Monthly Archives: July 2008

New gear!

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I’ve finally gotten around to getting a decent pair of monitor speakers: the Edirol MA-15D active. They’re a good size for my room, sound great, and have a ton of input options including SPIDIF so I can go all-digital.

Not only is this much better than my tiny 5.1 setup (several speakers of which can be spotted in that shot) for mixing purposes, but it allows me to use my sound card for its intended purposes, rather than just as some extra inputs. It has two separate buses, so I can feed them from my regular sound card or the fancy recording one.

There’s another Random ML competition going on at SA, and this one is themed around the Panama Canal. My entry is turning out to be very abstract to the point where it might end up for something else. I’ll post a WIP mix once I get the drum programming finished.

From the Semi-useless archives

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9/26/2006 found through WWFTD

Ludibrium: mockery, derision

Though she had prepared herself for the meeting with the Japanese investors by studying several language tapes, Cynthia’s idea to wear a kimono ultimately led to much ludibrium as she found the company to be entirely made of British ex-pats.

10/01/2006 found through Dictonary.com

Suzerainty: Absolute or supreme dominion, Overlordship

The passengers rode in a terrified silence, for under the suzerainty of bus driver Millie “Iron Fist” McGuillicutty, there would be no talking, humming, or excessive sneezing.

10/08/2006 found through Dictonary.com

Postprandial: Occurring after a meal, especially dinner.

I found out the hard way that a documentary on tropical parasites was not ideal postprandial television.

Eleventh Hour playlist for 7-06-08

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Opeth – “Porcelain Heart (edit)”
Galleon – “Solitude”
Tiles – “Modification”
Storms Approach – “Mosaic”
King Crimson – “Three of a Perfect Pair (Live)”
Sieges Even – “When Alpha and Omega Collide (Live)”
Camel – “Migration”
Daylight Dies – “Woke Up Lost”
Rush – “Resist”
Judas Priest – “Revelations”
The Third Ending – “Digital Sunrise”
Therion – “Birth of Venus Illegitima”

Semi-useless WOTD: Catholicon

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7/06/2008 found through Wordsmith.org

Catholicon: panacea, cure-all

In the early 1900’s, the automobile was seen as an ecological catholicon against the pollution caused by the prevalent form of transportation: the horse-drawn carriage.

Today’s S-UWTOD was inspired by an article I read on mental_floss about the problems caused by the massive quantities of horse effluent in cities around the late 19th/early 20th century, not to mention the thousands of horse carcasses left rotting in the streets.

The article also got me thinking about the trade-offs that technology give us. Cars helped clean up the horse pollution but may have ended up causing a worse state in the long run. As we’re frantically trying to “greenify” to make up for hundreds of years of industrial pollution et cetera, a few moments should be taken to consider what side effects these alternatives may cause later on. Compact fluorescent lightbulbs are much more efficient than incandescent bulbs in most applications, but how much mercury will end up in our landfills and groundwater because of them?

Eleventh Hour playlist for 6-29-08

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Karelia – “High Hopes”
Porcupine Tree – “Even Less”
Frank Zappa – “Zomby Woof”
Zero Hour – “The Passion of Words”
Spock’s Beard – “The Water (Live excerpt)”
Nick D’Virgilio interview
Spock’s Beard – “Here’s A Man (Live)”
Dream Aria – “Blue Lady”
Yes – “Can You Imagine”
Tuner – “Up, Down, Forward, and Return”
Karmakanic – “Alex In Paradise”
Anubis Gate – “Andromeda Unchained”

The transcription for the whole Nick D’Virgilio interview is available here.

A vocabulary-building exercise in futility

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Although it’s been a feature on my radio show for over a year, I somehow haven’t managed to post anything online about a weekly bit called that I call the Semi-Useless Word of the Day. I basically find an archaic/obsolete/highly-specialized word that you generally wouldn’t encounter in day-to-day life and write some sort of comedic sentence to illustrate its use. Luckily, I don’t have to thumb through worm-eaten lexicons to do so thanks to some fine websites such as the Phrontistery, Grandiloquent Dictionary, and Worthless Word for the Day. For starters, here’s my most recent SUWOTD:

6/29/2008 found through WWFTD

Marmoreal: resembling marble, as in smoothness, whiteness, or hardness


Many beachgoers were blinded by the marmoreal belly of Mr. St. Alphonzo, a retired dental floss tycoon who had just moved to the Keys from Montana.