Blogapalooza 2016 - Day 13: LHS Winter Concert Review

     This evening my brother had his last winter concert as a high school student ... when did we get to be so old?!?!  Winter concerts are both my most and least favorite of the year.  Every year the finale is Ode to Joy.  All of the choirs come together and alumni are invited to join them on stage!  I love being able to be part of a choir again and everyone always gets so excited to sing with their friends.  What I'm not a fan of is all of the holiday music that must be put up with to get to that point.  Mrs. Rikli actually kept it pretty light in that regard this year, which was very nice!  I forgot to bring my paper and pen when I went to stand in the back (the body sprays, colognes, and laundry detergents were not only frying my brain but I felt them making me evil) so I couldn't write down my reviews of each song, but here are my best recollections.

Falcon Phenomenon

Nutcracker Jingles ... Tchaikovsky/James Pierpont, arr. Chuck Bridwell

     A hilarious take on two winter classics.  Jingle Bells words set to Nutcracker tunes are a delightful combination and Phenomenon performed it very well.

Light of a Clear Blue Morning ... Dolly Parton, arr. Craig Hella Johnson

     Sweet and clearly sung.

Volare Blue

Hodie ... Nancy Hill Cobb

     Harmonies were good.

Be Like the Bird ... Abbie Betinis, text by Victor Hugo

     I love the idea of this song.  It sounds like something I would listen to ... if I ignored the first sopranos.  They were pushing too hard and it made it shrill.

Ding! Dong! Merrily on High ... arr. Howard Cable, ed. Henry Leck

     It's a Christmas song.  I blocked it out.

Vocal Attraction

Christmas for Cowboys ... Steve Weisburg

     Cute!  I liked the staging and though the rhythm was off it was sung well.

A-Roving ... sea chantey, arr. Gary E. Parks

     Who doesn't like a sea chantey?  Very traditional.

Kings' Processional ... Debra Morton

     ... work on your rhythm.

Volare Gold

How Can I Keep from Singing ... Robert Lowry, arr. Michael Burkhardt

     I recognize this song from when I was in Treble Choir ... so weird! 

You Cannot Lose My Love ... Sara Groves, arr. Susan LaBarr

     So sweet!  I loved the words!

Jingle Bell Rock ... Joe Beal and Jim Boothe, arr. Alan Billingsley

     I danced.  It was grand.

 

Concert Choir

Carol of the Bells ... Mykola Leontovych arr. Peter Wilhousky

     One of the best live versions I've heard.  The bells were perfectly pianissimo.

Kačena Divoká ... Leoš Janáček

      This was a work in progress but it sounded pretty good anyways.  There were some harmony issues and it was dynamically flat.  Interesting story.

Bíonn Siúlach Scéalach ... Matthew Erpelding

     There is just something about Celtic music that touches me.  I was ready to cry happy tears by the time the second soloist joined in.  The parts of the choir singing the bodhrán were too loud at first but then those singing the lyrics caught up.

     Well done ladies and gents!

Blogapalooza 2016 - Day 12

     What a day!
     Today I took Charlie to the vet with my mother.  It was time to get his shots updated and a general check up.  He gets a clean bill of health though his teeth could use a clean and he's put on a few pounds.
     After I got home I got a text from the guy interested in my desk that he was on his way from Tigard.  When he got here he took a quick look and paid the full asking price!  I was so nervous!  This was my first experience selling something that large and I did it by myself!  We had to figure out how to get the hutch off but that didn't take too long, thankfully!  Phew!  My parents are so glad to have that room in the garage again!  😄
     When he left I burned off (ha ha) my nervous energy by making a candle!  As you may remember, my sister hosted a tea party and promised to make candles out of two attendee's cups.  One down, one to go!  I mixed plain paraffin, a tiny bit of one of my favorite chocolate candles (Dollar Tree sells a line of chocolate pastry themed candles that smell divine), and a teeny tiny piece of a burgundy crayon to give it the color of one of the fruity teas that was served.  I did an initial pour to fill the cup about 3/4 of the way up and left it to set while I ran to the library.  There I picked up four Mythbusters collections and ... the board game Pandemic!  I watched Wil Wheaton and guests play it on TableTop and now I want to too!
     After I got home from the library the wax had set enough to do my second pour to top the cup candle off and create a beautifully smooth top.  I am so proud of it!!

