It has recently occurred to me how few things I do outside of school now that music is actually my main academic thing rather than extra-curricular. Basically, my day looks like this: Learn solfege for Aural Studies. Go to lectures. Practise. Go to rehearsal. Practise. Go to another lecture. Start law reading. Get distracted during law reading. Hang out with neighbours in attempt to avoid law reading. Give up on law reading.
I mean, even the clubs I signed up with or the things I do in my spare time are music related -- the only two activities I attend on a regular basis are orchestra, African drumming and the choir I'm running at JCH. I sporadically attend UNICEF club meetings sometimes, but other than that, nope, it's all music, and I've pretty much forgotten which non-music clubs I actually signed up for. The implication of this is that I spend pretty much all my non-procrastinating spare time doing some form or other of studying or study related stuff.
Now that I think about it, that's really depressing.
Also, I feel kind of guilty for completely ignoring everything the law faculty encourages students to do. I didn't sign up for mooting or witness, I don't go to the guest lectures on human rights, I don't go to the law student's society's parties. I don't even do the readings in full, I just skim them.
Anyway, to feel slightly less guilty, I have decided to spend the weekend working on my essays due after Easter break. Actually, that has nothing at all to do with guilt, and everything to do with the fact that they're worth 50% of my grade in each of their respective classes, but I needed a transition between paragraphs.
So anyway. Between the readings and practise, the only time I really have to do assignments is on the weekends. Whenever there are assignments, that will probably result in my weekend being eaten. This is just as well, because one of the things I have discovered about Australia as a country is that nothing remotely interesting is open on weekends. Seriously. Shops here have a habit of closing on Sundays. Pretty much everything in the Student Union building is closed Saturday as well. Anything which is open has significantly reduced opening hours. I find that incredibly, incredibly strange, because back home, weekends are the busiest days of the week for shops, and there are actually extended opening hours for them, not reduced. How on earth do people not in uni or other such flexible timetables here get their shopping/banking/repairs done if they have to work on weekdays and everything's closed on weekends?
Here are a few tips to better your uni experience (WARNING: do these at your own risk):
Smoke a pipe and respond to each point the professor makes by waving it and saying, "Quite right, old bean!"
Wear X-Ray Specs. Every few minutes, ask the professor to focus the overhead projector.
Sit in the front row and spend the lecture filing your teeth into sharp points.
Sit in the front and color in your textbook.
When the professor calls your name in roll, respond "that's my name, don't wear it out!"
Introduce yourself to the class as the "master of the pan flute".
Give the professor a copy of The Watchtower. Ask him where his soul would go if he died tomorrow.
Wear earmuffs. Every few minutes, ask the professor to speak louder.
Squint thoughtfully while giving the professor strange looks. In the middle of lecture, tell him he looks familiar and ask whether he was ever in an episode of Starsky and Hutch.
Ask whether the first chapter will be on the test. If the professor says no, rip the pages out of your textbook.
Become entranced with your first physics lecture, and declare your intention to pursue a career in measurements and units.
Sing your questions.
When the professor calls roll, after each name scream "THAT'S MEEEEE! Oh, no, sorry."
Insist in a Southern drawl that your name really is Wuchen Li. If you actually are Chinese, insist that your name is Vladimir Fernandez O'Reilly.
Speak only in rhymes and hum the Underdog theme.
Page through the textbook scratching each picture and sniffing it.
Wear your pajamas. Pretend not to notice that you've done so.
Hold up a piece of paper that says in large letters "CHECK YOUR FLY".
Inform the class that you are Belgian royalty, and have a friend bang cymbles together whenever your name is spoken.
Stare continually at the professor's crotch. Occassionally lick your lips.
Address the professor as "your excellency".
Sit in the front, sniff suspiciously, and ask the professor if he's been drinking.
Shout "WOW!" after every sentence of the lecture.
Bring a mirror and spend the lecture writing Bible verses on your face.
