Strings Do Matter !

A week ago I visited Cauer's violin shop to check they had anything in stock that would beat dear Ficker (name of my violin). They have new instruments coming in regularly.

Turns out violins that were double the price of Ficker couldn't match the quality of its sound.
As for every other aspect, Ficker failed.
To me it seemed that my violin had the charm and sweetness in its sound, but it was too meek and humble.

In other words, my ideal violin must have a stentorian voice- LOUD, with deep richness.

So anyways, the violins I tried weren't WINSAUCE.
Some were win, but w/o the sauce, so I figured I'll come back in a couple months and see if Cauer's has anything better.

Before I walked out, I wanted to try some brighter strings. I was using Obligato by Pirastro then, which has a darker, warm tone.

After an hour of stringing and unstringing and testing with the help of Mr. Cauer, I settled on Vision Solo (Pirastro) and Vision Heavy on the G&D strings, respectively, and kept the A&E. According to Cauer, strings should tend to be brighter on the G string, a bit less bright on the D string, even less brighter on A, & so on- which makes sense because you don't want a sharp shrieking E string; higher strings like to stick out more anyways.

Also, always buy strings online (sharmusic.com). It's a good profit for music stores if you buy it from them. 3 strings cost like $50 for me, but I would've felt bad not buying anything after Robert Cauer helped me for so long.

Anyways, when I played my re-stringed violin, it turns out they gave Ficker a different personality.
Instead of a flat MEH on the G, the brighter string gave it a more open sound- like a choir of angels singing "Ahhhhh!"

Sooo as of now I think I am satisfied with Ficker, and won't be violin hunting around for a bit.
Unless something extraordinary comes along, of course.

Filler

District 9

R-rated, hopefully this will not keep your parents from letting you watch this very entertaining movie. A documentary-styled, action movie, District 9 covers most nook and crannies of the in-depth storyline of the human domination of a stranded alien race. Unlike the muck that the movie's action genre industry has been spewing out the past few months, District 9 finally clears the fog created by its predecessors.
Before we move on, this movie has relied on heavy viral marketing to get the word around, much of which is rather interesting. Some sites created for the movie include:
http://d-9.com/
http://www.multinationalunited.com/
http://mnuspreadslies.com/


There's not much I can say without spoiling the movie, but here's a little clip to get your blood pumping. Has a quite a bit of cursing from one of the main characters, Wikus van der Merwe, but his accent is very heavy and masks most of his swearing.


Go watch it.

We are a censored blog in China!

However, to my dissapointment, so is every other blog anywhere, so we're not speshul.

But I've managed to use that test  method I set up months ago and finally put it to good use! Indirect blogging ftw.

I really don't like it in mainland China. It's dirty and the people are rude or just plain mean. I'll write a full recount later. When I say dirty, I'm not talking about a bunch of dirt and mud. I'm talking about having to stare at the ground so I don't step on disgustingly littered food, human urine, human excrement, human mucus, or some combination of the four. And I'm not in a rural area either, I'm in a CITY, which is being industrialized quite a bit.

Hong Kong, on the other hand, was wonderful. Also, I get to go back for like two more days :D. 

In the meantime, enjoy not having to put up with jerks in China pushing me out of a line and looking at me like I'm the asshole.

Don't you hate it when undiscovered talent goes undiscovered?

Discovered, in the context of "nationally known; being worshipped like the Jonas Bros" here.

Haha so Anon. introduced RONALD JENKEES to me the other day. He is such a genius that we must capitalize his everytime he is mentioned on text.

RONALD JENKEES is generally a self-taught songwriter and musician.

Behold, one of RONALD JENKEE'S improvs!:



http://www.ronaldjenkees.com

Some Kittens Can Fly!

Girl, you gonna die :D

You know, that would be a really good children's book if it weren't for the fact that the moral is: only some kittens can fly.

:P

Just found out that I'm going to be Vegas-ing again today (it's 1am). >_>
Why am I never on top of things?

On the bright side, I'll be back by tmrrw. :D

Pictrawrs: From the Wooorrrllldd of Tomorrow!

Blog Post: From the Worrrlllddd of Tomorrow!

After about one full day of flying, I'm finally at Hong Kong, jet lagging my way through life. First, I packed at the last minute and headed to the LAX airport at like 10:00 PM. My parents had already gone to HK the week before, and I boarded the plane at like 12:00 AM. I got window seats the whole way through on all of the transfer flights, so I spent the entire plane ride staring out the window. I just realized how awesome airport architecture and design is, especially the ceilings:

Then I ended up in HK, walked around in my sleep due to jet lag on the streets, and a really huge thunderstorm set in. While I was on the streets. Next to the harbor (or whatever you call those things that seperate a penninsula and an island). According to this clock, it's Tuesday at 9 AM, but you guys are reading this on Monday at 6 PM.

