I saw two shooting stars last night, but they were only satellites.

last_eorlinga @ 2008-12-07T14:42:00

2008-12-07T14:48:42Z

Hello again!

I've put up a new track on my music MySpace, over at myspace.com/hsuczyk. This is some traditional Irish stuff that a friend of mine and I recorded in one of the public bathrooms at school for a recording project we're supposed to do. We're supposed to use the professional equipment that we have in the music building and then tweak it to make it sound unique, but I decided to trick them into thinking I used said professional equipment when I actually just used my computer and a sweet, sweet internal mic. I then fixed it up to make it sound like an old LP recording by adding the crackliness. Showed it to my teacher, and the tricking was done! No questions were asked, and I didn't explicitly say I used the equipment in the recording room, so I technically didn't lie. Is that bad of me? I can't tell. Something says it is, and something else says "Ehhhh, do it your own way". I did get some merriment out of it, so I suppose it can't be all bad. I also put up an "Out of Service" sign on the bathroom door when recording inside the bathroom to ensure that no one came in. Is that also bad?! I can't tell! Ethics are tough...

Anyways, there are also many updates over at protectorofthesmall.blogspot.com.

last_eorlinga @ 2008-11-16T22:19:00

2008-11-16T22:20:33Z

Many updates over at http://protectorofthesmall.blogspot.com

last_eorlinga @ 2008-10-18T20:20:00

2008-10-18T19:22:20Z

Loads of new updates over at:
protectorofthesmall.blogspot.com

Anyone know how I can RSS that stuff over to LJ? I feel like I'm undermining my own geekiness by asking for help with that but the truth is that I'm pretty much just too lazy to figure it out right now. School work has been bogging me down all day. Sigh. Back to citing a bunch of crap.

P.S. Download and listen to this track:
I'll Tell Me Ma

last_eorlinga @ 2008-09-30T02:20:00

2008-09-30T01:21:29Z

Lots of updates over at:
protectorofthesmall.blogspot.com

How's everyone?

Megan, are you in England? Let's visit each other! Neighboring countries ftw!

last_eorlinga @ 2008-09-11T14:38:00

2008-09-11T13:37:51Z

Going to be posting over at protectorofthesmall.blogspot.com instead now. Will make updates here when I update over there!

last_eorlinga @ 2008-08-19T13:13:00

2008-08-19T20:15:49Z

Hello again everyone,

Thanks for replying to the last post if'n you did. Sorry if it seemed somewhat like a lame lamb-cry for attention, though that wasn't what I meant for it to be -- I just haven't been using LiveJournal for so long that I wanted to see who read.

Anyhow! Going away gathering stuffs:

My house, this Friday, the 22nd, at 8 o'clock to who knows when.
2033 South Spaulding Ave.,
Los Angeles, CA 90016

There's going to be an Irish music session and merriment (me hopes) and, and, and, who knows! You decide. :D

P.S. I can't believe I just did one of those smiley faces. See you there, if you please!

And just for kicks, a photograph of a random man in Dublin at the bus station.

I love to photograph people unawares...

last_eorlinga @ 2008-08-18T14:30:00

2008-08-18T21:29:31Z

Hey, just so I know, does anyone read this?

last_eorlinga @ 2008-08-17T12:06:00

2008-08-17T19:06:53Z

And just because my last post was posted with a bit too much of a twinge of sadness, here's this to lighten up the mood:

Ah. I can always rely on Penny Arcade.

To ramble and rove.

2008-08-17T18:22:14Z

(Taken somewhere in the Scottish Highlands around this time last year. flickr.com/photos/protectorothesmall)

Here goes one of those stream-of-consciousness posts where I blather and blither and generally go on and on...

I suck at keeping up with people. Hardcore.
No, I'm not just shitting on myself because I'm nineteen. I'm stating a fact which as of late I've found to be extremely true and it's just a general observation about myself, not some emotional bullpucky I pulled out of the Perks of Being a Wallflower, and it scares me. There are a lot of people I care about all over the world, but I'm so scattered and insane that I can't ever hardly express to those people just how much I care, and in that it probably comes off that I don't care at all. Things like Facebook, Gmail chat, and even LiveJournal make me feel as though I'm falsely connecting with people through the binary world that is the internet, and as a result all real human contact is lost. I recently started watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer because after years of being pestered for not watching it and considering myself a big Joss Whedon fan, I finally caved in. I'm almost done with season one, and the one thing that has struck me the most besides the fact that Willow is a frighteningly accurate portrayal of me in freshman year of high school, is one of the exchanges between Giles and one of the other teachers at Sunnydale High:

Ms. Calendar: Honestly, what is it about computers that bothers you so much?
Giles: The smell.
Ms. Calendar: Computers don’t smell, Rupert.
Giles: I know. Smell is the most powerful trigger to the memory there is. A certain flower or a whiff of smoke can bring up experiences long forgotten. Books smell. Musty and, and, and, and rich. The knowledge gained from a computer, is, it … it has no texture, no context. It’s there and then it’s gone. If it’s to last, then the getting of knowledge should be tangible, it should be, um… smelly.

