Need a Cub?
Rocker Boy finally figured out how to send pix from his cell phone. This is from the day he left, when we happened onto the exotic animal day at the Mall and I got to hold a baby lion cub.
Is that the CUTEST darned thing you've ever seen? SO SOFT!!! Can you tell I was completely in love with the fuzzster and wanted to bring her home? Never mind that within a year she'd be big enough to eat me.
It totally brought out the squee in me.
Odd thing I have
Noticed. All of my post titles this month begin with
N. I've decided to challenge myself to carry on with this trend through
November. Why
Not, eh?
Ooooh. I think the house across the street finally sold. Yay. Maybe that's a good sign for my old Toledo house (which, according to tax assessments, is worth $6k MORE than I was going to price it at).
Labels: cats, ron, silliness
November, the Ninth—er, 11th Month
All right, so there used to be 10 months. That makes sense. Why they changed it? Must've been Bush's predecessors. Only someone like that would do something so sweepingly inane. Speaking of, I saw a bumper sticker today that said "01-20-09: Bush's Last Day". Interesting.
Well, as it is now November in the eastern part of the the US where I am, is it even worth it to mention the holiday that has passed?
Oh, all right.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
I went as a hermit. It was easy. I just hid inside my house behind closed drapes and didn't get dressed today. LOL!
Really, though, sarcasm aside, I'm feeling good. Rocker Boy called (about effing time, he left the 13th) and we had a good chat. All is well with us. I miss him like crazy, but... I have a feeling life will be swinging our boats into the same shore again very soon.
Hope you all had a good one and got lots of CHOCOLATE.
Labels: nothing important, ron
OK Now That Is Interesting
Daily Horoscope
For 28 October 2007
A family matter, relocation or contract on a property that tied in with events about a five weeks ago*, will be important in the organisation of events during October 28-November 7. Routines tie you into activities with others during October 28-November 1, creating a sense of familiarity and comfort. Relationships are strengthened then. Well. That's interesting. Events relating to relocation/property of about five weeks ago? That would be around when Rocker Boy arrived. HMMMMmmmmmmm.
In other news: ankle is much improved. I'm bustling around like normal except for the occasional reminder when I step funny that "oh yeah, I hurt it". I think it's safe to say that it's a sprain. Thank you for all of your concern and, I'm assuming, many happy healthy ankle prayers/vibes.
My schedule is all whacked out. First, I got
Cubase (music recording production software for the computer). I went with the Studio 4 version rather than the full or the limited—right smack in the middle. But it's pretty powerful stuff.
Next, I finally overcame my fear and discovered the magic of
MIDI, which opens up entire new worlds of possibilities for recording my music. Yeah, it scared me. It sounded too techie for me and I was put off by concepts like algorithms and programming. GUI interfaces changed all that, though (meaning it's visual).
Then I decided I needed
Groove Agent, which is... hard to explain. It's like a glorified drum machine for use with Cubase. It rocks. I got the previous version at a discount from my local music store—would that be an LMS?—with upgrade potential. It's amazing.
Plus I made the happy discovery that my ancient
BOSS DR-5 Dr. Rhythm Machine that I bought in, oh, 1995 (state of the art then) is still paying for itself since it can be used easily as a MIDI controller. In layman's terms, I can tap out my drum parts (or any other instrument really) on it and "play along" with the song in real-time while the computer records me, then go into the MIDI file and nudge things around. Unbridled. So if I decided I needed more cowbell *wink* and forgot to add it, I can just click spots on the MIDI grid on the proper voice and voila. Instant cowbell. Or if I don't like the 1950's drum kit sound I can change it to techno-house, baby. Or for fun, assign a Sitar to it and see what noises it makes.
This MIDI is crazy shit, mon.
THEN I read in the Cubase manual that there is a feature for scores—actual music notation—within Cubase, AND it can read .mid and .xml files produced by music notation software. Well, I had an old version of Finale NotePad floating around—freebie—so I experimented with that, then went searching for the upgrades to that.
Enter
Finale Allegro. Yes, my friends. It makes composing your first symphony in four movements as easy as typing an email. Plus they have a 30-day trial version (I had to geek tweak the URL to get to the link, though—it's mislinked). I'll probably wind up buying this, too.
So guess what I did last night? and early this morning? and was still doing at noon?
Yup.
Back in 1987, I took a course at the college in Composition (music). Final project: compose an intricate piece of music that would be performed live at a class recital. Being I have a fascination with neo-classical virtuoso guitarists such as Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, and so on, I decided to compose a piece for a chamber ensemble, featuring the electric guitar as the solo voice. Yeah, the classically-trained music students in the ensemble looked at me cross-eyed. (The jazz guitar major was psyched, though.) But I forged ahead, and I composed an 8-part theoretically-correct piece loftily entitled "Emotion Trines Venus: Mood et Variations in A Minor". Transcribed and transposed the entire thing, master score and individual parts, by hand.
