Tuesday, October 12, 2010

I miss life...


I have no life, it really sucks.
School, marching band, sleep.
School, marching band, sleep.
School, marching band, sleep.
It's ALL I do. BAH!
It'll be quite bittersweet when it ends though, because then I'll be bored out of my head.
In other news, we got first place at our competition on Saturday! WOO!
AAAAND it's the 50th blog post! Yay!
Many calls for celebration, but alas, I must leave you. Can you guess what I have to do? ;)
I miss you all. I'll see you when I get back to having free time.
♥♫♪JMJ

Friday, September 24, 2010

A day off? What?


So guess what?
I have a day off. OMG.
I literally have nothing to do today after school. It's very very strange.
It's usually school Monday-Friday (duh) and Marching band every day except Wednesdays and Sundays. However, on Wednesdays I go to the Elbow Room to study with a couple of friends after school and on Sundays I have church and youth group. So I literally have a day off of stuff besides school today because we have no marching band.
AAAAH it's weird!
:O
We do, however, have a competition tomorrow, so I have to be up early. But on the bright side, we go to Bob Evan's first thing in the morning. Yay for starting a day with Bob Evan's! :D
So anyway, I believe I'm finished. Look for posts soon, I'll try to update more often. :)
♥♫♪JMJ

Monday, September 6, 2010

So...


New template! Yay!
In other news:
I have an idea. A couple of you have heard me talking about this fantastic mini-series that was made for CBS called Harper's Island. I was on Sparknotes and saw that they blogged each chapter of the Twilight saga and I was like "Hmm... I wonder if I could blog something like that, but I don't know what I should blog about." Then I got to thinking that I'm the only one out of my friends that's watched Harper's Island. Lightbulb! :)
Sooooo, here's where you come in. I need feedback on whether or not it's a good idea to do recaps of my own to inform you all of this fantastic series. I'll let you know what it's about with the website's show description:
HARPER'S ISLAND is about a group of family and friends who travel to a secluded island off the coast of Seattle for a destination wedding. This island is famous for a streak of unsolved murders from seven years ago. Although they've come to laugh and to love, what they don't know is they've also come to die. As the wedding festivities begin, friendships are tested and secrets exposed as a murderer claims victims, one by one, transforming the wedding week of fun and celebration into a terrifying struggle for survival. In every episode, someone is killed and every person is a suspect, from the wedding party to the island locals. By the end of the 13 episodes, all questions will be answered, the killer will be revealed and only a few will survive.

So yeah. It's pretty awesome if you're into murder mysteries and such. Give some feedback on whether or not to do this project, I'd really appreciate it. :)

♥♫♪JMJ

Sigh.


Today's the last day of summer.
...
Oh well. Nothing's going to change just because I whine.
Anyway, I've literally been the busiest I've ever been in my entire life. It's not very fun, but at least I'm not bored. :)
Yay optimism!
I've decided that I'm going to spend the last day of summer doing nothing, because this is one of the rare days I'll be able to. If there's another do-nothing day, I'll jump up and down and scream hallelujah, then I'll go take a nap. BECAUSE I CAN! :D
Excitement is abroad.
Also, I think I'll be looking for another blogger template, because I'm getting bored of mine. Look out for one sometime soon. :)
♥♫♪JMJ

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Freaked.


Yesterday, during marching band of course, my hip started to hurt. I figured it was just muscle fatigue and it was no big deal. Right?


WRONG.



Of course, at the end of rehearsal, my hip was still hurting. I put all of my stuff away, went to the car, and rode home. However, the second I stepped out of the car...

HIP SHANK.
Oh my. It hurt so badly that I literally almost fell over. I couldn't even walk.
I pretty much limped into the house and up to bed.
The next morning, I woke up and expected my hip to feel better. I got up out of bed and then
DOUBLE HIP SHANK.
I seriously couldn't even march today. I had to sit in the stands during rehearsal and during the full runthrough I had to stand next to the pit and just play my part.
So naturally, I'm freaking out. We have a football game in two days and I pulled a hip muscle.
OMGAHHHHHHHHFREAKOUT!
What am I going to do?
:/
♥♫♪JMJ

Thursday, August 26, 2010

BAH.


I'm upset.
My copy of Sweeney Todd decided it wasn't going to work anymore.
Or at least not when I wanted to watch it last night.
Bad mood.

In other news, first football game tomorrow! Yeah woohoo marching band plays at halftime! I'm tired.
Goodnight.
♥♫♪JMJ

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Band camp, oh band camp.


So as you all know, I was gone for band camp this week. Let me just begin by saying that this is pretty much a recap. Although I can't tell you everything that went on, (don't worry, I kept it G-rated. Lol) I will give you a little idea of what went on. I have no idea how long this will be, so I'm sorry if this is like three books long. :P
Let's begin by explaining the schedule.

7:00 AM Wake up
7:45 Calisthenics/stretches on the field
8:00 Breakfast
9:00 Basic Block/Rehearsal #1
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Sectionals
3:30 Break
5:00 Block
5:15 Dinner
6:00 Rehearsal #2
9:00 Event Preparation
9:45 Evening Event

Wake up is pretty self explanatory. Lol. However, with twelve girls in a cabin, we generally got up earlier to make sure everyone got ready and had time to get all of their stuff done.

Calisthenics is basically stretching, doing really basic cardio-like workouts, and just getting yourself warmed up for the day.

Breakfast. I'll just say that it was camp food. If you've ever been to a camp, you know how camp food goes.

Basic block.
Ugh.
I seriously HATE basics with a burning passion.
Basics are pretty much lining up in about fifteen lines of five people and listening to our instructor finding ways to torture us.
Band ten hut!
Horns up, move!
Okay, your assignment is quadrant one of the diamond drill. Eight 8 to 5's forward, twelve steps diagonally to the left, backwards style, and eight 8 to 5's to the right. Now remember, keep your shoulders forward and traverse on the third set. Keep those horns up. Remember your duts. Oh wait, Ben put his horn up late. Everyone start over.
Horns down, move!
Horns up, move!
Nope, Sara was late.
Horns down, move!
Horns up, move!
And by this time, my arms, back, calves, neck, shoulders, and feet are hurting so badly that they feel like they're on fire.
HATE.

Rehearsals usually consisted of learning dots. Basically if you know how to graph on an X Y one quadrant graph, you can do dots. However, basics and dots are tied together, so they were pretty uncomfortable unless you were doing them without the horn. Putting the music to them was also weird.

Lunch.

Sectionals was always one of my favorite times of the day. We just met up as the high brass section and worked on how we sounded, memorization, and keeping ourselves focused on more than just making sure we're marching the right way. We had a guy named Matt as our instructor. Basically it was "Hey guys, how are you? Alright, now forget that marching band crap, let's work on one chorale for two hours." Which frankly was kind of boring but at least it wasn't painful. Matt also recommended that I try out for the Flint Youth Symphony and a Brass Quintet that he leads, which I think I'll do if I can because I'm awesome. Lol :)

Break was pretty much spent laying down and eating junk every day. If I wasn't doing that, I was filling out my dot book. I'm glad a break was put into the day, but I wish it was longer. :P

Dinner block was a bit better because it was only fifteen minutes and it was usually an activity. The first day it was pretty much mini-basics, the next couple of days, it was E-block. E-block was an exercise where we had to follow directions and try not to mess up or we'd be out. However, it was all trick questions. I got out during this exercise:
Band ten hut!
Band parade rest!
Horns up, move!
*motion horn up*
Oooooh, you can't put your horn up during parade rest! You are OUT!
Fail.
However, on Friday, we did this thing colled a C-block.
The C stands for concentration.
The seniors come out either wearing something absolutely ridiculous, doing something absolutely ridiculous, or saying something absolutely ridiculous. The goal is to keep your concentration, stand at perfect attention, and not laugh. I failed.
Julianne somehow managed to not laugh when Travis whispered in her ear "I'm going to take a hot stick of butter and rub it all over you, then lick it all off. Drop. By. Drop." Which I would have died laughing at. Kathryn, however, managed to surprise us all by actually making it the whole fifteen minutes.

Dinner.

Rehearsal #2 is basically doing the same thing as rehearsal #1 but with instruments and playing the music along with it. It was harder, though, because it was later in the day and we were all really tired and sore.

After rehearsal, we'd go back to our cabins and change, do what we needed to do, and make sure we were ready for whatever event was going on that evening.

Monday: Game night
This is where we discovered Linda. More on this later.
We played cards, knight rider princess, and chilled in the shelter house for a little while. It was fun. :)
PRINCESS! AAAAAH!

Tuesday: Dance
I can't dance, but I tried. I also taught Chris how to do love shack. Lol

Wednesday: Movie night
We watched Up. It was fantastic :) We ate popcorn, sat on couches, and laughed at all of the-
SQUIRREL!
Hi there. :)

Thursday: Skit night
There are no words for this. I may post a video on facebook if I can, but I don't know if it'll let me.

Friday: Senior ceremony
This night was the emotional one. It was the seniors' very last night at Echo Grove band camp and we performed a traditional ceremony where we waited for the seniors to march toward us and light candles, then we walked on a lit path and sang kumbaya until we got to a campfire in the woods. Strange, I know, but it's a tradition that I thought was pretty cool. When we got to the campfire, our director gave a speech and then the seniors gave their own speeches about how they loved to march and how worthwhile it is, which inspired me to stick with it and persevere through the painful horn angles. Lol. After that, we watched videos of previous shows, ate junk food, and had a good time overall.

Quotes

"Wait, are you part cow?"
"Yeah, it's in my genes."
"NOOOOOO!"

"I HAVE A JOKE!"
"It's going to be a dead baby joke, I know it."

"Gum! Aaaaah!"
"Where?"
"Right there!"
"Where?!"
"Kathryn, right there."
"I don't see it!"
"OMG Kathryn it's right in front of your face!"

"Everyone knows that zippers go on the back."
"Obviously these people didn't."
"Well they're dumb."

"So she decided to do what any sensible woman would do back then and became a prostitute."

"No, fathead! Don't sit on my duffel bag!"

"Mitchell, you cursed my horn, I can't play high F's."
"It's because he licked his mouthpiece on your horn."
...
"HAHAHAHAHA!"

"She looks like a little boy!"
"That was terrible word choice."

"Amber, there's bacon!"
"BACON?! Yes!!"
"Wait, that's sausage. Nevermind."
...
"You pig."

