Endless Auditions

Savannah

As a performer, life consists of a whole lot of auditioning. Performers get up ready to face an audition day through their own special routines, typically doing something to calm themselves down and keep nerves at bay. Sure, we get ready, warm up, rehearse, show up to the audition… but then what? Here are some different audition processes for different major Opera companies.

The Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera was founded in 1883. They have always prided themselves on showcasing the world’s most important artists, whether that be singers, conductors, composers, musicians, stage directors, designers, visual artists, choreographers, or dancers.

The Met requests that performers auditioning for a role in the opera chorus must first submit a cover letter requesting an audition. They have to give their first, second, and third prefered audition session times, and must also include if they are affiliated with a union. Those wishing to audition must also include a one-page resume, and a headshot, along with an MP3 of an operatic aria and a list of five or less operatic arias. From that list of arias, two will be chosen as audition pieces.

For principal roles, singers must be invited to auditions. They must be represented by “professional artist management or under very special circumstances.” The Met is allowed to decline to hear applicants without any explanation.

The Kansas City Lyric Opera

The Lyric Opera was founded in 1958, and according to their site, “brings high quality live operatic performances to the people of the Kansas City area and five-state region at the state-of-the-art Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.”

Auditions are by appointment only, whether they are through management or by the individual. There are annual auditions in New York City in early December for principal roles in the operas for the following year.Resumes and requests must be emailed in for consideration.

The Royal Opera House

The Royal Opera House in London is, according to their website, “one of the world’s most leading pera companies… renowned both for its outstanding performances of traditional opera and for commissioning new works by today’s leading opera composers….”

A program called the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme is “intended to benefit extremely gifted individuals at the start of their professional careers. Singers… are expected to have some performance experience and to have completed training at an established music college (although this is not an essential requirement.)” There is technically now upper or lower age limit for the program.

Through writing this article I realized how different auditions can be and how detailed processes are. I didn't know that certain operas (like the Met), hold auditions for lead roles by invitation only. It really helps me understand that all auditions are different in some way and how important it is to be extremely prepared for whatever an audition may consist of.

What Do They Mean?

Laxmi Baral 

Few weeks ago, we looked at the engineering process and how it relates to computer building, this week we will look at what each of the components mean. 

CPU:  The CPU (Central Processing Unit), is the “brain” of the computer system.  The CPU is responsible for executing a sequence of stored instructions called a program.  

Clock Speed 
CPU clock speed, or clock rate, is measured in Hertz, generally in gigahertz, or GHz. A CPU's clock speed rate is a measure of how many clock cycles a CPU can perform per second. A CPU that processes one instruction per second will have a clock speed of 1 Hz (Hertz). Hertz is defined as cycle per seconds.
Cache 
The CPU cache is memory stored in the CPU.  The advantage of this is that date stored in the cache can be accessed very fast, but is limited to its capacity. 

Specs for the Intel Pentium G358
The Pentium has a clock speed of 3.2 GHz (Gigahertz), so therefore this processor will be able to process 3.2 billion instructions per second. 
    The Pentium has a cache of 4 MB, so there for 4 MB of data stored in the cache will be will be accessed very fast, but the data stored there can’t be more than 4 MB. 
  
Random Access Memory (RAM)

RAM stands for random access memory.  It refers to memory that the microprocessor can read from and write to. When you create something in memory, it’s saved in the RAM. 

So the more RAM you have, the better your computer will run. You can think of RAM as the computer’s thinking space, the more thinking space you have, the more you can think. 

SSD                          
SSD stands for solid state drive. Compared to regular hard drive, solid state drive provide faster read/write speed. The write speed is how long it takes to save something on to the drive, the read speed is how long it takes to read something from the drive so, how long it takes to open a file that’s stored on the drive. 

The SSD that is going to be in this computer will have a read/write speed of 540 MB/s. Therefore you can save and open data from this SSD at a rate of 540 megabits per second. 

