The old studio setup. Note my computer on the left-hand side of the photo and Jen’s computer on the right-hand side.

Last year’s move served two purposes. It helped us to reconfigure the studio but we also swapped the studio room with another room entirely. This year’s move wasn’t as involved as that. We just moved things around in the studio room. The other parts of the house were left (mostly) unharmed.

I developed this high-tech system to help plan the layout of the new studio. What’s shown here isn’t actually what we ended up with.

The first thing to be done was to pack up loose items and get them out of the way. This tub held all of the stuff on or around Jen’s desk.

Next, I had to remove my airplane collection from the glass display case. Gonna be fun putting all of that back together…

Next up was just tearing things down and moving them around. “Studio Tetris” as I referred to it.

A mass of cables from all of the stuff that is on my desk.

The final location for Jen’s new desk. I put up a couple small shelves where she’s planning on displaying some miniatures she’s painted.

The new location for my desk, also known as Desktron because three desks merged to become one super desk!

The cables from my desk after they’d been sorted.

The curtain that was originally hanging over this window was eaten by the dryer. Jen insisted on using this towel as a temporary treatment because you can take the girl out of Carpentersville…

Music gear is now in the closet.

The finished studio!

Requisite photo of Jen sitting in my desk chair. I think it’s the first time she’s ever done so.

(More photos available here.)

The installation was pretty simple. I had to improvise a little because I don’t have the recommended drill bit for the towel holder’s supplied hardware. No big deal. The installation is solid and it looks OK, too.

(More photos available here.)

We had fun Friday evening recording GeminiDragon 18. We were joined by some friends for the live show as we discussed our predictions for 2011 and covered some amusing year-end lists.

Jen and I spent the rest of New Year’s Eve watching movies, eating bad party food and enjoying some mixed beverages. It was low key but it was nice. I had two drinks and actually didn’t wake up the next day feeling like hell. I’ll take this as a good sign for 2011.

Jen, as we recorded GeminiDragon 18.

Saturday was a busy day. Jen worked on her many writing projects. I did a bunch of stuff around the house. We also concocted some plans for contributing to the new Dawnforge Productions network.

On Sunday, I walked to SLO Fresh Market to get some groceries. This is the second week in a row I’ve done this and I’m enjoying it. There are drawbacks to shopping at SLO Fresh vs. the big chain supermarkets, and I don’t think we’ll ever be able to shop there exclusively. But I’m grateful that this place is within walking distance.

My cart’s worth of groceries at SLO Fresh Market.

I spent the afternoon and evening on Sunday working on some little audio and music projects. I even got some Warcraft time in before calling it a night.

Not long after I fell asleep, the power went out. Thanks to some helpful light from my iPhone, Jen found our barbecue lighter and lit some candles.

Jen spent some time trying to get the birds to calm down. They were pretty flustered in the wake of the power outage. Thankfully, in all of their commotion, they managed to not hurt themselves. The power remained off until almost 5:30 Monday morning. Jen stayed up all night reading. She didn’t want to go to sleep while there were candles burning. I managed to get in a decent amount of sleep but it wasn’t enough and I’ve been feeling the effects. When the power came back on, Jen was picked up by her second (third?) wind and went back to work. She didn’t really go back to sleep until around 3PM Monday. I’d guess that she stayed awake for approximately 26 hours straight. (She’s sleeping as I type this.)

Turns out that a power line went down nearby and that’s what caused the outage. We lost power again in the afternoon. I was preparing lunch but gave up as there was no telling when the electricity would return. I walked to Taco Roco (WARNING: Clicking this link may result in instant fiesta) and picked up some tacos instead. The power was back on by the time I had returned and it’s stayed on ever since. Which is good because, how else would I have posted this highly informative blog?

Nice ghetto monitor stand there.

It worked OK for awhile. But there was room for improvement.

After I had that bought of left-arm pain a couple months back, I realized that the way I was sitting at my desk might’ve been the source of the muscle irritation in my arm. Because I can’t see so good, I was sitting like this:

(Sorry for the blurry photo.)

