Monday, August 30, 2004
I’m going to Hawaii in A mere *two days*. Wicked. I should start packing.
People keep asking me which Island we’re going to. Truth is, I don’t know. I think it’s the big one. I really haven’t spent much time thinking about the vacation actually. I mean, I *really* haven’t. It’ll be my first travel-vacation-trip on my own…with 23 good friends along for the ride. I just have to see how it turns out. You have to mess something up before you know to fix it.
And, in a strange twist of scheduling conflicts, a deadline at work! I believe this is the first deadline I’ve *ever* received from Trung. And, wouldn’t you know it, I’ll be gone for most of the time. Course it’s a project for the whole group, really, and he’s known about this for months. And part of the reason that the deadline is so early is because *he’s* going on vacation too. So I do what I can for the first couple days of the week, and then take off. We’re trying to demonstrate some code for people on September 7th. I’ll be back September 8th. I’m holding up my little corner of the project, though. So I don’t think my departure will be the cause of too much undue suffering. Not to say there won’t be suffering, because we’re trying to turn out a demo in about a week, and it’s not an easy task (Trung said he could do it in two hours. He is *lying*.) I just won’t be here for it. Lucky, unlucky? Time will tell.
Mmm…gotta shave again too.
Here’s my shopping list for Hawaii.
Goggles.
Sunscreen.
That’s it, really. But believe you me, I’m going to be *piling* on the sunscreen. If I manage to escape Hawaii unscathed, it will be a miracle of near-biblical proportions. Anyone have any spare melanin I could borrow?
I think I’m going to wait until I get back to shave my head again. There’s something to be said for exposing a soon-to-be-bald head to some sun, building up the tan up there, but I don’t think Hawaii is the place to start. I’ve only got a touch o’ hair up there, but it should be enough to keep me mostly un-charred. I hope.
I didn’t do anything interesting this weeked. Well, that’s a lie. I did go out and play some beach volleyball with work friends on Friday. But other than that, this was a video-game intensive weekend. I got Knights of the Old Republic, an excellent RPG, and a PS2 Game called ‘Viewtiful Joe’ that is 25 shades of *ridiculously awesome*. Serious. Some may consider a weekend so dense with video games to be downright lame. I, on the other hand do not. I had a great time.
Course, I forgot to go to church. Eep! It’s a habit I have to get into. Sunday, church, Sunday, church. Pattern.
Mmm…nothing else. TKD, classes, everything moves swiftly along.
Boil the hamburger,
-N
People keep asking me which Island we’re going to. Truth is, I don’t know. I think it’s the big one. I really haven’t spent much time thinking about the vacation actually. I mean, I *really* haven’t. It’ll be my first travel-vacation-trip on my own…with 23 good friends along for the ride. I just have to see how it turns out. You have to mess something up before you know to fix it.
And, in a strange twist of scheduling conflicts, a deadline at work! I believe this is the first deadline I’ve *ever* received from Trung. And, wouldn’t you know it, I’ll be gone for most of the time. Course it’s a project for the whole group, really, and he’s known about this for months. And part of the reason that the deadline is so early is because *he’s* going on vacation too. So I do what I can for the first couple days of the week, and then take off. We’re trying to demonstrate some code for people on September 7th. I’ll be back September 8th. I’m holding up my little corner of the project, though. So I don’t think my departure will be the cause of too much undue suffering. Not to say there won’t be suffering, because we’re trying to turn out a demo in about a week, and it’s not an easy task (Trung said he could do it in two hours. He is *lying*.) I just won’t be here for it. Lucky, unlucky? Time will tell.
Mmm…gotta shave again too.
Here’s my shopping list for Hawaii.
Goggles.
Sunscreen.
That’s it, really. But believe you me, I’m going to be *piling* on the sunscreen. If I manage to escape Hawaii unscathed, it will be a miracle of near-biblical proportions. Anyone have any spare melanin I could borrow?
I think I’m going to wait until I get back to shave my head again. There’s something to be said for exposing a soon-to-be-bald head to some sun, building up the tan up there, but I don’t think Hawaii is the place to start. I’ve only got a touch o’ hair up there, but it should be enough to keep me mostly un-charred. I hope.
I didn’t do anything interesting this weeked. Well, that’s a lie. I did go out and play some beach volleyball with work friends on Friday. But other than that, this was a video-game intensive weekend. I got Knights of the Old Republic, an excellent RPG, and a PS2 Game called ‘Viewtiful Joe’ that is 25 shades of *ridiculously awesome*. Serious. Some may consider a weekend so dense with video games to be downright lame. I, on the other hand do not. I had a great time.
