(Why not wish you a happy new year? Maybe you don’t want to be happy! Which would be a little strange but we have masochists and sadists in the world for a reason. (And may they find everything they want with each other.)
Joking and silliness aside, I hope you all have precisely the kind of year you want.
I’m not really doing resolutions, but I do tend to view the start of the year as a time to reset and try again at all the things I failed at.
This year, I’m trying to do the following:
1: Play more.
I’m doing 10 minutes of piano lessons a day whenever I have reasonable access to the piano I received for Christmas. (Best. Present. Basically. Ever.) I’m using the Simply Piano app, and it’s working pretty well for me. I’m slowly but surely learning.
I am also collecting instruments because I LIKE instruments. I gave away my old violin to a school kid in need and bought a purple glitter one of far inferior quality. What? I’m here for the fun not the performance. But I’ll totally end up buying myself a high end performance violin *IF AND ONLY IF* I get any good at it. You know, to go along with the 1790 high end violin inherited along the various generations in my family. (That was not a typo. The violin was made in the year 1790, and it’s absolutely gorgeous, and the sound is haunting.)
My grandfather was a professional violinist in his day, and it was his performance violin. If anyone knows a pro quality luthier in the Bay Area… do let me know. It needs its every-few-years check up.
2: Work more efficiently but less.
I am very bad about doing 20 minutes of work here, 20 minutes of work there, and not hitting anything but my minimum goals. I have a goal in mind for how many hours a day I wish to work (weekdays), and there’s some “play” work I want to do on weekends. So I’m rewarding myself with $100 credit towards new instruments every time I accomplish those goals.
I am not rewarded for base effort.
Cuz like that’s the point of a reward system. For being rewarded for going above and beyond. I get a pay check for the minimums…
3: take lots and lots of pretty pictures!
4: go to Australia!
5: do better at cleaning
Annnnnndddd that’s it.
I’ll be posting tentative release schedules for the year for planning purposes, but for the moment, the main releases you need to know are two books in May, one in July.
I’ll be working on other books between now and then, but I don’t have timetables yet. As such, if it isn’t already set to be published in May or July, I do not know anything right now. Please save me having to tell you “I don’t know when that is coming out.” Thanks!
Have a great day, y’all! Enjoy this humor picture of a bird trying to block the security camera at an intersection. Good try, birb. Good try.
And a Happy New Year to you. Best of luck with your goals.
It sounds like you’re feeling better! Here’s hoping 2023 is kinder to all of us.
I’m currently rereading Plaidypus for the umpteenth time and enjoying Nadine’s adventure in Australia.
Happy New Year!
OK, so…
I majored in Early Music performance at UC Davis, which is a little bit out of the Bay Area, but very very close. Anyway, I sang in the Early Music Ensemble and played harpsichord in the Baroque Orchestra, and the violist in that ensemble was a luthier. He made several of the violins used in that ensemble and I know he’s repaired old instruments. His name is Devin Hough, and he lived in Davis.
If he’s not around any more (I was at Davis in the 90s), there are two harpsichord makers in SF who should be able to direct you to a luthier who can take care of your baby. Their names are Peter Phillips and Kevin Fryer. Hope this helps!
oh yeah, the San Francisco Early Music Society probably has a list of luthiers, or the Viola da Gamba Society would also have a list.
Good luck with the cleaning goal! That has been on my resolution list for years! (It hasn’t happened yet.)
May you have an awesome year. May you be motivated to earn your rewards. May you find a luthier to maintain your violin. (May you leave no orphaned series behind.)
I’m right there with the two of you
Of course serving the feline overladies who truly run the household isn’t listed. That’s not work. That’s not break-time. That is simply the joy of being owned by cats. 🐈🐈
Stringed Instrument Repair in Bay Area: Although I know more about wind than stringed instruments, my friends that do play stringed instruments have spoken very favorably of Gryphon Stringed Instruments in Palo Alto. http://www.gryphonstrings.com
They don’t do violins, so that’s a no go. They do just about everything else, though. They’re primarily a guitar shop… and a really nice looking one from the looks of it!
Good news everyone! I’ve fixed the poison slime pipes! No wait…. I found a new hot chocolate for Nadine! It is dark chocolate peppermint candy. She no longer must hoard her candy canes as there is crushed candy cane pieces in the mix. Bonus there are dark chocolate pieces as well. Kiki Enslaver of Humans and I wish for you to have the year you want and look forward to reading the next adventure!
No lie, I was doing that raid on Monday, and I was just chirping along with Putricide’s script, because it’s just SO funny.
“Bad news, everyone! I don’t think I’m going to make it…”
Australia is on the retirement bucket list. If we’re going that far, we might as well stay more than a week. This year is the trip we didn’t take for my 60th two years ago: a Rhine River cruise to see European Christmas markets. Now I need to get in shape for all that walking!
If you like music, you have to take a road trip to Phoenix Arizona to the Musical Instrument Museum! My brother and I did a road trip this winter break just to see it and it was worth the trip! You need 2 days to really take your time to see all the displays and videos! We only had one day so we were the first ones in and one of the last ones out. I loved it. The only complaint I have is that they didn’t have enough stuff with their names for presents for the people back home in Hawaii. I am probably never be able to go again so I wanted stuff but they didn’t have enough things with their names on it.