My Birthday 2007 – new music stuff!
Nov 07PF Changs, new Rode NT1-A, and new Line 6 Tone Port UX2… Also, some new face scrub and aftershave balm from Origins (more on the face care later). Amazingly, nothing new for Otto.
On my birthday, devin took andrea and me to eat at PF Changs, it was a toss up between there and Los Cucos – Andrea being the coin and PF Changs being tails. I have this strange obsession with their chopsticks, which are not like normal chopsticks where one end is tapered and enlarges on the other end. These are tapered on both ends and somewhat flat in the middle. They are very well balanced and simply different – here you see the obsession with such a simple object set. So I kept a pair.
The bill came out above $100 food was excellent as usual, with getting my usual Chang’s Spicy Chicken, Chow Mein (without meat this time) and my favorite, the Nutty Uncle alcoholic beverage (strawberry, coconut, almond liqueur, and an unspecified rum) – Andrea tried a tofu ordeal in which the tofu had a very disturbing texture, but good taste (on the outside – no taste inside)… Devin, the usual – something completely different. It was a fun evening, and now you know what we stuffed ourselves.
Then on Tuesday, which was yesterday, I went shopping for myself. It all started as I was curiously browsing rewards for my debit card, I decided against cash instead getting something I wouldn’t usually buy. So I redeemed my reward points for something for which I really wouldn’t normally consider paying cash, if not a true name brand instrument. The 
Behringer iAXE624 (Centari) USB guitar 
I was curious, reviews seemed ok, if not for JUST the guitar part, I have been wanting to get a new guitar (more so an acoustic though) and hey, this $150 thing is free just for spending money with my card. We’ll see how I feel about it in 2-4 weeks when I get it considering that a couple of the only complaints worth note are the placement of the USB port (for standing the guitar up) which can be alleviated by having an actual guitar stand, and the strings it comes with are too light for any real playing – I always preferred D’Addario half round mediums but I think I might switch to something heavier just for the hell of it. I think I’d switch to Pure Nickel or Flat Wound Stainless for a more mellow sound, but on this guitar who knows how that would sound anyway.
Then along with some Imogen Heap live videos I’d recently seen this inspired me to get back into my music production… what do I REALLY need for this… A new Microphone, and usb interface!
So I head to Guitar Center to check out the options. I had my sights on the Blue – Snowball USB mic so I could skip the interface and just use USB ready components. Once there, I was talked out of the Snowball (latency issues) and into the Rode Podcaster mic (which was incidentally much more expensive).
When I return home and start to play with my new purchase, I make the steady realization that the podcaster is just that – just for recording vocals and nothing else, since it has a monitor headphone jack on the mic itself, perfect for recording JUST voice but no mixing.
I promptly round up Andrea and Devin (who had just returned from getting us food and a movie from the Redbox) and rush back to Guitar Center (eat along the way) to return the Podcaster and shock mount and am talked into a similarly priced Rode mic. After carefully reviewing cheaper alternatives and being frankly – with no monetary motive – explained the virtue of each option I chose the Rode NT1-A. As an added value it came with its own shock mount and storage zipper bag. I have to say, for it’s price or not, it sounds great! And the best part is, I’m no longer using a computer mic, nor a larger dynamic one which make me sound like I have no low end and alot of nasal acoustic boom.
The next part of my decision involved how to power this new microphone. I DID still have the little M-Audio Fast Track USB interface andrea bought last year, but it doesn’t have Phantom Power so it wouldn’t natively operate the Rode or any other condenser mic for that matter. So either a power insert between the mic and preamp or a new preamp usb interface. I chose the latter.
Started feeling a discomfort in my tract, as it comes time to pay the difference for my exchange – $189. I reach for my wallet – card’s gone, and apparently at home since Andrea and Devin took it to get the food and miscellaneous items at Wal*mart.
Stay calm… Devin has a card and we have linked accounts, so I can transfer… my phone is getting crappy reception, the nerves get the better of me, I start to sweat – all I have to do is pay. Eureka! I have checks in the car! Or so I think. I get back disheartened at the prospect that I will not be leaving with anything new at this time – and a bulb lights over my head -my one emergency spare check I keep in my wallet for JUST such an emergency… So the transaction is done and all is well…
The trek back home was an adventure all its own – after not long the McDonalds had for some reason caused some severe gastric disturbances forcing me to halt the mad rush back home and detour at the nearest store with the highest chance of a clean… facility. Walgreens will do.
I went with a Line 6 Tone Port UX2 for the fact that it has 2 48v or dynamic capable XLR jacks, 2 guitar inputs, a headphone monitor output, 2 analog monitor outs, pedal control options, most important of all latency free operation and as I’ve found kick ass controller software (Line 6 Gear Box) and Ableton Lite (which I don’t intend to use). 
