Finishing Touches

As I'm writing this, I'm finally putting the finishing touches on my first mix. I'm using the Sony Acid Pro 5.0 audio software package for this mix. This powerful audio software package is the perfect pallete for the powerful music I threw into this mix. Making a mix with audio software is so much harder than I imagined it would be.

First of all, phrasing the music just right was pretty challenging. Basically what phrasing means is that you have to make sure the transitions between tracks flow just right. Phrasing with Acid Pro is much easier than doing it with two turntables, but I'll admit this mix is far from perfectly phrased.

Overall, I'd say the biggest challenge in making this mix was the sound engineering. Getting all the volume levels just right for all of the tracks in this mix was very tedious. The fact that I'm a perfectionist didn't make engineering this mix any easier either. Just to give you an idea of how much of a perfectionist I am, as I wrote this post and listened to my mix, I was still making volume adjustments to tracks! I started making the mix without worrying about the volume level of each track. Towards the end of making this mix, I was constantly going back and forth between tracks, changing the volume levels to get everything just right. Intially, I ended up running out of time to properly engineer this mix before I had to burn it to a CD so I could play it at a party up in Delaware. As the mix played at the party, my good friend Luke noticed that the Pop Levi track was too loud, and also that I poorly phrased one of his favorite tracks in the mix. The track right after the track he liked came in way too early. He said, "The song wasn't over yet." You were right Luke, it wasn't over yet, so I adjusted the phrasing to let that Bonobo track you like so much play a little longer.

Finally, another challenge in making this mix was trying to get it to last a full hour. The mix CD I took up to Delaware back in July was a full hour, but honestly I was just throwing in filler tracks towards the end, and I think the mix really lost it's flow at about 45 min. Since July 2006, I've thought about how I'd correct this issue. Then a spark of brilliance came to me. "I'll just make it shorter and cut out the filler," I said to myself and that's what I did. I cut out two Daedlus tracks, a Blockhead track ("Expiration Date" was so overplayed amongst my circle of friends in Delaware anyway), and also a track by Pest. I really, REALLY wanted to leave the other two Daedlus tracks in this mix, but the tracks by Daedlus I threw in at the end orignally were clocking in at 120 bpm. The majority of the mix was running at 80-90 bpm, so the transition to 120 bpm was pretty sloppy and just killed the flow of the mix. In the new and improved version of my mix, the fastest track is 105 bpm and the total play time is 50:29 min. Don't worry Luke, I left Bonobo "Recurring" in the mix too.

I know I said I'd release this mix on my blog back in July, but I've been busy with other things and to be honest, the challenges involved in making this mix were really frustrating for me. I bascially gave up on this mix about mid-Augus 2006 and didn't mess with it until about a day ago. So it's finally done.

Tracklist:

1. Treva Whateva - "Singalong" VS. Mr. Scruff - "Fish"
2. Skalpel - "Test Drive"
3. Loka - "Meet Dad"
4. Jaga Jazzist - "Oslo Skyline"
5. Jaga Jazzist - "All I Know is Tonight"
6. Daedlus - "Viva Vida"
7. Skalpel - "Konfusion"
8. Fink - "Biscuits"
9. Fog - "Under an Anvil Tree"
10. Pop Levi - "Blue Honey"
11. Blockhead - "Dough Nation"
12. Ammoncontact - "Beautiful Flowers"
13. One Self - "Hollow Human Beings"
13. Bonobo - "Recurring"
14. Ammoncontact - "Elevation"
15. Ammoncontact - "Omniverses 1"

Download it here. (Link is temporarily down)

Much respect to the Ninja Tune crew.

My Brother's New Bodyboard

brother: dude im gonna get a new bodyboard
brother: dude im gonna get a new bodyboard
brother signed off at 5:58:46 PM.
brother signed on at 7:23:25 PM.
me: hard slick, or the one with a clear window to look down through the water to see the fishies?
me: i recommend the one with the clear window
brother: yea thats the one i ordered, jay reale only had like 3 left in stock
brother: they are selling like hot cakes
brother: colin hurlihy has a new hard slick drop knee sig model with two windows
brother: one in the front and one in the back so you can see stuff behind you too
me: HOLY SHIT!!!! TWO WINDOWS!?!?!?!
brother: hell yea dude
brother: it's like $360
me: i'd pay 500 for it
brother: the windows are framed into the board with plastic stringers, none of that aluminum graphite bullshit

Long Week, Long Cigar

After working 78 hours this week, that's me on my patio with a genuine Cuban cigar and my Shure e3c earbuds/Rio Karma mp3 player. I was listening to Super Numeri, which is some chiiillled out jazz rock stuff.

Side Note: If you can't already tell, Cuban cigars cause MAJOR smokers eye.

Forthcoming Mix

Welp, I've decided to make a mix in celebration of my vaction that's coming up in July. A few of my friends in my home town enjoy the goofy yet well crafted music that I listen to, so I figured I'd make a mix that we can listen to at the kegger I have planned when I go back to D to the E (Delawhere?). I'll do my best to find some webspace to share it with you all. The mix will consist of exclusively tracks released on the record label Ninja Tune. I was hoping to have a track of my own finished to include in the mix, but I don't see that happening. Anyways, expect a couple of "vs." tracks and alot of jazz rock in my mix. Ninja Tune seems to be releasing anything with a guitar lick in it these days. I can dig it. Can you? We'll find out soon.

