Wow, how interesting the past week has been. Job stuff and school stuff and music, oh my!
In a cool twist of events since failing to be hired for the last two (poor) jobs I've applied at, I've gotten a (wicked cool) deskie job in my university's CS labs. Instead of busting ass and destroying my car to deliver pizza to angry suburbanites, I get to sit in a comfy chair behind a huge monitor and do relatively little work. It's the epitome of a good college-kid job, I can do my homework at work and put "Sysadmin" on my resume! I'm staying on at Papa John's working Sunday nights, though, since that extra $60 of tax free cash can be pretty useful. Still, I'm happy simply to not be permanantly trapped working at that bastard store any more.
Also, I enrolled for my Spring 2002 courses. Nice deep stuff, too. Towards my degree I'm taking Computer Graphics 672 and Advanced Data Structures 560, both senior-level classes, which is good because I've been a senior (by credit hours) for a while now. Towards my mathematics minor I'm in Linear Algebra 590, which is a nice hardcore-sounding-but-easy offering from the math department. Strictly for personal enrichment I'm also taking Masterworks of Music 136, a fun sounding introductory music history class.
Unfortunately, I seem to be enjoying my Computer Science major less and less the more of it I complete -- which is to say, I've been hating it more and more. I'm sure this happens to everybody in every major, but it still sucks to go through. Anyway, I only have about twelve (out of sixty total) credit hours of work left before I can get the degree, so I'm pretty much locked into the engineering program death march. Oh well, soon I'll graduate, get a nice job, a nice car, a presentable wife, a green lawn, and become everything I hate, just like everybody does. Grr, I'm angsty.
Finally, easily the best part of this week, the music. About two years ago I figured out that minimal techno was one of the most interesting and exciting musical forms I'd thus far experienced. This realization was fueled partially by hearing good stuff at raves, but more by listening to random findings on Napster, which included lots of one particular artist, Richie Hawtin. I was in awe of his skills after a few listenings, and really wanted to see him live. Unfortunately, he costs the world to book and has a hectic schedule that keeps him from playing out much, so the chances that he'd play out in my area's little scene were slim to none. I resolved to wait as long as was necessary to find a performance somewhere close, and jump on the travel opportunity when it arose.
At any rate, last night (Thursday) myself, my girlfriend, my roommate, and a buddy drove four hours both ways to St. Louis to see ...
wait ...
not yet ...
it's coming ...
RICHIE HAWTIN
... perform live on two turntables, a TR-909, a laptop, and other sundry instruments. The show was everything I expected and more, utterly mind-blowing without the aid of any chemical enhancements. It didn't matter that the venue was tiny, it didn't matter that there were pissed off fratboys (I paid $20 for this beepy shit!?) everywhere, it didn't matter that the party would be over by 3 am. All that mattered was intricate, powerful rhythm, throbbing bass, and endless post-cyclic movement -- pure futurism, in music form.
Go see and/or download some of his music right now, I promise you won't be disappointed.