Cache, RAM, and SSD are all form of storage.  While the CPU’s cache provides fast speed, the capacity of the cache is limited, due to how small the CPU is. RAM is the computer’s thinking space, and the SSD is how much the computer can remember or save. 
     
 Power Supply
A computer power supply takes in 120 volts of alternating current (AC) from the wall outlet, and converts it into different amount of directing current (DC), to supply sufficient power to the components in the system. 
                                                  

Musical Notation

Savannah

Musical notation can be defined as a system used to visually represent music. Through the ages, there have been many different ways of portraying music in a way that we could see. Here are some basic musical notations and their meanings.

You start with a staff, that’s the lines that the music notes go on. Each line or space on the staff corresponds to a different note, which depends on what clef the music is in.

A musical staff

Treble clef, C clef, and bass clef

There are three kinds of clefs. Treble clef, where the bottom line of the staff is an F; bass clef, where the bottom line is a G; and C clef. C clefs—also known as alto clefs—are not used frequently and it can vary in which notes go where. The center of the symbol for a C clef is always on whatever middle C is on that staff.


When looking at music, the lines interrupting the staff vertically are called bar lines. They split the music up into measures.

Bar lines separating the measures

Different notes are held for different amounts of time and often that time depends on the key signature. What is certain is how they relate to one another. For example, a whole note is as long as two half notes, and two half notes are as long as two quarter notes, from there it’s broken down into eighths, sixteenths, thirty-seconds, and so on.

Note duration chart

Rests and their relation to notes

There are also rests when there’s supposed to be silence. They are notated differently than the notes, but they have corresponding durations. A whole rest is the same duration of a whole note, just silent. Same with half notes versus half rests, quarter notes and quarter rests, and so on and so forth.

Notation for different accidentals

More on notes: sometimes the pitches of notes need to be modified and that’s done using accidentals. These are sharps, flats, and natural signs. Sharps raise the pitch a half step, flats lower the pitch a half step. Natural signs make sure the note is played without a sharp or a flat. If there’s a natural sign instead of a sharp, the natural lowers the pitch a half step. If there’s a natural sign instead of a flat, it raises the pitch a half step.

Music uses key signatures to give songs a specific key. Key signatures are a way to add accidentals to the music without having to notate them with a sharp or a flat every time they occur. The key of C Major has no sharps or flats, and is often represented with a large C. Key signatures are written before the clef on the staff.

The circle of fifths represents the key signatures of major and minor scales

Examples of time signatures

After the clef goes the time signature. Time signatures consist of two numbers, one on top of the other. The top number represents how many beats are in a measure. The bottom number says which note gets the beat. In 4/4 time, there are four beats in a measure and the quarter note gets the beat. Meanwhile in 6/8, there are six beats in a measure and the eighth note gets the beat. These are just two examples of many time signatures.


Musical notation takes awhile to learn, and is easiest to learn through experience. Even what has been put in this post barely even scratches the surface of all of the musical notation that’s out there. This type of communication that musicians use is fascinating, and definitely worth checking out.

While writing this I realized how difficult it is to describe musical notation. I thought that, since it’s something I work with everyday, it wouldn’t be hard to try and teach. That wasn’t the case at all. I noted that musical notation is more complex than it seems.

The Different Lenses in History

   Matthew Zang

   When learning history in high school, we usually look at history as though it is unbiased and that the author's thoughts play no part in the formation of the text. This is obviously not true because no piece of literature is truly unbiased, however, we look at history as though it is. This is why academics have developed the concept of lenses through which an individual can look at history. There are, in total, eight lenses which are commonly used in historical reading. 

Photo Courtesy of www.instructables.com

   The first is the Historical Lens. This is what you read in historical textbooks and other material seeking to purely describe events. This lens can also be applied when reading when one wishes to only learn what happened during a certain time or event.

   The second is the Socio-Economic Lens. Sometimes referred to as the Marxist Lens, this gives tries to describe class struggle and how the economy affected society during a given time period. This lens can be used to identify the class bias of the author of a certain piece. 

