It confuses people so much that one person gave me a dollar and another bought me a hot chocolate. I’m confused and happy right now.

My bike is a real bike now. It went on a long trip to Winchester, the trip I promised I would make the last week of my student teaching, but didn’t. It took as long as I thought it would, and I discovered a nice new road that is smooth, flat, and quiet through a protected forest.

I also got to visit a couple of covered bridges, didn’t break anything, didn’t hurt myself, didn’t overheat, didn’t get dehydrated and enjoyed a lovely 3.5 hour ride through southern New Hampshire.

Then I slept for 3 hours.

It was a good day.

I left about 9:00, dressed in synthetics under a nice bright shirt and shorts, water on the rear rack and a path planned. I made my first stop at Coombs Covered Bridge in Winchester (Swanzey?), took some pictures, and moved on down the road. My new bike computer said it was 90 degrees, but it wasn’t humid, and the breeze, though stiff going home, was very pleasant.

I next stopped at the Winchester Town Beach, though I didn’t take any photographs, because frankly it wasn’t photogenic. A concrete wall with steps down to a small sandbox on a (actually, quite lovely) lake. I had a walk around the picnic area, glanced into the strange paths through the woods and hurried on my way.

Downhill (apparently) into Winchester I went, through town (since there is really nothing to look at), and out to the intersection of 78 and 10, where there was a lovely Rite Aid with shady trees. I stretched my legs for half an hour and climbed aboard once again, heading uphill and into the wind for the return journey.

I stopped on the way home at the Swanzey Historical Society and chatted with mother on the phone, assured her I wasn’t going to pass out or get run off the road, and wound my way home.

I at lunch, and then really did fall asleep for 3 hours, after which I entirely forgot to go to bowling. Such is life.

In other news:

• Hitler liked big boom.
• Google+ is all set to take over the world, so here are two ways to make it work for you.
• I don’t really know about the truth of this, but apparently shopping with a cart makes you healthier than shopping with a basket. Since nobody really shops with a basket, I don’t know how they figured this out. I shop with a basket, but I bike to the grocery store, so WTF.

“You know where I would take a cake? Down to the bakery… to see the other cakes.”

About 10 o’clock I headed for Fitzwilliam, straight down highway 12. Rhododendron State Park was pretty quiet on a Wednesday morning in July, which was a little surprising: it’s blooming season for these plants, and they don’t last all that long. Alas, today was not their glory day, but there were some blooms out. The woods seemed to have thinned out, and according to the (excellent) trail map and park guide, the grove was almost destroyed back in 1977 by an ice storm. I’m sure the recent weather has been none too kind to them either.

There was another trail listed in the park, off to the north called Little Monadnock Trail. I had never heard of this. My only other obligation today was hiking Gap Mountain, so off I went. It was immediately pleasant, through a sunny wood, paralleling stone walls. Towards the end, the trail ascends steeply and at the summit it joins the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail, another thing I didn’t realize existed. There are by far more trails in New Hampshire than I will ever get a chance to hike, but this one is intriguing. I could have turned left and gone to Connecticut; a novel concept on foot.

Instead of going to Connecticut, I turned and descended the mile and a half to the parking lot and headed to Gap Mountain Trail, which, looking at the map again, I was amused to discover I had just been on: it too is part of the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail, continuing on to Mount Monadnock. Tempting, but no.

I walked the very agreeable 1.6 miles to the North Summit of Gap Mountain and picked some blueberries that grow wild on top. They were delicious, and the view of Monadnock is really quite remarkable from that angle. It kept beckoning me, white blazes leading off into the woods at its base, but the stormclouds were rolling in, and I had to return.

Sweaty, grimy and tired I flopped into my car and headed home. Not a bad walk.

In other news:

• I have a new bicycle saddle, recovered from an old bicycle saddle, and soon to be joined by another reclaimed saddle. There is an excellent tutorial to be found here.
• MINI make a cute car. Cars I should say, since they now have 8 models available around the world. Into this plethora walks the little Fiat 500. MINI enthusiasts say it can’t compare, but that’s not what it’s trying to do. I think it’s cute, and so does everyone else.
• Don’t like to bike anywhere? I have the thing for you. Unicycles!

agnus dei

This is that story.

