High Fidelity

FINALLY! Got around to watching this flick.  It's been in my 'to see' list for quite some time.  I could definitely relate to the characters.  Music lovers are a mopey condescending bunch aren't we.

What I found really strange was I couldn't pin point the time period in which this took place.  Sure there were some late 90's give-a-ways like baggy jackets and cordless phones, but this could have been released this year and not missed a beat.

There were so many things that 15 years later are either still in vogue or have come back in vogue.  If there was a re-edit of this film all they'd have to do is CGI in a couple of IPhones.

I look forward to watching this in say another 10 or 15 years and see if it still holds up.  I'm pretty sure it will.

Sailing The Seas of Superior on Wednesday Race Night

#tbay #tbyc

A video posted by @at0mpub on Jun 17, 2015 at 5:49pm PDT

#tbay #sailing

A video posted by @at0mpub on Jun 17, 2015 at 3:13pm PDT

Is Bulletproof Coffee For You?

What is it?
I started drinking Bullet Proof Coffee over a week ago and I've lost almost 5 pounds.  I have not changed anything else in my diet or exercise regiment.

How does it work?
I believe what's happening is that the butter and coconut butter in the coffee is satiating my appetite first think in the morning.  After drinking it i feel 'full'.  This 'full' feeling lasts almost 4  hours.  I get to work and have another cup of just regular coffee or cappuccino.  I'm not hungry until noon when it's time to east lunch.  Lunches are the same - I haven't changed what i eat.  I start feeling peckish around 4:30 but i can usually hold out until supper.

How has it affected my eating habits?
I believe what's happening is that I've lowered the amount of sugar and empty carbs by not snacking on things like granola or bran bars.  I also believe that because of the lower sugar intake - my energy highs and lows aren't so high and so low.  I've streamlined my energy. The similarity drawn is with hibernating bears.  They eat tons of fatty food before going for their long winter's nap.  They feel full and therefor don't feel the need to eat.

Is it safe?
There's some concern about the amount of full fat this 300+ Calorie coffee has on the body - but I figure its less of a concern than the sugar and carbs I was snacking on through out the day.  I feel better and like mentioned - I've lost 5 pounds.  I believe I look less bloated and more 'toned'.

How do i make my java?
Keurig coffee with an adapter so i can use my own dark roast flavor of choice.  Add a teaspoon of butter and a teaspoon of coconut oil, some cream and a few drops of vanilla.  Mix it up in a Magic Bullet.

Fishing for a Chorus Worth Keeping

"Nemo" is the name of the song that was conceived about 5 years ago now. As with all of Kj's songs - it started out in the 'folk' arena with the intention that when played back all on its own with just vocals and acoustic - it would hold up on its own.  This is the approach we've taken with every song so far.

The lyrical content was inspired by Kj's reading of 20 000 Leagues Under The Sea.  He really embraced the view of the captain and his goal of living beneath the sea as far away from the corrupt ambition of humanity.  So there's some weight in this tune.  The chorus needed(s) to really stand out on this song.

The elements of the chorus have been scribed for some time now.  However the time signature of 4/4 just didn't have any impact.  As the nautical literature for Kj's inspiration on this song, i too have drifted to a nautical literary works - Moby Dick.  And let me tell you - this chorus is my 'White Whale'.

When Kj and I recorded the demo's in my basement a long while ago - i pushed to re-write the chorus in 5/4.  It really changed the song's attitude.  It was big improvement - but one that has always not sat well with me.  5/4 is very specific and when applied with an alt-rock tempo - it can be at times 'cliche'.

It sounded good, but we discussed as group that we didn't want to do what was 'easiest'. So again - the chorus needed to be re-worked

My recent purchase of a Korg - SDD 3000 digital delay unit was the inspiration behind now what is a 6/4 chorus - think of an exaggerated waltz tempo. I was attempting to replicate the riff done in the previous 5/4 but with all the extra time now added - i had to change it up.  A happy accident happened in the  studio when I unintentionally hit an extra note.  It delayed magnificently through the effects chain.  Ten minutes spent working out this discovery and we had the new chorus riff.  Mike tracked some drums to test it out and with some twee-zing  we got it!


A few listens the next day and Mike and I discussed it and went back into the studio to track it officially.  The new Korg dialed in with its frequency oscillation on the repeats really help with the feel of bobbing in the water.  Mike's percussive builds really add the weight necessary for this track.

Each chorus builds with additional guitars adding to an explosive ending to the song.

All that's left now is to work out the old guitar solo on the new time signature. But based on some recent Instagram pictures - i think Mike has other ideas for it.  I can't wait.

What i learned so far from this particular song construction - sure it's great to do something conventional - but it's far more rewarding to really dive in,  rip convention apart and re-build. The effort is well worth it.

Sharepoint Server Logs Eating Up Drive Space

Determined there were 7GB of logfiles in :
C:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\14\


Trying to delete/move failed - access denied because files are locked

Found this excellent article by Doug Allen:

http://blogs.c5insight.com/Home/tabid/40/entryid/401/SharePoint-Usage-Logs-Not-Being-Removed-Fixed.aspx

Quick Fix:

On SharePoint Server server - restart SharePoint Timer Service  (services.msc)
Log into SharePoint Central Administration
Go To 'Monitoring'
Go to Timer Jobs - Check Job Status
Find Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Usage Data Import and click on it.
Click 'Run Now'


This should blow out the log files fairly quickly.

Replace Harddrive in PVR PACE

Does your PVR skip? Jitter? Hickup?

I noticed mine was starting to over the last few months. Since i bought mine outright refurbished a few years back and the warranty was non-existent i had no qualms ripping it open and trying to diagnose it myself. Some research on the internet suggested replacing the coaxial cable and hard resetting the unit.

These initially helped - but for maybe 10 or 15 minutes. All signs pointed to a failing hard drive. I opened it up to find a standard Seagate Sata drive. Replacing it didn't work. The unit hung up on boot up suggesting that there was some boot data needed on the actual hard drive to make the unit operate.

• I grabbed a very good hard disk cloning utility, put the PVR drive into a spare PC and took an image of the existing drive. 
• Next I grabbed a similar sized drive and swapped it into the spare pc and ran the disk cloning software again. I blew out any partitions and data on the replacement drive and restored the image to it. 
•  Amazingly - there was 7 partitions - a few Linux swap partitions, an MBR and then the bulk partition of un-allocated space - presumably where the actual recordings go. I put the newly re-imaged drive into the PVR and it booted

It quickly flashed a message stating "Formatting Hard drive". This I took as good omen as it recognized the drive.

A short time later I got my cable subscribers default navigation screens and I was in business.   The process didn't restore any of my old recordings - but I was fine with that.

 I watched live TV - specifically hockey for almost an hour and so far no glitches!

Hope this helps someone. I spent too much time on the phones with little help. So - if you're having issues with your PVR - you may buy yourself some time by cloning your hard drive and replacing it.

Droppin the Bass

Managed to sneak away to the studio the other night.
 
With some help from MC we nailed down the bass part for the next song of the recording project.

Tracked it a few times and we believe we have got a few good takes that are keepers.

It's very minimalist and very tonal.

It gives the song a lot of breathing room.   It's a fairly intimate song so the bass should compliment KJ's vocals very nicely.

This is one of my most creative bass parts I've crafted to date.

I don't purport to be a bass player.  I'm a guitar player attempting to play bass.  Not having any experience on the 4 string the consensus among the group is that I can potentially come up with non-standard 'go to' bass lines.

So far so good.