ARGH.

I am so, so mad tonight.

I think it has something to do with the rain beating against my windows.  It's just annoying the fuck out of me.  Not to mention the fact that my umbrella inverted itself about thirty times on my way home.  And how I had to change out everything but my t-shirt, cause it was all wet.  And how my bag is drying on the floor.  And how Eclipse keeps fucking selecting text as I move my god damn mouse, even though I haven't clicked anywhere!  What the hell!  STOP IT.  And how I'm doing work right now, or was, before I decided to stop and write this.  And how that the damn wind keeps literally shaking the entire building.  It's already blown out the winterizing plastic crap in my windows somehow.  The lights just flickered.  Again.

Christ.  I could never live in the northwest.  I couldn't take that much wetness.

I didn't go to my lesson today so that I could get some more work done.  

Oh my god, I'm going to kill something if my lights flicker again. 

That's it.

Get me the hell out of here.  And why am I getting sick, again?  And why is it that keyboard shortcuts here in Blogger only seem to work about 50% of the time?  Half the time when I sit down to write something, I can't use any.  Other times it's fine.  I have no idea what the deal is.

And for the record: I hate, hate, hate poorly written code.  I'm going to go read a book, there's very little else worth saying today.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better, but more than likely, I'll just soak through a third pair of shoes.

Sticky

I spent most of today with roughly 18 sticky notes on my desk.

Sometimes I removed one.

Sometimes I removed several.

But, invariably, I always added a few others shortly after.

It seems that I have roughly 10 long-term tasks that I want to accomplish at work, not counting grand visions, plus an additional 10 or so short term, immediate need, must-get-done-as-soon-as-possible tasks.  I'm reminded that the human brain can only contain roughly seven things at once, and this makes me glad for the inventions of paper, adhesives, and the stroke of brilliance that combined the two.

So, anyway, things are moving along at work.  They're not absurdly busy yet.  Yet.  We'll see how tomorrow goes.  I'm expecting to remove many of those sticky notes tomorrow - it's just a matter of when, and how satisfied I am with the result.

I was at work until around 6:30 PM - Hillary and I left at the same time (I think we were basically the last ones there) and took the T back to Porter, me towards home, she towards the salon.  Upon arrival, I had some cheese, crackers, and Corona (the three C's), and proceeded to yawn like crazy until I convinced myself to pick up a guitar and do something with it.  Luckily, doing something with it involved playing it.  I love my acoustic.  It's just effin' beautiful.  It's got such a gorgeous sound.  Definitely a good purchase.

After an hour of guitaring or so, I decided to check out OmniFocus.  After downloading a trial of it, I proceeded to add stuff.  I apparently have, off the top of my head, sixty-nine things to do, not counting work.  No wonder I can't get anything done - I'm carrying all this shit around, worrying about it all.  Anyway, we'll see how this thing works as an organizational tool.  So far it seems pretty well done, though I don't know that I really need some of the more advanced features.  All I need is some text that I can shuffle around and label.  Softwaric sticky notes.

Seriously, I'm liking this task stuff.  It's all I talk about lately.  It's like I have high hopes for my own ability to make use of an organization system to improve my life.  Looking at my wall, I see something I wrote perhaps two years ago (a note affixed to the sheetrock with a push pin): This requires a systemic change in the way I manage life.  After all this time, I've some cautious hope that I might be able to say I accomplished that one.

From one end to the other

I woke up a tad late this morning, then proceeded to sit on the couch and play guitar for a bit.  I don't really know why - I just wasn't feeling rushed to get in the shower.  Eric kindly told me that my playing had improved a lot over the last year.  I can kinda see that sometimes - others, not so much.

I arrived at work at roughly 9:30 AM, and worked through until 6:30 or so, I think.  I believe that's when it was.  After work, Daniel and I went over to The Friendly Toast for dinner and a beer.  I had pancakes and a Robust Porter (Smuttynose).  He had french toast and Smuttynose's IPA.  We talked about all sorts of things - a lovely conversation.  I think next time I'll go with the french toast - it looked delicious.  They were playing Neutral Milk Hotel and Wilco.  Not bad.

After leaving The Friendly Toast (around 8:30 or so), I decided to walk over to Central rather than back to Kendall, since I was already part of the way there.

So I walked down Main St. to Central, singing Wilco songs.

Once I got to Central, I decided, heck, it's a nice enough night, why not walk over to Harvard?

So I walked to Harvard singing Animal Collective songs.

Once I got to Harvard, I attempted to stop in at the Staples there, but it was unfortunately about 9:30 PM, and they were half an hour closed.  Instead I stopped into a CVS (ugh) to look for sticky notes.  They only had big, boring, manilla ones.  I got a new toothbrush and some toothpaste instead.

 I also thought I might stop by Dado to see if Karin was still there, as she seemed to be having a rough start to her day this morning.  She didn't seem to be around (they were long since closed, but still cleaning up).  Once I ran out of things to do in Harvard, I thought to myself, well, I've walked this far, why not go all the way across Cambridge?

