Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Time does fly
Well, what's happened in the last three weeks? The Sound of Music closed, (sadness!) with a standing ovation, many tears, and the sound of drill motors tearing down the set. Closing Night it always kind of jarring for me, because I get so used to seeing this set, a place where we "live" as it were for a month and a half. Then, in a matter of hours, the place is gone again. The stage once more resumes it's life as a church, and we actors are left with nothing more than memories and pictures. Which, for veterans who understand the way of theatre, are comforting. There will always be another play, and the memories you made on the last will survive for a long time
Friday, November 04, 2005
Make that one...
We've only one day until TSOM opens! As it is past midnight and i'm still awake at the theatre. There was a preview tonight, (last night) and we had a small but nice audience. Tomorrow should prove to be a packed house.
Being in theatre is such an amazing process, going from the first reading of the script, into laborious rehearsals wondering, "will it ever come together?", and finally standing upon the precipice of Opening Night. However, that's not the end of a play. You still have some many performances to do, and not by rote. You put your all into each and every one so that by the final, you're at your top performance. Sadly that's when the walls come crashing down. Your show is over, the costumes you wore that made you into another person are put away to be embodied by someone else. Your props are disbanded, put in boxes, to await thier next foray onto the stage in the hands of another person. All in all, it's an awfully someber event. The worst of all is watching your set come down. That set, minimalist, or grandiose, was your world. It was the place you came each night to tell a story. It may have been your house, your town, someplace that was all your own. In a matter of hours, and with the aid of power tools, it's gone. Like a wind in the grass.
However, to add a note or two of hope to this somber post, I'll end with this:
For all the sadness of closing a show, there is equal and greater joy in opening another.
Being in theatre is such an amazing process, going from the first reading of the script, into laborious rehearsals wondering, "will it ever come together?", and finally standing upon the precipice of Opening Night. However, that's not the end of a play. You still have some many performances to do, and not by rote. You put your all into each and every one so that by the final, you're at your top performance. Sadly that's when the walls come crashing down. Your show is over, the costumes you wore that made you into another person are put away to be embodied by someone else. Your props are disbanded, put in boxes, to await thier next foray onto the stage in the hands of another person. All in all, it's an awfully someber event. The worst of all is watching your set come down. That set, minimalist, or grandiose, was your world. It was the place you came each night to tell a story. It may have been your house, your town, someplace that was all your own. In a matter of hours, and with the aid of power tools, it's gone. Like a wind in the grass.
However, to add a note or two of hope to this somber post, I'll end with this:
For all the sadness of closing a show, there is equal and greater joy in opening another.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
TWO DAYS!!!!
MAH! The Sound of Music opens it's invisible curtains in two days! I'm really excited. I understand that's rather an odd thing, being excited for opening when most actors are terrified. I'm happy because it means we're getting into the final stage of this show.
Yes, there was a hint of "I wish this was over" in that. It's been a trial and tribulation. Sadly, there have been a few more trials that tribulations, but the latter seem to be grand enough to make up for the former.
I did finally get my nun-ette costume last night! It's really spiffing! The cute thing is, that in the costume, I end up looking rather like a nurse from World War One, than a Benedictine Postulant in 1938. But it's super cute. So now I'm completely costumed and don't have to perform in my street clothes.
I need to post some pictures of the Nuns, maybe I'll have five seconds to do that later tonight.
Yes, there was a hint of "I wish this was over" in that. It's been a trial and tribulation. Sadly, there have been a few more trials that tribulations, but the latter seem to be grand enough to make up for the former.
I did finally get my nun-ette costume last night! It's really spiffing! The cute thing is, that in the costume, I end up looking rather like a nurse from World War One, than a Benedictine Postulant in 1938. But it's super cute. So now I'm completely costumed and don't have to perform in my street clothes.
I need to post some pictures of the Nuns, maybe I'll have five seconds to do that later tonight.
Friday, October 28, 2005
Dead Poet's Society
My math teacher is just like the teacher from DPS. We're doing story problems in class now, and he told us to open our books to the chapter, and look at the first example. "Stuipd," He said. The next, "Stupid." On and on, through four or five of them until he closed his book with a snap. "Now, if this was the Dead Poet's Society, I would tell you to take out a ruler and rip out this section, but since you probably want to sell the book back, you don't have to."
I wish this was the way all teachers thought. It's not about memorizing a string of facts and regurgitating them on a test and supposedly, you've learned something. Learning is about thinking. It's about knowing how to attack a problem, find the answer and conquer!
Now, not all teachers have to be rather cavalier and rip up books, but I do believe they ought to instruct their students in the art of thinking. Of solving things by your own brains, which most of us don't give enought credit to. I know I don't.
I wish this was the way all teachers thought. It's not about memorizing a string of facts and regurgitating them on a test and supposedly, you've learned something. Learning is about thinking. It's about knowing how to attack a problem, find the answer and conquer!
Now, not all teachers have to be rather cavalier and rip up books, but I do believe they ought to instruct their students in the art of thinking. Of solving things by your own brains, which most of us don't give enought credit to. I know I don't.
