This is one of those things that I meant to write up but ended up putting off because of indifference. Here it is now.

Last week we stopped by the juggling festival put on by the university juggling club. There were some vendors there and many toys to play with. There were also many excellent competitions for jugglers. Here are a few:

• A limbo contest where you had to balance a club on your chin or nose as you went under the rope.
• A "who can last the longest contest" for five-ball juggling, quarter juggling (yes, juggling twenty-five cent coins, which can be surprisingly difficult, especially when you're in a circle with others doing it across from you), and blind juggling (eyes closed).
• A "simon says" contest where jugglers had to follow the caller's instructions, always juggling. As we were leaving, the caller had finished making the jugglers remove a shoe, and was asking them to put it back on!

I only participated in one event, mainly out of curiosity. They had a simple three-ball endurance event, but where the balls weigh about two pounds each. I've always had a set of heavy practice balls. They're in my office now, and they're fun to juggle. But I wondered how long I could last. The answer: four minutes and twenty-one seconds. Not great (good times are in the 15-20 minute range), but respectable. But obviously I hadn't trained for the event. The inevitable result was that I couldn't use my arms Monday or Tuesday. My biceps were tight little knots of pain. They had loosened up by the end of the week.

I had an excellent weekend, centred on a visit from my mother and brother, and culminating in a hearty paschal dinner on Sunday: ham, mashed potatoes and carrots, and minted peas (that's peas with mint, not peas pressed from molten metal).

I also think I'm emerging a bit from some general indifference to work (and indifference to blogging, I suppose). I feel a bit more engaged today, particularly since I just took care of a whole chunk of random administrative stuff that was piling up. I've also managed to curtail a range of pointless time-wasting activities, paving the way for real productivity (or perhaps a new set of pointless time-wasting activities; only time will tell).

Undoubtedly some of my time will now be devoted to playing with Reason again. I just picked up a new MIDI controller that will replace my aging synth for driving Reason. But now I'm faced with the tedious task of translating all my old sequences from the synth into Reason. As far as I can tell, the best way to do this is manually. It's worthwhile, though, since in the end I'll probably be able to use the exercise as justification for why I need to purchase the latest Reason upgrade (version 3.0 looks very cool).

I've got new toys to play with at work too. I bought a Dual G5 Mac for video/audio production in my lab, and today picked up my copies of Logic Express and Apple's Production Pack (containing Final Cut Pro and a whole pile of other goodies). I know the students will get good mileage from these tools. It would be fun for me to play with them too.

Speaking of productivity, I'm putting off taking another pass on my student's latest research paper. Perhaps one more quick post before that...