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Friday, May 09 2008, 12:01 AM

I've talked about Meshuggah once or twice here, and it's pretty safe to say that I'm a fan. Their sound is abrasive - scratch that - caustic to most ears, but I love it. There's so much musical skill in that band that's its not even funny. They've laid siege to my last.fm profile over the past few months, and for good reason. They rule.

So does this kid. Apparently the band held some sort of competition to see who could play one of their new songs ("Bleed") the best on drums, and this 14 year old kid won.

I've been playing guitar for more than 2/3 of this kid's life, and I've achieved nowhere near the mastery this kid displays. Congrats Zach Schiermann, you rule.

Addendum: For whatever reason, I feel like making mention of this. For the song "Rational Gaze," which is one of my favorite 'of the moment' songs, Meshuggah plays on 8 string gutars, tuned to F. Yes, F. One half-step short of a full octave below a normal guitar tuning. Each guitarist is practically playing a bass. Insanity. Delicious auditory insanity.

guitar meshuggah music

Friday, February 15 2008, 9:35 AM

Eeek! It's been a month since I last updated here. Time flies when you're ... alive. I guess.

I haven't really been up to all that much. I had a couple of pretty hairy weeks at work where I was called upon to help clean up messes that I did not create. This occured on multiple occasions, and because of which, I was pretty stressed out during those two weeks. Its been better recently though, so I can't complain a whole lot.

I recently picked up some new pickups for the Carvin, and I'm mighty pleased with how they sound so far. I bought a pre-assembled pickguard on eBay from a guitar store in Florida, and it came loaded with three Lace Sensor pickups. I had a Lace Sensor in the Carvin before the upgrade, and I always liked the way it sounded, so I figured I couldn't go wrong. I'll be updating the guitar page with the new details sometime relatively soon (read: before 2017), and I may post some sound clips for the axe handlers out there.

It seems like I also put some more work into refining the code of the old web site here a few weeks ago. I converted some of the code to handle data objects over to an object-oriented approach using classes, and it's reminded me how easy they can make things. Instead of having to write code each time I want to say, make a form to add new content or submit new comments, I can just call methods on the class object. A few calls to something like $ContentObject->setTitle('OMG Wheee!'); and a $ContentObject->commit(); sure as hell beats a bunch of SQL statements.

guitar siteupdates work

Sunday, January 13 2008, 11:40 PM

Once again, I have reason to be unhappy with myself. Don't worry though mom, I'm fine. I'm not going to go into it here, but it has once again served as motivation to get shit done. I've been playing the guitar a good amount over the past few days, and I feel like I'm starting to get some of my chops back. I've learned a few new songs, including one that I wrote off years back because I thought it was too fast for me to play ("Trapped Under Ice" by Metallica). It's always cool to pull off something you had previously written off. I also hit the exercise bike again tonight for the first time in a while. I found the key - reading! It makes the time pass so much faster. I might run out of reading material pretty quick though. I'm going to try to do my best to stick with it this time as well.

I also made a pretty cool monitor mount that attaches to my desk. I'll post some pictures when I feel like resizing them. Perhaps tomorrow.

exercise frustrations goals guitar

Wednesday, December 13 2006, 4:00 AM

Today was the first time in at least a month where I played my guitar for more than about 5 minutes. I'm not sure why, but when I pick up the guitar, I just don't have much desire to play it. This is kinda backwards, because there's a few songs I've wanted to learn recently, and not wanting to play kinda throws a wrench in the machinery of that plan. Maybe I should record some more guiltar doodles. That might help me get motivated to play more. We'll see if the trends continue I guess.

I'm also feeling a lot better after my bout with the upper respiratory infection. I'm still coughing, but it's not nearly as consistent. It might just be some hypersensitivity in my throat, but it constantly feels like there's something tickling it, like animal hairs or something similar. It's really annoying, and the tickling only seems to go away when I drink something. Needless to say I've been drinking a lot of fluids over the past few days. Other than that though, I'm feeling a lot better. The condition seems to be making its way around work, so it seems that I was bound to get it sooner or later.

guitar illness

Wednesday, September 06 2006, 11:13 AM

I had a good holiday weekend. I took it easy friday night, and just hung about in the apartment. Saturday afternoon I headed down to Andre's in Indianapolis. He was having a get-together for the holiday weekend, and probably his last before he bows out of bachelor-dom officially. We took it easy Saturday night and played some pool and watched football while enjoying some tasty cold keg-dispensed beverages.

Sunday was party day, and we didn't waste any time, from my perspective anyway. I woke up at my customary 11-something AM, and beers were being dispensed in the 1pm hour. People started showing up around 3pm, and much merryment ensued. Lawn games were played, food was grilled, and good times were had. Also, thanks to some drinking game horseplay and hijinks, I can now truthfully say that I've had a beer poured on my head by an attractive girl, if that's ever a good thing.

