Year in Review (Reeeally long post)

Yeah, so with the end of the quasi-infamous (at least among fizzers) 12-month stretch, I figured I might jot down a few notes for myself on happenings this year with regards to my pursuits on campus. I think I'll be kind of free-form in terms of structure and everything in this post, so I might be rambling, incoherent, boring, stark raving mad, who knows -- but here it is, my Year in Review! - The summer has been relegated to the stuff of memories, and, for some stories, possibly the stuff of legend. The high hopes our team had in the beginning of the term were quickly shelved in favor of desperation to get the robot done on time, then finally despair as the morning of the competition dawned and JENGA didn't work. Luck works in weird ways though -- mysteriously, the robot suddenly did what it was supposed to do for the first round, so we were the first team that built a structure on the competition surface. Of course it didn't work later on, but hey, it was pretty cool. - Coursework is getting different these days. A little more interesting, yet also a little more boring as well. I think I enjoyed courses the most when they were difficult, but not because the prof sucked. I really liked PHYS 350 (Lagrangian Mechanics) for example, and MATH 318 (Probability) also -- these are prime examples of what I'm talking about; some of the concepts are a little tricky but they were explained well enough so that we could take something away from lectures and try to apply it to problems. I'm pretty sure I would have found PHYS 454 (E&M) interesting too, but I'm not too sure...the way the class was taught, I didn't get much out of it. Such cool phenomena that can be explained within the electromagnetism framework though. ...hmm, here's a thought that just occured to me -- I was going to write another little bullet point about how this year I started to really appreciate the aesthetic beauty of some physical concepts, inasmuch as their elegance, brevity, cleverness, symmetry, and a whole bunch of other things. Maybe I am attracted to that kind of course matter, because I was thinking about some of the courses that I enjoyed less (some of the engineering courses, actually...) and a lot of the times thoses classes were more about narrowly looking at several cases and learning how to deal with the cases that one might encounter. It works to teach people engineering, but it's also missing out a little bit on the fundamental beauty of a lot of the results that are simply used as tools in design and analysis. - Had a good set of roommates in dorm this term too (shout out to the S5B crew). It probably helped that 5/6 of us are engineers; we got some pretty out-there converstaions once in a while, and it was always fun to even just hang around the quad and chat about anything. It's the kind of group you want for roomies every time you move into rez. - One thing that really stood out in my mind this year is the gradual integration of my year of fizzers into the fabric of Fizz in general. I remember the year before, when the Penthouse was really kinda foreign territory and I kept to my own little group of people I knew and no more. But with involvement of our year in a whole bunch of different stuff (exec, Ball Model, etc.) I think it's really cool that it's all kinda coming together. - Speaking of the ball model, that was quite the experience. We took the idea from just that, an idea, and just went for it, and we built the auto-tracking sentry gun we said we would. Way cool. - It's stuff like the Ball Model, and WEC, that really set the year apart for me. With a newfound bounty of time, I threw my hat in on stuff like I really haven't before, and it is lots of fun. I've always been of the opinion that school and learning goes way beyond the classroom, and this is just another way for me to apply that concept. WEC (and the subsequent foray to CEC) was definitely an experience to remember, and to repeat next year. - I've probably missed out on a half-ton of stuff to talk about, but the above are some of the things that really stand out in my mind right now. Next up -- Germany! Stay tuned on this blog...stories, photos, more random writing will appear on this blog -- from the other side of the pond!

Electro-what?

"[PHYS] 454 has plans to rape and pillage my so-far-fairly-preserved exam virginity." - Davey

Closer and closer

The summer's drawing near...I can feel it. Had another exam today, which puts me at 3/6 -- I'm halfway to done with this term. It was MATH 318 (Probability) today, which went reasonably well. The Markov chain problems were relatively simple, but I totally missed the boat on a question that I stared at for about 15 minutes trying to apply the Central Limit Theorem to it. I realized (with about 10 minutes left in the exam) that since it was a Binomial distribution with large n and small p it could actually be approximated as a Poisson random variable. Blaaagh. Fluid Mechanics on Thursday, Microcomputers on Friday, Electromagnetism on Tuesday...then I'm outta here for 8 months. I think I'm going to miss this here campus, considering that I've been in dorm (with the exception of short breaks here and there) since first term of 2nd year...that makes, what, a year and 8 months? It's quite the time span, and I guess while I'm going to miss what is shaping up to be a beautiful summer here in B.C., this European jaunt will be a good break and a good experience. I've really got to start planning what I want to do while I am in Europe, for that matter. I'm thinking about a lot of shows that I want to base some of my trips around -- I want to catch the Montreux Jazz Festival for sure, as well as the Bayreuth Festival. Esbjorn Svensson is touring Germany while I'm there, as is Rajaton. Then come fall when the season begins, there is the Berlin Philharmonic, and maybe Vienna too if I can swing it. I also found out the other day that Wurzburg has its very own Mozartfest! I'm pretty sure it'd be worth checking out, this year being the 250th anniversary of his birth and all.

