Orchestral Spy

Summer Housing

2006-03-14T01:23:54Z

Are there any apartments nearby that rent out for just the summer? I'll be staying to work and possibly take summer classes, but the price to stay in the dorms is outrageous. If anyone knows of a place or needs a roommate, let me know.
caleb

The Gigatron 4000

2005-12-12T04:10:09Z

CSS Headaches

2005-07-26T06:59:00Z

I'm up about 3 hours later than I intended to be tonight, researching W3C standards and browser inconsistencies, style sheet properties, and web design porn.
Examples:
http://www.csszengarden.com/ <-- One content, displayed in drastically different and beautiful ways. Click a display on the right navigation bar
http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/css/edge/popups/demo.html/ <-- Dynamic content without using javascript or images. Hover mouse over lefthand nav bar links
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/alternate/ <-- "Oh God I have a lot more research to do than I thought"

It's getting late and I'm punchy- for some reason I thought it was funny that I'm getting a headache because I can't get all the info on something I'm interested in.

Career change

2005-07-04T19:56:00Z

I've decided to drop my music education major- I know I don't want to go into public school teaching. It just seemed like the natural thing to do after high school, but it won't fulfill me the way I need it to. I'm going to replace it with a major in computer science, leaving the music composition where it is- I'll always be a composer.
This is just the first step. I need to look up the degree requirements, courses offered, and see about getting an advisor. Really excited. I'll let you know how it turns out.

summer work

2005-06-28T16:44:11Z

While looking through job applications online for summer work (I'm considering spending the rest of the summer in syracuse) I wandered across several ads for web developers and information systems admins. It's strange; I've never been as excited about teaching as I have about being a design professional. I think I'm reconsidering my education major for the first time.

Mason sickness

2005-05-08T02:04:59Z

I've come down with a fever, and only two days until my jury. It's weird, I'm dizzy and tired but can't sleep. Thermometer doesn't know what the hell to do. I want to stay in bed all day but I can't afford to.. guess this is what they mean by the daily grind.

Kayle

2005-02-10T20:12:22Z

My roommate (with his nose to the desk):
"My parents are paying.. a thousand dollars for me to go to college.. and I'm friggin coloring in squares."

Trans, tempo

2005-02-05T01:43:39Z

Don't worry, we talked it over.
I have no regrets.

Spectrum

2005-01-30T15:32:35Z

Anima

2005-01-25T18:22:56Z

I guess I thought that I'd have an easier time with everything if I had someone behind me. That I'd have a better work ethic if I had someone to come home to, that I'd feel more confident if I knew someone believed in me. I've been desperate since I came here to form a meaningful connection with just one other person.
Makes me realize though what a messed up view of morality I have. For whatever reason, I still think that the end justifies the means- that as long as I'm happy in the end, it doesn't matter how much I suffer to get there. I wasn't counting on feeling like I'd just stabbed one of my best friends in the back, though. This is a deeper regret than I planned on.
This has to change. I feel like the way I'm going, I'll never be successful and fulfilled. I read in one of my education books that a child's self worth and ethics are created as small children, and are unchangeable after that.. does it mean that I'm fated to drag my feet like this through everything? I'm trying to think of a success story that began with someone like me, but it's possible that my "overcoming" this sludge is just a daydream, too. Maybe some things can't be changed, and success isn't changing them, but continuing despite them. That's a depressing thought though; I'd like to believe still that what they told me as a kid is true, and anything is possible if you put your mind to it.

Do you ever look back on something stupid or embarrassing you did and shudder, and wish you could forget it? Come on, there must be. When I was young I replaced the word "witch" with "bitch" in a performance in elementary school, and the class gasped in shock before I could correct the mistake. Any time that memory occurs to me, I duck my head inside my shirt like a turtle.
But I don't ever wish I could forget those things. I want to remember all of my mistakes (even a slip of the tongue before middle school) so that I can learn from them and not make them again. But isn't it a stupid philosophy, to plan to make mistakes? If I were a successful person, wouldn't I plan to not make them, because I would be capable of avoiding them?

I don't know how I could do something so cruel to one of my friends. Would I do that to anyone? To my brother? I don't know what's sacred to me. I hope I can fix this.

