Last fall I was off grid so intensely that I had no connection to the internet at all. Presently I have a few hours most days provided that there is fuel in the generator and that not to much storm interference conflicts with the satellite dish.
Although I find the restrictions somewhat bothersome I enjoy the benefits of permaculture by design, nature walks, wood splitting, tending the critters.
In a few weeks, or months, I may be back to a summer long disconnect. It is possible I will spend the summer in a forest sifting through gravels on the bottom of an ice cold stream, again. The sifting is to find tiny specks of gold. Previously I've been as long as 8 months on a gold claim. I expect this time only 3-4 months.
For those who follow me - don't be worried. I intend to return and if I don't it was probably for a good reason.
Oh my, I just bit into a whole clove of garlic that is POTENT.... catch ya later.
16 May 2011
22 April 2011
516 Title...
So here you are at my blog. PeriODDically... is just as it sounds; mostly periodic postings and often odd insights into being Daniel J Hay.
Many times I have postings ready to upload and then decide to dump them because they are either bragging about myself which I find I am prone to doing, or complaining about my health or life, which I can't stand doing but again find that I am prone to lapsing into.
This posting, however, is not going to flow in either vein. No bragging and no complaining.
Actually this posting is a request for assistance in naming the piece of music I just composed. You see, I've been getting a backlog of instrumental pieces with no name. This will make it difficult to include them in the annual subscription service I maintain and makes it look like an uncompleted list when I list the titles. The attached opus number just doesn't look completed without also having a title to go with it.
Therefore, if you will listen to the piece listed in the sidebar, (Opus 516), and then send me a comment for a name I would appreciate it. From the names submitted here and via private communication I will select a winning name and then add the submitting person's name in the dedication on the sheet music.
This piece is voiced in Oboe because I find that my composing software sounds best as Oboe voice, (or Cello or Bassoon). It is, however, suitable for most orchestral instruments.
Please note that if this posting is not at the top of my blog then it is likely the piece of music shown may no longer be Opus 516. You can always visit http://danielhay.podbean.com and look for the piece that will include 516 in the title regardless of how long after this posting you are visiting. Also be aware that only a small number of my pieces are uploaded to podbean.
To see which pieces of music I have had printed you can visit http://danielhay.magcloud.com and for information on subscribing to my annual sheet music service please visit http://bit.ly/g9muFh
Many times I have postings ready to upload and then decide to dump them because they are either bragging about myself which I find I am prone to doing, or complaining about my health or life, which I can't stand doing but again find that I am prone to lapsing into.
This posting, however, is not going to flow in either vein. No bragging and no complaining.
Actually this posting is a request for assistance in naming the piece of music I just composed. You see, I've been getting a backlog of instrumental pieces with no name. This will make it difficult to include them in the annual subscription service I maintain and makes it look like an uncompleted list when I list the titles. The attached opus number just doesn't look completed without also having a title to go with it.
Therefore, if you will listen to the piece listed in the sidebar, (Opus 516), and then send me a comment for a name I would appreciate it. From the names submitted here and via private communication I will select a winning name and then add the submitting person's name in the dedication on the sheet music.
This piece is voiced in Oboe because I find that my composing software sounds best as Oboe voice, (or Cello or Bassoon). It is, however, suitable for most orchestral instruments.
Please note that if this posting is not at the top of my blog then it is likely the piece of music shown may no longer be Opus 516. You can always visit http://danielhay.podbean.com and look for the piece that will include 516 in the title regardless of how long after this posting you are visiting. Also be aware that only a small number of my pieces are uploaded to podbean.
To see which pieces of music I have had printed you can visit http://danielhay.magcloud.com and for information on subscribing to my annual sheet music service please visit http://bit.ly/g9muFh
01 April 2011
Research...
I spend a great deal of time researching topics that interest me. Much of the research is fodder for the author side of me to be used in works in progress. (#WIP on Twitter) Some of it is merely because some intrigued me at the moment it flashed by on my computer screen - so I had to learn more. Some is used in application to my composing side. And then, some is intended for future use in what would be best described as 'real life' situations.
