My story for the day

So today I was getting out of the bus in Canberra for my 3'rd last MuST class ever (so sad!!!), and I saw something that made me smile. In fact, it cheered my up so much that I thought it might just be worth sharing with the readers of my blog.

The first character of the story was a frail-looking old man who I shall refer to as Mr. Hendrickson, since I don't know his real name. He was, like 99% of the old people who travel on the bus, the sort of person that comes across as a very slow, serious person - the type that still lives back in the time that they were born. Or so it seemed momentarily, anyway.

Enter Ms. Cartell (again, I don't know her real name), a complete stranger to myself, Mr. Hendrickson, and anyone else around at the time. At the time of the bus's arrival, Ms. Cartell was emerging from the shopping block carrying a small white rectangular box - you know, the sort of box people carry pies, cakes and other stuff in. Ms. Cartell was just the average working woman in her 40's, minding her own business and enjoying the sunshine while walking across the park.

Upon exiting the bus in the deliberate, steady manner so characteristic of the aged population, Mr. Hendrickson lifted up his head to see Ms. Cartell walking across the park with the aforementioned box in her hands. Suddenly something about Mr. Hendrickson changed when he caught sight of the box and utilising a sudden burst of energy, he ran - or should I say hobbled rather quickly - across the park to Ms. Cartell, and confronted her with a certain degree of abruptness. Mr. Hendrickson's new attitude was comparable to that of the excitement of a young child when they catch sight of the lollipop stand in a supermarket when he lifted up his radiant, beaming face in anticipation to ask Ms. Cartell in a voice quaveringly high with excitement, "Are *excited panting* - are those (pointing to box) - Krispy Kremes?"

With commendable presence of mind for somebody who had just been confronted in a rather surprising manner by an excitedly energetic 80-year-old, Ms. Cartell replied sympathetically, "No, I'm sorry. I'm afraid they aren't." 

The look of disappointment on Mr. Hendrickson's face was rather disheartening, so much so that I wished I could by him a Krispy Kreme donut and see his happy, childlike eagerness return. As everyone returned to their business and went their separate ways I thought to myself - no, I didn't think of some life lesson to be learned from it - actually, I thought, "Well that was a rather funny happening! Pity about the anticlimax, though."

Looking back on it, though, I do have one thing to share from the story: I want to be as cool as Mr. Hendrickson when I get old. 

And that was my story for today. Yes, feel free to tell me how much I fail at telling stories; I know it's all true.

P.S. My new favourite word is rather.

One of my all-time favourite songs...

... is a new piece of music we have called "Bow The Knee." It's a Christian worship song that we are learning to sing in 4-part harmony. At the moment I love it so much I just thought I'd share it with the world. Hopefully when you hear it you'll understand why. (To gain maximum appreciation of it, try to close your eyes, block out distractions, and just focus on the message of the music. Like a lot of songs, this one won't sound amazing unless you allow it to; e.g. don't just have it playing in the background while you do something else, or it won't sound that good.)

Below is an audio track of a professional choir performing it with an orchestra as well as the lyrics, in case you don't catch all the words the first time.

Bow The Knee


There are moments on our journey following the Lord
Where God illumines every step we take.
There are times when circumstances make perfect sense to us,
As we try to understand each move He makes.
When the path grow dim
And our questions have no answers, turn to Him.

Bow the knee; trust the heart of your Father when the answer goes beyond what you can see.
Bow the knee; lift your eyes toward heaven and believe the One who holds eternity.
And when you don't understand the purpose of His plan,
In the presence of the King, bow the knee.

There are days when clouds surround us, and the rain begins to fall,
The cold and lonely winds won't cease to blow.
And there seems to be no reason for the suffering we feel;
We are tempted to believe God does not know.
When the storms arise,
Don't forget we live by faith and not by sight.

Bow the knee; trust the heart of your Father when the answer goes beyond what you can see.

