Just a couple of days ago, on Canada Day in fact, I had a eureka moment while reading Michael Gurstein’s piece on “What is Informatics and why does it matter?” In understanding community informatics as a process and not a product, I immediate realized that it has a tremendous level of relevance for the Musin’concept. It is indeed a community that I have identified — albeit a relatively new one — and since I would like to develop the system in collaboration with the community, the concept fits into CI research quite well. What will be different about it is perhaps the domain in which that it is being applied. I haven’t actually done a search yet of related research to the information needs of people looking for music-related information, but the impression I am getting from the professors I have spoken to is that there isn’t too much out there. Add to that a dose of Latour on design and Sloterdijk and you’ve got my brain going at 100 miles an hour.

The summer course is going to begin next Monday, and as luck would have it, an otherwise quiet July got hi-jacked (most welcomely) by a substantial project at work that would be a lot of fun to work on. I’m more dismayed that I will not be available to really use the opportunity to drum up some snazzy ideas than I am at the thought of squeezing out time in the evenings to contribute. So it seems like I had about a two week break from an insane schedule, and I will be back to rolling at a breakneck pace starting some time next week. Hopefully it’ll build up gradually like last time so it will creep up on me. The metaphor of a boiled frog comes to mind. I expect that “100 Awesome Open Source Tools for Writers” should be explored asap.

At the encouragement of my piano teacher, Lenore, I have also been nominated and accepted as a member of the Heliconian Club. Something about grad school perhaps ignites the itch to network and be with like-minded people. I hadn’t felt like I was “worthy” of becoming a member when Lenore suggested it a few years ago, but I forget the value of mentorship within the arts and humanities, and I am excited to meet the Chair of the music section in person later this month. Already I am trying to brush up on Rachmaninoff’s Op. 23 no. 5 while learning no. 10 for it’s novelty, and warming up those long neglected musical brain cells by learning the Fantasia in Bach’s Partita III. Hearing the progress on flamenco guitar is certainly a source of motivation, and in return I hope to inspire some discipline regarding the importance of scales.

I have spent a lot of my spare time sitting in the balcony, drinking tea, watching my plants grow, enjoying a slice of serenity. The most satisfactory of which are some seeds that have actually sprouted. I don’t remember the last time I had experienced it. I am sure I feel as giddy about these as I did the first time I planted a green bean in a plastic cup with white cotton balls in science class.