My summers at home as a child, before I started going to camps, all blur together. It is not because I don't remember them, but because there were such patterns that it is hard to tell one year from the next.
Summers were for staying home with my dad. Summers were for hitting balloons around and trying to keep them from touching the ground, a game I ended up calling Pompidou. Summers were for sunball, my odd variation on baseball.
They were for going to dance. They were for my dad doing my bun in what he called a "funny bun," because the shape was never quite neat and classical, but they were always sturdy, and no dance class ever succeeded in destructing them. Summer was for black leotards, once I had reached Division 1 at dance instead of being in pre-ballet, and I've always loved my black leotards. Summer was for more hours dancing per week than during the school year, smaller classes, and greater variety in teachers.
After I started learning to skate, summers were for spending an hour or so a couple of times a week at the rink, just going around in a circle. They were for stopping to get snow cones on the way home from the rink. They were for finding out what Tiger's Blood was and then coming up with all kinds of other combinations with banana of various red and orange shades and calling them different types of cat bloods -- to this day, my favorite is Snow Leopard's Blood: watermelon and banana.
Summers were for watching lots of baseball. The college world series, pro baseball all summer, and then Little League in August. Lots of summers we went to Houston to visit my grandparents, and we went to Astros games. The first Astros game I remember was in the Astro Dome. I remember going to see games in Minute Maid when it was still Enron. We almost always sat on the first base side, which meant that summer was for proclaiming Jeff Bagwell as my favorite player. (He's six or seven years retired now and that's still true.)
Summer was for Vacation Bible School. The first VBS I remember is the 1998 Cokesbury VBS, which was Storytelling Tree. My dad was assistant director and one of the people in opening in 2001 for Way to Go, and he was director in 2002 for God's Great Gallery. We always had the CD of VBS music at some point in the spring, so by the time it was actually the week of VBS, I already knew all of the songs by heart.
But finally, summers were for tennis. The summer starts with the French Open, Roland Garros, the images of Paris and the bright orange clay. My dad spent seven-ish years as a kid in Belgium, so we cheered for the Belgian players, Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters, and Justine's best tournament was Roland Garros. And then, just a few weeks later, is Wimbledon. Grass, so different from clay, all white, and the tournament that Justine could never win.
Despite watching for all these years, I still don't know a lot of technical things about tennis. But I can talk about it decently, and I love watching it. That love started with those summers with my dad. Baseball was for the afternoons and the evenings. Tennis, because it was in France and London, seven and six hours ahead of CDT respectively, was for the mornings. I remember dancing around the foyer in my leotard and tights, waiting to go to dance class, with Wimbledon on the television.
As I grew up, I was always home for the French. It was so early in the summer that I was never gone that soon. So the French I could see from home.
Wimbledon, though. At least one week of Wimbledon, I was usually gone, starting in 2006.
In 2006 for at least the second week of Wimbledon I was at Duke Young Writers' Camp. We had to walk a ways from the dorm to get to a computer lab, but whenever I went I would check the scores and the bracket, and I emailed my parents about tennis. That year, Amelie Mauresmo won Wimbledon. Justine was the other player who reached the finals, after she had defeated Kim in the semis. I was disappointed that Justine had lost, but Mauresmo was French, and French players were my favorites after Belgians.
Evidently Federer won Wimbledon that year against Nadal. I don't remember that, but at the same time, if you'd made me guess, I would have done so correctly.
In 2007 again I missed at least the second week of Wimbledon. I was at GERI at Purdue, and I remember that sometimes they showed Wimbledon on tiny tv screens in the dining hall. I don't remember anything about Wimbledon that year, though again, I can tell you that Federer won and that he defeated Nadal in the final. And I just looked it up, and Venus won women's singles that year.
2008. Now 2008 I remember. I missed all of the tournament to be at Lac du Bois, a French immersion camp. Most of the news we got from the outside world was in the form of mail from our families. It was the year of a Euro, and that news got through camp decently well because... well, it was a *French* camp, so of course the soccer news traveled. But tennis? Fewer people seemed to care. My father had a habit from my past years at Lac du Bois (2005 and 2006) of sending me newspaper clippings, especially about sports. That was the year that Fresno State won the College World Series over UGA -- I remember because he sent me the article.
But the article I remember better than any other is the one about the several-times-rain-delayed, several hour finals match at Wimbledon between (guess who!) Nadal and Federer.
The match that Nadal won.
I was so excited about getting that particular article that I shared it as my bonne chose at cabin meeting that night. At cabin meetings we all went around said one good thing (bonne chose) and one bad thing (mauvaise chose) about the day, and when I said that my bonne chose was that my dad had sent me an article about Nadal beating Federer, one of the other girls (French name Adelaide, English name Rachel) got really excited, too. So after cabin meeting, Adelaide and I talked excitedly for quite a while. It was one of the few moments that summer when I felt really close to someone in my cabin.
That was also the year that Venus defeated Serena to win ladies' singles, and then they together won ladies' doubles.
In 2009 and 2010 I was at Mathcamp for the second week of Wimbledon, but at Mathcamp I had a laptop, so I was able to check scores regularly. I don't remember a lot from either year, honestly, which probably speaks to the awesomeness of Mathcamp. The second week of Wimbledon was also the *first* week of camp, and the first week of Mathcamp is really important for getting used to the culture and getting a vague idea for what classes one wants to take during the rest of camp.
I know that in 2009, Federer won, Serena beat Venus, and they won doubles again.
2010, what I remember best is actually from the first week, before I left for Mathcamp -- the Isner-Mahut match. Seriously, 70-68 in the last set? It was amazing. I remember posting a status the second day of the Isner-Mahut match about ridiculous tennis, good college baseball, and World Cup soccer. I don't remember anything from the second week. I vaguely knew that Nadal had won that year, but at Mathcamp, I wasn't paying that much attention.
Last year, 2011, I was at a camp at MIT. I had a math research project, which meant that other than meeting with my mentor for an hour or two per day, my time was my own to spend. I worked in the MIT Student Union, the W-20. I liked sitting in the comfy arm chairs on the ground floor of the W-20 -- one chair in particular right by an outlet. I would plug in my laptop, put on my headphones, and get out my notebook and pen/pencil to try to make progress on my math research problem.
What did I listen to -- music? Well, some of the time. But in the mornings and early afternoons, almost never did I listen to music.
Wimbledon Radio.
Someone pointed out at one point that I could actually watch Wimbledon on my computer, but I never really considered it. I couldn't really watch tennis and work at the same time. But I could listen to tennis and work.
And I did. I remember sitting in the W-20 listening to Petra Kvitova win. I remember rooting so hard for Sabine Lisicki once it became apparent that she could do well.
This year is the first time in seven years that I've been home for both weeks of Wimbledon, which started today. This is Kim Clijsters' last Wimbledon, and she won her first round match against Jankovic. Isner lost in five sets in the first round. Venus Williams lost in two sets in the first round. Federer is moving on. Melanie Oudin, who I remember reaching the fourth round in 2009, lost. Sabine Lisicki won her first round match.
There is nothing quite like summer.
Welcome back to The Championships.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Zwei tausend und elf (2011), first half
January -- I attended the Joint Math Meetings in New Orleans. I went to lots of research presentations on graph theory and the math or puzzles and games and saw lectures on the math in Pixar and fluid dynamics. I explored the exhibits, left with two new math books, and in general spent a lot of time in the Sheraton on Canal Street. I had beignets at Cafe du Monde every morning, and my father and I always found somewhere delicious to eat for lunch and supper --I love Cajun food -- and we only planned the meals ahead of time three times that I remember.
