i... can die happy now. i have witnessed the inhuman awesomeness that is a Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert.
oh my GAWD!
there aren't words to describe how mind-blowingly, orgasmically amazing that was. suffice it to say, i wouldn't have missed it if immediately after the show was over i would be skinned alive and dimmed in hydrochloric acid in retribution for attending.
a basic rundown of the show in Mike's words: "the first half was 'Oh Holy Night', the second part was 'oh holy shit!'"
they did traditional Christmas tunes (my favorites were Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Joy to the World and Carol of the Bells) and remixed them in kick-ass rock/metal style with their own embellishments thrown in here and there.
then the second part featured classical music (like Marriage of Figaro and Beethoven's 5th) that they remixed TSO style -- and i swear, Mozart and Beethoven were way before their time, 'cuz their compositions make perfect rock music -- with more of their own stuff.
the lights strobed me out a few times, and from out seats we could feel the blasts of heat from the pyrotechnics, and my ears were still ringing by the time we got home from the loudness of the speakers.
but it was so utterly worth it.
and i'll stop gloating now, or try to at least. it might take a while for me to recover full hearing.
11.21.2008
11.18.2008
goofball
Sam is such a doofus, bless 'is heart.
for those who don't know, Sam is one of the horses at the barn. he's four or five years old, so he's still young. i've been riding him lately, both in lessons and on my own time. i'm not leasing him though, he's still all Dawn's horse.
so, why am i riding him? well, simply this: Dawn has slightly less experience riding than i do, and she's a bit nervous. Sam is young, and even though he's trained, he's inexperienced. little things like consistent speed around the arena, keeping his head in one place at the trot, picking up his feet so he doesn't trip over himself every five minutes, flexing around turns, that sorta thing. he's laid back for such a young horse, but riding him isn't at all like riding Diamond or Romeo or one of the older lesson horses.
so, we have an underconfident rider and an inexperienced horse. see where it's going? Dawn gets nervous riding him, so she doesn't ride him much, so he doesn't get experience. when she does ride him, she's not sure what she's doing sometimes. it snowballs, and it's frankly kinda sad, since Dawn obvious loves Sam and wants to give him a good life, and Sam likes his work.
he does enjoy being ridden, believe it or not. yes, he gets tired and tried to pull my arms out of their sockets, but he doesn't get frustrated and throw temper-tantrums like Roxy does sometimes.
Dawn rides about the same time i have my lessons (when she does ride him), and Alethea told me when she explained the setup that Dawn started to admire my riding. Alethea must've recommended me to her, too. either way, a few weeks ago Alethea asked me if i wanted to ride Sam for a while. i'd get to ride a horse for free when i rode him on my own time, it would give Sam a much-needed workout with a more confident, more experienced rider, and it would hopefully make Dawn more confident when she'd get on him. a win-win-win situation, as i saw it. so i accepted.
Sam is entertaining to ride. his little "baby-horse" habits, as Alethea calls them, keep me on my toes. the few times i've been able to work with him, he's been getting better. he's getting used to flexing and doing serpentines and figure-eights, which are the bane of stiff horses. yesterday when i had my lesson on him, he did his best yet with the serpentines and rounding.
yesterday, we also did something relatively new: poles. Alethea put the big lengths of PVC-piping we use for jumps flat on the arena floor and had me walk and trot him over them. Sam got really into it, he was having so much fun! you should've seen him, it was a hoot. sometimes he can get a bit sluggish going into the turns and on the short sides of the arena, but rounding the turns at C he was stepping out like i've never seen him do before. he was having a blast going over those poles! it was so cute. once we graduate to actually raising the poles off the ground with the blocks, i can already tell Sam's gonna love jumping. he's still got the youngster's energy.
part of it may be the cold, but i think it was mostly enthusiasm. last night he didn't start yanking on the reins like he usually does when it gets close to time to end the lesson; he does that when he gets tired. and i didn't have as much trouble getting him going as usual, though i'm sure that was the cold.
he did spook when Haley, the one who had the afternoon shift at work today, dumped a wheelbarrow of stall-mucking refuse in the piles behind the arena. it took fifteen or twenty minutes to get him back on track and to make him stop shying away from that corner of the arena, but eventually he got over it. goofy horse.
y'know, it was really cold last night. down below fifty, almost forty degrees. but when you're riding you don't notice the cold. despite the common belief, the rider works just as hard as the horse. i work harder riding Sam than riding Roxy, 'cos Sam is the baby horse. (really he's not a baby anymore, but Alethea's pet-name stuck. Dawn calls him "Little man," which doesn't really help.) when i was grooming him after the lesson and putting his sheet on, i could see my breath. still inside the barn, though the only thing that does is protect from the wind. there's no temperature insulation in that place.
that's pretty much all i've got to say. spent the whole blog talking about something half or more of my readers don't understand much of besides the articles and conjunctions. oh well.
for those who don't know, Sam is one of the horses at the barn. he's four or five years old, so he's still young. i've been riding him lately, both in lessons and on my own time. i'm not leasing him though, he's still all Dawn's horse.
so, why am i riding him? well, simply this: Dawn has slightly less experience riding than i do, and she's a bit nervous. Sam is young, and even though he's trained, he's inexperienced. little things like consistent speed around the arena, keeping his head in one place at the trot, picking up his feet so he doesn't trip over himself every five minutes, flexing around turns, that sorta thing. he's laid back for such a young horse, but riding him isn't at all like riding Diamond or Romeo or one of the older lesson horses.
so, we have an underconfident rider and an inexperienced horse. see where it's going? Dawn gets nervous riding him, so she doesn't ride him much, so he doesn't get experience. when she does ride him, she's not sure what she's doing sometimes. it snowballs, and it's frankly kinda sad, since Dawn obvious loves Sam and wants to give him a good life, and Sam likes his work.
he does enjoy being ridden, believe it or not. yes, he gets tired and tried to pull my arms out of their sockets, but he doesn't get frustrated and throw temper-tantrums like Roxy does sometimes.
