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Music To My Ears

February 8, 2008 in Blogs

Yesterday’s Collision rehearsal could have gone better, but I am not complaining.

There were two big negatives. One was that Brittany is fighting off a cold and so struggling to hang onto her voice; she’s particularly concerned because she has a solo gig next Wednesday night and needs to be able to sing for it. I did take the opportunity to tease her that she needs to go easy at that concert so she doesn’t blow her voice before next week’s practice. The other negative is that Adam forgot that it was Thursday, and left while I was running some other errand to do homework with his girlfriend. I am not certain which class they share, or whether they were actually getting any work accomplished, but it meant he was not here. I’ve made him aware that he and I are going to have to grab some practice time before the next rehearsal, because the song we learned this week has a tough bass line, and the song slated for next week also has a tough baseline.

On the positive side, though, we picked the final song for our repertoire (now I have to find it and arrange it, and I know that there’s a copy in the praise music files at church but it wasn’t there tonight). Baxter had pretty much nailed the challenging guitar part for the song for this week, and Brittany managed to focus her attention on her rhythm guitar parts, so that’s all coming together nicely. Also, drummer John has been nagging me on several points, because he is eager to play, and I managed today to address one of them by asking at the music store about whether there are available practice halls anywhere around here. The answer apparently is at least one, and economically so, and I’ve got a phone number and a name.

I also looked at an amp that would probably be perfect to go between our mixer and our speakers for PA, but it’s not in my price range. Then again, I’m not at all sure what my price range really is, so there’s not much point haggling. I just know that this wasn’t within it.

I’ve also completed a couple more songs by putting my odd minutes into the midi program instead of solitaire. I’ve promised the drummer a CD of all the songs, and I’m pretty near the halfway point on fulfilling that promise.

I actually have been doing something Multiverser-related, but I’m supposed to keep that “on the QT”, as they say somewhere, at least until after our Sunday director’s meeting, so maybe I’ll have news then.

–M. J. Young

Tags: Collision, directors No Comments »

by M. J. Young

A Narrow Window

February 7, 2008 in Blogs

A good part of the day was invested in preparing for the arrival of someone from a state agency, coming to talk with us about one of our houseguests; that part ended not so long ago, and as I returned to my room to focus on my work, I remembered that today being Thursday meant I have a Collision rehearsal this evening, and will be rushing out of here in half an hour or so to get Baxter.

I made some little progress on the practice recordings for the band; I was working on them last night when the drummer called. He wanted to talk, stir up my memories about events surrounding our time together in The Last Psalm, the band I ran in my last years of high school and early college years, mumble-mumble decades ago. I enjoyed talking to him, and managed after some head-banging to remember that one song that he could not quite remember, the first song he ever played with us. On the other hand, I probably would have gotten another song finished, moving us that much closer to being ready to rehearse with the drums, or at least gotten to bed a bit earlier, had I not been so long on the phone, so every good thing comes with a price.

Part of that price is that I might have gotten an earlier start today, and so would not be running off quite so soon for my next obligation; but that is how it goes. I shall return.

–M. J. Young

Coding error fixed 6/30/11

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by M. J. Young

Out Of Stock

February 6, 2008 in Blogs

I reported yesterday stocking up on sleep. Apparently I was saving it for today.

It seems that just about the time I was headed to bed early this morning, it was discovered that someone spilled something on the bed, which soaked through to the mattress. With the current number of houseguests, all the spare bedding is in use by someone, so that meant I had to strip the bed, wash the mattress, and run the bedding through the laundry in two loads–behind the two loads that were already tying up the washer and dryer.

It was all done by the time the youngest caught his six o’clock bus, or at least shortly thereafter, and I finally went to bed.

Of course, I was awakened thrice between then and noon, the third time persuading me to surrender any hope of getting additional sleep, and turning my attention to the various other obstacles which would soak my time.

I am grateful to the guest who prepared meals for us today; it would be at least a couple hours later that I got here had he not been able to do so.

I wish I could say that I accomplished great things as long as I was up. Really, I was too tired to accomplish great things, and focused on small ones–finishing up another song recording for the Collision repertoire practice disks. The band will be happy with that, I think.

I’ve got a trip on my plate tonight, I believe–my son has to return to his brother’s house so he can get to work tomorrow. I asked my wife whether I was to do that or whether she would do it when she got home, but she didn’t know at the time and never got back to telling me, so I’m probably going to act preemptively and move him there before it gets too late and I’m stuck doing it into the wee hours of the morning.

All of which means, I’ve got to get back to work.

