Author: robertjames1971

I'm wicked tall.

I Have a Good One for This

Bloganuary writing prompt
Name an attraction or town close to home that you still haven’t got around to visiting.
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Oh yeah, I have a good answer for this prompt. I live in Methuen, MA right on the Massachusetts/New Hampshire state line. The town next door to us is Salem, NH (not to be confused with the witch trials in Salem, MA). There is a pre-colonial site in Salem that I have never been to but will visit (with my camera) one of these days.

It is called America’s Stonehenge.

I don’t have a lot of time to work on this post right now so let me see if the AI assistant can write a description of the place…

Located in Salem, New Hampshire, America’s Stonehenge is a mysterious pre-colonial archaeological site shrouded in intrigue. This enigmatic complex features a series of stone structures, chambers, and astronomical alignments, sparking numerous theories and debates about its origins and purpose. Believed to be over 4,000 years old, it is often compared to England’s Stonehenge due to its fascinating alignments with solar and lunar events. Visitors can explore the site, ponder the enigmatic stone structures, and delve into the captivating history and speculation surrounding this ancient enigma.

A.I. Assistant, because Robert was too busy (and possibly too lazy) to write a little description himself

This site has been on my to-do list for years and years. When I first got my first DSLR camera in 2009 I made a list of places to photograph and American’s Stonehenge was on the list. I never got there though… possibly because the place is supposed to be a bit of a joke. I mentioned it to my wife once, ages ago, and she said she wanted to visit it with me. Maybe this year, once the weather improves, will be the year. Then the next time the daily prompt asks this same exact question (it will happen at some point, we all know it) I will have to think harder to come up with a response.

Until then… queue the Spinal Tap song (which I would find a copy of on youtube if I wasn’t so busy right now).

(Non) Daily Haiku for You #134

I took two hours of sick time to bring the cat to the vet. Now my internal clock/calendar is convinced it’s not Tuesday when it is in fact Tuesday. Let’s write a haiku about it and see if it exorcises this particular demon….

Messed up inner clock,
Keeps telling me it’s Thursday.
That’s not even close!

Nope… my idiotic brain is still telling me it’s Thursday. Shit.

Home and Healthy

Lily is home with a clean bill of health. She got a couple of shots, which doesn’t make her happy, and she had her nails clipped. Other than that, she’s back to normal. The vet staff said she was friendly and wonderful and not a gremlin at all.

I still feel like a prison guard every time I put a cat into the carrier. Lily is done now, but Robin goes to the vet on Friday. 

Car Music: 2024

Was today the first car music of 2024? I think so. 

I snuck out of the house a few minutes after 7:30, got to the movie theater parking lot (which wasn’t quite as empty as I like it to be) by 7:40 and recorded vocals for two songs until 8:25. I didn’t have time for any more, and even if I did I might not have. It was a struggle today. My voice was very scratchy and I’m not terribly pleased with the results… then again I am never pleased with the results so what difference does it make?

The upside is I now have two songs that are ready for lead guitars. The downside is that I have no calluses on the fingers on my left hand so recording lead guitars is going to hurt a bit. I can hack it though. I’m practically a pro at this… not really… whatever.

Here’s the view of my “studio” today:

There was a truck parked right next to my usual spot so I had to move over a few rows.

In closing, here is the obligatory clock picture:

145/365
145/365

Fun Things

Bloganuary writing prompt
List five things you do for fun.
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Five things I do for fun… I can do that, I think…

  • Spend time with my family. Jen, Bellana, and Harry. My wife and my two step kids. Anything any of us do together is more fun than I know how to describe. Even if we are just sitting around doing nothing, I love every second of it. I don’t think this needs any more detail. I love them and I love being with them.
  • Music. Playing it, listening to it, writing it, recording it, sharing it with other people, going to concerts, performing in concert. All of it. I love it. I always have. Guitar, saxophone, once for a year or so trumpet. It has more or less defined me since I was about 10 years old. Maybe even younger. 
  • Photography. I don’t call myself a photographer. I call myself an amateur hack who takes lots of pictures. Digital, film, iPhone, you name it. Even video, sometimes. I like going out and taking pictures. I like being home taking pictures. I like taking pictures.
  • Travel. Road trips, longer plane trips. Anything and anywhere. Going to different places and seeing new things is so much fun. Me, Jen, the kids if they are available. Let’s just hop in the car and go somewhere. 
  • One more… You can do this, Robert… Lately it’s been binge watching TV. We can throw watching movies into this too. Lately I have been diving head first into science fiction TV. What’s the deal, AppleTV? They just keep dropping excellent sci-fi on us and I am here for it. We can include watching sports here too. Hockey and baseball are the games for me. Harry and I went to a hockey game in person a few weeks ago and it’s reminded me how much I enjoy being in the room where a game happens. I used to have season tickets for minor league hockey and baseball teams and I used to go to NHL and MLB games multiple times a year. I forgot how much I missed it. 

Okay, there you go. Five things that I do for fun. Sweet.

No Music This Morning

I didn’t play my guitar this morning. I had to punch in to work early to get some paperwork wrapped up before the start of the business day so I spent my time on that instead of music. A fair trade, I guess.

The plan for tomorrow is car vocals. Get up early, do my exercise, have breakfast, hop into the car and drive to an empty parking lot and sing like a deaf canary. Epic. I have six songs in the current volume of The Great 2015 Re-Recording Project that are ready for vocals. Maybe I can pick off two of them. If things go really well, maybe three. I spend more time on the re-recording stuff than on the usual demo projects. I want them to be better than usual, even though I am a crappy singer and they end up sounding equally as garbagey. 

Last night before bed I spent some time adding guide tracks to some of the songs. Just a MIDI piano playing (roughly) the vocal melody and harmony parts so that I can have a little help when I record the actual vocals. All of these songs have been recorded once before, but I tuned the guitar down a half step this time around so they are all in a different key and that’s just enough to screw up my memory of how to do things. My ear is good enough that it can usually rise above such mini-challenges, but why not give it a little help, right?

I already have two songs that are ready to mix. One of them has been ready to mix for about 18 months now and I just haven’t had the energy to get it done. I’d like to pick off one of them tonight, but as the haiku in the previous post hinted, I am freakin’ exhausted already today (it’s 2:46pm and I am ready for bed). I am not going to have the energy for anything tonight beyond making dinner, going grocery shopping, and then coming home and impersonating a vegetable in front of the TV.

I call that making plans.

Car vocals tomorrow! You heard it here first! (Now don’t let the public down, Robert!)

(Non) Daily Haiku for You #133

Today’s daily haiku for you is brought to you by exhaustion. It was only 9:45am and I was already complaining about what a long day it had been. Oh, crud.

Stayed up late last night.
Woke up early this morning.
Time management fail.