I desperately would like to make a long, interesting (to me at least) entry about anything, but I am far to busy. Tomorrow I have a Civics exam (view my ‘Dignity’ entry for how I feel about that class) and a math test later in the day. I had an EQAO literacy test yesterday morning and then I went on a student’s council feild trip yesterday afternoon. I can barely comprehend the mathematics I am trying so desperately hard to learn for tomorrow’s test. On top of that, we’re applying math to chemistry in science class (!) and in vocals class I am rocking out. I’m becoming more and more social each day (which was my new school-year resolution) and my classmates in vocals are helping to get my friend (who, until I ask her what she would like her name to be in this blog, shall remain nameless) to feel comfortable singing with everyone. Which is great, and she was singing today when we had a class in the auditorium today. I love our school’s auditorium. I don’t know when it was last updated, but it must have been sometime in the seventies, more or less. I hope they don’t update it for a long time. I want to go back there at my high school reunion and be glad that one of the things I love most about the school hadn’t changed. (My other favourite thing about the school is the secret door in the prop room that’s hidden behind old shelves and costumes.)
Sorry. Rambling again.
Anyway, I’m trying to write my novel now, so I’ve gotto go.
I tried putting this playlist on the blog earlier, but it just won’t work, so I’m giving you a link to a list of some songs I like.
Our early report cards have recently been sent in the mail and I recieved mine yesterday.
The math teacher gave me all E’s (which is odd because I’m not so sure I’m doing that Excellently)
The science teacher gave me all G’s (I think I’m doing FAR better in science than math, but I honestly wouldn’t know because we have not had any assignments in which we’ve recieved marks for. Science is just more interesting to me.)
The civics teacher left it blank (? I don’t know but she said without all those homework assignments I never handed in, I am currently standing at an 88% in the class, which is also tied for the highest mark in the class. The class average is 59%)
And in vocals I had all S’s (for ’satisfactory’. I find this extraordinarily insulting, considering how brave I’ve been!)
Anywho, I have been given singing parts for these three songs:
[Come Together - The Beatles]
I’m supposed to sing backup for the last three (out of four) verses for this song.
Today the other backup singers were away because they had some sort of sports tournament. So it was only me and the lead singer, and I think she was a little surprised that I remembered what parts I was supposed to sing.
You see, last time I kept loosing my spot and singing the wrong parts because I’d forgotten about the last-three-verses thing and, plus, we were sharing one sheet of lyrics among 4 of us. (One lead singer, 3 backups) They’d turned the music stand so I could not see.
Anyway, the teacher had one girl print out copies for all of us, so I had my own to look at. It gave me a little more isolation and confidence for some reason, knowing I could not at all do worse than I had the last time. So that confidence must’ve shown and I feel proud and honest in saying that I am getting better. Better with confidence, I mean. I know I’m a good singer.
[Where it's at - Beck]
I only get to sing “Where it’s at/ I’ve got 2 turntables and a microphone” which is great with me, since it’s all I know. Plus, I’m not at all fond of rap.
[Notion - Kings of Leon]
I only sing “Don’t rock it”. Or is it ‘Don’t lock it’? (‘Don’t knock it’?) I don’t know, nobody gave me any lyrics. I’ll figure it out eventually.
These are songs on the list I wanted to sing:
[Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen]
Because I love Queen, (in 8th grade, my class went to the Queen Musical on a school trip, and it was AWESOMAZING.) and the song sounds really cool and it’s fun to sing!
[All these things - The Killers]
Because I do have soul, and I am not a soldier.
This song makes me feel empowered!
[I will survive - Cake]
I tried for a solo on this one, but started spacing out before the chorus and never finished the song.
Whatever. I was still brave, and I bet that if I could try for it one more time, I’d get it! But the girl with the solo now deserves it. So maybe I’ll try next year if I take vocals again and this song’s on the list.
These are some other songs on the list I wouldn’t have minded singing:
[Higher Ground - Stevie Wonder/The Red Hot Chilli Peppers]
[Times like these - the Foo Fighters]
[Wake up - Arcade Fire]
This song was in the “Where the Wild Things are” trailer!
[Spiderwebs - No Doubt]
These are a couple of songs that weren’t on the list that I wanted to sing:
[Don't stop believin' - Journey]
[Old School - Hedley]
[No sleep tonight - The Faders]
[Somebody to Love - Queen]
[Runaway - Avril Lavigne]
Anyway, sorry if I’m boring you, but thanks for reading this far.
Nothing overly-philosophical today, I guess. I have some more philosophical stuff about vocals class, but it would involve talking about one of my friends and it’s rather personal and I do not have her permission to write about her yet, and I still have to verify her code name with her.
This song is by a girl named Valerie: toiltpprprdctns on YouTube. It’s incredibly catchy and a good happy-dance song.
WARNING: This is going to be one of those really long and thought-provoking entries that I go off rambling quite a bit in. My English teacher last year said I should learn to centre my thoughts a bit better. So click ‘more’ if you’re really up for reading it all. (more…)
I’m back, and it was a-m-a-z-i-n-g. We drove through the mountains to see British Columbia.
We went as far as Vancouver and I went up on Grouse Mountain (Grouse- pronounced like Sprouse, as in the Sprouse twins. Not pronounced like Gross.) in a cable car and then even farther up Grouse Mountain in one of those cool ski lifts.
It was amazing, but some people get awfully scared. I mean, I was a little frightened at first because your only restraint is the back of the bench behind you and the loose-ish bar holding you from falling foreward.
But you’d only fall off the thing if you did something incredibly stupid. I read in a magazine that only 3 people a year die on amusement rides. And usually it’s only if they do something stupid. (aka when they say keep your hands and feet inside the ride, they MEAN it. And they mean keep your abdomen inside the ride, too.)
Anyway, my point is after a bit, I got used to the height and the ride so I decided to let go of the bar in front of me. But then my dad got frightened and told my brother and I to hold onto the bar with both hands and not to let go.
The ride was pretty calm and quiet for the most part except when the people in your seat of the ride decide to speak. You could also hear the people at the end of the ride singing karaoke.
It was pretty life-changing.
BC is so naturally beautiful- but it was pretty sad how many trees were being chopped down to make tourist stops and attractions. I mean, the trees and the hills and the mountains should attract people. I agree that it’s a beautiful place to be and I’m guilty of visiting and enjoying tourist attractions, but I mean, shouldn’t there be a limit on it? In Ontario, there are laws about how much land can be commercial, and I think in BC they could really do with that.
Anyway, my little brother (who shall be referred to as either Little Brother or Buddy from here on in) has now allowed me to mention him in my blog. He wants me to now.
Buddy is making a smaller model of the Canadian Pacific railway, and the Last Spike. He is making it with his toy trainset, which I haven’t seen him use in a while. When we were littler we used to play with that trainset together. Which is basically the only thing we could play together nicely, considering that we’re about 4 years apart and it’s not as if we could play Barbie or Bionicle.
SO yeah. I had a good trip, I went to Alberta and British Columbia. I drove through the mountains. I stayed the night in a haunted hotel on the drive to BC. I had the best breakfast in the world at that hotel.
Well, I got my class schedule in the mail the day I got back. (Aug. 25) I’m satisfied with it. One of my friends and I chose all the same electives (singing, art, drama) and I left her an offline MSN message with my schedule and told her to IM me back if we were in the same classes. She sent me an IM back and told me we got the same classes for the ones we chose together. This is great since I get stagefright. ESPECIALLY for singing in front of people. Drama is okay, since I did it last year, PLUS I did a dinner theatre production, and I was good enough that people were rushing over to compliment me after I was done. So that made me less nervous. But that was about my acting. Singing, on the other hand, I have no clue. I did sing once for a talent show, once, and there were a few people complimenting me after. But I think they were complimenting me on being brave. I posted a YouTube video of me singing more than a year ago, and I must admit, it is NOT my best work. And I am not the only one who told me so. There are about 6 un-deleted comments sitting under it. And only one of them is slightly nice. It said to just keep practicing and ignore all the rude comments.
Anyway, I guess my voice is decent. It gets better with practice and if I know the song well. Plus, having it stuck in my head sometimes helps.
Today I was volunteering at a scavenger-hunt library program and led a group of four kids (ages 9-12) around the library trying to find puzzle peices with riddles on the back that would hint where the next peice is. It was not so bad. Once we were finished, we got to make dragons and stuff out of play-doh and I made a big purple dragon with a red tail and a little green baby dragon. It’s pretty cute, I’ve got to say.
When the kids had all left all the rest of the volunteers and I just stuck around, talking and playing with play-doh.
I told them about my grade 9 clay art project where we were supposed to make mugs.
The teacher had shown us the 3 different ways to make them, there was the coil method (you roll it out like a liccorice and then make it a spiral coming up to form a mug), the slab method (roll it out w/ a rolling pin, then mold it around from there) and the pinch-pot method (where you just take a wad of clay and pinch it into a mug).
While everyone else decided on the easier and faster slab method, I decided I’d play expert and went for the difficult and time-consuming pinch-pot method. Which, I must say, made me in way over my head.
I was doing horribly one of the days we did it when the clay was stiff since it had dried a bit overnight. I added water to it, which made it muddier. I added a handle. It fell off.
Being a very muddy mug, it refused to stay put and slowly slid down into one of those soup bowl things.
And then it became a dog-bowl type thing.
I added two handles. One fell off. The other almost did.
So, once I got around to the painting, I focused more on the inside of the bowl and getting the entire outside of the bowl, I only belatedly realized that the outside only got one coat of it, so it totally ended up horribly.
So I sort of abandoned it in the art room…
It brought my art mark down to an 80%, which I wasn’t so upset with since an eighty is still good, but my mom was sort of peeved since art for me is like … popcorn and butter, peanut butter and jelly, math teachers and homework, scouts and camping, mold and wet paper-machet, … and words and reading.
But, I mean, who cares? I still won the art award for my whole grade!
Today was a good day. So far.
Question of the day: What is the most fond memory you have of failure?
"Why wear raingear when the sun is shining?"
-Alex Violet
"Cryin' in the taxi won't do you any good!"
-The Song: Me & You by Slow Club
.::InFoRmAtIoN::.
My name is Alexandra Violet. When I have something to write about I will, and I will try my very best in doing so, but I will also try very hard to stay true in what I say. This blog is anonymous (Alexandra Florence Violet, is not my real name. Big surprise! But in reality, I do normally go by Alex.) so instead of using anyone's real name, I'll be substituting it with another name that may suit them, or just a random name that might come to mind or is similar- yet not- to their real name.
If you want to know about who I am, beyond just my name, then go to the about me page. (Duh.)
.::BoOkS I rEcCoMmEnD::.
Sucks to be me- Kimberley Pauley
Palace of Mirrors - Margaret Peterson Haddix
The Mysterious Benedict Society - Trenton Lee Stewart
Journey to the River Sea - Eva Ibbotson
Alex
