Dissemination of Disinformation

Blog Changes

2009-04-24T13:55:00.000-07:00

To the absolute non-readers who read this blog, I'm going to move the blog over to be hosted on my own server and modify the hell out of the code to really customize it. I need the challenge and to see if it can be done (which it can and will).

So, this blog may look weird for a bit. Just putting it out there.

Cajon Micing Tips

2009-04-10T14:35:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, I did a recording session and we had to mic a Cajon. For those who don't know what a cajon is, it's basically a wooden box with a port hole about 5" in diameter in the back center. The player sits on the box and hits the front and sides. The front panel has snares attached. (I think they are sandwiched between the front/sound board and another piece on the inside.

First, the cajon is rad. It basically sounds like a snare drum when played on the front and a kick when played else where.

OK...on to micing it.

I did a search on the internet prior to the session and people basically said toss a SM57 in the hole and then place a large diaphragm condenser about 2-3 feet away from the front at cajon level (so about 1 foot off the floor).

This micing technique is pretty spot on. What we did differently is used a Heil PR20 for the port and a U47 Fet for the front. PR20ss are awesome (so is the FET 47 but were talking budget here). For $150 MSRP they are full and nice sounding. We used it on vocals once for a scratch track, and decided to keep the mic for the overdubs because it sounded great (male voice, not too deep). I'm thinking I'm going to pick one of these things up.

For placement, when the cajon was sitting flat, we placed the PR20 so the grill was just outside of the hole. That way when the player sat on it and leans back, the mic actually goes into the hole about 2-3 inches. We then placed the U47 FET about 3 feet in front and hand slap level.

This combination gave the cajon a rich sound quality with out distortion. Mind you, we were using NEVE outboard pres. Just blend the two signals to taste. If anyone wants to hear the recording, let me know and I'll post it. The rough sounds incredible.

FOCUS

2009-04-08T09:20:00.000-07:00

So I've decided on a focus for this blog. It's a tiered focus, but focus nonetheless.

In a nutshell: I'm going to cover recording techniques (mic placement on instruments, patching techniques) that I've used and found to be successful and I'm probably going to talk about design related stuff (CSS/XHTML/Photoshop/etc.)

So in honor of this newly-found focus I'm going create another post!

Awesome Design Blog

2009-02-27T08:30:00.000-08:00

An ex coworker of mine (and friend and fellow Packer fan) started up a design blog aimed at young designers (but with tips for seasoned pros as well). She offers great hints, resources and ideas to get you ready for the "real world".

You can check it out here: http://www.creativeopera.com/

CSS Image Replacement

2009-02-19T08:49:00.000-08:00

After search in the blog posts far and wide for a solution to replace text with an image, yet still remain functional with images and css turned off for accessibility reasons, this is the best:

Shea Image Replacement

I know there are tons of blogs on this, but I enjoy it so much I feel to need to spread the love.

Bullets in Photoshop

2009-02-10T13:36:00.001-08:00

So, I'm doing comps for an eblast template and, of course, I'm mocking it up in Photoshop. I never thought of how to make a bullet list in photoshop so I would just use tabs. This is tedious. Google to the rescue. I found this great blog post. However, the tutorial stops short of something important. If you have a text box with normal paragraphs and a bullet list, you actually need to do one more step.

After you do the first line indent with a negative value, select the bulleted text and indent the whole text the same value or greater than the negative value. For instance, if you use -15pt for the first line, indent the whole paragraph 15pt or greater if you want the bullet list to be indented more than the paragraph.

I've attached 2 photos (one of the palette and one of the text itself). Hopefully this helps someone.

whoops.

2009-02-09T14:58:00.001-08:00

I need to get back on this train. Recording stories ahead!

New Widget

2009-01-19T09:27:00.001-08:00

I've added a new widget to my page. You can see it to the right over there --->

It's a tool to compare foods and to give you a better idea of what you are putting in your body with the foods you eat. A friend of mine was involved in the creation of this tool. Check it out.

http://blog.foodessentials.com/

Happy New Year

2009-01-02T12:56:00.000-08:00

Bring it 09!

Auto Bailout #2

2008-12-19T06:56:00.000-08:00

I have a great plan. I think with the $13.4 billion bail out, each tax paying american should get stock in both GM and Chrystler. Here's how I would propose it work:

When you file your taxes this year (the IRS will have this record), each tax paying citizen will get a share in GM and Chrystler. I figure and use the logic, if our tax money is keeping them afloat, then we should gain from their future returns (which I doubt will happen).

Then after a period of time, they can opt to purchase the stock from you at no less than what it was worth when you received it (to prevent the dropping of stock price to have a buyout of less than what the value will be in the future).

I'm sure I could come up with a more thorough explanation, but I'm tired and lazy.

OH AND HUM IS PLAYING AT THE DOUBLE DOOR ON New Year's Eve and Day!!! Tickets are sold out for NYE and scalpers are being assholes ($200 a ticket...please)...however, you can find tickets on StubHub.com for $60 for the day show. Plus, The Life and Times are opening!!!

Done!

2008-12-16T20:00:00.001-08:00

So I'm done with a few things:

School for the semester
Xmas shopping

that's about it really. nothing profound. I have to find a purpose for this blog. A focus if you will. I've been tossing random thoughts up here all willy-nilly and it's not necessarily good for readership. I've been thinking music, maybe recording techniques...who knows...maybe more Web design stuff (standards and what nots). Or, I'll just keep this random, sometimes political, sometimes sporadic (see: all the time).

Let me know...if anyone reads this.

Microsoft Office 2007 HTML Email and Dreamweaver

2008-12-05T07:52:00.000-08:00

This post goes out to all HTML e-mail designers and coders.

As most of you know (I didn't until just recently), Office 2007 removed much of the CSS rendering capabilities of 2003 and earlier. The most important styles removed are: background-image, position, float.

OK, that's my opinion, but I'm pretty sure I'm right. So now, instead of using divs to design, we now have to go back to tables to do it. Well, that sucks. You can do a search for "Office 2007 and CSS" in google and the top result will be Microsoft's page on what is supported and what isn't supported or just click here.

Microsoft did one nice thing and created a "CSS validator for Office 2007" for Dreamweaver. If you have a PC and Dreamweave MX/MX2004/8/CS3 you can download it here.

However, if you are on a Mac you have no such luck. Until now. Basically, the installer installs a XML document and a text file with the CSS definitions that are supported. So I installed it on a PC, took the files and put them on my Mac and viola! the definitions work in Dreamweaver CS3 on a Mac. You can download the files here.

Download the zip file, open up Applications > Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 (or Macromedia > Dreamweaver MX/MX2004) > configuration > BrowserProfiles.

You can then open up the zip file and place the two files in the BrowserProfiles folder.

To use it, restart Dreamweaver, click the Check Page button (I don't know if it's that in MX versions), click Settings..., make sure Word 2007 is check, and hit OK. You are done! Now you will know what CSS you put in that isn't supported and will have to change.

Hopefully this will help one person. Oh, and no I don't use the WYSIWYG portion of Dreamweaver. Code view only.

Auto Bailout

2008-12-03T10:16:00.000-08:00

First: Happy Late Eat Lots of Turkey Day.

Second:

I'm disappointed by the automaker bailout for the big three. I understand, they are trying to save jobs for the people that will lose them if the plants close. But as an industry, to say the automakers didn't see this coming is ridiculous. The technology to build greener, and more fuel-efficient cars isn't new technology. This is stuff that has been worked on for the last (at least) 20 years.

As Americans, we've been so consumed by the oil industry (thanks to politicians who are funded or own stakes in oil companies) that maybe they honestly didn't see this coming but I find that incredibly hard to believe.

I think some of the workers who possibly may lose their jobs should look into applying at Toyota. While the big three companies have been expanding overseas, Toyota did the opposite and opened plants here. And if someone wants to get into that "Buy American" argument, look no further than Chevy, Ford or GM. American made? Nope. Toyota is just as much American as those companies. I'm all for creating more jobs here in the states.

Hopefully the Obama administration keeps good on promises to create green-energy fueled jobs.

Hope and Disappointment

2008-11-05T11:41:00.000-08:00

So Barack Obama will be our 44th president. This could be the most defining moment of our time (well, next to a black, woman president...or hispanic or asian...you get the point).

I'm really proud that America (52% of you) realized that we are not in a bubble and it matters how we interact with the world. President-elect Obama is proof of that. He has a hard road ahead (either candidate would have).

John McCain left the race with dignity and respect. This is the John McCain that should have ran the race. He might have done much better. After all the mudslinging (on both sides), hopefully we can get this country back on track with the rest of the planet.

