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the juxtaposition of research material
I'm sort of working on two stories at once at the moment, each of which required research into a specific historical/cultural topic. Thus my desk is littered with books and printouts from wikipedia and other sources, all hopelessly mixed together in one big pile. As I'm working on one story and need to find some tidbit of info, I have to weed through papers on the other story's topic, and I'm beginning to wonder what sort of effect, if any, the close juxtaposition of two unrelated sets of research will have on the stories, ie, if there will be some sort of subtle cross-contamination. Plus, I've been having the oddest dreams...
The two subjects? Elvis Presley and the Titanic.
(and no, I can't just meld the two and write an Elvis on the Titanic story; the two separate tales are already silly enough on their own, thank you!)
So, what things are you researching or learning about right now? In what ways is it manifesting in what you do, or digging into your subconscious? Is it how you expected?
Inquiring minds want to procrastinate, so 'fess up! (-:
The two subjects? Elvis Presley and the Titanic.
(and no, I can't just meld the two and write an Elvis on the Titanic story; the two separate tales are already silly enough on their own, thank you!)
So, what things are you researching or learning about right now? In what ways is it manifesting in what you do, or digging into your subconscious? Is it how you expected?
Inquiring minds want to procrastinate, so 'fess up! (-:
no subject
Also, I've been reading the UNICEF annual report on the state of the world's children.
And then I read random stuff, too.
no subject
I'm on the tail end of researching What Not To Wear, after switching to business casual. It's spilled over into decorating. One book cited the Law of Three: repeat an element three times in your outfit and you look really pulled together. I've been noticing the same thing in well-decorated rooms.
Music: checked out a copy of the seqel to The Inner Game of Music, whose title I can't remember right now. I was in a practice slump over the last couple months. It's refreshed me a little bit.
I'm chewing over the idea of slow practice. A bass player interviewed in the book practices things super-slowly so he can experience each note and transition. His theory is that when you practice, every repetition sinks into your muscles, even the bad repetitions. So pick one tiny aspect each iteration, and go only as quickly as it comes out right. I knew slow was good, but thought it was something to get out of the way, er, as quickly as possible. ("And that is why you fail, grasshopper.")
Perfect pitch: I found the music library, and they have a tape series on developing perfect pitch. Pock: I was never going to drop $200 on this myself. Eit: since they're cassettes, they're noncirculating, and must be listened to at the library. I skimmed the first of six tapes at the library. Burge's big secret is to think of perfect pitch as "color hearing"; you can hear a certain "G-colored" G-ness to a G note. Notice what makes it G-colored, practice, and voila! Perfect pitch! All reviews say the tapes require a lot of practice. I don't know that I'll stick with it. The librarian is looking into getting it on CD, so I could play it in the car.
I've been trying to notice pitches more, and play with remembered pitches. I remember what an A-440 tuning fork sounds like pretty well after tuning a violin for a couple years. If I sing what I remember, my tuner says I'm spot on. I think this isn't such a remarkable skill. Take any song you've listened to forever - say, Sargeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Start singing it. Betcha you're singing at about the same pitch it was recorded, and why not? If we remember exact color details of something I've seen, why not pitch details of something we've heard a lot?
At work, there are a lot of things I should dig into, but I keep getting yanked around. I need one nail to hit. I've been dipping into the Springs Java framework. the Cake PHP framework, Drupal and other web publishing tools, design, useability, templating, jBoss' workflow specification, BeanScript, css. After writing that I see I need to focus aggressively. Working on skimming and assimilating as much as possible from tables of contents. Also imagining how I would teach the material to someone else, which gives me new confidence in using words I don't really understand.
Finally, I ought to do more research into how to use my camera. I've discovered what several buttons do, but only by dint of hitting them with my nose while looking through the viewfinder. I've taken a lot of serendipity shots lately, and would rather do those things on purpose.
Focus. Focus would be a good thing.
no subject