Michael Park

Goodbye Metformin!

2011-12-28T00:49:00.001-08:00

[Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and I am not offering medical advice in regards to Metformin. This is simply my own personal experience with the drug.]

Well, I lasted about a year on Metformin. In the end, the benefits may have outweighed the side effects, but in practice, the side effects were too much for me to handle - physically and mentally.

The benefits were clear: I lowered my Total Daily Dose by about 10 units/day. I also found that my sugars were much more responsive to dosing while I was on Metformin, which led to fewer corrections. Within the first month or two, I was down about 10 pounds, but this was mostly do to the gastro-intestinal discomfort it was causing. Eventually, I figured out how to keep things mostly in check. I was down to only once weekly feeling like I couldn't eat without knowing I was within a quick, unobstructed sprint to the bathroom. Of course, that was the best-case scenario: if I ate within 2 hours of taking the pills, I knew what was coming and if I missed a pill, the next one would have me going!

Maybe this is odd to say, and perhaps TMI, but I've always been very proud of my digestive system (pancreas excepted...) to the point that any change/problem in the bowl was an indicator that I needed to pay better attention to diet, life, etc. In that sense, this year on Metformin was somewhat depressing; based on my porcelain barometer, I felt like I was constantly under the weather.

After those first few months, my TDD and weight stayed even. I had originally intended to use the power of Metformin to lose weight and increase the power of my diet and workout regime... Who was I kidding?!?

A month or so ago, I missed two doses of Metformin in a row. Knowing the discomfort I would face with the next pill, I said, 'screw it!' and haven't looked back! Well, technically, I have looked 'back', but now I see a much happier, healthier future!

It turns out that the transition back, mixed with stress and holidays, was not ideal for timing: my time in Winnipeg for the holidays added a solid 20 units/day to my TDD, so I'm pretty much back to that starting weight too, haha! Now that I'm back in Vancouver and getting back to my schedule and habits, I'm on the right track. I've also been much better at dosing before 20 minutes before I eat, which has helped immensely.

In conclusion, I feel much better! I really can't stress that enough.

Success in Pairing

2011-11-08T23:28:00.002-08:00

I'm not a huge fan of bragging about myself. I know I've made passing mention about a few projects in the last few years, but looking back, it's high time I take credit for some of the awesome things I've been responsible for creating.

It all started shortly after moving to Vancouver. I had met an exciting poet, Ray Hsu and we started talking about potential projects. We originally proposed a single project to the Vancouver International Song Institute, but that didn't initially fly. Eventually, the ideal was distilled - let's bring poets and composers together, perform their creations, and talk about the creative experience. That first year, we had a 2-hour afternoon workshop that was incredibly successful, so much so, that it was expanded into a week-long program with a professional concert at the end. Again, the program and concert garnered some serious attention from artists and granting organizations. Plans are in the works to make the VISI Art Song Lab 2012 even more exciting. To date, 15 new art songs have been written and premiered as part of our program!

While plans were in motion for that first Art Song Lab, I approached Corey Hamm (piano prof at UBC) about collaborating with his piano studio. With his support and excitement, we used the same paradigm: pairing pianists with composers this time. Yet again, the collaboration was a tremendous success resulting in the creation, in-depth study/rehearsal, and premiere of 10 brand new pieces for piano. The piece I wrote for this collaboration was particularly successful, receiving several repeat performances, and there are even talks of having it recorded.

Good things come in threes, of course, so I couldn't leave the pairing idea alone just yet; the most recent development is Analyze This: A Composer/Theorist Lecture Recital. I live with a music theorist, and many of my friends are of the analytical persuasion, so I've always seen it as a missed connection that there seems to be some kind of a divide between the two fields. After hosting a meet-and-greet last year, I played matchmaker with my composer and theorist friends. In a few weeks, we'll have a lecture recital featuring the live performance and analysis of short pieces. Even before it's happened, I've been approached by a performing organization to have the whole event documented.

Of course, I'm also writing my own music and feeling pretty damned good about it, too! Long story short, I feel really good about career-type things right now, and I figured you'd enjoy reading something uplifting for a change... Don't worry though, there'll be some rants and bitching soon enough!

feeling jealous of older posts

2011-10-30T23:36:00.001-07:00

To remind myself of my recent meanderings, I re-read some blog posts, particularly the one where I was raving about how great it felt to be a composer....

I wish I had that booming positivity right now.

I'm working towards a deadline that isn't really real, on a project that I don't really love, at least not in that way I feel about other projects right now. It's my orchestra piece that I need to finish for my doctoral portfolio (a degree requirement). I like the materials I'm using, but they don't have that freshness or excitement that I'd like. I've been attempting to write this piece since last January. Lesson learned: never take a step away from a project that NEEDS to get finished...

I hope to finish the piece by the end of the term, but I'm using Nov 4th as an interim deadline. The Vancouver Symphony has a yearly reading session, and I plan to submit the last 5 minutes of my piece for that reading session. I think it will be a good stepping stone for finishing the piece a month later, but it lacks that sense of completion that a deadline should bring... in a sense, I'm giving myself compositional blue balls! Anyway, there's not much time left, I'll work my ass off until Friday, at which time I will hopefully have something to submit. Worst case scenario, I don't, and that's not the end of the world.

Next week, I get to start on a real deadline - a piece I'm writing for Piano and Viola to be premiered at Michael Park & Friends 3 - Feb 15, 2012. I'm giving myself a month to write that one, at the same time as I finish up my thesis proposal. I'm VERY excited about that next piece, so, YAY! It's a continuation of my work with having instrumentalists speak while playing, this time in a conversation context.

On the one hand, I feel like my priorities aren't exactly in the right place as I'm spending much of my time working on non-thesis activities, but based on every other grad student I've come across, doing exactly that puts me right on track!

I'm also looking forward to the new year. With my thesis proposal submitted, I'll actually get to start on it! As my comprehensive exams will be in March, I will also be focusing much of my attention on preparing for those. Of course, Michael Park & Friends will be exciting, I have a few other projects in the works, and before I know it, we'll be headed into the summer again, with another installment of the Art Song Lab!

Ok, this is getting long, and even though I started blogging with the intention of procrastinating, I'm starting to feel guilty!

dead mice and a vibrant creative spirit

2011-10-13T02:13:00.002-07:00

When I came home today, I stuck my hand into the mailbox.

I felt something soft and fluffy.

In retrospect, I don't know why I didn't second guess my hand's decision: I pulled it out.

I really wish I could have enjoyed that for even a moment longer. It was soft, so soft, nice, so nice.

As I pulled my hand out, my reaction turned to shock, horror, disgust, as I realized what it was my hand was holding.

[I know I'm building the suspense, but really, we all know you've already read this post's title]

Anyone who's watched a movie with me, or told me a shocking story, knows exactly what happened next; I screamed like a little girl and let out a burst of profanities.

I am not ashamed of my reaction.

Though maybe,

I should be.

Creatively, things are thriving.

Plans for next year's VISI Art Song Lab are well underway.

I've organized a collaboration, of composers and music theorists which will culminate in a lecture recital at the end of November.

I will be playing piano for one of those pieces, as well as having my own piece played/analyzed.

I'm currently working an orchestra piece, which is a portfolio requirement for which I've finally found the inspiration I've been needing.

I recently connected with a singer for whom I'm really excited about writing a cycle.

Ray and I are collaborating on a project that has us exploring, questioning, and challenging issues and technicalities of copyright and fair dealing.

In addition to my regular teaching, I took on a small contract for some dance exams in a few weeks.

Oh ya, my thesis: I'm getting increasingly excited about the direction the opera is taking!

So far, I've written 5 pieces in 2011 and should have 2 more completed before the year's end. This is my most prolific year yet, and it feels great!

Anyway, loyal readers, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting so long. I promise to be better from here on in!

Let's Make My Opera Go Viral!

2011-08-06T22:09:00.004-07:00

I guess there really isn't much chance of my opera going viral because it's not a kitten, and it's not doing anything either cute or disgusting. Nevertheless, I do feel that my opera deserves the kind of attention often garnered by viral videos.

Earlier this summer, I had a short version workshopped in Winnipeg. I can't use the video recording, and the idea of just posting a 20-minute audio file seems lame, so I whipped up what I'm calling a virtual tour of the opera for your enjoyment. It'll take about 15 minute to read your way through, listening to the musical examples, so have fun!

I'd love to hear your feedback, so feel free to comment on here or send me an email detailing the many ways you love and/or hate it!

Diagnosis: Diabetes - A Chamber Opera About Type-One Diabetes

Hot and Pretty in Southampton

2011-07-23T08:34:00.003-07:00

So, I'm on vacation in Southampton, ON. My sister moved here a few months ago, so my parents suggested a roadtrip to split up my massive month and a half visit to Winnipeg. It was bad enough being in Winnipeg, which has been unseasonably humid, but holy smokes is it wretched here in Ontario. There's been a heat wave, Toronto set some temperature records, and I generally dislike everything about the weather. Oh, and did I mention that my sister doesn't have air-conditioning?!?

All things considered, I'm having a fabulous time! I will appreciate the mild climate of Vancouver SO much more when I get back, and it feels like I've been in the tropics.

Here is an example of why I'm having fun:

My family is equal parts ridiculous and awesome.

Just in case you need some more proof, here's another video:

This has been my summer of sunsets:

Before leaving Vancouver, I spent at least a few evenings at Kits beach watching the sunset. With the mountains and the ocean, the sun set is vastly different depending on where you're sitting

In Winnipeg, you're almost always guaranteed a prairie sunset. It's easy to forget how beautiful they are, but when I'm in town, I love that little reminder! Flat land means horizons as far as the eye can see!

Southampton is a picturesque lake town, and we've gotten into the habit of taking my puppy niece down to the beach around sunset time to see the beautiful colours that come out when the sun meets the water. Some of the prettiest scenes are actually visible about half an hour after the sun sets.

Ok, that's about enough rambling for one morning... that's right, it's 11:59am and I'm posting, before noon!!!

Oopsie, I haven't blogged in a while...

2011-07-20T11:27:00.003-07:00

Long story short, which y'all know is my specialty, is that life is going pretty damned well for me.

Between art song and opera, I'm making good use of my professional opportunities and rather enjoying it. I've been updating my website and will continue to do so as I get more and more recordings available.

I'm currently traveling in Ontario as a side trip from my Winnipeg times. Friends and family in Ontario are awesome, and I'm enjoying it much more than when I lived here.

Oh, and I gots me a tattoo!

It hurt, but not the worst thing ever.

This tattoo is something that I've been 'planning' on getting since I was a teenager, but procrastination and excuses had always gotten in my way. Walking through Toronto with my friend Dizzle, she suggested getting a tattoo, and I really didn't have an excuse... I'm on vacation! I'm very happy with how it turned out.

It started drying out and scabbing, so it's a little itchy/annoying, but I'll survive.

Ok, I'm done blogging now.

Bye

2011-05-12T03:14:00.000-07:00

3 or 4 days from it's deadline, and the thought strikes me that, 'wow, this diabetes opera thing is actually happening!' So far, I'm feeling pretty good about how this last-minute project is pulling together; I can't wait to see what I'm able to do with a project that I spend two academic years working on!

In diabetes news, I need to be better at remembering to take my metformin in the evening. For the last few days, I test my sugars 2 hours after dinner - surprise surprise, they're high because I didn't take my pills with the meal. Generally, though, sugars have been quite good considering how low everything that isn't composing is on my list of priorities.

finally feeling like a composer

2011-05-07T03:25:00.002-07:00

2 things have played a prominent role in leading me to where I am right now:

1) Deadlines - I know I've talked about my need for them here before, so I won't bore you. Especially in this last month, I've had nothing but deadlines, and they've left me little time for relaxing.

B) At one point this year, my teacher said some blunt things that really put it all into perspective. He said, 'You can't call yourself a composer unless you compose,' and then asked me if the act of composing was really a defining feature of my existence.

It wasn't.

Now it is.

In the span of a week, I wrote an art song. While this is not record speed for most composers, this was unprecedentedly fast for me. It was intense, but I'm happy with what I wrote and looking forward to rehearsals and the performance in June!

I am five days into the span of two weeks during which I will be writing about ten minutes of opera.

I don't want to sound too cliché, but I don't understand how I considered myself a composer before. I'm now invested in this, and I plan to stay that way!

2011-04-13T14:46:00.003-07:00

I'm sitting here working my butt off on my orchestra piece for my last lesson of the year tomorrow, and I realize..

wait, this isn't just my last lesson of the year, it might very well be my last lesson ever!

That's right, this term marks the end of my coursework at school. Next year, I don't have lessons anymore, just thesis meeting, which will seem like lessons, but not in the same way.

I realize that we never stop learning, but it's interesting to think that I've sorta met the end of the line for traditional, institutional education.

Ok, back to work!

2011-04-02T23:39:00.002-07:00

When I'm super busy and posting, I tend to focus on the stress, but not today.

Things are going really well. Yes, I still have so much to get done, but I had a great premiere of my "The Stories Men Tell" piece last night. The performance and the piece itself were both a whopping success.

For a bunch of reasons, I'm not going to post a recording here for a while, but don't worry, you'll hear it soon enough!

2011-03-29T02:02:00.003-07:00

I don't know if blogging has ever been this low on my priority list...

Sorry, loyal readers.

I'm working on some really awesome projects, which is why I've been too busy to post.

The ArtSongLab I'm co-coördinating is shaping up to be a delightfully exciting week of events! We have participants coming from all over the country to participate, including some friends I haven't seen in a long time.

I'm in the process of finishing up my chamber piece called "Faces in a Crowd" and I'm getting more and more into the piece as I go, which is quite exciting. It's giving me a real sense that I'm doing the right thing. When you get this involved in a piece you're writing, it's like a passionate relationship that you know is about to end; you know you need to get as much lovin' out of it before it's over, haha!

My opera scenes are due early-to-mid May, so that's a big project and I'm excited to devote all of my attention to it once I get some other stuff out of the way, like:

-making sure I have a strong orchestral sketch to submit for my composition portfolio

-my art song submission for the ArtSongLab

-a term paper comparing a Bach Invention to Breton folk music

Since I have so much to keep me occupied, of course I've picked up knitting a little bit...

There are always reasons to knit teddy bears, so I'm making sure to get some work done in that department!

busy busy busy!

2011-03-06T21:53:00.003-08:00

The busiest portion of my life continues...

Michael Park & Friends 2 was a whopping success, but now I'm back to composing as much as possible. I am excited to have my sister visiting this week, but it will be my challenge to make sure I get my work done, even while entertaining a house guest.

I think I'm officially going to switch my sleeping schedule for the week, but it's a hard shift to make...

I woke up today at noon, but I have to be up at 6:30 tomorrow morning to pick my sister up from the airport. If I want a full night's sleep, I should go to bed very soon, but I still have so much work to do, and I'm not tired at all! Anyway, not enough sleep tomorrow means I will be tired tomorrow night and actually be able to sleep at a reasonable hour.

Ok, wish me luck, blogosphere!

2011-02-22T01:43:00.002-08:00

The response to the call for submissions has been great! It's not overwhelming, but it's certainly a good start.

My roommate and I went swimming tonight. Why do I ever stop swimming?!? It's one of the few physical activities that I'm good at.

With that said, I sucked tonight! Being around 2 years since I last hit the pool, I'm not surprised. I imagine we swam for about 45 minutes, ish, and I swam 1000m. I feel good, and excited to make this a regular occurrence, and I'm even planning on giving myself some direction:

Decades ago, I got my bronze medallion, so my goal is to get myself back into the swimming shape that I once was. I looked up the H2O proficiency requirements online and I'm gonna start with the Bronze Star level, then work my way up.

First goal is to swim at about a minute per lap (25m). I'll do 400m sets until I can do them reliably in 12 minutes. There's also a 100m requirement for under 3 minutes, using one lap each of: lifesaving kick, backstroke, breast stroke, and freestyle.

I'll use 2 sets of each of those as my swim workout: 100m + 400m, then a sugar break, then another 100m + 400m. That'll give me a kilometer, and by the time I can fit that into the half hour box, ish, then I'll be ready for more meters anyway!

The pool we went to tonight also has a workout swim which is about 2000m... I'm going to work towards that, because that would be fantastic to do once or twice a week.

Sugars were trending gently downwards throughout the swim, even with half a pack of lifesavers during, and a complete disconnect from the pump for an hour or so... I'm thinking I might have to have some slower acting carbs before swimming, and start a decreased bolus before starting the swim, an hour or so before....but I just hate starting exercise with higher sugars... oh well, it's experiment time!

Guest Posting and Libretto Collecting

2011-02-19T02:22:00.002-08:00

First off, I had the great pleasure of guest posting on a fantastic diabetes blog called Six Until Me. (Click here for the link to my guest post) Thank you, Kerri, for your kindness and support!

This is all part of an online media blitz I'm creating to draw attention to THIS, my call for submissions for my upcoming opera project! Basically, I'm going to be writing an opera about diabetes and I need a story. I don't want to be so narcissistic as to use my own story, so I'm asking the diabetes blogosphere to send me story suggestions - either their own, or ones they've read. From there, I'll take those stories and weave them into an exciting opera libretto!

I also posted the call for submissions on forums on two fantastic diabetes networking sites: TuDiabetes and Reality Check, as well as facebook and here! Since the call is hosted on my website, I've been able to track how many people have been looking - and it appears that the blitz is working!

