The Shed

Pricey but Perfect: Cloning Peter Gabriel's 'Studio in a Shed'

So the link is a little article to Peter Gabriel talking about his "Studio in a Shed", for a mere 250 grand you can have a 240 sq. foot recording studio in your yard or garden. It's apparently modeled on the one has at home in his garden. Here's a link to the sales site if you want to see some specifics.

Some of you have been to my house so you've seen my Fortress of Solitude. Probably from the outside though, since it is still filled with unpacked boxes (Although significantly less so now that Melody has helped me clean it up a bit).

A backyard studio is one of the directions my Fortress is heading in. I recently purchased my own mixer, I've wanted one for a really long time. I was absolutely giddy the day it showed up. It's a Mackie 1202-VLZ Pro. It's an extremely popular mixer due to its high quality, and relatively low price. It has a lot of options, and the pre-amps are great.

Since getting it I've been putting out a lot more voice over demos. With all the traveling I've been doing I haven't put up for everything I wanted to, but I did get one of them. It was very exciting to get a job from stuff I produced on my very own equipment! Once things settle down some I'll be putting out more demos (Most of the jobs I'm going for require custom demos).

I've been producing most of them on my linux laptop using Audacity. It's cross platform (Mac, Windows, Linux), completely free and high quality. I plan to try Ardour as well once I have some more time. It's closer to what I'm used to using, Adobe Audition (Actually I'm more used to it when it was Cool Edit Pro, I still use the last version before Adobe bought them out.) Audacity has just about everything I need for most of the straight voicework (Noise reduction, normalization), but when I do sound design for a show I need a lot more of the stuff you find in the high end products.

To do voice work you have to have a microphone. I'm currently using a Shure Sm-58, it's a good mic. Really, it's one of the most popular in the recording industry. Is that why I chose it? No! I got it free a number of years ago, and its a good quality mic. That's why I use it. I want one of these though. I'm still saving up for that. Maybe after a few more voice-over gigs.

FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal

The cruise is just a few weeks away, and many of us have been working out and trying to lose weight to look better in our swim wear. I was doing pretty well, and then as it tends to do work got in the way. It's hard to keep up my workout schedule while I'm traveling, especially when I'm working an average of 12 hour days. Like wise it's hard to keep up with good eating habits (something that I'm admittedly not good at in general).

Now, despite my working out I haven't made much progress weight wise (I think I may be a bit slimmer, but don't have much to gauge that by except my pants keep falling down.). One reason for this is I haven't made much of a change to my eating habits. I eat far too much fast food for one thing.

I came across the link below on Digg (I think). It is a free, web based Diet & Weight loss journal. You can set goals, and it helps you track them. You can also enter what you've eaten in a given day and it will help you figure out calorie in take. This can be a big help. Most people assume they have to make major changes to their diet, this isn't always the case. Sometimes just a small change can lower your daily calorie intake enough to make a difference.

Check it out, after all it's free!



FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal

The Grief That Made 'Peanuts' Good - WSJ.com

The Grief That Made 'Peanuts' Good - WSJ.com

There is a new book about the life of Charles Schultz, and the development of his comic strip "Peanuts". The link above is to a review by Bill Watterson of "Calvin and Hobbes". The review is very well written, as you would expect, and the book sounds quite good as well. Even if you don't read the book, the review is well worth your time.

The Eowyn Challenge

The Eowyn Challenge

My good friend Matt has undertaken a weight loss program of his own devising. It primarily consists of a better diet, and more exercise. He plays a bit of basketball on the weekends, and most days he walks on his treadmill.

The other important thing to know about Matt, at least in relation to this, is that he is a big fan of the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit.

