Leyan Lo

Good concert last weekend. I posted the recordings online here:
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~leyanlo/beethoven/
Chris plays first violin for the first three movements and I play first violin for the last three movements.

The fifth movement, the Cavatina, is amazing -- it was said to have brought Beethoven to tears whenever he heard it. I found out after the concert that the Cavatina is actually on its way to the stars on a golden record, on board the Voyager missions I and II, launched in 1977. And it was recorded by the Budapest String Quartet. How awesome would that be to have on your resumé! Yeah, this recording of mine is in outer space right now, representing the culmination of musical culture for all of Earth.

Anyway, the concert went well and I'm glad I got the opportunity to play with Chris, Colette, and Pete. They are all such talented musicians.

A little GIF Shelley made from Kyawkyaw's pics:




This morning, the time was 02:03:04 05/06/07.

"I was thinking about getting a black MacBook, but then everyone would know that I'm stupid."
~Inadomi

The campus was infested with caterpillars. Apparently, this only happens for a few weeks a year, but it was pretty crazy. Hanging from all the trees were these caterpillars that would get onto your clothes and it was disgusting.

Went on a tour of SLAC. They showed us this big hole in the ground with construction and pointed at it, "That's where we'll have our X-ray laser... eventually".

Met some interesting profs with whom I might work with next year.

Saw Mike D just randomly in the physics library. I was like, whoa, I know you! And then he was like, Whoa, I still think of you as a frosh! Yeah, it was cool.

Saw the facebook headquarters in downtown Palo Alto. Ran up to it and poked it.

Went to a physics grad student party... that was really lame. A large portion of the grad student population are hard to talk to. Conversations typically would drift to physics after about 30 seconds, but I guess that's understandable because we were all gonna be physics grad students.

Met with Fiona and Jackie during the party.

Met up with Roger again. That was nice -- hadn't seen him in forever. We met up with Iris and went to downtown Palo Alto for lunch. After lunch we went to Iris's friends' flute recital. Found out that I knew one of her friends from summer camp six years ago (small world!).

Had dinner with Roger, Ben, Iris, and Cat, and it was like a big CTY reunion.

A fun trip.

3/25 - 3/27 San Francisco
CDI-MDM Summit, working with DataDelta

3/30 - 4/2 Cornell
Rubik's Cube Competition

4/4 - 4/8 Stanford
Open House for Physics

4/13 - 4/16 Berkeley
Rubik's Cube Competition

We hiked. We took pictures, we drank water. We hiked some more.





Photos on Flickr

Someone posted the minidocumentary on speedcubers from the Pursuit of Happyness DVD Extras.

Posted a clip from the Oxy concert on google video:


"Brahms Violin Concerto, mvt.1" on Google Video

Also posted the mp3 of my performance here:
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~leyanlo/brahms/

Don't you hate it when you go to a concert and have to spend a few minutes to tune all of your strings?  Yeah, it pisses me off, too.  That's why I go through the trouble whenever I put on new strings to try and get them as parallel as possible.  It's really anal, taking an extra half hour to accomplish, and I end up needing to trim a few millimeters off a couple of strings, but I find it worth it in the end.  It's so much easier to tune a string when it's at the right angle.  None of the awkward, reach-over-and-tune-it-with-the-right-hand-because-the-left-hand-doesn't-have-enough-leverage bullshit.

I love the sound of new strings.  It's just so resonant and fresh!  I wish I actually had the time to play around with them, but alas there is work that must be done.

A recording of our January 26th performance of Schubert's Trout Quintet:
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~leyanlo/trout/

Come to my orchestra concert next weekend!
Saturday, March 3 at 7:30pm
    Thorne Hall, Occidental College
Sunday, March 4 at 3:30pm
    Ramo Auditorium, Caltech

The program will be:
Beethoven: Prometheus Overture

Don't know if it will be up for long, but I'm on the front page of the Pacific Citizen:
http://pacificcitizen.org

http://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/statistics.php

Academics:
Ph136b - Applications of Classical Physics
Ph101 - Order of Magnitude Physics
Ph77b - Senior Physics Lab
Ph70 - Oral and Written Communications
Psy131 - Psychology of Learning and Motivation
L172b - Intermediate Chinese
PA32 - Symphony Orchestra
PA31 - Chamber Music