Bow the knee; lift your eyes toward heaven and believe the One who holds eternity.
And when you don't understand the purpose of His plan,
In the presence of the King,

Bow the knee; trust the heart of your Father when the answer goes beyond what you can see.
Bow the knee; lift your eyes toward heaven and blieve the One who holds eternity.
And when you don't understand the purpose of His plan,
In the presence of the King,
Bow the knee.

Music

So I thought I'd do a post about the thing that takes up so much of my time these days - music. This is the time of year when everything starts happening in Cooma, and the music-scene is no exception. In 3 weeks is the annual Cooma Music Competition which is the highlight of my year. We're not doing much this year, except a piece in the small vocal ensemble section. Our family (namely Mum, Bradley, Emma, Caitlyn, Sarah, and myself) has been getting into singing in 4-part harmony lately, so we thought it might be fun to do a piece in the competition.

The Snowy Mountains Ensemble is also expected to perform in the final concert as guests, so we have been polishing our best piece in preparation. On top of that, the Ensemble has been asked to put on a concert for some U3A Music Appreciation program thing the day before, which has kept us busy. Being a new ensemble with new music, there are only a couple of pieces we can play well, so our family ensemble will be playing some pieces to supplement. Unfortunately Joshua won't be back from Newcastle then, so Emma will be doing her first performance in this ensemble on viola (her main instrument is the violin, but she has taught herself how to play viola so that she can play the much-needed parts in ensemble pieces).

Speaking of ensembles, at MuST last week we had a masterclass with a touring ensemble from Chicago. It was really great to be able to talk to them about life as an ensemble musician and hear them play. They were doing a concert at the Wesley Music Centre that evening, but they played most of the program for us, so we essentially got a free concert!

Finally - and before you get too bored to read the rest of this post - I will announce the Snowy Mountains Ensemble's Christmas Carols. This coming Thursday and every Thursday from November 11 to the end of this school term we will be rehearsing simple, fun arrangements of Christmas carols - the idea is that we will invite as many people to join us for those rehearsals as possible, giving local musicians the opportunity to experience ensemble playing in a relaxed atmosphere, and hopefully, if they enjoy the experience, some of them will stay on as permanent members. Easy arrangements and an open strings violin part mean that musicians of any skill level are welcome, and we now have clarinet parts. After all the work we've put into organizing all this (and trust me, it has been hours upon hours of hard work), it would be very nice to see some people participating in and benefiting from this opportunity. So if you know of anyone around that plays an orchestral string or woodwind instrument, tell them to come! :-)

Apart from that there is not much to report, except that I am preparing for an audition next month and I've started learning the coolest piece ever written for flute (well... maybe not quite) - The Great Train Race by Ian Clarke, which is subtitled "The Flute as you don't usually hear it." Quite aptly so, too, as it employs several extended techniques such as residual fast tonguing, singing while playing (!!), lip bending, explosive harmonics, use of quarter-tones, multiphonics and optional circular breathing! It's very fascinating, but the bit that interests me most is the multiphonic section. Until last week I never knew that it was possible for a flute to play more than 1 note at a time - it turns out that flutes can play 2, or even 3 notes at once (multiphonics). Obviously I am very excited to learn this fascinating new piece...

 

I'm a fail blogger...

Yes, I realize how slack I've been. It seems like I haven't blogged for months. Life, as usual, has been moving too quickly to let me spend time blogging. As a matter of fact, I have hardly gotten any schoolwork done the last couple of weeks. About the only thing I HAVE done in the past week is music. And spending long hours sitting on the bus. In the past 8 days (last Tuesday to this Tuesday) I have spent over 22 hours travelling between here and Canberra. We had our 2'nd MuST workshop this week, as well as a separate Aboriginal music culture workshop (which was very interesting to say the least...).

As well as that I'm still adjusting to having to practice 2 instruments, getting used to the responsibility of leading Ensemble, and trying to get schoolwork done somewhere in between all of that! The good news is that the holidays are coming up, and with no music-related events for 2 whole weeks, I just might get time to blog again and show you photos of the latest litter of kittens.

