Rant/info dump...
Been putting this off for a bit, so here we go...cut for your pleasure. (Interpret THAT how you will, ha!)
Most of you know that I did my senior recital not too long ago (AND SURVIVED!! YAYS!!) and all is well on that front. Well, I got an email from one of the writers on our school newspaper, The Tack. He said he was covering the recitals, and just had a few questions. So I thought, "Cool!" And I looked at the questions...and then it hit me.
He didn't attend the recitals. *dotdotdotWTF*
...so yeah. I'm sending a friendly but firm email to the editor. While I'm flattered that they're covering the recitals, I find it offensive that this person would email me and basically ask me to spoon-feed them an article. Asking me if we did everything as a duet or if we did some individual work too? It was a joint recital--we didn't do a single duet. A journalist wouldn't write a review of a movie they haven't seen or an album they haven't heard--so why in the world should they cover a concert they didn't attend? I find it quite disrespectful.
Truthfully, the Tack's gone waaaaaaaay downhill this year. They say they want to look more like a "college newspaper." Translation as I see it? We want to have more pretty pictures to distract everyone from the fact that we apparently no longer care about having valid content. We want more gossip columns and ranting editorials that aren't even based on fact and entire articles about what J-Lo is wearing.
Case in point: someone printed a rather length entry about how Student Services hires RAs and tells them to write up as many alcohol violations as possible so Student Services can greedily collect the $35 fines. I, along with many of my friends (fellow RAs and not), were appalled. I've been an RA for three years, and I can count the number of alcohol violations I've documented on one hand--literally. Four actual docs, and one for suspicion. And I have no control over the penalties. Secondly, this person showed no evidence of research whatsoever. And thirdly, I felt the whole article was rather invalidated when it began by explaining that this person was going to pay their alcohol fine when they asked where the money from it went. Of course you're going to be pissed off with RAs, because obviously nobody knows how to take responsibility for their own actions anymore, so it must have been the big bad RA who got you in trouble. Right. Not impressed.
*steps off soapbox*
Friday, Leah and I took off to the Iowa Music Educators Association (IMEA) Conference. So I was up at six AM *grumblegrumble* and drove to her house about an hour away, and then she drove us into Ames. And we only got lost for two hours along the way. Yeah, pretty sure we could make a career out of getting lost, we're awfully good at it >.> We were supposed to be at the campus at nine AM, and we left early enough to make it there by about a quarter to nine. We arrived at 10:15 AM. Not wanting to walk into a session late, we wound up going over and watching the All-State choir rehearse for a while. That was so much awesome ♥
Went to a session about stress-free student teaching. I want to adopt that presenter and make him my own personal shoulder-angel. WOW. 'Cause ya know, I student teach next semester. And I'm stressing about it. Big time. That was a great session. Leah and I went to lunch at Panera (and found it the first time!!), and then got back...late again. So we wandered the booths for a while, got some great information, and I got some Christmas presents for people who shall remain nameless *halos*
The best session I went to all day was definitely the panel discussion of administrators and what they look for in interviews and what they expect from first-year teachers. It was wonderful. I took two pages of notes over all the things they said, and I'm realizing that I might actually have a chance of surviving interviews!! Best part: the superintendent of my old school district was one of the panelists. And he remembered me--he directed Tuba Christmas one year, and I sat first-chair euphonium (mostly because I grabbed the seat before anyone else did)...and heckled him the whole time =DD It was smurfy.
Mentorship session...heard a lot of interesting stuff in there. Leah poked me and told me I should give my email address to the cute band director who wasn't wearing a ring. I rolled my eyes at her and resisted the urge to hide under a chair, yesh. I don't do well with those kinds of scenarios *is a coward* But anyway (and I'm making a very long day very, very short), we hung out for an hour, and then went to the reception. Had turkey sandwiches and yummy chicken strips, and then got the hell outta dodge. I had one monster of a headache, and being at a conference of music educators, where people are singing, shouting, displaying and trying out musical instruments and music writing software...yeah. Headaches are not shiny.
But we stopped and got ice cream on the way home. Revelation: ice cream makes things better!
We got back to Leah's house, and I got to meet her family--her five-year-old son is UBER-adorable! I mean, you gotta feel good when you walk in a step behind his mother and he scampers up asking, "Mommy, did your friend come too?" He showed me his room and shared a cookie with me ♥
Got back in my car and drove another hour home. The last twenty minutes were tough. I was seriously starting to get scared that I was going to fall asleep at the wheel, I was so tired. I actually pulled over at a gas station and put some rewetting drops in my eyes to keep my contacts moist and try to wake myself up.