In other news, the Gentoo install on my workstation is complete for the most part. I've still got some configuration to dink with, but that's best done for times of boredom. The X configuration I had working flawlessly before the reinstall full-out hardware lockups with the new install, so I had to start fresh. Not a horrible thing, but annoying. I've yet to get all the fun hardware acceleration working, so I'm stuck with slow-rendering graphics for the time being.

I'm also thinking that I need to make some time to try to take apart The Bolt and do some maintenance on it. After a few years of playing, the finish I put on the neck has started to get tacky and it has been rubbing away when I play it. There's a pretty good hole in the finish down near the end of the neck. I guess that's what I get for using plain furniture-grade varnish. Thing is, I doubt I'll be able to strip the finish that's there properly, so I may end up having to buy a new neck altogether and starting the process anew. I also want to redo the electronics in the guitar as well. It's only been running with one pickup for a while now, and I'd like to remedy that. I like the feeling of the Bolt a lot more than I do my Strat, but its tone is very one-dimensional with only one pickup.

friends gentoo guitar indianapolis linux roadtrips

Sunday, April 16 2006, 2:03 AM

Before I went on my cleaning spree today, I went over to CompUSA and Marshall Music. I've been trying to avoid places like CompUSA and Best Buy since I'm somewhat broke at the moment, and I have a bad tendency to walk out with things I wasn't planning on buying and certainly don't need. Today was different. I had a purpose. Earlier on this morning the AC adapter for my Thinkpad (a.k.a. Craptop) gave up the ghost. I didn't hold much hope for finding an AC adapter at CompUSA for such an old model laptop, but I didn't think it would hurt to look. They didn't really have anything that was tailor-made for it, but there were a few generic laptop adapters that might have fit the bill. Let me clarify - they may have fit an expensive bill. The one that looked like it might work the best was $99. There's no way I'm going to pay that much for something that might work. As it turns out, I found a site later on the day for a company that makes all sorts of batteries and adapters for laptops old and new. Their price was much cheaper ($35), and they guarantee compatibility. I picked up an adapter from them, and also a replacement battery. The battery on the craptop was really bad, and quite inconsistent in its performance.

The trip to Marshall Music was just for strings and picks for the old Gee-Tars. While I was there, I decided to renew an old experiment I'd begun some time ago. Along with my normal strings, I picked up a pack of 7-strings so I could bottom out the Carvin. I've done this a few times before, and it's always proven interesting. I really like the low sound that the baritone tuning provides. I put the strings on when I got back from the store, but the intonation was pretty bad, so I adjusted the truss rod a bit to tighten things up. It sounds a lot cleaner now. The only bad thing is that the Carvin only has one pickup in it right now, so I'm kinda limited in my tonal capabilities. Perhaps I'll be able to pick up a couple Fender Lace Sensors once Greg delivers the cash that he owes me... :) In any case, I'm hoping it will insipre me to play more. I might also be inclined to record some clips, and if I do so, I'll be sure to upload them to the site for your listening (dis)pleasure.

guitar laptop

Monday, March 20 2006, 12:45 AM

Tonight I fired up an old tradition. I got out some cables and the crappy Radio Shack kareoke amplifier thing I use as a post-amp, and I recorded some guitar noise. I haven't been playing a whole lot lately, and I'm pretty rusty. I played on both the Strat and the Bolt, which probably highlights the fact that I need to acquire more pickups for the Bolt. A few months back, the last of the Carvin pickups died, and I was forced to move the Fender Lace Sensor that Phil gave me down to the bridge position. It still sounds pretty good, but I definitely miss the sound of two pickups in unison on that guitar. I've been thinking of buying a couple more of the Fender Lace Sensors, but spending money is tight with all of the eye business lately.

Well, back to the recording. It's pretty aimless for the most part. I just dinked around for most of the "session," but there were a few sections in there where I played parts of "real" songs. Anyhow, here it is. Enjoy.

guitar guitarclips

Monday, July 11 2005, 12:04 AM

My luck proves once again that even the best laid plans can be foiled by something quite simple and unexpected. Megan asked me the other day if wanted to try rock climbing this weekend, and I rather excited for the chance. I knew that I would at least injure myself mildly during the climbing, perhaps a pulled muscle or a heart attack... who knows. But, as a twist of Kate, er, fate would have it, I was taken out of commission before I even had the opportunity.

I went out with Kate and one of her co-workers on friday night to a Lugnuts game. It was a pretty good game, but Kate made us leave in the 9th inning a of 4-4 tie. We were rather annoyed. We then had the privilege of standing in line at Rick's for around an hour before we were lucky enough to get in. I have to say it... I f'ing hate Ricks. It's a meathouse, no two ways about it. The only reason people go there is to find someone to take home that night. And it's smelly, and dark, and strikingly similar to a herd of cattle, both in density and intelligence, during peak times. We hung out there for a while, then I got bored and decided to head back to my car so I could head home. My car was parked at Kate's, which is a good 2 miles from Ricks, so I settled in for the long walk. Well, about three hundred yards from Ricks I found a bad piece of sidewalk and rolled my ankle. It wasn't bad enough to keep me from walking, and the alcohol helped dull the pain, but when I woke up the next morning I realized there was no way I was going to be scaling any vertical escarpments, artificial or otherwise. Megan was understanding and gave me a raincheck. I'm still looking forward to it, but it'll probably have to wait since I'll be busy with moving and vacations over the next few weekends. I suppose a midweek jaunt isn't out of the question, but my ankle will have to mend itself before that happens. [Edit: I'm not pissed at Kate... just annoyed with the situation. I seemed a tad harsh in the post, heh...]

