2013 12 30 - Monday - Off call

Cold and muddy, Ran 3.2 miles listening to the converge Axe Will Fall album. Worked on conversion stuff all day. The breaker in the waterheater flipped, I reset it. Scott we rescheduled practice for tomorrow. Took a nap watched yogcast and played KSP.

2013 12 29 - Sunday - Penni's pillow fort

Woke up early, drank a pot of coffee, watched some yogscast and played KSP. Went to Chilis and the grocery store with Penni. Penni invited a friend to hang out and watch scary movies. Scott cancelled practice because he was out of town for family stuff. played Skyblock and listened to smodcast.

2013 12 28 - Saturday - Family breakfast

Woke up at 8am, went to the church for a big extended family breakfast. Exchanged gifts, reinstalled the printer on my parents old e-machine. Went to my aunts house and installed firefox so she could get to her bank website. IE8 doesn't play nice with 128mb ram. Headed back to charlotte around 4pm. Played KSP.

2013 12 27 - Friday - Statesville visit

Cool and sunny, no running or lunch, too busy with conversion stuff, up drove to statesville with Penni through slow traffic listening to smodcast. Ate subway with Mom and Dad. Crashed early. Slept in old bedroom.

2013 12 26 - Thursday

Cold and sunny, working from home, ran 5.5 miles listening to the Sleeping with Ghosts and the Battle for the Sun albums from Placebo. Worked on conversion stuff all day. 

2013 12 24 - Tuesday - Xmas Eve

Cool and sunny, ran 3.2 miles listening to Sub-Rosa. Worked on conversion stuff all day. Hit the grocery store on the way home and picked up a take and bake pizza. Penni's back wound has finally healed to the point that it just need oitment and a big bandaid. Played KSP all night, unlocked the Rocko Orange Nightmare tanks. (RONs)

2013 12 21/22 weekend

Warm. Played tons of KSP.23, compared live and practice kick pedal setups. Penni's back surgery wound has finially healed past sterile packing. Met with scott and reviewed the recording

2013 12 20 - Friday

Cloudly and cool, ran 3.2 miles listening to the Poison The Well "Tropic Rot" album. Worked on conversion stuff all day. Changed Penni's back surgery dressing. Grilled cheese and Yogscast for dinner. Played a lot of KSP.

2013 12 23 - Monday

Starting on-call week, Cool and rainy, hit the elliptical Machine for lunch, listening to Neurosis. Worked on conversion stuff all day work. Worked an hour late. Got a page on the way home. Dailed in, it was a non-issue. Crash early.

2013 12 19 - Thursday

Cold and sunny, worked from home, ran 5 miles listening to the Hesitation Mark album. Picked Scott up and got the rough mixes for Monday's recording. We have a lot on work to do on the mixes.  Spagetti squash for dinner. Played KSP.23.

2013 12 18 - Wednesday

Cold and sunny, had a work lunch so no running. Worked on conversion stuff all day. Worked late. Changed Penni's back surgery dressing.  Downloaded KSP.23. Crashed early.

2013 12 17 - Tuesday

Cold and sunny, no running today, group lunch at chilis. Found out my coworker runs Mint linux on a spare machine at home, awesome.  Worked on conversion stuff, merge issue recreation, and multirace message testing. Worked a little late, picked up groceries. Penni visited some friends at the retirement home. Grilled cheese for dinner. Changed Penni's back surgery dressing.

2013 12 15 Sunday

Slept late. Watched season one of the Sarah Silvermann show with Penni. Went with Scott to sam ash to buy some extra strings for recording tomorrow. The guy at the guitar register asked us if we wanted to hang out later at a blues bar. It was pretty awkward. On the way back we were joking about, "...wanna come back to my place, have a few drinks, listen to a few records, get weird...". Packed to the gear for recording tomorrow. Cooked some french toast for dinner. Changed Penni's back surgery dressing.