"Okay, the farther we get at band camp, the better we do at states."
"It's true. OH MY GOODNESS, I COULD GRAPH IT!"

Overall, band camp was a fantastic, yet painful, experience that I can't wait to do again next year. It's really fun and extremely rewarding, so if you're ever on the fence about it, fall to the side in which you join. :)
Yeeeeah, band camp. :D
♥♫♪JMJ

Thursday, August 12, 2010

OMG


So those of you that play Nancy Drew, be excited. I found a recipe for Koko Kringle bars. I will hold for the applause. :)


Ingredients:
1 bag of Hershey's Dark (Or Milk, if you wish.) Chocolate Chips
1 Cup of mixed peanuts and cashews
2 1/2 cups of Rice Krispies


1. Put the mixed peanuts and cashews into a ziplock bag and crush. (I stopped when the crumbs where as small as I could make them.)
2. Pour the chocolate and nuts into a stove top cooking pot, turn stove onto medium and stir the chocolate and nut mix until it is nicely melted. Make sure to keep stirring so the chocolate doesn't scorch.
3. Add the Rice Krispies into the pot, keep stirring until they are mixed in well.
4. Pour the chocolate onto a cookie sheet and make the chocolate nice and even.
5. Let the chocolate set until it's slightly hardened
6. Cut into rectangles
(I printed out the Koko Kringle wrapper I found on Her's Facebook wall photo's album and cut the chocolate so that it could be wrapped in it.)
7. Wrap the bars in foil (like the chocolate bars you find in the store are) and then wrap them in the Koko Kringle wrapper.

Truly, I don't know what you could use to substitute for the nuts. Toffee pieces, maybe?? Try it out and let me know if it's good. :)
♥♫♪JMJ

Woot!


Mini camp is officially

Overrrrrr! :D

However, band camp is on Monday. It will be fantastic though, I can just see it.
My arms are still noodles. What a surprise, right? Lol. But I hope I can keep my horn up by the time we get to a competition. It'll be a stretch, but I think I can get myself to do it.

By the way, I apologize that all of my posts lately have been about marching band, but frankly, nothing else is going on. Lol, maybe the next few days will produce a non-marching band post.
I love youuuu :)

♥♫♪JMJ

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Tired.


I'm sorry for any spelling mistakes in this post, but I'm too tired to fix them.
I love marching band, but sometimes it's just kind of a "Why are you doing this to me when I was just having so much fun?"
Because of this, everything is sore except my head. My knees are especially taking it hard from marching backwards. I have nothing better to do, so I'm going to make a list.

Things I Love

About Marching


1. Dots. (Where you should be on the field in relation to the music.) They're epic. It took me a little longer to learn them, but once I got them, they were fantastic. :)
2. The music. It's challenging, but not too challenging. Plus, sectionals are fun.
3. Marching 8 to 5. (Eight steps to five yards) I am not meaning this in a bragging way, but I was pretty much a natural. The instructors were like, "Okay. Don't look down, but try to land on the yard line in eight steps." I was like "Crap. I won't be able to do this." But I did it perfectly, so I was very proud of myself. :)
4. The "family". Everyone in marching band loves each other and is very friendly. Well, unless you're really annoying, but you get the picture.
5. Instructors, because they're very helpful and patient. I was learning dots today and one of the instructors was patient with me and helped me get the hang of it through my first two dots until I got it right. They'll correct you if you're wrong, but do it in a nice way. They won't accept less than perfect, but that's what you need.

Things I, Well,

Don't Love About Marching


1. Horn angles. Omg. Keeping your arms up to maintain your horn angle feels like you're being stabbed repeatedly and the only way to stop this crazy stabbing is to put your arms down, but you're not allowed to. I feel dumb when I have to put my arms down because they hurt so badly and no one else does that I can see.
2. The fact that I lean when I have a horn in my hands. I can't help it, but I'm doing my best. Because my arms are hurting so badly, I don't focus on my posture, so I lean to support my instrument because I can't do it with my arms.
3. Heat and sweat. It's death. The second I hear "Okay guys, take five," it's pretty much the happiest moment of my life. I was disgusting, I literally got home and ran to the shower. YUCK.
4. Marching backwards. Most move to their right when they march backwards, which messes us all up and then our instructors make us do it again and again and again, which is terrible for your arms when you're holding a mellophone/baritone/sousaphone.
5. Pain in any aspect. Which is all around.

So yeah. It's a love/hate relationship. Once my arms aren't noodles anymore, maybe it'll be a bit different. :)
♫♪♥JMJ

A thought.


Why are my events less important than yours?

If I can't do something because I'm busy with something I find fun, why am I the one that has to take the fault for it?

Why do people diss my extracurriculars and call them stupid when I've done nothing to deserve it?

Most importantly, why can you diss my activities and expect me to just take it, but when I diss yours, you get upset?

Think, people.

I'm a person. I want to do things that make me happy, too.

It's not all about you.

It's only going to be so long before I crack.

Stop saying the stuff I've got going on is stupid because it means I can't help you with the stuff you've got going on.

Believe me, I've got feelings, just in case you didn't notice because you're too obsessed with the stuff you have going on.

I'm tired of people being disrespectful. Eventually, I won't associate myself with you.

The stuff I find fun and interesting may be stupid to you because it means I can't be with you, but you're just going to have to suck it up. I'm not going to stop doing what I enjoy because you want me to.

And if you're not willing to change, you can forget about me.

JMJ.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Silenced at the moment.


Nothing particularly fabulous is going on in my life right now. We start crazy marching band in a few days, so I'm freaking out because I don't have the music memorized yet and I can barely lift my mellophone for a 5 minute song, let alone for a show.

UGH stress.

In other news, I was watching Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince today and it hit me that I can't watch a Harry Potter movie anymore without thinking of A Very Potter Musical. It's hilarious, but troubling. If you haven't watched it, please redirect here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmwM_AKeMCk
That is, if you have about three hours on your hands. I'd recommend using two tabs. One for the part you're watching, and one for the next video to load so you don't have to wait forever. However, if you don't watch it, you're a loser. Just saying. (No, I'm kidding. I love you :))
Anyway, that's all I've got for you. I'll try to think of something to say before I have to leave you.
♫♪♥JMJ

Monday, August 2, 2010


I love that I started a blog when I have nothing to talk about. Lol
My posts are becoming rarer and rarer, but I'm going to try to keep you all updated more often. So let's speak of what's gone on since my last post.
My friends got back from vacation, which was wonderful because I felt like I was going insane without them. I think I'm going to start a project sometime soon dealing with a "picture of the day" kind of thing. Maybe I'll do "Pictures of the school year" and then "Pictures of summer" :) I'm not sure yet, It'll take dedication and a good memory.
I finally watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, which is fantastic by the way. It's only six youtube videos and they're not even ten minutes long. I loved the song "Slipping" and Neil Patrick Harris is and always will be fantastically wonderful.
I got a camera for my birthday and a few new books, we choreographed a fight scene, I sent a controversial care package, and I'm having a fantastic summer :)
♫♪♥JMJ

Monday, July 19, 2010

Warnings at Waverly Academy review


I really like this one. I've played it like four times already, but I'm not sick of it yet. I don't really know why, but I accept it. :) Anyway, here's my review:

Summary: 8/10
In this one, you have to go to Waverly Academy to find out what's up with all of these mysterious notes and harmful pranks being committed by someone calling herself "The Black Cat". The notes are only happening on the floor where the candidates for valedictorian are living, which makes it even more suspicious. Seeing as though teenage girls have the power to find out everything about you on the internet just by knowing your name, Nancy goes by Becca Sawyer in this one. You get texts, you help people with their homework, and you have to find out who's attempting to get rid of her classmates one by one. The normal high school experience. :)

Characters: 7.5/10
Izzy Romero: Izzy is student body president and the most popular girl at the school. She's known as a bit of a boyfriend stealer by a couple of people, she's ruthless when it comes to getting what she wants, and she's one of those that you have to please. I actually liked her, but I didn't like her actions. She seemed kind of stuck up at times, but at others, she was pretty nice.
Leela Yadev: Jane grown up. And Indian. Literally. Play a game with me! Play a game with me! Sure, I'll do you a favor. But only if you play a game with me! Ugh. She's obsessed with sports, which is kind of annoying, and she's very competitive. I didn't like her very much, but she's better than some of the other characters I've had to deal with.
Corine Myers: Corine is one of those people that lives to please others. Sometimes she takes it to the extreme and acts like a leech, and people don't like her for that. Because of this, she's only got one person who semi likes her. She doesn't really care, though, because the only thing she's concentrating on is being valedictorian of her class.
Mel Corbalis: Mel is a very edgy, gothic, cello playing, opposite of the normal east cost boarding school kind of person. She's at Waverly because every woman in her family before her has gone there and it's a tradition. She doesn't much care though, she's mostly focusing on perfecting her cello skills, writing art history papers, and keeping her grades up to try to be valedictorian.
Rachel Hubbard: Rachel is kind of a weird child. She's "got this bizarre schizoid thing going" according to Leela. There's a point where you go to her room after meeting her once and she seems to not remember you at all. You learn later that she has a good reason. Muahaha... Anyway, she flunked an AP chemistry test and is probably out of the running to be valedictorian anymore, but she keeps her head up and is very focused on writing her papers and getting back up there.

Setting: 6/10
You're kind of stuck in a dormatory hall the entire time. The closest you get to leaving is climbing a tree. Seriously, I don't like the games where you don't get to go anywhere.

Graphics: 9/10
You've gotten better at this, HER. I only detected about 2% of your game to be in karate mode. :)

Snooping: 8/10
You get to do a little bit of snooping here and there, but ultimately, your snooping gets pretty crazy about 75% in. I liked that, but I could use just a liiiitle bit more.

Not a spooky game.

Conclusion: 7.5/10
I liked this game. There were a few things to tweak here and there, but overall it was a success. I think it's at least number 5 on my list, but it could be moved down if a really good one comes along. I was accepted into Waverly according to the website, which is cool. I'll be in Abbott hall, so come visit me. Maybe I'll even get a letter from the Black Cat ;)
♫♪♥JMJ

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Yay!


Tis my

Birthday!

Just in case you wanted to know. :)

♫♪♥JMJ

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Trail of the Twister Review


:D :D :D
I was so excited to play this new game that I turned it on the second I had internet connection. (I'll tell you the story about going up north later.) I was like "Muahahaha, I don't care if I'm on vacation, I'm playing this game." I have to say it was pretty fantastic.