Traffic on my site is up by 1571.43% this week! I don't know how they calculate that, but I like the excitement it gives me. I've had over a hundred views to the call itself, and lots of people seem to be checking out the rest of my site while they're there!

Long story short, the word is getting out there, and I'm starting to get submissions. Hopefully this is great start to a really successful collection of stories!

In conclusion, there is a lot of excitement around this initiative; certainly from me, but also from the diabetes blogosphere!

Stay tuned for new developments...

2011-02-10T17:07:00.004-08:00

Well, I'm a far cry away from those years when I was posting every day, but I figure my loyal readers will forgive me!

As I'm sure I've mentioned, this is probably the busiest I've been in my life; at least, it seems like it.

After not playing piano for a while, it's felt good to get back to playing and serious practice, as I prepare for Michael Park and Friends 2!

My compositional productivity had reached an all-time low recently, and after a worrisome lesson last week, I started to weight priorities and the sort. For the first time in my career as a composer, I actually worked like a composer - I put my writing first (I mean, other than when a deadline necessitates it). You know what, I've loved it! I'm refreshed and inspired.

My lesson today went very well. Not that I had much more concrete music (not to be confused with music concrète), but I had done lots of work on sketches and defining my materials.

My teacher's reactions, questions, and insights into my work weren't overt, but I could not have asked for a better, more validating compliment:

We started with a meandering chat about how things change over time, and he was reflective of his 35 years teaching at UBC. The actual compliment came much later, when he said, 'you know, I've never seen anything quite like this, and I've taught well over a hundred students'.

It wasn't inherently positive or negative, he was just intrigued by the originality of my process.

And isn't that what everyone wants? To know that you're special, that you stand out from the crowd, and that you aren't just another drone?

Well, that's what I wanted!

I don't set out to be different; I feel like I fit in with other composers, but time and time again, people tell me that my creativity is unique and original. And just because it makes me feel so nice, I just might believe them for a while!

Futures of the Past

2011-02-01T00:46:00.002-08:00

So, you've heard me refer to my graphic novel project over the last few months, and now I can finally share it with you!

It's a collaborative project with poet, Ray Hsu and comic illustrator, Chloe Chan. We got really excited about the idea of each part influencing the others. As we were sketching, improvising, and coming up with material, we sent samples of our work back and forth - feeding off of the collective, creative energy, and inspiring each other!

Please visit the non-embedded youtube video for some more info about the project, my collaborators, and the publisher that will be doing a print version of the comic.

2011-01-26T22:38:00.003-08:00

Over the last few days, my sugars have been a wee bit all over the place. This is because I've been stressing over deadlines, and being sloppy with eating/dosing/carbcounting/etc... I told myself that today, I'd take the time to do diabetes well!

It seems like I can't remind myself to do this often enough - the main thing is dosing in advance of eating, and remembering to take my metformin near the end, if not directly after eating. Tonight, I had a 75 g carb dinner - my pre-meal BG was 5.6 and my 2 hour post-prandial was 6.1 mmol (suck it, Dr. Bernstein!).

I can, should, and will do this more often.

It feels good.

1 down, 7 to go!

2011-01-20T00:13:00.003-08:00

In terms of my big deadlines for this term, I finished one last week. I took the weekend off and relaxed, but now I'm right back at it!

The piano piece came together quite nicely. I met with the pianist and we had a great reading/question session. I am very much looking forward to working with him on the piece, and ultimately having him perform it.

My next deadline is the soundscore/video for the graphic novel on which I've been collaborating this year. I bid my money adieu and bought ProTools with an Mbox Mini 3 because, let's face it, I don't have time to learn a new program to do a soundscore within a week!

After that, I have the "Michael Park & Friends" concert; I need to keep reminding myself that, while I can lock myself away to finish a composition, piano pieces cannot be learned that way, so a nice steady approach to that rep will be best.

I've been getting much more organized lately. In addition to my post-it note big deadlines that are attached to my calendar, I seem to be constantly updating little daily or weekly to-do lists. Between the program co-ordination I'm doing for this summer, my compositions, my thesis preparation and libretto gathering, doctors appointments and medical paperwork that's popped up, there's just too much to keep in my untrustworthy memory... While this is definitely the busiest time of my life, I think it's also turning out to be my most productive, as well!

Ok, back to work for tonight, and then off to bed!

Starting to feel run down

2011-01-13T00:43:00.003-08:00

It's Wednesday night/Thursday morning and I'm trying to put the finishing touches on my piano piece. I need to make sure the piece is structurally complete tonight because I imagine I'll spend all of tomorrow just editing and making sure the piece looks good on the page,and writing program notes etc. I hand the piece over to my pianist on Friday, but I have zero time to work on it at all on Friday.

Friday is out for productivity because I have class, then I teach and then I meet with the pianist shortly after that. Oh ya, I have readings to do for Friday....

All this adds up to = too much work! ergh...

Basically, I'm starting to feel tired. I've been on a horrible sleep schedule for over a month now. I don't go to bed before 4am, and that's fine when I have nothing to wake up for, but lately, I've had classes and meetings. I've been running a sleep deficit and I'm starting to feel it.

Anyway, just one or two more days, ish. I'm very much looking forward to Saturday when I have nothing to do until 7pm, and that's a friend's birthday dinner - fun times!

In other news, the meet&greet for the Art Song Lab went swimmingly tonight - I wish I had time to go into detail, but this year's event is quickly gathering momentum - lots of excitement and positivity around the whole thing!

Almost finished a piece...

2011-01-11T05:32:00.003-08:00

Originally the deadline was yesterday, but my pianist extended my deadline by a few days, so I'm a little wee bit more relaxed in my approach to finishing up this piece:

Stories Men Tell

The middle movement is a love story, and it's quite likely the most beautiful thing I've ever written. I don't think I went too overboard, but there's a chance it's a little cheesy, but I think I'm fine with that! Two of the movements are finished, giving me 2 days to finish up the last movement and then tidy everything and assemble some stellar performance notes and do some sort of title page. I'm not as excited about the final movement yet... it should be a lot of fun, but I haven't had that moment of inspiration/breakthrough like I've had with the other two.

Anyway, there will be a performance in April, if not March, so I'll make sure to put the recording up when that comes to fruition!

2011-01-06T21:37:00.002-08:00

Look what I made!

Slipper Socks!!

I had started the first sock (gold) more than a month ago. When I finished it, I got distracted by mittens, and composing and Christmas....

Over the last few days, I made and finished the second one (blue), with a most unsuccessful binding off -- it was very tight and I couldn't fit my foot in it, so I had to try two more times before it worked.

I knit them with normal yarn and bigger needles than one should for socks because I just wanted to get the sense of how to do it before I use tiny needles and tiny yarn. Now, I feel prepared.

They are very warm and comfy!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T04:22:00.003-08:00

I've never been big on new year's resolutions, but the coming months have thrown one at me:

In 5 months, I have about 7 major deadlines - if I'm going to have a hope of finishing things on time, I have to write more and faster!

Contrary to the old Adage, I'm focusing on quantity, not quality! This isn't to say that I'm not concerned about the quality of my work - I'm sure I can still do good work without dwelling on it for months longer than I should. I'm far too early in my career as a composer to be working so slowly. I need to embrace modesty and remind myself that I haven't reached greatness yet - yet all great artists create their share of shit before they reach their stride. If I expect to one day write great stuff, I need to allow myself to write bad stuff first, and hey, maybe good stuff will come out anyway!

changing traditions

2010-12-26T02:28:00.002-08:00

This was my first Christmas not going home to Winnipeg, or spending it with family wherever they be. All in all, it's been a good one, even without those things I'm used to.

The reality is that even if I were in Winnipeg, many of those traditions wouldn't be there anyway:

My sister and her husband are off traveling the globe this summer, so I would only have seen them one evening, in passing. We exchanged gifts through the mail this year, hopefully I'll be able to convince her to make a visit out to Vancouver sooner than later.

The traditional Christmas-eve celebration at my grand-dad's was downgraded this year to an afternoon stop-in; this tradition, I'll miss the most - it's the only time each year when that whole side of the family gathers together at the same time. We did have my grand-dad's 90th birthday this last fall, it's just sad to think that such a long standing tradition (about 30 + years) has come to an end and there's no-one in the younger generation that will keep it going.

This year, my friend Tia and I had a wonderful movie night! We started by going for Greek food, the service was terrible, but it was decent and filling. Next, we went to a wonderful dessert place and got a selection of... 6 cakes, pastries, etc. We picked up another friend of Tia's (also a Christmas orphan) and watched Centurion and Amélie at my place - neither of these were Christmassy at all, but that's ok!

Today was pretty traditional, actually. I made my Christmas calls in the morning, while making an apple crisp. In the afternoon, I went over to my friend's house for dinner - he has a 9-month old and a 3-year old, so the joy and magic of Christmas was wonderful!

Tomorrow is boxing day, which is always a big deal in Winnipeg. Here, it is not. I think the malls have big sales, but I didn't get a single flyer for boxing day/week sales... That's another Christmas day tradition for my family - looking at the boxing day sales and figuring out what shopping you want to do on the 26th. Tomorrow, I won't be shopping because there's no-one to shop with, and there's nothing I particularly need.

I've been pretty productive this week, but I still have a mild-to-moderately overwhelming amount of work to do on my piano piece. My sleep schedule is pretty ridiculous, but it's working relatively well for me. I'm in bed around 5 or 6am and I wake up in the early-ish afternoon. I've been pretty social in the afternoons/evenings, and then I work until the wee hours of the morning when everyone else is sleeping. It's also helpful that the internet is EXTREMELY BORING after about 1am - there's literally nothing new on facebook until around 4 or 5am, when the early birds on the east coast start their days.

Long story short, I've quite enjoyed my holidays this year, even though they've been quieter and different than normal.

Hopefully, everyone has been having wonderful holidays themselves!

Enjoy the rest of the year, and hopefully I'll remember to post again before 2011!

Stupid spinning, mumbly stupid

2010-12-18T17:29:00.003-08:00

There are not too many things or people that frustrate me to point of contemplating violence, but this is one of them:

I frickin' hate this bitch!

How is it possible that she combines two things that I love (spinning and dancers) and make me hate them so much?!?

Apparently there is actually some discussion on which direction she spins, but for the life of me, I can't even conceive of how she would spin in the opposite direction.

Let's start off with how stupid it is to use the words "left" and "right" when they clearly mean clockwise and counterclockwise! Regardless of what direction she appears to be moving, 50% of that motion will be left and 50% will be right, on the 2 dimensional plane.

Next, and well... really my only point is that I can only see it spinning clockwise. My roommate claims it spins the other way, but then it changes. Poeple online say that it can spin either way based on your right or left-brainedness, and that most people can change the direction.

I've tried everything, but it won't do anything else!!! ARRGH!

What about you, my loyal readers - does she spin clockwise or counter-clockwise, and can you change the way she spins?

A new toque

2010-12-13T21:19:00.004-08:00

It's super-busy times here in Vancouver. Papers to write, music to write, fun times!

Because of the deadlines, I've been procrastinating with knitting...

I'm currently working on a pair of socks and a pair of thumb-free mittens. I finished the first sock, and then started the mittens, eventually I'll finish the pair and have warm toes!

I wanted to knit a big floppy hat, so I did:

It looks kinda gangster, but I'm not badass enough to be a gangster, so I end up looking more hipster-y. I get confused when I try to understand social groups, so I decided I would take an emu picture, you know those quasi-goth members of that hipster sub-category...

In conclusion, this is me trying to be sad while wearing an otherwise jolly hat!

Anyhoo, I need to get lots of work done tonight, so I'll go back and stay focused, stick my head in the sand or whatnot...

Insulin-pump industry, my, how generous you are!

2010-12-06T21:04:00.002-08:00

After having voiced my concerns about the marketing used in and around inter-pump compatibility issues, I received a sample package to the value of $1,160 at my front door today.

Ten boxes of ten infusion sets will last me 200 days - that's more than half a year. Diabetes companies do not fool around when it comes to potentially gaining a customer...

In not-unrelated news, I just removed a rant I had previously posted from a few weeks ago.

In conclusion, yes, I can be bought, and now you know my price!

Goodbye NaBloPoMo!

2010-12-01T01:17:00.002-08:00

Well, November was a massive failure for blogging...

Oh well!

While I mentioned it in passing the other day, I should make a grander statement and explanation about the revelation that I had this Diabetes Month:

My insulin-pump infusion-set problem is fixed!

As with so many things in medicine, the solution to my problem was $MONEY$.

Long story short, infusion sets only last 2 days (at the most) in my body, if I leave them in longer, they work less and less. The problem I had been having was not caused by the new infusion set, but the fact that the previous set had not been working well for the last day of it's life.

When I was in Ontario, I got $200 a month in funding for all pump supplies - which is pretty much exactly what it cost to buy one box of infusion sets and reservoirs per month. That means that I had two choices:

1) make the sets last 3 days each

2) spend money out of pocket

I was often spending extra out of pocket because of screwed up sets anyway, and I tried wearing them for a shorter period of time, but I didn't get the conclusive proof I was looking for.

In the end, as an Ontarian, I could not afford to use the pump the way I needed to.

That year on the pump in Ontario was unbelievably frustrating, but it wasn't all for nothing. I learned more about the pump in that year than I would have in a few years of using it problem free. I am, as a result, well versed in pump problem solving! Also, I've been humbled (which I do see as a good thing) and totally see that I was wrong with my claims during that whole year of complaints. I apologize for being so stubborn. I wasn't allowing myself to accept the short-life of the sets because I knew that meant I couldn't afford to be on the pump, and for some reason, my mind felt that being unhealthy was a better option than being extra poor (or even just accepting the reality of my financial situation. Sure, we might say that money doesn't matter when it comes to health, but it does - it really does.

Fast forward, and I am loving being poor in BC. Now that I've met my yearly max on drug spending, everything that is covered is free! Once I get the ordering sorted out with the pharmacy, I'm going to stock up on infusion sets and reservoirs.

I am grateful that everything worked out in the end, so now I have a new beginning ahead of me. I am now loving my pump, ish. Finally, I can start taking full advantage of the pump and what it can offer!

A positive spin

2010-11-28T00:45:00.002-08:00

I'll be honest, this has not been the best of times for me lately, and I realize that this effects the tone of my blog. Therefore, I will briefly summarize my bitchings here before looking at the bright side of things.

The bad:

-It's been nearly 4 weeks since I've started my new medications and I haven't had more than a single consecutive day where I didn't feel.... not so great. I look forward to having a settled stomach.

-I'm not getting much composing done, and I'm getting close to zero hours of piano practicing in. Considering I'm in a music program, I sure don't feel like a very good musician.

-I got my hopes up: finances were looking good and I was encouraged to apply for a different credit card so I could do a balance transfer and reduce my interest payments. Turns out, I'm still a pile of financial shit - I got rejected, and that's exactly how I feel.

- There was a call for scores for an art exhibit concert on the topic of faces. They were looking for pieces that addressed the concept of faciality. I put far too much effort into my proposal and felt really confident. Now, my confidence is shattered - I got rejected, and that's exactly how I feel.

Blergh, that wasn't very uplifting...

But let's give it a try,

The good:

-The infusion set problem has been solved! For the last 2 weeks, my site changes have gone off without a hitch. It turns out that I can only wear them for 2 days, not 3, so as long as I change them every 48 hours, I'm in the clear. I'm am super grateful for BC insulin pump supply coverage for giving me the flexibility to experiment and discover this.

-My sugars are in much better control! 11.0 mmol is starting to feel 'high' (it always has been, but it was too common an occurrence to feel as bad as it should...).

-My TDD (total daily dose) of insulin has dropped to a 7-day average of 68u , compared to the 78u average from when I re-started the insulin pump. The Metformin seems to be doing its job, even if it is through making me eat less due to a constantly upset stomach...

-Despite what the credit people think, finances ARE good right now! My debt is falling, without sacrificing lifestyle - actually, I'm living it up more than I have in recent years. By living it up, I win with fun; by living more modestly, I am richer - so either way, I win!

In conclusion, things ain't so bad!

Nov 15-21

2010-11-21T16:50:00.002-08:00

Ya, so I've given up on NaBloPoMo...

It just wasn't the year for it.

I have, however, been putting much more effort into my diabetes management, so I feel that everything has worked out rather well.

I'm now up to 2 metformin, twice a day, and it's going pretty well. It's been a few days, and I'm finally starting to see a more pronounced effect on my sugars. I lowered my basals across the board, but my sugars are still dropping at times, so I'm back to tracking sugars all day long to understand my patterns.

Nov 11, 12, 13, 14

2010-11-14T19:55:00.002-08:00

So, I suck at NabloPoMo and I'm fine with that!

I also missed the testing thing today and really did nothing for diabetes education or advocacy.

What can I say - today has been a pretty bad day. My email got hacked this morning and sent out a whack of spam. I slept in far too late and decided to do kung-fu 1) before eating anything and 2) with high sugars (starting at 12.1 mmol).

I should have changed my infusion site before, as I didn't even get a chance to eat anything until 6pm tonight - I have a new infusion set in now, but I still feel wretched.

Everything sucks right now - I'm stressed because of school, the metformin is giving me heartburn, and I haven't been fully hydrated in over 2 weeks. Also, my daily insulin dose has not come down at all, in fact it's gone up - probably the stress-induced poor eating choices, but who knows.

