Well, that was definately a difficult exam…. I am not sure how I did; Some questions were not that bad, while others I simply couldn’t answer. This guy doesn’t grade on a typical scale, so I guess I will have to wait until I get the exam back to even guess what letter grade I got.

Packing, Packing, Packing I always overpack. Tomorrow I am heading out to California, to tour the Bay Area/Silicon Valley. I will be staying with Chris while I am out there, and I will be meeting up with Scot Hacker, Dave Bort (and his place of employment, Be, Inc.), Chuck Lapp (who is working for Crystal Dynamics currently), and Pink-Haired Kate. It will be wonderful seeing Kate and Chuck, because I haven’t seen either of them in a few years. And although I have seen Bort recently, It will be good to see what he is doing over at Be (which, as you can imagine, is exciting for me… *l*)

It is always good to see old friends, and in the case of Scot, I will be meeting him in person for the first time. For those of you who may not know, Scot is the author of the BeOS Bible, MP3: The Definitive Guide, and is also one of the editors that works with me over at BeNews. I have talked with Scot in one capacity or another for many years now, but we have never met face to face…

This whole internet thing is so odd… Sometimes I don’t understand how society continues to function with it, and other times I can’t imagine life without it… Computers have always been a part of my life.. Some of my first memories are my father taking me to a junior programming class at the local high-school. I can’t remember how old I was at the time, but to give you some perspective, I was writing BASIC on a Commodore PET loading its software off a cassette drive. Sometime after that my grandparents bought me a Commodore 64, and later my father bought a modem. I would say that I wasn’t past 4th grade by the time I dialed a BBS… So e-mail, programming, all this data, is all so familiar to me. I don’t say that to show off (or compensate for a ’lack’ of something :P), but I am just trying to create perspective.. I take it all for granted, completely, and that really frightens me at times… Sometimes I look at an iMac and see a ugly, green machine for idiots; Other times I see it for what it is: The perfect machine for beginners running an OS that, while frustrating many advanced users, is perfect for people who have never looked at a computer before.

Anyway, back to the point, I am really looking forward to seeing all these people, but I guess there is special excitement for me in meeting Scot. I guess there is something special about a face-to-face meeting, and that is something that computers will be hard-pressed to replace….. Thankfully… :)

I ended up taking off from work today so I could continue my studying of Calc, in preparation for the big ol’ exam tonight. I feel kinda bad about this since I will be leaving for CA tomorrow morning… Ah well…

I have slowly been integrating the data here at LiveJournal into a new homepage for me at CSH. The journal back-end will continue to be LiveJournal, but I wanted to start playing around with PHP, CSS, and maybe XML in my homepage, so…

You can check it out here, although once I am ‘finished’, it will replace my old page.

Let me know what you think of the design in the comment forum, suggestions are always welcome!

There is something fundamentally wrong when I go to bed during a torrential thunderstorm, yet I wake up to a beautiful day without a trace of water on the ground.

This I do not understand.

I like music. Those who know me are very familiar with this. My tastes are pretty extreme in the eyes of many, but experimental music (whether that be electronic, jazz, rock, [insert industry-defined genres here]) is something I love to listen to. I try to be open-minded when it comes to music, and other peoples perceptions of music (I often fail in this quest, but I nonetheless try).

I am going to review CDs here occasionally, perhaps trying to bring an artist I love to light. So, without further ado:

Naked City - John Zorn

I picked this CD up for many reasons… First of all, I became aware of John Zorn a few years back through a friend (James Izzo), who purchased a CD from Zorn’s Painkiller project (with Mick Harris of Napalm Death/Scorn). Zorn’s horn playing amazed me. John Zorn also produced Mr. Bungle’s eponymous debut album, although I didn’t know of him when I first picked that one up. In retrospect, you can certainly hear his influence on the band.

" Naked City" was released in 1989 (or 1990, depending on which copyright notice you believe on the packaging) on Elektra/Nonesuch records. The tracks range from traditional jazz pieces to mind-blowing chaotic noise. John Zorn is known for bending the common perception of jazz, and this album is no exception. Zorn and his merry band of musicians have done incredible arrangements with both Zorn’s original pieces and the few songs they have selected done by other composers. Their rendition of Henry Mancini’s “A Shot in the Dark” is wonderful, and when placed in contrast with the insane chaos of other tracks (such as “Blood Duster”), you get a feel for the talent of both Zorn and the musicians he selected to work with him.

I strongly recommend this album to everyone, you simply must give it a listen (if you are reluctant to lay down the coin, ask me to borrow it.. :P). This album is not only interesting, but it also is quite enjoyable and listenable. I give it my full endorsement (whatever the hell that means).

It is always difficult to convince myself to work on Calculus. It is eerie when I contemplate the fact that while Calculus is possibly the most difficult class I have keeping me from graduation, the limit of my motivation to work on Calc approaches 0.

I worked quite late on homework last night, and subsequently got into work quite late this morning, after trying to catch up on sleep. Quiz tonight, exam on Wednesday…. I hate this damn class…

I can’t believe how many errors and flaws there were in my last update.. I posted some corrections as a comment, but that didn’t even scratch the surface… Hopefully that isn’t typical, but hell, this is _my_ journal, so I don’t feel too bad. :P

Was pop music always so shitty? I remember the 80s being vain and thin, but 80s “new wave” was also so self-cynical and ‘glossy with a purpose’. Today’s pop music scene seems to be filled with boy/girl bands (like brit-ney), neo-metal garbage (korn, limp bizkit, et. al.), and rap has been replaced by this bogus gangsta rap. When gangsta rap meant NWA, it meant something, I didn’t necessarily go crazy for it, but I felt emotion in it. Today’s gangsta rap has as much in common with boy/girl bands it isn’t funny. Appealing to the same demographic (namely, children), using violence to attract instead of sexual innuendo. Sigh…..

In a perfect universe, experimental artists (the likes of Autechre, Squarepusher, John Zorn, Mr. Bungle, etc…) would be truly successful. The ones that are actually pushing the envelope. Experimental music isn’t always good, don’t get me wrong, but you can usually bank on it at least being interesting…

MTV needs a revolution….. MTV needs to play music…. We _all_ realized that MTV was simply commercials for music ‘back in the day’, we accepted and loved it. Music has taken the back seat at MTV; It is now the soundtrack to whatever fad MTV is pushing at the time. MTV isn’t necessarily _good_ for music, but it could do a good job of bringing new music to the masses. Unfortunately MTV (and big radio) is under the powerful influence (mostly monetary) of the labels.

I don’t expect a sea-change, but why not start small. Your homework assignment is to go to a record shop and buy something at random. Feel free to narrow it to a genre, but try and pick a cd you have never heard of. You might like it…

Why share my journal with the world? Not sure really…. We will see how personal I will get with this after all. Sharing personal feelings can either be cathartic or discomforting, and I am not sure where this lies yet.

Life has been shitty lately, and calculus 3 still sucks, even the 3rd time around….

Going to san fran for the first time this weekend.. Hope to see lots of friends who have ended up out there… It would be super-awesome to see a Mr. Bungle/Secret Chiefs 3 concert while in the area, but I don’t think the opportunity will arise.