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Writing a screenplay! Musician gets fired from restaurant job, takes the opportunity to pursue music full time, starts neglecting his girlfriend. Cue breakup, then he writes a breakup album-- the best he's ever recorded. He learns to survive alone. It's kind of a Künstlerroman. Sitting right at 18 pages right now, but I have quite a bit still to write. And this is just the first draft.
I'm supposedly working on a book about my wee stroll last year. I've been pretty lazy, and writing fills me with dread, so thus far I'm still only at the early stage into the journey. It isn't great, but hey - a word on the page is better than two on the brain, I guess. Ultimately it just requires sitting down and actually doing it. In the time I've been procrastinating, I probably could've written the draft three times over. I don't know if it'd ever be publishable, but that's not entirely the point. Anyway I'll keep ye updated!
A long, tough slog of sixteen hour days. Friday is a day off. I will be able to buy groceries. I am currently subsisting off of pilfered oatmeal packets and freezerburned costco meatballs from 2015 (because they are undefended). The 26% homeless increase is real, as is the opioid epidemic. The homeless river camp "Thug Island" (which burned twice last year) is back with a vengeance; they've painted up warning signs all over the river ("our dog bites" etc. ) and have scattered their trash far and wide. Also interesting: there is detritus in the trees a good six feet up. When the river flows, those fuckers are underwater. Realistically speaking they were all wiped out in March and are accumulating hobo flotsam at a formidable rate. Also, I drove past a pile of an easy hundred blue-green prescription bottles on the path yesterday morning, all uncapped. I should have taken a picture. They've scattered to the bushes now. I don't really want to stop and see if they're smurfing but at the same time I reckon they aren't hoarding asthma meds. I left my bug goggles in Washington by mistake. When I pass through a swarm of whatever the heinous river flies they have down here are, it feels like someone threw a handful of sand at me. At speed, the impact against my closed eyelids hurts. And I don't always close my eyes in time. I have gone to sleep with red eyes every night, and have too many times wiped soaked, crushed insects out of my eyelashes. Tomorrow morning I will make origami and put it in a card because my daughter misses me.
I find gifting origami a very personal and profound experience: you're not only giving them a folded piece of paper - you're giving them a part of your soul. It took a few mistakes to understand this. I hope your daughter appreciates the personal touch... even though I'm somehow sure she'd appreciate just about anything you give her just because you're her daddy and she - your little princess. (is it pretentious or obnoxious of me to even talk about your daughter?)Tomorrow morning I will make origami and put it in a card because my daughter misses me.
I bought a $7 pair of sunglasses in LA a few weeks ago and they're great. Couldn't that help with the bugs in the eyes?
I bought a $6 pair of safety goggles off Amazon and they work fine. The problem is, when you have no time to buy groceries and you live in a wasteland with no retail to speak of, you have to wait a few days for your safety goggles to show up. I got 'em now, but I didn't have 'em the past three days.
Physical fitness. Have a half marathon in a couple of weeks. Then three more races this year. It's a big drive. Music. I'm going to write an original song and do a cover in the next two weeks dammit. Anybody want to throw down some bass for it? Relationships. I'm trying to catch up with some people whom I haven't seen in too long.
Stay tuned :) Any requests on what would make this easiest on you? Stem + metronome track, key, etc? I'm new to the internet collaboration thing.
if you're playing to a metronome (which I recommend), then a bpm would be great. Key and basic progression are good too. If you're doing a chord where it's like "idunno what this is???" (which happens sometimes with weird chords), then just leave it and I'll figure it out. :D
Shelving! We have a small walk-in closet that has one tall shelf on three walls with hanging rods below them - very space inefficient. I want to make the back wall look something like this: The shelves on the left and right walls would just be extensions of the shelves on the left and right. I'm also looking at making a moving island for our kitchen. I'm collecting tools from family members and designs for the thing, but it's a complicated build so I want to make sure I'm comfortable with it. I also have to find a good sized butcher block counter top.
Doing a 2-day bizhackaton on the blockchain. I'm learning a bit about all this.
I have to do a front handspring to pass my god damn phys ed class and I'm either going to pass this class by bribing my instructors or through their pity when i snap off my elbows.
That's quite an advanced phys ed class. When I was last in a phys ed class we just had to do a chin up.
Figuring out where to trench in the yard to run power out to my new workshop. Figuring out how to scramble and keep my job after losing a huge contract. Putting off drilling a giant 4" hole through two-feet of my kitchen cabinets and another nine inches through the exterior wall, to install an exhaust fan for the cooking area. Cutting big holes in the walls and cabinets is nervous work. Avoiding putting more things into my workshop, and building it out, until the installers come back tomorrow and finish the roof. Not doing any cooking, because our CSA box this week was basically fruit and leafy greens, and nothing to really make a "meal" out of. Trying not to drool on my keyboard, because I had dental work done this morning and the whole left side of my face is falling off... or, at least it feels like it! Getting serious about planning two motorcycle trips this summer. First one to my 30-year high school reunion, and the second one to Burning Man. Fixing up the RV in preparation for two upcoming "camping" trips. Watching my dog closely, to see if the glucosamine supplements are helping her with her stiff (12 year old) hips. Fighting off seasonal allergies, that haven't been a part of my life for more than 5 years, and suddenly decided to come back on Monday with a vengeance. Wishing I could get back to writing the episode scripts for the TV series I am writing about the founding of Seattle. Oh. And paying attention to my lovely wife, from time to time, as well. :-) That covers the first page of the To Do List...
