What's on your mind now?

[Bob]

Interesting videos, but probably just a moment that unknown.  Anything more than that, and they'd lose that interest.

videos

[Bob]

I'm going to  turn into a pumpkin soon for the day... I can feel it.

And my space bar is sticking.

[goldentone]

"More broady one could say that through the human being, the universe is making a mirror to observe itself." 

Bohm and Hiley, The Unidivided Universe

That sounds like something evolution may have a hard time keeping up with...

[Bob]

Cheese.  And the balance of life... in terms of cheese.

[goldentone]

No cheese please.

These are quantum days. . .

[Bob]

If it's more effective/efficient/wiser to back off or keep pushing, in terms of pushing things and recovery.

[Bob]

The edge of pushing.  Whether to back off or keep pushing, potentially having things crash.

[Bob]

That I'm getting off track.  And the price of being on track or where I was before.  And where I want to be.  There's never enough time.

[Bob]

Longer-term.

And what anger or motivation would look like longer-term....  In the present, anger can get things done but burns more energy/causes more damage....  It can't work quite the same in the long-term though, for pros and cons....

[Bob]

Interesting.

https://ncase.me/trust/

[Bob]

How to capture health.  Backing off.

Directions to push.  How to balance all of those.

[Bob]

https://gizmodo.com/this-amazon-mothership-is-terrifying-as-hell-even-if-i-1833739492

[Bob]

Interesting.  Haven't read much of this yet.

https://old.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/b8zb3s/im_a_nycbased_pianist_who_got_sick_of_the_office/

[Bob]

High stress.  Long term problems.

[compline]

Is posting all this therapy for you,  Bob?

[Bob]

Possibly, actually, or a way to think things through.  I noticed (related to the last post) that just writing out some ideas helped a bit to figure things out or at least figure a little more out.  Probably the same thing going on with figuring out larger ideas, if I ever get to the end of those.  That would be how to push thing, multiple areas, know you're doing your best/pushing as much as possible, and knowing/being smart enough to rest/recover along the way (which opens up time).

[visitor]

Me at 3 am earlier
I should go to sleep

Also me at 3 am
*listens to this 10 times

[Bob]

What if... I had myself as a student?  Or, what if you had yourself as a student?  How would you see yourself?  For actual students, I thought there was a crazy/nutty 2% that did whatever the teacher said, and they were kind of off that way.  Not quite along those lines, but I'd stick myself in a 1% beyond that.  A "what the heck?" student, although I suppose it makes more sense knowing what I know, my history, etc.



And then of course, of course....


And of course.... I'm not finding more gifs or fixing these much.

https://memegenerator.net/instance/68511897/simon-pegg-cheers

https://external-preview.redd.it/nNqMbR315Rai1xf6WXJbsPTMU24PJ6wAf2bTeeI8-v0.gif?format=mp4&s=4b5f984a28f519de5d30f271db9ec5ab1f0d7234

[Bob]

The routine, as a means of capturing progress.

How to capture progress.

The necessity of breaking the routine with rest/recovery, although I'm still not sure how much exactly.  That seems to be part of it though, as opposed to just wearing down over time, esp. when you don't realize it.

The overall point of doing that.... which would be literature I suppose.  And beyond that, being more alive.

[compline]

I wonder about Bob sometimes. 
Do pianists get up in the middle of the night if they can't sleep and play the piano? 

[Bob]

I wonder about Bob sometimes. 
Do pianists get up in the middle of the night if they can't sleep and play the piano? 

I have once in a while.  But if I do, there's a massive energy dip maybe an hour or so later if I didn't get enough sleep.  I *think* I'm awake and won't fall back asleep, but that seems to be a trick.  Although I'm not sure if it's better to push through fatigue like that, dose up more on caffeine or something else, or continue to try to sleep and end up sleeping more and getting more, better rest.

[Bob]

I hope I'm not leaving the forum.  I haven't thought of anything to post for a while and then I've stopped visiting as often.  It's turned out to just be the last post thread.  My piano work has turned into a routine, not lit, still.

[goldentone]

Wonder how volume one ended

"And thus, there were potatoes here, and potatoes there; indeed, there were
potatoes everywhere.  Spain fell in love with Italy and Italy with Spain,
and everlasting peace filled all of Europe."

End of Volume One

 

[Bob]

Hm.  Dang.  Serious things.  Beyond words.

[georgey]

Hm.  Dang.  Serious things.  Beyond words.

Hopefully not too serious.  I feel like this sometimes with our current political issues.  Here is what cured me for at least a while:  Watch World War II films non-stop for a few days.  All of a sudden, everything looks great.  Hitler and Stalin - our president is not so bad after all.  Seems like a nice guy.

