Plunging strength against the sea

Quote for the day comes from Steinbeck: "Kino would drive his strength against a mountain and plunge his strength against the sea. Juana, in her woman's soul, knew that the mountain would stand while the man broke himself; that the sea would surge while the man drowned in it. And yet it was this thing that made him a man, half insane and half god, and Juana had need of a man." I really hated that book (10 points if you knew what it was without Googling), but I rather enjoyed the quote.

I had a corned beef sandwich for lunch today, and it was very good. It had corned beef, pesto, provolone cheese, and grilled peppers on it. It might be worth trying to make them at home. If anyone wishes to join in this experiment, then we can make it an expedition.

Incidentally, it is indeed much easier to get songs written while the computer is unplugged from the Internet. I finally managed to scratch out something passable on my little electronic keyboard. I really wish I were better at it.

The End of the Internet

I made an attempt at productive catching up on things today. It went okay. I ran out of places to stick things a while ago, so I've purchased a bunch of big plastic cabinets for organizing my stuff. Hopefully this will help me get clutter down to a saner level. Of course, there is always the rather high risk that the clutter will be increased by a net total of several big plastic cabinets; we'll just have to see.

I've been thinking about buying an electric piano again. I have a decent MIDI setup on my computer, and I have several half-finished computer programs which I was writing to teach myself to sight-read. Real pianos have a much better sound, but electric pianos have the enormous advantage of being usable while wearing headphones, which is particularly nice for composing stuff -- I can play something incredibly repetitive or not-quite-right without worrying about irritating the neighbors (never mind the roommate). I bought myself a little keyboard a while ago, and while it's definitely a step up from typing notes in by name, it's kind of cramped.

Speaking of which, I've noticed that it's gotten more difficult for me to do creative things on a computer. I think it's because I use them as a tool far more than I use them as a toy anymore, and it's kind of sad. It used to be that the only reason I'd ever use a word processor was for writing a story, but now word processors put me in technical report mode. I still write short stories occasionally, but now it's almost all written out with a pencil and paper. The same seems to go for composition, somewhat--I have a couple ideas bouncing around, but I'm having an awfully difficult time actually staying focused enough to get them down.

Perhaps the problem is really habitual multi-tasking. When I first started using computers, they didn't have any kind of network connection at all, and you could only really use one program at a time. Maybe the endless distraction of hopping on the web, dashing off instant messages, or checking e-mail is detrimental. Perhaps I should try unplug the network cable sometime and see how it goes.

Random Tidbits

I am starting to build up quite the collection of potential blog posts in my unpublished pile. Most of them aren't very good. This post will be an attempt to include all the stuff that looked half decent and chuck out the rest.

The photo on the left is one of my favorites from our California trip. There's a gorgeous stretch of I-15 that weaves back and forth through towering Arizonan canyons for a few dozen miles. Then, just as you're cresting the hill and crossing the border into Utah, you get this shamelessly showy golden landscape rising over the horizon, and the road drops for miles downward toward those mountains. I was trying to make a picture that both captured the impressiveness of the landscape and the feel of driving into it.

Next on the random list, there's a fungus that's actually digesting the radioactive materials inside of the Chernobyl reactor. That article's a wee bit dodgy, by the way, but you can find something more level-headed if you look for a bit. It's already amazing that a life form can live inside of a heavily radioactive environment, but actually using the radioactivity as a food source earns mother nature yet another hat-tip: She's smarter than we are. Again.

A while back, on the freeway, I saw what was apparently an ad for a (self-published?) book. I didn't catch the title, but in large letters, the contents were described as "Harry Potter Meets Star Wars." This struck me as such a fantastically bad idea that I immediately wanted to read the book. Luke Skywalker confronting the school bully Anakin, waving a light saber that only works when you yell Latinesque phrases? Harry flying a broomstick powered X-wing in some kind of mega-dangerous, octane charged intergalactic race to defeat the evil sorceror? The possibilities are endless and, almost universally, very stupid.

Finally, it's about time to get some entries up for the family photo competition. My first entry is a picture of Cavan, who having apparently woken up a measly 13 seconds earlier, is still stunned by the extremely rapid sequence of events that resulted in him sitting inside a precariously rocking skyline on a windy day. At least, I think that's what the facial expression means.

This next picture is entitled "too much fun." One of Disneyland's less- advertised features is that after a few hours, your kids will be so totally overstimulated that they will collapse in little exhausted puddles. This is a picture of my nephew, chilling in the stroller between rides. I spent a lot of time with the Kjars, and I have to say that this little guy did a stellar job of behaving. He demonstrates wisdom and patience beyond his three years.

This next shot is just cute--Granny's chilling with the grandson, while everyone is hurrying up and waiting for the next family shot. I love it when you can get good shots of people just being themselves without trying to pose for the camera. They always look a lot more relaxed and genuine. If the shot happens to be well-composed, so much the better.

I have some other pretty good shots, but I think that will do for now. Also, this post seems to be trying to set some kind of length record. Congratulations on reaching the end of it!