Tuesday, November 20, 2007

a month?

dear miss Emblies....
you haven't posted in nearly a month! Surely something of note must have happened in this time!
the peoples who read this...(namely my brother)

Well I suppose there has, but I guess I haven't felt clever enough to expound upon life.

I guess the big news this month (that I'm willing to share on a blog that is) is that I decided that it was in my best interest to wait another year to apply to grad school. That way I can have another year to build up a resume with roles on it and have more solo work on it as well.
When push came to shove, I didn't feel like I had anything new or better to offer this year. Of course the suggestion is to then apply to different places where I would be more likely to get it. Certainly that would be fine, but I want to go to a place that will really be right for me, not simply a place that I would get in. Taking another year allows me to research such that I actually know the place that is right for me.
Also it allows me to try to put together some really sweet recital ideas.

Are there things that I'm really dubious about in not applying? well certainly, but as long as I work to make this next year a good and worth while time spent making myself a better artist, I think that it might even be advantageous for me.

In something completely different, someone said to me recently, that the kindest thing you can say to a person is their name. I can understand this comment as I am always really touched when someone says my name in conversation, probably because I never use peoples names when I talk to them...don't know if I could tell you why. Anyhow I think that I'm going to make a concerted effort to try to use people's names.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

About bloody time. Speaking about long waits. I finally got my learners permit. Hooray! The DMV almost killed my soul.

Anonymous said...

If I were still doing anything linguistical, I'd be interested in the pragmatics of name-using. There could be something interesting there, since it can also be really condescending (in a conversation with a grad student in ling about an inflammatory email he sent out, he said to me "Censorship is a double-edged sword, Ryan" in an attempt to enlighten me about why he should be able to say whatever insulting things he wants to his entire department.) So the context matters, and something interesting and linguistical might arise from a study of it. But then, in all liklihood, it'll just tell us what we could easily figure out by thinking about it. Which is part of the reason I don't do linguistics any more.

Elizabeth said...

Hah. Or it gets weird and creepy. One of the guys in PCBio used people's names all the time (as in, twice in a paragraph) and it set me on edge. Half condescending and half... I don't know what.

Ayn said...

I feel like I use people's name in conversation with them pretty regularly... I notice it the most when I'm talking to Andrew on the phone, and I think I actually make an effort to use his name extra often because, given the nature of long-distance relationships, I'm always looking for ways to show affection that don't require arms. It definitely feels different when I say "Good night, Andrew," than when I leave the name off the end.