Speaking of moving... I'll be moving in with Megan sometime within the next few weeks, most likely next weekend. I'm actually quite excited about it. We have a lot of common interests, but enough different ones so that I'll be exposed to some new things that I wouldn't normally have tried... like rock climbing! Plus she'll be the first non-work person I've lived with since I've moved up to Lansing, so I'll finally have a decent chance to meet some new people. I'm excited!

I started cleaning and packing this weekend so I could move more effectively. I tend to be a pack rat, so there's a lot of stuff that's accumulated in my room over the past year or so. I spent the better part of today throwing stuff out. I threw out about two garbage bags worth of stuff and about 80 pounds worth of old magazines that I've been carting around for no good reason. I'm shooting for a quick, light move this time. Quick and light is relative, but I'm still shooting for it.

Last, but not least, I've got another couple of guitar clips that I've recorded during the past week. The first was recorded on Greg's new acoustic-electric, even though you can't really tell. It might be the pickup or the way I had the equalizer settings tuned, but it didn't sound too acoustic to me... hehe. The second was recorded on the Bolt, complete with brand new strings, so it sounded really good. I don't know if my playing was as good, but you be the judge...

ankle guitar guitarclips injury ramblings

Monday, June 27 2005, 9:55 PM

I've been thinking about my general station in life a good amount recently. In general, I have absolutely nothing to complain about. I have a loving and supporting family and a good job that I enjoy. I have no problems keeping myself fed (which is quite evident by looking at my waistline) and sheltered, and I have controlled debt. I am better off than a great many people around the world, and yet I quite often wonder if I will ever really be truly happy.

Even with the countless number of great people that have touched my life, I feel empty inside a good amount of the time these days. It seems like all of the things I used to enjoy have either passed or lost their luster. I don't really do anything fun anymore. I can't remember the last time I tried doing something new, or even what it was. The movie Groundhog Day seems strangely applicable when describing my life these days. Instead of being trapped in the same calendar day though, I am stuck in the same set of events, day in and day out, and they rarely ever change. I could go out and do something, but I don't. Don't ask me why I don't, because I don't know. Laziness? Perhaps. I don't have the answer.

The worst thing though is something I can't just go out and fix. I can't punch keys on a keyboard or turn a screwdriver or use a soldering iron to fix this problem. It boils down to the fact that I am lonely. Oh, so very lonely. My heart longs to love someone, but the electric sign up in the corner says "Now serving: 01", and nobody is taking the ticket. I don't think I can really be happy unless I am making someone else happy. I could be helping my situation out more by being more social, but it would seem that I don't want to do that either. Why? I don't know.

It seems as though I've written this post before. I probably have. After all, it's Groundhog Day, isn't it?

On a seperate note, I recorded a guitar doodle for the first time in a while earlier on this evening. It turned out somewhat well I think. You can check it out here.

frustrations guitar guitarclips

Saturday, June 18 2005, 3:05 AM

Yep, I'm posting from Cincinnati tonight. I'm down here visiting Jon and Michelle, and pilfering one of their neighbor's wireless connection. That's what they get for leaving it open! For those that are curious, I'm in this general area. This area is actually a bit more scenic than the rest of Ohio. The last 30 miles or so of the highway portion of the drive have hills and woods and stuff, whereas the first portion of the drive has nothing but effing Corn Fields. At least I didn't smell that pig farm that I've noticed before on previous trips through Ohio on I-75. That stench makes rotten eggs seem downright fragrant.

This week has been a good one for me. The project load at work was lighter, which is a good thing. The project was kinda delayed on the other end, not mine. I was kinda mad though, I was told to be ready for the monday launch, and when I emailed the other folks to find out what the status was, they were like "oh yah, we'll release sometime in the next three weeks." And I worked the whole weekend before trying to polish things up for monday. Grrrr.

I also hung out with Megan a few times this week. We hit up the bar, watched some movies, and played guitars together. I don't care what she says, her voice is great! I have an admiration for anyone who can play and sing at the same time, because I can't. I can shout over choruses, but that's about it. She did her best to distract me while I was playing too, and well, she was successful! I guess I need my full concentration when I play. Bad musical abominations happen when I lose focus. I guess they're only slightly worse than my normal musical abominations though.

cincinnati guitar projects ramblings roadtrips work

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