2013 12 16 - Monday - Recording at the Milestone

Woke up early had some coffee and stopped by the bank to get some cash out. Went to Scotts to load the gear in the van. Got to the milestone at 11am. The recording guy was on time. He used a ton of mics on the drum. There was very little muffling. We were ready to start tracking at 2pm. Everything seemed to go ok, we will know when we get the mixes. Finished at 8pm. Unpacked and got home around 10pm. Dead tired.

2013 12 14 Saturday

Slept late. Watched the first season of drinky crow with Penni and some coffee. Played some KSP mod, figured out how to get a rockomax modules up to the Mun with the realistic aerodynamic mod. Changed Penni's back surgery dressing.  Went to practice with the van and ran through the set to prep for recording.

2013 12 13 - Friday

Cold and sunny, Ran 3.2 miles listening to the Blood Brothers Young Machete album. Tested some egate filter changes.Worked on a missing ingeniousMed file thing. Email Dan about about a error from the iConvert tool. Went to the grocery store. Cooked fried cauliflower rice for late lunch. practice bass drum control for a half hour. Changed Penni's back surgery dressing. Played more KSP alarmclock mod.

2013 12 12 - Thursday - Kerbal Alarm Clock

Cold and sunny, Worked from home. Ran 4 miles for lunch listening to Smodcast. Worked on conversion stuff and multirace hl7 message stuff from egate.  Practiced bass drum control for a half hour. Took a nap. Changed Penni's back surgery dressing.  Played some Kerbal Alarm clock mod.

2013 12 11 - Wednesday

Cold and sunny, emailed alot folks about the star multirace and a18 merge. Ran 3.2 miles listening to the Sonic Youth experimental jet set album. Got groceries. Late grilled cheese lunch. Warmed a little and practiced with Scott.  Changed Penni's back surgery dressing. French toast for dinner. Played KSP mods.

2013 12 10 - Tuesday

Cold and windy, Ran 3.2 miles at lunch listening to Circa Survive. Setup some inbound Star location in the interface and tested some outbound messages. Talked with the egate folks about the multi-race single ethnicity setup we need. 3 hour nap the a late grilled cheese lunch with yogscast. Changed Pennis back surgery wound dressing. Changed my rack tom head for recording this month. No drum practice. Burned a copy of Karate's Pockets album for a coworker. Played some KSP mods.

2013 12 09 - Monday - Pulled A18 changes

Back to work, raining all day. email was intermittently down all morning, the A18 interface code change from last month caused last week's interface issue. Those changed were pulled. Searched from exact message that broke the Date variable.  (How is that possible???) Worked on the elliptical machine for lunch while listening to the Fugazi "On the kill taker" album. (I remember seeing them play "last chance for a slow dance" live, it was beyond words good.) Started logging calories again, egg whites for late lunch. Took a nap and practiced bass drum control for a half an hour. Changed Penni's back surgery dressing. Yogscast, KSP mods and grilled cheese for late dinner.

2013 12 08 - Sunday - Cheap little bass drum monitor.

Last day off. Woke up early, watched the yogscast charity stream with coffee. Called and checked on Mom and Dad. Rigged up a little headphone bass drum monitor with a old Zoom 606 pedal so I could really check a few busy parts before recording. Warmed up a little and went to practice. Changed a snare head and practiced with Scott for about an hour.  The monitor worked great. Went to the grocery store for milk. Changed Penni's back surgery dressing. Cooked a spaghetti squash for dinner. Ate some popcorn and played the real aerodynamics KSP mod; orbited minnus. Bought a new rifftrax short.