Mumbly mumbly, motherfucker gah mumbly.

Days 8, 9, and 10

2010-11-10T11:56:00.002-08:00

In addition to my plans to improve my diabetes control, I'm also bettering myself in terms of credit!

It's been a good month. You know how credit card bills now tell you how long it would take you to pay off your debt at the minimum monthly payment level? Well, this month I shaved off 2 years and saved about 12 dollars in monthly interest!

The insulin pump has been working pretty well lately. I had a perfect site change the other day - I bolused for my meal with the old site and then didn't eat anything for a few hours, so I'm not sure if the new site was working right off the hop, but that's good enough for me.

Just half an hour ago, getting ready for my shower, I pulled out my Sure-T site in the back of my arm... I had a quick shower and then put in a new site and I just bolused for my lunch, so I'm hoping it's working already - this is the real test. I'm about to head into a 3-hour lecture, so I'm REALLY hoping my sugars aren't going to spike!

I have a feeling that tonight is going to be an all-nighter. I have a lesson tomorrow (still lots of music left to write); usually, I work all night after my class on composition, but I have a concert to go to tonight.

Anyway, ciao for now!

Days 5, 6, and 7

2010-11-07T16:23:00.002-08:00

Oopsie, I failed already!

In good news, I've been very good and regimented with my glucose tracking. I've been testing about a dozen times a day, keeping track of all my carbohydrate and blood glucose numbers. After I made a few very minor changes in my basals, it appears that they're good and holding me steady. Carb ratios are also seeming to be in check.

There's no surprise here, but the only real problem with my pump is that my sugars are jumping up around pump change time. I was hoping that Metformin might be a magical solution to that, but no such luck.

Possible solution to my infusion-set problem that I will test out next:

Change sets LONG before they even come close to expiring on me! As in, wear a Quick-Set for 2 days instead of 3. Last year, I tried a milder version of this, but I couldn't afford to shorten the life of my sites quite so much in Ontario- now I'm fully covered, so I can afford to do the tests I need to do to get real answers.

I'm looking forward to seeing if it solves my problem, but if not, it's back to the drawing board again!

Day #4

2010-11-04T19:44:00.002-07:00

I've been feeling out of sorts for the last few days. I won't lie - going on Metformin has been kicking my digestive system's ass. At the same time, I'm also feeling out of sorts due to my sugars. Here's the odd part - it's not that my sugars are jumping all over the place, which can throw you off, instead they are staying very stable; I haven't had a sugar over 10 since yesterday at noon.

That's the reason I'm on the new drug - having a day where you sugars don't go over 10 shouldn't be such a surprise! Anyway, my sugars have been trending downwards (I had to snack on leftover* halloween candies while cooking dinner tonight) and that can make you feel kinda wonky, a little stoned even. I haven't been able to concentrate on working for the last few days, so I've just been staying pretty close to home and not getting much done.

With some diet adjustments and some bright-pink juice, I'm feeling better, but not yet 100%. Either later tonight or tomorrow, I will lay out my sugar logs from the last few days and look for some trends so I can start adjusting my basals.

*let's be honest, I didn't give out halloween candy this year, I shut the blinds, turned off the porch light, and hid.. I did, however, buy discount candy on Nov. 1'st!

Day 3 - Looking forward to World Diabetes Day

2010-11-03T13:22:00.002-07:00

November 14th is World Diabetes Day and there are some great initiatives in the works. I always make an effort to inform people about diabetes on that day, advocating all over the place.

Last year, as a member of TuDiabetes, the big thing was that everyone was supposed to test their sugars at a certain time and post their result - it was called the Big Blue Test. I missed the time because I was in class or something and I wasn't really that excited about it. This year, it has a better pitch - you test your sugars, do 14 minutes of activity, and then test again - the point is to show the effect of exercise on your sugars.

Roche Diabetes Care has agreed to make a donation to organizations that get insulin to kids who can't afford it, for every view of the video below - SO WATCH IT!

There, didn't you like that - it's got a good beat and makes you happy to be alive, don't it?!

That's all for today!

Ooopsie... Day 2 - late post

2010-11-03T00:22:00.002-07:00

So, day one and I've already failed....

BUT, the time change is just around the corner, so I'm gonna steal an hour from that and then I'm still good!

I took my first Metformin pill today - it felt like more than just a pill that I was swallowing. Without getting too pensive about it, I think it was the sensation of that diabetes revolution I'd been needing. Without getting too detailed, there were some digestive side effects I'd been warned about and hoped to avoid, but didn't. I'm hoping that it isn't long-term, as long as it's my body just getting acquainted with a new medication, I'll suck it up for a day or two. Other than that, I didn't really notice a big difference in my sugars, but I'm looking for patterns.

That's right, I've been keeping an eye on everything I eat and bolus today and will continue for a few days at least to make sure that everything is in check. My basals could also use some tweaking, so this all comes at a convenient time. It's been a while since I kept a really close eye on my diabetes, so I'm excited to give it a go!

NOBLOPOMOMAJIGGER!

2010-11-01T22:57:00.003-07:00

Happy November, everyone!

If you're a douche, you'll be celebrating mo-vember, which I think is stupid. I'm fully aware that my disdain for idle moustache -growing is based solely on my jealousy/inability to grow decent facial hair, but that doesn't invalidate my opinion, haha!

Instead, I will be partially participating in NaBloPoMo - National Blog Posting Month. The goal is to post every day of the month, but I'm not sure how much I care this year. For the first few years of my life as a blogger, I posted every single day, if not more; I think I also posted daily last year for November, but I'm just not that motivated this year.

So, today I had my endocrinologist appointment. I went in with a list of things to cover and they all got addressed. I got my prescriptions refilled, the paperwork filled out so I can get reimbursed for all the money I've spent out-of-pocket on strips this year, AND I got a prescription for Metformin. My doctor was fully supportive when I asked about it - he feels that it will help me get better control, lower my insulin requirements, and make it easier for me to lose weight - how can I argue with that?!? I'm gonna start tomorrow, and I'll keep you posted on how things are going.

Anyway, it's almost midnight, so I should stop writing or else I fail at NaBloPoMo on the very first day...

Welcome back, old friend

2010-10-29T23:14:00.002-07:00

...or should I say, ENEMY!

I reconnected my insulin pump last night, and used it all day instead of my insulin pen.

Surprise, surprise, my sugars were between 14-17 mmol all last evening. I went to bed with my sugars still high-ish and woke up this morning at 3.2 - mmm, juice rarely tastes that delicious!

Anyway, after a day of elevated sugars, I concluded that it was a bad site and changed it a few hours ago, priming a few units into the new site AS I inserted it! In the case that my body is clogging the infusion set within moments of insertion, I'm not going to let it have the chance. I also started my basal insulin.

My sugars have been gently falling, so I'm keeping a tight eye on my sugars. I'm not sure whether that's still from the dinner insulin (3.5 hours old) or from either the priming or basal insulin from the new site. I'm hoping it's one of the last two so I can be sure that it's working. Nothing would make me happier than going to bed tonight knowing that I have a reliable infusion set going on.

For anyone wondering, I'm using the Sure-T set with the 6mm steel needle. Old school, I know, but it's quite comfy and I LOVE the short tubing!

I'm ready for a diabetes revolution! My latest A1C was 8.4, and that's simply not good enough. In fact, it's horrible. I'm doing everything I can to not feel like a horrible person - my essential laziness and apathy are putting my health at risk, and I just haven't been able to care (for longer than I'm willing to mention).

I've emotionally fought the issue of type 1 and type 2 diabetes through my formative years, being bitter that there's a similar condition out there that can often be avoided, or at least managed with healthy diet and exercise...

But look at me - I'm obese and lazy!

My TDD (total daily dose) of insulin is easily double what I should need for my weight - meaning I have hardcore insulin resistance, to the point that even if I wasn't type 1, I would have type 2 diabetes.

It's a catch 22 - the more insulin resistance you have, the harder it is to lose weight, for a bunch of reasons: 1)Insulin promotes fat. 2) The efficacy of insulin is greatly influenced by exercise (in complicated ways); it's extremely difficult to maintain stable sugars while exercising for me and I often have to use either food or insulin to correct.

It is depressing and ineffective when you have to intake more calories than you burn in order to keep your sugars stable! It's not just me, Kerri at SixUntilMe recently wrote about her struggles, and she's much fitter than I!

Long story short, I have an appointment with my endocrinologist on Monday and I'm going to broach the topic of introducing Metformin into my diabetes regime. It's a drug that is normally used for type 2 diabetes management, addressing insulin resistance rather than actually taking insulin. I'm hoping that this will help me to reduce the amount of insulin I'm taking. Also, if (as I suspect) my problems with new infusion sets is due to insulin resistance, my dreams would come true if the drugs solved that problem!

Anyway, I'd love to hear some feedback from any diabetics out there. I'll keep you posted!

Michael Reviews Things!

2010-10-23T03:10:00.002-07:00

Today's review:

Lillian Alling

Have you heard of John Estacio? If not, click on his name and check out his website.

[Mini review: The website needs some attention... The angled headshot with cheezy background - it's not really helping! Also, the opera section of your website doesn't even mention your newest opera, and the "upcoming concerts" section starts listing things in Sept. 5/2009]

Anyway, he recently premiered an opera called Lillian Alling here in Vancouver. I was lucky enough to have been treated to the dress rehearsal as a birthday present from a delightful theorist friend of mine.

The Story (Spoiler Alert!)

While I'd never heard of her, Lillian Alling is an intriguing character. Here is a website about her. She is a woman enshrouded in mystery: she came from Russia(ish) and lands in Brooklyn looking for Josef, her lover. She repeatedly tells the tale about how they met in Russia and he said he would marry her, and how her life is bound to his life. Long story short, she walks to North Dakota, then Vancouver looking for this chump. Along they way, everyone tells her what a playa he is and tells her to give up, but she doesn't. You're left wondering, 'why is she so frikkin' naive?!' Some guy falls in love with her, and follows her all around. She feels she can open up to him and then reveals that she's not naive, she's a vengeful wench! The man she seeks isn't her lover, he's the man that killed her family, and I bet you know what she wants to do to him...

So she does, badda-bing badda-boom - bad man dies.

Oh ya, all of this story is nestled inside a side story about an old lady and her middle-aged son who is moving her into the city after a life out in the wilderness (ie. cabin). Surprise, surprise, she's the old version of Lillian Alling, having changed her name etc. Apparently murder is ok, her son doesn't even get mad when he finds out his mom is a killer... oh well!

Really, I liked the story - and the use of the story within a story.

The Music

Mr. Estacio writes good shit. I think he's onto what Opera needs - good solid accessible, but not boring music. At first, I wasn't really hearing the connection between the music in different sections, but as the opera went on and actively listened, it was building a sound story for me. It was a great balance - some kitschy stuff like a coney-island quartet singing when she arrives in Brooklyn, but there were some really well-crafted pieces:

My favourite scene was with the telegraph wire men - singing beepity boops, and all that fun stuff. I'm likely oversimplifying, but it expressed some really refined, yet broad wit.

Of course it's opera, so there were some fantastically orchestrated swells that took you along that journey of Lillian's across the great prairies and the rockies.

Basically, all of the exciting things I've been interested in doing in my own opera, were already masterfully done in this one. I need to look into other contemporary operas, but it seemed like the balance of recit and aria in Lillian Alling was quite far from what I'd been thinking of as traditional. The majority of the opera was in a hybrid dialogue which mixed the flow of recit with the lyricism of aria... ish. The distinction between dry and accompanied recit was out the window, (thank goodness), and it was often hard to find the distinction between the dialogue and the 'song'. Often I would realize they were singing what would classify as a duet/aria, but I couldn't pinpoint when it had started because they had been recit-ing just before.

The Other

This was a sizable world premiere, and Vancouver Opera didn't disappoint! The set was fairly high-maintenance, but was impressive: basically one main formulation with a truck that entered and exited right in the middle, from under the bulk of the mainstage.

There was a video-integration element which was ok, actually, no, I don't think it really did much... It was about a 5-15 minute section (I hate trying to judge time) where there was no real stage-presence. The orchestra was the main focus, and the only visual was the video which had recorded images of Lillian climbing on rocks, etc. For me, this seemed like an interlude which, in really old opera, would feature a ballet scene. I would have preferred to see dancing.

Oh ya, The Performing

I thought the orchestra was very strong, which is very refreshing compared to my last few live opera experiences...

The singers were great - some standouts worth mentioning:

Judith Forst, as Irene (Old Lillian Alling) - her diction should serve as a standard for the care that needs to be taken when singing English!

Colin Ainsworth, as Kristian, the farmer's son - a great tenor voice! The one true aria in the opera, and he ran with it. It was Ainsworth's aria that reminded me, 'hey, this IS opera!'

I really wish that I could scream to the heavens about how great Frédérique Vézina was as Lillian, but I can't. It was dress rehearsal night, so I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume (I really hope) that she was marking. I hate to be a bitch (no, I love it), but I was disappointed with how weak her voice was, but yes, I'll assume she was saving herself for the big night.

In Conclusion

All in all, I was heartily impressed with all aspects of this performance. After what seems like a long line of minimalist operas, I'm excited to see that opera can be comprehensible, engaging, emotive, beautiful, and exciting without lowering itself to the common denominator.

I really hope that this opera gets toured around and performed in many places - and when it does, you should go see it!

Michael Reviews Things!

2010-10-17T20:55:00.002-07:00

This post:

Hilroy Notebooks

If you grew up in Canada, you likely used a separate Hilroy Exercise Book for each subject in elementary school. This review starts off with points for invoking nostalgia!

The reason I bought these notebooks is because I've been dissatisfied with the other notebook options out there. Coil bound books are obnoxious to write in and ripping a page out leaves that tacky side of feathery ripped paper. The tape bound books are unreliable. When I saw these ones in the store, I was excited by the simplicity of their design.

I'll be honest, I don't have anything negative to say, so here are my favourite elements:

Colour Variety

Blue, pink, green, and yellow

They're GREEN

They are part of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and feature Certified Fiber Sourcing.

Map of Canada

When I asked my American friend if he used these notebooks growing up, he pointed out "There's a freaking map of Canada on the front!" It has the up-to-date Territorial divisions which were missing when I was in elementary school - they were so behind the times back then!*

The map is only on the 32 page variety; there is a healthy blank space on the 80-page type so you can draw a picture of your own, or maybe it's a test to see if you can draw the map yourself from memory.

32 or 80 Pages

These are perfect sizes. 80 is good for taking notes in my seminars and 32 is a great size for individual projects or just to carry around with me for notes of interest.

Life Organization

On the back of the 32-page books, there is room for you to fill in your class-schedule information and final examination schedule.

Simple, Reliable Design

This could be seen as a slight weakness, but I like it. for a 32 sheet book, there are 16 pieces of lined paper (twice the needed width) folded in half, with a cover and then stapled to hold it in place. As a result, if you rip a page out, the opposing sheet will also fall out - this is something I remember from childhood. Nevertheless, if you conceive of the book as one notebook, not to be disassembled, it will stay that way for you!

Affordability

While a coil-bound hilroy notebook costs between 3 and 5 dollars, I got 3 80-page exercise books for $2.10 and 4 32-page exercise books for $1.60.

In Conclusion,

These little notebooks are fantastic and I highly recommend them to everyone!

*N.B. I am fully aware that the territory of Nunavut did not appear until after I finished elementary school...

Michael Reviews Things!

2010-10-14T00:22:00.003-07:00

This post's topic:

Grand-dad's Birthday!

and

Jenn and Sean's Wedding!

I recently went to Winnipeg for a few big events involving my friends and family. Both events went off without a hitch - here are the details:

On Sept. 25th, my Grand-dad turned 90 years old! My mom and her brother organized a big ol' family dinner that brought together all the disparate family members. She and one of her brother have a long history of being less than pleasant... specifically with each other, haha! Anyway, almost everyone from the 4 generations was there with only two exceptions: grand-dad's sister who is locked up in an old folk's home and my sister because she had to work until 3pm when the dinner started at 5, and she lives 8 hours away.

It was an understated evening. I only ever see most of those people at Christmas time and it's always mild-to-moderately awkward, which I enjoy. This time, it was much more intense. I wish we were a more extroverted family- then it would have turned into a brawl, or there would have been screaming or slapping. Not my family - it's all subtle, underhanded, and spiteful - just the way I like it.

The dinner was fantastic, but I don't recall much about the details. There was chicken with some kind of creaminess and carrots and potatoes.

The next weekend, my friends Jenn and Sean were getting married. I was invited to the stagette, which was an all day affair. I was there for the brunch and a delightful plate-painting experience. We went to a do-it-yourself art studio and we all decorated plates or bowls for the bride. This reviewer thinks this was a fun and creative way to spend time with

the bride and bridesmaids and female relatives....

[Tangent - Davey... where the hell were you?!? Lord knows I'm not very manly, I'm pretty sure I lost 90% of my testosterone because of that day...]

The ceremony was beautiful - I showed up exactly minutes before the processional. The vows were heartfelt and entertaining. They should have been miked, but I heard enough of them to know they were good!

The dinner was also good, but there was no choice (unless you got the veggie option, presumably). It was chicken florentine - come to think of it, that's probably what I had at the other dinner, too. Taking the cake, though, was... the cake(s). The wedding cake had two types therein. The first one I had was quite nice, but the best thing ever was the second cake option: banana cake with 2 types of icing - peanut butter cream and chocolate. That's right ladies and gentlemen, you missed out!

