I realized that I’d been putting off working on the animation because I wanted to address the issue of timing my classmates brought up last friday: namely, I restored the master tempo to its original 120 bpm, and fixed minor timings in word animations (see the current version with crappy built-in audio here, but turn your volume down—it’s loud). The music, up until tonight, wasn’t finished. So, I sat myself down in GarageBand and finished recording everything. I re-recorded the melody and baseline, determined the bridge and intro, and modified and finished the descant. All told, it’s three tracks of piano some spliced together, and it plays very loudly instead of very quietly, which I consider a moderate improvement. I wish I could make it sound like it does in my thoughts—I hear amazing sounds in my head but can’t get them out into daylight. I’m satisfied with it but not enchanted. I’m not sure I have the skill with keyboard-driven software instruments to enchant myself. Volunteers? 
No, seriously, I would love a cover of this. I’d also love a new sewing machine, digital slr camera, and a sexy red foreign sports car, for the record. And a kitten.
Code-wise, I’m looking at ways to combine all the circles into one MovieClip object, which I can then use as a mask. I’m also trying to make things work with classes and packages, as it’s much cleaner. I’m not sure where I want to put the socket (in its own class, with methods to talk to other classes; or in the main class). I’ve discovered that, no matter the screen size or the number of circles, the flash implementation of the processing app starts to slow way down. Ugh. Distressing, particularly as I’m not sure if I can find an alternative. I need to find out how to make Processing and Flash talk over the web, not just over my computer’s local ports. That could be difficult.
I’m reading “Postmodern media culture” by Jonathan Bignell, which is turning out to be an interesting and informative read. I’m also beginning to panic about getting everything done by the end of this term, but I’ll just keep working, staying up later and forcing myself to get up earlier as the term progresses. I keep thinking, “I can do this, I can do this, I will not melt into a puddle of ectoplasm and stain the peculiar blue tiled carpet in my room…” I went to Fencing, but my right ankle (specifically, the muscle/tendon that runs along the outside of the shinbone and serves to lifts your foot up/flex it toward your leg) burns when I try to step forward. Having decided that I should not keep stressing it when it hurts so much, I skipped out after footwork, showered, ate dinner, and got to work. Whee. People were playing video games in the lounge as I went by, and later they watched a movie (The Devil Wears Prada). If I’m not careful, I’ll pick up another fun book, and then where will I be?
