And after that...

Wow, I almost forgot to write.

Lets see... I think I'll start with yesterday.

I made the mistake of having a Pepsi last night at around 8:00 PM.  This caused me to be so entirely caffeinated that I had issues sleeping last night.  Argh.

There, now, on to today with the proper context.

So I woke up later than I would have preferred, couldn't get in the shower because I was too late, and thus became later, and if it wasn't a vicious circle, it was at least a vicious series of unfortunate events.  Eventually, I got to work and proceeded to start Getting Stuff Done (GSD).  Today was 50% taken up by meetings.  The other 50% involved a bit of code.

After work, Mr. Erik and I took the T to Park St. together, because he happened to be going into the city himself.  Me, I was on my way to class.  6:00 PM saw me over at NEC, sitting down for Jazz Theory.  Class went pretty well, all told.  Ear Training was a lot of fun.  We spent a good 10 minutes going around the room scat singing to Tune Up (Miles Davis).  It was pretty cool.  First, someone would make up a line, the next person would repeat it, the third would modify the end of it, and the fourth would just do whatever they wanted (Which mirrors the form of Tune Up).  We had 7 people, so it went around the room unevenly, so everyone got a chance to do each part.  We then did the same thing, but each person did a set of two phrases, each of which was four bars, instead of each person doing a single four bar phrase.  It was really cool.

After class, I found an empty classroom and bummed around for about half an hour playing guitar.  I brought it with me for Jazz Theory, but we barely used our instruments, so I figured I had to get some sort of use out of it.  Also cool.  I'd been itching to play all day at work.  I can't wait for it to get warm again so I can actually go out on the deck and do that.

After said bit of practice, I left the school, walked back to the Green Line at Hynes and started the trek home.  After a few stops of standing on the train, lookin' around at the tired, 9:15 PM commuters, I somehow looked down the car towards the front.  And who do I see sitting there, minding his own business?

Erik.

How's that for a coincidence?  I walked up, planted my guitar in front of him, scowled, and said, "Hi!"

Or, well, the scowling might be an exaggeration.

Turns out he was on his way home, too.  This, I would hardly scowl about.

So we both took the Green Line to Park, and the Red Line to our respective stops.  It's always pleasant to have good company!

... And here we are.  I took a spare couch cushion and shoved it under my desk for a kind of thingy to prop my feet on.  So far so good!  I ran out of soup, so dinner consisted of some milk (Ahh!  Delicious!), cheese, crackers, and hummus.  Doesn't get much simpler, or better, than that.  I would have preferred an apple to go with it, though.

... And it's now past my bed time.  That is all.

Repaid

I came to the conclusion this morning that there are things you can't do in an unscripted, collaborative story.    Generally.  The aesthetic of "The Wanting Comes In Waves / Repaid", off of the Decemberists album The Hazards of Love, made me think of it.  It's just not the sort of story you can tell when everyone has a vested interest in some character being a hero.  A boy, pleading with his mother for mercy and freedom.  She, elegant and powerful as a queen, furious that he could even ask such a thing, lords her power over him, mocking his love for Margaret, forcing him to repay her for the slightest courtesy.  Players would never stand for it.

This is why there will always be a place for despotic, planned, fiction from a single author.  There's just things you can't do, otherwise.  I see no particular reason why it was ever in danger of dying out, but it firms my respect for the form.

A day of tasks and rewards

I got a number of tasks done today.

First was waking up before 11:00 AM.  In fact, I recall waking up before 10:30, too!  Good for me, on the weekend.  After waking up, I realized I had no food in the house and a list of things I needed to get done before 3:00 PM when Julia and I were scheduled to go for a run.

Said list:

1. Some stuff for work.
2. Two Jazz Theory assignments which I've been having issues with.
3. Prepping for this evening's Ars game.

I couldn't see myself eating bread and peanut butter for another meal (ooof.), so I resolved to get myself ready and go down to Dado for the late morning/early afternoon to get some stuff done.

So I did that.  And arrived there around 11:45 AM.  The work stuff went quick enough, and I then spent an hour or two on the Jazz.  It always feels a bit weird to be sitting in a cafe surrounded by parchment paper and with a bunch of staves (I assume that's the plural of a musical staff as well as one you hold?) all over your computer screen.  If I saw somebody in there doing that, anyway, I'd be curious what was up.  It went relatively well, anyway.  Converting chords to slash chords and poly chords confuses me a bit, though.  Some of the examples didn't really make sense.

Around 2:45 PM, I decided to head back home in preparation for our run.  As I was on my way out, Julia called, and suggested that perhaps she make some scones instead of running.  And that we should eat them.

Sadly, I am easily swayed when I'm being baited with scones.  So I went over to her place and hung out with Paul while she cooked.  This is when I got #3 done.  At least, done enough.  Then there were scones, and they were delicious and crumbly.

Julia had asked if she could sit in on our Ars Magica session - something we arranged several weeks ago.  I'm not entirely sure why she wanted to bask in the funny light of supreme geekdom, but, hey, I won't complain about having excellent company.  So we decided we'd head out around 5:00 PM to get out to Sudbury.  On the way, we stopped for gas, my car almost stalled, and then wandered through Hannafords looking for, 1) chips, and 2) beer.  We came away with #1.

