09/12/2016
Ok. It's been a very stressful year. I have had the same tooth undergo root canal treatment on 3 separate occasions and as a consequence, I haven't been able to eat seeds for 18 months. I have contracted the flu, bronchitis and about 4 hours later, some other weird bug ... and most of that that just days before the Christmas Concert. I have broken, in separate incidences, both my wrist and my ankle. I have been hospitalized more times (I think) than I've had breakfast. I have frequently worked through the night, and I often don't know how many sleeps occur on average from one Monday to the next. I vaguely remember that I have more than one child, both of whom are probably humanoid, and that, so far as I can determine, neither of whom is called "Gertrude" ... although I'm not sure about the boy. I've even, just today with my vaguely humanoid offspring, witnessed a Huntsman Spider walk across the lens of one of our security cameras in such a fashion as to make me, the operator perusing the security footage, wish for an invasion of Godzilla's rather than be attacked (on a large screen) by what appears to be a 30 foot arachnid!
Nevertheless, this year's Christmas concert was, I believe a reasonable success, where students, despite my interference as their teacher, actually produced more than acceptable results. And as a consequence of that rather unexpected occurrence, I have set myself the daunting task of having the video edit completed some 11 months earlier than the last one ... by which I mean of course, that I intend for the Christmas Concert video to actually be ready by Christmas. (With regards to achievements, I like to set low bars. That way, when I fail to reach them, I can pretend that I was doing the Limbo and that falling short was actually the whole point of the exercise after all!)
It is almost 4:00 in the morning on some random Saturday that just happens to follow the Christmas Concert. I have a black, panther-like animal that goes by the name of "The Lady Katushka" trying to devour my toes, and her equally black, and naughty sister, "Miss Mouflon" contributing to the editing process by trying - in alternate fashion - to immobilize my arms, and to sit on strategic keys on the laptop's keyboard. (She is particularly good at pressing the combination of keys that makes my students appear en-masse as pulsating bundles of energy in what can only be presumed is some alternative universe.)
[See image of cat]
Even so, I'm perfectly zoned out, just letting the multi-cam aspect of the video-editing process simply sashay it's way past in the slinky procession that is en-vogue for a strings studio concert. And then Ramses (not his real name), the fellow I've asked to manage the hand-held camera for the Concert gets involved, as he swings the camera around in that most precious of Prima Dona-esque motions to achieve what can only be described in the industry as completing the capture of "Deranged Selfie - Extreme Close Up" - not once, but twice during the conduct of the concert!)
[see image of Ramses' nose]
Not for the first time this evening, I have come close to falling off my chair (see the chapter above on Spiders ... one day I am going to act on the advise of a financial-planner friend of mine and take our shares in the local hospital!)
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For no particular reason at all, I wish you all a Merry Christmas, and most importantly, a refreshing, relaxing and re-stabilizing of holiday season!
Regards,
Bryson.
