Back in January I started a Wordpress site with the intention of transitioning away from Blogger. Well, it sort of got buried beneath a pile of academics and work for a semester, and then I had simply forgotten about it until recently. So, I logged in, did a little work on the theme, imported my blog posts, and observed the differences between the sites for a week before deciding which one to stick with.
I chose Wordpress.
Here's why: reliability. I'm actually surrendering a feature that I've come to appreciate so much on Blogger, that being the ability to use my own CSS without having to pay for a "premium" account, but this singular advantage has found itself grossly outweighed by the fact that Blogger is unreliable at best, unstable at normal, and outright unusable at worst. Here's what I mean: I've had multiple instances on Blogger where I'll write a post, publish it, and then come back later to find out that it hadn't published. Sometimes, these "published but not published" posts would revert themselves back to early drafts, and I'd have to either re-write the whole thing from memory, or abandon it out of frustration. What's more, I've had instances where a post I'm nowhere near ready to publish will somehow publish itself. The most recent incident with this was part two of my series on depression; a post that is maybe halfway written in draft suddenly went public and I didn't catch it until probably 9-10 hours after it went live.
Wordpress offers my solution to these problems and more. Organizing posts on Blogger pretty much has to be done via the label (tagging) system, the stock themes are horrible and even worse to try to customize (you'd basically have to write your own page from scratch if you want something that functions well), whereas on Wordpress there are stock themes with organization built in. For what I'm doing, I no longer have to spend hours upon hours tinkering with code to add more functionality to my page. The only bit of functionality I've lost in the transition is the arbitrary animation of my social media icons (they would go from 75% opacity to 100% and tilt 30 degrees clockwise when your cursor hovers over them). While I would like to find a way to get this back, it's not necessary.
Anyway, all of this is to say that this will be my last post on Blogger. You can find my new site up and running over at http://epitomeoftoast.wordpress.com.
See you there!
PS: If you subscribed to this blog, you will need to re-subscribe to the new one. I do apologize for any inconvenience this causes.
Today I took a day trip to St. Louis! It may seem foolish, to drive 2 1/2 hours each way just to spend a few hours there, but it was a much-needed and well-timed escape. My original reason for going was simply to pick up my new CPU from the Microcenter in Brentwood, but after a long and busy week punctuated by more anxiety attacks, I was in need of something spontaneous to clear my head for a while. So I texted a friend who I knew to be in St. Louis and made plans to hang out with them for the day. Then, like any sane person, I woke up at 7am on a Saturday so I could get in my car and drive 2 1/2 hours so I could spend a bunch of money (please note my sarcasm).
Anyway, I was pretty stoked when I got to Microcenter. I tried to apply for a Microcenter credit card, but you know how it goes: "Oh, you're 20-something and don't really have a credit history? Of course you can't have one of our cards." Alas. My friend showed, I paid for my CPU (look at that lovely Intel Core i7-5820k in the picture) and we spent the next hour or so walking around the store, ogling geeky technological things that we can't afford; eventually we decided to leave. Then she took me into this store called "Five Below" which, as its name suggests, has nothing over $5. So I picked up this lovely Storm Trooper t-shirt for, you guessed it, five bucks! I thought I was cleverly getting away with something, but then they got me at the checkout with a box of buttons; I couldn't resist a couple that I hadn't seen before which I immediately decided that, for a dollar each, absolutely needed to be added to my collection. From there I dropped my car off for an oil change at Dobbs, some chain-looking auto service place right next to Microcenter (this may seem irrelevant to the story right now, but wait until later).
On we went to the mall, where we stumbled into Teavana (I'm not really sure how to pronounce the name, but it's a tea shop) and I found this bag of amazing oolong that is actually off-limits for consumption until fall (I'll write more about it when the time comes). I then re-discovered how much I don't actually know how to properly go about eating a Chipotle burrito, but salvaged some dignity by reminding myself how delicious an iced mocha is when it's hot and I'm tired. We also found a Microsoft store, which made me a little happy; it was the first time I'd ever seen one in the wild and it was good to know that there stands a contender to the sucker-baiting Apple stores. Though in all honesty, it only made me want to return to Microcenter to play around with their gadgets. After the mall we trolled around some random shops that were clearly designed for people with moderately inflated budgets, and finally found a place that I could get excited about!
The record shop.
The store is called Euclid Records and if you're ever in the Brentwood, STL area, you should definitely check it out. They have probably the biggest selection of used CDs I've ever seen, and most of them are actually good. To give you an idea, I perused for probably close to 45 minutes and only saw about half the collection. Nevertheless, I was able to walk out with a Switchfoot CD that (oddly enough) is now the first one in my own collection, and another CD by an artist whom I only knew one song from: ImaRobot! The CD turned out to be cool (I definitely listened to it twice on my way back to Moberly), but I still think this is the song that will forever play in my mind whenever I think of the band:
Anyway, after the record shop I got a call from Dobb's to let me know that my car was ready for pickup, and also to let me know something that came as a bit of a bummer: my serpentine belt is cracked. He asked if I wanted to go ahead and have them replace it, but after he stated the price, I figured "well, I don't really know how long it's been cracked, but my guess is it'll still get me back home and let me tool around for a couple weeks until I can buy the belt and get one of my auto-mechanically-inclined friends to help me with it." So, with that thought in mind, I did what any sane person would do and told them to leave it be. My friend drove me back to pick up my car, and we decided to part ways for the day; it was barely 4:00, but I was already getting pretty tired and didn't want to find myself nodding off while driving home.
And here I am now, sitting up late and wondering how I'm still awake as I type away at this post. I suspect I'll be exhausted again tomorrow, and don't expect the upcoming week to provide any relief in that department. If anything, I'm going to be even more tired by the end of it because I have things to get caught up on before the semester starts in a measly 18 days (I can honestly say this is the first time I find myself not particularly looking forward to it). That aside, get ready for some more posts; I am planning to write more regularly, and part two of a series I started previously is nearing completion.
I wonder how many grains of rice are in a Chipotle burrito.
Due to a Blogger glitch (I promise it wasn't my fault), this blog post didn't actually go public the first time I clicked "Publish", despite appearing to me as though it did. Not only that, but it had reverted itself to a draft I had originally written using the mobile app. So, with that in mind, I am now re-posting in hopes that this will actually reach you, the reader. Though, I have to admit, even I find it pretty lame that a vlog I uploaded FOUR DAYS AGO is finally making it here.
Sorry guys, I've just been busy.
This post is actually a vlog, and should hopefully tie you over until I do some much-needed updates to the appearance of my blog. I promise I'll do more actual writing soon. In fact, part two of Living with Depression is already in the works, and I have a few other concepts bouncing around in my head that I'd love to start writing about. Anyway, enjoy this little video. I even recorded my own music for it!
I haven't posted anything since the end of May, and there are a couple reasons for this.
The first reason is that I've just been busy. Summer work in the I.T. department at the college has proven to be a plateful. My roommates and I were doing all sorts of fun stuff, and then something happened: their job got transferred to Kansas. Which means for the entire month of June, the house slowly transformed from the big, beautiful, open home that it was into a maze of boxes and wrapped-up furniture. So if I wasn't working, I was trying to track down a new apartment and possible roommates. After struggling to find a place, I finally settled on the right apartment (as I talked about in my last vlog: "don't rant and drive, kids") and started packing. Finally, on June 26th, I moved in. Now I'm in the apartment and things seem to be finally settling down a little... Well, temporarily at least. The first guy to say he'd be my roommate isn't able to move in until mid-to-late-August, and he wanted to make sure we had someone take over my share of the lease if I leave in December. So, enter new roommate #2. He moved in the same day I did and said he had okay finances to get by. A week later, he told me that he was depending on a change in his work schedule to bring more finances in, and that it wasn't happening. Due to financial struggles, and the fact that he is not bound to a lease like I am, he was moving out at the end of next month to return to the dorms. However, things seemed to turn around and his work hours increased and thus, he was able to stay.