It's been a long, long, long, long time....
Yes, I think that's from a Beatles song. Maybe not. In any case I've not written here for something on the order of 21 days, which, if you're in a play, isn't that long. We're about to open The Sound of Music in 7 days! MAH! It's a little daunting. But fun nonetheless.
I've been knitting, as I have some down time between singing in latin, and doing French homework.
My mom bought this beautiful hooded scarf quite a while ago, and I love it. However, the only problem is that it (of course) belongs to my mom. So, being the crafty knitter that I am, (not to mention being tired of a cold neck and back of head) I decided to make one of my own. After all, how hard can it be to knit a scarf, and put a hood on it? Not very hard at all.
Here's the parent, and origional:
It's kinda hard too see, but it's really darn cute! A friend said I looked like a mushroom head, I prefer to believe I'm either an elf or a gnome.
And, introducing the scarf! It's still in it's infancy. Sweet thing!
Everyone who sees me knitting it comments on the color. I got the yarn at a Street Fair for way less than a dollar. I purchased something like 10 skeins that day for about $6. So cool! I really wanted a skein of the recycled sari silk yarn, but not at a whopping $10 a skein. (That's expensive for a collge student who only works part time!) Maybe next year if I save my pennies.
I've been knitting, as I have some down time between singing in latin, and doing French homework.
My mom bought this beautiful hooded scarf quite a while ago, and I love it. However, the only problem is that it (of course) belongs to my mom. So, being the crafty knitter that I am, (not to mention being tired of a cold neck and back of head) I decided to make one of my own. After all, how hard can it be to knit a scarf, and put a hood on it? Not very hard at all.
Here's the parent, and origional:
It's kinda hard too see, but it's really darn cute! A friend said I looked like a mushroom head, I prefer to believe I'm either an elf or a gnome.
And, introducing the scarf! It's still in it's infancy. Sweet thing!
Everyone who sees me knitting it comments on the color. I got the yarn at a Street Fair for way less than a dollar. I purchased something like 10 skeins that day for about $6. So cool! I really wanted a skein of the recycled sari silk yarn, but not at a whopping $10 a skein. (That's expensive for a collge student who only works part time!) Maybe next year if I save my pennies.
Friday, October 07, 2005
Accumulate
That is my new mantra for French class. Accumulate! Accumulate! Accumulate! Learning a new language ic cumulative. You have to let it steep in your brain, if you will, until it's fully brewed, and then you can use it. I'm an instant gratification person, slowly teaching myself to be a delayed gratification person. Learning French is one of those teaching methods, although it is fully unrealized.
("Unrealized idea. Unrealized." laugh if you get it, if you don't, read on)
Um, yes. French. So I have resigned myself to the fact that I'm just going to have to spend tons of time memorizing words until I know them all and how to use them. That way I'll have something gratifying to do that builds on the language learning.
It's really interesing being in college because it expands your mind. Some of it you may reject, saying, "No, that's not right according to me!" but it still sticks in you brain, naggling at the edges until you decide to chew on it a while. AFter ruminating, you discover that you've learned something, and change your view perhaps, or reenforce it. You shouldn't let your views and ideas, personal standards and dreams get eaten up though. But you do need to listen to what other people are saying. "Agree to disagree." I learned that my first quarter of my first year, sadly the person teaching didn't figure it out, but it was a good example to me to keep to that rule. And to recognize when someone is mad deep inside and they really don't care that what they say makes others feel bad about themselves. Elanor Roosevelt is quoted "Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent." I love writing that quote in margins of paper when I'm in a bad class. Repeating it over and over in my brain. Hamlet also comes to mind.
"To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether tis nobler to suffer
the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them....
Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs os disprized love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That paitent merit of th'unworth takes"
("Unrealized idea. Unrealized." laugh if you get it, if you don't, read on)
Um, yes. French. So I have resigned myself to the fact that I'm just going to have to spend tons of time memorizing words until I know them all and how to use them. That way I'll have something gratifying to do that builds on the language learning.
It's really interesing being in college because it expands your mind. Some of it you may reject, saying, "No, that's not right according to me!" but it still sticks in you brain, naggling at the edges until you decide to chew on it a while. AFter ruminating, you discover that you've learned something, and change your view perhaps, or reenforce it. You shouldn't let your views and ideas, personal standards and dreams get eaten up though. But you do need to listen to what other people are saying. "Agree to disagree." I learned that my first quarter of my first year, sadly the person teaching didn't figure it out, but it was a good example to me to keep to that rule. And to recognize when someone is mad deep inside and they really don't care that what they say makes others feel bad about themselves. Elanor Roosevelt is quoted "Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent." I love writing that quote in margins of paper when I'm in a bad class. Repeating it over and over in my brain. Hamlet also comes to mind.
"To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether tis nobler to suffer
the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them....
Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs os disprized love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That paitent merit of th'unworth takes"
Poor Yarn-ic
The product of a tired brain, too much time, and a love of things knitting/theatre:
The caption is, "Alas poor Yarn-ic, I knit him well."
