God I Hate Snow

Just had to say that, after shoveling 6" of the crap off my driveway and sidewalk just now.
I grew up with plenty of it in northern Illinois; but here in southwest Ohio, we don't get much. One good snow per year is about all. Hopefully, this is it.
I was home from work today, so the one bright spot is I didn't have to drive in it - well not much, anyway.

In other news, I had two job interviews today. Another thing I really hate is looking for a job. If I cfind one I like okay, I tend to stay until they kick me out. Which is what happened at my last job. I went on vacation to China, and when I came back, I found out that my office had been closed while I was gone! On 9/11, of all days. So typical for that company.

So, I put out the old resume, and found work; but it's a contract position, and while the job was pretty cool at the beginning (read: they let me do whatever I wanted as long as the job got done). Then in December, I got re-orged, and the job has become progressively less cool (read: they're starting to tell me what to do).
All I really want, if I have to work, is to find a job I don't hate where they won't close my office.

Is that so much

This has to be a record

First post in a freaking year and a half. I actually am not a "writer". I like e-mail okay, but I've never had a diary, or anything like that. I actually couldn't find this page again initially. I didn't even really want to post to my own blog; I just wanted to log in so I could post a comment on my brother's.
Oh well. It'll probably be another year before I post again - if I can remember where it is.

Mower Drama

Okay, so I haven't posted anything in over two months. I guess there is stuff I could write about, and probably will, but for now, here's what I was up to last night:

[WARNING: the following mower drama is rated Y-14. Some scenes of mower abuse may be too intense for younger or more sensitive viewers. Parental caution is advised.]

Last week, while I was mowing happily along, the 10-year old MTD suddenly started running really crappy unless I pulled the choke out, and then it died on me altogether, and wouldn't restart, which meant I had to do the rest with the ancient, 20", non-self-propelled push mower. Not cool.

I resisted the strong urge to set it aflame and push it into the busy street, and instead, rolled it around back till I could mess with it, which was last night.

It would run for about two seconds, and stop. Pulling out the choke didn't help. I knew it had to be a fuel delivery problem, because pulling the choke out had bought me a little time, and it would start, but only run a few seconds.

I replaced the spark plug anyway, just because, though when I pulled the old one, it was still in great shape.
Next, I replaced the fuel filter, because I could see it had some dirt in it, though I had verified that fuel was still running through the line (and all over everything) when I had it disconnected.
So, I had verified that fuel was getting _to_ the carb.

A shot of starting fluid yielded a start, and if I kept spraying, the mower kept running. So now, I knew the problem lay somehwere between the fuel getting into the carb, and getting srayed out into the throat. Probably a stuck needle or gummed up jet.

Sure, a carb rebuild would have solved the problem; but if I had to invest that kind of time and effort into a 10-year old mower, it was going to be time for me and Mr. MTD to part ways. I already had eyes on my next concubine: one of those sweet, sexy, zero-turn mowers.

I tried one last thing: I dumped about half a container of STP fuel system cleaner straight into the carb throat, and hit the starter. It blew smoke out the exhaust, and STP out the throat. I dumped a little more in, put the rest into the tank, and let it sit for half an hour.

I came back, fired it up... and it died in two seconds. I shot some more starter fluid into the carb, hit the key again. It sputtered to life, then started to die. I cranked the throttle back and forth to confuse it, and voila; it was running on its own. I let it run for a few minutes to run some of the stuff inthe tank through, and the stuff in the carb out.
Then I hopped on, dropped the blade, and made a few passes around the back yard, just to make sure it was going to keep running, and not quit like a little b7tch as soon as I dropped the blade, or tried to move forward.

Success.

Plus, I have killed every mosquito for blocks.

The End

Two Posts in Less than a Month!

Well, lookie that. I lied. Here I am posting, mere days after my last post.
I'm mostly just posting to vent my frustration at my job...
When I signed on, I was told that "every few weeks or so", we had to work on Friday night at around 10PM, for about an hour, to update software on our site.
Now, I wasn't thrilled by that, being someone who values my free time highly; but it was the first serious "bite" I'd had in a few months, and the job seemed otherwise pretty cool. And my boss is cool; which goes a long way, sometimes.

