TheRoomUpstairs's blog

So, I don't know if any of you out there are in Orchestra, or if you have ever had to try out for All-Region Orchestra. I live in Texas, and the way they divided Texas up to get the regions this year was strange. I live in a fair sized town, and we usually have about 50-60 violins trying out. This year however, we had 106, and that is a huge difference.
I went to the school in which the auditions were being held at noon. Every year, the order of the audition is completely randomized. So, this year my audition number was...can you guess...106. I had to wait for 5 hours until it was my turn to audition. I think that is kind of poorly planned on the audition-people's part. Plus, the violas, cellos, and basses were all in the same room. They did one instrument at a time. Basses first, then cellos, and finally violas. That was also poorly planned.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great and all, but...why is it the only cancer that gets it's own 'month'?  I do realize that the Susan G. Komen foundation has established that, but whenever I hear about 'National Breast Cancer Awareness month', I get that little nagging feeling in the back of my head, and think there should be something else. What about all of those other people that have leukemia and other diseases? Perhaps it's just me being weird, but I think that it's odd that breast cancer is the only one that has it's own 'month'.

I'm sure that everyone has heard of Stonehenge at one time or another in their life.
I mean, who hasn't? But, how was it built, and why? I've always wondered how people were
able to move 25 tons of stone without any modern technology. I saw this video, and it really
 puts forth an explanation as to how they did it.

Is anyone else overwhelmed by everything that has to be done to prepare for college? I know I am. There's the applications, essays, recommendation letters, ACTs (and SATs), college visits, classes to pick, and financial difficulties.
I think it's especially tough because of all of my AP classes that I am taking. I've always heard rumors about senior year being your blow-off year...but it's not seeming like that to me!

The Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling has been sentenced to twenty-four years and four months in prison. The whole "Enron Scandal" brought down the seventh largest company in the nation. Thousands of people lost their jobs because of what he did, and billions of dollars in company stock and employee pension plans. Only $45 billion will be used to help these thousand of people that suffered...but it isn't as much as they lost. I've heard that because of Jeffrey Skilling, the government has taken power from CEO's and given it to boards and such. I think that it was great. The sentence seems right to me because of all of the problems and strife that he has caused. Twenty-four years and four months isn't the longest sentence, but I think it will give him ample time to reflect upon what he has done and all of the damage he has caused.