Blogging is hard.

I had a decent idea all laid out. I had in mind some interesting questions on the nature of “Can singing be taught?” It was inspired by American Idol Simon’s general dismissiveness to horrible singers and his frequent suggestion that they pursue another line of work. I wondered, “How bad does a singer need to be in order to not be able to achieve a decent singing voice with sufficient patience and training?” and “Does the natural appeal of a good voice make teaching a horrible voice so repulsive that only the heartiest ears could train them?”

Then I realized that this question had to have been asked before. I thought that as a responsible blogger (or at least one that doesn’t want to look like a fool) I would research the topic and maybe provide some references. Of course it doesn’t seem to even be much of a question. Upon reading just a couple of sources I now believe that singing can be effectively taught (with enough patience on both sides) and that my questions are not very interesting anymore.

See: similar research from my colleague, Matthew Baldwin.

This is my attempt at a photoblog (phlog, tee hee)

This is my attempt to simultaneously practice the crafts of writing and photography. Since I expect to improve slowly over time, I thought I would start with what I think is a fairly average picture to accompany what I expect to be a fairly average post. I took it at the Northstar Café a few days back when I joined my ex for breakfast on one of the rare snow days my job grants.

For those who are reading this as an old post because they love this serial creation of mine, you’ll know I’ve succeeded in my goals if both of the following two conditions are true:
1.) I’ve posted (almost) every day
2.) The writing and photography that I contribute on this (almost) daily basis have improved in quality over time.

Perhaps these are modest goals, but I have no doubt I’ll struggle with them both.