Ask whether you have to come to class.
Present the professor with a large fruit basket.
Bring a "seeing eye rooster" to class.
Feign an unintelligible accent and repeatedly ask, "Vet ozzle haffen dee henvay?" Become aggitated when the professor can't understand you.
Relive your Junior High days by leaving chalk stuffed in the chalkboard erasers.
Watch the professor through binoculars.
Start a "Mexican wave" in a large lecture hall.
Ask to introduce your "invisible friend" in the empty seat beside you, and ask for one extra copy of each handout.
When the professor turns on his laser pointer, scream "AAAGH! MY EYES!"
Correct the professor at least ten times on the pronunciation of your name, even if it's Smith. Claim that the 'i' is silent.
Sit in the front row reading the professor's graduate thesis and snickering.
As soon as the first bell rings, volunteer to put a problem on the board. Ignore the professor's reply and proceed to do so anyway.
Claim that you wrote the class text book.
Claim to be the teaching assistant. If the real one objects, jump up and scream "IMPOSTOR!"
Spend the lecture blowing kisses to other students.
Every few minutes, take a sheet of notebook paper, write "Signup Sheet" at the top, and start passing it around the room.
Stand to ask questions. Bow deeply before taking your seat after the professor answers.
Wear a cape with a big S on it. Inform classmates that the S stands for "stud".
Interrupt every few minutes to ask the professor, "Can you spell that?"
Disassemble your pen. "Accidentally" propel pieces across the room while playing with the spring. Go on furtive expeditions to retrieve the pieces. Repeat.
Wink at the professor every few minutes.
In the middle of lecture, ask your professor whether he believes in ghosts.
Laugh heartily at everything the professor says. Snort when you laugh.
Wear a black hooded cloak to class and ring a bell.
Ask your math professor to pull the roll chart above the blackboard of ancient Greek trade routes down farther because you can't see Macedonia.
(Source: http://www.chainletters.net/?item=23)
Jeez!! My last blog is way down the bottom..better update my readers...well, everyone's now aware of the burnley crash..horrific..my parents were quite worried as to where I was when it happened...luckily I was on the slow peaceful tram back to the station. It's great to see mx paper getting the hot news and informing passengers as things happen..so when I reached home,I already knew abt it... so, when my mom goes, oh did u know there was a crash...I'm like..yeh, yeh, already kno abt it..lol.
Anyway, it was the after effect that was worse. They advised on the news to take public transport and guess what? No one did! Well, atleast some did, probabaly. All was good in the morning but heading back home was exhausting! Since the burnley tunnel was closed, all the freaking cars jumped to the tram lane...and what does that do? Make the slow tram even slower! Some got off and started to walk (must have been much faster..). But I was so tired from the day's work, couldn't be bothered..So, there the tram was, crawling like a snail. Then I had to wait for the train..and guess what again? It comes on the opposite platform instead of the usual one. I had been waiting for ages and ages on the usual one and wondering, where the hell is my train and I listen to the announcement and they say it's on the other platform!! I was like wth?? Luckily, I could just jump on it before it closed...phew! And thanks to daylight savings, it gets dark faster than u think, so I had to ring up my dad to pick me up from the station...one heck of a day!
I have been wondering quite lately abt how the uni works. Isn't there any security problem? I mean, practically ANYONE can enter the uni, attend any lecs (not that they want to, but u know..)and do whatever they want around the campus. Except for the computers, they are well-protected..what abt the rest? My friend from some other uni could simply come with me and attend any class or do anything she want!! Isn't that a bit freaky? I find it so and cannot stop pondering abt it.
Also, I notice some extra tabs around this post entry table..like post password, post slug, etc..what do they mean?
