| | Now, time for some less gloomy news. I have two awesome job offers to choose between. Now I just need to decide... And then finish my Master's. | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment   |
| | Current Music: | Overture to Tannhauser - Richard Wagner | | Subject: | Dystonia | | Time: | 01:54 am |
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| A long, long time ago...
I can still rememeber
How that music used to make me smile.
I guess it's time for me to explain myself. What my last post was about. Why I may seem somewhat out of it.
To make things easier, I'm just going to post an email I wrote earlier today. Going over this once was hard enough. It took me about five hours to write, and I felt like I was either actually or on the verge of shaking uncontrollably throughout the process.
( The email... )
Right now I don't think I can say very much more. Other (mostly good) things have happened, but this issue has probably been the foremost thing concerning me recently.
One of the things I always thought was wonderful about my passion for music and playing tuba was that I believed it would last forever. But now it doesn't seem like that's necessarily the case. And that thought's haunting me. | | comments: 6 comments or Leave a comment |
| I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| ( Apathy... )
Trip to South Carolina was good fun. It was awesome seeing ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) theschizm. Although I'm afraid the stressful [largely compiler] antics of the previous week caused my disposition to be a bit less rosy than it should have been.
I have been yawning a fair bit writing this, so maybe I will try going to bed.
Until next time... | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Notes | | Time: | 11:56 pm |
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| I've started to acquire a sizable collection of Post-it notes with things written on them. I'm mildly amused.
Tomorrow will be a day in which I apply for several jobs. For some reason I'm not particularly excited.
Apathy apathy that's our cry!
A-P-A- eh...
I'm hoping the somewhat reasonable amount of sleep I had last night cured me of the insomnia I've been experiencing the past week or so. It all started that night I slept two hours in an attempt to finish that homework 5 days before it was due (of course, I did not know the due date written on the assignment handout was not actually the due date).
It's going to be less warm again. I'm sad. The last 5 or so days were really pleasant, temperature-wise.
EWSB, Kiltie, and AUO are awesome.
I can't think of anything else particularly coherent.
The end. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | The Planets: IV. Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity - Gustav Holst | | Subject: | Small-Integer AM Thought | | Time: | 10:28 pm |
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| After one of my stupid o'clock posts due to insomnia last month, I came up with a little truth. I didn't post it to LJ then, (that would've involved an even-more-stupid o'clock post), but I wrote it on a post-it note, and it's been on my monitor since then.
The first step to living your dream is remembering what it is.
That is all. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Finally, as promised, I'm posting a couple things I made when I took a computer music class Spring 2007.
Purple Color (00:30, 177k)
Purple Color was the result of one of the first assignments I was given. The premise was very simple: record myself, and then do something interesting with Audacity. Not being particularly creative, I looked for something vaguely interesting to read. I found a package of Elmer's School Glue Sticks.
The main techniques I used creating Purple Color were splicing small pieces of my original recording together in interesting ways, shifting pitch and layer parts together to develop a harmony of sorts, and adjusting tempo. The net result has interesting rhythmic aspects due to repetition, and presents a nice contrast between color and colorlessness.
Night Wanderings (04:41, 3.3M)
Night Wanderings was my final composition project. It was written in Nyquist, which is a LISP-based language that was designed by our professor. I couldn't really think of a good name; I eventually came up with Night Wanderings because the first real theme sort of gave me images of some solitary person walking in the dark.
The most interesting part of Night Wanderings to me, is the sounds used. Two were built using additive synthesis, and a third was built using FM synthesis. After an introduction by two stereo-separated voices (designed to have a somewhat percussive-feel), the piece is largely tonal (I was also taking a class on harmony that semester), but is interesting due to underlying rhythmic motifs and the unique sounds of the electronic voices. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| Clearly the last time I slept (between this Tuesday and Wednesday), it was for too long. Of course, that was due to the small amount sleep between Monday and Tuesday. Silly homework. Silly distractions for preventing me from doing the homework earlier. Well, maybe getting up for the 11:00am meeting with my advisor will help me un-hork my sleep schedule. (An aside; I just recalled that advisor is an interesting word, it appears that advisor and adviser are equivalent. I wonder if different regions prefer one spelling over the other).
On the other hand, apparently my not falling asleep when I want to is the leading cause of me writing LiveJournal entries. Well, maybe that's arguably not a good thing.
One fun thing that's been happening recently, is that I've been playing more online board/card games with friends. While it's not quite the same as doing it in person, it brings back some of the fun times that were had before people graduated and moved away. All those good times spent in Tim's apartment...
(Another aside; my earlier aside happened because for some reason I thought the two versions of advisor were different. I looked it up. Now I remember why I thought they might have been different; counselor and councilor really are different.)
I wish writing was easier for me...
