| Compliments |
[Jan. 18th, 2010|03:40 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  shocked | ] |
I have trouble taking compliments. Part of it is a confidence issue (if I don't believe I have done good, how can I believe others telling me it) and part of it is just not knowing how to deal with it socially.
Music is something I do outside of work, and outside of most of the people who read this journal. In a lot of ways it is much more private and isolated. There, without the overtones of friends, relatives, jobs, and life, I am judged almost exclusively on my skill or lack thereof.
I think this is true of most amateur musicians. Ask anyone you know in these groups if they are scared to death of an audition, and you'll be surprised just HOW scared they can be. I've played with people who are doctors and surgeons, whose actions involve the lives of others, who were more scared of how they were judged musically than in the realm of their profession where an accident can kill.
This last weekend, I played in a pick-up band. I recognize that I play harder-to-find instruments, so I was able to mentally discount the compliment of being asked as an action of availability of instrumentation. The literature that was played included one of the most difficult band pieces out there: Lincolnshire Posy. Admittedly, I had read the piece in college, but after the first rehearsal, I got the following email:
Great meeting you today. You are a fabulous musician and produce a wonderful sound! I really liked your contra alto solo parts and the way they carried over the band.
Thanks for your help on L. Posy....timing on it was a bit tricky for me....I will be working some more on it this coming week.
She also forward me some other info on a local performance that I'd like to attend as well. But wow. It's so nice to get a compliment like that from a fellow player. *swoon*
I thanked her nicely and said nice (and truthful) things about her own skill and tone as well. |
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| Grinding gears. |
[Jan. 18th, 2010|03:13 pm] |
Some days, it seems it is really REALLY hard to get my head in gear.
I've been in a great mood coming off of vacation and am trying to hold it together and keep myself engaged at work.
Also trying to catch up on a lot of RL things that slid by on the way. Tonight: Avatar in IMAX 3d. |
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| Travel wrap up |
[Jan. 11th, 2010|04:24 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  happy | ] |
So after our bad day attempting to escape Nebraska, things seemed to have gotten better...
( The great white west ) |
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| The longest winter of my life I spent one day in Nebraska. |
[Jan. 8th, 2010|06:48 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  amused | ] |
I started this travelogue so people could get a feel for what happens when you take a long train an also for my own journal and memories. From that perspective, yesterday I got to see what happens when things don't go well for a train versus a plane.
( oh noez )
One lady here has taken the Zephyr some 40 times across country. She says this is the worse she has ever seen it. If this is “the worst” it still certainly beats the pants off of getting dumped at a transfer airport when a flight is canceled and trying to sleep in a chair, etc.
Here's hoping the rest is quiet and I can find a pocket of internet to post this from. |
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| Train travel - Part Deaux |
[Jan. 6th, 2010|08:48 pm] |
So when we last left our intrepid hero's they were stuck in the middle-of-nowhere PA hoping that this strange mechanical device, dependent wholly upon perfectly space steel rails laid at less than 2% of vertical declination at any point could convey them from the clutches of er... the mountains of PA.
( Clickey... )
The end of today and a fair amount of tomorrow (Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada) will have fairly spotty internet coverage. I'll try to post this when we have a bit of bandwidth. |
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| Cross Country Train - Heading Home |
[Jan. 5th, 2010|06:12 pm] |
I didn't post any sort of a travelogue from the last run across country. Around New Years, I started to write out the whole thing from memory, and maybe I'll post it at some point. But enough people seem curious about us taking the train, I figured I'd give a sampling here.
( choo choo chaboogey )
Tomorrow morning will have breakfast and then a few hours to Chicago before getting on the last and long-run train: the California Zephyr. |
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| Highs and Lows |
[Jan. 1st, 2010|01:18 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  hopeful | ] |
It's been a decade of highs and lows
I started to try and list the highlights. It was astoundingly depressing. The lows included divorces, suicides, lawsuits, being hated, used, ripped off, etc.
The highs include a better job path and a better house situation. But really, dwarfing them all, the highlight of the decade, and the reason for this shortened post, is the love of my life: Sue. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|11:42 am] |
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Everyone take this time while visiting family to upgrade their browser to something other than IE5 or 6. |
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| Dawww |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|12:50 am] |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 22nd, 2009|10:47 pm] |
Christmas is working out so far. Visiting the in-laws is surprisingly low-stress. So much so, I am more worried about my own upcoming kooky family issues and travel down to NC.
Tomorrow will be visiting with Sue's nexus of friends and then Christmas day will be a big family gathering where all the neices and nephews get to tear into the presents.
I'm keeping an eye on work as promised, though I will admit my interest is seriously waning.
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As a complete other thought, am I the only one who is pretty much annoyed at Jeff Atwood's "Coding Horror" blog? (http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/) - First he loses his site because he doesn't to backups - (RAID is a backup? What is this? FurAffinity?) - but now and in-depth post about rebuilding his PC.
Really? This is from the guy who is supposed to be a font of tech wisdom? These are the actions of a novice, not someone to listen to. |
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