After we got back, I started school, and had the following classes: American Literature, American History, German I, Organic Chemistry II, Special Topics in Math, Data Structures I, Thermal Physics and Waves and Optics, and Differential Equations. 8 classes, but only one lab (physics, TWO for short). Compared to the semester before, my schedule looked like I had lots of free time.
In January I was in the middle of applying for summer camps. I applied to two research camps and was working on an application for a third.
February -- Math contests: the AMC12A and AMC12B. I did better on the A than the B (well enough to qualify for AIME, the next contest), even though I thought the B was easier.
March -- March was all the other competitions: TEAM+S engineering, Chemistry Olympiad local, and AIME. The junior team for TEAM+S wasn't set until a week before the competition, but we still did very well on Part 2, the free response section, just not so well on the multiple choice. Chem Olympiad Local seemed to go pretty well, so I was hoping to qualify for the national exam. AIME was at the very end of the month -- either on the 30th or the 31st. It could have gone better, but the problems were interesting, as always.
Over spring break I went on college visits.
My parents and I flew to Atlanta and visited Georgia Tech, which I really liked. I'd been worried about the school feeling huge, but I liked the campus, and it's very contained. I like their study abroad, co-op, and internship programs, and they have an active Wesley Foundation (which I got to visit!) and an active fencing team. The only thing that worried me was the size of the mechanical engineering department -- there are more than twice as many people per year in the mechE department alone than in my high school.
Next we flew to Baltimore, and we visited Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland, though we also had the chance to walk around Baltimore, eat in Little Italy, and have delicious crab cakes. Anyway. University of Maryland did feel big to me, and unlike at the other two schools I visited I didn't have the chance to talk to anyone in the mechanical engineering department. Of the three schools, it's the one to which I decided not to apply. At Johns Hopkins I actually talked to the most helpful mechanical engineering person. He took me to see a couple of labs, including a fluid mechanics lab -- so awesome.
At the end of spring break, I learned that I had been accepted to my top choice of the summer camps, so I responded to that acceptance and withdrew my applications from the other two.
April -- I learned early on in April that I had qualified for National Chem Olympiad, so that exam was in the middle of the month. I didn't prepare as well as I could have, and the group from Oklahoma was much smaller this year than it had been in the past. I went with one other girl from my school, who did very well, and we had a lot of fun.
May -- May started with AP tests -- Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism, US History, Computer Science, English Lang and Comp, and Statistics. After that I had final presentations instead of exams for Differential Equations and Special Topics in Math, and then final exams for my other six classes. At the end of school, we received our summer homework: for World Literature, Anna Karenina. For Western Civilization, excerpts from the Hebrew Bible as well as the Oresteia.
After leaving school my family went to San Antonio for a family reunion. We ate Mexican food and barbecue (yumm brisket), played lots of 88 (dominoes!), and went to Fiesta Texas and Sea World. It was the first time in years that we were *all* there, so that was cool.
June -- I spent the beginning of June at home writing -- err, trying to write college essays. I think out of everything I wrote this summer, I used one essay. Maybe two. I did get a feel for what I was able to write well about and what I wasn't. I learned I couldn't write a good extra-curricular essay (which has to be very short) about jazz dance or fencing. I couldn't write briefly so well about jazz, and the fencing attempts got too technical. The best extra-curricular essay I wrote this summer? Academic Team. Also the one I ended up using.
I worked one day at a local math workshop for middle schoolers, and this was the third year I had done so (though my first time not working all three workshops). This time, I TAed two classes, which was my normal job, but then before the last class the teacher had to leave...so I taught. The class I was teaching was some simple heat transfer math, which fits for my mechE interest, so that was a lot of fun.
After that, I flew north for camp -- but first a stay with one of my close friends/sister from Mathcamp. I stayed at her house for four or five days, went to a scholarship lunch with her, helped her bake and ice cake and cupcakes for her graduation party, attended said party, and spent a lot of time playing Mancala and variants. We went into the nearby large cities one day to meet up with some other Mathcampers, went to cool museums, ate at a yummy bakery/sandwich shop, and played card games.
Then camp!
Rest of June and July -- All camp. The first week was classes: computer class, humanities (focusing on Frankenstein), engineering (taught by an electrical engineer), and math (focused on some really interesting number theory). At the end of the first week I learned I would be doing mathematics research in graph theory with a grad student.
That was bumpy. I definitely learned that as much as I like math, it's not what I want to do with my life -- I thought I knew that, but now I'm sure. I really loved my project, but my father's description of research to me (you hit your head on a wall for a while, pull back, the wall falls down, and then behind it there's another wall) definitely fits.
I was also disappointed with the social aspect of camp. I had a few good friends, but I had loved Mathcamp people and activities in 2009 and 2010, and camp this year didn't live up to that standard for me.
I still got a lot out of going to camp. I know so much more about writing research papers and giving presentations (even if I'm still not all that good at it), I learned I don't want to be a mathematician, and even if I didn't click with many of the people, I've seen their names come up for all sorts of awards and competitions this year. Most of them want to be research scientists and not engineers (and definitely not industry engineers, like me), but it's still a good group of people to know. I've thought about it a lot, and I've come to the conclusion that even if I had known what camp would be like, I still would have gone.
After we got back, I started school, and had the following classes: American Literature, American History, German I, Organic Chemistry II, Special Topics in Math, Data Structures I, Thermal Physics and Waves and Optics, and Differential Equations. 8 classes, but only one lab (physics, TWO for short). Compared to the semester before, my schedule looked like I had lots of free time.
In January I was in the middle of applying for summer camps. I applied to two research camps and was working on an application for a third.
February -- Math contests: the AMC12A and AMC12B. I did better on the A than the B (well enough to qualify for AIME, the next contest), even though I thought the B was easier.
March -- March was all the other competitions: TEAM+S engineering, Chemistry Olympiad local, and AIME. The junior team for TEAM+S wasn't set until a week before the competition, but we still did very well on Part 2, the free response section, just not so well on the multiple choice. Chem Olympiad Local seemed to go pretty well, so I was hoping to qualify for the national exam. AIME was at the very end of the month -- either on the 30th or the 31st. It could have gone better, but the problems were interesting, as always.
Over spring break I went on college visits.
My parents and I flew to Atlanta and visited Georgia Tech, which I really liked. I'd been worried about the school feeling huge, but I liked the campus, and it's very contained. I like their study abroad, co-op, and internship programs, and they have an active Wesley Foundation (which I got to visit!) and an active fencing team. The only thing that worried me was the size of the mechanical engineering department -- there are more than twice as many people per year in the mechE department alone than in my high school.
Next we flew to Baltimore, and we visited Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland, though we also had the chance to walk around Baltimore, eat in Little Italy, and have delicious crab cakes. Anyway. University of Maryland did feel big to me, and unlike at the other two schools I visited I didn't have the chance to talk to anyone in the mechanical engineering department. Of the three schools, it's the one to which I decided not to apply. At Johns Hopkins I actually talked to the most helpful mechanical engineering person. He took me to see a couple of labs, including a fluid mechanics lab -- so awesome.
At the end of spring break, I learned that I had been accepted to my top choice of the summer camps, so I responded to that acceptance and withdrew my applications from the other two.
