I can't believe it's already July now. I still have EPGY to look forward to, but it's getting kinda shocking that not too long ago I was having a lot of fun at "Mexico" on a cruise ship with so many other people from school. And yes, I have a couple blog posts there I need to also post here sometime this week.
I have been having trouble remembering to keep everything organized properly on this blog. There's stuff from Mexico I still need to copy and paste into here (from the document on the netbook). Likewise, I still am working on typing up those Camp Royal journal entries. And lastly, I have some stuff from Composition Week that I should also scan and upload to Flickr or something. I don't know. Documenting my life is hard, especially if I want to be so detail-oriented.
However, I do need to pause and reflect quickly. Today was basically a blunt reminder of how it was like to be at Camp Royal. Working at the Bay Area Rescue Mission reminds me way too much that Camp Royal is, in my opinion, designed to inspire love. Of course, working alongside the other Interact people (as kitchen volunteers) who are with me for this project also reminds me of how much love we all had for each other there. And I was so happy I got do to a power woosh to one of the kitchen assistants. That's probably still the main little thing I miss from camp. And that place is not too far from that Richmond RPAL. That means I better start thinking about having KIWIN'S go help out there one day...closer to some holiday time, just for fun. And along with Interact or something. I have no idea, but there are some great people in this world...it's just hard to find them, and even harder to find such people if you see them everyday in mundane school conditions.
Let's see...another thing I need to reflect on is my video I made for the Bombardier CRJ700. I like how I finally realized that turning on high-resolution textures wouldn't slow down the rendering in FSX. The only stuff that really slows it down are the 3D buildings and terrain. So finally being able to see my favorite FSX plane with a virtual cockpit that is very high detailed...that basically inspired me to make this takeoff video:
Anyway, I'll get along with typing up Day 4 of Camp Royal, and call it a night.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Composition Week Day 3 - Song for Camp Royal
2010-06-29 23:15
It sure was a surprise this morning. When I woke up, my body didn’t want to get out of the bed, and I saw that the room was getting rather bright. I came to my senses and realized that it was already 8:15. So I woke up my roommate and I quickly hurried to get breakfast. But then during breakfast, there was still plenty of food left, so I was okay. Otherwise I could just munch on some crackers or cereal.
Er...I kinda made up that time for this blog post. I was busy reading so I forgot to note down the time I have here. But let’s see, it’s now 00:16, so I’ll speed things up a bit. Or well..I actually spent another hour reading stuff on Graphjam. That’s a good use of time.
Eh...I’m going to say I have an interesting challenge for this week...a composition with non-standard notation.
And also, I have to say while showering, I came up with some possible lyrics to that song I am attempting to write about Camp Royal. And I mean a legitimate song with words, sung at a campfire with a guitar. No one knows about this yet...since this post isn’t published yet. But I have to say that this piece I’m trying to do is probably a hidden desire that I have while here at Westminster College. I’ll give the score to a guitarist to look over, and I’ll be e-mailing Lain, Steve, and other Camp Royal people with my creation as soon as it’s done.
I guess this will be my secondary focus for the rest of this week...since Wednesday is the halfway mark. And it finally cooled down a bit here.
It sure was a surprise this morning. When I woke up, my body didn’t want to get out of the bed, and I saw that the room was getting rather bright. I came to my senses and realized that it was already 8:15. So I woke up my roommate and I quickly hurried to get breakfast. But then during breakfast, there was still plenty of food left, so I was okay. Otherwise I could just munch on some crackers or cereal.
Er...I kinda made up that time for this blog post. I was busy reading so I forgot to note down the time I have here. But let’s see, it’s now 00:16, so I’ll speed things up a bit. Or well..I actually spent another hour reading stuff on Graphjam. That’s a good use of time.
Eh...I’m going to say I have an interesting challenge for this week...a composition with non-standard notation.
And also, I have to say while showering, I came up with some possible lyrics to that song I am attempting to write about Camp Royal. And I mean a legitimate song with words, sung at a campfire with a guitar. No one knows about this yet...since this post isn’t published yet. But I have to say that this piece I’m trying to do is probably a hidden desire that I have while here at Westminster College. I’ll give the score to a guitarist to look over, and I’ll be e-mailing Lain, Steve, and other Camp Royal people with my creation as soon as it’s done.
I guess this will be my secondary focus for the rest of this week...since Wednesday is the halfway mark. And it finally cooled down a bit here.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Composition Week Day 2 - ILS landing charts go with with music paper
Dr. Young and Dr. Hemmel are two of our main instructors in composition for this week. And I have to say that atonal music will take sometime for me to appreciate fully. But I will speak chronologically.
