The Patheticness of Me, and New Year's Resolutions

Man, you know what sucks? During the second semester of my senior year of high school, I was in both Jazz and Concert Band. Those classes were back-to-back, five days a week, from right after lunch until the end of the school day. That's a total of about fifteen hours a week, playing my trumpet.

This afternoon, after taking a shower, I decided to practice a bit on my trumpet. I knew I wasn't going to get anywhere near three hours, since I hadn't done any serious playing for almost ten years now, but I thought I'd at least crack half an hour, y'know?

I couldn't even make it fifteen minutes before my lips gave out.

Of course, it probably doesn't help that I was trying to play songs from my Disney Star Trek and theme books, which have a lot of notes on the top half of the staff. If I'd gone through and practiced some of the stuff in the books I used in middle school concert band, I'd probably have made it to half an hour, if not forty-five minutes or so.

But that stuff is boring, and I wanted to at least get half of the Star Trek: Voyager theme song played before my lip gave out. Only problem is, I'd played too many other Star Trek theme songs before I went for Voyager, so I only got a few bars in.

I think I want to start practicing every day again. Until I get a job, I'll probably go for early to mid-afternoon, for half an hour (using the boring books only), and then when I get a job, I'll re-evaluate my schedule and see what time is good for practicing then.

I've got an interview on Monday morning at an electronics manufacturing company for a stockroom associate position. The application, and the two little tests they had me take at the time, went pretty well, so I'm hoping the interview goes well too.

But enough of the depressing stuff--it's a new year! I've never really made--and kept--New Year's Resolutions before, but I think I might want to start. Here are three:

1. Practice trumpet for at least thirty minutes every day.
2. Practice guitar and/or piano at least twice a week, for at least thirty minutes each time.
   
3. Call at least two of my really good old friends (the ones I don't see all that often) at least once a month, just to catch up. Text messages, Facebook messages, and e-mails don't count--must be telephone calls.

I went to the Haven New Year's Eve party on Thursday night. It was fun. I talked to a few people I hadn't seen in a while, since the only time I'm really at the Haven nowadays is when I'm playing in Bryan's Serenity RPG, and we're sitting in the tiny gaming room where we can't see anyone else at the time.

I also creamed Steve at Warhammer--his ogres versus my Bretonnians. He literally had only three models (not units, just models) left on the table by the time we called the game at the top of turn five. He'd managed to take out my general and one entire unit though, so I only won by a little over 400 points--still a decided victory though.

I decided not to stay there for the night, since at home I had flannel sheets, but I was walking around the Haven for a while with my favorite blanket wrapped around my shoulders. It's the blanket that I got from the airport in Phoenix, on my way home from visiting Heather and Stephen back in October 2008.

Interesting Quote and More

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." - Albert
Einstein

I'm not going to discuss this quote here; I just thought it was a cool quote and decided to yoink it from Heather's LJ.

This morning, I was woken up by someone playing the piano--at 7:15 in the morning!--that's a very rude time to be playing the piano, especially since most of the rest of the household is still trying to sleep at that time (my dad just in the very next room from the piano, and Mom just down the hall on the same floor). There is also a keyboard in the house which is able to have headphones connected to it, so there is no excuse to be playing the actual piano so early. Not to mention, that was only 15 minutes until my alarm was going to go off, and being awakened by the piano did not translate into a good last 15 minutes of sleep--I'm a light sleeper nowadays.

The past week has been pretty normal. I joined the Magic: The Gathering league at the Haven, and I've been playing against everyone I could all week. So far, if I remember correctly, I won one "official" game, and three "unofficial" games.

The "official" games are against two other players chosen at random from the list. Winner gets two points, and a card is ante'd from each deck before the game starts. Whoever wins chooses to either keep both ante'd cards, or let the other person keep the card they ante'd.

The "unofficial" games also have ante'd cards, but winner only gets ½ of a point. I've either got 3 or 3½ points; I can't remember who all I won against for the half-point games, but I'm sure I won at least two, if not three.

I also purchased a Bretonnian Warhammer army from one of the guys at the Haven, and have played the game with them twice. The first time was a couple weeks ago, against Jason, who was playing high elves. We stopped that game at the end of the second turn, because we both really wanted to go home.

The second time was just last night, against a Havenite's dwarf army; it was an NPC game I was playing for the Warhammer Fantasy campaign going on at the Haven. I would've done better, if he hadn't gotten lucky with his guess-range canon in the very first turn and not only destroyed my trebuchet (causing the crew to flee off the board), but also causing my pegasus knights to flee off the board as well. Basically, the dwarves slaughtered the Bretonnians. It was fun though. And after that, I beat him in a Magic league game, though that was a close one.

Today is payday--yay!

Tomorrow, I'm going to take the forge safety class at the Haven, so that I can possibly upgrade my membership so that it's GM/crafting, instead of just GM and be allowed to use the forge whenever I want (if it's not already in use). That way, I can make metal stuff and sell it to get some extra money. Gene actually gave me the idea; when I asked what I would make to sell, he said something like, "All kinds of things," and then as an example mentioned door handles.

Wouldn't you know, I had an idea right then for a unique door handle design? I actually designed it with the door at the Haven in mind as a good place to put it. I'm not going to say what the design was here, but I may post a picture when/if I ever get one made.

I'm thinking that, if I do decide to do this side-business thing (Gene said he'd sell the stuff I make at the Haven, like he does for other crafting members), I'll not only make my own designs, but also take commissions for other designs. I'll have to ask Gene to help me decide on fair prices though, since I've never sold anything like that before.

Art and Taxes

I had my first class on Tuesday. It was long and boring, like most first sessions are, but it's looking like it'll get more interesting as the semester goes on. For classwork, we drew still life contour drawings. For homework, we have to do the same, only with three objects in our own house. It's due next Tuesday.

Yesterday, I stopped off at the storage facility to get my tax information from last year. I also had to get a new gate key, because the old one didn't work (it was a company-wide thing, so not my fault). In addition to the tax papers, I also got the sustain pedal and music stand for my keyboard.

When I got home, I went to put the pedal and music stand on the keyboard, but Anna told me she'd taken it to Tim's house! She said she needs it to do her homework for the piano class she's taking, but she didn't even ask to borrow it, much less take it out of the house!

Not to mention, there is at least one other electronic keyboard in the house which is much less expensive (ergo, less worry about Twigg pets and little children breaking it) and works just as well. She could've taken the other keyboard, which is also more portable than mine, and Kayla could've kept mine in her room where we'd put it, since I'm almost certain there's more room there than in the Twiggs' house. It just galls me that she had the nerve to just move my property to a completely different house where I can't keep an eye on it, and didn't even make sure it was okay with me first!

All of the stuff for my plan has arrived at the house, except for the mini-fridge. According to UPS Tracking, that should arrive today. So I can set it all up this weekend, but I won't be able to buy food to put in it until a week from tomorrow.

I finished my taxes last night. I owe $15 to the IRS, and Maryland is giving me $182. I'm filing by mail this year, because I really want that Maryland return as soon as possible, but I can't afford the $19.95 to e-File it. Plus, filing by mail means more time before my check to the IRS clears, so that's a plus. I didn't want to e-File the federal return, because then it would've come out of my account right away, and I didn't want that.

I tried doing the federal by mail and the state by e-File, but again the $19.95 e-File fee through TurboTax, and it wouldn't let me do one by mail and one by e-File anyway.