Today I got a letter from this company/whatever that I took a CLEP test through back when I was trying to regain some of my lost credit when I transferred colleges.

We are contacting you regarding your score on the College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) English Composition with Essay examination that you took on the date below.

We are responsible for scoring CLEP exams and recently discovered that we mis-scored your exam. Therefore, we have rescored your exam as follows:

Test Date: FEB-07
Original Score: 67
Corrected Score: 66

If you have been affected by the change to you score, please contact...


.....wait. What now?

OK, one, I took this in 2007. It took you nearly 3 years to figure out you scored it wrong? Two, I've been out of college for a year now. While one point lower doesn't affect me any (that I know of...), if it had affected me that I suddenly didn't have credit for this class (repeating that I've been out of school a YEAR), would you seriously have expected someone like me to go back and take a basic english class in order to "really graduate" because you screwed up on grading it??

Someone's parent must have complained. You can bet mine would have been all over this place if they'd screwed me over instead. Idiots... lol...


ANYWAY, yea. Tonight was the annual Christmas party for my dad's company, and I tagged along as I am wont to do. It was good as always. All these folks I should remember coming up and saying "I remember you when you were this tall" and asking how school is going and if I have a full-time job yet. But they can do that since most I haven't seen since the last Christmas Party I went to (which was probably 2 years ago now). Ah well. Food was the usual slab of beef (eh, fine, if that's all you have) with potatoes (new potatoes this year, not baked... still good but aww...), really good cheesey creamy corn, salad, and peach cobbler for dessert. Good food anyways. And this year, dad got a plaque for being a 20-year employee!! Way to go dad!! I didn't know he'd been there that long!

I didn't walk away empty-handed either. Each family got a raffle ticket and dad told me to touch the ticket for luck. I did, and so "I" won a Cracker Barrel gift card! YAY! CHICKEN-N-DUMPLINGS FOR THE WIN!! *pumps fist*

*ahem*. So congratulatory dadz, potatoes, cheesey corn, and potential chicken-n-dumplings. I'd say that's a good night, despite random miscalculation letter.

It's somebody's birthday today... and I don't think it's yours...

Um, but if it is, Happy Birthday to you too!

Ace is 24 today... that number seems too large. I don't act like I'm that old anyway I always say, I may get older, but I refuse to grow up!!

Yesterday my dad had a King Cake sent to me from Haydel's bakery in New Orleans. I don't usually eat King Cake but if he took the time out to have a King Cake shipped to where I work, heck yeah I ate some. And it was good. I shared with my boss and he got the baby. In Louisiana that would mean he has to buy the next King Cake, but I think he's exempt being here in Texas where King Cakes are very few and far between...

And tonight I get to pick where I want to go eat and my mom's half of the family and I will have dinner. I picked Carino's because I love Italian food... it's a shame they quit selling their cannolis though... there's not many things better than a cannoli.

I do come bearing a gift for everyone, a beautiful video of Eric Woolfson and Steve Balsamo performing Eye in the Sky. Steve sings and Eric plays piano. I listened to this twice. The first time I watched Steve and Eric. The second time I closed my eyes and imagined Mioko singing and playing it, since I imagine Mioko to have Steve's voice and Eric's incredible piano-playing skills. In many ways this is Mioko's tribute to Eric just as much as it is Eric and Steve performing beautifully together.

Anyway... have fun out there.

...it's a very sad day for fans of the Alan Parsons Project.

Eric Woolfson, the co-founder of the Project, the man who wrote so much of the music, who sang nearly all of the hits, like "Eye in the Sky" and "Don't Answer Me", the man who then wrote four very popular musicals (in other countries aside from the US), who recently got to see his POE musical premiere in Germany after its start in Abbey Road Studios in 2003, who's been on Facebook to connect with his fans, whom I and the other uber-fans got to visit with over my course of the Fan Fests I've attended, although I wasn't one of the lucky ones to have met him in person, and who even emailed me, commending my art...

