Small successes

[galadhir]

Got to celebrate them!

So, now that I've put that extra eight bars into the choreography, everything has settled into a much more regular structure, and I have started to be able to hear the different parts of the music and the shifts between them.

Which means that today I managed to dance the whole thing through twice without getting lost. And on one of those occasions the stick nearly fell off my head and I had to grab it and do some improvisation with it before getting it balanced again and joining back in when the next section arrived.

Admittedly this is partly because I simplified one of the choruses, but it's early days and I may be able to de-simplify it now I understand how it all fits together. (As long as I remember all this tomorrow.)

The skirt arrived and needs turning up, but the sewing machine is in the conservatory and I'm not going to sit in a glass room in 29C weather. I'll do that this evening.

So instead I've read and edited another chapter of my podfic of Guanyin's Gift. In which Jin Guangyao gets to do his life all over again from the age of eight. Armed with a lifetime of cultivation and spy skills, and a lifetime's knowledge of the politics of the cultivation world, he gets it much more right this time around.

A Podfic of 'Guanyin's Gift' by Galadhir

You can't build a goddess of mercy a large temple and pay for priests to worship her every day without earning at least some merit. Aka, by divine mercy, Jin Guangyao gets a chance to do his life all over again.

Comments

[mistressofmuses]

Congrats on the choreography working out better!

[galadhir]

Thank you! At some point in August, or September, I will forget this exists, so it's important that I get enough of it done now, while I'm enthusiastic, so that I can pick it up again and be only marginally unprepared when I remember it in November :)

[mistressofmuses]

Definitely well worth utilizing the current enthusiasm to make all the progress you can! (Plus notes about revisions and the things that were going well vs. not.) Especially when it is that long lead time - having something to go back to when the deadline gets closer will be very helpful.

[galadhir]

Definitely! If I have a deadline, I like to get everything done as soon as possible so I know I can meet the deadline, and then I can relax about it. I'm not sure that's what you're supposed to do with deadlines, but it's always worked for me :)

[mistressofmuses]

That is the opposite of how I usually manage with deadlines, but I think is the FAR more sensible course! (I've always been the "I have plenty of time to get it done!" type right up until the deadline looms, and then I have a panicked 72 hours of sleeplessness while I rush to do it all, haha. The bane of my academic years!)

[galadhir]

I think your way is the normal way of doing things. My way has the disadvantage that by the time the thing actually happens, I've already forgotten why it's important.

[mistressofmuses]

My way of handling long-term projects could be the "normal" way, but it's definitely not the BEST way, ha. (Though I had professors who complimented me on how they could tell I'd really put in consistent effort over the months, and I always felt both very guilty and kind of proud that it seemed that way, since it was usually just last-minute sleepless panic.)

I can see the downside of doing it all early, and then having a big gap between when you're done and when the final *thing* is actually happening. But I think the less panic is the better way, in the end.