Hours

On Monday afternoon my siblings and I went to the Richardson Animal Shelter and volunteered 2 hours of our time.  It was a bit weird at first when none of us really understood what to do but after a bit of time we started to understand what to do and I ended up having a good time playing with the cats and dogs and taking care of them.

2 hours - Service

Today I was with friends and we decided to make a music video.  They came over to my house around 4pm and left 9pm.  During those 5 hours we ran around all over the place and filmed small scenes and then came back to my house and sliced them together.  Doing this sort of thing is really a good social thing, I think.  We giggled and I learned new dances and we just had fun overall.  Plus I'm starting to figure out how to work iMovie.  It's not that it's difficult, it's just a lot that I didn't know existed :)

5 hours - Creativity

Service Catch up

The week before last was the week with the Lucia performance and had training every day.  The total for the week was about 7 hours.

The sunday before last I flew home to Dallas for the holidays and as of last wednesday, i am officially able to volunteer at the animal shelter.  the orientation was 1.5 hours.

Service - 8.5 hours


I also spent an hour with my brother and dad creating music and working with the music equipment in my room to cover Green Day's Good Riddance (Time of your life).  I will try to get a recording of me and my brother (or at least audio).


Creativity - 1 hour

More Service

Thursday - 30 minutes at Lucia-träning.

Service - 30 minutes

Also, Wednesday i was an ambassador for IB and Östra.  It started at around 11.40 and we were there with the students until about 14.40, so thats 3 hours.

Service - 3 hours

Also played guitar for half an hour today.  I will post a video once I finish learning my song :)

Creativity - 30 minutes

Ambassador

Today Jennie and I were ambassadors for the IB programme.
We arrived at school at around 9.15am and got some coffee.  At 9.30 we received our binder with information and sashes, etc.  Around 10 we presented our program to a cafeteria full of 9th graders and by half past we collected the students that had chosen to explore IB and gave them a tour.  It was kind of fun because we didnt have to go to any classes and we just spent half of the day glorifying IB :)  I'm pretty sure we recruited at least 3 of the 5 that came...Hopefully.  We were with them until almost 12.30pm (it was supposed to be 12 but there was something weird about the busses and it was extremely late)

Service - 3 hours

Yesterday I was also doing some recording for fun.  I have always been really bad at strumming patterns on the guitar and after playing with Hanna L and my friend who visited me from Stockholm this weekend, I've figured it out.  It seems to be one of those things that as soon as you get, you can't "unlearn" it.  It was like a light bulb just switched on.  Anyways so I've been learning a new song that I will upload later and I've also done some recording.  All in all I've played and worked on recording for 3 hours in the past couple of days,


Creativity - 3 hours

Filling in

Last week I was at Lucia training from 15.30 to 16.00.
Service - 30 minutes

Today I filled in for a bit for Jakob as an ambassador for IB while the 9th graders were visiting.  He came late so I was only there for about 30 minutes.
Service -30 minutes



Total: Service - 1 hour.

Lucia Tåg

Yesterday Jennie, Hanna L, and I took part in the training and preparation for the Lucia train this year at the school.  We will be singing in the choir and it will probably be a lot of fun :)  The Lucia train is basically when a group of girls from the school will gather and perform for the school traditional Christmas and St. Lucia songs.  Parents and students will attend the show and last year it was a lot of people and I think it's a nice thing to do.  Just for other people to enjoy christmas spirit during the darkness of the winter.  The performance will be around the date of December 13th.

I took part in it last year but I didn't attend all of the trainings and it felt very last minute.  This year I am more prepared and I am familiar with the songs (which are all in Swedish), which feels great.  More blogging about that later.


Service - 1 hour

Ambassador

Quick update as well:
I am now an ambassador for the IB program at Östra and have attended a meeting to learn what exactly I will have to do.  This meeting was conducted by Gunilla yesterday (October 12th) for 1 hour.  This will lead to me explaining to 9th graders looking to choose their program for high school what exactly IB entails.  I'm a huge fan of IB so this won't be really hard, plus it'll give me more chances to practice my Swedish :)

More information about that week 46 or 47 (it will take place week 47).

Service: 1 hour

Timing

I'm having issues keeping up with what I'm doing and blogging about it.

But this summer I wrote, performed, mixed and produced a short track.  I worked on it for a total of 4 hours and will post it below.  It was my first real attempt at making a song and I'm really proud of myself because it was something i had always wanted to do but never got around to doing.  There was a lot of repetition and irritation in not getting it perfect, and it still is not perfect, but just the fact that I was doing something that I realized I had a passion for kept me going for 4 hours straight without a single break.

By making this song I really realized how much music is part of my life.  I knew that I wanted to study music business beforehand, but this was magical, the way that I did it, I fell in love with it all over again.  I of course have to give some credit to my dad, as he was the one who set up all the equipment and helped me connect everything.  He also taught me some basics on working the software that I used to record it.  It was actually one of my best days overall, as me and my dad really bonded during this time.  He was supposed to go to work, but decided to stay and help me because it is sort of his passion as well.

What I've learned through it all is basically that if I'm passionate about something enough, if I ask for help when it is needed, and if I give myself patience, anything is possible.

Here is the finished result:




Creativity: 4 hours

Catch up

Here's a quick list of some things I've done both last year and over the summer.

