Beginning writing and buying expensive things I don’t use.

For all intents and purposes I thoroughly enjoy writing. Obviously else I would not have written this. Recently I took it upon myself to fire up a copy of Microsoft Office 2010 beta (I love open source but Office 2010 actually makes your manuscript look, well, ‘manuscripty’ and this pleases both my eyes and my heart). I immediately discovered that writing a blog post is easy, anyone can do that although it’s harder to write a blog post that is both interesting and something a complete stranger will want to read. Read more »

Kill The Naked: Progress Report 1

It has been quite some time since I have been able to post any updates regarding my ‘Kill The Naked’ album project, but I do have some further information and some audio clips from a work in progress to share with you!

To be honest my schedule has become so busy in recent weeks that it has been virtually impossible to find not only the time but the drive to carry on with the project. That is not to say I haven’t done any work on tracks for the album (which I am fast reconsidering streamlining down to an EP, for now, due to schedule constraints).

I’ve laid down quite a few bits that just haven’t developed in to something further. I think production kind of got a bit muddled and I wasn’t sure what direction I wanted to take tracks in. However a track I began work on as a techno track has actually evolved in to a drum and bass track. The decision to change genre was based purely on the sample used for the track.

This work in progress samples an 80’s classic (yes I know it’s the ‘in’ decade right now but that was not the reason for inclusion here). I initially used the sample within a 4/4 balls-out techno track but found it sounded a bit too generic and offered nothing new. It was only recently after scrapping the techno track and completely reworking the sample that I found it would fit in to a drum and bass style perfectly. Hence the decision to take the track forward as drum and bass.

The track has no title but you can listen to two separate clips at the end of this post. I’d love to get some critique to see what you think. The bass line and various effects and levels have yet to be added so what your hearing is essentially vanilla.

Lastly I think I am enjoying drum and bass production more than house/techno production. I think it offers me more room for creativity and experimentation with some bizarre ideas. The techno stuff just became formulaic and I wasn’t enjoying it so I think the final EP (or album) product may well not feature this genre but concentrate more on experimental breakbeat tracks. Of course with the way production is going right now I’ll probably have changed my mind again by the next update.

For now though, enjoy the audio clips and please do drop in a comment or two. All critique welcome!

Audio clip one:

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Audio clip two:

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Sunday Seafoam fun! If I can do it, so can you!

Having taken a couple of weeks to get used to the knacks and quirks of buying a used car, I used the time between purchase and today to do lots of research on our new vehicle.

Since purchase I have actually undertaken a couple of small jobs already. A couple still remain which I will get around to sooner rather than later. I began by replacing the air filter, a simple enough job considering I have never actually attempted to do this before. Next up was stripping out the useless (and broken) radio the previous owner had left in it. This actually led me to uncover a whole host of issues regarding the stereo.

Wires were cut off in the wrong place, patched to the wrong wires causing one speaker (the rear left one) to blow at some point before I took ownership and mute all but one speaker. Whoever wired this stereo and speakers up had absolutely no idea what they were doing I’ll tell you that much.

I chose to buy and install a Kenwood KDC-MP142 head unit complete with remote control and front aux (perfect for plugging my iPod in to). I was tired post-working day and wanted the install out of the way quickly. Removing the radio panel and old head unit was simple enough. Even installing the head unit and the rest of the plugs was easy enough.

That is until I got to the last cable, the power ISO harness.

Behind that front panel was a complete dog’s breakfast of wires. To cap it off the harness that was wired up to the old head unit was so badly done (and the wrong size for my new Kenwood) that I didn’t want to risk it and thus had to wait until yesterday to get the entire car audio setup rewired by a professional. I’d like to take this opportunity to highly recommend Mr. Henry at Funky Tang’s in George Town, Grand Cayman. He was very quick, very professional and done an excellent job on the audio wiring.

During installation he actually discovered a whole host of problems with the wiring that I would have otherwise not discovered. Wires were cut off in the wrong place, patched to the wrong wires causing one speaker (the rear left one) to blow at some point before I took ownership and mute all but one speaker. Whoever wired this stereo and speakers up had absolutely no idea what they were doing I’ll tell you that much.

