RLPF.ar

Today was my first day of classes. As is often the case, the anticipation is worse than the event. Once I got in front of the class, coffee in hand (or "security blanket"?), I was just fine but before then... tossing and turning most of the night, butter… more »

My first class: Tuesday! That's closer than I thought, but it will be just an introductory session, nothing heavy. I also know my teaching schedule now: Tuesday morning classes, and individual lessons Tuesday afternoon. That's it! The rest of the week is… more »

And I thought the first move to China was turning my life upside down! Bus trip -- no problem. Meeting Phillips (department chair's assistant) -- also pretty clean, apart from a mixup with the cell phone SIM card that made it unusable outside of Zhuhai… more »

Thursday, first thing in the morning. That's when we go to Guangzhou. I'm eager to go, and tired of stagnating in Zhuhai -- true, I've been working away on music, but it's mostly self-directed activity, not much inspiration coming from people around me.… more »

I'm slowly feeling more awake and alert through the day. Yesterday at this time, I couldn't do anything but crash into bed. Tonight, I'm blogging. That's progress. Contributing to the fatigue has been a new sensation: nervousness about my teaching gig,… more »

Not much to say now -- well, there could be plenty to say but I've been up and about for a couple of days solid (except for a few hours of "sleep" in the contorted positions demanded by economy-class seats), leaving me a bit less lucid than I normally li… more »

This was one of those trips where the flight was the least eventful part of the journey! (The alternative could only be worse.) The skinny --Some heavy flash storms gummed up DC traffic as badly as I've ever seen. The storms themselves were brief, bu… more »

It turns out I didn't read the fine print about KXStudio. Since having those difficulties with it, I found other reports online that it isn't an especially stable Ubuntu flavor. So I wiped it out and put standard Ubuntu 10.04 in its place, and found... b… more »

(geek stuff) On my to-do list for this trip: Get a new machine that will eventually replace my four-year-old MacBook Pro. It's mostly a precaution; I'm not seeing any behavior on my Mac that would suggest impending hardware failure, but... laptop hard… more »

(Somewhat techie content) High stress the last couple of days. I'm (finally) looking for a new laptop for Linux. The first challenge: I need an express-card expansion slot for my FireWire audio interface. These seem to be dying off as quickly as built-… more »

#1 errand today: Go to the Chinese visa office in Washington and present my "foreign expert" certification, to have the working visa required for my teaching job stamped into my passport. This went as smoothly as could be hoped, apart from a brief moment… more »

Now I'm in DC, for four days of meetings (and maybe an extra half) with the dancers and video artist for Affectations. Lorne, the video guy, is even more of a geek than I am; my techie side is fully indulged. Good fun! Today's studio time was first thi… more »

http://www.wlbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=12905283  Investigators say [the arrested individuals] tried to pass off a block of wood and a notebook binder with paper as computers. It recalls H. L. Mencken's old saw, that "No one ever went broke underest… more »