meet me under the spiral cement truck

(somerville) new start

2008-12-03T00:08:00.000-05:00

best of the best

2008-05-07T13:34:00.003-04:00

here is today's pick for the best interweb page describing the best warning signage ever.

(dc -> houston) daddy

2008-05-05T09:29:00.004-04:00

i wrote about daddy and the crazy dancing song last night on the nonalignment pact blog, for those who might be interested (patrick! :) ). i posted a few of my favorite songs of his.

(*dc) beautiful data

2008-04-17T10:50:00.003-04:00

i like having a job where i routinely hear, "these are beautiful data." (or, more commonly, "this is beautiful data." i make the grammar corrections in my head).

(dc) regular nap

2008-04-14T12:11:00.006-04:00

the powers at be at the music blog, the nonalignment pact (NAP), have invited me to be a regular blogger for them. they let me choose between saturday and sunday. i figured sundays i might have more to talk about if i can get myself out of the studio on saturday nights to go to shows or other interesting music-related activities.

this week i wrote about the cassettes at yuri's night dc.

(dc) orreries

2008-04-09T10:10:00.009-04:00

i'm coming out of the closet officially with my obsession with orreries.

aren't they beautiful?

i want to talk to these guys:

how is it that i've spent about 5 months of my life in vienna, and i've never seen the globe museum??

also, i think i met this guy who built a generative music sculpture based on gravity equations at yuri's night last year.

and here is one made from lights.

(dc) solution

2008-04-02T15:37:00.002-04:00

nasa humor:

if you're not part of the solution
you're part of the precipitate.

(dc) guest geek

2008-04-01T17:41:00.003-04:00

i guest-posted on the nonalignment pact music blog today about my data sonification project.

(dc) well, that and

2008-03-26T03:43:00.004-04:00

i really love that a surprisingly large percentage of hits to my blog come from people searching on things having to do with cement trucks, like "how cement trucks work" or "cement truck mechanics." perhaps i should provide some useful links for those people, who are no doubt sorely disappointed when this old rag comes up as one of the top links in their google search. but honestly, there is a dearth of information out there about cement trucks. why is that? do i need to start a cement truck informational website? and the sad thing is that the more times i type cement truck in this post, the more likely it is to come up on a google search for those poor souls seeking real information about cement trucks, cement mixers, etc. cement truck cement truck cement truck.

(*dc) i know i know

2008-03-18T03:35:00.003-04:00

i'm toying with the idea of shutting this little shop down, but some part of me thinks maybe i will someday think of something clever or meaningful to say, and if that lightning does strike, where would i write?

also, i think i'm starting to go old school again, thinking that if someone wants to get to know me, maybe the best way is to spend time with me. i'm not sure what's here represents who i really am.

i often turn to this blog when i'm lonely, so i guess it should be a good sign that there hasn't been much activity here lately.

(dc) happy new year

2008-02-07T22:52:00.000-05:00

happy rat year!

"People born in the Year of the Rooster are deep thinkers, capable, and talented. They like to be busy and are devoted beyond their capabilities and are deeply disappointed if they fail. People born in the Rooster Year are often a bit eccentric, and often have rather difficult relationship with others. They always think they are right and usually are! They frequently are loners and though they give the outward impression of being adventurous, they are timid. Rooster people¡¦s emotions like their fortunes, swing very high to very low. They can be selfish and too outspoken, but are always interesting and can be extremely brave. They are most compatible with Ox, Snake, and Dragon."

(dc) dangerous person

2008-01-09T21:00:00.000-05:00

best movie line in recent memory:

"i have two things to say:

1. i'm leaving tomorrow on a bus.

2. that could change."

- eagle vs. shark (2007)

(dc) haiku shake

2008-01-09T09:18:00.000-05:00

(toulouse, france) happy new year

2007-12-31T21:05:00.001-05:00

it's already 2008 here (3am jan 1).
people have gone to bed.

happy new year!

(dc) fun with patches

2007-12-26T12:24:00.000-05:00

i asked carl to name the patches he's creating. this one is called "squirrel 3 to houston"

(*dc) where did it go?

2007-12-23T14:59:00.000-05:00

it seems that more and more people are reading this blog, so if you're looking for posts that seem to have disappeared, they've been saved as drafts. some of them seemed a bit personal. used to be no one really stopped by except my sisters and a few close friends.

(*dc) bright side

2007-12-20T09:49:00.001-05:00

observation:

the one good thing
about having your worst fears
realized
is that
the fears then disappear

magic

:) yay!

(DC 178 7) snow day

2007-12-14T20:40:00.000-05:00

princess roses and balloons to n on her birthday today.

we called a no-go on the arts night show in boston this weekend due to weather. kat and i were planning to drive up together. she was going to fly back sunday and i was going to drive back with my car full of gear. they are due for a second slamming storm saturday night, and it looked like i might get stuck in boston sunday, so we cancelled. other katharine was going to cancel the whole night altogether, but when it looked like the storm would wait till past midnight, she decided instead to scramble to find a replacement performer.

i sorta forgot about winter when we booked this show 6 months ago, but winter comes to boston in a big way.

in full disclosure, i also wasn't feeling quite prepared for this performance. increased work demands - especially travel - have left me severely limited time for plain, old-fashioned practice and creating. nobody wanted us to risk the 16 hours of winter driving for a medi-okra show, especially if few people showed up because of the storm.

another factor that went into the decision was the appeal of being able to finish my film scoring homework, which has suffered at the bottom of my priority list for a third semester now. it's due tomorrow night. perhaps i will be able to salvage some integrity there and get it all finished, FINALLY.

it reminds me of those
rare delicious childhood days
when a foot of snow
would come on the days
of tests and a big homework assignments.

will i ever escape my childhood ways?

(San jose, ca -> dc) Kelly sunshine

2007-12-12T09:08:00.000-05:00

My father wrote songs for me and my sisters when we were born. What has always amazed me is how spot on he seemed to be with the lyrics. I've often wondered if this was blind luck or if the songs themselves played a role in shaping our personalities. Not surprisingly, I have always loved my song and the story that went with it - how I was born at sunrise as the sun came streaming in.

For 38 years I have heard the song played the same way with the same piano solo and the same modulation after the chorus. Last week I decided that it was time for me to start playing it. I slowed it down and put it in 3/4 time and raised it a step. Fortunately by now I pretty much already knew the song, what with having it imbedded in my DNA and all.

I'm performing it this weekend for the first time. We'll see if I can do it without crying.

hipsters, take your cynicism and go home.