But, it's not all clouds and rain (even if the weather has been lately). My bedroom in the new apartment is rather spacious and has nice, thick padding under the carpet which means, in conjunction with my acoustic foam panels (which are now up on the walls), it's a pretty acoustically-friendly room. I've got my black sheet up on the wall, and my video booth is ready to go. I also just picked up a lovely little desk last night that is unfortunately too small to be able to use as my workstation, but will serve well as a study desk nonetheless. I'll just have to either find a wider desk to use as a workstation, or build one. And building one may be an option because... I just started a new job! The employer is a local media group called Notionfront, and while the official job title is "IT Assistant," it is much more than that and I anticipate the probability of it being able to grow into something long-term, should I so desire (which means I no longer have to push to leave in December; that was a struggle in my mind from spring until now). Anyway, I've been doing freelance work with them lately and he decided to just hire me on as a part-time worker, with the promise that it can go full-time in the spring when my schedule opens up more (which also means pay raise). Lately I've been building them a vocal recording booth and the scrap pieces (four 1' x 4 ' plywood pieces) can be used to make a surface for a new workstation desk at home, if he'll let me keep them.
The other reason for my absence... I had started a series on living with depression, and ironically, I got depressed and just haven't really had the energy to start writing the next part. I've been feeling a little overwhelmed with trying to figure out how I'm going to finish my internship, and all I want to do lately is be either outdoors, sleeping, or both. It's all the usual stress of life, but I've been learning that I don't handle stress very well (or maybe I do and just keep running up against my limit). Nonetheless, I feel it would be a little silly to start writing more about depression when I'm having a hard time just putting simple thoughts into writing; the usual dilemma of my mind racing faster than my fingers can react. Nonetheless, the existence of the first post of my "depression" series alone is enough to make me not want to write anymore because I don't know how to express myself well enough to help me understand myself, let alone help other people understand me. Maybe my over-thinking is my demise.
But, more vlogs should be coming (maybe, lol) and that excites me. There is something else coming up soon that excites me, but that's my own little secret. ;)
So this week I've started working on something a little bit different. At work, since I have a healthy amount of free time this month, I'll be making a series of videos dedicated to quick tips for the next I.T. student worker. Since I'll be leaving after December and there's always a transitional "hiccup" with any new employee, I'd like to help ease that in the future. If I have extra time, I'll also be doing some simpler tip-and-trick "how to" videos for people who may just want a little extra knowledge of how to keep their own computers up to snuff. Additionally, I'll be doing some heavier things like gutting a laptop and moving all of its internal components into a new case (which I'm really looking forward to).
Anyway, I've made my first two videos, and I figured I may as well blog them here.
September 23, 2012. That's the date of creation stamped on the project file for the original concept for this song. A broken heart and a free afternoon found me sitting in my dorm room recording guitar tracks at random. A few hours later, I had the makings of what could become a fairly decent song. What I didn't know is how much that song would mean to me down the road. I don't really have recorded anywhere the full song that this concept eventually turned into, but I did find a video (I don't remember where it is) of me playing a good chunk of it. If I still had electric guitar equipment, I would gladly re-record and actually flesh out the whole concept "Invisible Year". Perhaps someday.
Anyway, today (or yesterday, I can't particularly remember) I dug up the project file for this song and looked at it, mostly for my own amusement. I realized the guitar tracks were pretty spot on to the metronome track, and realized that I now have software with which I can map out virtual instruments. So, I opened up my copy of Ignite by Air, mapped out a bass line, played with the instrument parameters until I found a sound I halfway liked, exported it to a .wav, and imported it into the original project. Well, I couldn't stop there, so I also mapped out a rough drum idea. Then I erased it, created several tracks, and mapped out each individual drum element some separately. From there, I exported each element as its own .wav, imported those tracks into the project, did some general mixing work (EQ, reverb, levels, etc.) on those tracks, did a little more work on the original guitar tracks, mixed it all together, and mastered it out. I've been listening to it on repeat all night. It's strange to think of where I was at when I first recorded the guitar tracks vs. where I'm at now, and how much I (and times in general) have changed. It's almost surreal to think that I actually finished this thing (for what it was originally). Now I really want to map out the full thing (or as much as I can remember of it). Maybe I'll downtune my acoustic and just map it out for myself, so I don't lose it. Hey, a musician's gotta do what a musician's gotta do.
Tonight I recorded a concept for a new song. It's one of those that came from something I had scribbled in my journal long ago and never bothered to finish. Originally designed to be a spoken word, I decided to modify the original idea, flesh it out, and turn it into a song. Video included. Interestingly, due to the physical setup of how I ran everything, this is also how I'd sound if I were to play for people online, whether it be Skype, Chatroulette, Google Hangout, or even using a live streaming service. If I can get that static noise out of things, I could flesh out my sound more and have something halfway professional sounding. WARNING: LOW QUALITY
This song is one of those that, while I definitely plan to put it on my EP, I hope my old man never hears it (obviously, it's about him). I've pretty well accepted (or at least concluded) that he's beyond any ability to really understand anything I try to say, so even if he did hear it, I strongly doubt it would have any effect on him. If anything, it's therapeutic for me to be able to sing it.