Course, I forgot to go to church. Eep! It’s a habit I have to get into. Sunday, church, Sunday, church. Pattern.
Mmm…nothing else. TKD, classes, everything moves swiftly along.
Boil the hamburger,
-N
Sunday, August 22, 2004
CHURCH!
Church, church, church, church, church…
Some, many of you perhaps, may be aware that I’ve been on what I call a ‘church search’, because it’s fun when things rhyme. I’ve been to…um…three, I think, churches down here for varying numbers of weeks before deciding that the church just wasn’t for me. It’s not a problem with the religion, for me, not at all. Roman Catholicism works just great for me. Yay for it. It’s just, you know, the church. It’s been having some problems over the past few months, as I’m sure most of you are aware. If nothing else, it proves the fallibility of man, and the fact that just cause something has a cross on it, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily good. I make this point just to drive home the idea, I want to make sure I’m going to a good church. A church with good people, good ideas, good leadership, good…y’know…stuff.
And I don’t want to jinx anything, but I may have finally found one.
Last week there was a fellow by the name of Chris Grisoffee (sp) up in Juneau, helping to put on an ACTS retreat. ACTS stands for something…or perhaps it doesn’t…either way, it’s a church retreat. Take some time, talk about churchy-things, renew faith, etc. I’ve heard nothing but good things about it. And everyone is always hugging when they come back. If nothing else, you *have to* be pro-hug.
So Chris met my mother, they chatted for a while, and he said ‘hey, if you happen to be down in Southern California, look me up.’
Ding!
‘Well, actually, I have a son who lives in Southern California. Where do you live?’
‘Oh, I live in El Segundo’.
Ding!
‘Oh my stars and garters, my son works in El Segundo.’ Okay, she probably didn’t say ‘stars and garters’. ‘He’s been looking for a good church.’
‘Well then he should check out American Martyrs.’
Now, I’ll be honest with you, when my mom first told me about Chris and mentioned that the name of his church was ‘American Martyrs’, I was a little worried. I mean, martyrs? This sounds a touch sketchy. Turns out it’s just a weird name, it’s a great church.
I probably couldn’t list the things I look for in a church. And even if I could, they’d all be fuzzy things like ‘vibe’ and ‘aura’ and ‘feel’. But regardless (irregardless isn’t a word), I like it so far. The sermon was good, the people were friendly, if not a bit…ah…monocultural, perhaps, nice facilities, good…um…vibe, nice…aura…you get my drift. The priest even closed off mass with this line:
‘And all of you single, young adults out there, try and get together with each other so that we can enjoy a continued…influx of people as priests and nuns.’
Note how the second half of that sentence has absolutely nothing to do with the first half. Could it be that God took command of his words just for my benefit, being a young, single adult (who hates being single), and then left him hanging for the second half? I believe the answer is a resounding maybe! Heh. I’ve never been a particularly rabid seeker of ‘signs’, but you have to admit that any church that gives directions to get out and meet people should get some sort of gold star, eh?
I also managed to find/meet the aforementioned Chris, and he showed me around a bit and introduced me to some people. This church even has a ‘Young Adult’ group. *I’m* a young adult! I could go! I got invited to the ‘Lifeteen’ gathering after church by several people, and was forced to note that I’m…ah…not a teen. Heh.
There were some other ‘telling’ moments, too. I liked the homily. It was about finding our weaknesses and working to strengthen them. I think having gone to church only about 10 times in the last year counts as a weakness. For comparison, the last time I went to church back in SLO, the homily was about the financial state of the church. Not spiritually uplifting stuff.
So I’ll give the church some more nods in the coming weeks, but I think we’ve got a strong candidate for ‘my church’ here. This is good news, if you’re me.
Anyone else out there think I’m doing too many things all at once? Working and classes, and TKD and drumming and now church? Hope everything will fit. I may have to give up some of my other hobbies. Like browsing the Internet in search of naughty pictures. I think I can do that, though. :)
Mylinh’s party was pretty great. We went to Koji’s Restaurant. (No link because their site is busted.) I had Shabu shabu. Good stuff. We went to Highlands afterwards. There was a whole mess of us, but for some reason we had to do some obnoxious song-and-dance to get in. Not get in ‘special’ or anything. Just get in. This is why I hate Hollywood clubs. Pretentious snobbery is next to narcissism, which is next to ASS. The doorman reminded us of a hall monitor. Drunk with non-existent power. I guess that’s how you maintain a reputation around here, though. Guess I’ll be sticking to my dance-friendly techno clubs instead.