Having said that - I must apologize for not doing a 'proper' post. Like I said, hopefully I'll find some time to do one next week. Thank you to all those who still read this.

Introducing... Vella, Edgar & Alexander!

At last I have names AND photos of all my instruments! Okay, so the piano's not mine - much as I wish it was. But I still feel like I own a part of it... or it owns a part of me. Anyway, this first photo is Vella, my flute. She's got a rather interesting story behind her name. We (Caitlyn and I) were in search of a name - or rather were trying to discover which name belonged to her, because we believe that everything has its own name and you just have to discover it, or so we like to think. Anyway, we providentially ran out of rabbit pellets at the same time as our usual animal feed store, so we had to buy some from a different store. The different brand of rabbit pellets was called "Vella." It didn't take us long to realize it was perfect. It started with 'V' (the 2 flute teachers at the ANU School of Music both have names starting with V), it suited her character, and we later found out that the name meant "beautiful." So she is essentially named after a brand of rabbit pellets. 

This is Edgar. Edgar means "wealthy, magnificent, or royal spear," or something along those linges. Obviously the spear bit doesn't apply, but it was nice to have a name that described the magnificent royalty which is present in all pianos. Taking this photo brought into sharp realization the true difficulty of taking photos of shiny, reflective objects!! If only you could have seen me balancing on the stool trying not to be in the reflection when I was taking this photo...

Last, but not least, is Alexander, who has been introduced previously. Not much of a story behind his name, but we all agree it suits his colour and tonal qualities. Interestingly enough, a cellist who started coming to a local music ensemble about the same time that I started playing bassoon in it also happens to be as crazy as me to name her cello - and coincidentally she named it Alexander too! It feels good to know that Alexander (the bassoon) will have a friend - and one with the same name, for that matter.

I know, the photo emphasises the piano more than the bassoon - I couldn't help it, though, as I didn't have anything else to stand the bassoon against that didn't look worse. I thought the bassoon and piano looked quite elegant together, though.

By the way, if anyone has any tips on how to take good photos of shiny objects, I'd love to hear them!

Openness

I'm not sure if that's the correct spelling, or if 'openness' is even a proper word. But it's something that's really been on my heart lately. One thing (of many) that really frustrates me is secretiveness, and I'm absolutely convinced that less of it - and consequently more openness - would solve a lot of the problems in our society. I'm constantly shocked at how much of their thoughts or feelings people will try to hide. I can only wonder how much more is hidden that we can't even detect. What frustrates me even more is that more often than not, these people don't really even have a good reason for hiding their thoughts! Maybe they do it because that's the way they've always done it, or because their family did it and they followed suit - however, the most common 'reason' seems to be that they will not volunteer extra information to someone unless the other person does it to them first. This just creates a bad case of circular reasoning; "I won't do it unless s/he does it and s/he won't do it unless I do it." So many people are left wondering what their friends, acquantaintances, and even family members are thinking just because they aren't open enough with each other! Imagine the problems this causes in their relationships. I can hardly think of something worse than 'friends' not being able to share with each other everything they're thinking.

Which brings me to another reason (which is relievingly more reasonable than the others) for lack of openness - the fear of offending someone. While there are a few people who can (and will) take offense very easily, I believe that the vast majority of people will respond very well to honest and genuine openness. The very fact that you care enough about your relationship with the person to bring up a topic like being open with each other should be enough to convince the friend that your intentions are sincere.

It's interesting being able to hear about people's own experiences with this. Half the people I see are convinced that if they told their friends what they really thought, they might take offense. The other half think that their friends are hiding things from them, creating a kind of barrier in the relationship. See the problem?

