I set up a program yesterday that lets me use the same mouse and keyboard across three different computers. Once I finally got it sorted, I drove across town and got some more memory for one of the machines. I've needed to do for a while.
I got back, clicked the RAM into place and rebooted. There was a ferocious clicking noise coming from the computer. It sounded like there was a hamster stuck in it. A quick google search informed me that, "A clicking hard drive can be a symptom of several different hard drive problems, all of which indicate hard drive failure." :/ The clicking has subsided but it picks back up whenever I run any tools to check the hard drive. When I put my hands on either side of it, the clicking stops. It's completely bizarre.
So today I'm saving information and reinstalling the operating system. The original hard drive on teh computer, this is my third failed drive for the year. Yargh.
It's been a lazy weekend, otherwise. It's raining and... there's nothing but time to read, play guitar and reinstall operating systems :p
I had a good week trading. I dove in the shallow end early in the week and got a bonk on the head. On Wednesday, gpjpy finally moved away from the resistance it's been testing for the last couple weeks. I traded it during the Asian and London sessions on Th and Fr and ended the week +7%.
I'm going with my mom tonight to hear Audrey's choir concert. She's been assigned two solos. I'm told one of the solos is apparently one of the first compositions ever composed by a woman. I don't know the date, but it allegedly has no set key and there were never any lengths ascribed to any of the individual notes. So it's basically just a series of different pitches to be sung at the speed the singer prefers. It should be interesting.
It was too wet for riding this and yesterday morning so I'm a little restless. I might just take a nap. I think that's exactly what I'll do :)
Happy weekend.
>> "Whatever Lola Wants" by Sarah Vaughan (Gotan Project Remix)
November 21, 2009
November 15, 2009
Hit in the face
What's the best way to illustrate getting hit by a wall of cold water? Well... that just about does it.
It doesn't much matter what anyone else says. In my mind, one of the best albums of the year is Lungs by Florence and the Machine. Give me a break.
Give me a break.
I haven't felt music move like this since I was introduced to Ours a few years ago.
Renegade harps against a heavy tambourine and an open air, rolling bass drum? Really?
The only thing that has ever made me consider a song to be completely enjoyable is a singer who recognizes the musical demands of making the voice exist as an active instrument inside an orchestration.
People don't stop to consider the fact that just because an orchestra is no longer used to carry the main melodies, the ears expect just as thorough presentation of the sounds themselves. A singer is tasked with the sizeable chore of producing a melody that's previously been assigned to about 40 different instruments in a piece.
I'll admit the album's pretty heavily produced. "Rabbit Heart" has 6 or more lead vocal tracks at times, but the production is top notch. I honestly haven't heard such exciting production in a long time. They used three different producers throughout and... it's fucking brilliant. Finally. It's brilliant.
I heard "Howl" on Pulsar Radio and... that was all I needed. I was on it after the first listen. The strength of the vocals just demand attention. Her lyrical gait in the song reminds me of some of Maynard Keenan's (Tool, A Perfect Circle) vocals. Like Bono said, "It's not about what you're saying. It's about what you're saying." It turns out the majority of this album was written after the lead singer meditated on the future death of her father. The strength in her voice leaves me so happy to hear legitimate content again. An artist's performance is one part practice, one part skill and two parts emotional exposure. Listen to "Cosmic Love" and you will know what it means to command a voice.
Alright. "Rabbit Heart" is the wall of water that nearly knocked me out of my kayak yesterday. I can't explain it any better. The verses have a brilliant mix of vocal reverb and an absolutely monstrous call-and-answer chorus line that comes behind the melody and leads into a beautifully broken pre-chorus. There's a spooky and almost ancient-sounding harmony that just steals your thoughts at the time and your ears stop and listen to see a Life lesson might be around the corner. The bottom completely drops out and the melody is so solemnly delivered that even the least musical of listeners is forced to recognize the impending tidalwave that was just a swell of emotion.
