VexVox

Back in 1998, web-based e-mail was touted as the on-the-go solution solution for people tethered to a desktop client. Widespread use of the Internet was still new enough that folks more than familiar with UNIX shells could bypass these free web-based services in favor of telnet, rlogin or ssh.

I scoffed at the idea of having a Hotmail account. I had one, of course, but I would log into it rarely. I would rather telnet into my e-mail and use pine than be bombarded with obnoxious animated GIFs.

But I was reckless with my e-mail address. It was my default address for every account to which I signed up. As a result, it managed to get on every SPAM list conceivable, and by 2000, the number of SPAM I received outnumbered mail by real people. The advent of online journal writing — which would eventually become blogging — made correspondence through e-mail more of a business action. Why write to individuals when I could just point them to my site instead?

I installed a shell-based SPAM filter so good, it filtered out legitimate e-mail. It was then I got into the habit of moving over false positives to the inbox, which would then be sucked down to my desktop client. I'd clean out the filters every day.

Having learned such a hard lesson, the Hotmail account then became my SPAM catcher box. Every site to which I registered would use that account. As a result, it's become the area to which I'm willing to be marketed. I don't mind if some business puts me on a notification list with that address — that's why it's there.

My shell account changed hands, and the business with which I original signed up got acquired by another company. After a major change in e-mail platform, the rot began to sink in. The overprotective shell filters became too permissive, and the number of SPAM messages filtered out dwindled against what went through. By 2008, Twitter, social networks and web-based communication essentially made my desktop e-mail client neglected. I would go for months without firing it up.

The shell access came with its costs: $16/month. However portable ssh is, the shell e-mail account had lost its value. It was not worth that expenditure.

So after 10 years, an e-mail address familiar to everyone I know is no more. I canceled my Illuminati Online (actually it's Prism.net) account today, and nemesisv@io.com is no more. I would usually try to obfuscate addresses, but the SPAM scrapers took that address a long time ago.

I couldn't really kill it since it was already dead.

At the same time, it almost feels like I've torn down a house. It's a destination that hadn't changed for a decade. When all else failed, you could always hit up nemesisv@io.com. Well, not any more.

So goodbye, nemesisv@io.com. You lasted in an environment where permanence is an anomaly.

Rather than adjust to Hawaiian time, I've opted to remain in Central time. My dad sometimes needs help in the morning, and my mom really needs to sleep in. If I keep my body fooled into thinking that 4 a.m. is really 9 a.m., I can assist in that manner.

That just means when it's noon in Hawaiʻi, my body will think it's already time to start winding down for the afternoon. I went to bed before 10 p.m. HST last night, which means I stayed up till 3 a.m. CST.

The house and the neighborhood tend to wake up around 4 a.m. anyway. If it isn't my brother getting ready to go to work — long bus commute — it's the roosters all throughout the neighborhood, reliable alarm clocks you can't shut off till you need something to eat for dinner.

About the only thing I'm doing on this trip, aside from making sure my dad gets around without incident, is eating. All the discipline I've exercised in the last nine months have pretty much been thrown to the proverbial wind in the face of all the fatty, delicious food here. After shopping for CDs on Friday, my sister and I stopped by Grace's Inn for the requisite plate of chicken katsu. I thought about splitting the plate up between lunch and dinner, but who was I kidding? I dusted the entire plate off, including the chow fun.

I didn't bother eating dinner that night. But I did indulge in some malasadas.

I have been getting some exercise, though. On Friday, I accompanied my sister to get her daily Starbucks at a nearby shopping center, a round trip of 2.2 miles. This morning, we drove to Kapiʻolani Park and walked the perimeter. Neither excursion got my heart rate up to my usual workout, but at least I feel as if I've mitigated all the bad eating of the past three days.

I did, however, insult my mom when I refused to eat the breakfast she cooked Thursday and Friday morning. I drank SlimFast instead, to which she objected saying it didn't provide sufficient nutrition. I think she doesn't like having her cooking rebuffed.

After the walk around Kapiʻolani Park, we stopped by Island Manapua Factory to pick up some manapua. On the Mainland, they're called dumplings. They are actually called bao in Chinese. I stick with manapua.

