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Ugh, I don't know. Feeling restless and mildly discontented. At least there's sun today.

A week and a half ago I located my spare viola strings (leftover from the last time I changed strings, whenever that was), picked up a 1/8-size cello G, and restrung my viola to a tenor. I'm liking it an awful lot. It's certainly harder to play. I've switched to my cello bow, which is heavier than the viola bow, and it still requires significant deliberate pressure to get a halfway decent sound. Left-hand work feels slower too. Might be a result of the higher tension on the strings making them harder to press down, I guess?

But: I like it. I like the way it sounds, I like the way it feels to play. I find myself in the position of actively wanting to practice. I'm doing something that I enjoy and calls to me, and that I'm happy about afterwards. It's been a really long time since I had something like that. I suspect the social aspect helps. I took it out to the session last Wednesday and it blended in well: not drowning anyone out, not getting drowned out. I need a great deal of practice but that's no surprise. And fixable.

When I have money (cue bitter laughter) I may look into getting a proper tenor viola, instead of hoping the higher tension on the strings doesn't cause damage. There's this guy in Georgia who makes them, and he's put a decent amount of effort into the design. His tenor/octave violas have thicker bodies, and are fatter at the bottom ('a wide lower bout') but not at the top, so you get a bigger resonance chamber and can still get your left arm around to reach the neck.

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Two weeks ago the movers cleared out half my stuff. Unsurprisingly the place looks much bigger and brighter. It's nice to have more light, granted... but it's just so empty. Hm. Likely affecting my mood.

I'd like to have my books back, too. I don't require them to be visible at all times, I'd be happy with a separate library room, but I do want them accessible. Good information to have. I probably could cut ruthlessly but there's no need, not immediately anyway.

Rhonda the realtor came by last week and took some reference photos. She emailed me today to say that the real photographer can come on Friday and we can list on Monday. Works for me. Gives me a few more days to finish moving extraneous stuff to the storage unit, now that I know I've got a little more room in there than I was afraid of. Still no idea what the market will be like; guess we'll find out in a couple of weeks.

Still in a holding pattern, but I can see the beginnings of what might be movement.

The Pattern Recognition TV series? I have no idea. Awhile ago I called my Hollywood agent -- who was Harlan Ellison's Hollywood agent, to give you an idea how long he's been in the business -- and asked him about it. He said, "Well, it's starting to look almost exactly like something does right before it goes into production." And I got excited and said, "Really?" and he said, "Yeah... it's weird."

--William Gibson, c.2013