It's been a longish time, but in my defense, I've been busy.

The summer went by too fast, and it seems a lot has happened. Grandmother died. My roommate moved to New York sort of last-minute-ish to go to Pratt. A good friend of mine is going to have a baby. And this past weekend my old roommate got married. Bizarre.

I've been doing a lot of cooking. I discovered the local Asian markets, namely the Hong Kong Market in Gretna and the Asian Gourmet Market in Kenner, and have been doing a lot of experimenting. I'm going to try making my own dashi as soon as I can get out there and buy a crapload of bonito flakes. I've realized the joy of ramen -- not necessarily eating it as is, but adding things like pork, egg, bok choy, etc.

The strangest experiment (and the most satisfying) was making homemade butter (recipe here). kerath and I did some baking using the butter, buttermilk, and some eggs from her ducks. The cupcakes came out awesome. (Did you know that when a recipe calls for buttermilk, they really mean the buttermilk that comes as a by-product of making butter, not the cultured stuff you buy in the grocery store?)

I've made some homemade pepperoni that turned out surprisingly amazing, and am experimenting with making salt pork and pancetta. I'm slowly working my way up to dry-cured meats, completely inspired by the Cured Meats blog and Len Poli's sausage pages. The recipes are easy enough, and remind me a lot of the sort of specific and patient process of making beer. I need to get my hands on a meat grinder, though, as right now I'm doing solid cuts. (Next up is the Lonzino!)

I finally (partially) got my promotion, which is a bit of good news after a year of ... well, crap. Interim Assistant Dean for Budget and Technology. As soon as we can get through this hiring freeze nonsense from the oh-so-smart Bobby Jindal (who, I believe, is single-handedly trying to destroy higher education in Louisiana) we should be able to remove the "Interim" part.

Trucking along in school but not quite sure what I'm doing. I'm in the non-profit leadership tract, but still want to take some courses in educational administration. In short -- not graduating any time soon, and totally okay with that.

I need to find time to write music, which was something I couldn't do over the summer. I was at my happiest doing that, even though it was sometimes a frustrating process and, since I've been relatively unhappy for the past year, I should try and get back into that.

A bit of a shameless plug here -- a couple of UNO alumni are going to performing Lament for a Painter, a piece I wrote for flute and piano, on Thursday, June 18 @ 7:00pm at Trinity Episcopal Church as part of the Evensong Concert Series. The concert is mostly a bunch of dead famous guys, so it's kind of neat to be on the program with them!

It's definitely my most favorite piece I've ever written. The flautist is very into working with composers, so I might have someone to bounce some works off of over the summer. Sometimes just getting a read-through and a rough recording is enough for me. :)

Here's a recording from 2004, if anyone is interested. It's a little quiet in the beginning (the mic didn't pick up the strumming inside of the piano very well) but trust me, it's there:

... and I'm in Unread Mail Addict.

I have a serious problem. I don't like seeing anything next to the word "Inbox" as in "Inbox (1)".

I have another problem. Outlook 2007 supports RSS feeds.

And yet another problem. OutTwit puts my Twitter friends feed in Outlook 2007.

I can't stop. Things keep popping up. "Oh, an unread post in Boing Boing." Every minute, twenty unread Twitter postings. Slashdot. FAIL blog. Engadget. Gizmodo. XKCD. Boing Boing Gadgets.

Oh dear. Just got a slew of new postings in the time I was writing this. Gotta go ...

I haven't updated in awhile (obviously) because I've been busting my ass trying to finish up a transcription project for the Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra and a very tedious research paper on global diffusion of intellectual property rights policies. As my due dates are drawing near (tomorrow for the project, Sunday for the paper), I wanted to list out some things I am totally looking forward to doing when they are complete:

• Writing music: While I don't think I could restart the Daily Composer project, I'll hopefully be writing at a regular pace and will post updates there again.
  
• Gardening: I've been waiting for free time to build four raised beds in the yard at the new apartment to get some stuff planted. It's a little late in the season, but there's plenty that will still grow.
  
• Unpacking: I have shelves. I have stuff out of boxes. But the stuff needs to go on the shelves.
  
• Sleeping: Oh, how I miss you.
  
• Social life: I've been brushing off a lot of friends and I feel terrible for it, but it's hard for me to justify going out when I have so much to do.
  
• Video games: Seriously. I bought a PS3 a few months ago and used it for gaming for all of 2 hours. I need to fix that.
  
• Movies: Wednesday night movie night. Too much coming out this summer for me to avoid.
  
• Kickball: It just started last week and we have a bye game this upcoming Sunday, so the timing is perfect. I'm coming out of retirement, so I'm looking forward to getting back out and playing.
  
• Summer classes: I haven't done this in awhile, but it's an online class with (get this) a 5 page group paper as the final project. Sweet! Plus it defers my loan payments ... can't argue with that.
  

These past few months have been rough professionally, academically and personally. The budget cuts at school have been really harsh and make work miserable. It's been a long time since I've dreaded getting up in the morning like I have been these days. Things are looking a little bit hopeful, though, and we're crossing out fingers that the legislators will vote in our favor to take the brunt of the cuts from higher education and health care. School this semester sucked, and personally ... well, no need for me to get all emo. Let's just say I'm still dealing with the same ol' shit, and leave it at that.

I think I have to can the museum project. If you don't remember, I had settled on a final project for my degree: a feasibility study for opening a science museum in New Orleans. Although I got a lot of support from friends and some faculty, my program director sort of poo-pooed the idea (too much work for one person) and I'd rather not deal with fighting to prove him wrong. (Plus, he's probably right anyway.) I have another idea in the works -- something that will satisfy the requirements for the non-profit tract as well as have some involvement in music the music and education communities. I'll discuss it later once I have a solid plan for it. It'll probably get shot down, but I'm hoping to get it started this summer before discussing it with the program director.