Kelly Sunshine

By Gary O'Brien Snook

Life is so new
Kelly Sunshine
you brought the sun to my eyes
I'd like to help you through tomorrow
help you through the sorrows and pain

On the day you came along
I knew infinity
now you're here
and your blue eyes smile
so good to have you here

Walk with the wind
Kelly Sunshine
let the clouds be your friend
rain will fall and the flowers grow
and you'll have love in your eyes
and you'll have peace in your heart
and you'll be free
kelly sunshine

Life can be good
Kelly Sunshine
to thine own self be true
find a way to be happy
find a way to be you

On the day you came along
I knew infinity
now you're here
and your blue eyes smile
so good to have you here

Walk with the wind
Kelly Sunshine
let the clouds be your friend
rain will fall
and the flowers grow

And you'll have love in your eyes
you'll have peace in your heart
and youll be free
kelly sunshine

(dc) slip

2007-12-08T23:00:00.000-05:00

this time
i'll let it slip
off the first screens

no bump

out of sight
out of mind
out of heart

easy come
easy go
and so
and so
and so
it goes

(dc) balance

2007-12-08T09:39:00.000-05:00

why is it so hard
to find symmetry?
reciprocity
magic
generosity
i've got it in me.
i'm doing my part.

no fair.

if i were 21-30
or living within 5 miles
or petite
or a yogini
what then?
would that
bring the magic?

they think it's easier
not to say why

(dc -> LAX) pictures down

2007-12-01T04:22:00.000-05:00

argh - it looks like the site where i used to upload all the photos in my blog (before blogger had the nifty upload photo feature) is down, and they haven't restored the service. i guess this has been going on for some time, but i only just noticed. i'll try to get it taken care of.

in other news, the weekend after thanksgiving weekend is apparently the best possible time to travel. i've never seen friday night airport traffic so low, and i couldn't have had a smoother flight across the country.

(dc) ...

2007-11-29T16:12:00.000-05:00

...

(dc) frosty beaver

2007-11-23T11:57:00.000-05:00

From my friend Gordon:

The next full is on Saturday, November 24, 2007, at 9:30 a.m. EST. It will appear full for the three days around this time. Two nights later, on Monday, November 26, the nearly full Moon will appear close to Mars, which is quite bright now (as described in the article below). Mars will be at its brightest in December.

This is the Full Beaver Moon. This was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. Another interpretation suggests that the name Full Beaver Moon comes from the fact that the beavers are now actively preparing for winter. This full Moon is also sometimes referred to as the Frosty Moon.

------ Forwarded Message
From: NASA Science News
Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 20:30:33 -0600
To: NASA Science News
Subject: Mars Doubles in Brightness

NASA Science News for November 21, 2007

During the past month, Mars has doubled in brightness and now it is putting a nice show for backyard stargazers. A good night to look is Nov. 26th when Mars has an eye-catching close encounter with the Moon.

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/21nov_marsdoubles.htm

(*dc) plasma love

2007-11-21T13:29:00.000-05:00

my mom just advised me
as mothers do
that finding the right person
who is everything you could possibly want
in a friend, partner, lover
is only half the equation.

of this i'm painfully aware,
and it made me think of my shower curtain
and 9th grade chemistry
learning to balance equations

i told her
i might just be one of these
plasma situations
with perpetually unbalanced
chemistry
freer electrons
beautifully out of equilibrium
perhaps
never destined for
the symmetry of
equilibrium physics.

everybody wants to see
the northern lights.

(dc) all i need

2007-11-20T21:59:00.000-05:00

what sets me apart from, oh, say 99.99999999986% of the world's population (assuming 7 billion people) is this kind of thing that i do:

tonight on my quick trip from the studio to the house to pick up my laptop, i was listening to radiohead's "all i need" from their new record (ok, obsessively over and over again). once in a while i'll listen to weird fishes but mostly i can't get enough of this one song. it *is* all i seem to need right now. .:. anyway, as i was waiting on U st to turn into my alleyway, i noticed that my left turn signal was exactly in time with the song. i love when this happens, but it's almost never exactly in time, so the joy usually ends quickly as they start to go out of phase. sometimes i enjoy the phasing. eventually i had to turn because there were cars behind me, but by the time i turned the blinker still hadn't gone out of phase. i had to do further testing, so when i pulled into the alleyway, i turned the signal on again. totally phase locked. these are rare joys for me. ignoring the fact that i live in a rather dangerous alleyway, pulled into my spot up against the white brick wall, turned the volume up, the lights off, and the blinker on so i could watch the wall light up and go black in time with the music, just as the song was climaxing.

these are the little things that light up my life and make me happy. and these are the things i miss when i drive cars without stereos.

addendum

ok, maybe i'm not alone...thanks, commenter from bangkok! this is an awesome commercial!

(dc) mechanically minded

2007-11-20T12:35:00.000-05:00

yesterday i had a good excuse to take apart my sony tape deck. a close friend had asked me to dub all her family's precious tape recordings onto CD for them and my machine had trapped the first one inside and frozen. i got out the screwdriver and remembered to unplug the device before operating. i found the little mechanism that wasn't releasing and took it apart, and still had to force the tape out. it had unwound itself into the guts of the machine, but in the end, i was totally triumphant. unfortunately, in the end, my machine seems to be failing to drop its heads appropriately when not recording, so the door doesn't open and tapes can't go in and out. this is bad news for me. it will probably cost more for me to send it in to SONY than it would just to buy a new deck. we'll see.

but i was reminded just how much i like to take stuff apart (and put it back together). my friend chad was mixing in the studio at the time, so i had the bonus perk of hearing him sculpt a kick drum for the duration of the time i took me to disassemble, rescue, and reassemble. it reminded me how important it is to get the kick just right in a mix, and i also got to hear how he built the sound. i think this studio merge idea was brilliant, and i'm looking forward to more evenings like that: puttering in the studio listening to a world class mix engineer make sounds fabulous.

at one point in the evening when i was trying to kick devin and chad out so i could work on music, their engineer intern called and was in the neighborhood with a friend and they stopped by. they were blown away by the space, and it really got me and chad and devin re-excited about what we're creating. it reaffirmed just how special our space is and how much it's going to be in demand when word starts to get out. devin called later and told me he'd gone out with these to guys after they left. apparently they were gushing about the space to another musician who joined them at the bar, and devin got to hear how nick was describing the place to the other guy. i think we are going to be popular. i'm a little worried about the place - preserving its integrity (musicians can be...umm....i dunno...hard on their environment, let's say). but i think chad and devin and i are totally aligned in our philosophy and our aesthetic, so whatever comes up, i'm feeling good about how we'll work things out.

and that's what's up at tiny planet.

(dc) space sounds

2007-11-19T16:23:00.000-05:00

my friend loretta, who blogs for wired magazine, said this is the most read blog entry she's seen since joining wired with 800,000* hits so far. She said the second highest post last week had 100,000 hits.

