Thoughts By Troy

New @49thVibration song "Waiting" is pretty much written and arranged. Tomorrow the band nails it down and then possibly into the studio soon. #49thVibration

2012-01-28T19:24:00.001-08:00

Good 1969s practice. Working on new and old songs. We have a few gigs booked the next couple of months so the year is starting off good.

2012-01-26T08:54:00.001-08:00

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Attending Webinar: Expanding creative possibilities in Vegas Pro: masking and compositing techniques

2012-01-25T09:09:00.001-08:00

via sonycreativesoftware.com

Another productive 49th Vibration rehearsal. We just about have the new song, "Waiting", arranged and ready to add to the list. Very excited about it.

2012-01-23T07:52:00.001-08:00

See the full gallery on Posterous

working on new song. I'm getting very close.

2012-01-22T09:50:00.001-08:00

See the full gallery on Posterous

There cannot be better running weather. 74 degrees with a slight breeze it feels great.

2012-01-20T11:58:00.001-08:00

See the full gallery on Posterous

there cannot be better running weather. 74 degrees with a slight breeze it feels great.

Just now getting into the world of mobile computing. I have my first real smart phone: Droid Charge. It's pretty damn awesome

2012-01-16T12:03:00.001-08:00

Samsung Droid Charge

I went from what some called a "phone first smart phone" in the Nokia Nuron. It ran the Symbian OS and Nokia's Ovi apps. Well, it was pretty much crap. It had some cool features and apps, but for the most part it didn't perform well and added frustration because it gave me taste of what I really wanted in a phone.

The Droid Charge is really a whole new world. I don't have anything to compare it to. I have not owned or messed with iPhones and other Android, Windows, etc. smart phones, so I can't tout this phone over any other (what I consider) high-end phones. But for me, it's awesome.

I had my contacts all backed up so I imported my contacts from my old phone to my Gmail account and set up my Gmail account on my phone and that was done.

So what did I use most often on my old phone, and how easy was it to get up and running on the Droid and how did it compare?

Calling and texting:
That was pretty simple to get used to. It was very intuitive. I quickly leaned to call and text and to create quick desktop links to my most used contacts.

Camera
There was a link to the camera app, but I had to click on "Applications" and then scroll over to get to the button, but I easily figure out how to add the button to my home screen. My old phone did have a manual button to quickly bring up the camera. I do miss that, but not a big deal to use the screen button. The quality is a million times better than my Nuron. It has an 8mp camera with another lower quality camera for self portraits and video chat. Just like my Nuron, you can quickly send a picture to an email, text, blog, etc.

Google Maps:
There was already and app/link so that was a click.

Endomondo (workout, run/ride tracking app)
I went to their site and installed the Android app. done. I have not tried it yet, but this could be a big deal as Endomondo on my Nuron was really quirky. My times were never real accurate as I had to wait sometimes up to a minute for it to start tracking and it never seemed to get my mileage right. I'm hoping the Android version can actually show me the map during my workout. I need an armband phone holder to start using it for running. I have one on the way.

Voice Recorder:
This is where it starts to get fun. The Nuron was such junk in this regard. I used the voice recorder a lot at first because I like to record song ideas and other notes. Well the Nuron many times would jack up the audio and it was listenable. With the Droid I downloaded a free 4-track recorder. Boom!. How sweet is that?

Video Playback:
The Nuron was shit. It was unwatchable. It was pixelated, show, jerky, crap. With the Droid I plugged the phone into a USB port on my PC and dragged over 3 video files. An AVI (divx), and AVI (h.264), and an MP4 saved from YouTube. The two AVIs were HD 720 and the MP4 other was 360. They looked awesome. The phone with the video playback capabilities and screen size makes it truly a media player that I could watch movies on during boring plane and road trips.

Of course all of these apps worked even better on the Droid: Facebook, Twitter, Posterous, Foursquare, etc. and just plain browsing the web is so, so much better.

Voice recognition:
And I big deal is the voice commands. they seem to work pretty good. This will come in handy in the car when trying to dial a number, text, or search Google maps. I'll have more to say on this the more I use it, but so far it has worked pretty good.

Phone call audio quality:
The only thing that is not clearly better is the audio quality of regular old phone calls. The sounds is pretty bad, but that was what I had before. It's what I've come to expect with cell phones, but I wish it was better. That could be a Verizon issue and not phone issue.

Battery Life:
My only concern is the batty life. I have not really got a handle on how well it performs here. I will defiantly test it one a long run or bike ride. I was able to get in at least two hours on a run with the Endomondo app running with the Nuron. I hope I can get that out of the Droid.

49th Vibration rehearsal tonight. Worked on new tunes. Very excited!

2012-01-15T22:19:00.001-08:00

Mastering Elements Part 1: The Buss Compressor - http://tinyurl.com/3taqffc

2012-01-15T12:50:00.001-08:00

via audio.tutsplus.com

From http://audio.tutsplus.com:

Mastering is a pretty big subject, so instead of tackling it in one tutorial I thought it might be easier, for those new to the subject, if I split it up into bite sized pieces. Each tutorial will look at a separate process used in a typical mastering set up, why we use it and what it achieves.

One of the first processors used in any mastering chain is a buss compressor, this is really just a name for compressor used to treat an entire mix (i.e. the master buss). Let’s take a closer look at how the compressor is used in mastering and the different processors used for the task.

http://audio.tutsplus.com/tutorials/mixing-mastering/mastering-elements-part-...

Birthday present to me...out of gas on the tollway. Crap.

2012-01-12T06:43:00.001-08:00

Weird disappearing content on refresh using JQuery with WebKit broswers. Using a table fixed it. Go figure.

