6/21/99

I must have forgotten somehow, my passion and love for the guitar and the sounds it can make.  I didn't even realize I forgot, until I watched Peter Frampton on VH1 a few nights ago.  I'm not even a big fan, but damn, the way his guitar sounded made me feel like I was 15 years old sitting in my room again thinking jesus christ I will never be good enough to be a hero so I'd better get practicing my ass off for 26 hours straight.  My life has changed so much since then, and I don't think I will ever be able to get back into that mode, but watching Frampton has me longing for my guitar hero dreams again.  His guitar sound was that of 20.  My eyes were GLUED to that TV trying to get a glimpse of what gear he was using.  You can tell when a guitar player has a sound so special when you hear tones that you usually do not hear.  I must be doing something wrong.  At least I have the first element, a Les Paul.  The rest of the gear to shape the sound I hear in my head will probably take the rest of my life to find.  I feel like I am wasting myself spending money on other things.  Sitting here right now writing this makes me think about not writing this anymore because I am wasting my talent.  In other words, I have to get my ass back in gear and get to playing as passionately as I did when I was 15.   That is what I am doing all of this for, isn't it?

5/03/99

DTV, HD, HDTV.  If you didn't know, High Definition Television (HDTV) is coming.  HDTV is a wider 16 by 9 aspect ratio (today's analog TVs have an aspect ratio of 4 by 3) as well as 5.1 channel Dolby Digital surround sound. HDTV pictures are like looking out a window and are better than any picture that today's analog TV's can produce.  Last year, stations across the United States began transmitting free over-the-air digital pictures and sound, while retailers began selling "digital television" and "digital television ready" TV sets and VCRs (known as D-VHS). This year, more stations will be going on-air, including the network affiliates (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC) in the nations 10 largest cities this month (May).  This format of television is NEVER ready, and the huge networks cannot decide on a single format, forcing everyone to guess what digital formats will dominate, therefore taking a HUGE chance of losing millions of dollars by making a bad choice in equipment.  Users at home that have paid 4 to 9 thousand dollars for their HDTV set may not benefit as the format may change before the networks even start broadcasting in HD.

Beginning in November, CBS will broadcast five hours of high definition (HDTV) primetime programming each week. The CBS HDTV programming will be broadcast in 1080i, the highest quality HDTV digital format.  On Monday, April 26, 1999, NBC's Tonight Show with Jay Leno was the first daily network broadcast in HDTV.   The Tonight Show also had to make some changes to lighting, make up and camera angles to make sure that both regular analog viewers and HDTV viewers have the best possible viewing experience.

IN ENGLISH: HDTV, or High Definition Television is the new standard for broadcasting digital signals in North America. HDTV delivers a very clean digital signal to HDTV equipped TV sets.

HDTV has a much sharper picture than your current television set. Your regular TV has about 500 horizontal lines that together make up the picture you see. An HDTV set can have over 1000 horizontal lines that make up the picture. The result is a picture that is much sharper and colors that are far more vibrant. An HDTV set is also slightly wider, which means that you'll be able to see more of the action. HDTV also broadcasts the sound digitally as well. So the sound you'll hear on your TV is almost as good as what you are used to hearing from your CD player. 

All HDTV broadcasts are digital, or DTV broadcasts. Not all DTV broadcasts are HDTV. Confused? DTV is a way of digitally broadcasting the signal. HDTV defines what that signal will look like on your set. If you have an HDTV set, it's capable of receiving DTV broadcasts. DTV allows users of HDTV sets to receive digital broadcasts of non-HDTV programming. Could this be more complicated?  

By the way, if you're wondering why the hell I know so much about HDTV it's because I work at a TV station and I get every single HDTV Magazine on this planet.

5/01/99

It's weird.  Yesterday I had this strange feeling that I wanted to plant things and make this huge-ass garden in my back yard with a waterfall, trees, bushes, cool plants and flowers, and I had no idea why...until... I remembered that my moms dad, my grandfather, was the best plant and flower gardener on the planet.  He was even on the radio and had his own show about plants.  I remember as a kid walking in his house and the whole house smelled like potting soil*.  There must have been 9,000 fluorescent lamps in his basement buzzing 24 hours a day, growing exotic plants and flowers from Africa or something, with a little identifier stick stuck in the soil next to it with a name you cannot pronounce or even wish to for that matter.

