I still have a blog? Yes! I do!

Posted in Blog by Joe on Wednesday, May 23, 2007 at 7:05 pm

I thought this old site would be dead and gone by now…much to my surprise and dismay (and undoubtedly yours as well) it still exists on the Internet. And oh, have things changed since my last update, way back in December, when it was…warmer than it was today*.

I bought a viola (why not?) and played the Shostakovich Symphony No. 9 and some Ives stuff with that orchestra at TCNJ. I also played in a quartet with some nice people and got paid for it sometimes.

Things have been, well, awesome, to be perfectly honest. School ended for a weekend, and now I’m back, taking Math 101 until June 1 to fulfill a Liberal Learning requirement. Most surprising is that it’s not a bad class at all - in fact, the teacher I have is amazing. And Dutch. Of course, it’s the course that only has 14 meetings in total in which I have a really great teacher to enjoy learning from. Oh well. Despite that, I’m glad there’s only 4 more days of it. Then I can finally establish what I like to call my “summer routine”**.

So far this summer, besides school, I’ve managed to install - and uninstall Windows Vista Ultimate on my PC. It just didn’t cut it…especially when I had Mac OS X sitting right next to it, all happy and functional. I was really disappointed with Vista, but at the same time am rest assured that Apple has nothing to worry about when it comes to the OS wars - if Tiger beats Vista out of the water, I can’t imagine what Leopard will do in October.

And look, there it is - my obligatory (yet completely voluntary) mention of the wonders of Apple, Inc.

Speaking of which, I’m applying for the Apple Campus Rep position at TCNJ…I can’t believe how much paperwork there is to fill out for this job, it’s crazy. And then i have to FedEx it all to Apple HQ in Cupertino, and hope that I get the job…if I did, it would be awesome, since I’d just get paid for basically what I do now (talk about Apple products with people, etc etc). And it’s an on-campus job, which you really can’t beat either. Fingers crossed on that one…

This summer I’ve decided to establish goals for myself. Amazing, I know. My first goal is to finish Harry Potter 5 and 6 before HP 7 comes out. By the looks of it, this goal will definitely be accomplished. I also want to read at least 2 more Kurt Vonnegut novels and up through the late Romantic period in Lives of the Great Composers, in preparation for my music history courses next year. (Do I sound nerdy yet?).

My goals do not end there! I want to practice violin/viola/guitar/piano a lot…and become super awesome at all 4 before school starts. Main issues with the guitar though is that I am missing an E string, and I think my amp is broken. Or maybe the guitar, I dunno. I gotta open it up and see what’s wrong. Issues with the piano is that, I don’t really play piano. I need to learn at some point, even if it’s just basic stuff. Right now the thought of playing a keyboard with both hands simultaneously intimidates me…I don’t know how piano players do it.

I also want to write music this summer…which is more of an undertaking than it sounds. My big goal would be to compose a nice little string quartet, since 4-part writing is what I think I’m capable at this point. I do think this one’s possible if I really commit, and read a lot of theory…it would be pretty boring if all I used were the same chords over and over…blah. I’ll work on it. It’ll be fun. And embarrassing at the same time, taking into consideration what so many composers already accomplished by age 19…

I also would like to go to Six Flags at least twice this summer. And see some sort of show, I guess. I don’t just want to be sedentary (not sedimentary, as Michael Scott would say). By the way, what a great season finale for The Office, I have to say. That is one great show. You can watch the episodes over and over and over and they just get funnier and funnier - I love shows like that, where they are written so well that you pick up on new stuff every time you watch an episode. It’s great.

You know what else is great? The iTunes Signature Maker! This neat little website will analyze the songs you have in iTunes, and create a 1-2 minute mixed sample of your songs based on conditions you set, such as telling it to select songs based on your rating, number of times played, or playlist. It provides the best answer possible to the question, “What type of music do you listen to?” It is also useful for creating “What’s that song?” games. I’m sure you’ll be able to pick out some songs from the signatures I have created, which are listed below. The first one I made around last August, and the second one I just made. I’ve made quite a few which I’ll put up along the way. Those of you viewing this from Facebook may need to go to the main site to listen to the profiles.

This one I made a while ago:

And this one, a few minutes ago:

*74 degrees and sunny

** staying up until 5 AM watching movies and/or TV shows on my computer and sleeping until 1 or 2 in the afternoon