The first thing that happened today was our debate in AP U.S. history. Our group was debating the cons of Indian removal. I was really worried about how the debate was going to go because I didn't feel as if we were ready. I was pleasantly surprised that it went extremely well. Our group argued our point well, and I think we definitely got our point across. It went great, and I had so much fun. It makes me wish our school had a debate team. It would be so much fun.
We're getting ready to start writing our next paper in AP English, and it's going to be an analysis that deals with obedience to authority. Guess what I'm analyzing. Voldemort ordering Draco to kill Dumbledore, and Dumbledore asking Snape to kill him. I'm so excited! Hopefully I can make it work well.
I don't think I did a blog post where I mentioned our ideas for the yearbook cover. Well, we were going over ideas for the cover the other day, and I think it's going to be awesome! We had some awesome ideas. I just keep getting more and more excited for this yearbook. I can't wait to see it finished! (I can't believe I'll be in college when it's sent out.)
Play practice was interesting today. This week's dress week. I can't believe it's that close to opening! We had to change around jobs and things for one of the scene changes today, which was a bit stressful. Now, instead of bringing stuff out on stage during the first scene change, I'm helping Bridget with her quick change. I wasn't sure how that was going to go, and I was a bit worried that she wouldn't get ready in time and it would be my fault. Luckily, she got ready in time. Overall though, I think practice went well. I think we'll be able to pull everything off this weekend. Some of us crew members are now doing our curtain call behind the "window" too, and five of us have to climb up on this bench thing. I hope that doesn't look to awkward (and that one of us doesn't fall over or something). Hopefully it all goes well.
Showing posts with label play practice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label play practice. Show all posts
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Happy Halloween!
I hope everyone had an awesome Halloween. Mine wasn't bad, but it definitely wasn't the best either. It really wasn't very Halloween-ish.
There's really no way to describe last night other than weird. I feel like I spent most of the night only half asleep. I kept waking up, but I can only vaguely remember it even though I could out of bed at least two or three times. I've felt half asleep all day.
Since it was Halloween the first thing we did at school today (after announcements that is) was watching the Halloween parade. Every year my school lets the people who dressed up to walk down the hallway, and then they choose cutest, scariest, and most original costume. Ji was taking pictures for yearbook, but it turns out the camera's memory card won't upload to the computer, so we can't really use any of them (or any that we've taken recently).
The only good thing about not being able to use the yearbook camera is that a lot of the teachers recently got iPads, so we can use our yearbook teacher's to take pictures. Ji and I spent yearbook class walking around the school taking pictures of people who dressed up. Interestingly, most of the pictures are color-coordinated. It just so happens that each class tended to have people with the same color costumes. I think it looks cool. My favorite pictures we took was of what I'll dub the "black group." My friend Haley's in the picture with a Slytherin tie and Harry Potter glasses with a terrified look on her face while a vampire is behind her about to bite her neck. They're not the only ones in the picture, but that's basically the focal point. We actually got several hilarious ones of that group. They were the largest and really the only ones who posed in a funny position.
Our computer applications teacher gave us blow pops because it was Halloween, which was pretty awesome.
After school came play practice as usual. You'll be hearing a lot about the play from me this week as it's dress week, and we open Friday. This means five and a half hour practices all week. The awesome part is that we get supper, and there's not really anything left for us to do other than scene changes (and people doing lights and sound), so I have time to do my homework during practice. (Not that I got much done today during practice. I don't work well when I have a headache.) It's weird thinking that the play opens this Friday. It doesn't feel like this is the seventh week we've been working on it. Hopefully, everyone who comes to see it enjoys it!
There's really no way to describe last night other than weird. I feel like I spent most of the night only half asleep. I kept waking up, but I can only vaguely remember it even though I could out of bed at least two or three times. I've felt half asleep all day.
Since it was Halloween the first thing we did at school today (after announcements that is) was watching the Halloween parade. Every year my school lets the people who dressed up to walk down the hallway, and then they choose cutest, scariest, and most original costume. Ji was taking pictures for yearbook, but it turns out the camera's memory card won't upload to the computer, so we can't really use any of them (or any that we've taken recently).
