Whee!

Thursday, August 30 2007
23:45

It is pretty warm in here. Was a gorgeous day today. I was feeling good, but a bit distracted. Was up too late last night, spent a couple hours writing. Practice was good, getting back into the swing of things a bit, a medium sized group but we were able to address most of the repertoire we hadn't on Saturday. Igor and Travis played the new piece they came up with while the rest of us were gone. Sounded good, if a bit tentative. A very mellow hang-out at chez Travgor after that. Lazy conversation and a little reminiscing about the course.

I'm now officially a homeowner. Wired the money yesterday, a few more formalities today then they signed the deed or whatever around 4 PM. The current plan is that I pick up the keys tomorrow, though I think they're still working in there for a couple days.


music: New Order - Power, Corruption, and Lies; The Cure - Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me

Non-Closing Day

Tuesday, August 28 2007
24:10

Drove up to the new place this morning, to look at the bathroom mirror which they'd installed. Got there, called the office as suggested, no answer. Left a message – I'm downstairs, please call me back. Waited for five minutes, then walked down to Market, and to Starbucks for some coffee and breakfast. Sat on the sidewalk – nice and warm in the sun, too bright so I was squinting the whole time. Watched the people coming and going. Went back up to the condo, it was about 30 minutes since I first called. Called again, got an answer. Oh, you're downstairs? we'll be right down. Louise took me up to my place – the floor was half ripped-up, a good sign actually, though there were no workers around, must have been at lunch. The mirror is absolutely fine as it is. I voiced my concerns to Louise about the last minute change – the story is, the installation of mine was delayed just past the point where their outside lift was gone, so they tried to bring it up in the elevators, but it wouldn't fit. And they broke it in the process. So, they went with a three-piece instead. Well, OK then.

Work was work, nothing too exciting there.

Home to some email, and reading of course journals recently posted. It's always great to get other peoples' take on the events, and a journal, even if edited/filtered for online presentation, gives a different perspective than what they would have describing things directly afterwards. Both are good.

music: David Bowie - Low; Mission of Burma - vs; random stuff including Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Y Control" which is just a joy to the ears; Public Image Ltd – s/t (such a mixed thing this album, the title track is pure goodness, the three-over-four guitar part so simple, but all that it needs to be).

P.S. Was sleepy when I went to bed at 12 last night, but couldn't fall asleep until around 1. Then, woke up at 5:30 this morning. Only half-slept from then until 9.

Life is interesting

Monday, August 27 2007
23:13

Worked from home today, to avoid the effets of our illustrious president's visit to Bellevue.

The condo ordeal continues to, unsurprisingly, spring new leaks at every turn. I was to finalize tomorrow, however there is still the small issue of exactly how much money I am to pay, and agreements upon that matter apparently not being agreed upon. Also, I may or may not have a floor. Also, the master bath mirror is in three sections, as opposed to the by-design one piece, an issue which I would have very little care about were it something that came up when I originally signed on for the place, however this coming to light as being different, for some unknown reason, than some or all of the other units sharing my floorplan, three days before I am to close, well that won't do. Why is it different? Why do they think that they can just slip this change in at the last minute?

Feeling better in general. The negative emotions, including real jealousy, which I don't have very often, are, for the most part, not around anymore. Twice today, out of the blue, a strong feeling of love swept through, and was gone.

From last night, as I was typing my journal, probably around 24:50: "[hmm, a snippet of "elsewhere" just breezed by my awareness, some conversation going on there, a man was talking I believe]". The man was latin or middle eastern, and had a moustache. I make no claims about what that was, but those are the most accurate words to describe the experience.

music: Gordian Knot – s/t; Sunday All Over the World - Kneeling at the Shrine

One week back

Sunday, August 26 2007
24:41

Got up around 11. Got a cappuccino and my favorite curry-chicken-salad thing from Starbucks. Met my new across-the-hall neighbors, who were moving in, on the way back. A young couple. When they asked, "Are you our neighbor?" I resisted the urge to add "But not for long" in my reply. Spent the mid-day reading and writing some email, doing some laundry, listening to Philharmonie on the stereo. Played bass for half an hour, got two big blisters to show for it.

Went up to my Dad's for dinner – pot roast. Talked to them about the course, things at work, and such. Was concerned when I first saw Dad, he's got a black eye but it's kind of reddish/yellow type of bruise. Was scared that it was some side effect of the leukemia, or the medication. Nope! he ran into a door. Got up in the night, stubbed his toe on the dresser, then reeling from that, ran headlong into the end of the open door. The force knocked him back onto the bed, and Sue thought he'd been knocked out! Heh. ouch, but comical. Anyway, it was good to see them. Got sucked into helping Dad fix his computer a bit, he'd created four-deep recursive Documents and Settings folders by doing a few botched backups, and that had left them confused. Showed them the TF2 movies, they laughed.

Enjoying some continued email correspondence today, discussing aims, and the emotional effects of going on these courses. Interesting and therapeutic for me.

Saturday

Saturday, August 27 2007
18:33

The Far Side for Friday was "Big Bob's Ball Bearings, Bananas, Roller Skates and Floor Wax, Inc". Employees all falling down w/ their coffee, boxes of ball bearings, etc. I looked at that and thought, hey! that's like my insides!

25:37

Began the day with a longer, hotter shower than was necessary. Well, it was needed. Got to calisthenics at about half past consequently. Just Curt and Christina there at that point. Worked with some "simple" patterns on the first two strings, but ones that just show what I already knew, that my brain still can't quite wrap itself around that change. A long sitting after that, had about 20 minutes to reflect and get distracted etc near the end. Out for coffee w/ Bill and Curt, hearing about Bill's ordeal trying to get his "money" (in the form of miles) back for a cancelled return flight from Boston.

The first 90 minutes of the circle we worked with some of the stuff from last week – it was good. VV1, Tony's thing (not to be confused with a song about a superhero named Tony, called Tony's Theme), and the limb-attention-rotation circulation. AB couldn't make it, still we had 12 in the circle for that.

After the break, running through some TTA repertoire, taking stock of where we're at there. Was really glad that I refreshed my memory on a few of the pieces last week – hadn't touched them at all since the last show July 2nd really. Overall, surprisingly with it. Bloed Spoed was super easy, I was really weirded out about that, as I figured my speed chops would be lacking, given that all I've really been doing is circulating for 8 weeks. Maybe the tempo was just on the slow side. A few of us forgot bits and pieces of things here and there, mostly Kashmir and My Precious Dream. The only group-almost-fell-apart was, yes, the middle section of Sharona. But we got through that.

Joy to be playing my main guitar again. There's some wooliness to the low end, as a consequence of it actually having low end. And the frets still need a little work on the high strings, or at least those strings need to be raised a bit. But it is just better in every way than the spare.

Stopped at Than Bros. for pho on the way home. Napped in the afternoon, until about 6. Then up to Yanni's to see Lost Pedro. Sat w/ Meleah, Diana, and Christina. Got the chicken saganaki. The waitress goofed and brought us the wrong first dishes, then the right ones, so I had soup and a salad first. Went through a couple bottles of wine at the table. LP sounded good, though honestly we were pretty busy listening to Christina's tales of crime in Detroit when she was young.

