Moar.

Finally, a version of Apologize with the ending. Excuse the recording fuzz; I have no idea how that came in.


You might remember this from my last piano post; it's the completed first movement of Mozart Sonata K5450! Yay!


Here's what I'm working on next.

Update Time

As promised, here is one of a few updates to come.
My brother walked in the house and started talking halfway through my attempt to redo "Apologize," so that's going to have to wait.

Here's "Mad" by Ne-Yo.



I've also received my first fanmail! Yeah, apparently random YouTubers do watch my videos. Oh, it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

Edit: One more preview of the next full, complete upload. Definitely not perfect.

Dork Days (hella videos ahead)

I had the house to myself and...I like to make noise. So I pulled out some sheets and tried to sight-read a little.

No, I haven't figured out a way to get better sound quality. Apologies for that.

We begin with a nod to all the Legolas lovers out there. Because everyone knows that Link=Legolas.


My favorite game. I'll see YOU on omgpop.com (though I haven't been on in a while)

Unfortunately, that theme sounds so..dead and unexciting. I tried to make it more exciting. Did I succeed?


And no nerdfest is complete without Naruto.


It's not a party without Mario. This one was the hardest of the bunch =(.


At least this one was easier.


Logically, if you're a good pianist, you should be able to play all sorts of music easily. For me, though, video game music is kinda hard to learn. Maybe it's because I was taught by a--I guess you'd call it classical?--piano teacher. It's sort of how abstract art is different from "real" art. There are strange phrases and, personally, I find that my fingers don't really move the way the Super Mario Theme demands.
Here's one of my favorite "classic" pieces :)--Schubert's Impromptu. I should post a better version of it later.

It's a Blackberry shirt with a lego man on it.

I woke up this morning and I had no sense of purpose. Life is so directionless when your movements aren't mandated by the necessity of performing perfunctory duties in order to "bring home the bacon," as you will.

In other words, I have the day off and I was bored.

Sound quality is terrible--yeah, those weird noises are NOT all due to me messing up. The stupid video ended TEN SECONDS before the end because my camera's 4 years old and has a 3-minute limit =(. Taken from the left side because that's the more exciting side--there are a lot of chords farther away from the main body of the bass rhythm, so my hand jumps out and attacks once in a while. It would look more impressive from a bird's eye view, probably--but I was too lazy to figure out a way to rig that.


I dusted off my old CM piece, too (right hurrrr ). To accommodate the limit, I only played 2/6 of the pages. I did record the other 2 parts, but meh. Two videos in one day is enough.

I might redo these and upload versions with better sound (and fewer mistakes). But it is kinda fun to watch the attacking hand.

Note: awkwardhawk is a different YouTuber. I'm THEawkwardhawk, tyvm.

Eye of the Hurricane

So I am happy to say that I survived my terrible weekend. I went from all-day Science Bowl to last-minute piano panicking on Saturday, then on Sunday I had my piano evaluation and Quiz Kids competition. Having to keep my adrenaline up to stay on edge and alert for questions and somehow relax to make Chopin sound nice, I wished more than once I was bipolar. 

At least this week was a little calmer, with only one tournament.

I am also happy to say that I will be going to college next year, having gotten into a few schools. However, exactly what they are will remain undisclosed. The magnitude of the decision I will have to make in a few weeks has recently whacked me in the face, as I will have to decide between rubbing shoulders with brilliant but strange kids or a fun school. Additionally, small fish in a big pond, big fish in a small pond? Good weather or a change from my spoiled California life? I've determined that I want to get far, far away from home. 

With the piano test being over, I can finally relax and enjoy what I'm playing. Finally picking up new pieces, I've decided to give Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata a try. Unfortunately, I am barely capable of reaching an octave at times, and not only is the score devastatingly fraught with them, but there are also a few ninths. And accidentals. Lots and lots of accidentals. But hey, who ever said enjoyment came easy?

Congratulations to Quest Crew :D. The Best Hair Crew and America's Best Dance Crew. If t-shirts ever fall below $15, I will definitely buy one. I love bboys.

AP tests are in 8 weeks, leaving one me one week to prepare for each test. But in the meantime, I've got to keep my grades up as second semester classes mercilessly bear down on us second-semester seniors. I've received a letter from a college reminding me that my matriculation is contingent upon my second semester performance. Way to create a downer on an otherwise ecstatic moment. 

I also need to get my license sometime.  ._.;

Next week is the Regional Science Olympiad, and Quail and I are rather excited to defend our title as reigning NorCal Write It, Do It Champs. May the Force be with us. 

Relief often causes more problems than it solves

Ask the citizens of starving nations where care packages dropped by "benevolent" American planes cause numerous concussions because of the poor aim characteristic of their nation (Dick Cheney anyone?)

Yes, it is finally second semester for me. Which should be a great feeling, but it just means the approaching of more deadlines. 

I have so much to say, but the readers lack the attention span to read it all. 

