Week Three

It's absolutely terrible to think that I haven't posted at all since last week's update on my life. Again, I didn't have enough time during the week, especially the beginning, because I had to finish a lot of work early for Wednesday night band rehearsal. Thursday I had time, but I wasn't sure what to write about, Friday I had a football game, and Saturday I was just too lazy.

My mom was out of town all this week, so I didn't get to go to the gym during the weekdays, not that I really have that kind of time. Still, I went running on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. I accidentally went much farther on Thursday than I had intended to and ended up running 6 miles, but amazingly I wasn't sore the next day, which means I can run much more. Wednesday I had band rehearsal, and I brought chocolate chip cookies for the clarinet section. Friday was the football game, and although I messed up a little in the field show (everyone did), it still looked really good in a video I saw. It was the home opener, and we lost 40-0 against Crespi, although I hear they're very good.

I had a test in AP Chem on Tuesday, I got a 19/20 on it and I have an 86% in the class, which is relatively high. I got an 85% on my precalc review test in Calculus, which is also pretty good. Also, in history class, since we're learning about colonial America and the Revolution, I'm constantly getting the theme song to "Liberty's Kids" from PBS stuck in my head. It was this show I really liked as a kid about the Revolutionary War. The song is kind of childish and even irritating, especially when you're trying to concentrate, but I still love it.

Song of the Week

Song of the Week is the main titles from 101 Dalmations. I'm going to put up two versions, one with the music only (the spots are rather distracting), and the original title sequence.

TECHNICOLOR!!

Two Weeks In (Hardly)

Weekly update on my life! Yay!

I wasn't really able to post at the later part of the week because schoolwork started to get out of hand after Wednesday. Monday and Tuesday were cool, I was able to make it to the gym on the latter day and felt pretty awesome. Wednesday was a band rehearsal from 5-8, which was an hour less than last week's. Still, it impacted my homework situation and I went to bed at one in the morning, which made me really sleepy the next day (although, thankfully, I didn't fall asleep in class). I was pretty lethargic in French, and I hadn't even finished the homework from the night before :\. That night I had a ton of trouble with the last couple problems of my AP Chem homework and I was getting really frustrated that I had gotten a couple of the questions wrong, because I really need to be on top of that class when things got hard. I went to bed pretty late, again, and came to class early to ask about the problems. It turns out I had been setting up the formula wrong the whole time.

Band this week was cool, rehearsal and a Friday night football game. It was supposed to be a home game but the field wasn't availiable (thank goodness, or we would have had to perform the field show). Since we were playing Samo (Santa Monica HS) they decided to host it, but since their field is being redone, it was held at SMC, the local community college. We lost, of course, but I had fun, and we got to meet the Samo band. They're really good, as I've heard. It was a really nice way to end a stressful second week.

Today I went to the gym and got some food from Trader Joe's and did homework. :)

Oh and I've decided to have a Song of the Week, which features a song (Disney, score, or not) that pertains to my life somehow or is just something I've listened to 1.942867350 x10^6 times (thanks, AP Chem). It may be something important or something I find meaning in or something catchy or something I really like for reasons I am unable to explain. If anyone wants to know why I chose that particular song I'm willing to tell you, but I'm not going to go all analytical over it here.

Song of the Week (1)

Since I started this thing this week I should do one for last week too. Last week's song is Part of Your World (Reprise) from The Little Mermaid on Broadway.

Song of the Week (2)



Song of the Week for the second week of school is I Won't Say I'm in Love from Hercules. Most everyone loves this song. Enjoy!

French Doodles

I draw a lot. Which also means I doodle a lot too.

Last week I was mainly doodling the Disney Princess Designer Collection, which is a post I started but didn't finish due to it's sheer awesomeness and my lack of words to describe it and my happiness when it came to the subject. This week it's more simple, cutesy stuff.

Yesterday I drew a couple cats and a dog in my math (calculus) binder, and today I drew another cat in my French binder, which rooms with my calculus papers. But the main focus of my doodling time in French class was spent drawing Toothless, from How To Train Your Dragon. I learned how to draw him this weekend.

I love How To Train Your Dragon (from now on, I will abbreviate it as HTTYD). I saw it in theaters when I came out, and I didn't really appreciate as much as I did now. Well, let's start at the beginning. Before it came out, I thought it sounded kind of stupid, partially because the name wasn't particularly appealing. When it came out, I thought it was pretty cool. I think I saw it in 3D. Sometime after that I got part of the soundtrack and I was all "OMG THIS IS AMAAAAZING!!!!" but more about the score later. After that is when I started to really like the movie, and, over time, I've come to absolutely love it. I'll probably do a whole post or two dedicated to the movie.

Anyways, Toothless is the main, black dragon. He is adorable. Just, incredibly round-faced and no-fangs and smooth and all-around cute. The animator who designed Toothless also designed Stitch from Lilo & Stitch; you can easily see the resemblance.

So yeah, pretty much on my French warm-up there's a picture of an adorable flying dragon and a cat. :D



This is Toothless.





This is Stitch. See the resemblance?

Remembering September 11, 2001

Okay I only have about ten minutes to write this so let's see what I can get done.

Honestly, I don't remember the actual day. I woke up as usual, got ready for school, and walked there with my dad and my brother. I was not a child who often watched the news and kept up with current events; it's probable that mine (and others') parents didn't want us to see the World Trade Center burning and then crashing to the ground. Perhaps I saw adults acting different, perhaps I didn't notice, but I have no memory of that.

However, I do remember sometime shortly after a boy at my table telling me a plane had crashed into a building. I asked him to repeat it several times because I could not understand why a plane had crashed into a building. I think that at that time I was too young to understand and thought the plane had crashed on accident, which I still couldn't comprehend. I don't know how long it took for me to realize it was on purpose, it was a planned terrorist attack, it was at the World Trade Center, etc.

I've thought this several times before, and even last year's history teacher has told us, that we are the last generation to actually remember 9/11. Anyone younger than us is too young to have remembered that day in 2001, and even I can barely recall those vague memories.

Never Forget.

Synfig Animation

As I probably have mentioned before, I would love to go into a career in animation.

Sometime at the end of the school year (I think), I was searching for free, simple animation programs online and I came across this list. I guess I had forgotten about it until now, but I looked at it again and finally downloaded one of them this morning.

The list consisted of 2D, 3D, and photo animation programs. Most on the list are something you have to buy at a store, but a couple are free and you can download them straight from their respective websites. I believe all the 3D programs do cost money (some are relatively cheap) but a three of the 2D programs are free, which is a good thing, considering 2D is probably the simplest, and my preference. 3D is considered mainly for professionals, but I guess a few systems are available to the public. Photo animation.....yeah I've never really thought of that before. Never really heard of it, either. However, some programs are only available to Windows and others to Macintosh, so watch out for that.

According to my dad, animation programs are vector based (also bitmap and stuff) and all sorts of computer words I don't understand. The one I downloaded (Synfig) is probably the most complex out of the three, according to the description, which is why I got it. I read some of the documentation and I had a little trouble finding the tools, but I got as far as drawing two circles and manipulating the radius. It sounds simple, but once you look at the actual program it looks super complicated. I had to stop to read The Crucible (which I finished in a day) but I'll probably take the tutorial and read more of the documentation after I make this post, then fool around with the tools some. Apparently this program is so advanced you can create movie-quality animated shorts (or something longer, if you wanted, I guess). I would put up a short from their website, but I can't even watch it because I don't have Adobe Flash, which stinks.

Oh, and someday, in the way future, I'd love to get one of those pressure-sensitive pens that goes with the tablet that you hook up your computer. Then you can draw on the tablet and it shows up on the computer. That's all I know about it, other than that it's really expensive.

It'll be a long time before I even understand how to use this program.

One Down, Thirty-Nine To Go

Daaaayyyuuuummm.

It seems like just yesterday was the last day of school. I remember the days leading up to the end of school very well, and the last day of school in particular. I don't know how the summer slipped through my fingers like it did, but now we're back in school. Classes I'm taking: AP Chem, H French 3, Calculus, AP Lang, H US History, and Marching Band. As the title states, there are approximately 39 weeks of school left. Fun stuff.

Highlights of this week (I may continue this throughout the school year): I cleaned up my room, vacuumed a crapload of turfbuddies from my floor* , started school, re-discovered Pandora (and showtunes, in a way), managed to blog on a school night, and had my first [awesome] night rehearsal for band. I guess it's a good way to start off junior year. The hardest year. Oh gosh.

The reason I chose this as my post subject is because I like writing about my daily life outside of Disney stuff and I also have only a little more than 20 minutes to write this post, and this was simple enough.