The chorus lights up the air like fireworks, Christmas trees and human joy simultaneously... at least to me. The vocals are stacked and harmonized like a castle. And the producer did what so few actually do... allow a human voice to maintain a single note kindly atop the song for the entire duration of the chorus. Sure, it's a looped vocal track. But what the heck? Her voice sounds like freaking violins. Thanks for hearing it, producer-man. Thanks even more for doing it. This album is so refreshing. The drummer rocks the up-beats on the ride right through the chorus and... man... the album just... keeps... going.
I can talk for a long time about this album. I haven't stopped listening to it yet. For the time being, I'll just say that I've been seeing a very positive trend recently. Sorry if you've never heard this stuff. It's absolutely your loss.
I've spent much of my budding adult life with headphones in my ears. And from time to time, there are moments when I stop at a critical moment in a song and wish more than anything else that everyone else in the world could, at that moment, be instantly and (probably) violently subjected to the very same sounds. When I say subjected, I mean scaring the excrement out of the infantile and the elderly alike. Sometimes, I just think the world needs to hear a Scandanavian man scoring his throat and singing an ode to a serpent. Sometimes the world needs to hear Sting sing about fields of barley. Sometimes it's Azam Ali singing Middle Eastern classics on beds of electronic, downbeat Beauty. Variety is Beauty. Alas. If the internet is going to be the bridge between cultures, I suppose we should first focus a bit on the quality of life.
I'm going to indulge myself for a moment and describe to my virtual pals what I did over the weekend.
My Aunt was in town over the weekend. My mother planned the time down to the minute.
Other than the familial festivities, I found time to do a few awesome things. For anyone taking the time to decidewhether or not I'm just being a spot egotistical when describing what I do as awesome, it's an open forum and you can stop reading at any point. The few folks who know me will give me the benefit of the doubt. Seldom considered is the fact that we rarely actually speak to the benefit of the other person in a conversation. Much of our comments are made so our own ears can hear our own voices reaffirming our personal Life decisions. Suffice it to say I felt it necessary to do some pretty awesome things.
I rode a lot over the weekend and exhausted myself again. Ray and I did 19 miles on Friday morning. We didn't get to ride the whole route because I got a flat on my front tire from an especially determined rock. I remember running over it and it took about half a mile for me to notice anything was wrong. We did a field op and were back up and moving in 10m. I got home, ate about a 16" long breakfast pastry and went back to sleep for a couple hours. I woke up and scratched myself lazily until dinner time.
That afternoon, I went over to my mom's place and we (she, I, my sister and aunt) went out to dinner at The Grove. We all slammed pizza and heard about my aunt's trip to Italy. We ate well and the ladies just talked about things talkable. I just sat there, looked at other, non-relative women and ate my gorgonzola pizza. That's generally what I do... play eye tag with women I won't talk to because they won't listen. Generalization? I don't think so.
I was up at the crack of a foggy dawn to pedal all over town again. The fog was covering all but the top third of the buildings downtown. It was an awesome sight.
We rode the full route and made decent time. We broke 15mph. Ray was content and I was tired.
I celebrated my general exhaustion by doing laundry and playing guitar naked.
Then I took to the hills. I drove over to Audrey's place and went kayaking. I had kayaking on my mind and I inadvertently went out for three freaking hours.
I didn't initially plan on going out so long. But once I got on the water, I got all adventurous. I loaded a couple Eric Truffaz albums, Shantel and, yes, Florence and the Machine before I went. So I ended up paddling almost three miles in my bathing suit in the sun in mid-November. My phone fit comfortably in a subway sandwich bag and I tied it to the floaty-device. I battled the speedboats and I think I might have actually won. I stopped on the other side of the lake by and island with some swans and tall reeds and called my dad from the water. It was pretty fun... floating and talking about things talkable.
I paddled all the way back into the wind and the music was my engine. I'm not as sore as I thought I'd be and I'm thankful for it.
I came back last night and I have absolutely no recollection of what happened after that. I didn't bathe. I didn't check my email. I think I watched the Office and drooled on myself for a bit. I was exhausted.