Since this is the month of July, and since it was a glorious day, I decided to go exploring. I had heard about a couple of nice walks in the woods near where I live, so I made the trip out to Goose Pond in northern Keene. It was lovely, except for the bugs, which were biting me quite a lot. It was about a 5 mile trip to that point, and a nice, 2 mile walk around the perimeter of the pond, with sunny areas, shady paths and soggy bogs.

I left Goose Pond and traveled up the road to the Surry Mountain Dam in Surry. It was glorious. I got some good pictures of my trusty Citizen Bike Miami, which I truly do love riding, at least now that everything is just about perfect on it; the seatpost no longer slips down, the handlebars have a wide variety of gripping positions, and there are practically no rattles or vibrations of any kind.

Anyway, I took a spin across the dam and back, ate lunch on the hill, read a little, relaxed and headed home through town, having a delicious red, white and blueberry pie for desert. I can heartily recommend it.

A rehearsal tonight, concerts on Saturday and Sunday, and I still desperately need to find employment. As you can tell by my trip today, there are some things that are a little bit more important to me, though. I shall enjoy it while I can.

In other news:

• Ikea is, I believe, Swedish. They are also pretty cheap. The people over at Ikea Hackers make their cheap Swedish furniture more functional. It is a fun and enjoyable read.
• How We Drive is the blog of Tom Vanderbilt, who wrote Traffic (read it, it is good). He occasionally posts videos of fun things to do with cars, instead of sad things. This is a Fun Thing.
• Ahh, it seems to be that summer and oil spills just go together. Sadly.

Fire, Fire, Fire!

Bored at work the other day, I answered that with something I’ve been meaning to do for a while. Two years ago my now girlfriend created a lovely piece of artwork with sticky notes on her wall, and it was very meaningful. The essence of the piece was a feeling of being overwhelmed and out of control, and fits well with the whole notion of being a college student in the twenty-first century. Especially a music major. Surrounded by other, crazy music majors.

Anyway, at the end of that year, pulling her room apart, I decided we should save it and put it somewhere else. Composed of only paper and tape stuck to a wall, it was a tricky concept. However, she used a lot of tape, and it held together as we transferred it to the music center lounge.

That summer, working for the first time at the campus, I bought a cheap frame and got it off the wall and into a proper holding place for such fine artwork. It now resides in our apartment, still holding the importance I saw in it the first time. It’s a silly, intriguing picture with lots of meaning.

What I finally got around to doing was rendering it, computer style. I seem to have misplaced my copy of Cinema 4D, but good ol’ Bryce is still kicking around, so render it I did. Presented for your viewing pleasure, I present Pressure, in living color and rendered clarity..

In other news:

• Apple: Good, bad, and ugly. The future of technology seems to be in their hands, for better or for worse.
• Zebras are pretty, Donkeys are silly. What happens when they have a baby Zedonk? I can’t make this stuff up…
• Why wait for technology to create the real GlaDOS when you can have fun squishy versions for your very own.

i’m making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS

Firstly, on Friday night, I hooked up my busted old laptop to my busted old tv and watched some movies and practiced. Chicken run with the audio commentary, if you must know. I looked for a concert band arrangement of the overture, and it exists, but not in the form I would like. Perhaps yet another project for brass ensemble?

Saturday morning I was up and at ‘em to get off to a parade (sit on a bandwagon, play the trumpet, repeat). It was nice to see all those people again, and play with some nice people. I was the only first trumpet again, which seems to be  a running theme in every group I play in… anyway. After a nice quick parade with an exciting turn-around, it was off to home to see the parents, do some much needed laundry (since I still haven’t moved yet) and pick up a new laptop.

The parents were well, the laundry is now fresh, and the laptop is very nice. Still in its case, since I don’t want to unpack it for 3 days and then pack it back up to move it. So the old and busted laptop has been renamed as a netbook and gets to have experiments done to it.

Sunday I actually did get to sleep in and do nothing until about lunchtime. I went to a concert in Manchester where I played some cornet in the Carter Mountain Brass Band. I picked up some much needed valve oil and then moseyed off to rebuild a computer. While that was happening I went to see Toy Story 3, which I highly recommend. I mean, it’s Pixar, how could you go wrong?

Got home, rebuilt more computer, drove until 12:30AM Monday to get back to Keene, woke up at 6:00 and did a whole day of work in the new office. It’s quite nice now, if a little warm still. Anytime they want to come and put in air conditioners is fine with me.

The thing is, with all that running around, it was a really nice relaxing weekend. I don’t know why, but it was just really comfortable and pleasant and relaxed. That’s all I know.