(dana point, ca) me

2007-11-14T01:56:00.000-05:00

(dc) earthset over malopert

2007-11-13T10:55:00.000-05:00

courtesy JAXA

see all the juicy bits here.

(dc) metro hex

2007-11-12T18:17:00.000-05:00

(nyc -> dc) questions

2007-11-12T13:13:00.000-05:00

my onion horoscope for this week is

"All of your questions concerning spontaneous combustion will suddenly be answered this Friday."

that's really a relief
because i have a lot of questions.

(183 providence) mmm

2007-11-09T12:19:00.000-05:00

one of the things i do at work is serve as the program scientist for the moon mineralogy mapper, an instrument on chandrayaan-1, india's first mission to the moon.

i'm at brown university this week for the mmm science team meeting and it's reminding me how fun science is. they have scientists here who were heavily involved in the apollo program and there are cases and cases of rocks + space kitch. i suspect if i had been exposed to this kind of thing when i were an impressionable young kid, i would have developed a passion for it.

as it is, all i can think about at this meeting is how to turn these data they're discussing into music.

(dc) a new phase

2007-11-02T20:44:00.000-04:00

silver sonya moved into tiny planet (my space) yesterday and will be joining forces with it's not rocket science studios (my studio). what was already a deliciously crowded and eclectic space is now crowdeder and eclecticer until i can get rid of some of my more boring equipment. i shall be selling my sissy v-drums to be replaced with one of TJ's kick-ass kits. i shall be selling my digidesign Control|24 to be replaced with their new (real analog) console (which they shall then sell as soon as they can afford the API board we're all lusting after). there is a set of vibes in the middle of the live room, and a couple racks of warmth, including a manley mixer and an awesome compressor. i'm torn, though. as you might recall, i'm itching to get the new rhodes when it's available. but do i give up the old one for the new one?

anyway, once we figure out how to get it all integrated, it's going to be the funnest place to be on the east coast. well, if you like to make music.

i can't wait to get my new website up and running.

and now i am going to make some music.

(montreal -> gettysburg) alien of the ship

2007-10-31T08:48:00.000-04:00

once in a while i'll get an email from a colleague that says something like, "hey, i just watched aliens of the deep - i didn't know you were a movie star! way cool!"

(my NASA colleagues say things like 'way cool').

this really cracks me up. i mean, i'm so NOT a movie star. even IMDB refers to me as a "he" (or at least they did in 2005). i think to be a movie star, i'd at least have to be known by some small fraction of parents whose 8 year old kids might watch a movie about fantastical deep sea creatures.

what's even funnier is that i didn't even get to dive. at least then i might be able to qualify myself as an alien of the deep.

but nope. as much as i wanted to have executed that project with grace and ease that summer, it was mostly just lessons learned the hardest way possible. and, for the record, i'm VERY GLAD i'm not a movie star. i wouldn't wish that life on anyone.

anyway, i'm not really going anywhere with this. it just happened again today and i couldn't think of anything else i could write publicly about.

ps i've been pretty bad about blogging in the last year. but i just did a search on this blog for "aliens" and was reminded of things that happened to me over the last couple years that i had totally forgotten about, which then reminded me why i originally started this blog in the first place. i forget the day-to-day stuff. for a while i was writing "NASA Goddard culture essays." these are particularly entertaining to me now. sometimes i think, "why am i writing about this? who cares about this?" but the truth is, i will care, at some point soon when i've forgotten, and for some reason, this is the only way i've ever been successful at keeping a log. my six or so readers might also care (hi, sisters), but clearly this isn't one of those blogs that's meant to change the world. i hope blogger doesn't go out of business.

(*montreal) guitar hero

2007-10-28T17:40:00.000-04:00

my friend alain cooked supper for us last night (butternut squash and salad with beans and feta cheese, and all sorts of dips with sesame rice crackers. yum.) then we played guitar hero on his HD flatscreen tv, which is bigger than my bathroom. i'm not sure how much more we could have ROCKED. this confirmed to me, though, why i should never buy a wii or an xbox.

in other news, my soul is bare to the universe. i guess that's not really news, as everyone's souls are bare to the universe, but i'm thinking we usually pretend they're not.

(*dc -> montreal) aeroplanes

2007-10-26T17:38:00.000-04:00

i wonder if we will still have aeroplanes in 25 years.

(*dc) discovery: golden man

2007-10-24T22:29:00.000-04:00

(*dc) it's business time

2007-10-22T15:31:00.000-04:00

it is totally business time.

(dc) new musical crush

2007-10-19T20:22:00.000-04:00

ok my latest crush is greg patillo.

(dc) doing stuff

2007-10-14T13:46:00.000-04:00

this weekend has been (and still is) the Weekend of Doing Taxes. This means, in practical terms, something like 40 hours of opening 1.8 years of unopened mail, and another 40 or so to organize it all and send numbers to my accountant.

in doing this, i have had the opportunity to apologize to several people for not doing what i said i was going to do and see if they would still like me to do X. it is embarrassing, but it's got to be done.

also, in the process, i get to go through all the pieces of paper i keep for one reason or another. here is my favorite of the day - a business card from someone i can't quite remember. it's printed on one of those free business card templates and reads:

cari h***k
senior editor / insolent husy

pain killer, inc.
doing stuff since 1996

-her address-
-her phone-
-her email-
http://www.painkiller.org

i do wish i could remember meeting this woman (and the context of the meeting), cuz she seems really cool.

i wonder if she's still doing stuff.

(dc) also

2007-10-12T19:35:00.000-04:00

i just want to say that i'm happy al gore and the IPCC won this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Now if he would just run for president...

(dc) random sampling

2007-10-12T18:58:00.000-04:00

phil told me today that i should update my blog. he's right. it's getting a little ridiculous. so, i decided i'm going to post a random sampling of photos from my iphone. i will not offer an explanation because i don't know which photos will appear, since they all have names like IMG_0995.JPG. but, since i was persistent enough to get my iphone recognized by my macbook, i figured you all should reap the benefits.

here you are. my life at random since june 29, 2007.

addendum, 10/24/07

well, i'm tired of seeing all these pictures up here without titles, so here are the captions:

justin's birthday cake from cindy and arturo
my sister steph
nasa+firetrucks
random hotel picture
feast
matt talking about his poster
justin tying his astroturf birthday tie
jenn and matt
my broken car window
dead brazilian fish
neice and sister
ubiquitous uncomfortable hotel chair
man in customs line with neck beard
stephen
bahia bamboo tunnel
jenn and matt again (told you it was random)
one of my wurlies
sam's artwork upsidedown photo
nephew in a sombrero

(*dc) who put that there?