The open bar was a welcomed addition, that I sadly

missed at the previous weekend's birthday party. Nevertheless, I behaved myself much more gentlemanly than I have at previous weddings, but that's a whole different story. A highlight of the evening was when they had a fireworks display honoring the parents. It lasted about 10-15 minutes, which is better than any Winnipeg fireworks I'd ever seen. Even more exciting was the fact that I got a sparkler.

I felt a little like I was put at the wrong table for the dinner. I had a wonderful time, but all of the people I was sitting with left soon after the dinner - the table behind me was the fun table, playing drinking games to pass the time of the speeches... Nevertheless, I had a great time and danced the night away!

Long story short, I had a wonderful time in Winnipeg - it's always nice to have reasons to celebrate; keep 'em coming, friends and family!

Stay tuned for the next installment of:

Michael Reviews Things!

A lot to be thankful for

2010-10-11T23:42:00.002-07:00

As a child, I hated the part of Thanksgiving where you went around the dinner table, or at school when you went around the classroom and said what you were thankful for. I would usually come up with some kind of smartass remark, or something so predictable that it never even registered with me as sincere. I guess, with that childlike innocence, I lacked perspective and didn't even realize how thankful I should have been!

This year, I went to two different dinners and we never really talked about how thankful we are. I kinda missed that tradition, or some incantation thereof. One of the questions on a dating profile I recently filled out was about my favourite holiday. Earnestly, I answered Thanksgiving: it's not about religion or materialism, it's practical.

So now, excuse me, but I'm going to get a little clichéd and list off some of the things for which I'm thankful this year.

I'm thankful that I have such a great group of friends here in Vancouver. We formed instant friendships as soon as we wrote the placement exams and as a result, I never felt 'alone' in the new city. As the year and summer went on, I met friends and roommates of friends and expanded my circle well beyond the confines of school.

I'm thankful to have a growing community of friends around Canada and the states. Every year, it seems the landscape changes. Whether I'm going home to visit, or traveling to somewhere new, friends are usually not far away!

I'm thankful for family - near and far! This last visit home solidified my relationship with my parents; I was truly a visitor in their home, and not just the same son I was before I left home. I'm getting closer with my second and third cousins who live in Vancouver; they are wonderful, fascinating people and I'm glad to have that family connection!

I'm thankful for my health. While I may not have the most ideal diabetes control, I'm very fortunate to have the drugs and resources that are available to me.

I'm thankful to be so fully immersed in music - as a student, a teacher, a composer, a performer, and an audience- and to be pretty much able to support myself with what I'm doing. I know that this may not always be the case, so I am overjoyed at the breadth of experience I am currently enjoying.

There are many more things for which I am thankful, but those are the big ones I wanted to mention.

Oh, wait, of course I can't forget:

I am thankful for my blog. It helps me remember things that I would have otherwise long forgotten. More importantly, I love my readers! Thank you all for your loyal support!

Michael Reviews Things!

2010-10-10T17:03:00.003-07:00

As part of my never ending, never successful, search for increased readership and blogger popularity, I'm going to do what a lot of successful blogs have done:

Reviews!

The first installment is:

My map bag ® Vancouver map bag.

So, I've developed a bit of a man-bag fetish these last few years. I fully acknowledge that it is a purse, but I like the term 'man-bag'. I always need to carry my diabetes essentials around with me, and those just don't fit in pockets comfortably

The bag features a map of [Insert City Here] and comes with a dry-erase marker so that the wearer can:

-give or get directions within that region

-circle their home address on the map to encourage stalking

-I'm blanking as for real, functional uses...

The store I got it from wrote on it in permanent marker "I'm on sale here" for promotional in-store use, but when I was shopping, it was the last one left, so I got it for 5 dollars! I think the retail price was about $15.

The cons:

As I should have expected, it was pretty cheap. Within a week, the plastic map started to crack. Unfortunately, my apartment is just off the side of the map so I can't even use it for those above purposes.

The pros:

It's a great conversation starter and an interesting concept. One Friday night on public transit, a kind, inebriated gentleman informed me that he had a map fetish, and he would be happy to release some bodily fluid on it.

The permanent marker is pretty kitschy and fun.

In conclusion, I have pretty low standards and this man-bag meets those standards.

Keep posted for the next installment of Michael Reviews Things!

I'm still kicking...

2010-10-07T10:58:00.003-07:00

I just wanted to post an update to let you all know that I'm not dead.

My time in Winnipeg was nice, but wholly unproductive. I left my macbook charging cable in Thompson, so I didn't really have my own computer for the rest of the trip. I used my parents, but all my work was inaccessible. Now that I'm back, I can use my roommate's powercord, but I'm still limited in function.

I've been playing catchup all week. I'm trying to get 3 weeks of work done for my lesson today, but I'll be lucky if I have what resembles one week. I feel lazy.

I've had a dating profile up on plentyoffish.com for a while now, but nothing came of it. It was fun for online browsing, but I didn't put much effort into it. Recently, I've decided to take it more seriously, switched to a new site called OkCupid and I've lined up a few dates. There are three guys I've been messaging that I will be going on dates with in the next week or so, starting with tomorrow. I haven't decided exactly how much detail I will be putting on this here blog, but I'll try and keep it interesting for you!

Other than that, not much is new.

Birthing Day!

2010-09-28T00:02:00.002-07:00

I'm in Manitoba.

Winnipeg was decent - nice weather, friends and family.

I came in especially for my grandfather's 90th birthday. He was happy to have so much of the family in for the event and the dinner was delicious. Also, it was deliciously awkward and tense - I LOVED it! At the same time, I'm beginning to tire of the same old family tensions. Can't we all just get along?!?

Speaking of good family times, I'm up in Thompson visiting my sister. It's a 7-8 hour drive from Winnipeg - eek! I will be here for less than 48 hours before heading back to Winnipeg for wedding-ish stuff. Apparently, my phone is completely useless up here - no 3G coverage means the phone does nothing! I suppose it's refreshing. Now that I've wasted time troubleshooting, I'm sure that nothing can be done and I can enjoy my time sans-cell!

Anyway, I had plan to get things done this trip, but that's out the window. I'm just going to enjoy my birthday and the rest of the trip.

happy birthday, world!

2010-09-15T17:26:00.003-07:00

It really doesn't feel like I'm back in school; it's the second or third week back and I've only had one one-hour class, and I'm still having meetings to organize the year... I am doing lots of work though, I already have a 25-minute presentation due on Monday.

Also, I've been spicing up my SSHRC proposal. It's the same project as last year - an opera on the topic of Type-One Diabetes, but I'm working on making it much stronger. By the end of tomorrow, I will have gotten comments from 5 different professors with different thoughts on how I can make it even stronger.

Tomorrow is my first lesson of the year and we'll be talking about my proposal and thesis plans, so I'm very excited to get it all underway!

For Garry

2010-09-09T00:29:00.002-07:00

One of the things I miss about playing for dance classes was the improvising. I would just play freely - not worrying about being original or even terribly creative. When I improvise at the piano, I feel like it's the easiest way of expressing myself.

Below, I'm posting an improv I recorded this evening. I recorded it on my Yamaha Silent Piano, so it's midi, but impressively so. I'm actually quite happy with how the tone sounds, etc.

Anyway, there's a reason why I'm posting it. I was recently informed that a dear family friend, my uncle Garry is losing the fight to cancer. His kidneys have shut down and he's moving into palliative care. His wife sent out an email, to which I wanted to reply earlier, but I just couldn't find the words.

So, when words aren't enough...

http://michaelpark.ca/site/ForGarry.wav

Back to School

2010-09-07T05:15:00.002-07:00

Well, it's that time of year again; the summer is over and it's back to the books!

This is 21'st year going back to school, so I'm pretty good at it by now. Luckily, school supplies have gotten a lot easier over the years.

Since I use the same materials all year round, I don't need to make a special trip to the stationary store, in fact, I have pens and pencils galore!

Textbooks are a thing of the past. For my classes, we are assigned readings each week from a wide variety of sources, each of which are available online through journals, or in the library to photocopy.

I'm glad I get to avoid all of the newness that I had last year - meeting new people, getting used to new profs, navigating new buildings, learning a new city. This year, I'm settled into Vancouver and UBC. I know pretty much what I need to know to make school happen; it's just like I'm picking up where we left off in April.

I was almost worried that I was going to have to switch my sleep schedule back to something more normal, but the only class I have scheduled so far is at 1pm. I shouldn't brag, but that only scheduled class I have this term doesn't even start until the day before I fly to Winnipeg, so tomorrow seems like an exceptionally arbitrary date for 'back-to-school' celebrations. However, that's how it's happening, so Hooray!

Happy Belated Anniversary!

2010-08-31T14:28:00.003-07:00

How appropriate.... I missed my own 5-year anniversary.

I was supposed to have a big exciting post on the 29th, but I didn't, oopsie!

In other news, the summer is officially over now; Vancouver has been cold and rainy for the last two or three days. Along with all of my school friends in Vancouver, I'm working on assignments and things to get ready for the new school year. I fell behind on my plans for productivity (no surprise there) so now I'm scrambling to get as much done as possible in the next few days.

When I start school, it's going to be intense - from today, there are only 3 weeks a few days before I head to Winnipeg for a big ol' birthday and a wedding. A major scholarship deadline happens while I'm out of town, so I have to have it submitted before I leave.

There are, however, some good things going on. I did a super fun photo-shoot the other day; it was partially just for fun, as I'll be superimposed onto the inside of a piano, but I should also get some decent headshots out of it.

Also, one of my good school friends has returned to Vancouver after a summer away.

Anyway, I can't really think of anything else to say, so toodles!

Old Yearbooks

2010-08-26T19:15:00.005-07:00

As I mentioned earlier, when my parents came to visit, they brought everything that was mine from their house in Winnipeg - books, cds, photos, etc. I'm in the process of putting things in appropriate places and I just stumbled upon some old yearbooks...

Middle-School Michael was a horrible, horrible person! In

1995-96, I went through and defaced dozens of pictures and wrote some pretty damn mean things.

Teachers - I suppose this isn't surprising, I scratched out a bunch of faces, drew boogers coming out of noses and wrote, "I'm a monkey" beside one teacher who I can't even remember having for anything...

I never went to middle school with my sister, but some of her friends were in the grade above me. On these young ladies, I drew mustaches and boogers.

Even my own friends were victims of my douchery. At the time, I was really close with 3 guys, 2 of whom I still keep in touch with. Ironically, it's the guy I fell out of touch with that I must have been with when I was writing/drawing these things because his yearbook picture simply says, "I'm cool". One of the guys had long hair and we always m

ocked him for it, as well as other things - I lengthened his hair and blacked out some teeth on his picture. Finally, I feel the worst about what I wrote next to one of my best and oldest friends - "I suck at the trumpet". We and the friend I was writing this with all played in the trumpet section together and were always competitive. I know I didn't really mean it (he was really a very good trumpeter), but I do feel bad for writing it, so I'm sorry Jon!

I also feel bad for making fun of the fats and the gays.... Karma - that's why I got fat! haha

I guess I had gaydar back then - I drew a women's haircut and the words 'tee hee hee' around one student who was particularly effeminate and has since then come out. I also hate that I so stereotypically made fun of the fat kids. I was so insensitive and I apologize to everyone for everything!

Anyway, here's an old picture of me from the '95-'96 school year. I would have been in grade 7 and I was about 12 years old.

Hiking and Diabetes

2010-08-21T18:53:00.004-07:00

Yesterday, I went on my fourth hike since moving to Vancouver.

Armed with juice, snacks of varying GI values, lifesavers, and 60% of my normal basal dose, it was a well-behaved diabetes day. My sugars were higher upon waking (11.3), so I corrected and pre-dosed for my breakfast, which I ate nearly an hour later. Sugars were stable for the drive out and I started the hike at a comfy post-meal-pre-exercise level (9.0).

After half an hour, I was out of breath and out of shape, haha. Sugars were dropping and I was juicing. After this bit, a pack of lifesavers and a few handfuls of trail mixed saw me through the next 2 and a bit hours to top of the hike with sugars staying in a very happy place (4.8-6.5).

The above picture was taken from the Elfin Lakes. Calling it the 'top of the hike' is a little misleading, it's the end point, but not the top. You can actually call this hike 'uphill both ways'. The first half was about 65-35 (uphill-downhill), and the opposite when you turn back around.

I made my classic hiking mistake... "Surely my sugars won't spike from lunch because they've been evenly dropping while hiking...", but that's stupid. Lunch happens while you've stopped moving so your sugars sure do rise with the food!

[I know in normal life, I should alway dose at least 15-20 minutes before a meal, but I rarely actually do... On this hike, the difference between dosing before eating and after the sandwich would have made a huge difference.]

Starting on our way back, my sugars were 13.1, but didn't stay there long due to some corrections I planned on counteracting later. It wasn't even half an hour before I was under 10, at which point I had a granola bar and some lifesavers which kept me stable for the rest of the up. The last half of the hike was stable and good!

When we got to the car at the end, we celebrated with Apple Strudel, and then another when I realized my sugars weren't moving upward at all. It's a good thing I got my friend to drive home because I really needed those 70 carbs of strudel... 2 hours later, my sugars were still stable at 7.3!

The evening sucked - I didn't drink enough water so I was suffering from heat exhaustion. It baffled me because I didn't sweat anywhere near as much as I usually do on hikes, and I drank a good 2 litres of water. PLUS, there was no sun, whatsoever... maybe 15 minutes of sun the entire day. It was cloudy the whole time... but now that I think about it, my transition lenses were dark the whole time, meaning that there were some UV rays sneaking through! Also, I passed out early on, before I had taken my nightly Lantus... I woke up at 4am feeling not so hot, but my sugars were only at 11.4.

I am feeling great today, a little stiff, but it's all good!

Oh ya, the reason I was focusing on diabetes today was because my friend (and fellow hiker) Jim was asking about diabetes management things as they related to hiking and exercise. I answered his questions to the best of my ability, but there really aren't enough answers. Sometimes my sugars go up after exercise (like at lunch time), other times, they go down after exercise (back at the car) and I haven't been able to identify the pattern conclusively.

I've been more active this year than I have in years, and I'm getting better at managing diabetes in relation to it. The first hike and the first few Kung Fu classes were disasters where diabetes really got in the way. I've improved in as much as diabetes causes mild to moderate hiccups, and I look forward to the days that I do things regularly enough that diabetes is a natural, non-influential part of my exercising!

What else is new...

2010-08-16T20:36:00.003-07:00

As I predicted, there was a problem today. While I am in no way surprised, I am very disappointed.

Telus's online system has been in shambles for the last month. I suppose it IS too much for me to expect that the company that provides my cellphone and internet service be able to maintain a functioning website and customer database...

Last night, I was naive and let myself get excited. I had trouble falling asleep - partially because of the excitement, but also the heat... When I woke up, it was like a nine year old's Christmas morning - ripe with anticipation. Sadly, today was the day that Telus told me that Santa was fake!

I was assured that tomorrow will be the day, but the excitement is gone.

For those of you who are wondering, I am fully aware of my vanity, but I'm embracing it!

2010-08-15T23:12:00.002-07:00

Well, I'm a little disappointed that I didn't have a thousand comments of congratulations on my thousandth post, but I'll survive...

BUT, just in case you feel badly about missing the opportunity, there's another milestone coming up in two weeks - my 5-year blogging anniversary! I'll probably be a lot more reminiscent for that post than I was for my thousandth, but you never know!

Anyway, I should know better than to get excited, or say anything, but tomorrow is going to be the day that I am finally finished with my Blackberry! I've decided to get the HTC Desire Android smartphone. I've double checked with two separate Telus agents that I will have no problems getting this phone tomorrow and there is one being held for me at the store. I don't think there is anything else I could possibly do to ensure this goes smoothly, but it's Telus - I'm sure there will be some hassle!

"But I thought you had decided on the iPhone, Michael..."

Good memory - I had come to that decision before the fiasco, but I've been forced to wait.

During the time, I've had time to re-evaluate my smartphone needs.

Spite

While I initially placed all the blame on Telus, and though I have in no way diminished my disappointment, I see that Apple is also to blame, dropping the ball a few times on the iPhone 4 issue. While the reception thing has been blown way out of proportion, it still shows that they released it before it was really ready. Also, they short-supplied the Canadian market to create more excitement and desire- it worked on me at first, but since I had to wait, I see the douchery for what it really is.

New Competition

Before the whole fiasco started, there really wasn't any competition available through Telus. The only decent Android phone I was considering was the Motorola Milestone. It was good on paper, but it as big and bulky and had a sliding keyboard that wasn't really any use to me and it was just ugly - too industrial for my tastes. During the waiting period, since July 30th, Telus released the HTC Desire and because I couldn't get the iPhone, I looked into it. The specs looked good and after extensively reading the reviews, it seems that it is in direct competition with the iPhone 4. The consensus out there seems to be that they are both phenomenal smartphones and it comes down to a matter of preference.

The Idea of Android

I certainly wouldn't call myself anti-Apple - I love my mac, but I've always had reservations about the iPhone. Last year, when I was first looking at smartphones, I was naive and didn't research enough. I didn't think the price difference between the iPhone and the Blackberry Storm was worth it (boy, was I wrong). On a deeper level, there was something in me wanting to avoid the iPhone. Maybe it was the idea that all the cool people had them (I still hate conformity), or maybe I was resisting the big-box entity.

