Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Northeast Jazz Festival

All day yesterday have been a blur of competition! These are my favorite groups.

This is Denison, IA, I believe. This group placed 3rd...






This was Sioux City or Sioux Falls. They placed 2nd in level 1. They had a costume change :) It was pretty sweet!






This was Thomas Jefferson from IA. I really liked their style, but they didn't place. The girls ripped off their skirts to reveal sweet shorts! They did a lot of break dancing.






Norfolk placed 4th. I LOVED their version of Masquerade! They also had a fun "Anything you can do, I can do better!' song.






Greased Lightning!



The last group, Abraham Lincoln from IA. They got 1st, I think... They were pretty good. Very sophisticated.





And that wraps up our Northeast Jazz Festival this year! all we have to do it clean up and get ready for TOUR next week!

Monday, March 30, 2009

Technical Intelligence

I have finally figured out how to put my profile song on my profile! Feel free to click on my audio clip on right (You Can't Stop the Beat!) and let me know if it works...



Funny, cause I went out and got the cd from the library, tried numerous ways to link it to a URL and embed it, and then it just suddenly got added with one click... hmm... maybe I'm good at technical work now!

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Wherein I Present My Best Friend...

Do you have a best friend?
- Yes I do. I have a best guy friend, and then there's my boyfriend who I love JUST AS MUCH!!!

Who is your best friend?
- His name is James. James William Rush something!!!

How long have you known your best friend?
- I have known him for six years. That sounds like forever! Feels kinda like it too.

Do you tell your best friend everything?
- I don't as much now, but it's only because we don't talk much anymore. We busy peoples.

Do you tell your best friend things you don't tell your partner?
- Yeah. Not a lot though, and nothing vital. I know I can trust James to handle my emotional vomit...

What do you enjoy doing most with your best friend?
- Well, currently I enjoy chatting with him. But what I really love to do best is accidently get him lost in Nashville.

What is your best memory of your best friend?
- It is this: hiding in a closet after a horrble day, talking in whispers to him on the phone, and hearing someone actually cared.

What is your worst memory of your best friend?
- Kind of blurry, but I seem to remember a horrble week when I was confused and he was hittng things and cussing...sadness.

Do you and your best friend like the same things?
- We do. Movies, Music, Piano, Martial Arts, Humor...we are a lot alike.

Have you and your best friend ever dated the same person?
- Well... for what it's worth, we dated for 3 days or so... so yeah?

Do you think you will still be in contact with your best friend in 25 years?
- You know what? I think I will. I'm pretty sure we'll at least keep occasional contact.

What is the one thing you would change about your best friend?
- The safest thing I would change, would be to have him move about... oh, 14 hours closer. Yes, that would do it.

What is the one thing your best friend would change about you?
- I guess that if he had the power he would probably change my past. Cause he always has my best interest in mind.

If your best friend moved away, would you be able to cope?
- Yeah! No problem. We couldn't be farther apart anyway. As long as he has reception, I'm cool.

The Rest of the Lesson Plan Story

My Lesson Plan was taught very well! It sort of helped that Kalin went first in class. He taught 12th grade Health class. Steroids are a fascinating subject to college-students-pretending-to-be-high-schoolers. He made it through with a smile, though. I observed what he did, and what our teacher made notes on. Then all too soon it was my turn.

I have to admit that I got a very high satisfaction out of instructing my class to sing the Easter song. Most of them stared in disbelief when I told them to get out their 'counting fingers!'. Some giggled while we sang, 'One little, two little, three little Easter eggs...'. The 'macho' guys rolled their eyes. Nathan, who really can't be categorized as macho, grinned and bounced while singing.

The Easter egg activity went well. You might have seen this activity before. It has a cute pattern, you cut it out and use a brad to fasten two pieces of a pattern together. What you get is a little egg, which opens to reveal a tiny chick with a top hat and a bow tie.

Since when do chicks hatch out with a top hat and a bow tie?


It looked something like this, only fancier and covered in glitter and stickers.

I got ten out of a possible ten points. My teacher's only complaint about my lesson went something like, "Don't overuse the term 'guys'-it's sexist."

Yay for preschool!

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Museum of Memories

Oh, the mystery of friends!



...May we forever remember one another...



In the museum of our memories.



And then, just because I think I'm hardcore in a bandanna, I'll let you admire.


I Have become Highly Complex...

You may think this an illusion...



But in truth, I AM indeed intricate in form. Solve me if you can!

Aaron * Angel * TruLove!


Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com


Thursday, March 26, 2009

Oh, The Cleverness of Me.





The following is what happens if you try to cut holes in your jeans. While wearing them.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Well, Today is the day I get to teach my first classroom!! I chose preschoolers because I deal with them best. It's gonna be fun! My subject is: Ee is for Easter! I'm using the IPEAR method to teach it.

Introduce:
Give each child an egg with a surprise in it. What is the egg for? EASTER!!!

Present:
Sing a song about Easter: Ten Little Easter Eggs (sung to 10 Little Indians)

Explain:
Read The Easter Egg Farm, talk about eggs and Easter and bunnies.

