right on bro!

Back in L.A. Spent the weekend hanging out with Pearl in San Diego, checking out the Gaslamp Quarter, looking at the monkeys in the zoo, and generally chilling on the patio of an 8th floor room at the Sheraton overlooking the marina. ’twas very relaxing.

I finally got around to running some tests on the new laptop. The “all inputs/outputs” test that crashed the Sager did not crash the Dell at all. That’s very good news. There’s a slight rattle on on the hard drive but I don’t think it’s anything worth returning it for. Going to spend tonight installing some VST instrument type stuff, and start actually doing live-audio tests (i.e. recording guitar and vocals) for the rest of the week.

Cubase SL is going to take some getting used to. It’s different from Cubase VST. Combine that with the fact that I’ve only ever done two serious sessions with Cubase VST, and there’s a bit of a learning curve coming my way.

Was wondering why my speakers sounded kinda like it was running through a phaser, and lo and behold - crossed polarity on the speaker connections. Just like Mr. Hovick said in high school physics. Fixed.

Oh, I also took the laptop with me to San Diego. I wouldn’t recommend the 5150 for carrying around, it’s too heavy and bulky, but that’s not what I bought the laptop for. I need to get an actual laptop backpack - carried it around in my old college backpack and did not feel secure with it in there at all.

Okay, back to playing with the new setup.

I’m typing this message from my new PC. Well, it’s new, sorta kinda. I upgraded the motherboard and CPU today. I’m now cruising along at 2.2 GHz. I also upgraded to Windows XP Home today. The XP interface is colorful and makes me feel happy. System seems stable so far…we’ll see.

Went to the Computer Fair in Pomona today. I had bought the mobo and CPU from Fry’s, and needed the OS, a heatsink, and a fan. The computer show was crowded and crazy - fools gathering around booths filled with gear, staring at parts. A lot of it was cheap Taiwanese junk, but I managed to find what I was looking for. Ended up buying a Foxconn heatsink/fan combo, some Arctic Silver III, a Sanyo Denki case fan, and some other miscellaneous stuff. The Foxconn is like being in the room with a jet engine, but the Sanyo Denki is actually really quiet. At some point I’ll probably shell out for a Thermalright heatsink with Panaflo fans and see if I can get this system quieter.

But for now, I’ve got two systems to set up. The other is the laptop, which I managed to set up this weekend with the Hammerfall and Cubase. Still haven’t done any intensive testing yet, will do this week.

Oh, I saw “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” this weekend too. Save your money.

I’m back from vacation….I’m still on East Coast time, so I’m gonna write up a quick summary and then go to bed.

• Fishing ruled this year. My dad found the hole in the Moriches Bay where all of the striped bass hang out. Now, for the uninitiated, the limit on striped bass is 1 fish per person per day, at least 28 inches long. Over a two-day period, we caught FORTY-FOUR striped bass. We only kept two on the first day, three on the next, so don’t think about calling the Department of Fish & Game on us.
• Went down to Atlantic City for a day, did some gambling at Trump Taj Mahal and the Showboat. The Boardwalk is still the Boardwalk….AC still is closer to Downtown Vegas than the Strip. It was hot as balls there too.
• Helped my bro and his girl move into their new house, which was mad fun even though moving sucks. My brother bought a lawnmower. I never thought of my brother as someone who would buy a lawnmower.
• Hung out with my friend Pearl and her friend for a bit…I’m going to see Pearl in a couple of weeks and we’re gonna go to San Diego, so I’m looking forward to that.
• Bought a new pair of shoes.

In other news, the Great Mobile Recording Studio Experiment will resume shortly. Airborne Express tried to deliver my Dell Inspiron 5150 today, but I wasn’t home, so I’ll try to pick it up tomorrow. Got a gigabyte of PC2700 DDR RAM coming from crucial.com, a 5400rpm drive coming from googlegear, and Cubase SL (decided to upgrade from VST) from Sam Ash….hopefully all of this stuff gets here by the end of the week.

Dope.