[Bob]

Not for me really, not directly.  Uber serious and beyond serious and anything else for one.  And "mildly" in the direction of those two.

[Bob]

Fingertips.  How things translate to piano.  And true progress after a long time.

[Bob]

How to get good or better sleep.  How nice it is to get an extra hour of sleep.  How much easier it is to wake up after an extra hour of sleep.


If being able to predict better means things are mastered better.

[goldentone]

How to get good or better sleep.  How nice it is to get an extra hour of sleep.  How much easier it is to wake up after an extra hour of sleep.

From experience I know exercise certainly improves our quality of sleep.
And I believe that when we get enough sleep we are ready to get
out of bed, as you feel with an extra hour of sleep.

[Bob]

I think I found another piece, related to pushing things, making true progress....

It's something about pushing (various directions) and backing off when needed (as opposed to be stuck in the habit of doing that push) but also balancing a firm push with not backing off too soon so you capture that progress.  Varying things is probably still good too.  Varying things would be a way to back off and push at the same time too.  Or... Maybe varying things is just a general way to do this same idea.

[Bob]

Seems like I'm doing the same damn thing, living the same damn day over and over and over.  Except it's not.  Time is still passing.  Tomorrow's going to be the same as yesterday, like it was the same as the day before that, even the weekends.  Yet, that's still good since I think things are generally improving.  I'm sure I'll do the same thing tomorrow.....

[Bob]

Thinking about watching Peppa Pig on youtube.... in Spanish.  But I went with a live stream of people apparently waiting in line at something near Area 51.

[j_tour]

I am getting very tired of my repertoire of grimaces I make when a ball lands literally less than a centimeter from the pocket.

This has been almost sixteen months since I started taking up the pool stick again — usually I just practice at my usual place (a dive bar, five of seven days a week I'm there for about an hour or so), just straight pool (or 14.1, or continuous, or whatever you want to call it).  It's getting ridiculous.

Oh, my usual practice routine is just rack fourteen balls, throw the head ball somewhere, and throw the cue ball somewhere:  the idea, of course, is to pocket the head ball and somehow break up the remaining rack enough to get a chance at continuing the run.

My eyesight at distances isn't so great, but I don't like the interference wearing glasses gives to my line of sight.  You know, I can sort of see well enough, and my view is that good pool playing is as much intuition as complete accuracy.  Who knows what little divots are in the slate or where some moron spilled a beer on the felt?  It's like chess:  intuition counts.  Apparently it doesn't count enough in my case.

So, naturally, I try to control the cue ball to where I don't have to punt the ball across the table.

Yeah, sure, I can take down plenty of people in bar-rules eight-ball — not everyone, not at all, but I win my share of games — but it is very frustrating to be disappointed nearly every time I spend a few quiet minutes alone at the table.

Women?  Piano?  Money? 

That's all chump-change.

Those effing balls and the table, that's the real killer.

[Bob]

Touching higher or at least different dimensions for progress.

And if progress involves pain, as in muscle soreness of some sort.

[j_tour]

Trying to raise quick money to pay down my electrical bill.  Just doing whatever, double shifts at the warehouse. 

My goals for the end of the year, through Advent (which, for people who aren't of traditional descent, is not the Christmas season, nor is it licit to play any of that shitty Christmas music until Advent is over).

Yeah, I'll just knock down a few pieces of Bach (at a minimum polish up some of the fingerings of a few Sonfinie, in addition to memorize them), memorize more of the Ars Fuga IX, get the Partita in Em at least down through the courante (Still can't remember the toccata, even though I had it pretty good about thirty years ago) do more of the Engl. Ste. in A, mixed-and-matched with the Am Engl Ste, WTCI Emaj, Em, I haven't done in a while, WTC II C, Cmaj, Beethoven (Op. 26, Op.27no1, re-memorize Op. 126) and Debussy (a number of Préludes, like "Minstrels," and from Bk 2, the terrasse de clair de lune, and others and some of the ones from Children's Corner I never did fully, just for fun.  Finally memorize Joplin's "Solace," and Bolcom's "Seabiscuit Rag and "Kitten on the Keys."  A few Scarlatti bits:  at least the K. 1 is not should be a problem to keep in memory without looking at the score.  The K. 141 is nice, and all, but that will take me a while to get the technique so my RH doesn't get worn out.

Some jazz stuff, like do my alternating-hands head arrangement of "Parisian Thoroughfare," and then just do something over it.

