Dungeons and Dragons!

Ok, I'll admit it. I'm a nerd. I know this may come as a surprise to many of you but it is totally true. I am currently DMing two DND games and I am half participating in a third dnd-type game (I say half because I just started playing it and I have only been to one session so far, if you wanna check out the story the game's creator and "DM" has created a blog of it Eternity)

Everyone has different reasons to play DND but I think we all enjoy that it is a pretend game for grown ups. I love the escapist aspects because sometimes it is nice to pretend to be somewhere else and someone else, it releases you from thinking about things - almost like meditation. I also really like the creative aspect that I am allowed to let manifest in monsters and world descriptions. I had only been playing for about 2 years before I started DMing (OH, BTW for those of you not savvy to the lingo DM stands for Dungeon Master - this person is the one that decides what monsters the heroes will fight, they create the world, they play all of the characters that the players run into and basically create the whole story and run the game). I'm still not sure I'm entirely qualified to DM because I still have a lot of questions but playing with people and DMing more and more has helped create a confidence in it that I didn't have at the beginning.

One of the groups I DM for is comprised of four 11ish year olds - it's like babysitting but better :) I have a really good time with them most weeks. We play for about 2 hours every(ish) Saturday. They are currently on a journey to find the Never Melting Snowflake which is currently in the hands of an evil sorcerer who is trying to let cold take over the entire continent. I keep trying to kill them and it keeps not working :P

The other group I'm DMing just had it's first game last week and I was inspired by some random thought in my head to base the entire game off of Alice in Wonderland. Talk about trippy to the extreme. I've been having a good time modifying the story of Alice to fit in things to fight and weapons and multiple people traveling together. I am, of course, reading Alice in Wonderland again (this is time number 2...and 3) so that I can loosely follow the story line. I am spending much more time than is necessary so that I can do this but it is so much fun that I really don't mind.

The other game that I'm playing was created by my friend Jake and is somewhat similar to DND but at the same time very different. I really like some of the things he has done differently than DND because it is much simpler to figure out and makes more real-life sense to me (how's that for an oxymoron). I hope that I will be able to play more and get a real understanding of the game rather than just a short preview.

In other news, I have written a paper detailing the differences between Lawrence and CSU that I would love a few editors to read...if you WANT to (seriously no pressure) then shoot me an e-mail and I will send it to you...I figured since that's what I started this blog about maybe some of you would have some sort of weird interest. I dunno... :-/

The random thought for the day is: I Love Emoticons. Since becoming a text-er I have come to appreciate them much more than I used to, even when I was big into IM :-P

<3

School starts again

Welcome back to school last Tuesday for CSU students!

My schedule this semester is crazy wonderful and easy. Let me lay it out for you:

Monday - (10am) Jazz Pedagogy, (11am) Trombone Studio, (1pm) Understanding Dance, (3:30pm) Trombone Lesson, (4:45pm-6pm) Concert Band

Tuesday - (11am) Independent Study, (3pm-4:30pm) Symphonic Band

Wednesday - Monday without the trombone lesson

Thursday - (3pm-4:30pm) Symphonic Band, (7:30pm-9:30pm) African Drum and Dance

Friday - (1pm) Understanding Dance, every other week (4pm-5pm) Symphonic Band Sectionals

Jazz Pedagogy is taught by someone whom I idolize a little bit and have for years: Peter Sommer. He is a saxophonist, amazing at that, and he is a great teacher. Since I am not really a music education student anymore this class is not necessary, but I am interested and my three best friends here are in the class so that makes it even that much more enjoyable.

Trombone studio is a once a week meeting of trombone players, usually all low brass. While it is sometimes organized differently than I would have done, it is good studio bonding.

Understanding Dance is a class that I originally decided to take because it will give me credits not in music when I return to Lawrence. After two class periods I am really looking forward to the course material and teacher.

Concert Band is for fun. I am playing tuba and I am SO excited!!!!

My independent study is on band literature/history/stuff. It has yet to be fully decided and that's alright with me. There are two other people involved in this, one is my new friend Joe (who will become one of my new best friends though he doesn't know it yet) and my amazing band director, Dr. Nick.

Symphonic Bans is also fun, not completely for fun but it is great. Unfortunately, this semester my bass trombone friend, Mark, could not be in an ensemble and my new friend has yet to actually show up....but Dr. Nick is the director and he always picks great music and gives us good comments.

African Drum and Dance will be simply amazing. It's taught by a girl who I know and I am just generally super excited.

So yeah, it should be an fairly easy and fun semester!