Part time job in syracuse

2005-01-09T11:38:36Z

I found this at my credit union:

10/25/04
We have one opening for a part-time teller, M - F 10:00 - 2:00, at our Syracuse branch. Seeking customer-focused individuals to provide world-class quality service to our membership. Cash handling experience required, financial services experience preferred. Starting pay $8.45/hour plus discretionary incentive pay.
Send resume to human resources, PowerCareers@powerfcu.com

g what?

2004-12-28T16:28:08Z

I have 6 gmail invites left, if anyone wants to use one. I got the account back in septermber, and haven't used it since, but I can see how it might be useful to somebody. I've had my hotmail account for too long to part with it, I guess. If you'd like an invite, leave me your email address.

Donations

2004-12-26T12:55:02Z

"More than 10,000 people have been killed across southern Asia in massive sea surges..."
BBC News link

It's unbelievable, so many people dying so quickly. Please follow this link if you would like to make a donation to AMURT, a non-government organization that's responding to the crisis. (find the Donate link at the top) AMURT

Final, Vulnus

2004-12-16T22:29:28Z

Tomorrow morning I take my last final exam, a snare drum performance for three of the best percussion majors in the studio. I'm hoping to impress my peers.
My interest in public school teaching isn't what it used to be. I know I want to be a teacher, but maybe middle and high school are too "mainstream," too much like a job that you trudge to in the morning just to pay the bills. I want to do something that I enjoy, so I'm glad I'm studying composition too. Wish I had a tight plan.

Before the semester began, I noticed a faint but constant pain in my stomach, a dull twinge that never faded. I figured it would pass, but it's grown steadily worse, until about a month ago when I doubled over my desk in agony during class and was unable to concentrate on the lecture. I've been seeing a series of doctors since then, been to the emergency room and a gastro specialist, and nobody has been able to tell me anything conclusive. Worse than the pain (which is mild now) is not knowing what causes it. I think I'm the type to worry "what if"s.

This stubborn battle with my body, and my diminished social life have taken a toll on my Motivation- it's hard to work on long term goals like performance ability when your health is suffering. I'm hoping that the doc back home can fix me up, that I can restore some old friendships and then maybe I'll be able to labor again for the long term.

Last weeks

2004-12-07T17:15:50Z

Getting really busy now with composition exams, on top of my jury and the other tests. This next two weeks are going to be so busy and stressful, and I love it. I want to keep this feeling when I go home for the summer.
I haven't touched my website in months. Maybe over winter break I'll get back into it.. a few major code faults make it unaccessible by many of the members. There's some inconsistency in the definitions of some code functions.. no one can tell me the precise order the page headers should be sent in. Cookies aren't being set on some windows users' machines, and almost everyone is complaining about problems logging in, or ugly page errors. It wasn't a problem before- I need to host myself, rather than buying space from an amateur web company.
Much of the talent in the percussion studio here is graduating this semester. It's a little depressing- there are four or five incredible musicians that I really look up to that I'll probably never get to know personally because I didn't have enough time with them here. I remember feeling like this in high school too: in a few years I'll be a senior and have no one to look up to.
I'm making a lot of progress, and I think I have a lot of options open to me. I don't want to get stuck doing something I don't enjoy.

Guard

2004-11-07T20:28:29Z

Social interaction: YOU FAIL

Ad lib..

2004-10-27T20:33:49Z

This

is D and Scott
Fill in the bubbles!

The sociology of education?

2004-10-17T21:33:35Z

My foundations class continues to haunt me from the grave.
When will my torment end??

For the record, I don't think teaching should be like this. They say that we're experiencing an educational crisis, that 17 percent of first-year college students take remedial writing classes and that there are 24 million illiterate adults in the US. But, we still have our geniuses, our artists and politicians and doctors and philosophers. So yes, maybe our education system is faulty, but I think it says nothing about our intelligence. I'm going to be a teacher, and I don't care what my foundations teachers would say, I'm going to do it in the way that I feel is right.

