View Out the Window

Of all the buildings in New York City the one I work in seems to most resemble Orthanc, the tower of Saruman.  Sometimes I even wonder if we keep Wizards on the roof.  I’ve worked in a number of different offices on different floors with different views, and find the endless changes in seasons, weather and lighting fascinating.  A year ago I moved from the west side of the building to the east, and the view changed from looking down over Hell’s Kitchen across the Hudson and New Jersey all the way to the Poconos, to looking down onto Times Square with the occasional glimpse of Brooklyn and Queens beyond. I put up a gallery of these two views Now I’ve moved again, to the south side where the view is basically the building next door.

Happy Valentines Day

I came up with a new origami model, which I’m calling the Love Bug.  It’s a whimsical insect, a variations on my butterfly where the wings form the shape of a heart.   It was inspired in part by playing cards with Lizzy the other night.  The deck was the kind where every card has a picture, and the ace of hearts had a similar sort of moth or something.  The other inspiration was my ongoing quest to make a satisfying origami ladybug.  I had once made an attempt based on my butterfly and figured out a way to do the color change for the wings and again for the spots.  Unfortunately the basic body plan was too different for it to work, and the legs ended up in the wrong place and the wings were the wrong shape.  But I found I was able to use that approach for this one, and here you go!

Ski Day

Well after all my complaining about the cold, it seems like someone finally listened and we’re now enjoying a nice mild spell.  All the snow has pretty much melted in the last two days.

Last Saturday Jeannie I went on a day trip skiing without the kids, up to the Berkshires.  And we just barely beat the weather.  When we woke up at the break of day it was 12 degrees out, and by the time we made it to the mountain it was 28 or so.  Just perfect.  Conditions were good and our energy level was high, and we both had a fantastic day skiing.  All that Nordic Track has really been paying off.  By early afternoon the temperature had crept above freezing, as evidenced by the snow sticking to our skis and melting on the ride up the lift.  Still it made it pleasant to be out, so we kept on going, and by the time were ready to go home they had turned on the lights for night skiing.  When we got into the car the thermometer said 44 degrees.

Workout

This post is inspired by friend Nick who recently started doing is own home-rolled workout.  I’ve been doing something similar for years.  I started doing it in the year 2000 when I was living in Brooklyn, and I had been sick for most of the winter and had lots of problems with my back and shoulders from using the computer too much, and had been gaining weight too.  I also had an injured ankle that needed some kind of rehabilitation.  I’d been in pretty good about getting regular exercise in thru college, but once I got a regular desk job I kind of let it slide for a few years.  When I lived in California I biked and skated alot year round, but when I was back in New York City that became a seasonal thing.

So it was time to get back into a workout groove.  I had a baby and was living in an apartment, so it wasn’t feasible to either go out to a gym or get lots of a equipment.  I started with just pushups and situps and a few stretches and sort of added in new things and changed them around over the course of the first year or two. Alot of the focus is on core trunk strength, the back, abdomen and shoulders. The basic idea is to alternate between strength and flexibility exercises in sets or short sequences.  When I got weights I decided to limit myself to a pair of dumbbells that could be easily stowed.  After I got my house I got a bench, cuz I had to modify some exercises where I lift weights over my head so as not to hit the ceiling.

I got most of my stretching ideas from two books:  Yoga for Health by Richard Hittleman and Body Control (Pilates) by Lynn Robinson and Gordon Thompson. Yoga and Pilates are alot alike, except with Yoga it’s tied in with the holistic philosophy and vegetarianism, and the ultimate goal is to be in good enough shape so you can spend hours sitting in meditation without getting tired or losing concentration. Pilates is more western and non-spiritual but both have the goal of using the body as a lever to work itself out.

My workout goes like this:

warmup: 60 jumping jacks
stretch: chest expansion, rishi’s posture (touch opposite knee), toe touch, abdominal lift
25 pushups
stretch: chest expansion, rishi’s posture, toe touch, abdominal lift
25 more pushups

stretch: triangle, waist twist
weights: shoulder roll, arm curls (10x @100 lbs.)
stretch: neck roll, trunk roll
weights: shoulder roll, arm curls (10x @100 lbs.)
stretch: balance posture (stand on one foot), leg stretches
weights: shoulder press (10x @100 lbs.), bench press (10x @100 lbs.)

stretch: leg lifts, ankle rolls, knee-thigh stretch
weights: upright butterfly, tricep curls, horizontal butterfly, backstroke (10x each @ 70 lbs.)
stretch: shoulder stand, plow
weights: upright butterfly, tricep curls, horizontal butterfly, backstroke (10x each @ 70 lbs.)

10 squats
40 full situps
40 oblique crossovers
80 crunches
80 oblique crunches
80 reverse situps
cool down: headstand (2 minutes)

I can usually do it in an hour and 10 minutes.  If I push myself for speed I can do it in an hour even, but this is only possible if my energy level is really good, and when I’m tired I tend to take the stretching slower.

