June 25th, 2001:

We won tonight’s game. I did really well, but I still feel I could have done better.

Becca, Allison, and Lisa showed up to cheer us on. After a while they decided to bowl a game of their own a few lanes over. Becca and I had a little wager going. It started out being just me… but I eventually convinced her to reciprocate. The wager was, for every strike I got, she would take off an item of clothing, and vice-versa. I ending up getting 4, and she got 3. Of course, the payment end of this wager could not be fulfilled at the bowling alley due to the law and all. But as she was leaving she said “We’ll settle this up later.” We’ll see.

I’m still playing around with SoundTracker. I bought a decent microphone and a nice monitor headset, so hopefully lyrics and a final version of the stuff I posted this morning will come in the next few days. It is sad that, even after only a few days of usage, I am finding flaws, bugs, and missing features in this piece of software. Either I just think too much about stupid shit, or I want software to do things most people don’t. I’m not sure which.

Since most of WhatTeam will be occupied on Thursday night, our usual practice night, we are going tomorrow instead. We will be at the Main Event in Lewisville. All are welcome.

It is late…. I have to get up in four hours… and I have no clean laundry for tomorrow. *sigh*

Last night I went though all those old folders and books I have piled up on a shelf in my closet looking for a sonet I wrote in the 11th grade for an AP English class project. I found it. I ended up reading though a lot of old stuff.

Untitled / Undated

Alone. Alone. Insipid.
Life’s icy grip grabs hold my soul. Alone.
Trapped. Trapped. Oppressed.
Controlled by needs for love, not love itself.
Fight. Fight. Withheld.
Attempts to leave are barred by purist touch.
I have no way out.

And another:

Untitled / Undated

Locked doors and faded faces lack consent.
Their thoughts are jaded; makes me diffident.
Insipid life will take its fatal hold.
And toss me out into the icy cold.

It is interesting to be able to reread this stuff seven or eight years later.

I started playing with Sound Tracker on Thursday and spent a good chunk of time yesterday trying to create one “song” that actually sounds decent. I think I am to that point now. The arrangement isn’t set in stone, as the lyrics have yet to be written…. but changing the arrangement is easy once the pieces are there. I would have done the vocals yesterday but when I went to dig up my microphone, I realized my cat chewed through the wire… which means it doesn’t work and I don’t feel like fixing it.

I followed the “Keep It Simple Stupid” school of thought for this first attempt, having never worked with tracker software of any kind, and not being a musician or a composer (at least not practicing in anyway), I figured that was my best bet.

The music is all mine (though I am sure pieces of it are influenced by things I have heard and I just don’t realize it). The samples used to make the sounds of the instruments, however, are not mine, as I only own one musical instrument and have no means of recording it (acoustic guitar). Most of the music was worked out on guitar first, and then mapped into the tracker software.

The samples I had to work with were not “in tune” with one another… and I don’t tune by ear all that well… so the guitar and the bass may not be perfectly in tune with one another… but it is pretty close. I think I spent about 1hr nudging it this way and that until it sounded reasonably in tune.

This is a work in progress. As soon as I get a new mic, I will record vocals and rearrange the piece to accommodate them. Don’t expect anything spectacular here kids… I am no professional.

Comments, suggestions, and criticism openly accepted.