Summary: 8/10
The story is as follows: You're sent out to the Canute research facility (which studies tornadoes and such) to be the new intern/figure out what the heck's going on with all of their equipment. It's all breaking and malfunctioning and it's not exactly the best timing because the Canute team is in the middle of trying to win a $100,000,000 grant. I thought the plot was pretty thin throughout, but still really fun. I also liked actually driving, as I usually do. :)

Characters: 7.5/10
Scott Varnell: Omg. I'd rather hang out with Jane from Blackmoor. This guy is cranky, rude, annoying, and frankly unpleasant in just about every aspect. Plus, he has a strange beard. He's the, well, pretty much the team captain. He's in charge of the whole project and is very very skilled when it comes to tracking storms.
Debbie Kircum: Debbie is very helpful when it comes to everything. She's the beta when it comes to the team. She's even tempered and you can ask her about lots of stuff. However, she's always giving you chores and stuff which can be really annoying at times. And she's nagging you to go to bed constantly. So she's kind of like your mom. Yeah.
Chase Relerford: I loved Chase. Usually the whole "I was born and raised in the south and I have a southern accent" characters bother me, but he didn't. Except that he was really stingy when it came to pa pennies. He's pretty much the repair man for the team.
Tobias (Frosty) Harlow: Frosty is a lovely person. He's the media man for the team and is very good at what he does. However, he's very bad at giving you directions. He pretty much just tells you that you're going the wrong way, but doesn't tell you which way to go. Oh well. Frosty = good.
Pa: Pa was my favorite character in the game. He runs Ma and Pa's general store and is very very nice. He speaks to you with respect as long as you do the same, and he's generally a very pleasant person to be around. Pa is fantastic!

Setting: 8.5/10
The setting was really cool because you're in Oklahoma, weather varies, and you can choose where you drive to. I loved controlling the car, but not crashing was hard because there are a whole bunch of ignoramuses on the road. Seriously, I was going. You don't go at the same time or you die. Fail. Anyway, I liked the setting a lot :)

Graphics: 9/10
You may as well have been underwater. Everything was soooooo fluid that I was like "Yes! I love this! No more karate!" My one biff with the graphics is that words didn't match mouths! Seriously? I can't believe that's what ruined it.

Snooping: 5/10
You didn't really do much snooping. There were like two instances where you got to snoop, but that's it.

Not a spooky game, you know the drill.

Conclusion: 7.6/10
I liked this game, but it wasn't my favorite. Very weather oriented, obviously, which doesn't really interest me. But the storyline was good and the culprit made sense. I enjoyed it, great job HER. Next time, make words match mouths. :)
♫♪♥JMJ

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Favoritism.


So a while back, my dear friend Risky Business over there → (read her blog, it's fantastic!) published a post detailing her favorite things. Because I'm bored, have nothing else to do, and want to post before I leave you for the next five or six days, I'll do the same. (It's not copying, it's using an idea as a springboard. :))

My favorite pieces of (non-musical) music:
Oh, whenever I say non musical, it obviously means not from a musical. Lol, if I say my favorite speech, it may be a rapper's work.

1. Drops of Jupiter by Train
2. Panis Angelicus by Andrea Bocelli
3. The Planets by Gustav Holst
4. Dear Prudence by The Beatles
5. Actually, anything else by Train. I love Train :)


Restaurants:
1. San Chez. Thanks, Megan. I love you :D
2. The Rainforest Cafe
3. Telly's
4. Olive Garden
5. Cici's

Favorite things to eat at those restaurants:
1. Scallops and bacon. I can't remember exactly what it's called, but that's the gist of it. :P
2. Mahi mahi with spicy mango sauce
3. Chicken Melt
4. Seafood alfredo. I think that's what it's called...
5. Either Mac & cheese pizza or the dessert pizza


Favorite musicals: (You had to see it coming.)
1. The Phantom of the Opera. No brainer, guys.
2. Sweeney Todd
3. Moulin Rouge
4. Rent
5. Chicago


Favorite ice cream:
1. Bumpy cake and cream. Tis delicious
2. White chocolate raspberry
3. Playdoh
4. Mackinac Island fudge
5. Blue moon

Favorite books:
1. The Twilight Saga, mostly Breaking Dawn. What can I say? I liked it a lot :)
2. Tuesdays with Morrie
3. Flowers for Algernon
4. Compromised
5. The Host


Favorite TV shows:
1. GLEE! :D
2. Harper's Island (It's a mini series!)
3. Hell's Kitchen
4. Desperate Housewives. No questions, I don't know how I got hooked on it. Lol
5. House, even though I haven't watched it in a while.

And finally...


Favorite places to go with my friends: (these come with descriptions. Cue the Ooohs and Aaahs.)
1. The Elbow Room!
It's a quiet little coffee shop that we always manage to bring havoc to when we go there. They have delicious snowballs, wonderful pastries at the bakery they're connected to, and it's just a wonderful place for memories.
"This muffin has black chunks in it. You're a black man."
2. Roaring 20's
We've only been there once, but it was really fun eating ice cream and chilling with a couple of my best friends. And we get to see another of our friends when we go there because she works there. Ice cream + us = amazing times.
3. Tropical Smoothie Cafe
Smoothies are delicious, it looks like Jamaica, and Bob Marley is on a constant loop. It's a fantastic place, what can I say?
4. The Stage at our park downtown
We've been working on our project and it's a great place to both hang out and work on it. Plus, the stage is pretty much my second home, so that's a no brainer anyway.
5. The high school auditorium
It sounds weird, but some of our best memories were made there. There was hide and seek with Helen, the creeper baby, and tons of other memories with my friends!


That's about it. I have lots of other favorites, but I don't really want to list them all. The EEEENNNND. (As Helen would say.)
♫♪♥JMJ

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

The Curse of Blackmoor Manor review


The second I heard about this game, well, after actually playing one, I was excited to play it. Seriously, out of all of them, this one will appeal to those who're looking for something spooky. It's pretty fantastic, definitely in my top five, and I don't think I can ever get sick of it. So onto the review!

Summary: 9/10
The story with this one is that you have to go to England to figure out why this chick is totally secluding herself from the world, becoming angry with anyone who talks to her, and hiding herself behind a bedsheet constantly. This sounds like Danger by Design, I know, but it's very very different. First off, the reason she's doing this is more creepy, you have to do this in a scary manor filled with creepy people, about six hundred thousand secrets, and no help other than an elderly parrot and a cell phone. It also thickens quite a bit and turns into a double mystery because you have to, well, I can't exactly spoil it. Let's just say you'll need lots of patience if you plan to do it without a walkthrough. Speaking of, I think you need to play without the walkthrough to get the full effect of this game, but who really wants to do that? ;)

Characters: 8/10
Linda Penvellyn: Linda is very secretive in this game. She obviously believes in the supernatural, which you find out more about throughout the game. You never actually get to see her, obviously, because she's behind a bed curtain the whole time, and she's rather annoying to talk to because she's very easily angered. She'll just cut you off and stop talking, then tell you to get out.
Jane Penvellyn: Oh my goodness. If annoying could be bottled and put into someone completely, this would be the girl. Jane is twelve years old, is stuck at this manor all the time, and even has a private tutor. Because of this, her only entertainment is playing board games, puzzles, and even one that's computerized. Lucky you, if you ever need her for anything, it's always "Okay, but you have to play a game with me first." I do kind of feel bad for the poor girl, but still. It's kind of annoying to have to keep playing board games just to get a glow stick or something. However, if she wasn't obsessed with board games, she'd be an alright kind of child.
Mrs. Leticia Drake: Mrs. Drake is a snooty English woman. She loves plants, has hay fever, and you can die if you wake her up. Literally. I think I've covered her enough. :)
Nigel Mookerjee: I'm honestly going to say that the only cool thing about this guy is his last name. He's rather boring, but it's so much fun to scare him! :D
Ethel Bosinny: Ethel is no doubt the creepiest person in this entire game. There's one point where she literally appears out of nowhere. Actually, that happens quite a few times. She's very weird. You don't learn much about her.
Loulou: I love Loulou. There is no way anyone could ever beat her in a race for amazing. She's an 80 year old parrot who speaks fluent Latin, eats cake, and can give you tons of hints. Just as long as you don't give her any avocado :)

Setting: 7.5/10
You're stuck in a creepy English mansion the entire time, which is both awesome and terrible at the same time, but there are tons of things that make the setting amazing. However, if I tell you about them, it ruins the game. I'll only tell you that there's an awesome slide hidden somewhere in the manor, because that doesn't really ruin anything. The only thing that bothered me was that everything was very gaudy in the mansion. Tons of colors, random paintings, astrology everywhere... it's just weird.

Graphics: 6/10
They seemed kind of choppy. Nothing was really very fluid. For game number 11, you should have this whole karate problem fixed, HER. :)

Snooping: 10/10
Oh my goodness, you're literally snooping the entire time. No joke, if you're not snooping, you're talking to people or looking aroung for something to snoop around in. Seriously, this even beats The Phantom of Venice.

Spookiness: Also 10/10
The spookiest one I've ever played. Bravo.
I kid you not, this one gave me the chills at the beginning and I was on my toes for something to pop out at me the entire time. If you're looking for something scary, play this. If you're a chicken, I highly recommend that you don't play this one. Sorry.

Conclusion: 8.5/10
I love love love this game. It's not my favorite, but it's amazing anyway. I was super happy when I finally got to play this one because I'd been wanting to forever. I highly recommend this one to those who aren't afraid of a good creeping out. If there's an actual Blackmoor Manor, send me on the next plane to England. :)

Monday, July 5, 2010

A rant. I'm sorry.


Okay, so here's my very first rant ever.
I hate to be one that fights this fight, but I'll begin with saying this: Why is it that when one person likes something, they're dumb and are supposed to just shut up and not talk about it ever, but when another person hates it, they can speak of it as much as they want? It seems like this is a big part of pop culture lately with one of my interests. I hate to be a defensive fangirl, but I'm going to talk about the Twilight series.

Please don't close this window just because you hated the series, I want you to listen.

