Alex

probablevacancy @ 2007-04-26T00:30:00

2007-04-26T04:31:25Z

I have this horrible relationship with Os Mutantes where I realize I love them and then can't find any songs by them that I enjoy, thus making me no longer like them. "A Minha Menina" is a song I should use to counteract this feeling.

probablevacancy @ 2007-03-21T19:16:00

2007-03-21T23:17:23Z

I'm totally losing at life. Three hours watching Eurovision Song Constest videos, and reading about the German Industrial Metal band, titled, scarily, Oomph! This is not learning about the Expectation Maximization algorithm, or doing my taxes.

the future

2007-01-04T18:27:38Z

probablevacancy @ 2006-10-24T01:52:00

2006-10-24T05:53:49Z

On this, my 23rd birthday, I do state that I am TIRED of being in the LAB at 2 AM. In 8 hours I'll be taking a midterm. Then I'll be frantically doing missed homework, then I'll be frantically reading papers for my lab meeting, then I'll be frantically having fun.

By the way, a la 2004, here is infinite procrastination.

with love, from wikipedia

2006-09-13T04:28:20Z

As early as 1937, A.D.Lindsay of Ocilla, Georgia claimed all “planets, islands-of-space or other matter” in the Universe as his property. [here]

probablevacancy @ 2006-08-27T23:17:00

2006-08-28T03:28:35Z

There have been a lot of stories on Katrina in the news lately, so I thought I'd share what some of our Pacific neighbors have had to deal with.

Super Typhoon Tip, in addition to being fucking gigantic, is responsible for the lowest pressure ever observed on the surface of the Earth.

People should also be paying attention to Hurricane Ernesto over near Haiti. It's projected to hit Tampa Bay pretty much directly, which is unlikely, and has not happened in over 80 years. If it does, however, it could be a Katrina-esque amount of damage. A strong 3 could put half of a 2.6 million member metropolis under water.

Watch what one model predicts by way of storm surge. Scary shit, folks.

And here in Massachusetts, it's cold and rainy. Hoorah for summer.

probablevacancy @ 2006-08-07T18:43:00

2006-08-07T22:43:44Z

There are times when I have crazy love for google.

probablevacancy @ 2006-07-13T19:14:00

2006-07-13T23:15:11Z

Simple English Wikipedia is a fantastic idea. Does anyone know if there are other simple language wikipedias?

The Economist: Secretly Hilarious

2006-07-12T15:30:55Z

probablevacancy @ 2006-07-01T02:53:00

2006-07-01T06:54:10Z

I hate my country:

Cocaine was prohibited in the first part of the 20th century. Newspapers used terms like "Negro Cocaine Fiends" and "Cocainized Niggers" to drive up sales, causing a nationwide panic about the rape of white women by black men, high on cocaine. Many police forces changed from a .32 caliber to a .38 caliber pistol because the smaller gun was supposedly unable to kill black men when they were high on cocaine.

probablevacancy @ 2006-06-30T11:53:00

2006-06-30T15:56:58Z

OK, I sign up on myspace so that I can use the functionality of their stupid website, and now all of a sudden, people want to be my "friend". People I've never met, e-interacted with, said anything to, and I haven't even said anything at all. I have no interests, no friends, no nothing, and yet people are all 'add me!' and shit. Guh, myspace is stupid.

probablevacancy @ 2006-06-27T17:44:00

2006-06-27T21:44:48Z

My dream job.

probablevacancy @ 2006-06-08T10:58:00

2006-06-08T17:58:55Z

Irony:

" Sometimes leaders show up who do a great disservice to the traditions and people of a country.' "

~ George W. Bush

probablevacancy @ 2006-06-02T01:38:00

2006-06-02T08:37:48Z

OMG, I'm in California!

spring

2006-04-27T09:05:51Z

Spring in Boston means everyone goes outside, even when they have final projects, papers, and presentations to prepare. Flowers, bikes, ducks, boats, sun, sky, river. It's awful nice. I keep thinking it's going to end suddenly and there won't be anything I can do about it.

probablevacancy @ 2006-04-18T01:15:00

2006-04-18T05:17:56Z

"Your wait little girl, on an empty stage /
For fate to turn the light on
Your life, little girl, is an empty page /
That men will want to write on"

The Sound of Music is a tremendous musical, if you take the dramatically excellent parts of these songs and just cut out the rest of the chaff. Most of "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" should have been left on the cutting room floor, but that intro is just so delectable.

did you know...