2007-08-24T11:49:00.000-04:00

Giant Void In Space Discovered. The AP reports, "Astronomers have stumbled upon a tremendous hole in the universe" in which there are "no stray stars, no galaxies, no sucking black holes, not even mysterious dark matter," just "1 billion light years across of nothing." Minnesota astronomy professor Lawrence Rudnick, author of the paper that will be published in Astrophysical Journal on the find, called it "too much of a surprise."
Space.com added that Rudnick said, "Not only has no one ever found a void this big, but we never even expected to find one this size." Rudnick's colleague Liliya R. Williams agreed that the void "is not normal, based on either observational studies or on computer simulations of the large-scale evolution of the universe."

(dc) the dangerous nap

2007-08-16T01:27:00.000-04:00

i went down for a nap this afternoon around 6 or so and just woke up (7 hours later). now i must choose whether i want to try to get anything useful done before dawn, or whether i should squeeze in another night's sleep before morning.

i guess i was really tired. i woke up a few times to appreciate the light in the studio around magic hour.

oh, that reminds me - if you haven't already done so, please go to www.famecast.com, register (i know, i know, but just do it - it's worth it), and vote for Anis (Mojgani) on the spoken word stage. he's in the competition final (top five), but needs lots more votes to win. enjoy his poetry while you're at it! he is amazing. some of you are masters at, let's just say, working the system - let's help anis win this national poetry slam.

(dc) rubens' tube

2007-08-12T08:46:00.000-04:00

my space artist friend, ayako ono, has done some really cool experiments with standing waves and particles in space.

i think her experiments are even cooler than the more traditional rubens' tube, which is a similar idea, but it doesn't require zero g for the visualization - just some dude's garage and some pvc pipe (thanks for the link, pedi):

(dc) pressure

2007-08-11T21:47:00.000-04:00

inexplicably, my blog readership is at an all-time high. this increases the pressure to say something that is actually interesting. i'm afraid, like most pressure, this pushes me towards procrastination. so, i have been listening to music for inspiration and finding it in
* bat for lashes
* zero 7
* radiohead
* mozez
* glen hansard and marketa iglóva
* herbie hancock (with johnny lang & joss stone)
* müm
* my brightest diamond
* g. love and special sauce

and now i must go find inspiration within to generate lunar powerpoint charts, music to butterfly and crystal documentaries (along with the rest of my film scoring homework, the completion of which will give me my music production certificate), a summary of my 2006 financial records for tax purposes, and an analysis of my conversations with the 20 people in my partnership book. i must also read, in the next week, "the order of things: an archaeology of the human sciences" by michel foucault. i also feel compelled to do some sort of serious reflection before i turn 38 a week from tomorrow.

can i do it all? of course not. and swimming in the overwhelm, it becomes terribly urgent to find artwork for my itunes music, shop for burritos, install new software, and update my blog. and then there is always napping - the best procrastination tool ever. i would have done this today, except that the barrista at 14U put 5 espresso shots in my latte, leaving out the 6th only because she couldn't fit it in the cup. apparently kyle said to make a large latte with 6 shots. she served it to me with an apology and the extra shot in a sample cup. i let her keep that one.

i've talked about this before, how overwhelm paralyzes me, and how i organize my life so that i'm in an almost consistent state of overwhelm. the thing is, even though i think i've stopped doing this, i'm still working off vestiges of previous overcommitments. i'm pretty sure when i finish this music production masters (this week?) and my taxes, i will be more or less caught up.

i'll let you know.

i made a huge life-changing decision last week, but i can't really write about it here. i'll just note it here and refer back to it when the time comes to implement it.

(dc) i met the universe

2007-08-10T13:53:00.000-04:00

in the 3rd floor hallway today and we played.

watch out or i will breathe stars all over your ass. raarrr.

(dc) i'm in love with two guys at once

2007-08-08T01:04:00.000-04:00

(dc) cool effect

2007-08-04T00:51:00.000-04:00

i noticed yesterday morning while walking from the l'enfant plaza metro station to the nasa hq building (which takes me roughly under the train tracks) a very interesting effect. i was walking east along school street and heard the train coming from behind me. just as it passed me, it started blowing its whistle. since it was already past me, the whistle just kept blowing at a constant pitch as i walked. there are a lot of large reflective buildings around there. i didn't notice at first, but then suddenly realized that the train's echo was a higher pitch than its whistle. i spent the next few steps figuring that while the train was going away from me, it must have been going towards the buildings off of which the original waveform was bouncing to come back at me. everyone is familiar with the way a horn or whistle will shift down in pitch as it speeds past you, but how many times have you noticed a train whistle echo blue-pitch-shifted up from its source?

yes, i'm a nerd. but i thought this little doppler effect was cool.

(denver) signs

2007-07-23T20:35:00.000-04:00

i'm a master of misinterpreting signs from the Universe, but i still have this superstitious belief that whenever i see an honest-to-goodness spiral cement truck, it means something. my sister expertly snapped this photo of a gorgeous red spiral with my iphone (as i expertly chased it down in our rental car). i will leave it to the reader to interpret. in the meantime, it's the wallpaper on my phone.

and my friend jodi sent me this stunning beauty from europe:

(dc -> houston -> denver -> delta) class of 87

2007-07-21T04:12:00.000-04:00

a surprisingly large number of members of my class of 1987 assembled tonight at confluence park (what a nice name for a park). i think something like half the class was there. tomorrow we will ride on a float in the deltarado day parade and take a group photo before our semi-formal dinner. i learned tonight that "delta semi-formal" means jeans instead of shorts.

rebecca is here with me. although both of us have been up for more than 24 hours with little sleep before boarding our planes this morning, we still decided to go to wanda's bar next to the egyptian theater and play pool till just a few minutes ago. it was fun, but i really wanted to play shuffleboard. plus rebecca kept winning. except when we were on the same team.

(dc) ding ding ding! biggest sucker!

2007-07-19T23:54:00.000-04:00

i win the prize! the most prized prize of prizes! biggest sucker in Du Monde! woohoo!

i feel better now. boy the wind was really out of my sails there for a couple of days. nothing like a good dose of the Truth to get the boat moving again.

thanks for your courage, L.

k

(dc) radio silence

2007-07-19T21:49:00.001-04:00

kills me.

(dc) wondering

2007-07-19T00:14:00.000-04:00

rebecca and i are going to delta and boulder, colorado this weekend for my two 20 yr high school reunions. go panthers. go centaurs. i'll post links.

i'd cancel this trip if i could. i may cut it short after rebecca goes home. i don't think it will have the same appeal now.

