I have had the misfortune of being rather ill for the past several days. It's nothing crazy, just a bad cold/mild flu sort of thing. Chicken soup, lotsa fluids, and dayquil.
Yes, everyone's a bit freaked out about swine flu. Yes, I was the one who started the joke that I maybe shouldn't have made out with that pig down in Tijuana last weekend. But does every...single...person that I mention my illness to have to joke that I probably have swine flu? By this point, its gotten to the point where it's stopped being funny and started me having to pre-empt the joke.
"Hey man, I'm not feeling too well."
"Whoah, watch out, you might have..."
"...swine flu, yes, I know. Ha ha. Look at your wit, making jokes out of the headlines of the day."
Again, I can't be too judgmental, because I was making the joke before anyone else was. I just fear I've created a monster I can no longer control.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Finito
I probably should have written this earlier, when I was still on a high from finishing, but I am officially done with my third year of college (or university, as they insist on calling it up here)!
That's all.
That's all.
Monday, April 27, 2009
The one you've all been waiting for...
So I'm back! I know you've all been waiting with bated breath to hear about my big adventure in Boston...so I won't waste any more time.
I met up with my rideshare buddies in Montreal's Gare Centrale at about one p.m. I was happy to discover a lack of serial killers among them--my partners in Boston-going turned out to be a McGill Computer Science student and two history post-docs, one from McGill, one from Concordia. We had a pleasant and fairly uneventful ride down through Quebec/Vermont/New Hampshire, and I arrived in Boston around 6:30.
Rural Quebec:
The Boston waterfront:
Boston is an amazingly beautiful city. I've only been here once before, and that was more than two years ago. It was also February, and I had a terrible case of the flu almost the entire time, so my memories of it were not pleasant. This time, though, it was astounding. All the cherry trees were in bloom, and the weather had just gotten nice enough that the denizens of B-town were out celebrating in full force.
Boston Common at sunset:
I made my way across the Charles river to MIT, where I rendezvous-ed with my friend Jenna. The amount of time we've spent around each other in the past several years is surprisingly small given how close we are as friends, and it was a lovely reunion. I didn't have much time to celebrate--I had to run up to her room and change into my dress clothes in order to go out to her sorority formal (one of the two main reasons I was there). I, Jenna, a few of her fellow Kappa Alpha Thetas and their dates all went out to dinner before heading down to the formal, which was at...wait for it...the freakin' aquarium. In the same room with the penguins. It was pretty damn cool--even if penguins do smell a bit unfortunate. Afterwards, it was back to the dorms to hang out with some of Jenna's friends...who are, coincidentally, all Indian.
Thetas and dates:
At dinner:
Penguins!
Friends:
More friends:
The next day (Saturday) was possibly one of the greatest days of my life. After enjoying the unbelievable weather and the joie de vivre around the MIT campus, I went with Jenna and her friends to the campus celebration of the Indian festival of Holi, which (in this rather Westernized incarnation) involved paint throwing, super soakers, tossing people into kiddie pools filled with water, and frighteningly large amounts of shaving cream. Needless to say, it was massive amounts of fun.
My home for the weekend:
The Stata center on campus, or the "WTF were they thinking" building:
Springtime at MIT:
Post-Holi:
After we cleaned ourselves off (which took quite a while), Jenna and I headed off to see Ben Folds. It's hard for me to describe how incredibly excited I was to see this concert. As I said before, he's been one of my musical heroes for a long time, and he's supposed to be an astounding showman. We managed to get there early enough to get in the front row (!!!!), and...needless to say, I wasn't disappointed.
He did play quite a bit of his new stuff, but he stuck mostly to the more fun, uptempo stuff--a side of Mr. Folds I've always preferred. He also played a bunch of his older solo stuff (Zak and Sara!), and even a few BFF numbers: no "Kate" or "One Angry Dwarf," but he did "Fair," "Army," (not my videos) and Brick. The audience was incredibly into it--we did the horn section bit on "Army" without his prompting, and he was so pleased with us he did "Bitches Ain't Shit," which he recently retired--and although he didn't do "Rock This Bitch" (his traditional improvised song), he did improvise a song about playing in the MIT gymnasium (also not my video).
