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- Thread starter aragorn
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Lauranimal
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So very Happy for you Aragorn!!!
Gonzo said:
So... Gonzo is prescient maybe? :D
Good stuff Aragorn, I was pleased for you how things have turned out!
So far, by the looks of things, I expect this new opportunity should be an enabler in the Work (or so I hope), not to mention helping in taking care of a growing family!
Congrats!
As I mentioned before, I was pretty happy to use the your recording of POTS to sing along with because I cannot carry a tune very well (despite all the hymns I sang as a kid and youth!) by myself so it is good to follow along with someone who knows what he is doing when singing. Thanks again for that.Laura said:
Aragorn said:Okay, this whole process of me switching my job profile from 'artist' to 'teacher' keeps surprising me. This morning they called from the university and asked if I could substitute next year for the person who got the position I applied for (and came second)!!!
Congratulations, Aragorn. I am very happy for you.
I
Infiniteness
Guest
Nienna Eluch said:Aragorn said:Okay, this whole process of me switching my job profile from 'artist' to 'teacher' keeps surprising me. This morning they called from the university and asked if I could substitute next year for the person who got the position I applied for (and came second)!!!
Congratulations, Aragorn. I am very happy for you.
That's great news, congratulations. :)
Yesterday we moved...again. We didn't even stay a whole year in our wonderful new home, where I put a lot of working hours renovating - this makes me a bit sad. :(
But some months ago we made the decision that moving to this other town, where my new job is, is the best thing to do. Since my new job at the university (mentioned in this thread) is located some 400km away from our (old) home, I've been forced to be away at least half of the week, taking the train back and forth. Our son has been really miserable while I've been away and my wife has been really exhausted taking care of our children alone, of which our daughter is only 4 months old. So, this was the right decision to make for the benefit of our family.
As it turned out, I got a contract for three years. I've been making some subtle inquiries, and it seems that if I don't screw up things badly, the position will be mine - permanently. So, we've decided to live at least two years in this other town, renting our home to a very nice couple with kids. We'll have to see how we like it here and if we ever want to move back. I feel sad about our son, because he was just starting to make some really nice friends in our neighbourhood, and now he has to move again! Well, he is starting kindergarten in the fall, so I'm hoping that he'll make some new friends there. We found this really nice day care center, where they make all the food themselves and mainly from organic components.
As for my now job, things couldn't be better! First of all, my colleague is a wonderful, emphatic and a very intelligent lady. Since the music department at this university has been in bad shape for decades, we have been forced to start everything from scratch. It's been a lot of work, but the upside is that we have been able to plan and construct the teaching and context as we like. My colleague and I seem to be very much at the same wave length. In addition to being a professional musician, she is a licenced psychologist who has done counselling with all sorts of clients. So she has a "good eye" and sense with the students, and we seem to agree almost on everything. The other day I showed her the clip with Daniel Goleman, and she said: "Yes, I know Goleman! I've been to his lectures and actually got his autograph in my copy of his book.!" Her main motto is that music isn't for the few gifted ones, but it's a privilege that everyone should get the opportunity to exercises no matter what your skills (or "genetics") are. And I fully agree, there's so much research of how music can help in many areas, and this is what we are now trying to "pound" through to the decision makers in our country. We've organized a group with all the art teachers at the university, and we are meeting on a regular basis trying to figure out how we can promote the "artistic/soft values" so that there would be more of that in the teaching programs at schools.
I've also learned a lot about myself and about teaching in the last year. Teaching individually has never been a problem for me, but teaching large groups has always been more challenging. But gradually, I've found a more relaxed and natural way of teaching these groups. With every student I have found that they have problems with breathing and voice production. Since these students are studying to become school teachers, I find it of outmost importance that they "talk and breathe" properly - because they will be also giving their model of these things to the future pupils at their schools.
There is some pressure from the university that I should start research, in order to get a Ph.D. My position doesn't require a Ph.D., but as it is with every university I guess, it's considered to be "the right thing to do". At first I was shocked by this, but when I realized I could do my research on subjects like breathing, voice, stress reduction etc. I got really excited! In the beginning of May I started to make a preliminary plan for my Ph.D. program, but due to all the things happening, with our move and all, I had to drop it for now. My superior isn't putting any pressure on me with this. He said that it's better to consider the topic carefully before starting, and filling in my research plan later next year would be perfectly okay. Well, I know that getting a Ph.D. is the classic way of "wasting your time", but if I can incorporate some useful stuff like stress reduction, and even EE, I think it could be worth it.