2012-01-11T20:46:00.001-08:00

A few more pics from @the1969s rehearsal last night.

2012-01-11T16:05:00.001-08:00

See the full gallery on Posterous

49th Vibration - 1st rehearsal for 2012. Ready to rock the new year!

2012-01-11T10:27:00.001-08:00

via 49thvibration.com

49th Vibration - 1st rehearsal for 2012
We played through some old songs and worked on a new one. We sounded pretty good for not getting together in over a month. We hope to nail down a few new tunes that we are working on and then book some shows. Stay tuned.
49th Vibration 1-8-12

1st 1969s rehearsal of 2012. Getting ready for first show of 2012 next month at Bryan Street Tavern

2012-01-10T20:34:00.001-08:00

via facebook.com

1969s rehearsal tonight and after I got to hold little Maisy.

2012-01-10T20:24:00.001-08:00

via facebook.com

Not one for consiracy theries, but did Les and the offense get paid off? #LSU refused to alter their plan or QB.

2012-01-09T21:17:00.001-08:00

@SportsSturm, Lions were the beneficiaries of the inadvertent whistle. Lions were awarded the fumble even though the whistle had blown the play dead.

2012-01-09T13:13:00.001-08:00

That was not a potential game-changer or anything for the Lions. They were awarded the ball, but because the whistle blew the Saints stopped playing, so if Bob Strum is saying that the inadvertent whistle robbed the Lions of a touchdown.... uh, not so much. It was in fact the right call, as far as the fumble goes, but the whistle stopped the play before the Lions could "potentially" advance the ball, but it also stopped the Saints from pursuing the runner, and probably tackling him, so I think without the quick whistle, the Lions might have gotten a couple of more yards... maybe.

League admits errors on Lions-Saints fumble

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/01/08/league-admits-errors-on-lions...

This prompted outrage from Lions fans, who believed that Detroit had been robbed of a touchdown. < -- Bullshit!

Update: According to the article, the whistle was blown before the fumble was recorded, so even more reason to see why the Saints were standing around and not trying to recover the ball and not trying to tackle the Lions player who recovered the ball.

My Favorite Smallware: http://www.marktaw.com/reviews/MyFavoriteSmallware.html#Backup

2012-01-08T20:50:00.001-08:00

NIce list of useful programs. Some I use and know about and others I will defiantly try.

What a finish to the #Broncos - #Steelers game. First play in OT #Tebow nails it. Wow.

2012-01-08T17:08:00.001-08:00

We had our first 49th Vibration rehearsal of 2012. It has been over a month, but went well. New songs, olds songs, etc.

2012-01-08T15:26:00.001-08:00

Computer is slow, so I ran Malwarebytes, Avast anti-virus, CCleaner, TDSKiller, ComboFix, TFC, Smart Defrag, DDS.src, RAM.vbe, DiskCleanup.

2012-01-07T09:50:00.001-08:00

Computer is very slow, so I ran Malwarebytes, Avast anti-virus, CCleaner, TDSKiller, ComboFix, TFC, Smart Defrag, DDS.src, RAM.vbe, and DiskCleanup.

Turned off some unneeded services, turned off indexing, visual effects, auto search for net folders/printers, adjusted pagefile, delete prefetch files, Added more crap domains to host file.

I have about 60 of free space on the HD and it has been defragged and optimized.

It's an older computer and was never fast, but it's much slower than it was a few years ago. I could buy more RAM, new HD, new computer, etc. I know that I can buy stuff. But I am trying to avoid that for as long as I can.

I think I'm down to a reformat as my last resort. What a pain.

The genius that is "Day Job Orchestra" - Obama Cosby - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS-h63iU1io

2012-01-05T08:38:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

Day Job Orchestra is a band and a group of people that make funny freakin' videos, and kick-ass progressive rock music - www.dayjoborchestra.com

#DrewBrees is then NFL single-season passing yards, completions, and completion percentage leader. Go #Saints

2012-01-01T17:03:00.001-08:00

Saints rip Panthers, enter playoffs on eight-game winning streak

By Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS -- New Orleans Saints shrugged off injury risks, barreling into the postseason with an all-out effort.

"Every facet of our offense is clicking right now, but yet you're constantly finding ways to advance it," Brees said. "We've raised the bar for ourselves. We have a high level of expectations, and we're just trying to meet that level."

Brees passed for 389 yards and five touchdowns, and the Saints set a slew of NFL and club records in a 45-17 blowout of the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.

The NFL single-season records set by the Saints (13-3), who head into the playoffs on an eight-game winning streak, included offensive yards with 7,474, team yards passing with 5,347 and first downs with 416.

Brees, who was 28 of 35, finished with a record 468 completions this season, breaking Peyton Manning's 2010 mark of 450. He finished the season completing 71.6 percent of his passes, breaking his own 2009 NFL record 70.6 completion percentage.

In terms of playoff seeding, New Orleans gained nothing with the victory, finishing with the third seed because San Francisco (13-3), which had a better conference record, held onto the second seed by winning at St. Louis.

Yet New Orleans hadn't forgotten the bitterness of limping into the playoffs with a loss in their last regular-season game a season ago before being bounced by underdog Seattle in the first round.

"You obviously saw the result last year, and we didn't feel like we came out and played well or carried momentum into the playoffs," Brees said. "I feel like we're playing our best football right now. This is where we wanted to be."

Derrick Mason with Tennessee in 2000.

Carolina (6-10), which had won four of five, kept up for much of the first half but wilted over the final two quarters while the Saints set a franchise single-game record with 617 yards of total offense.

