late night, still awake

One of my goals is to not have such a fucked up sleep schedule. When I go back eastward, it will just be... BEYOND horrible.

Anyways, reading fitness blogs. It seems that weighing one's self all the time isn't the answer, and yet I am addicted to it. I know how silly it is, and yet... I am going to try to do a triathlon, though, so I think that will be my main goal.

I think there's too many 'one true' or 'best ways' in a lot of dieting and fitness advice... it seems from the research that what works is more a plan that one can stick to, and often is very personalized.  However, I'm a big proponent of documentation, especially in the beginning of the losing weight process. I think you can lose a lot of weight with just exercise, but I think that diet needs to be controlled. Exercise can lead to eating more, which leads to... no weight gain. So, even if its only exercise you need to know that you're not increasing.  I think.

I use fitday.com.  I have for years, very on and off.  Today I looked through my old food logging all the way to 2001-2002 when a combination of stress and insane coffee-drinking made me thinner than I've ever been.  Damn, I drank a lot of alcohol.. especially for how little I ate.  Of course, I was living in New Orleans. I think I actually drank less than most of my friends there.

I am trying to go without sweet and low... I think it is occasionally ok, and I've been switching it up with sugar in my coffee for a couple years now.  It used to be all pink packet! But I think I'd rather take the calories.  I don't put THAT much sugar in, and I'm trying to use less.

I've hardly been playing the accordion lately, which makes me sad.  I'd put it on my goal list, but I'm struggling to be productive at the things that I need to do enough... Maybe instead of reading a blog, I'll just sub practicing scales or an old piece or two.

Plan for tomorrow:
Swim 30 min
Run 3 miles (on treadmill, this is AZ)
Finish writing code for my video analysis software
Write emails for Spanish class...
OMG dinosaur shiznit.
Start going to TANGO again!!!
Start reconnecting with FRIENDS again!!!

OK! I just wrote one of the emails I was procrastinating on... gooo me.

I hit a snag with my video analysis code where I think I made a too hasty design decision back when I wrote it. However, it is the type of thing where I don't want to add too many features... since it is for personal use, and my time shouldn't be spent on this code!! The analysis is the important part, since the end result is a musicology paper. So I am undecided as to whether I should change a fundamental architecture thingy or else write a hack. The hack would be... OMFG@JHG#$!! hacky but will probably be faster than the architecture switch.  PROBABLY.  But maybe not.  And if the thingy is hacky, who cares because I won't touch this code again.  But it will be aesthetically displeasing.  Well, it is hard to make up my mind.  Or decide which is REALLY faster in the long/medium term.

Today, I bought a ton of swim equipment! Investment! I am going to kickass at swimming like I haven't since I was twelve, people.  Yes! That sounds sad.  My goal is also to not tan at all and stay super pale.  Tan == sun damage.  Lately I've been night-swimming, but it can be inconvenient, and hard to go to sleep after..

Also, went to a wine tasting.  Had the most original wine I feel that I've tasted in YEARS... since I moved from Ch. Hill and the best wine store ever. Oh, wait, except for that Napa Valley wine tour I did like a long time ago.... OMG that Cab Sauv. Anyways, it was the Lamatum, Ribera Del Duero 2010, and it was on sale @ Whole Foods for $11.99!!! Seriously, it blew me away.  It starts out way softer than you expect, almost like a pinot noir, almost fruity with a touch of sweetness.  And then, on the finish, and with the next drink, it opens up into a much more Old World kind of taste -- the oak influence, then mulled spice, earth. It can't decide what it is.  But that is what makes it so great.  It keeps on changing, and the flavor profile shifts over time.  It is like a time-based art, which is how fine wine SHOULD be.  It should be a process, a narrative, a journey!

And of course, they gave generous portions. I didn't drive home! It almost makes up for the price hit of shopping a bit at Whole Foods... almost. We ended up buying a $14 watermelon that was on SALE. It turned out it was 18 pounds.  Yes.  It is more than half eaten, now.

a return, perhaps brief

So, this blog is only nominally public, and for the time being. It is more like a public to-do list, and has always been, more than anything else.  So, what I'm saying is... I'm totes not trying to be interesting... in fact, it is probably tedious. But I occasionally may write more personal posts in the future, although mostly still for my own use.

Things to do:
++ run 3 miles
++ email back people that should be emailed...
++ Spanish -- sign up for classes / tutor... start learning vocab daily
++ weight-training shiz -- start today!
++ schedule oil change for car -- oh boy does it need it so much I am embarrassed
++finish exp. music paper
++oh shiz dino shiz... composition and final model (or just the 2nd version of the skull)
++ tango later?