---
There were some bizarre events happening while we moved. First, the truck that was supposed to transport our stuff broke down. The evening before the actual move, the truck brought us these plastic crates so that we could pack them with our things. As he was unloading the crates, the hydraulic lift broke. We got the crates, but the problem was that the truck was filled with things with he was supposed to unload the same evening at another address. Since it was Sunday, getting repair help was difficult. Finally the found a company who provided 24h service. It took six hours to fix the lift! By the time it was finished, it was almost midnight. The shocking thing was that the friends that were supposed to help this woman with unloading her belongings that same evening, decided that no - they can't wait any longer, they must get to the restaurant for some partying and drinking! Talk about selfish people! So, anyway, they decided to unload the stuff the next morning - just the chauffeur and the woman by themselves! I considered to go help them, but we had our hands full with our own packing, so this was impossible. This whole incident made the departure of the truck, with our stuff in it, delayed by several hours. This again lead to the fact that some of the friends we had asked to help with unloading at the other end couldn't come anymore(no, they weren't heading for the restaurant-they had to get to work really early the next morning). Fortunately, my wife being very good in negotiating, got the moving company to provide us with two extra guys for free. So in the end, thing went pretty smoothly. But I must say, I'm pretty exhausted right now. Having to pack all of our belongings the whole week by myself (my wife had to look after the kids), loading the truck, driving with our car some 450km the same day, and finally unloading the things the same evening makes one a little bit tired. :)
As this wasn't enough, the same evening that the truck broke down it appears that our neighbour committed suicide!!! At some point in the evening a police car turned up, and we started to wonder what was going on. We knew that the apartment where the police were heading had been for sale for some time, and that the family hadn't been successful in selling it. So it had been empty for weeks. It turned out, that the father of the family had "fled" from their new home, and entrenched himself in the old, empty department. My wife remembered getting a look at him some days ago, strolling the yard looking pretty groggy. The next thing we saw, was that a hearse parked in front of the department. From what we've gathered, it seems that the father had stayed some days in the completely empty department, and then committed suicide. Knowing this, I felt good that we moved - the good vibes of the neighbourhood had changed for sure!
We are looking forward to arrange our new home, which is really great. The town where we now live in is really nice, the tempo isn't as stressful as in the big city we formerly lived. I think this will be good for all of us, especially the kids. :)
But some months ago we made the decision that moving to this other town, where my new job is, is the best thing to do. Since my new job at the university (mentioned in this thread) is located some 400km away from our (old) home, I've been forced to be away at least half of the week, taking the train back and forth. Our son has been really miserable while I've been away and my wife has been really exhausted taking care of our children alone, of which our daughter is only 4 months old. So, this was the right decision to make for the benefit of our family.
As it turned out, I got a contract for three years. I've been making some subtle inquiries, and it seems that if I don't screw up things badly, the position will be mine - permanently. So, we've decided to live at least two years in this other town, renting our home to a very nice couple with kids. We'll have to see how we like it here and if we ever want to move back. I feel sad about our son, because he was just starting to make some really nice friends in our neighbourhood, and now he has to move again! Well, he is starting kindergarten in the fall, so I'm hoping that he'll make some new friends there. We found this really nice day care center, where they make all the food themselves and mainly from organic components.
As for my now job, things couldn't be better! First of all, my colleague is a wonderful, emphatic and a very intelligent lady. Since the music department at this university has been in bad shape for decades, we have been forced to start everything from scratch. It's been a lot of work, but the upside is that we have been able to plan and construct the teaching and context as we like. My colleague and I seem to be very much at the same wave length. In addition to being a professional musician, she is a licenced psychologist who has done counselling with all sorts of clients. So she has a "good eye" and sense with the students, and we seem to agree almost on everything. The other day I showed her the clip with Daniel Goleman, and she said: "Yes, I know Goleman! I've been to his lectures and actually got his autograph in my copy of his book.!" Her main motto is that music isn't for the few gifted ones, but it's a privilege that everyone should get the opportunity to exercises no matter what your skills (or "genetics") are. And I fully agree, there's so much research of how music can help in many areas, and this is what we are now trying to "pound" through to the decision makers in our country. We've organized a group with all the art teachers at the university, and we are meeting on a regular basis trying to figure out how we can promote the "artistic/soft values" so that there would be more of that in the teaching programs at schools.
