Today’s Lunch Break Projects

Lunch break project number one was finally unboxing the folding card table. It’s been sitting here waiting for me since early May and now it’s finally setup and useable.

Lunch break project number two was merging the two stay-at-home pedal boards.

For the first time ever I have mounted a power supply underneath.

The chain currently runs:

Real McCoy Custom RMC10 wah wah pedal.
Korg Pitchblack Tuner.
- I want to add one pedal to this board someday, but the power supply can only handle eight lines. If I ever get that little flanger pedal I have my eyes on, then this tuner will be the thing that gets replaced.
Earthquaker Devices The Depths uni-vibe pedal.
MXR Phase 95 phaser pedal.
Wren and Cuff Super Russian combination Big Muff style fuzz pedal combined with a clean boost (that I very rarely use).
Klon KTR overdrive pedal. The best overdrive pedal I’ve ever played.
Keeley D&M Drive dual overdrive pedal. One side is a higher gain overdrive, the other is lower gain with a big mid-range frequency push.
- This pedal might be swapped out for a Wampler Plexi Drive Mini overdrive pedal. I need to test drive the Plexi through my Deluxe Reverb amp before I decide for sure.
MXR Carbon Copy Mini delay pedal

Now I just have to plug this sucker in and see how it all sounds together through my Deluxe Reverb. The Deluxe Reverb that is finally home!

My Amp is Home

No, I didn’t play it, but I did set it up so I can play it later. I don’t know when I will get the chance, but soon.

New Les Paul, meet the Deluxe Reverb that has been away for 2.5 years. You guys are going to have some fun together. The pedal board that you can almost see in this photo will also change. I brought home what I used to call the stay-at-home pedal board that I also left at the band’s rehearsal space back in January 2020 (irony). I want to take two pedals and the power supply off of that board and add them to my current home recording board. Once that’s done I will be ready to get back to work on the fifty songs thing.

Oh happy day.

New Strings Day

I still don’t know what time we’re getting together tomorrow, but our drummer just posted a picture of the new kit he got since last we played together. The bass player posted a picture of the new bass he bought since the last time we played together. Now I am posting pictures of the new guitar I got since the last time we played together.

I had to crank the ISO a little in order to get the shutter speed fast enough to not take overly shaky pictures. As if I knew what I was doing, right?

The Woods This Morning

Here are some pictures of fallen trees and rocks and stuff in the woods behind the house.

Wasn’t that fun? Everything was in Manual Mode, but really… it was sort of faux shutter priority. I set the aperture as open as it gets for the lens and just adjusted the shutter speed to get the light meter in the camera to the right setting. I should have used the light meter app on my phone to give me suggestions rather than just doing it myself. I don’t know what I am doing, but I have to assume the light meter does. So there.

Now I have to figure out what the next pointless photography project will be. Also. What does Exposure Compensation do, and how do I use it? That’s my YouTube tutorial project for tonight.

Rocks

Pretty sure the line of rocks marks the property line. Or maybe it did at some point in the past. Something like that. Whatever.

No Edits Today

I was planning on spending some time on YouTube today learning about how to edit photos and all sorts of fun stuff like that. Instead I’m just hanging out with Jen watching the tube. I much prefer this.

I still snuck outside for a couple of random pics tonight. I am still hoping for some red sky and mother nature continues to let me down. Just like winter. Damn it.

Tomorrow. Before work. Walking through the woods. It’s happening. Maybe.

I used the Auto setting for this one because I couldn’t get the light meter to 0 without a 45 minute shutter speed (exaggerating).

Watermelon

We ordered groceries from Instacart today. We didn’t order this, but they brought it anyway.

Where did I put my sledgehammer?

Unrelated note: Patches has a new favorite spot.

I took this while walking up the stairs from the cellar. She was giving me the evil eye the whole way.

Candle

Random Stuff

If you’ve been reading this blog at any time over the past nearly 14 years then you know that I post a lot of random pictures that I take with my iPhone. Tons and Tons of them. Ever since taking possession of Dad’s film SLR though, I have wanted to transfer the random picture taking from my iPhone to my DSLR. I did a little of that today.

We rearranged Jen’s office a little so that Patches could have a way to sit in the sun when the curtains are open.

I was looking out the window just after taking that picture and I thought I saw one of the neighbor’s golf balls in the grass. I went outside to investigate but it was just a piece of plastic. I took the opportunity to take a couple of random pictures. On this one I used Sunny 16 and it more or less worked! Nice!

Random woods pic #1

Random woods pic #2.

Every time I get a new iPhone I create a generic album on Flickr to hold random pics taken with that phone. I just created a similar album for my D90. Let’s see how long this lasts.

Manual Mode Part 3

It’s 20 minutes to 11pm and I am still up. I need to be getting to sleep soon because that sunrise is going to be here before I know it and I needs me some sleep. Still, I wanted to get the last round of pics from today’s Manual Mode Adventure out. I think it’s safe to say that nothing I took today is very good, but at least it’s all there.

Note that even if I was trying to sleep right now I wouldn’t be able to because one of our neighbors just set off a roman candle and it sounds like the Union Army artillery during Pickett’s Charge.

But I digress. These are all from Walnut Grove Cemetery. I tried shooting on film at this spot, but this is where the camera jammed on me and I fucked up my first attempt at a roll of my own (my first actual roll of film, what I will call my zeroeth roll because I am a programmer, was the one that Dad loaded back in the 80’s. I can’t really count that as one of my own even though almost all of the shots were mine. I will hopefully getting those images back early next week. Fingers crossed), so there are not going to be any film shots to compare against. It’s okay though, I just like this spot.