Garageband and my magnetic wall

When we moved, Jeff and I had to give away our baby grand piano because there wasn't room for it in our new house. Someday we may buy an upright piano, but for now I've been doodling on my Roland JV-80 whenever I get the urge to tickle some ivories. It's not quite the same, but better than having no keyboard at all.

While playing around with Garageband last night, however, I discovered that there are two ways to play a virtual keyboard. One is via clicking with a mouse (not great for my tendons :-( )) but the other is by typing on the keyboard:



Although I may not be able to play complex pieces, this entry method will be handy for entering melodic lines on different tracks.

So far, I'm finding Garageband remarkably intuitive in terms of user interface. I've already typed in part of my new multi-voice chocolate song. In the old Urban Tapestry days, I'd have to record myself performing scratch tracks on Jeff's old four-track recorder in order to properly test whether multi-part compositions truly worked. I've found that something that may follow all the proper harmony/counterpoint rules still may not sound all that great in real life, nor may it suit everyone's voices.

Composing via Garageband should be much easier, I think. It also looks like it SHOULD be fairly straightforward to record, with the proper recording equipment. I am still missing some cords to hook everything up to my laptop and eventually need another microphone. Seanan's going to mail me the track from her recording project for which she'd like flute added, so I can start experimenting.

More comments re: composing and recording with Garageband in a future Blathering.

Today we're getting a new air conditioner. It looks like they may have to put several holes in my basement office wall to install it, including (possibly) the wall with the magnetic wall beside the door. You can see an early picture of the wall in right-hand side of the photo below, MUCH emptier than it is now:




If they do have to put a hole in the wall, I'll paint another one, of course, but I'm still hoping I won't have to.

Anyway, I'm fleeing my office while they're here and taking my laptop and Wacom artpad elsewhere, so may be offline much of the day. I love the fact that I can take my office with me, working on my writing and illustrating pretty normally. Heck, I could even compose a mini-symphony with just my laptop, if I felt like it, complete with different instruments and multi-tracking, while sitting in a coffeeshop! I'd better take headphones.

I love technology.

I'm not yet familiar with what local restaurants and coffeeshops have reliable power outlets yet (and ideally, Internet access)...I guess now's a good a time to find out as any.

Livejournal comments

Cottage visit

Back from the cottage! We took our friend Ray with us and had a wonderful time. Because of a busy weekend schedule and house stuff, this was our first visit up north since ice-out. It was somewhat muggy, but jumping in the lake always cooled us off. I love my morning swims up there...it's a wonderful way to start off the day.

Things have gotten way busier workwise these days, so I took some work with me: finished edits on my novel and completed five illustrations for a client. Sadly, the external modem that comes with my MacBook doesn't seem to work very well with the cottage phone line but happily, I didn't need to be online. Jeff says that when I do, I can always use his Airport connection via his laptop.

Also did a lot of reading, drawing for fun, snoozing, and wrote a short instrumental while playing around with Garageband 3 for the first time.

Here are some photos from the weekend...

Ray stayed in a tent during the visit:



Jeff went sailing:



Playing a board game in the boathouse:



And some photos from the cottage archives...

Wam and Jimmy Stringer:



Their brother, Omer Stringer, was famous for his paddling skills.

Dan Gibson and my father-in-law, many years ago:



As I wrote in my Blatherings back in March, Dan Gibson will be missed by many.

I also played around with Corel Painter some more. Here's one I call "Creepy Mad Guy":



I liked Scott Snyder's comment in Flickr: "Oh, I dunno - looks like me before I've had my coffee in the morning."

:-D

Livejournal comments

Franklin Gunkelman & Urban Tapestry DVDs

Many, many thanks to my friends Walter and Vartan for putting together a "personal memory" DVD set based on footage Walter and Jeff took of our concert with Franklin Gunkelman at FilKONtario earlier this year. I gave Allison and Jodi their copies last night when we met for dinner. Franklin will be receiving his copy soon!

Dear lord. So much work went into the creation of the DVDs, which were customised slightly for each one of us. I laughed hysterically during the first five minutes of mine. Got all teary-eyed during the last five minutes.

I would rather not say more, for fear of spoilers...I'll wait until Allison, Jodi and Franklin have seen their copies.

:-)

"

Here's a photo of Walter with Allison, Jodi and me at FilKONtario:



You can see my report from FKO starting here.

Here's a picture of Vartan (on the left) fixing drinks at a party:



THANK YOU, VARTAN AND WALTER!!!!!

