Blog

My blog. Personal thoughts, anecdotes, and musings.

MonthOfMusic Day 6 Published August 6, 2014

Day six is some 90’s-influenced “modern rock.” Think Gin Blossoms or stuff like that.


MonthOfMusic Day 5 Published August 5, 2014

Here’s song #5. A little more aggressive techno than I usually do. Inspired by some 90s techno.


MonthOfMusic Day 4 Published August 4, 2014

It’s Monday, day 4 of my Month Of Music. if you missed any of the weekend’s songs, give those a listen too. Day 3 Day 2 For Day 4, I’m releasing a track that will end up making the cut for Stutter. I haven’t been able to make much time to finish that project and I’m hoping that some of the tracks that I do for this month will be a good “fit” for that project too.


MonthOfMusic Day 3 Published August 3, 2014

For day three I busted out my electric guitar and figured out how to get the clean sound into the computer for recording. I used the USB cable that came with the Rocksmith game and it turned out to work very well. I brought it in clean and used lots of effects processing to get the sound I wanted, and I think this worked pretty well. On the downside, I’m really rusty at playing solos, and even rustier with a slide, so it took several takes to get the guitar solos down.


MonthOfMusic Day 2 Published August 2, 2014

On Day Two I decided to go back to what I know best – a little bit of electronic music. I had this damn melody going through my head most of the evening for some reason, so I scrapped my original plan and worked this one up. It ended up being longer than I expected, but I’m not spending too much time cleaning things up for this experiment. Thoughts welcome!


MonthOfMusic Day 1 Published August 1, 2014

For the month of August, I’m recording and releasing a song each day. Read more here. This one was easy. It was bouncing around in my head all day so as soon as it hit midnight I started recording. It’s a short piece with strings.


A Month Of Music Published August 1, 2014

I’ve been challenged by a friend to record and release something every day for a month. I’ve chosen August to do this and I’m going to see how far I can get. I plan to use anything at my disposal, including my phone if I have to. I’m going to use this as a chance to experiment with different styles, too, so if you’ve heard any of my electronic music, prepare to be a little surprised.


In Teaching, Context Is Key! Published July 3, 2013

When you were three years old, you asked “why” an awful lot. If you have kids you’re probably sick and tired of hearing that question. But it is a fundamental question; it’s how we learn. We have a need to understand. Some things are learned over time, like “We need to eat so we don’t die.” But some things are not easily understood. Like Pointers in C. Recently I came across an exercise that was designed to help the student understand the use of pointers in C.


How To Derail Your Readers And Students Published June 9, 2013

There’s no shortage of software developers who are eager to share their passion with others through writing and teaching. It’s an amazing time, and it’s great to have all these resources out there for us to all get better at what we do. If you’re a software developer who wants to teach others how to do things, listen up, because there’s a chance you’re derailing your students and undermining their confidence before they even get started.


Things every web developer should know Published March 25, 2013

I believe that web developer should have a command of a few simple things in order to tackle the random craziness that web development entails. This isn’t, by any means, a comprehensive list. It is opinionated, but also based on things I see other people I respect demonstrate in their daily work. JavaScript It’s everywhere and you can’t avoid it. You also can’t afford to continue the copy-and-paste approaches of the last 15 years.