I have been
researching possible solutions to a shortcoming that occasionally crops
up when I am recording live music. The method that I have been using,
sometimes needs an additional microphone, or 2, from a different vantage
point.
I could get
a mixer with more channels that would produce more live tracks, but
that would be a major expense for a part time need. I could get a small,
portable digital recorder at an affordable price, but I had the feeling
that there was a more elegant solution.
For a few
dollars more than a dedicated portable recorder, I could get a full
featured device that supports the same recording software that I use
with the MacBook. And it is designed to integrate with my other Apple
devices. I got an iPod Touch.
The iPod Touch
does everything an iPhone does, but without the phone bill. It surfs
the internet, does email, takes pictures and HD movies, takes advantage
of the 400,000 App selection to do just about everything one could
imagine, does messaging, phone calls, and video conferencing, etc.
The real deal
maker happened right after I got it home and downloaded GarageBand so
it became a full featured digital recorder. Like most things Apple, it is
designed to do the things it does, effortlessly, pleasingly, and
reliably. Let the magic begin.
The researchers
evidently sought to record the sounds of the mice with ultrasonic
capable capturing microphones, and to their surprise they discovered
that the male mice were singing love songs to the females.
They found
a lot of similarities to bird songs, which are used for the same
purpose of wooing a potential mate. The singers that sang the best songs
were the most likely to be chosen by the females. That’s no surprise to
me.
Meanwhile back to
the viscosity of the universe. I had combined the theories of
quantum/holographic/and Einsteinian universes into one viscous glob of
stuff in which all things were suspended. I think I was seeing a piece
of the puzzling picture of existence.
It had
actually started out as an explanation for another theory I had about
pockets of gases in the cosmos through which our solar system
passes.That theory had to do with the presence, or absence, of
substances through which we are passing that would affect our mental
capabilities, in some way explaining why we as a species could go
thousands of years without any advancement and then around the turn of
the-20th century the world exploded with inventors and inventions.
I felt I was really getting somewhere, the lightbulb over my head was brightly lit, I was using Dragon Express to do the typing, speaking quickly and excitedly as my thoughts began to coalesce.
Then
the refrigerator cycled on, bringing my picture of the universe
crashing down into a pile of gibberish and disjointed thoughts like
Humpty Dumpty after the great fall.
The speech
to text program could no longer understand what I was saying, and I
could no longer hear what I was thinking during the rattle and roar of
the refrigerator compression cycle.
I suppose
this latest event was to remind me to ask the apartment manager for a
new refrigerator. The eardrum rattling noises that this one makes are the antithesis of
love songs.
In Other News;
The new backup drive is working just fine and I look forward to at least three years of backups until I need another one.
I am
reading the new book, Revelation, by C. J. Sansom. This is the third
book of his that I’ve enjoyed reading. They are set around the time of
Henry VIII, and the hero is a humpbacked lawyer/detective who
describes the people, politics, religion, economy, and environment,
while solving the mysteries.
The moon
and Sirius are appearing on the eastern horizon for a limited
engagement just after sunset. This is provided that there are cloudless
skies and less than Beijing levels of pollution.
One of the nice things about having a stable living situation, is that a person can think in terms of a backup plan.
Thursday
This little bitty sunflower
that I’ve been following for about a month, has a backup plan. I can
see the structures in this plant that might produce at least six or
seven sunflower seeds.
Friday
The point is that whether or not this sunflower plant survives long enough, it is preparing for the future.
I too, live in a world of possibilities.
I have a backup plan for my computer, but it recently got full.
With some
much appreciated financial assistance, I was able to get a bigger
external hard drive to accommodate the large volumes of data that I
accumulate with audio, video, and graphic design production.
Two of my happy philodendron housemates
I use a backup program called Time Machine
that is designed for Apple products. It uses a little more space than
just directly storing data, because it has a wonderful magical graphical
interface that allows you to flow back through the various days,
months, and years that you have been using your computer.
I enjoy
the luxury of going back in time through my hard drive until I find the
file, picture, or application I’m looking for. I can then highlight it,
click restore, and it flows back through time and lands right on my
desktop where I am at in the present time.
The drawback with Time Machine
is that the magic takes a little bit of extra space on the external
backup hard drive, and the 1 TB hard drive that I got last year is full.
So today I got this 3 TB hard drive that should last for at least three years, depending on how busy I get with data intensive projects.
One of the nice things
about the Internet is how quickly one can see events that are happening
around the world. This video from Lapland was taken just yesterday, and
today I’m able to watch some wonderful stop motion images of people observing
the Northern Lights, also known as the Aurora Borealis.
I sometimes put my movies and videos on Vimeo. I generally try to put my very best work there because the other videos on that site are about as good as you can get.
Speaking of
as good as you can get, life here at the Treehouse remains interesting,
inspiring, and the natural world around here is constantly entertaining.
The little sunflower
I have been following, is still alive, and the handful of other flowers
that dot the landscape are growing bigger and getting more beautiful
everyday.
Today,
Linda brought her iPad over, and I got to see my iBook about the Viola,
previewed on the iPad. It really looks good, and the features work
flawlessly. There are only a few more things to complete and it will be
ready to publish probably in about two weeks.
