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The Shortest Day
Dec. 21st, 2014 12:41 amWelcome, Yule-- Harper's Traditional Winter Solstice Post
The Shortest Day
And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!
Susan Cooper
Welcome, Yule.
The Shortest Day
And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!
Susan Cooper
Welcome, Yule.
Support the Arts!
Nov. 12th, 2014 07:48 pmLast night, I put a brand new song up on my Patreon site, available only to patrons. It's a scratch track and not release-quality, but that's where all my new stuff is going, and my plan is for it to remain there for a week before it's released to the Bandcamp site, if it gets released there at all.
Patreon is pretty simple: patrons pledge to give $1 per song I release there. Eventually, it'll be a repository for a lot of live recordings, stuff I don't intend to record, and new things I do intend to record.
Here's the link to my Patreon page. If you can contribute and want to, please do. Once I get five or six patrons there, I'll start adding some more incentives, like custom songs, opportunities to request recordings of things, etc.
And if you just want to check out some more polished material, I'm trying to put something new up on Bandcamp every few days. Here's a link to my Bandcamp page.
None of this costs a lot of money. But every little bit helps me work toward relying less on my day job and more on creating cool stuff.
Patreon is pretty simple: patrons pledge to give $1 per song I release there. Eventually, it'll be a repository for a lot of live recordings, stuff I don't intend to record, and new things I do intend to record.
Here's the link to my Patreon page. If you can contribute and want to, please do. Once I get five or six patrons there, I'll start adding some more incentives, like custom songs, opportunities to request recordings of things, etc.
And if you just want to check out some more polished material, I'm trying to put something new up on Bandcamp every few days. Here's a link to my Bandcamp page.
None of this costs a lot of money. But every little bit helps me work toward relying less on my day job and more on creating cool stuff.
OK. On the Life-Changing Front:
Nov. 10th, 2014 01:00 pmDone yesterday:
So now the question is, "Where to go from here." Now, I'm lucky in that I have access to good computers and friends with loads of knowledge about things like recording and engineering and mastering and stuff like that.
And the fact is, if you consider that I haven't released a new album in 12? 13? years (OMG), well. There's some material out there, and you might not even need all 5 of the new songs (or the unruly 6th one, which is in the poetry refrigerator at the moment).
I'm looking at how other artists promote themselves on Patreon. In particular, I'm impressed by South African Nate Maingard, whose goals are tightly organised, whose page is nice and slick without being super commercial. Now, obviously the guy is a hipster and much younger than I am, but I like the structure he's created. If you take a look at the goals and levels of patronage along the righthand side of the page, you'll see that not only does he offer a lot, but people are taking him up on it. Some items are limited, and you can see exactly how many patrons he has at that level by checking out the information there. He also writes for hire, which is something I've considered as well. Sonnets For Hire! ;) Also obviously, this guy travels and I don't, really; that's not a possibility for me right now for a lot of reasons. But I wonder: How possible would it be for me to move in this direction, positively and probably kind of slowly?
What do you guys think? Am I grasping at straws?
ETA: This is not pay to play. You can get anything on BandCamp for free. Not so sure I'll take the same tack with Patreon, but possibly take a leaf from my South African (not a) pal's book and release some teaser tracks, because otherwise how will people know what I sound like?
- set up BandCamp Page.
- set up Patreon Page
- put at least one thing up on both of those
So now the question is, "Where to go from here." Now, I'm lucky in that I have access to good computers and friends with loads of knowledge about things like recording and engineering and mastering and stuff like that.
And the fact is, if you consider that I haven't released a new album in 12? 13? years (OMG), well. There's some material out there, and you might not even need all 5 of the new songs (or the unruly 6th one, which is in the poetry refrigerator at the moment).
I'm looking at how other artists promote themselves on Patreon. In particular, I'm impressed by South African Nate Maingard, whose goals are tightly organised, whose page is nice and slick without being super commercial. Now, obviously the guy is a hipster and much younger than I am, but I like the structure he's created. If you take a look at the goals and levels of patronage along the righthand side of the page, you'll see that not only does he offer a lot, but people are taking him up on it. Some items are limited, and you can see exactly how many patrons he has at that level by checking out the information there. He also writes for hire, which is something I've considered as well. Sonnets For Hire! ;) Also obviously, this guy travels and I don't, really; that's not a possibility for me right now for a lot of reasons. But I wonder: How possible would it be for me to move in this direction, positively and probably kind of slowly?
What do you guys think? Am I grasping at straws?
ETA: This is not pay to play. You can get anything on BandCamp for free. Not so sure I'll take the same tack with Patreon, but possibly take a leaf from my South African (not a) pal's book and release some teaser tracks, because otherwise how will people know what I sound like?
