For future reference.

 Some scientific research on guns and safety.

(This is an opinion piece but it has links to research papers.)  http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1487470

Injuries and deaths due to firearms in the home:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9715182

Snopes--not exactly scientific but more so than not,
links to DoJ figures on homicides by weapon type.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/guns/baseballbats.asp

Department of Justice:
http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/

Stand your ground laws increase homicides http://www.npr.org/2013/01/02/167984117/-stand-your-ground-linked-to-increase-in-homicide?utm_source=NPR&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=20130102

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1487470
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States


Comments from actual gun owners and users (not scientific--but good)
http://www.xojane.com/issues/on-black-holes-patience-and-what-i-know-to-be-true

Practice Has Taken A Strange Turn

 I am at Kip's parents' house right now, for Christmas.  We had to fly, and I decided not to endanger the mandolin by packing it into checked luggage.  I will have to do that at the end of January but no sense risking it twice.

So I am separated from both my instruments for a WEEK, but I decided this would be a good chance to practice singing to the metronome.  ForScore on the iPad (which is how I'm carrying all my music)  has a metronome you can set and a pitchpipe type thing you can use to get your starting pitches, and really I've been having an easier time playing to the metronome than playing-and-singing to it, and I recently tumbled to the fact that this is because I don't sing to the metronome very well.  So I've been practicing that.

Thinking that the in-laws can hear me through the walls of the guest room is kind of weirding me out.  Though my mother-in-law compared it to distant angels singing, so it didn't *sound* like she minded.  The farm is big, if necessary I could go outside and keep walking until nobody can hear me, but it's kind of dry out there (it's really dry--Kip says he has never seen so much of the lawn grey (dead) as opposed to yellow (dormant) at this time of year.)  It's dry in the house too, but there's a humidifier in the guest room that I can run that helps a lot.  Also the iPad is kind of hard to read outdoors.  But it may be worth trying anyway.

I am realizing I really haven't been singing all that much.  I decided to use the pattern I was using for practicing mandolin instrumentals--work each song for five minutes before switching.  I can do about 20 minutes worth that way and then my throat gets kind of sore so I stop for a while before doing another 20 minutes.  I used to be able to sing for an hour, though of course that wasn't generally five minutes at a time and there was some switch time between songs.  It won't be a problem for my concerts--that's *why* I was practicing the mandolin instrumentals--but it's a reminder that the vocals really aren't just a gimme.