As you can see, it was a rather cramped situation. I started researching alternative monitor stands. I figured for sure that a low-vision specialty company probably made something that’d accommodate my needs. I had imagined something complex with multiple points of articulation and perhaps some kind of tray that a monitor could sit on. I had completely glossed over the fact that LCD monitors can be mounted onto all kinds of stands. I eventually found one that I thought would do the job. The stand uses a boom arm that swings out from a base that clamps on to the back of the desk.

There’s a mounting bracket that installs onto the back of the monitor, and the bracket is then attached to the boom arm. It was pretty easy to get it set up. Jen helped with the final attachment as the monitor weights over 20 pounds and it was difficult to hold it in place and attach it myself.

it was working well. I was able to slide my keyboard under the monitor so I could still sit close to the screen but also give my arms some room to stretch out. After a few weeks, I decided to do some tweaking of the original setup. I added a coaster on to the desk where the c-clamp base is attached to help give it some extra leverage.

Having the new monitor stand has really improved my computer experience. I’m much more comfortable. I can actually sit up like a normal person and still see the monitor and type at the same time. I don’t have to constantly slouch forward or bend in weird ways. It’s also easier on my eyes, as the screen is more centered in my field of vision.

What the monitor setup looks like now.

Me, with the new monitor stand.

(A few more photos of the monitor stand can be found here.)

We went to the SLO Promenade/Madonna Plaza shopping center. An outdoor mall. Outside was soggy. So were we by the time we were done. It’s a week until Christmas. Every store we went into was packed. Mom needed some help at the jewelry counter of a major department store. She eventually got the attention of a clerk who was behind the counter, but had apparently been put on double duty as a cashier. I get it, stores. It’s Christmas time. It’s busy. Either hire some more staff or close the jewelry counter register. So, you know, the jewelry counter clerk can actually work the jewelry counter. Sadly, this experience was the better one. We stopped in at another major department store and couldn’t even get any help at that store’s jewelry counter.

On the bus ride back from the shopping center, we got an unexpected treat. We got to ride on SLO Transit’s contraversy-riddled double decker bus. It was the first time I’ve had a chance to ride this bus. We sat on the lower level. The most impressive thing I noticed is that the double decker has cool red Stop buttons in place of the traditional pull string that’s normally used to alert the driver that a passenger needs the next stop. I’d like to ride the two decker again sometime in the future to see what the view is like from up top.

We made transfers at the Downtown Transit Center. Mom caught a bus back to Atascadero. Before she got on, I tried my best to confirm with the bus driver that his bus would indeed be able to drop Mom off where she needed to go. In return, I received something that looked like a nod combined with a shrug, along with a half-hearted “yeah,” the sound of which might’ve ended with a question mark. Thankfully, a nearby passenger verified that the bus would be stopping where Mom was going. I don’t know what it is with some RTA drivers. But if you have a question about an RTA bus route, it always seems like the last resort should be to ask an RTA bus driver.

When Mom takes the bus from San Luis Obispo to Atascadero, she’s picked up at the other end by my sister. Like me, Mom is legally blind (though her vision has deteriorated far beyond my level) and it’s difficult for her to know when to pull the stop string on the bus. I was worried that Mom might miss her stop. She doesn’t carry a cell phone, and considering the oh-so helpful nature of the bus driver…

Sure enough, I got a call from my sister at 4:30PM. She had been waiting at the pickup location since 4:15PM and she hadn’t seen the bus. (Expected arrival time was around 4:20PM.) I told my sister that it was likely that the bus was just running late. That was indeed the case as the bus pulled up shortly after she called. I didn’t receive a second call so I’m assuming that Mom was collected safe and sound.

Despite the lousy weather and other hassles, I had fun. It was nice spending some time with Mom. Made me realize that we could probably do this sorta thing more often. Here’s some pictures of buses.

Jen, in her pirate costume.


Bo, in his demon costume.

Me, in my Star Trek costume with a nice bowl of pub macaroni and cheese.

(I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of Shannon in her costume, but she wore pretty much the same costume as a couple years ago.)

It was the first time we’d ever been to The Kilt. It’s a cool place and the food was alright. I suspect we’ll be back in the future.

