Menoloopal; Disgruntlemumblement

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggnaasshhh!!!

Well - I had been lining up one post and now have to wing it with another. Why? Did I hear you ask? No? Tough. You know by now you are my sounding board and whipping lassos... It is important to be aware that the YAMster may have been a tad sleep deprived. On Tuesday, there had been a 24-hour prayer/chant/ meditation watch, and the six-hour kip that followed may not have been enough to balance the brain. ORrr... long-term readers will also appreciate that despite most of the menoplyxinaemia having finally passed, the legacy of menosoup remains. That said, it is pretty likely that the two things came together in a rare moment with what might, perhaps, be described as menogeddonwithit, which manifests in over-hasty actions performed with minimal brain engagement.

You need to know that I have discovered the one major fly in the Chrome OS ointment; there is no recycle bin. So when little old women start deciding to 'tidy up the files' in an unfamiliar home...

Experienced and as qualified as I am, infallibility is not part of the bio. The signs were there, but the brain juice wasn't and a kind of blindness set in. I just kept hitting the delete button in the images folder. A folder that is not present in any Windows applications. This alone ought to have alerted. Then the constant prompts to 'open a folder' ought to have been another red line. But now I was just in spring-cleaning mode, and nothing was going to stop me. 

The result was that all...every single one... of the photos I have been preparing for MY TAKE bloggy and for this one is gone forever because there is no recycle bin. No option of restoring whatsoever. It wouldn't be so bad, but since getting OctoKan, I have failed in my own constant advice. Backups have not been made. 

Ssssiiiggghhhhh...

I'll get over it, and a lesson has been learned. That's the way of life, heh na? I'll end the menoloop here and share this link, which offers the current exhibition of Scottish Academicians Arts for sale. If you browse the page, you will perhaps recognise stylistic correlations to my own humble works. 

🤪

On a slightly different tack, let me pick up yesterday's post, which begins this month's focus on music as therapy for midweek musicalisms. 

Most comments accepted and expressed positive experiences of music as therapy for elders. Quite rightly, though, Gail brought up the point that not everyone responds positively. However, her point pertained to the 'entertainment' aspect often offered in age care facilities. That is subtly different in that, mainly, it does not actively engage the audience, whilst the use of music in therapy does. Even those who have never touched an instrument in their lives to that date can gain great benefit from lifting a triangle or banging a drum. It is the action and the sound that brings some power to them. It can boost a sense of control that is often lost in those years and a sense of ownership for the sound value.

Gail's comment has value too. It is an established fact that we form our musical tastes in our teenage years and can vary that readily throughout our twenties, but once into our thirties and beyond, we tend on the whole not to widen our musical interest (though a few of us - me being one such - remain musically curious). This is why, when entertainment is provided for elders, it tends to centre on the baseline demographic. Thus, for most of the people I had the honour to serve, it was war and post-war sounds that they responded best to. The predominant demographic now is likely to be more 1960s centred, so expect to hear lots of Beatles and Monkeys and Elvis... Then there will always be the group who refuse to listen to anything other than orchestral or opera. And there will always be those who think of music, generally, as just a load of noise. It is likely to come down to what they were exposed and habituated to in those early years. (Read further; this article is basic and 'light'; this one is focused on clinical research.)

It is also true that as we age, our ability to listen is altered. (Read further.) There is research also into the cognitively protective benefits of actively playing an instrument or being engaged significantly with music. (Read further. 1  and, read further. 2)

It is worth adding that some are musical misanthropes. Musical anhedonia is a neurological condition characterised by an inability to derive pleasure from music. People with this condition can recognise and understand music but fail to enjoy it.

Anyway, that's enough of that. While being deprived of one source of blog fodder, another was created. Be thankful for that, YAM - even if the readers are now bored out of their skulls!!!

PS - A very important one... this is not light viewing, but it is an essential message... it may ask you to click through to the tubular to watch it... which you can safely do - or use this link.