Foux Du Fa Fa

My dear readers,

It's been a bit of a whirlwind though it's been great.

I was fortunate enough to spend a couple of weeks in Paris with dear friends and loved ones on what was, probably, the trip of a lifetime.

One highlight was seeing Lisa Batiashvili play Beethoven with the Concertgebouw. She played cadenzas by Schnittke which landed with me. Enjoyed the concert enormously.

Art, music, food, and wine. Amazing! I'm incredibly fortunate.

I don't speak a word of French and my attempts to study common phrases ahead of the trip were a massive failure.

I thought I would leave this as it's both hilarious and it highlights the chasm between the romantic fantasy of trying to speak the language and the harsh reality: Flight of the Conchords: Foux Da Fa FA

I returned to the states just in time to start with a new group of boot camp students and to catch up on homework for my classes. I am far off the notional schedule that I had set though, for once, I'm not beating myself up over it all. It was worth it!

I did stumble upon Petzold's Code in a new edition. I'd never read it before but was aware of it. I've really enjoyed it though I find some of the diagramming quite hard to follow and I've had to draw some output tables as I try to follow. There's also a cool site to accompany the book that allows a user to play around with the circuits/switches.

I'm back to work these days and after a couple of weeks of enjoying French wine as well as apero, I will be abstaining from drinking for about a month or so. It was fun but there's work to do and I feel behind schedule.

Cheers!

PS This is one of several artists that I'm intrigued by. I don't react to visual arts the way I do to music but I definitely want to know more.