I got my new toy, and it’s great. I spent a ton of today creating instrument-specific sounds for my electric, acoustic, bass, and SM-58. This was after I got woken up at 9 AM for a silly cholesterol check (story forthcoming by J).
The unit hooks up to my iMac via USB, and has its own program to create and edit sounds. It also hooks right into GarageBand. I used all of the sounds I made today to create a work of art (click here for the mp3). Amazing lyrical content provided by Jill.
My huge toy went out this morning:
I can’t wait! I keep listening for the truck outside.
Jill went to BJ’s this morning with our friend Shannon to buy lots of stuff in bulk. Our closest grocery store is one of those that sells the same stuff as the cheaper ones, but try to make it look like a fancy place and charge more for everything. For instance, they follow you out to your car with your groceries every time. This is a bit uncomfortable at times, I feel like a slave owner. So I’m glad Jill went to get a lot of goods in bulk, it will save a lot of money in the long run. I wonder if they have steak in bulk?
Yay for ben! He’s the handyman of the year! Neither of us are really fix-it people…but yesterday ben was! Our tub has had a slow clog and it’s gotten bad enough that I asked if we should call a plumber. Well, ben made a little sticky-hooky thing and ended up bringing 3 dreadlocks worth of hair out of the drain!! yuck, yuck, yuck. So, hip hip hooray for ben. AND he wanted a snack (usually he eats largh quantities of candy or junk) and he chose an ORANGE!!! AND without prompting he wore a TIE to thanksgiving dinner! first he’s worn since our wedding! 
there you have it .
I have never gotton into the Christmas holiday as I have this year. I’ve been playing Christmas music, have already wrapped presents, and feel like today is acually Christmas because of the school break and the yummy food a brewin’! Today we’ll be at my parents place, and will have a lovely pumpkin cake to celebrate Jayne & Mom birthday! It was very fun to make! Happy Thanksgiving to all! 
I recently sold my Yamaha PSR-530, a nice keyboard I got for a present about 10 years ago. I was amazed to get what I did for it – if it was a computer 10 years old it would be worth less than zero. Apparently keyboards don’t lose value as quickly, or it is just a tried-and-true model.
Anyway, with about half of the proceeds I got a new USB keyboard that interfaces with GarageBand, my multi-tracking/recording software. It came yesterday, and sounds great! It’s small and has the benefit of only using one cable (powered by the USB cable).
Also this week my effects processor for my guitar should be arriving! The one that I forfeited all Christmas and birthday presents for So I’ve been doing some recording, and I’ll most likely be doing more later this week.
Yeah, it’s sick again. This computer’s been in the shop 3 times now. Twice for a motherboard issue, and now for a power supply/heat sink issue. Jill’s dad (Rick) generously offered to take me up to Burlington to have it dropped off, as our other car is in the shop too. The computers at the store don’t have a terminal installed, so I download a shell emulator online I’m so geeky. Then I used FTP to send the pictures home we took from an iSight with a black & white filter:
Anyway I’m getting kind of tired of driving all the way up to Burlington for this thing, and it’s not under warranty now either 
Such is the life of a nerd – sooner or later all computers have problems, kind of like cars.
Oh, before I start rambling about Perl, we went to Dan & Kim’s house last night for a viewing of X-Men 3. Dan works with expensive sound equipment, and brought home $30,000 worth of it for the occasion. Yes, it sounded great! Not that I can really appreciate the difference, it’s way over my head. I was fun playing old-school NES Ice Hockey with it. Using professional quality sound equipment (5 speakers + a huge bass amp) for 8-bit sound is just… awesome.
We also had a great wine-tasting party this past week, but I’ll let Jill tell you about that one. I think we have some pictures to get uploaded too from that and the movie party.
So this finance project I’ve been rambling about and working obsessively on – it’s done! It’s a web-friendly personal finance program designed for ease of use and great processing of data. If you want to try it out, email me for the link! Right now it’s “invitationware”.
Back from an awesome weekend on Nantucket! Jayne and I drove down Friday to get on island for our cousins wedding on Saturday. We stayed in an amazing & beautiful old house within walking distance from the town center and loved it! The wedding was most touching one I have been too in a while – My uncle was the pastor marrying his daughter off….lets just say I was friendly with my tissue So, a great weekend. The adventure ended with the 2 of us taking a tiny plane back to Hyannis because no boats were running all day with the windy weather. A great trip