Then over to Howard and Diana's, Curt came up and joined us. Wonderful tequila and some pastries to finish off the evening. I got there first, and while I was waiting by the driveway, heard rustling and cooing sounds from the bushes. Walked around the corner, to see two raccoons about 10 feet away, staring at me. They kind of did a "back away slowly, maybe it doesn't see us yet!" move, then climbed up the tree and stared at me.

music: Meshuggah - Catch 33; Herbie Hancock - Headhunters; Interpol – the new one

EOW

Friday, August 24 2007
23:11

Went out for a drink with some of the team from work this afternoon. That was needed. Went to Joey's, sat outside, it was really nice, a very pleasant day out there. I had a mojito, and got the ahi salad which was really good. I don't think I've had that there, it is by far the best thing I've had at that place. The place still creeps me out in a general way, but then so does Bellevue.

Spent more time at work than I wanted to after that, found a tasty little bug that wasn't too hard to fix but took some time.

The parking garage entrance / exit I see from my office window is reduced to one lane, an entrance in the morning and an exit in the evening. The signage for this isn't so wonderful. Watched one face-off today between two cars, each trying to use it for cross purposes. The entering car eventually had to back out onto 10th. Later, watched a black Ferrari F430 go down the ramp, it still being an exit at this time. That was probably a valet, who knew better but guessed that nobody would be leaving at that hour.

Guitar circle stuff tomorrow. Looking forward to it.

Still thrashing internally today.

music – Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol

Thursday was a turning point

Thursday, August 23 2007
23:23

Twitched a bit when I went to note the time there. Some things never change I guess.

A banner day. Signed all the escrow / loan papers. From six to seven PM, in a fairly non-descript room in Bellevue, I read and signed a dozen or so short documents. A quiet and relatively quick event that is still a huge milestone in what has been a fourteen-month process.

Afterward, showed Carrie some of what we've been working on, then went up to Bothell for dinner (Chinese food) and to see my nephew and some of Andrew's family.

Got a reply to my thank-you note to the course travel coordinator. Threatening again to send a toaster! this time for being one of the first to send thanks. But not the first, so this would be a "smaller toaster". Heh. That helped brighten my day.

music: Failure - Magnified; Brand X - Moroccan Roll; Underworld - 100 Days Off

Middle of this week

Wednesday, August 22 2007
25:27

Felt like a more productive day. The sun was shining periodically which was good. pad thai for breakfast/lunch. Began some playtesting at 20:45, until 23:45. Had some popcorn, a protein cookie, and a mocha during that time. Guess that was dinner.

Realizing that, though the portions were small, overall I probably ate more on the course than I have been in regular life. Three meals a day, plus a snack at tea there; one and a half meals a day here, plus a few snacks. Calorie-wise I'm not sure – I tend to snack on high-calorie / high-protein things like cashews, bean dip, and hummous. And I lost a couple pounds over the past 10 days or so.

Some drama / misunderstanding over the terms of my upcoming mortgage. What appears to be some completely ridiculous, yet also fully believable, bank policies in effect. More to come tomorrow, then, theoretically, signing the escrow papers. I may get the keys on Tuesday.

Still got some issues bouncing around inside. Had a bit of that antsy, happy-feet energy driving in to work today. Well more than a bit. And the urge to drive very fast on the way home. Up to 110 through the tunnel.

music: Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future

Course Journal: 8/19

Sunday, August 19 2007
Camp Caravan
7:43

"Slept in" until 7:30. Mostly awake from 6:30 on anyway, given the people packing and moving about. Had a very topical dream. Don't remember much except driving away (as a passenger) looking back, and being very sad. There was some slightly (more) complicated back-story explaining why the whole scene was very poignant and sad and miserable. Oi.

Breakfast soon. Sunday = "day off", hence not sitting. Not that I didn't sit a week ago, anyway.

9:16
Departures underway. Polenta w/ the regular granola for breakfast. A few people gone already, so a smaller group. MB, GH, SP, LH at the table with me.

Some of the cabin 1 team tied one on last night. Some beer and wine materialized, and apparently they were up until almost 4. Hung out there for about 10 minutes, then fled for my soul. One comment left me speechless, not due to shock but more because I was biting my tongue.

The Hellboys just drove off.

15:41
Logan airport, Boston

Sitting in one of the pre-security areas, w/ DLV. Christina just went to her gate. Also ran into SP and Lance here. Sat at the Sam Adams pub w/ them for a while. Had a burger and a Coke.

Martin drove me, Christina, and DLV to the airport, leaving around 10:15. Worked OK because then I knew I'd be able to hang out w/ them, and Chris P. was free to just go home. Talked w/ Martin and Christina on the drive, about irritation and other things. One coment I made had Martin in hysterics, touched a bit of a nerve with it.

Departures from the camp were emotional affairs, with folks hanging out fairly quietly in the in-between times, then hugs and cheers and pictures as a group would leave. I enjoyed sitting on the bench in the cool sunlight, chatting between departures. When it came time for mine, it was not like the dream, one key difference leaving me still a bit sad but also with a joyful feeling, wondering at it.

Last night: Curt led the group w/ some Misplaced Faith, circulating the 13/8 breakdown chords (w/ limited success, always ended up as a 12 or 14-count from each section, usually), and dividing up the verse chords into 4-group sections. Then, some circulating. Forgot the details. Well, some of the "all c's" then ds, es, etc up and down. Then Tony's contact-lattice. Big group, took a while. I was in the first quarter or so, and hence ended up "sending" many in a row early on. Flubbed a note early on – began by playing Cs, changed to a B, then an A, and mis-fingered the C – hit a C#, slid up to a D. Oi! wow. My attention was in very short supply after that (more than half the way around). Oh well. Took some effort not to latch on to this for the rest of the night.

Final meeting: course declared complete at 12:09 AM, Sunday. Before the meeting began, some minor drama that was really ... something for me.

One person mentioned that he felt the contact-lattice was the perfect end to the course. That, instead of notes, it was the beating of our hearts. I immediately thought, well then this means my heart skipped a beat at one point.

After the meeting – had some tea in the dining hall. Wel, not really, no more hot water. Talked a bit. Stressed about goodbyes. Went outside, looked at the stars. Got depressed. Went to bed a little after one (after the aforementioned time spent in Cabin 1).

Won't be home for at least another 10 hours. Yuk.

20:21 EST
Cleveland, OH
Whatever the name of the airport here is. Boarding is beginning now. Full flight. Ugh. Uneventful flight here from BOS. Was asked if I wanted to trade my window seat for the aisle in front of it – Mom w/ two teenage sons [who would have been my neighbors]. Accepeted immediately. Then, my new row-mates arrived. Big football-y type and his girlfriend. Asked if I wanted to switch with their friend in a middle seat a few rows back. Nope.

Busier here than it was last Saturday at 6 AM. Don't like the terminal much, walked halfway to find out that I was actually taking the same plane on the next leg.

Sat w/ eyes closed most of the flight. Didn't really sleep. Thoughts preoccupied w/ love and the future.