When I was newly married I had considered a commune environment, and my wife and I reconsidered the same over and over as our children grew. One thing we could not accept was that the places we liked best were also places that had group parenting (or none, perhaps) and we could not see placing the well-being of our children into the hands of others.
Now that I am single, or rather, during the past ten years of being single, I have often considered other intentional communities (see http://www.ic.org) as well. In fact, I have listed myself as a new community to be formed if I find others of like-mindedness. At this moment I am living with friends who are trying to build a natural farm in the Washington mountains. I consider this a learning experience.
Combined with the better part of a year camping in the California forest mining gold told me I have the basic knowledge and determination to survive in a rustic setting. I have raised goats and poultry and rabbits in the past and have thought to do so again now. Such is the environs of this mountain side. And perhaps I will acquire a multi-acreage parcel and build from scratch as I have often dreamed of doing.
So part of my research goes into planning what I would do in the "if" situation of building a house from raw materials by myself. There is a blessing to the internet and research is one of those blessings. It also has many drawbacks but those are for a different posting.
The research at this point is making me lean towards building a masonry wood fired heater (sometimes known as a Russian Heater) in the middle of nowhere. Then building a slip-form concrete house around that. Both are time consuming and require a great deal of labor but of time and labor I have plenty.
To this end I actually advertised on a certain 'date' service for a similarly minded woman who would be interested in a rural, rustic, pioneer, farming, cheese-making, yogurt-making, poultry-goat-rabbit-fish raising project. Apparently my research failed me because the only responses I have gotten are from titilation-for-pay-service bimbettes.
It seems my Facebook account (http://www.facebook.com/haydaniel) also sees me as a target for such. The only ads that ever show up on my FB page are of the same nature. Of course, I can't make it choose some other advertisement stream - and having no interest in such I tend to stay away from my FB page. Naturally, people will say but you can ignore those ads, and yes, I can, but they are still there in profusion and are annoying.
So while I research concrete, masonry heaters, siding, flooring, windows, how to... etc... it is nice to know the world is running on without me. It is of course, and faster than I pedal (being to old to run on bad knees). Yet what research would be replete without a plea for additional information?
No, no, not information on the bimbettes of the world, but perhaps you can give me instruction on finding the right person to share such an adventure. (Or families with or without children.) And then I will research that as well...
When I was newly married I had considered a commune environment, and my wife and I reconsidered the same over and over as our children grew. One thing we could not accept was that the places we liked best were also places that had group parenting (or none, perhaps) and we could not see placing the well-being of our children into the hands of others.
Now that I am single, or rather, during the past ten years of being single, I have often considered other intentional communities (see http://www.ic.org) as well. In fact, I have listed myself as a new community to be formed if I find others of like-mindedness. At this moment I am living with friends who are trying to build a natural farm in the Washington mountains. I consider this a learning experience.
Combined with the better part of a year camping in the California forest mining gold told me I have the basic knowledge and determination to survive in a rustic setting. I have raised goats and poultry and rabbits in the past and have thought to do so again now. Such is the environs of this mountain side. And perhaps I will acquire a multi-acreage parcel and build from scratch as I have often dreamed of doing.
So part of my research goes into planning what I would do in the "if" situation of building a house from raw materials by myself. There is a blessing to the internet and research is one of those blessings. It also has many drawbacks but those are for a different posting.
The research at this point is making me lean towards building a masonry wood fired heater (sometimes known as a Russian Heater) in the middle of nowhere. Then building a slip-form concrete house around that. Both are time consuming and require a great deal of labor but of time and labor I have plenty.
To this end I actually advertised on a certain 'date' service for a similarly minded woman who would be interested in a rural, rustic, pioneer, farming, cheese-making, yogurt-making, poultry-goat-rabbit-fish raising project. Apparently my research failed me because the only responses I have gotten are from titilation-for-pay-service bimbettes.
