Is anyone else exhausted? Is everyone else exhausted? I keep thinking “I should write” but I don’t have the energy to do much anything, let alone write about it. It’s not just that there’s not a lot going on, but there’s a lot about to be going on and I can worry about things that haven’t happened with the best of them.
So, I guess now that I brought it up, I might as well get this out of the way: Over a very short period, I’m going to be checked for three Very Bad Things. Two of them are likely false alarms, tested out of an abundance of caution. The third is the biopsy I mention before. All three checks will be performed over a period of seven days, and that’s a lot to have on one’s mind.
But, it’s not all doom and gloom: I got to go up to Austin last weekend and drop off one of my keyboards for repair. “How is that a good thing?” I imagine you are asking. Well, the repair shop is a joint called Switched On and they have a new space up near Flightpath and it is an absolute wonderland for synth nerds. Not only do they do repairs, but they have a showroom full of mostly-vintage beasties for sale. So, if you ever wanted to play Van Halen or Rush on an old Oberheim? Stop in! John is still running the place and he is one of those good, “old Austin” types whose handshake can be trusted and smile is genuine.
Don’t take him any Casio CZs, though-they’re bears to fix.
Or maybe it was all doom and gloom, because, leaving Dragon’s Lair, I backed into a car that was backing out directly opposite of me. Nothing major, but still, it rattles you. They said that they saw me and laid on their horn which was puzzling because, if you saw a car backing into the same space you were back in to, you’d think you’d stop and maybe pull back into the space, right? Anyway, I don’t miss being around traffic.
On the plus side, I did pick up a couple of comics I’d never heard of and was delighted by them both. Chip Zdarsky’s Public Domain is as personal and as meta as it gets, but it’s Zdarsky, so those are strengths as opposed to annoyances. It’s very much not what I was expecting, but I’m excited to see where he goes with it. I had no expectations at all for Zack Kaplan and John Pearson’s Mindset. I’d never heard of either of them but the cover art drew me in, and the interior art sealed it. It’s very early-Vertigo in look and feel in the Kid Eternity or The Enigma sense, but the story is very “now.” I have some suspicions as to where it’ll go, but it’s very thoughtful and just beautifully drawn and colored.
What else? Um…work remains work. Nothing new on that front. Nicole somehow made cauliflower palatable tonight (thank you, ras el hanout). I love veggies in a general sense, but the cruciferous ones and I don’t get on well, but she worked some crazy magic and it tasted…good-ish?…to me. Eating well and exercising has me alternating between feeling fantastic at some times, and feeling absolutely broken down and out of gas at others.
Ooof..I just responded to one of most painfully stupid TERF-troll posts I’ve ever seen on Twitter. I should go to bed. G’night all.
-RK
P.S. On the off chance you or someone you know has an old Casio VZ-1 and is struggling with transmitting SysEx over MIDI, feel free to reach out to me. I’ve spent months learning the ins and outs of this odd beastie and if I can make it easier for anyone else, I’ll be happy to do so.