music revival, day 14

the replacements - all for nothing and nothing for all

all for nothing

1. "Left of the Dial"
2. "Kiss Me on the Bus"
3. "Bastards of Young"
4. "Here Comes a Regular"
5. "Skyway"
6. "Alex Chilton"
7. "The Ledge"
8. "Can't Hardly Wait"
9. "I'll Be You"
10. "Achin' to Be"
11. "Talent Show"
12. "Anywhere's Better Than Here"
13. "Merry Go Round"
14. "Sadly Beautiful"
15. "Nobody"
16. "Someone Take the Wheel"

• favorite tracks: left of the dial, bastards of young, alex chilton, achin to be, anywhere's better than here
  
• comments: this dual album was given to me by a fellow dj at WRHO, dr. mike woost. he was the only professor i had for anthropology, and i took 2 of his classes and loved both of them. i digress. at some point he got involved in radio and either i had a show before or after him and i was playing the goo goo dolls and he said something to the effect that it reminded him of the replacements. i replied with, "who are the replacements?" next time we saw each other he had this 2 disc set in hand. i now wonder if i was supposed to give it back to him. i never asked. and i haven't seen him for years.
  
  this album took a bit of getting used to. it has a definite indie feel, not polished, not finished, not popular with anyone, including radio stations. the first 2 times through the disc i was not sure about it. by the third time i started to like it, and was taken back to all those people that didn't like 'popular' music, but liked other stuff i just couldn't get into. maybe i can, after all.
  
  'kiss me on the bus' reminded me of a high school band trip where it was late and we were all coming home on a school bus and some people were playing truth or dare. i tried to stay out of it but someone was dared to kiss me. i can't remember if we did or didn't, but i remember feeling weird about it. we got along OK though he was younger than me. *shrug* 'skyway' definitely had to be written about minneapolis, because there was just so much ringing true to it. then i looked and these guys are from there, so it makes perfect sense.
  

music revival, days 12-13

neil finn and friends - 7 worlds collide

1. anytime
2. take a walk
3. the climber
4. loose tongue
5. down on the corner
6. there is a light that never goes out
7. paper doll
8. turn and run
9. angels heap
10. edible flowers
11. stuff and nonsense
12. i see red
13. she will have her way
14. weather with you
15. paradise (wherever you are)
    
16. don't dream it's over

• favorite tracks: anytime, the climber, down on the corner, turn and run, stuff and nonsense, she will have her way, weather with you, don't dream it's over
  
• comments: 'take a walk' had a familiar voice singing, wasn't quite sure, but when i heard 'stuff and nonsense' i was certain - eddie vedder! had no idea he participated in this project. 'there is a light...' was certainly familiar, but upon listening closer it was a little bit morbid. and yet it's still kind of stuck in my head. 'turn and run' reminded me of hanging out with kevin f. in CA. 'i see red' was a HUGE change in pace on this album; a rock and roll song stuck in with a bunch of more melodic tunes...good but seemed a little out of place. 'don't dream it's over' - i had no idea this was by crowded house/neil finn. a little musical education for me!
  

switchfoot - the beautiful letdown

• favorite tracks: meant to live, this is your life, dare you to move, the beautiful letdown, gone, adding to the noise
  
• comments: i have been hesitant to listen to this one for awhile, because after reviewing the liner notes i realized a lot of the songs on this album are about God, jesus, etc. and i thought, "oh no, a christian rock band! how could i have picked this?" of course, the concept of christian rock bands had been lost on me until someone in CA pointed out that a song i liked talked about God or something, and i started thinking. but i am not sure these guys are a purely christian rock band. i am certain i heard meant to live on an alternative rock station, and for some reason i'm envisioning hearing it in iowa, but that might not be right, since it was released in 2003. must have heard it on the radio driving somewhere. anyway, after all my hesitations to listen to this album, turns out, it's really great. not too heavy, not too light. it was perfect for long day thursday / short day monday listening.
  

music revival, days 10-11

driving up and back to portland and a little time spent at work...

collective soul - collective soul

• favorite tracks: almost the whole album
  
• comments: i got this in the wake of their hints, allegations, and things left unsaid album; actually, i never got that one, i had just heard a few songs off it and liked them so figured i'd give this one a shot. a great driving cd, i listened to it often while driving back and forth to iowa in the summer of 2000. and for many other long distance driving adventures.
  

dave matthews band - crash

• favorite tracks: so much to say, too much, say goodbye, lie in our graves, tripping billies, proudest monkey
  
• comments: this album has more sexual allusions than many albums i know or like. this is not my favorite of dmb's albums, but it does have some fun tracks on it. i love the concept of being the 'proudest monkey'.
  

coldplay - a rush of blood to the head

• favorite tracks: whole album
  
• comments: i bought this album either before or at the same time as parachutes because several people in the rizzo lab were into it. once i got it, i was hooked. i often can't guess the names of the tracks from the lyrics, but i love these guys.
  

man vs. shed, roommates and the internet

a few things from last week:

a few weeks ago, my roommates and i spoke about getting firewood for the winter (since we don't turn on the heat to save money, we just use the wood stove while we're home).

scratch that.

*I* brought up that we should start looking for firewood. maybe look on craigslist. maybe look around for something cheap. maybe look for something free, though not crappy wood. everyone agreed and cheered, "yay! free firewood!"

a few weeks went by. i looked on craigslist and found a few places giving away free firewood. some even very close to home. i emailed the guys, since i knew i'd be working late and they're great about checking their email, and said, "hey, can someone go check this out?" no one did.

after a couple weeks, i realized i was going to have to spearhead this effort if we were going to get wood. so i got on craigslist and started really looking for free firewood. emailed several people. got in touch with one. we arranged a pickup. this was on a tuesday. my roommates were conveniently not home that night when i left. i went over there with my station wagon and filled the backseat and trunk, about 1.5 layers thick - some doug fir and maybe hemlock. not much, but hey, it was free.

on the drive home, i HAPPENED to see a sign that said "free firewood!" just down the street from our house. i couldn't believe it! so close! i pulled over and picked though it. this time it was a rotten birch that someone had cut down, probably last year and just had sitting there. it was quite dry and in the proper size logs. some were very light; i left those. the trouble with this location was that the wood was located on the side of the house where the street is a steep hill with a stop sign. no place to pull over. so i had to walk each armful of logs back to my car, around the yard. by now it was dark so it might have looked a little weird with a woman walking around carrying logs from someone's house and putting them into her car. i probably took 5 armloads of semi-rotten wood and then drove home.

jason was home when i got back, and he happily helped me unload it into the backyard.

the next day i heard back from a guy who was selling around a cord of firewood for $90. cherry. been cut and seasoning all summer. probably the best we were going to get, and most of it was split. after talking with the man, i realized it was going to be a do-it-yourself operation, as he wasn't going to be able to help me. this night, again, no one was home when i went to go get the wood.

i drove over, assessed the pile, and started loading. i filled my car, to the brim, backseat all the way to the trunk, floor to ceiling, full of wood. i got home. the roommates were now home, and were glad to help out with the unloading of wood, though dinnertime was approaching and they were getting ready to eat dinner (where was my dinner?). this time, 3 of the 4 of them helped, with one not wanting to get dirty or something, i guess.

