Bang Snow

It's a snowy day today. One of my favorite things to witness is when a pine bough gets overloaded with snow and suddenly lets loose a rush of powder - the trees must know I'm writing about them, because they just dumped a couple of the largest snow loads yet. I think what grabs me about these cascades is that there's a sort of hushed drama to the whole ordeal. The snow is moving rapidly, but seems to be suspended for a time. There's a quiet hiss as the snow lands that despite all of the movement seems to accentuate the stillness. And the trigger (one more snowflake) is exceedingly gentle.

Recently I've been working through some of the ins and outs of Pure Data (PD). PD is a graphical programming interface that can be used to make music and to orchestrate choreographed audio and visual phenomena. Personally, I've found the best approach to learning new technical applications (like PD) is to first immerse myself in tutorials and possibilities until I feel pretty overwhelmed. Then I step back and wait for these initial impressions to ferment (like sourdough, kombucha, or yogurt). When I start to think about the possibilities for X again I know it's time to pick it back up, only this time I have to find reasonable goals to maintain a consistent level of motivation. Once a goal is in place, figuring out how to achieve the goal (or at least a close approximation) becomes a memorable learning adventure.

p.s. - Re: the post title, a "Bang" is a trigger in PD