The installation was a breeze, and the software updated itself using a separate program that comes as part of the suite packaging and setup instructions were well thought out to ensure that you follow the right process to get it set up with no issues.
Gear Box is nothing short of wonderful. It comes preloaded with sample rig emulations for both guitar, bass and microphone control and output – as you hear it on the monitor, is as it records in software (a VST plugin version is also available for a mere $199 but as it is now suits my methods just fine). The vocal effects are great for producing different levels of clarity from the mic and even some realistic lo-fi effects all of which a user can configure and save. 
At this time, realizing that Sony Soundforge has been an overly expensive pain in the ass (which I used to love) recently while working with my USB devices I gladly switched to open source Audacity. Found that even running Buzz with over a dozen machines (usually moderate CPU usage), filters for the Mic in Gear Box, and recording in Audacity 1.3.3 beta produced NO latency on either the analog out and headphone out, and used very little extra cpu if any at all. Everything went smooth and I stayed up till 4am playing with the new stuff.
Although the new usb interface looks pretty much like a toy, it’s a great tool for someone such as myself – hobby musician with some room to grow before taking on bigger meaner devices. That is to say, since I use Buzz, a Sequencer/Tracker/Synthesizer/Sampler (which also free but not open source, and no longer under development but has a pretty large following) for putting together my music as I have since 1998, and a simple recorder (first soundforge but now audacity – and only for the recording/basic wave editing) I wouldn’t know how all of this equates to Cubase or Protools, which have just seemed too bloated for my taste, since I primarily work with samples and direct tone sequencing rather than a multitude of various hardware (which I would obviously love to own).
Overall I’d have to say that even though I went about $90 over my spending threshold, the $229 Rode NT1-A and the $199 Line 6 Tone Port UX2, along with a new mic boom stand for $30 – I’m very satisfied with my purchase. My love for music making has been rekindled.
Not to mention that it has inspired Andrea, on my commission to contrive a device to complement the new mic, of the cozy type… you know, to keep it clean of dust, since I’m too lazy to put it away like everyone else (but there is alot of dust in this room so it’s useful). Maybe it should be produced en-masse… is there a market for it I wonder?
Reasonably eventful few days by my standards.
smells of school mornings long past
Sep 17That cool humid morning-dew soaked ground, sun just peeking over the horizon, the sounds of school buses making their rounds right down to the squeaky brakes followed by the loud hiss of the air being purged at the stop… the dread of another school day under the awful cold white/green flood of fluorescent lights in those hard seats being forced to pay attention while trying to stay warm in the arctic frost of the classroom. Somehow, I vaguely miss it. My inconsistent mix of self appointed on and off days, and friends at school. It’s all a blur now but even back then still.
Strange how nostalgic it all is, starting from the middle of September through January, as the days grow shorter. It used to be very depressing. Then as of the past few, maybe 3 years I haven’t felt much of it though the recent years have been riddled with a great mess of learning experiences. But this year it’s back and it feels refreshing, if not thought provoking.
These days, it’s the morning stampede to the watering hole known as work, still the fluorescent lighting and oft intolerable cold of the office but at least now it’s more rewarding, I can get up and leave when I want, and work at my own pace.
Quickly moving from the green of summer, to the orange and black of halloween, to yellow and brown of thanksgiving… then to red and green of that annoying over-commercialized period of the year… and finally the blue calm of January before the steady graduation back to green. It fills me with excitement going to my nearest Wal*Mart and seeing the vibrant warm glow of their halloween aisles, from the candy to the decorations – both macabre and general autumn.
Personal memories of my youth now drive me to think about my current life and future. Plans… philosophies… friends… another winter is arriving.
The coming month will mark a year of being back in touch with Jonathan, eventful and strange though it’s been, the dust has now settled, and he is making a new life with recent personal growth in Shreveport with mom and youngest brother. It will also mark 14 years we have known each other, just as May of this year marked 10 years of knowing Brandie, and 8 years of knowing Tara.
Also forthcoming is that busy week at the beginning of November with all the birthdays including my own – not that I really care to celebrate it but I will be 24 – climbing up that hill.
I really want to go to some shows or other memorable events to start setting mental milestones for these years of my life. Not that I feel like I’d ever look back and say it’s all been empty, just markers.
The family’s growing up, and going through some strange changes these days which have yet to play out. We’ll see what comes.
Oh it’s not just rain…
Sep 12It’s now tropical storm category 1 hurricane Humberto. The second sudden tropical storm this year to form in the same Galveston, Texas through West Louisiana gulf coast area.
car wash… the new rain dance
Sep 12After two weeks with no rain and my car getting progressively more dusty, I decide, OK, the grass is dry, the sky is clear, the forecasts are all wrong, since they’ve all said rain “sometime this week” for the past 2 weeks to no avail. So I wash my car yesterday, nice and sparkly. Later that evening, after removing the temperature compensation board for my temperature gauge (and jumpering pins 1 & 3 as seen from left to right) in the car I go test drive it, by going to Fry’s (also to pick up some LEDs and more solder) and sure enough the board was going bad.
