Let's go to the Cincinnati Symphony

Hello Friends,

As most of you know, I am a huge classical music fan. I'm the type of person that will clap easily at a baseball game when the Reds hit a homerun, but will stand and cheer wildly after an outstanding rendition of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.

I have gone through the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra's rep for the 2007/08 season and picked out a number of concerts that I consider must hears. If anyone wants to go with me, just give me a holler!


CSO : Stravinsky Festival
• Friday, November 2, 8pm
• Saturday, November 3, 8pm
• Sunday, November 4, 3pm
Paavo Järvi, conducting
May Festival Chorus, Robert Porco, director
STRAVINSKY FESTIVAL
STRAVINSKY: Chorale-Variations on Vom Himmel hoch da komm’ ich her (“From Heaven Above I Come to You”)
STRAVINSKY: Symphony of Psalms
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55, Eroica

CSO : Old World, New World
• Friday, November 30, 8pm
• Saturday, December 1, 8pm
Hans Graf, conducting
Terrence Wilson, piano
LIADOV: Baba-Yaga, Op. 56
LIADOV: The Enchanted Lake, Op. 62
LIADOV: Kikimora, Op. 63
KHACHATURIAN: Piano Concerto
DVORAK: Symphony No. 9 in E Minor,
Op. 95, From the New World

CSO : The French Connection
• Thursday, January 17, 7:30pm
(6:15 p.m. Thursday, Pre-Concert Dinner Buffet, free to ticketholders)
• Friday, January 18, 11am
• Saturday, January 19, 8pm
Paavo Järvi, conducting
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
RAVEL: Le tombeau de Couperin
RAVEL: Piano Concerto for Left Hand in
D Major
MUSSORGSKY/arr. Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition*
*To be recorded by Telarc

CSO : Bold Brass
• Friday, January 25, 8pm
• Saturday, January 26, 8pm
Paavo Järvi, conducting
Håkan Hardenberger, trumpet
ARVO PÄRT: Concerto Piccolo über
B-A-C-H (“Little Concerto on B-A-C-H”)
EINO TAMBERG: Concerto for Trumpet,
Op. 42
BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 109

CSO : Fun & Romance
• Saturday, February 16, 8pm
• Sunday, February 17, 3pm
Susanna Mälkki, conducting
Peter Jablonski, piano
R. STRAUSS: Don Juan, Op. 20
LISZT: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major
JUKKA TIENSUU: Lumo (“Enchantment”)
R. STRAUSS: Der Rosenkavalier Suite,
Op. 59

CSO : Passionate Masterworks
• Thursday, February 28, 7:30pm
(6:15 p.m. Thursday, Pre-Concert Dinner Buffet, free to ticketholders)
• Friday, February 29, 8pm
• Saturday, March 1, 8pm
Stéphane Denève, conducting
Boris Berezovsky, piano
GUILLAUME CONNESSON: New work
RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18
TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36

CSO : Beloved Tchaikovsky
• Friday, March 7, 11am
• Saturday, March 8, 8pm
Paavo Järvi, conducting
Sayaka Shoji, violin
JÖRG WIDMANN: New work (U.S. Premiere)
TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35
SIBELIUS: Symphony No. 3 in C Major,
Op. 52

CSO : Fabulous Finale
• Friday, May 2, 8pm
• Saturday, May 3, 8pm
Paavo Järvi, conducting
Lars Vogt, piano
ROBERT JOHNSON: prairyerth (World Premiere)
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466
STRAVINSKY: Le sacre du printemps ("The Rite of Spring”)

I live in one big free garage sale

I live in a nasty crime infested dirty neighborhood. Yes, I live in Clifton.

Now the area I live in does have a good number of college kids, but there is an extremely large 'local' population. And the local population tends to be low income families. Walking to and from class I have noticed something. These locals seem to throw out an extremely large amount of furniture. Yeah, furniture. I'm talking everything from mattresses to recliners to couches to bathroom vanities. What's up with this?

My question is how can such low income families afford to throw out so much furniture. Is it somehow soiled where they can't even sell it? What about donating to Goodwill? What about asking your neighbors if they can use an extra bathroom sink?

If you don't know what I'm talking about, go to your local neighborhood that is always under crime-watch, and just drive around for a little bit. Maybe you'll strike gold and it'll be garbage collection night, but really it doesn't matter, when a piece of furniture has been labeled as curb trash, it goes there regardless what night of the week it is.

Yes, I know, I didn't grow up in a neighborhood like this. Even though I have lived here for going on three years, I still don't feel completely comfortable on my own front porch. But someone please explain to me why so much furniture is being thrown out. Even beyond the fact that they are throwing out furniture, what do these people replace the missing couch with? If they are able to buy this much furniture... why are they living here?

Some things I fear will never make much sense. I don't act like I know anything, I just question... hah, later days!

MEMO: How to use the men’s restroom

I got a mass email today at work regarding the urinals in the men's restroom. Basically this memo was instructions on how to use the toilet properly. No, this wasn't a joke; apparently people were having a few issues...

I would just paste the email here in the post, but I think that might be a breach on the code of ethics.