It seems my Facebook account (http://www.facebook.com/haydaniel) also sees me as a target for such. The only ads that ever show up on my FB page are of the same nature. Of course, I can't make it choose some other advertisement stream - and having no interest in such I tend to stay away from my FB page. Naturally, people will say but you can ignore those ads, and yes, I can, but they are still there in profusion and are annoying.
So while I research concrete, masonry heaters, siding, flooring, windows, how to... etc... it is nice to know the world is running on without me. It is of course, and faster than I pedal (being to old to run on bad knees). Yet what research would be replete without a plea for additional information?
No, no, not information on the bimbettes of the world, but perhaps you can give me instruction on finding the right person to share such an adventure. (Or families with or without children.) And then I will research that as well...
06 March 2011
Teh Editer...
On my editor page I have mentioned the damage you do to yourself if you are a writer submitting material that was not edited. Silly things appear, similar to the title of this blog, during self editing, fixing typos, changing text, and all the other actions you take preparing your manuscript. You've run a Spell Checker on your file, honest, guaranteed, and yet, they still show up.
It is crucial that the very last thing you do before submitting a file for consideration is to run your spell checker AGAIN. It doesn't matter how many times you have previously run your spell checker, how many times friends have reviewed your manuscript, nor how often you have had critique partners review it. The very last thing you do is to run spell checker again. Unless you can open your file in a view only mode every time the file is opened for any reason it is subject to errant changes.
Those changes may be as simple as hitting the wrong key while trying to scroll down to an area you had an idea about. It could be your family cat streaking by across your keyboard, or the youngster tossed you a ball while you weren't looking. It could be that your sleeve dropped, or your fingers got tired, or you fell asleep at the keyboard. Errors happen, (thanks Forrest Gump).
As an editor, see ( http://bit.ly/9Yk7TX ) I often find problems that could have been found and corrected by the author before it was ever submitted. When editing for a publisher I feel that if the author didn't care enough to run spell check there is no reason for us to care - and the story gets passed over. With hundreds or thousands of manuscripts passing my eyes why would I want to work with an author who couldn't take the time to run spell check?
Another problem that I've seen in manuscripts submitted for consideration to agents or publishers include missing words, or missing sentences, most often caused by cut and paste operations and then the author saves the file thinking their little change is okay as the rest of the document has been edited.
I have read through manuscripts that have been reviewed by other writers, by critique partners, by writers groups, by friends and family, and by other editors, and have always found errors that should have been fixed. You, yourself, have seen errors in published books that made you wonder how it got missed -- and the greatest number of errors could have been caught by a simple spell check program.
And then, sometimes, there are content conflicts. As an example; a recently published book tried to say that four men carried two casket-sized, lead-lined, crates full of gold ingots, along with shovels and picks, across boggy ground in one trip. While editing I noticed the near impossibility of this and had it changed to be more feasible. Yet, making that change required another change near the end of the book, for consistency, and three previous editors had failed to take note.
If a character has black hair you can't let them have blonde hair later without making the change - and yet I find such character adjustments in many manuscripts. Even though spell checking takes care of many problems it can not take care of all the potential problems in a manuscript.
It is important that you get an editor. A real editor. And then send your editor the final spell checked version by running spell check as the last operation you do before saving the file.
It is crucial that the very last thing you do before submitting a file for consideration is to run your spell checker AGAIN. It doesn't matter how many times you have previously run your spell checker, how many times friends have reviewed your manuscript, nor how often you have had critique partners review it. The very last thing you do is to run spell checker again. Unless you can open your file in a view only mode every time the file is opened for any reason it is subject to errant changes.
Those changes may be as simple as hitting the wrong key while trying to scroll down to an area you had an idea about. It could be your family cat streaking by across your keyboard, or the youngster tossed you a ball while you weren't looking. It could be that your sleeve dropped, or your fingers got tired, or you fell asleep at the keyboard. Errors happen, (thanks Forrest Gump).
