Playin' With LEGOs

Over the weekend, I did something I haven't done in a while - I broke out the LEGOs! And this is what took shape:

A LEGO Sako-style sniper rifle!

It's about 42 inches long, with a 23 inch barrel . . .

A removable bipod . . . 

And a scope that you can actually look through! (The field of view isn't great, but you work with what you have)

And for fun, I added an action that really cycles rounds!

It was a lot of fun to make something out of LEGOs again - and it was nice to know that I haven't completely lost my touch over the years :-)

~Mac

23:59 Part 1 Online!

I know many of you have requested a link to "23:59", the movie that I scored recently. Well, the producers have just uploaded the first 12 minutes to YouTube! Enjoy! (the video is pretty low-resolution compared to the DVD)



If you like what you see and hear, I can see about getting you a DVD copy with the movie, a behind the scenes feature, bloopers, and interviews. They're selling for $5 at this point. I am also working on releasing the soundtrack (at this point, it'll be selling for $5 as well), so if you're interested in that please let me know!

~Mac

Siblings' Handiwork Part 1

Well, I haven't had much to blog on lately - at least anything that would make a good post. So instead of blogging about me, I've decided to start a series of posts sharing some of the things that my siblings have created!

First up is one of my brothers, who has really gotten into building plastic models. Here is his latest one, a P-51D Mustang!

^ Some of the beautiful cockpit detailing!

^ More cockpit detail.

^ Gun and magazine detail.

He really did a fantastic job on this one - and it's only his third model he's built! He did the painting, decals, and gluing all by himself too :-)

~Mac

DIY eDrum Build: Upgrade!

So I upgraded my eDrum kit this past week:

^ I replaced my old, not-so-good kick drum pad with a vertical pad and an actual kick drum pedal!

^ That gusset supports the pad when the beater hits it.

^The pad.

^ I didn't get a beater with the pedal, so I improvised one with an old marshmallow stick and part of an old bandsaw belt. :-)

This setup looks, triggers, and feels so much better than my old setup!

Special thanks goes to my construction and power-tool loving brother who helped me out on this upgrade and provided tools and building materials :-)

~Mac

You Know . . . + More New Stuff

You know you've spent most of a week being creative for hours every day when:

Your brother asks someone what the factors of 48 are and you figure out the first ten or so before you realize that you don't like math that much. I figured I had used my brain's creative side so much that it had shut down :-P It's been a fun week though, and I've composed a lot of music! All the same, I'm taking a composing break over the weekend.

Something else new: faster internet! We upgraded to a 3 MBps connection so everything is zippy fast now. :-)

~Mac

What's New - Projects

What else is new? Hmmm . . .

Well I have a new music project: composing the score for a movie my friends made! (http://godswarriorintraining.blogspot.com/2010/07/lights-camera-action.html) I have till March 5 to finish it, and I'm writing about 12-18 minutes of music, so it's a bit of a crunch. I'm doing well so far though - I've written close to three minutes of music over the past four days. God is giving me lots of good ideas and the skill and creativity to flesh them out! I think it'll turn out very well!

I also got started on a job opportunity - doing slideshows and videos for events. I did a slideshow for a wedding rehearsal dinner last week and everyone loved it :-) Now it's only a matter of people showing interest in having something like that done for them. We'll see where it goes!

More new stuff (hopefully) coming up!

~Mac

What's New

Well, I haven't really had anything to blog about lately, but I have gotten several new things recently, so I thought I'd post about some of them. First up, I traded my old amp for a like new, Dunlop CryBaby wah pedal!

It's a limited edition, pepto pink model! :-) Maybe I'll post a video of me playing it and my new map sometime in here.

Also, we have three to four more inches of snow. This has been a crazy year for snow! My brothers also just blasted an invading deer with their full auto airsoft guns.

L8r.

~Mac

New Music Gear!

Well, I got a new amp today!

It's a Vox VT20+. It's a 30 watt amp with an 8" speaker, and man can it get loud! It sounds amazing too! It has 33 different amp models and oodles of sweet-sounding effects :-)

^ The secret to the VT20+'s amazing sound and feel: it's a real deal tube amp! There is the tube glowing with happiness :-)

^ Gotta love those retro "chicken-head" knobs! :-)

I played it for about one and a half hours after I got it and I almost forgot about studying! It's gonna be a great addition to the gear stash.

~Mac

Random Happenings and Accomplishments

I was thinking about doing a "remembering 2010, goals for 2011" post but after reading everyone else's excellent posts on that topic, I don't think I can compete. So I will list some of the things that I have done over New Years:

1) I attended a New Year's Eve Gala with the family. We went to our friends' church and used their fellowship hall for a dance! There were about 60 people there. We danced line and circle dances, a polka, and the broomstick waltz. Nothing like ringing in the new year with three plus hours of dancing! :-)

2) New Year's Day we had our unit celebration for our homeschool curriculum. Each student picked an ancient culture to represent, gave a presentation based on the culture, and made a food of the culture - my favorite part :-D

^ My sister's AMAZING phyllo spinach triangles from Greece!

^ Leek soup from Egypt.

^ Greek salad! :-)

^ My laden plate (clockwise from top): Greek salad, chicken couscous from Israel, noodles from China, flat bread from India, squash from North America

45 minutes later . . .

what a great curriculum huh? :-)

3) January 2nd I sang a duet for the offertory for our church as part of a wonderful New Years service :-)

4) I went to a book study Monday night. A group of about 12 guys are going through Crazy Love by Francis Chan. A challenging and thought-provoking book!