   The next lens is Reader Response. When one reads a text, this is often the lens that they use because of its simplicity. The purpose is to view the text one is reading in regards to their own life. How does it compare? What is the same and what has remained constant? These are questions that a reader will ask themselves when using this lens.

   After that we have the Gender Lens. This is also know as the Feminist Lens and is often used to spotlight the disparities between men and women during a certain era. However, this can also be used to challenge androcentric ideas about the past. We see example of this in archaeology, where archaeologist have determined that women were fighting just as much as men in Viking settlements.

  The Race Lens is the next in our list. This view of history seeks to discover how race, heritage and ethnicity have played a role in forming history and how those differences are portrayed. What stereotypes are at play in a text? This lens also analyses the conflicts between difference races or ethnicities.

Photo Courtesy of www.whatsyourgrief.org

   The Psychological Lens is determined in analyzing human behavior and looks for common patterns which emerge throughout the course of centuries. It often asks why people followed the course of action that they took and the surrounding experiences that contributed to that decision.

   The next lens is that of New Criticism. This lens does not look to analyse the content of the text but rather the text itself. This is often used in studies of personalities where the author has written something not relating to themselves but can be analyzed to reveal the inner workings of the author at the time.

   The last is the Spiritual Lens, where the reader seeks to find religious or spiritual meaning in a text. One of the most common texts for this lens is The Bible but can also be applied to any other text which the reader finds spiritual meaning in.

All these lenses give us a broader view of history that can further our current knowledge more than any reevaluation of a textbook can!

Works Cited:

http://tinyurl.com/yaoyd59h

https://www.historians.org/teaching-and-learning/teaching-resources-for-historians/teaching-and-learning-in-the-digital-age/through-the-lens-of-history-biafra-nigeria-the-west-and-the-world/why-study-about-biafra/the-lens-of-history

Observing Community (Prompt 5)

Laxmi Baral

As a member of Engineers Without Border, I have a pretty good idea of how we represent ourself to the community.  Our mission statement is " EWB supports community-driven development programs worldwide by collaborating with local partners to design and implement sustainable engineering projects, while creating transformative experiences and responsible leaders."

Here at MSU, we help out locally and internationally. Members of EWB MSU have many opportunities to help out locally in Lansing.  We give back to the public by volunteering on various different engineering related projects. One example of how we represent ourself to the public is the Woldumar Nature Center Project. At this center, the docks are falling apart, this is unsafe for kids and we will be going there to repair/renew the docks. We have designed and are implementing new docks here at the center. To the public, we are groups of engineers that go out and get the dirty work done, and this is an excellent example of this.

We also help out internationally. I am involved in the Tanzania Project. Back in 2015 a group of EWB members went out to Tanzania, and looked at a school that needed to be redone. They first met with the community there to find out what the needs and the scope of schools was, and discovered some problems. Right now, I am part of the "drawing" team for Tanzania. My group's job is to make CAD (computer aided design) drawings of various features of the school, and provide an analysis to EWB.

One common misrepresenting of our club is at since we are Engineers Without Border we only accept engineering majors, and that is just false. We accept and we welcome any majors as long as they are willing to dedicate them to the project that they are working on. One other misconception might be that since we are engineers, we work on things such as robots, or computers exclusively, and again, this is false.

There are many ways we communicate. Every week, we have a General Meeting. In this meeting we go over the projects we have for the week, as well as going over important dates we have coming up, and so on. After the general meeting each group meets. Since I am a member of the drawing teams for Tanzania, me and my group will meet afterwards. We also communicate through E-mail; every Monday we get an email saying, "hey there is a general meeting on Tuesday, and these are the things we will be going over." Along with email, we also have a shared Google Drive. In this drive, there are all the drawings, and all the dimensions associated with the drawings.