What is it about *smell?  Like when you buy some old shampoo you used to use like 5 or 6 years ago, and you're in the shower, and all the sudden the smell makes you think you're back in middle school?  I get the most vivid memories from smelling something from the past that had a familiar smell.  For example...your neighbor.  Maybe you've been in the house a few times because they invited you in, but when you go 4 years later, you instantly recall all the memories of that time period** in your life from the distinct barely noticeable scent of their home.

The Mike Roberts **time period theory.  Minor, barely noticeable changes in your life of which you do not discover until after they have passed, is what I call a time period.  A normal time period in your life may last for 5 to 7 months, depending on the seasons' change.  One of my oldest discoveries has been that these time periods are usually ended, and therefore begun, with a sickness such as the flu, or the change of season when you break out your summer clothes and wax your car 3 times in a week.  Weeks later you can look back and see the difference between how things are now compared to how they were then.  You realize, at that moment, a start of a new time period. 

Time periods are major and minor, and usually branch out, for example, an experience may change you but you still may be living the same kind of life from the previous period and haven't really turned over a new leaf yet to trigger a whole new way of life.  I seem to be stuck in a 5 year time period I can't get out of until something major happens with this band, because my daily routine has been working with the band (such as rehearsal, flyers, or this web site), through all seasons.  When this finally gets off the ground (and I have put my life's faith in this), it will most definitely start a better time period for me, one which I have been waiting for, for 5 years.

4/13/99

My thoughts on UFO's. In 1972, we sent a man to the moon.  That was 27 years ago.  If we haven't made any advances since then, we suck.  Back then, we did have Russians kicking us in the ass, now it's not really important to race ahead in the space program.  Anyway, since I was thinking of this, it leads me to suspect that we may be farther along than we think.   This would explain all of the weird shit we see in the skies at night, and it would also explain the spring night at our practice room about a year ago.  Remember, UFO means Object, not Aliens...

During a break at practice, I was dicking with my guitar, Mark and Frank were drinking a few beers and probably talking about how hard work was that day, and Sam went outside to get fresh air I guess.  My sister was with us also (she's 30 and is a specialized nurse).  Everyone was just sitting around, when Sam started screaming at the top of his lungs, "dudes, get out here".  We thought he was in a fight or something.  When all of us ran out there to see what he was talking about, he said, "LOOK!!!" and pointed to a low flying plane which looked like.....a plane.  It had two bright lights which looked like the lights on the wings.  It was flying at normal plane speed, but then...The two bright lights separated, following an independent weave pattern, and sped from horizon to horizon in less than 5 seconds.  ALL OF US saw it, very very clearly: (this is almost exactly how it looked across the whole sky)
               
It freaked me out and then caused a lot of discussion between us.  We all agreed that we saw it, and that it was the fastest we've ever seen anything move in our whole lives.  We don't know if it was human, or what, it was simply a U F O.

4/10/99

I have so many hobbies it's sick.  I think that's why I am always broke.  I wouldn't be so broke if I didn't have to have the absolute best kickass equipment for every thing I do in life.  Jesus, if I built an ant farm I bet I'd go buy the most expensive ants I could find.

In the news this week, there has been talk of using DNA strands to create electronic devices.  The Matrix was right, our machines may be able to take over and kill us one day.  This is the first step of complete destruction of the human race from machines we built...aha...anyway, here is a snippet of this topic:
Hans-Werner Fink and Christian Schoenenberger of the University of Basel in Switzerland found that DNA conducts electricity as well as a good semiconductor. (wow, I hope the Pentium VI can grow into a faster processor :) A semiconductor carries electricity better than an insulator but not as well as a conductor like copper.  If DNA strands could be made with a switch (Imagine calling tech support for your DNA device) to turn the current flowing through them on and off, they could be used to build extremely tiny electrical devices, the researchers said.  Fink said he knows of no metallic wires that can be made as small or as regular as DNA strands.  A strand is 2 billionths of a meter thick, or one-forty-four-thousandths of the diameter of a medium-size human hair.

