Casey's Blog

The Script

2012-01-11T07:36:00.000-08:00

No, this isn't about The Script, which is a very good band. No, this is about a movie script. It seems the Danek family has embarked on such an exercise. That is, we are writing one.

Here's what happened.

We were driving from Western Mass to Eastern Mass for a family visit. Art (my brother) was driving and we were chatting about all kinds of things just to kill the time. (It's about an hour-long drive.) The subject of movies came up. Both he and I dabble in shooting videos and he even teaches a class at his school about making movies. So, he said that he always wanted to make a movie about the old neighborhoods. We grew up in a three decker environment, which is somewhat unique in the Northeast. (At least, that's what I've read.) He wanted to tell that story.

We got to talking about the whats, hows, whys, and wherefores of such a project and began arguing about how to get started. He just wanted to kick around ideas for artistic theme shots and I wanted to know what the whole damn thing would be about. (I argued that this is usually what you'd need to describe when pitching a movie idea to the money people in the movie business.)

Before you know it, he turns the tables on me and tells me he has the concept worked out but he won't tell me what it is. I have to guess. I had to do a 20 Questions kind of thing.

So, I played along. I started asking questions and then realized he was just BS-ing. He had no ideas at all. He just wanted to come up with something based on whatever answer popped into his head as soon as I asked...sort of writing a script by flipping a coin.

That's when it hit us. We could write a script about just what we were doing.

And so it began.

Who knows, maybe you'll see the movie in a couple years. (Who should play me? Clooney?)

Starting Off Nicely With 2012

2012-01-09T09:14:00.000-08:00

Had a lot of fun the past few weeks with family events in celebration of the holidays and the new year. These were all weekend visits by one or more families coming in to Western Massachusetts. Thank's to all of you who drove. At least, we arranged for there to be nice driving weather. (Actually, it's a warming trend that seriously makes one think about Global Warming in a more, personal way...I'm glad I'm no longer a skier.)

There were plenty of opportunities for photos and photo sharing, and the darned new smartphones make video so easy to do, it's going to be a fantastic year image-wise.

Speaking of fantastic years, I've had a look at some new cameras that are coming into the marketplace. I think it's going to be pretty fantastic! One, in particular, is based on the styling of the original Leica 35mm camera which, in my youth and adult life, was always out of reach for me. (It still is, actually.) I keep hoping that my favorite camera company, Nikon, creates something similar. I no longer think they will, though. Fortunately, Fuji is on the cusp of releasing one and, quite frankly, I am so close to switching system for no other reason that it looks so much like a Leica of my dreams.

Anyway, back to reality. Here are some links to photos:

McColley family visit with photos on Facebook
Danek family side on Google+
Daneks from New Jersey

Had a chance to rethink my web strategy for pages. In the past, I put everything on one server. It used to be an actual PC in my house, but later we move to an ISP-based server somewhere on the Internet. (This turned out to be cheaper and better and gee, I wish I had done it from the onset.) Now, the really nice thing is that with Blogger and Facebook and Wordpress and Twitter and Google+ and so on and so on...well, you get the idea, there are so many chances to have stuff on the Internet, you don't really need your own server. (If fact, we really don't need the ISP-based one. We just want to have it because having it does provide some nice flexibility...but that's just the techie side talking.)

On the other hand, having so many choices about how to establish a presence on the web makes it confusing and difficult. Where do you tell someone to go to look at your stuff? How do you keep everything up to date? I even have a MySpace page, but I rarely use it. I just checked and I'm not even sure how to set stuff up. (I may play with it, though...I'm such a glutton for punishment.)

What's home anymore?

2011-12-10T11:09:00.001-08:00

I had to put my domain, groundglassproductions.com, down recently. It is dead. I simply chose not to renew the domain registration. I'm really not in buisiness anymore, although I still do videos. I continue to support Spencer Cable Access by doing Thyme In the Kitchen with Lee and Pam. I will even, gladly, accept payment for my services, should they be required, for a commercial shoot of some kind.

So, in thinking about a new web presence for what I do, I thought about the state of today's technology. What are other folks doing, now, with "home pages"? One can do something on Facebook. There is Goole+. I actually have a personal home page that my website provider gives me (rcdanek.us). I can several sites living beneath that. GGP is actually still there in a way: rcdanek.us/ggp/archives.html gets you to our archives page.