BandCampiness!
Nov. 9th, 2014 03:59 pmSo, because ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tollers mentioned it, I actually set up a BandCamp page and put something on it.
It's just something that I've offered here for free, and of course it's offered for free there as well. But if you're interested, here's the link:
https://gwenknighton.bandcamp.com/releases
tollers mentioned it, I actually set up a BandCamp page and put something on it. It's just something that I've offered here for free, and of course it's offered for free there as well. But if you're interested, here's the link:
https://gwenknighton.bandcamp.com/releases
I'd forgot that weeks ago I had requested four days of holiday at the end of this week, because bardling was meant to be here and I wanted time to spend with her on musical activities.
So tonight when I checked my work HR page to see what time I needed to be in tomorrow ... I found that I'm not scheduled for work! With the time I've had signed off plus the four days of holiday, I don't have to go to work at all this week!
You guys cannot imagine how good that made me feel. Or maybe you can: I am just happy to have another week to get things sorted.
And I will make those phone calls. And I will get this sorted. And I will finish song number six, because song number six is being difficult and needs help!
bardling was meant to be here and I wanted time to spend with her on musical activities. So tonight when I checked my work HR page to see what time I needed to be in tomorrow ... I found that I'm not scheduled for work! With the time I've had signed off plus the four days of holiday, I don't have to go to work at all this week!
You guys cannot imagine how good that made me feel. Or maybe you can: I am just happy to have another week to get things sorted.
And I will make those phone calls. And I will get this sorted. And I will finish song number six, because song number six is being difficult and needs help!
New Song: Paint
Nov. 6th, 2014 03:06 amSo I think this is finished. I don't think it needs a bridge, probably just an instrumental break.
( Paint )
( Paint )
On Writing In November.
Nov. 2nd, 2014 11:05 pmI've never done the whole NaNoWriMo thing. While I understand that the communities behind this movement are pretty good, I always felt like every month should be writing month. Of course, encouragement is good and communities are good, and I love all the different writing things that go on in Second Life during November. I know I don't write as much as I should, though this past month -- indeed, the whole period since LonCon -- has been full of songwriting.
So, with that said, I think I can do my own little writing challenge for November. I will write at least one song a week for the duration of the month. Now, since it's unlikely I'll finish a song in the next hour, we could count anything more I get done on this fragment, or this one as the song for the first week, since there are only two days in that week and it's going to be over an hour from now, at least in London. Both these songs have been set to music and partially scored, so it might be cheating a little bit. I guess the one about children was actually started this week as opposed to the other one, which was started sometime last week, so maybe we'll only count that one.
Anyway.
9 November
16 November
23 November
30 November
Those will be the due dates for the songs, since I tend to tell my diary to start my week on Monday.
Now... for those of you who are interested in such things, what sorts of subjects would you like me to write about? Inspiration is beautiful and comes from all over the world. It never hurts to borrow someone else's. ;)
So, with that said, I think I can do my own little writing challenge for November. I will write at least one song a week for the duration of the month. Now, since it's unlikely I'll finish a song in the next hour, we could count anything more I get done on this fragment, or this one as the song for the first week, since there are only two days in that week and it's going to be over an hour from now, at least in London. Both these songs have been set to music and partially scored, so it might be cheating a little bit. I guess the one about children was actually started this week as opposed to the other one, which was started sometime last week, so maybe we'll only count that one.
Anyway.
9 November
16 November
23 November
30 November
Those will be the due dates for the songs, since I tend to tell my diary to start my week on Monday.
Now... for those of you who are interested in such things, what sorts of subjects would you like me to write about? Inspiration is beautiful and comes from all over the world. It never hurts to borrow someone else's. ;)
A most amazing family
Oct. 20th, 2014 12:11 amEarly Sunday morning, Emily and Andrew arrived to stay over after hanging out with friends in London. They came round about three in the morning; I didn't mind as I was up anyway, talking to a friend on Skype. We chatted for just a few minutes before everyone went to bed, but today, for multiple reasons, was really nice. In my long lj history, I've talked often about my blended family and what that means. I think it's safe to say that, in the ten years I've been in the UK, we've done an admirable job of growing closer as a family, supporting one another, and just generally staying friends.
My stepdaughters are a joy to me. Their partners are both thoughtful young men who have their best interests at heart and are part of our immediate family as surely as any of the rest of us, are. Their mum is someone I'm happy to call a friend and delighted to have at my house pretty much anytime. My son seems to be doing really well in California, judging from the fact that he's too busy to talk to me much. And when we do have time to talk, our conversations run the gamut. I am quite proud of him, even though he doesn't really understand why.
