Practicing violin for large chuncks of time is beating my mind back into shape. My playing has been reaching new levels as I double my practice time; my hands are more in tune to the instrument. In a weird way it's invigorating.
   Unfortunatly, so much practice has tremendous downsides. It tires the heck out of me, and eventually makes me either dumbed-down or dang grouchy. Playing is physically straining; the joints in my left hand and my left upper arm start to ache pretty bad. Moreover, in the mental department, my brain is pummeled and totally blown. When I take a minute's rest, all I can think of is what to practice next. Worst of all, after playing for a while I feel depressed. This is a weird instrument, definatly.

    By the way, please come to the San Jose Youth Symphony concert on Sunday the 30th at 3:00pm. Talk to me about tickets; it's $6.00 for students. I really want you to come. We're going to have Latin and Japanese percussion groups join us, so it will definatly be a pretty cool experiance! If you want to talk about it sometime, I can convice you further.

   If you're in SJYS, ask me to motivate you into practicing! Together we'll dig into our minds and figure out WHY we actually play music!

That sounded very funny.