2006-04-01T04:03:57Z

That I make music and put it online? Check it out at my website. The goal, actually, is to link to it enough so that if you want to find my music, google will let you. Right now, that's not possible. Therefore, here we are.

PS, springtime is great. I love it.

"Your life may not be going good / but Spring helps you to pretend"

God bless Of Montreal.

probablevacancy @ 2005-12-15T01:09:00

2005-12-15T06:44:57Z

My Schedule:

Thursday, 5pm: Final Exam (Computational Neuroscience)
Friday, ?pm: Final Paper due (Neural Models of Vision)
Monday, 8am: Mom & Brother come to Boston
Monday, 1pm: Final Exam (Neural Models of Audition)
Monday, 5pm: Final Exam (Intro to Neural Modeling)
Tuesday, 8am: Leave to go to New York
Friday, ?am: Fly to Atlanta, drive to Knoxville
Wed, ???: Fly to California
Jan 16, 5am: Return to Boston

probablevacancy @ 2005-09-09T15:31:00

2005-09-09T19:31:53Z

I have a new webpage!

Wow!

PS - I'm in Boston, I have a place to live, I finally found furniture, and I am Not Dead.

Last Days

2005-08-12T11:04:21Z

So, come August 29th, I am leaving this hallowed state to venture to Boston, where I will live with five twenty-something organic diy kids in an aging house in Cambridgeport, a thirty minute (or so) walk from my department's building at BU. Leaving the Bay Area is sad, but Boston is pretty fantastic, and it's always kind of liberating to start anew. It's one thing that I'm kind of good at, I've had the opportunity to do it like, over and over again, and I always feel like the same person when it's all said and done, which is either comforting or distressing, I'm not sure which.

So in the coming days, I have to read a few books (namely my Berkeley library books) and then get my fucking shit together for Boston. Does anyone have any good moving ideas? I need to ship my CDs, my books, my computer, my guitars (2), and my synth. Anyone have any bright ideas? I'd be happy to hear them.

I also want to get an 'activity' when I go to Boston. Like, one of those 'meeting people' activities, I was thinking maybe something sporty. Like, maybe the East Coast Wrestling Club, except not quite that gay. Actually, all of the gay sporty things look a little too sporty. I need to find equally unathletic people with whom I can compete on equal footing.

Anyway, stress stress stress, except not at all, for some reason. Tonight was my last workshift at Wilde, which went by without incident. I think it's easier to leave because I've kind of anticipated leaving for a while, from both Wilde and the Bay Area, to go to graduate school. I mean, I get extremely sentimental, but I think recently, I've just had better things to do, such as jerking off. Whoops.

word

2005-07-13T10:33:29Z

Why write entries when I can post comic strips that verify that my own neuroses are shared by at least one other person?

The Story Of My Life

2005-06-28T10:07:28Z

probablevacancy @ 2005-06-09T04:40:00

2005-06-09T11:41:41Z

The Fantasticks - They Were You

As in, "You can sing me They Were You, and I'll start crying halfway through..."

How To Play The Guitar

2005-06-07T19:40:33Z

1. Get a guitar, with strings on it.

2. Either tune this guitar yourself, or have somebody tune it for you.

3. Learn the melody for Happy Birthday, on any string, in any key.

4. Now play it, but instead of moving up the fretboard past the fifth fret on the string you started on, play the string that is above it in pitch, and below it in space.

5. Once you have perfected Happy Birthday, you should have some idea of how the guitar works. If you have musical training, try and just pick out some scales, and if you don't know what those are, don't worry about it.

6. Pick a very easy song to learn how to play, and then learn how to play it. A good easy recommendation is Twist and Shout. Those letters above the lyrics are called chords, you can find out how to play them at Chordfind. The strings on the guitar, in standard tuning, have the names E,A,D,G,B,E (Every Anal Dog Gets Bent Easily) starting from the "top" of the guitar, which is lower in pitch.

7. Once you have Twist & Shout down, which should take less than a week if you practice every day, find another easy song to play, and keep looking up the tablature, which is that text file with chords/picking patterns on them, as you go along. This will get you to be halfway decent at playing the guitar.

--

That's pretty much it for Basic Guitar Playing, in terms of what to do. Next step is bar chords, and how to play those, and then fingerpicking and finally vibrato, harmonics and other subtleties. Once you've got all of that down, you're a real life guitarist. Yay!

probablevacancy @ 2005-06-07T00:50:00

2005-06-07T07:53:29Z

It's true, I almost never post here. Sorry.

However! Ask, and you shall receive. What do you wanna know?