I've almost got the Reason work on a new song done, but I'm having a hell of a time with the arpeggiator on a couple of the keyboard effects. Should be able to get something workable done by next week. I abandoned a short story I was working on for something else. Hopefully it will go somewhere.

Winterson is a hell of a writer.

Still no word about the job.

I imagine I'll be watching the election coverage for most of the night. I'm pulling for an Obama win, but if I've learned anything from American politics over the last two terms, you can't call the race until it's over.

Construction started at 8 AM this morning, so I came over to Andrea's to finish sleeping. Ash said that the work is going to continue into October. August can't come soon enough.

I've been feeling very tired lately, probably because I've been so used to staying in one position. Tomorrow I'm heading to Toronto for a week or so for that job at Humber. I hope my back can take it. I'm looking forward to it, anyway. Should shake things up a bit. Plus it will kill time.

I got back into Reason last night and had a closer look at automation. On my way to Andrea's this morning I picked up another paycheque at Publications. Should be one more coming.

All of my dreams last night were work related. I even woke up from a Rogers Video dream with the thought, "Fuck this, I'll just wake up and end this misery." I'm like Little Nemo the Dream Master. I'm like Tom Petty in the video for Running Down a Dream.

That's what I get for eating diner poutine before bed. I hung out at Kat's place last night with Patrick, Mariel, John and Simon. We watched The Wizard and cracked wise on it the entire time. It was a fun. A few of us grabbed dinner to wrap up the night.

I spent yesterday learning how to use the NN-19 sample player in Reason, figuring out how to write out chords in the sequencer and adjusting a piano sequence I wrote to loop correctly. I'm working my way through the book at about a chapter a day. I should have it wrapped up by the first week of July, and then I'll start composing. I won't be an expert by any means but at least by then I'll have used most of the program's components.

Today is my sister's birthday.

I'm off until next Friday, which is nice, because I won't have to deal with the erratic practice of snoozing from 10 PM - midnight, watching Conan, catching the bus at 1:42 AM at Smyth, working until 6 AM, and then arriving home at around 6:30 AM (or later) to sleep until 1 (or until just before the Daily Show airs at 2).

It just dawned on me that when you break it down, my life really just revolves around my TV.

Yesterday I messed around with the Subtractor synth in Reason and used it to make raygun sounds. Purchase of keyboard officially justified. Andrea and I went to the Kamp Fringe event and drank disgusting beer while grooving to samba music. Sweet.

I might be going to Toronto for a week in July on a classroom assistant gig at Humber. More on that soon.

I spent most of yesterday working with Reason when I wasn't sleeping, learning how to use the drum machine and the drum looper. I usually take a nap before work but I spent so much time in bed that I didn't think it was necessary. Once at work I didn't start proofreading until around 3 because the Senate sat late the day before. This looks like it might be the last week until the fall, though I haven't really heard official word yet.

This morning at 11 I signed the lease for the new place. Going through the list of agreements I kept shaking my head at the ones that Holly and I broke while living at the Flat. We were actually lucky to get out of that place without paying more money and getting zinged for violations. I suppose I'm looking at living at the new place as an opportunity to rebuild my credit in the world of realty. I should have the keys by the end of July.

Went to Mod Night last night and had a great time. Gaz gave me a copy of the new Fratellis CD for identifying Baba O'Riley by The Who. Played some X-Men vs. Street Fighter, drank some beer, danced my face off. I'm easy to please.

The Reason tutorials continue. In between episodes of Frasier and ear treatments (I've been having trouble hearing out of my left ear for some time, so I'm flushing the sucker out) I'm going to mess around with the drum machine today.

I'm switching condom brands. Sheik has struck out.

Last night I had a very vivid dream that Canada was bombed. Ottawa was laid to waste and I walked outside through the wreckage in a post-apocalyptic daze.

I got together with Jim, Adam, Connelley and Martin yesterday at the Royal Oak for a pint before heading out to the west end to play some Wii. Kathryn, Adam's wife, is extremely pregnant. Dorothy is still alive and kicking and bitchy. Martin and I grabbed the last 95 running, and when we got on the driver said they were sending a new bus from Lincoln Fields because someone had thrown up on the bus we were on. Lo and behold, the second bus never came, so Martin and I cabbed it from Carling and Woodroffe.

I messed around with Reason yesterday, using the drum loop unit and a couple of synthesizers. So far so good.

I picked up an Oxygen 61 USB MIDI controller at Steve's Music yesterday. It looks like this:


Matt came over and gave me a crash course in Reason, and I've been messing around with a bunch of the units since. I'm working on a song, just some straight ahead industrial stuff to give me an impression of how the program functions. Once I start making my way through the book I should be able to flesh out exactly what I want to do with it.

I had dinner with Andrea last night at Dunn's in the market, which is an area of town that's starting to make me nervous. I don't know if it's always been like that and I just don't remember what it was like, but there are some scary people walking around down there, getting into fights and harassing people for money. Ottawa has recently instituted beat cops to keep an eye on things around the general downtown area and I hope it has a positive effect on things. I'd hate to see the market turn into a cesspool.

Since I work nights and pretty much have the days to myself, I've been getting bored lately, sitting around doing relatively nothing. Andrea recommends that I set out tasks for myself, and I think I'm going to start doing that. When I spend too much time to myself not doing anything, I start thinking about why I never get to see people, what they're doing with their time that makes them satisfied, why they don't particularly enjoy hanging around with me. It's an old pattern of thinking that I haven't experienced in quite some time, and I don't want to slip back into it. I've been trying to remind myself not to give people a hard time about not wanting to go out and do certain things, to be more understanding and act as a positive force, but I need to be around people. It keeps me stimulated and feeling alive.

Yesterday I sent off advance requests to three U of T profs for letters of reference and have so far received two positive replies. It does the heart good.

Last night Andrea and I had dinner with Mike and Emily at Temptation Tea Shop followed by beers at Atomic Rooster on Bank Street. It started pouring rain but the weather cleared relatively by the time we headed home. I crashed at Andrea's and the two of us went to see a matinee of the new Indiana Jones movie this afternoon. I liked the flick for the most part and blame the apparent onset of George Lucas' senility for the parts I didn't like.

My copy of Reason has finished downloading, so I'll be playing around with it tonight before I take a nap in advance of my first shift with Senate Publications. First I need to pick up a package at the drug store. I hope it's not another religious text from my father (bless his heart).

I woke up on Steve's couch yesterday morning. The couch was made of that material that appears lighter or darker depending on which way the fabric is pushed, so I played with it for awhile until Steve got up. The three of us had lunch at Local Heroes and talked (mostly about music) before Steve drove me back into town.

Matt gave me a quick overview of the Reason program and his MIDI keyboard while we were hanging around in Steve's basement. I'm downloading a copy of the software right now. He was able to toss together something halfway cool in minutes that Steve played over on guitar and it's exactly the type of thing I want to mess around with. I'm really excited about it. He also showed me some video of different hardware that bands use to create sounds. I know so little about electronic music but it's interested me for a few years now and I'd really like to turn it into a hobby.

I went out to the Rideau Centre and picked up the new Green Day record (under the name Foxtrot Hot Tubs) as well as a few DVD's. When I got back I spent the evening in watching Wayne's World and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. I was able to get a little writing in before bed.