Never been one to let the carrier drop

So, tonight, for the first time that I’m aware of, I meditated. As in, actually spinlocked my mind so it was silent for several minutes. It was a really cool experience, and I look forward to doing it again.. the silence represented a kind of mental freedom that I haven’t really had. It’s not exactly like my mind stopped, just the part of my mind that uses language. I shall keep practicing, and perhaps I will get better at it.

I also just ordered new wheels for my skates, because the old ones were looking a little ratty, and new bearings, because the old ones were somewhere between scored and hopeless. I didn’t go for the $200 ceramic ones, because let’s face it, i’m not that good, but I did go for OPEC-9s – which, considering that my old ones were -2s, should make for a extremely interesting rolling experience. I’ll let you all know if I survive it. Originally I had the skate shop score these bearings to slow them down, because I couldn’t handle them – but now I’m a lot more comfortable on them, and I think it should be a lot of fun to have some faster skates.

I also bought a pair of blades at a thrift store the other day with the intention of refurbishing them and turning them into outdoor skates, so I don’t have to trash the bearings on my indoor skates with water, sand, etc..

So, I keep talking about backing up parts of the internet to space – at one point, I just wanted to get a big fusion-fired laser, and blast the contents of Google’s cache towards the nearest star. But, at this point, I’m thinking we should be thinking about putting a spacecraft in a orbit such that it will still be up there tens of thousands of years from now, and backing up the wikipedia to it.

The tricky part is figuring out how to build a spacecraft that will still *work* after tens of thousands of years.. but the clock of the long now people probably have some good ideas on the subject. Anyway, it’s a interesting problem.

So, as some of you may have read in previous journal entries, my old music recording computer died.

Dan Spisak thoughtfully sold me a somewhat-used-but-new-to-me MBP, which I’ve loaded with the latest and greatest Digital Performer. Here’s my first ever track recorded with this new setup.. this isn’t really intended to be brilliant, just to test out various things to make sure they all work (i.e. ADAT interfaces, Analog interfaces, MIDI interfaces, clock sync, etc). They appear to. 😉

But, if you like my dark/atmospheric new-ageish stuff, this is a classic example. I think I probably ripped bits of the theme from many other things I’ve written, though.. it definately was a off-the-cuff, one-pass-per-track sort of thing.

HelloWorld.

So, I’ve been watching skating movies (as well as youtube videos on playing derby, etc) – so far we’ve got Roll Bounce, Whip It, The cutting edge, Blades of glory.. wondering what I’m missing. I’m sure there’s some classic older movies that show some fancy footwork.. comment if you know of any good ones.

I continue to fight my fear of lifting my feet while skating backwards.. leaving the ground no longer bothers me, and reversing no longer bothers me. I also wish I was good enough to practice outside.. but at the moment, becoming one with the ground is something I’m entirely too good at.

I also need to measure my wheels, because I need new wheels and I’m thinking I might as well get new bearings at the same time. My front wheels look like they’re wanting to skate on a banked track, with me skating level. As I practice going up on just my front wheels for tricks, I’m thinking I’m going to want more wheel surface to go up on.

Well, my music recording computer finally died. It’s a old G4 powerbook that’s been going steadily downhill for several years.

I have a replacement for it, but it’s intel and I don’t have any of the software I need for it yet. However, tonight I’m going to stop by Guitar Center and buy a copy of Digital Performer.

So, as many of you know, I’ve been spending increasing amounts of time at the fountain valley skating center – in fact, I’ve gotten a monthly pass to the place. You have to plan to hit more than two sessions a week for the monthly pass to make sense.. the really insane thing is, now that I have it, I basically spend every night there that they’re open. 😉

Some of the skaters there are downright amazing – and for some reason – probably because they chase me – I feel the need to chase them. This has been leading to me very quickly developing my skating skills.. I can now do things that I could only have dreamed of in my Skate City days.

Part of my rapid growth is that I’m over my fear of falling. I *expect* to fall occasionally. I’m just hoping that it doesn’t happen while I’m chasing a roller derby queen at speeds that might make a cop raise his eyebrows on a residential street…  (You think I’m kidding. Actually, I have no idea how fast we’re going. But we lap the rink several times a minute.. faster than they ever would have let us go at Skate City USA, by a factor of three or more)

No one screams worship goats.. (I don’t really miss it) and no one plays tag (now *that* I do miss). People do go for full-contact skating.. I’m getting used to having people slam into my back – actually it feels kind of good – but no one has picked me up yet. Yes, they pick each other up. While on skates. Without, thus far, doing face plants. These people are either crazy, insanely good, or both.

I did some facebook research, and I came up with a conclusion. In general, people who roller skate or blade, love it. Everywhere around the U.S. there are Facebook pages devoted to various rinks, and people generally seem to be having a good time everywhere. It doesn’t seem to be limited to any age group – the FVSC adult night has guys who must be in their seventies – the only requirement seems to be a willingness to roll to the beat. 😉 So, I’m not, at all, alone. And, come on, can’t you all hear it.. ‘We’re going to turn this into a all skate, slowly and carefully in the regular skating direction’. Yah. Slowly and carefully. I’ll keep that in mind while I’m getting up to the average cruising speed of the FVSC adult night. I guess ‘slowly’ is relative. But we’re very careful – honest, officer..

I’m kind of determined to go further, to be able to freestyle. I can already do a lot of basic freestyle moves, but I want to be able to do the insane, roll-bounce-esque ones. So, I’m going to try to get back on a morning schedule, because the rink has morning sessions that are much, much emptier.. a good place to try things that are likely to involve a lot of falling down. 😉

Anyway, I need to go put my MP3 player on the charger so it will be ready for the 10 AM session. And I already know it will feel sooo good. Yes, my legs hurt. Every day. Reminds me of when I was learning how to bowl. But.. although I do enjoy bowling, I don’t think it ever got me anywhere near this high. I’m.. happy. A lot of the time. I don’t get so many hours in at work, but .. skating costs $55 a month for a pass. That’s it.