How Historians Work With Other Fields

Matthew Zang

   The job of the historian is often seen as sitting at a desk in a library and not interacting with the outside world. This notion, while not wholly incorrect, is definitely misleading. One's job as a historian is not only to interpret the past, but also rediscover ideas and traditions left by those who came before us.This requires fieldwork.

Photo Courtesy of www.anthro.ucsc.edu

   One example of collaboration between fields that is fairly common is with the Archaeologist. They often work together to discover specifics about a certain area or culture group. Historians can call upon their research skills to find documents or old records that pertain to the exact area in question while archaeologists can draw conclusions from the material evidence left behind. Not only can the historian help in the analysis of a known site, they can also find new sites through research! These two fields often work together because they form a symbiotic relationship in their works by providing insight into the same topic from a different perspective. This also gets the historian out of the library which breaks the stereotype that was addressed at the beginning.

   Another field that historians work closely with is the Archivist. While this job is similar to that of the historian, they rarely leave the library, as it is their duty to catalog the records and documents already available. What the historian can do for the archivist is add to the collection. This requires the historian go to some other location (Another library, state or even country) to track down documents that could be compiled. These trips can take a historian to a myriad of places such as, France, Greece, Italy and many other nations, all in the pursuit of documentation.

Photo Courtesy of  www.ucas.com

   So, the stereotype of historians in a dusty old library just doesn't stand up to criticism. We also find that historians do not only benefit from other fields such as Archaeology and Library Sciences but that they too also contribute to those fields that they help!

Works Cited:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10761-012-0211-0
https://www.historians.org/jobs-and-professional-development/career-resources/careers-for-students-of-history/historians-in-archives

Music and its Benefits (Prompt 9)

Savannah

It’s no surprise that music is an art form that resonates with so many people. There are so many genres and subgenres that there is a type of music out there for anyone. Music does much more than provide entertainment or background noise. In fact, music has seemingly endless health benefits.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d6/c2/a7/d6c2a7ea61a34ed5e847de106717bdc5.jpg

At the Beth Israel Medical Center’s Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine, there was a study conducted by researchers with 272 premature babies 32 weeks gestation or older in 11 mid-Atlantic NICUs. The researchers studied three types of music: a gato box, a Remo ocean disc, and a lullaby that the baby’s parents chose and sang. Singing proved to be the most effective as slowing a baby’s heart rate, as well as increasing the amount of time that a baby stayed quietly alert. The lead author of the study, Joanne Loewy, said, “There’s just something about music—particularly live music—that excites and activates the body.” According to Amy Novotney of the American Psychological Association, Loewy is part of “a growing movement of music therapists and psychologists who are investigating the use of music in medicine to help patients dealing with pain, depression, and possibly even Alzheimer’s disease.”

Many have participated in research similar to Loewy’s. Daniel Levitin, PhD, a psychologist studying neuroscience at McGill University, and his postgraduate research fellow Mona Lisa Chanda, PhD, did a meta-analysis of 400 studies about music’s benefits for mental and physical health. This means they looked at the results of a large amount of studies and combined the data towards a single conclusion. Doing this, they discovered that music could reduce stress and also improve the body’s immune system function. In Trends in Cognitive Sciences in April of 2013, music was found to be more effective at reducing anxiety before surgery than prescription drugs.

The Crested Butte Festival Orchestra

Sure there are benefits for patients, but what about other people? Well, listening to classical music has been shown to effectively treat insomnia in college students. Plus, research in 2013 by Ferguson and Sheldon showed that people that were actively trying to feel happier while they listened to upbeat classical compositions by Aaron Copland felt their moods lift more than people only passively listening to music. In Sharon Bryant’s article, she writes, “This suggests that engaging with music, rather than allowing it to wash over us, gives the experience extra emotional power.” This shows that music has an effect on any person, not just on patients for medical reasons.

For people who go a little bit further into their education with music, there are other benefits. In “Musical Training Helps Language Processing, Studies Show,” by Lisa Trei for Stanford News, Trei writes, “Much like expert technical skills, mastery in arts and humanities is closely correlated to a greater understanding of language components.” The July 2014 Harris Poll showed that 80% of Americans believe that their music education has helped their level of personal fulfillment.