This is not an insult to you. I love you and appreciate you and regret not posting about you all in my Thanksgiving post. But SO many things have happened in the past few days since I've blogged that even the most patient of friends would most likely walk out on me in a huff if I were to truly reveal what I'm thinking all the time now.

But because this is the internet, I can be a complete jerk to strangers. =] Thank you.

First and foremost--Gunn Titans WAWOOT! Quiz Kids round 3 has been won against MSJ. Hawk deeply regrets that she was not as much help as she would like to be, but she will definitely step it up against Harker for the final match.

One problem. My Certificate of Merit test is on the same day...and those at the Certificate of Merit office only allow specification of either a "morning" (anywhere between 8 and 11:30) and an "afternoon" (until 5) time. Just great. It's a 2-hour test, so requesting a morning time could very well cause a spillover. Besides, cranking out a 1.5 hour music theory test will wear out my brain (since music category questions have yet to make an appearance in the question set, it's unlikely that this information would be useful (though as a wise teacher called Mr. Stallings once said, there is no such thing as useless knowledge. Oh man. I have so many inside jokes I'm tempted to whip out now, but I shall suppress the urge). Additionally, playing through 30 pages of music at my speed (Hammertime, I like to call it--hammers? pianos? get it? ha..ha) will wear out my buzzer fingers.

There is no way I'm giving up this test. I've played piano for 10 years and this is what I've been aiming for the entire time--my level 10 test. Maybe somehow I'll be able to pull a miracle out of my ass and memorize the 25 pages of music I'm still lacking..and maybe I'll be invited to State Convention again. Or at the very least, the Branch Honors recital. It's doubtful, and I'm looking at memorizing only 3 pieces (still about 15 pages) to just pass the test and hit the Advanced (yes, capitalized) level. 

But the alternative is to ditch my Quiz Kids team. Yes, I do mope about how useless I am for a large part of the contest. But the fact is, I do help during the collaboration round, I know a compendium of the most random information ever (which usually helps when divining what John Keats and ancient pottery have in common), and without me, there is a lack in the general sciences and lit department. Perhaps the defeatist attitude does not help much. 

What do I do!?!?

Meanwhile, SciOly is coming up. I'm extremely excited about Write it Do it, as Quail and I will be returning state champions in that event. We've also signed up for the Pictionary-like Picture This, and I'm returning to the Ecology event (it's pretty much a test. Last year, my partner and I tackled the vocab crossword rather viciously. For a 7-letter word meaning "native," I drew a total blank and scribbled in "erotics." Shockingly, we got second place at States). 

ON TOP OF THAT, in the less brainiac department.

Swim season starts soon. Having quit polo this year, I feel rather fat and blobby and would really like to get back in the water. But I barely managed to scrape by my six AP classes this semester. Besides, I am (finally) a second semester senior and I'm wondering if I really want to drive myself insane with 2-hour practices on top of all the trivia stuff and other things I'm doing to hold down the fort. Moreover, swim meets eat up about 5 hours each time, and I really can't afford to miss classes (which I would have to do at least 5 times, judging by past years). Additionally, conflicts arise for Friday and Saturday. 

I'm still lion dancing, and New Years' is coming up. It's fun playing with (or scaring, as the case may be) little kids and wearing foofy pants, but each show eats up time I should be spending on practice for CM. You see, I don't have 24/7 access to a piano... I really don't want to throw lion dance on the backburner, since it'll be my last chance to get anything done, and I've recently hit a big milestone that I've been aiming for for a while. Of course, I could skip Fri and Sat swim practices, but then I'll never get fit if I miss 33% of practices.

I would like to quote my econ teacher, Mr. Lyons, for my summary statement of this monster.

I am in deep shit.

(P.S. The answer is "endemic." I realized this when I was walking out of the room with Tammy, feeling like we'd failed the test. I hope the examiners at least got a laugh out of it.)

Vay-K

Vacation passes wayyyy too quickly.

I've been programming (to see my attempts, click here)and staying up late, waking up at 12, and pianoing my butt out.

Like, sure, it's the holiday season, but I gotta admit that I don't feel much of the spirit. There's finals after break, a piano test coming up that I need to memorize about 30 pages of music for, and Chinese New Year is coming, too. I did finally finish college apps, though (I was planning to finish on xmas to give myself a present, but I ended up submitting at around 12:15 AM on 12/26. As Quail would say, fail).

But I got this awesome t-shirt that says "Mr. Shark." The problem is that it's a kid-size medium so0o0o I'm gonna try various methods of stretching it out so it fits better. Maybe I'll post a tutorial later to companion with my toilet unclogging one.

I did have tons of fun at Christmas in the Park and staying at the movie theater until 1 am with my cousins. I saw Slumdog Millionaire (I guess not a bad movie, but not my type. I like action/comedies, and this was a chick flick.) and Seven Pounds. I wanted to see Seven Pounds just because of Will Smith, but it dragged ON and ON until I wanted to cry. Maybe it was just the extremely early morning temperament of "I wanna sleep, goshdarnit." But it was another sappy movie. Sigh.

I wanna finish Bolt.