So Tired

So, haven't blogged in a while because my life has been consumed by doing the JHU Musical. I'm Bobby in Company. Its awesome, but now I'm pooped.

Come see it next weekend.

Just Beautiful

This weekend was.

Yes indeed, sunny and cool, if only life could be like this every weekend. Unfortunately, I had rehearsals for the majority of the weekend, but I got to enjoy some of it. I hope you did too!

Company is coming along well. I think its going to be a good show and am really happy I get to be part of it.

I shaved my beard down to a goatee this weekend and people seem to like it, so thats cool.

I guess that's the update.

A Snow No Day

It was.

Well, it snowed and we all prayed and wore our jammies inside out, but alas Hopkins was open. Poo. Monday is a fine day, I really only have two classes, but I would have liked to sleep.

In other news, Twitter is sweeping Peabody. The Director has one, a dean has one, many students now have them. Long story short... you need one.

Also, I am 100th guessing grad school plans. So much fun.

Company is a lot of fun though. Its my saving grace.

Since I have a reader...

I must write.

Yes its true, I haven't been writing but I guess I will try to take time out of my oh so busy and very important life to write for my adoring fans (mother) who will feel more connected to my life if I do.

Tonight I shall write about Munchkin. http://www.sjgames.com/munchkin/game/

This is a card game that some of my floor mates introduced me too and I actually enjoy. They say it is making fun of card games such as dungeons & Dragons. I don't know if that's true. I would liken it to Pokemon for people who want to laugh. Basically you build up your 'munchkin' and battle monsters while keeping other 'munchkins' from getting to level ten first. Throw in witty captions on each card, curses and traps, and you've got the game. It sounds lame... and it might be a little, but its not a bad one to play.

Don't judge me.

This is Rough

SO... I took this gig that I thought wasn't going to be too bad..... well its bad. The music is hella hard, and I haven't spent/didn't have enough time to get this shit under my belt. To make matters worst, I'm pretty much the worst one (at the music) in the choir. So I look dumb, which makes Peter look dumb since he suggested me, and probably makes Peabody look bad since I go there.

Way to go me!
Now, its not that I haven't practiced. On the contrar (sp?) In addition to the now 10 hours of rehearsal time the choir has spent together, I have spent atleast 10 hours on my own this past week. WHY CAN'T I LEARN THIS MUSIC!

Basically I want to quit at life crawl into a hole and die, but that can't happen since tomorrow I have The Steering Committee, Hansel & Gretel... oh and a concert of the music I can't sing. To make matters worse, the embarrassment doesn't end tomorrow because we have concerts Saturday and Sunday. So hopefully I can suffer through tomorrow and mouth a lot, use Friday to learn more of it as I can, and get by Saturday and Sunday.

All I can do it pray.

Failure

Yep.

I have failed to blog for the past couple of days... oops.

Moving on. Life got exciting for a moment with a lot of commotion, and it has returned to the mundane ritual. Hopefully, excitement will return.

I need to go to bed now.

Did I Miss One?

I think so.

So I think I forgot to blog either the yesterday or the day before. Sorry.

Well, I got my snow delay so I am pleased. Now the only thing that would be better would be another one tomorrow...

I have started to play this game called Munchkin Fu on my floor and its really fun. We have taken several different munchkin decks and combined them. Its like any other card game, but somehow fun...

That is all.
Tomorrow is going to be a great day.

A Day

Thats all.

Today was pretty insignificant. I went through the motions and didn't really have anything to deal with. I'm hoping for a snow delay tomorrow. Hope with me...

Hope.

What a Day

Actually it was fine.

The day started with church which was directly followed by leaving for a run out of Hansel and Gretel for the Candlelight Society at Howard Community College. The performances went well. In the audience of the first performance was the VP of IMG which is a big agency in NY. She apparently lives in the area and was there with he son. Just goes to show you never know who will be in the audience!

Today was also a fasting day. Everything seemed to go by a little slower and I had to turn down dinner invitations, but it was alright.

Tomorrow starts another week, but the possibility of snow this week is high so keep your fingers crossed!

Late Nights

I'm getting into these late nights... better stop!

I don't know what happened, but I slept through a funeral I was supposed to be at this morning :(

The news of the day is getting into the Peabody Recording Studios is a pain! I have been trying for a few months now and am having no luck. In addition to it being difficult to find a time when the studio is available, its even harder to match that with a time that me and my pianist are available! So annoying, but I'm trying.

Off to bed!

Late Blog

Oops.