Home Improvement

As I was replacing the light in the office that I'm helping my parents re-vamp I was reflecting that I have gotten all of my home improvement knowledge from helping my parents with these types of projects. The past few days I have clocked just over 10 hours removing "popcorn" from the ceiling. removing floor boards, removing tack strips (after not stepping on too many), removing nd replacing the light (so I could get to the ceiling), removing cupboards, sanding so the paint lines won't stand out, painting the walls, spackling the walls and a little light plumbing to help with the removal with the "popcorn". It's amazing. I'd never thought about how much I'm learning until I took a step back and looked at all that I had done. Wow. I mean, where else does one learn these....skills? Books when you need to fix your own house? watching a youtube? or do you just give up because you believe it is difficult (or too messy) and hire someone? Just thoughts.

If you get the chance, help people with home improvement projects, you'll thank yourself later.

Also, as I was painting the wall this great green color I realized that when I own a place, every room will be some shade of purple. It won't be intentional probably but it'll happen. :)

Look at me blog! I'm so proud of me! :P

Happy New Year!

Alright, so I'm technically 8 days late. whatever. get over it.

I've never really come to terms with new years being a big thing anyway. Right now my life is still run on a school calendar so my new years happen in September usually and I find the one in January to be quite awkward actually. I mean, yeah, I stay up till midnight and say rabbit rabbit rabbit (just like the first of EVERY month, when I remember) and happy new year. I attempt to come up with some resolutions and think about the past year but it feels weird. Especially this year because I'm between two different schools and I think I've done too much thinking and had too many different experiences to have remained the same person. In fact, I'm positive I'm not the same person as I was last year, or even as I was in August (when I started at CSU).

As long as I'm being all reflective, and a little hippocritical, let's look at my year in review:

• Word of the year: Epiphany. why is this my word? because I've had a lot of them and I just learned how it was spelled and I think it's wonderful.
• Name of the year: Ingrid. This is what I named my bass trombone and it is also:
• Favorite Music/Artist of the year: Ingrid Michaelson. I love her, this has already been mentioned.
• Best book I read last year: I haven't really read much, regrettibly, but I think I'd have to say The World is Flat By Thomas Friedman. I actually read this for one of my classes and as I have said a few times in the past few months "This damn book is ruining my life" as I realized just how right Mr. Friedman is/was.
• Band Piece of the year: Armenian Dances. Just is, played it twice and LOVE IT!
• Favorite thing I baked: My birthday cake: Chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, chocolate ganache.
• Drink of the year: Tea. if I had to pick one flavor, it would be vanilla strawberry rose, which I just learned has been discontinued and I wanted to cry.
• Website of the year: Google. Duh.
• Webcomic of the year: Questionable Content. If you're gonna read it you should really start from the beginning
• Biggest FAIL of the year: this blog, also mentioned before
• Punctuation of the year: ...yeah...
• Addiction of the year: Texting. OMG, texting.
• Phrase of the year: points for trying. I think...there might be another one....not sure.

So...resolutions...I make them but I'm still not sure how I feel about them...I think in part because I resolve to do things all year round, it's not a special thing for me. Just because the calendar year changes doesn't mean I need to pick RIGHT NOW to start new and over and make huge amazing changes in my life. I do that whenever I feel like I need to. This year kind of happened to fall near new years....points for me?

Anyway...welcome to my new year, glad you're a part of it :)

~Renee

EPIC FAIL

So...I didn't write a single post during the entire month of November....whoops.

Anyway....I think I'm kinda done with the blogging thing in general because I made a decision....yay being decisive! After much consideration and thinking I realized that I will forever regret not trying to be a performer unless I go out there and try! After experiencing the conservatory environment and the school of music environment I have determined that for me to feel prepared out in the world as a performer I need to graduate from a conservatory. Given this, I will be going back to Lawrence next year. I will graduate in 2011 with a degree in trombone (bass trombone) performance. Then I will either go to grad school, take auditions or go live in New York and work at a diner to pay bills while practicing and gigging whenever possible. Overall I am very excited.

There are many-several reasons why the conservatory environment works better for me, the biggest one probably being the motivation of other students practice habits that I have found to be much more lax at CSU. I also really enjoy the constant activity and concert schedule at Lawrence - not to mention that they are almost all free! I am also looking forward to being in a studio where there are a whole lot of bass trombonists again, there are 4ish here which is not too shabby but compared to the 8ish at Lawrence? not nearly as good :)

There are things I will miss about CSU and things that I will not enjoy about Lawrence (like the cost) but things will even out :)

As always, would love to hear from you!!!

Happy Holiday Season!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~Renee

Education Classes

I wish I could make this is VERSES and do a comparison but I didn't really take any education classes at Lawrence. I think education classes are a very intersting sort of breed of class...in some ways the teachers should be the cream of the crop so that the future educations are learning from the best educators, in other ways it's ok if they're not the best because then we learn from their mistakes. I'm taking four education courses this semester and they are: EDUC 275 - Schooling in the United States, High Brass Techniques, Flute/Double Reed Techniques and Vocal Techniques.