Today was back-to-work day. I've already stricken most of it from my memory. Tomorrow will be the same.
I'm going to the store to get some ice cream and then look for plane tickets to somewhere for Christmas.
>> "Rabbit Heart [Raise it up]" on Lungs by Florence and the Machine
It doesn't much matter what anyone else says. In my mind, one of the best albums of the year is Lungs by Florence and the Machine. Give me a break.
Give me a break.
I haven't felt music move like this since I was introduced to Ours a few years ago.
Renegade harps against a heavy tambourine and an open air, rolling bass drum? Really?
The only thing that has ever made me consider a song to be completely enjoyable is a singer who recognizes the musical demands of making the voice exist as an active instrument inside an orchestration.
People don't stop to consider the fact that just because an orchestra is no longer used to carry the main melodies, the ears expect just as thorough presentation of the sounds themselves. A singer is tasked with the sizeable chore of producing a melody that's previously been assigned to about 40 different instruments in a piece.
I'll admit the album's pretty heavily produced. "Rabbit Heart" has 6 or more lead vocal tracks at times, but the production is top notch. I honestly haven't heard such exciting production in a long time. They used three different producers throughout and... it's fucking brilliant. Finally. It's brilliant.
I heard "Howl" on Pulsar Radio and... that was all I needed. I was on it after the first listen. The strength of the vocals just demand attention. Her lyrical gait in the song reminds me of some of Maynard Keenan's (Tool, A Perfect Circle) vocals. Like Bono said, "It's not about what you're saying. It's about what you're saying." It turns out the majority of this album was written after the lead singer meditated on the future death of her father. The strength in her voice leaves me so happy to hear legitimate content again. An artist's performance is one part practice, one part skill and two parts emotional exposure. Listen to "Cosmic Love" and you will know what it means to command a voice.
Alright. "Rabbit Heart" is the wall of water that nearly knocked me out of my kayak yesterday. I can't explain it any better. The verses have a brilliant mix of vocal reverb and an absolutely monstrous call-and-answer chorus line that comes behind the melody and leads into a beautifully broken pre-chorus. There's a spooky and almost ancient-sounding harmony that just steals your thoughts at the time and your ears stop and listen to see a Life lesson might be around the corner. The bottom completely drops out and the melody is so solemnly delivered that even the least musical of listeners is forced to recognize the impending tidalwave that was just a swell of emotion.
The chorus lights up the air like fireworks, Christmas trees and human joy simultaneously... at least to me. The vocals are stacked and harmonized like a castle. And the producer did what so few actually do... allow a human voice to maintain a single note kindly atop the song for the entire duration of the chorus. Sure, it's a looped vocal track. But what the heck? Her voice sounds like freaking violins. Thanks for hearing it, producer-man. Thanks even more for doing it. This album is so refreshing. The drummer rocks the up-beats on the ride right through the chorus and... man... the album just... keeps... going.
I can talk for a long time about this album. I haven't stopped listening to it yet. For the time being, I'll just say that I've been seeing a very positive trend recently. Sorry if you've never heard this stuff. It's absolutely your loss.
I've spent much of my budding adult life with headphones in my ears. And from time to time, there are moments when I stop at a critical moment in a song and wish more than anything else that everyone else in the world could, at that moment, be instantly and (probably) violently subjected to the very same sounds. When I say subjected, I mean scaring the excrement out of the infantile and the elderly alike. Sometimes, I just think the world needs to hear a Scandanavian man scoring his throat and singing an ode to a serpent. Sometimes the world needs to hear Sting sing about fields of barley. Sometimes it's Azam Ali singing Middle Eastern classics on beds of electronic, downbeat Beauty. Variety is Beauty. Alas. If the internet is going to be the bridge between cultures, I suppose we should first focus a bit on the quality of life.
I'm going to indulge myself for a moment and describe to my virtual pals what I did over the weekend.
My Aunt was in town over the weekend. My mother planned the time down to the minute.
