Sundance and Time

Sorry I  haven't posted for about a week and a half now. I was doing so well at keeping up with it earlier!

Let's see, what has happened in the past week and a half? A lot.

I went to the Sundance Film Festival not last weekend but the one before that. We saw 2 films: 'Children of Invention' and 'Against the Current.' I really like both of them actually but overall 'Against the Current' was a better film I'd say. My favorite part about it though was that the endings were not predictable or at least not cliche. The whole time I was thinking "oh I can see exactly where this is going," but then they would surprise me! 

Let me explain a little. I wont tell you about Against the Current but Children of Invention is about a very poor Asian American family where the Mom gets caught up in an illegal pyramid scheme and is then arrested. To make a long story short, her kids are pretty young but they are on their own for a while. Somehow I expected it to end with the Mom getting a stable job and the family being happy and able to get by just fine. But the way it actually did end was just with the family being reunited and just being happy to have each other back. No solutions to their financial problems, no end to their stress, but they had each other again. I liked it. I wasn't expecting it to end when it did.

Anyways my point is: Huzzah for things that aren't cliche! (I just read Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self-Reliance" can you blame me for feeling all independent and non-conformative right now?)

I also saw "Slumdog Millionaire" recently. I had to admit that is was the first Bali-wood movie I have ever seen, even though I do generally like to see myself as fairly cultured. It was really really good and I was on edge quite a bit of the time and my heart wouldn't stop racing. Those of you who were with me know what I mean!

I seem to be at a good equilibrium with the current level of busy-ness in my life. I don't feel incredibly stressed out, but I am balancing school, extracurriculars, work, and a fairly active social like, which are all very time consuming things! It has made me become super organized. I plan out every day and always have a list of tasks to complete, and usually I do really well actually getting most of it done.

I get my homework done earlier now than I ever have before, and I'm not always getting on myself for procrastinating.

My room magically stays clean at the same time too! Don't ask me how- I guess the fates are just all pulling in my favor right now because things in my life are just going really well.

I feel like this was a really scatterbrained post, but at least I got something posted! (My planner just say "Post on Blog," not "Post a really good entry on blog" so I don't feel bad.)

3xChoir

I committed to sing in Sforzando for the semester. It is a service choir that meets on Thursday evenings for an hour, then a few times a month on Sundays they go out and sing for retirement homes, homes for the disabled, prisons, etc. I really like it, and it is a smaller choir (which is something I enjoy). It is what I am doing this semester for the volunteer/service hours that are necessary for my scholarship.

I also joined the Scandinavian choir that meets on Wednesday nights for an hour. It is an actual class. I'll have to leave slightly early to make it to my conducting class on time. Wednesdays are going to be busy: on campus for the folk dance team at 10am, classes till 3, then choir at 6, conducting at 7-9, and work from 9-12:30am. All the other days are much more reasonable, so don't worry about me running myself into the ground.


I am going to Sundance Film Festival this weekend (unless things fall through). I am looking forward to that. I'll probably blog about it, so enough said there.

Dancing Queen in a Yellow Jersey

There was a slight change to my schedule today... I am now also taking Dance 378R- Intermediate Folk Dance (Audition required). A friend asked me just to come to see if I wanted to do it. I was all prepared with a speech to give my friend about why I wanted to add the class but couldn't for such and such a reason (really because I wanted to sleep in more), but didn't end up using it. They were very desperate for guys! It was rather funny--I walked up, and they handed me an add/drop card with everything filled out already except my name, ID number, and signature. I figured that I would probably regret missing out on this class more than a little bit of sleep, so what the heck! I signed it and now I'm in! No audition or anything :P It should be fun, the only downside is that it is at 10 AM, which is a bit of a bummer with my sleep schedule, but I'll deal. (I really do want to take the class--I'm not just doing since I feel bad for them).

It is in a good place to set up some exercise time for me though, which is very good news since I need to get serious about training for my cycling this summer. Since I don't have class at 11, I'll get a guaranteed 30-45 minute workout 3x/week. Perfect amount of time for a good jog!

I have a sinking feeling already that my knee is not going to want to cooperate with this though. I started having problems with it late in summer '07 after working out a ton all year. I really really need to get to the weight room and start doing exercises that will stabilize my knee, which hopefully will resolve that issue. I need my knees to work for dance class too now! I guess it is time to venture to the foreign territory of lower campus...

In the past I have also had problems with pushing myself too hard when I exercise (running so hard I puked, etc). If I couldn't feel it the next day, I felt my workout was a waste (even though that isn't true). Apparently that is still going to be a problem this year-- I did some core exercises last Saturday and was so sore for the next two days I could barely even stand up straight!

Budgeting

Over the past 4 months, I have saved every receipt I have gotten. "Would you like your receipt?" Was always answered with an emphatic "Yes, please." I have been doing this not to kill excessive trees, but in order to create a budget.

So today, instead of doing my reading for classes tomorrow (I wrote my essay though, so I'm not a total slacker!), I opened up Microsoft Excel, created a spreadsheet, and mapped out almost every penny I have spent in the last 4 months. The results have been intriguing but I am now prepared to properly budget this semester.

I am not going to let you in on the intricacies of my pocket book, but I will say these are my most general goals/limits.

Gas- $30/month
Groceries- $120/month
Eating out/vending- $30/month
Entertainment- $20/month

William James

The philosopher William James described various options or paths that arise in our lives as being either living or dead, sort of like electrical wires. “A live hypothesis,” he explains, “is one which appeals as a real possibility to him to whom it is proposed.” Dead hypotheses are options that an individual cannot take seriously. To that individual, the option is not capable of being true, or is a path that they could not realistically follow.

I have found myself beginning to incorporate this notion into my everyday thought patterns. It fascinates me. It is so applicable to many of the things I have been pondering over the past year. So as it comes up in many of the things I will probably be talking about on this blog, I figured I should explain it to you all.

Week One

It's only Thursday of the first week of school and I am already all settled in! Normally it takes me much longer during the first week to get everything done that I need to. My schedule is all worked out, and I am quite happy with it.

Here is what I am taking:
-Music 311R- University Chorale (yay for singing)
-Music 135- Basic Conducting
-Religion 327- Pearl of Great Price
-History 388- Indians in Colonial America (because of my academic crush on them)
-English 293- American Literature History (gonna kick my butt)
-English 251- Fundamental Literary Analysis and Criticism (really gonna kick my butt, but be so worth it)

It's only 14 credit hours (normally I take 16 or 17) but I am still going to be pretty busy, especially because I work part time. I am hunting down textbooks online right now and it looks like I am going to be able to get away relatively cheaply, which is always good.

Also, since I work from 9-12:30 in the BYU Library every night, I have been worried about getting enough sleep, but I (barely) managed to work it all out so I will be getting plenty of sleep. It almost ended up that I was going to get 6-7 hours of sleep every night, but now I'll be able to get 7.5-8 every night. I am so happy about that.

I applied for Spring/Summer Term scholarships, which says something.... Gotta keep all the doors open. I have been having a great semester thus far.

And my biggest news: I declared a major!! Who knows if I will stay in it, but I am an official English major, music minor.

Winter Semester

I am so excited to take on whatever next semester brings. I hope it is challenging, and I hope I kick it's butt, as usual.

It feels good to be back in my own bed.