The Blog is Back!

Happy New Year’s Eve, dear readers!

So I’m sure y’all never expected to see a blog update from me again, especially after a ridiculous many-month hiatus. But I’m here to say that I’m back, and I’m back for good this time. You may not believe me, but I’ve got reasons (not fabulous reasons, but reasons enough) for my absence from the blog universe, but this next year is going to be different. I’ve got a lot of posts already planned and mentally outlined, and I’m ready to go, if you’ll still have me. 2013 is going to be a better year in hopefully every way possible.

But let me start with an apology. Dearest readers, I never meant to go this long without an update. The next post was constantly in the back of my mind, but despite that, I could never quite get it to go to the tips of my fingers. Because if I was to write a normal blog post, like the next Book Review or some such trivial thing, I would feel dishonest, and y’all would probably feel gypped without a proper explanation of my absence. I hate offering excuses, which is what all these are, but sometimes simple but meaningless excuses are all that you have. And so I am sorry about that, and about my absence from you dear readers as well.

The Truth Behind the Concert Hall

Dear readers, I cannot believe it’s been so long since my last update! Time passes so quickly here, and I have been working on this post diligently, because it addresses an issue close to my heart.

Right before I left for a trip to Prague (the Czech Republic was just as amazing as I remember from last summer) I read an interesting article on the Huffington Post. I advise you to read it, as this post is a direct response to that one. The link is here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-dare/classical-music-concerts_b_1525896.html

Read it? Good. Now let’s begin.

My Favorite Books: Part 2. The Harry Potter Series

Greetings from Roma! This is my fifth full day in Rome, Italy, and I’m finally updating this blog, and more specifically, my long and laborious 7 part post on my absolute favorite books! In case you’re dying to know why I haven’t posted about Italy on this blog yet, since I have been here a full five days, I shall kindly direct your attention to my Fraternal-Twin-Blog (it’s not really a sister site, since I am the sole contributer to both of them…) at 

www.juliaromesitalia.blogspot.com

I know, I know. I misled you in the previous post. Well, if you’re my friend on Facebook, you’re aware that I mislead people about blog posts all the time. I keep promising specific updates and then I ignore my self-imposed deadlines and update at other, sporadic moments. For this, I apologize. In a perfect world, I would follow through on my promised updates in a timely fashion, but apparently I cannot blog in a perfect world and the world keeps getting in the way. I am sorry about this, though, since I don’t like breaking promises.

Going to Italia

I can’t sleep.

There are several factors contributing to my temporary insomnia; one is that I feel terrible about not updating in so long, particularly after I promised you all multiple updates! I could cite multiple factors leading to this failure, such as Hell Week after Hell Week of papers being due, nightly symphonic rehearsals, getting ready for juries (oh God, the angst in getting ready for juries), and preparation for finals…or I could just apologize and move on.

And move on we shall, for the next several weeks for me and for you, dear readers, are going to be a whirlwind of excitement. At 5:45 in the morning, I am going to wake, shower, clothe myself, and drive to the airport. Once there, after going through security and waiting through terrible lines in the ever-busy airport (note the intended sarcasm) of the delightful town At-Least-It-Ain’t-Alternating-Between-105-Degree-Weather-and-”Small”-Tornado-Storms-Within-Just-Three-Days-Like-Two-Weeks-Ago, I will be boarding a flight and heading off into the great blue-ish sky toward the place I’ve been longing to go to for the last five years—Italia!!!

That’s right, I’m flying to Italy. Tomorrow. Maybe (just maybe) that’s the reason I can’t sleep…

Quick Update

Hey guys! Thanks so much for being so supportive and amazing with the blog so far! Any time I see someone has commented, or someone mentions it in conversation, my mood is instantly brightened (and that's something I've needed this last fortnight.)

I finished all my research papers and presentations, and now, about 20,000 words and a great deal of sleep deprivation later, I'm all caught up until Juries next Thursday, and all my finals (starting from tomorrow til next Saturday.)

Unfortunately, I'm a little swamped right now with getting ready for all of that, in addition to Professional Symphony Orchestra rehearsals that take up my entire evenings all this week, and so I'm not quite finished with my next post.

However, I promise to have it uploaded sometime on Saturday! And, in addition, I will have an additional post up sometime that next week, so you don't have to wait an entire fortnight until the next post!!!

Sorry about the delay! I haven't forgotten about everyone reading this blog! Your patience shall be rewarded soon!

Until then,

Julia

My Favorite Books: Part 1. The Honorable Mention Favorites

I’m not sure exactly what I expected when I decided to write a blog, but it certainly wasn’t this. I’m pretty sure I thought that no one would actually read my blog (besides the Senator, because I asked him to proof-read the first post…) but you, dear readers, have defied my expectations! The total page views have climbed over 100, and I can’t thank you enough! In fact, I'm kind of freaking out about it in the best possible way!!!  Hopefully you liked what you read enough to stay tuned as I continue to update.

Speaking of updates, this is one, in case you weren’t aware. I started working on this post this weekend and was expecting to have it up by the end of Sunday. But then, as always, life got in the way. I realized that between the 23rd and the 27th, which is next week, I have to turn in two research papers, a memorized presentation in Italian complete with an impressive Powerpoint, a movie report, two tests, and a final Theory project. I came to the sad realization that I needed to finish my research papers slightly more than I needed to write a blog post in between my rehearsals and concerts. However, do not despair, dear readers! I wasn’t about to miss my fortnight deadline 2 posts in!

So I’m currently typing this in between classes because I accidentally left my Music History research notes at home and there aren’t any practice rooms open, which is the norm during lunch hours. I’m typing frantically and I keep misspelling words like “people” but I AM getting this blog post written in my non-spare time! The next few blog posts may be typed in a similar harried fashion, but I hope they are of enough quality, or at least entertainment, to keep you interested in what I have to say!

A Not-So-Brief Introduction

I’m not sure how to write a blog.

I get the basic idea of it, of course, but unlike short stories, or sonnets, or Music History Research Papers (which seem so important to my degree that they deserve to be capitalized), blogs are frustratingly free of specifications. Obviously there are millions (trillions probably) of blogs on the Interscape, but relatively few are highly read or even noted, and of those, there are few consistent formats that truly explain how to write a blog post. Specifically, I don’t know how to write a first blog post.