Got this idea from the 100% rad gloominess. I'm going to document here a list of all the books I read in 2008, and see where I get at the end of 2008!

BOOKS READ ONLINE DON'T COUNT. I don't know, it just seems like cheating to me. :P

( BOOKS READ IN 2008 )

Juilliard: That school in NY I want to go to.
I got a letter from the saying "Congratulations! You can sing well enough to be in our school! However, there are more people who can do that than we have room for, and since you're a year younger than all of them, you can be on the waiting list. We'll tell you if you're in on June 1st, after you have to tell the other schools whether you're going or not."

Brundibar: that opera I was in.
It felt good to do. It was fantastic and I was jumping up and down and running around so much I just fell over afterwards. I was also on the front page of the newspaper for it, which was... certainly interesting.

UBC: The local university I wanna go to if I don't go to Juilliard.
They sent me an email in which they had written in caps, in bold, "WE WANT YOU AT UBC!". They also gave me a scholarship.

Me:
..............................................................

metalpen metalpen metalpen metalpen metalpen metalpen metalpen metalpen metalpen metalpen metalpen metalpen metalpen metalpen metalpen metalpen metalpen metalpen metalpen metalpen metalpen metalpen metalpen metalpen metalpen metalpen metalpen


It's my new fanfiction journal. Bitches! So go friend it, 'cause my epic kuro/fay piece is still in the works and shall show up there eventually!

(Also, I'm still updating that list of books I've been reading this year, and there are links and reviews attached and whatnot, so you might want to check that thing out, too. I'd appreciate it.)

Now that that's out of the way, I have to have a freakout for a moment.



( OH MY DEAR GOODNESS! This next part is going to come in teenage rant form. )

So a really silly idea for a fanart for A WHOLE BUNCH of animes popped into my head - I have a REALLY ROUGH planning sketch behind the cut, so I ask anyone who has ever taken interest in any of the following animes/mangas to tell me if they think the idea is stupid and I should scrap it.

Character names have been typed out beside the characters - things they're holding, or notes, are in brackets. Slightly smaller text indicates stuff in speech bubbles.

The animes/mangas featured are:
Tsubasa
Bleach
Death Note
Code Geass
D. Gray-man
Samurai Champloo

( Click for a fanart proposition. Is it stupid? )

atarigamer: Ugh. My video card fan is making a VERY unattractive noise right now.
mymorphine: ...*automatically imagines it make farting noises*
mymorphine: 0_O
atarigamer: Every now and then it's like "Buuuuurrrrrggg, buuuuurrrgg, buuurrrg, buurg, burg, burg, wurg, wooga, woga, woggawogga, woggawoggawoggawogga... GURRRGLE, CHUNK, wiiiiirrrr...




...Just wanted to share that.

PS: You know what's AWESOME?
...Samurai Champloo.
That's what's awesome.

So what I was GOING to rant about was about how I went to the School Board and told them about our dire need for a new school, and how they won't give us the new building anyway because they don't want some mothers to be sad. However, some other stuff happened that totally purged that rant from my mind.

...

Anyone know a way to raise $20,000,000? Because no one's going to give it to us.


I don't understand what is so challenging about the idea of getting kids into a SANITARY building. Without rats.

So the most important thing that happened to me today will take waaaaay too long to talk about, so I'll talk about other stuff instead until I have the time to RANT ABOUT HOW WE NEED A NEW SCHOOL. Ahem.

Anyway.

Something I wrote to post today at 8:56 AM:
I just had a majorly awesome idea for fanart, you guys.

But for that, I'd need gingerbread-making supplies, and cookie cutters in the shape of gingerbread men... I've never cooked anything before, EVER, so anyone got any idea how to do this stuff? And does anyone have red, black and white icing I could use?

