Since the beginning of this school year, I've taken to studying while playing piano so that I can save time. One of my teachers has said time and time again that students shouldn't multitask, but I feel like playing piano and reading information at the same time helps me to think better. Sometimes I come up with good ideas while I'm practicing piano, so I like to keep my binders propped up on the stand that you're supposed to put the piano sheet music on. Problem is, when I put pencils on there too, they have a tendency to roll off or get knocked off.

The pencils fall into this crevice between the cover for the piano keys and the main structure of the piano. I can never get them out after they've fallen in, so I had no idea for a long time what had become of my pencils. (I assumed that at least they hadn't broken the piano, since it still seems to work fine.) It was only recently, when I happened to drop another pencil in there, that I made a bigger effort to try and get into it. I saw where the pencils had fallen, but I can't reach it because my hand is not small enough anymore (ironic, since my hand is quite small, it hasn't grown for several years, and I had thought I would be able to fit it). And we don't have anything that is both thin, flexible, and hard that we can grab the pencils with and pull them out. I wonder if they'll stay in the piano forever. Perhaps someday someone else will come to own this piano, and they'll open it up and see those pencils inside. Something that was once of not much importance could become artifacts for future generations to find.

But there are more treasures than just objects to be found in the piano. Learning to play piano is frustrating in the beginning, and it can be painful in the end too (if your hands were somehow made unable to play piano in the future). I really think, though, that there's a lot to be said for playing a musical instrument. You will have to practice a lot. You can't give up as soon as you think "I can't do this, I'm just not good at it." I think that it's good to have something to strive for, to work towards perfection. Perfection may not exist, but you can keep improving yourself and get as close to it as possible. And your goal when you're playing an instrument may not be the same as mine or someone else's. What I hope to do is play beautifully, and to show my emotions through the music. I don't know if I've reached that stage or if I ever will. But I'll keep trying. I don't want to let go of the piano. Not the way I did with the flute and cello. I can't play either of them anymore.

I don't think you ought to keep playing an instrument if you really don't enjoy it, though. There is no way to be certain that you won't eventually come to like it, but if you want to quit, go ahead. Even if you come to regret it later, it ought to be your own choice. I remember meeting a girl who said she didn't really like to play piano, but her mom made her do it. Why? Because the mother think her daughter will be embarrassed later when she's the only one amongst her friends who can't play the piano. It's fine to be proud of your musical skills as long as that isn't the reason you're playing... I really don't think you ought to play an instrument for the sake of pride. Play because you enjoy, play because other people enjoy it, play to relieve stress, play because you want to get better at it...But please, don't play just to save yourself embarrassment.

Labels: artifacts, bad habit, choice, enjoy, fall, future, giving up, ideas, learning, lost, motives, multitasking, music, pencil, piano, pride, struggle, studying, treasure

If you translated this from French to English, you would get "April fish" or "fish of April". That was what the French class at my school did on April Fool's Day (not sure whether the Spanish classes participated). We cut some fish out of paper and put tape on them, sticking the fish on the backs of unsuspecting students. My teacher even suggested that we try to get teachers, but only the ones that could take a joke.

It is harder to do than it seems. A classmate sitting behind me tried to stick his fish on me several times, but I felt it and pulled it off my back. My classmate attempted on the person sitting next to me, but she thought something was amiss and discovered the fish too. When the teacher came near, one student asked, "Hey, would it be okay to, just hypothetically, stick a fish on your back?" She said yes rather sarcastically before saying no. Then she looked at the person sitting behind me, since he was holding a fish, and said, "Oh no, I'm in the danger zone."

I tried to stick a fish on the back one of my friends, but she noticed, too. It really does take slyness to put a fish on someone's back. (Or you at least need to pick a target that is not particularly observant.) I gave one of the fish to another friend, who then proceeded to stick it in my hair and on my back while I was eating. (Ah, well. No harm done.)

I only made three fish in total, so I had only one left. I wanted to make sure that it would definitely end up on someone's back. At first I tried to stick it on the back of a boy passing by, but then someone came up behind him and looked at me suspiciously, so that was unsuccessful. I decided to try on a classmate this time. He did not notice the fish, so I felt like saying, "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!" (Excepted in a weird accent like Fox McCloud does in Super Smash Brothers Melee. You gotta hear it someday.)

But then I started to worry. What if he never did notice the fish? What if it ended up in his washing machine? I have no idea what the tape would do to a washing machine. I hope he or his mother noticed it eventually or at least that the fish fell off somewhere. (But it would be a shame if the fish got lost. Ah, well, it's not hard to make anyways, just doodle on a piece of paper and cut it out with scissors.)

