Rich Seymour's stochastic statements.

Let’s see. I have been working rather heavily this past week. School has started again. USC lost its kicker, and may now lose its coach. I bought a good new bicycle pump. Got a volume pedal for my steel guitar (and some steel guitar knowledge) thanks Dad, a new leatherman thanks Mom (no thanks NTSA), socks (thanks again Mom), and a cast iron wok (thanks John).

Had a great trip back home. Friends and family visits. Saw my boys in Smackdab rock out on Christmas, and got to listen to the Audience practice and hear their upcoming LP in an unmixed state. It rocks. Saw a lot of friends from nearly a decade ago.

Then to continue my east coast jet settin’ I met up with some of the old Columbia squadron to rock out in Allston, MA. That was most excellent, wrote some new tunes and pondered the meaning of life over coffee and donuts.

Saw my friends get married in Philadelphia. It was a beautiful ceremony (short and sweet and at the Penn Museum), good food, a good band, then hanging with the wedding party (100% strangers minus the bride, groom, and parents) singing karaoke, meeting an Iraq vet with battle scars (IEDs do a number to flesh and bone) who’s still hangin’ tough, and enjoying the public transit from the Philadelphia airport.

Got into LA on the 31st and had a great time, ended up at the Echo with some new and old friends… then over to KPFK to chill with Seep (from Rolax records) and Steve of the show Mood 2 Swing till… 5 or something in the AM. Good times, thanks to my LA buds for introducing me to these folks. It’s not often you run into people who know all of the same insane music and loads more. Not to mention create it. Interesting that while KPFK seems like a sort of fly by night operation run by conspiracy theorists, it’s a really nice radio station. I mean, yeah, well you know what I mean. The music’s great and a good portion of the political commentary is reasonable and insightful… but some is just insanity.

So then I really got to business, righted my sleeping schedule and my coworkers and I kicked off our annual Computational Science Workshop. It rocked, I hope the participants enjoyed it because I did, in spite of the major time commitment.

Now back to research and school and music with renewed focus and motivation.

In a word: pizazz.