Don't Do Drugs or an Owl Might Rip Your Face Off, Season 4, Episode 4

This week started off with an absolute panic attack!  You see, the university makes us jump through a number of hoops in the pursuit of a graduate degree.  One of them, as you might recall from one of my very early posts, is passing the diagnostic exams.  There are exams in:

• form and analysis,
• canon and fugue,
• music history, and
• harmony.

 You get two tries to pass each exam.  If you don't pass, you have to either take a remedial course or complete an assignment.  When I first took the exams, I was told that I had to pass everything before graduation.  However, when I retook the exams about a month ago, they told us everything needed to be passed before any work could commence on a dissertation or thesis.

So, here I am in my last (fingers crossed) semester of coursework and I found out on Monday that I did not pass canon and fugue.  And, I am being required to take the remedial course.  And I don't have any room in my schedule for it this semester.  And it is already the third week of classes, so it is nearly impossible to move things around.

Don't worry, I met with the professor this morning and satisfied my remediation and all is good in the world.  What's more, I understand fugues now!  This is what I learned.

• If the statement starts on the 1st scale degree, the answer is a real answer and starts on the 5th scale degree.
• If the statement starts on the 5th scale degree, the answer is a tonal answer and starts on the 1st scale degree.

 In Seminar, we nailed down our work for the semester.  And I am super excited about it.  We are going to use the semester to each produce a paper and presentation on a topic that interests us.  We will be able to use the paper for our Preliminary Paper and we will be giving our presentations at a mock conference we put on here at Temple.  I think this is a very meaningful and authentic learning experience and one which I am greatly looking forward to.  I will be writing about using chamber music in large ensemble classes as a vehicle for student creative thinking.  (Noticing a trend here?)

Monday night, I planned to hit the sack as soon as I got home from Night Owls.  But, one of my roommates, who has asked to remain nameless, and I ended up discussing band music - you know, one of those riveting topics that never fails to engage.  We wound up diving into my cache of military (and other) band recordings and listening to tune after tune after tune.  I hadn't listened to many of those recordings in a long time.  It turns out my ear has matured (or at least changed) and some of my favorite recordings no longer engaged me the way they used to.  It was both enlightening and sad at the same time.  My roommate and I do agree, however, on the awesomeness of Gandolfi's Flourishes and Meditations on a Renaissance Theme.  You should listen to it.  Incidentally, here is a recording!

Remember how I decided to try to establish a graduate student music education journal?  Well, this week I tasked myself with asking as many questions as I could come up with.  I wasn't expecting to have so many questions!

• Who?

o   Who will be able to submit papers to the journal?

o   Who will review the papers submitted to the journal?

o   Who will approve papers for publication?

o   Who will staff the journal and in what capacity?

§  Editorial Board?

§  Copy Editors?

§  Proofreaders?

o   Who will design the layout?

o   Who will be in charge of publishing approved papers to the journal?

o   Who will read the journal?

o   Who owns the rights for any published papers?

• What?

o   What will be the identity of the journal?  Is it a real journal, or just a practice one?

o   What will be the criteria for submission?

o   What will the journal look like?

o   What form will the journal take: online or print?

o   What publishing tools are available for online and print journal design?

§  Open Journal Systems is a free, open-source journal management software.  I will need to meet with Sandy to determine if the university server has the functionality we need to use the program.  https://pkp.sfu.ca/ojs/

o   What is the functionality of Open Journal Systems (above)?

o   What web design skills are needed to publish online?

o   What will the journal be named?

o   Does the journal need a logo?

o   Do the name, logo, and any other identifying information of the journal need to be copyrighted or trademarked?

o   What are DOI numbers and do we need them?

o   What does an Editorial Board do?

o   What is an OA Policy and do we need it?

§  Creative Commons Attribution?

o   Do we need an ISSN?

• Where?

o   If online, where will the journal be hosted?

o   If physical, where will the journal be printed?

o   Where will the archives and backup data be housed?

•  When?

o   When will the journal be published?

