Contemporary Influences in "Classical" music?

So I had been listening to KDFC (the Bay Area classical station) for a little bit and they introduced me to a modern Italian composer named Ludovico Einaudi.  Einaudi's compositional style actually reminds me a little of George Winston, who I don't really construe as "classical", but since the station thinks it is (I guess he does more chamber stuff?) we call it that.  Einaudi does all forms of composition but I think primarily does piano stuff with maybe some strings on the side.  When I first heard a Ludovico Einaudi song though, I was reminded not of classical, but of a rather modern pop song... Perhaps Einaudi enjoys listening to that sort of thing...?  Dunno.  You see for yourself.

Pay attention to the main theme at 0:38, though it recurs throughout the piece.  Now compare:

Pay attention to the intro... 

Maybe it's me, but the resemblence is uncanny.

On Appreciating: Life

So, I haven't posted here in a while, and I decided that since it's the Thanksgiving season, I really ought to think about how I can be grateful for the things that I have.  When I start to come up with a list of what it is I have to be thankful for, there seems to be a lot.  Then I remembered I was doing this thing, and felt, maybe I should share about being thankful.  I think thankfulness is definitely something that's pretty hard to come by sometimes, and that it's definitely something that doesn't come naturally.  It's something that I need to continually practice and that I am continually trying to practice.  I hope that these few things that I've learned help you out too.  Being thankful in general, I think, is the major way to appreciate life, to me, by appreciating something, you're saying, "I'm glad or thankful that this thing is here." I don't know that I'm an expert on appreciation, but I feel that life as a whole is something to be appreciated, and here are a few ways how.

First, start with the little things.  There are a lot of things that I tend to take for granted and honestly, if I stop and think about it, they're really quite a luxury.  In fact, a lot (most) of the things I have that I consider mine by right are really something of a privilege.  My family, my friends, my car, my home, etc... even little things down to "common courtesy" that people extend to me.  An exercise that I do daily that really helps me is to think of one thing to be thankful about, doesn't matter what it is, it doesn't have to be anything big, philosophical, or grandiose, but just a simple, "I'm grateful today for the phone call I had with my parents the other day."  Something like that, and then answer the simple question that naturally follows; why?

Another way is to know where things come from.  Gratitude doesn't really make much sense unless there's a someone or something to be grateful to.  Remembering to be thankful really entails remembering those who have given or done things for you.  Things mean a lot more if there's a name and face you can attach to them, that name and face being the source.  Of course there are intangibles, but ultimately, all of that comes back to God, who is the provider of all things.  While we ought to appreciate the gifts that are given to us, it's ultimately more important to appreciate the giver giving it.

Finally, one thing that I definitely have a hard time doing consistently, gratitude doesn't really mean a whole lot until it's expressed.  I know it's hard for me to say or express thanks to people except in kind of special circumstances.  It feels kind of awkward, but if we can step past that, by expressing gratitude, it really helps lift someone up.  It's really good to know that someone is grateful for something done for them, I like it when people thank me for something.  In the same way then, in being thankful, I need to show people I'm thankful to that I'm thankful.

Well, this is my little Thanksgiving spiel, sorry that I haven't posting with regularity to those that are following this.  Hope you guys all have a great and wonderful Thanksgiving.  Happy Thanksgiving!  

Mathletics: The Bane of Simple Reasoning

Maybe it's just me, and the fact that I didn't go into a math related field of study or profession. As a young child, I was subject to a lot of various math competitions, such as Math Olympiads, and I went to a lot of various classes ("summer programs") which my parents enrolled me in to improve my math and problem solving abilities. The word problems hence were designed to be tricky and convoluted in the methodology of solving it. It's effective in enabling the student to handle high capacity mental challenges, and complicated calculations and logical trains of thought. However, the problem with that is, that it conditions the student also (at least it did for me) to always look for the complicated answer first. The nature of the problems always encourages students to try the complicated or "hard" way first because the painfully and obviously "easy" way is always wrong or doesn't work. Better to start with the convoluted method that almost always guarantees a sensible answer of some sort than the simple method that potentially could result in a dead end.

I don't know, this is sort of an epiphany to me I guess... It is I suppose in the light of taking the GMATs, the math isn't really very difficult, but I feel like I would be doing better on it if it were. The problem that is created is that Math Olympiads and problems of the sort promote over-thinking of exceptionally simple problems. This perhaps explains why some exceptionally brilliant mathematical minds seem to always underperform when it comes to standardized testing. I'm not by any means saying that my mind exudes mathematical brilliance, far from it, I believe I have a very average notion of mathematics and things of the sort. However, having grown up with this kind of problem solving training, I definitely believe that my initial reaction or move to solve any problem is to make it more complicatd than necessary.

In conclusion: mathletics isn't necessarily bad, certainly there are merits to being a mathlete, and benefits in scholastic achievement. However, make sure you supplement it with simple problem solving too. Otherwise, don't be overly surprised if the SATs or something sometimes seem like its jipping you out of something.

I Think I Like Writing

I do, I really do.