April -- I learned early on in April that I had qualified for National Chem Olympiad, so that exam was in the middle of the month. I didn't prepare as well as I could have, and the group from Oklahoma was much smaller this year than it had been in the past. I went with one other girl from my school, who did very well, and we had a lot of fun.
May -- May started with AP tests -- Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism, US History, Computer Science, English Lang and Comp, and Statistics. After that I had final presentations instead of exams for Differential Equations and Special Topics in Math, and then final exams for my other six classes. At the end of school, we received our summer homework: for World Literature, Anna Karenina. For Western Civilization, excerpts from the Hebrew Bible as well as the Oresteia.
After leaving school my family went to San Antonio for a family reunion. We ate Mexican food and barbecue (yumm brisket), played lots of 88 (dominoes!), and went to Fiesta Texas and Sea World. It was the first time in years that we were *all* there, so that was cool.
June -- I spent the beginning of June at home writing -- err, trying to write college essays. I think out of everything I wrote this summer, I used one essay. Maybe two. I did get a feel for what I was able to write well about and what I wasn't. I learned I couldn't write a good extra-curricular essay (which has to be very short) about jazz dance or fencing. I couldn't write briefly so well about jazz, and the fencing attempts got too technical. The best extra-curricular essay I wrote this summer? Academic Team. Also the one I ended up using.
I worked one day at a local math workshop for middle schoolers, and this was the third year I had done so (though my first time not working all three workshops). This time, I TAed two classes, which was my normal job, but then before the last class the teacher had to leave...so I taught. The class I was teaching was some simple heat transfer math, which fits for my mechE interest, so that was a lot of fun.
After that, I flew north for camp -- but first a stay with one of my close friends/sister from Mathcamp. I stayed at her house for four or five days, went to a scholarship lunch with her, helped her bake and ice cake and cupcakes for her graduation party, attended said party, and spent a lot of time playing Mancala and variants. We went into the nearby large cities one day to meet up with some other Mathcampers, went to cool museums, ate at a yummy bakery/sandwich shop, and played card games.
Then camp!
Rest of June and July -- All camp. The first week was classes: computer class, humanities (focusing on Frankenstein), engineering (taught by an electrical engineer), and math (focused on some really interesting number theory). At the end of the first week I learned I would be doing mathematics research in graph theory with a grad student.
That was bumpy. I definitely learned that as much as I like math, it's not what I want to do with my life -- I thought I knew that, but now I'm sure. I really loved my project, but my father's description of research to me (you hit your head on a wall for a while, pull back, the wall falls down, and then behind it there's another wall) definitely fits.
I was also disappointed with the social aspect of camp. I had a few good friends, but I had loved Mathcamp people and activities in 2009 and 2010, and camp this year didn't live up to that standard for me.
I still got a lot out of going to camp. I know so much more about writing research papers and giving presentations (even if I'm still not all that good at it), I learned I don't want to be a mathematician, and even if I didn't click with many of the people, I've seen their names come up for all sorts of awards and competitions this year. Most of them want to be research scientists and not engineers (and definitely not industry engineers, like me), but it's still a good group of people to know. I've thought about it a lot, and I've come to the conclusion that even if I had known what camp would be like, I still would have gone.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Dance, then, wherever you may be.
"Faut-il qu'il m'en souvienne
La joie venait toujours apres la peine."
"L'amour s'en va comme la vie est lente
Et comme l'esperance est violente."
-- Guillaume Apollinaire's "Sous le Pont Mirabeau," and with these I agree so much.
From the same poem:
"Passent les jours
Et passent les semaines
Ni temps passe ni les amours reviennent."
With this -- with this I do not always agree.
"Heart of my own heart, whatever befall
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of All."
- Be Thou My Vision
"I want to change my mind
I want to be enough
I want the water in my eyes
I want to cry until the end of time."
-- Sara Bareilles' "Let the Rain"
"I keep movin' along
Until I can get through this
But maybe this song is the best I can do it."
-- Vanessa Carlton's "Heroes and Thieves"
"Love beyond degree"
-- "Alas! And did my Savior Bleed"
"How deep the Father's love for us,
How vast beyond all measure"
-- "How Deep the Father's Love for Us"
"My voice shakes along with my hands."
-- Stephen Speaks' "Out of my League"
"'For I know the plans I have for you,' says the LORD, 'plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a hope and a future.'"
-- Jeremiah 29:11
lyricless
Seamus Egan's "Weep Not for the Memories;" Penguin Cafe Orchestra's "Perpetuum Mobile;" Mark Mothersbaugh's "Mothersbaugh's Canon"
"How much do I love you?
Count the stars in the sky
Measure the waters of the oceans with a teaspoon
Number the grains of sand on the seashore
Impossible, you say?"
La joie venait toujours apres la peine."
"L'amour s'en va comme la vie est lente
Et comme l'esperance est violente."
-- Guillaume Apollinaire's "Sous le Pont Mirabeau," and with these I agree so much.
From the same poem:
"Passent les jours
Et passent les semaines
Ni temps passe ni les amours reviennent."
With this -- with this I do not always agree.
"Heart of my own heart, whatever befall
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of All."
- Be Thou My Vision
"I want to change my mind
I want to be enough
I want the water in my eyes
I want to cry until the end of time."
-- Sara Bareilles' "Let the Rain"
"I keep movin' along
Until I can get through this
But maybe this song is the best I can do it."
-- Vanessa Carlton's "Heroes and Thieves"
"Love beyond degree"
-- "Alas! And did my Savior Bleed"
"How deep the Father's love for us,
How vast beyond all measure"
-- "How Deep the Father's Love for Us"
"My voice shakes along with my hands."
-- Stephen Speaks' "Out of my League"
"'For I know the plans I have for you,' says the LORD, 'plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a hope and a future.'"
-- Jeremiah 29:11
lyricless
Seamus Egan's "Weep Not for the Memories;" Penguin Cafe Orchestra's "Perpetuum Mobile;" Mark Mothersbaugh's "Mothersbaugh's Canon"
"How much do I love you?
Count the stars in the sky
Measure the waters of the oceans with a teaspoon
Number the grains of sand on the seashore
Impossible, you say?"
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Christmas Music
I really like Christmas music, though I only listen to it during Advent and Christmas.
Ten Christmas songs I like, with numbering for organization and not rank:
1. Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella (Un Flambeau, Jeannette, Isabelle). It's not really a song that makes a lot of sense, but I think it's pretty. My favorite part is the end of the first verse: "Ah! Ah! Ah! Que la Mère est belle, Ah! Ah! Ah! Que l'Enfant est beau!" Mannheim Steamroller's version makes me happy, too, and I used to play it while stirring sauce for pasta.
2. O, Come All Ye Faithful. This has been one of my favorites for a long time, mostly because when I was younger I liked songs with repetition. I also have a version of this in Spanish that I like -- Spain Spanish. "Venid Fieles Todos." (You can tell it's Spain Spanish because it uses vosotros...)
3. One Quiet Moment. This and the next two songs are sung only by a group called GLAD as far as I know. One Quiet Moment is mostly about Mary and Joseph before the birth and raising Jesus. The chorus is: "And in one quiet moment, a woman and man accepted the part they would have in God's plan -- to give up His glory and be born as a man, in one quiet moment."