Today's long conversation with Emily and Andrew flowed from writing, to depression, to family history, to various fandom topics and round again to where it started and back to other things as well. They were planning to leave in the early afternoon and ended up staying for dinner. That made both Joe and me happy.
I don't talk often, here or on Facebook or anywhere else that I talk, about what a precious gift I have, this amazing family. It makes me feel humble and very very grateful for the life in which I have these seven people around me.
Many of you know that I'm a strong believer in the concept of the plural family. I tend to talk about this most when discussing polyamory, but our expanding nuclear organism is just as much of a wonder. Of course I invite many people into the family of my heart, but the family of my marriage and my son and these strong, talented, capable stepdaughters I have (who so often feel like the daughters of my heart if not my body,--and I hope their mum feels that way about my son as well). Their well-chosen, worthy partners make me even more proud of them, and each of their young men brings his own flavour of joy to the family table.
Spending the whole day in a revolving conversation with Andrew and Emily is just about the best Sunday I can imagine right now.
My stepdaughters are a joy to me. Their partners are both thoughtful young men who have their best interests at heart and are part of our immediate family as surely as any of the rest of us, are. Their mum is someone I'm happy to call a friend and delighted to have at my house pretty much anytime. My son seems to be doing really well in California, judging from the fact that he's too busy to talk to me much. And when we do have time to talk, our conversations run the gamut. I am quite proud of him, even though he doesn't really understand why.
Today's long conversation with Emily and Andrew flowed from writing, to depression, to family history, to various fandom topics and round again to where it started and back to other things as well. They were planning to leave in the early afternoon and ended up staying for dinner. That made both Joe and me happy.
I don't talk often, here or on Facebook or anywhere else that I talk, about what a precious gift I have, this amazing family. It makes me feel humble and very very grateful for the life in which I have these seven people around me.
Many of you know that I'm a strong believer in the concept of the plural family. I tend to talk about this most when discussing polyamory, but our expanding nuclear organism is just as much of a wonder. Of course I invite many people into the family of my heart, but the family of my marriage and my son and these strong, talented, capable stepdaughters I have (who so often feel like the daughters of my heart if not my body,--and I hope their mum feels that way about my son as well). Their well-chosen, worthy partners make me even more proud of them, and each of their young men brings his own flavour of joy to the family table.
Spending the whole day in a revolving conversation with Andrew and Emily is just about the best Sunday I can imagine right now.
New Song: Keris' Guitar
Oct. 11th, 2014 06:03 pmThe year after keristor was killed, I purchased a guitar that belonged to him at the Filk Fund auction. It took me two and a half years to write this song.
Still not OK.
Lyrics below the cut tag
( Keris' Guitar )
keristor was killed, I purchased a guitar that belonged to him at the Filk Fund auction. It took me two and a half years to write this song.Still not OK.
Lyrics below the cut tag
( Keris' Guitar )
New Song: You Don't Look Back
Oct. 11th, 2014 05:58 pmThis song surprised me by making me cry when I performed it. I am quite a seasoned performer, and I really, really don't cry onstage. It was ... odd.
Lyrics below the cut tag.
( You Don't Look Back )
Lyrics below the cut tag.
( You Don't Look Back )
New Song: Gwyneth's Dream
Oct. 11th, 2014 05:56 pmThis is the one about the Second Life roleplaying game. Lyrics below the cut tag.
( Gwyneth's Dream )
( Gwyneth's Dream )
This is a link to my iCloud Photo Journal from our trip to Tenby, Wales, over the bank holiday weekend. It was a great trip.
Tenby, 4-6 May, 2013
The link should load pretty quickly. For those of you who won't want to click through, we had a great room, Tenby is lovely, we saw seals and birds and great sunsets and sunrises, and I always love visiting Wales.
Tenby, 4-6 May, 2013
The link should load pretty quickly. For those of you who won't want to click through, we had a great room, Tenby is lovely, we saw seals and birds and great sunsets and sunrises, and I always love visiting Wales.
Whew! Bullet dodged.
Apr. 29th, 2013 02:59 amI almost posted something serious and potentially controversial here, but then I realised people commenting on it all would just make me feel like shit, so I deleted it.
Sorry; my trust level is pretty low at the moment.
It's hard to re-open my life for discussion. I just really don't talk about important things to anybody butfilceolaire and alpacaaddict anymore.
Sorry; my trust level is pretty low at the moment.
It's hard to re-open my life for discussion. I just really don't talk about important things to anybody but
filceolaire and alpacaaddict anymore.Please do not even think of commenting on this entry unless you have read and understand the first link. Seriously.
