Brandiwyn🎶, also known as Michelle Tuesday, is a musician, educator and writer hailing from Columbus, Ohio.
La Bene Vita
You Are Welcome Here Life is good. Let's share it.
New Year, New Strategy For 2026, I launched a weekly topic rotation designed to help me stay d i s c i p l i n e d while ensuring that you, the reader, always know what to expect. Unfortunately, I have yet to acquire a million followers and gain official WDC "influencer" status, and I often find myself seduced by whimsy. Thus, my blogging strategy continues to evolve.
So, What Can I Expect?
I'm glad you asked. For now, until whimsy strikes again, here's what you can expect (updated March 2026):
Weekly Topical Posts - Apply Generously to Affected Areas Music & music education The art and business of writing Owning & managing a small business Science & technology Parkinson's disease, type 1 diabetes, and other medical topics
Personal News & Updates - May Be Boring! You've Been Warned Health news Family, work and leisure Weekly goals & progress
The Occasional Rant
Although I try to post rants at "What the Fork?" (and you should, too!)
Robert Waltz - Awesome article, thanks for sharing. They did way more research than I was prepared for today. You also managed to find an article that threw a bit of etymology in the mix. Well done.
I can see both sides. Especially when you add that they're learning it and want to use what they learned.
However, creating extra deadlines without notice or even communication is really tough.
I definitely see your point. When one hires someone to do a job, the employee should do the job as directed by the employer. Failing to do so satisfactorily for whatever reason, the employee should simply make any corrections the employer requests, and request (without drama or debate) a clarification to avoid similar issues in the future.
Many years ago, I hired a young man to neatly stack a jumbled pile of old lumber that had been dumped. I showed him exactly where and how to stack it. When I returned a little later to check his progress, I found that he had stacked about half of what should have been stacked in the elapsed time, and he had stacked it about ten feet from the place I'd shown him. He got agitated when I told him he would have to restack what he had stacked because it would be in the way where he had it. He asked if he couldn't just stack the rest on top of the mislocated stack he had started. He never seemed to understand that he had not done what I'd hired him to do. Even his proposed solutions would not accomplish the work as it needed to be done.
Ah, DBS. I am well aware of it thanks to my employer. Even though I work in the IT world of med tech, there are still lots of opportunities to learn the basics if things like DBS. We'll see if I can get back to that kind of extracurricular activity anytime soon.
PD research is very well funded, so I'm sure opportunities are there. I have a piano student, Lily. She's 16, but she was 5 when her mom enrolled her, so I've been her teacher more than a decade. Her mom is a doctor, and Lily has decided she wants to study neurology. She knows about my diagnosis - all my kiddos do, so they understand why my voice doesn't work sometimes, why I can't play the instruments I used to, why I drop everything to take meds, etc. So she was super excited to tell me that when she went to Neurology Summer Camp (!!!!!!!!!!), she got to watch a DBS procedure on a Parkinson's patient, live. (!!!!!!!!) This was probably two years ago, so she was 14 or 15 at the time.
For those who don't know, DBS = Deep Brain Stimulation. Until very recently, the procedure could only be performed while the patient is awake. They screw your head into a halo that holds your head still, then implant an electrode in your brain. Some patients require two implants (one for each side, two separate surgeries), and either way, you have to have yet another surgery where they implant the battery in your chest. Sounds like fun, amiright?
In case you're wondering, my MDS said today that I'm the PERFECT CANDIDATE for DBS because I respond so well to levodopa. I'm like.......... thank you? The good news is, there's an option where they knock you out now.
Brandiwyn🎶 Cool! Yeah, a PhD in Neurobiology. I'm a research scientist / data scientist, worked in a lab at a research institute. Very niche, I know. I'm actually trying (and failing) to break out of the academic research trap. Unless you're a tenured professor, it's a very poor career choice. And, turns out, not terribly useful in the real world. Who knew?
But yeah, I really did enjoy the subject and the research. I'd like to go in a more clinical direction so I can actually help people with diseases like Parkinson's. Especially when I read first hand accounts like yours and Carol St. Ann 20yrs (06-26).
