Zen

What? No Wordless Wednesday? To be honest, I had forgotten today was Wednesday, and I didn't take any pictures. Besides, I was getting a bit tired of the Fall pictures anyway.

Zen. I needed plenty of that today. Thanks to my friend, JunoMagic, I got that in the form of a website that offers free nature sounds. You have your choice of animal sounds (birds, cats, etc.) or sounds of natural phenomena (rain, waterfall, beach, etc.). Right now, I have the sound of rain and thunder, along with the crickets and the grasshoppers. Pure bliss. Click here to check it out.

Social Media. Much has been said about social media and the role it plays in our lives. I'm certainly immersed in it... I spend a lot of time with Facebook and Twitter. I'm also a part of a couple of on-line communities as well. Yesterday, I had the pleasure of spending time with the SQPN community when the Catholic Pilot, Captain Jeff, tweeted that he was testing a live setup on his Catholic Pilot Live page and wanted us to come over help him. It was fun chatting with people there whilst preparing an outline for a recording of Secrets of Harry Potter. I can honestly say that I count members of the SQPN community as my dearest friends, and I'm very happy to be a part of it.

I'm also involved with the Harry Potter fandom. Last night, a group of us hung out in a virtual living room. Some of us were content to be silent in the room while others were happy to share their virtual drinks and snacks with the others. A few of the girls are also participating in NaNoWriMo, so it was nice to be able to cheer them on as they wrote. We usually gather in a chatroom on Fridays and Saturdays, where we chat about everything and nothing, and on Saturday nights, we even get to do a bit of writing as well. We challenge each other with prompts, and a short story is written in response to the prompt. Occasionally, certain conditions are placed, e.g. no adverbs, no adjectives, no 'that', no commas, limit to 100 words, etc. It's a lot of fun, and it's a great way to practice creative writing.

Music. Earlier tonight, I had the opportunity to watch raw video that was taken of the Hymn Festival in which I participated a week and a half ago. That was pretty neat to watch. My friend wanted me, in particular, to watch the massed choir singing the piece I directed: the Hal Hopson arrangement of Dona Nobis Pacem. I was really happy with the way it turned out; the choirs did a fantastic job! People thought we had rehearsed that piece for weeks. In actuality, most of the choristers saw it for the first time at the dress rehearsal the day before. However, Dona Nobis Pacem is a well-known traditional canon (think "Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream"...) and it was pretty easy to pick up. They even handled my reconstructed SAB Amen very well. I thought I looked like a dork at the piano, but my friend told me that the exaggerated motions I made with my head was exactly what a choir needs to see when the choir director is conducting from the console or keyboard.

Okay. I'll take his word for it. He's certainly been at it way longer than I have, anyway.

I'll just go back to enjoying the nature sounds. For those of you celebrating it: Happy Thanksgiving!