Attempting to make up for infrequency with abundance

Man, it's been a while since I have been here. This means I have to remember what has happened all week, which sort of defeats the purpose of having a journal and posting regularly, but there you have it. The big event was the SMP (Soapy Music Project) party last night, which turned out to be a smashing success - more on that in a bit.

TW3

What can be said of the week that was? No biking, still a lazy-butt in that category, but still lots of walks. It is really nice to have the zoo and Green Lake so close by. I feel like I have been busy, but I don't know why. There's no grant writing happening right now, and while Melvin and I worked on a project together at school last week, it really didn't take a whole lot of time. Otis and I tried out a new restaurant down the block (the fourth one in the location since I have moved here) and it was pretty good "Asian Fusion" and cheap, too. Tried another Thai place in Fremont that is as good as or better than Jai Thai, I think: Tawon Thai. Still haven't done anything with the sidecar rig and still need to fix the scooter seat. What a bum! What the heck have I been doing, anyway? I did get a new cell phone because the "3" stopped working my old one... wow.

House Party

So, the party: Otis and I welcomed Melvin, Dar, Andres(1), Jen Forceful, Di, Soapy (the guest of honor), the Johnbai action figure (with wedding-blowing-off and annoying-new-camera action), and surprise witness Sunny-Vee. It was a roisterous good time, full of good-natured japes and jests that would likely be actionable in many jurisdictions.

Soapy brought his own stereo, apparently because mine is shite, and we all got to hear some wonderfully intricate and diverse compositions. All kidding aside, his stuff is really good. Here is a sample, something I have called Funkadelicious just for the sake of having a name to link. (The whole point of the exercise, after all, was for Soapy to get some critical reactions that would help him name the pieces, and he's not done with that process yet.) (The consensus from the group for the title of this track was "Needs to be Fifteen Minutes Long.") It was a great ride through Soapy's imagination: much of the stuff was classical or classical-ish, but there were jazzy bits and dancey bits and all of it was engaging and enjoyable. It was also fun to see how people responded with common images and feelings - sometimes down to the specific words used to attempt to describe the mood evoked. Good times, and I think we will indeed need to draft Soapy to provide a live, real-time soundtrack for our upcoming Fractured Flickers event.

After the music appreciation class, we played a rousing game of Guesstures. It was heartwarming to see the teamwork, the camaraderie, the support, the positive energy, and the spirit of fair play displayed in the game: of course, that all came from Mel; the rest of the group comprised a heartless, pitiless and cruel gauntlet of humiliation that each player had to face. And the opposing team was even harsher. I haven't laughed so damn hard in a long time. Highlights: Otis-magnetic-death-robot; Johnbai, the not-a-frickin'-crab, and Mel shoving her entire left hand into the little plastic box to forcibly extract a descending card.

Otis's threats of tea apparently chased everyone out sometime before 1:00 am. The house is all back in order, and I'm putting this one in the win column.

&c.

This morning, I ran the pinky toe of my right foot into the door of the bedroom. When I looked down it was bent in the middle, pointing to the right -- just like Johnbai's finger did at his basketball game! I get to join the DPC - the Dislocated Phalange Club! I pulled on it and felt the little pop and taped it up and I think it's fine now. It was kinda fun, except for the pain part, and even that was kinda fun, too.

Speaking of small injuries, here's a new LPD cartoon with a couple of firsts: it is the first multi-tiered strip and the first self-referential strip.

Here's is a link to something I think will be funny for Johnbai and Di and Dar and Soapy and maybe some other tarentinophiles out there.

And something else almost indescribable for everyone. Consider yourself warned.

Thanks for everything, gang, and have a great Mother's Day.