It's a little crazy to do what I'm doing now, installing OS X Mountain Lion on my trusty MacBook at 10:30 at night. But the fact is, I want XCode. So Snow Leopard, it's been swell, but you gotta go.
I'm a recent Mac convert and I wouldn't consider myself an Apple diehard by any stretch. But one thing deserves a moment of reflection: with this one computer -- the no-frills base install -- I've been able to do everything I dreamed of doing when I was fourteen. Except land a date with a certain junior varsity cheerleader. Meh, she wouldn't have been impressed with my deep knowledge of BASIC anyway.
Man, the modern dentistry experience has changed a lot even in just the past decade. I walked in for a cleaning this week and was offered a pair of sunglasses so the overhead lights wouldn't blind me. Then they offered me the option to watch a movie while that cleaning was happening. Wait, what -- what are you talking about? Aren't we here to suffer? Isn't this the place where we're made to feel deep, deep shame for being common animals who eat food and age and practice instinctual pain avoidance? This is a place of penitence -- what do you mean by "would I like some headphones?"
What I’m trying to say is: let 2013 be the year you finally do that creative thing that you’ve been putting off. Don’t worry about how you’re going to start, just start. Make something. Connect with people through your art. Just do it. … Art is humanity’s only real opportunity at immortality. People are finite, ideas are infinite.
The best professionals love it when a passionate amateur shows up. The clarity and intelligence of a smart customer pushes both client and craftsman to do better work.
Gifted college professors don't fear online courses. Talented web designers don't fear cloud services. Bring them on! When you need something worth paying for, they say, we'll be here. And what we'll sell you will be worth more than we charge you.
If you're upset that the hoi polloi are busy doing what you used to do, get better instead of getting angry.
Study Hacks » Blog Archive » Does Luck Matter More Than Skill?. I love this. We like to talk about the "lucky break" but I really think we should separate "luck" from "break." Luck implies something fluffy and mysterious, beyond your control, while a break is an opportunity that comes along as a result of sustained work (but you still have to "catch" it). Plus: did you know that Arnold won a Golden Globe long BEFORE his Conan role? I did not!
EXPLONE - Life Ring. Speaking of breaks, Patrick tells the backstory of his longtime friendship with Mike Wansley, the big guy in the orange suit who sings the hook on Macklemore's "Thrift Shop."
2012 wasn't a banner year for solo music from me; a lot of my songwriting energy was focused on new Kin to Stars material, and most of that isn't even included below because it hasn't been recorded yet. I have a backlog of mostly-finished solo stuff I'm still deciding what to do with, but to be honest I'm more excited about getting the KtS stuff on tape first because KtS has a tenuous existence in the gaps between where Jerin and I actually have "lives." But looking back, I'm gratified to be reminded that all of the projects I'm involved in released music last year.
Here's all the recorded stuff I either wrote or performed on in 2012.
Kirby Krackle, "World Full Of Heroes" video (bass):
Kin to Stars, "Tell It To Me Straight" single (nearly everything except piano):
Kirby Krackle, "Web-Slinger/Hope-Bringer" single (bass):
Kirby Krackle, "Live in Seattle" album release (bass):
Explone, "Telescope & Satellite" album release (bass, backing vocals):
Kirby Krackle, "One More Episode" single (bass):
Kin to Stars, "Already Christmas" holiday single (everything except piano):
The Kirby Krackle machine is already in crazy high gear for 2013. First, our Calgary Expo gig opening for "Weird" Al Yankovic is already a go. Grab tickets here. This gig kind of warps my brain a bit, because long before "White And Nerdy" vaulted him back into the public consciousness in the mid-00s, I was rocking out to "Weird" Al's Michael Jackson and Madonna spoofs back in the mid-80s.
God, if I only had a time machine...
[INT: a kid's bedroom in West Virginia, 1985]
Teen Me: Omigod! Who are you?!
Future Me: I'm you! From the future! I'm here to tell you that in the future all your rock star dreams come true!
Teen Me: Really?!
Future Me: Yes! You play bass in a fantastic rock band! You tour the country! You have thousands of fans!
Teen Me: \m/ YES \m/
Future Me: And your first stadium show...
Teen Me: [Excited] Yeah?
Future Me: ...will be a great opening slot...
Teen Me: YEAH?
Future Me: ...in Canada!
Teen Me: OMG ARE WE OPENING FOR RUSH THAT'S AWESOME OMG OMG
Future Me: Ye -- what? Oh. No, not Rush. "Weird" Al Yankovic!
Teen Me: [blank stare.]
Future Me: I know, right?
Teen Me: Wha...that "Like A Surgeon" guy?
Future Me: [nods gleefully.]
Teen Me: He's still going?
Future Me: And you're 43 years old!
Teen Me: [visibly pales]
Future Me: Look what else we have in the FUTURE!
[ snaps photo of confused teenage self with iPhone and uploads it to Instagram.]
Okay, wow. Anyway, second: tix are now on sale for the third KRACKLEFEST, our annual nerd concert that coincides with Emerald City Comic-Con. This year's lineup includes Paul and Storm, The Doubleclicks and Nerds With Guitars. We're headlining, and if we pull off even a third of the stage antics that Kyle wants to do this year, it'll still be the can't-believe-you-missed-it, turn-in-your-nerd-badge, burn-your-character-sheet event of March 2013. Go get tickets here.
Long story short: over the holiday break I got to help a fellow Metafilter member record a song, written with his new ukelele, about another Metafilter member who made the ukelele for him, Secret Santa, er, Quonsar style. Does that make sense? If not, longer story here. In the meantime, enjoy the brief and clever grandiosity of rouftop's (a.k.a. Mike from Ballard) ode to cigar box mini-guitars:
My wife told me I should draw more often and some friends asked if I'll ever do more Lunchtime Portal Comix, so here's a thing that I did over the holiday break. How great was my holiday break? I had to stop doodling occasionally to eat ham and play Borderlands 2 at my wife's request. So: off the chain, as the kiddies say. Happy new year!
"Already Christmas" is an ode to the ones who remind us that the consumption-oriented winter holidays approacheth, even as we dust off our plastic skeletons and fake styrofoam grave markers. And it's based on a true story: I used to work at a JC Penney in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, dressing mannequins and putting up seasonal decorations, and one day I got an earful from an exasperated shopper who apparently couldn't accept that wreaths should start going up in October.
See? Be careful what you say and do -- you just might wind up in someone's novelty song twelve years later. And yeah, I DID use the Jingle-Matic on this recording. Anyway, it's a free download, so grab it from Bandcamp here.
