Moseph

Unless there's something stressing the wires (constant flexing where the wires meet the plug?) I can't think of any reason that leaving them connected would be harmful. Speaking of flexing the wires, it's best to leave the wires loose when they're not in use instead of bundling them, because repeatedly flexing them in the same spots can damage them in the long run.

Moving it sounds good. Less of a chance of it colliding with visiting family for me.

I really don't even need to mention the Mega Man box art, do I?

8/31/09 -- Woot has M-Audio stuff again: a 49-key keyboard, a USB mic, or a mini mixer for $59.99. Like the stuff they had in June, but new instead of refurb. OLD: 6/3/09 -- If you're not familiar with Woot.com, they sell a different item every day for really cheap. Today (6/3), they're selling refurb M-audio stuff: your choice of a 49-key keyboard, a 25-key keyboard, a mini mixing board, or a USB mic for $49.99.

The keyboard shows up in the OSX Audio MIDI Setup, right?

Do like I do and use a password based on a cipher of the site name. As long as you remember how your cipher works, you don't need to remember individual passwords.

That would probably make a pretty good movie. Or if they wanted to get all Back to the Future II on us, Skynet could succeed in sending several Terminators back to 1984, and Kyle plus some others (Blair?) go back, and we basically get a re-imagining of the first movie but with more firepower. EDIT: And with the knowledge that Judgment Day will occur no matter what they do, Sarah Connor and any other survivors turn their efforts toward preparation rather than prevention. Then Judgment Day happens. And because they were expecting it, the following war is much shorter, and they beat the machines for good. The series ends with John, Sarah, and Kyle standing on a cliff overlooking the rebuilding of LA, and one of them gives the now familiar monologue about making your own future.

And that brings us back to the lousy script. It would actually have been pretty cool to have a scene between John and Kate wherein John confides that he has no idea what's going on, no idea what will happen if he lets Reese die, and expresses worry that he's allowing his father-son love for Reese to distract him from the hard choices of military leadership -- it could easily have been worked into the scene(s) about his uncertainty regarding Marcus. This would have helped to clarify Reese's role, to humanize John, and to actually portray a relationship between John and Kate.

Yeah, but it's not even the paradoxes that I really have a problem with. It's the fact that, at this point in the story, we're supposed to be horrified by the prospect of Reese being killed, but we don't even know what his death would signify. If they would just tell us how time traveling or not time traveling would actually affect the present story (no effect? Connor disappears? everyone disappears? giant purple bunnies? what?), I'd be okay with it, paradoxes and all, because it would explain why Reese is an important character. I guess it bugs me so much because I'd been viewing the Terminator movies with an alternate universes theory, and under this theory, Reese's death would screw up someone else's reality, but not the reality that the story deals with, so it would seem completely inconsequential.

Cool. So now we have TWO movies that just continue to beat on the same old plot points that Terminator 2 supposedly resolved. We already know this story, and it was already stale in T3. Apologists for T3 and Salvation can claim that the the plot is still alive because the future has changed from what was portrayed in the first two movies ("this isn't the future my mother warned me about") -- but it sure hasn't changed much. And as far as the large-scale plot is concerned, almost nothing happens in Salvation. They find Reese, and that's about it. Besides that, it's back to status quo by the end of the movie. It's like they're twiddling their thumbs, delaying the inevitable time travel bits, because after that they'd actually have to come up with a new storyline. One critic (I forget who) compared Salvation to a TV show episode; I agree with him. If the characters were good, that might make up for the stagnant setting and story, but they're not. There are no Sarah Connor-caliber people here, just bland soldier types. Marcus and Reese are the only ones who are even remotely interesting, and much of Reese's appeal comes simply from the similarities/contrasts with the Reese from T1. Also, time travel seems a lot sillier at this point in the story arc. What exactly is going to happen if Reese dies? Will Connor fade into nothing, McFly-like? Will it simply create another alternate reality, separate from this one, where the machines win? These questions, although they've always been present, didn't matter in T1, because the narrative wasn't focused on the future. By the time Salvation is underway, though, the canonical narrative has finally reached the future without answering the questions about how failure to enact the past would affect the continuing story. It becomes another mindless plot point that just needs to be covered because, hey, we need to do all the things that T1/T2 predicted, because we threw out the make-your-own-future paradigm long ago.

AnSo, I'd like to read your paper, too. I spent the last two semesters arguing with the musicologists in my classes, and now that summer break is here, I'm beginning to miss what I guess would more properly be termed our "scholarly exchange of ideas."

For iPod headphones, I love the Sennheiser PX 100. I seen other people on these boards recommend them, also. $30-$40, I think.

Have you specifically googled "guitar wiring diagrams" or "pickup wiring diagrams"? I was looking into rewiring a bass a while ago, and although I still haven't gotten around to doing it, I was able to find wiring diagrams for the pickup I wanted to use.

I think it's more voice-acting skill and/or natural voice sound than post-processing. It sounds like he spoke really softly with his mouth very close to the mic. I think it would be hard to get that guttural sound if you spoke very loudly. Consistent volume would be achieved by compression, or by skillfully moving toward and away from the mic depending on how loudly you're speaking (or a combination of the two).

Bossa nova. Sort of like bop-era blues? Fusion. Fusion/smooth jazz.

Apparently don't need to be coerced into playing the piano.

Probably the cat's just really sleepy. Some cats will let you do almost anything to them when they're just too tired to care.

I have family visiting at the start of the week, and I'm not sure how long they're staying. If I can get that schedule pinned down, there's a chance I'll be able to host one or two people in my (very small) apartment.

Strings are blues and purples. Brass instruments are yellows, oranges, and browns. Woodwinds are greens and yellows. Piano, in the context of an orchestra, is gray.

The technical term for this is earworm.

And everyone still did it at the last minute. And by "everyone," I mean "I."

I'm totally in on this. Last year's was a blast.

In its capacity as a $150 upgrade for people who already have Reason (OMG now Reason can do audio!), it could be a success. The lack of VST support could prove crippling in trying to compete with other DAWs, though. With Reason, the lack of VST support is acceptable when you view it as basically a plug-in suite -- Reason is expandable because it can be ReWired into DAWs; with Record, you're basically boxed in.

Reminds me a bit of the Sim City 3000 soundtrack, which is a good thing. The percussion is the sticking point for me. It sounds to me like an imitation of a rock band's kick drum and splash cymbal, and I think it's too repetitive and too in-your-face to fit well with the general sparseness of the arrangement. I'm not sure what effect you're shooting for with the percussion, but if the purpose is to beef up the sound, I think that expanding the instrumentation (brass, fuller strings) will get the feeling across better.

This a MIDI-to-USB cable we're talking about, right, and not just a standard MIDI cable? This Roland unit says it has a Vista 64 driver that can be downloaded.