First Published: 2022 December 30
I think I may have found a solution to my idea earlier of having a way to track my life. Like most people, I do better with to do lists. I found out today how to have my phone generate a to-do list that autopopulates with the activities I need to do every day. It’s nice that these features exist.
First Published: 2022 December 29
Apparently I have the same ideas for writing week-by-week. That’s kind of funny, but I hope that changes soon.
Anyways, these past few days, I’ve managed to get a chapter a day written, which is really nice. The chapters have been differently good, and have needed different amounts of revision. I’ve started using the chapters as ways to test on different ways to write better/more efficiently.
As it turns out, if spend five minutes plotting a chapter before I write it, it comes out much better and faster. I don’t know why that works, but it’s nice to know. On the other hand, it means that I need to know where my journal is at all times.
That’s nice, because I want to get through my journals faster. So yeah, I’m going to try to do that more.
First Published: 2022 December 28
What a coincidence, apparently I need one week to do each counterpoint, at least so far. Anyways, time to move on from second species counterpoint to third species.
As a reminder, the rules are:
Consonant downbeats1, with preference to imperfect consonances2
No note to note parallel perfect unisons3
No hidden (parallel) perfect intervals4
Offbeat disonances must be approached and left stepwise5
Four notes written per note in the cantus firmus
Generally prioritize small skips and step-wise movement, with octave as the exception
Shockingly, third species did not feel significantly harder. On a first pass, I only made my “fourths are consonant” mistake once, and the revision I did focused more on having a meaningful melody, which was nice to be able to have. I am excited to see if this helps me with composing next week.
First Published: 2022 December 27
As it turns out, I may have allergies. I’m not allergic to what I thought I was, but that’s fun anyways. I’m also exhausted, because it turns out that histamine makes us tired. Anyways, that’s all I have to say today.
First Published: 2022 December 26
Pre-reading note: Somewhat rambly
I talked about how I think that having schedules makes my life better. Well, at least better in the sense of more in line with the goals that I set. I mentioned the other day two things that will help, having preplanned ideas for blogging, and having a plan for the poems I’ll write.
Anyways, something something about N stones and M birds. There are 12 months in a year, which is one way I could arrange the poems I do. There are 52 weeks, which is another way I could do it.
Maybe it would be helpful to start with the kind of poems I have written before and enjoy writing.
Sonnets
Villanelles
Ballads
In general, I like doing poems which are at least somewhat metric and constrained. It’s weird to me to realize that I’ve only really written four types of poems in recent memory. It would be kind of nice to do more than that in the future.
So I think I’m going to do the same thing with poems that I’m doing with counterpoint and prose.1 Sundays will be a day for writing something out of pocket and planning the rest of the week. Starting with the first week of the year, I’m going to shoot for the first six days to be sonnets.
post to come↩︎
First Published: 2022 December 25
I don’t know why I was surprised that the only other Christmas post I made was in 2018, but I was. Anyways, since it’s Sunday, I’m going to reflect at least a little on the readings.
On one hand, it’s somewhat difficult to reflect on the Christmas readings. After all, despite the fact that there is just the one set,1 there are four readings which belong to the celebration. The Vigil Mass has the same Gospel as last Sunday’s with verses on either side added.
I think there’s something beautiful in what part of the Nativity story each of the four readings focuses on. At the Vigil, which we celebrate because we take the custom of counting days starting at sunset from the Jewish tradition, we get the lineage of Christ. After the lineage, we are simply told that Mary was found with child, and that Joseph was a righteous man who did not want to put her to shame. We are reminded of the fact that Christ is the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham and his descendants.
At the Night Mass, we read from Luke. We are reminded that the Lord was born in the night amidst shepherds. In the darkest time of year, we are reminded of the Joy that came into the world, bringing light to our darkness.
As night turns to dawn, we get the readings for the Dawn Mass. The Gospel picks up exactly where the Night Mass ended. Just as we go from darkness and fear into praise and joy in the light, we watch the shepherds go and spread the glory of the Almighty.
Finally, there is the Day Mass. In this Gospel, we go through the beginning of John. We are not awaiting the Christchild anymore, we have received him. Now begins the season of preparations for Lent and Easter. And so, we first are reminded that Christ and the Father have been together since eternity. We then are told of John, who paves the way for Christ’s ministry.
Outside of the readings, I remain incredibly grateful for the time that I get to spend with my family. I am also incredibly grateful for the fact that I can communicate with my friends around the world. Merry Christmas to all.
Not A,B,C or 1,2↩
First Published: 2022 December 24
As I1 said, Saturdays are now for reflecting on a week of species counterpoint progress. This week has gone well! I managed to do it all six days.
After day three, I decided2 that I wasn’t gaining much from the first species, so I decided to move on to second species. I think it might be fun to switch on day three of each week, though I’m not totally sure why.
Anyways, I’m enjoying it and getting better at it. I’m excited to see if it transfers to the quartet I’m writing tomorrow.
First Published: 2022 December 23
Pre-reading note: This is rambly and I am sorry for that.
Every month I try to post a reflection on the past month and my goals for the upcoming month. But, all the thinking tends to happen day of, and I generally don’t find that I am too reflective for the rest of the month. Today has the fun thing where planning for next year1 and the day2 are the same, which I’ll retroactively say is what inspired this post.
Looking through my monthly reflections, a few things stick out to me. More or less every month came with a3 goal of blogging daily. I don’t know why I have it as a goal when I clearly don’t value it, as evidenced by my lack of daily blogs. Maybe I should be smart and start making a list of blog topics to go through on days where my mind is empty. That’s actually a really good idea, so time to make that list.4
I tended to put keeping up with the BiaY podcast on there, which on a long-term level I’ve kind of done. I think I’ll be able to finish it by the end of the year. That goal can remain more or less unchanged.
Stretching/exercise of some sort was a recurring goal as well. I did not do a good job with it, and that’s something I don’t like. Unlike blogging, where the rewards for doing so are debatable if extant, there are clear benefits to me. I feel better, and I look better too. Plus it’s healthy, and I would like to be healthy. I think I tend to fail to stretch on mornings that I am running late, so having a better sleep routine would help me there.
A lot of my goals fall into the category of writing. In particular, I often had at least one of the three kinds of writing I do5 as a goal. Each of them serves me in a different way. I’ve already decided that I would like to do more writing of song, and so I think I will keep that up. I keep telling myself that I’m going to actually put my prose out into the aether for someone to6 read, and I think doing that would help me be better about actually writing more. Poetry is a strange one.
I really like writing poetry. I feel like it makes me more aware of how I’m doing mentally and emotionally. I like that it teaches me how to use words more intentionally. In less good motivations, I like that people seem surprised that I can write poetry. I think doing a poem a day would be achievable for me, especially since I have a writeblr7 that I mostly post poetry on.8 More than achievable, though, I think it would be healthy. Maybe plotting out what poems I would like to write would be a good idea.9
Practicing music is sort of the last category of recurring goals I had. I know on an intellectual level that I will improve my instruments faster and more reliably if I play them more. I feel like, again, having a plan would help me stick to it.10
Moving one level deeper into my meta analysis, I’ve been reflecting on something that a creator I follow mused on. Their point was that resolutions should be framed less as specific and measurable goals, and more as aspirational concepts. That is, if your goal is really to get healthier, then “be healthier” as a theme is better than “run every day”, because of a lot of reasons. On many levels I agree. The general argument he makes is that life is a series of choices. If your choices tend to skew in one direction, that’s generally the life you end up living. By setting your goal as something big and encompassing, you have the slight nudge to the direction you want to face your life. The other point was that goals often change. Having the resolution to go to the gym every day gets dropped if you develop repetitive strain. If your goal was health, though, then you can put that energy into eating better or something.
The other thing that they point out is that years are bad amounts of time for goals. Instead, they suggest having themed seasons. I kind of like that, and so in addition to having a yearly and monthly reflection, I would like to also have quarterly reflections.11 I’m still not sure how I feel about having seasons related to general aspirations. But, the nice thing about something like this is that the worst that happens is I don’t like it and then I’m free from having to do it again. More than that, though, if it doesn’t work out, I know that it’s something I don’t need to try in the future. If it does work, though, then I have a new way of improving my life, which would be nice.
So, to summarize:
I would like to blog every day. I need to find a way to make that easier on myself. My current thought is having a backlog of ideas.
I would again like to do the BiaY, and this year I’d like to add CCCiaY. There’s not much to say there
I would like to be better about exercising, and need to figure out how to make that easier on myself. My current thought is having a better sleep schedule or fewer hard morning times.
I would like to write more and in the varied forms of prose, poetry, and song. I’ve already worked out how I’ll do the song, and that’s been really helpful for me12. I think that the same would be true if I made goals for prose and poetry, so they go on the backlog. I also think that sharing my prose and poetry with the world would help me to write more, so I’ll try to do that.
I would like to practice music more. I think that having a plan would help with that.
I will try having monthly, quarterly, and yearly goals. The quarterly goals will be nebulous concepts such as “Reading,” or “Health”, which I will use to help shape the way I live my life.
23↩︎
23↩︎
failed↩︎
currently empty, but many days I post a blog and then realize I wanted to post something else too, and the way the code for the site is written, that’s not an option↩︎
prose, poetry, and song↩︎
have the option to↩︎
writing-focused tumblr↩︎
as with any other external creation I’ve made, readers of the blog are welcome to ask me for it↩︎
hey look my first thing to blog about↩︎
wow, another scheduled post↩︎
shockingly, four seasons means that a season is a quarter↩︎
for the four days that I’ve done it↩︎
First Published: 2022 December 22
It’s been around 8 months since I last updated the blog about a novel I was working on.1 I tried to work on it until around June, but gave up for whatever reason.
I’ve decided that I do like a lot of the things I was working on in the book, so I want to rework it. Unlike what I was doing before, though, I think that this time I would like to revise the book by going through and fully rewriting it. Currently I’m working on plotting out when I want to hit certain plot points.2 I’ve never tried writing a book like this before, so I hope that it ends up working better for me.
First Published: 2022 December 21
I know that I said I would be doing one set a week, but I’ve done so much first species counterpoint with a single voice and cantus firmus that I already feel comfortable moving on. So, time to start second species.
As a reminder, the rules are:
Consonant downbeats1
Offbeat disonances must be approached and left stepwise2
No hidden (parallel) perfect intervals3
Two notes written per note in the cantus firmus
Generally prioritize small skips and step-wise movement
It’s shocking to me how much harder this becomes. I immediately forgot that 4ths are dissonant, and I also had so many hidden parallel perfect intervals. However, I think this is also coming back to me quickly, so maybe I’ll be able to get through it in less than a week also.