§  Issues or rolling submission?

o   When will submissions be due?

o   When will reviews be completed?

o   When will revisions be due?

• Why?

o   Why is there a need for this journal?

o   Why should the university sponsor the journal?

o   Why should grad students submit to the journal on top of all the other requirements of the degree programs?

•  How?

o   How will students be notified of calls for papers?

o   How will students submit papers to the journal?

o   How will submissions remain anonymous to the reviewers, but not to the journal?

o   How will reviewers be assigned?

o   How will submissions be approved for publication?

o   How will the journal be advertised to and shared with the intended audience?

o   How will any expenses be funded?

o   Can papers published in the journal subsequently be submitted for publication in established journals?  Would the papers need to be deleted from the online journal if this is possible?  What if there was a print issue?

I did find a really cool article about how to set up an open source journal.  My next step is to read the article and start to answer some of the questions.  If you are interested, here is the link: https://www.martineve.com/2012/07/10/starting-an-open-access-journal-a-step-by-step-guide-part-1/

I have been having some trouble with instrument repair.  The students last semester asked for more time for instrument repair.  So, I added a second session.  But, nobody has been coming to the second session!  Two weeks in a row, nobody showed up.  Well, that is not true.  I had one student come this past week.  I think I am going to have to cancel the second session.  

I realized this blog entry has very little multimedia in it.  I usually try to use a lot of pictures, videos, and sounds to liven things up.  But, it just didn't happen this time around.  So, I will make up for it with one final video.  It's topical because Temple's mascot is the owl.

Well, kids, remember: don't do drugs or an owl might rip your face off.

That is all for this week.

Future Dr. Mitch, out!

What about the Jews? Season 4, Episode 3

 So, this week in History and Philosophy of Music Education, we explored music and music education in colonial and early America.  Not only did we examine this period of American musical history, we did so through the lens of two American sub-groups often underrepresented in music education curricula: women and African Americans.  As I read the weekly course material, I think I had a different reaction than most might have.  I read at length about issues surrounding the church's place in music education, the music and music education of slaves, and the role of women in music and music education.  I couldn't help but ask, "what about the Jews?"  Amidst the lengthy descriptions of American Christian musical heritage, there was not a single mention of the Jewish experience.

Often, the squeaky wheel gets the oil.  And certain American sub-groups are louder than others in the quest for recognition.  Women and African Americans are two such groups.  But, is it enough to just address those who are making noise?  What about other, quieter groups of people who have rich culture and traditions? I don't want my American experience and the American experience of my culture to be marginalized.  But, how can we possibly do justice to every component of the American "melting pot?"  I can't answer that question yet and I am not sure it has an answer.  What I do have are some interesting tidbits about the early American Jews and their music that I discovered after feeling left out of the materials for my class.  Here is the story of the first American Jews:

While there were Jewish individuals who made their way to America, the first American Jewish community is accepted to have been established in 1654.  There had been a pretty substantial Jewish community in Dutch-controlled Brazil.  When Portugal got Brazil back from the Dutch, the Jews left.  Many of them settled in places around the Caribbean, some went home to Amsterdam, and one boatload of 23 Jews wound up in New Amsterdam (which became New York).  Peter Stuyvesant, the governor of New Amsterdam, did not want Jews in his colony and ordered their deportation.  Unfortunately for him, but fortunately for us, he was under the employ of the Dutch West India Trading Company, which was funded, in part, by wealthy Dutch Jews.  So, the hateful, anti-semetic Governor Stuyvesant














was overruled by his Jewish bosses.

The Dutch West India Company sent 5 affluent Jewish families to help settle the Jews in their new home.  And Jewish immigration to New Amsterdam commenced from Amsterdam and Dutch territories.

What I found interesting is that the first Jewish settlers in America were not Ashkenazi; they were Sephardic.  See, what had happened was Spain did this little thing called the inquisition (what a show!).

