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This week, I will talk about the monthly concerts mommy and I go to. Last month, we went to a pretty bland concert that wasn’t as memorable as this one. The December was Christmas themed instead of art themed.

During the day of the concert, I asked if anyone wanted to take my place for the concert. Honestly, I didn’t really want to go. I rather play games or read a book than listen to a concert. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a replacement and had to go. When we got to the concert hall we couldn’t get to our seats. Mommy and I left early for the pre-show like we did for the last concert. However this time, there wasn’t a pre-show and we spent 30 minutes waiting for the show to start. Fortunately, while we were waiting, there was an a cappella group to entertain us.

When we were finally allowed in, I immediately fell asleep. The first act was a song that had multiple parts and wasn’t that interesting in my opinion. By the time intermission rolled around, I had a sore neck, and because of that, I stayed awake for the rest of the concert. Fortunately for me, the rest of the songs in the second half were way more iconic. They played songs like jingle bells, Santa Claus comes to town, and many other famous Christmas carols. The a cappella group from earlier even joined in and sang a few songs. To end of the concert, they performed one of those stories. I found it very interesting, there would be a storyteller to tell a story. In between lines, the orchestra and a cappella group would perform a song. It was a weird combination that worked.

Overall, I found this concert to be more enjoyable than the last one. If I had to rank all the concerts from best to worst, this one would be in first place. If I could change one thing, it would be staying awake for the first part. I was honestly was really tired when we got to the concert hall and couldn’t stay awake. In the end, this was probably the best and festive concert so far.

This week, I will be talking about a concert called winter on the green. In my previous blogs, I have always talked about concerts from the audience’s perspective. However, this time I was one of the performers. So instead of talking about how I felt about the music, I will be explaining the pieces we played and the process of how we got ready.

First, I will be talking about the pieces. The first piece we played was a song called pieces of eight. Although the name doesn’t suggest it, it’s a pirate song. It’s a very fast pace piece, and I will admit, I messed up the most on this one. Pieces of eight, was also the shortest song at one page long. The second piece we played was a song called avalanche. Out of all the pieces, I probably played this one the best, as I spent more time on it. Unfortunately, there are these two bars near the end of the piece that I keep messing up. During the concert, I messed up on the two bars but luckily no one noticed. The avalanche piece was the second longest piece we played at around two pages. Finally, the longest piece we played was the meledy composition. Unlike the other pieces, this piece was created by our grade 12 classmates. The piece was basically a big mishmash of different music. There were parts from songs like canon, despacito, flower dance, and others. Out of all the songs that were a part of this composition, I liked flower dance the most. It was a shame that right after flower dance we were playing despacito because the genres are so different.

Now, I will talk about the process of how the concert worked. Unlike the rest of my family, I had to arrive earlier. The teacher made it clear she wanted all of us at school by 6 o’clock. The reason for this was so we could tune, practice, etc. After arriving, I went to the music room to tune and practice. I will admit it was quite boring and noisy. After around 30 minutes, I just read until the concert began. At around the same time, I saw a friend who was also participating in the concert. We said hello but didn’t have a deep conversation because she was in another room. The teachers decided to split the band and the string instrument between the two music rooms. The reason for this was because there were too many students. However, there were a few exceptions, seeing as a flute group ended up practicing in the same room as us. When it was our turn, I was really nervous. Which made my hand sweat a lot. As we made our way to our seats, the cellos blocked the way to my seat. This required my stand partner and me, to go around the cellos, which was not something we practice during rehearsal. The actual performance went well for the most part. After we left the stage, some members of the performance left to go see the rest of the concert. While others left the school entirely to go home. I ended up just waiting in the music room reading. The room also had a live feed, so I could always see who was on. Near the end, I got bored and decided to watch the remaining performances.

Overall, I had a very fun time. However, this isn’t something I would do again, one time was enough. After this experience, I think I prefer being in the audience than the performer. In the end, I enjoyed the experience and I found the concert entertaining.

This week I will be talking about the plane I created in construction tech. I am quite proud of my work and I will explain the process of making it and how I feel about the final project. When I first started the project I initially started with pine wood. However, since our teacher had some stored away, he let us use a variety of other woods to create our toys. Unfortunately, I already constructed the base of my toy plane and I didn’t want to remake it. Instead, I asked the teacher for some maple and oak (I think) to make the wings and other parts that would be glued to the plane. Unlike other projects, I knew I probably wouldn’t have time to stain the plane due to time. The actual process of making the plane was quite enjoyable and easier than I would have thought. The hardest and most annoying part would probably be the circle at the front. The reason for this is because cutting a perfect circle on the band saw is harder than it looks. I ended up with a weird oval shape instead of a circle. But it was made from a hardwood which is more valuable and looks better than pine, so I didn’t want to remake it. However, the most concerning process to me was the gluing. By this point using the power tools and sanding was easy but gluing was still a challenge. Every time I use the glue, there would always be some overspill ruining the project in my opinion. Fortunately, that didn’t happen and I added the polyurethane. However, before I could finish disaster struck when I dropped the plane and its wings came apart. This little mistake probably added one or two days of work. Thankfully I still managed to finish and I’m quite proud of my plane.

