I've always wondered how anyone can consider spam a viable form of advertisement. With the number of filters and Net-savvy people online, I don't see how any mass e-mailer can generate enough traffic to be successful, unless they send all their spam to AOL accounts.

I got a 102 on the last Jazz History exam. Classes like that lend credence to the not-studying approach to test-taking. I guess I should start on the final project soon, since it's due at the end of March. Hopefully there'll be an alternate test date for the final, since it's currently scheduled for the final day of exam week at 3 PM. Since I have no other exams this semester, that would be a week of sitting around doing nothing that I could spend up North getting rich and buying everyone presents.

Here's an interesting exercise for you: Below are two sound files of the same sections in a movie score for Disney's Dinosaur. One of them is straight MIDI and one of them is an actual orchestra. See if you can tell which is which. An answer will be posted tomorrow.

Sample One (MP3, 937KB)
Sample Two (MP3, 937KB)

"Finally, these ideas may not apply very well to the student intending only to bang rocks together randomly. That sort of thing may well be of interest, but such a composer is unlikely to be in an academic context." - Thomas Benjamin, On Teaching Composition