*whispers* --> So having forced me to upgrade everything that has to anything do with music software, my hungry Macintosh is finally starting to behave itself a little.

What? No. I wasn't saying anything, Honey. No, Mary loves her little Mac. Loves it! What do you mean you learned to read? Oh.

Well, I was just noting that you have excellent taste, you know, only the latest upgrades on Finale, Digital Performer.

I smiled when I typed it. :-) <-- see?! No, no! Don't shut down again! Please, Baby!

Yes, I know you hate it when I discuss your private business. It's just that . . . alright. *deep breath*

Why won't ITunes make mp3's anymore? I mean what is up with that? I had to pay for Switch, thank you very much! Can you blame me for venting a little? Ah ah AUGH! No, don't crash. I didn't mean it! I didn't! I'm sorry.

Really.

So, yeah. My computer works great! :-D

I haven't planted them yet (just bought the seeds today), but Lowe's has Zombie Pumpkin Seeds! Yesirree! I have a garden now, complete with scarecrow. Wesley's Mom donated one of her many red hats, a button down shirt, and and some jeans. Papa felt the scarecrow should have a heart (no brain though), and I contributed green shamrock beads. The scarecrow has a sort of lop-sided smile that Simon drew. It looks vaguely sarcastic, but really more with a sense of wry but gentle humor.

The garden it guards is not much to look at yet -- we got a late start courtesy of a very wet May and early June. But, I am excited! :-)

Today, I have purchased and eagerly await Finale 2010. You may recall this post, in which I complimented Finale for not forcing upgrades. Errrmm. I retract that. All my music software was to some extent or another a casualty of the latest OS 10.5.7 upgrade. And I am very cheesed that itunes will no longer convert aiff files to mp3. Bad form! Bad Form!

But, anyway, I have been returning loooong over due correspondence and generally trying to get work done.

The difference? Recently I have acknowledged that I am never done, will never be done, will never have been done until I am done in a very permanent not-breathing sort of way. Therefore, I will take time out to purposely (and mostly guiltlessly) do things like play Lego Batman, read a book for the sheer pleasure of it (instead of improving my mind), and so forth.

That said, I am actually getting more done when I choose to do it. Simon is at karate camp this week, and that may also have a lot to do with my efficiency.

Oooh! And I'll take a picture of the scarecrow -- and the pumpkins when they start to become.

Nifty!


http://facebook.com/mary.crowell

I think the rumor about telemarketers being suddenly able to call your cell phone has been recirculating . . . again. My Dad wanted me to make sure and put my cell phone numbers on the Do Not Call registry. (No, he did not call the number that evil scammers circulate along with the doom and gloom email.) So, I went to the government site and added all my numbers . . . again. I just realized that I had already registered our cell phone numbers when I put our numbers on the Do Not Call registry a few years ago. *shrugs*

Anyway, since it was on my mind, here's the link:

https://www.donotcall.gov/

Yesterday, I went to the Mark Of The Unicorn website and paid for the upgrade to Digital Performer 6. And I paid for 2 days shipping.

It hasn't shipped yet. :-(


I know I am being impatient, but I have 4 projects that I want to complete by the end of June and July (depending on the project), and I have some time for a change to do them. This exact thing happened with DP4.6 last year -- it just took me a while to realize it. And I am just a wee bit grouchy about it. The midi works, but the audio doesn't. Unfortunately, I need the audio for the timing -- even though most of the actual work I'll be doing is midi.

Finale (my music publishing software of choice) I think, does a lot better job of not jerking the rug out from under you. I do want the new automatic rehearsal marks, and I like to keep current on Finale, so I will be upgrading soon to Finale 2010 -- without feeling put out.

[ADDENDUM] Hey! Whine over. I got an email today that they have shipped it. So, maybe Tuesday it will arrive. Hopefully. :-)

So close to finishing that music project. And now I can't progress until the DVDs for Digital Performer 6. One little upgrade got me. One day DP5 worked -- the next day, it didn't. :-(

Dear May,

It is after 9 am, and it is still cold outside. In fact, as a result of it being cold outside, it is cold inside. You must understand that this made it very hard to get up today. In fact the only reason I'm typing this, is that you have at least made an effort to illuminate my music/office room with an adequate sunbeam.