This brings me to the link displayed above, it is (clipped from the site):

"The original Walk to Rivendell Challenge began on Monday, March 17th, 2003, but it is never too late to join in. We have other distances throughout Middle Earth that you may choose to travel. The founder of this fitness challenge is our Ranger Jewel. She began researching the miles, milestones and time frame of the hobbits’ journey to Rivendell in Fellowship of the Ring . We were later joined by Karen Wynn Fonstad, author of the Atlas of Middle-earth. Mrs. Fonstad provided us with very detailed charts of all the Fellowship’s journey through Middle Earth. Much of the information provided is exclusive to the Eowyn Challenge and can be found nowhere else. The challenge is very simple and flexible; anyone can develop their own variation on this basic idea."

So now, you see why I thought of Matt when I saw this today on BoingBoing

Wash me

I think we have all at one time or another drawn in the dust an a car that hasn't been washed in a long time. Most of us did this when we were kids. We put such clever things on there as: Wash me (Sometimes with an exclamation, sometimes not), our hand prints, or even use it as a way to profess our feelings ( JJ + XD, I Jane, or Joanie loves Chachi). This guy has taken that to a whole different level:

Dirty Car Art

He is very talented, but be forewarned I got sucked into looking at his pictures for quite awhile.

Harry Potter Event

This past friday, a bunch of us from TBA Theatre were performing at the Barnes' & Noble Haryy Potter event. The B&N folks knew that people would be lining up to get their books promptly after midnight, so they planned a number of events.

Elle arranged for the Illusions crew to come out and paint faces, juggle, perform magic, just generally jump around, and other wise entertain the folks. I was the emcee for the costume contest.

There was a contest each hour, with the winners of those hourly contests coming back at the end for the grand prize: the right to be first in line to get their book (Oh, and a $100 gift certificate). I was too keep the crowd excited, and announce the folks, and generally keep things moving along. By all accounts I did great. Channel 2 news was there several times, we even got a live feed on the 10 o'clock! They did this during the costume contest, so I'm sure I can be heard, if not seen.

Channel 2 did come back later, and film some more. There is an article here, with some video. I'm in the video, and quoted in the article. The best part is that in both I'm referred to as: Frank Delaney, TBA Theater. There is also some footage of a Dementor (Which I believe is Dave Fink, I know he was playing that part but I don't know if he is the one in the video). So not only did the event go well, everybody loved us, but we got some good publicity with out name on TV!

I sound a little rough in the video, because I was getting pretty dehydrated. I was chugging water like crazy but sometimes it just isn't enough.

Linux Geekery

I occasionally do sideline work for clients around town. I recently did a network upgrade project, and as part of that they paid me to wipe out the hard drives and dispose of their old PC's. So at the moment I have a bunch of decent machines sitting around.

I plan on keeping a couple of them, and so I installed Kubuntu linux on two of them. I've been looking for a reason to try it out at home, as a primary use machine. I've been running it as a secondary for a while at work using Virtualbox virtualization software.

I've been running it at home for the last couple days and its been going pretty well. I'm writing this entry from the Kubuntu machine. It's not my first foray into linux, but it is my most in depth to date. It runs great on this slightly older hardware with only 512 MB of ram. Installing software is really easy, and there is a ton of high quality free software available. There is a learning curve, as with anything new, but by and large I think most people would have a fairly easy time transitioning.

The first day I had it, I needed to burn a cd. I downloaded the ISO file I needed to my desktop, and double clicked the file. The burning program started right up, and about 10 minutes later I was done.

I plan to try Ubuntu studio as well, it's a distribution geared towards multimedia creation.

Look at all the pretty pictures

Several of the regular readers of my irregular posts are aware that I'm more than a little into web comics. In addition to the 60 or so comics that Leif has on his aggregation page, I have about another 60 I read on a daily or weekly basis (depending on their update schedules), and another 20 or so that are on hiatus.

One of the best ones I've seen is called Breakfast of the Gods. It is a large format comic, with a long reaching story arc. Very similar to a graphic novel, in web form. The art work is great, and I'm really enjoying the story. It doesn't update on a schedule that I've been able to determine, but new ones come in every few weeks. He recently finished book one of the story and started on book two.
I highly recommend checking it out. You'll recognize most, if not all of the characters.
Breakfast of the Gods Book One: The Last Good Morning
Breakfast of the Gods Book Two: O Cap'n, My Cap'n

1st Saturday! Free Comic Books

Thats right! Free comics! For those of you in Anchorage, Bosco's is participating, but if you aren't then I have the web linkage for you.