Tuesday

Tuesday, August 21 2007
25:14

Slightly less miserable weather than yesterday. Some sun poked through. Didn't get into quite as much of a funk, myself. Spent most of the day fighting fires, not really getting much accomplished off my list of things-that-really-need-to-be-done-soon stuff. Spent a few hours late playtesting, though ran into a crash bug fairly early on, so had about 90 minutes after that to go do work again while they tracked it down. More of that tomorrow night.

Drove along with a Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano for a few miles on my commute this morning. Black.

One more day's worth of journal entries to type up.

Sending good wishes out to a couple folks periodically today.

music: Res - How I Do; Tom McCarthy - Spark and Luminance

Course Journal: 8/17 thru 8/18

Friday, August 17 2007
Camp Caravan
9:14

There's some omnipresent low hum sound here. Close to the typical electrical hum, but it's a C. The C below middle C, I think.

Apparently the room door opened and closed during the sitting. Collin and Chris noticed, w/ a gust of cold air. DavidK noticed the chill. Sunny-ish out now, but cool. I think it was this cool before the sitting though.

Robert leaves tomorrow morning. The course ends tomorrow evening.

14:44
Just did Level T w/ BR. Also MB, DavidS, MarkB (elder), Patricia, Jonathan working other locations.

Lunch: bread, tomato, mozzarella, oil, vinegar, olives. Good. Will be hungry by dinner.

Morning work: tough, long circle w/ R. Full group. Divided into teams, on/off beat and "e" and "a" of 16ths. Assigned chromatic notes. Then, interleaved sub-groups: 6 sections of 5, the "ones" as a single sub-group, "2s", etc. Was a "three". Circulated by having all "ones" circulate, then "twos", etc. Around to the left. sequence: 1, 2, 3, 5, 4. Then, later, 1, 2, 4, 5, 3, each to the right this time except us 3s. Next, circulated "boogie" bass lines. In C for a bit, then in Db. I was F#/Gb, so had a pick-up note in C, and a few more in the Db version. 90 minutes of this total.

Tai chi before that.

Coming up: SGC people working in the dining hall at 15:00 [the KT folks requested that some small groups would work near the kitchen, so they could hear].

MB has big Ray-Ban sunglasses, just like Igor's.

16:30
Eleven guitarists initially at SGC group – worked on whizzing, I suggested a harmonic series scale C(1) through F#(11). DLV had to leave, so left out the bottom C. Took a lot of time to get it really cooking, but then it was good. I was the "one" (C2). At the end, I was doing a quick four-count then firing it around.

Tony introduced a circulated "greeting" idea [later revealed to be based on a Mev Levi dervish greeting]. 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, etc, then 2-3, 2-4, 2-5, etc, until (N-1)-N then that is the end. People were arriving for tea at that point. Sounded great, had something to it. One final "1-2-3-4!" then a whiz. Robert chuckled.

now: guitar circle in the MH.

18:59
R asked those who'd led the large group during any circle if they had anything they wished to demonstrate that was learned or gained (my words) from said work. Victor – some (3 minus 1) circulations, skipping seats, but said after last night's work, that spoke for itself. Curt: some tone clockage. Tony: the whizz-building exercise we had done (one player holds a steady pulse, the "two" person builds on it, once they are steady, the third, etcc). Then, his greeting "lattice" thing from before tea (Cmaj notes assigned to the whole group still from Victor's circulations).

R. then took over. 3 sections: chromatic circulation, then whizzes, then magic chord whizzes. Various sequences. 1 left, 2 left, 3 right. Disbanded these groups ("Forever!" laughter). 2 equal-sized – more whizzes. Disbanded. Divided the other way – MB to David S, Bill to me. Had Jax trade seats w/ David S. "Taylor, are you feeling vicious?" I gave a nod "Bill?" "I'm actually extremely vicious". [left me wondering if it was assumed that Jaxie and Mary Beth were vicious, or if he'd chosen them for other reasons!]. Each section: L w/ return, R/ return, alternating. Dev was on my left, in my group (I was the right-most endpoint) and had the "two" seat thing down: just a quick downstroke / upstroke, leaving me to put the endpoint in the middle. A "non-competition" between the two sections again, for the larger group to whizz+return faster than the shorter group. Robert shrunk the small group down again, leaving seven in my group. Again, no idea if the other group actually "overtook" us or not.

Dinner at six. Polenta – YUM. Never had "soup" polenta before, always the drier, solid form. Almost like grits actually. Ben Bennett and a friend (his wife?) are visiting. Elan Sicroff will play for us at 20:30. Then dessert, then the "first" final meeting (final meeting w/ Robert, there will be a "final final" meeting tomorrow night).

19:32
Just had a shower. Very nice outside – sun is below the trees, very mild. Wondering about some things, noticing a change in my internal weather, trying not to wonder about some other things.

There's a diesel engine sound off in the distance to the W / SW. It was more W and now is more S. Trains? Probably the source o fhte C drone I keep hearing. Cooling off a bit. Think I'll change into long pants. Writing this now at the picniac table in the front yard. Not enough outside places to gather here, except grass.

Ah – a train horn in the South. yep.

23:13
Kind a cold now. Elan played for around an hour? Very nice. The sound from the piano was immediate and tactile. My attention span was so-so. Had not heard any of the pieces before. Some were quite stunning.

Dessert afterwards in the dining hall. A pretty quiet affair. An "ice" for dessert – lemon? Kinda too frozen. First bite froze my over-sensitive front tooth –yow. Almost cried out. "Funny" because before the performance, had a cup of tea in the dining hall, it was much hotter than I expected, and I burned my top lip. I think I did say "ow!" at that.

Final meeting at 22:15. MB mentioned working cleanup last night – I'd done the sweeping, and offered to relieve any of the 3 washers if they needed it. Nobody took me up on it, then Lance took a 5-minute rain-check. Anyway, MB noted how she refused my help, and felt it was like missing part of a circulation. Wanted to tell her that maybe Lance needed the help more. Meeting ended w/ three clapped whizzes to the left around the room, those towards the inside (we weren't sitting in a circle) fitting in where appropriate. Then, three clapped "thrangs". Oh – Robert mentioned, "I don't yet know when the 100-guitar Whizz will take place in Seattle, with the audience in the center, but it's going to be something." (not sure about the last part).

Tomorrow will be interesting – w/o R here. Don't expect anything major, but surely a different vibe.

Saturday, August 18 2007
Camp Caravan
07:00

Clear and cool outside.

14:07
Lunch: Thai-style slaw w/ rooster sauce on the side. Corn on the cob. Good! Some tofu-salad kinda thing – like chicken salad in flavor, but w/ sunflower seeds. Many observations and comments shared.

Sitting: much more successful w/ the containment exercise today. Very palpable when allowed thoughts and feelings to quieten. When separating from the thoughts / feelings, very distinct shift in attention / awareness. Back out into my "personal atmosphere", but different than before. Still. Present in the room.

At breakfast: MarkB performed, had technical difficulties. Gave up. Rob R played a blues medley. People entertained. R had his jacket on, ready to go, but sat at the head table drinking coffee for this. A few funny faces (Mark had a very out-of-tune loop saved up). Worked dishes with JohnH, RobR, DavidK, DavidS. I did the wash portion. Pretty quick and smooth. Tai chi at 9:30.

