I finally finished my horrible preschool job a few weeks ago, and jesus christ I didn't realize what a number that job had been doing on my body/psyche until I was out of it. It's nice not being on edge and full of tension all day, or collapsing into a ball and sleeping for 12 hours every night. Barring an act of god, I'm never teaching preschool again. I love teaching, and I love kids, but it just isn't worth it. I have a job teaching music over the summer, which I'm really excited about, and I hope it'll pave the way for future jobs. And I have a month or so of downtime before then, which I am using to actually deal with a lot of the problems which have been accumulating the past year. Found a therapist, started meditating every day, and I'm making time for music again. I spend an hour a day practicing piano, and another hour practicing improvising and songwriting. I'm hoping to put together some videos on the games / techniques I use to get me out of my creative blocks, because I think they might be really useful to other people who are stuck. I also realized how much of my creative block was rooted in a more general emotional block - it's kind of incredible how much easier it is to make music you like when you are actually able to emotionally connect to it again. Music is just flowing out of me naturally again, and it feels great. Here's a couple tracks I put together this past week to submit to a little beatmaking contest: Especially pleased with the first one. I think I am going to try and record an EP or Album of summery, funky tunes to release by around June.
I've been (non-COVID) sick for about 5 or 6 days now. I think it's just the standard flu, been incredibly tired and out of it. Possibly returning to work tomorrow. I've been staying busy by fiddling with electronics some more. I got my 3D printer up and running again, and have been making some odd devices. Here's a prototype of an idea I've had knocking around for a few weeks - a solar powered synth, with a build-in piezo disc speaker, to use as a tool for measuring/interacting with sunlight. Right now, I'm really missing my old job teaching in the woods, and am really bummed out by my current school's very small concrete and astro-turf playground. There's no sense of change to it, it's exactly the same every time we visit. So I want to make some devices that kids can use to explore the changes in natural forces in some fun and unique ways, and this is the first idea I came up with. After I fine-tune this, I want to make some sort of wind harps. Still trying to think of a good rain-instrument (maybe a drum of some kind?). I have a ton of these little squares of wood left over from my wedding (I made coasters as party favors), and they happen to fit the solar panels I have beautifully, so I'm using them as my basic unit of measurement in designs. I think this box's design is a bit too deep, especially for little hands. There's two oscillator voices in this device - one is wired up to the output jack on the back, and is controlled by the knob (the sound is SUPER gnarly). The other one, wired to the built-in speaker, has a fixed frequency, but is only activated if you complete the circuit by touching both copper plates. It sounds like an angry bird to me, which I like. I might have the pitch mapped to an LDR in my next iteration. These are <$5 in materials, and take maybe 45 minutes to wire up. I'm going to send some to musical friends to play around with. I also made an Electromagnetic Mic out of an old solenoid I had lying around - here's me playing my hair clippers like a didgeridoo: EDIT: Just made another sunbox. 4 voices, always playing, pitch controlled by LDRs. I call it the "very angry box" for reasons which I think will be clear upon listening. Might re-make this with different capacitors, wonder if I can make it actually melodic in some way.
I made some shorts, but they're a size too big for me. If anyone here wants them, PM me. They're size 32, and I have yet to finish the cuffs, so they could be either short shorts (my personal preference) or knee length. Free, if you can cover the shipping. This was a week when a pair of shorts was the most exciting development. Not altogether a bad thing.
Been a real nice week. Saw some friends I haven't seen in a while, booked my train tickets home, and after today, I have a 5 day weekend. No idea what to even do with that much time off. Also, I've been messing around with pastels. Included here: a Black-Eyed Junco, a Yellow Crowned Night Heron (my personal favorite bird), an attempt to draw along with an episode of the Joy of Painting, an abstract little triangle thing, and a tree. Pastels are fun but real goddamn messy - might mess with some watercolors next.
1. Really horrible interview (re: the interviewer) 2. Somehow, an even worse article - is the Atlantic like Medium now, where pretty much anyone can post things? 3. I feel kind of bad for Jordan Peterson. He's definitely got some opinions I disagree with, but he's a fairly moderate, well-reasoned speaker, and I always at least understand where he's coming from and how he gets there. That being said, his fans can be pretty terrible - I think that a large part of the negative associations with him are due to his shit-eating fanboys (and, it should be noted, fangirls as well - my GF listens to a ton of his lectures, albeit partly just to see what the fuss is about) posting snippets of his lectures as "factz-based" told-you-so's to bleeding heart liberals. I think both sides tend to lose the nuance, and just skip to the parts that help prove whatever point they're trying to make, regardless of his larger arguments. Idk, I am generally not a big fan of people who hold the scientific method above literally all else in life, but I think that's more of a problem with his fans than with him. Also not too pleased with Psychologists doing the work of social scientists, but that's another thing entirely.