The only good thing about not being able to use the yearbook camera is that a lot of the teachers recently got iPads, so we can use our yearbook teacher's to take pictures. Ji and I spent yearbook class walking around the school taking pictures of people who dressed up. Interestingly, most of the pictures are color-coordinated. It just so happens that each class tended to have people with the same color costumes. I think it looks cool. My favorite pictures we took was of what I'll dub the "black group." My friend Haley's in the picture with a Slytherin tie and Harry Potter glasses with a terrified look on her face while a vampire is behind her about to bite her neck. They're not the only ones in the picture, but that's basically the focal point. We actually got several hilarious ones of that group. They were the largest and really the only ones who posed in a funny position.
Our computer applications teacher gave us blow pops because it was Halloween, which was pretty awesome.
After school came play practice as usual. You'll be hearing a lot about the play from me this week as it's dress week, and we open Friday. This means five and a half hour practices all week. The awesome part is that we get supper, and there's not really anything left for us to do other than scene changes (and people doing lights and sound), so I have time to do my homework during practice. (Not that I got much done today during practice. I don't work well when I have a headache.) It's weird thinking that the play opens this Friday. It doesn't feel like this is the seventh week we've been working on it. Hopefully, everyone who comes to see it enjoys it!
Saturday, October 29, 2011
My First Shakespeare Performance
Today was our field trip in AP English (along with the English 12 Honors class). This was the first field trip I can remember being on since middle school (unless you count the character trip I went on to Nashville sophomore year), so I was excited about it.
We did have to go to our first class, so I spent AP U.S. history trying to prepare for the debate we're having next week. My group and the group we're debating against are debating over Indian removal. It had to be a subject that we had learned about so far, and we were currently on the chapter about Indian removal and the Trail of Tears. The group we're debating against wanted slavery, but we were able to get them to agree on something different. I'm in charge of writing the conclusion for my group, and I have no idea what I'm doing since I've never participated in a debate before. It should be interesting. We're the cons side, and I'm hoping it'll be easier since I think that's the side most people are already on. I just don't want to screw up the conclusion.
After AP U.S. history, we all met to get ready to leave on the field trip. Haley and I were surprised to see that the bus we were riding on was the bus we both used to ride. (We ride a newer bus now.) It was weird being back on that bus.
Hamlet was interesting. It was the first time I'd seen Shakespeare performed live, and Hamlet is one of the Shakespeare plays that I haven't read. I was impressed that I was able to understand most of what they were saying. Some of the actors were really good and a few weren't as great. I was impressed with some of the younger kids they had. Some of them were really good for their age. Most of the adults were good as well.
Not knowing much about Hamlet beforehand, I was a little surprised by the play. Because it was a tragedy, I wasn't expecting it to have as many jokes as it did. I'd heard enough about it that I knew Hamlet went crazy, but I didn't know that he became an amusing type of crazy. I always thought of it as a darker sort of crazy.
Although I enjoyed the play, it was definitely noticeable how long it was, especially after the intermission they had. I think most of this came from the fact that I was really tired, and there were several times I almost fell asleep. Still, I learned today that Hamlet is Shakespeare's longest play, and that was definitely obvious today.
Overall, I really appreciated the experience, and I enjoyed it. It was really fun to see Shakespeare performed for the first time.
After the play we stopped to eat lunch. We had a choice between several different restaurants, and I went to Taco Bell with some friends. We didn't have a whole lot of time to eat before we had to be on the bus again to head back to school. We got back about half an hour before school ended. A large portion of my government class had been on the field trip, and we decided we just weren't going to take our books or anything when we went in. It was a good choice because they were watching TV when we entered, and we basically spent the rest of the day talking.
Of course, I had play practice after school today. Nothing huge happened there. It's gotten to the point where pretty much all of the "big" stuff is finished. I'm just doing random things. I had to paint this banister, find some coats for a costume, wash glasses, and other things.
The field trip made today go by really quickly. It actually feels really weird because it doesn't really feel like I went to school today but yet it does. I'm not complaining about it though. It was an awesome field trip.