At 10:15: two circles, with Curt in the bell tower and Tony in the MH. They would swap at 11:15. I chose to go to the MH for the first session. Luciano on my left, JohnH on my right. DavidK 2 to the left, MB 2 to the right. First: non-verbal greetings to your neighbors, and their neighbors. Next: eye-contact circulation. three-minus-one to the right, skipping seats. The "3 to 2" pass-back was interesting in this. Tony asked, rhetorically, how you indicate the return. He even said "that's a rhetorical question". MarkB answered. Next, both eye-contact and note circulations at the same time, beginning opposite one another. Then, once through the connection-lattice.

30m break, spent it in the dining hall, had some tea. At one point, Jax said to MB (they were conversing around the corner, and this part she said loudly) "Why don't you move to Seattle?". Then I realized she was telling the story of 10-ish years ago, quoting Steve probably, talking to them.

At 11:45: tone clock w/ Curt. A couple extra people who were happy to sit and watch/listen. Mark chose to be C, so I was F#. Curt demonstrated some triads – major, minor, dim, aug. Then, modes. Beginning w/ F# major, so I was standing for most of it. A few times each, then modulating through the circle of fifths. From F# loc to E lyd. At each transition, we'd go a few times around in both modes to get the different flavors. It's pretty fun to do the stand up – sit down thing, though the way we were sitting I was a bit preoccupied making sure not to hit MB, who was on my left, in the face w/ my headstock. Went all the way down through each mode of each key then, finally landing back on F# major.

The sun has popped out and it is very nice now. A little chilly still – strong breeze. I'm wearing long pants and a pullover. First full day w/o shorts, most likely. Sitting outside on the steps by the dining hall. Quiet time. Will be a group gathering in the enneagram garden at 15:15 (it's 14:50 now), then final big clean-up w/ te in the middle. Will probably have time for another circle before dinner. Need to shave and shower, will see if I have time tonight. After dinner?

Thinking about suggesting we (SGC folks) play KFAD at dinner. The sound of the wind in the trees here is wonderful. A big huge oak here in the main front yard, and the sound moves slowly to the left over 10-15 seconds after a gust comes along. A fairly large cloud just moved under the sun.

My stack of rocks in the "garden" near the showers / cabin 1 has toppled. Not sure when. Last night or this morning. Was surprised it lasted that long.

TomR took R to the airport after breakfast. Came back during lunch.

15:44
Met at the E. garden. Curt walked the cycle, naming the lines: Anticipation, Preparation, Visualization, Realization, Presentation, Restoration. Dev laid out the big picture. For now: cleaning our personal spaces. Not much to do in this room. Jonathan and I had it tidied and swept in 5 minutes. Still some sweeping in the hallway, and Jax and Christina are undoing their changes upstairs.

Next: AT lie-down, then tea. On a team of 4 (me, Bill, Curt, ?) to clean up the first floor of the house. Not sure yet what that will entail.

21:06
Sitting in the dining hall. It's a bit different now. Today we moved all of the big red "picnic" tables and benches back to the "theater", and there are 6 kitchen-style tables in here now.

The big clean-up / re-org was chaotic. Dev identified people in each sub-group, such that I didn't really know who else was in my group. Or when we were metting, or where. Finally got together: Bill, me, Martin, Chris P, Bob. Had about an hour to do the first floor other than the kitchen. I swep the landing and porch, then helped mop the dining hall. Met w/ everyone to complete at 18:00 in the E. garden.

Big circle w/ Curt in the MH at that point. Began / ended w/ the same exercise of the present moment (extending as far as the course beginning / end) as he had at the tone clock session. Then, circulating all the same C (below middle C). Next, whiz that note. Then continuing, one whiz of all Ds, then Es, etc, up to middle C. Circulating in c major, then C harmonic minor, then C Lydian dominant.

Dinner: lasagna, salad w/ artichoke hearts. Good. Cramped at the table. JohnH takes up too much space. Much discussion. Wonderful ice cream (vanilla bean) w/ handmade butterscotch (Nancy stirred it for 3 hours).

Guitar circle scheduled for 10 – rock and roll being the request. Final final meeting will be after that. A car just pulled up. . .

Random moments: in Tony's circle: close your eyes. "Bob, who is two seats to your left". etc. To Jonathan, 2 to your right (me). Couldn't get it. "You can open your eyes". "Ah, Taylor. God bless you, Taylor." Laughter. Practical work: sent to help out Jaxie in the garden. "Rake up the leaves". 5 minutes later, Victor comes by. "I'm pretty sure they were put there intentionally as mulch". So, I put them back down.

Just shaved and brushed my teeth. Coffee stains on them before, really nasty. Face feels raw now. And that was a pretty quick shave. I hate shaving.

Interesting goings-on in the dining hall while writing this.

Foot-stomping upstairs. The Buddies are arranging some rock and roll.

It's been intresting having the G./B. stuff around – pictures of G., pictures of Bennett w/ Elisabeth on the dining room walls, an enneagram painting, the e. garden, etc. I imagin it's not so rare for GC courses on average, as for a long time they were at Claymont, after all. Just that my first 2 or 3 had very little direct reference to the Work. NJ 2 years ago was a change from that, with Ben Bennet and Bob Gerber visiting, discussions of tetrads, etc.

Happy Curt named the E. lines today. I'd never learned those simple terms. It was all very clear right away.

Course Journal: 8/14 through 8/16

Tuesday, August 14 2007
Camp Caravan
10:22

Beautiful day so far. Gorgeous. Sunny, just warm w/ a cool breeze. MarkB (the elder) played again at breakfast, one piece with the loop setup, one piece acoustic. Nose ran during the sitting – right on down to my lip. The sittings have all been around 40 minutes so far, this was closer to 45.

Learned a bit of that DiMeola pice ? Sunrise, with Collin Chris, and MarkB (the younger).

21:10
Cold. Maybe in the 50s now? low 60s, at least.

Tone Clock: 12 seats, C, C#, etc, through B. Note goes w/ the seat. Circulate any scale / chord via leaving out the seats not in it. Today, with this in the inner circle, similar but extended in the outer. C, G, D, Db major scales in 2 octaves, on/off beat inner/outer circles. This morning: full circle, Variegation Victor One (VV1). Didn't happen -> 12 "high flyers" in the middle to demonstrate, volunteered. Then, what became the Tone Clock by assigning chromatic notes. Primary Triads – I, IV, V. in C, F, G, Db. I was G#/Ab, so didn't play much.

Dinner: tofu and portabello. So-so. Side of carrots and orange squash – better. Side of white squash and peppers – even better. Dessert: chocolate peach soufflé. Amazing. REALLY amazing.

Lots of discussion at dinner. Back ached. Will be meeting w/ RF in the Movements Hall [formerly the Ballroom, renamed as this is what it really is, a hall where Movements are practiced] at 22:15 for those "functionally proficient" in C major over 4 octaves. Others can be there w/o guitar, or can always work independently elsewhere.

Cleaned bathrooms w/ Chris P today.

Lunch: Hummus! w/ pita, cukes, celer, olives. ymmy.

Noticed feelings and thoughts aimed back towards Seattle, and some similar ones focused locally. Trying not to analyze them. Still concerned about all of the above however.