As an editor, see ( http://bit.ly/9Yk7TX ) I often find problems that could have been found and corrected by the author before it was ever submitted. When editing for a publisher I feel that if the author didn't care enough to run spell check there is no reason for us to care - and the story gets passed over. With hundreds or thousands of manuscripts passing my eyes why would I want to work with an author who couldn't take the time to run spell check?
Another problem that I've seen in manuscripts submitted for consideration to agents or publishers include missing words, or missing sentences, most often caused by cut and paste operations and then the author saves the file thinking their little change is okay as the rest of the document has been edited.
I have read through manuscripts that have been reviewed by other writers, by critique partners, by writers groups, by friends and family, and by other editors, and have always found errors that should have been fixed. You, yourself, have seen errors in published books that made you wonder how it got missed -- and the greatest number of errors could have been caught by a simple spell check program.
And then, sometimes, there are content conflicts. As an example; a recently published book tried to say that four men carried two casket-sized, lead-lined, crates full of gold ingots, along with shovels and picks, across boggy ground in one trip. While editing I noticed the near impossibility of this and had it changed to be more feasible. Yet, making that change required another change near the end of the book, for consistency, and three previous editors had failed to take note.
If a character has black hair you can't let them have blonde hair later without making the change - and yet I find such character adjustments in many manuscripts. Even though spell checking takes care of many problems it can not take care of all the potential problems in a manuscript.
It is important that you get an editor. A real editor. And then send your editor the final spell checked version by running spell check as the last operation you do before saving the file.
28 February 2011
Snow Down...
The snow is coming down. Flakes are thick, and heavy with moisture. I just shoveled the walk for the folks at the WiFi cafe and found it to be nearly an inch of slush underneath 4-5 inches of heavy snow. Must be why I have a pectoral cramp.
While the snow is coming down I've nearly finished the countdown of uploading Music of Daniel J Hay. Two more to go today. Lullabies for Treble and one for Bass clef instruments is up. Next will be a collection of Laments, both for Treble and Bass clef. I still have many, many, pieces to upload but I think I'll go back to the sequential process for awhile like the first six volumes and try to get them brought up to date.
Of course, if I get on a roll (drum roll) I may attack the duet collections next as most trio or larger ensemble pieces have been uploaded. I've got an idea for the 18 voice brass piece but I'll have to reformat it before giving it a try.
I've finished "The Thirteenth Worm" editing. That children's story is going on the list to be presented to literary agents (along with the other dozen or so.) Ugh! Maybe I should consider putting them into magazine format and just uploading them. Ah, perhaps, subscription service...hmmm...
While the snow is coming down I've nearly finished the countdown of uploading Music of Daniel J Hay. Two more to go today. Lullabies for Treble and one for Bass clef instruments is up. Next will be a collection of Laments, both for Treble and Bass clef. I still have many, many, pieces to upload but I think I'll go back to the sequential process for awhile like the first six volumes and try to get them brought up to date.
Of course, if I get on a roll (drum roll) I may attack the duet collections next as most trio or larger ensemble pieces have been uploaded. I've got an idea for the 18 voice brass piece but I'll have to reformat it before giving it a try.
I've finished "The Thirteenth Worm" editing. That children's story is going on the list to be presented to literary agents (along with the other dozen or so.) Ugh! Maybe I should consider putting them into magazine format and just uploading them. Ah, perhaps, subscription service...hmmm...
15 February 2011
Spark Of Past...
At times it is hard to believe that many, many, months have gone by since my last posting. And of course, being that this is me, nothing turned out the way planned, expected, or even slightly anticipated.
Greetings to those I know. Greetings and greetings to those I don't know. I believe I've been paying a penance to fate. I have been without internet access for so long I have even forgotten some of my access codes for various pages that I used to visit with regular abandon. Of course the only pages that forgetfulness affected were those having to do with my financial status each month. (The effect of a big ZERO.)