I've talked about him a little before (in previous blog posts) but I've never gone into much detail about my (good as non-existent) relationship with him. And this isn't to put all of my stock in MBTI (trust me, I could care less what someone's personality type is), the fact that he's an ESTJ and I'm an INFJ, combined with the reality that those two temperaments have the most difficulty getting along (the INFJ is a deep thinker with deep-seated emotions and wants to be known and loved, while the ESTJ just wants things to run in a way that is manageable, and doesn't understand or have patience for the feelings of others) has helped me to at least say this: I've done what I can, and I do what I can, and I will continue to do what I can, but I know there's not much I can do about the detachment between us other than accept that I'll never be able to have a relationship with him that isn't shallow at best.
I'm sure I'll write little tidbits about him here and there in other posts as I go along. I absolutely do not plan to write a full-blown entry about him. As much as he can be an absolute douchebag, he's my dad and for some reason I have never been able to reconcile (with the reality of what emotionally abusive relationships are and what they can do to people who don't outright leave them), I love him. That said, if you ever really want to get a picture of our relationship, just read through all of my posts from the beginning until now, and then keep up after that. If you're able to read between the lines, you'll figure it out.
As of recent, I haven't been very talkative, either online or IRL. The truth is, I'm just tired and want some space. I promise it's not depression-related (at least, I really hope it's not), but all I want to do as of recent is disc golf and sleep. What that tells me is that I'm sick of sitting inside and want to get out and enjoy the weather while it's enjoyable. It also tells me that I'm too busy and need to lighten up a bit on the things that I can lighten up on (social life, internet, etc.), so that I can more feasibly take care of the things that I need to take care of (work, academics, etc.) without becoming overly stressed like I'm so prone to. Also, the winter makes me restless and jittery, wanting to get out but not having much to do. Then by the time summer rolls around I've worn myself out and all I want to do is relax. I'm powering through the end of this semester with a vengeance. During the entirety of my collegiate career, I've never been this far behind on anything. I'm scrambling to catch up on old assignments while trying to remember to do current assignments. Shame on me for procrastinating for so long. Moving off campus has been refreshing in regard to being able to actually sleeping at night, but more challenging than I had expected in regard to staying motivated to keep on top of my academics. Additionally, this is my second to last semester, so I know by this point that any hope of raising my GPA the .08 points necessary to earn that shiny gold honors cord has already gone out the window. If anything, I just want to keep myself above a 3.3 by the time I graduate. If what the graduate advisers at Stout told me is true, then as long as I stay between a 3.0 and a 3.5, I should be golden for getting into grad school. Speaking of grad school and graduating and the end of my undergrad and things with the word "grad" in them, I have no fucking clue what I'm going to do with my life when I graduate in December. Odds are, I'll wind up back in Wisconsin, but doing what? There are a few stressful things about the prospect of graduating. First, the excitement of finishing school is only making it more tempting to slack off. Second, since I'm a student worker, my current employment will end as soon as I walk across the stage and receive my diploma. Third, I know that no matter where I end up, for the sake of my mental health, there's no way I can let myself end up back at my dad's house. So what does this mean? Well, I need to bust ass and get my academic work done. Finish strong, right? But on top of that, I also have to find myself a job to go into after I graduate. I'm starting to look into options for that now, because I don't want to find myself between a rock and a hard place, a diploma in one hand and an empty wallet in the other.