The amount of benefits that music has are endless. Everyone can benefit from it in some way or another, whether it’s their mental health or their physical health. Its significance can be seen not only in its prevalence in our lives, but also in the many ways it can help people.

Works Cited

Music as Medicine

Benefits of Learning and Playing Music for Adults

Through writing this article I realized the extent to which music has a medical benefit. I always knew that it did have benefits, but I didn't know that it could help patients with pain or that there was a possibility that it would help people with Alzheimer's disease. With this new information I feel that music has to chance to be even more significant in my life and knowing that it has such powerful qualities makes me want to work to provide the best performances that I can.

Why Did I Choose Computer Engineering?

Laxmi Baral

My story behind why I want to become and engineer is very personal.

Growing up in a refugee camp we had little to no access to things such as electricity and computers. I remember watching a black and white TV powered by a battery, and thinking to myself, “what if we had a color TV, what if we had electricity”. It was early 2007 and my brother had just been born. The only form of light we had during the time was a kerosene powered lamp. My brother would often cry during the night, he would wake up, and my mother would to to get up, find kerosene(if there was some left), and then power on the lamp. Due to lack of kerosene, the lamp would often die, leaving my mother in the darkness; she would have trouble taking care of my bother. When living in the refugee camp, I always wondered what it would feel like to have lights in our house; but the idea of having lights was just a fantasy back then.

Here is an example of a house in the camp.
http://mapio.net/pic/p-47061492/

Our house was made from nothing but bamboo and plastic.

The idea of “lights” often bothered me during my early years. I wanted to be able to have light in my house, and it is at this point that I realized that I wanted to work with technologies and provide lights to people that need it. At this point I realized that I wanted to become an engineer, and provide electricity to places such as my camp.

I came to to the US to get a better education. Coming here was life changing for me. Arriving at New York and seeing all the bright lights and all these tall buildings solidified my thoughts of being an engineer.

My goal in life is to go back to the refugee camp and build an electrical plant, and provide light and electricity to those in need.

What is Computer Engineering #2

Laxmi Baral 

http://parks.slu.edu/myos/my-uploads/2013/05/14/electrical-engineering.png?w=240

  

Few weeks ago in the blog titled “What is Engineering #1” we discussed what Computer Engineering (EpE) is. We also talked about the differences and similarities between Computer Engineering and Computer Science (CS). As I mentioned in the previous blog; CpE is a mixed between Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering. Today we shall compare and contrast Electrical Engineering (EE), and Computer Engineering.

Electrical Engineering primary deals with technology and electricity. Electrical engineers work on things such as tiny microchips to a huge power station, and everything in between.

Both EE and CpE share some common curriculum. Both CpE and EE students will have to take some sort of introduction to programming class, where they learn how to write loops, if statement, statement, function, and how to declare an integer, character, and so on. They will learn how to program embedded systems. By the time that students are done with this class, students will be familiar with the language of C. Both majors will also have to take series of circuit analysis class. This is to get you familiar with capacitor, resistor, and inductor circuit. 

https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/029/280/medium800/leds_trinket-circuit.jpg?1450848724, https://www.google.com/

EE students will take more advanced circuit analysis classes as they progress in their respective major. This class is lot of math as you learn how to find and set up an equations for any of the previous mentioned circuits. They both take some sort of signals course, where they learn about the math behind signals. This is one of the most math intensive math class, as it the math behind signals is a very important concept to know. They will both take and electronics course, where they learn about transistor. Now, this is really important to CpE majors. Transistor are used in computer, because when a transistor consist of high voltage, it is given the value “one”, and if the transistor contains low voltage, it is given the value “zero”. These ones and zero called bits, make up the processor or a computer. They both take an embedded systems class where they learn to program things such as a micro controller. To do well in this class, students have to be good at circuit analysis, and programming.

