http://perfectpitch.ucsf.edu/
I always knew that I didn’t have perfect pitch, but I was astounded to see how badly I did.
I wonder if I would have done better had I cheated and centered my sense of pitch beforehand, but I think I still would have done poorly… I think I’m pretty good with standard intervals, but I do pretty terribly when the pitches span octaves.
It’s worthy to note, though, that I did over twice as well on piano notes vs. “pure tones.” It’s funny how the instrumentation makes such a big difference. I know I used to have perfect pitch when listening to trumpet music, though I imagine that’s shot now.
BTW, they’re looking for families that have two or more members with perfect pitch so if you think you’ve got what it takes, you should definitely try it out!
So I celebrated my birthday a few days ago. Had a wonderful time. T, after agreeing that we could eat something simple like spaghetti for lunch (my family has a tradition of eating noodles (and a hard-boiled egg, but I usually forget that one)) surprised me with a delicious beef and glass noodle dish. Super yum. I gotta get back into the habit of cooking… Can’t let her show me up like that!
She also got me a stone Cross which is sitting on my desk right now. It has a really interesting grain (as she noted, it looks like it could be wood). Also interestingly, it was made in Pakistan. I can’t imagine Christianity is a super popular religion in any part of Pakistan (Operation World says they’re about 2.3% Christian). Hmm…
It was wonderful to celebrate with her, but I also had the opportunity to celebrate with other friends at a surprise party on Saturday night (featuring J’s famous chocolate and strawberry ice cream cake and other creamy goodness) and a non-surprise dim sum brunch. Ah, food. 
(And I didn’t even mention D’s yummy Puerto Rican food from Friday night!)
K, are you happy now? See what you get when you ask me to write about my life? 
But my musings? Still nothing deep… which is part of what frustrates me.
It’s not that I gotta be deep all the time. Who really cares? My friends don’t like me because I’m deep, which is a relief because otherwise I’d be letting them down all the time.
I think the related thing which actually frustrates me is that I just don’t have the time and/or thought space to think about anything: deep or trivial. I don’t know why this has happened or for how long this has been going on and I just haven’t noticed. For a number of months, I just chalked it up to being busy: work, VariAsians, applications… But all of a sudden I’m actually not busy anymore. And yet I just always feel vaguely busy, and I never really get anything substantive done. Work is still busy, I guess, and perhaps I’m more stressed out by work than I care to admit. Well, if my applications/interviews go well, I’m looking forward to having a couple of months where I can think about things other than a job that frankly doesn’t particularly excite me.
As for the applications themselves… That was a bit of a weird experience too. I sure spent enough time on those, and I really appreciate my bro’s and T’s comments… Made them much better than they otherwise would have been but still… I just feel like something was missing. It’s weird. I said a lot, and some of it is pretty darn good (if I do say so myself), but still… You know how you work and re-work something so many times that you’re not sure what you’re saying anymore? I felt that way a little bit… As if I never actually said what I wanted to say. But what did I want to say anyway? I’m getting confused.
Other random thoughts: I had a bit of a scare this morning. I was reminded of the Mosquito ring and figured I’d see if my 29 year old ears could still hear it. And I couldn’t at all! I feared for a few seconds that I’d lost it, but then I remembered that my headphone jack is acting a little funny on my computer… One jiggle later and I was reminded just how annoying that ring is. Not that old yet.
Another somewhat amusing thing was my renewed driver’s license which came in the mail yesterday. My new expiration date is 11-11-11. I’ll probably hang onto this one forever just because that’s such a fun expiration date.
Okay, wow, that was a long post with nothing really said. I’ll close with just thanking all of my friends… Those who were able to come out and celebrate with me and those who weren’t. I feel really blessed.
On Saturday night, we went around and several people shared about me and ways that God has used me to bless their lives. It was really significant. I wish I could have recorded the words that people said to encourage me when I question whether my life has signifcance at all. At least a few people have been touched. That’s a good start. Praise God that he uses me in that way.
Continuing my trend of failing to have any significant thoughts, but wanting to post when something seems exciting to me, I read today that Logan will again allow airlines to provide free WiFi at the airport, if they so choose.
http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/02/
fcc-rules-to-reinstate-free-wifi-at-boston-logan-international-a/
Simple pleasures…