*is a dork*

Something I wrote to post today at 9:57 AM:
I just witnessed a very quiet, very tense falling out between two really awesome people at school. One person came to school and the other went right out and asked him why he didn't do something this weekend that he really should have done to be respectful to another friend, and they had a very short, quiet argument and the guy, let's call him person A, left. It was sad - these two are such good friends, and such great people, and it's sad that person A felt so attacked by person B that he went on the defensive like that. Person B was very forward with her opinion on the matter, to be sure, but it didn't justify the strange reaction...

The only reason I go on about this is because I was right there when it happened, and it was so strange. I just thought I'd share that. I wish life weren't like that, really.

Pick 10 people and give them the "you make my day" award. If you're picked, you are charged with picking 10 of your own.

1. atarigamer
2. silly_potato
3. paperview
4. papered
5. nigeldamas
6. dagfari
7. eveningrainfall
8. gloominess
9. erebos
10. vicious_lullaby

Not really in order, 'cept the first few.

*so many hearts to you guys*

Nothing more to say, unless I rant. The end.

I wrote my first fic since the crackfics with paperview and silly_potato two or three years ago. It's just three drabbles strung together, but it's mine. :)

I literally just got a throbbing migraine 10 seconds ago, and now it's gone. Weird.

I'm supposed to present to the school board tomorrow evening about all the issues I wrote about in the last entry. I suppose that's interesting, but I'm kind of at the level of consciousness right now where very little is interesting.

I know, I have an idea.

I'll do a stream of consciousness entry from this point on.

( STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS - spoilers for chapter 182 of TRC to ensue )

Dear Parents of the 61 Kids at the Elementary School Annex,

Look, I understand that closing a school is not a charming notion. Your school is special, I get it - its small size and tight-knit community make it an ideal place for intelligent kids to learn.

But really, there are 600 other kids who need your help.

The School Board sees fit to close school annexes to get the main schools the upgrades they need, as they haven't the money. Your annex is assigned to my high school - ie, if you close, we get all the money the School Board saves from not having to run you. Now, I understand that the main school you would relocate to is another two blocks away, and you know none of the teachers and not all the students... but please, consider my school's situation.

We have 600 students crammed into a school building made for 150 people. We have no cafeteria, so we eat in the hallways. We have no music room, no yearbook planning space and no more desks left in classrooms. There are 9 - count them, 9 - full-size portable buildings attached to our property, and one double-size, and we still don't have enough. Our auditorium has plastic removable chairs we need to set up on foldable risers to face a stage made of wooden blocks we attach together ourselves. We have one gym for two gym classes that go on at the same time, which means that one gender must ALWAYS sit out and miss out on the opportunity to have a class. And what's worse, the number of students that need to get into this school is growing every year, and our school has to turn them down - even kids who live here, and should get enrolled here automatically. These kids, if they don't get in to another school outside the neighbourhood, may be unable to attend any school in the city AT ALL for their grade eight year.

Adding new wings to this building can't help much, either - you see, the existing classrooms would still be too small, and the extra students that could enroll would be even more squished in the classroom than we already are. Student would be forced to study on the floor or windowsill, because those rooms would just be too small for the classes of 40 students.

It costs $1.30 a student to keep up a school annex, and $1.00 to keep up a main school. Simply put, if your annex closed and you went to the main school, you'd have to go through a significant change, but in the end I can guarantee you'll find the main school acceptable. We need that savings of just $0.30 to help us relocate our entire student population into a new building, and modify that building to suit our needs. We are in sub-standard conditions in our present building... and you make a ruckus because your 61 kids would have to change into a normal school?

Now here's the part that grosses me out most. My mother, who attended one of our loudmouth meetings to see what went on, reported that many of the parents at your meeting looked down on the population of my high school because they were Asian.

How DARE you?

We have every right to a good education in good conditions! We are just as special as you! We need a new school, and I am very sorry that that means sacrificing your Annex... but if it doesn't happen, what will happen in just a few short years when you're looking for a high school just as special for your kids?

You'll look to our school. And because we're so full, we will turn you away, just as you are doing to us now.

Please stop fighting and stomping and making a ruckus about this. I know how you feel. I wanted a special school, too - and i got wonderful friends, smart teachers and a building in which you can see the rebar holding up the ceiling.