In other news:

• This may be a case of treating a symptom of a bigger problem.
• Hooray for saving fuel… on planes.
• So you got your iPad. Now what?

<kazooooooo>

Another busy day yesterday, and it seemed to be a day of threes: moved three offices (and three of everything in them) into the third floor of a building, put together a three legged, three drawer corner desk and put it into my new office (room 303), drove for three hours to play at a rehearsal where I ended up playing the second trumpet part on a trumpet trio, and then fell into a very much needed sleep.

Today, I am only one of three in the office, but have already had three visitors. If only I could have a three day weekend to go with this, I would be happy. It is quite lovely out, minus the humidity, which, like many other things, is inevitable.

In other news:

• If you are as bored as I am at work, I suggest moving your cursor to this fine avatar creator and clicking happily away.
• So I get to be assistant conductor of a concert band next semester. That’s cool. Don’t really know how that relates, but here it is, in the middle. Any ideas on music to have the band play?
• Three news posts, eh? How about them Apples?

performing on a stool, there’s a sight to make you drool

So it was sort of a road trip weekend.

I was in Gettysburg, PA for the Gettysburg Festival, a combination of several past music, food, art and history festivals that take place in the fine historic city of Gettysburg. It really was a good weekend, even though I didn’t really participate all that much in the festivities.

I drove the 9 hour trip to Hanover, PA, leaving Friday morning and only hitting two traffic jams along the way, accidents both. It would have been better if I had more music, but I managed to keep sane by flipping through various radio stations and counting the hours as they rolled by. It was an ultra-thrifty weekend, since I really don’t have the money to spend on a trip to Pennsylvania, so I brought lunch meat and bread, and made sandwiches every day, including one on the New York Throughway about 12:30 PM.

I arrived there almost the exact minute as another driver from NH, so we teamed up and headed over to Westminster, MD for an evening concert. It was more of a dress rehearsal, but we did fairly well. Drove off home to the hotel after filling up with gas (49 mpg) and had a light dinner before falling into a coma until 10 the next morning.

Watched TV until I left at 12:00, played a concert at Gettysburg College, listened to a couple of groups, and actually rode my little bike around a good portion of the auto tour in Gettysburg. It was quite enjoyable, and is definitely a good way to work your way around the battlefield and learn some history.

I pretty much did nothing for the rest of the day, and the next morning. Played the last concert on Seminary Ridge at the North v. South Culinary Battle, which provided fried chicken, green and baked beans, salad, lemonade, strawberry shortcake and peach cobbler. I must say that my favorite was the peach cobbler, if only because they let me take an entire pie home, and I once again had some for lunch today. Yum.

I drove home early on Monday, leaving at 6:30 AM. It was an easy drive once again, if a bit warm. I once again fell into a coma when I got home, and then was back to work on Tuesday.

So far today we now have all the furniture delivered and beginning assembly, the walls painted and new carpet is being installed. The moving coordinator just walked into the office and scouted out what needs moving, so I guess it’s actually going to happen this week.

Apartment? Who knows. Scheduled to move in next Thursday. We’ll see about that.

In other news:

• I’ve been using Google Voice for about a year now, and it is a pretty slick piece of software. Now, it’s out of beta (and releasing on time…) so everyone can use its multiple phone ringing, voicemail transcribing, free text messenging service.
• This, apparently, is an instrument. To play one, you must do something, but I don’t really know what. Fortunately, that link also contains some data (11,000+ words) on what to do with said device.
• If you’re reading this on a smartphone, you’re reading on a very powerful little device. More powerful and innovative than a PC, says techcrunch.

and hold on to the dream

They are not the only people that you have interactions with. Occasionally, friends will be made in one place and taken to another, regardless of jobs or location. Few high school friends survive that process, but some do. Typically college friends survive, because as individuals college students are more grown up, and can handle relationships better. Please note, however, that this isn’t really the case.

Finally, there are the people you work with. The larger the company you work for, the less likely you are to make close friends. A workplace becomes more like a city, and one must shut people off to survive and make sense of the world.

At least, that’s how I operate.

I have instances of people who seem to make best friends with people they work with, configuring their lives around a workday with people, then taking these people home with them at night and partying, finally sleeping, then getting up and doing it all over again.

I can’t do that. I need space, me time, freedom, variety and all sorts of various other things. I get tired of people very easily, especially when I work with them. It’s a problem.