There was almost a fight in there too. Not any of us, of course. We’re all *entirely* too good-natured to be starting fights. I missed the drama, too. I just noticed everyone was looking in the same direction, and when I turned around there were a bunch of bouncers standing around looking…well…big, and some guys giving each other ‘the look’. Personally, I don’t have the energy to be that angry at anything that late at night. Perhaps if I drank more. Heh.
I wasn’t picking up on any of the ladies, quite, but at least I got some good conversations going with people I’ve never met before. That’s good practice. Perhaps I’ll go lady-hunting someday, perhaps not. It’s good to cultivate people-impressing skills either way.
All told, though, good times, good friends, good stuff.
Oh, and Sakina got busy today and couldn’t come over to learn how to swim. Her loss.
All right, enough of this tomfoolery. I’m going to go enjoy the last few hours of my mini-vacation. Ta!
-N
Church, church, church, church, church…
Some, many of you perhaps, may be aware that I’ve been on what I call a ‘church search’, because it’s fun when things rhyme. I’ve been to…um…three, I think, churches down here for varying numbers of weeks before deciding that the church just wasn’t for me. It’s not a problem with the religion, for me, not at all. Roman Catholicism works just great for me. Yay for it. It’s just, you know, the church. It’s been having some problems over the past few months, as I’m sure most of you are aware. If nothing else, it proves the fallibility of man, and the fact that just cause something has a cross on it, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily good. I make this point just to drive home the idea, I want to make sure I’m going to a good church. A church with good people, good ideas, good leadership, good…y’know…stuff.
And I don’t want to jinx anything, but I may have finally found one.
Last week there was a fellow by the name of Chris Grisoffee (sp) up in Juneau, helping to put on an ACTS retreat. ACTS stands for something…or perhaps it doesn’t…either way, it’s a church retreat. Take some time, talk about churchy-things, renew faith, etc. I’ve heard nothing but good things about it. And everyone is always hugging when they come back. If nothing else, you *have to* be pro-hug.
So Chris met my mother, they chatted for a while, and he said ‘hey, if you happen to be down in Southern California, look me up.’
Ding!
‘Well, actually, I have a son who lives in Southern California. Where do you live?’
‘Oh, I live in El Segundo’.
Ding!
‘Oh my stars and garters, my son works in El Segundo.’ Okay, she probably didn’t say ‘stars and garters’. ‘He’s been looking for a good church.’
‘Well then he should check out American Martyrs.’
Now, I’ll be honest with you, when my mom first told me about Chris and mentioned that the name of his church was ‘American Martyrs’, I was a little worried. I mean, martyrs? This sounds a touch sketchy. Turns out it’s just a weird name, it’s a great church.
I probably couldn’t list the things I look for in a church. And even if I could, they’d all be fuzzy things like ‘vibe’ and ‘aura’ and ‘feel’. But regardless (irregardless isn’t a word), I like it so far. The sermon was good, the people were friendly, if not a bit…ah…monocultural, perhaps, nice facilities, good…um…vibe, nice…aura…you get my drift. The priest even closed off mass with this line:
‘And all of you single, young adults out there, try and get together with each other so that we can enjoy a continued…influx of people as priests and nuns.’
Note how the second half of that sentence has absolutely nothing to do with the first half. Could it be that God took command of his words just for my benefit, being a young, single adult (who hates being single), and then left him hanging for the second half? I believe the answer is a resounding maybe! Heh. I’ve never been a particularly rabid seeker of ‘signs’, but you have to admit that any church that gives directions to get out and meet people should get some sort of gold star, eh?
I also managed to find/meet the aforementioned Chris, and he showed me around a bit and introduced me to some people. This church even has a ‘Young Adult’ group. *I’m* a young adult! I could go! I got invited to the ‘Lifeteen’ gathering after church by several people, and was forced to note that I’m…ah…not a teen. Heh.
There were some other ‘telling’ moments, too. I liked the homily. It was about finding our weaknesses and working to strengthen them. I think having gone to church only about 10 times in the last year counts as a weakness. For comparison, the last time I went to church back in SLO, the homily was about the financial state of the church. Not spiritually uplifting stuff.
