Friday, July 23, 2004
For the past several months, I’ve been reading Aaron Copland’s What to Listen For in Music. It’s a difficult book to read in one sitting, as it cover so much musical territory. I finally pushed through the last half of it this week. It’s an amazing work, really. Copland manages a concise overview of many major classical music styles and a guide through the process of musical composition. But running throughout every chapter is […]
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
Wow, are my legs and feet sore. But, y’know, it’s a good kind of sore. (Cue the Far Side cowboy punctured with about two dozen arrows who, in a daze, is saying to his partner, “Yeah, Clem, it hurts, but y’know, it’s a good kind of hurt.”) Tuesday night, I decided to act on some information I’d read in Runner’s World about running barefoot. Apparently, a lot of current research suggests […]
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
One of the great advantages of moving out of one’s parents’ house is the ability to go back. My parents hosted a neighborhood party on Sunday, and I decided to go. It was a fun opportunity to see neighbors that I hadn’t talked to in years. And, I could bring deviled eggs. The eggs were a bit of a chore, as I’ve been working for awhile to perfect a system of baking the eggs instead of boiling them. I could put them on the racks of the oven (which […]
July 19, 2004
Lileks agrees with me about Spider-Man 2‘s music: Oh, and for those who insist that Elfman’s score is still something special: hum the theme. Go ahead. Just try. — James Lileks, July 19, 2004 Otherspace Productions is going well. I had three folks over at my apartment on Saturday: an in-betweener (who was actually redrawing one sequence to fix some errors in the key cels), a CGI […]
Friday, July 16, 2004
I’m feeling a little better today, especially as my deadline at work was pushed back two weeks. Yay! I can go to Otakon guilt-free! A few words on Mike Nelson’s Death Rat, as promised: I’d hoped the book would be gut-wrenchingly funny, but assumed it would be just a solid, fun book. It definitely fell into the latter category. It reminded me a bit of Terry Pratchett’s early Discworld […]
July 15, 2004
As expected, I’m in a fairly dark place right now. This is expected because I’ve now lived long enough to have learned that – simply because of regression to the mean – emotional high times in my life are usually followed by relatively low times. The high time, in this case, was my week with Saalon, which was a joy and fulfilling on several levels. He was great, and I loved hanging out […]
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
Okay, I’m back. And doing my best to return to normal. Though, of course, our lives never return to a true, indefinite equilibrium. If history teaches us anything, it’s the constancy of change and the vast variety of human nature. Living a “normal” life implies an average, which simply isn’t meaningful when it comes to living life. But I am trying to re-establish my routines, and find better ways to live. I had my animators over on Saturday, […]
Wednesday, July 7, 2004
More VR story: “Done,” the boy murmured, his eyes still fixed on the screen. “Put on your eyes, man, and go.” Thomas flipped over the goggles in his hand and saw that there was indeed a picture on the inside. Doodlehopper hid a smirk by sipping from her mug. Thomas chuckled at himself, then slid on the goggles. He twiddled his fingers, and…. He stood in the battered, dingy pilot’s mess on the I.S.S. space […]
Tuesday, July 6, 2004
I should explain that I’m going to be out of town for all of this week. I’m up in Pittsburg, helping Saalon film his latest independent film, Dreaming by Strobelight. It’s a really incredible experience, frankly. I’m helping him build sets and hold the microphone and just generally provide a helping hand. He’s got an amazing group of actors, too. I’ve read the script, and they all fit their characters perfectly. […]
Thursday, July 1, 2004
As I mentioned in an earlier journal entry, I’m condo-hunting. I’m perfectly happy with my current basement apartment. It’s spacious, the rent’s only USD $700 a month, and I can decorate it however I want. If I move, I’ll need to get at least one roommate to cover the mortgage, taxes, and condo and homeowner’s association fees. But right now, I’m tossing $700 out the car window every month. If I buy a place, I’ll […]