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Presenting… the theremin, performed by Pamelia Kurstin.
Isn’t that amazing? Now I’m really inspired to get one.
The trip home from the hospital felt less heavy hearted today. I was glad to see significantly less bile liquid get sucked out from mum’s digestive tract. She definitely looks better today, and seem to be in higher spirits.
If there’s anything my mum’s situation taught me, it is to be glad that we are able to do the things we forget we can do, such as breathing, eating, laughing and drinking. I am, of course, blessed with so much more. Much more than she can ever imagine she can have when she was my age. My life so far has been rather privileged amongst a lot of my friends, co-workers and relatives. But I don’t mean life is so perfect that I’m fully content with how things are going. I just realized that there’s no reason, and I also have no right at all, to mope when I have so much and I’m at the same time not trying very hard to get my future in order.
The themes in this post are not necessarily related.
I’ll start by linking to this article from The New York Times.
The article makes for an interesting read from many levels. I’ll just quote a paragraph:
“A century ago the same people who knew Schoenberg’s music knew Kandinsky’s art. There was no separation. Rubinstein used to say that at the turn of the century 25 percent of the audience played the music he was playing, and 70 years later 25 people in the audience owned his records. The responsibility is ours. It’s not the fault of technology. The person who wants to listen actively will get more out of the music than the person who just sits there waiting to be inspired.”
I guess the same can be said of many disciplines these days. How many people see the greater unification within specializations?
While I enjoy the concert experience and would gladly perform if my schedule permits, I hate being a salesperson for concert tickets. The concerts I perform in don’t exactly have very wide appeal amongst my friends. I can just see them searching their minds for tactful reasons to decline the invitation when I advertise these concerts. I still can’t take rejections well.
I’m becoming an instrument junkie. I’ve signed up for violin lessons! The first few lessons went pretty well. My teacher commented that I seem to have “played the violin in my previous life”. I took to the posture quite naturally and managed to keep the bow in the same line when I bowed the string for the first time. It was quite a surprise even to myself. Some credit must go to my teacher. The string length on my full-sized violin is about 32 cm, quite a lot shorter than the 38 cm on my erhu. I need to get used to the less widely spaced stops.
If things go well, we’ll have a family car next year. This means more options for stargazing locations and equipment. I should think about getting a larger scope. It looks like I’m not going dormant in amateur astronomy just yet.
I’m getting worried about the GREs. I need to absorb the entire undergraduate physics curriculum by early April next year. A lot of the content isn’t very intuitive to me now. Studying for it is a distraction I look forward to, however.
Is efficiency always a good thing?
I met up with some old schoolmates not too long ago. As usual, we had lunch and hung out. On two different occasions, two of them made an observation and followed up by remarking that it was an inefficiency. It was a familiar refrain I’ve heard over the years. Many of my friends are prone to use that same pitch to justify their criticisms.
I must admit that a lot of my friends hail from very similar educational backgrounds. We went to the same few secondary schools, junior colleges and graduated from universities. Most of us did science or engineering in college, which may explain why we tend to put value elegance and efficiency in solutions to real world problems.
It may have to do with the general psyche of the population that has come to demand efficiency in every aspects of their lives. We live in a habitually fast-paced society that has little tolerance for buses that arrive at intervals of more than 15 minutes. We don’t take very long breaks with undecided return date. If we do stop to smell the roses, we also make sure we check our watches regularly. We know the ‘right’ ages to get married and have kids. We are pressured by our families and we want to be on par with our peers. Being on a small island with limited land and resources, we strive to accomplish the most out of the 600-odd square kilometres we own. Efficiency is our mantra.
Yet, I’m still not sure if efficiency’s a good thing in all cases. In most cases at least, when one gets more (or the same amount) done with less effort, he has more resources left over for other tasks.
Can inefficiency lead to any good? No, I’m not looking for examples of efficient ways to do harm. Rather, I’m wondering if there are situations that are the way they are in the name of efficiency, and not obvious that sacrificed efficiency can lead to greater good.
Well, just a thought.
