Much has happened since the last post. In summary: Paganfest was great; all the bands had a good showing and I got to sit on the third row for most of the show. I had hoped for a little more from Turisas, but it was a great experience from them nonetheless. Also, I have no idea where they found a beautiful Ukrainian woman who will play accordian (Netta Skog, I think her name is) for a metal band, but I really need the address... Alumni weekend was a fun experience, albeit a sober one for yours truly (the only sober person in Lexington, it seemed). I had a good time, and I'm quite sure most of the alumni did too-even if they can't remember it. I look forward to it next year. Alums (addressing you in the astronomically small chance that at least one of you will come across this blog and read this post), we'll miss you; until next year!

I am, as of this evening, on the up-and-up from a cold/cough/nasty-respiratory-thing that began on Saturday and necessitated 14-hours of sleep per day.

Yesterday I purchased the GuitarPro5 software at the exorbitant price of $59.95 or thereabouts, which is particularly outrageous in comparison to the price of PowerTab (less powerful, but FREE). I got it primarily because most tablature is available in GuitarPro format-almost exclusively, even-for some songs. I'm not sure if I'd recommend it to most people, but let me say that it's certainly more professional. There are lots more gizmos and widgets and what-nots loaded in perfect for making your tab sound EXACTLY like the track on the CD minus the vocals. Actual guitar practice has been extremely lacking as of late, and I must raise temporal expenditures to meet financial ones, so I've decided to implement a schedule to harness my otherwise lost time. I've always been rather bad about dreaming up elaborate projects and schemes and never even getting past planning; with discipline, I may be able to change this. I think that if I finished even one of these it would make it much easier to complete or make significant progress in others.
Current projects (going nowhere, but soon to be implemented) include:

• The D'Amecourt Project
• The Laocoon Project (extended)
• Music writing/playing

The D'Amecourt Project is to develop a small, flying robotic craft, with the ultimate goal of automated flight. I already have sketches of what I'd like it to look like, and I am very excited about the prospects of creating one such machine. Unfortunately, this is made more difficult by my very limited understanding of aerodynamic design, and confounded further by my limited knowledge of robotics (at least in developing such as may be from scratch). I'd like to draw up some formal and comprehensive schematics by the end of next year (June 2009).

The Laocoon Project, or at least in how it is here referenced, is an effort to create an RTS (Real-Time-Strategy) game more or less from scratch as well. Originally a joint project with a friend that fell out, I would like to try again. The idea is primarily to build the necessary engine for 2d and then possible 3d, with extensive graphics left to the future and/or others better with such things.

The last is the most obvious in nature and need not be explained further. I wish I could find a band...

In closing, a schedule is necessary to turn my life around and actually make progress on these things.