OY.
Last night, I dug it out of my pile of old music, blew off the dust, and re-transcribed it in Allegro. Yeah. All night. Like 12 hours I sat there note by note, measure by measure, part by part. (I've heard tell there are scanners that'll do this for you, but... eh, I was on a mission.)
Then, I exported the XML file. And imported it into Cubase. And assigned each part a more realistic-sounding "voice" (except the guitar—it's gonna have to be recorded by an actual player, unless Steinberg's Virtual Guitarist is worth purchasing because I sure as heck doubt I can play what I wrote, LOL!—and the guitar tones in the VST instruments don't sound like guitars really... but they'll "do").
Then I sat back and listened to it, and I was shocked. First, I was shocked that I'd spent nearly 16 hours in front of the computer with no food, very little tea, and no sleep, transcribing non-stop. Then shocked to think that technology allows us the ability to do this. Finally, shocked that I had actually composed a symphony piece, and IMHO (take it for what it's worth), it's pretty good.
I'll tweak it and upload it one of these days. The mixing and panning part is next on my list of things to learn and explore.
So my bedtime wound up being 1:30. Pee Em. Yup. It was so grey and rainy today it didn't really look like daylight anyway, so... slept until 7 ish. That's a good six hour nap. Got up, ate, read the paper, got the mail, did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, talked to W on the phone, called Rocker Boy (left msg)... totally whacked my circadians again but OH WELL.
Let's just be honest here. I'm a
musician. Always have been, always will be, I love me some fibrosity and some horseflesh but my #1 has always been music. Did my best to avoid the inevitable. Did my best to ignore the calling. For what? Why? If it's who I am. Let me be me. Maybe it didn't fit in with my Mother's grand vision for me, but I am under no obligation to make her happy anymore. It's ME time. I'm back on musicians' hours and I've never felt better.
Now if Rocker Boy would just follow suit. I'm pretty sure his own ignorance of the Call of the Strat is what is making him depressed. (We're a lot a like, in good and bad ways.)
Off to de-compose...
Oh—what—knitting? Uh... yeah. About that. Haven't knit a stitch since Rocker Boy left. Uh... maybe I should admit defeat and just start a musician's blog instead.
Labels: injuries, music, ron
The PAIN, the PAIN!
Dear Social Life,
The reason for my sudden absence from you is because I am currently immobile.
Went out to run a couple quick errands. Drop off books at the library. Drop the mail in the box. Which I could have done at the library drop-off thingie if I'd been thinking about it but I wasn't and besides I had to go in to p/u a book. Anyway. Over to Barney's/BP for milk and lotto tickets.
I'd better effing win.
Because I effing twisted my mutha effing ankle in the mutha effing parking lot on a mutha effing UNEVEN SPOT in the pavement that should not have been there and now it mutha effing hurts all the way up my leg.
OW OW OW OW OW.
It's my right ankle. Yes, I drove home. Using my left foot. Shoulda been there. I need practice. VROOM screech VROOM screech VROOM screech VROOM screech VROOM screech.
I can walk on it. Sorta. It's still relatively close to its normal size. It's developing puffy spots and slight bruising. I heard a snap or pop or something when it happened and I did it REALLY hard. The kind where it flips in under you? Yeah. It was either a bone or a ligament—not sure which.
My ankles are weak. Plus being 188 whopping pounds doesn't help, with my skinny ankles, and do you know how narrow and tiny my poor feet are? Made to support someone long lean and lithe, not a heffalump like me.
So now I've got it Aced up and I'm contemplating between Ibuprofin or something stronger (leftover Darvies, perhaps?). I refuse to go to the ER. Besides. Who's gonna take me? I mean I can take me, but... if it IS busted, and I get a cast... they may not let me drive home even if I am rather accomplished (VROOM screech) with my left foot. I only have one friend in town—everyone else is a half hour away at best—and this happens to be the night she's up in Toledo.
Is it fair of me to be really snottily pissed off at Rocker Boy right now for abandoning me to live in Florida? (Oh. Yeah. For those who aren't caught up in the drama, he left to pursue better job opps elsewhere. It was amicable. He was basically on a long-term visit, anyway, not actually
living with me permanently. Plus we're still talking about meeting up down south somewhere once I am ready to move, which might be a month or so. Or more. Depending on this ankle situation. So it's all good. Except for right now because I'm in pain and pissy and hungry.)
How do I tell if it's broken? Can you walk on it if it's broken? I want my mommy.
I'm so mad. It was PJ's night at InsanKnitty.
Signed,
Gimpy
Labels: breaking news, injuries, knit night, ron
