Today I didn’t have the chance to do these exercises (which, like all exercises, are best done daily) at my usual time, around noon—they’re normally the first activity of the day after breakfast—and so I’m doing them on what’s technically September 30, at 3 a.m. It should be understandable, then, if they don’t go as well as one might hope. I’m only starting them now because once I’d finished all the tasks that prevented me from doing them at the usual time, I forgot all about them and instead sat down at the computer to continue my investigations into sound. After a while, I managed to bring about some interesting birdlike cheeping, which I recorded, though I’m still not entirely sure how I managed it. Previously, using a similar method—or perhaps the same one, since I don’t remember exactly what steps I followed—I made it produce the sound of a guitar or mandolin. But I didn’t record that and now it’s lost, at least for the time being.

I’m still not entirely sure how sound works on the computer. I know how sound works in general, but not specific sounds, since each one involves three values—or four, if we include duration. The most disconcerting thing is that varying one of these values sometimes has the same effect as varying another. So the research goes on, the investigations go on. And for now, I have the cheeping.

September 30

Today I’m starting slightly earlier than yesterday: 10:25 p.m. But my writing’s too small. Let’s see: a slight effort at enlargement. That’s better. Don’t let it shrink again. Good. Now to concentrate on forming each letter. Forming each letter. Forming each letter. Slowly does it … But how the hell do you do a capital S? S. L. §. &. It’s no use. I can’t remember. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z. Well, I don’t remember the K or the S, and nor am I very confident about the Q. (Alicia’s come to bother me. She’s always extremely jealous of my time alone. If she sees me concentrating on something other than her she’ll invariably try to distract me, making me lose my thread, my flow, and spilling my cerebral juices all over the place. In my experience, this is a universal law. In the experience of other men I know too. But I still don’t fully understand it and it makes life very difficult. Really, these exercises I’m doing to strengthen my character are a clumsy substitute for literature. I thought I’d be able to write a single page like this every day with no trouble at all, but that’s not what happens when Alicia’s at home.)

October 1