(philadelphia -> dc) new car

justin and i went to see sufjan stevens and my brightest diamond last night in philly. on the way home we stopped off at darcars toyota and i bought a new prius. apparently tomorrow is the cutoff for the hybrid tax break.

(*dc) nothing

for the landmark wisdom class (which i'm taking) we are supposed to be keeping a diary of observations relating to our initiative, and also we are supposed to be doing daily anonymous good deeds and then writing about them. since i don't have a diary, this has kind of been serving that purpose, although i haven't been writing directly about my assignments.

but i wanted to write about yesterday's good deed. i took the girls to the baha'i center, as i usually do on sundays. we actually got there before devotions started, and as we sat down, i noticed a guy walking in who sat down in front of us. he had an amazing presence - i wanted to say something, but i had the girls and other friends were coming over to say hi. after devotions, i had to leave, and there was no chance to talk to him. so instead of just leaving, i wrote on the back of a receipt,

"you
have a
beautiful
countenance.
i don't know you,
but i have to leave.
thank-you for being
here. your
spirit touched
me."

and i darted back into the room and handed to him before i left.

i guess that's an anonymous good deed. a note of thanks is a good deed. and it was kind of anonymous, since he didn't know me. but my name was probably printed on the receipt. good deeds are easy. anonymity isn't really all that easy sometimes.

i thought i'd write about something nice since all i seem to be able to think about is how snowed under i am with huge incomplete projects, and how tired i am.

he had such a light and peaceful and happy demeanor. and all he was doing was sitting there. i wish i could be like that.

(*dc) internal chemical warfare

i would love to know if there's a body of research on the biochemistry of overwhelm and why it causes severe drowsiness. apparently i'm not the only one that has to fight the urge to nap when the deadlines are pressing. what evolutionary advantage would such biochemistry have, i wonder.

(*dc) uh oh

i knew it was a bad idea to leave everything on last night when i lay down to "take a nap." i woke up to the alarm on my ups (uninterrupted power supply) whining outside my door. this means bad. it means that all the studio equipment, the nice powered speakers, the computer, and all the hard drives took some sort of sudden power cut. it's strange that the loud bang this makes didn't wake me up (i guess i'm too conditioned now by the trash trucks outside my window), but the quiet whine would.

anyway, i'm very afraid to find out whether the data is all still there. i've been working in high-risk mode, not backing up any of my mixes because i don't have any space. i hope i haven't just blown it.

(dc) spinach

i'm home sick today. a few minutes ago i was working away with headphones on and suddenly i saw south run across the room to the door with her mouth open. i took the headphones off and she was crying this weird cry and looking scared. she was acting unusually skittish, like animals sometimes do before earthquakes and tornados. i texted justin to see if maybe something bad had just happened, like a bomb or something.

he goes,

"2 people died of spinach. does that count?"

that justin. he's a goofball.

(dc) eris

i'm thinking if i ever have a daughter (which i probably won't, so this is probably safe to say), i'd like to name her Eris, after the new dwarf planet named after the greek goddess of chaos and strife.

(dc) usbcell batteries

wow. *this* is a fantastic idea.

(dc) deeds

"The essence of faith is fewness of words and abundance of deeds; he whose words exceed his deeds, know verily his death is better than his life." -Tablets of Baha'u'llah

(dc) crushed

i feel crushed.

(dc) instincts

i have a very strong instinct right now to withdraw from the world. i'm sure it's a phase (probably hormonal), and with any luck it will pass without incident. for a couple days out of each month (this day is one of them) i feel lonely and unfulfilled and i cry easily.

why, just last night i cried myself to sleep after an unresolved upset. i think the solution is just to focus on the work i have to do.

but at times like this, it feels like i'm wasting my youth and my sexual vigor away - dissipating it into thin air.

(dc) ruhi 2 cd finished

this is a strictly documentary-style post to remind myself of when i finished mixing the ruhi 2 cd songs and took the stacks of songs to be mastered.

(dc) harmonica

the thing about producing is that if you desperately need a blues harmonica part on a song and it's the day before you have to get the mixes to the mastering house and you don't know any blues harmonica players and all you have is two identical harmonicas in the wrong key, you somehow have to make it work anyway and write/record the part yourself. even if you don't know how to play the harmonica. to get an end result that isn't heinously bad or at best doesn't stand out in any way takes way longer than you'd think. at least when i do it. i spent 6 hours yesterday learning how to play the harmonica and scurrying 190 times into and out of my vocal booth (aka the bathroom closet), and it remains to be seen whether the part will stand the test of time. but what's done is done.

the rest of the hours of the day yesterday were spent writing and recording stand-up bass, organ, and rhodes. i have slightly more facility on these instruments, but it still takes me hours to write parts and flesh out a song around a backbone, especially when it's in a style (blues) that i don't have in my blood. the process is a whole lot more fun when there is no time pressure, but it never seems to happen unless i'm under a deadline.

hooray for deadlines.

(dc) stupid stuffbakes

one of the biggest little joys in my life is the way my cellphone makes up words when it doesn't know them. today's winner was "stuffbakes," instead of "studebaker." the new name for my car is gonna be stuffbakes.

sweet sweet stuffbakes.

(dc) coming attractions

little does he know, the castle always explodes in trimph over the romantic moment.

(dc) ixnay on ontrealmay

to all those people to whom i told i was moving to montreal, scratch that. i will be staying in DC for the time being, as per today's decision by my NASA management (for reasons of bureaucratic constipation). i'm disappointed, but ultimately happy with the decision becuase...well...it's a decision, and now i can get on with loving life in DC. i really do love it here and was starting to get quite nostalgic at the thought of leaving.

(dc) too open

it is sometimes very painful keeping an open heart. i can see why people protect themselves.

(dc) demotions

not only is pluto no longer a planet (a development i pretty much agree with), but the "Exploration of the Universe Division" here at NASA Goddard was renamed the "Astrophysics Science Division," which, in my mind, is a tragic demotion. my heart goes out to all those gsfc employees who used to get to put "Exporation of the Universe Division" on their business cards, but now are stuck with just "Astrophysics Science Division."

granted, this doesn't rank with real world problems, but...still. someone's got to give this some due diligence grieving.

it's a bit like when they changed my friend's title from "Chief of Space" to "Chief, Space and Life Sciences Division."

all good names must come to a re-org.

(dc) all hail david bowie

the doctor says my cotton wool spot is almost gone. what caused it remains a mystery. he said it was probably a virus for which they have no test.

in the meantime test show that i don't have diabetes, aids, toxoplasmosis, rheumatoid arthritis, hypertension, lyme disease, or any of the other things that are usually associated with cotton wool spots.

(san jose -> newark -> dc) rain face