So… as I watch Firefox trying to save a draft of this post while my ADSL2+ router says that the DSL signal has been lost and blah blah blah (seemingly awfully cheap 2wire Gateway free from Telstra). Ohk, maybe it’s just the awful phone lines we have in Australia, maybe it’s heaps of people using the same wire for the same thing (wouldn’t surprise me), maybe it’s the router, or maybe it’s just inherent in the technology and the distance I live from the exchange, but does it have to drop the signal so many times a day?? If that wasn’t annoying, the router hijacking your browser and saying “Connection Lost” or “Resolution Successful. Please restart your browser” certainly makes me lose my temper. I feel like (and this is getting violent) getting a sledge hammer and smashing it to pieces because of all the pain it’s caused me and others. I mean, it says to restart the browser so that you can use the DSL connection again, as if the browser was incapable of realising that the connection was temporarily lost, when if the connection is lost, then resolved, and I haddn’t tried loading a page during that process, then nothing pops up!!!! I think the real reason 2wire added that was because they realised that the router, after hijacking that, just loved to keep on hijacking the browser. Instead of fixing the hijacking (or even out right removing it), they decided to tell the user to restart their browser, get them all annoyed, frustrated and later angry (like I’ve sometimes got) at having to restart the browser, waiting for it to close (Firefox can take a surprisingly long time to close, you know. And I don’t mean like the window closing, I mean waiting for the entire process to close. Why does the computer take so long to close a program after closing the window?) and then opening it up again, and waiting for it to load up everything, and then load all the tabs you had open. Waste hours of my life, and everyone else’s life, or just a couple of hours of yours where you remove a bug and make people happy and buy your products again… which is better programmer? Yeah, I’m not buying a 2wire router again if I can avoid it. This Telstra router (probably a bad example to have learnt from) has made me afraid and annoyed of 2wire routers now. Cisco, you look like a good brand, I’m gonna try you next.

Now that I’ve finished ranting about every thing. I just want to say: screw it! I’m not bothering to make this site look the same in all browsers. I’m designing this theme I’m working on for browsers which support nice portions of CSS3. In other words, I’m supporting the better browsers of Firefox, Safari and Chrome. Internet Explorer and Opera can go and try to impress someone else. I can’t be bothered trying to design a site and create countless images for backgrounds to try and make it look like the CSS3 I want, when I can use CSS3 and say ‘stuff Opera and IE’. Although, I’m sure Opera does have CSS3 support for the features I’m going to use, they just don’t seem to render it when I add the CSS for it (even with the vendor extension of -o-… like, when I put -o-border-radius like it supposedly was in 2008, it doesn’t work. It doesn’t render it with obvious ones it won’t use like -khtml-, -webkit-, -moz-, but it doesn’t even work with just plain border-radius)

Anyhows, before I write a massively long post about nothing (oh wait, I just did), I’m gonna finish off with saying that the band comp today was reasonably good. Many people were missing (we only had 4 flutes turn up, and the bass guitarist didn’t show) and so we sounded lacking, but we apparently still managed a bronze, so that was ok. I felt extremely nervous up on stage, and I’m sure I sounded nervous playing, especially my solo. Even after all these years of performing, I still feel extremely nervous. Maybe it comes from me feeling subconsciously under prepared from lack of good, solid practise.

Well, TTFN!! Ta Ta For Now!

But every time I listen to the radio, I remind myself of all the music I still need to get, to update my library. So many of the artists I have in there have released new albums since I added them, and yet, I haven’t gone and got them! MxPx, Sanctus Real, Jet, Hillsong, Silverchair, Switchfoot, David Crowder Band, Coldplay… just to name a few. And there’s all the soundtracks I still need to get!!! The Ratchet & Clank series (although that’s never gonna happen, because Insomniac games aren’t releasing a soundtrack to that series…), Toy Story, the latest Doctor Who series, heaps of the Disney movies… so many soundtracks. I wonder which music store sells the widest range…

But enough of all that, it’s the holidays, and I have work to do! Speaking of work, I need to do more piano practise…

TTFN! Ta Ta For Now!

Something trivial, when I first heard this song, I thought that Matt Thiessen was singing it, till I found it was actually Adam Young. But then, after reading up on Wikipedia (where would I be without that?), I found out that not only did Adam Young (aka Owl City) get some influence from Relient K (Matt Thiessen’s band), but he also had Matt do backing vocals on the song!!

Anyways, here’s the official Music Video

Not much that’s happened really.

My piano exam was last Tuesday (17th November). Didn’t do as well as I should’ve. Didn’t practise enough though, so that is my own fault. Not pleased with my result, but I’m happy I passed and that it’s done, finally.

Thursday saw the Band ‘Christmas’ Concert, with performances from all the bands in the school, plus a few other groups. It also, sadly, saw the farewell of our Band Conductor/Master for the last 11 years. Bye Mark!! We’ll miss you (well, some of us will at any rate)!

