I really like mnemonics and just came up with one after mistuning my sons guitar for the past several times. Bless his heart he kept coming back to tell me that it didn't sound right.

I use the 5th fret tuning method. You get the low string tuned to an E pitch from a piano or pitch pipe and then put your finger down in the 5th fret and play it -- that is what the next sting should sound like. When string 2 is in tune then hold *it* at the 5th fret and that's what the next string should sound like, etc.... But the details. One of the strings has to be held at fret 4 not 5. I was holding the 5th string at fret 4 and making the 6th sting sound like that. But I should have held the 4th string at the 4th fret and the 5th at 5 so I ended up having two strings wrong, 5 and 6. So here is the mnemonic:

With the 5th fret tuning use the 4th at 4th. and the rest at the 5th

Tune the first (or hope it's close).

Hold the 1st at the 5th to tune 2

Hold the 2nd at the 5th to tune 3

Hold the 3rd at the 5th to tune 4

Hold the 4th at the 4th to tune 5

Hold the 5th at the 5th to tune 6

NaPoWriMo - 5 minute poem

So my aunt told me that this is National Poetry Writing Month and that one of the assignments available from http://www.napowrimo.net/ was the writing of a 5 minute poem. It sounded like a fun challenge. The biggest challenge for me was to not pre-compose something in my head, putting it off long enough until I was finally ready to write it: 3 hours of composition and 5 minutes of writing. I wonder if God pondered in a similar way before speaking all into being and that became the inspiration this day for my 5 minute poem. Here are the things I wrote and the final "submission" at the end.

Given 5 minutes I think

Does thinking count

How long

The age of the earth is debated

by some to be young and

Creation

God spoke and it was. But how long did it take?

I'm asking poetically -- not to debate.

Did he think? Did he ponder? Did he wait?

Or did he just make it up as he spake?

Whatever he did...it's done!

4:55 minutes. Go ahead! Take the challenge. Just take a breath and start to write! This was a fun exercise.

And in like manner, I start this blog that has been blank until today...