Blogapalooza 2016 - Day 11: Shuffling it up

My Spotify Favorite Recommendations on random:

I’m into Something Good/Happy Together - GQ - GQ

Red Robin - Clark Richard - Kissing Kelly

Better Than I (from Joseph: King of Dreams) - Dailyn Vail Bayles - Prayer

My New Philosophy - Ilana Levine, Kristen Chenoweth Stanley Wayne Mathis - You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown: The Broadway Musical

Lily’s Eyes - London Cast - The Secret Garden: A Musical

Broken - Ramin Karimloo - The Road to Find Out

Keep Me Warm - Erin Bowman - Keep Me Warm

Edelweiss [The Sound of Music] - Richard Rogers, Julie Andrews, London Musician’s Orchestra, Ian Fraser - Classic Julie - Classic Broadway

On the Edge - Sarah Modene - Forgetting Yesterday

Fare Thee Well Love - The Rankin Family - Reunion


We had our Increase Your Faith in Jehovah assembly yesterday so I scheduled that post and slept in today.  Then we had waffles and bacon for breakfast at noon and I went shopping with my mother, sister, and grandmother.  Therefore, I completely forgot to write my post for today!  Oops!  Here, have a list of one my playlists on shuffle.

Blogapalooza 2016 - Day 10: Favorite things to sense

👃 Favorite things to smell 👃

Freshly cut lumber

Gasoline

Orange cinnamon candle
Wooded area after rain

👂Favorite things to hear👂

Rain

Train rumbles

Baby giggles
Kitty purrs

✋Favorite things to feel✋

Day old beard stubble

Paws - gerbil, cat, dog

The concussive blast of a proper firework, the Wall of Fire, or a Blue Angel rattling my chest ... so basically the airshow

Warm rain

👅Favorite things to taste👅

Sourdough bread with butter

Orange cranberry jam

Cherry cordial Kisses

Raspberry limeade 

Blogapalooza 2016 - Day 9: Games Day

Today school and work was cancelled for most, if not all, due to the freezing rain last night.  For days like this our tradition has come to be inviting people over to play games and have food.  Today we played an off brand of Heads Up then Superfight.  I didn't win any rounds but I had fun with some of my characters.  I also discovered that I should not play Ironman.  The last time I played someone turned my Ironman into guacamole and this game my 10 story tall Ironman became a pinata. 😕  I was very proud of my terrifying bionic kindergarten class (which in my head look and act like the kindergartners on Recess) but then someone had to go and make them agoraphobic.  At least they could still chuck things out the class window.  And I want to be telekinetic Robin Hood!
     After most of our guests left my siblings and our friend Irene played Star Trek Catan.  My sister won, my brother came in second, and Irene and I tied for last/third.  Once again I was called a Romulan and my brother was a Ferengi.

Blogapalooza 2016 - Day 8: Snowpocalypse?

Lately when the town is threatened with a dusting of snow everything shuts down.  It's fun but I miss the days when it actually snowed.  Throwback Thursday anyone?

Blogapalooza 2016 - Day 7: I'd Love to Learn ...

     I'm sure everyone has their list of things they'd like to learn how to do and a while back I wrote down mine.  Unfortunately I don't have the confidence or the money to take advantage of any local opportunities to fulfill these right now, but hopefully some day!

• Learn how to do a handstand (I can do a cartwheel so I'm halfway there!)
• Learn to pick a lock
• Learn calligraphy
• Learn Russian
• Learn Sign Language
• Learn Hebrew
• Master 5 makeup tutorials
• Learn 5 dance routines from YouTube/Disney
• Get CERT trained
• Learn to make 5 types of bread
• Figure out how to make Greek Lemon Chicken soup with orzo like New Seasons  (I want to be able to eat it all the time, but without the nasty celery!)
• Learn a complete song on the piano, both hands!  (I'm good at read and playing with my right hand, but getting my left in at the same time is tough.  Rhythm is not my strong suit so I have a hard time keeping track of the timing for both parts.)
• Learn to play the guitar  (So many musicians seem to use guitars as their composing instrument and it is ever so much more portable than a piano so I think it would be a good skill to have.)
• Learn archery (longbow and compact)
• Take horseback riding lessons so I’m more comfortable around horses
• Learn how to load, unload, and shoot a gun
• Take a self defense course
• Restart piano lessons  (I know I am better at something when I am accountable to someone else so this would help with my goal of learning a full song.)
• Learn to swim confidently  (I love the water but am also terrified of it.  "Oh the shame of the polar bear who fears the water. No wonder we are shunned by our fellow bear. Woe is us." - Muk and Luk from Balto.)
• Take swing dancing lessons

     What are some things you'd like to learn?