A funny thing, it used to take more like an hour and a half to do the workout.  Then about a year ago I started listening to music while I worked out.  It’s important to have a good CD to workout to, and after trying a few I fell into a groove with Steely Dan Alive In America, which is a great album, but only half the songs are really uptempo.  A few months ago I switched to Moving Pictures by the great Canadian power trio Rush.  A good high energy record and perhaps their greatest disc.  I had thought the record was 45 minutes long, and really hustled to stay on pace, and when I was done I realized the album was only 40 minutes long and I had shaved 10 minutes off my workout!

Another thing: I never did a headstand in my life until I was over 30. Now I can do it for 10 minutes or more.

Nowadays I usually work out 6 days a week. I do the workout I just described three times a week and on the alternate days I do a cardio thing, which when the weather is good means rollerblading or bike riding, and now in the winter it’s the Nordic Track or sometimes just a walk.  The Nordic Track is new this winter for me and seems to be working pretty good so far.  As evidenced by the recent ski trip…

New Computer: Fun With Photo Booth Movies

I’ve been busy moving into my new computer, and so far it’s not too bad, although it’s dragging on, and Apple is just as bad as Microsoft in their own little ways. It’s amazing the little gaps in my software that I need to replace now. Audio, video and network utilities, not to mention syncing and organizing all my old data. In any event, the new version of PhotoBooth make movies, and Lizzy and Michelle were happy to give it a go.

New Recording: Earthbound

Here is a rough mix of my new song Earthbound. This is a bit more of a standard rock song for me. It doesn’t use any out time signatures or strange jazz chords, and it doesn’t even have a solo section. Instead it relies on an insistent riff and building repetitions of the chorus, contrasted with a more introspective and narrative verse.

The track is basically done except for a few things. One is I want to layer in a track of Lizzy singing on the chorus. The second is I’m considering whether I should change the bass line in the verse. The idea for the current part was inspired by the kind of pseudo-ska figures Sting used to use with the Police. I’m concerned however, that it comes off as too percussive, and maybe I should so something more legato. The third thing is the 2nd synthesizer part, which does a couple of low notes and a big upward portmento swoop in the middle of the song. I used a preset patch on my built-in software synth, but I think it sounds a bit cheesy. So I’m gonna fire up some of my outboard gear and do this one over with a custom-tailored patch.

My friend John Neumann has been giving me some arranging and producing feedback on this one. I thought I was almost done, but he has some good ideas so now I’m thinking again.

Dead Computer New Computer

It’s been awhile since I last wrote. The deep cold, long dark nights and bleak days continue without interruption. Five weeks now with only one or two afternoons barely breaking freezing. Snow still on the ground from December has crusted up to ice and is covered over by newer layers like a fossil record. I’ve been trying to keep busy by working on music and origami lest the season work its way thru my bones and into my soul. Making progress on that stuff, albeit slowly. A new version of my origami Lizard is basically finished. But all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

I have been reading Martin’s blog about his new music recoding efforts. I have some stuff to say, partially in response, about song writing and recoding from my own POV, particularly in regards to the guitar and the bass. But it’s been hard pulling all that together and I realize it’s probably more than one topic, so hopefully I can get to that some time soon.

I’ve also been really busy at work getting up to speed with the Platform Group. A bunch of new people have joined, so the lot of have been going thru three weeks of twice daily meetings to learn about the whole platform architecture, application stack from soup to nuts. As well current state and future plans of the project. It’s valuable stuff but alot to absorb in a short amount of time. Basically like school. And on top of this I’ve been getting into the code base and working on fixing bugs and adding new features from day one.

Tuesday into Wednesday a storm of snow and freezing rain descended on us. I worked from home on Wednesday because the kids’ school was cancelled. That morning my old laptop finally gave up the ghost for good. It went to sleep and wouldn’t wake up.  My best guess is the power manager is fried and thinks the battery is dead and can’t tell that it’s plugged in. At least I successfully migrated my music production off that machine, and I have a recent full backup, and most of my most recent work is on a thumb drive, so the timing of it was not too bad. Unable to face the prospect of another week or more of downtime trying, probably in vain, to fix the machine yet again, I went out and got a new computer.

Fortunately there’s an Apple Store right near my office, so I swung by the next morning and picked up a new MacBook Pro. So that’s the end of Microsoft OS for me for the foreseeable future (BootCamp and Parallels notwithstanding), and good riddance. Now instead of trying to recover and old dead machine, I have the slightly less dreary task of installing all the software and my data on the new machine. I feel like I’ve done this so many times that I’ve stacked up the carcasses of old computers like so many cloned conjurors a la The Prestige. Ah well, hopefully this one will last me a few years and it’ll be a good long while before I have to go thru this again.

New Song: Earthbound

My new song is called Earthbound, and it’s coming along nicely. I just laid down a take of the lead vocals last night, so now we turn the corner from writing to fleshing out the arrangement. It’s a winter-themed song, sort of an impression of my morning commute, coming out of Grand Central Station into the winter weather, becoming part of a crush of people, and arriving at Times Square in all it’s neon monstrosity. It’s always dark this time of year and cold, and the city is sort of an alternative virtual reality devoid of nature. A Kafkaesque metaphor of rebirth and metamorphosis. The sound I have in mind is sort of an 80’s post-prog pop. So there’ll be a good deal of synthesizers but little to no saxophones.

