alienistcog

A list of goals, resolutions, and predictions:

• I will return to an early riser schedule, and use morning quiet time to work on personal projects


• I will resume a daily walk habit in spring, and extend it into a daily run.


• I will continue to improve my eating habits and discipline.


• I will lose an additional 20 to 30 pounds, and be at or very near my ideal weight by years' end.


• I will start and maintain a professional, technical blog of some kind.


• I will start a dream / vision journal, as a source for creative ideas.


• I will finish organizing my studio / office space, removing extraneous clutter and unused gear.


• I will learn at least one new programming language or major technology I have not yet used.


• I will become more involved in family finances and budgeting. *


• I will be a more social person, and keep in better touch with friends and family. *


• I will produce ten creative projects: ukuphambana tracks or creative work of equal magnitude. **

* These need to be further quantified and converted into specific actions or projects.
** By contrast, there were seven of these in 2009: five uku tracks, the NZN remix, and the ZTI performance.

I will continue:

• Organizing with hipster PDA


• Timeboxing


• 30 day habit-change experiments


• Regular reading of new books

I will experiment with:

• Affirmations: written and spoken


• Self-hypnosis and motivational recordings


• Creating a personal wiki

New ukuphambana track in the myspace player:
http://www.myspace.com/ukuphambana2

Happy twenty-aught-nine terminus, everyone. Have a good rest of the decade.

Over the past few years I've mostly re-read stuff I already have on my shelves. In 2009, I decided to start reading new books again, stuff I haven't read before. Here's a list. I put in some Amazon links because, hey, why not? It's the web, that's what you do with it.

But actually, I borrowed most of these from the library:

Mastery: the keys to success and long-term fulfillment, George Leonard.
Learned optimism, Martin Seligman.
The creative habit: learn it and use it for life, Twyla Tharp.
Extraordinary minds, Howard Gardner.
Feel the fear and do it anyway, Susan Jeffers.
Flow: the psychology of optimal experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
Getting things done: the art of stress-free productivity, David Allen.
Time power, Brian Tracy.
This is your brain on music: the science of a human obsession, Daniel J. Levitin.
Wabi-sabi for artists, designers, poets & philosophers, Leonard Koren.
In the land of invented languages, Arika Okrent.
Kluge: the haphazard construction of the human mind, Gary Marcus.
The language instinct, Steven Pinker.
Musicophilia: tales of music and the brain, Oliver Sacks.
The omnivore's dilemma: a natural history of four meals, Michael Pollan.
Predictably irrational: the hidden forces that shape our decisions, Dan Ariely.
The science of fear, Daniel Gardner.
Creative visualization, Shakti Gawain

These are some books I actually bought, mainly because they weren't available through my local library consortium:

Javascript: the good parts, Doug Crockford.
Pragmatic thinking and learning, Andy Hunt.

I borrowed these from a friend. There's another one on my shelf I have yet to attack. Great anthology series, wonderful way to catch up on what's going on in science fiction, particularly if, like me, you've been out of it for the last fifteen years:

The Year's Best Science Fiction, 21st Annual Collection, ed. Gardner Dozois
The Year's Best Science Fiction, 24th Annual Collection, ed. Gardner Dozois
The Year's Best Science Fiction, 25th Annual Collection, ed. Gardner Dozois

For what it's worth, I'm not looking for bragging rights. But looking at the assembled list makes me happy. I know people who don't read at all, and the idea of that is sort of foreign to me. I've been hyperlexic since childhood; I find reading about as difficult as breathing. I'm good at reading, I enjoy reading, and I get a lot out of it. Given that, it's a mystery to me why it's taken so long to get (back) into this habit. But I feel really good about having done so, and intend to keep it up next year.

Time for another minor skirmish in the ongoing struggle against complacency and homeostasis. Yes, I'm doing another 30 day experiment. This time I want to tackle my eating habits. Specifically, I aim to accomplish two major changes:

1. I would like to eat more mindfully;
2. I would like to eat less food, but of higher quality.

This is something like a diet, but note that I am explicitly not making weight loss a goal here. I may use weight loss as a rough metric of progress simply because it's easy to measure and report, but it's incidental; I will very likely lose some weight, but that's a basically side effect, not the point of the exercise.

So, down to nuts and bolts. What am I actually committing to for the next thirty days?

1. Controlled meal portions

Food portioning is a tricky thing to get right, and I know if I make things too complicated on myself it'll be easy to backslide and/or cheat. So to keep it easy, I'm just going to say that I would like something between a quarter and a third of my plate to be left empty at dinnertime. Once I've doled out my portion, that's it for the meal; no seconds allowed. Roughly the same idea applies to other meals, though I'm going to give myself a bit more latitude at breakfast, when I'm likely to be hungriest.

2. No desserts

Realistically, I'd be happy if after the 30 days are up, I have shifted my attitude enough so that I can easily decline dessert when it is offered and it's not something really extraordinary. My goal is that dessert is a rare and exceptional event, something that I partake in only when it's really worth it, not an regular, habitual consumption of empty calories.

One way of thinking of this is that even though I don't expect never to eat dessert again -- as opposed to the way, say, I gave up drinking coffee permanently -- I do want to shift my attitude to the point that I wouldn't mind too much if I never did. After all, I've experienced the sensation of eating ice cream many times in this life, but there are a lot of things I've never done. If I never ate ice cream again, would that be so bad? Especially if that meant I was in shape enough to live better and longer, and experience other positive things as a result? At the end of it all, will I be laying on my deathbed, wishing that I had only eaten just a little more ice cream? No, likely not. This is the perspective I'm trying to foster.

3. Limited snacks

Regarding snacks, I'm somewhat on the fence. I actually find that I function better when I have a small snack at certain designated times just about at the midpoint between meals: 10AM and 3PMish. Probably equalizes my blood sugar or something, I'm not sure. So the more important thing here is to be disciplined about limiting the size of the snack, and sticking to higher quality snacks.

My initial rough guidelines are: fruit or vegetables are okay. Processed snacks are out: no chips, crackers, or cookies. Candy and chocolate are completely out. Continuous snacking is out. One apple, a small bowl of grapes, or a single cup of yogurt is about right. The size of the snack is to be allocated ahead of eating and seconds are not an option.

4. Embrace hunger

That sounds weird, and bears some explanation.

First and very importantly, I'm not out to starve myself or do anything rash, just adjust the way I listen to my body. I expect to be hungry from time to time as I acclimate to some of the above changes. The important bit is to stay mindful of the difference between feeling real bodily hunger, versus an impulse to eat for some other reason.

I want to actually feel hungry before eating, so I know that I'm eating food for the right reason, to satisfy a real need. I also want to acclimate myself to the idea that postponing the initial urge to eat a little bit is not a dangerous or harmful thing. Put plainly: hunger is not the same thing as pain, and feeling mild hunger a few times a day is normal and healthy, not something to fear or avoid!

Obviously, I know this intellectually, but I need to habituate myself to recognize the truth of it instinctively as well. To bellyfeel it, as it were. (Heh.)

5. Slower, more deliberate eating

I expect this to be the trickiest part. I will do my best to eat sitting down, slowly and deliberately, chewing every bite and tasting every morsel, perhaps saying a brief secular version of Grace before every meal. With two small boys and a busy schedule, this is not always going to happen, and I'm prepared for the reality of that. But I will aim in that direction and see how far I can take it.

So, this is my new challenge. Wish me luck! Any advice on the specifics is very welcome; I'm not a dietitian and I've never done this before, so there may well be some angles to this that I'm missing.

In the interests of simplifying life, uncluttering my studio, and possibly making a small amount of cash, I'm going to be selling a few things off. I'll post them here before they go out to Craig's List, eBay, and the like.

First up: my G4 laptop. I bought this second hand when my first son was born -- so, about four years ago now! -- and used it to write tracks on the T during my then two-hour commute. Basically, it allowed me to actually keep making music during a particularly hectic time of my life. It's spent nearly all of its time with me a smoke-free studio environment, though I gigged with it twice, gently. I've barely used it in the past year or so since I bought my Intel MacBook, though. So it's time to move on.

Specs:

800MHz PowerPC G4 processor
30GB ultra ATA hard drive
640MB DDR SDRAM
Combo drive (DVD-ROM / CD-RW)
10/100BASE-T Ethernet
Airport Wifi

Running OS X 10.3 Panther and bundled software. It has power supply, original box, discs and packaging. Battery was replaced about two years ago and holds a charge for over an hour, possibly several more. (I'm just going by how long it's been sitting here next to me.)

Since there are only something like five people reading this journal, obviously feel free to pass this on. This is an old machine, but it's been well cared, works 100% and is even in good shape aesthetically. I've seen similar machines listed on Craig's List and eBay for $200-250, but honestly I'm not sure what's reasonable. I'm actually more interested in sending it off to good home and clearing some space, than in getting a pile of cash for it.

Latest ukuphambana track is finished and up on myspace:
http://myspace.com/ukuphambana2

Share and enjoy!

Rules for music-making, inspired by the exercise tips found here:

1. Always make music on a Monday.
2. Never skip more than three days in a row.
3. Give yourself credit for the smallest effort.
4. Remind yourself of the benefits.
5. Make convenience a priority.

There is some elaboration on each of these points (and others which I am not adopting in this context) in the original article which, as I read it, struck me as a great list of tips for maintaining any sort of regular practice. I love making music, but I'm also a natural procrastinator, so keeping something in the pipeline at all times is a challenge, especially when there are so many other claims on my time and attention. And I've found it's particularly hard to get going again after I've been away from it for a while.

But life is short and my music is the most important thing in my life except for my family. And I think if I can manage to follow these rules, I'll have a good shot at producing more and better tracks this year than ever before. It's a short worth taking.

Looks like I need another index card. Heh.

New ukuphambana track in the player.  Enjoy:
http://www.myspace.com/ukuphambana2

Two new ukuphambana tracks on myspace:

http://myspace.com/ukuphambana2

I started a new profile so I can leave the "regular" one as is, while cycling out new work on this one, as I finish things. Hoping I make enough progress on new tracks this year that this actually becomes a necessity, rather than wishful thinking.

Anyway, go check them out if you're so inclined, and thanks for listening.

Oh, and for anyone who's interested but didn't bother to read my whole rambling coffee thing, I am now on Twitter, which is where I post the day to day stuff. I suppose I'll still post here when I've got the time and inclination to write a paragraph or more, but that's increasingly rare nowadays. The blurb-length stuff will be here:

http://twitter.com/alienistcog

This is a question for all you techno music weirdo geeks (like me).

What plugins are good? I'm on an Intel Mac, and I'm mostly broke, so bang for the buck is critical. No hoity-toity $500 boutique reverbs for me. Meat and potatoes! (Though weird radioactive potatoes are fine, there. Weird is good.)

I just discovered that Crystal, which is awesome and free, has an Intel native version now, which it did not at the time I first got my Intel Mac, which made me sad. So I will be dorking around with that again soon.

I've also lusted after Pluggo for a while now, and that still looks like it may be next on the list, in some bright far-off future when I have non-zero discretionary spending again.

But what is good that I don't know about? I'm plugin-curious, and Renoise and Live are hungry!

A new compilation featuring a diverse group of experimental / electronic / industrial artists from the Massachusetts area, courtesy of Connexion Bizarre and Voidstar Productions:

YOU ARE HERE: A COMPILATION OF MASSACHUSETTS ELECTRONICS (vol.1)

01. The Lothars - Hooray For Dane
02. Skittish Voluptuous - Ivy
03. Vermin - We Are
04. The Boston Typewriter Orchestra - Cornelius (live)
05. Nau-Zee-auN - Rock is Dead (album edit)
06. Orgy of Noise - Zonular Fibers
07. Negativetime - Information Overload
08. Provocateur - Writhe
09. Massdirge - untitled
10. Neptune - 15

Volume 2, featuring the Ukuphambana track "Age of Reason," will be released on October 30th.

download it here

New ukuphambana track in the myspace player, for the first time in quite a few months.

This has been a ridiculously long time in the making, written in bits and pieces, during dozens of stolen chunks of time. Which leaves it with a slightly schizophrenic feel, to my ears. But in a good way. There were times during the writing of this that I seriously wondered if I would ever manage to finish it, but I'm pretty happy with the result.

It's got metal-on-metal percussion, bleepy acid bits, Xhosa, and even an accordion solo. So, a track for all seasons...yet 100% uku style, guaranteed.

Go give your ears a treat and check it out! Comments would be lovely and appreciated.

So, a while back this band friended me, and that was cool, because I dug their music -- tuneful sort of soundscape things with a tape music style, though that really doesn't do it justice...it's very good.

So, I wrote them a nice comment and later bought their album as a download, via this neat kind of pay-what-you-want feature. Neat idea, right? Long tail, new economy, digital tip jar. Whatever. I think I sent them $10, because I thought it was worth it, and it was still less than I'd pay for a regular CD.

So this morning, I trekked to the post office to check for mail. Haven't checked the post office box for a few weeks. And it seems that this band's record label had mailed me...a 160GB hard drive?!

...which makes no sense, really. This isn't some old crappy drive, it's fairly new, still on the market, and worth several times my volunteer $10 payment. What the hell is going on here? Is this a shipping error, or maybe some kind of viral marketing thing? No idea. I haven't been able to check out what's on it yet, because it's an internal and I don't have a functioning computer tower right now, just laptops.

So now I bring this story to you all. Because if it is a marketing thing, for once I don't mind being targeted. Anyone who goes this far out of their way to make my life a little bit weirder gets all the free press from me they want.

Oh, and the label's site is fun, too. Sort of a cross between Boards of Canada and Pine Tree State Mind Control, if that makes any sense.

One more quickie link, because I ran across it accidentally while compiling the links for the last post's "respect list": Delia Derbyshire brings the live mix. "That's in synchronization..." Damn straight!

And now a brief, unlocked, non-autobiographical post to give a shout to another rediscovered musical influence, Ben Burtt, whose name I just stumbled across, never having known it before. For those not inclined to bother watching the video: Burtt was the man responsible for sound design on the original Star Wars trilogy, and was moreover personally responsible for many of the most iconic sounds therein. Truly a master, and a man who literally redefined what sound design could be.

So, he's up on my myspace influences list now, along with Joe Raposo, Hiroshi Miyagawa, Howard Scott Warshaw, and Delia Derbyshire.

Before techno, before industrial, before avant guard and world music and the cornucopia of possibilities they're fed now, my ears had you! Love and respect, one and all.

So, I am now sitting in my cool, comfortable, dehumidified basement office / studio space. This is good, though the cost of buying a new dehumidifier hurt. Waiting for crap to finish checking out of SVN, decide to check my gmail, what do I see?

A response from one of the after-market suppliers of replacement parts for our old dehumidifier. The one which still works, right? And is sitting in our garage with a damaged bucket and no other serious problems? The one I gave up on, because I had convinced myself that no one carried parts for it.

Dammit!

I don't want to throw $30 worth of good money after bad repairing something I no longer need, but I also hate the idea of curbing a perfectly good appliance for so stupid a reason.

I could return the new one, buy the bucket, and set the old one up again. But, that would be a dodgy move, since there's nothing wrong with it that merits the return -- plus it's a local business who have always done right by us. Plus, the new one is rather nice, will probably live longer, and -- well, it's sitting next to me actually working.

So now my sense of practicality, my hatred of waste, my hatred of clutter, and my inner cheapskate are all screaming inside my head trying to gain control. Ideal case would be to give our old dehumidifier to someone who needs it, along with a link to the source for the replacement bucket.

Anyone want a slightly used but functional dehumidifier, sans bucket? I know where you can get a replacement!

Well, there's this: apparently John McCain's response to the SCOTUS decision affirming the principle of habeus for Guantanamo prisoners was to call it "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country." Apparently the baseline legal principle that people are innocent until proven guilty is a bit too radical for his straight-talking maverick ass.

This is obviously why the Washington Post op-ed page just ran a post calling him out on the sheer stupidity of this comment, by noted American-hating liberal George Will...er, what?

Actually, this is not all that surprising. Will is one of those conservatives whose opinion I value. I disagree with him on a lot, but he's intelligent and thoughtful, and his writing often gives me food for thought. So, yeah: Will is one of those guys with whom I can respectfully disagree, not the average partisan hack.

So that article: worth a read. Interesting too, that the Cato Institute filed an amicus in support of the detainees' right to trial -- I hadn't known that. Speaks volumes about how fundamental an issue this is; it really should cut across party affiliation and political orientation.

So, I wonder if the single-issue voters who oppose Obama due to his insufficient respect for the Second Amendment will give any weight to this evidence that McCain is a greater threat to the Constitution? Me, I can understand and concerns over the right to bear arms, even though I'm not a gun owner myself. But personally, I value my right not to be detained indefinitely without trial more.

I get to feel good about the future of my country, for a while. Yay!