I’m now on the upswing from being ill; its a joyful feeling to say the least. Precious few things seem worse than the unable-to-sleep, headache-ridden, extremely uncomfortable nights that go along with illness. Disease really is the right name for it. Anyway, here is my advice to you: don’t get sick.
The wife of a family friend took sick, so an extra ticket became available to an eclectic concert last night. Having nothing better to do, I decided I’d give it shot, since I had actually heard of the special guests, Tingstad and Rumbel, whose Christmas Album The Gift is one of my favorites. What it turned out to be was an evening of close harmony with primarily three barbershop quartets, the Renton Valley Harmonizers putting on a production of “The Seven Deadly Sins,” a fun and well-made production, and then of course Tingstad and Rumbel. The choreographed music of the Seven Deadly sins was well-sung and quite fun, and the first two barbershop quartets were quite good – each had either won or placed second in the Evergreen district in the past couple of years – and the Evergreen district covers from Oregon to Alaska to Montana, so we are talking some seriously good singing. When Tingstad and Rumbel began, however, they easily outshined everything that had happened up to that point. The virtuosity of each musician was amazing; Tingstad has complete control over the guitar, and Rumbel is a magician with the Oboe and an assortment of Flutes. They got a standing ovation and performed an encore, but little did I know that the best was yet to come.
The Gas House Gang won the international barbershop quartet competition in 1993, and believe me that it is no slight to the others to say that the Gas House Gang was an order of magnitude better than the other quartets. Even missing one of their original members (replaced by a member of another international-winning quartet for this concert), the sound of the group was cleaner, brighter, and noticeably better than any of the others. And the chemistry between the three original members was fantastic. I can only imagine what the group must have been like with the original baritone, who died in 2003 of cancer, an event which has now culiminated in the group’s decision to retire. After 18 years of what can only be described as amazing music and showmanship, even though this was my first real exposure to them (I had heard of the Gang before, but not heard their stuff), I can say with conviction that the musical community is loosing something special in the Gas House Gang. Bravo!
-or- An evening stroll down the 405
-or- Twenty minutes in an hour and a half
-or- Free exercise on the Kirkland Promenade
Last night, on my way to Dan’s house from work, I discovered that the sometimes-on, sometimes-off low gas warning light in my truck is in fact sometimes-off when it should-be-on. Somewhere between 116th and 85th, the tube ran dry and the truck began to loose power in spurts. I tried to stretch my luck out to get to the next exit, but the truck would have none of it. When power steering and brakes left me, I figured it was time to call it quits and walk the rest of the way. So I jumped out, locked up, and went for an evening stroll down 405. I had the opportunity to check my messages in relative safety (if walking near cars going 60+ mph is safer than talking on the phone while driving, that is), and the walk to downtown Kirkland and back was rereshing, sometimes exciting, and really not too expensive (although it did stink too much of gas on the way back). Ever wonder why gas cans suck so much? I think its because the companies that make them don’t want to deprive roadside grass of the much-needed petroleum products that leaky gas cans provide. The weather was perfect for the occasion; cool enough that the walk didn’t get me sweaty, not so cold that my fingers froze off. It was good to see downtown Kirkland again to, although next time I plan to do it among better circumstances.
…can make all the difference. Yesterday, I left for school five minutes earlier than today. I faced very little traffic all the way in, and arrived before the previous class had let out. Today, leaving some five minutes later, I was confronted with a traffic jam and ended up some five minutes late. The change in arrival time was about fifteen miutes; the change in departure only about five.
Last weekend, I participated in the MIT Mystery Hunt, an annual puzzler extravaganza put on by the most famous of nerd schools. My participation came via Scott, a friend who currently attends said instution. My team-by-proxy was “death-from-above”, and though I directly helped solve only one puzzle out of more than 100, my “team” solved 79, placing solidly above some teams, but solidly below the top-tier teams this year.
Here’s a look at the one I helped with, called “Logomania”:
To solve it, the Washington sub-team figured out the name of the company associated with each logo, then we took the first letter of each compnay and made a sentence out of it, which pointed us to the “company of the sixth logo,” or N-Star, which was the answer to the puzzle.
Sounds complicated? It was. And this was also, I assure you, one of the easiest puzzles in the game. Oh, and if you read Bobby‘s AIM profile, yes, “(03:33:48) Ryan McElroy: I’m a whore barbie ok” really is a quote from me, said at 3:33 am. It was an attempt to solve another puzzle, called “ten times a second.” My guess was way off base, in case you were wondering.
I’ve gotten myself onto a late schedule recently. Today, I had dinner at 10 pm; this after missing a 9:30 class in the morning. Thus, new year’s resolutions are upcoming; one will be a midnight bed time, mostly, I think. Something like that. Anyway, this 2:30 stuff just doesn’t cut it.
I went to my doctor today, and heard this good news: its probably not too serious, but I’ll give you a call if I’m wrong. Yes, my heart isn’t going to be stopping suddenly anytime soon. This is good news for me, considering that I’m also on a streak of emotional stability that hasn’t had me in the dumps long enough to want it any other way. In other news, I get to be a drugie for another 3 months, my finger will probably heal on its own if I manage to keep the swelling down, and I’m going to keep my dependencies limited to a single substance for now (woohoo!).