From the desk of ...

I found this pretty interesting (and short) documentary about the desk called Desk





Today was my first day in a while without teaching or grading to do, so I took the opportunity to clean up my room.  For what it's worth, here's a snapshot of my desk (well, one of my desks) in it's current state:

Now to try to do some work on it ...

Lately ...

Someday I'll get back to actually thinking about philosophy ... someday ...

A Naked Baby Photo ...

While I was at my parents house in Michigan this summer I came across a box of old cassettes.  One of the tapes was of the Grosse Pointe North "Senior Concerto Concert" on June 1st, 1995.

In 1995 my older brother was in a band that lacked a drummer but wanted to play in the concert (I assume someone in the band was a senior in high school at the time).  I was twelve at the time, and though I got a drum set for the previous christmas, I hadn't been playing much longer than a few months.  Somehow intense shyness and lack of musical ability didn't stop me from playing with them.

We played an epic eleven minute version of the Allman Brothers' classic "It's Not My Cross To Bear" complete with a kazoo solo and what sounds like a violin (though I have no memory of any violin player).  Anyway, for your listening pleasure, here it is:



Sound quality is not the best, but what do you want from a cassette that's been sitting in a basement for fifteen years ...

Melodramatic But True

'Nuff said.

New Guitar

While I was in Michigan this summer I got a new guitar.  I've had it for a while, but I've only recently been able to start recording with it (and blogging about it).  My previous guitar was a hand-me-down faux-Stratocaster made by Washburn called a "Lyon".  It worked pretty well for me for the last ten years, but lately it has not been doing so well.  In the summer, my dad and I went to our local music store under the pretense of looking at guitar strings.  I was very close to buying a Fender Jazzmaster.  After thinking on it for a few days, we came back and that day the store got in a shipment of Gibson hollow-bodies.  I was reluctant because my dad's Gibson ES-335 is so big, but the ES-339 is the same but with a smaller body.  Once I tried it, I couldn't go back. The fact that it was about as much as my first car was also cause for some deliberation.  Anyway, I bought it and managed to get it back to Providence safely.   Here are some pictures:

So far I really love it - sounds great (sustain!), plays great.  Now to make some time to record with it ... 

For all your upcycled / vintage jewelry needs ...

Alex has been making cool jewelry for a while now, but she finally opened her Etsy Store where you can buy some of it for yourself.  It's way stylish, so check it out!

A hitch in my git-along

I took a short trip to Seattle to see my friend Michael.  While I was there I saw some shows and did some recording at his Empty Sea studio.  While we were taking a short motorcycle trip on Orcas Island, I dropped his 400+ pound Triumph Bonneville on my foot.  The bike was mostly fine (just one bent turn signal and shifter), but it was sad because it was such a beautiful ride and the rest of our day was spent finding a clinic, getting x-rays, and waiting for the ferry back to Seattle.

Anyway, since then I have had a limp.  When I got back to my carrel in the library, I was going through the calendar of folksy sayings that Alex gave me and this one really fit the bill.

You heard it here first, Spirit Airlines is evil ..

I drew this on a Spirit flight from Michigan to Florida.  Spirit has gotten crazy with all their fees; $30 to carry on a bag, $30 to pick your seat, etc.  I thought they might have an ounce of humanity when they gave us free pretzels, but then they came by with the cart offering to sell cokes for $3 apiece and I knew who I was dealing with ... 

SCUBA in FL

I've been in Michigan visiting family for the past two weeks but in the middle of my visit I took a trip with my dad and brother to Florida.  We went to see an old friend of my dad and his son, and the five of us went to the Florida Keys for some scuba diving and michiganians lobster hunting.  

The floridians did all the lobster hunting while the michiganders snorkeled around and watched.  I guess lobsters live in holes and when you hunt you drive around in the boat looking for these holes.  When you find one, you dive down with a tickle stick and use it to flush them out.  Once they come out you grab them with your hands and swim to the surface.  Because of regulations you have to measure them and if it is too small, you have to throw it back.  I can't stand bugs and I consider lobsters to be basically giant bugs so I wasn't too happy to have them crawling all over the boat.  I did manage to pick one up and throw it in a container before it snapped at me too much though ...

We went scuba diving near Sombrero Key Lighthouse.  I'd never been scuba diving before so I had a crash course on the first day.  It took me a while to get used to being under the water.  My ears had a hard time adjusting to the pressure.  Even though we only went down to about 25 feet, my head felt like it was ready to explode and I had a bloody nose when I got to the surface.  I also tried to swim the way I do on the surface which meant that I used my hands too much, flailed about, and used too much of my air.  The second day was much better.  The seas were rougher but the pressure didn't bother me so much and I managed to relax and use less of my air.  Otherwise it was really amazing.  It's like being inside an aquarium; the fish come right up to you and swim right in front of your face!

Anyway, now that I'm back in Providence and need to get back down to work there are sure to be more blog posts ... 

Music recommendations from the universe

Earlier this week I got a package from amazon.co.uk and it had a CD by John Renbourn in it.  I was surprised because I didn't order anything from amazon.co.uk and I never heard of John Renbourn before.  I emailed Amazon and told them what happened and they replied with a nice email saying,

Normally, we would ask that you return the item to Amazon.co.uk. As the cost of returning this item is likely to be prohibitive, please dispose of this item at your own convenience if the item is unusable, otherwise please keep it with our compliments or you may donate it to a local charity.

So I ripped the CD and have listened to some of it and I actually like it a lot so far.  It is instrumental acoustic guitar playing, a little similar to Leo Kottke.  I'm not sure of the odds of getting a CD sent to you by mistake, but it seems unlikely.  It seems even less likely that it would be something that you actually like.  Anyway, was a nice surprise.

UPDATE: Turns out this was a gift!  Still a nice surprise though ...

Nice weather for Naps

Naps truly are one of the great things in life.  Today is overcast, cool, and rainy - perfect napping weather.  I'm so glad I don't have to work in an office at specific times and can nap whenever I feel sleepy ...

More of a rhombus, really ...

I'm going back to Michigan in about a week so I've been trying (and failing, mostly) to get work done before I go.  I've still got a week so things aren't so grim yet.  Plus, it's rainy all day and nothing says work like a rainy day ...

(Alex pointed out that he's a parallelogram, though 'rhombus' is still a funnier word ...)

Yawn #2

Have been very sleepy today.  Maybe tomorrow I will be able to get going?

English-Tibetan Dictionary

A while ago I inherited the English-Tibetan dictionary hosted at zanwat.org.  I finally got around to getting it updated and online; you can find it at http://www.eng-tib.com/ and also at my website.  It has a little over 1600 words but I've been adding to it as I study.  Right now it displays the Tibetan in transliteration, but I hope to get it to display in unicode Tibetan.

Anyway, if you or someone you know studies Tibetan pass the word along and maybe it can become a nice resource for everyone.

Website Update

I finally got around to updating my website; I pruned away some of the garbage, made the site easier to navigate, and added some new stuff.  I haven't gotten the English-Tibetan dictionary working yet, but it will be up soon.  If you have time, take a look (also, let me know if anything is broken!).