I setup my audio system / tv / dvd this afternoon. After getting everything plugged in and satisfactorily arranged, of course I had to take it for a little spin, so I watched The Wall, followed by Madonna's 2001 Drowned World Tour. I hadn't watched either of them in a long while, so it was like a fresh experience again. Musical yumminess.

Yanthor arrived, and we watched a Farscape episode over a dinner of leftovers. It was a fun one I had never seen before. The beginning of the two-Crichton universe. Mmmmm...

After that, I put the final touch on my audio setup by connecting Argo to the amp in 4-channel mode. With that, I threw on some music and strummed along on the synth. (At a low volume level so as not to bother my gracious hosts, but still acousticly very nice sounding.)

One of my favorite ways to use that most excellent X-mas present from 1.5 years ago is to simply poke around on it while some real music plays. My musical talent is limited, and my coordination on the piano even moreso, so for me, making anything that involves using more than one hand simultaniously sound good without excessive rote repetition (bleh to that) a rare achievement. But with a little poking, I can quickly figure out the key of whatever song is playing, and improvise and harmonize along with it. And even if my fumbling would sound like crap to anyone else, doing it makes me feel good.

Plus, it is awesome to be able to run my PC, my oversized audio system, and keyboard all in the same room at the same time. (Yes, this room is much more spacious than the last one where I regularly slept.)

Tomorrow, I go into the gas station at 15:00 in the afternoon and stay until closing time at 23:00. So it will be my first "full" shift. I'm actually kind of looking forward to it. Is that ridiculous or what? Will I still feel the same way if I'm working there 3 months from now?

Of course, I know the Honeymoon will end, but even so, it's good to have a job that doesn't make you cringe every time just before you enter. (As I recall, at King Soopers, the cringing was already starting to happen a little bit on my second or third day there.)

I liked what a fellow employee said yesterday when someone he knew came in and asked him whether he was working today. He was like, "Nah, I'm not really working. I'm just standing around this afternoon." And for much of the time, it was quite literally true. Not because he was being lazy or shirking duties, but because there was enough time to stand around and talk a little, eat popcorn, drink fountain beverages, and breathe in the air.

I like that I can always look out the window at the sky. I like that my manager offered to give me a ride home in the rain today, and even after I honestly said that I didn't mind walking the very short distance home, he persisted, saying it would be no trouble, because he was driving to the bank anyway. So finally, I said, "Okay, thanks." (If he was being pushy, it was in a genuinely friendly way. I wouldn't have minded walking, but I didn't mind riding either, and the friendliness of the gesture was more important than whether I got wet or not.)

My current plan for the immediate future is to listen to a little more music, read a bit, and sleep.

BTW, Predixis rules. I've been using the free version occassionally for the past couple months. I'm seriously thinking that when I reach the point of debt-freeness and something resembling financial stability, I may spring for the paid version. Yeah, it's proprietary software, and the purpose may seem trivial, but it's awesome if you have a music collection as insane as mine. I've downloaded so many songs in the last year, many of which I've only listened to once or twice, that it's almost like a super-sweet radio station when you hear a bunch of songs you don't recognize.

That's my plug for the night. Peace.