We were handed a sheet of paper all with eighth notes. Dr. Hemmel said mark it up, add ties, slurs, articulation, and dynamic markings to make something out of the piece. I thought to myself that the laziest solution to this is to tie all of the eighth notes into one long note. And come to think of it, leaving the paper the way it is would also be a unique rhythm. But I didn’t do that. Here’s my markup (hmm... reminds me of HTML):
[picture]
I have to say that I had this repeating D minor chord playing back in my head as I was marking it up. I also screwed up some counting (since I intended it to be all 4/4 time). But I figured it wouldn’t matter, so I just changed meters a couple of times. It’s a pretty amusing and different way to write music. And with Camp Royal speak, it’s definitely out of my “comfort zone.”
After this rhythm exercise with Dr. Hemmel, my class began to look at some compositions and dissected some of them. So here I am, with basically no knowledge about atonal music (except knowing that it exists), trying to listen to the piece that had a hard to discern melody. But I could see that some of these recurring patterns in the sheet music...I just couldn’t pick them up when I heard it at first. Dr. Young picked apart the piece, much like the way Litvin would do for AP Lang. And for 20 minutes, I understood exactly what was going on, and I was able to see that, say, this tritone is used again here, and that this sequence of notes is inverted, and all that good stuff. After that time, I have to be honest and say that I couldn’t follow with the rest of the explanations about how certain musical ideas were not accidents but planned references to previous material. It’s still hard for me to love listening to this music, but I can really see how much thought a composer (in this case Werbern) put into such pieces.
Then came lunch. Nothing special there...or no, I lie. I took out an ILS Landing chart for Runway 4R at Newark International Airport. I started tracing the ILS feather into staff paper, and plotted VORs in the staves. Then getting an idea from Dr. Hemmel - his piece Var. Zip - I used the radio frequencies as pitches. Like 123.45 would be, on my constructed system, C D E F G, all quarter notes, except a dotted quarter for E. And then I remembered that those radios broadcast Morse code for the airport as it’s identifier. KEWR: dah-di-dah dit di-dah-dah di-dah-dit. That could be use as a rhythmic motif. And so on. When I talked to Dr. Hemmel during my private instruction time, he showed me this honda advertisement video using only a choir:
Yeah that is crazy. And yet, it could be employed for an airplane landing (much more pleasing to my ears than a car driving along the road).
Let’s see, we also went into town, and got a look at Princeton. And I went to a record store. I bought 4 CDs...Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto Nos. 1, 2 and 3 (2 disc set), and Beatles’s Yellow Submarine. That set me back about 16 dollars.
And er... I played my piano concerto to some classmates. Yeah, I made mistakes, and yeah, it sounds more boring with just piano and no orchestra.
Here’s my conclusion for our first day of instruction...if there’s so much my professors can talk about today, there must be an immense amount of stuff left over to go over in this week. I’ll see all of the stuff I can absorb and use for future reference. (for now, Dr. Hemmel’s advice...more inversions of chords, and also cut out sound from video and just recreate it using sound effects).
We were handed a sheet of paper all with eighth notes. Dr. Hemmel said mark it up, add ties, slurs, articulation, and dynamic markings to make something out of the piece. I thought to myself that the laziest solution to this is to tie all of the eighth notes into one long note. And come to think of it, leaving the paper the way it is would also be a unique rhythm. But I didn’t do that. Here’s my markup (hmm... reminds me of HTML):
[picture]
I have to say that I had this repeating D minor chord playing back in my head as I was marking it up. I also screwed up some counting (since I intended it to be all 4/4 time). But I figured it wouldn’t matter, so I just changed meters a couple of times. It’s a pretty amusing and different way to write music. And with Camp Royal speak, it’s definitely out of my “comfort zone.”
After this rhythm exercise with Dr. Hemmel, my class began to look at some compositions and dissected some of them. So here I am, with basically no knowledge about atonal music (except knowing that it exists), trying to listen to the piece that had a hard to discern melody. But I could see that some of these recurring patterns in the sheet music...I just couldn’t pick them up when I heard it at first. Dr. Young picked apart the piece, much like the way Litvin would do for AP Lang. And for 20 minutes, I understood exactly what was going on, and I was able to see that, say, this tritone is used again here, and that this sequence of notes is inverted, and all that good stuff. After that time, I have to be honest and say that I couldn’t follow with the rest of the explanations about how certain musical ideas were not accidents but planned references to previous material. It’s still hard for me to love listening to this music, but I can really see how much thought a composer (in this case Werbern) put into such pieces.
