This first day of class for my cluster gave a rather good impression of how COSMOS in UCI functions. I like how in the morning, I wake up around 06:20, and my roommate also awake, much earlier than when quiet hours end. There are four people on my floor who prefer to take showers in the morning, of which my roommate is one of those four, and they will need time to prepare for breakfast. The dining hall opens at 07:00, but my suite’s RA decided we would leave as a group for breakfast by 07:30.
For breakfast, the only item which had some creative touches was an egg and cheese quesadilla. Everything else would be the delicious American continental breakfast choices. My night RA warned us not to eat too much “unhealthy” food or we could possibly gain 10 pounds before the end of the program. I don’t think any of the choices offered were ridiculously “unhealthy.” While my suitemates gathered for breakfast, we continued to introduce where the heck we came from. Afterward, there was a general discussion on the cluster we have signed up for and were deemed stupid enough to join. Lastly, there was a general discussion on our first impressions of COSMOS.
Upon finishing breakfast, we were dismissed back to our dorms to chat or resume sleeping, or play around in the quad area surrounding the dorms. Around 08:45, all students had to meet with their day RA for Cluster XYZ to be escorted to their respective classes. Cluster 6 for Mathematics of Music is and will be my cluster for the next four weeks.
Walking down the pavement and pass the sociology lecture hall, our group of approximately 20 students entered a rather small classroom with our three excellent instructors and teacher fellow. My cluster arrived so early that the TF had not arrived. Regardless, my instructor Tom and Jim began explaining the basics of the class. We were also reminded that Cluster 6 is the only cluster to receive laptops for the class, as mentioned in the student orientation the day before.
For the bulk of the class period, we managed to clarify a few concepts in music, what music is and how the class will lead us into creating a final project. One significant difference about this cluster, as mentioned by my instruction, is Mathematics of Music does not necessarily have the same level of research or experimentation as the other clusters. The simple reason is because music is creative. The other clusters research science topics in which the scientific method and real life research can apply. Therefore, since a final project for my cluster could be an original composition (with analysis, as my instructors will further explain tomorrow), such a project would not match the “science fair atmosphere” of the other clusters’ projects. This difference will be something I will get to learn about later in the class.
In general, Tom will be main lecturer, and will focus on rhythmic studies. Jim will focus on learning to use digital audio workstations, in this case, Logic Express. Since I consider myself to be a modern classical composer, my use of the workstation would be different compared to a person who wishes to break down existing music, manipulate it and personalize the piece to be his or her own. In general, I would use Sibelius 5 for my notation needs. Logic Express’ notation is lacking, as explained by Tom, and as I have deduced while fiddling with an iMac for hours in an Apple store. I can barely vision how this class will progress throughout the next four weeks.
Upon dismissal of out class, I had lunch with my classmates. Again, I ate all kinds of different foods there, and finished with a banana. My cluster members met outside of the dining hall, and we walked back to the same classroom. For the next hour, our teacher fellow Ania explained the “technical writing” portion of the class. One exercise included writing a summary of the topics covered in class, and then presenting the information back. In general, we will hone our communication skills with her instruction, and she will make sure we all are continually learning.
Being released from this class, my cluster’s day RA led us to the UCI bookstore. I managed to get on a MacBook Pro in the store, and e-mail a few pictures to my friends and to my blog at Posterous, which I set to automatically post to Blogger when the blog post is mailed to post@posterous.com. By the time I have Internet access in my room, this post should be after the post I made at the bookstore.
Between 16:30 and 17:30 - free time! Not really. All clusters met at the quad for a scavenger hunt. I would say it was more of a walking tour than a scavenger hunt. The clues were rather obvious after a minute of thinking, and we were allowed help from current students attending UCI, and our representative for our group was allowed to give the hot/cold hints of where we were walking, and the proximity of the location. In general, we were not expected to find anything specifically, but rather we had to walk and see the various locations on campus. Only one clue required our group to find people, and that was “find someone wearing red.” Exhausted from walking all around campus, our cluster was dismissed to dinner/recreation time/study time. Those terms so far are synonymous for “free time,” since we have not worked on our final projects yet.
I ate dinner, called home to say hi to my mom, watched CNET TV, took a shower, watched real TV in the day room, came back to my dorm with my roommate, played on Microsoft Flight Simulator X (demo), chatted with my roommate, brushed my teething and write this blog post. This blog post has been a little bit too detailed. Nevertheless, the overriding reason for writing so much is that this is my first day here at this program, and I wanted to remember as much as possible. For future blog posts, I will keep them to a writing time of 30 minutes maximum. This post took an hour to type.
The conclusion for my day, I am enjoying my time here so far. Or so the instructors and RAs are trying to brainwash us into thinking…