Since I can't find a way to say what I wanted to say in this paragraph very well, I'll just summarize the general idea. I love music. Maybe a better description of how my involvement in music has come to mean more to me again over the last two years will come in a future post. One thing that's true, is that I'd probably deal with my insomnia by playing an instrument, if that wasn't considered a rude thing to do at 3:00 in the morning.
Well, at this point I think I'm frustrated enough with my poor ability to meld thoughts into coherent sentences that I should end this post. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| I was attempting to fall asleep, and decided it probably wasn't going to work, at least not for a little while. So I thought to myself, maybe I should post a LiveJournal entry.
But then I got distracted by pictures from the AUO concert last November. Wow... I was fairly surprised by what I looked like. First, it was fairly weird seeing myself playing an oboe. But, I was expecting that, seeing as I was playing oboe at the concert. The thing that I found more strange, was how old I looked. In at least a few of the pictures, it looked like I was a 30-something year-old workaholic. I honestly don't remember what insanity may have been ensuing then, but wow.
In other news, I was disappointed I didn't get a chance to play any instruments [logical] today. Computer Club meetings in the evening on Tuesdays tend to make it so I don't get home until fairly late.
I wonder if it was the caffeine in the green tea I drank because it was cold that's keeping me up. I can't say I'm a big fan of winter. At least it's a bit warmer this week than it was last week.
No Purple Color today, sorry. I don't remember where I put it. And besides, I'd need to write a nice blurb about what it was, and how it came to be. And really, I'm not a big fan of writing. Maybe that's the root cause for my dwindling number of posts.
Anyway, I think I might be feeling slightly sleepy now. I should really try get up at some reasonable hour [logical] tomorrow. However, it usually seems like it's only perceived necessity that can convince to get myself out of my nice warm bed in the morning. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| At some point I should try and figure out what exactly happened this semester. It's pretty blurry right now. It's not quite done as of yet; there's probably still some work on the DSN paper, and the modified version that my group's submitting for the class project. But my parts are minor, so things shouldn't be too bad.
At this point, I'm not exactly sure when I'll get to go home. Tuesday's likely the latest, unless I decide for some reason I want to hang around Pittsburgh longer. I'm definitely looking forward to home, and seeing my parents, brother, and sister.
There might be some hope for my Thinkpad. Apparently folks have had some success repairing video problems using aluminum foil, a heat gun, an infrared thermometer, and patience. I'm thinking I might as well attempt the crazy process, since the worst case is that I kill my dead laptop more.
Installing Windows in a virtual machine takes a long time. But, as a result of those efforts, I can use my scanner again.
Well, I'm rambling. I was going to post Purple Color, (it's easy to see when applying!), but right now I'm not feeling so inclined to dig through my backups. At some point it will be done, and LJ will be able to experience the awesomeness. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, I'll explain later. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| The last 2.5 weeks (with the exception of the Thanksgiving holiday) have been pretty awful, although in retrospect, I'm not entirely sure why (well... other than my trusty Thinkpad dying on 11/21... RIP).
Also, buckets of angst. Oh man, it burns.
On the other hand, humans are awesome.
Fortunately, it won't be too long before I can go home for break. Unfortunately, it's likely the intervening days will be rather painful. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | October - Eric Whitacre | | Subject: | Pittsburgh | | Time: | 01:53 am |
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| I returned to Pittsburgh Sunday, August 24, 2008. At this point it seems like it was long, long ago. Monday the 25th and Tuesday the 26th, it was disorienting since I'd been in California just a few days before. Whoosh describes that experience best, I believe. By Wednesday the 27th, it seemed like the whole California thing was a memory of bygone days months ago. Special...
There's one major thing I've found unsettling since being back; I walk around campus, and don't see nearly as many people that I know. I guess I hadn't realized how many people I'd known because we were in the same graduating class. This still seems weird, but I'm getting a bit more used to it.
Running into younger folks that I know can also be somewhat strange. Their first reaction is often, "Wait... didn't you graduate?" I explain the whole "graduate student" thing, and then they nod, and we all continue on our ways.
Settling in to my new room/house... I guess that it's progressing well, if slowly. I think I can now safely conclude that I have too much stuff. The minimalist part of me that strives for simplicity sighs. I got a small (and cheap) storage unit to deal with the overflow. Maybe I'll cover more ground arranging things reasonably next week. The current state's pretty good at least, it's enough for me to concentrate on the other things that need to be done.
Being back in Pittsburgh's been very nice. Since I was away, I'm appreciating the things I like about the city even more. Fall's one of the pleasant seasons, I guess (or at least it is this year). And I really love my activities. I guess that's mostly music ensembles and Computer Club now. I definitely missed those over the summer (despite the fact I had some substitutes).