To escape the horrors of the Inquisition (or possibly the horrors of being in a Mel Brooks movie), some crypto-Jews (Jews who publicly converted to Catholicism to escape persecution, but privately remained Jewish) fled Spain and settled in North Africa and the Mediterranean.  These Jewish communities came to be known as Sephardic Jews, from the Hebrew word for Spain: s'farad.  Some crypto-Jews elected to remain in Spain and practice Judiasm secretly.  But, as the Dutch were gaining their independence from Spain, crypto-Jews took the opportunity to move to Amsterdam.  You see, the Dutch, being protestant, welcomed the Jews as fellow haters of the Catholic Church and saw them as a beneficial addition to the middle and merchant classes needed to bolster the Dutch capitalist economy.  These Jews came to be known as Western Sephardic Jews and it was members of this community that immigrated to Brazil and finally to New Amsterdam.

The musical traditions of this Jewish community were an oral tradition passed from hazzan (cantor) to hazzan.  Western Sephardim, having been unable to practice Judiasm for so long, had no formal Jewish traditions left when they finally arrived in Amsterdam.  So, they employed Sephardic hazzanim from North Africa and the Mediterranean to come teach them the Sephardic Jewish musical traditions.  The Western Sephardim found this music hard to wrap their minds around.  It had been influenced by the musical traditions of the Islamic lands in which it had been flourishing and was characterized by a nasal timbre, rhythmic improvisation, melodic ornamentation, and non-western tonalities.  So, the Western Sephardim "westernized it, blending it with some of the European musical conventions they had become accustomed to as well as some of the Ashkenazi musical traditions.  It was this "composite" musical tradition that made its way to America.  The colonial American Jews were so concerned with the correctness of their musical tradition that they imported hazzanim from Amsterdam to ensure they did it right.  It is thought that the musical tradition was an incredibly important part of their Jewish identity because of the expense paid to bring in musical experts.

There was a choir in the Western Sephardic tradition.  The choir was a set group of trained singers whose job was to provide a musical example for the congregation and lead them through the sung prayers.  The choir sang in unison and it is unknown how often they were used in synagogue services. 

There are some obvious reasons why the Jewish musical tradition of the American colonies has become lost in the Christian tradition that dominated the American colonies.  First, the Jewish tradition was an oral one whereas the Christian tradition included notation.  Second there, were so few Jews in relation to the number of Christians.  By the American Revolution, there were only 5 cities with established Jewish communities: New York, Newport, Savannah, Charleston, and Philadelphia.  And third, though we are all taught that the Americas were founded as a place for religious freedom, it was really only founded as a place for religious freedom for some, not all.  Though, the Jews were allowed to settle in New Amsterdam, Stuyvesant and later, the British, imposed restrictions on when and how the Jews could observe their religion.  Some of Stuyvesant's decrees were overturned by the Dutch West India Company.  But, it wasn't until 1730 that the first Synagogue in New Amsterdam was allowed to be built.  One of the early synagogues, Mikveh Israel (founded in 1740), still operates today in Philadelphia using the Western Sephardic musical tradition observed in colonial times.  I think I may go check it out!  Does anyone want to come?

If you want to read more about the musical history of Jews in America, I found this great website: http://www.milkenarchive.org/articles/view/introduction-to-volume-1#colonial


Other than that, not a lot of note happened last week.  I still feel like I am struggling through the technology for the online class.  I am not convinced that will change.

Well, folks, they can't all be amazingly interesting weeks.  But, I hope next week will be more exciting for you.  I should be getting back to my scholarly reading, so I will have some fun articles to review for your next week.

Until then, Future Dr. Mitch, out!

Indiana, Season 4, Episode 2.5

Don't freak out.  You didn't miss anything.  The 2.5 above is because Blogger is experiencing technical issues and I had to work around something.  Moving on...

Sometimes, it is nice to dip your toe in the water and ease your way in.

This was not that kind of week.

