The Happy Thread III

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

Lovely new ones, Naughty.

My good news? My sister is back on this continent. Yay!

[The last sane person]

Now that is lovely news! I'm...happy. Yes. I think I know where my someone went.

[Nerdanel]

Spring is here!

On Thursday, I saw the first Northern Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus) and Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara).

On Friday, before I left for the owl excursion, I saw a big Pike (Esox lucius) in the ditch (it had really found the wrong place: awful ditch, and quite far from the sea) surrounded by two small males, and another true spring sign: the White Wagtail (Motacilla alba).
In the evening we went out to listen to owls, and saw and heard a few Tawny Owls (Strix aluco) and a Eurasian Eagle Owl (Bubo bubo). We also had a nice show of Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis), which was very nice..

On Saturday night, we heard and saw the Ural Owl (Strix uralensis), the Eurasian Pygmy Owl (Glaucidium passerinum) and the Goldcrest (Regulus regulus).

And today, among others, the Redwing (Turdus iliacus) and the Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major).

So, to conclude: spring is here!

[Tessar]

So, I just discovered that the reason I always sound muddy when I speak and when I sing in english is that I DON'T USE MY FREAKING LIPS. >.<

I was listening to a recording of myself speaking some stuff I'm trying to memorize, and it suddenly popped into my head, "MAN, this guy needs to use his lips when he annunciates..."

So I rerecorded myself trying to use my lips more, and lo and behold, my voice cleared up a LOT. For some reason, mainly I think because I'm still getting over trying to speak as quickly as possible at all times, I just learned to freeze my lips when I speak... so now I'm fixing that.

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

Originally Posted by Tessar

So, I just discovered that the reason I always sound muddy when I speak and when I sing in english is that I DON'T USE MY FREAKING LIPS. >.<

I was listening to a recording of myself speaking some stuff I'm trying to memorize, and it suddenly popped into my head, "MAN, this guy needs to use his lips when he annunciates..."

So I rerecorded myself trying to use my lips more, and lo and behold, my voice cleared up a LOT. For some reason, mainly I think because I'm still getting over trying to speak as quickly as possible at all times, I just learned to freeze my lips when I speak... so now I'm fixing that.

You know, Tessar, we don't seem to be online at the same time much any more, and I miss that. But I really enjoy reading the updates on your voice progress. It's exciting.

[katya]

I made Kool-aid! Only it's really old and also sugar-free and it kind of tastes funny. But I got to bust out of the matching pitcher and Kool-aid cups! Yay! It's all so bright and spring-like.

[Earniel]

Cool! A lung-less frog found! Aaand it's habitat is already disappearing. Figures. Still, very cool discovery.

[Curufin]

Happiness! I may have to go to class today, but it's Sunny and Warm!

(this is something special in Northern Ireland)

[Nerdanel]

Originally Posted by Eärniel

Cool! A lung-less frog found! Aaand it's habitat is already disappearing. Figures. Still, very cool discovery.

Cool, cool, cool! Not the habitat disappearing-part, but you know..

[katya]

I am proud of myself today. I was so tired this morning I could barely roll myself out of bed for class at 10, but I've been working on things all day and I've gotten tons done already. I'll be caught up on my homework in no time. There's still more to come too. I have class at 6 and afterwards I'll be meeting with some classmates for a fun project. I like getting into "oh my god do homework until forever mode". It's kind of a rush.

[Nerdanel]

It's funny how getting up at 5am is so much easier than getting up at 8.. or maybe it's just the awareness that there's something nice happening. I'm taking a course called 'the ecology of owls' which involves two trips to the course leader's study population of ural owl (Strix uralensis). Today is one. I'll get to see owls closer than ever before! Too bad about the rain.. >.<

[Gwaimir Windgem]

I find that it's easier to get up if I have had around 4 hours of sleep or less, and then really hard until I get to 7.5 or 8. But it's also easy when there's something that simply MUST be done, or something fun.

[Nerdanel]

Happy: Flogging Molly are coming to Helsinki, and I got tickets for their gig! It's perfectly timed right after my book exam, too. Whee!

And, I had a great day in the forest today. Saw beautiful birds, learnt things about their ecology and walked around in nice forests. Not bad at all.

[katya]

Happy: yum yum!

[Tessar]

Originally Posted by sisterandcousinandaunt

You know, Tessar, we don't seem to be online at the same time much any more, and I miss that. But I really enjoy reading the updates on your voice progress. It's exciting.

<.< love you.

>.>




I had another breakthrough today, mostly prompted by sheer exhaustion. I was completely exhausted by the time I got to my voice lesson this afternoon, and so in trying to warm up before going in, I was having to do all kinds of crazy things to get my energy up.

Then I just sort of had this weird breakthrough when I was breathing in to start a phrase, and I improved my breath support. O.o Yeah, just a little lightbulb, and it improved my support. I can sing longer phrases, can get up into my middle voice more easily, and despite my exhaustion I was able to turn it on and I sang better in my lesson than ever before.

So given a little sleep and some time to solidify the breakthrough, it'll be great!


My teacher said that as soon as the competition is done this weekend, she wants to hit the technique work hard. I couldn't agree more. I said at the end of the lesson that I want to really work on solidifying my technique through my upper chest/middle/lower-head registers because... I have them, and I do 'em right some times, but other times it just doesn't click perfectly. So she just nodded and said she wanted to start some really hard-core scale work to polish up my technique once the competition is over.


This is so exciting! I'm singing notes in my songs that I could barely vocalize to before last semester, and last semester I was just tapping them. Now I'm sustaining them and sailing above them. Really makes up for a lot of the other stress and frustration I'm having to deal with right now... steady practice is yielding good results.

[Mari]

Yay for Tessar! ^_^
Happy because I'm finally back and got over my initial upsetness over the 10,5 hour delay.

[Mari]

Whiee~h! Another person told me I looked pretty today without me having to ask how I look and without that person being family
That makes 4 compliments, which must be a new record. Teehee~ I feel pretty today

AND I finished reading up on everything and got back on track with schoolwork. Me is happyzzz yes me is. And off course I'm very happy to be back here.
I shall start uploading piccies tonight perhaps I think.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Originally Posted by Tessar

So, I just discovered that the reason I always sound muddy when I speak and when I sing in english is that I DON'T USE MY FREAKING LIPS. >.<

I was listening to a recording of myself speaking some stuff I'm trying to memorize, and it suddenly popped into my head, "MAN, this guy needs to use his lips when he annunciates..."

So I rerecorded myself trying to use my lips more, and lo and behold, my voice cleared up a LOT. For some reason, mainly I think because I'm still getting over trying to speak as quickly as possible at all times, I just learned to freeze my lips when I speak... so now I'm fixing that.

And thus, another Vivica Genaux is born...

[BeardofPants]

I'm about 4 kgs off from reaching normal weight on the BMI.

[Nerdanel]

Field station, here I come! Bye-bye, damned city..