Last Game of the Year Brett...Can't Hold Anything Back Now

So this is my last week here in the states here for a while. It has also happened to be one of my busiest. One of the things I've been working on is my audio projects. Two fake commercials to cap off the year of class; one is for a "product" called Actual Reality and the other for a sugary cereal called Sugar Shockers.

Actual Reality:
My fist "commercial" assignment, and not a bad one at that. Pretty easy and simple to do but it certainly did not turn out perfect. Everything is either my voice, off the internet, or off sound effects CD's. Only about 3 or 4 layers of audio tracks and it came down to 1 minuet exactly.

Sugar Shockers:
Finished this one most recently (and by most recently I mean 2am last night). It was much more difficult of an assignment in both pre and post production (meaning recording and editing). I want to thank again the class at Cedar Cliff and Amber for the help with the kid's voices and Julie for the announcer track. I finally got to use some cool signal processing other than the pitch bender and used 6-7 layers of stereo audio. Had fun with the left/right panning and I may have gotten a little carried away with the explosions. For some reason my timecode got messed up in Adobe Audition so it ended up to be 1:50 when it seemed to be telling me I was at :60. I should be ok though, I think he'll only take off 3 points.

You can listen to both of these new ones and my old one, What the ****, at http://www.purevolume.com/prozac

Forking

Forking, originally uploaded by votejb.

This is really on an air conditioner here at Cedarville. When I first saw this I was laughing pretty hard. What exactly is "forking" and why would anyone do it under this air conditioner? Well I'll let you ponder that question...he he...

Fresh

As you an see I got me a new header and name. I guess I was inspired by Aaron (my brother) and Emily who took initiative to do theirs.

Other than that little project, I have been pretty busy. I am actually hoping to be able to go to Media Team and College Group this weekend and maybe even relax a bit after working 18 hours last saturday. Untill then I will continue to work on homework and please The Man...

Yes, I love technology...but not as much as you, you see...

But I still love technology so lets take a look at the sweetest new technology in the world! Here's some good stuff as seen in Popular Science:

Fuel Cell technology:
The same technology that they are currently putting in cars may soon power you mobile devices. But before they start putting these actually inside your mobile devices you can at least recharge you current devices with a Power Pack by Medis Technology. I personally can't wait.

Blue Tooth Tapes:
I personally think this thing is very cool. Although I really can't think of how I'd use it personally, I think it has lots of potential to be cool.

Brain Implants:
A man named Andrew Schwartz has now implanted electrodes into a monkeys brain allowing it to operate a robotic arm with only mind powers. This will obviously change a lot of things once they get it working on people. Maybe we will soon have robots living among us and we won't even be able to tell.

So those are some of the coolest inventions lately. You can call me a nerd but this is why I love my magazine.

Nothing but the Oldies

I find it very humerous myself that U99.5 (my radio station) lists it's "Core Artists" or "Hot Songs" as songs by:

-Audio Adrenaline
AudioA is ok. They've been around for a while but have pretty succesfully adapted their style from what they used to be back in the Bloom days. Not a personal fan but all we play from them anyway is their old stuff. It gets a little...old.

-DC Talk
Gotta love DC Talk for what they did...and I do emphasize did...but they haven't even really put out a CD since 1998 (not counting of course the Solo and Greatest Hits CDs) I'm not saying they shouldn't play them...ok...I am saying they shouldn't play them. Also a little old here, still hoping for something from the 21st century here. (but I do dig their website)

-Jars Of Clay
Are you serious!? What the heck? I can't remember actually listening to (and enjoying) Jars of Clay since I was like 12. I honestly didn't even know they still existed...or could exist if they wanted to. I will say I haven't heard any of their new stuff but I'm betting it's not too different.

-Newsboys
Hmmm...another band that really hasn't changed their style for about the last decade. Can't say I've been a fan since Take Me to Your Leader (1996). Don't even get me started on Love Liberty Disco.

-Switchfoot
Definately the only band on this list that deserves to be. A well respected band in both the Christian and secular music industries while not losing their witness and rocking my face off! I love this band and am glad we play them here.

-Stacie Orrico
I don't really want to talk about her much...just not my style I guess. I don't listen to her but just the fact that she still makes music...I really respect her for that. I really don't know that I can see her appealing to college students as much as teenieboppers and gay guys. I could be wrong...just saying what I think...

So, a sad list indeed gives you a good example of what kinda stuff we play. All I'm saying is since nobody listens to our station as it is myabe we could at least experiment with some other genres. Right now all of our music appeals to one very small group of people and maybe we should reach out to...people like me who like...well...different stuff.

Leavin' On A Jet Plane

I got my tickets for Guatemala yesterday! I am leaving Monday, May 2nd and coming back Friday, July 1st. I am pretty pumped up and ready to go...I just know I am gonna be so tired after this summer is over because right after I get back I'll go strait to our camp then I'll stay for the next one too. I also hope to be able to help out with the missions trip training for Global Impact if they'll let me.

So I'll have a pretty packed summer and I really can't wait. Me and Bobby gonna be chillin' in the jungle petting mountain lions and snakes and stuff. I'm thinking about taking my paintball gun to tag some jungle cats too...set up a parameter and keep that place safe, ya know what I mean?

Winnie the Pooh goes to Christopher Walken's House

Weird week so far. Sunday seemed mostly like a dream and I got sick on the tire swing. Illegal underground 4-square tournament before church, it was wicked sweet. I'm pretty sure I won or something. Was up till 3am trying to work on a project with no success of accomplishing anything. Worked this morning from 9-11 then went back to my room to sleep till 5 because I felt awful. I was exhausted, I had no energy and could barely walk up the stairs in the chapel. A bird was on the loose in the chapel though; distracted everyone the whole time ducking in and out of the air ducts. When I woke up at 5 I went to my weekly work meeting then to the radio station meeting. Pretty boring. Went to eat and then I downloaded the Adobe Audition 30 day free trial so I can work on my project. Didn't feel like learning Audacity yet. I have no voice today...well for some reason the only voice I have is really low. I cannot talk at all unless I sound like a subwoofer. That is all...

I Dare You To Poo

HA! That was funny! Not really though...but here I am sitting in my room listening to loud music and about to embark on yet another busy weekend. Unfortunately this weekend does not include the usual fun times at Media Team and College Group but I will be working pretty much the entire time. So what does this mean?

1. I will miss Amber's party. This sucks as I don't think I'll get to see Amber now before she leaves. If I would have my car I could probably make it but unfortunately it is not fixed...yet.

2. I will be cranky, tired and sore on Sunday. Hopefully I'll be able to salvage it but I'm pretty sure I'll be exhausted.

3. I will be filthy rich! Well probably not since I have to pay to have my car fixed but the money is always good. I'll probably work about 11 hours on Saturday. You may wonder, "Is that even legal?" Probably not, but oh my gosh I love TobyMac! (my spell check tryed to replace "TobyMac" with topping...HA!)

4. I will learn how to operate a spot light (I guess it's not as easy as it sounds) for the first time as well as run the sound board in the chapel for the first time (and it's a behemoth). So I am excited about those (except for the spot light).

5. I will again not have any time to do my homework so I will have to be up till 3:30 on Sunday night. Not that I wouldn't be up that late anyway, it's just no fun when you're doing homework.

So that is the impact that all this work will have on me. It actually goes much deeper and long term but those are the basics; some good and some bad. But as Henry David Thoreau once wrote, "I once had a sparrow alight on my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn."