Category: Life

Old Songs

Stille Nacht Antique Music

They say marriages fall apart over three things: religion, money, and (un)faithfulness.

However, no one talks about the radio.

Let me assure you, while Krystal and I have no plans to divorce, the radio has been a source of tension for years.

We’ll be driving down the road and she’ll reach over and change the station, claiming “this music is too old.”

In fairness, some the music is, in fact, old.

No one would deny that “A Vesta was from Latmos Hill Descending” or the Kryrie Eleison from the Pope Marcellus Mass are old.

Even some jazz is old.

On a related note, I was saddened to hear of Tom Mallison’s passing. Many knew him better as Tom the Jazzman from his Public Radio show “An Evening with Tom the Jazzman.” I first heard his show many years ago on WJFF out of Jeffersonville, NY and later lived miles from his some station of WTEB New Bern, NC.

Anyway. What classifies as “too old” for music?

100 years?

50 years?

10 years?

1 year?

And, perhaps even more importantly, does music’s age influence its enjoyability?

I appear to have asked more questions than I’ve answered.

Ah well; such is the nature of things.

 

 

This post was written in response to a prompt from kelli over at kelliblogs. Do you have a suggestion for a poem, photograph, or future post?

Drop a note in the prompt box!

 

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Twitter – where you can see my thoughts in 140 characters or less. Also, funny retweets.

Sunday Snapshots

The week was busy; you’d think I’d enjoy having some time off right at the beginning of a school year (several of my classes were cancelled due to fields trips), but reality dictates that deviations from routine must result in tiredness. Such is life.

So, what did I do this week?

I wrote lesson plans, prepared projects, caught up on grading, and found some time to read. I also wrote a more student-friendly adaptation of “The Story of the Flood” from The Epic of Gilgamesh.

One of my coworkers brought in a cheesecake for her birthday. She didn’t want us to know ahead of time (at least, I didn’t know), yet she brought in food to celebrate. It went well with this Dunkin Coffee the same teacher gave me for helping her with our upcoming Veteran’s Day program.

Friday marked the 14th anniversary of 9/11. I remember where I was at 8:46 that day – I was at the dentist, just as I was for the Oklahoma City bombing, the attack on the USS Cole, the Atlanta Olympic bombing, and at least one other tragedy I’m forgetting. For the first time, none of my students were alive on 9/11/01; does this officially make me “old”? I imagine this is how others remembered Pearl Harbor or the Kennedy assassination. I was responsible for placing the flag at half-mast fourteen years ago. Today, I did so again.

This weekend I began working with K and my cousins on a webshow (coming October 2015). Here are some of the promotional materials we developed:

Nerdeek Portrait

Nerdeek Panorama

Check out our website-in-progress and tell your friends!

On some of my downtime I surfed the net and messed around with Siri. Here’s two notable things I found:

 

What Did You Do This Week?

 

Have a suggestion for a poem, photograph, or future post?

Drop a note in the prompt box!

 

Don’t forget to follow me on:

Facebook – where I share news stories, articles from other blogs, and various and sundry miscellany that happens to catch my eye. It’s stuff you won’t see here! Well, mostly.

Instagram – where I show you my Life in Motion and share quotes and such. The widget only shows my last three photographs – don’t you want to see them all?

Twitter – where you can see my thoughts in 140 characters or less. Also, funny retweets.

Sunday Snapshots

Thanks for stopping by to see what’s gone on in the last week! Indeed, it was quite busy:

The Shepherd’s Crown arrived; I already wrote about its unboxing and shared some photographs.

One of my 9th grade students drew what I’m calling “Sumerian Olaf”.

Yes, she simply misspelled “summer” but also realized her unwitting pun and asked me to take a picture before erasing it.

Sumerian Olaf

A very large praying mantis came to visit; this dude measured at least 8 inches long!

We moved him safely outside before the cat did something mean to him.

Huge Praying Mantis

I picked up an uncut straw from Subway.

Seriously, straw machine – you had one job . . . one job!

Uncut Straw

World History students presented their explorer reports; one group made a spice game: students had to guess what a spice was based on color, texture, and smell. The spices included cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, pepper, and turmeric. The group was about to throw away the piles when I noticed how they’d run together on the plate.

Explorer Spices

Just for fun I participated in one of those silly Facebook “quizzes” that assigns you random results based on your name.  This time, I liked the results.

Weird Test

The mailman brought a surprise on Saturday: a postcard from fellow blogger Vanessa of Petal and Mortar!

Thanks, Vanessa!

petal and mortar postcard front petal and mortar postcard back
 

What Did You Do This Week?

 

Have a suggestion for a poem, photograph, or future post?

Drop a note in the prompt box!

 

Don’t forget to follow me on:

Facebook – where I share news stories, articles from other blogs, and various and sundry miscellany that happens to catch my eye. It’s stuff you won’t see here! Well, mostly.

Instagram – where I show you my Life in Motion and share quotes and such. The widget only shows my last three photographs – don’t you want to see them all?

Twitter – where you can see my thoughts in 140 characters or less. Also, funny retweets.

Angled

Challenge: photograph an inanimate object from three angles.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you my pencil sharpener:

 


 

 

Have a suggestion for a poem, photograph, or future post?

Drop a note in the prompt box!

 

Don’t forget to follow me on:

Facebook – where I share news stories, articles from other blogs, and various and sundry miscellany that happens to catch my eye. It’s stuff you won’t see here! Well, mostly.

Instagram – where I show you my Life in Motion and share quotes and such. The widget only shows my last three photographs – don’t you want to see them all?

Twitter – where you can see my thoughts in 140 characters or less. Also, funny retweets.

Sunday Snapshots

Sometimes I forget what I’ve done over the past week.

Then I look at the photos on my camera and think “Oh yeah! I remember that!”

Such was the case this week.

Mr Toms Birthday CupcakesMr. Tom’s birthday was this week.

He turned 97.

He wanted cupcakes, so he got cupcakes.

I”ll be honest, the “balloons” looked a bit odd.

Blackened WalmartApparently I went to Walmart at some point. I know it was during a storm, and for whatever reason the overhead lights were out. Everything else was working just fine . . . just not the lights. Go figure.

I’m fining I take quite a few pictures of food . . . maybe so I can remember what I ate? For example: I went to Wendy’s when K was craving something salty and we had nothing in the house; I picked up some french fries and a vanilla frosty to go with them. On Monday, a student brought me a bacon and egg croissant from Dunkin’ Donuts. And, for reasons yet unknown, I took a picture of buttered bread.

I think I took this picture of a book and coffee for last week’s photo challenge (today was a good day) but never posted it. In other book news, the last Discworld novel The Shepherd’s Crown was released. The last book is for me to keep track of stuff in. So long as I don’t lose that book, I’m ok.

And finally, this past Friday was National Bow Tie Day (International??)

Red Bow Tie

Monday Morning Grievance: No Turn Signals

It’s Monday and I haven’t had my coffee.

Monday Morning Grievances Logo 1

Dear Driver In Front of Me,

I see that you’re driving a vehicle made after the 1940s. Now, I can’t see into your vehicle, so I don’t know what features you have.

Maybe you have a cd/mp3 player or satellite radio. Those things beat a cassette player / radio combo, which is still better than an 8-track, which is either marginally better than nothing at all or slightly worse than nothing – I’m really not sure on that last score.

Perhaps you have heated seats; those are going to come in very handy in the next couple of months. Even here in eastern North Carolina (USA), the winters have gotten a bit colder and slightly more brutal than in the past. Climate change, am I right?

Conceivably you have seat belts and air bags and some kind of impact protection that – depending on the year and the study – safety experts alternately claim protect us or put us in more danger. Really, you’d think they could make up their minds.

If you’re really rolling in the dough, you’ve got a movie playing device or two or three to keep your passengers quiet while you navigate the blacktop. Whatever.

However, there is one feature I know you have (see made after 1940s):

turn signals

Please use them . . . or you just might end up needing some of those safety features I just mentioned.

Not that I’d ram you on purpose, mind; I wouldn’t go to prison just to teach you a lesson.

Fate will see to that

 

 

What annoys you?

 

 

Have a suggestion for a poem, photograph, or future post?

Drop a note in the prompt box!

 

Don’t forget to follow me on:

Facebook – where I share news stories, articles from other blogs, and various and sundry miscellany that happens to catch my eye. It’s stuff you won’t see here! Well, mostly.

Instagram – where I show you my Life in Motion and share quotes and such. The widget only shows my last three photographs – don’t you want to see them all?

Twitter – where you can see my thoughts in 140 characters or less. Also, funny retweets.

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