Wow, I feel particularly bleh today, which is odd because I don't really have an excuse for it. Voltaire reappearing did make my day though

We built a snowman fit for a snowman-themed crime noir. I think he's the gangster baddie

Nice work.

My trusty old Alesis QS6 may finally be giving up the ghost. After powering the ol' girl on for the first time in a few months, I'm rewarded with almost zero output from any of the outs- I have to plug into the headphone out and crank the gain up nearly all the way on the line amp with the +20dB instrument-level gain boost engaged to get a decent level- and at that point the noise floor is ridiculous. Considering I'm trying to use this synth on the song I'm working on at the moment... Sadness.

I had a good run with that synth. I've had it since what? '96? So going on seventeen years. It still winds up on stuff, too- as evidenced by the above.

I need to make that B&W later

Try contact cleaner in the jacks. If it is old and you haven't used it in a long time, more than likely, it will be a problem with oxidization on the input or output jacks or something. You can get contact cleaner at Radioshacks. Usually in a little aerosol can. Spray it in and on the plug, put the plug in and out a few times, check it, repeat if necessary.

I mean it is possible that some part of it has toasted, but it just doesn't seem that likely, if you haven't been using it for a while and haven't experienced any power surges or anything.

Found a clip of me playing from the first year of university and I was so much better at guitar back then I just don't play enough any more.

No power issues, and I do still get signal, so I'm guessing you're right. I have some kicking about, but it's at the 'Drome; the rotary encoders on the Prophet need regular doses of the stuff. I'll snag some next time I'm down there.

A guitarist from the scene around here who I really admire joined our band. Dude is super tight and it's going to be a welcome challenge for me to keep up... This is the slam band I play guitar in... Awsum

Just found out I've got 3 weeks until I go to Alaska now instead of the previous week or so. More time to finish up this EP as well continue to hoard a giant stockpile of material before I go to a frozen shitty wasteland for songwriting mode.

You should write a bluegrass album called like Alaskan Wasteland or something, four songs maybe, with lots of mandolin and banjo. Then when you come here I get my interface back, hook up a couple mics and we record that shit in my living all fucked up style. Maybe we will get our hands on acoustic guitar at some point, I don't know.

Oh man, I am down. I will be sure to bring my mando and work on acoustic jams, we can write the lyrics and additional instrumentation when I am there. We'll call it Alaskarolina. BLAM-ZO!

Solid gold.

I have metalbandrehearsal this afternoon; contact cleaner should be provided beforehand. We'll see. The metalliband I bass for now has a real singer for More Than One Rehearsal, Now, and possibly a friend of ours enlisted on synth as well. Like, a singer singer, with a good voice. I've been doing this on-and-off for years, and it's never really been a whole band before. Innererstin'. I'm not the songwriter here; I just play bass, though I seem to have an important job in keeping things moving and on course during rehearsal- fuckin' A, I'm the organized one. I am really just copying Chris-from-Garda when it comes to managing things. My work experience as a department head is useless as the department was two people- myself and the guy who worked nights. We worked at a printing company; we did what came through and fucked off on the intarwebs until more work came through, which seems pretty typical of people in dimly lit tech-holes.

On a totally unrelated note, I am re-watching some Classic Albums episodes (I was probably hammered the first time I watched most... Er, all of them ) and it occurs to me anyone who thinks rock-and-roll, any flavour or subgenre, has rules needs to wrap their brains around the fact Rush is more punk than they are. (And then kindly bugger off.)

WHAT TIME IS 6:30 AM? IT'S FATTY DAB TIME.

Why is coffee as delicious as coffee is? I wish i could drink as much of it as i want to, but i think i would die of it.

I moved to lighter roasts recently for the extra caffeine kick, and I'm pretty sure it will be the death of me soon enough.

Ordered some 55-115 bass strings from our Maplifiers sponsored vendor. Stoked to get my bass setup with these, they are fat+made to be higher tension. STOKED, MAN. STOKED.

That's where I get my strings. If you say you're a man of the cloth, you can get an additional discount

Clearly, I am a man of many clothes and various fibers. I deserve a discount.

Ah, man! After putting a decent amount of time into strengthening my hands I am getting pretty good at sustaining decently quick blasts on the ride, snare hand is pretty loud/consistent when I am not being inconsistent.