AT THE TOP OF THE HOUR

This is gonna be a smattering of observations of things that have occurred lately. I apologize for not being more focused, but that’s not really my…uh…focus. Ahem.

No matter how big the place I’ve lived in, at some point I’ve felt like I needed to declutter. To purge. The combination of acquisition and entropy eventually lead me to feel a little bit anxious. Also, removing something from my possession to the tune of some easy cash always sounds like a positive move.

Driving to work today I felt a little weird. Like I was missing something. It came to me after a few seconds of pondering: my teeth were missing their retainer.

It was a pretty run-of-the-mill Sunday, but lots of good things happened anyway. And now…a list:

• Yummy brunch
• Holding a friend’s child
• Shopping with Robyn
• Painting another room of the house (exercise/study room is now a soft yellow)
• Selling some old stuff on Craigslist for some quick cash
• Dinner + Numbers
• Banana ice cream (food process semi-frozen bananas; serve in bowl)

And now I’m in bed with Robyn, blogging about all of that. Life is good.

Meeting Josh back in college eventually lead to meeting Matt and Molly. Over the course of five years they and several others built a house in the country northeast of where I live. We got to check it out this weekend, staying over one night and then partying with a bunch of people today. It’s situated along a gravel road, and there are trees all over the place.

“Make it so.”

The dramatic flair of issuing a command this way cannot be argued, but the overall utility of this being the prime way to control something never seems to be criticized. Moving away from an abstract panel with buttons or keys to using the sole power of our voice often seems to be idolized in sci-fi utopias. Why use a keyboard to type words when you can just say them, right? Sounds awesome. The first few times. Maybe now you’re in an environment where you don’t want people knowing what you’re doing, or you’re hoarse, or it’s too loud. All of that on top of a basic introverted judgement anxiety can actually make this “superior” input mechanism seem downright overwhelming.

A recent review of the Xbox 360 Kinect, which comes out today, caught my eye this morning.

ROCK BAND 3 KEYS

The new Rock Band introduces us to a keyboard controller. It’s a two-octave jobby and it’s pretty decent for $80. There protrudes a handle off its left side, and it comes with a strap so the transition to key_tar_ is easy and pleasing. That being said, I pretty much suck at using it.

Spurned on by my wife, who is being spurned on by a website, I am dutifully creating a blog post again, one day after my last.

The past weekend was longer than usual, commenced with a burrito, and filled with gaming galore, courtesy of Jawn.