I'll throw some in when I get back from vacation. This is a great community that gives me a lot of warm fuzzy feelings and help when I need it. I'm also meeting an increasing number of you folks face to face, which has been great. Shoutouts in particular to cgod and co. for taking in this wayward nerd for their D&D campaign(s), it's been a blast. That alone is worth a donation.
Starting as a paid employee at pre-k this week, about 2 weeks earlier than I expected. This frees up a little money in my budget for this month, which means two things: more money spent on getting the Etsy started, and more importantly: I am now looking for a puppy. Going to check some shelters this weekend with my partner. ------------ Speaking of Etsy: Bought a kid's dress shirt pattern yesterday, so anyone with fancy kids can have a cute animal shirt soon too ;) Probably going to be $30 for those. ------------- Going to my first open mic of the past 3 months tonight. This will be the second time I've played in public in Portland. I somewhat suspect it will go better this time...
Just got back from the East coast, half the staff at my warehouse job quit while I was away. Which is, uh, something. I'm going to try and drop down to 3 days a week there while I start my new job: Assistant Preschool Teacher Well, "job" might be a bit generous. I'm interning at a cool constructivist outdoor pre-K near where I live, and if I make it through the summer, I can start working there in a full time paid position in the fall. In any case, it's only 10 hours a week right now, and I'm happy to do it for free for the time being. I'm helping with storytelling and teaching songs and crafts and all that jazz. I'd like to work as a music teacher sometime soon, and I feel like this is a pretty good transitional step. ------------ My partner and I just moved in to our own (rented) house, and it's fucking great. Still in a state of disarray at the moment, but I'll upload some pictures tonight. EDIT: Some pics. Behold! a pretty disorienting panorama of our bedroom. Most of the art is made by either us or our friends, which is nice. A chair I found on the side of the road. I wanted to take a bit of our last house with us, so I painted this the color of our old kitchen, and reupholstered it with the kitchen curtains I had made. A little gardening my partner did while I was out East.
Mastering the album. Should be out in a week or so.
For reasons pretty much unknown, I have ignored all my responsibilities and hobbies apart from work this week, and instead learned how to be a Dungeon Master. I only had a shit ton of 6-sided dice though, so I'm doing Warrior, Rogue, and Mage instead of D&D. My valentines day consisted of working the most insane shift of pizza-making imaginable (lots of heart shaped pies, too) and then staying up till 2 am running this module with my BF, his brother, and his bro's girlfriend. Lots of fun, and I kind of suck as a DM right now, but that's okay. Am I right in thinking that you're into D&D, rd95, or am I completely making that up?
Eh, if making shirts starts to become a primary source of income I'll start charging more, but at this point I still consider it a hobby (that I can occasionally get some money for!) But steve, if you ever want a shirt, it'll be $60 at leaat ;)
Mixing music. Sewing some curtains. Hopefully eating before 3 PM for a change. Selling some empanadas from a bike. Going to an open mic night to play sad folks songs. Watching the Cubs game, because damnit, this city is making me care about sports for the first time in my life.
As is tradition, I am watching Oslo, August 31 today and feeling sad for fictional folks. Meanwhile, in real life: Love Life (shrugs into oblivion) ...by which I mean I had to talk a girl that I had been seeing for a few months off of a bridge yesterday morning. And then we broke up. So there's that. Unrelated: I am now back together with the ex who I have been moping about for the past few months, and I am extremely happy about that. We have had several long talks about re-establishing boundaries/ground rules etc., and things feel very good. Music Another successful Hubski music collaboration with TNG! Very happy with how this one turned out. (Fun fact: mostly recorded on the train ride back from seeing the bridge-girl mentioned above!) Re: my music - I have an album cover! Some small changes will likely happen to it before release, but there it is. Recording starts tomorrow. 11 songs, 1 month to record. Lets fucking do it. Moving Also in one month: Chicago. Working as a waiter/taquito delivery man. Have a few shows in the works already, which is nice. All in all, very excited for the change.
While I agree that we shouldn't be giving fame to the shooter, I think the fact that this was pretty clearly a hate crime complicates the idea that we should, or even can, ignore it. For people in the LGBT community, this is a very clear reminder that there are still people who want us dead just for existing. That marriage equality doesn't magically make us no longer a target - if anything, it deepens the hatred that some people felt already. The name of this shooter doesn't matter, I agree. It doesn't matter because he is not an anomaly, he is not an outlier. His hate is not uncommon, and his violence is no different in intention - only scale - from the violence that queer folks deal with every day. His name doesn't matter. Matthew Shepard's does. The only thing that makes this different from Laramie is that there are too many victims to remember the names. Edit: in fairness, I am probably willfully misinterpreting what you meant by "not make a big deal out of this", but this is just a topic I have strong feelings on.