Ukulele: First Draft of The Hanging Tree

 

My first draft of "The Hanging Tree" from Mockingjay with ukulele. My voice is dying and the playing isn't up to par because of my spinny head, but first draft. I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate a pennywhistle somehow.... I think it would suit the song. Hmm. :)

How to Study

My last college semester ever officially starts on January 24th, but I've started the work already. The massive amount of reading required for 300 and 400 level courses in English and History means that work needs to start as soon as possible, which is what I've done. I'm about half-way through the second chapter in my first book for my "The Old Regime and French Revolution" class and have started some preliminary work on my major paper for my Feminist Science Fiction class, which is especially important since I'll be presenting it at a conference.

One thing for which I'm grateful to my Magic Realism class last semester-- it finally taught me how to properly study a book. The fact that I managed to get through three years of college without that knowledge is both daunting and discouraging, but now that I finally do know, I'm getting a lot more enjoyment out of the work.

You have to own the book. Underline (not with pen or with highlighter, or I slap you in jail for book rape), straight and neatly. Also, joking aside, highlighter and dark pen lines often distract from the actual text of the book and make it hard to read. Stick in post-its with thoughts, notes, alerts, et cetera. rather than writing in the margins of the book. Bring your own experiences in: it'll help you remember later on. If your book is badly written with convoluted sentence structure, like that first "Old Regime" book is, try to write a summary after each chapter to figure out what the main point is. Studying should be careful, painstaking work. I, personally, find that fun, but I've been told that I'm strange.

My three stories for the Dell Award are out now; I should hear back in early March one way or the other. Hopefully, I win, and then I can go to Florida! Whee! I've also been given a brief note on my story in at Dark Discoveries-- it's been a year and they're not done, but hey, it's gone up a level to the editor himself! Everything is sunny on the writing front so far this year. (Though who knows what February and March will bring.)

Learning Ukulele: Mary Had a Little Lamb

I grew really inspired to learn how to play ukulele when watching Lauren Fairweather on Youtube. It looked really cute and made a great sound, so I thought, why not, especially since beginner ukuleles are so cheap?

I have a Lanikai LU-21, made by Hohner. It's widely acknowledged to be the best beginner ukulele. I actually chose and intended to eventually purchase the ukulele that's a step down from the LU-21, the LU-11. Very few know what the difference is between these two, besides white trim on the LU-21. I, personally, don't have the slightest idea, but I suspect that the LU-21 has higher quality strings than the LU-11: the LU-21 comes with Aquila nylagut strings, and I'm not sure what the LU-11 comes with.

Technical talk aside, I love this thing. I'm using the Play Ukulele Today! This is a really good book. It's easy to understand, with a gradual progression and build up of skills. I usually go over everything I've learned previously once I begin a practice session, and then move on to the new things. It seems to be working fairly well, but I'm already half-way through the book and there isn't a Level 2 version yet! It's only been five days! Of course, I'm finding it hard to put the ukulele down, even when I should have been studying, but that should be a nod to the accessibility of the book and the awesomeness of the ukulele. I've done a small video to show what I'm doing at the moment, courtesy of the new webcam I bought for about 10 dollars. Not terribly good quality video, which is partly due to my bad lighting, but the audio is awesome and it gets the job done. Half-way through the book has finally yielded the first recognizable song: Mary Had a Little Lamb. Next I work on accidentals and a new set of notes on the third string. The book is set up so you begin with chords, go to single notes, and then move back to chords.

New Blog Layout, Design, and Purpose

I have reworked hazyOBSESSIONS fully, as you might have noticed. The name has been changed, as well as the layout, the tags, etc. A bunch of the posts have been deleted and new things have been added to the sidebars. This is because I wanted to officially launch the last and final piece of the project I've been working on over the semester at Ithaca.