Well, you guessed it: "every few weeks" is usually at least every other week, and sometimes is as often as twice a week. Oh, and it's not usually at 10 for about an hour - it's occasionally as late as 2 AM (hell, one time it was 8:30 AM Saturday!), and has yet to take less than two hours. And that's if everything is working right.
I was here last Thrusday for 12 hours, and I just found out I have to work this Saturday morning at 2 freaking AM.
This is just insane. I have to get out of here.
If they'd fix their process, I'd gladly stay. But they won't. Someone somewhere up high enough seems to believe this is the right way to run things, and I can't change that.
My résumé is out. We'll see what happens.

In happier news, I played with my "new" band, Cataplexy (me, drummer Jeff from Synergism, and "super-bassist" Joe) last Saturday for the first time in months, and we wrote pretty good chunks of three songs. Pretty productive. There are still some scheduling issues with that band, but I think it's going to be worth it if we can get it off the ground.

Okay, that's it for now.

I'm not dead...

Man. Do I suck as a blog writer, or what? This is why I never stuck with being a writer, although it's always been one of those things I keep imagining I'd be good at (despite the grammar in that sentence).

Well, let's see. Since I last wrote, we had a nice Christmas, I got a job at Zix Corp - http://www.zixcorp.com/ working on their Pocketscript product, and as a result, I've had exactly zero spare time.
I also forgot what the password was to this blog, and it took me a while to figure that out, and then my computer went down. I'm typing this from a brand new Sony Vaio, which I am really digging.
So, I'll try to post a _little_ more regularly, but I'm not promising anything.

Things have been pretty dead in the studio, too. Nobody too exciting, though I did record a band called 4 Foot Fall that is pretty good. Other than that, mostly my normal rap customers, all squeezed in on the weekends now, since I'm working during the week.
Ugh...

Well, that's it for now.

Wanna take bets on how long till the next entry?

Finally - a Rock Band

Well, had a pretty peaceful Thanksgiving weekend. Ate too much, laxed around and did nothing mostly, but I finished it off with a session today - a 4 piece "modern rock" band. Their name is Silhouette, and they're a bunch of young kids, but they're really good. Their sound to me is reminiscent of Uncle Tupelo or Wilco, with some Soul Asylum thrown in. Good stuff.
I hope to be able to say I knew them before they were famous.

Little Funny Things

Okay, not much happening at the studio this week. I've got bookings later in the week. Meanwhile, here's a couple of funny things I saw:

Looking at a job listing, and next to "salary/wage", it said, and I'm not kidding, "Comiserate with experience [sic]". Seriously. I couldn't make that up.

Today, driving around running errands, I saw one of those little SUV's that had been lowered, had fancy wheels installed, those wacky looking wipers, and in the windshield, it had visor that said "FIESTY [sic]". Kind of takes away some of the intended impact, don't you think?

More later in the week.

I Should Have Died, Epsiode 1, prelude

In keeping with my idea of posting interesting stories from my past, here's the first of several in the "I Should Have Died" series:

When I was sixteen, I had a 1966 VW Beetle. At the time, it was about 17 or 18 years old, which isn't ancient, but it was old. Also, over the years, lots of redundancy and safety features have been added to cars - the 1966 VW Beetle had almost none of those. When I got it, it had lap belts, front seat only.
Now, in this car, the engine is in the back, so all that's in front of you is a trunk; and the windshield is literally like, 6" in front of your face. And 2" away from your chect is a pointy, non-collapsing steering column. In short, this is not a car you want to be driving if you get into an accident.
Another major safety improvement modern cars have is that they basically have two (some even have four!) braking systems - one for the front, and one for the back. The idea is that if you get a leak in one end, your car will still stop at least a little, so that you can get safely off the road, or to a shop. And this is also another safety feature missing from the '66 Volkswagen. If there's a problem anywhere in the brakes on a '66 VW, the whole system goes out. All of this intersects to create the interesting story in my next installment....

