Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"....and yet, far down in that hollow cavern under my breastbone, the one that fills with the sensation of thousands of small screaming animals clawing their way to the top of the heap when I suffer the anxiety of doing my taxes or filling out student loan paperwork, or smell a Con on the horizon--far down in the bottom, heretofore empty, a lone tiny animal just trudged into view. It is a vague, nondescript, rounded little animal, a colorless hamsterish Anxiety Creature, eyes squeezed tightly shut, with stubby limbs and tiny, scratchy little claws.

"And it just screamed."

-- ursulav, 2005-06-17 (note that the author provided a slighly different phrasing of the first half of that first paragraph on the DeviantArt page where the creature is illustrated; if you requote this (and I myself am requoting from metaquotes), take a look and pick the version you like best.)

Before I'd even gotten to responding to the comments about the tune I posted yesterday, I wound up with another that I need to transcribe. But I'm not sure whether the ABC tools I have will be adequate (time to Google for newer tools and spend a while rereading the language standard). The problems: it's all in harmonics using an open tuning (on guitar), so a) I need to notate harmonics, and b) I think I really want to include tabulature in parallel with the standard notation for any other guitarists. (Hmm. Maybe I can cram enough clues into text notations above the staff, I don't know.) And, of course, c) I've got a lot of things I Really Need To Get Done in the next few days, and didn't need to have a lightningbug-inspired notation challenge squirted into my brain now.

The one thought that gives me hope for an "easy out" is that the tune would probably sound about right on a hammered dulcimer without having to deal with harmonics (though it'll take a little fudging to account for having only two hands here and there).

"If the light flashes while driving (in any gear range) it indicates a possible malfunction in the transmission; avoid rapid acceleration and have the transmission checked by an authorized Honda dealer as soon as possible." (p. 20 in the Owner's Manual for my car)

Feh.