I've weighed myself dutifully, as prescribed by the Hacker's Diet, and I'm not pleased by the numbers. According to the scales here at the house, I've gained eight pounds in three days. I think they're just miscalibrated. But I bet when I get home to Austin, my scale will corroborate theirs.

It's 3:48 a.m. in Hawai‘i, but it's 8:48 a.m. in Austin. Guess which time zone my body thinks it's still in.

The flight here went a lot smoother than last time, but I still got off the plane wishing my family lived on the Mainland. I tried to get some sleep on the plane, but everyone walking down the aisle brushed past me, waking me up. The guy across the aisle spilled over into it — he was a big dude — and it frustrated me that he had to occupy that much real estate. I didn't realize till we got off the plane he took up all the seats in that entire row to accommodate a leg in a cast. Oops.

My mom asked me to take a cab home since my flight arrived pretty much at midnight. My Mainlandness showed its true colors when I realized I would need to give my cabbie directions to my house. Austin cab drivers have frakking GPS navigators in their cabs. I am beginning to take for granted just how wired Austin is.

I made it to the house at 1 a.m., knowing full well three hours from then, the damn roosters in the neighborhood would start to crow. I hadn't anticipated a stray cat catching the attention of the neighbor's dog would trump them. In short, I didn't sleep, and I made no effort.

I spent my first day here throwing all my exercise and dieting out the window. Between bad airport fast food and a Zip Pac for dinner — with Ryan and Jen! — I've packed on five pounds in 24 hours. I was hoping to spread that out over the entire week. Oh, well. I guess I'll have 35 pounds to shed when I get back to Austin.

I drove my dad to his physical therapy session, then went to the Shirokiya in Ala Moana to see if there were any Japanese CDs to be had. Ala Moana has always been a mess where the parking was concerned, but the opening of Nordstrom's has turned the traffic patterns of the lot into some weird maze random one-way turns. As I announced on Twitter, I would gladly contribute to the rehab of the engineer who designed that traffic flow. Much crack was ingested during the design of that traffic flow, it seems.

And no, I didn't find anything on my shopping list.

I tried to get some sleep before what was supposed to be family portrait photo shoot that afternoon. Except it wasn't that afteroon — it was the next day (today.) Mom had leaped to some conclusions about the portrait taking based on my sister's availability.

So it was off to Zippy's with Ryan and Jen for dinner. LOST, Battlestar Galactica, my new record label, the kids — the usual catching up. We stopped by Best Buy afterward because my mom asked me to get a VCR — no, not a DVD player — but the only models available were VCR/DVD combo players in the $200 range. Huh. No. At least Jen found a double-disc set of Grosse Point Blank and High Fidelity.

The rest of the night was spent trying to ignore Don't Forget the Lyrics before LOST. I didn't watch last week's episode yet because it was a 'shipper episode. I'm glad this week's episode actually moved the story forward.

I have a friend who's an astrologer, and about a year and a half ago, I asked him to do a reading about what I'm doing with Eponymous 4. He said to watch out for nine opportunities. I kept that in the back of my head, but I proceeded blindly — I didn't want the search for the nine opportunities to get in the way of the nine opportunities happening.

So which events altered the course of what I'm doing today? Looking back, I'd have to say:

• Took courses in synthesis at Austin Community College. I was a lot less skilled with how to work effects processors before these classes. After manipulating sound waves to sound like other things, I have better confidence in tweaking things, although I'm not inclined to tweak too much. I'm not skilled enough of as a mixer to make anything incredibly polished, but I don't think my recordings sound terrible or crappy. Of course, I took advantage of my student status to get academic discounts on a number of software, including Sibelius, Sony Sound Forge and QuarkXpress. That last one is important.
• Bought a crossgrade license to QuarkXpress to practice cover art design. I had a very ancient copy of Adobe Pagemaker, which I bought for a newspaper layout class in college. That was in 1996. Quark offered a crossgrade for Pagemaker users, of which I took advantage. Thus armed, I researched about CD package design, leading me to work with templates from Mixonic. That led to the next event.
• Had some blank CDs pressed with my own cover art. How CDs are made was always a process shrouded in some degree in mystery. It's not all that mysterious. Mixonic, in particular, makes it incredibly easy. They're a bit pricey, and they use some unconventional requirements for submission. But having gone through the process of designing a CD cover — then seeing that package come to life — was incredibly instructional.
• Moved to a bigger apartment. In May 2007, I faced a steep rent raise. For the size of my apartment, I felt that was a rip off. So I went to the leasing office to see if they had a bigger one-bedroom available. In fact, they had a two-bedroom apartment for $13 more than my proposed rent increase. If I'm going to end up paying more, I should get the square footage to go with it. So I moved to a bigger apartment and turned the master bedroom into my studio, something I've been longing to do. The walk-in closet was configured to become an isolation booth, and for the first time, I was able to make consistent vocal tracks. I couldn't do that in the smaller apartment because I had to break down the mic setup after every session. As a result, I've actually made tangible progress.
• Helped a friend record vocals for a stage production. The problem with doing it yourself is that sometimes you need to be in two places at once. By helping OmarG with his own recording project, I was able to work exclusively as an engineer, not as performer and engineer. That night of work gave me the confidence to produce recordings that didn't frustrate the hell out of me.
• Sent out a compilation of demos to select people. Now that I had some decent enough recordings, I mustered up the courage to send out a 13-song compilation out to friends as "Christmas cards". It's the closest thing I got to releasing an album.
• Formed a label and a publishing company. I felt really restless on my birthday. I was in the office when I didn't really want to be. So I found myself researching how to file a DBA in Texas. Before I knew it, I was filling out the forms, then told my boss I needed to run some errands. I filed my DBAs, then went straight to my credit union to open some business bank accounts. Without really thinking it through, I had set up business.

That's seven out of nine events. Kramer, my astrologer friend, mentioned something about working with other musicians becoming a difficult part of the endeavor. It's the step I've been avoiding because I'm still grappling with the idea of letting other people in on the work. I like working alone, and it's a modus operandi completely in my comfort zone. But I know I can do a lot better with some collaboration.

Now that I've actually taken some really serious steps — in fact, I just filed an application for sales tax permit — I have an incentive to produce something worth buying.

I've got another reading with Kramer over the weekend. Maybe he can shed some perspective.

In preparation of the release of enigmatics, I have …

• … remixed and remastered the recordings.
• … sequenced the tracks and burned a test disc.
• … applied for membership with ASCAP as both a songwriter and a publisher.
• … filed DBAs with Travis County to operate as Observant Records and Eponymous 4.
• … opened business bank account under Observant Records and Eponymous 4.
• … signed up with CD Baby.
• … revised the cover art to include a bit more in the way of credits.
• … set up a payment mechanism with Paypal.
• … gotten a sales tax permit.

I still have to …

• … set up a DBA with Travis County to operate under whatever publishing name ASCAP approves.(finished 5/6/2008)
• … establish a business bank account for the publishing company.(finished 5/7/2008)
• … revise the credits to include the approved publishing company name.(finished 5/6/2008)
• … burn the actual CD to be duplicated at the printing plant.(finished 5/3/2008)
• … file Form SR for the sound recording with the Copyright Office under Observant Records.(finished 5/16/2008)
• … file Form PA for the songs with the Copyright Office under the approved publishing company name.(finished 5/16/2008)
• … register, at the very least, the tracks on enigmatics with ASCAP, after membership is approved.(finished 5/16/2008)
• … have the CDs duped and printed.(ordered 5/16/2008)
• … send five to CD Baby.(sent 6/4/2008)
• … maybe put three on consignment with Waterloo Records.
• … consider signing up for Amazon Advantage.(signed up 5/20/2008)
• … let people know it exists.

Right now, the only thing holding everything up is the name ASCAP approves for my publishing company. Once I can get that determined, everything else can proceed. I'm kind of anxious to get things rolling because my momentum is pretty good. I managed to do everything else in a day.

Now that the label is out of the realm of fantasy, I want to get back to working on the material at which I've been chipping for the past three years. These aren't just casual demos any more — I'm actually working on something I intend to sell.

