The Topic of Great Randomness

[Mel]

kk: Piano obsessed is good!! I have a really old piano in my dining room that used to be a player piano (you know, the type that used to play themselves, how cool is that?!!). I play pretty much constantly, and I love it so much. My parents have little restrictions between me and the piano, mainly if people are watching TV or it's absurdly late (i.e. 11) or people are sleeping, which is all reasonable and I wouldn't do that stuff anymore anyway (unless I lose track of time )

But it's really worth it in the end. Basically my love for it allowed me to be happy and go the the highschool I wanted to. And do all sorts of cool stuff I never thought I'd be able to do.

Including playing fun music.

Vasessa Carleton has some great songs. "White Houses" is my particular favorite for various reasons.

Wow, that's two rants in a very short time. Sorry, haha. I've got a lot of ground to cover!

(and even less sleep ooer)

Love!

Dai

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

I've been arguing a bit on Wikipedia lately about online sheet music, and whether certain links should or shouldn't be included. One that was pretty clearly appropriate was the Mutopia Project, which puts up transcribed versions of public domain works. If you have lilypond, you can modify the music and print it off however you like: if not, they supply PDFs.

And they have lots of piano music. :-)

[eowyngirl]

Piano music.....mwahahaha....must go get it! I've played piano since third grade and I love it. I really want to find some of Regina Spektor's or Fiona Apple's songs. *goes to look*

Oh darn. Can't find them on Mutopia....there's always Google.

Edit: Apparently I can't spell...hence, 'or' became 'r'. *fixes it*

[Emi]

I don't remember what site I went on that dealt with free piano music, but I got some of my music there. I usually just go to a music store, that's like 20-30 minutes away from where I live and get my sheet music there. I'm learning to play 'Boston' by Augustana and 'Listen To Your Heart'. I've been teaching myself other songs, but these two are becoming easier for me to play.

I have Vanessa Carlton's 'A Thousand Miles'. I do love 'Twilight' though. It's a good song. One of my favs I used to listen to when I listened to her CD.

So, I hung out with one of my friends today, we were going to run, but it was so darn hot and humid outside! Ugh, so we ended up playing 2 hours worth of DDR and Dance Factory. Haha. It's equivolent to a run. I was so hot afterwards.. but I felt so good. My legs are going to hurt tomorrow, but I don't care. Haha. I might sound crazy, but that's who I am I guess.

Alrighty, I'm going to go before I start babbling on about some weird nonsense.

Dai peeps.

[Tuttle]

So I haven't finished TOGR yet - had to take a break because of a combination of almost relapsing into worse depression and being busy. But I'm going to take a break and post now.

My fourth was a fun but long day. The night before...well morning of to some of you, I got to sleep at around 3 am. I then woke up at 5 am because we were leaving to go to Vermont for the day, and were being picked up sometime between 5:45 and 6:30. Got picked up at the later side of that and went to boyfriend's family's house (as I was going with them), where we left at around 7. 3 hours in the car later, we got to the town my boyfriend's sister's boyfriend lives in just before 10.

The parade was at 11 and we were getting there for then but there wasn't going to be parking after 10. So we watched the parade, it was a nice interesting parade, with rediculous amounts of tractors. N (boyfriend's sister's boyfirend) was in the parade as he is a volunteer EMT, and he tried to throw candy at us as he went by and missed. But it was a good parade. After that the town had a mini fair which we stayed around for a few hours after getting lunch. Napped for some of it, but it was amusing. My boyfriend's family won a 'what's that song' contest. It was hilarious how they did 'cause they're all classical music musicians and won it almost completely on tv themes. But that's because a majority of the other ones were rock songs and everyone else knew those so much better and split all those points. Then the tv themes, they were faster than anyone else at recognizing, but then needed to sing the songs to remember what tv show it was from. I recognized a total of one song in that competition. At least that I was awake for - Dr. Who. Nice and easy to recognize (I find it shiny that the Dr. Who theme main line uses a theramin - they're awesome).