Music:
1/26/2007 Chamber Music Concert
Schubert - "Trout" Quintet, mvts 1, 2 & 4

3/3/2007 Caltech-Occidental Symphony Orchestra Concert
Beethoven: "Prometheus" Overture
Brahms: Violin Concerto, first movement (Leyan Lo, soloist)
Grondahl: Trombone Concerto (Stephen Bent, soloist)
Khatchaturian: Gayane Ballet Suite



Cubing:
1/13/2007 Caltech Winter 2007
3x3 Speedsolve - 3rd (15.15 avg, 14.07 best)
3x3 Blindfolded - 1st (1:56.71 best)
3x3 One-handed - 6th (32.92 avg, 26.18 best)

the show with zefrank: 11-28-06

I originally thought that he wouldn't use my sportsracer intro because it didn't show up on Monday's clip.  Today I checked again and it was there!!  And then I thought he wouldn't talk about me because he went off and talked about some guy who was afraid of turning into his parents.  But at the end he brought the topic back to the intro and it was awesome!!

-edit-
Whoa, ze thinks that I am a superhero in waiting!!!
^____^

My new goal is to break one minute with an alternating average.


----- JNetCube Best Average for Wed Nov 22 18:05:33 PST 2006 -----

Average: 1:09.29

Fastest Time: 13.47
Slowest Time: 2:17.55
Standard Deviation: 56.69

Individual Times:
1) 1:52.36 L R D' U R2 F2 L2 R' D B' L' U2 F' L2 B2 R2 D' U F' B2 R2 U2 B' D2 R2
2) 15.84 U2 D R2 D R' L' D B F L R2 F2 R' D' U' R' L' U F2 R' D F2 B2 U L2
3) 2:15.28 B2 L D' R B' U2 L2 R F R' F' U' R B' R' L2 F2 D2 B2 F2 L2 D' F B2 L
4) (13.47) D U' F' D2 B2 F' D L D2 R' U' D L2 F' L R2 U' D' L' D2 F2 D2 U2 R' U
5) 1:48.56 U2 F' D R B' L F' U2 F R L2 F B2 U' D' B R' F' B D' F2 D' R2 D' L'
6) 15.05 F D B' U F2 U2 D L2 B2 U' D' B' R F B D F2 B L2 F2 R2 F D' L D
7) 2:10.31 F2 R2 B' F D2 F' L R2 B2 L F2 U2 B' F' U2 B R L' F' U2 B' L' F' R U'
8) 17.69 F L U2 L' F' L F L' R' B L2 F' L R' F2 U F' U F D' B F2 R2 D2 B
9) (2:17.55) U' L' D U2 L' B' D L' R' D2 U2 F2 D' F' D' L2 D B2 R L' F B' D2 U R2
10) 15.53 U D2 R' B D2 U2 F2 R L D2 U F2 D' L F L B2 U' L' R F2 U B2 F2 L'
11) 2:06.34 R2 F' U' B2 D L U2 R2 B' R U L F2 U' D' B2 F U F D2 R L' B R' U2
12) 15.97 U' R' U F' U' B' L2 F' L B R F' R D2 L F D B R2 U D' R' U2 L2 F2

In the words of Garrett:
"WE DUDDDD IT T FUCKTHER MOFCUEKRSDS"

Nice article on Tyson Mao.
It's too bad he lost the blindfold title last year to his friend Leeann Loo.

Being rejected by a girl on reality TV is so much worse than being rejected in real life.  In real life, you don't need to replay your rejection over and over again from different camera angles.  Just once is enough.

Applying for the NSF graduate research fellowship due next Monday
Applying for graduate schools
Taking the General GRE on Monday
Taking eight classes this term
Tutoring seven s'mores and frosh in physics
Taking violin lessons again
Practicing for the concerto competition in a few weeks
Playing in two chamber groups and the orchestra
Going to a film shoot for MTV's NEXT on Wednesday
Going to a film shoot for the Special Features for the DVD of "The Pursuit of Happyness" on Thursday
Going to the Rubik's cube competition on Saturday
Staying alive

New layout thanks to Shelley.