I'm somewhat nervous about that. The independent part of me wants to forge on ahead in full DIY fashion, while the objective part of me knows I could make my "product" a lot better with outside talent. In short, do I really want to charge people at least $10 to hear my weak singing?

Another funny side effect of this whole endeavor is the feeling of being split into multiple personalities. If Eponymous 4, Observant Records and [whatever name ASCAP approves] Shinkyoku Advocacy were three different people, negotiating the finer aspects of mechanical royalties and artist royalties would matter. Since all three are me, what difference does it make?

That's the thing — I don't want any confusion arising from which entity gets what share of a sale. I could "award" myself full statutory rate on the music publishing, but I would like a little more cash in the label to cover those operations. So I'm — ooops, my publishing company is actually going with the standard 75 percent of mechanical.

At some point, each company is going to have to pay the other. It'll be weird to handle that accounting.

Ultimately, I'm doing all of this to see whether I can. Everything related to Eponymous 4 since 2005 has been an exercise in answering that question.

Can I record an album's worth of material? Yes, at least five times over.
Can I learn how to make my recordings sound somewhat decent? Yes, if scant listener reaction is any indication.
Have I still retained enough of my layout sense to design the cover art? Yes, I still know my points from picas.
Can I do this well enough to send something to a CD pressing plant? Yes.

We'll find the answer to this latest question soon enough.

The title of this entry is a bastardized pronunciation of 三十六歳 (san-juu-roku-sai), my age (36) in Japanese. So what did I do to commemorate the event? Many things, most of which you wouldn't really associate with a birthday celebration, per se:

• Watched Battlestar Galactica with Double-A, eating a pizza dinner with alcohol. I've been pretty good about watching what I eat in the last eight months, and pizza is something in which I indulge maybe once a month, every other month if I'm really zealous. But for the birthday, I wanted meat and cheese and sauce and crust. I wanted a diet killer. And Friday is Battlestar Galactica night anyway, so why not bring the two together? Of course, throw in some beer and ready-made margaritas into the mix. The episode itself wasn't particularly engaging. I'm so not into Baltar Christ Superstar, and Tigh's hallucinations with Caprica Six were just skeeeeeeevyyyy. Oh, but the pizza was good.
• Applied for membership to ASCAP. I signed up as both a songwriter and a publisher. I don't picture myself handling the rights of other people's music, so signing up as a publisher is probably not necessary. But for the time being, I'd like the entity handling the rights of my works to be owned by, well, me.
• Registered DBAs for Eponymous 4 and Observant Records with the Travis Country Clerk's Office. I don't think I really needed to register Eponymous 4 as a DBA, but it doesn't hurt. And Observant Records? Well, I guess I made my first step to being a sleazy record company executive.
• Opened business accounts with my credit union for Eponymous 4 and Observant Records. Rather than pay for everything out of my personal accounts, I can pay music-related expenses from these accounts. When ASCAP gets back to me about my choice for publishing company name, I'm most likely going to set up a DBA and account for that entity as well.
• Signed up for CD Baby. And all the other steps pretty much lead to this one. I'm going to try my hand at releasing something on CD Baby — just to see how it all works. If I'm encouraged by the results, I may go further.

In other words, yesterday was not just my birthday — it was the birthdate of Eponymous 4 as an actual business endeavor. I don't know whether all this effort is for naught, but I won't really find out till I give it the proverbial shot.

I bought a bunch of new jeans back in August 2007, thinking the ones I currently own were, ahem, "shrinking". Of course, that was the month I learned my scale was broken, and I was much heavier than I knew. So I went on the Hacker's Diet and started exercising. By the end of October, I already needed to downsize. A few weeks ago, I started using the fifth notch in my belt.

I vowed not to buy a new pair of jeans until the next tax-free holiday in August, when I bought those other new pairs. But my pants had gotten comically loose. I won't go into detail about what happens when I use the restroom at work.

So today I bought three new pairs in a smaller size. Yes, it is gratifying to try on a pair of smaller pants in the store dressing room and find they fit. It's so intoxicating, I'd forgotten some of the inconveniences of wearing that particular size.