"We caught a football team that is on a roll right now," Panthers coach Ron Rivera said. "That's a playoff-caliber football team that did that to us."

Marques Colston caught Brees' first two scoring passes, making a spectacular, spinning catch with arms outstretched on the first one from 15 yards out.

Colston's second touchdown went for 42 yards, and he finished with seven catches for 145 yards.

Afterward, Colston, who studied psychology at Hofstra, declared: "Mentally and emotionally, we're as prepared as a team can be."

Brees also connected with Graham on a 19-yard scoring strike, and added TD passes of 9 yards to Sproles and 1 yard to fullback Jed Collins.

Graham's TD catch was his 11th, matching a club record also reached by Joe Horn in 2004 and Colston in 2007.

Brees surpassed 300 yards passing for the seventh straight game and 13th time this season, both NFL records he already held and simply extended.

The records come one week after Brees passed Dan Marino's 27-yard-old single-season record of 5,084 yards passing.

Brees finished the season with 5,476 yards to go with 46 touchdown passes, fourth most in NFL history. First is New England's Minnesota Vikings (556).

Still, Brees balked at the opportunity to engage in much self-congratulating for the history he and head coach Sean Payton's offense have made this season.

"All this stuff along the way is awesome and special and we can reflect on that for years and years, but you play this game for championships, for rings, because that links you together forever," Brees said. "Here we are having accomplished so much, and yet the ultimate prize is still out there."

Cam Newton closed out an otherwise spectacular rookie season 15 of 25 for 158 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

"It was embarrassing how we ended that game," Newton said. "Offense, defense, special teams, the whole 9 yards, it was real tough."

The Saints had 360 yards of total offense in the first half, when they easily blew past the Rams' 2000 yardage record of 7,075.

Brees passed for 249 yards in the half, when he hit Colston for the Saints' first two passing touchdowns.

Both defenses struggled for much of the half, and each team might have scored more if not for Patrick Robinson's interception of Newton in the Saints' end zone and R.J. Stanford's interception of Brees deep in Panthers territory.

Robert Meachem was taken out of the game as a precaution with knee pain in the third quarter.

Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press

via nfl.com

Watched the whole first season of Modern Family this weekend. Funny.

2012-01-01T16:11:00.001-08:00

Tracking the #DrewBees #TomBrady yardage. Brees is 284 ahead at the moment.

2012-01-01T11:09:00.001-08:00

Drew Bees started the day with a 190 yard lead over Tom Brady. The race is for the single-season passing yards record. Brees broke the record last week, but Brady is right there. Brees has a had good start to the game today and Brady has not, but there's a lot of time left. If the 49ers end up blowing out the Rams, which they look like they are on their way, the Saints might take Brees out of the game if there's nothing else to play for. The Pats are still playing for home-field advantage with the Ravens and Steelers on their heels, and both of those teams play later in the day, so Brady will be playing to win.

For a 6 win team the Panthers sure run their mouth a lot. And I USED to think Steve Smith was a class act.

2012-01-01T10:58:00.001-08:00

I put on the Mavs game and watch Kevin Durant hit a game-winning 3 to beat the Mavs.

2011-12-29T19:55:00.001-08:00

Another Half Marathon in the books. And yes, I won again.

2011-12-29T19:18:00.001-08:00

Half Marathon going down today. I think I'm ready. My legs feel good, weather good, no excuses.

2011-12-29T08:15:00.001-08:00

I wouldn't say I trained hard, and definitely did not meet my goals along the way (dropping 10+ pounds), but I did put in some quality long runs. I ran at least 9 miles once a week for the last 6 weeks. My last long run was on 5 days ago and I put in 10 miles. It wasn't easy and really felt it after, but a couple of days later my confidence was back and now I feel pretty good about 13.1.

One goal for 2012 would be to put in more sprints. I need to mix my distance runs with short high-intensity runs. I've known this for years, and from time to time do it, but I really need to make it part of my weekly routine. My usual 3-4 miles runs are much better than no runs, and it does keep things working, but to really achieve my health goals I need to step it up. My feet, ankles, knees, would not take running longer distances on a frequent basis. Although, I think my body could withstand that if I loss weight, but it's a catch-22. Running more will help me lose weight, but I really need to lose weight if I want to run more.

And then there's the gym. I did pretty good this year at hitting the gym once a week, but I did mostly chest and legs. Those just seemed to be my priority and if a workout got skipped, it was always arms, back, and shoulders. And a LOT of workouts got skipped.

For mostly personal motivation reasons, I did get see some gains in my bench press. With a spot I did get 7 reps with 225 which was something I can't remember doing. I'm sure I did it back in my high school football days, but I haven't done it for many, many years. I can consistently get 5 reps with no spot, but of course I should mix up my chest workout. I pretty much did the same workout all year. I followed flat bench with incline, and that did get mixed up from the Smith machine, dumbbells, to an oddly angled incline bench machine that Golds has.

I also need to ride more. I did my usual 100K, but I probably only rode a half dozen times to work up to that. But the trails are where I need to get back to. Like the sprints, they are shorter and more intense, and more fun.

Jesco White to retire from showbusiness - says he feels exploited.

2011-12-28T20:22:00.001-08:00

via coalvalleynews.com

Jesco White stands with the bobble-footed souvenir given to fans at the ballpark. Boone County native Jesco White, who recently celebrated his 53rd birthday on July 30, says that fame has made him miserable and he’s ready to throw in the towel and retire from the spotlight.

