Howling Mime

music day!

May 17th, 2009

great to have time again.

had friends over — after meeting to talk through our approach to the plagiarism detection challenge, a few of us hopped over to play a bunch of music. it was great! first time we’d gotten together to play music in six months, but we all switched around from keys to drums, to bass to guitar, and a few of us played percussion, accordion, and flute. made for a nice afternoon that bled into the evening with multiple drum circles and a fourth player who came in in the last hour.

need to have people over every week to play music. just so much fun.

then played more music by myself in the later evening while kristin caught up with an old friend on the phone.

finishing up some of harlan ellison’s shatterday stories. good reads, all, so far.

i feel so relaxed — all the pent-up-frustratedness has been blasted away by sonic movements.

Tags: music, stories
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leaving there

May 13th, 2009

that’s right. no more. master’s is all it’s gonna be.

now i can focus on starting a business on the side, working on stories, poems, music, taking hikes, and basically having my life back. it’s a good thing.

not easy to face, but it’s time. and now i have the time.

so, boldly go i in to the night.

look out world.

as for ut, one day i’ll have a building built there with my name attached. i’ll definitely be back in one form or another!

starting a future blog now, where i’ll place notable events i expect over the rest of my life.

that’s where i’ll be. leaving there.

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uptime

March 12th, 2009

computer uptime should be maximized. this is why when someone pulls the plug on one of your machines, you should ask why. especially true if your machine processes operational datasets for scientists… i’ll never forget the time i was travelling for work and received an email saying one of my machines was taken off the network without consulting me. i had to have one of the principal investigators drive the process to get it re-plugged while i was in d.c. for a conference. frustrating. unix machines should remain up! they get offended otherwise.

human uptime needs to be moderated. after many insomnia-driven spurts of creativity and workaholism over the past few years, i’ve come to undersntand i need more sleep. this time allows the body to heal, the mind to store ideas long term, and the spirit wander into new domains.

one thing that will hopefully remain up for some time is this short story i submitted a few months back to aphelion magazine, now published online. good news for people who want more publications. good to have someone outside my social group find my work worthy of sharing with a wider audience.

hope for more of these over the course of this year, asuming i regularly submit work. but i’m not going to lose any sleep over it…

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are you listening?

March 9th, 2009

realized that i need more negative space in my mind. been spending a lot of time and energy making things, to great success, but also to great mental excess. it’s time to focus purely on work and the thesis for the next few months.

this will give me more time to sit and listen. to myself, to the world.

interesting parallel in tonight’s film, the lives of others, a well-regarded german film that went home with the oscar for the best foreign language film back in 2006.

are you listening, self?

Tags: film, german, philosophy, space
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an acquired taste

March 7th, 2009

woke up with a sore throat; have had hints of this for a few days now. could be the late nights coding, the lack of sleep in general, specific stresses that i won’t go into now, or possibly allergies, as we’re getting pretty deep into spring here, and everything’s opening up, sending buds forth accompanied by new pollens.

spent the morning making french toast, cleaning house and recording a few demos. then the rest of the day with kristin. had a bad meal out (happens every now and again – remind me never to try an “asian” buffet again… especially with so much good food so close to the house)

after three rejections from other magazines, i had one of my stories, “an acquired taste”, accepted in aphelion magazine today. i’ll post the url when it shows up on the site. this is good news; finally acceptance in a magazine that i’m not involved with on the editorial side! if my throat would allow me to drink wine, i’d toast this. for now it’ll have to be a tea toast.

my writing, it appears, is an acquired taste!

Tags: publishing, sick, stories, stress, writing
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