So much assigments left....going crazy!! I was hoping to rest a bit during the easter break, but looks like I have got some work to do. There's this BIG (and I mean big, as in seriously serious event) Student conference where we have to present a presentation...10 mins (that is soo damn long..) I usually loath speeches, stand in front of a huge crowd, every pair of eyes staring at you wondering what the hell u r talking abt. God help me! So u c, I have to prepare for that...I tried to find some books related to my topic from my local library and surprisingly, there's not a single one! So now I'll have to go to the uni one or state library..Btw, how do we borrow books from the balilieu lib? Just give the ISBN number and they will give the book?
Till next time
So it's a little past 8 and I'm sitting (obviously at a computer) on the lower ground level of the Baillieu. I've finally decided to do some work and because I despise early mornings I thought that after my classes from 2-4 today I may as well hunker down in the uni's largest library. It's pretty sweet right now, quiet and heaps of free computers, maybe this will be a new study habit for me?
Now, I realize that writing on this blog is hardly productive, but seeing as I've been reading about Kate Grenville and Inga Clendinnen since a bit before 5, I feel I deserve to let my brain rest for a moment.
Note: I would recommend that you never read 'The Secret River' by Kate Grenville. It is exceedingly boring and not worth the two weeks it took me to read it (normally I wouldn't take that long to read a 334 page book, but that is just how much I disliked it).
Before I left home this morning I was extremely concerned with washing my hair and stuffing my bag with books (not all of them necessary) and so I came to Uni with no food. My solution? A lunch of chicken rice paper rolls (I just discovered them - delicious!) and a semi-dinner consisting of 2 cans of V (or was than 1 of V and 1 of Red Bull? I can't remember) and a packet of Malteasers (lucky me, the library vending machine gave me 2 packets accidentally so now, if I feel the need for supper I'm prepared). So my lesson from all this? Bring food to last the day I plan on spending at uni!!!
Well, that's it for me tonight. The clock just ticked over to 8:22 and I think I should get something down for my essay. Have a good night (or day, depending).
Oh, and I was pretty excited tonight when I found out what this beeping noise I kept hearing in the library was. The printing card going in the thinggy when you print stuff from the computers! Cheap thrills I spose...
So, on Friday, I got sick. Fever of 38.5 degrees, chills in 30 degree weather, sore throat, coughing, and all.
You know something's wrong with you when the most annoying thing about a 38.5 degree fever is that it raises the temperature of your breath enough to make you play sharp at Saturday and Sunday's orchestra rehearsal. (OK, I did feel like total crap on Friday and couldn't have cared less about my playing, but on the weekend I felt well enough to stress)
Thankfully, by the end of Sunday my temperature went down enough for me to play in tune for the Monday night concert. Which, by the way, went awesomely, because nobody could tell that I completely bluffed my way through all my 'solos' (They're not really solos, because I'm 2nd clarinet, and 1st clarinet and I pass the melody back and forth between each other, but we are technically each carrying the melody on our own during our turns). The other two pieces in the concert, which I didn't play in because woodwinds rotate seats, sounded great, and we had a fun little party afterwards at the Glenferrie Hotel where I got to meet all the people whose faces, but not names, I knew from rehearsals. Unfortunately, I can't relax because I signed up to play in concert class on Thursday, and I've got to go practise for that.
Concert class is basically a class which is a component of Practical Study 1-1, which is the main focus of a performance-based music degree here. Every week each year takes turns to hold a recital. Everyone in your year goes to watch the recital, and there's a signup beforehand for people who volunteer to play. You put on the recital, do the bows, etc, and the people in the audience later hand in a review of your performance which you can read. Every fourth week is an all-years recital.
