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A ball of glass will bounce higher then a ball of rubber.

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Today (July 1st) is Canada Day!

In honor of this momentous occasion, I thought I'd tell you folks a little bit about it. Canada Day wasn't always known as Canada Day. Before it was Canada Day, it was known as Dominion Day. Why, you ask? (okay, not really, but let's pretend) Well, prior to October of 1867, Canada was a bunch of separate territories of Britain. On July 1st, 1867, Canada's provinces and territories were combined into one big territory, called a Dominion, the first step towards becoming an independent country. 115 years later, in April of 1982, the Queen of England went to Ottawa (to be the Capitol) and signed a document giving Canada its independence. At which point, it wasn't appropriate to call it Dominion Day anymore, as they were no longer a Dominion, and after a few months, changed it to Canada Day.

So, in a few days, when you're celebrating the onset of America's bloody revolution against the British, remember that less than a century later, an imaginary conversation between Britain and Canada went something like this:

Canada: Pardon us, but if you don't mind, could we, you know, if it's convenient for you chaps over there, maybe become an independent country, eh?
Britain: No problem. Oh, but the process will take 115 years.
Canada: Oh, no problem, we'll wait.

And in honor of that, I give you a picture of a pin shaped like the Canadian Flag. (And in honor of THAT, if you click on that picture, there will be a picture of a girl in a Canada-inspired bikini in the snow).

Yay!

posted by Doug 11:20 PM

Back to TheRad

I got around to messing around with TheRad again, which was a little graphical music program I wrote in college. TheRad was a sequencer that you could use to mix samples, synthesized drums, and basic sine-wave melodies into a simple rhythmic pattern. The above is a screen shot of its main screen and (in the bottom right) the drum sequencer portion. I wrote it for a final (actually a couple of finals) my senior year, always meant to get back to it and finesse it, and never did.

And I have to tell you how great it feels to be using that creative/analytical part of my brain again. I hate to say that I ever stop using it, but too often it gets put aside while I go into auto-pilot in order to do silly things like make a living. Not to say I don't think at my job. Just that, you know, it's different.

Every few weeks or so I realize that I still haven't recorded / finalized one song for an album I've been talking about / "working on", for the better part of, oh, you know, 6 years. And I sit down and crank out a little bit, and it feels great, and then I feel satisfied and forget about it for a few weeks. I should set aside an hour a day or so, or maybe a few hours on the weekend, to just sit and work on this stuff.

Because, aside from hanging out with Reina, it's probably the thing I enjoy doing most in this world. Despite the fact that it's so damn hard to get started. I don't know why it is, that some of the things I find so difficult to get motivated for are the same things that at the end of doing, I feel the greatest sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. Funny how that works.

posted by Doug 12:49 AM

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