(dc) potent

2007-07-18T18:04:00.000-04:00

i feel a blog post is in order, but i'm not sure what to say. in cases like this, it is probably a cop-out to turn to quotations and mixtapes, but i think that's what i'm gonna do.

but before i do,
i've been noticing what happens when my brain has hours upon hours just to think, especially in the absence of communication. i've been noticing how easily i make things up and what percentage of time those made up things have anything to do with reality.

last night i was listening over and over to a song that sara solstice recorded at my studio last year. the words are from the Baha'i writings and feel particularly relevant right now:

"Grant, O my God, that I may not be reckoned among those whose ears are deaf, whose eyes are blind, whose tongues are speechless and whose hearts have failed to comprehend. Deliver me, O Lord, from the fire of ignorance and of selfish desire, suffer me to be admitted into the precincts of Thy transcendent mercy and send down upon me that which Thou hast ordained for Thy chosen ones. Potent art Thou to do what Thou willest. Verily, Thou art the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting." the Báb

sara chose the words "POTENT art thou to do what thou willest" to repeat over and over again, so i thought about this a lot.

i was also listening over and over to "my brightest diamond," and i've had a few lines of one of my favorite songs of hers stuck in my head all day, going around and around:

"now you've gone away
where there isn't a telephone wire
still i wait by the phone
you don't even write
to say good bye..."

i always liked these lines.

(dc) call box

2007-07-14T18:24:00.000-04:00

(houston) insomnias

2007-07-12T07:23:00.000-04:00

this is my favorite rumi poem:

“When I am with you, we stay up all night.
When you're not here, I can't go to sleep.

Praise God for these two insomnias!
And the difference between them.”

[also, praise God for apostrophes.]

(Pasadena) today's fortune cookie

2007-07-08T17:17:00.000-04:00

"not every soil bears all things. be practical."

(dc -> chicago -> LA) the gods must be crazy about the south pacific

2007-07-08T01:22:00.000-04:00

on live earth day, i rode two big gasguzzling jets from dc to la, with a diminishing connection time in chicago as my first leg was delayed and delayed. that's ok. it gave me a reason to sprint through the chicago airport, which i've been dying to do for quite some time.

prior to taking off, i did what was possibly my fastest mix of a record in (my) history. my friend hillary, the country music songwriter, had traveled to tahiti last year and had made some ...well... let's call them "rustic"...recordings of local tatitian baha'is singing prayers and hidden words. his goal was to bring the recordings back, re-record the guitars and ukuleles, and return to tahiti with a cd that could be duplicated and spread from island to island so they all know the same songs. he asked me to do the mixes. i'm not sure i ever actually officially agreed, but suddenly 2 weeks ago he filled me in that he's going back july 15, and could we get it done before then? ack

he did some web research and found a professional traveling ukulele player in baltimore who was willing to learn the songs and come record. we scheduled the session for friday (this past friday). and then, one week before the session (a week ago friday), i got my iphone. i haven't written yet about the chaos that caused in my studio, but the short version is that iphone killed my studio main drive and i spent a week trying to recover it, with no luck.

on thursday night i wrote to hillary and told him that my studio was currently unfunctioning, and that i'd do my best to get something working so we could at least track the ukulele, but i didn't think i was going to be able to mix, since it would mean reinstalling all my plugins from scratch and reauthorizing everything and reconfiguring all the hardware, etc etc. in the past, this has been weeks of work.

friday came and i had to go to work (of course). i worked as long as i could and then rushed home at 3pm. the session was to be at 8. somehow, magically, in 5 hours, i rebuilt my studio system (from scratch), downloading and installing the operating system 4 times, downloading and installing the recording software, plugins, and everything else. also in those 5 hours i converted the bathroom closet into a recording booth (installing acoustic foam, etc), cleaned the bathroom, picked up the studio, washed the dishes, and set up the microphones. i was like a machine and suddenly all my machines started working. with no additional work, my SCSI audio drive that had all the tahiti audio on it started talking to my computer. the recording hardware just worked. seriously, it was spooky.

the ukulele player, victoria vox, was delightful and the session was fun. we ended around 11, and hillary planned to be back the next day (yesterday) for some additional guitar work. i told him i dind't think we'd be able to get everything done if we waited till saturday, so we turned everything back on and laid down the guitars.

yesterday morning i went back over the studio, immediately found my waves plugin disks, installed them, and they worked first try. by the time hillary showed up (with coffee), the system was up and running - just protools and waves, but that's enough to mix tahitian music. i then got into a super intense zone of mixing, flying through each song, making huge improvements (doing things like tuning entire ukulele tracks and guitar tracks down 44 cents - oof!) where i could.

i edited and mixed all the songs - scarcely more than rough mixes, but still, i think they will be suitable for their purpose and intended (noncritical) audience) - in about 5 hours. for me, this is a record. there are some mix engineers that can blow through a record like that - like clockwork - especially pop music - but this wasn't your standard pop music, and i usually take my time. not this time. i was on a mission. there would have been no time to work on it when i return from this trip, and i knew it was now or never. so i focused. hillary kept saying, 'how can you hear that?' or 'whoa, how'd you do that?' and kept repeating 'you're a surgeon. you're a surgeon.'

in the end, we achieved hillary's goal of, "just make it sound better." the disk was burning as he drove me to the airport.

now that my system is up and running again, if the gods continue to favor me, i will with any luck be able to finish my film scoring homework that disappeared with the disk wipe.

and now i write you from los angeles (again), as i prepare to shower and begin approximately 14 hours of meetings about mars and the search for life in the universe. (with tahitian prayers stuck in my head)

(dc) nasa hq culture photoessay, part 1

2007-07-04T23:08:00.000-04:00

when i first got to goddard, i did some photoessays of things i thought were particularly interesting, quirky, or characteristic about that place. i'd love to do the same thing at hq, but somehow i feel this is a bit trickier.

maybe i can start with something fairly benign. this photo of saturn is how i know i'm on the right floor and can easily spot which direction to walk in the hallway. the building can sometimes be a bit disorienting, depending on which elevator and which floor you're on. i kind of feel like saturn has been with me all my life, so i like that i see it so much every day.

dear saturn,
i love you.
thank-you for being so pretty.
love,
kelly

(dc) explosions

2007-07-04T21:57:00.000-04:00

inside and out

(dc) awed

2007-07-03T20:16:00.000-04:00

(dc) iphone day

2007-06-29T19:24:00.001-04:00

today is national iphone day, when early adopters like me stand in line for hours (the ones who camp would be called something different than simply early adopters) to buy the newest gadget. iphones went on sale at 6pm. iarrived @3pm and ihad my iphone in my ihand out the door before 6:30.

(dc) wormhole

2007-06-26T22:57:00.000-04:00

thanks, space.com, google, and yahoo. who knew this would produce such strange results?