After that we went to N's family's party. There was a pool, so there was swimming. N and girlfriend (as I'll put it) were joking around being coupley so some of N's reletives were being all "hey, be appropriate" jokingly so Jono started being rediculously flirty, it was hilarious. And they were like, and you don't tell them that. Was silly and fun. And there was water, and stuff. I like water. Though I was freezing for part despite the water not being that cold. After swimming played some bridge. Ended up teaching two of his siblings how to play, and for a while were playing against the two of them. Was unfair partners probably, as it was the two people teaching against the two new people, but the two of them at least couldn't accuse us of being able to play off each other too well (which we totally can), 'cause they were able to do the same thing. There's only two people I partner with much for bridge, one 'cause we have our own convention. Partner created it and taught it to me and I was one of the only people who he taught it to who wasn't completely, that's insane won't use it, so we always use it. Other is clearly boyfriend and we play way too well off each other, it sometimes seems unfair, but its not our fault if we will randomly bid the other one's better suit of two when even between the two...mow. *innocent smile* Food was good, though there wasn't much veggie.Watermelon salad is really good though - watermelon, spinich, walnuts, and some specific salad dressing if I remember correctly.

After the party we went to the town's fireworks. Before the fireworks two of N's cousins I think did fire poi. It's really interesting to watch. Have seen poi before with both fire and not (N does fire poi as well and gave Jono's brother a training poi thing of tennis balls so he can learn and eventually spin fire too), but its still really impressive to watch fire spinning around in the air in the dark. This time it was being done to African drums, and the spinning to music was impressive. Fireworks were pretty and high up in the air and impressive. Even though am not much of a photographer wish now I had camera for the poi and fireworks, but it wasn't there with me.

N showed us some of his blacksmithing work before we left. It was all impressive stuff. Also saw the whitewater kayak he made. And his giant fat cat. Then back to 3 hours in the car back to Mass. Ended up crashing on boyfriend's family's couch even though my family is only 4 miles away from his, which ended up to be a good thing. Was woken up by the kittens (okay they're over a year old, but still) walking over me. They'd made a mess of the room over the night but I'd not been woken up.

Not long after I woke up on the 5th one of my friend's from highschool called. We'd been planning on going paddling (me her and another friend), but the weather wasn't up to it. Instead she suggested heading to Boston for the day so we did that instead. Boyfriend's mom dropped me off at my family's house about as they got there, and the idea came up that Jono come along too, as he was in the car. And they were like, yeah no reason not to have him come along. So we went to alewife and took the T into harvard square. Ate lunch at Fire and Ice (good food, and just noticed it seems Monday evenings are always college night even in summer...now there's debate of having a group of us from out here heading in for a monday and eating there). Then wandered. Went to variety of random stores, generally random ones we could look at strange stuff at. Of course spent a noticable amount of time at the Coop (Harvard and MIT's bookstore). After wandering a while got tea at a little tea shop? like a coffee shop but for tea? Three of the four of us shared a pot of tea and we were just generally sitting around talking and drinking tea. I suppose that was expected to happen as one of the people lived in England for a year and another is half Brit. And another is best friends with one of them and dating the other. After that we hit a stationary store that one of my friend's family's often sends her cards from. It has amazingly geeky cards and lots of other random stuff. I bought a card that has Shakespeare on a phone with the quote coming out of the phone "...if you want "To Be" press one, if you want "not to be" press two"". Also go a Christmas present for another friend which is a journal/sketchbook with hobbitish pictures, as well as a funny card of Salvador Dali. Also there were seals. Like envelope seals. One of my friends had been debating getting one for a while, so gave in (why she gave in is hilarious. Because her brother is going to college in the fall and her and her brother have decided to both learn Latin and write each other letters in Latin. And they're being serious about this...). She got one which was a handle and it could have different metal disks put in, and a double sided disk. She really wanted one which was a celtic knot, but they had none. (This becomes relevant later in post.)At that point it was past 6 so the two of my friends headed back and me and Jono went to South Station to catch commuter rail, before noticing that it was 7 and there wasn't another one back to Worcester until 11. Oops. Wasn't horrible though, and got food and he worked and I played games on computer. Like solitaire. And Bubble Trouble. I like Bubble Trouble. The commuter train had trial free wifi on it! It was awesome.