23:17
Almost everybody w/ guitars was at the circle. First: 12 inside, 13 outside. Chromatic notes assigned inside. Victor was the "joker" outside, without a note. Chromatics assigned to the rest of us (outside circle). I had A. Circulation in C, G, D, A, in/out/in/outer. Inside: EOTN melody (4/4 form). Rough, took some time, slowly w/ R playing along. Outside: play the same thing. One false start, then we had it.

Next: rearrange to a big circle of 25. Magic chords assigned, chromatically w/ shifts fo accommodate the limited fretboard (mine would have been E, was reassigned to C 4 frets lower, hmm – E C# G# D -> C A E Db? ). Three groups: whiz and return. Trading off in sequence. Then, 2 groups, one 11 (jax to Bob) the other 14 (MB to ?) incl. me. Competition: try to overtake the other group. I have absolutely no idea if we did. Fun. The audience (KT mostly, in the center) laughing. Finally, one group L w/ return, R w/ return, etc.

Before that, walked around a bit outside. Had a tea and talked w/ MB for a few minutes.

Jax mentioned at dinner a feeling of "unhinged" (my word) energy, and hazard. Meant to me it was time for a good ol' Thrak session. The magic-chord whizzes in the circle fit the bill. Some folks are playing Askesis – well, practicing at slow tempo. Interesting, my first impulse was to avoid it – energy leak. But it sounds like real work. Still, enough for me today.

Oh – spent some time w/ Collin and Chris workin on Red. Also, the Zepplin medley. Heard them playing it as I got out of the shower, went to grab my guitar. Fun to revisit that for a bit. Would've like to have played it at a meal, but without Igor and Travis, wouldn't have been right.


Wednesday, August 15 2007
6:50

The gys in the next room are talking about baseball right now. WTF?

15:05
Breakfast, tai chi. Tone Clock in the "bell tower", the top room in the house, at 11. Curt led for 1 hour. Major scales in various keys, modulating from major to Aeolian, then melodic minor (both asc. and desc. forms). Oh – people in the key were standing as they played. So, modulation meant people standing and sitting quickly, in sync. Fun. Break at 12, then I led us through modes from major down to Locrian. Then Lydian. Added droning Cs on the offbeats (played by the non-standing folks). Rob suggested Lydian Dominant – Ahhhh. Then Bill: Lyd. ascending, L. Dom descending. Wonderful. Tony – the Sharona scale, aka "The Whole-Tony scale". Me: the Miserlou / KFAD scale. Added the Miserlou rhythm – so from ChrisP around to Jaxie and back as far as Christina, w/ that group as it was. Tony added C circulations by the sitting folks, on the (syncopated) off-beats. Pretty cool. Finally – the same, with the off-beat circulators playing their respective former chromatic notes. Insane. Rob – "If loving that's wrong, I don't wan't to be right". Chris – "Dick Dale meets Shoenberg".

Lunch: black bean soup w/ some salsa and cheese garnish. Yummy. Not enough of it though. Also some bread / scone things. Can't remember exactly the flavor – like cornbread, but orange in color and no discernable corn.

Elan Sicroff visited for lunch. Some questions for him. TomR – "How do you visualize a major scale?" -> long talk on the "process" a major scale represents. A few mor deep questions and answers. Was very uncomfortable sitting there, hard to appreciate the answers. MarkB on my left – twitch city, constantly incroaching on my space. Ugh.

Worked dish cleanup w/ BR, LH, GH. Thought we had it done in 40 minutes, but the bread-prep pots and pans were off to the side. 55 minutes total.

20:30
Dinner. Linguine alfredo. Light on the sauce. Not bad. Salad on the side. Baked pear for dessert. Long silence. ChrisP (aka Chris the Younger) described a lot of what a lot of us have experienced: worry about relaxing, too concerned w/ playing the right note, wandering thoughts during the sitting, including "I don't want to be here". Everyone laughed. Jaxie said "Raise your hand if you know exactly what he's talking about!" – almost every hand went up. More laughter at that. He said, "I'm serious!". Everyone else said, "So are we!". David S. talked about "learning to whiz". Next to me, TomR, and MB got the giggles at this. I sat there thankful I didn't, and then someone mentioned "four people whizzing together" and I got the giggles.

Before that: tai chi, before that: AT, short lesson. Before: circle w/ Victor leading his Various Variegation Variations. Three minus one, reverse three plus one, etc. Two at a time, on opposite sides of the circle, skipping seats. Odd number of seats, so you'd do both. We did surprisingly well given the complexity. Only a few consistently "stuck" / afk people. [my pen ran out here] Ah, thanks to Jonathan for a fresh pen.

Victor called me Glenn once during the circle. MB was sitting on my left, so maybe that's what triggered it.

Meeting at 21:45 w/ R in the Conservatory. Sitting exercise. He mentioned this the other day – for those that have a "reliable sitting practice". My first thought was "yes". Then self-doubt as to the fact that my M-F sittings are < 5 minutes. But, it is established. So, I will go.


Thursday, August 16 2007
Camp Caravan
6:52
Exercise of last night: Containment. Do for 3-4 weeks and then leave it for 3-4 months.

Seattle group met at Bill's request at 10:30 in the bell tower. Whizz work. SBC there to help / listen. First a C major scale, then a blues scale – C D Eb E F E# G A Bb C w/ the 10 players. Took a while to get CF, DLV, and HH into the groove, but then found it more or less. Really had it by 12. Began w/ Bill at first, then w/ Tony after a while (holding the steady pulse that everyone else built off of).

Chilly last night. Kinda cloudy right now. Thankfully, no loud conversations going on in this building this morning [once, Jonathan said "You and I aren't quite so chatty as the fellows next door, are we?"].

12:41
Scrambled egges w/ dill for breakfast, courtesy of Collin and Chris. Good. Tai chi at 9:45. Full circle w/ R at 10:30. Various Variegations – 321,43,543,65, etc ("5/8 reversed, advances" in R's words, alternating retro 3 + 1, retro 2 + 1 in Victor's). Split into inner and outer circles, on/offbeat. Combo: 5/8 reversed,advances and 7/8 same? there were some "forward, in retreat" type things too.

Mild and breezy. Sitting outside the dining hall now, in the sun. Too bright, but nowhere to sit in th shade.

After circle, did a lie-down for a bit in the Movements Hall. Played Third Relation w/ SP and MB. Showed MB the "Hideyo" part in the beginning of Fragments.

Lunch soon. Ah – fun in the circle. Mark B. got frustrated and left. R sat in his chair. R picked up on the vibrato some people were using on every note, layed it on thick.

Showered after breakfast.

15:39
Chatted w/ MB for a bit after writing that. Sat down on the bench next to me. Talked about TTA and their GCNE performances. She choreographed a Feynman lecture! hah.

Lunch: wraps w/ cuke, spinach, tomato, and cream cheese. Cheese plate, some nuts / dried fruit. Three visitors from the Miller's River group. One is the head of the school – The Village School. K thru 6. Another – Janet – looks like DebraK's younger sister – talked about raising money. Wow. Said "$400,000 is one gift". It will cost them around $200k to fix the "Theater" building here. Small part of the $2m they need for the school to be built out back. In terms of raising money, she's the real deal. Some perspective for us Seattle folks.

