accident do happen, let me tell you

On Wednesday night something happened, due to my stupidity (at least I think that was the course of it.) I popped the E string on my violin.

Yes, I popped it.

Anyhow, I was left with a violin that had only 3 strings, and I couldn't leave it like that, no way, least something got pulled out of shape due to the uneven tension. Then I'd be left with a useless violin as well.

At least it was only 1 string, the other three still could hold it, for a while at least.

So, by morning I called up my instructor and asked what brand of string I should use, since I can order them, but a novice like me, I can't very well just go ahead and buy the string without asking first.

My instructor said Tonica is pretty good and I asked about Dominant. He said it's good too... depends on what kind of sound I like. But at the moment, I'll settled for what I can get in midrange. (he also said that I could get the cheap one to use for now, it'll cost me a few bucks. Of course they will sound terrible, I want something I can live with for now...)

So I ended up with D'Addario. They came in set of 4 (which I didn't know) And I had the guy at the store changed it for me right there... took a while because of tuning. But still the violin (which I will now call, Metis) is pretty new that it'll still adjusting anyway, so by Tuesday when my class come along, my instructor will still have to tune it for me again.

I just checked the price for Obligato, a set of violin strings cost about $78. Dominant cost about the same I think, although might be less.

Anyhow, I'm ok with what I got right now. And the new strings sounded pretty warm. I will certainly get new sets in the future, so I'm not worry about it right now. As for my old set (3 + 1 broken one) I kept in the new string package, not that I'd ever use it again (I don't think) But it might come in handy one day.

I got a music stand, too... the table top kind because I don't need another thing to clutter up my floor, 1 easle is enough. I can just fold this thing away after I finish. And rosin... this one is red, cost almost as much as the stand. :) I liked the color of it, and it came in a little wooden box.

My neck kinda hurt. I'm still trying to find comfortable position.. I'm thinking the way I had it wasn't right... so it'll be a while yet. But my bowing hand is pretty comfortable now. :) I guess I got it right. Finally.

I felt a little awkward for a while, the way I kept having to straighten my thumb out to hold the bow, which according to the book, the instructor, wasn't a way to go.

Live and learn, ha ha..

True Blood : pilot episode

The other day I found True Blood, a new Showtime show, which is still in production stage (I'm guessing) I got to see the pilot episode though, and just knew, it's gonna be one of my favorite shows!

True Blood is adaptation from Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series. I've been meaning to read her book for a while now, so this would be a good time to start.

In the series, Vampire were out of the coffin, since Japanese found a way to make synthetic blood that was exactly like the real thing, enable Vampire to live off of it without ever having to feed from human. The product is called 'True Blood'.

At the base of this, it was kinda like Laurell K. Hamilton, that vamp were legal citizens, although no other creature appear yet (it's still the pilot after all) Its setting is also down south, so it'll be kinda weird to my ear to hear that much sourthern accent. But it should be fun. I loved the pilot episode already. I can't wait to see more.

The main character Sookie was a very moral cocktail waitress with a loud mouth, and often rude bestfriend that could not keep a job, a boss that's in love with her. To top that off, she was also a telepath.

Her trouble started when a newly awaken vampire 'Bill' stepped into the place where she worked.

Another 3 months before the show was on. I'm all shivering with anticipation. LOL

My friend's going to love it too! I just knew it.

Violin lesson yesterday was kinda fun. Since I have violin now my instructor is giving me a homework. I'm to work on a song 'Can Can' I'm sure everyone heard of that song. He said so that my fingers get use to changing note and string. It's still on only D and A string, but every note on it was use.

I worked on it for a while last night.

I was alos on the phone with Angie for a while the other night too. It was nice talking to her again. Nice to talk to someone that knew 'lcf' and can sympathize. I told her, we shouldn't say her name too often because it might just conjure her up.

Ha ha

And I was right about 'her' being single, otherwise she wouldn't call me. Typical.

Oh well, I went through it all before, so I'm not gonna dance to her tune.

