randomness

This morning on the way to work, I was "cut off" by someone who looked suspiciously like a certain pastor at our church... a pastor with three sons... three grown sons (so it wasn't the guy with the same last name as a European country). In his defense, I wasn't really cut off... I just had to apply the brakes a little firmly to avoid hitting him. And I don't think he used the turn signal either. Tsk tsk. It was more amusing than anything else. Hey, watch what you're do- ... hey... that looks like ____ _______! :)

I wonder if it was really him...

Yesterday I pulled my first true 12 hour workday (longer if you count the hour-long breakfast seminar on OCBOA financial statements that I went to). It was kind of weird leaving the office that late (after 10PM), but it was kind of nice to have the place to myself. I was reminded of what a good album the Autumns' "Angel Pool" is as I listened very loudly. I don't really remember what else I listened to, but it was probably equally as cool because I don't listen to anything lame, right? Ha.

Sunday afternoon, Clyde came over and fixed our noisy computer. The culprit was 4 years of dust inside the tower. Who knew? Not us, obviously. Thanks, dude!

A couple weeks ago, I took a trip to Guitar Center with Sound Guy and Keyboard Guy. I arrived about a half hour or more before the other guys, and the employee I was supposed to meet was on lunch break. It was the longest half hour of my life. I didn't want to be "that guy" who comes in and plays the gear without any intention of buying it, and honestly, there's not a lot at Guitar Center that interests me anyway. So I just walked around and looked around. The vintage room was really cool, though. I've never really been that smitten with the Gibson ES335 (I remember years ago Kyle Bryant mentioned wanting one some day and I thought Yeah, I guess. They're cool but not for me. Dude. They're pretty slick. The body was thinner than I expected too. I think someday... we'll see. A nice touch was the live DVD of the Who that was playing in the vintage room. I realized what a musician nerd I've become when I immediately recognized the Chris Adler drum solo that was playing on the TV in the stairwell on the way to the drum room.

After an eternity of sales guys asking if they could help me, the other guys showed up. Keyboard Guy bought some recording software that is way out of my league. I got a keyboard stand, keyboard cover, volume pedal, expression pedal, and reverb pedal. Sound Guy's old coworker hooked us up with some good deals. Guitar Center Guy also recommended a place we could go for dinner. I was happy because I'm a big fan of Wing Stop (not Wing Street!!! Wing Stop = awesome. Wing Street = garbage), but I probably wouldn't have suggested it. I had boneless strips with half original hot and half garlic parmesan. Delicious! It was fun to hang out with Sound Guy and Keyboard Guy, especially since I don't get to see them that often.

Some of my order had to be special ordered from Guitar Center; when it came in, Guitar Center Guy called me to let me know, and then told me about an in-store event that evening that would make parking difficult. Then after arranging to give my pedals to Sound Guy to give to me so I wouldn't have to wait until the next week to come to the store, he threw in an extended warranty on the already purchased reverb pedal for free. Good guy.

These new additions mean that except for new cables, I'm pretty much done with my pedalboard. Of course there are still pedals that I'd like to have (especially the Subdecay Noise Box), but I'm really happy with what I have now and feeling closer to completion than ever before. Now if I could just find time to play the things!


Signal chain goes like this:

Barber Tone Press (parallel compressor)
Tone Factor (now Mojo Hand) Huckleberry (hybrid germanium/silicon fuzz)
Sinister Analog Ultra-Lord (chaotic silicon fuzz)
Devi Ever USA Hyperion (high gain gated silicon fuzz)
Skreddy Top Fuel (distortion good for David Gilmour-type soaring leads )
Tone Factor 75 Special (dirty boost)
Effector 13 (now Devi Ever USA) Never Drive Plus (high gain octave-up fuzz w/ optional self-oscillation)
Fulltone Fulldrive 2 (overdrive with boost)
Ernie Ball VPJR (volume pedal)
Red Witch Moon Phaser (phaser and tremolo)
Tone Factor (now Mojo Hand) Sugar Baby (tremolo)
Loooper 3 (true bypass box x 3)
*loop 1: Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man (analog delay w/ modulation)
*loop 2: Line 6 DL4 (delay modeler and phrase sampler)
*loop 3: Line 6 Verbzilla (reverb modeler)

Random Irony: Everyone is complaining about the economy, but the one candidate who was making the economy a big deal (the guy I did vote for) dropped out because he wasn't getting enough votes. Weird.