Month: April 2014

The Phrase of the Day

The phrase of the day is…

Deer Poop.

The kids and I just went outside to clean up the winter’s worth of trash and junk that had blown into the yard and the woods surrounding the yard. I delved deep into the wilderness to grab two plastic bags that were messing with all my deer pics. On the way there I found a lot… and I do mean a lot… of deer poop.

Suddenly I have so much respect for Patches and her litter box.

Updated Flickr iOS App

The Flickr iOS app has be redesigned. It’s okay. Black backgrounds, somewhat similar look and feel to the updated Flickr photo pages that are rolling out now. Not bad. Not awesome. Just pretty good. I messed with the filters. They are good. Not Hipstamatic or Camera+ good, but good.

20140418-081140.jpg

Distant Vacation Home?

Did you read this? They found what is probably a rocky planet inside a star’s habitable zone!

What do they know about it? It orbits a red dwarf, so I would guess the year would be much shorter than Earth’s. They know it’s size is comparable to Earth. They don’t know jack else except that it’s something like 500 light years away, so don’t be planning your vacation quite yet. Even the Millennium Falcon would need hundreds of years to get there (as she only makes 0.5 past light speed).

What they do know, is that if the atmosphere (assuming [hoping] there is an atmosphere) and the pressure play nicely water could exist as a liquid on the surface. They’ve found planets in the habitable zone before, but none of them had a size similar to Earth. Some of the others might be rocky, but they were all big enough that there was a good chance they’d be gas.

So what does this mean? Honestly? For your every day life it means squat. For the potential of finding a second planet to live on if we somehow manage to create a propulsion system that wouldn’t require 1000 years of travel? It’s pretty freakin’ huge news.

Now they need to try and figure out what it’s made of, what it has for an atmosphere, and if maybe it might have some water on the surface, and if there might be some algae living in the water.

Science RULES!

Productive Music Day

Let’s see, where was the April music project the last time I mentioned it. Seven songs partially recorded, three getting as far as the full arrangement, lyrics and vocals and all. Two more songs that consisted of just one riff, and one planned song from the roaring 90’s that I wanted to do but hadn’t started yet.

Where are we today? I started the 90’s song Tuesday night. Just the different sections on bass and drums. Last night I added the rhythm guitar. I also took one of the single riff things and recorded rhythm guitar, bass, and drums for a songs worth of sections. The second riff has advanced to a single fully recorded riff, but it’s still only sixteen bars.

Oh and today I wrote and recorded the vocals parts for three more songs.

That’s nine songs with the music completely written, although not necessarily fully arranged, one song partially written, and six songs with finished vocals. There is also the one old song that already has lyrics, but that kinda doesn’t count.

Musically speaking, I’ve had a decent couple of days. Nothing ready to mix yet. No lead guitars anywhere. But good progress made.