i asked if anyone wanted to come help me load up with a second load. "we're about to eat dinner," they replied, so i dutifully went back and loaded my car, again, filled to the brim. i got back, and again 3 people came out and helped me unload. we even used a wheelbarrow and zach led us in a rousing round of "the wonders of mechanical invention" or something like that. by then i'd spent 3 hours loading and unloading and driving back and forth, and working all day. i was pretty tired. but as a group, we did share the first/only pepper the garden produced this year, after all the wood was unloaded.

the next day was thursday, and i decided i better go and get the rest of the wood. thankfully, my boss brought in his pickup so i could use that instead of my car. what i didn't know was that the pickup had a topper on it, so i couldn't just go load crazy, but i was bound by the constraints of the topper. went home to see if anyone wanted to help. people were surfing the internet / playing on their computers / watching youtube / making dinner / hanging out with each other, and that apparently made them *too* busy to help me out (are we detecting a pattern?)

i went back, and loaded the truck filled as full as i could. some of the pieces are extremely heavy, it turned out, so i had to have some strategy as to how to get them into the truck. the thing of it was, this wood was in a big pile, but it wasn't a place i could put the truck easily. so i had to sort the wood into smaller pieces, toss those over to the tailgate, then toss them into the truck, then crawl into the truck to stack them all neatly and as tightly as possible. this was a big procedure. i knew i couldn't just casually toss the bigger pieces, so i rolled them end over end, over to the truck, and ended up putting them in last in order to save my back.

i took the first load, got the 2 guys to help me unload, then of course, dinner was ready, so i left and reloaded and was able to perfectly fit all the rest of the wood into the second load (insuring i wouldn't have to go back again)(i was VERY proud of my packing/conceptualizing skills in this moment). for though this wood was in town, it was almost as far away as it could be, since i live in the northwest and it was in the southeast, and there is NO good or direct way to get there. i don't drive around town on a regular basis, so by now i was pretty tired of driving. this set took me 3.5 hours, and still i had not eaten dinner. the guys helped me unload the second load, and we called it a day. i had kind of hoped to cover up the wood in case it rained, but it was all sprawled out and unruly so i kind of covered it with the tarps from the loading. luckily it did keep the wood covered and it did rain. sigh.

one thing that bothers me about my current living situation is the fact that i live with 2 guys, who both have their girlfriends living in the house with us right now. it's not permanent; one girl just got a place this week after having moved into town from colorado a couple weeks ago, the other girl has been around all summer after returning from the peace corps in africa and will be leaving to go to grad school in a couple of weeks. the issue is, with all the other girls around to draw their attention, my roommates are useless. it's like i don't exist in the house at all. like a ghost just around to be spooky and translucent.

before the internet, jason or girls arrived, zach and i would actually talk after work. he'd shoot hoops in the living room and we'd debrief each other about our day's work and experiences. it was like having a real friend in the house. i enjoyed getting to know zach and learn a little about what his experience was like as a first year teacher.

jason moved in sometime in may, and he made it known that "because he was going to be a student, he was going to need internet at the house." this didn't make a ton of sense to me, since he could do internet stuff at school, but zach decided he didn't want to go to the library for internet anymore, so they got it installed. i stayed out of it. i like my home time to be my own, where i can do home things and not be distracted by the vacuum that is the computer / internet world. i don't think they get that quite yet.

right after that, serena moved back from africa, and now she and zach were hanging out all the time. which, i probably would too if my boyfriend had been in africa for 2 years. i started working really wacky crazy hours at work, and/or was away because of dance camps and visiting my parents, so this didn't bother me too much. others vacationed or went off to do field work, and it was like a real summer vacation.

then, about 3-4 weeks ago, claire moved here from colorado. she is perhaps one of the sweetest people i've ever met in my life. she's just so nice. i'm pretty sure at the same time, zach and serena had some people come over as well. it was a VERY full house for a little while there, and people actually had to use the shower with the curtain that attacks you. of course, they didn't put down a bathmat, nor did they take my towel off the curtain rod while showering, so i woke to find that my towel was soaked and there was water all over the floor of my bathroom. thanks, visitors!

anyway, since all these people were around, i thought for sure at some point i'd have some people to talk to after long days at work by myself. but no. they are busy either talking with each other or, get this, surfing the internet individually on their own laptops, while sitting in the same room. there are 4 people and 4 laptops going sometimes in the living room/dining room area. it's nuts. you don't even need to converse with people anymore. as long as you have the internet.

back to my original point about firewood. one thing the guys said to me very clearly and with a lot of excitement was that they LOVED splitting firewood and were very eager to do so for the exercise effect.

on tuesday of last week, about 5 days after the firewood unloading bonanza, not one piece of firewood had been split.

scratch that.

jason had split the rotten birch logs into pieces. none of the NEW CHERRY firewood had been split. i wanted it split so it could fit in the stove and also so it could dry out. i also wanted to stack it in the shed so that it could stay dry. winter is coming and i'm not blind to that fact. i think they are.

i realized i had to take matters into my own hands. on wednesday, i took the day off work and after i finished at the soup kitchen, i went home, did several loads of laundry, got my firewooding clothes on, and went outside to attempt to make some sense of the wood pile.

first thing was to get the dry wood that was in there, out, so that it could be burned first while the other stuff dried out more thoroughly. (jon made a good point later that maybe i should mix it up, have some old and some new mixed in so that if we needed it, we'd have some later. what a smart man.) i tossed all of last year's stuff out. started sorting through the pile of new stuff, seeing what was manageable and what was too big. tossed the reasonably sized stuff to the woodshed, bigger stuff was set up around the yard for ease of splitting. i figured if it was sitting there looking at them, they'd be more likely to split it, vs in a big pile which looks way too daunting. then i started stacking.

after about an hour, jason got home / came outside and said, "what's going on out here?" i said, "well, i'm setting up logs that are too big so they can get split. or else, we can have a big pow wow." because it kind of looked like camp with a bunch of logs all around in a horseshoe shape. he seemed genuinely interested in helping out, so he got the wedge and sledgehammer and started splitting. it was fun to have 2 of us out there doing the work, vs just me. he lasted about an hour or less at this task, then went back inside to hang out with the girlfriend. maybe i would have done the same thing. but maybe my boyfriend would have come out to help with the firewood.

i continued tossing and sorting and stacking until it got dark. i went through the pile in the front yard and got it all piled up into pieces that need splitting and covered it with a tarp. i even put on my headlamp. i even smashed my face into the side of the roof of the shed, at which point i decided it was time to quit for the day. i had about 2 rows of wood under the shed, and i'd put some plastic along the back to keep rain water from getting in there since it's open. i was very proud of my efforts. i definitely feel a huge sense of accomplishment after moving wood around and getting it arranged like i want it. there's still more to do, but i had done what i could in the free time that i had. the internet can wait for winter in my opinion, when there's nothing left to do and we can sit around inside. in a way, it feels a little like that story about the grasshopper who just frolicked about and was having a grand old time in the summer, while the ants were busily storing food for the winter. my grasshoppers won't even realize what a service i've done them when it's cold and rainy and we have dry wood to keep us warm.

i went in to ice my face.

