Rock Paper Scissors

Today in the mail I received my newest pair of scissors. Here is my collection. I am immensely proud of it:



1. This is my newest pair (the ones I just received today). They are Gingher 8 inch dress making shears. Pretty much awesome indestructible amazingness. Mother had a pair when we were growing up (and still does) they are the best for any kind of fabric cutting.

2. Random walmart scissors. They work.

3. 2nd pair of random walmart scissors because I frequently misplace or leave my sissors in many different places.

4. In theory these could be paper cutting scissors but I recieved them second hand from someone and already had better pairs. I use them for thread cutting and what not in random crafting.

5. For a while these were my premier paper cutting scissors. They work well enough but sadly they're not exactly true, as you can see in the picture they don't close fully without pressure because the blades are curved towards each other somehow, so they're most certainly not perfect. I think they were also second hand along with the embroidery scissors.

6. These beauties are my treasure. Hoffer gold's from Switzerland (via paper cutting by Alison), my parents gave them to me for Christmas a few years ago. And now I am a compete scissor snob. Nothing else will do. No one is allowed to touch these scissors and they are only for paper cutting only on mid to light weigh paper - and even the midweight can be questionable (I'd not be so keen on using regular computer paper).

7. Here we have my first pair of scissors. Well first specifically personally owned ones. My father got them from the gift shop at his library/museum along with a Scherenschnitte book and thats what started me off on my scissor obsession. Now I can't believe that I ever used those brutes for much of anything. So it goes.


[Not pictured: A pair of 2 inch emroidery scissors matching 4. Last seen in with my cross stitch project. Current location: unknown.]

Rock on
Paper Cutting
Scissors

The quietest and most constant of friends.

I am behind on my book reviews. And I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading. I’ve fallen into a very nice pattern of going to the library every two weeks (that’s the length of their check out period with no renewals) where I pick up 2 books and 4 or 5 CD’s. It’s pretty sweet. And now I’m wondering if I might be able to keep up this book a week trend all year. It would make me feel accomplished.

Library trip 1 (most likely on December 29)
The curious incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – While it’s accuracy has been called into question the story is told from such an interesting perspective/mind set that I’d definitely recommend the book.

Across the Nightingale Floor (Tales of the Otori, Book 1) – A fairly new fantasy series set in an asian world/mentality. Amusing but nothing special.

Dvorak: Symphony #9, Serenade for Winds: Eugene Ormandy; London Symphony Orchestra – Recently I’ve begun collecting Dvorak 9 (its quite possibly my favorite) and while the recording quality left me wanting more at first I soon got over it and realized how amazingly balanced this recording was. Spectacular.

Bernstein Symphony No. 3, Chichester Psalms – I’m a big Berstein fan but just didn’t take the time to really listen to this one. The whole choir/symphony thing makes me a bit standoffish.

Under The Corkwood Tree: Fall Out Boy – They’re just a fun group. I didn’t realize this album contained so many singles.

Library trip 2, 1/12
Children of Dune (interlibrary loan) – I have now completed the full original Dune trilogy – yay! CoD was definitely back to the amazingly amazing quality of the first. The second is definitely the weak link.

Dancing on my Grave, an autobiography of Gelsey Kirkland – If you’re not at least familiar with dance/ballet I would not recommend this book. However if you are and have an interest I definitely recommend it. Her story is crazy and it’s fascinating to be able to see ‘behind the scenes’.
Harry Potter And The Order of the Phoenix: Nicholas Hooper – Quite different than the other Harry Potter movie music. It’s not nearly as catchy which I easily attribute to the heavily lesser use of themes and motifs. But most certainly some great music. Also interesting to note is that the tracks are not arranged chronologically based on the movie (as most movie score music is) but rather arranged to form its own cohesive album.

Mahler Symphony # 6 – I totally was aiming for 3 or 4. How did I end up with 6? I’ve not listened to it yet.

Why Should the Fire Die?: Nickel Creek – This is my newest and best recent music find. Its this awesome folky but not just folk music. The harmonies are rich and complex. No two songs are so alike, yet they still have an overall sound. Multiple vocalists are featured and there are also instrumental tracks. A definite must listen.


Library trip 3, 1/26
Kite Runner – A poinent and phenomenal story of love loss and honor in a society we have heard about but rarely comprehend. Chances are you’ve heard it recommended else where or have already read it. There’s a reason for this I now see.

Holding onto the Air: Suzanne Farrell autobiography – TBA (I’m on page 20 or something).
Schindler’s List: Itzhak Perlman, John Williams – One of my new most favorite movie scores. I already knew the main theme but seeing how that is carried through the whole score is amazing. John Williams is less one sided than some of his other block busters indicate. And Perlman shows you why he is a classical music superstar and other musicians are mere mortals.

