In this blog post I sing “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables. For those of you just finding my blog: I’m essentially a complete beginner when it comes to learning how to sing. I’m learning in the evenings in my free time and I would love to incorporate it with other creative pursuits.
Also in this blog post, I share some memories of playing video games with my growing children, and the fact that a terrible, wonderful, awful, tremendous and amazing moment has arrived in our competitive games together.
Media Logs
Vlog
Github Study Respository
Link to my Github repository containing music notes.
General Session Records
| Date Session | Duration (Minutes) | Public Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-12-14 | 11 | Sliding lip trills. Low notes. “I’m Still Here.” |
| 2025-12-15 | 60 | Sliding lip trills. Vowel study. Low notes. Octaves. “I’m Still Here.” |
| 2025-12-16 | 20 | Sliding lip trills. Vowel study. |
| 2025-12-17 | 10 | “I’m Still Here.” Sliding lip trills. |
| 2025-12-18 | 35 | Vowel study. Low notes. Sliding lip trills. “I’m still here.” Guitar picking. |
| 2025-12-19 | 96 | Sliding lip trills. Vowel study. Warm up exercises from YouTube video. “I’m Still Here.” Guitar strumming to I’m Still Here. |
| 2025-12-20 | 20 | Vowel study. Sliding lip trills. Low notes. |
| 2025-12-22 | 10 | Guitar picking practice. |
| 2025-12-23 | 76 | Vowel study. Sliding lip trills. Low notes. Vibrato. I’m Still Here strumming. |
| 2025-12-24 | 45 | I’m Still Here guitar strumming. |
| 2025-12-24 | 30 | Vowel study. Low notes. Octaves. Vibrato. |
| 2025-12-25 | 120 | Sliding lip trills. Octaves. Vowel study. Vibrato. Low notes. (40 min.) Strumming I’m Still Here. (80 min.) |
| 2025-12-26 | 30 | Sliding lip trills. Vibrato. Vowel study. |
| 2025-12-27 | 10 | Sliding lip trills. Vowel study. |
| 2025-12-28 | 60 | Sliding lip trills. Vowel study. I’m Still Here (Karaoke). I’m Still Here, strumming. I’m Still Here, strumming and singing. |
| 2025-12-29 | 80 | Sliding lip trills. Vowel study. Strumming I’m Still Here. |
| 2025-12-30 | 90 | Voice music lesson. Guitar strumming I’m Still Here. |
| 2026-01-01 | 10 | Sliding lip trills, glottal starts, vowel study. |
| 2026-01-02 | 25 | Sliding lip trills, glottal starts, vowel study, low notes. |
| 2026-01-03 | 25 | Sliding lip trills, low notes, glottal starts, vowel study. |
| 2026-01-04 | 20 | Sliding lip trills, glottal starts, low notes, vowel study. |
| 2026-01-05 | 20 | Sliding lip trills, vowel study, vibrato, octaves, glottal starts. |
| 2026-01-06 | 20 | Sliding lip trills, vowel study, vibrato, octaves, glottal starts. |
| 2026-01-07 | 21 | Sliding lip trills, vibrato, vowel study, glottal starts, low notes. |
| 2026-01-08 | 25 | “Bring Him Home.” Practice. |
| 2026-01-08 | 20 | Sliding lip trills, glottal starts, vowel study, vibrato, low notes. |
| 2026-01-10 | 35 | Sliding lip trills, glottal starts and vowel study. Sung “Bring Him Home” for the blog. |
Memories to Share
Growing Up With Video Games
Being born in the 80’s, video games have always been a part of my life. I can remember sitting on either my dad’s or my uncle’s lap with the Lucy II Macintosh computer, and I can also remember the early, awkwardly shaped CollecoVision handheld controllers.
Dark Castle
One of my favorite games as a kid was Dark Castle. Here’s a YouTube video with a playthrough:
The game play was so smooth, the challenges were just the right kind of difficult for a kid, and the simplicity of the storyline was masterful. I’ve gone back to play it as an adult and the game still holds up.
The game requires that one of your hands (in my case, my left hand), is on the keyboard to control the main character, while the other hand is on the mouse to control the direction you throw your rocks. My little brother and I would team up and split the tasks. One of us would control the keyboard and the other would handle the mouse.
I don’t believe we ever beat the game, although we came close several times.
Smurf Rescue in Gargamel’s Castle
Another game that I remember was the Smurf Rescue in Gargamel’s Castle:
This game was too hard for us as kids. What stands out to me the most is the sound effects: the grungy audio bits that play when you jump or die.