After my piano exam, I haven’t really been bothered doing work much. Playing games a lot, reading books, playing what-ever-I-feel-Like on the piano…… Friday arvo, I went over to Ben’s place to have a celebration of sorts. Also there was Don, Lok and Simon. Mostly all we did was play Halo 3. Once again, Ben and I dominated, unless they forced us to play solo while they teamed up. Then it was much harder. But Ben and I still got nice scores (even if neither of us won). For hours we played, stopping only for food, drink, monopoly, and for all the others except Lok and I (who didn’t feel tired at all) sleep. On that thought, I didn’t really feel tired till I had been awake for 36 hours straight………. Finally went to bed at 9:41 pm, which means I had been awake for over 40 hours. Tiring.

But, besides playing games all night/morning long, my brother has finally got a copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for the Xbox 360, and so I’ve been playing through that (I really suck at it… maybe I’ll be better when I learn the levels), and watching my brother playing online multi-player games. Definitely looks, feels and sounds awesome, and is a step up from CoD4.

But now I gotta go to Church, so I’ll just end this post here and now. Besides, I don’t really have much more to say, except that having only 5 hours of sleep before being awake for over 36 hours makes me feel really tired (unless I get distracted, or have caffeine!!)

P.S. This post is the 256th post by me, Ant! BTW, 256 is 2^8

Anyways, had to perform at the Orange Blossom Festival Band Gala today with the Senior Band. Too bad some people didn’t turn up (*glares at Bryan Ho & Karan B.*). It went reasonably well though. Mark has decided that the band’s problem is that we too nervous/afraid of performing in front of people, so he’s making us have to do solos (ie perform a solo piece in front of the band) at an undefined rehearsal. Much fun. I suppose now would be a good time to practise a random piece. Problem is, I don’t have any harder pieces, after giving up on exams and then not bothering with lessons with my tutor… I’ll turn up something, I’m sure…

If you don’t know already, I enjoy listening to movie soundtracks, especially the ones from movies I really enjoyed. They’re one half of the movie really. When thinking about how important they are, I remember that exhibit at Quest-a-con, with the video clip where it plays along with different soundtracks to show how important the music is. So far, I really think that Warner Brothers have done excellently with their choices of Directors and Soundtrack artists. John Williams certainly is one of the best, if not the best, out there, and he did a brilliant job with starting and creating Harry Potter with Hedwig’s Theme. After he composed the first three films (he didn’t compose the 4th film because he was really busy with Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Memoirs of a Geisha, and Steven Spielberg’s remake of War of the Worlds).

Next came Patrick Doyle (who’s done films such as Bridget Jone’s Diary, Eragon and Nanny McPhee) and his rendition of the Harry Potter world, and you heard it, it was certainly magical. After him came Nicholas Hooper, the person who brought the electric guitar into Harry Potter with out the band (Javis Cocker brought the electric guitar for the Weird Sisters into Harry Potter) with his piece ‘Fireworks’. Brilliant stuff, really, and he continued it with his latest work in the latest film. You can hear reocurrances of his previous themes in the movie.

Having a quick glimpse at the Directors who have guided the movies, we see Chris Columbus starting off the series with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Next in line, bringing in an almost complete change to the environment in which the Harry Potter series had sat in so far, was Alfonso Cuarón, a man who, despite his wonderful vision for the scene, I did not completely agree with (then again, it is an art, and it’s hard to make everyone like it).

Taking on the role of Director for the 5th installment was Mike Newell, who did a brilliant job of portraying Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and I believe it is to him we owe the smokey effect of people apparating in the magical world (wonderful to watch and create, awefully hard to explain to people who haven’t read the books and ask about apparation). After his wonderful creation, we next see David Yates step up to the plate, and he did a brilliant job of continuing the series, adopting Mike’s smokey affect for magical flying by the wizards, going so far as to pitch Deatheaters in black, and the Order of the Pheonix in white druing the battle scene in the Department of Mysteries (DoM). Returning again in the 6th and latest instalment, he’s done a brilliant job is continuing on with a great feel. Sure, he removed a lot of the book from the movie, and change parts (e.g. Harry’s attraction to Ginny is noticed and picked up on by him and his friends earlier on, so as to make it easier for the film I guess). Edit: But untill I watch the movie, I cannot truly cast a verdict upon it. But from what others have said, and from the brilliant soundtrack, I believe it it going to be a great movie. If you haven’t read the books and only went to watch the movies, then the movie was brilliant, but if you have read the books they left out soooooo much. Oh well, it’s a film, you can’t fit a whole book in it.

And, lastly, the 7th and 8th films. And incase you thought I just got it wrong (“What 8th film?! There’s only 7 books…”), I didn’t. It is official (as of a long while ago) that the film is going to be split into two parts.

