Trans-Siberian Orchestra from the fourth row

Saw Trans-Siberian Orchestra from the fourth row last night!

Our seats were in the fourth row on the left side of the stage. It was awesome; we could see the band really well, it was like being on stage with them. Great showmanship. They rocked, they were professional, they had a great light show. We could feel the heat from their pyrotechnics. Flame jets! They were classy too, wearing tuxedos with tails.


One of the hallmarks of the approching Christmas season is when I start hearing Trans-Siberian Orchestra music, and I start hearing the song O Holy Night. At the show, it was both in one, since one of the songs they played was an instrumental version of O Holy Night done Trans-Siberian style, on electric guitar.

Mastered Painted Smiles

Painted Smiles is done and mastered. The song is ready for posting to GarageBand.com; I'll take care of that later this week.

I've already put the "finished" version of Heart Like a River to GarageBand.com. I put it in the acoustic genre. Reactions have been slow so far; I've only had one review come in so far. As I recall, the reviews started coming in pretty quickly after I posted The Great Escape earlier this year. I don't know if it's because of the time of year that people just are too busy to be reviewing the music, or if it's because the acoustic genre is a different market from the progressive rock genre and therefore has a different behaviour.

Back to the garage

I haven't been in to my GarageBand.com account for several months, not since the review for The Great Escape started slowing down. I logged into my GB account this weekend, first time in many months, and found that I had a message from a friend with whom I lost contact several years ago, half a dozen unread reviews for The Great Escape, and an invitation from an A&R company in New York to send them my material. Whew.

I'm submitting Heart Like a River to GarageBand.com this week. Next week I'll be getting Painted Smiles mastered and then I'll be submitting that to GB as well.

I like my life today.

Saving the world

Several weeks ago, end of the work day. I pack up my laptop and put on my coat. I have an evening session at the studio, to work on Heart Like a River. "Good night," I say to my co-workers. "I'm off to save the world".

This weekend. Jan's benefit dance. J and I pack up and drive to the hotel where we will stay for the night. I bring a box of Heart Like a River CD's to be sold, proceeds to go to Jan's fund. There is a silent auction. There is goldfish racing. There is dancing, there are speaches. I videotape them. Jan makes a speach. My tape runs out just after she starts. I have another tape, but to unwrap it, replace the tape in the camcorder, will take too long and take me away from from what Jan is saying. I put the camcorder down and give her my full attention instead. She makes a stunning and valiant effort. Her ability to speak is much improved since when I talked to her on the phone about a month ago. She stumbles over her words a few times. She pauses at one point, trying to find the words to express what she wants to say. The audience waits in total silence, gives her the space she needs. Jan finally completes her speach. Everyone applauds.

Near the end of the evening. Jan's sister in-law refers to me as a special friend to the family. Priceless. An honour, a designation I am pleased to hold.

This morning. J and I check out of the hotel. Looking for a place to have breakfast. Decide to stop at the casino. Stuff ourselves at a buffet lunch. Unexpectedly are given two comp tickets for Frankenstein, a rock musical. We eat well and we are entertained well. We came on this weekend to give our generosity at the benefit dance; we receive generosity at the casino.

Almost midnight, we're at home. I am tired and ready to go to bed. J gets a call from her brother. He is in town, for training, he is sick. She boils some water, finds some Neo Citran. "Will you come with me to take the Neo Citran to my brother?" she asks. Is it even an option to say no?

I put on my coat and shoes and find my keys. I guess we're not quite done saving the world yet.

Putting together the Heart Like a River mini-cd

Now that I've completed Heart Like a River, I've been thinking about how I want to present it at the fundraiser. I decided that putting just the one song on a CD won't do it so I've put together a compilation that includes a couple of instrumental mixes I've recorded as well as a worship song that Jan and I recorded a few years ago. When I listened to the compilation, I was totally pleased, if I may say so, I am quite pleased with myself, with the quality of music that is on this compilation. It sounds really damn good, and I'll hold it up to any professionally recorded work.

Legacy Discovery Weekend

It's been a busy several weeks. Heck, it's been a busy several months, and I haven't been keeping up with my blogging.

I was on the training team for a Legacy Discovery Weekend - it's an event put on by the Men's Division. The weekend was great. I did the event last year as a participant, and I can say that doing it as part of the training team was an awesome experience. There were times when I had that feeling of certainty in my gut, that this was exactly where I was supposed to be and it was exactly what I was supposed to be doing.

I also finished Heart Like a River last week. I got a copy of the mastered version but I haven't had a chance yet to listen to it on my car stereo. Jan's fundraiser benefit dance is in a week and a half, and I am looking forward to it. Actually, that's an understatement - I am very excited about it.

The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything

Those who have read the writings of Douglas Adams know the answer to Life, the Universe, and Eveything. They know that the answer is fourty two. But what is the actual question?

Today, the question is what is my age. It's my fourty second birthday.

This is my horoscope today from yahoo.com:

Think about putting down roots. That doesn't necessarily mean staying in one place. It does mean thinking about an area of your life where you need to make a commitment. Now take one step toward making it real.

Heart Like a River - Day 3

Did a vocal run through from the top. I felt relaxed and natural and thought it was a good performance. I didn't know if Steve was recording since I was doing it as a warm-up but I hoped he was. It turns out that he did catch it.

Worked out where to place the notes for the final verse. I didn't get to record it last session.

The first take was good and usable but we did a second take anyways, and got lots of good bits out of it. I liked how I closed the R's on "river" and "scars" in the refrain - I have had challenges with ending on R's on past projects. We also came up with some different variations on the three repetitions of the "fingerprints of life" line.

Click on the play button below to hear the current mix.


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Heart Like a River - Day 2

Second session - laid down ghost vocals. Got lots of coaching from Steve, feels like a partnership, a collaboration rather than a session artist for hire.

Worked on phrasing.

I had a tight schedule and had to leave the session before I had a chance to do the vocals for the final verse.

Getting things done

Allen, David (2001). Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

So I've read a book called Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, by David Allen. I'm experimenting with getting my own GTD system set up.

