June 6:
Had to sub for the organist at church. I hadn't practiced much at all, because I was sick last week, so I made up some hymn introductions on Saturday night. Now, I don't want to go tossing around the word improvise, because that is an emotionally loaded word and we do not need to get into that discussion. But I do "make things up" on the organ from time to time. I have a studied music theory for literally the majority of my life, so I have all of the tools. A toolbox full of chord progressions, if you will.
Anyway, I wasn't able to record them, because apparently my smartphone is not smart enough to record organ music. But here are some links to the hymn tunes! Imagine what it must have sounded like (but you won't be able to, because I am pretty good! My chord-toolbox is HUGE).
Oh, How Great is Your Compassion
Jesus Christ, My Sure Defense
(They're .midi files! Hope you've got your Windows Media Player warmed up!)
I talked to my Grandma on Monday and she was IMPRESSED and SHOCKED when I told her what I'd done. "You're on your way to becoming Paul Manz!" she said. In case you can't tell from the link, that's a huge compliment.
June 7:
I guess I created too much on Sunday, because Monday was kinda phoned in. The organ bench has an adjustment handle on the same side as the chair I sit in when I'm not playing. At some point during the service, en route from bench to chair, I collided with the handle. It took me until Monday to realize that I had a giant bruise on the side of my right calf. So, I personalized it. With shame:
And it's true; that's the worst part. Is this something you ever grow out of? I hardly get acne anymore, and I'm a lot less gangly than I was ten five years ago (pretty sure the boobs are circa 2006), but I'm still clumsy as hell, and as a result my shins are perpetually covered in bruises. I think this is the only one I've doodled on, though. Personal growth, I guess.
June 8:
Through a long and complicated sequence of events including deciding whether or not to buy a Macbook, I decided that I needed to learn Photoshop. I have paint.net on my computer, which is a sort of fake open-source version of Photoshop, so I messed around with that for a little while. Here's what I came up with:
It's my kitty! The name of the effect is polar inversion (not sure if that's its Photoshop name too) but to me it looks like a kaleidoscope. I also figured out how to remove and recolor the background myself. Ryan helped me a little, but I did all of the work. So, this was creativity AND a new skill.
June 9:
This blog post. I don't write creatively much, so I figured this counted. Although, does it count as creative writing if it's all based on stuff you've actually done? Wait, what did I just say?
June 10:
Today the inspiration was yo-yos, so I made some of the non-traditional, fabric kind. Tutorial here. Results here:
Aaaand...that's it! I'm still working on the things I made this weekend, so I'll blog about them later!
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