With that being the similarities, let's take look at some differences. EE majors will take a power class, where they learn about things such as motors and generators. EE majors also take a class of radio communication, with the focus on AM and FM waves. EE also take more electronics classes, with focus on analog electronics, CpE majors do not learn about this. Lastly, EE take a class on electromagnetism, where they learn about how to represent electromagnetic waves mathematically, this is math and physics intensive.

Now, CpE majors take more programming classes. They learn more than just the C language, they might learn Java and/or Python. Through these classes, you will learn more about programming and algorithms. They also take discrete math, where they learn about things such as graph theory, and equations where the variable only takes on integer values. The basis of learning graph theory is learn about connectivity; how computer networks and topologies are connected all the way to your suggested friend list for Facebook. They also take a computer architecture class, where they learn about how the CPU works, and what goes into making the CPU. CpE majors also take intro to Computer Networking class, where the learn about the architecture of networks or how computer connected share resources together.

Citations
MajorPrep, Electrical Engineering Vs Computer Engineering: How to Pick the Right Major, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIkTkNZO2no,14 May 2017,

Classical Music: Bach in Style

Savannah

2017 Honors Performance Chamber Choir at Carnegie Hall (photo from author)

For many people, classical music conjures thoughts of grandeur: full orchestras and men and ladies dressed to the nines in tuxedos and evening gowns; or maybe thought of an eccentric movie villain in a big leather chair, listening to Mozart and nefariously plotting. Even operas conjure thoughts of old men in monocles and women in a viking hats howling and shattering glasses with their voices. It may seem like it’s outdated, some pieces being hundreds of years old. However, it turns out that it may be more popular than you might think.

Even if classical music isn’t being broadcast to mainstream audiences, it still holds plenty of relevance in today’s society. As stated in an article for ArtsCultureTheatre.com, “...much of the popular music that is currently being produced uses similar beats, harmonies, and melodies as those that were used in some of classical music’s best works.” There are similarities in time signatures and general rules of music theory that carry from the oldest classical works into today’s music. The same article states, “Classical music and opera are the very foundation of what our modern music is based off of, and there are references to it throughout pop culture.” Symphonic orchestras perform many new pieces for the soundtracks of movies that are loved by the masses along with older classical pieces that elicit the same feelings now that they did decades and centuries ago.

On the subject of whether or not opera is dying, a retired violinist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra told the New York Times, “It doesn’t look to me as if opera is losing its audience at all. Maybe it’s even gaining new devotees.” They mentioned that when performances at the Metropolitan Opera are simulcast at their local movie theater, the venue is packed and it’s hard to find a seat if you don’t arrive early. Opera still appeals to many, because it has the power to evoke such strong emotions through its beauty. Unfortunately its perception in society’s eyes deters many from even considering going to the opera.

If you think you’re not a fan of classical music, take a listen around the next time you’re at the movies or watching television. You will undoubtedly hear an orchestra, or some brilliant classical piece. It’s not as old and dusty as many think, and if you give it a chance you may even realize just how beautiful it can be.

MSU's production of Puccini's A Room With A View

Through writing this article I noticed just how prominent opera and classical music actually is. I didn't know that there were live streams of operas at movie theaters. I didn't know how deep my own stigma against classical music was until I realized that when I was thinking about classical music I was thinking about things that are old or eccentric, even though I know that's not true.

Popular vs. Academic History (Prompt 4)

Matthew Zang
In the field of history, one finds two very different styles written about it; Popular and Academic. Popular History is what you find on The History Channel or HistoryNet.com which include fairly short and sweet highlights of an event. Academic History on the other hand, seeks to analyze either a certain time frame or group of events to answer a questions and would be found in journals such as History Compass or The Journal of Interdisciplinary History.