Apply:
Decorate your own egg! I'll have to post pictures of this activity :)

Repetition:
Sing song again, talk about Ee

Sounds like a blast, huh? I have 20 minutes to teach this lesson. Let's hope it's good!

Angel Renee

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Melting Heart

No blood flows
In these dormant veins
Ice alone inhabits
These sad remains

No longer runs life
In arteries so still
The glacier hands shiver
Numb from the chill

Silent for so long
Fading fast away
Catch a sudden glimpse
Of hope by light of day

Then, slowly warming
An anger starts to grow
Heat begins mounting
Sudden spurts the flow

Emotions running rampant
A cold heart screams
Erupting, fiery fury
Mourning broken dreams

A hurricane depicting
The passion of the grief
Will calm of joy return
Defying all belief?

I am Unique



I am unique.

When I meet new people, I remember them by colors. With a rare sensory condition called synesthesia,

my brain blends sounds with colors and even tastes. Susan Gaidos explains on Sciencenews.com,

"Synesthetes do not actively think about their perceptions — they just happen. Some synesthetes report

that they see such colors internally, in 'the mind's eye.' " Across the room from me, Brooke is a richer-

than-navy blue, and Ryan is saturated in a bold hunter green. Beside me, Michelle stands out in

a deep purple, and Sam hints at a light but striking yellow. Mr. Harrison is a dusky, sparkling charcoal.

People often define me as a freak when I describe emotions or numbersAdd Image in color, such as, "that tastes

blue!" or, "I feel burnt orange right now". As a result, I rarely share my condition with people. However,

if I don’t tell anyone, my ‘true colors’ never shine through.


I am unique. I have immense terror at tipping over backwards. If I am sitting in a chair, all four legs must

be on the ground. One day my boyfriend teasingly pulled my chair back so that the front legs left the

ground. After I flipped off the chair in panic, I attacked him in self defense. He never repeated that

mistake again. Other than that, not much scares me. I used to be scared of rejection, but once I was

confronted with a case of rejection that brought me face-to-face with death, there is not much left

to fear for me.


There is no one else like me. I spoke my first words in an entire sentence at nine months. I was speaking

fluently from that moment forward. At age three I could read at a lower elementary level. I was so

advanced for my age that my mom was encouraged to homeschool me so I could work at my own pace.

While intellect came easily to me, I was much slower in picking up coordination skills. I have little

awareness of my surroundings even now. As a result, I am quite easily startled; all my guy friends like

this about me, so it is rather to my disadvantage.


I made the world a better place on a November night.

Speaking of November, that is my favorite month because it sounds romantic to me. Where I come

from, November is a month of mystery, when all the leaves are escaping to who knows where, and

the autumn air is still seeping into everyone’s brain, whispering a song of magic and excitement. When

every school closes early because no one wants to miss a moment of sweaters and bonfires, horseback

and hayrides, apples and the last of the pumpkins. No “mild weather today and a blizzard tomorrow”

crap for me. Not in November, this month of bliss.


I am one of a kind. I am a unique blend: Ninety eight percent empathy, two percent rage. I am nine parts

creative to one part graceful. Love and loyalty are my fortes in life. I can run into walls that magically

appear right in front of my face at the last second. My favorite word is ‘pontificate’, and I’d love to

define it for you if you ever want to know. I have sung on stage in front of thousands of people.

I love puppies. Orange juice, with a little pulp, makes me happy. There is no one else like me.

I am unique- just like everyone else. I am one of millions with their own life story, love song, and

one-in-a-million experience. I have walked in the footprints of other humans with every single step I

have ever taken. My abilities were inherited from a seemingly endless bloodline that goes back

through ages. My habits have been picked up from a wide range of people. Every phrase quoted

has been spoken by someone who made an impact in my mind. My beliefs, morals, and priorities

have been influenced by others, whether well-known or unknown to me.


I am bound to an element named oxygen and cannot exist without it. Neither can I live without water.

While I don’t give a thought to my next breath, that very breath depends on air to keep me alive. I

eat on a regular basis, consume fluids frequently, and perform all the functions needed to retain

this life I know little about. Just like everyone else I’ve ever met.


There is a path which I alone must travel. Beside, behind, before, and sometimes crossing my path are

a cardinal number of other paths. Each is traveled by a tired sojourner who will exit the scene in a timely

manner, as must I, making way for fresh, renewed excitement in young blood on a bright path to the

future. In due time, they will see what we see; that there is nothing new under the sun. And so they

will tire as do we, and begin a search for more, taking them...who knows where?


Ecclesiastes 1:3-11 in the New Living Translation of the Bible says, “Generations come and go, but

the Earth never changes… Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Everything is wearisome

beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied…history merely repeats

itself. Nothing is ever truly new. ” Sound like someone finally realized their fate in this mournful

passage.


I am but a speck of sand. What is that grain worth to the beach? According to a story of a man and

several million starfish, you have to look on a smaller scale to see the significance of your work. The

point of that story is, while you can’t make a huge difference in the world as a whole, you can

change the lives of others one at a time.


