Alright, Let's Shoot This F****r!

Nothing much of substance, but it's been a while and I've got some pictures to share, so I'll try to be more regular.

A month or so ago we took the kids to The Wild Center's free day (because it's totally NOT worth the admission price otherwise).

I know this picture isn't the clearest, but, evidently we picked the day of spring when all turtles become amorous, because any enclosure with more than two of the little creatures in it had loads of turtle sex happening.

Notice the two heads - Connor noticed this first "Dad look, that turtle's walking on the bottom underwater." Me: "That's, ah, two turtles and they're not just walking."

Around the corner there was a smaller enclosure that let me witness things up close:

There were more, but how much turtle-porn does one person really need?

There was also some fishing in the pond:


And Des scaled a rock wall by stepping on an old man's head:


Fin.

Every Once In A While, Something Can Happen At Work That Makes You Happy...

In January, we got a duplicate of an instrument we already had (A BD FACSCanto II, if anyone cares...), and to distinguish between the two we had a naming contest. The winners, by a long shot, were "R2-D2" and "C-3PO" - I like to think that my culture of Star Wars love had something to do with this, even though I didn't suggest it (all of the warning posters I've created feature either Darth Vader or Storm Troopers, although we have one made by someone else that has Chuck 'effing Norris on it). Anyhow, today while preoccupied with something else, I notice something out of the corner of my eye. Someone had christened "C-3PO" with her own mast head:


Majestic, ain't he...

More surprises followed...









If you crack this puppy open, what do you get?













A recreation, in miniature, of the Mos Eisley Cantina scene!


Ladies and Gentleman, the Modal Nodes...Jeez I'm a nerd for knowing the band's name!

Greedo even get's blasted out of his seat if you push down on the table!

Han shoots first, bitches. Now and forever!
Also, notice the storm trooper door-bursting action!


She can make the Kessel run in under 12 parsecs.





Oh, and it snowed this week. A lot, but it's mostly gone now. I did think that the snow made an interesting juxtaposition with the new growth happening on our trees, so I took some pictures.

I think I may need to clean my camera lens or somethin.' Sometimes my pictures have unexplained smudges - or maybe it's my eyes.

Do You Know What Your Problem Is?

You don't eat your feedback.

So I had my first annual physical today after several years, and now that I'm in my 30's I figured I'd be getting a free finger in my anus, so of course when the nurse took my BP it was a bit high (not out of limits, but getting up there). And then I didn't even get the 'ol UFIA, so there was no reason for me to be so worked up. Guess I should stop at Rite Aid later just to be sure my BP's where it should be. Although, who knows, they may put fingers in butts there, too.

Here's some pictures that I've been promising for a while.



Des eats cookie dough, Connor's just...What is Connor doing?



Cooper says hello.



One time in the '80's, Ethan killed a guy.



Desmond does not approve.



Cindy talked me into growing my hair out, so I have to keep it out of my eyes when I exercise.



Hence the ridiculous sweatbands.



Desmond makes them look much cooler than I do.



I think this one's my favorite, but unless you see the "Karate" and Kung Fu" headbands first, it doesn't necessarily make sense. Yes I do have Adult Braces™.



Oh shit it's a snow dinosaur!

As always, clicking on the pictures goes to my Flickr page where there's more to be seen.

Axiom 25 - Using The Keys And Pads At The Same Time On An M-Audio Axiom 25

My apologies to the friends and family that normally read my blog. But. I just got an Axiom 25 (for putting drums and keys and things into stuff like the song in my last post) and I've found just getting started with the thing frustrating as all hell, mostly due to the lack of quality tech support from the manufacturer. I'm making this post in the hope that some other poor sap like me that's just trying to figure out how to get started using MIDI stuff might find it in a google search and avoid some frustration.

If you look at the M-Audio forums, several people have asked how to have the keys and drum pads on the unit at the same time, and the @$$hole tech support people never give any answers other than something like "you should be able to do this in the Enigma software" without ever bothering to explain how you do it. Frustrating. After several hours of being really pissed off and annoyed, I finally figured out how to do this and thought I'd share it with the world.

