http://allworkandnoplay.net Makes Jack Better Than You Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:49:05 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I have been writing a book, which is part of the reason I have not updated this blog in so long. My goal has been to write an average of a thousand words a day. I have not met this goal. I did, however, pass the ten-thousand-word mark this morning. ... http://allworkandnoplay.net/64/update-10000-words-and-some-music/ The wheat undulates under the wind; the field appears endless in the dispersed light the sun gives off from behind the horizon's clouds. A combine harvester moves quickly down the exact middle of the field, leaving behind a thick strip of nothing. But then the combine stops suddenly. A strong ... http://allworkandnoplay.net/59/exercise-14/ I will write something worth reading soon. C# Minor Modal Stuff Like a Student Film, Only Music http://allworkandnoplay.net/51/more-music/ Over the past year, I have spent a great deal of time trying to understand music - what a scale is, why certain tones sound good together and others don't, etc. I'll be writing about all that as soon as I get used to my new keyboard layout, but meanwhile, ... http://allworkandnoplay.net/44/creating-music/ I would like to distinguish between two related psychological states that I believe are rarely, if ever, distinguished. The first is fear, and the second is what I call "blockage," as to my knowledge it does not yet have a name. Fear is an emotion with which we are ... http://allworkandnoplay.net/40/40/ This morning an old black woman say in front of me on the train. She smelled wretched; she had what my friend Mark had once called "a geriatric smell." I did not move from my seat, mostly because there was nowhere to move to. I felt short of breath, as ... http://allworkandnoplay.net/37/regional-rail-ride/ This is an excerpt from the first draft of a book I am writing. I am publishing it here, side notes and all, only at Pat's insistence that he could not stand to be bored. As I left I could see, between the tops of the brownstone canyon that was 43rd ... http://allworkandnoplay.net/36/leaving-new-york/ One day is not enough to see all there is to see in one day's worth of me. How could I ever be so bold to think that one day should be told when it is only one day old? A diary is a private place where one can a single day face, one's every moment to trace. A ... http://allworkandnoplay.net/35/do-not-read-this-poem/ A lonely man in a lonely room, considering all that he looks at; but all we can see is all that we are, and he wonders what starts if you stop it. The cherry-topped table, round and oblong, makes scurrilous reference to time long gone when every woman and every drink was a sign to his inner ... http://allworkandnoplay.net/33/dust-bunnies/ Like any substance that directly alters your brain chemistry, caffeine is a drug, and as such, it has the same essential drawback; namely, it favors some brains states over others, and is addictive. Thus, the chronic caffeine user has a limited set of mental states available to him, a set ... http://allworkandnoplay.net/32/on-the-utility-of-psychoreactive-drugs/