This page contains all entries posted to Manufactured Environments in January 2002.

steve reich on the cd.

are you a minimalist? steve reich seems to be. spare, modern music composed for fleets of instruments (18 musicians, 4 organs, etc). so that brings me to tuesday night. it’s been one hell of a busy week. it’s only the second week of the semester, and i have the feeling that things will calm down in a couple of weeks. my new life as an adjunct professor moves forward. this morning i spent in meetings. this afternoon i spent on the phone. no class today.

i hate to say it but i’ve almost been too busy for much reading. i’ve been keeping to lighter fare. a colleague gave me his copy of fortune and there were a couple interesting articles. most of my subscriptions to things have lapsed. i’m down to just a few — including vanity fair, stereophile, and the wsj. the stereophile subscription is a new one. my interest in stereo gear has been rekindled in the past year or two. i don’t much care for home theater, but two-channel audio is really what i’m at home with.

i had a system for about ten years and then most of the pieces started failing all within a short timeframe. i eventually got around to assembling a new setup, and it’s fairly good. it’s more power than i could hope to use, but it sounds very sweet. the system has a great sound, thanks much to the speakers — Paradigm Reference Studio/60. a great speaker for the money. i listen to a lot of classical, but i liked the paradigm’s better than the b&w’s in the same range. A bit more dynamic and certainly more well-rounded. the paradigm’s are good for a wide range of music. i share this interest in gear with my brother. he’s more interested in home theater, but there’s definitely some overlap. he recently built on a home theater room to his home. he just got carpeting. it’s not quite finished, but i’m excited to see what he ends up with.

well, that’s life from this side of the equator. take care.

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spring into january.

it felt like spring out today. 50 degree weather. sunny. winter has disappeared. this is good i suppose unless it means the death of us. at any rate, the weekend went fast. j & j drove to the city, and we had dinner at this italian restaurant. i hadn’t been there for years. the food was quite good. we walked around downtown for hours, catching up on life. they were here last for my new year’s party. a nice time.

saw a friend of mine from grad school this morning. it was good to see him. catching up on things. perhaps that’s a theme for this weekend. i saw him briefly on wednesday before class. we’re both teaching this semester.

it’s interesting to be on the other side of the desk. i enjoy teaching. the other professors have been really helpful and supportive. my favorite professors from graduate school have been checking in via email to see how things are going. i went to lunch with my mentor, and it’s always a pleasure. the 90-minute lunch is the perfect amount of time to eat and discuss the lightness of being. ah, yes, life is good.

so tonight i’m thinking of the week ahead. it’ll be a busy week i think and that’s good. i spent a few hours in the office today working on things for tomorrow. the building is so quiet on the weekend. no classes going on and few students around. a chance to concentrate on the task at hand.

i’ve been getting the computer in shape this past week. i installed windows xp pro and that was a good upgrade. it feels more mac-like and easier to use. i’m enjoying it. the colors are certainly brighter.

it’s tax time again. i picked up the tax software i usually use and not much had changed from last year’s version. doing taxes with a computer program is simply great. i dreaded doing taxes on paper, but they’re so easy to do online. very nice. my taxes next year will be somewhat different now that i have a mortgage.

just short, random thoughts. that’s the tone of tonight. a chance to relax and ease out before a hectic week begins. i’m listening to a mix cd someone sent me for solstice. i guess this means she’s a pagan or some sort of designation like that. she doesn’t celebrate christmas on dec 25, rather it’s winter solstice on dec 21. call it what you will, it’s all in the spirit of giving. she sent a mix cd last year and i must say that this year’s was more celebratory and upbeat. i’m enjoying it rather much. i’m still trying to convince a.b. to send me a mix tape, but no luck so far. i suppose she’s busy rushing out the grad school applications. she decided the pacific northwest wasn’t the place anymore so now she’s aiming for washington d.c. plenty of options open to her at this point regardless.

well, i’ll keep this short and leave the questions to others. feel free to contact me.

good night and take care.

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announcements to the crew.

i spent some time this evening sending out emails to the gang. i’ve been telling everyone to see “a beautiful mind” — a splendid, incredible film — a true story — a man with schizophrenia — simply amazing! a powerful film — emotional yet driven. i highly recommend it. if you’ve seen the film, tell me what you thought of it.

it was a day off. the university regards the martin luther king jr day as a full holiday — lucky me. but tomorrow the big show begins. it’s the start of second semester. i’ll be teaching my class and working at the university full-time. it feels good. i enjoy the university — a big ten school. the other day someone asked me my goals with teaching — do i want to be a full professor? cryptic smiles, and hopes for the future. i’ll answer that question when the time is right. for now i teach and design and collaborate and basically do my thing.

there has always been a thing that has been specifically mine. unique. it’s basically about marching to the beat of your own drummer. that’s what it simply comes down to. and i don’t think it’s necessarily an acquired taste — you have to be born with the gene — the gene to be different — a standout in the crowd — a shining light in a field of darkness.

i have what it takes.

so, my friends. some changes in the website recently. hopefully you’ve gotten some ideas as to my own reality. i do this blog, and the web stats say that my friends are reading this. the web stats say that lots of people with broadband connections are reading this. my stated goal now is to increase international traffic. i’ve been adjusting my meta tags — customizing where appropriate — i’ve been developing content that would appeal to a wide range of people — a wide range of people interested in international travel. the mediterranean is where it’s at!

