The Stratagem’s Archive

Tag: Curiosity

  • I Have a New Appreciation For Music Now

    Learning to Play the Guitar Isn’t For the Faint Hearted

    I grew up around musicians in my family; aunties and uncles who could either play: ukulele, bass, bass guitar, acoustic guitar—a lot of stringed instruments for sure—and sing.

    My grandpa played his uke more often, I didn’t even know he had an acoustic guitar until a year after he passed away.

    He sang a lot.

    His family often played during family get togethers or after someone said grace to bless the food before eating, and he was friends with a lot of the old school local artists.

    I only remember Uncle Darren Benitez, he was funny, but I’m not gonna talk about famous local artists.

    The point is that music was a big part of my life as it was for my grandpa.

    I’m only now learning to play because I have the opportunity and the means to learn.

    Gramps wasn’t very patient when it came to teaching, so, I never learned to play and I wasn’t forced to.

    Now that I’m strumming his Islander brand guitar, I have a new appreciation for music now.

    I Absolutely HATE Learning to Play the Guitar

    I just started my guitar journey literally this past Friday and my left index, middle, and ring fingers hurt.

    Youcisian taught me how to tune my guitar strings from listening to it and the app tells me to either tune up—twist the knob up—or tune down—twist the knob down—to make sure the guitar is properly set to be played.

    Then, I’ve only started learning to strums the open string—you strum the string as it is—the first to third frets—if you look at the neck of the guitar with the lines running across the wood, each divider is called a fret.

    Frets pretty much changes the sound of the string compared to its open string counterpart.

    After that, I learned how to play riffs.

    Riffs are the familiar melodies of the song people can recognize to tell which song apart strumming the thicker strings—which are labeled as strings 6, 5, and 4.

    I’ve only put in less than 2 hours across 2 days of practicing different songs from the Yousician app; I love learning things at my own pace.

    However, I had no idea how difficult it must have been for musicians to create the end product of all of my favorite songs into what they are today.

    It took me out of being just a listener to the one practicing.

    • Zombie by The Cranberries
    • Stressed Out by Twenty-One Pilots
    • I See Fire By Ed Sheeran
    • She Will Be Loved by Maroon 5
    • Knocking on Heaven’s Door by Bob Dylan (I assumed this was a Guns N’ Roses song)
    • Something in the Way by Nirvana

    These were the songs that I was learning to play with Youcisian and, while I like most of these songs, I started hating them while learning to play myself.

    I keep missing enough notes to get a score where, instead of seeing next to continue my lessons, I see play again on my screen.

    How Hard Could Learning Be?

    If you have friends or family who are musicians, it might look easy to you because you don’t see how much time they put into practicing.

    Maybe you hear it, but trying it out yourself will make you see that it’s not easy.

    When following along to the song on my screen, I kept plucking the wrong string, my fingers got confused with where I had to place them on the frets, I kept missing so many cues.

    I never been so stressed out just by merely listening to Stressed Out by Twenty-One Pilots as much as I had when learning to strum the frets and riffs in time to the musical cues.

    Even going at 80% speed, or full speed, and my fingers on the frets and at the base of the guitar are not cooperating together at all.

    I can write with both hands.

    I can carry things in both hands.

    I can catch and throw things with both hands.

    Hell, I taught myself how to use chopsticks with both of my hands!

    Yet, trying to strum, listen, watch, and repeat was a nightmare!

    So far, after 3 days and less than 2 hours of play and practice time, the only thing I can confidently strum is the Happy Birthday jingle.

    I’m definitely not gonna have my own guitar solo any time soon and thats okay.

    Am I Gonna Make This a New Hobby?

    Maybe.

    That’s all I can say.

    I wanted to see what it was like to be the one playing an instrument than just be a listener.

    Sadly, I finally got curious enough after my grandpa passed, but that’s kind how life goes, no?

    Curiosity comes after a lot of things and mine happened after a funeral.

    I’m not trying to start a band, I’m not trying to become a famous musician.

    I just wanted to know how it felt to play and produce music like gramps did when he was alive because Yousician and music lessons in general aren’t cheap.

    I’ll see how long it’ll take me to learn to play songs I like and I’ll see how far I get in the next year with Yousician’s yearly subscription. It’s temporary for sure.

    Even if I never become good at playing, I’ll never listen to music the same way again.

    If You Made It to the End

    Thanks for reading this personal spiel about music.

    Yousician and learning to play the guitar definitely took me out of my comfort zone and gave me something new to experience.

    I’ll see how long I last with my self teaching lessons through an app.

    Otherwise, if I don’t post, I probably got cracked upside the head for breaking something that wasn’t mine to begin with—I’m only borrowing my gramps’s guitar, so I better be careful with it—and I had my family whoop my ass.

