SWAMPBOTS

So, Sia and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch UFC 101 (I didn’t feel like buying the fight and I felt like eating some Chicken Wings).

1st, people are retarded for thinking they can show up with a party of 10 people and easily seat themselves with no reservation and have a great view of the TV’s.  If you want to do that you need to show up early, these twats (this is one of the few situations where ‘twat’ feels like the right word to use) showed up like 50 minutes before the event and sit there griping about how they will have to split up.  Boo-fucking-hoo, keep it to yourself Nancy.

Anyways, we got to watch a slew of “tough-guys” parade in.  We even got to see this bad ass order his hot pink drink and slug it down:

Can you be a bad enough dude?

It was unfortunate that sluggo here couldn’t finish his hot pink drank.  I will say, it did look pretty delicious.

In terms of UFC 101, it was a pretty big let-down.  The first 2 fights were uneventful and rather boring, essentially one guy laying on top of the other (yeah, I know they were trying to do things, but the guys on bottom had good enough defense to take very little damage so it was fairly lame). Pelligrino tried a number of things but he couldn’t bang with Neer so he kept taking him down, the best part of the fight was probably watching Neer get so pissed off at the end of the 3rd.  Kendall Grove kept Almeida in check despite being on his back most of the fight, but it just wasn’t that great.

I thought the Sadollah v Hendricks fight had an early stoppage that was somewhat unwarranted, admittedly Hendricks threw a couple heavy hits, but pounding someone in the back of the head shouldn’t end the fight… should’ve broken them up and let him recover from the illegal hits.

Silva is a freak.

The title fight was a great fight, I was rooting for K-Flo but BJ did a great job.

George Sotiropoulos just shellaced Roop.

That’s all.

So, I still have some pent-up creative juices, so I pumped out another tattoo drawing.  This one is for Sia, and it is for her 3 nationalities.  English, Jamaican, and American.  Without further ado here are the pics:

Have to see what she thinks.  I don’t think the colors came out as vibrant on the American portion as I would like, my Red colored pencil kept fucking snapping.

If you happen to read this, have a great weekend =)

-Matt

Alright, so I’ve been itching to get a new tattoo but I’ve felt empty when trying to design anything.  Today was a new day apparently.  It’s been fairly slow in the office all-day and I started listening to Fleet Foxes and was struck by a crushing desire to play music.  Unfortunately, being stuck at work leaves me only with the ability to tap my fingers on my desk… so I needed to vent my urge for creativity into something; a new tattoo design!

Alright here is the first rough draft:

This left me with itching for some kind of color to spice up the overall design, here is my progression of ideas:

This overall look became my favorite:

Duplicated my favorite, and incorporated something from my last design that I liked, the bold outline:

And here I am modeling the design, where it will end up on my arm:

What do you think?  I enjoy the overall design as well as my choice of lettering.  I’m fine with it being somewhat illegible, as my arm isn’t a book.

Hahahahahaha oh god, ahahahaaha. I wish I could be this badass when making rice.

Test

Right now I have to use youtube in [] brackets or wherever I’m linking from.. with just the video code at the end.. easier than an embed code.. but I’d really prefer a plugin that just allows [video] with the full link.

Stevie Wonder – My Cherie Amour

I grew up listening to motown hits. It was the music that my mother grew up with, and she’s still a big Stevie fan.  http://www.amazon.com/My-Cherie-Amour/dp/B000V6960S/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1249323232&sr=8-2

Rollins Band – Liar

Heard this for the first time getting a ride from a friend to high school at 6:30am or something. I’m not sure why I took extra credits before school started, but the song was pretty powerful to hear while still half awake. http://www.amazon.com/Weight/dp/B000S5BX3K/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1249323351&sr=8-5

TV on the Radio – DLZ

I found out way after the fact, that they had released a new album called Dear Science. I had been listening to them for years and decided I might as well buy the back catalog that I didn’t actually own and support them. Unfortunately this is the only track I really like off of the new album, but still happy to support them.  http://www.amazon.com/Dear-Science-Deluxe-Edition/dp/B001HE2SRQ/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1249323391&sr=8-7

Passion Pit – The Reeling

I don’t even remember how I found out about Passion Pit, or how I found this song. I rrrrrrreally like it though, perfect summer song for me. That good poppy dance vibe.  http://www.amazon.com/Manners/dp/B002BNS85S/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1249323419&sr=8-2

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Satan Said Dance

I was watching a trailer for Choke 6 or 7 months ago, and heard this. Immediately went and found who did the song and have been enjoying it ever since. My biggest beef was I wish the speakers in my car weren’t so god awful.  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000X6XIOG/ref=dm_sp_alb?ie=UTF8&qid=1249323441&sr=8-2

John Coltrane – Blue Train

I’m not sure how I got into Coltrane. Of course I’d heard about him, and I’d always heard about how amazing he was. I ended up just looking around and reading some reviews and decided ‘why the hell don’t I have any coltrane?’ and got myself some Coltrane. Really great to work to, or for those late night drives home.  http://www.amazon.com/The-Ultimate-Blue-Train/dp/B000TERFGO/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1249323477&sr=8-5

Listening to:
Devo – Q: Are we not men? A: We Are DEVO!
Slint – Spiderland
Russian Circles – Enter 

I’ve been having 11-12 hour days lately.  I get home and have to study or do homework sometimes, kinda draining doing that and still having the excitement of writing coming back.  Fortunately I’m starting to get into the rythm of having morning classes finally.  It tends to be nicer too.  Having German at night was always kind of rough just because my brain would want to shut off.

