Flies

Currently on a job, sitting out in a field, wondering why I'm out here doing nothing productive instead of being at home looking after my family. I guess the couple of extra dollars from this will help, and being away provides fewer chances of exposing my family... still sucks being away during this global crisis. Would much rather be at home. I guess somebody needs to be out here. Could be worse,I could be dealing directly with people.

Out here we're outnumbered a few thousand to one by the flies. So glad I have a fly net to keep them off my face, it would drive somebody mad to have these xreepy crawlies all over you. It's bad enough having them on my hands. Eating something is almost impossible without it being instantly covered in flies. Would be nice to be indoors again...

Eastern Front

Bugs, bugs, bugs.

Arrived today on the eastern front as part of Operation Plaguebearer (at least that's what I'm calling it) and bugs is my first impression. Bulk flies during the day, grasshoppers and such at night.

A bit cut because the plan was that I'd be driving out here then driving back, which of course changed three times at the last minute and ended up with me sitting out here and someone who wanted to stay out here going back.

*sigh*

Oh well, just think of the overtime. Oh wait...

Piano, day six

No, I'm not going to be doing "day X" for years! However, unlike drums and bass guitar I'm happy to report that (so far) I have managed to practice every day (for less than a week, yay me, give me a medal...)

So far, learnt basic C major scales (both hands, but not at the same time), very minimal music theory, how to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and almost all of Mary Had A Little Lamb. TTLS isn't too hard, that's a nice simple one. MHALL is kinda tricky because I've found several different versions for the last part and none of them sound right. They feel like they either have a note missing or a note extra.

I found a tutorial on how to play Fur Elise, but it's teaching me a sequence of keys to push. Memorising a series of keystrokes is one thing, but I'd rather develop reading music and playing the notes rather than repeating a known pattern.

Hopefully that will come in time, but I like that bit of music so being able to play that will be a nice feather in my cap. I'll be away with work at times during the year, that'll be a bit frustrating but can't be helped.

Piano progress

I'm pretty sure I'd be doing better if I had a teacher, but can't afford lessons, so here we are.

Only a few days into it, so far I'm working on basic scales and working out where to put my fingers. Also, so far I've managed to practice every day since I started so that's good.

At the moment, my repertoire consists of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I've started trying to play Mary Had A Little Lamb but that's proving a bit tricky.

In exercise news, fitness is down on what it used to be, but that isn't suprising. Arm curls are down to 10kg, but bench press is at 20kg + bar (which I think is 20kg on its own, but not 100% sure).

Piano, day one

I've been very frustrated for months due to not being creative. I've tried writing, drawing, bass guitar and a few other minor projects. None have really filled me with passion or had me excited to get stuck into them. For example, each time I try and write something, I just stare at a blank screen for a while or type out something very trite and unreadable, then go do something else. Very meh.

There are lots of things I'd like to try out to try and improve being creative... but my budget is $0 and isn't likely to change anytime soon.

So today I've tried to start teaching myself piano, just from watching YT videos. Am I going to be able to play beautiful music? No. Or at least not yet, it's going to take a while. And lots of practice. That's going to be the key, focussed practice. Not easy when I'm often away for weeks at a time, but it's got to be a better use of my time than staring at my phone.