Archive for July, 2007
7/2/2007
As I write this (about 2:15pm), a thunderstorm just passed. The power went out for about two seconds during the heaviest part of the storm, and now all I can hear is light rain and low rumbling thunder in the distance.
I have always been a fan of thunderstorms, and you can’t get much better than the Tampa Bay area of Florida if that’s what you like.
During the summer season it usually rains once a day and when it does, it doesn’t last long. Maybe about a half-hour to an hour or so.
Today’s t-storm had lots of thunder and lightning.
It was awesome.
And as I’ve mentioned before, rain here is almost as warm as bathwater, so when you step out in the rain it feels good.
In New England it was rare that rain would give me good feelings, but here in Florida I really like it.
posted in blog | No Comments »
7/3/2007
Unilever (the guys and gals who make AXE products) recently deployed “new and improved” bottle and can designs for AXE shower gel and AXE body spray.
Both of them are absolutely terrible.
The body spray now shoots out way more spray than it needs to. What this means is that you’ll run out twice as fast as before. In addition to that, the “Phoenix” scent has changed - for the worse. I purposely bought five cans of the old (and better) design/scent. Once I run out I’ll be looking towards another body spray product.
The shower gel thankfully hasn’t changed in scent, but the new bottle design is awful. Easier to hold? Yes. Easier to open? No. They actually made it more difficult to open the bottle. I found myself scuffing my thumb on any attempt to open it.
Unilever, please go back to your old designs and scents. Your new offerings absolutely suck.
posted in blog | No Comments »
7/3/2007
In about forty-five minutes it will be July 4, 2007. That’s Independence Day in the United States of America. In other countries it lands on a different day, but in the USA it’s the fourth.
I truly found out what Independence Day meant in July of 2005, because that year I was forced to work (as in "go to work or you’re fired") that day with the current job I had at the time, which by the way was the worst job I ever had. Go figure.
Believe me when I say I’ll never forget that. It didn’t matter I was making time-and-a-half.
What mattered is that I was 100% pissed off.
I was angry getting up that morning, driving to work, actually working, driving home, and continued being angry for a good two days after that.
Shortly after that incident I quit that job, but I still wish to this day I give a hidey-ho "fuck you" to that corporation and just stayed home.
Yes, I said "corporation". A mindless, faceless entity that’s grown so large that it couldn’t care less about the people who work for it any longer. The kind of work places that are living versions of Dilbert cartoons. They exist only to give people crappy jobs for their crappy lives. Even if the crappy job is a high-paying job, it’s still a crappy job no matter how you look at it.
I look back on that now and it seems like a really long time ago.
My job now is 100% awesome. I do cool stuff every day. I couldn’t ask for a better boss - and I mean that sincerely. The guy knows what he’s doing, has a rock-solid company and is building it properly. You really can’t ask for any more than that.
. . .
Also, about 1.22 years ago I escaped New England. And yes, I consider it an escape. I got out. That’s a darn good definition of exercising independence to me, as in the freedom to go live where you want - and I did just that.
I love where I live. The weather is 1000% better, the people are nicer, and I smile knowing I’m here.
posted in blog | No Comments »
7/4/2007
I’ll answer the question before even starting this one: Yes, having the dot-com matters.
Ever since I decided to start blogging, I made it a point to use menga.net as the place where I would do my blogging. However, as time goes on I’m reminded over and over that most people think “internet” means “dot-com” and dot-com alone.
I am going to be moving this entire web site to www.frostedside.com (so you might want to bookmark that now). I’ve owned that just as long as menga.net. If I recall correctly, this domain is just a few weeks younger than menga.net is when I registered it way back in 1999.
It’s not that I have any problem getting traffic to menga.net. And if/when I move this site to frostedside.com, the traffic will eventually rise up over there. The problem is having people remember the domain name. To this day, if I tell someone “My web site is menga dot net”, some will reply with “Okay, so that’s menga dot net dot com?”
I’m not kidding.
Very frustrating and outright annoying.
What’s even more annoying is getting people to remember my e-mail address. Same deal as the domain name. I say my e-mail address is “rich at menga dot net”, and sure as anything, they’ll reply with “Oh! So it’s rich at menga dot com?”
NO. ARRRHHGHGHHHH…
I missed the boat with the dot-com so I don’t have it.
So why frostedside.com?
For those who remember, that domain was my biz site for a few years. I guess you can say I have some emotional attachment to that dot-com because it was the original name of my BBS (prior to popular internet). The name stuck - and anyone who has ever been aware of the name has never forgotten it.
In addition, it’s not uncommon for biz owners to blog and blog often. So I might as well chuck it all into a single dot-com domain that I actually like. Makes sense to me.
As I said above, the web traffic will eventually build up on frostedside.com. Although menga.net gets a fair amount of search engine hits, I know I’ll be sacrificing that by moving over to the dot-com, but hey.. the dot-com is the way to go.
