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.
Random Fact #1
Although I own clothing from Urbana ’96 and ’03, the only Urbana conference I have been to is Urbana ’00—from which I have no clothing.
Random Fact #2
I missed out on my college class picture because I was busy eating all-I-could-eat at the Scooper Bowl. It was well worth it.
Random Fact #3
Seymour (my stuffed animal seal) and I have been to Australia twice. I may very well have more pictures of him there than of me.
Random Fact #4
I never obtained a Regents diploma, the high school diploma offered by New York State. I only received the local Arlington High School version (which is not considered as rigorous).
Random Fact #5
I generally regret learning the Dvorak keyboard. This is primarily because I haven’t actually practiced enough to get faster than I was on QWERTY. So I still type relatively slowly, and when I switch to someone else’s computer, I type even more slowly. Grr.
Random Fact #6
I am in love. And I love it.
I’ve never really understood this “tagging” business so… lemme know if you end up listing six of your own.
Like many others, I’ve found that I’m generally just not in the mood to write anything these days. A good friend is in the hospital and I feel like there’s nothing I can do. But pray. But prayer is so important.
There’s other stuff going on, too… in the world, in my friends’ lives… Too much to talk about, so I say nothing at all.
But even so, I feel like I need to take a break from all the seriousness. There have been a couple of things that I’ve read/seen recently that I’ve wanted to post, but I felt they were too frivolous… But maybe folks need a good laugh. Maybe I do too. So here goes:
First, what I read. In general, I’m too uncultured to really understand Shakespeare, but I love this:
Osw. What dost thou know me for?
Kent. A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, superserviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave, one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch; one whom I will beat into clamorous whining if thou deny’st the least syllable of thy addition.
Ah… there’s nothing quite like the sound of British insults.
And second, what I saw… I was on a website that had compiled a bunch of 80s music videos when I saw this classic blast from my past. I was a big fan of “Weird Al” Yankovic growing up, and this has got to be the most classic music video of all time. If you find the video offensive, please watch the next one too, and you’ll see what he’s really making fun of.
Though I knew that this was a parody of Michael Jackson’s “Bad”, I’d never seen that video before. Thanks to the miracle of YouTube, here it is. Al’s video is even funnier with this context.
Sometimes I wonder why or how it is that I have been so blessed… But mostly I just rejoice that I now have this most incredible person in my life. I, too, thank my God every day for her!
(Would she be abashed? )
The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.
Tonight, my brother, mother and I had the privilege of hearing Amy Tan (author of such books as The Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God’s Wife) speak at a benefit dinner (which was quite yum, by the way ) for the Law Foundation, a non-profit which provides free legal services to Silicon Valley individuals in need (not everyone in the Silicon Valley is rich, you know).
I wondered at first what she was going to speak on that would relate to a bunch of lawyers, and at first grew a little restless trying to figure out how she was going to tie a teaser about “truth” into her overall message. I soon got lost in her stories though: stories about her family, about growing up, about rebellion, about finding meaning… Some stories I recognized from her writings. Others could have been books in and of themselves, perhaps books that had not yet been written.
As she spun her tales (but they were not tales, they were truth, as seen by her writer’s eyes), I was reminded anew of the power of Story. How each of us has a Story, incredibly vast and rich. And how we pass by one another (even at church!), rarely stopping to listen, to know, to understand. I’ve thought often of this, and moreso as I’ve gotten to know a deeply beautiful woman with the gift of Story. Our Stories are meant to be heard, to be known. For we did not write them ourselves, but the God whose Story captures us all… he is the same God who has intimately known each of us, and has written our lives: our hopes, our fears, our dreams, our despair… and who does know our Story, in joy and in pain.
One such story, is how she came to realize how little she knew about her own mother, the person behind the “crazy woman” with her myriad warnings, her belief in ghosts and the supernatural… I feel the same way about my parents. I know them, but I do not know them. I love them, but do not love them. But what are the questions I must ask? What are the stories I must hear? One of my greatest desires is to know them, and to have them know me. For them to understand the deep impact they have had on my life, and how I am forever in their debt, and yet why that also means I must live my own life.
Story. Do I know yours? Do you know mine? I pray that “I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
I don’t think I could do justice to all the ways I’ve seen God’s blessings so I won’t try. But yes… God is way better to me than I deserve. And my friends, you are also better to me than I deserve. But I am truly grateful.
We will praise the Lamb of God who sits upon the throne
We will worship Him and give the praise to Him alone
He who was and is and is to come
We will sing before His throne forever, forever
(And I didn’t even mention D’s yummy Puerto Rican food from Friday night!)
Here’s a picture of her after her first bath! Doesn’t she adorably look like most other babies? But she’s my niece so she’s the cutest!
And just because I’m showing off anyway, here’s a picture of my super cute nephew from just a few days ago. They both get their good looks from me!