And, I need to transcribe Hampton Hawes's "Hampton's Pulpit" from the All Night Sessions, at least some of his lines:  very straight bebop.

Those aren't so bad, I just need to keep them in memory, or for some of the Debussy, learn them properly and do them good. 

For me it's a pretty restricted repertoire, but it has the advantage that I have big head starts on these:  it's just memorizing work. 

There are pieces and tunes I'd rather be working on, but I think it's a better goal to just fix some of these up and, you know, I can always play through the Jeunehomme concerto, lots of Brahms, and others, just for fun.

Focus.

More importantly, I have to lose about twenty pounds (ideally thirty) in weight, quit cigarettes and start smoking my tobacco pipe again, get my dental insurance to play ball and not eff around with my dentist and me, get over this terrible cold, maybe get an influenza vaccine, and most importantly, clean up my place so I can have space to play the Hammond XK1 and the Rhodes in addition to piano.

And get rid of these effing mice in my place.  Killed one, disposed of it, but there's probably more.  They don't bother me too much, but I don't like it.

Organize all of my papers, including musical scores.  No mean feat.

Renew some professional certifications for computer ess (RHCSE, CCNA, Security+) while my employer will pay for the fees.

[Bob]

Growing old.  Specifically how my forearms and fingers will function or not.

[j_tour]

Getting old myself.  I'm quick with mental arithmetic still, and have a pretty good stack of knowledge, going back to first principles, but to really understand a somewhat complicated scheme, I need to stay still for about twenty seconds and figure it out, and ideally recopy the information handed to me into a sensible format.

Flexibility, I suppose, is what I'm losing.  Yeah, I can touch my toes and do push-ups and whatever physically, but I think whatever I've become is pretty much how I'm going to stay.  Every opinion is open to revision, but despite my disdain for the philosophy behind "depth psychology," I think some psychological affects are here to stay. 

Habits, etc., I can change those, but the primary direction is now set in stone.

I've become more or less an accountant, directing and overseeing the details of my life, and correcting mistakes. 

Nothing more. 

An errand boy sent by a grocer to collect a bill.

[Bob]

https://www.facebook.com/CBSEveningNews/videos/422818805090031/

Recruiting teachers from overseas....  It's not because there aren't willing teachers in the US.  It's because a lot of the jobs just suck.  People won't do them anymore. 

Haha... I really doubt a person directly from a foreign country is going to do much better than a native speaker.  Yes, there are exception but.... You're tacked on language/culture issues to a job that can just suck.

[Bob]

https://www.pinterest.com/emilygoltiao/piano-teaching/

[Bob]

Listening to a billionaire give advice on youtube.  I wonder how much it's usable ideas vs. this guy just happened to be in the right place a the right time for him to make a lot of money.

[Bob]

I'm really curious where stuff that just disappears actually ends up.  One day it's here.  The day... Where the heck is it?  It's not like I did anything different recently.  It should be right here where I left it.

The only thing I can think of is that it fell somewhere, and I'm not seeing it.

[Bob]

Found it, but I don't know if this is the the one I was looking for or the other one that was lost, so potentially the one I just lost is still lost.....

[Bob]

If we land on Mars and establish things there, are we going to end up with another major holiday?  In the US, we've got Thanksgiving for getting established in North America.  If they made a holiday for that, you'd think Mars would be an even bigger deal, so there would be some kind of Mars holiday.  Unless it just piggybacks on Thanksgiving for the same reasons.

[Bob]

[Bob]

[Bob]

That it's spring time in the southern hemisphere.  That would mess with my mind a bit to have summer weather in December.

[Bob]

https://i.imgur.com/v3avs2o.mp4

[Bob]

Stagnation from habit.  Still how to push things....

[Bob]

Shitty, upbeat music in the background of youtube videos.  Maybe it includes a ukulele or not.  It's getting really old.

[georgey]

Domenico Scarlatti – Musicologist Donald J Grout says in his book A History of Western Music: “The chief Italian keyboard composer of the 18th century, and one of the most original geniuses in the history of music, was Domenico Scarlatti (1685 – 1757).”  I now have my kit of items to study his work: A) Printed version in 11 volumes of the complete 555 sonatas (URTEXT version edited by Kenneth Gilbert), B) Magnificent recording of Scott Ross playing all 555 sonatas on harpsichord, and C) Harpsichordist and musicologist Ralph Kirkpatrick’s book “Dominico Scarlatti” that discusses both his life and his music.  My ear agrees with Grout: Scarlatti is one of the most original geniuses in the history of music.

Happy new year and new decade to all and Merry Christmas!