Read more: Coal Valley News - White to retire from showbusiness
http://tinyurl.com/ctc2xtk

Jesco on Roseanne, but also, check it out, it's Mike Keneallly and Dweezil

2011-12-28T19:46:00.001-08:00

via 1.bp.blogspot.com

I've been infatuated with the Whites of West Virginia every since I saw the documentary, "The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia". I've probably watched the movie 20+ times. Robbie, Lisa, and I have discussed and dissected scene after scene. The dialog has become part of our speech and Boone county is probably going to be a vacation spot at some point. Lol. OK, maybe not. So I got the DVD for Christmas and it has a ton of deleted scenes and it's awesome. I also found the original documentary "The Dancing Outlaw" and watched that, along with a ton of outtakes from that movie. Oh, and there is Dancing Outlaw II, Jesco goes to Hollywood. That was good too.

Well, "Jesco Goes to Hollywood" is about Jesco's trip out to Hollywood to be on the Roseanne show. This was back in the 90s. It was pretty cool. There is a small scene that Jesco appears in, which is surreal, but what I noticed was that there were two guitar players in the scene. One was Dweezil Zappa, who was identified, but the other guitar player was Mike Keneally. That was freakin' cool. I love MK and never knew he was on that episode.

Brees marches into record books. Drew Brees broke Dan Marino's single-season record for passing yards en route to a 45-16 win.

2011-12-26T21:57:00.001-08:00

via nfl.com

Just started "No Higher Honor" by Condoleeza Rice. Fascinating so far. I always felt she was the smartest person in the room.

2011-12-26T21:46:00.001-08:00

Made it 10 miles. 1/2 marathon just 5 days away. I think I'm ready.

2011-12-24T12:07:00.001-08:00

Crazy busy at the grocery store. Little girl singing Santa Clause is coming to Town. Very cute.

2011-12-23T13:46:00.001-08:00

New song in the works. I'm pretty excited about it. I have a couple of verses done and can't wait to finish it.

2011-12-23T08:46:00.001-08:00

I started recording a new song last night. It's called, "Waiting". I put down a couple of acoustic guitar tracks and a couple of vocal tracks for the first couple of verses. I really like the way it's sounding, and I can't waiting to play it with April and Robbie. I went over to Harbour's the other night and we jammed on it. he played piano, and that was so cool. I need to have him put piano no the recording also.

My recording are really just demos, but I would like to get in a real studio to record the drums and various parts that I can't really capture on my home set up.

This car just about ran me off the road this morning, but his apology wave was so sincere that it put me in the Xmas spirit.

2011-12-23T08:39:00.001-08:00

At first I was like, "Hey jerk-face, watch where you are going. You could have killed me.". But then, he rolled down his window and gave me a an apologetic wave. I had my camera out and took a picture because I was going to call the number on the "How's my driving..." bumper sticker. But really, I was in his blind spot, and he just didn't see me. That's no excuse, but it could happen to any of us. And who would be the jerk if I called his company and got him in trouble.

Merry Christmas and drive safe.

New M-Audio studio monitors are sounding sweet. I laid to rest my 1990 Jensons.

2011-12-20T21:06:00.001-08:00

About to watch Robert Steel and Matt the Electrician at Poor David's Pub.

2011-12-16T17:59:00.001-08:00

The 1969s played at the Doublewide on 12-13-11

2011-12-14T12:26:00.001-08:00

via facebook.com

Headed 2 the Doublewide to rock w the 1969s. Hope the rain stops before I load in.

2011-12-13T17:25:00.001-08:00

Tommy Emmanuel on PBS right now. He is the freakin master.

2011-12-08T21:43:00.001-08:00

Took my last vacation day today. Cooked a gumbo, put up Christmas lights, worked on new song, and jogged 9 miles. Pretty good day.

2011-12-07T21:47:00.001-08:00

I just clicked on some Twitter SPAM. That sucked.

2011-12-07T21:43:00.001-08:00

37 degrees and the roux is getting brown.

2011-12-07T10:33:00.001-08:00

75 accounts and counting. Am I the average Web user, or is this rediculous?

2011-12-06T10:02:00.001-08:00

I know this is not even all of them, but I have all of these accounts in a PW program, so it was easy to get the list, but there are other sites that I use the I know I'm missing. Is this crazy?

acenstry.com
Addthis
Adobe
ADrive
Amazon
AOL IM
Bandcamp 49th Vibration
Bank of America
Best Buy
Blogspot
Box.net
CafePress
Cajunforums
Cigna
Codeacademy
Columbia
Dallas County Community College
digg
Dorba.org
DropBox
Ebay
Email account (at least 8 different accounts)
Employee Purchase Program (EPP)
Endomondo
facebook
Fidelity
Flickr
Flying Saucer
Foursquare
FTP accounts (too many to count)
Geico.com
Gmail (3 accounts)
GoDaddy
Golds Gym
Google site
Google Webmaster Tools
GuitarCenter
imeen.com
IRS
istockPhoto
Joomla
last.fm
Linkedin
Livestream
Metlife
myspace 49th Vibration
Myspace Songsbytroy
NTTA Tollway
OhLife
Omnicom
Pandora
Paymo
PayPal
periodic.phonelocator.mobi
Photobucket
PizzaHut
Plaxo
posterous
Skype
Spotify
StumbleUpon
texasfishingforum
T-Mobile
Travelocity
Travelocity
Twitter
Verizon
Vimeo
Vistaprint
Whooznext.com
Windows Skydrive (4 accounts)
Woot
WordPress (3 accounts)
youtube

#MikeViola : Mike Viola show was awesome. What a talent. Both Mike and Rachael Yamagata were spectacular. @rachaelyamagata @candybutchers

2011-12-05T08:30:00.001-08:00

Wow, what a show last night. Before the show I saw Mike (yea, I call him Mike) while we were waiting in line to go up to the Loft and I said hello. He was a nice guy. It was funny because Robbie did not tell his son Robi who they were going to see. He had no idea it was Mike Viola. That was until he saw Mike Viola right next to him. Lol.

