More Flowers

These photos were actually from a while back. I just haven't had the internet to put them up yet. I'm actually rather sad that summer's here with its wonderful blazing heat, it means most of the flowers have completed their blossom. But leaves can be quite pretty too, I'll have to take some photos of that sometime later. Meanwhile, let's look back on that short time period when flowers were everywhere.

It was a day of purple flowers. 

Some other day I was walking home with some friends and as I walked by a particular group of pigeons, I noticed a weird flutter out of the corner of my eye. It was a pigeon with a broken wing trying to 'fly' away from me. The other pigeons were nearby... I'm not sure if they were waiting for the broken pigeon or just confused at the situation. 

There wasn't much to do about the pigeon, and to be honest I'm not actually entirely sure if its wing was certainly broken or if it was just really lazy. Mysteries of nature?

Small Pet

I'm going to get a pet budgie. If:

• Roommates allow
• Can find a nice cage for <$20 
• Landlord allows

That is all. 

To Make Music

I'm thinking of picking up an instrument. I've decided that it has to be a more traditional instrument, perhaps I'm getting in touch with my roots? So I've talked to mother and we've worked it down to the following three:

Erhu

A while ago, we visited a family friend who had one of these. He offered to let me play around with it and I really liked its feel. I've also had an obsession with string instruments in general, playing them seems to be such a fluid movement. Any ways, after half an hour or so of fiddling around with it, I managed a passable major scale. Which is to say, I feel like this can be something that can be learned with practise. The Erhu is also extremely adorable and light weight, not to mention one looks beautifully elegant sitting down and playing it.

Pipa

Of course, my mother had other ideas once I stated my intent of learning another instrument. Traditionally the Pipa is played by women only, and adds a very nice classy elegance to whoever holds it. I suppose in the Chinese tradition it is the instrument for pretty young girls. Which is great and all but my issue with it is that it A. looks like a giant paddle with strings and B. is plucked with pseudo-nails. The nails were the one reason the guzheng was completely out of the question for me. It seems like too much of a hassle to have to put those on every time I'd want to play. Still, I admit I really do like the look and tradition associated with the Pipa.

Chinese Flute

So it's not a string instrument this time. But I remember hearing its sound from a friend who played it a while back, and the wooden/bamboo flute has a beautifully rich tone to it. It feels like the wind you blow into it congregates together into a lovely pool of sounds. Also, I feel like with a flute I won't be too limited to traditional music as with the Erhu or Pipa. A flute is also much more portable and can easily be turned into a weapon. Only issue is that I initially wanted a strings, not wind, instrument. 

So sometime this summer my mother will be getting me one of these. Sometime by next year I'll hopefully be able to play extremely simple things on it. Now if only I could find a cheap keyboard to bring into the apartment...

Why do I Blog

I blog because sometimes, I have things to say. Things that I don't want to say in person, just because I never remember to or it never fits any conversation quite right.

Of course most of what I blog came up from conversations, so really I blog because I want to share interesting things I've said and been told. And when what I want to share goes beyond the regular limit of a facebook status, or perhaps I just want to share it with the internet in general, that's when a blog is needed. And to share that with friends would require much less time since I wouldn't have to rewrite everything for everyone I wanted to tell the same story to. Copy and pasting links take far less time.

Sometimes just writing to relive the story or to expand on a thought is fun. It's like writing in a diary, but not a private one. It's this strange pseudo-privacy that only the internet can give.

And sometimes when I'm feeling bored or down or have nothing really better to do, it's nice to just sit down and write whatever comes to mind. It's more for me, but if it were only for me then it'd stay in my head. Things always become more real when it's no longer just in your head.

Internet Withdraw

Symptoms of Internet Withdraw

• Going to Starbucks and paying for expensive drinks so you don't feel bad for using the free wifi
• Continuously checking phone for texts because you don't have access to IM
• Cleaning things because there's really nothing else to do
• Stare outside the window and wonder if anything interesting's happening in the virtual world
• Constantly have a nagging feeling that you're about to get a really important email... which you won't be able to read until you go back to Starbucks
• Do work- offline
• Turn the computer's wifi on and off, hoping against hope that some magical connection will be made
• Attempt every simple password to neighbouring wifi signals
• Start planning out every detail of your day because you got bored of cleaning and staring out windows
• Write offline blog entries and planning to publish them once you get to Starbucks... again

So I've just moved into the newest apartment. It's really quite lovely and empty at the moment, but hopefully that'll change soon. Currently am sitting in the Starbucks below the building because (in case you didn't realize already) we have no internet. We will not have internet until May 12th. This is a long time later. 

Currently looking into options for dividing off the den of the apartment (which I reside in). My parents have express their displeasure that though I did majority of the work to get the apartment, I somehow ended up with the den rather than a room. But in my mind I feel like it's because I'm the most flexible one out of everyone, and also the one who will voice my issues if I ever feel any. Maybe that's a bit egotistic of me... well yes, it is... I think we all have come to realize that by now. 

Looked up some room dividers: http://www.oddee.com/item_96925.aspx 

My plan at the time is to get a blank Shoji screen:

In my head I've been nursing the idea that we can paint it as a roomies project. 

People keep telling me to get some strange curtain contraption. The issue is that the open area of the den is very long so I don't know if the extendable curtain rods would be steady enough. Also the ceiling is bumpy so I can't nail any rods to that... Slightly out of ideas... except for the shoji screen of course. 

Now I should really do some readings before I head back.