That 'One Year Off'

Beethoven, and other musings.

I have like n<20 measures left until I’ve got the skeleton of the first movement memorized of his Appassionata.  I mean, seriously.  There’s a section of a few harmonius chords in E major, whereby in then switches to E minor and you hear the theme again.  There’s a few parts in the spaces before (such a cadence section in Ab minor {seriously WTF Ab minor?!}) that I don’t have the chords for in my head (yet), but the sound I know what it’s supposed to sound like.  Couple of fingering issues, I’ll have to go back through and look and phrasing, slurs, and dynamics (much of the musicality has been lost over the past year).

But now?  Around 70% complete.  5% more for the notes, 15% more for the musicality (I’ve got it in some parts, just…not all of it already), another 5% for the sheer fluidness one attains when familiarity is attained, and another 4% for the joy that comes in knowing all of this.

You might be wondering…

70+5+15+5+4 != 100%

Of course not.  That last 1% (hah, I probably sound like an arrogant douche) will come with time.  It’s there in some parts of the piece already, I’d like to say (though very few), but there’s something to say about the relative ease in which a piece is played…even it parts of it are heinously difficult.

You could be playing the simplest pieces in the world and make it look like you’re struggling with the Nine Hells themselves.

Or, take one of the most difficult, and make it look like child’s play.

There’s a show to be had in all of this.

L’sigh.

I’ve been reading a lot, lately.  Finished up Return of the King (Tolkien!) and almost through Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind.

I wish music came to me as it did Kvothe.  That’d be insane.

(Insanely cool.)

Things I still don’t need for the New Year.

Listed in order of probable purchase, should I ever get to the point where I feel like I can purchase said item without breaking my bank.

Sennheiser HD555’s.  Unnecessary.  But…sublime.

SATA DVD-RW.  Also unnecessary, because I already a perfectly good IDE cable one…but it’s just so ugly in the window I look through every few months.  (This is sarcasm.  But it’s not that expensive…less than a tank of gas.  :/)

An nVidia GTX 460.  I’m running on an ATi HD3870, which is only starting to show it’s age in the games I play.  Which is astounding.

Garmin Forerunner 310XT.  I could get the little brother 305 for about half the price, but since I haven’t actually been out there running in about…two months now, this is a moot point.

Vibram Bikila’s.  Also for the running, which hasn’t happened in a while, so…yeah.  I’d probably get these before the watch.  Maybe.  I dunno.

4-core processor / new mobo / new RAM - all in one package to upgrade this computer from 2007.  It’s grown from an E4300 to an E8400, and the entire thing here would cost around way too much money, so it’s further down the list.  I’d need all of them to upgrade any part of it, which makes for one very expensive upgrade.  I’ve got storage space and the sound card…I just need these.  And the video card.

Nikon D90, to replace my D40.  If only because I’d want one to make my 50mm prime autofocus and have a sensor cleaner built in and have option to film and get DOUBLE THE MEGAPIXELS YEAH.  (rite gais?)

With my job at the school now (and still without too many bills), I’m going to start putting parts of my paycheck into savings.  I plan to move to Austin this summer (haha…interesting stuff here) and make a living there for a year while I apply to nearby schools (UT and possibly San Marcos) for Master’s in Collaborative Piano.  For the rest of this year, I intend to accompany, teach, practice, work out, work, and hang out with friends as much as possible as well - so saving up for what could be rough times starting out would be a good thing.  Also moving might get expensive.

…I’m looking into pianos to buy, though.  I’d ideally like a baby grand (due to space issues), but with the money issue, it’ll probably be a used upright…if I can find one and can justify getting an actual piano over a good keyboard that’s similar.  (Playing on the grand for the wedding totally made me miss playing a real grand piano.  Just…just the feel of it!  Urgh.)

I need to keep working out.  I’d like to start running again.  I’d like to lose another 10 15 pounds before the summer, making 30 for the year.  I’d like to finish Beethoven’s Appassionata (No. 23, f minor).  (I need to not buy any more Magic cards, haha…which is totally doable.)  I should spend less time in WoW (though I haven’t played but two hours over the past week…it was pretty crazy for about two weeks).  Maybe I can drop my subscription to WoW.  $15/month isn’t all that much for the amount of time you can sink into it…but it…it can get to be a lot of time.

I’d like to read some more books.  Maybe get a Kindle, should I get really into it (this would fall somewhere around the video card…ish).  Lord of the Rings, some classics.  Classics being, I dunno.  Recommendations?  I’m open to suggestions.  Currently reading Brent Weeks’ “The Night Angel” series.  I’m waiting for Patrick Rothfuss’s second entry in his Kingkiller thingy, and also awaiting the fifth “The Twelve Kingdoms” books…whenever those come out.  I suppose I could reread The Wheel of Time Trilogy…but I dunno if I want to read the 11 books over again and then grab the 12th.  I’m not sure if I have the patience for that.  Also Harry Potter.  Again.  :3

Maybe write more music.  Finish the cello/piano piece I had going.  It was nice.  Ran out of ideas.

And speaking of sleeping more, which I should do, I’m  going to do that now.

I’m not sure what this post was about.  I suppose it was a wishlist of stuff I could maybe see purchasing over the next year or so (…the only thing I’m actually pretty set getting are the headphones.  The rest could be…oh, if I win the lottery).  Then it morphed as a resolutions type of post as I got farther away from now and closer to later.  Though, I suppose it is technically later now, but now ‘now’ is earlier and later is even later.

I’ll stop rambling.

G’night!

Edit: this one post just about covers all of my interests, activities, and touches upon just about all the facets of my nerdiness.  :D