Other than the familial festivities, I found time to do a few awesome things. For anyone taking the time to decidewhether or not I'm just being a spot egotistical when describing what I do as awesome, it's an open forum and you can stop reading at any point. The few folks who know me will give me the benefit of the doubt. Seldom considered is the fact that we rarely actually speak to the benefit of the other person in a conversation. Much of our comments are made so our own ears can hear our own voices reaffirming our personal Life decisions. Suffice it to say I felt it necessary to do some pretty awesome things.
I rode a lot over the weekend and exhausted myself again. Ray and I did 19 miles on Friday morning. We didn't get to ride the whole route because I got a flat on my front tire from an especially determined rock. I remember running over it and it took about half a mile for me to notice anything was wrong. We did a field op and were back up and moving in 10m. I got home, ate about a 16" long breakfast pastry and went back to sleep for a couple hours. I woke up and scratched myself lazily until dinner time.
That afternoon, I went over to my mom's place and we (she, I, my sister and aunt) went out to dinner at The Grove. We all slammed pizza and heard about my aunt's trip to Italy. We ate well and the ladies just talked about things talkable. I just sat there, looked at other, non-relative women and ate my gorgonzola pizza. That's generally what I do... play eye tag with women I won't talk to because they won't listen. Generalization? I don't think so.
I was up at the crack of a foggy dawn to pedal all over town again. The fog was covering all but the top third of the buildings downtown. It was an awesome sight.
We rode the full route and made decent time. We broke 15mph. Ray was content and I was tired.
I celebrated my general exhaustion by doing laundry and playing guitar naked.
Then I took to the hills. I drove over to Audrey's place and went kayaking. I had kayaking on my mind and I inadvertently went out for three freaking hours.
I didn't initially plan on going out so long. But once I got on the water, I got all adventurous. I loaded a couple Eric Truffaz albums, Shantel and, yes, Florence and the Machine before I went. So I ended up paddling almost three miles in my bathing suit in the sun in mid-November. My phone fit comfortably in a subway sandwich bag and I tied it to the floaty-device. I battled the speedboats and I think I might have actually won. I stopped on the other side of the lake by and island with some swans and tall reeds and called my dad from the water. It was pretty fun... floating and talking about things talkable.
I paddled all the way back into the wind and the music was my engine. I'm not as sore as I thought I'd be and I'm thankful for it.
I came back last night and I have absolutely no recollection of what happened after that. I didn't bathe. I didn't check my email. I think I watched the Office and drooled on myself for a bit. I was exhausted.
Today was back-to-work day. I've already stricken most of it from my memory. Tomorrow will be the same.
I'm going to the store to get some ice cream and then look for plane tickets to somewhere for Christmas.
>> "Rabbit Heart [Raise it up]" on Lungs by Florence and the Machine
November 08, 2009
Weekend weather
This evening finds a comfortable, steady rain in the middle of Texas. The birds are sorted with their heads buried in their feathers and the cat is on the porch with the most pathetic of expressions on her face. How dare nature be so cruel as to relegate a cat to a damp, wet porch?
The last couple days have been nice. I think I've already mentioned the gymnastic rings. I hung them from a tree in the backyard and have been using them pretty regularly. It's generally just a helluva lotta fun. Some people were born to be wild. I was born comfortably happy with my primate manufacture.
I've been riding my bike every Friday and Saturday morning through South Austin and am starting to make good progress. Ray and I rode about 25 miles on Friday morning and about 35 yesterday morning. We did both at about 16mph and I was surprisingly still generally mobile by the time I rode home. All told, I did about 40 miles yesterday morning. When I got home, my breakfast consisted of a peanut butter and honey sandwich, a can of tuna and a few Reese's peanut butter cups. It was... a utilitarian meal.
I spent the rest of the day with my sister who needed some help moving things in a Uhaul to her new place. I was physically worthless but was able to dig deep enough to haul new kayaks down to the water and go out for a paddle.