This week is an all-years. Therefore, I will be playing, alone except for an accompanist, in front of pretty much the whole population of undergrad music students, and I get to hog the whole stage for 12 minutes, playing the most famous concerto ever written for clarinet from memory, which undoubtedly everyone in the audience will know. I AM GOING TO DIE. I WAS HIGH ON SOMETHING WHEN I PUT MY NAME DOWN. WHAT WAS I THINKING? I WON'T EVEN GET TO WARM UP BECAUSE I HAVE FREAKING LEGAL METHOD AND REASONING ON THE OTHER SIDE OF CAMPUS STRAIGHT BEFORE AND I'LL HAVE TO RUN TO MAKE IT IN TIME! It'll be fun, and good experience and all that jazz. :)
I am starting to entertain the idea of dropping law. It will probably not go anywhere because I actually genuinely like law, I just think that it's limiting a lot of my music opportunities. Thoughts?
(I should probably make the disclaimer that I've entertained that idea quite a lot recently, but all of them have been at times where there is a big unappetizing pile of reading like the one currently on my desk due the next day.)
Today there was a death threat on my answering machine. Honestly. Somone is "watching my every move", and I'm going to be killed very soon.
Hold the 000 call, folks. It's all part of a game we're playing at college called Assassins. Basically, everyone has a target who they have to "kill" (no actual violence involved), and when you kill someone, you get their target. The game keeps going until no one is left. There's a bunch of rules about when you can and can't kill someone (they can't be in their bedrooms, at work or in a tute or lecture, other Ormondians can't be around, and etc), and that's basically the game. It's very amusing watching the paranoia levels rising steadily in the college - people literally can't walk anywhere by themselves for fear of getting killed. I haven't killed my target yet, but I'm still alive. The game's been fun. In fact, at the moment I'm enjoying college more - it's feeling a lot more like home. Typical that I start to settle in nicely right before the Easter break. :)
Today I went to the library and braved the horrors of photocopying and actually borrowing books. I felt pretty pleased with myself afterwards, although I did have to ask my sister to come with me. I don't know whether I thought there was actually a Hellmouth under the Baillieu or what, but I was seriously intimidated. Of course, it ended up being easier than I thought, and actually kind of fun wandering through the bookshelves. I was researching for my Cinema Studies report, and the journals were really interesting, and I found myself thinking I should photocopy some articles purely for recreational purposes. Sad and pathetic, I know.
I missed the JWAS screening on Monday because I went to a library class for Cinema Studies. But there's a second screening tomorrow from 1 to 2, which I'll definitely be at, particularly because I'm getting my own copy of the season 8 comic - woo hoo! Trivia last Thursday was awesome, not least of all because my team actually won! I was pretty stoked, because I wasn't expecting to win.
Tomorrow's a busy day - three hour Chem prac, JWAS at lunch, then three hours of lectures in the afternoon. Should be fun.
I hate when people whine and complain on their blogs, that's why I'm glad I don't have to read what I write.
I cant believe it. It's the 5th week and I am BORED. My whole routine consists of going to uni and then...coming home. I barely do anything on the weekends. It's pathetic. I seem to be severly lacking in the friends department. I have about 2 friends, and a few other people who I pass by and say hi to every week. I thought that by now I'd have a group of cronies together. Not just friends but, you know, mates. It's not that I'm anti-social but even in tutes and lectures, you say hi to the person next to you and it pretty much peaks at that. Then it's goobye. Sigh. It's getting to the point where I'm starting to find it really difficult to study because I know at the end of all that reading and researching, there isn't gonna be any party or get-together or beer-drinking at the pub. There's no reward. Study study study, then sleep, then go to school and come home and repeat. I know, isn't it just riveting?! If things get any sadder around me a funeral might just break out.
In closing I just hope that this is going to be a temporary thing and that in a few months or hopefully a few days, I'll be looking back at this blog sheepishly, in total embarassment at how whiney and pathetic I came across. Hopefully by then there'll be a new entry about how I need to stop hanging out with my huge circle of friends, or how I need to cut down on the parties and booze conferences because it's getting too much. Now there's a post I look forward to writing.
Things I achieved this week:
1. Watched all 6 'Rocky' movies, including 'Rocky Balboa' - awesome! I think my favourite is the third one with Mr T, but a tough choice. As I type I'm listening to 'Gonna Fly Now'.
