Up at a bit after 2. I did some voice exercises last night from this YouTube channel that has them. They have various "workouts" (they don't call them that but I forget what they call them) and sang some songs too.
It appears to be pretty much like trumpet. It's all out there, and generally for free (for instance the famous Arban's manual is free online). It's not hard to find the basic, beneficial, exercises. The hard part is getting in regular practice.
I got up and had my coffee etc. and diddled around online and was getting ready to get out of here to go downtown and visit the usual places like Whole Foods, CVS, and the Amazon hub where there are a couple of things waiting for me. Then I heard Ken's truck drive up.
I said I have to get errands done, and Ken said he only has a couple of hours. I said I'll go as quick as I can and get right back. So I took off, and my first stop was Nijiya where I stood in line for a healthy amount of time and had time to think. I realized I can push the downtown stuff off a day or two, and I'd just get a bento and a beer and a few things like eggs there at Nijiya, go eat on the steps of the Issei center, and get back to the shop.
So that's what I did. It *is* nice and peaceful there on the steps, out of the wind. There's the most amazing pine tree there too that's got huge branches in it and could accommodate a few treehouses. I wonder if it's a special Japanese kind?
The wind was really strong coming back, and when I got back here I said to Ken, "You know how in a move when it's the Apocalypse and there's always this wind? It's really that way!".
Ken had gotten the JET mill/drill head onto his truck and done whatever else he needed to get done, and we just hung out and talked about stuff for a bit. Ken likes to talk with smart people and I guess I'm one of those. It's like when you're in high school and most of the kids aren't really that good for deep or scientific conversations but a few are so you go to them when you want to talk about "brainy" stuff.
I've pretty much let the cat out of the bag that I'm really considering leaving for Hawaii once I'm 62 and can at least get the minimum Social Security. I also told him that along with wondering why my (very pale) father moved to Hawaii to program computers of all things, why'd my mother ever leave? She was brown enough to blend in and would have done fine. As for my father, if he was going to live in Hawaii, he should have joined the carpenter's union. He liked carpentry, and they'd have taken him in; they even wanted to take me in and I should have dropped the college nonsense and done that. Of course then I'd be a semi-retired carpenter with a house in Manoa and a good pension and health plan, griping to my friends that I should have gone to college.
My 2mm sketching pencil is waiting for me at the Amazon hub and a book, "Unfamiliar Fishes" about Hawaii that the Hawaii subreddit recommends. That's the book I'll read the coming Saturday. I'd told Ken about my new routine of reading a physical book every Saturday and as little internet as possible, "to head off burnout".
So I'll have the sketch book right here at my desk and can do some drawing any time, and my drawings will all be in there and not get scattered around like index cards.
And voice training is right there on YouTube on the channel I've subscribed to. I remember making up my mind that this year I was going to master playing up to high C on the trumpet, and I did it. So, I'm thinking maybe I should do voice exercises and practice singing every day for the next year, Columbus Day to Columbus Day, and see where that puts me after a year. The YouTube channel suggests recording myself and listening to hear what I sound like to give myself feedback. Louis Armstrong actually recorded himself a lot for this reason (recorded practice sessions) and if it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me!
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