Well, that's quite enough karaoke for one night

I remember back to the sepia tinted days of my youth when post-dinner entertainment consisted of my family arguing over trivial pursuit or scrabble. Tonight we argued over Sony's Singstar for the PS2, a birthday present received by my nephew. Despite my initial suspicion over anything remotely related to karaoke, I have to admit that it's a well put together package, and contained something for most everyone (this was the 80's edition, so my gaggle of brothers and sisters were in their element). Even I was persuaded to join in on a song or two - something of a feat for me. My desire to perform in public was brutally truncated in my youth, when my music teacher told my class that everyone has to select a song and to practice singing along with it. The following week everyone would bring their tape or record along, stand up and perform their chosen song into a microphone and at the end the vocal track would be played back to the entire class sans backing music.

I do not come from a musical family, and at that point I owned no records or tapes, and no sort of popular music was accessible to me. Consequently I spent an entire week fretting about what was going to happen and working myself into a state of near panic. In the end I had to pick a song from the roster chosen by classmates, none of which I knew particularly well. Having to stand up and sing a song a barely knew in front of my friends and classmates was an uncomfortable experience. Having the results played back to me was excruciating. That I received the lowest marks for my efforts came as little surprise and I honestly don't think I've ever felt so embarrassed before or since that day. I've been unable to sing in public since withing remember that day in grim detail. Still I put it to one side tonight, which can only bode well for the new year.

Anyway, and there's little good to be found dwelling on things that can't be changed. Here's to the future, may it bring good things for us all.

Happy New Year Everyone!