2013 12 07 Saturday - Nice cold walk

Woke up sick at 8am, Penni brought me a bottle of water. Went back to sleep until noon. Watched some Sips with coffee. Rapped a bunch of drum sticks. Practiced bass drum control for about half an hour. Changed Penni's back surgery dressing. Went on a nice long cold walk and listened to the "We have the facts and we are voting yes" album.
Watched Yogscast Zoey "Going Home" finally. It was really really good. Sent it to Scott.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTJcwKqaGVs&sns=em

2013 12 06 Friday - Greenway

Slept late. Ran 5 miles on the greenway down town listening to smodcast. Bought some stick rap, sodas and a take-n-bake pizza. Took Penni's replacement phone to shop from a new sim card. Moved Penni's music and pics  to her phone. Scott busy with work party tonight. Worked on bass drum control for about an hour. Played some FTB; set up a jetpack, fall boots and smelter.

2013 12 05 Thursday - Aquatic center, Swamp of the ravens

Slept late. Went to the Aquatic center for an hour. The lanes were set up longways. The laps were hard. Felt the bloodclot lung capacity thing... Bought a nicer mouse. Bought bow rasen Penni went to the doctor to chech her back wound. It still healing ok. Subway for dinner. Practiced bass drum control for an hour.  Watched two new rifftrax movies.

2013 12 04 Wednesday - KSP Ferram Aerospace Mod

Slept late. Watched some Zoey Yogscast stuff with coffee for breakfast. Installed a KSP mod to make the aerodynamic more realistic. Launchs are faster but nose-over spins occur easier. Re-entry is quicker too. You have to pop the shutes asap. Cooked bread sticks for lunch.  Ordered Penni a replacement android phone from ebay. Went to practice. Went to Target from a new retractable leash for the dog.  Went to grocery store for sodas and chocolate. Changed Penni's back surgery wound dressing.

2013 12 03 Tuesday Van Inspection Pass, Penni phone fail

Slept late. Watched some Sips yogcast stuff with coffee. Checked work email. The inbound reg interface was mysterious set to 10/04. It erroneously reprocessed 22,000 messages. Crap! Called work about it. Added fluids to the van. Took it to speedy lube and passed inspection. Practiced bass drum control for a hour. Cooked a spaghetti squash for lunch. Penni dropped her phone in the toliet. Switched her back to her old droid 2.

2013 12 02 Monday - Van inspection fail

Starting birthday off, slept late. Changed van wind sheild wipers. Went to Big Dog inspection on south blvd. The guy there lied and said he was out on inspection stickers. Penni called back later and same guy said he was ready to go. Weird. Bought more gause and saline stuff.   Changed Penni's back surgery dressing. Stayed up late on the phanaticmc server playing skyblock.

2013 12 01 Sunday

Slept late. Watch a lot of Sips yogcast stuff. Took a nap changed Penni's back surgery dressing. Had a good practice with Scott. Went to the grocery store cooked some spagetti squash.

2013 11 30 Saturday - Birthday

Slept late, hit the comic book store and guitar center. Got a cheap boom stand from the electronic set. Changed Penni's packing and surgery dressing. Watched some yogscast and ksp youtube stuff.

2013 11 29 Friday

Worked from home. Setup a new location on the credit card module. Ran 4 miles. Took a nap. Repacked Penni's back surgery wound. Went grocery shopping. Has a good sweaty band practice with Scott. Watched a lot of yogscast stuff.

2013 11 28 thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, Penni's back was in no shape for long car rides, we stayed at home and relaxed. We slept late, cooked a pizza for lunch, played SYABH and called family. Took a little nap after lunch, showered and changed Penni's back wound packing and bandage. I finished the last level of KSP, finally got close enough to Eve to get science points for a fly by and land on south pole of Mun. Had some spagetti squash with cheese for dinner. Watched Mst3k and yogscast stuff.

2013 11 27 Wednesday - finally changing D715

Listened to a hat film podcast. Finally got the interface group to start the process of changing the D715 reg and nursing location list from a exclusive list to an inclusive list. Cold and rainy outside, ran inside on a treadmill for lunch listening to Linux Outlaws Podcast. When to grocery store. Got a take and bake pizza for late lunch. When with scott to meet with the recording guy to pay the deposit and go over the recording gear. Talked about Bryon from Spite. Changed pennis back surgery wound packing and dressing. Practiced a little bass drum control stuff.

