Circadian Shift

As you'll note from the date on this entry compared to the previous entry, it's obviously been a lot longer than "a month or two" since I stopped blogging.

I'm still not ready to come back and resurrect the 'Shift, yet I'm not ready to declare it dead either.

Meanwhile, I recently started taking some baby steps back into blogging life by setting up a Twitter account, which you can find at http://twitter.com/jenvetterli/.

I've also been posting a lot of pictures on Flickr, which you can find http://flickr.com/photos/jenvetterli/. Most of them aren't particularly interesting, but you never know...

Anyway, to the 1.7 people who keep checking here on a semi-regular basis, thanks for remembering me.

Cheers,
Jen V.

P.S. Sorry, but I'm going to keep all the comments closed. There still seem to be way too many spam-bots out there.

P.P.S. Wow, things look different. Obviously I inherited some new blog templates. (Thank you to webmaster GAK for continuing to host my poor orphan baby on your server.)

P.P.P.S. Managed to restore some semblance of the old colour-scheme back, thanks to the Movable Type Style Generator. However much of the sidebar content (with all the "About Me / About This Blog" info) is gone, and while I do have backups of my old templates, I won't bother to restore it.

For the purposes of providing a simple contact link, I can be reached via jenATjenvetterliDOTcom. However, to be honest, I really suck at responding to email; please adjust your expectations accordingly.

Posted by at 9:31 PM | Permalink

I need a break.

This blog is going to sleep for a while. Not forever, I don't think. But for a month or two, maybe even for the summer. No mood boards, no links, no nothing.

I'm also going to try and cut down on visiting other blogs (particularly music blogs, which seem to suck up energy with all the downloading, organizing, etc., and I don't have to time to listen to half of it anyway) and general web-surfing stupidity.

I have other things to attend to which I have negelected for far too long.

Nighty-night.

(Pic is courtesy of Mayang's Free Textures.)

Addendum 05 June 2006: I'm still doing drawings at work, so my Workplace doodles Flickr set will continue to be updated.

Posted by at 8:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

My week, particularly Thursday and Friday, may be summarized thusly:

Life is like that.

(Pix courtesy of stock.xchng.)

Posted by at 2:15 PM | Permalink

I know, I know...

Screamingly late, but here's last week, represented by two mood boards.

Media consumption:

• Got the CD In Between Dreams by Jack Johnson after redeeming some AirMiles. I know, it's the sort of comfortably soothing tunage listened to by Volvo-driving suburbanites pushing 40, but I like it (even if it does mean that my age is showing -- Swedish sedan and dwelling in a subdivision notwithstanding).
• Read the book Songbook by Nick Hornby. It's a collection of essays about songs that have some significance to the author. Therefore: Essays (arguably my favourite literary format) + Music (one of my favourite things) + Hornby (one of my favourite authors) = Pretty Easy to Like, IMHO.

In other happenings, N and I went to Ottawa for the long weekend. The second board is double-sized, so click on the one you see below to launch the full-sized version in a pop-up window.

It was cold and rainy, which meant that it was no worse than if we had stayed in Toronto. Took in the National Gallery and the Museum of Civilization, and did a lot of walking around and basically taking it easy.

(Most of the pics on the board were taken by N; I took the one of the back of the Parliament Buildings, plus the two of the National Gallery, using N's camera.)

Posted by at 9:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Another week of more of the same....

Of the few notable things I did, I read the book Early Bird by Rodney Rothman. A former head writer for the Late Show with David Letterman, Rothman lost his job writing for the sitcom Undeclared, and decided -- at the age of 28 -- to go and retire in Florida. Here's more from the back cover of the book:

"Rodney throws himself into the spirit of retirement, fashioning a busy schedule of suntanning, shuffleboard, and gambling cruises. As the months pass, his neighbors seem to forget that he is fifty years younger than they are. He finds himself the potential romantic interest of an aging femme fatale. He joins a senior softball club and is disturbed to learn that he is the worst player on the team."

Overall, it's an entertaining read. Many of the details, such as the early hours at which seniors get up to start their days, and the similarly advanced schedule for eating "dinner" at quarter-to-five in the afternoon, will be familiar to anyone who has seen the episodes of Seinfeld where Jerry goes to visit his retired parents in Florida.

The ending was a bit weak, as it seemed like Rothman started glossing over the details in order to wrap things up quickly. There wasn't much insight (other than one segment when one of the seniors dies) into the thought processes that finally spurred Rothman to leave and resume the "normal" life of someone his age. But, again, I still enjoyed the book as a whole.

So, the image on the left-hand side of the board (I quite like it) is taken from the book's cover, while the images on the right are from a collection of free avatars by Blifaloo.com. The little snippets of text are from the lyrics of the song "Just Let Go" by Fischerspooner, which I had playing a couple times at work on Friday.

Posted by at 1:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Dirtyradio continues to be AWOL. Boo.

I've been able to at least partially fulfill my IDM listening needs, thanks to some music compilations that I've been able to download for free.

Sutemos is a "Lithuanian-based netlabel specialising in mellow, melodic and minimal styles of electronic music". Among a number of offerings that are all freely available are these two standouts:

• Intelligent Toys is a compilation of previously unreleased tracks by various IDM "stars" (the only name that was vaguely familiar to me was Khonnor), accompanied by "a virtual collection of visual art... that reflects a doll/toy/child theme"
• Intelligent Toys 2 is a longer compilation offering more of the same, including a grand total of three names that I recognize from listening to Dirtyradio (Ulrich Schnauss, Manual, and Praveen)

Meanwhile, online MP3 retailer Bleep is currently offering a free EP-length download called Expanding Live At Norberg 2005, featuring a "(s)election of pieces by expanding records artists recorded live at Sweden's idyllic Norberg Festival last summer". Check out the preview in the player below.

Addendum 29 May 2006: The preview player seems to be gone for this particular release, but if you click through to Bleep, the EP is still there (at least for now) and you can listen there.

Presumably, this EP is only available for free for a limited time, and would require you to register (for free) to download.

Posted by at 10:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)