| Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:34:36 |
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Music : Interesting |
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| The MidiBox SID lives again! Now with more LCD! |
It lives again! I finally added more parts to my MidiBox SID project. It has been a while since I had worked on it mostly due to other things. Working on music in general, getting into photography, and, of course, revamping my website. But I found a renewed interest in it after I went to an after work meet-up about Arduino and PICs. I still have a long way to go, but I did manage to clean up the cabling, add a BankStick board, add an LCD panel. I also put the whole thing inside a fantastic looking case...a shoe box. I needed to stuff it in something and I am still working out what I should do for the front-panel and all that. Even with the minor additions, though, it is much more usable.
In fact, I was able to crank out a quick little demo tune just using the MidiBox! I cheated a little bit by using delay and reverb from my Virus but otherwise it is all SID. Savvy listeners will notice that sub-par timing of the instruments. Well, I ran into some MIDI timing issues that appear to be related to using different MIDI interfaces or something. The tune would have also been longer, and would have had drums, but Cubase decided to hate me more than it did before. In fact, I think it's time to upgrade either to a newer version of Cubase, or to another MIDI sequencer entirely.
For a while now, Cubase has opted to pan my main input from my primary sound card all the way to the left when it starts up. Yesterday, while dealing with MIDI timing issues, it decided to make that setting permanent. I can't freaking figure out how to fix it! Every-time I play recorded audio, it's off the right speaker, even though audio from the synths is not. So that tied to poor MIDI timings (which may not be Cubase's fault but even so) makes me thing I need something else. Instead of spending all my time chasing random issues, I need to spend it making music!
I'm a bit bummed since it's hard to find support for my aging version and a new version is likely to cost money that I could be spending on the MidiBox or my camera! Oh well. Either way, the MidiBox project is both fun and is getting to be useful. I think I may end up spending the amount of a new syntn by the time it is complete, but it sure is fun! And very unique!
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Last Modified: 2008-07-03 14:07:01
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| Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:44:16 |
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Computers : Rambling |
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| MacBook Pro light sensor is totally awesome...except... |
So I finally just turned it off. I love the thing. Small details like this are reasons I love Apple. They put so much thought into making the computer experience not suck as much. Although they too are not perfect. Here's the problem. Most people use a mouse with their right hand I assume. Even I do, though I write left-handed. Well, at work it seems that every-time I pass my hand over from the keyboard to my mouse, the screen gets dimmer. I believe there are two ambient light sensors, one on each side of the laptop. The problem is that I have an ugly light right above my head so that, when I pass my hand over to me mouse, the screen gets dimmer for a short period of time. Seems like it might not be a big deal, except I stare at the screen all day and it starts to get quite annoying.
I can't, and won't, blame Apple for my lighting situation (which I am hoping to get fixed anyway), but I can blame them, just a bit, for the screen being quick to change brightness when I am constantly passing my hand to and from my keyboard to my mouse. They should add in a brief pause to make sure the light did, indeed, change. Or, simply put more weight into the sensor on the left since I rarely move my left hand off my keyboard when using the computer.
$0.02.
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| Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:08:16 |
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Computers : Humorous |
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| Ok again I don't want to pollute my blog, but... |
Video
Oh that may not be completely safe for work...but it's totally worth it.
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Last Modified: 2008-06-27 13:18:29
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| Mon, 23 Jun 2008 10:26:40 |
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Music : Rambling |
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| Revolution Room! Finally! |
I think I have been saying I would go to the Revolution Room. One of the people I work with spins there and has been wanting me to go for some time. Well, I finally made it. It was quite fun actually. It was not as big as I thought it would be, but definitely more chill. We hung out in the Blue Room all night listening to Phil's set. It was an awesome set too!
Really, I think the only thing that bugged me was the volume. It was LOUD. So loud I could not even understand some of the words in the music. We left with our ears ringing, even. But, in the end, it was worth it. And I want to go back definitely. I don't think we will go there all that frequently since it is on the other side of town, but it was a nice place to hang out.
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| Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:26:24 |
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Personal : Sadface |
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| Nibs Moves On... |
So we had to put Nibbles down today. It was a pretty sad day for us, but I think it was for the best. He had been suffering from a tumor that had grown so large that he was having a hard time. He had a good run though, and we will miss him. I already miss his annoyances. Even when he popped.
