meghan9436

I didn't mention it last night, but I in addition to Misery and Miss You Like Crazy, I also practised If Life is So Short again. If Life is the one song I can play most competently, but it still needs refining. Even though I have mastered the base undertones of the song, I'm still having some difficulty accomplishing the memorable finger styling of the introduction. I'm confident that I will get there, though! It was a moment last night when I could play along with this Moffatts' appearance from a few years back. It wasn't perfect by any means, but the magic was there!

I have to quickly wrap this thought before I have to get ready and leave for work again. But, I thought about it since my post last night and I'm thinking that it would be better to fully master I'll Be There For You that I already started before making a start on Girl of My Dreams. I can already play a simplified version of I'll Be There that I learned by ear, so I think that it is important to fully master the whole song.

I'm embarrassed and ashamed to admit this, but one of the biggest problems that I had as a teenager was staying focused on the task at hand. Back in those days, I often would only learn part of a song before I would get bored, and wanting to learn another. Eventually, my guitar instructor got fed up with this and he called me out for my half efforts, questioning my seriousness about actually learning the instrument. He wasn't wrong. You cannot master any instrument by learning only parts of many different songs. Can you imagine The Moffatts, Music Travel Love, or any other professional band stopping a song halfway through to move onto another? It might be different if a bunch of songs were played together in a medley, but that's not what I was doing. Hilarious.

I think I'm probably too hard on myself because it is not unusual for teenagers to be lackadaisical when it comes to school, or their extra curriculars.

Edit for continuation.

The other day, I had another livesteam on Twitch. You can watch the replay here. It was just a quick and dirty share what I put together my new Traveler's Notebook planner for the second half of the year.

Last week, I did a root touch up after letting my hair sit untouched for about two months. I captured the phone process on video, but I still have yet to actually edit it. I had the internet hair guru Brad Mondo in mind who is notorious for roasting women who damage their hair at home. Not everyone fails at home bleaching and whatnot, but so many people do. I learned a lot from those videos. In addition to the hands on skills, what I took away from them is that hair is very much an art and the profession is underpaid and under appreciated. I'm not sure if I could subject myself to exposure to those harsh chemicals every day, but at the same time I think that the field is pretty safe from AI/automation.

In any case, that video is planned. But, let's talk about the inspo!

I think that once this project is finished, I will be dismantling my current hairstyle. At least to me, it would feel like a good send off, and I can return to being me. As obsessed as I am with my current look, and it really is a dream that my teenage self would have died for.. it does at times, feel like I'm wearing a costume. Is this Moffatts inspired fashion, or straight up cosplay? But as time passes and my hair fills out, I feel that I am growing into the look (pun not intended), and I may even decide to change my mind and keep the look.

And there you have it! It took me a considerable amount of time to put this timeline all together, so I hope you enjoyed the ride as much as I have.

The overall theme of the book really ties into what I have been talking about on this journey, even before I started this blog earlier this year. Enjoy the current, present moment, and tell your loved ones that you love them while you can because your life and reality can very suddenly and quickly change. I was happy to find out that this series has two more installments that I still have left to read.

After I finished soaking my knees, I put myself together and headed back to my local park. I came by at a much earlier time, maybe around 15:30 or so. I practised the same songs from the previous day, putting extra attention and care to Misery, and the secret song.

Despite the state of my physical health, my heart is full. There is something really special about playing music live to promote the band instead of just playing their music over a portable bluetooth speaker or something. I think that the difference is that it takes a lot of patience and skill to play guitar, and do it well, while anybody can play music on a bluetooth speaker. There's also the live interaction with passersby that you just don't get from playing background music. It really changes the dynamic in a positive way.

For a long time along this journey, I struggled a lot with imposter syndrome. I was in denial for a long time, and I had to read emails back to myself as a reminder, that yes, this is really happening! But with every passing day, I feel a little closer to fully realising my dreams even if they are not fully apparent to you now. Everything will become clear when the time is right.

Today, I returned to my local park with a different crowd. Nobody directly approached me about the songs I was playing, but I did overhear some kids talking about how I was volunteering my song. I heard a boy say something to the effect of, "歌をあげた。(Uta wo ageta./She gave a song.)" before running back to play baseball with his friend.

Later on tonight, there was a special event being held by my local kindergarten. When I inquired about it as I was leaving, one of the teachers thanked me for the music. Thankfully, there were no accidents on my return trip home.

