Hello once again, dear reader.

I know it has been ages since I last posted. Since you are apparently still checking, I will bring you up to speed on what has happened the past three months.

Act I. Less than a week until Christmas. My boss calls me (and everyone else) in. Sales have been quite bad. The company is going into “hibernation mode.” I am laid off. Effective immediately. There is a tiny severance package, but nothing that really reflects the decade I spent at a particularly boring job that was not putting my skills and talents to good use. I am freaked out, but I know that it is just the kick I need to find a job that suits me better.

Act II. Job hunting. There are some jobs around that are a good fit. I apply. There are other jobs that I wish were a good fit, but that means having a PhD. I start talking about finally returning to school to earn a doctorate (this time, in Mathematics) after dropping out of a Computer Science PhD program (ABD) ten years ago. Stress levels are high at home. Interviews are taking forever to set up. In late January/early February, I finally interview at a couple of places.

Act III. Mid-February. Colorado State University offers me a job developing disease spread modeling software (NAADSM). After some agonizing, I decide that it is where I should be. I can bike to work, take classes, and work on something that I believe is making the world a better place. In general, I can get back to my core values.

Epilogue. Tomorrow I start my new job. It has been an anxiety-filled few months, but now I can relax and get back to productive work. I can also wrap up my admissions essay, contact my references, and re-take the GRE (What?! The one I rocked 15 years ago is no longer valid?) in the next week.

In the meantime, I have been directing some of my stress energy into writing new songs. None of them are completed yet, but they are definitely moving forward. I am not certain what sort of project these will be released under, but I do think that they are going to be released sometime. I have decided that I must finish up and release my currently pending projects before I begin school in August. That is roughly what my release schedule looked like anyway, but now it feels like even more of a must. Hopefully having a real deadline will push me more than wishful thinking has the past couple of years.

Tschuess.

Lots of news.

Winter Colors is still not wrapped up. I am starting to think that it is just one of these things that will be done when it is done. No real deadline. I will probably be happier with the final product with that approach. And that will also mean that I will be able to gather winter footage for the accompanying film. I am still going to keep working on it, but this makes me feel better already.

One of the things that helped me decide to stop pushing so hard—other than my current hatred for so some of my latest pieces—is my desire to write a goth album during October or November. Originally I was definitely going to do it during November as part of National Solo Album Month (NaSoAlMo). Writing another novel during National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)—also November—is probably enough to have on my plate, so I am currently considering doing it during October. If I do, I will also allow myself to break other NaSoAlMo rules by doing things like pulling in guest vocalists.

Before I do that, though, I have an EP to finish up. A week ago, someone challenged me to write a few songs on a particular subject. I almost immediately had ideas for a dozen tracks. I pruned that down to four and have been working on them over the past week. My goal is to start releasing them as Timely Releases sometime during the next couple of weeks. Keep an eye out.

And if you already know the subject, please keep it to yourself until the release. I want it to be a surprise.

Also, next weekend Spandex Jellybeans is going to reconvene. I am not sure whether we will just be wrapping up existing tracks, writing new ones, recording vocals for other projects, or what. Whatever it is, I am sure that it will be a blast. Hopefully this session will result in a new release.

That is about all of the news that I can share right now.

Tschuess.

Well, we survived our first Art Night. Art Night? Yes. Let me explain.

A couple of years ago Kristi and I started wishing that we had a venue to perform. We are not necessarily up to playing at an open mic night or anything, but we wanted to share what we are doing. And we have a bunch of awesome, creative friends who we rarely get to see do their thing. Couple that with our appreciation of various historical groups of creative minds (Bloomsbury Group, William Morris and his lecture series, etc) and we had the ingredients necessary for creating a fun-filled evening.

Initially only a few of our friends showed interest. Most instead showed a fear of getting up in front of others. Part of the plan was to get over that fear. How to do that, though?

Two months ago we sent out an invitation. We wanted to give people time to come up with something. We also wanted a chance to find enough people to meet our goal of 10 participants. Then we followed up a month ago and then last week with reminders. Our initial invitation list was pushing what we thought we could hold in our small home, and we necessarily had to leave some friends out. It was tough for us to do.

In the end we had 8 people after a few canceled with little notice. Each one was given 5-10 minutes to do their thing. They got up in front of everyone else and had the spotlight for their allotted time. They were fantastic.

Tonight Tam told a story, Gene demonstrated the construction and use of the diggeridoo, Scott shared stereo (and other) photos that he had taken, Jessie and I took “the stage” as Spandex Jellybeans and played a 20 minute set, Michael played some songs on his acoustic guitar and sang a bit, Kristi showed us some plant photos she had taken, and Simmon played guitar and sang a couple of songs in Esperanto.

We are hoping to get together every two or three months for Art Night. The format may change. This is a bit of an experiment, but the initial form seems to work. It was awesome to see what everyone did and we are already talking about “the next one.” What more could we ask for?

But now I am sleepy.