Catching up

So i haven't blogged in forever, aside from my post for Tessa and my followup collection of links.

It's been an eventful and otherwise heavy couple of months, which of course made it a timeframe during which i had a lot to write about, but not enough time to actually write. Actually i do have a folder full of half-written concert reviews, think pieces, rants, raves, and multiple "so i haven't blogged in forever" catchup posts. At first i thought i'd eventually finish them up and post them, but at this point i'll probably just dump the lot into my private journal and move on with life. Except for my writeup from the Lacuna Coil concert; i have some great stories and photos from that night, so i do want to finish that one & share. As for the rest, since there's "no time to 'splain, let me sum up":

The latter half of my summer was loaded with travel (including trips to visit friends in Portland and Kansas City) and friends' visits (including one friend from Seattle with whom i drove all over the bay area and down the coast, seeing a ton of new stuff - pretty cool). Also a few friends were sent out here on business so we got to hang out while they were in town; awesome perk of living in Silicon Valley.

Also (as some of you already know), i'm currently in the middle of a concert marathon; fall seems to have turned into concert season for me. Possibly because a lot of bands tend to spend summers playing the festival circuit, so come September they're all ready to head out on headlining tours. And living this close to a big city, i'm actually able to catch a lot of them.

Indeed, i've become a bit of a concert junkie; two shows last week (writeup coming soon), three more planned for this week (including TRIVIUM, a favorite among favorites). A total of 18 shows (and counting) penciled into my calendar between now and Christmas. I won't be able to attend all of them, but about 6 are definite, and a handful more are likely (depending on how other things line up). This compared to the old days when i'd only catch 3 or 4 concerts in an entire *year*. Yeah, living here is fun.

In the interest of completeness, i'll mention that my workout routine and guitar practice are pretty much in the tank. There's been hardly any red ink on my calendar for the past two months, and not much blue ink either. And as for the music project, i was *this close* to having a new video to post. My recordings were steadily improving (one take in particlar was just about perfect, except i boffed the *last* frakking note - oooh, i was pissed). Another solid week of work and i would have had it, but the afformentioned travel and other plans got in the way and i managed to let myself go completely off the rails.

So now i feel almost like a bumbling beginner again; picked up my guitar this week and felt totally awkward on the frets. It's amazing how fast the muscle memory vaporizes. It reminds me of when i first started swing dancing - my technique would go to slop after only a few weeks off. The first Christmas break (2004-2005 school year) was brutal - i forgot just about everything i knew during those ~6 weeks off. But i found that the longer i'd been dancing actively, the less i lost during breaks. I'm hoping the same concept applies to guitar. Speaking of holiday breaks, though, i'm a little worried about this year because i'm going to be in MI for almost 2.5 weeks - without my guitar. Maybe i can rent one from a local shop to practice on.

Anyway, over the next month or so i'm hoping to get my guitarwork back to where it was before the lapse. The workout routine will probably take longer; maybe i'll start with some lighter goals before stepping it up.

Also on the list is getting back into swing dancing. I attended a lindy hop mini-workshop this past weekend which was (a) only my second time on a dance floor this year, and (b) exactly what i needed. Intermediate-plus level with a nice emphasis on fundamentals, driven by some cool & challenging new material (well, new to me anyway; i took notes). And i may be preaching to the choir here, but if you ever get a chance to attend a workshop with Peter Strom and/or Naomi Uyama, i HIGHLY recommend; they are beyond awesome.

Tessa links

I miss my friend.


At a swing dance on Tessa's birthday, spring 2005.

If you haven't read my previous blog post already, i hope you will.

...

So for the past month (has it only been one month? has it *already* been a whole month?), i've been saving a bunch of open tabs (on multiple web browsers and multiple computers) with various blog posts and articles i found about Tessa. I knew i wanted to do something with all of the pieces; maybe one day i'll print them out and make a memory book, along with some of my emails and photos. For now i'm just going to compile them here.

This is primarily for myself; perhaps it's a step in dealing with the loss of my friend, and/or a gesture of moving on. And/or just building a reference so i'll have these links handy. Feel free to skip this post if you don't care. (But - i hope you do care.)


"Goodbye and God Bless (for Tessa)"
A wonderful piece written by one of her professors at UIUC (this is the post that many of us have been sending around). Absolutely worth reading.
http://www.open.salon.com/blog/libertarius/2009/08/16/goodbye_and_god_bless

"Taken"
A short piece by another professor at UIUC.
http://dhawhee.blogs.com/d_hawhee/2009/08/taken.html

"RIP Tessa Oberg"
Jen's blog post; another nice piece which i think is worth reading (make sure to also read Rasheed's response at the bottom).
http://jennyloohoo.livejournal.com/66058.html

Fin in a Waste of Waters" (Tessa's blog)
She posted to this blog from July 2006 through October 2007. I'm starting at the beginning and (re)reading through it. Her last post was a beautiful piece which detailed her life as it would have been remembered by her grandchildren after she died. I once attempted this exercise of writing my own eulogy, but i never finished (and it sucked anyway). Hers is awesome.
http://fininawasteofwaters.blogspot.com/


Tessa's obituary in the Rockford Register Star
http://www.legacy.com/RRStar/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonId=131474559

Guest Book for Tessa (only online for a few more days (until 9/16/2009)).
http://www.legacy.com/gb2/default.aspx?bookid=9071102403711

Partial academic bio, posted in relation to one of her scholarships.
http://www.jkcf.org/our-scholars/current/2224-Tessa-M-Oberg

A post i found with a photo and a link to the professor's piece i linked above.
http://citiesandsigns.blogspot.com/2009/08/eulogy-for-tessa-oberg-by-one-of-our.html


Those are all of the links i had saved; i'll edit this post if i find more.