Ever since getting on the blog scene, I've been pretty content with doing this sort of stuff fairly regularly, enough so that I've casually considered a career shift that would enable me to get paid to do something like this. Wouldn't that be swell. The problem in and of itself, I suppose, most often isn't necessarily the desire to write, I'd have a new post every other hour if I could, but the simple fact of the matter is that I don't really have that much to write about sometimes. I suppose it's something rather natural, something known as "writers' block". It happens to me fairly frequently, and thus I don't have anything to come out with. Specifically though, I like this form of communicative writing that enables to me to in a sense "converse" with people through the screen. One of the quirks (I like to think of it as a quirk) is that the way in which I write is something that I would actually say to people. I hope that it reads more like something of a conversation than anything of an academic work or something. Of course, it could just be the case that my conversation is always stodgy and uptight.

It's not that I haven't tried the whole writing thing before, I've actually made a foray at attempting to write a novel, specifically in the fantasy genre. Unfortunately, my narrative is somewhat lacking and my ideas a little unoriginal, so that didn't go very far. As you few readers who look through this blog have realized, I don't really have all that much to write about content wise, hence the lack of posts. My NBA blog I update extensively and regularly, though I don't know that I'll be anything of an expert nor would I be anywhere near I think getting paid to do that. Likewise for cooking, sans the regular updating thing.

All in all, I think I've found another thing I like, but I don't know that I could make a living of it. I've pondered the option of journalism, but that would require me to go back and redo school, which is something I don't know if I'm necessarily inclined to do, or maybe supplement with something of a communications focus, perhaps that's another option. However, I don't know that I'd be a very good columnist save for an opinion article here and there. It hasn't been explored extensively, but then again, I don't know that many of my hobbies and viable career options have been.

So, yeah, in conclusion; I like writing, I just don't have a lot to write about sometimes. I think.

I Don't Get "Professional Writing"

So, I don't mean professional writing in the sense of like authors who write books, or journalists who write news columns or anything in the sense that your writing is what makes you money. What I do mean, though, is the whole idea of how to write a professional looking document with all the fancy language and the non-use of personal identifiers, and how it has to "sound professional". Basically, like all those papers we had to write for school. This comes in light of my studying for the GMATs and doing a review on the essay section.

Maybe there's a certain merit to looking all polished and such, but given the context of the GMAT the purpose is primarily for communication anyways. Sure, I'd be less inclined to utilize slang, and such terminology, but I'm a little baffled by all this pretense. Why can't I write it like I write this blog? I probably communicate just as if not more effectively this way, and if people were to come talk to me about whatever it is I'm writing about, then I'd probably explain things the way I'm explaining them now. I don't get it.

That's my gripe for the day, I'm done. It's just how things work, and I suppose I have to deal.

Current Reads

Finished up with some, but still working on most of the same ones. Added a couple new ones to the list, but with GMATs and everything else going on, I've been a little preoccupied.

Finished Good Life, excellent book, highly recommend everyone read it.

Current Reads about Life:

The Four Loves by CS Lewis
The Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas Willard
The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoffer

Current Reads just for fun:

Eulalia by Brian Jacques
The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks

All or Nothing

Something I've been thinking about a little while is the idea of compartmentalization. I think it's something that happens because we feel like we need to organize our lives. I don't think I exactly thought of it this way though. If you think of the idea of "big picture/little picture" thinkers then come to the idea of compartmentalization then maybe you get a little closer to what I'm thinking about. Hopefully this conveys my thoughts on the issue adequately, but of course, I doubt my communication abilities do my theories much justice, then again, perhaps there's not much to be had from such theorizing, regardless, I appreciate the time that you (the reader) take to peruse and consider what I have to say (write) and the attempt (however meager) made to understand my point.

We live a world where everything needs to have a time and place, everything is categorized, filed, and organized accordingly. If you go to a store, items are sorted by type and arranged accordingly, in a music store there is a guitar section, an acoustic section, a bass section, a live sound section, a keyboard section, a recording section, a miscellaneous items section, etc... in a supermarket there is the fresh produce section, canned goods, dairy, frozen foods, meat, juices, beverages, etc... Likewise, we've been encouraged to perform such organization with our lives, and to some extent it's helpful, we have work, school, recreational hobbies, family, friends, and various other things in our lives that we can make various categories for. We take each experience and then neatly file it away under a specific category in our lives. In some instances, things might fall under a couple of categories which might make things a little messier, but it's still manageable nonetheless.

The problem with this view is that life invariably is more than the sum of its parts, and there are things that call from us our entire being, not just a part. The "here and now"s of life require our everything, and if we're not all here, then invariably we miss out on something. Not to say that we ought not look at the future and plan what may be had, but we ought not be reserved or hesitant because of what "might be". When we start planning based on hypotheticals, then we start holding ourselves back, we miss out. Life will be that much sweeter if we learn to immerse ourselves in what we have now as opposed to what we might have in the future.

Maybe I'm being "irresponsible", but I think the fact of the matter is, that we live in the here and now. There's no point in fretting over something that hasn't happened yet, in fact something that might not even happen. I don't know what's going to happen, plans have changed for me several times, I've gotten it wrong enough times to know; I miss out of I hold back now. I feel like that I cheat myself of a lot if I don't. Hopefully this made sense to whoever is reading it. I hope.