I am a bit frustrated with the change to files 2.0 since I was just starting to figure things out and I am also not sure how to edit files in the new system so that I can put up my gif and my music concrete. For the music concrete assignment, I used chicken sounds(I originally wanted to use Husky sounds, but my husband was using them). My original intent was to make a somewhat lighthearted and funny piece, but somehow it morphed into something quite disturbing and menacing. I think I was influenced by the time of year and the fact that there were so many Halloween shows on TV this week. I had a lot of fun with the project, by playing around with pitch and tempo and I'm looking forward to learning how use more advanced methods. I called my piece "Night of the Living Chickens."

I ended up downloading a free trial of wiretap pro to copy chicken sounds from the Internet to my desktop, but I wanted to try to record sounds from my own chickens. The problem was that every time I made an attempt to do this, they were not particularly vocal, or the weather was not good. At one point I had my laptop out in the baby chicken room after a failed attempt to record them and decided instead to play a recording of a Debussy string quartet. Their reactions were quite comical! They stopped what they were doing(pooping and eating) and froze. After this without making a sound, they tried to discover the source of the music, and were silent for a good five minutes. I thought this was pretty hilarious and am interested in the effect of music and sounds on animals.

This is my first blogging experience. Up until the start of school this fall I had a tendency to avoid anything involving technology including email. Whenever possible I would communicate by phone and only check my email every now and then much to the annoyance of friends. I have been out of school for approximately six years, and eveything has changed. Suddenly, all communication is done this way including assignments for class. One is expected to check their email several times a day. So...I am starting to get used to this new technological world along with the fact that no one communicates by telephone anymore. It makes me feel old. Anyway, I am starting to feel like I don't live in the dark ages anymore and am learning how to do some pretty neat things in my tech. trends in education class. Now my family and friends can't make fun of me anymore!

My great loves are my husband Todd, performing and teaching cello, our two huskies, and reading. In addition to our dogs we now have nine interesting chickens and are looking forward to fresh eggs. The chickens are about 5 months old and don't start laying until at least 6 months.

I'm not sure which musical direction this blog will be going, but I hope to have more focus in the coming weeks.