First Published: 2023 January 11
Wow, one year ago yesterday I was writing about the last exam I had for graduate school. I’m1 much further along in this one. I just turned in the one page version of my proposed project.2 It was a fun time, and I hope my committee likes it.
First Published: 2023 January 10
Prereading note: I’m making a backstory for a character I’m playing in a campaign. He’s a Star Druid Firbolg.
I have been asked to write down some of my story, though I do not quite know why. My companions call me Rex Sylvae. I am ever glad that we have avoided going near to the true lands of the Fey, as I have grown attached to my head and this name.
Ah, but I should explain. In any anthropology of Firbolgs, there is bound to be a mention of our names, or lack thereof. The claim is that Firbolgs do not use names themselves, only taking on use-names when interacting with other races. This is not wholly true.
Firbolgs are not Fey. However, we remember when we were. Other races claim that a name represents who they are. This is dangerous to one who interacts with the Fey.
After all, it is far easier to bind a name than a soul. By saying that the two are the same, however, binding the soul merely requires binding a name. And so, Firbolgs recognize names as what they are: a means of communication.
It is difficult to express this in the common tongue, as “being” encompasses both attributes and the whole. I will do my best, however. I would not say that I am Rex Sylvae, anymore than I would say that I am a wanderer. I wander, yes, and I am called Rex Sylvae, yes, but I am more than either of those.
Of course, that does not explain why I would prefer to avoid the Fey. Fey, knowing the mortal temptation to bind oneself to a name, are fond of asking who people are. All Firbolgs answer in the same way when asked, as was taught by our own ancestors long ago.
You respond “I am a king of the forest,” as Firbolgs are above the Beasts of the forest. Of course, Old Sylvan lacks articles, so that utterance is the same as “I am King of Forest,” the title of their One King. To challenge that assertion would be madness, and the Fey who can tell truth from lies would hear it as true.
But, the Fey are long gone from much of this world. And so, I, young and newly on my own, wandered by a race I had never seen before. One asked me in the Common Tongue who I was, and so I responded as though this was some new form of Fey. Of course, it later turned out that the asker was an Orc.
Now that we’ve covered the way I am called, I should move to more pressing matters. While I would not say that I am Rex Sylvae, I would call myself a Druid of the Stars. The Grove of Stars, though monolithic in name, is far from it. Each of us is bound by two commandments: we gather together when the cosmos align, and we follow our stars.
Of course, with directions as vague as those, there is much dissent among the followers. At one end, there are those that slavishly plot their star’s course, ensuring that they remain beneath it always. At the other are those who believe that, so long as they know where the stars should be, they are following their commandment.
Obviously, both of these are ridiculous positions, but they serve to illustrate the idea. We are all bound to a number of stars, however weakly, and so there is no way to truly remain beneath every star which is yours. We also know that stars unobserved can fade away, which is why many take to their nightly Litanies. The question of whether a star you cannot see can still hear your Litany is not a settled one.
My family lay near the middle. While we tried to stay near our birth star, we recognize that circumstances may require divergences. As I grow older, I more and more believe the commandment to be more of a spiritual than physical demand. That is, rather than tracking the placement of the stars as projected onto the land, we must act in nature with ourselves.
As I planned to present this idea at the next Alignment, I began to Dream. At first, I wrote these dreams off as the result of a spoiled meal or some other, natural cause. As they kept happening, though, I realized that they were trying to warn me. Something cataclysmic is going to happen by the next Alignment.
Of course, Star Druids are known for our apocalyptic views. The temple we built is made to withstand any disaster that we could imagine, warded as it is against all forces. In my Dreams, it lies shattered. I fear that the Bound Hand has something to do with this.
My Dreams and stars pointed me in the direction of three individuals, who I have now joined with in an adventuring party. I hope that we will be able to avert whatever vision I keep seeing. Until then, though, so long as we are bringing about a better world, I do not know what I can do.
First Published: 2023 January 7
Fourth Species counterpoint remains kind of strange, if only because most of the canti firmi1 I write have mainly stepwise motion, meaning that you end up with a lot of chained suspensions. I personally love chained suspensions, so that’s fine with me, but I understand why others don’t.
However, after a nice week of this, I feel ready for Fifth Species. Fifth Species combines all the rules of the other species together kind of.
quarter, half, and whole notes are allowed
dissonances resolve stepwise
dissonances allowed on the downbeat only when suspended
should be singable and pretty
After this, I start with three voice species counterpoint, which I’ll need to look up the rules for.
plural of cantus firums?↩︎
First Published: 2023 January 6
Once more, playing DnD with the same DM. This time we did a session zero for a new campaign. I’m going to be playing a Firbolg Star Druid. I need to come up with some inspiration for the character by our next meeting, so expect me to post on here at least once about it.
First Published: 2023 January 5
Yesterday I led my first day of class as a Catechist. That is, I was responsible for leading the discussion amongst a group of middle schoolers on the first four commandments. It went much better than I had expected.
First Published: 2023 January 4
So species counterpoint reflection is on Wednesdays now. Fourth species is an interesting challenge to me. More than any other species1, it makes me want to work entirely back to front.
That is, I know what note I want to end on, and the penultimate note and often antipenultimate note. Once I’ve gotten those notes, the way that suspensions works means that I often have at most a single choice to meet the rules. It’s kind of interesting in a way.
That being said, I for sure need to spend at least the full week on fourth species. It’s not intuitive for me yet.
so far at least↩︎
First Published: 2023 January 3
I talked about how I do better with doing things when they’re scheduled, and how I do better with schedules when I know what’s scheduled. With that in mind, it seems useful to plan out what I’ll practice on my instruments.
Much as I love accordion, it’s more of an ordeal to practice, so I find that I don’t do it as much, especially when I’m tired. So, on days when I lack energy, my practice will be playing through a song on guitar and doing a scale.
If I have mental energy again,1 I would like to try to learn at least a song every two weeks.2 That way I can keep the open mics spiced up. I’d ideally like to do most of these on accordion.
First Published: 2023 January 2
As with my last two yearly reflections, I’m going to start with five positive things that happened to me in 2022, and five things I’m excited for in 2023.
Passing my second year exam
Getting an accordion!
Restarting this blog!
Writing two books
Learning that I can run 5 miles when I need to.
Looking at the five things I was excited for in 2022, there’s a lot of overlap. As always, though, more wonderful things happened than I could have ever expected.
As I look to the coming year, I’m excited to/for:
Passing my third year exam
Self-publishing a book
Taking an improv class
Watching my littlest brother graduate
Growing in my relationships
My goals last month were:
Blog every day.
Stretch every day.
Write another 50000 word book.
Catch up on BiaY.
I accomplished the final one of those only. That’s kind of sad, but I suppose natural.
Looking into 2023, I’ve already planned out most of it.
This month in particular, I would like to:
Blog daily. I have faith in myself.
Listen to the BiaY and CCCiaY on average once a day each
Stretch daily
Write a poem a day
Write a piece of music a day
Write through Chapter 35 of the book I’m self publishing
Practice music daily
Say a rosary a day
I think my theme is going to be Schedule. I find that my life works better the less I leave what I do to chance, and so I want to regiment out my day more. I’ve tried using auto-generated lists these past few days for the things I want to do daily, and that’s been really helpful.
Happy 2023!
First Published: 2023 January 1
Luke 2:16 “And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart”
Today is the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. It’s historically also the Feast of the Circumcision. Despite the nominal focus on Mary, the readings seem to focus more on the old celebration to me.
The readings focus on Christ’s fulfillment of the messianic prophecy.
First Published: 2022 December 31
It’s the last day of the year, which last time I wrote on, I focused on the last year. I hadn’t taken to more formal reflections then, which I think I will do on the second.1 Instead, I’m going to treat today as a2 standard Saturday post, and talk about me week in species counterpoint.
Once again, I managed to do the counterpoint every day. Like last week, I again decided to switch on Wednesday, this time from second to third species. I think I’ve gotten the hang of third species well enough that next week I’m going to start on fourth species.
I can definitely feel my composition chops getting better. As I remarked to a friend, I felt like I was at the cusp of conscious incompetence and competence. Now I feel like I’m well into the conscious competence, and edging into the unconscious competence again. The lines I’m writing generally meet all the rules of species counterpoints, and I’m starting to see more or less accidental motifs arising, as well as better general contouring in the line.
Once again, I’m excited to see how well it transfers.
The rules here are:
Off-beat whole notes
Dissonances resolve step-wise down
No parallel fifths and octaves
It’s the last day of the year, which last time I wrote on, I focused on the last year. I hadn’t taken to more formal reflections then, which I think I will do on the second.3 Instead, I’m going to treat today as a4 standard Saturday post, and talk about me week in species counterpoint.
Once again, I managed to do the counterpoint every day. Like last week, I again decided to switch on Wednesday, this time from second to third species. I think I’ve gotten the hang of third species well enough that next week I’m going to start on fourth species.
I can definitely feel my composition chops getting better. As I remarked to a friend, I felt like I was at the cusp of conscious incompetence and competence. Now I feel like I’m well into the conscious competence, and edging into the unconscious competence again. The lines I’m writing generally meet all the rules of species counterpoints, and I’m starting to see more or less accidental motifs arising, as well as better general contouring in the line.
Once again, I’m excited to see how well it transfers.