4. In the First Light. This and One Quiet Moment are two of my most listened to songs, and definitely my most listened to Christmas songs. It covers birth through resurrection. "In the first light of the new day, no one knew He had arrived. Things continued as they had been while the newborn softly cried." And later: "As his mother held him closely, it was hard to understand that this baby, not yet speaking, was the Word of God to man."
5. All the World Was Waiting. One Quiet Moment and In the First Light are on GLAD's A Capella Christmas, but this is on their Voices of Christmas. It also covers birth through resurrection. "All the world was waiting the night that You were born, God of life eternal in a fragile form Shepherds gathered closer, gazing at Your face, wondering how this helpless child could save a fallen human race." And at the end: "All will be accomplished, our trials and tears will end, and those who’ve longed to see You will never wait, will never wait, will never wait again."
6. I Believe in Santa's Cause. Statler Brothers. "Now there are those who don't believe in miracles of Santa Claus, but I believe what I believe in -- I believe in Santa's cause." This song says perfectly everything I think about Santa.
7. Il Est Ne. (He is Born.) I don't like this song as much in English, but I really like it in French. "Jouez hautbois, resonnez musettes!" And the first verse: "Depuis plus de quatre mille ans, nous le promettaient les Prophetes; Depuis plus de quatre mille ans, nous attendions cet heureux temps!"
8. St. Nicholas by Sheryl Cormier and the Cajun Sounds. This is in French Lousiana Creole, and I don't understand most of it, but the mood is so happy, and I like what I do understand of it. Basically, I love Cajun music.
9. Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow. I first heard this sung by GLAD, but it's in the Faith We Sing, under "There's a Star in the East," since that's the first line. "If you take good heed to the angel’s words, rise up, shepherd, and follow. You’ll forget your flocks, you’ll forget your herds, rise up, shepherd, and follow."
10. Snow Miser/Heat Miser. "The Year Without a Santa Claus" is one of my favorite Christmas movies (along with "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" -- yay Rankin-Bass!), and these two songs that are basically the same song are my favorites from the movie. Err, tv special, originally. But really: "I'm Mr. 101" versus "I'm Mr. 10 below."
Ten Christmas songs I like, with numbering for organization and not rank:
1. Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella (Un Flambeau, Jeannette, Isabelle). It's not really a song that makes a lot of sense, but I think it's pretty. My favorite part is the end of the first verse: "Ah! Ah! Ah! Que la Mère est belle, Ah! Ah! Ah! Que l'Enfant est beau!" Mannheim Steamroller's version makes me happy, too, and I used to play it while stirring sauce for pasta.
2. O, Come All Ye Faithful. This has been one of my favorites for a long time, mostly because when I was younger I liked songs with repetition. I also have a version of this in Spanish that I like -- Spain Spanish. "Venid Fieles Todos." (You can tell it's Spain Spanish because it uses vosotros...)
3. One Quiet Moment. This and the next two songs are sung only by a group called GLAD as far as I know. One Quiet Moment is mostly about Mary and Joseph before the birth and raising Jesus. The chorus is: "And in one quiet moment, a woman and man accepted the part they would have in God's plan -- to give up His glory and be born as a man, in one quiet moment."
4. In the First Light. This and One Quiet Moment are two of my most listened to songs, and definitely my most listened to Christmas songs. It covers birth through resurrection. "In the first light of the new day, no one knew He had arrived. Things continued as they had been while the newborn softly cried." And later: "As his mother held him closely, it was hard to understand that this baby, not yet speaking, was the Word of God to man."
5. All the World Was Waiting. One Quiet Moment and In the First Light are on GLAD's A Capella Christmas, but this is on their Voices of Christmas. It also covers birth through resurrection. "All the world was waiting the night that You were born, God of life eternal in a fragile form Shepherds gathered closer, gazing at Your face, wondering how this helpless child could save a fallen human race." And at the end: "All will be accomplished, our trials and tears will end, and those who’ve longed to see You will never wait, will never wait, will never wait again."
6. I Believe in Santa's Cause. Statler Brothers. "Now there are those who don't believe in miracles of Santa Claus, but I believe what I believe in -- I believe in Santa's cause." This song says perfectly everything I think about Santa.
7. Il Est Ne. (He is Born.) I don't like this song as much in English, but I really like it in French. "Jouez hautbois, resonnez musettes!" And the first verse: "Depuis plus de quatre mille ans, nous le promettaient les Prophetes; Depuis plus de quatre mille ans, nous attendions cet heureux temps!"
8. St. Nicholas by Sheryl Cormier and the Cajun Sounds. This is in French Lousiana Creole, and I don't understand most of it, but the mood is so happy, and I like what I do understand of it. Basically, I love Cajun music.
9. Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow. I first heard this sung by GLAD, but it's in the Faith We Sing, under "There's a Star in the East," since that's the first line. "If you take good heed to the angel’s words, rise up, shepherd, and follow. You’ll forget your flocks, you’ll forget your herds, rise up, shepherd, and follow."
10. Snow Miser/Heat Miser. "The Year Without a Santa Claus" is one of my favorite Christmas movies (along with "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" -- yay Rankin-Bass!), and these two songs that are basically the same song are my favorites from the movie. Err, tv special, originally. But really: "I'm Mr. 101" versus "I'm Mr. 10 below."
2011 Book Post
Spoilers ahead. For a lot of novels and plays.
1. American Literature class
My class read All my Sons and Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris, and The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. I also read one of the books the other class read, Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson.
-- All My Sons. This was definitely the play I preferred of the two Miller plays. They both had lots of lies floating around, but this one wasn't half reality half dream. I also love Chris' line near the end: "You can be better! Once and for all you can know there's a universe of people outside and you're responsible to it."
--Death of a Salesman. I just found this hard to read -- not difficulty-wise, but in the way of being something I didn't really want to read. The yelling and the wandering...ack. Between this and All My Sons I had Miller-ish dreams for weeks.
-- The Little Foxes. This was my favorite of the three plays we read. I suppose technically Regina's the protagonist, but she's an amazing villain -- smarter than the others give her credit before, hiding behind what she appears to be, so selfish. Zan is awesome, and I agree with Regina at the end; it seems like Zan is just there, can't do anything, and then all of a sudden she has this backbone. . I rather like Ben Hubbard, too: "There are hundreds of Hubbards sitting in rooms like this throughout the country. All their names aren't Hubbard, but they are all Hubbards and they will own this country some day."
-- Snow Falling on Cedars. Sometimes too much scenery description for me, but it was fascinating to watch all the pieces fall together, and Hatsue telling Ishmael to live is gorgeous.
-- A Yellow Raft in Blue Water. The first time I read through this, I liked Rayona, thought Christine was whiny, and was so-so on Ida. Then for a class assignment I was assigned to the group on Ida, and by the end I knew every detail of Ida's section of the book, and she became my favorite character (or at least equal to Rayona). The three sections with all the braiding mentioned is cool structurally and as a symbol.
-- The Poisonwood Bible. I had Miller dreams after reading his plays, and I had Adah's voice in my head for more than a month after reading this. Luckily, I'm okay with that -- Adah's my favorite character and it was evident after reading her first section that she was going to be. I like her intelligence, her bitterness, her references to Emily Dickinson, her backwards writing, her palindromes -- but I love that she grows up, loses her slant but sometimes tries to regain it, wonders where all the bitterness came from, questions the worth of life. "'Tis the night before Christmas and all through the house I am Adah who expects no gifts." I agree with her that we cannot shed our past; we carry the marks and that's important. "We are our injuries as much as we are our successes." "If chained is where you have been, your arms will always bear marks of the shackles."