Now for the Disappointment:

Proposition 8 passed creating a ban on same-sex "marriage" in California. This is very disheartening as the very people who want to "protect" traditional marriage have a 50% divorce rate. Also saying that kids need a mother and father is bullshit. Children need a loving home where they can prosper and grow up to be strong intelligent human beings. That can be fostered in both heterosexual and homosexual households. I hope in my lifetime I see the dissolve of the antiquated view of marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

What do I know though (probably nothing)?

PRESIDENT OBAMA!!!

2008-11-04T21:31:00.000-08:00

This could be the best day ever.

America made our voices heard and here we are now with the first African-American president of the United States of America!!

Thank you for not disappointing me, U.S.A!

Vote Today!

2008-11-04T14:35:00.000-08:00

The title says it all. Please vote. I don't care who you vote for (well...I do have a preference), but the point is to actually vote. So do it! Now. Stop reading this.

I said stop.

Go! NOW!

Debate #3 and more

2008-10-16T11:29:00.001-07:00

So I watched the debate last night (well...the last hour of it) after I got back from class and London (yeah, I was in London).

I think McCain is seeming a bit tired with the Ayers and ACORN thing. It's not news. It's not a swing issue. As much as the GOP wants it to be, it's not.

The other thing is the "Joe the Plumber" shit. I wish Obama would have addressed the tax issue on air last night as Joe the Plumber is having a hard time separating Annual Business Gross Receipts vs Annual Personal Income. Under Obama's plan, Joe would actually get a tax break if he bought the "plumbing" business he works for.

Oh yeah, he also isn't licensed (not a big deal), but he did lie and say he was part of the Union (local 149 I believe) which he is not, nor ever applied for.

I think Sam Donaldson said it best this morning on GMA, McCain could have run the best campaign, it just happens to be a Democrat year.

London is bad ass. Go there.

wowza!

2008-10-02T11:41:00.000-07:00

Today's Megan's B-Day...HOORAY!

We're going out to dinner and then wrapping up the evening with VP Debates!

I'll have more tomorrow on the debates.

Office Live and Javascript

2008-09-22T10:53:00.000-07:00

Today I came across an interesting little tidbit while here at work. I just finished a client's Web site and had posted it onto their server (they are using Windows Office Live...which is important to this story). I also installed swfobject 2.0 and lightbox 2.0 to switch out the navigation menu and create a photo gallery, respectively.

Everything worked great on my test server (which I believe is an apache server). So, I proceeded to upload the files to the Microsoft server (Office Live). I then received and email this morning from the client asking why the photo gallery wasn't working.

I was like, hrhhhh?

So, I checked it out. And sure enough, it didn't work. I tested it on a PC with IE 7/Firefox/Safari(PC) and then on my Mac with Safari. So then I did what I normally do, googled "Lightbox and Office Live". I came across one post that sort of pointed me in the right direction. The moderator basically gave an answer to the effect of, "change the extension names from .js to .jsx, that way the server won't cache the .js files".

So I did that, yet the gallery wasn't working quite correctly. I'd click on an image and it would remove my menu. It turns out there's another step you need to do to get it to work correctly.

Open the scriptaculous.jsx file (you renamed it, remember..if not it'll be scriptaculous.js, but it should be changed) and find the three (3) .js in this section:

$A(document.getElementsByTagName("script")).findAll( function(s) {
return (s.src && s.src.match(/scriptaculous\.jsx(\?.*)?$/))
}).each( function(s) {
var path = s.src.replace(/scriptaculous\.jsx(\?.*)?$/,'');
var includes = s.src.match(/\?.*load=([a-z,]*)/);
(includes ? includes[1] : 'builder,effects,dragdrop,controls,slider,sound').split(',').each(
function(include) { Scriptaculous.require(path+include+'.jsx') });
});
}
}

and change them to jsx (like they are in above) or just copy that and replace it in your file.

And there you have it! Working Lightbox on your Office Live server.

On a related side note: I was also having issues with the menu not loading using the swfobject.js, but it didn't concern me as I had a css menu in place if it didn't load correctly. But I changed that to jsx and viola! it works.

Hopefully this helps somebody out there searching for the same thing.

lying liars and the lies that the tell.

2008-09-12T09:07:00.000-07:00

this video is awesome:

Check it.

Also, head over to myspace.com to check an awesome debate between my friend Chris and a fundamental christian.

Check it here

You can put Lipstick on an asshole and it's still...

2008-09-10T20:37:00.000-07:00

The news media covering this "Pig in lipstick remark" is a bunch of shit. Also, to the Republicans, grow up already. People in your own party have used this remark.

McCain repeated the folksy metaphor when he criticized Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on health care. McCain was never accused of being sexist when he uttered those words.

Here's the link to the full story.

In fact, Nightline is running segments right now of Bush, Cheney and Edwards using the phrase.

ASSHOLES

Obama Tax Plan

2008-09-05T11:41:00.000-07:00

My friend Chris brought this site to my attention today:

http://alchemytoday.com/obamataxcut

It's awesome. Everyone should check it out.

Also, I watched the McCain speech (to be fair, I would like to hear both sides). The one thing that pissed me off is the "booing" after McCain would mention Obama's name. Apparently American Republican's are a bunch of fucking 3rd Graders.

NOT ONCE, did I hear booing at McCain's name during Obama's speech. For once the democrats have a solid leader. Now, we just need everyone onboard. Yeah, I'm talking to you, Hillary-didn't-win-the-primary-so-I'm-voting-for-McCain asshole.

60 days. 3 debates. It's on.

More Rants!

2008-09-02T21:01:00.000-07:00

So it's been a while since I've posted...so:

I went to Canada for a little over a week to go fishing with my dad. It was a blast. I didn't realize how much I enjoyed fishing, although, I have to admit I was kind of a sissy about putting leeches on the hook. What can I say? They won't kill me, but damn are they weird little creatures. Little mini vampires.

I'll post some pics when as soon as I can.

Next:

Did Whirllyball. That was fun too. Megan and I went to a birthday party for Meg (Reptoids) and her girlfriend Michelle. We're all old now. Logan's Run style. I injured myself good doing it. Whirlyball is basically basketball + la crosse + bumper cars. I rammed the wall a few times, as well as opponents. I think I have internal bleeding.

Finally:

So, I was watching ABC's coverage of the Republican Convention and they were showing some of the parties/soirees that our elected officials were attending. Basically a bunch of lobbyists and industry insiders get together, party it up with our government, and then give money based on promises (OK, you all know what lobbying is). However, this is the part that pissed me off:

As the camera people would film these individuals, they would duck out of sight, go into "closed" door areas or just tell them off. Why does this piss me off? Because as an elected individual to our government — you have a responsibility to the public (for which you represent) to show your face, have better judgement and be accountable for your actions. You aren't some rock star — you make policy decisions for our nation. Oh, and the man you chose to run for Commander-in-Chief (McCain) asked that the festivities be toned down in the wake of Gustav. Nice work.

If you are embarrassed about where you are or what your actions are — you shouldn't be doing them. I'm talking about politicians still, most of the general public has my blessing to be bat-shit-crazy.

Anyway..silly rant, but damn did it make me mad. I'm sure Democrats have the same, but it just happened I caught the report on the Republicans.

Final words: Sarah Palin should continue the advocation of abstinence-based sex education. It works like a charm. I think I read some where that an individual thought sex education in high school was inappropriate and gross. I'll have to find that. Gross is awesome. That's what they should teach kids, "Don't have sex, cause it's gross. You don't want to be gross, do you?"

Time for more politic funtime

2008-07-25T11:47:00.001-07:00

So I'm over at cnn.com reading about McCain questioning Obama's recent visit to the middle east and I find myself getting pretty pissed off.

One comment on the article was:

McCain you may question only his judgment, but those of us who know him, also question his loyalty and patriotism to the United States.

Apparently you did not listen to his speech in Germany. He made it perfectly clear where his loyalties lie, and it is not with us. He is a
citizen of the world. We the electors want a citizen of the United States.

You will do a great service to our country if you tell the truth about Obama. Continue where Hillary left off.

Use his new video on U-Tube to let the public know where Obama stands on the future defense of the United States. - Bayou Joe

and then:

I question Obama's judgment for many reasons . . the most recent being his trip abroad where he is acting as if he were already the President of the United States. - California Voter

Let's address these in their inherent idiocy:

"He made it perfectly clear where his loyalties lie, and it is not with us. He is a citizen of the world. We the electors want a citizen of the United States." All I can say is holy shit this man is an idiot. First, the man must not have listened to that particular part of the speech or he got the Fox news breakdown. He actually did say he was a citizen of the United States and then followed it up with "citizen of the world". Next, does America live in a fucking glass bubble that nothing in the world affects us? Seriously, people should really take the time to think before they post on public forums (perhaps myself included). Yes, we are citizens of the U.S., but we are also global citizens. Our actions affect what happens else where and vice versa. I could go on for days about this moron, but Darwin will take care of him.