Generally two fun days.

So since then Jono's been being all, I like your friends. And being like, sitting in Boston drinking tea, shiny! And he's a compulsive maker. Like he goes into stores and is like, all this stuff I could make. So he has at this point made a metal disk out of aluminium bar and a tool for chasing (metal work chasing), and created a little metal disk with a celtic knot on it that he can put into one of those seal handles. May be seeing that friend on Saturday and he's planning on randomly being like "does this work?" and giving it to her.

Today's been cleaning the apartment, its been fun... really. Am heading back to family's place tonight and am in charge of the place/animals for the next week as my parents are heading out for the weekend for my cousin's wedding and then until wedensday my dad's going to be on a buisness trip and my mom can't handle the house and working in boston. But there are kitties! Yay kitties. Also kayaks. Oh yeah that reminds me, my parents sold a kayak and bought another one. Now its easier to bring people paddling. yay. So am trying to get a few friends together for paddling this weekend. Is dependent on one of them being able to have a kayak rack on the top of the car. But if they do, well we have a rack which can be used. I want paddling. I am probably going to manage paddling, but its dependent on someone else driving...but have a boat they could use if they do...

I think that's everything on what's been happening.

--

Random comment now: One thing which has recently been really bothering me is being told that my beliefs are impossible to believe. Like being asked if I believe that a God created this world or in evolution. I always will reply both, and almost always am told its impossible to believe both. It's really bothering me for people to tell me I'm not allowed to be religious and believe in the scientific theories as well. I realize that my beliefs are not normal for the average Christian, but that doesn't mean that they aren't plausible. Though most of the strangest ones are in terms of other religions. (I believe in the Christian God, and everything, but also that all other religions are actually looking at the same God (even if they believe in more than one) and should not be treated as lesser because they're different views of the same thing.)

Anyways, am not going religious now, but that really has been bothering me and wanted to mention it.

Yay for homemade pickles. They're really good. I don't generally like pickles, but I like ones which are homemade.

Hmm, what else to say. I though there was something else.. Maybe not. Will probably be heading back to reading TOGR while not cleaning now. Am a bit past halfway. Hope to finish before we reach 600 pages .

And I just post and remember what I wanted to say.
I finally chose classes for next year. Heh. Took forever. But it looks interesting.

-Operating Systems
-Analysis of Algorithms (hopefully this isn't too evil with the really hard professor)
-Logic in Computer Science (grad class, extends 2 terms)

-Computational Geometry
-Numerical Methods of Calculus and Differential Equations (I really don't want to take this class but its a math major requirement to take one of the numerical methods)
-Mathematical Statistics (I also don't want to take this one, but its a CS major requirement to take a stats class, so am taking the math major stats class)
-Logic in CS extends to here

-Vector Tensor Calculus
-Databases 1
-Swimming (heh, need gym classes)
-want to start my project needed for graduating this term (in major(s) project)

-Partial Differential Equations
-continuing project started above
-do humanities and arts project, either a seminar on British Literature probably, or a paper on some topic I come up with as interesting.

It looks like a good year. Only one of the classes isn't one that is fullfilling 'upper level in major classes' (4000+ for CS, 3000+ for math). But it looks like fun. And the requirements that are left for my last year also aren't bad.