She knew her place had "lake access" but didn't really know exactly how that would translate. Lake Travis is just generally huge and neither of us have been on much of it. At any rate, it turns out it's just about a one-hundred yard walk through the woods to the water. It's about a ten minute paddle through the narrow inlet, past some turbo wealthy folks' boat houses and then it opens up. It's really awesome. The coolest part, aside from being able to kayak comfortably in shorts on a November evening, was that we found a cove. Audrey was content just tooling around on the open water but I convinced her that we needed to explore. So we did. Now, I'm not going to do justice by describing it. But I'll try.
The leaves are just starting to really turn here. Along the banks are beautiful red cypress trees whose lowest branches allowed us to glide right under them. The sun was setting away from neon clouds and the views would have satisfied a Disney cinematographer. Each dead end turned into another secluded leg of the inlet, all of which sleep quietly in between two huge rock faces. The forty foot cliffs on either side hide any trace of development. The busy roads less than a mile away are completely out of sight and out of mind. Our attentions were entertained by great blue herons, curious owls and ferns, all close to the water. All of us enjoyed the dripping, the microscopic waterfalls traveling down the entire wall and working to fill the lake. I glided under one of the cedar tree's lowest branches and leaned back to look at the sky. Add a sprinkle of floating seedpods and you've got at least three scenes from Fantasia. The colors and smells reminded us of Adventure from our time spent in New Hampshire as kids. I haven't been able to get back there yet so this was a brilliantly crafted visual and memorable simile. All we could really imagine last night was waiting for it to warm up and being able to spend hours in a private, lagoon... in the middle of the freaking city. It was amazing.
After riding, kayaking and helping her move a bunch of furniture, she took me out to dinner. I demolished a super dirty hamburger (on my mind all day) and then I rolled kindly out of the restaurant. Had my day been complete after the burger, I would have been fine with it.
But I am apparently much luckier than most. My fuel pump went out on my car last week and although it didn't register immediately, I found out my fuel gauge has also given out. The car runs great, but I guess I just need to be a bit quicker to the gas station if the signal reads 1/4 of a gallon for more than a couple days. I came to a pitiful, sputtering stop about 5 blocks from home.
I wandered with throbbing legs to the house, got a gas can from the barn and pedaled my busted ass down to the gas station and back. I rode awkwardly back to the car, spilling all over myself, and gave the girl a drink.
A few weeks ago I actually determined that the weekend might as well not even exist if I couldn't meaningfully redirect my mental state. It turns out that for me, it matters very little what's actually done to fill the time so long as my interests completely engage my mind elsewhere. I realized the failed fuel sensor pretty quickly when my car was keeling over so I was able to adopt a surprisingly light-hearted approach to the whole thing. I made it back and passed out with really tired legs and hands that smelled like gasoline. I was out like a light.
I woke up for the 8th day in a row to the chihuahuas out back. My neighbor likes to let them out to go flipshit at 7am every day. They bark at the ground and trees and... really anything that might or might not be of general importance. I take comfort in the fact that I will outlive those animals. Whether here or there, I will outlive them.
And in case you or anyone you know is considering running Windows 7 on a tablet computer, I say,"Do it." It's already integrated with a much-improved handwriting recognition system. And the OS itself runs just like XP... smooth and easy. I've been loving it. It's worlds easier on my video card and... it's more intuitive than XP. Just make sure you have the legacy drivers. I had to look pretty hard to find them. But the screen orientation tricks and the tablet buttons are all live and working great. It's... I'm a happy geek.
I'm gonna update my charts and spreadsheets and get some sleep before the hellions start shrieking out back again.
>> "Club Foot" on Kasabian by Kasabian
The last couple days have been nice. I think I've already mentioned the gymnastic rings. I hung them from a tree in the backyard and have been using them pretty regularly. It's generally just a helluva lotta fun. Some people were born to be wild. I was born comfortably happy with my primate manufacture.
I've been riding my bike every Friday and Saturday morning through South Austin and am starting to make good progress. Ray and I rode about 25 miles on Friday morning and about 35 yesterday morning. We did both at about 16mph and I was surprisingly still generally mobile by the time I rode home. All told, I did about 40 miles yesterday morning. When I got home, my breakfast consisted of a peanut butter and honey sandwich, a can of tuna and a few Reese's peanut butter cups. It was... a utilitarian meal.