EDUC 275 is basically exploring the history of schooling in the United States. Different problems concerning stereotypes about race, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic standing, etc. how they have been dealt with, how they are still a problem and a few ways to attempt to change the standards associated with them. The teacher, Dr. Aragon, does a good job of explaining how she is directing us when she has us do an activity so that we learn from our experiences. I have also enjoyed having discussions with the other people in the class. It is my personal opinion that future educators are some of the most interesting people to have conversations with. I have also come to appreciate my schooling history because I am in disbelief about a lot of the problems we are learning about because I have never experienced them: my high school teachers (and other teachers, high school is the most fresh) did an amazing job!!! Part of me wonders to what extent my education was impacted by IB, what part amazing teachers, what part my peers, what part my parents/sister and what part being in Fort Collins, oh and of course, what part of just plain old me? I don't anticipate ever being able to answer these questions...but I think about them. I have also noticed how much more hyper-sensitive and aware of how ALL my teachers are teaching me now. I notice things I never would have though about before - especially about gender bias and race. I have also begun to be critical of the stereotypes presented in the media and American culture in general....I have no other comparison from other cultures or I'm sure I'd be critical of them as well.

High Brass Techniques has been the most intersting for me to think about and observe in rather than learn how to play trumpet and french horn. Since I am a brass player I have found that picking up another brass instrument has been very simple and I barely have to think. I have found it interesting to se what the other people in my class, who are not brass players, are having trouble with. I try to think about what I would tell them if I were their private teacher or band director. There are a lot of similarites in how I would teach a beginning trombone student and a beginning trumpet student but there are also a few big differences. I have also found it very intesting to see how my ideas of how to solve learner's problems have varied from my teachers strategies. One of the big lessons I have learned is that teaching transposition is one of the most difficult concepts to grasp and to teach. I start on French Horn next week...wish me luck!

Flute/Double Reed Techniques has been a very in-depth learning experience. I would still not describe myself as adept at flute but I can make some pretty noises. My fingers have a very difficult time staying and moving as they should but the good news is that air support has been no problem! I have developed a much higher regard for my friends who play flute...really anyone who plays flute well, it's harder than I had originally thought. Dr. Moody does a really good job of bringing individuals up to the front of the class and then asking for suggestions instead of just giving us all the answers. Next week I start oboe....we'll see how much better my fingers do with a vertical position, and I'll see if I can learn to breath less :)

Vocal Techniques has had a few very intersting moments: I am apparently a soprano - I had always assumed I was an alto. Last week we looked at pictures and videos of inside the vocal tract when someone is singing and talked about all of the bad things that can happen if you don't take care of your voice. Dr. Heil has a lot of really good experience and knowledge that she is very willing to share with us.

Well....that was a little longer than I anticipated.

So yesterday I hugged my friend Andrew good bye because he went home this weekend and another of my friends remarked that he must really like me because he closed his eyes when we hugged...this made me ponder when I close my eyes when I hug people...I'm pretty sure I close my eyes every time

Do you close your eyes when you hug someone? does it matter who it is?

So...I've been a little negligent in my postings

You may have noticed that it's been a while since my last post....there's a good reason I promise.

1) I have kind of run out of things to write about. I know that there are still things, I have a lot to say, but it's not objective comparisons or positive things and I would hate for one of my teachers to read this and get the wrong impression

2) I am SO sick of thinking about how CSU is not Lawence, when it's a constant voice in my head it's really hard to get up the motivation to spend 23ish minutes writing about such differences

3) If you haven't heard Romanovsky and Phillips' Emotional Rollercoaster then you won't really understand my AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. I tried to find it on youtube but I couldn't. or I would have posted a link. You can find a short clip on Amazon if you're really curious.

Anyway...that's what my life has been like and for the past few weeks I have been moving in a mostly downward motion. When Renee is upset with things she doesn't want to talk about them, write about them, think about them or really have anything to do with them. Now, when I'm upset with school I still have to go...so problem. It took everything I had to be able to go to school, do my homework and appear to be mostly normal. The biggest thing that continued to make actually happy were (and are) my amazing friends...but I already wrote a post about them...hence lack of posting.

Here are the most important friends in my life at the moment:

Andrew Deem - he plays trombone and is majoring in Music Education...he is responsible for introducing me to these other wonderful people and is from Colorado Springs

Tiki (Tiffany Key) - she plays flute and is also majoring in Music Education, she went to Rocky Mt. High School here in Fort Collins so we think we've met before but aren't entirely sure

Batman! (Cory Bissell) - he plays bass clarinet in band and trombone in marching band, he is also majoring in Music Education and is from Virginia

Tess Stoops - I actually met through my friend Celeste, she is not in band, majoring in something and we have a Friday date (either breakfast or lunch) that always makes my week more wonderful

In answer to your questions yes, I'm feeling much better, "Things are looking up, it's a great little world we live in..." (extra special bonus points if you know where this is from) and I wil be updating much more regularly now.

Smiles :) :D