Michael's Texas Embrace

As a certified dino-fan, I found this to be wonderfully interesting. (My mom told me about this, so I give her props for the heads up). Now, go sciencify your mind!

We waved goodbye as the kites returned to their home, which is deep inside the sun.

Farewell little kites! Till next year! Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye!

Here is the kite hospital. The little boy in the red in the foreground sat on a kite at the worst angle, and ended up here, as do all sorry creatures injured by kites.

Here we see something few humans have ever witnessed: the elusive kite-chain. Only appearing at night under the cover of clouds, this rarest of kite animals emits a colorless gas and feeds on grasses.

Most of the things in the sky are kites, but as this shocking photograph shows, UFOs were present! I have highlighted the UFO utilizing computer graphics so it is more visible. Beware! After seeing this haunting sight, you may be afraid to look up to the sky. I am.

Look at all those kites! There were hundred of kites in the sky that day, and hundred of confused birds getting caught in cheap parachute material and being hauled to the ground to be eaten.

The Ref soars in the sky once more! It's a goal! Chase that ball!

Near the blowfish was the esteemed Soccer Referee kite, who has just crashed in this picture. A daring kite-wrangler is on his way to right the kite. Watch out, kite wrangler! That referee is drunk and blind!

Some of the biggest stars of the kiting world were there, the biggest being the multi-colored neon blowfish twins, which appear here as large spiky black balls. Whoa! These babies are about 12 feet high! Above the left one is a majestic air lizard.

This was the scene when we arrived for the 77th annual Zilker Park Kite Festival. Whoa! Who knew kites were such a big deal? As an esteemed trendologist, I can tell you that kites are making a comeback! Sure, maybe right now you want an ipod mini and some of those big square sunglasses and those weird pants-skirt-swooshy-tie things, but in a month or two, you're going to be carrying your kite to class or work. The girl at Starbucks is going to ask you to put away your kite while you're ordering. Just you wait!

(Note, the samples are gone. No play.)

I got my sweet recording soundcard today! (The Echo Mia Midi) So I hooked up my little 6 channel mixer (also new) and my condenser mic and my cheapo dynamic mic up and ran some quick test records with some acoustic instruments. Man! This soundcard is quiet! No noise whatsoever until recording begins, and then everything is crystal clear and sweet. The two mics and the mixer work great too. (obviously this post is for the other recording nerds out there...)

test 1

This first demo is just an acoustic guitar. I used both mics and panned them to seperate sides for a sort of stereo effect, though the condenser mic is closer so that side is louder. Good reproduction of the sound though! Clearest acoustic I've ever recorded!

test 2

This second one is the same guitar run, but I added some mandolin and whistling, and moved them between the mics so they move around the stereo field, giving them a fancy panning effect. Whoa!

test 3

Here's test three, which is some of all the other stuff in a new little musical thing, and I added some chorus effect with a pedal ran through the FX send on the mixer, which I twist the knob in and out at the end. It sort of makes it sound like an organ, but it's just the acoustic guitar with chorus coming through the condenser mic being faded in manually and live as I played. Oh yeah!

P.s. This post was super geeky. Rock!

Behold! My cardiod condenser microphone in all its glory! There's some guy contemplating frequency ranges behind the pop screen.

The microphone's 30Hz to 20kHz range will be perfect for recording my neighbors talking to their pug and using the treadmill.