Level T – cleaning up the main house bathrooms w/ Robert. Helped me to keep to necessary talking. He said 3 words – "I'll do that" and that was after we were done and getting assigned extra tasks (everybody worked quickly today).

AT lesson at 2:45. A bit of a myster as they often are for me. Not sure if I learned anything [I did].

10:02
R talked about the GC Institute soon-to-be non-profit org. And properties in Pershore. several houses occupied by old ladies w/o much time left – this revelation was an ongoing joke. Then Curt talked about TTA – background, CHAC, money, people. Appealed to people to move to Seattle, or at least come visit.

21:20
Just completed a whirlwind (well, quick but not chaotic) dinner cleanup. Team: me, MB, Martin, Lance, ChrisP. Big circle coming up. Curt will lead I think, he and Victor were rocking some chords in the dining hall as I left.

23:25
Wow. Tough circle. Victor led clapping and playing circulations. VV1 on the offbeat, retro-VV1 [(r5+2),(r3+1)] on the downbeat. Skipping seats. Did some others too but spent 1+ hour on this. Never really took off. Hot and stuffy in the room. R hung out and listened for half, then left. Broke at 11 for a break. Never got around to the rocking chords stuff.

Victor was usually pretty quick to put the kibosh on any attempts for people to explain things amongst themselves. ESPECIALLY any analysis of what went "wrong". That was good. He's quite a character.

A nice hot shower would be nice about now. But no here. So, to bed sticky and icky-feeling.

After tea: tone clock in the MH. Intervals, triads. Then AT. 5 relations, while walking around in the circle. Some interesting things there. Still working to remember what happened w/ my hips in my personal meeting. Releasing muscles at the outside -> torso up and forward. Weight shifts towards the balls of my feet.

Dinner: rice and veggies. Good. Salad was not so hot, lettuce and julienned carrots. ChrisP pontificated about various things –had some good insight early on, now it seems it's gone to his head a bit. Anyway, he's young.

MB was humming as we worked on the dishes.

Course Journal: 8/11 thru 8/13

Saturday, August 11 2007
Cleveland, Ohio
06:31 EDT

Uneventful but semi-miserable flight to Cleveland. Construction at Sea-Tac led to traffic delays. Got to the gate at 10:35, and walked right on the plane. They have a "35-minute cutoff" now, you MUST checkin at least 35 minutes before departure, or you don't get on.

Spacehog buffoon in the seat next to me. Squirmy kid in front – as soon as his dad next to him put his seat back, so did the kid, right into my knees. After about an hour of CONSTANT squirming, I gave his seat a shove, and he stopped for the most part.

Pretty quiet here at the airport. Not much food open yet. Got an iced mocha, have over an hour until my next flight boards. Will probably get something to eat. Bit of a headache, but my eyes arent' too dry at least.

8:14
Somewhere over lake Eerie
Sunny, low 70s? in Cleveland, slightly cooler in Boston. Much more comfortable flight so far – tin little jet, in 10A which is a signel seat on the left. Buffoon and family on this flight as well.

Sleepy but not super-tired. Doesn't feel like 5 AM.

9:52 EDT
Boston – Logan airport
Uneventful flight. Might have slept for around 30 minutes? Baggage arrived safely. Sitting at Terminal B baggage claim now. Collin will arrive around 10:30. MB picks us up at 11. "Don't Stop Believing" just began on the muzak/PA system. Oi. Nice day here – 70s already, probably will be in the 80s.

15:47
Camp Caravan, Royalston, MA
Here. Got here just after 2. Like Camp Lebanon, but much smaller. Rustic. I'm in the "dorm" a work-in-progress. Not cramped – two per room. Plenty of space. No bathroom! porta-potty outside, and communal shower across the way. Ugh!

Typical sprung-metal bunk-beds. Put my mattress on the floor. Checked out Sandra's new guitar – from Crimson Guitars. Very woody sound, very rough finish. Not up to snuff for a $4k guitar, however it was a prototype. Still. . . doesn't sound any better than the Boudoux's do, to me.

Hot and sunny – 80s. Nice breeze though.

Dinner scheduled for 7. Nothing after that yet.

18:47
Just tried the "communal" shower. Didn't quite figure out the controls, but I got it going at an OK temp. Not bad when I'm the only one in there.

Sleepiness wearing off – had napped until 17-ish, missing tea. Dinner is imminent.

20:59
Dinner delayed until 7:30, actually. Sushi – soup appetizer, and cuke/carrot/avocado rolls. Soy sauce, wasabie, ginger. Very potent wasabi. Martin said grace – fumbled the words, "must live to eat" instead of "must eat to live", R made a joke about that. "'Must live to eat dessert', surely". Inaugural meeting at 21:45 in the "conservatory" (sitting room in main building).

22:57
Relized I'd forgotten the aim I put in my application letter. Chose "To remember where I am, and what I am doing here".

Picked the cabin 1 bathroom as the one to use. ChrisG and Collin are in that cabin. It is fairly nice inside, recently renovated.

Sunday, August 12 2007
Camp Caravan
10:20

Tai Chi – v. full ballroom with everyone. Oatmeal / mueslix for breakfast. Not too crowded in the dining room. Sunny, warm already. Practiced upstairs for a bit (in the dorm; no drywall, just timbers and the outside wall). Don't like this guitar. Low-end = suck. None really.

15:19
Borscht – cold – for lunch. Not bad. Needed more dill. Bread and cheese too. Billy J. and Marc Benigni showed up [they left after lunch]. Hank got here this morning. Worked clean-up. Done with that just after 3. Decided to shower, and miss guitar work.

Before lunch: all guitars in the ballroom with RF. Circulations: left, right, "plus one". Any note; C major; a Cmaj scale. Divided into sections – traded off scales, whizzes, then all @ once scales w/ return. Triplets 1-2-3 (was in section 3). Modulations: C,G,D,A,E,B, repeat (section three getting D and B). Split into small groups, in the main house. Luciano led ours. Plus 1 w/ return: 1-2-3-4-3, 2-3-4-1-4, etc. Very quiet in the house now. All I here are crickets and occasional traffic noise.

18:53
Wonderful outside now, in the shade. Was 85 degrees today, apparently. More of that to come. Small circulation group led by Victor after tea. Seven people. Any note, left and return. Then the same, skipping every other seat; then skipping 2, etc until 6 (essentially reversing direction). Tai chi after that. Dinner imminent (really this time, at least no word yet of a delay).

Huge dragonflies here – 3 or 4 inches long. 5 or 10 flying around now.

20:30
Pan-fried potatoes and salad for dinner. RF asked if the KT needed some help. AL vascillated. R suggested maybe they did! laughter. Strawberry shortcake for dessert. Yum! light on the berries though. The cake reminded me of sweet cornbread, just with no corn, and lighter.

All-hands meeting at 21:45 w/o guitars – clapping circulations. Oh – RF led a couple of those around the table during the discussion of what to do tonight.


Monday, August 13 2007
Camp Caravan
7:02

Overcast. Not too cold though. Didn't see any meteors last night, was too cloudy. Went to bed at 12. Big circle: claps L, R, 3 groups, whiz, variegated. Then with guitars. Last circulation: magic chords, then whizzing the magic chords, for quite a while. Was on the left end of group one.