Blogapalooza 2016 - Day 6: When I'm Sick

     Anyone else veg at the TV/their laptop when they are sick?  I certainly do!  And whatever I watch has to have a theme.  Usually I crave older movies like The Thin Man and Arsenic and Old Lace or older musicals like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers or Bye, Bye Birdie.  When I get sicker (not only do I have the whiny internal monologue of a four year old) the craving turns to kids shows and movies like Magic School Bus, Zoboomafoo, Kratt's Creatures, Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers, and Rescuers: Down Under.  When I got super sick with the flu a few years ago all I wanted to do was watch Theodore Tugboat.  Come to find out the only libraries that have it are in Canada so I spent a lot of time YouTubing it.
     This trend towards light older movies and kids shows has my selection for my most recent illness looking rather odd.  When I had a cold last week, all I wanted to watch was M*A*S*H episodes with Frank Burns, seasons of NCIS with Ziva and Director Vance and, when I ran out of those, MythBusters.  What?  XD  Boom!
     What are some of your go-to movies or shows when you're sick?

Blogapalooza 2016 - Day 5: How I Organize Characters

I forgot that today was the first day of a dogsitting job which means I got no sleep last night, which meant today did not go as planned.  I figured I'd pull back the curtain so to speak and show you a bit of how I organize my writing, specifically keeping track of characters, using a supporting character from this year's NaNoWriMo.  To begin with, I use GoogleDrive and create a table with two columns.  The left is smaller and here is where I put each character's name and any pseudonyms along with basically a head shot for each character.  I, of course, usually have many reference pictures for each character but it gets too busy visually if I include more than one in the cast sheet/archive/whatever I call it that year.  On the right is where most of the vital information goes such as appearance, family, occupation, where they live, and their personality.  Any details that reoccur and are important to the story also goes there, such as where the character lives, important ways they relate to other characters, or, for example, if there are superheros/mutants in the story what their powers are and a bit of their origin story.

     You will notice that Stephanie's table background is colored in.  I will often brainstorm scores of characters, family members, and acquaintances long before I write a word of the story and most of them will never make it into the written work.  When I begin the actual writing I will often color in the squares of characters who have actually appeared.  When my casts are too huge I will sometimes have to resort to making a whole new document with just the appearing characters and/or break it down by location (for example, Robyn has family in England and Aurelia or Rayella lives in different locations depending on the point in her life).

Blogapalooza 2016 - Day 4: Thank you Mr. Rogers

Dear Mr. Rogers,

     Thank you for encouraging creativity, musicality, curiosity,

Photo from PBS

manners and shoe tying in my childhood (I wanted to learn to tie my shoes because Mr. Rogers could). Thank you for making adults the good guys (it was the adults who went to King Friday's Kingdom of Make-Beleive, not the kids), rather than today's stereotype of out of touch, over bearing, money obsessed individuals, and showing us how to have fun at very little cost (paper bags and yarn anyone?). Thank you for pushing for funding so we could (and for the moment still can) enjoy educational and positive programming without learning to want and 'need' every product we see.
     Thank you for teaching me that it was is OK to be different (even if I do have a hard time with that concept now that I am beyond you loving reach).
     Thank you for being a wonderful human being. I am glad to have been your neighbor.

http://www.pbs.org/misterrogers/share/

I wrote this almost three years ago and somehow didn't post it.  Then I accidentally hit the 'Save' button instead of 'Publish' last night!  Oops!

Blogapalooza 2016 - Day 3

     What a day.
     It started off super frustrating.  I set all of my alarms so that I could get up in time for service out at the hall.  I even left time for me to take a shower, even though dry shampoo and I are good friends.  Slept.  Through.  Them.  All. 😞  I mean, yeah, I didn't fall asleep until 4 am, but seriously!  Barely woke up in time to nominally help with a bit of set up and take a shower before the gorgeous tea party that my sister threw!  I was still putting on makeup when the first guests arrived and I was happy to be wearing a hat so no one could tell that my hair was still wet!
     Everyone dressed up in hats or pearls or both and looked lovely.  The food was delicious: spanakopita, meats, cheeses, crackers, lemon bars, sugar cookies, and veggies to go with the tea.  I had so much fun talking about writing with some of the guests and we will be getting together again soon to iron out what the whoosit Robyn in doing in the story.  And in the end we all got to take our teacups home!  I also offered to make anyone's cup into a candle.  Two people took me up on the offer so I know what project I'll be working on next week.  :)
     After everyone left sis and I popped over to New Seasons to pick up a few groceries and we saw a bride and groom wandering around with their best man and maid of honor, still in their wedding finery (though someone had spilled something reddish purple on the side of her dress).  Evidently they had only been married a few hours.  Why anyone would decide to go to the store after a wedding is lost on me ... though I have wanted to wear one of my cosplays to go to the library.
     Now I'm sitting here eating Cherry Cordial Kisses (my favorite part of this time of year and one of my favorite Black Friday purchases) watching TableTop while trying to figure out what to post tomorrow.  I'd hoped to be a little more on top of things and have scheduled posts but children did not nap when they were supposed to and I slept when I was no supposed to.  Things should settle down on Monday.

