perfect pitch
Last year, S saw an academic paper that found speakers of tonal languages (like Chinese) have a higher incidence of perfect pitch than speakers of non-tonal languages (like English). I just found an NYTimes article from a few days ago that suggests the inverse is true -- musicians have an easier time picking up Chinese. How neat is that?
On the academic paper site, there are some really interesting stats. They tested Chinese and English-speaking music students and found that the incidence of perfect pitch is ~52% for Chinese students vs. ~7% for English-speaking. You can even take a little test to see whether you have perfect pitch (score 85% and above). If I give myself the semitone errors, I score a 97% with only one totally off! But if I count those as wrong, then I score a 69%. Hehe. What's your score?
Random trivia:
When I hear music, I actually hear do re mi embedded in the notes, and it seems to be consistently mapped. I didn't find out this wasn't normal until college. It must've started when I learned piano in kindergarten -- they taught us doremi mapped to C D E and I guess it stuck. But, when I learned violin later on, no one taught me that, and I must've decided to map the open A string to "re" for some reason. So when I hear violins, the doremi I hear is one-fifth of an octave off from when I hear pianos. Not sure what I'm hearing when the radio comes on ... maybe that's why I have such a hard time figuring out song lyrics?
homemade projector screen
This past weekend was the start of a massive apartment reorg going on as a result of a projector purchase. We're touching things that haven't been touched in 3 years and finding dust hamsters (smaller than bunnies) in the corners. Dead spiders too.
The main pieces of furniture are in their new places now, as is ... tada! The new projector screen we put together instead of buying one for $300 - $1000.
It is made up of a really big light blocking roller blind, some planks of 3x1, and lots of braces/brackets. The wrinkles should work out after hanging for a while.
Next step is to clean up the papers/project supplies/books that we piled all over the floor while moving things. We are currently navigating the apartment by hop-scotching through the few clear pieces of floor (like islands in a sea of stuff).
gross goop
I tried to make yogurt today and ended up with a pot full of smelly whey and bits of curd floating around.
bleah
Funny how none of the 3 recipes I looked up before I started said anything about not touching the yogurt while the bacteria was doing its thing. It was so nice and custardy at hour 2 that I decided to help it along by mixing it all up. It never recovered from that afterwards. I messed up the temperature at the end too (the thermometer wasn't in quite right and I thought it was 114° when it was actually 150° ). The recipe sounded so easy...
after going through a paper towel-lined colander. still bleah.
It seemed like a waste of milk, so I strained half of it (looks sort of like ricotta) and left the other half alone. Some websites say that you can use failed batches in baking or as a soft cheese after straining. We'll see if this stuff looks more appetizing after a night in the fridge. I've been too scared to taste any of it yet. Maybe I'll try again next weekend.
ingredients:
1/2 c. of starter (yogurt from somewhere else, I got it from work)
1 or 2 quarts of milk (I used 2%)
steps:
1. Sterilize stuff that will be touching milk so that you don't grow nasty bacteria.
2. Slowly heat milk to a simmer, then quickly cool to 115° F
3. Mix in starter
4. Keep it at 115° for the next 3-4 hours.
The longer you ferment, the thicker and tarter it gets (you can go up to 8 hours I think). I stuck my pot in a cooler full of warm water, but you can also wrap a hot towel around it, or put it somewhere warmish to keep an even temperature.
5. Stick it in the fridge, then serve when cold. It should set up some more in the fridge.
important notes: While fermenting, do not let it get too hot, or your culture will die. Do not touch/mix/disturb yogurt. Both will give you gross goop.
It should make a slightly runny mild yogurt. You can mix in fun stuff like fruit, jam, or honey. My favorite work breakfast is vanilla yogurt with dried blueberries and granola. Yum yum.
Useful yogurt-making instructions from people who know what they're doing.
p.s. Does my editing these entries mess up feed readers? I have a habit of not being able to really tell what I'm writing until I can see it on the site and liking to make incremental edits.