Next up we have California Voter. "he is acting as if he were already the President of the United States". OK, so basically you want our next Commander-in-Chief to go into his job completely blind without gathering any information of things he/she may face when elected. Shut the fuck up. I wish I could post with out the expletives, but I can't. I'm too angered by stupidity.

Regardless if Obama becomes president, he's still showing the world that America is committed to solving problems on a global scale. McCain can whine all day long about Obama, but do you think his POW experience from 41 years ago gives him some sort of greater scope of knowledge to be president? Now I'm not saying McCain is inexperienced and that his Vietnam experience is all for naught, but nobody is prepared to be president...no one.

Also, do we really want a whiney little bitch president? I don't.

Microphones!

2008-06-24T11:34:00.000-07:00

I picked up an AKG D112 on ebay yesterday for about $100. This pleases me. I've been using the Shure Beta 52 and using all sorts of placement options, and musical styles, I found it just never worked for me. I don't know.

I might find the ATM-25 (Audio-Technica Mic) cheap and get that too. We'll see.

I'm also getting rid of the PG52 I have (poor mans Beta 52)...maybe I could buy lunch with what I get for it.

Great Quote

2008-06-23T13:50:00.001-07:00

A co-worker of mine shared this quote with me today and I couldn't agree more.

The most annoying trait of Right-Wing Outlaws in general is a lazy incuriosity about the real world. They know their lines, they're sure who the good guys and the bad guys are. Therefore they view the passing world as a kind of animated "Bartlett's Quotations" - that is, as handy source material with which to illustrate, rather than challenge, preconceived views.

James Fallows

R.I.P. George Carlin

2008-06-23T08:11:00.000-07:00

Sad news over the weekend with the death of George Carlin at the age of 71

He was a brilliant comedian and although his style changed over the years, becoming more crass and cynical, he still could make us laugh.

I was lucky enough to see him perform live and wished to again. I have a feeling the George Carlin estate is going to get a bump up in monetary flow with this event from the sales of DVDs, Books and CDs.

Rest in peace George.

TUGPL - Part 1

2008-06-16T08:32:00.000-07:00

As some may know, this weekend I was in Madison, WI recording my friend Aaron's band, The Unnecessary Gun Point Lecture. Kyle, a guy from school (and lab partner last semester), joined me during the fun-filled weekend adventure.

Friday:
Got in at about 11:30 PM or so, dropped off the gear, ate Taco Bell and went to bed.

Saturday:
Went to the Pine Cone Restaurant for some breakfast and hot damn! that was a tasty Denver skillet I had. The onions were caramelized perfectly. Delicious. OK on to recording. Because of major highway floodings and detours, we got to the studio/practice space at about 2PM.

I set up all the gear and we were going by about 4-4:30 PM or so. It actually went pretty quick considering I had nothing set up (as I really can't pre-set anything) and Kyle helped a ton with getting mic stands set up. I know it's not the most glamorous for him, but he was awesome and a trooper through the whole thing.

So long story short, we finished tracking drums by about 11:30 PM.

The drums so far sound great. We ran into a little problem with the kick trigger and it's lack of ability to NOT be velocity sensitive. It's the only trigger on the whole kit! I don't normally like to use them, but for this stuff, we have to. I just have to do some compression and replacement stuff. I'll probably do it before I go down ago so Ian has an easier time hearing the kick.

So, at about midnight, we began tracking some guitars. We did that until about 3:00 AM and then decided to call it a night/day.

Due to a scheduling snafu, the bass player couldn't make it out so Kyle and I packed up the gear on Sunday at about 1 PM after listening to the songs one more time to make sure it was all good.

Back in Chicago at 3:45.

So in part two of this story we'll have guitars, bass and vocals. I'm hoping we can get an early start on the 28th and finish up that day or early Sunday.

Jury Duty

2008-06-12T19:26:00.001-07:00

So I reported for a jury summons, and sure enough I got picked!

I just got done with the trial which started on Tuesday and lasted until about 3 PM today. I missed a couple days of work (I wouldn't actually say I've been missing it...hahahhaha...oh Office Space).

I'm not going to blog about the specifics. I'll tell you in person. Or maybe I will blog about it...later.

He says "no"

2008-06-06T12:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks to K.W. and CNN, I was informed that Edwards would decline the #2 spot. That saddens me, but to each their own and he has to do what is best for himself and family.

So Clinton and Obama apparently have been talking. We'll see what happens. I guess my post 2 days ago was in haste. I don't know how voters will react. Although recent polls suggest most Democrats would be open and even encourage the idea.

We'll see what happens.

I'll put up a new song soon, but if anyone out there in reader land (all 3 of you) have a suggestion, I'll gladly post it.

More Election Fun

2008-06-05T07:53:00.000-07:00

So I've thought a little more about the whole Obama/Clinton ticket.

Now some Clinton supports have said (via blogs and newscasts...I'll see if I can dig up a real reference) that they wouldn't vote for the Obama/Clinton ticket because she wasn't president.

However, wouldn't it be best to vote for that if you actually support her? I mean, if she's the V.P. isn't that almost a shoe in after Obama's 8 years (optimism) in office? I think so.

I still think the Obama/Edwards ticket would be sweet though.

On to Universal Healthcare. I thought about this a bit today and wondered why the plans for Universal HC still include a premium. I understand they are merely trying to avoid creating a "new tax", but honestly, whatever they call it, it's just going to be a euphemism for a tax.

To people who say, "Look at Cuba. Their hospitals are in horrible shape" or "You don't get quality doctors", you're pretty much wrong. What people forget is that we live in America, one of the richest nations (if not the richest) in the world. We (government) can afford to build quality hospitals for every citizen and pay doctors accordingly.

Don't worry, there still will be private enterprises for the wealthy.

The only thing that concerns me about state/government run healthcare is the potential for the religious beliefs of the government to intertwine with care giving. But there's really a very small chance of that occurring.

Obama '08

2008-06-04T07:53:00.000-07:00

So finally Obama has clinched (albeit by a small margin) the Democratic nomination.

This gets me pumped up for the pit.

Here's my take on what I think should happen in the Obama camp (yeah, opinions, like assholes. I get it.):

Obama should choose John Edwards as his running mate. At first I was in support of the Clinton/Obama/Clinton/Obama ticket which ever way it fell. However, after the Clinton's desperate attempt to remain in the race for the nomination, I just don't think that it's possible. Not to mention the fact that both sides had thrown mud for sometime at each other. I realize the game of politics includes such nonsense, but really, it got a bit awkward.

I think with Edwards support as a super-delegate and as a running mate, the Obama/Edwards ticket could easily gain the support of the blue collar educated and uneducated voters. Edwards is moderate enough to quell anyone thinking that Obama will push this country to the "brink of disaster" (quotes mine). Also, Edwards' stance on poverty and the economy and gay rights resonates pretty well with me.

This could be a damn fine year for us.

Land of the "Free"

2008-05-16T07:23:00.000-07:00

Ok..so a couple things have gotten me riled lately.

!-- begin rant here

#1. From G.W. talk in Israel - source is the L.A. Times:

In a speech to Israel's Knesset marking the 60th anniversary of that country's independence, Bush said, "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along."

"We have heard this foolish delusion before," Bush said. "As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

WTF?! So he uses Israel's 60th Birthday Party as a platform to blast a presidential candidate? Nice work asshole. It's like when Phil Leotardo on "The Sopranos" goes off in the bar at the family event about his last name. Great timing. I'm sick of this shit.

#2. People saying if Obama is chosen as the Democratic candidate, they'll vote for McCain or not vote.

Those people are assholes. Nice work on the party divide. Now, generally speaking I try to be on the socialist side of things, while coming to the realization that you have to work with what you have in this country. I think Obama will make a great president. "But, he has no experience." Oh yeah, Bush had tons of experience and look what he did.

So to all you dicks who will vote McCain if Hillary is not on the ballot, seriously, find a cliff and jump. Make sure it's high enough that you explode when you hit the ground. If Hillary wins, yeah, I'll vote for her. Voting for McCain is basically saying, "we want 4 more years of awesome. And by awesome, I mean hell."

#3. California's Supreme Court overturning the state's ban on gay marriage.

Finally, California, you're doing something right. I was reading a bit from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an article about Libertarian Bob Barr, and the comments on that page were damn hilarious. "God this", "god that". "God thinks you should ban gay marriage."...ok not actual quotes, but pretty close. The majority of people who posted are fucking idiots.