It’s very tempting
to want to go back and shoot all new pictures for certain sections, but
that would be better as another book that I can make as a follow-up,
should there be a need for a follow-up.
I’ve had
recent requests to record some songs with just me playing my guitar and
singing, (without my bands), for a live audience. I look forward to doing that soon, somehow,
somewhere, and there is even the probability that I will film while I’m
playing, so I can produce a song or two and put them on Vimeo to share
with you.
I sure enjoy the flowers, birds, and sites around the Treehouse. There is always something interesting that captures my photographers eye.
Today I saw
the occasional bee buzzing about, but is nothing like those last few
weeks when the bees were having a banquet of flowers to pollinate. Now
there’s just a few flowers and accordingly there’s just a few hungry
bees. The bulk of the bees have buzzed off to bigger and more bountiful
food sources.
I got an early start
this morning when the local CHP helicopter was circling around the
neighborhood. They certainly aren’t those silent black helicopters that
one hears about from the tinfoil hat people.
I was happy to get this picture of it, even though my morning cup of coffee hadn’t had time to fully open my eyes.
We have been enjoying some much needed rain here in Redding. I hope that wherever you are, you are enjoying something much needed, too.
Today’s video can take your breath away. It is one of the high quality presentations you can find on Vimeo.
The accompanying song is a wonderful example of a poetic folk song that
explains the nature of the universe in 800 words and one chord. The
combination of thought provoking imagery from the visuals and words
awakens the infinite that lives within our souls.
It sure was nice during the stormy nights, hearing the rain on the roof, with windblown drops beating against the windows at times.
The storms
left snow on the mountains and even as low as the dam road where I went
to take pictures of the snow on Mount Shasta on Monday.
It
was kind of funny, because after I had been up taking the pictures, I
stopped into Trader Joe’s and was talking with the girl at the check out
counter about taking pictures up by the dam road.
She asked tentatively, “Where exactly is that road?”
I said, “The one by Shasta dam and Lake.”
“Oh, the dam road”, she exclaimed with relief.
I embed-ed
a slide show on here from Flickr of some of the pictures from the last 2
days, including a couple of nice shots of the snow on Mt. Shasta.
Around the Treehouse there were still some flowers looking mighty pretty that I took pictures of, and I’m happy to post them here.
He continues
to patiently try to work with the racist and obstructionist Congress
without being drawn into their name-calling and negativity.
He is a more dignified statesman than any other elected official in our present government.
What a great year
for the San Francisco 49ers. It’s been a long time since they’ve had
such a good team and gone as far as they did. I look forward to more
exciting football next season. Go Niners!
The two bands,
here in Redding are sounding good and they are well received by their
respective audiences. The one band is blues, and the other band is more
melody oriented. I like singing in both.
The third band, in Richmond with Marion and Leona, The LMP Trio,
was possibly going to play this January, but things change. I think
next month, or March, I may go down to Richmond to record some more
songs for an additional CD, if we can fit it into our schedules.
I am certainly happy to have so many wonderful things to do that interest and inspire me.
The Viola
iBook for the iPad should be complete in the next couple of weeks or
so, and we’ll see how that is welcomed by the Apple store when it’s
published.
That’s a project that I’ve been working on for three years and I still find it exciting.
I hope
you’re enjoying these pictures as much as I enjoyed taking, and editing
them to make them as interesting as possible. Life is good.
The, ‘wet puppy in the rain’ rose is now the colorful rose in the sun with clouds and blue sky.
I wonder if the rain will help this sunflower pump up its petals once again? I will keep an eye on it and photograph its progress.
Shasta Bally, got a nice dusting of snow from Friday’s storm.
This flower, (pictured yesterday as a bedraggled, wet, soggy, yellow and red thing), was basking in the sun today.
Some of
the flowers look even brighter and more cheerful since the rain. There
are not a lot of roses left unless one looks carefully, deep in the
bush, to find one or two still hiding from the rose pickers.
Snow On The Volcano
Just before sunset one
of my neighbors came by to let me know that the clouds had lifted off
of Mt. Shasta and that I might want to take a picture. I did.
I snapped
a lot of pictures today and many of them were sufficiently interesting
to want to share them with you. So today’s blog is less talk, more images.
I took this picture, (above), of the Treehouse Apartments building ‘A’, from Northpoint Drive, about a half mile away.
As I was
putting on my slippers in the morning, I happened to notice that there
is a lot of blue and brown in my world. Most of the things I have, just
came to me when I needed them, so I didn’t really have much say in the
color scheme. I really like these colors. Once again, I am thankful for
my remarkably good fortune.
One last beautiful, colorful, character filled, yellow rose that escaped the stem choppers.
So, there you have a few pictures of the beauty that surrounds me here at the treehouse Apartments in Redding.
Now it’s time
for me to get back to rewriting the iBook for the iPad about the John
Harrison Viola. I made a lot of progress on it last night, once I
figured out how to eliminate the backgrounds and shapes they have for
the design templates in the iBook authoring program. With the dull and
uninspiring frameworks removed, I could replace them with my own
designs.
I designed
a couple of my own templates for iBook pages to use for the viola book,
and after I put together a few more I hope to try it out on an iPad to
see what it looks like before doing the entire book.
