Thursday, May 22, 2008
look out on a summer's day
What a crazy two weeks this has been!
Okay, so last week, I found out that I will be taking remedial math as soon as I graduate high school. I had kind of resigned myself to this thought anyways, it's just a bit depressing to see it on paper that in college, I'll be eligible for "3rd of 4 Development Math". Blaahhhh.
Dad sent us all an article today about how people's attention spans are decreasing as we become more conditioned to high-speed everything. I've been thinking this for quite some time. The topic of the article was lack of attention in college lectures, but that's not the only area of concern. Think about it. When classical music was THE music, songs lasted about 10-12 minutes on average. Skip ahead to 40 years ago, songs were 5-6 minutes long. Skip ahead to now, songs are about 3 minutes long. Now think about movies. Movies used to be, on average, 4 hours long. Now movies are, on average, 1 1/2-2 hours long. I hate hearing from people, "I hated that movie, it was so long!" Can you really not sit still for more than 2 hours? That's why I appreciate movies that dare to be 3 hours or longer, such as The Lord of the Rings trilogy, King Kong, The Pianist, Walk the Line, etc. etc. It also explains part of why we hardly ever actually WRITE anymore. Almost everything is done on computer, because typing is faster. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but there was a time when people took the time to write beautifully on paper, and it was a skill developed and practiced. Now calligraphy is basically obscelete, because no one wants to take the time or attention to write presentably.
Today I registered at Northwest Vista for fall dual credit classes. I'm taking English 1 and French 1, and I'm very excited. I've always wanted to speak French, plus, assuming I major in music, a romance language looks great on a transcript. The dual credit advisor also gave me a brochure for this summer's drama and music camps for children that they need volunteer counselors for--and since I have experience in both (and TEACHING both), she said that I would have a guaranteed spot. so this could be fun! Plus, they're building a new Performing Arts center on the campus, which I'm excited about.
Grand Recital was on Sunday night. It actually went very well! The Blairs, Cohoons, and Amy and Mr. Fehrenbach were so great and came. :) I was very pleased with how Fantasy turned out. And I thought my singing was alright. CJ is a fantastic accompaniest.
My heart breaks for Steven Curtis Chapman and his family. His daugher, Maria Sue was killed in an awful car accident. Please pray for them, that God will give them peace.
These days I'm playing Chopin's Ballade in G Minor. It's definitely one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. It's about 7 minutes long, and completely breathtaking. Oh, if I didn't mention it before, I love Chopin now. I think the reason I didn't like his music for so long was because I hadn't heard enough of it, and developed a premature opinion.
My Psaltina costume is close to done! I just have to decorate it. Never ending thanks to Teresa for making it! I actually see the play coming together these days. We're getting into choreography, and I think it will be great when it's finished.
Oh, something worth mentioning. Today is May 22. Which means that my family has officially lived in San Antonio for exactly 7 years now. We left Hawaii on May 21, 2001, and got to San Antonio on May 22. It's so strange for me to think about that. Living in Hawaii was incredible, and one of the best times of my life, but when you think about it, I lived there for two years, from right after I turned 6 to right before I turned 9. The rest of my life that I remember has been spent here in Texas. My goodness I miss Hawaii! I miss the people and the beautiful, unique atmosphere.
Now I must go make dinner.
Okay, so last week, I found out that I will be taking remedial math as soon as I graduate high school. I had kind of resigned myself to this thought anyways, it's just a bit depressing to see it on paper that in college, I'll be eligible for "3rd of 4 Development Math". Blaahhhh.
Dad sent us all an article today about how people's attention spans are decreasing as we become more conditioned to high-speed everything. I've been thinking this for quite some time. The topic of the article was lack of attention in college lectures, but that's not the only area of concern. Think about it. When classical music was THE music, songs lasted about 10-12 minutes on average. Skip ahead to 40 years ago, songs were 5-6 minutes long. Skip ahead to now, songs are about 3 minutes long. Now think about movies. Movies used to be, on average, 4 hours long. Now movies are, on average, 1 1/2-2 hours long. I hate hearing from people, "I hated that movie, it was so long!" Can you really not sit still for more than 2 hours? That's why I appreciate movies that dare to be 3 hours or longer, such as The Lord of the Rings trilogy, King Kong, The Pianist, Walk the Line, etc. etc. It also explains part of why we hardly ever actually WRITE anymore. Almost everything is done on computer, because typing is faster. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but there was a time when people took the time to write beautifully on paper, and it was a skill developed and practiced. Now calligraphy is basically obscelete, because no one wants to take the time or attention to write presentably.
Today I registered at Northwest Vista for fall dual credit classes. I'm taking English 1 and French 1, and I'm very excited. I've always wanted to speak French, plus, assuming I major in music, a romance language looks great on a transcript. The dual credit advisor also gave me a brochure for this summer's drama and music camps for children that they need volunteer counselors for--and since I have experience in both (and TEACHING both), she said that I would have a guaranteed spot. so this could be fun! Plus, they're building a new Performing Arts center on the campus, which I'm excited about.
Grand Recital was on Sunday night. It actually went very well! The Blairs, Cohoons, and Amy and Mr. Fehrenbach were so great and came. :) I was very pleased with how Fantasy turned out. And I thought my singing was alright. CJ is a fantastic accompaniest.
My heart breaks for Steven Curtis Chapman and his family. His daugher, Maria Sue was killed in an awful car accident. Please pray for them, that God will give them peace.
These days I'm playing Chopin's Ballade in G Minor. It's definitely one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. It's about 7 minutes long, and completely breathtaking. Oh, if I didn't mention it before, I love Chopin now. I think the reason I didn't like his music for so long was because I hadn't heard enough of it, and developed a premature opinion.
My Psaltina costume is close to done! I just have to decorate it. Never ending thanks to Teresa for making it! I actually see the play coming together these days. We're getting into choreography, and I think it will be great when it's finished.
Oh, something worth mentioning. Today is May 22. Which means that my family has officially lived in San Antonio for exactly 7 years now. We left Hawaii on May 21, 2001, and got to San Antonio on May 22. It's so strange for me to think about that. Living in Hawaii was incredible, and one of the best times of my life, but when you think about it, I lived there for two years, from right after I turned 6 to right before I turned 9. The rest of my life that I remember has been spent here in Texas. My goodness I miss Hawaii! I miss the people and the beautiful, unique atmosphere.
Now I must go make dinner.
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2 Comments:
Suze...can't remember any time in the history of movies where the average movie length was more than 3 hrs. And also, I think the writer of the article specifically DIDN'T want us sitting in front of tv/movies all the time, b/c media/internet is our only stimulation these days, so longer movies might be defeating the purpose, numbing us for longer periods of time. just my thoughts.
I don't know, I liked the longer version of Pride and Predudice much better than the more recent shorter one.
On the other hand, I much prefer the shorter version of Mansfield Park. I don't know if there is a longer movie out there but the book was just too long. Simply because it dragged on with way too many little details.
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