2013 11 26 Tuesday - WCR crash

Cold and raining; a good coffee day.Worked on a elliptical machine during lunch listening to The Evens.  2 pounds over target weight. The daily Cognos import crashed. Did my first wipe/clean/recreate on a test environment. The recreate step crashed. Worked on bass drum control for a half hour. Grill cheeses for late lunch. 4 hour nap. Spaghetti squash for late dinner.

2013 11 25 Monday

Picked up paper tape for Pennis back. Did some HL7 testing with downstream system. Put in a work order for patient type filter changes in Egate. Put in a work order for multirace interface values. Asked off for the recording session next month. Too cold to run, worked on the ski machine during lunch. Took a 4 hour nap when I got home. Grill cheeses for late lunch, egg whites for dinner. Watched some yogcast stuff.

2013 11 24 Sunday

Ate all the leftovers from yesterday. Changed Pennis back surgery dressing.  Played a Underwater challenge map on minecraft. Drank a pot on coffee. Set up 4 new/used PD-8 Roland pads. Practiced bass drum control on my electronic kit from an hour. Supported the Linux Voice indiegogo campaign.  Played some FTB,crafted mining drill. Went to the grocery shopping.

2013 11 23 Saturday

Woke up early, played some KSP with some coffee, changed the dressing on Pennis back surgery wound.  Went to Pennis parent for a early birthday lunch. Bought wipers for the gear van.  Worked on bass drum control stuff upstair for an hour.  Watched some yogcast stuff, remoted in at 10pm to apply an interface code change for merges.  Played a little Syabh and Ftb.

2013 11 22 Friday "...robbing little kids for bags"

Ran 3.2 miles listening to the Alice in Chains "Black give way to blue" album.  worked on cloning a extract routine to replace a division field with a scheduling location. Wrestled with the terrible REC global. Joked with a coworker about halloween candy and that Ghetto Boys song "My Minds Playing Tricks On Me". Picked up meds for Penni on the way home. Changed and repacked Pennis back surgery wound. Cooked a few grill cheese sandwiches and took a quick nap before practice. Scott was feeling better, played for 2 hours. Showered, watched some yogscast stuff and crashed.

2013 11 22 Thursday

Telecommuter day, packed Pennis back wound, finished label tweak, ran 4 miles, got a back-lit keyboard, got a slackware 14.1 install cd set from my slackware subscription,  tofurkey melt for dinner, played a new world on FTB.

2013 11 20 Wednesday

Telecommuted for the morning, used lunch to go with Penni to dr, no running today, learned how to pack her post surgery back wound, updated SRs on GE site with phone in waiting room,  Tested a fix for a very old orgmrn filing issue, Talked with a coworker about David Yow and Jesus Lizard; "David Yow sounds like a kidnap victim screaming through Duct tape." Ha!

Went by walgreens on the way home for Pennis gauze and surgical tape. watched some Yogscast stuff, Scott called, he had a flat tire and canceled practice, went to grocery store and the practiced on my electronic kit for about an hour.

2013 11 19 Tuesday

Ran 3.2 miles listening to the Deftones "Diamond Eyes" album. Installed cognos for a coworker and helped get him started on a report. Worked on more patient merge testing.

2013 11 18 Monday

Ran 3.2 miles at lunch, did a cognos reinstall, worked on label alignment, got a after hours call about labcorp connection crashing, worked on merge message testing, tweaked fluxbox xrandr for faster SYABH, Tofukey, 4 hour nap, burned popcorn.