music revival, day 9

familiar felt right today. i wasn't visiting albums for the first time, but rather, i had a small collection of cds i'd put together for jon to listen to at some point. some were best for driving, some were picked because i knew he'd like them, some were oldies, some were new, some were just favorites for nostalgic reasons. here's what i ended up listening to today:

carbon leaf - indian summer

• favorite tracks: what about everything?, life less ordinary, grey sky eyes, one prairie outpost, let your troubles roll by
• comments: this album was recommended to me by frank, from my days back in california. it's just a great album for leisurely driving, with both ballady type stuff and more pop/indie rock sounds. i just love it.
  

counting crows - this desert life

• favorite tracks: hanging around, mrs potters lullaby, st robinson and his cadillac dream
  
• comments: this is an album from the end of college. i remember justin from the radio station was way into counting crows, and i remembered enjoying 'mr jones', and hearing 'a long december', but knew not much else about them. it was this album that caught my attention - most likely we got a promo at the station and i was a converted counting crows fan, right then and there.
  

dave matthews band - under the table and dreaming

• favorite tracks: best of what's around, what would you say, satellite, typical situation, dancing nancies, ants marching, jimi thing, warehouse
  
• comments: this album is a classic. it was one of the first 3 cds i ever bought in my life, and i'm SO glad that i did (others were blues traveler four and sheryl crow tuesday night music club). it's upbeat, it's catchy, he doesn't do too much of that angry/scary voice that turns me off of some of the band's other tracks...overall, one i could listen to any day and it would make the day better, instantly.
  

collective soul - dosage

• favorite tracks: tremble for my beloved, no more no less, dandy life, generate
  
• comments: almost all of the tracks on here are favorites of one sort or another. i went to see collective soul the year after my senior year of college, while i was still living in oneonta. kevin and i roadtripped to rochester with james h., and i'm pretty sure i must have slept the whole way home because i have no recollection of staying there overnight. anyway, the band was promoting this album at the time, and i can still see ed roland, front and center stage, moving his head back and forth in a rhythmic way to 'generate'. awesome.
  

creedence clearwater revival - chronicle

• favorite tracks: proud mary, bad moon rising, down on the corner, fortunate son, traveling band, looking out my back door, who'll stop the rain?, heard it through the grapevine
  
• comments: oldies / classic rock. i love it.
  

coldplay - parachutes

• favorite tracks: the whole album
  
• comments: i didn't know this album actually existed until their second album a rush of blood to the head came out and became wildly successful. i had heard the song 'yellow' before, but didn't know that it came from them, or from what album. once i went shopping for the second one, which happened to be while in was in california (among people who were listening to it often at work), i just bought this one at the same time. a wise decision! :)
  

first in, last out

last weekend was labor day. a long weekend. just what i needed.

jon and i attended northwest passage dance camp, held near mt hood. the weather was just about perfect for camping, and the music and dancing were very high level and quite fun. and at the same time, it was a very different crowd than what i'm used to at contra camp. of course, this one had a very distinct mix of contra and english country dance, which was definitely part of the reason for the difference. i enjoyed spending time with the people, but it was by no means thrilling or really life changing unlike other camps where i've gone and felt like i never wanted to leave because i was having so much fun. though, i was given a dress to wear by someone who makes/alters dresses and, well, the dress was a hit. people were impressed and said things like, "wow" and "you look adorable" and "you really do look fantastic". so, a little confidence boost for me, despite the fact that i was unsure if i actually breathed the whole night, as the seams on the dress were rigid and somewhat tight. at one point i said, "how did people ever wear corsets?!"

on my way home tuesday morning - well, i say home, but i really mean on my way back to work - i was listening to the radio (since both my books on cd were a little too heavy for light, leisurely morning listening) and one of the first songs that came on was dave matthews band "satellite". i knew then that i was going to have a good music day, if nothing else. and i did (you can read about it in this post.)

but what this post is really about is being the first in and last out of work.

(for reference, the terms "first in, last out" and "last in, first out" come from labels my dad puts on the boxes christmas decorations. we keep them in the attic, which is long and narrow, and you can't get to all the boxes at once. they go into storage in a straight line. some boxes of decorations are for the house, which can go up before ones for the tree, and the last box out is the stockings since we only use them for christmas day. that's the one for which this post is named.)

at least 2 days a week, i get to work around 8am. since it's summer, there are very few people that are at work at that hour, and forget about students. the bike parking rack is nearly empty, and the same 7 bikes that are there every night when i leave are still there in the morning. i suspect 6 of them are abandoned due to the spiderwebs accumulating on them. i digress. i get to work and there's no one here, not even cars in the parking lot.

i go about my business of setting up my experiment for the day. some days it's getting the samples out of the oven to cool, getting ice for the coolers, cutting parafilm strips, cleaning out the hood, getting the nitration solution and samples from the downstairs lab and bringing them upstairs. sometimes it's getting the samples out of the dessicator and adding acetone. then the procedure begins. and then i have to wait for 4 hours while the reaction happens. or else i have to vortex the samples in 45 minute intervals until it's time to centrifuge them.

in this time i go about other tasks, like washing dishes and getting filters and things ready for the afternoon. i fill flasks with rinse water, separate filter papers, other lab type chores. sometimes i see some people, and sometimes i walk in the stairwell where i can see that there are a lot more cars in the parking lot by 10am. i then eat lunch, usually between 12-1. then, after 1pm, make a run to chem stores to pick up ~20lb of dry ice and bring it back to the lab. or, once the samples are done centrifuging, i bring them to the hood and allow them to evaporate, which takes about an hour. and then i get to do the most fun part of my job which is precipitate the samples, which sometimes works better than others.

by 130 i'm filtering samples. some are very, very slow. the hours creep by. i've done one filtration on 16 samples and it's taken between 3-4 hours.

on precipitation days, some samples do not need filtering. these are great samples and i praise them highly. thank you chemistry gods that made the reaction work so well. the ones that do need filtering usually take anywhere from 1-2 hours EACH to filter. this process is HIGHLY boring, and in the end, not very satisfying.

by now it's 5pm and i take a little walk around the building. it's so quiet. i look out into the parking lot. not many cars out there, but it's not empty. many people have already gone home for dinner. second filtration sometimes goes a little faster, and then it's 730-8pm.

i stop at some point and have some dinner. i think about things like how i wish i could make time to go to the gym on these days. or how some people are home right now. as i walk back to the lab, i look outside again and realize that everyone has gone home, leave a few straggling grad students who are on the computers in the lab or someone who stayed home with the kids and came in late to work on a few things.

my last filtration usually goes the fastest, and sometimes i'm done by 930 or 10. of course, it's usually later because i have to take breaks between each filtration set because my back is usually very sore. i have to stretch, sit down, or just get off my feet. so the first set goes from 130-430, take a break till 530, next set goes till 830, take a break till 9, next set goes till 1030 or 11, then i scrape the samples into tubes and put the tubes into the dessicator with the dry ice.

usually during my down time, if i'm not stretching or doing dishes, i do some email, catch up with people, do my alumni emails or other dance p.r. things, and usually have a snack. i knew things were getting dire when i went to my emergency food bag yesterday and found that it was down to 1 handful of roasted salted almonds, 2 handfuls of dried cranberries, 3 packets of instant oatmeal, and 1 can of amy's low sodium chunky tomato bisque soup. i mean, it's not the end of the world, but it certainly isn't anything i find to be 'thrilling'.