And in a weird sort of way, that hit upon the fact that connecting with people through the internet can end up being extremely superficial if it isn't sprinkled with actual contact from at least some small time to time. (And I could go on about that exchange from Buffy in many other contexts as well, but I'll save it for another long-winded, somewhat-boring post.) While I recognize the fact that the internet holds people together in many positive ways, and binds the world together through the form of instant communication, I find that in the end, when it comes to my friends and what little family I have, I wish I could do more than hit the send button. But I'm scattered. And somewhat insane. That, somehow, leads to lack of communication, not because I don't want to communicate, but because I'm half-way around the world in my heart and my head is up in the clouds in Endor somewhere, which means not even this world.

And how do I fix it? By making more of an effort. Sadly, I realized that this needs to be done just as I'm leaving and going away. Is that too painfully ironic? Or is that part of the lesson, whatever its root may be? Is there a lesson? There's a lesson in everything if you twist and turn it enough to look at it that way -- at least that's what my second grade teacher said, and when you're in second grade anyone who is taller than five feet knows everything, and I mean everything. The only exception to that rule at the time was my sister, who for many years has been literally shorter than me but figuratively much taller than me in more than a thousand ways, and who I maintain still knows everything there is to know to this day. At some point she may have control over the finger that pushes the "LAUNCH" button wired to all of those secret nuclear weapons that should be destroyed by now but aren't, so watch out!

Anyways, I want you all to know, you small group of people who actually read my LiveJournal when I have random bouts of posting inspiration, that I care. I do. I think of all of the people in my life or those who have come into my life on a regular basis, and certainly that means the bulk of you. Know that I care, if you care that I care or not, and that everyone, in some way or another, is somewhere in my heart and mind.

...I'm kind of scared of the fact that I'm not scared of moving to Ireland. Hello, life-changing occurances! How do you do?

My choices for president and vice president this coming election...

2008-08-17T01:38:22Z

Two posts in the span of ten minutes? I really must be going clinically insane. However, I think these two videos are deserving of their own post.

First, here's one of the reasons that isn't Firefly related for which I adore Joss Whedon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYaczoJMRhs

And next, here's something someone showed me not too long ago that I've kept in my mind for some time and have meant to pass on to others. It's a video of Mr. Rogers defending PBS to the US Senate. It's almost bittersweet in a way now that he's gone, but the message holds true and if you had enough patience to watch the last one, you might find you've enough to last through this one as well, and you might also find yourself tearing up a little as I did:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXEuEUQIP3Q

And so I say, this November when you hit the voting polls, vote Whedon for President and Rogers' corpse for vice president!

(I'm sorry if that seemed insensitively morbid. I didn't mean for it to be.)

last_eorlinga @ 2008-08-16T18:00:00

2008-08-17T01:04:47Z

Alrighty! Well, moving to Ireland is a definite yes. Going to be attending the University of Limerick, getting a bachelor's degree through their program for traditional Irish music and dance, with a focus on fiddle and uilleann pipes, and a double minor in sean nós dancing and Irish Gaelic.

...what the fuck.

AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!1

/dies (From excitement, mind you.)

I'll be having some sort of farewell gathering, and you're all invited if you'd like to be of course! We'll have Firefly running in the background and live Irish music.

Drat. Now I have to go out and buy a lot of power converters...

last_eorlinga @ 2008-08-11T15:54:00

2008-08-11T22:55:05Z

I got in to school in Ireland to study traditional Irish music and dance and uhhhh... might be moving in two weeks. Not sure yet.

last_eorlinga @ 2008-06-21T14:20:00

2008-06-21T21:19:42Z

Congratulations! You're not perfect! It's ridiculous to want to be perfect anyway. But then, everybody's ridiculous sometimes, except perfect people. You know what perfect is? Perfect is not eating or drinking or talking or moving a muscle or making even the teensiest mistake. Perfect is never doing anything wrong - which means never doing anything at all. Perfect is boring! So you're not perfect! Wonderful! Have fun! Eat things that give you bad breath! Trip over your own shoelaces! Laugh! Let somebody else laugh at you! Perfect people never do any of those things. All they do is sit around and sip weak tea and think about how perfect they are. But they're really not one-hundred-percent perfect anyway. You should see them when they get the hiccups! Phooey! Who needs 'em? You can drink pickle juice and imitate gorillas and do silly dances and sing stupid songs and wear funny hats and be as imperfect as you please and still be a good person. Good people are hard to find nowadays. And they're a lot more fun than perfect people any day of the week.

last_eorlinga @ 2008-05-11T13:49:00

2008-05-11T20:49:36Z

Haven't been around here in a while. Randomly felt like spewing some thoughts...

There is chance in this world.

Things happen randomly.

When a stone is accidentally kicked down the hill, there is no arrangement, there is no plan. It simply happens -- a colliding of bodies.

