Month: October 2018

This week, I will be talking about the symphony I listened to. A couple of weeks ago, mommy asked me if I would accompany her to a symphony. The reason for this is because she doesn’t want to go alone, and I was chosen because everyone else in our household dislikes classical music. I actually didn’t really want to go, but a the time I didn’t have anything planned, so I agreed.

I didn’t know anything about the symphony, besides the fact it was a symphony until I left to see it. During the car ride to our destination, I learned a couple of things from mommy. First, it was a Halloween themed symphony presented by the York Symphony Orchestra company. Second, I learned this one time deal. The York Symphony Orchestra company would be hosting one symphony every month. My reaction this wasn’t exactly joyous, and I think the last symphony I got dragged along too had something to do with that. After we entered the building, we took went to take our seats. Unfortunately, we were seated in the very front and couldn’t see the stage without tilting our heads back. I personally didn’t really care, because I was there to listen to music. Seeing the symphony perform didn’t matter to me. To be honest I would rather listen to a recording in the comforts of my room then go to a live. However, that would have been a waste, since we already had the tickets. On the other hand, mommy seemed to care quite a bit because I later saw her requesting to change seats for the rest of the symphonies.

The symphony wouldn’t start for a few minutes, so mommy and I decided to read the brochure. From the brochure, we learned there would be five pieces played with an intermission in-between. The five are named Danse Macabre, Violin Concerto in D Minor, Io.47, Night on Bald Mountain, Duneral March of a Marionette, March to the Scaffold/Dream of a Witches Sabbath. I didn’t know any of these songs, but I do have some opinions on them. The first song felt dull while the second was way too long. This resulted in me almost falling asleep multiple times in the first half. The second half, however, was much better. All the songs sounded great, and I didn’t fall asleep. I believe the intermission, really helped me wake up and enjoy the second half to its fullest.

Overall, although I’m not exactly thrilled about going to these symphonies, they’re far from boring. The music sounds great, and I enjoyed the second half at least. In the end, I had a pleasant time, and at the very least I’m getting blog material.

This week, I will be talking about my music field trip on October 10th. On October 10th, my music class took a trip downtown to see the Rosebud string quartet at the Canadian opera company. Since practically the entire class forgot about the trip, most of the class just brought their entire school bag with them including me. When we boarded the bus, there were only 28 students, there was more than enough space to have an entire seat to myself. The bus ride was long and boring. On the way to downtown, we got stuck in a traffic jam and the stop and go movements made me feel nauseous. When we finally arrived at our destination I definitely felt better. Since we didn’t get dropped off directly at the Canadian opera company we had to walk there. Fortunately, the walk wasn’t too long, maybe 5 to 10 minutes. When reached the Canadian opera company we had around 45 minutes to look around downtown. Most of the students decided to go to a Tim Hortons to grab a snack including me. After I got back to the Canadian opera company, I began to eat my lunch since it was around 11:30 and we couldn’t go into the building until 11:45.

After finishing my lunch and taking a group photo in front of the Canadian opera company, we entered the building. Because I have never been to the Canadian opera company, I thought we would be lead to a theater but I was wrong. Instead, we were led to a row of seats that could have easily been mistaken for a staircase from far away. After taking our seats on the hard wooden seats my class began eating their lunch. I, on the other hand, began working on a small project I started working on my free time. After 45 minutes of eating the concert began at 12:30. From what I could see, there were two violins, one viola, and one cello. While we were eating lunch we got a small pamphlet that showed what the quartet would be playing. So then the quartet was setting up, I took a look at the pamphlet. The first thing I thought was wow this is a short concert because the pamphlet only showed two songs. One song was by Beethoven and the other by Haydn.

The first 30 minutes were very pleasent. The music almost fell asleep, but I managed to fall asleep. However, the pleasant feeling didn’t last and after an hour I began when the performance would end. Soon, an hour and 30 minutes had passed, and the concert showed no signs of stopping. I once again was about to fall asleep but the pain of sitting on hardwood for 1 and a half hours kept me awake. When the performance finally ended, my butt of very sore from sitting on hardwood for 2 hours straight. However, I couldn’t deny how good the performance was. The viola player definitely showed me I still had a long way to go. Even though I was put into music, it didn’t mean I don’t care about the subject. Once we boarded the bus, we began the long journey back to school. When we reached school we coincidently arrived at 2:15, the trastion time between 3rd and 4th period. This meant we got to enjoy the entirety of the 4th period and from there school continued as normal.

