And All That Jazz...Or Maybe Not So Much

After being in the Hartt School of Music for a semester, I've realized something. The jazz program, though very good, is REALLY tiny compared to the rest of the school. When I came here, I expected there to be a ton of kids involved in jazz compared to classical, when in fact it's the other way around. Turns out, most students prefer to stick with classical music rather than jazz. Even those who enjoy jazz and have played it stay in the classical area. I wasn't really sure why, until it hit me that though jazz was a "popular" music genre, classical has never gone out of style. There is always a market for classical musicians, be it in orchestras or film scores or music education. Now don't get me wrong, knowing and appreciating classical music is very important. I'm a big fan of it myself. But one cannot ignore jazz. It's is the foundation of all popular music, and it's concepts of improvisation and immense creativity is vital to music as a whole. A truly well-rounded musician can be comfortable sitting in an orchestra or standing up front with a jazz quartet and improvise.

Adderall: Why It's Becoming a BIG Problem

Over the past few years, I have become more and more aware of a particular situation in the pharmaceutical industry. The abuse of amphetamine drugs, which are meant to help people with ADD/ADHD, is making it harder and harder to get for the people who actually need it. Drugs like Adderrall and is seeing frequent overuse especially with college students. The high stress and heavy workloads associated with college life makes students think, "Hey, how about I use the focusing medicine that ADD kids use so i can focus better?" The drug is sold illegally to these students without prescription, which is why authorities are making it difficult to get these drugs for those who don't "need" it. Another issue is paranoid parents seeing their young child do one thing like show a little bit of hyperness (which is technically normal for younger kids) or have a little trouble in school and suddenly it's "HOLY SHIT MY KID HAS MENTAL ISSUES GIVE HIM/HER MORE MEDICINE!!!." OK, a bit of an exaggeration, but it still happens.

As someone who actually needs this medicine, this pisses me off. Obviously, I am not on the severe side of the ADD/ADHD spectrum, because their are kids much worse off than me. But since those kids get priority, kids like me will eventually be unable to obtain medication if this trend continues. It will be all downhill from there. Also, kids who aren't prescribed for medication will face serious side effects, since they think "more is better" and will take WAY more than a single human should take. Their bodies are not used to it, and will react violently. Sometimes, it ends up being fatal.

Part of the solution is that people need to be educated. Educated about why Adderall is reserved for certain people and NOT for everyone else's needs. Just like any other drug, too much can seriously do harm to you, especially in large doses. Also, they need to be taught that what they are doing is going to make things harder for the rest of us AD/ADHD kids to function properly. The list goes on and on about what to tell them, but something needs to be changed. I don't exactly know what or how, but SOMEONE'S GOTTA DO SOMETHING.

Response to Troy

A classmate for mine, Troy, wrote a short response to our friend Jackie's post about Iron man being her hero. I agree very much with Troy on Tony Stark being a nerd. However, I believe Stark is a very complicated type of nerd. As portrayed in both the movies and the comics (yes, I actually read the original comics too), Mr. Stark is a cocky ladies' man as well as a true genius. This contradicts the whole idea of a nerd. How could one man possibly be both socially successful and technology obsessed at the same time! In my opinion, Tony is very good at using his intelligence to his advantage in social situations. He can read social cues from people very well, most likely due to his high level of logical and rational thinking. One could draw a comparison in his way of thinking to that of Sherlock Holmes. Holmes may not be a player like Stark, but his method of deduction through social cues is parallel with Iron Man. As for Stark's suit, it represents the combination of the nerd and the player in him. People see him as a hero due to his actions, but his abilities are all reliant on the technology and research that has gone in to the development of the Iron Man armor. He is, quite literally, a supernerd.

Oh, and as for Robert Downey Jr. portraying Tony Stark, I'm all for it. He's a fantastic actor, and he actually looks like the Tony Stark from the comics. Very alike, in fact.

Response to Sara's Post

My classmate Sara posted about a discussion we had in class about "fitting in" and how society views those who don't meet their standards. She talks about her own experience growing up in a very Christian community and how she tried to be a people pleaser and fit in with the others, but couldn't really find herself a place there. I can relate to this situation pretty well, but my story is slightly different.