Also, there are sites that provide blog services. This site lives on Blogger and I have Wordpress. (In fact, I had GGP on Wordpress for a while.)

Wait, there's more! As I do videos (which is what GGP is all about), and those videos have to live somewhere, I have the same questions to ask about services which present videos. I mostly use Blip TV. Lately, I found that I can syndicate off of Blip TV onto other sites. So, now, the Blip TV content shows up as a Podcast on iTunes. Sweet. I signed up to feed into Facebook and I'm sure Google+ will show up at some point.

I don't know if there's a winning strategy, but I find that I have to dabble in several places. Let's see...

I have GGP under my rcdanek.us stuff.
I have GGP on Wordpress. (It's actually what I'm using as my "official" home page for now)
I have GGP on Facebook.
I have GGP on Google+.
I'm waiting for Twitter to open up with their pages (they've announced something).
Most of my video streams are on Blip TV
I have one video stream on Vimeo (I may have more later, you never know)
I have links to Blip TV and Vimeo on the TIK website

And each time I release a new video, and get it uploaded, I have to worry about updating all these "sites".

Hmmmm.

2011-04-26T08:54:00.001-07:00

End of and adventure? ...Danek Photography is going away. This website was my "business" site for the most part. (Well, I think I had it as my personal photo site, but when I went pro a few years back, it became my business site, so there.) As a business site, it got me some visibility, mostly from folks trying to connect to my site to help them bolster their business. I don't know how many clients every came around because of it. On the other hand, when I did get a client, then that's where I sent them to look at their images.

Well, I stopped Danek Photography - the business - a few years ago. It just wasn't working out. When it came time to renew my domain name, I really didn't have justification. So, in May, it will cease as a registered domain name. So, anyone can take ownership for it. It won't be me. In its place, I have other sites for my photography and interests.

Ground Glass Productions will continue for a while. We still do cable access videos so it makes sense. I suppose if ever I restart a photo business, I could tie to to GGP, but then GGP isn't really a business either anymore. So, who knows.

Danek Photography had it's time...

And if you are looking for either Art's page or my alternate page, check out these:

Art's Page (artdanek.com)
Casey's Page (rcdanek.us/dp)
Images by Casey (rcdanek.us/ibc)

2010-12-08T07:43:00.000-08:00

What's the point of having a blog if you don't updated it every day, or week. Well, part of the problem is that there are so many blog opportunities (not to mention Twitter and Facebook) that it's easy to just get sidelined. I don't know if I'll get back to this one any time soon. For now, here's an update on what's been going on.

We moved to Feeding Hills
We're building over the garage
It's getting cold, but so far, no snow

2010-05-09T04:42:00.000-07:00

I'm A G-Man! ...and I failed Title 999

Technically, I'm an "Enumerator" for the U.S. Census Bureau. That nothing more than a census taker, an expression still used in their commercials on TV. It's a part time, short term job, and I'm having fun meeting all sorts of new people. It took four days of training to learn the ropes, but it was worth it because there's a lot to know before going out and delving into people's lives, short as the intersect with them may be.

While in the middle of this adventure, we seem to have actually sold our house. The nitty-gritty details have to be worked out and the buyers must get financing, but the end is in sight. So, in addition to being a government employee part time, I have to help pack up a large house, sell off things we won't need anymore, make any repairs the buyers insist we have made, and - oh by the way - get our septic system replaced.

Ouch.

That's right, we failed Title 5. The old system got tired. We never had any problems with it - no backups, soggy ground - but it's "technically" a failed system. Outwardly, it looks fine. Inwardly, it's not. It shouldn't take too much time for the repair. We just need to throw money at it.

When we tell people who we've just met about our situation - the move, the new opportunities, living near Six Flags (not kidding) - they always say something like, "well, enjoy your retirement". That gets me. I always have to tell them, "I am not retired, we ar too young!" Do I really look that old? The truth is, I'm simply out of work - between careers to an optimist but, like my Title 5 problem, I have a failed career. There should be a Title Something for that. "I failed Title 999...so I'm looking for something new".