So, I just finished watching Elaine Strich: Live at Liberty. I got it on Netflix because I am supposed to watch cabarets and talk about what works and what doesn't work. I really enjoyed Ms Strich's performance. It was very funny, but also moving. It covered a range of music that young and old would recognize. Now all I need to do is turn 70 and remember funny annecdotes about my life and string them together with song, and I'll be set!

Today was not a good day on the healthy odometer, but I'll get back on track tomorrow.

I have been helping a friend with conceptualizing an opera that she is co-directing and some of our ideas may have technical difficulties, but I really hope we can get them through because it would be awesome. I think its time we push the envelope a little further.

Don't you?

A Good Day

Even if it was the worst day.

No, this Thursday, although exhausting, was quite good. The steering committee meeting went well. My German Lieder performance was... alright. I did fine on my German test. My Cabaret performance was fun. My Lesson was good. And now I'm ready to hit the sack.


I have been having issue with rolling around in my sleep... night quite sure why I'm having trouble sleeping, but not too worried about it.

So, short posting again. Good night.

Late Night

At least the latest in a while.

The MLK Concert was tonight and it was really good. The band was awesome and the singer was pretty good.

I have two performances (in classes) tomorrow and I need to practice for the earlier one like woah! I guess I'll start now... which means this will be the latest night in a while.

Its been a good day though.

Oh I have Steering Committee tomorrow too!

Oy vey... :)

Inauguration!

Obama has taken control.

The cafeteria was full of people watching Obama get sworn in today. His speech was good, very similar to the one I saw here in Baltimore. The world is definitely ready for change, and I hope we can all take this historical time to realize we have the ability to change.

Other than that the day was pretty basic. The cafeteria is really cold these days... I hope Peabody is saving money because of that.

I had Tazo Green Ginger Tea... I really like that tea. Its not too heavy, not too sweet, not too fruity... its great.

You know why I shouldn't blog? Cuz I have never have anything interesting to say. I want to, but I don't

Sad.

Oh My!

I almost forgot to blog today!

This blog will probably show up as being for tomorrow, but fear not I'm starting it at 11:53 PM Monday the 19th.

Anyhow, Happy MLK Day. We here at Peabody didn't really celebrate. We are having a MLK concert, but its on the 21st. For some reason the RAs decided to have a dessert night, and my tower did floats... not the best. The event went fine, but it wasn't anything real exciting. I also picked up my 20 cases of ROCKSTAR which are now forming ROCKSTAR pillars on either side of my lounge TV... I wonder what the cleaning ladies will say.

Sadly, I have class during the inauguration tomorrow :(, but I will watch the speech on line. In honor of it though, I went to obamicon.com and obama-ed my self:

So with that image, I say... goodnight.

Hunger!

This fast was harder than last.

No doubt. I barely made it 24 hours using dinner time of last night, 6:30 PM, as my end time for this fast. Since I ate at 6:30 though, I went to the gym. I only ran for 20 mins, but it got me sufficiently sweaty. I think this fast was harder because I had less to do. I was going to go to the Library to do some homework, but it was closed. I did clean my room a little. But I got very tired and couldn't motivate myself to go practice or the like. :(

Tomorrow I go pick up 20 more cases of ROCKSTAR energy drink. I currently have 14 cases sitting in the middle of my room... so soon I will have 34 cases in my room! I need to do a big event to get rid of this stuff. (If you didn't know, I am the JHU ROCKSTAR Rep.)

Well, I guess I'm off to bed.

What a Day!

It was cold, but extremely warming.

I arose today at 9 AM and put on two pairs of socks, long johns, jeans, two shirts, a jacket, a head cover, a hat, and gloves, and then headed down to get in line for President Elect Obama's visit to Baltimore. When I arrived there was a line, but not bad. I was probably within the first 500 people to arrive. The weather was cold... freezing, but everyone was friendly and of good spirit. At times the push to enter the gates was frustrating, but it never got out of hand. At about 1PM they opened the gates and let the masses into lines to go through metal detectors. From there we all rushed to get a spot in the war memorial and wait another 3 hours for Obama's arrival. I was behind the second gate. Extremely close... I'm guestimating within 20-30 feet of the podium, and when Obama came down I was within feet of him. I even got close enough to shake Biden's hand.

Obama's speech was good. History compells the future, but each and every one of us, must make the change persoanly. He spoke of all of us being with him as he lead the country. I can only hope we are all with him.

I could tell he was tired, but nothing more. Michelle is truly beautiful. The Biden's were politely present, and I felt for them as the screams of love were for Barack and Michelle, but none for Jill and Joe.

