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Sunday, February 24th, 2008
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9:37 am - Already?
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So I'm officially finished with the hours for my internship. I have to fax in my last timesheet on Monday morning, and then I'm completely finished with school. It's been hectic, but worth the effort. Now to work on what comes next...
current mood:  working
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(2 peanuts in the gallery | be a joiner)
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| Friday, January 25th, 2008
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1:39 pm
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So 18 Jan was my last day of classes. I've successfully moved back to South San Francisco, and now I've got the internship to complete. The awesome news is that I'll be doing my internship at my #1 choice, Plant Studios in Sausalito. I got the phone call today, and I'll be starting Monday morning. Go me!
Now for the hard work to begin...
current mood:  excited
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(8 peanuts in the gallery | be a joiner)
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| Monday, January 7th, 2008
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12:11 pm - Aww... for me? How sweet.
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Arizona got me exactly what I wanted for my birthday. It's been dark and rainy all day. With any luck, it'll continue through tomorrow. Glee!
current mood: happy
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(5 peanuts in the gallery | be a joiner)
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| Sunday, January 6th, 2008
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10:57 pm - So, here we are...
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30 years old, at long last. I'm finally as old as I've felt for a while now. And my only real regret is that I can't spend it with the few people I really want to see.
And for those of you doing the math, it's 12:57am Eastern Standard Time.
current mood: Older, by a day
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(8 peanuts in the gallery | be a joiner)
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| Thursday, November 29th, 2007
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12:40 am - Anyone who likes Tool and/or math needs to see this...
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| Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007
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8:37 pm
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I spent about 3 hours last night getting the rough mix of Veil done. It's listenable at this point, although not perfect. I'll be spending more time on it Friday evening, and with luck, it'll be available to listen to on Saturday. Hopefully you'll all like it as much as I do.
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(3 peanuts in the gallery | be a joiner)
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| Sunday, September 30th, 2007
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3:28 am
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| Sunday, September 23rd, 2007
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12:02 pm - Weekend?
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Yesterday became epic, and that wasn't even the intent.
I'd managed to book a tracking session in the Neve Studio yesterday from 10am to 7pm. In addition, a classmate had a session from 3am to 9am to do some guitar tracks, so I went down to help with set-up and miscellaneous tasks as needed. So yesterday developed somewhat like this:
I woke up at 2:30 am (I'd gone to sleep about 8pm the night previous, so I actually got plenty of sleep) and, since I'd packed my car the night before, I just grabbed the leftovers from the previous night's dinner and headed to the Tempe campus for Aaron's session. It took a little over an hour to set up, we were micing an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar cab, and a vocal mic setup. The acoustic guitar pass went as smoothly as could be; then things got just odd.
We went to record a vocal take, and couldn't get any signal from the vocal mic. We tried every thing we could think of; it got to the point where, when we went to ask one of the project staff for assistance, all 3 currently there wandered in to take a look. They spent 15 minutes trying things, to no avail. We all played around with different ideas for about an hour, and finally had spent so much time on it that it wasn't worth figuring it out; we'd run out of useful time so Aaron pulled the plug on the session. We got everything broken down a couple hours early, which sucked, but he's got the acoustic track to build on later. Hopefully the gremlins will have the night off next time.
From there, I drove over to the Gilbert campus; it was only about 8, so I turned in my equipment request list to project staff for my session , and then killed some time in the Pro Tools lab until around 9. Studio C was empty, so I checked to see if I could start setup early; luckily, I could, but they couldn't give me the equipment until 10. Still, it's fortunate that I checked, because the studio proper was full of Pro Tools floater rigs and carts with various equipment. Gah. So I spent an hour cleaning out the studio proper (I actually just tucked them all into the thankfully-large isolation booth) and setting up mic stands and the control room, as much as was possible. My setup went quite well, but I had a very simple layout. Two overhead mics and a close mic on the guitar, plus a DI box, and a single vocal mic.
Around 10:30 or so,  screamingshiva showed up, so we got started. We were going to re-record "Veil". I'd tried to do the whole thing (guitar, vocals, drums, violin) in a single 8 hour session a few weeks previous, and was so pressed for time that I didn't get really strong takes for each. So I was now devoting a full session to each instrument. We got 2 really strong guitar passes done (4 tracks each of a twelve-string guitar, making a total of 96 strings. It sounds amazingly lush), and went on to vocals. The first couple passes weren't to good, but each one got better and better, and we ended up with a really good first vocal pass. Sage decided he wanted to double the vocal line through the whole song, so I set him up with the original pass in his headphones, and we went through line by line and doubled the vocals. Most places in the song, he hit it so well that I was watching the peak meters for each of the tracks, and they were moving in near-unison. It was creepy. Feeling even more productive, we decided to add one more vocal track, this time of harmony lines for the whole song. That was a little slower, since he was improving the harmony lines and we had to go back several times to get good passes (writing new material on the spot in front of a mic is stressful, I'd think). The whole session went amazingly well, and had a great feeling to it. We got everything wrapped up a little before 7, feeling really good about the whole thing.
We were sitting outside the studio at a table talking about random stuff for a while, when I noticed that nobody was in Studio C. I checked with project staff and they said the person who had the room booked hadn't shown up. I had to wait until 7:40 to give them a chance to show up, but at 7:50, they wandered around and wanted to know if I wanted the 7:00pm-3:00 am session. Most definitely I did. So I turned in a quick equipment list, and Sage got on the phone with Carson, the Screaming Shiva drummer. We got drum mics set up for the hand drums while Sage went to get Carson, and I set up the guitar mics again because Sage wanted to try a single mic take that he had floating around in his head.
