The Happiness Thread

I'm attempting to learn "O Christmas Tree" on guitar (melody and chords together). It's really tough. I play mostly rock-related stuff, and this is my first real attempt at jazz chords. The shapes are totally foreign and I have no experience switching between them. But after a few hours playing and replaying an instructional YouTube video I at least have a pattern memorized. I can play it, just really slowly.

Now I just gotta practice, practice, practice! Those diminished chords aren't going to learn themselves!

 

I had an audition for this regional orchestra like thing (more of a concert band, really), and I left my saxophone at school. I only noticed hours later when I went to practice, but I hoped that there may be a way for me to get it. So my father drove me to school and dropped me off. It's completely dark and chilly, but I start running around the school like a mad man looking for an open door. And by some pure stroke of luck, one of the side doors was open and I was able to get into the music room (which holds all the instruments and stuff). The music room's doors were closed but they're never locked, and the entire walk back to my dad's car I couldn't stop fist pumping as I held my sax case.

I guess luck is real in some sense after all.

 

Good for you but a school leaving all the instruments in an unlocked room?

 

Most schools have lockers for the instruments, everything from flute size to tuba.

 

I'm writing again. Never mind that it's reached half past midnight and I still haven't finished a four-stanza poem - I'm writing again, and that is a thing to celebrate.

 

I was doing a bunch of law case briefs for extra credit to make sure I got an "A" in my Criminal Law class, and my professor sent me an email to tell me to not worry about doing them because I had done well enough already to get an "A." I'm pretty stoked because I ended up with straight "A's" for the semester, which isn't bad for a 39 year-old that hasn't been in college in eleven years! Now let's see how long I can keep it up and drive my GPA back up. I really need to try and find a work study job in the fall that involves criminal justice or some kind of security consulting.

 

I'm out of hospital!

 

I've had the worst year ever and the worst few months since I was last here (divorce, new flat, eviction, almost lost my job, broke, homeless, colleague tried to get me fired, did I mention broke?)

Well, I have a new place with a cool friendly flatmate in a great location, colleague is getting moved to another team, starting to write, paint and draw again, not as broke, and far more optimistic now, even though WW3 has started.

But, hey, you can't have everything.

Glad to be back again.

 

Nice to see you again, WingedFox.

Watching A Christmas Carol has made me start a parody of it where Scrooge lampshades and questions the decisions made by all the characters of the play. Writing it out in script form first. I might make it into a short story and post here for critique.

 

Just watched a play of a script I've written. The third script that's been performed. Always feels phenomenal seeing characters come to life.

 

Just watched A Charlie Brown Christmas. I will, under no circumstances, let a holiday season go by without watching it.

 

Karma folks, Karma. When I first heard about this guy I thought, "What a dick." Now after reading this today, it brought a smile to my face.

https://gma.yahoo.com/turing-pharma...ies-fraud-181641388--abc-news-topstories.html

 

Watching old "Full House" re-runs and the nostalgia is good after a crappy day. I wish more shows and people in general had cheesy humor. Sometimes the sarcastic kind comes off as too bitter for me to take on bad days.

 

Hooray! The shortest day/longest night is here. That means the days will finally begin getting longer.

 

IT's a jolly tricksy moxie, happy thanksgiving! HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY

 

Meeting the family for Xmas went well. I previously had a major argument with my siblings and we all agreed to move on from it and it looks like we actually did. There were times when I needed to be alone and even took a walk outside for a bit, but no one was offended and overall, I developed a thicker skin.

 

Huzzah! I'm finally learning how to make webpages! At long last, the site I've always wanted to make since 2003 but never got around to will be alive.

IT WILL BE ALLIIIIIVVEE!!!

 

I love my hair in the winter. There's not enough humidity to poof it out, so it's just all *SCHWING, SHINE, SMOOTHNESS*

*feels pretty*

 

<Response>CASE WHEN 'Link the Writer' = 'Says Something Positive'
THEN 'Good for you, Link!'
ELSE

CASE WHEN 'Link the Writer' = 'Says Something Negative'
THEN 'Too bad, Link!'
ELSE ''
END​

ELSE ''
END</Response>

 

Collecting old versions of my stories have left me filled with two emotions: horror and pride. Horror in how flat my characters were, how the dialogue looks like a fifth-grader wrote it (too many exclamation points, for starters.) Little description of scenery, just people talking. What's worst is characters have their names changed in the middle of the draft and/or randomly pop in and out of existence entirely.

Yet I feel pride in knowing that (a) I did this. A good first attempt, (b) my writing had improved. I look at this and think, "I can do better than this now. I've got something to work with. I don't completely suck!" Also, I'm proud of the evolution one of my major characters has gone through: in the earlier drafts, he was your token "evil caretaker who abuses and belittles the main character", but now he's a cynical, but soft-hearted guy who does care about people.

This is why you never delete your old drafts, folks.

 

I've had the same experience with my early iterations, too. *brofist*

 

The best part is, I'm now on a writing binge. I literally can't stop myself from writing to do something else. I've 500 words into my historical mystery, nearly 500 words into my fantasy, and am considering moving over to my sci-fi after that.

I just can't stop writing! The tough part will be to write when I don't have the binge, and when I've no old drafts to compare to (so I'm basically making it up as I go along.) But for now, I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.

 

Well, now I'm jealous. Share some of that binge with me so I can finish my chapter 2 :/

 

Actually, it was thanks to you and your bonking so...

*bonks*

*bonks for days*

I guess my advice here would be to just ask yourself, ‘what happens next?’ and ask your characters what they should do. If they refuse, threaten to write them in...compromising positions with other characters, that may get them to move the plot along.