Saying gay marriage is going to ruin the institution of marriage is like saying bathing in hydrochloric acid is good for the skin. I can't believe as a nation who said whites and blacks can't get married and should have separate facilities in the early-mid 1900's are actually still having debates on issues like this. You'd think we've evolved and learned.

Oh and to the people who say it's in the bible, find the one that wasn't written by a King named James and let me know what you find. I saw in a H.P. Lovecraft book onetime that the Old Ones live beneath the sea. I'm not looking for Cthulu. Although, Cthulu is probably more real.

!-- end rant here

Ned's Atomic Dustbin

2008-05-14T11:16:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long absence from the blogging circuit, but I really haven't had much to say or much time to say what I needed to. Which it actually turns out was nothing.

Sorry to Joe for not posting more music. I'll put more up as I delve into my collection to post oldies but goodies.

Edit: OK, so I decided to do it now. Here's a band that I got into in the early 90's due to Dave Peters. He had this album and apparently his parents (who I think were Jehovah's Witnesses at the time..maybe still are) didn't think the song "Kill Your Television" was appropriate for their young son.

Fortunately, Dave shared this with me first. It's that 90's Brit-Rock-Grunge-Pop sort of sound that I've come full-circle to listening to again. "God Fodder" as an album still holds up pretty well with catchy songs and general all around good song writing. I'm not familiar much with their later stuff, as I may have had some of it, but can't remember.

So, here's the track:

Kill Your Television

Check it out. You can now find this on Amazon.com for about $2, so I say go for it.

Back in the saddle again...I'M BAACK

2008-05-06T09:57:00.000-07:00

I had half of my final last night which was the one-on-one. Basically, you have 30 minutes to prove your proficiency using Pro Tools to route signal to the mixing console, through the master link and monitor from the master link. Then you had to use EQ and panning on 2 channels. Also had to prove you could use the patchbay/AUX loops to send signal to the reverb unit and back. Then you had to use Compression on one channel.

So the run down: I used EQ on 12 channels. Panning on 12 channels. Compression on 3 channels and reverb on 12 channels. I actually think I did a pretty good mix for 25 minutes. It helped that the recorded material was really good and clean. Nick had ended up cleaning up the toms really good.

Oh, if you are a solid rock band and need a great recording, head over to Nick Eipers Web site and check him out. I know it's counter-productive to sell other's services, but let's face it, he has 15+ years experience.

Now wait for next week and the written test.

I'll post more music this week. Maybe it'll be a Friday thing.

Jon Stewart for me

2008-05-02T11:44:00.001-07:00

An audio event

2008-04-30T09:08:00.000-07:00

Here's a little project I did for Production 2 last semester at school. This was the final for the class. We basically had to do a creative project, anything we wanted, the only requirement is that we manipulate recorded sounds and use effects through Pro Tools.

I chose to do a Old Time Radio program (well, inspired by) about zombies. The script is based off of "Dead Record" a film script my friends Chris Olson and Solomon Ayres had been working on (and promptly gave up because they are L-A-Z-Y. Just kidding.)

Well, since I thought the script was rad, I wanted to use it some how, so I rewrote portions of it to adapt it to a radio format. I would like to finish the script and film it sometime next year. I know it would be "B' grade, but I think it could be cool as hell.

Joe "Awesometon" Kelso appears as well playing both Dale and Jay.

Anyway, here's the mp3 of the finished version.

Dead Record OTR

Let me know what you guys and gals think.

(zombie image from www.revok.com)

A picture

2008-04-30T07:03:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture from Saturday night courtesy of K.W.

That's right. Bolton rocks the bass.

Last Show

2008-04-29T08:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I played the my last show (save for a reunion) with Reptoids at the Red Line Tap on Saturday night. It was a good show. We played our entire catalog (well, recorded that is) and were surrounded by good friends and fun times.

I don't know if it's really sunk in yet that I've left or won't be practicing with them anymore. I definitely have enough going on to fill the gap, but it won't be the same.

We'll see how long I can stay away from some musical project (creative) but I'm guessing it's not going to be long. My cousin and I have been talking about doing a project together, which is cool considering he's literally half way around the world in Korea.

This could be good.

I've become lax

2008-04-25T06:52:00.000-07:00

I've been recently rocking some Bloodbath. The new EP, "Unblessing the Purity" is really solid death metal. I'm not too much of a fan of the cookie monster vocals and unintelligeable guitar riffs, so this album is pretty much up my alley. With members of Opeth, Katatonia and another band I can't remember, you know you're going to get good vocals courtesy of Opeth's own Mikael Åkerfeldt and awesome song writing by the other members.

It's basically like listening to Opeth's heaviest stuff with Katatonia type guitar solos and riffs.

They aren't really breaking any new ground, but for an EP it's really solid and I wish it was about 3-4 songs longer. All the songs are pretty short with none over 5 minutes. It's almost primed for radio singledom! Or not.

Download - Bloodbath - Weak Aside

As always, if you like an album, buy it. It helps support musicians and the people who record them (ME).

If you are a band that I post and want your stuff removed, I will do so immediately.

Recording Madness

2008-04-22T06:46:00.000-07:00

Last night we found out what song we're mixing for our final...which happens to be the song we've been mixing all semester. That's actually a good thing because we know the song very well and can mix it very quickly.

Also, we found out what we are doing for our one-on-ones and I'm going to totally ace that. So Recording I, you get an A.

This weekend I'm playing my last show with the Reptoids so everyone should come out. Tonight there's a killer show at Sub-T: Sweet Cobra and Yakuza!! It's super cheap and I'm actually going.

Hooray!

Alligator Gun

2008-04-18T11:49:00.001-07:00

So I'm currently rocking Alligator Gun's Onehundredpercentfreak album and damn is it rocking. I went and found them on myspace and little did I know they played a reunion show in December of 2006. WHY DIDN'T I KNOW!?!? Plus, they played with Compound Red which is rad as hell (I think when I was in Pulse, we played with Compound Red at Concert Cafe). I remember seeing AG in 1995 at the Concert Cafe...those were the times.

It's actually amazing that Onehundredpercentfreak still holds up after 13 years...so good on them for making an album that stands the test.

I'll put up a a song on the blog page from them next time I post. Then you should try finding their albums.

Don't worry I'm not dead

2008-04-17T06:53:00.001-07:00

I forgot to post yesterday. Sorry. HAHAHAHAHAHA. I can't believe I just apologized like it really matters and as if I offended someone (mike) with my lack there of.

Practiced last night with the 'Toids. Ran through some old school material that we haven't played in about 1.5 years...it was SLOPPY!!! But, it'll be ready for the show. I hope they find a good bass player. I hope the tryout candidates actually come out and see us so they get an idea of kind of show we put on.

CTA Fun time

2008-04-15T11:13:00.000-07:00

It took 2 hours to get to work today thanks to the CTA and general El awesomeness. Basically, a train malfunctioned in between Grand and Clark/Lake. So that means the 5 cars in between mine and that one, couldn't move (I'm sure people even further north were pumped).

So we get to the Western/Mil. stop and the operator tells us that we will be standing for a bit as they try to fix the problem with the stalled train. Forward to 20 min. later.

The train begins to move and then we stop in between Western and Damen for approx. 15 min. We then pull into the Damen station and the operator announces we are going to be sitting for a bit again, because the other train has not moved. 10 minutes later (9:00 am). "Everyone needs to clear off this train. There will probably be shuttles waiting or you can take the #56 bus downtown."

Well shit. So we herd off the platform which takes another 5 minutes as people can't listen and do not get off the train. So at 9:05 am, about 500 people en masse descend from the platform to the North/Milwaukee/Damen intersection. No shuttles and one 56 bus packed nuts to butts (that's for the search engines and porn seekers). So basically all 56 buses will be packed because everyone north of us will have already gotten on them.

So here everyone is waiting for the shuttles. Finally (about 10 min later), the crowd sees the first of the shuttles and in what looks like the L.A. riots sans bricks and semis, run and trample stampede like to the stopped transport. I'll have none of this, so I sit back and watch it go down. I do this for about 4 more shuttles.

I took some photos with my new camera phone. Doesn't really give the size of the crowd, but it was pretty large:

Once the 9th shuttle came around I decided I should fight the crowd and actually get on a shuttle. Can't be passive. But the first 5 shuttles, no way. Those people are assholes. I think pregnant women and children may have died in that crushing "MUST GET TO WORK. BOSS WON'T UNDERSTAND. ME BUSINESS GOOD."

But now I sit here at work looking at design Web sites trying to get some juices flowing and get back on track with my design skills. The rut sucks.

