Where the [bleep] is Jill?!
Good question! I was attempting to complete a an overwhelming summer courseload that was too ambitious. Had to drop something at a late date. Then I was trying to get an internship and scored a co-op doing Web development, and possibly more. My brother’s wedding was coming up, and I was making the jewelry for the bridal party. I also was trying to get my own jewelry out there and finally did sell a few pieces at the end of the summer, but never had enough time and jewelry prepared to get a table at the Farmer’s Market this year. I was so busy this summer that I had to forgo Habitat for Humanity entirely. This is why I have not posted in months. I did get a mix posted on SoundCloud and should have my August one FINALLY posted soonish….
But to pick up where I left off, Paul Van Dyk and Paul Oakenfold at The Congress were pretty good. PO had a few mistakes, which was disappointing. He also seemed to mix out of songs just as we were getting into them. It was a little odd. One track clean ran out and stopped before he started the next one (BIG “DOH”); I think he was mixing short versions of stuff together. But anywho, both Pauls played for a short time; it was nothing like your typical AVB show at Vision. PVD was great but far too short. I read after the fact that he does a lot of live remixes on his Mac laptops while he’s up there doing a show, which is sweet. It’s more of a performance. He is low key but gets into it. PO was more theatrical. PVD has been back to Chicago twice since May (well, the second time will be in two weeks), so he must love it there. I wish I could see him on October 28. But I can really only pick one show to see this fall, and I already have.
I ended up seeing Armin van Buuren with Blake Jarrell opening for him, on July 2. IT WAS SWEET. I got there early alone and stood up on the box in the middle before many people were dancing at all. I stayed there for the entire night and danced the whole time. Best view in the house, and the DJs end up looking straight at you as well. Screw V.I.P. tickets! Blake was great; he did more of a prog house kind of thing, but it worked. I became a fan, instantly. Armin was pretty much awesome–tons of energy and two or three encores, plus autographs, as usual. What a swell guy. He got me on his TwitPic at the end of the show: YEAH! And my trance crew was there, too.
I’ve talked to Blake online a bit. He has a show on November 6. I’ve been planning on it since I found out. It’s the night of the time change, plus she’s opening for himself, so it’s an eight-hour set. NUTS.
So there were valid reasons I couldn’t blog for months, and there still are. This may be the must work-heavy semester I have ever had and completed successfully, in my life. A full load in school (including the internship course), plus required 18 hours of work a week. It’s all really good stuff, and I’m having fun and learning a lot, but I just have a lot of trouble taking a few days off here without really starting to get behind in my math, reading, or programming, and once I’m behind, I have to juggle what I fall behind in for a week or two while I study almost nonstop. So this is why no writing recently. I am writing now because I needed a break from math before studying it for most of tomorrow and taking a test tomorrow night. *Yawn.*
The good news is that I should have some techie stuff to post soon. I’m currently doing Java/XML (Android), Enterprise Java (JSP/JSF/HTML/CSS), and ActionScript3/MXML (Adobe Flex). If I can just get some downtime, I will do more with this. It may not be until around the holidays. Next semester, I want to make everything but my one required course–calculus–as laid back as possible.
More as I have time.