Waste

I should have been grading stories this morning, but while rummaging among the debris behind my desk, where something had fallen, I found the old microphone that came with the "Learn Italian in 17 Minutes" box of electronic lessons I got for my wife years ago.

That mike in hand and my interest in the imperfections of my young journalists somewhere near ultimate zero, instead I downloaded Audacity, the free recording/editing software, and spent 45 minutes learning ...

1) That even a functional microphone doesn't work unless it's plugged into the correct aperture, an insight we will not advance to the status of a metaphor for life;

2) That even if you record yourself singing, don't mean a thing unless you remember to un-mute the sound on your laptop. Up-down goes the little blue wave pattern but all is still;

3) That it's almost eleven and I haven't graded a thing. But I have enhanced my ability to create a multimedia platform.

And that mantra should kill the next five years rather nicely.