"Music in the Heart of Noise"

The heat wave that brought us record high temperatures is moving off (well, it'll still be warm tomorrow) and the windows around the house are all open to let the air circulate and moderate the heat.

Spring has been here long enough - the birds that migrated back to Canada a few weeks ago have had their share of chicks to feed and nurture. The greenbelt that my window faces has now become a small sanctuary, and with the recent warm weather and plenty of food, it's time for the young birds to explore the neighbourhood and to share their repertoire of songs and chirps to all those around them. Or offer their services as an early alarm clock.

This morning, I awoke to what seemed to a clash of birdsong, with what sounded like dozens of birds chirping at the top of their lungs (well technically, their syrinx). My first thought was... ughh - either it's some huge bird war, or a fight against an invading stray cat or something. But the dissonance and discord among melodies and seeming harmonies gave me the impression that instead, the birds were rehearsing something arranged by Stravinsky.

Though the birds did quiet down eventually, there's essentially a neverending chorus of birdsong from dawn till the sun goes down. Not that this is a bad thing. Apart from bird wars, the sound of bird calls remind us that we still live with nature - and we are a part of nature. And instead of demanding peace and quiet, we can join them in making music.

And so with the windows wide open, I started to play the piano (one of the beauties of home). 

I love the feel of the piano - it's like holding music in your hands and shaping the tones to the style you want. I took out my binders of sheet music and began playing.

My audience? Well, my family (perhaps minus my sister as she would rather listen to her iThing) would naturally hear the music as the sound carried throughout the house. Casper's probably listening in as he sits on the top of my shelf. I also play for the birds just outside the window and through the greenbelt, and the sound also reaches the occasional dog-walker taking their pet outside and through the walkway that runs by the house.

Some Beethoven. Beatles music. The pieces I'm learning at the moment to accompany a friend for his exam. More specifically, Camille Saint Saens. Sheet music for Bohemian Rhapsody. Attempted Chopin.

By the end of my piano session, I wanted to give the birds a bit of a treat - something that would rarely hear. They would probably come across Bach or Chopin at some outdoor concert at the Toronto Music Garden. And the Beatles are playing all the time in public. But how often do these birds get to listen to Christmas Classics in Canada? They always migrate before we sing carols. =/. So perhaps to the confusion of a couple dog-walkers, I ran through my book of Holiday Music. Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

And now that the sun is back down, it's late, and I'm back in my room and typing away.

So I'll leave you with a song, Summertime. I came across this piece by Gershwin while flipping through piano books this afternoon. Recorded this evening. With my camera phone and that cheap computer mic I've been vowing to replace since last year. Oh well. Yeah for sepia to fix up the mood. =).

Lyrics to think about:

One of these mornings
You're going to rise up singing
Then you'll spread your wings
And you'll take to the sky

Beatles Song of the Week: Hello Goodbye

note: I've decided to go about my twelve favourite Beatles songs in no particular order. 

I'm starting the summer with Hello Goodbye, one of the more frequently played Beatles songs on the radio.
Similar to how Glee kicked off the second half of its first season, restarting the blog with a Hello song might be a good idea. Though this might not be straightforward as it sounds.

But let's start with an introduction to the song first. The year is 1967. It's November. Paul McCartney wrote this one. The Beatles are featured in the video on the left.
To the right is the Glee cover, which isn't bad, but still can't compare to the Beatles.



Why do I like this song? Well, Hello Goodbye is a struggle of communication and of intentions. And while John Lennon (who didn't like this song very much) called the composition "three minutes of contradictions and meaningless juxtapositions", I feel that this song is a good representation of conflicting ideas and how one, or a society, tries to make sense out of compromise. But it always seems that instead we always get lost in our own ideas.

tangent:
I find Lennon's call on "meaningless" lyrics to be slightly amusing, especially since "Hello Goodbye" is the A-side while Lennon's "I am the Walrus" (another wonderful song, though not on my top 12) is on the "B-side", which of course features the verse:

"Yellow matter custard
Dripping from a dead dog's eye
Crabalocker fishwife
Pornographic priestess
Boy, you've been a naughty girl
You let your knickers down
I am the eggman
They are the eggmen
I am the walrus
Goo goo g' joob"
/tangent


I also admire the spontaneity at the end of "Hello Goodbye", one of those classic impromptu Beatles moments =). Lastly, about things being straightforward. You'll probably note that some of my writing may be reminiscent of "Hello Goodbye", especially my blog posts. The cliches (though fewer in number) that artsci has yet to eliminate from my writing, the contradictions of viewpoints that I'm still debating, and mayhaps random endings that have had little connection to their starts.

Oh well.

Wave!

Around the same time last year, I found myself watching a 120 minute video on Youtube (no, I don't actually expect you to watch it, though here's a ten minute summary if you're interested), featuring the official announcement and an early demonstration of Google Wave. By June, I had mentioned (or was raving about...) Google Wave and its potential applications to most of the people around me. When I discovered that Google had opened up a sign up list for Wave invites, I immediately registered my google account and began counting down the days till Sept 30, the preview for Google Wave.

But what is Google Wave? Here's a short 100 word precis:

"Google Wave has several of the capabilities of email and chat, but designed as if these communication methods were invented today. The potential is limitless. Wave offers live time chat, where one can see what the other is typing, letter by letter. It allows for collaborative edits, where multiple users can change the text simultaneously, and seewhat each other is typing by the keystroke. Furthermore, files and videos can be attached by a simple "drag and drop" from your folders or through a built-in Google search. Eventually Wave will be integrated into features such as Blogger and Docs. Yay."