    If you’re curious to other articles that took me out of my comfort zone, I have a few down below.

    Feel free to explore the archives and I’ll see you all in the archives later.

    More From The Archives

  • I Made Small Tangible Artifacts of the Archive

    Welcome — However You Found Your Way Here

    The Excitement Is Real

    A few days ago, I had shared in my post, Two Manifestos + A Gift (For Fellow Archivists), that I was working on something exciting, and I promised more than words. I promised proof — proof that this archive is alive, that it grows, and that I’m daring myself to do things I never thought I’d do.

    So here it is:

    Two manifestos — The Stratagem’s Manifesto 1.0, The Stratagem’s Manifesto 1.5.

    And now, four sticker designs.

    I finally have them!!! The extra $25 for express shipping was worth it!!!

    They started as experiments on Canva. Just sketches of ideas, small reflections made visual. But I decided to make them real. To hold something in my hands that wasn’t just another file on my laptop and I paid for express shipping so I could experience them sooner.

    Now they exist — 24 of each design, 96 stickers total. That’s it. Two sheets are already heading with me to work, to share with coworkers who’ve been curious about this project. The other 56 stickers are for anyone else who wants one.

    This isn’t merch. It’s not a launch. It’s my way of saying thank you. For subscribing. For reading. For coming back quietly, even if you’ve never left a comment. For letting this space mean something beyond myself.

    If you’d like one, let me know in the comments or send me an email at whatimtryingoutnow@gmail.com. I’ll respond as soon as I can and will figure out how to ship them.

    The Spark That Started It All

    While I was playing around with Canva to make my stickers using the AI tools, I asked myself two questions before printing these:

    • If not now, then when?
    • If not me, then why not me?

    I’d put things off, never follow through with some projects, then hate myself for chickening out. It would be the typical, “I have time to do it later,” lie then never do it out of fear.

    Then I’d go to the other extreme and be like, “If I could do this, then why can’t I do that?” And I’d push myself to do something purely to see if I could be the one to finish a project. For example, The Stratagem’s Manifesto 1.0 was made in a day, The Stratagem’s Manifesto 1.5 took less than a week, and now I’m working on an ebook. All to see what I could do.

    That’s how these stickers came to be. I have other designs I’m saving money for, below are what they look like that I’ve made for my blog, to have, and to share:

    Next print
    Next print
    Next print

    These new sticker designs encapsulate the reality behind my blog and how it was made. It was born from boredom, written by rage, and held up by spite.

    Nothing more, nothing less.

    If these little projects of mine are well received, then I’ll do what my coworker asked me to do and see if I could sell these on my blog and at my part time rage room job. I told him these were gifts first and foremost, then I’ll see if I’ll follow through with monetizing them through work.

    For now, I’m just excited that something of mine is real, in my hands, and ready to share. Something I’ve never, ever, done before. Although, I’ll probably hold off with shipping just stickers because they’ll easily get lost through the shipping facility.

    Maybe I’ll reconsider the sending the thank yous with only a sticker once I can make more stuff: keychains, book markers, and/or printing out my manifestos for more weight. I’ll have to see how this goes, now that I thought it through.

    I’m practically daring myself to try new things out and these sticker ideas, tangible and intangible, are the first step in doing something new.

    And maybe, just maybe, trying something new is how the rest of this archive will keep growing too.

    — Stratagem’s Archive

    Call to Action:

    If you’ve made it this far, thank you. Whether you’re a subscriber, a silent reader, or just wandering through for the first time, you’re part of what keeps this archive alive.

    Subscribers get early looks at new ideas, experiments, and the strange little things I’m building here — manifestos, reflections, and the occasional gift (like stickers) shared through my newsletters, Letters from the Void Newsletter, first before everyone else. It’s my way of sharing the process, not just the polished or structured parts.

    If you’d like to join, you can subscribe wherever the button is on the page. If not, that’s okay too — coming back to read is more than enough. Either way, I’m grateful you’re here.

    Update Note:

    My hoodie came in!!! This one was a personal thing, so yeah.

    Also, my hoodie came in!!! Paying the extra $25 for express shipping was worth it! Thank god I was home in time to receive it, I wouldn’t want anyone taking my package because it’s out in front of my door. If I had a way of dealing with package pirates while away, then no one would take things that doesn’t belong to them again. But it didn’t come to that.

    The hoodie is a personal thing that I wanted, so I don’t know if I’ll branch out with these just yet.

    I liked how it came out, and I can wear it in my apartment. Not ready to show my family what I’ve been spending my money on, let alone share them my blog. That’s a whole different dare I’m not willing to do just yet.

    I’m still looking for someone to help me make book markers and keychains that are affordable and good quality. I’m not in a rush, though knowing someone would help make those become reality too.