Photo Courtesy of www.history.com

When looking at an article in Popular History we find that most times, all that the author is writing about is the details of what happened. For example, in the magazine, Military History, David Zabecki writes about the failed French invasion of the island of Jersey¹. He provides us with detailed descriptions of the action, etchings from newspapers of the time depicting the battle, and style of writing that is meant to read like a story. What is absent from this retelling however, is any form of analysis. The point of Popular history is not to analyse history and draw relevant conclusions but to entertain the audience with interesting and engaging stories of the past. By using non-academic language and an interesting plot, these articles can engage and transfix those who thought they had no interest in history. These magazines not only hope to entertain readers but also to guide them along to more academic readings of the subjects that interest them.

Illustration Courtesy of Military History Magazine

Analysis is the job of the Academic Historian whose essays are much less plot driven. Here you do not find the compelling descriptions of military generals and politicians, but rather something more along the lines of a deep study into a narrow topic. To take Alejandra Dubcovsky’s Communication in Colonial North America² for example, we see that it takes a very defined topic and delves into the minutia. It is also formatted much differently than a newspaper or magazine article would be, including an abstract and a clear page of references. These types of journal pieces are used for those that are actually studying something relating to the topic being discussed in these essays which is almost exclusively academics and scholars.
     
       The differences we find when comparing Popular and Academic Histories are that they have a different goal in mind, variable audiences and variant writing styles. Popular History is being written like a story so that the average person, who may not know many terms used by academics, can easily comprehend and be engaged by the history, while Academic History seeks to gain insight by plunging into depth about a particular topic.

References:

1.  Zabecki, David T. "The French are Coming!" Military History, November 2017, 22-29. 
2. Dubcovsky, Alejandra. "Communication in Colonial North America" History Compass 15, no.9 (September 3, 2017): E12408. Accessed October 7, 2017. doi:10.1111/hic3.12408.

Why Does History Even Matter?

Matthew Zang

Almost as often as the worried glances I get from relatives when I mention that I’m majoring in History, people tell me, “but history isn’t even important, what we’re doing right now is what’s important!”. To answer this question simply, I defer to Peter Stearns who said “The past causes the present, and so the future.” To expand upon this concept, we find that history gives us invaluable insight into the reasons our world work the way it does, our personal identities and how we can improve as people and as a community.

Photo Courtesy of www.eskify.com

Everyone who studies any field, no matter what area, will encounter history in some shape or form. After a conversation with a pre-med student said the first phrase in quotes to me, it started me thinking. A few minutes later, I posed the question that everything she learns up until the point she discovers something new is history. Somewhat taken aback by my comment, she agreed and had a different view of history afterward. While not incredibly outlandish of a thought, it shows us that history is the well which we draw all of our knowledge from. Whether we choose the knowledge which we extract to be medical, philosophical, or something else entirely is up to us.

When one sits in a high school classroom though, memorizing dates and names, they are most likely not looking any deeper than the test at the end of the week. However, if one were to study the people of Pompeii, for example, and look past the tested details, they will find that people during that time were suffering from the same problems that we face today. What time is it? Where is the closest place to get food? Who should I go out with tonight? We can draw comfort in the fact that our issues of today are not new or crushing and that, in fact, most problems have fairly simple solutions. This doesn’t just apply to our personal lives but can be used to cast light on possible historical solutions to today’s problems.

Photo Courtesy www.wikipedia.com

History is not in the business of giving solid numbers and data to support a concrete hypothesis but tries to understand the patterns and similar traits that permeate the records. It would be nice to give a clear answer as to how to solve a certain issue with 100% certainty but sadly, human don’t tend to be very predictable. This is why history should be used as a guide that can be interpreted to give insight into issues. For example, if we look at the 2008 stock market crash, we have a guide as to what to look out for before another crash happens.

So, unless you come up with a brand new idea, you will have to build on those that lived in an earlier. It doesn’t always have to be boring names and dates, but it will involve taking a glance back into the mind of someone who came just a bit before you.

Works Cited
http://www.historyguide.org/guide/study.html
https://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/aha-history-and-archives/historical-archives/why-study-history-(1998)

Majoring in Music... Why?

