2) creation, 4) housekeeping

• (last month) fifty or so pages of writing for school to finish portfolio artifacts.  editing and creating year-end dvd for my students and variety of notebook entries.

2) creation, 4) housekeeping

• (today) backing up audio files from zoom h4.  considering combining book 1 and book 2 of ...fence posts rotting in the acreage... to make a more sizable work but the decision goes against the creation of each as separate pieces at the time.  preparing materials to record student play tomorrow.

2) creation, 3) community

• (last few days) tracked dreams from Ian and I on small digital recorder, also Beckett wanting to share his dreams to join in the moment - mumbles about his head being cut off, echoing an element of Ian's dream he just heard.  writing piece for music liner notes - re: lack of use of sound libraries, samples, or pre-existing files.  also designing performance desk of three screens on pivot arms and three sound players for shows.  gave copy of ...fence posts rotting in the acreage... book 2 to friend at school.

2) creation

• (last week) tracked students doing voice-overdub project using zoom h4, creating sounds and new story for cartoon movie.  dream written in notebook.  tracked another dream and Ian in the car with small digital recorder.

2) creation, 4) housekeeping

• (last two days) going through sound files to organize material for future use.  recording my dreams and Ian's on small digital recorder.  entry into notebook.

2) creation

• (last few weeks) various notebook entries and pages of responses to on-line application fields.

2) creation, 4) housekeeping

• (last few days) notebook entries on horrors of parental cleanliness, finished girl scout interview with basic editing, eq, and balance.  one of the first times I have taken audio to such a finished form - cd for the .wav files, a cd with mp3 versions of each interview, and on a memory stick.  each piece named so any player will display all relevant information instead of the ubiquitous "track 1," "track 2" etc.  also sorting through endless audio files and project folders to streamline all the music and sound artifacts I've built as an audio library.  sets up studio for a much more fluid creative process.

2) creation

• (last week) a few notebook entries.

2) creation, 3) housekeeping

• (last few days) more transfers of audio files to studio for girl scout project where they interviewed residents at assisted living facility.  some frustration that the project is only transfer, some light eq, balancing, and dithering down to mp3 for master cd copy for one of the mother's to generate copies for the girls and residents.  the sections would be much improved with fades, careful signal processing, small guitar sections within the narratives, and heavy editing of repetitions, stammering, "ums," speech missteps, etc.  Also 2 hour run of sorting images used for each chapter of ...fence posts rotting in the acreage... and the rear so searches for unused images is not so cluttered with pieces already used.  several notebook entries.

2) creation, 4) housekeeping

• (last two weeks) handling collection and uploading of various audio formats for girl scouts project - interviewing people in retirement home.  notebook entires and continued massive filing and organizing of studio material while listening to hours of these interview tapes.  Some work on ...fence posts rotting in the acreage... book 3 - especially in finding student artifacts for chapter 11.

2) creation, 3) community

• (last few days) completed transfer of audio files from small digital recorder - hours to finally be done and empty the thing.  regret to have ever used it to such degree with no ability to easily transfer files. plan now to never again use extensively, now stashed at work as resource when needing something documented.  during long transfers sorting and organizing files.  some progress on ...fence posts rotting in the acreage... book 3.

2) creation, 4) housekeeping

• (last week) transferring of audio from small digital recorder that I'd used for years - admonishing myself to never use it again for so many samples, child recordings, conversations, dreams, etc as there is no ability to upload or move audio into computer without taking earphone jack and wiring through two connectors to finally arrive at mixer and sit there for hours playing the files into computer.  terrible process.  several notebook entries.

2) creation, 4) housekeeping

• (last few days) notebook entries and itemization of various social networking, e-mail, and website usernames and log-ins into a central file for reference.  sorting hundreds of video clips pulled from kelli's computer as it approached failure.  no folders or organization was retained from hard drive so all clips were data dumped to a general folder.  sorting will likely take another week or so before I can begin using kelli's new mac for video editing.

2) creation, 4) housekeeping

• (last week) recorded Jones again with better audio and from the beginning of his story attacking his mom with extension cord.  wrote several notebook entries and finished extensive file reorganization in studio.  

2) creation, 3) community, 4) housekeeping

• (last few days) massive undertaking of combining and organizing files in studio computer for 6 or 7 hours.  another update of website www.timcoalman.com and continuous entries in notebook.

2) creation, 3) community, 4) housekeeping

• (this week) large effort to merge all files from Kelli's computer with mine as hers crashed and was replaced with a imac.  over 270 gigabytes needing to be incorporated into my studio computer from external hard drive.  recorded conversation with jones on phone of him beating his mother with extension cord in retribution for similar attacks during his childhood.  missed the beginning of the story when his grandmother came to him in a dream and told him to do it.  will need to prompt him to retell it so can record entire conversation soon.  obvious decision to not renew outings with him as his schizophrenia remains severe - several more suicide attempts, personal relationship with jesus, constant stream of self-defining narrative, and theories on egyptian pyramids as sound resonators for the cosmos.  
• website updated again - www.timcoalman.com - having problems with hyperlinks and several work-arounds only somewhat successful.  pleased with the newest version.
• recorded an Ian dream.

2) creation

• (last week) steady series of notebook entries, pleased to fill pages but few dreams - a dry spell. some efforts to move studio to another computer but enough difficulties to then retreat back to the steady, reliable machine that has hummed along for the last 5 or 6 years.

2) creation, 3) community

• (last few days) final revisions on website - www.timcoalman.com for clarity of reading and to reduce pages exposed on passing readings. multiple notebook entries and several pages done on ...fence posts rotting in the acreage... book 3.

3) community

• revising websites to reduce cost and exposure.  www.unmannedprobe.com and www.fencepostsrottingintheacreage.com both redirect to www.timcoalman.com after discovering that main website could host more than the five page limit I had originally understood to be in place was not a reality.  now the main page holds everything and money saved on paying for hosting on the other sites.  also wanted to pull back actual samples of the books as career is advancing to a point I would be more visible and under greater scrutiny.  although I've taken great lengths to make pseudonym separate from career want to ensure anonymity as much as possible.

2) creation, 4) housekeeping

• (last few weeks) pages in the notebook on everyday bits and working up pieces for some further progress not yet finalized. finally a new external hard drive to back up studio computer. more work on ...fence posts rotting in the acreage... book 3.