Cello!

A couple weeks ago I rented a cello! It's an instrument I've wanted to play for a long time now, and when we found out that one of my mom's friends was an experienced cellist and willing to give me lessons in exchange for babysitting her kids, it looked like a great opportunity!


So far I've had one lesson, which was awesome, and I feel like I'm starting to slowly get it. I find the fingering part pretty easy (probably from ukulele) and also because my cello has these nifty stripes that tell me where to put my fingers. Eventually I'll probably take them off if I'm still on this cello when I'm more advanced, they're just for beginners, but for now I love them.



On the other hand, I find the bowing part of it REALLY hard. My hand keeps cramping up and I find it hard to hold it. It just feels so odd to me still. I think it'll get better as I progress, though.

Last summer my goal was to be moderately-okay at ukulele, and this summer I have a bit of a grander ambition, cello. I think it will be quite a bit more difficult to get proficient at, but I'm willing to put the work in. I love the rich, deep tone of it, and even though right now all I can play is the basics like "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" in a very scratchy way, I'm loving it.

Sorry my posts have been so sporadic, I will have a new post coming up as I've just purchased two new ukuleles. (I know. That makes 5, though I am planning to give away my Mahalo.) Those little things are so darn addictive! On the ukulele forums I go on they call it Ukulele Acquisition Syndrome, if you think I'm bad, some of the people there have over 10!

As always, thanks for reading!

Dorothy

Toronto 2010!

Sorry I haven't posted in such a long time! I have a (moderately) valid excuse, though, and that was that I was in Toronto!

I flew out with a bunch of my awesome friends (including Nicole, Daniel, and Calla) and there we participated in a national Shakespeare festival. We also had some extra time to sightsee, and I decided to stay an extra few days to visit with my sister Sarah. While I was there for my lovely 9-day holiday, I went to the Toronto Zoo, Toronto Island, Lawrence Market, Eaton's Centre, I saw Mamma Mia and I got to go to the Corktown Ukulele Jam along with a bunch of other fun stuff! Needless to say I have over 300 photos, I'd love to post them all, but I think it would take too long to scroll through them, so here are just a few from my trip.

This is the street our awesome hostel was on!


The streetcar pulling into it's underground station


This is a geocache we found on Toronto Island! It was massive and really awesome. I got the album Voulez Vous (ABBA) on vinyl and it actually plays!

Stickers from the uke jam! And no, I don't actually have glasses, but I plan to pass it on to someone that does if they'll get around to learning the uke. (*cough* Nicole *cough* :D)

All my subway transfers! I took one every time I passed a machine.

Finally a Fluke post!

Okay, I finally have pictures for you guys! Introducing my Fluke ukulele!


It has a plastic back, which you would think would make it sound horrible, but it's a gorgeous instrument.



It has friction tuners, which I'm still not used to. My Oscar Schmidt has geared tuners, which means that the tuner literally has little gears that are used to hold it in place. Friction tuners use, guess what, friction! :D They're a lot more finicky than their geared relatives, a tiny turn and you're up a half-step. I'm not sure whether I like them too much, but it's definitely worth it for the Fluke-ness!

And mine has pretty flowers!

It's super super durable, I saw a review where the guy threw it behind his head! Personally, I treat it like it's made of glass, but after I've owned it for a while that'll probably change.

So yes, definitely worth the purchase and if any of you guys are considering a uke I would highly recommend a Flea or Fluke.

Another lame apology post

Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry! It's been over 2 months since I've posted!
This is just a quick post to apologize and to say I will be posting when I can find my camera, I got a new ukulele, and I'll put pictures up soon.

So yes, incredibly short post, but I'll try and make a few good, long ones to follow later.

Duct Tape Purse!

So, yesterday while procrastinating I decided to make a duct tape purse.
It worked out well, so I thought I'd post some pictures of how I did it. Just a note, you can probably find someone who's done a much neater and more crafty version, but I figure it's not going to look fancy anyway if you're making it out of duct tape.

I started with a Rice Krispies box.

I cut out the front and back of the purse (you'll probably want to measure so it's the size you want, I took the size from another purse that I really like) and then the bottom I just sort of "eyeballed".


Next I started covering it in duct tape! I found that using long strips and wrapping it around 1.5-2 times worked well.



All covered!


This bit was probably the hardest (though still very simple) part.

To put one of the sides together with the bottom, I put tape on the front and back at sort of right angles, making sure the tape went all the way into the space in between the two pieces.

All stuck together!


Now the other side is on as well.


Then for the sides I didn't use cardboard, just duct tape in strips on top of each other, like this.

For the ones below this the strip that's silver side up in this picture were lower so it stuck to the one above it...If that makes any sense. I forgot to take a photo. :/

Getting the sides on.


Then I made a handle by folding a long strip of duct tape up.

I attached that with, you guessed it, duct tape!

And that's about it! I also added some stick on velcro to keep the top closed, but that's not necessary.

Hopefully this post made some amount of sense, I'm certainly not the craftiest person around!

Dot

Album for the Young

A couple months ago I picked up a copy of Schumann's Album for the Young. I had played some of the pieces from it that the Suzuki method (the method I use for piano) had put in their books, and had always wanted to see it in it's entirety. When I looked through it I really liked it, and decided to play through the whole thing.

The album contains 43 short pieces and so far I think I'm on number 9. They're pretty simple (though they get harder as the book goes on) so at the moment I'm getting through one every week or two.

It really appeals to me because each piece is like a painting, as you walk through the gallery you see the soldiers, the orphans, the sort of, well as far as I can understand it, German "anti-claus" and so much more crammed in there.

There's also something really satisfying about playing through a whole collection like that. To do it in it's entirety (well, who knows, I may end up skipping a few, but still).

Alright, well I think that's my post for this evening (super early morning?), thanks for reading, and be sure to leave a comment if you enjoyed it!

Nerdiness!

Well, some time last year I started recognizing the fact that I was a complete and utter nerd. It was the 50K-novel-in-a-month thing that really made me realize. It also made me realize that I loved that title.

I love that I can do crazy things like take my pants off on an LRT (long story) or wear a bucket from Dollarama on my head or recite Shakespeare, or wear a kilt in public, or a sparkly silver hat, and not feel anxious that someone might see me and think I'm "uncool". I would hope that they would see me and think that maybe sure, I'm rather odd, but perhaps also rather interesting.

In the end, where does being what society defines as "cool" get you? Maybe you'll have a couple friends that like you for your expensive clothing, or maybe you'll get a good laugh out of those crazy kids over there wearing the silver tophats. But you'll never be those tophat-kids, so to speak. To see the "cool ones" mock you and laugh right back at their shallowness.

Personally, I'd much rather have a group of friends that embrace the "uncool" (you know who you awesome people are!) and like me for me, not for the act I put on. It doesn't bother me at all if someone calls me weird, or nerdy, or what have you. I like who I am, and I love being out of the ordinary.

Kick average to the curb. Come to the nerdy side, we have Shakespeare.