singing lessons

On Monday, I am starting a series of three singing lessons, 30 minutes every week. I bought a coupon from a music lesson web site. This is my instructor:



I am one of the worst singers that I know. When I go to karaoke with Chinese friends, they often encourage me to sing ("We're all amateurs! Don't be modest!"). If I succumb to the pressure and actually sing, it becomes awkward. Sometimes people take the other microphone and sing along with me to guide me. Afterwards, people won't meet my gaze. They say things like, "The important thing is that you were courageous enough to do it."

In college, I tried to improve. I was in glee club for a year. I took a group singing class. I took a music / EE course where we analyzed the frequencies of music. I took a group singing class.

None of these helped much, so I gave up.

But now I bought this coupon, so I'm going to give it another go. I have a fantasy that a breakthrough will happen, and a beautiful melody will emerge from my throat, and I will stand there stricken, tears streaming down my face as one soaring note after another rings out from a place I didn't know existed deep within my soul.

However, my recent motto is "Happiness equals results minus expectations." So I will keep to a realistic expectation, which is that my singing instructor will say after the lesson, "The important thing is that you were courageous enough to do this."

instant gratification

Yesterday I had dinner at Google with my friend Rose. We ran into a couple who I haven't seen for a while. I really like this couple. They both have great personalities and are fun to be around. Plus the girl is a few years older than the guy, a social trend which I support:

After a few pleasantries:

Me: "So, you guys have been together for a while now."

The Guy: "Actually..." [shifting his hand to reveal a wedding band on his finger]

Me: "Wow, you're married! Congratulations! When did that happen?"

The Guy: "A year ago."

Me: "That's great! And ... how did you propose?"

The Guy: "I didn't. [gesturing toward his wife] She did."

Me: [turning toward the girl] "And how did you propose?"

The Girl: "I just walked over to building 42 [one of the Google engineering buildings] and asked him."

Me: "On a regular workday?"

The Girl: "Yeah."

Me: "You just thought of it, and then you immediately walked over and did it?"

The Girl: "Yeah."

Me: "Wow, that's awesome."

quickersort

Me: "Did you see when Obama visited Google and answered the question about sorting 32-bit integers?"

Azer: "No, I missed it."

Me:



Azer: "Obama definitely has his charm. His answer was cute. If it were Al Gore, he'd say, [dull voice] 'When I was at Harvard, we made an improved version of quicksort. It was called quickersort. That's what I would use to sort a million 32-bit integers. Also, I invented quickersort.'"

Me: [lol]

2% experiment

Azer: "Massachusetts has had its own healthcare system for a few years now. Obama's healthcare plan is based on theirs, with modifications.

Me: "Oh, I didn't know that."

Azer: "If it were up to me, I would take what works and implement it across the country, and then run the modified version in a single state to see how it fares. Don't immediately roll out the modifications to the entire country! Run a 2% experiment first."

Me: [lol] "That's very wise."

home sweet home

I am very grateful for my new housemate R!

R is a former colleague from Google, who I've known for five years. It's nice living with a friend, because we can have conversations about work, love, and life. He cooks every few days, and I like to do the dishes afterwards, which he hates. He enjoys taking out the trash, which I hate. It works out very well.


French toast and tea.


The dish on the left is a complex Persian rice dish stuffed with green beans and meat.

My neighbors are happy, because they are very friendly with each other, but rarely see me. R has been talking to them a lot more than I do, and is now planning a bike outing. My next-door neighbors brought over home-baked cookies twice since R moved in. A different neighbor brought oranges from her tree.

I ran into Elizabeth at a loft party, and she asked me, "Niniane, did you move to the midwest?"

"What?" I said. "No."

"Your tweets are all about how your housemate cooked, or your neighbor baked cookies. I was thinking that you must have moved to the midwest."

I guess I'm just a suburb-y kind of person.