Dawn rides about the same time i have my lessons (when she does ride him), and Alethea told me when she explained the setup that Dawn started to admire my riding. Alethea must've recommended me to her, too. either way, a few weeks ago Alethea asked me if i wanted to ride Sam for a while. i'd get to ride a horse for free when i rode him on my own time, it would give Sam a much-needed workout with a more confident, more experienced rider, and it would hopefully make Dawn more confident when she'd get on him. a win-win-win situation, as i saw it. so i accepted.
Sam is entertaining to ride. his little "baby-horse" habits, as Alethea calls them, keep me on my toes. the few times i've been able to work with him, he's been getting better. he's getting used to flexing and doing serpentines and figure-eights, which are the bane of stiff horses. yesterday when i had my lesson on him, he did his best yet with the serpentines and rounding.
yesterday, we also did something relatively new: poles. Alethea put the big lengths of PVC-piping we use for jumps flat on the arena floor and had me walk and trot him over them. Sam got really into it, he was having so much fun! you should've seen him, it was a hoot. sometimes he can get a bit sluggish going into the turns and on the short sides of the arena, but rounding the turns at C he was stepping out like i've never seen him do before. he was having a blast going over those poles! it was so cute. once we graduate to actually raising the poles off the ground with the blocks, i can already tell Sam's gonna love jumping. he's still got the youngster's energy.
part of it may be the cold, but i think it was mostly enthusiasm. last night he didn't start yanking on the reins like he usually does when it gets close to time to end the lesson; he does that when he gets tired. and i didn't have as much trouble getting him going as usual, though i'm sure that was the cold.
he did spook when Haley, the one who had the afternoon shift at work today, dumped a wheelbarrow of stall-mucking refuse in the piles behind the arena. it took fifteen or twenty minutes to get him back on track and to make him stop shying away from that corner of the arena, but eventually he got over it. goofy horse.
y'know, it was really cold last night. down below fifty, almost forty degrees. but when you're riding you don't notice the cold. despite the common belief, the rider works just as hard as the horse. i work harder riding Sam than riding Roxy, 'cos Sam is the baby horse. (really he's not a baby anymore, but Alethea's pet-name stuck. Dawn calls him "Little man," which doesn't really help.) when i was grooming him after the lesson and putting his sheet on, i could see my breath. still inside the barn, though the only thing that does is protect from the wind. there's no temperature insulation in that place.
that's pretty much all i've got to say. spent the whole blog talking about something half or more of my readers don't understand much of besides the articles and conjunctions. oh well.
11.05.2008
OH EM EFF GEE -falls over-
y'know what the election(s) remind me of?
i think only Kate would know what i'm talking about, but if anyone besides her has read the Mode series by Piers Anthony (i think that's his name), you'd know what i'm getting at.
the book i'm thinking about is Fractal Mode, i forget which number in the series it was. Anyway, the struggle was between the Despots which were patriarchal, and the despots came into power for every inhabited planet in that mode by a certain male going to the "first of the first" node and pushing it. the Amazons were matriarchal, and they came into power one planet at a time by a certain female going to the "ninth of the ninth" node and pushing it. the Despots had been in power on the planet on which our bunch had fallen for time out of mind, and thy had to help the chosen woman to break their reign so they could leave. that's a basic summary of the plot for you peeps who haven't read it.
Kate, maybe you've already seen where my epiphany came from. but the story about how the dude in the story brought the Despots into power for all the planets reminds me VERY strongly of this election: Obama was elected and it seems like almost every seat in the legislature that people are running for is being won by Democrats. can anyone else see the similarities? i just now did, and i almost choked on my bagel-bite.
that's all for now, i just had to get that out of my system.
and Kate, that's a very shmexy tattoo. -nodnod- everyone who reads this blog who hasn't seen her tat, go look.
i think only Kate would know what i'm talking about, but if anyone besides her has read the Mode series by Piers Anthony (i think that's his name), you'd know what i'm getting at.
the book i'm thinking about is Fractal Mode, i forget which number in the series it was. Anyway, the struggle was between the Despots which were patriarchal, and the despots came into power for every inhabited planet in that mode by a certain male going to the "first of the first" node and pushing it. the Amazons were matriarchal, and they came into power one planet at a time by a certain female going to the "ninth of the ninth" node and pushing it. the Despots had been in power on the planet on which our bunch had fallen for time out of mind, and thy had to help the chosen woman to break their reign so they could leave. that's a basic summary of the plot for you peeps who haven't read it.
Kate, maybe you've already seen where my epiphany came from. but the story about how the dude in the story brought the Despots into power for all the planets reminds me VERY strongly of this election: Obama was elected and it seems like almost every seat in the legislature that people are running for is being won by Democrats. can anyone else see the similarities? i just now did, and i almost choked on my bagel-bite.
that's all for now, i just had to get that out of my system.
and Kate, that's a very shmexy tattoo. -nodnod- everyone who reads this blog who hasn't seen her tat, go look.
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