My teaching schedule was weird today because of our State of the College address this morning. This gave me a little free time because my morning classes were cancelled. I went to my office with the intention of writing a blog post about… When I was a kid, I was taught to respect adults – my parents, my friends’ parents, teachers, any adult with whom I came into contact. Respect is a big thing when you are the child of…
I recently discovered something about myself and I’m not sure that I like it. On Monday, my youngest daughter sent me a text message saying that she was heading to Las Vegas on a last minute business trip. My response to her was, “Be safe.” Not, “Have fun.” or “Have a good trip.” or even “Win lots of money.” But, Be safe. I looked back through my Facebook feed where I had recently commented on posts by friends who are…
At the beginning of each new school year, I feel like I need to justify my existence to my students, or perhaps it’s their existence in my classes. I teach the final three semesters of a four semester music theory and ear training sequence. Most musicians, unless you are super nerdy like me, probably would not take music theory if it weren’t required to get any kind of degree in music. I explain to my Theory II class that…
Week one of the Spring 2017 semester is over. Let me just say that re-entry was tough! Though I never really slept late over the holiday break, I was not up any day at 5:30 like I have been every day this week. This adjustment to my morning alarm would have been much more tolerable if I had made a similar adjustment to my bedtime, if it also had moved three hours earlier. I missed that step. The result? Three…
So what have I learned lately? My desire to do is greater than my ability to do. My intention, once school was out was to write more. I have done that…just not here, which was not the plan. I thought that I could keep up here, with my regular Pixels, Plates, and LOLs posts, and writing every day for Blueper B…oh, and a photo a day for him and for me. Then there was stuff like preparing meals, and laundry,…
There was a time in my life when I was indeed the pessimist. Not anymore. That is a tough existence! This photo is the result of camera settings that were totally wrong. But, it worked for today’s photo prompts around fastener and blue. Let’s just say it ended up being a happy accident! I had three finals to write tonight and another set to grade. Even after many years of practice, I am still terrible at multi-tasking so in trying…
Today was the final class day of this semester. By this time next week, final exams will be over and another academic year will have come to an end. I will have completed year twenty-five in the same teaching position. The music theory sequence is a minimum of four semesters of paired courses; it can be five if a student comes in needing to make up a deficiency. Of those five courses, I teach four of them, all but the…
The past week seems to have flown by! Last weekend we were in Baltimore because I had a NOAH board meeting. Though it was a quick trip and I had little free time, I enjoyed the getaway and change of scenery. Weber and I did have a bit of time to wander around Baltimore’s Inner Harbor on Friday afternoon before my meeting began at 6. It was interesting to see another lightship. My dad was instrumental in restoring a similar…
Today’s Capture Your 365 photo prompt is “Where I Work.” I was excited by this prompt because it encouraged me to take photos in a place where I normally am not thinking about my camera. The sad part here is that it is the place that I have come nearly every work day for the past 23 years and of which I have very few photos. As I walked in to school this morning, I was thinking about the possibilities…
What the saying? “Life is what happens while we are busy making plans.” I made the big pronouncement that my plan was to post here regularly. I guess the truth is that I don’t yet have enough of a trend to define “regularly” but in my head that meant almost every day if not every day. And here it is five days since my last post. So what’s been going on? Lots, actually. The biggest obstacle to posting has been…