Miscellaneous

Close-up of a microphone.

I try not to butcher Macy Gray, but you be the judge of that

This might be a slight detour from my usual programming around here, but I guess this blog isn’t old or established enough to really know what the usual programming is.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, I — a verified no-hit wonder — performed “I Try” by Macy Gray in front of actual, living people. There’s a video of said performance (and others) on the VocalTech Studios YouTube channel. But you can only put one clickable link on Instagram, and I wanted that one link to be my website, so… for better or worse, here we are.

“I Try”

Watching myself is pretty cringey, and I can hear everything that could’ve gone better. But I’ve had some positive feedback (albeit from people who I’m pretty sure care about me and don’t want to make me cry) so hopefully you don’t find it too uncomfortable if you decide to hit play. 🙂

I’ve also made a playlist of some of my other VocalTech showcase performances, from most recent to oldest — so if you watch it in order, hopefully the quality of performance declines with each video. 😛

Text reads: A-Z attitude of gratitude. Background contains a person practising yoga on a rock overlooking the ocean.

A-Z attitude of gratitude

Slightly different post today. But I’ve been trying to practise gratitude this year. And I do have a lot to be thankful for in my life. To prove it, here’s my A to Z of things I’m grateful for in 2020. 🙂

  • A — Artists. They get shat on a lot. They’re also the reason we have things to occupy us during isolation or lockdown.
  • B — Blogging. I’m not a very prolific blogger but I enjoy it.
  • C — Cats. Don’t have any, but some of our neighbours do and they’re cute in a curious yet aloof kind of way.
  • D — Dogs. Don’t have any dogs either, but there are dogs in my office building and they definitely spark joy.
  • E — eBooks. It’s how I’ve done most of my reading this year.
  • F — Family. Not everyone is lucky enough to be loved and supported by their family, so I’m eternally grateful for mine.
  • G — Google. Makes me sound far more knowledgeable than I really am when I’m on the phone to clients.
  • H — Hot chocolate. Or as I like to call it, pure happiness in a mug.
  • I — Imagination. I mean, let’s face it, the limits of reality totally suck sometimes.
  • J — Journaling. I’ve found it surprisingly helpful to scribble something down every day, even if it makes no sense later.
  • K — Kindness. Pretty self-explanatory.
  • L — Libraries. I could write a whole post about the importance of libraries to communities and not just because I work in one. But that’s not this post.
  • M — Music. My singing lessons were one of the few things I could really do for a while during the pandemic. And my favourite band (Bon Jovi) released a timely new album that I loved way more than I thought I would.
  • N — Netflix. I’m all about Star Trek: Discovery at the moment but apparently there are other good shows too.
  • O — Oz. As in Australia. Plenty of worse places I could be right now.
  • P — Phone. Good for keeping in touch with people you can’t physically be with and don’t know when you’ll see again.
  • Q — Quiet. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t hate people, but I do need time away from them to recharge.
  • S — Sanitiser. I used it religiously before COVID but it’s been liquid gold this year.
  • R — Rice cooker. Listen to Uncle Roger, they’re the best.
  • T — Tea. A nice warm hug in a mug.
  • U — USB flash drives. They’re just really useful.
  • V — Vanilla ice cream. Boring? Maybe. Delicious? Yes.
  • W — Work. I’m fortunate enough to like my job, and keeping busy with it helped keep me sane this year.
  • X — Xerography. It’s the technology that photocopiers use and… okay, I’m scraping the barrel with this one, but I didn’t get any x-rays or play the xylophone this year. 😛
  • Y — Yoga. I’m hardly the most flexible or balanced person around but I think doing yoga has aided my mental health.
  • Z — Zoom. So many video meetings this year, but I also got to pretend I was on a variety of spaceships through my Zoom virtual backgrounds. 😀