Rain

I’ve switched over a decade ago, so my power user days are far behind but I use Windows for work and they recently upgraded everything to 11. I am not overly fond of it. Of course, I was a little disappointed to find that I could no longer move the taskbar. I’ve always preferred it on top, even years before I switched to Mac. It’s just how I am used to work. Not really a big deal, but I miss it. The one big shock was the fact that the search bar was unusable after the laptop lost connectivity - that made troubleshooting said connectivity issues a little bit more complex than it would have otherwise been. I am also seeing odd little things, like all audio being randomly muted at startup, or hyper compressed microphone signal - but if you play with the software volume slider a little it goes back to normal. Just sucks to have to dig for that constantly. And disabling “Listen to this device” (input monitoring) seems to have no effect. And there’s the more frequent internet drop-offs - but to be fair, these could potentially be hardware-related or may have something to do with specific software on this machine. That being said, I had similar connectivity issues with the previous (W10) laptop (a similar HP Elitebook) and it got so bad that I ended up buying an ethernet cable for it. But the issue eventually disappeared. I figured it had to do with a Windows update. I still think the HP hardware doesn’t help - internet speed tests on my old 2020 iMac show results 30% faster on average. Unfortunately, these new laptops do not have an ethernet port. Besides that, a few inexplicable glitches, but nothing extraordinary. I don’t dislike it as intensely as the most recent version of Mac OS (the very worse I have seen on that platform), but given the option, I personally would have stuck with 10. It did all I needed and was fairly reliable. But I am an old man now, and I am not big on change.

There are all kinds of accents out there. Some are incredibly sexy, some are downright annoying (I find my own to belong to that second category). But some are just so funny that you almost feel like booking a trip to that country just to hear it all over the place. In that category, I must say that my personal 1st option would be Scotland. I'm guessing it may have something to do with a certain character in those Austin Powers movies... The delicate lady in this video certainly reminded me of said character. 🤣 Scotland must be the funniest place on earth!

Seeing this it hits me how glad I am to be part of the generation that finally realized that men should not be displaying anything above the knee line when it comes to legs...

Might sound strange because I'm such a huge fan of theirs but I'd never seen the Magical Mystery Tour movie. I've always loved the record, though. Recently, after watching Beatles '64, I got into one of my Beatles phases so I decided to remedy that shameful situation. Well... It isn't very good, is it? I think I was like 20 minutes in when I paused playback 2 weeks ago. I am trying to work up the courage to finish it. I'm sure that people who might have been around at the time may be able to see it from a perspective that allows them to at least appreciate some of it, historically and all. Although I usually can appreciate stuff from that era that's a little out there, like Syd Barrett and the early Pink Floyd...

You know, its still has my favorite Vox-type of sound...

I had an extra night off so I took a trip down memory lane and through the archives - and I retrieved this "gem". I think it's the only 100% digital demo that I have for a rock song that I wrote. More of a jam idea than a song actually. The basic idea dates for the mid-late 90's when I played in a band, before I started dabbling with synths and samplers. All the music I wrote back then is on 1/4 inch tape or has been lost. But for some reason, I re-recorded this one in 2001. I must have been bored. I believe the basics would have been recorded in Pro Audio 9, right after I got my Line 6 POD - which I thought was the greatest thing ever. If you've ever worked with that old POD, you'll recognize it I'm sure. I must have revisited it a little later in Sonar 1 because I remember borrowing my new roommate's bass to do that. The drum loop is from a demo of some commercial library - the word Soundscan comes to mind, but I am not sure. I think it's something I got off of a CD that came with a music magazine. The multitrack is long gone, so this is a snippet of an old MP3. But since it was recorded in PA9, I thought I would drop it here... With an era appropriate photo. I may have to dig out my old POD... And the old XP laptop.

Happy Birthday, Sir Bapu.

There really are no words. So sorry, Wookie.