Blogapalooza 2016 - Day 2

5 Things That Make Me Happy

1. Getting things in the mail.  My dad always seems to be getting things for his projects or the Kingdom Hall and I get just a little bit jealous.  This week I have Black Friday purchases coming in and it makes me so happy!!  Yesterday I got a snarfblat and slimy yet satisfying pin from FanFlaire.  I also love to get letters, but who writes letters anymore?  I've tried to take the initiative and have sent letters but haven't gotten any response.

2. Cosplaying popular characters.  So far I’ve gone to ComiCons as Merida and Miss Frizzle.  Both times people were very excited to see my characters, though they were different demographics.  Merida attracted small children and parents who wanted pictures for the kids they had left at home.  While not as many people stopped Miss Frizzle for pictures, almost without fail she got excited acknowledgement from anyone in the 18-30 range, with more than one squeal and excited “You were my childhood!”.  Through both of these characters I got to live out my lowkey dream of being a Disney castmember/princess and spread joy.  I also got many compliments which is also ego/self esteem boosting and awesome!  I am among my people when at ‘Cons, people who share similar passions and joys and don’t look at you funny for your excitement.  On a side note, Miss Frizzle is a hard character to pose because she always seems to be in motion.  Any ideas?

3. Being in Disneyland.  I had a lot of fun when I went with my high school choir in 2008 but I had so much more fun when I went with my sister and our fellow Mouseketeer Kelsey!  It was Deanna’s first trip, Kelsey’s millionth and an awesome combination.  The atmosphere is so happy, the food is indescribably delicious and I GOT TO MEET ARIEL first thing on the first day.  Truly the happiest place.  Even the hazmat spill on the way there added to the excitement of the trip.

4. Completing a streak on Habitica.  #notaspon  Someone on the NaNoWriMo Facebook page suggested this site/app combination as a way to establish good habits and it has really worked.  It uses the gaming method of collecting EXP and losing/gaining health.  There are also goal related quests and challenges but you have to have friends/join groups on there and I haven’t been brave enough to yet.  You set your own Daily Goals (you can decide if they happen daily, on certain days of the week, or every X number of days), Habits, and ToDo list.  I use my goals primarily to battle my depression.  I have discovered that I feel better about myself and am less likely to spiral downward if I make sure I get dressed (so far a 30 day streak), put on at least foundation (32 days), and shower regularly (22 times).  You can get eggs that grow into pets and potions to control which color they grow into.  My current pet is a desert fox.

5. Hiking Wahkeena Falls.  

It is beautiful and tough, so I feel accomplished, but not too challenging, there is a place we picnic before heading back down so we don’t push too hard.  I’ve always hiked in the winter so it has been frozen and snowy and I have loved it!  Also, because of the weather, there haven’t been very many other hikers which is wonderful.
I'd love to explore more of the Gorge, but I prefer going places with someone who has been there before and most hikers I know are very hardcore, way out of my physical abilities level.  It's a frustrating combination.

Blogapalooza 2016 - Day 1

Hello one and all!
     It's been a while since we've chatted!  I love the idea of Vlogmas but 1.) I don't vlog and 2.) I don't do Christmas, so I brainstormed with some friends and came up with BLOGAPALOOZA!  My goal is to write a blog post every day in the month of December, I'd really like to successfully complete something for once.  I have a collection of prompts to chose from if I'd like and I thought I'd start with a list of 10 things that make me happy ...  It was a good plan.  However, I started writing paragraphs for every thing and finding pictures to illustrate my point.  Oi.  Where was this motivation during NaNoWriMo?  I realized that I would not finish the list in time to post it before midnight so I decided to pop in and just say 'Hi' for today.
     How has your life been going?