I'm Julian, and I'm currently a music major at McMaster University in Hamilton. I'm entering my third year of a four-year degree, and hope to achieve my Honours Bachelor of Music with a Performance Diploma for Saxophone in 2011. I enjoy teaching, and consider imparting knowledge and experience one of the most important professions a person can do. To that end, I intend to pursue a Bachelor of Education after I attain my undergraduate degree, and possibly teach in the high school education system. If you'd like to learn more about my teaching philosophy and reasoning behind my choices, feel free to read my disjointed, rambling essay.
music
Many people ask why I chose music as a focus for my undergraduate degree, and I tend to take that opportunity to tell them that I had originally attended the University of Toronto back in 2005, and studied Science for two years, before I realized that my interests lay elsewhere. To me, music is a common language that everybody can understand. Everyone enjoys music, and its use as a creative and artistic outlet is one that should not be underestimated. A person can take a complicated piece of music, strip out its embellishments, and break it down to its core components, and still hear the same music – that's interesting! In addition, I've always enjoyed being involved in music of all kinds, from attending concerts and performances, to actually performing and/or conducting ensembles.
I initially realized my intent to study music after two years of Science at U of T. I had been conducting a local youth ensemble, and enjoying it so much, that I realized that there was nothing else I'd rather do than this. When I stood up in front of the ensemble and started waving the baton around (essentially, since that was all I knew back then), I felt a sense of confidence and charisma that I've never been able to reproduce elsewhere. Not only that, but I was good at it! My experience thus far, while minimal, was already helping others, and I wanted to continue to teach, as a way of allowing others to reach their own full potential.
technology
I also have a fairly amateurish approach to technology. Having grown up around computers for most of my life, I've become quite proficient at it, and enjoy reading up on the latest hardware, software, firmware (yup...), and theories that appear from time to time.
I've always been fascinated with the background processes that make everything run smoothly, and I've gone as far as to maintain a home web and file server!
I am an advocate of free and open-sourced software, and I have very strong opinions about the lackluster telecommunications network that services Canada. I am vehemently against the Bell Canada throttle, and am currently circumventing it through the use of Tomato/MLPPP.