Category: Creativity

Writing, music, anything creative

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Corporate Emo Poetry Monday (Salvation Edition)

Stumbling, grumbling, the groggy-eyed rush
Try not to significantly fill your mind with mush
Rushing to accomplish something you can’t understand
Knowing that whatever thoughts you have will just be banned

Working at the mercy of someone who’s underhanded
Deciphering the drivel coming forth not understanded
When trying to explain to them the error of their ways
It only leaves your spirit crushed and lamenting for days

Forgetting what’s behind, I press on towards the goal
Remembering I’m working for what’s bigger than the whole
Releasing every thought that threatens to be desperation
I close my eyes and visualize the one who’s my salvation

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MIDI Effect Sequencing Software For Guitarists

As many of you know, I’m working on a complete open-source solution to doing guitar amp and effects emulation in Linux. Because, you know, I’m a geek like that. So far, I’ve had great success with Guitarix and SooperLooper, and added a few other tools and utilities to make everything work smoothly. I have to say, considering what the equivalent software would cost, I’ve been pretty impressed with Guitarix. (Rakkarak might someday be a viable performance alternative… it just needs a complete UI redesign. Yes, it’s really that bad.)

One of the guitar effects that I’ve been curious about is an effect sequencer. Some hardware equivalents would be something like the Electro Harmonix 8 Step Program, which lets you sequence a signal that goes to the external control pedal jack of another effect. (Demo video and good explanation of step sequencers (not mine) is here) Continue reading “MIDI Effect Sequencing Software For Guitarists”

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Corporate Emo Poetry Monday

Sputtering, stuttering, making excuses
Acting as if there were more than two uses
For the asphyxiated grey matter within
To think outside the box would be considered a sin

Assimilating ammunition knowledge at large
To undercut and stupefy the people in charge
Of the mass-generated complicational trope
That underestimates resistance in both focus and scope

To articulate futility of endless frustration
Simply pound your head against the desk in your isolation
Or pretend you’re writing emails to the biggest of cheeses
Instead of doing nothing like we’re full of diseases

And yet there’s still a glimmering, a flicker of light
That maybe someday we’ll be freed to do whatever we might
Oh yes, and heaven forbid it might be something productive
Instead of simply making money and ending up self-destructive

 

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Corporate Emo Poetry Monday (Personal Restraint Edition)

in a moment of weakness I feel myself slipping

the vultures surrounding me eager for ripping

pushing my patience to the point of it tipping

over the edge, but to hang on I’m gripping

tight to the precipice rife with complaint

but falling on deaf ears my voice going faint

I’m losing the urge to fight with restraint

I’m hoping that things will improve- but they ain’t.

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Take The Red Pill..

Not sure what to call this… it started as a funky NES chiptune, and kind of morphed into a techneaux/dubstep/art piece. Throw in some clips from one of my favorite movies, a little 808 beat, and there you go. Most everything is done with pretty simplistic square wave synths, nothing really fancy going on there. I used a lot of “slightly” modified waveforms… took a square, and added a bit of noise. It gives it more of a genuine chiptune feel, more lo-fi. There’s a few other tricks in there, specifically using square/noise waves and filters to do percussion. I’m still learning, but it came out okay. Hope you like it!

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Corporate Emo Poetry Monday (Quiet Desperation Edition)

we are soldiers of the mass conglomeration
unspoken cannon fodder of the corporation
subsequently fed into a dead-end generation
forever relegated to the bottom of the nation

we tirelessly toil to fight the managed conflagration
while we simulateously extinguish innovation
we struggle endlessly to kill the ravenous cessation
of everything we might hold dear before elimination

to those who toil away their lives in quiet desperation
I challenge you to stand and look around your situation
unless you choose to think and rise above innoculation
your fate will be no different than a man’s incarceration

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Corporate Emo Poetry Monday (Rainy Day Edition)

In the early morning rain I stake my claim
To only temporarily disguise the pain
So many things I’ve been forced to leave
In order to compartmentalize my brain

Forever I toil to the beat of the drummer
Forbidden to rest till there is no more summer
The crushing of weights with the brightest of smiles
And every day added makes me even dumber

Yet once I have conquered the unending ladder
And the dust has settled and the company’s fatter
I realize I’m gripping the shifting of sand
And that after all, it just plain doesn’t matter

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My Guitar Setup

Some of you may have been wondering what my actual guitar setup looks like, so after some prodding from the Google+ Worship Guitarists Community, I decided to make a short video and explain what I’ve got and why I’m using it. Let me know if you have any questions.

In my quest to minimize, I will probably be rearranging some of this equipment, but I will still keep an actual amp setup in case my computer crashes in some way. Just wish MIDI controller pedals were cheaper on Ebay! Sheesh.

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Corporate Emo Poetry Monday (Day Late, Dollar Short Edition)

Curmudgeonly zombies with dotted lines to power
Throw hand grenades willingly to sabotage their friends
Fighting tooth and nail to climb the allmighty tower
Till they realize too late the climb never ends

Yet hopefully optimism beams as a light in the void
An isle of tranquility amongst the rages of dread
Cause wherever you look there are empty stares to avoid
Occasionally mentioning how they’d be better off dead

But I refuse to go along with all of the the bored zombies
I smile as a tactic to confuse the ranks like a joke
Resplendant in their khakis, ties, egos, and Abercrombies
They will never know the taste of freedom until they are broke