Mike played a solo set to open up the show for Rachael Yamagata @rachaelyamagata. I was not familiar with her music until recently. When I found about this show I started checking out her music (thank you Spotify) and she is great.

Mike's set was about half songs from his new album and the other half older songs. Robbie asked him to play "Painkillers" and he did. Jaw-dropping. Mike actually thanked Robbie for requesting the song. I don't think I've ever heard that before.

So apparently Mike had some kind of fan contest where you send in a video of you playing a song and the winner gets to get up and play a song with Mike during his set. What? I didn't know about this? This lucky bastard got up there and played a song with him. He even got to play Mike's Gibson J-160. Damn it. How could I not know about this? It was actually really cool. The guy was pretty good and had catchy song. His name was Creed something.

The show was awesome and Mike also played in Rachael's band, so even better.

Rachael Yamagata was pretty phenomenal. Her band was great and the sound was too. I had never been to the Loft before, but it was really cool. You can look out the window and see the Dallas skyline and there's a patio that when the weather is good would be fun to hang out on. Last night was not a good patio night though.

It was a fun night. Robbie, Robi, and Neil were there, as well as my trusty partner-in-crime, Lisa.

And they had Spaten Optimator on tap!

See the full gallery on Posterous

So if #Flash is dead, and it looks like it is, what to do with the millions of desktops running IE8-? A long painful transition is coming.

2011-12-04T14:24:00.001-08:00

Yes, more and more Web is being consumed on mobile devices. And the desktop users are also mobile users. But mobile users are also desktop users, and 16% of Web users are using IE8 are older, and those browsers are not HTML5 compliant. And it's not just a matter of people eventually upgrading their browsers, but IE9, which is (somewhat) HTML5 friendly, is a 64bit browser, so WinXP users cannot simply upgrade their browser. We have to wait for those users to upgrade their OS, which usually means that it will only happen when they purchase a new machine. But eventually, they will.

I believe that transition will be slow. The problem with this, as opposed to waiting for people to upgrade from IE6, which was painful, is that the Flash/HTML5 content is just that. It's content. The IE6 issues were mostly user experience based. The content was all there, but there were design issues when it came to rendering the content. The worse case scenario was that IE6 users saw an ugly broken design, but all the info was still there. And the real issue was with developers who had to code two sites, one for IE6 users and another for the rest of us.

Well, here we go again.

HTML5 is the future and Flash is going away. There's no doubt. Adobe is "stopping work on mobile Flash.", so Apple wins. But do consumers win? Why not support it all. Why not give the users the choice to view Flash content, HTML5, Quicktime, Java, etc.

I love using the FireFox browser. I can use all kinds of plugins that make Web browsing and Web Development easier and more interesting. FF supports Flash, but I don't have enable the Flash plugin. I have the choice. It just seems counter to the idea of the Web, and inconsistent with his holiness, Steve Jobs', own philosophy.

Enough of this, back to the Cowboy game.

#Cowboys: Pass on 4 + 1? Lucky with the timeout. You get a do-over. Let's see...

2011-12-04T13:32:00.001-08:00

What a season so far. #LSU has played a tough schedule with no hiccups. Besides going to OT win Bama, they have dominated. Bring on Bama!

2011-12-04T08:40:00.001-08:00

Don't know who Mike Viola is? Well get to the Loft tonight and find out. #MikeViola @candybutchers and @CandyButchers

2011-12-04T08:27:00.001-08:00

Ready for Mike Viola tonight! Yes, I am missing Saints-Lions, but when will I ever see MV?

2011-12-04T08:20:00.001-08:00

The Marshall cab drama has hopfully ended. It's sounding good and ready to go back on Craigslist.

2011-12-04T08:16:00.001-08:00

I'll start from the end and work my way back. I have a Marshall 4x12 speaker cabinet that I put on Craigslist to sell. I had an offer and met the guy (kid) and gave him the cab and took the money. Done. Or was it?

I get a text from the kid saying, "The cabinet sounds really thin. It has no low-end...blah, blah... I want me money back". He was nice about it, but the bottom line was that he wanted his money back. He said it in a fingers-crossed kind of way.

Well, I thought it was in perfect working order. I bought this cab new back in 1994 and used it for about a year during the last year of Damaged Faith's existence. Phase I that is.

I had used it a few times over the years. I recorded with it home a little. I played about a half dozen rehearsals with Marc Brattin (before I knew of his shady dealings). I played a couple of gigs with Cyberwhore (Richard Tull's band) back around 1999-2000. But for about 10 years the cab just sat. I would record with it every now and then, but not much. I had Digitech preamp that sounded pretty good running direct, so I really didn't need the cab for anything.

At the end of 2009 Joey Gates and Chad Litersky talked to me about doing a Damaged Faith reunion show, so we set up some rehearsals. For the first couple of rehearsals I used the Marshall cab, but quickly decided that was a big pain in the ass to lug that rig around, so I borrowed a Fender combo amp from Doug Stouffer. Well, I fell in love with that amp (Hot Rod Deville) and ended up buying it from Doug.

So that was pretty much the end of my need for the cab. It stayed in a road case in my garage from 2005 til the present. Before that it was either in the road case or just sitting in my apartment. Once I got married (2005) it went to the garage. I was a little reluctant to keep it there, as it is not climate controlled, but it was sealed up pretty good in the road case.