So I’ll give the church some more nods in the coming weeks, but I think we’ve got a strong candidate for ‘my church’ here. This is good news, if you’re me.
Anyone else out there think I’m doing too many things all at once? Working and classes, and TKD and drumming and now church? Hope everything will fit. I may have to give up some of my other hobbies. Like browsing the Internet in search of naughty pictures. I think I can do that, though. :)
Mylinh’s party was pretty great. We went to Koji’s Restaurant. (No link because their site is busted.) I had Shabu shabu. Good stuff. We went to Highlands afterwards. There was a whole mess of us, but for some reason we had to do some obnoxious song-and-dance to get in. Not get in ‘special’ or anything. Just get in. This is why I hate Hollywood clubs. Pretentious snobbery is next to narcissism, which is next to ASS. The doorman reminded us of a hall monitor. Drunk with non-existent power. I guess that’s how you maintain a reputation around here, though. Guess I’ll be sticking to my dance-friendly techno clubs instead.
There was almost a fight in there too. Not any of us, of course. We’re all *entirely* too good-natured to be starting fights. I missed the drama, too. I just noticed everyone was looking in the same direction, and when I turned around there were a bunch of bouncers standing around looking…well…big, and some guys giving each other ‘the look’. Personally, I don’t have the energy to be that angry at anything that late at night. Perhaps if I drank more. Heh.
I wasn’t picking up on any of the ladies, quite, but at least I got some good conversations going with people I’ve never met before. That’s good practice. Perhaps I’ll go lady-hunting someday, perhaps not. It’s good to cultivate people-impressing skills either way.
All told, though, good times, good friends, good stuff.
Oh, and Sakina got busy today and couldn’t come over to learn how to swim. Her loss.
All right, enough of this tomfoolery. I’m going to go enjoy the last few hours of my mini-vacation. Ta!
-N
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Behold...I say unto thee—behold!
Myes! It has arrived! I have taken the plunge. I am now the rather proud owner of a set of electronic drums. I spent much of yesterday checking out the cool options. They have the standard array of drum sounds, and of course the similarly standard array of funky sounds that are cool to have on a set of electronic drums. Like your BEEE-yooooowww. And your Baweeba-WEEP! And your bricka-bricka. And your twoooooo…ooooWWW! It’s pretty great.
I’m missing a single piece, at this exact moment; the kick beater. I have one ordered, and according to UPS tracking, it will be at my house at approximately 1:00 today. So being, as it is, my week off from classes, and having, as I do, a new set of electronic drums, I’m going to stop work at 1:00 today, go home, get my kick beater, and spend the rest of the weekend in a drug-trip like haze of drumming, video games, and the occasional ‘social trip’.
I do have some things planned for this weekend. One is Mylinh’s party. Happy birthday Mylinh! We’re going out to get some Sushi and then hit Highlands, a club. Should be some post-modern-esque rockin’. Also, Derek and I are going to meet up with a guy we met at Raytheon who trains at Dan Innosanto’s Martial arts academy. Jeet Kun Do. That means he does Brazilian ground-fighting, and that means he could whup the tar out of either Derek or me without breaking a sweat. Probably both of us at the same time, too. Also, I’m going to teach Sakina how to swim. You know, for the Hawaii trip. You’ve got to learn how to swim. Or at least float. Mary was supposed to teach, but she is…well…a flake.
But yeah, I shore am looking forward to my extra-long weekend. And then, of course, to the *sheer joy* that is my masters classes. Well, hopefully it will be bearable enough. Hoping, at least. At least I don’t have to work any more Fridays. Yay fellowship!
Okay, gonna beat up my MATlab code. Who-PAH! I’m pretty sure my drum can make *that* sound, too.
-N
Myes! It has arrived! I have taken the plunge. I am now the rather proud owner of a set of electronic drums. I spent much of yesterday checking out the cool options. They have the standard array of drum sounds, and of course the similarly standard array of funky sounds that are cool to have on a set of electronic drums. Like your BEEE-yooooowww. And your Baweeba-WEEP! And your bricka-bricka. And your twoooooo…ooooWWW! It’s pretty great.
I’m missing a single piece, at this exact moment; the kick beater. I have one ordered, and according to UPS tracking, it will be at my house at approximately 1:00 today. So being, as it is, my week off from classes, and having, as I do, a new set of electronic drums, I’m going to stop work at 1:00 today, go home, get my kick beater, and spend the rest of the weekend in a drug-trip like haze of drumming, video games, and the occasional ‘social trip’.
