I've Missed You!

I apologize for being away! Final exams descended upon me in June, and now I'm free (kind of). I still have a summer assignment to do, and I'm taking Health as a summer class instead of the mandatory elective next year. So I go to summer school every weekday. The good news is that I've met some really nice people from this!

The weather's been mostly thunder-ish for the past few days, unfortunately. I do love lightning, but the dark clouds that are always looming make me miss the sun!

Let's see, what's happened in the last month or so:

• I've received an A in all classes and on my finals!
• I'm reading some awesome books, including Persepolis, which is really good.
• I've been chillin and not doing to much, but I will be working on an "alternative paper" with a friend. I'll give the website link as soon as I have it! Also, I'm going to be in a concert, commissioning a new musical piece! That's pretty exciting, too.

Ooh. It looks like a storm's coming right now, as I type! Excitement.

I've also been into some photography lately. Here's some photos, and a link to more here.






















Here's a really serious article about a teen who was "bullied to death". It's so awful that things like this even happen. I wish that adults who saw this happening would do more about it.

This is an amazing story of Daivd Ashby, someone my age, who's walking along the east coast from Orlando, Florida to Washington, D.C. all by foot! He's trying to raise awareness and money for homelessness, and I think it's a wonderful cause! Check it out!

I contribute to mylife24-7.org often as well. I'm a student ambassador for them, and I really love their message. Go to the site and take a look around!

Recently, I joined a few college/scholarship search sites that I really love: zinch.com, fastweb.com, and cappex.com. All three have helped me find really good scholarships and contests, along with schools that I may be interested in. Some are really fun to use, and not that different from social networking sites!

See you soon!

-Brianna

PS:

Check out FastWeb.com for some really good college resources!

School Vacation!

Yes, we're finally on break! Yes! Everyone needs some time off, don't you think?

I'm hoping to get more viewers and comments, so if you like what you see, pass it on!

Touring Ithaca College in a few days. Hopefully, I'll like what I see. It looks like a great place.

Make sure you check out the great articles on the Voices page about the risks of distracted driving - they're wonderful! Take a look here.

Other than visiting Ithaca, my plans are to relax and chill (and finish that geometry homework). Well, I'll get to the homework later.

Also, here's a great article that I'd like to share. Being a musician myself, it really spoke to me. It's called Why Music, by Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser:

Music is a science. It is exact, specific; and it demands exact acoustics. A conductor’s full score is a chart, a graph which indicates frequencies, intensities, volume changes, melody, and harmony all at once and with the most exact control of time.

Music is mathematical. It is rhythmically based on the subdivision of time into fractions which must be done instantaneously, not worked out on paper.

Music is a foreign language. Most of the terms are in Italian, German, or French; and the notation is certainly not English – but a highly developed kind of shorthand that uses symbols to represent ideas. The semantics of music is the most complete and universal language.

Music is history. Music usually reflects the environment and times of its creation, often even the country and/or racial feeling.

Music is physical education. It requires fantastic coordination of fingers, hands, arms, lip, cheek, and facial muscles, in addition to extraordinary control of the diaphragm, back, stomach, and chest muscles, which respond instantly to the sound the ear hears and the mind interprets.

Music is all these things, but most of all, Music is art. It allows a human being to take all these dry, technically boring (but difficult) techniques and use them to create emotion. That is one thing science cannot duplicate: humanism, feeling, emotion, call it what you will.

Music is taught in schools –

Not because you are expected to major in music,
Not because you are expected to play or sing all your life,
Not so you can relax,
Not so you can have fun, but
So you will be human;
So you will recognize beauty,
So you will be sensitive,
So you will be closer to an infinite beyond this world,
So you will have something to cling to,
So you will have more love, more compassion, more gentleness, more good – in short, more life.

Of what value will it be to make a prosperous living unless you know how to live?

That is why Music is Taught.