Ahhh...

2008-04-14T13:11:00.001-07:00

So I did absolutely nothing this weekend. Ok, I take that back. I took apart my mixing board, cleaned it, broke some stuff, now I have to bring it in for repair. That's fine though. It needs the work. I ended up fixing some of it myself while I was in there. I just have to make sure it's up and running by June so I can record The Unnecessary Gunpoint Lecture. More on that later.

I also bought a glue gun! Welcome to world of arts and crafts for me. Anyone need a fake floral arrangement?

I'm disappointed by the lack of comments from Mike.

Not so interesting fact

2008-04-11T08:18:00.000-07:00

I looked at the posts from previous years and it turns out, I'm pretty sardonic and sometimes even, I dare say, witty. Also, I've posted more in the last 4 months than I did all last year. I know most of you don't care, but it's weird. I don't know what else to say. I might try adding music to this thing to. Stuff I like and you should check out, you know, to give this a purpose.

Birfday

2008-04-11T07:18:00.000-07:00

So it's my birfday today...maybe I'll post more later.

This is really exciting

2008-04-10T13:23:00.001-07:00

SUCKER.

Anyway, today marks the last day of my 20s. I don't think it will change anything, but it still is interesting. Apparently people are supposed to treat me more like an adult, but unfortunately those people keep getting older and the gap remains the same.

Oh yeah, I'm supposed to do something childish to commemorate the last day. Which basically means that I act normally.

Information Age

2008-04-08T09:54:00.000-07:00

Today I signed up at Classmates.com. For some reason, I feel the need to get in touch with old classmates that I was friends with in high school that I haven't talked to since then. Nobody specifically...it's just a feeling. Actually, I've been trying to find Zack Dahlman. The last time I checked he was in Spain.

Maybe somebody knows.

Whoa!

2008-04-07T07:40:00.000-07:00

So we had the big 3-0 party on Friday night for myself and it was quite enjoyable. I got to see a bunch of people I rarely get to see anymore now that I'm 200 miles away. Overall it was a good night. The food was tasty, so hopefully people ate some and the drinks flowed freely (the root beer for me was fantastic). However it was the cupcakes that were hot diggity delicious. I actually didn't even get one until last night at home.

Go to Cupcakes to check em out.

So I went to the Hu Hot restaurant when I was in town to meet with the guys I'm going to Canada with and I'd have to say it's really not that great. Apparently in GB, people rave about this place like it's the next "insert something huge here that would only appeal to people who live in suburbs with other white people". I'll admit that I've become this food snob since moving to Chicago. I can't help it. Even the littlest ma and pa restaurant here serves better food. They have to, or they go under. So I would recommend saving the $12 you would spend on dinner at Hu Hot, go get yourself some taco bell and maybe go see a movie.

Like Megan said about Hu Hot, it's as if you ordered the asian dish at Perkins.

what's that you say?

2008-04-03T10:27:00.000-07:00

I can never think of good titles for my blog posts. Oh well.

I don't really have much to blog about today, but thought I would check in and see how cyber space has been and what it's been up to. So, what's up cyber space?

It's brat thursday at the eatery where I enjoy lunch. I'm going to get one now. YUM!

This birthday celebration is getting out of hand as well...it's going to be a blast.

WHA!

2008-03-26T19:26:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I'm feeling slightly better today (about to go to bed soon).

I've finished mixing the Fremont CD...so now it's on to mastering. Mr. Harter will be giving it a shot and I have high hopes for said music's recorded quality. I think he'll do a good job.

I think I'm over some of the creative block I've been having, which is a positive thing. When I'm 100% I'll know for sure.

On a much sadder note: I've quit Reptoids. It definitely wasn't easy that's for sure. In fact we just put out a really fun little e.p. called Slayed. I recommend people buy it. What I was finding is that I couldn't meet the bands goals with my time commitment. I really want to focus on school and getting my recording engineer degree. The band wanted (and still going to) practice a couple times a week and do shows every other weekend. If this was 5 years ago...I would have said hell yeah. But I just can't do that now. And quite frankly it's unfair of me to be in the band and hold them back by having to cancel shows or not take shows because of scheduling conflicts.

Like I said earlier, I want to apprentice in a studio and that will eat up alot of my time, because not only will have that, but I also have the 9-5 M-F. I just don't really have the time.

I do wish them tons of future success and hope they find a new bass player who is willing to tour and play out alot. They're a good bunch of scrappy kids. If they don't get a guy for a bass player, I may have to show up and sing "We are the Wolves" as I sing that on the disc and I don't know if they could pull it off....well, Meg could (she'd find that amusing..I hope).

I just heard that Derek quit NDL as well. That sucks too, but he has a new little clone and needs to do the dad thing.

Bass players...what a bunch of jerks.

My Friends

2008-03-25T08:57:00.001-07:00

These are my two new friends. Say hi everybody!

Being sick sucks

2008-03-24T07:19:00.001-07:00

The title really says it all. I left work early on Friday (which I never do) and went home to sit in my pajamas as I was overtaken with a fever. First I was super cold, then I was burning up, cycle repeat.

This whole weekend I sat under a blanket on my couch watching TV trying to feel somewhat better. The other thing is that I don't take medicine. I know that seems crazy, but it's true. Nothing for headaches or anything. However, I caved. I had to take some Aleve and damn did it reduce the symptoms.

My throat today hurts pretty badly, which probably has everything to do with the fact that I was coughing all night long. "Is the pain terrible?" Yes. I guess I'll take some Aleve for the next couple of days. Feeling like shit sucks.

News is good

2008-03-19T14:17:00.000-07:00

Apparently America should care:

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4482242&page=1

This presidential election is getting a bit out of hand. The back-and-forth of the democratic candidates makes me want to vote McCain. No I'm just kidding. Nothing would do that.

Anyway, I'm pretty tired and can't really concentrate, plus I've been having a design funk lately. I think I need to meditate or medicate.

UGH!

2008-03-17T13:18:00.000-07:00

So some of you may know that I have bad heartburn (see: GERD). Well for the last 2 years, I pretty much stopped it in it's tracks and have been able to eat anything (still don't drink much or consume caffeine at all).

Well, it came back with a vengeance. Apparently, my esophagus isn't cool just chillin like a villain.

I read online about some yogurts helping. So, I'm back to watching what I eat so I stop the feeling of burning and puking. DAMMIT.

On a better side note, I think I may have posted this, but I get to apprentice in a studio. And I picked up all of Haste's discs from Century Media (www.cmdistro.com). $3 a piece. Can't beat it. Also got Ahab's "The Call of the Wretched Sea" which is basically an Ambient Doom album about the story of "Moby Dick". It's really good and I'd recommend it even if you aren't into doom and can handle low low low vocals.

I think I may start posting more.

Nerd Tears

2008-03-06T19:44:00.001-08:00

R.I.P. Gary Gygax.

Interweb

2008-03-06T06:45:00.000-08:00

So I just read a blog from Matt Cutts (google employee) about Writely.

Basically it's an online word processor, spreadsheet and powerpoint creator. The coolest thing is that you can save your documents and then have access to them anywhere you have an internet connection. I think that's pretty great for people who don't have a laptop and hate carrying around those jump drives.

Plus, because google is tied in with blogger.com, you can publish what you write into your blog. You can also share your documents with other people by publishing them to a special URL.

I don't know, let's say you are writing a script for a movie called Korporate Karate 2. You can have the document online and accessible to the people you wish to see it and can create collaboratively regardless of distance. No more do you have to send the word doc to someone and have them make changes, then send it back, thus creating an endless amount of versions and clutter.

Rock and Roll

2008-02-27T20:27:00.000-08:00

Hey all...and by "all" I mean the 2 people that may read this.

Fremont record is almost done. It's actually coming together nicely and they seem to like it. One more round of edits and it's done.

At school, I'm in Recording I and we did our first tracking session with a 7 piece jazz group. They were really good and it seems to sound good. I think our next couple of labs are going to be mixing it which is sweet. Oh yeah, school makes me feel old. Cause I am. My lab partner is from Wisconsin which is awesome. Smart guy too.

Oh yeah, I'm also going to be able to hang out at Volume Studios, where Reptoids just recorded our latest EP called Slayed. It's an interesting little 3 songer with metal, rock and garage influences. Please buy it from us. It's only $3 ($5 with shipping).

I don't really know what else to blog about. If someone could help that would be cool. And, no Mike, I will not blog about squadging or granking.

Fine. I'll do it.

2008-02-15T09:00:00.001-08:00

Finally a new post. Reptoids CD release party was fun and nice. Sold some merch and the other bands were awesome. It was a good night.

