Blog

I like the idea of having pages in WordPress, although, I’m not seeing any traffic to these. Probably because
according to the stats, most of you are reading through my various feeds. So, if you’ve had the pleasure of
hearing my stuff, great. If not, then feel free to take a listen.

Note 2018-02-25: Links and source mp3s are missing. But I’ve outlined what’s missing. Hopefully I’ll be
able to find these. I’d forgotten them too, and I’d like to here what I made.

Something A Little Funky

I like this little bass groove. It makes me dance. There is a section in it where I’m playing around, don’t
worry you’ll here it

Gone

this is a little vocal track I played with when I first got Pro Tools. Yeah! I made it for my answering
machine. Unfortunately it never made it because it’s too long for the answering machine message. Damn Telus!

Run

A long time ago I had a program called Band-In-A-Box. It was pretty cool. You took a chord progression and it
played the chart for you. It was great for making jazz charts. Too bad I can’t remember the progression for
the life of me.

Nick’s Ballad

another take with Band-In-A-Box. Just a little on the slower side

My First Garage Band Song

What more can I say. I got Garage Band and this was the first song out the door.

Something A Little Mellow

I got myself I nice little midi-usb hook-up. And with some nice voices through Garage Band (yet again), I’m
liking it.

Ode to Fight Club

I found a small voice clip from fight club. Thought it worked nicely.

With the podcast bandwagon, I figure heck, I’ll jump on that! So, here is my first podcast. enjoy!

2018-02-25: Link TBD. This is missing in the history of archives. I’m going to have to hunt it down.

Some 600 or so pages, some laughing and crying, I’m done the newest installment of Harry Potter. I’m starting
to think that there is some sort of addiction there. I actually used up some bank time at work, so I could go
home early to finish it…is that a problem? I guess the problem would be if I didn’t even call into work and
just stayed home.

Part of the homework from The Chrysalis is that we are to come up with 10 things that resonate
and encourage our creativity and then do 3. The timing for the new book was almost kismet because 1 down and
2 to go. Sure, I’m haven’t quite figured out what they are…I’ve still got 9 things besides reading to come
up with…but, when I do, I’ll do 2 of them and homework done. i’ve only got, what, 3 days left to do them?

Yes, I’m one of the billions hooked on Harry Potter. And unlike those pretentious people who buy the “adult”
cover books, I’m not afraid to admit it. When I first saw the photographic like covers on the shelves I was
slightly disturbed. Isn’t there a phrase…hmm…let me think. It’s something about judging…and covers. I think
this is very appropriate because it also has something to do with books. Now what was that phrase? Oh anyway,
I’m once again delving my attention into J.K. Rowlings’ world.

It’s funny really. I seem to have a very select handful of topics that I can actually read through without
falling asleep: quantum physics, leadership and harry potter. Yeah…it baffles me too.

“These sudden inspirations… never happen except after some day of voluntary effort which has appeared
absolutely fruitless and whence nothing good seems to have come, where the way taken seems totally astray.
These efforts then have not been as sterile as one thinks; they have set agoing the unconcious machine and
without them it would not have moved and would have produced nothing.”

• Henri Poincare (mathematician)

The warthogs? No. I started a small group class about tapping into our creativity and about creative writing.
It’s held by a wonderful woman ( of which I probably will be referencing her as time goes by ) named Dari.
With each class she has them come up with a name for themselves. With a little work and thought, we are
The Chrysalis. Considering the definition I would say it’s
a very fitting name.

wikipedia has pretty much the same definition, but
I thought I would connect to it…it’s looking a little barren. Know something? Share

So I’m drinking my starbucks and I read on the back of their cup

Chances are you are scared of fictions. Chances are you are only fleetingly happy. Chances are you know
much less than you think you do. Chances are you feel a little guilty. Chances are you want people to lie
to you. Perhaps the answer lies on the side of a coffee cup. You are lost. – David Cross, Comedian

This is from a comedian…so…is this supposed to be funny?

Like any group of people, the swing band that I am in is going through the stages of becoming a performing
teams. I think anytime you get a group of people together they inherently “want” to be a performing team, but
whether they can go through the phases is a test of character and dynamics

1. Forming
2. Norming
3. Storming
4. Performing

Right now we are at stage 2: Norming. Right now the group is getting to know more about each other, jokes are
starting to fly a little more and we are getting to know more about each others stories. Now, the trick is
this next stage…can we do it? The Storming stage is were people start to talk about others behind their backs
like “Nick’s Solo completely sucked ass!” I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but it’s a part of life. What
needs to really happen at this stage is someone says to me “Nick, you solo completely sucked ass!”, in which
my response would either be “@$)& you!” ( note: for the group to stay together this must be an accepted form
of response ) or “I didn’t know that, where did it chomp?” The storming phase is all about being able to talk
about the bad with the good. And if a group of people can successfully get there, then they are definitely on
the road to bigger and better things.

Last night was the first public gig for the Blue Morris 6! If I do say so myself, we kicked! Half way
through I was in a little pain ( long story involving canada day celebration, beer and a big step…) but I stood like a flamingo on one leg and played away.

There were a few small flubs, but that’s the beauty of swing, no one noticed. If if they did, they didn’t
care because they were dancing away. It was great to see people swing dancing in a little cafe. Can’t wait
for the next gig. I’ll keep you posted.

Been playing around with 10.4 all night. Some minor alteration needed after I installed it: needed to re-set
apache to my liking, and I’ve got this unknown user in my user list…I must have been screwing around with it?
But other then that I can now officially say that 10.4 kicks!

widgets

when 10.4 originally came out and widgets where explained I wasn’t personally hyped about them. They really
aren’t anything special. And from my perspective, they are totally outside of the “Mac Design”. And after
playing with them, I still don’t think there is anything special. Nothing a good RSS feed or homepage
couldn’t answer.

safari rss

I’m pretty much hooked on syndication. I’m not going to say RSS because not everyone is using that format,
there are also older flavours like RDF or the newer Atom
Safari handles these like a dream! the xslt they’ve got running to transform these are beautiful, searchable
and practical. Plus something really cool! If you’ve got FOAF, pay close attention to the bottom right
corner…it’s awesome!