Let's say Twilight was a delicious smoothie. A smoothie made of banana, strawberry, and coconut. I enjoy the smoothie, I think it's delicious, and I'd recommend it to my friends. However, let's say I recommend it to one of my friends and they don't like it. Because of this, I'm put down for making them have this gross smoothie, I'm stupid, and they'll never trust me again. Why is my opinion put down because they simply didn't agree? My opinion's not less important than yours, is it? It's not my fault that you didn't like the smoothie, so shut your mouth and don't be a baby.
Another point I'll make is this. I think that all the people that read this blog know me. Think about it. I don't talk about Twilight at all. The only times I'm going to be a superfan are when I see each of the movies for the first time, is that wrong? I certainly don't think so. Anyway, why is it that the people that hate it have the right to bash those who like it even if they don't bring it up at all? I HATE that. If I say "Oh yeah, I liked the Twilight series," ONE time, what happens? People around me say "Why? That's stupid. You're stupid for liking it. Get a life, twitard."
IT'S. MY. OPINION. LEAVE ME ALONE.
If you're not going to respect my opinion, then just go away, I won't associate with you.
And truthfully, the people that don't like it talk about it more than those who do.
You're the ones that make yourselves look dumb by talking about it all the time.
People are entitled to their opinions. Leave them alone and live your life without being a jerk.
Also, I'm not going to take anybody to court because they say a joke about it. In fact, I'll laugh at it if it's funny. I don't want to be an annoying fanatic who wants to be a vampire when she grows up and bleaches her skin to be as pale as Edward. Seriously, you know me better than that. I'll joke about it and laugh at the spoofs, but I'm sick of people taking it too far.
Phew. I'm done.
By the way, this wasn't directed at ANYONE. Nobody that I know set this off, so if you think this little rant was for you, it wasn't. I promise. I've just been thinking about it a lot lately.
♫♪♥JMJ

I just wanted to tell you that I love you. :)


I guess I haven't been posting very often for two reasons.

1. It's currently very boring.

2. I haven't played Nancy Drew

in a while

Because of these facts, you've been deprived of my fabulous posts.
I'm very sorry.
So for now, I just thought I'd tell you that I'm going to start Curse of Blackmoor Manor either tonight or tomorrow, so look for the review sometime soon.
♫♪♥JMJ

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

A Blog Post.


So I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I suppose better late than never, right? :)
So yeah. It's summer, but I'm officially really bored. Those of you that have something to do every single day, you're lucky. Seriously, being bored in the summer is the worst, because there's literally nothing to do unless you're with someone, but you can't be with people every day like you can when it's not summer vacation.
It's crazy.

However, I've had a couple good times during the summer, for I've been going to the Tropical Smoothie Cafe with Shelby, Helen, and Megan. Tis a fabulous place. Haha "This tastes like... melted tootsie rolls." Right, Shelby? :) Also, I went to my friend Jessica's birthday party, which was super fun. I had a great time with some friends, made a couple of new friends, and simply had a ton of fun. It was fantastic. :)
Sadly, I must keep this blog short because I have a secret self proclaimed task for the day that will take quite a long time. (Oooooh, secret task! :D) Well, I can't tell you what it is. Please forgive me. :)
♫♪♥JMJ

Friday, June 25, 2010

I can't decide.


So I have a whole bunch of ND games that I have to review, but I can't decide which one I want to do. I'll post them all and see which one you choose. Either that or I'll just eventually pick one if I get no responses. Lol. :)

I have the game
I have to borrow the game from someone


₰ Stay Tuned for Danger
₰ Message in a Haunted Mansion
₰ Treasure in the Royal Tower
₰ The Final Scene

₰ Secret of the Scarlet Hand
₰ Danger on Deception Island
₰ Secret of Shadow Ranch

₰ The Curse of Blackmoor Manor
₰ Secret of the Old Clock
₰ Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon
₰ Creature of Kapu Cave

₰ The White Wolf of Icicle Creek
₰ The Haunting of Castle Malloy
₰ Ransom of the Seven Ships

₰ Warnings at Waverly Academy


I think I'll do the ones I have first, but out of them, I don't know which one I want to do. Ugh, help!! :)
♫♪♥JMJ

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The Phantom of Venice Review


I'm just going to say right now that this is at least in my top two games, if not my favorite. It's tied with The Haunting of Castle Malloy. However, if that game were nonexistent, this would totally be number one. I really love the city of Venice, I really love the plot, and I really love how it turns out. Plus I loved to learn a taste of Italian. ;) Okay, here we go.

Summary: 9/10
So you're called to Italy by the GDIF (AKA the Italian version of the CIA.) to try to capture this art thief who goes by "Il Fantasma". I bet you can guess what that means in Italian. Anyway, you have to stay with a snooty woman in her house, which is called the Ca Nascosta, in order to spy on a suspect that works across the street, work on a few missions with the GDIF, and get your hands a bit dirty in the final scene. Overall, the plot starts out pretty thin, but then turns to oatmeal when you really get into it. I highly enjoy the storyline and all of the tasks you get to do.

Characters: 8.5/10
Colin Baxter: Colin is a bit of a strange one. He's from Oxford, England, and is restoring this fantabulous mural in the Ca Nascosta. He's very into his work, obviously. He LOVES tessarae, which are the little blocks of... whatever they are, that murals are made of. In the beginning of the game, he starts showing you a whole bunch of these tessarae and no matter how long you sit there and watch them, he gets offended when you say you have to leave. I literally let it go for about two hours and nothing different happened. He's like "Oh, I see how it is. Girl, sit down and look at these tessarae or I will CUT you." Actually, not really. That was just me being dumb. Also, he has a crush on Nancy and creeps on her quite a bit. It's weird.
Margherita Fauberg: Margherita is a VERY Italian woman. She owns the Ca Nascosta, but doesn't want to spend all of her money fixing it up. I mean, come on. If you bought it, you've got to pay to fix it. Anyway, she loves to tan, is very private, and is critical when it comes to Nancy's style. She's okay, but she's not my favorite.
Helena Berg: Helena is originally from Germany. She is a journalist reporting on high profile crimes. She has a really funny accent, she is friendly, and she seems to like you. She doesn't actually think what the Phantom is doing is all bad, but she doesn't approve of it.
Enrico Tazza: This man is the epitome of annoying. All he does is play scopa and he doesn't ever take off this annoying mask that makes him look like a lizard. He's a weird one.
Antonio Fango: Nancy spies on this guy. She doesn't actually get to talk to him, but she does get to know him pretty well from snooping on him.
(Jeez, there are a lot of important characters in this game.)
Sophia Leporace: She's your consultant or whatever from the GDIF. You never actually get to meet her, you just get to talk to her. It's kind of weird, but she seems cool.
Also, Prudence Rutheford is in this game. "You simply must stop thinking bad things about Ginger... Yes you are! Just look at how she's shaking!"

Setting: 10/10
It's Italy. Seriously, it's Venice, Italy. You can't beat that. Plus, you get to go to a whole bunch of different places. I am completely in love with the setting, very happy with the fact that there are like twenty places to go, and am awestruck that for once, you're not stuck at only two places the whole time. Yay! :D

Graphics: 8.5/10
Graphics were pretty awesome, however, they could have used a couple more details for one of the later games.

Snooping: 9.5/10
Snooping is your job in this game. I'm not even kidding, Sophia literally tells you to spy on Antonio and break into his office to look through his stuff. It was pretty epic that you were told to snoop instead of having to decide to snoop by yourself.

Spookiness:
Once again, this is not supposed to be a spooky game, so it'd be really dumb to rate its spookiness. Sorry, guys.

Conclusion: 9/10
Like I said, this is one of my favorites of all time, it's totally and completely epic beyond all belief. I love the game and only wish like two things would change. Brava, brava, bravissima! Questo è stato un gioco fantastico!
♫♪♥JMJ

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

In order to prevent a sunburn...


Put sunscreen on, right?
WRONG.

Or at least that's how it went down at Cedar Point this weekend.
I put sunscreen on at least twice a day and STILL got sunburnt.

Dumb.


But anyway, we had a lot of fun this weekend. I rode lots of rides, had fun swimming at Soak City and Castaway Bay, and spent some quality time with my family. Mostly my sisters and my aunt, but still. You know how it is. Lol
So this afternoon, I'm going to the Tropical Smoothie Cafe with a couple of my friends, which will be suuuper fun because we get to work on our project :D

Yay for summer projects!

♫♪♥JMJ

Thursday, June 17, 2010

I love mini camp.


Not really.
It's exhausting, but I really do like it.
I'm really tired, but just thought I'd give you all a dose of sarcasm before I went to bed.


Sweet dreams, children.


♫♪♥JMJ

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Summer!


:D
It's SUMMER! :D :D :D

Except it doesn't really feel like it because I have marching band tomorrow and I have to go back to school.
:/ :/ :/

Oh well, it's still

SUMMER!

I can't wait to just go to the beach, hang with my friends, march, and most importantly...
Go to

Cedar Point

this weekend!

Who's excited? I'm excited.
Yeah, be jealous of my upcoming epic summer.
♫♪♥JMJ

Monday, June 14, 2010

So it's exam week.


Seriously.
We've got three half-days this week, one of which is already over, and the entirety of them will be spent taking our final exams. Two exams a day, an hour and a half each. I was very afraid. Let's share my first and second exam stories.
So the schedule goes like this...
Monday: Fifth and Sixth hour, AKA History and Math
Tuesday: Third and Fourth hour, AKA SCIENCE and English
Wednesday: First and Second hour, AKA Orchestra and Wind Ensemble.
Can you tell which one I'm worried about?
Anyway, so let me tell you about my exams this morning.
History wasn't even cake, it was pie. Like seriously. Fruity pie with whipped cream on top.
It was all charts, maps, and like 20 multiple choice questions.
Pie.
Math, however, was a punch in the face.
(As you can see, I'm learning how to change stuff and make it look cool. Lol)
It was crazy stuff that seemed like it was completely new. I'd be surprised if I got anything above 80% on that exam. Completely, utterly shocked. You don't even know. I can't even explain it.
Plus, all day I wasn't feeling well at all, so it was difficult to concentrate, especially on my math exam. Ugh. Oh well, it's over with now.
Now it's time for the dreaded Science exam.
Wish me luck.
♫♪♥JMJ

Friday, June 11, 2010

I hate the end of the school year.