21 Things To Stop Saying Unless You Hate Fat People
Big Fat Blog
Why I'm Fat Positive
The Body Impolitic
This Is Thin Privilege
Body Positive Blogs -- the Big Fat List
21 Things To Stop Saying Unless You Hate Fat People
Big Fat Blog
Why I'm Fat Positive
The Body Impolitic
This Is Thin Privilege
Body Positive Blogs -- the Big Fat List
I had to work later than usual tonight. Not that I'm complaining: it's the only night of the week I ever have to work late, and I don't always have to work late. But the body makes habits, you know? My body's habits are incompatible with managing somehow to sleep until 9am except on days where I don't have to get up at all.
Due partly to bloodymindedness and partly to -- no; never mind; due completely to bloodymindedness, I've been working sick for the last three days. I know this is a foolish thing to do, but I did it anyway, and for comeuppance I now have a chesty cough that threatens to gnaw through my lungs and not very much of a voice. I'm wheezing when I breathe, and the last time I felt like this, my GP signed me off work for two weeks because I had a chest infection. I don't feel like I can afford to be sick any more, ever, so I'm not going back to the doctor with this one. Throat sweets and inhalers it is. And I may call in to work tomorrow.
After work, my bus was late. Then the bus I was meant to connect to was late, meaning my regular bus went on diversion because of nighttime construction toward Surrey Quays. The upshot is I didn't get home until nearly 11pm, and I hadn't had any dinner. My amazing son went out and picked up some chicken and chips for me, and that made me feel better.
It's late now and I have to go cough myself to sleep.
Yes, I'm trying to come back.
Due partly to bloodymindedness and partly to -- no; never mind; due completely to bloodymindedness, I've been working sick for the last three days. I know this is a foolish thing to do, but I did it anyway, and for comeuppance I now have a chesty cough that threatens to gnaw through my lungs and not very much of a voice. I'm wheezing when I breathe, and the last time I felt like this, my GP signed me off work for two weeks because I had a chest infection. I don't feel like I can afford to be sick any more, ever, so I'm not going back to the doctor with this one. Throat sweets and inhalers it is. And I may call in to work tomorrow.
After work, my bus was late. Then the bus I was meant to connect to was late, meaning my regular bus went on diversion because of nighttime construction toward Surrey Quays. The upshot is I didn't get home until nearly 11pm, and I hadn't had any dinner. My amazing son went out and picked up some chicken and chips for me, and that made me feel better.
It's late now and I have to go cough myself to sleep.
Yes, I'm trying to come back.
For the many of you who have more of a life than I do and cannot be bothered to play the home game, here are the headlines from the last year.
So that's it in a nutshell. Hello, world.
- I outlived my father (Spring/Summer 2012).
- I got a Master's Degree. Seriously, they just sent it to me in the post. It has a stamp and a seal and everything (Summer 2012).
- I changed job roles and locations but am still working for the Fruit Stand (August-September 2012).
- filceolaire was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma (October-November 2012). He continues to do the chemotherapy thing.
- I was put on the year waiting list for a big surgery on the NHS, which we might discuss later (December 2012).
- I was announced as GOH for http://www.gafilk.org. They stuck a little harp on the logo and stuff (January 2013).
- My son turned 21 (March 2013).
So that's it in a nutshell. Hello, world.
- That strange noise from the bathroom was more than just the drying rack I tripped over falling forward.
- My cat hates me.
- People I like hate me.
- People I don't care for all that much hate me.
- Strangers take one look at me and hate me.
- By having all the colour cut out of my hair, I will get to experience the joys of being discriminated against both because I'm fat and because of my age, not just the first one.
- The grocery order won't arrive before I have to leave, and nobody will open the door, and there won't be any groceries.
- I might fall and hurt myself if I take a shower, but I have to take one before I go out. Maybe I will succumb and just not go out rather than risking it.
- There is a lot I have to do that I have not done. I don't know why I cannot make myself get to these things.
- There are people I need to have important conversations with. I don't know why I cannot make myself contact those people.
- I might be a bad sister because I haven't gotten in touch with my sister recently.
- I might be a bad Sister because I haven't gotten in touch with my Sisters recently.
- There won't be enough money for anything.
- I should change this user pic because I don't look like that any more.
- My pretty green shawl needs a mend, a wash, and a block, but I can't be bothered to do it.
- I actually don't even know where my blocking kit is. Maybe I will just get a new one.
- Can you really have enough knitting needles? Am I approaching that point?
- I'd really like a new 3mm needle for 2-at-a-time socks.
- And some new sock yarn too.
- I should bring That Project along to knitting today to see if BFF thinks I'll have enough to finish.
- Blech; I have to go to knitting and be graceful.
- I am not very graceful.
- Can't go if I don't at least wash my hair!
- Why not just skip it?
- I handle everything by skipping it.
(This has been a brief glimpse into how I think about everything.)
