| New Amp... |
[Jan. 24th, 2008|09:34 pm] |
The following will appeal to maybe two of you. But since nobody seems to read LJ much anymore (and I certainly don't post much anymore), who cares...
As part of my continuing quest to have nothing but expensive hobbies, I bought a new guitar amp last week. I decided on the Epiphone Valve Junior, which I had been hearing lots of good things about on the Internets. The main draw of this seems to be that for only $100 (for the head), you get a 100% tube-driven amp, which is apparently the preference of most musicians (although I'm not a musician, so, really, what the fuck do I care?).
Now, I've unfortunately found that out of the box it basically sounds like a $100 amp -- not all that great. Cranked up to neighbor-pissing-off levels (it gets LOUD), it does have a really nice growl, but at lower volumes, it's pretty much mud. Fortunately, the other big draw of this amp is that there are a ton of websites out there dedicated to doing modifications to it. For a few bucks worth of replacement resistors, capacitors, and vacuum tubes, you can apparently take it from mediocre to studio quality. So I've decided to give it a go, and that means...
Soldering!
I'm actually kind of ashamed to admit that I've never soldered anything before. If for nothing else than the geek cred, it's a skill that I wish I had picked up somewhere along the way. I mean, it's not welding or using a cutting torch (an activity which I believe Adam once described as, "Slicing metal with fire...the manliest thing ever.") but, hey, you're still liquifying metal with heat. That's pretty cool. So I bought this amp partially with the intention of finally learning how to do this.
Just watch me get lead poisoning. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 4th, 2006|10:41 pm] |
the Wit
(76% dark, 11% spontaneous, 26% vulgar)
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your humor style:
CLEAN | COMPLEX | DARK
You like things edgy, subtle, and smart. I guess that means you're probably an intellectual, but don't take that to mean pretentious. You realize 'dumb' can be witty--after all isn't that the Simpsons' philosophy?--but rudeness for its own sake, 'gross-out' humor and most other things found in a fraternity leave you totally flat.
I guess you just have a more cerebral approach than most. You have the perfect mindset for a joke writer or staff writer.
Your sense of humor takes the most thought to appreciate, but it's also the best, in my opinion.
You probably loved the Office. If you don't know what I'm
talking about, check it out here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/theoffice/.
PEOPLE LIKE YOU: Jon Stewart - Woody Allen - Ricky Gervais
( the rest... ) | |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 29th, 2006|09:13 pm] |
Damn, Chicago does have some nice nightlife! My neighbor invited me out on Wednesday night to go see "Massive Attack" at The Riviera. I'd never heard of the band (does that make me old?) and had no idea what kind of music they play, but, fuck, I needed to get out, so I said yeah. Turned out to be a good choice. The band played a good show, and aside from one or two shite songs, I really liked what I heard.
After the show ended at 10, we decided that weekday night or not, we needed to stay out longer. So we went over to Smartbar near Wrigley Field. Cool club. A lot bigger dance-floor and a lot better DJ than anything I was used to in Japan (except for Tokyo's ageHa). It felt really good to get out dancing again after two months. Before calling it a night, we also went over to one other place -- Moonshine. It was alright. Very laid back.
Anyway, the moral of the story is that Miller Lite is shit. I don't want to be one of those "Oh, foreign beers are always better" guys (although I probably am), but seriously, that stuff is fucking swill.
btw, anybody want to go see a burlesque show tomorrow night? ;) Suicidegirls.com is doing one at the Double Door. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 26th, 2006|09:15 am] |
This news is about a week late, but since nobody else posted about it, I figured it needed to be done. All the fighting in the Middle East can stop, because the one true religion has finally returned:
click for youtube video
And Brian's need to upgrade his computer just increased exponentially. I hear the MacBook Pro + Boot Camp plays Steam pretty well. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 4th, 2006|05:07 pm] |
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So I've been quite sick since last Thursday. I have a very sore throat. How sore? Well, my throat is so swollen that I can actually see my epiglottis sticking up behind my tongue. That put me into a bit of a panic when I first saw it (and makes swallowing an interesting challenge), but my doctor assured me that it's not that unusual. He did the swab test for strep throat (negative) and has me on a bunch of pills, prescription Breathsavers, and this really nasty liquid I'm supposed to gargle as much as possible each day. Fortunately, this week the students have no classes, so it's pretty much okay if I stay home the whole time resting. |
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| Time for random musings... |
[Jun. 13th, 2006|03:41 pm] |
Why do they make bicycle seats black? Don't they know how fucking hot black gets when it's sitting out in the summer sun all day? And don't they realize that bicycle seats are placed against the part of the body where a person least wants a hot instrument of burning? And who are "they"? Probably the Liberal Media, those bastards.
