First Friday Off

So if all goes according to plan, I will have every Friday off this semester, making today my first day of a weekly three-day weekend :) I was able to attack some of the more time-consuming e-mails, do some chores around the house (yay clean laundry!), and take a trip downtown to pick up a parcel from my mom & buy cork grease. My mom sent me a new t-shirt, a skirt (very needed), and some athletics socks (yay running in 30-degree weather!). I love getting fun mail like that; the excitement truly never dies for me :)

I seem to have much less to write on my laid-back days... This post is not flowing as quickly as normal... So perhaps I shall go spend some more time praying/reading before bed. Cheerio

Sacrificing What Is Good For What Is Best

Ephesians 5:11-16

Don't waste your time on useless work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are. It's a scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do in the darkness where no one will see. Rip the cover off those frauds and see how attractive they look in the light of Christ.

Wake up from your sleep,
Climb out of your coffins;
Christ will show you the light!

So watch your step. Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times!

The notion of sacrificing what is good for what is better has been on my mind a lot. The enemy is smart and knows that blatantly tempting is so obvious, but luring with seemingly good distractions seems like a popular way for him to go. Tonight I had the option of going to the C4C Upper Year Party and resolving some issues with the staff or getting to build some RidgeView friendships some more by celebrating a girl's birthday. While the latter option seemed like the natural choice, upon praying about it, I really did not feel at ease to go. And now that I am just back from Jess's party, I am ever so glad that I did listen to my heart on this one. Nothing too special, or that provides a good story, happened at our little gathering, but I definitely had one of those God Moments when you're able to sit back and in the quietness know that He is there. Through my RidgeView adventures, I am becoming increasingly aware of how important it is to listen in order to build stronger relationships, especially with people I might not get the chance to run into often. It's also making me aware of how much more "in my head" I am than the general crowd... Cogito Ergo Sum (CO-gee-toe ER-go SOME... I think, therefore I am...).

Tomorrow I have the whole day off except for a Campus for Christ gathering in the evening. I'm not 100% sure what I will do with all this free non-work time, but it shall probably consist of doing laundry, travelling to the post office to pick up a parcel from my mom (yay Mom!), travelling further still to pick up some cork grease at the music store, practising for the Stratford audition on Saturday (still not 100% sure what to play, but probably 95%), & reading and responding to the long e-mails of the week.

In other exciting news, I'm going to be interviewed for the student newspaper on campus for the push for a proper performing space on campus. Yay lobbying and how easy it is yielding results. I have been thinking about how to best see this issue from a Christian perspective as of late. So far the best tidbits I have come up with are:

- it's drawing a lot of unlikely people together, and even more specifically, to me, allowing for new relationships & more sharing of Jesus' love
- it's going to attract more people the school and this school in particular has one of the largest Christian movements across Canada -- if you're going to have people go to a school, why not provide extra incentive for them to go to a school where Jesus' is abounding
- a drive like this builds community.

Any other thoughts floating out around there?

News Junkie

Many of you know I am a news junkie; I keep up with what's going on in the world more than the average Joe. Perhaps it stems from being subjected to bi-hourly news updates on CBC radio while growing up. Anyhow, in recent months, I have become increasingly interested in the Iraq & Afghanistan missions. The number of American service men and women that I know of seems to be steadily increasing, as well is the prominence of Christian news from the reason. When I was reading through Genesis -Deuteronomy earlier this summer, I also decided to search some of the place names with Wikipedia and see if any of them were still inhabited. Turns out a lot of them are in Iraq. Ur (Abraham's birthplace), for example, has been largely inaccessible to tourists for years because of an Iraqi Army base nearby.

Anyhow, I share all this because I found a nifty news feed today. Here is a recent article about what it's like to be a Christian in Iraq right now: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57416

In other news, my auditions went really well today. I sounded very confident despite my physical shakiness. I'm very thankful that this process is getting exceedingly easier every time. Next stop: Saturday's Stratford Civic Orchestra auditions.

Tonight I'll be staying up late with the likes of Will Graham (Billy Graham's grandson) at a youth outreach event. Should be tonnes of fun! Hope I'm not too tired after such an eventful day!

Lack of Motivation at the Student Ghetto

So our apartment is full of lack of motivation right now. Neither Erin, my roomie (see sidebar for a link to her blog), nor I have a huge desire to get off our tired butts and do any of the following: practise more, take out the garbage/recycling, go for runs, figure out who owes what for summer bills, etc., etc.. I think it's totally awesome how I don't feel so bad for not doing things when there's someone so close by who doesn't feel like doing them either. I love my roomie :) I expect this state to only last quite literally, only a few more hours though, so don't think this is how we spend our 99% of our time.