I do have some things planned for this weekend. One is Mylinh’s party. Happy birthday Mylinh! We’re going out to get some Sushi and then hit Highlands, a club. Should be some post-modern-esque rockin’. Also, Derek and I are going to meet up with a guy we met at Raytheon who trains at Dan Innosanto’s Martial arts academy. Jeet Kun Do. That means he does Brazilian ground-fighting, and that means he could whup the tar out of either Derek or me without breaking a sweat. Probably both of us at the same time, too. Also, I’m going to teach Sakina how to swim. You know, for the Hawaii trip. You’ve got to learn how to swim. Or at least float. Mary was supposed to teach, but she is…well…a flake.
But yeah, I shore am looking forward to my extra-long weekend. And then, of course, to the *sheer joy* that is my masters classes. Well, hopefully it will be bearable enough. Hoping, at least. At least I don’t have to work any more Fridays. Yay fellowship!
Okay, gonna beat up my MATlab code. Who-PAH! I’m pretty sure my drum can make *that* sound, too.
-N
Monday, August 16, 2004
Very little happened this weekend. I like having those nothing-to-do weekends every once in a while. They’re rarer still now that I’m taking classes. I did manage to do a few useful things this weekend. For one, I replaced the ugly steel monstrosity in my bedroom with a *far* superior bookcase from IKEA. Call me a slave to the anonymous corporate landscape that churns out identical furniture for people that have no identity of their own, but I just like their stuff. I like those modern, clean lines. And you can’t beat the price, you just can’t. As far as I’m concerned, that’s all I need. Anyway, it’s just stuff. I also got a little table to go in the living room for putting plates and food and the like on. It replaces a cardboard box that we had been using. I think it’s a step up.
I also washed my car. It got attacked by a swarm of birds with diarrhea a few days ago when I was at TKD. I parked under a tree. Normally that tree isn’t too vicious, but there were some passing gipsy-birds that seemed intent to paint my car white. I can stand a dusty car, but one covered with bird droppings is a touch lowbrow. I’m still getting used to having to wash my car, too. It never rains down here. Just…never.
Other than that, not much, man, not much. Did some exercise, played some video games. I’m planning to take some time off this week and do some ‘hardcore goofing-off’; because I can, and because I don’t have classes to get in the way. Hawaii trip on the horizon? Why yes, I do believe it is. Hoping for a super-good time. And Mary looks like she needs the rest. She looks pretty beat-down.
Brmmrmmmmm…nothing else to write. Later!
-N
I also washed my car. It got attacked by a swarm of birds with diarrhea a few days ago when I was at TKD. I parked under a tree. Normally that tree isn’t too vicious, but there were some passing gipsy-birds that seemed intent to paint my car white. I can stand a dusty car, but one covered with bird droppings is a touch lowbrow. I’m still getting used to having to wash my car, too. It never rains down here. Just…never.
Other than that, not much, man, not much. Did some exercise, played some video games. I’m planning to take some time off this week and do some ‘hardcore goofing-off’; because I can, and because I don’t have classes to get in the way. Hawaii trip on the horizon? Why yes, I do believe it is. Hoping for a super-good time. And Mary looks like she needs the rest. She looks pretty beat-down.
Brmmrmmmmm…nothing else to write. Later!
-N
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Ack! And something else phenomenal happened recently, too, and I totally forgot to mention it. I finished yet another class. Basic algebra dictates that I am now 1/3 done with my masters degree…the slow third. If the theory follows the practice, I should be done with my masters degree by the end of 2005. Not too shabby, if you ask me.
But anyway, the final. I think I did pretty well. I managed to get something down for every problem, a few I was darned near *sure* of, and I was flat-out stumped on a pleasantly slim portion of the test. All-in-all, I’m really quite pleased with the results. I have to admit, though, that I felt quite lucky to discover that the last three subjects we covered in the class were *not* to be covered on the final. That’s three fewer things for me to learn, and that’s a statistic I can live with.
The ultimate outcome of the final, and the class in general, won’t be known for a little while longer, but I’m expecting the grades to be up any day now. With luck I’ll be able to report back that I pulled a big fat A in the class. That’d make me darn-near swell with pride. As a matter of fact, I might talk about swelling for my next entry. Don’t worry, it’s the good kind of swelling.
