Whispered Melodies.

I just did what I never thought I'd be able to do in my life... I earned pay with music. Specifically, teaching a friend's daughter the rudiments of fiddle. One lesson down, three more to prepare.

And you know what, it felt good.

See, although I grew up idolizing Menolly and the Harpers as a child, and in time falling in love with the Celtic music played all over the Appalachians - I just never thought of myself as particularly good at it. Sure, I kept at the recorder we all learned in grade school, but that was about it for ages.

As much as I enjoyed the music from the outside, it was like pulling teeth to actually do it - I think I made it through Theory and Ear Training in college by pure stubbornness and patient teachers. Lord knows naming intervals by ear didn't come naturally at all. Whatever the "it" the stars of the class had, I sure didn't.

So I abandoned that dream, content with just having a little piece of the music for myself. Resting with a harp in quiet moments, tooting on a tinwhistle at a red light, pattering about on a bodhran - that sort of thing. But I never dreamed of taking it out in the light, as it were.

Now, years later... I guess something must have sprouted in all those years in the shadow. I remember a couple years ago, being astonished when a girl on cast at a Ren Faire asked if I had a CD of my harping. Now another friend asks if I can play music teacher for a bit.

*blink blink*

wow.

You mean... other people actually like what they hear when I play? Really?

Don't get me wrong, I'm no Heather Alexander, no Michael Mullen or Gráinne Hambly.. it will be years more before I could presume to put myself anywhere near their league. And yet.. for the first time in my life, I'm starting to get the inkling that just maybe... I might be able to get to the point I can let this little flower grow in me after all.

And it feels good. New and surprising, but just all manner of cool.

So now.. back to practicing.

changes considered..

Well, I'm in the middle of picking the low hanging fruit, applying for advertised positions I can find. I ain't hardly been out of work for eighteen hours and I already have about half a dozen resumes out! Woosh..

Anyhow, as I reflect on it, this is actually something of a relieving change. Theological questions aside, working on the last site was an unending exercise in frustration. See, the site was in Joomla. And Joomla I've discovered is something like FrontPage back in the day.

So. Joomla. Seems if you just want a site and don't really care how it looks or works, it'll walk ya right through a template process and it's a breeze. If however there's something you specifically want to do, it fights you every step of the way. Sure there's plugins of all kinds - again though, you end up having to do twice the work (at least) making the plugin accomplish what you need than it would have taken to just code up the functionality from scratch.

If there's one regret I have, it's that I never got the chance to actually rework the troublesome parts of the site proper. It needed major surgery from the start, and I was never allowed to do more than tweak the edges and wait for a master direction to get decided on. Frustrating! But.. not my problem anymore. Oh well. Godspeed to all of 'em.

Changes!

If you're not one of those I've managed to get on the phone - interesting news today. Workplace #1 has eliminated the job I was working in, so it's off to find something else. Job #2 will help pay the bills (or at least stem the hemorrhaging) while I find a new Job #1. So far, it looks like it'll be relatively easy this time around - wish me luck!

Knights of the Vaulted Heavens

Driving home from work today, I saw a sight not at all uncommon in the skies of Anchorage - two F22s flying in formation, I assume as part of a training exercise. Perhaps it was all the Tolkien I've been listening to of late, but it struck me that the feelings in my heart must not be unlike those of say a maid of a an English yeoman's family looking upon an armored knight in his prime tilting at rings.

Just.. admiration. Complete admiration - and gratitude - that such a combination of skilled pilots, support teams, engineers and craftsmen could come together to create such a magnificent glory of the sky. And we get to see it... God bless 'em.

Thanks guys. Y'all rocketh.

zoomings...

Saturday was the day of the Airman's Trade Show down in Anchorage proper. LOTS of folks there from all over, and lots of neat people to talk with, from artists to engineers pushing their new innovations. The coolest part though was getting to crawl up inside a beat up old C-47, still in commercial use after all these years.

I ask you, where else in the world will you see a cargo hauler from the second world war sitting right next to a brand new F-22 - and have both still be actual flying planes still living their workaday lives?

Alaska.... is different.

And oh yes, the military was there showing off their various bits of hardware as well. I'd wondered what that "Sherpa" thing was after seeing it on a runway once upon a time - neat to actually get inside one. And nothing will put you in a mind of Serenity's cargo bay like the innards of those giant Air Force transports... giant!

Nothing in the world like their crews though. What a wonderful bunch of folks. The other best part of the day was seeing the pilots play with a little boy they plopped in the pilot seat.

"Go on, pull the trigger, right there...." then shaking the seat with a "BADADADADA!" and a laugh as the boy does so. Dear Lord in his heavens are those some great folks. Providence protect 'em.

Note to self...

The Silmarillion doesn't necessarily make for a good bedtime story. Seems the whole night was taken up dreams of creation followed by marring. There's an uplifting way to pass the night... eesh.