We did have to go to our first class, so I spent AP U.S. history trying to prepare for the debate we're having next week. My group and the group we're debating against are debating over Indian removal. It had to be a subject that we had learned about so far, and we were currently on the chapter about Indian removal and the Trail of Tears. The group we're debating against wanted slavery, but we were able to get them to agree on something different. I'm in charge of writing the conclusion for my group, and I have no idea what I'm doing since I've never participated in a debate before. It should be interesting. We're the cons side, and I'm hoping it'll be easier since I think that's the side most people are already on. I just don't want to screw up the conclusion.
After AP U.S. history, we all met to get ready to leave on the field trip. Haley and I were surprised to see that the bus we were riding on was the bus we both used to ride. (We ride a newer bus now.) It was weird being back on that bus.
Hamlet was interesting. It was the first time I'd seen Shakespeare performed live, and Hamlet is one of the Shakespeare plays that I haven't read. I was impressed that I was able to understand most of what they were saying. Some of the actors were really good and a few weren't as great. I was impressed with some of the younger kids they had. Some of them were really good for their age. Most of the adults were good as well.
Not knowing much about Hamlet beforehand, I was a little surprised by the play. Because it was a tragedy, I wasn't expecting it to have as many jokes as it did. I'd heard enough about it that I knew Hamlet went crazy, but I didn't know that he became an amusing type of crazy. I always thought of it as a darker sort of crazy.
Although I enjoyed the play, it was definitely noticeable how long it was, especially after the intermission they had. I think most of this came from the fact that I was really tired, and there were several times I almost fell asleep. Still, I learned today that Hamlet is Shakespeare's longest play, and that was definitely obvious today.
Overall, I really appreciated the experience, and I enjoyed it. It was really fun to see Shakespeare performed for the first time.
After the play we stopped to eat lunch. We had a choice between several different restaurants, and I went to Taco Bell with some friends. We didn't have a whole lot of time to eat before we had to be on the bus again to head back to school. We got back about half an hour before school ended. A large portion of my government class had been on the field trip, and we decided we just weren't going to take our books or anything when we went in. It was a good choice because they were watching TV when we entered, and we basically spent the rest of the day talking.
Of course, I had play practice after school today. Nothing huge happened there. It's gotten to the point where pretty much all of the "big" stuff is finished. I'm just doing random things. I had to paint this banister, find some coats for a costume, wash glasses, and other things.
The field trip made today go by really quickly. It actually feels really weird because it doesn't really feel like I went to school today but yet it does. I'm not complaining about it though. It was an awesome field trip.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Debates, Yearbooks, and Inductions
Next week we're having debates in my AP U.S. history class. I'm pretty excited for this because I've never actually participated in a debate before. Being a very quiet person, I'm a little nervous, but I hope it will be fun. We went to the library to work on it today. My group with debating Indian removal. We're on the con side. Today I got put in charge of our conclusion. I'm a little worried about it because I have to have something written down, but I also have to be able to change it a bit during the actual debate so it relates to what the other team argued. I'm really worried because I'm not great at coming up with things on the spot. If you take out that little bit though, I'm extremely excited about this.
Today was also our second day of watching the movie A Few Good Men in AP English. Our next paper is going to be about obedience to authority, and we're able to use the movie in the paper. I'm definitely not complaining about watching a movie for a few days in that class.
We're making some decent progress on the yearbook this week. We looked at a template for the pages today, and it looks so cool. I'm really excited for this yearbook. I have hopes that it'll be pretty great.
I'm not really sure why, but our economics (which is the same class and teacher as government from last quarter) teacher had us form our desks into a circle during class today. We had a discussion about economic stuff (descriptive I know) like minimum wage, Social Security, etc. Then we watched a video about China's economy (and how it's tied to the U.S.).
I stayed after school today (just like every day the past few weeks) for play practice. We didn't do a whole lot today. I sorted through the makeup and picked out some of the older, used up stuff, and I helped paint just a little bit. It was actually a bit funny because she asked me to paint because I'm left handed, and she couldn't paint this one bit because she was right handed.