IB Halloween party (consulted David's blog where he put 12 hours but I believe i put more like 5) 5 hours service.

i learned how to play kubb at a friends house in spring and we played for one hour. 1 hour action.

i also took part in the culture of umeå by playing in the brännbollsyran for a total of about 2 hours. 2 hours action.

this summer:
we got a swimming pool and i swam an incredibly large amount of time. i'd say at least 10 hours. 10 hours action.

also went to cyprus where i played water volleyball and went snorkeling and boating a lot: 10 hours. 10 hours action.

i actually think im doing really well in the action view.

start of school:

lunch with PIBs, talking to them and showing them around the school. 1 hour. 1 hour service.

committee in deciding the activities for when we have students from Vasa, Finland: 1 hour service (and counting)


//EDIT//
Another hour was spent working on the activities since this entry.  David took care of more things, and therefore had more hours, but with my involvement, I would say it was approximately 2 hours total.







playing guitar yesterday, learning a new song. 30 min. 30 min. creativity

April 16th 2009

I've been messing with some photos I took yesterday. In-depth analysis coming later. Right now, just logging hours and products. 30 minutes total




Title: The Golden Child



Title: Welcome to the Real World


//Edit//
I've always loved photography, even though I wouldn't say that I'm particularily talented at it...But  my dad is an amazing photographer and I've always looked up to him in just about everything I do. These two pictures may not mean anything to somebody just looking at them, but to me they are very personal.  In the first one, The Golden Child, I realize that I have it good.  I am a good kid, with good grades, and a happy family.  I am not ungrateful in any way at all.  However, my sister has Achondroplasia and therefore has always gotten attention from my parents.  Which I don't mind, seeing as I'm not a big fan of being the center of attention.  But then she started getting low grades and I was doing exceptionally well in school and in sports, music, and art, which made her angry with me.  I stopped practicing the piano and I stopped sketching in my sketchbook for about 3 years because I was so afraid that she would hate me for doing well in it.  I decided not to go for a club soccer team and I almost gave up my academic career (but my mom forced me to take Honors classes and continue in my PACE program, which is a program for gifted children).  This all makes me sound like an amazing person who sacrificed so much, but I'm not.  I'm not superbly talented, I'm just slightly above average in a variety of things. Anyways, this picture was an expression of how I felt throughout those years.  The years when I didn't need help but my older sister did, forcing me to grow up by myself in a way.  I was the golden child that didn't get attention because I never needed it.  Nobody asked how I was doing cause it was never a problem.  But I'm okay with that because again, I know that I am blessed.

As for the second picture.  It was just a statement on how high school never ends.  It is something that is said frequently and I believe it to be true.  I will study until I graduate and then I will go to university, where I will study until I graduate there.  I will get a job and work and there will be the same drama no matter where I am.  And I will never have the time to do what I love the most.

Action from 2 weeks

Last last wednesday (March 18th) Maya was teaching me how to snowboard for the first time at Bräntberget.  Her mom dropped us off at 7pm and picked us up at 9pm so that was 2 hours of learning.

Pictures/Proof:

It was a lot of fun in the end, learning.  It was a bit of a rocky start because I've never really done winter sports.  Snowboarding, skiing, ice skating, all of it is really new to me but a huge part of life in Sweden.

In addition to that, I spent the last week up in Hemavan at the ski resort, working on skiing.  I'm not exactly sure how many hours i was skiing but it was about 3-4 hours every day, 5 days.  So I guess I can say about 18 hours.

Picture/Proof:

I'm really racking up the action hours now because in addition to that, I've joined the Nike Men vs. Women Challenge and will be purchasing the Nike Sport Kit this week so I can start running.  The entire Nike+ website is really cool and motivating to begin running.  I used to run a bit every now and then and I've come to really miss it with the snow.  Before I could go out any evening year round because it was warm enough, but now its snowing again and freezing cold.  But I just have to suck it up and start running again.  I can't let my fellow women down :P

Skiing is Action

Pictures will be up tomorrow probably, I'm too tired to import and upload now.  But I've been skiing today from roughly 12.30 to 15.00.  thats a good 2.5 hours that will be added to my action hours :)

i enjoyed the skiing.  this is only the 2nd time i've gone skiing in sweden, and only the 3rd time i've been at all.  so i'm still a newbie.  its kind of embarrassing when kids a third of my age go shooting past me and do jumps and everything and i'm just struggling to turn a bit...but i'll get there...eventually.

Latest Addition

im thinking of learning how to play a song on the guitar in order to focus my playing in a certain direction.  probably a muse or pink floyd song since i have the tablature for 3 albums :)

photography is back up again.

Title: My Sunny Day

Title: Urban Art in the Early Morning

[20 min. all together in Creativity]

guitar playing proof!

[1 hour - Creativity]

quick update on service

service:

january 24th - open house from 11.30 to 14.30 (3 hours)

february 4th - answering/critiquing questionnaire for neil (20 minutes)

Also, last fall I took part in the Lucia train.  Both training and the final performance came out to about maybe 11 hours?  This is an estimate, but I'm pretty sure it amounts to approximately that much.
November-December - (11 hours)

Proof?  Embarassing :P

The Hiatus Has Ended

Okay so I've continued working on my guitar, im working on ear training by just plugging my ipod into my speakers and letting it play and i try to follow at the same time on the guitar.  its extremely difficult but i honestly think im getting better at picking out approximately which note it is and where to play.  i did about 2 hours on sunday morning.  time passes much faster when theres music playing with it :)

ive also received a new camera so my photography will hopefully start up again soon.  im trying to study more at the same time.

ive also always wanted to write a screenplay and i have so many ideas of what to write so im going to try and get them written down.  i spent 40 minutes tonight just writing a general outline and quotes and characters for this screenplay of mine.  i havent named it yet and its supposed to be a really intense story about a girl who has extreme misfortune in meeting people because they always take advantage of her and everything gets out of hand and she develops a drug problem and gets kicked out and all sorts of stuff and the ending i have in mind is a tragic one.  however i want some comic relief in there so it wont be all too bad.