The book describes various key disciplines, or best practices for being organized and productive; however, there are a few key disciplines that I've started practicing that are making a difference for me. These are:
- Inventory of all my projects
- Identify at least one next action for each project
- Associate each next action with a context in which the action can be performed

Inventory of Projects:
I find it useful to have a list where I've written down all my projects. It gets them out of my head and into a tangible form, and it's good to have a place to list any project ideas that come up. It's like the adage, a place for everything and everything in its place - well, that applies to ideas too.

Next Action:
The discipline of identifying a next action for each project helps keep my projects moving along. Even if I don't feel like working on a given project right now, as long as I can think of what next action I can take and write it down then even that helps keep the project moving. Often the projects that stall are the ones for which I don't have a next action. I haven't got this done for all my projects yet, maybe about 40%-60% of them but that's enough for me to feel the difference. I feel like I can keep all of those 40%-60% projects moving along rather than feeling like I can only handle three or four at a time.

Context Lists:
The GTD notion of a context is that it is a place or set of resources that I have access to in order to accomplish my tasks. Some examples are @Home, @Office, @Computer, @Errands, @Calls, etc. The idea is to have a separate list for each context; bydoing so, I can look at all the tasks that I can do in a given situation without being distracted by tasks I cannot do right here. For example, if I am at work and something occurs to me that I need to do at home, I put it on the @Home list. While I am at the office I can look at the @Office tasks and not get frustrated because I have an @Home task that I can't do.

Having separate context lists also helps me see where my bottlenecks are. When I see that my @Errands list is growing and giving me anxiety then I know I can run a series of errands say on a Saturday morning and knock a bunch of things off my list. Similarly if my @Home list is getting too large and I know I've been going out a lot then I know it's time to spend some time at home getting stuff done.

I have a challenge making calls while at work, and some calls need to be made during business hours. When my @Calls list starts piling up then I know I need to make a special effort to take a break from work and take care of those calls.

Heart Like a River - Day 1

I've written previously about my friend Jan who is recovering from an aneurysm she had in February (see Soul of a Poet). Her cousins are organizing a fundraiser, to be held in November, to raise funds for her treatments. They have asked for donations of items for an auction.

An awesome idea popped into my head - why not make a studio recording of Heart Like a River, the song I wrote that was inspired by an article on Jan's blog. The recording would be my contribution to the auction. Since I already had a session scheduled to do Painted Smiles, I decided to use that session to start Heart Like a River instead.

The session went really well (as they usually do) and I am pleased with the tracks we've put down so far. All I brought in to the studio with me to start was a copy of the "quick and dirty" arrangement I made in June and a file on my LifeDrive with a "lyrical treatment" that I'd written. That's being a lot less prepared than I usually aim to be before starting a new studio project; however, the experience has changed my idea of what being "prepared for the studio" can mean.

I was singing to give Steve something to play to, and I was still getting a feel for where the melody can go on various lines, and Steve was feeding off that and tuning in to where the guitar could go and where the synth strings could go, and there was a moment of this is life; a recognition that creation was happening, and this was exactly where I was supposed to be and this was exactly what I was supposed to be doing in that moment.

It was interesting that the next morning when I was driving to work, I had this feeling that the time in the studio was my real work, and this job thing was an extracurricular activity; it was a good feeling.

Click on the play button below to hear the current mix.


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Painted Smiles - next steps

No session this week or next week. I'm taking a break this week to create some space for getting some things done at home.

My thoughts on what to do at the next session - I was thinking that we created a precedent when we worked on The Great Escape in January, by creating an alternate mix (see Great Escape - alternate mix). I'm considering doing the same thing. It's not that there's anything wrong with the current approach; it's more about challenging our imagination. Suppose we were to start with the same bed tracks we've already put down, but used it to create an alternate mix, one that emphasizes different song elements. We'd end up with two versions, two different flavours. I think that could be a good thing.

Painted Smiles 2006 remake - Day 2

Steve added some synth tracks and some synth arps and I put down a guide vocal track. I could feel the effect of the harmonic structure we discussed last week; I could hear it pulling the melody in a few places, encouraging me to choose different notes on certain lines.

I felt like I was off in the You can... verse because the chord progression didn't go where I expected and I compensated by adjusting my delivery. When we played it back, it sounded fine; it worked. What was throwing me off was that in my chart I had the You cans placed as coming on the downbeat, but the music we recorded required that I deliver them as pick up notes. In the end, it's good enough for a guide vocal.

Steve searches for something particular in the synth module. "I'll hunt you down," he says, and finally concedes. "It'll probably come to me tomorrow morning."

Next, out comes the red guitar. Some clean guitar playing, adding the textural layers, followed by some "edgy" guitar playing. Steve looks like he is having a religious experiences when he records his guitar tracks.

Drums. Steve gets an aerobic workout on the electronic kit, adding some human performed hits on top of the drum loops from last week. Playing to a click track allows us to use drums as an instruments rather than as the traditional timekeeping function. I consider that to be one of the distinguishing characteristics of my music; don't use drums just for the sake of using drums, use them because the song calls for them.

Click the play button below to hear the partial mix.


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A new dream vacation

J and I took a few extra days off work and gave ourselves an extra long weekend last week, which we used to take a Thousand Islands cruise. We stayed at an Inn in Gananoque, from where we started a five hour cruise that took us on a tour of Boldt Castle.



I now have a new dream vacation, which is to live in Gananoque for three months in the summer and write a book. I was particularly inspired to learn that the son of a local bookstore owner had written and self-published his first book (Aeldenwood, by M.G. Belanger).

My other dream vacation is to rent a boat for two weeks and sail along the Trent-Severn seaway.

Painted Smiles 2006 remake - Day 1

I had the first studio session this week, to start off the Painted Smiles 2006 remake project. We discussed the harmonic structure of the original recording and ways to approach the remake. The original version was centred around the Am chord; the droning or pulsing of the clavi synth anchored the bass line. Steve suggested an approach in which the bass line moves with the chords, creating a different harmonic structure. We still came back to the droning effect in the outro.

The bed tracks are down now. They consist of two acoustic guitar parts, an electronic drum loop and a bass synth track. This partial mix, as it stands now, makes me think of a soundtrack for some movie or TV show but I can't quite place what it is. Some crime drama I think, like Bourne Identity, or CSI.