When I first read about Android phones a year and a half ago, the idea excited me - an open source platform across multiple companies. Mumbly mumbly, I'm happy to be supporting Android and the open-source ideals!

Impatience

I suppose that since I've waited so long to change my phone as it is, I shouldn't mind waiting another week to get the iPhone 4, but I just don't want to wait anymore. This isn't a serious deciding factor, but it does have its place in my mind.

In case that email I sent them didn't make it clear, I REALLY don't like being told that I can't buy something when I have the product in front of me and the money in hand. As a result, Apple has lost my business, and I will be buying a phone that will cost 80$ less, so SUCK THAT TELUS!

Actually, that's enough reason right there - denying both offending companies the profit that they could have had AND saving myself money - I think that's a good thing all around!

Ok, I'm done blabbing for tonight. Hopefully, I will have exciting news tomorow.

Also, I'm meeting with some collaborators for an exciting video project that we have in the works!

2010-08-11T14:50:00.005-07:00

Guess what today is.....

That's right, it's my one-thousandth post!

I've always dreamed of the day that my number of posts would catch up to my number of followers, but it appears I've been working in the wrong direction since post number... 2. Anyway, I owe a big thank you to all of my loyal readers and for you, I have a special treat - videos of my latest, and possibly most entertaining compositions to date!

I'll give you some background so that you're not completely confused and/or frightened. One of my best friends in Vancouver, who recently moved away, had a roommate who was very open and expressive when it came to her... lady times. Quite a while back, we got it in our heads to write some inspiring songs to help her deal with it. Margy wrote six inspiring poems in a fit of poetic inspiration one night; I was only able to set one of them to poetry until very recently. In the week before Margy was to leave, we knew we needed to have the pieces performed. Margy's boyfriend set one poem to music the day before the concert, and in the hour before our special guest was to arrive, Margy and I each set one poem to music! With only a few minutes of rehearsal, the performance came together seamlessly and here are the videos to prove it!

[Videos removed due to privacy concerns]

As you can tell, we had a lot of fun writing and performing these pieces. The audience, consisting of our special guest and my parents, were very amused.

In other news, my parents have been visiting me for the last week and I have to say that they've been such great sports. For the first few days, there were 5 people living in a 2-bedroom apartment. They put up with this ridiculous, if not mildly offensive, performance AND they came to a kung fu class at the beach, worked really hard, and had a lot of fun! In conclusion, my parents rock!

All in all, things are fantastic. I know I have had my doubts over the years, but I have no intention of stopping my blog! I'll always strive to improve and keep it exciting for you, my loyal readers. In case you don't believe me, here's some balloons as proof!

Last of the Triple Digits

2010-08-05T23:24:00.002-07:00

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen!

You are currently reading my 999'th blog post.

I'd write about all my accomplishments that have seen me through the last 999 entries, but I just don't want to. Milestones are important and exciting, but I'm not all that excited about this one.

The next one, however...

Post #1000 is going to be fantastic, a celebration like the world has never seen! Exclamation marks galore!!!

Times are good here in Vancouver. My parents are visiting from Winnipeg, so I am filled with familial joy. The fact that I am sleeping on the couch is less than ideal, but I'll suck it up for a week. We currently have 5 people staying in out little 2-bedroom apartment, so I am looking forward to having the place completely to myself next week.

In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy family time, and spending time with my friend before she leaves Vancouver forever...

aww, now I don't want to end on a sad note, so here's some happy news:

Along with my parents, came my music library! I'm so happy to have my favourites at my fingertips again. This also means that I get to explore my options for additional shelving of the book variety.

Anyway, goodnight and I will see you next in the land of 4-digit numbers!

Dear Telus

2010-07-30T13:40:00.003-07:00

Well, it's been quite a while since I've ranted, so here we go! Below is a letter I sent to Telus outlining my dissatisfaction.

Dear Telus,

I would like to voice my extreme dissatisfaction with the customer service I have been receiving from Telus. There is a huge disconnect between the in-store representatives and the telephone representatives. I understand that in BC, the stores are independently run, an inherent flaw in the manner in which you do business. I regularly get conflicting information from these two sources, and neither seem willing to cooperate with one another.

Here is my background.

One year ago, I bought the Blackberry Storm from a location in Ontario. I was told that it was comparable to the iphone, which soon became clear that it was not. In addition to massive weaknesses in Blackberry software, the touch screen has been unreliable and problematic. With my increasing dissatisfaction, I have made it clear that I wanted to change my handset to an iPhone.

I was told there were two options:

1) Buy out of my contract and upgrade at the 3 year pricing. At 20$/month, I could not afford this option.

2) Send my phone in for servicing 3 times and Telus would make me an offer for upgrading my handset.

This is the option I chose.

Since everything was under warranty, this should have not been a problem, and should - in theory- have been free.

Since I had moved to BC, I couldn't return my phone to the original location. I used the swap program, but had to pay a 50$ charge from the Telus retailer for some type of shelving fee. I was happy with the swap program, the phone was slightly more responsive, but not much better. I was encouraged to install the 5.0 software, which I did and gave the phone an honest chance. It was slightly better, but not enough to rectify my dissatisfaction

When I next went to swap my phone, I was informed that the swap program was cancelled - the reasons have been explained to me multiple times in full; I understand, but am sincerely disappointed in this decision.

As a result, sending my phone in for repairs cost me 60$ each time for a loaner phone, in addition to a credit card deposit. The first of the two times, I was even charged 35$ to cover the location's mailing costs!

To date, I have paid (50+60+60+35) $205 JUST to have my warranty honoured. This is unacceptable; Telus needs to rethink how their locations deal with their customers.

Recently, I was informed that my phone had come back from 'being serviced', without any paper or electronic trail of having been serviced. As the retailer knew that I needed it to be registered as serviced, they informed me that the were sending the phone back with a note indicating that there needed to be registered. Wondering what possibly could have happened to my phone in 3 weeks with no trace, I called Telus to inquire and express my concerns.

I was not willing to be pacified on this phone call, and as a result, I was made an offer which made me happy, until today when I realized that Telus does not honour their promises.

I was offered a discounted buy-out which would allow me to buy my choice of phone at the 3-year contract rate. While the representative couldn't tell me the pricing for the iPhone 4, I was told that I could get it when it was released on Friday, July 30th - today.

This seems like a clear agreement. An offer. A promise.

I looked into my phone options and decided on the iPhone 4. I registered my intention to buy it with a Telus location and they called me this morning with a phone set aside for me.

I left my apartment this morning happy, feeling like today was the day that Telus would make everything right - I would feel like a valued customer.

Before I continue with the twist, I currently feel like a second-rate customer, Telus Client Care made it clear that they have done wonderful things for me in the past and that I am being ungrateful for asking them to honour the promise I was made.

Long story short, when I went in to buy my phone, I was informed that my offer did not apply to the iPhone 4. There was nothing the location could do unless I wanted to pay full price. I spoke with 3 telephone representatives in each of the Client Care and Loyalty departments, each of which explained that there was nothing they could do - I simply had to wait. When I asked how long, I was told a variety of things: 1) just not on the release date (today), 2) on the second shipment (they couldn't specify a date or confirm that I could get it on Tuesday, when the location receives its second shipment), or 3) 4-6 weeks.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not simply impatient. I've waited about 9 months for a new phone, I can wait a little while longer. It's the principle - I was made a promise and not only is Telus ignoring that promise, but they belittled me in the process.

It was explained that, due to small shipments, they needed to prioritize. They told me how wonderful I should feel that they are allowing me to upgrade my handset before my contract is over, but that people in my situation (early hardware upgrade) could only get the iPhone 4 if they have less than 6 months left on their contract, whereas I have 24. I understand fairness, but people who are at the end of their contract were likely satisfied with their handset. In my case, I may have been happy with it for a month, but my dissatisfaction has been growing for about 11 months, that's over a 90% dissatisfaction rate!

I mentioned that I understand the general principle, but I am extremely dissatisfied and asked them to make an exception. At this point, the representative got on his high horse and pointed out that my discounted buy out was an exception, so I should not be entitled to another exception!

I do not think that I am being unreasonable in my expectations and I don't think that I should be disadvantaged because Telus cannot supply the demand for their product.

The Telus location I am dealing with was happy to reserve an iPhone for me, not because I put down a deposit and am just a dollar sign in their eyes; rather, they realize the importance of customer satisfaction and making up for the previous disappointments I have incurred, This independent retailer is currently the only thing that I remotely respect about Telus currently.

This retailer made the offer to hold the phone for me for as long as I wanted, making me a priority - something Telus as a company seems to have no interest in. While the lure of spite is strong (I would be responsible for that store only selling 80% of their initial shipment), I am putting my hand forward as a friendly gesture. I have asked them to sell that phone and hold one for me from the second shipment, which comes in on Tuesday, Aug 3rd. I am happily making that phone available to one of Telus's much more valuable customers.

What I am asking in return is simple:

I want them to make it easy for me to walk into the retailer on Tuesday and buy the iPhone which will be reserved for me. A simple override of their system's self-imposed limits should make this possible.

I thank you for taking the time to read my lengthy email. There is little-to-no new information here, I have said it all before to telephone representatives and heard any number of explanations. I am beyond the point of being placated by a scripted explanation of why you cannot do what I need to be satisfied - I am waiting for action.

Sincerely,

Michael Park

2010-07-26T11:58:00.003-07:00

Combining my favourite things is one of my favourite things! Wine and knitting are a great combination whether it be drinking and knitting, or using a knitted product to care for your favourite wine before you get around to drinking it.

To the left, you can see my latest knitting project which did exactly that. I had originally thought of making a bag, but opted for a cozy on account of the stretch of anything knitted.

I knit it on straight needles and just joined the seam at the back. I left a space near the bottom (see the next picture) so the bottle can be inserted. I thought about different ways of securing it closed, but they all seemed more labour intensive than they would be effective. I'm rather pleased with the way it turned out.

I'm still not sure how I feel about the yarn. I like the colours and they would be perfect for a nice German Riesling. I also like that the slow variegation creates large sections of colour, but the imperfect shift between the different-coloured sections drives me crazy.

In conclusion, I'm not quite sure about the benefits of a wine cozy... Wine doesn't need to be kept warm and it makes your wine a mystery! Either way, it's fun!

Comedic Saturation

2010-07-18T16:18:00.002-07:00

As some of you may know, I have a rather refined, characteristic sense of humour. I love pretending not to get jokes and mispronouncing words.

Normal jokes don't suit me; I can never remember the right order of things, and often screw up punchlines.

Amongst my friends in Vancouver, it's reached the point where everyone I know understands and expects my 'punchlines'. When this happened in Winnipeg, my favourite punchline was "I don't understand, can I get a diagram?" When people realized they were setting me up, they would pre-emptively ask if I needed a diagram. Unfortunately, things are different here in Vancouver.

My Vancouver friends make a habit of ruining the joke for any new people I meet, and it pisses me right off!

It's caused me to think a fair bit about my sense of humour; they always do it to save the new person the bother of being fooled. Long story short, it shows that they're missing the whole point of my 'jokes' - it's not like I do it out of malice! I do this to evoke a magical moment, that look of 'you can't possibly really be that naive, can you?!?'

In conclusion, it's not just that my Vancouver friends are robbing me of my glorious punchline (that, I could handle), rather, they are robbing new people of that sense of innocence!

Don't worry. I will continue to make every effort to bring joy and delight to the whole world with my laugh and witticisms.

In completely unrelated news, I am worried about some potential legal liabilities.

Somehow, I've gotten myself onto a mailing list of secret insider trading opportunities. I get these emails with information about companies and stock rankings, letting me know that I can strike it rich if I invest in them.

I am at a crossroads - I know that insider trading is illegal, but I could really use the extra income.

Any thoughts, advice?

Time to get the gears in motion...

2010-07-17T03:47:00.002-07:00

I haven't been blogging, I haven't really been composing, I tried starting a knitting project, but that's been moved to the back burner...

I've fallen into the slump of summer.

I've been reading, ish... not as much as I thought I would when I bought those books, but little bits help - baby steps.

This has already been a very social weekend for me, and the sun hasn't even risen on Saturday, yet. On Thursday, I went to a friend of a friend's going away shin-dig at an irish pub - it was cozy and fun. Contrast that with this evening's adventure to a dance club... too many people, too many loud noises, skanks, punks, ugh... I'm old, but I've always been this crotchety - I hadn't drank nearly enough to have enjoyed the bar tonight, but it was ok... the free drinks made it worthwhile.

I would be happy to never go to another loud-music-style bar ever again. Take me to a pub, a dive, a martini bar, or any similar place and I'm happy. Conversation and table service are the name of the game.

Also, thanks to a group of my friends, I've rediscovered an old favourite game - Asshole!

My, how we used to play it in the high-school cafeteria...

I like nostalgia.

Wordle

2010-07-10T14:08:00.002-07:00

I'm sure you've all heard of these, but if you haven't, Wordle is a thingy that generates a word cloud based on whatever text or website you give it. It presents the words that are used most commonly in the text and ranks them in sizes according to their frequency. I didn't really think the Golden Girls theme that was prominent on my main page was representative of my blog so I plugged in the text for all entries with the word 'mumbly' in them, and this is what I got:

I really like it and I think it captures the essence of my blog. My name, words like 'posted' and 'comments' appear so large because of the footers on each blog entry, but it does make for an interesting collection - I didn't know that Tuesday had such a prominence in my life!

A Palace Made of Gold

2010-07-08T12:58:00.002-07:00

As requested, this post will be a review of The Golden Palace.

Almost every aspect of the show I wish to talk about is related to the issue of continuity. The premise is to take as much as possible from a previous series and just plunk it down into a new location.

On the one hand, the show is big on a community-style sense of continuity. Some characters, like the girls' children, only appear in a few episodes, but the show gives a sense that their storyline continues outside of our view. Stan, is around a fair bit, but his continuity is still greater than his actual presence on the show.

On the other hand, there are the men/dates. For the most part, dating is a within-the-episode event. Because of this, the original series is plagued with in-congruencies. Characters often say things that conflict with events that have happened in the past.

On Rose's hand, Miles occupies a special place between the other hands. At some points, they're madly in love, then they're just friends, then they almost get married a few times, and are seemingly unaffected when they go back to just dating the next episode. Because Miles's presence is sporadic, the viewer is forced to assume that he occupies that first sense of continuity - that he and Rose are close and exclusive, but there are so many problems with this continuity. Anyway, I don't want to waste too much time discussing this.

Anyway, everything I've said this far applies to both series.

I love both series and thoroughly enjoyed watching them this year.

The Golden Girls was a fabulous series that was and is timeless. When ratings took a dive in the 6th and 7th seasons, everything that happened was understandable: Bea jumped ship, realizing that the show was falling out of fashion. Everyone else wanted to keep it going and thought a change of scenery would help.

Now, I'll go through the characters to outline my thoughts about both shows, and the Palace in particular.

Perhaps an unpopular opinion among Golden Girls fans and gay culture, I never really liked Dorothy. Granted, she was a vital part of the mechanics of the original series, but we all have our favourites, and she just wasn't on my list.

[Bottom line, I think Golden Girls was a perfect comedic entity. It dropped in ratings because that's just what happens eventually. They should have just ended it, but with a much better finale - Gosh that was sappy!]

In theory, I was excited to be rid of her voice and better-than-thou attitude, but it fell short. Sophia's one-liners, which were once beautiful escalations, seemed out of place. Their tag-teaming was sorely missed in terms of Blanche mocking. St. Olaf stories lost that je ne sais quoi that came with waiting for Dorothy to explode with impatience.

I have a certain fondness for Blanche, likely because she reminds me of a dear friend. In the Palace, she became one of the biggest victims of continuity. Basically, she only has 2 or 3 dates in the whole season, yet the new characters jump right into the slut-casting. I also didn't like the control-freak part of her character that was prominent at the hotel. I know it started in the GG, but it just caused more frustration than anything plot related.

Chuy - HA! Cheech... need I say more?

Roland tried to be the straight man replacement for Dorothy, but he wasn't severe enough to really be effective. I would liked to have gotten to know more about him, but there wasn't room for that.

It's obvious that GG spent the first few seasons making sure that each character was solidly backgrounded and their characters were developed. After that, it went on autopilot and no one ever really needed to venture out of the house. By adding these new characters, they were incomplete pieces in the puzzle, but the show couldn't spend the time it needed developing those characters to the point of the girls.

I LOVE SOPHIA!!!

Through her, we see the stark change in action between the series. In GG, all the action was either sitting at the table in the Kitchen (with one character standing), or sitting in the living room (the Linai was a direct substitute for occasional variety).

In the Palace, there were more scenes and they were used less regularly. Also, the type of action was greatly increased. The kitchen, which was almost exclusively the table in GG, was divided into the table (rarely used), the work area by the stove, and the area near the door. The replacement for the living room would likely be the front desk. Additionally, there was the lobby area and the dining room. I might be making too much of this, but it changed from a static show, where the dialogue was the motivator, to one that was more driven by action.

