Sunday, December 10, 2006
Time to write again-
I didn’t write yesterday because I wasn’t sure what I could write; I was and am dealing with our reality and don’t want to reiterate anything or dwell, but my heart and mind have been there, so writing would have simply reflected my heart and mind.
I went to sleep a little earlier than I have in the past, this time before midnight, and tried reading one of the books on the life of the Apostle Paul that I was loaned, but the book was very thick in verbiage that is difficult for me. I tried scanning a bit but it was difficult for me still, so I bailed o that one and will see if the other book will be readable for me.
That being said, and to make that understandable, I have a form of dyslexia which is very problematic when it comes to reading (in particular) and writing (not so much now with personalized spell check). It takes me probably 4x as long for me to read a “college-word” paragraph as it would the average person, due to me having to re-read longer words and forcing the sentences to be logical. I’m VERY thankful that the writing software I use (Word) has the personalized spell check which knows to question words like “Form” and “From” which I nearly always reverse the “O” and the “R”, not mattering whether or not I was trying to write from or form, I almost always write the opposite. There are several words which are problems for me but Word generally catches them. I have to re-read sentences, some times 3 times in a row, to make certain I am reading them correctly. I have to do this same thing when I type these blogs which is why it takes me so long to type them. This was something that didn’t get identified until I was in college and I believe explains my pretty abysmal grades while in Jr. High and High School. It’s not just letters, but can be words and often numbers. In college I had an English/Writing Prof who identified my issue within a couple days of being in his class, prior to a test or much of anything. He asked me to stay after a class early on and explained what he thought I was dealing with and ever since then, with his coaching and instruction, I was confident to write and try math again. I began writing poems then went quickly to lyrics and have loved writing ever since.
We noticed that Missy was having a pretty tough time reading and writing in school and often she reverses letters when she’s spelling and she reverses numbers and words as well…hmm. I told her teacher at this last parent conference to look out for that in her work and if she see’s it to bring it to our attention and to Missy’s attention so we can deal with it. I’ve already shared my experience with Missy, so she knows of it and that it might be something she’s dealing with too.
I was successful in getting the Christmas decorations down a couple mornings ago and got some of the front yard décor put out, but was wiped shortly thereafter and crashed out on the couch for a few hours. THAT just irritates me to no end. CC was thrilled to have them down so she could begin to decorate which made me feel good and it was worth the fatigue to have her smile like that. Today’s goal is to get the lights up and the interior decorations up and out. That, of course, will also include some real cleaning as well.
Last night, Joshy and I played guitar together while I was watching some G3 on the DVD. He was quickly inspired to play when he saw the guitarists going full steam and was quite impressed with their skills, repeating over and over “Wow. Now THAT’S hard to do.” each time one of them would pull of an impossible riff or play as fast as a DeWalt drill with a pick in it (Speaking of, I think Eddie Van Halen was the only guitarist to actually have an endorsement from Makita for his use of the drill during their last tour. Crazy.). We had a great time sitting on the couch with him playing his plastic electric guitar and me on my white Ibanez. I noticed that the neck on his plastic guitar was bending pretty heavily from the tension of the 3 remaining strings on it, so I took the strings off to remove the threat of his getting hurt by a snapping string and he asked if he could play the white guitar, so I had him sit up straight on the couch and put that guitar on him then I went and got my purple Ibanez and we played along together with him trying different sounds and such with the whammy bar and my glass slide. I was able to learn the missing chorus progression for “Smoke on the Water” (Now one of Joshy’s favorite songs) as well as the bridge for La Grange. Both are very “easy” except when you don’t know what they are and are not playing against the song to figure it out. I’m happy to have them in my head now.
Time to write again-
I didn’t write yesterday because I wasn’t sure what I could write; I was and am dealing with our reality and don’t want to reiterate anything or dwell, but my heart and mind have been there, so writing would have simply reflected my heart and mind.
I went to sleep a little earlier than I have in the past, this time before midnight, and tried reading one of the books on the life of the Apostle Paul that I was loaned, but the book was very thick in verbiage that is difficult for me. I tried scanning a bit but it was difficult for me still, so I bailed o that one and will see if the other book will be readable for me.
