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       Date: Dec. 10, 2019
       Location: Reorganized Workstation
       Mood: Riverside Melodies
       Music: Brian Eno - Before and After Science
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       The semester is wrapping up, and I find myself returning to my usual
hobbies, trying not to think about the three finals I have coming up. One of
them is in about an hour. I even spent a good amount of time the other day
cleaning off my desk and setting up a makeshift stand for a second monitor.
Now that I don't have to drag my laptop with me to school everyday, I can
dedicate it to a spot on the desk with an HDMI out to my other monitor.

       As with most breaks from school for me, I will most likely be doing a
lot more work on my creative projects, like the book(s) I'm in the middle of
writing, or perhaps some more music. I will still try to work on CurseNote in
the meantime, though, so worry not if you're someone interested in where that
project is going. Progress on it just might be a little slower.

       ...

       My friends and I went to a local record fair the other morning after
grabbing breakfast at a diner close by. I had never been to a record fair
before, and the last one they went to was during a shift I had to work over
the weekend, so I was excited to see what was there. Rows and tables of boxes
and crates filled with LPs, EPs, singles, rarities, cassettes, DVDs, CDs, and
much, much more. I was interested in a particular bin one gentleman had with
the label "Electronic/New Age/Moog Music", especially with the LP he had on
the top display above it, a copy of "Rubycon" by Tangerine Dream, including a
sexy Japanese OBI strip that looked to be in mint condition. But it was very
expensive, and I wanted to grab some more cheap albums I was interested in.

       In the end I came away with four LPs and a CD. Brian Eno's "Before
and After Science" (which I'm listening to now), "Relayer" by Yes, Carole
King's "Tapestry", and "Watercolors" by Pat Metheny on vinyl. I'm very happy
with each of those purchases, and I even got "Still Life (Talking)" by Pat
Metheny Group on CD, one of my favorites from the group.

       ...

       I've been trying to teach myself LaTeX lately. I want to see if I can
typeset my future writing projects using that format as opposed to a WYSIWYG
editor, even one as robust as Scribus. I just like the extensible nature of a
LaTeX document, how quick and easy it is to get what you want on the page.

       For the time being, I'll be reading through manuals for the memoir
class, as that seems like the closest document type to what I want to work
with. If anyone has any tips, tricks, advice, or experience with LaTeX or the
memoir class they want to share, feel free to send it my way!

       You can reach me by email at [email protected]

       Thanks!
       - Ben