Eric Woolfson has passed on this morning. Unbeknownst to his fans (even us uber-fans), he was struggling with cancer and finally lost. He was only 64 years old.

I have been in complete shock most of the day.


Now, throw in that today, December 2, is when I've declared it to be Ace Gallagher's birthday. Today, or close enough to today, six years ago I was listening to the Alan Parsons Project's "The Turn of a Friendly Card" and suddenly Ace appeared to me. A little different from how he now appears, but he was "born" from that song (and a lot of random fascinations of the 'art' of gambling). Eric Woolfson co-wrote the song with Alan Parsons. So in a way, it is because of Eric that Ace even exists.


Eric, along with Alan, has always been one of my musical idols. He was always such a kind man, like a favorite uncle you don't get to see too often. He always was gracious to his fans, talking with us at Fan Fest or trying so hard to get the hang of Facebook when he joined earlier this year. And like I mentioned before, he actually emailed me directly a few years ago commending my art (my friend who always helps make the annual Fan Fest tile coasters mailed him one the first year we made them). He was so personable for being such a HUGE musical genius. So now that he's gone... the world has truly lost a bright spark. He was working on til the end, too. Just last week his Facebook updates were talking of him working on his next album, "The Project That Never Was Part 2". I'm hoping it still will be.

And that's what's shocked me the most. It was SO COMPLETELY unexpected. I had absolutely no warning here. And then to pop on Facebook to read on his official page that he had died... and then the emails from my APP mailing list POURED in... Even Steve Balsamo, who sang as Poe in Eric's original cast, posted a line from the final song on his Facebook page... "now all the trials and tribulations of the world don't mean a thing...". John Montagna, the bassist for the Alan Parsons Live Project, also played a tribute to Eric, Limelight.


And now this series of illustrations for his POE musical will be so bittersweet... but I have all the more reason to keep working and finish the series. I will finish illustrating Eric Woolfson's musical in his honor. What better way to celebrate a man who has inspired me in SO many ways...

Art directly related to Eric Woolfson:
The Eagle Will Rise Again
Let Me Rule Your Heart
Angel of the Odd
Wings of Eagles
Sirius
Light of the World
To One in Paradise
Winding Me Up
I Can See Round Corners
Love in the Third Degree
Friendly Card
Game Never Ends

The Raven video, featuring the APP song from "Tales of Mystery and Imagination"
Cask of Amontillado animated video, featuring the APP song also from "Tales"
Eye Pieces video montage,
featuring orchestrations from the Alan Parsons Project album "Eye in the Sky"
Pit and the Pendulum video montage, featuring a song from Eric's Poe musical
Let Me Rule Your Heart animated music video, featuring a narration by Eric Woolfson at the beginning.

And of course the Poe illustrations in progress:
Poe Cast
1 - Wings of Eagles
2 - Murders in the Rue Morgue

And that's just the art I have on DeviantArt. I've done much more APP-related art that I have stored in my archives... And then if you throw in that Ace himself is directly related to Eric Woolfson...... Needless to say, Eric Woolfson was an inspiration to me. He was an inspiration and a friend to so many. He will be greatly, GREATLY missed. My prayers are with his family and all fans around the world trying so hard to cope with this great loss.

...
Free as a bird upon the wind
Now all the trials and tribulations of the world don't mean a thing
Above the clouds I'll fly away
Was it my imagination, did the stars come out to play?

Beyond the sun, eternal flame
I hear a chorus of a million voices calling out my name
But all I see and all I seem
Is but a shadow of a shadow of a dream within a dream

Free as the wind, lighter than air
Free from the jealous minds, the scornful bitter words won't hurt me there
And I will live forever more

If you remember me...
I am immortal!

~Immortal, Eric Woolfson's "POE"

As if my Poe high wasn't high enough, turns out Steve Balsamo performed "Immortal" from Edgar Allan Poe on the BBC Radio 2 programme "Friday Night is Music Night". He and other taleted vocalists perform many songs from Broadway to musicals to songs in general, including my favorite song from Pippin -- "Corner of the Sky", sung by Ben James Ellis (who played Link in "Hairspray"). AND.... Steve sings a song from his first defining role from Jesus Christ Superstar... "Gethsemane"! You have not heard this song truly performed until you hear Steve sing this song. If you could see him, too, it would be even better. The man breaks down and cries--truly putting his heart, soul, and voice into every role he performs, from Poe to Jesus and everything in between.

