The Academic Aquarium

Hello vast, empty shell that is my slice of internet. This is my first post in quite a few months. I would apologize, but I doubt there is anyone still out there to apologize to. Obviously after my return from Taiwan, the writings have been slim pickings, for several reasons. However, I will perhaps use this space more regularly... for the rare news in my life, random musings, as well as a place to display any creative works I've done. But now, on to life (current)...in bullet format.

-I am back at college, at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where I previously spent two years.
-I am passing classes again. It's a new feeling for me.
-I am living in a small house with a buddy of mine (and his two rats). It's excellent.
-I am playing lots of ultimate frisbee. I opted to be on the 'B' team (the lesser of the two), which put me in the position of co-captain. It's great fun.
-I am once again involved in theatre, via TOST n Turned, the all-too-familiar community service theatre group. New faces, new lines to learn, but still fun.
-I am still dating Josie. It's been a little over 3 and a half years, to date.
-I am still working on a new music album, which will be titled 'Pasta Prevails'. I have finished 9 of the 10 songs, the last of which will be a collaboration with Corey.
-I have successfully completed my basic firefighter training and passed an optional national certification testing process, which grants me the title of Firefighter I, the most basic national certification level.
-I'm continuing to learn, practice, train, grow in various areas. This diversity has become such a fundamental part of my life.

That's all for now...hello again and goodbye!

The Effect of Training on Relative Ability

In several of my pursuits, we often talk about 'training how you play.' In other words, when you are training/practicing, you should be using the same methods and mindset that you would use in a real life situation. For instance, in parkor, you should often be training outside, in the streets, not in a gym. While gyms have their place for practicing dangerous new maneuvers, a padded mat does not give a necessary sense of reality or urgency. Go practice out over concrete.

In the fire academy, we talked about what makes firefighters "special". What makes us run into burning buildings whenever else turns tail and runs? Is it courage? A sense of duty? The expensive equipment we wear? While all of that may help, especially the equipment, none of that is the true answer. The answer is TRAINING. That is what we are trained to do. If we have learned and trained properly, we do not have to rely on any superhuman qualities. If we have gave a civilian all the equipment and knowledge we possess, he would still not enter that structure and perform the job. Because in that moment, one should be running purely on habit and muscle memory.

The same is very true of parkour. People think that you must be crazy, reckless, and super strong in order to perform such movements. But the truth is, we have trained...it is that simple. It is all quite relative. To an elderly lady, keeping one's balance while walking down the sidewalk may be a feat in itself. For someone else, walking along a handrail and leaping to another may be just as difficult and dangerous. It is simply a matter of developing one's body and mind to be familiar and comfortable, to build that confidence.

Anyway, just some interesting parallels I came across a while ago, thought I'd share.

Ultimate

Ultimate frisbee. Why are you so ultimate?

Is it the sight of discs soaring undeterred through the sky? Is it the self-regulated spirit of the game? Is it the feeling of a determined dive into mud? Or is it simply a salute to our more childish, innocent natures?

Whatever it is, you've juked and jived your way into the Top 3 of my favorite sports. It's always funny how things turn out. Four years (ish) ago I hardly knew that frisbees were part of any organized sport. Fast forward a few years, and it's become a large part of my life. While I have only ever played on a semi-competitive level, and probably will never play on anything more than such, it never ceases to provide me with joy.

The pinnacle of this joy was probably reached in very recent history. The catalyst for this new level of joy from Ultimate was an unlikely one: my own sister. During her time abroad at graduate school in England, she joined her first Ultimate team (obviously jealous of all my Ultimate stories from IUP). There she learned the basics, achieved some necessary humiliation (a necessary part of any learning curve), and came home with a desire to play with her local/college friends. This coming month, she will be co-captaining a team for the Pittsburgh summer league, on which I will be most likely playing. Huh. What happened there, eh?

Last weekend, during our last spring league, I launched a pass that was my caught by, you guessed it, Laura in the own endzone for a point. It was pure joy.

It's a combination of all the elements, really, that makes Ultimate so special. The running/jumping/diving, the post-hippie community and laid-back attitude, the competitive yet friendly (usually) nature of its participants, the camaraderie among teammates, etc. It is unique, and yet, universal. Hopefully, it will continue to bring me (and others!) joy for many more years to come.

Blog 2.0

As you can see, I'm back...but not in black, I'm sorry. After a long absence from boring you all through the intertubes, I have decided it's finally time to spew forth garbage onto this page once again.

My extended absence from my own private virtual old can be blamed on the following:
-Being busy.
-Not feeling like typing something new until the old layout is changed
-Being too lazy to change said layout

-Not having much in the way of news

But, as you know, I am no longer in Taiwan. So, that theme is no longer appropriate. What will fill the pages of this blog, now that I'm back at home doing much nothing, remains to be seen. Mostly random thoughts...maybe some interesting links, maybe some reviews, we'll see.

What you've missed: not a whole lot. I work four nights (9pm-5am) a week at Lowe's, performing various stocking duties. It's slowly but surely sucking the life out of me. But, it is a paycheck. Lately, I've also been working part-time during daylight for the Census Bureau, knocking on doors, asking questions, etc. Easiest. Money. Ever. But, that shall be up in mid/late June. At that point, my official courses at the fire academy will begin...which means classes from 8am-5pm then working that night, during the week. Joy...but I hope to have my Firefighting Essentials courses wrapped up by the end of summer. In fall, I will be returning to college at IUP, which I'm excited for. Other than that...I continue to lead a fairly stable, healthy, uneventful, fortunate life. I have a few good friends in town, my girlfriend continues to be amazing, and my family is not driving me bonkers =) I've been using solid chunks of my free time to work on a new album, which I'm hoping to release by this fall. It features some vast improvements on my technological abilities, as well as having much more in the way of live instruments.