Anyway, I should probably stop and go to bed now. My second class of the semester is [logical] tomorrow at 10:30am. Maybe I'll ponder the question, "What the heck am I going to with my life?" next time. Probably not though. I'm rarely in the mood for that. | | comments: 5 comments or Leave a comment |
| It would be nice if making phone calls didn't scare me to death. I guess that's my number one irrational fear. Stupid shy personality bit. It really gets in the way some times.
For some reason I've had a bunch (well... two, but that's two more than normal) of distopian dreams this week. It's kind of bizarre.
Maybe I'll write a real LJ post later. Bye. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| Well, I'm waiting for something to download, and it's taking forever. I could probably ask my apartment-mate to "stop the downloading!" and that might improve things, but I'm way too passive aggressive. And anyway, if the download had completed right away, I probably wouldn't be here posting to LJ.
So first and foremost, I'm going to be taking a trip home, back to Fairfax. Maybe you've already seen my Facebook note about that. Anyway, I arrive early the Wednesday before Independence Day, and leave early the Sunday after. It should be a lot fun, and should start making up for the fact I haven't been home nearly enough this year. I miss my family...
( San Francisco... )
I only vaguely remember Sunday. It wasn't that eventful. I think the main things I did were laundry, oboe playing, thinking about starting a personal programming project, calling home, and taking an evening walk. So, not a very social or eventful day, but a relaxing one nonetheless.
( Music... )
Work's been a bit better so far this week. I've been writing code, which is much better than thinking about writing code. I still wish I had a better project, but at least I'm now at the point were I'm making progress on the one I have. Tomorrow should definitely be fun too... there's an intern trip to Great America in the afternoon. So it will only be a half day of work. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| There may or may not be crickets here (Mountain View, CA). For some reason I thought of crickets when facing the "figure out what subject to give this LJ post" dilemma. Now I can almost hear them in my head. So, crickets it shall be.
Anyway, there is a purpose to this post. It is to explain the main thing I've been doing for fun in my free time. The first steps occurred around the end of February or beginning of March. At the time (see previous post), I'd been pretty busy (IRC server of doom!, et al.), and was [at least] half insane.
( Let's time travel... )
So... there probably aren't all that many people who do that. I'm special. Now, I wonder if this is going to change the way capncosmo refers to me. | | comments: 5 comments or Leave a comment |
| Well, I guess it's been a long time. Folks that don't see me in person all that often likely have no idea what I've been up to. I also have no idea when it was that I last posted a substantive entry to this poor, neglected LiveJournal. Probably not this year, as I seem to recall not having much time after new year's day, when it would have been an otherwise good time to sum up what's been happening to Keith.
Oh, one note: I'm going to be posting this later (perhaps significantly later) than when I wrote it. And it might also be the case that I was working on this for quite awhile. Right now it's 5:13pm PDT, on May 26.
Ok, I guess I'll start with one particularly interesting fact (that was actually alluded to in the previous paragraph). I'm currently in beautiful Mountain View, CA. Not Pittsburgh. Not northern Virginia. The west coast. I'll get to the reason for this later...
Now, where should I start? Well, I barely remember last fall, so maybe I'll get back to that later. I'm thinking I'll start with this year, because, well, it's at least a little bit more fresh. Many exciting (as in major life-milestones) events happened this year as well.
( January... )
( Google... )
Well, I'm kind of tired, and at this moment I don't really feel motivated to figure out what I'll write about next. So, until next time...
June 2. Wow. I don't think I'm actually going to fill in anything else though. I'm angstful, tired, and unmotivated. I wonder if I'll ever finish this post? Probably, since the longer it takes me, the more content slips away from the grasp of my comprehension. One new development (why did it take me so long to remember that word?) is that I have slightly more reliable Internet connectivity. So, I could just post what I have. But, what's the fun in that?
Well, good night for now. (And it's not even quarter past ten...!?)
Okay... I'm back. It's June 10, just before midnight. I'm going to aim to post this monstrosity before I go to bed. But I'm giving myself a time limit... I'm going to bed at 1:00, which is later than usual for me anyway.
Right... now I need to figure out where I left off.
( February... )
( March... )
Hmm... well I'm going to stop now. I'm going to go past my 1:00am deadline just re-reading and revising the content I already have. There's still more I really want to say, but that will have to wait until next time. | | comments: 7 comments or Leave a comment |
| So, some time real soon now, I'm going to post a real LJ entry. But not tonight. It's past my bed time.
Somehow, despite the fact it's summer (no homework!), I still manage to not really have enough time during the week. And LiveJournal definitely isn't (and hasn't been for a long time) one of my priorities. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I just realized that not having enough time is a very silly reason not to do things one wants to do. When one doesn't do something, there is only less time in the future.
The future scares me. Not so much because I don't know where I'm going to be, but more because I don't know where I want to be going. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| My F07 schedule is here.
This is largely because I can't remember it myself. | | comments: Leave a comment |
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