ready to master!

I recorded at the Rubber Room over a year ago (see this post). Adjusting the volume, cutting out silences, putting in fade-in and fade-outs, and typing up the lyrics was only a few hours work, but I managed to drag it out over a year (I may actually need to type up lyrics to one more song). It comes to 11 songs, at 37.8 minutes. I've long said albums should be at least 40 minutes long (especially given that a CD will hold twice that) and now I have to eat my words.

Now I need to figure out what order to put the songs in. I'll play with it for a little while.

I have a good lead on someone to do the design and Stephan gave me a couple suggestions about duplication, so it should actually be out soon. If you want to pre-order please send me an email.

wish list is working!

I guess the Amazon wish list was worth the effort because I've received one thing from it already (a nice globe). Thanks mom! I put it away in the closet and won't let myself use it until my birthday. It's set up to not let me know if things have been purchased or not the month before my birthday to maintain surprise.

Also, if you have a wish list please let me know.

the smartest I'll ever be

My Portuguese instructor said that when I take my comp I'll be the smartest I'll ever be. So I should peak next Sunday. Personally I feel like the whole process is making me dumber, as summed up in this comic. So maybe after my comp I'll not only forget much of that material but forget that I ever knew it and forget about whole research areas where I know very little...

underlining in books is stupid

I bought a used copy of a book for my seminar because it saved me lots of money. It bugs me having a book someone else has marked up though. Especially when the previous reader underlined entire paragraphs. It makes it hard to read. I've found the most effective ways to mark important text with brackets or underlining around important words or phrases (often the words or phrases I would write in the margin to summarize the focus of a section) or with check-marks and vertical lines in the margin to note important parts. A vertical line next to the entire paragraph marks the entire paragraph as important, takes less time, and is more tidy.

I realize people read and learn differently and some people benefit from underlining or hi-lighting as they read. But it's allowed to annoy me. Especially with one of the most important tests in my life a week and a day away.

Actually overall my mood is good. I just felt like doing that thing where you write about mundane stuff that doesn't really matter on your blog. Who knows? Maybe someone will read this and try my system for marking in a book and benefit from it or something.