Sophia seems to be the biggest victim of the change. They basically reduced her to a trouble-making one-line spouter, ignoring the wisdom, and old-country stories that I loved so much

Finally, Rose - my favourite! Back to the loss of the static quality of the GG - sitting around and gabbing, Rose's St. Olaf stories suffered. On GG, there was always a sense that Rose could be telling the story for hours without thinking twice about it (or once, even), but on the Palace, she was almost always standing, giving the sense that she was going somewhere. The roles were reversed, people would stop when she told a story, and it just wasn't the same. I also felt that they dumbed up her character a bit much, to the point that it became almost insincere.

In the end, The Golden Palace had me laughing a lot. I'd long been attached to the characters and was happy to have a little longer with my favs.

Without the Golden Girls, the Palace wouldn't, couldn't, and shouldn't have existed. I would only recommend it for people who watched the entirety of the Golden Girls.

I'm disappointed in the lack of finality. GG had a strong, though cheesy conclusion, but the Palace didn't even make the effort for a season finale, much less a series finale. Surely, they must have realized that they wouldn't be coming back for a second season...

Oh well, thus ends the Golden Girls portion of my life. It's been about 9 or 10 months over which I watched 8 seasons of marvelous comedy. I would happily recommend any and all of it to anyone and everyone!

Back to the Books!

2010-07-07T03:05:00.002-07:00

I'm not really a reader. I read articles for seminars and I read blogs and various things on the interwebs, but that's about it. I can't remember the last time I read a book from start to finish for fun. I've tried many times, but I get side-tracked and lose interest.

Today, I went to a bookstore that was having a 50% off sale. I got a nice selection of things that piqued my interest and I'm looking forward to getting around to all of them. I really need to get myself back into reading because I have loads of books coming here in about a month. When my parents visit in August, they're bringing my library of books and music. I'm excited, but realize that it might be a complete waste unless I actually start reading the books.

One of the books I bought was John Gay's The Beggar's Opera. At only 65 pages, I managed to read it in one day, though not in one sitting. I sat in a park and read for a while, I read while walking for a bit, and then I finished it off curled up on a chair in my living room.

I finished the Golden Girls series the other day, and I'm more than halfway through the Golden Palace... I don't think I should get caught up in another series this summer, so I'll replace internet t.v. with books!

Hiking and Vlogging

2010-07-03T23:50:00.002-07:00

So, I went hiking today and it was super fun. In order to show you, I vlogged!

It was a long hike - 18k (9 up, 9 down). It was basically a steady rise the entire way up which was nice; nothing too intense, but it kept us on our toes.

This was the first really scenic thing we came across, after about 5 kilometers. It's called Barrier Lake, you'll see more of The Barrier later on.

So, there were three lakes that we saw today: Barrier Lake, Lesser Garibaldi Lake, and Garibaldi Lake (the non-lesser). In addition to the lakes, there were creeks and streams galore, for example...

Aside from a black bear we saw on the drive home, the only wildlife we saw were chipmunks (so tiny and cute) and these birds called Gray Jays. Both were extremely good scavengers. Earlier on the hike, we fed the jays out of our hands - the flew onto us and ate, until we got in trouble from the Ranger. She was actually very nice about it, so we stopped immediately.

When we got to the top and were eating lunch around Lake Garibaldi, these creatures were a nuisance.

As we left to come back down after lunch, we hiked back through the snow. It was actually quite treacherous, but that didn't stop me from doing an action vlog. My roommate suggested it, knowing there'd likely be a scream involved.

A few minutes later, we decided to go over these logs instead of taking the bridge again:

I stopped the vlog early cause I didn't want to drop my phone, but this was a LOT of fun!

I tried to get my roommate to recreate the Log Driver's Waltz, but she didn't know the video, and I didn't know nearly enough of the words. Oh, Tote-bag...

I talked about lakes and rapids and creeks earlier, but what water phenomena could be more exciting than....

Barrier Lake was one of the first scenic things on the hike, but the Barrier was quite a bit higher. Basically, it's a huge rock formation - very steep. The view was spectacular and I felt like I was on top of the world! Because a lot of the boulders we were sitting on were at awesome angles, we had a lot of fun taking pictures that looked like we were falling off the mountain. When my friend posts her pics, I'll share it on here, but for now, here's my final vlog entry!

Why is it so hard to spell my own name?!?

2010-07-02T22:07:00.002-07:00

Of all the things that you type all the time, your name should be one that just rolls off your fingers, but it doesn't for me.

Every time I write an email and sign it at the bottom, it turns out something like this:

-MIchael

-Miachel

-Micahel

etc.

For a while, I tried using the signature thingy on gmail, but I like to change things up. I also don't like that it puts it in a different colour so you can tell it was a thoughtlessly added electronic signature.

There's really no point to my blog post today, you're welcome!

I'm loving summer!

2010-06-30T22:59:00.002-07:00

The hike last weekend was fantastic, I had a great Kung Fu class today, I'm going hiking again on Saturday, tomorrow will be filled with Canada day delights, and I just finished a bunch of projects in a row.

The most recent project was a wedding arrangement for voice and string quartet. Originally, I was under the impression that it was for voice and piano, but it turned into a string quartet accompaniment. That's delightful for the wedding, but it took up significantly more time than a piano arrangement would have. Oh well, it turned out well enough, though saccharine as weddings often do!

Really, the only things I NEED to do before going back to school are write a make-up essay and study for the Baroque entrance exam.

Non school-related, I have a stack of piano duo music to learn over the next two months.

I also have some composition projects which are both WANT and NEED, in a sense. I should really finish my Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird cycle/collection:

...Speak of the devil....

In the latest issue of the CMC Newsletter, BC regional director, Bob Baker made mention of the VISI ArtSong Collab and my pieces in particular:

"One of many highlights of the day was the performance of Thirteen ways of looking at a blackbird by Michael Park, during which the singer changes character from that of a woman singing to a blackbird to that of the blackbird singing in response. Participants were transfixed by the transformative effect created through the words and the colour of Gayle Shay's voice, truly demonstrating the power of verse."

I don't mean to brag [yes, I do], but talk about good press!

The other WANT/NEED project I have in mind is an orchestral piece. If I start it during the summer, I'll be able to finish it by November, in time for the VSO reading session deadline.

Also, I feel like I should always be working on something. I had a sense of non-procrastination this last weekend and I want to keep that sensation going.

Speaking of procrastination, I'm making great progress on the Golden Girls. I've been watching them sporadically all year and I'm now on the final season. I don't know how I'll react when it's over and I have to watch the one season of the spinoff they did without Bea Arthur, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Kung Fu With a View

2010-06-27T11:02:00.003-07:00

Yesterday was another pretty frickin' awesome day. As you may know, I've been doing Kung Fu with a group of music students this year. The group meets once or twice a week. We have our classes on Kits Beach, so we're used to having the ocean and the mountains in our line of sight; on a clear day, it's really inspiring. Anyway, we've been talking about doing a hike sometime so we could do Kung Fu on top of a mountain. Long story short, because one of our friends is moving away, we finally got around to it.

The hike we did was E

agle Bluffs, on the north shore of North Vancouver. I always get confused when I try to describe mountains, but we parked where the Olympics happened on mount Cypress. It was about a 45-minute drive and we left at 9 in the morning.

Despite the early morning aspect, the drive set the tone for a day of wonder and merriment. My bassoonist friend brought a fun little book of Canadian children's songs. I remember using the same series of books in elementary school [sidenote: I'm now on a mission to find some other volumes of these books cause they're so fun!] There were some great songs and we had a repeat of a song we learned the last time I went hiking - Lester the Lobster from P.E.I.. We took turns teaching each other the choruses by rote and then passing the book around for solo verses.

After a quick bathroom break, we started the hike. The first section of the hike was mild-to-moderately horrid. Almost exclusively steep s

witchbacks, and very few flat sections. I don't even like walking up a hill in Vancouver, so an hour of up-walking wasn't exactly putting a smile on my face. Unlike last hike, I never reached a point of feeling like death; I learned my lessons from the previous experience - stay hydrated and don't let your sugars drop.

*DIABETES TANGENT*

Last hike, I cut back my Lantus (background insulin) from 36u to 26u - as a result, my sugars were dropping the entire time. This time I only took 21u and my sugars were much more well behaved. They still dropped, but I had them higher to start - 10.0 mmol. At the first viewpoint, they were at 8 something, the lowest they got was 6 something just before lunch.

I made a big mistake - I assumed my s

ugars would be dropping, so I took less insulin for lunch, and took it later than I should have. When we headed back after lunch, my sugars had shot up to 15 and I felt like death! I corrected and after an hour, they were tolerable, but I won't second guess things next time.

*END TANGENT*

We took regular little breaks to re-hydrate and check sugars/snack. Basically, we reached the destination without incident - everyone was happy and healthy and it was good fun!

So, it's summer, right? We were all wearing summer garb like shorts. It was cooler than we expected, but we kept warm by moving around all the time. The sun was playing catch all day, and when it was sunny, it was very

warm. Despite this - THERE WAS SNOW! We had several little snowball fights as we went along, and it was the responsibility of the people at the back of the pack to try to hit the front runners. By far, the most exciting moment of the hike was this:

The discovery of crazy carpets!

This was after we reached the summit and we used them on the way to the Eagle Bluffs Lookout.

[oh ya, so it's a little confusing, but the main destination is not the summit, rather it's a viewpoint. The summit is the highest point, but not that stellar. After the top, you hike down to get to the Eagle Bluffs where you can see Vancouver, and on a clear day, Vancouver Island. This is where we did Kung Fu and ate lunch]

Kung Fu with a view was great! We had a bit of an audience, as we always do at the beach, but we were mostly distracted by the view and the tiredness and the hunger! We focused just on arms, obviously our legs were getting a good workout from the hiking.

Anyway, the section between the summit and the Eagle Bluffs was my favourite - it was downhill a fair bit and snowy. My choral conducting friend and I were the only ones who took crazy carpets. Someone had obviously just left them there for other people's enjoyment. There were lots of little places to slide down on the crazy carpets, lots of screaming and fun! My butt was pretty much soaked for that whole section of the hike

Before we reached the Eagle Bluffs, we ditched the carpets so that other people could enjoy them near the snow.

I hate regretting things, but I regret not holding on to the carpets for another hour! Halfway down, we reached the biggest hill! It was next to an off-season ski hill. My snow friend and I ran down the hill and had fun doing that, but it would have been SO MUCH FUN to have had the carpets.

Oh well.

The hike was great!

Later in the evening, I went to a bonfire and we had s'mores.

It was a fantastic day!

Best Day Ever

2010-06-21T00:44:00.002-07:00

I was up all night doing the Easter Seals Piano Marathon. Surviving today on 4.5 hours of sleep, split between two naps, I've had that achey kind of heartburny sensation all day long.

In a sense, I've felt pretty horrid all day long.

So, why didn't I just sleep the day away after the piano marathon?

Because if I did, today would have been lame.

Instead, I went to the VISI/CMC Art Song Collab this afternoon and everything about it was perfect.

As an event that I helped organize, it was a great success. It wasn't a full house, but it was well attended. There were submissions by 2 established and 2 emerging composers, so there was a nice variety as well as a sense of community. As one of the emerging composers, I was glad to be in the good company of Hal Foxton Beckett and Neil Weisensel.

The performers were fantastic - not just their musical skills, but their dedication, willingness, and excitement! Knowing that they only had the music for a few days before today's reading session, I really appreciated the time they spent learning and rehearsing my music. As today's workshop was focused on interpretation, they really engaged with the music, the poetry, and the new musical approaches that I asked for in my songs. In addition to great singing and playing, the performers were so positive and supportive of the songs presented today.

Singing my newest creation, More Than Containers, was Michael Broder - and extremely polished young baritone. Singing The River is Moving and A Man and a Woman was Gayle Shay, a mezzo-soprano with a delightfully velvety tone. At the piano for A Man and a Woman was the supportive touch of Allison d'Amato and finally, Laura Loewen, one of the most compassionate musicians and people I've encountered, played piano for More Than Containers and The River is Moving.

One of the most exciting parts of today's event was the open discussion that followed the performance of each piece. This was a great opportunity for composers and performers to discuss and ask questions of each other. In organizing this event, some concerns had been raised about the involvement of the audience in an open discussion of the pieces and interpretation in general. I'm not sure if those concerns were ever quelled, but there was no reason to worry today. The audience was stacked with interesting, intelligent minds - ready to experience and explore new music.

I should be upfront: the feedback on my pieces was unwaveringly positive, so of course I will sing the audience's praises, but it goes further than that. Today's gathering seemed stripped of pretensions and personal agendas, instead, people had genuine interest in exploring the ideas and interpretations which were presented.

All of these elements came together to make today a wonderful experience. I wasn't nervous at all; the performers and audience created a sense of warmth and support.

Bottom line - I get to add some stuff to my CV, I met some great new people, heard some great music, but most importantly, I heard my own music performed really well and other people really enjoyed it - I call that a good day!

Good Fortune!

2010-06-19T18:25:00.002-07:00

I went shopping today at Long & McQuade in Vancouver.

When I was in undergrad, my piano teacher advised me that it was the cheapest place for me to buy music. Time and time again, even with shipping, it was!

I was informed on facebook that they were having a customer appreciation day. I needed to order some scores anyway, so I went for an adventure. Long story short, they were clearing out a bunch of scores with 75% off in addition to my student/teacher discount.

I scrounged the piano section and found a variety of stuff and even picked up a few mini scores for symphonies and whatnot. Holding this armful of music, I thought I was already breaking the bank; but my mental math skills were lacking - it was only $30.

After paying, I continued searching, discovering the full score section and found a LOT of great pieces!

Because I feel like it, here is a catalogue of the scores I got today - from smallest mini scores to largest full scores/piano scores:

Mini Scores

Beethoven Symphony No. 4 and 5-7

Milhaud Concertino de Printemps

Poulenc Sextour

Schoenberg String Quartet Op. 7

Bruckner Symphony No. 7

Richard Strauss Symphony for Winds

Milhaud 3rd String Quartet (with chorus)

Khachaturian's The Valencian Widow Suite

Berlioz Romeo and Juliette

Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2

John Adams Chamber Symphony

Piano

Saint-Saens Scherzo Op. 87 for Two Pianos Four Hands

Scarlatti 20 Sonatas

Satie Les trois valses distinguées du previeux dégouté

Reger Aus Meinem Tagebuch Op. 82, book 2

Roussel 3 pieces for piano Op. 49

Haydn Easy Piano Pieces and Dances

Bastien Series Playtime at the Piano, Happy Thanksgiving, and Collage of Solos

Scores

Lindberg Cantigas

Dutilleux Sur le même accord

Gounod Petite symphonie

Gubaidulina The rider on the white horse for large orchestra and organ

Pärt's festina lente, pro et contra, Wenn Bach Bienen gezüchtet hätte, and the fratres version for winds and percussion

Shostakovich orchestration of Johann Strauss's polka, The Pleasure Train

Penderecki 3 Pieces in Baroque Style

Hovhanness Holy Mystery of the Martyrs

In conclusion, I'm very happy with my findings!

In the end, I ended up spending $101.31 on scores today, but the savings on the receipts was $610!!! It probably wasn't the ideal time to make an investment in my library, but some sales are just too good to pass up!

Tonight, I go to the opera, play piano all night for a fundraising pianothon, and then go to my workshop tomorrow afternoon. It'll be a while before I sleep!

2010-06-15T00:13:00.003-07:00

So, the video from the Vancouver Complaints Choir performance is already up on YouTube!

The weather was beautiful yesterday - it was a wonderful day to be wandering around downtown Vancouver, maybe even a touch too warm. I should have worn shorts and a non-black shirt, but oh well. We garnered some good attention and got good feedback everywhere we sang.

All in all, it was a pretty damned fun experience and it came together just dandy for only 3 rehearsals.

Visit www.complaintschoir.org for more information on how you can set up your own complaints choir!

Milestones and Complaints!

2010-06-13T01:40:00.002-07:00

Some important milestones are coming up:

1) This is post #984 ish. Only fifteen more and then it's the big One Thousand!

B) In August, I'll be celebrating the fifth anniversary of this here blog.

Please feel free to leave me some comments on how I should mark either of these momentous occasions.

Over the last month or so, I've become involved with the 2010 Vancouver Complaints Choir. The Complaints Choir project is pretty spiffy and has quite a following. Basically, complaints are gathered from a region, a local songwriter turns those complaints into music and then a choir is organized to perform the song. Do click for more information - it's a fascinating project!

The 2010 Vancouver Complaints Choir will be performing the 10-minute song by Veda Hille tomorrow at various locations in downtown Vancouver at 1, 2, 3, and 4pm. CBC One came by to do some interviews and a recording at one of our rehearsals and it will be aired at 8am Pacific time, tomorrow morning (10 am in Winnipeg, 11 am in Ontario). I was one of the people that she interviewed a little more in depth, so you might hear glimpses of me on the airwaves. I did say, "mumbly", and I was unorganized with my thoughts, but if you're reading on here, you should be used to that. I haven't decided if I even want to be subjected to listening to myself in 6 hours, but I'll set an alarm just in case.

For now, I'm off to try and fill up as much of those 6 hours with sleep as possible.

Movie Reviews

2010-06-10T12:52:00.003-07:00

I love bad movies.

Give me poor production values, inconsistencies, flawed storyline. bad acting, etc., and I'm a happy camper. In the other direction, my standards for a good movie are rather high, but luckily, I react the same to most movies that tickle my fancy.