My proposal:

Title 999 - a failed career
Title 998 - a failed marriage
Tittle 997 - ran out of beer

I can hear a future conversation now...

MAN 1: "How's it going?"

MAN 2: "Not so well, I have a Title 999 problem. Looks like Title 998 is shaky. The good news is that, so far, I'm doing OK with 997."

2010-03-19T07:56:00.000-07:00

I'm A Born-Again HDR Photographer

I can't say I've "discovered" HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography at this point. It's been around for a while and I've certainly enjoyed seeing its implementation. That's not the same as becoming a fan, however. Early on, I wasn't because I though most of the photos I saw using this technique were to odd for my tastes. Now that I've tried it, and applied some additional tricks of my own liking, I'm there.

So, what is HDR? Wikipedia has a good description so I'll just summarize here:

Film or photo sensors can't "see" all the lights and darks in many scenes.
You have to decide which to favor.
Your image will probably not look good.
You can tweak the image in your computer.
If you're smart and clever, your tweaks will be OK but not always great.

HDR takes this to another level. It makes 2-5 easy.

Here's one of my efforts offered as an example...

This came about as a result of five pictures, from way over exposed to way under, that I shot using a tripod. The HDR software and other special effects software did their magic and I liked the result.

So, now I'm addicted. In the past few weeks, I've done over a dozen similar images and I see no end in sight. Not all images will have the HDR "look". The scene of the rapids in Putnam, CT is about as weird as I'm willing to let HDR go. The next image...

...has a more painterly feel and it's more in line with what I like. But, who knows what I'll do with HDR over time. Maybe weird will become the norm for me.

You can see most of my HDR work on Project 52.

2010-03-10T07:41:00.000-08:00

Project 52 Update

It's been keeping me busy. I thought at the onset that I might have trouble keeping things going. Then, my friend Steve Morse suggested that we go off every once in a while and do some photography. I jumped at that and it's been a blessing in disguise. I've had some fun with the images I've captured during our treks and they've helped fill out some of these early weeks. I had thought that most of my efforts would revolve around music. I haven't abandoned that but photos have been the main thrust. I think that's because, for me, photos are more immediate and more easily manipulated. I'm not so creative that I can think of a photo in my head and go off and recreate it. I can sort of do that with music. The problem is that, when I get a musical idea, it's harder for me to evolve it into a finished state. For prose and poetry, to the extent that I dabble in those, they fall between photos and music, but are more like photos in how quickly the evolve.

The good news, for me, is that Project 52 gives me a target, a deadline, a commitment to be fulfilled. Even though it's self imposed, I take it seriously enough and it gets done!

2010-02-27T05:05:00.000-08:00

Really, I Can't Sing Is Online

I had asked a musician friend if he'd like a copy of the CD music I created last year. He asked me to upload it and I thought, why not? ...it's about time. It's not like I can sell this stuff or anything. After all, really, I can't sing!

So, here is the link...

RCDanek.us/OGRB

OGRB stands for Old Guy Rock Band and, even though the CD didn't include other musician in its recording, it's sort of a band effort because the folks I jam with are my virtual OGRB band and helped by willing playing along with the tunes while I was still fine tuning them. It's so much better to actually be able to hear them played that way. So, thanks to Mark, Dixon, Steve.

2010-02-14T07:42:00.000-08:00

Google and Me

I love Google. From what I've read about the company, they are a nice place to work, they promote goodness in the Internet, and they provide nice, free stuff for folks like me to use. I'm hooked on Reader, I'm getting into Buzz, Wave is kind of out there but looks promising, and I've been a Gmail dude for a long time.

Regarding Gmail, I had figured out a while ago that all the separate email accounts I had (Charter, SCATC, others) could autoforward. So, if I autoforwarded everything to Google, and then used that as my mail server, I'd have a simpler life. I could check my mail locally on my Mac (which Apple's Mail dutifully would download from Google when started). In fact, could check my mail anywhere I was that I had Internet access. But, to do that, I had to leave my mail on Google's Gmail and not do download and delete as one may do on most servers.

