Post a Comment | in Photography tagged black & white, computer, focus, intensity, office, person, phone | Permalink 
Pillars of Autumn
Charles | Wednesday, March 9, 2011 at 11:22 AM Several years back my brother got into learning about mixing music and how to record it. I wasn't sure if this was one of these passing fancies. You know the ones where you think you're interested in something so you sink a lot of money into it because you feel so pumped about it and then later on decide that you don't like it as much as you thought and now you have a bunch of junk (aka equipment) laying around your house.
I was never really sure how seriously he took things as he's kinda like me in some ways (go figure) we have a lot of interests but pursue few of them very seriously. If you were to look at my bookshelves at home you'd see that I have a ton of programming books on all sort of different languages though I'm not particularly well versed in any of them. Perhaps that's more of a reflection on me then it is on him. I'm not really sure, so maybe scratch that, but anyway you get point.
I'm really pleased to see that he's kept up with it especially seeing how much audio equipment can be and if it's anything like the one piece that I bought him for his birthday it's really expensive or if it's anything like photography equipment which I know much more about it's really, really, expensive.
But all kidding aside about price the music is really good. I'm not saying that Derek wrote the words or is singing the song because he isn't his friend Kevin is but he's come along way from when he started out playing around with Logic.
Derek (my brother) shared these with me so I thought I'd post them on here so that whoever reads this could have a listen. I've been listening to it on and off all morning. It is pretty decent as far as I'm concerned.
Post a Comment | in Life Stuff, Music tagged Derek Huerto, Kevin Barley, Knoxville, Music | Permalink Update for the unconventional
Charles | Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 8:22 AM It's been nearly two weeks since I last wrote. I actually started this post with the intent to update all 2 or 3 readers on the status of my toe. It's doing fine thanks; no need to worry.
I wish I could say that I've been doing tons of productive things since my last post but that isn't really the case. Well, I guess I'm working so that's something productive but not out of the ordinary.
Perhaps the problem is I'm treating this too much like a diary or a serious place where I need to write a lot down.
It's interesting every time I think about writing something down to put in this blog I often wonder to myself if it (the content) is good enough to post. I have a fear of posting posts (redundant?) that others will deem irrelevant or just plain idiotic. It's one of those things about the Internet where people can be really cruel just because they can be without little regard for what they are saying.
It reminds me of this awesome Penny Arcade comic from back in the day:
Though comic refers to gaming online in the game Unreal Tournament 2004 you can see how posting anything would that has your actual name and identity can be a little daunting with all the trolls that lurk about on the Internet. I'm not even sure if I want to post this link to my twitter feed but I might just to see if/how people react to my post. I'll probably get trolled but maybe that's a good thing. Perhaps it's a sign of caring too much what other people think of me and should just not worry about it.
Bleeding Big Toe
Charles | Wednesday, February 16, 2011 at 2:12 AM So I did some pretty good damage to my big toe yesterday.
My Dad asked me to help him with the some snow removal on the sidewalk which wasn't a big deal because one, I had the day off meaning that I didn't really have much else to do and two, it was a really nice day outside. So nice that I didn't bother to put my boots on or a jacket.
My Dad wanted to get the remove the snow all the way down to the cement so that there was little to no snow left on the sidewalk and driveway. He takes a lot of pride in having a very clean sidewalk and driveway in the winter time. I'm not sure why but maybe it's one of those things that comes with age. Anyway, I'm rambling on about other things that don't really pertain to the subject at hand.
So I decided why not help him out since he asked. I decided I could do a good job with the ice chipper (the best ice chipper that money can buy at RONA) especially since the weather was so nice outside.
Sure enough things were going swimmingly and with great fervour I was accomplishing my tasks at a diligent pace. I noticed a fellow was walking down the sidewalk so I quickly moved out of the way and shovelled the snow and ice out the man's way so he didn't slip and also so he didn't grind the snow in the ground. Quickly as he passed I started to pick away at the snow with the ice chipper but I wasn't paying attention and a hit my foot.
Needless to say I was feeling a great amount of pain in my foot and as you can see from the picture below I had a hematoma underneath the nail of my big toe on my left foot. Curiously enough I didn't manage to hit any of the other toes on my left foot.
It hurt a lot but I thought I could carry on for a bit longer, hopefully until I had at least finished the job or so I had hoped. Unfortunately this wasn't to be the case. I tried to walk it off like nothing happened. You know when you get hurt and people ask you are you okay? but you smile and tell them everything is fine even though it hurts like hell and you just don't want to admit you're hurt and admit 'defeat. It was a lot like that, me walking around trying to walk the pain off but much to my chagrin it didn't work. I notice that my big toe was leaking a pool of liquid between my big toe and the adjacent toe. I quickly told my Dad that I had hit my toe and he told me to stop and go inside.
I went inside and took my foot out of my shoe and sure enough there was a big red splotch of blood where the blood had bleed around my big toe. It was all very cool and gross at the same time. More the kind of thing you be able to talk about later like some kind of war stories with a friend. I could chalk this up as some kind of macho story about how dumb I was; like drunk stories but these ones are sober instead. Perhaps all too sober at least the drunk stories would have the booze to numb the acts of stupidity that transpire in them.
I tried to fend off the pain with Tylenol, elevating my feet, and frozen peas and ice around my foot to suppress the swelling. It only sort of worked and in the end several hours later I decided perhaps it was best I should go to the hospital after several people had suggested it may be a wise idea to do so since it was the most effective way to suppress the swelling.
So we went to the hospital and I was faced with the option of burning a hole in my big toe to let the blood from the hematoma out and reduce the swelling.
So here I am feeling better (I think) with a lot less pressure than before and more bloody bandages on my feet.
I guess next time I'll wear better footwear and next time I'll pay more attention to where I'm chipping.
Remember kids, always look before you chip.