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| Dear Self,
Please remember that the problem with using the internet to read about film or cosmology, to look at cool works of art, and and to peek into strangers' lives via networking sites -- is that you can't stop doing it. For the love of your sanity and for the sake of your tuition, please refrain from such activities when more urgent, worldly duties still await.
All the best,
Your better Self
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For others who likely do not suffer from this problem, here's something really, really cool:
Dresden Codak -- start here for a 27-page story about the future of the human race in relation to artificial intelligence.
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| Stolen from roommate Rachel's LJ!
[1.] What did you do in 2008 that you have never done before?
Voluntarily took time away from school before the end of the semester / degree (and will probably never do so again). Got my first paycheck ever at age 21. Cooked for myself and my brother on a consistent basis. Climbed out of (the majority of) self-imposed misery. Came to a concrete vision as to what I want in life after graduation. -- It's been a very good year.
[2.] Did you keep all of last years resolutions?
No, but I've learned to stop setting impossible goals for myself -- which, funnily enough, wasn't one of my resolutions this time last year, but in retrospect probably the only resolution I should've made at that time.
[3.] Have you any resolutions for next year?
Remember to start early and stay proactive. Take time to stay healthy and happy. Make friends (oh god all the '09s are graduating)! Figure out exactly how to realize my post-graduation plans.
[4.] What countries did you visit?
I didn't so much "visit" as "lived in" both Canada and the States. I did most of the important travelling in summer 2007, and in Jan 2009 the Glee Club is going to tour Buenos Aires, Argentina for a week!
[5.] What would you like to have in 2009 that you didn’t have in 2008?
For a year that started out so terribly, 2008 is leaving me incredibly satisfied at its end, and I wish for nothing more this time next year than what I have right now. Oh, although some fellowship opportunities and grad school admissions for 2010 would be awesome if I could already know in 2009.
[6.] What date in 2008 will remain etched in your memory?
Either Jan 9 or 10 -- when I made the decision to withdraw for a year. Feb 13, when I started working. All of summer, living with mom. The day when Mike told me he's applying to fellowships for studying in England. Sep 5, when I came back to campus, and the couple of (really emo) nights afterwards. Nov 4 -- even if I'm not American, there's no arguing that this is rather historic.
[7.] What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Learning to be happy with myself, and learning to be realistic about myself.
[8.] What was your biggest failure?
Having Project lab turn out the way it did (although that's more of a 2007 problem), and subsequently being incapable of completing the semester by living it down.
[9.] Did you suffer any illness or injury?
Nothing life-threatening, thankfully.
[10.] What was the best thing you bought?
The intro Perl programming books! XKCD says it all: http://www.xkcd.com/519/
[11.] Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
DUDE behaviour is spelled the British/Canadian way in the question YUSSSSS
In answering the question -- sometimes mine, either for resisting (procrastinating from) doing important things that I'm afraid to face, or for freaking out unnecessarily about small things. And my lab partner, for the first few months of the year, though I've come to realize he didn't deserve any more blame than I did.
[12.] Where did most of your money go?
Princeton, summer courses, counselling sessions, airplane tickets.
[13.] What did you get really really really excited about?
Coming back to Princeton! Getting started academically in the direction of public health / epidemeology! Spending an awesome last year with my senior friends!
[17.] What do you wish you’d done less of?
Random internet trawling, of course. Behaving in ways described in 11 above.
[18.] How will you be spending Christmas?
With Mike, hopefully doing something fun and eating NOT Papa John's like last year.
[19.] Which LJ/OD users did you meet for the first time?
I'm old-fashioned and don't have any internet friends I don't know in person.
[20.] Did you fall in love in 2008?
I've been in love with the same man for years and every day I fall for him even more OK EW GROSS JENNY WHAT ARE YOU SOME TRASHY TV SITCOM HEROINE?
[21.] How many one night stands?
None. Damn, I had such a hard time keeping in my pants too.
[22] What was your favourite TV show?
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA -- technically I (we) started watching in 2007, but the vast majority was done over 2008. Seriously guys watch this show, it's ridiculously good.
[23.] Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
I rarely hate people, and the only person who I can now remember hating I stopped caring about quite long ago. So no.
[24.] What was the best book you read?
Hmmm. This is a hard call. I might have to say the intro Perl books again, just because the stuff I got out of them became the most practically useful thing I learned this year.