Feel free to check back often, as I hope to be a regular poster once again.

Till next time, hope all is well with everyone!

'Victory Abroad' Released

In this week's news, Koopa Komrades has just released their first CD, 'Victory Abroad'. This CD consists of 10 songs: 7 of the songs previously posted here on the blog and 3 new ones. During my month home, I finished up one song that required some live trumpet samples, and took some time to "re-master" many of the previous tracks. I did not do any extensive overhauling of the tracks (I did not touch the vocals...as I knew I would've worked on them for another 3 years, and they would still be awful), just touched some things up.

The CD has been uploaded HERE to Jamendo, a free music site where everything is released under the Creative Commons license. You can download the whole CD there in one package, as well as listen to songs individually and view their lyrics (just click on the track title in the list).

Below is a brief description of each song:

1. Foray - A Friendly Frog's Tale: my first bit of experimenting, more of a proof of concept for me really, that ended up becoming something of a song. It's compromised of just a couple simple upbeat melodies.

2. Today Is Not - this is a song of defiance and a refusal to lay down and die, both literally and figuratively

3. Chasing Bags - a song for my best friends and brothers, whom I know were going through some tough and lonely times while I was away. It hurt me that I could not be there for them.

4. Passage - This is probably the most laid-back song on the CD. It's about the rantings and musings of an immortal character on Earth. This song's backbone is a simple piano chord line.

5. Trifechno - Like many people,I love Zelda (a classic video game franchise), and I love the music in Zelda. Like many other people, I love taking Zelda and mixing it up. Unlike many other people, my remix probably destroys it. This is a mix of Zelda's theme, particularly the N64 version. It begins with some simple 8-bit sounds and eventually moves into some more complex sounds.

6. Train - For this song, my mission was simply to attempt to channel as much of the energy that one needs and gains from training. I did a lot of training in Taiwan (particularly parkour), and I wanted to share this desire via song.

7. Epic Song - a more light and comic song, spoofing a live performance of a fictional band. Actually, this is probably my least favorite song on the CD for some reason.

8. Minor Discovery - At some point during the trip, I was having a particularly dark week. So, I decided it would be a good idea to channel this into some dark synthetic music. Originally, it was supposed to 'Minor Discovery With a Major Conclusion" ...meaning that I would tack on a happier and 'majorer' (hah) ending during happier days. Well, that took a while and I just decided to leave it as is. This song was kind of an experiment to mess around with conflicting leads and basslines.

9. Energy Crisis - I keep hearing all this talk about the 'energy crisis' and how our lives are doomed because of it. However, I often see and feel so much energy around me everday. I feel that we need to look within ourselves and bring this energy more to the forefront of our lives. Energy doesn't come from caffeine, wake up and apply your spirit to your life.

10. Home - Before leaving, my itinerary made it quite clear that I had a long time to sit around and do nothing while in the LA airport. So, I figured that would be a good time to do the last song..So, during my 8 hours of sitting in a chair in the airport (I couldn't even check my bags till the end), I whipped this up...my goal was to use only synth for everything (drumbeat excluded), which helped keep the workflow simple and flowing. It's a simple upbeat song...a reflection of my trip that has past, and a tribute to coming home.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun making the album, and I know my knowledge of digital music has increased tenfold (which isn't too difficult, seeing as how I had no knowledge previously). If you decide to give it a go, I hope you can enjoy it. Comments and feedback always appreciated.

Ta ta.

Past, Present, and Future

Greetings to all! Here's hoping everyone had a great holiday season, etc. I know I did. I realize it's been a long time since I posted on here...and that's mostly because, well, I'm no longer in Taiwan. So, allow me to summarize what's going on with life (and with the blog) in the past, present, and future.

Past

Immediately following a trip to Hong Kong with the parkour crew, I packed my life and belongings and departed Taiwan on December 14th. As you could guess, the departure was a very long, exhilarating, exhausting, sad, and happy event. I won't bore you with the details of my airport escapades, but suffice to say I made it home alive and well. Not surprisingly, many people have asked me, "Well, are you glad to be home?" and probably also not surprisingly, I answer "Yes and no...sad to leave but good to be home.", which is the truth. Taiwan and its people will always hold a place in my heart. I miss the food, my friends, my students, and many other things. But, as usual, I try to live in the now. Which brings us to the...

Present

The holidays are over. The guests departed, the friends off to school, the daily toil resumed. As for me, there's not much in the way to resume. I'm currently in the process of finding a job (my return to Best Buy is not progressing as I had hoped...I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, it's never so easy). Meanwhile, I've been reacquainting myself with my home and belongings while working on a few projects. I've also recently pledged myself to the volunteer fire department here in town. So, I look ahead to the...

Future

What lies ahead? It's probably best I don't know. However, there are a few plans and goals in the works. First of all, after I hopefully get a job, I'll be working up through summer, in the hopes of returning to IUP for the fall semester. Also in the hopefully category, I will soon begin training with the fire academy, so that I can get my firefighter credentials done. That should be interesting. I also have some more crappy music in the works, to be released online at a later date.

So, what will happen to this blog? It'll still be around. It has not yet reached its quota of uselessness. However, I think it will have to go through a title/template change :P It may not be updated as often anymore, but I'll still post here with various happenings, projects, rants, etc. Stay tuned, and keep your stick on the ice.