Responsive Educator, and Incurable Procrastinator

2004-10-09T18:27:51Z

I'm doing my mid-term portfolio for my Foundations of Teaching music class.. it's killing me. I had huge ethical issues with the class to begin with, and now I have to regurgitate meaningless vocabulary words and nonsensical one-paragraph essays just to get a passing grade, regardless of how much I've learned in the class.
I am not a happy camper. I actually yearn for aural theory homework.

The seas

2004-10-03T00:21:39Z

I walked around on the roof of Mason hall tonight. It was weird, and dreamlike. The silence up there was predatory and inviting and new. It was a huge relief- it means there's still mysteries here after all.
I took some pictures, but very few of them came out well. This

is a picture of Ring Road, which ends at Mason Hall, our music building. I think I'll use it to make the banner of Trumpetman 4.

Medic

2004-10-01T18:46:53Z

My week started badly, but the last few days have been good. I think, to be happy, I have to meet somebody new every day.
My percussion class is getting very difficult.. I was in physical pain until a few nights ago, when I learned how to do a drum roll with my fingers rather than my wrists. It felt great to know what my instructors were talking about finally.
It took me a year to complete The Higher Pantheism, for piano and voice. Doc Bohlen is giving me two months now to write five pieces of music for the mozart concert. I'm a little anxious.

Survey, Strongbad Style

2004-08-29T17:21:22Z

LAST PERSON WHO...
x. Slept in your bed- DELETED!!

HAVE YOU
x. Gotten in a fight with your pet: No, but my mom's dad once got into a herculean half-hour brawl with their dog, Princess, who was the Hulk and never lost a fight with anything.
x. Worst feeling in the world: Hatred, Anger

FAVORITE...
x. Month: Autumn. Like in Harvest Moon.

IN THE LAST 72 HOURS, HAVE YOU...
x. Met someone new: Yeaaa

FIRSTS
DELETED!!

LAST
last CD played: Trumpet Concertos- The Haydn, Movement Three. Pwned. :P

NOW
DELETED!!

RIGHT NOW, WHAT ARE YOU
thinking about: stupid foundations homework

A Dream and Fredonia

2004-08-29T17:12:26Z

I figured I'd have weird dreams after watching Evil Dead last night, and I was right.
There was an old man that my mother and I were searching for, a magician who we could find miles to the west. The sun had set, so our prairie was tinted purple. I picked my mother up, and jumped, and rose miles into the air. It was like watching a false dawn- from high up we could see the sun again, and down below, the plains we lived on, and the hut of the old man. My rise peaked, and then I started falling, and it was a roller coaster rush. I remember being really happy.
He had something we needed, some small object, but wasn't willing to do business. I gestured, and the lights in his study turned on. He chortled, and sat down to bargain with us.

..In the waking world, I have an Educational Foundations class that's supposed to prepare me for how to teach. It's depressing, I think it's supposed to weed out the people who won't be able to stand the tediousness of the job. Every week we have to do a reflective journal on the assigned reading.. though Dr. Levy didn't tell us what the purpose of the journal is.
Though I suppose it does its job of encouraging us to actually do the reading.

Otherwise I love my classes. Drumming circles in Percussion Class, score analysis in Composition Seminar, and private lessons on tuesday. I'm pumped.

Day 1, Complete

2004-08-21T17:13:15Z

Mostly finished unpacking- my roommate and I are squared away. He's gone again for Pennsylvanis... I don't think he's as crazy about being here as I am.
My parents and my uncle Kenny helped me put things away in my room and set up my bed. My dad wanted me to show him around campus, so we went to mason and Dodd's hall, and then then left to look at the lake. I realized after they left that they all kinda felt like I was chasing them off so I could be alone with my school, and now I feel bad. I called them and tried to explain it. I'll talk to them all on the phone later.
Had a nice nap.. it was pretty rough getting up at quarter to 8 this morning. It feels so great to be moved in; I love it here.

Moving In

2004-08-20T17:08:12Z

Going down until tomorrow evening- my dad is here to help me move into college, so I'll be busy until tomorrow. I can't wait to see my room!
..It's so weird to have my parents under the same roof again. A second ago I almost said, "Mom, Dad," for the first since I was thirteen.
So, we'll be leaving tomorrow morning. See you guys there.