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Thinking, thinking

// July 16th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Blog

So all day, I’ve been thinking about this piano thing.
Do I get one? Do I not? If I get one, will I play it enough to make it worthwhile?

The more I think about it, the more I want one. I mean, I have more free time now than I’ve ever had, so I feel like I have the time to sit down and actually play.

Eri and I are going shopping on the 21st after the school’s event, because I’m thinking of getting a bed and I need table and chairs. The place we’re going to has an online shopping thing, so I was looking through there and I found a decent digital piano or about $750 CDN including delivery. Unfortunately, it doesn’t explictly list if that includes the bench or not, but it does seem to include the stand and the music stand.

It’s touch sensitive and it has three levels of sensitivity that you can set it to (and a fourth, if you include no touch sensitivity a level). It has all three pedals, and “grand piano sound” (versus electric piano or something like that).

It sounds pretty good… and I’m leaning towards it. I’ll have to see if they have any at the store when we go, so I can try it out. My mum said that if I did get one, she would send me my books (not all of them, obviously, but the ones I’d play out of), so yes…

Protected: so yes, I’m awkward

// July 15th, 2009 // Enter your password to view comments. // Blog

Protected: Yes, I’m creepy.

// April 2nd, 2009 // Enter your password to view comments. // Blog

Protected: So, that’s all wrapped up.

// April 2nd, 2009 // Enter your password to view comments. // Blog

Okay seriously.

// April 2nd, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Blog

There’s one major thing on the internet that really bugs me.

And maybe I’m just too sensitive. Maybe I take things to heart too much. Maybe I’m just too easily offended (although, I’ve never considered myself a person who is actually offended easily).

But what is wrong with most of the internet population?
I mean, can’t people learn to be civilized towards one another? Or is the mask of animosity just too tempting to pass up?

I was just reading some communities, and it’s pretty disgusting how mean some people are. Yes, this is the internet. It’s not face to face. But that doesn’t make it any less ‘real’. There’s still a real person typing those nasty things, and pressing submit (post, send, enter, whatever). A real person on the other side. And real people are still affected by what’s said. Why do so many people fail to realize this? 

The worst part is that most of the people who go out of their way to be douchebags online, are the ones who lack the balls to do so in real life. I mean, that’s just a new level of pathetic. Seriously. What’s the draw to starting drama? Is your own life so meaningless that you have to stir up shit with random strangers? Really?

This was a pretty meaningless post, but I just had to get that out there.

On a completely unrelated note, my intestines are trying to leave my body. It hurts.

OH

// February 9th, 2009 // No Comments » // Blog

I FORGOT TO MENTION.

I was just thinking about this because I have piano tomorrow night.

Last Wednesday, my students got their exam grades back. That’s the one thing I love about January exams. The grades always seem to come in much faster (granted, there are far less students taking exams…).

They all passed (and I was pretty sure they all would; I’m not going to send someone to do an exam they’re not ready for. That’s cruel). Briana was genuinely surprised that she did, which I will never understand. Yes, she could probably practice more than she does, and push herself a bit harder, but that girl has a natural talent for music. She’s good. She’s good without much practice. Yet, when it comes to exams and performing, she freaks out and feels like she can’t do it. As long as I’ve had her as my student, I’ve never seen her fail anything (piano related… or otherwise for that matter) so I don’t know where this fear of failing comes from. But anyways, she passed and was so happy. Now she’s in grade five, which I find so exciting because I love the songs in that grade, haha.

Mitchell did pretty well on his as well. And with the changes they’ve made to the technical requirements, there was a huge jump from grade one to grade two. Not to mention from the old grade two, to the new grade two. I think they put a comment about how he has a lot of potential. Which he really does, he’s a talented kid. It’s funny, because he didn’t really want to start piano. He mostly did it because his mum wanted him to. But he’s really, really good. I think he started just over a year ago, and is already in grade three (and we did primary, two grade one books and two grade two books). I think he likes it now though… now that he realizes that it comes pretty easy to him. He can see patterns really well, so that makes playing a hell of a lot easier.

Annnd Sophia. She is so cute. She did grade two as well, but with the old technical requirements (you can still use the old books… well you could for January, I’m not sure if you can after this). She did the best out of my students, and I’m really glad she did so well on her first exam. I think she was okay in the exam, but I know she was nervous before. They said how good her sight reading was, and it’s true. She does have really good sight reading. So we started grade three. Before we decided for sure she was doing the grade two exam, I had her do a lot of various scales, so I hope that kind of helps with the transition from the old requirements to the new ones.

The jump is just insane. They’re doing it because they’ve now realized that when players are getting to a higher level, their technical is pretty much crap. So they added all this new stuff to the lower grades, in hopes of improving people’s technical.