  • I’ll Tell You The Secret of What Motivates Me

    What motivates you?

    I’ll tell you what motivates me, it’s simple really; Much like in my blog post I’m Afraid of Wasting My Potential — So I Learn Everything I Can, While I Can., I am motivated by my anger, curiosity, spite, and fear of regret.

    “…I’m striving to reduce fear’s hold on me and to expand my options. To use my anger against myself, circumstances, other people that irritates me for something constructive…”

    My Goals Go Through a Process – Archivist

    I hate feeling small, worthless, useless, and like a failure. This doesn’t have to be just feelings in a workplace, but also in my relationships too.

    If I feel this same anger, spite, and the regret that taking no action will lead to feeling even worse regret, then I will take necessary action. I’ve done plenty of reflecting, it’s just a matter of doing the extra work of following through.

    Many of my goals, curiosities, and actions do come from a place of mild obsession. So, after years of telling myself, “don’t do that or I’ll fail,” I flipped it around and started to say, “If I DON’T do that, then I’ll have actually failed.”

    Enjoyed this post? Hit subscribe so you don’t miss the next one.

    New posts daily to weekly. Subscribe to keep up with my latest writing and reflections.

    Check out more of my other daily prompts or other works below.

    I’m Afraid of Wasting My Potential — So I Learn Everything I Can, While I Can.

    If You Gave Me A Blank Page, This Is What I’d Start Writing About.

    The Real Pros and Cons of Rage Rooms (From Someone Who Works in One)

  • Curiosity Leads to Answers and Questions!!!

    What are you curious about?

    Think of The Possibilities!!!

    I’m curious about a lot of things and, like everything in life, time is in limited supply and high demand! However, I’m most curious about whether I’m capable of learning and applying new skills and hobbies. I have a whole list of things I want to see if I could do it:

    • Parkour
    • Rock climbing
    • Boxing
    • MMA
    • Playing an instrument: piano, keyboard, or guitar
    • Painting with acrylics (its what I have)
    • Coding/cyber security
    • Homesteading
    • Bartending
    • Game design or storytelling
    • Living alone without technology for however many days I can last

    This is just the starter list. The last point is something that I want to try before I die. Majority of the things I could be curious about: quantum physics, engineering, robotics, architecture, history, and all those other advanced subjects I could thankfully learn from documentaries, museums, and other materials.

    Maybe we’ve gotten so used to the saying that, “if someone did something, then it’s already been done.”

    Of course someone did something, it’s something they’ve done, but could we turn the question onto ourselves for a second.

    What is something you’ve always wanted to do, never did it yet, that you could eventually end up doing today or soon?

    No more putting things off like months or years prior. Being a healthy nosy person lets you follow your curiosity and act on it.

    You see a store you never heard of? Might as well take a look inside and ask around; Hear music and glass breaking somewhere, but no danger or distress around? Either people are ignoring the sound or it could be a rage room, who knows?

    I did this at an anime convention this year, if anyone is familiar with the game because I’m not, with the cast of “Baldur’s Gate 3” were part of the guest roster.

    Neil Newbom, Devora Wilde, Jennifer English, and Theo Solomon were present, there were a lot of the cosplays as Baldur’s Gate 3 was the new Homestuck blocking the fire emergency exit because that’s how much of them had, and it was insane!

    I only knew of these people from watching YouTube D&D sessions from Wizards of the Coast channel. I’ve never played or watched anything Baldur’s Gate 3 related except those D&D sessions. I only knew, at the time, that I wanted to say hi to Devora Wilde because she seemed unapologetically chaotic and I vibed with that.

    When at the convention, saw they were having their signings, went up to Devora Wilde’s table and straight up admitted that, “I didn’t know who she or her friends were, I didn’t know the game they were from, and I only knew of them from D&D, but I wanted to say hi.”

    She was really nice, she was someone I had to look up to because she was taller than myself, and she took the pictures with my phone. It was a pretty fun moment and I managed to get a hug from her.

    Sadly, I forget that I can’t always lift people up, especially strangers, because that’s how I show excitement: trying to crush the life out of you and lift you off of the ground, which I did do as a habit when someone lets me hug them. I’m also a grappler, but I digress.

    Either way, that was my experience; I don’t know if I should regret it, cringe over it, or cry over what I did, but I have to accept that I did that. I got to meet someone that other people were so excited to meet and had my time with someone who I could live vicariously through her work, but wouldn’t want to trade my life for hers.

    I don’t know if I met the actual person or her character, but I’m glad I did it anyways.

    Bit by bit, I’m building up my own reservoir of story material and life experiences. The only way to achieve this, despite our fear telling us otherwise, is to follow our curiosity one check marked off our, what I call, a “bullshit bucket list”, at a time.