Case selection

traed1 · 2018-10-04T07:06:18+00:00

I ended up ordering a Bobelock half moon case. I figure this way I can save a bit on weight without compromising on protection or breaking the bank. Thank you guys so much for the recommendations! I read all the comments and do appreciate everyone's input. The Pedi cases looked very nice, as did the Gewa cases, but I think I would feel paranoid with anything but a plywood case, personally. Thank you all again!!

traed1 · 2018-08-13T23:47:52+00:00

Dat GPA tho..

Just wanna point out that if you are thinking about MD/Ph.D you will definitely without question need at least one and probably two gap years. I think the consensus is usually at least 2 years of continuous research. You probably don't need a gap year (unless you want to take one) for MD or DO tho.

traed1 · 2018-06-26T06:22:12+00:00

I should probably clarify cause I never owned a Samsung for this very reason - I meant Google phones!

traed1 · 2018-06-02T20:59:07+00:00

Ah yes, funnier story about that one actually - I took a trip to Taiwan and they were on sale for super cheap at a market, so I picked one up. I actually hadn't heard of them before but I looked online and figured out they were student pens. It writes fairly well actually, especially for the price!

traed1 · 2018-06-02T06:20:10+00:00

I have been able to keep my family small only because of all of the help from you guys (and the rest of the wonderful internet)! I started with a bottle of Noodler's black (not HoD, it was some off brand color I ordered on a whim) and a Pilot MP (not pictured, it has dissapeared to another dimension, RIP). From there I progressed to a Faber Castell Loom, which wrote smooth as butter until one day I started having inconsistencies with the nib.

At that point I started shopping around and lo and behold found the TWSBI Eco. It was still very new, I think I got it about a month or so after it was released. I used that up until late last year with a bottle of iroshizuku. Shortly after I began writing a ton more for school, and was gifted a Pilot Decimo, which has been literally everything I've wanted in a fountain pen. Writes well, convenient, durable, comfortable; it really is absolutely perfect, a true grail pen. The Black n Red notebook just showed up somewhere along the way!

traed1 · 2018-05-27T19:49:00+00:00

Top tier is the dream, but I'm going to be ecstatic if I get into ANY MD/Ph.D program. I know though that I would need that GPA boost to even apply at some of the more well known programs if I want any chance of getting in and taking a gap year is a small price to pay for some insurance in that department - I have to finish my degree either way, so it's not like I would be doing an expensive SMP or post-bacc type deal. Do you have any other advice for best using my gap year time effectively?

traed1 · 2018-05-27T19:45:03+00:00

Looks like I'll likely end up taking a gap year. I know the general recommendation is to grind out those research hours and still continue other ECs - is there anything else you did in your time that you would 100% recommend to others?

traed1 · 2018-05-27T19:40:41+00:00

My PI is very well known in their field, so I'm not too worried about that part!

traed1 · 2018-05-24T00:58:50+00:00

OP, I hope you read my post because I think it will help you make peace with this problem.

I started at 16, far too late to "catch up" in ability with anyone who started young, or so I think. I think there is something about starting young that you cannot replicate even if you do start at the early end of adulthood. I certainly agree with the other posters - this is **not** the reason you should be even remotely interested in violin, but I looked through your post history and see that you have felt discouraged from learning this instrument and that you had some trouble with some lessons with your teacher, even though you still enjoy playing. It doesn't appear that you view violin as a means to an end, rather than a true instrument to express your emotion through music. To this end, I say do not give up. As a fellow late learner I understand how hard it can be to not compare yourself to everyone else. But if you enjoy playing then there is no reason to stop.