So I walked from Harvard to Porter singing Smashing Pumpkins B-sides.

And then I got home.  And now my legs are tired.  The end!

Pencil thin? Pssh, handlebar, all the way!

A fine enough Monday, all told.

My morning involved reading a little ways into Getting Things Done, by David Allen.  It's always a pleasure to see things that are common sense, that you always thought were sensible, recorded as such by someone who has spent a great deal of time thinking about them.  It lends credence to ideas already in your head, and makes you more likely to actually carry them out.

That said, I want to go get a white board (maybe I can get the one I left at my parents' place?) and a bunch of sticky notes and go to town organizing myself.  It'll be so wondrous!  I already do it at work.  Why not at home?

I spent a little time during lunch with Cantaloupe Island, and got something I'm happy with for at least the first eight bars.  Now for the other twenty four.  This stuff takes a long time!  Hopefully Joel doesn't get to bugged by how long it's taking me.

After work, I went over to class at NEC, which went well.  During Ear Training, we were singing various intervals and chords and things, and I actually had a moment where I just plain knew what I was hearing, completely out of the blue.  That was exciting!  (It was a fourth.)  Awesome.  If this keeps up, I might actually be decent eventually.  I'm getting really excited about classes next year.  Ear Training II and Jazz Theory II will be really cool, I think, if I can manage to keep up.  It doesn't seem to be a problem in Theory; I'm slightly concerned about Ear Training though.

After class, I tried to find a place to practice somewhere in both the St. Botolph Street building, as well as in Jordan Hall.  No luck.  Every single room I found in both was full.  But, it was extremely cool to go wandering around Jordan Hall looking for rooms.  It's like a crazy old castle.  The hallways twist and turn, there are all these tiny rooms in the basement with little pianos in them, and as you walk through the halls you can hear any number of instruments, ensembles, and vocalists playing.  It's bustling, even at 9:00 PM on a Monday.  I think maybe I need to sign up for a room if I really want to use it.  Might have to write a sticky to figure that out.

After having no luck finding a room, I decided to just go home.

I got here.  I had a Corona and my remaining calzone from last night.  And then Matt and I watched Independence Day.

That's right, boys and girls.  Eye-Dee-Four.  Oh yeah.

I've been thinking lately about how life really does seem to be coming together lately.  I really don't feel adrift, lately.  I have classes, I have hobbies, I have good friends, and I feel like I (generally) have a plan.  It's a pretty good feeling.  Many of the details are hazy, but I have a number of things I'm working towards on at least four long term fronts and several other short term ones, and that's satisfying.  Now if I can just manage to organize myself to the point where I can pull together some additional propulsion, I'll be pretty damn well off.

Woo!

That said, it's now 11:45 PM, and it's about time I got myself to sleep.  I'm tired of staying up really late, lately.  Time to turn in a tad earlier.

... And I was reading an FAQ about how to grow handlebar mustaches before writing this.  Oh, it's on.

Long Runs

I got up today around 10:50 AM, after sleeping in for an extra hour or two.  It was glorious, though I imagine I'll pay for it tomorrow night and the next night when I try to get to sleep at a reasonable time.

I started out the day by trying to come up with a melody for Cantaloupe Island, failed miserably, and checked out some of my other, old Noteflight songs.  Some aren't half bad beginnings.  I spent most of the morning and early afternoon doing laundry and kinda bumming around - Julia and I were scheduled to go for a run at 2:00 PM, but she asked that we put it off until 3:00 PM, which was cool.  It gave me time to finish my laundry, which had all my running stuff in it anyway (oops).

At 3:00 or so, (I think we actually left around 3:15), we set out from my place and ran down Mass Ave. to the river.  Once there, we started to go downriver on the Cambridge side, crossed over the footbridge to the south side, and then continued on our merry way all the way to the Mass Ave. Bridge.  All told, I think it was approximately 4.7 miles, according to gmaps pedometer.  By my estimation of time, we supposedly did it in about 35 minutes.  Which sounds pretty good to me!  That's somewhere between 7-8 minute miles.  Ish.  Even if the time is off, it's still not like 9 or 10, which I might have expected for a close-to-5-mile run after having not run all winter.  Not bad.  At the beginning my shins were killing me - I think I forgot how to stride properly.  I figured it out about two miles in, then felt pretty good.

As we were running, we started saying random, weird phrases as we passed people, just to give them something interesting to listen to.  "And last month, when I was scuba diving in the Mississippi...", "When I was hiking the Himalayas the other day...", "And then I found out she was a man!"

... Things like that.  Good times.

After getting to the Mass Ave. Bridge, we walked ourselves all the way back to Harvard, where we got some coffee at Pete's (I also got a cinnamon chip scone), and then said our goodbyes for the day.  I was freezing at this point, and was thrilled to get on the T back to Porter, though, sadly, without company.

