McNuggets at 6am
Aug.17.2010
This woman really wants her McNuggets. Surveillance video from Jan. 1, 2010, of Melodi Dushane, who, in a fit of rage, complains and threatens McDonald’s employees after she was denied an order of Chicken McNuggets. She ordered the McNuggets at around 6 a.m. She was indicted and found guilty.
Tough Session
Aug.13.2010
Some recording sessions are really, really tough.
Push
Aug.12.2010
Personal Trainer: “Give me one more. Come on. I know you can do it. Push! Push!”
And I did another one. Legs burning. Arms burning. Heart rate anaerobic. Body shutting down. But I did another one.
Personal Trainer: “I’ve worked with a lot of people wanting to get into better shape. And there is one thing that consistently separates those who achieve their goals and those who do not: push. Trying to do just one more, working just a bit harder, always digging deep to make that extra bit of effort.”
Although his comments were in the context of an exercise session, I thought his words applied to other challenges in life.
And I pushed hard last night.
No pain, no gain.
Personal Trainer
Aug.10.2010
My session with the personal trainer went well last night. Compared to last week, I am not struggling with any significant, lingering muscle pain. But don’t let him know otherwise he may further intensify the workout. It is plenty challenging enough right now.
I rode my bike the day after the workout last week and I had a very difficult time keeping my heart rate aerobic. My muscles were hurting long before the cardio system felt anything. I was battling to keep the cardio intensity above a light recovery ride even though my leg muscles were in agony. Tough ride.
My trainer told me to keep today’s ride an active recovery session. Which means a very easy ride. Light gears, light effort.
Obviously, the overall objective is to improve core conditioning and to hopefully alleviate the back pain issues and not break any new cycling records. Recovery rides do not break cycling records and I try to avoid doing them as much as possible.
My theory, though, is that my personal trainer will create pain in the other areas of my body and I will soon forget about the back pain. It will seem very minor by comparison.
So far, this theory seems to be working.
Pre or Post
Aug.08.2010
We played a concert last night and the sound system included a 32-channel Allen and Heath GL2200.
The schedule was very tight yesterday and I did not have much time to get the system ready for the FOH operator — which in this case was my wife. I went through the line level checks. Two snakes, a few dead channels, the usual stage chaos of which cable terminates into which channel. Getting the band up and running and then doing a very quick pass on channel processing and monitor sends.
I told my wife that the major task during rehearsal would be tuning the monitors for the talent.
The Allen and Heath GL2200 looks like this:
All during the rehearsal and also during performance, something strange was going on with the monitors. And it did not dawn on me until too late.
The sound system installer had configured all six aux sends as post-fader. Which means that as the FOH operator is making level changes, the monitor changes volume. When we started playing, my electric guitar in the wedge was way too hot. And the volume off the wedge was up and down all night. The drummer, who was using an in-ear monitor as we were playing to clicks the whole evening, was also having issues with his monitor levels.
Looking more closely at the aux send section of the board and you see the following:
Pressing the little button under Aux 4, the one marked “PRE”, would have solved all of our monitor issues. Too many things going on and I missed this one in the setup.
Listening to the recording after the concert and it did not matter. The band sounded terrific.
PowerPoint Chops
Aug.06.2010
I generally tend to look for inspiration when I create new PowerPoint presentations. I go to slideshare.net and scan the most popular ones. I found another great source for inspiration at Note & Point. Some great examples of using Keynote and PowerPoint to communicate.
I’m not a death by PowerPoint presenter and I tend to approach slide decks from a minimalist perspective. But there is always more to learn and you never know when a different way of thinking about presentations might come along.
Like this one.
Staring at Screens
Aug.05.2010
Sitting, it seems, can be a very dangerous activity.
In a study published in May in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, they reported that, to no one’s surprise, the men who sat the most had the greatest risk of heart problems. Men who spent more than 23 hours a week watching TV and sitting in their cars (as passengers or as drivers) had a 64 percent greater chance of dying from heart disease than those who sat for 11 hours a week or less. What was unexpected was that many of the men who sat long hours and developed heart problems also exercised.
I know that sitting really bothers my back. Depressing to learn that it also might kill me.
I wrote this post standing up.
Via.
Bad Font
Aug.05.2010
My son passed this over to me.
Comic Sans is simply a bad font.
Not A Cold Call
Aug.04.2010
If it comes in from LinkedIn, it cannot be a cold call.
Someone you do not know has indicated you are a Friend:
Richard,
Rather than a cold-call, I feel this is a great way to introduce our firm to you & for you to learn whether or not we can be of assistance sooner.
I have collected pictures of some of the most stunning recording studios in the world and you can travel through the set by clicking 