The chorus is based on a riff Lizzy made up, and it turned out to be a great hook for the theme I was developing, a sort of hopeful transcendent mantra. So I incorporated into the song in the same as I did with It’s Gonna Be a Beautiful Day. I’m gonna have her sing on it too.

Not to be outdone, Michelle has been wanting to get in on this too, and has been pitching a song idea called “Ouch My Toe.” I told her I wasn’t too sure about that one, so now she has a new on “You Can’t See Me”.

So here are the lyrics now. Look for a rough mix coming in the next few weeks.

…

Earthbound

I wanna fly up in the sky
Like a butterfly or a swan
I wanna fly away up high
Rising closer to the sun

Concrete canyons
Rooftop roadways
When the rain appears
Slush melts into Gotham gullies
And washes out to salty seas
Like tears

Subterranean
Stone stairways
Under watchful gargoyles
Navigate a cryptic maze
Vaulted like the heavens only Earthbound
Long slow climb out of the underground
Alight and dream of flying

I wanna fly up to the sky
Like a butterfly or a swan
I wanna fly way up high
Rising closer to the sun

Glassy cages
Steely windows
A tyranny or rectangles
Sometimes the sun still shines
Silver splinters strike the street
Forming angles
That kindle hopes of warming

No moon in our sky
No stars in our night
We’re in the dark side of the year
Helicopters hang in hazy red light
Plasma prisms dance down on Broadway
Sweet young vampires come out to play
And drink of dreams of dying

I wanna fly up to the sky
Like a butterfly or a loon
I wanna fly way up high
Waxing closer to the moon
I wanna fly up to the sky
Like a butterfly or a swan
I wanna fly way up high
To the perihelion

It wants you
It’s never thru
Colossal tempting
Troubling teeming
Pulsing flashing
Glowing gleaming
Pale of darkness
Dearth of dreaming

I wanna fly up to the sky
Like a butterfly or a swan
I wanna fly way up high
Rising closer to the sun
I wanna fly up to the sky
Like a butterfly or a swan
I wanna fly way up high
To the perihelion

I wanna fly up to the sky
Like a butterfly or a swan
I wanna fly way up high
Rising closer to the sun

— John Szinger, 2009

Winter Update

Well it looks like we’re having a classic winter this year, which is unusual for NYC. It’s been cold and snowy since late December. I’ve been out shoveling almost every day the last week. I can’t remember the last time there’s been snow on the ground for a month or more. There’s even ice floes on the Hudson.

It got down to 5 degrees one night last week. This prompted a project of putting new weatherproofing in our garage and lower hallway at the door between the garage and the hall, and in the wizard room, a.k.a. the unheated closet under the stairs.

For some reason, though, the cold seems alot more tolerable when accompanied by snow. So all in all I’m doing pretty good this winter. We even took the kids ice skating this weekend.

The other thing we did this weekend was get back into the ongoing house painting project. We painted our main room downstairs, which our family room, guest room, office and studio. It was mainly cover damaged and dirty parts of the walls, and since it was the same color as before, we literally cut some corners by not doing any trim or edging, and not moving most of the furniture, but just going over the areas the needed it with a roller. Still it took a half a day and we used a whole gallon of paint. The long term plan is to remodel this space, since this is now the only part of the house left that has the original paint left from when we moved in. So this will definitely hold us over until that day comes, and we’ll be touching up the upstairs hall and stairway at some point later this winter.

Montroll Polyhedra

When I first started designing my own origami models one of my areas of focus was creating polyhedra from a single square. At the time most polyhedral origami was modular, made from lots of little bits of paper folded (usually) into triangles with tabs that fit together. This was not so interesting to me as the single-sheet approach, which no one else was really doing.

When I met John Montroll it turned out he was doing it too, and in fact had just published a book of single-sheet origami polyhedra, the first of it’s kind. I’ve learned a lot from hanging out with John and my polyhedra concepts have advanced considerably. Now John is close to completing his third book on polyhedra, which take things to a whole nuther level. He recently asked me to fold a few of his designs to be used for photos in the book. Here are some pictures I took before I sent them off.

They are made of 12’” squares of Canson paper, which is a thickish art paper that has a really nice color and texture. I’ve been getting more an more into folding with thicker papers these days. For years the prevailing trend in origami has been to thinner and thinner papers for subjects like insects and stuff. But I like thicker papers because the model comes out stronger, more sculptable and more durable, especially if you work with larger sizes. This has also had an impact on my design sensibilities, as I tend to avoid designs that absolutely requite thin paper, such as using lots and lots of internal layers. This also leads to larger, more optimized designs. Of course thick is relative. A lot of these papers are barely thicker than standard office paper, but working on fine details it can feel as thick as cardboard.

John is always very elegant with his paper usage and most of polyhedra are just one layer thick on the facets. So although these are complex models, they came out really well, and very strong. You could probably play hackey-sack with some of them!