Are you ready for it?

Let's revisit one of my previous posts, the one about shyness.

I had pointed out three possible conditions that contribute to why we feel overwhelmed when exposed to a new experience.

     1. We were unprepared to receive the incoming information and stimuli; as such, our stable              household environment became a new environment
     2. We did not know how to discern what was pertinent to us as we experienced it
     3. We had not yet learned how other people express and convey important information

When these conditions are true, everything appears to be a threat, and we respond with the fight or flee response.  I'll admit that it's possible to have more conditions, but for now, this should be sufficient to think about.

The funny thing is that being exposed to new forms of communication is often like this as well. We hear strange contemporary "music" that comes across as dissonant noise to us, while other people call it a profound masterpiece or social commentary. Our immediate reaction is to abhor it if we cannot get past point two or three. Once we can ascertain these things, we can finally make our judgment calls on whether or not the music or people are good or bad.

There's a case study done by Radiolab about Stravinski's Rite of Spring which examines this phenomenon from a neurological point of view.  People weren't ready to hear these strange sounds, and regardless of when the music would be introduced  

12 tone music dedicated to Schoenberg

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Arnold Schoenberg, 12 tone music is one of his claims to fame.  (Assuming I understood correctly) Schoenberg felt that all twelve notes in the Western music scale should be treated equally, and devised a set of rules for composers to use that would make them appear in no particular order.  For listeners, the 12 tones aren't always received with equal regard when played together in this asequential sequence: http://youtu.be/fy6t8yXPcSQ


Here's my current list songs in twelve tone [tone deaf?] music hits dedicated to poking fun at Schoenberg...

Schoenberg's Reel
The Happy Birthday Song according to Schoenberg


If you want to hear a detailed, likely much more accurate story about 12 tone music, this person describes it at length in about 7 minutes: http://video.nytimes.com/video/2007/10/12/arts/1194817121260/12-tone-music.html

From credibility to cohesion

As I was writing a cover letter for an internship, I began to write down what I've experienced as an employee, head of a string ensemble, Co-President of a debate team, Boy Scout, and anything else I've been through where leadership applies. Since most of this was copied and pasted out of my letter, this may be my pithiest post yet. However, I may be tempted to deliberate further.

I have learned that credibility—much like talent—is only a beginning. No matter how good it may be, hoopla can expire. Especially when showing off prior accomplishments won't do your job for you. The delegation of responsibility is an implementation of trust, and when the designated individual successfully communicates reliability, organizational cohesion ensues. Whether working with colleagues as the Co-President of the University of Michigan-Dearborn Debate team, or employers as an ensemble liaison, this process cultivates a conductive working environment and promotes healthy interrelationships. When conflict arises, it interferes with this ongoing exercise of trust, someone—better yet, everyone involved with the issue at hand—needs to find ways to amend their problems, and the best thing to address that there may be a problem in the first place is once again, open communication. Honestly telling someone what's going on. In some cases, it may even require utilizing some self-disclosure.

Ideas come faster than explainations...

It's true isn't it? Usually, it isn't a bad thing as we are either forced to think twice before speaking, or commit and explore that which we have not yet defined or understood.  When should we wait?

A fine Sailing Haiku

I'm learning to sail out of Baseline lake where the wind frequently shifts; presumably because it's a small inland lake. The sailing club celebrated its 70th anniversary the other day, and had a limerick/haiku contest. I found this haiku by one of our skippers (Meg) to be particularly delightful and appropriate--so much that I'd even go as far as to deem it as a quintessential sailing haiku:

Sail on Baseline Lake;
wind blows from all directions.
Oops, I tacked again.

The haiku seen here is a poem structured with five syllables on the first line, seven on the second, and five at the end; none of the words rhyme. If I understood haiku correctly from reading in eleventh grade, the end of the poem usually has some kind of a kicker to finish it off.

Shy, or finding an internet voice?