So back to the present... I bought the cabinet back from the young rocker dude and went straight to MusicGoRound in Lewisville. I had another reason to got there, but thought I would see if they did amp/speaker repair. After talking to my bud Jesse and another helpful guy there, I took the cab in the store and we checked it out. We hooked it up to an amp and then went back and forth between my cab and another 4x12 cab they had in the store. The result was that it did sound thin.

I have to confess that before I put the cab on Craigslist I plugged it in to my Fender and checked it out. I also thought it sounded a little thin, but it was mostly on the distorted setting. The clean setting sounded OK. It didn't sound like anything was wrong with it, but after running it from my Fender, I did not have any reluctance in selling it, because it didn't sound that great. I didn't think anything was wrong with it, but just didn't like the sound.

So now it was confirmed. It was not sounding "right". I took it home and started trying it out with different amps, amp settings, and guitars. I took that back off and checked all the connections, which Jesse had suggested. They were all snug, but..... one speaker had the polarity mixed up. The positive wire from one jack was going to the negative pole on one of the speakers. This was the problem. Doah!

Somewhere in the process of "checking it out" I must have switched the wires. Back in 09 when I used it a couple of times, I was hearing a rattling sound, so I took the back off and checked all the connections. Well, the rattling was from the road case bottom that it was sitting in while I played through it, but I must have switched the wires

So now I'm back to square one. I am going to put it back on Craigslist. What a big pain in the ass, but at least I don't have to put the cab in the shop and spend money on fixing something.

What else can you say about Brees? He is the MAN!

2011-11-28T19:50:00.001-08:00

I love Lance Moore, but stop with the freakin' endzone celebration. You're just 1 dance move away from a flag.

2011-11-28T19:10:00.001-08:00

I love Lance Moore, but stop with the freakin' endzone celebration. You're just 1 dance more away from a flag.

2011-11-28T19:08:00.001-08:00

I'm fighting a cold, but my Saints are making me feel better. I big bowl of gumbo would help too.

2011-11-28T19:04:00.001-08:00

Adobe Wallaby: Fail - I tried on 3 different FLA files. One complex and 2 others with more basic Flash interaction and 0 worked.

2011-11-28T14:45:00.001-08:00

Sean Lee lights up Reggie Bush.

2011-11-24T13:40:00.001-08:00

Jerry Fontenot getting some airtime after his FB Kuhn scores.

2011-11-24T11:42:00.001-08:00

Adobe Wallaby: Anyone try it? Suppose to convert FLA to HTML5. How about Adobe Edge? Looks cool, but no XP version.

2011-11-23T21:12:00.001-08:00

9.25 mile run on the treadmill at Golds Gym. Another boring run, but happy I got it in. My legs are so tight and briddle now..

2011-11-23T17:16:00.001-08:00

Shucking oysters for the thanksgiving stuffing. I bought about 5 dozen. For some reason only 3 dozen made it to the stuffing.

2011-11-23T16:10:00.001-08:00

-original message-
Subject: Shucking oysters for the thanksgiving stuffing. I bought about 5 dozen. For some reason only 3 dozen made it to the stuffing.
From: "Troy"
Date: 11/23/2011 5:37 PM

Treadmill run. Boring

2011-11-15T17:02:00.001-08:00

I like free stuff. http://citizen428.net/blog/2010/08/12/30-free-programming-ebooks/

2011-11-14T21:36:00.001-08:00

Jaworski on MNF just said that Charles Woodson is playing like a rookie. I think he was trying to pay him a compliment, but...

2011-11-14T20:16:00.001-08:00

Deer count from San Antonio trip: 7 alive, 11 dead

2011-11-14T15:16:00.001-08:00

We had two close calls with deer on the road. We were took 281 down to San Antonio. We picked up Aves in Stephenville, so it was a straight shot down south, but by the time we picked up Avery got on the road it turned dark very quickly. I saw a few deer during the day, which is pretty cool, but it's not too cool when they show up in the middle of the road just 30 yards in front of you while going 60+ mph. The first one was sitting on the side of the road and then did a broad leap across the road. It looked just like the deer crossing signs. It felt like a close call, but it crossed the road in time, but it had us on guard after that.

The next one was stopped in the road. It was off to the side a bit, but with the oncoming traffic it didn't give us much room to go around it. The worse part is that it was facing the inside of the lane, so if it bolts in the direction it's facing, we will totally hit it. We just had to hang and and brace ourselves. Well, it turned around on a dime and ran off of the road.

Katie is now following me on Twitter. Now I have to do some interesting suff to impress her.

2011-11-12T16:35:00.001-08:00

Bob Schneider played at the Carrollton Festival at the Switchyard. Bob always delivers!

2011-11-07T14:07:00.001-08:00

Lisa and I went to the 2nd annual Carrollton Festival at the Switchyard. I wasn't aware there was one last year, but we went this year and it was pretty cool. It was free to get in and the great Bob Schneider played.

Bob never ceases to amaze me. Lisa and I last saw him last year in Austin, so it had been a while, so we were very excited about seeing him and he met our expectations.

The food and booths were kind of the usual for these kind of things. We did sit on the patio at Agava Azul and had some of their margaritas, which are some of the best. But the festival drinks were the usual beers and wine. Not complaining, but it was just OK.

I really liked the fact that parking was free. There was no entry fee. And they did not use the ridiculous ticket system that most of the local festivals use.

They actually had Third Eye Blind as the headliner, but ever though we liked some of their songs, we didn't hang around after Bob, who played on the big stage right before TEB.

