Things to do before I'm--well, I'm already 40ish, but here's a "wish to do" list, with no particular timeline, inspired by Yv's "Things to Do before 30" list. (You young one!!)

1. Continue to learn new words, which means reading lots and looking up words every time I don't know what it means and keeping a vocab list, which I already do.

2. Read all of Shakespeare's works. I think I've read most of his major ones, but I haven't consulted a list in years.

3. Read War and Peace and go through the "top 20" list I got from one of the fellows.

4. Be able to identify all countries in Africa. Actually, in general, I need to improve my geography.

5. Gosh, I would love to do calligraphy, but no instructors here.

6. I would also love to take up violin again and learn piano, but I don't have the time to do this right now.

7. Places I'd like to visit: Cambodia, Thailand, Scotland, Mexico, Italy (without killing my relatives) and many many more places.

8. Use my manual camera more.

There's more, but I'd like to spend the rest of this evening reading. So I suppose see you in a few months, since classes start up again next week.

Note to self

If your friend tells you about his composing angst and says something about his fear of not being able to compose "something better the next time", do not tell him that "well, Mahler didn't compose anything to match his second symphony after he wrote that, and no one seems to hold it against him. . ." because it will not go over well.

The problem with taking classes whilst working full-time

. . .is that I have virtually no free time, which is why this blog has been relegated to the back burner. One of my friends once told me that he can do at most two things before he feels like he's stretching himself too thin. He made this point to explain how he couldn't have both a time-consuming hobby and a girlfriend at the same time. It was either grad school and girlfriend, or grad school and time-consuming hobby, but he couldn't do all 3 to his satisfaction. I'm starting to see his point. Well, ok, there are people like Yv who can do a zillion things. . .but I am convinced she is superhuman, b/c she studies French, Vietnamese, writes lots, reads lots, does yoga, volunteers, and on top of this, does calligraphy. I am not a superhuman, so I can juggle at most 2 or 3 things at a time. It's not that I have zero time, but it becomes an issue of prioritizing and allocating time to 6 or 7 different things I want to do.

Since I've started taking classes, I don't think I've listened to more than 1 or 2 new pieces, which I realize is dismal. And live music? I don't think I've gone to hear anything since the start of the new year, though I intend to rectify this once opera season starts back up again in a few months.

One problem is that I get back from work/classes late, and then I'm typically exhausted/hungry. I've always got homework or readings to do, which by the time I get home from work, eat, clean up, etc., typically doesn't get started till around 9 or 10 (later if I decide once in a blue moon to take my bum to the gym, since I haven't had the luxury to go running or bike into work much anymore).

Thus I've been too tired/brain dead to give anything a serious listen.

I used to think that music (mostly classical, though I guess all genres) was very high on my priority list, but I've noticed over the past six months that when I get busy/tired, it is one of the first things to go. So in econ-speak, my demand for classical music (if we use time as a measure instead of cost)is highly elastic. And here I thought it was an indispensable part of my existence.

It's no wonder I have trouble getting my non-music-prioritizing friends to get out to our concerts.

Which got me wondering--why is music-appreciation so demanding?

One of the main things for me is that it's hard to break it down. True, many forms--symphonies, quartets and sonatas break down into smaller movements, but I hate the KDFC method of listening to just isolated movements. Which means that if I want to listen to Mahler, I need to find 1+ hour, which is hard to come by these days.

Whereas if I'm reading a book, I can pretty much stop whenever I need to, and pick up where I left off. Sometimes, If several days pass between readings, then I need to read a few earlier chapters to refresh my memory, but for the most part, if I want to read Tolstoy's War and Peace, I don't have to sit down and read it in one sitting. Not that I watch them that often, but I can even do this with movies. But with music, it's the whole piece or bust. I can't listen to just movement one of a
Bartok quartet and be done with it, or listen to a piece in 12-minute snippets at a time the way I sometimes read books or listen to a radio program.

To add to this, if it's a completely new piece, or something I haven't listened to in a while, or even an interpretation of a familiar piece, I like to listen to it several times (not all in the same day), perhaps listen to a different interpretation for comparison, so then it's not just an hour we're talking about.

Of course, since I haven't been listening to much, I haven't had much to say pertaining to music. (sigh)

I have lots to say pertaining to my life, but this requires allocating time to write something coherent.