Five Guys' Burgers

So I ate at Five Guys' Burgers. Whew, do they make a killer burger? Yes they do. Look how thick and greasy that thing is. I decided to go with lettuce, tomatoes, bacon, cheese, ketchup, and mushrooms. The fries are killer at Five Guys' Burgers too. They make their fries out of Idaho potatoes and cook them in peanut oil. I know this because they have big palets of Idaho potatoes and peanut oil all over the restraunt. I can honestly say that Five Guys' Burgers has the best fast food burger and fries meal I've ever had. Go find one near you.

Marine From My Hometown Dies in Iraq

The story. Please keep the Palmer family in your prayers. Rest in peace Cory.

SC Sunset

Just another South Carolina sunset. Don't mind my dirty windshield.

Video Cards Installation Pictures

WARNING: IF YOU AREN'T A COMPUTER GEEK, YOU PROBABLY SHOULDN'T READ THIS POST.

Ok, I warned you. Now, here's a few pictures I took while installing my new video cards.

I had to take my motherboard out of my cases to install my new CPU heatsink, so I figured I'd snap a few photos while it was out of the case. I've got many heatpipes now.

This is my new CPU heatsink. I had to mount a 120mm fan on top of it myself, but mounting was easy since it came with clips for the fan. As a reference, the fan is about as thick as a quarter.

Here's a close up of the Fanless Design heatsink on my ASUS A8N-SLI Premium motherboard. You can sorta see the heat pipe going underneath my video card towards another heatsink on my motherboard. I didn't install the heatsink or the heat pipe on my motherboard; the motherboard came with it.

I also installed seven new blue LED case fans on my tower. I had to bust out my power drill for the two fans in the front of my case because I had to put some screws through plastic. The other fans just clipped right in.

Blue is my favorite color.

So these new video cards are SCREAMING fast. Plus the idle and load temperatures of my two cards went down 20 degrees C from my previous video cards. Idle is now 47 degrees C on the second card and about 57 degrees C while I'm playing a game. Now that Oblivion runs better on my PC at 1600x1200, everything on high and HDR on, I've been playing that quite a bit lately. Also, I can play Rocket Arena 4 at 1600x1200, Ultra Settings without a drop below 50 fps; I don't use AA because at 1600x1200 you don't even notice the aliasing really. I love the fps optimized maps that come with Rocket Arena 4. Raven Software needs to take some hints from the Rocket Arena 4 map makers. The maps that come with Quake 4 are far from fps optimized.

The Crib

So I closed on a house on Sept 30, 2005. At times, it was a pain in the ass. Lots of paperwork and what not. But it was all worth it. I was breathless when I first walked into the house and finally getting the keys to my first house was something I'll never forget. Perhaps a tour of the house is in order....

This is my front door and my hardwood foyer. Since I took this picture, I added a cheap Mexican rug that I bought in Cancun. Some would say it's an eye sore, but it brings back good memories of Cancun. I might add pictures from Cancun. I took a shitload of pictures in the clubs. They say Cancun has some of the best clubs in the world, and I believe it. Anywho...

Next up is the dining room. At the time of this picture, I hadn't put up blinds yet and I didn't have a dining room table. Not much has changed since this picture. No blinds, no table. I just got back from five months of classes down in Alabama and Mississippi; yes, it was torture to be away from my house for so long. I'm in the process of buying stuff for my house now that I'm back. As I add stuff, I'll snap some pix. I won't take pictures of the guy that's moving in pretty soon though. He's ugly.

This is my fireplace with a mantle. At the time of this picture, all I could afford for my living room was that $200 dollar couch (which was almost like stealing it) and a few fold up chairs from Wal-Mart.

Here's a picture of my breakfast room. Right behind me is my kitchen, which I'll get to next. This window really impressed me when I first saw it. I love the view of the woods. Waking up to breakfast with a view of some woods instead of your fence or your neighbor's fence is nice. Note the vaulted ceiliing as well. My whole kitchen has a vaulted ceiling.

My house came with a Dream Kitchen, which they threw in for free. Freekin' awesome. Stainless steel fridge, mike, oven, and dishwasher. Sweeeeeet.

The entrance to the master bathroom...

His and her sink. Her doesn't live here yet, so I get both the sinks.

Garden tub...

Yup, I've got a sit down shower. I like to sit in the shower sometimes and contemplate my next move.

My walk-in closet is in the master bath, which gets my stamp of approval. When I have a lady friend over and I possibly have to go to work early in the morning, I can get dressed without waking her up.

You know you wanted to see my toilet. Come on. Eh? Eh? No? Well I like how it's in a seperate room. That's all.

Last but not least, this is what the exterior of my house looks like. I guess it looks ok. I don't really care about the outward appearance of my house, as long as it doesn't look dirty or run down.

So you got to see what my house looks like. Now I'm gonna have to ask you to get the fuck out. Er, sorry. I had to say that. This is the closest thing I'll ever get to having my house on MTV Cribs. Let me have my fun.