Recently in Experiences Category

Breakfast for E

A year ago today Boston authorities completely overreacted to a creative ad campaign promoting the Aqua Teen Hunger Force animated series. The people who made the promotional LED signs faced very serious criminal charges for a harmless decorative act. Let's all try to make technology a little more open, friendly, and familiar to the world. We need to keep all this rampant fear in check - our rights really do depend on it.

I had a great time at the Create Digital Music / Make / Etsy Handmade Music Night. Many awesome projects were featured, check them out @ CDM and Make (and their respective Flickr pools).
What made this event extra fun for me was the fact that it was the first time I was able to demonstrate some instruments I've been working on to a very supportive and interested community. I have to say, the positive feedback I received (regarding the atari tube in particular) warmed my heart. I have spent so much time learning the language of electronics over the past few months - toiling over wire and solder - that I almost forgot how good it feels to see someone else enjoy something that I've made. What I see as a noisemaker with a couple of knobs on it becomes an instrument once someone else picks it up and begins to play. That is a very good thing.
A big thanks to everyone who came out to the event - Hope to see you again soon.

Some years back I was in the habit of taking requests. You made the title, I made the tune. I'd almost forgotten about that era til someone sent me a very kind email asking if those songs were still available for download. Well now, yes, they are . . . once again:

airlock.mp3
amotion.mp3
ancientholiday.mp3
applesmoothcrescent.mp3
asongaboutfredgraver.mp3
bannerbabes.mp3
bedisagraveyard.mp3
bigwork.mp3
boxturtlesdemo.mp3
cantbreathe.mp3
Chemroom.mp3
chokingsound.mp3
circuspicnics.mp3
cityhall.mp3
damned.mp3
donna.mp3
dontconvert.mp3
drinkingfountain.mp3
faggyassbottoms.mp3
feetdown.mp3
Forensics.mp3
fortgreenery.mp3
frothywhores.mp3
glasseye.mp3
globalterror.mp3
golfpunk.mp3
Hardplace.mp3
herecomesbrilliance.mp3
icouldntfindherheart.mp3
infiniteterror.mp3
itissodifficult.mp3
karmicumbrella.mp3
kidssayyeah.mp3
largearthur.mp3
larry.mp3
Lone.mp3
lovetheme.mp3
lovetheme_remix.mp3
maggyexists.mp3
Moles.mp3
moononfire.mp3
Mother.mp3
muscleup2bars.mp3
myskin.mp3
nationwideclyde.mp3
nightlife.mp3
onlyflashlights.mp3
optimusprime.mp3
partsandall.mp3
redman'sfine.mp3
riverrhymes.mp3
schoolgirlblues.mp3
Shotgun.mp3
smacktheface.mp3
specials2.mp3
specialsdemo.mp3
takecareofyou.mp3
takeherhome.mp3
theatre.mp3
tormentedchild.mp3
tremblinglock.mp3
TruthandReact.mp3
vacuumcleanersatellite.mp3
weexplode.mp3
yourwhitethum.mp3

thanks
for
listening.

Aww, take a gander at the "Lil' Captain". Although I was unable to put in most of the finishing touches I intended (check out the hovering gain knob), Dad still loved it. Hey he's the one who taught me how to solder in the first place. He was an electronics engineer in the US Navy. I told him how frustrating I found resistor color codes and he agreed. Due to slight color blindness he almost wasn't admitted into the service. He explained,
"They had to give me a special test to get in. A guy held up a yellow pencil and a blue pencil and asked - 'Which one's yellow?' I pointed to the bright yellow pencil, and he said 'Fine, you're in.' "
Ah the rigorous scrutiny of military enrollment. Happy Father's Day, Captain Mel!

So During a retrieval match in Rainbow 6 Vegas I hear one of my teammates speaking to someone else in his home asking them to make him a grilled cheese sandwhich. After receiving what I assume was a positive resonse he began talking about the game again, a bit overenthusiastically as before. After about 5 minutes of play, He suddenly bust out angrily and says Hold on guys, I'll be right back! I presume he pulled of his headset and then assumed none of us could hear him because he began screaming, verbally tearing into someone about the quality of the now prepared and delivered sandwhich. THIS IS JUST WET BUTTER WITH BREAD! YOU EXPECT ME TO EATE THIS?!? This was distracting to say the least and I attribute it to the opposing team's sudden comeback. And he kept on, and on. It sounded like he was going to get violent with who I assumed was his wife/girlfriend. The host kick/banned him after a minute or so of this. Post game the host started receiving voice messages from the vicious grilled cheese lover, the final one explaining how you don't know what it's like to have kids . God, it made it suck so much more that he was being such an asshole to his kid as opposed to a signifigant other . And why is this dude playing XBOX while his kids make dinner?!

Someone from my friends list recently requested a chat simply to mourn the loss of his beloved dog. The poor little guy drowned in this friends pool and the image doesn't seem to fade away for him. I spoke with him a while and tried to console; telling him about when I lost a dog very dear to me while holding him in my arms. I don't know if that really helped much bu the conversation ended with aforementioned friend deciding to go to bed. So perhaps I at least put his mind at ease. These type of stories are the great byproducts of Microsoft's social gaming network; people who wouldn't normally talk, share personal information, try to help eachother, actually can and do. I was always very frustrated with MS's products, namely their poor user interfaces, but XBL is really starting to show me a new side of the company. I hope they can see all the potential they have here for connecting people beyond a myspace level.