In Recording 1 now at school. RAD! Mixing Fremont material which should be easier now that I know what I have to do.

I could post for hours on random things, but my employer would frown upon such things...and I agree.

That's it for now, look for Future Post™ coming soon!

Nerdery - I should actually be on Firefly first..but oh well

2007-10-02T14:03:00.000-07:00

You scored as Moya (Farscape), You are surrounded by muppets. But that is okay because they are your friends and have shown many times that they can be trusted. Now if only you could stop being bothered about wormholes.

Serenity (Firefly)

100%

Moya (Farscape)

100%

Millennium Falcon (Star Wars)

100%

Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix)

94%

Deep Space Nine (Star Trek)

94%

Babylon 5 (Babylon 5)

94%

FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files)

88%

Heart of Gold (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

81%

Bebop (Cowboy Bebop)

81%

Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica)

81%

Enterprise D (Star Trek)

75%

SG-1 (Stargate)

69%

Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda)

63%

Which sci-fi crew would you best fit in with? (pics)
created with QuizFarm.com

And the beat goes on

2007-08-22T17:37:00.000-07:00

So I'm posting. Hooray.

Numbers Don't Lie - Miss September is finished!! It's good.

Reptoids in the studio in September. Sweet.

Added a link to my cousin Ryan's blog, which he'll update on his life in Korea where he'll be teaching ESL. Check it.

Chris

POST!

2007-03-28T12:35:00.000-07:00

The masses have spoken! Or rather, 2 people who rarely update their own blog commented on mine, so I choose to do another post. I think I will continue this trend of not writing until I get a comment (hopefully a sensical one this time).

NDL recording went well this weekend. Josh is blowing through his parts like a hurricane through Louisiana (ok, that was in poor taste, sorry.)

However, I have to make him redo his solo in Paul's track as the mic was fucked and it's completely distorted and unlistenable..bad news. I think this record will be good. I need to make some mix downs for Joe and mail them off so he knows where we are at.

I'm going back to GB on Easter weekend to finish the guitars and start vocals. I'm not going to stay for Easter as that would suck. Also, Keith's comic store opened up last weekend. Go visit and buy stuff. It's in the strip mall on the southwest corner of Oneida St./Cormier that has Big and Tall Store in it (kitty/kiddy corner to Kinko's, across from a church and Walgreens). I guess the store is awesome. I'm going to visit it that weekend prior to recording. So recording will start at noon or so.

That's that.

ROCK!

2007-03-22T13:22:00.000-07:00

I just changed the pic on my profile to the color version of the tattoo. I figure I would do that considering I've had it for about 4 years now.

Does anybody read this blog? If you do, comment in this post with random nonsense. Once I get one post, I'll do another one. Maybe.

NDL Recording this weekend!! I'm pumped. As in my last post, I said I wasn't happy with the drums. It turns out I am. After listening again, I like them alot. I really don't have to do much eq on them either...which makes me happy.

This is going to be great.

Recording: Round 2 and Radio Stations

2007-03-16T07:39:00.000-07:00

So after listening to the NDL stuff and doing quick mixes on it. I still don't know how I feel about the drums. I may want to rerecord them. That sucks for them, but in the end they'll get a better product. Plus, I have a few more mic cables and will probably pick up some more (better quality ones). However, they don't have to pay more, and the equipment is set up already so we don't have to worry about that (saves 4 hours or more of time).

On to the radio.

Reptoids did an interview and played live at the WLUW studios yesterday. What a hoot! Razor and Di are awesome people. They welcomed us with open arms and were super cool to hang with. Hopefully we get to do it again when we put out a new EP. I think the new songs are awesome and tight as hell.

I'm pumped for the pit!

Recording: Round 1

2007-03-12T07:03:00.000-07:00

Well hello nobody!

This weekend marked the proverbial cherry popping of Numbers Don't Lie's new disc - Miss September.

Friday: Got to GB about 10:30PM (much later than anticipated). Went to Mike's to get my gear. It was still set up from recording him, so I had to tear it down and pack it up, load it into the car, etc. Got to Chris's about 11:30 PM or so to Joe bitching about it being so late. Oh well. Then we headed over to East Town Pub, where it was basically a class reunion for me, only it was the douche bags that I didn't like then, and turns out, still probably don't care for today.

Saturday: Got some breakfast, then made it to Chris's for 9:30am. Fun begins. Basically we spent the morning getting the gear unpacked, instruments set up and mic'd and got basic levels for the drums. Lunch Time! El Serrape for lunch. It was delicious and I didn't get food poisoning, which I feel great about. After lunch, went back and began the process. To make this a bit short, we finished at about 11PM and thought we had gotten really good drum takes. Burned off rough mixes and sent the troops home to listen and give thoughts. I got back to Mike's at about 12:30am or so and stayed up until 2 watching awesome 80's Metal Mania on VH1. Lesson: Don't fuck with Dio or get a job apparently. ROCK AND ROLL CHILDREN!! At this time, Daylight Savings set in and it was 3. I was so tired, I fell asleep setting the alarm on my phone. Luckily my internal clock woke me up earlier than the alarm time I was trying to set and I found my phone underneath my body...which then was promptly set for a later time and I went back to sleep.

Sunday: Got to Chris's at about 10:20 or so. Joe and Chris were already listening to the disc and we found a couple things we needed to change. Derek showed up at 11, thinking it was 10. nice work. Started recording again at about 11:30. Fixed the drum pieces we needed to. I then went and got a hair trimming, came back and started retracking all the bass. We finished all but three songs with bass and drums. Backed up all the songs and off I went home.

Verdict: I feel good about this. The drums sound great and huge. I got some new drum mics (the Audix DP4 drum pack). They sound awesome, realistic tone and a great abililty to capture the resonance of the drums without it mudding up. The bass tone is good to, regardless of Joe's thoughts. We ran out of the Ampeg SVT-Pro 3 head direct and that's the end of that.

Sweet

Hopefully I'll have a rough mix I can post up here for you all to hear...NDL - Miss September, already leaking on the internet.

More Action than a Hermaphrodite at a Key Party!

2007-03-08T09:58:00.000-08:00

This blog has seen some serious updating recently. I don't know what the fuck. Either way, today will mark the last full day of Nicole being with us here at HRS. Regardless of other people's thoughts on the matter (*cough* Andy *cough*), I think of Nicole as a friend, even before she decided to leave.

My guess is that no one reads this, but on the matter, it's going to suck. It's like a weird sort of thing when the person you go through every weekday, 8 hours a day, who normally is there (literally right behind me) is all of a sudden gone. Kel is here which is nice, but there's no way she's giving up a 3rd wall to come to the thoroughfare we call our work area. Who could blame her?

So if you actually read this Nic, congrats on getting a better opportunity for you. We'll miss you. Of course by "we" I mean me and everyone that's cool here. They know who they are.

Recording

2007-03-05T07:27:00.000-08:00

This coming weekend marks 3 years since the last recording of Numbers Don't Lie - Cardboard. And now, I'm at it again. Thanks to Joe and his amazing ability to save band funds, I'm heading up to Green Bay for the next 3 weekends and recording their new album.

There's an excitement in the air over this one, as I haven't heard much of the material they are recording. It's weird. The last time, I knew almost every song by heart and was able to help out in offering suggestions here and there, but this time, not so much. Plus, I procured some new microphones for the drums (where I was really hurting to begin with). I picked up the Audix DP4A pack. Which includes an i-5, 2x D-2 and a D-4 mic. The tom mics I currently use bite balls. They clip pretty quick and contain a bit of noise. Next up is to fix my damn mixing console. It's a bit dirty on the inside. I'm hoping to get this done sooner than later (it'll work for this recording, but I can't keep having it get dirty (Maybe a cover is in order..)

On that note, I'll be in the GB area for a couple of weekends if any of you punkasses want to come out to hang at night...rip roaring drunk-a-thon!

Title Here

2007-02-26T07:05:00.000-08:00

I don't have a title for this post because I have nothing to talk about. I went and saw the WCR derby on Saturday night. It was pretty cool. Megs and I met up with Jerrod, his girlfriend Jaime, his brother and his dad. WCR wiped the Ft. Wayne team up 128 to 28 I believe was the score. Ft. Wayne got lead jam 2x...that's insane. They just need some more time to develop strategy and and work more as a team.

Oh yeah, if any of you need a new show in your life to suck up your time, check out Dexter. It's a showtime show. The first season is done and I believe the DVDs are out now. It's damn good.

Reptoids are playing in Madison, WI this Friday (March 2) at a pizza joint. I can't think of the name of it, but I'll post it soon...or I guess you could just go to the myspace page (myspace.com/reptoids).