Basically, so much love.
Summer Reading
-- Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. I have a Russian friend who assures me that this is one of Tolstoy's more readable works. I don't see that as encouraging, because at some points I was suffering through AK. Not all -- there were parts when I wanted to keep reading; it does better than Troilus and Cressida did last summer. At the beginning I liked Anna and Kitty, and I thought Levin could be likable. Dolly was okay. At the end I liked Kitty, Levin, and Dolly, though I didn't really like Kitty's and Levin's moments when they thought they'd discovered the meaning of life and then decided it wasn't worth it and probably wasn't the meaning of life, anyway. I also felt somewhat sorry for Vronsky, whom I hadn't liked at all at the beginning. I was also told by my Russian friend that no one actually reads the parts where Levin waxes philosophical about farming...oops. Except I'm probably supposed to since this is for school, so not-oops.
--Oresteia by Aeschylus. This is actually three plays, but they're meant to be shown together. This was a much easier read than Anna Karenina (and was for Western Civilization, not Literature). It was probably the most interesting summer reading, with the others being AK and Old Testament excerpts. In Civ we've used this to bring up lots of moral issues, discussing Agamemnon's sacrifice of Iphigenia and the murders of Agamemnon and Cassandra and then of Clytaemnestra and her lover.
3. Shakespeare
This summer I read King Lear and Macbeth. In both, more happened more quickly than I expected (especially in Lear), but I really enjoyed both. I think I preferred Macbeth -- I found it more quotable, which is something I love about Shakespeare plays. As much as I liked Lear overall, the pity-inducing scenes were less enjoyable. Macbeth lacked that; it's possible but not nearly as easy to feel sorry for Macbeth, even with him so seemingly weary at the end.
4. Matthew/Matthieu/Mateo
For Lent, I read Matthew thrice in three different languages. I still know Luke best, but I think I know Matthew much better than I did before Lent. I'm planning on reading Mark next year.
5. World Literature
Compared to my other high school English classes, we've read a lot. We started by going over AK, and then:
--Notes from the Underground by Dostoyevsky. I believe this has been the least favorite of almost the entire senior class. It's ranty, self-contradicting, whiny, and very existentialist. There must be people who like existentialist writing; I can't handle it. This gave me (unsurprisingly) the same slimy feeling as Camus' L'etranger.
--Madame Bovary by Flaubert. One of my two favorites that we've read. Emma can be annoying and frustrating (dear girl, stop buying things!), but the realism over romanticism attracted me. I also read parts of it in French, which was awesome. Flaubert writes beautifully and somehow manages to write description that doesn't bore me. I still can't see it, but he writes other senses, too, which makes that easier.
--Heart of Darkness by Conrad. The jungle/darkness description got old. This was probably the easiest to *read* up to this point, but I was less willing to sit down and read than I was to read MB. We spent a lot of time on this in class, especially for it being rather short.
--Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by Joyce. Necessary note: My World Lit teacher loves Joyce. She spent six weeks one year studying Ulysses in depth with a few other people. I was not so fond of Joyce. Sometimes better than Conrad, sometimes not. The first two parts of five were pretty hard for me to read, but then it got easier -- yes, even the going on and on and on about hell was easier than reading little boy Stephen. (However, perhaps the best quote of the book is about wetting the bed.) Favorite line: "I will not serve that in which I no longer believe..."
--As I Lay Dying by Faulkner. This is my other favorite from this semester. It's a very easy read, and Faulkner writes rural Mississippi accents beautifully. The characters are very frustrating, but really I was sympathetic to everyone but Anse, the father. I know people who despise the book, mostly because the family acts so stupidly, but I enjoyed it. Then again, being one of my favorites from this semester isn't saying much.
6. Special Project
For Western Civilization I am working on a History Day project about Euclid and the establishment of rigorous mathematics. I read parts of several books for the project, and at this point I've come to the conclusion that Euclid was not the originator of rigorous proof or the structure of mathematics, but he was the one who made it popular and established the structure as standard through the Elements. However, plodding through large sections of Euclid's Elements has not made me like geometry much more than I did before.
7. Other reading
--Apollo's Angels by Jennifer Homans. This is a history of ballet, and I talked about it far too much for a couple of weeks. The first two or three chapters were very dry, but then it quickly became more readable. I knew nothing about Danish ballet, so I found that chapter very interesting, and a lot of my conceptions of Italian and Russian ballet were very off. I disagree with the epilogue -- Homans argues that ballet is dying, titling the chapter "The Masters Are Dead and Gone." I don't think ballet is dead; in fact, I think it's very much alive. Around here, at least, the local ballet company was near dead four years ago and has almost completely recovered.
--Telling True Stories. This is an anthology of short essays about (mostly) narrative journalism by lots of narrative journalists. I don't write that much nonfiction, but this was still really interesting. A lot of the advice about writing and research applies to fiction, as well, and the section on ethics (perhaps the part that is least applicable to fiction) was one of the more interesting sections.
--Mastiff by Tamora Pierce. Third and final book in the PD trilogy, released five years after Terrier and two and a half years after Bloodhound. Finally. Parts of this book I really loved, and parts were disappointing. I like Farmer/Beka better than any other Beka pairing, and I in general really like Farmer, so that made me happy. I thought Tunstall turning traitor could have been executed much better, though.
--Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson. This is Carson's first book, and I enjoyed it. (Adding it late because it was a Christmas gift!) Well-written strong girls rock, and Elisa fits that... well, eventually. Not so much at the beginning. She's an atypical heroine in a lot of ways, though, and I like that. It disappointed me some that her increased confidence was correlated with her weight loss, though the two were more results of the same thing than one causing the other. (So correlation not causation.) While the prophecy that everyone knows about except the one of whom the prophecy speaks isn't that original, the fact that it was the result of a translation disagreement made me happy. I was also impressed by the world building -- I love the language, religion, and history.
--Disney Imagineering Field Guide to Disney's Hollywood Studios. I think I own every Imagineering Field Guide that's been written. I like seeing some of the concept art and the intent behind the attractions -- it's actually really interesting to see what was trying to be accomplished with some of the attractions that haven't been very successful, like Narnia.
--Rogue Crew by Brian Jacques. The last Redwall book, and I actually haven't finished it, and I won't until 2012 because I left it at school. So far, I'm enjoying it, and the Rogue Crew of otters is mysterious and awesome, especially with the Long Patrol along.
1. American Literature class
My class read All my Sons and Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris, and The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. I also read one of the books the other class read, Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson.
-- All My Sons. This was definitely the play I preferred of the two Miller plays. They both had lots of lies floating around, but this one wasn't half reality half dream. I also love Chris' line near the end: "You can be better! Once and for all you can know there's a universe of people outside and you're responsible to it."
--Death of a Salesman. I just found this hard to read -- not difficulty-wise, but in the way of being something I didn't really want to read. The yelling and the wandering...ack. Between this and All My Sons I had Miller-ish dreams for weeks.
-- The Little Foxes. This was my favorite of the three plays we read. I suppose technically Regina's the protagonist, but she's an amazing villain -- smarter than the others give her credit before, hiding behind what she appears to be, so selfish. Zan is awesome, and I agree with Regina at the end; it seems like Zan is just there, can't do anything, and then all of a sudden she has this backbone. . I rather like Ben Hubbard, too: "There are hundreds of Hubbards sitting in rooms like this throughout the country. All their names aren't Hubbard, but they are all Hubbards and they will own this country some day."
