Hi everybody,

Major changes are coming for 2weeker. Next week's 2week will be the following:

Walk 10,000 steps every day for two weeks.

I think this will be a little more quantitative and easier to report as we all strive to reach that magical number. We'll begin next Monday, which should give everyone time to get one of those inexpensive step-counters.

Meanwhile, the site will be getting a major change in format, but I'll leave that to Justin. Ready to get into shape, one step at a time?

Labels: 000 steps every day for two weeks, 2week3: Walk 10, Admin Stuff

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my sister's words about our efforts at this 2weeker. Sad, I know.

I think that while this 2weeker was, all-in-all, more interesting to write about than the last one (yup, just had water AGAIN today...), it was a lot more difficult--as evidenced by the waning posts over the second week. It's difficult in all of our busy lives to take time out for something different--creativity/art, in this case--and for many of us it meant one extra thing in the already long to-do list. but I imagine that's what this experiment is about--how feasible is it to make these changes? My mom sent me (in the mail) a NYTimes article that spoke to this issue--when I get back from lab I'll try to post it, since I think it's relevant.

In any case. My own failures at this 2weeker were mainly due to the reasons I just described, combined with a bunch of long experiments in lab over the past 2 weeks that made it difficult for me to get time in to practice carillon (since in my schedule carillon practice and sleep end up battling for the same hours, and inevitably sleep wins). But, I will report back on the little bit of practicing I was able to get in--I'm still working on Harmony of Zion; Prof. Zerlang (the university carillonneur here) thinks I need to play it much faster, and to keep the speed going throughout the piece (I get tired and slow down...). In an effort to be more methodical about my practicing I whipped out the metronome last night and discovered that the speed I've been trying to play it at is WAY faster than the tempo as marked on the score. What gives? I feel like I'm careening a little out of control at times, especially when those 16th notes move down to the pedal...ugh. But in any case, I think as I'm learning this piece and gradually figuring out my interpretation of it it's useful to try to incorporate different pieces of advice...and in this case I'm hoping to learn something from trying to play on the other end of the spectrum from how I usually play. (Prof. Zerlang plays much more....boisterously....than I do--it might improve my own playing to incorporate a little more force into it.) I'm also working on another new piece--more in romantic style, and am struggling a little with a passage that has triplets against duplets. It's also going to be my outlet to work on tremoloes, since I've never really played them before--a good opportunity!

Well, that's enough of an update for now. I'm hoping to try to bring a microphone up to record the carillon at some point and potentially post some of it as a belated part of this 2weeker. Thoughts for the next 2weeker?? :)

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No, really. We do.

Sorry for the lack of posting! It's the end of the semester/finals time/etc. After Wednesday, though, I'm freeee! Many (late) pictures will ensue.

Oh! My excuse for lack of pics: My camera broke :( So I'll be stealing my sister's old one (she just got a new one).

Tomorrow, I'll be participating in something creative and cool: Pangea Day!

The Pangea Day Event

Starting at 18:00 GMT on May 10, 2008, locations in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro will be linked for a live program of powerful films, live music, and visionary speakers. The entire program will be broadcast – in seven languages – to millions of people worldwide through the internet, television, and mobile phones.

The 24 short films to be featured have been selected from an international competition that generated more than 2,500 submissions from over one hundred countries. The films were chosen based on their ability to inspire, transform, and allow us see the world through another person's eyes. Details on the Pangea Day films can be viewed here.

And you should too :)

Labels: 2week1: Drink only water for 2 weeks

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Yeah, I have a secret hobby. HTML! I first started learning HTML when I started blogging. My blog is special to me as a creative outlet, though I don't post that frequently these days. I enjoy playing around at an extremely amateur level with web design, and have spent many a happy hour finding just the right shade of yellow for the bgcolor .

Sometime around last summer, though, I became really happy with my blog's layout, and haven't messed with it in a long time. It's clean, the post width is ample, the sidebar aligns pretty well, the little photos look cool where they are, etc etc. So when I opened up Dreamweaver on Sunday to work a bit on a new look for my dad's (warning: extremely amateur) website, I was extremely rusty and could barely remember how to do anything-- let alone think about table-less layouts or stylesheets. Screw it, I decided, I'm going to go simple. So I am almost done with something to show him this weekend that will be a breeze to finish up. (I'd show you guys, but he hasn't seen it yet.)

Thanks, 2weeker! Thanks to the little push I had to finally start working on my poor dad's neglected site, I've gotten some awesome ideas for a more complicated layout for another project-- and with the refresher course in HTML that I've gone through over the past few days, I'm equipped to take it on, even after next Monday.

Labels: 2week2: Do something artistic every day for 2 Weeks

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So, the past few days have been fairly hectic--an exciting weekend, and then Monday arriving with assignments and reading to do, leaving me starved for time for artistic endeavors. In any case, I'll chronicle the quasi-artistic things I've done in the past few days:

Sunday--sang in church--yay!

Monday--discovered that the church choir I sang in while I was in New Haven made a CD (down at the bottom) about a year after I left. The director was amazing and changed my life, and I was so thrilled to see that they made a recording...and that the mp3's were all posted on the website! I knew all the tracks, and played through them all and sang along in my room.

Tuesday--discovered a great radio station (great if only for its nostalgic, feel-good value), sort of through Michael. Over the past few days I've been realizing that it almost always has a good song on. I guess to clarify...it's sort of a soft rock station, which is kind of embarrassing, but it plays all those great 90's tunes I grew up listening to--hence the nostalgia and feeling good. Anyway. I had a good time singing along loudly in the car yesterday on my way to Michael's. (Bryan Adams, Everything I do I do it for you....ahhhh just feel the cheesiness!)

So, I realize these were terrible attempts at including art in my life over the past few days, and that I really should be practicing carillon, or doing some writing but...grad school is hard *whimper* I think today, now that my assignments for the week are over, will be a little better. More to come!

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Ugh, I'm so sick of origami units. Where's everyone else? Art too hard? Definition is pretty broad. Isn't it? Isn't it?

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Whenever we have mehndi/henna fundraisers at school, we're inevitably at a loss for which design to draw on a person's hand. For the longest time, I've been meaning to make a posterboard with popular and easy mehndi designs... Maybe I can work on that during this Tweeker?

Hm...

Labels: 2week2: Do something artistic every day for 2 Weeks

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