Jogging/running has gotten a bit easier. Sometime last week I bumped up my jog from one mile to two without decreasing my speed. I still sprint/walk the last mile. My most recent time for the first two miles was 16:11. It's still pretty boring and after you count in the time it takes to get changed, go run, shower, it wastes about an hour...that might be about all I'm willing to waste on it, though. I'm getting to the point I was looking forward to, though: I feel obligated to do it when I'm supposed to.
The biggest downsides I see, though, are that I get very wound up afterward, but I don't feel like doing anything. So I just sit on the couch all jumpy and watch tv until sleep time. =\ Hopefully that's just a phase and I'll get over it.
Erin and I bought ourselves a chumby for Christmas. Well, I bought it, but it's for us and she didn't complain. GOOD GOD I NEED TO BUY THE NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL ALBUMS. Sorry. Had to remind myself. Back to chumby. Basically, it's an internet-connected touchscreen device that will let us listen to Pandora radio without our computers, it will replace the alarm clock we have (our current clock currently loses time, and is a pain to set). We should be able to set up different alarms for ourselves so that, when Erin wakes up before me, she doesn't have to re-set the alarm. It may take some getting used to, but hopefully it won't make us late.
I ordered some books. The last in a series I'd been reading since middle school (I think). After the first couple of books, they started to get silly, but I have this...quirk. Erin has referred to it as being a "completion whore"...once I start something, I have a hard time stopping before it is done. I've started a video game, found out that it sucks, but forced myself to finish it, just so I knew how the story finished out... I also ordered The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and House Of Leaves. I ordered these because I tend to like suspense/thriller/horror, I guess, and wanted something new (House of Leaves) and something classic (Jekyll & Hyde).
I have a few more books that I want to read, but I'm open to suggestions.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
the bad things travel in droves; the good wander alone
I want the T-Mobile G1. My contract isn't quite one year old, though, and I have to wait for it to be 22 months old before I can get the decent price of 179. However, I might just buy in earlier, but I don't really know. The phone and OS look very promising; if I could make my own phone, it would wind up having specs very close to the G1, only I don't know if I could get it to work X(
The show on Friday went pretty well. The show was kind of weird in the way that it was set up. The main show was something called Cartune Xprez. I'm not certain that all Cartune Xprez shows go this way, but this one had a group called Hooliganship performing in front of some cartoons. Their music was instrumental and sort of went along with the videos; the two guys moved around like they were actually part of the cartoons, though, so it was pretty sweet. After their show, they showed some more videos by other people, some of which were incredibly sweet.
After that happened, the show moved to the Scoot Inn where Hooliganship played another 15 minutes or so on the outside stage. After they finished, a band called Gayle Gold played inside. We only saw part of their set, though, because we had to set up/prepare some last minute things (Kerstan needed to write some of the lyrics for "Total Eclipse of the Heart" so he wouldn't forget them...only he still did). The guitarist was really good, but that was really the only impression I could get in the short time they played.
Kerstan and I went outside to set up on the stage, get levels and everything set up. It was weird, though, because we didn't have monitors. I could still hear everything, but because the guitar amp wasn't micced, I had no idea about the way the entire mix sounded. I basically had Erin tell me if I was too loud or quiet, but she only gave feedback in between songs...next time, I'd like instant hand gesture feedback. So, we get levels set up and tune the instruments and all. I wound up playing Kerstan's 3/4 scale classical guitar for two of the songs (he wanted an acoustic sound on those) and my pink stratocaster for the remaining 3 that I played on. Once Gayle Gold finished, Kerstan started by playing the songs he'd play alone. Because he plays to a dvd, it's not like I have all the time in the world to get on the stage and set things up before I'm expected to start playing, so I was pretty worried I'd forget something and play with the volume all the way down...or the amp turned off...or something like that.
When the song before I played reached the halfway point, I went up on stage, checked my tuning, turned on the amp and waited. By this point, I wasn't really worried anymore. I'd practiced enough and the songs are fairly easy, so I figured everything would be fine. It was. The nice thing about not miccing the amp was that, because I was so close to it, I could really hear myself sitting on top of the mix, while I don't think I was actually that loud for everyone else. The set finished, and went off without any major problems. It was a bit cold, so I fumbled the stretch for the Eb chord the first time, but it wasn't too bad, I just wound up muting notes. I'd like to play again. Maybe I'll learn some keyboard parts or something, though, because not many of the other songs actually have audible guitar parts.
Oh yeah. We skated a bit Saturday night and I fell and kind of hurt myself. Kerstan said it looked scary, but I thought it looked funny. I wasn't expecting to fall, so it probably was funny -- I didn't really prepare too much. I banged up my left knee and hip a bit. That leg was already kind of sore from (I think) running. Oh well.