I happen to know quite a few people who are very open and will not hesitate to tell you exactly what they think, be it good or bad. Even though I am not particularly close to any of these people, I feel so much more comfortable when I'm around them, because I know that they aren't hiding anything from me. Besides, if I have a fault (and I know that I have plenty!) I really want to know about it so I can do something to fix it! Personally, I can't see any benefits from people not being open with me. I guarantee that you would find it pretty much impossible to offend me if you speak in genuine sincerity.

So here's your chance to tell me anything you've always been afraid to say before. If you've already told me everything (blessings to you!) but you'd like to hear my honest thoughts, please send an email anyway, mentioning this, and I would be delighted to oblige. I'd also like to encourage you to be open with all your other friends, acquaintances, and family members, and I guarantee that the relationships will be the better for it. Of course, I should mention that we can't do everything (or anything!) with our own power, and it is only with God's help that we will ever be able to solve any problems.

This week I have...

1) Had my first day at school (even if it was only for 1½ hours). That's right, a real school. I went to vaccinate the school's rabbit for one of the teachers who I know and she asked me to stay and sit in on her Year 10 Drama class.

2) Become the only double-reed player in Poa ensemble - and already I've been dragged into playing in a concert on Wednesday! Later on I found out that most bassoonists start out exactly the same way, due to the high demand for bassoons in ensembles.

3) Started a new subject/course called Successful Living. It is a 1-year study based on the first 9 chapters of the book of Proverbs. It looks great so far, and I'm very much looking forward to doing more work on it.

4) Saw a policeman directing traffic - definitely one of the highlights of my week.

5) Saw the number plate 'MY CAR' which happens to be one I've been looking for for years - one of the highlights of my month.

6) Have officially started teaching my first student - a family friend who is learning the flute. I've given him 6 lessons on a trial basis to see whether he is interested in continuing, which he is, so I'll be teaching him until at least the end of this term.

7) Finally gotten around to doing a blog post. Although I guess that's kind of self apparent...

And such concludes all the major happenings of my week that I can remember at the moment.

Lesson from my iPod

Well, not exactly, but something that happened with it taught me something. On the weekend Caitlyn and I were travelling on the bus up to Canberra for a rabbit show, and we were both listening to songs on my iPod. After some discussion as to which songs we should listen to, we decided to save 'the best' for later on in the trip, and started listening to some of the 'not-so-nice' songs. Unfortunately, though, we had only listened to a couple of songs before my iPod died (it has a habit of randomly turning itself on while it's in my bag, and playing until it runs out of battery). Imagine my frustration when we didn't get to hear any of our favourite songs, and then had 4 hours of sitting on the bus with nothing to listen to. I felt so silly for actually choosing not to listen to the good songs. It brought into sharp realization the fact that there is nothing to gain by saving good things for "later." There may not be a later. If you have something you want to do and you have the opportunity, don't wait. Just do it.

I'm the sort of person that is constantly setting goals for myself. It struck me how much I'm always thinking of a new goal and then putting it aside to do "later." I have stacks of goals to be completed some other time when it's more convenient. Well, one thing I've learnt lately is that life rarely (if ever) gets more convenient and that there is no time like the present. If you don't do something now you may never get the chance again.

So my new goal is to accomplish all of my goals as soon as opportunity presents itself without waiting for it. So I shall make a start by publishing this post before it gets so long that nobody wants to read it and before my laptop battery runs out and my computer dies.

Happy Holidays everyone!

The Brain

As usual, I've been doing random thinking, and the topic of much thought lately has been the brain. It really is an amazing creation! Take a moment to think about the tons of information that are stored in each human brain. If you're anything like I am, your brain does an almost-unbelievable amount of thinking each day - yet less than 2% of neural activity is conscious thought! If I try to measure the conscious thinking I do each day, multiply that by 49, and combine those two sums, the amount of work the brain does is just incredible! As if hard work isn't enough, it never gets any rest! While you're sleeping, your brain is still working hard processing all the information it has acquired over the course of the day, finding connections between the new information and "old" information, and filing away all the new data into suitable categories to be accessed at a later date.