Nibbles "Nybz", December 2004 - June 2008
He might have been a rodent, but he was our rodent. See you in the next life, Nibs!
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Last Modified: 2008-06-17 07:58:32
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| Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:10:07 |
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Personal : Rant |
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| Of deuchebags and beer bottles. |
So while I had a blast at the IndyCar Race we went to recently, I thought I would, in all fairness, touch on a few issues that were less than awesome. The first one was my fault. Completely, and really wasn't all that bad, but made me feel bad just the same. So we sat in row 48, which was perfect for seeing both the front and backstretches, but was making it difficult to take awesome pictures of the front since the orientation of the fence was getting in the way (I will post pictures soon in this post or perhaps on my new Photo Album if I ever finish it).
So, to solve that problem, I went down to a standing area right above the stairs you go to get down to the concession stands. Well, I apparently didn't see the sign that said no standing, since that is exactly what I ended up doing. I didn't mean to stand their so long, but was having a heck of a time getting clear shots of the cars as they were going so fast (in hindsight, I probably should have use my VR lens instead of the telephoto I was borrowing from Sergio). I stood there so long that at least one person was getting annoyed, although I could not tell since I had earplugs in. Well, without a way of communicating with me, a fan opted to chuck a beer bottle at me. It sounds worse at this point than it is. In actuality, they lightly lobbed it at my leg, probably just to get my attention. So first, thanks to that guy/girl for not aiming at my head! Needless to say, I got the hint. And really, I can't blame that fan. I didn't see the sign and should have. And I was probably obstructing their view. So my apologies there.
Well, no harm no foul (whatever that means, I suppose I should look that up). It wasn't the only thing that I found displeasing, however. At the end of the race, we all opted to switch gears and, instead of taking tons of pictures of cars, take a few with us actually in them. In one of the pictures I took, some deuchebag decided to make a lewd gesture further providing example to him being a deuchebag. Now, I am sure it was all in good drunken fun. So I am trying not to take it too seriously. After all, I had my own moment of stupidity and he and his asshat friend were easy to crop out. But, I thought it best to do something. Namely, try to point out how much of an asshat he actually is. I did not want to put his grotesque gesture right on front page of my blog, so I, instead, am providing it as a link.
Now, the picture seems to speak perfectly to a definition I found on Urban Dictionary that I am particularly proud of:
"A deuchebag is a peer whom is an overall underachiever and attracts embarrasment to himself in a nasty way, or someone momentarily making a remark or performing an act so clearly innane that a more common word like "dork" or "loser" seems above them. They are beneath the dweebs but above the skanks - they are a deuchebag. Deuchebag is very offensive, drawing confrontational comparison to the used deuche product women cleanse their vagina with."
Apart from that? The race was awesome! I want to go back already!
(By the way, Corey informed me that the proper spelling is douchebag, but I prefer it spelled deuchebag. Either way, a douchebag is still a deuchebag...)
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Last Modified: 2008-06-09 19:40:42
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| Sun, 08 Jun 2008 00:06:51 |
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Racing : Interesting |
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| Our First IndyCar Race (In Person) Woo! |
I am still downloading the pictures (all 600+ of them) but we just got back from our very first IRL race at Texas Motor Speedway! Actually, it was our first race at TMS period (although Brandon and Amy, who went with us, have seen NASCAR races there). It was a pretty good race, and way different than watching it on TV. I'll have more details once I have the pictures, but it was hella worth it!
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Last Modified: 2008-06-09 19:34:54
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| Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:16:59 |
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/dev/random : Rambling |
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| Canadians Are Weird |
So Corey and I decided to give Last Comic Standing another chance this summer. If you are unaware, it's a reality TV show that pits stand-up comedians against each other. The name sort of explains itself I suppose. Anyways, while I'll admit the US has some weird ass people that think they are funny, I gotta say, Canadian seemed to have, by far, the weirdest people I have ever seen. So, while it might be baseless, somewhat stereotypical, and downright rude, I have to say...Canadians are weird...
Of course, being a US-based show, maybe they made Canadians look more weird than the US comedians on purpose...hmm...
By the way, that doesn't mean I don't think Kids In the Hall wasn't awesome. It was. It needs to come back!
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Last Modified: 2008-06-05 22:25:43
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| Sun`s Acquisition of MySQL |
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