-- Snow Falling on Cedars. Sometimes too much scenery description for me, but it was fascinating to watch all the pieces fall together, and Hatsue telling Ishmael to live is gorgeous.
-- A Yellow Raft in Blue Water. The first time I read through this, I liked Rayona, thought Christine was whiny, and was so-so on Ida. Then for a class assignment I was assigned to the group on Ida, and by the end I knew every detail of Ida's section of the book, and she became my favorite character (or at least equal to Rayona). The three sections with all the braiding mentioned is cool structurally and as a symbol.
-- The Poisonwood Bible. I had Miller dreams after reading his plays, and I had Adah's voice in my head for more than a month after reading this. Luckily, I'm okay with that -- Adah's my favorite character and it was evident after reading her first section that she was going to be. I like her intelligence, her bitterness, her references to Emily Dickinson, her backwards writing, her palindromes -- but I love that she grows up, loses her slant but sometimes tries to regain it, wonders where all the bitterness came from, questions the worth of life. "'Tis the night before Christmas and all through the house I am Adah who expects no gifts." I agree with her that we cannot shed our past; we carry the marks and that's important. "We are our injuries as much as we are our successes." "If chained is where you have been, your arms will always bear marks of the shackles."
Basically, so much love.
Summer Reading
-- Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. I have a Russian friend who assures me that this is one of Tolstoy's more readable works. I don't see that as encouraging, because at some points I was suffering through AK. Not all -- there were parts when I wanted to keep reading; it does better than Troilus and Cressida did last summer. At the beginning I liked Anna and Kitty, and I thought Levin could be likable. Dolly was okay. At the end I liked Kitty, Levin, and Dolly, though I didn't really like Kitty's and Levin's moments when they thought they'd discovered the meaning of life and then decided it wasn't worth it and probably wasn't the meaning of life, anyway. I also felt somewhat sorry for Vronsky, whom I hadn't liked at all at the beginning. I was also told by my Russian friend that no one actually reads the parts where Levin waxes philosophical about farming...oops. Except I'm probably supposed to since this is for school, so not-oops.
--Oresteia by Aeschylus. This is actually three plays, but they're meant to be shown together. This was a much easier read than Anna Karenina (and was for Western Civilization, not Literature). It was probably the most interesting summer reading, with the others being AK and Old Testament excerpts. In Civ we've used this to bring up lots of moral issues, discussing Agamemnon's sacrifice of Iphigenia and the murders of Agamemnon and Cassandra and then of Clytaemnestra and her lover.
3. Shakespeare
This summer I read King Lear and Macbeth. In both, more happened more quickly than I expected (especially in Lear), but I really enjoyed both. I think I preferred Macbeth -- I found it more quotable, which is something I love about Shakespeare plays. As much as I liked Lear overall, the pity-inducing scenes were less enjoyable. Macbeth lacked that; it's possible but not nearly as easy to feel sorry for Macbeth, even with him so seemingly weary at the end.
4. Matthew/Matthieu/Mateo
For Lent, I read Matthew thrice in three different languages. I still know Luke best, but I think I know Matthew much better than I did before Lent. I'm planning on reading Mark next year.
5. World Literature
Compared to my other high school English classes, we've read a lot. We started by going over AK, and then:
--Notes from the Underground by Dostoyevsky. I believe this has been the least favorite of almost the entire senior class. It's ranty, self-contradicting, whiny, and very existentialist. There must be people who like existentialist writing; I can't handle it. This gave me (unsurprisingly) the same slimy feeling as Camus' L'etranger.
--Madame Bovary by Flaubert. One of my two favorites that we've read. Emma can be annoying and frustrating (dear girl, stop buying things!), but the realism over romanticism attracted me. I also read parts of it in French, which was awesome. Flaubert writes beautifully and somehow manages to write description that doesn't bore me. I still can't see it, but he writes other senses, too, which makes that easier.
--Heart of Darkness by Conrad. The jungle/darkness description got old. This was probably the easiest to *read* up to this point, but I was less willing to sit down and read than I was to read MB. We spent a lot of time on this in class, especially for it being rather short.
--Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by Joyce. Necessary note: My World Lit teacher loves Joyce. She spent six weeks one year studying Ulysses in depth with a few other people. I was not so fond of Joyce. Sometimes better than Conrad, sometimes not. The first two parts of five were pretty hard for me to read, but then it got easier -- yes, even the going on and on and on about hell was easier than reading little boy Stephen. (However, perhaps the best quote of the book is about wetting the bed.) Favorite line: "I will not serve that in which I no longer believe..."
--As I Lay Dying by Faulkner. This is my other favorite from this semester. It's a very easy read, and Faulkner writes rural Mississippi accents beautifully. The characters are very frustrating, but really I was sympathetic to everyone but Anse, the father. I know people who despise the book, mostly because the family acts so stupidly, but I enjoyed it. Then again, being one of my favorites from this semester isn't saying much.
6. Special Project
For Western Civilization I am working on a History Day project about Euclid and the establishment of rigorous mathematics. I read parts of several books for the project, and at this point I've come to the conclusion that Euclid was not the originator of rigorous proof or the structure of mathematics, but he was the one who made it popular and established the structure as standard through the Elements. However, plodding through large sections of Euclid's Elements has not made me like geometry much more than I did before.
7. Other reading
--Apollo's Angels by Jennifer Homans. This is a history of ballet, and I talked about it far too much for a couple of weeks. The first two or three chapters were very dry, but then it quickly became more readable. I knew nothing about Danish ballet, so I found that chapter very interesting, and a lot of my conceptions of Italian and Russian ballet were very off. I disagree with the epilogue -- Homans argues that ballet is dying, titling the chapter "The Masters Are Dead and Gone." I don't think ballet is dead; in fact, I think it's very much alive. Around here, at least, the local ballet company was near dead four years ago and has almost completely recovered.
--Telling True Stories. This is an anthology of short essays about (mostly) narrative journalism by lots of narrative journalists. I don't write that much nonfiction, but this was still really interesting. A lot of the advice about writing and research applies to fiction, as well, and the section on ethics (perhaps the part that is least applicable to fiction) was one of the more interesting sections.
--Mastiff by Tamora Pierce. Third and final book in the PD trilogy, released five years after Terrier and two and a half years after Bloodhound. Finally. Parts of this book I really loved, and parts were disappointing. I like Farmer/Beka better than any other Beka pairing, and I in general really like Farmer, so that made me happy. I thought Tunstall turning traitor could have been executed much better, though.
--Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson. This is Carson's first book, and I enjoyed it. (Adding it late because it was a Christmas gift!) Well-written strong girls rock, and Elisa fits that... well, eventually. Not so much at the beginning. She's an atypical heroine in a lot of ways, though, and I like that. It disappointed me some that her increased confidence was correlated with her weight loss, though the two were more results of the same thing than one causing the other. (So correlation not causation.) While the prophecy that everyone knows about except the one of whom the prophecy speaks isn't that original, the fact that it was the result of a translation disagreement made me happy. I was also impressed by the world building -- I love the language, religion, and history.
