Jason's Blog

Well, so much for having time to do anything this weekend. Not that I’m complaining or anything, I really did enjoy myself for the most part it’s just that it was a rather busy weekend.

Yesterday and today was packed with events like sardines in a can. I had classes in the morning, then teaching in the afternoon, then finally a homecoming event going on at night with this huge bonfire and fireworks. We played as a band during the fireworks, which was quite an interesting experience. The whole trumpet section was directly behind the pit, so I couldn’t actually hear anything of what I was playing. But, it probably didn’t matter anyway because if I did play any wrong notes, no one else could hear them either. So after getting home late, I headed to bed just a little bit tired from the sinus junk that I’ve had recently.

I woke up this morning feeling yet tired again, and slept about 25 minutes past my alarm clock so it was a rushed shower and a quick drive to school to make it in time for this morning’s parade. Now this was probably one of the most interesting parades I’ve seen. Apparently it was a tradition a while back but they stopped doing it a couple of years ago only to begin it again this year. It was nice marching around campus for a good 3/4 of a mile for all 80 of the people that showed up. Oh well, I’m sure they enjoyed it anyway. But we did our thing and played for the homecoming game (which I might add Samford won, yet again) and then rushed to put away all the instruments in the truck. Then, around 5:30 I head to the Wright Center to see Bill Cosby.

Now I must say, this was quite an enjoyable performance and well worth the $20 I payed. It was a nice break for such a long day, although I felt slightly out of place considering most everyone was at least slightly dressed up and I was still in my dirty band clothes. Anyway, I finally get to head home after that and eat and watch some Seinfield to at least wind down some from the day’s events. At least when I go to bed I’ll get an “extra” hour of sleep tonight. I know I sure need it…

Thank goodness for fall break! It’s amazing what a weekend of doing nothing can do for you. I got very little accomplished, plenty of sleep and goofed off for most of the weekend at my grandparent’s house in Georgia. Yet I feel a lot better than I had in previous weeks just from the break. But now, it’s back to the grind.

Homecoming is this weekend, so that’ll keep me busy for the most part. Of course there’s the homecoming game, and any other activites that are coming up beforehand as well. Bill Cosby is coming to do two shows in the Wright Center on campus as well, so that’ll be a nice break in this busy weekend. But in the meantime, there’s some computer science homework to attend to…

One word pretty much describes this semester: busy. Considering I’m taking on a full load of classes, not to mention I have 7 students in my piano studio along with marching band and working with the computer science department at school, busy just doesn’t begin to describe it. Thankfully, I had a lot of time to goof off this weekend after the football game but the week starts right back up again right after Sunday. I can say I will be glad for Fall Break coming up this weekend.

So I got my test results back from the disaster of a class, discrete structures. Apparently, I’m not doing too bad with a very, very borderline B- in the class. If I end up making that as a final grade I’ll be very happy but that means I’ll have to at least get 80s on the next two tests as well; I suppose we’ll see how that goes.

Piano is keeping me very busy as well. I’ve been really slacking I suppose on the Jury pieces I have to perform at the end of the semester. I suppose I should pay attention to the Mozart and Brahms pieces I’m performing, both of which I might add are really fun pieces to play, but I’ve been trying to finish up on my Kabalevsky concerto. I know my chances are pretty slim at even winning the competition but I want to give it all I’ve got, since this year and next year will probably be the only chances I’ll have to play a piano concerto backed by a complete orchestra.

Well, at least there is one test out of the way. I think I did okay on the Music Lit exam I had today but I’m not really sure. Now all I have to worry about is my next test, discrete structures.

I thought having taken pre-calc and calc 1 my freshman year, I would be completely finished with math, but I thought wrong. Little did I realize that the computer science major included a discrete math class within it’s requirements. To give you an idea of what the class is like, everyone failed the first test. Yeah, that’s right. Not only that but one person dropped before the first test and another is retaking the class from last year. Intrigued yet? Thankfully he let everyone retake the test so I think I probably ended up with a B- at the least, maybe a B+ if I’m lucky. The only frustrating this is that each test counts for 25% of our grade, and retaking the first test was probably the only second chance we will be allowed. So here’s to hard work and studying for test numero dos. I only hope the results of this test will be more successful.

I’ve started a blog. I never thought I would actually do one but the idea kind of grew on me after a while. Either way, it’ll allow me to vent some and to organize my thoughts even if no one is reading it. Also, if anyone is actually interested in keeping up with things I do, then here you go.

At the moment, don’t expect too much. The site’s still pretty basic since I built it all from scratch. I suppose I’ll do some more to it in the little free time I have. But we’ll get to that later.

Anyway this week is going to be a fairly busy week as it is. Three tests coming up all at once. Sometimes I wonder if professors just plan it that way, and strategize having tests all compacted into the same week. At least I don’t have to teach tomorrow, that’ll give me about 2 hours of extra time. It’s times like this when I wish there was more than 24 hours in a day…