Bases vs Basketball

Hey! Blogger was being annoying yesterday, so I couldn't post this. Sorry for the delay! Let's just PRETEND that this was up yesterday. Don't worry, I'll be posting a lot this week! ~J

Today we were having a little holiday fest at school. 
Some MUSIC.
Some dancing.
Some slideshows. 
And some basketball.
DUM DUM DUUUUUUUUUUM
(Foreshadowing - woop!) 
Let's start with the music.
I play viola. Actually, I play violin. But I play viola in school orchestra to occupy myself. Just as a clarification, violas are BIGGER than violins, okay? Not smaller. I'm not even sure where anyone heard that. They probably didn't. Violas are BIG. They have a C string rather than an E. 
They are not mini-violins!
*scowl*
Anyways. Viola. So, we (meaning the orchestra) have these five pieces we polished for the official concert on December 8th. We played four of them for each grade. The same four.
Last year for the holiday whatsit, each grade had a similar program.
1) Singing performance group in auditorium.
2) Theatre arts semester class for that grade
3) Band/orchestra/chorus
This year, our program was like this for each grade:
1) Orchestra pieces (wahoo)
2) Jazz band pieces
3) Basketball (shudder) contest thingy
4) Slideshow
5) Dance contest
6) ?*
*I left before this point so I wouldn't miss Social Studies. Did we do anything here, peers?
ANYWAYS, I was not looking forwards to laboring under the same old boring pieces. Thrice. But it turned out okay. I felt bad for the jazz band having to listen to us over and over again.  Well, then the basketball thing happened. 
Teacher: Let's give it up for the Inman Jazz Eagles and the Inman Eagle Orchestra!
Nice kids: Yaaay! Go orchestra! You guys did great!
Irksome Kids: WOOO! LET'S MAKE NOISE CUZ WE'RE A BUNCH OF APES!
Teacher: Yay! And now, we have a special treat!
Coach: Come on up and chuck LARGE HEAVY EVIL basketballs at our orchestra and their instruments!
(Actually, he really said something like this:)
Coach: When we call your section of the bleachers, anyone who wants to can toss a basketball at either one of these two hoops [RIGHT OVER THE ORCHESTRA]!!!!
Ms. Shields: WHAT
Ms. Shields 2: WHAT
Me: WHAT
Coach: Everyone come line up...
Kids: WE'RE BLOODTHIRSTY! MUAHAHAHA!
Orchestra: AAAAGH!
Violinist: CLOSE THE CURTAINS!
Cellist: Then we can't see our impending doom!
Violist: EVACUATE!
Kids: VIOLENTRAGEOFEVILBALLS!
Us: Waaaaugh!


So, to those of you who might be confused about the layout of the auditorium, here's a little map:


So the basket ball goal is right in front of the stage. Us musicians improvised. We barricaded the stage with the basses, then stacked the cellos on top. The violists were shoved on top to hit the balls with bows.
No, we didn't actually do that. Still, it would have been impressive. We could have marched out, bows in our fists, and annihilate the entire grade!
In reality, all we did was panic.
We quaked each time the ball rebounded. I'm indignant that we were not consulted as a bunch of 7th graders were about to POUND US TO MUSH WITH BALLS!!!
Luckily, we were not injured by the seventh graders.
But then the eighth graders came.
DUM DUM DUUUUUUUM....
At first everything was fine.
But then a ball came SOARING from between the backboard and the supports, plummeting into the first violin section!
What I should have done:

What I did:

Self preservation!
Anyways, although it did nearly topple several chairs, nothing was directly harmed. 
I then joined a brigade of violists who sat on the edge of the stage, then battered down the onslaught of basket balls missing the hoop. 
It was terrifying.
Moral:
Basketballs and basses do not mix. In fact, basketballs rarely mix with anything. Especially me.
~Julia

Music to the Soul

So!
Music!
I am a musician. I also listen to music with actual QUALITY. Baroque. Romantic. All those styles.
And I have dedicated this post to exposing you to this quality.
First, there's the music that I play.
I play scales. Major, minor, arpeggio, three octaves, two scales daily. I play etudes. They are boring.
And I play pieces.

