Category: Generic

One Down, Forty-Nine to Go

50/90 and FAWM are the same people. Why then can I host the songs I add to my FAWM account at alonetone, but I cannot for 50/90. I’m a little ticked off right now.

Anyway, the first songs I recorded using GarageBand were all about Hurricane Irene. Wouldn’t you just know that on the day a big writing project starts we get another hurricane? Arthur was just a rain storm by the time it reached us, but it’s still song worthy.

I’m planning on keeping better track of which guitar I use for which parts of which songs. Why? I don’t know, leave me alone. For this one, the rhythm guitar is the Strat and the leads are the Les Paul.

One song finished, forty-nine to go, and 87 days left.

Third Annual Really Sad Day

For the third consecutive year we are celebrating the Really Sad Day. By celebrating I really mean we are bummed out majorly.

The kids are leaving for a week at camp today. Dad is taking them there. Mom and I are going to pick them up for a short visit before they go, and then we’ll pick them up at the end of the week.

Because of some vacation schedule shuffling, this weekend is a Dad weekend, and so is most of next weekend. We’ll get them at camp and then bring them back to his house the next morning. That means we only technically will be without them for our two days during the week, but still… it’s one thing when they are at Daddy’s, two towns away. It’s another when they are half way to Albany.

Welcome to the Third Annual Really Sad Day. I hope this week goes by fast.

Goofy Scheme

I really do need to get a life…

I’ve got this goofy idea for 50/90. I’ve got these three electric guitars, see? How about I use one guitar per day. I used my ES 335 on everything I worked on on Friday. I used the Strat for everything I did today. I plan on using the Les Paul tomorrow.

But there’s a hang up here. The Strat is just plain hard to play. I recorded three songs worth of leads today. One of them needs to be done again. The other two aren’t great, but they are okay. If I re-record them tomorrow, do I use the Strat, because the song is a Strat-day song, or do I use the Les Paul, because the tracks will be recorded on a Les Paul day. And how do acoustic guitars fit into the plan?

Like I said, I need a life.

Noise Pollution

Jen is working on a coding project. She’s basically making those little electrical signals dance a ballet inside of that iMac of hers. I am an awe. I’m not saying that because she’s my wife and I love her. I’m saying that because I am a programmer and she can do things that are so far beyond my skills that I may as well be programming using a hammer and chisel on a cave wall.

Anyway, she’s got her big headphones on and she can’t hear anything going on around her. That means she can’t hear the neighbors’ party down the street, including the massively loud music.

What am I going to do though? I have two options… Call the cops, or try to come up with a new song idea. I am taking an iOS update on my phone… so I guess it’s music time!

On a side note, at this moment they are blasting Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone”. Just last night Jen and I watched the episode of Archer where Archer and Pam kidnap Kenny Loggins to get him to play Lana’s baby shower.

It is such a small world!

(they followed “Danger Zone” with “Land Down Under” by Men at Work. It’s like 1982 ’round here!)

I am the Angel of Death (in Some Circles)

I took a picture of a snake in the cellar last night. It was dead. I left it there with the intention of getting rid of it this morning.

There is a snow shovel in the cellar. Why? Because once I found a live garter snake and I used a snow shovel to kill it. Now, so long as the shovel is not needed in the driveway, it stays in the cellar. I grabbed our broom and took it downstairs with the plan to sweep the corpse onto the shovel, dump it into a trash barrel, and then take the barrel outside. I had to walk over to the other end of the cellar to get the shovel. As I was heading over to the laundry area, where last night’s dead sucker was decaying, I walked behind the couch.

There was another one.

Mutha Puss Bucket!

Was it dead? I don’t know. It wasn’t moving. What do I do? I reached out with the broom and poked it. It was alive all right. It took off for a hiding place, but I used the broom to sweep it back out into the open, where I bashed it with the shovel. SLAM! It wasn’t all the way dead, but it was broken enough that it didn’t matter. Sweep sweep, scoop scoop, it’s in the trash. Sweep sweep, scoop scoop, last night’s bastard was in the trash.

Now I’m paranoid. I went wandering around, looking for more of the little s.o.b’s. Turns out there was this thing that I thought was a twisty tie (the cat LOVES to play with twisty ties) in a corner that turned out to be another dead one. I first saw it a couple of days ago but didn’t think anything of it. Sweep sweep, scoop scoop, carry the barrel outside and deposit three little home invaders.

I should also add that last weekend while I was mowing the grass I happened to see one slithering along the edge of the patio. Garter snakes are easier to kill with a lawn mower than with a shovel, I’ll tell you that for nothing. I left the corpse behind, figuring some animal would make use of it. The next day I took a look and it was gone.

I’m going to assume that it was the screwy weather last night that brought two of them into the open. I’m also going to assume that the very, very cold cellar floor will put and end to all of those that do come out of hiding. If not that, then the cat. Those that do show themselves and somehow manage to survive will have to face me and my shovel. From the garter snake’s point of view, I am the angel of death. I am the back breaker. I am the head smasher. I am snakey heaven’s justice.

(if you are a garter snake) Don’t mess with me.

50/90 is Underway

I have officially gotten further on 50/90 than in any years past.

In other words, I’ve done something. There are three things going, one of which is already fleshed out. I’ve even set up a soundcloud account to hold any works in progress.

So far so good, but there is so much further to go.