Although I’m proud of my plane, I’ll admit its not perfect. Due to all the drops, there are a lot of dent marks. I also would have like to poly the wheels but time wouldn’t allow. I could also probably list a whole bunch of things that I wish I could have done/improve on for this project. But I realize these mistakes are important lessons that I should incorporate into my next project. As for what I want to do with the plane I don’t really know. I initially intended to give it as a Christmas gift, but it turned out way better than I imagined it to. In the end, I’m stuck between whether I should keep it or give it away but I’ll probably come up with an answer soon.

Overall, I like my plane very much and I enjoyed the process of making it. During its creation, I have learned many important lessons I wish to incorporate into my later project. In the end, I happy how the plane turned out and I can’t wait for the next project.

This week, I will be talking about the instrument I have been playing in music class up till now, the viola. First, I will explain what a viola is because it is one of the lesser known instruments in the string family. In terms of look, it’s very similar to the violin. The reason for this is because they have similar sizes, with the viola being slightly larger. Another reason people mistake the two is that a viola are also held in the same way as a violin. However, I believe that the viola is more akin to the cello. I think this because the two instruments share the same strings the only diffrence is they are an octave apart. Meaning a viola can play a cello song, but it would sound high. The two instruments also share a similar role having to support the orchestra. Both of them are in the background supporting the violins and occasionally come out to carry the melody as well. There is one thing that makes the viola different from the other two instruments, and that is alto clef. Which can be kind of troublesome because there is no other instrument in the orchestra that uses alto clef.

I actually don’t mind fading into the background, because if I screw up, it’s not very likely people will hear it. Playing the bass line most of the time also means I have easier sheet music. Which makes the music easier to play, but its also very frustrating. For example, if I practice a song, it might not even sound similar to the actual song. Since it doesn’t sound like a song and just a bunch of notes, it’s hard to tell if I’m improving. However, when I play in class it feels like I’m actually doing something which feels very satisfying.

At the beginning of music, I didn’t really care about what instrument I got. A week into music and I began to regret choosing viola because it was a pain learning alto clef. However, after I got a hang of alto clef and the viola, it’s quite a fun instrument to play. Unfortunately, I don’t think this knowledge will be useful for me in the future because I don’t plan on taking music again.

This week, I will be talking about Black Desert Online. A couple of months ago, I made a blog regarding my thoughts of the MMO RPG. However, this time, I will talk about switching characters. Most MMO RPG will let you create multiple characters, and Black Desert Online is no exception. Usually, when a game allows the creation of multiple characters, a player will have a character called their main. Their main, is the character the player usually focuses and spends most of their time on. There can only be one main, leaving the rest of the created characters to be secondary characters or alts.

Back when I first started playing Black Desert Online, I chose a Tamer as my main. Choosing a Tamer for a main, was a fundamental mistake as far as competitive and long-term play. Tamers are known to be hard to play, with few players mastering their erratic play style. The lack of skilled players, leaves the class shunned from guilds and group play. In Black Desert Online, the only endgame is PVP and guild wars. Both of these activities are very competitive and if you have nothing to offer you might as well switch classes. For example, a Wizard would likely be chosen over a Tamer with equal skills because of Wizards focus on CC and AOE while Tamers focus on hit and run tactics. I initially chose the Tamer class because it looked fun. However, this was before I realized the Tamer path was a dead end.

After taking a few months off Black Desert Online, I decided to play again. I decided I wanted a fresh start, so I created a new character that would be my main. After going through the classes one by one, I decided on the Witch class. I have several reasons for choosing such a class. One, Witches and, its male equivalent, Wizards are sought after classes for guilds and group PVP. Being Which will make it easier for me to get into a guild if I decided to play without my friends. Two, no one in my circle of friends went with a range or support class. The lack of range or supports can be annoying when we play as a group. I believe I mentioned it in a previous blog, but I a good party must have a balance of DPS, support, and tanks. However, some of my friends don’t see the advantages of such a strategy, opting for full-on DPS. With the Witch class, I can fill the both ranged and support roles that the party requires. The final and least important reason was seeing if the class was difficult to play. When my friends and I first got the game, we managed to convince Kalen to pick Witch for a support role. Needless to say, he didn’t enjoy the experience and quit soon after. Just like me, however, Kalen came back after a couple months and is now playing Black Knight. With his transition to a DPS/tank, the support role was once again left void. In the end, I picked up the class to hopefully help my friends, but with their current track record of quitting MMOs, I highly doubt that.

