Circadian Shift

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

Life is like that.

(Pix courtesy of stock.xchng.)

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.)

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.

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.

Dirtyradio has been "unavailable" for over a week now, which I find somewhat perturbing. In the meantime, I've been catching up with my retro tunage listening, courtesy of WOXY Vintage.

Also in a retro mode, I found (via New Wave Outpost) this treasure trove of 80s MP3s -- some guy digitised a ton of his 12" vinyl, encoding it all at a high bitrate (192 kbps or better). There's plenty of cheese, but also some terrific nuggets in there. Download away.

For other listening enjoyment, there are now several CBC Radio Podcasts for you to choose from. The science show Quirks & Quarks has been offering podcasts for a while, but now you can also get a weekly super-condensed version of the Saturday afternoon pop-culture juggernaut Definitely Not the Opera, plus a weekly selection from the show Ideas (one of those shows that I keep meaning to listen to more often).

Yet another double-size board (click the one below to launch the full-size version in a popup).

I've been enjoying the sunshine that we've had over the last while. Sunshine is good, as it helps one to maintain a cheery, optimistic disposition in the face of boredom and mundanity.

Let's hope that more sunny days are coming soon.

(All pix this week are courtesy of morgueFile.)

Spring is here, which means that the weather is getting warmer. Notice that I didn't say "hot", but "warmer".

As Graig notes regarding the temperature at his office:

"It's frickin 15 degrees outside and May... why do we need air conditioning?"

Meanwhile, here's a sample conversation that took place at my office earlier this week:

Coworker 1: "It's so hot in here. Can't we turn the air conditioning on?"

Coworker 2: "F------, why don't you try taking your sweater off first?"

(Said coworker did have another shirt on under the sweater.)

Meanwhile, I'm sitting at my desk wearing a heavy polar-fleece jacket.

It's going to be a long spring/summer...

D'oh! I completely missed my Blogiversary last week.

It was four years and fours day ago that I began this blog over on Blogspot.

• Inaugural Post
• A post from the day of my first Blogiversay but not one that actually observes the event in any way
• 2nd Blogiversary Post
• 3rd Blogiversary Post

So where am I going with this thing? Some thoughts:

• Continue with more-or-less the same content/format -- chiefly consisting of links to various things that I find interesting, posts about music and occasionally other stuff
• Continue with the weekly moodboards, mostly as a personal exercise for myself, but I will try to throw in at least some value-added content (e.g. music links) in those posts for the rest of you so that it's not a complete navel-gazing thing
• Update the templates and design of this blog -- I've had the same look for the last three years and it's time for a change

I've also really gotta work on resuscitating my other work-related blog, Clicks & Notes, (it's been nearly a year since I last posted there) and update/expand the content on jenvetterli.com as a whole.

Wow, there's a lot to do. Anyway, I will once again thank those of you who are constant visitors for your continued interest and support. It's nice to know that at least a few people find my ramblings here somewhat enjoyable.

In an effort to keep myself (and some of my co-workers) amused, I've started drawing little cartoon faces at work using Microsoft Paint.

I've also created an image set on Flickr with all my doodles thus far.

OMG, I've had this song on repeat for a large chunk of the afternoon:

• Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs - "I See the Rain" (mp3 hosted at Good Rockin' Tonight)

It's a remake of a 60's garage chestnut by a group called The Marmalade, and the harmonies are sweet, sweet, sweet...

Go ahead and sing along:

Beautiful day I'd like to lie on the green lawn,
The ducks are congregating round, round the lily pond,
And the cows have all gone running home to put their coats on,
Stay indoors, while it pours, till tomorrow.

I see the rain again, I must complain again, why does the rain let me down
Will you try to make it sunny in the morning?

Five to ten, now it's time for the weather,
The sun will shine and in its time, get better,
But it won't last for long, clouds are spreading over London town,
Stay indoors, while it pours, till tomorrow.

I see the rain again, I'll take the blame again, I see the rain lets you down,
But I'm gonna make it sunny in the morning