I unschooled my entire life. I'm not going to say that I was unschooled, because that would imply agency on my mother's part and a lack of agency on mine, which certainly wasn't the case. Every semester or break, I choose a project to work on because I feel that if I don't, I'm wasting time. I'm not learning anything from my fancy-schmancy, expensive college education, though it does give me certain credentials. Last summer, my project was learning all I could about the internet, copyright law, and DRM. Once the semester started, it was launching the blogs that I've launched in the past few months and working on the archive version of the various reviews I've done, which is found on here. For the winter break, which is this one coming up, it's finishing up my various internet duties-- finishing updating my website, upkeep on the blogs, eventually getting a decent webcam-- learning ukulele, and my normal routine of reading and writing. This perceived lack of education on my part, despite paying disgusting amounts on a college education, has led me to decide to change this blog into one that maps out my attempts to gain education in spite of the drain that college puts on my time: essentially, being an autodidact. There aren't any blogs about adults who do this rather than children, which has really annoyed me as I've tried to find inspiration for what I'm doing. So I've made one, which is the story of my life. Can't find a book I want to read? Write it. Can't find a blog that does what I want? Make it. Well, you'll reap the benefits, or so I hope.

You'll notice that on the right, I've added a list of my current projects. I'm keeping it simple for now, since my semester isn't officially over yet and I have finals. But you can expect to see regular updates about what I'm doing, including the things on that list. Most of my writing complaints and whining goes over onto my Livejournal, but some of it will probably end up here as well.

So, cheers. Expect an update within the next few days, and wish me luck on my next few papers and my solitary final. I'll need it.

Precisely Why I Never Accept "At Least They're Reading" As An Argument

"A word about beginning readers. We strongly object to the Goosebumps and Spinechillers books, as well as to Sweet Valley High and other lightweight romance series directed at young readers. 'At least they're reading,' parents sigh. But these books are the literary equivalent of TV cartoons. Just because your child develops a taste for cartoons doesn't mean that he'll then go on to watch National Geographic specials. The cartoons train him to pay attention in five-second bursts and teach him that he doesn't need to think in a connected series of propositions because bursts of images will work just as well. In the same way, Goosebumps and Sweet Valley High books develop a child's taste for short sentences, simple sentence structure, easy vocabulary, uncomplicated paragraphs, and shallow, simple plots. This won't help him make the transition to decent literature; it may teach him to turn away from anything that makes his brain work too hard. A diet of Goosebumps does not promote the patterns of thought that produce intellectual and personal excellence."

- The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise, p62.

Of course, we have a better example than Sweet Valley High and Goosebumps nowadays...

Pirate Octopus VS Ninja Kitty: Who Will Win?

I think that it's probably safe to put this here, since it's doubtful that Aaron ever looks at my blog.... I have put together the Most Awesome Gift Ever for Aaron for Giftmas, but the part that I had put the most work into were these fellows: Pirate Octopus vs Ninja Kitty.

Pirate Octopus is made out of Bijou Red Heart yarn, and although you can't see him, he is flamboyantly sparkly green and silver. He had his two swords sewn to his front two tentacles and an eyepatch over his eye. His mouth is sewn into a grimace, as is proper.

The Ninja Kitty is made out of cotton yarn, because ninjas are-- of course-- all-natural. The banes of his existence are his white paws, which detract from his stealthy ninja-ness. He comes with a small hoard of weapons: two shuriken and a pair of nunchuku. Beneath his ninja mask is the manic grin of pure Cheshire-style evil.

PIRATE VERSUS NINJA!

Thanskgiving Pics

Here are Thanksgiving food pictures! Which was awesome, by the way. Though I think I liked making it all more than Elizabeth did....

The cranberries as they were cooking. They were too pretty not to photograph.

The cranberry sauce once it was finished: whole-berry cranberry sauce with cranberries and a Granny Smith apple.

Buttermilk oatmeal bread with spinach and red pepper dip, the cranberry sauce, and stuffed mushrooms. All of the things that were my contribution to dinner.

The dinner rolls, roasted green beans, made from the Moosewood recipe, and spanakopita, also made from the Moosewood recipe.

Elizabeth, posing as she takes the first carving-- excuse me, cut-- of spanakopita. The flash was accidentally still on, so ignore the strange lighting.

Elizabeth, who requires no explanation.