Ѧͷͷΐ- That's awesome, and I'm very interested in your project. I speak science and data analysis, lol. My degree was chemical engineering. Did you earn a degree in Neurobiology? What do you do professionally?
A little late to be blogging, but my list has exploded, and I'm trying to collect all the pieces and glue it back together so it's at least recognizable tomorrow..
Website Revision
I designed the revision months ago, but didn't implement it until last night. Now that it's implemented, it's taken over my life. There are so many tweaks to make.
*thinks*
There were more things on the list...
*checks list*
Quick Goals Check:
... [Read more]
This blog topic was the brainchild of a consultation with ChatGPT, in which I asked, "Please provide me with a list of 100 vocabulary words that would make a narrative more whimsical and quirky". In an ironic meta example of whimsy, the list proved useless, but the dialog turned into an epiphany and a brilliant word bank idea I found very useful, indeed.
If Not Whimsy, Then What?
The conversation that followed is too long to publish here. The short version goes like this: I dec... [Read more]
Y'all, guess what?! I worked on my novel today. Thank you, Snowmaggeddon, for shutting down my school for two days and forcing me to get bored enough to accomplish this.
You may be wondering what prompted my poll in the Newsfeed about your pronunciation of the word, "Query" (which I'm calling my "query query"). If you haven't yet voted, go here:
Meet Mystic, riddling cat and envoy of Air:
Seek not what is not yours to find, said the voice. ... [Read more]
Warning: I'm about to get political. And then I'm going to talk about soup. It's a typical Music Monday up here in the Brandiwyn Blogosphere.
I try to keep my virtual mouth shut on social media when it comes to anything political, for a couple main reasons:
1. I own a small business, which employs two dozen people. It makes practical business sense not to offend the people in my community - or in my employ - who support us.
2. I'm a legitimate fence sitter moderate. I... [Read more]
Recital
Saturday's recital went smoothly. One student had an attack of performance anxiety, but she performed by the end of the session and did great! We finished and hauled all the instruments and gear back to the music school just in time for Snowmaggeddon to hit. We collected a ton of food (likely 150-200 lbs) but can't deliver it to the food pantry yet due to the storm, so it's currently all over my music-slash-exercise room (all nonperishable, so it's safe so long ... [Read more]
My meds kicked in. I accomplished a thing, and I feel better. (See my earlier rant at : )
I wrote a short story using combined prompts from and , which also fulfills my Week 4 commitment for .
.
I'm all about efficiency.
Now, about that earthquake poem... and maybe my weekly Friday review? ... [Read more]
This is ridiculous. I don't know if it's the Parkinson's or just general malaise, but I'm off my game today. My shoulders and trunk are swaying with dyskinesia. I can't focus. I've started and restarted this post probably a dozen times, but I'm determined to write something , to document why I didn't achieve today's goal, if nothing else.
Today's Goal
Today is supposed to be "The Bradbury Thursdays" - meaning, I have a short story to ... [Read more]
For today's edition of "Writing Wednesdays," I'm opening a discussion on the topic of poetry.
Disclaimer
I have never claimed to be a poet.
As a writer, I consider myself first and foremost an author of long-form fiction (think, novel trilogy and higher.) I recently revised my bio to identify as a "Professional world-builder and prolific author of partially-completed novel drafts." I excel at the partial draft, y'all, but poetry has never really been m... [Read more]
Most people know that Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was born the son of a Baptist minister in Atlanta. Did you also know how his musical upbringing connected MLK with his wife, Coretta Scott King and her family?
The Bride
Coretta Scott grew up in the small, segregated town of Heiberger, Alabama, where her parents owned a store. Her mother, Bernice, played piano at church. Coretta inherited her mother's musical talent: she was the l... [Read more]
Is it me, or are Sundays a little emptier around here than the other days?
First, my progress against writing goals. Then I'll tackle the "Self Sundays" list: Family, Leisure, Work, and Health.