That one particular gig in a small village dance hall, we were playing social dance stuff, softer standard bits from the Real Book, and such - 3/4 of the band were guys my dad's age. It was not the most glamorous gig but I loved playing with those guys because I learned a lot from them - and also, the paycheck... But that little place was kind of backwards and one of the guys in the audience wasn't happy that his lady was apparently very fond of me and kept smiling at me and stuff. He even tried to climb onto the stage - which got him kicked out of the place. Not the kind of thing I expected when we accepted the gig. One minute you're playing Girl from Ipanema, the next you're fending off angry boyfriends. Ironically, I did end up dating a girl from that village after we played there again but this time with my rock band a few months later. Apparently, she'd witnessed the whole thing too and thought it was hysterical.

I always say the same about my cat. She's an alien, and she'll take me to her planet when I croak. The vocals are going to be tough. I think I found the angle. I knew I didn't want to do the whole thing falsetto, but the very first bit of the demo I did for it I sang those really high notes, the "cryyyyy" part. Those need to be there. Once I verified that I could hit those, I knew I could just figure out the rest. I must say I don't hate singing as much as I used to - especially since I got the Apollo. I feel that I finally hear myself properly, and singing with the headphones on does not seem to cause me to sing flat anymore. I'm still not a singer, but things are a little better.

🤣 An extra 2 cents... Last September when my old iPhone started exhibiting signs that I needed to look for a replacement, I decided to save money and get a Samsung instead. I lasted a month and then switched back to Apple. But the whole time, I did not have Authenticator installed on any of these until a few weeks ago when I was prompted to use it when I logged into my corporate Outlook account at work. On my end, Microsoft is pretty much the only company I deal with that constantly wants to verify my identity by means of texts or calls. And on these rare occasions, Authenticator. As for the rest, my iPhone is set to prompt me anytime an app or a site is requesting my location - most of the time, it's Google. I hate Google with a passion but I have yet to be able to get used to something else, and for type of trivialities that I look up online, its awful bias isn't much of a concern. The day it turns up a picture of Greta when I am looking for an image of a raccoon eating sushi, I'll reconsider. As for MS, I've had the old Hotmail account for almost 25 years but I've recently started to migrate to iCloud for my personal stuff. On a related note - the company I work for recently implemented one of those "security" feature, by issuing a code sent by email when people use the app - even when they are already logged into said app. So I guess it really is everywhere now. Not a fan, I must say.

Thank you, guys. It's good to get feedback from my peers. My cat doesn't seem to care much for my music. I was 12 when the song came out, and I'd just discovered that there was a world of music besides Elvis Presley - and I quickly became a metalhead. Of course back then, it was sacrilegious to listen to other genres, and stuff like Bronski Beat was girl music. It wasn't long before I stopped caring what people said, but back then it was a guilty pleasure. I thought it was a fantastic song.

Like, you buy a synth, and you mess with it and you find yourself with a new song or a new cover idea... That's what happened here, when I got that UAD bundle. Songs keep pouring out of that Onyx synth. I love that thing. So I ended up with a cover of one of my favorite 80's pop song, albeit one I would never had imagined covering - it pretty much just materialized in front of me. But there's this one part I am struggling with so I've been experimenting with it - and allowing inspiration to take me wherever it would. I just jam in Logic, you know... It doesn't really work (I think) but I had so much fun trying to evoke that The Cure/The Crow type of soundscape from memory...

I remember standing on the corner of the street when the cab dropped us off the first day, my (ex) wife and I looking at each other and going: this is not possible. Something's broken. It cannot possibly be this hot. And that was in September... This ties in with the Empire Strike Back thing I suppose - it was indeed like moving from Hoth to Tatooine.

Stumbled upon this in my memories again recently. The picture was taken in my hometown the year I was born. I've very fond memories of Canadian winters as a kid. Especially after seeing Empire Strikes Back, with all the snow. As an adult, not so much... I do miss it during the holiday season. But just for a couple of days. We rarely get snow here in Vegas and when we do, it usually melts the second it touches the ground. But in February 2019, I got to see a thin layer of snow on my house that remained for several hours.