Speaking of tune, (random? yeah) I got my digital tuner, a Sandner SMT 330. It wasn't top of the line or anything, but as far as I read all the review about using tuner, it doesn't matter much, it will still work all the same.

Not that I'm gonna tune my own violin, probably not for a while. But it'll be good to check if it's in tune or not. It's also a metronome, so that'll be what I'm gonna be using it for (because online metronome requires me to be in front of the computer). And if I wanna practice while sitting anywhere else, I won't have it.

Make sense? I think it does, at least in my head.

Maybe 'Can Can' isn't a good piece to practice. I kept playing from what I remember of the song, instead of going with the beat.

bridge is fixed

On Sunday I brought my violin (which I'm going to call it Metis from now on) to my instructor while I brought my niece to her MLM class.

Sunday was also the first day of her Ballet class as well. It was a trial class, and apparently she liked it so she's going back. Which mean that I would be staying longer on each Sunday waiting for her.

Anyhow, the bridge on my violin was not square, it was leaning toward the fingerboard. The little feet on it was actually lifted off of the surface a little. My instructor said that it was probably because the pieces of Metis is still moving and settling in. He said that it'll be another 6 months or so. It'll get better for 3 and then worse before the sound got stabilized. Then it'll get better as it's aged.

Well, I'm ordering a metronome/tuner. Because, even though I could get one of those webpage that offer metronome for free (actually they have it on their page) I still have to be on computer to use it, this way I could just sit on my bed or something. And tuner is good, too, because I wanna know if I get the sound right. I don't really trust my ear for right now.

Tomorrow is another class.

I've decided that for every class I'm gonna put 1 sticker on the cover of my violin book. So, I have 3 now on the cover. They are just the printout of Mai HiME and Mai Otome fanart (ShizNat mostly) there are some Fate/Stay Night as well. I cut them out to small pieces and then put the clear contact paper on it, in case I wanna take them out. (probably not).

Well, new instrument almost always meant new problem to solve...

I was taking out my violin (I'm gonna find a suitable name for it now) last night to practice bowing a little bit. Because I found myself unable to only stay on one string at the time. Especially the D string. And then I was putting on some rosin on the bow (because I notice that on both end of the bow aren't producing the sound that they should) And after putting on rosin, it was giving out sound.

But then, bigger problem, I noticed that the bridge wasn't square. It was leaning toward the finger board. Which mean, the sound was going to be off. And since I can't do this myself, (I don't wanna make it worse) I'm gonna wait till Sunday when I drop off my niece for her lesson to have my instructor look at it. Hopefully he can fix it and we won't need to get it to the store or anything.

Hopefully.

I want Guitar Hero III, so I got one, and apparently my Wii doesn't take the upgrade very well, so it won't play the newer game (which mean Guitar Hero III and Boom Blox) and since my Wii is a modded one, I brought it to the store and have them check it out. we even tried the games on their console, and it plays fine, so I guess it might be the version of firmware that mine has. Although mine plays the older games without any problem.

I should know what to do with it in a few days. After all, I wanna be able to play new games, too.

Man, I can't wait to play. Already got the guitar and everything.

The faceplate of the guitar is white, just plain white, so I might stick something on it. Stickers, probably. Most likely.

teaching old dog new trick... it can be done... no, really, it can!

I'm learning something new.

Yeah, hard to really considering learning anything when you're at the working age, you know, you finished with school and now working, and you spent all your day at your respective jobs and stuff. But since I work for.. well, me and my family I can take the time out during the day to do something else, as long as my schedule doesn't conflicting with my mother's. Someone's gotta mind the store.

I've always wanted to learn an instrument. Lack of chance when I was a kid, and so, now seemed like it might be a little late, but hey, who knows.

Well, I've read that Meryle Streep learned to play the Violin when she was 40, so that goes to show you that the age isn't important if you wanna learn. (ok, so she learned it to take the role of a violin teacher in a movie, but man, she could certainly demand a stand in or something) I've been telling my mother that we should get my niece to some classes, you know, piano, violin, cello, whatever, so she gets the skill to do something creative for herself when she's older. As for whether she would keep up with it when she's a teenager, well, I hope she will.

