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Power Outage - The Life and Thoughts of Zach

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Jan. 19th, 2004

03:05 pm - Power Outage

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Last night our power went out at 11:30am just as we were sitting down to some Cartoon Network TiVo action and I was getting ready to do some consulting work online on my laptop.

Much of Champaign-Urbana was apparently hit. Lots of people got their power back after an hour or so but ours was out until 3:30am.

Jon got out his guitar and started strumming so I went and got my harmonicas and other stuff. Jay got his little toy piano. We picked a bunch of instruments in the key of C and just started making random noise. The best part about having a lot of instruments in the same key is that you just hit discord and discord for a long time but statistically eventually everyone returns to the root or a good harmony with the root at the same time and it resolves all the tension and suddenly there's this Power. It's like you'd composed all that discord on purpose and it was all heading to this random moment where everything resolves and sounds beautiful. Over the course of the night we played harmonicas, toy piano, guitar, shepherds flute, chimes, train whistle, shakers, sung voice, drums, and finger piano.

This is the second time I've tried this with a group of people and it's been great fun both times.

It gets cold with no heat after 4 hours.

At 3:30am when the power came back on and I was huddled up asleep and the house was suddenly roaring with noise and full of lights I bolted out of bed CERTAIN that someone forgot to blow out a candle and that the house was a raging inferno.

Now I've gotta get my consulting work done that I was going to spend all night last night working on. Stupid community building power outage.

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Comments:

From:eee1313
Date:January 19th, 2004 01:10 pm (UTC)
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That sounds ridiculously fun. But that said, did you miss last night's Home Movies? It had me guffawing. By myself. Yes, I am sad, why do you ask?
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From:zarfmouse
Date:January 19th, 2004 01:15 pm (UTC)
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We were watching Home Movies when the power went out. We were guffawing. I don't know if it all got TiVo'ed before the power died or not. Haven't checked. I don't actually know what time it actually airs at, just that it was sitting on TiVo waiting for us.
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From:assclouds
Date:January 19th, 2004 01:21 pm (UTC)
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Contrary to the loud objections of one roommate, 107 is a Home Movies Household. I was on edge for a week and a half before the season premiere last week, and we were actually watching this week's ep when the power canned on us. Thankfully, it made it to the tivo - unlike the rest of Adult Swim.

I think, actually, that we're starting to attract people on Sunday evenings. This is good.
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From:desert_fox
Date:January 19th, 2004 01:17 pm (UTC)
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You don't suspect Illinois Power will compensate any of those who lost power for the full duration? I'm thinking in terms of Kwh and gas therms to bring the house back up to an adequate temperature, not to mention inconvenience.
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From:zarfmouse
Date:January 19th, 2004 01:20 pm (UTC)
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I doubt it.

They should but I don't think they will.

Apparently an IP representative is going to be at the Green Party's Green Tea at the IMC this Wednesday evening. So any concerns about IP can be brought there!
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From:simplepleasure
Date:January 19th, 2004 02:23 pm (UTC)
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Dream on.
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From:desert_fox
Date:January 19th, 2004 02:43 pm (UTC)
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I know.
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From:folkyboy
Date:January 19th, 2004 03:21 pm (UTC)
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ooh a power outage breakdown :) that sounds like an indie album waiting to happen :D
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From:folkyboy
Date:January 19th, 2004 03:22 pm (UTC)
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ooh a power outage breakdown :) that sounds like an indie album waiting to happen :D
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From:marezcharz
Date:January 20th, 2004 02:30 pm (UTC)
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sounds like it was a great distraction with some fun results.

at least you guys know that there's something to do if the power goes out. imagine all those blockheads that would just call it quits and go to bed really angry cuz their shows weren't on.
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Man, it's been a real long time since I've had cable, I don't recognize any of those shows. I think the last thing I saw on MTV was the Cure. shit
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