However, I did get logged in two months ago very briefly and discovered that some of my Twitter friends had been looking for me - with concern. I received an email from the Sheriffs department in Shelby County, TN who informed me that I had been placed on a national missing person listing because of my last posting on Twitter admitting that I had become stranded when my truck went kablooyeeeee! Whether the listing action was due to Twitter friends or my neighbors in Memphis it was not only surprising but endearing. (However, getting off that list is proving to be difficult.)
My dogs and I are fine. I rent a room in a 100 yr old cabin, and have since December. There is no internet available there and until February I did not have a car. There is a nice little WiFi cafe here in town, but the two mile walk in snow and ice was more than I was willing to do - the risk of falling with my knees is ever present.
Now I have a huge gas guzzler with 4x4 so can get around if needed. This is in the lick of time as I am preparing to move on somewhere else still. This has been a temporary setting born of desperation and frustration. The where of the moving on is still up in the air. The two main choices are so far apart in their descriptions perhaps only their differences are the underpinning of my soul. One choice is a 20 acre piece of raw land - so raw that there is no power, water, or habitat. The other choice is a full service furnished room including Internet.
Wow, tough choice for the likes of me since I want all the perceived benefits of both. Of course, I'd give up any and all goals if I were to find the right person to share my life with, but as I am me, myself, and I, there are no expectations left in me for the potential to ever again be sharing.
Why am I serving penance to fate? If this is possible it is well deserved. For I have wronged my friends in an attempt to make my departure understandable. Although I am not going to discuss the details here I will lay the blame where it belongs. It is ME. My fault, for I fabricated a story to cover my feelings. Truthfully, I lied. It was false, and it was wrong. And I have been ill from the stress I caused myself.
So to my neighbors across the street I wish to apologize. The truth is that being closely involved with your family, your son, yourselves as a family, broke me up. There is great love in your family even though you don't want it to show. And that love, that family togetherness, broke me. I wish you, my neighbors, to know that I appreciated being accepted so willingly but I found myself on the verge of a mental collapse. I had to isolate myself again.
And to my neighbor next door - you understand my wanderlust. I thank you for accepting me as me regardless of my skin color. There are too many people in the world who can't see past color when in fact humans should be color blind (or blinded).
Unfortunately my isolation became more than expected. Was it fate? Was it punishment? To me it is just life but I have had a great deal of time to ponder my mental condition. I have written more on my projects, and have again been writing music that had been eluding me in my distress at the beginning of fall.
So I am recovering again. I miss Twitter and hope to become active again. I miss checking on my friends on FaceBook even though I don't like to post on there often. I am getting busy again with compiling my music for the print publications. My visit here is limited by the battery in my laptop so I won't be on often or very long. But for now I get the chance to say "greetings" and hope that all of you are doing well.
Greetings to those I know. Greetings and greetings to those I don't know. I believe I've been paying a penance to fate. I have been without internet access for so long I have even forgotten some of my access codes for various pages that I used to visit with regular abandon. Of course the only pages that forgetfulness affected were those having to do with my financial status each month. (The effect of a big ZERO.)
However, I did get logged in two months ago very briefly and discovered that some of my Twitter friends had been looking for me - with concern. I received an email from the Sheriffs department in Shelby County, TN who informed me that I had been placed on a national missing person listing because of my last posting on Twitter admitting that I had become stranded when my truck went kablooyeeeee! Whether the listing action was due to Twitter friends or my neighbors in Memphis it was not only surprising but endearing. (However, getting off that list is proving to be difficult.)
My dogs and I are fine. I rent a room in a 100 yr old cabin, and have since December. There is no internet available there and until February I did not have a car. There is a nice little WiFi cafe here in town, but the two mile walk in snow and ice was more than I was willing to do - the risk of falling with my knees is ever present.