But now the jump from grade one to two, is even too big. Grade one, you don’t have anything like a formula pattern. Not even C major contrary, but in grade two, suddenly you have C major formula pattern, and G major contrary. You also have staccato scales, and for some completely random and unknown reason, they put the natural minors in grade two, and grade two only. What the hell. If you’re going to put them in, at least be consistant. e_e

THEN they have this ridiculous thing for the dominant seventh cords in grade six (maybe it’s grade five…). I always think of dominant seventh cords in major keys, and diminished sevenths in minor keys. But now, they’re doing the dominant sevenths in minor keys (WTF). Val and I were looking at it, and were so confused, because neither of us had heard of that before.

… turns out, it’s just the enharmonic equivalent of the major key (meaning, it’s the same keys but just a different name for it), so that they learn to realize… that… I don’t know. Keys have more than one name? It’s ridiculous.

I should say that I do think it’s a great idea that they’re adding more technical requirements, because I know personally, how much easier it is when you know your stuff. Especially classical music. But it’s just not… even. So it doesn’t make a lot of sense.

I’m done ranting about that now.

Annnd I have to do some work before I sleep otherwise I’ll feel guilty in the morning.

And there it goes.

// January 26th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Blog

So the weekend is over, again. I feel like every week, I look forward to the weekend, and then it comes and goes so quickly, like it was never there to begin with.

Having class on Saturday mornings is nice though; I’m almost always home just after noon and I have the rest of the day. This past Saturday, six students came. Thankfully. It was bitterly cold, so I thought that there wouldn’t be such a turn out, but there was.

Granted, it was two groups of three travel-wise.
But it was nice. We started to learn colours.

It’s really annoying how the spell check on this computer (it’s like the automatic kind that underlines the words in red if you misspell them as you type) keeps telling me that ‘colours’ and so forth is wrong.

Oh but that reminds me, I did learn something interesting the other day. That ‘deke’ is a Canadian English word. It underlines that too.
I was actually reading a list of all these words that were used in Canadian English, because I think it’s fascinating. I mean, I think the differences between all the variations of English in general is fascinating.

Sunday, Kat and I hung out. We watched the new episode of Kyle XY (SO GOOD. And this week’s looks awesome and awkward). We also rented two movies. The Duchess and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Both were good, but obviously VERY different, haha. The Duchess left you feeling kind of depressed, well, it left me feeling kind of depressed because I always want to see those wonderful fairy tale endings that aren’t generally present in reality.

I feel like when I started writing this I had a point. Unfortunately, that’s been lost.

Confession.

// January 22nd, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Blog

For some reason I find it incredibly irritating when people use ‘ano’ or ‘eeto’ at the beginning of an English sentence, phrase, comment, etc.

I understand switching languages if there’s a word you don’t know, or doesn’t work as well as another word in another language, but English has a perfect equivalent.

It’s ‘um’.

There’s no need to use the Japanese. It’s just irritating.

Protected: So, here’s the thing.

// November 28th, 2008 // Enter your password to view comments. // Blog

A week.

// November 27th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Blog

IT HAS BEEN A WEEK SINCE I LAST UPDATED MY BLOG.

I have something I want to write, but I’ll likely save it for when I’m not at work.

Right now, my stomach really hurts. I think I ate too much, too fast. Or maybe just enough, and too fast. The main point of this, is that I think I ate too fast and now I have a stomach ache and it’s incredibly uncomfortable.

I finally went to the bank yesterday. I had stored up five pay cheques, which always makes depositing them feel more rewarding. However, it’s not as appreciated by my bosses…

Fair enough.

Okay, so yesterday. Steve came over to tune my piano (he’s also my boss) because it needed tuning and I always get it done around Christmas time so the Christmas songs sound nice and not really weird. I mean, when you have to play things in octaves, and the notes don’t sound the same, you have a bit of a problem.

Anyways, this isn’t about my piano tuning. While Steve was tuning, we were talking (and I was playing Fire Emblem). So he decided that he would find me a boyfriend, which would therefore make me not want to go to Japan and I would stay here, and continue teaching at the Conservatory. 

…

Doesn’t that sound awfully familiar? Kind of like what Mr. A said?

Steve decides that someone I already know (I’m not mentioning names here) would be perfect. So he’s like I’LL SET YOU UP! HE’S GOING PLACES YOU KNOW! 

I said it’s okay. I mean, I know the guy and he is really nice and all, but I’m really not into being set up. 

It’s flattering to know people don’t want me to leave, and it makes leaving that much harder. But at the same time, I need to go out and do my own thing… and try new things. I’m not saying I’m going away forever and never coming back, or not going to keep in touch with people… but I do need to do my own thing, you know?

Anyways. Yes. 

I need to write about something else later, and even though poor Ailea has already heard it all, I need to vent it all out here so it’s out and cleared from my head. So, that’s it. For now.