![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Hey, look: a significant number of this year's Hugo nominees are available online. That's neat.
A few days ago I got a ride home from Andrew's mother, and when we were so near to my house as to actually be on my street, we saw a skunk crossing the road. It would be hard to miss that there are skunks in this neighbourhood (as there were in the neighbourhood we lived in before), but I think this might be the first time I've seen one. They certainly are distinctive.
A little while ago I took the cheap harmonica which has been neglected on the shelves of this house for as long as I can remember and put it on my desk next to my computer. (It's red, with gold patterning and letters which say 'BRELLI' and 'Jiangsu China'. It has a cardboard case with a price sticker on it for $4.95.) I don't know if this was consciously because that's a place where I'm likely to pick it up and fidget with it, but it has worked out that way, so I've been periodically and absently trying to play it.
Harmonica observations: Once I've found one note I can usually find where another note is nearby, so I can improvise very simple progressions, and sometimes I'm able haltingly to harmonize with music I'm playing. Breathing in or out at a given place makes for a different note. One thing I've noticed is that everything is one note or another, or sometimes two at once, but I can't make that smooth and sliding wailing sound that I associate with harmonica parts in a lot of songs; I think I understand that I'd need a 'blues harmonica' for that, or maybe just a better one.
A few days ago I got a ride home from Andrew's mother, and when we were so near to my house as to actually be on my street, we saw a skunk crossing the road. It would be hard to miss that there are skunks in this neighbourhood (as there were in the neighbourhood we lived in before), but I think this might be the first time I've seen one. They certainly are distinctive.
A little while ago I took the cheap harmonica which has been neglected on the shelves of this house for as long as I can remember and put it on my desk next to my computer. (It's red, with gold patterning and letters which say 'BRELLI' and 'Jiangsu China'. It has a cardboard case with a price sticker on it for $4.95.) I don't know if this was consciously because that's a place where I'm likely to pick it up and fidget with it, but it has worked out that way, so I've been periodically and absently trying to play it.
Harmonica observations: Once I've found one note I can usually find where another note is nearby, so I can improvise very simple progressions, and sometimes I'm able haltingly to harmonize with music I'm playing. Breathing in or out at a given place makes for a different note. One thing I've noticed is that everything is one note or another, or sometimes two at once, but I can't make that smooth and sliding wailing sound that I associate with harmonica parts in a lot of songs; I think I understand that I'd need a 'blues harmonica' for that, or maybe just a better one.
