Psychophant's Rants
23.3.13
Notebook
New moleskine
notebook, after an uncertain period trying to make do with more
fragile notebooks, smartphones and assorted gadgets. Finally, a
proper reporter notebook and a pencil make me return to a custom that
makes wonders for my anxiety, and my memory.
It is not so much
the rereading, as I seldom do it, but the effect that writing has on
the structure of my ideas. Putting them on paper make them real, open
to criticism and analysis, to falsification and rejection. It may
also be related to the speed of my brain, too slow for voice
recognition, too set in its ways for normal keyboards, even more so
for virtual keyboards made for much smaller fingers. There is
something in an empty piece of paper that pushes me to fill it up,
and sometimes something good comes out of it. If not, well there are
many more pages to try again.
We should not ignore
also the effect of the piece of wood I twirl lately. Solidity, yet
less strange that the metal I favoured before. No matter what I know,
electronic words, like those taking shape now, inspired by the
scrawled notes I made a couple of days ago, seem impermanent, subject
to revision, accident, change of mind. The words in the paper will
leave a trace, even if I were to try to erase them. And anyway, I
cannot do it, I just strike through, deliberately leaving them
readable (except when it is a shameful mistake, then pride makes me
cover it in a blob of darkness, so it is lost in a sea of layered
graphite). Because for me often the way the idea takes till it
manifests is as interesting as the idea itself. Though the electronic
would allow that sequence, with versions 1.01 to 1.23 before
reaching the summit at 2.0, that is a style that is getting lost, and
one that I miss. So instead of trying to get machines to do things
they no longer want to do, I resort to more primitive techniques.
Techniques that also
require a much lower skill threshold, with easier error correction
and more tolerant of difficult circumstances. And also harder to
decipher, if you are cursed, or blessed, with a dreadful handwriting,
which I prefer to consider as basic cryptography.
Other small
advantages, such as no concern for planes landing or taking off, or
the battery state of the pencil. Yes, both have a limited life, but
it is measured in weeks or months, and are easy to estimate. In fact
almost all my notebooks have still blank pages, as I refuse to take
them out when they may end up filled up.
As
I mentioned, after trying many kinds of notebooks, I have finally
settled in blank Moleskine reporter notebooks. I find the lines
wasteful and the squares distracting, and the reporter format
combines toughness with easy writing and a maximum paper use.
Concerning the writing instrument, I am partial to pencils but I am
yet experimenting. Pencils are reliable, without ink spills or
writing on clothes, and using 0.5 leads allow a compact script that
is readable enough for my purposes. HB, of course, as I am after
writing, not sketching. The thin leads require a mechanical pencils,
and there are many compact models that are tough enough for pocket
use. I used to employ some Italian (Lava) chromed pencils, but since
I discovered Muji’s small mechanical pencil, with its cedarwood
body, I am happy. The texture of the wood feels more natural, and
although it is softer, so far it is weathering its many bumps and
blows fairly well.
15.3.13
Lost and found
For quite a long time I have been stuck, unable to make a compilation CD worth anything. I do many playlists, the problem is that most either suck or are just similar to one I have already done. It is to be expected, as I add only a few songs per year to my music library, and often they are works from old favorites, so very little new music.Finally I managed to break the block by picking those songs that did not fit, that I was not sure how they made it. Friend's compilations, youtube songs hunted online, just the few risks I still run in music.
Then I checked my favorite writing in this blog, about Wim Mertens "After Virtue", 11/7/05, which is now even more of a favorite that it was then, and I found I still agree with all I wrote then. At that time I still looked for new listening experiences, but I had already realised that what I was looking for were the songs I listened in 1985-1990, or close analogues by other people. It may explain also my interest in weird covers of songs I like. But it was not the music what worried me, but the views on life, the world and everything. Weird, as if the nine years since did not change me.
I am noticing the same worrisome tendency in books, though in that case it is easier to get something new or just different to test, as I still read anything printed that gets in front of my eyes. It is strange considering the involvement, but new music disturbs me more than spending an hour to decide if a particular book is for me.
This is related to my increasing intolerance to news services, and most of the TV programming. Even movies draw only a shallow interest instead of passion.
If this is how getting old feels, this lack of interest worries me. If it is enlightenment, it is somehow discouraging. I will miss my curiosity and learning new things. Or maybe it is a phase related to the new job and too many flights.
In the meantime, this is the compilation. As previously, I will send a copy to anyone that asks.
1. Happy People - Allison Crowe. A happy finding from a Frostwire recommendation.
2. Cannonball - Damien Rice. A former correspondent recommended this.
3. Leaving Greensleeves - Leonard Cohen. I have not seen this around, and I have no idea where I got this.
4. Oasis - Amanda Palmer. Unlike many acquaintances I do not much like Ms. Palmer. But this survived several purges, though I am not sure why.
5. Statue of Liberty - Laurie Anderson. Not my style, but it grew on me.
6. Lunascape - Lane Navachi. I know where this came from. It just does not fit me.
7. Theme from Godfather - Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra. Another internet related sensation, but I prefer this to Pride of Lions. Ska makes me happy in small doses.
8. Coulda Woulda Shoulda - Screaming Jay Hawkins. Another exchange song.
9. Aisha - Outlandish. So many friends were surprised I had this.
10. No idea. I could not track the words or the song, though I am almost sure it was in Louis compilation.
11. Eden - Hooverphonics. Another of Louis choices, I just have been unable to get into Hooverphonics.
12. Sinnerman - 16 horsepower. An extreme case of the weird cover syndrome. And it is shorter than the original.
13. Expectations - Belle and Sebastian. The only song in Juno's soundtrack (besides VU Sticking with you, but I got that before the movie) that is still with me. I like the lyrics.
14. Sweet Jane - Cowboy Junkies. Another weird cover, and possibly the only good thing I remember from Natural Born Killers.
15. Panties in your Purse - Drive-by Truckers. This is Gibson's fault. He once said he liked them. All the country I have is from his recommendations.
16. Shirt of Blue - The Men They Could not Hang. Now I am a TMTCNH fan, but it all started with this song, twenty years too late. ¶ 9:25 PM
9.3.13
Vaccines
A few days ago I had slight pain in one arm (the left one, as it was a planned risk) and slight fever, sore throat and light muscle pains. It was the vaccines taken to travel to Africa in six weeks time, yellow fever and a reminder dose of tetanus/diphteria. Being the kind of person I am, and the ease of access we have, I checked both those and the other dangers I would be exposing myself to, in contrast to our own relatively tame environment.
My body wears marks of other vaccines, now no longer used or necessary. Some for their unreliability, as the big tuberculosis circle mark I wear. Some because they really are unnecessary, like the smallpox scarification (and yes, in both cases the marking was not really necessary, but a kind of risk marker). A couple of small scars from previous encounters with Tetanus/Diphteria in my active youth and the military service. No more, as the last one should be the last time I need the reminder according to the doctor. I am not sure about my polio immunity, as I got the inyections (Salk) instead of the oral form (Sabine), which is longer lasting.
Other vaccines used now were not available in my youth, so I got immunized to measles, chicken pox or rubella in the old way, by going through them. I am well aware that I am at risk of mumps, though fortunately it is a rare disease now.
Reading literature in the past, vaccines had a huge effect in infant mortality. No need to have twelve children to have four survive to adulthood. No waiting till the kid is two to name them. No need to avoid getting attached to the small rugrats, as now they are almost sure to pass the first winter.
Just one of those small things that changed society for good. ¶ 10:03 PM