Superman: The Movie: John Williams – We played one of the songs in marching band. I am a marching band geek. Rock on.

Rutter: Gloria: Choir of King’s College – We sang Rutter’s Gloria in college choir. This choir does it a million times better. *oh that’s what it’s supposed to sound like*. And the treble parts are sung by boys. Unfair.


“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.”

An adult on a bicycle.

The weather here has been cold recently. I do not like it. But on Friday we had a day of respite as temperatures made it up to the 40's. Also recently I'd been noting that it's stayed light a bit later in the evening (all the way to 5:30). Putting these factors together and I wanted to get out on my bike again. So, with a bit of encouragement from a co-worker, i left work early, around 3:15, and went home to go out for a nice ride.

Temperature wise it was quite amazing. I was acclimated before I headed off even. Although it was still quite cool whenever there was a breeze (like every downhill). And there's one part of the trail that is down in the valley of a stream and mostly in shade. That part was definitely cooler than the rest. Plus there were even some patches of snow/slush there. I was slightly concerned that that could be detrimental to my health. The first danger being sudden lost of traction and fall off bikeage the second being tire spray and getting wet. But I survived the perils without notice. I did almost spill one time but that was owing to cinders that had built up on the side of the road. Fun fun.

Here are my stats:

Distance: 12.958 miles
Average Speed: 11.7 mph
Time Moving: 1:06:22

Rock on.


"When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race."

A bed may show of human bliss to human woe.

On Wednesday I received an email from my Mother. It's opening text was pretty standard in it's "hey it's been a while and I figured I ought to check that you were still alive." This is not a direct quote but rather an inferred summation. Me and my parental units are cool like that. She then proceeded to inform me of various random things about some assorted family members. Then she mentioned that my birthday was coming up and instead of my prior plan of bringing out my old bed from home sometime someday I should just buy myself a new bed and they'd reimburse me.

I. Freaked. Out.

Like seriously? Me, buy a bed? For serious?

A few months ago I bought myself a pillow and it made me feel like all grown up. A bed might kill me.

I have no idea how to go about buying a bed. What the heck am I supposed to look for?

Well it's expensive. I'm quite bad at expensive things. Even if it's not my money I have a hard time spending it without hours and hours and hours of thinking and planning.

And since it's not a trivial expense one needs to get something good and decent that will last a while. But I don't even know where I'm going to be in a very short while with my life. So how will I figure out what kind/type of bed to purchase.

Obviously I have issues. My mother comes up with a very good and beneficial idea that is quite quite generous of her and I can't help but wonder why she couldn't be more mundane and send a CD, or a book, or a tent, or a gift certificate, or a check?

Alas I am crazy.

But sometime within the next few weeks maybe I'll be a crazy person with a new bed.




"In bed we laugh, in bed we cry, and born in bed, in bed we die; the near approach a bed may show of human bliss to human woe"

Any fool can.

Today was the first rehearsal of the year for my new Community Band. It's great to be playing again. Although I really was not playing well. Firstly I kept having notes not sound, which is just odd. I attribute it to being way out of shape. And secondly I'm reading way too many ledger lines in thirds. Non-ideal.

Unfortunately the group really really sucks. The worst is probably the conductor. I have no idea how she ended up directing this group. Possibly something to do with living in the area forever and having no other respectable jobs. Their music choices are incredibly lame. It's bad seriously bad. Quite a bit of the stuff I played in high school. And really my high school band was not good at all. And judging by what I saw today it looks like the band may not buy new music. Ouch. Lastly the players are mostly bad. There are a few mediocre ones, but they are easily drowned out by the bad ones. And seriously there ought to be someone in some section that I'd be impressed by. But no (oh well maybe the bassoons stand a chance actually). Most dreadfully for me is the fact that all of the first flute players are bad. Again I exaggerate I think two of them may have the potential to be decent. But none have impressed me at all.

And it just makes me sad because I know nothing will ever improve. And within my own section there is little to no chance that I'll ever move from my last stand position except for the possibility of other players leaving (or more likely dying).


"Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain - and most fools do."

My reactions

My thoughts during the inauguration:

The internet here at work was not-cooperating. But right around 11:30 I managed to get an audio stream from NPR. It’s incredibly exciting.

It’s true that our system is special in the easy and smooth peaceful transfer of power. We are so lucky.

I had to answer a phone call, wrong number, during the opening prayer.