many nights i don't leave until 12am. sometimes later. and when i go back out to the bike rack, i see that the parking lot is empty, except for the state vehicles that are there all the time. and i realize all the bikes from this morning are still there. no one has come to claim them. i tell them, "good night" and head for home.

music revival, day 8

as the week winds down, i've got another long day of lab work ahead of me, so i figured i'd listen to some tunes to get back into my music revival.


queen - classic queen

• favorite known tracks: bohemian rhapsody, under pressure
  
• surprise favorite unknown tracks: a kind of magic, hammer to fall, stone cold crazy, radio ga ga, slightly mad, i want it all, tie your mother down, the miracle, one vision
• comments: i found this one while putting some other cds away, and realized i'd never listened to the cd; just put it away without a second thought. i knew i liked bohemian rhapsody, and even though EVERYONE always says, "under pressure! that's by david bowie!" they would be surprised to find out that the MUSIC is by queen and it was queen's first joint venture in music with alternate artists. i was quite surprised by how much i disliked this album the first 2 times i listened to it, but by the third/fourth/fifth time, i found myself quite enjoying it. the first 2 times i thought it was too hard rock, too ballady, and too wimpy and thin sounding. however, today i had quite a different outlook on the album (the first 2 times through were on tuesday afternoon after already being kind of tired from a long day that just kept getting longer). 'hammer to fall' i'm sure relates to the cold war and the soviet union, 'stone cold crazy' is apparently done by other heavy metal artists and is, in my opinion, better during the times when there are lyrics. 'radio ga ga' reminds me a bit of dire straits, 'money for nothing' though i don't know why. 'slightly mad' brought up memories of dr. demento 'they're coming to take me away'. certainly the most poignant song for me of the album is 'i want it all' - it hits home so much for me the current generation - 'i want it all, and i want it NOW!' i'm pretty sure that's what they were getting at, though maybe it has been like that for all time. and 'tie your mother down' reminds me of billy joel's 'only the good die young' - come on out and hang out with us already! it'll be fun! and, at the end, the track 'who wants to live forever?' has a sequence in it that reminds me of led zeppelin's 'live and let die' if that's even the name of that tune, which it probably isn't. i heard the phrase, and kept waiting for the finish, but, well, this was queen's song...

i was very impressed with this album, even with it's greatest hits type status, and in the shadow of it's predecessor killer queen hogging the spotlight with the big hits, it still delivered. thursday was delightful with this album in my lab coat. :)

musical interlude / musical respite

this week i took a little vacation from listening to music at work. probably because i had such a rotten day of music with steve's 2008 pop vol. 2 and kelly clarkson's my december. i'd reserved several books on cd at the library and had the opportunity to listen to one while driving to portland last weekend. i was so entertained and excited about this book; if it had been in hard copy, it would have been one of those books you stay up all night reading because it's so good.

the sex lives of cannibals by j. maarten troost is a story about a guy who feels sort of lost in the world, until his girlfriend gets a job on a small island in the south pacific and they move there. their lives are turned upside down, though, they did not move there with such grandiose notions of modern living. and they were open to the experience and adventure. and got just that. the book wasn't really about sex lives, or about cannibals - i suspect the author just used that to get your attention; the book was recommended to me, i didn't even pick it out myself - but about their experiences on this tiny, tiny remote island. what they ate, who they met, the music (la macarena was the main song being played over and over and over, and loudly), the heat, the sweltering heat, the drought and lack of fresh water, the bugs, the people, the culture, the ocean, and most of all, poop. i suppose if he'd named the book something about poop, no one would have wanted to read it.

his style of writing is the kind that i like to read. i would gladly read another. i hope to!

music revival, day 7

not a super great music day. luckily i'm feeling really good otherwise, so it doesn't really matter! my experiment has been working miraculously, so music is definitely second to my happiness today...


steve's 2008 pop! volume 2

florence and the machine - dog days are over
fleet foxes - ragged wood
the moondoggies - changing
be your own pet - zombie graveyard party
bon iver - skinny love
audrey - big ships
ida maria - i like you so much better when you're naked
m83 - kim and jessie
los campesinos! - you! me! dancing!
catfish haven - set in stone
fleet foxes - blue ridge mountains
blitzen trapper - black river killer
white hinterland - dreaming of the plum trees
benji hughes - why do these parties always end the same way?
icy demons - crittin down to babas
black exotics - theme of blackbyrds
the dodos - jodi
health//disco - triceratops (acid girls remix A)

• favorite tracks: possibly none.
  
• comments: this was another of my boss steve's favorite mixes from 2008. it might just be that i listened to this one third in the sequence of 3 new albums of totally new music and was starting to get a little burnt out. i didn't have the patience to get through it more than once. this one just didn't do it for me. see reviews of the previous 2 albums.
  

kelly clarkson - my december

• favorite tracks: possibly none
  
• comments: what happened to the american idol with the amazing voice? her thankful album made us all thankful she had won. with tracks like, 'the trouble with love is', 'miss independent', 'low', 'beautiful disaster', 'a moment like this', as well as her other soulful songs, she proved herself worth, in my eyes, as the american idol we'd all been waiting for (the rest, since, have been much of a letdown in my opinion - save, daughtry, who didn't even win). even the breakaway album had some merit to it, with 'breakaway', 'since u been gone', 'behind these hazel eyes', and 'because of you'. the my december album lets us know, she's pissed for losing love, but still longing for it in such a strong way, she loses her artistic talent and just falls...falls...falls...so far that there's nothing left really except a whiny, boring album. bring back the old kelly.
• further comments: i've read a little bit about why kelly wrote such a dark album. i'm sure her life was difficult and everything was tearing her down. i can respect that. perhaps i'm not in a place right now where i feel so torn down. perhaps i'm just not in the right mood to listen and really "get" what she's doing/saying with this album. i, however, didn't feel like it was her best work, especially voice wise. and i'm allowed to have my opinion.
  

the excitement of everyday life

yesterday i took a well deserved day off. i'd been working myself too much lately, and thought it would be refreshing to take a day and just do whatever i wanted.

slept in and woke up late. yes!

invited claire to come to the soup kitchen with me. she said yes!

had a great time at the soup kitchen. was told i looked gorgeous! and smelled good! only had to break up one small fight. sometimes men are so obnoxious. i wish they would learn to hold their tongue! that's what my mom and dad taught me. it's not worth it to get in the last word. they wouldn't stop even when a cute girl asked them to just drop it. sigh.

i spent some time with my cd collection. it'd been a year or so since i updated my music list, and i thought i was finding cds that weren't where they belonged, and others seemed to be missing from the list.

while doing that project, i found *3* cds that had been put into other cases for travel purposes, i'm sure...but those 3 cds had been lost for 9 months and i was SUPER EXCITED to have them back! i had actually started to worry that i'd lost/left them somewhere. hooray!

later in the evening, i got a call from someone who had some firewood to sell. cherry, split, and big pieces, about a cord. did i want it? absolutely! made 2 runs in my car, well into the night, and the roommates helped me unload it into the yard. warmth in the winter, i can't wait! well, yes, i can wait. i want to wait. i'm not ready to build fires yet, but i look forward to being ready with dry wood! during the unloading, zach sang us a rousing rendition of "the wonders of mechanical invention" since we were using a wheelbarrow.

