More Tendon crap

It's been 3 weeks since I hurt myself playing with So Percussion, and today I started to feel actual pain while playing. I know I whine about this a lot here, but it really concerns me. I don't really have time to take off from playing this year, so I need this to pass. I'm seeing my therapist again on Friday, so hopefully he can help me out.

Even though Thursdays are my busiest days, I'm going to try to start moving tomorrow. I have to teach jazz ear training in the morning, then go to orchestra until 5:30, but after I eat dinner maybe I can find some time to move stuff before I go to choir rehearsal at 7. I guess it's only an hour, but hey--it's a start. I'll start moving stuff for real on Friday.

I can't wait to get out of this apartment--even though I love it. The last month here has been a real struggle--the building's completely empty, the ceiling is falling apart and I have had no motivation to keep the place clean--simply because I'm leaving soon. But I'm really going to miss this place. I have a lot of fond memories about this apartment, even though it was basically my tendinitis jail cell. I wish I could go back to the beginning of my junior year of college. I was at school practicing all day (with no pain!), would get to hang out with all my friends there, and then come home to my roommate mixing rum and cokes and playing Wii sports. What a great time! Hanging out with him was awesome, practicing all day was awesome... I wish I hadn't spent so much of that time being sad about the break-up I went through over the summer. Of course, then the pain kicked in at the beginning of November... and the rest is history.

But even still: re-arranging furniture, getting plants, playing Chrono Cross with the windows open in the springtime, reading on my roof, jamming with Nick, and heck, getting drunk just because we could. I'll probably even miss doing dishes with a dishwasher (new place doesn't have one!) All of these things are memories now, but they are memories that I will hold close for the rest of my life. Even the little things. Especially the little things.

By the way, I'm an unbelievably nostalgic person.

Clever commercials

So I was watching Heroes today, and a commercial for some toy train set by Playskool came on. At least I think it was Playskool. Whatever. Anyway, the jingle for the commercial went "Play, Laugh, Grow", and the notes were something like "D, A, C". But being the nerd I am, I instinctively began singing it in solfege syllables. "Re, La, Do!"

Do you see the connection?!

Anyway, I played for the first time since So was here today. Wasn't too bad, but my arm still doesn't feel great. I hope it gets better soon. I think it will--it's not hurting anymore, so I know that's better. But it still feels pretty weak.

I'm trying to get my life as a whole super organized, now that I have some time to do that. To start, I've changed my active email address from @comcast.net to @gmail.com. Honestly, the biggest reason I wanted to switch to Gmail is because I liked the idea of being able to delete Thunderbird off my computer. Don't get me wrong, I think Thunderbird is a great program. But if I'm using Internet Explorer, I want to use Outlook Express for email. If I'm using Firefox for browsing, I want Thunderbird as my email. But I use Google Chrome as a browser now, and Google doesn't have a client-side email application. Honestly, I freakin' love Google. I use Google Chrome, Google Pages, Google Calendar... heck, YouTube and Blogger are also owned by Google. If Google takes over the world and suddenly I find myself under a worldwide dictatorship, so be it. At least I'll be able to find my shit.

My laptop is on it's way out, unfortunately. The power jack is failing more and more, the longer it's on... I have a feeling by the end of this week it will become completely unresponsive. I need to purchase a new power jack and have someone replace it for me (unless I want to try to replace it myself, but that's risky). Once I do that, I need to replace the battery. After that, I need to fix my iPod. After that, I need to repossess my desktop and fill it with memory/ram. If I can do all of that, I will reorganize my software and keep my laptop for personal stuff (homework, email, browsing, and of course chatting), and use my desktop strictly for music and perhaps some gaming (like I have time to do that anymore anyway). Apparently desktops are way more stable than laptops in general when it comes to music stuff, and if I can get the right upgrades my desktop should do me a lot of good.

I actually really miss playing video games. It's weird... during the school year, I'm pretty much scared of playing them because I assume there's something more important I need to do. However, it's one of those things that really helps me blow off steam from the stresses of school. I guess everyone needs a hobby, and gaming for me isn't like how it is for most basement-dwelling 20-30 year olds who got their degree in computer science so that they could use irc in all of their classes. Every game I play, I'm playing it like it's a form of art--listening to the music, seeing how it interacts with the artwork, the gameplay, how the art interacts with the gameplay and the script, how the script interacts with the music, etc. The game to best achieve this balance for me is by far Cave Story (or Dokutsu Monogatari, if you are Japaneasily inclined). Closest thing to a perfect game you'll ever play.

Of course, writing blog posts like this aren't really much of a better use of my time. I guess at least I'm writing, which is something you're supposed to be good at.