Overall, the trip was great. I thoroughly enjoyed my first field trip for high school not including blast. The only thing I could have wished for was no traffic and coushined seats. However, my friend said that part of downtown always had traffic and the fact the concert was free I can’t really complain. In the end, I hope to go on more field trips in the future.

This week I will be talking about my grandmothers 80th birthday. A few weeks ago my parents hosted a grand celebration at a restaurant called Emperor. The reason the celebration was so grand, was because it was the day my grandmother turned 80, a one a lifetime event.

The day of the celebration was relatively calm for me. Kalen, on the other hand, had to go with daddy to the restaurant early to set up his guitar. The funny thing was when Mommy and I did leave, she read the time wrong and we left almost an hour early. Fortunately, we caught ourselves before we got too far away. After heading home resting for an hour, we once again left for the restaurant. When we arrived some people were already there. In fact, the guest list was huge, in my opinion anyway. Practically all our relatives in north America were invited as well as a few relatives for Mauritius. I found it quite amazing that many people managed to get here. However, most of the guests didn’t arrive until a little later. While we waited for the guests to arrive, I sat at my assigned seat. During that time I took the time to upload my happy birthday message to “the party” website. Prior to the celebration, daddy created a website where you could upload photos and play music. I thought it was quite neat, but I only used it once or twice.

Soon the guests arrived and did the food. The first dish that arrived was a crab meatball. I will admit, I was never a fan of the crab meatball. However, I ate it anyway because I was starving. The next dish that arrived was a soup, one that I had many times before. Before we could get to the main dishes, there was a lion dance performance. Unfortunately, I was located right next to the drums. As you can expect, I found it quite loud and irritating. However, I found the lion dance entertaining none the less. Right after the lion dance, there was another performance. This time it was a traditional Chinese dance. I, unfortunately, didn’t have a good view of the performance, and I was staring at the backs of the performers most of the time. After the traditional dance, the food finally started coming. There was rice, noodles, and other Chinese cuisines. Midway through dinner, Kalen decided to perform three songs on his guitar. After the songs, we had dessert. I probably had 5 of those peach looking buns with lotus paste inside. When dinner was finally fished, the dancing began. I just sat on the sidelines, watching my relatives dance the night away. I will probably never get on a dance floor unless I bribed into it or blackmailed. The 2 or so hours of dancing, music, and photos the party finally the ended.

Overall, the party was really enjoyable. I thought it was really nice to see so many family members in one place. Although, sometimes I wonder I have too many family members. The performances, on the other hand, was quite a mixed bag for me. The lion dance was nice although really loud. The traditional dance was great but I didn’t have a view. Finally, the guitar performance was alright. I probably didn’t find it as amazing as others, because I hear Kalen practicing every day. As for the food, I thought it was the worst part of the celebration. It doesn’t mean the food wasn’t good, its just I have that exact dishes we got served every week. My point is the food didn’t have the same impact as the performances. In the end, I thought my grandmothers 80th birthday was quite amazing. This celebration, makes me look forward to the next celebration.

This week I will be talking about my hard drive upgrade and how it has improved my experience. I had the hard drive installed for a couple of months, and I have decided to take advantage of the space. Initially, I was very cautious about purchasing the drive. It was by no means cheap, and it costed around $70 dollars (if my memory is correct). By the time I considered by it Kalen had already purchased the drive, which may have influenced my decision somewhat.

At the time, I was primarily thinking about how it would affect my Skyrim and Fallout 4 experiences. Before the storage upgrade, the number of mods I could have on both games were limited due to storage problems. In particular, I was eyeing a Skyrim mod called “Bruma”. To explain why I really wanted “Bruma”, I need to talk about how the Elderscroll games work. Bethesda, the developer of the Elderscroll games, likes to create an Elderscroll game per province in the in-game continent. The continent called Tamriel has 9 provinces, Skyrim being one of them. The mod “Bruma” adds part of another province into Skyrim. Basically what I’m trying to say is, “Bruma” requires a lot of space because it literally adding DLC to Skyrim.

When I finally decided to purchase the drive, I had to wait a bit. When the drive did arrive, I needed to wait for the weekend to install it. The installation wasn’t as easy as I had thought. At first, I thought we would just need to put the drive in. However, I was wrong when I learned we had to switch the drive’s data around. The process was slightly stressful, however since Kalen and I had daddy’s help things went pretty smoothly.

After the installation, I didn’t feel the effects of the new storage immediately, that is why I’m doing this blog know. Overall, I am very happy with my purchase. I can now enjoy the new space the drive has granted me. In the end, I may end up upgrading my PC over time, and I feel getting the new drive is just the first step.