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December 2, 2001

I've been working a lot lately, and trying to wrap up various projects that I started this summer while I was taking time off from the employed world. I've been very busy as a result of having work, plus personal projects, plus writing and rehearsing music for my band, and... whew. I'm definitely at a point where I'm working to reduce the number of things I'm trying to do at once, and to reduce the amount of my material posessions. Why do I have 12 computers (not including Kim's) when I really only actively use 5, and have plans for how to use 3 more? I also have 2 cell phones, and 2 handheld computers, one of which is still in the shrink-wrap, and 2 digital cameras, one of which has been in a paper grocery bag in a closet for over a year...

OK, so I'm a computer geek; this is a given. But if I have stuff that I've picked up over the years and don't need and keep tripping over in the storage room, I should get rid of it. At this point it's not even about trying to sell it for the highest possible price; a lot of this stuff was bought used or is pretty old now, so it's not worth that much. It's really about simplifying my life by getting rid of the gizmos that don't do anything worthwhile for me. "eBay it," you may say. Actually I've tried that, and sold dozens of items over the past 6 months, but computer equipment doesn't ship very well, unless you have the original packaging (which I keep from new stuff, but didn't get with lots of the used stuff I have). FedEx Ground and UPS have broken quite a few monitors and printers that I bought at dot-com auctions this summer. Trust me, it's really no fun fighting with a big bureaucratic shipper's insurance claims organization to get your money back, after going to all the trouble to post a listing, get the money, pack the box, take it to the shipper... I'll probably just unload this stuff on Craigslist so I can move on.

I have a lot of to-dos not related to getting rid of stuff, and I need to make progress on them, or give up on them. I haven't been at this point since I was about 16, and I was similarly oversubscribed to neat hobbies, moneymaking ideas, reading 30 books at the same time, all while going to high school. I was in the process of designing a second-generation motherboard for a 68020 processor based computer a friend and I were planning (the 68000 version which I had previously built wasn't very exciting, but we had lots of ideas). I was obsessed with building a kit car (as in, a unique car I built myself as opposed to just buying one) with a body design based on the 1965 Ferrari Berlinetta 166, with about 100 generations of sketches refining the precise shape so it would look just right. So here I am again, awash in ideas but not enough time to pursue them all, and now (since I have a lot more disposable income than when I was 16) I also have too many toys and not enough time to use them. It's time to prioritize, focus on a few things, and let go of the rest.

I had a great night last night. First, I went to the Red Devil Lounge to see Lindsey Boullt, Atma Anur, and Stu Hamm. I'd never heard of Lindsey or Atma (even though Atma played on a CD I have, I just didn't know he was on it), but I had certainly heard of Stu since he is one of my musical idols, you might say. I'd never seen him live before. He just put out a new album, Outbound, which has a cover photo of Stu in a San Francisco Muni subway station next to a sign which says "Outbound". The station is very likely the Castro station, which is the one closest to where I live. What are the odds that one of your key musical influences would move into your neighborhood and put out an album about it (songs include "The Castro Hustle" and "Further Down Market"? Small world, 'n stuff. Anyway, I went to the show, met Lindsey and Atma (both of whom are very friendly), and met Stu after the show. They let me take pictures, and Stu autographed the three CD's I have of his (scans coming soon). There's an even better tidbit that I learned when I was talking with Stu, but I'll wait for that to develop a bit before I share it. You'll just have to wait.

After the show I went over to a party in The Haight. For some strange reason I was in a good mood :) and ended up meeting about 30 people, and having some pretty interesting conversations with a few of them. One guy works at a video production lab, editing ads during the day and making trippy art videos at night (which were being shown at the party on several television sets). Another guy works at a company that delivers ads electronically from agencies to broadcasters, though if he had enough money that he didn't have to work, he'd become a film director. I met a neurochemist who wants me to give him a 30 minute lesson on Perl, which he says is the language of choice for biologists. He also seemed to be looking for collaborators for some Drum & Bass music he's working on. Since I've been trying to figure out how to apply my normal "too many notes" prog-rock-metal-fusion style to dance music for a couple of years now, this sounds pretty interesting. If it goes anywhere I'll share MP3s.