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Attempt to increase frequency (24 Nov 2008 at 18:56)
Most of the comments I get about my blog are actually in-person comments about how infrequently I post on it. Isn't that embarrassing? I should do better. Part of the idea of this recent categories thing was that I shouldn't have to worry so much that the posts I make have some level of quality and composition to them. Because if you don't like my posts about XYZ subject you just don't have to add that particular RSS feed to your feed. Ready! Minutia!

Category: Computer Woes made worse by stubbornness On Friday I came back to my computer and I wake the screen and start using the internet or whatever, and then I go to click on something and I'm like where's the damn mouse cursor? Oh, it's stuck in the middle of the screen. Paralysis. So I do all the obvious stuff like reboot and plug and unplug and pray and even sophisticatedly things like BIOS updates and driver updates, all without the mouse mind you, then also the other USB devices are not functioning, like they charge their little batteries but there is no function. Which sucks because (a) I can't install the new iPhone update which fixes some iPhone headaches and (b) I can't draw or make music on the computer and (c) I can't work on one of my secret projects that I was hoping to finish up since it is coming up on its 1 year anniversary approximately and (d) grrr and (e) I'm pretty sure this is a hardware problem so it's not even something I can fix through the powers of troubleshooting or reformatting, i.e. we gotta get a repair dude out here and (f) lots of software is not made for people with no mouses, so I am finding out about all sorts of intriguing tab-orders and figuring out how to write emacs lisp so that I can move and resize the emacs window with brand new key bindings because emacs text editing is one of the only attractive activities when you've got no mouse or joystick or drawing tablet or iPhone 2.2 update, and even in apps that do fully support keyboard navigation e.g. web browsers, there are so many selectable elements that ixnay on individually tab-pressing and so you gotta point your visual gaze at one of the elements and play "focus roulette", whereby you hold down the tab key and watch the selection zip around a few times until you've got the timing down and you release just in time for jackpot! But I actually like this level of creativity in familiar activities, like playing Pacifist Counter-Strike as Edward AK47-hands and (g) I think I actually finished my Pac Tom level 1 project but I can't upload the results from my GPS so that I can make a nice map and share this momentous occasion, so that's a bit of anticlimax for you there. But I tabbed my way to Dell on-line chat support and I was really impressed when I didn't have to walk through any bullshit obvious troubleshooting flowcharts, and in two minutes he was just like, OK I will send you a new motherboard, it will be there tomorrow, and we can send a person out to replace it for you if you want (don't want). Nice! Sometimes it's good to pay for the deluxe service.

Category: Band Level-Up Also: Nels and I played a fairly bang-up open mic night a few weeks ago meaning we felt good about it, and then I was very amused that one of the guys running the open mic thing came up to us right after and was like, "You guys wanna play a local artists showcase?" Which is almost literally what happens when your virtual band is a pretty shitty but not shittiest virtual band in the game Rock Band. So, more positive evidence that video games do in fact prepare you for real life. Anyway we chose the "Yeah, Sure!" option (as my Rock Band buddies will attest I do without even glancing at the terms of the deal) and so we are going to play one of these things in early January and you are all invited of course. Details forthcoming.
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Scott/Graue (ip70-179-119-114.dc.dc.cox.net) – 11.26.08 00:15:43
Are you fairly serious about the SR&TSR project? I have to admit I've kinda ignored it because I thought it was going to be like Underground Onions. I think I listened to the giving $43 billion to charity blues a while back and concluded it was a joke band or something. This sounds kind of cruel from someone who's a fan of most of your projects, sorry. If questioned about my bluntness in stating this, I will claim I was drunk.

I am glad that you're playing open mics though, yay.
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Tom 7 (pokemon.wv.cc.cmu.edu) – 11.26.08 10:46:30
Well yeah, we are serious in the sense that we practice regularly and write songs and hope that people enjoy them. The arrangement has plenty of irony (like usual) and humor (like usual) but it's not like a joke on the listener or anything. (Underground Onions wasn't supposed to be a joke on the listener either; it was us legitimately screwing around for a couple of hours, but the results are sorts unlistenable, true. Don't hold that against other projects ;)) The emphasis for me with SR&SR is on the live performance, since that's one really different and great thing about playing with others. Most of my solo thingies have been about recording. Obviously feel free to ignore or dislike whatever projects you want, but I think some of our newer songs are really great. I do hope to do recordings of them eventually.
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Adhesion (94.79.163.241) – 11.29.08 07:59:33
Good luck on your awesome gig, I'm sure you'll blow everyone away. You should sneak someone in to surreptitiously record it. Just make sure not to take one of those "must get 5 stars on every song" offers (that one sucks pretty hard) and you'll be well on your way to acquiring a van and soundman and private jet and other rock'n'roll accessories.
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Scott/Graue (ip70-179-119-114.dc.dc.cox.net) – 11.29.08 10:57:10
See, I told you Adhesion was a better supporter than me. Heh. Well, I saw the live video for "Unfairbanks" and have concluded that I do enjoy this project. Godspeed! (But, you know, without the black emperor.)
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Adhesion (94.79.163.241) – 11.29.08 16:00:39
Oh, in order to further cement my fan cred I demand that you post mp3s of Muse or vampires are going to be pissed that we stole their shit and I Get Crunk, they sound pretty shitty on Myspace.
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Tom 7 (pokemon.wv.cc.cmu.edu) – 12.03.08 10:48:29
I will cave to these demands!
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Adhesion (94.79.163.241) – 12.07.08 05:54:19
Hooray! Now get http://untitledgif.iuma.com/ back up (or equivalent) and maybe then my rabid music thirst will be slaked.

I just realized I should probably check if that got picked up by the Internet Archive, so I will do that now.
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Adhesion (94.79.163.241) – 12.07.08 05:55:54
One page from 2005 and none of the download links work. Damnation!
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Adhesion (94.79.163.241) – 12.07.08 06:16:47
...and I just found a bunch of them on the actual untitled.gif site (http://untitledgif.org/mp3/). Is that all of them?
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Tom 7 (h-74-0-114-193.phlapafg.dynamic.covad.net) – 12.07.08 13:15:26
Well IUMA is definitely dead to me forever, but I was gonna say, all that stuff is lovingly tucked away on the actual untitled.gif site, but then I looked to check if indeed all that stuff is there in that directory and it's not. I had not uploaded (and just did):

St. Thomas Aquinas
Team Crime (how could I?!)
Child of Pink Thing (ugh)
Onasni
Red Ninja X


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Adhesion (94.79.163.241) – 12.08.08 05:55:53
Thanks! You know a song's good when the author adds an (ugh).
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Tom 7 (h-74-0-114-36.phlapafg.dynamic.covad.net) – 12.08.08 18:09:29
Yeah, I think that's one that I deliberately never uploaded. The recording is particularly muddly-sounding. But now it's been so long that it's just archaeology...
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