I’ve been Tumbling…
Uninstall inactive MacPorts (old versions)
sudo port -f uninstall inactive
The OCD in me will thank me later for putting this somewhere I'll remember it.
The journey and the destination
I was asked by a former professor of mine to write a five minute stream-of-consciousness email about myself so that he'd have something fresh in his mind when he wrote me a letter of recommendation. After hitting send I went back and looked at what I wrote; I thought it was interesting enough that it was worth posting here.
I like to think that I'm someone who balances his interest in both the journey and the destination. Being at either extreme means missing out on a sizable part of life, in my opinion. If I generalize it a bit: To be focused on the journey means to live life in the present, while focusing on the destination means the predefined goals are most important. To me, these two things are complimentary. The journey is of little consequence if you don't know where you're going, and arriving somewhere is considerably more enjoyable if the path taken was itself enjoyable. So, I try to be aware not only of where I'm (hopefully) going but also where I've been, where I'm at and all the in-betweens.
The questions that interest me most are the "big ones"; you know, "What does everything mean?" and the like. I don't suspect I'll find any answers to these questions. Rather, I like to think that my awareness of them helps guide me in setting of goals and paths toward those goals. In that regard, success is determined somewhat by how well I know myself, so I try to be quite introspective and more importantly honest with myself. I regularly will "check myself" to see how I'm doing when it comes to my goals and if the path is making me happy. I also accept that change is only as scary or exciting as I want it to be and so I try not to prevent myself from making big changes in my life if I feel it is in my best interest to do so.
New In Town (Bimbo Jones Remix)
I love this track and it's original version so much. Been listening to them all day at work.
P.S. Do yourself a favor and click the HQ button (always). The sound is eight billion times better.
Korg Kaossilator: Retrospective Review
A couple years back I wrote up a little review of the Korg Kaossilator. More recently I caught myself thinking about this little piece of gear and the Korg Mini-KP that I've since added on to go with it and I thought I'd provide a retrospective on the purchase.
First, let me say up front that I haven't regretted the purchase at all. It's a fun piece of kit that I've enjoyed goofing around with quite a bit. However, I never did really get around to getting it really integrated into my setup. It has remained more of a sound toy than a real instrument than I use.
I'm not really surprised; it basically is a sound toy at the end of the day. It certainly could be used for various leads, basses or other parts but every time I consider doing that I decide not to bother. Why? Massive.
I picked up Native Instruments Komplete 5 last year primarily for Reaktor, Kontakt and Battery but I've used Massive more than all three of those combined. And if you want to buy Massive by itself? $200, maybe less if you find a good deal. That's a bit more than what Kaossilators are going for on eBay but who cares? It costs an addtional 60 bucks but does a hundred thousand times more than what the Kaossilator does and is much easier to integrate into any DAW that supports VSTs. (And if you're not using a DAW that supports VSTs you might consider an affordable upgrade.)
Over all the little physical devices with their touch pads and clicky knobs are a lot of fun for goofing around or making music collaboratively with some friends. But as a serious tool? More and more I keep shying away from my physical synths and turning toward software solutions which provide just-as-good or better quality, vastly improved workflow and better cost effectiveness. Controllers are a different story though, and have become an indispensable part of my setup. More on that later.
Happy belated fourth birthday, blog
Last month was this blog's fourth birthday. I have of course been doing this business longer than that. Still, the evolution of my online presence I feel reflects the evolution of my personality over the years. I guess you could say I've sort of "stabilized" into my "adult personality" over these last four years, whatever that means.
Franchised society
I recently finished reading Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson; one of my favorite science fiction novels. I'd read it once before, almost exactly ten years ago. I'm not sure what made me hold off from reading it a second time for so long, but it definitely was interesting to compare my impressions of it back in 1999 with those of today. The book struck even more of a chord with me this time around.
It's a decidedly weird world that Stephenson paints for the reader. Weird, but also quite familiar. Reading it this time I can see that while it definitely tells a fun story there is (like any good novel) a number of levels that the text works at. One of my favorite passages from the book does this very well.
The franchise and the virus work on the same principle: what thrives in one place will thrive in another. You just have to find a sufficiently virulent business plan, condense it into a three-ring binder - its DNA - xerox it, and embed it in the fertile lining of a well-traveled highway, preferably one with a left-turn lane. Then the growth will expand until it runs up against its property lines.
In olden times, you'd wander down to Mom's Cafe for a bite to eat and a cup of joe, and you would feel right at home. It worked just fine if you never left your hometown. But if you went to the next town over, everyone would look up and stare at you when you came in the door, and the Blue Plate Special would be something you didn't recognize. If you did enough traveling, you'd never feel at home anywhere.
But when a businessman from New Jersey goes to Dubuque, he knows he can walk into a McDonald's and no one will stare at him. He can order without having to look at the menu, and the food will always taste the same. McDonald's is Home, condensed into a three-ring binder and xeroxed. "No Surprises" is the motto of the franchise ghetto, its Good Housekeeping seal, subliminally blazoned on every sign and logo that make up the curves and grids of light that outline the Basin.
The people of America, who live in the world's most surprising and terrible country, take comfort in that motto. Follow the loglo [ed. glow from logos] outward, to where the growth is enfolded into the valleys and the canyons, and you find the land of the refugees. They have fled from the true America, the America of atomic bombs, scalpings, hip-hop, chaos theory, cement overshoes, snake handlers, spree killers, space walks, buffalo jumps, drive-bys, cruise missiles; Sherman's March, gridlock, motorcycle gangs, and bungee jumping. They have parallel-parked their bimbo boxes in identical computer-designed Burbclave [ed. Suburban Enclave] street patterns and secreted themselves in symmetrical sheetrock shitholes with vinyl floors and ill-fitting woodwork and no sidewalks, vast house farms out in the loglo wilderness, a culture medium for a medium culture.
Time is a funny thing (part 2)
Back in June (of 2008) I alluded to some of my thoughts about how the subjective experience of time depends a lot on our state of mind or consciousness in general. A later post also teased at the follow up to all those intriguing topics.
This post isn't going to be about any of that.
What this post is about, is the fact that it has been sitting in a draft in my WordPress for nearly a year. Eleven months! Why is that?
It really goes to show just how funny of a thing time really is. June 2008 felt like yesterday and oh my how the time has flown by. The second half of 2008 was an interesting time. I made my share of mistakes but set the stage for some great successes as well. And so far in 2009 those successes have been falling into place. Six months ago if you'd have told me that the love of my life would be moving in with me in late June I would have laughed.
Work has taken its fair share (some might argue more than its fair share) of time lately as well. It built to a head not that long back but I learned an important lesson in the process. I learned that while I have capacity for taking on a lot (not just work, but many other things as well), I do have some limits. A lot of that has more to do with keeping myself happy than it does with any actual "limits"; sure there are of course real limits to what I can handle, but the bigger question is how much do I want to tackle, why, and will it bring me closer to my goals?
It's interesting (to me) to see how my life has progressed to this point, and I'm really looking forward to the next chapters. Does that mean a new begining around here? I suppose it couldn't hurt.
About Naim
Naim is a 27 year old software magician, electronic musician and puzzlematician. By day he is a pro software architect and developer. By night he is the illustrious potentate of KnowLogik, a software R&D, strategy and design outfit. In his spare time he learns, writes, takes photos, and is chill.
@naim
- I'm beat. But I live to keep fighting the good fight tomorrow.
- Work is moving along; past all the nitty gritty now and am getting to the deep stuff. But first, dinner! Chinese buffet - a guilty pleasure.
- This is just cruel. @vvergoth is watching Real Genius while I have to work in the other room. :( I love that movie.