The following pieces are ones that I either learned recently, am still learning, or will soon learn:
-Bach A Minor, which is too big a file to be uploaded onto this blog, so I'll post a link late...

-Dvorak Four Romantic Pieces:

My status on the above:

First Movement: Learned a loooong time ago.

Second Movement: Was polishing when I broke my arm- postponed till January

Third and Fourth Movement: Not planning to learn in the immediate future.

-Paganini Cantabile:

This will be my first piece from book 7, although I've strayed from the books.

Then there's Fiocco Allegro, which I learned about a year ago:

That's one of the top violinists in the world....

Wow.

Also, here are some pieces that I LIKE:
Romance (which Dad has arranged to be played in quartet form on my Bat Mitzvah - stay tuned!):

I'm not a HUGE fan of the soloist, but it still sounds great!

Suk (He's Dvorak's nephew!):

Although my recording at home is much better, this will do...

Barter's Bride (Smetana):

Again, home recording is better. But whatever. This was THE PIECE I danced to when I was three. Every day. Running around in circles. :)

Oh, and guess what? Yeah. Those are all Czech composers. The best.

Then there's Fuchs, who was a German composer. He wrote some duets and trios that we play at home. I couldn't find any good recordings of the right pieces, so no video for now.

Anyways, that's your first music exposure. REAL music.
I will give  you another lesson soon.

Hope this posts with all the videos!
~Julia

P.S. My brother has just announced with great excitement that he can create headaches by hitting himself in the head with various objects. Let's give him a hand!

Portals to Amnesia

Not really.
What am I talking about when I say portals to amnesia?
Doors.
I'M KIDDING.
Mostly.
Because guess what I just found out?
Walking through doors makes people forget things.
So, I was reading Scientific American, which is this really awesome science magazine on modern scientific discoveries and experiments.
All the articles are really cool, so I recommend subscribing!
Anyways, I was reading this article. And it was talking about doors. The opening example went something like this:

Basic Summary: You see your mug is empty, bring it to the counter, walk through a doorway to the kitchen, stand around confused, walk back, see your mug, scowl.

When I read this example, my reaction was: "I get what you're saying. But that's kind of a stretch - I'm more likely to just get distracted and pour myself some water then forget completely what I was doing and sit down with the mug in my hand."
Except then I thought about it.
And I realized that that actually does happen a lot.
Not when I'm putting things away especially. But if I'm getting socks and go upstairs. I'll go in my room, see my book, pick it up, go downstairs, try to put on my shoes, and curse.

In fact, I have friend to which the following happens all the time:

This friend is instructed.
She goes into that room.
She stands around mildly confused for about a second.
Decides it's not worth her attention.
Zones out.
And remembers some random thing she wants to do with pipe cleaners.

Then I was really confused. What did doors have to do with it? They're not especially distracting...
The article had descriptions of an experiment scientists had run. The scientists set up a computer game. In the game, you would pick up an object. The object would not be visible unless in use while you held it, as though in a little pocket.
You would pick up an object from a table, walk a certain distance, and be quizzed on the object.

Subjects having gone through doorways showed much more hesitance or would even forget.
They tried this on real subjects in actual environments too. Same results.

Why is this? It seems that when you leave a room, your brain minimizes whatever document you were working on and files it on hold while it opens a new one for the next room.
Apparently this is a method that works quite well dealing with though overload.
Except when it doesn't and you forget what you're doing.

My question is:
ARE DOORWAYS BEHIND MEMORY LOSS WITH OLD AGE?
Could the shutting of memory spaces accumulate? Are doors dooming us to a forgetful existence in a nursing home? Do the doors build up? Like radiation?
Can we prevent it?


Please leave your opinions and advice in the comments BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE.
Or, you can just walk through a door and forget this entire thing.
Not really. But still.
Sorry this post took me so long!
~Julia

P.S. Emma, I haven't forgotten about your number theory thing! I'm still trying to arrange it so it's interesting to everyone else reading this blog.