The semester’s been crazy, so I haven’t updated in a very long time. Nonetheless, here’s my December 2009 12 of 12.
December 2009 12 of 12
Tag Archives: Pandora
March 2009 12 of 12
It’s been a couple of months since my last 12 of 12. But I remembered this month…and what a day it was!
7:42AM I don’t teaching on Tuesday or Thursday, so I slept in today. Only until 6:30, however, because I had to drop off my car to get my oil changed and get the SRS light checked out. Little did I know it would end up costing me much more than I intended to spend.
7:43AM Oreo’s used to the morning routine by now. She got in her bed in the kitchen without me even having to tell her. Note the look on her face that says, “OK. Fine. Leave me…again.”
9:03AM I rearranged my office again (for the 7th time…literally). I’m trying out a new floorplan, with the desk against the wall. It really opens up the space and makes the office seems quite big. (And yes, that’s Optimus Prime on my wall.)
9:27AM My new dry erase/cork board combination that I hung up on my wall this morning. Now I can write and post notes to myself without having to scotch tape them to the lovely cinder block walls in my office.
10:16AM The view from my desk, while grading papers and listening to Pandora. Man, I love Pandora.
1:31PM Taking a break from grading (and waiting for the Honda dealer to call me about my car), I practice a little piano. I’m playing the celeste part for Copland’s Lincoln Portrait. If you look closely, you can see that it’s very simple part that oscillates on an E major chord for 10 measures. Ah, my kind of accompanying.
2:56PM The Honda dealer STILL hadn’t called me. I was getting frustrated. They called me about 15 minutes later to tell me that my car needed a new battery, and that it would be done in an hour and cost me more than initially quoted. Great.
3:14PM Finally having a timeframe of when I’d get my car back, I scramble to finish my lesson plan for Theory 2: cadential and passing 6/4 chords. Fun times. (You can really tell it’s my office by all the U2 posters on the walls.)
4:12PM I run to the duplication room in hopes of picking up my Theory 1 Proficiency Exams before the Honda shuttle picks me up, only to find out Arlene left early today. Great. So I rush back to the Music office to try to make copies there, only to find that it’s closed early, too. This is the view of the office from the outside of my mailbox. I go into school on my off day and stay much later than I should, while others who normally work later than I leave early. The irony of the whole afternoon was not lost on me.
4:46PM The Honda dealer finally picks me up and drops me off to get my car…8.5 hours later!!
4:48PM What was initially going to be a $30 oil change ended up costing me nearly ten times that much. All to get the stupid SRS light to shut off. It took the service department almost nine hours to figure out that my car needed a new battery. *SIGH* I miss Proctor Honda in Tallahassee.
4:51PM I’m finally back in my car. Notice how the SRS light isn’t on any more. Not bad for $300. Ugh. What a day.
BONUS:
11:40PM The way I see it, regardless of how crappy my day went, it ended nicely, with my packing for FriendFest 2009 Part a in DC. I’m driving to visit Mike, then going to Houston to see Xan and my parents. And, yup, that’s a Guitar Hero guitar, packed and ready to rock! Bring on the Expert level!!
Bono Criticism
So, I’m listening to Pandora while packing up my office, preparing for the big move at the end of the month. I turn on the U2 station that I created (of course), and out of sheer curiosity, I click the band’s biography and peruse the user comments. I find it interesting that several of the comments totally slammed the band, Bono in particular, for their social work. Now, I realize that not every one likes U2’s music, and I can live with that. To each his own. But some of these users need to get their facts straight. U2 has not been around for so long just because they’re “the critics [sic] little darlings.” They’ve won 22 Grammy Awards and have sold almost 150 million albums worldwide, despite getting hammered by those very same critics for releases like Ratttle and Hum and Pop. More to my point, however: just because you don’t like their music, does that mean you have to bash their character and their charity work? How is Bono a hypocrite? How is he “using the children”? What? Criticize the music if you must, but I suggest you lay off his charity work. What have YOU done for societal betterment bromide01, jayroy, and dave3569? Bono’s got money and star power, and he’s using his cache to try to draw awareness to some pretty horrific situations.
This is a kind of Catch-22, in that Bono’s getting impugned for his charity work because he’s “just a rock star,” yet many of these trigger-happy critics turn right around and attack stars for doing absolutely nothing with their fortunes except horde it for themselves. Why so bitter, boys and girls? Jealousy? Or just plain cynicism? The way I see it, you can hate the music. Fine. You can disagree with his politics. OK. But to attack his charity (which comes out of his own pocket, mind you), that’s uncalled for.
Now, I realize that because I wrote my dissertation on U2 this entry isn’t entirely unbiased. But then again, this blog isn’t about being unbiased; it’s about how I see things. Disagree with me? Bring it.
Christopher Endrinal 