What the last entry was really driving at, is that I need a place to play and record music, unencumbered by concerns of loudness, and if possible also by the hour of the day. I've thought heavily about it, and there are two possibilities, each with their pros and cons and neocons and libcons.

Possibility the first: install acoustic insulation in my own room so as not to bother the neighbours. At minimum, I think this would involve some kind of absorbent riser for the drums and amplifiers, and a whole lot of material on the walls and ceiling, and over the windows, and probably something on the door as well if I want to play when the beast is around. A couple of practicality cons are that it would be quite expensive (you can't believe how much people will charge for foam...it's foam!) unless I can be very resourceful, and be a labor and time consuming installation process. The other matter is that, certain higher powers willing (in this case the NIH and NSF), this won't actually be my room for more than a few months longer. While I could take steps to ensure that the materials would be largely reusable, it would still be a pain to transfer them to new quarters. At the same time, the biggest pro is that this is my room; all the stuff I need is here, and I'm not 'on the clock' paying for it. The other sub-possibility is to simply wait to do this until I am at a new residence; one which if I have my way won't require as much acoustic treatment to start with. But the time frame for such a move is completely uncertain, so this might end up being a 7 month gap until I can play music for real.

Possibility the second: either rent a practise room on a monthly basis, or by the hour for actual practise times. The first sub-possibility is pretty much right out financially, unless I could find about 20 people willing to share the cost, which is roughly double the number of people I know at all. By the hour is the cheapest possibility of all, and most places have a drum set and amps there for use. But I still have a lot of instruments I'd have to carry there each time. Then there's the fact that in this arrangement we would be on the clock, and might be on the verge of coming up with a great idea just as the hour ends. The other side of this is that a practise room has no distractions, unlike my room which is a veritable feast of them. Finally, if I wanted to do any recording in a practise room I'd probably have to re-acquire a 4-track, and then that would be more stuff to bring each time.

Why did I have to do music anyway? Couldn't I have been a writer? Writing requires so much less overhead. Also, by way of explanation, I have indeed for the past few years evaded this problem by using computerized drums. But I decided recently I would not do this anymore, unless for aesthetic reasons. It's just not right, it needs to sound real.