Well, after spilling coffee on my laptop (which replaced the one from 2005 which died after having water spilled on it) two days ago, I plugged everything in tonight and it worked like a charm.

Huzzah for hair dryers!

So I'm working on my thesis project,* and I am almost finished with my first week of classes. There may only be two classes with homework,** but the homework is already on me in a big way. Also there's the whole issue of Oral exams. I'm dreading this more than I used to dread Vocal Juries: at least with the juries I was simply unprepared. I knew what I had to prepare, I just fell down on the job. Now I don't know exactly what I need to do, or what's fair game. Needless to say, I'm a little nervous.

*I have to put on a recital, and I'm trying to put together a big project for the whole recital.
**I'm not counting composition as homework in this case. As a composer, I should just be doing this anyway.

At the beginning of the month, I had 3000+ emails in my inbox. There are now two.

I don't know why I set myself this goal, but almost everything in there is labeled somehow, and I've consolidated a bunch of my filters, now that I have a better clue how to do so.

Maybe now I can organize some of the rest of my life?

I can dream . . . .

So, I haven't updated much recently. Let's do the quick and dirty version:

Working on getting the washer/dryer fixed; should be done by this time next week.

Visited Atlanta, Huntsville, Greensboro, and Cary NC: saw wacko1138, photogirl630, wolven, cailement and her boyfriend, stupid_drawings and her boyfriend, my parents and brother, my in-laws, their new puppy, friends from college, my aunt & uncle, my youngest two cousins, grandmother, lost uncle, and every once in a while, my wife.

Taught my parents backgammon, got a notebook full of my grandfather in-law's compositions (which I am slowly putting typesetting), and started work on my thesis project (more on that later, most likely).

In linkage news, read a great post here about going through puberty from a somewhat female perspective and EK has three chapters of her graphic novel up on her site now.

That's all I got, see y'all later.

I slept in today, gloriously so, finally crawling out of bed around 10:30 AM. After much sitting around doing nothing in particular, I went to the nearby Barnes & Noble to do the obligatory holiday shopping, one load of laundry washed and another started.

While there, saw The Dude Abides, Elliott Smith and the Big Nothing, and Bach's complete W-TC conveniently placed next to each other on a shelf.

Came back home, put laundry in to dry, waited too long for supper (but gave the cats theirs early, so they wouldn't complain when I got back home at 1:00 AM), then went to Pennsylvania to sing two Christmas Eve services. A piece of mine was performed, and rather than letting it pass unnoticed, the director put a little blurb about the who I was in the choir, where I'm going to school, and the fact that I wrote the piece. Lots of comments from people afterward telling me how much they liked it.

* shy smile *

Got dinner between services, met a lovely family, many of whom were in the choir: one of the sopranos had two of her kids visit. One daughter is a lesbian, one son is gay, both of their partners were there, and another daughter showed up to an earlier service with her husband and three kids.

Eventually I drove back home to cats who think I still owe them food, and a clothes processor full of water instead of dry clothes. I filled up our four (five? No, probably four) quart cooking pot—twice—in addition to all the water that spilled out when I opened it in the dark thinking that it would be dry.

Having successfully bailed out the clothes processor, I figured I should do an experiment and try to dry something again, to make sure my various finagling hadn't screwed something up earlier. Looking at it now, I can see that it is full of water again. I hope there's a laundromat open somewhere tomorrow, and I think I know what's going to the top of my Post-Christmas list. Guess I'd better go bail out the clothes processor again.

I got to my car today and managed to scrape it off in only twenty minutes! Tried pulling out of the parking spot and realized that even if I managed to get onto the road, I would end up sliding every which-a-way. Texted my choir director to tell him I couldn't even get out of my parking spot and found out that church was canceled.

With this in mind, I came back inside the house, got the yardstick out and proceeded to measure snow depth!

I was sort of right in the text I sent to my choir director: the snow on the parking lot proper was 6 inches deep. Of course, the snow around my car was deeper than that, and I found at least one slightly sheltered field that had an average depth of 10 inches. In fact, I think the average depth around my building was 10 inches.

Yeah, real happy I don't have to leave the house today. I just hope that Annie is safe on her drive home.

Hi Fox executives. I've only caught two episodes of Dollhouse this year (the two that were on tonight), and I found another lovely show by Joss Whedon that you've canceled.

After the hubbub of Firefly, I would expect you to have a little more faith in Mr. Whedon's ability to gain a following.

I ask you to give him two seasons on whatever project you next option from him; I figure by that point, he will have gotten enough of a following to make the venture profitable (which I assume, is the reason some version of Survivor will probably replace it).

Cheers,

DSF

I just got a four-day extension on my last paper due. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this, but I think I'll start by going to bed now, and not working on the paper.

So, if you're on my friends list, there's a good chance that you like graphic novels. There's also a good chance you like web-based content.

The fabulous artist and graphic designer E. K. Weaver is releasing her first graphic novel, The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal ( < Epic )online. The entire first chapter is up now, and pages will update every Tuesday.

If you're interested in knowing more about what goes into the site and comic (like the fact that it has an endpoint, and about half of it's in the can), you can check out the associated LJ account: gallo_de_pelea.

I won't bother comparing her work to anyone else's because I think that's a disservice to everyone involved, but I know one site I'll be checking every Tuesday from here on out.

Lot of school work to do, which I think is causing a persistent tinnitus again.

[EXPLETIVE DELETED]

The worst part is that this bout is completely different than previous ones; it's so high I can't tell if it's a C# or G#. At least three years ago it was a slightly lower (but still very high-pitched) F#.

I apologize if you've heard this one before.

I wrote it about ten (maybe as few as seven) years ago, but it seemed fitting to post it today.

An autumn holly on the first of December

Sunlight glimmering on its glossy leaves

as pitter-patter shadows play upon the window pane.

