Thursday, February 25, 2010
GREat - To Be a Master.
I bit the bullet today and decided to try for a Masters Degree in Information Services. A major part of my indecision about graduate school has been deciding what major. Will now have the hoops of the admission process to jump through -- recommendation letters, transcripts, etc. plus the GRE test. Scheduled it for the end of March. It's a good thing that I reviewed algebra and geometry last year for the GKT.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Happy Tiger Year - Happy Valentines Day!
White tiger, Miami Metro Zoo
Spent the holidays repairing desktop computer - two power outages in a row zapped the video card. Yes, I know I should have had a UPS, but when the last one died I didn't bother to replace it.
Went to a huge Chinese New Year's Eve Party Saturday night which had tons of food, backyard fireworks, and "Karaoke". My first time / attempt at this sport. I made a the lowest score of 22 trying to sing "Under the Boardwalk". Seems I only knew the refrain. I made a decent score of 83 with "When I'm 64". "Raindrops keep Fallin' on my Head" was sung with style and was a crowd pleaser, but the machine only gave me a 66. Of course, I couldn't sing any of the Chinese songs. I only know one folk song and it wasn't available on the DVD.
Sunday, we joined ten friends for a dim sum brunch that lasted from 11am to 3pm. We got a big surprise when a guest of one friend decided to pay for the whole table!
Then we went to Walmart to buy some flowering plants to add to our "dead zone" list. Plants don't live long in our house generally, but we figured that flowering plants would live longer than cut flowers.
I rounded out Valentine's Day by going to sleep at 5 pm and not waking until 7 am!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Brandenburg Blues Part II
GGP, you were right, I should have studied the part more. Cello one decided that getting employment was more important than the class and has skipped out.
Now I have a string quartet, a piano quartet and the Brandenburg to work on. When it rains it pours. Before this tragic event (in my chamber music teacher's eyes) I just had a little baroque piece to play with a recorder.
If I play open strings, the Brandenburg first movement isn't too hard...
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Nifty Learning Chinese Sites
http://hua.umf.maine.edu/Chinese/games/games.php
Especially love the Snow White storyboard and the fruit game.
Didn't like the directions game because it was so repetitive, but it finally reinforced the difference of words "right" and "left" in Chinese for me. I was always confusing which word was which direction.
Worksheets and animated stroke characters. Helpful when one is not sure which direction the stroke needs to go.
Don't know that character, mouse it into the graph and nciku will find it for you.
Received an email from your teacher all in chinese characters?
No problem, just copy and paste it into this site and you'll get the drift of the message.
Feel like wandering around in a free virtual game exploring a chinese town. This one's for you.
2010 Why I Am I So Busy?
Monday evening I have a Language Principles and Acquisition class. One of 3 courses needed for a ESL certification in Florida.
Tuesdays, I have Chamber Music Class
Fridays, I have Chinese Workshops.
Mon, Tues, Thu and Fri I help out the local magnet school either volunteering in the morning or subbing.
Wed and Sat I help out the local CPA with taxes.
In between I'm supposed to squeeze exercise, celloing, Chinese writing practice, and playing Scrabble on FB with my cello friends.
This reminds me of when I was a kid, I had to write letters all the time to relatives.
Dear Aunt Theresa,
How are you, I am fine.
I am very busy.
Oh well, "they say" No Rest for the Wicked.
Pumpernickel
I was at a wholesaler's a few months back and noted that a 20 pound bag of rye flour was $10.
Rye flour is tough to get in the stores in Miami, Florida and when a store stocks it, it's expensive. I lugged home this huge bag, saved up milk containers from Costco for three months and finally transfered the flour into more manageable portions. Now that I'm inspired from the Julie/Julia project maybe I'll actually use it :)
Succumbed
Peer pressure? Ease of use? Because I could?
Anyway, I made my first official e-book $9.99 purchase. "Julie/Julia".
Reading about the exploits of a fellow blogger and french cooking did me in.
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