Well, after a long while, the number of emails I had stored on Google was way too large. I recall a number over 24,000. It would take forever to read them all! Now, I had already processed these via downloads to Apple's Mail (or Thunderbird before that on my Linux/Windows systems). But, something interesting happened. I decided that I would be better of not using Apple's Mail every day. I already had my browser going all the time, and the Gmail page was living in an ever present tab. In fact, I've started using Google's Chrome browser all the time, so now it's all in the family, so to speak.

But here's the problem. Google gave me, for free, a bagillion bytes of storage for free. I thought I might never run out of this - a foolish assumption. I figured, there would come a day when I'd need to prune my message and if ever the message count got to filling the bagillion bytes, I'd be better of shooting myself in the head. So, I decided to start pruning now.

The process of pruning was/is painful with Gmail because they never show you more than a set number of messages. I have mine configured for 100, but the default is 20. When I try to scroll through older message, they come up 100 at a time. With 24,000 to go, I'd be scrolling for a long while. I decided to use Search to help. I figured that, if I just searched for those message senders I didn't need to keep, like Sears or Home Depot or Amazon or any of the other ad-based emailers out there, I'd have a easier time of pruning...just not 20 per page at a time. Then I discovered the "All" and "Select all conversations that match this search" option. "All" is pretty obvious, it lets you select all the messages that are displayed in the search window. But, if there are hundreds of search result matches, and you see them 20 at a time, it's a pain to have to do them one section at a time. That's where the second option pays off. It lets you select all the others. The, a "Delete" and they are done. Cool.

I'm now down to 10,000 or so message. I'm comfortable with that. Also, I'm not using Gmail as my primary client, deleting as I go on. Then, every few days (or weekly?) I'll run Apple's Mail to pull down to my local site. That way, if I need to access something while the Internet is busy, or dead, I'll have access.

This is a win-win.

I think I love Google. "Do no evil" ...this is actually in their Corporate Philosophy...

6. You can make money without doing evil.

How nice is that!.

2010-01-28T08:25:00.000-08:00

Project 52

Project 52 is something new I started last week to force me to concentrate on creativity. Hopefully, useful things will come out of it. Of course, I hope I can keep it going with good stuff and I hope I don't run out of gas.

Here's the link: http://rcdanek.us/project52/

2010-01-24T05:11:00.000-08:00

Google Voice is a an interesting, free offering from the Internet giant. You sign up, get a phone number (or use your existing one), and have some nice features available to you. I opted for a new number and was able to get one that includes CASEY01 in it. Neat. (Your mileage may vary.)

Well, one of the new features is that, if someone calls your number and leaves a voice message, Google will transcribe it into text. This way, you can hear the message on your voicemail and you can read the message as well. I get the text versions as a standard text message on my phone as well as an inbox text message on my personal Google Voice website inbox.

What so much fun is that the translation for spoken word to text is often inaccurate. There are many reasons for this. The cell phone originating the call may be garbled, the speaker may be bouncing around in a car or walking, making the speech pattern sound off. Who knows.

Here are some unrelated text translations from my friend, Dixon, who, so far, is the only one actually calling my new number.

Enjoy...

"Hi Dick, this is Dickson hobbled I was just heading over and i thought i'd let. Maybe I should of bats called yesterday and I got the message it sounds sort of like God show up withoutyour and I hope that's how you understood it. Anyway, I'm on my way over, but I realized that the then upset about not getting in touch. Anyway, I was. I'll see you when I see you.Thanks. Bye."

"Thank you. Hey, it's 6 and 2. I was thing, so I'm off. I put the web but I got lost in the day on chat and Shawn that, but I'll be free later in the air. 2. Hello."

"Hi Casey, this is Jason and that's when I get time the rafson it's 5:30 right now and I'm sure there are a Shah, I was just wondering what was works heading over or not, this is numberdidn't get to the subminimum. I will try your other number and see if I get that okay. Talk to you soon. Bye."

I still laugh to myself when I read these.

Google Voice is a good service. Someday, maybe, they'll get this translation thing working better. It's not entirely necessary because the audio version of the message is always available. But, if they can make straight messages sound this funny...I'm all for it never changing!!!

