I woke up very early this morning to find that the kid was on her way to school. That’s a surprise. I went back to bed only to wake up late this morning. Bummer. A good portion of the day is gone.

Let me just prattle on a bit about coding. I finally worked out a few things in jQuery yesterday, animating divs and adding classes to elements with button clicks. I felt like I finally understood something even if it is dead simple code. I now have a sense that I can work my way through simple jQuery. I still don’t feel confident with JavaScript, but that will eventually come to me as long as I keep it on simmer. Eventually all this stuff begins to make sense.

That being said, I still wonder if I should go back to learning Python; its syntax is simpler than JavaScript, and I have a sense that its algorithmic way of working with data will be that much more clear. At least I think so. I may be wrong. In any event, I really do need some sort of simple coding system to create interactive sites. I would like for my portfolio site, in particular, to have all the bells and whistles I can muster; not so that it is too much, but some elegant way of adding some wow to the site. Maybe a photo carousel on the first page, in the jumbotron. I’ll need to find a few photo I want to feature and re-size them to fit a small carousel.

I’m having trouble maintaining my focus just now. The best thing I can do to get unstuck is to keep my fingers moving on the keyboard. Don’t stop. This kind of writing reminds me of how I get back into running shape after not doing it for a long time. I start by walking with a little bit of running interspersed. As long as I do it regularly the periods of running become longer, and the walking becomes shorter. I haven’t been in that kind of habit with exercise for quite some time, but I feel like my freewriting is doing this for my writing as a whole. I run more than I walk at the keyboard.

Speaking of keyboards, I need to get back to practicing some basic piano at some point. Piano helps my musicianship in general since its notes are so logically arranged. It also helps to understand the range of instruments in a complex score. In addition, if I am ever going to teach in a music department I need to be able to play basic piano parts in class.

So here is another outline of what I need to practice in my upcoming practice routine:

  1. Guitar
    • chord solos
    • walking bass lines
  2. Piano
    • Bartok’s Mikrokosmos
    • Haerle’s book on jazz chords
  3. Ear training
    • Arnold’s books and CDs

This is a lot, so I will need to find a way to pare it down. The chord solos and bass lines shouldn’t be too difficult as I am merely reacquainting myself with the material and working on developing it to performance-ready status. The ear training doesn’t need to be a big deal either. I think the piano is going to be the only thing that requires some concentration and energy. And yet again, I have played the piano some in the past, so a good deal of my piano practice will simply be about re-gaining skills I have let atrophy.

Practice sucks, but I love the results.