03.03.07
Midi is Great
Well, my new Midi-to-USB converter arrived in the mail today, so now I can use my Casio WK-1630 keyboard as an input to my computer. Combined with GarageBand, I think I’m going to have a lot of fun. I love the fact that I can transcribe the music I play as I play it, even when I’m just improvising. Far too often, I make up something that I kind of like, then I forget it and can never get it back. Now I can.
So far, however, I’ve only recorded one piece – it’s just me making stuff up without a plan, so there are a few shaky parts. Perhaps now that I have it transcribed, though, I’ll go back and improve upon it… Listen if you wish.
03.02.07
Yī diănr Zhōngwén 一点中文（A little Chinese)
昨天我有一间中文作业, 可是我的电脑 不能写汉子。所以我的作业很难。现在，我的电脑可以了。
Zúotiān, wŏ yŏu yī jiān Zhōngwén zuòyè, kĕshi wŏ de diànnăo bù néng xiĕ hànzi. Suŏyĭ wŏ de zuòyè hĕn nán. Xiànzài, wŏ de diànnăo kĕyi le.
I don’t really know enough Chinese to say what I’m trying to say, unfortunately. Yesterday, I had some Chinese homework to do, and the teachers requested that we type it up. However, my computer wasn’t set up to let me input either pinyin or characters very easily, so I had to look up how to do so before I could do the homework. Luckily, Mac OS X comes with options that let me set up the correct inputs pretty easily (under System Preferences/International, using US Extended for pinyin).
Now, I can type the pinyin spelling of a character, press space, then select from all the characters that match that pinyin and pick the right one. It’s a lot of fun… Hence, this post.
Orwellian Writing
Yesterday, Guy Kawasaki posted a great essay by George Orwell on how to write well. Since I enjoy reading this sort of thing (and constantly hoping to someday write this well), I thought I’d repost it here:
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Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Our civilization is decadent, and our language—so the argument runs—must inevitably share in the general collapse. It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to aeroplanes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes.
