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Bought an arabic ney made of gray PVC tube. Spent several days trying to make a sound, at the end of the first week was able to play some scales, though with serious difficulties. The sound isn’t stable, the low register is very difficult to get.

Ney is both challenging and addictive. The sound, as soon as you’ll be able to emit it, is deep, sensual and meditative, it is totally worth the time spent on trying to get it.

Read about maqam, the oriental musical form. I am wondering if it would be possible for me to learn to play maqam – or at least to understand, how it is played!

I set this goal as a joke about a year ago. To have the most fun of it I set a weekly reminder “Dear future self blah-blah-blah” – if you ever used the site’s reminder feature you know what I mean.

During the year I was getting “plan an invasion” messages in my mail inbox and for some reasons they did not bother me. In fact, that was fun to think that there are bigger things in the universe waiting for me.

Then a 43Things mystery has happen – I planned an invasion. And I started it. We were bitten, the invasion basically choked and didn’t leave much traces but that was one of the coolest and most exiting things I’ve ever planed and executed.

And this is already the second time I was blessed with 43Things mystery – I achieved a complex goal after setting it and leaving an entry here. And I didn’t pay a cent!

What would this lesson learn us, children? Use the reminder feature on 43Things!

About a year ago I set myself a goal to learn Portuguese and then travel to Portugal, preferably to Açores. Well, I almost achieved both, it is just that I did not manage to reach these remote islands and spent all my trip in the portugal mainland (which I will never regret!).
Learning Portuguese was strange and amazing experience. Most importantly I tried a new technique that I always neglected – flashcards. It turned out to be an excellent tool which I combined with listening daily to portuguese and brazilian radio stations in internet and reading news almost exclusively in Portuguese. There was almost no speaking practice, which is a real shame, though during my trip I somehow managed all conversations in Portuguese.
Pimsleur on very early stages, then flashcards and months of listening to radio did the magic. I am planing now to use the learned techniques for improving my other language skills though I am going to return to this enchanting Portuguese language again and again.