After practice, my sister and I came home for just a little bit before going back to school for the Beta Club induction. My sister was inducted into Beta Club tonight, and I was taking pictures of the induction for the yearbook. I didn't get that many good pictures unfortunately. I stayed in the back because there was no way I was going up to the front, and I had a bit of trouble with the camera (it refused to take pictures at one point). Still, I think I could enough pictures for us the use for the yearbook. Ji and I actually have the Beta Club page, which we should start on since we now have pictures from several things.
Today was also our second day of watching the movie A Few Good Men in AP English. Our next paper is going to be about obedience to authority, and we're able to use the movie in the paper. I'm definitely not complaining about watching a movie for a few days in that class.
We're making some decent progress on the yearbook this week. We looked at a template for the pages today, and it looks so cool. I'm really excited for this yearbook. I have hopes that it'll be pretty great.
I'm not really sure why, but our economics (which is the same class and teacher as government from last quarter) teacher had us form our desks into a circle during class today. We had a discussion about economic stuff (descriptive I know) like minimum wage, Social Security, etc. Then we watched a video about China's economy (and how it's tied to the U.S.).
I stayed after school today (just like every day the past few weeks) for play practice. We didn't do a whole lot today. I sorted through the makeup and picked out some of the older, used up stuff, and I helped paint just a little bit. It was actually a bit funny because she asked me to paint because I'm left handed, and she couldn't paint this one bit because she was right handed.
After practice, my sister and I came home for just a little bit before going back to school for the Beta Club induction. My sister was inducted into Beta Club tonight, and I was taking pictures of the induction for the yearbook. I didn't get that many good pictures unfortunately. I stayed in the back because there was no way I was going up to the front, and I had a bit of trouble with the camera (it refused to take pictures at one point). Still, I think I could enough pictures for us the use for the yearbook. Ji and I actually have the Beta Club page, which we should start on since we now have pictures from several things.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
The End of Finals and a Losing Streak
Today was the last day of our finals at school, so I'm definitely relieved that it's the weekend.
Yesterday we had a lockdown during 4th block. Today there were police officers walking around school today. No one (apparently even teachers) know what happened. There are various rumors, and the biggest one seems to be that some janitor at a local elementary school threatened to kill someone or something. I definitely don't know if this is true or not. I just wish they'd tell us what's going on instead of letting rumors spread. I mean, we saw all of the police officers today. We know something's going on, and I'd like to know what.
I got the pleasure of starting off the day with an AP U.S. history final. It wasn't that bad, but it was still a relatively challenging test. I had a particularly tough time with the essays. It was harder to come up with specific details when you had to think back on eight chapters instead of just one. Let's hope I could remember enough.
I'm lucky that our AP English teacher doesn't give us a final. (They're not really required for AP classes.) Instead, we spent the class working on our comparative critique papers. Honestly, working on that paper is probably more challenging than any of the finals I took the past two days. I had such a hard time focusing on it today though. I think I wrote about two sentences today. I spent the longest time trying to think of what to write (and drawing a blank), and then I kept getting distracted by various things. I think it was because it was a Friday, but I could not focus in that class.
I was in yearbook for about five minutes today before Ji, Alyssa, and I asked to go to our computer application's teacher so we could work on our finals. Our computer application final consisted of completing twelve applications (which were various types of word documents) and a written test. I managed to get all of the applications done during what's normally my yearbook class, and I worked on the written test during my actual computer applications class. I'm glad we went in there because I don't think I would have gotten done on time otherwise. This class is right before lunch, so seniors get to leave five minutes early (and get lunch first). When I left early, almost everyone was still working on the written test and this isn't including the applications at least some of them still needed to get done.
After lunch I was off to peer tutor at the middle school like usual. When I got to the first room I'm usually in, the teacher told me that there weren't going to be any kids in there today, so she sent me over to the classroom I usually spend my second half of peer tutoring time in. I really didn't do anything today. For the first half hour or so there were only two kids in there, and they were studying for a health test they had later. When the next period started, all of the kids took a multiplication test and then spent time doing math stuff on the computer.
