Areas of Unrest

8 October 2000 - Duckbilled Platitudes

QOTD: "In a way, television may be the ultimate labor-saving device. It's easy to use, it creates little or no mess, and it saves all the hassles of having a social life." - David Brittan

Reading: Dick Francis, Flying Finish

Listening to: Reilly & Maloney, Profiles

The other day at work, I was reading some papers from a guy at an Australian university on requirements engineering. Mary Joan asked me if they were any good. I said, "looks like mostly the usual platitudes. And, since they're from Australia, I guess they're duckbilled platitudes." Hence, the title. It's not like I come up with clever phrases all that often, so I have to milk them for what they're worth when I do.

This has been an insanely hectic weekend. If I think about it, I only had real commitments for 8 hours of it (a 3 hour music class yesterday, a 2 hour movie yesterday and 3 hours of gaming today) but it feels like I haven't had a free minute. Part of that is all the errands I had to run. And a lot of it is the realization that I'm scheduled to travel the next four weeks. Normal life gets compressed into the odds and ends of time that I'm home, and that wears me out. I'm also frustrated with how many other things I wanted to do that there wasn't time for, with the biggest disappointment being not feeling up to driving down to Capistrano to see the Old Blind Dogs.

By the way, the class was useful because I learned exactly what my problem with singing is. Namely, that I'm not breathing deeply enough to sustain a pitch, leading to shakiness and wavering. That's a useful insight, since it suggests what I can do to help. Not that one expects a three hour class to be enough to overcome thirty some odd years of pain associated with not having a good voice. But I left feeling some hope.

As for the movie, that was "The Tic Code". It's probably only of interest to people who are as obsessed with neurology and jazz music as I am (it's sort of about Tourette's syndrome), as it was somewhat predictable. I'd meant to see it for a while, but it's only been playing in Westwood, which is close by but has inconvenient parking. So I waited until I had another reason to run over there. I needed a couple of blank books and I knew I could get the ones I liked at Aahs, so that worked well.

I need to run, since I have to cook dinner and eat before Yom Kippur starts. Which is also why I left gaming early, after Lauren slaughtered us at Settlers of Cataan. I'd suggest slowing down the rotation of the earth, but that's probably not a good idea before a day of fasting.

Special Offer:

Ever wonder about the music I say I'm listening to? Can't hear Snakefarm or Old Blind Dogs or Pierre Bensusan on your local radio station? Well, here's your chance. In the spirit of musical evangelism I've made a mix tape of music I referred to in my margin notes over the past year. I also happen to have another mix tape handy, mostly of World Beat stuff, that I'd made for another purpose. All you have to do is send me email with your address, telling me if you want the AOU41 tape or the Worlds of Unrest tape (or both) before the end of October 2000. (The links are to playlists.) Nothing is required in return, beyond your willingness to listen. If I decide this was a successful experiment, I'll make it an annual event.