my in-box is nagging me...

is it burning and inflamed?

itchy

and I don't suppose the scratcher(s) required are in the area either, right?

scratching my IN box??? Hmmm...

'tis usually better received than having one's OUT box scratched...

*laugh*

Are you preoccupied with 'nothingness' Marcia??

Looks like, huh?! But it is much more prosaic than that. I was posting propagation numbers for Short wave radio (which is in another conference) and goofed. I figgered it would just confuse the already pre-occupied, so I took out my handy-dandy cyber eradicator and made it go bye-bye. 'Tis a whole nuther thing which pre-occupies me - but usually does not render me blind and stupid at the same time (more often it is one or the other!) ;)

I'm preoccupied with writing my thesis, it's completely taken over my life like some kind of giant octopus. I even find myself dreaming about it - and I can think of far nicer things to dream about! Some days I don't even know what the weather's been like, now that's really sad. Tell me there's more to life, please.

Yup! There's Spring ! But, you know that...and you've been playing hookey and posting delightful stuff all over the place. I'm sure, with Spring (vernal one) near, you could take up dancing at Abbots Bromley...*grin*

I'm playing hookey again tonight cos T's working. I did warn him I'd run up the phone bill. I've worked hard all day, so I deserve some play time! (and there's nothing much on the TV tonight either)

We are so happy to have you here! It is a real luxury! We? I mean I am delighted senseless to have you posting with me. We seem to be the only ones alive on the Spring right now! *hugs*

It's almost in real time!!! *hug* back. Sometimes when I visit it seems a bit sparse. I have to remember there's a time difference, I guess it's mid afternoon for you?

it's late afternoon for me... crazy how we can be all doing the same thing at the same time but at different 'times' Now I'm preoccupied with nonsense about a time-space continuum. Maggie... there IS more to life than a thesis... BTW, what's the subject?

Language and education in sub-Saharan Africa, with particular reference to Mali. It is wierd. I was thinking of that earlier in relation to the bombing. I was telling someone about it and automatically said 'this morning' and then realised that the time lag made a big difference. It was of course very apparent over New Year and the Eclipse. It really changed my thinking about time.

When you asked what time it was, it was Noon here. It is now almost 2:30 pm (1400) and for you it is half past midnight! Remarkable. Stace, you are Mountain time? So if it is 2:30pm here it is 5:30 pm for you?!

I can't keep track. Today I'm preoccupied with Jazz, cocktail music and recorders. I went to get my hair done (yes, it does look nice, and now I have to persuade Handy man to stop marking his papers and take me out tinight!), and there's a sheet music shop next door - with a sale on. So, thinking about how focussed on the thesis I've been lately I bought the shop up. I got a book of jazz piano exercises which look fun and mught just ree up my playing a bit, a book of cocktail pieces - really corny but fun and listenable, and several books of quite difficult recorder music (so I can impress daughter no.2 when she returns from university). At least it's creative!

Good for you! I was trained in classical piano and have absolutely no feeling for Jazz and their difficult beats. However, I love ragtime, so I bought a book of Scott Joplin music. It is the most difficult thing I have ever tried to play. One hand plays a 4/4 measure and the other plays some thing like 5/4 and it gets tangled and impossible for me very rapidly. I don't know how they do it!

I agree. I bought a big book of Joplin rags some years ago because they're my husbands favourites and I still haven't mastered any of them well. I find some of the left hand leaps difficult, and the timing is hard. I only have small hands. I think the Jazz I like best is boogie but I'm totally unable to make it up. I sight read very well though.

You were taught as I was. Sight reading was everything. Never imporvised. My mother could listen to something once and sit down and play it perfectly but she could not play Beethoven like I could. I envied her ease at the piano and she envied my classic discipline. I think it is very difficult to have them both! We never did. My hands are very small, as well. Cannot span an octave..

Me too. When I started playing again in my twenties for the Grade 8 exam (last one before diploma) my teacher gave a piece from Debussy's Pour le Piano - all huge double handed chord. i stood in the music shop and cried when I took it down from the shelf! I got to love it in the end though and played it somewhat well.