Most of us read comics as kids. Some of us really got into it. At one point in my life I had a collection, all organized with each one in its own mylar bag with a back board. I still have a lot of those, but I don't collect them that way anymore. These days I just get them because I enjoy reading the stories. Some of the classic titles, like Daredevil, have always had very compelling story lines. Others are less about the dramatic stories, and more about fun. So this is the list of what you'll currently find in my pull box at Bosco's:

• Daredevil - It manages to tell compelling stories, while being less wordy than many other titles, it is very art driven.
• Green Arrow - Just plain awesome. Oliver Queen is one of the original anti-heroes. Kevin Smith started writing for this title in 2000, and handed it over to Judd Winnick in 2002 (The author of two of my other favorites, Frumpy the Clown and Barry Ween: Boy Genius)
  
• Green Lantern - One of my all time favorites, the idea that GL's can create anything that they can imagine makes them my far and away favorite. Hal Jordan is back. Kyle saved the corps and he has gone on to become:
• Ion - Kyle is the torchbearer for the Green Lantern Corps.
  
• Dork Tower- This is a fun one, which is mostly about gamers and gaming (Old style table top gaming mostly). It's on the web as well.
  
• Knights of the Dinner Table - This one has evolved from a book about a table top gaming group, into a magazine full of useful stuff for role-players and Game masters. Put out by Kenzerco, the same folks who brought you Hackmaster.
• Xmen- Everyone is familiar with these guys.
  
• Warlord - One of the first comics I read regularly, it ended in 1989. However, they tried to revive it last year, but it only made it through 10 issues. From the comic:

"In the savage world of Skartaris,
life is a constant struggle for survival.
Here, beneath an unblinking orb of eternal
sunlight, one simple law prevails:
If you let down your guard for an instant you will soon be very dead."

If you haven't picked up a comic book in awhile, I encourage you to get out on Saturday, stop by your local comic shop and check some out! Hey while you're out stop by Barnes & Noble and help out TBA Theatre!

It's a good cause!

Most of the folks who read this with any regularity will probably have already heard about it, but this weekend is a fund raiser for TBA Theatre. The short version is that if you make a purchase from Barnes & Noble on Saturday they will donate a percentage to TBA. The best part is that it costs you nothing extra above the cost of your book or CD! All you need is a voucher, which you can print out by following that link or just ask your cashier for one. Tell all your friends!

Here is the full story from the TBA Website:

Hello Friends of TBA Theatre! Do you have books, music or movies you have been dying to buy? Looking for a fun afternoon out with the kids? We're giving you the perfect opportunity!

We have partnered with Barnes & Noble for a book fair to benefit TBA Theatre and our production of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island the Musical". Face painting and story time will happen from noon to 5:00pm, with special appearances by Folks Tales at 2:00pm, and by various scruffy pirates who'll sing songs from "Treasure Island the Musical" at 3:00pm.

So join us for some hearty, pirate-themed fun at Barnes & Noble on Saturday, May 5th! Simply present your voucher at the cashier's counter when you are ready to check out - this costs you nothing extra over the price of your purchase! Vouchers can be used during the entire business day from 9am to 11pm. If you can't print out a voucher, just tell your friendly Barnes & Noble cashier that you would like to use a voucher to benefit TBA Theatre and they will provide one for you.

Personality Test

I'm a sucker for online tests. This is a personality test I took at echemistry.com (You have to sign up for an account, and they make you swear you aren't married, since its a dating site. I don't plan on keeping the account so I had no problem lying to them to get the test :)

Your type is called 'The Surprise Philosopher.' You are steady and reliable and talk less than the people around you. You are laid back and fun to hang out with and at the same time have an underlying intensity in everything you do. You prefer low key activities like hanging out with friends, but also hate to be bored, so you're likely to try new things to keep life interesting.