Overall, my switch to a new class mainly lays with the fault of my current class and the need of support for balanced play. I don’t hate the Tamer class and I still have my old main. Unfortunately, the social climate in the meta for Tamers isn’t looking so hot. On the other hand, Witches are on the opposite of the spectrum. Most players in the community see the need for skilled Witches and Wizards so a lot of guild seeking them out. In the end, I’m currently having a lot of fun with my new class, and I hope this new character won’t be a repeat of before.

This week, I will be talking about woodworking projects I’ve been making at school. Since the beginning of this school year, I’ve always said Construction was my favorite subject. I will explain what I’ve built so far, what I intend to do with them, and what I wished I could’ve done better.

So far, I’ve built two projects, and I’m currently working on my third. My first project was a trinket box, the second was a shelf, and when completed my third project will be a toy airplane. Each project has a unique aspect to it. For example, my trinket box has stain on it while my second and third project doesn’t. However, that doesn’t mean my other projects are bad because lack a certain something my other projects have. Instead, it just means I put more effort into other aspects of the project (sanding, gluing, assembly, etc). So far the most prominent example of this so far is my second project (the shelf). It lacks stain like my first project and lacks wood variety like my third projects. Rather, I have invested a lot of time making sure the sanding on the outside was amazing. In the end, I think all my projects are equal because they all excel each other in their own way.

As for what I want to do with what I want to do with the finished projects is still up in the air. The only one project currently in used is the shelf, being placed beside the dining room computer. On the other hand, I plan to use projects number one and three as Christmas gifts… I don’t have much use for a trinket box, and I’m sure a child could find more uses in the toy airplane then I could. However, I plan on keeping my final project to myself as a memento. The reason I’m giving away most of my projects is that every time I look at one I think of the could’ve been. There is always something in my projects that I wish I could’ve done better. An example of this is my first projects the trinket box. Although you can’t really see it, there is one spot on the back left unstained. It might not matter to some people, but every time I look at the box, it just eats away at me.

Overall, I’m really happy with my Construction course. It is unfortunate I probably won’t have it again. As fun as it is, I won’t contribute much to tha career I want to pursue. In the end, I look forward to making new projects in Construction.

This week, I will be talking about Halloween and what I did. For the last couple of years, I have stopped going out tricker treating. Instead, I now hand out candy to the kids. The first tricker treater appeared right after dinner which I thought was a bit early. After a few tricker treaters, I had my set up ready. The set up consisting of my laptop, headphones, and my phone. In between visits from ticker treaters, I would open my laptop and continue my little pet project while listening to music. Most of the tricker treaters were very young kids, maybe 5-10. On the other hand, there where that occasional Redstone or Richmond green student. Some notable people who visited were friends like Sammy, Abby, and Aaron. Aaron’s visit was the weirdest because he didn’t come for candy, he came to talk to my brother. During my time of giving out candy I saw a lot of costumes, and I believe some of the better ones where the younger kids. The reason I think this is because they were so cute. At some point during my giving out candy duty, Daddy left to buy a new iPhone case, Aunty Michelle came to visit, and other events occurred. Overall, my Halloween seems uneventful but I still enjoyed it.

Since my Halloween, was so uneventful. I will talk about the history of Halloween and some interesting facts. Halloween started in Britain as a Celtic pagan holiday. Prior to researching, I thought Halloween was so similar to Mexico’s day of the dead there would be a connection. Apparently, I was wrong, and there isn’t any historical connection. However, the reason for celebrating is quite similar. The Celtics believed during the period of Halloween, ghosts of the dead would come and haunt them. The candy part comes from the celts giving the ghosts candy or whatever they had at the time to make the ghost go away. The iconic costumes of today had a use in the original holiday as well. After dark, the Celtics feared the ghosts so they wore masks to hide there identity. After researching, I feel the original Halloween was celebrated out superstitious fear. It makes me question how Halloween became a fun festive celebration it is today. Finally, I will end on an interesting fact. Prior to giving out candy, I mentioned to mommy how we could put turnips outside jokingly. However, I was right in a sense, the first jack’o lantern were made from turnips. I found this quite funny because this meant the books I read in my spare time are somewhat historically accurate.

Overall, I had a fun Halloween. It might not be eventful but fun nonetheless. I enjoyed my time working on the project, giving out candy, and all of the other activities. I also enjoyed looking through articles and researching Halloween. It still makes me laugh thinking about how I got the turnip thing right without any prior research. In the end, I just wish more people came to our house though because now we have a lot of candy left over.

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.