After a shower and gathering my stuff up, I drove out to Sudbury and got there around 6:00 PM.  Dave hadn't arrived yet.  Jason and Pete were there.  We sat around until 7:30 or so when Dave got there, then got on our way.

Personally, I'm having a blast running this whole Ragnarok thing.  It's a great time tying it all in to our existing story.  Hopefully everybody's having a good time.  Next week, I think we'll have Dave, Pete, Jason, Tom (!), and a guest appearance by Julia (!!!).  Or, well, a guest sit-in by Julia (!!).  I don't think she's interested in actually participating.  We'll see!

Anyway, seriously need to sleep.  Must get up and finish Cantaloupe Island.

Social Saturday

I woke up at noon.

Hell yeah.


At 12:50 or so, Ms. Wags gave me a call to suggest we head out to JP for an Arternoon (that there being an art-afternoon for those uncomfortable with word mash-ups).  I said that sounded excellent.

After composing myself and getting on my way, I arrived at the designated meeting spot (read: Dado) in Harvard Square, got some coffee and a scone, and we were on our way.  Julia met Karin, which is like two disparate halves of my life coming together in friendly banter.  It, unfortunately, took us a long time to get out to JP.  We took the Red line out to Park, the Green line out to Symphony, and then the 39 bus out to... where we were going.  (Somewhere near Green St. on the Orange line, Boomerangs, and the Center St. Cafe.)  We got there at 3:30, which was only an hour and a half later than expected.  Oops.

Sitting around at Sarah and Ian's, we each did our thing.  I wrote for a little bit - character backgrounds - Jules and Sarah collaged, Ian seemed to be making a chart of a molecule.  Good times.  After an hour or so, I bust out the guitar and learned the chords for West Coast Blues.  Or, at least, the A section of it.  We ended up leaving JP around 5:30, and I was back at home around 6:15, I think.  We decided to try taking the Orange line home (thus the Green St. bit) and it turned out to be much faster.

At 7:30 or so, I left home again and walked to Harvard Square to meet up with Annalisa for dinner.  We decided to go to Cambridge 1, which was (as always) delicious.  I had a lovely pinot noir - two glasses of it.  It was awesome to see Annalisa - it's sad to me that she's not at Allurent anymore.  Such a spectacular person to have around.  We had a number of hours of lovely conversation.  After Cambridge 1, we went over to Shay's and had a beer or two.  I think we left around midnight, or there abouts.  I walked home from Harvard Square - it's a glorious night.

On the way in to Harvard Square, I had all these great thoughts about the story I've been writing, which I was unable to write down because of a lack of paper.  (I had a pen).  Instead, I ended up dictating them to my phone.  Such good stuff.  The whole thing makes a lot more sense now, and it all (amazingly) just sorta came to me as I was walking along.

Tomorrow I need to get some homework done, maybe get some work done, go for a run at 2:00 PM with The Wags, do laundry, and plan effin' Ragnarok.  Oh, yeah, we're back, after a week off.  I'm excited.

Little Shop! Little Shop of Haughrawwws!

Yes, the time is now 4:17 AM.

Work today went pretty well, given that I only got 5-6 hours of sleep.  I think I went to bed at around 3:00 AM after finishing Knife of Dreams; Jordan's last book.  It's kinda sad to finish out an author's entire life's work.  Now I get to see how the new guy handles the series.

At lunch, Erik and I ordered Thai - Tofu yellow curry.  Delicious.

After work, I went with Mr. Daniel off to the Cambridge Brewing Company to meet with a former coworker of his for drinks and conversation.  I had CBC's vegetarian lentil burger, which was actually quite delicious.  Daniel's friend was a cool guy - I missed his name when we sat down, unfortunately.  After leaving CBC, I wandered over to Lord Hobo, which, it turns out, is a bar a little bit up the way from Kendall on Hampshire.  Cool enough place.  There was a small line to get in - I must have waited about 15 minutes, I think.

Eric F. and Gwen were hanging out, and we had a few beers.   Eric and I each had a glass of some wicked delicious tequila.  Don Julio 1942, I think?  It was quite nice.  Smelled a bit like vanilla to me.

After leaving Lord Hobo, the three of us walked to Gwen's place up around Inman to fetch some movies.  We said "Hi!" to her husband.  Following that, we grabbed Labyrinth and Little Shop of Horrors and took the T back to Eric's place in Porter.

We then proceeded to watch Labyrinth and enjoy a bottle of wine.

We then proceeded to watch Little Shop of Horrors and enjoy said bottle of wine.  I fell asleep, kinda, through part of Labyrinth.  Eric fell asleep through parts of both.  Gwen sat enraptured by the whole experience and quoted most of the movies.  Around 3:45, our movies over, Gwen and I left, and I proceeded to temporarily leave this laptop and my bag behind, which Eric kindly reminded me of via the telephonomajig.  Thanks, dude!

Anyway, a lovely night.  Time to go to sleep.