In the past, I've had some friends that would indulge my love for B-movies, and I even had one thickly-browed friend who loved teeny-bopper rom-coms, so that filled a big section of the bad movie category, but there are few people out there who are willing to watch whatever I want.

Lately, my bassoonist friend has indulge me in watching a bunch of bad movies from the new releases wall. Here are some reviews (If you want real details and names, look them up on imdb or something - these are truly michael-style reviews and you better bet there's gonna be spoiling):

Tenure

This was about and English prof who has twice been denied tenure at various universities; surprise surprise, he's up for tenure again... Long story short, he doesn't get it the third time around. I'm glad they didn't go the Hollywood route of realizing his unseen brilliance at the end and getting offered a position at Harvard, etc.; instead, he realized that his passion was for teaching of any kind and that he didn't need to be in a university to do it. In short, they glamorized a huge wage-decrease and basically demotion!

There was a love story involved, but it only really appeared and resolved in the last few scenes, so I wasn't nauseated. The secondary storyline involved the main character's best friend who was searching for Bigfoot - you can't go wrong there! Both of these guys seemed vaguely familiar. I think the main guy was Dewey from Scream, and his best friend often plays a sidekick character.

In short, this movie was better than it should have been!

Visioneers

Starring Zackafanakagakas or something. This was a about a bizarre world where people lead seemingly vacant existences and where dreams are a symptom of the growing epidemic of spontaneous explosions.

This rental was worth it only for the opening 15 minute segment at the main character's workplace. He walks in, gives the finger to a poster - as his coworkers come in, they all flip each other off and say, 'Jeffers morning'. Jeffers is the huge company they work for, which is the self-proclaimed most profitable company in the world. Every minute, a voice announces the time, and how many productive minutes until the weekend. There are also buzzings and beepings and ringings from different sources. I can't do it justice in words, but the opening sequence is like clockwork in it's intriguing and elaborate counterpoint of events.

In the end, the movie falls short, lacking in real character development or a compelling story. I get it that that's the point of the movie, but the point of the movie also seems to be what holds it back.

Confessions of a Porn Addict

This movie stars Spenny from Kenny versus Spenny, for those of you who are familiar with terrible Jackass-style Canadian comedy. This movie is a mockumentary; it doesn't matter what the topic is, the genre is guaranteed to be fantastic. [There's one about a parking-meter attendant that I highly suggest!]

It's about a porn addict whose wife left him as a result. He joins a support group and changes his life, only to realize that his wife has gone into the porn industry - hijinks ensue.

Despite the gratuitous use of pornography, I don't actually recall seeing genitals. Nevertheless, I wouldn't say it was done tastefully. At the end, when he confronts his wife in the middle of a Bukkake filming, the reunion kiss is both heart-warming and stomach-turning!

All in all, the movie is fairly entertaining.

Taxidermia

Weird.

I can barely describe it.

Basically, three short movies in one that were connected by generational lineage, but I still didn't quite get the connection of the first and second sections' main characters. It was foreign - I'm gonna go with Hungarian. Contrasting the last one, this movie has gratuitous genitals, as one should expect from any artsy foreign film.

The first section featured a military assistant or something... he has a fire/candle fetish and he caresses, licks, and nipples the flame. There is an impressive scene where he is jerking off his flame-throwing penis. There's a graphic sex scene but it keeps changing between his partner - the variables are his boss's obese wife, another random lady, and a pig carcass that had been slaughtered earlier that day. The next morning, when his boss finds him asleep with his pants down on top of the carcass, he shoots him in the head and then it pans to a scene where the boss's wife gives birth to a baby boy.

In the second section, the baby boy is now grown up - a Hungarian national speed-eating champion (well, second place). Apparently this is a profession and they train hardcore. The gratuitous obese vomiting was almost too much to handle. Long story short, he and the female speed-eating champion have a baby who ends up being the focus of section three.

Contrary to his gene pool, the son grows up to be an emaciated taxidermist who has to take care of his now incredibly obese father - imagine the Monty Python fat guy right before he explodes. After a fight, the father tries to leave his chair, he dies and his guts spill out all over the floor. The son comes back, cleans out his father's carcass and taxidermifies. He then hooks himself up to a machine that taxiderms himself and also slices off his head and right arm - resulting in the image for the movie cover.

The movie is grotesque to the extreme. While I wouldn't say there was what I would think of as traditional beauty in it, it had a rich tapestry and powerful imagery. Strangely compelling. Also, slightly disturbing.

2010-06-09T03:04:00.002-07:00

Apparently, June has not been a good month for blogging.

It's also not been a good month for Kung Fu: I couldn't make it one of the weeks, another it was cancelled, and then all of a sudden, I haven't been in a month.

Comparatively, it's been a great month for composing. I wrote an artsong for the upcoming VISI ArtSong CoLab. While I had done a lot of the planning and prep-work over the last month or so, I did 95% of the work this past Sunday. Let this stand as a testament for me to remember, that I can compose quickly and I should do it more often. I simply need to reaffirm my desire to get lots of music written this summer!

I got a cheque in the mail the other day. It was pre-payment for a jazz standard I'm arranging for some couple's wedding. It's not great money, but the mere fact that they sent the cheque means that I need to get it done sooner than later.

Payment is always a good motivator!

Another project I'm working on is an improvised (ish) dialogue between a speaker and a pianist. My friend and I will be presenting it at a conference later this month. There are also tentative plans that it might be remounted in Toronto, outside of a conference atmosphere... SO I will need to find an intuitive form of notation suitable for another performer to use.

2010-05-31T11:00:00.004-07:00

It seems I have squandered away the month of May without doing any of the work I needed finished. I have no real complaints, I've had a great time, but now I need to get down to business - lots of things to get finished/started in the next few weeks.

Diabetes-wise, things are pretty good. I tried to use the CGM the other week - after about 5 hours of "lost sensor" and "bad sensor" messages, I gave up. I'm pretty sure they're past the expiry date, so I'm not surprised, but the expiry dates on these things come up far too quickly! No one can afford to use these things too regularly, but you almost have to unless you want them to go bad , which they apparently actually do.

I only have one sensor left, after which I can't see myself having the funds to buy more, nor the motivation. The technology, somehow, is still infantile and unreliable. Yes, it can shed some light on trends and the intricacies of rising and falling sugars, but it takes an incredible amount of work and luck to get it working properly.

A week later...

2010-05-24T01:34:00.003-07:00

Oopsie, I made it an entire week without posting!

Blogging goes in ebbs and flows - but even though it's been lower on my list of priorities lately, I have no intentions of stopping.

I'm loving the summer: Kung Fu, Frisbee, walking, soccer, and going for sushi have been some of the things keeping me distracted from composing lately...

My diabetes control was getting a bit out of hand for a while - when I took a step back, I realized it was because I've been taking insulin closer and closer to the first bites of meals. Now that I'm consciously aiming for 10-20 minutes before I start eating, the numbers are behaving much more nicely. It's a mixture of letting the insulin work and also double checking carb counting during that time! It's impressive/bad - how fast bad habits become routine.

Speaking of breaking the routine, I finally did something that I've avoided for a long time... I learned how to crochet. Earlier this year, my roommate tried learning to knit, but gave up in favour of crochet - which she picked up quickly and really enjoys. I am a die-hard knitter, so I mocked her and flauted the inferiority of her chosen handicraft. Nevertheless, I gave it a try.

I was a terrible student, impatiently ignoring most of her instructions, but eventually I listened to enough to get through making a granny square. After mild-to-moderate frustrations with the technique of crochet, I caught on and (within the first project) mastered the basics of double crochet.

I'm still not convinced that it's a worthwhile venture, but I'll stick with it for a while longer.

2010-05-17T03:38:00.002-07:00

As I become more active during this beautiful weather, I am momentarily missing the insulin pump I was using this time last year.

And now the moment has passed.

Time never seems to align properly; last year, I was not very active at all, but now I am doing some kind of physical activity pretty much every day or second day. It would be great to be able to adjust my basal insulin, but that's just not going to happen!

I am going hiking on Tuesday, and since that takes up a substantial chunk of the day, I will be cutting my Lantus almost in half. Last hike, I dropped it from 36 units down to 25, this time I'm going to 20.

Today, I had to sit out of the last half hour of my Kung Fu class. After an hour, of chugging orange juice between exercises, I ran out of juice and my sugars were 4.2. It wasn't safe to continue, knowing my downward trend at the time...

I ate lunch not to long before, so I could have done with much less insulin for that meal, but then my sugars would have been higher going into the class, and I would have felt shitty.

It's a hard balance to find, but I'll keep trying!

2010-05-15T16:44:00.002-07:00

I'm beginning to understand why I've been told, on numerous occasions, that people don't get anything done during the summer in Vancouver.

Over the last few days, the weather has been absolutely perfect: mid-to-high teens through most of the day, clear skies, and lots of sunshine. I spent this afternoon playing tennis with some friends, the other day I went for a long walk at the beach, yesterday I went for a long walk by another beach. All of this is wonderful, but it's hard to focus on getting work done!

Long story short, I'm glad to be in Vancouver for the summer. I don't usually get anything done in the summer, so I might as well have lots of fun while I'm not doing it!

Obnoxious Drunk

2010-05-14T03:40:00.002-07:00

Walking home from the bar with my roommate and another female friend, some drunk guy on the street stopped smoking long enough to shout something about, "gay, mumbly, fag..."

Wisely, we kept walking and ignored him, aside from a comment about how obnoxious he was.

While I passed it off in the moment, it pissed me off. Some thoughts on the matter:

1) What a douche!

2) What can you possibly say to that?

3) Though I was happy to avoid confrontation, I couldn't help but imagine what might happen if I had responded... If thing had gotten violent, would it be considered a gay-bashing? Does the actual orientation of the bashee matter, or is it the motivating perception? Bi-bashing doesn't sound quite as intimidating - Aw, alliteration, you make everything nicer!

4) How did he get so good at orientation identification? I've been trying for about six years now, and my sexuality still lacks a certain clarity!

5) I can't tell what I dislike more : the fact that he assumed he could tell my orientation simply by situation/looks, or the fact that his utterance serves as a beacon for society's obsession with gender/sexual binary.

5a) Would I be as angry if he had called me 'bisexual'?

6) What about me screamed gay tonight? I'll take it as a compliment because the Vancouver gays I've been seeing are a good-looking group of guys, but khakis and an untucked plaid shirt don't exactly warrant my place amongst the pretty 'bois' of Vancouver!

Aside from that little incident, today was one of the most phenomenal days of ever!

I participated in a piano study on sightreading and improvising. I had a massage. I went for a walk with a friend by the ocean, on the beach, and decided I'm going to take up ocean kayaking. I had sushi for dinner and then went for cheap martinis with friends.

I love the summer!

Tennis Scotch!

2010-05-09T00:23:00.002-07:00

A friend and I were playing tennis against the wall of a school today. It was great fun, but the wall always seemed to beat us...

My friend came up with a delightful and challenging new game that we call Tennis Scotch! As you may have guessed, it's a cross between tennis and hopscotch.

Instructions:

Using the tennis racquet, you must bounce the ball on the numbers in order - always increasing one number per round. If you don't get it on the right number, you have to start again at one.

Neither of us won; I made it to 6 twice, but there were 8 hops/scotches.

With practice, we will get better and then add in other challenges, including, but not limited to: drinking scotch, eating butterscotch pudding, something to do with scotch mints... The possibilities are endless!

Exciting Projects

2010-05-06T23:16:00.002-07:00

Vancouver has not been short of opportunities for me since moving here. If at all, I've only had momentary thoughts about not having something to work on or be involved in - and the summer is no different.

I've had the fortune of becoming involved with the Vancouver International Song Institute. I've been helping to organize an exciting workshop focusing on the interpretation of songs by living composers preferably with texts by living poets.

The workshop will feature baritone Michael Broder, mezzo-soprano Gayle Shay, and pianists Alison d'Amato and Laura Loewen, and will be moderated by Canadian radio broadcaster/comedian, Tetsuro Shigematsu.

The workshop will be a reading session with an American Idol style panel: a composer, a poet, and an audience member. Not only is it a great opportunity for composers to have their works performed by professionals, but it will be a great grounds for discussion and exploration of interpretation!

It's exciting to see how what was only an idea last week, has really materialized through the ideas and resources of the committee I'm involved with. I'm beginning to see lots of opportunities not just as a composer, but as an advocate for new music in general!

2010-05-02T01:03:00.002-07:00

School is done and I'm not going to talk about it!

I've rediscovered my love for the t.v. show Married With Children!

It's fantastic, and I will not hear any nay-saying about it.

I'm excited to get into the full swing of the summer:

The other day, I went for a picnic with some friends on the beach and we played frisbee. As you may know, I tend to swear... a... lot, especially during competitive things. With board games, this is ok because we're usually in a private residence; when I play foozball, it's in a bar, so it's not out-of-place; when I'm playing ultimate in a public park with families and children running around... OOPSIE!

This is very much going to be like a childhood summer - I don't really have to work, and I don't have school - I basically get to do whatever I want for the next few months. I'll still be teaching piano and I'm taking a German course in May/June, but the majority of my time will be free.

I want to play as many gigs as possible. I will be writing as much music as possible also.

So, a few weeks ago, my new choral pieces were premiered. Even if you weren't able to make it, you can hear them now:

Click Here and listen to the first two audio boxes on the page.

Apparently, they were well received - or so said Ernest Whitmore (American Guild of Organists) when he described them as "incredibly creative and polished pieces."

Hooray for publicity!

surreal

2010-04-26T23:18:00.002-07:00

I have a paper due tomorrow. It's almost 11:30pm and I'm still not done.

Surprise, surprise - I'm blogging!

It just strikes me as so surreal that I'm finished the first year of my doctorate. While I'm just finished the first of four years, the coursework only lasts two years, and the work I'll do on my thesis will hopefully be like what I'll be doing after graduating, so really, I'm pretty much halfway through the university part of it...

Ok, wishful thinking aside, time is going by so quickly!

Anyway, the front yard is filled with tulips and greenery, I see more and more people wearing shorts every day - summer seems to be upon Vancouver!

This should be a fun one!

Official Apology

2010-04-24T01:02:00.002-07:00

I should be more careful to not offend my readers..

I apologize for any comments I may have made that might imply anything untoward about any singers who occasionally read my blog. You know I love you all - heck, you make up 60% of my readership!

When speaking of effervescence, I surely was not thinking of pet wolves, more along the lines of large birds... In a sea of singers of all types, I miss the level-headedness, cool nature, laugh, humour, wisdom, and of course great voice of you, pet wolfe. Ain't no one howls better than you at Karaoke!

Can I be forgiven?

Pleeeeease...

Self-Review

2010-04-21T21:15:00.002-07:00

So, as I mentioned, today I made my premiere as a baritone, haha!

Generally, the performance went quite well. One case of the giggles caused a small pause in the performance, but we regained our footing and got to the end relatively unscathed.

The piece itself was a success; the story was clear and people found it quite entertaining. I had been worried because the audience only hears half of the text. Everyone who has looked at the piece (myself, the bassoonist, and profs) have had the benefit of reading the full text, so I'm glad that I did a good enough job of doubling/implying the underlying text.

As a singer, I think I pulled it off. I'll be interested to hear the recording... I've never actually heard a recording of me singing, so it will be very... um... ya...

Hopefully there will be some salvageable bits that I can post on here and/or my website. I know that I wrote the piece, but that was way back in October; one week wasn't really enough to learn it. However, there's always the magic of character voices! I'm not a trained singer, so character voices gave me an excuse to not obsess about tone quality, etc.

As a baritone, some of those A's were awful low-feeling. I'll be interested to hear how those sound on the recording.

Long story short, this was phenomenally fun! I love performing, I love laughing, and I love making people laugh; this had all of those things in perfect harmony!

yearning for a simpler time

2010-04-20T00:57:00.002-07:00

You may be surprised to hear this, but I'm not exactly a manly man...

One of the few vestiges of manliness I can boast is the fact that from the end of high school through my university years in Winnipeg, I went to a barber.

It was right next to the pharmacy where I worked. It had a traditional spinning barber thingy, and kitschy signage indicating the name - "Nick the Fiddling Barber's". Nick was long since retired; the barber's name was Phil and he helped me through some of the worst hair disasters of my life: 2 drunken haircut escapades where I let friends play with scissors, as well as the day I let some co-workers dye my hair blond with the expired "Blondissimo" we had pulled off the shelves.

Phil was a master at barbering. I never doubted his skill, never was disappointed with his work, and was never uncomfortable in his chair. If I needed to be chatty, he had stories and friends in all walks of life and professions. If I was pensive, he has philosophical queries and ideas to ponder - all of which could be resolved with a witty one-liner before standing up out of the chair. If I wasn't particularly sociable, he could shoot the shit about the weather like the best of them, or he could make a silence completely comfortable.

Since leaving Winnipeg, I've never really been satisfied with my hair-shortening experiences. Most stylists are baffled by the concept of tapering the back; 'why on earth would he want that?', 'how the heck are you supposed to do that?!?'

I could continue complaining, but that take too much effort. Long story short, I've been yearning for that simpler time... so when I realized that there is a barbershop called John and Nick's Barber Shop less than a 5 minute walk from my house, I needed to give it a try.

I sat at Nick's chair. He looked almost exactly like the young barber in that Seinfeld episode. I appreciated the efficiency of the cut, the sterile coldness of the barbershop, the olde-style chair. The cut was classic and good, but the experience wasn't like home.