We saw a few other bands that were really good. For some reason I had never seen Slobberbone before, but they played and were really good. there was a really interesting band called Telegraph Canyon that played. Unfortunately they played on the pavilion stage right before Bob, so we didn't not want to give up our prime Bob spots to go see them, but we could hear them and they did show video of the pavilion stage on the main stage, so we could see and hear them, even though our backs were to their stage. They seemed pretty cool. I'll have to go check them out again.

8 miles! I am 6 weeks and 5.5 miles away from a half marathon.

2011-11-06T14:09:00.001-08:00

Finally leaving work. 7:10. It's been worse.

2011-11-03T17:12:00.001-07:00

Another Dillo along the jogging trail.

2011-11-02T17:39:00.001-07:00

Snake on the trail.

2011-11-01T19:01:00.001-07:00

Gots to move on from the bad sports weekend and bad eating. Time to get to work physically and creatively.

2011-10-31T21:12:00.001-07:00

Saints, Rangers, and Cowboys all wet the bed this weekend. Last weekend was so good. They all won, and won big. What happened?

I also got no exercise, worked on no music, design work, etc. And I ate like crap. I need to bounce back. Monday was not much better. I did finish a site layout for a client, but not a run or workout in site. I didn't even pick up my guitar.

Bring it home Nefty

2011-10-27T20:44:00.001-07:00

Holland is taking care of business so far.

2011-10-27T20:11:00.001-07:00

Cards give Cruz a gift. We'll take it.

2011-10-27T18:17:00.001-07:00

Double Header

2011-10-26T13:23:00.001-07:00

I pulled a double-header on Saturday night. The first show was with the 1969s at Poor David’s Pub. It went really well. It was pretty early, but there was a good crowd and I think we went over well.

Lisa and I packed up after the 1969s show and went to J. Gilligans in Arlington for a show with 49th Vibration. That was a crazy scene. The Rangers were playing game 3 of the World Series and there must have been 6 or 700 people in the club. To make things crazier, they wanted us to play earlier than when we were scheduled, so everyone was waiting for me. We pulled it off and played well and it went over well. This show was a benefit for The Susan G. Komen Foundation. So it was a fun night for a good cause.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Jammin on MIke Viola's "Lurch"on Spotify while doing some freelance Web design, while doing laundry, while watering plants, while making set lists, while changing the strings on my guitar, while thinking of lyrics to a new song I'm working on.

2011-10-22T12:11:00.001-07:00

Jammin on MIke Viola's "Lurch"on Spotify while doing some freelance Web design, while doing laundry, while watering plants, while making set lists, while changing the strings on my guitar, while thinking of lyrics to a new song I'm working on.

Still ahead for my Saturday:

Go for a run, rock with the 1969s at Poor David's Pub in Dallas tonight, rock tonight with 49th Vibration at J. Gilligans in Arllington, somehow keep track of the Rangers game.

Finally leaving work

2011-10-20T21:44:00.001-07:00

The 1969s did an interview at KNON last night. Pretty cool stuff.

2011-10-20T12:42:00.001-07:00

Only 4 reps with 225 lbs. Weak.

2011-10-19T11:55:00.001-07:00

Mike Viola is coming to Dallas! Sun Dec 4th at the Loft. I am very excited about this.

2011-10-19T11:17:00.001-07:00

I just bought Mike Viola's new album Electro De Perfecto. I'm listening now. It's pretty damn good, as usual. He will be in Dallas at the Loft on Sunday Dec 4th. He's opening for Rachael Yamagata, who I'm not familiar with. According to his site, he will also be playing in her band. He wrote and recorded some stuff on her new album, so I guess that makes sense. I'm not sure if he's playing solo or with a band. His site says he's doing both solo and power trio. So who knows.

He posted a pic of a song list for one of the shows. I'm trying to crack the code:

Strawberry (maybe "The Strawberry Blonde" from Lurch)
Break
Voice
Summer (maybe "Soundtrack of my Summer" from Electro De Perfecto)
Mundo (maybe "El Mundo De Perfecto" from Electro De Perfecto)
Rub (maybe "Here's the Rub" from Electro De Perfecto)
Mike (maybe "Hang on Mike" from The CBs Hang on Mike)
Time 4
Afraid
Truck
Sandi
Cat

Back (maybe "Get You Back" from Electro De Perfecto)
Better (maybe "So Much Better" from Lurch)

Thank you CardRecovery v3.60. My SD card crapped out, but this prog found all the files. Windows said "Card Error" when I plugged the card in the reader and would not let me access any of the files..

2011-10-15T17:31:00.001-07:00

Dillo

2011-10-10T12:47:00.001-07:00

Thanks to C.C. for giving me the day off. I might go for a run. Then again I might not..

2011-10-10T10:43:00.001-07:00

I slept in and then broke out the espresso machine. It's been about a year or so since I've used it, so I had to actually read the instructions. It turned out pretty good.

I thought that I might go fishing today. It rained the last couple of days so it's probably pretty muddy out there, but that shouldn't stop me. I also want to get in a run.

I lost about 5 pounds, so I should keep up this low carb thing, but it's tough. I've also increased my running miles, so the 5 pounds is probably a combination of both the diet and more calorie burning...duh.

I have a logo to work on for a freelance project. Actually have a couple of freelance things to do, but fishing and running sounds like more fun.

ALCS game 2 with the Rangers and Tigers was postponed from yesterday to today because of the weather. So at 3 pm we will see some playoff baseball. Good stuff.

So I have a good list of things I can/should do today: Times a wasting', so I need to get going.