My mother says she doesn't understand the point of April Fool's. Sometimes people are made uncomfortable or are even hurt by tricks that were played on them on April Fool's Day. (Personally I've never really had anything bad happen to me, which is a relief.) But it's also a day where we can be mischievous to a certain degree and not get in too much trouble for it. I'd like to play a prank, actually, but it'd probably be too risky, like if I did the old banana peel thing (what if a person broke their tail bone or hit their head and got a concussion? Yikes). But it might be okay to draw on someone's face or something. I actually saw that happen at a place I went to in the summer... I did hear from someone that putting ink on your skin shortens your life by a little every time, though. I wouldn't want to be taking away a person's life. D: Already my life is probably short since I have a long pencil in my pencil pouch and it keeps sticking out of the side and poking me. Not very pleasant.

Labels: april fool's day, danger, drawing, fish, fox mccloud, french, friends, fun, injury, ink, lifespan, mischief, pencil, prank, sneaky, super smash bros melee, tactics, tape, teacher, trick

I know, my previous post, "Blood is Thicker than Water", also mentions thickness, but really, this title is fitting, so I am using it nevertheless.

Not that long ago, one of my pencils disappeared. I had only started using it recently. It wasn't really a great pencil - in fact, it was a Disney Princess pencil featuring Belle from Beauty and the Best - but I hate to lose pencils since they go to waste. I was giving up on finding it when I noticed a pencil on top of a supermarket flyer. It was the very pencil I thought I had lost. And my dad doesn't go around circling what he wants to buy on supermarket flyers, so that left one culprit - my mother.

This isn't the first time she took a pencil when she saw it lying around. I found two pencils of mine which I also thought I had lost in the room of our house that is her home office. I just wish she would ask me before she uses them. It's annoying, thinking that I've lost pencils when in reality they're hanging around the house, all because my mom wanted to borrow them for some reason or another. I guess she thought I would be annoyed if she had to keep asking me to lend her pencils, but still, having my writing utensils disappear mysteriously is really not convenient.

What really bothers me the most, though, is when people borrow things from me and don't return them. It happened in elementary school - I lent a girl my scissors and I asked for them back, but she didn't even remember having borrowed them. I eventually found them in the classroom. Then I went on a trip to a bowling alley with my class and a classmate wanted to buy a drink, so he borrowed some money for it. He never repaid the money (I don't know whether he would remember after all these years anyways).

And I had a repeat of the incident I mentioned about the scissors. In French class, we were making sachets in December. Sachets are basically little pouches with something scented in them (like potpourri). These can be left someplace, like in your clothes drawers, to make things smell better. A classmate borrowed my scissors to cut string, but she didn't return them. The next day, I asked her if she had my scissors, but she didn't seem to remember that (just like that girl a few years back). So I had to go into the classroom scissors box to find mine.

I wonder if I should just stop lending things to people. It's kind of a lose-lose situation. If you lend something and it gets returned, that's the one good outcome. But if you lend it and it gets lost, that's bad for you, and you'll lose trust in other people. And if you don't lend something, then people will think of you as stingy, since you have things but don't want to share them. (Sharing is caring, so goes the saying) Maybe I should require people to give me a compensation for lending which will be returned to them when they return what they borrowed. (Like how my science teacher will lend you a pen if you give her one of your shoes. That way you won't forget to return it, unless you want to hop around all day on one foot.)

I guess there's really no perfect solution to anything, though. You can choose to make yourself happy or you can choose to make other people happy...(You're lucky if it's the same thing)

That reminds me of something Thomas Jefferson apparently said. Because of Jay's Treaty (look it up, like on Wikipedia or something) France felt like the USA was taking Britain's side, so the US needed to repair its relationship with France. John Adams, the president at that time, asked his vice president, Thomas Jefferson, to go to France and work things out. Jefferson would have been a good choice because he was a Republican (Republicans at that time were supporters of France, whereas the Federalist Party supported England), and Jefferson was a respected man. However, he refused. Adams got upset, saying, "Aren't we supposed to be friends?" and "But you're the vice president!" and probably also said something about how he should go because he is vice president and not let the fact that he is the Republic party leader be an influence. But Jefferson said, regarding the role of vice president and the role of head of Republicans, "They are one and the same."

George Washington had said that political parties were bad, that they would cause unnecessary divisions and disagreements. Politics in general seems to be quite a mess sometimes. (No wonder my mom doesn't really like politics...) I mean, it got so bad one time that Aaron Burr, who was supposed to be Thomas Jefferson's vice president, actually shot Alexander Hamilton. (Hamilton had kind of convinced people to turn against Burr, thus making Jefferson president instead of Burr) And the US presidents end up with grey hair and wrinkles from their stressful job. I wonder what their true motive for getting into politics is, then. Do they hope to make a difference? Do they want prestige?

Labels: aaron burr, borrow, france, jay treaty, john adams, lost and found, money, motives, party, pencil, politics, president, republican, scissors, shoes, stress, supermarket, thief, thomas jefferson

This is apparently a phrase from the famous story The Three Little Pigs. (I may not have gotten it down exactly right.) I had a similar experience to this recently.

