Wow

So I did my first senior concert and it went really, really well. Everyone seemed to like it and recognized how hard I worked, blah blah blah. Old news! I played my first show with a band I joined, Septic Mountain, tonight, but I'm having a hard time not freaking out about how much I want to do for senior concert 2. I keep having ideas that sort of stick with me, but the problem with just "doing them" is that each seems to represent an extra 10-15 hours in the workroom, and I live in there as it is. At the moment I'm thinking about a drumpad consisting of a long mousepad on top of some piezos, where each piezo is linked to an amplifying circuit which is then linked to the triggers of a 4066 quad bilateral switch, causing brief connections between two fucked-up points on this big Radio Shack keyboard I've had since I was ten. I've also made some really good looping cassettes (always fun), and am working on rigging up two nice tape decks I found for loop-dubbing purposes. I also want to work out a synthesizer rig which I can play while I play drums, which involves gutting a broken wah pedal, building a good synth circuit, making the one foot-controlled potentiometer cause as much change in sound as possible, then putting it back together. I also have this whole insane LED thing I really really want to do, plus a more meticulous version of the piece for buzzers, cymbals, and gamelan tapes that I performed at SC1, plus maybe this collaboration with this crazy guy from my E-comp class last semester. All this is still in the early stages, and I have about six weeks until I must must must do another thing. Just had to write all this down before sleep.

Back from break

So winter break was about as eventful as winter breaks can be! I'm feeling a mix of emotions right now, mostly because it's over. Brazil was a truly unique experience. The weather could've been better, but Julia and I did a lot of things that were unique to Brazil, and if such a thing is possible, I feel even closer to her now. The food and coffee were particularly amazing, and I really plan on jumping at the next chance I have to go back to Rio, be it for the 2014 World Cup or something more immediate. We also played lots and lots of Civ III, which neither of us had played previously. At first it was the most goddamn difficult game in the universe, but we improved quite a bit. Unfortunately, now that I've updated my operating system to OS X Lion, I can't play it anymore! Talk about bummers...

After Brazil, we spent a week out in Geneseo while Julia started school. Bumming around while she was gone was kind of strange, but it was worth it just to spend that extra time with her. I was home for a week after that, and I think that made me feel pretty crazy. I just sat around listening to Dio-era Sabbath and surfing Reddit, so I guess in a sense it's nice to be back at school. It's the last semester, and I can truly say it's been interesting, but I don't really feel I can say much else at this juncture. A mix of good and bad things, lots of learning, lots of discomfort, some growing pains, some newfound maturity (I think). It's even weirder because I'm not actually taking any class (just senior project), so while I have a lot to do, it'll pretty much just be me pushing myself, something to which I sort of exposed myself last semester, but this time is more extreme nevertheless. I do have time commitments, like working at that coffee place and doing a few odd jobs around campus for cash, plus I need to get out to Geneseo to see Julia as often as I can. I'm already starting to realize what a strange semester it'll be, both because of my relative lack of things to do and Julia's overabundance of them. My own needs have to take a backseat, but it's hard to actually put that thought into practice sometimes. Nevertheless, I think the whole thing is something truly special, so it just boils down to treating important things like important things.

On a less important note, Ajax's season pretty much ended today (barring a few miracles) with a 4-2 defeat away at Feyenoord. I woke up hung over as shit at 8:30 ready to watch the match, only to realize that it had started at 6:30 and that Ajax had lost. With that, I ran to the toilet, vomited violently, and went back to sleep. I daresay the day has improved since then, but last season, really my first supporting Ajax, was amazing, an unexpected amount of glory culminating in a triumphant final-day victory over Twente. I think Twente will take the Eredivisie and PSV will take the cup, so that's settled; honestly, at this rate, the club may not play in Europe at all next season. I will love the Godenzonen forever either way, so this is only a small setback for a team with some of the best young players in the world. Onwards!