Ta Ducks,
-N
But anyway, the final. I think I did pretty well. I managed to get something down for every problem, a few I was darned near *sure* of, and I was flat-out stumped on a pleasantly slim portion of the test. All-in-all, I’m really quite pleased with the results. I have to admit, though, that I felt quite lucky to discover that the last three subjects we covered in the class were *not* to be covered on the final. That’s three fewer things for me to learn, and that’s a statistic I can live with.
The ultimate outcome of the final, and the class in general, won’t be known for a little while longer, but I’m expecting the grades to be up any day now. With luck I’ll be able to report back that I pulled a big fat A in the class. That’d make me darn-near swell with pride. As a matter of fact, I might talk about swelling for my next entry. Don’t worry, it’s the good kind of swelling.
Ta Ducks,
-N
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Buying a new computer, discuss:
I pretty obviously need a new computer at this point. Well…okay, it’s not exactly obvious, but let’s just say I’m not mentally debating the point much anymore. My computer is old, its seams are starting to show, and I’m not entirely sure for how long it will even continue to work correctly. Hopefully a long time, but I’m not taking any bets on that point. It’s about 4 years old at this point, that’s proper refresh-time no matter how luddite-tastic you are.
Consider, then, what kind of computer to get. I’ve always liked Alienware, despite the fact that I’ve never actually *owned* one. They seem to come out with some pretty good systems on a fairly regular basis. Thom seems to disagree, and I could debate the point despite the fact that I have no evidence to the contrary by using techniques perfected by forum-trolls throughout the Internet. Namely, caps lock and baseless, barely coherent insults. (‘OMG U R SO STUPIDZ00RZ!!!!!!111 ALI3NW4RE R00X00RZ!!!1eleven1). But either way, it’s probably a moot argument. How come?
I’m probably going to go with Dell (sorry, Becca). Disagree if you will, but I have nothing but good things to say about them, and the most damning evidence that anyone is likely to come up with is probably anecdotal (My aunt had a Dell that broke and they were lame!), but I’ve never had a problem with them, and they build some good systems, in my book.
Here’s my toss into the anecdotal evidence pool, though. When I first bought this computer it had a 40-gig hard drive. It failed within about a month of me buying it. I was able to back-up all of my stuff, though, lucky me, and since I had the warranty, they sent a guy out to fix my problem. He came along with a 70-gig replacement to my broken 40-gig drive, fixed the problem, and I haven’t heard a peep out of the computer since. Well, there was an issue with the network card when I moved, but I’m blaming that on windows, since an upgrade fixed it.
Something I noticed, though. I went to Dell’s website to check out their computers and, of course, I started off with their highest-end system. Truth be told, I was a little disappointed, because the system along the caliber I want/wanted was a bit more than I wanted to pay. Downer. Strangely enough, though, when I went down one ‘class’ of computers, I was able to configure almost the exact same system as before, but for nearly 1000$ less. Holy fish sticks! I can’t imagine why the other version is so much more. It might be a case/power supply thing, but 1000$? A little strange is all.
Dad’s been sending me notes from the Cosco website about Dell systems that they’re selling. Certainly tempting, but I think I’m actually going to wait for a *leetle* bit more time before I take the plunge and get the new system. It’s a budget/timing thing, really. If it were up to me, I’d have three top-of-the line systems shipped to my home address tomorrow evening, but you have to pay for that kind of service, and I…uh…can’t. Heh. Besides, waiting to buy technology is always a good idea. Perhaps something new will come out that I *absolutely must have*.
Then, of course, comes the part where I convert my machine from a mere ‘really awesome computer’ to a super-swift ‘audio workstation’. I finally found a place that is really good at outlining how to do it, from the very, very basics!
www.tweakheadz.com
Bad spelling aside, it’s a great place to start if you’re curious about how the whole ‘building your own audio-studio’ thing works. Being an EE helps, though. [Blows on knuckles.]
Essentially all I’ll have to get is an ‘audio interface’ for my computer, which is little more than a really, really good sound card. More expensive, of course, but it sure beats trying to get a 20 channel mixer and outboard processors for everything you want to do. Then I just need an inexpensive midi controller, a couple of microphones for any recording I want to do, and the rest is all software. Not cheap software, granted, but cheaper than the equivalent hardware, that’s for sure. Once I’ve got the studio set up, the rest is experimentation. That’s the fun part. That’s where music comes from. Can you taste the anticipation?
Soon, though, soon. Everything in its place. There is a plan in the works.