[25.] What was your greatest musical discovery?
Battlestar Galactica soundtrack (again, seriously guys -- even if you don't watch, get this and listen). Lupe Fiasco! Lupe Fiasco live! Vienna Teng live! Kanye West's new album. Mike's winter break finds -- Adele (OMG SO GOOD), some Duffy, some Shivaree (creepy but good).
[26.] What did you want and get?
Coming back to Princeton (whew), a non-insane semester (whew), actually learning stuff in classes, thesis advisors that'll allow me to work on a project that combines both quantitative analysis and relevance to infectious disease. Good times with my family, good times with friends both from Burnaby and Princeton.
[27.] What did you want and not get?
Chance to take part in the GHP (global health policy) certificate program... but I'm OK with that. Chance to graduate with all my '09 friends... but that's kind of my own fault. :P
[28.] What was your favourite film this year?
I saw No Country for Old Men on DVD and it blew my mind. The Dark Knight was very good, and so was (surprisingly) Hustle and Flow, which I also saw on DVD.
[29.] What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?
21st birthday -- worked a full day, went to a Korean barbecue grill with bro, made a funny speech video for mom and dad before cake-ing with bro. Lab members took me out to celebratory lunch on the upcoming Friday. Got BSG season 3 soundtrack from Mike!
[30.] What one thing would have made your year more satisfying?
I don't make retrospective wishes; plus, cf # 5 above.
[31.] How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
I don't think what I wear has at all changed over the past 4 years... corduroy pants, turtle necks, and boots when cold; simple stuff when warm. Nice necklaces & earrings with dresses when necessary. Got my first pair of flats ever, which are serving me well; and I really liked the weaving detail from my Banana Republic dress this summer. </girly moment>
[32.] What kept you sane?
Leaving Princeton for a while. Living with family in what more closely resembles real life. Lots of time spent thinking, some time in counselling, and lots of effort spent trying to get back to Princeton in better shape -- the logistical battles involved in the latter was surprisingly self-orienting. Most importantly Mike, without whom I'll be a very different person today.
[33.] Which celebrity did you fancy the most?
All of the absolutely gorgeous people in Battlestar Galactica!
[34.] Which political issue stirred you the most?
The election in Taiwan -- I'm very happy it turned out the way it did. The outgoing presidential family's corruption scandal in Taiwan -- less so. And although I'm not involved in American (or Canadian, for that matter) politics, I'm glad to see so many of my American classmates getting involved in their election. The more people spending time and effort to understand what's going on in their country to make informed choices, the better.
[35.] Who did you miss?
Princeton people when I was away, family and Burnaby North people when I came back.
[36.] Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned this year?
You can't go very far without reconciling your aspirations with your capabilities, and it takes time and effort to figure out exactly where the balance is. Open up and ask for help before you convince yourself that you'll need to triple check against sounding stupid. Be kind and generous to those closest to you. Love, strive, and live life without regret, even if you can't have everything you want.
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| This is kind of fun! (Ignore the silly site name, the survey questions have pretty legitimately non-obvious/stereotypical answer choices.)
You are a
Social Liberal
(71% permissive)
and an...
Economic Liberal
(15% permissive)
You are best described as a:
Socialist
Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid |
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| I realized just now that Facebook can be a very toxic thing -- not just in the "huge time waster" way, because a lot of things can turn into gateways of extended procrastination for me, but because it makes me envious at the lives that other people are living. It seems that other people are always traveling to exciting places, having fun at parties, working meaningfully at jobs, getting accepted into new schools or positions, etc etc ad infinitum. The way that information is summarized and presented in front of the user tricks me into thinking that everyone is at once and always living such awesome lives that I haven't got the time, qualifications, or guts to live. It's rather difficult to keep in mind that maybe 90% of their days are filled with things just as mundane as those that fill mine or those who don't bother to come online and publicly chronicle their days. And that in reality, if I spend less time worrying about all the things I seem to be missing and more time doing the things I want or ought to be doing, I could probably have a more interesting life to look back on myself.
Just food for thought.
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| Today I went to a vocal workshop/masterclass hosted by the Vancouver Song Institute at UBC, as part of their annual Song Festival. It was a chance for "mature singers, serious amateurs, and retired professionals" to receive individual coaching from experienced voice teachers in front of the small audience of the workshop's attendees. And it was really, really awesome.