Final Fantasy VI
As a teenager I discovered Final Fantasy VI. This game instilled in me a sense of magic that lasts with me to this day.
My parents limited our video game time, and we didn’t own this game, so I wasn’t able to get far into the story as a teenager. My friend had a copy and I played on that when I had the chance.
As an adult, I later came back and spent perhaps a hundred hours or more exploring that beautiful game. The characters were so simple, and yet each had their own unique character arc. The artwork conveyed the perfect level of mystery and majesty. The game play was engaging; even though there is a lot of grinding, I didn’t mind, as I hadn’t played that type of game elsewhere.
Smash Bros
As my brothers and neighborhood friends grew older, a few more games stood out. N64 Smash Bros was a favorite for stomping on each other with digital avatars.
My little brother and his friends played this in our parents’ basement, often for hours. My little brother was tough to beat, but sometimes I could manage.
GoldenEye 007
We also played GoldenEye 007 late into the night.
GoldenEye had a multiplayer PvP mode where you fight against your friends on the various maps. I remember that if you kept yourself moving in circles at just the right rate, you could easily aim while still remaining in motion. I had a knack for this and could beat most of the people I played.
My Children’s Time Has Come
My now-eight-and-five-year old sons began playing video games about two years ago.
Sonic Mania
One of the games they really like from my Steam library is Sonic Mania.
My five-year old in particular enjoyed this game. He liked the accessibility of the first level — the way it challenges the player, while still allowing for a lot of forgiveness.
For almost an entire year, whenever he played this game, he simply bounced around on the first level, exploring every nook and cranny. I would sometimes prod him to try moving on to the second level, but he didn’t like it as it was too hard, so I left him alone.
About a month or two ago, he suddenly decided he was ready to explore further and shot straight up to, I think, the fourth level. This just goes to show that sometimes we just need time to approach a challenge when we are good and ready.
Boomerang Fu
In winter of 2024, while my children were staying with me in Tok, AK, as a family we discovered a game called Boomerang Fu. This game has become a household favorite, and it is this game where my children have suddenly changed my worldview.
Discovering the Game
In winter of 2024, my children were ages four and seven. As they were so young, games with my children weren’t really much of a challenge. They could play for an hour, try to improve their technique, and I could come back and still beat them easily.
My Children Level Up
This winter, however, all of this changed. My two children played this game against each other for many hours over the winter break. I usually was occupied solving other problems around the house, so they were bettering themselves mostly out of my close monitoring. The game is clean and wholesome, so, speaking as a parent, I don’t really mind if they have a rare chance to binge.
After several long sessions, I asked if I could play them.
A Capable Opponent
My first opponent was my now five-year old son. As we played, he actually proved capable of killing me — with intention.
Granted, I could still beat him over the course of a dozen individual rounds, and therefore beat him in the tournament. Still, the fact that he could purposefully kill me perhaps five times out of ten was, well, alarming.
Meeting My Match
Having vanquished my five-year old, I challenged my eight-year old. At first, everything seemed to go well. My win count climbed faster than his and I assumed that we were headed for a familiar story.
Then, something unusual happened: he began to destroy me.
He aimed his boomerang from across the battleground with a perfection that I have not mastered and sliced me in half — repeatedly.
He also showed a greater mastery over the various weaponry types that the games offered. He picked up a boomerang that splits into five boomerangs when it is thrown and he used this with remarkable effect.
Our win counts first became close to each other, and then we began to battle neck-and-neck.
After about eighteen rounds, we were perfectly tied and we had one final round to go. Whoever won this round would be the victor.
As luck would have it, I managed to send my boomerang — which I had powered up with a firebomb boost — into a tight space where it bounced around and then came flying back at me. Before I had time to react, my boomerang exploded in my face…and I died.
My son’s digital character climbed the podium with a crown over its head and both my boys cheered with pride at having defeated daddy.
My eight-year old said, “Dad, I was just going easy on you for the first few rounds, because you hadn’t played in a while.”
Well, okay then. I guess our household has some legitimate competition, finally. Perhaps it’s time to see if they can hold up to a dedicated attack from daddy…
Until next time!
Artificial Intelligence Transparency Report
No artificial intelligence was used for the writing or performing portion of this blog post.
I used Google’s Gemini AI to help me create and manage my sql database for tracking relevant data. For example, I used Google Gemini to write a script that exports my singing data records from my custom PostgreSQL database and format the data as an HTML table.
How You Can Help
I need your help to become established as a teacher and storyteller.
Here is a link to a blog post that describes how a supportive reader can help me in my quest.
In short, you can…
Buy a copy of my children’s novella, Westly: A Spider’s Tale
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