Then take look at the memory. I am just amazed at the way the memory works. Rather than just filing away each separate piece of information into the related category/s like a man-made computer would, the brain searches all previously entered data for related information. It then establishes "connections" between all these pieces of information, forming a complete network so vast that it is incomprehensible. It is because of these "connections" that you find it easier to learn new things that are somehow related to something you know a lot about already. For me, I can read a paper on rabbit genetics and absorb every idea in the first reading, because I already know a lot in the area of rabbit genetics, and my brain can make more connections between the new and existing pieces of information. The more connections the brain has with a piece of information, the more likely you are to remember that bit of information. In the same way, I struggle to remember even very simple concepts of Geometry. Since I have only just started a Geometry course, everything is new to me, and it is taking a while to establish connections between all the pieces of new information and existing mathematical knowledge (of which there is very little, believe me! =P).

On the other hand, the human brain has a unique creative way of thinking. No animal's brain has the ability to process words and form an infinite number of sentences. Because of the superior brains God has given to man, however, even a toddler can create sentences which they have never heard before. Animals simply repeat things the way they were done by their ancestors, and follow the "instinct" that is programmed into them. A canary's song has always been the same, and always will be. Look at how much music has advanced over the ages, though! Not only do we have very complex music, but it is constantly changing, as humans seek to satisfy their urge to be creative and experiment with new things.

The more I learn about the human brain, the less I understand. How is it possible that a piece of flesh can store tons of data so effectively? It has an unlimited capacity for storing knowledge, but it is far from just an information bank. It gives us the ability to devise new ideas and be creative in our ways of doing things. Because of our creative mind, we are able to make and enjoy such artistic things as music that no animal will ever be able to come close to even comprehending.

Some people would have you believe that there is no difference between humans and animals - that we are nothing more than an advanced primate. After learning about the human brain, I ask you to reconsider!! This is but one example of how we are clearly separate beings created with a different purpose. Their purpose - to provide us with resources for survival and comfort. Our purpose? To bring glory to God and worship Him.

All very well to say, huh? Well now I'm going to do something that you may or may not like. I'm going to challenge you to find at least one thing in God's wonderful Creation that you find particularly amazing (come on, it's not that hard, what's not amazing in Creation?!) and tell people about it. Find out as much amazing facts as you can, and share these with people, bringing glory to God's mighty work. You never know, you might just change the course of someone's life.

And finally... if there's anyone that's actually read this post all the way to here, I'd love to hear what you think about all this. Do you have any interesting facts to share? Perhaps you even know some thing/s about the brain that would interest us, while we're on this topic? And yes, you can have a virtual medal for reading this far. I know it's been a difficult post to read, and you deserve it. *Places medal on your shirt.*

Oh, and if you could remember to keep Joseph in your prayers, that'd be great, too. He had his tonsils and adenoids removed in Canberra today, and from what we've been told, it sounds like it didn't go so well... he sounds quite stressed over it. Hopefully he will be feeling better tomorrow morning.

God bless you all, and thanks for bothering to read this!

Musical terms and their definitions

You have to be a musician to appreciate these.