We had our government final yesterday, and we're done with the class (Economics starts on Monday), so we did basically nothing. They but a movie on that was about Gettysburg, but I spent most of the class reading Dear Mr. Potter, which almost had me in tears several times. It's such a beautiful book. Towards the end of class, they started popping popcorn in the concession stand right next to the government classroom. I hate when they do that because it smells so good and instantly makes you want some. We did get to eat a little bit just like last time they were popping it while we were in there.
I stayed after school for play practice, something I do every day now. We didn't do a whole lot today. I helped paint a "closet" (and got paint on my jacket and got a painful splinter) in the process. I was surprised how quickly practice went by considering I did nothing for about half of it. We got our shirts at the end of practice. I like them, but I'm not to fond of the colors. They're green with the design in yellow. Yellow is my least favorite color, but I dislike it even more with green for some reason. I think it reminds me too much of John Deere...
My sister stayed at school for the football game, but I decided to come home. My school's football team played our biggest rival tonight. I'm not a huge sports person, and I'm too anti-social to go to games to hang out. (Football games have never seemed like a good place to do this anyway.) I should tell you that we hadn't beaten this school in 21 years. I haven't been to a game this year, but from what I've heard our team isn't any better than they have been the past several years. (I'm not saying our team is bad. They just don't particularly stand out.) Because of this, I really wasn't expecting us to win. Apparently I was wrong. Facebook exploded early about how we beat the other school for the first time in 21 years! Congratulations Rebels! I may not act like I have school spirit most of the time, but I really do. I just don't feel the need to go to sporting events or dress up crazily to show it. So, even though I wasn't at the game, I'm very proud of my school right now. I can bet that school will be fun on Monday.
Yesterday we had a lockdown during 4th block. Today there were police officers walking around school today. No one (apparently even teachers) know what happened. There are various rumors, and the biggest one seems to be that some janitor at a local elementary school threatened to kill someone or something. I definitely don't know if this is true or not. I just wish they'd tell us what's going on instead of letting rumors spread. I mean, we saw all of the police officers today. We know something's going on, and I'd like to know what.
I got the pleasure of starting off the day with an AP U.S. history final. It wasn't that bad, but it was still a relatively challenging test. I had a particularly tough time with the essays. It was harder to come up with specific details when you had to think back on eight chapters instead of just one. Let's hope I could remember enough.
I'm lucky that our AP English teacher doesn't give us a final. (They're not really required for AP classes.) Instead, we spent the class working on our comparative critique papers. Honestly, working on that paper is probably more challenging than any of the finals I took the past two days. I had such a hard time focusing on it today though. I think I wrote about two sentences today. I spent the longest time trying to think of what to write (and drawing a blank), and then I kept getting distracted by various things. I think it was because it was a Friday, but I could not focus in that class.
I was in yearbook for about five minutes today before Ji, Alyssa, and I asked to go to our computer application's teacher so we could work on our finals. Our computer application final consisted of completing twelve applications (which were various types of word documents) and a written test. I managed to get all of the applications done during what's normally my yearbook class, and I worked on the written test during my actual computer applications class. I'm glad we went in there because I don't think I would have gotten done on time otherwise. This class is right before lunch, so seniors get to leave five minutes early (and get lunch first). When I left early, almost everyone was still working on the written test and this isn't including the applications at least some of them still needed to get done.
After lunch I was off to peer tutor at the middle school like usual. When I got to the first room I'm usually in, the teacher told me that there weren't going to be any kids in there today, so she sent me over to the classroom I usually spend my second half of peer tutoring time in. I really didn't do anything today. For the first half hour or so there were only two kids in there, and they were studying for a health test they had later. When the next period started, all of the kids took a multiplication test and then spent time doing math stuff on the computer.
We had our government final yesterday, and we're done with the class (Economics starts on Monday), so we did basically nothing. They but a movie on that was about Gettysburg, but I spent most of the class reading Dear Mr. Potter, which almost had me in tears several times. It's such a beautiful book. Towards the end of class, they started popping popcorn in the concession stand right next to the government classroom. I hate when they do that because it smells so good and instantly makes you want some. We did get to eat a little bit just like last time they were popping it while we were in there.
