Evil Mad Scientist Actually, I am quite happy.

Kutiman – Thru You

I can’t say enough about what Kutiman has brought to the world stage. For those who haven’t watched his ground-breaking video album: Go watch it immediately!

Kutiman – Thru You

This is incredible. I mean, the music – stylistically speaking – is nothing new, but the approach is earth-shattering!

These are not professional musicians, most of them are just people doing what they love and posting it for the world to see. Now they have a voice through Kutiman’s work.

I love it! I want more! That said, I got me some video editing software and I’m going to hit the lab and start playing with ideas.

Beardyman said it best: “This is the new sound!”

Organizing thy musical self with Evernote

I’ve recently started using Evernote to keep track of things that buzz through my head while I work. I’m no expert on this kind of software, but I like Evernote 3 so far.

One of my clients has a very complicated and quite frustrating problem. The pages refresh really slowly on my development server on certain transactions. So to keep myself sane I keep my guitar by my desk. Whenever I’m waiting for a refresh and have nothing else to multi-task with, I pick up the six strings and start musically doodling. When the page finally loads, I put down the guitar and promply forget whatever cool riff I was jamming on.

Enter Evernote…

With Evernote, you can essentially store away any media (text, images, audio and video, even entire web pages) into your own private repository, tag it, etc. It is indexed and you can then search for it for later retrival. Very handy.

So now I just keep an audio recorder handy for when I bust out a face melting groove, record it, then drag it over to Evernote and store it for later. Simple!

What I would love to see in the future is one of two things… either a program specifically for jotting down musical ideas, or an extension for Evernote that allows in-program audio note taking. Until then, this works pretty well.

Growing Up

A subtle part of growing up is knowing when to withhold your opinions long enough to refine them into wisdom.

Moving back to Washington State

This process started a few weeks ago, but it’s been on our minds for awhile.

First off all, if you didn’t know already, my wife and I are currently living in Van Buren, Arkansas. It’s not too terrible here, and we’re near my father’s side of the family out here. It’s been good to us so far, but we’re both terribly homesick, so we’ve been looking for the right moment to move back to Washington.

Right now we’re poised to put down money on a house way out there in… well… it’s right about here:

Okay, it’s on the coast near Copalis Beach. We’re thrilled, really.

Fatherhood fastly approaching

So tomorrow my wife is officially 40 weeks pregnant, which means she is past full term. Liam Anthony Tackett will be arriving very soon!

I’ve thought of all sorts of fatherly-type wisdomy things to teach him — like telling him that the almighty Sarlacc lives in our garbage disposal — and I have a sneaking suspicion that all the goofy things that annoy the crap out of my wife will be the very same things that make my son laugh until his cheeks hurt. Boy oh boy, I can’t wait for that day.

Beth: “Honey, will you puh-lease KNOCK THAT OFF??”
Me, baby Liam laughing his way to the moon and back: “Shh! I’m giving Liam an endorphin high and ultimately raising his potential IQ!”

This is right about when some random object comes flying across the room… likely to be aimed — almost, but not quite entirely — at my head.

Ahh… the good life. =)

Okay, I may be playing up my wife’s temper a wee bit for comedic effect. If I know my family, baby laughter will be highly contagious in our house — if Liam is laughing, it’s very likely that everyone will be laughing. I hope that never changes as he grows up.

Anyway, my point is that I am ridiculously excited to be a father. As someone wise once said:

“There are plenty of good things I will accomplish in life, but being a father will be the only one great thing.”

My brother apparently knows everything…

Well, okay, he might not know everything — for instance getting a good haircut or wearing deodorant seem to be insurmountably difficult tasks for him — but he sure knows how to get hit in the face with a phonebook! That has to account for something. Oh wait… nope, that was his wife. Guess he sucks after all.

Calen Tackett: I Know Everything #2 – All About Me
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfhXNg6C26Y[/youtube]

Farming… the best kept secret

Happy 4:20, this is for all you stoners looking for a job…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pDTiFkXgEE[/youtube]