Of course, there's also the pressure of wanting to find work that will actually be something meaningful to what I want to do in life: helping people. In particular, I would like to get a job in which I would be working with juvenile delinquents. Of course, there's not much in that area I can do with a bachelor's that will earn a sizable income, but it could be just enough to get me by financially while gaining experience that will help me when it comes time to start grad school. And speaking of grad school, I don't even know if I want to start in the fall of 2016 or if I want to wait until 2017 or even 2018. There's just no real knowing at this point. Lincoln Hills (the juvi I spent over a year of my teenage life in) is almost continuously hiring for youth counselors, and I've heard that my past experience as an inmate there could be greatly beneficial to the kids having someone they can relate to and who can relate to them. With any luck, this could be my foot in the door to a decent career doing something actually meaningful. On a lesser note... I am an impulsive spender. By impulsive, I mean I set out on Friday to spend maybe $100-130 on two pairs of shoes, and ended up spending $375ish on two pairs of shoes, Starbucks, Chipotle, jeans, and here comes the big kicker, studio monitors. Of course, I'm fairly okay with the monitors; they'd be somewhere between $400 and $600 new, and I picked them up used for $180 at Music Go Round. There's nothing wrong with them, so far as I can tell, and they sound phenomenal (and look right at home) here in the studio. See?
You can kind of see in this picture, but I've also set up the work space to have the computer placed under the desk, with a separate monitor, keyboard, and mouse up top, so that I can help eliminate some of the computer noise that likes to bleed its way into my recordings. I still need to find a way to really block out that space under the desk while recording so the computer is better isolated, but that'll have to wait a couple weeks until I can finish these last couple songs for class and I'm ready to start actually recording everything.
Anyway, I need to tuck this away so I can go take care of some things that are calling my attention, like homework and an appointment (that internship life, yo). So, until later.
Yesterday, my roommate and I revamped our music room. I'll let the pictures do the talking.
Before:
We had some equipment. We even had a big stack of acoustic foam panels (40 square feet of it) in the upstairs bedroom waiting to go up. But the room was a logistical nightmare, a deathtrap zone, a catastrophic natural disaster waiting to happen. We didn't have a proper desk but were just using a couple TV trays (which roommate number 3 wanted to be put back on the rack in the living room). So we gutted the room, planned a new layout, cleaned up, and affixed the foam to cardboard panels which were hung on the walls (so that they can come down later when I move out, since they're actually mine). Then, we acquired an old retail display platform from our landlord (which we set on top of a pair of Peavey PV115 PA mains) to serve as our work station. Found a psychedelic blue cloth and put it over the window, and we were done!
The result:
As for now, the space functions and sounds much better than before. There is less acoustic reflection off the walls. I may order a little more foam to attach to the ceiling at certain points, and also so we can make a mic isolation shield for vocals, and we need to affix the corner foam to, well, the corners, but as for now I'm remarkably pleased with how well it turned out.
So what's the next step (after the few things I mentioned)? Well, some rack equipment that I want to acquire include a 2-channel tube mic preamp, noisegate, and EQ. Unfortunately, that means another $1000-1200, which I simply don't have at the moment. But, when I do purchase said items, it will probably be in the order of gate, preamp, and then EQ. I also want to upgrade my free Pro Tools Express to Pro Tools 11. That will be another $200, but it's worth it for beat detective and auto tune. I also got the new SoundToys Little Alter Boy plugin. Luckily, I found the website during a light traffic period and was able to download it during the "free before April 1st" window. As for now, I'm only going to record things for school (because academics, and because the semester is winding down and I'm running out of time).
Anyway, speaking of academics, I should get back to some homework. Peace out.
Oh, and if you want a cool 360 panorama of the room, click here. Maybe I need to put a link to my Flikr in my new social media launch page, epitome of toast?
This is just a very quick update to let you know that Epitome of Toast is now live! Yes, it's pretty basic. However,the purpose of it is to simply serve as a portal to my social media. I'm hoping to keep it that way (though, I do need to continue working on it).
It may not seem like much to y'all, but I have some super-cool-to-me news to share. Today, I purchased the domain "epitomeoftoast.com" from Google. For now, it's just set up to forward to my blog. However, I will (hopefully soon) be setting up a homepage on the domain that will contain social media links to my pages (Facebook, Blogger, Youtube, Soundcloud, etc.) Anyway, this is simply an experiment, to see if this is something I want to do long-term.
I know it's only Thursday, but my weekend stars in approximately 2 1/2 hours. Plans for tonight and for Saturday morning have been confirmed and I'm leaving immediately after my exam (which should be relatively simple) at 3:20. My main question is: what of the tentative plans for tomorrow night? It's what I'm looking forward to the most in the next couple days, so I'm hoping it happens, but I'm entirely uncertain at this point. Hopefully I'll find a place to stay tonight because tomorrow I'd like to take my car in for an alignment, and I'd like to shower in the morning since I'm planning to get a haircut.
