Thursday, January 15, 2004
Stereoscopy
Fun arrived in the mail today: 3D glasses for looking at the Martian 3D images. Wow! Wow! Wow! All I can say is "Wow!"
Unfortunately, NASA hasn't placed all the 3D images from the Spirit mission into a single location on their Mars Rover site (neither has Space.com for that matter), so I went out searching to find someone that has collected links to all the 3D images in a single location. I haven't found it yet, but I did find some amazing 3D adaptations of other Mars missions at other sites. Some of these "third party" creations are actually better quality than the NASA-produced images. So, I'm collecting what I've found thus far into this entry to entertain those of you who have your very own red-cyan 3D glasses. If you don't have any, you can find vendors on-line, like I did when I googled for "3D glasses."
Images from Widener University
Images from Mars Unearthed
Link from the Martian Soil blog
Stereoscopy.com's Mars collection
Hope you enjoy seeing the Martian landscape in brilliant 3D as much as I have!
Unfortunately, NASA hasn't placed all the 3D images from the Spirit mission into a single location on their Mars Rover site (neither has Space.com for that matter), so I went out searching to find someone that has collected links to all the 3D images in a single location. I haven't found it yet, but I did find some amazing 3D adaptations of other Mars missions at other sites. Some of these "third party" creations are actually better quality than the NASA-produced images. So, I'm collecting what I've found thus far into this entry to entertain those of you who have your very own red-cyan 3D glasses. If you don't have any, you can find vendors on-line, like I did when I googled for "3D glasses."
Images from Widener University
Images from Mars Unearthed
Link from the Martian Soil blog
Stereoscopy.com's Mars collection
Hope you enjoy seeing the Martian landscape in brilliant 3D as much as I have!
Lexicography
Divination
When I look into your future, I see...
Nothing.
I can't predict the future. Some people claim to be able to, but I have yet to meet one. Not that I didn't give that serious thought the other day. I went to meet an old friend for lunch, and the way to the restaurant where we met passes a Psychic shop in a strip mall. I've joked about that psychic a number of times while passing it on the road, but this day, I actually gave serious consideration to stopping in and seeing if I could win at "stump the psychic." With my job situation and other issues in my life up in the air, I was really close to just wanting to have someone tell me what was going to happen so I wouldn't have to wait any more (see "Patience" below).
I probably would have stopped in, because she (I'm assuming it's a "she" based on the stereotype) was advertising a $10 special. Then I read the fine print, whose letters were a mere 4" tall: the $10 special was a card reading. I've had one card "reading" in the past, by a friend who picked up a Tarot desk and gave readings to friends for fun. His divination of the cards was based on material in a book he kept with him. Well, I jinxed the whole thing, because while we were sitting in his living room talking about stuff, I sat there and organized the cards in the deck by turning them all the same way. When he started dealing out the cards, it didn't take him long to realize what I'd done. So he verbally abused me for messing with the deck and made me "randomize" the deck again by rotating the cards while I shuffled them for the next 20 minutes. I think the result of the reading was that I'd die a horrible and painful death in a day or two because I screwed with the mojo of the cards. That was 14 years ago, anyway.
I have had one instance of being able to see where my life was headed, though, and that was when I met Anna. I can't tell you exactly what it was, or how it happened (that was a little over 10 years ago, and I've not slept well since then, no correlation), but I knew within a very short time of meeting her that I'd spend the rest of my life with her. I was so convinced of this that five weeks to the day after our first "date," I proposed. Fortunately, she saw the same thing I did, and said "yes." And our future was history.
Nothing.
I can't predict the future. Some people claim to be able to, but I have yet to meet one. Not that I didn't give that serious thought the other day. I went to meet an old friend for lunch, and the way to the restaurant where we met passes a Psychic shop in a strip mall. I've joked about that psychic a number of times while passing it on the road, but this day, I actually gave serious consideration to stopping in and seeing if I could win at "stump the psychic." With my job situation and other issues in my life up in the air, I was really close to just wanting to have someone tell me what was going to happen so I wouldn't have to wait any more (see "Patience" below).
I probably would have stopped in, because she (I'm assuming it's a "she" based on the stereotype) was advertising a $10 special. Then I read the fine print, whose letters were a mere 4" tall: the $10 special was a card reading. I've had one card "reading" in the past, by a friend who picked up a Tarot desk and gave readings to friends for fun. His divination of the cards was based on material in a book he kept with him. Well, I jinxed the whole thing, because while we were sitting in his living room talking about stuff, I sat there and organized the cards in the deck by turning them all the same way. When he started dealing out the cards, it didn't take him long to realize what I'd done. So he verbally abused me for messing with the deck and made me "randomize" the deck again by rotating the cards while I shuffled them for the next 20 minutes. I think the result of the reading was that I'd die a horrible and painful death in a day or two because I screwed with the mojo of the cards. That was 14 years ago, anyway.
I have had one instance of being able to see where my life was headed, though, and that was when I met Anna. I can't tell you exactly what it was, or how it happened (that was a little over 10 years ago, and I've not slept well since then, no correlation), but I knew within a very short time of meeting her that I'd spend the rest of my life with her. I was so convinced of this that five weeks to the day after our first "date," I proposed. Fortunately, she saw the same thing I did, and said "yes." And our future was history.
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
Patience
I'm not a very patient person. I've pretty much always been that way. Waiting for things to happen is not my strong suit. Perhaps this is the lesson God is trying to teach me right now.
I've been out of work for over two months (in case you hadn't caught that tidbit elsewhere in the blog), and it's driving me crazy. Ask my wife. I'm ready to work in the job I want right now. But perhaps my schedule is once again not in line with God's schedule.
How do you know when to listen for God's call? How do you know the call you're hearing is from God and not somewhere else? I don't have the answer to those questions, but I continue to seek them.
So, if I were a patient person, the events of this week would not be out of the ordinary. I'm finally getting a lot of activity on the job market, as I suspected would happen all along. I did have faith that I would not be out of work forever, and I had faith that I would end up in a job that I enjoyed and allowed me to continue my lifestyle. But I didn't have the patience to let it happen in its own time. As a result, I've burdened myself with a lot of pressure, stress, and frustration that I could have avoided. I could have enjoyed my time off a little more than I did.
Right after I got the news that I would be unemployed, I spoke with someone who had gone through the same situation about 6 months earlier. It only took him about 6 weeks to find a new job, one where he was much happier than the one where I knew him. Anyway, he mentioned that he really wished he had taken approach that his time off was a well-deserved vacation and enjoyed it more. At the time, I thought, "That's an excellent way of looking at the situation." He really inspired me. Then, about 10 minutes later, the inspiration went away, and the anguish of the upcoming job search came in.
As I sit here typing this afternoon, I'm of a mixed mind. I wish I had been more patient the last couple of months. I wish I had enjoyed myself more. I will say that I'm going to enjoy the time off I have left and make the most of it. And maybe, the next time I get impatient with myself or the world, I can look back at this time in my life and remember what I lost by losing patience. At least, I hope I can do that.
I've been out of work for over two months (in case you hadn't caught that tidbit elsewhere in the blog), and it's driving me crazy. Ask my wife. I'm ready to work in the job I want right now. But perhaps my schedule is once again not in line with God's schedule.
How do you know when to listen for God's call? How do you know the call you're hearing is from God and not somewhere else? I don't have the answer to those questions, but I continue to seek them.
So, if I were a patient person, the events of this week would not be out of the ordinary. I'm finally getting a lot of activity on the job market, as I suspected would happen all along. I did have faith that I would not be out of work forever, and I had faith that I would end up in a job that I enjoyed and allowed me to continue my lifestyle. But I didn't have the patience to let it happen in its own time. As a result, I've burdened myself with a lot of pressure, stress, and frustration that I could have avoided. I could have enjoyed my time off a little more than I did.
Right after I got the news that I would be unemployed, I spoke with someone who had gone through the same situation about 6 months earlier. It only took him about 6 weeks to find a new job, one where he was much happier than the one where I knew him. Anyway, he mentioned that he really wished he had taken approach that his time off was a well-deserved vacation and enjoyed it more. At the time, I thought, "That's an excellent way of looking at the situation." He really inspired me. Then, about 10 minutes later, the inspiration went away, and the anguish of the upcoming job search came in.
As I sit here typing this afternoon, I'm of a mixed mind. I wish I had been more patient the last couple of months. I wish I had enjoyed myself more. I will say that I'm going to enjoy the time off I have left and make the most of it. And maybe, the next time I get impatient with myself or the world, I can look back at this time in my life and remember what I lost by losing patience. At least, I hope I can do that.
Creativity
While there are some people who are better able to express their innate creativity than others, "being creative" isn't something you can will into being. Trust me, I've tried. The last couple of months of unemployment have given me a wide-open slate of time to "express my creativity." Bollocks. Many of the "creative" things I've wanted to accomplish in this time remain undone. Just having the time to get something accomplished does not equate to getting it done. Ask my publishers.
Two items occupied the top of my list of goals for this idle time. Well, three, really, but one of those wasn't creatively-motivated, it was more in line with getting food on the table. Anyway, I had hoped to make use of this time to establish some solid creative writing habits and get some practice on my fiction chops. The other was to spend time in my studio and finish some incomplete tracks and start some new ones. As I enter my last week of unemployment, I'm going to give myself a report card.
Creative Writing: B+
While I intended for my creative writing to be in the fiction realm, I have carried the practice of writing through the break by maintaining this and a couple of other private blogs. One of those blogs was a "fictionalized" account of a story that I thought would be solid through a diary style. That fizzled pretty quickly, but I've found ways to write on a number of varying topics through this particular blog. By doing so, I've channeled my energies into the craft of writing and not just the activity. I'm able to focus on issues such as word choice, constructive variety, and so on. Am I a better writer? Maybe. Am I the next blogger to get picked up for a book deal? Very doubtful. But the practice has been very therapeutic, which has helped me cope if nothing else.
Music: C-
This is probably a generous score here, but I'm trying to compensate for my natural tendency to be harder on myself than others would be. I could fall back on the excuses that my studio is still in state of chaos, despite numerous attempts to organize and make it useful. However, I have brought a couple of items to near completion. One is a "live" mix of "The Warm-Up Song" that's been kicking around in my head and hard drive for a little over three years. I mastered one surround-sound mix that works pretty well, but still needs a few tweaks. I missed points for not spending the time to get those tweaks finalized the last few weeks. The second was a surround-sound mix of a "new" tune that I've actually tried to get finished twice in the last year. I was hoping to enter it into a songwriting contest last May, but couldn't get it done in time. Well, it's still not done. Not even started are a couple of other tunes in various stages of completion that I'm wanting to enter into this year's songwriting contest. Even today, I look at the state of my studio and think "nah, not gonna happen today, either."
Motivation: F
Here's the real reason my creative juices have yet to gush forth. Despite the time available, which has been my excuse for years and years, I just haven't been able to get motivated to get moving on these projects. That's why deadlines are such wonderful things. I can be a procrastinator, probably worse than most, but not horribly so. Given a hard deadline at which the work must be done, motivation is not a problem. Not knowing how long my unemployment streak would run, I've been able to say to myself, "Well, I've still got time." No mas.
Creativity cannot be enabled in a vacuum by itself. You can't just "flip the creativity switch" and create something of beauty "just because." Creativity is, at least, sparked by inspiration and, at best, sustained by a muse. Periods of my life where I felt I was at my most creative were when my muse was working overtime. My muse existed in the form of my co-conspirators working with me in musical ventures. I have no problem saying that I would not have been able to write half of what I did without the inspiration and collaboration of Greg Ross. I would never have had the inspiration to keep moving forward with the music at the Campus Ministry without the companionship and dedication of Suzy Jenkins, Byron Fisher, and Ric Jones. In my very early days in junior high school, I would not have been able to write such everlasting hits as "The Black Knight" or "Don't Wanna Believe" without the energy of Tracy Wilson, Jesse Martinez (rest in peace), and Steven Williams.
Does this mean that I'm incapable of writing music on my own? No, but while I'm in the regular practice of playing with others at least weekly, I'm very in tune with my instruments and my musical center. I've written a number of songs during periods when I had no additional musical interactions. Maybe I'm just not ready to get there yet. I can almost guarantee you, however, that when I learn the deadline for this year's songwriter's contest, I'll find the motivation to get those two tunes recorded and submitted.
So I continue my quest for my muse, my inspiration for my musical self. I have some new guides along the way: a recently-constructed hammered dulcimer, a Native American-style wood flute, and a bamboo clarinet and saxophone in my instrument arsenal. I've started lessons on the dulcimer, and I just acquired some new music to help develop chops on the wind instruments. In one session with the dulcimer yesterday, I discovered a melodic idea that I really liked and think I can develop into a more complete musical motif, hopefully the basis for a new tune. And despite the fact that I'm reentering the workforce and will not have as much time available for project work, I am committed to maintaining the positive habits I've developed in the interim. Which means that you'll get to see new posts to this blog for a long time coming. One of those posts will be a link to a recording of a newly-completed track from my studio. Maybe even by this weekend!
Two items occupied the top of my list of goals for this idle time. Well, three, really, but one of those wasn't creatively-motivated, it was more in line with getting food on the table. Anyway, I had hoped to make use of this time to establish some solid creative writing habits and get some practice on my fiction chops. The other was to spend time in my studio and finish some incomplete tracks and start some new ones. As I enter my last week of unemployment, I'm going to give myself a report card.
Creative Writing: B+
While I intended for my creative writing to be in the fiction realm, I have carried the practice of writing through the break by maintaining this and a couple of other private blogs. One of those blogs was a "fictionalized" account of a story that I thought would be solid through a diary style. That fizzled pretty quickly, but I've found ways to write on a number of varying topics through this particular blog. By doing so, I've channeled my energies into the craft of writing and not just the activity. I'm able to focus on issues such as word choice, constructive variety, and so on. Am I a better writer? Maybe. Am I the next blogger to get picked up for a book deal? Very doubtful. But the practice has been very therapeutic, which has helped me cope if nothing else.