I started running again, but I'm still working up to it, I guess. I usually run a mile, then run/walk another...that's as much as I have patience for. I tend to finish those in between 20 and 25 minutes...can't waste much more time than that. I'd like to be in the shape where I can run 6 miles in an hour again, but that just got so boring that I quit doing it.
The show on Friday went pretty well. The show was kind of weird in the way that it was set up. The main show was something called Cartune Xprez. I'm not certain that all Cartune Xprez shows go this way, but this one had a group called Hooliganship performing in front of some cartoons. Their music was instrumental and sort of went along with the videos; the two guys moved around like they were actually part of the cartoons, though, so it was pretty sweet. After their show, they showed some more videos by other people, some of which were incredibly sweet.
After that happened, the show moved to the Scoot Inn where Hooliganship played another 15 minutes or so on the outside stage. After they finished, a band called Gayle Gold played inside. We only saw part of their set, though, because we had to set up/prepare some last minute things (Kerstan needed to write some of the lyrics for "Total Eclipse of the Heart" so he wouldn't forget them...only he still did). The guitarist was really good, but that was really the only impression I could get in the short time they played.
Kerstan and I went outside to set up on the stage, get levels and everything set up. It was weird, though, because we didn't have monitors. I could still hear everything, but because the guitar amp wasn't micced, I had no idea about the way the entire mix sounded. I basically had Erin tell me if I was too loud or quiet, but she only gave feedback in between songs...next time, I'd like instant hand gesture feedback. So, we get levels set up and tune the instruments and all. I wound up playing Kerstan's 3/4 scale classical guitar for two of the songs (he wanted an acoustic sound on those) and my pink stratocaster for the remaining 3 that I played on. Once Gayle Gold finished, Kerstan started by playing the songs he'd play alone. Because he plays to a dvd, it's not like I have all the time in the world to get on the stage and set things up before I'm expected to start playing, so I was pretty worried I'd forget something and play with the volume all the way down...or the amp turned off...or something like that.
When the song before I played reached the halfway point, I went up on stage, checked my tuning, turned on the amp and waited. By this point, I wasn't really worried anymore. I'd practiced enough and the songs are fairly easy, so I figured everything would be fine. It was. The nice thing about not miccing the amp was that, because I was so close to it, I could really hear myself sitting on top of the mix, while I don't think I was actually that loud for everyone else. The set finished, and went off without any major problems. It was a bit cold, so I fumbled the stretch for the Eb chord the first time, but it wasn't too bad, I just wound up muting notes. I'd like to play again. Maybe I'll learn some keyboard parts or something, though, because not many of the other songs actually have audible guitar parts.
Oh yeah. We skated a bit Saturday night and I fell and kind of hurt myself. Kerstan said it looked scary, but I thought it looked funny. I wasn't expecting to fall, so it probably was funny -- I didn't really prepare too much. I banged up my left knee and hip a bit. That leg was already kind of sore from (I think) running. Oh well.
I started running again, but I'm still working up to it, I guess. I usually run a mile, then run/walk another...that's as much as I have patience for. I tend to finish those in between 20 and 25 minutes...can't waste much more time than that. I'd like to be in the shape where I can run 6 miles in an hour again, but that just got so boring that I quit doing it.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
I broke free on a saturday morning
First, a correction: Kerstan will not be playing drums. I'm not sure why I said that. He will be playing bass.
The Mountain Goats' show on Saturday night was pretty good. I wasn't too into the opening act...or the part of the Mountain Goats' set where she accompanied them, but I guess I can't dictate what happens at shows....unfortunately.
I've been practicing guitar quite a bit...in hopes that I don't make a fool of myself on Friday. Still not sure which guitar I'm going to play...Kerstan is pulling for his 3/4 scale classical guitar. I'm not terribly fond of it, due to the nylon strings...also, the reduced scale length is a bit hard for my monster fingers =\ I'm kind of torn between my pink Stratocaster and my steel string acoustic guitar. I think the Strat looks nicer and would be way easier (less bulky) to get to the show, but it would definitely require an amplifier (passing it into a mixer directly sounds kind of bad). The acoustic guitar would need some sort of improvised pickup, though. If I were to use it, I'd probably just use an electric guitar pickup as well as a piezo element based pickup...but I need to make a volume/tone circuit for each of those (plus a pre-amp for the piezo, maybe)...and don't know that I have that kind of time. I'll have to look around.
The Mountain Goats' show on Saturday night was pretty good. I wasn't too into the opening act...or the part of the Mountain Goats' set where she accompanied them, but I guess I can't dictate what happens at shows....unfortunately.