[this was my second night of firewooding - the previous night i made a run to someone's house where i got some rounds of fir and some bigger pieces, and then i happened upon a house that had a sign out front that said 'free firewood' so i got some. it was kind of rotten birch, but some of the pieces were solid. score! i feel like a midnight firewood raider, however...]

after all the unloading was complete, we went inside, at which point zach realized we were all in the house together at one time, and he decided it was time for us to share the ONE lone pepper that had been growing in the garden. it was pretty feeble; small and leathery. but it was red and we were determined to share it since we all helped with it's growth and development. for a little red pepper, i found it to be quite tasty, even though we each only got a sliver.

to top off my wonderful day, i decided to sleep outside under the stars. a few things i learned from this:

1. lights on in the house can really light up the deck
2. chocolate before bed is a bad idea
3. every noise makes you think something big is coming for you
4. not using a tent makes a person feel very vulnerable!
5. the stars at night are amazing, along with the cool breeze, lack of biting bugs, and crickets chirping. thank you oregon!
   
6. the full moon is very bright!
   

i didn't sleep very soundly, but i did dream, and the last few hours of my sleep were very restful. i'd probably do it again, while i still can.

happy thursday!

music revival, day 6

steve's day of mixes
my boss steve gave me some mixes of some of his favorite tunes from 2008. he gave them to me in 2009, january. it's taken awhile, but i was finally ready to dig in and see what he had in store for me.

2008 dance! mix
sam sparro - black and gold
estelle (feat k west) vs the ting tings - shut up american boy
cut copy - lights and music
chromeo - fancy footwork
snowden - black eyes
cut copy - hearts on fire
crystal castles - courtship dating
dizzee rascal (feat calvin harris) - dance wiv me
lil mama - lip gloss
treasure fingers - cross the dancefloor
flo rida vs hot chip - hold on to that low
chromeo - tenderoni
thunderheist - jerk it
crime mob vs the dodos - stilletos in the park
le castle vania - tigertron
chromeo - bonafied lovin
dizzee rascal - flex

• favorite tracks: black and gold, *shut up american boy, lights and music, hearts on fire, *dance wiv me, lip gloss, jerk it, flex
  
• comments: this album had me grooving and shaking through tuesday! yeah! and, i learned about a couple of tunes that i'd heard before but knew nothing about. until now!
  

2008 pop! volume 1
hacienda - she's got a hold on me
vetiver - see you tonight
dept of eagles - no one does it like you
chad van gaalen - willow tree
tv on the radio - golden age
port o'brien - i woke up today
tapes n' tapes - hang them all
vivian girls - where do you run to
florence and the machine - kiss with a fist
peasant - the wind
delta spirit - trashcan song
benji hughes - i went with some friends to see the flaming lips
the felice brothers - frankie's gun
the walkmen - in the new year
of montreal - for our elegant caste
jim noir - ships and clouds
hercules and love affair - blind
jensen sportag - power sergio
ida maria - oh my god

• favorite tracks: she's got a hold on me, see you tonight, i woke up today, blind
  
• comments: my listening to this album was a big fragmented, but there were many tracks that made the listening very pleasurable. great to get through tues/thurs.
  

music revival, day 5

[ok so i listened to aaron's mix again 2x this morning, because it was just so fitting. and i counted it as friday, because i started it friday. anyway.]

dave matthews band - stand up

• favorite tracks: dreamgirl, stand up, american baby,
  
• comments: dave matthews first full length album came out in 1994. i went to college shortly thereafter, and realized just how big and great this band was. would they last or be a one hit wonder? under the table and dreaming was a masterpiece for those of us in college in the mid 90's. a moving, wonderful album that made us groove and chill out all at the same time. next came crash which had it's own set of hits. after that was before these crowded streets and we all thought, "wow, these guys have got the stuff to keep on going!" and then, everyday came out and knocked us all backwards. how long could dmb keep producing amazing albums? even busted stuff had some worth. but this, their 6th studio album, shows that the band is running out of new stuff. i was not impressed.

new radicals - maybe you've been brainwashed too

• favorite tracks: mother we just can't get enough, you get what you give, someday we'll know
  
• comments: got this album from my radio station giveaway box. the hit "you get what you give" is catchy, and was popular at the time and i thought, why not? turns out, the album isn't worth much. probably i got what i gave for this one. which was nothing.
  

music revival, day 4

new music friday!

a dancing friend of mine from the east coast made me a mix of music. i got it sometime around christmas, and have yet to spend any time listening to it. it was just a cd, blank, no writing, and no glitz or glitter to draw me in. i decided the way to get motivated about listening to it would be to figure out what tracks are on it, and maybe to give it a name. though it is still yet unnamed, here are the tracks:

music from aaron
1. josh ritter – monster ballads
2. sun kil moon – ocean breathes salty
3. beck – lost cause
4. contra dance tune
5. neko case – star witness
6. belle and sebastian – dog on wheels
7. the books – it never changes to stop
8. interpol – leif erikson
9. the dresden dolls – the jeep song
10. cliff edwards – that’s my weakness now
11. interesting dreamy techno tune
12. david sedaris – lesson 4: with a pal like this, you don’t need an enemy
13. modest mouse – people as places as people
14. throwing muses – backroad

a few of them are completely instrumental and i haven't figure out a way to search for tunes online other than by lyrics.

various artists - music from aaron, christmas 2009

• favorite tracks: monster ballads, contra tune, star witness, that's my weakness now, dreamy techno tune, people as places as people
• comments: this is the first completely indie album i've listened to [another friend gave me an album with guster, sarah harmer, and jonatha brooke, but i'd heard of all the artists]. in this case, i'd heard music by beck and modest mouse before, and heard david sedaris read before. i'd heard OF interpol and throwing muses, but never heard their music. so this was a real, TRULY new music friday.
• more comments: this is a PERFECT album for a monday morning. none of the songs are loud, thrashy, squealing, or annoying in any way. thanks aaron!
  

music revival, day 3

second round of cd listening. a shorter day, due to less familiarity with the albums. and a marginally successful day at work. aside from one sample taking 4 hours to filter through. sigh.

kenny wayne shepherd band - trouble is

• favorite tracks: blue on black, everything is broken, nothing to do with love, chase the rainbow
• comments: i got this album solely for blue on black, not knowing much about the artist or any of his work. he's a great guitar rocker, and sometimes i can get into it, and sometimes the crazy high-pitched reeling/screeching guitar work really bothers my ears.

david digiuseppe - welcome to heaven...

