timothyweber.org

I recorded this quickly for my daughter’s kindergarten class to practice with. We performed it together at the All-School Program on 12 Feb 2010. Lots of kids sang along! That’s Clara and Katherine shouting the alphabet. My good recording gear wasn’t working, so this is recorded on a cheap condenser mic and a Sound Blaster card.

We had our first real snowfall of the season last night, about eight inches. I successfully shoveled without apparently hurting my back! Yay!

In celebration, and in response to all the Christmas songs playing all around me, I’d like to bump an old post of carol parodies. The first one is the one I had in mind, though I still like the second too.

[Clara is playing. Her mom has given her a small irregularly-shaped piece of leftover fabric with the ends stitched together; she wears it on her head and calls it a hat. She sees a toy clock on a shelf. Starts moving its hands around. Sings:]

Hickory, dickory, dock.
A mouse run up the clock.

[Clara’s “hat” falls off her head. Still singing, in tune:]

My hat fall off,
A mouse run down,
Hickory, dickory, dock.

The following were actually written in the car one or two years ago; I just came across them again and decided it was the right time.

I’m dreaming of a green Christmas

I’m dreaming of a green Christmas
So I don’t have to shovel snow
’Cause when I start liftin’,
My spine starts shiftin’,
And soon, my back will start to go… read more...

Last night I dreamed that Buddy was taking a bath outside my window.

Here’s a little piano playing from this evening.

I asked Dad for a piano sound today. Then I strummed on the guitar with my pick, and then I bonked the pick on the drum pad a little. Here’s what it sounded like:

Today I was playing the drum in Dad’s office that makes lots of different sounds through the computer. He kept changing the sound it would play, and then I’d play the drum to see what it was. Once he changed it and said, “What’s that sound?” I played the drum pad. It was a tuba. I like the tuba. I said “Tuba!” He was all surprised because I’d only ever heard him make a tuba sound with his voice. Psha.

A credo.

Thoughts during a meditation retreat. Just because you’re silent doesn’t mean you can’t eat yummy food with your friends.

I wrote this in 1995, when a book by a medieval Zen master seemed to intersect with a romantic relationship. The story and metaphor are from the book, though the author was applying it to religious conversation and here I’m applying it to relationship conversations; I think the same principle is at the root of both.