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Archive for the ‘Reflections’ Category

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New Year Clichés

In Reflections on January 2, 2011 at 2:30 pm

It tends to be the same: we review the year, rave about the wonderful people, the unimaginable twists and turns, and pursuit of new ventures with great hopes but no expectations of particular outcomes or returns. Many of the things I anticipated for 2010 came to pass, and many more that I did not expect. It was indeed a “good madness”.

For 2011, things shift again as I work towards the completion of my thesis, and celebrating the accomplishments, great and small, that has brought me near the end of a journey that I began with no expectations, except that I could pursue knowledge and bring together what appears to be disparate parts of myself to the onlooker. Yet it has been nothing short of a miracle to find myself in the midst of a professional field that does not ask me to compromise my musical, creative or academic inclinations. Rather, it sees strength and value in the diversity of background that I bring, and encourages me to synthesize them in ways that have practical implications for how music is traditionally conceptualized in information and library science.

I will be blogging less as my writing efforts will be focused on data analysis and my actual thesis (for which, I am recruiting still at margaretlam.ischool.utoronto.ca). So expect less from here in the next few months, and much more to come once I have pass this milestone. The support from various individuals who have been mentioned in this space has been what’s kept me going, and I will continue to value the new people and friendships I have made on this journey, as well as those that seem to have been around forever.

Here is to new bouts of good madness, unexpected turns of fate, and a strength of heart as 2011 unfolds.

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August: Progress Update

In Reflections on August 10, 2010 at 1:09 pm

Over the last month, all my writing effort has been going into the development of my thesis proposal, which in part explains the decline of blog posts here. In fact, I can already foresee that over the next year, I will pay a lot less attention to leaving online breadcrumbs. I will strive to post at least a monthly-update as I have continued to do, but I won’t try to do any more than that. It’s a combination of the thesis work, as well as the random ideas I tend to throw around actually catching and slowly growing. It’s the mind-boggling excitement that a parent experiences when their child stands on their two feet for a few seconds before falling on their butt, or when that child finds their first playmate. It’s hardly worth noting in the grand scheme of things, but they are milestones that keep you going along a pursuit that is mostly unglamorous, and if it weren’t for love, no sane human being would put themselves through it.

In addition to proposal writing, some old thread are getting picked up. Click here to read on.

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June: Progress Update

In Reflections on June 1, 2010 at 8:30 am

I skipped the May update, due to a trip to Hong Kong and China during the first two weeks of May, where I traveled by more modes of transportation than I can recall. It’s been almost ten years since I last travelled to China, and the city in the province of Guangzhou where my grandfather lives has changed dramatically. From a quiet little farming town that was just beginning to see urbanization, it has transformed into a noisy and pollution ridden city. I visited Yangzhou, which is an important city of commerce in Chinese history, with many historic buildings and sites preserved and co-existing with more modern buildings. They even make a point of making newer buildings blend in. Shanghai was every bit the metropolis I expected it to be, and I regret only that most of my time there was spent at the World Expo, instead of exploring its history. Can you believe 2010 is almost half over?

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