To those who currently e-mail me regularly, my “rich at menga dot net” e-mail address will auto-forward to my new one, and menga.net will also auto-forward to frostedside.com once I have that all set up.
posted in blog | No Comments »
7/4/2007
The switchover to frostedside.com is complete, and unless I didn’t tell you, you probably don’t notice the difference (that’s a good thing).
The site is 99% working. I have a few odds and ends to clean up, but everything seems to be running properly.
I did, however, discover something a bit disturbing after I switched over the mail system to Google Apps.
Before I tell you what it is, I’ll tell you what led to the discovery of the problem.
Menga.net is all set up with Google Apps, so I followed suit for frostedside.com. What I did is set up a “catch-all” e-mail account for everything to funnel into. Normally this is spam suicide for most webmasters, but Google Apps is good enough to thwart nearly all kinds of spam that’s out there.
Right after I set up the catch-all, the spam started flooding in. I expected this. The googlemail servers filtered it appropriately and dumped 100% of it into the “Spam” folder.
Because I was curious, I opened up the folder just to see what was in there.
I found a crapload of “Mail delivery failed: returning message to sender” headers.
Uh-oh.
This means that spambots are spoofing people using frostedside.com as the origination.
Not good.
So I tried something I hadn’t done before, that being to enable SPF. My host allows for custom SPF settings, and Google Apps has a specific SPF setting you can use. Hopefully this will slow down (and hopefully eliminate) the spambot spoofers.
Other than that, things are more or less a-okay. :-)
posted in blog | No Comments »
7/5/2007
Not all life lessons are biggies. Some are just little discoveries.
Such as..
The tee shirt you buy for five bucks will only last for about fifteen washes before looking like absolute shit. The twenty-dollar tee will (usually) last a lot longer and age properly instead of just falling apart.
The shortest line at the checkout is always the slowest.
The best time to shop for anything generic (shampoo, toothpaste, razors, etc) is at a 24-hour Wal-Mart on a Sunday at six in the morning. There’s no lines and everything is in re-stocked for the week.
The best way to clean the inside of your car’s windshield is with a $1.50 mini-squeegee and a bottle of Windex. Also works on side mirrors, too. It’s just the right size.
Always carry a roll of paper towels in your car.
Always stock your glove box with a crapload of fast-food napkins.
Put a cordless phone in the bathroom, or carry your cell phone in there when you have to take a leak or do a #2, because that always seems to be the time when people call you.
Only buy pens that feel comfortable in the hand, and always have at least five in a place where you know they will be.
Have a pad next to those pens at all times.
Always carry at least five dollars worth of quarters somewhere in your car. Good for snacks, unexpected tolls, etc.
. . .
I could go on and on.
Today’s little life lesson is:
If you use a shower curtain, only use washable ones.
I made this little discovery a few years back. What I used to do is just buy all-plastic shower curtains. Basically speaking, you can’t clean them and they run the risk of getting deformed in the wash. Attempting to clean them with cold water only is a futile effort.
However..
“Heavy Duty” shower curtains (the kind they use in hotels) are washable because they use a kind of water-repellent fabric instead of straight plastic. Any/all water stains wash right out in a single light-wash cycle with any detergent - even with hot water.
Shower curtains like these are in the most ugly unattractive plain-jane generic packages you’ve ever seen.
But they work.
And they don’t look ugly. Just the package does.
Bonus: They have tiny rubber “feet” on either side so you can stick them to the shower wall. This keeps water in the shower where it belongs.
I’ve washed my existing curtain five times (or so). I just washed it yesterday and the fabric looks as clean as it did the day it came out of the box.
Price for this curtain: Eight to twelve bucks.
posted in blog | No Comments »
7/5/2007
A few days ago I was in chat with someone who is a fan of my music and he noted a couple of things:
1. The fact I can work the Alesis Fusion 6HD so well astonishes people.
2. Alesis should hire me.
Per #1, I honestly don’t know how to react to statements like that. But I will say that I notice that lots of synth players don’t play synths as instruments, but rather tools. Making a synth work for you is as simple as using the tired old cliché of “thinking outside the box”, or in this case, thinking outside the preset.
An unexpected problem faced by Alesis concerning their buyers is that the Fusion is a humongous leap from the QS6.2 and 8.2 models. It is a full blown workstation. It’s big, it’s beefy and it’s complicated - just like a workstation should be. You have to have somewhat of a programmer’s mind to wield one properly.
Based on the message board threads I’ve read from those who transitioned from the QS to the Fusion, they were left in utter confusion. Most had never touched a true-blue workstation before. Never before had they experienced this kind of technology. It’s more than an instrument; it’s a computer with keys.
When I bought the Fusion, I knew what I was buying. All workstation synths are complicated and it takes months to figure out all the stuff they can do.
Alesis’ decision to put the Fusion to market was a bold one. I’m still of the opinion it’s the absolute best bang for the buck. You simply can’t find another workstation with the features of the Fusion for the price.
Per #2, several have noted to me that I should work for Alesis.
I’ll be the first to say that’s not a very good idea.