14:53
Thunderstorm just went through. Collin and I were cleaning the cabin 2 bathroom, figured to postpone the Cabin 3 one. Very heavy rain. Stopped now. [got completely soaked running the 150 feet from C2 to the main house].

Alternating (5-2),(3-1) clapping circulation during lunch (from Victor's small group) [known henceforth as Variegation Victor One].

18:04
Heh – Collin and I were going to check the C3 bathroom now, and it just started raining again. Group of us in the top-room: quick circulation in two groups of four, on/off the beat, 1-2-3-4, 2-3-4-1, etc. Then 5-minus-1. Some whizzes (all 8). Then I suggested dividing a pulse by 8. 10 seconds into that: flash outside! BOOM / rumbling thunder – BR's watch beeps the hour. "must be time to stop!" laughter. We stopped. Tai chi now. . .

20:30
TomR has arrived (during the first rainstorm, actually). Tai chi in the Conservatory because of the rain. L went through some of the forms a few times, after the usual exercises. Soewhat familiar, but I stil don't quite get it. Brown rice w/ cabbage and onions for dinner. Carrots too. Not bad, could have sued something more – plum sauce? or hoisin. Apple crisp for dessert. Bob, Jax, and Curt played magic-chord Happy Birthday for Dennis T. R: "what is the name of that group?" C- "3/5s of the Atomic Chamber Ensemble. . .?" R- "err, no. Who knows the origin of that piece of music?". At this point I guessed the name he was after. Some talk about the first time HB was arranged for magic chords – it was a Hernan group, somewhere, "The Horn Up Your Ass". Laughter. "That is the name of that group".

Meeting in the Conservatory w/o guitars at 21:45. My back is killing me. Two silences at dinner – the first, 15 minutes long, maybe. Hurt. Ass is sore from wood chairs and benches, too.


23:06
(re-) Presented w/ a relaxation and sensation exercise.

Before that – practiced a bit on the 3rd floor. Jax recommended it [she and Christina had moved in to the second floor of the Dorm building, to get away from snoring in cabin 3] after I went upstairs looking for space, then absolved herself of any responsibility. Lots of tools, rat crap up there.

Played Askesis with Dennis, Scott, and Chris P a couple times. ChrisG and Collin are working on the Gmaj Prelude, circulated.

Chilly tonight. The lump on my cheek doesn't seem to be getting any smaller. Doesn't hurt at all now. Worried it just won't go away [it almost has].

Monday or something

Monday, August 20 2007
Seattle, WA
21:27 PDT

Back home. Got home around midnight last night.

A whole lot to type up now. 15 pages of hand-written journal entry. Large chunks of which – pages, in places – that won't be published online, for now.

The Cleveland-Seattle leg was OK. Didn't really sleep, didn't watch the movie (Spiderman 3). Had a window seat, over the wing. My neighbor was a teenage girl, twitchy but quiet and didn't encroach on my space at all (not surprisingly). Contacts got very dry though. Tried to do some reading once, and couldn't keep my eyes open. Gave it another shot an hour later with more success. Nice view (what I could see, in front of the wing) of the Eastside and the floating bridges coming in. Landed around 11. Luggage arrived un-harmed, a little slowly though, so my ride had to wait a few minutes. After I got home, took a long, hot shower. Unpacked, checked personal email. Posted what few pictures I took. Got to bed a little after 2. Generally just felt tired and that was about it. A little euphoric here and there.

Got up around 9:30 today, made it in to work just in time for the status meeting, which I expected to miss. Spent most of the day reading / sifting email. Lots of e-talking going on around the office last week. The weather today was gray and fairly miserable, if not cold. That didn't help my mood. Which turned a bit during the day – began getting a bit stressed about something. A mix of stress and joy.

About the time I hit the road on the drive home, started feeling sad. The reality of the situation hitting me. Got the urge to yell a couple times – once, as far as the in breath, then it just dissipated. But then a few breaths later it came out. Spent most of the drive from then on singing, or making sound really. Almost crying but not quite.

Grocery store to grab some dinner – tekka maki – and misc. food, which I ate while typing this. Not to back-fill some journal entries.

Overheard today: "We don't always realize we're connected to ourselves". A coworker was saying this to another coworker, talking about computer programs and network connections. But as the words came into my ears, my first interpretation was quite different.

music: Steve Reich - New York Counterpoint / Eight Lines / Four Organs; Tool - 10,000 Days

Friday

Friday, August 10 2007
19:51

Last entry here for a little while. Just now, picked up a bite at the store, and walking back through the parking lot, a car that just passed by me parked and, immediately, the young girl in the passenger seat opened the door and yelled, "What's your name??" at me. I looked at her but was too surprised to say anything so I just kept on walking. Weird.

Finished Destiny's Forge. Not bad. Definitely got engrossing about halfway through. Long – 650 pages? Think it probably could have done with some editing down. Also, it dawned on me about 2/3rds of the way through, how much the story mirrors that in Dune. One great house is ursurped by another, the latter using underhanded techniques and showing a generally dishonorable character, the other houses twitter but essentially do nothing; the exiled son-of-former-leader finds solace with the "savages" on the planet, who turn out to be far more organized and formidable than anyone imagined; said exiles have managed to tame the giant, quadrupedal but otherwise very worm-like creatures that inhabit the jungle where they live, and ride them into battle; it is revealed that aforementioned exile is the hoped-for blending of two genetic lines that has been in the works for thousands of years; it is revealed that one of said genetic lines is special due to a tendency for psychic abilities; I could go on. I figure this was all an intentional homage – the author setting out to re-tell what is really a fairly classic story, with a nod to Dune, within the framework of Known Space and the Man-Kzin wars. But if it wasn't, I'd like to have seen the look on his face when someone pointed it out.

Giddy, Up

Thursday, August 9 2007
24:49

Wednesday: Medium-sized circle, at the space this time as Bob and Jaxie are out of town. Got all the way through Curt's circulation exercise with "three layers", each player responsible for three different paths up and down the scale (in three octaves in this case) – not without mistakes, but without completely losing it. Just because that wasn't challenge enough, someone began practicing drums in the room directly beneath ours about halfway through the meeting. They moved into that room for some reason, used to be at the other end of the building. We're going to have to have a talk w/ "management" about that one. Out to the Hi-Life after that for a bit. Hadnt' been there in a while. They don't have the pesto pizza on the menu any more. Turns out they were only selling them on Monday nights – they'd sell about 8 of them then, but we were the only ones who'd order them. Shame, they were tasty. A little pesto pizza with sliced asparagus, kalamata olives, and big chunks of roma tomato.

Today: only slightly frantic day, getting loose ends tied up at work before my absence. Shipped a server to Malaysia, fixed some bugs, played some TF2, got some work done on a task I've been putting off for a while. Spent some time trying to find out what's wrong with the new purchase path – the sales on the packages we've switched over are significantly lower, but without any obvious errors. Still a mystery.

Tomorrow: packing and preparation, then a flight to Boston via Cleveland.

music: Interpol, Clutch, McLaughlin, Squarepusher, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Nirvana, Modest Mouse

Cool article

This is the first thing I've read about loudspeaker impedance and amplifiers for a while that has been substantially interesting.

