My life until March 2:


Bill Watterson - "There is not enough time to do all the nothing we want to do."


Until then, though I don't claim my own toils to be nearly as great, I need to be like this:

Quick update today - posting a new playlist. In honor of Valentine's Day, I put 14 songs on this one. I didn't make this with a theme in mind - I just wanted to have these songs in one place, but tell me if you see one :)

Made a hearty veggie soup with barley and pasta from scratch, received great feedback from roomie :) Went running outside and luxuriated in the sunlight at the Monument. That square is quickly becoming one of my favorite spots. Made a trip to XS for decadent desserts with roomie, and watched Step It Up 2 (I love dance movies - it's always interesting and exciting to see the choreography).

I've had a crazy morning involving tow trucks, the Baltimore City impound,
and other such worldly stresses. I am writing this from work, where I am
rushing to complete my reports and critiques for my program office at
school. But I know it doesn't compare to what the families of those who
died in the plane crash are feeling. So one way to look at this is, hey, at
least we got the car back. We made it to work, we got our work done, and
we'll take care of things, life will go on. Not such an easy thing for
these people to say right now. Please, keep them in your thoughts/prayers.
And let's hope nothing else happens on this Friday the 13th (gosh, I feel
superstitious for writing that, when I'm usually not, but these past couple
of days have been exceptional, no?).

AHHHH!!!!

Sorry, dear blog reader/random passerby, I had to get that out of my system. This seemed like a better outlet than somebody's ear :)

I admit I do love being busy, somehow I get a kick out of that. Especially when the reward of a busy day is that delicious feeling of sinking into my cozy bed :D One thing I would love is more time to enjoy my friends, roommates, family, the city I live in, etc. I guess for now I'll have to take it where I can get it, and really be super-organized and well-planned to maximize "it."


Another strategy: Dave Brubeck as my soundtrack. This makes a great backdrop for reading up on retainer medicine.

As an example, his take on "My Favorite Things" is certainly one of my favorite things...I just can't be grouchy (no matter how hard I try. And honestly, sometimes I don't have to try at all) when I listen to his music :)

With everyone around me getting sick, it was only natural for me to get sick as well. I've had something-like-flu for about a week now (I say this because I got a flu shot this season, but still had body/head aches, non-productive coughs, general feeling of fatigue, fevers/chills), and had to take a sick day (first time this year) on Wednesday. Maryland finally got snow last week and I don't think I could have handled another car-spinning, getting sprayed by gravel from the road cleaning trucks, ice chiseling episode that day anyway ;P

In any case, I'm starting to feel a little better, which is good, because work is just getting busier all the time. Plus, there is a final paper due next month which I seriously need to get cracking on, especially since my Mondays are gone for the next six weeks (I'm TA-ing an evening course at school).

OK, now onto the fun stuff. Today's topic - Chinese music. I really do get a kick from making these playlists. I tried to put a variety of music on this one - ranging from Chinese pop (Jay Chou, Faye Wong), music from movies, modern takes on traditional Chinese music. I couldn't find a whole lot of classical Chinese music on www.playlist.com. I'd love to share some pipa and erhu music with you guys. Pipa is basically a Chinese mandolin. My mom plays this :) Erhu is a Chinese violin/fiddle with two strings, and is amazingly versatile. Anyway, I'll post some youtube videos of these later, I'm always amazed at what you can find on there :)

I don't listen to much C-pop, but Jay Chou and Faye Wong are two of the most famous singers. Faye is older and sort of a trailblazer for Chinese pop; I like the variety of style in her music. I think of her as the Chinese version of Madonna. Jay Chou is from a younger generation, and you can definitely hear the Backstreet Boys influence in his music :) I posted the one song of his that I like (not meant to be mean at all, I just don't listen to him a lot) - one of my roomies in college played this almost non-stop for a while, so it brings back fond memories for me.

I included both English and Mandarin versions of the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon theme song. They're both beautiful, but it was bugging me that I couldn't find a good translation of the Mandarin version (literally translated as Moonlight Lovers) to post (cut and paste!). The lyrics from the English version of the song are very different. Here's my translation of the Mandarin:

Moonlight Lovers (Yue Guang Ai Ren - 月光愛人):

-I awake from sleeping in the moonlight. As the moon sets, my mind turns to you. Who knows why I don't want to wake up - maybe it's because I'm afraid when I open my eyes, you won't be there.
-The heart of a lover, deep as the sea, brought me to search for him again. Please, with your true heart, love me for ten thousand years. (Background singers: Love is the gift of the moonlight, and I wait for the angels to tell me you love me.) For the sake of love, I will sleep here for eternity.
-Does eternity exist? I ask because my heart cannot let go.
-The North Star will lead me. I am begging you - don't hide for so long. Please let me find you, for it seems like I have loved you for not even a night.
-My heart will wait. For the sake of love, I will sleep in this moonlight. All alone, I wonder - who would understand? (Background singers: I will keep sleeping in this light, for eternity, and I will have no regrets.)
-I will wait until my true love comes to wake me. (BG singers: One night in this sleep is like a year. Tell me you love me.)
-For the sake of love, I will sleep here for eternity.




And my new darlings - Twelve Girls Band. Twelve women (now 13, I think), all classically trained in Chinese instruments, from conservatories across the country, who made the final cut to be in this group.

A few of my favorites:

Alamuhan - an Uighur children's song that my mom used to sing to me when I was little. This is an instrumental interpretation. I love it.

Clocks and Only Time - covers of the Coldplay and Enya songs.

A Girl's Dream - the little girl is singing a snatch from another lullaby (Little Barn Swallow) my mom used to sing to me.

Vanessa Mae - very talented and spunky violin player. I love her takes on classical violin pieces. Again, playlist.com didn't have a lot of her songs I wanted to post here, so we have the theme from Butterfly Lovers - this is very famous, and it's very likely you've heard this melody before - and from Mulan ;) Lizi, I keep meaning to send you her music, so hopefully this will be a nice preview.

(Oh, and in case you are wondering - the Mandarin version of "Reflections" is pretty similar to the English version.)


Oy, and I just sneezed 7 times in a row. More tea...


Hope you enjoy the music! Let me know if you have any questions, and feel free to post them/comments/feedback in general :)