V and I went out to Walden Pond yesterday. It was such a beautiful day for it I took some video and put together a little movie.

What would a cow made out of soy look like? Something like this:

Notice how easily it slices. Perhaps it’d have a Naugahyde skin.

The ceiling fan in the guest room in my parent’s house has a glow-in-the-dark star on one of the blades. Right before sleeping, I turn out the lamp and watch the star orbit in a lazy circle. A comet chasing its own tail.

There is something calming and magical about Lying in the dark, staring at that trail of light. Something reassuring, though I couldn’t tell you why. It makes me happy.

Wrapping up my time in Houston; I leave in the morning. It’s been a good time, quiet for the most part, but just the right opportunity to get back in touch with my family.

Not eating cheese put a damper on my usual tex-mex overdose, but I managed to have a number of great meals, and do a lot of cooking for the family. I regret nothing.

Well, I do regret not making it to the Houston Hot Sauce Fest, which was held on Saturday. But that’s it.

I’m Houston-bound today, to spend a week with the parents and their greyhounds. I’ve got a little work to do, but on the whole it’ll be a trip mostly dedicated to relaxation.

Air travel has been getting less and less enjoyable over the years, but it is my hope that today holds nothing but a smooth flight with a bowl of chips and salsa at the other end.

Yes, five years. This site is getting venerable; can you hear the creaking?

Today’s future is tomorrow’s archives.

I drove out to Norwood last night for a friend’s birthday party at Monster Mini Golf, which involved vegan pizza, a lot of black lights and florescent paint, and glow in the dark golf clubs. I had a great time. For a present, I wrote a silly pop song for the birthday girl. I was especially fond of the chorus, which was very sweet and sincere:

Amanda, Amanda,
Amanda, Amanda,
You’re getting older.
Amanda, you’re one step
closer to death now
but hey, at least
You get presents.

It’s a day for retrospection and introspection. This week has been mostly catching my breath, getting my stride back, and making sure I’m prepared as well as I can for the next few months.

Memories have been floating to the surface with great regularity in the past few days; a flavor or color sets me off, and I’m back in the past, 1, 10, 20 years. It’s been mostly good memories, but many less pleasant ones have made an appearance. There’s a lesson in that it’s all part of me, the stuff I’m not proud of, and yes, even the stuff I am proud of. I own it all.

All of these memories have created some ripples, which is not a bad thing at all. So much of what I’ve done in the past is not what I’d do now, to the point that the past me feels like a different person entirely. And maybe he was! Is continuity of personality just a construct? And so the refrain of “who am I, really?” has started up, and like any good koan, it doesn’t have an easy answer. I’ll have to sit with the question it until it’s satisfied.

The air is cooler today. The leaves are starting to change color, and fall. But summer is still hanging on in places.

I bet that when you woke up this morning, your first thought was “I wish I could hear a cheesy electronic cover of J.S. Bach’s Prelude II in C minor!” Well, your dreams are coming true.

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I’ve been working working Dan for over 3 years now, and yesterday was the first time I’ve ever been to the plant that makes the chocolate. It was a great experience; not only did I install the project I’ve been working with for many months now, I got to see the manufacturing process first-hand.

The highlight of the trip was our new candy bar wrapper, which was custom made for us in Italy. It’s a diabolical machine, and infinitely clever. I watched it wrap a few hundred bars before I left; they came right off the floor, were wrapped, packed and put into the delivery truck a minute later. Talk about fresh!

Here’s a partial shot of the wrapping machine. I took a few more pictures here, here, here, and here.

Working late tonight. I’m going to hit this deadline, and with panache! All the big stuff is done, I’m just polishing it up for delivery tomorrow.

This is the 1,500th post on Tinctoris.

Here’s some music to celebrate, a rough cut of Cattail Council. It’s a bit over 9 minutes and meanders through a few different textures. It’s got a lot of layers, and is very relaxing.

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My landlord installed a brand spanking new oven yesterday, and I inaugurated it this morning with a batch of biscuits. It’s been a quiet day other than that, work interspersed with domestic regularity. I won’t complain one bit.

The coughing from my cold did a number on my body; I’ve ached in places I’ve never ached before, and my entire back felt like I’d been flogged for the latter half of the week. Getting myself to the gym this afternoon was an exercise in self-coercion, but I’m glad I went, because I feel much more relaxed now, and I’m breathing even easier.