2010-01-10T07:38:00.000-08:00

Between Weeks

Sunday morning, the Patriots are playing in their first playoff game at 1:00 PM. I have company coming (Camera Club) to review some images from our sister club in England. I guess it will be a busy day. I should get moving soon to do some cleaning and setup. If the club members arrive when the game is ending, I'll likely ignore them. There are priorities.

Patriots are expected to win, but anything can happen.

I did have a wonderful time last week visiting Art, Jeanne, and Steven in Merchantville. I was supposed to help Art with a video interview, but the dates got messed up and it didn't happen. We worked on some computer problems and secured/extended his home network. In fact, we found out that Steven, with his own computer, had been hooking into a neighbor's unsecured network accidentally.

While there, I got to visit the Martin Guitar Factory in Nazareth, PA. Wow! Now I want a Martin. Really. It's a good thing they're too expensive. Lessens the temptation. (I teased Lee about this and I think she really thought I was going to buy one.)

We also saw Bethlehem, PA and their massive steel mill operation...well, former operation. It's now a rusting hulk. Bethlehem, itself, is a very nice city with lots of historic sections/buildings. It would make for a delightful place to visit for a weekend. I doubt the steel mill has tours, but you can see a lot of it from the road. Pictures don't do it justice. We were told that folks from the Smithsonian were there, perhaps to help with restoration. It's definitely a part of our nation's history. What's so interesting is that Nazareth and Bethlehem aren't too far apart. A quick drive from one to the other. See more images from Bethlehem Steel here.

We also took a trip to the Philadelphia Art Museum. We went to the Annex section and saw photographs and ceramics and the most interesting was a section by a designer whose designs were presented as art. Nice. It's too bad that I can't describe it better but Art and I probably spent more time in that exhibit than any of the others.

After the museum annex, we walked over to Philadelphia's Farimont Water Works.

...which supplied water to the city for about 90 years of it's operation. You can see the art museum in the distance (center of the image). It's up on a hill above the water works building in the foreground. The museum was built on top of the reservoirs into which the water works pumps pumped millions of gallons of water for distribution by gravity into the city. (I'm sure the reservoirs were filled in before the museum was built.) It's a good thing the folks in Philadelphia had the presence of mind to make the water works a museum because it's quite nice. See more images from Philadelphia here.

2010-01-01T06:28:00.000-08:00

Who Am I, Really

I thought I'd start off 2010 with an explanation of my name, or names. Folks know me by different monikers and that can confuse some. So, here goes.

I was born and named after my grandfather. Kazimierz. I have a birth certificate somewhere attesting to that, although I can't read it because it's in German. (Well, I guess I can figure out the relevant parts.)

I grew up in Worcester in the Vernon Hill area. I was, up till about five, completely immersed in Polish. That was the language I understood. Then, I was released into the wild meeting English speaking kids and my transformation to Polish-English and English-Polish began. I think it took 20 minutes. Maybe less. I can't be sure. Seriously, I have no recollection of struggling with language back then. Kids just figure stuff out so magnificently at that age. (I envy that.)

But, the name think, well, that was a problem. Most kids got it by calling me Kaz. (Which, in today's day and age is a neat sounding name...back then, though.) The bad memory I have is walking down the street and having some kids yell out "Hey, Cashmere Bouquet". If you know what Casmere Bouquet is, and you're a boy, you just don't want anyone calling you that. So, I was always envious of my American friends who, Polish or not or whatever, had American sounding names (like Steve, or Paul, or Georgie, or Ray.)

We moved to the lower part of Vernon Hill and took up residence in a nice home (three decker, of course) and the nice woman who lived on the 2nd floor took up calling me Charlie. She said that's what Kaz was in American. Well, it never fit with me. When I told my friends they did the equivalent of, "Yeah, right", which, back then, as an expression, hadn't been invented yet. So, they still called me Kaz. In fact, in school (I went to a nice, Polish-American school called St. Mary's.), everybody called me Kaz. I had, finally, outgrown the Cashmere Bouquet thing.

Then, in high school (which was still St. Mary's, by the way), in my 2nd year, I was renamed. I never realized how difficult it must have been for the kids to call me Kaz. (Hey, I was used to it, why weren't they.) We had just gotten a new priest in the parish whose name was the same as mine. I didn't know this, but found out quickly on my first day of school that year. Our Biology teacher was reading off attendance and when she looked at me, she read my name and said, "Oh, you're Casey!"