They should be the same, whatever I think about or want to say, I can type and post on the internet. However, before I get the stuff from inside of my head into print, there's another voice that comes into play, and typically it says the following:

1. "Does this make sense to me, or is it riddled with errors?"
2. "Should I consult Strunk and White?"
3. "Am I copying the tone of someone else's blog writing without carrying my own content in it?"
4. "Is it too long?"
5. "Am I ready to defend my ideas, opinions, and statements?"

Still, I'm pretty determined to make concise posts on a regular basis. Even if it means that more than 60% of them are drafts. Sometimes, the reason is simple enough, I like to cram lots of ideas into one sentence. Off is the grammar (hehe). I start writing an essay. Maybe I want to say something controversial that would be potentially disastrous if not said correctly in public. At other times, it's a much more common and bizarre personal conflict. Am I shy, or do I just lack confidence? Perhaps I'm both in this case. Isn't a lack of confidence a major contributor to shyness anyhow?

At this point, someone could ask "why are you writing about being diffident?"

Because I don't really trust you. Or the people who make up the internet community in general. But I should explain why. When I'm feeling shy around other people, it's because I don't have confidence in something or someone around me. Please don't be upset about this, I'll redirect your attention to my ideas about survival...

Even today, you might know someone who mostly sits and is content to quietly watch others at a social environment, but let's go back to the earliest days of shyness where I can presumptuously control how we played a part in our environment. As very young children, either we were brought into a new environment (a daycare), or it came to us (many strange new people come to our house).

Picture the latter scenario (oh, and by the way, you're now a sibling of mine for the next few paragraphs):

Our parent(s) host a party and invite many people whom we have not yet met or cannot recall meeting. More than that, we are bombarded with strange new information. Perfumes, colognes, party food, special potpourri, strange looking people, our parent(s) may be dressed unusually, some of the guests are wearing strange clothes or look nothing like our parents, etc.

As your parent(s) introduce us to the alien guests, one of them awkwardly bends down to greet you with arms extended (in a way that is certainly not how our parent(s) would reach for us) and teeth bared in some kind of a smile. We cannot resist the urge to squirmingly break free of their grip and run away. In a flash, we have successfully disappeared and hidden in the safety of our room. Politely, our parent(s) apologize and explain that you're shy and...

That's enough of the scenario, let's analyze.

So what happened here? Clearly there was a fearful/fleeing response to all of these people, but why? I believe that we didn't have confidence in being around these strangers, and with few indicators to show that they were humans who could be trusted just like our parent(s), we had no other choice fight our way out of their grip and flee.

In retrospect, I realize that I made this potentially more complex than need be by putting in so many possible variables (smells, people, visual stimuli) but I believe we can apply the same idea to each factor. We could not confide trust in the guest because

1. We were unprepared to receive the incoming information and stimuli; as such, our stable household environment became a new environment
2. We did not know how to discern what was pertinent to us as we experienced it
3. We had not yet learned how other people express and convey important information

And so, most everything appeared as a threat.

Back to blogging.
I'm finding blogging to be a similar experience. I'm still trying to figure out most of the internet and blogging itself, and by the time the finalized version of this post is out for the public to read, it will have probably been much later than the original post date. The internet is an odd place where information (wanted or not) shows up and interpersonal relations develop (again, wanted or not). For now, I'll be content with writing the occasional essay while being a little bit shy.

Albatross can sleep while flying!

Did you know that an albatross can sleep while flying? I first read about this from a weak advertisement as I browsed through a magazine and then researched it on the internet to confirm that the fact was true. Indeed it is; furthermore, I learned that the albatross is a rather large bird (that spends almost all of its life at sea or in the air). How large? Some, like the wandering albatross, have been reported with wingspans of up to eleven feet (11') long!

My first reaction was to wonder how, and the next was to dream about the sensation of sustained flight without using anything but the wind. My guess was that the bird stays aloft on major trade winds or they utilize some sort of phenomena in air that is near the ocean surface. I still don't know exactly, but this site from students(?) at Wake Forest University shows how an albatross can glide without having to flap their wings using just the current of the wind. This process is called dynamic soaring, and there's a short animation that depicts how it works on the link provided.