I signed up not really knowing what to expect from this, and showed up a bit too late to warm up sufficiently before the start time. By the time I realized that the coaches were going to be half an hour late because of a scheduling mishap, I was already seated in the room with a fellow attendee, to whom I had started talking and didn't want to embarrass the both of us by excusing myself into a practice room. It turned out that conversation time with this awkward old lady was rather well invested, because when the coaches turned up, they very soon expressed their surprise at the fact that I did not bring any sheet music to sing to during the workshop. "Well I'm sure we could find something nice in the library upstairs," said the accompanist; "the library is closed on Sundays during the summer," said one of the coaches.
Drats.
Fortunately, the awkward lady brought a piece that she had sung with her local choir -- "And So It Goes", by Billy Joel. All the memories of Senior Choir 10, the Whistler Choral Festival, and first year of Ms Balchen's teaching aside, I hung onto this copy like a lifeline, and it might've been due to this very unpreparedness that the group unanimously volunteered me to go up and perform first. So with my knees trembling and with the disclaimer that I have never performed a full-length piece solo in front of an audience besides my laptop and the occasional showerhead, I stepped up to the piano and tried to channel as much of the Glee Club divas as I could.
And it didn't work out too badly at all. In fact, the coaches seemed to like me -- that or they were very good actresses (both were opera performers) and were trying to make me feel good -- and provided lots of very helpful suggestions. We went over the song in detail, phrase by phrase almost, and they emphasized things to keep in mind of when singing a song as a soloist and not just as a harmonizing member of a choir full of very bright stars. They did this for everyone after me as well, critiquing and encouraging each singer in the way s/he most needs. Here are a couple of important points I remembered:
- use the words. Every language is structured differently in terms of sound combinations, expression, and emphasis, and a singer should be aware of the subtleties in all those elements for every language s/he is performing in. A well-enunciated word or phrase can help greatly to convey the emotions and meanings that the piece is about.
- be less aware of the self, and more aware of the song. They thought my voice was "very pretty" (ha!), but I was not engaging them enough on an emotional level. (This could've been because I was nervous out of my mind and kept thinking that I was going to crack up for lack of a proper warm-up. Or it could be a vestige of Glee Club's usually highly technical focus, to get a choir to sing cohesively rather than to allow individual singers to shine too brightly.) As a soloist, it won't be enough for me to enjoy the singing, as the point is to convey to the audience what the song really wants them to enjoy.
- be more expressive than you'd naturally think is necessary. I'd imagine this would be different for microphoned/recorded songs, but an acoustic and live setting puts a singer in the same situation as does live theater does to actors: you must be larger than life. The first time round I tried to channel some of Billy Joel's reserved, almost weary delivery, but the coaches managed to convince me that it just doesn't work that way for an audience that doesn't have the singer's voice physically planted in their ears (through headphones). What might feel like melodrama to the unaccustomed performer might translate to just the right level of intensity for the live audience.
- don't get bogged down by technique. "My voice prof from when I was an undergrad was a chain smoker," said one of the coaches, "so he'd always had to take a breath every 2 bars or so because he simply didn't have the lung capacity to sing longer phrases. But he kept true to the Story of each song, and every time he opened his mouth he would break the audience's hearts."
- do your homework. Understanding context can help singers layer meaning to the song not obvious from just the music or the lyrics, as very aptly demonstrated by a Strauss song chosen by one of the attendees. "Strauss wrote this song, along with two others, as a wedding present for his soon-to-be wife," said the coaches, "and the lyrics talk about the brightness of tomorrow's morning, and the clear and beautiful wind and blah blah blah. The music is so tranquil and ethereal, so it's easy to set into a lulling mentality... but you've got to remember the longing for the consummation of their marriage. The softer passages should shimmer with a kind of intensity." Oh the 19th century. :)
All this, on top of the obvious breath support / posture / phrasing / vowel sound stuff, which the coaches didn't have to mention much because all the attendees had already got it under control (except for the awkward old lady... I felt kind of bad for her to have probably accidentally signed up for something too much above her level). This was one of the most helpful sessions I have had about performing, and makes me look forward to maybe, perhaps, finding enough time over the next year to pursue private lessons with the Dept of Music's voice teachers. Maybe perhaps for some eastern European / middle eastern singing as well? :D
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