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*crapload (as defined by me, since this is my blog and not yours): (n.) a US customary unit of mass that describes anything smaller than a shitload, but still a fairly large amount. note: it is largely considered a US customary unit because, according to the stereotyped American perception of British people, they do not swear nearly as much as we do and are more proper in nearly every way.

Pandora

<3

I don't know who invented Pandora, but you are a genius.

I don't remember how long ago I made an account but I checked it out again this weekend. I remember trying to make a "Nat King Cole" station but apparently my taste in music is so outdated it took forever to load and I got extremely frustrated and made a "Part of Your World" station. So I clicked on the "Part of Your World" station and of course that's like heaven for a Disney fan like me. I've basically had a random variety of Disney music, with some Broadway and a little pop thrown in too.

Stuff that's shown up:
-Original Disney songs
-Celebrity covers of Disney songs (Elton John, Christina Aguilera, and the like.)
-Disney Broadway showtunes
-Other showtunes (like Wicked)
-Other songs from movie musicals (The Sound of Music with Julie Andrews)
-Occasional pop music (Mandy Moore)

And yes, I know most of the lyrics to most of the original Disney songs (and therefore covers and showtunes), I do know all the lyrics to Wicked, and all the lyrics to The Sound of Music. However, I am a terrible singer, so don't expect me to sing any of those.

As I am writing this, I am again listening to Pandora, except this time my "Nat King Cole" station is working and I am listening to "Papa Loves Mambo" by Nat King Cole. I also recommend "This Year's Kisses" by Ella Fitzgerald and "Sway" by Michael Buble.

I love you, Pandora.

My Adventures at Goodwill

If you're going to donate to Goodwill, make sure you put the VHS in the case. It doesn't count if you just donate the box.

I went to Goodwill today hoping to find Alice in Wonderland, because I thought I had seen it there a while ago. I couldn't find it, but I was able to find Fantasia (the old one), The Jungle Book, and Oliver & Company, none of which I have seen. And despite the fact that I have not seen any of them, I still chose to watch The Little Mermaid because it's been about 2+ weeks since I've seen it and I love that movie waaaay too much.

Anyways, I saw the box for The Prince of Egypt ( Dreamworks) which I also really really love. I was set on getting it as soon as I saw it there but I picked up the box and it was really light AND THERE WAS NOTHING IN IT.

WHY. WHY WOULD YOU DONATE A BOX WITH NOTHING IN IT. That's the whole point of donating stuff. I wouldn't donate a bag full of hangers. Why do you donate just the VHS box?

There might be a girl out there who loves collecting VHS movies. She might also love The Prince of Egypt.

YOU JUST CRUSHED MY DREAMS.

I AM IN LOVE

not really :P

Well, with a song, yes. With a man, no.

So I was watching Cinderella late at night a little over a month ago and it was at the point in the movie where she's dancing with the Prince out in the courtyard and they sing that little duet. It was one of those instances where you suddenly realize OMG THIS IS THE BEST SONG EVER!!

If you don't know what I'm talking about, try this:

Isn't it beautiful?

I had forgotten about it until tonight, but then I came home from band camp and listened to it once and I CAN'T STOP!!

What first got my attention was the style; this song is so incredibly fifties. If you've ever listened to "old" music, you'd know what I mean. Cinderella's voice is light and somewhat dreamy, as if she's dancing on a cloud instead of in the courtyard; but her voice also sounds a bit muffled and unclear (due to the recording equipment people used back then, I would assume). I don't mind that it sounds a tad muffled because that just adds to the to the effect (although I don't think they were planning for it to sound that way), it just reminds me of an old LP. And the male vocals have that light, sweeping feeling reminiscent of the 50's. Overall, very dreamy.

The harmonies of the duet work together perfectly and when you listen to it you feel like their voices are detached, they're that dreamy. Not in a bad way, in a good way. It seems like their bodies are dancing and singing separately, but they just don't notice either one. Like when you're just staring into someone else's eyes...and you can't...possibly...look...away...ever.

And the way they dance through the courtyard and the gardens and over the bridge (like "Bella Notte" from Lady and the Tramp!) not even noticing the night flying away is just so incredibly, beautifully romantic.

This song is so amazing it actually makes you feel like you're in love. Or at least that you want to dance. Perfect, graceful steps across an imaginary dance floor on a cloud, staring into eyes that lock your own, making it impossible to look elsewhere. To the point where you don't even know you're dancing anymore.