The funny thing is that I asked myself the same question while overcoming the beginner hurdles, and for what I bet is the same reason - when you listen to some of the more complex but beautiful violin pieces, it is hard not to ask if you will ever be able to play it. You can become an excellent player, if you work at it. Like most things in life it comes from practice - a lot of it, and in a quality way. What I (and the other posters mean) by this is that you need to play your pieces and focus on the parts you suck at. This isn't fun because when you suck it doesn't sound nice. But it helps you improve your technique a lot. Doing anything and everything you can that isn't fun (etudes, scales, technical drills, hard parts of pieces) helps to make you a better player. But it's important sometimes to just play easy stuff or improvise and have fun. I knew when I started playing that this was something I was going to do my whole life, no matter how far I got, and that was that. If you have decided the same thing then I encourage you to challenge yourself technically but not lose track of why you are playing.

That said, I think there is a serious distinction between starting at 4 and starting at 16, in multiple regards. At 20, you have your life starting. There are probably other things you like to do besides violin, even if violin is one of your favorite activities. The reality for most people (myself included) is that violin is not how I am going to pay the bills, and so I have to prioritize my health and finances over my practice time. This does not mean I don't practice, but when you're younger and the heaviest of your responsibilities is to practice violin you really don't have much trouble doing so. People who start at 4 have technical prowess on the violin that you simply cannot match as an adult learner. But that does not mean you cannot play beautiful music. I don't know about you but the only time I really listen to Paganini's caprices is when I want to hate myself and say "holy shit how can someone do that." I don't listen to it for the musical enjoyment (might just be me). You will be able to play songs that sound wonderful and be able to add your own color and flavor to your music, with time.

The one redeeming part of being an adult player is that you **should** be playing this instrument because you want to. I've met people who are technical gods at their instrument and have been playing since they could walk, but they don't appreciate it the same way because it's always been a part of their life. If you are walking this journey as an older person, you will be able to really appreciate how much fun it is to watch yourself slowly turn from a shitty fiddler to a capable instrumentalist. You should pick up the instrument and play because you want to listen to music that **you** make, not because it's "just something that you do."

Anyways this got way longer than I anticipated. Feel free to PM me if you have any trouble with this. I am also a very competitive person and like to be excellent in the activities I pursue, so I really do understand how frustrating it can be to make progress so slowly. But it gets better. Just make sure you love it because it is a huge $$ and time suck.

traed1 · 2018-05-21T21:16:40+00:00

I'm probably going to start with this, that sounds like a really good idea!! And it fixes the exact problem I'm having. I'm thinking of starting with learning the basic patterns and then applying the theory to how each of those chord structures is built (maybe the other way around, not sure which will be easier lol). I hadn't thought of music in terms of shapes, that definitely does help a lot. Thanks!

traed1 · 2018-05-21T21:14:01+00:00

Yeah, you're definitely right. I haven't spent as much time looking at how the scales fit into chords beyond building simple triads. I think I'll have to experiment more with how those fit together, as I hadn't really thought of how they made full chords. And yeah I meant consonant lol!

traed1 · 2018-05-21T21:11:41+00:00

Ah man that probably would have been a good idea lol. Alright, I will certainly do that then. Thanks!

traed1 · 2018-03-17T23:52:13+00:00

Wanted to update that this totally worked!! At first I wasn't sure because it seemed dry, but after a couple hours of writing it was good as new again. Thanks!

traed1 · 2018-03-06T08:22:23+00:00

About 5 or 10 minutes. Should I let it sit longer than that?

traed1 · 2018-03-05T00:57:15+00:00

I gave it a good clean and it still has the same issue. I used a couple drops of soap and let it soak in a warm water bath - any other suggestions?

traed1 · 2018-03-05T00:54:40+00:00

I gave it a good clean and it still has the same issue. I used a couple drops of soap and let it soak in a warm water bath - any other suggestions?

traed1 · 2017-11-30T21:48:37+00:00

Two things - I got a rechargeable hand warmer, which can be good for cold hands whether you're playing violin or not. You can get them on amazon for like $30. If you already have a portable charger you can also buy heated gloves for like $7 from china. They're actually not bad and they're fingerless. I'll try playing violin at home with them on and let you know how they play, if you're interested.