Click the play button below to hear the partial mix.


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A decade of service

Here's an excerpt from a letter I received from my employer this week.

Congratulations on your upcoming service anniversary. Your hard work, loyalty and dedication have helped make [company] a world leader in productivity software and professional services.

I made it to the ten year mark! When I was just starting my career in IT, I kept my first job for two years. The first year was good and I enjoyed it. After the first year some changes were made and I became progressively dissatisfied over the second year. Finally I left and went to my second job.

The second job proved to be my job from hell experience. I stayed there for two years as well, but it felt like I'd been there four years. I felt like I had gained four years of experience during those two years. Considering how many 10-12 hour days I put in, I probably did gain four years of experience.

My pattern to that date led me to question whether I was even suited for the work environment. Maybe I should go back to school, stay in the academic environment? Well, I decided to try for job number three before making that decision. I started job three and soon found that it was a much more positive and enjoyable work experience than the ones I had previous. Given that my history to date had been of changing jobs every two years, I resolved to stay with this job for at least three to five years.

The three year mark came and went and I had no inclination to leave. However, one day I was approached by some colleagues who had left the company. They wanted to recruit me to the company they had joined. I didn't really want to change jobs at that time, but they courted me for a while and eventually made me an offer I didn't want to refuse. So I took that job and now it's been a decade!

My own place in music

Here is an inspiring quote I read in an article called How to 'Fix' the Music Industry, by Bob Baker.

"You can't control what happens to the overall music business, but there is something you can control directly: How you conduct yourself and your own place in music. Focus on pursuing a career on you your own terms -- not terms imposed by the industry."

Wow - this is pretty inspiring, especially coming several weeks before I go back to the studio to work on the Painted Smiles remake.

So what exactly is my own place in music? I hope that the songs I write and record will add colour to the tapestry of our musical culture. I am not so much trying to put together a band as I am trying to build a team of musicians to express my musical ideas. It's a sort of cross between Alan Parsons Project and Trans Siberian Orchestra, in the sense that they would use a vocalist that best suits a particular song, rather than having a single identifiable lead singer.

Mosquitoes declared an endangered species

Mosquitoes declared an endangered species.

What are the chances that any of us will ever see this headline in our lifetime?

Saving time for daylight

Thought for the day - let's set all the clocks at work ahead by 5 minutes. Do this every day - in two weeks you'll be able to go home an hour early.

High cost of gas

Gas is so expensive these days. I wonder how much it would cost to convert my car engine to run on coke and menthos?

Let's book some time

Steve S called me back this morning because I left him a message earlier this week about looking for a vocalist for the Painted Smiles project. He told me he's done lots of vocal work and would be willing to do add his voice to my project.

I didn't previously know about Steve's vocal background. I had originally hired him several years ago as a sound engineer for my first CD project, Cleverly Crafted. I had recorded all the instrument tracks for that project by composing MIDI sequences for each song and playing the sequences back through my PSR-620 keyboard. I recorded my vocal tracks at Steve's studio and he did all the mixing and mastering.

During that association I learned that he plays guitar. When I decided that I wanted to raise the bar on my next project, I remade two songs I had previously recorded on the Cleverly Crafted CD, Yesterday Seems So Far Away and Mirrors. Steve played guitar on those remakes and the resulting works sound miles better than the MIDI-recorded versions. I got him to play guitar on almost all the songs I did on my next CD project, Face of Shadows, and I learned the value of letting go of total control of my music.

So I booked some time in the studio; we'll put down the basic tracks, and give Steve's voice a workout.

Order of operations

I've been thinking about the Painted Smiles remake I want to do. A question of logistics comes up - should I start recording the instrumental tracks as soon as I have the funds available to pay the studio fees, or should I wait until I've found a vocalist first?

Normally what I do is record the instruments first, then add the vocal layers on top of that. That's how I normally work - so why should I consider changing my methodology this time? Because I might want to record the song in a different key signature based on the range of the vocalist I find, that's why.

So do I wait until I've chosen a vocalist and record the tracks in a key that works best for him? Or do I make it a requirement that the vocalist be able to perform the song in the key in which I've written it?

I don't know yet. What process will I use to decide? I don't know that yet either.

Making plans for Painted Smiles remake

I wrote in February that I planned for my next recording project to be a remake of Painted Smiles, a song I wrote and originally recorded several years ago (see Goal for 2006).

The time has come to start moving this project forward. My target is to have this project completed by end of August. The first milestone to reach is creating a project budget. I have noticed from past experience (e.g. The Great Escape) that it costs me about $500 in studio fees to complete a recording project. This time around I am aiming for a budget that's twice that amount. I want to give myself lots of extra room because I plan to find and bring in a professional singer to perform the vocal track.

The outcome I want out of this endeavor is:

• I reintroduce vocals to my music in a way that their quality is significantly improved compared to past projects.
• I find creative ways to market my songs, e.g. find a film producer who will use one of my songs for a soundtrack.
• My enthusiasm for pursuing my dream positively influences people around me to live theirs.

Heart Like a River - quick and dirty demo

I've uploaded an MP3 version of the Heart Like a River arrangement. It's a quick and dirty demo I created by importing a MIDI file into a tool called Reason.

There is some kind of interaction happening in the fills layer that sounds a bit like a cymbal swell. It's really subtle. I hear it in a couple of areas, and I like it. Maybe next time I'll do something to bring out the effect.

Click on the play button below to hear this demo.


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Heart Like a River arrangement

The other night I was going through some of the files on my LifeDrive. One of them was a voice memo of a melody I captured last month (see Soul of a Poet). After hearing it again, the melody stuck in my head and has been running through my mind for several days.

I had a chance on the weekend to write an arrangement based on this melody, using a MIDI sequencing tool. I think it's a nice arrangement, but it doesn't synch up with the words that inspired it in the first place. In fact, I don't think the words as written will fit into a 4/4 time signature at all. I'd have to transform the original words into lyrics, or just use my arrangement for a different song entirely.

I'll look into a way to post an MP3 version of the arrangement this week.

Links:

• If my heart was a river - the post that inspired the music.

