The Perfect Job - take 2

It's been a bit of time since my last blog entry. I love being a stay-at-home Dad. It is truly rewarding. The only reservation is that I'm hard-wired to go to work and not stay at home. It sounds odd I know; what is better than hanging out at home with your boy?! Nothing! I quickly add.

So, the perfect job, as I reflect upon again a year and a half later, is a moving target. This explains such a migratory work environment for both employees and employers. The days of having one job at one company  for life is so far gone that this concept is humorous now.

I still maintain my previous drivers of "The Perfect Job" in that I always enjoy helping people. I have worked in information technology, education, education software, SaaS, web database and development, music and photography. As with everyone, I'm sure this list is not complete. The commonality is helping make someone or something better. When you can walk away knowing that the project is done and done well - that's a fine feeling. Don't you agree? Is this such a foreign ideal?

     --Insert Intermission Music for Diaper Change--

After just changing the most stinkiest, largest and stickiest diaper in the world, I still love my job as Dad. Pee-yew! no pictures added to this post  :-S

My photography is kicking up now while my evening music gigs are in full swing. It's nice to be busy. If I decide to get a "day" job that is away from my boy -- I'll sure miss him, but it'll answer my hard-wired call to go forth and manage a different kind of "stinky diaper".

Until next time,

-David

Anticedent and Consequent

My thought of the moment. Antecedent and consequent. I really enjoy the musical journey or adventure that can be found in almost all classical musical works and in many modern day pop songs as well. Just what is it that makes music interesting? In my opinion it is the symmetry of phrases, the balanced nature of a harmonious collection of pitches. In regards to musical phrases it is the idea of a good anticedent and consequent melodic motive. This is the ying and yang of music, what goes up feels like it must come back down, right? Right!

 This is essentially the question and answer in musical phraseology. Its like telling a joke, you set up the situation, then give the punch line. Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side. Anticedent and consequent. The first part of the phrase contains a leading melodic line that poses a question that yearns for resolution or a consequent phrase that offers the answer. A musical example would be A-B-C song: antecedent = abcdefg, consequent = hijklmnop. Typically the melody rises with the question part and decends with the answer. Making a good melody is like telling a good story. You want to hear of adventure and excitement as well as the tender moments in the middle. You have to bring out the story in the music. Where does the music lead to? What adventure does it bring? Like any good adventure, you walk away with wisdom and more knowledge of life's emotional range. If you aren't in a different place than when you started than the music did not serve its purpose well.

One of the driving elements behind the telling of musical adventures is the proper structure of a musical phrase along with a strong antecedent and consequent phrase.

My random musical thought of the moment.
Prost.

D Oertel

The Perfect Job

I have been doing a great deal of thinking about the perfect job. How would you describe your perfect job? This is not as easy an answer as one would think. Before you can begin to describe it, it’s probably best to dig deep and see what makes you happy; what makes you happy enough to want to do it every day, day in and day out? So, when I was doing my soul searching I discovered something interesting about myself that I suppose I knew all along. I really enjoy helping people. Through out my life I have helped people in music, technology, health and safety, and of course education. I would like to think of myself as an enabler; to enable someone to help themselves. I have been doing this for many years in varying capacities ranging from public school teacher to university professor to Red Cross volunteer instructor to an education software advocator. Even with my music, I find myself enlightening my audience with a different way of looking at an old warhorse or an introduction to a new work.

It’s the thrill I get from enabling someone to do something they could not do before I helped. Whether it’s something as commercial as selling someone a technology solution that assists their learning/teaching environment, solving a technology issue or teaching someone a skill directly, it is watching the excitement of their epiphany as they get the solution that makes it so exciting.

I would like to stay in this type of field because it is so enriching and fulfilling. The education industry, although rooted in centuries of accepted and dated practices, is on the verge of a technological breakthrough. What’s really fascinating is that almost any of the newer technology companies enhance people’s lives so much and so easily that this “enabling” ideology can fit with almost any technology company. Students (or clients) these days are yearning for updated methods of learning (or doing their job better) and educators are hoping for new up-to-date ways of reaching students. What excites me in the morning is the opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life – locally, regionally or globally. Creating new ways of reaching people is fun for me.