In the end, no complaints, but I'll continue my search for the hair-shortening method that is right for me. I might go back to that Future Hair Training Centre I went to last time around; it's hard to beat a 7 dollar haircut...

My début as a chanteur...

2010-04-18T12:38:00.002-07:00

I've always sung in choirs, taken some singing lessons, and in undergrad I spent most of my time with the singers. Their quirky ways, the high drama, the loudness, and the effervescent airheadedness make me feel at home.

(you know I love you all)

But other than choirs, I've never really sang on my own for a recital or something. Well, that will be changing on Wednesday.

Gramps Ain't No Namby-Pamby is a duet I wrote for Bassoon and Baritone earlier this year. It's been finished since first term and I've had a bunch of baritones willing and interested in singing it, but the actual performance date has taken far too long to materialized. It wasn't until last week that the April 21'st performance date was confirmed.

On a week and a bit's notice, I got a mezzo soprano to agree...

[the two roles in the piece are grandfather and grandson, so this was kind of a gender-bending version]

long story short, a week and a bit was not enough time, so as of last night I will be performing the piece. I ran it through with my bassoonist and we're confident it will be pretty spectacular!

With any luck, Wednesday will be recorded and I can put up a recording. This is going to be a gong show, but in the best way imaginable!

The animals that punctuate our lives and blogs

2010-04-14T22:45:00.003-07:00

I just heard a noise in the living room...

who or what could it be?

OSCAR!

My long-time blog readers may remember Oscar from Christmas of 2006 when I housesat for my friend, Binky. Oscar is her cat and he is pretty awesome. As you can tell from the picture, he doesn't like the camera flash.

Growing up, there was always a pet in the house, be it a dog, cat, or budgie. Living on my own, I haven't had the time or money to take care of a pet; I've survived, but I was happy to have the chance to cat-sit for a few weeks. My roommate and I have been enjoying his antics since he arrived earlier this morning and he seems to be adjusting well to his temporary home.

As I looked up 'Oscar' and 'cat' on my blog history, I was reminded of the different stages of my life that Oscar has been involved... [dream sequence]...

December 2006 - January 2007

I housesat for Binky. This was my first time actually living away from my parents' home, other than a summer camp type experience. Wow, it wasn't until 23 that I flew the coop... Anyway - this was a nice opportunity to experience independence. Oscar kept me on my toes, barely letting me get any knitting done without attacking!

Summer 2007, or was it 2006, ya, let's go with 2006...

Binky and I went on a road trip, drove from Winnipeg to Vancouver (how apt that he should be visiting me in Vancouver this time around). We dropped him off in Saskatchewan because he didn't like the car very much... It was during his stay in Saskatchewan that he developed his habit of spitefully shitting on beds. He only did it twice, but it was done with such malice!

Today

I suppose that's not all that many times he's appeared on my blog, but he's my favorite cat nonetheless. I took that picture about an hour ago - he was lounging atop my piano. I'm glad I had the foresight to press in the silent piano pedal.... he just plopped himself down on the entire middle register of the piano!

Surviving and flourishing

2010-04-11T23:57:00.002-07:00

So, I survived a rather full week of practicing and performing.

Not just survived, it was actually pretty successful.

A mixture of brutal honesty and high standards for myself mean that I feel like I could have played better, but I'm happy with my level of performance and so were others.

The whole experience taught me a lot and gave me a bunch of constructive experience. It was wonderful experience working with some highly skilled musicians. Few rehearsals meant that we had to get the most out of each time we met. As a performer, I experienced the full gamut of composer interactions - from the composer I only met on the night of the concert after we had played, to the composer that attended multiple rehearsals and wanted to be involved at every step of the learning.

As I played in my own piece, I was happy with the balance we struck within rehearsals. Not that there was any real chance, but I wasn't a control freak; I was open to critique and interpretations, and the other players were happy to join in that creative collaboration that is music making.

With all that said, I look forward to doing this again in the future. I love playing new music and I really enjoyed the process of premiering some new works. While it was great to play my own piece, in the future, I will prefer for my works to be played by other performers; the more people who play it, the wider the spread of that music. I don't think I'll ever want to premiere my own piece, but this had been performed before, so it was nice to have stepped into that other role this time around.

2010-04-08T16:46:00.002-07:00

Today's the day of the big concert. My dress rehearsals went quite well and I'm feeling prepared for tonight. Since they started so early and I went to bed quite late, I came home and napped. I'm going to practice a little bit more to secure up some sections.

I still haven't decided if I'm really one of those performers that practices right up to the last minute, or if I need to leave things a bit to breath before the performance. It all depends on how prepared I am to begin with. Part of me wants to relax for the rest of the afternoon, but I shan't allow it!

Tomorrow I only have one piece to preform in a concert, same thing on Saturday; I feel like the year is starting to wind down.

Almost feels like autopilot

2010-04-04T21:12:00.001-07:00

This weekend was almost thoughtless in terms of dedicated practicing. I had a couple hundred pages of ballet music to review/learn for the workshop I played today, as well as rehearsals and a creative meeting with an artistic collaborator of mine. I plugged away at the work I needed to do and I got it done.

Today was the ballet workshop. It went well, though it ran overtime through my breaks. My arms and brain are tired, so I won't be practicing tonight.

At the same time, I need to start doing some reading and research for a final paper.

Oh ya - I never updated, because nothing happened...

That string of bad luck my quartet was having.... well, it ended before it got to me. I suppose bad things do come in threes, so I'm lucky to be the fourth member of that ensemble!

Wow, I'm really scatterbrained right now - probably shouldn't be trying to blog, but oh well!

Good night!

2010-03-30T22:57:00.002-07:00

I must have a lesson tomorrow, I'm procrastinating like nobody's business!

Website update:

the dot-com is out the door and the new version is available here:

www.michaelpark.ca

Short and sweet! The website has some more information on it - a bunch of the formatting stuff is fixed and it's a lot easier for me to work with, meaning I'll keep it more up-to-date.

Really, as if I didn't complain enough about the one 9am appointment I had....

They booked me for a diabetic retinopathy check-up tomorrow at 9:15 am. I have a lesson tomorrow and I'd really like to pull an all-nighter... Tomorrow is going to suck eitherway. If I stay up and get lots of work done, I'll be tired for a super long day tomorrow filled with pupil dilation, lesson, rehearsals and teaching OR reveal to my teacher just how little I've been focusing on composition lately...

Both are horrible options.

The scariest part is that I don't have money for diet coke - my paycheck still hasn't come through and it's almost 24 hours late. I will have to eat 2 meals on the go tomorrow, it would be much much much easier if at least one of those could be bought - so I'm really hoping that the money is there when I wake up. Actually, I'll sleep much better if it's there before I go to sleep.

Anyway - time to work!

2010-03-30T08:51:00.003-07:00

Yesterday morning, I had a first appointment with my new Vancouver endocrinologist. The only complaint I have is that it was at 9 in the morning!

Obviously they don't know me very well. Really - first thing in the morning? hours before I normally wake up? What silly scheduling!

He was super nice and our diabetes aesthetic approaches are in line - something I've lost sight of recently:

Diabetes should be something that is incorporated into one's daily life. Considering it is something that you'll live with for the rest of your life, obsessing over it will cause more stress than it will benefit.

Over these last few years, I've been getting more and more caught up in the diabetes blogosphere which seems to be characterized by the control-obsessed minority if diabetics out there (no offense intended). I'm certainly not defending the considerable portion of the diabetic population who are ignorant of their own condition and don't put in the effort to make any improvements whatsoever, but I notice myself obsessing and it leads me - not to improvements, but apathy.

There are many routes to success in life and diabetes. At this point in the road, it's good to remind myself that the obsessive route isn't the one for me. The route of regularity is also not mine, at least not at this point in my life... I'll continue to search out my route; maybe I've already found it and just need the words to describe it. Who knows?!

Am I Superstitious?

2010-03-28T21:26:00.002-07:00

I'm not really a superstitious person.

With that said, I'm sure that some great tragedy is going to befall me next Sunday.

For Sonic Boom, I'm playing in a quartet - piano, violin, cello, and clarinet. Slowly, each member of the ensemble has been picked off with an instance of bad luck.

Rehearsal One:

Violinist arrives frazzled, having rushed to find a replacement instrument after their violin mysteriously went missing.

Rehearsal Two:

Cancelled the morning of; cellist goes to hospital with severe stomach pain.

Rehearsal Three:

Clarinetist arrives frazzled, having been in a mild-to-moderate car accident earlier that day.

Rehearsal Four:

To be continued...

Pianotastic!

2010-03-27T17:31:00.002-07:00

Here is the promotional poster for Sonic Boom 2010.

The festival is fast approaching and I am excited to be a part of it in different capacities - I will have one of my own pieces performed, as well as I will be playing in 4 pieces as a pianist.

April 8th is the day to remember, so if you're in Vancouver, come on out to The Western Front.

The first 2 weeks of April will be very intense for me - a full-day ballet workshop, Sonic Boom, and accompanying a violin recital, but I'm up for the challenge!

The rest of the month doesn't really calm down much. A final student composer concert to help organize, the premiere of my new choral pieces, and wrapping up the academic year will keep me on my toes.

In other news, I have an appointment with my new endocrinologist on Monday at 9am. First off - why so early?!?!?! Second, I almost forgot. The bloodwork is from a while ago, so good thing I didn't have to do fresh stuff. 2 days of sugar/food records will just have to be enough. in all honest, diabetes apathy is at an all-time high - I haven't seen a diabetic counsellor or social worker in a long time and I think it's about time I change that. I WANT diabetes to be more or a priority than I've let it be lately, I just need help to make that happen.

I'm sorry I haven't been blogging as much as I would like lately... I'll try to have little updates more often.

2010-03-20T23:28:00.002-07:00

Two new additions to the living room.

1)The long-awaited piano.

It makes me incredibly happy! The silent feature is awesome and there are not enough words to describe how helpful it is and will be.

It looks super shiny, but it's actually 32 years old - I checked the serial number and it was made sometime in 1978. Nevertheless, it sounds good and the action is clean and responsive. With a big concert only 2 and a half weeks away, it could not wait any longer.

Sitting on the music stand is the newest knit creation. His name, in my mind, shall be Teddy Chach. I made him for a friend who is expecting a baby any day now. It was a bit of a fiasco getting the stuffing... I called about 5 or 6 craft places within reasonable travel distance, but they were all sold out and waiting on backorders for the last 2 or 3 weeks. I imagine that there was some kind of trade embargo on polyester, probably stemming all the way from the 60's, something to do with leisure suits...

Anyway, I finally got a call from one of the stores, informing me that they had finally gotten the shipment in, but it was too late. My mother solved the situation. She sent me an Easter care package which was tenderly packed with polyfil stuffing! It was the perfect amount to stuff Teddy Chach and some left over for my next project!

Anyway, things are going well and my roommate and I are both excited to have the piano in the apartment, though it means we have to redecorate/shift furniture around, but that's not much of an inconvenience!

excitement!

2010-03-17T01:35:00.002-07:00

So, this had better be the last post I have to write about being excited for my piano....

I finally have the money put in the right places.

Despite my schedule running almost straight through from 11am-8pm, I'm going to try to squeeze half an hour in at the piano store so that I can get the paperwork done for the rental. Hopefully, I'll be able to get it delivered by the end of the week, or weekend.

Minestrone Soup

2010-03-13T01:24:00.002-08:00

So, I mentioned that I was going to make Minestrone soup a while ago. It took me a while to get around to it, but I did it today!

Actually, instead of using my big soup pot, I used the other toy I bought from the thrift shop that day - my slow cooker!

Here's the recipe, to start.

I made a few changes... well, a lot... but it turned out super delicious!

I used a different brand of Italian dressing, sorry Kraft.

I didn't have celery at all, so I left it out.

For carrots, I picked them out of my frozen California mixed vegetables.

I used chicken broth instead of vegetable, and I got confused as to whether all broth is concentrated, which I've concluded it is if it comes from a can.

I used egg noodles instead of pasta and I completely forgot the parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning, though I have some parmesan that I can add into it when I eat it.

The biggest problem though, was that the recipe was meant for a much larger slow cooker... there was actually no room for any water. I cooked it anyway and then I just added water when I served myself a bowl.

I'm actually happy it turned out that way; it tasted great AND now it will be easier to store - it's like a canned soup, just add water and heat!

In conclusion - the recipe was SUPER EASY and tastes great.

I'm super glad my slow cooker didn't start a fire - you never know what you're getting from the thrift shop...

In another conclusion, slow cookers are the greatest thing ever - The soup literally only took 15-20 minutes of prep and then it was delicious the next time I opened it up! Best investment ever!

a weekend for resting

2010-03-12T18:25:00.002-08:00

So, last weekend, I did 90% of the work for my choral piece - I had set the deadline as Monday. Saturday night, I was up until 8am before sleeping and then I finished the piece around 4am Sunday night/Monday morning.

Next on my list was a paper due on Thursday. It took me all of Monday and Tuesday to do the readings. I figured I had all day Wednesday to write the paper, but surprise, I had classes and teaching in the evening. I got a wee bit done, but it wasn't until around 9 or 10 that I started writing. It wasn't that long of a paper, but it took me until 10 am to finish. I gave it a quick once-over to make sure it made sense, printed it.

I set every alarm I had in my room and went to sleep, knowing I could get 2 hours of sleep before class at 1:30. The class was very long, I drank a lot of coffee and I made it through the day, going to bed at a normal time.

I slept for 11 hours and it was great!

Even though I'm not tired tired, I'm feeling a little worn down.

(oops, started writing this hours ago and forgot to publish, so I'm publishing now and not finishing this train of thought...)

2010-03-08T01:06:00.002-08:00

I was up until 8am last night. I then slept into the afternoon and started working again. It is 1am right now and I feel very close to being finished. This has been an intense end of the weekend, but I feel enlivened. I need to remember to not get myself caught up in writer's block or procrastination - it's much more rewarding to just ignore them. Let's hope I can remember that when I don't have deadlines looming.

Tonight will see a much earlier pillow-time, but the deadlines aren't gone for another few days. Once this piece is finished, there are many articles to read and a paper to write, as well as piano pieces to learn, etc.

Good night!

2010-03-07T03:19:00.002-08:00

I'm actually getting work done tonight and I think I can get the piece finished this weekend.

In other news, I got lightbulbs today.

Normally, this wouldn't be newsworthy, but I had been without switch-operated lighting for over a week. Just days before the ceiling light burnt out, I had bought a floor lamp for my room; because of this, I did not treat the light burning out as the tragedy it truly was. For a short while, since we had an electrician staying on our couch, I debated the possibility of changing the wiring so that the light switch would control my lamp as a viable alternative to getting new light bulbs. Laziness prevented this from actually occurring.

Since going off the pump, I've been using Lantus from the 10ml vials. While the syringes were a nice reminiscence for a bit, I've been missing my fancy Eli Lilly pen that I was using for Lantus when I was in Ontario. I hope I just left this in Winnipeg during the move, and didn't throw it out. Anyway, I can't make sense of why, because I store it in the fridge, but the vials of Lantus seem to be expiring or losing efficacy near the end of each vial... after 2 days of high sugars, I finally switch bottles and my sugars magically return to normal. Long story short, they now have the Lantus in prefilled pens - 5*3ml - and I got those yesterday. They actually include a disposable pen with each cartridge - seems a little wasteful, but then again, what isn't wasteful about prescription packaging! While these pens aren't as nice as the Lily one, they're decent - a big step up from the previous Solo star pen I used a few years back!

Oops, I got distracted - back to work with me!

2010-03-06T19:31:00.002-08:00

Procrastination has been high lately, mostly because I have to finish a choral piece this weekend... ie by tomorrow. It's a monumental amount of work, but I'll make it happen. I'm already a week behind my personal deadline for this piece, and I'm not willing to postpone again!

I went with my roommate and a friend to Costco today. I bought lots of diet coke, so all-nighters will be fueled this weekend.

Piano rental shopping was a little ridiculous. Last year, my roommate and I paid for delivery in advance and then paid a monthly rental rate, ca 35$/month. At the first place I went, the rate for the piano I wanted was 59$/month, but they had a 500$ non-negotiable deposit. I was not expecting this, so I couldn't just go ahead. At the second place I looked, they had no deposit, but the rental rate was a whopping 180$/month for a similar piano. I called a few other places to find out that they mostly all have similar deposits, so I will suck it up and rent from the first place.

Now, about the piano:

Yamaha Silent Piano, google it!

Apparently, the technology has been around for 20 years, but no-one really knows or talks about it. There are tons of forums online for people looking for a good quality digital piano because they need it to be silent, but they're unsatisfied with the action/feel. For a long time, 'apartment pianos' have a mechanism that puts a felt cloth between the hammers and the strings so that it sounds a lot quieter, but this slows down the hammer movement and it's still audible.

The piano I will be getting is actually SILENT! With the silent pedal engaged, the hammers stop a few millimeters short of the keys - you get the same feel of the piano action, but none of the sound. At the same time, there are optical sensors underneath, translating the key and pedal motions into midi information. It has midi in/out so I can make the piano sound however I like through the speakers, but more importantly I can hook it up to do notation on my computer. Basically, the piano has everything I could want. When I get my next paycheck, I'll be acquiring said piano!

Ok, back to composing...!