Philisophical Rambling

2007-02-23T09:18:00.000-08:00

I had one of those weird moments the other day. You know the kind where you wake up next to a sheep and realize that you can't remember it's name and have to hurry to get the hell out of the apartment before it wakes. Then you realize that it's your apartment. There's clipping shears next to the bed and your blanket is warmer and you have a new sweater.

Wild.

Actually, it was one of those moments where you have an epiphany about the fact that nothing we (humans) do matters. We only work to fill time, and by filling time we gain money to live comfortably before we die. I guess if we didn't have this, then we would all go insane, nothing would get done. However, it's still fucked up. Our meaningless jobs. Take a doctor even. Their job is to make you better...for what? To live longer and do insignificant things. So does that make them insignificant?

Who knows. What a rambling piece of crap aye?

Not 6 months inbetween

2007-02-19T06:38:00.000-08:00

Ok...so I'm posting on this thing again! Mike requested longer blogs (I still hate that word), but I can't guarantee that.

Reptoids played in Madison this past weekend at Der Rathskeller (sp?) and it was pretty fun, however, I thought more people might have been there as the show was free. Oh well. Skaput! a ska band, let us use their drum kit which was pretty rad of them. Rogue Dolls were good. They seemed a bit new at it, but nevertheless they played decently and did some pretty great covers (i.e. Le Tegre and 99 Luft Ballons).

We're going to be in Madison again on March 2 for all you Wisconsinites.

Also, I'll be recording the new Numbers Don't Lie disc this March. I can't wait. It's always good to record and get back in the studio with those guys.

School this semester is going to kick my ass. It's a pretty cool class (Basic Audio Systems), but don't let the name fool you. It's really not basic. It's all Logrithms and crazy math to find voltage and wattage and the correlation to decibels.

On a somewhat related note, Tom Harter has asked me to master his disc for 10 songs in 30 days. It's basically the same thing as writing a novel in 30 days (I can't think of what that's called...but it's in October if I remember correctly). The stuff has to be done by the end of Feb. I'm receiving the first disc this week, so I can't get that started immediately this weekend. I also have some design work to finish up. MUST GET ASS IN GEAR.

That's it for now. Any questions?

clearing the cobwebs

2007-02-10T20:18:00.000-08:00

I guess I've been pretty lazy these days. So Mike made me post again. Son of a bitch.

Hope all is well with my friends. I've been busy, but lazy. It's possible, trust me. (look up procrastination in the dictionary).

Reptoids are good. We just played a show at the Double Door, which is huge (not physically, but professionaly..I guess you could call it that). We've also played at the Empty Bottle. Playboy apparently put the Empty Bottle in their top 10 places to see music.

What's left? The Metro. When that happens, you all can come and be on the guest list. The one that you have to pay to get in on.

On the Road

2006-08-25T05:54:00.000-07:00

Well kids, Reptoids are hitting the road for a one show tour!! Indianapolis will be our stomping ground tonight as we play in one of the oldest bars in the city, the Melody Inn.

We are playing with a death metal band and a punk band. Carnosaur and Dehydrated Vomit. Take your pick at what band plays what (but I put them in order respectively). It should be fun. Then when we are done, Meg (the drummer, not my lovely wife) are turning around and coming right back. sweet!! It's actually better. Then I can spend some time in Chi-town for once. I know I live here, but every weekend it seems I'm up in GB.

OK...time for me to go. I gots to do some work. Considering I'm at work, that's probably a good thing.

hugs and kisses.

Update!

2006-08-13T11:44:00.000-07:00

Ok...so the exclamation point wasn't/isn't necessary at all.

DM had the reunion show, and to all that didn't show up...FOOLS! The place was packed. Nuts to Butts if you will. It seriously stayed full until close and we actually closed the place down. All the bands were awesome. Mr. Slate's new drummer Ben is good. really good. Not that Cookie wasn't, but Ben puts the rock on.

Fault played really well too. It was like we didn't take the last 2 years off (even longer for Fault.) DM also played well and that may be the last you see of us. Nick moved to Cleveland and me being in Chicago makes it hard to do anything else.

On to other things.

Reptoids are playing a ton now. 5 shows in the next month or so and it feels good. We are writing like mad and came up with some cool shit. It's fun for the whole family. Manson that is.

I start school on Sept. 11. Ohhhhhh...scary. Anyway, I'm going to Columbia for Audio Production & Recording. Hopefully something good becomes of it. I can record your Polka band!

Tonight: Windy City Rollers. All female roller derby. One of my co-workers, Dixie Pixie (real name withheld for sporting purposes) is rockin tonight and she's pretty bad ass. I wouldn't fuck with her if she had skates on. But at work she doesn't so I just take her candy. HA

Reunion Almost Here!!

2006-07-12T08:02:00.000-07:00

So as most of you who read this know, Disinformation Machine is indeed playing a reunion show on August 4, 2006 at the Mainstage in Green Bay. We are playing with reunioned Fault and Mr. Slate (and a tba). It's almost 2 years to the day since our last show (I think it was Aug. 6, 2004). Either way, ya'll should come out and drink it up with the Mainstage vagrants.

Enough about that. Hope all is well with everyone. I go to orientation for school on August 3...so that should prove fun. It's cool that I don't have to take any assessment tests though. I knew my B.A. would come in handy.

Nothing new here..except the Blue Line (the subway, or "L") I take everyday derailed and caught on fire yesterday at about 5:00 PM. I was already home, but it happened to be the one that was right before the one Megan would take. It was nuts I guess. People thought it was a terrorist attack. Black smoke filled the subway car and plus they were underground and it was dark. crazy shit. 150 people were sent to the hospital. I think what made people think about terrorism, is the bombing in India on a bus. Check out the chicago news paper websites for more information.

If ass tasted like a hamburger...

2006-06-13T14:03:00.000-07:00

So I got a new bike, but was unable to bring it to Chicago. The lack of bungie straps prevented me to do so. SO, if anyone is coming to Chicago soon, could you pick my bike up at Megan's mom's house and bring it to me? Thanks.

Reptoids are playing a ton. You should come out and see us. We're fun.

Post

2006-05-23T05:31:00.000-07:00

Got nothing going on. That's it.

What's up kids?

2006-03-29T13:53:00.000-08:00

So my brother and I are going into business together. What business you ask? Videography and Design. That's right, we are going to become a multimedia powerhouse to be reckoned with. Watch out MF's.

If any of you are going to be in the Madison/Milwaukee area on April 28/29 respectively, come out to see Reptoids in action. Go to www.reptoids.net for more information and stuff.

Hopefully I get accepted into Columbia College and I end up doing stuff. By stuff, I mean get a recording degree. Then all you bitches are mine.

What I pointless post. So poignant yet retarded yet not important however dull.

I'm not dead....yet

2006-03-24T13:14:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the delay in my posts..like you people care. I switched jobs as you know so I haven't been here for a while. Anyway, no porn. sorry. Bob was pissed...so was Gash..but oh well, got to go where the money and benefits are. That's right. I sold out.

eat me.

Yeah..

2006-02-01T08:40:00.000-08:00

Yeah, the JOB hunt is really on. I seriously have had about 5 interviews in the last week. Just really trying to keep my options open. I was offered a position already at a company, but I'm seeing if there is something better while the paper work is going through. That's the hardest. Basically the position that I pretty much have was created for me and the pay is fucking sweet. But, it's really not a design job and that's what I'm interviewing for..hopefully get into an agency.

The cool thing though is that my brother started a company in Milwaukee and I'm partnering with him. So, hopefully that works out and we'll get paid fat cash as we start to gain clients..start working for ourselves. If I'm going to slave for something, it's going to be me.

Yoshi, I heard about the PT job and school. You have cajones.

Hey you..over there.

2006-01-24T08:08:00.000-08:00

How's everyone doing today? I'm doing well. I have a J-O-B interview today...don't tell my current employer. If I spell everything, they have no idea what I'm saying. Sort of like a small puppy.

I heard yesterday was statistically the worst day of the year. It sure panned out that way.

WOWZA!

2006-01-18T06:55:00.000-08:00

I'm just writing to give you fools something to write back about. I did the E.P. release show with Reptoids. No, I'm not on the album but who cares, I can play all the music and I'm cool. Ok, maybe not cool, but I can definitely play the riffs. So, I know you are all wondering, so I'll tell you: you actually thought I was going to write something here.

I'll sum up last year for everyone:

I don't know if you guys are interested in the post-hardcore scene stuff (helmet, quicksand), but the band Handsome (formed with members of Helmet and Quicksand) is very good. I would recommend the first album. Also a band called Stomp Box. Some of you may have this album, but it's essentially like Helmet with the tight riffs and syncopation.

