Notices by Bec (teadrinker@aus.social)

@skinnylatte Per month? That's... quite a lot

@sundogplanets Semi-trailer (with semi pronouned 'semmy' not 'sem-eye')

If anyone needs us over here in the far corner of Western Australia, we'll be prepping our boats and sandbags...

Just kidding, it's fine so far – more steady rain than torrential downpour, and nothing like destructive winds and flooding the poor folk further north have had to endure.

It is *quite* wet though. I have a you-didn't-sleep-long-enough headache so I'm hoping to schedule a nap later, and we have power so there is plenty of tea. The chimney is leaking just a little bit and the gutters are reminding us that they need replacing. Hopefully all this water will make it to the dams and tanks after a very dry summer

#weather #cyclone #rain

In an effort to enjoy life more, I've been trying to get back to stuff that I really love, the sorts of things that always have made my heart sing, you know?

One such thing is playing music. I took lessons in piano and oboe when I was younger, and taught myself some basic chords on the guitar. But I also wanted to try something new. So for Christmas, Adam bought me a musical instrument and it came today. Bet you can't guess what it is 😂

#music #StartingFromScratch #learning

I tried it out after lunch and I can (almost) play 'When the saints go marching in' all the way through!

It's SO FUN 😁😁😁

It's coming up to three months of learning trumpet (about two months of lessons). The book my teacher gave me six weeks ago is supposed to last a full school year and we're nearly finished it – this sounds more impressive than it is because the book is for beginner musicians, not just beginner trumpet players. So there's lots of 'this is a minim/crotchet/rest/key signature' which I don't need to learn.

Biggest challenge continues to be lip strength. But also I find it hard to be thinking of everything at once when I'm playing something new. There's finger positions, intonation, pressure, pitch, so I find myself gripping the trumpet harder than I should, and getting a sore hand afterwards!

I spoke about that with my teacher and he reassured me that there's so much to think of, no wonder I sometimes find it hard. It will be fine with time. He is a good and patient teacher and we're doing more and more duets – this, I love, because you have to keep up and keep playing, no matter the mistakes!

I can play almost 30 minutes at a stretch now, which is making practice sessions more enjoyable. So the short version of this post should read: Trumpet. Still loving it. Music is so fun. The end (or actually still very much the beginning).

#trumpet #music #ThingsILove

Trumpet update: I've now had three lessons, and yesterday my teacher also gave me the book he used to use for beginners, and it's super. I can play whole notes from the A below middle-C and up to the C above middle-C.

Yesterday I learnt B-flat.

Teacher: So now you know your first flat!

Me: Yes! And it's B-flat, which is my favourite flat.

Teacher: ...is it?

It then occurred to me that not everyone has favourite flats? Surely that's not the case!

#trumpet #music #SoMuchFun #LearningNewThings #ThingsILove

@jeridansky I found out a friend was an anti-vaxxer during the early years of the pandemic. It really surprised me. We've not really kept in touch since...

The mantises hatched 🥰

#ThingsILove #insects #PrayingMantis

Good news! The thesis chair has approved my edits and so all I have to do now is fill out 379,000,000,0000 forms and I can submit my PhD! Final thing!! Woohoo! All the exclamation points!!!!

(While as an editor, I would usually strongly advise against using more than two ! at any given time, I feel as though this occasion warrants more)

#phd #FinallyFinished #yay #academia

Just made two phone calls! Two!! In a row! Surely there's some kind of prize for that

@skinnylatte I lived on a farm as a child, closest 'town' (20km away) had about a dozen buildings, including the hall, the school, and a tiny general store/post office. My school had 26 kids in the whole school (aged 5–12 years)... moving to a city of over 1mill was a bit of a culture shock. I'm now in a place with fewer than 50k and it suits me down to the ground. Still miss the farm, though. That quiet, the huge sky

@clive I don't use it, but I do know what it is, not sure if that's a factor?

@clive oh, I did :)

I just wonder because in my dealings with various people, I'm always amazed that so few people know what Linux is (let alone use it). We did have it set up on one of our PCs just for kicks, but it's not something we use for daily operations