Misc

My last post got me thinking about my mum in a round about way. Besides playing the trumpet I also played the piano, which I learnt a few years after trumpet so I had to learn how to read bass clef at the same time. Luckily it was just a simple case of transposition from the treble clef I already knew so it didn’t take me too long.

I was never great at piano or trumpet, probably through lack of discipline and practise (a common theme throughout my life). Playing the piano was fun for me because the trumpet isn’t a very good solo instrument and while I was a member of an orchestra and various ensembles it was obviously impossible to assemble everyone whenever the desire struck me to play trumpet.

I was fortunate to get a piano at home when I was in high school because the head of the history department wanted to get rid of hers and she’d happened to discover me playing once while walking by the classroom during lunch. I remember my mum took some convincing to let me get it and I had to call in some favours to move it but eventually we got it inside and settled and I started playing straight away because I was so excited to finally have one.

A few weeks later my dad, who had helped move the piano on the day, mentioned that my mum had told him how surprised she was upon hearing me play because she had never realised I could. It was ironic, because by that stage I’d already been playing for more than four years, but not surprising since no one else in my family had shown any interest in music beyond listening.

Though I played a lot while the piano was in the house I found that I hit a wall in my ability that I couldn’t seem to pass. There has been only a single time in my life in which I was able to relax and mentally distance myself enough to be able to overcome that mental block and play beyond my normal abilities but I never learnt how I did it, nor how to replicate it.

Maybe when we’re established in Sydney I will see about buying a new piano.

Can someone please, please tell me what I’m doing wrong?

Google are laughing at me right now

A week or so ago I got a notification in Google Reader that Sian was following me. I’m following her and Michael now despite that fact that I have no clue how I’m supposed to follow anyone (I could only do it after it gave me the option because they followed me).

So I thought maybe it’s that Google Buzz thing so I went there and that took me to my Gmail and there’s some new option. Now I’m getting emails from Google Buzz and I’m totally confused about this! The thing is, I never use the web version of Gmail because I’ve always had the problem that any mail I sent always appears in my inbox as if I sent it to myself. The obvious response would be that I’m doing something wrong, but if I am I have no idea what it might be.

Last night I stayed up until 3am reading about different SSD’s (Solid State Drives) and basically drooling over getting a new PC when I’m in Sydney. I was planning how I might organise my data, probably buying one big and very expensive SSD for my OS and programs while having a regular drive for my data, where I would put the swap file, etc..

It was interesting reading about the quirks of SSD’s. I didn’t know that performance drops based upon how much free space they have, below 15% being quite dramatic, but reading about windows booting in 20 seconds or applications launching instantly has me in nerdvana.

I’m also planning to have the newer ATI video card in crossfire configuration with two monitors, though I won’t be using the Eyefinity tech they have which turns multiple monitors into a single display because I don’t think it suits an even number of displays (the seam would be directly in the middle). Maybe this would be a good excuse to get three monitors? Imagine playing WoW on that!

I’ve already gotten the go-ahead for going all out on my new pc, so long as we have the money (which I will ensure we do). I need more reasons to be excited about the move to Sydney.

EDIT: I neglected to mention that I’d been thinking about how SSD’s are the tech that is exciting right now and that it’s been a while since we’ve had anything like it which can dramatically change our computing experiences.

I recall when 3.5″ floppy drives became mainstream, then harddrives, cdroms, dvds, 3d video cards, various cpu and memory tech, USB, and now SSD’s. It’s an exciting time to be a geek! I wonder what it would be like to put an SSD in my PS3…