It was definitly an experience I needed to have and am glad I braved the cold for it.

After the speech, I warmed and filled myself at Panera, then headed to the movie theater to watch The Wrestler. What a depressing movie. Its good, don't get me wrong, but wow... its defintily emotionally exhausting.

Tomorrow I fast and rest. It will be a needed day.

Friday Night

I survived the week.

Yep, the first week of school has passed, and a long weekend is in store. I have decided to go try to see Obama tomorrow on his stop in Baltimore. I hope its worth freezing my butt off for...

I ran yesterday as my workout and my thighs are really sore. Doing the elliptical doesn't make me as sore as straight running. It feels good to be sore though.

Its freezing in Baltimore... actually below freezing. I understand its not as cold as where you may be, but I am not coping well with this weather!

However, right now I'm just plain tired, so I think I'll off to bed early. Goodnight!

Who Stole a Cookie?

I did!

Yeah, I had a cookie today :(
But I worked out as per schedule so I'm not to beat up about the one slip.

In other news, I made it through Thursday! It wasn't all that bad actually. I'm taking a cabaret class which should be really fun. Although, I'm not crazy about my first song, but I'm sure I'll grow to like it.

Also my brother was diagnosed with Bell Palsy today. He had been losing the function of the left side of his face for a couple days now, but didn't bother to tell anyone. Today apparently it got bad so he was taken to the emergency room. He's not to worried about it... he has been researching it and seems fine.

I've noticed that by writing a blog everyday I am even less inclined to write in my journal. However, I will continue both I guess.

Obama will be in Baltimore tomorrow... I think I'm going to try to go see it.

Thats all.

At the age of 20

I have:

-Graduated through high school
-Been to 13 states (this only included actual stays in states not drive throughs or Airport stops)
-Been to Spain
-Recorded a CD
-Been a Pescetarian for 13 years
-Been in numerous plays and musicals
-Helped create an acting troupe
-Assistant Directed a show
-Built Sets
-Been in a movie
-Learned how to drive
-Been an active member of Peabody's community
-Won Competitions
-Held a few Jobs (never been fired)
-Taken out loans
-Fought for things I Believed in
-Failed

This is just a list of things that popped into my mind. Things I consider achievements of some kind. The last one is very important not by itself, but how it affects the future. Failure is not a negative thing in itself, but how one reacts to it can be. So while the list is mainly about successes, failure reminds me that I have and will lose sometimes, but as a road, not an obstacle to winning.

Working Out

Life.

I worked out again today... for real. It felt good.

Also I've done a good job cutting out sweets. The sweetest thing I've had recently is peanut butter which I put on celery. I'm going to try to keep this streak up, but who knows. I feel like I haven't had anything interesting to say lately.

I've been thinking about Grad school a lot. Do I want to do Arts Administration? Business of Music? Musical Theater? Vocal Perf? All I know is I need it to be free... can you get me in for free... please?

Not a Bad Monday

In fact... a fine day.

I have been getting to bed around midnight... and I think its good for me! So I'm going to make this blog short so I can off to bed.

As the title says, today was a fine Monday. My class was fine. My rehearsals went well. Improv was fun. Mom sent me an interesting thing to check out. One of my teachers excused me from class tomorrow (because I'll be in a rehearsal.)

I had set out to do some theory homework tonight, but got distracted... as always. However, I've made substantial progress in the Lewis book, and should be done with it by the end of the week I hope. I have rediscovered a piece of Fiction fantasy (kind of Lord Of the Rings stuff) and might try to continue writing it... who knows, it might be good.

Yea, I guess that's all for now...

The Fast Has Ended

With celery, peanut butter, hummus, and pita.

First let me say I have had nothing but water from when I blogged last night till 10:00 PM tonight. I didn't have any sort of hunger issues till around 5:00PM. I am tired, but don't really have any other symptoms that I know of. I enjoyed the experience and will be doing it again next week.

I spent a good portion of the day researching fasting and found remarkably little negative information. I googled "fasting health" and "24 hour fasting." At the bottom of this blog you will find the websites I read. Many of the websites talked of detoxing the body. While I can't really tell if my body is detoxifying, I can believe that it is and my mind will work wonders. Like anything else, I strongly believe the mind can do wonders if I truly will it to.