Well, it turns out that I was not one of the first 100 000 people who signed up for wave =(. So I did not receive an invite. But patience is a virtue, and I decided to wait (no thanks to buying invites on Ebay =P). And so Wave began to slip my mind, until

On November 14 of last year, courtesy of Nilay, friend of Joey, I was [finally] invited to Wave. I think I owe one of them a drink. But anyways, here's my thought process for my first time on Wave.

Logging in: Yes! Finally I have Wave! The possibilities are endless - what should I do first?
10 seconds later: ... waiting, waiting, why is this taking so long? =/
20 seconds later: page is fully loaded - but then takes a while to load my first wave (to see a video of Dr. Wave)
About a minute in: I see Nilay online and strike a conversation. However, by this time, I was more or less disappointed in the Wave team (which is led by Lars Rasmussen, also creator of Google Maps - awesome guy!) - as this version of Wave was much buggier and laggy. Furthermore, the really cool tricks, including Rosie were still unavailable.

But I wasn't outright disappointed. There was some learning curve - the idea of waves and blips can be a little novel, and even the scrolling system was remodeled, but once you get the hang of it, there's really quite a bit you can do. Early conversations were often hit or miss. Not many people had Wave yet (December-ish), and some people gave Wave up as it was just easier to talk on msn. But a few conversations worked really well - a debate allowed all members to evaluate what had been written, and the real-time collaboration allowed for a more engaging argument. Photos were much easier to share than email or msn as I could share to a group via drag and drop. And as time went on and the Google team continued to work on the Wave preview, the program became more and more easier to use.

Here's a video that Wave released just at the end of 2009.

It took me about two minutes to open Youtube, find the video, configure the embed code, and copy/paste it into blogger. If I was one Wave, I would've been able to embed this in 15 seconds.

January came along, and so did the Artsci Grant Proposal (Yay Green Roots!). I was quick to suggest using Wave, at least for the brainstorming and research process, partially seeing its potential, but also to regain some of that Wave hype that had died off during the Christmas break. Wave still wasn't a game-changer, and our proposal still used Google Docs and Email for communication, but Wave proved itself as a very useful tool to group work. And day by day, features were still being implemented.

After February, my disappointment in Wave had long faded, as functionality proved to get better. Though disappearing off the radar for another few months, Google announced last week that Wave was to leave its "preview mode", and open up to the public. So yes, you can now open a Wave account!

Anyways, if you have any questions about Google Wave, feel free to ask me. My Wave account is ay.savethetigers@googlewave.com. Oh, and remember how the precis mentioned that waves could be integrated into blogs? Well, it's right here:

Note, as it is a public wave, so anyone can come and edit it. Which explains all the people I don't know who have contributed to my post. Some have even begun a conversation, but I have deleted it. Anyways, I want to keep it clean, but feel free to write anything! Instructions in the Wave. Also, there's a piano! And the beauty of real time collaboration, if we (or anyone else) happens to be online at the same time, you can play a duet!


Oh... and to follow my theme...
If I worked for Google... I would've been payed for writing this. Sigh.

Summer!: Return of the Blog

Nearly eight months have passed since my last post, though I have written occasional notes on facebook throughout the year. But now that summer is back and first year is at an end, I am returning to my blog, with the goal of frequent posts through late May, June, and early July, while I plan on transforming this site to a travel blog as I head to Taiwan on July 7th.

The last eight months have been a wonderful introduction into university and academia. In addition to the personal freedom of residence life, most of my learning experiences were centered around the McMaster Arts & Science Programme and its community =). As I thrived in the beauty of interdisciplinary education, this year has been a fulfilling and challenging adventure, and I can't wait for the next year to begin!

Anyways, hopefully with new insight, and the recently developed technique of churning out pages in hours, I will keep this blog updated. As a platform for new blog posts, I intend on following three themes this summer, though I definitely won't be confined to them (especially in Taiwan):

If I worked for Google... (weekly post... hopefully)
Well, in honour of being named "most likely to... Work for Google" by the artsci yearbook, and my overall reputation of being a walking Google ad, these posts will allow me to give my opinion on some decisions being made, or how I would approach a problem if given the opportunity. And this seems a little fresher than the classic "if I were PM"... - besides, we all know the Google takeover is pending (about two years and seven months if I'm guessing right), and they're leading the reins in the information age.

My 12 Favourite Beatles Songs (approximately weekly - twelve spreads out quite well across the summer)
Two main reasons. First, I like to center my writing around lyrics, and songs don't get much better than those by the Beatles! Also, The Beatles are the second most visited page on Wikipedia (a fact I learned after completing this quiz =P)! Oh, and second, I can't say I'm not a Beatles fan, and with their music often playing on my cellphone/computer (or just in any public location), I often find myself saying - "[insert song title here] is one of my top ten favourite Beatles songs!" I'm quite sure I've said that to dozens of songs by now, so I've decided to make a list. And they're great for finding something to write about =).

From the Desk of Casper (occasional posts)
Well, to satisfy my love of writing in third person, why not view the world from the eyes of Casper, who currently sits atop my bedroom shelf. If you don't know who Casper is, you don't know me very well =P. But anyways, you'll grow to know him better once he starts to write. Oh, and Casper's a Tiger.

Also, to your left you should see a suggestion box. Powered by Google Docs, you can anonymously send any questions or topics you would like me to answer/write about. Of course, feel free to include your name (which I won't include in the blogpost unless requested), as I might feel more comfortable answering to a person than an anonymous internet fellow, but either way, I'll get to it. Kinda like formspring, but hopefully less creepy and more blogger-like! =)

Anyways, that's it for now. Hope you're enjoying your summer!
ps. Go Habs!

SAVE THE TIGERS!!!