Blah blah blah

Just thought I'd do a little catch up session.

Strange how so much communication now is online. I miss talking on the phone, although now, thanks to msn and email etc. I am now crap at talking on the phone. I heart the electronic age. Soon we won't be able to talk at all. We will all type things, print them out and pass them round the room, using stupid little words and sayings like "did u hear tht I gt the jb?" "Wow! U r a lgnd." I mean who needs vowels anyhow?

I am feeing in a rantish mood, but sort of in a celebratory one too, which is weird and confusing.

Several great things have happened over the past week. I learnt that I got into Grad. school, which means I will be training here next year, to be a primary teacher. I also found out that I passed by DipABRSM, and quite well too apparently. I haven't got the piece of paper with my results, but the lady from the Royal Schools of Music Office rang and the conversation went something like this:

Mrs. Tyler: "Hello. We'd like you to perform in the High Achievers concert on Dec. 13th." (Only those who get distinction - the highest level of achievement - get to perform at this)
Me: "Um. *thinks: whatwhatwhatwhatwhat?* I haven't got my results yet."
Mrs. T: "Well we have and we'd like you to perform."
Me: "Wow. *speechless* (for once) I guess I must have done alright then."
Mrs. T: "Well, *being careful not to say too much before I recieve official notification* yes."
Me: "Oh. *silence* I'd be honoured to perform. Wow."
Mrs. T: "So you will be there? That's good because you've won an award too dear."
Me: "Yes definately. Thanks very much!"

And etcetera. Anyway. I got off the phone, burst into tears and told my mum, who also burst into tears. I have had a real battle over performance anxiety and I didn't really think I could do it. (See "Cry, Weep Sob...Sook" - September) I was just hoping to pass. This is so much more than I ever thought I could achieve. And to be honest, I still don't believe it's true. For some reason - honestly - I feel like someone is playing a joke on me. I think I will only believe it when I get the report, hopefully tomorrow.

I also went to a conference at church on Friday and Saturday where an amazing preacher, Vicky d'Orazio was speaking. Amazing lady.
I had the most amazing God-time, and feel so challenged.
Awesome.

And Doug got back too which is great. Looking foward to summer I think and to next year, getting my teeth into something practical. I do feel though that I need to make some new years resolutions. I always try to think about these really carefully, because although it's kind of a dumb idea, I think it can be a useful time to write down some goals.
I don't mind sharing them as I think it is also important to be accountable.

So my resolutions so far are:
1. Purity
2. Humility
3. Growing in my relationship with God.
4. Making time for my friends.

The last two are really important for me. I am so busy with all the little things, that I often forget to make time for the important ones and the results are not always good. So I really want to work on that.
Cool. Well I'm done for tonight. I'm exhausted so I think I will go to bed and read a book.

Night.

Ahhh. Relief.

Ja. Ich bin fertig.
German exam was a bit nasty, but generally what I expected, so that's ok I guess. Anyway, it doesn't matter, I'm just glad there are no more exams.

Woohoo!

I am so glad it is all over finally and I don't have to spend any more hours in the law library writing and revising notes.

Now I just have to decide what to do with my life next year.

Might do it tomorrow lying on the grass absorbing sun and working on my tan with a good book. Lying in the sun is a great way to solve many problems I feel.

Ich muss...

Ich muss meine Deutche hausaufgabe machen.

Ich muss meine letze Prufung machen.

Ich muss abendessen kochen.

Ich muss meine Zimmer aufraumen.

Ich wolle in die Sonne liegen.

Aber ich muss meine Grammatik lernen.

Schade.

Ich mochte es Mittwoch sein, weil es mein Geburtstag ist.

Fantastisch.

Oh...my...GOSH.

Take a listen to this.
Unbelievable.
It makes me want to cry...or laugh...or both at once.

I heart Chopin so much, he is one of my favourite composers. And this woman just killed him. Really really killed him. I don't heart her at all.

I also think the man who anounces the 'shairtso' instead of the 'scherzo' deserves a beating. A big one. I don't heart him either.

Unbelievable. And again I say unbelievable.

Go here to listen: www.jazzdrummer.com/goofs/misstexas.htm

Cripple Creek

Ok, sounds like a rather bizarre name for a piece, but there you have it. It is a song that was sung in the Christchurch Primary Schools' Music Festival this year.
It's not actually about a cripple, that's just the name of the creek - apparently. It's actually about a boy called Johnny who loves a girl, who apparently is:
"Just like an apple from the tree,
Sweetest little girl you ever did see."

The song is strange, but uptempo and a lot of fun to sing. Anyway, the point is...and I am quite excited by this...I got to conduct it on one of the nights of the festival!
Might not sound like a very big deal, but there are 700 children in the massed choir, and 200 in the special choir, so that's a total of around 900 children! Plus the audience of about 1,500.
I never conducted a choir that big before!! It was so scary but incredibly EXCITING! I had an absolute ball, and hopefully can do some more next year. It was a little bit of a trial actually I think, to see if how I handled it.

Amazing opportunity, so appreciative to the music team who let me loose on the podium...

Wow.

Music is AWESOME.

Pigs don't say oink, they say 'gry'.