I've been applying for new jobs lately. It's been pretty nuts.

First Show(s)

2005-12-12T13:27:00.000-08:00

Friday, December 9th, 2006 marked my first 2 (count them 1+1=2) shows with Reptoids. The first being at the Note in Chicago. That was fucking weird. Basically, SITG was supposed to play that show, but due to circumstances beyond MY control, we couldn't. So Reptoids filled in. here's the gist: 8 bands, their respective posses and lack of caring for any other band. It was awesomely lame. So that started the night really fucked up.

Second show:

Nite Cap Lounge in Chicago. That show was good. It would have been a great "first Cherry popping show" but it will have to due. It was a crowd of people who wanted to see music! Imagine that. So that went well and people seemed to dig us. It was fun.

time to write some songs for the ladies.

Chris

3 hours 34 Minutes and 30 Seconds

2005-11-21T06:02:00.000-08:00

Let me explain.

3 hours and 34 minutes to drive to Shawano.

30 seconds of Numbers Don't Lies set.

That's right. Then I saw Mr. Slate perform a couple of songs but had to hang out with the wife next door. However, there was Karaoke and a drunk 40 year old with poofy bangs all up in my grill. and by grill, I mean shit. and by shit, I mean me.

It was good though. Saw Yoshi and D. Sanchez and his wife to be...speaking of which where was Yoshi's wife..perhaps he could enlighten me. Hopefully he killed something from a tree this weekend. He doesn't do it D. Sanchez style (loin cloth, bare hands and teeth), but it's all good.

I knew 1995 was a good year

2005-11-16T10:13:00.000-08:00

This is what made my birthday in 1995 a really good year. Seriously, I should have asked for this myself. How could I have not known for this long that this monumental release and I share the same day of life and release.

damn. I think I actually own this.

Sickness. Everybody get down.

2005-11-15T14:29:00.000-08:00

I think I'm getting sick. I should take a shit.

I'll be right back.

Ok...I'm back. Damn that felt good and stank bad.

Band-Wagon

2005-11-03T08:01:00.000-08:00

So I think I'm pretty much in the Reptoids (www.myspace.com/reptoids). Silent is the Grave is done (www.myspace.com/silentisthegrave), however, I'm finishing the mixing on the new disc anyway, and we'll have it up for free on myspace. It'll be call "So what of the future, So what of the past?". The new stuff is much more sludgy and definitely has some aspects of Death Metal, Black Metal, European Metal and then of course that Isis, Cult of Luna shit I bring to the table. It's actually pretty dynamic with songs around the 6 minute mark. Too bad things didn't work out between us.

Happy Halloween you Pagan Witches

2005-10-31T14:04:00.000-08:00

So the Packers are 1-6....1-6!!!!! What the hell is going on with those turds. Oh yeah, I know. NEW COACH NEEDED. APPLY WITHIN.

Abe's costume was pretty good this Saturday. I almost didn't make it backing out of my spot. Joe was loaded. Joel was out, which was cool. Derek and Keeley decided that her kid was more important than alcohol. Now listen, I don't even drink, but at least I know what the right decision was. And they didn't make it.

I'm going for my second night with the Reptoids tonight. Hopefully I play to their specification without being a total douche bag waste of time. I wonder why douche bag is an insult. I mean, it's always by vagina, cleaning it out. Maybe it's just the way it sounds. Ponder that shit motherfuckers.

What up fools

2005-10-27T08:23:00.000-07:00

I'm back. Again. I've decided that blogs really kind of suck, but it's an alternate to emailing all the pricks that read this.

Actually, I like you guys. I want to go to Wyoming and visit F&A (you should start your own clothing line Fucking & Assholes).

I ride the train to work..it's better than driving. Much better.

The White Sox won the World Series last night in a 4 game sweep (for those of you living under a rock or don't give a shit about baseball). I generally dislike baseball, but it was hard not to get swept up in the town mayhem that ensued with the first appearance by the WS since 1956 and the first win since 1917. Craig would be proud.

1-5 = Go Pack Go!

WTF?!?

2005-10-25T07:02:00.000-07:00

No sooner than I finish the last post and someone fucking spams it with an ad. Fuck that bot.

Sorry to all the Anonymous people who want to comment (I know there are millions waiting to do so), however, I disabled anon posting and only allow registered users to post.

Bots ruin it for everyone.

Regular Updates? What, me? Never!

2005-10-25T06:46:00.000-07:00

So I tried out for the Reptoids (www.myspace.com/reptoids) last night and things went good..I think. Their music is good and seems like it's going to be fun, rather than a chore. I like that. Alot. Plus the women in the band seem really cool and easy to get along with.

I'll be in GB this weekend, partying like a rock star or in other words...SLEEPING! I could use some of that now.

other than that, things are looking on the up and up and I'll be playing one last show with SITG on Dec. 9th here in Chicago, so hopefully that goes well.

Chris

my band broke up.

2005-10-21T06:29:00.000-07:00

Yeah it's true. My band SITG broke up this week. Another chapter, another dollar.

Anyway, I'm trying out for a new band this Monday called The Reptoids (www.myspace.com/reptoids). If you guys like Rock N' Roll, this for you. Especially those of you who are fans of L7 or the Donnas or 7 Year Bitch.

Good stuff.

However, SITGs new material will be up on the website soon. I'm still going to finish it. I really am.

New E.P.

2005-09-13T08:58:00.000-07:00

So Silent is the Grave is currently finishing up on recording the new E.P. tenatively titled. "So what of the future, so what of the past" or "So what of the future, to hell with the past".

We'll see. Anyway, it's pretty good. The songwriting is better and the songs are a little longer. You can definitely feel the DM influence I brought, although the chord patterns aren't as awkward and dissonant, which is a bit of a bummer ( I enjoy the dissonance..you all know that shit).

I'll have it posted on our website when it finishes.

READ THIS!

Hello!

2005-06-06T06:29:00.000-07:00

I've decided to stop neglecting my duties as a responsible blog poster. So here's a post.

July is going to kick ass. First there is so much shit going on. Sean and Wanda's wedding then Fred and Ashley's...2 weeks in a row I won't drink, but will dance with or without my pants.

This will be some good stuff. To all who are staying in Milwaukee for S&W wedding. Derek, Keeley, Megs and me are staying at the Excel in. It's the cheapest, most rooms and a good time. So everyone should stay there. We'll fuck that place up!

Oh yeah. For those in GB. Silent is the Grave is playing at the Eagles Club on June 17 and the Mainstage on June 18...come to both shows. The Mainstage show will kick ass. So please come. If we get 20 people...it'll be packed!

Hugs and many kisses.

More from me

2005-04-25T06:27:00.000-07:00

SITG is playing our first show May 12th at Ryan's Ballroom in Combined Locks. Free show. At 9:00 PM.

We also have a show on May 14th at the Monkey Wrench in Appleton. $5. ALL AGES.

I don't even know why I'm posting this here. No one reads this except for Fred, and maybe Josh or Abe.

Finished the Album

2005-04-22T16:13:00.000-07:00

We (Silent is the Grave) finished our album last weekend. and it sounds pretty good (if you are into circus music + BOLTON).

I should post on here more, but fuck it. I have better things to do than remember passwords and talk to you.

It went to the greater Green Bay area...

2005-03-29T07:01:00.000-08:00

...for the bloody resurrection this weekend. It was a good weekend, I got to see Miss September..which was pretty damn cool. And I got to see Numbers Don't Lie which was equally exciting. This post is bordering on useless and pointless as I'm having a very hard time composing complete sentences. I can only imagine a paragraph of this.

Anyway, I saw lots of people I normally don't see as well as some bands both Friday and Saturday night which was alright.

Recording for Silent is the Grave is going well. We should be finished this weekend and have it up on the website early next week.

I wish I had something really prolific to say, but alas only man can conquer what man can envision.

Recording

2005-03-15T11:36:00.000-08:00

Silent is the Grave began recording our demo. It's going pretty well, a little longer than expected but that's always the case as we learn to work with what we have.

Hopefully it will be on the website by the first week of April and we'll start tracking the real demo in May and have that out by June.

Other than that...nothing else happens, except my blubbering sarcasm.

Enjoy.

Another Post!

2005-03-03T09:41:00.000-08:00

How did all of you get so lucky?

I think I like this better than live journal. Live journal is cool and everything, but this looks sleeker. I might rename this particular thing "Dissemination of Disinformation" is alright, but I'm still stuck in DM mode. Which I guess is ok, but I do have another band.

I created a blog.

2005-03-02T09:19:00.000-08:00

Why? I don't know. Who gives a shit.