Ellen and I took a trip yesterday over to Wapakoneta, OH to hear the Raleigh Ringers in concert. It's my fourth time seeing them live, and they still never cease to amaze me. They played for nearly two hours to a packed middle school auditorium, and most in attendance had either never seen the Raleigh Ringers before, or never seen them live. To anyone who has never seen them before, make the effort. We drove three hours -- one way -- to see them last night, and it was well worth the time and effort to get there.
For the past few days -- when I wasn't in the car crossing state lines -- I've been engaged in full-out battle with my computer, trying to get it to work properly. Being the idiot that I am, I decided to let Windows Update work its magic on my system, and in the process, I let it update the driver for my sound card. Now, for the past few days, I've been having problems with Finale during playback -- mainly, having Finale crashing on me after the fourth or fifth time trying to play back part of the piece. I thought updating the driver would help.
I was wrong.
I'd had this happen once before, but I thought it was a fluke. When I updated the driver, it caused the playback in Finale to come out the speakers about three-quarters of a step higher than it should be. The problem would then bleed over into Media Player, playing all my MP3s back at the higher pitch, and only when I went into the audio control panel to play with it would it remedy the problem.
So, after several emails with the Finale customer support and the problem not getting solved, I've emailed the folks at Creative Labs, and in the meantime, I've rolled back my system and the driver, and that's seemed to fix things. It's only been two days of struggle with a heartless inanimate object, but I think I've come out on top ... sort of.
So, now that I've lost a couple of days of composing, it's time to play catch-up and try to get back on track. So far this month, I've got one two-part choral rough draft done, several handbell rough drafts, and one string orchestra rough draft. I've got several others started I'm hoping to get finished, and have a couple ideas of some more to get done this month. On the plus side, I've written more so far this June than I did last June, so I'm happy about that.
Now, to make the most of the last four days of the month!
Friday, June 26, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
InMuWriJu Day 11 and Distinctly Bronze
The writing is going well -- nearly 1,000 measures for the month so far. I've finished a few rough drafts, chief among them an arrangement of "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen." I hope to get several others done in the coming days, and I'll try my best to keep things updated here.
I also saw on the AGEHR site that "Winter's Waltz" will be one of about a dozen pieces to be played at the Distinctly Bronze East event in October in New Bern, NC. Along with the Florida Holiday Ring and the Capital Area Handbell Festival in NC, that makes three of my pieces being played at festivals throughout the country. Humbling, my friends. Very humbling.
I've also received some good news from Kevin McChesney at Jeffers about a couple of my original pieces -- if all goes according to plan, they should be making an appearance in late 2010. That brings my total up to 15. If you consider that, as of the start of this past school year (the second week of August 2008), I had only had 3 pieces accepted for publication, it's been a spectacular year. If you'd told me two years ago this would happen, I never would have believed you. The way life surprises us!
Enjoy the summer weather, and look for more updates soon!
I also saw on the AGEHR site that "Winter's Waltz" will be one of about a dozen pieces to be played at the Distinctly Bronze East event in October in New Bern, NC. Along with the Florida Holiday Ring and the Capital Area Handbell Festival in NC, that makes three of my pieces being played at festivals throughout the country. Humbling, my friends. Very humbling.
I've also received some good news from Kevin McChesney at Jeffers about a couple of my original pieces -- if all goes according to plan, they should be making an appearance in late 2010. That brings my total up to 15. If you consider that, as of the start of this past school year (the second week of August 2008), I had only had 3 pieces accepted for publication, it's been a spectacular year. If you'd told me two years ago this would happen, I never would have believed you. The way life surprises us!
Enjoy the summer weather, and look for more updates soon!
Saturday, June 6, 2009
InMuWriJu, Day 6
Here we are, six days into June, and my composing is going ... well, not great. I've got starts on six or seven pieces, but nothing approaching a finished rough draft. After the way the week's gone, I'm not surprised. After discovering Mr. Kitty -- my feline brother -- had, at some point in his distant past, been shot, things just kept going.
That was Tuesday.
Wednesday, we went a couple times to my parent's house to check on Mr. Kitty and help give him his medicine, since my dad was preoccupied with my mom and her post-knee-surgery recovery. We visited her, as well, then went back to give Mr. Kitty his pain medicine. He seemed a bit better after that, but not great.
Thursday, we had the fun of getting Mom into the back seat of our car and getting her home, followed by watching a woman who received a new knee forty-eight hours previous back up a flight of 14 stairs to her bedroom. While we were over at my folk's house, we gave Mr. Kitty his medicine again ... still not doing great.
Friday, Ellen made food for my folks, and we took that over. When we got there, Mr. Kitty had hidden himself in the back corner of their closet. He wasn't doing any better, and seemed to be in a lot of pain. My mom is a whiz at getting people to do things they don't want to do, and somehow managed to get the vet's office to agree to surgically remove the bullet Friday night instead of waiting until Tuesday.
We went over today while Dad went to pick him up, and the difference is remarkable. He's walking around, drinking water, eating, rubbing up against people -- just like old Mr. Kitty, except for the large shaved section on his back and the slit of skin held together with staples. Dad brought home the bullet -- he said it was a .22. Just imagining someone shooting that sweet little cat makes me want to scream. There are some sick people in the world, let me tell you.
Anyway, after the various surgeries in my family this week, I'll take the little bit of composing I managed to get done and be grateful for it. Next week should be better, as everyone has finished with their maladies, injuries, and surgeries. My hope is that by this time next week, I'll be able to say I've got several rough drafts finished and many, many others underway.
Also waiting to hear from several publishers on pieces. Should have news this week or next. Until then, enjoy the summer weather and (hopefully) your good health!
That was Tuesday.
Wednesday, we went a couple times to my parent's house to check on Mr. Kitty and help give him his medicine, since my dad was preoccupied with my mom and her post-knee-surgery recovery. We visited her, as well, then went back to give Mr. Kitty his pain medicine. He seemed a bit better after that, but not great.
Thursday, we had the fun of getting Mom into the back seat of our car and getting her home, followed by watching a woman who received a new knee forty-eight hours previous back up a flight of 14 stairs to her bedroom. While we were over at my folk's house, we gave Mr. Kitty his medicine again ... still not doing great.
Friday, Ellen made food for my folks, and we took that over. When we got there, Mr. Kitty had hidden himself in the back corner of their closet. He wasn't doing any better, and seemed to be in a lot of pain. My mom is a whiz at getting people to do things they don't want to do, and somehow managed to get the vet's office to agree to surgically remove the bullet Friday night instead of waiting until Tuesday.
We went over today while Dad went to pick him up, and the difference is remarkable. He's walking around, drinking water, eating, rubbing up against people -- just like old Mr. Kitty, except for the large shaved section on his back and the slit of skin held together with staples. Dad brought home the bullet -- he said it was a .22. Just imagining someone shooting that sweet little cat makes me want to scream. There are some sick people in the world, let me tell you.
Anyway, after the various surgeries in my family this week, I'll take the little bit of composing I managed to get done and be grateful for it. Next week should be better, as everyone has finished with their maladies, injuries, and surgeries. My hope is that by this time next week, I'll be able to say I've got several rough drafts finished and many, many others underway.
Also waiting to hear from several publishers on pieces. Should have news this week or next. Until then, enjoy the summer weather and (hopefully) your good health!
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
InMuWriJu, Day 2
Here we are in the midst of Indiana Music Writing June (InMuWriJu), and I've written a sum total of ... ready? 0 measures.
I know. Pathetic.
Well, school did let out today, so I'll have more time. Supposedly.
My Mom had her knee replacement surgery this morning, and as near as I can tell, she came through just fine. When my wife called her this evening, Mom had been eating pizza and tenderloin and was waiting on them to bring her cheesecake. This, I'm sad to say, was the least interesting part of my day.
We had our school awards program today, which is always a hard day, watching the 5th graders move on from the elementary.
We'd promised Mom we'd stop by after school and check in or their cat, my brother, Mr. Kitty. He'd been acting lethargic the past few days, and for the past day or two was whining when anyone tried to pick him up. So, we got there, and sure enough, he was still yowling when anyone tried to move him, so we loaded him into the cat carrier and got him up to the vet.
They had no clue what was wrong with him, but there was a strange bump on his back, so they kept him in for an X-ray. Well, a few hours later, they called back and let us know -- they'd found what was causing his malaise.
Mr. Kitty has a small bullet in his back next to his spine.
Now, you have to realize that he's been an indoor cat for at least 5 or 6 years, living with my folks, and has only been outside for an hour at a time on a small handful of occasions, and then on a leash and harness with someone close by. There's no way this happened since he's lived with my parents. That means that this poor cat has had a B-B in his body for the past half-decade. The fact he's the most loving and caring cat I've ever seen is just remarkable when you consider that someone shot him at some point in the past.
So, they've put him on some pain/anti-inflammatory stuff, as well as an antibiotic since Mr. Kitty is FIV-positive. They could do surgery, but it's more a last resort since it has the potential to do just as much harm as good. When we left him, after they'd given him his first dose of the pain reliever, he seemed much more at ease, and even let us pick him up and cuddle him. Still not the best of situations, but much better than when the evening began.
At this rate, my father will be the only one in the house without some sort of artificial metal object in his body.
I know. Pathetic.
Well, school did let out today, so I'll have more time. Supposedly.
My Mom had her knee replacement surgery this morning, and as near as I can tell, she came through just fine. When my wife called her this evening, Mom had been eating pizza and tenderloin and was waiting on them to bring her cheesecake. This, I'm sad to say, was the least interesting part of my day.
We had our school awards program today, which is always a hard day, watching the 5th graders move on from the elementary.
We'd promised Mom we'd stop by after school and check in or their cat, my brother, Mr. Kitty. He'd been acting lethargic the past few days, and for the past day or two was whining when anyone tried to pick him up. So, we got there, and sure enough, he was still yowling when anyone tried to move him, so we loaded him into the cat carrier and got him up to the vet.
They had no clue what was wrong with him, but there was a strange bump on his back, so they kept him in for an X-ray. Well, a few hours later, they called back and let us know -- they'd found what was causing his malaise.
Mr. Kitty has a small bullet in his back next to his spine.
Now, you have to realize that he's been an indoor cat for at least 5 or 6 years, living with my folks, and has only been outside for an hour at a time on a small handful of occasions, and then on a leash and harness with someone close by. There's no way this happened since he's lived with my parents. That means that this poor cat has had a B-B in his body for the past half-decade. The fact he's the most loving and caring cat I've ever seen is just remarkable when you consider that someone shot him at some point in the past.
So, they've put him on some pain/anti-inflammatory stuff, as well as an antibiotic since Mr. Kitty is FIV-positive. They could do surgery, but it's more a last resort since it has the potential to do just as much harm as good. When we left him, after they'd given him his first dose of the pain reliever, he seemed much more at ease, and even let us pick him up and cuddle him. Still not the best of situations, but much better than when the evening began.
At this rate, my father will be the only one in the house without some sort of artificial metal object in his body.
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