 You might remember that last semester I was building a digital database using FileMaker Pro for the music education instrument inventory.  The database is meant to move us away from paper records and keep all records electronically.  Well, I designed quite the database.  By the end of the semester, it was operational and I had populated all the instrument information.  All that was missing was a signature pad so loan forms could be signed digitally.  I found a company who makes a FileMaker Pro plugin for signature pads, and we bought the plugin and the pad.  I was super excited when it came in this past week.  I took it to the pet shop, plugged it in, and

it did not work.  I spent hours trying to get it working to no avail.  I ended up calling the company for tech support and the guy I spoke to told me, "hmm... it should work.  I don't know what to tell you.  Call us back if you figure out what is wrong."  So incredibly helpful, thank you, Mr. Man.  I will keep you all updated.

Last semester, Graduate Seminar in Music Education was less than successful.  Thankfully, the faculty heard our feedback and did something about it.  At our first session this past week, the faculty sat us down and asked for our input.  They wanted to know what we hoped to get out of the seminar experience.  I applaud the faculty for realizing they were not meeting our needs and involving us in the process of course correcting (pardon the pun).  Many great ideas were offered by my classmates.  My suggestion came from an idea I had last semester for a seminar project.  I suggested that we put together a graduate student journal.  It would be a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal modeled after the major journals of the field.  I am excited to see what the faculty decides to do with seminar now that they have heard our ideas.

Later in the week, I had a meeting with Dr. C. to discuss my independent study for the semester.  We decided on two projects.  

Project #1

Last fall we hosted a community band symposium.  You might remember my post on the event.  Our undergrads participated in the event.  I thought it was wonderful that our students get the opportunity to be so immersed in the community band world, with events such as this one and Night Owls being hosted at the university.  So, I started to wonder: is there a connection between music majors' attitudes toward the importance of community bands and whether there is a community band at their university.  So, I am going to research this.

Project #2

I started thinking that the graduate student journal that I proposed in seminar might be better served as a separate entity than as part of a course.  So, I proposed that I use my independent study to set it up.  Dr. C. agreed.  She also told me that she was very impressed with this idea.  In her words, "this idea has teeth."  She told me that she is often impressed with how innovative my ideas are.  Hearing that made me feel really positive about my future as a music education professor.  I think it bodes well for me that I am able to keep coming up with ideas that push the boundaries and challenge the accepted conventions of the field.  So, I will be setting up the framework for the journal by answering the essential questions: who, what, where, when, why, and how.  I hope to have everything set up so we can get started in the fall and publish our first issue before winter break.

Dr. C. did make an astute observation during our meeting she said that I have so many ideas and interests that I have the tendency to spread myself thin.  She recommended I take the time to list out everything that I have to do this semester so I can properly allocate my time and design the scope of my projects to fit the time I have.  So, here is my list

• Classes
• Wind Symphony
• Graduate Seminar in Music Education
• Night Owls
• History and Philosophy of Music Education
• Wind Repertory
• Independent Study
• Community Band Research Project
• Graduate Student Journal
• Diagnostic Exam Make Up Assignments
• Form and Analsis
• Counterpoint
• History
• Study for Preliminary Exams
• Pre Dissertation Work
• IRB Protocol
• First Three Chapters
• Introduction
• Review of Literature
• Methodology
• Repair Workshop
• Paper for Publication
• Supervise a Student Teacher

Yikes!

The History and Philosophy of Music Education is an online class.  I swore I would never take another online class after my master's degree.  But, Dr. C. strongly recommended I take this one, so here I am.  This class is a little different than my master's degree.  It is a synchronous class, meaning that we all log in at the same time and are able to interact with one another.  That being said, the technology is still a bit clunky and it slows the pace of the class.  I admit to being less than engaged during the class period.  I am trying to stay positive, but I think I am going to have to suffer through this one.

Good news!  My sessions got accepted for the Connecticut Music Educators Association Conference.  So I will be speaking there at the end of April.

And now for the main event: the poster session at the Indiana Music Educators Association Conference.

In Preparation

For the poster session, we were instructed to have 30 copies of our abstract for interested parties to take with them.  I decided to do a nice, color layout because I get free color printing at school.

Doesn't that look nice?  Well, I waited until Wednesday to print it out (I left Thursday morning) and the printer at school was churning things out with yellow splotches all over them.  So, I went down to the library to do the printing.  But, they wanted 50 cents per page!  So, I went to Staples to print them.  They wanted 54 cents per page!  So, I decided to print them at home.  But, when I got home, I realized that my color ink cartridge was out of ink.  At this point, it was 8:45 pm.  I had just enough time to make it to Target before they closed.  I made it before closing, only to find out that Target doesn't carry that ink!  I ended up having to pack my printer, stop at Staples on my way to Indiana, and print my abstract at the hotel.  It ended up turning out fine.  Lesson learned: don't wait till the last minute.

The other thing I had to do when I got to the hotel was iron my suit.  I kept telling myself along the drive, "don't forget to iron your suit."  So, when I got to the hotel, I started printing the abstracts and then went to iron my suit.  Problem: I left me suit back in Philadelphia.  I had 30 minutes before stores closed to go buy a suit.  Luckily, there was a JCPenny right up the street and I was able to buy a suit before the store closed.  Lesson learned: make a packing list.

The Poster Session
I felt well-prepared for the poster session.  Dr. C. had given a very detailed account of what the Pennsylvania poster session is like: 100s of researchers, with their posters on the wall around a large room, talking to people in a packed room about their research.  When we were designing our posters in Research class last semester, Dr. C. made sure to tell us that these are professional posters, not the kind you put together with glue sticks and glitter.  This is what I was prepared for; this is not what I encountered.  When I arrived at the conference I was directed to the poster area.  It did not have its own room.  Rather, it was in the exhibition hall... in the back of the exhibition hall... in the back corner of the exhibition hall.  I felt like I was being punished for something.  When I got back to the poster area, I did not find 100s of posters. There were only 7 of us, though when I set up there were only 3 posters up already.  The first thing I noticed was that there was no wall.  They had set up tables for free-standing posters.  Nothing in the information told me that the poster needed to be free-standing.  Thankfully, this was the midwest where people are nice.  One of the facilities workers got me an easel and some cardboard so I could display my poster.

Once I had my poster set up, I examined the others already displayed.  The first one was nicely done.  The other two, both from the same university, looked like something out of a middle school science fair.  They consisted of sheets of computer paper, attached to tri-fold science fair displays with what I am assuming was glue stick.  Yikes!

The people on either side of me showed up later.  The guy to my left arrived assuming he would hang his poster on a wall as well.  I am glad I wasn't the only one!  It turns out, his research was on the same topic as mine.  Initially, I was disappointed.  I thought his research might make mine unnecessary.  But, as we talked I learned that we were investigating the problem from different angles.  He was looking at the ensemble outcomes and I was looking at the individual outcomes.  I think there might be some future collaboration for us.

It turns out that I knew the person to my right.  She worked with me in PG County for a couple years before going to get her Ph.D.  She teaches now at a small college in Indiana.  After catching up for a while, she invited me to come to her school to do a day of lectures and presentations, and conduct her band.  Score!

The Crowd
We were instructed to be at our posters to talk to the people for 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the afternoon.  Take a guess how many people came to talk about the posters in the morning?

What did you guess?  Was it 1 or more?  Then, you are wrong.  Not a single person come by to talk to us.  The afternoon was only marginally better.  There were two people that stopped by the poster.  One was a doctoral student from Indiana University and the other was a professor from Vandercook.  Both were good conversations, but I wanted to talk to more people!

Conclusions
The poster session, itself was underwhelming to say the least.  But, I did learn that I enjoy going to conferences on my own.  It forces me to meet and talk to new people.  I did some pretty solid networking while I was there.  In addition to the two people I already mentioned, I met a professor from Indiana University who gave a session on cognition.  We spoke about the overlaps between her presentation and the reading I have been doing on creative cognition.  We decided to trade reference lists and speak again after reading some new things.  I also met a professor (I forget which school he is from) who is interested in participating in my community band study.  So, it was a productive trip, just not in the way I thought it would be.

Well, that is it for now.  Try to stay warm out there this week!

Future Dr. Mitch, out!

Here we go again! Season 4, Episode 1

So, I know I said there would be more installments of the end of semester wrap up.  But, I made a new friend over break which kept me from being as productive as I should have been.  Let me introduce you to him.





Everyone, meet salmonella; salmonella meet everyone.  Yes, that's right, folks.  I was down with a pretty bad case of food poisoning over break.  As best I can determine, I got it from my obligatory Jewish dining experience of eating Chinese food on Christmas.  I wonder, does this count as a hate crime?

Anyway, let me catch you up on winter break.  First, here are the numbers from last semester:

Yes, that is an A- in Seminar.  That is a whole story unto itself, which I don't have time to dive into at this point.

So, over break, I applied to present at a few conferences.  I sent in my application to present at the fall NAfME conference.  I had such an incredible learning experience presenting at that conference this past fall; I am so hopeful that I will be able to present at this conference again.  I was accepted to present my research poster, "What about the 2nd Violins," at the Indiana Music Educators Association conference poster session.  That is happening this Friday, so you will get a full report next week on how that went.  I also have two pending session proposals for the Connecticut Music Educators Association conference.  We were supposed to hear back about that conference last month, but I got an email from them last week assuring me that they had just fallen behind and acceptances would be sent out soon.  So, lets keep our fingers crossed for that one!  Dr. C. had submitted a proposal for us to present at the spring NAfME conference, but I found out today that it was not accepted.  We are going to try to resubmit that one for another conference.  So, in short, there are tons of conferences in my future, it seems!

This semester is going to be an interesting one.  I am taking:

• Graduate Seminar in Music Education
• Night Owls
• Wind Symphony
• The History and Philosophy of Music Education
• Wind Repertory
• Supervised University Music Teaching
• Independent Study
• Preliminary Exam Prep

I am trying to transfer my Villanova summer music ed credits into Temple.  If they are accepted, this will be my final semester of classes.  That means that I could potentially be starting my dissertation in the fall, which means I have a lot to do in preparation this semester.  I have to write my IRB proposal and get started on the first three chapters of the dissertation, as well as studying for and passing the preliminary exam.  Yikes!

In other exciting news, I have officially gotten my first university job.  I am an instructor at a Pennsylvania university, where I will be supervising student teachers.  This semester, I only have one student teacher to supervise, but I imagine there will be others in the future.

In a deliberate effort to ensure I keep up with this blog, I have scheduled time every Monday to write my weekly entries.  So, you can look forward to regular posts again.

Until next week, Future Dr. Mitch, out!

Mitch vs. the Computer, Season 3, Episode 8

Well, folks, another semester is in the books... and what a semester is was!  I am going to write abou the end of my semester in installments so it doesn't turn into an epic novel.  First, I have to apologize for waiting so long to write a post.  I have been having trouble with my computer, which prevented me from doing any kind of work.  The story of my computer woes is a long and boring one - one which you probably have no interest in hearing.  So, here it is: the story of my battle with the computer!

Mitch vs the Computer
Right in the middle of finals week, I was preparing a final paper for Learning Theory in Music.  I was hard at work, really in the zone, and my computer made a really disturbing noise and flashed an error message.  It read something to the effect of, "Your hard drive has malfunctioned. Back up all your data immediately. The next time you see this message, you may lose all your data."  Well, crap!  So, I backed up my data and continued working.  I had no time to go computer shopping before everything was due, so I had to hold out hope that my computer would make it till after finals were over.  I did see that error message a few more times, but I was able to keep working through it and didn't lose anything.

Once finals were over, I had a decision to make: I could replace my whole computer or I could replace the hard drive.  Not wanting to be wasteful and throw out a whole computer because of one malfunctioning part, I elected to buy a new hard drive.  How hard could it be to install a new drive in the computer?  (Very hard, it turns out.  But we will get there soon enough).  I did some shopping around and decided to go with an upgrade to a solid state drive instead of a replacement hard disk drive.  I figured it I was going to spend money, I should buy something that would increase my computer's performance.  I went with the Crucial MX200 drive.



