Progress on Projects
Yesterday I finally got some space cleared and recorded a story for my podcast. After almost a year it will have updated again.
I sent the audio to Steve to clean up and add in music and what not. Just before I was going to go to sleep last night, Steve messaged me to say "There's this annoying hum in the audio... and it's right in the normal speaking frequency range, so I can't easily quash it without really distorting the voice..."
So this morning I re-recorded using different equipment. Last night I used a headset mic that I'd used in the past, just because it was quick and easy and I wanted to get it done. This morning I set up the Blue Snowball mic I got for Christmas and the resulting audio is much better. And of course I couldn't help editing the story slightly as I read it, going so far as to change one character's gender and name (Jim Fitz became Jen Fitz) after I realized this story had no female characters, and it was the easiest way to distinguish the two speakers in that scene.
I was in a rush to get something recorded finally because Alternia Comics is going to start regularly updating content Friday, July 10. It's an arbitrary date I picked because alarin612 said "Okay, pick a go-live date."
After I recorded the story again, I also reapplied aluminum foil to my window. Yesterday Mike convinced me to open my window, which necessitated tearing at least part of the foil that was there already. We found that while the breeze is nice, I have no screen, and since I put a book case under the window, with my to-be-read pile stacked on top, there's a nice stairway to the open window for the kitten. Less than ideal. The sun woke me up for the first time in months this morning. Hopefully that won't happen again tomorrow. And I put the foil up in two sections so I can now open the window without destroying everything.
Two days ago Mike and Amy and I busted up part of the front walk. When they bought the house last year, part of the walk had come up due to the tree root growing under it. We finally pried up the broken slab of concrete and flipped it over on to the lawn so we could get at the roots and dirt under it. The plan was to remove filler from under the cement so it would lay flat again. We had shovels, a dirt rake, a hammer and chisel, a san angelo bar, a hand axe, and a sledge hammer. When we got the concrete up, we quickly deduced that the root had been there first, and when they went to pout the walk, they simply cut through it. It was clearly visible on both sides of the path, and had clean, straight cuts.
We shouted to the heavens for the umpteenth time upon finding something like this in the house. "WHY!?"
We continued on with the plan, using the axe and chisel to cut the root back. Before lone we got frustrated and took turns just smashing it with the sledge, which actually worked fairly well. Managed to get some big hunks off. After a bit of clean up work, wherein it was discovered I seem to have some talent with the hand axe, we dropped the slab back in place. Mostly.
Our angle was a bit off and it cracked, splitting in to two pieces. We managed to work the smaller one in to place, not quite level with the rest of the path, but much more so than it had been before. Half an hour of trying to jimmy the larger piece in to place was met with little result. Frustrated again, we went back to what worked before: smackin it with the sledge.
We now have some artfully arranged stepping stones (made from the old path) in the path, and a hunk of concrete destined for the dump.
While I was relaxing tonight, chatting online, I got the urge to modify my Stedi-Stock camera mount. The mount itself works pretty well. My recent trip to the Ren Fest was shot with the help of the Stedi-Stock. Mine is now decorated with speaker wire, a 9 volt battery, electrical tape, expansion slot covers from an old desktop case, and a red LED.
I'm not sure what else I can do with it at the moment to make it look more steampunky on the cheap.
I sent the audio to Steve to clean up and add in music and what not. Just before I was going to go to sleep last night, Steve messaged me to say "There's this annoying hum in the audio... and it's right in the normal speaking frequency range, so I can't easily quash it without really distorting the voice..."
So this morning I re-recorded using different equipment. Last night I used a headset mic that I'd used in the past, just because it was quick and easy and I wanted to get it done. This morning I set up the Blue Snowball mic I got for Christmas and the resulting audio is much better. And of course I couldn't help editing the story slightly as I read it, going so far as to change one character's gender and name (Jim Fitz became Jen Fitz) after I realized this story had no female characters, and it was the easiest way to distinguish the two speakers in that scene.
I was in a rush to get something recorded finally because Alternia Comics is going to start regularly updating content Friday, July 10. It's an arbitrary date I picked because alarin612 said "Okay, pick a go-live date."
After I recorded the story again, I also reapplied aluminum foil to my window. Yesterday Mike convinced me to open my window, which necessitated tearing at least part of the foil that was there already. We found that while the breeze is nice, I have no screen, and since I put a book case under the window, with my to-be-read pile stacked on top, there's a nice stairway to the open window for the kitten. Less than ideal. The sun woke me up for the first time in months this morning. Hopefully that won't happen again tomorrow. And I put the foil up in two sections so I can now open the window without destroying everything.
Two days ago Mike and Amy and I busted up part of the front walk. When they bought the house last year, part of the walk had come up due to the tree root growing under it. We finally pried up the broken slab of concrete and flipped it over on to the lawn so we could get at the roots and dirt under it. The plan was to remove filler from under the cement so it would lay flat again. We had shovels, a dirt rake, a hammer and chisel, a san angelo bar, a hand axe, and a sledge hammer. When we got the concrete up, we quickly deduced that the root had been there first, and when they went to pout the walk, they simply cut through it. It was clearly visible on both sides of the path, and had clean, straight cuts.
We shouted to the heavens for the umpteenth time upon finding something like this in the house. "WHY!?"
We continued on with the plan, using the axe and chisel to cut the root back. Before lone we got frustrated and took turns just smashing it with the sledge, which actually worked fairly well. Managed to get some big hunks off. After a bit of clean up work, wherein it was discovered I seem to have some talent with the hand axe, we dropped the slab back in place. Mostly.
Our angle was a bit off and it cracked, splitting in to two pieces. We managed to work the smaller one in to place, not quite level with the rest of the path, but much more so than it had been before. Half an hour of trying to jimmy the larger piece in to place was met with little result. Frustrated again, we went back to what worked before: smackin it with the sledge.
We now have some artfully arranged stepping stones (made from the old path) in the path, and a hunk of concrete destined for the dump.
While I was relaxing tonight, chatting online, I got the urge to modify my Stedi-Stock camera mount. The mount itself works pretty well. My recent trip to the Ren Fest was shot with the help of the Stedi-Stock. Mine is now decorated with speaker wire, a 9 volt battery, electrical tape, expansion slot covers from an old desktop case, and a red LED.
I'm not sure what else I can do with it at the moment to make it look more steampunky on the cheap.