Last Day of School

I didn't even bother studying for today's test in Human Growth and Development as it's all about the middle ages and old-timers. Afterwards celebrated getting an "A" in Music History Class and went out for sushi buffet lunch with a classmate and my husband.

Tonight I finished my long standing web project for a client. He wanted his website upgraded a year ago and I kept putting it off -- afterall the old one was working fine and pulling in lots of hits from google. I've been working on it on and mostly off for the past six months. Changed the site to CMS (Content Management System). I've been moving most of my clients towards this system as it allows me (or permitted users to update) their website from any internet access point.

Final recital tomorrow and then nothing till January 8th when chamber music starts up again. I'm going to start counting my cello practice in weeks instead of days. Makes more sense at this point.

Girlfriend told me her husband is skipping town for a week in mid-January, so I'll go visit her and have a mini-vacation.

My husband's Romanian stamp show in June needed booking. I found a decent hostel for $40 a night private room in the center of Bucharest. Beats paying $140 for the "official hotel". Still have to book the flights. Looks like most require TWO changes. The only ones I see that are ONE change of plane get you into Bucharest at 11pm. That's too late to arrive.

Having lots of fun with my new cellular -- got a USB cable so I could backup my contacts onto my computer and spent a long time looking for software that would work with my phone. Tonight ordered a car charger and headset. The LG Rumor LX260 phone is really nice for CNN news, google docs/maps, weather, email, blogging and photo sending, texting and facebook.

Starting reading "Water for Elephants". My sister-in-law left the book when she was here last month. It's an easy read.

Brain Music

Finished reading the neuroscience study on music. Looks like there's hope for all of us who practice really really hard. One only has to put in 10,000 hours to become a good musician--that's only 3 hrs a day for ten years. Appears its just like folks in school used to say -- talent is 98% perspiration and 2% inspiration.

Music seems to be closely related to social and courtship activities. The fittest of the species were able to withstand the rigors of dance and music making and therefore got the most dates. Guess that's why young girls go crazy for rock stars.

Rabid Reader

My mother-in-law recommended Voyage of the Narwhal by Andrea Barrett so I ordered it from the library. In the meantime a friend gave me 3 Discworld fantasies by Terry Pratchett. Needless to say, I've only read two chapters of the serious book but have already finished 2 of the 3 fantasy books.

On the cello front, I've managed to get back to about the point where I was when I left to go to St. Petersburg. This means I still have issues with M4 - Bach's Musette from English Suite # 3. What great fun, starting from scratch after a month of not playing.

Am watching YouTube's Gonshu animation (a Cellomania referral), it incorporates lots of things that I love. Wonder if a real video exists somewhere...

Wild Swans

Finished "Wild Swans" which was a memoir running from the turn of the century to 1990. A slow read with a lot of sad stuff. I wonder if there are any memoirs written by Chinese men. This is the third book I've read about Chinese history that was written from the women's point of view.

Working up Prior Learning Assessments towards the BA. Getting all the materials together will take time. Tomorrow, I'll take out Velina and try to get her warmed up again. Poor girl's been neglected for almost a month.

Also distracted with more travel plans. Got word from my husband that we needed to reserve the hotel for Istanbul already even though the stamp show isn't until October. That started the planning domino effect -- started making plane reservations for visiting a friend at the end of July, Baltimore for the end of August and Chicago for mid-November.

Airfare for Istanbul runs around $900. I'll have to call Amex membership rewards and see if I can get a reduced fare. I'm planning on going a few days earlier than my husband to visit Cappadocia. Its a perfect place for me to visit alone as my husband doesn't want to go into any underground cities or float in a hot air balloon.

Looked at Rosetta Stone, Lesson 1 for Turkish. It's a strange language. A few words make sense like "adam" for man, kedi (kitty), and banya. The rest I haven't been able to connect to anything yet in my head.

Hungry Tide

Yesterday, I finished reading "Hungry Tide" by Amitav Ghosh. I can recommend it to anyone who's interested in India, its low lying islands, and/or dolphins. It's the first book I've read set in India besides "The Jungle Book". Despite some overly long descriptions which to me always feel like the author is being paid by the word, I found the history, myths, and characters engaging. Also, I liked the fact that the balance between the needs of wildlife and humans is not simplified. Now starting "Wild Swans" by Jung Chang which is supposed to be a true memoir of 3 generations of Chinese women.

Book Binge II

Been reading lots since my flight home Tuesday. It's gives one a sense of extended vacation, being able to just read, check email, read, blog, read more, eat drink, and read some more. So far, I've consumed:

1) "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel - a narrative about a shipwrecked kid, easy read and fun in a "Big Fish" sort of way. Quite memorable.
2) Michael Crichton's "Time Line" - a sci-fi time travel story with some interesting ideas, plot huhs? with some glimpses of medieval life thrown in to make one feel like they're getting some historical fact along with the fiction.
3) Carl Hiaasen's "Basket Case" - fluff adventure, murder mystery with the usual insider digs at newspaper journalism.
4) A novel about India called "The Hungry Tide" by Amitav Ghosh which my mother-in-law just gave me today which may or may not prove interesting.

I'll probably have to rejoin real life tomorrow.