Now that I'm back in the college atmosphere, I'm interested to see the differences of today's students. I'm not claiming that I graduated all that long ago, but the changes are still striking.
People are connected.
Yesterday I was walking back to my parking spot (my quarter-mile exercise for the day) and I followed behind a couple holding hands. Aw, how sweet, good ol' college sweethearts. But when I got closer, I found they were each talking on cell phones. What?! Now who could you possibly need to be talking to while walking with your darling? Is it your high school buddy, or maybe your roommate? jeese.
Every day is the same; everyone I pass has a cell phone, iPod, or some other electronic device in hand. It is uncanny, like some kind of trippy Motorola commercial or something.
The other way students are connected is through IM. I have a few friends that I keep in touch with IM, but my buddy list is woefully small compared to most of the students. I don't understand where they find 50-60 friends to populate their buddy list. They obviously pass their screen name out without a care, whereas I've noticed people my age are a little wary of giving it out. Personally, I believe IM will become much more pervasive and useful in the future. I've already used it effectively in grad school. I posted my screen name on the computer in the lab and I had a number of times when a student would IM me at 10:00pm to say the MIDI is not working, or ask to have me walk them through a complicated process. I'm looking forward to the day when an IM device is embedded in everyone and we evolve into a race that speaks very little out loud. That way, when I zone out when people are talking to me, I will be able to later review everything they say in my cache browser.
See, it's not that I have a problem paying attention, it's just that I'm ahead of the technology.
9.18.2006
9.11.2006
A Puzzle for Finale geeks
I assigned the second movement to Francis Poulenc's Mouvement Perpétual to my Computer and Music students last week. The piece is simple for the most part until you get to the last measure:
I knew this was going to be trouble, but I also knew that nothing is impossible with Finale, (I wouldn't make that claim with Sibelius). Some of the difficulties were foreseen, such as the missing 32nd note, but there were some other surprising complications. For instance, the glissando word by itself does not come standard in smart shapes, and the cross-staved notes were a little tricky. But I got it, in under an hour. Test your chops, see how fast you can do it... Or just follow the instructions below:
1. Speedy Entry:
Speedy entry menu: check for extra notes to off
top staff 32 note D, 32nd note D octave up, dotted eighth rest (hidden), another 32nd note (high D) double dotted eighth rest
hide the dotted eighth rest (H), flip the high D (L)
bottom staff octave up, quarter, quarter, 32nd rest, double dotted eighth rest, quarter rest
2. Note Mover
note mover menu, choose "cross staff"
throw the a-flat down to the bottom staff
3. Special Tools -
reverse stem: flip the note on its stem in the second group of 32nds
beam angle: tweak the beams on both 32nd note sets
note shape: choose 202 for the note shape on the second 32nd note to hide it.
custom stem: choose 66 to hide the stem
4. Clef tool
double click in the bottom staff
choose create movable mid-measure clef
5. Smart Tools
option click the custom smart tool
duplicate the glissando with the wavy line
edit your duplicate
in the "Line Style" "Character" box, delete the tilda (~)
draw the glissando and tweak the placement
add the 8va's
6. add the breath marks using the Articulation tool (#36)
7. Tweak the spacing using Speedy entry and/or the Measure tool
I knew this was going to be trouble, but I also knew that nothing is impossible with Finale, (I wouldn't make that claim with Sibelius). Some of the difficulties were foreseen, such as the missing 32nd note, but there were some other surprising complications. For instance, the glissando word by itself does not come standard in smart shapes, and the cross-staved notes were a little tricky. But I got it, in under an hour. Test your chops, see how fast you can do it... Or just follow the instructions below:
1. Speedy Entry:
Speedy entry menu: check for extra notes to off
top staff 32 note D, 32nd note D octave up, dotted eighth rest (hidden), another 32nd note (high D) double dotted eighth rest
hide the dotted eighth rest (H), flip the high D (L)
bottom staff octave up, quarter, quarter, 32nd rest, double dotted eighth rest, quarter rest
2. Note Mover
note mover menu, choose "cross staff"
throw the a-flat down to the bottom staff
3. Special Tools -
reverse stem: flip the note on its stem in the second group of 32nds
beam angle: tweak the beams on both 32nd note sets
note shape: choose 202 for the note shape on the second 32nd note to hide it.
custom stem: choose 66 to hide the stem
4. Clef tool
double click in the bottom staff
choose create movable mid-measure clef
5. Smart Tools
option click the custom smart tool
duplicate the glissando with the wavy line
edit your duplicate
in the "Line Style" "Character" box, delete the tilda (~)
draw the glissando and tweak the placement
add the 8va's
6. add the breath marks using the Articulation tool (#36)
7. Tweak the spacing using Speedy entry and/or the Measure tool
9.03.2006
Transitions are never easy
So it has been awhile, starting a new job, been busy, yadda-yadda...
Anyway I'm back, I'll try blogging again semi-regularly... um.. weekly maybe.
The new job:
My predecessor, Josh was still around part-time for two weeks to get me oriented with the system and the many varied duties. We also had some goals to accomplish when I arrived: transition to the newly updated Mac server, make live the new department website, connect to the campus LDAP system. Unfortunately we weren't able to do these until the last day (afternoon) that Josh was there.
You've heard that it is surprisingly easy to fly a plane once it is in the air and cruising; it is the taking off, landing, and other troublesome maneuvers that require all that time and money in flight school. Well, somehow the LDAP binding maneuver wiped out the users on the server. So while I thought I'd have time to study and tweak the system ever so cautiously, I found myself throwing levers in the cockpit and wildly making adjustments in mid-flight, meanwhile speaking calmly in the microphone to the passengers, uh.. don't be alarmed, I will have things back up and running shortly.
I exaggerate. But that is close to how I felt. The first week I was at school eleven or twelve hours a day plus working well towards midnight from home, but I now feel like things are back to normal and I can start working on the things I have been putting off for two weeks (like sleep... and blogging).
Anyway I'm back, I'll try blogging again semi-regularly... um.. weekly maybe.
The new job:
My predecessor, Josh was still around part-time for two weeks to get me oriented with the system and the many varied duties. We also had some goals to accomplish when I arrived: transition to the newly updated Mac server, make live the new department website, connect to the campus LDAP system. Unfortunately we weren't able to do these until the last day (afternoon) that Josh was there.
You've heard that it is surprisingly easy to fly a plane once it is in the air and cruising; it is the taking off, landing, and other troublesome maneuvers that require all that time and money in flight school. Well, somehow the LDAP binding maneuver wiped out the users on the server. So while I thought I'd have time to study and tweak the system ever so cautiously, I found myself throwing levers in the cockpit and wildly making adjustments in mid-flight, meanwhile speaking calmly in the microphone to the passengers, uh.. don't be alarmed, I will have things back up and running shortly.
I exaggerate. But that is close to how I felt. The first week I was at school eleven or twelve hours a day plus working well towards midnight from home, but I now feel like things are back to normal and I can start working on the things I have been putting off for two weeks (like sleep... and blogging).
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