Sorry if you got that early, I pressed the enter button accidentally and it may have just posted a blank blog. Lol :)
Anyway, as you can see, I hate the end of the school year.
Yes, it means summer, but there are actually a lot of down sides.
First off, there are the dreaded final exams. I can't believe how much I have to study this weekend. Seriously, tomorrow is probably going to be spent studying for my history, math, and science exams. And even if I get 100% on my science exam, the best I can end up with is a C. I'm really upset about that. But all I need is a 78% to pass the class. I hope...
Second, it means that you're leaving your friends that you're not likely to see over the summer. Like the ones that you only talk to during the school day. I have a tendency to miss like everyone for some reason. I get deprived of all of the people I converse with and it's just really depressing.
Third, if you're in high school, you have to say goodbye to all of your senior friends forever. Unless you know them from an outside source, you're probably not going to see them again. It's really sad. That's my least favorite part of the end of the school year. Saying goodbye is really hard, and I just can't deal with the fact that they're gone forever. Okay, now I'm making it sound like they die... lol. But seriously, I had lots of senior friends and seeing them walk at graduation was like the figurative rotten cherry on top.
Yeah. That's about it. I think we should just not have to go to school at all and just learn everything by ourselves. That way we don't have to deal with 2/3 of these things. The end.
♫♪♥ JMJ

Monday, June 7, 2010

Secrets Can Kill review


I'm terribly sorry that I'm filling up my entire blog with these reviews, but playing the games is so much fun, and reviewing them makes it even better :)
So yeah. Secrets Can Kill. Just so you know, this will be a very low rated game. Here we go.

Summary: 4/10
This is a very very VERY cliche mystery. I understand that it was the very first, but come on. A murder at a high school? Really? Ugh. Oh well. So here's how it went down.
So you're Nancy, of course, and you've been asked to help solve the murder of Jake Rogers, for he was pushed down the stairs. Because apparantly pushing someone down twelve stairs can totally just kill them right away. Yeah.
Anyway, so you've got to interact with high school kids, not let them know you're a detective, and figure out this mystery before the killer gets away. Cliche. Completely predictable, but pretty fun overall.

Characters: 3/10
I'm sorry, but these characters just failed. I'm going to say that they looked like people from the magic school bus. Everything was 3D except the characters. Fail.
Jake Rogers: Jake's the guy who got killed. Obviously you don't interact at all with him, but he seemed to be very mean. He ends up blackmailing in the middle of the game and it's just not very nice. Oh well, he's dead now. Haha. :P
Daryl Gray: Daryl is your 'guide' throughout the game. He works at Maxine's diner and you only have to talk to him two or three times. He's a total flirt, which is creepy, student body president, and the one that found Jake at the bottom of the stairs.
Hal Tanaka: Hal is a foreign exchanged student from Japan. He's very intelligent and is always studying. He wants to be a doctor and has to get a scholarship to a high up school or else his family will be disappointed in him and make him come back home. Dumb. I like him though.
Connie Watson: Connie is really annoying. She's one of those people that thinks they're right ALL THE TIME. She just kind of kicks you out of conversations all the time and it's just really annoying to talk to her.
Hector "Hulk" Sanchez: Jock. Do I really need to tell you all how I feel about stuck up jocks who think they're just SO cool because they can throw things?
Mitch Dillon: So apparently he's the boiler technician in the book, but in the game, he just is there all of the sudden. It's just like "Oh, then Mitch did this." It's like, okay. Mitch. Nice. Here he is.

Setting: 6/10
I'm going to admit that the setting was alright. You can go to four places in all; high school, Aunt Eloise's, Maxine's Diner, and Vandalay Pharmaceuticals. The only thing that I absolutely hated when you go to different places is (You guessed it.) the disc switching. UGH. It'd be cool if you just had to pop it in, then go right away, but NO. You have to wait like three hours for the stupid disc to load. Very dumb.

Graphics: 2/10
Not even gonna go there.

Snooping: 5/10
The snooping is rather up front, so it's not really snooping. It was pretty cool that you got to break in somewhere through a window, though. :)

Spookiness: 3/10
There's like two spooky things throughout the whole game. However, if I talk about them, it ruins the game. So yeah.

Conclusion: 3.8/10
This was not a very good game, but it was fun to play nonetheless. I'm glad I actually got to finish it by myself instead of watching arglefumph do it on youtube. Yay for the beginning of a fabulous series :)
♫♪♥JMJ

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Legend of the Crystal Skull review


Legend of the Crystal Skull. It's a good one, but it's not exactly my favorite. In fact, if I had to pick one of the newer ones that's my least favorite, it'd probably be this one. But oh well, it's got a good storyline. Anyway, here's my review on Legend of the Crystal skull.

Summary: 9.5/10
The storyline was probably the best part of this game, so I'm ranking it pretty darn high. You go to New Orleans, Louisiana, on a vacation with Bess to just hang out and have fun. However, Ned asks you to check up on a friend of his, Henry Bolet. (That's Bowl-ayyy, not Bowl-ettttt.) You find out that his great uncle has died and has left all of his stuff to Henry, his doctor, his housekeeper, and a dentistry school. 30% for each except for Renée, who gets 10%. Then you find out that he owned this magical crystal skull that he's hidden away, but you're not sure whether or not it's authentic. He was also the caretaker of a cemetary (in his backyard!) when he retired from being a dentist. Yeah. It gets really intricate and fabulous.

Characters: 8/10
Henry Bolet: Henry is the great-nephew of Bruno. He is responsible for taking care of all of Bruno's debts and such. He's kind of creepin at the beginning of the game, and he just seems irritated by you whenever you want to talk to him, but he's pretty cool. It's so sad though when he's crying for his parents at the crypt. I always feel bad when he runs away and Nancy's basically like "Okay, let's break into this crypt!"
Renée Amande: Renée is/was the housekeeper for Bruno. She believes in "hoodoo" and all that magical junk, which is kind of dumb, but what are you gonna do? She's just a weird lady.
Dr. Gilbert Buford: So he's really nice. I like him. He kind of creeps on Bess when you first talk to him, but other than that, he's super cool and friendly. Not to mention extremely helpful when it comes to finishing the game and stuff.
Bruno Bolet: Well you never actually interact with Bruno, because he's dead. But I thought that since he's kind of the reason this is all happening, I'd talk about him a little bit. If he were there, I think he'd be a suuuuuuper awesome old man with epic glass eyes. Yay Bruno! :D
Lamont Warrick: Lamont owns ZeKe's store on Rampart and Dumaine. You only go there a couple times, but it's really important when you do. Lamont has been looking for the crystal skull and such, but he has no idea that it's actually in Louisiana. He has nasal problems and is bothered by hot sauce, but he's a pretty cool guy :)

Setting: 6/10
Sorry, but I didn't like that you were crammed in a cluttered house and you couldn't actually leave. You just had to be Bess. Also, it's creepy.

Graphics: 8/10
Graphics are awesome. They don't look choppy at all and they're very fluid. However, it's very dark, so you can't play this game unless you're either in a dark room or it's night. My computer is right by three huge windows... yeah.

Snooping: 10/10
Snooping was awesome. You did so much of it, you might as well be a criminal. I can't say too much about it or it ruins the game, so sorry.

(Jeez, I'm keeping these paragraphs short...)

Spookiness: 7/10
There are spooky elements. (That doll, anyone? That was downright creepy.) This was definitely meant to be spooky, but it's not the spookiest one I've encountered. I'd have to say that it's not bad when it comes to being creepin, but it's nothing compared to some of the others.

Conclusion: 8/10
This game, as I said, is not my favorite of the newer ones, but the sequence is very very good. My only biff with this is that the game can be very confusing and hard to follow at times. It's one of my favorite storylines, though. Good job, HER, this was a pretty good one :)
♫♪♥JMJ

Hello to you all :)


Dear citizens of Earth:
I haven't posted a blog post in a while, or at least one that's not talking about a game review, so here we go.
Today was the seniors' last day of high school, which means sadness to the twelfth power. Like this. :((((((((((((. That's sad. I'm going to miss each and every one of you significantly, and I really hope to see you in the future. :)
It's currently really cold. Our house is like -12 degrees. I don't like it, but it's better than being hot and humid. We also have the pool up and running and I got two new bathing suits today, which is a sign of upcoming summer! Yay! No school!
So my friends and I have been working on a top secret project that I may link to in the future, but for now it's classified. Just keep an eye out for what we've learned ;) It's taking a lot of hard work, so don't keep an eye out for it soon, it'll be a while. Oh well.
So yeah, that's my life right now. It's not very exciting, but it's life. It'll get better. Farewell, and here's a review for my next post.
♪♫♥JMJ

Monday, May 31, 2010

Danger by Design review


Oh, memories. Danger by Design was the very first Nancy Drew game I've ever played in my life. It's what started it all, so blame Megan if I'm annoying you with all this Nancy stuff, because I played it with her. :) So anyway, here's my review.

Summary: 9/10
In this one, you're sent to Paris to find out why this couture designer has been going crazy, throwing tantrums, firing people left and right, and (most importantly) constantly wearing a creepin mask and not showing her face at all. So you go there and are posing as an intern so you can be more close and observe all the weird stuff that's going on. You're kind of an assistant to an assistant, which is kind of strange, but with all the other strange stuff going on, I don't question it.

Characters: 8/10
Minette: So this is the fashion designer who's been freaking out lately. She's very picky about a lot of stuff and has some trust issues. She loves her specially blended tea and says 'rude' instead of 'cool' or 'great'. She's a strange woman, but she's also very interesting. You must be careful though, one false move and she fires you! Here she is:
Creepin, right?
Heather McKay: She's pretty neat. Although she does something bad in the middle of the story, she's awesome. She can just say whatever she wants to Minette because she's not going to get fired, she's sure of it. Haha
"Heather, where's my pencil? You walked out with it again!"
"No, I didn't."
"Yes you did!"
"No, I didn't. Did you check behind your ear?"
"Oh."
JJ Ling: No, Gigi. JJ. GIGI. JJ!!! Yeah. JJ is who you're staying with. She's a plus sized model who bakes cookies and likes hangman. Also, I think she's Australian, but I'm not sure.
Jean-Michel Traquenard: If there's anything shinier than this guy's head, it's the medallion he wears. Seriously. So this guy is the gossip columnist... or something like that... at GlamGlam magazine Paris. He's always at the Cafe Kiki and uses it as his office. It's kind of dumb that this guy can't just go to his regular office and do his work, he has to sit at a cafe all day and do it. He's weird. He also hates people who "butcher his native tongue while he eats."
Dieter von Schwesterkrank: Whew, what a name. This guy is a German photographer that works with Minette a lot. He's got the coolest accent in the game and is my favorite character. Dieter is fabulous :)

Setting: 8/10
So you're in Paris. The only complaint is you don't see any cool stuff that's in Paris. However, it is Paris. You've got to give it that. :)
You just take the tram everywhere and it's cool because you don't have to pay for it.
I didn't like that you didn't get to walk the streets or anything, but I think my favorite place was Pont Neuf because you got to walk around instead of going straight to a door or something.

