u/Ready-to-learn

Coptic Orthodox here. First generation American Raised in the church and doing my best (and failing) to bring my kids up the same way... I've always found tarot and tarot readers interesting. I've never done it, but the curiosity is getting the best of me. I know it's not speaking to God or Jesus or any of his saints, but the thought of seeing "what the cards say" or what a lost relative has to say is very intriguing to me.

Sorry for the rambling... I guess my question is: Would doing this be a ticket to hell and damnation?

Let me preface this by saying I'm not a very good trumpet player, and I'm 1000% guilty of this myself. But nothing drives me crazier than listening to a recording and hearing the performer breathe. There'll be this absolutely magical passage on the violin, piano, trumpet, whatever... and then at the end of the phrase:

HAAAAAHH...

and suddenly I'm pulled out of the music for a couple of seconds before I settle back in.

I know people need to breathe. I know that in many cases breathing is part of the musical phrasing and even adds expression. Intellectually, I completely get it.

Emotionally? It drives me absolutely nuts. Literally visceral reaction.

This isn't just a classical music thing. Pop singers do it too sometimes they'll take these huge, audible breaths between every phrase, and once I notice it, I can't unhear it.

Just thought I'd share as I'm listening to WQED classical radio in the car. Feel free to tell me I'm crazy. Lol

I am a very reluctant new therapy patient. I don't know if it matters, but I'm a guy. I know I need help with some things, but they're incredibly personal and some of it sexual in nature, that I never thought I could talk to anyone about any of it. I can honestly look every one of you in the eye and tell you I have no idea what pushed me to make contact with a center and be placed with a therapist.

During intake I filled out a bunch of questions about why I'm there (which I answered honestly, and alluded to the subject without specifics) but as I'm going through the questions I just kept typing when I was done I was like holy shit I'm freaking mess. Anyway I had a 15 minute call with the therapist I was placed with... which was really just about scheduling.

My first session was so strange to me, I was insanely uncomfortable (I knew in my head there was no way I was engaging on my main issue today) But she talked with me asked questions about my intake forms, asked about family etc. It was so awkward, but the hour went fast. I left thinking she's nice. Nice to talk to someone who doesn't know me. I forgot I have no friends, if I did have friends, I might not be here.

But then I had vacation and she did as well, so there was a 3.5 week gap before our next session. That session was yesterday and it felt so weird. We started with small talk about vacation, I made a comment about one of my kids and we ended up talking about that most of the time. She asked a questions about childhood but it was mostly about the kid. I left thinking what the hell just happened. But it was still nice talking to someone. It felt like the end was abrupt though almost like she is a clock watcher.

I don't know if anything I said above or asked makes sense, but I'm just trying to navigate this, it's all new to me. Is this normal? I can't tell you what I was expecting because I don't know. I know I'm not ready to tell her the down and dirty stuff yet. but still, I'm not sure if this is normal?

I am a very reluctant new therapy patient. I don't know if it matters, but I'm a guy. I know I need help with some things, but they're incredibly personal and some of it sexual in nature, that I never thought I could talk to anyone about any of it. I can honestly look every one of you in the eye and tell you I have no idea what pushed me to make contact with a center and be placed with a therapist.

During intake I filled out a bunch of questions about why I'm there (which I answered honestly, and alluded to the subject without specifics) but as I'm going through the questions I just kept typing when I was done I was like holy shit I'm freaking mess. Anyway I had a 15 minute call with the therapist I was placed with... which was really just about scheduling.

My first session was so strange to me, I was insanely uncomfortable (I knew in my head there was no way I was engaging on my main issue today) But she talked with me asked questions about my intake forms, asked about family etc. It was so awkward, but the hour went fast. I left thinking she's nice. Nice to talk to someone who doesn't know me. I forgot I have no friends, if I did have friends, I might not be here.

But then I had vacation and she did as well, so there was a 3.5 week gap before our next session. That session was yesterday and it felt so weird. We started with small talk about vacation, I made a comment about one of my kids and we ended up talking about that most of the time. She asked a questions about childhood but it was mostly about the kid. I left thinking what the hell just happened. But it was still nice talking to someone. It felt like the end was abrupt though almost like she is a clock watcher.

I don't know if anything I said above or asked makes sense, but I'm just trying to navigate this, it's all new to me. Is this normal? I can't tell you what I was expecting because I don't know. I know I'm not ready to tell her the down and dirty stuff yet. but still, I'm not sure if this is normal?

I've been away from music/composing since college (2003). Sadly life got in the way. I'm now older kids grown and wanted to get back into composing slowly. All this time I've had my finale *.MUS files on my PC and every back-up it would travel to the next. I never had a license of my own I used the Schools license. It now seems the *.MUS format is proprietary to Finale and no other music notation program can open it.

I'm crushed, I wanted to go back and view all the files I've saved all this time, but it looks like it's lost forever :-(

Are there any solutions out there for me? I reach out to the collective wisdom of this group, give this poor old man some hope.

UPDATE: THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR KINDNESS AND SUGGESTIONS! I was able to download a free trial of finale from here (Finale Trial) I'm now in the process of converting all files into MusicXML files. The next step will be picking a new software, but it's so wonderful to hear some of my old compositions and arrangements again. This is the best walk down memory lane ever. I look forward to getting back into composing, and learning more from this great sub-reddit!