RyanHarne.com

It is relaxing, yes, to not have the hyper-pressure school routine, at the moment. But, I can feel the winds of dissatisfaction already begin to sweep through my scene. A month of no formal structure to my day will make me go nuts. Even still, I am used to being NUTS, so being NUTS with less of the workplace and academic demands should be interesting. Who knows? Maybe I’ll go into arts & crafts.

I can whip up a nice breakfast for myself, now that I have cooking items available to me. That is gratifying, very. Despite not touching an appliance other than the toaster (and refrigerator and my espresso maker), I had fun with my Smorgasbord of Toast breakfast yesterday.

I know what you’re asking. And, yes, that spoon is sprouting from my cappuccino. I have that special touch.

My Fall 2005 semester was great, as has been previously mentioned. And, also previously mentioned was a promise to provide some semester Secret Project updates. Here’s another.

Once my camera returned from being repaired (frankly, I would have enjoyed a good funeral, so I could have delighted myself with the birth of a newer Canon ::sigh::), I got to work with a friend. Bernard is a musician, and is releasing an album this spring. He writes/performs [fantastic] electronic music and asked me to take some photos for his international promotional release. Suuuure.

This is another reason I wish my old camera had truly died. I felt like my digi-cam resources were just feeble attempts at satiating a true artist. But still, all the same, I took a few hundred experimental shots so we could decide on what locations would be best for the shoot. The Virginia Tech campus offers near-endless lighting opportunities and a variety of harsh, luminescent, and savory glares and beams. So, one evening, in a bitter wind, we walked around campus, in and out of academic buildings, and took a lot of pictures - Bernard, of course, providing his deceptively indifferent looks while I fumbled about with my gloves to try and take photos like a base amateur.

Again, I really wish I had a higher resolution camera to use for this, but I believe the results turned out well. Bernard’s musical efforts for this album are amazing and I wish that my photographic hand was as impressive.

Could you imagine… There is actually more to reveal?!

As of 2:45 pm this afternoon, my semester was concluded. I walked back to my place, verbally spoke to myself with, “That was rather nice,” and then continued to listen to Rufus Wainwright’s “California” that caused me to undeniably saunter.

And what was the best part? I never burnt out. Yes, there were times early in the semester when I found myself trapped and had to run to Cowgill to my friend Erin who would sit patiently while I lost myself in petty moaning. But, I balanced my social and academic life this semester, had a blast in both fields, and signed off this round of courses with promising hopes for the spring semester.

Mmm. Well, I may have to take that back. The best part may have actually been the celebratory afternoon vegetarian lasagna, thanks to the cooking genius (& recipe notecard) of le Abigail.

But in summary, and what a brief summary this is, it was a fantastic semester.

I did a couple things this semester that haven’t yet been mentioned, but will be mentioned in time, but I will expose one of them now: I wrote a poem. It came to me on the bus this past weekend, and it is about vikings, and I only write it down now because it is stuck in my head.

Were Leif not a tyrannical magnate
Thor’d've not been irrevocably irate.
Such then has history remembered
(Their reputation long since dismembered)
That Vikings were just Swedish pirates.

I was briefly cleaning out my iTunes library yesterday, backing up all of the files and then deleting unwanted or uber-infrequently-listened to tracks. Part of this winter cleaning included me listened to a lot of music I hadn’t heard in a while, or ever.

My playlist for the music I download from the iTMS [iTunes Music Store] is called Lockdown. Most of the free tracks from the iTMS I never listen to, instead just reminding myself to download them and get around to the listening chore at another time. So, naturally, yesterday I heard a LOT of new music I was unaware existed in my library.

The people at the music “department” of Apple have impeccable taste. I was truly impressed by some of the stuff, while, as expected, I tossed a few of the songs that I can never see myself enjoying. But some of these artists I have never heard of before.

Eldar Djangirov will be one of the greatest pianists of his time. John Legend, I almost never willingly listen to R&B, but woah, you’ve got that field in your cluthes. Modeselektor is giving my beloved Basement Jaxx true competition. And more electronic for me to love: Jackson and His Computer Band!

However, my biggest shame should come out. People have mentioned to me about Anna Nalick and I’ve reminded myself time and again to listen to some of her stuff when I’m at Crossroads. But, apparently I’ve had “Breathe (2AM)” by her as a free iTMS track. Just wow. Gorgeous music. Where have I been? I’m shocked I’ve missed some of this sonic splendor.

Now, I return to the studying with some great music thanks to Apple. Three finals left.

So, I’m doing this dynamics problem, right? It’s about the collision of two autos, one poor-sap driver had a stall and the other driver simply wasn’t paying attention. The skid marks prior to the collision point are about 50 feet long. There is some more information about the highway properties and the weights of the autos, and with this I am supposed to find out whether the moving driver was speeding (above 55 miles per hour).

Not so bad. It will take a while to calculate, but it’s feasible. So, I grab my grey matter and get moving with the pencil.

There I go, calculating how much destruction there was at this accident scene. I hope paramedics were quick in responding, just as an aside.

Alright, and ok, so let me convert this value into miles per hour and prior to the accident the moving car was traveling…

..approximately… 204 miles per hour.

Yeah.

He was speeding, alright.

My sickness is lingering, afraid to once again take a back seat but not getting the attention it really deserves. When I went to Schiffert last Friday, I was given medications to eradicate it quickly; yet, it has hung on like a real trooper. Yesterday, before starting my rounds of the Emporium floor to solve endless math problems with students, I grabbed a piece of Trident gum. Within seconds, my voice dropped one, no TWO!, octaves and has stayed that way since.

It’s been said of me that my reincarnated self will be a subwoofer since I naturally sing/hum along to the bass lines of songs. Today, I have been unwillingly imitating that new birth. My voice is low enough to drive hibernating animals out of the ground.

And then. There’s always an “and then”. Tonight during a circuit theory review, my voice tried out a new coat, a new coat called “random tonal fluctuations”. As I was talking to my professor in a hefty Barry White timbre, my voice started to crack with every few words. First some lows, then my normal voice slightly harsher, then this squeal that we both laughed at. It’s annoying, but not nearly as annoying as was being deliriously sick for a few days. And this is a reason I will never attempt podcasting.