Projects reviewed

There are a few projects that I want to complete, yet I don't seem to be moving forward too quickly. Getting my will done, getting the pre-nup finalized, getting registered an accessory dwelling unit, making a remake of Painted Smiles, to name the big ones. So how am I doing with them?

Getting my will done - this one has been on my plate for over a year. I did meet with a lawyer last year, and he suggested that we do our pre-nup first, as that will lay the a lot of the groundwork for doing my will. So I've put this one on hold until the pre-nup is done.

The pre-nup - the same lawyer wrote up a draft co-hab agreement. It looked fine to me at the time, but there was this nagging thought, that I should have it reviewed by my own lawyer (the one I used to draft the agreement was J's lawyer). I found another lawyer through an independent referral; they reviewed the agreement and gave recommendations that could make this whole agreement 1000 times more complicated than it was to start with. Then I sat on those recommendations and did nothing about for a couple of months.

Accessory dwelling unit registration - I did actually get the first step done, which was to send in the application form and registration fee. The next two milestones are to get a letter from an architect or engineer indicating Building Code compliance, and a letter from the Electrical Safety Authority indicating compliance with safety regulations.

Painted Smiles remake - I made a commitment in front of the men's team I'm on to do this in the next three months.

Now, I've been reading in some discussion forums about a book called Getting Things Done, by David Allen. The book is subtitled The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. Many of the postings I've read in the forums refer to the process of defining the next action, which is the next action that you can physically take on it. So with that in mind, I would be well served to come up with some well defined next actions for each of my projects.

Catchy ring tone

So I've had a few calls come in on my cell phone while at work in the past few days, since downloading the Friday Nights at The Wedge ring tone. Now one of my workmates whistles the tune everytime my phone "rings" and another has said "Thanks a lot - now that song is stuck in my head".

He-he-he. It's working!

Podcatching

I recently wrote that I wanted to be able to listen to podcasts in my car while driving to work. This desire was behind my requirement that my new cell phone had to be able to play mp3 files. I had envisioned listening to podcasts that I copied to my phone on its speakerphone, or even better - over some kind of Bluetooth-enabled car speaker.

Now that I know a bit more about my new cell phone, I think that it won't be a practical device for playing back podcasts because of its limited memory. That leaves me with two playback options. One, to use my LifeDrive as an mp3 player. This works fine when I am at home and listening through headphones. Listening through the LifeDrive's built in speaker sucks though; the audio sounds like it's coming from a cheap transistor radio.

The other option is to burn the audio files to a CD and play them over my car's audio system. This seems like an old fashioned way to do it, plus what do I do with the CD's after I've listened to them?

I've read somewhere that there is an adapter that plugs into a PDA or mp3 player and transmits the audio on a frequency that can be picked up on a car's audio system. I wonder how much such a device costs and how many CD's I would have to burn before it would be worth my while getting one?

The price of knowledge

I thought that putting a custom ring tone on my new cell phone would be just a simple matter of copying an mp3 file to the appropriate folder on the memory card that came with the phone. In fact, I recall the salesman telling me, when I bought my phone, that I could do this by using a card reader device. Well, I figured I could use my LifeDrive for this purpose. I was able to place a copy of a 47-second extract of Friday Nights at The Wedge onto the memory card, but when I put the card back into the phone, do you think the phone could see it? No!!!

So I reasoned that the file has to be in a specific folder on the card to be recognized by the phone, but do you think I knew what that folder should be? Do you think the phone manual documented this? No, and no. So it became time for a little reverse engineering. Maybe if I installed a downloadable ring tone I could inspect the card to see what folder it got placed in and I would place my own file in the same place. I would have to pay for the downloadable ring tone, but that's the price of knowledge, no?

The crappy MIDI rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody cost me $2.00 to purchase, plus whatever the cost is for the data connection. I installed the file as my new ring tone, verified it works. I popped the memory card out of the phone and into my LifeDrive and searched for the Bohemian Rhapsody file - and did I find it? You guessed it - no. It must have gone to the phone's internal memory, to which I have no access. Doh!

Finally I did what I should have done in the first place and saved myself the $2.00. Did an internet search, found a discussion forum full of people who wanted to do the same thing I did, and finally found a step by step description of what I need to do.

Crappy downloadable version of Bohemian Rhapsody - $2.00. Knowing how to set Friday Nights at The Wedge as my custom ring tone - priceless.

Pack rat unpacking

I am a bit of a pack rat. That is as far as I will fess up to. To J, I am a complete and total die-hard pack rat. Periodically we go through a cleanup binge, where I go through piles of stuff and throw a bunch of it away. This activity usually stirs up a lot of emotion for me.

I don't know why I am like this, and I don't really know that I need to know why. Perhaps it works best if I just accept that I am like this; accept it, work within it, and respect it.

The march of technology

I obtained two new pieces of technology this week.

The first was a 30-day evaluation copy of a software application called DayNotez, for my LifeDrive. DayNotez is a mobile digital journal.

I've been using another tool for journaling on my LifeDrive, a tool called Documents To Go. DTG is a mobile version of Microsoft Word. I've been using it for personal journaling for maybe two years now, first on my Palm m500, and then on my LifeDrive. The thing about using a word processor for journaling is that all my entries are stored in a linear fashion. This means that if I want to look up something I wrote several months ago, I have to scroll back through all the entries I've written since.

In DayNotez I can assign categories and keywords to my entries, so I can filter my entries if I want to, say, find all entries I wrote about a particular subject. DayNotez also gives me a list view of my entries. That means I can see a list showing the first line of each entry; instead of scrolling through all the text of everything I've written I can scroll through the list if I want to look up a particular entry. I like these features.

The second was a new cell phone, a Samsung SPH-A920. My previous phone was getting flaky on me. My requirements for a new cell phone were that it has Bluetooth (for communicating with my LifeDrive) and a video camera (because of my interest in media creation). Later I added a new requirement - that it has the ability to play mp3 files so that I could listen to podcasts in my car while driving to work. As an added bonus, I want to be able to customize the ring tone so I can set it to be Friday Nights at The Wedge. How cool could that be, to hear Friday Nights at The Wedge play every time someone calls me! Not to mention the self-promotional value.