“Years ago, we briefly — and seriously — considered doing Goblet of Fire as two films. So this concept is not altogether new. As for Deathly Hallows, I intuited — almost from the first moments I began reading it and certainly once I’d finished — that to realize the story in a single film was going to be a tall order. Others in ‘the group’ felt similarly. So the idea of two films began to get kicked around as early as late summer of 2007. We didn’t take it lightly. But ultimately everyone felt that despite the challenges it would present, it was the most sound creative decision.
I’m sure some will think we’re crazy. My wife looked at me cross-eyed when I first mentioned it. But I’m really excited about it because it should allow us to stretch a bit with the characters and give them the proper send-off. The story is highly emotional and those moments deserve time to breathe. And, personally, I feel we owe it to Jo — in order to preserve the integrity of the work — and the fans — for their loyalty all these years — to give them the best and most complete experience possible.” — Steve Kloves on the decision to split the film.

Steve Kloves is the scriptwriter for the 7th and 8th films, and he also wrote the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th films. David Yates has been confirmed to be the Director for these two films, and filming started Feburary this year. Look forward to Harry Potter in November 2010 and July 2011 (then again, they may change it).

A late Happy Birthday to Bryan.

Congrats to the Senior and Concert Bands in the McDonald’s Peforming Arts Challenge. Senior came 4th in their division, and Concert came 2nd. Long story short, on Tuesday, very soon after school, the Senior Band members changed into their band uniforms and then boarded buses which would take us to our venue, Salvation Army Congress Hall. All nervous, as we came on stage for our performance, we played badly. The percussion and bass lagged behind, and the rest of the band followed. Our conductor wasn’t happy with us… Concert band went better though. On Wednesday, after school finished, we hung around, got changed, and then boarded a bus to get to the city. On getting there, we had some spare time, so most of us bought some food, and waited. When it was our turn to perform, we nervously walked onto the stage, got ready, and played. Overall, we played ok, a few mistakes here and there, but we still played well enough for our conductor to be happy. Afterwards, some of us left, while others stayed to watch and hear our result.

Tuesday had Yr 10 getting immunised for 3 diseases. Many people who had the injection complained about a sore arm afterwards. I’m not entirely sure what people were complaining about, I suppose my arm was slightly sore afterwards, but it didn’t really bother me… oh, except for when I thought about the needle, then I got an odd feeling in my arm where I was injected (conviniently in my right arm…).

Nothing else that interesting to talk about, off the top of my head.

Anyway, without consulting anyone what so ever, I’ve decided I’m gonna upload the video I completed. Unfortunately for Kevin Zhu and I, I’m uploading a version that I finished just this afternoon. The difference between this version and the one I showed in IST: music!!! Take away all the backing music except for Noots at the end, and that’s the basic original video. Oh, and Kevin, if you read this, I found the background file on my comp’s version, took a bit of digging around =]

I’ll update this post once I’ve uploaded it.
Edit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxHiTQvTTU0

So that night featured the Stage Band, the Beginner Band, the Junior Band, the Senior Band, the Concert Band, the Flute Ensemble, the Percussion Ensemble, String Ensemble and Brass Ensemble. Also there were presentations of appreciation/gifts to the band conductors and organisers.

The Stage Band… unfortunately for me, I missed most of their performance, but what I heard, they sounded awesome, like normal. The Beginner Band I missed out on, but I’m sure they were good. The Senior Band… we did pretty well I feel…I stuffed the beginning of my solo though… And Piranavan’s singing of the Indian 12 Days of Christmas was awesome…

Junior Band sounded good. They’ve changed a bit since last year… Different style I think. Sometimes I wish the pieces would go for slightly longer… Flute Ensemble!! We did well. Fairest of the Fair…. We probably could work better on our sound projection or something, but I still feel we’re good, or getting better.

The Percussion Ensemble was also good, considering that they’ve only practiced the piece… twice I think. It was good to listen to. Good work guys! Unfortunately I missed out on hearing the String and Brass Ensembles… but I’m sure they were both good as well!!

And special thanks to Jasmin for playing with the Flute Ensemble that night, and sight reading the music, and being really good at sightreading it!! Thanks!! Luv U Jaz =]

P.S. This is Ant’s 150th post

Just got my new Piano exam book today. The new series 16 book. It costs $59.95!!!!!!! Oh well. The cover is definately nice. I wonder if the pieces in it are good…. Of cause, this means that I am now officially starting my Eighth Grade Piano Exam (or, at least am preparing for it). I’m already predicting that I’ll do terribly in it… But before I get to the hour long exam for that, I need to actually do my 4th grade theory exam.

Fernand Leger is an annoying French guy that we have to know about for PDM. Commerce with Dumas has taught me that I should pay 100% attention to the stuff we’re supposed to learn and not the jokes and sidetrack stuff that happens. Maths has taught me that I will never ever master any of it. That was random.