Delighted with the ability to listen to music on the daily commute, next up was something I have read so much about on the Internet. Seafoam.

Seafoam is the jewel in the DIY car maintenance crown it would seem. Every page I loaded online during my research on Seafoam raved and celebrated its brilliance. But what does it do and why use it?

Seafoam is a petroleum-based product that you add to your vehicle in order to clean dirt and sticky residue directly from your engine. The most recommended way to utilize Seafoam is by dividing the can in to thirds. One third you add directly to the engine oil. The second third you add directly to the gas tank. The final third you add either via the PCV valve or via the brake booster vacuum. I chose the latter which was a little daunting as on my first attempt the engine cut out and for a moment I thought I had wrecked my shiny new gas guzzler.

Thankfully this was not the case. Upon adding the entire can of Seafoam to the vehicle all that was left was to wait around 20 minutes or so while the Seafoam worked its magic and hope and pray the vehicle would start when I went back outside to inspect the results!

With 20 minutes gone I ventured outside with the good woman who helped me video what we hoped would be the infamous Seafoam spectacle of Chernobyl-grade plumes of white smoke emanating from the exhaust pipe of our All-American economy destroyer. Alas we did not receive the spectacle we were so hoping for, but that is actually a positive result. The less smoke you get from a Seafoam treatment, the cleaner your engine is deemed to be. Sure, we got the odd plume here and there, but thankfully we were not overcome with masses of fumes. A result really, it means our thirteen year old vehicle is in tip top shape (at least from a cleanliness point of view, let us not jinx anything here!).

I took the Explorer out for a quick, vigorous drive to help clear the remainder of the Seafoam out of the vehicle and I’ll be honest with you, this stuff really is as good as users across the Internet say it is. The effects really are immediate. I noticed the car idled differently, smoother even. The other big thing I noticed was the throttle response was far more immediate than before the treatment. A real bonus because I thought with the lack of masses of smoke I would not notice much of a difference in performance. I like to be proven wrong!

Have a look at the video on the Stuff I Wrote YouTube channel (below) which shows you first hand the results of my experimentation with Seafoam. The stuff really does work and I thoroughly recommend it!

A nice change, and another story that is not quite as good

I don’t even need to confess, the date stamp says it all, I’ve not updated this site in forever. I apologize.

However upon embarking upon such a monumental feat as to write a new blog entry, I decided to couple it with a site makeover. I felt the old design wasn’t working out so I went for a different theme (plus my ever-ongoing tweaks) that I feel is much better suited and easier to use.

So what has been going on for all this time? Well, offline it’s been a very busy 5 or so weeks. I haven’t even had time to put any effort in to the music project at all, that has ground to a complete halt. Although with the schedule looking rather lighter in the coming weeks I should have a bit more time to dedicate to it.

I recently moved in to the world of the netbook by purchasing an Acer Aspire One. Would you believe it runs Windows 7 Ultimate astonishingly well? Windows 7 aside, the netbook and a copy of Notepad++ should provide ample opportunities to scribe new entries whilst on the go (or while the good lady is using this notebook to look at photos on social-networking websites).

I’m a keen follower of human rights issues, especially when it involves freedom of speech and privacy issues. I am closely following an issue close to home where a local ISP is looking to implement Deep Packet Inspection technology. The general public have been asked to provide input on the matter and I intend to submit my comments soon on the matter.

All of this should pack my schedule up quite nicely for the foreseeable!

Exclusive ‘Kill The Naked’ audio clip!

Another small update regarding the album project. I’ve spent some time working on drum programming to get some really crazy breaks going on. I thought I would put it a quick clip of some stuff I am working on right now, see what you make of it.

It’s rough stuff (literally!) but I like where it’s headed along with the unpredictability of the breaks. Right now it’s all just experimental to see what sounds I can make, maybe some of this stuff will make it in to the final project, we shall see.

Listen and (hopefully) enjoy this small clip. Comments are very much welcome!

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