A Good Saturday

Today was a pretty normal day. Did some reading, helped Sue put up our little Christmas tree, exercised, and pretty much finished shopping for the holidays.

For some reason, I get depressed when we put up our tree. I think this is just something that's always been around when doing these tree type things, but who knows. Ah well, life goes on.

I've got 90% of my Christmas/Holiday shopping done, so that's good.

After finishing this entry, I'm going to do a mix of the demo I've been working on, and get it up on my website tomorrow. It's a work in progress, but I want to now let it sit for a bit, and see what I think about it in a little while. It's not like I have a release date for these things...

More later!

NP: Genesis, Squonk (from Seconds Out)

Will the Digestion Never End???

The day after Thanksgiving, the day of Turkey Sandwiches, Turkey Soup, Turkey on Toast, and all other turkey items served across the United States. I did my share today, and just had some reheated turkey. Good for dinner, and now the turkey is gone.

For now...

Today, I managed to blow through the written section of all my UGA (Undergraduate Advisor) evaluations. I still have to do the "check box" ratings, but those take 5 minutes tops per evaluation, so I can do those at my leisure on Monday. It took me from about 11:15am till about 2pm to get those done.

After that, I managed to clean up the apartment a bit, although more of that will be done tomorrow. Played some music while doing so, including the new Mars Volta and John Cale. Both are quite good, in their own way. I do need to listen to them a bit more to really get the sense of the music though. The first runthrough of an album is almost always just getting a sense of the music, with repeated listenings getting into the deeper arrangements and structures.

Sue and I watched the movie Tapeheads in the evening, one of my favorites. First saw it back in High School on VHS with Brian Paik, and have seen it lots of times since then. I introduced it to a lot of my college friends, and it's taken on a life of its own since then. We hadn't watched it in awhile, so it was fun to see it again. It's also not a long movie, so it goes by quick. Swanky Modes rule!

I'm about 120 pages into Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. A very fun read so far, and I'm looking forward to perhaps finishing it before the weekend is out.

NP: Ten Seconds, The Last Three Minutes, 1

Almost Thanksgiving...

Ah, the last day of work until Monday was today. Although, I think I'm going to go into my office on Friday and try to blow through some student staff evaluations I have to write. I dislike writing evaluations, so I want to rip the bandage off all at once, and get them done, so it's not water torture, doing some on one day, another the next, and never really getting them done in a quick way. So, I'll sacrifice a few hours on Friday. Sue's going for an eye appointment, so I'll do it then. It's less like real work when no one else is around, and I'll crank some music up.

Speaking of music, this weekend I'm going to try some experiments in getting some musical ideas down. I want to write a big stupid rock song, just for the fun of it, so that might be my next recording. Tomorrow or Friday, I'll do a mixdown of my most recent demo, and put it up on my website for your perusal.

Thanksgiving is going to be spent at the apartment/home of the director of our little division of ORL at Dartmouth, Deborah, and her partner Chelsea. It'll be fun, and it's nice to be a bit social even if it's not with family. Sue and I will be down in NJ around Christmas, so we'll do all the family stuff then.

My current reading is Volume 1 of the Babylon 5 scripts of Joe Straczynski, the creator and main writer for the show. Babylon 5 was a 5 year story told from 1992-1998 on syndicated television, an epic tale of rising empires, falling civilizations, and the individuals who are key in the events of their age. A great story, told well. The scripts are fun to read, to see what goes into making a show of this scope, where foreshadowing during the first season pays off in the 4th and 5th seasons. And, it's a quick read also. Next up may be Neil Gaiman's new book, but we shall see what I'm in the mood for.

NP: Robert Fripp and the League of Crafty Guitarists, A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur

Walk The Line

Went to go see "Walk The Line" with one of my co-workers tonight. Great movie, whether you like or know the story of Johnny Cash a lot, a little, or not at all. I knew next to nothing about Cash, and now I want to learn a bit more. Good story, and great performances.

Went to the dentist's today for a cleaning, and to have them check on my achy tooth. Going to get a crown on it in early December. Does the fun ever stop?!?!

Finished my UFO book "Watch The Skies" tonight. A good overview of UFO stories from the 1940's to the early 1990's. Would have liked a bit more about the 80's onward, but there was less perspective on those years when the book was written.

NP: Lenny Bruce, Religions Inc.

Oh Dear....

It's been a few days since I've blogged, not because of anything bad, I've just been a bit too tired and busy with other things in the evening to do it. So, here's what's been up since the last update into the life of Mike Lord:

• Went to a student staff conference on Saturday with another Community Director and two UGA's (Undergraduate Advisors) from here at Dartmouth. It wasn't a bad conference, but there's a lot of "ra-ra" positivity in this field, that sometimes keeps a deeper level of thinking from happening. That's what this conference was like. My colleague and I presented at the conference, and if we didn't have students with us, probably would have left after our session (which was well received by our 5 attendees, by the way).
• Sometime on Friday, I believe, I noticed a slight ache/pain in one of my lower left teeth when I would chew on that side. Fortunately, I have a cleaning scheduled for tomorrow, so I'll have the dentist check it out while I'm there.
• Talked to my friend Tony tonight on the phone for about 2 hours. We hadn't talked on the phone since sometime in the summer, and we've been playing phone tag for about the past three weeks. It's good that we finally connected.
• I have a serviceable demo prepared of "So In Love (With Your Presence)," that I may put up on my website sometime soon. It's *very* rough, but the structure is there, so I can now play around with it, and perhaps even leave it to ferment a bit while I start up some other stuff.
• Sunday was a lazy day, I didn't do much other than watching the 4th volume of "SCTV" on DVD.
• One of my UGA's had a fun program on Saturday evening, one of her residents taught a group of us some 18th century dances. The dances were very structured, but fun.

That's about all for an update right now. I'm sure I did some other stuff of interest that I'm forgetting now, but I think you'll live without knowing every detail of my life.

Won't you?

NP: Dick Dale, Riders In The Sky