That is not the main problem this week, however.

I have not yet moved into my new apartment. I have been living out of boxes for one month, and I am very frustrated. I was supposed to have moved on the first of June, until a “misunderstanding” where the current tennant did not move out of my apartment. He didn’t know it was June, and thought it was July. So the landlord gave him a month to figure it out, even though my contract (signed, paid, all that) said June 1, 2010. This is the problem.

Additional problems begin in childhood, when I was always ready to go. Going to the store? I’m in the car when people are still watching TV. Going to piano lessons? Pick me up from school and let’s GO! Going to baseball? I’ll be there half an hour before everyone else.

Music only made this problem worse, since I like to have everything setup a certain way and have to be warmed up, so I’m the first person there, usually an hour before everyone else. It’s a problem.

This gets incredibly frustrating when people tell me “we’re moving on this day”, because I get excited and start packing a week ahead of time. I was literally pulling the sheets off my bed the morning of the move when we got a phone call saying the whole thing wasn’t going to happen. To say I was upset would be to say that the sun is slightly warm, or the ocean is a little bit damp: an understatement of remarkable proportions. It took me over half a day to stop grinding my teeth, and several more hours before I could pretend to talk to the landlord on the phone.

He hasn’t returned my calls.

Let’s add some frosting on this cow pie, shall we? We’re also moving our office at work! How exciting. “It’ll be by Wednesday”, people tell me before I leave to go on a weekend vacation. I see the administrative assistant making the plans to move the electronics and network connections last week, early. Cool. All taken care of.

When I enter the office this morning, I casually mention that there’s a large, heavy new desk in our office, being somewhat excited since it is my desk, and another administrative assistant says, “oh yes, it’ll be moved and put together on Friday with the rest of the stuff.” Uh huh.

Commence teeth grinding.

I know it’s nothing to get upset about, really. But I like plans, and I like sticking to them. I need to. This is the real problem. It doesn’t just derail the train, it backs up other trains at other stations and causes the rail system to have to be rebuilt completely. It takes time. A better plan would be to just not tell me: surprise me. Come in on a Monday and say, “we’re moving tomorrow, everything has to be done today.” I can do that. That’s not hard, because everything would get taken care of, and it would be ready for the next day.

I’m ready to go.

In other news:

• Sigh. BP and oil, of course. I saw a Sherwin-Williams truck on the road this week and thought, why hasn’t anyone done anything about this yet? So I did. Here’s some sad pictures as well…
• Here’s an article about why we don’t need more cyclists… we need more bicycle riders. A subtle difference, but very important.
• MINI, why are you so silly? At least Porsche belted up and actually did the race, and you can see the results here.

move along

I quite honestly don’t have time for that.

The prodigal journalist returns! I should say that I haven’t had any time for that, though, with some regret. I honestly never thought I’d write here again; but lo, and behold, here the words flow forth. As a daily journal and reflection this is a bit of a shamble at the moment: it wasn’t an entire year, but it was close.

I’m working still, during the summer, and have recently remembered why I can’t work like this for very long: it hurts. I have great envy for people who are out of shape enough that working at an office desk all day long doesn’t hurt them, but just by sitting still for ten hours a day I become more like them, and it isn’t fun.

So that’s why I bike to work, and why I walk as much as possible, and seldom drive anywhere closer 10 miles. Mostly, I don’t need to. Plus, who wants to sit in city traffic.

But I digress.

School is out for the summer, and I am so bored. But the summer music season begins this weekend, and keeps going for several weeks now. I’m excited to play with some really fine musicians and join them in providing a little bit of history to New England. All in all, it’s not a bad thing.

In other news:

• E3 is a-happenin’. I will say this: if the Wii is anything to go on (and, apparently, it is), these motion games are pretty fun, most of the time. They still look absolutely ridiculous though.
• Live in the United States? Ever hear of Gettysburg, PA? I’ll be there this weekend, along with the Newmont Military Band performing at the main stage of the Gettysburg Band festival. You should go. We’re practically opening for the Marine Band (from Virginia), so you should definitely go.
• And finally, something for the kids fun loving adults in the audience. Several years ago I was lead to Bearskinrug in search of comics, web design tips, and good clean fun. I later discovered this website, which of course turned me to this, and finally (and most recently) rediscovered this. Enjoy some Oatmeal. (mildly NSFW, unless you work in a place that’s cool and can take a joke).

and the time is now and it’s right for me.