With this whole deal I don’t like the emphasis on the fact that he’s African American. Why should that matter? Or maybe I’m saying that as one who never had/has to suffer under the struggle of prejudices.

Aretha Franklin – the choice is incredibly intriguing to me. I support the “integration” of the various ethnic backgrounds here. OMG WHY AM I THE ONLY ONE ANSWERING PHONES. Ok I wasn’t a huge fan of her version at first but I’ve warmed up to it. Now if only they’d do the Jimi Hendrick’s National Anthem. Still I liked it, gotta love soul music.

I like how someone introduced someone who introduced someone else.

Itzhak Perlman and YoYo Ma!!!!!! And by John Williams. OMG. And it’s unheard. I need to look up the name of this again. I love Simple Gifts. Ever since my first hearing of Copeland’s. It’s hard to hear it now without thinking of Appalachian spring. I need to get a copy of this music. It is gorgeous and those two string players are incredible. To use a song like this that everyone knows a certain set of words to (gift to be simple, gift to be free) it’s quite an interesting statement both on hopes for our nation and hopes for our new leader. “Air on Simple Gifts” I caught the name now.

Did he just mess up the words? He’s human too!

He makes it sound too easy, it’s not. “All our free, All deserve a chance” are we back to race again?

“The doers the makers” – makes me think of Ayn Rand.

Ooo I’ve been called out as a naysayer. Ok, point to you President Obama.

Ok so the national anthem at the end was rather anticlimactic. They weren’t bad, but it was absolutely not compelling. I suppose people would freak out if they did any kind of an arrangement (such things happened once to my H.S. band – it was interesting).

Stars and Stripes! Oh how it’s been much too long since I played that blasted piece. But the Marine Band is awesome.

Potholes in the road of life.

Today is Blue Monday, the most depressing day of the year. [Actually the whole concept is a marketing ploy, read the Wiki.] And I’m definitely feeling it this year.

Or well actually I’m feeling exhaustified. My body has been acting oddly for quite a while now. At first I just attributed it to my not-unheard of poor eating habits. But seems like I should have balanced back out by now, yet I’m still feeling iffy. I’ve actually been about 2lbs down from what I consider my “normal” weight since like before Christmas now. Weird.

But inevitably the prime suspect of my exhaustification is reading Children of Dune. I keep staying up too late. Ooops. Seriously the last time I went to bed before like 12:30am was maybe Thursday.

Some people are addicted to easily categorized ‘bad things’, For example alcohol or drugs. Me? Well I’m addicted to books and they still manage to have bad effects on my physical health.

*shrug* Can’t be perfect.


“Mondays are the potholes in the road of life.”

Productivity

So last weekend was a concert weekend. And a concert weekend means 12 days of often stressful work in a row. In fact last weekend was particularly bad because of the possibility of snow. People here freak out if they even see the word. The end result of those 12 days is always without fail me being ridiculously excited to finally reach the weekend.

I'd started planning things I wanted to do with my marvelous days off before Friday and so by the time I arrived home at approximately 4:40 I was able to begin putting together a list of things to do which later grew into this beauty:

Things to do now that I finally have 2 whole days off!:
1. Clean room
2. Read Dune
3. Knit at least 5 inches of arm warmers
4. Beat another level in Guitar Hero 2
5. Beat another song in Guitar Hero 3
6. do laundry
7. wash sheets and towels
8. find and mail Nicole's christmas present
9. start new budget in Microsoft Money
10. re-memorize Raindrop Prelude
11. learn tricky part of Prelude 4
12. send random letter
13. find subscription order forms to use as examples
14. make some form of meal food
15. teach TRM to double knit
16. lunch with a stalker
17. make iced tea with good tea bags
18. clean kitchen