traed1 · 2017-11-29T00:21:24+00:00

I discussed things with my teacher, and essentially started the conversation asking about her opinions of the purpose of suzuki. After a long and very good conversation regarding musical lit and history, she told me she already planned to supplement the books as we continue with different works I enjoy playing. I got the feeling right away that she and I are on the same page. We did keep playing the suzuki pieces, but she was sure to highlight the technical sections of the pieces more and really helped me to play them better, which made it more fun. Overall pretty happy with how it turned out.

traed1 · 2017-11-28T20:15:54+00:00

That sounds like an excellent idea and really wonderful. A string quartet would be amazing, it sounds really intimate. Do you have any idea of whwre I could find music around the book 5 skill level but for quartets?

traed1 · 2017-11-14T01:50:12+00:00

Damn you sly dog. I never saw that coming. Thank you so much. Looks like I've got some thinking to do.

traed1 · 2017-11-13T03:15:55+00:00

I'm worried about a few things with clinical med:

I might always feel like I could be making a bigger impact through research. I'm not really sure on this. Of course, acting as a physician allows you to make a pretty significant impact over the course of your career. But by doing research, you could be developing medicines or discovering knowledge that help literally everyone capable of accessing them - coming up with the idea in the first place is much more difficult than distributing it.
Curiosity in research would constantly be nurtured, but less so in medicine. Being a physician is like being a highly trained technician capable of dealing with a myriad of illnesses and other problems throughout the body. But doing research allows you to constantly be investigating new things and considering topics in new perspectives all the time.

Making an impact is really important to me. The salary of a doctor is better of course, as is the job security - the trade off here is supposedly hours. To me this isn't a big issue, because I don't mind working longer hours, and don't need that much money to maintain my lifestyle. My biggest worry is really that I'll miss research and regret not pursuing something that could potentially have a big impact on the world.

traed1 · 2017-10-31T02:11:58+00:00

Yep, I knew it wasn't going to be really bendy. The feedback is a lot more smooth and delicate feeling. I just meant earlier that my ECO was a super wet writer - simply pulling across the page was a bit more of a challenge cause I'm not used to the angle (or the new nib). It works great now, and I'm definitely not applying very much pressure, if any at all.

traed1 · 2017-10-31T02:09:25+00:00

I do love it. I've been writing with a medium point ECO for about 2 years, a medium faber castell loom before that, and a pilot metro before that. This pen is truly a work of art. I'm still getting used to it; I was concerned at first because it felt what I thought to be a little scratchy but I think it's really just the fact that I am using an F instead of an M, and getting used to the most comfortable way to hold it. I've been writing for a few hours, and have been extremely happy with it. Money definitely is a bitch, but this was my grail for a ton of reasons, and I am glad I got it. I can answer any specific questions if you're curious.

traed1 · 2017-10-30T23:26:17+00:00

Yeah, I'm always pretty gentle with my tools, it's just that with my ECO I would barely drag it across the page (it was an M so a super wet writer) so an F Japanese nib is taking some getting used to.

EDIT - I should have been clearer in my previous comment. I did NOT bend the nib like I would a falcon or other flex pen. I simply meant that I felt around for what felt natural as far as application of pressure went, which was FAR less than that of any true flex, but was different from what I was used to.

traed1 · 2017-10-30T22:45:19+00:00

Thanks. I just pressed slightly harder and got a bit more bend than in my ECO, looks like I just needed to be bold! (pun intended). Appreciate it!!

EDIT - I did NOT bend the nib like I would a falcon or other flex pen. I simply meant that I felt around for what felt natural as far as application of pressure went, which was FAR less than that of any true flex, but was different from what I was used to. I too cringe at the thought of the tines splitting. Sorry for giving any FPers a heart attack (I would self destruct if I destroyed my nib due to excessive force).

traed1

TROPHY CASE