(*la) LA LA LA LA land

2007-06-23T19:38:00.000-04:00

lela scored us $100 tickets to opening night of the LA film festival. we saw talk to me after a somewhat lengthy introduction of thank-yous from the film festival people, the director, and the cast. yes, cedric the entertainer was wearing a hat. we then went across the street to an exclusive street party with all the people who want to be seen and who want to meet all the other people who are being seen. we did our best not to be seen, and we danced with the people who didn't care. we did, however, confirm that cuba gooding jr is even better looking in person than he is in his films. lela handed Chiwetel Ejiofor, the dreamy star of the film, a bottle of water when he appeared too swamped to be able to get water for himself. he thanked her very sweetly and drank thirstily.

(dc) street gear

2007-06-18T19:58:00.000-04:00

i saw both of these today. one in the morning on the way to the metro, and the other in the evening walking back from the metro.

(dc) current favorites

2007-06-04T20:23:00.000-04:00

beirut
andrew bird
my brightest diamond
sufjan stevens

(dc) my romantic life

2007-06-03T00:38:00.000-04:00

i live the ultimate urban romantic solitude. the kind glorified in television shows like ally mcbeal and at the end of the second act of most films. the kind with the twin platform bed in the middle of an honest-to-goodness loft in the heart of DC's social scene. the sole inhabitant of the kind of iconic place that people want to live and be in, but rarely are. the kind where i walk around the city at night and write narration in my head so that i can come home to the mac on the platform twin bed and write blog entries to capture the romance of it all.

i find that good and bad decisions seem to come in clumps. tonight was the bad clumps' turn, causing the urban romance to turn slightly sour and the city to become a passive aggressive antagonist in the narrative.

it started innocently enough. having just finished watching a 1996 romance ("beautiful girls," which i'd bought on sale at the local dvd store that just went out of business) in which i didn't quite get enough of natalie portman in her supporting role, i decided to go out and see a movie. this is my blog, and i can write poorly constructed sentences if i feel like it.

i IM'd my sister a bit too long and cut my metro travel time a bit too tight so i decided to drive instead (bad decision) to the E St. cinema. i was to see "paris, je t'aime," and it was to start at 9:40. i punched in the wrong E st address into my car without realizing it and found no parking on the street, so i pulled into the garage under the verizon center (bad decision). i parked and walked 3 blocks to E st, only to realize i was 5 blocks too far east. by the time i got to the theater it was 9:55, but the cashier said i'd only missed two minutes. not a disaster.

the movie was good (the one good decision of the evening) - the perfect collection of short stories about love in paris to underscore the solitude. i had come in late and hopped over the railing to sit between two couples. only after i arrived at the theater did i start to wonder if maybe it was a bad idea to leave the house on a whim without showering. i was distracted throughout the film wondering if i smelled unsociably bad. as the film ended, the scene in the theater could have been straight out of another movie - the part where the woman is sitting alone in the empty theater watching credits that have gone on so long that even the music has stopped. silent, dark, theater. me. credits.

i wasn't so worried about the 8 block walk back to the car, but was slightly concerned that the garage would be closed, so i didn't faff around. my jaw fell on the floor when the parking attendant said, "that will be 17 dollars." !!!! it might have been cheaper for me to go to paris this evening. needless to say, i'll be taking the metro to that theater from now on. jeez.

the route i took back home was the last mistake. up 6th was no problem, but over to 14th on U st was a big mistake. bad decision. U st on a saturday night is SLOOOW going. drunk and excited groups of people and couples barhopping and looking for parking.

getting back to my peaceful haven above the chaos brought back the romance and made it all ok.

i'm writing about the evening to get my $25 worth. at least this way i might have something to remember. a perfect scene sometime in the second act of this urban solitary romance.

(*new orleans) hermann von helmholtz was hot

2007-05-27T11:27:00.000-04:00

here's the description of this from the guy who posted it on youtube:

"Hermann von Helmholtz, in his famous book "On the Sensations of Tone", describes an experimental double siren that he used to investigate how the ear perceives beats, difference tones, and the consonance and dissonance of musical intervals. In May 2007, Martin Carlé restored the siren to operation and demonstrated it at the Workshop "Klang und Ton -- Fortschritte in der Erfüllung von Helmholtzens Vermächtnis", which took place at Humboldt University in Berlin. As the conference drew to a close, I wrapped up my talk and then ran my fingers across the beautifully crafted wood and brass instrument. Martin offered to let me play it -- how could I resist the lure of the siren's song! Here is the resulting improvisation..."

(*dc) late

2007-05-24T17:31:00.000-04:00

9 days late.

(dc) poser posing

2007-05-20T15:17:00.000-04:00

i was sitting here talking to my sister when my webcam accidentally opened and i noticed that the light was nice in my kitchen. so i made some pictures for posterity. they were meant to be posed and cheezy ( just in case you're wondering).

i guess these photos should all be flipped. they're reflective, so they're what i look like when i see myself in the mirror, not like when you see me. and if you flip them the other way, they'd be how a bat would see me (to the extent that bats can see).

update:
then i got more creative:

(dc) blue moon

2007-05-01T16:57:00.000-04:00

A colleague at HQ sends out these little tidbits every month or so. I like them.

"The full moon in May is known as the Flower Moon, as flowers are abundant everywhere during this time. Other names include the Full Corn Planting Moon or the Milk Moon. The Moon will be opposite the Sun at 6:09 a.m. EDT on May 2, and will appear full from Tuesday through Thursday.

On average, a full moon occurs every 29.5 days. This means that about every three years there is a month that has two full Moons. One definition of a "Blue Moon" is the second full Moon in a month. This year, May has two full moons, so a Blue Moon occurs on May 31 at 9:04 p.m. EDT. Other definitions of a "Blue Moon" include a very rare event, the third full Moon in a quarter year that has four full Moons (instead of the usual three), and when the Moon (not necessarily full) appears unusually blue, often due to dust or smoke in the atmosphere (such as after a volcanic eruption or major forest fire)."

This month is special. It's time for the blue moon! All those things that happen once in a blue moon will be happening soon.

Soon soon, blue moon!

(dc) what's hot and what's not, part two

2007-04-23T21:18:00.000-04:00

what's hot:

pink dumptrucks and patriotic reverse cement trucks (thanks craig).

what's not:

getting stuck with the yellow mustang rental car. ugh.

(dc) what's hot and what's not

2007-04-23T18:13:00.000-04:00

at high level nasa lunar planning meetings,

what's hot:

an astronaut sitting next to you with his calculator periodically punching numbers into it (kind of like a teenager would text a friend) and scribbling numbers and mechanical designs on the hotel notepad.

what's not:

engineers using laser pointers on powerpoint charts containing only words.