I've switched from GraphicConverter to iPhoto for all my digital photo stuff. I was a tad nervous since the last time I tried switching photo organization systems (Cumulus), I wrecked my tendons. I'm pretty happy with iPhoto so far, though, especially the Flickr upload plugin.

Livejournal comments

Inkygirl comics and Tom Swifties

I've been gradually accumulated my writing-related comics (not including Will Write For Chocolate), posted to Inkygirl. Here's a thumbnail summary, for those interested:













































































I've also been getting more inquiries about using these cartoons, either on sites or newsletters, so finally decided to put together a policy on re-posting and other use of my images. These are specific to my Inkygirl comics, but I'll be coming up with similar pages for my other illustrations and comics. Most people seem to be careful about copyright use, but I've noticed a growing number of people re-posting copyrighted comics in their blogs and I suspect that not all were posted with permission of the artist or publisher.

Of course, there's a marked difference between occasionally posting someone's else comic without permission in your personal blog and posting it on a for-profit site. When someone asks me for permission to use one of my Inkygirl cartoons, I very rarely say no unless it's for something commercial or if they plan to do this frequently (in which we work out a licensing fee). Still, I appreciate being asked in advance.

In my last post, I asked you about your favourite childhood book series. Wow, thanks for all your replies! I was reminded of many series I'd forgotten about and now am going to have seek out again, like Danny Dunn, Homer Price, Anne of Green Gables, The Bobbsey Twins, Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazon series, Little House books, Five Little Peppers, Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain, Narnia books, The Borrowers, Beverly Cleary's Ramona series, Encylopedia Brown, Paddington Bear, among others. Bill Roper reminded me of The Enormous Egg, which I just unpacked. I found out about all kinds of other series which I'm now curious about.

Like Tom Swift! Never did read a Tom Swift, and I was shocked to discover from Walter that "Tom Swifties" weren't actually used in the Tom Swift books. Also found out from W. that the TASER, a hand-held projectile electroshock stun gun used by police, is an abbreviation of Tom A. Swift Electric Rifle. Apparently Jack Cover, who developed the original TASER, was a Tom Swift fan. Go figure.

And Alan T. and Phil P. helpfully volunteered some Tom Swifties. My favourites:

"The prisoner escaped by climbing down a rope ladder," said Tom, condescendingly. (Alan T.)

"I dropped the toothpaste!" said Tom, crestfallen. (Alan T.)

"I've created a variable X whose value is preserved from one invocation of the procedure to the next!" Tom declared ecstatically. (Phil P.)

:-D


Livejournal comments

Will Write For Chocolate, Andy's award, Nancy Drew nostalgia

My weekly comic strip for freelance writers, Will Write For Chocolate, has been updated. This week's column topic: "Bad Writing At Its Best: The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest."

A belated congrats to our friend, Andy Beaton, for winning the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada's Bertram J. Topham Observer of the Year award. From a recent RASC newsletter:

"Awarded to Andy Beaton for his contribution to the science of variable star observing. During the past year, Andy has led all Toronto Centre members with a total of 378 variable star observations. These totals are all the more impressive in that his primary instrument did not have computer-assisted pointing. In addition to his excellent work in variable star observations, Andy has also made significant contributions to the observing pro- grams of the Centre both by being a regular volunteer at star parties and other public education events and by contributing to the Toronto Centre's first-ever Variable Star Workshop at the Carr Astronomical Observatory in October 2005."



I'm continuing to gradually unpack some long-stored boxes of books, and trying to exert some self-discipline in deciding what to keep and what to give to Goodwill. It's tough; I'm not good at book-purging. But the fact is that my basement office is far too small to house all the books I want to keep, and there is limited room on shelves elsewhere in the house. So far, I've managed to get rid of about 7 boxes of books.

I know I could probably sell some of them or give away specific books online or via Freecycle, but unfortunately I just don't have the time or arm points...I have to do this in bulk or I likely won't get around to it at all.



Here's my criteria: I only keep books that I honestly think I'll want to look at again, or that have sentimental value. Like the Nancy Drew book pictured to the left. I still have a fondness for that "titian-haired" teenage detective which was never quite surpassed by my enjoyment of the Hardy Boy series. I also remember Trixie Belden and vaguely recall a series about some twins. And of course numerous fantasy series like Edward Eager's Half-Magic books and Enid Blyton's "four kids do something magical" series.

How about the rest of you? Were you a fan of Nancy Drew and/or the Hardy Boys? Any other favourite childhood book series you're willing to share?

Livejournal comments