Now I have a huge gas guzzler with 4x4 so can get around if needed. This is in the lick of time as I am preparing to move on somewhere else still. This has been a temporary setting born of desperation and frustration. The where of the moving on is still up in the air. The two main choices are so far apart in their descriptions perhaps only their differences are the underpinning of my soul. One choice is a 20 acre piece of raw land - so raw that there is no power, water, or habitat. The other choice is a full service furnished room including Internet.
Wow, tough choice for the likes of me since I want all the perceived benefits of both. Of course, I'd give up any and all goals if I were to find the right person to share my life with, but as I am me, myself, and I, there are no expectations left in me for the potential to ever again be sharing.
Why am I serving penance to fate? If this is possible it is well deserved. For I have wronged my friends in an attempt to make my departure understandable. Although I am not going to discuss the details here I will lay the blame where it belongs. It is ME. My fault, for I fabricated a story to cover my feelings. Truthfully, I lied. It was false, and it was wrong. And I have been ill from the stress I caused myself.
So to my neighbors across the street I wish to apologize. The truth is that being closely involved with your family, your son, yourselves as a family, broke me up. There is great love in your family even though you don't want it to show. And that love, that family togetherness, broke me. I wish you, my neighbors, to know that I appreciated being accepted so willingly but I found myself on the verge of a mental collapse. I had to isolate myself again.
And to my neighbor next door - you understand my wanderlust. I thank you for accepting me as me regardless of my skin color. There are too many people in the world who can't see past color when in fact humans should be color blind (or blinded).
Unfortunately my isolation became more than expected. Was it fate? Was it punishment? To me it is just life but I have had a great deal of time to ponder my mental condition. I have written more on my projects, and have again been writing music that had been eluding me in my distress at the beginning of fall.
So I am recovering again. I miss Twitter and hope to become active again. I miss checking on my friends on FaceBook even though I don't like to post on there often. I am getting busy again with compiling my music for the print publications. My visit here is limited by the battery in my laptop so I won't be on often or very long. But for now I get the chance to say "greetings" and hope that all of you are doing well.
02 October 2010
A Publishing We Go...
I have just announced that my children's story Lost Lullaby has been accepted for publication. The illustrations were done by Jen Davies and the cover art is apparently going to be by Aidana WillowRaven. It is exciting to know that you are on the publishing schedule; not exciting to see how many decades down the road before your book gets printed. I am hoping for a 2012 date but won't be surprised if it doesn't show up until a year or two after that.
Lost Lullaby includes a copy of the instrumental sheet music by the same name, "Lost Lullaby" composed by Daniel J Hay, (that would be me).
I also have recently had my There Be Dragon Eggs accepted for publication. This children's book is both illustrated by, and cover art by, Aidana WillowRaven. The current publication date is early 2011 -- which as we all know is not far from the date of this blog posting.
As the covers become available I will certainly get them posted. Soon there will be new webpages created and posted for each story. Now I have to move in to marketing gear because nobody can rely solely upon the publisher to get their book sales.
If you begin noticing postings, tweets, messages, email signatures, etc. showing up repeatedly or in strange locations -- well, chalk it up for excitement, high stress, and an attempt to make good on sales so other publishers will want to print my face on the back of a book. I'm hoping when they do they will include my stories between the covers.
Lost Lullaby includes a copy of the instrumental sheet music by the same name, "Lost Lullaby" composed by Daniel J Hay, (that would be me).
I also have recently had my There Be Dragon Eggs accepted for publication. This children's book is both illustrated by, and cover art by, Aidana WillowRaven. The current publication date is early 2011 -- which as we all know is not far from the date of this blog posting.
As the covers become available I will certainly get them posted. Soon there will be new webpages created and posted for each story. Now I have to move in to marketing gear because nobody can rely solely upon the publisher to get their book sales.
If you begin noticing postings, tweets, messages, email signatures, etc. showing up repeatedly or in strange locations -- well, chalk it up for excitement, high stress, and an attempt to make good on sales so other publishers will want to print my face on the back of a book. I'm hoping when they do they will include my stories between the covers.
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