(idea) by themusic Thu Jun 08 2000 at 14:08:00
Today started out on a note that saddened me. There were the two nodes by, about DMan:

If the first one is true; its sad. If it isn’t; its sadder still. I can’t make that judgement.

And the second one, when anyone loses their passion for doing something, it is always an occasion for sadness.

Talked with shmOOnkie pOOnks, (I think I spelled the marshmallow’s name right today8)), about noding. I think I give away no secrets when I say that noders with any success node in several different ways. They will recognize the following (and probably have more):

Nodes they plan, and write offline. Like this Day Log.

Nodes they etext from Project Gutenberg, or other sources of public domain texts. I found the The Golden Sayings of Epictetus there, today I did:

I don’t just cut and paste. When I downloaded the text file, I didn’t do it quite right; I lost the formatting. So I spent my time with it reading, and re-paragraphing it. Also I try to improve the archaic language a bit.(That’s why the translation is public domain.) And I format it to highlight Epictetus’ thought. I’m editing this etext.

There are also the etexts I enter by my own hand. Today I’ve done nothing from The Man with the Blue Guitar by Wallace Stevens. Must try tomorrow.

I’ve done a lot of this in the past, particularly poetry, my own, and others. And other text.

Then there are nodes of opportunity. These are the ones noders do online, in immediate response to nodes, or chat they see, or just an idea that expresses itself in expanding into node after node. Today I noded the following in this manner:

Made my pot roast today. It is delicious. No time to node it, will try tomorrow.

Scheduling is a bit less of a nightmare today. This is the time of the year when the Director’s Office is festooned with schedules: the year past, worn and tired; the summer, bright and cheerful; the fall, not yet fully formed.

I teach in a piano school. But any teaching arrangement would require scheduling. Although I have more than a little experience, some I’ve noded about, I don’t much like doing it any more.

Instead of doing a lot of noding today, I spent it cooking, and working on covers of the songs from my new song book, The Groovy Years, that I bought yesterday. Working on my Roland XP-10, its transposing keyboard gives me a resonably workable illusion I can sing.

Unlike most compilations, this book has more than one or two I like: Besides "And When I Die", there is the Turtles' hit, "Happy Together", Barry McGuire’s "Eve of Destruction", several Steppenwolf, Cream, "Turn, Turn, Turn," sung by The Birds, "Wild Thing", by The Troggs, "For Your Love", sung by The Yardbirds. The band I was in for a time did a good cover of that.

Several of my adult students wanted me to play some of them. "Leaving on a Jet Plane", sung by Peter, Paul & Mary, was another request.

The practicing thing came up again today--as it will until exams are finished at the end of the month. We cannot force our children to practice, anymore than we can force them to do their school homework. As a piano teacher, I don’t have the advantage of seeing them everyday--though that is an advantage in other ways for some students.

Some students defect--stop practicing. I only hope that in working with me I have helped them come to a little understanding not only about music and piano. With all my students, adult and child, I always try for rapport, a connection, through which I may show them the door to things beyond things.

I like it!