Have you ever been alone in a crowded room when I'm here with you?

Have you ever been alone in a crowded room; well I'm here with you...

Pancakes tomorrow night.

I think my body is beginning to operate on less sleep than it used to. I have also concluded after long debate with mon roommate that I may or may not have a natural aptitude for noting chemistry between two people while my own situation lies in shambles and is hopelessly irreparable. Not only that, but did you know that in 1980, a Texas funeral home was accidentally listed under the "frozen foods" section of the yellow pages? It's true.

Anyone heard the song Sugar We're Going Down by Fall Out Boy? What in the hell does he mean by a "loaded God complex, cock it and pull it"? What does he mean in general when he utters the random syllabic text during the entire song for that matter?

I am way too tired right now to be thinking straight.

"Nice guys finish last until girls smarten up"
-- Jessica McAdam

Ah the good Jess. What good company she is... not unlike the fabulous company I was with yesterday evening. Going to Jack Astors followed by Dave Chapelle and guitar playing was a good way to end off a week that was spent almost entirely at the desk doing work. Seeing Steph before that was good too. And so ends my first reading week of university. My mother burst into my room the other day and asked why I was spending all my time working and informed me that her friend had said that reading week wasn't really spent reading. When I asked why on earth not, my mother said that her friend's son didn't spent HIS reading week doing work and my response to that was, "I guess that's why he's not at Queen's."

Honestly though, it's getting to that time of the year when the workload starts to get ridiculous.

Kicking it back in the early hours of the morning reading a Poirot novel while drinking Iron-Bru and listening to Konstantine...

If only I'd not had to yank myself back to reality and start doing work.

Ok, I've discovered something new that bothers me: the fact that every denim/khaki/corduroy manufacturing company will have their own opinions on what a "32-inch" waist means, whether it means it's what it is when you buy it, or what it should shrink to, or what they tried to make but failed, etc. Same goes with length. I mean, you can try them on in fitting rooms but every company has their different opinions too on how much their pants should shrink. How is a man supposed to keep his clothing shopping simple if he has to consider all these factors?!

"Andrew Kott always points at whatever he's laughing at"
-- Grant Winestock

That's the greatest bit of truth about our friend Andrew Kott I have ever heard. If you think about it, as long as you're ok with and accept the fact that Andrew will always point at whatever he's screaming/laughing at, he's easy to befriend and is excellent company. Those who can't stand him usually have a problem with him being loud and embarassing in public... and that display of loudness/embarassment is epitomized by the fact that he will point... at anything and everything.

I am going to stay in my PJs for the entire day. This will be something never before attempted in my life. God help me.

"I know I look a little older but that's because I drink and smoke heavily and work with chemicals and sleep on my face."
-- The Janitor

"Why is it that these guitar tabs don't sound right?"
"Maybe because you are playing them upside down!"
-- Kevin Fernandez

Bwahahaha, anyone who plays the guitar come now and join me in my laughter! No? No takers? Ok, *I* found that quote to be entertaining in the extreme. Anyone who's played the guitar and/or looked up tabs knows that the first thing you want to do is make sure you're reading the fretboard the right way because both the top and bottom strings are tuned to E.

Home for reading week and thus far, it's been fairly entertaining although I do hope to get some work done at some point. Devised schemes for next next weekend's showdown at Queen's and booked face with team Gunit (also known as Grant, also known as Penishead).

"We never have ham for Thanksgiving. There's only like 5 of us!"
"Well then you better find a husband soon and start poppin' out those kids!"
-- Conversation at the breakfast table with Rachel Mason after last night's debauchery (details below)

Music 191 assignment question:
The third verse (bars 15-18) is the most distinctive musical setting given the number of accidentals in both the piano part and the vocal line. Why does Brahms feel the text is best reflected by these changes?

The beginning of my answer:
I honestly haven't got a clue as to what Brahms was thinking when he set the music to the text but if I had to fathom a guess...

What am I? Psychic? How on earth would I know what Brahms was feeling when he wrote the music? I don't know why I felt like being smutty with this answer (probably because Dr. Burge, unlike some profs, has a sense of humor) but honestly now. Ask me to what chord is labelled and what it resolves to and I can answer that. Ask me what my opinion is on why Brahms might have thought a change in music best reflects the text. But the way the question is phrased seems to assume that there's a right answer to this question. And maybe there is, but how am I supposed to find out? It's not like I can ring up Brahms and ask "Yo, B-man, you changed the music from bars 15-18. You feelin' something or what?"

