Animator vs. Animation

both by Alan Becker. One of the best think-out-of-the-box sense of humor videos I have seen.






Part II:

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Hummmm

Evgeni Plushenko - 2001 World Championship Exhibition Program

Guzheng

My other hobby is playing the guzheng, which is a zither-like traditional Chinese instrument that has been in existence for over 2500 years. It is the parent instrument of the Japanese koto, the Korean kayageum, and the Vietnamese dan tranh. The number of strings on this instrument has varied from five up to 44, but most modern ones are either 21 or 23-stringed.

I suppose I've been fascinated with this instrument ever since I was a little girl. My mother learned to play a 16-stringed version of the zheng when she was a young woman and I used to remember sneaking down into the basement to open up the zheng case so that I could pluck the strings. Never mind that it was horribly out of tune, as it had been sitting in the case collecting dust as my mother's life as a parent grew more hectic. What drew me to the instrument was its elegance and static gracefulness.

After graduating from high school, I spent a year in Taiwan. Taking advantage of the opportunity, I started taking zheng lessons.

One of my more entertaining experiences was when I asked for modern sheet music (music notation for Eastern and Western instruments is different). It is not uncommon to hear zheng music which have remained relatively unmodified for hundreds of years. Feeling a bit bored with the traditional music, I asked a guzheng shop if they had more modern scores. To my dismayed amusement, they pulled out songs circa the 1920's. I suppose it is considered "modern" for an instrument that has been around for the past 2500 years!


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My Nikon D70

Aside from hoarding information, I like to take pictures. My parents gave me my first camera when I was four years old. I remember it was one of those 110mm cameras that didn't have a flash. I continued using that camera until the eighth grade. I eventually graduated to a 35mm SLR. Two years ago upon recommendation of a friend who is a professional photographer, I bought my first DSLR, a Nikon D70. So far, my favorite subjects have been flowers. I still sometimes groan at the thought of having to take pictures of humans, though when I form a connection with the subject, the photos are amazing. The nice thing about flowers is that they don't move around as much, though it does require patience to wait for the wind to die down. The longest I've waited has been an hour.

One of these days I want to go to a coral reef and take pictures of the marine life. However, my more immediate goal is to take a few macro shots of dragonflies. I sure hope I don't need to buy one of those slinky-like lenses that sits on a rail!

Most of these shots were taken in San Francisco's Arboretum at Golden Gate Park.

The Hoarder

I have a number of hobbies, but I have to say the one "hobby" that stands out is that I'm a perpetual student. You know, that "kid" that never finishes school? Mooching off student discounts? Yeah, that's me. I read an article once about how about 2 million Americans are hoarders. I would say that I'm one of them, though I have to admit that one of the things I like to hoard is information. I've taken a wide range of classes ranging from programming to finance to marketing to multimedia. Why all this self-inflicted torture? I have to blame it on my love of hoarding information. By extension, I also hoard books. 5 overstuffed bookshelves are still not enough for me. I also have piles of old books ready to either make their way to the library or onto eBay. If anyone knows of a hoarding cure, let me know.