Go Play Outside

I mean the title in 2 senses of the phrase. The first one is pretty obvious, with the new beautiful weather I really should get out for some physical activity. Tim was mentioning playing some tennis; only thing is that my shoes are at home and I don't exactly have shoes to play in out here in rez. Looks like it'll have to wait a couple of weeks. One that's weighing more in my mind right now though is the meaning w.r.t. piano playing. I think one reason I've been kind of frustratingly bored with my own playing recently is that I am finally gaining enough of a familiarity with the basics of improvisation such that I am comfortable with playing in the changes. I have some canned riffs, I can think decently on the fly, etc. However, if I'm always playing inside the playing can get sometimes monotonous. After all, the whole deal is about tension and release, and one of the most effective ways to do that is to 'play outside' -- that is, improvise without necessarily following the stated harmony in the traditional sense. It's a skill I want to develop, but I just don't know where to start. I really need to go in for a lesson with Chris before I head off to Germany... (again, probably not terribly interesting to most, but meh)

It's a Beautiful Day

What a beautiful day. Nothing quite like a clear spring day...it's times like this when I love this campus. I almost wish I'd be here this summer! Otherwise, not too much new to report. Last night was Fizz Social Night, which was good fun. We (my collegaue and I) did our piano four-hands thing, which went okay but was kinda messy. People liked it I guess, which was good enough. Hopefully we'll get more time to prepare next time... Of course I forgot my camera for Social Night, so pictures may be coming if I can find some. Finals...then Germany! I think it's finally starting to sink in. 27 days! Except it looks like it will definitely be a sprint to the finish in terms of the crapload of stuff that I have to do before I finally skip town. It looks like I will need to take a machine shop course in the days between my exam and my departure, so there will not be a lot of time to spend at home with my family before I head out, which is kinda disappointing, but hey, gotta do what I gotta do I guess.

More unfocused rambling on music

College/University Big Band Festival today! It was fun, and good to hear a bunch of different bands around town. As usual, the Capilano College 'A' band was smokin' -- there were some monsters in the band too, for sure. I have to get used to taking my camera places! I always forget, and thus have no photographic memoirs of events. But yeah. Hearing those top, top college/university bands definitely makes me glad that I am an engineer, because I definitely can't cut it to play at that caliber. There's definitely a huge divide between "serious amateur" and "aspiring professional"... One thing occured to me during our set though, and it's that my playing style seems to depend on the kind of group I am playing with. With the big band, I tend to go more 'pedal-to-the-metal', and be a bit more flashy (or obnoxious?). On the other hand, in the small-group or trio settings I seem to play a bit more reserved, and introspective. For example, after our set one listener described my playing as 'wild'...though I'm sure that the same adjective wouldn't apply to my usual trio work. It's kind of interesting, this push-pull between more of an extroverted style versus introspection, between the visceral and cerebral. Kinda reflects the balance that is playing piano to begin with. It really seems to have two parts to it, a cerebral part which is concerned with structure, harmony, and all that stuff, and a physical part which realizes the ideas formed by the first. There's a certain divide between the two, and the divide is made more pronounced by the fact that we don't have to worry about manually shaping the sound and intonation of an individual note like a violinist or horn player has to. We press a key and a note comes out, and it's in tune. Though in the end this physical aspect of playing the piano is harnessed in service to the cerebral, in that technical ability is a tool to realize ideas more than anything else, it's this phenomenon which makes "silent keyboards" for practice realizable to begin with. For me, the physical act of playing the piano is really important too. There's something that's viscerally satisfying about drawing sound out of the instrument. Some have likened it to a dance of sorts, others to some sort of physical endeavor (wasn't it Rubenstein who remarked to Horowitz, "Congratulations, you have won the Octave Olympics"?). I think those two similies are definitely valid. After a certain point, what some pianists are able to do can be considrered downright athletic.