I've also learned a lot about myself and about teaching in the last year. Teaching individually has never been a problem for me, but teaching large groups has always been more challenging. But gradually, I've found a more relaxed and natural way of teaching these groups. With every student I have found that they have problems with breathing and voice production. Since these students are studying to become school teachers, I find it of outmost importance that they "talk and breathe" properly - because they will be also giving their model of these things to the future pupils at their schools.
There is some pressure from the university that I should start research, in order to get a Ph.D. My position doesn't require a Ph.D., but as it is with every university I guess, it's considered to be "the right thing to do". At first I was shocked by this, but when I realized I could do my research on subjects like breathing, voice, stress reduction etc. I got really excited! In the beginning of May I started to make a preliminary plan for my Ph.D. program, but due to all the things happening, with our move and all, I had to drop it for now. My superior isn't putting any pressure on me with this. He said that it's better to consider the topic carefully before starting, and filling in my research plan later next year would be perfectly okay. Well, I know that getting a Ph.D. is the classic way of "wasting your time", but if I can incorporate some useful stuff like stress reduction, and even EE, I think it could be worth it.
---
There were some bizarre events happening while we moved. First, the truck that was supposed to transport our stuff broke down. The evening before the actual move, the truck brought us these plastic crates so that we could pack them with our things. As he was unloading the crates, the hydraulic lift broke. We got the crates, but the problem was that the truck was filled with things with he was supposed to unload the same evening at another address. Since it was Sunday, getting repair help was difficult. Finally the found a company who provided 24h service. It took six hours to fix the lift! By the time it was finished, it was almost midnight. The shocking thing was that the friends that were supposed to help this woman with unloading her belongings that same evening, decided that no - they can't wait any longer, they must get to the restaurant for some partying and drinking! Talk about selfish people!
So, anyway, they decided to unload the stuff the next morning - just the chauffeur and the woman by themselves! I considered to go help them, but we had our hands full with our own packing, so this was impossible. This whole incident made the departure of the truck, with our stuff in it, delayed by several hours. This again lead to the fact that some of the friends we had asked to help with unloading at the other end couldn't come anymore(no, they weren't heading for the restaurant-they had to get to work really early the next morning). Fortunately, my wife being very good in negotiating, got the moving company to provide us with two extra guys for free. So in the end, thing went pretty smoothly. But I must say, I'm pretty exhausted right now. Having to pack all of our belongings the whole week by myself (my wife had to look after the kids), loading the truck, driving with our car some 450km the same day, and finally unloading the things the same evening makes one a little bit tired. :)As this wasn't enough, the same evening that the truck broke down it appears that our neighbour committed suicide!!! At some point in the evening a police car turned up, and we started to wonder what was going on. We knew that the apartment where the police were heading had been for sale for some time, and that the family hadn't been successful in selling it. So it had been empty for weeks. It turned out, that the father of the family had "fled" from their new home, and entrenched himself in the old, empty department. My wife remembered getting a look at him some days ago, strolling the yard looking pretty groggy. The next thing we saw, was that a hearse parked in front of the department. From what we've gathered, it seems that the father had stayed some days in the completely empty department, and then committed suicide. Knowing this, I felt good that we moved - the good vibes of the neighbourhood had changed for sure!
We are looking forward to arrange our new home, which is really great. The town where we now live in is really nice, the tempo isn't as stressful as in the big city we formerly lived. I think this will be good for all of us, especially the kids. :)
Mr.Anderson
Jedi Master
Always inspiring to here good news, thanks.
SolarMother
Dagobah Resident
Aragorn said:
It seems like a good thing that he is starting a new phase called kindergarten ;D...no matter where he is, new kids--if I understand you correctly.
Sounds like a wonderful move to a better place! Congrats, Aragorn on everything
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