fling93 loves fishies

Reconnecting with a few dormant artistic interests

I apologize for the lack of posting lately, and since I’m not actually writing a real post right now, let me at least explain what’s been going on (nothing to worry about!).

Anyway, there was my vacation in Montreal (and in case you missed them, here are all of the ridiculous number of photos, and my sister has some as well, although many of hers are visible only to her Flickr friends). I’ve jotted down a lot of notes and memories and have been meaning to post them, at least on my LiveJournal, but I haven’t had the time. And alas, I know that it’s going to be harder as time goes by.

This is because work has been dominating my life for the past month. I’ll refrain from going into more detail, because that’s how bloggers end up getting fired. But I really just don’t have the energy to be working 60-hour weeks anymore and still be able to craft a blog post that I feel is worth putting up here. In fact, it’s been rather overwhelming, and most of my free time has been spent just vegging out in front of the TV or PS2. When I’m not vegging out, I haven’t really been in a mood to write, but have instead been exploring other creative areas that I’ve been neglecting, namely music, drawing, and even photography.

For those unaware, I’m classically trained in piano, having taken lessons when I was six, and getting to the level where I wouldn’t embarrass myself in competitions. Unfortunately, I let it lapse when I went to college, but I did buy a digital piano shortly after I graduated so I can at least satisfy the tickle to play when it strikes, which has been rarely. I mostly stick to show tunes and pop music nowadays, just because I don’t have the chops to maintain much of a classical repertoire, but I’ve long wanted to take a crack at songwriting, especially when I picked up GarageBand. But alas, my obsession with GarageBand faded, as many of my non-Natalie-Portman obsessions are wont to do.

I’m not sure what re-piqued my interest. My guess is that it was the atonal avant-garde-like free jazz improvisation at Hugh’s while I was in Montreal. I’ve taken a stab at semi-duplicating the experience while also taking a page from Bill Evans. The results came out better than expected (although I expect most of you will think it sounds like random noise). And now I’m in the process of learning how to use Reason. I have a rather broad taste in music, and I’ve long wondered whether applying my classical and jazz influences to electronic music might produce something interesting. We’ll see if it goes anywhere.

As for art, well, I know you’re probably confused given the artistic ability (or lack thereof) evident in my blog logo. Well you see, for one, I was intentionally imbuing that image with my child-like nature, as it is an important part of who I am, and is perhaps the reason for my insatiable curiosity and desire to learn. Secondly, I did that with a mouse. With a pen or pencil (or a graphics tablet), I’m not half bad. Certainly, I don’t have the same amount of training as in music, but I’ve taken a few drawing and painting classes and read a few books, and I used to draw a lot when I was in high school and in college. And I do have the odd ability to draw a pretty-detailed X-Wing fighter from memory.

Indeed, I’ve long thought about replacing the old logo with something else, but due to my economics studies, I kept getting hung up on the opportunity cost of my doing anything other than writing. I’m sure that also had something to do with my recent neglect of my music. Again, I’m not sure what it was. Maybe it was the vacation in Montreal that reminded me that part of the point of life is enjoying it. Maybe it was the fact that, after being drained by a long day at work, I found more solace and comfort in these pursuits than from writing. I really don’t know, but I’m not going to dwell too much time questioning why. Anyway, I’ve been experimenting more with the graphics tablet and Corel Painter 8 (I didn’t think my old machine had the computing power to handle the latest version) that I bought many months ago, and maybe I’ll upload some of these endeavors someday.

As for my photography, probably the less said the better. As you can probably tell from my Flickr photos, I’ve got a lot to learn, especially about composition. But at least I’ve finally learned in Montreal what the heck ISO meant, and now I’ve also learned about depth of field (albeit that doesn’t really do a lot of good for somebody with a point-and-shoot). But suffice to say that I’ve been taking a lot more pictures, and as many of you know, the real time-suck is in uploading them, weeding out the misfires, and of course tagging them. But I guess it’s all worth it because sometimes you find a gem.

So what does all of this mean for the blog? I really can’t say. The good news is that work has settled down a bit, and that I don’t think I’m suffering from blog depression. But I just can’t predict how much time I’ll be able to devote to the blog anymore. I had hoped to increasing my posting frequency over the summer while also migrating it over to WordPress. But I had also hoped to catch up on my rapidly growing reading list while also finishing off some of the courses I have from The Teaching Company that have been sitting around for over a year before I resume night courses in the fall (I am still planning to go back to grad school, and I still don’t really have a good idea of what I’d be studying). Writing remains my primary love (albeit in what is increasingly a polyamorous arrangement), but even then I’m wondering whether I ought to be more artistic and devote more time to fiction and that unfinished novel. And on top of all that, my cousin, Rich, has been bugging me to go to Burning Man this year, which is in about — ACK!!! — three weeks (Update: I’ve since decided not to go this year).

So I don’t know. Gonna have to play this one by ear. Bear with me.