Thoughts:

It has always been hard for me to get things done during the summer.  I don't know why I'm delaying the Spanish thing, except for I'm afraid of how much I've forgotten.

Losing weight is the one thing during the summer that I know I can do.  During the rest of the year, it is hard since I become so busy, but this summer I have time to really start being fit, etc. again. Also, I know that during the rest of the year, I am stressed and active enough so that I generally maintain weight... the summer... no.  Especially in Arizona where its so hot that its hard for me to choose to bike anywhere if I don't have to do so.

My goal is pretty modest.  I'm hoping for initially a five pound weight loss and maybe five more if I have time, etc. I am, though, hoping to get pretty fit, and I hoping to pass from mostly thin into like, yes! I am slender. Or whatever.  I am thinking of doing a triathlon competition in September, which gives me a concrete goal.  I do so much better with concrete goals. Plus I think that getting moving will help with my other goals.

My worry is that my goal space is large whereas the amount of external structure I have is little until very late August. That's why I need Spanish CLASSES.  lkjdfladjfl;akjf

We shall see.

Study in Losing Control monologue version a zillion.

This is a study in losing control.

You see, I have to practice.

If I don't practice, I'm afraid I'll lose control badly.

And if I lose control badly that might be embarrassing not just for me

but for you.

And I would so hate for you to be uncomfortable.

But I'm not sure if that's completely true. Let me tell you about my research.

I am interested in the body. I am interested in your body.

No, that's not right!

If we are bodies. If we don't just have a body.

But sometimes it feels as if I am not part of my body, but I am controlling it like a puppet.

When does this happen? It happens when I fail. It happens when I lose control. It happens when I feel pain. And in the same manner of being, sometimes I am myself. But sometimes I am outside. Losing control.

And I am interested in the liminality of this state. The boundary conditions. Because everything breaks down. Eventually.

...

[insert dinosaur emo post]

links, hadrosaur / syrinx

http://www.indiana.edu/~songbird/multi/songproduction_index.html

http://obiwannabe.co.uk/tutorials/html/tutorial_birds.html


Diegert, Carl F.; and Williamson, Thomas E. (1998). A digital acoustic model of the lambeosaurine hadrosaur Parasaurolophus tubicen. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 18 (3, Suppl.): 38A.

http://evanslab.wordpress.com/publications/

http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/stable/2400478?&Search=yes&searchText=cranial&searchText=lambeosaurine&searchText=cavity&searchText=Nasal&searchText=dinosaurs&searchText=homologies&searchText=crest&searchText=function&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DNasal%2Bcavity%2Bhomologies%2Band%2Bcranial%2Bcrest%2Bfunction%2Bin%2Blambeosaurine%2Bdinosaurs%26acc%3Don%26wc%3Don&prevSearch=&item=4&ttl=20&returnArticleService=showFullText

Dinosaurian Cacophony
Author(s): David B. Weishampel
Source: BioScience, Vol. 47, No. 3 (Mar., 1997), pp. 150-159

link: http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/stable/1313034?&Search=yes&searchText=%22David+B.+Weishampel%22&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dau%253A%2522David%2BB.%2BWeishampel%2522%26wc%3Don&prevSearch=&item=3&ttl=44&returnArticleService=showFullText

HADROSAURS MOST LIKELY HAD SOME KIND OF LARYNX **NOT** SYRINX

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CDQQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Feverglades.fiu.edu%2Freclaim%2Fmonographs%2Fpdfs%2FFI07042511%2Fsliced%2FChapter%25207.pdf&rct=j&q=crocodile%20larynx&ei=Qr92TsTiA_TZiALK-PyyAg&usg=AFQjCNETNlCZCz76gbY0yJirHX6psgQ0Iw&sig2=haEdd3Kci2BgRi61rtK-jg&cad=rja

http://www.norcalblogs.com/birds/2010/12/swans.html
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Trumpeter_Swan/sounds

http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/stable/3881928

hadrosaur art sound installation / instrument links

http://www.oucom.ohiou.edu/dbms-witmer/

http://digimorph.org/listbygroup.phtml?grp=Dinosaurs,&sort=SpeciesName

http://www.rom.on.ca/collections/curators/evans.php

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/doi/10.1002/ar.20984/abstract

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jez.1401680303/abstract

long time no see

Ok, I'm switching the focus of this to being more a research log for current work and thoughts, mostly for my compositions and doctoral work. Probably will occasionally post deadlines, etc. but as I am in grad school, there are in-built structures that I can organize around. Ergo, I don't need to keep track of applications and booking things in quite the same way as I did as an independent composer/artist.