Once Carson showed up, we got everything set, and got a good take recorded. It took several passes; I think it was short notice and it took him a bit to get warmed up and relaxed in the studio. Once he got the full take done, and came in to listen to it, he was struck by an odd idea. He'd heard the guitars and wanted to try and double the drums. For those of you who aren't aware, that's an extremely difficult task to do. That, and I was starting to run pretty low on tracks at this point. So we took the best mid-range mic (frequency response, not price or quality) I had, set it up at a bit of a distance, and let him run through it again. It took a couple takes and punch-ins, but we got a pretty good match. The part that really brought it together was doing a third pass after moving the mic again. Suddenly the drums went from a single drum behind the song to a drum circle all playing along.
After we got that finished off, it was getting fairly late (about 12:30). I'd been sitting in a studio for about 21 hours at that point, and was still strangely lucid. Sage wanted to take the last available track to do a guitar line over the top of everything, so we got that laid down surprisingly quickly (it only took 2 takes and 1 punch-in, and Sage isn't known for being a one-take marvel) (and no, that's not an insult; getting a good studio recording in a single take is a phenomenally hard task) and got everything wrapped up by about 2:15am.
Now all I have left to do for this song is get the cello and violin parts locked in, and I can get it mixed. Hopefully I'll have time available towards the end of this week to get those down, and I can mix next weekend.
So what do I do to celebrate finishing a bunch of difficult tests but spend 24 hours straight in a studio. And have the most productive set of sessions I've had to date. And the funny part?
I can't wait to do it again...
current mood: rested
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(4 peanuts in the gallery | be a joiner)
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| Wednesday, July 25th, 2007
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10:38 am
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I saw one of the more interesting business vehicles today on my way to work. A large maroon pest control van; the company name was Scorpion Slayers, in huge gold font on the van. Accompanying that was a large graphic of a giant scorpion with a sword in its head.
I was amused.
current mood: working
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(3 peanuts in the gallery | be a joiner)
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| Thursday, July 19th, 2007
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10:02 pm - Woo!
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| Wednesday, July 18th, 2007
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8:06 pm - If only...
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Today, on my drive from work to school, my iPod played consecutively "Rain" by Qkumba Zoo, "Flood" by Sunless and "Flood II" by Sisters of Mercy. Even my iPod is dehydrated...
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(1 peanut in the gallery | be a joiner)
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| Wednesday, June 20th, 2007
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7:07 am - Not the funniest thing ever, but enough to make my morning
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| Tuesday, June 19th, 2007
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7:16 am - You know you're in Phoenix when... #32
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| Friday, June 15th, 2007
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8:15 pm - Brain... hurt...
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I had my first test today, and got a 19/20. I'm a little bummed I didn't ace it, and the one I missed, I got close, so I was at least thinking the right thing, but on a one point question, you either get the answer or you don't.
I've already, in one week, learned a ton of stuff, and laid the beginnings of a foundation of a very large structure of knowledge. I'm thankful for a weekend, and yet I'm really looking forward to Monday's class. I'll for sure be heading down to the campus tomorrow to see what's going on in the studios. After I sleep in, of course...
current mood:  tired
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(3 peanuts in the gallery | be a joiner)
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| Tuesday, June 12th, 2007
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1:15 pm - In other news...
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12:49 pm - Random thoughts
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People here can't drive. You don't have to have 4 lanes of traffic come to a screeching halt to let a handful of cars entering the freeway merge. That's why there's metering lights. Figure it out, people.
I'm slowly adjusting to the heat. I keep forgetting my water bottle, though. That's the next trick to remember.
Speaking of heat, I need to buy a steering wheel cover. I just got home from work, and my hands hurt.
School is going to be intensely fun, and intensely busy, and probably intensely difficult at times. But mostly just intense.
Work is... odd. I've been there two days now, and so far I still have no idea exactly what it is I'm really supposed to be doing. The person who requested me there (I'm a temp) was out all day yesterday, and on a 7 hour conference call today, so I haven't even met her yet. Hopefully tomorrow.
I need food...
current mood: hungry
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(1 peanut in the gallery | be a joiner)
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| Monday, June 4th, 2007
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5:54 pm - Tour time!
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A good chunk of the unpacking is done, and I've got some photos of the apartment taken. The color is a little off, since my camera is dying and I had to correct it manually, but you can get a pretty good idea of the place. Each picture is accompanied by a floor plan with an arrow showing where the picture was taken from.
( On to the tour!Collapse )
And that's it. As things come together more, I'll get some more pictures taken.
current mood: productive
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(9 peanuts in the gallery | be a joiner)
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| Friday, June 1st, 2007
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12:31 pm - I steal the interwebs!
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I've arrived safe and sound in Mesa, and gotten some things off the truck. I've decided to shower and take a break until this evening when it cools off slightly, though. My internet install is set for tomorrow, but there are a number of open networks floating around, so I thought I'd hop online and see what I've missed.
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(7 peanuts in the gallery | be a joiner)
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| Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
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11:08 am - T minus 26 hours and counting...
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I'm taking a brief break before I go pick up the truck to do a quick update here. Things have started steamrolling quite quickly, and it's suddenly to the point where I leave tomorrow. Tonight at 8pm I'm meeting friends for dinner at Kai's in Alameda. If you can see this and you don't have to book a flight, you're welcome to show up. And if you do have to book a flight, and show up anyway, why didn't you do that earlier?
current mood: busy
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(4 peanuts in the gallery | be a joiner)
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| Wednesday, April 18th, 2007
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1:00 pm - All productive and stuff...
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I've sorted out both the living and working arrangements, at least tentatively. I'll know more for sure by Friday. It's been a productive week so far. Now to get some relaxing done in the next few days. Anybody in the Phoenix area want to get together?
current mood: productive
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(1 peanut in the gallery | be a joiner)
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contemplative
awake