On Tuesday, where I live, there was some surprisingly stormy weather. It rained and poured until nighttime. I hadn't brought my umbrella, nor had I brought my raincoat, and so my not-so-waterproof jacket was my only protection. The rain started to become a hassle because my shoes weren't so waterproof either, and so my socks became soaked. It's a good thing that a teacher had her classroom open and I went indoors to eat my lunch.

Come fifth period, multiple kids were drenched from having to go through the rain to get to the classroom. The math classroom is a "portable", I think, since it has a ramp and the ceiling is not so high and such. And whenever someone stomps you can feel the room shake a little bit because it's not as steady as the "actual classrooms". (But schools still insist on having these "portable classrooms" for some reason) We were being punished for talking too much - for some reason, my math class has a lot of people, and so it is even louder - and we were not allowed to speak to each other. It was eerily quiet in the classroom, except for one sound...The sound of the wind. The wind was beating very hard on the classroom and it sounded like we would be blown in, like the Three Little Pigs' houses, but nope, it didn't happen. In fact, the teacher never even looked up. I guess not much can faze him.

PE was canceled that day because it was far too rainy. We were all hustled into the gym, which was muddy too (it being the last period of the day, and many shoes having already been in and out). We watched some Comcast Sportsnet videos, which were showing the "science behind sports". Apparently a golf ball can go farther if it is warm than if it is cold. So, couldn't you become better at hitting long distance by simply incubating your golf ball and then hitting it? (Though why you would incubate golf balls, instead of incubating chicken eggs like you should, is beyond me)

Does good handwriting matter a lot in life? My math teacher always stresses that we need to work at having neat handwriting. He said that sloppy handwriting is NOT a "style" of handwriting, and that teachers grade less harshly when you have good handwriting. "And don't go running to your parents saying how unfair it is! That's life! That's HUMAN NATURE!" he'd say. "If you have messy handwriting, then I have the urge to pick it apart for mistakes. I might overlook a mistake or be more lenient if you have good handwriting." I am going to try and work on mine. I think it is legible, but someone said I didn't "write like a girl". That's so sexist. Not all people write the same. I even hold my pencil differently. D: I started holding my pencil that way when I was young and I don't think someone corrected me, so now I'm stuck that way since I feel awkward if I hold pens and pencils the way almost everyone does.

Nowadays I sometimes draw things with pencil, then scan it, and color it in with the most basic of GIMP brushes (in other words, plain old circle brushes which come with GIMP when you download it). It's always so messy, though. In fact, I think my drawings might look better in black and white... o_O;; I've heard of something called Copic markers and I've been curious to see what they are. Does anyone have them, by any chance?

Labels: art, classroom, colors, copic, drawing, fantasy golf, gimp, handwriting, human nature, incubate, life, markers, pencil, portable, rain, storm, story, three little pigs, weather, windy

That's my name for a male singer, but his real name is Michael Bublé. My dad thinks he's cool, though I find him kind of annoying, particularly because of the way the women scream like fangirls when he comes near them. I can't tell whether they like his singing (because he sings love songs a lot) or if they think he looks good. It's beyond me, either way.

I am now in the possession of two red cow/bull stuffed animals. One of them is supposed to be something that you stick to a car window and the other one is sort of like a beanie baby. I have no idea where the beanie came from, but I do know that the car decoration came from China, since this is now the year of the ox (on the Zodiac calendar). Right now, if someone came to my house, they would see the beanie on the computer speaker and the car decoration on the lamp. For some reason it actually sticks on the lamp. (By the way, the lamp is the kind that will light up depending on how many times you touch it with your hand. It's too bad yanking on the stuffed cow doesn't turn it on.)

I was woken up early this morning by the most annoying sound ever - the smoke alarm. It wasn't beeping like crazy like in a real fire but every minute it would let out one shrill beep. I can tell from experience that my mom must've turned on the heater again. She insists she turned it on because she thought I was cold, but I would've slept longer into the morning if she hadn't. I tried to get back to sleep, but the beeping doesn't go away for a long time, so I eventually gave up and read a book. Typical thing for me to do when I'm bored.

On the shelves above my television, there is a clock, a strange porcelain statue (probably the Buddha?), my Ancient Civ 3D model from last year (this being a clay figure of Hatshepsut), a plastic container with dinosaurs in it, a flower pot, and some trophies. I have not added anything new to my trophy collection for such a long time. Probably the only chance I'll get will be the upcoming piano recital, which is around the end of March. I'm always quite nervous due to my fear of performing in front of people but I guess I can't get out of it unless I somehow get in an accident. (And that would have much, much worse consequences.)

I probably need to get more pencil cases or another rack for my pens. I have so many of them by now, that if I disturb my desk (mostly for storage rather than use, hehe) the pile of them will topple and I'll have to spend five minutes meticulously reorganizing the pencils. The only salvation I could find was a wooden container which could serve as a pencil holder if necessary. My parents just insist it's because I'm such a hoarder and a packrat...That may be so.

Labels: cow, heater, lamp, michael buble, packrat, pencil, pens, piano, reading, recital, shelves, singing, smoke alarm, stuffed animal, trophy, year of the ox

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