Music: C-
This is probably a generous score here, but I'm trying to compensate for my natural tendency to be harder on myself than others would be. I could fall back on the excuses that my studio is still in state of chaos, despite numerous attempts to organize and make it useful. However, I have brought a couple of items to near completion. One is a "live" mix of "The Warm-Up Song" that's been kicking around in my head and hard drive for a little over three years. I mastered one surround-sound mix that works pretty well, but still needs a few tweaks. I missed points for not spending the time to get those tweaks finalized the last few weeks. The second was a surround-sound mix of a "new" tune that I've actually tried to get finished twice in the last year. I was hoping to enter it into a songwriting contest last May, but couldn't get it done in time. Well, it's still not done. Not even started are a couple of other tunes in various stages of completion that I'm wanting to enter into this year's songwriting contest. Even today, I look at the state of my studio and think "nah, not gonna happen today, either."
Motivation: F
Here's the real reason my creative juices have yet to gush forth. Despite the time available, which has been my excuse for years and years, I just haven't been able to get motivated to get moving on these projects. That's why deadlines are such wonderful things. I can be a procrastinator, probably worse than most, but not horribly so. Given a hard deadline at which the work must be done, motivation is not a problem. Not knowing how long my unemployment streak would run, I've been able to say to myself, "Well, I've still got time." No mas.
Creativity cannot be enabled in a vacuum by itself. You can't just "flip the creativity switch" and create something of beauty "just because." Creativity is, at least, sparked by inspiration and, at best, sustained by a muse. Periods of my life where I felt I was at my most creative were when my muse was working overtime. My muse existed in the form of my co-conspirators working with me in musical ventures. I have no problem saying that I would not have been able to write half of what I did without the inspiration and collaboration of Greg Ross. I would never have had the inspiration to keep moving forward with the music at the Campus Ministry without the companionship and dedication of Suzy Jenkins, Byron Fisher, and Ric Jones. In my very early days in junior high school, I would not have been able to write such everlasting hits as "The Black Knight" or "Don't Wanna Believe" without the energy of Tracy Wilson, Jesse Martinez (rest in peace), and Steven Williams.
Does this mean that I'm incapable of writing music on my own? No, but while I'm in the regular practice of playing with others at least weekly, I'm very in tune with my instruments and my musical center. I've written a number of songs during periods when I had no additional musical interactions. Maybe I'm just not ready to get there yet. I can almost guarantee you, however, that when I learn the deadline for this year's songwriter's contest, I'll find the motivation to get those two tunes recorded and submitted.
So I continue my quest for my muse, my inspiration for my musical self. I have some new guides along the way: a recently-constructed hammered dulcimer, a Native American-style wood flute, and a bamboo clarinet and saxophone in my instrument arsenal. I've started lessons on the dulcimer, and I just acquired some new music to help develop chops on the wind instruments. In one session with the dulcimer yesterday, I discovered a melodic idea that I really liked and think I can develop into a more complete musical motif, hopefully the basis for a new tune. And despite the fact that I'm reentering the workforce and will not have as much time available for project work, I am committed to maintaining the positive habits I've developed in the interim. Which means that you'll get to see new posts to this blog for a long time coming. One of those posts will be a link to a recording of a newly-completed track from my studio. Maybe even by this weekend!
Monday, January 12, 2004
Celebrity
Yesterday, I took Anna down to the Dallas Home Landscape Show at the Dallas Convention Center. Normally, we head down to the Neil Sperry All-Garden Show in Arlington each year, but there was a special reason to head to this show this year: Andrew Dan-Jumbo from While You Were Out. He was the featured celebrity at the show on Sunday, and gave two short talks in the afternoon, then gave autographs and photo ops.
Did we remember to bring the camera? Of course we did! Here are just a few memories from the show:
Andrew speaks from the stage.
Andrew speaks to fans after the second talk.
Andrew signs a fan's shirt.
But I don't really care what Andrew did with other fans. What did he do for us?
Andrew chats it up with Anna.
Andrew is a handsome gentleman. No, he's the one in the middle. That's me on the left.
Did we remember to bring the camera? Of course we did! Here are just a few memories from the show:
Andrew speaks from the stage.
Andrew speaks to fans after the second talk.
Andrew signs a fan's shirt.
But I don't really care what Andrew did with other fans. What did he do for us?
Andrew chats it up with Anna.
Andrew is a handsome gentleman. No, he's the one in the middle. That's me on the left.
Entire contents of this site © 2003-2004 Eriq Oliver Neale/Simultaneous Pancakes Media unless otherwise noted. I hate that I have to point that out...