Graphics: 7.5/10
I liked the overall graphics, they were very fluid. However, all of the characters except Minette just looked really choppy and awkward, especially when they talked. I didn't like that their mouths just kind of opened and closed with nothing inbetween. They didn't seem to move right. Minette, for some reason, was very smooth when she moved. The water was good, too.

Snooping: 4/10
You didn't get to do very much snooping except when you were in Minette's office getting all the bugs. YUCK. >:P I hated that, it was disgusting. But there were like four instances where you got to snoop throughout the whole game.

I'm not going to rate spookiness because this game wasn't at all meant to be spooky. It was supposed to be rather unspooky, actually, so it would be dumb to rate its spookiness when there was no incentive to make it spooky.

Conclusion: 7.3/10
I really enjoy this game, it brings back fabulous memories with Megan and I love Paris anyway. It's a great game, but it has a dumb ending. I hated that they built it up for a dumb ending, but still. Some people like it, but some don't. Great, original, and wonderful. I love this game, it's great, and even though I've played it four times now, I'll never get sick of it. :)

Friday, May 28, 2010

A New Review?


So I know I posted earlier today, but it wasn't much of a post, so here we are.
My last two Nancy Drew reviews were the last two that I haven't done, so I'm at a loss for reviewing the ones that are new to me. So, that being the situation, I'm going to try to replay the ones I've played and review them. I'll begin with the ones I actually own, so here are my options:
→ Stay Tuned for Danger
→ Message in a Haunted Mansion
→ Treasure in the Royal Tower
→ The Final Scene
→ The Curse of Blackmoor Manor
→ Danger by Design
→ Legend of the Crystal Skull
→ The Phantom of Venice
→ Warnings at Waverly Academy
I'd like comments, but if I don't get any, I think I'll start with The Legend of the Crystal Skull because I haven't played that one in a while. Thanks for reading :)
Harmonic dreams, sweet children!
♪♫♥JMJ

Designs!


Okay, so Shelby's got me hooked on Polyvore. All I'm doing is designing outfits I can picture Nancy Drew in for her games, and I think I'm all done. Waverly is fail, but I'm working on it. Here's my favorite, Secrets Can Kill :)

Yep. That's it. I don't really have time to talk, I'm leaving for the elbow room in a few minutes, but I wanted to share that with you. Farewell :)

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The Phantom of the Opera...LIVE!


So on Sunday, I went to go see The Phantom of the Opera with a couple of my friends at MSU. Now, those of you that know me know that I'm completely and utterly obsessed with that musical, I can't get enough of it. So obviously I was extremely excited to go see it. Just for clarification, this blog is not to brag at all. Let's repeat that. THIS IS NOT FOR BRAGGING PURPOSES AT ALL. It's totally and completely to review it and share my opinion. I am warning you, if you plan to watch Phantom sometime and don't want the whole thing spoiled for you, please stop reading now.
So since I know the movie's storyline back and forth, it was a little strange to see a couple things out of order and even some things that were added. Or not in it at all. Now I understand that they can't do some of the things that they do in the movie, but if there was on thing that bothered me that wasn't in the story, it was the lack of clarification on the person/people in the very beginning scene. You totally could have found a way to make sure that people understood that it was Raoul in the wheelchair. Anyway, the storyline was very good. I highly enjoyed that the chandelier crashed in the middle instead of the end.
Now for the acting. I think there was a reason the Christine we got was the second Christine instead of the primary one. At some points, she TOTALLY overdid it. It was good though, but occasionally it was like crazy over the top. We'll come back to her. The Phantom was super awesome. Like, seriously. He is my favorite character, was my favorite from the beginning, and always will be my favorite. The actor knew the show very well and performed to the best of his ability, which was absolutely flawless. Well done, sir. Raoul can go die in a hole. The acting was very good, but the stage version of Raoul is very arrogant and seems to be like "Oh, it's me. I'm Raoul, look at me while I walk." He'll never be my favorite for what he did to The Phantom at the end. (He doesn't die, by the way. The Phantom is not killed by Raoul. Don't say I told you otherwise. :)) Carlotta was... Carlotta. Very well done. Madame Giry was very mysterious, as she should be. Firman and Andre were clueless, which is pretty much the point, and Meg was... well, frankly, I like movie Meg better. She seems more innocent, which is the way I've always pictured her.
Music. Here we go. If you have less than an hour on your hands, I suggest stopping now. :) So let's begin. Christine's voice was not the best. It was way more of an opera voice than we needed, she's supposed to have never sang an opera before and sound like she's just singing without all of the vibrato. She was also very sharp throughout. Sorry, madame, but it could have been just a little better. The Phantom was flawless, as I said before. He was a little out of tune at the end of The Music of the Night, but that's okay. It was one of probably two slip ups. Everyone else did a wonderful job. I loved Notes, that was hilarious. :) The pit was like OMG amazing. They played everything absolutely perfectly, which was a lot to handle. Phantom of the Opera music is utterly insane and very difficult to get under your fingers. The violin soloist was absolutely beautiful, and the same to the French Horn players. They totally blew my mind, it was so fantastic. I just wanted to go down there during intermission and give them each a big hug, but I decided that it'd be kind of creepy if I did that. Bravo all of you lovely musicians that can be underappreciated at times.
In conclusion, SALLY AYYYUNNN SWARRRM. I highly enjoyed the show, I'd gladly see it a thousand times more, and hope to see it again sometime in the future.
Your obediant servant,
O.G. ♪♫♥

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

The Haunted Carousel review


I can now say that I have successfully played each and every one of the twenty-one Nancy Drew games that are currently released. I can't say I've finished them all, because I got fed up with switching the disks on the first one, but I know how it ends. So anyway, here's my review of The Haunted Carousel.

Summary: 7/10
The story behind this one is rather odd. You go to a shut down amusement park to find out why this crazy carousel (that's missing a horse because it was stolen) has been turning on by itself in the middle of the night. It's assumed that it's haunted, but we all know that there's no such thing as ghosts... right? Of course not. ;) The carousel was made by a man named Rolfe Kessler, who called his wife/girlfriend/whatever spatzi, which is the best nickname ever. He's known for very intricate designs when it comes to carousels, and if whoever stole it is trying to sell it, it'd be worth lots of money. AND since it's the lead horse, it'd probably be around $100,000. Geez.

Characters: 8/10
Joy Trent: Joy is the office manager. She's very secretive, but very helpful. She doesn't open up easily. However, the later part of the game pretty much revolves around her. She kind of reminds me of Emma Pillsbury from Glee, except she has short hair and smaller eyes. I really liked her, she was a very interesting character.
Harlan Bishop: Harlan is the security guard at the park, and probably the friendliest person I've ever encountered in all of the Nancy Drew games. He's incredibly helpful, but he loses his temper for a bit. He has a good reason, though. Harlan is my second favorite. :)
Ingrid Corey: Ingrid is a very strange person. She's the chief of engineering and makes sure all of the roller coasters and such are up and running. She believes in auras and holistic medicine, which means she believes the park is cursed beyond all belief. Half of the time you talk to her, she's reminding you to eat more niacin. She's a weirdie.
Elliot Chen: Elliot is one... eccentric guy. He's the artist in the park and is in charge of making a bunch of the rides and attractions. I'm sorry, but I have to comment on his hair. It's like a bowl cut, but shaved on the sides instead of just cut, then it's all spiked up with like three pounds of gel. It's pretty crazy.
Paula Santos: Paula's the owner of the park. You only get to talk to her over the phone for like 20 seconds each time she calls, so I can't really say much about her.
Miles the Magnificent Memory Machine: He is without a doubt my favorite character. Seriously. He's the most awesome robot I've ever encountered and he's like suuuuper amazing. He gives you riddles and says "Joy Trent is a party-pooping stick in the mud." I ♥ Miles :)

Setting: 6.5/10
The entire time, you're in this amusement park. It sounds really fun, but almost all the rides are shut down and nobody's there except for a few of the staff. I didn't like that you used a map to go everywhere, I much prefer finding out how to actually go places. Unless you're in a city or something. Then that's totally fine, I could handle taking a tram or something. Oh well, anyway, there's a cool Ghetto Fish and an octopus and a creepy thing that lights up in the haunted house. It's kind of a creepy place, but it's okay. Not the best setting I've encountered, but it was alright.

Graphics: 9/10
This is a later one in the first ten, and the later ones of their time usually have very good graphics. This was awesome, very fluid, and nice when it came to Nancy's perspective. I liked the fish part, too, even though I died the first time. :)

Snooping: 7/10
While everyone is out of their offices at some point in time, you get to go in and check out whatever it is you need to. You did this a few times, even opening locked things and such. My favorite was snooping around Joy's, even though Miles rats you out. :P

Spookiness: Sorry. 1/10
There was almost nothing spooky about this one, the only thing that gave me the creeps the first time was the spook ten thing in the haunted house. If you're scared very easily and don't like it, I reccomend this one for a starter.

Conclusion: 6.5
It wasn't my favorite, but it was good. It was a little like Secret of the Scarlet hand, because if you missed one or two things, you had to begin again. However, it wasn't as difficult. I do believe that it had a good storyline and a somewhat unpredictable culprit, but it could have been just a little better. The ending was a bit ironic, though. Very good job, HER. :)
♪♫♥

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Concert after concert after concert...