Wacky Anecdotes

Slow week in the studio this week, so it occurred to me I could post some funny/interesting anecdotes from my past. Kind of give you a peek into the experiences athat combined to make me.
Here's the first one:

This story happened in the 8th grade, which, for me, is the '78 - '79 Timeframe.
In our neighborhood, the token thugs that everybody was frightened of were the Meltmars... Phillip, and his older brother, Chuck. If there was a cat killed, a
window broken, a bike stolen, you could be sure the Meltmars were
behind it. They were just bad news. For starters, their parents were
divorced, and they lived with their mom. Now, I know that today,
that's almost de rigueur; but in 1977, it was still pretty unusual. I
only knew two or three people whose parents were divorced back then.
Anyway, one wintery January morning, we were waiting at the bus stop,
going back to school after Christmas break. It was cold. So cold,
everything actually sounded crisp. Unless you've lived through a
Midwest winter, you probably can't comprehend exactly how cold it was,
so just imagine the coldest thing you can think of, and double it.
There was a big elm tree at the bus stop, and as we were all standing
around, a piece of the bark on the elm tree near me popped off, as if
it had exploded. I thought that was a little weird. A few seconds
later, another piece popped off, and then another.
The third time, I heard the small "crack" sound from about 200 yards
away, just a second before the bark popped off the tree. I looked
toward the sound, and saw Chuck Meltmar up in his window, but didn't
think a lot about it. Just then, the bus rolled up, and we all got on.
Later that day, when I got home from school, my Mom told me that Chuck
Meltmar had been arrested. His grandfather had apparently gotten him a
.22 caliber rifle for Christmas, and Chuck had apparently been taking
pot shots with it out his bedroom window.
Never was entirely sure if Chuck was shooting at the tree, or at me. I wasn't exactly his favorite person...

Today's Session

Another Rap Session. Same guy who came in last Saturday. I hate rap, but I gotta say that this guy does have a work ethic. Gets the job done, and his songs are a litte more hummable than most.

Whoa! A Metal Session...

... for a change. It was kind of a train wreck, though. The guy was the guitarist from a metal band who recorded here before. He's since dumped his band, and got bored trying to find another band, so he decided he'd record on his own.
Incidentally, his former band is the source of one of my funnier studio anecdotes.
After about the 6th take of a song, this guy turns to the other guitarist, and asks,

Guitarist 1: "What chord are you playing there??"
Guitarist 2: "F#"
G1: "It's not F#, it's F!!
G2: "I've been playing F# for three f7cking years!
G1: "Well, then, you've been playing it wrong for three f7cking years!!"

I couldn't make that stuff up if I had to.

So, anyway, this guy came to the studio today, and obviously didn't know the song as well as he did. The guitar tracks are a punch-o-rama.
Then came the bass parts. Dude bought a bass one hour before the session, and wanted to use it. Nevermind that he didn't know how the controls on the bass worked. Nevermind that it already had light strings on it, and then he proceeded to tune it down a whole step...

Ugh...

Rap, Rap, Rap

Well, yesterday, another rap session. At least, this guy was moer talented than usual, and his "beatz" had some melody to them. I can actually hum these.

Today was guitar lesson day #1 for the week. 10 year-old girl. I was skeptical at first, but I gotta say, this little girl is driven. She was supposed to learn to tune using her tuner, and learn three chords. Well, I think she learned about a dozen. She's doing really well, and she's definitely got the enthusiasm. If she keeps it up, she'll be the next Yngwie.

My New Amp Got Here Today

... and it is sweet! Once again, I have a Marshall in my stable, and all is well. That's about all that happened today. I voted. Other than that, pretty quiet day.

