Thursday, November 02, 2006

Nevermind...

See, this is what I'm talking about when I say "bipolar disorder."

After a couple good sessions with each client, my attitude and self-image as a clinician have, as my case manager told me today, done a 180. Tuesday's session was great, as I utilized my improvisation skills by bringing a bunch of toys for the whole class to play with, in addition to wearing a Halloween mask. My client loved it and it was hands down the best session I've had yet. This morning's session, even though my client didn't show up, was very good in that I was able to give a lot of language stimulation to the other children and read them books I had prepared for my client. I've always thought my best clinical skills would lie in my ability to interact with children and make things fun for them. I think that is really starting to show.

My case manager told me in our meeting today that "you had a slow start, but once you got over that hump, you just took off," I have been "200% better" and that I have "certain gifts and skills that other clinicians do not." She acknowledged that I (and she, too) am the type of person who learns things when I strategically need them, as opposed to being able to apply directly what I learn from class. This is something I've always thought, but never wanted to mention it because I looked at it as an excuse for not performing. She even told me that I should consider looking at grants to do work with the preschool population. Doesn't this seem a little bit different than my thoughts from just a couple days ago? It's funny how success and getting better at your job can contribute to your attitudes. I've gone from Fredo Corleone to Michael Corleone in 2 days.

In other grade-related news, I scored 100% on my research article for fluency, a 96% on the corresponding presentation, and my big case presentation last night earned me an A- (though it could have been a solid A had I remembered to give my professor a copy of my research). I didn't think the case presentation was very good, but if she gives it an A-, I'll take the grade and the confidence boost. Let's see how I manage the rest of semester. I'm not expecting anymore Doomsday posts.
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On Halloween, I bought the new Coheed & Cambria DVD, "The Last Supper," which is very good. Co&Ca is my favorite band of all time (though Radiohead and Led Zep are closing in fast), and this DVD is very good at showing why they are such an amazing band. I don't know if this is a better show than "Live At The Starland Ballroom" in terms of most of the performance (since Claudio can't harmonize with himself, Travis and Mike backing up his singing is just awful, and made great songs like "The Crowing" and "Ten Speed' lose some of their luster. Still, "The Final Cut" is amazing and showcases Claudio's and Travis' guitar virtuosity. They constantly tried to one-up each other's solos during the last song (Though, Claudio working overtime on his "I'm so good at guitar" faces was pretty odd. He's more animated than he used to be during shows, but I think I liked the reclusive Claudio who hated talking to the crowd better). The interviews sprinkled throughout DVD were a little disappointing and misleading ("Behind the Scenes Interviews with Claudio!" was a bit of an overstatement). A highlight of the show occurred during the bridge of "Everything Evil" when a giant dragonfly (the size of 10 men, I tells ya!) flew over the audience on wires while the band stopped playing, before going into the always awesome "JeeeeSAAAAY" part. All in all, the "The Last Supper" gets an A-, or a 91 on "Reeking-Of-Awesomeness Scale." The stage show was great, the songs had a newer, fresher sound, and Claudio and Travis had a good old fashioned guitar duel. Plus, it's a bargain at $13. Definitely worth a look.

I also bought Claudio's new solo album under his alias, The Prizefighter Inferno. The album, My Brother's Blood Machine, is an acoustic and electronica side story of the original Co&Ca plot, and it's pretty good. "The Postal Service meets Coheed & Cambria" is an accurate description, and I give it a B+, or an 88 on the R.O.A. Scale. I'll tell you, that Puerto Rican can write good, catchy songs as well as anybody in the game, but still manages to make it a very weird experience. The CD packaging is very cool, as the lyrics come on tarot cards. However, something feels off about the album. Maybe I'm just not used to the combination of folk music and minimalist techno, but it is taking me time to really like the music part of it.

This is a very obscure (and very stupid) reference, but the album sounds the way the cover of Led Zeppelin III looks, if that makes any sense (sorry, I'm channeling my inner-Chuck Klosterman). That's probably the stupidest thing I've ever written in this blog, but that's what it sounds like to me. My Brother's Blood Machine should hold me over until at least the next Coheed album drops.

That's it for now, peace.

3 comments:

fluentsoul said...

I'm glad things are falling into place for you with all your clients. Also, I'm so glad there are (soon-to-be) clinicians out there who are interested mostly in stuttering. It has been my experience as a stutterer (and, recently, as a mother of a child who is stuttering) that so many clinicians are just the opposite, preferring the articulation clients and sort of avoiding/fearing the fluency ones.
Hmmm . . . you could even specialize in preschool fluency clients.

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