Now, I come from a conservative Jewish family. Stemming back to roots in a small shtetl called Telekhany in Russia, the Warsoff family line is one deeply rooted in family. My family is one that values family tradition very highly. Though we do not go to synagogue every week or celebrate every single Jewish holiday (trust me, there's a LOT more than you think), we follow traditions that have been kept in our family for generations no matter what. Things like family heirlooms or stories are passed down from our ancestors and kept preserved by the current and future generations. For example, the חַי (chai) symbol, which means "life" in Hebrew, that I wear around my neck was given to me by my father when I was very little. Since the day I received it, the chain has never left my neck, except once to get cleaned. But the necklace is older than you think. My dad got it from his father, who also received it from his father. So this necklace has been in our family for 3 generations, and it's one of the youngest family heirlooms. Some objects in my house are more than several generations old.

The Chai I wear around my neck 24/7

So why am I telling you about my family? Well first of all, I am very proud of my lineage and the values my family holds. Second of all, I sometimes had trouble fitting in with other Jews and even my own family sometimes due to my own personal beliefs. See, I think very differently than a lot of people. Being the introverted thinker and someone who has a passion for learning, I would read about philosophies and religious ideas that would conflict with my own traditions and sometimes even the Jewish community I was part of. I would dwell into Orthodox and even Hasidic Judaism, both which are far more strict in following Jewish law than the conservative movement. When I would tell my friends and families about these other ideas that I found fascinating, I would often get criticized for dwelling into something that my community didn't believe in. This used to bother me and sometimes anger me because I didn't understand why people can at least just respect others' personal beliefs. I would get into arguments that I had not originally wanted to be a part of, all because I wanted to fit in and not have to completely reject my own ideas to do so.

Now I've moved past that stage. Most of my family and friends have as well. They know I have a drive to know more and will dwell in other philosophies, but at heart I still keep my family's traditions of utmost value. I have decided to be my own person, and not care what others will say about me, because as long as I am happy, why should it matter?

Response to Robert Blint's "Who is LADEE?"

"Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before."

OK, if you're a sci-fi geek like me, you'll understand exactly where that came from. If not, you still have probably heard that line before. For those of you who don't know, those were the opening lines to one of the greatest science fiction shows of all time, Star Trek. The series sparked a huge following and made people think about what's really out there in the huge void we call space. It really is the final frontier. Ever since the Russians launched Sputnik I, the first man made object to enter space, in October of 1957, people have been pushing the limits of aerospace technology to go farther and farther. Speaking of distance, Voyager I, the US satellite launched in 1977, entered interstellar space just last year in August. As of 3:52 on October 2nd, 2013, Voyager is about 18,840,832,690 kilometers from earth, making it the farthest man made object from Earth. And it's still working!

Voyager I is just one of the many accomplishments of the American space program. From the first human steps on the moon, to the numerous rovers on Mars, NASA has been a pinnacle of success for the aerospace industry. But like Mr. Blint said, they are starting to fade. As the private sector begins to flourish, NASA is suffering from budget cuts and declining numbers of employees. Few want to work for them anymore, simply because they feel there are better things to do, whether it be working for the private companies or something that won't go on standby status if the government shuts down (again). I agree with Robert that this is a major problem. There's all this talk about sending people to the moon again and then beyond, but do these private companies really have the resources or even intention of leaving Earth's orbit? As far as I know, most of these companies are focusing on commercial space flight, just using orbital travel to get people around the world faster. The few that do have intention of getting people on other worlds (or moons) are nowhere near the point of doing so. Only one company is the world has landed humans on an unearthly object, and that would be NASA. Not to mention they did it six times. The folks at NASA are not dummies. They know how to get to the moon, Mars, and beyond. And there are many brilliant young minds out there with the potential to help them reach those goals

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to convince people to work for NASA. Heck, the likelihood I will be in the aerospace industry is pretty low, but then again, who knows? But my (and Robert Blint's) point is that if NASA is to succeed in these missions, they need the support. Without support from the public, the government will just cutting the budget. They must realize that space exploration is the future of the human race. Captain Kirk said it best, space is the final frontier, and it's our job to explore it. NASA can lead that expedition, but they need manpower and support to do it.

So as another famous fictional spaceman once said...

TO INFINITY...AND BEYOND!

Testing, testing.....testing......is this damn thing on?