Yeah, well . . . it doesn’t look like that will happen. I haven’t found anyone willing to sign onto a July 1 lease, despite posting ads on Craigslist and Pitt’s off-campus housing site, I have yet to find someone that will work out. My leasing company makes changing names on the lease a bit of a pain: basically I would need to officially end this lease with Kellen, they would automatically return last year’s security deposit (half to each of us), and I would have to sign a new lease with someone else and put up another security deposit for July 1, even though I won’t get last year’s security deposit until the end of July. So in addition to not really finding anyone, I also don’t want to find anyone that will be here only for year and have to go through with this all over again.

I really, really, really don’t want to move. Not only because of the apartment, which I love, but because I’m so very tired of moving. But I don’t want to hold on for too much longer in hopes of finding someone and then not being able to find a place (one-bedroom hopefully, efficiency if necessary) in my current building or in the building next door (which is owned by the same leasing company). Especially because I’m going to try to find a place for June so I can move in leisurly rather than all in one go.

I know I’ve made the decision, but am still super bummed about it and while I should go downstairs today and ask about places for June and wrap this up as quickly as possible, I am resistant at the same time. So I’m writing this instead.

Now, there are good things about getting my own place, and I’m looking foward to some of them. But there are also, despite my love of alone-time, some negatives that do worry me. I tend to drink alone more often when living alone and can sometimes end up in dark moods because of that, I tend to find excuses more often to smoke, and I tend to waste time more often when there isn’t a roommate around. I am hopeful that enunciating these issues and fears (mostly to myself, but maybe a little to you, dear reader), will make me mindful of the fact that, perhaps, living alone is actually not as completely, one-hundred-percent perfect for me as I’ve thought for a rather long number of years, and that, while I certainly like many things about it, I need to recognize that my need for companionship is as integral as my need for solitude.

Which is why, even if I am paying more in rent and will need to budget much more carefully for the next couple of years, and even if not having a roommate will make dealing with trips away more complex, I very much need to get a cat when I go back to living alone. I think it will be hugely and emotionally beneficial to me and I know that I could put it off for a while with the justifiable concerns about money, I need to stop talking about getting a cat and just damn well get one. Nag me in Aug/Sept if you don’t start seeing pictures of a cute furball showing up here.

That’s the news for me for now. Sad about moving, but getting on with it and it will be nice knowing that barring something truly weird, I will know where I am going to be living for at least 2-3 years.

The dead:
Mohamed Dawood son of Abdullah
Khudaydad son of Mohamed Juma
Nazar Mohamed
Payendo
Robeena
Shatarina daughter of Sultan Mohamed
Zahra daughter of Abdul Hamid
Nazia daughter of Dost Mohamed
Masooma daughter of Mohamed Wazir
Farida daughter of Mohamed Wazir
Palwasha daughter of Mohamed Wazir
Nabia daughter of Mohamed Wazir
Esmatullah daughter of Mohamed Wazir
Faizullah son of Mohamed Wazir
Essa Mohamed son of Mohamed Hussain
Akhtar Mohamed son of Murrad Ali

The wounded:
Haji Mohamed Naim son of Haji Sakhawat
Mohamed Sediq son of Mohamed Naim
Parween
Rafiullah
Zardana
Zulheja

Source: Al Jazeera

Such a simple gesture, but I would bet that it caused dozens, if not hundreds of people to smile and increased the amount of joy in the world by a small, but meaningful amount.

So, I’ll try to honor this and approach my day with the attitude of “yes.”

That said, this did make me smile yesterday. I posted it a couple of other places and the cuteness quotient is damned high, but still. Ignore the notion that they are “making out” that’s just silly.

From the ACLU:

The Senate is going to vote on whether Congress will give this president—and every future president — the power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians anywhere in the world. Even Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) raised his concerns about the NDAA detention provisions during last night’s Republican debate. The power is so broad that even U.S. citizens could be swept up by the military and the military could be used far from any battlefield, even within the United States itself.

Read the full story here then please make sure you take action and contact the Senate and let them know that they are not allowed to destroy our Constitution. The bill is S 1867 and I would argue that Sens. McCain and Levin are clearly breaking their oath of office to uphold the Constitution and pose a far, far greater threat to the very meaning of American than anything any terrorists has ever done.

I used sound files from Freesound.org, including:

29939__acclivity__fire1
33481__reinsamba__easter-morning-blackbird-07-04-09
67884__benboncan__lake-waves-2

The “stage” directions read: The whistle of a blackbird, envious of the crackling of a fire, ends by extinguishing the gossip of water.

A Landscape Heard: Script by FT Marinetti, Audio Assemblage by Peter Wood
Download audio file (ALandcapeHeard.mp3)

It’s not stunning or even, to be honest, all that interesting from a sound designer point of view. Still, I felt like it might be worthwhile to actually work with his script myself instead of just reading it.