Overnight...and I really mean overnight...the entire school started calling me Casey. Kaz became Casey so automagically that I was stunned. Even the classmates in my very own grade, who I'd known for so many years, changed from Kaz to Casey. It was only my closest friends and family members who stuck with Kaz. Weird. Fun.

Why Casey? Well, it turns out, Father Casey was a very popular kind of guy...and he was a priest, too. Not one to be feared or suspicious of, but just a nice guy kind of guy-priest. Is name was actually Father Kazimierz, but somehow in his lifetime, the really cool "Casey" came out of that. So, the name then stuck with me.

I met my wife in grammer school, was crazy about her at first sight, and years later in high school, she noticed me. She's called me Casey for as long as I can remember.

Somewhere in the middle of all of this, we had our Confirmation. That's a religious event (it's a Catholic Sacrament kind of thing) where you get to pick a new name. I had no middle name given to me by my parents and I started thinking about what name I'd like. There was a guy in school with us named Richard Domian. I always liked how that name sounded. (Then there was Richard The Lionhearted, which was pretty cool, too.) So, I chose Richard as my Confirmation name.

When I turned 18, I decided to become an American Citizen. I was a DP before that. (Displaced Person, Dumb Pollack to some stupid people, probably the same ones that called me Cashmere Bouquet.) I went through the process and when it came time to filling out the paperwork, on a whim, I switched my First and Confirmation names. I became Richard Casimir Danek. (Casimir? ...well, that's how Kazimierz is spelled in America, I guess.)

In retrospect, I should have gone with Casey.

But, that's water of the dam. (Or is is damned...hmmm.)

Enter the workplace. I'm now a Richard. Proud as a Lionhearted king and still having most people call me Casey. Life was good. About that time, Tom Selleck started advertizing Chaz cologn. It became a popular commercial series because, well, he's a pretty good looking guy. Suddenly, Chaz was cool. It sounded a lot like Kaz. Might Kaz have been cool? Hmmm. Then, on All In The Family - that sitcom in the 60's that made Archie Bunker and Mike Stivic the funniest protagonist-antagonist pair in the world - Mike's Uncle Kaz comes into being. He's a big, burly guy that doesn't take crap from Archie (or anyone, really). He was cool. So, now Chaz and/or Kaz was becoming cool. Damn.

Well, I was Richard and that was cool, too. Except...

Richard M. Nixon

...OK, we now have a new name. Tricky Dick. Our president and his actions made Trick Dick somewhat the replacement name for anyone named Richard. Ouch. In the workplace, I was simply known as Dick. (I think the Cashmere Bouquet name callers were still calling me Tricky Dick, but they were few and far between...perhaps maturity was kicking in, finally.)

Here's a recap. I started of as Kazimierz, Kochie (my mom called me that, nevermind), Kaz, Casey, Richard, Tricky Dick, and finally Dick. Man, what an identity crisis.

Some 40 years later, I can safely say that I'm mostly Casey. I introduce myself that way, although legally, it has to be Richard.

What's funny is that, over all the years, folks who first met me at different times took to calling me by one name and it kind of sticks. My early friends and all my family call me Kaz. My later friends, and my lovely wife, call me Casey. Folks I met at various stages of work life call me Dick. (Why didn't Richard ever stick? ...what's up with that, Richard Domian? ...how did you do it?) Tricky Dick died with the Cashmere Bouquet crowd.

Sometimes, I have to be careful cashing checks. People will make them out to Casey Danek and, really, that's not my legal name. It's actually Richard Casimir Danek. That's what it says on my Citizenship Papers (a legal document that proves I'm a U.S. Citizen).

What's the old saying? "I don't care what you call me as long as you call me?"

Just don't call me Cashmere Bouquet.

2009-12-31T05:52:00.000-08:00

I Love My New Netbook!!!

I was so pleased to open one of my gifts from Jen, Patrick, and Kaycie. It was a Dell netbook (Inspiron Mini 10v, if you must know). Now, I do have a Toshiba laptop. It stopped working last year (come on, Toshiba, what's up with that?). I really missed the convenience of a laptop but, quite frankly, I didn't miss the weight and size. An iPhone is rather nice, but it wouldn't be as useful in entering the blog posting, for example. So, something perfect would be between a laptop and an iPhone. Enter the netbook.