(dc) confession

2007-04-20T12:04:00.000-04:00

sometimes in my "spare time"
(where by "spare time" i mean
"procrastination time")
or in this particular case
"sick in bed at home time"
i sit and watch
mac ads.
i'm not ashamed to admit
that they make me laugh out loud.

well, ok,
i'm a little ashamed to admit it.
because i'm pretty sure
that makes me a complete dork.

but, we already knew that about me.

go ahead. watch them.

(dc) ouch

2007-04-20T04:51:00.000-04:00

my fever and headache have let up enough for me to notice that my stomach is killing me. i haven't had the flu in a long time. i forgot how yukky it is.

(*dc) morning stories

2007-04-17T10:35:00.000-04:00

my mom woke me up with a call this morning (i still haven't quite turned my phone off) to tell me that she'd been lying in bed, giggling and smiling, thinking of things i did when i was little. now she's giving me more details:

kelly snook
10:23
tell me some of the things you were remembering

Terry
10:24
Oh, so many things. Like, do you remember when you were three and you and I sat down with our violins in front of the stereo cabinet and went through the Suzuki record, both sides, with you learning all the songs in one sitting?
kelly snook
10:24
hah! no!

Terry 10:25
Then after you got bored with that, you placed two of my fingers on the fingerboard on my violin, then you played two fingers on your violin, and instructed me when to play. We played four note chord progressions. It was a magical, amazing moment that only I got to witness. You were only three! And the chord progressions made sense!

kelly snook 10:25
aww. i wish i could remember!

Terry
10:26
That was when I knew you were really, really special and I needed to provide you with a musical outlet in your life as a priority.
kelly snook
10:26
i wish i could remember to do the same.

Terry 10:27
Then, I was remembering you running in from outside as fast as you could to get to the little electronic keyboard we had and taking two fingers on each chubby little 2 year old hand and duplicating the diminished 7th chord the train whistle was blowing.

kelly snook
10:28
what kind of electronic keyboard did we have?

Terry 10:28
You would then stand by the keyboard, reaching up (cause you were really little) and start playing your nursery rhymes with one darling little chubby finger. It didn't matter whether you started on a white key or a black key. you always got the songs right. You knew what the intervals needed to be.

kelly snook 10:28
:)

Terry 10:28
Oh, something Gary got..way before Yamaha got big. Some old-fashioned cloth covered thing that you ripped off when you found a tear in the cover.

kelly snook
10:29
oof. it was probably a rhodes or a wurly. dang. i wish we still had it.
daddy probably sold it to get the piano.
those "old-fashioned cloth covered things" are awesome.
!!!
we pay big bucks for those now.

Terry 10:29
Then, I remember you leaning over the stair rail while Gary played guitar under you, and we were all singing your nursery rhymes. You were so delighted by the activity, and so exicted, that every time we got done, you would say "What shall we sing?"

kelly snook
10:30
that must be one reason i'm so nostalgic about them!
yeah! we have THAT on tape!

Terry 10:30
Nope, I bought you the piano. He took it on the road with him. Probably sold it though.

kelly snook
10:30
yeah

Terry
10:30
Right.
I'm glad we have that on tape.
kelly snook
10:30
me too

Terry
10:31
Then, I will never forget your breathless excitement when you came running into the kitched from the yard one summer day with your baby doll whose hair was so worn off it was only stubs. You raced in to show me, yelling,
"By golly, mom, it's growin'!?
kelly snook
10:32

i kind of remember that one.
but it might be because you immortalized it in my baby book right away

Terry
10:32
Then there was the time Stephanie was brought home from the hospital, and put on the couch in the infant seat. You were mesmerized and hyptonized by here.
hypnotized by her, especially her mouth and nostrils.
kelly snook
10:32
yeah. let the traumatizing begin.
muaaaaaa haa a haaaaaaaa

Terry
10:33
I couldn't keep you from putting things in them.
kelly snook
10:33
well they were such perfect little targets.

Terry
10:34
And, there was the day Stephanie was 1.5 and she was standing at the round coffee table playing with the Fisher Price and Playschool houses and people, and you walked by, did a double-take, stopped and stared for awhile, then said, "So THAT's what those are for!?"
kelly snook
10:34
haaahaaahaaaaaaaa

Terry
10:35
And, you and I would sit on the porch swing for hours on the screened in porch and sing and sing and sing. You loved that. You loved practicing My Fair lady. We'd drive in the car, and you would sit in the back in your car seat , slowly and carefully practicing those four notes at the end of the song until you had the intervals perfect.
Let's see, I remember when you were born, about 6 weeks old. I got my first point and shoot camera, and I spent 4 hours dressing you in every outfit you had and taking pictures of you. The only one I could get of you smiling was when you were completely naked on the changing table.
You were so serious. Like a little old lady locked inside a tiny baby's body.
I doted on you. I loved you so much, I couldn't stand it. So much so, that I felt it probaly wasn't good for you to be the target of that much love and attention. So, I decided to have another baby to kind of moderate things.
And of course, there was all the huffing and grunting coming from upstairs before Stephanie was born. I went to the bottom of the stairs and witnessed that you had moved all the furniture off your room-sized braided rug, rolled it up, and dragged it out of your room until it got stuck on the carpeting at the top of the landing.
I guess this morning was a special waking to memories of Kelly morning. Anyway, it all brought smiles to my face, and even laughter at times, and I enjoyed it. and I wanted to share it with you...see if you remembered any of it.
You were so cute, and adorable, and perfect.

kelly snook
10:40
i do remember the carpet thing
i remember it as though i were 12

Terry
10:40
You were less than 2.
kelly snook
10:40

Terry
10:41
You were so resourceful and creative. There was nothing that could keep you from doing something if you wanted to.
Especially not me.

I had to use psychological tactics to get you to do things I wanted you to do..like make you think YOU were the one who wanted to get out of the car seat and go into the house, not me. Otherwise, you would refuse to go.

And, I couldn't pick you up.

kelly snook
10:42
Why not?

Terry
10:42
30 minutes you and I spent by the trash can in my room, you taking stuff out, me saying no and putting it back and taking your hands away. Dr. Spock vowed it would work. I gave up eventually, and you won.
I moved the trash can out of your reach instead.
kelly snook
10:43
Good thinking

Terry
10:43
I was pregnant with Stephanie and had had major abdominal surgery. I couldn't even climb the stairs.
That's really hard with a toddler.
kelly snook
10:44
Ouch. Sorry.

Terry
10:44
Not your fault.

kelly snook
10:44
Well, those are some sweet memories. You're lucky to have them.
Would have been nice to continue getting all that attention, though.
:)

Terry
10:46
Oh, I gave you that much attention after Stephanie was born. She required nothing, and since I nursed her, nothing about our relationship had to change. And once Stephanie was big enought to interact with you, you had a busom buddy to play with.