We need this new school. For that, we need your annex. Really, changing elementary schools en masse shouldn't be so hard - your entire community will be going with you.

Please. Let us have this school. Though I'm graduating this year, I know that I'd be happier leaving knowing that my friends would be getting a good learning environment - just like your annex - at last.

Thank you so much,
An Intelligent Grade 12 Student

So life's interesting. But besides that.

Let's see, what's happened... I ran into eolian_sprite walking around UBC a while ago, which was pretty cool, since she's absolutely rad. We talked about textbooks and slam poetry. I was on the way to a theory lesson, which was significantly less awesome, but apparently necessary.

OH! YES! I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!



I GOT A TABLET!

...And so I'm drawing some stuff with it. It's pretty hard to get used to, but it gets easier and easier the more I draw, so it's really quite exciting. (Also, it's an awesome subject I've been drawing.) My head is also absolutely overrun by plot bunnies, so I think I may have to actually go drabble a fanfic or two soon.

Also, my voice is getting higher and higher. The Eflat is in a performable state right now, and the D is easy enough that I didn't notice it at all when I sang it at the Opera Café last Friday. I'm supposed to secretly start seriously working on Sempre libera (which is, of course, why I'm publishing it on the net for all to see), which is incredibly exciting, because I think it's the most fun, acting-wise, a soprano could have onstage when she's not dying, insane or about to be raped. So that's exciting.

Zeus asked me to reprise my role in his concert this spring, but instead sing the actual Phantom of the Opera duet. We're taking it a step down because I don't trust the E like I do the D (as I just said before), but it'll be good fun, because it'll be an absolutely RIDICULOUSLY FUNNY concert.

Speaking of ridiculously funny concerts, I need to put something on to help fund me going to university, so I'm going to put on a fach-mixup concert. I want to sing a baritone aria! :D

And, for the not-mundane stuff: I'm writing a novel. For real this time.

Love you guys. I'll stop being boring now - I simply have no motivation to make this one interesting.

*hat tip*

Generally, when dealing with difficult things, I try to be simple about it. I pick myself up, dust myself off, and take another step forward.

Just sometimes it's harder.

I just saw the 2nd OVA of Tsubasa with subtitles.

I think I'm going to have a heart attack for Fay, for Syaoran (losing one completely and getting the other), and for Kamui and Subaru. ALL AT ONCE.

!!!!


Holy crap, that hit me right in the heart. I'm going to hurt all day.

A "conversation" with Noel Hurtley while I was in the process of watching the 1st Tsubasa OVA for the first time:
(SPOILER WARNING)

( I am really, really weird. )

My voice teacher just got a gig with Bramwell Tovey and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

HOLY CRAP!

It's on October 2nd at the Orpheum Theatre, for anyone here who is interested - and it's almost sold out! Wahoo! Really, Heidi's been working so hard for this for such a long time, I'm so glad the world is at last figuring out how stunning she is. Took 'em long enough. :)

She'll be singing some really stunning arias, I promise - it will be a night to remember.

I updated my list of books I'm reading this year. I'm supposed to read Gulliver's Travels for Lit class, too, but have managed to never acquire a copy. *facepillow*



I went to Winnipeg.
"Oh, Ashlin!" you say, "Why the Peg? Anywhere but the frigid, boring Peg!"
And I say, "Oh, but there is a wonderful coluratura soprano teaching there, and I simply MUST be her student!"

So I went there with my voice teacher and it was cold, but much warmer than it is most of the time in January. She had a sore throat, and was worried about her audition for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, but I knew she'd be fine - she's still stunning.

While I was there, Tracy Dahl squeezed me in for a lesson before she had to go to Calgary to sing Baby Doe on an emergency basis. The lesson went really, really well; I felt like we clicked very well, and she said I'll have a big coluratura voice like Edita Gruberova. Wow! High praise! I was stunned. She is a hilarious woman and fabulous teacher, and I learned a lot from just our two hours together (and the extra hour watching another student's lesson - the student, incidentally, was a friend of my voice teacher's). I really, really want her as my teacher.