Tuuuueesday

Tuesday, August 7 2007
24:29

Got a box o' discs yesterday – Clutch, Interpol, John McLaughlin, Squarepusher, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

What I mentioned yesterday.

music: Interpol – whatever the new one is; John McLaughlin - Industrial Zen

In ur Community Makin' ur Games

Monday, August 6 2007
24:13

Overcast and cool today. An exciting day, the official Beta of the Steam Community was launched. Great feedback so far. Finding bugs aplenty, too. Also another milestone, that nobody will (or should) notice – processing credit card purchases via the new servers. Only one purchase package is set to use the new system for now, we'll be ramping it up from there if all goes well.

music: Bozzio / Levin / Stevens - The Black Light Syndrome; Pat Metheny Group - The Way Up; highlight of the random mp3 library: Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Squiggly Portland

Squiggly Portland
Originally uploaded by abosco

Someday

Sunday, August 5 2007
23:30

Decided to sleep in a bit this morning instead of heading across the lake. In the afternoon, went up to Ballard for a walkthrough of the new place, this being the official "find things that need fixing or touchups" stage, and also some orientation about the appliances, flooring, countertops, etc. They still have a lot to do in the building. My place is short a couple cabinets, a mirror, some lights, and the finishing touches. Today we marked off about a gazillion places that need overspray cleaned off, or dents that need some fixing, etc. Only a couple major things – large gaps in the bamboo floor slats in one spot, and one cabinet door that was scratched enough to warrant just replacing. That took a couple hours. It was good though to finally get in there again and get a feel for the space, now with more of the stuff in place, and not as much junk in the way. Still no real idea how I'm going to arrange things, or what I'm going to do with the "den".

Afterwards, went to a local Indian place for dinner with Carrie. Had a nice relaxed meal there, catching up on things. Ended up going into a lot of detail about Kim and all that. Carrie went through a lot of different reactions as different parts of the story came out. In the end I think she was a bit bewildered, but also definitely ribbed me for my behavior.

Back in April I decided to let go of it, because I wasn't apparently able to do anything about it but drive myself nuts, and that wouldn't do anybody any good. But I can't help but wonder now if that's just giving up. I can tell myself I haven't given up, but. . .

Actually yesterday we had two guests at the guitar circle, I forgot to mention Pablo. But he's an old friend so it didn't feel like he was a "guest" per se. He, Meli, and Theo were in town for a couple of days. Good to see them. Pablo came out to lunch with some of us afterwards. Theo is almost two now, last time I saw him he was only a few days old. They are still happy in Vancouver; they've talked a bit about moving back to Argentina, but probably not any time soon. Curt made the obligatory "why don't you move to Seattle?" question, but given the cost of living here these days, probably not an option.

Friday night – on the way home, took a detour up Harbor ave. Stopped to sit on the pier and watch the sunset for a bit. The shadow of the Olympics crossed half the sky as the sun's glow faded.

music: Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense

Saturday

Saturday, August 4 2007
24:44

Up at 7. Larger than usual turnout for calisthenics. Had one guest today, a guitarist passing through town. TM presented an exercise for the last five minutes that turned out to be the base of something I came across in Argentina last year. Same idea, but in five-note patterns played as triplets:

ONE two three FOUR five one TWO three four FIVE one two THREE four five

Initially 12 for the circle after coffee, then three left at noon, so nine for the next hour. Entirely circulation work. I wouldn't mind something a bit different, to complement the circulation work we're doing Wednesdays, but I didn't bring anything else forward today.

Out to the Eastside for a coworker's "Me Fair" party in the afternoon. Hot drive over there, but a bit cloudy and pretty nice once there. Low-key, well not as many people as last year. Hung out and chatted for a few hours, gave the electric hydros a couple laps around the pool. Left about 6. On the way home, took a shortcut from the parkway up to Eastgate. Realized I probably hadn't driven that route in 15 years. Remembered the time that my sister got pulled over, for doing 35 in a 25 zone there in the family car, when we were on a pizza-pickup run. She got off with a warning. Which reminds me, I was driving like an asshole all day today, not sure why.

Napped for two hours in the evening. Watched TV, played some bass - revisiting Disintegration for the first time in a while. Some of the first bass lines I ever learned (often not correctly). I always had a hard time w/ the feel in Fascination Street, realize now it's all in the picking pattern. And, man, The Same Deep Water As You is pure torture. A 14th-fret barre on a bass for eight and a half minutes. I never figured that one out until a couple years ago.

Still not sure if I'm going out to another party on the Eastside tomorrow, or sleeping in.

Noticed today that I missed Klaxons, they played Chop Suey a few weeks ago. Damn.

music: Squarepusher - Hard Normal Daddy; A Perfect Circle - Mer de Noms

Wheee

Friday, August 3 2007
24:17

And a clean sweep in the sunny days department this week. Sometimes I feel like a dork writing about the weather here.

Keeping very busy lately. Always more to do. Nothing super-rushed at the moment, so it's not really very stressful at least. Also offset by enthusiasm for most all of it. Cool milestone today, (almost) all the ID games were released on Steam.

Lots on the schedule for this weekend, too. Not sure if I'll make it to both Seafair parties.

music: Nitzer Ebb - Showtime (what a silly album); NIN - The Fragile

Do you find this happens all the time

Thursday, August 2 2007
24:22

Just saw a Cingular / AT&T commercial that used "Age of Consent" as the backing music. The original recording. It's a great song, one of New Order's best. Weird.

We're 4 for 4 so far weather-wise this week. Decided to try my luck on the bridge today – it was open when I got there at about a quarter after 12, phew. Tomorrow there's no early closing, just the one at 12:45, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Yummy Indian food for lunch today. I don't know what the name of the chickpea-salad dish is, but I'm really liking that these days.

music: Res - How I Do; New Order - Technique; Siouxsie and the Banshees - Twice Upon a Time

LEGO?

IMG_9061
Originally uploaded by marcus_jb1973

C c c' D d d' E e e' F f f'

Wednesday, August 1 2007
25:02

Another good circulation group meeting tonight. Got to some pretty mind-bendy things tonight. Eight people – Christina is out of town, but Bill is back in town and joined us tonight. Some socialization down the street afterwards.

Not sure if I want to try to aim my day around the closing of I-90 tomorrow, or just stay home. They are pretty notorious, in my book, for not really following their schedules. And traffic is pretty screwed up all day even when the bridge is open.

music: Brian Eno - Nerve Net; Roxy Music - Viva!

Tuesday

Tuesday, July 31 2007
25:09

Another gorgeous day. Got off to a late start. Weird dreams this morning.

Great board meeting tonight, things really seemed to fall into place and become clear, decisions made. Next step, run our thoughts by the rest of the team and get feedback, move on from there. Found out for myself that I'm not willing to put my name on a 3-year, $3k/mo commercial lease that we're not sure we'll be able to pay for. Interesting note, that's roughly ten times as much money overall as we ("we" being three of the current 5 board, plus four others) put our butts on the line for back in 2001 when we signed on for the 65th-street house.

August here, eh.

music: Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas; Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future; Mick Karn - Three-Part Species