Do you know how out of stock the Nintendo DS (both the Lite and original) is in Japan right now? Stores are importing them from North America. I bought one of these. It's nifty. I suck at Metroid.
Will I never again be able to view World Cup games at a reasonable time of day? Four years after the summer of sleepless hell that was the Japan/Korea World Cup, I once again find myself existing on about 4 hours of sleep a night. Come on Japan and the USA! If I'm going to turn myself into a narcoleptic to watch you play, you could at least have the decency to win. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 29th, 2006|05:30 pm] |
Happy Birthday, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) tulip18!
That's all for now. Just know that you rule! ;) |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 26th, 2006|11:51 am] |
During dinner on Sunday night, I bit my tongue -- hard. I actually took a little chunk out of the side of it. For those of you who've never had the accidental pleasure of doing this, you bleed a lot from it. Your mouth just floods with the stuff. But fortunately, the tongue also appears to be good at sealing itself up quickly. About five minutes after the whole thing started, I was back at the table enjoying my Mos Burger. Quite impressive actually.
I'm not sure what the point of that story is.
...Anyway, I had a really nice Sunday aside from that. I went to my monthly airsoft game, which we held at a new location in the foothills of some mountain. My team managed to lose every single game -- our opponents were just too organized and really played the "suppress and flank" strategy for all it's worth. However, I did set a new personal best with 11 "gets" for the day. But the highlight of the day was actually when I was waiting at the train station on my way home. I arrived at the small, village station over an hour before the next departure, found a bench, and just lay there resting my sore muscles and enjoying the cool, spring breeze. I felt so relaxed by the time the train arrived. Really a zen, "at peace with the whole world" kind of moment. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 17th, 2006|11:19 am] |
I was riding my bike to the bookstore last night, when I reached a point of important decision. I could either continue going straight for several more blocks, along the path I always take, or I could take an immediate right down a route I rarely travel. Neither way really offers any advantages over the other. The only reason I take the usual straight path is that it prevents me from having to jaywalk to reach my destination. But this night I decide, fuck it, let's turn right.
Moments after making my right turn, I look straight ahead at the night sky. And what do I see? The largest, most gorgeous shooting star I've ever witnessed. This was not just a quick streak of white across the black sky. This was a great red fireball, its flames visible in detail, pieces of it crumbling away and igniting into smaller flames in their leader's wake. If I had taken my usual path, if I had gone straight as always, I would have missed this brief glimpse of beauty. Clearly this is a sign. I must buy meteor insurance.
Also, Happy B-Day, Wookie! |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 30th, 2006|09:35 am] |
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I've watched a lot of movies this week, so I think I'll do a quick review of them. I know that my opinions matter to all of you, so here goes: ( Possible spoilers ahead ) |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 22nd, 2006|11:40 am] |
Well, I just got back from a crazy, spur-of-the-moment roadtrip. My friend Jenny called me up on Friday and asked "Do you want to go to Shikoku tomorrow?" Shikoku isn't exactly close by. Getting there requires driving about 3 hours, either crossing the world's longest suspension bridge or taking an hour long ferry, and then another hour or two of driving just to get anywhere interesting. But I had Monday and Tuesday off from work and nothing else to do so, "Yeah, let's go!"
It was a cool trip. We basically made up all of our plans as we went along, but we got to take in a lot of the island (except for Matsuyama, sorry Tom). We drank at a tea house in the middle of the largest garden in Japan, got drunk on the town in Takamatsu, visited an old battleground with its ominous sounding "Pool of Blood", followed the path of the vanquished as they retreated to their ancestral hideout in the mountains, drove along precarious canyon roads 650 feet above the river below, crossed a vine bridge (with planks spaced far enough apart that your leg could easily slip through) spanning a deep gorge, stayed at a cliff side hostel, and visited a shrine at the top of a 700 step staircase.
Hopefully I'll have some pictures up eventually. All the good ones will have to wait until I get copies of Jenny's though. She actually had the guts to lean over railings and take pictures looking down 650 feet. |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 3rd, 2006|09:26 am] |
The reports are completely true. Since there's been several interesting looking games coming out for it, I decided to take a long lunch yesterday and went out to buy a new Nintendo DS Lite. I went to every game shop in my city (all four of them), and it was sold out at every one of them. Even at the toy store that has so few customers / sales that they still have new, unopened Super Famicom games on display. Even more surprising, it wasn't just the DS Lite that was sold out, but the original DS was also nowhere to be found.
