Clutterflush
December was primarily a month of Slack. Call it recharging, call it hibernation, call it celebrating the holidays... whatever. I caught up on my sleep, indulged myself with enjoyable frivolities, and got very little work done of any sort. I call it Slack, and it was good. Time to move on.
Tech: We (finally!) upgraded L.'s computer to something modern, courtesy of General NanoSystems and C.. Aside from a quirk with the video card (it refuses to play nicely with DirectX, despite doing so previously and regardless of which driver I use), it's a lovely thing. Other than the operating system (Windows XP Home... for now), we've turned to programs we'll be able to use when we finally make the Linux plunge: Firefox (which she was already using), Thunderbird, and OpenOffice.org are the core apps.
Obscure Grammar & Spelling: Is that the appropriate usage for an abbreviated possessive? L.'s? Looks odd, but I suppose it must be.
Information Processing: Having gone a few weeks without my green notebook (must call envoy back and schedule a get-together), I realize that I do, in fact, need to write things down. More often than I might have suspected. This combined with the fact that L. gave me a fine planner leads me into the scary world of... paper. I've started transitioning, but I still have a lot of addresses and phone numbers to get into The Book That Will Be My Life/Talisman of Thoth. I don't have much planned yet for 2005 in terms of set dates, so at least the calendar part was easy.
Programs: Since I'll be using a paper calendar, I don't really need to be using Outlook just for e-mail. I switched over to Thunderbird too, and it's hard to believe just how much better it is. Loads fast, sorts well, and after 10 minutes training the Junk filter it's performing wonderfully. It really is just worlds better.
I moved over to OpenOffice.org while I was at it. The only things keeping me tied to Windows are my CD-burning software, my music software, and a game or two. I could conceivably be Windows-free by the end of the year.
Music: A lot of my focus this year will be on music, and in particular getting music recorded. C. and I have started establishing a working grounds, and I'm looking forward to the kinds of music we'll do. In the nearer term, I'll be working with starsimplode to get the Rite of Venus music recorded. I'll also be delving into the Gnostic Mass music (beyond the Anthem), working on something that can be performed live by 1-3 people while still sounding rich, and eventually recording that as well for when the 1-3 people aren't around. And I still have a couple of my own pieces to work on (and hopefully record). This year is about getting music into a form I can hand out to people.
I'm sure there will also be ample opportunity for drumming with Ammala, and hopefully Cigany will be doing the Feast of Fantasy again and I'll be jamming with them too ("...and above all, don't embarass us!").
O.T.O.: I need to review where I am, set up my study program, and get serious about qabbalah. I think I have nearly all of the references I need.
The Qabbalistic Bowling League starts up again Wednesday, which I'm looking forward to. We really do need bowling shirts; must commission appropriate shirt art from starsimplode. If we're using a similar method to what we were doing previously, maybe we can get some things recorded for that too.
I haven't heard anything specific yet regarding the Rite of Mercury - I should see if anyone's stepped up to do it.
Books: Aside from the Crowley pile, and the music pile, about a half dozen books waiting for me. That should keep me through March.
Geekdom: World of Warcraft is probably the best-designed MMORPG I've seen. They've really done a brilliant job. Quite fun. No necromancy yet, but having an entire undead race makes up for that somewhat. Gashlyworth on Earthen Ring is unalive and well.
The music is very good, but a lot of it is overtly derivative. The graveyard/spirit world music (which you hear a lot of when you're undead) is a blatant rip-off of the spooky elven music from LotR... the Tirisfal Glades music starts out with a riff from a Grieg piano concerto... there's another forest piece that I know I've heard part of before but I can't place it... etc. It's all quite well done, it adds a lot and is worth listening to on its own, but it could have been more original.
Tech: We (finally!) upgraded L.'s computer to something modern, courtesy of General NanoSystems and C.. Aside from a quirk with the video card (it refuses to play nicely with DirectX, despite doing so previously and regardless of which driver I use), it's a lovely thing. Other than the operating system (Windows XP Home... for now), we've turned to programs we'll be able to use when we finally make the Linux plunge: Firefox (which she was already using), Thunderbird, and OpenOffice.org are the core apps.
Obscure Grammar & Spelling: Is that the appropriate usage for an abbreviated possessive? L.'s? Looks odd, but I suppose it must be.
Information Processing: Having gone a few weeks without my green notebook (must call envoy back and schedule a get-together), I realize that I do, in fact, need to write things down. More often than I might have suspected. This combined with the fact that L. gave me a fine planner leads me into the scary world of... paper. I've started transitioning, but I still have a lot of addresses and phone numbers to get into The Book That Will Be My Life/Talisman of Thoth. I don't have much planned yet for 2005 in terms of set dates, so at least the calendar part was easy.
Programs: Since I'll be using a paper calendar, I don't really need to be using Outlook just for e-mail. I switched over to Thunderbird too, and it's hard to believe just how much better it is. Loads fast, sorts well, and after 10 minutes training the Junk filter it's performing wonderfully. It really is just worlds better.
I moved over to OpenOffice.org while I was at it. The only things keeping me tied to Windows are my CD-burning software, my music software, and a game or two. I could conceivably be Windows-free by the end of the year.
Music: A lot of my focus this year will be on music, and in particular getting music recorded. C. and I have started establishing a working grounds, and I'm looking forward to the kinds of music we'll do. In the nearer term, I'll be working with starsimplode to get the Rite of Venus music recorded. I'll also be delving into the Gnostic Mass music (beyond the Anthem), working on something that can be performed live by 1-3 people while still sounding rich, and eventually recording that as well for when the 1-3 people aren't around. And I still have a couple of my own pieces to work on (and hopefully record). This year is about getting music into a form I can hand out to people.
I'm sure there will also be ample opportunity for drumming with Ammala, and hopefully Cigany will be doing the Feast of Fantasy again and I'll be jamming with them too ("...and above all, don't embarass us!").
O.T.O.: I need to review where I am, set up my study program, and get serious about qabbalah. I think I have nearly all of the references I need.
The Qabbalistic Bowling League starts up again Wednesday, which I'm looking forward to. We really do need bowling shirts; must commission appropriate shirt art from starsimplode. If we're using a similar method to what we were doing previously, maybe we can get some things recorded for that too.
I haven't heard anything specific yet regarding the Rite of Mercury - I should see if anyone's stepped up to do it.
Books: Aside from the Crowley pile, and the music pile, about a half dozen books waiting for me. That should keep me through March.
Geekdom: World of Warcraft is probably the best-designed MMORPG I've seen. They've really done a brilliant job. Quite fun. No necromancy yet, but having an entire undead race makes up for that somewhat. Gashlyworth on Earthen Ring is unalive and well.
The music is very good, but a lot of it is overtly derivative. The graveyard/spirit world music (which you hear a lot of when you're undead) is a blatant rip-off of the spooky elven music from LotR... the Tirisfal Glades music starts out with a riff from a Grieg piano concerto... there's another forest piece that I know I've heard part of before but I can't place it... etc. It's all quite well done, it adds a lot and is worth listening to on its own, but it could have been more original.