i’ve got over 1,000 songs on my computer. mp3 format. 256kbit/high quality recordings. i’ve traded a few cd’s with friends but i’m looking for people with siouxsie and the banshees, the clash, the smiths, and other such bands. let me know if you’ve got a cd that you could send me a cd-r of. i’ve got lots to trade. check out my music page at http://manufacturedenvironments.com/

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quiet in the city.

i watched a half-hour of television. i enjoyed myself, but i don’t much like the television. an hour or two a week is all that i can tolerate. for the first time in my life, i have cable. it’s basic $15-a-month cable, but it still feels like a violation. i’m thinking of canceling altogether.

otherwise i’m feeling a quiet vibe before the storm begins. i’m listening to nick drake. amy lent me her’s and i’m making a copy for her of mine. pink pink pink. i spent the weekend out-of-state, and arrived back in town this evening.

lots of new stuff for the new house. new plates. new silverware. and new counter chairs. i saw a really good movie (a beautiful mind) this weekend, but i’ll talk about it later. for now, good night, my friends.

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freedoms and motivations.

greetings. quiet machinations in the house tonight. scheming for a dynamic class beginning in a spare few weeks. i’ll be working in what the university calls “overload” status. meaning i’ll be working as a part-time professor while keeping my regular full-time job at the university. should be interesting. i’ll have to make up a few hours when i’ll be in the classroom but shouldn’t be too bad.

had lunch with my mentor the other day, and we talked for two hours about all of the wonderful things going on. it’s a great feeling to be between semesters sometimes. as much as i love teaching and being here at the university, it’s good to get away. her trip abroad was cut short due to illness in the family. these things happen.

speaking of illness, my grandfather had hip replacement surgery recently. the amazing thing is how well he’s doing at his advanced age. my grandparents have always been exceptionally directed and resilient people.

i’ll be heading back to the ancestral home for a few days — my last jaunt before the semester begins. my syllabus is mostly ready and i’ll be posting it to my course website soon. i’m still working on web resources for my website — it should be fairly stunning. it has chat and discussion and resources and such. i’m working with a research librarian at the university library on the web resources bit.

just short snippets running through my head tonight. i’m hoping to get to the lord of the rings one of these days. got a variety of emails from old friends this past week. chris d. in los angeles is doing well. he took some of his fish sculptures back to the midwest over the holidays. faust g. has mysteriously moved back in-state and is working for our old undergraduate college. details are sketchy at this point, but one hopes he’s doing well. the really interesting thing about all the news i acquired from the holiday cards, emails, and letters is the curious and absolutely fascinating directions people have gone since college. my closest friends from college were over for new year’s to christen my new place. we had a wonderful time. even six or seven years since college we’re still shifting around, moving up, moving around. a.b. just moved back to the midwest from washington state. j&j.wp. have settled into a routine — though they’ve been in their new city for only a year and a half. s.b. called and sent her regards from st.paul. looking for old names i did a google kind of thing and looked up a few high school friends that i hadn’t seen in a decade. and the wonder that the internet is, i could see what some of them were up to — an intellectual property lawyer, a junior district attorney, a french professor, a french dept. coordinator, a teacher, a physics researcher, a counselor, a marketing exec. and so on and so forth. in high school we all seemed to be in the same situation together and i dreamed bright futures for my friends and they have fulfilled those dreams. i am happy for all of them.

all people are interesting.

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phase four begins.

phase one began five and half years ago. it was june of 1996. i moved here from another state. phase one was one of work. it was a time of change and development. it was one of exploration, illness, but eventual recovery in june of 1998 when i found out that i had been accepted into graduate school. so phase one was two years of working. mundane years spent in and out of hospitals and such.

phase two began in august of 1998. grad school. what a wonderous experience. i had a busy, exciting time with it. i did well in all of my classes and enjoyed my professors immensely. i spent a year as a full-time student and then got a half-time T.A. position the second year. i enjoyed teaching. i enjoy teaching. one thing that happened with grad school is that my web interests took a prominent role and the focus of my degree was web related. grad school is an amazing experience, and i highly recommend it. i personally found the GRE to be not all that bad and did very well. my analytical score was especially awesome. but thank god, i’m done with standardized tests. i don’t have to take them anymore.

so we’re at four years here. phase one was two years. phase two was two years. and phase three? two years? no. a year and a half.

like phase one, phase three is a period of work. but instead of mundane things, it was doing exciting cutting edge development for the university. my job led me to meet a lot of faculty and work on interesting, dynamic projects. it has been a good time for me.

and here we are at phase four of my life in this city. the university continues to play a large role in my life here. phase four begins with a new home and a new job. i moved into my new home after closing on the 21st of december — a christmas present to myself! i started living here full-time on the 30th. the other main characteristic of this new phase is a change of jobs. i’ve taken up an adjunct professorship at the university here. i’m excited about the opportunity. wish me luck!

three phases over five and a half years and a new fourth phase that has now begun.

what can i say? life is good. …. take care my friends. news of my new year’s in the next report. good night for now.

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