Ta,
-N
I pretty obviously need a new computer at this point. Well…okay, it’s not exactly obvious, but let’s just say I’m not mentally debating the point much anymore. My computer is old, its seams are starting to show, and I’m not entirely sure for how long it will even continue to work correctly. Hopefully a long time, but I’m not taking any bets on that point. It’s about 4 years old at this point, that’s proper refresh-time no matter how luddite-tastic you are.
Consider, then, what kind of computer to get. I’ve always liked Alienware, despite the fact that I’ve never actually *owned* one. They seem to come out with some pretty good systems on a fairly regular basis. Thom seems to disagree, and I could debate the point despite the fact that I have no evidence to the contrary by using techniques perfected by forum-trolls throughout the Internet. Namely, caps lock and baseless, barely coherent insults. (‘OMG U R SO STUPIDZ00RZ!!!!!!111 ALI3NW4RE R00X00RZ!!!1eleven1). But either way, it’s probably a moot argument. How come?
I’m probably going to go with Dell (sorry, Becca). Disagree if you will, but I have nothing but good things to say about them, and the most damning evidence that anyone is likely to come up with is probably anecdotal (My aunt had a Dell that broke and they were lame!), but I’ve never had a problem with them, and they build some good systems, in my book.
Here’s my toss into the anecdotal evidence pool, though. When I first bought this computer it had a 40-gig hard drive. It failed within about a month of me buying it. I was able to back-up all of my stuff, though, lucky me, and since I had the warranty, they sent a guy out to fix my problem. He came along with a 70-gig replacement to my broken 40-gig drive, fixed the problem, and I haven’t heard a peep out of the computer since. Well, there was an issue with the network card when I moved, but I’m blaming that on windows, since an upgrade fixed it.
Something I noticed, though. I went to Dell’s website to check out their computers and, of course, I started off with their highest-end system. Truth be told, I was a little disappointed, because the system along the caliber I want/wanted was a bit more than I wanted to pay. Downer. Strangely enough, though, when I went down one ‘class’ of computers, I was able to configure almost the exact same system as before, but for nearly 1000$ less. Holy fish sticks! I can’t imagine why the other version is so much more. It might be a case/power supply thing, but 1000$? A little strange is all.
Dad’s been sending me notes from the Cosco website about Dell systems that they’re selling. Certainly tempting, but I think I’m actually going to wait for a *leetle* bit more time before I take the plunge and get the new system. It’s a budget/timing thing, really. If it were up to me, I’d have three top-of-the line systems shipped to my home address tomorrow evening, but you have to pay for that kind of service, and I…uh…can’t. Heh. Besides, waiting to buy technology is always a good idea. Perhaps something new will come out that I *absolutely must have*.
Then, of course, comes the part where I convert my machine from a mere ‘really awesome computer’ to a super-swift ‘audio workstation’. I finally found a place that is really good at outlining how to do it, from the very, very basics!
www.tweakheadz.com
Bad spelling aside, it’s a great place to start if you’re curious about how the whole ‘building your own audio-studio’ thing works. Being an EE helps, though. [Blows on knuckles.]
Essentially all I’ll have to get is an ‘audio interface’ for my computer, which is little more than a really, really good sound card. More expensive, of course, but it sure beats trying to get a 20 channel mixer and outboard processors for everything you want to do. Then I just need an inexpensive midi controller, a couple of microphones for any recording I want to do, and the rest is all software. Not cheap software, granted, but cheaper than the equivalent hardware, that’s for sure. Once I’ve got the studio set up, the rest is experimentation. That’s the fun part. That’s where music comes from. Can you taste the anticipation?
Soon, though, soon. Everything in its place. There is a plan in the works.
Ta,
-N
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
The word of the day is 'Draconian’.
Oh, don’t get me wrong. I know sometimes people use that ‘word of the day’ expression to indicate a theme or idea that has been running through the day. Don’t get that impression. Nothing particularly draconian has happened today. I just do a ‘word of the day’ for fun.
It started back before I was doing the GRE’s. I figured it would be a good way to expand my vocabulary. Not that I expected it to greatly sway my GRE scores or anything, and not that the English score is particularly important for getting into the engineering graduate class at USC, but word-of-the day lists are pretty fun. I just like words; especially words that are fun to say.
I get my word lists from a few places. Here’s a great one: World Wide Words. Check out the ‘Weird word index’ for some great ones. Or just navigate the site. It’s chock-full of random word trivia. One guy wrote the whole site, too. Amazing. Past words-of-the day have included Lycanthropy, Obsequious, and Honorificabilitudinitatibus. Pretty cool eh?