Ars went well, I think.  Julia was a champ, and put up with our wackiness well.  Here's hoping she enjoyed herself.  She didn't participate - just hung out.  Good stuff.

Aaaand here I am.  Not half bad.

The remainder.

Oh, and the rest of the evening involved a bit of writing, some sitting at Dado, and a game of Starcraft (the original).  At least I can still win at the old game, even if players in the new one kick my ass.  Carriers all the way, man!

Now, reading!

I have just made a peanut butter and Cinnamon Toast Crunch sandwich.

Don't judge me.

Creative day.

Currently sitting in Dado with my laptop and guitar.  The former in use (obviously), the latter in its case.  It's a little early for my usual daily report, but I feel like it.  So there!

I think I woke up at 11:45 or so this morning, after last night's Starcraft II excursion.  I had a dream last night that Andrew Bird's song Sovay was a cover off some recent U2 album or something.  I'm pretty sure it's not.  But in the dream, the connection was a miraculous, wonderful discovery.

Eric and I sat around and watched a bit of some movie called Liberty... something... I can't remember the other word.  It's got a bunch of people dealing with racism in, like, the 40s. From what I saw, it seemed pretty good.

I've just had an excellent bagel sandwich - sesame bagel, red pepper hummus, greens, tomato, red onion, cucumbers, and swiss.  Delightful, and well complimented with some lemon ginger tea with real, giant pieces of both in it.

I think I've reached the sit-and-be-creative portion of my day, though, truthfully, so far the whole day has been kinda like that.  After waking up, I had a bite to eat, and then dove into learning the chords and melody of West Coast Blues.  I got through the vast majority of it, which was nice.  I left home at 3:45 or so for a lesson with Dave Z over at Jordan Hall at 4:45 PM.  I got there just in time.  With coffee, so, yeah, awesome.  We talked about the soloing chord changes (more complex than the melody chord changes), and about how you might do somethin' jazzy over them.  Some day, some day, I'll be able to do that, I'm sure.  For now I'm still a bit mystified by the spidery, wandering jazz solo.  Some day.

So that's that, for now.  Might very well write another one tonight.  Woohoo!

A play about women and men. Five lessons in humility.

I think I managed to write a whole half hour of code today.  It was like a swarm of little mini tasks and problems conspired to buzz around my head all day.  I never even had a chance - the code happened in spare moments somewhere in between all the other stuff that was going on, as opposed to the other way around.

Geeze.  Marty, Hillary, and I stumbled out of the building around 6:30 PM after everyone else had gone.  Happy birthday, you two.  (Don't get to say that very often!)  I went home speedily, as we were planning to go out to Sudbury to see a play Dave FR was in (Princess Ida).  The show started at 8:00 PM.  On my way, I got a phone call from Mike.

"Hey, are you giving me a ride tonight?" he asked.

"Oh!  Uhh, yeah, sure!  I can," I responded, not having realized he was going.

"Cool," he stated.

"Do you know where we're going, cause I don't."

"Yeah."

"Okay," I said, "I was originally going to carpool with Jason and Kat, but if you know how to get there we can just go from here.  Let me give him a call and let him know, and I'll call you back."

"Okay."

So I called Jason to confirm that the play was at their old high school in Sudbury.  He said he was pretty sure it was.  I said, okay, and told him I'd just drive there with Mike to navigate."

Then I called Mike back.

"Hey, you know the way to your high school, right?"  It seemed an innocent question.

"Uhh, yeah?" he said, confused, "Aren't we going to Dave FR's house?"

"Uhh, no?"

"... What are we doing tonight?"

"We're going to see a play!" I exclaimed.

"... Oh!  I thought we were going to play Magic!"

It being that he had no other evening plans, he came with me to the play, which was great.  They had a good cast.  Dave FR as well as our friend Graham were both in it.  She was playing some maiden person.  He was playing one of the three sons of... King Gama, I think?  Good times.

After the play, Jason and I went over to the "Halfway Cafe" somewhere around Sudbury for a few bee-ahs and some nachos.  Kat and Mike went home cause they like sleep.  More good times ensued.

Following that, Jason and I drove back to his place, chatted about women and relationships on the way.  Once there, I spent an hour or two playing Starcraft II.  I lost a total of five times.  I never won.  Every time, I lost in some new, unique way.  First I died to Mutas.  Then I died to a rush of stupid cliff-jumping Terran dudes.  Then I died to Battlecruisers (that was the only even remotely close game).  Then I tried a 2v2, and we died to a dumb, combined rush.  Finally, in my last, epic battle, I died to a zergling rush in the first 5 minutes.

Laaaaaaaaaaamesauce.

And now, head hanging in shame, I'm going to go back to the drawing board and play the original Starcraft or something so that I can have a chance of not sucking by the time this game comes out or I, at least, get into the beta with my Mac.

Ooof.