I'm excited that I have most of the good stuff a laptop provides with a smaller, more easily portable size. This model from Dell came preloaded with Windows XP. OK, so that's an ancient operating system but it's rock solid and perfect for what I need. Mostly, it lets me run some of my music software to help with recordings and stuff like that. And, did I mention the size is perfect?

I'm a big fan of the Linux operating system and I would be tempted to install it, perhaps overwriting XP. But, really, it's not the operating system that's important in this case. It's the applications. And, unfortunately, the music stuff only runs on Windows and Mac. (No way you could install OS X on this baby.)

The other thing I like to find is free software that I could use that's as good as (or good enough) when compared to commercial ($$$) software. For those interested, here's what's running on my netbook:

Free Commander (a file browser, manager)
UnxUtils (a command line interface with some Unix goodies behind it)
Emerald/Crimson Editor (a text editor with nice features)
Google Chrome Browser (I love everything Google)
FastStone Image viewer (a browser for photos)
Paint.NET (a Photoshop-like program)
Audacity (audio editor)
Quicktime/iTunes

These are free downloads from various places and I really like this combination. Next, I have to make sure Java is installed (so I can grab some other useful freebies).

Love my netbook!!! Thanks Jen and Patrick and Kaycie!!!

2009-12-29T05:06:00.000-08:00

Really, I Can't Sing - My first ever, CD release party

Actually, it was Wigilia, the traditional Polish Christmas Eve Supper. The family was there and I handed out CD's as part of my holiday spirit gifting. They all accepted the CD graciously, not really sure what it was I was giving them...but, now I can can say I had had a legitimate CD release party.

I ended up with eleven songs. I could have fit more but I ran out of time. I wanted it all done by Christmas. Getting the individual songs to sound right was enough of a project. The last big push was adding some bass to songs that didn't start out that way. (Thanks to a trade with my friend, Dixon, I now have his Yamaha P80 piano and can add piano, bass, strings and a few other keyboard effects. Fun!)

I'll probably put together a page for this project just to be able to point to it and say, check out my Really, I Can't Sing website...or something like that.

Actually, I originally intended this CD to be an audio record of the music. It's so easy to forget songs when you don't hear them over and over for years and, quite frankly, there's nothing so memorable about them that would make be want to listen to them that much. They were fun to write, fun to play, and fun to record. I hope that the creative processes that gave them birth continues. I already have a few songs that didn't make it onto the CD and, each morning, I awake with a new tune noodling through my head. Unfortunately, I forget it within minutes of waking. (I really have to fix that.)

So, soon, I will have links to lyrics and stuff like that. But for now, I can declare success and move on.

2009-12-23T03:51:00.000-08:00

I'm feeling much better about multi-track recording, now. It's still a bit tricky, especially when you're a lousy musician, to get everything perfect...but the technology isn't the problem. My friend, Mark's, recorder actually makes things a lot easier. I wish it had more than four tracks, though. It's an older cassette model so it's limited because of that. The newer digital recorders have many more tracks.

On the other hand, maybe four is enough. KISS applies.

I'm finishing up my first ever, full length album. (That's an LP in platter days, about 11 songs.) I'm putting it all on a CD, of course. I wanted to do one more song, but the newest one I wrote is a bit more tricky for me to play solo. I'd really like to do them it a band. (That would be my OGRB friends.) So, it'll have to wait for next year.

The album is called "Really, I Can't Sing" because, well, really...I can't sing. The idea is to put the music down onto a medium so I won't forget it. Doing it with multi-track recording just made it a lot more fun for me.

It's a collection of mostly folk-rock like songs. One of the things I noticed is that some of the melodies are very similar. I guess my creativity is limited. Nevertheless, in reviewing the work, I only had to tweak one melody of one song to make it more distinct. I can live with the rest.

Well, I'm off to do some stuff before my recording sessions. Who knows, maybe I'll be inspired to make the album an even dozen. Then, it's up to iTunes to made a CD and a label making package for labels. Fun.

