Testing Gran Paradiso

Gran Paradiso (aka Firefox 3.0a5) is available to download and test. It is alpha software. I've already had it crash once randomly while testing some css. And your old add-ons won't work. But you can tell grandma you're on the cutting edge, or something.

www.mozilla.org/projects/f...leasenotes/

[this space intentionally left blank]

I have nothing to post about. I was just sick of that last post still being on top. I mean, really.

Brief Twelve-Year Retrospective

Today is Friday, the 13th of April. Twelve years ago today, my father died in Denver. He was 62.

I am not here to wax poetic about him. It's been twelve years, after all. He's already had his obituary. This is my obituary for the last twelve years of my own life.

The fact that is has been twelve years brings a few things home to me. That means that one of the defining events of my life occurred more than a third of my life ago. I can easily divide my life into three neat divisions--early childhood, from zero to about eleven, before i had to take life seriously, before puberty--bullying from my father and brothers were my only concerns; youth--that dark miasma of sexual frustration and public schools from about eleven to about 22 or 23; then adulthood: it began on April 13, 1995. The one constant rock of my life was dead, and i was embarking on what i thought would be the beginning of a career in music. I had just been accepted into the music department at Fort Lewis College. I had plans to transfer to the University of Colorado, to the composition department--which i did. I spent three increasingly frustrating years at CU and finally dropped out. The rest, is, as they say, history.

Twelve years ago, and where am i now? What have i done? Where have i gone? Dreams of writing music dead, an unpublished novel on my computer, friends scattered, family estranged; i have no degree, a hum-drum IT job without benefits or security of any kind. In these twelve years i have gone to school, i have dropped out, i have moved to a city far from home for no real reason other than to escape from home; i have started an art company which then folded--no, folded is not the right word. It stopped, like an engine that simply and quietly runs out of fuel one day. I have played rock and roll in Seattle bars with a band that, like the art company, just ceased to exist.

But i have learned much in these years. I have gotten religion of a sort; i have learned about who i am, and more, i have learned who i am not. And i have written a novel--not the world's best, but i think it is something i can be proud of; i have learned a trade, even--something to put food on the table. I have a girlfriend (`almost wife' as she put it) who loves me.

So life has not worked out the way i expected. I suppose that's true of most people. I always knew that. I just never thought it would be true of *me*!

I guess i'll work on the final edit of my novel now. And i have to find an agent... heck, maybe i'll even write some music.

THIS MONTH IN THORNEVILLE

* Got a linux+ certification last week. A little resume candy.

* etraSONUS went to Mirror Sound Studios here in Seattle and cut an album. More or less. Basically, since the band is splitting up (people moving away and so on) we decided this was our last chance to get decent recordings. We paid for 8 hours of studio time and managed to record decent takes of all 13 of our current running-list songs, got a semi-okay mix of them all. The guy there said it was a record for him. All persons involved were generally pleased. So that was fun. Real recording in a real studio was an interesting experience--and a lot of work. Maybe we'll put some of the tunes up on our myspace page.

I realize now how good for me it has been being in etraSONUS. I now know that no matter what happens, i have to make music a part of my life, however i do it, on whatever level it might be, it's important for my mental health.

* Kim having been accepted as a PHd candidate and TA in the computational biology program at UNM Albuquerque, we have pretty much (97%) decided that the Europe trip is not realistic and we are going to nix it. Needless to say, that sucks. But my general stress-o-meter readings are way down as a result, which is nice. I'm even blogging again.

* I have FINALLY started working on the last bits of editing my novel. I don't know why the last 2% of any project is so difficult to motivate through. If i don't get the draft out to people i have promised could read it soon, they'll kill me, i think (Todd and Tara, that is).

Well, i'm sure i'm forgetting something, but those are the headlines.

etraSONUS plays ðe Rainbow October 17

As you can see, ðere are some changes afoot here. But never fear. Ðe blog posts will continue until morale improves.

þ