It was a very funny email indeed and gave me quite the chuckles, which is always a nice start to my late morning arrival at work after my 8am Discrete Mathematics course.

So here are the details...
:: The urinals in the men's room are auto flush
:: This means they will flush when you walk away (or are suppose to at least)
:: There is a manual flush that will guarantee the flush if for some reason the auto flush fails
:: This means there are two methods to flush... there lies the problem...

Apparently some men would push the manual flush button while backing away from the urinal, causing both the flushes to activate. Also, apparently the urinal is stupid and then tries to use twice the amount of water to refill... causing spillage.

I don't know about the women's room... but when there is spillage in the men's room, especially right beneath the urinal... I generally do not assume it is just water. Any liquid on the floor of the men's room is treated like a deadly, radioactive carcinogen and carefully avoided. Your mind just starts to wander... how in the world could a dude miss the toilet by that much!?! ...

And so after reading this email... of course what do I want to do? Run to the men's room to see if there is truth to this tale and try to overflow the toilet just by flushing! Of course there may not be any listing in the Kroger Code of Ethics about toilets overflowing... but that might be destruction of company property... and it would be quite the conflict of interest to destroy property of the company that I have stock in.

And now the computer programmer in me is itching the question... should not the toilet manufacturer have tested this? Toilets are fairly simple mechanisms, no? Would it not have been a simple test to see if you can mess with the flushing system? Would it not have been simple to set a switch so that when the manual flush has been enabled, the eye to detect the auto flush is disabled? And same with the reverse where when the auto flush has been enabled, a switch is flipped to disable the manual flush?

Oh the craziness of the toilet industry...

In other news, I have a new million dollar idea... well... sorta. I have a topic in mind, but the exact innovation is yet to reach conception. I’ll give you a little preview… it has to do with water! More on that later though!

See ya!

Keeping up with the standards of today

Yes, you heard me right in the last post... I have upgraded my laptop to Vista. I have been using it for about two weeks and I will admit, it isn't as bad as what I originally thought. Granted, I really haven't done anything super crazy with it or even taken the time to figure out what new features are around. I've been using it mostly for the normal day to day activities... chatting, emailing, news... all that jazz.

So the reason I upgraded to Vista isn't because I love Microsoft... but more I saw what I didn't want to be. In my Assembler class, we have this professor who is completely out of it. He doesn't appear to have any real grasp on reality, but he also seems to be one of the nicest guys ever. During class he tries to use the computer to pull up something like Power Point to display notes, but he struggles even with that. He also has a difficult time with the concept of having more than one window open at a time.

The guy isn't stupid, he's extremely smart, just hasn't kept up with the turns of technology. When some new technology has come about, I'm sure he has stuck with what works for him and not embraced the new techniques and qualities of todays technological society. I don't want this to be me.

My main reason for sticking with XP for so long after Vista's release was really for the reason of comfort. I know how XP works, I know where to find things, I know much of the secrets and crevices... with Vista I don't know this!

Keeping up with the standards of today is strenuous in a society that makes things out of date the day they are released, but its fun. I'm glad I upgraded to Vista... I still want a Mac... but all in good time.

Hello, World! (still here?)

Hello, World!

I feel like I should be writing one of those here since I haven't written in so long! To anyone that is a regular, I apologize greatly... but life is busy!

Curious what I'm up to? Here's my week at a glance...
Monday:
:: Class 9am - 2pm
:: Chuck 8pm
:: Heroes 9pm

Tuesday:
:: Class 8am - 920am
:: Work 10am - 5pm
:: Class 6pm - 9pm

Wednesday:
:: Class 9am - 2pm
:: Teach trumpet lessons 5pm - 6pm
:: Small Group 7pm - 830pm
:: Focus 9pm - 1030pm
:: Chortisch 1030pm - ???

Thursday:
:: Class 8am - 920am
:: Work 10am - 5pm
:: Smallville 8pm
:: The Office 9pm

Friday:
:: Class 9am - 2pm

Crazy times... crazy times... and then homework to top that off

So much has been going on lately, but there isn't really too much to write about. I'm out of my normal groove, good and bad thing I guess.

I will write again soon, promise!

PS... I upgrade to Vista on my laptop... that deserves a post I think

Life Lessons

Shamelessly stolen from my friend Sean's Xanga...

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous "yes."

The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things, your family, your children, your health, your friends, your favorite passions, things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. "The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else, the small stuff. "If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "There is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house, and mow the lawn. "Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented.

The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of beers."

Something a little different

So today I was sitting and class and decided to try something a little different. I decided to take my watch off of my left wrist, and clasp it around my right wrist. Not the most intense of changes... but a big one none the less.

Are there things like this in your day-to-day life that would completely throw your life out of balance if you made the change. I made it about 20 minutes with my watch on my right wrist before it was too much and i just had to switch it back.

What about wearing a shirt backwards for a day. It is not the biggest deal in the world, but I can guarantee you that you'd be thinking about how you are wearing a shirt backwards, pretty much all day long.

Crazy how the little things control our lives, eh?