%title Stuffage.
%date 2010-03-01 20:11:35
:diary:livejournal:fossils:

Sorry I haven't written in so long.  I've been feeling like I'm totally overwhelmed by the ups and downs going on right now, like they're happening so suddenly that I have no time to think about them.  Well, now I've got an hour free, and I figure writing about things is a pretty effective way to think about them.  Gonna be kind of stream-of-consciousness due to time limitations, so, in no chronological order:

FC was amazing, really.  I didn't really go to any panels, and instead spent quite a bit of time showing James around and hanging out with a bunch of awesome people.  Spent lots of money on food, but had some amazing stuff, including some excellent Ethiopian and Italian.  Traveling home with someone made the PCD pretty light, since I had someone to talk about the con with and keep me company.  Usually, the loneliness is the worst part of it.

Zephpup has been growing up pretty quickly, and he's now about 45lbs and pretty difficult to pick up anymore.  His feet are still big and stompy, so I think he may have another 15 or so pounds to go before he's "fully grown".  He's been losing teeth left and right, bleeding all over the dog park and freaking people out when they see the spots of blood on the snow.  On Friday, however, I ducked out side to move the car and came back in to find him with his head stuck (literally) in a bag that had previously contained chicken bones - something potentially fatal if they splinter.  First time at the emergency vet hospital (and hopefully the last, though that place was amazing!) with the pup, where he got some radiographs done.  Three chicken bones sitting in his gut, thankfully almost completely intact, since he didn't see fit to chew them after stealing them off the dining table.  Outlook is good, though - he has a very good chance of either demineralizing/digesting the bones or just passing them, but he's still on med watch at home in case one of them splinters and perforates some part of his GI tract.  Stupid dogs :|  The X-rays were expensive enough, I'm just hoping surgery isn't necessary and that he passes the bones safely.

Despite that rather large cost, I'm not too worried about money.  I mentioned a while ago (though maybe not here) that I was being audited.  Turns out, that was because I forgot to submit some documentation with my tax amendment for the first-time homebuyer's credit.  After going to an actual tax preparer last week, though, I'm glad the amendment was rejected, since applying for the credit as an amendment on a previous year's taxes turns it into a loan, and I don't want to pay that off.  With their help, though, looks like my return is going to be $11,000 with the credit included.  I'm hoping to pay off my card and cut it up, possibly get a camcorder, then start saving for a car, since the Pathfinder's getting pretty crappy :oP

One of the biggest stressors right now is my senior composition recital coming up in a little less than a month.  I've got performers and music all lined up, but I'm still having a hard time getting any rehearsals done, and people aren't communicating very well with me.  I'm also starting to freak out over the fact that I have to conduct one of the larger pieces myself, something which I'm pretty awful at.  I have to tune out the music and just conduct beat patterns in order to not get messed up, which isn't very.. good :oP  Thankfully, work's been fine.  Despite some printer fuckups, I've had a good bit of time to sit and conduct the wall to practice.

Composing hasn't stopped with the recital coming up, thankfully, and I've had a good bit more inspiration than I did last semester.  I've been working on a three-movement set of songs for choir, soloists, and Pierrot ensemble called "Bird Songs" with texts by a friend, St. Francis of Assisi, and Wallace Stevens.  I'm also working on some <st>incidental</st> evocative music for <lj user="rikoshi"></lj>'s book, <em>Thousand Leaves</em>, and I'm about 70% done with the first draft of the first movement.  First time I've written directly for a large ensemble (that is, not arranging a previously written piece).

A lot of creativity has been happening on the programming front, too.  After getting a little fed up with Sibelius, I've started work on a program to help me write directly in Lilypond, whose output is amazing.  The cool part about Lilypond is that its a text format, so you can `diff` it easily, so I'm thinking of tying it in with a website which would act as a revision control system for composers.  That way, instead of just saving a score to your computer, you can save it to the site and update it every now and then, then publish it for everyone to see when you've finished.  The program is being written in Java, so it would be trivial to make it into an applet, which would mean that you could work on your music from any computer with a browser and Java installed.  Big plans.  Anyway, also got my <a href="http://drab-makyo.com">portfolio site</a> up and running in order to apply for a composer-in-residence position with <a href="http://art342.org">these guys</a>, which I hope works out well.  If nothing else, it's good to have the site back up, so I can show off scores more easily.  Man, I love Django :3

Anyway, work's being a butt, so that's all for now.