Oh yeah I got it down to only needing a year and a half. So I'm planning on graduating a semester early. Is why I'm starting my in major project this next year (assuming I can find project, but there's one prof who I expect would have one for me). The grad class I'm taking I'm really looking forward to. I mean mathematical logic as looked at through CS. I like logic. It's all interesting and such. Seems a grad class appropriate for me. Though am sad there isn't any undergrad equivelents. Or even really a math logic class, though a bunch of the upper level classes are partially that what with the proofs. Though I'd probably take the grad version anyways. It'll probably be good that it basically means my first term is a little easier, though my second term is harder. Get back into classes after having not done well end of last year. Also I generally have harder times in CS classes than math classes (though numerical methods will be a hard class for me in terms of homework - I already tried that class once and punted (gave up before final because I'd not pass it if I tried/because it wasn't worth the effort to attempt because is so unlikely to pass (if its not just before final that also counts). But that's not a big deal here because undergrad not passed classes just don't show up on your record as having attempted a class. Though you need to pass 11/3 (of 12/3 classes normally) a year or you loose your scholarships, so its not a big deal. They expect you to be able to not pass one class a year and graduate on time. I just hated punting. And have no room for that anyways at this point unless overloading. Because of being able to combine requirements to the point of having one less semester necessary.

[Mona0622]

Wow. Long time, no see...or I guess it would be 'long to no read'. It seems like eons since I've been on. It took me somewhere around two hours to catch up on all that has happened since the last time I logged on.

I've learned a thing or two during my haitus:

1.) If you get into one with someone else, make sure the pillows don't have wires in them. If they do, they tend to leave scratches on your legs and arms.

2.) Don't give me Strawberry Kiwi Lemonade aruond 9 at night while playing Apples to Apples. I get very hypper and don't stop talking. It was a lot of fun for me but not so much for anyone else.

3.) Getting my wisdom teeth out wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The 1st day was good, but the following two days sucked. I'm just so gald i don't remember any of the actual surgery.

Today we're leaving for Pittsburgh to visit the U of Pitt and hopefully see some people out there that we haven't seen in a while. This begins the college visits in July - the first of many to come. I hope that I find at least one that I like.

[kk]

Heee, I was up till 5:00 AM last night practicing playing and singing Twilight, at the request of my friends who were staying over. Then they threatened to record my singing and playing and put me on youtube. I said no.

Then my mom walked in, scowled and yelled "GO TO BED!" so we did, and woke up about 5 hours later.

Emi: I have A Thousand Miles too, but I haven't learned much of it. I should do that....

[eowyngirl]

Tuttle: I believe the same thing about science and God as you do...which results in rather...interesting...conversations with friends who are VERY Protestant Christian. I guess I'm odd because I'm Roman Catholic and the Church is against evolution and stuff. It's awesome though because my priest who died a month or so ago--I don't think I mentioned it on here, it was really sad--was a big science guy. He loved quantum physics and evolution and stuff and was this incredibly devout priest, so he really inspired me. But I do believe that people of other religions shouldn't be looked down upon because it's their way of interpreting the world and I believe that it's the same God they worship, only they see it differently and that's fine. So I guess I'm a very liberal Catholic. Which is weird as I live in the Bible Belt. Anyway, enough of religion.

I've been up to my neck in youth theatre and the musical. The musical, The Secret Garden, opens tomorrow, and we have dress rehearsal tonight. It's kind of nerve-wracking because our main character, Mary, has been gone to church camp so far this week, so we have tonight, and that's it. Eek. I do have a costume though! My lovely grandma made a white skirt and I have one of my aunt's white blouses that's made to be a sort of bodice over a skirt. I think it's going to be pretty good...I don't really have the sort of shoes our director had in mind, but I'm just going to wear this brown fabric flats that I have and call it good. My skirt's floor-length anyway; who's going to notice?

As for Aladdin, I'm freaking out about memorization. I haven't had time to work on my lines much because of The Secret Garden--practices run Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 6:30 to whenever we get done, which is usually ten or eleven o'clock. And I have the most lines in the whole play because I'm Scheherazade. But at least it's a one-act. My director wants us to get rid of our scripts next Tuesday, so that should be _interesting_.

