Odds n ends

So I want everyone to breath a deep sigh of relief: I have successfully avoided a post concerning religion. I was considering it and then said to myself "WTF? RU RETARDED???!!! IDK WUT UR THINKING!!!11!!!ONE!"

So instead I'm going to just toss out a few odds and ends for your consideration:

I find myself annoyed by musicians who use their music as a forum for 'sharing' their political opinions. Yes, even when I am in agreement with them. Rationally I understand that they, like many people, want to share their opinions and thoughts with others. And I understand that their music is a natural method that they can use to communicate with us, the masses. So why do I still find it so hard to deal with. The band that flipped this switch for me is Filter. I've been listening to their last album and the entire thing is a huge political diatribe against the war in Iraq. Fundamentally I'm against the war too, and if the Filter guy and I were to sit down and share ideas we might be close to agreeing. That said, I really don't want to have that crap interfering with my enjoyment of the music. Discuss.

Anyway, that's number one.

Over the last 8 months or so, I've been averaging a few thousand words written each day. There have been periods where I am in between projects and doing editing or preparing query letters, etc, so the numbers aren't there. But there have also been days where I crank out in the 10k range. I feel really good about the whole thing: even if I never get published, I'll eventually die knowing that I pursued this dream hard core. I'm currently plowing into my third novel of the year. The second one is a rough draft, currently being read by my mother (God love her) and my first is being read and considered by an agent. If I fail, it won't be for lack of trying.

Finally, I find myself a Cub Scout Dad. How the HELL did this happen to me? Where did I go wrong? What crime did I commit that Karma has revisited this back on me?? In the last month, I've sold cub scout popcorn outside Jewel (grocery store), worked the concession stand at Bingo Night at the Moose Lodge (we get the proceeds from that for our yearly cubscout purse) and took Theo to a huge reenactment of pioneer days in America called The Trail of History (I wanted to rename it something more apt like The Day Where Grown Men Sit Around All Day Firing Off A Cannon).

I can't decide what was stranger: the bingo night, or the frontier days knockoff. They were both mega-freaky. Bingo night was EXACTLY like the stereotypes! I always thought that it was greatly exaggerated. For those who read this that actually go to bingo night somewhere, forgive me. I LOVE BINGO!! whew.

And the Trail of History. That was completely nutso. It was like Ren Faire for American settlers time. Everyone in costume, displays, things being sold and made. There were Red Coats and Minutemen walking all over the place. There was some guy who had set up his frontier days blacksmithy. There was a dentist from that time period (read: torture specialist). All kinds of other things like that.

Oh, and I go to a weekly pack or den meeting. Theo seems to love it, so I'll take the shot to my ever fading sense of coolness (which was tiny and pathetic to begin with...) on his behalf. The things we do for parenthood.

Anyone wanna buy some caramel popcorn? stop it me. now.

musical revival

So until recently it's been over ten years since I touched my guitar with any kind of serious intent to play it. I've tried a few times over the years to get myself back into it, but it hasn't ever stuck.

I reached this point because shortly after "retiring" from the band I was in, and a few days before starting my first job in software development (an internship at the University of Arizona), I broke a finger on each hand. Imagine the sheer nerve of me showing up for my first paying job with each hand sporting a splint. My boss just stared at me for a few moments. I hunted and pecked for a few weeks.

Anyway, my guitar playing was put on hold during that time, and then the sheer pace of life kept me from returning to it.

A little over a month ago, on a whim I purchased Cakewalk's Music Creator. It's a software virtual musical studio. It's lightweight, easy to use and comes packed with virtual instruments ranging from the parts of an orchestra to a bunch of synthesizers. Since then I've been writing a song a night; I use the term 'song' a bit loosely. In some cases it's a complete song, and in other cases it's just a section of a song. As a side effect of this I pick my guitar up several times a day and it's been great fun.

I'm currently saving up for a usb audio interface so I can plug my guitar directly into the computer and record tracks with the software. And then I'd like to get a Gibson SG and a fender tube amp. And a wah pedal. Maybe a vocoder rig. And then I want to teach myself drums: it's been a blast creating drum lines on this software. Some of the lines I've written probably aren't actually possible for one drummer to play w/o grafting a third arm onto their torso. Good luck w/that.

Somewhere in this house, Emily is cringing. So I'll assure her that the only part I'm serious about is the audio interface. And the SG. And..and..