A Slice of Pi

Just Shoot Me Now

Even when I can sleep, it doesn't help much

Today's blog is going to be a bit thinner content-wise than usual,
as the combination of illness and emotional turmoil which currently afflicts me is seriously impairing my ability to focus and get anything useful done.

The medicine I'm taking is only partially effective, and there are timing issues with taking it. I have no appetite, and my sleep has been fitful, diminishing its effectiveness.


It isn't helping that the weather has remained cold and miserable since Thursday
(it is 22 degrees and windy as I type these words). Things are supposed to warm up
a bit in a couple of days, but the National Weather Service has been wrong a lot lately, and the way I feel today Thursday seems like forever away. Perhaps my suffering, like the decimal representation of pi, will have no end...

"If you're going to croak, can you at least let me outside first?"

I'll try my best...Heaven forbid you should learn how to operate a doorknob yourself...

Trouper

Joe says 'good night' at Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland

My blues guitar hero Joe Bonamassa is still battling what is now believed to be a case
of bronchitis, but he's certainly more able to function than I am at the moment.

Last night's show in Kansas City, which
I was forced to miss, was by all accounts
a great performance...

Pi in the Face

Design courtesy of the cool cats at Snorgtees

One of the things I miss the most about teaching is being at school on a "special" day for kids that aren't necessarily the most athletic or popular. Pi Day was one such day.

Some people would argue that the ultimate Pi Day was two years ago (3.14.15), but that's just the sort 

of controversy which I try to avoid whenever possible.

I gave up dessert for Lent, but even if I hadn't I wouldn't want this...

"I know, right?"

And how ironic is it that Pi Day also happens to be Albert Einstein's birthday?

"That's ironic to like to 12th power of the square root of..."

Just shut your pipe..

It's a Communication Jungle Out There

From the delightfully off-kilter webcomic xkcd, by Randall Munroe, which you should read every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Until Next Time...

Several of the selections in my "Tearjerkers" iTunes playlist are instrumentals, since certain pieces of music can move me to tears even without lyrics. This is because I have used the music in one of my play productions (I usually get emotional when recalling those memories), or because it is from a motion picture or TV program which used it in an especially sad scene.

Original 2005 "one sheet" poster

An example of the latter is composer
David Newman's score for Joss Whedon's 2005 film Serenity. Based on the TV series Firefly, to which I was introduced by my late best friend Matt, this movie is one of the rare ones which I never get tired of watching. It ranks highly on my all-time list, and even spent some time at the top
of that list.

I have used a few tracks from Newman's evocative score in my play productions, and I'm currently using today's featured selection for my profile page on a social networking site to which I belong.

The film functions as a sort of prequel and sequel to the TV series (which won't make sense until you've seen both). One of the more remarkable aspects of Serenity is that not one but two of the major Firefly characters die.

Both of those packed an emotional punch, but the death of Shepherd Book hit me especially hard, since he was the character with whom I most closely identified. Even though I know it is entirely a work of fiction, even now I can't watch the character's death scene without tears. (Ron Glass, the actor who played the character, passed away himself last November 25.)

Today's send-off is Newman's underscore for that moment, from his YouTube channel. Enjoy...