–M. J. Young

Tags: Collision, repertoire, sleep No Comments »

by M. J. Young

Catching Up On Something

February 5, 2008 in Blogs

By the time my wife got home from work last night, I was already mostly asleep. I had the television on, and was aware that the show I had started watching at midnight had segued into another hour episode of the same, and that I had gone from watching to listening with occasional glances at the screen to not really listening. It must have been between one and two, but I never looked at a clock–nor moved again until just before five, when I awoke moments before the alarm sounded intending actually to get ready for bed. Instead I got someone else ready for school, and then got back to bed.

As a result I am more rested than I have been in some time, and got what might be an earlier start than usual. I resisted the notion of staying awake and starting before sunrise (after all, my favorite two verses from Solomon’s book of Proverbs are, “The wicked rise early and go to work” and “He who blesses his neighbor with a loud voice rising early in the morning shall be counted as cursing”), but was still up and functional earlier than usual.

That does not mean I have as yet accomplished anything with this extra time; but the afternoon is still early, even on the east coast, so I might yet do so.

–M. J. Young

Tags: sleep No Comments »

by M. J. Young

Plumb Early

February 4, 2008 in Blogs

If I remember aright, I was up before noon. This is because I had to shuffle the schedule for my usual Monday workload, as my mother-in-law had to visit the bank in addition to doing her shopping, and that meant I had to get up there early enough that the bank would still be open.

By the time I was home, I was falling asleep; but I was interrupted several times for several reasons, the largest of which is the ongoing plumbing efforts for which I had to make a trip for a critical part whose need was discovered after the local plumbing supply had closed, so it was travel half an hour out to Home Depot or Lowe’s and back again, or explain to an irate wife why we didn’t have a shower this week. I’ll bet you can guess which I picked; it is not certain even now that they’re going to be able to get it all back together, though, so it may have been a bit of a fools errand. I certainly hope not.

I need to get some sleep; but I still have some work to address, so let me do that first. Anyway, since the access to the tub plumbing is from the bathroom off my bedroom, it probably wouldn’t be practical to crawl into bed at this point anyway.

–M. J. Young

Tags: mother-in-law, plumbing No Comments »

by M. J. Young

Needed Diversion

February 3, 2008 in Blogs

I’ve been putting a lot of time into creating low-quality midi-based recordings of the songs in the Collision repertoire. There are several factors motivating this. One is that I myself am genuinely eager to see this band reach a point where it can perform publicly. That means we have to be good at at least twelve songs; to this point we’re barely adequate at six, so there’s a lot of work ahead–and the recordings help this significantly. It is also the case that there are other people who want to see this happen, and they, well, encourage would be a satisfactorily neutral word, me to move forward, finish the repertoire, fix the sound system, find a practice hall, and in general get everything together so that we can pull the whole band forward. It also helps that the process of making the recordings is relatively easy–easy like playing computer solitaire, open the program and toss note notations on the screen, playing it back periodically to catch mistakes. I speak music; English is my second language. I had to learn a new orthography to use this midi program, but having learned it I’m pretty facile with it. It requires much less focus or concentration than my other pursuits. Thus at least some of the time that is going into the music is coming from those wasted moments when I would be poking at a computer game while eating or taking medicine or otherwise partially occupied.

On the other hand, I have become conscious–in part due to this blog, and in part due to posts by someone here–that I am not making much progress on several other projects, all of which need my attention. Some of that is due to the back burner principle, that when I hit points in any project where I don’t know quite what to do next, it is most often the case that I get the answer by not thinking about it, by doing something else and letting my mind release the problem into the subconscious. (I sometimes get the most extraordinarily obvious ideas this way. I’ve an example from last night, but it’s not relevant to anything so I should probably not get into it here.) Of course, I also solve such problems by tossing something into the mix and seeing what comes of it–and in the case of the projects here, that means writing, and then reading what I’ve written to see what I need to change.

It happens that my wife is home today, and that there are a few plumbing projects that will require attention, so I probably am not in a position to do much beyond the regular work. However, I am seeing the need to divert my resources back toward some of the unfinished projects, and that sooner rather than later.

–M. J. Young

Tags: Collision, repertoire, writing No Comments »

by M. J. Young

At Least I Got Groceries

February 1, 2008 in Blogs

I wound up on the phone late last night–late enough that my wife got annoyed. It was a good conversation with an old friend, and probably I did not get less sleep than usual for it.

I did not have a very productive day, however. After getting kids on buses, I got more sleep and then returned to a rather disorderly start on the day and a few unanticipated tasks that threw me off my start. I realized that I had to get the grocery shopping done if we were going to have supper tonight, and I also realized that it was getting late and I was going to miss church if I didn’t get to it. I missed church anyway, but at least I got the groceries. One of our houseguests is preparing supper, and it smells delicious; I still have to put some of the food away myself (and track down a few items that I don’t want eaten by others just yet), but I’m trying to get through the work here before it gets too late so I can get some sleep and be in church in the morning.

I think that’s pretty much everything.

–M. J. Young

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