Musing on January, Hailing February
5:13 PM
Greetings from the cave!
Well, winter has officially arrived. I'm currently huddled in my room under a lot of blankets, as a frigid wind goes blowing past my window. We've had some snow blow in, but now it's just icy and cold, and where is spring??
Then again, this has been the perfect time to rest, relax and recharge as I head into another semester of grad school. With the new comes new excitements and new projects.
So, what has happened in January?
I got a LOT of new books recently!
For Christmas, I got four books: Marilla of Green Gables by Sarah McCoy, With Every Letter by Sarah Sundin, Entwined by Heather Dixon, and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein. All of which I have read already, but many were due for a reread.
And then my birthday was this month! And...I got spoiled. I got the ENTIRE Ranger's Apprentice series (all 12 books!!!). And also I got United We Fall by Brooke Riley. This is equally as exciting, because of her new book that is coming out this year!
And, of course, I started graduate school again, so I got another half a dozen textbooks.
- For Christmas, I got a DVD that has been long on my list. It is The Inspector General, which is a Danny Kaye movie from the early 1950s. I had watched it (albietly, illegally) when I was in college and really wanted to get a copy of it. I did watch it with the family and while I did enjoy it....I kind of like The Court Jester a little better.
- My family got a few more shows over Christmas. One of the most notable was the show The Young Riders, which is about the Pony Express. I have quite enjoyed it so far.
- With all the new videos, my Mom and I rearranged our video cabinets. We packed away many of the VHS documentaries and some of the kids movies and brought out some of the adult movies that had been banned (but not all of them, phew).
- TWR's word count is currently sitting at 25984, which is over 3000 words since my last total! That is a huge accomplishment, considering how little I have worked on it recently. But, unfortunately, I'm now stuck again. I'm working on trying to introduce the Tournament Court (the group of maidens that Janina is friends with) and the pacing is all wrong. This is when re-using old snippets really worked against me. I really should just leave it to simmer.
- Inspired by my recent experience with the March for Life, I created a pro-life playlist. Now, some of these were songs either from pro-life movies or specifically talk about motherhood or babies. You can listen to it here:
In a twist this month, I started making my own music! Some of you may remember that I bought my own hammered dulcimer back in September. Just before my winter break expired, I finally was able to tune it and play it for a while. I managed to record my first "music video" using my phone, which is here:
For Femininity from Scratch, I wrote only one post: How to Protest with Charity. I have some plans for this blog. For one thing, my About Me page needs to be overhauled again, it is much too text-filled. I am also trying to figure out what I should do for a wrap-up...maybe a letter?
For the Rebelling Muse, I wrote no posts in January, but I did write a Christmas Tag and a 2021 wrap-up in December.
Now, I'm curious - how has the new year treated you?
Scribbingly yours,
Catherine
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3 comments
All the Ranger's Apprentice books??? That's AMAZING! I didn't realize you were a fan of those, too--they were absolutely MY CHILDHOOD.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your work on TWR! I hope you are able to simmer your problems away. :)
That's a lot of books. But there's never too many books, as more than one person will attest. (Sam, I'm looking at you)
ReplyDeleteAs an expert in music composition (Jk, jk, I'm not at that stage yet, the only reason I know so much about it is that my bro composes), I have to say that you're off to a good start, just keep going at it. For some more varied instruments, though, I would suggest using an app on the computer (I'll get back to you on which one I would suggest, I don't remember what it's called).
Aaah that dulcimer is so beautiful. Is there someway you can change the pitches to sharps/flats or is it just in one key?
Good luck on your writing projects!
Faramir
Sorry that I incorrectly assumed that you'd composed it. But now that might give you an idea...
Delete(I would say if you do want to compose your own music, you should just fiddle around (heheh) until you find an original tune you like.)
Faramir