My Life and Code

Oh the humanity...

I really enjoy Christmas music -- especially the more traditional, Johnny Mathis/Andy Williams type stuff -- but there are certain Christmas songs that I just can't stand. For starters, it seems like I don't like anything modern, specifically new takes on old classics. Mariah Carey is very talented, but for some reason I can't explain, I don't like her versions of any of the old Christmas songs. Same goes for any of the other current mega-singers. Again, I'm not sure why -- I have nothing against them, I just don't like their renditions of those songs. Then there's some old classics that I could never stand. For example, "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth". Personally, all I want for Christmas is for him to stop singing. Then there's a handful of songs that I used to hear, over and over, on any given Christmas at my aunt's house -- she'd always have the radio on and I guess the station only had a limited number of Christmas...

A funny comic from yesterday's paper.

I recently purchased the M-Audio Fast Track USB recording interface with Pro Tools so I could begin recording some of the music I've been writing ever since picking the guitar back up a few years ago. I was excited to have something I could plug into my laptop or desktop, record music played on guitar or bass, and add drum tracks using a MIDI sequencer. However, when I hooked the equipment up, all did not go as planned. I eventually solved the problems and am ready to start recording as soon as I have some time. The first problem I had was a horrific amount of background noise. I had plugged guitar directly into the specified input on the M-Audio box, with the M-Audio box plugged into the USB port on my laptop. I had the correct line selected on the box (using the Line vs Mic input button), but the background noise overwhelmed everything else. Doing a little research on the web, I found that if I unplugged the laptop and let it run on battery power, the noise went away. Some peopl...