life this week - and this summer, really.
Since this past weekend, my life has been predominantly about three things: music writing for Tulane, LEAP Motion/Max Programming at home, and poker. I think my summer - even when i'm traveling - will be a lot about those three things.
The past couple of weeks have been generally semi-low key in a lot of ways - things were busy, but i was taking a middleground to background approach to both Tulane and personal projects.
That's changed drastically in the past couple of days. I decided yesterday that i needed to revamp the drumline exercise packet sort of from the ground up to follow the model of what's practical for our rehearsals. I've also been ramping up some revisions to our databases in response to some stuff (long story) that happened last semester.
I get home from work and i immediately want to start programming. On Monday, Mark and i got drinks after work which always makes me super tired, so when we were done i crashed and took a nap for 3.5 hours and got up at 22:00. As soon as i got up, the first thing on my brain was, "i want to go into the electronic music lab." So i did and ended up working in there until about 3am. Yesterday, i got home from work and basically started doing Max programming straight when i got home for about four hours, pausing only to eat some leftover chicken curry i cooked on sunday for dinner. I probably would have kept programming for the next few hours, but Mark's cousin is in town, so we went out to grab drinks and chat.
Both of those things are occupying my headspace so completely right now. All of my time is spent thinking about them in a foreground, middleground, and background space. As soon as i wake up, i'm thinking about it. In the shower, walking to the car, walking to get tea, all of it. Some of it is mind-wandery, but most of it is very focused.
Everything else right now is fading away. Well, aside from friends. Friends and people in general always come first. Reading my livejournal friends list has come back into my daily routine even though sometimes i have to skim and i don't comment much. But some of the other things that have typically distracted me in the past, things like FTL or reading that book again or watching episodes of my favorite shows over and over again or devoting myself to more than just causal Ingress, that stuff has already fallen off of the map and been reduced to such a degree it may as well not exist.
And it feels great. To have that focus, to have that drive. It's a natural drug, a caffeine and a high that is like nothing else.
Poker will continue to occupy my weekends. That's my release valve and slush fund, it's a lot of instinct that's borne of me taking poker somewhat seriously for the past few years. I get to meet a lot of strangers and casual acquaintances, i have fun hearing their stories, and then i do my best to take their money, not even necessarily for the income rewards but for the pleasure of the game itself and its complexities.
For those that don't follow me on other social media, i've been vlogging about my LEAP and Max stuff. Once i get the new trigger modules programmed i'll probably do another one. Here's the main one that i've been sharing a bunch:
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