idle thoughts from an active mind

I stumbled across this piece while browsing for sheet music on the web.  This was our h/s graduation song.  I didn’t know the song was THIS old.  It was published in 1909.  The title is "A Perfect Day".

http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/sheetmusic/devincent.do?c=02&p=1&id=LL-SDV-244079&s=full

When I was a little girl growing up in the remote island of Mindoro, I had this story book entitled "Si Miyawing Kuting, Nagutom Dahil sa Katamaran".  It was an illustrated story book written in Tagalog that had English translations.  The title literally translates to "Miyawing, the Cat Who Starved due to Laziness".

I had other titles from the same series.  My brother flew to Manila every week to clear checks (he worked in a bank) and he almost always came back with long playing records, drawing materials, collectibles or books to share with me.  I forget the name of the series, but they were nice.  That was a time in my life when my treasury of books was so limited that each one was so precious I didn’t tire of reading them over and over again. 

I miss that time.  Now, I’ve amassed quite a collection.  I’ve bought most of the books I want but I have not read them all.  I could buy the others I want that I haven’t got yet, but I know I wouldn’t be reading them anytime soon, so what’s the use?  It’s not because I don’t have the time.  It’s the interest that has dwindled.  Boredom has corroded me to the core.  It seems as if I have shed my ability to marvel at anything, whether old or new.  I grew up.

In a desperate effort to revive the child in me, I resorted to buying children’s books a few years ago.  It worked but only for a short time.  Eventually, the books forced me to acknowledge that children’s stuff aren’t for me anymore.  Sigh*.

Ah!  But I’m wandering away from the theme of this blog… Much like old women do when telling stories, I suppose.  Another testament to my wearying years.

Back to Miyawing Kuting:  The story tells of a cat who was left alone by himself for a day.  (Dash it!  I can’t even remember the whole story)…  Anyway, to cut the story short, he had every opportunity to get food for himself but he wouldn’t because he was too lazy.  He starved.  I don’t remember if he died or if his master came back in
time to feed him.  But the moral of the story was this:  if you don’t work you’ll starve.

The story comes back to me now.  It’s close to 9 PM and I have not taken dinner.  I have a well-stocked fridge and cupboard.  And I’ve been home since 5 PM.  I’m starving and it’s because I’m too lazy to prepare anything.  It’s too late to go out now or order anything good by phone.  Pathetic, aren’t I?

Well, I’ve just returned from a 12-day vacation from my parents’ home where food is always on the ready.  Back in Manila, there was always a resto around every corner; so meals weren’t a problem even if I lived alone.  Here, gosh, I’ve gotta learn to cook again.  For now, I think I’ll just sleep the hunger off.

…And if you’re thinking that I haven’t read the books because I’m just plain lazy………you’re probly right.

Good night.

re: kids - this is the modern thinking… and i’m very modern!  a lot of people share my thoughts on the subject and have more to add…

http://blog.thirdage.com/?p=360

why do most opera goers look down on pop music?  i think i’ve found an answer…

no, it’s not sheer snobbery, although on the surface it might seem to be that (especially if you’ve been to their discussion boards - i guarantee that you should see the remarks there).

the thing is that this audience consists mostly of musically literate people.  some can tell if a whole aria (i’ve learned that you should NEVER call an aria a song) has been sung two tones under the music sheet.  some truly discriminating ones even know if a word has been sung half a tone off.  (i’m still learning how to do that.  maybe i should borrow my dog’s ears.)

these people take time to debate over whether a soprano may take breaths during alternating rests…  it seems that she may, but the breaths have to be inaudible.  yes - it looks like they have a copy of the whole scores.  they go to the same operas over and over again and compare soprano after soprano against each other. 

what a demanding audience!

but since good sopranos and tenors are so hard to come by they still go to the opera anyway (they like live performances);  and bear with the living divas of our time, or else watch dead divas in black and white…

i gathered with little surprise that none of the dead divas ever got full acclaim during their lifetimes. some are still being criticized after they’re dead.  poor things (i mean not POOR, there’s one still living who makes about $60,000/night.  if there’s any consolation, this audience can at least pay up…)

and no, they’re not all of them nasty.  when they ladle compliments they do it generously and very warmly.  they obviously know a good performance when they see one and when they mete out praises they don’t stint on them.

so what is it about pop music that they scoff that?

this is the closest guess i can make:  pop music is easy to sing.  if written in F and sung in A, the audience wouldn’t care because they wouldn’t know that in the first place.  it’s the mediocrity, honey.  pop is for the musically illiterate… and for those who revere music as a form of art, the element of perfection simply misses.  snob or not, i think no artist or any lover of art can live with that.

if bianca castafiore sang faust’s jewel song anywhere close to this, do you think captain haddock would’ve liked it..?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLZ0lbLzg8Y

i used to think of abstract art as a poor excuse for not being able to paint well…

…until i saw some quite good ones.

i was amazed to realize that it IS possible to portray a complete picture by painting only the most essential lines and colors and leaving out the more intricate details.

somehow, the smaller details all seem to fall in place the longer you look at the picture.  your mind supplies the missing colors and lines and completes it.

yeah yeah.  i know… that is why it is called abstract art in the first place.  why make a fuss?

well, the gallery visit seemed to present ABSTRACT to me in the real sense of the word, which is why i am writing this blog…

i think most human thoughts are like abstract paintings.  often, what our minds work with are only general ideas.  always, there are more intricate thoughts underneath.  they lie idle at the back of our minds.  they only surface when we give them conscious attention at the time we need them or need to think about them.

for example, before i started writing this, i already knew what to write.  but it wasn’t until i actually started writing this that i began thinking about how the words would actually be written!

so the next time i hear about abstract (art, thought, or anything), i’ll probably think of logic, order, sense and perhaps even beauty.

abstract art is not nonsense, not when you’ve learned to give sense to it or see sense in it…

i came across the fibonacci series a year or two ago & remembered it again only now.  it gave me a considerable itch in the ___.   

Starting with 0 and 1, each new number in the series is simply the sum of the two before it.

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, . . .

Baffling!  Interesting!  Now how would you explain that?

wish me luck…

last week, i got us a d-link di-524 wireless router.  after hooking it to the adsl modem, i had it up and running in no time.  afterwards, i worked downstairs with the main pc off and only the router turned on.  the router worked perfectly with the dwl-g630 notebook adapter. 

hurray!  but was the easy part. 

for the hard part…

i also bought a dwl-g122 wireless adapter.  but i have not tested it with the di-524.  i mean, i tried to, but i was out of range.  i was in my brother’s house, about two streets across from where we live, but it can’t have been a hundred meters away (in my estimation).

in theory, i was within the range of the di-524 (which is 100 m - the router conforms to the 802.11g standard).  hmm, it must have been the walls and trees in between.  talk about signal degradation!  it’s very frustating when you face the real thing.  i was grossly disappointed with the experiment.  i was hoping so much that i’d be able to hook my bro’s pc to my pet network.  what a way to end something that started so well!

anyhow, i kept my hopes us and bought a WAP (wireless access point) this week.  i chose the dwl-g700ap model.  but so much for wishing to go wireless.  i found out only now that the only way you can link the WAP to the network is to wire it using a cat5 utp cable!!!

arrrgghghghghgh!

huhuhu… i’d better go shopping for that 100m cable this week.  maybe, if i place it closer to the window the signal will reach the other house…

tough experiment.  but then this wireless thing is new to me.

wish me luck…