A Better Day

The rain is falling again and I am settling in for the evening. Today was better than yesterday, on a comparative scale. Work was pretty chaotic yesterday - it made the day pass quickly, but it was stressful. About midway through the morning I had to go outside and take a walk around the building to let some of the stress slip away in the rain, but it wasn't until about noon and lunch that I managed to drop the irritations and frustrations of the morning. Most of them were environmental - to much noise, to many voices talking at once in the office, to many discordant sounds.

It kind of amazes me how much environmental sounds can impact us - I would say that, for me at least, in the office environment and in the home, discordant sounds are disorienting. Fortunately, at home, I can usually alter the soundscape by dropping something into the stereo, by turning something on or off, by moving from one room to another. It is not quite that easy in the office, though, to a smaller degree I can do the same thing.

I wonder if there is any book or seminar that teaches a person on how to either create a soundscape or to improve thier soundscape? It seems to me like it would be a natural subject - though, I must say, I am not particularly a fan of new age style of music - I prefer my music with lyrics, since I tend to be so powerfully driven by the stories wrapped inside of songs. Though I like music, if I run through my list of favorite performers, it is often the lyrical content of their songs that attracts, holds me, and draws me back time and time again.