There isn’t much to say about this picture, though I must admit that it brings me to the verge of tears during this stressful time of the year.

(Special thanks to my source. You know who you are!)

If you haven’t seen Michael Monroe’s The 12 Composers of Christmas yet, I urge you to check it out.

Very cleverly done. Bravo Michael!

CNN is waxing nostalgiac about the 25 year anniversary of the Commodore 64 with a page full of personal memories of the machine.

Though my first experience with a personal computer was in an elementary school enrichment program and the TRS-80, the Commodore 64 was the first computer that I actually owned. I loved that machine, and for a good, solid 5 year stretch it was the only computer that I knew. Of course, this was 8-12 grade, so I mostly played games on it (Bard’s Tale III rocked!), but I also did some simple programming in BASIC and learned the fundamentals of how computers worked. My favorite part of it was the enormous floppy drive and how excited I was when I finally acquired my own. Prior to that, all the software had to be loaded into the RAM via a cassette tape drive that took FOREVER.

Now that I’m sitting here 20+ years later typing on my Dell with an Intel Dual Core processor and 500 Gigs of hard drive space and it’s hard to believe that it’s happened so quickly and yet been so long, all at the same time.

Anyone want to share their Commodore memories?

My apologies for not posting as actively as I would like, but this is “that time of the year” again where stress begins to mount as deadlines approach.

I’m working on a new brass quintet for the Smoky Mountain Brass Quintet, teaching my 8-week World Music course, and finishing up theory class next week. Maryville has the ensembles concert on Sunday night, so that’s been another additional stress. I always look at the last month of the semester as the price that must be paid for having such nice vacations during the holidays and summers.

The good news? In just about one week, the grading will be done, the semester will be over and the Christmas music will be put on the stereo!