Thank you. I'm too old to care and too old to not care at this point, and I was there once. I respect thinking people and think young people who think should be nurtured in their thinking. I went back to college at 25 to become a history professor but ran outta money. Re, the rest: One can only hope. Having grown up in an upper-middle-class suburb I know far too many of those. Perpetual students who never really grew up, experienced (experience points in WoW do not count!), lived on their own, did anything... I do also know people with multiple degrees working menial jobs because there is nothing for them here, and people working positions they are totally overqualified for because that's all there is. It's the sad economic reality of being in an area that has been economically depressed long before Bush II.

LOOONG unfinished rambling deleted because I need to be awake in three hours.

Sounds like good advice I always get told I don't have enough experience but I can never tell whether that's just their easy "get out" for saying I sucked in the interview, or whether they do actually need someone with experience. I do have a years experience of doing web design, photography and video work on my resume now though so I'm hoping something will crop up by the end of this year A few new jobs have arisen at a tv studio a few uni friends have recently started working at so I'm hoping that they don't need immediate start (I'm in Canada til the 17th), and with a few name drops and recommendations something could happen there.

Haha Bradley is a teenage Catholic.



Questioning your faith, especially when hit with it constantly at school and home (as I was) is the norm. In fact, if you weren't questioning your faith at this point you would simply be an idiot.

The fact of the matter is, once you are able to assess any situation logically, the religious viewpoint seems utterly ridiculous. Not to mention us Catholics have like, the totally bestest history ever for showing how "good" of people we are. It's hard to preach thou shalt not xxxx* when the Church leaders are notorious for xxxx*. Thankfully the modern church has started to embrace critical thought, and has even tried to work a bit of it into doctrine/dogma/teaching etc... Are you going to get them to turn pro-choice? Fuck no. Again, fuck no. But they accept the world is round, accept there are such things as mental disorders instead of "demons", accept evolution (though still consider it part of God's plan, which makes more sense then arguing against it) and have become more tolerable in general. Granted I come from a southern Catholic raising, where we WERE discriminated against and thus became tolerant out of necessity, but from my understanding most of that goes for the modern church, outside of the strictly conservative Catholics.


xxxx = murder, adultery, bearing false witness, raping kids, tithing and embezzlement and non-involvement in global atrocities

don't forget sodomy crossdressing, and general fuckery

I'm just glad I made it through seven years of Catholic school with my bum unscathed.

There was only one priest to like 200 kids, so I guess odds were on my side.

Went to Catholic school from K-8. A few years after I left two of the priests got caught up in some molestation scandal, by some old guy who lived a few states away...apparently he was molested as a child and waited until it was trendy to sue the church.

Never really was 'full of faith'. Only went to church when they made us during school, and never practiced any of that stuff on my own.

Totally.

But I see Brad's love and goodwill and worshipping God as some undefined ambiguous positiveness as a pretty decent approach.


This. You're doing good. Most people aren't able to deprogram themselves like this. As Devin says... if you aren't questioning your faith, you're probably an idiot.

BELT is the only God for me

Just checking:

Not doing something because its what everyone does is just about the same thing as doing something because that's what everybody does, right? You are still basing your decision on what everyone else does.

brainasplosion

I guess so

Yes...

But if you're referring to Bradley's dilemma, it's not so much about not doing what others are doing as much as it's thinking for yourself instead of letting others think for you.

Naturally that might lead to certain realizations, for instance that talking snakes don't exist and that all the species on Earth aren't going to fit on a wooden ship...

Talking snakes exist... if you're high enough

















Challenge Accepted.

Nope its about a dilemma with a few friends.

Bradley gets the wrath of Longcat, Tacgnol and BELT

Can I just "+1" this... as a devout atheist, no less.

You find your own way in the world, recognize things for what they are- often mechanisms of control- and everything is filtered through perspective, which needs to be evaluated to be judged/assessed properly.

One of my favorite asshole statements to make re: Christianity is that the Bible was written by a gay man. Which is not properly true, but King James I of England (of King James Version fame; a very educated and scholarly man) was queer as the day is long; this is a matter of historical fact, and that's his personal translation. Bitch could write a bit; Let's not go into Basilikon Doron and the divine right of kings and whatnot... Also, dude was a raging drunk. But his translation of the Bible and the collected works of Shakespeare are only the... okay, getting off-topic here.

To Bradley: there was a show on A&E in the '90s called Ancient Mysteries. I'd watch it late at night and it was awesome. They had a ton of Mysteries Of The Bible episodes where they'd have proper archaeologists and both Christian and Jewish theologians on talking about stuff. The perspective of it was neat. Worth tracking down if they have it at your local library or whatnot.

I obtained recording software today...

Via the exchange of money for goods, ie I didn't steal anything or limit myself to freeware. Woooowww!

Bought a Reaper license or upgraded to something "pro" ?

Found out I may potentially have a job to go back home to, which would be pretty cool. As I said I applied to work at the same place some uni friends are now working at.. well one of them put in a good word to his senior guy who said they're pretty desperate for people (and they like the standard of work from our uni course), and that I won't have any problem getting a job there which sounds promising

speaking of recordings, what do you think of this song so far? I'm very proud of it, imo the best song i've written in this style to date. any tips? I know the mixing sucks, I'm mixing on shitty sony headphones. let me know what you think.

http://soundcloud.com/holdingtheinfinit ... hey-say-on

As far as I can tell the drums are a bit too quiet, and the rest sounds like there's too much going on at once, just kind of blurs into a load of instruments. That being said I don't get this type of music at all so ymmv.

yeah, i suck at mixing. i need a good set of monitors.

Too loud RMS level. Ndz dynamics kthx/plox.

Drums ain't got no room to punch, yo. They should be comin' out swingin' with the peaks significantly over the rest of the "band".

Pull those faders way, way down before you start to mix. Lately I'm starting with the channel faders at -18; I have 6db after 0 in Logic and my peaks in tracking are only hitting -6 anyhow. This leaves me with 30db of peak headroom on every track. (Average level being lower, of course.) Stuff opens up. A lot. You want a vintage sound, no? Start with lower levels. Bust out a Beatles disc, or Dark Side or Led Zep II or something, as long as it's not a dodgy remaster, and look at it in a wave editor.

Here's my waveform for a mix I'm working on. It's a loud noise/post-rock song.



See how much room the drums have? And this song is a wall of pain. If you feel the need to crush it, do it at the end or... Okay, getting ahead of myself here. And I am mixing into a compressor and I do not recommend that for a n00b. Compression and EQ are a mixer's two basic tools. Call them a hammer and a screwdriver, y'know? Incidentally compression is a right bastard and takes serious work to make sense of and master.

Headroom is your friend. Don't slam yer tracks. That'll clean your stuff up right quick. Wanna hear it louder? Turn up the amp for your speakers or headphones. Mix quieter, it'll sound awesomer louder.

I am not Captain Recording by any means, but this stuff does help.