The caption is, "Alas poor Yarn-ic, I knit him well."
Thursday, September 29, 2005
The Stormy Day
There are days when one wakes up to find that they think (think being the operative word here) that they understand the math class they are taking, and enter the classroom (une salle de classe) with complete confidence that they will comprehend all that is being taught. But (mais) to the utter dismay of the student, they find that they are not quite as smart as they thought they were, thus leaving the classroom deject and wretched. (Hamlet refrence)
Before math though, which in some strange dichotomy is a consolation to French, the french is harder than one thought because of two things. 1. there is no homework to turn in. You do all the work outside of class and when you remember/dicipline yourself to do it. 2. It's not in simple language that any poor Joe on the street (yours truly) can understand. Not necessarily dummied down, but simple.
Take French verbs for example. Before you can use them, you must learn to conjugate them, but the instructor doesn't explain conjugate. She writes, je = Je marche, tu = tu marches, il, elle, on, marche. Nous marchon, vous marchez, and ils, elles marchent.
(Yes, I DO have trouble thinking for myself.) The reson for that is I have little to no confidence in the brillance/comprehension and/or actual knowledge of my onw brain. How's that for a schitzophrenic actress?! HA!
I digress. Again.
I have come to understand that being in college is all about thinking for yourself and not expecting someone to spit something you're "supposed" to learn into you brain and have you regurgitate it on a test to see if you "know" the material. That's being indoctrinated. If you question everything and learn what's really true and what's really not true, you're actually being educated. Learning is all about asking questions.
So, my question is, why don't I ask more questions?
Simple. Because I've been humiliated more than once for asking a question and therefore associate it with being stupid, and I'm not brave enough to ask questions now and therefore suffer and complain on blog/journals like this about it.
Oi. I can be pathetic sometimes.
Before math though, which in some strange dichotomy is a consolation to French, the french is harder than one thought because of two things. 1. there is no homework to turn in. You do all the work outside of class and when you remember/dicipline yourself to do it. 2. It's not in simple language that any poor Joe on the street (yours truly) can understand. Not necessarily dummied down, but simple.
Take French verbs for example. Before you can use them, you must learn to conjugate them, but the instructor doesn't explain conjugate. She writes, je = Je marche, tu = tu marches, il, elle, on, marche. Nous marchon, vous marchez, and ils, elles marchent.
(Yes, I DO have trouble thinking for myself.) The reson for that is I have little to no confidence in the brillance/comprehension and/or actual knowledge of my onw brain. How's that for a schitzophrenic actress?! HA!
I digress. Again.
I have come to understand that being in college is all about thinking for yourself and not expecting someone to spit something you're "supposed" to learn into you brain and have you regurgitate it on a test to see if you "know" the material. That's being indoctrinated. If you question everything and learn what's really true and what's really not true, you're actually being educated. Learning is all about asking questions.
So, my question is, why don't I ask more questions?
Simple. Because I've been humiliated more than once for asking a question and therefore associate it with being stupid, and I'm not brave enough to ask questions now and therefore suffer and complain on blog/journals like this about it.
Oi. I can be pathetic sometimes.
Monday, September 26, 2005
J'aime...et...Je n'aime pas..
J'aime la litterature. Je n'aime pas les maths.
J'aime parler francais. Je n'aime pas regarder la television. Je trouve ca tres inutile.
Yeah. That was the extent of my french lesson today. Yes, I know there are e's that don't have accents and the "ca" needs the upside-down and backwards question mark thingy underneath the c, but other than that! it's me writing in french! Whoo hoo!
Translation:
I like literature/reading. I don't like math. I like speaking french. I don't like watching television. I find it useless.
I finished the other fingerless glove I was making and so, finally, I have two of the same color! All I need to do is sew up the side seams. I could have done a three needle bind off, but I was without my dpns (double pointed needles) today.
J'aime parler francais. Je n'aime pas regarder la television. Je trouve ca tres inutile.
Yeah. That was the extent of my french lesson today. Yes, I know there are e's that don't have accents and the "ca" needs the upside-down and backwards question mark thingy underneath the c, but other than that! it's me writing in french! Whoo hoo!
Translation:
I like literature/reading. I don't like math. I like speaking french. I don't like watching television. I find it useless.
I finished the other fingerless glove I was making and so, finally, I have two of the same color! All I need to do is sew up the side seams. I could have done a three needle bind off, but I was without my dpns (double pointed needles) today.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
For Posterity...
...so I'm being honest.
this is tea, orange and lemon tea to be exact.
this is me drinking the tea. I DO drink tea. When I'm not drinking coffee.:)
this is tea, orange and lemon tea to be exact.
this is me drinking the tea. I DO drink tea. When I'm not drinking coffee.:)
Me!
This was taken not too long ago, but I like it more than any recent ones, so *pbbbbt*. (That was a Gollum-esque raspberry in the raspberry blowing style of Calvin and Hobbs)
I'm going to upload pictures of all my past and current knitting projects as soon as I get pictures of them!
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