Why?

I was at Costco yesterday, just minding my own business (meaning buying muffins and eating samples), when we hear a loud voice say:

Hey look! It's Harry Potter!!

We all obligingly look around to see what this person is yelling about. Only, by the way this woman is pointing, it's pretty clear that she is talking about me. I was literally speechless.

"I bet you get that a lot"

Um, no. Never.

Most of the other people smiled and moved on, but this woman stood there waiting for some kind of response. Even worse, her daughter just stood there grinning at me like I might do something to make her Daniel Radcliff fantasies come true.

Creepy.

So, just as a test...

• 13:40 Masters of Song Fu/ The challenge I accepted:/ Mole-men! Song out now
  tinyurl.com/yhu5f44 #

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www.quickstopentertainment.com/2009/11/17/song-fu-5-round-1-voting/


I wrote a song for the current Masters of Song Fu Challenge. Actually, I wrote lyrics for two songs. The first was Dr. Phineas Basalt #240. Good song, but it resisted all my attempts to write a second verse. The second song, the one that I actually posted on the challenge, is #580 Old Uncle Hades. I managed to write complete lyrics and guitar chords for the second song.

If you go and listen to the song, you'll notice that there is no guitar on the track posted. Here's why:

To start with, I didn't have anything to record with other than the USB microphone that came with my Guitar Hero game and Garage Band on the iMac. I went out and got a new microphone (that ended up not sounding as good as the Mic I had), a mic stand (that ended up being incredibly useful), a microphone to USB converter (that was not useful at all), an instrument to USB cable (that would have been much more useful had I written a song with chords that I can play reliably - that is, without any sort of fret buzz), and a couple of USB hubs (that were about as useful as a USB hub can possibly be).

I spent Friday attempting to get the various hissing noises off the guitar track. My mental breakdown started there, I think. I spent Saturday trying to record the guitar track, which didn't happen. I spent most of Sunday trying to record the guitar track, which, again, didn't happen. I finally recorded vocals. Later I tried recording the guitar again, huge mistake! My capacity to multi-task under stress and pressure is apparently non-existent. I had a meltdown and decided that I was done. Not finished, mind you, but done.

The moral of this story is that as much as I love songwriting and performing, recording makes me want to punch babies. Or, at least recording when I don't know what I'm doing makes me want to punch babies. If you want to check out my song it's at the very bottom of the list on the link above. Your votes, if you are so inclined, are appreciated. If I make the cut - I'll try to do it better next time.

Gear

• 12:04 How come "Halloween"/ Is the only Misfits song/ People ever play? #
• 12:13 "Evil Genius" is/ An easy costume to make/ I just wear my clothes #
• 12:21 Ok, I suppose/ That they play Last Caress, too/ That's still just two songs #

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• 21:47 Hate to break from my usual format, but it's for a good cause. @rockhallweird @rock_hall Induct Weird Al #

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• 21:27 @davestagner I tried out Python/ Thank you for the suggestion/ It works really well. #

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I just got the first draft of the script for the halloween episode of Revenge of the Particle, I'm not going to spoil anything, but know this, it's going awesome in both sense of the word.

Can you recommend a good book on Perl for someone with no programming experience whatsoever?

My school seems to require that I learn a language; long story short, while Rosetta Stone doesn't offer Ancient Greek, which was my first choice, they do claim that their Latin course will help you "develop the Latin language skills to enjoy social interactions such as travel and shopping and learn to share your ideas and opinions in Latin." And really, what more could you want from a course in a dead language?

Also, for anyone on my friends list who likes table-top role-playing games, check this out. I don't know what someone who actually plays RPGs would think, but I think it's pretty neat.

I can't believe I've gone over a month without posting,
Gear

• 22:09 I hope I'm not late @wormquartet RT I will personally kill the first nine people who RT this post! #

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• 13:15 @MarzGurlProd Glad there's no picture/ Still, I kind of need brain bleach/ And I don't have it #

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• 19:37 @theguild Great new episode!/ The guest appearance was neat./ The kilt was weird, though. bit.ly/guild3 #theguild #
• 19:40 Interestingly/ That last tweet was the longest/ I've ever posted #
• 20:05 @theguild Wait just a second./ Is that an exact limit?/ Or is less okay? #

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There is a theory that happiness grows in direct proportion to the gear you acquire. I don't believe this is true, but today I got a new computer and I am grateful. I'm not as happy as I would have been with my old computer and a new non-Windows operating system... but I have a brand new computer with a non-Windows operating system, so I am pretty happy.

Tomorrow I shall load my music, Firefox, and NetHack on my computer and I will be back to my normal routine.

Hope you guys are happy too,
Gear

This morning when I turned on my computer, I got an error saying "could not locate local profile." This has happened to me before - so I went through the usual process. Restart windows. It logged me into the same temporary profile. I went the through the process again. Same result. Same process. Same result. I tried this at least four times before I just gave up.

This has happened before - so I know that we will be able to restore the computer to a functioning level. But that's not what I am annoyed about. I'm annoyed about getting a new computer. We've been talking about getting me a new computer for a while. The old one is a 2003 model. My parents decided, based on the aforementioned error, that today is the day for new gear.

For the last month or so I've been researching Linux. Eventually I settled on Debian as my distribution of choice - so yesterday, when my computer was still in working order I printed off the instructions for installing Debian. I do want to keep this computer because it's the first one I bought with my own money. But the 'rents say no. No apparent reason - just no. I told them I can still use it with all of my current software - but they said no. I told them I could use it with Debian. No. So, I mentioned Ubuntu, which is more or less the same thing. Same process. Same result. They said no.

At the moment, my computing capabilities consist of playing games on my iPod. I'm really glad I installed Doom, or I'd have nothing to do. It may seem crazy, but I am emotionally attached to the old computer. Not to the stuff on it - but to the actual computer. Change is hard!