• favorite tracks: flying home to shelley, shenandoah falls
• comments: this is a contra dance type disc, with other styles of music tossed in for good measure. excellent listening for when you don't have time to worry about the words. feel good music, played by a professional accordionist, who i had the pleasure of meeting and showing around oregon last february before our dance camp weekend.
  

rigorous vs vigorous

i've often wondered what the difference is between these 2 words. now it is time to know the answer, once and for all.

rigorous

Pronunciation: \ˈri-g(ə-)rəs\

Function: adjective

Date: 15th century

1 : manifesting, exercising, or favoring rigor : very strict
2 a : marked by extremes of temperature or climate b : harsh, severe
3 : scrupulously accurate : precise

synonyms see rigid

— rig·or·ous·ly adverb
— rig·or·ous·ness noun

vigorous

Pronunciation: \ˈvi-g(ə-)rəs\

Function: adjective

Etymology: Middle English vigorous, vigrous, from Anglo-French, from vigour

Date: 14th century

1 : possessing vigor : full of physical or mental strength or active force : strong
2 : done with vigor : carried out forcefully and energetically

— vig·or·ous·ly adverb
— vig·or·ous·ness noun

synonyms vigorous, energetic, strenuous, lusty, nervous mean having or showing great vitality and force. vigorous further implies showing no signs of depletion or diminishing of freshness or robustness vigorous as a youth half his age. energetic suggests a capacity for intense activity energetic campaigner. strenuous suggests a preference for coping with the arduous or the challenging strenuous life on an oil rig. lusty implies exuberant energy and capacity for enjoyment lusty appetite for life. nervous suggests especially the forcibleness and sustained effectiveness resulting from mental vigor nervous energy.

music revival, day 1-2

since i spend hours and hours and hours at work lately, and the radio is just about as good as used toilet paper, i decided it's time to dig out the cds that either:

a. i bought awhile back at garage sales
b. my dad bought for me when he was a member of columbia house
or
c. i borrowed from my dad within the past several years.

i haven't listened to these and picked them out, ostensibly, because i thought i would like them for one reason or another, i decided to do my usual tactic of listening to each one 2-3 times through (depending on my attention level, what else i'm doing, and my tolerance/like/dislike for the album) and then assimilating it into my (borg) collective.

so, here's where i may start my daily/weekly cd reports.

suzanne vega - retrospective

• favorite tracks: pretty much the whole album, in retrospect.
• comments: i never knew much about suzanne vega, but i'm glad i got this album. she's pleasing to the ear.

stone temple pilots - purple

• favorite tracks: vasoline, interstate love song, still remains, pretty penny, big empty, unglued
• comments: i remember when this album came out, i was in washington dc, summer of 1994 with a group of young republicans (hey, what did i know?). anyway we were staying in a dorm (trinity college, maybe) and some of the people i befriended had this and we listened to it. i couldn't remember all the tracks, but vasoline was the big hit at the time. since i didn't have any bad memories of it, i figured i should get it since it was now part of my musical formation and heritage. grunge rock. yeaaaaah.

prince - the hits 2

• favorite tracks: most of the tunes are either enjoyable memories from my past, or newfound grooves to bop along to
• comments: prince is a lot more sexual than i'm interested in listening to most of the time, but when i look past that, the music/beat is quite good. pretty sure that the hits 1 was a more complete album of his hits, though. and some of the tunes on this one, i had never heard of before. songs like 'raspberry beret', 'little red corvette', 'i would die 4 u', 'kiss', and 'purple rain' made the album memorably worth it. new tunes to me that were gems included 'controversy', 'delirious', 'dirty mind', and 'if i was your girlfriend'.

the who - tommy

• favorite tracks: overture, 1921, pinball wizard
• comments: didn't know much about this album going into it, other than it was the rock opera about tommy, the pinball wizard. i spent a good amount of time pouring over the liner notes for this one, trying to learn more about tommy and the who and the opera itself. after listening and reading and following along, i appreciate the album for what it is, though, there aren't a lot of stand out tracks. the whole thing comes together to tell the story of tommy, which has only a fraction to do with pinball.

jason mraz - mr. a-z

• favorite tracks: wordplay, geek in the pink
• comments: let's face it, it was his sophomore slump. i hoped to be wowed like i was with his first album. that did not happen. there are few tracks that reflect his previous work.

old post...

i found this in my drafts. i love it. not sure why i never posted it.

paul ingrassia: "the japanese just missed that trend entirely. they just couldn't figure out that people would actually buy burly 4 wheel drive vehicles and never take them off road. it just wasn't logical."

jon stewart: "it's what we do. we have things we don't use. to have them."

life can be so...routine - part 1

routine is something i have a very hard time with.

it's something i aspire to.

and yet, i don't actually want to have one.

i've thought maybe having a routine would be good. it could keep me on track with going to exercise, going to dances, eating meals, getting up on time, remembering to do things.

at the same time, there are so many factors that play into each day, that it's hard to keep the schedule going without having to adjust it all the time.

maybe my routine IS just very random. one day it's steady, the next day it's chaos.

when i lived in MN, i had a good routine. wake up, put clothes on heater, eat breakfast, put warm clothes on, go out into the below zero temperature and wait for the bus. same time, every day (except when i moved, but it was similar, just a different bus and location).

maybe routine suggests that a person who has a routine job, where one must be there at a given time and leave at a certain time. maybe because i have a wacky flexible schedule, i am not subject to the confines of routine. yeah, maybe that's it.

i don't like rules, anyway.

night biking deserves a quiet night

i've done a fair amount of cycling in the past few years. living in a town where biking is welcoming and friendly and they give you your own lane, it's hard to justify not biking. of course, it is not always the fastest way to get around town, depending on your fitness, but you can get almost anywhere in a reasonable time (i.e. less than an hour). unless you're going up some steep hill, like on the way to one of the nature areas. or to visit friends who live near aforementioned nature areas.

where i used to live, it was a straight shot to downtown. probably a mile, maybe 10-15 minutes. fun to do during the day. but at night, coming home from a friend's house, say...well it was just darned lovely. there were many nights, summer or winter, where the still of the night air was so right, it didn't matter that i had to go a few miles to get home.

and now, i live in a new place, which requires a more uphill battle. i love going downhill to work. in fact, if work were uphill, i might never go. i sometimes don't go home because i dread the hill. it is a workout, both physical and cardio.

but this week, i did it 3 days in a row, which is a record for me. and each night it was raining. and each night i thought, "ugh, it's raining." but i put on my rain gear and went about my business.

now my bike has some issues with changing to the lowest gear. or any gear, really. but especially the low gears. i've tried coasting and changing gears, and it just doesn't seem to engage. which makes me think something is wrong with the derailleur. or something. i know very little about bikes (and don't want to be lectured).

but i do know that i need to be in the lowest gear before i make the climb. and i know that if i just take my time, i can make it up at least half way before i have to stop and shake out my legs. i'm getting less and less shortness of breath from the workout, but my legs are still working harder than the pain i can bear.

anyway, i try to think about anything besides biking while i'm biking up that hill. slow and steady (my turtle instinct), i try to put things like breathing and pain out of my mind, and just wonder about this and that, christmas lights on houses, branches hanging over the street, traffic in either direction, sticks in the road, people driving by too fast, why i wiggle around so much when i'm climbing (as evidenced by my wiggling bike light)...

but the ride is nice. the time out from the day. taking in the weather and the neighborhood and the road itself. thinking about what i've done today and what i'll do tomorrow. (wishing i had a way to record my thoughts while biking since i can't use my hands.)