So I've gone to three concerts in the past three days. Well, one was a mini-musical, but I'm still counting it as a concert. Two of these I've had to perform in, which was epic. Let me share the story with you.
Tuesday: Orchestra Concert
So on Tuesday, it was the very last orchestra concert of the year. We played super epic songs (including Pirates of the Carribean) and had tons of fun. The seniors seemed to be upset by the fact that it was their very last orchestra concert ever, and some even began to cry. A few speeches were given on how awesome orchestra is, how amazing Mr. F is, and even how orchestra has changed people's lives. It was on the verge of crying and I'm sure Helen was as well. It seems like it wouldn't be a big deal, but when you think about it, you'll never be on that stage as part of high school orchestra ever again. It's really kind of upsetting to see the seniors leave, but I know they've got bright futures ahead of them and will always be remembered by us :)
Wednesday: Wind Ensemble Concert
Wednesday was interesting, but it wasn't as emotional as the orchestra concert. It was still rather sucessful, though. Our director really seemed on the edge of tears at one point, but she did well presenting awards and such. I don't think any speeches were given, but it was still pretty awesome. Baby elephant walk was probably the best part :D This is significantly shorter than the last paragraph, but I think you get the gist of it.
Thursday: How does your garden grow?
Probably the best performance was the Elms first grade class performing "How does your garden grow?" It's a little itty bitty musical about a garden infested by weeds and what the flowers do. They sing four or five songs and do cute little motions, so it was really adorable :) My brother was one of the many gardeners, named Herb. He had one line and I was really proud of him for not messing up. However, I don't think I knew any of the words to the songs, because he didn't move his mouth except for saying his one line. He did a few of the motions, though. It was really adorable. I am proud of my little brother who did a fabulous job as Herb :)
Well, that's it. Bye bye :)
♪♫♥JMJ

Monday, May 17, 2010

Future events?


So I am wondering about where I'm going with this blog. I'll now make a list to show you some of my ideas, let me know which ones you think are good ideas. :)

-Changing the blog template to something... else. Not sure what yet, but just changing it. Change is good, right?
-Replaying some Nancy Drew games and reviewing them on here.
-Trying not to go on and on when I have nothing to say.
-Only posting when I DO have something to say instead of wasting time posting every single day.
-Finally, remembering to put the little signature on all of my posts instead of editing them over and over again.

That was short. The end :)
♪♫♥JMJ

Sunday, May 16, 2010

I love busy days...


So you know those days where you have a bajillion and one things to do?
Those days where everything that could come up unexpected does?
Don't you just hate those days? Well I don't.
I must say that I was a bit let down this morning for a reason that I'll keep confidential. Nobody died, but it was just kind of a "Darn. I wish that didn't happen. Why'd they do that?" thing. Some may know what I'm talking about, but only a select few that read this blog.
Anyway, I had church this morning, then I had a meeting about a trip, then I watched a play, now I'm home typing a blog, next I have to go to youth group, then I have to finish homework. Crazy crazy day. I bet some other unexpected things will come up as well, because that's just my life. But it's better than laying around the house being really bored, right? I'd rather do this than lounge around doing nothing. Sure, it means getting up at 8 am and staying up late to finish all the stuff I was to finish, but I love it for some reason. Maybe I'm a masochist, but it makes sense to me. I just hope I'm not losing my mind...
♪♫♥JMJ

Friday, May 14, 2010

Look what I can do!! :D


So I haven't updated my blog in a couple of days, which I highly apologize for. This will just kind of be a random events blog, because nothing exceptional has happened in the last couple of days. The name of this blog is explained in the very last link at the bottom of this blog, by the way. So I forgot to mention that a few of my friends and I have begun a game of hallway tag, which is epic. The name is pretty self explanatory, but it's kind of viscious. We stoop to some lows just to not be it. I think Helen has a method. She'll forget (or 'forget') that she's it until we say "Do you know who's it?" To which she'll reply "...ME!" and run away after tagging you. We're either running around the hallways freaking out because we see the person who's it, or we're freaking out trying to tag someone because we don't want to be it overnight. It's pretty hilarious.
Anyway, we have an orchestra concert next Tuesday and a wind ensemble concert next Wednesday. It should be fun, because we still have a LOT of work to do on the songs we're playing. Orchestra is playing a Hoffmeister viola concerto, Theme From Farewell Symphony, The Great Locomotive Chase, and Pirates of the Carribean. That last one's really fun, but we need LOTS of work. Wind Ensemble is playing A Mancini Medley, A Longford Legend, and Glory of the Yankee Navy. I like A Mancini Medley because it has the baby elephant walk :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nh49a8q2E4&feature=related
This is a little more... soprano & piccala than we sound, (and we don't have a cool saxophone solo in the middle of it,) but you get the picture, that's one of three songs in our piece.
So yes, you've been updated on some things in my life. The end!!
♪♫♥JMJ

Also, I enjoy this video, so watch it. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4aAUq_AiPg

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

I forgot to tell a story! :O


Okay, so I am dreadfully sorry, but I forgot to tell you a story. Shame on me.
So on Saturday night, my friends and I went downtown to a neat little coffee shop on Main street called The Elbow room. It was me, Megan, Cara, Shelby, and Helen. We had epic amounts of fun, as usual, and made many memories. Including the tradition of going to the elbow room every Saturday night at 7:00 PM to share triples. :)
Anyway, afterward, I went to Shelby's house to spend the night and watch Rent, which I'll come back to. Shelby's house was super fun & filled with hilarious stuff. We created lots of inside jokes such as "You are like a butterfly in a cocoon!", played the sims 3, and watched the Stuart video that includes our favorite quote. "Aaaannd... I'm just gonna sit here and... eeeeeeeeeeat a cookie."
Now it's Rent time. It was a super amazing musical that contained everything in the world. Seriously, that's probably one of the most random musicals ever. Drag queens, AIDS, and a neighborhood that lights their eviction notices on fire simultaneously while refusing to pay their rent. Super cool. Haha "Watch, I'll get the lock off this door!" "You're drunk." "No I'm not." WHABAM! I can now say that Rent is one of my favorites. Phantom, Sweeney Todd, Rent, and Moulin Rouge are probably my top four.
In conclusion, "WAAAAAAA! I don't want a black baby!" (That was not meant to be racist, so don't be all "Ohhh, Jasmine is all racist now. Shun!") I am looking forward to going to The Elbow Room with all of my best friends every Saturday, and I'm now a proud owner of Rent two disc special edition. Ze endddd!
♪♫♥JMJ

Monday, May 10, 2010

I will now update this quickly.


Are you ready for an insanely rushed blog post that will probably be full of typos?
Good, because I'm definitely not. I hate typos. Lol
Well today was okay for a Monday. Nothing unbearably awful happened, but nothing that exciting happened either. However, I am rather busy with musical endeavors today. I had full orchestra until four, then went to McDonalds, and now I have to be back at the school in like twenty minutes for marching band. I just thought I'd update you all on my life because I didn't yesterday.
So anyway, I get to go see Phantom of the Opera LIVE in a couple of weeks, which I'm EPICALLY excited for. Like, if you were looking at me right now, you could see that I am smiling. Just like this :D. However, I am afraid that I may have to miss singing for church in the praise band. I don't think I will, but it's a very slight possibility. I may check back later, but for now I have to go get all my stuff together. I will now say farewell. :)
♪♫♥JMJ

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Blah.


I will not be in a good mood today.
The reason is that there will be at least 40 people at my house today.
I'll admit, I don't much like people coming to my house for some reason, it's just not my thing. I can handle going to other people's houses, but someone coming to my house is just kind of strange for me. I don't know why, I used to love people coming over, but now I just don't like it. It's not a paranoia thing, I think it's just that I'm around people so much lately that I like to go home to my own family, not an alien. Lol not literally an alien, but the concept is the same. Ugh.
Anyway, I apologize for not exactly being cheery today, but until I go to the Elbow room with my friends at 7:00, I'll be very yucky to everyone. Sorry.
So if you don't mind, I need some feedback on my previous blog post because I'm thinking about reviewing ND's more often. Thank you :)
♪♫♥JMJ

Friday, May 7, 2010

Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake review


So for those of you that don't know me very well, you probably don't know that I'm really into Nancy Drew games. I've played (almost) all of them, only one more left and then I can say I have. I've never done a game review before, so I'm going to take the format of an HER forum's review and put my own words into it. Here we go.

Summary: 8/10
So pretty much you get a call from a chick named Sally and she's like 'OMG THERE ARE FREAKISH DOGS OUTSIDE AND I'M REALLY AFRAID! COME FIGURE OUT WHAT'S WRONG!' Then you get there, you're stuck there because a huge tree falls in the driveway, and she's not even there. That's the only thing I don't like. The person that actually NEEDS you isn't there the entire time. You just get to talk to her on the phone. Anyway, these dogs belonged to the famous gangster Mickey Malone (who the house she's staying in also belonged to) and they hate it when people try to live there, so they pretty much beat the crap out of the house until the new owner leaves. You have to figure out what's up with these weird dogs and what exactly happened to Mickey and stuff like that.

Characters: 7/10
Sally MacDonald: Okay, I'm going to admit that I didn't really like her that much. She just kind of whined about these scary dogs over the phone. Although she was helpful at some points, all you really did was tell her what went wrong.
Red Knott: This man is the definition of creeper. Seriously, you meet him for the first time when he's prowling around your house making owl noises. Really? Ugh. Anyway, he's a weird old man who stays up all night watching birds. You can't get any creepier than that.
Park Ranger Akers: So I actually liked him. He was really helpful and kind of nice, even though he takes his job WAY too seriously. And he gave me a neat pin :D
Emily Griffen: She's very helpful, but kind of creepy. She also likes bait and fish. Weird.

Setting: 7/10
For the whole game, you're basically in the woods. Whether you're literally in the forest or surrounded by trees, you're in the woods. All the time. This makes for a bit of creepiness since you're very secluded and it's suspiciously quiet, but otherwise it's peaceful and nothing really jumps out at you. :) UGH. The forest was so easy to get lost in though.

Graphics: 9/10 (Because it's an earlier one. Come on, it's better than the others. :))
For an early game, I'd say this has very very good graphics. There was one part with Red where he looked very lifelike, which was different from the five previous games. The characters before this game just looked kind of... blocky. Animations were awesome too. :)

Snooping: 3/10
Well, you don't really do much snooping in this one. Besides going into the basement (and some other places that I won't spoil) there's not much snooping to do.

Spookiness: 9/10
I have to admit, this one really freaked me out at the beginning. Only because Sally was pretty much panicking over the phone when she told me to get the heck out of the house, then there were the dogs using themselves as battering rams, then going outside into the spooky woods in the dark... etc. It just goes on. At least it wasn't boring though. :P

Conclusion: 8.5/10
I really enjoyed this game! Even though it may not seem like it based on my previous statements. I'm just tired, it's almost midnight. I'll sound cranky if it's past 11:00 and I'm typing. This game was very different in the fact that it was more original than the first six. I mean, haunted houses, murders, and burglaries? Come on, ghost dogs belonging to a gangster from the 20's can't be beat. Bravo, HER, you've done it again :)
♪♫♥JMJ

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Just another Thursday.


