Things start when I look down at my keyboard and accept that today is one more day of pause in the routine of writing. After more than six intense months of daily work playing the scribe, I felt that a break was in order, and that’s what I’ve been exercising. The problem with this is that nothing happens here on the blog; it’s as though I’ve ceased to exist. So, to assure my future self that I was, in fact, alive during the silence, I just looked up to see the sun and sky, but confronted with ceiling and lamps, I figured that now was a good time to pen an update. It wasn’t that the view spoke to me. Actually, it was an accidental button press on my phone that turned on my camera’s selfie mode, and I thought that the image looked appealing. Well, that was enough to start the process of searching for something or other to say in order that the photo would find its way into a blog post.

Now, here it is, and with little narrative worthy of sharing, but aware that I’m trying to coerce a few brain cells to act performantly so as to not appear uninspired, I sit here ruminating under the ceiling with a mind trying to see a brief update. Sure, there are travel plans, with the closest jaunt away from home beginning tomorrow afternoon, as a matter of fact. Then there are the amazing tutorials that have been walking me through the details of an interface connecting my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) called Bitwig (where I record music from my synthesizer) with TouchDesigner (a node-based visual programming tool for creating complex generative art and data visualization), allowing for audio-reactive programming where I could channel visual events from my synth. With the help of generative AI-based image creation as found in Adobe’s Illustrator, Runway AI video generation, and Stable Diffusion using ComfyUI and the rapidly growing world of Diffusion Models, we are at the cusp of being able to create visual materials linguistically instead of by hand freeing us to create audio/visual symphonies as individuals.

Of course, my progress with any of that will continue to be interrupted by my self-imposed obligation to the task of writing a novel, upcoming travels, and the general requirements of sharing a life with a great friend. The point is things are looking up, and with new distractions that require mind-melting noodling of the aging organ in my cranium, I’m able to witness these new infinities playing on the horizon. More often than not, I listen to people trapped under the low-hanging ceiling of their own makings as they accept the conventions of habit, but every so often, I decide to engage with someone who seems to be emanating something akin to the wonder found in children at play and not only do they brighten my day, I appear to have left them with a spark of inspiration that fuels my desire to learn, even further.