Obsidian Noise

The quick update didn’t happen earlier this week. It’s been nearly unbelievably busy, culminating now in a big conference at which I’m speaking tomorrow. Throughout the week so far, as I try to cobble together a presentation that at least makes sense, and at most might be somewhat interesting, I’ve been mitigating a series of minor disasters involving a variety of tools I’ve made, specifically computer simulations, that are now in use. When things go wrong with one of those it can result in a disruption around which the stakes are just too high. So that’s taken my free time. No training this week and I’m going crazy. I’ve even smoked a few times. More than a few.

Full story soon, don’t give up.

Sorry folks, not quite ready to resume– am on no sleep and negative time right now. I’ll update in full for tomorrow morning, so check in!

don’t worry little monkeys.

Sorry for the break, it was unexpected. Otherwise I would have warned you. I have lots of stories and pictures to share but need a day to get more settled. Internet’s on, though.

In short, for now, Southern California is dang nice and I’m glad I’m here.

1/11/13 05:30

Jfk and I’m sore and tired, writing this on my phone as I wait for my flight to LA amidst a crowd of mutants and their perfumed, cakey carcasses. It’s funny to me that a person would get dressed up for the airport. How many shoes here were chosen specifically for the trip. I wonder if anyone actually went out and bought new shoes for the airport. Airport shoes. Check ’em out. I bought them for you as much as me.

January 10th, 2013

Finished a long day at work yesterday and then sprinted up home, to Hollow Way Studio, for the first jam in about three weeks. It went well, though everyone was rusty.

Rustiness in jamming can take three forms. Physiological rustiness, which is when your muscle memory needs refreshing, manifests very clearly when you haven’t played for a while. Your fingers don’t find the strings as easily as they should, and you end up looking down at the fretboard a lot to make sure of where you are. That goes away after about an hour of playing and and then stays away if you’re able to get even a tiny bit of practice in daily. Musical rustiness is tougher. That’s when you fall out of synch with which notes are a part of which chords, which polyrhythms work best in which arrangements, and sometimes even which frets are which notes (though that’s probably more a sign of my own level rather than shear rustiness). The last kind of rustiness is that of playing with other people. Being able to jam successfully isn’t easy. Without a song to play and notes to follow, the good jammer needs to be hearing his own musical voice in the context of other voices simultaneously. This involves matching and augmenting what’s being heard with what you anticipate being heard, and that’s a difficult task. In my case it’s especially difficult because we have five guitarists.

So, needless to say, there was rust, but it was fun. We jammed until 9 and people chatted a bit to catch up after having been off doing our own things for the holidays, and all of that was nice. Someone’s wife had knee surgery, someone’s girlfriend was quitting smoking, someone got a new stereo, someone sold their apartment, and so on. As for me, I shared my stories about all night parties and meeting heavy metal gods in the kitchens of friends.

Early tomorrow morning I leave for LA and then after a few days of catching up with my best friend over there, I leave for SD for some other stuff. Can’t wait. I will surf. I will swim. I will read. I will explore. I will rest… hopefully.

I’ll try to send some updates along the way but might not be able to. In the meantime, have a great weekend and week. Make the most of everything and try your best so you can have that feeling of resting easy.

My friend from woodland, wildland, childhood days came for another visit last night, driving down from his business hotel up in Yonkers, and making it around 7p. We chatted briefly before taking off for midtown, his first time there.

I decided on Korean food for us and we popped up at 41st St and walked down so he could  get a sense of things. I think he was impressed. Luckily it wasn’t very crowded and we made our way down in peace and occasional awe.

We ate at my favorite Korean BBQ place and had a good talk in there, and then walked up from 33rd to 59th, and then west to Columbus Circle through the park, and then took the 1 train up to my hood, where he was parked, and he drove off back up to the hotel.

His life is very different from mine, and those differences are what whole books have tried to describe. It’s been great to catch up again after all this time.

Out for training before a busy night, and then packing for SD.

Late update, sorry about that.

It was great to see my old friend last night. His company gave him a hotel up in Yonkers, more-or-less central to the jobs he has to do while up here for the week. He drove down to my place from there and made it around 7p. He found a spot in which to park nearby and before I knew it he was calling me from the lobby: “what’s your apartment number?”

I buzzed him in and it was amazing to see the guy in my place. It’s been years, and he looks exactly the same. Not a wrinkle on his face, which is amazing since he’s now got two kids, one entering first grad next year, and seems to have a very limited life outside of the toil of keeping a family going down in Charlotte.

We set out from my place and walked to campus so I could show him where I spend most of my time. We then headed down Amsterdam to my favorite restaurant, a tiny hole-in-the-wall burrito place on 106th. After eating hugely there, we walked down Riverside Drive all the way back to my place, stopping along the way to chat and point stuff out and wonder about the history of things. Fortunately I’d been down that road, literally and figuratively, enough times to answer most of his questions easily.

We walked up to City College and looked at the gargoyles. Unsurprisingly, he mentioned he had an entire book just about gargoyles, one of those big coffee table books with big pictures. He bet the City College ‘goyles were in there and I said I hoped they were.

We walked next straight to his rented Jetta and he took off, early morning in Yonkers so it made more sense for him to sleep up there, company tab. Hopefully he’ll be back down here tonight, though I haven’t heard anything from him yet and it’s after 4. He was saying last night he might be done early today since he worked more than his 8 hours already, and if that was the case we could get an earlier start on walking around town– but it looks like that’s less likely now. Hopefully there will be at least one earlier day this week so I can actually show him what the city is like.

If he does make it down tonight, I want to take him to Shilla, in Ktown. He’ll get a sense of what midtown is like and some kickass food, too. Last night he was saying that Charlotte doesn’t really have Korean food, so. Now I’m happily obliged.

It’s been great to see him.

My best friend from childhood is passing through the area this week, and I can’t wait to meet up. I was his best man back in 2004 and I’ve only seen him once since then. We talk about every 6 months or so. For some friends, that’s all you need and it’s perfect.

The weekend was busy with articles and writing and too much coffee, a couple cigarettes  here and there to concentrate the mind. I was able to train a bunch and today more of that.

It’s warm and will be in the 40s all week, another week, before I hit San Diego. Can’t wait for that.

Things are basically back to normal, the regular work load quickly piling on and up (but not through). Dissertation mode in a low gear.

You usually lose people when you start talking about gears. If you say “low gear” it means the smaller gear, the one that gives you more power because the engine (either a motor or your own body if you’re on a bike) can transfer more power through the leverage points. “High gear” is the larger gear, the one you use at high speed after reaching a certain rotational velocity that requires less power to maintain.

I’m in low gear, the power gear. I’m not moving fast through the dissertation, rather I’m powering my way through the hard parts– reading and synthesizing source information to help make my own points, occasionally needing to rethink my points, honing them and correcting them as I find evidence that takes me in truer directions. Low gear is what you use for going off road, through deep mud and up steep hills. That’s where I’m at: muscling through some tough stuff: the literature, the studies, the testimonies and evidences. High gear will be when I’m in free writing mode, adding style and making my project readable and enjoyable.

This weekend I’ll be working hard on this, with nearly all of my free time. I’m ready for a vacation from my vacation and to go hard for a while.

On the 11th I leave for San Diego for a couple a weeks where I will continue doing the same, hopefully on a beach for significant parts.

Have a great weekend.