Frustrated and sad,
Gear

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My mother just informed me that I am not allowed to be vulgar on the internet.

Now what am I supposed to do today?

Gear

Stolen fromeye_ar_smaurt .

Shuffle your media player and post the first 10 songs.

GO!

1. Chapter 12 of Dracula - written by Bram Stroker, read by Hugh McGuire

2. Sleep Walking Zombies - Carrie Dahlby

3. Greatest Story Ever Told - Grateful Dead

4. Dead Sea Monkeys - Lemon Demon

5. Dirty World - Traveling Wilburys

6. Terrapin Station - Grateful Dead

7. Be More - Beth Kinderman

8. Me and My Uncle - Grateful Dead

9. Mr. Charlie - Grateful Dead

10. Section 67 of Capital, vol. 1 - written by Karl Marx, read by Sibella Denton

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I bought a record a while ago and, for some reason or another, it came with a free out-of-date backstage pass for The New Kids On The Block. After a couple of weeks of the aforementioned pass sitting on my dresser, it occurred to me that someone might want it. If you or a person you know is that someone, please let me know so I can send it to you, because I don't have the slightest clue what else to so with it. Move along, nothing to see here.

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I've got a song up on the FuMP Sideshow today.  Yea!  Yahoo!  and associated enthusiasm reflectors!!!!  Thanks to everyone who has listened to and/or commented on it.  Thanks to the FuMP, gamerchick for hosting it, emiofbrie for offering to host it, and druidsfire for inspiring it!

Does anyone know of a site that hosts long Let's Plays, up to an hour or more? 

I finally got around to playing Yume Nikki.  Good game.  Insanely creepy, but good game.

I've got a band now.  Well, they're not my band yet...but I plan on taking over sometime soon.  (Cue evil laugh).  Just kidding.  A local musician offers free guitar lessons every week at the local Saturday Market.  On Wednesdays, he sets up a tent with microphones, amps, etc., for a drop-in group jam session.  I took my guitar and happily spent the afternoon playing several blues and folk songs, none of which I knew.  The highlight came afterward when we did an impromptu version of Purple Haze - with me on vocals.

I'm attempting to record other new songs this week.  My perfectionism makes it difficult to get what I want from my limited editing and recording skills.  But at least it's painful.

Mostly win,
Gear

• 19:09 The most melodic/ Web browser on planet Earth/ Opera! Hooray! #

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• 21:03 @byron27 Thank you very much/ For the complement and the link!/ Follow Byron, guys! #

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• 10:58 @thegreatlukeski Yes, I did indeed/ Get the mp3s you sent/ Also: thanks for those #

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• 22:06 @mr_io_man Come on, write something/ Why have a Twitter account/ And not write at all? #
• 22:14 @thegreatlukeski I'll drink your brandy/ But first let me say my name/ My name is Humpty #humptyhumplyricshaiku #
• 22:17 I'd just like to say/ I'm glad to have left Texas/ I really like rain #
• 22:22 The Astounding Wolf-Man by Robert Kirkman and Jason Howard: The best werewolf superhero ever #
• 22:25 @thegreatlukeski The Animation Compilation by Luke Ski: Nobody writes better cartoon songs #
• 22:27 Am I supposed to/ Pronounce the @ symbol in/ Twitter names, or not? #
• 22:32 @davestagner You should call your show/ The Night of the Possible/ Character Ninjas #
• 22:41 I need ideas/ What are there forty four of?/ I really need help #
• 22:47 I think that all shows/ Should be more like Avatar/ Man, I miss that show #
• 23:13 Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons: An extremely well-written book #
• 23:14 Watchmen (movie): Enjoyable, but annoyingly truncated #
• 23:16 Holy crapmuffins!/ One hundred Twitter updates/ Man, I'm talkative #

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The most pertinent fact to be gleaned from this post is that I have left Texas permanently.  Yea me!

The good:

Aside from leaving Texas, I am happily back in the Pacific Northwest and have more or less re-settled into  my normal routine.
I got to see the touring production of "Wicked" in San Antonio before we left.  It was incredible.
We haven't finished unpacking yet; but so far, none of my stuff has been lost, misplaced or ruined.
I will get to attend Conflikt in January and will (hopefully) see Tom Smith perform.
In getting reacquainted with my computer, I discovered music recording software and, accordingly, recorded music.
I got to spend a week on the farm with the grandparents which is always fun and interesting.
The new house is big and quite comfortable.  We haz internet and computers!
It has rained nearly every day since I arrived.
I bought a new comic book today.

The bad:

I had very limited internet access for nearly three weeks and missed my internet friends and shows very much.
It is painful to watch strangers pack up all my family's belongings - even though I knew we'd get them back.
I can't find anything.
I only know where a few of my CDs are.
Change.
The moving process took a long, long time.  And it is the process that really bugs me.
I registered for public school classes today (after an 8 year break).  Granted, I'm only going to take band so I can learn the saxophone, but public school is a concept I still have a lot of trouble accepting.
Nobody delivers pizza to the island.  You have to meet them in the middle of the bridge.

The neutral zone:

Still, despite the good and the bad, I made it here and that's all that matters.

Gear

My computer contains a four year old version of Adobe Audition, upon discovering this fact earlier today, my first action was to record one of my songs, an action which eventually resulted in a version of the song that (while still quite lo-fi) I thought was good enough to post to the FuMP Sideshow. Unfortunately my song has to be hosted on an active web server for it to be accepted. I have no clue how to do this, could someone please help me?

• 21:55 Finally moved in/ I live in Washington now/ Time to play catch up #
• 21:59 It's rather nice to/ Be able to hear my shows/ Two hours earlier #

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