In one of the coolest parts of the show, he took a leaf out of John Cage's book, putting altoids tins on the strings of his piano and running the microphone picking up his playing through a distortion pedal, making his piano sound like a rather crazy synthesizer. It was one of the coolest sounds I'd ever heard, and the crowd went nuts when he launched into a song using it.
At the very end of the concert, he got the crowd doing the backing vocals for "Not the Same," and, at the end of the song, ran to the front of the stage and started conducting the audience--first one side was brought to a crescendo while the other side pulsated, then the two flipped, then the volume level was swelled and cut off, then the two sides were led to alternate the high and low harmonies, etc. etc.--the audience of probably more than a thousand people was almost literally putty in his hands. What a fucking performer.
The next day was very relaxed. After waking up and wandering around campus a bit, Jenna and I headed into downtown Boston to wander around the streets. After crossing the Harvard bridge, which is still measured in Smoots, we strolled down Newbury street, got some cheap n' dirty burgers at Pourhouse, and some not-so-cheap-and-fairly-clean ice cream at J.P. Licks. I then had to pack up my stuff and meet my rideshare buddies back at South Station. We made seriously great time heading up to Montreal--barely five hours--and had a pretty relaxed time of it.
Greek Week cake bake-off:
Crossing the Charles:
Optimistic sign halfway across the bridge (pointing at MIT):
Boston!
I like ice cream:
Heading home:
I don't have the time nor energy to engage in some sort of giant reflection on the weekend...and I don't think I need to, really. I had a great time, met cool new people, saw some amazing music and scenery, and got to take my mind off finals for a few days. All in all, a complete success. Viva springtime.
I met up with my rideshare buddies in Montreal's Gare Centrale at about one p.m. I was happy to discover a lack of serial killers among them--my partners in Boston-going turned out to be a McGill Computer Science student and two history post-docs, one from McGill, one from Concordia. We had a pleasant and fairly uneventful ride down through Quebec/Vermont/New Hampshire, and I arrived in Boston around 6:30.
Rural Quebec:
The Boston waterfront:
Boston is an amazingly beautiful city. I've only been here once before, and that was more than two years ago. It was also February, and I had a terrible case of the flu almost the entire time, so my memories of it were not pleasant. This time, though, it was astounding. All the cherry trees were in bloom, and the weather had just gotten nice enough that the denizens of B-town were out celebrating in full force.
Boston Common at sunset:
I made my way across the Charles river to MIT, where I rendezvous-ed with my friend Jenna. The amount of time we've spent around each other in the past several years is surprisingly small given how close we are as friends, and it was a lovely reunion. I didn't have much time to celebrate--I had to run up to her room and change into my dress clothes in order to go out to her sorority formal (one of the two main reasons I was there). I, Jenna, a few of her fellow Kappa Alpha Thetas and their dates all went out to dinner before heading down to the formal, which was at...wait for it...the freakin' aquarium. In the same room with the penguins. It was pretty damn cool--even if penguins do smell a bit unfortunate. Afterwards, it was back to the dorms to hang out with some of Jenna's friends...who are, coincidentally, all Indian.
Thetas and dates:
At dinner:
Penguins!
Friends:
More friends:
The next day (Saturday) was possibly one of the greatest days of my life. After enjoying the unbelievable weather and the joie de vivre around the MIT campus, I went with Jenna and her friends to the campus celebration of the Indian festival of Holi, which (in this rather Westernized incarnation) involved paint throwing, super soakers, tossing people into kiddie pools filled with water, and frighteningly large amounts of shaving cream. Needless to say, it was massive amounts of fun.
My home for the weekend:
The Stata center on campus, or the "WTF were they thinking" building:
Springtime at MIT:
Post-Holi:
After we cleaned ourselves off (which took quite a while), Jenna and I headed off to see Ben Folds. It's hard for me to describe how incredibly excited I was to see this concert. As I said before, he's been one of my musical heroes for a long time, and he's supposed to be an astounding showman. We managed to get there early enough to get in the front row (!!!!), and...needless to say, I wasn't disappointed.
