Tag: Nerd

50/90 Day 12 Update

I suppose it’s time for a 50/90 update. Let’s do some math, shall we?

July 4th through October 1st. 90 days over three months.

90 songs in three months means 16.67 songs per month. Thanks for coming out even, stupid math. So at the minimum, two of the three months need 17 songs and one needs 16. Since July starts on the 4th instead of the 1st, July is the shortest month, therefore logically July should be the month that only needs 16 songs.

Math is hard.

As of bed time last night I have 16 songs in progress. All of them have the song form set, half of them have very badly performed guitar parts recorded, none of them have lyrics or melody yet, and all of them pretty much suck so far.

But….

I am on the minimum pace.

I want to record some guitars tonight, and I’m hoping that by the time the weekend is over there will be some vocals down too. We’ll see. That might be a tall order.

I also feel that I should warn you, faithful readers (he said like he was Stephen freakin’ King or something) that a few minutes ago I started on what could be the nerdiest project I have ever undertaken… and that’s saying something.

Jen and I have become a little weirdly obsessed with candles during our four month lock down. All through our work days we both have a candle or two (or three) burning near our desk. I don’t really know why, and I don’t think she does either, but we do.

This morning when I lit my desk candles I started taking a time lapse video of one of them. I pointed my iPad at a candle, started recording, and lit the bastard. I was planning to let it run for an hour or so out of fear that the battery wouldn’t last for much longer than that. As I was writing this though, I found a lightning cable long enough to plug my iPad in without moving it from it’s video-ing location.

It is possible that I could take a full 8-9 hour long time lapse video of this candle. Oh. My. Nerd. Hopefully I don’t accidentally knock over the iPad or something. Knowing me like I do, I’ll probably do something stupid to screw this up and spare you, faithful readers, from my epic nerdness.

We shall see.

Upping the Nerd Level

I’ve always been a nerd. Going all the way back to 1977 when Star Wars came out, my nerddom was well established. Two things have happened in the last few days that have actually upped the ante on my nerdishness.

This one is a little hard to see. It actually demonstrates nerd level alpha for me, but brilliant level alpha for my wife. I use a Windows machine when I work from home, but a Mac for everything else. I had a Windows laptop, but it’s kinda a P.O.S. I thought that maybe I would like to get a Windows desktop and set it up to share the same monitor I use with my Mac. My brilliant wife sketched out a way that we could plug everything into a switch and make it happen. Also, she just built a new Windows box and could therefore let me inherit her last machine! She set it all up yesterday, and I just set up the VPN so I can connect to my desk at work. Success! WOOHOO! My wife is a total genius who is more brilliant than any of you reading this, and I am a complete nerd!

Now for the really, really, super, uber nerd admission…

So, you know how when you watch an episode of The Walking Dead premier on AMC it is followed by the after show/talk show The Talking Dead? Well, when you’re not watching on cable you don’t get that hour long decompression discussion show and sometimes you kinda need that. Talking Dead is available on AMC.com, but not until later in the day on Monday, so if I watch the main show on iTunes when I wake up Monday morning, I can’t watch the Talking Dead until I get home from work. That doesn’t work nearly as well. So what to do?

Podcasts. I got this idea to see if there were any post-show podcasts that I could listen to on the way to work. Turns out there are a shit load of them. Most are recorded on Monday or Tuesday, but there are one or two that are already out on the ‘net by the time I leave for work. For the eight weeks the first half of season 7 was airing, I was listening to tons and tons of post show podcasts. Most of them are somewhere between annoying and okay. A few are enjoyable listens. All, even the bad ones, are worth a listen. When the show went into its mid-season break though I started to miss it. I decided to start watching the show from season one episode one and pick one podcast that’s been running since the beginning and listen to the episode corresponding to each episode I watched. Yes, Virginia… I am the biggest effin’ nerd who has ever lived. I found a podcast that is a discussion as opposed to just a recap, and everything I listened to from season 7 had a positive vibe, even when it was being critical of the show. Most of the podcasts were really, really negative, but this one was upbeat even when the episode was weak. I appreciated that. I finished season two yesterday and right now I am listening to the last two episode’s podcast episodes.

If that doesn’t win me the Biggest Nerd Alive award, then nothing will. Nothing.

Musical Organization

I’ve been thinking about band practices.  Specifically, I’ve been thinking about the notes I take when I sit down to learn a new song.  More specifically, I have been thinking about what a mess my notebook has become.

It has been decided.  A trip to Staples is in order this weekend.  I want to buy a binder and a crap ton of clear plastic inserts.  Each song’s worth of notes in the notebook will be copied into a Google Doc with each song getting it’s own page.  The Doc will be printed out and then each song will get its own insert and be placed into the binder in alphabetical order.  No more farting around trying to find the right page in the notebook.  Someone asks for a song, flip to the right page, Bam.  Rock and Roll all over your face.

I am such a nerd.  I suffer from terminal nerdness.

Fanboy Stress

A couple of hours ago there was an issue with one of the computers in our house. It was an old iMac that one of the kids uses and it needed assistance. My wife and I snuck over to the Apple store to get a piece of hardware to help. While we were there we got to touch an Apple Watch.

Yeah… oh babie. We got to fiddle with the watch. Just a little bit. We couldn’t try it on because we didn’t have an appointment, but we got to futz around with the screen a little.

You know, it’s bad enough that my step son and his father have already ordered watches for themselves. I already knew that once the man started coming home with an Apple Watch on his wrist that I would be overwhelmed with temptation. Unfortunately for me I didn’t even last that long. I’m already in fully tempted mode!

This is awful! How is a ridiculous fanboy like me going to say no now?

I don’t want one.
But I want one.
But I don’t want one.
But I want one.
But I don’t want one!
But I want one!

Oh the horror. The horror.

Room for Expansion

I need to swap the two on the far left so that I can access the stereo output on the flanger (that I have never used, not even once) but otherwise this looks okay. My Cry-Baby Wah-Wah will sit off the board on the right side, and the triple switch for my amp will go… somewhere. Best of all, this leaves me tons of room for expansion.

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Biggest Nerd Lyric Ever

I’m trying to sneak a lyric in before work.

The other day I read an article about CERN and their belief that there are bigger breakthroughs than the Higgs Boson still to be found.

This morning I realized that “laser beam” and “particle stream” rhyme.

Oh the nerd lyric possibilities!

Nerdus Extremus

I just made a list of all 20 March and April songs and color coded it based on the state of completion (or incompletion) in which each recording currently resides.

There are two that are ready to mix. Hopefully I’ll get one in tonight.

Rock & Roll, eh?