I’ve been looking for a better way to record my guitar and bass-based music. FL studio is great for MIDI and VST instruments, but I don’t like how it records audio. Conversely, Audition is great for multitracking audio, but the system chokes if I try and feed it MIDI. I had dicked around in Abelton Lite yesterday after work to see if it was viable, but I didn’t like the interface and poor usage of monitor space. I was looking into running Pro Tools M-Powered on my Delta 1010LT, but M-Audio is still struggling with compatibility with a 64 bit system. Cubase 5 looked ideal in every way except for the pricetag. There had to be something that would fit my needs a bit better without breaking the bank.

Enter Reaper.

What surprised me most is the fact that the program fits in such a small package. The PDF documentation was about four times bigger than the five meg download for the installer. The program is sleek, uncluttered, and customizable.

Download it now and try it out, and if you like what you see, the licenses come as cheap as $60.00!

I’d like to share some rejected song titles for a piece I’m working on.

• Hesitant Word Oil
• Rawhide Lion Tots
• Loin Wad Theorist
• A Howled Introits
• Loathed Ion Wrist

I’ve fallen in love with the Internet Anagram Server from Wordsmith.org.

My beer fridge finally gave up the ghost. I had a bunch more stickers to put on it but when it ended up out on the porch, I figured something like this was bound to happen. I had a Death sticker with the Sound of Perseverance album cover that faded to white and then completely fell off a few weeks before the malfunction.

After a period of less-than blogworthyness in my life, I came down with a pretty bad case of the flu. I don’t know if it was the regular type or the one that’s been getting all the scary headlines in the press but I did spend thanksgiving alone because of it. Luckily for me, I was able to recover just in time for this year’s Herald Hunt in Miami Beach.

The Hunt was fun this year but I found it way easy. It was held in the same town and basically a smaller part of the same neighborhood as last time, but the great facilities of the Adrianne Arscht center more than made up for it. I got together with some EvilCON alumni to form a team that ended up being five people large.

Only one puzzle slipped us up, though it turns out that I had guessed how to solve it without ever seeing the whole problem. We were able to arrive at the endgame solution without all of the other clues this year but there were already a throng of people at the site, some of whom were walking away because there was already a winner. We pulled a phone number out of the four dates and called it, expecting there to be six or seven other steps to get to end but the message said that there was already a winner.

There was not a hell of a lot of booing at the wrap-up, as it seemed like the majority of teams had solved most if not all of the Hunt puzzles including the skimpy end-game. The weather was about as nice as it could be in this state, and aside from some difficulties getting food at the Democratic Republic of Beer*, it was smooth sailing most of the way. I have a feeling that four more people will be back for the Hunt next year.

*DRB had some decent sliders but don’t even think about ordering bruchetta unless you want toasted hamburger buns covered with slap-chopped tomato. This is the only place I’ve seen Unibroue beer in the state so far, so drop by and order a bottle of La Fin Du Monde or Trois Pistoles if you’re in the mood for something different.

Sorry that I’ve been away from this thing for a while. I’ve been spending a fair amount of time fixing up the bachelor pad, most of which seems to be from assembling furniture. I’ve put together a leather office chair and two sets of media shelving. At one point, the experience reminded me of some fond childhood memories: putting together brightly colored plastic blocks while trying to make sense of the cryptic, wordless instructions in an attempt to make the pile of parts before me look like thing on the box. I came up with this slogan shortly afterwards:

Furniture: Lego for grownups.

I took this photo a few weeks ago. Apparently they were gassing up on the way to a poker game.

1. Mounting the Horned One (1:54)
2. Bearer of the Snakeshell Horn (1:29)
3. Sired in the Maze (1:57)
4. Hound of the Aegean (1:34)
5. The Seer of Tartarus (3:27)

I’d like to thank Juan Neguereula for designing the excellent logo. The photograph that the cover was based on is the Chimera of Arezzo, taken by Wikipedia user Lucarelli and released under the wikimedia commons license.

3/15/2008 found through Dictionary.com

defalcate: to steal or misuse money or property entrusted to one’s care

In his haste to get into the nightclub and start imbibing green-hued beverages, Harry soon found himself defalcated by a little man dressed like a Leprechaun, who turned out not to be the valet parking attendant after all.

3/08/2008 found through The Phrontistery

sciatherical:  pertaining to measurement of time by shadows; belonging to a sundial

Jimmy’s Sundial was inundated with repair requests from clients whose

sciatherical

instruments were off because of the recent daylight savings time change.

3/01/2008 found through WWFTD

obaceration:  of shutting someone’s mouth

Just as Stevenson was starting to ask her out for the fifth time that night, Samantha interrupted to ask him where he got the red dress from his myspace picture, a remark that lead to his immediate obaceration and departure from the party, and it was rumored to have prompted his sudden move to Saskatoon