Writing Goals
Blogged 5 of 7 days on WDC, but missed the topic "Writing Wednesdays"
Novel progress - wrote a little earlier in the week, but I do seem to be avoiding* it
Blogged Music Mondays topic at michelletuesday.com/blog
Wrote and submitted short story for... [Read more]
My Friday review goes to my favorite among my Cramp competitors. I highly recommend it. It's hilarious . Although, for the record, I read all of them, and there's honestly not a bad one in the bunch. Fierce competition today.
Also, I learned from 's story (which prompted a bit of Google research) that it's Lunar New Year's Eve today, kicking off the Chinese New Year. 2026 is the Year of the Horse. Happy New Year, if you celebrate.
Here is my ... [Read more]
I've been posting everywhere but my blog, so in case you missed any of it, here's what you missed.
A nerdy pre-appointment analysis for my doctor, including math, spreadsheets and graphs:
A formal complaint about my inability to maintain a schedule:
My completed Week 2 assignment for 26 Paychecks:
A short story for The Writer's Cramp and The Bradbury, which is also a background story for my stalled novel:
Pardon me while I frantically throw on some clean clo... [Read more]
I left Tuesdays off the blog schedule and had no intention of blogging today. Then the universe decided to throw me a day worth documenting. However, fair warning that this is literally a bullet-point list of my day and probably less interesting than yesterday's technical music theory analysis.
Yesterday, I went to get labs drawn and had a virtual endocrinologist appointment, then kicked off a full day of chaos at the music school.
Three of seven private teachers were absent, inc... [Read more]
The Internet - and Writing-com - are abundant with music-inspired writing. That makes me happy. But the majority of these creations were inspired by lyrics, not the actual music.
I invite you to consider letting the sounds of the music itself inspire you. I could write an entire book on the various ways we can compose and arrange musical instrumentation to represent life and emotions. But it's a busy day, so I'll start with the basics, and we'll call this Chapter 1.
Here are... [Read more]
I updated the contents of the Biography tab of my Portfolio and the introduction to this blog today.
Work:
At the music school, we wrapped up 2025 versions of all our logs, schedules, checklists, etc. and prepped 2026 versions. We closed the books for December and for 2025.
2025 was a terrible year for the school's profits.
Reasons:
- Our 7-year-old A/C died, and HVAC systems have doubled in price since we installed the last one in 2018.
- Our money guru had a stro... [Read more]
I changed my mind. (I'm allowed.) "Funny Fridays" have been canceled until further notice ( No jokes for YOU!)
Two reasons:
(1) My style of comedy is mostly improvisation, repartee, that sort of thing. I'm not even sure I can be funny on command (unless you're offering cake as a treat),
and
(2) I decided I wanted to carve time out for reviewing, and something had to go.
Friday Reviews:
...will happen, as implied, every Friday (unless I'm sick or... [Read more]
It's Thursday, so I owe you/myself/ somebody a short story.
On literally Day 2 of my new blogging schedule, and I slept off and on all day on the couch. The COVID and/or flu shot(s) I received yesterday were not well-received by my underprepared body. Therefore, my goal of blogging before lunch was not met.
However, you all didn't know about my self-imposed daily deadline until just now, and it's still Thursday, so here we are.
And with that, I give you:
Enjoy.... [Read more]
's blog post today inspired me to employ the scientific method to the following hypothesis.
Hypothesis : I suck at routine tasks.
Evidence :
Conclusion : Sometimes I accidentally meet all my goals, but "sometimes" =/= "routine", therefore, I do indeed suck at routine tasks.
Disclaimer: That wasn't actually the scientific method, since my "evidence" was anecdotal and a single data point does not a trend make. I could collect more data, but I could... [Read more]
I'm not a fan of resolutions. I understand why people make them: Goals are hard. They're hard to define and even harder to keep. And they're usually things we should be doing anyway, like making healthy choices, strengthening relationships, and completing tasks that either align with our passions or are required for basic survival. So we find a boost in the new year. Yet failure to keep resolutions beyond January is so likely that it's cliche.
Why is it so hard to do the t... [Read more]
, also known as Michelle Tuesday, is a musician, educator and writer hailing from Columbus, Ohio.
and gain official WDC "influencer" status, and I often find myself seduced by whimsy. Thus, my blogging strategy continues to evolve.
Music & music education