That being said, and to make that understandable, I have a form of dyslexia which is very problematic when it comes to reading (in particular) and writing (not so much now with personalized spell check). It takes me probably 4x as long for me to read a “college-word” paragraph as it would the average person, due to me having to re-read longer words and forcing the sentences to be logical. I’m VERY thankful that the writing software I use (Word) has the personalized spell check which knows to question words like “Form” and “From” which I nearly always reverse the “O” and the “R”, not mattering whether or not I was trying to write from or form, I almost always write the opposite. There are several words which are problems for me but Word generally catches them. I have to re-read sentences, some times 3 times in a row, to make certain I am reading them correctly. I have to do this same thing when I type these blogs which is why it takes me so long to type them. This was something that didn’t get identified until I was in college and I believe explains my pretty abysmal grades while in Jr. High and High School. It’s not just letters, but can be words and often numbers. In college I had an English/Writing Prof who identified my issue within a couple days of being in his class, prior to a test or much of anything. He asked me to stay after a class early on and explained what he thought I was dealing with and ever since then, with his coaching and instruction, I was confident to write and try math again. I began writing poems then went quickly to lyrics and have loved writing ever since.
We noticed that Missy was having a pretty tough time reading and writing in school and often she reverses letters when she’s spelling and she reverses numbers and words as well…hmm. I told her teacher at this last parent conference to look out for that in her work and if she see’s it to bring it to our attention and to Missy’s attention so we can deal with it. I’ve already shared my experience with Missy, so she knows of it and that it might be something she’s dealing with too.
I was successful in getting the Christmas decorations down a couple mornings ago and got some of the front yard décor put out, but was wiped shortly thereafter and crashed out on the couch for a few hours. THAT just irritates me to no end. CC was thrilled to have them down so she could begin to decorate which made me feel good and it was worth the fatigue to have her smile like that. Today’s goal is to get the lights up and the interior decorations up and out. That, of course, will also include some real cleaning as well.
Last night, Joshy and I played guitar together while I was watching some G3 on the DVD. He was quickly inspired to play when he saw the guitarists going full steam and was quite impressed with their skills, repeating over and over “Wow. Now THAT’S hard to do.” each time one of them would pull of an impossible riff or play as fast as a DeWalt drill with a pick in it (Speaking of, I think Eddie Van Halen was the only guitarist to actually have an endorsement from Makita for his use of the drill during their last tour. Crazy.). We had a great time sitting on the couch with him playing his plastic electric guitar and me on my white Ibanez. I noticed that the neck on his plastic guitar was bending pretty heavily from the tension of the 3 remaining strings on it, so I took the strings off to remove the threat of his getting hurt by a snapping string and he asked if he could play the white guitar, so I had him sit up straight on the couch and put that guitar on him then I went and got my purple Ibanez and we played along together with him trying different sounds and such with the whammy bar and my glass slide. I was able to learn the missing chorus progression for “Smoke on the Water” (Now one of Joshy’s favorite songs) as well as the bridge for La Grange. Both are very “easy” except when you don’t know what they are and are not playing against the song to figure it out. I’m happy to have them in my head now.
Anyway, he and I had a great time playing together and then we moved into the Music Room where he wanted to learn about my effects processor, (Boss GT-3) so I let him mess around with switching the patches and explained the banks and programs within the banks and he understood. His favorite to switch settings on was the Human Wah patch which can make the guitar sound like it is saying “Hey” if the pedal is moved a certain way and speed after a strum. He was very entertained by it, big smile and laughing most of that time. 
It’s now Sunday morning and he’s wearing a set of my headphones plugged into the computer, playing the CD he got from his cousin Kirsten, and has my white guitar on his lap while he strums away and sings to the songs on the CD. So cool. Last night, he asked if I would record some guitar stuff for him to listen to on his MP3 player so he could write some words for it!!!! How cool is that? Don’t you KNOW that WILL get recorded if for no other reason than he simply wants to do it. I’m stoked by his interest, though I believe he will probably end up being a percussionist or drummer more likely due to his attention to rhythm and musical inflection. He generally strums or pats to the rhythm of the words and such. He’s VERY dramatic when it comes to listening/singing along with songs. He becomes the artist and his face shows the intent and determination and often the emotion of the song’s lyrical point, though he loves the hard rock and loves to do his best Billy Idol disposition or complete straight-face as he does Will Smith’s “Wild, Wild West.”. Dig it.Well, this afternoon, turns out, we (Mommy, Joshy and I) are heading down to Downtown Sac for the Library’s afternoon event of a Youth Symphony/Orchestra beginning at 1:30. That should be pretty cool. CC was making the point that if we don’t take Joshy and Missy to these things, they’ll never know of them. Missy spent yesterday and last night with a friend and then is heading over to another friend’s house now to spend the afternoon, so she won’t be with us for the Library trip. I miss her when we do family things or outings, if she’s not with us. Seems like she truly misses us too.
Tonight is FOP’s big Christmas program. I’m very hopeful that it goes very well and that the tech crew has a blast doing the show. I’m not sure I’ll go or not.
Well, time to do some cleaning up before CC gets back and we have to leave for the library.
-peace
yay you got the CDs! i wasnt sure if they ever got to you, so that makes me really happy. : -D
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