We finished off the night at Frog & Peach. The band Silent Treatment was on stage, providing a decent soundtrack to the night’s parade of costumed patrons. It was a lot of fun.

Of course, I had two measly drinks last night, and I woke up today with a lousy headache. This is why I don’t drink.

While I was inside the hut, a bright flash of lightning occurred followed by loud, rolling thunder. Weather forecasts from earlier in the week had called for storms, but that doesn’t always mean anything around here. When I got back to the computer, I found this PG&E dispatch in my inbox:

Thunderstorm Warning for Sunday and Monday (Oct. 17 and 18, 2010)

An upper-level low pressure center is developing off the Central Coast. This system will move south and parallel to our coastline today through Monday and then southeast across Southern California on Tuesday and Wednesday before exiting the state. The moisture and instability associated with this upper-level low pressure center is currently producing scattered thundershowers along our coastline and over the higher terrain. Scattered thunderstorms and rain showers will continue through Monday. Thunderstorms can be accompanied by brief heavy rain showers, hail, gusty winds and lightning.

The thunder and lightning continued, accompanied by a nice steady rainfall. During a break in the rain, I went outside to capture some footage.

This image was isolated from the above video clip.

The audio file below contains some recordings of thunder from this storm along with assorted ambient sounds. A few more photos can be seen here.

It was something that he had picked up at the mall and apparently didn’t like. This may actually be the first time someone’s gifted me with some new music specifically because they didn’t like it. Regardless, the gesture is appreciated.

Last night (at Mike’s urging via the iChatz), I dusted off my turntable, adjusted some connections on its preamp and gave the record a listen. It’s a shared (two different artists) 45-RPM 7-inch. The color of the vinyl is somewhere between orange and yellow.

As I sat on the bed, in front of the stereo, listening, I wondered how long it had been since I had just sat and listened to some music. It’s been a long time. These days, I usually only hear music while I’m doing something else. Like, going for a walk or working at the computer. There was a time in my life when I would spend several hours a day, pretty much everyday, just laying in front of the stereo, listening to music. I thought about what’s happened in my life that’s caused that to change. I couldn’t find any specific events that brought this on. But a series of small lifestyle changes that happened over time. And hey, that’s life – things are gonna change. Still, I felt a twinge of remorse for how my own habits have turned in regards to listening to music. And then I realized how common my current situation is in this post-iTunes world. And that made me even sadder. Because, if someone with (former?) music-obsessive tendencies has drifted this far away from dedicated listening, is anyone still doing it? I thought about starting a regularly scheduled “music time” for myself to try and get back into a routine of non-distracted listening. Not a bad idea. But somehow, it seemed kinda silly. In ye olden times of my life, I didn’t have to *think* of listening to music this way. I just did it. Perhaps this means I’m passed that point in my life, and these days music has taken a backseat to whatever else I’m doing (damn you, Internet!).

Getting back to the record. I thought the song on side A was OK. Nothing special. I liked the song on side B a little better. Mike asked me if I’d ever listen to it again. I told him that I might, but that it was rare these days for me to ever listen to music on the record player. I know for certain that if, I had heard either of these songs on a podcast or a random Internet stream, I don’t think I would’ve given them a second thought. But as I sat there listening, I found myself thinking, “Some interesting chords on this one. Not bad.” And then I thought about all of the stuff (music or otherwise) that I’ve quickly next’d in a hurry to get to the next thing that the Internet had to offer. And again, I was sad.

We chose this one based on size and price considerations. Also, it’s stainless steel, and that’s kinda cool.

We’ve estimated that our previous microwave is somewhere between ten and twelve years old. Considering the layer of crust that’s accumulated on its roof, and the fact that the plastic runners under the platter had completely worn away the finish underneath, it seemed like a good time to retire the old nuke box. I’m going to try and find a place that’ll recycle it. Hopefully, that can be done.

The new microwave cooks faster than the old one, which is nice. It’ll take some time to get used to. I pretty much had cooking with the old ‘wave down to a science. But that’s a good problem to have.

(A few more photos can be seen here.)

I also took some short videos of water moving through the creek.

A few more photos and videos can be seen here.