Accidentals: Wrong notes.
Aria: The product of multiplying the singer's length by his or her width.
Cadence: A device for stopping a piece of music, the musical equivalent of a brick wall. Some cadences are less complete than others, and may be called 'deceptive' or 'unfair' cadences.
Choir: A musical organization thought to have been invented by F. F. Handel to assure the perpetuation of performances of Messiah.
Concerto: A sort of musical boxing match between one musician (the soloist) and all the rest (the orchestra), with the conductor acting as referee, in which nobody wins - especially the audience.
Copyist: A person hired  by composers to transcribe pages of their illegible notation into other pages of the copyist's own notation, equally illegible.
Counterpoint: A musical device similar to needlepoint, although not designed to be hung upon the wall or used as on seatcovers. Said to be a musical conversation, it more often resembles an argument. A favourite device of many Baroque composers, all of whom are now dead, although a direct connection between these two facts has never been conclusively established.
Dischord: 1. Not to be confused with datchord. 2. The emotional state that usually exists amongst a group of musicians, especially with regard to those in authority.
English Horn: A woodwind instrument so named because it is neither English, nor a horn. Not to be confused with the French Horn, which is German.
False Relation: The kind of relative who is supportive of one's musical career only if one is making money.
Flat: An adjective used to describe a tone that is slightly below pitch. This term ought to be used cautiously, so as not to offend anyone, especially when applied to a woman.
Flute: A sophisticated pea-shooter with a range up to five hundred yards and deadly accuracy in close quarters. Blown transversely to confuse the enemy, it can be dismantled into three small pieces for easy concealment.
French Horn: A brass instrument that resembles a snail, but sometimes moves more quickly. The French Horn is actually German, and should not be confused with the English Horn, which is French.
Glissando: The musical equivalent of stepping on a banana peel.
Key: Certain musical terms defy easy definition. This is one of them.
Music Stand: An intricate device for propping up music, except at crucial times - such as during the performance. It has a tendency to fall over, often of its own accord. It comes in two sizes - too high or too low - and it is always broken.
Nut: The narrow ridge across the neck of a stringed instrument such as the violin, situated near the pegbox. By extension, then, the term has come to be applied to any person who plays such an instrument.
Oboe: An ill wind that nobody blows good.
Quartet: All that remains of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra after its North American tour.
Quaver: What many performers do while performing.
Strings: A family of instruments that includes the violin, viola, cello, double-bass, and yo-yo.
Trill: The musical equivalent of an epileptic seizure.

Excerpted from "A Musician's Dictionary" by David W. Barber & Dave Donald. My teacher lent me this book to help relieve stress while preparing for my upcoming flute exam. I hope you found it as amusing as I did!

Family Photos

I've been asked by a relative to put some family photos on my blog, so that's what I'm doing today. Unfortunately the builders haven't been once this week, so there's nothing to post about the renovations. Consider this post a substitute for the weekly Renovations post.

The first photo is of our whole family. All of these photos were taken in February by Joshua, I think.  

Mum & Dad

Joshua, Bradley & Me

Sarah, Caitlyn & Emma

Caleb & Joseph

(Left to right) Caitlyn, Caleb, Bradley, Joshua, Joseph, Emma, Sarah & Me. Also included are Amelia and Sam, the rabbit.

Be The Best

If you can't be a pine on the top of the hill,

Be a shrub in the valley, but be

The best little shrub at the side of the rill;

Be a bush if you can't be a tree.

If you can't be a bush, be a bit of the grass,

Some highway to happier make;

If you can't be a muskie, then just be a bass,

But the liveliest bass in the lake.

We can't all be captains, some have to be crew,

There's something for all of us here;

There's big work to do and lesser to do,

And the task we must do is the near.

If you can't be a highway, then just be a trail;

If you can't be the sun, be a star;

It isn't by size that you win or you fail --

Be the best of whatever you are.

Anonymous.

Cookies!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup melted butter

1 cup sugar

2 cups S.R. flour

1 egg

1 cup chocolate chips

Method: Preheat oven to 160°C. Beat butter and sugar together. Mix in flour, then egg, then chocolate chips. Place dessertspoonfuls of mixture on greased baking trays, and bake for 10-15 minutes or until lightly golden. Makes about 36 cookies.

Don't ask me why I posted a recipe on here. I guess I just felt the need to share what I consider to be the best cookie recipe in existence. It's super quick and easy to make (I don't even use the recipe - I just make it from memory), it tastes great, and keeps really well. It also uses only very basic ingredients (so you can make it anytime without shopping for special ingredients), and makes quite a large quantity of cookies... which is a really good thing, because they don't last long! I forgot to mention... when I say it makes 36 cookies, that's as soon as it comes out of the oven. Soon after that, they start disappearing, and the numbers will considerably decrease unless you guard them with vigilance...