when i get to the top of the hill, i always do an arm raise and pump, celebrating that YES, i survived it again. and when i get home, and have a sweet little downhill before i park, i think WOO HOO! i'm so glad to be home.

and i guess i sort of forget about the pain (but not really), because i go back out again the next day. the bike riding is driven by the not wanting to deal with the hassle of parking for free, not wanting to pay for parking, and trying to 'save the environment' as much as i can. it's not much, but it's more than some people do.

and i'm proud of that.

that's the brakes

yesterday was wednesday. i had lots to do and i thought, "you know what, i deserve to drive today after dilligently biking for the past 2 days in the rain." i had errands to run and places to be and wanted to get to work early and thought that driving would be the best option.

that is, until, i started to go downhill and realized that my brakes didn't work. holy crap, that was a scary situation! i'd never experienced pressing the brake pedal all the way to the floor, and with no response. i guess the brakes worked barely enough to slow me down, since i hadn't really accelerated and was just coasting. but still, going downhill, around a corner, and toward a busy street...thankfully the car stopped appropriately before i got to the even bigger hill i needed to go down to get to work.

i sat at the stop sign thinking, "what do i do? i can't make it down this hill to get to work, i won't stop and i'll crash and that will be awful." i decided to wait until traffic was clear, pull a u-turn into the busy street (that wasn't busy at 7am) and then go back home (uphill) and sit and figure out what to do next.

i needed at least 30 minutes of thinking, sitting, calming down, and a few phone calls to decide to call AAA and get towed somewhere. but where? i don't know any place to get my car fixed in town. i haven't had to do that. and i hadn't ever asked anyone where they got their's fixed. and now it was WAY too early to be calling people to ask that. so i put my trust in AAA and let them figure out where i should go. they went with the company that was going to tow my car anyway, and i figured that was the best bet i had.

i sat in the car for 45 minutes. now, i hadn't gotten much sleep the previous 2 nights (average of 4 hours). so i'm waaaaaaaaaaay tired and sitting in my car and trying not to fall asleep before the tow truck arrives. hardest 45 minutes of my life, of recent. i now know that i can survive one night of complete sleep deprivation, but the second night makes the third day really, really bad. nothing like adrenaline though, to wake me up, at least momentarily.

got towed, got a ride to work, and on both of those truck rides i got asked eerie questions from the drivers. now it may have been just random chit chat. but it seemed directed. both of them asked questions or made comments about women being alone or working at a job like a tow truck drivers...i don't know it's hard to explain. but one of them we started off talking about my job, which led to global warming debate (he doesn't believe it), which led to my job again, which led to me being tired and working late hours, which led to him saying something about me being unattached, which led to me saying i didn't have kids, which made him ask the question if i was married, which made me answer that i had a boyfriend, and then he got on the topic of protecting women and women being careful and did i carry protection when i went home at night by myself...

reflecting back on it, i couldn't tell if he was just chatting because he cared about my safety, generally, as a woman who could be attacked, or if he was feeling for details because he could be an attacker. i couldn't work it out in my mind. i was just not sure. so then i was all worried about going home at night.

the rest of the day went well enough. got to work, got things started, went to the soup kitchen where i got called "little lady", and was told i looked like a qp doll, or better yet, one of the characters from south park. wasn't sure how to take that. we had breakfast for lunch and i made sure to get a few slices of bacon. soooooooo good. also there were sugar cookies to take home. i ate a few with some milk. soooooo good. my bad day was shaping up alright.

the rest of the day went fine. the mechanics at the place were out that day, so they wouldn't be looking at my car until the next day anyway. i survived the afternoon of work. i didn't fall asleep. the experiment must go on.

i did not go to the gym, however. my calf muscles are KILLING me. they are extremely sore and tight. those triple calf raises are the worst! i thought after the first round a week ago that i would have healed up from the pain. but oh no! it's back. tomorrow i will get out the rolling pin and roll the knots out of my legs. this morning when i got out of bed i almost fell over from the tightness. ouch. more stretching to come.

things to do in 2010

this is a pretty extensive list, sent to me by my mother. i'm not sure how one person can aspire to do all these things every day, but maybe it's nice just to have something to try to do each day, instead of trying to do all of it, every day.

Health:

1. Drink plenty of water.
2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a beggar.
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
4. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy
5. Make time to pray.
6. Play more games
7. Read more books than you did in 2009.
8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day
9. Sleep for 7 hours.
10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk daily. And while you walk, smile.

Personality:
11. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
12. Don't have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
13. Don't over do. Keep your limits.
14. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
15. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip.
16. Dream more while you are awake
17. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need..
18. Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner with His/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don't hate others.
20. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
21. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
22. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
23. Smile and laugh more.
24. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

Society:
25. Call your family often.
26. Each day give something good to others.
27. Forgive everyone for everything.
28. Spend time w/ people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.
29. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
30. What other people think of you is none of your business.
31. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

Life:
32. Do the right thing!
33. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
34. GOD heals everything.
35. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
36. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
37. The best is yet to come..
38. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it.
39. Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy.

winter training, day 8

gym report:
20 min cardio / elliptical
3x10 @ 150lb leg press
3x10 @ 70lb leg curl
3x10 @ 90lb leg extension
3x10x3 - body weight: straight toe raise / toes in / toes out
3x10 @ 45lb squats
3x10 upright abs
10 min abs and stretching

weight: 164.8
stomper: she's baaaaaaaaaaaack!

notes: lots of people working out today. is it their new year's resolution? hard to find a cardio machine available. might have to start bringing music if sara isn't going to come with me. today i watched an episode of friends (which is neat because i never watched it when it was on but i understand the gist of the story) and some espn football weekend in review show. some amazing plays! i think the nfl has forgotten to teach the defensive players how to tackle properly. and these guys get paid the big bucks to do just that!

new year's resolve

today i was reading an opinion article about how people make new year's resolutions, and how they break them almost as fast as they make them. the writer went into some history of why this is done in the first place, and furthermore to say, hey, if you break your resolution, just revisit it quarterly and see if you're still interested in continuing on with it. but his conclusion was that most people would make and break them and make new ones next year.

well, i'll have him know i was devoted to my last year's resolution, which was to skip dessert after dinner. it's a fact that i did eat ice cream once or twice, and ate a few cookies and a few pieces of chocolate. but for the most part, i kicked butt and took names! and lost 10 lbs to boot, but not sure if that came from the dessert, the working out, the break up, stress at work...who knows.

this year i'm going to try something new. since i don't care much about dessert anyway, i'll probably at least try a piece of pie if someone offers it to me. but i don't need a whole slice, or a whole bowl of ice cream, or any of the other lavish desserts people sometimes have. though i wouldn't mind if someone made apple crisp next fall...

my new year's resolution this year is to drink 2 liters of water a day, and to go for a 20 minute walk every day. a health related note is that i'm going to try to avoid eating / drinking sodium benzoate this year. unfortunately, my favorite szechuan spicy sauce has this ingredient, as does dr. pepper. i had already bought some dr pepper before i decided to do this, so i'm thinking i'll bring it to parties and leave it there...though i don't go to many parties...or else i'll just drink it. worse than having a resolution is wasting food. wasting food is wasting money and i'm just not into that.