So far I have discovered that my LifeDrive does not have a phone driver for communicating with my Samsung phone using Bluetooth. Doh! I thought Bluetooth was Bluetooth and as long as my PDA and phone both have it I'd be able to pair them up. I'll have to find out if I can download a driver.

Application form in

One of my leftover goals from 2005 is getting one of my properties registered with the city as an accessory dwelling unit. It's taken me a while but I've finally reached that all important first milestone, sending in my application form and application fee.

The next milestone is to obtain a letter from an architect or engineer indicating Building Code compliance. Guess I'd better start shopping around for an architect or engineer.

Soul of a poet

My friend Jan continues to recuperate from the aneurysm she suffered in February. She has been released from the hospital where she had her surgery and transfered to a rehab center where she is undergoing therapy to regain the functions she lost as a result of her trauma. Her husband Fede continues to tell the story of her recovery in her blog.

The other day he wrote some amazing and incredibly poetic words in her blog. It made me want to write music to it. A melody started running through my head for most of the morning on that day, but I didn't capture it and by the afternoon the melody was gone.

This morning it came again while I was making breakfast. I don't know if it was exactly the same melody as from the previous day, but it was close. I hummed and captured it on the voice memo recorder on my LifeDrive.

Fede commented that he was just writing what he felt. Fede - you have the soul of a poet. Keep on writing, keep on sharing.

Closer to the heart

In the video projects I've done in the past I've always strived to select a song to use for soundtrack that was suitable for the presentation and felt right for the project.

At the volunteer event this past weekend (see Trail Blazing), I shot several pictures and video segments of volunteers at work and of the scenery. I felt an inspiration on this weekend to put them all together into a new video, and I kept listening to my instincts to come up with a song to use as a soundtrack. If I may say so myself, I have a knack for picking soundtracks for the video projects I've done.

After considering and rejecting a few titles, one came to me - Closer to the Heart, by Rush. It seemed like a good fit. Then I looked up the lyrics on the internet, and I was floored. The words just seemed to be so bang on. It was one of those moments where you just know that's the one.

And the men who hold high places
Must be the ones who start
To mould a new reality
Closer to the heart.

Recognition for work assignment

Last week I received this thank-you note from the project manager of the work assignment I just finished. I never even met him; I only interact with him over long distance phone calls. It's nice to get the recognition though.

I’m sure you are already being assigned a billion tasks at [new client] but I just wanted to thank you for your excellent work on the Dashboard.

You have done a great job and, as I’m sure you were able to tell from the conference calls, [client] was very pleased with the results.

It was a pleasure working with you and I hope to have the opportunity to work together again in the future!

Good luck with the new project!

Wrapping up work assignment

I'm coming to a close on an assignment I've been working on for the last two months. It's for a client in the telecommunications industry and my mission has been to develop an infrastructure monitoring dashboard using ASP.NET.

It's been an interesting project for me. I got to dabble in Visual Basic, VBscript, Javascript, HTML, CSS. There has been lots of built in variety for me.

I'm told that there is another project team waiting for me to finish this assignment because they are waiting for my expertise in another area.

"It must be nice to be wanted," my current project manager wrote to me. Sure - as long as my picture isn't posted all over police stations with the words Dead or Alive.

Journaling and completion

A few years ago when I had mentioned that I journal to a friend, she thought it was a useless exercise and asked if I ever read my own journals.

I do from time to time find value in looking up previous entries. A couple of weeks ago I recalled having written some to do items in my journal towards the end of 2005. I wanted to know if there was anything on that list that I had not yet done.

I had some energy and wanted to set myself some new goals but I wanted to be sure I was complete first with my older goals. I did find a couple of big items that were left over from 2005. One was finalizing my pre-nup agreement with J; the other was getting one of my properties properly registered with the city as an accessory dwelling unit. I have re-committed myself to completing these tasks by the end of May.

There is value in reviewing old journal entries.

Morning pages

The book Artist's Way describes an exercise called Morning Pages. This is an exercise that the author, Julia Cameron, challenges the reader to do every day for a minimum of twelve weeks. The exercise is to write by longhand, three pages of stream of consciousness thoughts.

Could I do this for twelve weeks? Every day?!? Well, only one way to find out. I pulled out a notebook I used to journal in longhand before I started journaling electronically on my PDA. I used that notebook for a couple of days and then bought myself a new journal specifically for this exercise. Cameron encouraged me to make a commitment for twelve weeks, and I was uncertain whether I'd be able to keep up the pace for that long, but I was willing to give it a go. This was in January, twelve weeks ago. I was not on a work assignment at the time, so it was easy to fit doing the pages into my daily schedule. At first.

On some days, doing three pages just flowed. On other days, it was a stretch. Some days it seemed like I was putting in a lot of filler just to reach my three page target.

The three page requirement stretched me; it caused me to push on even when I ran out of things to say, to really reach within and write some thoughts that I'd never dared to write before, not even in my journal.

I was quite pleased that I was able to maintain this daily ritual - for six consecutive weeks. After six weeks I started a new work assignment; my day was busy and my evening calendar has been quite full since then as well. For the last few weeks all I've managed to get in was about two days a week of doing the pages.

Trail blazing

The men's group I'm involved with will be doing a community service project at the end of April, at a YMCA camp. The projects will include construction, building repairs and trail blazing, and is an opportunity for the men to serve the larger community.

I am looking forward to this event as I will be involved in the project leadership. I am also looking forward to doing some trail blazing - I've done a lot of hiking in past years, so as a former trail user, this will be a personal opportunity for me to give something back to the community.

Having your cake

Here's one from the where do these ideas come from department. Why don't they make a cake (they being the proverbial they), say a Black Forest cake, with an extra layer in the middle. This extra layer would be a layer of Pepto Bismol. Then you could eat as much cake as you wanted and you wouldn't get indigestion.

Aneurysmi

It's been over a month that my friend Jan suffered from a ruptured brain aneurysm and was hospitalized. The first few days, after I heard the news, were shocking and fearful because no one knew what to expect and because the odds of survival seemed grim.