Can you imagine the miracle of you? It is, in fact, unfathomable. How you can be so seemingly

insignificant, and yet such a miracle. And then break it down further, to a lilac for instance. A lilac

flower is a simple extension of the rest of the cluster, which is small in comparison to you and I,

let alone the larger scale of things. So of what use is that lilac bud? Here is my answer: it is a thermo-

dynamic miracle.


Thermo-dynamic miracles happen millions of times in a day. I’d like to explain thermo-dynamic miracles

with a quote from the movie Watchmen, put by Dr. Manhattan: “Thermo-dynamic miracles... events

with odds against so astronomical they're effectively impossible, like oxygen spontaneously becoming

gold. I long to observe such a thing. In each human coupling, a thousand million sperm vie for a single

egg. Multiply those odds by countless generations, against the odds of your ancestors being alive;

meeting; siring this precise son; that exact daughter... Until your mother loves a man she has every

reason to hate, and of that union, of the thousand million children competing for fertilization, it was

you, only you, that emerged. To distill so specific a form from that chaos of improbability, like turning air

to gold... that is the crowning unlikelihood. The thermo-dynamic miracle. But the world is so full of

people, so crowded with these miracles that they become commonplace and we forget... we

gaze continually at the world and it grows dull in our perceptions. Yet seen from another’s vantage

point, as if new, it may still take our breath away. You are life, rarer than a quark and unpredictable

beyond dreams; the clay in which the forces that shape all things leave their fingerprints most clearly.”

In closing, I am certain that if one human were to take his own life at this moment, the world would still

revolve, and life as a whole would go unaffected. But break it down to our own individual paths, and the

paths that cross ours, and consider the ripple effect that our actions have on others. And you will notice

how your life grows more precious with each step you take toward your own identity. Until you find,

perhaps, that inside every shell of a body lies a thermo-dynamic miracle. The world’s cruelty may

break our resolve to be unique, but perhaps we are shattered to free the beautiful diamonds in our

souls.

Work Cited:

Gaidos, Susan http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/32474/title/The_Colorful_World_of_Synesthesia Copyright 2009.

The Holy Bible: Ecclesiastes. New Living Translation. Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, 2004 Edition.

Watchmen: Zack Snyder. Warner Brothers Pictures, 2009.

MagMyPic


Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com


Inspiration for new blog face


One of my favorite Show Choir songs...

Hairspray's You Can't Stop The Beat!

You can't stop an avalanche as it races down the hill
You can try to stop the seasons, girl, but you know you never will
And you can try to stop my dancing feet, but I just cannot stand still!

'Cause the world keeps spinnin' round and round
And my heart's keepin' time to the speed of the sound
I was lost 'til I heard the drums, then I found my way
'Cause you can't stop the beat

Ever since the whole world began
A woman found out if she shook it, she could shake up a man
And so I'm gonna shake and shimmy it with all of my might today
'Cause you can't stop the motion of the ocean or the sun in the sky
You can wonder, if you wanna, but I never ask why
And you can try to hold me down, but I'll spit in your eye and say
That You Can't Stop the Beat!


You can't stop today (no)
As it comes speeding 'round the track [oooh, child yes!]
Yesterday is history [be gone!]
And it's never comin back! [Look ahead, cause...]
Tomorrow is a brand new day, and it don't know white from black [Yeah!]

'Cause the world keeps spinnin' round and round
And my heart's keepin time to the speed of sound
I was lost til I heard the drums, then I found my way
'Cause you cant stop the beat!

Ever since we first saw the light,
A man and woman like to shake it on a Saturday night
So I'm gonna shake and shimmy it with all of my might today!
Cause you cant stop the motion of the ocean, or the rain from above
They can try to stop the paradise we're dreamin of
But you cannot stop the rhythm of two hearts in love to stay
You can't stop the beat!

Yay for almost a year between posts!

May was NOT the best time to start a blog. Mostly because I didn't have internet at camp. But that's okay. We had entirely too much fun and got paid to do it! My whole summer was filled with screaming kids, canoes and paddleboats, spiders, legendary monsters, missing Aaron, making new friends, riding horses... and all that jazz!!

School was a welcome respite from one kind of craziness. I now plunged into stacks of books and learning. My classes for fall included:

Psychology
Intermediate Algebra
Lifetime Wellness
Aerobics 1 and 2
Women's Ensemble
Ebony and Crimson
Concert Choir
Northeast Singers Express
Voice III
Piano III

It was a lot of fun! This semester is even better!

Introduction to Education
Foundations of Math
Comparative Mythology
Women's Ensemble
Ebony and Crimson
Concert Choir
Northeast Singers Express
Yoga
Voice IV

Last month I was diagnosed with the craziest thing...synesthesia. It's pretty awesome for a neuro-condition. You can read about it here:
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/32474/title/The_Colorful_World_of_Synesthesia

Well, I do plan to blog quite a lot more frequently now. Adieu!
Angel