Oh yea, and rehearsal tonight with 49th Vibration. Wow, I left out the funnest thing of all.

Saints vs Panthers

2011-10-09T10:17:00.001-07:00

Watch live video from www.TheRTV.eu on www.justin.tv

This site is blowing my developer mind -> http://www.quirksmode.org

2011-10-08T21:10:00.001-07:00

Rangers rain delay: Of all the times to finally get rain in DFW. Right in the middle of the ALCS game 1 with the Rangers up 3-0.

2011-10-08T19:10:00.001-07:00

Engine light on - OBD II code scanner

2011-10-08T18:41:00.001-07:00

Lisa's car has had an on/off relationship with the engine light in here car. It comes on and it goes off. Of course, you can't get the car inspected with the light on. So we take it in. Well, the light goes off and they can't really do anything. We take it back in with the light on and they think it's a transmission issue, but can't figure out what that issue is.

In the past It's stayed off long enough to get it inspected, but this year... not so much.

So we take it in and the light comes on and it fails. They reset the computer which will clear the code, but they said it would come back on after about 100 miles. So I think, let's go get it inspected somewhere else while it's off. Well, it came right back on when this other place tried to inspect it.. so failed again.

I start reading about these codes and how to try and fix the engine light thing, how to read the codes, how to reset the codes, what is the process that the inspector's follow, etc.

My first thought is that I get a code reader, reset (clear) the error and then go try and get it inspected again. But, from what I understand, the car's computer will be in a "not ready" mode after it is reset and the car will not pass inspection if the inspector sees the computer is in "not ready" mode. I've read about other techniques to clear the error like disconnecting the battery, but again this would put the car's computer in "not ready" mode.

My next thought was to take the dash apart and just cover up the freakin' light or removed the bulb. Well, it looks like that won't work as one of the steps in the inspecting process is to make sure the light is working. If you've noticed, when you turn your car on, all the dash lights come on for a few seconds. The inspector looks for this to check for a malfunctioning lamp. I found this on the TXDPS site, so it's not just some Internet talk.

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/vi/Misc/faq/faq_obdii.htm

So now what? It's costs $90 to get a repair shop to do diagnostic work and I think that consists of hooking up a OBD II scanner/reader to see if there are any codes that tell them about any problems. So I ordered a scanner. They can be as cheap as $20. Guess how much a paid? I'm not sure what exactly this will help with, but at least I can see what codes the computer is throwing.

Most problems that the computer reports are emission issues. That's why it's part of the inspection process. It's cheaper and easier than the exhaust test they used to do. But, those codes can also be thrown because of other non-emission issues. It could be a transmission issue. So whey the f^%# should my car not pass inspection if the transmission is having an issue? Keep in mind that our car is working perfectly. It's running fine and the transmission seems to be shifting fine and working normally.

According to the state of Texas:

The transmission is part of the vehicle's power train, so a transmission problem will turn on the MIL and can cause the vehicle to exceed emissions standards.

But it could also NOT cause the vehicle to exceed emissions standards.

Love/Hate WordPress. Editing someone elses WP site can be a pain. There are so many place that code and content can hide...pages, functions, widgets, plug-ins, etc.

2011-10-08T18:08:00.001-07:00

Run

2011-10-08T17:54:00.001-07:00

I did not reach my goal,whichwas to at least run as far as my last run (6.5 miles), but I did 5.

2011-10-08T15:09:00.001-07:00

Not so good.

2011-10-07T08:17:00.001-07:00

Wish 100

2011-10-06T19:37:00.001-07:00

via images20.brightroom.com

Deen Castronovo and Journey

2011-10-05T11:27:00.001-07:00

OK, I'm a little slow. I know this is old news. But...one of the baddest rock drummers can also sing like Steve Perry? Really? Deen Castronovo has always been one of my favorite drummers going all the way back to the mid 80's with Wild Dogs. He has played with some heavy hitters over the years (Tony MacAlpine, Cacophony, Marty Friendman, Joey Tafolla, Steve Vai, Ozzy, etc.), and has been in Journey for the past 10 years. But I have never heard him sing.

It's crazy enough that Journey found a singer who could pull off the Perry vocals, but they found two of them, and one just happens to be a kick-ass drummer.

I am a fan, but I'm not really a huge Journey fan, but I sure can appreciate their talent and their place in music.

I remember first seeing them on The Midnight Special or something like that back in the 70's and they were playing "Lovin' Touchin' and Squeezin'". I thought, what a dumb-ass song. And I still think that. I also could not stand Steve Perry. He just looked and sounded so girly, and looked like he was enjoying looking and sounding that way.

The YouTube clip looks to be that very same TV performance, although it doesn't look like a performance at all, as he appears to be lip-synching.

I went on to really like a lot of their music, but it took me while to get past that song.

Here is an example of a song I think is great. "Dixie Highway"

New power supply installed and I'm back up and running. It only took two trips to Fry's.

2011-10-02T18:51:00.001-07:00

I got the blue screen, then the no screen (black). I could not get the thing back on. I was getting power to the MB but would not boot even to the BIOS. I tried installing a new video card, but that wasn't it. I started unplugging and re-seating the RAM, processor, etc. and it finally came on, but it was really slow. My PS was really noisy and would actually change sounds if a tapped on it, so I tried a new PS, as well as removing a few pounds of dust. I think that did it. It's back on and seems to be working fine.

Mile 40

2011-10-01T15:42:00.003-07:00

100K done!

2011-10-01T15:42:00.001-07:00

Wish 100 - halfway there.

2011-10-01T08:01:00.001-07:00