Well, *that's* peverse.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I write very little for *years*. I post about organising an "unblocking weekend" to try and kick down this songwriter's block that I have. What happens yesterday evening? My muse flutters in, says, "sorry I'm late, I got caught at an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet at Schenectady" and bestows a song upon me. A song I'm *really* happy with. A song that I've been attempting to write for *years* and couldn't find a line into.

Boy, that felt good.

( Dead Men Walking )

So why the sudden burst of creativity?

I think it's because (a) I'm footling with the harp whilst Tim is out, but mostly (b) I'm recording snippets of vocals and harp bits on the voice-messaging program on my Palm T3.

I got up the day after I wrote the melody line for "Dead Men Walking" and I couldn't remember a note. I played back the first verse I'd recorded, all scratchy, boomy and crunchy (because it's really just a dictaphone) and *pow*! There it was! This is a good idea for me, as the children have siphoned off vast amounts of my concentration span and memory. Forget the concept of "if I can't remember it, it wasn't any good to start with" - sometimes I can't remember how to make sponge cake either, and I *know* that's DAMN good.

Recording snippets like this is a great idea for me, and is how I've managed to get bits and pieces done. It's a great eye opener into my world as the 20 second recordings tend to go like this:

Annie: Lalalalalalaa, deeedeedum, *Plink* *plink*...
Ellie: I wanna onnee juith! Inna bottle!
Annie: *sigh*

I love my T3. I also love the extension card which allows me not to worry about how much I'm recording!