The results were as follows:
1. Cleaning my room was easy. Really things just end up getting piled up during the week so all I needed to do was put stuff away.
2. I probably should have put a page restriction on this. I did make it through quite a bit of the book but there are still about 80 pages to go.
3. I also made some decent progress here, it's definately looking like something tubular now, but I think I only made about 3.5 more inches.
4. Check, beating another level on GH2 was easy.
5. Sadly I didn't even attempt passing a song on GH3. I have been stuck on this one level forever. I'm playing on hard now and it's gotten seriously hard. Maybe I can make it a goal of the week or something.
6. Laundry is one of those obvious and easy weekend things. Double check.
7. Easy peasy. And bonus now my bed is all neat and nicely tucked in again. Inevitably during the week it somehow starts shifting and drives me nuts (even though I make my bed every morning).
8. So Nicole's Christmas Present is definitely MIA. I'm really questioning my sanity and wondering if I actually mailed it to her in a more timely fashion already.
9. So this budget is really rather insignificant. And I'd just like to do it for the graphs and charts that Money can generate. So maybe during the week I'll un-slack off. I'd also like to enter in everything from like the second half of 2008 sometime maybe.
10. At first I was quite frustrated with my inability to play Raindrop anymore. But I'm just rusty and things started clicking on Saturday. I think I could perform it passibly enough. Most people might even be impressed.
11. As my piano skills returned this became easier. Not performable yet, but good progress.
12. I ended up writing 3 postcards to 3 of my friends. I like the random factor of the idea. That and getting stuff in the snail mail is always fun.
13. This task I think I had finished before 6 on Friday. Now I can take them into work tomorrow!
14. Saturday for Dinner I made myself some Tilapia. It was a pretty pathetic attempt at cooking, but hey gotta start somewhere, and hey it really didn't taste half bad imho.
15. TRM was envying a phone case that I recently whipped up so I had to teach her to double knit so she could make one.
16. So adding this to the list was a direct quote from him. And it needs to be noted that stalker is not flower boy. It definately ended up being possibly the longest first date ever. The jury is still out.
17. This was random, I had a sudden urge for good iced tea. And indeed it was tasty.
18. There were many dirty dishes. But I always feel so accomplished after I clean up the kitchen, so completing this made me happy.

Takes the taste out of peanut butter.

Many times in the past few days have I thought of things that I wanted to write about on here. And yet I never did it. It was a concert weekend. And as always those always shoot my motivation to hell. Plus they went and forecasted snow (most of which didn’t come) for the weekend which was a really really good way to stress me out because all of our patrons start freaking out. But it actually went rather well, it was a miracle.

Then on Tuesday I received flowers at work from some random kid that I’d be talking to online. Like holy freaking crap. I love flowers and they are totally a very good way to win my heart. But the whole getting them from someone that I’ve not even met – not cool. It ruined the flowers completely plus because it was at work people asked about them. And I didn’t want to tell the truth so I lied. And then I just hated having to keep lying again and again. Plus now I really don’t know what to do about this guy. He’s perfectly nice and sweet, and for gosh shakes he sent me flowers. How many times have I wished I had a significant other that’d do that. But still…really no interest in dating this guy. Yet I really don’t want to have to tell him. I could go the way of A and just *poof* (disappear) but that is rather cruel to do to someone.

On my non personal life front so far me and the New Years Resolutions are iffy. I’m doing quite well about my new blog. In fact I’m sure it contributed to my not posting over here so much. The extra $ and biking are really not at all everyday goals. And well I’m failing, unfortunately as I predicted, at the stretching. I have excuses! It gets hard when the days are stressful and there are concerts and I end up exhausted. And then I go to ballet and end up sore the next couple of days. Here’s hoping I kick myself out of it and get back on the horse.

In other news the economy is becoming more and more scary. Big name classical arts organizations are floundering: The Baltimore Symphony laid off a number of staff, and today the Met announced top staff took 10% pay cuts and are asking lower staff members to do the same. Wish me luck in this environment.

“Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love.” - Charlie Brown (Charles Schutz)

A single step.

As you can see my blog has been prettified. Hooray for new beginnings.

I think that I should modify things so that my new year really didn't start at midnight on January 1. Because well bad things happened then. But things like my new pretty blog give me hope.

As you admire the amazing color/design also take note of the progress bars to the right. After a good bit of messing around with some code that I don't actually understand but managed to work by trial and error I consider them to be quite the sucess.

Please also also take note that there is even some reported progress!

3. I forgot to mention in my Beginnings post but I've found another small trickle of additional income. Sometime in December one of the blogs I read posted a link to join Pinecone research! And if you've ever researched anything about being paid for online survey's you'll know that Pinecone is the place to sign up with. So I did. For each of the survey's you complete they mail you a $3 check within days. It's awesome. So far I've received $6. Rock on.

4. Yesterday was my first day of stretching. Rather incorrectly I went and did it cold. And really I must say there is a huge difference. Most of the serious stretching that I've done lately has been towards the end of ballet class when I'm obviously quite warmed up. Ah well, live and learn. And one additional 'interesting' effect was that it seems to have bothered my left knee which hurt some this morning. I've been having knee issues when doing some strenuous stuff (running or serious hiking) but I can't remember which one. Yup, I'm that awesome. Something to watch out for. Also I need to think of a better way to track my progress on this one for it's sidebar.

5. New Blog! http://musicaincipit.blogspot.com/ I also made this one pretty. But still tried to be sophisticated about it. Plus I have a list of topics to write up posts on. Sweetness.


“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”

Beginnings

I resolve in 2009 that I shall accomplish the following things:

1. Pay off 1 student loan ($2,510.03).
2. Ride my bike 1200 miles.
3. Generate $300 beyond my salary.
4. Stretch. Have at least one solid split.
5. Create and maintain a “professional” blog.

When I first came up with number one my initial reaction was ‘that should be easy’. However in considering it further and re-evaluating my budget, I’m rethinking a bit and have decided that this could be a challenge. But really these resolutions are not supposed to be easy as pie things that do nothing for my personal growth so I intend to have quite a go at it. Previously I was budgeting $100 per month for my student loan, this was based on the $99 and some odd change requirement over the 10 year period. Before I even thought this up as a resolution I had increased that amount to a barely significant $120 per month. Now it is my intent to throw my entire extra paycheck (January’s a 3 pay period month) at it. That will be exciting (I’m not being sarcastic I’m a huge dork and this excites me).

Number two initially was 1000 miles. Mostly because that’s a nice even round number. But I decided that it would be too easy to attain. This past year I probably hit 800, and that includes not starting until like June and being a beginner who was afraid that the whole 20 mile loop would be difficult.

The resolution that I am most concerned about is number three. This is something that I’ve seen many other pf bloggers do, generally in much larger amounts. And while it’s something that I’ve considered many times I’ve never actively set any goals. Some current thoughts on how to accomplish this are: interest which is kind of cheating but I still think it fits, sell crafts (most likely paper cuttings) on Etsy, find occasional handy jobs on Craigslist, or maybe even try and sell some things that I no longer use or need. It could be very exciting if I am able to do these things and generate a bit of extra cash in my pocket.

Number four is something that I’ve tried to convince myself to do a million other times. And as of yet have never gotten very close to accomplishing. I think my best run is probably stretching about 3 days in a row. How shameful. My side split is dismal and I have little to know hope for it. But right now my right is somewhere around 6 inches up I'd imagine. The left is a bit behind it. So if I'm persistent a few months could see some good progress.

Five should actually be some fun. Blogs are big now not only in the random completely personal sense that I am posting now. Hopefully I can put out some good ideas, and maybe eventually I’ll even generate some readership.

Now I shall endeavor to overhaul the design of this site and add *gasp* progress bars!

Reflections

2008, you were a year. That, by any means, is the truth.

I think what most stands out about the recently passed year was its being a year of settling and coming into my own. It was the first year of my 100% legal (and nearly all financial [I think the only real exception is the cell phone my parents pay for]) independence. Way back in 2007 I was still a student for the first half of the year and then spent the second half pretty much doing nothing with my new life.

When I made my somewhat ridiculous list of 'resolutions' on the eve of 2007 part of it was out of the need to fill my life with something, anything. I wasn't joking when I say I was doing nothing in the fall of 2007. I went to work, I came home. Repeat.

But even then I was on the edge of new things. TRM and I had started dating in December of 07. We were together through June of 2008. That was my first adult relationship. And as bitter as I was from the breakup I'm really very thankful for the growth and learning that the experience provided me. Plus all in all he was and is a great guy, albeit not the perfect one for me.
In June I was handed the experience of going to a big national conference for the arts. It was great to see so many ideas and new things presented. Plus just the ability to almost (although not quite) go off on a trip on my own. Not to mention that it was done on the company dime.

2008 saw the beginning of my new obsession, biking. I blame Jo for it’s origins, but I’ve definitely taken it to a farther level than her now. It all started with the $30 yard sale bike. I logged somewhere around 800 miles I figure. I’d be half tempted to say the best $30 I spent all year. Although unfortunately the obsession did spur additional spending. My bike gear now abounds. Plus I went way out on a limb and made the $800 purchase of my new beauty. I didn’t even budget for it. In the end however I can afford it. Plus I’m pretty sure it’s totally worth it. I got a ridiculously good deal. My $30 bike was a $30 bike, and it was too big for me. Orange (as I have spontaneously decided to call my new bike) actually fits me and cause me to do less damage to my body. And over all the whole bike riding this is incredibly beneficial to my heath and well being. Plus I’m somewhat determined to, once the weather hits spring, use it instead of my car whenever possible.

In conjunction with the bike obsession I participated in two pretty serious rides. First I rode a ridiculously hot and way too hilly 100 miles. Then later a sweet and speedy flat 150 across NJ. I’d definitely say that those are my accomplishments of the year.

And those are the things that stand out to me when I think back upon my year.

Happy New Year

2009 rolled in by emotionally kicking my ass. Things have not improved since then.


*my previously mentioned and more uplifting posts may yet be still forthcoming*