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.