Made mah day.

[Pianist Da Sootopolis]

One of my teacher's old colleagues passed away- sad! But here's what made my day.
She taught, as my teacher did, at a local music school, and she left her enormous music library to the remaining faculty of her last year teaching there (kind of a sentimental thing, it was cool).
So, my teacher got roughly 50% of the music, since he's one of the only people who could still be reached who was remaining, if I heard him right. In any case, he took some of her organ music, and gave the rest of it to me as a Christmas gift, bless him.
I've literally inherited easily a thousand dollars worth of music.
I have the following now in my library:
Ginastera: Danzas Argentinas.
Grieg: Improvisations (can't remember the opus number), and his Ballade.
Liszt (warning, there's a lot!): Ab Irato, several assorted volumes of his later works and early works, the entire set of Transcendental etudes (glad I never ended up buying them!), the entire set of Paganini etudes, all the Dances, Mephisto waltzes #1 and 4, the Sonata, Poetic harmonies, a standalone sheet of La Campanella, 6 consolations, 3 concert etudes, the complete Hungarian Rhapsodies, both Ballades, two other concert etudes, Soires de Viennes, and the complete Wagner opera transcriptions.
Schubert: All the Impromptus and Moment Musicaux, the complete sonatas, and two other volumes of his other works (including things like the Wanderer Fantasy).
Prokofiev: Vision Fugitives
Scarlatti: 60 of the 550 or so sonatas. A decent chunk of the lot.
Shostakovich: Complete 24 preludes and fugues.
Brahms: Paganini variations, Intermezzi Op. 117 and some other small works
Beethoven: A volume of the String Quartets (not piano literature but still cool to have), and all of the variations he wrote.
Debussy: Estampes and the first book of preludes.

Also worth mentioning these are all in top of the line editions, so price on each one is up quite a lot.

This made my day. The only annoying thing was it was about 50 pounds all things considered.

EDIT: Forgot to mention the 6 volumes of Schumann, which encompasses about everything he ever wrote.

[ZeldaFan]

 
So jealous right now! What a fantastic gift!

Also finals are OVEEEERRRR!!!

[Jamaha]

Saw the new Star Wars. The worldwide premiere was on Wednesday so I had been avoiding any possible sources of spoilers for the past few days. Feels good not to have to worry about spoilers.

[mikey]

Saw the new Star Wars. The worldwide premiere was on Wednesday so I had been avoiding any possible sources of spoilers for the past few days. Feels good not to have to worry about spoilers.

what happens?

[AwesomeYears]

You can pretty much find that out on 4Chan or Twitch Chat.

[InsigTurtle]

Just a quick reflection.

Today, I went out with my friends to Downtown Vancouver just as it started to get dark. A few hours in, we decided to go down to the Downtown Eastside, a neighborhood infamous for its high crime and homelessness rates. Some of my friends got scared, and we left a while later. But...

In reality, most people there aren't aggressive. They're desperate. To live. Just as we all are. But they have to struggle more than we do. A series of poor choices and unfortunate events lead them there. But it's not like they want to be in that situation. It's not like they deserve to be in that situation...

So later on, some of us decided to head back. And while we didn't have enough money to give others meals, we did have enough for cookies. (which, in hindsight, would be unfortunate if any of them had diabetes...)

Giving really is better than getting. People who are grateful for anything that gives them a spark of hope... who are disadvantaged by the gentrification in their neighborhood... who are stigmatized by many for doing drugs and begging for money... I really wish I did have more to give, but my family isn't quite in a good economic state either.

While we didn't give anything large, many of them were ecstatic, grateful, delighted, for something so small. And seeing their reactions, hearing their voices... It really was a great gift.

Merry Christmas.

EDIT: Let me add something that I found interesting.
The graffiti there has overwhelming political, economic, and social commentary. There's stuff about how the city is trying to increase property values and displace lower-income families, stuff about how people get rejected from jobs because they don't have housing and because they had drug problems, stuff about how they are trying to escape from poverty... It really is quite sobering stuff.

[Zeila]

Oh wow! Kudos to you and your friends (and anyone else who donates)

[ZeldaFan]

So, for the new year, I'm going to start a positivity jar - I'm gonna write down every good thing that happens and put it all into one jar and hopefully get it full by the end of the year when I read them all! Steal the idea if you want, I think we all could use some positivity in our lives ^_^

[KefkaticFanatic]

You can pretty much find that out on 4Chan or Twitch Chat.

And if you bring that kind of rampant spoiler posting here you will be instantly permanently banned~

[Bubbles]

So, for the new year, I'm going to start a positivity jar - I'm gonna write down every good thing that happens and put it all into one jar and hopefully get it full by the end of the year when I read them all! Steal the idea if you want, I think we all could use some positivity in our lives ^_^

Oh I did this last year!! I forced myself to do at least one thing every day (I dated the papers) and I can vouch that it's lifechanging. It really helps you see that there's a little bit of happiness in everything, and my whole perspective on life changed. I was actually planning on doing it again for 2016 because I know it's going to be a big year for me and I want to remember it :-)

[Pianist Da Sootopolis]

And if you bring that kind of rampant spoiler posting here you will be instantly permanently banned~

Isn't it a bit late to be threatening him on that, purely due to too much time passing?

[Clanker37]

I thought I made this post, I appear to have lost it. Anyway, I got my High School results today and I'm in the top 7% of the state. Not the top 5% as I had hoped, but I like 7 more than 5 as a number, so there's that. Still gets me into everything it needs to! So Hurray for that!

[Oronoco]

Congratulations! And you're right; 7 is definitely nicer than 5. )

[Dudeman]

Finally got off the waitlist for the Calculus class I needed to take this quarter. If I hadn't made it in, it would've screwed over my whole schedule for the next year and a half. Yes!

[Waddle Bro]

congratulations Clanker :]