Some people argue that there is order to this universe, asserting that "God doesn't play
dice." (Einstein)

What is the relationship of order and disorder?

We might say that randomness becomes order. There might be an overall framework to things -- like living creation, for example -- but within that framework, we have the random combination of cells that accounts for the continuous unfolding of the system.

And, we may have some constants to a system, such as gravity, but within the constraints of that system, there is chance. Does this mean that everything tends toward disorder?

Ahh, but for this to be true, there would have had to be order in the first place! Where did it come from? How was it imposed? Or was there always disorder and chance working in the universe, and did they somehow become part of the fabric of reality?

There are some, students of the constantly-becoming-never-completely-knowing, who say that there is no definitive way to resolve this question.

They are more interested in accepting the fact
that there is always uncertainty in the universe
and working with that. Impermanence.

For them, incorporating uncertainty into life is at the heart of Beingness.

That is when they feel the most human.

last_eorlinga @ 2008-04-24T12:18:00

2008-04-24T19:20:05Z

Also, new material over at http://www.flickr.com/photos/protectorofthesmall

last_eorlinga @ 2008-03-26T20:59:00

2008-03-27T04:02:06Z

Highland class got canceled, and I'm bored. Played pipes for a little while and then moved on to my fiddle... and then got hungry. Realized there was no food, felt like posting to Livejournal, realized I had nothing to say (what?), and then decided to post this because... because...

...

...?

So bored. Where's Libby?

"It's a... (rolls dice)... pleasure to meet you!"*

2008-03-27T01:06:24Z

What the bloody hell? First it's Robert Jordan, then it's Gary Gygax, and then they have to go and add an un-needed pinch of salt to the mix with Arthur C. Clark? What is this? Break the heart of the geeks decade? Gee whiz, Batman.

(From Penny Arcade, o'course.)

Also, they've taken to calling me Juno at work. They're even going to make me a name sign that says Juno. Here's to hoping I don't immaculately conceive and prove them all right. Being associated with an overly hip indie flick isn't half bad if it means being recognized for clever and cynical banter and a short pony-tail instead of being preggers.

Well, honestly, I did like that movie. Good soundtrack. K Records ftw!

...Gary Gygax! Noooooooooo!

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthology_of_Interest_I

last_eorlinga @ 2008-03-26T14:05:00

2008-03-26T21:05:22Z

it's a lucious mix of words and tricks
that let us bet when you know we should fold
on rocks I dreamt of where we'd stepped
and the whole mess of roads we're on now.

hold your glass up, hold it in
never betray the way you've always known it is.
one day I'll be wondering how
I got so old just wondering how
I never get cold wearing nothing in the snow.

this is way beyond my remote concern
of being condescending
all these squawking birds won't quit.
building nothing, laying bricks.

hold your glass up, hold it in
never betray the way you've always known it is.
one day I'll be wondering how
I got so old just wondering how
I never get cold wearing nothing in the snow.

Thank goodness for Irish music.

2008-03-24T22:12:34Z

http://www.flickr.com/photos/protectorofthesmall

Aigéan Ciúin an Gheimhridh (The Quiet Winter Ocean)

2008-03-22T19:49:29Z

http://www.flickr.com/photos/protectorofthesmall/

last_eorlinga @ 2008-02-20T22:38:00

2008-02-21T06:39:18Z

Playing a show on Friday if you're interested:

last_eorlinga @ 2008-02-19T02:03:00

2008-02-19T10:18:15Z

I keep telling myself that I should stop the miniscule world of Sasha from spinning 'round for a moment so that I can sit down at my handy computer and write about my adventures/(sometimes) misadventures in Ireland. I find myself being too lazy to do that, most of the time, but lately I've snapped my fingers at myself and been un-lazy enough to start putting photographs up on Flickr. They're not necessarily of Ireland, though the bulk of them are, but take a gander if you're interested:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/protectorofthesmall

Ireland post forthcoming when the laziness dissolves/disappears/decides to go away and bug someone else for a change.

(Oh, and what is with Firefox trying to tell me that I was misspelling "miniscule"?)

Netflix on Amelie:

2008-02-14T12:28:25Z

"Impish gamine Amélie lives alone and works in a café. When she finds a trove of toys hidden for 40 years behind a baseboard in her apartment, she's inspired to repatriate the items, an impulse of generosity that sparks more benevolent acts. A celebration of life, Amélie reminds us of the small wonders that abound around us … if only we paused to look."

...Does that make me an impish gamine?

(And I couldn't agree more about the small wonders abounding around us, visible to all if only we paused to look.)

last_eorlinga @ 2008-01-24T14:56:00

2008-01-24T22:56:31Z

Home and just wanting to go back. Sigh.

last_eorlinga @ 2007-12-26T16:46:00

2007-12-26T16:43:18Z

Come tomorrow I'll be in a really small and remote part of Ireland on the peak of the north in Donegal in a place where it's so under populated that there aren't any street signs. For a week straight I'll be playing and listening music day through night.

...life is so extraordinary.