--Disney Imagineering Field Guide to Disney's Hollywood Studios. I think I own every Imagineering Field Guide that's been written. I like seeing some of the concept art and the intent behind the attractions -- it's actually really interesting to see what was trying to be accomplished with some of the attractions that haven't been very successful, like Narnia.
--Rogue Crew by Brian Jacques. The last Redwall book, and I actually haven't finished it, and I won't until 2012 because I left it at school. So far, I'm enjoying it, and the Rogue Crew of otters is mysterious and awesome, especially with the Long Patrol along.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Favorite Original VBS Songs Ever
...well, not ever. On the CDs I've heard.
Cokesbury
-- 2006: Adventure of the Treasure Seekers: God With Us
-- 2009: Camp EDGE: Shout, Here I Am!
-- 2009: Camp EDGE: Left, Right, In God's Sight
-- 2010: Galactic Blast: Revolution
-- 1999: Good News at Gospel Rock: Good News at Gospel Rock
-- 2000: Can Do Kids: Can Do Kids
-- 2001: Way To Go!: Luke 10:27
--2001: Way To Go!: Hey, Hey Neighbor
--2002: God's Great Gallery: God's Great Gallery
-- 2002: God's Great Gallery: I Am a Masterpiece
-- 2002: God's Great Gallery: Go Into All the World
-- 2003: Lighthouse Kids: Psalm 27
-- 2003: Lighthouse Kids: Ephesians 5:8
-- 2004: Hero Quest: More than Muscles Make Me Strong
-- 2005: Ranch House Kids: Circle G Ranch
Favorite Theme Song: God's Great Gallery
Favorite Bible verse song: Ugh, this is so hard! I have to go with Psalm 27, though.
Favorite preschool song: I'm Shining for the Lord (Lighthouse Kids, 2003)
Favorite silly song: Mallery the Gallery Mouse (God's Great Gallery, 2002)
Favorite arrangement of a non-original song: Let Everything That Has Breath (Galactic Blast, 2010 -- Matt Redman, I think)
Favorite music year: It's between God's Great Gallery and Lighthouse Kids -- two consecutive amazing years of music.
Single favorite song: The Bible verse song decision made this one for me -- Psalm 27.
2011 is absent from the list because I don't have the full cd yet. *wrinkles nose* 2007 and 2008 are absent because in 2007 (Lift Off!) I liked the music, but none of the songs make this list, and in 2008 (Beach Party) I never really warmed up to the music.
Group
-- 2009: Sing and Play Swamp Stomp Music: We Can Trust Him
-- 2010: High Seas Expedition: Vast Voyage
-- 2011: Hometown Nazareth: You Gave (John 14:19 b)
-- 2011: Pandamania: God is Listening
-- 2003: SCUBA Sing and Play Splash: Your Everlasting Love
-- 2005: Sing and Play Ole: Never Be the Same
Favorite Theme Song: Vast Voyage
Favorite Bible verse song: John 14:19b
Favorite arrangement of a non-original song: Everlasting God (Chris Tomlin, Swamp Stomp, 2009)
Favorite music year: 2009 Sing and Play Swamp Stomp.
Single favorite song: We Can Trust Him or Everlasting God
I don't know Group's music as well -- I have their easy VBS for 2003, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, and 2011, and then three of the Biblical ones. That's not the only reason this was harder, though -- Group uses more non-original songs than Cokesbury does. Some of the years I'm looking at on Group are more than half non-original.
Other
I seem to remember liking Standard's music.
Also, Hey God Let's Talk was meant as a VBS of sorts (or something similar), and I love the HGLT songs -- the theme song, the slower version of the Lord's Prayer, No Slow Grow and Go, and I Need You Now.
Cokesbury
-- 2006: Adventure of the Treasure Seekers: God With Us
-- 2009: Camp EDGE: Shout, Here I Am!
-- 2009: Camp EDGE: Left, Right, In God's Sight
-- 2010: Galactic Blast: Revolution
-- 1999: Good News at Gospel Rock: Good News at Gospel Rock
-- 2000: Can Do Kids: Can Do Kids
-- 2001: Way To Go!: Luke 10:27
--2001: Way To Go!: Hey, Hey Neighbor
--2002: God's Great Gallery: God's Great Gallery
-- 2002: God's Great Gallery: I Am a Masterpiece
-- 2002: God's Great Gallery: Go Into All the World
-- 2003: Lighthouse Kids: Psalm 27
-- 2003: Lighthouse Kids: Ephesians 5:8
-- 2004: Hero Quest: More than Muscles Make Me Strong
-- 2005: Ranch House Kids: Circle G Ranch
Favorite Theme Song: God's Great Gallery
Favorite Bible verse song: Ugh, this is so hard! I have to go with Psalm 27, though.
Favorite preschool song: I'm Shining for the Lord (Lighthouse Kids, 2003)
Favorite silly song: Mallery the Gallery Mouse (God's Great Gallery, 2002)
Favorite arrangement of a non-original song: Let Everything That Has Breath (Galactic Blast, 2010 -- Matt Redman, I think)
Favorite music year: It's between God's Great Gallery and Lighthouse Kids -- two consecutive amazing years of music.
Single favorite song: The Bible verse song decision made this one for me -- Psalm 27.
2011 is absent from the list because I don't have the full cd yet. *wrinkles nose* 2007 and 2008 are absent because in 2007 (Lift Off!) I liked the music, but none of the songs make this list, and in 2008 (Beach Party) I never really warmed up to the music.
Group
-- 2009: Sing and Play Swamp Stomp Music: We Can Trust Him
-- 2010: High Seas Expedition: Vast Voyage
-- 2011: Hometown Nazareth: You Gave (John 14:19 b)
-- 2011: Pandamania: God is Listening
-- 2003: SCUBA Sing and Play Splash: Your Everlasting Love
-- 2005: Sing and Play Ole: Never Be the Same
Favorite Theme Song: Vast Voyage
Favorite Bible verse song: John 14:19b
Favorite arrangement of a non-original song: Everlasting God (Chris Tomlin, Swamp Stomp, 2009)
Favorite music year: 2009 Sing and Play Swamp Stomp.
Single favorite song: We Can Trust Him or Everlasting God
I don't know Group's music as well -- I have their easy VBS for 2003, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, and 2011, and then three of the Biblical ones. That's not the only reason this was harder, though -- Group uses more non-original songs than Cokesbury does. Some of the years I'm looking at on Group are more than half non-original.
Other
I seem to remember liking Standard's music.
Also, Hey God Let's Talk was meant as a VBS of sorts (or something similar), and I love the HGLT songs -- the theme song, the slower version of the Lord's Prayer, No Slow Grow and Go, and I Need You Now.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
The Annual Book Post, 2010 version
Unfortunately, I haven't read outside of school as much this year as I have in the past couple of years -- but to make up for that, I've read *lots* more for school. While I don't always like what we read in American Lit, at least we're reading.
1. This summer I finished reading Shakespeare's comedies and romances. The ones I had left were Measure for Measure, Pericles, and Troilus and Cressida. Of those, my favorite by far was Pericles -- it's definitely my favorite romance, which puts it on the complete list somewhere around Midsummer Night's Dream. MfM was okay, not bad. TaC, however...if I hadn't been trying to read all the the comedies and all the romances, I would have stopped reading after Act II. In English II, we read Julius Caesar, which goes with this list. Ish.
