(no subject)

Took far too long to get MIDI doing even close to what I wanted yesterday, but in the end I think I got it going. The next piece of gear I'm saving up for will either be a hardware looper, or it will be a laptop with a software looper. While I was more or less successful in the end, I'm pretty sure yesterday argued against the laptop idea. I think more and more that I'm happier when I have dedicated hardware to do a job. But gah, echoplexes and repeaters are sooooo expensive. Oh well. It will take me a while to get the cash together in either case, and so I have plenty of time to decide. Especially with this "needing to buy a car" business.

I'm slacking on getting to work on time today. Me 'n' hominidgrrl will be running the circus today. I think perhaps we should take a long lunch.

I had dreams of Black Rock City mixed with Convergence last night. Apparently both my conscious and subconscious minds are on about how different both of them might end up becoming.

Boring woodwindy update

Got the clarinet out again tonight, and have spent more time even than I meant to with it, which is cool. I've made a goal for myself to develop the facility to play full-range scales in the next six months, which should be imminently doable, providing I keep to any kind of practice schedule. Low register single-octave scales are easy for me, though fingerings still mess me up a bit, 'cause they diverge from sax *just* enough to make it confusing. Mid-range stuff is okay, and the high stuff is yet cringe-worthy. (Clarinet is most difficult to play in its upper registers.) I can't make the last stretch (from G to two-ledger-line high C) speak, but I can manage to squeak out a high G unreliably. My intonation is okay, though, and tone quality seems pretty good, so I think my embrochure is sound. I have the very familiar slight soreness where the lower teeth start to cut into your lower lip after practicing a while. Strange how nostalgic that is.