I guess since I started doing Software Development Project Management I should apply those same techniques at home.

So I am repurposing 8Ton Limit from an Arduino site to a general purpose “How To” website.

The motto will be “A good place to start”… sound good uh?

Ok, Later eh…

-IV

To make it worse, The Girl looked at me with her cutest munchkin smile and said “It’s not even summer yet, it’s still spring!”

So here I am in my home office, already dreading the thought of ever going outside again. I have to use a fan even with the air conditioner freezing out other parts of the house, this room has the worse ventilation and the most heat generating things.

You know what is the best thing about winter? If it’s cold I get a cover or a jacket or rub two sticks together for fire.

You know what sucks about summer? Other then getting naked and pouring ice water all over my fat ass there isn’t much one can really do. It’s a never ending battle. Summer hates me and I hate summer.

It’s like the heat kills my will to live and saps any intelligence I have left floating around in that battered and abused brain. I never get anything done in the summer. I mow the lawn once a week and spend the rest of the week hiding in house and counting days to Fall. I guess this summer I should really just focus on my hobbies and possibly launching my other websites like 8Ton Limit and Moo Cow Goes Boom.

Ok, I am going to go finish the rest of this ice tea and make more. I down about 4 quarts a day between june and july. Speaking of June, I am going to be phenomenally old in like 16 days. I should probably make something of my life now uh?

Of course!

Don’t ask me why I chose Arduino as my newest hobby. I think it’s because I want to learn some sort of programming language and this combines programming with blinking lights. I like blinking lights as much as the next guy so it seemed only logical.

So what is Arduino? The website calls it:

Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It’s intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.

Basically it’s a little prepacked microcontroller that you hook up to your computer and program. The workflow is pretty much wire up something, jot down some quick program instructions then plug it up via usb and watch it go.

The programming stays on the Arduino, so if you have power it will go as long as it can before the power source dies. Think of it as the Mars Rover. You can hook up a bunch of sensors and chain things together to make it as complicated or basic as you want. My first project? I think an ultrasonic range finder for my dad’s camper. That way he won’t back into things.

As with any new hobby, I will give it two weeks then we will get back together and see if it’s worth it or not. I will write up something better later, I just wanted to let you know I was still alive and engrossed in something new.

Currently this is what I am working on:

• The Year We Raged With Flurries
  • A collection of contemporary fiction short stories I have been writing on and off since 1990
• The Professional League of Amateur Punk Rock Souls, African Adventurers, Northern Californian Survivors and Lyrical Beauty Seekers (Time Travelers May Apply)
  • Fiction and non-fiction rammed together to uncomfortably look at being an outsider in this monochromatic world

Currently this is what I am working on:

• The Professional League of Amateur Punk Rock Souls, African Adventurers, Northern Californian Survivors and Lyrical Beauty Seekers (Time Travelers May Apply)
  • Fiction and non-fiction rammed together to uncomfortably look at being an outsider in this monochromatic world.
• Failing Like Falling
  • About as true as you can be about yourself. Think of this one as my old website (original plaid) made into book form. Depressing and uplifting!

We called it Fishtank Studio and it was pretty lowtech DYI awesome.

The day we finished it we got drunk and recorded the absolute best song I have contributed to.

Unfortunately it was 2am, we didn’t quite understand our equipment at the time and – because we are stupid – never kept the original tracks to fix the multiple issues.

Anyways, out of tune chorus and all, here is what happens when Puck and I have a drum machine with a single drum beat and that spark of creativity.

Tweaked by Useless Tomorrow | Music and Lyrics by Daniel Puckett and James Edson

This was the summer of 1994, the summer I graduated and the summer punk started to fire with fury. By this time we were digesting punk rock cds every day. Pre-Dookie Greenday and Recipe for Hate Bad Religion were our bibles. Though Josh was going to be our vocalist, despite our better judgement we hooked up with Portland-native Nathaniel Cameron (Pre-Longshot PDX) and lasted all of a few months.

The biggest thing standing in our way? Davis noise pollution laws.

We did two practices in Davis, a few acoustic song writing sessions, and drove to Vacaville to make the following videos.

I left the band all too soon, but the band morphed into The Drapes and made something like two albums, including the CD The Silent War. They also appeared on Punk Bites 2 with their best song – Basement Diaries.

These videos were shot when no one liked each other, we didn’t have a place to play and I was firmly on my way out. But as far as punk rock goes, I am damn proud to be part of what follows. I am also proud to have written the music to these songs. I am pretty good at this three/four chord punk thing.

Lyrics by Nathaniel Cameron | Music by James Edson | Additional melodies written by Joshua Leung

Nathaniel Cameron  - Vocals
John Lancaster          - Guitar
James Edson             –  Bass
Ryan                            - Drums

Blind

Half and Half

Grassroots

Anthem

Basically these are songs that I have started to record in my spare time at my house. It’s almost all done in Reason so far, and is desperately in need of a vocalist.

If you want to sing or help on these tracks, please feel free to e-mail me.

We were punk before punk was even a blip on the pop music charts. We were punk because we had loud amps, crappy guitars and more passion then talent.

You have to remember – this was before any of us had heard of Green Day or Rancid. Basically some of us wanted to be the Smashing Pumpkins or Violent Femmes (Josh), some of us wanted to be Iron Maiden (me) or hair metal (John), and some of us wanted to be the Spin Doctors (Clint). Everyone going the wrong direction and missing the target, punk was revitalized in that garage.

We wrote songs in a day. We played every day. At one point we had 25 songs that ranged from three chord smashers (Out in the Ocean) to Pink Floyd soundscapes (Quiet Rains). Every song was distinct.

We could never keep a rhythm guitarist. Notable people who held the spot included a fourteen year old Jason Hall (Who’s engineer credits now include Cage the Elephant, Emmylou Harris and Derek Truck among others) and Papa Roach original guitarist Anne Mickolajick who left that band to join ours.

Before I bore you with more text, here is the core group warming up before our first – of only three – gigs in 1993.

We recorded one album, a three song demo tape called “Step Three: Rinse Bird” at Solano Community College in April of 1994.

The line up was:

Joshua Leung     – Vocals
John Lancaster   – Lead Guitar
Ann Mickolajick  - Rhythm Guitar
James Edson     – Bass
Clint Freeman    - Drums

Here is the best song from that tape, Glimpse of Dawn (Lyrics by Joshua Leung, Music by Rowz)

I have actually made great progress today… found a theme I liked, started to make some categories and even figured out what domain would host what content.

I think i might actually have a plan this time.

Ok, back to your regularly scheduled program.

-IV