Then came lunch. Nothing special there...or no, I lie. I took out an ILS Landing chart for Runway 4R at Newark International Airport. I started tracing the ILS feather into staff paper, and plotted VORs in the staves. Then getting an idea from Dr. Hemmel - his piece Var. Zip - I used the radio frequencies as pitches. Like 123.45 would be, on my constructed system, C D E F G, all quarter notes, except a dotted quarter for E. And then I remembered that those radios broadcast Morse code for the airport as it’s identifier. KEWR: dah-di-dah dit di-dah-dah di-dah-dit. That could be use as a rhythmic motif. And so on. When I talked to Dr. Hemmel during my private instruction time, he showed me this honda advertisement video using only a choir:
Yeah that is crazy. And yet, it could be employed for an airplane landing (much more pleasing to my ears than a car driving along the road).
Let’s see, we also went into town, and got a look at Princeton. And I went to a record store. I bought 4 CDs...Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto Nos. 1, 2 and 3 (2 disc set), and Beatles’s Yellow Submarine. That set me back about 16 dollars.
And er... I played my piano concerto to some classmates. Yeah, I made mistakes, and yeah, it sounds more boring with just piano and no orchestra.
Here’s my conclusion for our first day of instruction...if there’s so much my professors can talk about today, there must be an immense amount of stuff left over to go over in this week. I’ll see all of the stuff I can absorb and use for future reference. (for now, Dr. Hemmel’s advice...more inversions of chords, and also cut out sound from video and just recreate it using sound effects).
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Composition Week Day 1 - It is darn HUMID here
2010-06-27 23:10
I’m going to keep this post short and sweet. There’s nothing to say yet, and it’s time for bed. I need to get used to this weather. It’s humid, and a lot different compared to the mountain weather I am used to at Camp Royal. Regardless, there have been nice things here. Plenty of space to practice...and plenty of grand pianos in tune (meh, I still kinda miss that broken piano at camp) and a full digital workstation.
More details tomorrow...jet lag is not cool.
I’m going to keep this post short and sweet. There’s nothing to say yet, and it’s time for bed. I need to get used to this weather. It’s humid, and a lot different compared to the mountain weather I am used to at Camp Royal. Regardless, there have been nice things here. Plenty of space to practice...and plenty of grand pianos in tune (meh, I still kinda miss that broken piano at camp) and a full digital workstation.
More details tomorrow...jet lag is not cool.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Composition Week Day 0 - Flight to Newark
2010-06-26 22:48
The time I have listed for the blog post is Pacific Standard Time, as my take off location was San Francisco International Airport.
I am currently on a Boeing 757-300, at 35,000 ft. I brought along a compass, but I don’t believe that I am flying 100 degrees...that needle probably is badly magnetized. The pilot told us we would be scheduled to land on time, on Runway 4R. I’ll pull out my charts when the time comes.
So when I first boarded this 757...I thought, “hey, it looks just like a 737!” Only a lot longer and stretched out. Even the flight attendant told one of the passengers: “this plane is a Boeing 757-300...a stretched, stretched limo.” Plus the wings are longer and higher off the ground. And also, I listened to the whine of the engine as it started up...a different sound compared to the engines Southwest uses for their Boeing 737 fleet. I believe the ones on this plane is something by Rolls Royce. I’ll look it up when the time comes. One more detail I should mention...I am seated towards the rear of the airplane...and I can really see that wing flex.
The take off video I got is here:
I believe I took off from Runway 1R. It was pretty dark and I couldn’t see for sure. And man I forgot how shaky it can be when we are rolling down that runway so fast. But then again, this is a full flight...packed to maximum basically. The only few seats that are open are the seats that you have to pay an extra $79 or $99 for extra legroom. That’s just stupid. I’m glad that I could get a window seat at the last minute...that’s good enough. Like really, I originally was seated for a middle seat, and I’m very grateful for whoever gave up this seat for a different one.
About 10 minutes ago, the flight attendants delivered some pretzals. And now I got a can of Sprite. That should keep me satisfied for a while, and hopefully I won’t need to use the lavatory. One thing I notice is that the tray tables don’t have a little cup holder thing. It’s all flat. I guess that’s okay. However it kinda was very amusing on my British Airways flight to London, when we were served tea for breakfast. Just when we got the tea, we experienced a little turbulence. I should find that video of the tea just shaking with ripples...threatening to spill over at any minute.