You know that stupid riddle that gets sent around every so often?

There are three words in the English languager ending in -gry.
What is the third one?

It's actually just a stupid play on words, i.e. the third word is 'what'. How stupid.

However, perhaps more stupidly, or sadly, researchers decided to try and find more words that end in -gry.

There are quite a few. Some have interesting meanings.I might try to use '-gry' words more often.


aggry: A glass bead found buried in the ground in Africa. A word of unknown origin. Seemingly always used attributively, as in aggry beads.

braggry: A variant form of braggery.

conyngry: An obsolete dialectal variant of conyger, itself an obsolete term meaning 'rabbit warren'.

gry: The smallest unit in Locke's proposed decimal system of linear measurement, being the tenth of a line, the hundredth of an inch, and the thousandth of a ('philosophical') foot. Also the grunt of a pig, an insignificant trifle, or a verb meaning to roar.

iggry: Egyptian colloquial Arabic pronunciation of ijri: 'Hurry up!', brought back after the First World War by members of British and Australian forces who had fought in Egypt.

mawgry: from Old French: being regarded with displeasure.

meagry: Having a meager appearance.

nangry: A variant form of angry. (Come on. Since when?)

podagry: Dodder, or the condition of a plant infested with it.

puggry: A variant form of puggree, a light scarf wound around a hat or helmet to protect the head from the sun.


Ok. So I'm bored of study already.
Sorry to bore everyone else.

:(

My Name is...

A	Amazing
M	Meek
E	Entertaining
L	Light
I	Industrious
A	Amorous

Name / Username:

Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com

At least this is nicer than my sister's. For the 'h' in Charlotte, they wrote 'Hairy'. Although I'm not sure about the meek bit...

I heart grammar...

Tonight's rant is about the state of the English language. Now I am the first to admit that I have problems sometimes, mostly with split infinitives, and apostrophes of all things. However, it seems to me that more and more people out there just don't write properly.

Firstly what is with a) giving nouns capital letters or b) putting apostrophes everywhere/leaving them out altogether. I accept that some languages, like German, give all nouns capital letters, and that at some time in the past English, being a Germanic language also used capitals. However, that has long since stopped. Not for some people though, who enjoy putting capitals in the middle of sentences. Here's a great example: "I need to start doing my Homework, not leaving it until the night Before it is due." Good.

Does anyone know 'Sophie's Cafe' on Papanui Road? First of all she actually omits the apostrophe on her sign, so it reads 'Sophies Cafe' which really annoys me for a start, and then she puts up signs like: "A women's dream, and a mans best friend". I believe she is talking about a steak sandwich, but really who cares? I think someone should present Sophie (or Sophie and her best friend Sophie - i.e. Sophies) with a dictionary/grammar book. Maybe I am just being unnecessarily harsh.

However, I like language a lot, and all the amazing and clever things that can be done with it when it is used properly. Novels by clever wordsmiths like Salman Rushdie would just not be possible without it. It is just unfortunate that so many people have no idea about simple things, like what is a verb?

Quiz:
Anyone reading may like to prove their mastery of the English language by answering the following simple questions...

1. What is a verb?
2. What is an adjective?
3. Give an example of a conjunction.
4. Give an example of an adverbial phrase.
5. Conjugate two tenses of "to go"

One final question. What is it with the new use of the noun 'heart'? Suddenly it has become a verb!! For example, "I heart my Dad." actually means "I love my Dad". Interesting.

I heart English. I really really heart it.

Voyeurs Anonymous

Just thought I'd keep you updated with scandalous gossip from my life...or maybe just general info...actually not all that scandalous at all...

Excerpts from Amelia's Life

Piano Exam: Went well, although being an anally retentive perfectionist, one is always disappointed it wasn't perfect, however I have come to understand that music performance is never perfect and as long as the musical ideas are conveyed, the little mistakes don't matter.

Boys: Ah yes. What can I say... Not sure actually exactly what I can say about this area. Might just leave it. Umm... I think university life is so busy that it is almost impossible to meet new people, let alone keep in touch with older friends, so I'm not sure how anyone is supposed to meet prospective boyf's. Oh well. At least I have a degree right?

Uni Exams: Oh argh bleurch mrrgh and fsgliyat.

Singing: This is good! I have a great teacher here now, Gillian Bohan, and she has been sooooo amazing! I think I am getting better - albeit VERY slowly - and am now singing regular f's and g's and can get right up to top c quite comfortably! I'm completely amazed. And she's such a sweet older lady. I can't wait to audition for youth choir again now, and to see if Karen (our conductor) thinks I have improved.

Next year: Who would know. Still waiting on God to let me know whether I should stay in chch or go to Auckland. I would like to go to Auckland for a break before starting teacher training, but I just don't know...

Anyway, sorry for being so self indulgent, there's just such a lot to think about and so much on my mind.
Blogs are just such a good way of a) procrastinating, and b) ranting, venting, purging.

Off to bed now methinks. I can't work at night. Anything after 9 is pretty hopeless. I think I will go to bed and get up early. I work best at stupid o'clock. Between 4am and 8am is the best time of the day for me. How strange.