Light

The cellar has (had) six fluorescent light banks in the ceiling. Right now, exactly one is still functional. Fortunately it is near the washer and dryer so there hasn’t really been an issue.

Still, I wanted to be able to see on the other (much larger) side of the cellar if for some reason something is happening over there. Maybe I can find a use for that area other than storing stuff. I don’t know. I was hoping we’d be able to have the whole place redone, complete with new overhead lights. For the near future at least, that ain’t happening.

So Jen and I talked about getting a couple of floor lamps and sticking them down stairs. I put them together this morning before work and set them up with internet connected light bulbs so we can turn the lights on from upstairs and have everything lit up nicely before we go down stairs.

Now all we have to do is clean up all the shit left over from when we had the ducts worked on. Then maybe I can do something with the space. Maybe a new music room? Probably not. Who knows. I’m just glad I can see again.

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Indoors is Still Scary

I took my mother to a doctor’s appointment today. It went well, thank you.

Based on the massive traffic I struggled through getting home I would say that pesky pandemic is over. If that’s the case, why was I freaking out so while hanging out at the hospital?

I was cool as a cucumber on the outside, but a basket case of Covid worry on the inside.

I am so ready for this bullshit to end. Get the damn vaccine.

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Clawing Back to Life

Just another one of those days where the brain doesn’t want to function and something that feels like what the rumors say is the blues tries to take over. I have three things that are helping me claw my way back to life.

First, Jen. As always. As far as my mental state goes, I really don’t know what I would do without her.

Second, nowhere near as important as item number one, the Bruins are kicking the shit out of the Sharks right now. It’s 4-1 about halfway through the third period. Thanks, Bruins. I appreciate it.

Third, probably more important than number two, but still nowhere near as important as number one, I spent the last hour+ playing guitar. I put leads on the three songs that got vocals this morning, and then put rhythm guitars onto two more from the current batch of songs to re-record for the 2015 re-recording yadda yadda blah. My playing wasn’t great, but it was okay.

Now I have to get some exercise in. Ugh.

Obligatory guitar pics:

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First Car Music in a Month

Finally, right? I made it out for some car music today. I had three songs ready to go. One was a new one for Record Every Month and the other two were re-recordings for the great 2015 rerecording project which will likely never ever end. The re-recording things are meant to be a little… I don’t know… they are hopefully to be of a slightly higher quality than everything else. Performance wise if not sound wise. Something like that. The rules of the stupid game require me to be pickier about which takes I keep and put in the final mix. It’s also supposed to be more… live… live-ish? Not live, but also no copy and paste. Every sound you hear should be more or less unique. If a song has a chorus that plays twice then even though the two takes are similar enough that you don’t notice a difference, they are in fact different. For the record every month thing, or in fact for just about all of the demoes I make, copy and paste is fine. Record the chorus once, then paste it everywhere else there is a chorus. I do that for bass and vocals but not for guitars. It’s no fun to not play the guitars all the way through.

So what does it mean? It means I started with the record every month song so I could use it as a warm up before I got to the more involved shit. I opened up the computer plugged in the mic, setup the first verse and nailed it in one take. Well, that was weird. I suck as a singer so getting anything in one take is weird. I then setup each other section of the song and nailed them in at most two takes. What the fuck is going on? I suck, I can’t be getting things right this easily, especially when I haven’t done anything like this in a month.

When I was done, I picked the easier of the two re-recordings and that’s when everything went back to normal. Oh my word, did I suck. I sucked out loud. I sucked as much as anyone who has every sucked at singing has ever sucked at signing before. I. Sucked.

An hour and a half later I was working on the last section of the last song and my MacBook Pro popped up a warning that my battery was about to die. I guess I sucked exactly as much as my battery would allow.

I just suck.

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