State of the world...

...well MY world anyways.
It's been a bit dead on the blog lately (if you hadn't already noticed). It's not that nothing happens - I've just been too tied up in other projects.
I don't remember if I have mentioned it earlier, but I've started playing music again *yay*. It kicked into gear when I decided to buy a Line 6 Guitar Port with recording software called "Riffworks". Now I already owned a Line 6 Pocket POD, but unfortunately there was way too much latency if I tried to use it to play through the computer, and besides I still lacked some proper recording software, so I never really got around to it, untill I got the Guitar Port. And even more when I got back the Dean. With the active EMG-81 pickup it really kicks ass, and I've recorded about 9 new tracks within the last 3-4 months or so. Well - actually one of the tracks is the last song I originally wrote for Frozen Sun, but it never really got played and the band split up not long after I left - so I still claim ovnership of the song.
Anyways - I've also teamed up with Mike (drums), whom I played with back in the good old days before Frozen Sun - when we were Hosts of Chaos (among many other interresting names). Currently we're rehearsing once a week - but will kick it up a bit during the summer - and we're gonna need it, going through the catalogue of tracks I've established over the past few months.
The procedure is: I make a "rough" track with some standard drums and dubbed guitars in Riffworks, present it to Mike, and we then work through it adding more taylor-made drums and finetuning the structure and various bits and pieces. And within 2-3 sessions we have a good base track. Still no bass or vocals and I'm really excited about what it will turn out like when everything is more finalized. But it's a new, exciting and very appealing workflow - and it really suits the both of us, having full-time jobs and other activities. There's not much mucking about - and since the tracks are about 75% done in terms of guitar and drums when we start working on them together, we can just focus all our ressources on nailing the last 25%.
I've presented some of the tracks to a few of my friends and colleagues and recived really great feedback - but of course the real treat will be when we make it more publicly available - trough myspace and/or mymusic. But that's not yet, so be patient.
- so now you know what's keeping me busy - apart from work, excercise and the occasional bender ;)

Once I get the funds, I'll definetely have to get me a (mac)laptop for recording, along with ProTools and perhaps a little mixer. But that's in the future. I've already spent more than enough.

Life is good - in Esbenland

*brought to you by the Ministry of Truth.

Beautiful or ugly...ful

- I think it's gorgeous.

My baby is back

- no, I have not found a basket with a mysterious love child at my door step.
I'm talking about my good old Dean guitar from the Frozen Sun days. The guitar I played when we recorded our debut CD. The guitar I played on our last couple of gigs. Meeeemorieeeees....
After 8 years or so, she's in my possession again. Took some shining up by the good folks at Akustikken, but they did a great (and relatively cheap) job, and it's fantastic to play it again. Much, much easier than the Brownsville I've been playing for the last many months.

It has a nice and crisp sound, and hardly any noise as opposed to the Brownsville.
A small bonus is the fact that I now have 2 guitars at my disposal, which gives a much more varied sound when I'm recording dual guitar tracks at home.

- apologies for the crummy picture by the way, but it's a picture, René - I promised nothing more...

Jeez - lighten up...

I like to mess with people occasionally, and Facebook has proven to be as good a place as any. More specifically the application called "Social Me".
Basically you get to "tag" other people with a set of predefined labels, or create your own. And you can attach an image and a little description to your Social Me profile. Currently, this is me :

PUNY HUMANS!!
Nick, 36 / male
Graaaboch Prime

About Me:
I will destroy you all!

Who I'd like to meet:
A female earthling, who in return will be spared the obliteration in store for this pathetic planet.


- not really something to be taken serious, right? Well apparently someone do. Yes there IS in fact places on this very earth where people with absolutely no sense of humor reside.

Just a few minutes after updating my profile to the above, some silly brat tagged me with this little nugget : "freak-nd-pathetic". Obviously I couldn't let this slide, so I wrote a little note to her, on the Social Me mail system... here's a transcript of the following communication :

Me (Alien Overlord) :

Inferior human!

You have been sentenced to work in the dark mines of Nylaarrfn for a period of no less than five billion years.

Her (Primate of less importance) :

RE:Inferior human!

yr freak grow up nd act yr age nt yr shoesize!!

Me :

RE:Inferior human!

SILENCE! Superior lifeforms have no need for pathetic footwear. Puny human with footwear obsession, should learn how to properly operate a computer input device, instead of argueing with those of a superior intelligence.

Her :

RE:Inferior human!

u finko OH ND GET A RAZOR U NUT CASE

Her (again) :

RE:Inferior human!

ND I WONT BE SILENT 4 BIG HEADED FREAKS LIK U!!!!!

Me :

RE:Inferior human!

Female earthling seems aggrevated. Apparently concepts like humor and irony are wasted on humans. Pity.

Her :

RE:Inferior human!

sado go bck 2 planet zork u dork fuck off

Me :

RE:Inferior human!

Foul language and profanity will not be tolerated under the new earth administration. Disobedient primates will be sent to correctional facilities upon our arrival.

---------------------
- end of transcript. I guess she finally accepted her pityfull fate.
(Cue ominous music and laughter)...


*edit* - By popular demand - here's another one.
She didn't have a tantrum like the above one and somewhat tried to play along it seems. Nevertheless here's my response to her tagging me as "Ridiculous":

Me :

I am superior!

My race will eat insubordinate humans for afternoon snacks! Be warned inferior being!

Her :

RE:I am superior!

naturally...

Me :

RE:I am superior!

Good good. You seem to have come to your senses. There is hope for you after all...

Her :

RE:I am superior!

I already am THE superior race, so you must obey me...

Me :

RE:I am superior!

Lies! You obviously lack the clearly visible mental gland common in highly evolved species. Your head is still covered with primate remains.

Her :

RE:I am superior!

you keep thinking that

Me :

RE:I am superior!

SILENCE!! Thinking is but another primate remain. We, the omnipotent, fold time and space with our mental glands. In comparison, the biggest human mental achievement, is the folding of cutlery. Trivial, mundane and a typical human display of lacking visions.

---------------------
- end of transcript. Fun fun fun :D

Stickers on fruit...

- what's up with that? Don't you just hate it? I mean, who got the "brilliant" idea to label fruit individually? Ok I don't mind so much if you have to peel it first, because the fruit is not in contact with the edible parts. But apples? Who thought "Gosh - I better put stickers on these GRANNY SMITH apples, in case some of them elopes to the box with COX ORANGE". Or even worse as it has been my case at work lately : the plums. Seriously. Plums. But why? WHY? It was so bad on one occasion that the sticker actually tore of part of the skin, upon removal. Is it not bad enough that you have to scrub your fruit to get rid of other peoples germs first? Apparently not. You ALSO have to steam the stickers first, and remove the remaining glue with alcohol, to ensure a "safe" and healthy snack.

- and then you bite down, split it, and find out that someone lives inside the plum. What a waste of time...

The whole shebang is just ludicrous. An apple is NOT an egg. I can understand the need to stamp eggs individually - that in case of illness you can trace the chicken and have it removed before it infects the others. But you're not gonna trace down a specific tree, and that's clearly not what the labels on fruit is for anyways. An apple is just empty advertising space, and empty advertising space makes baby jesus cry... So there.

Yet another ¤#/%¤/#¤% squatter...

- well he IS big enough to pay rent (about 5-6cm).

I call him "Lars".