I've been practicing guitar quite a bit...in hopes that I don't make a fool of myself on Friday. Still not sure which guitar I'm going to play...Kerstan is pulling for his 3/4 scale classical guitar. I'm not terribly fond of it, due to the nylon strings...also, the reduced scale length is a bit hard for my monster fingers =\ I'm kind of torn between my pink Stratocaster and my steel string acoustic guitar. I think the Strat looks nicer and would be way easier (less bulky) to get to the show, but it would definitely require an amplifier (passing it into a mixer directly sounds kind of bad). The acoustic guitar would need some sort of improvised pickup, though. If I were to use it, I'd probably just use an electric guitar pickup as well as a piezo element based pickup...but I need to make a volume/tone circuit for each of those (plus a pre-amp for the piezo, maybe)...and don't know that I have that kind of time. I'll have to look around.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
I've lost count of the times the devil has danced across your tongue
So, I haven't updated in a little while. I haven't been doing TOO much, though.
Me and Erin: Our anniversary is on Sunday. 6 years is a long time, I guess... Einstein said, "When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity." I guess it's all relative. It really hasn't felt that long at all. Sure, we have disagreements, but I don't think it's possible to live with someone else and NOT disagree from time to time.
Work: I've been working. I worked on my first patent ever...it got filed, but we're waiting to see if it gets approved. I'm an inventor.
Hobbies: This has probably been the most active front.
A couple years back, Artie gave me an old bass (that was missing one tuning machine, the pots and jack), an old busted up strat-style guitar body and a birds-eye maple neck. I repaired the bass a long time back and it is easily one of the best-playing and best sounding basses I've played. I started work on that guitar body, sanded it down, did some minor repair-work on the wood, painted it a really nice blue color...I started to plan out all of the other components I needed and, just before placing my order, realized that the bridge mounting holes were WAAAY off. They were nowhere near where they needed to be. Also, the neck pocket is much too large for the neck. Because of these factors, I decided to shelf that project...but the neck is just so nice looking, I can't just NOT use it.
I did some research and decided I'll try my hand at building a Thinline Telecaster-style guitar. I was able to find some nice pine shelves at IKEA that I'll join together to make the proper thickness blank, then I'll work the body out. I'm mostly just hoping to get a decent amount of experience/knowledge from this, because I've always wanted to build a Jazzmaster-type guitar at some point in time, and this will let me know if it may or may not work out. I have also wound some pickups, as well...pretty decent sounding, I guess. Another thing I may do is try to reproduce that bass as closely as I can...It really is a great sounding instrument and I'd love to have a second. For these builds, though, I'm going to need a drill press, a router (my parents are giving me this) and maybe a milling machine (some parts on that bass will need to be fabricated).
I built Erin a Jar of Fireflies (a project I found on Instructables.com). Basically, it's a jar with some really tiny LEDs in it that blink like fireflies.
Oh, I also bought a flashcart for a Nintendo DS (and the DS itself). I had to replace the battery in the GBA expansion card, though...it's a solder-in battery, but I was able to just tape the contacts to a new battery (because the little socket I made didn't fit...there's just NO space inside that thing).
Music: Kerstan has had a few shows and they've gone really well, for the most part. He asked me to play a show with him next Friday, so I'll be doing that. I'm going to play guitar while he plays drums, though, so I've got some learning to do. I think I'm only going to be playing the last 1/3 or so of the set, so it's not TOO much stuff. Plus, being forced to practice so much (I played for nearly 3 or 4 hours last night...and about 2 or so on Monday) I can already see some improvement.
Other: I've been entertaining the thought of reading more books again. I'm almost done with The Man Who Laughs and will probably need something else soon. Kerstan's girlfriend left The Invisible Man at his apartment...maybe I'll pick up a copy of that and give it a read.
There are other books I've seen and wanted to read (House Of Leaves is one of them). Some are just absurd (like "Satan Burger" which Amazon suggested when I added House of Leaves to a wishlist so I won't forget it). I don't know when I'll get around to it, but I used to love reading and would like to get into that again.
Posting is very tedious sometimes. I hope you're happy, Amber.
Me and Erin: Our anniversary is on Sunday. 6 years is a long time, I guess... Einstein said, "When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity." I guess it's all relative. It really hasn't felt that long at all. Sure, we have disagreements, but I don't think it's possible to live with someone else and NOT disagree from time to time.
Work: I've been working. I worked on my first patent ever...it got filed, but we're waiting to see if it gets approved. I'm an inventor.
Hobbies: This has probably been the most active front.
A couple years back, Artie gave me an old bass (that was missing one tuning machine, the pots and jack), an old busted up strat-style guitar body and a birds-eye maple neck. I repaired the bass a long time back and it is easily one of the best-playing and best sounding basses I've played. I started work on that guitar body, sanded it down, did some minor repair-work on the wood, painted it a really nice blue color...I started to plan out all of the other components I needed and, just before placing my order, realized that the bridge mounting holes were WAAAY off. They were nowhere near where they needed to be. Also, the neck pocket is much too large for the neck. Because of these factors, I decided to shelf that project...but the neck is just so nice looking, I can't just NOT use it.