You are intensely passionate. Your romantic relationships are much more passionate behind closed doors than your coworkers would guess from your stoic exterior.

There's a hard edge to your personality which really tests who is worth your time. You are probably quite sarcastic, or at least have gone through very sarcastic periods. You simply don't put on a facade when someone is being an idiot. You may not actually verbalize your thoughts every time, but in your head you call out people and that blunt honesty keeps idiots at a distance.

You expect people to say exactly what they want and need any time you're making a decision that affects them. You are extremely hard on yourself when a situation doesn't go your way because you didn't speak up and say exactly what you thought.

You see situations for exactly what they are, and you state reality so bluntly that people can't help but go along with what you see. You don't get bogged down in procedures or theories, you just do what needs to be done and get things overwith. You don't want to exert yourself any more than you have to, so you become an expert at using tools to the maximum advantage so that the time you spend working is extremely efficient in getting results. You excel at finding novel approaches to solving problems because of this and are somewhat of an inventor.

You are definitely an idea person. You come up with concepts for new businesses or products all the time without even trying. You are a natural born entrepreneur and, more than other types, are likely to work for yourself, even as a contractor to someone else, rather than work in a regular 9 to 5 job. You are incredibly skilled with problem solving and not inclined towards desk work. In fact, paperwork can slip through the cracks for you. You avoid all mundane, repetitive, boring work and excel at anything requiring physical skill and finding solutions to surprise problems.

You're called the Surprise Philosopher because you spend so much time in the background, particularly in groups, and just when you've blended totally in you're likely to say something really abstract and meaningful and people are likely to turn their heads in wonder that you were just hanging in the flow a moment before and suddenly reached such a deep level. You spend so much time in your own mind that you simply listened to the topic, then took it step by step, breaking it down, and came out with your final conclusion without verbally helping everyone else along your train of thought. When the conversation turns toward the philosophical topic you've brought up you're likely to tire of repeating yourself while others catch up to what you were thinking.

You communicate more through actions than words. You learn by doing, rather than by hearing, seeing or reading. Standard grade school was not intended for students like you, and you probably found it incredibly tedious and boring.

You were designed to use your hands and mind to master tools which other people cannot. When introduced to new tools, including weapons, your skill develops faster and further, and you speak more technically about it than others could, even if they were given more time and practice. You are drawn to music and, if you try, you find that you are much more of a natural at playing instruments than other people. You also have a natural talent for self defense and become more skilled more quickly in that subject area than others who began learning with you and are left in the dust. It all boils down to the fact that you want to be comfortable and secure and you excel at anything which helps advance those goals.

You feel most comfortable when other people don't know exactly what to expect from you. This leaves your options open to take whatever action you'd like without it being particularly shocking to anyone. You realize that you're less vulnerable if you can't be stereotyped. You may intentionally do or say surprising things just to keep other people guessing. In fact, even those close to you never know whether you'll respond to something with instant enthusiasm or reserved thought.

You particularly enjoy unexpectedly stepping up to tackle a mechanical or instrument problem and then solving it with ease. Although, you'll steer clear if the problem involves attitudes or emotions because you don't want to get bogged down in unclear situations with no clear answer. If you absolutely must refer to the directions then you will read only the part which specifically applies to the problem at hand. You like work which has a definite end, a completion point, rather than 'research' or 'administration' which could continue on forever.

You are observant and will watch your environment, collecting data, constantly.

When you're not at work you don't waste energy on creating plans which might not work out. You prefer to face each day anew and tackle problems as they arise. You rely on yourself and trust common sense to get things done in nearly all circumstances.

If you choose to become a parent you do not feel the need to impose yourself or your standards on your children the way others do. In your eyes your children are individuals and you will respond to each of them according to their situations at any given time. Your spouse and your children will know that you will give them the freedom and space they need to be their own person and you will expect the same treatment in return.

