Author Archives: Wohali

goodbye pants

Posted on by
Reply

I skiied all day yesterday up at Alpine. Wow I am exhausted (and a teeny bit sore). Still, I slept so well last night that I’m thinking I just need more exercise if I’m to fix my sleep schedule. Too bad I can’t goof off today, there’s just too much to get done for work.

Today while washing clothing, I got bleach on my favourite old pair of black pants. Stretch fabric from Express, they were medium weight, stylin’ and went with anything. They won’t re-dye correctly, either, I’m sure. Oh well, I guess it’s off to that horrid place known as “The Mall” tomorrow after work to find a replacement…

Oh, and my friend J. had her baby! Congrats to her, to her hubby, and to the happy new family!

berocca

Posted on by
Reply

My Berocca Performance tabs showed up today in the mail. Canada’s Redoxon-B isn’t a bad substitute, but I need my calcium, folic acid, vitamin C and zinc as well. The new Performance stuff isn’t quite as reddish as the original Berocca was, nor does it quite have the same taste, but I guess the new Tang-like flavour is preferable, anyway.

Wikipedia’s article on Berocca links to a serendipitous, fantastic study in the Medical Journal of Australia regarding treatment of anxiety disorders via various means, including Berocca. It covers just about every alternative treatment I’ve seen, and does a fantastic job of surveying the literature for evidence/lack thereof on efficacy. (For reference, Berocca is ineffective.)

We need more of these guides. And for those of my friends who are holistic health practitioners, remember: there’s nothing wrong with admitting that ‘faith healing’ is just that — based on faith. It’s not the Bach flower remedy or the raw vegetable that causes the improvement in mental or physical health, it’s the well known placebo effect. Be proud of the power of the human to heal itself. Just stop doctoring it up as “magic” (k or no k.) ‘k? k.

(On that last link on the placebo effect, at least read the first couple of pages, and the conclusion. It’s well written and conversational in tone. Look for the “PDF” link.)

is that all there is

Posted on by
4

Life passes me by in some interesting ways. I made a conscious decision years ago to not have a traditional family; these days, it seems that at every turn some friend I thought of as perenially single is getting married, already married, pregnant, raising children, or some combination of the above. Fighting the biological urge to reproduce for overriding social and humanitarian reasons is difficult, and there’s no one cheering me on from the sidelines, either — quite the opposite, it seems everyone is trying to get me into some steady relationship, engaged, and onto the child-rearing bandwagon. Neither my body nor my mind is strong enough for that right now.

Folks, I don’t air my dirty laundry in public, but there are a lot of good reasons I think it’d be a bad idea for me to be a parent. I also think it’d be stupid for me to carry on the defects in my genetic line, though I’m still flattered by those of you who tell me I’m too beautiful to remove from the gene pool.

new studio software

Posted on by
Reply

Waynemanor Studios now has some new software, in addition to the fantastic, quintessential Digital Performer:

  • DSP-Quattro realtime audio editor/CD mastering tool/VI hosting tool/hardware sampler librarian, perfect for the pair of Kurzweil samplers
  • MidiQuest XL 9.0 patch editor/librarian, the only editor available that actually has support for the Voyetra 8
  • Minimoog Voyager Patch Editor/Librarian, a beautiful work that meets the highest standards for such an application
  • Cherrypicker, a MIDI patchfile editor that cleans up .middev files.
  • MIDI Commander, formerly the Kurzweil Commander, a remote control solution for the Kurzweil synths

On order is a SCSI card + cable to connect DSP-Quattro to the Kurzweil(s), the V3 upgrade for the Voyager, plus a gooseneck light and dust cover also for the Voyager.

this is radio waynemanor

Posted on by
2

Tonight, in a fit of procrastination, I worked on a new identifier for Waynemanor Studios. The resulting track is 10s long, and includes 6 separate synthesized components. I’m very proud of the work. Special thanks to nanaimo for helping me get the final mix just right.

When you’re done guessing the various synths used, view the MP3 info for full details.

I’m so excited to be making tracks again!

bad hair day

Posted on by
4

Today my lovely housemate nanaimo decided to give me a much-needed scalp massage. I zoned out, half lost consciousness. It was good.

When I came to, my hair was so matted, it took me 30 minutes and about 1/4 a bottle of conditioner to get all the knots out. I was left with a quite sizable amount of hair loss.

It has now been immortalized as The Photo Of The Fallen Clump (of hair) By The Wohali of the not-so-big boobies:

the clump

(That’s a dime in that photo.)

joanbits for 2005.12

Posted on by
Reply
  1. The new Doctor Who box set (Season 27) rules. “Are you my mummy?”
  2. Our house LAN party was fun, mostly for the company. I didn’t get to play a single game, because the bastards insisted on playing games I don’t like, like C&C Generals and BF2. Blah. At least we got a couple of games of in!
  3. The poncho is almost done. Really. (It’ll be done just in time for it to be way too cold for me to wear out of the house.)
  4. The Voyetra 8‘s mixer board is almost done being rebuilt. I’ve put on new electrolytics, all new 1% resistors (love them blue bodies), and machined sockets for all the ICs (even ones that weren’t socketed before). I’m in the middle of cleaning up the BOM/parts list, entering the schematic and the new WollyView™ system will leave you begging for more.
  5. I’m learning to work just a little bit less hard, and on a few less things at once. That’s not easy for me.
  6. The house has acquired a really beat-up arcade cabinet. The marquee says “Q*Burt” (yes, with a u) and has a Jamma board for SNK’s Prehistoric Isle in 1930 horizontal scrolling shooter game. Even if we can get the JAMMA board working again, we’re likely to convert it to a MAME box anyway. I’ll try and get some photos up soon, but don’t expect much — the cabinet has seen far better days.

back

Posted on by
2

I have just returned home from a thoroughly exciting long weekend in the San Francisco Bay area…and as it was so jam-packed of activity, thought and inspiration, I’ve decided I must vacation the rest of the week to recuperate. Much was discussed, I made some new friends, and am now more eager, ambitious and driven than ever before.

Question to the masses that still read this thing: When you embark on a new relationship, do you find yourself performing “protocol exchange?” That is, do you have meta discussions regarding the sorts of things you’re looking for in a relationship with someone? If so, when – on your first date/email/IM/etc? On the 17th date? When you decide to get married (e.g., Catholic pre-Cana)? Is it too geeky of me to propose a standard for verbal communication of such things, one that doesn’t feel like you’re filling out a form for a dating service?