2. Bought a new dress on Saturday, which is a massive achievement because I don't normally like shopping because I can never find anything that I like/suits me.
3. Picked up on Saturday night - perhaps this could be attributed to the aforementioned dress?
4. Had a driving lesson
5. Drove to Traralgon in 4 hours (which is normally a 2 hour trip - don't ask)
6. Went for a swim. I haven't been for about a billion years (ie. 1 and a half) and man, was I sore afterwards.
7. Earned a decent amount of cash at work - have to make the most of it before the store closes!
8. Booked tickets to Dylan Moran (they're a prezzie fore mum's birthday).
9. Organised for my brother and a bunch of cousins to see Stephen K Amos - yay!
10. Watched two years worth of the Melbourne Comedy Gala, bloody hilarious and I can't wait for it to start!
Things I did not achieve this week:
1. My spanish study, bad move because I barely understood the lecture this week.
2. Finish reading 'The Secret River' by Kate Grenville for Australia Now, I can't help it, it's just too boring!
3. Wanted to start my Australia Now assingment by seeing as I haven't finished the book I didn't start.
4. I haven't even started reading 'To The Lighthouse' for Modern Lit.
5. Speaking of Modern Lit, I had intended to get a big chunk of the assignment done, did I? Of course not!
6. Didn't start my USA Today essay, but on the plus side, I did pick a question: 'Is it reasonable for America to restrict some freedoms in the interest of security? How far can this go without compromising the ideals in which Americans believe?' I actually think this will be interesting and am looking forward to starting it.
So, here's to a more productive week!
Ok, u might be wondering what that could possibly be...I found it stupid but yeh, it was funny as well! I climbed the stairs of Redmond Barry buidling all the way to the 10th floor even though the lift was working up and about. Why? The lift was so damn crowded I decided to do that. Not just me, but my friends were with me as well. Few days ago, I had walked down the stairs and it went pretty fast, so I thought this wouldn't be a problem. I climbed till the second floor and my legs began aching. Didn't give up. Continued on and on. My breath started to decrease. My friends were dragging themselves behind me and I just went on. Everytime, I reached a floor, my friend goes, __ floors to go. I still cannot believe we made it! We had to stop for sometime to regain our state and went to our bio class. Fortunately, the lecturer wasn't as boring as usual, so we forgot abt it. That's the story, I'll never do it again (unless I'm in desperate need of exercise)
I missed a chem prac this week coz I had another committment and I was so annoyed it was on this day, but now I'm glad it happened coz I was put in another grp with a nicer kinder demonstrator. She was so helpful and we didn't even need to write down the whole report! If it was my usual demonstrator, we would have to do that... so, I am soo happy!!
Next, we had this wonderful chem tute going on, when this alarm goes off requiring everyone in the chem buidling to evacuate. It was right in the middle of an important topic, so I was so annoyed! Then we had to sit on the grass in a circle and ofcourse, not everyone could hear our tutor speaking and see her drawing. Later, we noticed eevryone going back in and so we did the same. I wonder what happened...
Bio is so seriously interesting!! I think going to Burnley is worth it. I missed out on getting bio in year 11&12, so this is simply great. I find the lady lecturers quite boring whereas this guy is so different and he makes it so wonderful with facts and stories. We learnt abt photosynthesis and it's quite incredible that it happens every second around us, even as I write this and even as u read this. So many plants in this world from the minute to the giant ones and each one of those has this basic reaction which is so important in this world. Fascinating! Always glad to end my friday classes with bio (only when we have this guy!)
Till next time
I really really need to start practising more. Faculty of Music guidelines state that you should be practising at least 3-4 hours a day, and right now I'm averaging about two and a half. It's not enough, both in terms of the amount of hours, and in terms of the progress I'm making. I have the time to do it, but I really don't like the idea of cutting out sleep, or downtime, because I feel that if you don't take short breaks between productive activity, you suffer bigtime from diminishing returns, not to mention risk your sanity.
