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

The beginning!


Hello, fellow traveler. I suppose I'll begin by telling you a bit about myself. My name is Jasmine, I'm an average teenager, and I feel very misplaced in this century. I feel like I belong in the 1800's, but I suppose there's nothing I can do about it now. I am the oldest in my family of insanity, filled with four younger children and two parents that definitely need to take a chill pill. I have the best friends you could ever want, and I wouldn't trade them for anything. My life as a high school student is filled with crazy drama that I would trade for anything. ;) I use lots of smiley faces, just so you know. I am a Christian, and I love God with all my heart. No doubt about it.
My world revolves around none other than music. Now I know I sound like some crazy 12 year old girl when I say this, but I mean something other than headbanging to people who mask their awful singing behind emo words and screaming. I love instrumental music, classical music, musicals, and most of all, playing music. I play the violin, viola, French horn, trumpet, flute, clarinet, mellophone, and piano. Yes, I have no life. :) My parents are not all that interested in the stuff I like, so I don't get to go out and watch musicals and see symphonies all that often, but I have the time of my life when I have the opportunity to do so. I am currently playing the violin in my school's symphony orchestra and the French horn in the wind ensemble. It's a fantastic thing to do, even though it's stressful, and I wouldn't give it up for the world.
So anyway, I supppose I should wrap up now, this is getting very long. I'll be posting some cliche stuff that happens and some... not so cliche stuff. If you actually take the time to read my blogs, you must be a pretty awesome person. Thank you Megan and Shelby for inspiring me to make this blog, and I'll probably end up posting some crazy story later today. Goodbye :D

♥♫♪ JMJ
 

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