In the end, I made it home around eight-thirty. Went back to my room, changed, and crawled into bed around nine-thirty after checking email and everything. Finally dozed off for real around eleven. Was woken up at five AM to let someone into their room 'cause they got locked out (slight grrr, but oh well), and then went back to bed. Stirred again around eight, but didn't actually wake up for good until ten-thirty, when my alarm went off. It was BEAUTIFUL, let me tell you.
Sunday was the Major Works concert. For those who haven't heard about my seething dislike of the Faure Requiem, that was the work. I'd like to reaffirm my seething dislike. It's not that it's not pretty or anything, but...all the movements sound EXACTLY the same, excepting the second one. That one actually has some rhythmic variety! And the altos have a PART!! Seriously--during the third movement, we sang three bars: one word, two syllables, all on the same pitch. Yeah, just not a fun mass for the altos.
But the second half of the concert went pretty darn smurfily. We sang an arrangement of "I Wonder as I Wander," and then this AWESOME version of "Gloria." Put it this way: anything called "Gloria" that uses conga drums equals win. And then Tom and I each directed a piece--I had the girls for "Windchimes," and he had the guys for "Go Tell It on the Mountain."
...yeah, pretty sure my choir ladies are a lot of awesome *thumbs up and high fives all round*
Then we sang this beautiful arrangement of "All Night, All Day" and concluded with the traditional rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus. It wasn't until I was turning to walk off the risers that I realized, "...huh. That was my last choir concert in this ensemble. Weird." No tears or anything--which is pretty rare for me. Just this weird epiphany. Ah, well.
Had dinner with Mommy and Daddy and Little Sister and Jewelsy (who we adopted to go out to dinner with us). And lo, there was much crazy. And food. Yummy food. Ash and Jewelsy and I watched Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, and cried several times because it's schmaltzy, but dammit it's a feel-good show!
So there's the nice, long-winded explanation of most of my weekend. Just a couple other things...
Since PK printed it in the concert program, I'm thinking that means I got the student teaching placements I wanted =)
Grandma didn't have the surgery. They got up there, talked to the doctor, and decided that they would try to control it with medication, diet, and exercise. Which is a good thing--I hope >.> But yeah, all that worrying and crying over nothing... *feels slightly silly for being so emotional*
I'm writing again. And the plunnies are biting like crazy. And while I'm at it, magic_truth seems to have fallen off the face of the planet again. How many times did I tell her not to go walking near that damned black hole? ^^;; Actually, I know she's uber-busy with school =)
Aaaaaaaaand found out that as of January first, my father will be unemployed.
That's all, folks. *goes back to homework*
Most of you know that I did my senior recital not too long ago (AND SURVIVED!! YAYS!!) and all is well on that front. Well, I got an email from one of the writers on our school newspaper, The Tack. He said he was covering the recitals, and just had a few questions. So I thought, "Cool!" And I looked at the questions...and then it hit me.
He didn't attend the recitals. *dotdotdotWTF*
...so yeah. I'm sending a friendly but firm email to the editor. While I'm flattered that they're covering the recitals, I find it offensive that this person would email me and basically ask me to spoon-feed them an article. Asking me if we did everything as a duet or if we did some individual work too? It was a joint recital--we didn't do a single duet. A journalist wouldn't write a review of a movie they haven't seen or an album they haven't heard--so why in the world should they cover a concert they didn't attend? I find it quite disrespectful.
Truthfully, the Tack's gone waaaaaaaay downhill this year. They say they want to look more like a "college newspaper." Translation as I see it? We want to have more pretty pictures to distract everyone from the fact that we apparently no longer care about having valid content. We want more gossip columns and ranting editorials that aren't even based on fact and entire articles about what J-Lo is wearing.
Case in point: someone printed a rather length entry about how Student Services hires RAs and tells them to write up as many alcohol violations as possible so Student Services can greedily collect the $35 fines. I, along with many of my friends (fellow RAs and not), were appalled. I've been an RA for three years, and I can count the number of alcohol violations I've documented on one hand--literally. Four actual docs, and one for suspicion. And I have no control over the penalties. Secondly, this person showed no evidence of research whatsoever. And thirdly, I felt the whole article was rather invalidated when it began by explaining that this person was going to pay their alcohol fine when they asked where the money from it went. Of course you're going to be pissed off with RAs, because obviously nobody knows how to take responsibility for their own actions anymore, so it must have been the big bad RA who got you in trouble. Right. Not impressed.
