Ah, the weekend...

A Saturday evening spent doing "work" with some friends, at a retreat for student health educators. There are times I really like my profession, and this evening was one of them. Good students, good professionals, and a good time had by all.

Today, Sue and I did our proctoring for the LSAT's. Another fun morning spent watching future lawyers take a test, while Sue and I read our respective books. I'm about 100 pages out from finishing Matt Ruff's "Set This House In Order," which I am really enjoying. It's a book about mulitple personality disorders. I may ask my psych friend Joe McG to read it, see what he thinks about the counseling/psych end of the story. As someone with a lay knowledge of psych and multiple personality disorder, it's ringing true to me, but I'm curious what a professional would think.

While doing the LSAT today, I tried to do some lyric writing. I'm running into the issue of how much reality to put into lyrics. I have ideas to write, but do I try to make personal experiences general, so that others can empathize, or do I keep them more personal, with therefore perhaps more meaning to me, but perhaps less to others? It's something I'm trying to reflect on, to help move to a different level in writing.

I'm trying to write something about people who have the fear of being alone in a relationship. I think it's fascinating when friends tell me that they can't stand not dating or being with someone. While I personally really like being in a relationship, I was without one for long enough during my life to know that people can make do without it. However, I know some people who truly can't function without a relationship, even a bad one, in their life. For example, there was a girl in high school who always was in a dating situation with someone. These would be long term dating relationships, of at least a few months (decades in high school time), but then when it would end, it seemed that within a short period of time, she'd be dating someone else, and would be just as serious as the relationship that just ended. That always fascinated me. If you're always in a relationship, does any relationship have meaning? Perhaps that could be the theme for the song... See, I know there was a reason to start this blog!

I should be getting a personal website up on Dartmouth server space soon. I'm hoping to be able to post some music up there, and perhaps some of my genealogy stuff, mainly old photos. We'll see how it goes.

Sue and I will probably go out to eat tomorrow, and perhaps to a movie. Who knows what we'll see, but I'll keep you posted.

I'm out.

NP: King Crimson, Calliope

Someone woke up at NASA

It's about time.

If the money put into the shuttle had just continued with a reduced Moon program, we wouldn't have to worry about going back now...

Seems obvious in hindsight, but how could the past have been so blind?

NP: The Daily Show

Damn robots...

I actually had to change over my comments section in this blog so that I wouldn't get spammed by robots. Do people who set these robots up really think that people will click on a link because a nice link in a comment points to it?

Morons.

I've been thinking more about the bass piece I recorded last night. I need to play it a bit more, and actually arrange it... Figure out what it's all about, besides being dark and moody. Sometimes that's enough, but I need to have some more structure in it. That's a job for this weekend...

NP: Jingle Cats, Here Comes Santa Claws

Is the Night Time The Right Time?

For Blogging? It is for me. I like taking it easy in the evenings, kicking back, and reflecting on the day.

Sue is feeling a bit under the weather. Poor Sue! She's dealing with a cold, which is never fun. Hopefully rest and time will have her feeling better soon.

So, Mike, you may be thinking, what are you up to nowadays? Here's a few fun things for your enjoyment...

1. I've been trying to work on a little mournful bass song that I've been generating over the past few weeks. I actually gave a go at recording something on my digital home recording setup tonight, but it didn't turn out very well. I really need to sit down, figure out the different parts of the piece, and arrange it in some semblance of creative order. Then, I can get into figuring out what to do with it. So, keep your ears peeled.

2. I started reading the last book on my "To Read" shelf, Matt Ruff's Set This House In Order. I read his first book, Fool On The Hill, a month or two ago and quite enjoyed it. So far, this seems like a good book, but I'm only about 40 pages into it. More updates later on.

3. My good friend Joe, of Taskboy fame, will be coming up here next week, to help out with a presentation we'll be doing for some students about alien wackyness. I'll be sure to let you know how the talk goes. It should be fun...

4. This weekend, I'm proctoring the LSAT's, the law school admissions test. Lots of fun to do, as I generally get to read a book during the test. Perhaps I'll try to write some lyrics for the aforementioned bass piece I'm writing.

That's what I'm up to now. Some fun stuff, and some casual things. Any suggestions for books to read once I'm done with the Matt Ruff book?

NP: The Daily Show

Mike

A week's gone by...

So, I think I started this little bloggy about a week ago. Even if it's been a bit longer, it feels like a week. I'm happy to say that I've enjoyed putting some thoughts down here each day.

Today was officially a day off from work, as I was able to take a relaxing day away after working hard this past month. I slept a bit late, did some minor stuff around the apartment, went into West Lebanon to buy some used CD's to re-sell on E-bay (see link at right).

I did have a good E-Bay weekend, with my closing CD's brining in about $85. Not a bad take.

This week, I plan on doing some songwriting, to start using my home recording setup on the computer to do some new things. I want to find a website where I can put up music. I'm still looking at the possibilities.

And now, I'm getting a bit tired, so I'll have to wrap this up for now, and write more tomorrow.

Cheers!

Mike

Sleep...

Normally, I'm someone who enjoys staying up late, and sleeping late. Graduate school was really a perfect schedule for me, because all my classes were in the evening, and that allowed me to stay up anywhere between midnight and 3am, and sleep till about 10 in the morning.

Yesterday (Saturday), Sue and I were in Brooklyn for her sister's wedding. A good time was had by all. We drove back here to New Hampsire that night, getting back around 8:15pm, and I was promptly in bed by 9pm. Slept till about 8:30am this morning. It was a quick trip down south, so not a lot of time for extended rest.

NP: Miles Davis, Two Bass Hit, from Live at Newport 1958