Well, she did survive and continues to recover. She remains hospitalized, but for the last two weeks has been making new progress in her recovery every day. Every day there have been updates in a blog kept for her by her husband and by her brother, and every day there have been postings that tell of each step of her progress, and every day her blog receives comments from her friends near and afar, offering their encouragement and prayers. Her survival and recovery appear miraculous, and I have been feeling so grateful for the prayers that have been answered.

This week I received an email from my church mailing list. It was a prayer request for another family that just recently and suddenly lost a member to an aneurysm. This news has left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand I feel so grateful that Jan has survived and recovers, and that our many prayers have been heard. How lucky she is! On the other hand, I am shocked to hear of the loss to the other family caused by the same condition that almost took Jan.

It seems so arbitrary. Does God answer prayers on a democratic basis? Were there more of us praying for Jan, harder and louder, than for the other woman such that Jan survived and the other did not? Or is there some principle of conservation involved, such that when one person was saved, another had to be taken instead?

These are rhetorical questions; yet I invite thoughtful comments from anyone reading this.

Inspiration in a flame

There was one time, back in the late eighties or early nineties, that I went to a dinner event with my parents. I think the occasion was around the Ukrainian Christmas season. I sat at a table with my parents and with various people, and there was a candle on the table - I just became so mesmerized by it. I stared into the little flame and watched it flicker around and just totally tuned out everything that was going on around me. I didn't realize in the moment that I was totally tuned out, but I suddenly became aware when my mom tried to get my attention because someone had asked me a question and I had completely ignored them.

My memory of this experience of being mesmerized by a candle was part of my inspiration for the Mission: Dawn scene I wrote called Heart in the Fire. In this scene, Dreamer is mesmerized by the flames of a bonfire. Writing this scene has given me a chance to get into Dreamer's head and explore the inner workings of his mind.

Creating a whole world

I'm back to chapter 2. My latest scene, Heart in the fire, is an introspective scene that focuses on the character named Dreamer. I've been layering chapter 2 so that the scenes alternate between the ship-side story and the village-side story.

I must admit, I've been finding the village-side story much harder to write, much harder to imagine. Likely that is because I am creating everything from scratch. I am creating a whole new race of people, a whole new culture and customs and characters, and I am trying to make them seem foreign and interesting and credible.

In comparison, telling the ship-side story is much easier, because it's all about humans, and I've watched tons of Star Trek episodes so I have much more familiarity with creating stories about starship crews.

Refactoring chapters

Chapter 2 is getting bigger than I expected it would be and I'm thinking I may split or refactor the chapters. However, I've decided against doing it now, in the first draft. I think it makes more sense to do that in the revision - when I do the second draft.

It will be a lot easier for me to do it then and make a lot more sense, because by then I'll know everything that happens in the story - right now I'm still making stuff up.

Mission: Dawn - working on chapters 2 and 3

I "officially" started work on chapter 3 in January. Writing for chapter 3 gives me a psychological boost; I feel like I've made more progress. I still have some work to do on chapter 2 mind you, so I'm dividing my writing time between both chapters.

I've revised the ending for the scene called Celebrations - Part 2. The previous ending forced me to get into certain plot points that seemed to soon for me; I didn't know the characters well enough yet to make them do the things I was going to have them do. The revised ending gives me more space to explore the characters before I start testing them.

I had initially intended to have Dawn arrive at Planet 542 at the end of chapter 2 but have decided to postpone that until the end of chapter 3. The reason for this is that I want to include the story of Dawn's encounter with a gaseous phenomenon while en route; this encounter is a setup for something important that will happen much later in the story. However, it would be too much to tell the story that is unfolding in the village on Planet 542 and Dawn's story and pack it all into one chapter.

Comment about photo-mosaic

I received this comment on my previous post about using Photoshop to create a photo-mosaic:

There are many utilities available to do this tiling with pictures. I did a quick search using "mosaic pictures software" and got hundreds of hits. Try soft411.com/software/mosaic-pictures.html Utility costs $12 US.

So after checking out the link above, as well as doing my own quick search, I have learned a little more about this art. In a real photo-mosaic, the colour tone of the micro-images is adjusted so that it closely matches the colour of the primary image.

I used a much simpler technique when I did my Photoshop experiment. First of all, I used a small number of "micro-images" because I wanted to experiment with the technique rather than get bogged down with the sheer volume of manipulating some 100 images. I used eight images as my micro-images, arranged in two rows of four. Then I duplicated the two rows to create the four by four matrix. I performed a mirror transformation on the duplicate rows so it would not be too obvious that there was a duplication.

I brought the primary image into a separate layer that I positioned on top of the micro-image layer. I made the primary image layer partially transparent in order to allow the micro-images to come through. By doing so, I didn't have to adjust the colour tone of my micro-images.

Now, if I was going to apply this technique on a larger scale, say using a underlying grid of 10 by 10, or 25 by 25, it would take a lot more work on my part. However, I know that Photoshop has features for automating repeated tasks, so I could use this as a learning exercise to learn how to use those features.

Photo-shopping

Not too long ago I saw an ad - from a distance it looked like a picture that was very grainy. From a closer look, the grains were actually smaller pictures that were arranged together, like a mosaic. Depending on what you focused on, you either saw one large picture, or hundreds of small pictures.

I was curious to learn how to do this technique, so one sleepless night I experimented with Photoshop for a few hours using several pictures of my new baby niece. It's not exactly like the ad I saw, but in the process of experimentation I learned to use a few more features of Photoshop.

My Photoshop experiments are yet another way in which I can express my creativity.

Word of the month - blurf

I'd like to propose a new word to be added to the lexicon of popular usage - blurf. Blurf is a portmanteau, a fusion of the words blog and surf. I define blurfing to be the act of randomly or sequentially from one blog to another, typically spending only a short time at each one.

Here are some examples of how this word might be used in a sentence:

I usually blurf for about half an hour before going to bed.

I was up all night blurfing and found this really cool blog.

A social study reports that most people who blurf are looking to read about a life that is more interesting than the one they are living.

A search for blurf in wikipedia shows that no page with that title exists.

A google search on the word blurf leads to someone's blog at www.blurf.com. Further examination reveals that the authour's choice of the name blurf originated from an alcohol-related incident at a college party.