so far so good. i knew i wouldn't be able to start drinking 2L of water every day from day 1. i allowed myself to gradually work into it.

day 1 - 1/2 L
day 2 - 1/2 L
day 3 - 3/4 L
day 4 - 1 L

and here we are on day 5.

as for the walking, day 1 and 2 i spent 3 hours dancing each night. and day 3, i admit, i was lazy and didn't do anything. day 4 i took a 20 minute walk to and from my mailbox, and plan to do the same today. i'm also hoping to get to the gym today. but i don't want the gym to substitute for getting out into the fresh air. i'm hoping to get to know my neighborhood better, and maybe learn something more about campus too. however at this time, work is so nutty that i don't see myself going on any early morning walks just for the fun of it. since i'm trying to get to work between 6-7am every day...yeah...not getting up earlier than that. and when i don't get home till midnight-1am...yeah...not happening. but it will. i'm confident. and i'm devoted.

it's all so...political

sitting at lunch today, surrounded by college students and faculty alike, i realize that i no longer discuss politics with my friends. the thought was triggered by a christmas letter i got, talking about how obama had gotten elected president. for all i knew, most or all of my friends and family were FOR obama getting elected. but this person seemed to indicate that it was not the way they'd hoped it would all work out. not sure who they thought would have done a better job, but that's besides the point.

i learned, while in minnesota, that one particular friend and i could just NOT talk politics. it got him really heated and stirred up, and there was no calming him down afterwards. so, just avoid the topic and everyone stays happy for happy hour.

most things i politics i don't understand. it's better that way. i don't like to debate and i don't like to think about how people in power can make decisions over my head. in fact, i try to keep politics out of my daily life altogether. except, sometimes they just happen in there.

of late, i've been reading the political cartoons with jon. sometimes i have no idea what they mean and i have to ask for an explanation. sometimes we can figure it out. sometimes, we're left with numerous possibilities about what the cartoonist really meant. i like this form of reading and learning about politics. no one is going to war over a cartoon.

i also don't like that politics, on the whole, end up being influenced by others with power and money. i will give you a lot of money so that you support the causes that will make me more money. you get elected, i get rich, you get rich, aren't we all happy? i'm cynical enough, now, at this point, to know that everyone out there has an agenda, and it's usually to make themselves more money or give themselves more power. and lobbyists? forget it.

more locally, however, there are also politics involved in almost everything that we do. committees, for example, are a great example of where you can't just say what you want. you have to think about how to get what you want, and say it in the kindest and possibly most manipulative way you can. i don't like this. unfortunately, everyone is different and not everyone responds to, "do this now, for me, ok?" it all has to be tiptoed around, and treated gingerly.

i'm both the villain and the victim in these situations. sometimes i would really like some help, or sometimes i'm trying to collect news from classmates. the only way, it seems, is to reach out to these people personally. or else i simply don't get what i want. on the flip side, when i have a good idea, and i try to get what i want, the situation can be reversed, because i'm not in a position of power. i think my idea is great, and why don't others like it? who knows. maybe they don't want to put effort into it, or maybe they don't want things to change too much. or maybe they're exerting THEIR power over me.

my mom gave me good advice. first year on a committee - don't rock the boat too much. just do whatever needs to be done. in coming years, you can try to change things up. but don't force it down their throats. it doesn't do any good and it makes everyone mad at you.

here here, mom.

long day ahead

other titles for this post could have included:

devotion
is routine so bad?
night biking
new year's resolve
3 x 3 = what a way to end 2009!

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i'm tired. it's only 840am and i can feel myself unable to overcome the day's sleep deprivation already. this week i'm back to my crazy experiment that needs near-constant supervision, as to not catch fire or stop working. so, yesterday i got a late start after chasing around some equipment that is now considered "stolen" (i didn't get my hands on it). the experiment got running around 3pm. i ran it until 12am. 9 hours is not bad for one day. except i needed to run it for about 12 hours yesterday. so now, in my quest to run the experiment for 30 hours over 2 days...well let's just say it's not happening.

i got the thing going this morning at 7am. if i stay till midnight again, that's 17 hours today, plus 9 yesterday = 26 hours. which means wedesday i run it for 4 hours, before cooling things and switching to the second phase of the experiment which again, needs to run for 30 hours over the next 2 days. if i get in by 9 on wednesday, run the thing until 1pm, cool for an hour, switch the solutions, get it going again by 230, and run it until 1230am, that still leaves me with 20 hours to run it over thur and fri. plus, after that's all done, there's something like a 4 hour hot water boiling period to wash out the remaining solution residues.

needless to say, work is my life for the next few weeks (i get to do it all over again next week!) this would all be a lot easier if i had help. as in, someone to watch the solutions after i put in 10-12 hours in a given day. if someone else could come in late and stick around until late, well that would be OK with me. *yawn*

i already had my oatmeal and tea this morning. and yet i'm not feeling peppy and revived. went to bed around 130am and first woke up at 530 this morning and decided, you know what, it's just too freakin' early. actually got up at 620 and got to work by 7, which for me is quite a feat. i prefer, and function more highly, on more than 4-5 hours of sleep a night.

i can't complain too much, because over the weekend i did manage to get plenty of sleep. it's unfortunate that sleep isn't more like a bank account, where you can save it up and use it when you're more tired.

so now i'm thinking about power napping. but there's no place to do so in the building where i work. and it's a 20 minute uphill ride home which has no appeal to me, since i'd have to come back down after such a short nap at home. and it's raining outside. which isn't exactly bad, but it's not ideal for biking home and back, just for a short nap.

speaking of rain. when i woke up this morning i thought it sounded like it might be raining out. but it was dark and my window is protected by an overhang, so there wasn't any droplets on the window pane. however, once in the living room i could hear the rain running down the gutter, and thought, "oh geez. it's really raining out there!" so i geared up in my full raingear attire, packed my gym shoes and some other essentials into backpack #2 (left my regular backpack at work last night, too tired to pack it up and for what?), and headed outside to brave the elements. it was still pitch black, same as when i got home from work last night. i thought to myself, "this really bites. going to work in the pitch black, coming home in the pitch black." but it's a job and i guess i have that going for me.

anyway, once geared up with helmet and lights and such, i walked my bike to the top of my driveway (enough of a hill that i never want to deal with it), and realized that, it wasn't really raining that hard. it was sprinkling at best. a little harder than misting. so maybe this biking in the rain wasn't so bad. i wasn't going to get soaked before i got to work; all my stuff was in plastic bags in my backpack so it was safe. i was basically weatherproofed, and all i had to do was pedal a short distance and coast down the big hill to work.

maybe winter isn't so bad after all. but i'm still very tired.

more later...perhaps i'll use up those other prospective blog titles!

what a way to end the year!

i did 3 contra dances, 3 nights in a row, for the last 3 weekends of 2009.

weekend 1:
concord scout house - crowfoot
guiding star grange - wild asparagus
guiding star grange - green street (sort of)

weekend 2:
guiding star grange - open band (christmas night)
guiding star grange - greenfield dance band, with matthew kenney on drums!
powder mill barn - white squall

weekend 3:
multnomah arts center - the mckassons (new years eve)
burlingame water tower - open band
fulton community center - UnLeashed!

that's the spirit!