Synth workstations are designed by programmers. Although I can program, I don’t have the first clue how the operating system of the Fusion works - nor do I want to know.
Makers of musical instruments typically do not hire musicians because they don’t actually need them until the instrument is far past the beta stage and very close to production. Think about it. Fender doesn’t call Eric Clapton every time they want to release a new guitar.
Basically speaking, there’s not much I could contribute other than being an actual player.
However..
What would be valuable to Alesis is if they wanted me to participate in any future synth product development. If, for example, they had a new Fusion prototype (we’ll just call it Fusion 6HD-II for sake of argument), sent one to me, told me to hash it out and document my experience with it - that’s valuable information they could use.
The prototype would be buggy, some things obviously wouldn’t work, but the point would be to provide feedback to create a better synth. Every time I encountered an OS error I would have to document where and when it happened. If a menu goes on the fritz, I have to document that. Document, document, document. Send to programmers. Programmers make a patch. Send to me. I patch, then encounter more bugs. Send results to programmers. Spin. Cycle. Rinse. Repeat. Do this until all kinks are worked out.
If Alesis felt fit to have me test out stuff like that, sure. I’d do that because everyone benefits. The 6HD-II (and most likely 8HD-II), should it ever come to exist, would most likely be a worthwhile venture for Alesis.
But then there’s an issue. I like synths to have menus and buttons in a particular fashion. But the way I like things may not be the way actual buyers like things.
To say I should work for them just for musical prowess is not the best reason. Prowess doesn’t make for better instruments. Development and testing does.
One final note (and this is my only suggestion to Alesis):
Alesis’ next synth should be black. Black as night with a large white “ALESIS” logo on the rear. Black synths are cool. Combine that with the cool blue lights and backlit orange buttons and you’d have a winner.
posted in blog | No Comments »
7/8/2007
As is stated on richmenga.com at the time of this writing, ZiON, my new music release will be coming soon. When I say “coming soon”, I mean “eventually”, and when I say “eventually”, I mean “when I get around to it.”
Nothing says “you can’t capture lightning in a bottle” more than sitting, by yourself, with your instrument of choice, trying to think up some new tunes. As a matter of fact, it’s amazing anyone can do it at all - but I manage somehow.
The entire reason I bought my first workstation synthesizer (Ensoniq SQ-1 Plus) is so I could have an entire band without the band. It started with that, then I learned guitars, grabbed a multitrack recorder and have essentially doing that ever since. Today I do it with an Alesis Fusion - but I still have the Ensoniq. :-)
These days it’s unbelievably easy and cheap to do the band-without-a-band thing because of the computer. Need a multitrack recorder? Get Audacity, grab a USB mixer and whammo; instant studio. Add a software based drum machine, tinker around with a few live instruments, and off you go. Heck, you could use a cheesy headset with mic for vocals. It’ll sound good if you work at it enough. The best thing is that you don’t need a powerful computer. If you’ve got a box with a 2GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, an 80GB hard drive and a CD/DVD burner (for making CD’s and backing up sessions), you’re good to go.
Who knew back then that you could get pro-quality sound in 2007 for under 200 bucks?!
Amazing.
So anyway..
Aside from all that, I’ve been in and out of a few bands over the years. When I am actually in a band that I like, the music writing process happens very quickly. Things happen and move along at a very fast pace compared to doing it all by myself. The added influence of extra people helps out quite a bit.
Since being in Florida I haven’t really been looking to form or join a group, but I may start looking. Or not. It depends. Half of me wants to get in the social circle of musicians in the area, while the other half is perfectly content to create tunes on my own.
There’s a lot of drama (i.e. bullshit) whenever there’s a band involved. Even with the best people, the drama rears its ugly head from time to time and there’s really no way to avoid it. This drama I speak of manifests itself in many ways. Could be a bitchy girlfriend/wife from one of the band members, could be time limitations, could be any number of things.. you get the idea.
My goal is to attempt to find studio rats like myself in the Tampa Bay Florida area. Gigging, as anyone who’s done it knows, is a pain in the ass, so I’d rather start off with a more controlled environment.
This is all dependent on if I even decide to start scoping around. :-)
posted in blog | No Comments »
7/8/2007
Yesterday I went to a friend’s birthday party in St. Petersburg and did the social thing. (Me? Social? NO WAY!) I personally think I got the birthday girl the best card out of the lot. When you open it, it speaks “To-ga.. To-ga!” from Animal House.
Yes, I rock. :-)
posted in blog | No Comments »
7/8/2007
Spotted this Lamborghini Gallardo while on my way to the birthday party I attended yesterday.
Common to see this in Florida?
Yep. You see cars like this, a Ferrari here and there, and any other “supercar” you can think of.
There is an unfortunate side to this. The more of these Italian supercars you see, the more you realize it’s just another car.
Except for the ‘75 Buick Century Custom Series, of course. :-)
posted in photos | No Comments »
first time here?get notifiedcontact rich
more info
contact rich
rich@menga.net
Rich's Facebook Profile
Rich's Flickr Photostream
Rich's YouTube Channel