Today I finished the second last stage of reed making for 5 reeds. I'm glad that I'll have a new batch to play on for the first little while -- nothing says "I don't want to practise" like the threat of moldy/smelly reeds! :)

Tomorrow is audition day and I'm more concerned about what I can conjure up to wear than I am with how I'm going to perform. The nice thing about Prof. McKay & auditions is that he uses the exact same excerpts every year. While some might consider this a waste (why not learn a whole bunch over the course of a few years?), it reflects actual auditions quite well. I've been checking out www.musicalchairs.net recently (they post all orchestra openings world-wide), and it's generally always these three excerpts anyways. FYI, the supreme goodness includes: Tchaikovsky's Symphony Number Four, Second Movement; Ravel's Bolero (shoot the tuner now); & Mozart's Marriage of Figaro (where we have the same opening figures as the violins... because you know, a bassoon is a very easy instrument to make sound like an effortless violin... for those that don't know, Mozart was actually trying to make the parts impossible for his musicians to play). Anyhoo, good times. Can't wait until I don't have to hear any of these for 12 more months :P (I wish)

In other excerpt-land news, my December excerpts are coming along really well. This summer, I figured I might as well spend some time practising something useful so I went ahead and started working on them, months and months before I did last year. Hopefully this will reflect in my marks... No losing free money because of being less than 1% under the requirements for me this year... yay me.

Anyhoo, off to get a good night's rest; tomorrow shall be the first sleep in day in a while :)

Taking the Road Less Traveled

So tonight I met up with some of the RidgeView folks to resolve some issues and try and figure out what exactly people are aiming for within the community. As completely shocking as it is to the leadership team that there are so many that want to gather together, apart from a Sunday service, I am just as shocked that people (a) have no idea why they want something more than just the services, (b) have little concept of what they want from gathering, and/or (c) have strong feelings about the impact of vulnerability in such a group. I have had so many moments where I'm just scratching my head in confusion, it's hard to even put all the latest news into words. I suppose that I have realized more in the last few weeks, that I share more of the vision that the leadership at the church has than do many of its members. I'm not sure if it's because I've heard of it more than the average Joe because I've talked at length with them, or if I just agree with the vision more than many others. One thing is for sure though: that Satan is, and will continue, to try and distract us/people from what God is trying to do with His people to bring Him closer to Him. It is frustrating at times that people can't recognize when he is pushing their buttons, but alas we must remember that Jesus conquered and we can take assurance that He has the almighty upper hand.

In other news, my bassoon got stuck together today. This happens when it is hot & humid because the joints are held together by cork, and cork swells when it is warm and moist. Thankfully, after a few hours of letting it sit on the cold floor, the pieces came apart without any damage (potential damage can occur if you pull a part out so fast that it hits something important on the way out). Tomorrow I will hopefully have time to get some cork grease. I've had at least 3 tubes/pots of it over the last six months but have managed to lose all of them. Thankfully they only cost something like $2.50, so it's not a big tragedy.

Well I'm knackered. I worked from 9:30-2:30 today and sold about a bazillion sweatshirts, t-shirts, and pants. I'd have to be pretty stupid to complain much about it though because I wasn't standing in one spot or cleaning the whole time, as often happens in the summertime :) . Anyhoo, I have another long day ahead of me tomorrow so talk to y'all later!

Last Day of Summer

So today was pretty much my last day of summer and I spent a good chunk of it at the beach with the Ridgeview crowd and then a bunch of us crashed Johnny's place and watched "Hitch." Good times, but now my bedtime is fast approaching...hope you weren't relying too heavily on an extensive post.

A Quick Lesson In Reed Making

The #1 question asked to me of non-musicians is, "What is a bassoon?" (except they usually say bazzoon, even though I've just said it the proper way before... don't ask me why). The #1 question asked by people who know a little bit about music, is "You make your own reeds?! Can't you buy them at the store?! Is it difficult/expensive?!" Well my friends, to the 85% of you who have ever asked, strap on your seat belts for a thrilling tour of parts one and two of the four-five reed making process (complete with pictures!).

It all starts with the phenomenal book written by James R. McKay, the reed King (and my professor... he goes by Jim). He learned his techniques from the reed King previous to him, Lou Skinner... a geek who developed a method to record how to make reeds and based a more common technique on the famous bassoonists of his day).

So step one is ordering the cane. A piece of cane goes for about $1.30USD. I order mine from "Custom Cane" in Tabernacle, NJ (isn't that a cool name for a place!). The guy that cuts it gets it in its tubular shape (think of a giant piece of bamboo) and then cuts it into 4s and then makes it the right lengths and thicknesses using a method unknown to me. Anyhoo, I like "1.30mm, 0.051 thick eccentric gouged Donati" cane. This is what it looks like when it arrives (there are 10 pieces bundled together with masking tape).

Next, you place it in water and wait until it sinks... the book says this takes about 24hours... it takes about 70+ for me...

Next, I place it on expensive machine #1: the profiler. Profilers cost several hundreds of dollars, and it is not unusual for them to be worth over a thousand. Probably needless to say, but I do not own one, but use one from the school. When God gives me $600+ or a profiler altogether, that's when I will own my own :P... Anyhoo, 1st you bound it to the handle like this (two pictures of the same thing):

And then you place the handle in the expensive profiler contraption, exert a lot of effort moving that black handle back and forth 50-100 times to take the shiny coating of the middle part of the cane... this is extra fun because keep in mind that the cane is wet therefore your hands are wet... I am surprised there aren't more injuries from this!

After all that effort and waiting a gadzillion hours for the cane to sink, you put the profiled cane on a piece of one-inch dowelling (thank you Home Depot... something like <$5) and let it dry for about three-five days. This is a picture of some pieces drying in the sun:

Next comes the step I always forget and than wonder why the tube is weird... This is an optional variation, but I've found it rather helpful to reduce angry moments with my prof (he always does this)... Anyhoo this is the "Charleston" or "Loonie" variation (my bet is they developed it at Charleston Lake)... Basically with a 1" scraper (expensive tool #3!) you more or less scrap three strokes in each direction, on the inside, from a 50-mm mark. This is repeated from a 43-mm mark. This is what the scraper looks like, and no I don't know where you can get one (except for McKay), or how much I payed for it:

After sanding everything and making it a mess, now comes the part where you're most likely to butcher the reed -- yes, even after having it in your mind for over a week...We move on to expensive tool #4: the shaper. I use a Fox #2 (c. $170CD?) but supposedly the more expensive Prestini Knochenhauer or Pisano #2 work ok too. Using a fancy-pancy Exacto knife (#11 blade!... the one I use is from Staples and has a comfortable handle), you "feather" the cane from the middle of the shaper to JUST where the shaper starts to flare out at the end. You then feather from the end to where you stopped... Often times, I end up getting too carried away and feather too far from the middle and end up taking cane out from inside the shaper... this is not good because later the reed will leak (sound really airy). 99% of my reeds nowadays are salvageable even when I make this mistake, but two years ago, I ruined 60-70% of my reeds this way :) Go me and being impatient sometimes! Here's a close-up of the "feathering" as well as what the shaper looks like:

When all the feathering is done, I sand the edges with 200 sand paper so that I'm sure that the cane is the right shape. Theoretically, it should look like this!:

Next comes the part where you're first likely to stab yourself in the process: marking 8, 18, 26, and 30-mm from the "butt ends" using a compass. Then you reinforce them with a knife whilst the cane is laying on the dowelling (to prevent slippage). I use an actual steak knife for this process because it's a) cheap and b) means I don't have to sharpen my $100 reed knife as often. Here's me having at 'er with the protractor and the steak knife:

Next comes more wheel-y fun doing a "pilot" cut with the smaller end of the wheel. Basically you drag it across the inside of the cane, from 32-mm, and remove about 0.10mm from each "butt end." Here's our friend, the wheel again:

Next comes one of the artistic parts for the reed-making process... you will be judged by your friends on how pretty this looks :P Don't fret too much though because you will only be able to see it for a wee bit... Draw a "sawtooth" line from the 32-mm mark, with a pencil, and then drag the 1" wheel over it until it's gone. Basically a sawtooth line = squiggly lines... I forgot to take a picture... so just imagine ;)

Up next, is another fine stage to stab yourself at... marking 3mm around the edge of the butt...:

Take your Exacto knife and *score* (not cut all the way through) along each 3-mm mark -- most easily done with the cane on the dowel. Next, score two more lines, parallel to the first, between the edge of the cane and each 3-mm line. Finally, cut through the butt end for 1mm for all of your scores. Note: if the scores are not parallel/even in depth you will have a leaky reed again... #2 spot where most reeds hit the trash can... and after about two weeks worth of work. Yay.

This next photo shows you the scoring with my FAVOURITE part (seriously!): chipping out the burr! this is basically any extra shiny can that is past the 30-mm mark. I think I like this stage so much, because it is pretty much smooth sailing from here on in... If the reed's made it to this stage, it is very likely it will play something sometime other than one note! Picture of me chippin' out the burr:

Now comes fancy artwork time #2... basically you draw this using marks at 43 & 50-mm:

Next, following the design using a combination of expensive tool #x (I forget where we're at now), the reed knife, and sand paper, you make the reed fit within the following dimensions:

at the collar(where shiny meets ruff): 0.95-0.85mm thick

at 43 mm: 0.73 - 0.68mm thick

at 50 mm: 0.62-0.56mm thick

at 60mm: 0.45-0.40mm thick

This is my beautiful reed knife in action. Note how thick the top is so that I can put my thumb on the blade to guide it without getting indentations:

Finally, do a quick sand everywhere:

Measure twice! Groove-side up!!! (I only discovered this, this week... yay me!). This would be expensive tool #y... a micrometer... again not sure how much I paid for it, but definitely in the 100s of dollars... this one is made by Ben Bell and I'm very happy with it/ recommend it.

Now the fantabulous reward for the weeks of hard work: soak the cane for 10-12hours / until it sinks only to have a few more days of fun after this.

Until next time...