Hmm...I just managed to spill soda over my lap. That was very annoying. I probably shouldn’t have been thinking about the tea incident as much...that way I could have been more mindful about how I am handling the tea.
I think I should stop talking about logistics of this flight and finish up some thoughts about the music composition program. I really need to get some rest since this is a red eye flight, and I’ll be dog tired when I get over there. Currently it is 02:30 on the East Coast.
One of the things I definitely want to say is that I brought along my piano concerto and I believe the Camp Royal Waltz. I’ll be using those for show and tell. And of course, I have Florence, but I totally have no clue where the DVD of it is. I’ll just look it up on YouTube and give it to the staff. So I’ll need to worry about that music later.
Hmm... at 35,000 ft, it is a darn clear night. I can see towns and city blocks from this altitude. I still have no idea where I am though. And I assume that I am around Utah or so, since it is about an hour into the flight. I don’t know what the pilot selected for cruising speed, so I’ll just assume Mach 0.80. I should have been able to travel at least 400 nautical miles by now. And there thing that looks weird is that there are these huge completely dark areas. It really looks like I am just in the ocean right now with a coastline.
I’m going to call this a blog post and get some rest. The spill is almost dried up, and falling asleep will help me forget about it. And I need to wake up on time for the landing as well.
The time I have listed for the blog post is Pacific Standard Time, as my take off location was San Francisco International Airport.
I am currently on a Boeing 757-300, at 35,000 ft. I brought along a compass, but I don’t believe that I am flying 100 degrees...that needle probably is badly magnetized. The pilot told us we would be scheduled to land on time, on Runway 4R. I’ll pull out my charts when the time comes.
So when I first boarded this 757...I thought, “hey, it looks just like a 737!” Only a lot longer and stretched out. Even the flight attendant told one of the passengers: “this plane is a Boeing 757-300...a stretched, stretched limo.” Plus the wings are longer and higher off the ground. And also, I listened to the whine of the engine as it started up...a different sound compared to the engines Southwest uses for their Boeing 737 fleet. I believe the ones on this plane is something by Rolls Royce. I’ll look it up when the time comes. One more detail I should mention...I am seated towards the rear of the airplane...and I can really see that wing flex.
The take off video I got is here:
I believe I took off from Runway 1R. It was pretty dark and I couldn’t see for sure. And man I forgot how shaky it can be when we are rolling down that runway so fast. But then again, this is a full flight...packed to maximum basically. The only few seats that are open are the seats that you have to pay an extra $79 or $99 for extra legroom. That’s just stupid. I’m glad that I could get a window seat at the last minute...that’s good enough. Like really, I originally was seated for a middle seat, and I’m very grateful for whoever gave up this seat for a different one.
About 10 minutes ago, the flight attendants delivered some pretzals. And now I got a can of Sprite. That should keep me satisfied for a while, and hopefully I won’t need to use the lavatory. One thing I notice is that the tray tables don’t have a little cup holder thing. It’s all flat. I guess that’s okay. However it kinda was very amusing on my British Airways flight to London, when we were served tea for breakfast. Just when we got the tea, we experienced a little turbulence. I should find that video of the tea just shaking with ripples...threatening to spill over at any minute.
Hmm...I just managed to spill soda over my lap. That was very annoying. I probably shouldn’t have been thinking about the tea incident as much...that way I could have been more mindful about how I am handling the tea.
I think I should stop talking about logistics of this flight and finish up some thoughts about the music composition program. I really need to get some rest since this is a red eye flight, and I’ll be dog tired when I get over there. Currently it is 02:30 on the East Coast.
One of the things I definitely want to say is that I brought along my piano concerto and I believe the Camp Royal Waltz. I’ll be using those for show and tell. And of course, I have Florence, but I totally have no clue where the DVD of it is. I’ll just look it up on YouTube and give it to the staff. So I’ll need to worry about that music later.
Hmm... at 35,000 ft, it is a darn clear night. I can see towns and city blocks from this altitude. I still have no idea where I am though. And I assume that I am around Utah or so, since it is about an hour into the flight. I don’t know what the pilot selected for cruising speed, so I’ll just assume Mach 0.80. I should have been able to travel at least 400 nautical miles by now. And there thing that looks weird is that there are these huge completely dark areas. It really looks like I am just in the ocean right now with a coastline.
I’m going to call this a blog post and get some rest. The spill is almost dried up, and falling asleep will help me forget about it. And I need to wake up on time for the landing as well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