So what job is that? For me the good news is it can be almost any job – any job that uses technology, has education undertones, and is in it for the greater good.

What excites you in the morning? What’s your perfect job?

What is a Good Education?

I feel that a good education is one that incorporates a well-balanced knowledge base that helps you not only survive the challenges of modern society, i.e. as in having job security (ha!), social aptitude, personal advancement, but also the be equipped with the language skills that enables one to articulate thoughts well and to many professions in all walks of life. Speaking of language skills, that was one heck of a run-on sentence! 

Education – is it lost in the details?

As I reflect on my education, general as well as musical, I think back on all the things that I have forgotten. As students, we sit in class as the professor lectures on topics that at the time seem pedantic. I remember thinking, “let’s get to the good stuff”. Little did I realize, that WAS the good stuff.

With so much to learn, little did I understand that EVERYTHING in class was the “good stuff”.  Understand, I’m not saying that educational pontifications are not appropriate. I have given many lectures that have likely sent many mindful undergrads spinning in his/her seat…unintentionally of course. My thought here and now is that there is so much to teach/learn that it’s difficult for the student to absorb it all – so points of significance can easily be lost among the details during the lecture. When someone tells you one or two important points, you tend to remember them. When someone tells you 30 important points, you tend to forget them…all.

I know that I lost moments of great educational enlightenment just because I was over inundated with details. Do we change the way we teach/learn? Educators have been asking this for generations with some success.

It is well known that different people learn in different ways. We are not all the same and we all respond to different approaches. Some understand material better by reading about it, some by hearing about it, some by experiencing it, and others by watching someone else experience it.

I believe that the most effective teachers apply these different learning methods so they may educationally reach as many students as possible. Likewise, it would help students to recognize what their optimal learning process is and seek it out when possible. Try not to lose the education in the details – strive to catch the details as part of the greater picture. Proper education is a shared responsibility between the teacher and the student. 

Really!?!

I haven't been blogging for very long...maybe a year or so. This blog was originally intended to serve as an external voice for me to say whatever I want in regards to music, teaching, and conducting. Admittedly I occasionally have roamed away from these topics, but what the heck, right? I mean it's my voice. Really. But what I don't understand is what verbiage have I used to appeal to Japanese women who like to submit their personal URLs that feature "TMI" topics? Surely I haven't mentioned any words that bring in this sort. And, stop calling me "Surely". Really though, I'm all for free voice, but keep your personal web sites away from here. I can't even describe the TMI web sites to which I'm referring in fear that it'll attract more. So, to you my Asian friends, enjoy reading blogs and by all means leave a comment, but keep it clean and rated G. You know?! I mean...really?

Which brings me to one of my favorite skits on SNL, "Really!?!" with Seth and Amy.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/13828/saturday-night-live-really-with-seth-and-amy

See you next time.

Really.

Non Musical Ramblings...

Ugh! Just when you get cooking, you stop blogging!

Life is busy as usual: A wedding to plan, a job to find, and adventures at hand. There's never a shortage of things to do...ever! When I grow up I want to be retired. I'd like to have some money in the bank, a cool motorcycle, and of course my wife at my side. But all of this takes planning - are you up for the challenge? I ask myself that daily and the good news is I keep saying, "zzzzz -- hit the snooze button again!" (kidding)

Seriously, at the risk of sounding like a cliche, now is the time to plan for tomorrow. When things go well, I always kid around and say, "all part of the master plan". To a degree (or two) this is very true. I have a master plan. I don't have a hidden agenda, just a plan. But we all have to keep some flexibility in our plan because life is dynamic to say the least. Look at the last couple of years --- great job, met a great girl, economy greatly slowed, got laid off from great job, sold great house, moved to great state of Texas, got engaged to great girl, and I still haven't won the great lottery.

So where to from here? Well, business as usual...head down and keep running. Just remember (talking to myself here), keep enjoying the not-so-proverbial flowers!

Texas Bluebonnets in full bloom

Next entry will be musical...!

Prost,

Me.