5) Random accomplishments:
* I made my bed completely by feel in the dark Saturday night
* I tied my tie while singing a hymn during choir rehearsal Sunday (good thing I can tie ties without a mirror!)
* My brother and I made two batches of "mookies" (man cookies) Monday afternoon. We taped ourselves doing it and made it into an impromptu cooking show/MythBusters episode.

My Most Favoritest Job Ever!

I love recording, producing, and engineering music, ESPECIALLY when I get paid to do it! A few weeks ago I got a project from a young singer-songwriter. Her dad decided to give her the Christmas present of recording one of her songs at higher quality and with other instruments. My name came up and I got the job! I recorded her acoustic guitar and vocal tracks last week and have finished the tracking of the other instruments. Now I'm in the mixing stage, and I'll hopefully be done by next week! Hopefully this will give me some more contacts and good reviews ;-)

~Mac

Plundering the Web

Muahahaha!

:sets down bag of cyberplunder:

Every once in a while, I skim various audio software websites looking for "plunder" - free stuff that I can use in my projects. Today I picked up some more goodies, including a few reverbs, a tuner, a synthesizer, and some amp simulators. I also downloaded a video editor which I'm going to have to try out sometime in here.

Many thanks to all the people out there who take the time to create free software for all of us on shoestring budgets! :-)

DIY eDrum Build: In Action!

Well here it is folks . . . a VIDEO of my eDrum Kit in action! :-)

I'm using the MIDI output on my drum module to trigger DrumCore 3 FREE drum software on my computer. I'm not much of a drummer :-P, but you can see how well it turned out! :-)

~Mac

DIY eDrum Build: Part 5 - FINISHED!

Well, it's done . . . I'm FINISHED! :-)

It was a blast to make (the only casualty - I sliced my left index finger open with a utility knife), and even more fun to play - nice and responsive yet it seems durable. Hopefully it will give me years of use :-)

Special thanks to my brother who helped me out with the construction, and lent his construction and power tool expertise to the project, as well as his tools and some hardware :-)

~Mac

DIY eDrum Build: Part 4 (continued)

Wow, I really was rolling today :lol:

DIY eDrum Build: Part 4

My brother and I worked on the eDrums again yesterday, and so today I tested out the hi hat pad - and TOOK PICTURES! :-D

^ This is the 1/4" jack on the end of the cable going into my audio interface which converts the analog signal to digital so my computer can understand it.
^ It's kinda hard to see, but that's the piezo and cable taped to the underside of the hi hat pad.

And the last picture is the top of the hi hat pad on the rack and connected to the interface. This isn't the final setup, but I wanted to test and see what kind of signal I got when I hit the pad. So far so good! :-)

DIY eDrum Build: Part 3

Well, the piezos got here a few days ago, and yesterday I soldered my first piezo pickup assembly together!

^ The 1/4" jack that will plug into the drum module.

^ The piezo pickup element.

Then I tried it out and it works! :-D It picks up drum hits very well, and I can also pick up my acoustic guitar with it - a nice bonus! I may have to get a few more and make a dedicated guitar pickup with them :-)

~Mac

DIY eDrum Build: Part 2

Well, my module arrived - and didn't work :-( I found out that they had included the wrong power supply with it. However, they were very nice about it and refunded all my money - so it worked out fine! I'm now waiting on another power supply to arrive, as well as my piezos and drum rack. So far, I have my module, cables, and jacks to solder to the cables. Now it's time to wait . . . so I should get to the other things on my plate, like studying and work and stuff :-D

~Mac

DIY eDrum Build: Part 1

So I've decided to build my own electronic drumset for my studio. It's getting so playing drum parts with my MIDI keyboard just doesn't cut it anymore, so I've decided to upgrade.

A few days ago, my adventure began when I won a used Alesis D4 drum module off of eBay. This will be the heart of my rig, that will convert the signals from my pads into drum sounds and MIDI notes. I just ordered 10 piezo pickup elements that will convert drum hits on the pads into electricity. These will be soldered to cables, which will be plugged into the drum module. I'm probably gonna grab a used drum rack off eBay as well to hold the drums.

In a few days my module and piezos will get here, and it will be time for some experimentation with different pad materials and designs. Hopefully when this is finished, I will have a kit that I can use for practice, recording, and possibly live performance.

Should be fun! :-)

~Mac

Dancing the Night Away

This past Thursday, my family and I attended a Civil War era dance at a friend's house with about six other families. I was not sure I wanted to go, because I had never danced before :O but I decided to go, and it's a good thing I did, because I had a BLAST! They taught us to line dance, circle dance, polka, and waltz. I discovered that I actually had a left foot AND a right foot! :O Now I can't wait for another dance, which will probably happen around Christmas! Till then, I'm gonna have to practice to keep up the muscle memory. And if any of you guys/gentlemen/young men have a chance to learn to dance, DO IT! :-D

~Mac

Finally . . . A Use for K'Nex!

Yes, I know . . . some of you may be upset that I knocked K'Nex. But to me, they are inferior to LEGOs in every respect except one: creating strong frames. Of course, I never really figured out a good use for this, so my K'Nex sat in the attic . . . UNTIL this morning!

I suddenly had an inspiration, so I dragged out my box of K'Nex and got to work.

Behold the results!

A suhweet holster for my LEGO Glock! :-) It fits in the thigh pocket of a pair of cargo pants ^

Or clips to a belt or the top of your pants ^

Using this clipping piece here ^

It draws very quickly and smoothly, and reholsters well too! I'm feeling very happy that I kept my K'Nex! :-) It was a good morning . . . and a good break from school! Now I'm ready for LEGO combat and law enforcement action!

~Mac