2009-12-20T07:14:00.000-08:00

Got A New Phone Today

I was texting with my older Motorola RAZR and I just got tired of the multiple key presses for lettering. I guess the did about as much as they could for that interface but enough was enough. I was way overdue for a new phone and I started looking around. I would have just loved an iPhone, but they're too expensive (and fragile). I'm looking forward to what Google comes up with in their Android-based new phone. But, I'm sure that'll be expensive, too.

So, I looked at what AT&T had to offer and I liked some of what I saw. Many of the phones have keyboards that slide out and they seem OK, but in playing at the stores, I found I wasn't crazy about how the keys felt under my fingertips. I dunno...maybe I'd get used to them. When I came across some of the newer phones with onscreen keypads, there were mixed feelings, too. But I did find one phone that seemed to be OK...

...and that turned out to be the Samsung Solstice. It's not a iPhone, but it's sort of one. My biggest disappointment is that there's no "standard" USB cable. They have a different connector. So, I need to buy a cable. They're cheap, though. Then, there's the problem of what can you sync with the cable. I'm hoping it's my address book because that's all I really care about. (Calendar sync would be nice, too, I suppose but it's not supported.)

One thing I wish it had was an easier way of activating the sound recorder. (I like to make voice memo notes to myself.) Unfortunately, there's not a widget for that which could be placed on the main screen. (Dumb on their part, I think.) But, it's only a few menu levels down so maybe it's not too bad. I tried the playback on a voice memo and it sounded pretty good...way better than my RAZR.

I probably won't use this for music of video because, quite frankly, I love my iPod Nano. It's so light, I don't mind carrying it along with the phone.

One last thing...the camera in the phone is crappy. But, I have so many cameras, I don't really need anything that's too good. In fact, I want any camera phone images I take to look like camera phone images, lest someone thinks that all my photos come out that crappy!

2009-12-07T04:38:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here thinking about multi-track recording. That's where a musician can lay down different tracks of a song (guitar, vocal, rhythm, piano, bass, etc.) and mix them into a single work. I have been using my friend Mark's multi-track recorder but have had problems. Things aren't lining up properly and I'm guessing there are workflow issues that I have to resolve and tricks I have to discover. I thought I could find out about this on the Internet but, so far, to no avail.

I've got a album's worth of new material I'd like to produce - just to be able to say that I've done a music CD in my lifetime. It won't put me in the same league as the Beatles, but I'd be playing in the same general area even if only briefly...and that's just fine with me.

Now, back to the Internet to see what I can learn...

2009-12-01T07:04:00.000-08:00

It's funny how things on the Internet work out. Google has been making some great strides lately and I thought I'l go back and see how their blogging software was keeping up. I've been doing so much with Wordpress (which is pretty goot) that I found myself ignoring alternatives. So, for my personal blog, we'll see what we can do with this!

2006-08-20T06:58:00.000-07:00

Have we really have advancements in medicine?

I recently had a physical and I had to suffer the dreaded "Johnny". Now, I ask you, what's up with this. You would think that with all the fashion trends, high-tech materials, and new-age thinking that has gone into everything around us, we'd be looking at something newer and better than the damn "Johnny".

Let's start with the simple question..."Why no Velcro?" They provide thin strips of material which, no matter how much you try, you can't seem to tie. Or, they don't align in a way that makes it obvious what is supposed to tie to what. It's like they were made that way to mess you up. You know, get your mind off of the medical proceedure you're there to have.

Could they at least provide instructions in the waiting rooms? Let's face it, I've seen enough brochures on breast examinations, diabetes, colonoscopy, you-name-it. But...how to properly put on a "Johnny"?

2006-08-16T14:24:00.000-07:00

We've been using a pod based coffee system for a while, but these are expensive. So, we've gone back to a regular drip coffee system. The problem is, with our 10 cup size, the pot sits and cooks while the two of us are drinking our first cups. Sometime, we don't get to doing a refill for a couple hours. By then, the coffee is bitter/overcooked. What we've started doing is turning the coffee maker off once it's finished brewing. The coffee stays hot for a while and, if we come back for a refill soon enough, we still get a warm cup. If we get busy and come back when the coffee has cooled off, well...we just warm it up in the microwave. The coffee tastes much better this way.