I put on one of the new pairs to run some errands in the evening, and I discovered the pockets were smaller. Suck. I already carry a lot of crap in my right pocket — phone, keys, pen, change, lighter, earplugs (hold over from the days I used to go to shows regularly) and mint breath strips. Less real estate means a tighter fit, and my hands are not of the gingerly sort.

And the one thing I forgot to do while I was in the dressing room — sit down. When I sat in my car seat with the new jeans, I was immediately reminded how much more I have to go with the weight loss. Although my waist demands a snug fit, I forgot that my gut doth spilleth over, and the squeeze around my hips wasn't entirely comfortable.

As satisfying as the purchase was, the actual use inspired me to keep working.

How much weight have I lost so far? According to my Physics Diet profile, 29 some odd pounds. But I had already lost 10 some odd pounds by the time I signed up for the site, so that number ought to be 39. And if we went by the number on my scale this morning, 41.

I'm about 10 pounds away from an ideal weight, according to my body mass index, and I'm 15 pounds from my goal.

That's not bad, is it?
 

I went in for more blood work about two weeks ago, and I finally got the results today. It's a follow-up from the previous visit and the one before that. Note to myself: the next blood test will be in August with a liver panel (whatever that means.)

• Total cholesterol: 150 (normal range 140-200, down -35 from 185)
• Triglycerides: 87 (normal range 35-160, down -21 from 108)
• HDL (good cholesterol): 36 (min. 40, down -1 from 37)
• LDL (bad cholesterol): 97 (normal range, 80-130, down -30 from 127, hypertension range 80-100)

Everything but the HDL (the good cholesterol) is looking good. In fact, it went down one after a jump of two. I can't say I like taking medicine that requires me to eat before bed, especially since I work out in the evenings. But given the drastic drops in the LDL and triglycerides, I can't dispute the results.

I think I need to schedule an appointment with the doctor to talk about the HDL.

I just booked a trip to Honolulu for May 7-12. No, it's not a vacation. My dad's birthday is May 2, and he's not in the best of health. Some recent developments have made it more urgent for my sister and me to be there, if even a week late, for the occasion.

But just because this trip isn't exactly going to be for recreation, that doesn't mean I'm not going to hit up all the usual spots for CDs and DVDs. I'm holding over a few things I didn't find last year in the slim chance I may find them this year:

• ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, World World World
• BUGY CRAXONE, Good morning, Punk Lovers (slim chance since this album was released on an indie label)
• Fuji Fabric, TEENAGER
• Cocco, Kira Kira Live Tour 2007/2008: Final Night at Budokan 2 Days
• Tokyo Jihen, PV DVDs
• Tomosaka Rie, Murasaki (very slim chance since the album is out of print)
  

I'm also going to keep my eyes out for …

• THE BACK HORN, BEST THE BACK HORN
• METALCHICKS, METALCHICKS and St. Wonder
• Port of Notes, Blue Arpeggio (very, very slim chance)
• Hatakeyama Miyuki with ASA-CHANG and the Blue Hats, Watashi no Uta (even if I find it, I'm not sure I'd get it)
• Supercar, P.V.D. 10th Anniversary

Huh. I thought one of the benefits from exercising and eating sensibly was a stronger immune system? Perhaps it was that hubris that caught me unaware Saturday night, the penultimate night of the SXSW music festival. It was warm during the day, so I decided to brave the night without a jacket. By the time I left my last show at 2 a.m., it was a windy 62 degrees and falling.

On Sunday, I had a nasty cough, which I attributed to smoking far more than I usually do over the four nights of the festival. When I failed to get any sleep that night, my achy joints hinted at something more serious. I finally busted out the thermometer and took a reading on Monday morning. 101.5.

Hello, flu!

I've pretty much missed this entire past week of work, and after I take some Tylenol, I have a few hours of a low-grade fever before I start to heat up again.

I haven't had a flu this bad since 2003. I've almost forgotten how to treat them. Heck, I had to throw out the NyQuil from that last flu because it expired. Oh, sweet NyQuil … the only bright spot in this whole ordeal.

Still, how did I get sick? I'm working to be the healthiest I've been, and then I get sidelined by the freakin' flu. Does not compute.