I'm also kind of wondering how I should structure my practise time, really. Back in high school I did music in my spare time, so it wasn't really a big deal -- I'd practise all my major and minor scales and arpeggios, legato only, for half an hour, then I'd work on a piece for an hour, and spend another half an hour on miscellaneous stuff like a second piece, or a study, or some orchestra stuff. But here there's just so much to practise; even if I did practise four hours daily every day, I still wouldn't be able to fit everything in.
Anyway, I have a tendency to plan things in blogs because typing it out when under the impression that I have to explain it to someone else helps me think. You can totally ignore the rest of this post because it's really just a brain dump that has no relevance to anyone other than me. And yes, it sounds kind of creepily organised, but it's not, I rarely ever actually follow any of my plans, but it still really helps just to think about it all, even if I never refer to it again, just so that I have the psychological effect of knowing that it is actually possible to get it done.
The list of things I have to practise goes something like this:
1) All major and minor scales, arpeggios, and broken chords. Legato, staccato, and two types of mixed articulation (if I did this all in one practise session, it would take two and a half hours. I've tried. And I wanted to shoot myself out of boredom afterwards, so I think I'll definitely have to spread this out over multiple sessions across a week)
2) Two etudes for the technical exam (half an hour each for decent progress)
3) Two orchestral excerpts for the technical exam (don't know how long these'll take because we haven't been told what to prepare yet)
4) Real orchestral material, for orchestra. (one hour to make a decent amount of progress)
5) Pieces which I'm learning for fun, for concert class performances, as possible choices for end of year recital, and college tutorials (an hour each, and I'm currently working on two or three, but all are fairly low priority at the moment)
6) Miscellaneous material for woodwind class projects (I'm just going to pick things which overlap with the rest of the goals to save time, so this should at most be 15 extra minutes)
7) Aural studies solfege and rhythm exercises, which I set aside 20-30 minutes a day for (the lecturer recommends ten minutes a day, but I am truly and totally terrible at both solfege and rhythm, so I like to spend extra time since it's not a huge time commitment anyway)
8) Warm ups and cool downs, because if you don't do these before practise, especially as a wind player, you run the very real risk of all sorts of nasty health problems, like repetitive strain injuries and orthodontal problems.
9) Random noisemaking. Just for fun, because I think it's important to have fun :)
So if I were to do all that in one session, I would need a practise room for about 6-7 hours a day. That would be problematic because:
a) Practise room overcrowding means that I probably wouldn't be able to find a room for that long unless I practised at the Berkeley Street or Royal Parade practise block at 3 am in the morning.
b) If I actually did 6 hours a day, I'd probably flunk out of law.
c) Most of the readily available practise rooms feel like coffins because they're small padded rooms which have no windows or sources of ventilation.
Clearly, I have to spread it out:
a) All scales, arpeggios, and broken chords, in one type of articulation per day (1 hour, but usually takes up to half an hour longer because sometime during the broken chords my attention span ends and I end up thinking about what to eat for lunch instead)
b) One etude (half an hour)
c) Orchestra work and orchestral excerpts (half an hour)
d) A piece (half an hour)
e) Block of time allocated to anything else that needs immediate attention (45 minutes)
f) Various break times and warmup times.
which means that I need access to a practise room for about four hours a day, and that I'll actually be practising for about three and a quarter hours + warmup + random noisemaking. Ideally I have to spread this throughout the day, because it actually does take a very long time to fully get over being tired from practise, so maybe I'll split it into four one hour sessions, two hours in the afternoon, and two hours in the evening. (Almost all my lectures are in the morning on Mon-Thu. It's a pity, because I'm most awake about an hour after breakfast, and as much as I appreciate being awake for a discussion on formalism and procedural legality in the law every morning, I really would like that extra level of concentration for practise too)
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