Dead Pixels

Post date: 28-Feb-2013 06:39:06

Woah, has it already been 6-weeks since my last news update? I've really got to stop taking these long breaks. And since I'm just plain tired of writing up tiny project updates (and all four of you who still visit this site might be sick of them, too) I've decided to just talk about whatever ridiculous thing I'm obsessed with each week. OK! Time to get all up in gear up in this bitch!

So, apparently building your own electric motorcycle (EV) is all the rage. It's a pretty interesting way of freeing yourself from ever-increasing gas prices, and can be done fairly cheaply if you're not too concerned about appearance. The concept is fairly simple: take a decent motorcycle with a shot engine (rolling chassis), replace the engine with an electric motor with all the necessary gadgets that that entails, and replace gas with deep-cycle, high amp-hour batteries. Some people have accomplished this conversion in a weekend, although I'm sure it takes much longer on average, and can cost as little as $3000, bike included. However, if you're not a gear head, then there are a number ofcompanies mass producing these things, albeit for a pretty hefty price tag. I'm considering building one, even though my 2006 Cobalt gets decent gas mileage (27 in town, 33 highway). So, if anyone has a 2008 Kawasaki Ninja 250R with a messed up engine they want to sell me, I'd probably buy it.

Speaking of buying shit, I recently got my income tax return and decided to splurge on a new computer monitor. I picked up the fancy-schmancy ASUS VH236H for a scant $150.00 from Newegg, and it's pretty awesome. 24" screen with a 2ms response time is pretty good for that price, and it's been helpful having a smaller screen (I was using a 720p 32" TV until today, which was starting to bug the shit out of me). But, there's sometimes a downside to investing in new electronics, and this time I've been cursed with a bright green stuck pixel that won't get right no matter how many times I poke at it. So, I'm returning this beast and replacing with a Hanns-G 27" screen that should be identical, but just bigger, more expensive, and hopefully stuck-pixel-free. Fingers crossed and all that.

And now, since I can't seem to resist even though I said I wouldn't talk about this: project updates ahoy, bitches! "A More Perfect Union" is coming along nicely, as it seems to be the only thing I have time to work on these days. Videos require a lot more setup and time-investment, so I've been slacking lately (how 'bout them Drunken Gamers? Eh? EH? Just kidding). I only have 5 more songs to record instruments for (guitars and bass, mostly). After that, I'll be focusing on lyrics and vocals exclusively, which is usually the hardest part for me. Writing lyrics is a strange activity. Sometimes, the right words just flow out as fast as I can type them. Other times, I'll spend hours with a thesaurus trying to figure out how to phrase a single line. I spend so much time on lyrics, though, because I really feel like the vast majority of lyrics in today's music are completely forgettable, pointless trash. This might be especially true in metal.

Metal is changing yet again, and I don't particularly care for the direction it's heading. If you watched my "tutorial" video, then you might have an idea of how I feel regarding these new trends. And that's what they are, trends. They will die out as soon as the sellouts get done cashing in on it and move on to the next metal trend just like rap-metal did (note: I don't consider rap-metal and nu-metal to be the same thing). "Djent" is, on average, pretty fucking terrible, cookie-cutter shit. Like metalcore on meth. Or bath salts. The sooner it dies out, the better. Don't get me wrong, I'm not completely against all things "djenty" or whatever, but I do think that there are far too many shitty opportunists trying to make a quick buck off the popularity of the style, who probably don't give two shits about the music itself. This is how we wind up with highly-skilled musicians making unlistenable songs. It's something that I hope my album will fight against.

But, enough rambling about whatever for now. I will try my damnedest to update this news section at least once a week from now on. Peace!