All I want right now is one of those TNT2 video cards.

My theory on the human race and the earth:  Well, a lot of people say humans are scum of the earth and that we're ruining it.  I agree about us ruining it, BUT the earth did create us, and if we do piss off the earth bad enough, this is what will happen:  The climate is getting warmer, therefore the ice is melting, and the oceans are rising.  Rising of the oceans puts pressure on the plates, and irritates volcanic areas or "hot spots". Volcanic activity will increase, releasing tons and tons of ash into the air.  When and if a huge volcano erupts, it is possible that this (with the combination of other volcanoes)  will throw billions of tons of ash into the atmosphere (this happened in a minor way with Mt. St. Helens, no daylight for months) almost completely blocking out the sun.  This will kill all animal and plant life, along with us.  So if we don't get our asses in shape, the earth will naturally erase us.  Personally, I don't give a damn because I won't be around.

Some people are such assholes, I'd like to hold them down to try and figure out just how and why they think the way they do, then beat their fuckin ass into the ground, just enough that I wouldn't go to jail.  Most of the time, I think people have nothing better to do, so they look for the tiniest littlest thing and try to sue me for it.  Keep doing it, it helps me write good songs.

Jeremy Moorhead from Lirk and my girlfriend (and I) are going to start running soon so I can rid myself of winter fat.  I can't wait to feel all good and in shape again.

4/7/99

Baseball season started this week.  I like baseball season because it sorta lets me know that good warm summer days are coming and gives me nice thoughts of grilled burgers, swimming pools, and my girlfriend in a bikini.  So, what made me think of baseball season starting, well, after I heard that the Major League may start to put ads on the players sleeves.  What a dumb idea.  I can't wait to see what I won't buy.  This is just going to clutter up baseball just like it cluttered up racing.  (I can understand the racing deal, those guys need the $$) Another thing I heard is that the Indians may change their name.  Great.  I'm not really that much of a baseball fan, but jesus.  My dad used to take me to Indians games when I was little, and that's why I still sometimes go now, because they are the Cleveland Indians.  Just when you think people are stupid, they get MORE stupid, or shall I say stupider.

Music these days is starting to suck.  Believe me I'm doing everything possible to help the situation.  Maybe I'm just getting old, or maybe not.  This is just a bad few months maybe?  Hopefully a few good records will come out soon and the Music will look up.  I recall this happening in 1990.  We need another 1992, something that changed us and opened our eyes to new things.

The War.  I feel really bad for the people who have to live in the cold.  I would like to know WHAT the president of this country is thinking..."I think we can put up a good fight against the most advanced military countries in the world combined, and the people of my country can just walk to another country for the time being." WTF?

Computers are getting so good I cant stand it.  I have written an article on Computers and how to improve the performance of them.  (you have to be an advanced user, however, or you can really mess things up for yourself) Check it out here.  I cannot wait until the AMD K7 chip comes out.  This processor is what will be taking place of the Intel Pentium II and III processors.  It is a seventh generation chip and will come out in June at 500+MHz, but WILL require a new motherboard because it requires the new "Slot A" (just like a Slot 1 (to keep cost down) but with different voltages)  and will run at an amazing 200Mhz Bus speed.  The new boards will also include a new chipset.  You can find tons on the K7 at www.bxboards.com.   Good news: you WON'T have to replace your SDRAM, as the K7 will accept all PC-100 memory.  How is Intel responding? their new "Coppermine" chip expected this summer at 600Mhz, and a little later, their 800Mhz Xeon.  Intel will still lose as these chips will be $$$$ oooo baby.

I have a new aquarium and it is awesome.  I'll put pictures here when it's done.  I have done the math and it's official, 180 gallons.

Gibson Les Pauls are the best.

I once met Kiss.

That's all for now.

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