Good, Bad, and Ugly:

Good:

-Fun Hong Kong architecture. Like walking into an Ayn Rand book, particularly The Fountainhead.

-Hurricane Warning

-That Octopus debit card system that's damn near a currency within itself in Hong Kong.

-Awesome planetarium, like IMAX but better.

Bad:

-Random nasty fumes on the streets.

-Dirty streets.

-I no longer fear being stuffed in an oven, because THIS IS WHAT IT FEELS LIKE.

-Every attempt to make faux American food that isn't done by a McDonalds here makes little men that march in your stomach, stabbing your intestines out.

Ugly:

-The fact that the hotter it gets, the more people need to turn on their ACs, which makes things hotter, making people turn their ACs higher, and so on.

-Like a mixture of Las Vegas, Reno, and Paris, and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. You do get shit in your world class stew.

Hide and Seek

The past week has been pretty much wonderful for me. I've experienced quite a few firsts...

Southwestern Youth Musical Festival:
The Pains:
-All the expectations and pressure after preparing over a month for this event wasn't overwhelming, but it got me pretty nervous. Nervous to the point where I messed up, but I played a fast piece so it was bound to happen anyways.
-Stupid warm-up rooms where you could only practice for 10 mins. Luckily I snagged one for like 40 mins lol, but there was one that smelled like fart. It was really bad, and the rooms were small without any apparant ventilation systems.
-No A/C in the auditioning room! Poor judges.

The Pleasures:
-1st place! woo!


Catalina Island

All of the below was a first-time thing for me.

Snorkeling

The Pains:
-I snorkeled at Lover's Cove/Marine Preserve, which was an extremely pebbly landscape. My feet and legs hurt after being battered with stones whenever I was standing among the waves.
-Flippers are SO difficult to walk in. The only way to walk successfully is to do so backwards without lifting your feet much.
-If you've ever swam in the ocean, you'll know how bad it is to choke or inhale sea water.

The Pleasures:
-Catalina is pleasantly notorious for its abundant fish. The waters were teeming with fish where I snorkeled, though it's really hard to catch them (or even touch them) so unless you're a ninja or something you could only observe and swim with them.
-Since sound doesn't travel to well underwater, you can shout (or mumble) like a raving lunatic and nobody could hear you!

Kayaking
The Pains:
-Your arms get tired after half an hour. :P

The Pleasures:
-It's quite thrilling when some mildly large waves sneak up on you. Combined with the fact that the ocean floor is like 295739057 feet below you and the water is quite chilly, it's exciting when your kayak bobs uncontrollably.
-I kayaked up to Lover's Cove where the water was pretty clear, so I saw kelp and fish around the kayak. :D But that made the deep ocean seem deeper because kelp can grows fast and tall...

Fishing

The Pains:
-Accidentally getting your finger/hand hooked.
-Using fresh bait. You know the squid that we dissected in OSS? Yeah, the bait I used was exactly the same. I had to cut chunks of the meat and attach a tentacle to the end of the hook so I can lace up the hook to hide it (fish get cautious when they see a hook). The end result for me was grimy, ink-encrusted fingers and...

The Pleasures:
-...I CAUGHT A FASH! It was small, but I caught something!
woo! (I let it go afterwards, but my dad brought a calico bass that he caught home to eat. It was pretty nasty.)

I also attended 2 tours in Catalina; the Undersea Tour and the Flying Fish Tour.
If you google these you'll find more info, but from my experience they're both worth it.
The Undersea Tour was quite engaging not only because you see so much fish, but the kelp beds are simply amazing. They're like underwater exotic forests!
The Flying Fish Tour took place during the night. The boat took us out to sea, and a special light frightened the flying fish, which caused them to...fly. Well, they don't really fly, but they skim over the waves. We only saw a handful, but what was awesome was that I saw a pelican gobble up one fish, and a sea lion nom another. I didn't see the entire action because it happened really fast, but for the sea lion dinner I saw huge splashing and churning of water.

I have to say that Catalina is my new favorite place, because of the environment. There is very little pollution, as they do not allow a lot of cars, so most people walk, bike, or drive around in golf carts. The ocean provides a lot of activities, and the mountains offer great hiking, though I haven't done anything inland this time.

I definitely want to go back!

In other news...
>I'm starting Sarasate's Spanish Dances and Beethoven's lovely "Spring" Sonata.
>I can do 10 pushups effortlessly! Easy for you, but an accomplishment for me. 8D
>Finally finished this a month ago for my grandmother's b-day. Comment if you want to criticize?: