
Playing Posture
I am watching a lot of videos lately that are giving me mixed advice and watching a lot of my favorite ukulele teachers on YouTube.
Am I using too much wrist? Too much arm?

I am watching a lot of videos lately that are giving me mixed advice and watching a lot of my favorite ukulele teachers on YouTube.
Am I using too much wrist? Too much arm?
I grew up thin. I used to have a talent for eating anything and not gaining much... The sad truth is I still have much of that good metabolism.
An addiction to overeating and depression got me here. My moods were around food... Constant snacking... I ate myself sick routinely.
I dropped weight without help before. Back in 2018 I went from 195 to 165, but gained it all back and more in 2020 and beyond. I feel like 2025 was my "lost" year as all I wanted to do was work and game. I had days I didn't leave the house.
The last two years I really pushed it to 220...
Going on a GLP-1 helped turn off the food noise that was always plaguing me. It did that and so much more...
I had energy to go out and do things. As the weight dropped so many things I had thought were just me getting older were really just from being obese. Tending to my honeybees I was getting so overheated last summer I'd puke my guts out. Now it is almost effortless. A little physical activity had me huffing and puffing... Now I am out and active every day.
I like looking at myself in the mirror. I like a lot of my photographs. It makes me want to dress nicer and take better care of myself. I'm ashamed to say I was getting pretty gross.
Clothes are just falling off of me now... I either have to go buy all new jeans or get into hip hop.
About a year ago I took up the ukulele. The last few months I've been playing every day and making it just part of what I do... It makes me so happy to play it and strum. Yeah, I suck at it... But, I suck a little less every day. Proud to say I now know 7 songs by heart and I am trying to learn a new one every few days as my learning is so much more rapid now. When I was heavier and in the funk that I was I didn't want to do anything but sit depressed watching YouTube...
I am so thankful to have the help I needed to live healthier. I've started seeing a nutritionist and am trying to develop habits for one day when I'm not on this medicine.
I transcribed this version of Patchface's Song. It is from a fool (jester) that has prophetic songs in A Song of Ice & Fire - the books that made Game of Thrones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbrsctXdikc&list=RDKbrsctXdikc&start_radio=1
I hear it is going between Dm and Cm, but I can't figure out of there is a strum that works here of if it sounds intelligable on a uke... Or, maybe I'm just bad at transcribing?
Dm
Under the sea
Cm
The birds have scales not feathers
Dm
I know, I know
Cm
Oh, oh, oh!
Dm
It's always summer
Cm
Under the sea
Dm
I know, I know
Cm
Oh, oh, oh
Dm
Under the sea
Cm
It snows up
Dm
I know, I know
Cm
Oh, oh, oh
Dm
And the rain
Cm
is dry as bone
Dm
I know, I know
Cm
Oh, oh, oh
Dm
Under the sea
Cm
You fall up
Dm
I know, I know
Cm
Oh, oh, oh
Dm
Under the sea
Cm
The fish eat us
Dm
I know, I know
Cm
Oh, oh, oh
Dm
Under the sea
Cm
The fish eat us
Dm
I know, I know
Cm
Oh, oh, oh
Dm
Under the sea
Cm
No one wears hats
Dm
I know, I know
Cm
Oh, oh, oh
Dm
The shadows come to dance
Cm
My Lord
Dm
The shadows come to dance
Cm
My lord
Dm
The shadows come to stay
Cm
My lord
Dm
The shadows come to stay
F#
The more I look at AFFC/ADWD and Season 5 the more I think it was really, really different in its first draft.
I suspect the Dorne plot was more like the books in the early drafts.
I suspect Young Aegon was to be introduced.
Why do I believe this? A few things, but nothing concrete.
a.) Siddig el-Fadil in interviews before the season talks about how Doran Martell is brillantly subtle and much more is going on than you see. *Very* like his book counterpart.
b.) I think Jorah's greyscale plot, something they ended up doing nothing with, was them planning to do a composite character with Jon Connington. I suspect Dany was going to send Jorah away like she initially does in Season 5 leading Jorah to end up meeting the Golden Company and Aegon the Younger. I believe the greyscale subplot from Jon Con around this time is a vestigial thing left over from the early drafts with Aegon.
c.) In 2014, HBO hinted it was looking for a “young man in his late teens/early 20s” with a major arc tied to Tyrion’s Essos journey. Many believed this was Young Griff.
(d. Narrative setup in Season 4 (Tyrion heading east, Varys disappearing) lines up perfectly with the book storyline where Tyrion meets Aegon.
(e. George R.R. Martin himself during Season 5's run confirmed that the show chose to simplify by cutting certain characters and merging arcs.
(f. Dorne's plot was discarded all but fully - and may have been because they decided not to do Jon Con/Aegon. Dorne had no endgame.
We are having a free Beekeeping 101 Course for Veterans on May 9th, 16th, and 30th. Classes are from 1pm to 4pm on Saturdays.
Partners are welcome to attend.
All three classes are at Filbert Street Garden in Curtis Bay. The first two are in the classroom and the third is in the beeyard!
Vets who complete the course get a free hive kit with tools and hive boxes.
We have limited slots, so please register here.