This thing is there to maintain the temperature within an average range to eliminate alerting the driver to naturally occurring slight fluctuations in engine temperature but every now and then, my gauge reads within the first quarter, cold, or other times, almost in the red zone (usually with A/C on), as it has since I got the car, not necessarily erratic, but it definitely makes me feel like there are problems with the engine — which has been very disappointing since I’ve completely overhauled the entire cooling system. The needle stayed dead center in the normal zone the whole drive, even with the A/C in traffic, no fluctuations at all, showing that my electric fan and thermostats are set perfectly and the board was bad.
On the way home with sun roof open, feels like a cool ocean breeze — this means rain soon… Great. I was hoping I was wrong. But of course, this morning on the horrendous drive to work in 8:00 traffic sprinkle… sprinkle… and down it came. Not that I’m complaining but it seems that ANY time I wash my car, and water the lawn, it rains the next day. This hasn’t failed at all the past 5 times I’ve washed my car.
Anyhow, I love the rain, always a pleasure.
Ah the joys of working early
Sep 10A drive which would normally take me 30 minutes or 1 hour and 20 minutes during the rat race of rush hour, from home to the Galleria or back only takes about 15 minutes at 4:30am. Though I’m tired cause my sleep schedule is just all stupid regardless (right now I’m asleep by 3am awake by around… 11:30am). I decided to mix it up this morning in an effort to reset the clock and make some more hours today since that screwy sleep schedule, compounded with devin’s car being in the shop (and having to bring him to and from work) has been really affecting my work schedule… I get here late-er than usual.. and I leave early.
I’m gearing up, gathering my pictures and deciding on how to best approach this homeowners association foolishness. I completely revamped the bed in front of the house, and mowed the lawn… not 4 days later – a yard crew comes while no one’s home in the afternoon – it seems deliberate, as the day before, they were out during the normal time (8am-9am) I see them, and they saw me taking pictures of the yard (once I heard the hum of their mowers and blowers) – they edged the lawn, it looks clean but it’s NOT the way that I edge, which leaves grass covering the actual lawn edge so the soil can’t evaporate as fast near the edges, and since the lawn is very plush, it goes with the look, that is to say I trim UNDER the edge to give it a tidy profile, not a flat square. Called the the neighborhood’s restriction violation person, very angry at first with my complaints, but of course soon calmed down as she gave me a calm set of instructions on what to do.
So, now I’m debating on how to best communicate my dispute, along with pictures and suspicions in a publicly notable but professional and non-scandalous way. I’m thinking, a website, let alone, a beginning to my CreateHouston.org website. It will all become a part of a bigger board, maybe where people will be able to discuss their feelings about traffic and housing growth in their area or the new highways or their systematically corrupt HOA. This has all been churning and banging around in my head over the weekend.
I’m going to soon be posting some pictures of Otto’s progress with the new Hella 6.5″ driving lights (including fresh head/beam/fog/driving beam relay wiring arrangement improving on the car’s system), new drive shaft center support (which was a new type of job for me), rear Koni sport (yellow) shocks, fresh red pinstripe, and soon to come red under-body lighting.
Also in news, though rather old by maybe 2 weeks, is Jonathan did make the move to Shreveport, but alone – we moved all his stuff overnight. He seems content, much more so than how he seemed in Houston, back in his customary position of father figure. Seems we’re definitely better friends at a distance, and I’m pretty sure this has always been our dynamic since first we met 13 years ago. I love the drive to Shreveport, it’s much more interesting than say, the drive to Dallas, Austin, or Baton Rouge.
*YAWWN* I’m not sure how long I’ll make it today, but I’ve already had one venti green tea lemonade (with 4 pumps melon syrup) and am currently working on another (this one with 3 pumps). Maybe I’ll take a short nap before anyone gets here – I’m guessing I have a good 2 hours until then.. but it’s risky since I might sleep much longer and deeply in this silence.
Upcoming Houston electronic shows: September & October 2007!
Sep 05HOLY CRAP!! In Houston, at Planeta Bar Rio:
- Sasha – October 19, 2007
Regular Tickets Presale $20 (18+) - Benni Benassi – October 26, 2007
Regular Tickets Presale $20 (18+) - Armin van Buuren!! – October 30, 2007
Regular Tickets Presale $15 (18+)
Planeta Bar Rio
6400 Richmond Ave
Houston, TX 77057
Also, at Warehouse Live
- Sneaker Pimps – September 8, 2007
Regular Tickets $13 - Paul van Dyk @ Warehouse Live – September 26, 2007
Regular Tickets Presale $30 (18+)
Warehouse Live
816 St Emanuel
Houston, Texas 77003
WOW October is gonna be BUSY thanks to Disco Productions and Nightlife 77002… I may actually go to all of these… I just can’t resist.
