Oh, it’s on. Right now. Read more about it on the new page above and join me as well on my new Facebook Group for mutual support and guidance.
If you are new to CaffeinatedMusic, you might not know that during the past few years after going through chemo, I kinda fell off the blogosphere due to brain fog and lack of most coherent thought. I did a lot more over at my BigBlackDogStudio site than I did over here, but not with much focus.
I’m back and determined to make up for the lack of progress on my goals over the last five years of my life. Time to kick it up.
Time to rewind the clock back five years and get my body back, albeit now on the other side of the Big 5-0 and sans hormones. I’m up for the challenge.
Starting. Right. Now.
03-14-14 Fit Chick before Hodgkins lymphoma. Time to kick it up and get my body back! (That would be MyNemo’s tookus photobombing the shot) ❤
So, I am working on some projects from home and one of them has to do with using video for things like web conferences, one-on-one’s and such that thanks to the magic of the internet, we no longer have to drive anywhere to “meet” with clients. Part of what I needed to do was to look back at my old YouTube channel that was started way back in 2008 or 2009 when this blog started and carefully examine it for modern things like metadata, descriptions and keywords.
At the time I did the videos, they were for the purpose of teaching my choirs and musicians songs through demonstration, and putting them up on a quick video meant the person could practice as much as they wanted at home during the week. If this is your first day with me, I’ll cut you slack on not knowing this unshakeable pillar of my music as ministry philosophy:
Thou shalt not sight-read for Jesus on Sunday, but shall prepare thyself first privately and then with thy fellow music team members before leading worship in community.
Ten years ago, I was also using Windows XP and the original MovieMaker (best software ever) that Microsoft discontinued. The jerks. Still not happy about that which is why when my Windows 7 laptop fritzed this spring, I finally bailed on PC and made the switch to a Mac mini. Now, I am learning to use iMovie to edit video. In the meantime, I use my little iPhone 4S with no editing. Hey, it still works, okay? Don’t judge.
In other words, I wasn’t on the YT channel to listen to my songs and stuff; I was supposed to be examining it for the upcoming overhaul to make it search engine friendly, something it desperately needs. It’s bad. So before I can take the next step in what I am working on, I need to get my SEO ducks in a row on an existing channel. The good part of that is that I can then see if the metrics change substantially or not to know if I’m doing it right. Back to the digression.
Of course, one cannot help but hear oneself singing in one’s own videos running on the screen while trying to figure out how I need to completely change out every single one of the 80 plus video descriptions. Both the bad descriptions and my caterwauling were painful.
A few of the videos made me laugh more than cringe at my squeaks and bad hair due to the purpose I recorded them. This one is the Alleluia from Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate, a coloratura favourite for its zippy scales and high notes. A young friend was trying to learn the song so she asked me to make her a video. No make up. No fancy clothes. Accompanying myself (shouldn’t do that, especially for a classical song).
Hope ya’ll get a kick out of this 10-year-old, no frills Diva flashback 😉
This adorable song by Ray Repp from the 1970s is in one of those old Augsburg Press annual vacation Bible school/Sunday school books I’ve had from years and years ago. As always, any song we share with our young Praise Band has to mean something to the kids, and this song is spot on. They really love it.
Therefore, we shot this quick learning video for our youngest musicians to learn the words (since they don’t read yet) by practicing it at home this week.
Much like “Pass It On” by Kurt Kaiser, something tells me this song is going to very popular on Memory Lane for a lot of people.
Song info: Words and music by Ray Repp (c) 1978 K&R Music, Inc. from the original recorded and published collection, Benedicamus.
I am always happy that anything I write may be meaningful or inspirational for others in their own life journey.
Recently, I wrote a post on something I mused about, saw a “like” come through that someone enjoyed my post, and was very happy it spoke to them. The WordPress email that comes through always invites us to “see what they post on their blog.” So, I clicked one with a title very similar to one of my posts to see what the person had to say on our mutual topic.
Um, well … I need to put on my editor and teacher hat here for a moment and hope my readers will keep reading to the end because this is relevant to every writer, not just the fledglings, about writing and blogging etiquette. Some will recall that way back in 2012 I wrote a post entitled, “Miss Ryan’s 5-Minute Guide to Stress-Free Writing” that was a huge hit not only in the school system I was working in, but as a resource now linked to by various colleges as well. I was just trying to help out some high school seniors get a handle on how to start their research papers. This Volume II edition expands on those basics.
Creativity comes from inspiration that shows up in our lives from everywhere. As a writer, please do yourself a huge professional favor and start this very important ethical habit early in your writing career:
Something triggered a bad experience memory over the weekend, and threw me for a loop. Literally knocked the energy out of me like I got sucker punched a second time around. I realized the original experience was met full on with my anger, which fueled a lot of positive things at the time after chemo, but one emotion I did not let run its gamut at the time was grief.
The other day, I finally went through the expulsion of that emotion over the original event as well as in empathy for the person I saw go through the same thing this week. After not “stuffing it” back down but just letting it flow out, I was tired and napped for two hours.
When I woke up, I was groggy but felt so much better. The next day, I woke up feeling like such a weight was off my shoulders due to the emotional closure I finally allowed myself to process.
If I could tell my younger self one key life hack to keep myself sane through tough times, it would be not to stifle emotions about bad things as you live through them.
Sure, maybe at the precise moment in time, you are required to maintain full control, but I’m talking about soon afterward when you have alone time. Let it all out and don’t tell yourself you “shouldn’t feel that way.”
You are human and you have emotions.
Emotions are not rational, so stop trying to rationalize them away.
Let it out!
Primal scream, cry like a little kid, dwell in the emotion and ACKNOWLEDGE it.
Don’t throw a pity party in Victimville or plan revenge on anyone, just admit you were not cool with the matter nor the people involved and that you realize you’ve been holding onto resentment and any other named negative emotions holding you back from your life being fully amazing in the now.
Let it have its say however it expresses itself.
Then release it and let it go out of your energy field.
Pretending crap didn’t happen to you will always come out eventually down the road, most likely when a stress moment brings it out.
Seriously. It’s gonna come out.
Do you want that happening when you’re in control of the setting to expunge it from your energy record, or do you want to risk it coming out in ways that affect your personal and professional relationships?
Crap happens. So does joy. Why is it acceptable to be super happy but not acceptable to cry when you’re an adult? Why make yourself miserable repressing emotions you don’t like?
Be human and feel what you feel so you can move on.
Not only do I feel amazing and energetic today, I woke up this morning full of joy and confidence knowing I purged an inhibiting emotion that spent a long time weighing me down. My whole energy field feels better.
Golly, but look what I found in the archives on my external hard drive: a practice video for the young lady who was going to chant Psalm 8 on Trinity Sunday of 2014. Luckily, the lectionary readings come around every three years 😉
