Wednesday, January 1, 2014

file: 01.mp3
composition: _ (untagged 2014 edit of the introduction to liquify)
status: completed mp3 file
so, i wanted to be done the "old material" by the first. then my phones died for a full month.

i think i can get done by the 15th.

filtering is actually going to be minimal for inri013 and most projects from here on in. the source has moved to uncompressed digital, and i had a clearer understanding of what i was doing.
installation file:
key.reg
installation file:
Acoustic_0BB80.mln
installation file:
Acoustic_0AC44.mln
installation file:
license.reg
installation file:
mlsmple.ini
installation file:
LPC_0BB80.mln
installation file:
LPC_0AC44.mln
i'm going to lay this down.

something i want to change this year (and i don't usually do that, but i've been thinking about this for a bit and it's kind of a coincidence with the time of year) is minimizing the amount of time i spend arguing on the internet. that's not the amount of time i spend reading, or discussing, or conversing or even debating - it's arguing, with people that i don't agree with and that i'm never going to agree with.

i've wasted a lot of time doing this in the past. not just here on facebook, but on forums and newsgroups. i mean, this goes back almost twenty years now. what it actually is is a bad habit, bordering into an addiction. when i say the time is wasted, i mean that quite literally. yet, i felt i had more time to waste in the past than i feel i do now.

i've actually taken a number of steps over the last few months that are slowly converting this into a one-way flow of information. i'm not there yet, and don't want to push myself there; it might even reverse. yet, i feel it's given me back some time to spend on music and reading things that aren't related to debating or trolling.

why do we debate on the internet, anyways? i have three answers that i think are true in varying amounts:

(1) it helps us form our own opinions. for me, that's actually the dominant thing. and it's not really about challenging myself, it's more about going over the same points over and over and working out the bugs. in the sense that the debate is a challenge, it's a challenge to see the ideas from different input variables. for the most part, i'm talking over the person i'm debating with. those that have debated with me or seen me debate know this is true. there's no real consideration on my behalf that i might actually be wrong. (well, if i make a factual error, i'm known to correct myself, but that's not what i mean).

(2) it's an opportunity to learn. that is to say that it directs research topics in a way that is lively and organic. it's not a reading list somebody is pushing down from above. i find this does drive me, but it's also the biggest reason i want to reclaim the time. at this point, i've constructed a reading list for myself and the debating is getting in the way...

(3) ego. but, believe it or not, it's not that strong a force for me. my debating tone can be brutally condescending, but that's far less about how i interpret myself than may be initially apparent (and those who know me know my ego is not powerful. i'm actually driven by a super-ego that seems to be extra-terrestrial in origin.).

i just feel i've exhausted the possibilities with (1). i've had every debate that the internet offers so many times that i'm no longer working things out. it's consequently become sort of boring for me. in conjunction with the feeling that it's getting in the way of my productivity, that presents the aforementioned context of feeling as though i'm engaging in a bad habit that needs to be corrected.

i dunno. maybe i'll switch it around. maybe i'll be the nicest person ever on the internet and an impossible tyrant irl. maybe i'll lose my release. or maybe i'll channel it back into my guitar. who knows...

what i know is that this is not the beginning of this slow winding down. i'm several months into a process that will likely accelerate with the new year.
i'm not somebody that's lived a lunch pail life. i've tried to make things interesting, which has meant taking some chances. it's meant uncertainties in things most of us take for granted. it's meant sleeping in some weird places. it's meant that you win some and...

that was probably the most intense year of my life so far. it feels like a decade of time went by; i can barely even contemplate where i was this time last year, except as part of a past existence. i'm 800 km away in space and even further in mind. if i'm not a decade older physically, i feel like i'm a decade older, mentally.

taking it from the context of 2011 as a rock bottom, and 2012 as a needed recovery followed by a slow crawl out, i feel i turned a corner on a lot of things over 2013 - and not just things that had carried on since 2011 but things that had carried on longer than that. everything seemed to go wrong all at once at the end of 2011, and it all seemed to pass all at once in the middle of 2013. it's remarkable, really, how total and sudden both events were. so, there's a lot of legitimate newness for me in the new year. if things continue on the same trajectory, it looks positive.