(*Detroit -> DC) grace

2007-04-15T22:28:00.000-04:00

today as i was leaving the home of some friends, i fell off their porch (with my luggage). ouch.

ah, well, i guess i had to get off the porch somehow. might as well be by jamming my hands and knees into sharp gravel.

(dc) taking a break

2007-04-10T13:26:00.000-04:00

friends, family, etc.

my mother had a dream about me a couple nights ago wherein i disappeared and no one knew where to find me. the bad part was that everyone blamed her for my unhappiness and subsequent disappearance.

i just want to state publicly here that i'm going to turn off my phone and my instant messengers and stop answering emails and take a break from everything for a while. i don't know how long. but please don't worry if you don't hear from me. i'll just be at home, trying to regroup. pretend i'm in tahiti without my blackberry or whatever (i don't actually have a blackberry). pretend i'm happy and having fun. pretend i'm with the love of my life (i don't actually have one of these either) and we are blissfully enraptured by each other. pretend whatever you have to pretend so that you don't worry and i'll talk to you in a couple weeks or however long it takes.

of course i will still have to go to work. but i'll be going into supersaver mode, dealing only with my necessary commitments and ongoing responsibilities.

and please don't blame my mom. she's the best.

kelly

(dc) one hundred eighty, revised

2007-04-09T23:10:00.000-04:00

a couple times now i've sad down and written a long post about what's on my mind, posted it, then promptly removed it due to its highly personal nature.

this is one of those times.

hello world. who are you?

foo bar

(dc) physics

2007-04-02T05:26:00.000-04:00

physics

what goes up
must come down
but what goes down
can
and usually does
still go down
and down
and down

and just when you think
it's down enough
what goes down
goes downer
downer
downer

you can blow on a feather
but
in a vacuum
it sinks
like everything else

(dc) chopped liver

2007-04-02T04:56:00.000-04:00

k.j.c.l. snook.

(DCA (->Houston)) nice guy

2007-03-09T23:24:00.000-05:00

inside security screening at dca:

me: senator obama, may i take your photo?
obama: only if you're in it!

result:

(dc) careful what you ask for

2007-02-22T14:55:00.000-05:00

well,
i'm now the proud owner of these:

apollo-era tape machines that were among the bank of machines that recorded men walking around on the moon. i bought them at the NASA auction today. i will now attempt to use them to record people singing (or playing instruments) in my studio.

but first, i must figure out how to get them up the stairs. they apparently each weigh close to 1000 lbs.

oof.

(dc) a good idea

2007-02-20T13:24:00.000-05:00

Save $353 per bulb.

(Stamford -> DC) the electro funk daddy superstar break

2007-02-19T21:51:00.001-05:00

Beatbox Fame Game
Uploaded by loranger

(*DC -> Stamford, CT) NEBY!

2007-02-16T21:50:00.000-05:00

NEBY!

(dc) vd

2007-02-13T22:12:00.000-05:00

(dc) the electric rainbow machine

2007-02-12T10:02:00.000-05:00

last night, despite the fact that i knew in advance this time that deerhoof was playing at the black cat, i still had to be talked into going. it was cold, i had my own music to work on, and the police were reuniting at the grammys. of course, the person who talked me into was in austin, so he didn't really have to walk the walk. but anyway...

i compromised and watched the police then walked over to the venue, where i stood in line for 45 minutes in subzero temperatures (celcius - makes for a better story - go metric!) and then bought a tofu burger to pass the time before the first band went on an hour and a half later. i wish i could say it took me an hour and a half to eat the tofu burger, but it didn't. i sat in the back in the wuss section at a table instead of staking my place near the stage, ostensibly because i forgot my earplugs, but mostly because i truly am a wuss and didn't want to stand for 4 hours. i'll leave that to the kids.

it was tough, but i managed.

anyway, deerhoof were, of course, awesome. but the best part was the maiden voyage of the electric rainbow machine. i hope they do more interesting things with it in the future.

(dc) how i'll know

2007-02-03T23:24:00.000-05:00

i'll know when i've found the man for me
when i find someone who gets as much joy
out of things like this
as i do.

(from the original MS-20 analog synthesizer owner's manual)
(reprinted with glee but without permission)
(for my own enjoyment)
(and maybe yours)

(dc) i think i'm in love - but how can i choose?

2007-02-01T22:52:00.000-05:00

(dc) lessons

2007-01-22T23:48:00.000-05:00

lessons of the month (notes to self):

1. don't put yourself in situations where you don't know the history and where just by talking honestly and openly with people you are forced to take sides. listen before jumping in.

2. don't be so open with everyone. know when to shut up.

3. stay out of other peoples' family bizness. know when to shut up.

4. don't assume everyone trusts you and gives you the benefit of the doubt just because you trust them and give them the benefit of the doubt. know when to shut up.

5. you can't always help, even if you really want to, and you might even just make things worse. know when to stop trying to help.

6. it's possible to be generous to a fault. avoid this.

(dc) don't go this way...

2007-01-22T15:25:00.000-05:00

...unless you need to practice u-turns.

(dc) good times

2007-01-18T11:21:00.000-05:00

another memory from our jan 2 outing to hunter's point

(dc) the ten paradoxical commandments

2007-01-16T11:37:00.000-05:00

The Paradoxical Commandments

by Dr. Kent M. Keith

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

© Copyright Kent M. Keith 1968, renewed 2001

(dc) ER

2007-01-15T04:50:00.000-05:00

even though it's 5am now and it was 4am when i left the hospital and i'd been there since 9am yesterday, i still feel like writing about it. i really need to, but sometimes things seem too big to blog. i'm not sure how to approach it.

she had a rough day today, ending with 8 hours in the ER bay (what a place). i made some recordings and took some pictures.

i'm going to sleep now, though.

i'll bring my computer tomorrow.

(hunter's point, CA) can you hear me now?

2007-01-02T23:14:00.000-05:00

(*dc -> sf) "home" for the holidays

2006-12-19T23:17:00.000-05:00

this will be a real vacation.

(dc) this new blog thing

2006-12-16T20:24:00.000-05:00

i don't understand what happened that now i have to log in twice to blogger. one day i wasn't paying attention and i apparently signed up for some new google thing and now i have to log in twice. does anyone know how i can fix this?

i know i know i know
it's been a really long time since i've posted.
a thousand noteworthy things have happened that seriously require blogging.
my acknowledgement and honor party last weekend...my sisters' visit with their families ...but i shouldn't be blogging right now because i have to do my homework in my classes for which all homework is due monday and for which i've done nothing over the last 12 weeks except attend some of the weekly online course chats.

so of course i'm procrastinating.
i watched two movies today and talked to friends for hours on the phone.
that's the way i roll.