Now May, as you know June has been waiting for just this sort of opportunity. Her CV lists several years of experience under 'warm consultant.' If you can't do better than you have today and yesterday I am afraid we will have to let you go.

The only reason you have lasted as long as you have is for your excellent work with lilies.


Sincerely,
Me

Today has been lovely, decadent even.

After getting Simon on the bus, I checked FACEBOOK, because I have a musician page there now. W00t! Then I went to yoga class at UPDOG Studio, where we joked, groaned, and sweated our way through lot's of vinyasa, arms balancing poses, and hip openers. I followed that up with some coffee from Pablos On Market and Carole's studio with most of the folks that were on yoga class. And then met my husband for lunch at Maria Bonita's. All that was missing were the bon bons. Yes. I was decadent. :-)

weirdsister got me into Lyle Lovett, so I ordered one of his CDs and listened to it in the car today. I heard his song "Make It Happy" for the first time today-- and then several more times. I really want Play It With Moxie to do that song. It is catchy, earthy, and happy, and has a smoking funk piano part. We might just consider that today's bon bon.

I was going to have a gig at a lovely tavern/ evening spot in Athens this Saturday, but alas, there was a little too much going on. I think the tavern will actually be closed while the owner attends a graduation of her daughter this weekend. This is not such a bad thing though, because I think we'll be able to reschedule pretty easily in June. It gives me extra time to add to my jazz repertoire (I'll be playing all evening long, baby!), and gave me a kick in the pants before BALTICON.

BALTICON! That is SO close! I have a couple of concerts of course, and those will be tremendous fun. I find I am really excited at being an accompanist on meltatum's panel/ workshop about fair use, copyright law, and filk's interaction with it. If you plan to be at BALTICON, you should definitely check that one out. I've gotten to look at a little of Mel's data and discussion, and it is very interesting -- surprising in a couple of ways and not so much in others. I don't want to step on her presentation, so I won't say more here.

I'm going to try to reconnect with my live journal. I have been out of the habit of writing in it. FACEBOOK lends itself very well to quick little updates. If you are on both, do check out the Three Weird Sisters musician page, Play It With Moxie, and mine (Mary Crowell.) Tom Smith has a musician page, and so do vixy and Tony. I've found the musician pages very useful for sending out local invitations to let people know when gigs are and such -- or if they (sadly) canceled for some reason.

I am indeed alive. I do all these long musing posts for live journal . . . in my head. I can't seem to get to the computer to post them lately. I did clean my office desk today and finally open and set up my dockable mouse. I've written a song ("Relativity Blues") and I am working on two others that I will hopefully finish in time for Balticon.

Speaking of Balticon, I figured out the way to kick it into high gear as far as practicing piano was concerned was to write something new. Something fun.

I do have a dark Wednesday song writte a few days previous. Not Wednesday Adams but Wotan's Day, because I was born on Wednesday and got to wondering if that whole "child of woe" thing had anything to do with who the day is named after. Anyway, that song is in just rough draft form and isn't particularly witty or fun -- just dark and unfeminine. So I may not ever get around to finishing it as a song. *shrugs* we'll see.

I hate to admit it, but I've been Facebooking a lot more than Live Journalling. It's quite simply that the update on Facebook encourages brevity, and that seems like about my speed.

But, I am working to change that. See? I'm posting today, and it really is much more fun working at a clean desk.

Now, I will return to writing "Leftover Knights" and "a Wizard's ABC's."

*SMOOCH*

If you filter your political posts, please make sure I am not on that filter.

Some of you know this and have already taken me off those filters.

Thank you.

I love the Love Dogs! Well, at least I love their CD, "Heavy Petting." I'm thinking Play It With Moxie should cover some of this stuff. Time to update our wiki. Hee!

Check out the Review

Their Website: http://www.thelovedogs.com/

If you go here and scroll down you can listen to "Lock You up."

Mechanical Contrivium rhymes with Quadrivium. Teh kewl!

I recommend against number 1.
Oh, and number 4? OW!
And 9? Don't ask me to go without my Starbucks!

It's a habit thing, and I've gotten out of the habit. When I am actually in front of my computer I am either dead tired and passively checking various media or Very Busy and I don't want to let a post interrupt my progress. A few weeks ago I was sick for a long while, and I lost touch.

1) I am back into working out (three days in a row now of exercise.)