He did play quite a bit of his new stuff, but he stuck mostly to the more fun, uptempo stuff--a side of Mr. Folds I've always preferred. He also played a bunch of his older solo stuff (Zak and Sara!), and even a few BFF numbers: no "Kate" or "One Angry Dwarf," but he did "Fair," "Army," (not my videos) and Brick. The audience was incredibly into it--we did the horn section bit on "Army" without his prompting, and he was so pleased with us he did "Bitches Ain't Shit," which he recently retired--and although he didn't do "Rock This Bitch" (his traditional improvised song), he did improvise a song about playing in the MIT gymnasium (also not my video).
In one of the coolest parts of the show, he took a leaf out of John Cage's book, putting altoids tins on the strings of his piano and running the microphone picking up his playing through a distortion pedal, making his piano sound like a rather crazy synthesizer. It was one of the coolest sounds I'd ever heard, and the crowd went nuts when he launched into a song using it.
At the very end of the concert, he got the crowd doing the backing vocals for "Not the Same," and, at the end of the song, ran to the front of the stage and started conducting the audience--first one side was brought to a crescendo while the other side pulsated, then the two flipped, then the volume level was swelled and cut off, then the two sides were led to alternate the high and low harmonies, etc. etc.--the audience of probably more than a thousand people was almost literally putty in his hands. What a fucking performer.
The next day was very relaxed. After waking up and wandering around campus a bit, Jenna and I headed into downtown Boston to wander around the streets. After crossing the Harvard bridge, which is still measured in Smoots, we strolled down Newbury street, got some cheap n' dirty burgers at Pourhouse, and some not-so-cheap-and-fairly-clean ice cream at J.P. Licks. I then had to pack up my stuff and meet my rideshare buddies back at South Station. We made seriously great time heading up to Montreal--barely five hours--and had a pretty relaxed time of it.
Greek Week cake bake-off:
Crossing the Charles:
Optimistic sign halfway across the bridge (pointing at MIT):
Boston!
I like ice cream:
Heading home:
I don't have the time nor energy to engage in some sort of giant reflection on the weekend...and I don't think I need to, really. I had a great time, met cool new people, saw some amazing music and scenery, and got to take my mind off finals for a few days. All in all, a complete success. Viva springtime.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Off to Boston
I'm heading out to Boston this afternoon and won't be back until Sunday night.
I'll update you guys on my adventures when I return.
I'll update you guys on my adventures when I return.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
The glory of practice
The past week or so I've been spending about an hour a day (with a metronome, of course) practicing really fundamental guitar thingies. Very fundamental...as in alternating two notes repeatedly for ten minutes, increasing speed, until I can do it completely cleanly.
I don't know how much of a difference it will make in how I sound (I'm hoping it will), but in how I FEEL when I'm playing--my level of comfort, the ease with which I feel musical ideas coming from me--it's made a huge difference in even such a tiny amount of time. There's something really amazing about knowing that if you're willing to put in that work the right way, you'll get better. It's like magic...and as strange as it sounds, knowing exactly how the neurons in the motor cortex and caudate nucleus and blah blah blah are encoding that practice and strengthening their connections gives me more motivation than ever to do it.
I always had a theoretical and somewhat begrudging respect for the power of simple and constant practice, but its only recently that I've really come to understand its power. I'm addicted now--feeling results like that after a week just makes me want to do more.
I don't know how much of a difference it will make in how I sound (I'm hoping it will), but in how I FEEL when I'm playing--my level of comfort, the ease with which I feel musical ideas coming from me--it's made a huge difference in even such a tiny amount of time. There's something really amazing about knowing that if you're willing to put in that work the right way, you'll get better. It's like magic...and as strange as it sounds, knowing exactly how the neurons in the motor cortex and caudate nucleus and blah blah blah are encoding that practice and strengthening their connections gives me more motivation than ever to do it.
I always had a theoretical and somewhat begrudging respect for the power of simple and constant practice, but its only recently that I've really come to understand its power. I'm addicted now--feeling results like that after a week just makes me want to do more.
The sun comes back...for a while.
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Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Strange thought for the day...
In Marc Sageman's 2004 study on terrorism, less than half of the Jihadis he talked to had a Muslim upbringing. Also, they had a higher average education level than the average Canadian.
َQuestion your assumptions, I guess.
َQuestion your assumptions, I guess.
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