2013 11 17 Sunday - Sonny Emory and Sir You Are Being Hunted

Scott sick, cancels practice, worked on electronic drum stuff, found a mean Sonny Emory linear groove tutoral, bought the alpha of Sir You Are Being Hunted, posted a bug about a missing right-click context, cooked another spaghetti squash, 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ah_XSXj0Pw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

2013 11 16 saturday

Spaghetti squash, new tire for band gear van, tweaked fluxbox for better KSP, bought a new electric blanket for Penni, set up a combusion engine in FTB, Smodcast and coffee.

Disabling Sticky keys in Ubuntu Studio's version of XFCE

Sticky keys in Ubuntu Studio's version of XFCE have been driving me crazy. This solved it for me.

"xkbset -a"

from the very end of: http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1943778.html

Two Month Long Experiment with Ankle and Wrist Weights

For a long time I have been curious about practicing with ankle weights and wrist weights. I have seen many forum posts on different drummer sites and the answer to "should I practice with weights" is always "No, you'll hurt yourself / it won't help your speed or control". On the contrary, Gene Hoglan, an amazingly fast metal drummer, swears by warning up with heavy sticks, constantly wearing ankle weights and only removing them to play the really fast songs.

So to find out for myself, I started practicing on my home kit and rehearsing with my band while wearing wrist and ankle weights.

I wanted to avoid hurting myself so I started with very light weights and worked my way up. I could not find any that were lighter than 1 lb per hand so I made one by filling an adjustable wrist weight with pennies until it weighed enough, checking it on a food scale.

The first thing I learned was rehearsing with weights amazed the rest of the band. They said it was like I was training under some sadistic kung-fu master. It was really just a pair of baby-blue wrist weights similar to the ones that sweet old ladies wear to go mall walking

The second thing was I rehearsed a lot harder than I practiced. The 1 lb per hand / 5 lb per foot setup that worked great during practice killed me in rehearsal. I switched to a 0.5 lb per hand / 4 lb per foot setup for rehearsals.

The third thing I learned was that once you get used to playing with the weights, it feels very strange to immediately play after you remove them. When you play with weights on, your forearms and thighs move less as they are heavier, forcing you to work your ankles and wrists more. When the extra weight is gone, you want to continue using your wrists and ankles which unexpectedly "kicks back" your forearms and thighs. It's like "the tail is wagging the dog". You feel like you have "light limbs", like you just took a lot of cough medicine. It butchers your ability to play quick light ghost note.  It's horrible.

So if this is so disorienting, how can Gene Hoglan remove weights in the middle of a gig and play smoothly? Gene Hoglan is an amazing drummer and also a really big guy. i believe that the ratio of the weight of his ankle weights to the weight of his legs is so low that he doesn't get the "light limbs" feeling.

Lastly, the wrist weight did seem to help strengthen the muscles you use to do rolls around the kit. After the “light limbs” feeling wore off. I noticed easier movement on hi-hat 16th notes to snare transitions and multiple tom rolls.

I believe that it is important to practice out of your comfort zone, so you can nail a performance even when it is hot on stage, when the monitor mix is bad, when your drums are sliding around and the lighting is bad. I think that adding and removing weights may be another way to practice outside of your comfort zone. I am going to try to practicing while adding and removing the weights every 10 minutes.

So in summary, wrist and ankle weights are not a magic ticket to strength or speed. If you try them, make sure to playing without them for a few days before a gig to get your balance and finesse back.

Installing Citrix Receiver in Slackware 14.0

1. Go to http://www.citrix.com/downloads.html
2. Download and extract the linuxx86_12.1.0.203066.tar.gz file.
3. Use "su" to run the set up script "./setupwfc".
4. To avoid SSL error 61 messages, use "su" to link the web site certs from the Mozilla folder to the Citrix folder with "ln -s /usr/share/ca-certificates/mozilla/* /opt/Citrix/ICAClient/keystore/cacerts/".
5. Use Firefox to navigate to your company's Citrix XenApp application site, authenticate, click on your hideous office icons and get to work.

* Strings in quotes go in the terminal.