So, an interesting (if depressing) fact about me: when unhappy, I become more productive.

Generally, I don't run from unpleasant thoughts. I am a blue pill kind of guy - I'd rather face the unpleasant, knowing it is real, than live a more jolly time in a fabrication.

However, my brain functions much like a computer - this helps out in a lot of problem solving situations, but it also allows that Flynn guy to make me stutter by chucking some unsolvable problems at me. Which is, of course, to say, that sometimes I get a problem that isn't really solvable, and yet my brain devotes many many many MANY computational cycles to it. I burn these precious computrons during times of inactivity, such as when I am supposed to be sleeping.

So, while I don't like running from unpleasantness, there are times where such unpleasantness catches me in a feedback loop. And I'm just human enough to
realize "Hey, I should probably stop this before my brain uses all its resources on it."

To stop it, I usually have to keep myself incredibly busy - I have to create tasks for myself to keep my mind busy and off the unsolvable loop.

Very little makes me unhappy for a long time - stuff that makes me unhappy, I think about it, try to find a solution, and move on. So when I have a prolonged period of unhappiness, chances are I have a pretty unsolvable problem. And in that case, I get in a loop, and in that case, I realize i need to stop my brain.

So, to link all that uninteresting reveletory crap together, being unhappy makes me more productive.

Here's some of what I've been doing:

I've almost got another version of the great z axis redesign pieced together. I think you'll all find it much better. All of you being a euphamism for "You 4 to 5, depending on who is giving a conference in Sweden."

I managed to do the switch-over with the new computer hardware, and get my newish system running. It's beefy, and now I can begin work on a new TRB tune I have planned, which will either be called Unzervalt or Vela. I haven't decided.

I finished the newest addition to the Game Grid - a pair of original NES ports, smack on the front, wired up for use with any NES pad around. Awww yeah.

I actually created a LiveJournal, simply so that I could leave comments for people. Of course, then I had to make a custom graphic for the live journal, because why have a registered signiature if you can't further customize it with visual iconography? And why not put some interests in a livejournal profile if you can't sleep?

I wrote a script for a demo reel production, that I'll burn to DVD and package with my resume for this summer's great job hunt. I'll post the script when I transfer it into Final Draft, instead of the incredibly nonsensical shorthand I wrote it in while I couldn't seep.

I also fired up my video cam for the first time in earnest since the Great Frying that occured at the tail end of my final project for my video production class. Word to anyone using DV cameras: be very careful attaching a Camcorder attached to a shitty VCR to a DV port on a computer. You can create an incredible shock hazard. My VCR is toast, and my camera was malfunctioning. Luckily, it was functional enough to make a dump of my group's final project, which I was the sole editor on, and which we got an A on. Booya.

Anyway, I didn't know if the camera was dead - the VCR is fried, the 1394 card -exploded- (pictures when I find it) and I hadn't taken the time to test the camera out in a methodical fashion. I finally did that, and at the very least it can play from tapes, record to tapes, and use the A/V output. So, 80% of the stuff that matters works fine. Seems to have a little more trouble autofocusing, but it's not having massive digitization errors like it was right after it got its mind fried. And I'm more than capable of using the manual focus features I paid the extra cash for.

The other 20%, for me, is the DV dumping, and right now that remains unconfirmed. It may be that the crappy-ass 1394 card I got isn't working properly, it may be that the DV port on my camera is dead. It's frustrating to me because I don't have a proper set of scientific controls to determine which it is. Anyone with a firewire device to spare so I can test my crappy card, let me know. I can't fathom how much it will cost to repair if my DV port is dead. And, needless to say, it will complicate the filming of my resume DVD stuff. Maybe I can just buy a deck, and then I won't even have to use the camera's DV port. Though to do that, I'll have to win a billion deutschmarks in der lotto. And then probably convert those to Euros because the germans got rooked.

The funny thing about that is it may turn out to be cheaper to buy a really crappy DV camera, and use it just for dumping video, than to repair the dv-out capability on mine. I really hope I just have a crappy firewire card.

There was some other stuff I did, but it all kind of leaked out of my brain while I was writing that overdramatized summary of why I get productive like this.

Lindsay's man sent me this link, which is simultaneously insane and very cool. Old-School.

I think if I remain unable to sleep right now I will load up Zak McKracken and have some nostalgia juice flow over me.

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