Day 817: Stay Motivated

I don't stay at school most weekends, mostly because I generally have something going on at home or somewhere I need the car to get to, and on those rare weekends when I have nothing going on, I generally like to spend the little bit of freetime I have lounging around with miss Lillybelle or looking at slides with my family. My roommates, I know, probably wish I would stay more often, and if it were up to me I think I would. I adore my roommates and I love college...it's just that it doesn't always work out that way. However, because we just got off of spring break and this next week is shortened because of Easter, I figured staying on campus made sense, especially thanks to the huge amount of work I had to get done.

Midterms, thank goodness, are now officially over, or at least they are as I'm actually writing this (Monday, March 30). Midterms generally surround spring break and into the following weeks, so while it's nice to have them sort of split up, it just so happened that I ended up with two midterms on the same day. It's never nice when that happens (and it also happens to be the reason that the last week of the semester, finals week, is more terrifying than anything else in the world), and therefore I spent most of my weekend surrounded by an obnoxious amount of books and paper, trying to finish up a take-home essay-style midterm for Classic American Novels while also studying for a French exam.

Unfortunately, lots of work means a lot less Disney, and while it creeped it's way into a number of things over the weekend, there just wasn't a lot of time for the usual Disney beyond my daily Disneybounds and the continuation of the Everyday Disney Challenge. However, I needed to keep myself motivated to work somehow, and luckily it was Disney that provided exactly the thing I needed to keep me going: IllumiNations.

Over the weekend, as part of the Everyday Disney Challenge, the prompts both included pictures from IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth, mostly because there are so many different things that you could photograph, and since the second prompt was "We Go On," you could even include older pictures from the Millennium Celebration. Regardless, I posted two photos from the fireworks presentation, which you'll see in a few days as I round up the month of Instagram photos, and that got me thinking.

Luckily, with everything I've done over the past few years through my vlogs and with filming for the Band Trip Video, I have most of the attractions and performances at Disney on recording. It means that, at any given moment, I could probably sit down at my laptop and easily watch High Def recordings of just about anything from Walt Disney World. You name it, I have it: Spaceship Earth, Test Track, Pirates of the Caribbean, Expedition Everest, Festival of the Lion King, Fantasmic, The Great Movie Ride and, of course, IllumiNations.

So at the end of the night, after finishing most of my work for the day and getting a good chunk of studying done for my midterms, I sat down, plugged in my good headphones, turned down the lights and watched Illuminations on my laptop. Now, maybe it's not 100% like being there live, but if you get close enough to the screen and pretend, it works well enough for me.

My next piece of Disney Video Motivation? The American Adventure, which I was going to watch Sunday night, but didn't get a chance to because instead I just headed to bed early. Maybe tonight though, if I can manage to make my way through 7 chapters of a book, make new French Flash Cards, fill out a housing application, and get through three hours of rehearsal time this afternoon. 

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on March 30 due to Midterms).

Day 651: Chord Progressions

Tests are hard, especially when there's two of them because it's midterms and there's so much information to try and remember that you don't even know where to start. Yeah, it's an absolutely fun game, right? Regardless, that's the life of a college student, so you have to come up with ways to remember the information at all costs.

My music theory and history midterms were the recent cause of stress, although I don't think I've ever felt more calm going into a couple of tests. I mean, I spent a lot of time studying and reviewing for the both of them, but I learned that when people tell you to start studying earlier and not cram they were actually right. You're way less stressed out if you space things out. It's not always an option for everyone but for me, I'm lucky enough to have the time to do such things.

Anyway, in particular, there was one bit of music theory that I just couldn't remember however hard I tried, and that particular musical figure happened to be a suspension. There's a bunch of rules about how these things work and how they sound and how you write one, but aside from everything else, for some reason I just couldn't keep the information in my brain.

Until I related it to CaptainSwan that is.

You see, in 4x03, at the end of the episode when they're outside Granny's (in the street no less), and they have their little argument and kiss, the musical backing is what really stood out to me. In fact, I loved the chord progression so much that I would routinely rewatch the scene and stop it before they even kissed simply so I could go back and hear the chords again. It's a music major thing I guess.

What occurs in that progression isn't actually a suspension, at least, I don't think it is. I mean, maybe it is, but it's not necessarily the sort of suspension we're working with (and I'm just going to stop talking now in fear of Dr. Henson someday reading this and looking at me in shame). However, it's similar enough to the rules we deal with that I was able to remember how a suspension works in the way we were to use it on our test. Therefore, I'll probably now forever relate a suspension with CaptainSwan.

I guess there are worse things that can happen in life.

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on October 20).

Day 290: Midterms, Coffee and Awesomeness

As a Freshman in college, I have to say that I'm learning to appreciate the little things in life. Like coffee. I love coffee. Actually, we have a great coffee shop here on campus, one that I drink way too much coffee from, but that's ok. Or the fact that I got an A on my first midterm, which I took last week. Or that I completed two other midterms and finished a paper and talked to my professor about a different paper. Yeah, all great things.

Oh...and Once Upon a Time.

But I'm not going to talk about that. I don't want to reveal anything. Although there's a fair chance that some of you already know what I'm talking about. Still, I will not be the one to spill the beans. HAHA that was actually no pun intended but ended up being a great joke. Gosh I love that show.

No, today we're talking about the little things in life, remember? Like the little bits of Disney that just make your day awesome. For instance, tonight as I was seriously procrastinating on my homework, I came across lots of little Disney things that made me happy. Just going on Youtube or Pinterest has a wealth of little Disney things, many of which I have discussed. If you follow Disney blogs like I do, then you obviously see a lot of this stuff.

But I'm saying the little things down to the Disney Parks Commercials on TV, currently which are running through the Disney Side campaign I talked about last week. Or the set of Vinylmation I have on my desk here at college. My E-Ticket mug that I probably use more here at college than I ever did at home. Or the Annual Passholder magnet I have on the side of my mini-fridge (which I use because it's right here next to my desk.

And what about the Disney Parks music I continuously have been listening to these past few days as I studied for all my midterms. I think I listened to my 3 hour long play list at least 10 times this week. At least. Probably more than that. I think last night I made it through 2 and a half times. Just goes to show you how long I was sitting here. Granted, depending on what I was doing I sometimes skipped a song, but you get the point.

Anyways, since I got really distracted by planning my future Once Upon a Time Disneybounds, it is now 11:55 and I want to actually post this today yet.

So here's today's Disney History: 1965: The World's Fair in Flushing, New York, officially ends. The fair included 4 attractions developed by Walt Disney: General Electric's Carousel of Progress, Ford's Magic Skyway, Pepsi-Cola's It's a Small World, and the State of Illinois' Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.

Have a magical day!