endless automata

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-3-7)

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 04:22:19 -0500

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-3-7):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

The latest bike building project begins to take shape. ...

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:58:19 -0500

The latest bike building project begins to take shape. Hopefully under 20lbs. when fully built.

The First, First Album!

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:57:00 -0500

So, what should I happen to find this morning, but Drawing on Eve’s first attempt at recording our first album. It’s raw, and noisy, and it’s wonderful. I listened to the whole thing - hilariously on a tape titled “Olivia Newton John’s Greatest Hits”. What’s amazing is that most of the songs changed very little between this rough first recording and our official first album. Some of the more interesting differences:

Prologue, Epilogue, Julia, 11:00, and Scorched Paper Way are all missing - Scorched Paper Way, Prologue and Epilogue hadn’t been written yet, I was thinking Julia was too soft for the album at the time, and 11:00 was, frankly, mostly filler.
Saturday Night Seduction/sns - both versions had a little intro Ryan played - it’s probably better this was cut. Also, Ryan sings the full 3rd chorus over the solo on both versions instead of coming in at “Fly away with us.” I remember thinking he shouldn’t do that, but didn’t want to tell him how to run his song.
Golden, Life, and Anonymous - slightly different lyrics.
Dave has harmonica, and it’s mostly AWESOME - I wish we had kept that. Also, Jake does a sinister laugh at the end - and there’s the sound of a knife being sharpened and something being chopped at the beginning
Glyss This - this version is hilarious - I actually sing totally different lyrics during the verses. During the break, instead of instrumental solos, we say things:
- Jake - “Remember me?”
- James - “Hey doobs!” - a common saying of the main subject of the song
- James again - The best scream I ever recorded - I swear - really!
When I Was - Mostly the same - except there’s Harmonica on this one too - which is not nearly as good as on Dave.

If there’s any interest - like if there’s still one DoE fan out there who actually is curious - and the other guys don’t mind, I’ll digitize the tape and post it.

"Back in my day, we programmed with a nine-volt battery and a steady hand!"

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 07:32:02 -0500

““Back in my day, we programmed with a nine-volt battery and a steady hand!””

- Jamie Zawinski from Coders at Work

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-28)

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:34:41 -0500

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-28):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-21)

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:00:20 -0500

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-21):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

Just had a bit of Mt. Dew Throwback - first soda in a month, and I discovered I don’t miss it.

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:06:45 -0500

Just had a bit of Mt. Dew Throwback - first soda in a month, and I discovered I don’t miss it.

Utah Assembly Passes Resolution Denying Climate Change

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:32:57 -0500

Utah Assembly Passes Resolution Denying Climate Change:

Oh Utah… what have you gone and done now?

Lansing Give Camp

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:37:33 -0500

Lansing Give Camp:

Coders: Please consider signing up for Lansing Give Camp!

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-14)

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:50:53 -0500

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-14):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-7)

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:57:12 -0500

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-7):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-1-31)

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:33:05 -0500

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-1-31):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

Bug or Feature?

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:58:30 -0500

My new pocket watch just recently started counting off seconds in rapid groups of 4. It still keeps great time.

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-1-24)

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:19:07 -0500

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-1-24):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

Seriously considering buying a ukulele.

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:37:01 -0500

Seriously considering buying a ukulele.

The Costs of Offline "Lending"

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:32:52 -0500

The Costs of Offline "Lending"

E-Bikes on the front page of Slashdot!

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:23:08 -0500

E-Bikes on the front page of Slashdot!

My Poor Cross Check

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:13:14 -0500

In the midst of a computer install-fest this afternoon I pulled out the Cross Check with the intention of cleaning the thing up a bit and getting it road ready again. The Cross Check had been my main bike up until I wiped out and broke my thumb in October. I spent a good 6 weeks unable to do much work on bikes and then spent the next 2 weeks wrapping up the winter bike which I’m riding now. So, this is the first time I’ve given it a good looking over since the accident.

I remember thinking as I was above my front wheel hanging onto the bars facing downward flying through the air that I had bent my rims - I was somewhat correct - the wheel is out of true a bit - but not much surprisingly. I was surprised walking it back with my thumb throbbing - because it appeared as if the threadless stem had been knocked out of position. I say appeared because today, after taking a good look at things I realized the fork was nice and bent. It’s apparently going to cost me more out of pocket to fix my bike than it did to fix my thumb - I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not…

So now the decision - do I try to rebend it? Have a mech do it? Buy a new fork? …and then there’s the wheel truing… and I wonder if my frame’s bent now as well… time to get to work I suppose.

In an attempt to simplify my life, I am getting rid of old computer parts - tonights project: going...

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:14:47 -0500

In an attempt to simplify my life, I am getting rid of old computer parts - tonights project: going through 21 100MB Iomega Zip Disks. I sometimes wish I could go back in time just to tell myself to not save all this crap. Anyone want 5 lbs of parallel and serial cables?

Blue Sparks and Ozone

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 22:50:56 -0500

I appear to have just blown the PSU in my home server. Sigh… I miss the days when PSUs had on/off switches. So now the question is - buy a replacement and stick with the silly cramped case I have OR start down the road of building a near silent server. Decisions, decisions.