Now I'm off to work on various and sundry projects for grad school. The way this semester is going, I'm not sure I'm cut out for any further degrees.

Went to work at church and sang well, got to perform Mendelssohn (I'm developing the biggest composer-crush on Mendelssohn). Hung out after church with the organist and chatted a bit, then to school to work on various projects.
Finally, picked up a bottle of wine for a classmate and went to his wife's birthday party. Ate lots of foreign food, had sweet, tasty wine, was toasted and asked to toast, and more than once was serenaded by a chorus of Georgians.

wacko1138 has kindly posted a link to my first "techno" piece on his website.

From there you can either download it or click on the file and listen to it in your web browser.

There are no popups, but it will take a little while to load; it's about 40Mb.

So, in my Electro-acoustic class, I've had to do a couple of self-directed projects: one I meant to mention here, but did not.

Instead, I'm focusing on the one I just finished. There are still a few tweaks I'd like to do, but I don't know if I'll ever get around to them.

It's me writing an electronica piece. I don't know if it's house, trance, or what, but I hope you like it.

Sinewave. It's a download from Mediafire, so I'm sorry for the popups, and I hope you don't have to register beforehand.

I'll do my best to figure out another way of posting it soon.

Tomorrow I get to play with a Theremin!

I apologize to the rest of the world, in advance.

First the frightening.

The Westboro Baptist Church is visiting my current city. They are leading a protest this Wednesday in front of New Brunswick High School from 7:30 AM - 8:00 AM, and the Rutgers Hillel Center from 8:45 - 9:15 AM.

I might beg off school that day to join in the counter protest. Not sure yet. Hopefully, they'll decide it's too cold or they've attracted too much of the wrong kind of attention and will stay home.

The full schedule is found on their website, but other locations included are: the Anti-Defamation League of New Jersey in West Orange, Elizabeth High School, Hoboken City Hall, United Synagogue of
Hoboken, Meadowlands Expo Center in Secaucus, Jewish Community Center in Paramus, United Jewish Appeal Federation of Northern New Jersey in Paramus, the New Jersey Jewish Standard in Teaneck, and Dickinson High School in Jersey City.

As a potential antidote to the distastefulness above, you can vote (or if you don't want to vote, just look at who's running) for The Cutest Dog.

The winner receives $1 Million dollars, and I'm backing Commissioner James Gordon Hastings, because 1) he's cute, and 2) I like Dr. McNinja, his owner's webcomic.

Not to let that influence you though . . . .

You guys remember that chili recipe I made a couple of weeks ago?

I made it again, added a couple of star anise, and threw it in the crock pot. The last batch burned on the bottom, and I didn't want to pay attention to the latest one, so I figured the crock pot would be a good idea.

While it was a good idea, and made a decent batch of chili, it wasn't as good as the previous batch. Sure enough burning the bottom and scraping off the burned bits when you stir it is the secret to the amazing first batch I made.

Figured that out today by taking the thing and put it in the stockpot. Anything above a low flame was enough to burn it. No idea why it has such a low burning point, but there you have it.

Now onto work.

This week I hit a wall of blah.

I could barely think, and due to self-imposed sleep dep, I was falling asleep all day on Thursday. Mind you, this is the same day that I drive to Pennsylvania for my church job. The rain didn't help matters any.

On the other hand, Autumn is upon New Jersey, and we have lovely fall colors. Driving to school isn't necessarily horrendous when you have a captivating backdrop for it.

I've been pretty jazzed about the two big projects I'm working on composing, one which I've had permissions for the sole author, and the latter which includes a piece written by Wendell Berry (just got permissions). This piece also includes a "poem" which I finally have all of the verses of and is in the public domain. Now the only texts I need to get are the ones I haven't finished writing yet. Be very afraid: I'm writing rhyming, metered poetry. This usually doesn't end well.

Now to see if I can get any more done on my song cycle before I get started on the day's shenanigans.

A brilliant recipe tonight, even if I did make it myself.

East meets West Chili

    Ingredients:

1x can cooking spray

1x small onion chopped (alternately, 1/2 cup chopped frozen onions)

2-4x cloves garlic minced

3 tbsp red wine

1x 1 lb., 13 oz. can of tomatoes

1x 14.5 oz. can of tomatoes

1x 1 lb., 13 oz. can of black beans, drained and rinsed

1x 1 lb., 13 oz. can of dark kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1x 16 oz. bag of shelled edamame

1 cup sliced baby portabello mushrooms

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1-1/2 tbsp light soy sauce

2 tbsp peeled and grated fresh ginger

2 dried, whole ancho chiles, ground

2-4 dried, whole small red chiles, ground

1 tbsp whole szechuan peppers, ground

1 tbsp whole coriander seeds, ground

1-1/2 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tbsp ground cumin

1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tbsp ground allspice

1/3 tbsp ground black pepper

salt to taste

    Optional ingredients

grated sharp cheddar cheese for garnish

1 small apple, sliced

fat-free greek yogurt

    Directions:

Spray pan lightly with cooking oil, sautée onions and garlic until toasty and tender.

While this is going on, take all your peppers, and whole spices, put them in your spice grinder and give everything a whirl. You can hum if you like.

If you've already done all the other prep work, just deglaze the pan with the wine, let the alcohol burn off for a couple seconds, throw all the other ingredients in and let simmer for 30-90 minutes. The longer the better, obviously.

I made this tonight, and the cheddar made it completely badass. I mean, it was tasty before, but damn, that made it heavenly.

Try it some time.

Oh, and an interesting idea: hold the anchos by the stem, cut them up with kitchen shears directly into the spice grinder, and use the kitchen shears (or better yet, chopsticks or tongs) to put the small chiles into the spice grinder at the same time.