***********************************
First, understand i am not a musician.
While i know the rudiments of music theory and how scales work, mostly what i know is some chords sound good together and others do not, but i cannot tell you why.
Musicians have a certain something, all i have is a deep appreciation of the fact that others have that something.
Even so, i needed to find space in my life to not just listen to music but also to make music for myself, to simply play along with songs i enjoy just because i enjoy them.
Thus, my purple plastic ukulele, and spending a bit of time almost every evening strumming to myself, for myself, sometimes with a lesson book, sometimes with a Youtube tutorial.
You'll never see me on stage, but i'm happy and having fun.
Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Space.
***********************************
While Good Fences Around the World seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird, i still enjoy looking for and posting interesting fences, so i will!
***********************************
It's Angel Sammy's Poetry Day! This week's image and my poem:
Gotta get more study time in
'cause college finals are "killa",
but right now I'm so very tired,
I don't even need a "pilla"!
***********************************
Brian of Brian's Home hosts the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop. It's time to share something for which i am thankful.
Today i am thankful for free ukulele tutorials and easy, inexpensive teach yourself to play books.
***********************************
Today is:
Alcatraz Day -- the first prisoners arrived this day in 1934
Day of Honor for Oddudua -- Santeria religion (cognate of the Roman Catholic St. Clare of Assisi; credited with the creation of humans)
Dog Days end -- yes, supposedly, in this heat
Feast of St. Attracta -- Irish Catholic Saint (founded a hospice and convents, and supposedly slayed a dragon; Patron of Achonry, Ireland; Men of Lugna)
Independence Day -- Chad(1960)
Ingersoll Day
National Hobo Convention -- Britt, IA (held each year since 1900, gathering for migrant workers who are proud to call themselves "hobos" and make a living through working where they choose and travelling where they want; through Sunday)
National Raspberry Bombe Day or Raspberry Tart Day -- whichever one you like best, or both, if that's the way you roll
Perseid Meteor Showers -- this year, peak visibility is tonight and especially tomorrow night; the Celts believed these meteors were due to games being played by Lugh, their sun god
Play in the Sand Day -- as per many internet sites; yeah, like at the beach, nothing like sand in your shorts, i get enough of that on vacation, thank you
Presidential Joke Day**
Son and Daughter Day -- the day to give your son(s) or daughter(s) the gift of time
St. Clare of Assisi's Day -- (Foundress of the Order of Poor Ladies [Poor Clares] Franciscan nuns; Patron of embroiderers, eyes, gilders/gold workers/goldsmiths, good weather, laundry workers, needle workers, telegraphs, telephones, and television writers; Assisi, Italy; Santa Clara Indian Pueblo; against eye disease)***; related observance
Fiesta de Santa Clara -- Santa Clara Pueblo, NM, US (Native American celebration of St. Clare of Assisi, their Patron saint, with a corn dance and prayers for rain)
St. Philomela's Day (Patron of babies, children, desperate causes, forgotten causes, impossible causes, lost causes, orphans, poor people, priests, prisoners, sick people, students, test takers, toddlers, young people; against barrenness, bodily ills, infertility, mental illness, sickness, sterility)
Birthdays Today:
Will Friedle, 1976
Ashley Jensen, 1969
Viola Davis, 1965
Joe Jackson, 1955
Hulk Hogan, 1953
Stephen Wozniak, 1950
Marilyn vos Savant, 1946
Joanna Coles, 1944
Anna Massey, 1937
Arlene Dahl, 1928
Mike Douglas, 1925 (Note: he also died on this date in 2006)
Alex Haley, 1921
Carrie Minetta Jacobs-Bond, 1862
David Rice Atchison, 1807
Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, 1667 (Last of the Medicis)
Debuting/Premiering Today:
Nightmare on Elm Street 5: Dream Child(Film), 1989
"Die Harmonie der Welt /The Harmony of the World"(Opera), 1957
Today in History:
First day of the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar, used my the Maya and other pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations, BC3114
Traditional date of the defeat of Bel by Hayk, progenitor and founder of the Armenian nation, BC2492
Battle of Artemisium, naval battle of the Greco-Persian War, fought at the same time as the Battle of Thermopylae of the same war; Leonidas, King of Sparta, dies in the land battle, BC480*
Papandayan Java volcanic eruption kills 3,000, 1772
Charles Lawrence gives expulsion orders to remove the Acadians from Nova Scotia beginning the Great Upheaval, 1755
The world's first roller rink opens in Newport, RI, 1866
The first civilian prisoners arrive at Alcatraz, 1934
Actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil receive a patent for a frequency hopping, spread spectrum communication system that later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones and Wi-Fi, 1942
A bomb explodes on Pan Am Flight 830, en route from Tokyo to Honolulu, killing one teenager and injuring 15 passengers, 1984
NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history, 2003
A new species of a giant carnivorous plant, Nepethes attenboroughii, is discovered in the central Philippines highlands, 2009
Jamaican runner Usain Bolt wins his third gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics, 2012
Scientists officially declare a Greenland shark to be the world's oldest living vertebrate, at over 400 years old, 2015
Michael Phelps becomes the 3rd athlete and 1st swimmer to win 4 consecutive Olympic gold medals in one event after winning the men’s 200m individual medley in 1:54.66 at the Rio Olympics, 2016
Sicily records highest-ever temperature in Europe of 48.8 degrees Celsius (119.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in city of Siracusa, 2021
*some historians give different dates
**because presidents have a sense of humor, too, as shown this day in 1984 when Reagan thought the microphone was off and joked about Russia being outlawed
***why tv? because when she became too ill to attend mass at the end of her life, a miraculous image of the service would display on the wall of her room