Anyway, I feel pretty accomplished today because I managed to start a load of laundry this morning, dry it over lunch, put it all away, and pack for the trip. I wasn't sure if I wanted to take recording equipment with me or not, as I may have much of the weekend with nothing going on, but I think that leaving the recording equipment here will be a perfect (and maybe necessary) excuse to focus on academic work while I'm away. And speaking of academic work, I knocked out one assignment this morning in class (to be fair, I forgot that it was due), and managed to knock out study notes for my exam this afternoon. All of that with maybe just a couple small sips of coffee. I honestly think it was the pressure of the "oh crap I'm leaving this afternoon" deadline. Anyway, I've got 25 minutes until my exam, so I'm going to make sure I've got this stuff down. I'm sure I'll be updating throughout the weekend. Maybe.
The rest of my stuff came on Saturday, and I'm pretty excited about to start working with it all. Though, I must admit, I'm a little nervous about the learning curve there will be with adapting to a new recording software. But, I know Pro Tools is said to be better than Audacity in every way (and of course I already agree), but it's still a little nerve-wracking nonetheless. Perhaps I should consider playing with it some today so that I can at least have an idea of what it will be life using it tomorrow night to record the live sound at open mic night (and how to work it in the first place). Alas, I'm on a schedule. But then again, my schedule has been skewed already this semester. I have an indefinite extension on a paper in one class and a project in another; perhaps the only academic thing I need to concern myself with today is studying for a test that I have tomorrow morning. That could allow me time to learn at least a few basics with Pro Tools before I go to use it tomorrow night.
Anyway, what's remarkable is that for what all you see here (and what you don't see here yet) I only spent $735. That's right... $735. Here's the breakdown of the cost:
M-Audio M-Track Quad (w/ Pro Tools Express): $199 (on sale) Rode NT1a vocal mic (w/ shock mount, pop shield, and cable): $229 Audio Technica Pro 37 instrument mic: $108 Mogami Silver 25ft XLR cable: $30 (x2, so $60, plus shipping) On Stage Stands mic boom stand: $25 (x2, so $50) 40ft sq of acoustic treatment foam: $85 shipped
Okay, so $735 is a lot of money. It was painful to spend, but for a starter setup it really was a pretty great deal. I'm journaling up a "gear wish list" of items I'd like to see in my future studio setup, but for now I'm more than pleased with this.
My birthday was a couple days ago, so I treated myself to something nice. That is, I picked up this new recording interface from Amazon. Saved fifty bucks on it with the sale price, too, and got it for $199. And, as you can see by the box, it comes with Pro Tools Express and Ignite by AIR. Not too bad. The disadvantage to Pro Tools Express is that the two most frequently used plugins aren't available without upgrade to the regular version of the software, but the advantage is that upgrading to Pro Tools 11 is only $200 and allows free upgrade to Pro Tools 12 when it comes out, which is very cost-friendly as compared to buying the full software outright for $900. The rest of my equipment should be coming soon, too. All $535 of it (bringing the total up to $735). My bank account is looking rather sad after taking such a heavy hit, but I'm sincerely hoping that I'll be able to garner some, if small, financial backing to help offset the cost. I also hope to use this in the future to perhaps make a little bit of money recording local artists.
But today, a couple days later, was just... a generally rough day. Actually, I must rephrase. The first half of today was pretty amazing and I was in a fantastic mood after last night. Then I went home from my first shift and... Anyway, the second shift got off to a decent start but for some reason, my mood crashed mid-shift. It could just be tiredness from the headache I was battling today (further reason for my concern about my mental health; I was in a great mood despite a headache), but the crash was sudden and hard. I'm doing a little better now that it's late and I'm mellowed out, but I hate these mood crashes. They're brutal and leave me wondering why this has to continually happen to me. It's nights like tonight that, while I trust that God has a plan and purpose for me in the context of the Kingdom, I can't help but feel a little bitter and discouraged that I have yet to figure out why I am the way I am.
But, recent events (that I may talk about later on, when they're not-so-immediate) have me feeling hopeful that things will be trekking upward.