I've been working on a python module for numerical integrators. I used Matlab's built-in integrators for school, but I want something equivalent. Variable-step integrators are hard. I also have another pet project to teach myself some machine-learning stuff by writing AIs for simple games, but I haven't made much progress on that. I hardly ever finish my self-imposted coding projects, I work in them when I get the urge, and then let them sit for months when I don't.
Brushing up on my Chinese because we recently moved back to Taiwan. Finding some new brain-stimulating activities for the oldest kiddo and me to do together. Riding my bike more. I want to bike commute every day (weather permitting) soon, and eventually take some longer rides (50km+). This is part of a more general "getting in shape" project I suppose. Improving my hiring skills because I need to build a new product team at the office and I've made some bad hires. Finishing a technical project for work. I actually get to code this one, which is refreshing b/c this job is mostly management. Contributing to Hubski. I've lurked for a long time. What about you @thenewgreen ?
Taiwanese dreams... Taiwanese dreams... I visited my parents there while I was in college. It's holds a completely romantic place in my heart... I dream of going to work there for a while... unfortunately, my mandarin is GARBAGE, and I have way too many kids to be able to afford to live there.
If you ever make the move, hit me up. The good news is Taipei in general and the tech industry here in particular seem to have better English than say 10 years ago. I found a co-working space and almost everyone speaks pretty passable English.
Greek: am slowly making my way through the Book of Mark. It's slow going, since my vocabulary still sucks. Coptic: Small progress, but am only working on this in fits and starts due to focusing most of my energy on Greek. I'm also planning to do a translation of Bartolome de las Casas' work A Brief History of the Destruction of the Indies. The only English one I can find is old and, at best, stilted (if not outright inaccurate). We'll see if I get around to it.
Currently finishing up the uni year. Today - an essay on Shakespeare's The Tempest for English Literary History. Tomorrow - a 3 km run for PE, and a reciting quite a bit over at Language Practice. On the 10th - Philosophy, for which I only have one day to prepare. Monday is Grammar, and I'm going to study the whole semester's worth of data because I was too depressed to attend classes through the half-year. By Wednesday, I have to prepare a 15-page paper and a presentation on constructed languages, as part of the Theory of Language class, presenting in front of the former dean and a commission of teachers. Still two exams are, thankfully, postponed to September. Gonna take the summer to prepare in a radically superb manner. Right now is... tough. Outside of the uni, I'm getting the plan for the literary RPG done. It's part-design document and part-advertisement: here's what I can give, here's what I require, and if you want to join - you're welcome to. I'm especially proud of its presentation, given that it's hosted on a web page. Sometimes it's the only thing keeping me from curling up in a corner: the prospect of actually hosting the game one day. Soon enough I'm gonna have the server space and the domain name rented for the thing. Getting slowly prepared, physically and mentally, to go back to Kemerovo. Overall, making sure I finish this year in one piece. My sister wants to travel, and she invited me to come along. Being in the police force, she isn't allowed to travel outside the country, so Europe is out of the picture for her (not for me: I'm already hungry for the journey; we'll see). Current choice of destination involve: Sochi, Abkhazia and on-foot to Lake Baikal, 1300+ km away. I'm leaning towards the latter.
Just put this bad boy out and am working on more of the same. It was weird the day we released this - I put all my ducks in a row, got it out and made sure all the social media posts were scheduled to go off at the right times... then just went into the next room and started working on more (drums). It never ends. I guess we are sorta lucky that our principal songwriter always keeps a daunting list of demos ahead of us. It's sort of scary though.
I found a free snowblower on the Neighborhood app. Picked it up Sunday. Took it apart Monday. Found the repair manual for the engine Tuesday. Will rebuild next week, then build a frame and turn it into a go-kart for my son. Never rebuilt an engine before. It's a two-stroke so it's a lot simpler to tune, but a lot easier to blow up. Should be fun.
We are back to showing Saturn in the telescopes and have over 1500 people visit us this week. Two more big events that are being publicized and made the new should push that to 2500 for the week. Then I take a break and hope the weather holds so I can do some photography.
Mostly working on my thesis but its details aren't that interesting. It's eating up my time, mostly the time I was developing side projects. About a month ago I decided to actively spend more time on self-improvement. I'm noticably improving at meditation and I am still refining my home exercise routine. Decided today that I need more planking in there. I also started the new Duolingo Japanese course - not sure if I am gonna stick to it, but I have been daydreaming about an awesome Japan / SE-Asia trip for somewhere next year and it's fun to learn some characters. Things that I wanted to do, but didn't have much time or energy for: create / design more maps and lasercut designs, continue my goal of reading moar books, learn to write smart contracts, get comfortable with Linux as my environment, try some software developing, keep up with everything that's happening.
Writing a lab manual for the lab I taught last Spring. Hopefully this way all that knowledge will not leave when I graduate and that other people will be able to teach the lab. Also writing a paper on my research that's due at the end of June. Also, chickens, cars, some machining, topology, and discrete math...
This code is so disco. I'll tell you about it someday.