kungfucius

I’m pretty sure I’ve been doing this, but I haven’t actually been keeping track. I’ll try to keep better tabs on this.

I was so close, but I didn’t quite make it! I’ll start over after Christmas, I think.

Ok, so I can’t get a puppy yet. Our apartment is tiny and we have no yard. But I did just sign up to be a volunteer at the humane society walking dogs. Not my own puppy, but hopefully enough to get my fix.

We’re finally starting! We’ve got automatic withdrawals to savings starting next month. We should have enough in less than 2 years if all goes well.

I haven’t decided if I’m going to wean myself off the internet gradually or if I’m just going to go cold turkey. I’m also concerned about what I’m going to do at work all day without the internet to keep me entertained.

I got to 21 days this time, then I dropped the ball. I’ve learned that if I don’t do it in the morning before work, chances are I’m not going to do it. Oh well, I’ll just have to try again.

I missed it today, so I’m thinking I’ll have to start over. I’m thinking I should start after this week, since this is tech week for our show. I don’t want to set myself up for failure.

I was tempted to skip it today, but I didn’t. I’ve started working on tenor and alto clef and it’s starting to come back to me.

4 scales down. 8 to go.

I actually practiced for an hour today, and I am feeling significant improvement. It might have something to do with the 5 hours of rehearsal this week on top of my practicing daily.

3 scales down. 9 to go. At this rate I may be able to learn the minors as well.

I’m proud that I practiced today even though I had a rehearsal last night and I have a rehearsal tonight. I only hope I’m not regretting it tonight. We’ll see.

2 scales down, 10 to go.

I’m on day 2 and I’ve made some rules for myself. Rehearsals don’t count as practice, and I have to practice for at least 30 minutes for it to count. No picking up the horn and playing a quick easy tune and counting it as practice.

I also have a little mini goal to go with this goal. By the end of 30 days I want to have all my major scales learned over at least 2 octaves with arpeggios. I used to know all my scales, so it shouldn’t be too hard to brush up on them.

I really sucked yesterday. Towards the end of practicing today I was noticing a bit of improvement, but my high range is gone, I have no endurance, and my tone is still pretty airy over certain registers. It’s frustrating because things that used to be effortless are now very challenging. But I’ll work through it and get back to where I was, hopefully.

Here’s why. If I say I’m going to practice every day for the rest of my natural life I’m going to give up and it’s not going to happen. This way I’m free to stop once 30 days are up if I want to, but I’m hoping this will help me get into the habit.

Tonight it’s maple glazed chicken thighs. We’ll see how it goes.

I would love not having to worry about money, and passive income would allow me the time to be an artist and a musician.

Is letterpress a verb? Maybe it should be learn to use a letterpress? Learn to print on a letterpress? Whatever.

So I wanted to lose some weight, and succeeded in losing a significant amount. I’m almost where I want to be with that. The problem is that every time I lose some weight, or have a really good week as far as eating goes I decide that I deserve a reward or something and then eat something stupid. Like a whole pizza. Or double cheeseburgers and fries and a milkshake… oh, and maybe I’ll have some of your onion rings.

I’d like to knock that off. I don’t want it to be about the weight anymore, since I’m a healthy weight and look fine just the way I am. I’d like to eat better because it’s healthy. I’ve got 3 relatives with diabetes (adult onset) and several more with heart problems. This is something that I have to work on. It’s not really an optional thing.

I had an idea about this in the shower today. If I actually do it I’ll let you know.

So I was at a work event which included some forced mingling sessions for the staff. We were told that we really needed to socialize with these people, and weren’t allowed to hang out with the people we already knew. I learned that small talk skills don’t magically improve and that you actually have to work on them. Damn.

This is looking more and more impossible as time goes on. I’m just not as good as I used to be and I don’t have the time (or the willpower?) to get it back. I’m not giving up on it, but I’m beginning to lose hope.

My sleep schedule is nice and regular now. No more staying up til 4 and getting up at 7. Now all I need to do is shift it a little so I go to sleep earlier and wake up earlier.