Restless Leg Syndrome or too much caffeine?
Aug 27Last night as I lay in bed trying to fall asleep, I find it impossible to stop moving my legs. 12:30am comes and goes… 2:00… I can’t lie still. Add to that the chatter of Futurama and Family Guy episodes on Adult Swim each of which I’ve seen at least a dozen times continually catching my attention and I’d say I’m having a restless night with restless legs, even after turning off the noise. I can’t seem to turn off – so of course I remember the commercial I’d just seen on TV about Mirapex… for the treatment of restless legs syndrome. I also start to think: WHAT A BOGUS DISEASE! –My apologies to those afflicted, it is only fair to say that perhaps some are more genetically predisposed to this sort of sensitivity than others, much like some of us are sensitive to milk or certain environmental allergens.
Recalling that I’d done little to nothing but sit inside all day, that I’d gotten a late start by getting up at 3pm anyway, lunch – at 6pm – was loaded with carbs and fat (taco bell) with a giant Mountain Dew to wash it down and my last meal before bed (also high carb and fat – McDonalds) and a 16oz Dr. Pepper to go with it at 11pm.
Also at this time I start to wonder: what would something like… Ambien do for me? My symptoms match what the commercial says…
Of course I can’t lie still… my eyes are tired on account of the tv watching I’ve done and massive amounts of calories I’ve ingested with no outlet, I’m primed and ready for action with all that energy. Yet in order to somehow not stay up all night and make it to work on time, I have to conform and try to get in bed on time – and since my eyes are tired of course it feels good to lie there and close them, though my body feels otherwise.
But luckily for me, there’s a pill I can pop to rid myself of this scourge plaguing my lazy gluttonous ass. All I have to deal with is some potential nausea, diarrhea, insomnia, the first two of which I can mitigate with some pepto bismol and the latter… well considering that this drug is a depressant I guess would just be the last straw. No thank you. I think that I might be a little more restful in all circumstances had I gone jogging before bed or maybe avoided the high caffeine, high sugar, carbohydrate loaded meals and drinks. And in other cases maybe kept to a ‘normal’ sleeping schedule, even though mine seems to naturally revolve from being awake during the day to being awake and comfortable at night – lack of discipline or nature?
And people wonder why obesity and vascular disease is such a big issue… because we’re offered such unhealthy synthetic food, which is also cheaper and easier to attain than healthy organic choices. And for any complications that arise from our low activity high intake lifestyles there is a pill to quell that malady. At least commerce is healthy and thriving so long as pharmaceutical companies can come up with a clever name for something many people commonly experience as a result of things they do or don’t do on a daily basis, and give you enough reason to make you believe there’s something wrong with you rather than choices you make. It’s just marketing at its best!
Don’t get me wrong, not to discredit the merit of the syndrome in question, but is just seems a little common sense would do much more good than something you go out and buy to counteract other crap you’re putting into yourself. At least for a lot of people who don’t realize the cause and effect of things they do from minute to minute – you know like… If I eat this thing here, which one can consider a parcel of fuel/energy, and sit around doing nothing… where will this all go? Hmm… maybe it will get stored (as fat) for a time when you WILL need it. So nature intends. But isn’t junk food just so irresistible?!
Home Owners Association…
Aug 22I’m carefully and very sincerely considering a battle with my neighborhood HOA. As I was leaving for work yesterday, I saw a yard crew diligently spread throughout the street at several houses mowing, tampering in flowerbeds and blowing debris into the street, I figured, I shouldn’t have a problem, I weeded the flower bed and mowed the lawn just a week ago. Come home to find the flower bed has been all aerated, weeds still present, and the mulch now sloppily disturbed. All of which will accrue a fee on the house’s account with the HOA.
I think I may start talking to certain neighbors about their experience with Sterling Association Services, and work something up as a community.
Considering that at our section of the neighborhood, which is farthest from the community recreation center including pool, the jogging trail has never been finished behind our houses – leaving our fences in the back open for vandalism in the dark (since there are other entrances to the trail further down the street but no lights behind our houses). Meaning that any fees we may pay, are not directly providing for our section’s safety or conformity. However restriction enforcement abounds regardless, and personally, I feel persecuted because of my parents former disregard for the regulations, it seems our house is more scrutinized and if it’s not one thing it’s another – I take care of one thing they point out another. I’ve wondered how many people are having a similar experience but just dealing with it silently.
I think it’s time to revolt… or at least play smarter.