September 1st, 2010 by

One of the most important holidays in Chinese culture is the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as Moon Festival. On 2010, the festival comes in September.

Since the Moon Festival is at harvest time, it is a good occasion to celebrate the abundance of Mother Nature. Moon Festival is a time to gather with family and friends under the full moon sky while eating moon cake, pomelo fruit, and barbecued delicacies.
Moon Festival Date
Moon Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, so the date on the Georgian calendar is different from year to year, but it is always on the full moon. The dates for Moon Festival are as follows:

* 2009 – October 3
* 2010 – September 22
* 2011 – September 12
* 2012 – September 30
* 2013 – September 19
* 2014 – September 8
* 2015 – September 27

History of Moon Festival
As with most Chinese festivals, there is a story to go along with Moon Festival. There are many versions of the Moon Festival legend, but most of them involve the archer Hou Yi and his wife Chang’e.

Many years ago, there were ten suns in the sky. Crops could not grow and rivers ran dry, so the people were dying of hunger and thirst. Hou Yi took his bow and arrows and shot down nine of the ten suns, saving the people.

As a reward, the Western Queen Mother gave Hou Yi a potion. If Hou Yi shares that potion with his wife, they will both live forever, but if only one of them takes the potion, he or she will become a god.

Hou Yi and Chang’e plan to take the potion together. But one of Hou Yi’s enemies, Feng Meng, hears about the potion and plans to steal it. One night, on a full moon, Feng Meng kills Hou Yi, then forces Chang’e to give him the potion.

Rather than give the evil man the potion, Chang’e drinks it all herself. She starts to rise into heaven, but she feels a close connection to the world of the mortals, and wants to stay close to them, so she stops at the moon, the closest body to earth.
Moon Cakes

The traditional food of Moon Festival is Moon Cake, which is a pastry stuffed with filling such as egg yolk, lotus seed paste, red bean paste, coconut, walnuts, or dates. The tops of Moon cakes usually have Chinese characters representing longevity or harmony.

Source : http://mandarin.about.com/od/festivals/a/Moon_Festival.htm

See Also : Mid autumn festivals, Chinese mooncake, Moon cakes festival

August 31st, 2010 by

By: Jim Mackey

Performing piano practice is not something that we can master in a day. Can your practice to become a better performer? What then can be practiced? Let us see what you can do to feel at ease when someone asks you to play the piano!

How to practice performing
In order to learn to play the piano in front of an audience it is a good thing to practice the different aspects of making a successful piano performance. A piano performance consists of playing a piece of music in a musical way without mistakes, and if mistakes occur to minimize the effects of these mistakes. It also concists of meeting an audience and enjoying the experience of seeing real people looking at you and hearing you play.

1. A musical performance. In order to perform a piece of piano music in a musical way it is a good thing to practice this way in the initial steps of the learning process. Probably you will need to practice a difficult piano piece step by step. Let all these musical passages be played and repeated the same musical way you want them to be performed once you have mastered the piano piece.

2. Avoiding mistakes. Of course you want to play the music you practice without mistakes when you will end up playing in front of an audience. I strongly urge you to play the passages of the musical piece you practice with much concentration, focusing on small segments of the piece at a time and very slowly at first avoiding to make mistakes. The more mistakes you make as you practice a piece of music, the more mistakes you tend to make as you perform.

3. Minimize the effects of a mistake. In order to feel confident once you are on stage you need to know that you can handle a mistake. This makes for another way of practicing that is aimed at making you prepared to perform. This way of practicing consists of playing a piece of music from beginning to end as you would perform it in front of an audience. This could be a good way to end a practice session as you play throught the passages you have mastered.

4. Practice performing. In order to minimize stage fright and feeling inadequate when it comes to the actual performance in front of an audience you can do much to simulate the various aspects of a piano performance. If you know how to handle the steps of a performance beforehand you can better concentrate on making a musical performance.

If you do not want to involve too many people you can anyway practice the art of performing in the comfort of your own home. You might as well enter the room where you are going to play your piano the way you would enter a stage in front of an audience thinking about your facial expressions and your relaxation. Practice the way you will react seeing the people, hearing the applauses and cheerings. Learn to relax, smile, bow in front of the public and sit down at the piano and then concentrate completely on giving the audience a great musical experience.

As you start to play the piece of music, try to focus entirely on creating great music. If you make a mistake, try to keep up the tempo and play on with no facial expression revealing the mistake and enforcing the effects of it. You could play for an audience consisting of one person, a teddy bear or some sort of recording equipment to create an inspiring and a challenging environment. As you have completed your performance you can practice meeting the audience, smiling, bowing, showing gratitude for their reactions and finally leave the room in a appropriate manner.

The important thing with these exercises is that you can simulate the actual situation of playing in front of real people and have a feeling that you know how to react to the challenge of meeting real people.

Source : http://www.floweradvisor.com.sg/lifestyle/interests/music/55387/piano_lesson_practicing_tips_for_the_performer/

See Also : Mid autumn festivals, Chinese mooncake, Moon cakes festival

August 30th, 2010 by

“And it’s hard to think of anything like IIT anywhere in the world. It is a very unique institution”
Bill Gates, Microsoft

I read this statement made by the worlds richest and the most famous person Bill Gates in a daily newspaper when I was in my early teens. From then my fantasy and dream has always been to some how enter the campus of IIT. I revealed my intention to my parents who gladly obliged and asked me to do my very best academically if I wanted my dream to come true. I started searching for resources online for my preparation for the IIT entrance coaching. I live in a small town in remote south Tamil Nadu where few people even know about IIT and its high standard of education.

After a lot of searching I came across one fantastic site which is a wholesome site for all possible resources regarding IIT and other major entrance coaching and learning material. I was surprised at the total commitment of fellow IITians and the dedication with which they worked to help other students excel in a field which they have treaded previously. All classes, tutoring and counseling are done by IIT students and so I could confidently register and start my dream program. The course material, 24×7 tutoring help, one to one interaction with real IIT students, ’solve it live’ problem solving facility etc are all only a drop in the ocean as the site offers a wide range of online help which is very useful for students like me who had no hope to even aspire for an IIT coaching previously.

What surprised me was the minimum time frame within which I could get a tuition session with a real tutor. Flexible timings, instant problems solving help, clear my funda help through which I could learn my lessons from the fundamentals, online test series, and full compensation refund in times when the server is down etc are some of the great features which made me choose this online tutoring site for my dream project.

The site follows a white board technology wherein the student can work with his tutor in real time. I was able to get quick and clear guidance in all subjects because of this great feature. My parents were worried initially about the rates and the mode of payment. But this site is so user friendly that it receives payment through cheque, account to account transfer or through a credit card.

The fee for the course is very nominal keeping in mind the various excellent features which I could not see in any correspondence course. Even if I were to find a coaching center where would I get the real IIT’s to help me through my problems and lessons. Moreover every rupee I pay is converted as points and as I progress I use these points to learn new things from the tutors. Rescheduling and canceling the tutoring session is not complicating as I was able to reschedule my class during a period of emergency.

I just can’t wait for the live video feature through which I can watch live demo of all my problems solved online. This will create a virtual class room feeling and I am sure it will definitely help me with all my aspiration and very soon find me a place in one of the greatest institutions in India.

Source : http://www.floweradvisor.com.sg/lifestyle/interests/education/15887/aiming_for_the_sky_reaching_through_iit/

See Also : lebaran, hari raya, ramadan gift