Also, I was supposed to be at band sectionals today, and completely forgot. It would have been during play practice anyway, but still...and my section leader's best friend, who is a really good friend of mine, was at the end of play practice because she was giving Maddie a ride. I only remembered sectionals when I saw her, but she didn't seem to mind...fortunately. I was thinking about quitting band this year because I'm going to be SO BUSY next year, but I decided I'll try doing my AP classes, CP classes, choir, speech and debate, online French I, AND band. But if I'm completely overwhelmed by the first couple weeks, I can quit band and replace it with French I so I won't have an online class, and choir and speech and debate will be the only classes that I'll have out-of-school practices for. Argh. I've been agonizing about this since April.......... I am the person on bottom.

[kk]

Not much is going on right now. Two of the three computers in my room is on. As is the electric keyboard. I'm doing the multitasking thing where I'm typing, emailing a friend, reading an old fanfiction I wrote on my oldest computer, and playing the keyboard all at the same time. Y'know how that works. Randomly.

I should probably go to sleep now. I mean, it's only 8:15 PM my time, but I'm too tired to argue with myself anymore. Goodnight!

[Angel_Star]

So, it's been a pretty crappy week in my circle. The most minor of events would be my friend being sick at the end of her mission trip in Kenya... A step up from that would be that J broke up with me, and I'm an absolute disaster. And many, many steps up from that is that my friends' mom died yesterday. I had gone with K's family to pick her up from the airport, and she called to see if it was okay for us to visit all them at the hosptial...and we found out that their mom had just died. So we came up to see them, gave lots of hugs, etc.

Sleep has been kind of hard. Actually, close to impossible. It's obnoxious that a totally mental/emotional problem can do so much physical damage. I'm not hungry, and food just doesn't sit well with me. So, I've inevitably already lost weight, which probably isn't a good thing.

However, maybe...I dunno. I'll be okay. And J was right about one thing: I am strong. Just weepy. It's just hard to let someone go when you love them. But learning that so many things were pretty lies kind of helps that, I guess. I just feel the need to talk about it. A lot of my friends don't understand, either because they haven't had a boyfriend, or haven't had as intense of a relationship. It's kind of hard to move on from somebody who said they wanted to spend the rest of their life with you.

Bah humbug. I just hope I don't become a bitter old maid with a million angry cats. ...at the ripe old age of 16. Haha.

I suppose there's one bright side. I got my car today! It's a 2009 silver corolla. It's so cute! It was love at first sight. =)

Ugh, school stuff makes me think about ACT and SAT. Yuuuuck. I had to take the SAT with stitches in my hand 'cause J's dog bit me when I came in the door without him being there... Anyway, I got a 2000 on that. Well, the one with the writing. My ACT from earlier this year was a 32. I'm kinda worried about college scholarships, but whatevs. No stress... I really can't handle more right now. =)

My phone has been going off constantly. I feel uber-loved, but if my odd ex doesn't stop txting me, I might lose my mind. =)

S'mores time! Byebyes.

[Emi]

Angel: *hugs* I hope you're going to be okay. That's a lot of things that happened to you!! But you did get an '09 car!!!

Multitasking is good... Haha I'm reading the previous posts, checking my email, writing this, talking to my bf on AIM, and I was texting.. but now I'm watching "Last Comic Standing". Haha. I love multitasking.

Tuttle: I can't believe you're reading through ALL of these posts. Insane. The party sounds like fun. I wish I could play that "What's that song" game!! That sounds fun... Dr. Who, my sister's pretty mad that it's not going to be on for another year. And we don't have BBC America so we won't see the "specials".

So what's new? I'm really itching to go to NC. It's not for another two weeks but I really want to go now. I love it down there, it's a break from reality. Although I'll be checking out a few colleges I don't care. It's not NH. The only people I'll see that I know is my family.

And there's a pool. Haha. I can't wait.

So there's this situation that my family's going through and it's very frustrating. You see we're... losing our home. We have to get everything out by the beginning of August? I don't know it's all very confusing. So all I know is that:

A) we might get an apartment?