Oh yes, my friends. I believe I have decided that, of all the options, the University of freakin' Manitoba is my first choice for post-secondary. That lesson with Tracy was pure gold - she really is a sensational teacher. The students there were really nice, friendly and funny when I met them in their Performance Skills class (and later, too, in the restaurant at 1 AM after their Opera scenes show). I also got a free session with breath guru and Opera Workshop director Mel Braun, after I was supposed to watch him teach, but the student in question never showed up. What a nice man - and what a wealth of knowledge!

But still, the best part was yet to come.

You see, my voice teacher's sore throat cleared up for the audition, and she introduced me to the conductor of the Winnipeg Symphony (!!!) before the audition - then he let me watch. And she sang the SHIT OUT OF Pleurez mes yeux for them - and then the Beethoven 9th, which they were incidentally needing a dramatic soprano for.

And they pretty much hired her on the spot.

So Heidi Muendel, my voice teacher, will be singing the lead soprano in the Beethoven's 9th with the Winnipeg Symphony!

...But now for something frivolous and silly. A meme!
( Eight weird things about me. )

I recently discovered just how amazing Natalie Dessay is.




She was stunning live in Lucia di Lammermoor, but it took me hearing her doing the one most impossible coluratura lead role out there - Lakmé - to realize that she really is a gift to the opera world. We haven't had a true coluratura great since Joan Sutherland, and it's high time someone unpacked all those roles. We have Sopranos-that-sing-coluratura by the score right now, from Netrebko to Gheorghiu, but not until Dessay was there someone whose voice actually sat there the most naturally.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT:

I don't know what I'm doing. I feel like I'm floating a bit, and for me, that's very odd - I'm normally so focussed on getting where I need to go that I just don't have time to feel directionless. This aimless feeling is entirely alien to me. Experimenting vocally tends to help, but only temporarily. I think I'm taking more of a refuge in singing (and facebook scrabble, of course) than is healthy.

I feel like I am (or have become) the sort of person built and wired to seize the day, do something new before the sun sets, live a life I think is extraordinary when I'm grey - and not only for being an opera singer. Let's go climb the Grouse Grind! Let's go visit the Bridal Falls near Hope! Let's go, let's go, let's go!

...Oh, wait. I haven't been able to leave the house in three days.
Nevermind.

Loves: 1
Kyle, I love you. ♥ *big silly grin*

Movies filmed: 1
I didn't describe this in the last post - it's called Safety Glass, and it'll come out in theatres this upcoming year. Could be a real winner - go see it!

Cats that have slept in on my face: 2
Operas performed in: 2
Tosca in the spring with Vancouver Opera as a chorus boy, and Hansel and Grrretel as the Dew Fairy with Opera Appassionata in the fall. Guess who had a whole aria to herself! Ooh yes. :P

New obsessions: 2
Tsubasaaaaaa! Fayyyy! And, of course, Verdi's masterpiece La Traviata, which I seem to be learning prematurely and entirely by accident.

Trips to New York: 3
State, actually. Two to the city. I think I am magnetically attracted to that city.

Universities applied to: 3
UBC, University of Manitoba, and Juilliard. Much love.

Really silly crushes on animated characters: 3
Musicals seen: 3
Recordings recorded: 4
Famous people spoken to: 5
Really silly crushes on real people: 5
Semitones added to vocal range at the top: 5
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Famous people seen: 8
Pounds gained: 7
Eurgh.

Operas seen: 11




This year was a good one for me, bad one for lists. Alas! Happy New Year, all. :)

So I go to New York twice, have a conversation with Kristin Kreuk and perform a BILLION concerts... and still I don't update my LJ until I have the flu.

I have the flu.
My birthday party's today.
It's canceled.

THE END.

PS. I saw High School Musical and am appalled because I kind of liked it. 0_O!