Since it was the Sunday before spring semester starts, Peabody was at a still before the storm. So I took the time to practice, walk, put a record on to my computer (my new toy!), and read... a lot. I finished messenger by Lois Lowry. Messenger is the third of The Giver triology. I read The Giver in middle school and was transfixed by it. Then recently I bought the second book Gathering Blue, it was not as good as the first, but I figured I would read the last one, Messenger. I liked this one a lot. It spoke to me a lot about the evolution of the US and humanity's increased greed and selfishness. Selflessness saves the day... indeed a sacrifice of oneself. I will have to read Gathering Blue again, but if your interested I would read The Giver and Messenger...

Tomorrow the real world begins, although Mondays aren't that bad. I do have three rehearsals tomorrow though... I guess thats the life?

Fasting Links:
http://www.webmd.com/diet/fasting
http://drbenkim.com/fasting.html
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2003-04-28-fasting_x.htm
http://www.freedomyou.com/
http://www.healthpromoting.com/
http://www.hps-online.com/index.htm
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16513299
http://www.fitwise.com/Fasting_Program.asp
http://www.ehow.com/how_4475779_water-fasting-weight-loss-detoxification.html

The Fast Has Begun

Technically.

Yes, tomorrow I will be attempting my first Sunday fast. Tomorrow's Blog will be about fasting and the debate on whether it is good and bad.

"The island of Nantucket was once called Shernburne." That was the factoid on my Nantucket Half/half and I thought I'd share.

Also, I watched the first two episodes of The Big Bang Theory, a show I've seen a few time, and I really like it. You should check it out.

Now for commentary of substance,

I was reading more of C. S. Lewis' Mere Christianity and I feel compelled to share one thing that touched me. Lewis said, "...when we talk of a man doing anything for God or giving anything to God ... It is like a small child going to its father and saying 'Daddy, give me sixpence to buy you a birthday present.'" The love that surrounds the child's statement is so pure, so eager, so simple. Its the simplicity I think we've lost. We are all eager to love, and we have the ability to make that love pure, but the idea that it is simple is lost. And at the moment, I don't feel like Christianity is helping that image.

End of Training

Life begins again.

Obviously, today was the end of spring training and sadly it started with three hours of re-acquaintance with eating disorders and self-injury. We watched a youtube clip about each and then proceeded with a powerpoint and conversation. First let me say, DON'T YOUTUBE this stuff. It's gross what you can find out there, but what we watched was just saddening. It's unnerving to know just how present and close these serious problems are to us everyday.

The day ended with another saddening event (although not seriously like the before mentioned topic,) THE HUNT VALLEY CHEEBURGER CLOSED!!!!!!!!!! Memories were made there man! I don't think I've ever been upset about a chain closing before, haha. A sign of the times they say... who they is, I don't know...

And now, as I write this and realize that school starts in two days, the stress arrives. Most of my stress right now is from being prepared for my Don Giovanni rehearsal on monday. I'm pretty prepared, but always scared... so... I'm going to practice right now.

:)

Sarah's Hope

A Humbling Experience

So today as part of Spring Training the RA and Res. Life staff went to a women and children's shelter in Baltimore called Sarah's Hope. We spent the morning organizing and cleaning some of their basement and then made lunch for the residents and ate with them. It was a really nice experience that gave perspective on the blessings I have. I hope to get back to Sarah's Hope again and do some more work... maybe engaging OASIS (Peabody's Student gov.) in a community service project.

Later in the day I was reading some of C. S. Lewis' Mere Christianity and he happened to talk about giving. C. S. Lewis says, "I'm afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare." What a terrifying idea. But then if we think about all we could spare... its disgusting how little we are willing to give. Right now, sitting in my dorm room, I am staring at pointless luxuries. One could argue just how pointless or in fact necessary they might be, but the point is it is possible to survive without them. Why?

And probably the craziest part of it is, I won't change. I'll hit the publish button and move on. Sarah's Hope will stay with me, but it won't move me to change my habits. I might go back, I might not. I might volunteer more elsewhere, I might not. But I won't stop buying things I don't need, and giving that money, time, or effort elsewhere to people who need it.

While C. S. Lewis hasn't sold me with this book, I don't disagree with some of what he says. (Incidentally, he acknowledges that is exactly the dilemma with Christianity: we pick and choose what we believe.) And in this same section of the book he brings up the golden rule. "Do as you would be done by," is his phrase of choice, and he says that this is not a Christian doctrine, not even new to the world of 1 AD. The golden rule is something we all know and have known, but spend our entire lives making excuses to slip around. Why? What would the world be like if we all followed that rule... even if just most of the time?

Could we ever get there?
Well, I don't know, but as a member of the human community it is my duty to try. Forgive me when I fail, catch me when I fall, and thank me if I succeed at all.

Thank you for everything.

The Beginning

Well, at least of this semester.