I did some research and decided I'll try my hand at building a Thinline Telecaster-style guitar. I was able to find some nice pine shelves at IKEA that I'll join together to make the proper thickness blank, then I'll work the body out. I'm mostly just hoping to get a decent amount of experience/knowledge from this, because I've always wanted to build a Jazzmaster-type guitar at some point in time, and this will let me know if it may or may not work out. I have also wound some pickups, as well...pretty decent sounding, I guess. Another thing I may do is try to reproduce that bass as closely as I can...It really is a great sounding instrument and I'd love to have a second. For these builds, though, I'm going to need a drill press, a router (my parents are giving me this) and maybe a milling machine (some parts on that bass will need to be fabricated).
I built Erin a Jar of Fireflies (a project I found on Instructables.com). Basically, it's a jar with some really tiny LEDs in it that blink like fireflies.
Oh, I also bought a flashcart for a Nintendo DS (and the DS itself). I had to replace the battery in the GBA expansion card, though...it's a solder-in battery, but I was able to just tape the contacts to a new battery (because the little socket I made didn't fit...there's just NO space inside that thing).
Music: Kerstan has had a few shows and they've gone really well, for the most part. He asked me to play a show with him next Friday, so I'll be doing that. I'm going to play guitar while he plays drums, though, so I've got some learning to do. I think I'm only going to be playing the last 1/3 or so of the set, so it's not TOO much stuff. Plus, being forced to practice so much (I played for nearly 3 or 4 hours last night...and about 2 or so on Monday) I can already see some improvement.
Other: I've been entertaining the thought of reading more books again. I'm almost done with The Man Who Laughs and will probably need something else soon. Kerstan's girlfriend left The Invisible Man at his apartment...maybe I'll pick up a copy of that and give it a read.
There are other books I've seen and wanted to read (House Of Leaves is one of them). Some are just absurd (like "Satan Burger" which Amazon suggested when I added House of Leaves to a wishlist so I won't forget it). I don't know when I'll get around to it, but I used to love reading and would like to get into that again.
Posting is very tedious sometimes. I hope you're happy, Amber.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
And they'll be placing fingers through the notches in your spine
I got my sound to work on my computer...at least for listening to music. I haven't messed with trying to deal with recording yet.
EDIT:
Recording is hosed...for now at least. That will be the next thing I look into. Ideally, Kerstan and I can record drums (maybe guitar + vocals, if it sounds good enough "live") on my machine...but I need to get that stuff working first.
EDIT:
Recording is hosed...for now at least. That will be the next thing I look into. Ideally, Kerstan and I can record drums (maybe guitar + vocals, if it sounds good enough "live") on my machine...but I need to get that stuff working first.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
You're scrunching up your face in this picture I found
I've been working on setting up my new computer. I got Windows installed on it, but have been fighting with sound issues in my Fedora install. I may try a couple other distros before I just install a damn soundcard. I have an Audigy2 ZS (old) card that I could install, but because my machine has one PCI slot, I'd have to lose my wireless card...although, I could just use a USB wireless dongle. I hate the word dongle, though. The other option is buying a new soundcard that plugs into the PCI-E slot...that might be the best choice of all.
On a whim, I made a really cute hippo flash drive for Erin on Monday night. I broke the plastic case away from the drive, cut up a piece of cedar into a hippo shape (based on this) but with a cap, instead of a cable that plugs into the hippo's but. I should post a picture of it sometime.
Erin starts school today. I'm REALLY hoping that she likes it.
I made a list of a bunch of CDs that I need to buy. I really want to go back and buy everything I've downloaded...or at least everything I downloaded and actually listened to/kept. So far, the tally is just below $300, though...and there's a lot I haven't added (Mountain Goats, Weakerthans, etc). I predict it will jump to nearly $600 when it's all said and done... I'll likely just do this little bits at a time.
On a whim, I made a really cute hippo flash drive for Erin on Monday night. I broke the plastic case away from the drive, cut up a piece of cedar into a hippo shape (based on this) but with a cap, instead of a cable that plugs into the hippo's but. I should post a picture of it sometime.
Erin starts school today. I'm REALLY hoping that she likes it.
I made a list of a bunch of CDs that I need to buy. I really want to go back and buy everything I've downloaded...or at least everything I downloaded and actually listened to/kept. So far, the tally is just below $300, though...and there's a lot I haven't added (Mountain Goats, Weakerthans, etc). I predict it will jump to nearly $600 when it's all said and done... I'll likely just do this little bits at a time.
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