Monday, June 2, 2008

Wir Betreten Feuertrunken

So I'm playing WoW again. I have a level 20 Blood elf female paladin. It took me a few days (like 4-5). I must admit, there are parts of the game I still remember liking, and other parts that I really really don't care for (I do NOT look forward to walking into contested territory where a high-level person of the opposite faction can one-shot me). This time around, the whole purpose for me is to get to a high enough level (just a few more) so that I can do group dungeon quests with some of my friends who started about 2 weeks before me. I miss my druid - that was my one true class character in this game. Oh well, the paladin's okay . . .

Anyway, the true purpose of this post. I went to see an orchestra concert today with JW-M and SR-F. It was good, they played Beethoven's 9th Symphony. It's so famous and amazing! For many years it defined the symphony, it was the pinnacle of symphonic music - and Beethoven had already been deaf for 6 years before he composed his 9th (and last) symphony!! Can someone be that amazing?!

Beethoven's 9th Symphony is pretty recognizable and well-known even if one never listens to classical music. The most identifiable part is the 4th movement, where the words of the title fits in; they translate from German to "We approach fire-drunk." It's a couple lines into the "Ode to Joy." It's such an epic line. While the chorus and the soloists were singing I kept remembering back to freshman year when my roommate, JW-M, used to sing the first few lines to me in the middle of the night. It was silly, but the words are still so epic. Look them up! Anyway, I had never heard the full original version of Beethoven's 9th Symphony until he played it for me freshman year. And at first I found the singing weird, but it grows on you because it's kind of funny-sounding.

Sitting in front of me in Orchestra Hall was a little kid. I kind of felt bad for him, as the whole symphony's over an hour long. A kid his age does NOT have the attention span to stay awake. I barely had the attention span to stay fully awake the whole piece, and I know and love that symphony!! As I saw him curl into sleep in his chair, I suddenly remembered something random. When my brothers and I were little, we used to have "stick figure wars." Each of us would choose a color and connect 3 sheets of paper lengthwise. Each person took a sheet of paper as their original territory and base. There were (loose) rules to the game. But basically, your stick figures, with their powers and technologies, had to overpower the other two and take over all 3 sheets of paper. There were limits to each person's armies - i.e. no one can have a laser that pierces everything nor can anyone have an energy shield that blocks everything. The "wars" always got ridiculous and someone would get pissed and would have to convince the other 2 of us that he won (which the winner never did).

That was about it. Sum of my day. Also had Chinese take-out food-of-sorts. It was okay.

1 comment:

Mike said...

Seriously I think Conan is better than WOW.

Don't get toooooooo addicted playing WOW, though!