Yay!  I'm on "the list" for dorm crew after all...

That is, I'll be leaving a week earlier than I'd originally planned (on 9/5) for a week-long janitorial job of scrubbing floors, cleaning bathrooms, and dusting furniture at harvard.  On the bright side, I'll get to meet people and explore Cambridge/Boston for an extra week before the craziness of placement testing and course shopping begins.  Oh, and did i mention that it pays $400? :oP

P.S.  check this out:  http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1162531/posts

*drool*

Currently Playing Think Tank By Blur see related

Early in the morning, at break of day, in all the freshness and dawn of one’s strength, to read a book — I call that vicious!

-Nietzsche

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/00/15/wls-dyer.php

Hmm...I'm glad some people are amused by the profile picture.  It actually started out as a rather crass (albeit dreamy) rendition of a recurring daydream of mine...

<censored because i am not wearing pants>

...my photo cropping skills being crap, though, I opted for the other picture instead.

***

I practiced on my erhu for a long time today--well, alternatingly practiced and watched videos of my lessons in china and listened to erhu cds.  Still learning the pieces my teacher started with me--horserace and liang xiao--but I'll be starting on some new ones soon (incl. the one that, with any luck, is playing on my xanga). 

I can't really hear it in my playing yet, but there's something so beautiful and eerily human about the sound of an erhu.  The strings are suspended in air, so it's very easy to slide into each note, making a kind of plaintive, quavering sound.  The fact that the bow's stuck b/w the strings also gives the erhu sound a continuity and flow that violin can't really achieve.  Ugh, but speaking of continuity, it's pretty hard to maintain any in my stream of thinking with all these people IMing me.  I'll write more later. 

Currently Playing Art of Erhu By Zhu Changyao see related

Well, I haven't quite given up on Barnes and Nobles yet, but there's a good chance I might start doing my perusing at Borders (don't all have a heart attack now).  Has anyone else noticed that B&N is becoming infested with annoying and creepy people lately?  Just 2 nights ago, while I was reading in the cafe, some weird man sat down across from me and asked if I was chinese and if I'd teach him chinese.  "Well (go away)...I don't read or write Chinese (go away).  I charge $20/hr (go away).  I have no transportation (go away).  Oh, and I already have a tutoring job (go away)."  "Alrighty then!  Here's my number!"  Arrrrgh!  If you really wanted to learn chinese, why wouldn't you go to Xilin? 

Anyway, I avoided going to the bookstore again until this evening, not knowing that on the menu tonight would be another huge helping of creepo.  While I was studying on one of the sofas, some middle-aged man plopped down across from me and pretended to read his book.  Every time I looked up, though, he was giving me some kind of death glare. 

Hmmph, people are jerks.  I am going to read in the comfort of my bedroom now.

Currently Reading Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy By Jostein Gaarder see related

Hi everyone!  I'm gonna be in China from about 6/12 to 7/4, so this thing probably won't be updated that often.  I will probably check my email periodically, though, so write me at iwang@fas.harvard.edu!