David Eisinger

Journal > Dispatch #14 (April 2024)

Posted 2024-04-08 under #dispatch

Busy March! My whole family came into town for a long weekend, then we headed down to Wilmington to run a race and spend time with Claire’s sister, then I was off to Vegas for the basketball tournament, and we capped things off at Lake Norman with Claire’s grandmother.

We had such a good time at the race last month that we all decided to sign up for the Steve Haydu St. Patrick’s Lo Tide Run. I didn’t do quite as well (results, certificate) but I had a great time and I got to catch the last mile or so of the 5K with Claire and Nev (my tiny runner).

I picked up a Roland SP-404 sampler – this thing’s super neat. It gives me something I can plug a guitar or microphone into, has a bunch of built-in effects, and plays nicely with the Novation Circuit Tracks (I can trigger samples with the MIDI sequencer, and I can run sound from the Circuit to the SP-404 to add effects). Here’s a track I made with them called “Asperatus”:

I added some shelves to my existing workbench to hold all my music gear. Feeling good about this setup assuming I don’t buy anything else (😬).

I read a bunch of great books this month. The standout was certainly Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel (read The Glass Hotel first). I also enjoyed Tress of the Emerald Sea – classic Sanderson shit.

I had a couple things printed this month. I made this e-ink photo frame a couple years back, and for the second year in a row, I sent all the photos off to Mixbook for a run of full-color, hardcover books I sent to my family. The frame’s lasted longer than I anticipated, but these’ll last longer. Also, most of my musical equipment provides its documentation as digital PDFs instead of printed manuals. I sent the PDFs for the Circuit Tracks and the SP-404 off to print-my-pdf.com and got back nice, wire-bound copies. I’ve made it about half way through the Circuit manual and learned a bunch already, something I’d never do w/ a 100+ page PDF on my computer. As Manuel Moreale says in a recent post:

The more we digitize the world the more analogue, physical objects become important.

This month:

• Adventure: Claire and I are headed to Lisbon, Portugal for a long weekend; hoping to catch a Benfica match while we’re there
• Project: declutter and organize – gotta clear out some space for some big stuff coming this summer
• Skill: SP-404 – so much to learn here (recording tight samples, selectively applying effects, resampling, etc.)

Reading:

• Fiction: Pawn of Prophecy, David Eddings (recommended by Wouter Groeneveld)
• Non-fiction: aforementioned Circuit and SP-404 manuals

Links:

• Why keep writing?

  Good question. I guess a natural follow up question is: Why did you start in the first place? Also a good question.

• Own Your Web – Issue 12: Finding Your Rhythm

  But then again, what is the point of having a personal site if we don’t put stuff out there from time to time, if we don’t document and share random thoughts, things we learned, and nuggets we found? And even though you definitely don’t have to publish daily to enjoy having a blog, it is only when you post more regularly that many of the advantages of having a personal site really start to emerge.

• I’m not a cynic, I’m disappointed

  People who point out what needs to be improved are generally disappointed optimists.

• Why We Can’t Have Nice Software

  The problem with software is that it’s too powerful. It creates so much wealth so fast that it’s virtually impossible to not distribute it.

• Churn

  The main reason Web Components aren’t going to save you from the JS treadmill, however, is that the JS treadmill is first and foremost a cultural product.

• Any Technology Indistinguishable From Magic is Hiding Something

  But none of that really matters. We keep waiting for the next iteration of the web, or the internet, but the future is now, baby. We’re living it at this very moment. It snuck through the backdoor when no one was looking.

• Your Blog Should Have an About Page

  The site stats tell me that my about page at /about is consistently one of the most visited pages on this website. That confirms what everyone already knows: people are very curious, sometimes even nosy.

• Periodical 17 – Optimization

  Optimizing a home is a years-long process.