First Published: 2022 May 2
Another month, another reflection. My goals for April were:
Blog daily (starting now). I think that the reflection it makes me do is really useful. I do think that I need to find a better way to ensure that I have time for it, though.
Write a poem a day. I just bought a book of poetic forms, so it would be good to start working through them.1
Stretch daily. I tried to stretch this morning and was shocked at how inflexible I am.
Listen to BiaY daily. I really don’t like how far behind I am, and I’d like to catch up sooner than later.
Reach 60K words in the book. If past months are indicative, that’s a goal I can accomplish. I think I may need to do some more planning, rather than writing by the seat of my pants, because I’m starting to get into a bit of a rut in terms of writing. Maybe it’s just that I have continued this section of the book for far too long.2
A secondary goal for the book is to write every day, even if only a few words. I think it’s good to develop good habits, though I guess I should think about balancing doing something because I enjoy it with getting work done. That’s another thing to think about I suppose.
Practice guitar every day. I like the sound of guitar, and I would love to be able to play longer without my fingers hurting.
I blogged mostly daily. I wrote few poems. I stretched almost every day, which was really nice. It’s a great way for me to start the day, and I like how I feel when I stretch in the morning. I did not listen to BiaY daily, and I think I’m further behind again. I did reach 60K words! As of April 30 I was at 62540 words, which is pretty cool. I wrote most days, though it’s beginning to look like I need a day off, so I don’t write on Sundays.3
My goals for May are mostly the same. It’s here that I run into the issue of goals, though. If they’re meant to be aspirational, then many of them are set too low. If they’re meant to be realistic, then I should really accept that I don’t write poetry every day. I don’t know if I can agree to either premise so I’ll shoot a little higher and be ok with failure.
In May:
Blog daily. I still like how it forces me to think about something every day.
Write a poem a day. I need to do this more and I will try.4
Stretch daily. I like how stretching makes me feel, and maybe I’ll be able to touch my toes at the end of the month.
Listen to BiaY 7 times a week. This feels more aware of my tendency to listen to three or four in a row.
Finish a draft of the book I’m writing.5 This may be optimistic, but in theory these past two weeks suggest I can do it.
Practice guitar every day. I’ve been getting better and I really like it.
In professional news: finish a reasonable draft of my exam. I need to write this, and soon
First Published: 2022 May 1
John 21:19 “He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, ‘Do you love me?’ and he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep.’”
On this Third Sunday in Easter, we continue to see the disciples in the aftermath of the Lord’s resurrection. I find it interesting how the different readings coincide. The first speaks of the disciples preaching the Glory of our Lord on earth, the Church Militant, some might say. The second has John seeing the Church Triumphant glorifying Him. The Gospel does not directly speak on the Church Penitent, but it does show Peter’s penance.
Three times Peter denied the Lord, so three times he was asked to affirm his love. The fishing scene feels interesting to me as well. In the beginning of His ministry on earth, he gathers many of the disciples by finding them as they search for fish. Here, they do not recognize the voice of the Almighty when he tells them to cast out.
Anyways, my reflection today is short and somewhat disjointed. I apologize that my postings are becoming more and more consistently like that.
First Published: 2022 April 30
Well, it’s the end of the month, and I don’t quite know what to talk about. Tomorrow and Monday I can write about the readings and my reflections on this past month, but today has no such stipulation. I was just playing guitar, so it seems reasonable to talk about that.
I’ve been playing guitar off and on for most of my life. I don’t know how old I was when I first started lessons, but I do remember that they were primarily focused on simple chords and strumming patterns. I think that’s called rhythm guitar by people in the know.
As I grew older, I eventually started studying music. That happened to coincide with my breaks from guitar, which is a little sad. It’s made coming back to guitar really interesting every time I do, though.
Guitar, moreso than any other instrument I’ve seen, has learning materials which seem actively opposed to conventional music theory. They don’t use sheet music and barely use rhythm. On the other hand, classical guitar has less of this issue.1 I just can’t find any music easy enough to play that is interesting enough to keep me playing.
So, I decided that, as the adult I am now, I should really work on mostly doing exercises for my practice time. For a while the skill I felt I lacked most was my right hand plucking, so I started working on Mauro Guiliani’s right hand patterns. It’s 120 exercises that have you playing between a CM and a G72 chord in your left hand while your right plucks out different patterns. That’s worked well for me, and I’ve enjoyed it.
These past few weeks, though, I’ve been saddened by my inability to play more melodic things on a guitar. Partially that’s because I don’t plan on doing a lot of solo guitar, but partially I just never really built the skills for moving my left hand on the guitar. As it turns out, Guiliani wrote some exercises for the right hand as well. I’ve been working through the first bit of the first one for a week or so now, and it’s weird.
I never realized how uncomfortable I was using my second and fourth fingers at once.3 The exercise has me doing a lot of that, which is really nice. Primarily it just goes up and down the strings using the first through fifth frets playing thirds on adjacent strings. It’s not the most fun, but it is pretty cool to be able to do it with more ease. As I look at the other exercises, it appears as though the next has me playing 6ths, the next octaves, the fourth is tenths which is wild to me, the fifth is thirds again for some reason, my minimal Italian suggesting that it helps with moving up the fretboard, the sixth again has me doing sixths4, the seventh octaves, the eighth tenths, and repeating until we’ve gotten through sixteen exercises. They each look to be about 20-24 measures of common time with moving sixteenth notes, so as you can imagine I am not going through it quickly. I think the furthest I’ve gotten is six measures through the first, but that’s progress still!
First Published: 2022 April 29
Two weeks later I have written no more poems. It’s a really sad thing for me to realize: I love when I write poems but I don’t make time for it. I’m not sure what stops me from making time, especially with how much I waste, but I’m not sure how to encourage myself to write more. Anyways, here’s a fun1 double acrostic again.
Try Again
Take heed of everything you’re not
Repeat so to remember
Yet never heed your fancy
Attempting once again may let a
Grain or some small egg
Attach itself or grow an anima
Instead of ever rising ennui
Nature’s choice for to assign
Well that was really rough. I’m unsure if it’s a reflection on the time I’m writing it, my general mental capacity, the time between poems, or just the words I chose, but I’m not at all happy with this poem. Maybe I’ll edit it tomorrow.
to write at least↩︎
First Published: 2022 April 28
I’m less than 2000 words away from my monthly goal and I’ve been writing nearly 2000 words a day recently, so I really believe I can make it. I’ve realized that the plot is steadily progressing less and less with each chapter, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. On the one hand, I’m writing because it’s interesting to me and the scenes I write are interesting now and I feel set me up for other interesting future events. On the other, I think I’ve so far spent 5000 words talking about growing magical cotton and probably have another 5000 coming.
I’ve finally formalized some of my thoughts about themes I want to include in the book, which is nice. I don’t quite know how to subtly weave them in so it’s not just a “By the way the world was actually terrible this whole time” without also doing the reverse of “do you get it yet? the message that I’m beating you over the head with?” I don’t think that it should be a fine line to walk, but I feel like it is one. I’ve taken the advice to have time pass less explicitly, though I’m back to being explicit again, which is a little sad. On the other hand, I have him working constantly over the span of two days, which in the grand scheme of things isn’t that much. I think I said the next big plot point would occur in two in-universe months, but I also never gave actual lengths for those, so I guess that’s also optional. Anyways, all this to say I greatly enjoy writing the book, and I’m optimistic that I may be able to come to a satisfying book ending in the next 40000 words or so.
First Published: 2022 April 27
This past weekend was my last concert in the school-sponsored choir I’m in. Tonight was the last day of the candlelight choir at the Catholic Student Center for the semester. Both still have a social gathering planned, but the end of the formal singing is something that I’m reflecting on tonight.
I’ve loved the way that I’ve grown in both choirs. The school-sponsored one has clear things that I can point to. The section leader was himself a DMA student in conducting, and there was a DMA in Vocal Performance in my section as well. Both really helped me grow as a choral singer over the past two semesters. The repertoire we sang from certainly pushed me as well. It was primarily new music, and most of it was fairly difficult.
The candlelight choir helped me grow also as a choral singer, though differently.1 I mostly sang tenor, which is somehow fundamentally different to singing bass. I can’t articulate why, but I constantly struggled with tuning, pitch, and intervals. In part, the tessitura is much higher, and in part I think choral composers just write the voices differently. I’m far more used to being the root of a chord than the third, for instance.
I also got to compose for the candlelight choir, and that was fantastic. We sang two of my songs, both written for the choir. It made me remember how much I love to write music, and was, in retrospect, part of what encouraged me to restart this blog.
Sadly, I’m unsure if I’ll be able to continue either choir next year. If I cannot, I hope that I will be able to find other opportunities to make music. If I can, then I will be far happier.
shocking, I know. This is what you get from late night postings↩
First Published: 2022 April 26
Well, it’s been a little over a month since I last talked about my Pathfinder Character, so now seems like a great time. Salvia has thus far gotten roped into investigating the attempted theft of wine from a party. So far, this has involved overthrowing a minor crime lord and now venturing off into another city.
This session we leveled up, and Salvia learned two new feats. Since she’s still very passionate about the permanency of staves, she now has the Specialty Crafting: Woodworking Feat, and hopes to use that to improve her staff and make others for friends. Additionally, though non-lethal spellcraft was of interest, the idea of learning from all sorts of scrolls was far too tempting, so she took the Scroll Trickster Dedication. More or less, Salvia will be able to work with any sort of scroll going forward, which is very exciting.
Excitingly, today the party encountered a Cobbleswarm, and Salvia finally got to put her Burrow Elocutionist Feat to good use. After defeating the swarm, Salvia spoke with the remaining cobblemites and convinced one of them to join her on an adventure. Unfortunately, this meant letting Burrus1 go, and Salvia’s new familiar is Burrus2 the cobblemite.
Currently Burrus is riding the Dull Gray aeon stone that Salvia looted from the crime boss they fought. Someone cast perpetual flame on it, and it has been orbiting Salvia’s head for days now.
First Published: 2022 April 25
Since I first gave up my blog1, I have started homebrewing.2 One thing that I’ve really enjoyed making, and so have therefore made a few times, is lemon wine. I vaguely follow a recipe, though I often make it weaker, and I never start with a wine ferment. It tends to end up tasting like lemonade, which is really nice and generally appreciated in the spring and summer months that I’ve made it in the past.
I’ve started a new batch this past weekend, and I’m very excited for it. The fermentation seems to have taken off very well, and I look forward to maybe updating on the results from this as I keep fermenting it.
First Published: 2022 April 24
Acts 5:12 “Many signs and wonders were done among the people at the hands of the apostles.”
Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, the Second Sunday of Easter, and the Eighth and final day of the Octave of Easter. What do each of these mean?
Divine Mercy Sunday was instituted in 2000 by Pope Saint John Paul II. It stems from a devotion that Saint Faustina claimed as part of a private revelation with our Lord and Savior. According to her records, He desired the Sunday following Easter to be in honor of Divine Mercy, and JPII made that happen. As of 2002, there are indulgences, both plenary1 and partial2 associated with the day.
To earn the indulgence, you must3 attend Confession, take Eucharist, and pray for the intentions of the Holy Father.4 As with all plenary indulgences, you must be “in a spirit that is completely detached from the affection for a sin, even a venial sin”5. You then must pray in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament the Our Father and the Creed, along with a devout prayer to Jesus. Or, you can take part in a devotion for Divine Mercy. For the partial indulgence, you just need to pray to the merciful Lord “at least with a contrite heart”,
Anyways, moving from what Divine Mercy Sunday is, the Second Sunday in Easter is more or less what it claims to be. Like Lent’s 406 days, Easter Season is 50. It begins on a Sunday, so each Sunday increments by one until we reach Pentecost.
The final day of the Octave of Easter is similar. Octave means something to do with eight, depending on the context. Liturgically, it means an eight day period. Apparently the “General Norms of the Liturgical Calendar” assign that the first eight days of Easter and Christmas should continue festivities throughout. I had no idea, but now do.
On to the readings. The first reading shows the fact that the Church is alive, even though Christ is no longer in substance and accident present among us. The apostles continue the mission of caring for the poor and helpless.
In the Gospel, we get one of my favorite passages from growing up. St. Thomas did not believe that the Lord had visited the disciples, and famously claimed “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”7 The Lord did not punish him for this, but instead showed Thomas the wounds on his hand and side. Rather than condemn him for his disbelief, the Lord instead calls those of us who were not able to witness it blessed for our belief.
Growing up, I was an inquisitive child. Thomas’ willingness to question the claims of the other Apostles to me always read as something beautiful. Within the Tradition of the Church, we do not hold to beliefs simply because we used to hold to them. Rather, we use Revelation to inform what we believe. Questions are not punished, but rewarded with answers.
That may be a little unclear, let me try again. Thomas did not believe the other disciples. Rather than calling him foolish, or condemning him for his disbelief, the Lord answered Thomas’ question. The consequence of a question asked in good faith is an answer in the Catholic Tradition, and that’s vital.
Equally vital in this reading, though, is the institution of a Sacrament. The disciples are given the power to bind and loose the sins of the world, a power that has been passed down to the priests today. There’s always something beautiful in the Lord’s institution of Sacraments. If I am remembering correctly, the Holy Spirit is always invoked, and there is always a metaphor of breath. Here, “he breathed on them and said to them ‘Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.’”8 I don’t know what about the breath and invocation are striking to me right now, but I will think about it for the week.
First Published: 2022 April 23
As I mentioned in my goal for the month, I really wanted to reach 60000 words on the book I’m writing this month. It’s been really interesting doing the writing for it, because each time I sit down to write, it reminds me of what I’m told it’s like to run. The first five to twenty minutes are painful, and I’m watching the seconds count down until I’ve finished the timer. When they run out, though, I find that I’ve suddenly hit a stride, and the words start flowing really easily. I honestly stop wanting to finish writing, which is a nice place to be.
Anyways, as of writing this post I’m at 48177 words, which is less than ideal. That means I’ve written around ten thousand words since the 7th of April, which as I read it seemed like far too slow of a pace. When I look at the time breakdown, though, that is an average of around 20000 words a month, so that’s nice.
I’m at an interesting point in the story. There are a bunch of plot points that I want to get to, but I really don’t want to end the plot points I’m currently writing. Being less vague, the protagonist is currently at home, and will soon be forced to go to magic school. Whenever he ends up at the magic school, the focus of those around him will certainly shift, which will be a fun way to change what I’m writing about. That being said, I really enjoy the part of the book I’m at now, for all that nothing really happens any more.
I recently read a piece of advice that said that if you don’t have the numbers actually perfect for time, make sure to use very vague words for the passage of time so you can’t be wrong. I haven’t been doing that recently, because I had the main character doing actions that were tracked daily. I hope that I managed to make a fairly convincing in-world argument for why he would stop doing them, but fundamentally it doesn’t really matter I guess. No one but one person reads the book right now,1 and he didn’t complain, which means it wasn’t horrible, at least. Anyways, it’s back to writing the novel for me now.
if readers would like a copy to read feel free to ask↩︎