Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. Jack has had his first birthday and the first Christmas that he's really aware of, and as a result, I have a veritable crapload of Jack pictures to present.

The pictures of him from over a month ago are so startling. He's really growing like the proverbial weed. He knows how to give high fives and he also knows how to give kisses now. Which is pretty much the cutest thing ever.

The pictures that are marked 12-18 were actually taken on his birthday, but our camera seems to be malfunctioning in some subtle way.

The pictures of Mike and Beth holding him are representative of a theme, wherein at his birthday party we had everyone hold him so that we could have a picture for his memory book.

Of course, the boy had a blast at Christmas, and Grandma and Grandpa spoiled him. Which is no surprise. Christmas night we went out to see the Lights of the Ozarks. Supposedly this might be the last year they do that, which would be a shame. They're so pretty.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is proof that summer is over and autumn is here. The last few days I've stripped the basil plants out back, and made a mountain of pesto. A small taste of summer in the midst of winter. (I put a little bit of capers and olives in my pesto. It adds a little sumthin' sumthin'.)

Ok, I'm about to say something that might piss some people off. I've been avoiding political rants simply because the concentrated effort of writing about 'President' Bush will likely give me an aneurysm. However, be that as it may, I'm going to break my habit of not talking about political things lately on my blog and make a little comment about the Democratic candidates for President.

First, let's preface this by saying that I'm probably about as liberal as they come. I think the Republicans are wrong about pretty much everything. Demonstratively. Things, despite the Republicans being in control of both houses of Congress, the Supreme Court and the Presidency for a number of years, things are by and large, WORSE than they were a decade ago. Ok. That aside.

Hillary Clinton. Just because you have a vagina, slept with the former President in the White House for a number of years, and are the junior Senator from New York, that does NOT mean that you have any more 'experience' than Barrack Obama, or anyone else for that matter, or that you would represent women's interests any better than anyone else, simply because of your shared anatomy.

I think she's pretty much unelectable (she's too polarizing, since you asked), and it makes me frickin' livid that the so-called 'liberal media' has all but anointed her as the Democratic candidate, without so much as a vote being cast.

Rant mode off.

Ok, a few VST finds for Mike (and whoever) here, mostly flanging effects but one synth:

First is Charsiesis, a delay/chorus/flanger with a very good organic sound. Works great as an insert effect on some hi-hats.

Next is Classic Flanger, by the unpronounceable Kjaerhus Audio. It's what it sounds like.

Next is TAL-Flanger. It's got a very good analoguish flange sound.

These all sound good alone, but stacked together and you get a really full sweeping sound on drums or synths.

Finally, is the STS-26, Space Transition Synthesizer, with a sound not unlike Krakli Cygnus. It's quite versatile, and there's a free version that gives you only 2 oscillators. I think the pay version gives you 8, which kind of blows my mind.

If you'd like to hear an mp3 of my latest psytrance tune, Consciousness, you can download it here. It's long, and kind of a stomper, full-on psychedelic trance tune. It's designed to be of use for a DJ, which is why the ending is so boring.

Finally, the other day Beth and Jack and I went to the pumpkin patch. Here's a picture.

So, we got into a discussion about whether or not Dumbledore is gay last night. My sister-in-law, the German lit professor, doesn't think it's 'textually supported.' Which I think is a load of hooey. Speaking as a writer (albeit a so-far unpublished writer, but a writer nonetheless), my point of view is that Mrs. Rowling, as the author, knows far more about the universe that she's created than anyone else. And just because there was no reason inherent in Harry Potter's story to reveal Dumbledore's sexuality, that doesn't mean that that's not a part of that character's makeup or background. Writers write all sorts of backstories all the time that don't end up in the actual story, for whatever reason. Most often because the backstory they write is irrelevant to the story they're trying to tell. But that doesn't mean that backstory doesn't exist or might somehow be relevant to the story of that character. In Harry Potter, obviously, no matter how important Dumbledore was, it was not the story of Dumbledore. It was the story of Harry Potter. I'm sure there's loads more about other characters that we don't know, simply because it wasn't important to telling Harry's story.

Anyway, my two cents worth, as an unpublished author. It's Mrs. Rowling's world, and whatever she says, goes. Also, she's not dead yet, and I'm sure we're not done reading stories set in that world.

In other news, and this is probably only of real interest to Mike (Hey, Mike, remember our Phonon Sounds idea? How about mailing each other a portable hard drive back and forth to each other? We could come up with some crazy sounds in no time, a few months tops. Let me know what you think.) and a few others, I've been producing (or attempting to) some psytrance, after seeing Goa Gil the other weekend. One of the techniques I've hit upon for making some very cool glitchy textures is to take an analoguish synth lead, any source, could be a VSTi, could be my Roland Juno 6, and then running it through 2 instances of Glitch, set to random, and then through some modulations/phasing/flanging and some delays. The result is always interesting.

Oh yeah, Phil Fucking Collins. This is some music made by taking Phil Collins songs and sonically deconstructing them. Very interesting. Compelling, in fact.

Playing with Jack this morning:

So, Beth made this amazing stuff for dinner, these Cuban sloppy joe sandwiches out of ground turkey, some sort of tomato sauce, olives, and then hoagies with a mojo sauce and pickles. Mmmm...

So, turn about is fair-play, and I made crepes with chocolate ice cream, chocolate syrup and whipped cream for dessert.

It's funny, the ways that someone that you KNOW can still surprise you. I got home from work and Beth was watching Harold and Kumar go to White Castle, or whatever. She said she had never heard of it, but was enjoying it immensely. Which is funny. Because I was certain that she would HATE that movie.

I had some other stuff I wanted to write, but I forgot what they were.

Here's a picture of Jack's feet.
















And this is the boy himself.