So, that's that for now.

My roommate got a puppy. His name is Peter Tork.

( He's the cutest thing ever. )

My cousin is getting married in October, and someone in the family is making a cookbook for her. I sent along some of my favorites. Most of these I've posted here, but I'm posting again so I can find them all in one spot.

I've got a bunch more to add (some appetizers, mostly, but also some other main courses), but these are probably my favorites.

( Parmesan-Stuffed Bacon-Wrapped Dates )

( Red Beans and Rice (slow cooker) )

( Pulled Pork (slow cooker) )

( Baklava )

( Limoncello )

April 12 seems so far away, but 14 days down and 33 days to go ... technically. I might stick to just 40 days, but who knows. So far I've put myself in a variety of situations where otherwise I thought my temptation would get the better of me and have succeeded. I went to a bar with some fellow students, the Howlin' Wolf to see some bands and, last night, went to a rather "elite" party that Old New Orleans Rum was having. Last night was the only time I felt really tempted, especially when they sent us all walking away with 6 bottles of rum (which I placed under the care of kerath), but I'm fairly confident I'll succeed.

I have a couple of upcoming events that will test the willpower, though. St. Patty's day is just around the corner. A wedding at the end of the month. The first weekend in April I may be going on a camping trip with some friends -- friends who are fans of the alcoholic beverages. That weekend is my only concern. Since I haven't been indulging on Sundays -- as you are "allowed" to do since Lent lasts more than 40 days -- I may indulge on Friday evening and Saturday of that weekend. But we'll see.

Overall, I've noticed that I sleep better (although replacing alcohol with soda keeps me heavily caffeinated) and (surprise!) don't have to worry about driving home at night. But I also noticed that some people just don't want to hang out when alcohol isn't involved. Pretty strange, considering I spent so much time in high school doing just that, but in my adult life it's become such an integral part of my social encounters.

Ah well. Back to work.

Karl Paulnack, Director of the Music Division at the Boston Conservatory had this to say:

http://amandamichellewhite.wordpress.com/2009/02/21/speech-by-karl-paulnack-of-boston-conservatory/

Excellent.

I'm not big on church these days.

( Cut for kindness. Hehe. )

So this museum idea, which started as a joke, is turning into something that I can completely imagine pulling off. One step at a time, though -- gotta get the feasibility study done. More importantly, I need to get myself a little organized so I'm not totally scatterbrained about the whole thing.

I was introduced today to a professor in the College of Business who teaches a course on business planning. Besides suggesting I take his class, he thought this was a doable (if a little "big") project, and had already done some preliminary research into opening a museum in Slidell.

Every day when I start thinking the idea is too big for me to handle, I get introduced to someone new, get an idea tossed my way, or find out something new about people I've known for years.

The idea is so exciting that I feel like dancing (and I haven't been this excited about anything in awhile) -- but I'm so afraid it'll just fall apart or fizzle out.

We'll see. Spirits are definitely high, though!

I'm disabling LoudTwitter posts because, honestly, it drives me a little bonkers to look at my own journal page. So much repetition to me typically says, "Something is broken!"

If you'd like to keep up with my posts (if anyone was), they're here:

http://twitter.com/big_onion/

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So I've been struggling with the "why" of my current course of study. I always thought that with my goals in higher-ed administration, having a Public Administration degree would be a good "marketing" tool for myself if I am able to go on and get a doctorate at some point.

However, this semester I had my first coursework in non-profits and in this found a new interest that can still tie in to my long-term goals.

On a tangent, I was looking at a number of the New Orleans "things" and their acronyms: NOMA (Museum of Art), NOBA (Ballet Assoc.), NOCCA (Center for Creative Arts), etc. and thought, "Wouldn't it be funny if there was a NOMS?" The only words I could think of that fit NOMS would be Museum of Science. Idle thoughts eventually led me to ask, "What the hell do you have to do to start a museum?"

I sat down and had a conversation with the Director of the Arts Administration program, who walked me through some of the first steps. Basically, put together a proposal, and shop it around until you're blue in the face. Gear exhibit ideas towards topics that could easily be funded, such as oil, ecology, etc. Keep it tech-savvy, as there are a number of grants available for educational programs with a science/tech focus. More importantly, though, is go to museums and take note of what you like. Talk to the curator, if you can, and ask lots of questions about what works, what is struggling, etc.

The next day I spoke with the Director of the Public Administration program to see if something like this could be used for my final project (they don't like to use the term "thesis," for some reason) and he thought it would be a good idea. However, rather than the actual proposal, he said it would be more in line with the degree to do a feasibility study. Market research, cost/benefit analysis, etc. Find out before you even start the planning phase whether or not it would be even possible to open, fill, and run such a museum in New Orleans. After we talked, I realized that such a report would only help with the "shopping around" part of the proposal--to be able to say, "Look, I've run the numbers and did the research. People want this and are willing to pay. Enough funding is available."

So, I feel like I have some purpose now in my degree. I'm not remaining overly optimistic, but I hope that I find that it could work. If my research shows it won't, then I'll have saved myself from time that I otherwise might have wasted.

I'll be posting some more about this as I go along, but in the meantime, do you have any favorite museums? Anything about them you like more than another? Something that stand out as particularly fun and educational?

This is pretty neat.

http://www.yourfonts.com/print.html

Might take a few tries before you get it right (mine all came out slanted, sorta), but still a very cool and simple process.

EDIT: A small sample.

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