*steps off soapbox*
Friday, Leah and I took off to the Iowa Music Educators Association (IMEA) Conference. So I was up at six AM *grumblegrumble* and drove to her house about an hour away, and then she drove us into Ames. And we only got lost for two hours along the way. Yeah, pretty sure we could make a career out of getting lost, we're awfully good at it >.> We were supposed to be at the campus at nine AM, and we left early enough to make it there by about a quarter to nine. We arrived at 10:15 AM. Not wanting to walk into a session late, we wound up going over and watching the All-State choir rehearse for a while. That was so much awesome ♥
Went to a session about stress-free student teaching. I want to adopt that presenter and make him my own personal shoulder-angel. WOW. 'Cause ya know, I student teach next semester. And I'm stressing about it. Big time. That was a great session. Leah and I went to lunch at Panera (and found it the first time!!), and then got back...late again. So we wandered the booths for a while, got some great information, and I got some Christmas presents for people who shall remain nameless *halos*
The best session I went to all day was definitely the panel discussion of administrators and what they look for in interviews and what they expect from first-year teachers. It was wonderful. I took two pages of notes over all the things they said, and I'm realizing that I might actually have a chance of surviving interviews!! Best part: the superintendent of my old school district was one of the panelists. And he remembered me--he directed Tuba Christmas one year, and I sat first-chair euphonium (mostly because I grabbed the seat before anyone else did)...and heckled him the whole time =DD It was smurfy.
Mentorship session...heard a lot of interesting stuff in there. Leah poked me and told me I should give my email address to the cute band director who wasn't wearing a ring. I rolled my eyes at her and resisted the urge to hide under a chair, yesh. I don't do well with those kinds of scenarios *is a coward* But anyway (and I'm making a very long day very, very short), we hung out for an hour, and then went to the reception. Had turkey sandwiches and yummy chicken strips, and then got the hell outta dodge. I had one monster of a headache, and being at a conference of music educators, where people are singing, shouting, displaying and trying out musical instruments and music writing software...yeah. Headaches are not shiny.
But we stopped and got ice cream on the way home. Revelation: ice cream makes things better!
We got back to Leah's house, and I got to meet her family--her five-year-old son is UBER-adorable! I mean, you gotta feel good when you walk in a step behind his mother and he scampers up asking, "Mommy, did your friend come too?" He showed me his room and shared a cookie with me ♥
Got back in my car and drove another hour home. The last twenty minutes were tough. I was seriously starting to get scared that I was going to fall asleep at the wheel, I was so tired. I actually pulled over at a gas station and put some rewetting drops in my eyes to keep my contacts moist and try to wake myself up.
In the end, I made it home around eight-thirty. Went back to my room, changed, and crawled into bed around nine-thirty after checking email and everything. Finally dozed off for real around eleven. Was woken up at five AM to let someone into their room 'cause they got locked out (slight grrr, but oh well), and then went back to bed. Stirred again around eight, but didn't actually wake up for good until ten-thirty, when my alarm went off. It was BEAUTIFUL, let me tell you.
Sunday was the Major Works concert. For those who haven't heard about my seething dislike of the Faure Requiem, that was the work. I'd like to reaffirm my seething dislike. It's not that it's not pretty or anything, but...all the movements sound EXACTLY the same, excepting the second one. That one actually has some rhythmic variety! And the altos have a PART!! Seriously--during the third movement, we sang three bars: one word, two syllables, all on the same pitch. Yeah, just not a fun mass for the altos.
But the second half of the concert went pretty darn smurfily. We sang an arrangement of "I Wonder as I Wander," and then this AWESOME version of "Gloria." Put it this way: anything called "Gloria" that uses conga drums equals win. And then Tom and I each directed a piece--I had the girls for "Windchimes," and he had the guys for "Go Tell It on the Mountain."
...yeah, pretty sure my choir ladies are a lot of awesome *thumbs up and high fives all round*
Then we sang this beautiful arrangement of "All Night, All Day" and concluded with the traditional rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus. It wasn't until I was turning to walk off the risers that I realized, "...huh. That was my last choir concert in this ensemble. Weird." No tears or anything--which is pretty rare for me. Just this weird epiphany. Ah, well.
Had dinner with Mommy and Daddy and Little Sister and Jewelsy (who we adopted to go out to dinner with us). And lo, there was much crazy. And food. Yummy food. Ash and Jewelsy and I watched Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, and cried several times because it's schmaltzy, but dammit it's a feel-good show!
So there's the nice, long-winded explanation of most of my weekend. Just a couple other things...
Since PK printed it in the concert program, I'm thinking that means I got the student teaching placements I wanted =)
Grandma didn't have the surgery. They got up there, talked to the doctor, and decided that they would try to control it with medication, diet, and exercise. Which is a good thing--I hope >.> But yeah, all that worrying and crying over nothing... *feels slightly silly for being so emotional*
I'm writing again. And the plunnies are biting like crazy. And while I'm at it, magic_truth seems to have fallen off the face of the planet again. How many times did I tell her not to go walking near that damned black hole? ^^;; Actually, I know she's uber-busy with school =)
Aaaaaaaaand found out that as of January first, my father will be unemployed.
That's all, folks. *goes back to homework*