I stayed after school for play practice, something I do every day now. We didn't do a whole lot today. I helped paint a "closet" (and got paint on my jacket and got a painful splinter) in the process. I was surprised how quickly practice went by considering I did nothing for about half of it. We got our shirts at the end of practice. I like them, but I'm not to fond of the colors. They're green with the design in yellow. Yellow is my least favorite color, but I dislike it even more with green for some reason. I think it reminds me too much of John Deere...
My sister stayed at school for the football game, but I decided to come home. My school's football team played our biggest rival tonight. I'm not a huge sports person, and I'm too anti-social to go to games to hang out. (Football games have never seemed like a good place to do this anyway.) I should tell you that we hadn't beaten this school in 21 years. I haven't been to a game this year, but from what I've heard our team isn't any better than they have been the past several years. (I'm not saying our team is bad. They just don't particularly stand out.) Because of this, I really wasn't expecting us to win. Apparently I was wrong. Facebook exploded early about how we beat the other school for the first time in 21 years! Congratulations Rebels! I may not act like I have school spirit most of the time, but I really do. I just don't feel the need to go to sporting events or dress up crazily to show it. So, even though I wasn't at the game, I'm very proud of my school right now. I can bet that school will be fun on Monday.
Friday, September 30, 2011
The Newspaper Article and Stage Crew
I never posted about this on the blog (because I was freaking out about it so much), but I somehow ended up writing a column for the local newspaper. They wanted a kid from each school in the area to write about stuff happening at that school. My yearbook teacher and friends thought I should do it. This all happened a couple of weeks ago, but the issue with the first article in it came out yesterday. I had several people tell me today that they'd read it and enjoyed it. The secretary at the middle school even mentioned it when I went over there for peer tutoring. She'd only asked what my name was a few days ago. I didn't think she remembered it! I'm a little embarrassed. I mean, everyone's said good things about it, but of course the would in front of me. I'm so paranoid about it.
It's so hard to write posts about just general life stuff now because of play practice. By the time I get home, I'm worn out and have forgotten most of the day. I could write about play practice, but there's really nothing to say. I'm not great at building things, so I'm the one doing the small, random jobs, such as holding something or searching for different props and things. I'm really happy I joined crew, but it doesn't give me much to blog about.
One random tidbit that might be interesting: there's apparently a ghost up in the passage way that leads from the costume/prop room to the place where the lights and stuff are controlled. I haven't actually been past the costume room and I haven't heard the footsteps that everyone else claims to hear (even when I'm in there alone). I'm not really sure if I should believe everyone or not. One girl claims she was chased once. We'll see how I feel in a month. I can say that that area is creepy, so I can see why people would believe there's a ghost there.
I usually look forward to Saturdays because I get to sleep in, but that's not happening tomorrow. Why? At three a.m. my mom and I are leaving to drive up to Indianapolis to visit Marian University. Marian isn't one of my top choices for a school, but I definitely think I'm applying there. It should be interesting. Although, the long car right in the wee hours of the morning may be even more interesting thanks to sleep deprivation. Here's to hoping I can get some sleep in the car.
It's so hard to write posts about just general life stuff now because of play practice. By the time I get home, I'm worn out and have forgotten most of the day. I could write about play practice, but there's really nothing to say. I'm not great at building things, so I'm the one doing the small, random jobs, such as holding something or searching for different props and things. I'm really happy I joined crew, but it doesn't give me much to blog about.
One random tidbit that might be interesting: there's apparently a ghost up in the passage way that leads from the costume/prop room to the place where the lights and stuff are controlled. I haven't actually been past the costume room and I haven't heard the footsteps that everyone else claims to hear (even when I'm in there alone). I'm not really sure if I should believe everyone or not. One girl claims she was chased once. We'll see how I feel in a month. I can say that that area is creepy, so I can see why people would believe there's a ghost there.
I usually look forward to Saturdays because I get to sleep in, but that's not happening tomorrow. Why? At three a.m. my mom and I are leaving to drive up to Indianapolis to visit Marian University. Marian isn't one of my top choices for a school, but I definitely think I'm applying there. It should be interesting. Although, the long car right in the wee hours of the morning may be even more interesting thanks to sleep deprivation. Here's to hoping I can get some sleep in the car.
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