me.

I went to get my police check and got it back.  That was easy.

Then I decided to practise and learn music.  I learned Thank You For the Music by ABBA and a song from Kiki's Delivery Service (piano and voice), but they proved too challenging.  I don't have the accompaniment quite right, which is frustrating.  I went through the Bach piece again and with her diction suggestions it took so much effort that my abs hurt!  Is this how it feels every time you sing with a supported sound?  How can you enjoy it and endure it then?  I don't know.  Another thing she said stuck with me: "Most musicians and singers don't sing with their full voice."  It makes me wonder if that's really what I want to be known for: a supported sound?  I will need to think about this some more.

So as I continued practicing and learning music, the campus became quite empty, since it is a Friday, which always puts me in a bad mood.  And I became quite tired.  Coffee didn't help.  Then I realized my cell phone was missing, but I thought I left it at home, so I didn't go home.

Speaking of home, I made cupcakes the day before and left some out for my roomies, but none of them had been eaten yet, when usually they were eaten quite quickly.  This made me sad.  I'm being over-sensitive, but it still made me sad.

One cool thing happened.  As I walked by the cafeteria, I was really craving curly fries, but I didn't want to spend too much money since I was eating out for dinner.  So I resisted and went to get my coffee and on the way some people were giving out free chocolate ice cream!  So I had that instead.  It seemed that they packed up right after that, too.  So if I got the curly fries I would have missed it.  It was a cool coincidence.

Eventually I went to an Indian restaurant  for dinner, but the bus took me too far and I had to walk for a longer time, which sucked.

Then I went to the theatre to see a play called "An Experiment With an Air Pump."  I was there early so I got to read my Margaret Atwood book, which was nice.

The play was really good, but I won't talk about that right now.  I saw a classmate of mine there.  We talked for a while during intermission, but she didn't seem to want to talk too long, probably because she was with her boyfriend.  During the part where they are having a funeral for one of the characters, who has hung herself (sorry for the spoiler!) she and her boyfriend were laughing uncontrollably.  Like, what the hell?  And then, afterwards, they slipped away really quickly and left me to walk home alone.  And I did not know the area of that university very well.  On my way home, I must have encountered at least five groups of young guys out partying.  The worst kind of group to bump into, according to my dad.  Luckily, nothing bad happened.  But I kept wishing I had friends or a boyfriend to come with me.  But I don't have a boyfriend and I figured my roommates or classmates wouldn't be interested or they would have had other plans (in layman's terms I am too shy to ask them to come with me).

So I made it home to find out that my cell phone wasn't there.  Later that night I found out that the music faculty secretary had found it, but I was really worried before hand.  The third time I have lost something this week.  I'm so forgetful and I don't know how to fix it.

Anyway, another lonely day, and it's mine.  It's a day that I'm glad I survived.  There were some good moments, but I think the bad moments outweighed them.  It's not winning any awards, but it wasn't a great day.  I generally hate Fridays.

I might tell you about Nadia: the Secret of Blue Water later.  I'm too tired right now.  I will tell you about the cupcakes, though.  Everything turned out quite well except the tootsie roll hat rims.  I don't know how one would have the patience to stretch several Tootsie Rolls until you can mold them.  They are really firm.  Other than that, the recipe was successful!  It took so much time.  I don't think I will do it again, unless I have a lot of time and money on my hands.  The ingredients were expensive, in some cases.  They are delicious, though!  I wish my roommates liked them.  To be fair, one of them had one tonight.  So that's good.

Here's hoping tomorrow is better,  For you and for me.  For everyone.

What's happening lately

Current musical phase: ABBA

I was obsessed with them in childhood, and since I burned them to my iPod yesterday, I haven't been able to play anything else.  Every once in a while it sounds like indie or techno, because they use a lot of synthesizer.  "SOS," "Gimme, gimme, gimme," "Voulez-vous," "Does your mother know" and "Thank you for the music" are masterpieces. 

ABBA is also a musical form.  Haha.

I thought I had caught the Owl City fever as well, and I listened to some of their songs, but I think it's just the song "Fireflies" that I like.  The rest is not very remarkable.

Current book:  The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

I haven't read that much yet, but so far it reminds me of 1984.

Current anime: Nadia: the Secret of Blue Water

Such an awesome anime.  I got into it because I heard my favourite Disney movie (Atlantis) was largely based on it (to the point of copying it).  Watching it now, I have to agree.

Milo = Jean
Kida = Nadia
Helga = Electra
Rourke = Gargoyle
Mole = Hanson

Both casts of characters live on a submarine most of the time.  Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water is longer, with more character development.  Also, the villains in Nadia are the Neo-Atlanteans, while the heroes are the surviving Atlanteans and the descendants of the Atlanteans.

The series is very imaginative and you can learn a lot about science from it, like in Star Trek.  It also kind of reminds me of Pokemon and Trigun.  Pokemon, because the villainous trio is pretty much exactly like Team Rocket, although Pokemon came later, so Pokemon copied this series.

Grandis = Jessie
Sanson = James
Hanson = Meowth (only human, and much more intelligent)

They have almost the exact same voices and appearances, although Sanson has a very aristocratic British drawl while James has more of a gay British accent.

It's also similar to Trigun, because of the animation style and the constant theme of whether it is worth it to be pacifist.  On the Nautilus, there are occasions when people have to die in order to defeat Gargoyle, and there is no other option.  Like Vash, Nadia is a pacifist throughout the entire series, and it costs her sometimes.  She is a lot more vocal about it, though.

Also, the villains (Neo-Atlanteans) are quite frightening for anime, which is refreshing.  They wear KKK hoods that are black (kind of like the Death Eater hoods) and army uniforms that are like the Nazi, Soviet and American soldier uniforms and white frowning masks.  These villains don't make speeches, fly around in silly machines and cackle evilly.  They shoot people, make nuclear weapons and believe in a superior race.  Yeah.  Get your kids to watch this one, parents!   I lost sleep watching the first few episodes with these villains.  They are creepy.  Those KKK hoods really scare me for some reason, and I'm not even black.

I've really enjoyed watching it so far.  Sometimes, I'll watch 3 or 4 in a night.  It is addicting.  But I'm still only on episode 25 and there are 39 altogether, so I'm about 2/3 through the series.  It doesn't seem to be very well known.  I guess because it's from 1990 (older than Pokemon!).  I highly recommend this series to people who like any of these shows/movies: Atlantis, Pokemon, Trigun and Star Trek. 

In conclusion, it is a combination of Disney's "Atlantis," "Pokemon," "Trigun," and "Star Trek."  But it is original in many aspects.


What I will be baking soon: St. Patrick's Day cupcakes

I will tell you how it goes.  They are green cupcakes with green sugar, white icing, green gummies made into shamrocks and Leprechaun hats made from green icing, Ritz crackers, marshmallows, M&Ms and Tootsie Rolls.  Go to the website if you want to try making it as well.  Warning: it was hard for a college student like me to find all the materials (my apartment is kind of understocked with obscure baking supplies and ingredients).

Here it is: http://hoosierhomemade.com/st-patricks-day-cupcakes-cupcake-tuesday/
 
Her version looks awesome.  The woman on this website seems very creative.  Wish me luck!  Luck of the Irish, that is!