Therefore I can conclude that my proposed definition for this word is original and unique.

It will be interesting to do another google search in a year to see how popular the word has become (or not).

Where do ideas come from?

Last night I had a dream that there was a new spin-off TV series called CSI:Elsinore. Their first episode is an investigation into the suspicious sudden death of the king of Denmark. Yes, it's CSI as written by William Shakespeare. How do you say the evidence never lies in iambic pentameter? Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are CSI agents.

Oh Freud, what would you make of this one? Something is rotten in the state of my mind.

Friend in hospital

A good friend of mine had a brain aneurysm on Friday evening. She is in the hospital and has had surgery performed, but she is still unconscious. For a while she was not able to breathe for herself and was put on a respirator. At the last report, she was breathing for herself but remains on the respirator until she regains consciousness.

My thoughts and prayers go out to her and her family for a successful recovery, and for comfort during this trying and uncertain time.

Goal for 2006

For much of 2005, I had a statement at the top of my blog that said, Goals for 2005: Build and use a peer review network for my songwriting. I would say I've fulfilled the intent of that goal by bringing my music to Date with a Tape, Song Assessment Service, and GarageBand.com.

I have a new goal for 2006: To raise the bar for my music artistically and as a business.

Raising the bar artistically means I will reintroduce vocals to my music in a way that their quality is significantly improved compared to the way it was in the first song I submitted to GarageBand.com, Yesterday Seems So Far Away.

Raising the bar as a business means I will find creative ways to market my songs like The Great Escape. I am particularly interested in finding a film producer who will use it for a soundtrack. I feel encouraged to do so by some of the reviews I've received.

I plan for my next recording project to be Painted Smiles, a song I wrote and recorded several years ago. I revised this song last January, so I'd like to record a new version from the ground up.

The journey continues!

Great Escape reviews - Part 3

Here is another sample of reviews I have received on GarageBand.com for The Great Escape.

From Long Beach, California -

nice production i lke the guitar

i like the the way it builds in the middle it seems to be a little slow at the beginning i would say it should go into the
building prosses sooner .

that being said i do like it

i was bored at the first minute but from then on it was interesting i liked the mix also

From Berlin, New Jersey -

the guitar playing is quite inspiring! i wish i could play half as good as this! the song however, has a mathematical flaw. it begins in 3/4 timing and somehow jumps to 4/4.

From Canada -

Nice guitar work - definately has a mood going. There are some tasty melodic bits in this piece.

All you need is some equally creative lyrics and someone to sing them and you've got yourself a great song.

From Nashville, Tennessee -

seems like the half-time change could work in a better arrangement, but it's not working for me in this one... and the mix really gets cluttered right before the 3 minute mark...

I like the overall feel though... and it seems like a re-mix could be a big plus!

From Sweden -

Quite nice feeling in this song but there are some "blurs" in the choosen el.guitars and mixed rythms wich make it a bit messy,clean it up a bit-take it easier than you do in the end...

From Ireland -

Some really good guitar ideas and nice tones for the mostpart, some of the levels could be better. Nothing apart from the guitar stands out though, drums keys and bass could do with being fleshed out more. Nice piece overall.

From Salem, Oregon -

Awesome work!!! You crafted this song very well and really produced a nice piece of art. Your recorded sounded perfect. I give you an A in all catagories.

From Fort Wayne, Indiana -

I dig all of the guitar work, the acoustic playing is really nice. The subtle percussion adds a nice touch to it. Nice ambient noises as well!

Great Escape reviews - Part 2

I'm pretty happy with how The Great Escape is faring on the GarageBand.com charts. It is currently sitting at #26, and has been as high as #24 out of 82 on the Progressive Rock channel. It has a current score of 4.3 (on a scale of 0 to 5).

This song has earned itself the following Reviewers' Picks awards:

Track of the Day on 1 Feb 2006 in Progressive Rock
Best Guitars in Progressive Rock, week of 30 Jan 2006
Best Production in Progressive Rock, week of 30 Jan 2006
Best Mood in Progressive Rock, week of 30 Jan 2006

Here are some more reviews.

From Iowa City, Iowa -

Nice relaxing mood. Almost like new age. I hear nice stuff going on. I don't hear a theme to grab onto, but that is ok as long as it remains interesting. So far it is. Nice guitar work. I'd like to hear something more to tie it all together. Maybe. Nicely done, though. Pleasing to the ear. You should have heard the song (loose term) before this one.

From Birmingham, West Midlands, United Kingdom -

the guitars are produced very intimately, apart from the electic solo guitar which is anything but subtle and doesnt and seem to sit well in the mix - needs more reverb id say. great harmony all the way through. i really dig this track, reminds me of marillion. also, moving and vibrant percussion drives the track along.

From Boise, Idaho -

This is a very pretty instrumental tune with some very nice guitar playing.

It kind of reminds me slightly of The Flower Kings and for some reason a little bit of Bon Jovi.

It almost has a western cowboy feel to it.

There's alot of lead guitar playing as the song builds.. maybe a tad too much for my tastes... but it's not bad.

From Tooting, London, United Kingdom -

Nice mix and subtle percussion. Wasn't sure about the really processed distorted guitar patch that snaked in over the top. Everything else sounds so nice and organic that it seemed rather out of place...maybe get a nice tube amplifier...(if this is a tube amplifier I apologise). Ebbs and swells are pleasant. By 1.07, the drummer is my favorite musician. It's 1.33 now, and my only gripe really is the guitar tone - sounds like an ugly cheap little pedal, wheras everything else is really lush and natural sounding. Keep everything else, bass, bells, cymbals, acoustic geetar - just find a nicer distorted guitar tone. Good luck!

From Toronto, Ontario -

Nice chord changes. Got me interested from the first bar. Liked the strings. Reminds me of Metallica's Unforgiven. Has a bit of a western vibe to it. Very Enio Morricone. Great percussion. Nice crescendo towards the end. Needs a bit more of a lead. Electric guitar solo sounded off in places towards the end; too much going on at the end, but maybe that's whatyou were going for. Cool. I'll check out more of your stuff.