A couple days ago I released an acoustic cover of my friends' song, which they released just a year ago. It was recorded and edited over several months, and it shows... The guitar sounds like garbage, tracks were recorded in different locations, and when I first started working on it I had just gotten my Sampson Go Mic. Also, I was sick the day I recorded the vocals... Frustrating, I know, but I was halfway through processing them when I realized that my voice sounded ill, and didn't want to go back through and re-record them. Perhaps a little more patience would have paid off in the end with this, but then again, I started this project back in October and just wanted to get things done.
That cheapo home "studio", though
Anyway, I've ordered a new recording interface which should be here sometime late this week or early next week. This should solve the component noise problem that I was getting with the Tapco (you can see it in the picture laying on the floor). Hopefully in the near future I'll be able to look into getting a new (better) vocal mic as well. I'd love to get an Avantone CV-12, but that's $500. Likely, the best I'll be able to go for is the Rode NT1a at $229, and even that will have to wait a month or two at minimim. Between now and then, though, I'll try to go ahead and start doing some acoustic treatment to the recording room here in the house so that when the time comes, I'll be ready to start recording my EP (which will include re-recording this cover).
The Plus is probably my favorite Eau Claire venue to play at.
So
it's been a month since my last entry. Here's a quick catch-up:
December 19th I returned to Wisconsin for ten days or
so to hang out with my family. Played an open mic at the Plus and it was
rad, as always.
Returned to Moberly, don't remember what day, talked
with the folks I was staying with, and I moved in under a month-to-month
rent agreement.
The new semester started and I found out that the I.T.
department only has a limited amount of student worker hours still
available to give me through the end of June. I picked up a couple
Saturday shifts in the cafeteria dish room to make up the difference and
conserve my I.T. hours.
The semester itself has been rather busy and
less-than-satisfying after having a semester chocked full of counseling
classes with two of my favorite professors. I have some young hotshot
professor who thinks every student's life revolves around this one class
and that nobody has other time-consuming responsibilities to take care of.
Needless to say, if I wasn't on such a tight academic schedule, I'd be
dropping the class. Another class I'm less-than impressed with, even if
the professor is pretty cool. The rest of my professors and classes are
awesome.
Oh, and that "older mic" I was talking about
in my last post? It's an Audio Technica Pro 37, and it works like a dream.
I used it over break to record a collab project with
a friend and record a concept that
I recently re-mastered. I think I'll use a SM58 in the future for
vocal recording, though. And the SA-M20 gave me hiss like none other, so
that's out for recording (which is fine, since some online talk alludes to
the idea that it's horrible for recording).
Abbi tracking vocals for her song collab. Again in the background, the noisy Tapco.
Okay,
enough boring stuff that nobody cares about. Last week was Revival Week here on
campus, and Thursday was Day of Service, which is a pretty big deal. It's an
even bigger deal if you're in student council (which I am). Ironically, I
skipped Day of Service to drive back to Wisconsin to get an early start on the
weekend. See, I wasn't going back for Valentine's day. I don't even have a
girlfriend, and am still questioning whether I even have an interest in
something like that at this point in my life. No, I wasn't going back for
Saturday the 14th; I was going back for the night of Friday the 13th.
The
event's name was Unlucky in Love,
and it was a pre-Valentine's acoustic show which I was invited to open for. So,
away I went on Thursday. Hung out with the dudes from Stay Strong on Thursday
night and went home just before noon Friday when my dad got done with work for
the week. I figured I'd go home and work on some academic things for a few
hours and then head downtown for the show, but my dad had other ideas. He
wanted to fill out a punch card that required buying drinks at different
establishments to enter to win a collectible New Belgium bicycle. So, we
went out. A few hours and a few bars later, we made our way home. And I managed
to get a little pre-show practice in before heading downtown to the Plus.
Rad,
the guy hosting the show, wanted me to go in the back door. So I went in, and
immediately went back out because it looked super creepy in the back; I thought
I had the wrong door. But, as it turns out, I did have the correct door, so in
I went. Making my way around the corner, past the kitchen, and up a short
flight of stairs, I came through a door that put me right next to the
stage.
Oh, so this is why he wanted me to come in the back.
They moved the stage. That make sense. A little further back so traffic between
the dining room and the bar would be less condensed.
