Game on.

This week starts off with a meeting with my dept. chair, to figure out my first semester of my terminal degree. Wow. It seems surreal, that (hopefully) in three to four years I'll be done with the receiving end of my formal education and will be on the other side. It is similarly surreal that I am being paid to go to school. This was mostly true at FPU, but my paycheck and tuition costs kind of crossed each other out. At UWC, tuition (with the exception of less than $300 of fees) is free, health insurance is free thanks to the TA union (yes that's right....we have a UNION), and I get PAID. Definitely a positive step in the right direction financially.

In addition to my meeting with my dept. chair, I have orientation meetings all day Tuesday and Thursday and entrance exams all day Wednesday. Entrance exams are always scary....not so much the theory ones as I'm not a theory major, and I haven't really taken a lot of theory in the four years I've been at FPU. Basically if I bomb the theory portion I won't feel too bad about it...the history portion however is different. I will be disappointed in myself if I don't pass the history portion because I'm a history major and I want to represent my program and my teachers well. Only time will tell, however.

I want to start a recording project. I have no clue how to do this, or even if I'm ready to do this, but I want to start working towards the goal of making a record. I have several options for repertoire: originals, traditional songs, trad flute tunes, or different combinations of each of three. The benefit of each of these repertoires is that they a free to record...they're either mine or public domain (although some of the traditional stuff has to be checked to make sure). Flute tunes might be a problem because I don't really have any backup players that I know out here...although it is possible to make a recording completely of solo trad flute, I'm not sure that's what I want. I feel a pull towards originals and traditional songs....because all I need is me on vocals and guitar. I feel really confident with my traditional songs (at least on the vocals), but I really WANT to record some originals. However there are some incredibly seminal folk recordings that combine the two. Anyway, other than starting to think about repertoire, I have no idea how to proceed, so any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Anyway, I'm off to get ready for the week, and for a new program.

Peace, Love, and Tunes,

Mac.