B) if we don't get an apartment I'm moving in with my aunt and uncle... along with my two cousins. Fun? No, cuz I won't be with my mom and dad.. and my sister.

C) I don't know how long I'd be at my aunt and uncle's house. Could be for the month of August could be during the school year. I don't know.

And I'm mad because my dad is being slow about getting a full time job. My mom can't just support the family, y'know?

Like I said, it's all very frustrating. And I don't know how to deal with it... I just want my life to be "normal".

I've already packed most of my stuff in my room and it's locked up in storage. All my books and cd's and other things... locked away. I still have to pack my clothes that I want to wear and other necessities. Like some books I want to reread.

So.. yeah... That's all I guess. Sorry about the mini rant. It was a little unnecessary. I just needed to let it out.

Dai stiho.

[Ash78]

Dai all!!! I haven't been on in forever. I would probably complain about my life, but it has actually been pretty good lately. Weird I know. Anyway, I just got back from vacation in New England. I love it there, because they play country music all the time!!! I only live about a state away from that area, but NJ has no country radio stations. Oh, and I took a tour of a potato chip factory! Cape Cod Potato Chip Factory in Cape Cod. My friend, Skittles, told me about it and then laughed. Guess it just proves how much of a dork I am.

Emi: I'm really not good at comforting people but I'l try. I was in the same position as you are now about a month ago, but my mom got two extra jobs and we're holding it together now. I hope you make it through okay and get to stay with your family. You're in my prayers. *huggles* Stay safe.

Angel Star: I'm really sorry to hear about your friends' mom, your friend getting sick and your boyfriend. I'll keep you in my prayers too. Stay strong.

kk: I was just doing what you're doing, but the computers were musical instruments. I've been running from my violin to my keyboard and then dragged to the tin(penny) whistle. (My mom and my sister are making me play it. But it's my sister's instrument, not mine.) Anyway, have fun with your computers.

You guy's remember how I said I had nothing to complain about? I was wrong. My mom and my sister are now fighting about my sister's boyfriend. You see, my folks have what I like to call 'letting go issues' and they make it hard for my sister to see him, and we only have one car and it's not in the best condition. And now my sister is dumping all the stuff from the living room into my room so the house is presentable and I'm gonna have to hear about it later and clean it up and then listen to my parents yelling at my sister for doing it but not punishing her. *stops to take a breath* And I'm just gonna keep texting my dad so you guys don't have to hear (or read) about it.
Last thing, I promise. My friend just texted me and invited me to go to a concert tonight with her. I get to see Bon Jovi!!! Isn't that awesome! Sorry for the sudden change in attitude and emotion. I have no control over these things.

[Tuttle]

Meep. Just very meep.

My grandmother was revived today...she was that close to death. She was (seemingly) healthy before about two months ago when she had a hip replacement - this past month has been having issues of varying degrees. Ended up recently in the hospital and today in the intensive care unit.

My dad's away on a buisness trip and is flying home early tomorrow because of everything.

Meep. I hope they've stablized her but I'm not sure they have. I found out at around 9:30 she'd been put in ICU today and when I got home just now that she had to be revived.

Am very worried.


Edit: She's gone...early this morning.

[Lazy Leopard]

*sigh* I hope your grandmother's OK, TT. That all sounds really scary. I'll be thinking of you and your dad...

Edit: Oh I'm sorry to hear your updated news. Take care, and cherish the good memories you have.

[eowyngirl]

Emi: I'm sorry about that...my mom and I are in a tough situation at the moment because of my surgeries last year, but we're holding it together. Hope you can do the same.

Tuttle: I'm sorry about your grandmother. I don't really know what to say as the only grandparent I've lost is my grandmother that lives in Serbia, and I didn't really know her that well...so, I'm sorry. Or whatever you're _supposed_ to say.

I have youth theatre in half an hour...that is annoying. Blah. I feel so bad about not wanting to go because I've enjoyed it so much every year I've done it, but it's just...*sigh* I don't know. Dai stiho peeps.