Savannah

The Minnesota Opera's production of La traviata by Giuseppe Verdi

Music has never been described as a solid career choice. The pay isn’t steady, neither is anything else about the job. Even the job itself is relatively nondescript. Still, as long as there is music there will be musicians. Many wonder why people would willingly commit to something so typically seen as a hobby, but musicians love their craft and gladly dedicate their lives to it.

Nowadays, making a living solely performing is highly unlikely. Even the best of the best opera singers may not be making a living in performance alone. Typically musicians will also take up other jobs as arts administrators, advocators, managers, or any number of other jobs in the music industry. Bergen Baker, a mezzo-soprano opera singer, said, “It’s totally an entrepreneurial business. You are your own product.” And in an interview with Fred Plotkin for WQXR, an American soprano at a top European conservatory said, “I am coming to realize how much of my time must be devoted to being entrepreneurial.” Both statements ring true. Your resume as a performer is your talent and your personality, since you have to be not only fit for whatever role you’re going for, but you also have to be personable so that others will want to work with you. As a musician working a different job in the music industry, you must also make sure you’re making connections and conducting yourself with the utmost professionalism and charisma.

Doctor Jonathan Reed conducts the State Singers Choir at MSU

So, performing is an unreliable career, and even other jobs in the music industry aren’t necessarily stable… why would anyone want to have a career like that? As Kim Witman remarked in an article for the Huffington Post, “It seems to be a big leap to take on the basis of a gut feeling…. We often ask singers if there’s anything else in the world they could imagine doing for a living; for if so, they should quit this and do it.” Those who go into music have such an intense passion for the art, and would never devote their lives to something, not for the benefits, not for the pay, but for a genuine love of music.

Through writing this article I learned that it's so much more entrepreneurial than I had originally thought. Writing this article paired with slowly but surely becoming more informed about my future career as class goes on, I recognized that I am shaping myself into a product and I will need to learn skills that will help me to be marketable in the future. I think it's important for people to understand that people who are musicians are in that field because of a genuine love of music and we know that the path isn't easy and that success isn't guaranteed but we couldn't see ourselves doing anything else.

The Process of Building a Computer (Prompt 8)

Laxmi Baral

As a person that is going into Computer Engineering, I thought I should take on the task of building a personalized desktop computer. I still remember the first time I build my computer, and from that experience I remember lots about how difficult and tedious engineering can be. Through this I learned about what is known as the Engineering Process.

It was my junior year, and I was enrolled into Intro to Engineering course. The goal of this course was to introduce me to the basic of engineering, what engineers do, and the importance of engineers to the society that we live in. As a project for the class, I decided to take on the task of building a computer.

I didn’t know much about computer building, so I decided to do some research. First place I went to was YouTube and searched “how to build a computer:, after watching about 2 or 3 hours of videos, I decided that I was ready to build my own computer.

It all started with selecting the components that I was going to put in my computer. This was the most frustrating and tedious process. Researching the problem is the first part of the engineering process. I thought to myself “what was the purpose of this computer”? After some thinking I came to the realization that this was going to be a cheap compute, and it will not be used for anything intense. Ergo, the parts I needed to purchase would not be anything fancy

Next process of the engineering design is coming up with solutions and picking the most promising solution. For me it meant, having to selecting the right component and purchasing them. My components composed of; a computer case, RAM stick, CPU, hard drive, and a motherboard. All of parts were relatively inexpensive, and all they did was got the job done, nothing more.

After waiting for my parts to come, the next part in the engineering process is to build a prototype. Now, of course, I couldn’t not build a prototype because I didn’t have the resources available. So, I went straight to build the computer itself.

Here is the finish version of the computer

What I learned from this is that, just to build a computer, it takes so much thinking, so much time and so much effort. It is not as easy as just going to Amazon, buying the parts and putting the computer together. Now, imagine this as being a big project, instead of being a just a computer, it would take so much effort and brain to being a project together, that is why I have so much respect for engineers.