If she can't draw, then she can play something.

And so we started her on basic music course. You know, notes, tempo, a little bit of piano. Things that a 4 year old could enjoy. And since I'm the primary chauffeur, and they offer a violin, cello guitar (among other thing) I decided that I wanna take Violin class. It's only once a week, so it doesn't interfere with other things. Might be a little expensive, but hey it's no more than me getting the next toy.

Mom said if you want to, then go ahead.

So, my niece is taking the basic music course (they called it MLM, Music for Little Mozart) on Sunday (because Saturday is not set in schedule, we might need to go somewhere since the store is close) at 10 AM. And by the 15 we'll be starting her on ballet right after that too. (this one because she wanted to, I think she just likes the tutu)

As for me, Violin class on Tuesday (yeah, why not the same day? Unfortunately, someone else (older than me) already booked that time for piano lesson so, out of luck) at 1 PM.

Today is my third week, so far so good, I just got my violin too. Not the terribly expensive one, because I'm just a beginner, after all, when I'm good at it, then we'll see about a good one.

I don't think I'm gonna be shelling out for a $1,700 violin when I'm still just starting out. Now I'm looking to get a tuner/metronome. I'd need metronome for practice, but as for tuning, I think my instructor will probably gonna be tuning for me for a while. But it'll still be something I need to learn to do it for myself.

A while back I also decided that I'm gonna cut sticker for my glass shower stall. At first I wanted something from Mai HiME or Mai Otome universe (which for me, is equal to Shizuru and Natsuki) But it gets really complicated, and I could not find an image that I like enough to do something this big for. So I rethought the whole thing. I want something that I can look at and not go.. what the hell was I thinking (of course ShizNat will not get that reaction for me, it just that I don't wanna do it and found it came out horrible) So I picked something far less busy.

I found an image on Clo-cro site, and I thought, hey I could do that and not get bored with it too soon. I'm figuring how I was gonna do it, put on the clear contact first or cut first. Finally I decided that I'll cut first and that way I don't have to deal with the seams that will surely come with putting the contact paper down first.

I did separate the image along the places that weren't connected, for easier cutting. Still a few pieces were big enough that it's still hard to handle.

I got a few of them done already and found that a few pieces can be separated even more. So I did.

Should be done in a week or so.

learning to use new thing in the old program, and teaching this old dog a new trick

I've been using Photoshop for ... um... since I got my second computer. I remembered clearly that my first photoshop was a 4.0 and I got it full feature with my first scanner. (considering how expensive the program was, that was kinda extraordinary) But my first PC wasn't powerful enough for me to use, it was too slow, and I just couldn't get through the 'layer' because I simply didn't understand how it works.

Then the second pc came and so I started to use it. Once I understood 'layer' it was all a breeze for me. After I learned how to use it pretty proficiently, I took Photoshop class with Lance Hidy, because you could never know too much about something, right? I did learn a lot in that class, Lance was an illustrator, I intended to take Illustrator class too, but didn't due to other requirement that I had to get done. Kinda suck, because I really wanted to.

One thing I never get to learn or rather wanna learn was 'Pen' tool. Lance talked about it, but we didn't get to really spend time on it, and I never touched it since then. So, now I'm learning it (trying to teach myself it, rather) and I spent last night trying to do some illustration with pen tool. Hopefully, by the time I finish the image I should be comfortable with it. Again, hopefully, is the operative word here.

I've been participating in PMOG. :) Almost get to level 7 now. I should've use the mine more than I did, because it would've put me in association with Destroyer and I can get mine, now I can't because I don't have Destroyer as my association, instead I have Seer, Benefactor, Pathmaker.

Another thing that I'm learning is Violin.

Why?

I wanted to.

I like the sound of strings, cello, viola, violin. At the moment, violin seems more viable, due to the size, too. I just had my first class, we'll see how that goes on the second class next Tuesday.

New things, ha ha...