I'll be completely honest with you, I'm only going to write this blog because I have laundry to take downstairs and an English paper to fix, both of which I don't want to do. So I've decided to make it useful and talk about nonsense until this blob of random text can pass for a blog.
Today we had an awesome guy come in to our music classes and talk about composing music and improvisation. His name was Jeffrey, which is a pretty cool name. Anyway, we had a bunch of people improv random stuff with pentatonic scales and the blues scale. In second hour, which was the second class I had with him guest starring, we got our choir director to improv some scat music. He decided that he was going to pass it off to some of the people in my class. It went pretty well, then he called on Julianne. Now Julianne is a whole different story when it comes to singing/playing/doing anything in front of people. She turned red, began singing as quiet as humanly possible, and almost started crying. It was insane. She did absolutely fine, so I don't know what her problem was, but afterward she looked like she was about to throw up. Crazy, I say. Crazy crazy Julianne. She did better than I would have, I can tell you that.
In other news, I actually understand about 46% of the stuff going on in my science class right now, so I'm happy because it raised 45%. I hope to raise my grade to at least a B- right now. Or maybe I'll stick with my C, it's not like I'm not going to get into college. I mean, I passed, right? :P
Oh well. I wish you all nothing but the best and hope that you don't ever have writers block as bad as I just did. Goodbye :D
♥♫♪JMJ

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

That's Michigan.


I just thought I'd point out an event that only happens in Michigan. Today at about 2:15 PM, it began to rain. Not a torrential downpour, but still rain. I walked out of school, it was still raining. I walked off of the bus, and it was still raining. Then, two minutes later, I looked outside and it was as sunny as ever. It looked as though it had never rained, even. It rained for forty five minutes, then stopped as if someone in the sky had pressed a pause button. That's Michigan. Tomorrow it'll probably snow and be 80 degrees in the same day. Oh well, at least we're never bored.
Anyway, nothing really interesting happened today except it was my sister's birthday. I got cookies in math and witnessed not one, but two fights today. Haha, you know you're in American high school when you can BRAG about that. Oh well. That's all I have to say. Happy Cinco De Mayo! :D
♥♫♪JMJ

Monday, May 3, 2010

As if my schedule wasn't ALREADY crazy, here we go with marching band.


Marching Band.
Those of us that have actually been in marching band (or, in my case, mini camp I and II...) can say that we've thoroughly enjoyed it. Those of us who are losers and haven't experienced the best part of life cannot. But I guess that's okay too. Now instead of throwing us all in the deep end, our program usually starts us off with rehearsals once a week, called Mondays in May. Today was the beginning of that sequence of events, which was fun. However, I did have to miss the majority of it for I was being inducted into the ITS. That's International Thespian Society... although most of you that read this probably already know that... anyway, Mondays in May are always fun, even though I had to miss most of it. Now when marching season comes up, you may not see posts from me for a couple of weeks. Don't worry, I didn't die. I just kind of... expired a bit. On the inside. But it's totally worth it, I promise. Oh, and marching band is indeed a sport, for those of you oblivious people who argue that it's not, and we can prove that our sport is harder than running in a circle like cavemen or tackling each other. Like cavemen, I suppose. Whew, sorry. I'll calm down now. :) In other news, happy Monday, I'll talk (or type?) to you soon!
♥♫♪JMJ

Also, I'm really excited to see what our show will be! I hope it's something awesome! :D

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Sunday!


So here's a short blog about Sunday.
Sunday is a day to profess my faith among others that I know love God as much as I do. Sunday is a day when I accidentally wake up late, rush to the bathroom, and make sure I look presentable within fifteen minutes. Sunday is a day with my church friends and family that I love enough to clean up their spaghetti. If there's a day I love more than the rest, it's... Saturday, because I get to sleep... but Sunday is a very close second. Sunday school is a great way to start a day, service is fun, volunteering to help with anything after service is uplifting, and youth group is the best of all. A congregation (no pun intended :P) of people my age believing in the same thing as me is so comforting. Knowing that I can be with these people and know that I shouldn't be embarrassed about what I think or say is relieving. I probably sound cliche, but church is a wonderful place and a great way to start my week. I love everyone in my youth group, my leaders, and especially Megan for bringing me to my second home. Remember that you're all amazing :D
♥♫♪ JMJ

(Wow, that sounded mushy. I'm sorry. Lol)

Saturday, May 1, 2010

State Festival: The insane chronicals of the lives of musicians.


So I know I just posted my introductory thing a little while ago, but I felt the need to share a story. It will be long, so here we go.
A couple of months ago, the musical groups I play in went to our district festival. We got straight ones, which is pretty much a 4.0 GPA in the world of music festivals. Seeing as though we got straight ones, our directors decided that they would take us to state festival. We learned a couple of new songs, prepared them for a performance, and figured out what we were going to do for states. Our directors prepared pretty much everything and we were along for the ride. On the day of states, our directors seemed pretty cool, but we all knew they were freaking out like turkeys on thanksgiving. We were told to report to the high school to board the buses at 4:20 PM, so that's exactly what we did.
So here's where the fun part begins. I play in both groups, so I had to bring both of my instruments to states. We loaded up the trailer with larger instruments and I miraculously fit my horn in there, while my violin was to ride with me on the bus. Now, if you've ever been on a bus full of musicians, you know that it's always insane, no matter how controlled it may seem. I sat with a few of my friends. (Don't worry guys, I'll only use your first names. :) ) Helen (Sara), Julianne, Shelby, and Chris. We started out pretty calm and not much was going wrong. Shelby and Helen were in a seat in front of me, Julianne was in front of them, and Chris to our left. Julianne was strugging with her hair blowing all about, Helen was doing God knows what, Shelby and I were singing songs from Sweeney Todd, and Chris was talking to our pianist, Daniel. AKA Danielle, but that's a story for another time. Anyway, in the middle of singing Pirelli's Miracle Elixir, we saw smoke and smelled something weird. (Don't worry, nothing was wrong with our bus.) So in the midst of questioning it, we passed a charter bus that was on FIRE. Yes, it was flaming. All the people on the bus were on the side of the highway and we were like 'HOLY CRAP, THERE'S A FLAMING BUS!' Luckily, it had just burst into flames, so there wasn't a traffic jam yet, which was a stroke of our good luck because we wouldn't be late and/or miss states.
After about 20 more minutes of driving, we get to the school we were to perform for our judges and such. We unload our trailer and walk up to the second floor into our warm up room. Apparently the person who teaches in that classroom really likes bacon, for the walls were filled with posters about bacon. We were like "This room is awesome! :D" However, the whole school was about 90 degrees and we were all out of tune by the time we were to warm up, so we were all complaining that we were boiling hot, sweaty, and probably smelled like apes. Too bad for us, we were stuck there for about five hours. While everyone was in the cafeteria eating, my small group of friends (except for Julianne) was wandering the hallways. We walked all around, then decided that Helen and I were going to play leapfrog. This didn't exactly work, because we were in floor length dresses, but it was certainly very fun.
Afterward, we had to go warm up. We got our instruments out and wandered downstairs to the library to tune and stuff. (By the way, even though you probably won't read this, thanks again Taylor for carrying my horn.) Orchestra finally got to the stage and began performing. For the last song, I had to migrate to the back of the orchestra, and I didn't make it back in time to carry my violin, so I think Giuliana carried it for me. Then we sightread, which was very fun because we had a pretty awesome judge. (She's like your grandma, but really mean. Right Mrs. Molnar?) Then I had to go back upstairs, pack my violin, and get my horn from Taylor. We went straight to warm up, tuned, then to the stage. Apparently the dreaded American Overture went well, and I never have to play it again. Yay!! :D Anyway, sightreading was scary because I was reading a first horn part, but I think we did well. We then got all of our stuff out of our warm up room, loaded the trailer, and waited in anticipation for our scores.
So this is definitely the part where you get a look at the insanity that musicians live through. I sat at a table with Helen, Shelby, and Chris. In the midst of singing 'If You Were Gay', our scores went up. Drum roll please... straight ones! Both groups, too. It was definitely my doing. Lol just kidding. We then loaded the trailer, found our seats, and let the craziness begin.
So this is how the seating arrangement worked out. We got four seats on the bus, two on one side, two on the other. Helen got one, I got one, Julianne got one, and Chris and Shelby were sharing a seat. Bad idea to begin with, but it added to the hilarity. A little after we got on the bus, Helen was very very tired so she was like "I think I'll end up falling asleep on the bus." We'll come back to this story. Then Shelby and Chris were doing God knows what in the seat behind me. (Don't worry, nothing too bad. PG-13.) Helen and I did end up supervising, though. Some crazy stuff went on. One being me on the phone with my mom with Helen yelling "YOU GUYS SHOULD MAKE OUT!" to Shelby and Chris. Then Julianne and I were talking to our director about stuff such as the difference between cow poop and horse poop, Indians, and Julianne dressing up as a turkey. Now we come back to Helen falling asleep. She fell asleep sideways on the seat and fell out of it twice. When we tried to wake her up, she claimed that she was afraid of parked vehicles and needed her sleep. Yes, she was VERY tired. But Shelby and Chris were either tickling each other, talking about crazy stuff, or participating in many strange activities. We then got into a conversation about Stuart videos ("Aaaaand, I'm just gonna sit here and... eat a cookie.) Also, at one point, Chris began talking about something... inappropriate, then he was like "Who's sitting up in the front seat?" (Because we were near the front) and I said it was our band director. He then proceeded to sink in his seat, praying that she didn't hear. It was pretty hilarious.
When we finally got back to the school, someone had PEED in the percussion room. Literally, like, all over everything. Wtf, why would someone do that? Excuse my acronym, but it was necessary. Lol (God, forgive my naughty word. Also, please don't kill the human race. Amen :D) But really? Why would you PEE all over the percussion stuff? People are stupid. Anyway, my mom had yet to get there, so I decided that I should probably go get some shoes from my locker since they'd been sitting in there for a while. I walked down the hall with Chris and got them, which was fun because Helen was following us lethargically. She ended up dropping her phone a few times, for she was extremely tired. I finally left, went to the gas station to get some tea, and went home. Then I fell UP the stairs. Yes, that takes talent. I then changed into some pajamas and concluded the day of insanity, dreaming about it all over again, anxiously waiting for another experience like the one I'd just gone through. The end! Wow, that was really long...
♥♫♪ JMJ
 

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