Category Archives: It’s that time of year

 

A Musical Resolution

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Part 1    A New Year Resolution

It all started with a birthday present.  I’d been talking for years about learning to play a musical instrument, having been a singer since I was at school. What I really wanted to do was play a proper musical instrument in an orchestra.  With other people playing other proper musical instruments.  And then, on my 52nd birthday, I was given a trumpet tied up with a red ribbon.

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That was two years ago and, since then, I’ve often admired my trumpet, occasionally polished it and even once or twice tried playing it.  Then, in January 2012, I made a New Year Resolution. I was going to find a trumpet teacher and learn to play the thing. I came across Finlay who seemed very positive about teaching me. Clearly, a man up for a challenge.

At my first lesson in February, the word ‘potential’ was used. I was thrilled. Of course, it was me that used the word and not Finlay but never mind. At my second lesson in March, I managed the first five notes of a C major scale.  Great excitement. Then Finlay suggested, at my third lesson, that I should play a piece in a group concert planned for the end of April and there will be an open space for a 30min show of musicians, now that you are here, read about the Audio fingerprinting is one way to identify music and audio if its part of your work or lifestyle.

Depression is setting in. I work full time as an educational adviser. I speak at national conferences in front of hundreds of people. But playing the right notes on a trumpet? In the right order? In public?

That New Year resolution is beginning to seem like a moment of madness…

Sheena Greco will be giving a wonderful trumpet debut with the support of her teacher and Most Entertaining Tuition Director Finlay Hetherington on Sunday 29th April at 3pm in Life Care, Cheyne Street, Stockbridge.

 

Championing the works of Rabbie Burns

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Championing the works of Robert Burns is not difficult for me. For me, as
a folk singer of both Gaelic and English, the importance of his musical and
literary legacy cannot be underestimated in the history of the world.
Where do I even begin?
To name a few classics, “Auld Lang Syne” is sung all over the world to bring
in the new year, while “Ae Fond Kiss” is one of the most devastating love
songs ever composed.

Admittedly, there were times as a child where I despised his beautiful
poetic meter; I blame the Scottish education system, for at Primary School
assemblies and Burns evenings we were forced, at the age of 8, to stutter
our way through large sections of Burns’ poetry onstage. We murdered it.
Our teachers probably wanted to murder us. All public humiliation aside
however, the melodies and lyrics to all of the songs stayed with me, and my
imagination was always utterly captivated by the stories, such as the tale of
Tam O’Shanter.

About 5 years ago I started gigging with a young guitarist who had rewritten
the melody to one of Burns’ songs, Fare Thee Weel. The song nearly floored
me the first time I heard it, and I decided I would do my darndest to get him to
record it on my next solo album.
The album in question, “Once Upon An Olive Branch”, comes out in late
2012. If you get the chance, have a wee listen and let me know what you
think. Join me on Facebook and Twitter!

http://maevemackinnon.com
Twitter: @maevemackinnon
Maeve Mackinnon on Facebook

Web Hosting

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If you want to offer an essential service online, you need to make sure your web hosting is reliable and secure, so it will work all the time.

To avoid web site downtime in the future, there are five key strategies that you should start implementing, and pay attention to them while running a WordPress website.

Note: If you’re running a WordPress website on a dedicated server, you’ll need to consider these things more in-depth. If you’re running a WordPress website on a dedicated server, you’ll need to consider these things more in-depth. Read This Article For More Information

Design Your Website For The Time and Infrastructure You Have

When you’ve paid for your web hosting and development services and configured your website to the maximum, you’ve pretty much started.

But your web site will still work if you change it later, and you’ll need to pay a lot of money for upgrades, too.

So, plan what you’re going to use for the web site that you have, and pay for it accordingly.

The only exception to this rule: a dedicated server.

A dedicated server is a dedicated device with its own internet connection and a dedicated operating system that will work with your site and using a dedicated hosting could be the best choice for this. That makes it ideal for run a WordPress website on.

Aside from the extra cost, a dedicated server doesn’t use your own hard drive space, so your web site won’t get slowed down and you don’t need to worry about performance because your own hardware is in the server.

If you use a shared hosting plan, you have to pay a monthly fee for extra disk space.

A dedicated server will only require half of the disk space of a shared hosting plan.

If you’re running a shared WordPress website on a dedicated server, you’ll need to run it on a dedicated connection and learn How to SSH on Mac, too. That’ll make your site a lot faster and more stable.

This recommendation is more critical for a dedicated WordPress website. It’ll be your only website, so if you go down, it won’t be the case that your entire office website is offline and all your colleagues won’t be able to access it.

Here are a few sites that you should consider:

Your Office Website

Your Business Website

Your Online Shop

The Best Support

We’ve already told you that there’s no substitute for the online help that you can get from a WordPress.org support team. There’s always someone to contact who’s experienced with your site.

Especially if you’re running a WordPress website for the first time, it’s worth to pay attention to this because it can make a huge difference in your website’s future.

As for your website’s speed and stability, there’s no magic bullet solution. You’ll need to find out what works best for you, what’s the quickest to respond to your emails and what you should do about your site’s crash issues.

Before paying for a WordPress.org website hosting, you should check its ongoing support that will tell you which solutions are supported by the website host you selected.

Outdated Websites

Is your web site having problems with the DNS?

When your website is communicating with its web server through DNS, it can redirect your browser to a different web site, or even to a server with a completely different web host.

This happens when the original web site gets updated, or when a typo gets fixed by the hosting company.