Great Escape reviews - Part 1

Here are some of the reviews that I've received on GarageBand.com for my song The Great Escape, and my thoughts.

From Chicago, Illinois -

This has an interesting and unique feel to it. The percussion sounds good down the middle with the acoustic tracks panned around it. A couple minor performance flaws but well conceived and performed well overall. Shows some good musicianship and originality. I would have liked to hear more and see where else it could have gone.

Nice comments, and I feel encouraged by them. As far as where the song could have gone - it went were it went, and if it had gone anywhere else it would have not have been The Great Escape but a different song.

From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania -

OK it seems very strange to be rating this song in this genre when there is no lead vocal, and so much depends on that. I like the fact that you treat your guitars as lead instruments though, and I like how they work off each other. The bongos are sort of bothering me- they seem out of place or they are mixed too high. When it kicks in around 1:50 or so that is very cool. I have to say this sounds like a soundtrack more than a stand-alone song- a tune I could compare this to is Alice in Chains "whale & wasp"- which treats the guitars like you guys do- but check that tune out, because alot happens in a couple minutes.

I am glad that this reviewer picked up on how we used guitars as lead instruments - that was completely intentional and it is nice when listeners pick up on what we were trying to do with the song. I really like how the guitars play off each other as well; I am glad that this reviewer picked up on that.

From Dallas, Texas -

the intro is a bit weird. It sound like some of the sounds are meshing. Maybe try some compression on the bass. there are some nice melodies here. very somber.

The intro may sound weird because there is actually no intro. I did not write this song to any particular form; when I originally wrote it I couldn't think of an intro, so I asked myself why not write a song without an intro? Of all the songs I've written, this one in particular said to me that if I was going to experiment by writing a song without an intro, this was the song to try it on. The vocal version of this song also has no intro - the vocals come in immediately.

The Rolling Stones did a song called Ruby Tuesdays which also has no intro.

From New Haven, Connecticut -

I enjoyed this very much, the overall fell of the song is mellow and very earthy with a nice slight change in tempo at about 1;20 that works realy well. I really enjoyed the use of percussion as to drum set on this, it helps keep the fell real and not over stated. The guitar work was nice and consistent throughout and compliments the organ very nicely in the final 30 seconds of the song. Good mix, good production value and a good song, I can't find anything bad to say about this one.

I totally, totally like this review!

The Great Escape - reviews are coming in

The reviews for The Great Escape have started coming in, and so far they have been pretty good. As of today, it's ranking is #31 of 80 in the Progressive Rock genre - I'd say that is a significantly better ranking than I had with Yesterday Seems So Far Away last September (Yesterday has a current all time ranking of #1,624).

I am pretty excited about the results I am seeing so far.

Submitted The Great Escape to GarageBand.com

I finally did it - I submitted The Great Escape to GarageBand.com. I have been planning to do this since around October (see GarageBand.com - next step), and I've been actively working on preparing a track for submission since December (see Holding back vs taking action).

Although I had considered retitling the instrumental version of this song, I ended up deciding to keep the name The Great Escape - I've decided not to second-guess myself, and my reviewers will say whatever they say.

When I submitted Yesterday Seems So Far Away last September, that song ranked in the bottom three of its peer group. I will consider it a success if The Great Escape attains a significantly higher ranking.

So I guess I'll sit back for a while and wait for the reviews to come in and plan how I'm going to approach my next recording project.

My birthday presents

I got my birthday presents last weekend. Why so late, three months after my birthday? Well, my sister had given me a gift certificate to use at Chapters, and J had given me a gift certificate to use at Blockbusters. Both gift certificates have been sitting on my dresser since then, until I decided that they had sat there long enough.

I used the Blockbusters card to get the Star Wars Episode III DVD. I used the Chapters card to get a book called The Artist's Way.

Thanks, J, for the Star Wars DVD. Thanks sis, for the book.

Should I change the name?

I once said that when it comes to titling an abstract photograph, you can call it anything you want, because it's abstract - who's going to argue with your title? I titled one of my photos something like Ice Cream Dripping on a Sidewalk on a Hot Summer Afternoon - just because I could.

I figure the same reasoning could apply to a song that is instrumental - right? I've been debating whether I should rename The Great Escape when I post the instrumental version. In the lyrical version of my song, Great Escape refers to an escape from a dreary life running in the rat race where it's a drag just getting out of bed, to a life of passion and adventure with every day bringing so many possibilities.

However, I wonder if the title is a bit of a cliche. This title is shared by the classic 1963 movie (which I haven't seen yet) about an escape from a German POW camp. The band Marillion also did a song with the same name on their 1994 CD Brave. Is this title already overused?

Alternate titles I've considered for the instrumental version are Evolution and Metamorph. The way the three sections of the song build towards the climactic ending make me think of the metamorphosis from larva to pupa to butterfly.

Probably I'm second guessing myself and should just stick with my original title though.

Great Escape - alternate mix

The idea to do an alternate mix came from all those times I spent in the studio during mixing sessions on past recording projects, listening as SS would solo various combinations of recorded audio tracks in order to set their relative levels. He would mute this track and solo that track, and each combination would give the song a different feel and different character. I pondered that we could use the same source recordings to create a totally different mix of the same song just by emphasizing a different combination.

I thought we could try this on The Great Escape. I didn't have anything specific in mind for an alternate mix; I simply thought let's try this. I discussed this with SS and he suggested that we try an alternate approach to the percussion. The mix we made in December used a standard tom kit (sampled); this time he wanted to try it with an ethnic style percussion.

So we built a new set of percussion tracks and then mixed it with all the guitar work we recorded in December - and the idea worked. I had thought that with an alternate mix, I'd end up with a two different flavours of the same song; instead we ended up with an improved version of the song.

We still need to do a final mixdown and master the track, and then I'll be ready to post it to GarageBand.com.

Learning to extract video

My LifeDrive came with a bonus CD that contains an application called Pocket DVD Studio. This application is for converting DVD movies to be played on a Palm device. The file it creates is an AVI file - which can be used in a ShowBiz project. ShowBiz is the application I use to edit my video projects.

What all of this means is that I will be able to create videos that incorporate scenes from movies. That could open the door for new levels of creativity in future video projects.