2. The Sable Quean -- newest Redwall book. It actually took me to Thanksgiving to get around to it. Flib the shrew, the mole dibbuns, and Buck make me happy. I also like that Buck and one of the two main villains are swordbeasts -- so strange, that I would be fond of swords. ;) I didn't really like how far away the other main villain, Vilaya, stayed throughout the book. I understand that the distance was part of her; she was a secret even to the beasts that served her, but I wish there had been more motivation there.
3. The Calligrapher's Daughter. I like books about Korea during the first half of the 20th century, and this one is full of pretty. I thought the chapters that changed away from Najin's viewpoint were a little random, and I definitely liked Najin's voice best.
4. Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources. I read these in French with my teacher in the spring. Sometimes I don't really like the style of the books, but when there's *story* going on I found them very interesting. I also liked seeing the southern accent written down -- I hadn't really seen written accent in French, and since that's something I like so much in English, it was cool to see it in French.
5. Luke/Luc/Lucas -- during Lent, I read Luke twice. And I didn't really read Luke, just Luc and Lucas -- French and Spanish. Luke is now definitely the gospel I know best, if it wasn't already.
6. Jean, 1 Jean, 2 Jean, 3 Jean, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Rois, 2 Rois -- okay, I haven't finished 2 Kings yet, but I'm getting there. After that, I'm not really sure what I'm going to read. I might change to something very different and get away from the history, or I might be too curious about all those, "And aren't the rest of (name)'s works written down in the Chronicles?" But I should finish 2 Kings before deciding. Anyway, I've had my French Bible at school, and so I've been reading. Lots of John, and then I got tired of John, so I read Ecclesiastes, which is my father's favorite book of the Bible. Then I went and did histories. Esther and Ruth took me all of three nights combined. The Samuels and the Kings, on the other hand, have taken me two or three months.
7. Of Mice and Men and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. These were part of my summer reading for Lit. I really liked Of Mice and Men, but compared to the short stories and THiaLH, we didn't do much with it. I found THiaLH very heavy and *silent* the first two times I read it, but after going over it in class, I like it better. I guess it makes more sense, and I fill the silence myself.
And now for reading that's not actually books:
8. "Parker Adderson, Philosopher," "Chickamauga," "The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." Ambrose Bierce is...a good writer. And a little depressing. But he definitely gets his point across. And all of these stories are about the Civil War. We'll do more naturalism next semester.
9. Transcendentalism. I like Emily Dickinson. Bryant's okay. Melville is just wordy (Bartleby is *boring*), and I don't know what I think of Whitman. Thoreau and Emerson are both readable, I suppose. I was glad to get out of Transcendentalism.
10. Romanticism that isn't Transcendentalism -- Translation: Hawthorne and Irving. I actually like Irving, though not much happens in a lot of words. Hawthorne actually makes use of the words. As a general rule, I like this category better than the above, because (though we didn't read any) Poe falls here, too.
11. Realism -- we're finishing this up next semester, but we've read stuff by Kate Chopin (yay! really, really liked), Paul Dunbar ("We Wear the Mask" was good, and I liked it better than the short story of his we read), and William Dean Howell.
12. "Bernice Bobs her Hair" (Fitzgerald), "I'm a Fool" (Sherwood Anderson), "Almos' a Man" (Wright), "The Displaced Person" (Flannery O'Connor).
Bernice is my favorite of these, followed by Displaced Person. These were all part of our summer reading.
...
I promise I read other things (and reread too much. As usual), like If I Stay, which I could make into a decent DI if I were still doing Speech. These were the most memorable readings, though.
1. This summer I finished reading Shakespeare's comedies and romances. The ones I had left were Measure for Measure, Pericles, and Troilus and Cressida. Of those, my favorite by far was Pericles -- it's definitely my favorite romance, which puts it on the complete list somewhere around Midsummer Night's Dream. MfM was okay, not bad. TaC, however...if I hadn't been trying to read all the the comedies and all the romances, I would have stopped reading after Act II. In English II, we read Julius Caesar, which goes with this list. Ish.
2. The Sable Quean -- newest Redwall book. It actually took me to Thanksgiving to get around to it. Flib the shrew, the mole dibbuns, and Buck make me happy. I also like that Buck and one of the two main villains are swordbeasts -- so strange, that I would be fond of swords. ;) I didn't really like how far away the other main villain, Vilaya, stayed throughout the book. I understand that the distance was part of her; she was a secret even to the beasts that served her, but I wish there had been more motivation there.
3. The Calligrapher's Daughter. I like books about Korea during the first half of the 20th century, and this one is full of pretty. I thought the chapters that changed away from Najin's viewpoint were a little random, and I definitely liked Najin's voice best.
4. Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources. I read these in French with my teacher in the spring. Sometimes I don't really like the style of the books, but when there's *story* going on I found them very interesting. I also liked seeing the southern accent written down -- I hadn't really seen written accent in French, and since that's something I like so much in English, it was cool to see it in French.
5. Luke/Luc/Lucas -- during Lent, I read Luke twice. And I didn't really read Luke, just Luc and Lucas -- French and Spanish. Luke is now definitely the gospel I know best, if it wasn't already.
6. Jean, 1 Jean, 2 Jean, 3 Jean, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Rois, 2 Rois -- okay, I haven't finished 2 Kings yet, but I'm getting there. After that, I'm not really sure what I'm going to read. I might change to something very different and get away from the history, or I might be too curious about all those, "And aren't the rest of (name)'s works written down in the Chronicles?" But I should finish 2 Kings before deciding. Anyway, I've had my French Bible at school, and so I've been reading. Lots of John, and then I got tired of John, so I read Ecclesiastes, which is my father's favorite book of the Bible. Then I went and did histories. Esther and Ruth took me all of three nights combined. The Samuels and the Kings, on the other hand, have taken me two or three months.
7. Of Mice and Men and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. These were part of my summer reading for Lit. I really liked Of Mice and Men, but compared to the short stories and THiaLH, we didn't do much with it. I found THiaLH very heavy and *silent* the first two times I read it, but after going over it in class, I like it better. I guess it makes more sense, and I fill the silence myself.
And now for reading that's not actually books:
8. "Parker Adderson, Philosopher," "Chickamauga," "The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." Ambrose Bierce is...a good writer. And a little depressing. But he definitely gets his point across. And all of these stories are about the Civil War. We'll do more naturalism next semester.
9. Transcendentalism. I like Emily Dickinson. Bryant's okay. Melville is just wordy (Bartleby is *boring*), and I don't know what I think of Whitman. Thoreau and Emerson are both readable, I suppose. I was glad to get out of Transcendentalism.
10. Romanticism that isn't Transcendentalism -- Translation: Hawthorne and Irving. I actually like Irving, though not much happens in a lot of words. Hawthorne actually makes use of the words. As a general rule, I like this category better than the above, because (though we didn't read any) Poe falls here, too.
11. Realism -- we're finishing this up next semester, but we've read stuff by Kate Chopin (yay! really, really liked), Paul Dunbar ("We Wear the Mask" was good, and I liked it better than the short story of his we read), and William Dean Howell.
12. "Bernice Bobs her Hair" (Fitzgerald), "I'm a Fool" (Sherwood Anderson), "Almos' a Man" (Wright), "The Displaced Person" (Flannery O'Connor).
Bernice is my favorite of these, followed by Displaced Person. These were all part of our summer reading.
...
I promise I read other things (and reread too much. As usual), like If I Stay, which I could make into a decent DI if I were still doing Speech. These were the most memorable readings, though.
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