Note: In general, I use my blog as an archive of the tidbits that appear on my front page. Occasionally, I'll write directly to the blog about non-music topics. Blog Archive 2010 January to May 2009 2008 February/March June to Sept. Oct. to Dec. 2007 January February/March April/May/June July/August Sept. to Dec. 2006 December November October

by George Ziemann 2010 August 27, 2010 -- For the last two months, my primary activities have been music production and software programming. Not one single person I know seems to have much of a clue about either one, which makes me feel intellectually isolated. I'm actually kind of used to this, but this week, it's bugging me. August 26, 2010 -- Moved half of this page into the archives because I had something to write and the page was getting long. Then I came back to write. Even though I remember the topic, I don't remember the point I was going to make. I hate it when that happens. August 4, 2010 -- Have received several comments about the story of my trip. This one, from a good friend, struck me. "YOU seem to be able to keep on the your correct chosen moral path without undue compromise. "Some folks (like myself) are just going to look up to you and your exploits." I've made a lot of compromises. I just don't write about them. For several years now, I've been on a "tell the truth, all the time" jag. It works, but sometimes you have to hold back the truth, especially in consideration of others. And I've been busy trying to change the world, but hadn't been willing to step up and change my own because it has conflicted with the needs of others. In the end, however, when you sacrifice your own inner needs, and don't feed them properly, you will starve yourself spiritually. That's a mistake and I'm just learning how to get past it. While I certainly hope someone (and the more someones the better) takes some inspiration from what I write, don't look up to me. Sure, I want people to like me, I want to entertain and inspire them, and I feel my writing talent is a gift, but I'm no better than anyone else. Nothing to look up to. I'm right there in the shit with you, my friend. I'm wading through the same pile of garbage as you are. The greatest realization I've come to lately, ever since I really opened myself up to "everything happens for a reason" and began taking personal responsibility for my own individual empowerment, is that there are more of "us" than I ever realized, all trying to find an answer to this madness. When you start looking, you'll begin to see them everywhere. We are drawn to each other. We all need each other to make the world a better place. July 30, 2010 -- In case you managed to miss (or avoid) it, I'm still writing the story of my cross-country trip in June. Been spending a lot of time at Facebook lately, especially in the last few days, in an effort to bring all my new contacts there over to this site. A lot of family members on my FB friends list that I'm trying to convert to becoming part of my audience. Also hunting down a lot of high school friends. From the beginning of June until just a day or two ago, I've been living every day in the moment. At first, I didn't have much choice, but it's been working very well for me, so I'm just going with it. All of this reconnecting has made me stop and think, especially in the last day or so. Haven't been giving the future much thought because the immediate present had enough obstacles to conquer on its own. But things have slowed down a little and the tomorrows have suddenly come to the forefront of my mind. In additon to the music and writing, I do software programming. It makes me constantly ask, "What if...?" We all do it to a degree. It's what makes you check the spare tire before taking a trip, or make sure there's an extra set of strings in the guitar case. But programming makes me take it a couple of steps further, trying to anticipate the way humans will interact with the software, make what they'll naturally want to do easy, and trying to put a couple of roadblocks up for what they're likely to do wrong. So I tend to overanalyze things a little. In software, I lay down the framework for dealing with potential expansion of functions and data growth that may never get used, but insure against having to come back and rip everything out to go to the next level. When I play music, most of the "what if" questions come during the writing and production stages but, every once in a while, a wild notion might strike me onstage, like making a segue to another song that the rest of the band isn't expecting. If the answer to "what if?" is too risky, I'll hold back. Sometimes, though, I just know that everyone will immediately catch on, so I'll go for it. But I have to ask the question first. What if...? I'm 55 and starting my life over again. For two months now, I've been letting "everything happens for a reason" be my guiding principle. Now I'm finally coming to the point where I wish I had a better grasp of what the reason is. I find myself asking "What if...?" about things that there is no way to determine the outcome to. The unmistakable inner voice that's been pointing the way and giving me a daily briefing has suddenly fallen silent. But at least I know what to do. It sounds silly, maybe even slightly insane, but if I plug in my headphones and put iTunes on shuffle, the answers will be there. They always are. Before Clear Channel, the radio used to work that way, too. A couple of hours later -- Man, that works every fucking time. Always freaks me out a little when it happens, but after so many years, I should be used to by now. After Bon Jovi, Joe Cocker, Elvis Costello and Alice Cooper checked in and had their say, today's answer came in the form of an instrumental, actually. The questions I was asking didn't need real words to be answered, just thought triggers. Keith Emerson is top gun in my book, so it's only fitting that "The Three Fates" reminded me what I was supposed to be doing. Upgrade Hell July 25, 2010 -- I just had to move to OSX. Didn't really want to, was perfectly happy with my old beige G3 (manufactured July, 1998), but I'm working on a software project that demanded OSX. Once I started using OSX, I liked it. Runs faster, jumps higher, all that shit. Moved everything over except ProTools, my music recording and editing software. Today, after seeing that there was actually an OSX version that still supported my old interface (DIGI001), I decided to take the plunge and bring ProTools along, too. Figured that, at the very least, I could run the old version of ProTools in the Classic environment if I had to. Opened up the G3. Evidently it's been several years since I popped the cover because the thing was so loaded with dust that I'm surprised it was still working properly. Used a hair dryer to blow it out, then dusted it out and took the hair dryer to it again, just to make sure I got the majority of it out. Took out the PCI card for the DIGI001 interface and the G3's internal hard drive and moved them to my new (used & refurbished) G4. Fired it up. Everything was looking good. Downloaded the ProTools upgrade. Unfortunately, it turns out that my interface was only supported to Mac OSX 10.3. It doesn't run under OSX 10.4, which is what came installed on the G4. Ended up having to put everything back in the G3. I guess I'm going to have to open it up and dust it off more often. It's going to have to be my recording studio a little longer. The Joy of Satellite Internet July 11, 2010 -- Since I'm now in a tiny town just north of Mexico, internet access posed a small problem when I was trying to get it started -- the only choice is satellite because no one has wired broadband here. I'm not going to mention who my provider is, but I really miss Cox Cable after only 10 days. Satellite service costs twice as much. If you download too much, your service slows down. I've got a Mac laptop with OSX and an old G3 that I use for most of my work. The G3 runs OS9, which isn't supported by the satellite company and runs dog-slow on a good day. On Cox, it screamed on the Internet. I was getting upload speeds of a half-megabyte per second. Today, we're getting the first real monsoon-type rain of the season. The satellite doesn't work in the rain. Can't even send or check e-mail. I'll have to wait until it stops raining just to upload this page.

Quotes "With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine." -- shewfig (slashdot) "Money is counterproductive; it prevents happiness to come." -- Austrian millionaire Karl Rabeder, on why he is giving all of his money away "If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?" -- Albert Einstein WTF? Quotes "We had no domestic attacks under Bush. We've had one under Obama." -- Rudy Giuliani