Furthermore, these birds live a potentially long life, as I have read they can live past 50 years of age. However, what most often threatens their lifespan today is a method of fishing such as "longlining" (using thousands of baited hooks trailing off of long lines behind a boat or set between buoys) can snag an albatross that goes for the bait and drown it or a hook may get fed to its chicks if it successfully removes the and gill nets; it can get to be a problem, and the Kiwi Conservation club in New Zealand, asks for people to write the Minister of Fisheries to request for better conservation and fishing policy.

I've become fascinated with the albatross since reading that tidbit, and I realize as I type that the advertisement did direct my interest to learn more about the bird rather than their product (something to do with software, though I doubt I needed it anyhow). If a company is going to put a fascinating fact up such as "albatross can sleep while flying," I would expect that whatever follows should be at the least equally interesting or significant. Not "they don't see where they're going" in big print and then somewhere at the bottom of the page write what their company has to offer. Or maybe follow up with something like "albatross can sleep while flying, and some pilots can too, but they know where they'll end up if they do".

Anyhow, I wonder what the albatross dream about when they sleep aloft.

First Post, First Blog, and First Thoughts

Salutations reader,

My name is Ian Tran. I'm from Michigan, which is surrounded by [most of] the Great Lakes. Being a resident of this area, I take pride in our close proximity to fresh water (in Michigan, you are never more than six miles from a body of water), and the erratic weather that we and our fellows from neighboring geographies (let's not forget about nearby states and Canada) experience.

Starting this blog, (this is my first) was intimidating, especially after looking at other people's blogs moments before creating this post. Questions abounded even when I set up my account information, but chiefly I wondered about these two:

1) What is this blog going to be about?
2) What should I title my blog?

At first, I had the inspiration to dive right in and post random thoughts, items, and clips--and there was nothing to stop me except for my research habits nipping at the back of my mind. So research I did, and as I read through other people's blogs, I was impressed to see that some individuals and companies would treat their first post as a kind of thesis statement to their entire blog, mission statement, or philosophy. Of course it made sense to do so, but could I find something greater that overlies or underlies the things I love to think about and share? What exactly are these things?

My answer soon became apparent as I continued my studies as a student. Having interests ranging from the arts to the sciences and numerous things in between, I realized that what typically brought me to appreciate them was either having the privilege of experiencing it firsthand, or by learning about them through effective communication. So that's what I plan to do, I'd share some of my experiences, communicate a bit about communication, and go about my usual business of pondering as I go along.

Time for the title: Light Telecommunication
Right away, I knew I would mostly be writing in brief about what I've found or thought about on a blog. At the same time, I also knew that I would probably want to share something that seems particularly enlightening to me.

I made a violin piece titled Light Telecommunication last year which references several forms of communication technologies within the music. When I looked at all of the available definitions for the words Light and Telecommunication, the available choices were particularly fitting for identifying what I hope to do with this blog. Hopefully, we won't have to adhere to one particular set of definitions for this title to convey a satisfactory meaning. See for yourself, both hyper links go to the respective definitions found at dictionary.com. There's plenty of variety, and yet we have a notion about what we may or may not expect to see.

So why would I be so passionate about communication? I'm currently listed as an environmental science major, and my interests frequently involve the arts, outdoor recreation, and the occasional bit of science fiction or mythology.

I believe our desire and capacity to communicate is what makes us human. As described under the blog title, communication is a part of everything we do. Even the arts (music included when I say arts) communicate information, so long as we consider what can be learned from the experience. A brief look at some definitions about communication (again I cite from dictionary.com) and we'll find that communication can be:

The imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs.

So if I feel like posting a poem, an art piece, or something else I found interesting without much explanation, I'll be doing some light telecommunication. If I've felt particularly enlightened by by something I want to share in detail, I'll also be doing some light telecommunication.

Best wishes,
Ian D. Tran