My Latest Nothing Post

Yeah, still not much exciting happening around here. It's been dead in the studio, dead on the job front, dead all around.
Bought a new amp this week, which ought to be here Tuesday, so I'm excited about that. I've actually been without a Marshall for almost six months for the first time in over ten years. Before that, I didn't use Marhsalls, so that didn't count...
Anyway, I'm looking forward to that.
Around home, we're both still sick, and this weekend, we're tackling putting a tile backsplash up in the the kitchen, complete with custom cut decorative medallion design, so that's been keeping us busy. Hopefully, we'll finish that tomorrow, 'cause the tile saw has to go back.
I've been thinking about more covers to do. I've already got "He's a Whore" mostly done, and I've started "Oldest Story in the World" (though I need better drums for both).
I was thinking next of doing a Posies song, or maybe re-doing "It's My Life". Yes, I know No Doubt covered it; but that song deserves better than they gave it. They screwed up or completely omitted too many parts. I want to do a version that keeps the spirit of the original.
That's it for now.
Hopefully, next week when Lisa's back to work, I'll actually have some time to do some of my work...

Not Much New

Yeah, so I haven't posted in a few days. I'm not a religious blog keeper, and I'm not one of those guys who feels like I have to apologize if I don't make an entry every day. Just hasn't been a lot going on this week. I've been sick most of it, and I spent most of the week either in bed, or on the couch.
Maybe this week, there'll be more going on...

Have I Mentioned that PC's Suck??

Well, I've got the PC back up and running, after resorting to a format and reinstall of Windows to get it to recognize the firewir drives again.
Guess what? It still doesn't recognize them...
I have no idea what to try next. It's driving me crazy.
Well, I'm sure my system is much claner than it was.
In addition to the firewire drives still not working, I think I also lost the card reader, which allowed me to plug Smart Media straight into a slot on the PC and read it, rather than using proprietary transfer software.
Crap.

PC's Suck, Part 2

I'm posting this from my Mac, as I try yet another thing on my PC to fix my firewire problem. I'm re-installing Windows in repair mode. It's the last step before I wipe tje disk and start again...

Windows sucks...

I am so done with the PC platform. I have a PC and a Mac in my studio. The Mac does all the tracking work with ProTools, and I use the PC for mastering and disc sequencing, because Sony/Sonic Foundry's tools are way better than any Mac equivalents.
Now, I started on the PC 14 years ago, so if anything, I should be biased in favor of them, but when I look at how much grief I get with crashing drivers, devices not being recognized, and so forth, I could never use a PC again, and be thrilled.
The latest is that Windows has stopped recognizing firewire drives plugged in to it. It sort of started happening about the same time that I installed XP service pack 2, so I backed that out, hoping to get my disks back - no luck.
I'm going to have to do a re-install yet, you watch.
I say again, PC's suck. If I had the $$ to do it, I'd dump this thing in a second in favor of a dual G5, and just get Virtual PC to run the couple of PC-only apps I need.
End of rant - for now...

Outdoor Party Gig

Tonight was an outdoor party our bass player has every year and we play it every year. This year, though, he dedicated it to his newphew, who just got back from Iraq. So, his nephew was there, and his nephew's entire company of Marines. So, anyway, I had been requested to do a version of The Star Spangled Banner at the end of our second set. I was kind of worried that it might seem a little trite, but I said "okay". Now, really, it's a pretty boring song to play - making it interesting is all in the presentation. I took some ideas from Hendrix, and effected the hell out of it. So I go to play, and I'm expecting to do a little solo piece. What actually happened was that the entire company of Marines came up on stage, and started singing along.
Apparently, they liked it.

There was all kinds of other standard party action - keg stands, shots, a bonfire, fireworks, and the eventual appearance of the police. Wouldn't have been a party without them...

Went to a Metal Show

Tonight was fun. I got roped into sponsoring a benefit for the local metal radio show. So, as sponsor, it was my duty to go down and see the bands, as well as be on hand for the plugs, in case someone wanted to ask me questions, and so forth.
Now, modern metal, of any kind, really isn't specifically my bag, but I can appreciate it when it's done well, and I saw five bands tonight ranging from pretty good to pretty damned good. The last band was more in the Pantera vein than what's considered "metal" these days, and they had the entire place moshing. I was even "moshed" at one point.

As much as I may not dig newer metal much, if I step back and realize that my "work" for tonight was to go to a bar and watch a bunch of bands play... I mean, come on. How bad is my life??