The Happy Thread V

[Tessar]

Originally Posted by RÃ*an

wow! That's amazing - usually it takes a long time to sound like anything other than a cat in agony, from what I've heard!

I know! I was really surprised. But I think it stems from two things.... one is knowing how to hold the bow, which he did a really great job of showing me and I (as a technical minded person) was able to replicate on my own very easily.

The second thing is something that most people don't seem to know, and I only learned because of some Alexander Technique work I've done, which is that you can move your arm most efficiently by working from the shoulder-blade instead of the shoulder, elbow, or wrist. It gives your entire arm strength, precision, and flexibility. It's how I play piano... you move from the shoulder-blade, and gain 'pivot' by letting your wrist be relaxed and 'swing' into position. Otherwise if you lead with your wrist you're "dragging" your arm along, if you move from your elbow you lose a lot of strength, and if you work from the shoulder you'll be clumsy... but working from the shoulder-blade allows you to smoothly use the entire length of your arm.

I suspect you probably do something really similar to play harp. Is that something Harpists do, Rian?

My dad kept making squeaking noises till I showed him how to work from his shoulder-blade, and then he started to get it... so I suspect that my voice training is actually doing me some good here.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

If I were 20 years younger, what I did would have been -very- impressive.

I'm impressed, twenty years too late.

My own anti-vent (the hearken back to the olde dayes): I've found an online community called the Gay Christian Network, and they're awesome! They even have a sub-community for people with own views on sexuality, with some great people there! Great broader-community + great sub-community = happy me.

[Tessar]

GAH, VIOLIN IS THE BEST!!!!!!! Havin' soooo much fun now that I've got my "Essential Elements 2000," book!! It's really basic stuff and, since I'm not having to learn how to read music, I'm flying through the examples. Went through 32 tonight, so I've learned to pluck the pitches for three of the strings. According to my sister's digital tuner, which I use to check my pitch, I'm actually doing a good job of hitting the pitches dead on, although I suspect it's mostly luck at the moment.

I've stopped playing using the bow (I'm just plucking, like the book suggested), since he didn't actually "show" me how to do it and I would hate to spend all week using the bow and being all proud of myself only to show up for the lesson and have him say, "Yeah.... no.... now we have to fix EVERYTHING YOU'VE EVER DONE!!!"

[Nerdanel]

i just had an awesome, long weekend (independence day on monday), with everything one could ask for. wishes/dreams coming true, loads of food, relaxation, good friends and good discussions..

aah, could have more of those; i certainly wouldn't complain.

[Jonathan]

The contract is signed.
Next year I'll have a rather big tenement with a real kitchen, only a minute's walk from my job. Also, the current tenant might be willing to give me some of her furniture
I'm pretty satisfied with this arrangement.

[Earniel]

A minute's walk? Dude, and I thought I was lucky with twenty.

Congrats.

[Jonathan]

A minute. That's life quality, I tell ya!

edit: Of course with time optimism and all that, I'm surely bound to turn up late for work everyday

[Earniel]

However, if you live so close to your work, then your colleagues can come and poke you out of bed if you oversleep.

[Tessar]

Originally Posted by Jonathan

A minute. That's life quality, I tell ya!

edit: Of course with time optimism and all that, I'm surely bound to turn up late for work everyday

Oh, the disadvantages of having advantages.

Congratulations on your good news!

[Varnafindë]

Originally Posted by Jonathan

A minute. That's life quality, I tell ya!

edit: Of course with time optimism and all that, I'm surely bound to turn up late for work everyday

When I went to teacher training college, I had five minutes' walk from where I lived. I wasn't usually late, but I was often the last student to turn up

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Originally Posted by Jonathan

A minute. That's life quality, I tell ya!

edit: Of course with time optimism and all that, I'm surely bound to turn up late for work everyday

I have faith in your ability to do the walk in negative ten minutes.

[Linaewen]

Originally Posted by Jonathan

The contract is signed.
Next year I'll have a rather big tenement with a real kitchen, only a minute's walk from my job. Also, the current tenant might be willing to give me some of her furniture
I'm pretty satisfied with this arrangement.

Woohoo! Congrats!

I am living in a house that's 30 seconds from the place I intern at. It's super convenient.

Happy - it's almost the weekend. I have Christmassy festivities, hanging out with some cool people and shopping to look forward to. And my first NFL game on Monday!

[Rían]

That's fantastic, Jon!! Congrats!!

[Mari]

Yay Jon! Is it also anywhere near the centre of the town or is the hospital outside the town?

[Jonathan]

The hospital is very near the town centre.
Of course, it's a quite small centre

The hospital is quite small too, meaning part of my employment will take place in another hospital some 30 mins away by bus. So I won't have the luxuary of 1-minute-walks to the job every day, but oh well

[Mari]

Can't have everything of course. A man'd get spoiled that way

[BeardofPants]

NFL = Niggarz for life, right?

[The last sane person]

Essentially, yes.

[Tessar]

You guys, I met the most awesome girl tonight. My sister called me at 11 saying her car was totally broken down, so I drove out to pick her up... apparently in the meanwhile she went into the restaurant and asked for some help getting her car into the parking lot.

So this suuuuuuuper nice girl, who was just getting off of her shift, helped my sister get her car into the lot, and then used her AAA thing to call us a tow truck. Then she stuck around for about 25 minutes waiting for the tow truck to show up... seriously nicest person ever.

The downside is that in about 5 hours I need to go pick up my sister to drive her in to work, so I wont get much sleep. But on the plus side I had an awesome day of singing today, made friends with a former old 'enemy', got told I was "the funniest guy ever," by a nice guy at choir (), and this evening could have been ruined but nice girl made everyone's day 10000+ times more awesome.

It's always nice to meet nice people. ^_^ They're the best.

[Rían]

I love my cute little dog so much! Well, he's 70 pounds, so maybe not little, but he is soooooo sweet! Everyone who meets him loves him. He's getting old, though - he'll be 10 in February but he is just so sweet-natured and fun. He always looks like he's smiling