You know what tastes good, what feels good against your skin, and what smells satisfy you. Of all personality types, yours is first to notice the signs of hunger, fatigue, sleepiness or discomfort in your body, and you can get quite irritable and distracted if those issues are not resolved in a timely fashion. Because you are attentive to the needs of your body you are likely to stop and remedy such issues before they become a problem.

You portray a very even tempered image and that matches a calm interior. There's not much that gets you visually excited.

Your level of conformity to any group is always negotiable. One day you may be an excited participant, but in general you find groups and strangers to be irritating. As an adult you've learned tact, but in your heart you still prefer the private company of a few close friends, or time completely alone, to time with any particular large social group of people.

You really want to like people, and there are some that you truly love, but you take each new person in a group as an individual. You maintain your individual personality in any group and are repelled when people pressure you to conform. If you do participate regularly in any social group it is with minimal investment of your feelings. You are something of an observer even while being a participant, and it takes very little to convince you that you need a break or to leave the group altogether.

You are particularly wary of manipulative individuals. You can spot such people because you have similar skills but choose not to use them except when really necessary. You are the most common type to be suspicious of your personality profile on this site because it contains too high a ratio of good to bad statements about you.

You don't desperately need a relationship like some others do, but the reality is that you're almost always looking for someone new when you're single. Much more than other types it's important to you that your romantic partners are physically attractive, the more extremely attractive the better, and you're willing to forgo some of the deep emotional connection for someone who physically turns you on. That trade is necessary most of the time because you're simply that much smarter than most people.

Underneath your stoic appearance, you have a massive heart. When you do finally get into a relationship you love much more deeply than most people. Someone with all that you have to give truly deserves a partner with the same amount to give back. People at your level are few and far between, but the relationships created by bringing two people like you together are closer and create a greater amount of overall joy than they do with most other people, so our system specializes in matching exactly your type.

ou have a very practical, realistic view of love which makes you much more likely to have a successful relationship than other people. You realize that romantic relationships are based on a mutual commitment and you don't expect to be madly in love with your mate every day. That said, you have such a massive heart that you're always sure that you love the other person even when they aren't making sense.

Your big picture skill for seeing the best way to clear out the logjam of the moment is based on the same trait that makes you disinclined toward mundane and routine tasks. In studies of high chemistry old married couples, the highest chemistry matches were those where your type was paired with someone who, among other things, balances you in that way. Your match is a detail person who takes care of the paperwork while you solve problems and keep things comfortable.

Based on your personality traits alone, we estimate that approximately 1 in 100 people will have the personality traits required to qualify for a high likelihood of very strong long term romantic chemistry with you.

You prefer work where you can see the completed results when you're done. Rather than focus on the same project for ten years before seeing results, you're the type that would like to refine your skills over time by repeatedly using them to produce visible results on a much faster basis.

You hate to be bored and love to be entertained. You want entertainment that stimulates you and makes you laugh.

Wow, all the tired is gone

Over the last several weeks I've had lots of ideas for interesting blog posts. I've done nothing to follow through on that though. Leif's recent post reminded me, since he voiced similar sentiments. My reasons are different. At least for the last couple weeks.

I'm generally tired all the time. I'm not entirely sure why, I've got a sleep study scheduled later this month, perhaps we'll figure something out from that. In any event, on my last trip back east I ended up getting around 5 to 6 hours of sleep a night. That coupled with the time change left me more than a little discumbobulated. When I got back to town I never really got a chance to catch up. The last two days I've stayed home from work and slept in, I was just so run down I wasn't much good at work. I feel pretty good now.

So, I'll try to get some of those ideas up. We'll see how it goes, this time of year is the most stressful for me. There is simply too much going on, with work, shows ,and gearing up for Ren fair.

If you've seen the commercials, then you know what I mean when I ask: What the heck are boyfriend trousers?