I finally got my movie/media/recording computer setup.  My 1.5tb sata hard-drive and rosewill power supply showed up last week.  They’re both ‘green’ friendly.  I’m not so much concerned about their eco-impact as I am about power consumption.  Lower bills are always nice.  Anyways, I have the mbox 2 mini hooked up (unfortunately, the shithead kid I bought it from never transferred ownership of ProTools.. so I’m looking at using Reaper or maybe adding a linux partition so I can use Ardour), and my m-audio axiom 49 hooked up as well.  I need to get some monitors of some sort.. or some decent headphones.  I’ve been looking at the M-Audio AV40’s for a while, but they are kinda pricey.  I just want to get my recording situation a little more figured out, so I can just click record and jam out for a while, or if I’m feeling some inspiration get the idea down..  Sometimes it’s nice being able to come back 2 days later and listening objectively to something that felt good… but might not sound as good as you thought. 

It’s been rough with Matt gone, I’m looking forward to him coming back for the weddings on the 20th and 27th.  Play some music, record some jams.  I need to cleanup my room some more and make room for my painting stuff so I can leave it out.  I’ve found like music, that if you leave room for your inspiration it can help.  If you keep your guitar in the basement in a case.. you’re less likely to go grab it.  Inspiration can be fleeting sometimes.  I’ll take a picture of my bedroom sometime.  It’s kinda cramped right now.  2 computers, 2 desks, a table.. a drum kit.. guitar amp + guitar, plus a big art supplies cabinet.. and 2 bookshelves.  I’m not quite sure how I have room for my dresser and bed!

I’ve been getting into the sciences again lately. This revival of interest in Science stems from taking a human biology course last semester (which I later dropped because I was having trouble juggling my hobbies, work, and school… so this course that had nothing to do with my major was the first to go). Anyways, the course got me interested in Science again, so I’ve been looking back into chemistry and biology… and something I’ve never studied before which is Physics.

Now, I’ve come to realize an injustice my chemistry teacher posed. I remember learning in class previous theories in chemistry (regarding the general makeup of our physical world and its laws/components) that were thought to be rock-solid. Things that were true, but were later to be found that these things were false. I remember questioning our current system and whether it could be predicated on false assumptions. I recall my chemistry teacher definitively stating that these things we now “know” are true. She made an absolute statement on something that we in fact don’t know. Indirect methods of observation have been used to postulate theories about behaviour and the makeup of our physical world. I was turned off by the denial that these things could be overturned. It seemed a sham at the time. Now, it’s on me for leaving the class and not learning as much as I could, but I recall being disgusted that I had to “learn” all of this from someone who clearly had no idea of what they were talking about. That and she had poor rudimentary math skills.

I wish that our current system of education would have a massive overhaul. I understand that there indeed needs to be some form of structure to help students learn, but at the same time we could definitely use to have a more flexible system to convey information. If I knew the resources I had at my disposal to learn new things I feel I could’ve taken off. There are a ridiculous amount of wonderful things to learn in Math and Science… as well as other subjects, that were doled out in a slow manner. I’m a bit irked at myself for not searching some of these things out on my own (which I am now doing) but by that same turn if we make these materials available to students and give some flexibility in letting them push forward in studying these things perhaps we wouldn’t have a stultified amount of students pursuing the hard sciences.

Perhaps I will have more to weigh in on, that’s enough of my kvetching for now.

Hi all,

Well, I’ve been playing some guitar down here in the Florida heat, and I’ve been looking at ways of recording my new electronic kit to go with the guitar I’ve been recording. So, I priced out a beginner recording setup. This would be all components minus a midi keyboard/drums and your instruments. You can use an open source DAW (digital audio workstation, see Pro Tools, MOTU, SONAR, etc) to make the price cheaper, as well as use existing cabling/mics/etc. This is what I need to get because I forgot to bring a lot of cabling and other gear down with me. Without further ado, here it is:

Priced out, wish I had the money to bomb on all of this because it’s gorgeous. Time to start saving.

interface card ($200):

http://www.zzounds.com/item–MDOD1010LT

& mixer ($130):

http://www.zzounds.com/item–BEHXENYX1204

speakers/monitors ($200):

http://www.zzounds.com/item–ALEM1MK2

headphones ($72):

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-MDR-V6-Monitor-Headphones-Voice/dp/B00001WRSJ

Microphone ($100):
2x Shure SM57 Cardioid Dynamic Microphone (get from guitar center, cheaper than getting online). (link: http://www.zzounds.com/item–SHUSM57LC)

Pro Tools ($250):

http://www.zzounds.com/item–MDOMPOWERED

MIDI cables ($13):
2x http://www.zzounds.com/item–HOSMID3

XLR Mic cables ($10):
2x http://www.zzounds.com/item–CBIMLC

20ft TRS Cables ($17):
4x http://www.zzounds.com/item–HOSCSS403

RCA to 1/4″ ($9):
2x http://www.zzounds.com/item–HOSCPR20

RCA to RCA ($9):
4x http://www.zzounds.com/item–HOSCRA20

Grand Total:
$1,220 – for everything including Pro Tools.

Without protools, could get away with $600 or so.

In my opinion, if you’re going to start buying things and just want to go piece by piece, then I would recommend getting the IO Card and the Mixer. You can get by with your shitty PC Speaker (or your ‘good’ surround speakers, still not as good as real monitors though), but that would be the next step. You would be in the ballpark of getting some recordings done for $350 or so (shipping/tax/etc). I’ll likely be picking up some of these pieces shortly and playing around with that. I priced out Pro Tools because that’s what I want to work so that I can take that skill anywhere. Most studios utilize Pro Tools at some point and it’s a great program to know (it’s like being able to use Windows… but in the recording world).

I put together this with some help from this site:

http://www.tweakheadz.com/

Amazing site with great resources.mattguitar-impromptu-1-am-mess

All mine except for the last piece

Matt's piece