I'm trying out for Taiko drumming right now. It is seriously the biziomb. Taiko is Japanese rooted drumming. It's an ancient tradition that Japanese people did for their crops and festivities and such. The sound is like THUNDA and it is powerful, invigorating, and spirit lifting. That's why I'm trying out for it. It is part drumming, marital arts, and dance. And you get to "kiai," which is basically shouting from your gut, "hup!" "sup!" or "Shup!" Man it owns.

I am doing very well so far. They have taught the try outees one exercise called "Renshu" (it means "practice," and we are suppose to make up a solo to also perform for our audition. This shall be the bizomb.

Piano is kinda annoying. gah humbahug. As you can see I am really lazy writing this blog so I'm not writing very well at all.

I had an orchestra concert today. UCLA phil totally owns SJYS. After only one month of rehearsals. It was a great concert.

I just got back from a freaking fire drill... evidently, the alarm was set off by burnt popcorn. Oh, and people in college swear a lot.

I made a new friend today. Nice person.

very very busy. Arms are sore from working out.

music is tough but so very interesting.

It still hurts and I'm still reminded about it once in a while. Always be careful with people.

Right now I'm listening to Jascha Heifetz early recordings. The music was transferrred from the old records to digital CD. Even so, there still is a lot of hissing and some popping. Still Heifetz is the MAN I mean you cant touch him. He's dead. But also so great.

I am the youngest incoming violin major. There are 3 new ones. 2 are like 20-22 or something, but I am the youngest. And the worst. Well I'm ok. Just my technique has a lot to be desired. Well I'm gonna be here for four years, so I'll improve a lot. My teacher said Weiniawski was to hard for me. So I'm moving to something esle. Which to me is even harder. DANG I need to memorize things really really fast. I'm suppose to memorize a piece after day one.

I've noticed that in college, for music instead of telling you right and wrong, they teach you how to think about music and the violin. So it's not really like "SCREAM SCREAM move you HAND this way." It's more like "think." And also learning about the violin, violinists, and italian, not just how to play. Learning how to play is mostly up to the student. The teacher is the guide and overseer. Also they video tape lessons so you can rewatch them and study all your errors. Here was one of my HW assignments from my private teacher. Name ten dead violinists (I failed the pop quiz at 5): Jascha Heifetz, David Oistrach, Niccolo Paganini, Fritz Kreisler, Yehudi Menuhin, Isaac Stern, Eugene Ysaye, Ginette Neveu, Zino Francesscatti, Mischa Elman.

I went to a dance on campus today and it was ok. White people suck at dancing. Nerds freaking. Asians freaking. Girls seemingly freaking girls. The poppers and breakers there sucked. Afterwards a few people from our floor went to a party. In college a lot of people drink. Then you see them later, and it seems like they're exactly the same. So I don't really act surprised after people say they just drank or got wasted. They're cool ppl but they drink. Funny.