This is in Ableton Live Lite, because it comes with the Axiom unit (I know, I know, I'm a "noob," but I ain't plunking down a bunch of money for DAW software without being 100% sure I know what I'm getting is what I need, first!). Anyhow. Connect your Axiom to the computer and turn it on (Duh). Set the Axiom to program 18 (supposedly you can use programs 17-20, but 18 worked for me, so stick with that for now - and if you don't know how to recall a program they *Do* actually cover this in the shitty manual, and on the M-Audio forums - I don't have my Axiom in front of me right now, so I'd probably give the wrong directions if I attempted to explain this). Open up Ableton. Open up the preferences/options menu (maybe I have that backward, it could be options/preferences) and set it up to recognize your device (you'll have two axiom slot, arm all these, and then click the "on" buttons for "track" and "remote." Close this window. Make two MIDI tracks and arm both of them (you have to right click on the red "Arm" button to be able to arm two track simultaneously). Open up the midi instruments folder and set one of these to something you would control with the keyboard - keys, organ, strings, whatever. Set the other midi track with whatever you would want the pads to control - probably drums or techno-y stuff. Now, click the button in the upper right hand corner that changes the view of the tracks from horizontal to vertical. You can now see a little thing that says something like "Midi all channels" or somesuch nonsense. You want to change this to "1" for your keyboard controlled part, and "10" for the drum controlled part. Now you *should* be able to have them trigger independently. The other thing to do now is set the drum pads to play the notes/drums you want them to play, which is explained pretty well somewhere in here (look at response #13 - that's how I did it).

If that helps one person, I'll feel like I've done my good deed for the day. This whole thing seemed like an awful big debacle just to be able to program some drums and keys into some roots-rocky type stuff that I cook up in my living room, but hopefully I'll be glad I bought a (slightly) more professional piece of equipment in the long run, even if the learning curve is steep!

I Don't Blog Much, Anymore

I was doing good for a while - even if it was inane bull$#!% generated by other people. I typically onyl take the time to write out a blog post if I'm watching cells fall into tubes™ as I feel like I'm not wasting company time - I'm multitasking. The schedule in the lab has been rather light as of late, though, so no updates. I did finally get some pictures Flickred, though, so those few of you who type in the URL periodically to visit this little spot in the interwebs can check them out. I'll try to post the better/more explainable of them sometime in the near future.

I like this picture.

Pictures, If You Please

He's become quite the little ham. There was absolutely NO prompting by Cindy and I for either of these outfit choices - the glasses making me laugh he hardest. I was busy with something upstairs, and when I came downstairs, he ran around the corner and looked up at me with a very serious expression on his face.


He'll also kick back an' take 'er sleay, too. Awright awright awright.

Maybe tomorrow I'll dig through and put a pic or two of the older ones up. Maybe.

Some Birds And Some Laughs

I need to put more stuff from the photostream up here. One of the rare nice days we had this spring brought some Cedar Waxwings into the yard, to eat the no-good Japanese Beatles that congregate in, and ruin, the apple blossoms. I think these little guys look awesome:






And, on a completely unrelated note, Dennis Leary is still funny. All I'd heard from him lately is "9/11 was an inside job, blah blah blah." But damn did the last part of this interview crack me up.

Here's a picture of a bookshelf I built. I need to build about three more, now, when I have free time, which is never.

Yesterday. In the 'Dacks

Boo! ALthough it's sunny right now...hope it lasts!

Yep.

See what I mean about him really being musically talented even though he doesn't sing so well?

I'm Tryin'. Really I Am.

Does anyone else remember this dude? He used to come on Sesame Street or the Electric Company or some such once in a while when I was a kid, and I always felt kind of uncomfortable looking at him. I think it had more to do with it being a skinny guy in a body-hugging leotard who would move around in unflattering ways than it had to do with his little body-stocking displaying his organs. I wonder if he's related to Steve Guttenberg? that would probably be a good internet rumor to start :Slim Goodbody is the Gute's older brother. Try that on for size.

I really have been meaning to write some stuff here more often like I was there for a while, but my schedule's still been kind of wonky, not to mention a few other variables that have kept me from sitting zombie-like in front of computer monitor or two. Not to mention I took last week off to putter around in the shop and enjoy the peace and quiet.

Anyhow, I'm trying to keep up with splashing every last humorous, vulgar, witty, silly, disrespectful, and otherwise worthless piece of flotsam and jetsam that strikes my fancy from the far reaches of the internet, so others can laugh at my poor taste in entertainment.

Effort.

Man. I was really trying to post more there for a while, but, I've been dealing with writing a grant proposal more than I've been watching cells fall into tubes™ lately, so I had to slow down. But the next time I find some inane bullshit that makes me laugh, or get around to perusing/uploading to the Flickr (or YouTube, I guess) account, I'll get something put up here. Not that there's too terribly many people that check my spot on the interwebs out.

Rock & Roll Party

To commemorate my turning 30 (last week on the 11th - apparently, the Ayatollahs first came to power in Iran on the day I was born. Huh.), myself and some of the other hacks (not all them are hacks like me, though) that I know are meeting up tomorrow at Captain Cook's in Saranac Lake from 4 to 8 pm to knock the foam off of a couple of pints and play some rock music. If you're reading this and you're in the area (or feel like traveling, in which case, get your ass to an airport right now), you should stop in.

This is what I hope things will sound like:


And this is what things probably really will sound like:

Only not as tight.