News You Can Bruise for 1999 September 6

I had a bizarre dream last night that involved my discovery that, instead of starting properly all at once, my classes started at staggered times, and that my CS112 class had started on August 21st. I also lost my backpack. This lead to a frantic search around a surreal version of UCLA. Then somehow it was all okay and I was flirting with some chick, but there was still a sense of impending doom. Perhaps everything was not okay, and I was merely drowning my sorrows in flirting. Fortunately, I woke up to the real world where classes start sensibly and not until the 27th. However, there is the problem of me not having enough money to pay my tuition. I have to pay by the 20th. I'm going to have to take out a loan.

Actually, I can pay by October 15th, if I pay the $50 late fee. And since I'll be using my National Merit scholarship money towards the tuition, it says I can get the late fee waived, even.

The promo for the season premiere of Futurama has Leonardo DiCaprio as a head in a jar. But it's the thirteen-year-old Leonardo DiCaprio, or however old he is now. You'd think that people's heads would be preserved only when they were about to die, but Futurama would have you believe that you can just cut off someone's head anytime it's convenient and put it in a jar, and that the person involved will just sit there and let you do so. This is disappointing to me, as until now Futurama has adhered to the highest standards of scientific accuracy.

I just discovered how to do simultaneous record and playback in Linux. So I'm going to redo MGAMA now. Then, who knows?

Okay, if all goes well, when I come back from BeOS, I should have MGAMA, The Kitchen Of The Future, and a rudimentary recording of To Barbecue A Span Of Time. I have got to get one of those piezoelectric things that clips onto your acoustic guitar. I tried to record Social Chameleon and Flag Burning Amendment, and couldn't do it. Argh I say.

MGAMA is no longer jerky. TKOTF and TBASOT didn't turn out as well as I'd like. I may or may not put them up later. The files are also really big. I suppose it's the normal compression rate, but bleah, huge files. I might have the patience to download TKOTF (2.8M), but not TBASOT (3.8M), especially as the latter is a capella only at the moment.

Woohoo! Royal Jelly (1.7M) sounds great! Less filling! Almost perfect recording (lyrics not the actual written-down lyrics, but close enough; also, a minor stylistic issue in the guitar part right near the end). Good enough, quality-wise, to use on PPvDD, except it's sung by Don Sargasso, for whom I don't really have a voice yet. Also, in the context of PPvDD I'd like a little more desperation in the vocals. Anyhoo, give it a listen.

For a good time, download Urban Creation Myth (3.1M). When I'm done uploading it, I mean. The delta between this entry and the last entry is more or less the time it took me to record, mix, and MP3 it.

Although rockin', UCM needs a full rerecord to be production-quality. I could justify the sync breakdown near the end as a reflection of the singer's mentality, but the breakdown of the rhythm and rhyme scheme do that already, and it's easier to just record it correctly, especially with the additional problem that some of the notes are a little out of my range. I'll need to do the guitar and vocals simultaneously because of the weird rhythm.

Oh, there are probably people whom Urban Creation Myth will offend. But I don't think any of them visit this page.

Jake, I await your expert opinion on this recording and the Royal Jelly recording. What should I change?

I moved the version 1.1.2pl14 stuff over to linux.ucla.edu, as I was over quota on fire. That's where the new stuff will go. I changed some of the links below, you can get everything else from the directory listing.

I will now hit the stain.