Category: Personal

Pew-pew-pew!

Tera 5100E Handheld Scanner

Something amazing arrived through the middle of the snowstorm this week!

I was told something was going to show up Wednesday, and it did. I had a sneaking suspiscion of what it might be, but this wasn’t confirmed until I actually opened the package…

…which contained the pew-pew laser gun, pictured above.

And I was thrilled!

It was something I thought about grabbing maybe 15 years ago, maybe more, back when the free CueCat was a thing. (I’ll let anyone reading search that story on the web). Of course, the tech has improved since then, and the current one integrates pretty seamlessly with some of the web apps, so it might finally be possible to get a full catalog for #drimplausiblesbookshelf

I’m excited!

(And a massive thank you to the sender, if they’re reading this blog. Sending something like this, personal and perfect, shows so much. Thank you. 🙂

Wake-up call

Got a scheduled message from a friend today, with a reminder to get back to work on the Book Chapter.

(amazing little tool, by the way. Shows up where you’re sure to see it, and can be useful as a note to self, or a gentle nudge on the schedule.)

And yeah, it woke me up. Figuratively, at least. They were nice enough to send it at a respectable hour in the morning.

So, back at it. Goal is to have draft by the end of January, with enough time to tweak if needed.

4000 words isn’t too bad; some of the podcast episodes are similar in length, so I’ll use that as a guide.

Finish up the heavy research this week, and get an audio draft done.

(I’ve been experimenting with changing my research and writing process over the last few months. I’ll document that more on a dedicated page elsewhere on the site.)

Photography…

…Videography, photo editing, video editing, graphic design, layout, audio recording, mixing, music production, composition, voice acting, research, data science, editing, writing, social media management, IT… something or other, promotion?

It feels like there is more.

These are all things I’ve started learning, in some way or fashion, in the last few years. (Well, the research, writing, and editing I mostly had down.)

There’s a lot that goes into the production of even a little website and/or blog and/or YouTube channel like this one. And I like it, don’t get me wrong; I’m learning new things daily, and trying on making everything a little bit better than the last time.

Case in point: today’s project was developing a logo for the Appendix W episodes of the Podcast, or for using if we separate that from the main channel.

Not bad, doesn’t use any copyrighted material. Just enough to look like something at a distance, if you see it on the phone.

Now I need to do that for the other episode series, with a reasonably consistent trade dress. I kinda like that purple bar at the top. It matches with the old machine generate swatch I use for the podcast.

Next up is a landing page for the site based on some photographs taken last year.

(Hence the title for this post.)

I’m just barely getting started with digital photography, and editing, and all that goes with it, but I want this page to be more visually appealing. Perhaps something like this to arrive to:

Welcome to the Implausi.blog! Thanks for visiting.

Snow day! Let’s make a little music

Temperature dropped and it got snowy out, so rather than risk the roads, I sat down and made a concerted effort to transform a section of the basement into the music area. After a bit of cleaning, and a lot of re-wiring, by 7pm I had most everything reconnected and working together.

The Arturia Keystep Pro is the control centre, with the other gear connected via MIDI, mostly hidden under some jury-rigged risers. It was working weird, until I dropped the chained synth into MIDI Out 2, and sent MIDI Out 1 to just the Drumbrute. Putting all three synths into the mixer allowed them to play nicely together. Drums, base, and keys (another synth is off to the right).

There’s room on the mixer for a mic, if I want to sing, but I’m mostly just excited that I can run everything together.

The only downside is that I’m still short a couple cables, for the guitar, and for doing some more advanced patches too.

Can’t wait to play the guitar along with the backing section here. Loads of fun!

Back to the tunes…

Comedy

Went to a comedy show in town, first time in quite a few months, and while it wasn’t bad, it was the okay kind of pandering that you often get at these shows. Nothing super offensive, but more like hanging with a funny guy you knew from back in the day tell some stories.

Which is okay, but I’ve seen better

Case in point: Anthony Jeselnik.

We saw him here on like the second or third date of a tour, where he was just working out some new material, which, unbeknownst to us at the time, would end up being a Netflix special in about 18 months.

He was up there, working through the material in his notebook, testing out jokes, sometimes for the first time, and seeing how they would land. There was a lot of attention to the craft of telling jokes, of writing one, and then working on it, editing it, telling it over and over so you had it down, so when you had to do it in front of a huge crowd, on camera, every joke would hit.

This is what I’m not seeing (usually) with these local shows, even in front of a small crowd on a weekday.

It’s a good reminder too, of putting in the work, and getting in your reps.

To that end, maybe I start need to counting my reps: not just working out, but also words typed, minutes recorded, posts made, something like that.

Just to record the progress.

I’ll think about this, see how I can incorporate them.