What a Week
Nov. 22nd, 2008 11:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nyykiWhew.
Last weekend was busy, as I had a lot of schoolwork to do, plus a long rehearsal Sunday night for the gig on Monday. This was the first time we'd gone through all of these tunes in order, and for some the first time I'd gotten to play them with the ensemble. I'm not signed up for it, but I was joining in at the instructor's request. I'm about the only one in the department with lots of Jazz experience, and the only on with a degree in it. He asked me for help, and I did so to help out and to get more time playing in an ensemble. But it's been rather rocky at times.
Then came the gig Monday night. This was the first time for me to solo on both tambourine and cabasa. I'm used to having both hands on the drums for soloing, but in both cases it was single hand work, the right hand for the tambourine and the left hand for the cabasa. I wasn't mic'd, so I also had to hit pretty hard to be heard in the room. Next time I'll insist on microphones, even if I have to bring them myself.
Tuesday involved singing in recital hour. I had to go to school all dressed up, something I don't care much for. Fortunately I had pants that fit, since I managed to go on Friday with a friend from school to get some new ones. Guardian made the moring special by having a relieving accident in the hall, one that indicated that he wasn't feeling well due to both consistency and odor.
Thursday was Juries Readiness Day for me -- I had to go into my lesson, sing all six songs I was working on for the semester, then go over them with my instructor. I wasn't counting on the blood sugar crash right in the middle of the first three lines of my first tune, the song Sing by Joe Raposo. (The same song from Sesame Street that Karen Carpenter turned into a hit) The Schumann was shaky, the other two English songs I had down were okay but had some lapses, and my last two songs, Nina and Where Ere You Walk, had problems. She told me to go get something to eat and rest and we'd talk about the results on Tuesday. There is a possibility she won't let me sit for my jury, which will really mess up my grade and also seriously screw up my plans.
On Friday, after Guardian started the morning by horking, I had a visit from my CPAP provider to get a new mask, then a friend of mine came over and we went down to Dallas to go shopping for Bras and computer parts. We also stopped by Barbec's for lunch, home of the greatest biscuits on earth. The shopping trip was wonderful except for the traffic. Both shops, (Tran Computer and The Maddox Shop) provide amazing customer service and the people there are really nice. I think I have all the parts I need now so the roommate can upgrade the server, set up the mirror on the 1TB drives, get the stereo machine up and running, and get some things connected in the studio. I still need to get more RAM for the studio machine, but hopefully the RAM from the old server motherboard will do the job and I won't have to buy any more. Also, we had one of the Roomates' Friends come by and wire a plug in the ceiling of the living room last week for the projector, so hopefully soon we'll get things up and running so we can have the projection system working for TV in the living room. That's the last big thing to do in there except for finding an area rug for the space in front of the couch.
I have to write seven abstracts for journal studies for Psychin the next week or so, which won't be too bad. Then I need to interact on a discussion board for one class a bit, study for two finals and one test, and maybe prepare for juries. Then I'll be done with the semester. Oh, and I have to perform in Observation class. I'm planning on doing Riders in the Storm by the Doors on my autoharp for that. I'm looking forward to the semester being over. Then I plan to spend the winter break working in the studio so that I can get a lot of my songs sequenced and ready for people to hear. I'm starting to think about getting a band together again, and I hope to have at least one jam session at the house during the break. Gaming is pretty much died, as the AD&D game I was hoping to play in has apparently coughed up a lung before it even got started. Bummer that. I'm hoping to get some gaming started at some point, though.
That's pretty much it for now.
Last weekend was busy, as I had a lot of schoolwork to do, plus a long rehearsal Sunday night for the gig on Monday. This was the first time we'd gone through all of these tunes in order, and for some the first time I'd gotten to play them with the ensemble. I'm not signed up for it, but I was joining in at the instructor's request. I'm about the only one in the department with lots of Jazz experience, and the only on with a degree in it. He asked me for help, and I did so to help out and to get more time playing in an ensemble. But it's been rather rocky at times.
Then came the gig Monday night. This was the first time for me to solo on both tambourine and cabasa. I'm used to having both hands on the drums for soloing, but in both cases it was single hand work, the right hand for the tambourine and the left hand for the cabasa. I wasn't mic'd, so I also had to hit pretty hard to be heard in the room. Next time I'll insist on microphones, even if I have to bring them myself.
Tuesday involved singing in recital hour. I had to go to school all dressed up, something I don't care much for. Fortunately I had pants that fit, since I managed to go on Friday with a friend from school to get some new ones. Guardian made the moring special by having a relieving accident in the hall, one that indicated that he wasn't feeling well due to both consistency and odor.
Thursday was Juries Readiness Day for me -- I had to go into my lesson, sing all six songs I was working on for the semester, then go over them with my instructor. I wasn't counting on the blood sugar crash right in the middle of the first three lines of my first tune, the song Sing by Joe Raposo. (The same song from Sesame Street that Karen Carpenter turned into a hit) The Schumann was shaky, the other two English songs I had down were okay but had some lapses, and my last two songs, Nina and Where Ere You Walk, had problems. She told me to go get something to eat and rest and we'd talk about the results on Tuesday. There is a possibility she won't let me sit for my jury, which will really mess up my grade and also seriously screw up my plans.
On Friday, after Guardian started the morning by horking, I had a visit from my CPAP provider to get a new mask, then a friend of mine came over and we went down to Dallas to go shopping for Bras and computer parts. We also stopped by Barbec's for lunch, home of the greatest biscuits on earth. The shopping trip was wonderful except for the traffic. Both shops, (Tran Computer and The Maddox Shop) provide amazing customer service and the people there are really nice. I think I have all the parts I need now so the roommate can upgrade the server, set up the mirror on the 1TB drives, get the stereo machine up and running, and get some things connected in the studio. I still need to get more RAM for the studio machine, but hopefully the RAM from the old server motherboard will do the job and I won't have to buy any more. Also, we had one of the Roomates' Friends come by and wire a plug in the ceiling of the living room last week for the projector, so hopefully soon we'll get things up and running so we can have the projection system working for TV in the living room. That's the last big thing to do in there except for finding an area rug for the space in front of the couch.
I have to write seven abstracts for journal studies for Psychin the next week or so, which won't be too bad. Then I need to interact on a discussion board for one class a bit, study for two finals and one test, and maybe prepare for juries. Then I'll be done with the semester. Oh, and I have to perform in Observation class. I'm planning on doing Riders in the Storm by the Doors on my autoharp for that. I'm looking forward to the semester being over. Then I plan to spend the winter break working in the studio so that I can get a lot of my songs sequenced and ready for people to hear. I'm starting to think about getting a band together again, and I hope to have at least one jam session at the house during the break. Gaming is pretty much died, as the AD&D game I was hoping to play in has apparently coughed up a lung before it even got started. Bummer that. I'm hoping to get some gaming started at some point, though.
That's pretty much it for now.