I heard about it, but night time in London is 1:00pm in Texas, meaning I was working when it was playing... thankfully, the show is still available on the BBC website for the remainder of the week.

BUT... me, being the sneaky person I am, got a program that records whatever's playing through your sound card at the time, and so I snagged the highlights of the 2-hour-long show.

This includes three songs sung by Steve Balsamo:
Immortal from Eric Woolfson's POE musical
I Don't Know Why (which I can't remember what it's from or who originally wrote it, but it's on his solo album "All I Am"
Gethsemane from Jesus Christ Superstar

Others I snagged that I liked:
Corner of the Sky performed by Ben James Ellis, from Pippin
Aquarius performed by Patina Miller

Nice program, and if you'd like it listen to it in its entirety, you can go here. It should be up the remainder of the week. My clips will be up until I take them down. Bwa ha.

*listens to Steve again.... ahh...*

I saw Abilene Ballet Theatre's annual production of "The Nutcracker" last night. I always say it can't be Christmas until I see "The Nutcracker", so last Christmas didn't feel right since I wasn't able to go. Thankfully yesterday I went with my mom and our neighbor, and it was beautifully nostalgic as always.

Long ago I was in this production of "The Nutcracker", working my way up the hierarchy of parts with my hopes set on Clara or the Peacock. I was a Baby Angel my first year in it, a Gray Mouse my second year, and my third I'd finally moved up to be one of Clara's friends to dance in the party scene--and very quickly changing into a Toy Soldier to fight the Gray Mice and the Mouse King with the Nutcracker. I remember that, because me and a few of the party girls had about 5 minutes to change, so we'd usually do so in the wings with all the moms huddled around us so the little party boys wouldn't try to glance up our petticoats.

And then I was uprooted to Louisiana, where I continued to take dancing, but the company there didn't perform "The Nutcracker", only a generic Christmas play that had some similarities but not much else in common. I think I was a blue bird and a party girl and a pink fairy or something in my various years. It wasn't near as memorable as you can see. My last couple years dancing I started taking pointe, but I didn't have the best teacher. After my first year she finally noticed I wasn't getting all the way up on my toes, so instead of working with me, she told me to go back to flat shoes again since apparently my legs weren't strong enough. So I was the only girl in slippers in my class... I got my toe shoes back the third year, and finally got the hang of it for I believe 2 more years. And after about 10 years of dance lessons, I stopped dancing when I got to high school. I was getting much too busy with school to keep up the practice schedule.

Now throw in a hurricane to uproot me and throw me back into my hometown of Abilene, and of course I was going to go every year to see my beloved "Nutcracker". And every year I would wish I was still dancing so I could be in it again. The feeling would usually pass, since I had night classes and homework and trying to balance work with school and all that fun time-consuming junk.

...But NOW...

Seeing that I graduated from college nearly a year ago, have no apparent plans of relocating myself in the near future, and no more excuses, and watching "The Nutcracker" and remembering all the fun times I had... I honestly think I'm going to start taking dancing again. It's only been ...8 years...

Anyone else think I'm crazy? ^^'

But the new year is fast approaching; I keep saying I want to start being more active (and never feel like jogging or walking or doing anything else), and what better way to do it than to have scheduled times where I HAVE to go, and do something I used to enjoy so very much. I know I'm not going to be the best dancer in the world, but dancing is fun! You can tell from Athena's character how much I admire dancing. I may just be on "Nutcracker hype" but really do think I'm going to get some info about the possibility of taking lessons again. Even if it's right after work, the ABT building is a whole block away from where I work. Again, I have no more excuses, and I believe I'm serious this time about starting back

ANYWAY...... so yeah. We'll see what happens...