Plenty of XBox 360s though. ;) |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 28th, 2006|03:00 pm] |
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This one's mainly for Kristin, but if you haven't yet, go watch the trailer for the new Silent Hill movie. Are we finally getting a video game movie that doesn't suck? I hope so. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 17th, 2006|10:58 am] |
Since I had a night of camouflage painting planned, I stopped off at the convenience store after work yesterday to buy some newspaper to line my kitchen floor with. Having no intention of actually reading the paper, I simply grabbed the first one I could find and headed home. When I arrived, I finally discovered what I had picked up:
The Escort Service Classifieds
20 pages full of ads for strip clubs, love hotels, massage parlors, soaplands, grope clubs, and hostess bars. My kitchen floor is now covered with phone numbers, hourly rates, coupons, and pictures of the employees. It's quite the humorous scene. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 19th, 2005|11:42 am] |
After a weekend spent largely away from the news and the Internet, I spent the morning at work catching up. Particularly by reading the discussions on fark over the "George W. Bush authorized illegal spying on American citizens" fiasco. Needless to say I was appalled by this and by the ability of some people to still support it. Searching for any possible reason that somebody could find this acceptable, I came to the following conclusion:
American politics is the NFL.
It's become increasingly clear through numerous flamewars that rational debate, logic, and even an ability to stick to your true values have vanished. Politics is now simply our team versus theirs. The GOP Elephants vs. the DNC Donkeys. How many times in a flamewar have I seen this jewel tossed out:
"You lost the election! Get over it!"
That's right, I forgot, the Presidential election is the championship game. Winner takes all. Loser goes home with no right to a political voice for the next 4 years because his team lost. I swear there must be a portion of the electorate that simply votes for whichever party they think is going to win, so they can having bragging rights.
And just like football fans (sports fans in general, actually), the only allowable criticism of the team comes from that team's supporters. A Green Bay Packers fan may call the coach a fucking idiot, hope for a change in quarterbacks, and analyze the weaknesses of the team's defensive line (even Bill O'Reily criticizes Bush on occasion), but god forbid one of those dirty, Chicago Bears lovers ever says the same thing. "He's got no right!" There is no such thing as constructive criticism from the opposition. There is only trash talking.
And let's certainly not commit the gravest sin of ever abandoning your team. No matter how poorly they're doing, no matter how many players have been arrested, the true fan will never start cheering for a different team. "I was born in Pittsburgh. I was born a Steelers fan. I'm going to die a Steelers fan!" Well what if your team no longer plays the game the way that made you a fan in the first place? What if their whole coaching strategy is in complete opposition to what made you admire them? Gonna start rooting for another team that plays more in line with the kind of football that you like? "Nope. Steelers fan."
Well wake up people! This is not a sport. There's more at stake than bragging rights. Republicans in general need to remember what their values were. Through various artificially created crises, you've become convinced that your values are in stopping gay marriage, removing evolution from the textbooks, and defending the phrase "Merry Christmas." When the real (and quite often admirable) Republican values of smaller government, personal responsibility, and conservative fiscal policies have been absolutely violated by the current "coach".
But that's alright, as long as your team keeps winning.
(Note that any team names used in metaphors may be wildly out of line with the reality of that team. For all I know, the Steelers have played the same since the day they were created.) |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 15th, 2005|08:23 am] |
I have to go play Santa Claus again in about an hour. No, I didn't gain any weight since I did it last year. Yes, I'll try to get pictures.
In the War on Christmas, I'm our agent behind enemy lines. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 30th, 2005|01:31 pm] |
So I've finally gotten started on my programming project. My eventual goal is to write a simple ray tracer, a web browser based front end, and access to a database of previously created objects, scenes, material types, etc. But for a first milestone, I'm just aiming for the ray tracer. However...
I'm way out of practice. It's taken me two full days just to write a vector class that stores a private array, gives read-write access to the array through an overloaded [] operator, and basic vector math functions (dot/cross product, linear combination, scalar addition). I've had to spend most of that time reviewing what const, static, pass by reference, etc. mean. And I really got tripped up by pointers for a couple hours. I've got a long way to go. =/
EDIT:
I just wanted to add that, if you haven't used it before, Xcode on the Mac is very nifty. I'm finding it much easier to work with than Visual Studio. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 24th, 2005|02:55 pm] |
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Happy Thanksgiving! Pour some gravy on the curb for your homies who can't be there (like me). |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 9th, 2005|11:03 pm] |
Argh!!! My fucking iBook just crapped out again! Time to send it in for logic board #4.
Doesn't Apple have a 3 strikes and we replace it rule? |
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