Recorders

Recorders: You either hate them or love them. Today I dealt with two very different types of recorders.

I have this interview and paper due tomorrow. Being the procrastinator that I am I didn't do my interview until tonight. I had to do it over the phone. So last week I went to the ITC place and checked out the phone tap recorder. I even had to get special permission from my professor to use it because if not it is a FCC violation. So then today I go to use this lovely machine and I could not figure it out to save my life. Too many cords and plugs and options. Two different people from my class tried to help me figure it out without success. I mean the thing looks like it was made in the 80's. I finally gave up, drove to Walmart, bought a regular tape recorder and then came back. When I did my interview I put my cell phone on speaker phone and put it near the recorder. It worked just fine. Funny how all this technology is supposed to be helpful but in the end it's the simple machine that does it. I am going to take the phone tap machine back to ITC tomorrow and I am going to complain. They need to give people instructions to go along with these things. When I checked it out I asked, ok so how the heck do I do this? The smart, technology savvy ITC guys looked at me like I was a complete blonde (which I am) and then tried to explain it. I somewhat got it but was I really going to remember that later? Of course not. So I will complain. They need to write out blonde proof instructions. Julie, the confused. Changing the world one ITC department at a time.

The other type of recorder I absolutely love. My roommate cringes at the mention of it but I love it! It's the musical recorder. I have to learn how to play it for my Creative Musicianship class. This is a class for elementary majors and it is so much fun. We learn all of these great songs, act out stories with sound effects and play the recorder. I played the recorder in 4th grader. And now I get to play it again. Last week was when we really started playing. We learned a couple songs and our homework is to practice for one minute a day. That is the best homework I have gotten in a while. And there is going to be a beginnner recorder group and an advanced recorder group. My goal is to be in the advanced group. I'm not joking. Ashley says that she can't concentrate when I practice. It must be because it's such a beautiful sound, right?