Vincent Jorgensen @vincentj@mastodon.social

Every time I couldn't breathe, it was my fault for being lazy, genetically inferior, or incompetent.

In conclusion:
Fuck you, childhood basketball coach. You were an asshole. Get bent.

Fuck you, my parents. Sleep is critical and telling your kids they're lazy while they struggle to stay awake is child abuse.

Lastly, fuck you [name redacted]. You don't know shit about bagpiping, and perpetuating "that's how it was done when I was learning" objectively makes you an immoral person.
/end

As an adult, a competent doctor diagnosed me with sports-induced asthma. The remedy: a cheap steroidal inhaler. Allergen therapy later reduced my asthma even more.

A sleep doctor diagnosed me with apnea. The fix: a medical device called a CPAP which has improved my life immeasurably. I no longer snore, and I sleep restfully.

A competent bagpipe instructor correctly diagnosed that my chanter reed was too hard. The solution: shave it down. Now I can play without panting.
/cont.

Since adolescence, it feels like there has been a conspiracy to prevent me from breathing.

As a youth, I was really bad at sports. I ran out of breath easily. Actual adults said: he's a nerd, he's just a wimp.

As a teenager, I needed a lot of sleep. Over nine hours at least to feel rested. Actual adults: he's lazy; wake him up.

A piper I was trying to get instruction from said my unsteady blowing was from lack of practice. I just had to suck it up and suffer more before I got good.
/cont.

The news out of the US and Ukraine are both terrible in different ways. Expect me to avoid those topics for a bit as they weigh too heavy on my heart right now. If my feed feels shallow, that's because serious subjects are difficult, infuriating, overwhelming, and strike me with incapacitating hopelessness.

More thoughts on band camp. The piping instruction was exceptional. The housing and food were approaching Boy Scout camp in the 80s levels of terrible. The beach was nice, but the "private" entrance for the Academy was bullshit and contrary to CA law.

Lastly, the casual misogyny, racism, and homophobia of too many of the bagpipe students makes me think I won't be attending again next year.

I'm back from bagpipe camp! It was held at the Army-Navy Academy in Carlsbad. The wifi wasn't great, and their routers were configured poorly. Worst of all, their firewall blocked Signal. (I have a screen cap of it, but is isn't interesting to look at "Error retrieving contacts, check your network connection".)

I was there to learn bagpipes, not disrupt the status quo, but if I were a student there, I'd hack their routers in a heartbeat.

At some point in the near future, the saner states are just going to have start ignoring the SCOTUS.

It's going to happen sooner than later at the rate the Roberts court is overturning a century of civil liberty protections.

Like, if CA just said fuck it, we're enforcing our gun laws regardless of the Supreme Court, what are they gonna do about it?

I am still a novice piper and there is so much more to learn and lots of my classmates are playing circles around me. BUT I can sightread the treble clef. So there.
#bagpipes

Why I thought of the Donner Party. Go read Robyn. She is always right.

https://www.wonkette.com/psa-throwing-trans-people-under-the-bus-will-not-help-democrats-win-elections

When I was a youth, we were taught that the Donner Party was a tragedy. Humans eating humans out of desperation on a migration to CA gone awry.

My children learned a better version of the history. The Donner Party were monsters. Native Americans tried to help them. But the Donner Party was so racist that they instead hunted down, killed, then ATE these men who trying to help them.

So fuck 'em. We should rename Donner Pass to something that honors their victims.

The donut shop is closed! I don't like donuts all that much, but the audacity of closing on a Monday!

How I am memorizing music: play a bar or two. Close my eyes and play it, peeking. Same, but no peeking. Repeat until comfortable.

Do the same for the next bar.

Add the bars together and repeat.

Continue looping until entire tune is muscle memory.

If you have suggestions for improving this process, do not hesitate to share.
#bagpipes

There are rubber bands on my drone reeds called bridles. Drone reeds are still called reeds for historical reasons even though they aren't made from cane reed anymore (usually), but plastic.

The bridles on reeds had slipped, so my drones weren't striking in at the right pressure. Aaron fixed this for me, I learned how to do it myself, and I learned how to strike in and cut off quickly. In-person instruction is amazing.

#bagpipes

For all my American peeps out there, the past tense of "cancel" is spelled with one ell. So "canceled". If you see a double-ell, the author is either a Brit or Aussie, or a traitor.