I spent the rest of the day with my sister who needed some help moving things in a Uhaul to her new place. I was physically worthless but was able to dig deep enough to haul new kayaks down to the water and go out for a paddle.
She knew her place had "lake access" but didn't really know exactly how that would translate. Lake Travis is just generally huge and neither of us have been on much of it. At any rate, it turns out it's just about a one-hundred yard walk through the woods to the water. It's about a ten minute paddle through the narrow inlet, past some turbo wealthy folks' boat houses and then it opens up. It's really awesome. The coolest part, aside from being able to kayak comfortably in shorts on a November evening, was that we found a cove. Audrey was content just tooling around on the open water but I convinced her that we needed to explore. So we did. Now, I'm not going to do justice by describing it. But I'll try.
The leaves are just starting to really turn here. Along the banks are beautiful red cypress trees whose lowest branches allowed us to glide right under them. The sun was setting away from neon clouds and the views would have satisfied a Disney cinematographer. Each dead end turned into another secluded leg of the inlet, all of which sleep quietly in between two huge rock faces. The forty foot cliffs on either side hide any trace of development. The busy roads less than a mile away are completely out of sight and out of mind. Our attentions were entertained by great blue herons, curious owls and ferns, all close to the water. All of us enjoyed the dripping, the microscopic waterfalls traveling down the entire wall and working to fill the lake. I glided under one of the cedar tree's lowest branches and leaned back to look at the sky. Add a sprinkle of floating seedpods and you've got at least three scenes from Fantasia. The colors and smells reminded us of Adventure from our time spent in New Hampshire as kids. I haven't been able to get back there yet so this was a brilliantly crafted visual and memorable simile. All we could really imagine last night was waiting for it to warm up and being able to spend hours in a private, lagoon... in the middle of the freaking city. It was amazing.
After riding, kayaking and helping her move a bunch of furniture, she took me out to dinner. I demolished a super dirty hamburger (on my mind all day) and then I rolled kindly out of the restaurant. Had my day been complete after the burger, I would have been fine with it.
But I am apparently much luckier than most. My fuel pump went out on my car last week and although it didn't register immediately, I found out my fuel gauge has also given out. The car runs great, but I guess I just need to be a bit quicker to the gas station if the signal reads 1/4 of a gallon for more than a couple days. I came to a pitiful, sputtering stop about 5 blocks from home.
I wandered with throbbing legs to the house, got a gas can from the barn and pedaled my busted ass down to the gas station and back. I rode awkwardly back to the car, spilling all over myself, and gave the girl a drink.
A few weeks ago I actually determined that the weekend might as well not even exist if I couldn't meaningfully redirect my mental state. It turns out that for me, it matters very little what's actually done to fill the time so long as my interests completely engage my mind elsewhere. I realized the failed fuel sensor pretty quickly when my car was keeling over so I was able to adopt a surprisingly light-hearted approach to the whole thing. I made it back and passed out with really tired legs and hands that smelled like gasoline. I was out like a light.
I woke up for the 8th day in a row to the chihuahuas out back. My neighbor likes to let them out to go flipshit at 7am every day. They bark at the ground and trees and... really anything that might or might not be of general importance. I take comfort in the fact that I will outlive those animals. Whether here or there, I will outlive them.
And in case you or anyone you know is considering running Windows 7 on a tablet computer, I say,"Do it." It's already integrated with a much-improved handwriting recognition system. And the OS itself runs just like XP... smooth and easy. I've been loving it. It's worlds easier on my video card and... it's more intuitive than XP. Just make sure you have the legacy drivers. I had to look pretty hard to find them. But the screen orientation tricks and the tablet buttons are all live and working great. It's... I'm a happy geek.
I'm gonna update my charts and spreadsheets and get some sleep before the hellions start shrieking out back again.
>> "Club Foot" on Kasabian by Kasabian
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