Ignore me. Like I said, I was feeling smutty. In other news... events from last night. If anyone is interested in knowing what I'm like when I'm tired and my brain starts to shut down, but is then forced back into action, here's an excerpt of the conversation I had last night with Rachel Manson when she called me as I was dozing off (this was at around 12:45 AM):

Me: Hello?
Her: Hey Jon!
Me: Who is this?
Her: It's Rachel
Me: Rachel who? (keep in mind that she's the ONLY girl I know named Rachel)
Her: Rachel Manson
Me: ... (10 seconds of me frowning, muttering, and making funny noises while my mind earnestly attempts to recall who the hell Rachel Manson was and why the name was familiar)
Her: Rachel Manson from the Doorbell Room
Me: Rachel Manson from the Doorb-- Ah!
Her: Oh good, you remember me

Turns out she was missing the second page of her Linguistics assignment and wanted to know if anyone else on my floor took the course as well. I had no idea what courses people on my floor took so she came up and we gallivanted about my floor knocking on people's doors asking if they took Linguistics. At this point, my mind must have still been fuzzy because I recall looking for the doorknob on the wrong side of the door mumbling "where in the hell is their doorknob?" before Rachel (who by this time was bursting a gut laughing) felt inclined to remind me that not all doorknobs are located on same side of the door. And indeed, that was true. I found the godforsaken doorknob a few seconds later after shifting my eyes to the left.

ANYHOW! That's an account of me when my brain is completely and utterly not in control of itself. Have a good day everyone. Take care of yourselves and each other.

You know what makes me happy? A 2 for 1 sale on 100% cotton T-shirts.

And Grant, you would be proud. My parents are buying Danish cookies.

"Life is hard!"
"Compared to what?!"
-- Recent conversation I had

Life is simple. People just overcomplicate things. If you keep in mind that life is, and always be, simple, it becomes so much easier to live a good fulfilling life.

Jon Wong has just been massacred by his first Music 203 test. What is this?! First Music 103 and now Music 203? I'm just not cut out for ethnomusicology/music history. I am SO gearing my future studies towards music theory and analysis. It has practical use as a teacher anyways. Yeah that's right, I'm going to pull a Mr. Friedman and only do minimal music history each year. Not that you can take music in univerisity purely on the strength of grade 12 music alone, which bothers me somehow.

Think about it. Music is practically the only stream in university that no high school ever actually prepares you for. What I'm saying is that you can take phys ed, or math, or science, or humanities all through high school without doing anything else extracurricularly and be able to make a transition into university. You definintely can NOT merely take music courses through high school and make a transition into university. You have to have had some sort of music background (ie studied music theory, played an instrument seriously) outside of the high school curriculum in order to study music in uni. Just my spiel.

Going home and getting a haircut this weekend. This way I can hold up my end of the bet.

Urgh, missed my chance. Note to self and tip to others: it's NEVER a wrong time to thank someone for something they did. I held out thinking "this probably isn't a good time" and now that I think about it, it was probably the perfect time. Whether they're happy, sad, upset, tipsy, ecstatic, frustrated, doesn't matter. If there's a reason to thank them for something they did, do it.

"Just pick a quote so we can start bookin' some face!!!!!!!!!!1one"
-- Grant Winestock

That's the quote in the quote section of my facebook account that Courtney Plankton insisted on making me yesterday. Ok, so her last name isn't really Plankton... it just sounds like Plankton. For those of you who don't already know, facebook is the new phenomenom that is sweeping through Queen's and other universities and it is a life-sucking, virus-spreading online profile that serves even less of a purpose than a blog. It's not an online journal... just a profile. Apparently, it's a way of meeting people. But apparently, it also sucks the life out of you. There is a reason why I didn't want to get one, despite it having been created many many months ago.

1 + 999 999 999 999 999 999 999 999 999 999 999 = 1 decillion.

It's true.

"Today's the day the music died"
-- Rachel Manson

Well, that quote being said yesterday, it was indeed true. February 3rd, if you know about plane crash and Don Maclean's song, is the day the music died.

Alright, so Grant got here yesterday and we spent the majority of the time in the doorbell room skit practicing, hanging out, and later in the evening, drinking. Grant, claiming to be a master bartender/drink mixer, mixed me something... two shots of alcohol with whatever he mixed it with... and it was one of the most disgusting mixtures I've ever tried in my life... less disgusting only in comparison to what he had me drink LAST time I was with him. So after holding my breath and chugging the stuff down, Grant gave up mixing me drinks and turned the task over to a much more capable Rachel Manson. She mixed me something with 1.5 shots, which I drank with relish... and instantly demanded another. Grant says he's transfering to Queens solely to open a bar. I'm shaking my head in disbelief.

5 shots on a nearly empty stomach in what Grant claims to be the timespan of roughly an hour, though I estimate it to be a bit longer. That's about how much I can safely take while still maintaining full possession of my faculties although it was probably a stupid idea not to sit down and instead, walk around, climbing up and down stairs, and other such idiotic things. But I'm ok. It was a special occasion having a friend up at Queen's.