Confessions of an Organizophobe

I don't care who you are. If you haven't seen this video yet, you must. Now.

What did I say on Facebook last night? "I give up. I'll probably find out some kind of quirky HTML thing that makes the job so much easier I'll probably kill myself."

So what exactly happened? I built my website, see. And it looked awful. Because of the color management, the only browser it looks decent in is Safari, which hardly anyone uses (lack of neat plugins, although it's the fastest browser out there). The footer was also maligned.

This morning I figured, "What the hey, I'll look online and see if there's a way to put one thing behind another."

And there...there is. With the CSS styles position:fixed and position:absolute, I can put the main page on top of my page background. Then I can put text on top of the gray thing.

GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

The upside is that once I gather up the patience to use the Multi Uploader on freewebs again, I can host it and show everyone in the world! (or I'll use 110mb if I can find my account again. It doesn't stick that ugly blue bar on.)

I like Dreamweaver a lot more now...

...since I rarely get anything perfect.

Take the blog, for instance. I probably spent five hours making my dad's blog flawless, and I'm still not entirely satisfied. I spent nearly that on this blog (it's a simple interface, so I got close enough and let it be) and something like it on my sister's blog. And don't even get me started on my website. Ugh. That one went through eight stages before I even got it into Dreamweaver, and another whole day's worth of work before I even put it online, and now it doesn't even work with any browser except Safari. I'll work on it until I "perfect" it, of course, but I'll spend forty-eight hours on the computer and end up changing a single div tag and fixing the whole thing. (By the way, none of the links work yet. *wink*)

Making signatures in Photoshop is easier, since I know my skills are limited and I can let it be at a certain point—also, periodically, I become totally satisfied with something I make. It's much easier that way, since sig-making is such a huge field.

Piano is another easy thing. I watch my friend Hunter (Carnegie Hall, dude) play some of his pieces and realize that although I phail, I'm not totally hopeless, and I can always get better. The one limitation to perfecting piano is possibly my sister, who develops a severe twitch and has an urge to crush things between her hands once I start playing.

And then there's writing, which I absolutely love and I'm writing a story I absolutely love and it's all fun and nice and happy yay!

On a side note, I'm finally letting go of the girl, and we're back to being just friends and I never realized how good that would feel.

The one wherein ellipses are overused...

Where a light coat of snow coats the ground each day and gets churned into a brownish pulp by crazy drivers...

Where one of those drives is drunk, and obliterates our mailbox before sliding into the yard across from us and wrecking his suspension...

Where another of those drivers is my mom and dad last night, lost because the front window of the car was broken and the GPS was stolen...

Where Frosty the Snowman gives my sister an unpleasant tic the eight thousandth time I play it...

Where I don't really want anything for Christmas except for stuff I'm never likely to get, as well as a couple small things I will...

Where Christmas Break finally starts...

Where the trip to Iowa is so close, but so far away...

Dot dot dot...

For those of you who read my blog and don't know I'm a pianist, this may come as a shock to you—of course, if you do know I'm a pianist by heart, it'll still come as a shock.

Then again, it might not; just read on and hopefully I'll actually get to the subject of this post, which is Rachmaninoff.

Sergei was a tricky little devil. According to Wikipedia, he had a "thoroughly personal idiom" that included elements such as "a pronounced lyricism, expressive breadth, structural ingenuity and a tonal palette of rich, distinctive orchestral colors" (read: really, really hard music.) He was born in Russia but toured the US extensively while writing his fiends-upon-paper; when he was still a student, curse/praise his name, he wrote a number of compositions which earned him gold medals in competition. One of them was the famous Prelude in C-Sharp Minor (WHY? WHY? WHY? C# is the evilest key in the world! Every single note is a sharp! And he makes it MINOR? And it's in FOUR STAVES! AUGHHHHHHH), which endured to annoy him in public when people asked him to perform it.

Okay, maybe he wasn't little—in fact, he was exceptionally tall and had gigantic hands (believe me, that helps when you're a pianist.)

The all-knowing Wikipedia doesn't tell us when he wrote his Moments Musicaux, nor what possessed him to do so and torture players of the piano 'round the world, but he did, and he wrote a carpload of them. One of them is Op. 16 No. 4, which is...just...ridiculous.

To put it all in perspective, most of the Moment Musicale is in Presto or Prestissimo (read: really fast or really, REALLY fast) and it goes up to quadruple-f fortissimo (read: ULTRA LOUD) and triple-p pianissimo (read: beyond quiet.) Since the MM is set up in sextuplets (if that's the right term) six notes must be played in one beat. Try counting at 104 beats per minute then playing six notes during that time. *groan* And it just goes on and on and on. Eventually you get to start playing chords at the 624-notes-per-minute speed. What fun.

At least it's in E minor, which is the second easiest key to play in. O_o

If you want to actually see the music being played, try checking out this video that an acquaintance of mine, a musical genius, posted on his blog. (The first one. The second is much slower and I wouldn't want you to get the wrong idea, :D)