 It has the same amount of space as my old drive and it comes with software to clone the old disk onto the new disk.  You see, you can't just plug a new disk into your laptop.  If you take the old disk out, your operating system goes with it and the computer wont run, even with the new disk in it.  So, you have to copy an exact image of your old drive onto the new drive before you can plug it into your system.  Luckily, the software that comes with this drive makes it an easy process... as long as your old drive is working properly... which mine wasn't.

So, I tried to clone the old disk and got an error message.  There was a bad sector on the old disk, which prevented it from cloning.  Well, crap!  So, now I was faced with the task of doing a fresh install of the operating system on the new disk: something I had no idea how to do.  So, it turns out, I had to create boot media on a USB flash drive, set the computer to boot from the USB instead of from the hard drive, and boot up the computer with both the new drive and the USB drive plugged in.  Microsoft provides the utility to make the USB boot device, so that was fine.  All I needed was the product key for my copy of Windows 10.  But, Microsoft does not provide product keys anymore.  They are embedded in the computer's firmware, something that is super hard to access if you don't know how.  (I didn't know how).  So, I called Microsoft to get help.  Well, it turns out that the license Microsoft sells for Windows 10 does not license the operating system to your computer, it licenses it to your hardware configuration.  So, by installing a new hard drive, and thusly altering the hardware configuration, I forfeited the license for Windows 10 and had to buy a new copy.  Well, crap!

Windows 8, however, is not licensed that way.  Window 8 is licensed to the computer.  And my computer was originally sold as a Windows 8 machine.  So to install a new copy of Windows 8 on my new drive, all I had to do was revert my operating system to the original factory settings... which is really easy to do... as long as you have a healthy hard drive... which I didn't.  I started the utility that resets the computer to its original settings and after hours of watching a black screen with a little swirling status circle display slowly increasing progress percentages, the computer flashes an error message: Windows installation has failed, reverting to your previously installed Windows version.  So, that took me back to Windows 10, which was no help.  I tried again, and again, and on the third install attempt, Windows 8 took root and the computer booted up in Windows 8.  Progress!

Microsoft, though, does not offer the utility to make a USB boot device for Windows 8, but it does for Windows 8.1.  But, that is a simple (and free) upgrade which is easy to do... if you have a healthy hard drive... which I didn't.  When I first tried to upgrade to Windows 8.1, my computer told me that I needed to install a number of Windows updates before it could install Windows 8.1.  Well, I had the same trouble doing that as installing Windows 8.  I had to try multiple times before the updates would successfully install.  And then, I had the same trouble with Windows 8.1.  I tried to do the upgrade and the computer kept reaching an error message: Windows installation has failed, reverting to your previously installed Windows version. Well, that took me back to Windows 8, which I could not install on my new hard drive.  Finally, Windows 8.1 took hold and I was able to boot up my computer using Windows 8.1.

The USB startup media utility from Microsoft was easy enough to run.  Armed with my USB boot device, I was ready to install Windows on my new drive.  All I had to do was enter the BIOS settings and put USB at the top of the boot order.  Problem: USB was not listed as an option in the boot order!  It took a bunch of research, but I finally figured out that I had to plug the USB into the computer for it to show up in the BIOS settings.  With that knowledge in hand, I installed the new drive into the computer, plugged the USB into the jack, started up the computer, and Windows 8.1 installed seamlessly...

... though, once the computer booted up under the new operating system, it just shut right off.  No error message, no warning, no crash report.  It just shut off.  So, I restarted and I had a successful boot.  And then it just shut off again.  No error message, no warning, no crash report.  This happened a few times.  Until I finally managed to get in a clean restart after boot up and it has been running well ever since.  The new drive has improved performance immensely!  I like how the computer is running now.

After a really long battle, Mitch for the win!

Installment 2 to come...