Keeping active

I get, as do many of us M.S.ers, quite a few mailings about things to do to keep oneself mentally active and fully, joyfully, engaged with living.

Here's what I did with myself today... I worked on some incidental music for a local high school's presentation of a play based on Orwell's 1984, and just moments ago, did some sound design for a video game on which my wife is part of their voice talent.

In this particular design, my wife is creating sounds of a banshee. Which didn't die happily, given the sounds of weeping and moaning that she recorded.

It is quite a thing to do, listening to your wife moaning and weeping, in really really high-quality sound. And then, playing audio tricks on it to make it even more mournful and tragic.

I don't think the people in the M.S.-support world think of "making the sound of your most beloved's weeping even more heart-wrenching" as a preferred method for "keeping yourself mentally active and happy," but such is the world of sound design for video games.

For 1984, I wrote the music for song of the state, "Oceania, 'Tis for Thee!" and I'm currently waiting to hear from a plug-in manufacturer about their product that makes something sound like it's coming off a crappy old turntable. I figure, since Oceania is at war with East Asia--Oceania has, of course, always been at war with East Asia--ain't nobody providing THX-grade fidelity to the lumpen proletariat. Crappy, grotty, barely-functional AM radios, that's what I'm thinking.

And likewise, I don't think the M.S.-support community imagines creating the sound of a horribly oppressive totalitarian state to fall into the category of "staying mentally active" (Lord knows Big Brother doesn't want anyone "mentally active") or joyfully engaged with living (the Two-Minutes Hate hardly qualifies as "joyful") but, again, such is the world of the theater.

I think I'm going to take a break (I mean that in the nicest way), and pour myself some pu-erh tea. And then, maybe, listen to something not oppressive.

Keeping myself mentally active and joyfully engages with living, y'know. Right...?