Thursday, June 11, 2009

one of my greatest hobbies..


In college you'll meet a lot of quirky people. I like to think of myself as an unconventional person with all encompassing hobbies. One of them, a passion really, is that I play the ocarina.

The ocarina is a closed vessel wind instrument that can made out of ceramic, metal, wood, and more materials. Those of you who like to play Zelda will definitely recognize the instrument from those series -- and yes, it's an actual instrument! It actually has over 3000 years of history, and originates from China but was significantly developed in Italy. It comes in pendant, inline, and sweet potato forms. The sweet potato forms were actually distributed to soldiers in.. WWII I believe, to help them while away the time in trenches.

I personally play ocarinas made by Charlie Hind, completely handmade ocarinas made out of exotic wood. I really prefer the mellow tone of the wood as I like to perform flowing, languid songs. The picture you see is a picture of one of mine.

Interested? Think I'm completely nuts? Whatever your reaction may be, I also moderate the largest online community for ocarinists (ocarina players): The Ocarina Network (TON). Life isn't all about studying, grades, and work. Leave some time for your interests. TON can be found at http://www.theocarinanetwork.com

current location: front royal, va

Haha, I feel like the student blog is almost becoming a travel blog this summer. Any of you guys in the area? You should drop by the county building and say hi.

I'm attempting to define the college to workplace transition this summer. After all, that change is only a year (less than, really) away for me. It's definitely a bit scary, taking a step out into the 'real, adult' world and leaving behind classes, parties until 5am, midterms and finals, etc. When you think about it, the only thing we'll have known throughout life by the time we graduate is... school. This transition is one of the biggest life changes we'll go through (the other two I put in the same category is marriage/kids and death). I don't know if I'll transition well, I've only been working for a month. I do know that I like auditing though, I like the variety and travel. But going from filling my days up however I like it.. to having my days mandatorily filled up with work. I... really don't know if I like it. =S