Well, I think it's cool.
In other news, the weekend went quite well, though I spent entirely too much effort, in my opinion, on homework. I ended up spending much of Saturday and a bit of Sunday morning on it, and this is the homework that I accomplished half of last week.
Well, the good news is that the class is nearly over. August 9th is the final. I’m excited to be done with the class as much as anything. Plus I have a whole three days (unenthusiastic ‘ye-haw’) to study for the midterm. Woot.
Check it out . That’s the electronic drum kit that I want to buy. Not cheap, really, but they get much more expensive than that. It seems well-regarded as an entry-level thing. I could see spending more on a better system later, but only if it becomes a *serious* hobby. Drumming, that is. Music is a serious hobby. So is TKD. I have a lot of other miscellaneous hobbies (movies, writing, etc…) but nothing that warrants investments of time and energy that I put into TKD or music. And music to a lesser extent, but that’s only been of late. I’m really hoping that having a studio will get me past that ‘can’t create what I want’ hump. We’ll see, we’ll see.
It’s finally hit! Doom 3 is out. And guess what? My computer is too slow to play it. That’s right. I was teetering on the edge with City of Heroes, but managed to upgrade myself to keep my teeth-skin firmly gripping the edge of the technology cliff. But now, all has been lost. I have lost my grip. I am plummeting down an endless pit toward a land where technology goes to die.
But fear not, friends. With the acquisition of studio-stuff comes, probably, a new computer! W00t! Just take any computer that’s good at audio stuff, slap in a good video card, and *bam*, you are the proud owner of an audio/gaming rig. Pretty slick. I’ll probably get it from Dell; or, barring that, AlienWare, makers of some of the sweetest high-end computers available.
Ugh, that was the most boring blog entry in the world. I’ll try and make the next one more interesting.
Ta,
-N
Oh, don’t get me wrong. I know sometimes people use that ‘word of the day’ expression to indicate a theme or idea that has been running through the day. Don’t get that impression. Nothing particularly draconian has happened today. I just do a ‘word of the day’ for fun.
It started back before I was doing the GRE’s. I figured it would be a good way to expand my vocabulary. Not that I expected it to greatly sway my GRE scores or anything, and not that the English score is particularly important for getting into the engineering graduate class at USC, but word-of-the day lists are pretty fun. I just like words; especially words that are fun to say.
I get my word lists from a few places. Here’s a great one: World Wide Words. Check out the ‘Weird word index’ for some great ones. Or just navigate the site. It’s chock-full of random word trivia. One guy wrote the whole site, too. Amazing. Past words-of-the day have included Lycanthropy, Obsequious, and Honorificabilitudinitatibus. Pretty cool eh?
Well, I think it's cool.
In other news, the weekend went quite well, though I spent entirely too much effort, in my opinion, on homework. I ended up spending much of Saturday and a bit of Sunday morning on it, and this is the homework that I accomplished half of last week.
Well, the good news is that the class is nearly over. August 9th is the final. I’m excited to be done with the class as much as anything. Plus I have a whole three days (unenthusiastic ‘ye-haw’) to study for the midterm. Woot.
Check it out . That’s the electronic drum kit that I want to buy. Not cheap, really, but they get much more expensive than that. It seems well-regarded as an entry-level thing. I could see spending more on a better system later, but only if it becomes a *serious* hobby. Drumming, that is. Music is a serious hobby. So is TKD. I have a lot of other miscellaneous hobbies (movies, writing, etc…) but nothing that warrants investments of time and energy that I put into TKD or music. And music to a lesser extent, but that’s only been of late. I’m really hoping that having a studio will get me past that ‘can’t create what I want’ hump. We’ll see, we’ll see.
It’s finally hit! Doom 3 is out. And guess what? My computer is too slow to play it. That’s right. I was teetering on the edge with City of Heroes, but managed to upgrade myself to keep my teeth-skin firmly gripping the edge of the technology cliff. But now, all has been lost. I have lost my grip. I am plummeting down an endless pit toward a land where technology goes to die.
But fear not, friends. With the acquisition of studio-stuff comes, probably, a new computer! W00t! Just take any computer that’s good at audio stuff, slap in a good video card, and *bam*, you are the proud owner of an audio/gaming rig. Pretty slick. I’ll probably get it from Dell; or, barring that, AlienWare, makers of some of the sweetest high-end computers available.
Ugh, that was the most boring blog entry in the world. I’ll try and make the next one more interesting.
Ta,
-N
