Silence Is Sometimes Golden
So, it's been how long since I last posted here...? March, ouch!
I have an excuse, or rather several, which I beg your indulgence to explain. Firstly, I've started a post-grad degree, a Masters in Research studying Strategic Resource Management. This is an Environmental Management course run by Nottingham Trent University. I've literally just finished the last of my first year assignments and tests, so I finally feel like I can blog without guilt. My second year kicks off on Friday with a field course in Anglesey, studying Calcareous Mires and old Copper Mines. It should be fun and a completely novel experience for me. I've never even been on so much as a geography field trip, so I have very little idea what to expect. I've got ideas, but I'm not sure if they're right.
Secondly, I've started playing music again. I took a very long sabbatical from playing Eb Bass (or Tuba for the uninitiated) when I had a falling out with the conductor over his attitude towards me and a handful of other players who couldn't commit fully to the band because of other commitments, like University and Work back in about 2001. His attitude was that the band came first and if you didn't show 100% commitment you were out, so I left before he could push me. It was at about the same time I was preparing to go to University, so it didn't feel like a huge deal at the time, as I was going through all sorts of other stuff as well. Looking back, it was probably one of the most damaging things I've ever done to myself. It's only looking back now that I realise how much I missed it and how much I crave performing musically. I am enjoying playing now more than I ever have done, but I really do wonder what if I hadn't stopped playing back then.
Thirdly, after coming back to Band I agreed to become their publicity officer, which gave me responsibility for getting the band into the press and advertising our engagements. This was a stupid move, even for me, and I'm now struggling with working out a way to extricate myself without ruffling too many feathers. I can see a way out, but it will have to wait a few weeks, for developments at work to develop, so to speak. 'Nuff said.
Fourthly, stupidly over-extending myself, I'm also running a 4th edition D&D game, which involves me writing a fantasy setting because I wasn't happy with any of the current D&D offerings. Leastways, I figured I'd have to do so much work to fit my ideas into Forgotten Realms, for example, that I might as well start from scratch. That worked out about as well as can be expected, and I'm now on my seventeenth nervous breakdown with my RPG group.
Finally, I've been working on a film project with a friend of mine, he wants a score for a documentary he's written about King Oswald, a local Anglo-Saxon king that our town is named for (Oswald's Tree = Oswestry). Most of my music is in the can, thankfully, so I'm not stressing about that too much....
But enough about me... How the devil are you?
I have an excuse, or rather several, which I beg your indulgence to explain. Firstly, I've started a post-grad degree, a Masters in Research studying Strategic Resource Management. This is an Environmental Management course run by Nottingham Trent University. I've literally just finished the last of my first year assignments and tests, so I finally feel like I can blog without guilt. My second year kicks off on Friday with a field course in Anglesey, studying Calcareous Mires and old Copper Mines. It should be fun and a completely novel experience for me. I've never even been on so much as a geography field trip, so I have very little idea what to expect. I've got ideas, but I'm not sure if they're right.
Secondly, I've started playing music again. I took a very long sabbatical from playing Eb Bass (or Tuba for the uninitiated) when I had a falling out with the conductor over his attitude towards me and a handful of other players who couldn't commit fully to the band because of other commitments, like University and Work back in about 2001. His attitude was that the band came first and if you didn't show 100% commitment you were out, so I left before he could push me. It was at about the same time I was preparing to go to University, so it didn't feel like a huge deal at the time, as I was going through all sorts of other stuff as well. Looking back, it was probably one of the most damaging things I've ever done to myself. It's only looking back now that I realise how much I missed it and how much I crave performing musically. I am enjoying playing now more than I ever have done, but I really do wonder what if I hadn't stopped playing back then.
Thirdly, after coming back to Band I agreed to become their publicity officer, which gave me responsibility for getting the band into the press and advertising our engagements. This was a stupid move, even for me, and I'm now struggling with working out a way to extricate myself without ruffling too many feathers. I can see a way out, but it will have to wait a few weeks, for developments at work to develop, so to speak. 'Nuff said.
Fourthly, stupidly over-extending myself, I'm also running a 4th edition D&D game, which involves me writing a fantasy setting because I wasn't happy with any of the current D&D offerings. Leastways, I figured I'd have to do so much work to fit my ideas into Forgotten Realms, for example, that I might as well start from scratch. That worked out about as well as can be expected, and I'm now on my seventeenth nervous breakdown with my RPG group.
Finally, I've been working on a film project with a friend of mine, he wants a score for a documentary he's written about King Oswald, a local Anglo-Saxon king that our town is named for (Oswald's Tree = Oswestry). Most of my music is in the can, thankfully, so I'm not stressing about that too much....
But enough about me... How the devil are you?