Oh, there’s just some fun games on the Wii that are impossible to play elsewhere, like Boom Blox or Excite Truck.

Is that a wiimote? Good for you.

Pound by Mr. Mime.

I’m sure it’s nothing personal.

I wholeheartedly agree!

One of the things out group does is play for dancers at reenactment events. The dance steps were recorded for a lot of the Renaissance period pieces, and it’s pretty incredible to be able to coordinate the tunes for the same dances from hundreds of years ago.

It really changes the atmosphere of an event to have music around; it’s a living connection to history.

Here is a video of a professional Renaissance recorder consort in lower voicings (the lowest I believe being contrabass) that shows how great they are. They do get a bad reputation because it’s easy to make them squeak really badly as a beginner (and especially as a young person with no musical training). They really are a great introductory instrument into early music though; you can get a plastic tenor for about $40 and it’ll be the same one professionals practice on regularly.

I got started in early music on modern guitar with a book of tabs, and it was a great way in. I later met up with a local group who pointed me towards some great resources, and I loved it so much that I wanted to go deeper by learning to play an actual period instrument. I did some research and talked to a bunch of people for advice on what to buy and finally picked one up and took some lessons at the beginning of the year. It’s a lot harder to get into than guitar, but it’s also incredibly rewarding.

I play early music as an amateur, and I’ve seen a few fun older instruments around.

I’m currently learning the renaissance lute, a bowl-backed six to 8 course precursor (sort of) to the modern guitar. It has a large period repertoire that can be played pretty accurately due to the surviving tablature and plentiful treatises on technique and style. It is a plucked instrument, they really weren’t strummed much like a modern guitar.

The older variant, the medieval lute, was primarily a strummed instrument; the musician would usually hold a quill or similar tool as a plectrum. The notation at the time was not as complete as what we are used to (and there are also far fewer sources on how to read it), but there is some very good scholarship in the field that gives us a pretty decent guess on how the repertoire sounded.

The recorder went through a kind of revival in the early 20th century, as it was a fairly easy folk instrument to mass produce while also being beginner friendly (since you don’t really need to develop your embrasure to make a passable sound). The modern variety is known as the baroque recorder, and has a standardized fingering with a more mellow sound than it’s earlier counterparts. Incidentally, flutes are likely some of the oldest instruments that humanity produced, with the oldest known example being a cave bear bone flute probably made by a Neanderthal.

Sign my guestbook!

Maybe worth looking into alpha-gal syndrome?

What happens when the bird lands on the dog’s eyes and scratches it? How confident are you that the dog won’t give a warning nip?

Furthermore, mammal saliva is toxic to birds. This is stupid in more ways than one.

It only takes one time being surprised.

It’s always a risk. Would you want your best friend to go into a polar bear enclosure alone even if the bear had never mauled anyone or acted like it wanted to?

It’s never worth the risk if you value the little bird’s life.

Many professional trainers believe that hard mouth can be a hereditary affliction. When selecting a puppy, by all means check out the parents first. Still, there is really no surefire way to tell if a dog is going to be predisposed to damaging birds once it grows up. That part likely falls in the luck-of-the-draw department. There are, however, precautions you can take while training your retriever puppy that may help prevent the dog from developing hard mouth. Common sense applies in most cases.

I mean, they’re literally bred to grab birds.

Please don’t do this.

A dog has a very strong predator instinct, and one little bite is all it takes to kill the budgie very painfully.

It looks very cute, but it’s a recipe for disaster.

Nothing better than chili or miso ramen.

I’ve never looked at a pelican the same way since I saw one swallow a seagull in one gulp.

Absolutely.

I moved out on my own and started asking the questions that I had previously been told not to ask at church.

Turns out there’s a reason you’re not supposed to ask those.

Lots of maker type hobbies do require an initial (and often ongoing) material purchase. Some are better than others at using what is at hand though.

Sewing/alterations is both a useful skill to have and allows you to repurpose old fabrics.

Art supplies can be quite expensive, but drawing materials are fairly ubiquitous. You likely have something within reach that you can practice with.

Guitar and magic tricks.

Ideally both at the same time.