2) I'm extracting parts for the revision of "Puttin' On the Ritz/Powerhouse," reviewing them, cleaning them up, and in some cases rewriting swaths of music. The bari sax player in our community band gave me the very excellent advice of playing through each part -- not merely looking it over or listening to a play back. Just playing it on the clarinet (and transposing a few octaves up in the case of the tuba and other low brass) has made a huge difference. I caught an extraordinarily awkward 3 measures that sounds wonderful in playback -- with all instruments but is very difficult to play. The same passage sounded just as good rewritten more intuitively. I'm all happy now.

3) I'm cooking again.

4) I'm gardening and hope to have massive amounts of tomatoes this summer.

5) And I'm getting ready for Balticon and my cousin's wedding (I'm her music director/accompanist.)

6) I'm going to bed earlier.

7) More soon!

The last post was me attempting to be even somewhat productive. I got sick last Friday and made myself sicker by traveling on Sunday to be in a concert a friend was doing for her degree. It was important. It was something I promised I would do, and was very glad I was able to do and be useful, but I made myself much much worse, and I'm not seeing improvement in the general level of health or energy I have.

I haven't even answered my email . . . much. If you sent me a recent "how are you?" in an email, and I haven't responded, rest assured I still love you. I just can't do much right now. When I'm not staring out into space wishing I were well or half-heartedly doing the things that must be done around the house, I'm catching up on my C.J. Cherryh reading. Or sleeping. There's been a lot of z.z.z.z.


Speaking of that. Bye now. I'll be back when I'm healthy. *Hugs* to you all!

Hi Folks,

Balticon would like a short bio about me. Um. I am dreadful at writing these things. I always sound like I am trying to apply for grad school. Can anyone help me out?

I love this! Thanks, rhiannon76 for posting this link.

http://www.much-ado.net/austenbook/

Spring invites me to reassess. And I decided it was high time to actually go through all those emails. You get enough of those things in your INBOX and it is paralyzing. There are some that still need replies, but I feel like I have my head above water enough to get to them this week.

Last night I cleaned off our dresser and filed and filed and filed. I still need to clean out the filing cabinets. We probably don't need as many years worth of the bill receipts as we have.

Do I like my musical instruments all to be in my office? I used to think so but I practice more and more in the library downstairs which has a window and an acoustic piano. As long as I have at least one window I can tolerate being in a room for long periods of time. If I moved most of the instruments, we might put in another computer terminal here which would allow Wesley and I to be in the same room again while we worked on projects. Quiet ones. Many of my projects are not quiet, but I could at least catch up on emails, do taxes, type up written poems, etc in the same room with Wesley while he continues to refine the 3.5 Character spreadsheet he's developing for our D&D campaign.

I had a great time at the Delta Kappa Gamma Beta state (and other Greek letters as well) convention this weekend. I played a whole lot of piano -- processionals, recessionals, funeral music, broadway music accompaniment, hymns, more accompaniment. Yep. I was a playing fool, and it felt good. I like to have something to do at a convention if I go to one.

And since this is probably a pretty boring post, I'll stop now. The truth is I need to practice and revise my arrangement and clean. I'm just putting these things off.

Bye all!

I either cramped a intercostal muscle or pulled it in yoga class today doing scale pose.* I think I held my breath after I got my legs up. Anyway, Motrin and slow careful exhales are helping.

I had a great time in yoga class today other than that. I had taken a long (and unintentional) break from yoga during January, and I could really tell it in my shoulders and hamstrings. I lost a lot of flexibility! But much of it has already returned, and if I can just be careful with me, I think I'll be back to my old self again soon.

At some point I'll have to write about how the reading of "Puttin' On the Ritz/Powerhouse" went on Monday, but I'm really busy practicing for an educator's conference this weekend. (I'm the accompanist for several inspirational songs.)

The spring flowers coming up and blossoming has been a very cheerful thing. My rosebush has leafed out with these really lovely red leaves, and the hyacinths are open. No tulips blooming for a while yet, but we have to leave something pretty and new for March and April!

I have been very out of touch, but I did and do appreciate all the happy birthday wishes this past weekend. Thank you! I'm going to try to catch up on lj, but it probably won't be for at least another week.

I hope everyone is doing well!




*an arm balance where one thigh is hooked over the arm and the other leg is out straight. Then you lift all of you off the floor in that position. (Both hands are on the floor.)