Bonjour!

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Hey old friends! Long time no post...except that one creepy lurk on Val's collection updates. :laugh: I wanted to stop and say hi to everyone and let you all know what I've been up to lately. It's been a very hectic year for me, as you could probably have guessed by my long absence. Highlights of 2017 include several professional conferences, the end of a four year relationship, the end of my fourth ( and busiest, but not quite final) year of undergrad at Michigan State University, the end of my professional affiliation with several campus organizations, a six week study abroad program (five weeks, really, but I stayed an extra to travel Italy...more on this later) to Western Europe, and, currently, moving houses in East Lansing. It has been tumultuous, despite the fact that my graduation won't take place until this coming school year. At any rate, I've been incredibly busy, incredibly tired, and thankfully, incredibly happy. Rest assured I have not forgotten about my little corners of the internet, or this peculiar hobby of ours (I just caught up with Weta's releases at SDCC 17 this morning via email and Facebook; wow!). I have not added anything to my collection in some time, at least not since the purchase of my Theoden helm from Thranduil. It has probably been almost a year since I made any purchases on this end, but I continue to be interested in what's going on, what our companies our doing, and what kind of interesting props people have been making on their own. Please fill me in on any big news I may have missed lately, and keep your eye out for some pictures from my Euro trip!

Best,

Joey (Fin)
"Remember, the force will be with you, always."

Re: Bonjour!

2
Fingolfin wrote: Fri Aug 11, 2017 10:49 am Hey old friends! Long time no post...except that one creepy lurk on Val's collection updates. :laugh: I wanted to stop and say hi to everyone and let you all know what I've been up to lately. It's been a very hectic year for me, as you could probably have guessed by my long absence. Highlights of 2017 include several professional conferences, the end of a four year relationship, the end of my fourth ( and busiest, but not quite final) year of undergrad at Michigan State University, the end of my professional affiliation with several campus organizations, a six week study abroad program (five weeks, really, but I stayed an extra to travel Italy...more on this later) to Western Europe, and, currently, moving houses in East Lansing. It has been tumultuous, despite the fact that my graduation won't take place until this coming school year. At any rate, I've been incredibly busy, incredibly tired, and thankfully, incredibly happy. Rest assured I have not forgotten about my little corners of the internet, or this peculiar hobby of ours (I just caught up with Weta's releases at SDCC 17 this morning via email and Facebook; wow!). I have not added anything to my collection in some time, at least not since the purchase of my Theoden helm from Thranduil. It has probably been almost a year since I made any purchases on this end, but I continue to be interested in what's going on, what our companies our doing, and what kind of interesting props people have been making on their own. Please fill me in on any big news I may have missed lately, and keep your eye out for some pictures from my Euro trip!

Best,
Joey (Fin)
Hi Fin! Glad to have you back.
Well, I still think that was some "creepy" imposter that posted, but Val and I gave him the old Heave-ho, and you never saw anyone exit so fast! ;-D

Ummm...yeah.... 'incredibly busy' is kind of an understatement. You covered a lot of ground there.
I thought you were graduated in May or June, but I guess it will be December?
What kind of degree will you have, and are you going for an advanced /master degree?
Still plan on teaching? (music, I assume)

Geez, another member doing a house move....(veeerrrry interesting.... maybe something has been slipped into the water supply...)
Just you moving or the whole familia?

"Eternity is an awful long time, especially towards the end."

"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing.
It also depends on what sort of person you are.” -- CSL

Re: Bonjour!

3
Heya Deimos! Graduation will actually be next May for me. I'm technically taking 4.5 years, then student teaching (internship in a school music program) next spring. We can choose whether or not we want to walk at commencement before we intern, or after we intern. I'm choosing to walk afterwards because I like the traditional spring graduation, when the weather is beautiful and everyone is here for commencements. So after this fall, I will have finished my classes (only 8 credits to go, but I am marching one final season) and then after I complete my student teaching, I'll walk with a Bachelor's of Music in Music Education and a teaching certificate from the College of Education. Scary to think about, but also exciting. Eventually I will pursue an advanced degree(s), but I need and desire to accumulate several years in the field as a public school teacher first. Whether that Master's will be in Music Ed, Conducting, Musicology, or something more policy-oriented like school administration or education advocacy, or any combination thereof, remains to be seen. First, let's get working with some kiddos and get the feet wet.

I'm just moving my college house in East Lansing, thankfully; the family back home is staying put. Still, I've lived full time in East Lansing for two years in the same house, and we have accumulated a lot of stuff. The roommates are all going our separate ways, with one pursuing a Master's, one graduating and moving across town to a job in Lansing, and another moving to a different house with his girlfriend. I'll be moving in with some other friends in another, cheaper (thankfully) collegiate dump of a house. The snag we've hit is that I can't move into this new place until the 24th, which is the middle of marching band preseason rehearsals (8am-11pm every day) so I really can't get in until the 29th. I had to be out of my old place a couple days ago, and in the meantime, all of my belongings are scattered at friends' places in East Lansing, while I'm back home teaching a band camp and making a road trip to Indianapolis tomorrow to see the Drum Corps Internationals finals. Busy...busy...busy...but it's a good life.
"Remember, the force will be with you, always."

Re: Bonjour!

4
Fingolfin wrote: Fri Aug 11, 2017 2:53 pm Heya Deimos! Graduation will actually be next May for me. ... Eventually I will pursue an advanced degree(s), but I need and desire to accumulate several years in the field as a public school teacher first. Whether that Master's will be in Music Ed, Conducting, Musicology, or something more policy-oriented like school administration or education advocacy, or any combination thereof, remains to be seen. First, let's get working with some kiddos and get the feet wet.

I'm just moving my college house in East Lansing, thankfully; the family back home is staying put. ...I'll be moving in with some other friends in another, cheaper (thankfully) collegiate dump of a house..... Busy...busy...busy...but it's a good life.
I hope you stick with Music and stay as far away from Public School admin involvement as possible.
It is a entangling, suffocating leviathan in which you can lose your way and finally be crushed. ...*Run away! Run away!*

I assume that your parents are *ahem* respecting your collection while you are away ;-)
There are too many stories of parents who clean out a kid's room if he has not lived at home for awhile, and the kid comes back to get his stuff only to find it has been craigslisted or Goodwilled. :O

"Eternity is an awful long time, especially towards the end."

"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing.
It also depends on what sort of person you are.” -- CSL

Re: Bonjour!

5
Education admin can be brutal, I really don't care much for the thought of being a district admin myself, but policy is very interesting to me so I'd like to find some way to have a foot in that door without be...swallowed whole by the Leviathan. :laugh:

The parents are quite respectful of my stuff; considering that I'm the only one at home besides them and the cat (who is not so respectful...she likes to sit on all of my belongings) they don't have much use for the space so they don't bother my things. Most of my stuff is compiled into two rooms and one corner of the house anyway, lol!
"Remember, the force will be with you, always."
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