These adventures have provided me with a much needed break from video editing. Particularly from blurring out individuals from my videos to make sure that they are compliant with local privacy laws in Japan. I find this task quite めんどくさい (mendokusai, a bother to do), but this is an absolutely important step to make sure that you are in the legal clear. I mentioned in the description of the Loft Closure video and my update on the community page about exactly how difficult the YouTube Studio editor is.

I realised that my Traveler's Notebook is almost full, and I will need to start a new one for the second half of the year. I'm thinking that I might do another livestream to record the process, because it has been a while since the last time I streamed.

I'm going to stop here for now so that I can grab a much needed late night dinner.

At the time of writing this, I can hear someone randomly yelling outside. While this is pretty common place if you live in any major downtown metropolis in North America, this is highly unusual for Japan. I find it a little odd.

As you can tell from my last entry that a lot has been happening in my life. That fan activism call just barely even begins to scratch the surface.

At my day job, my students are starting to warm up more. I came to find out that the fussy student who complained about studying English is apparently like that with every teacher. So, I don't feel so bad. The other day, I had a different student describe a situation in their family where they were excluded from a major event. I am purposely omitting details as to protect the identity of the student. Their story reminded me of some memories from elementary school.

First, I remember being in sixth grade and one of my classmates was complaining about how her parents went to see the movie, As Good as It Gets without her. As a side note, even though it has been 26 years since that movie was released in 1997, I never saw the movie. The fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes looks promising, however.

The second memory that I recalled is that I eventually would refuse to participate in school track and field day. I remembered arguing with my parents about it. My argument was that it wasn't like I was missing out on any homework, so why should I go? I presented a pretty compelling argument, so my parents gave in and let me spend my track and field days playing Super Nintendo at home instead. Today, I think that this argument would never fly. You will participate in track and field because you have too much unavoidable screen time as it is, and you need the exercise! At least back then, we were still getting sufficient exercise with the play time that we got outside even if I was refusing to participate in school events. In contrast, the internet has become such an integral part of our lives, that we honestly cannot function at school or work without it. If we can try to find ways to reduce our screen time where possible, I think that's a good thing.

I will have to edit this with a more exhaustive update when I am feeling fresh. It's late, and I have an early morning for work. There is so much more that I want to share and talk about!

Edit for continuation.

This came up in a discussion recently. I often remissness over the content from the 1990s before the internet and computers took over our lives. It was a golden age of storytelling in every medium imaginable: everything from books, games, music, and movies. Despite this, I have to say that I appreciate how far the technology has come. I'm not even sure if I can go back to VHS tapes, honestly!

It's already Saturday, and this week has been a blur. Earlier this week, I went on a late night shopping trip to pick up just a few staple items. I ran into one of the regulars that I see working the overnight shift at my local supermarket. When we were catching up, I looked down at the pile of groceries in my arms, and I asked her, "Did I learn anything?" She was confused about what I was talking about at first until I asked her, "Remember?" She laughed when she recalled the salt incident that I was referring to, when I repeated the question and motioned again to the items I was carrying. I followed up the question with an emphasized "NO!"

Yesterday, I played some guitar for a friend over Discord. It was the second time doing so this week, after not playing for the better part of a month because I got too busy at my day job and with back end stuff on YouTube. I put the final touches on an ongoing project, sent the email, and I am just waiting on approvals now. After that, I wanted to get out to celebrate!

I took my guitar project out in public for the first time in months, and those efforts are already starting to pay off. Someone else was at my local park practising on their portable drum kit, so there was a mutual nod a few times after I arrived with my guitar. AND THEN! I was stopped by a passerby on a bike when she overheard me performing a cover of If Life is So Short. I gave my speal about The Moffatts/Music Travel Love/Dave Moffatt Music, and I wrote down the info upon her request.

After that, I played my guitar. And I played. And played. I played until my fingers hurt. I really want to work hard to make up for the lost time in these last 20 years.

I also posted a lot of art updates here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, I worked on a lot of Traveler's Notebook things, and I thought it would be easier to link to those posts directly to save the length on here. I posted a new video here about the impending closure of my local Loft as well.

I still have a lot more to say, but I'm going to end my update here for now. I will discuss more in my next entry, and update the tags at a later time.