Video footage from the last Sidetracked Project recording session when we did vocals for Shredder:

Link

If you want to listen to what the final tune actually ended up sounding like, here is a direct link:

SidetrackedProject.Shredder.mp3

Flickr Tags: music vocals band recording microphone video

My music library (www.kindohm.com/musiclibrary) is back online after a multi-week period of downtime.  The downtime was caused by my last Subtext upgrade and I just chose to ignore the problem until today.

That being said, there are a few nuggets of musical goodness I stumbled across recently on my old music computer.  I hope to upload them soon.

Today is a nice day.  We finished an iteration on my main project at work and it feels great to have a clean slate for the next iteration.  We've needed to defer only one development task, and it may end up getting removed from the project entirely anyway.  The biggest task that didn't get performed was an integration, which is a major blow.  We found out a few days ago that the client's environment would not even exist yet when we were ready to deploy.  Basically we've lost an iteration's worth of time in finding out what integration obstacles we're going to encounter on the project.  Not a good thing.  The beauty of the new iteration is that we can forget the past and just treat everything as new tasks and issues to estimate.  It's like having another birthday and guessing how much cake you'll eat...  except some of the cake might be from your last birthday. 

Mike after completing an iteration

Mike stressing the importance of integration

Technorati Tags: code project development sharepoint iteration agile integration consulting

I started putting some of my music on www.last.fm and am trying out the track embedding feature:

Spiffy? Neat? Lame?

I only have the Basic album out there so far. Any requests? I'll probably put Get On Your Knees and Bark Like a Dog up sometime soon :)

Technorati Tags: last.fm music

Yay summer!

Taken at a park somewhere in Edina between France and Hwy. 100 on 70th St.

Flickr Tags: park playground summer

Wild Re-Signs Boogaard

Sweet.

Flickr Tags: boogaard wild mn wild minnesota wild hockey nhl

Installment I of the Sidetracked Project is complete.  This is the result of a two-year effort by me and Jason.  Available for download are all of the mp3s, a liner notes PDF, and m3u playlists for both my and Jason's preferred listening order. 

Our music leans toward the heavier end of the musical spectrum, in case you don't know what to expect.  My favorite three tunes we worked on are Revenge of the Pinatas, The Missionary Song, and Empyrion.  However there is plenty of other great music, including some very, very serious (</sarcasm>) stuff. 

Technorati Tags: music sidetracked project mp3 rock

Now that Jason and I are done with our first installment of music I've started tearing down the make-shift recording space we've been using for vocals in the basement.  Unfortunately the basement has been a catch-all space for a lot of other junk lately, and in general it's just a mess.  Today I tried to make a dent and empty it of all the crap and make it so that it will be easy to paint.  The "studio" is completely empty except for my drums.  This is a significant.  My drums have been left literally untouched for about two years in our storage room, and today they have been moved.  

Eva has never heard or even seen my drums... not good for a dad who hopes his daughter will enjoy playing an instrument some day.  Part of my motivation now for completing this basement project is so that Eva can see and play the instruments set up in the studio.  When I started this project, I never would have thought she would be more than two years old at its completion. 

I'm hoping that by the end of the weekend the basement will be in a state where we can just start painting.  After that, it's doors, flooring, trim, and bathroom fixtures.  We are so almost done. 

XFML - the markup language of seals.

Flickr Tags: lolcat wizard cat

Bungie, on their self-proclaimed "Bungie Day" (yawn) released some cool Quicktime movies (although they're not really movies) detailing some 3D views of two new Spartan types.  In them they're hauling around some of the new, heavy weaponry and you can also see some of the new armor that will supposedly be able to be used in Halo 3 multiplayer (helmets and arm/shoulder plates). 

07/07/07 Love, Bungie

There are also some movies and specs/lore on a Brute Chopper on the page.

Technorati Tags: halo 3 halo bungie spartan brute quicktime

Powder your equipment.

I had read somewhere a while back that Bungie was going to introduce the ability to mix and match different armor parts for when you customize the appearance of your multiplayer character.  I just came across this screen shot where the nearest Spartan in the foreground has a unique helmet.  The red Spartan that is jumping and firing in the upper left (with the Brute Shot) also seems to have a weird looking helmet.  A preview of things to come?

UPDATE: There are actually quite a few screen shots of the new armor.  You can browse through all of them in Bungie's Halo 3 screen shot slide viewer: link. 

Technorati Tags: halo halo 3 spartan bungie

Static X has hit their stride with Cannibal. They've cornered the market with their Evil Disco/Undead Metal sound. But then, who else has an Evil Disco/Undead Metal sound? 

Their debut was great, but their 2nd two albums were downright boring.  Their last two have now been pretty good.  What I like best about them is that I don't think they take themselves very seriously.  I think they've started to hone in on that fact and as a result have created something very heavy and pleasantly disturbing. 

My favorite Static X moment: Wayne Static asks the crowd, "Do you guys like poop?".  The crowd screams "YEEAAHHH!!".  Wayne Static says "you guys are weird". 

Perhaps the best part of all about Cannibal is the inside cover album art:

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This photo is a little old, but it's fun :) Eva discovered the hose this year: