My Life and its Soundtrack

It sure took long to get here, but I¡¯m finally here. Better late than never, I say. I am going to the orientation session for the nursing program tonight! There, I will receive all the information needed to start the program ? I¡¯m expecting to learn things like the secret nurse handshake and stuff like that. You know. Something that kind of initiates me into the status of a ¡°nursing student.¡± I know that¡¯s still a long way off from graduate nurse (a.k.a. newbie nurse) or even just a licensed registered nurse, but it sure beats pre-nursing student ? a status I¡¯ve had for the last three years. And the best part is, under normal circumstances, I will be out in two and half years, ready to sit for the NCLEX-RN exam. My school has over 95% passing rate on the first attempt, so I doubt I¡¯d fail that. So, to say that I am excited would be an extreme understatement. Blogger has been horrible lately, and my internet connection has gone haywire (more so than normal), and I have been reduced to typing my blog entry in a Word document. So you may note some differences. Writing in this white page of the Microsoft Word interface is something I only do for academic purposes ? mainly, to write papers. It can be said that I have been conditioned to write academically while I stare at such a screen as this. So it is normal, if you feel that you have either visited the wrong blog, or perhaps, that my blog was possessed by a grammatically correct demon (while I am aware of my self-made reputation as a Grammar Nazi¢â, I am also aware of the fact that I commit crimes of grammatical nature all the time). I am currently listening to Vanessa Mae. If you do not know who she is, I will sum up her story for you. She is a violinist. As you know, classical musicians have a hard time selling CD¡¯s ? boys may buy Britney¡¯s CD to drool over, and girls may buy Britney¡¯s CD so they can emulate her, but not many classical geeks are out there who want to drool over a violinist or emulate one. A few years back, there were a lot of inquiries on Vanessa Mae¡¯s album cover ? they were, in no comparison to Britney¡¯s sexually suggestive school girl outfits or bare-all midriff, but it was highly sexual; highly sexual for a classical violinist. I mean, she went from a rather androgynous girl with cropped hair, into a sleek woman with a revealed slender shoulder. Critics claimed that the revealed shoulder was to compensate for poor sales; I claim that that¡¯s all just a load of brouhaha. Mae is not only a gorgeous woman, but also one hot violinist. A song titled ¡°The Devil¡¯s Trill¡± is one I particularly like. As a former intermediate violinist, I understand the discipline and patience required to acquire the technical skills, and the artistry to make it sound effortlessly beautiful. Her music attracts all sorts of listeners; this is a characteristic that is unique to Mae, as most classical music is exclusive and foreign to many people. She mixes it up and modernizes the classics ? there is an element of fusion in her notes. Hop on over to your local music store and sample a song or two. You will find that there are more unique things about her than the shared birthday with Paganini. Now I must go. I have to get started on Othello. Out of all the assigned readings from my Shakespearean English class, this is the only play I haven¡¯t read already. It seems so odd to me that all my past English teachers assigned all the same plays to teach. Perhaps they only teach you a few plays to go with in graduate school or something! Shakespeare was not only a good writer, he was a fast writer. He wrote many many many plays during his not-too-long life. Certainly there is a more interesting and less clich?d play to teach than Romeo and Juliet? As beautiful as that play is, Shakespeare wrote so much more than just Hamlet, R&J, Taming of the Shrew, and Henry V. There is also a trend ? I don¡¯t know if this is just anecdotal evidence, but instructors acknowledge that students have a fear of reading Shakespeare because of the language barrier, and in their efforts to break down the formidable wall, they often eliminate the historical plays (or make minimal effort at them). I personally like the historical plays more. But alas, sometimes one just needs a good teacher to help point to the highs and lows of a Shakespearean play. It is often very difficult to hash it out on my own. Well, I suppose I can always rent a movie version. (Gag) Enough procrastination for now. I¡¯ve also got a set of DVDs that should be coming in today, including the third Harry Potter film. I¡¯ve already seen it in theatres, but I just love those kids¡¦ especially Hermione. Well, gotta go~ Ta, ta!