I won’t bore you with a litany of today’s accomplishments. In brief: I took today off work, and determined to make the day count. And I did.

Most exciting development: I attached a MIDI-to-USB cable between my piano keyboard and computer, fired up GarageBand, and was able to play directly into my computer. In twenty minutes I was able to write a simple forty-second piano melody. It’s nothing impressive, but this is what you can do in twenty minutes:

Song Experiment, 31 Aug 07

Tomorrow I drive in to D.C. and explore the museums. Can’t wait.

From The Accidental Creative:

That made me stop and think. So true. When we try something new, we need to reserve lots of space for relaxation and reflection, and be very forgiving of ourselves. We tend to compare our attempts against finished works of brilliance, and forget the years of worried, uncertain experimentation that built them.

Thanks to my parents, I caught ImaginAsian TV’s Tuesday anime block tonight. Very interesting. Briefly:

• The Law of Ueki — Very standard shonen series. Not always a bad thing.
• Paradise Kiss — Neat little fashion-oriented show hampered by severely limited animation budget.
• Ayakashi: Classic Japanese Horror — Well-done and refreshingly mature, but as is common with classic Japanese stories, rather murky and weird.
• Kyo Kara Maoh — A pretty boy surrounded by pretty boys. Quality, but I predicted almost every event in the episode.
• KamiChu! — The warm surprise. I still love this show for its quiet, unhurried pace and realistic characters.

A fun night, despite the late hour getting back home.

I spent the weekend relaxing, pretty much. And if you believe in yin/yang retribution for goofing off, then I paid for it.

Saturday, I puttered around the house, then enjoyed the company of my friends at Guy’s Night Out, where we watched Logan’s Run (a film I still love) and Sahara (which is a perfect guy’s movie). Great fun. Collapsed into bed at 1:00 A.M.

Then, Sunday, I slept in, went to church, had my parents over, then pulled my hair out as I tried to get some stuff for work, um, working. Pardon the horrible grammar.

Bedtime? 2:00 A.M. And I had to post the results of my labors at work Monday morning, so I simply had to get to work on time. I managed to drag myself into work at 9:00 A.M. and post the files, to discover that the day-long conference call I was supposed to be on started at 8:00 A.M. Oops. So I pressed a phone receiver to my ear for the next eight hours.

But…you know what? I discharged my duties with honor. I was able to drive home at 5:00, grab some plants and groceries on the way, dig in the plants, pan-fry a tilapia filet, do two loads of laundry, watch more Gun Frontier, wash the dishes, and write three pages of script for my current comic project, Grave Thoughts.

And, soon, I’ll go to bed. Tired but content. And it will have been a good day.

Some days, you just come home and watch two episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 back-to-back, and then go to bed.

Not that your day was bad. Not that you’re depressed or frustrated. Your brain just wants to be switched off and amused for an evening.

And that’s fine.

(They were “Teenagers from Outer Space” and “The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed-Up Zombies,” in case you’re wondering.)

I just finished watching Gravion Zwei, a modern twelve-episode giant robot series.

It’s ridiculous. It’s over-the-top. It’s full of maids, giant robot combination sequences, fanservice, teenagers screaming their attack moves, and bickering teens who really love each other.

It is a perfect example of its genre. It is clearly pushing every genre convention to its limit. It’s entertaining. It’s trying so hard to be entertaining. It’s great, great fun.

And it’s gratifying to experience a creative work that knows what it’s trying to do, and does it completely and fully through to the final frame. Even if it’s “just” a cheesy giant robot show.

If you were to parody Web 2.0, you could hardly do better than eSwarm.

(If you’re not familiar with the term, “Web 2.0″ was coined recently to describe the next generation of websites, characterized by community-driven content that uses the web as a platform instead of a destination in itself.)

I have nothing against Web 2.0 itself; it’s a useful descriptor for a real trend. But it’s been rapidly appropriated by all sorts of sites, and stretched so thin it often doesn’t even resemble its original shape. Or it’s just horribly misused.

So, I submit, with eSwarm. It appears to offer itself as a central point at which consumers can ask suppliers for stuff. Consumers go on the website and create “swarms,” which are basically requests for particular goods at a particular price. Sellers and/or suppliers will then connect with the swarm and offer the goods at a particular price.

Which means that suppliers have to be persuaded to register with this site so they can to supply a handful of anonymous internet customers. And it’s all centralized on the eSwarm website. And eSwarm deducts a transaction fee.

Hey, maybe it’ll be the next eBay. But doesn’t this look like an idea in search of an audience?

Sure enough, my block of YouTube helped me to be more “productive” today, in the sense that my leisure was directed towards things that I really care about.

I watched a lot of anime today, chugging through my to-watch pile nicely. I got through about a third of Gun Frontier, a fun show in which the Captain Harlock characters are wandering the Wild West. No SF, and no fantasy; just blood, dirt, and steel.

It’s a mediocre series, though I don’t mean that as a criticism. It’s entertaining, without ever becoming excellent. It’s rarely boring; every episode has at least one neat little showdown.

Part of the problem is that it’s a western. Gunfights don’t last long, so episodes are mostly about a Mysterious Woman or a Suspicious Sheriff, and lots of stand-offs and dialogue. It’s difficult to do that in an outstanding manner.

Ah well. No complaints here; I’m enjoying myself.

Aaand I come down with a cold. Just in time to affect work. Great.

So I spent the day watching clips on YouTube. Wish I didn’t; this evening, I changed my hosts file to block YouTube. I enjoyed myself, but I could’ve just as easily spent my time watching anime, which rewards watching.

I did catch a few episodes of Loonatics, the “Looney Tunes meet Batman Beyond” series currently airing. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth when it was announced, and the end result is actually quite entertaining.

It’s not Looney Tunes, and it’s clearly not meant to be. It’s a fun, light superhero show told with The Tick-like takes on Looney Tunes characters. I laughed out loud at times, and was generally entertained throughout.

Not the desecration that many feared it would be.

A perfect day. Just when the cheeks start to feel a little warm, a light breeze sweeps through, and the deep green leaves flicker.

I spent most of the day wandering around town, deeply exploring all the little shops and cafes that I usually walk by. I found lots of neat places. Finally tried out the Chinese restaurant, and discovered a fantastic tea shop.

I feel like I don’t deserve a day this perfect.