There's
something you should understand: the bars in Wisconsin are generally pretty
nice. I didn't realize just how nice they are until I came to Missouri. The
places around Moberly are dingy, smelly, hazy from smoke, and generally not
places I want to hang around. Around Eau Claire, they're generally
fairly nice, clean, well-kept, and of course, they're not full of smoke,
thanks to Wisconsin's statewide public smoking ban. Yes, in Wisconsin, you can
go out to a bar and not come home smelling like smoke. It's absolutely
fantastic. The Plus, in particular, is one of my favorites (mostly because of
its place in the local music scene).
Anyway,
even though I was on time, I was ridiculously early. For a show that was slated
to kick off at 9 and sound check around 7:30, I ended up sitting and hanging
out with Andy Elwell for a solid hour before the rest of the performers started
showing up. My dad and stepmom showed up around 8, and the restaurant side of
the Plus was starting to fill with people who were coming for the show. My
glass ran dry and I walked over to order another drink, and turned around to
see my mom and her fiance standing right there. She was pretty upset that I
didn't tell her I was coming up to Eau Claire, but she was excited to see
me.
What the heck. You didn't even tell your own mother
that you were going to be home?
See,
in cases where I'm only in town for a weekend, I figure I only have time to
hang out with one set of parents, so I have to choose in advance who I'm going
to inform of my plan to return, and who I'm going to leave in the dark. It's
just easier for all parties involve that way, because I don't want to try to
budget one weekend between two sets of parents, and I don't want one parent to
feel short-changed if I spend more time with the other.
This
has generally been pretty easy for me to handle, too. Even though my
parents only live a mile apart, they're worlds apart it's pretty easy to
compartmentalize my trips home, keep family matters separated, and pretend that
everything is okay. I've learned to not ask my parents for advice because they
give me such widely varied opinions that I'm generally left to fend for myself
anyway, so when I do visit, it's usually pretty cordial. And of course, when I
leave town again, I don't tell anyone about it. It's a complex and volatile
situation, so I have to keep my family relationships as simple as I can. My
parents have been separated for 20 years, so I try to keep them separated in my
personal life. It's just easier that way.
But
the simplicity of keeping the two apart and adapting to being around either one
or the other broke down on Friday night. I still feel guilty that I bought a
drink for my mom (even if it was a guilt drink for not telling her I was in
town) and not for my dad, and I still don't know how I managed to keep myself
together as I went between their tables to talk to my parents and hopefully
retain their individual approval, but when they did leave after my set, I kept
my glass full. I went slow and didn't go too far, because I wasn't really
wanting to spend money on a cab, but I definitely wasn't going to let this
fluke (and strangely emotionally taxing) incident plague my mind and lock me
inside myself for the rest of the night.
Of
course, there's one thing I find myself oddly grateful for: Jenn wasn't there.
This isn't to be angsty and say I'm not over her, or that it would have been
particularly emotionally difficult to see her. To be frank, there's not a
chance in the world that I'd go back to be with her. But, having expected her
to be there (her name was on the guest list), it was a pleasant relief that I
didn't have to add one more thing to my plate which was already full with my
parents being there. Had she been there, would she have talked to me? I
certainly wasn't in a state to deal with that. Not to mention, two of the songs
in my set were related to her, and I wouldn't want that to be stuck in her
head. As much as she hurt me, I still respect her as a human being.
Anyway,
coming back to the show itself, I had taken my cameras to the Plus and set them
up (one above and behind the stage, and one down and in front of the stage) to
record my set for some people who couldn't make it. The show itself was pretty
great, and my set went without setbacks. There were a couple points where I had
to back away from the microphone because of reverb feedback, but Sean (the guy
who was running all of the tech) fixed it pretty quickly. The rest of the acts
were solid, with F.M. Down and Andy Elwell being my favorites. Pets With People
Names were fun to watch, and I give them creative points for using two
acoustics and a cajon. Heat of the Heart was interesting to behold, and they
were so talented and meshed so well as a group. I feel bad that they were the
last group of the night, because by the time they took the stage, most of the
crowd had left and only a handful of people were still around.
Eventually
I made my way back home and the night was over. It was a long drive back to
Missouri on Sunday, but it was worth it for the chance to go up and play the
show. In fact, I have a couple videos from that night for you to see. Here they
are:
And I can't forget F.M. Down!
Anyway, enough of my ranting about the show and family and such. I made it home safely, the show went well (despite some social-familial hiccups), and I made it back to Missouri safely. That's enough to get me by.
Stay tuned this semester; I hope to continue writing.