So spring training began today. It was pretty basic "welcome back," stuff. We made flower hats, and colored pieces of a puzzle... ya know normal college level stuff...

Before training I went to Starbucks to finish Bryson's A Complete History of Nearly Everything. Good book! Cute girl working at Starbucks too...

The thing about A Complete History that frightened me was how little of science is fact... or even close to. So much of what are in museums are educated guesses... some based off very, very little. I guess when I'm a dad, my kids will have to re-teach me everything I learned in school because science will have reversed its opinions multiple times in the next ten to twenty years. Actually more of the problem is that everywhere scientists have different opinions on how things went or go, so whoever has the most popularity gets published. Science is a popularity contest... nice. I hope you realize I am speaking in grossly exaggerated tones, but read Bryson's book and you'll get what I'm talking about.

I don't really have much else to say tonight. Tomorrow I get to make sandwiches for Sarah's Hope, a women and children shelter. I'll tell you more then.

Run Baby, Run

Well, I'm going to try.

Right after I finish writing this blog I will be heading to The Closet (thats the gym at Peabody) and breaking a sweat for the first time this year. I'm going to try to lose weight... again... as always...

I'm in a motivated seat right now. I'm reading, I'm blogging, I'm reviewing music on Amazon, I'm watching my netflix regularly, I practiced today... I'm doing well. Challenge is continuing everything when the real world begins again on Monday.

I bought Biblica: The Bible Atlas today at Barnes and Nobles. I saw it in Frederick and wanted it, but decided $50 was too much. Today I walked to the Harbor B&N to see if any journals were on sale (my ex got me hooked to buying Journals) and there was Biblica for 50% off... now $25 is more than I like to spend on anything, but I really wanted this book for some reason. So I bought it. Its beautiful and really heavy.

I got a little ahead of the times this morning when I ripped off a day of my desk calendar forgetting I had done that last night before I went to bed. However, I read the quote and it said "Belly forward, buttocks back" -Katsuki Sekida. While the quote itself sounds more like some part of a modern rap dance, or animalistic mating manual it is in fact instructions on proper mediation sitting. Sadly Sekida doesn't have a wikipedia entry so I can't educate us on who or what this person is further than the first hit on google which is amazon.com. I believe that he is a self-titled modern master of Zen, at least thats what I gather from the title of his book, A Guide to Zen: Lessons from a Modern Master. So there ya have it, the master says, "Belly forward, buttocks back."

Maybe I'll try running like that...

The Day After Yesterday

That's today if you were wondering.

And today I had lunch with my high school drama teacher. I have to thank him for a lot of the ability I have to stand up for myself and my ideals. During lunch we talked about ideals and how a mutual friends of ours seems to lack them or at least any we can understand. What makes a person do some of the things they do? How can someone watch drugs tear another person apart only to engage in the same activities a few years later? Its sad but I still believe it all happens for a reason.

Speaking of something like that, I watched The Secret with some friends last semester and the following weekend went to The Book Thing (a free book exchange) and picked up a book called Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue Book 2... I read it and liked it. It said a lot of similar things as The Secret did. Seeing the similarities, I lent it to the friend who had me watch The Secret and I think she's enjoying it now. Just a few nights ago she texted me after watching The Secret again and told me that the author of Conversations was in The Secret! It makes sense, but its a weird coincidence I think. I like weird coincidences that make the world seem connected.

And tied to that somehow, I saw Yes Man recently and it was really good! Possibly my favorite Jim Carey movie. It inspired me to not turn down opportunities to the best of my abilities... of course it does remind us sometimes we need to say no, but most of the time positivity is the key... which is what God says in Conversations a lot... and is The Secret... and is my ideal... see it all fits together

NEW Blogsolution!

So last years blogsolution didn't go exactly as planned.

This year's blogsolution is different: my new years resolution is to blog everyday. I don't have a theme, or goal other than to commit and do it!

I also will be trying Sunday Fasting... so expect some crazy blogs on Sundays.

Obviously the blogging everyday starts today and Sunday fasting will begin next week I couldn't decide on a resolution until just now... so there you have it.

Today I would just like to say that Bill Bryson is probably my favorite non-fiction writer. I read A Walk in the Woods a while ago and really wanted to hike the Appalachian... someday I might. Now I'm reading A Complete History of Nearly Everything and I just really enjoy his writing. Its full of information but digestible and accompanied by humorous anecdotes that make it smooth reading...

And while I'm on the topic of book plugging Alex Ross' The Rest is Noise is a must read about 20th and 21st century music evolution.

I guess for today, that is all