Life in General

Step Softly

2010-03-11T09:26:00.002-05:00

[ audio ]

Some of the samples we've recorded have made it to the site freesound. Doing this has been a wonderful experience -- our snippets of sound have been used in countless songs, films, soundscapes, etc. The comments that roll in are generally positive as well...generally...

This weeks sample can be found here. It's a recording of Kristie walking on the beach out in Vancouver, BC. Some of the better comments:

"good sample---you know what you're doing" - Audiobuzzer

"Thanks will be used in my school project! Better than the other junk out there :)" - lugio

"ZORA LOVER LOVES THIS SHIT BOIIIII lovin zoras <3" - ZoraLover416

But a comment this week ended up being the first negative we've received:

"Very misleading description, no way is that sand." - misogenisnt

Well if you've ever been to an ocean beach in Canada, you may recall the mix of boulder, pebble, sand, and seaweed that lines most of the coast. Not a tropical sort of beach, but for me it sounds like home ;). Cheers.

Beach that was recorded in the sample.

Cybernetic Broadband

2010-02-24T09:00:00.002-05:00

[ audio ]

In audio engineering there's a problem called the Cocktail Party Problem. Imagine you're at a cocktail party and there are dozens of conversations going on around you -- how do you focus on a single one and hear what they're saying? Scientists have struggled with this for a while, and here you can struggle with it yourself ;).

This is one of my favourite "overheard conversation" clips that I've got. It was taken in a pub in the middle of Cork, Ireland that's not listed / marked anywhere (friend of a friend knew it's location and informed us on how to get there). The clientele were obviously regulars, and all quite surprised to see a crowd of 8 or so foreigners come in for beer. Nevertheless, they eventually went back to their respective discussions and one fella with a thick accent was talking about AI taking over the world (in a drunken string of thoughts from what I can tell). As for me, I welcome the new robot overlords that reside in the ubiquitous "cybernetic broadband".

Ice Ice Baby

2010-02-22T09:00:00.002-05:00

[ audio ]

I'll let you in on a secret. Growing up, I listened to a fair bit of ol' school rap. It may not have been so old school during the time, but it certainly is now. A few weeks back I had the opportunity to see my first Raptors game ($11 tickets for the win), and low and behold the half-time show happened to be Vanilla Ice. He performed two songs, and one happened to be 'Ice Ice Baby'. Some may scoff at the concept, but this threw me back into my high school days -- cruisin' Guysborough in head's car with the rap blaring*. The sound was gloriously loud at the game, and the few seconds here are about all of the recording that didn't cap out (I left the end in to give a feel of the rest of the audio clip).

*: Guysborough is the small village I grew up in. Population about 500 (people) last I checked. 'Head' is the nick of a friend who happened to be the one with the most access to using a car.

Teens In Ireland

2010-02-19T10:15:00.001-05:00

[ audio ]

Probably one of the most fondest memories of my time in Ireland was the group of teens in the corner of a pub we found one night. Sadly, I didn't get a picture, but luckily they allowed me to throw the iPhone on their table for one of the songs. This group of teens (and young 20-somethings) looked like what you'd expect a garage band to be here in Canada. Only they weren't playing punk, or bad rock, but rather some great celtic tunes. This one's a long one, but well worth the listen. At the start I'm talking about where the bodhran player got his instrument, and for how much. At the end they're talking about the new iPhone OS (3.0 was just out that week ;)). The pic is of a random pub in Cork -- it may have been the same one, but I couldn't tell ya after the amount of stout consumed that eve. Enjoy.

Rowing The Summer Away

2010-02-17T09:17:00.001-05:00

In July we visited Altenburg, and among other things, we took a row boat out around this small lake. There`s some background noise, but the creak and paddle sounds are well worth it. Great way to spend the day...

[ audio ]

Waverly Steam Engine

2010-02-15T17:22:00.001-05:00

[ audio ]

We took a trip on the Waverly Paddle Steamer over to Dunoon on the Clyde river in early August. It was blogged here, but the interesting part for me (audibly) was the sound of the steam engine. Here's a pic of what you're hearing.

Introducing Audio Blogging

2010-02-15T17:09:00.000-05:00

So anyone that follows this may have noticed the lack of posting (almost 4 months to be exact). Now that deadlines have subsided (to some extent), I plan on shuffling things a bit to keep a regular release schedule. Just before K and I headed out on our 3 week trek around Europe, I posted a pic-a-day with a quick note to accompany it. Well that format worked pretty well, and I'm going to do the same now, except a little less frequent, and audio instead of pics. So not exactly the same thing, but close enough ;).

Over the summer (in Scotland / Europe with the iPhone) and over the last few months (with a field mic we own) Kristie and I have been recording bits here and there. Just like a picture, every audio clip has a story associated with it. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then an audio clip would be worth a million to me. If you follow this in Google Reader, or just visit the site from time to time, the audio should be embedded in a media player (assuming you have flash enabled). Enjoy.

Where we're to...

2009-10-26T13:40:00.000-04:00

It's been pointed out before, but I think the (Canadian) reach of the Muise Mob siblings is worthy of visualizing:

View Muise Mob in a larger map

The only thing that remains to be done is to have another sibling and send em to the North-west Yukon. Get on er Mom / Dad.

Mutant Bass

2009-10-07T16:58:00.002-04:00

Love it...

Diego Stocco - Experibass from Diego Stocco on Vimeo.

Pic-a-day (Day 10)

2009-08-27T04:33:00.000-04:00

It's been an amazing summer in Scotland -- there's noone I'd rather have spent the time with. Wish us luck on the last leg of our journey. Ciao.

Pic-a-day (Day 9)

2009-08-26T04:15:00.000-04:00

Costume party...priceless.

Pic-a-day (Day 8)

2009-08-25T10:16:00.000-04:00

Miss my (brief) band major days. These guys were pro.

Pic-a-day (Day 7)

2009-08-24T18:03:00.000-04:00

Love how this image turned out. The Necropolis was gloomy for most of the day, but now during this shot.

Pic-a-day (Day 6)

2009-08-23T09:46:00.000-04:00

We took a trip to a castle with friends Irwin and Lauren. The face looks like shock, but it's likely just a yawn (coffee had yet to be consumed at this point).

Pic-a-day (Day 5)

2009-08-22T17:19:00.000-04:00

We had about 2 hours to blow in Sudkreuz (just south of Berlin) during our Germany trip. It was hot and stuffy, and this beer very well may have been the most refreshing I've had all summer.

Pic-a-day (Day 4)

2009-08-21T16:37:00.000-04:00

Ireland was amazing. This church was no exception.

Pic-a-day (Day 3)

2009-08-20T10:34:00.000-04:00

K and I cruised Stockholm with John and Kate -- good times.

Pic-a-day (Day 2)

2009-08-19T09:40:00.000-04:00

My first ever haggis. I've had it quite a few times since ;).

Pic-a-day (Day 1)

2009-08-18T17:45:00.001-04:00

Lots of silence here, eh? So how's about 1 fav photo from this summer every day for the remaining 10 days I'm in Glasgow. Let's giver a go:

This guy was amazing. Only managed one airborn shot, but it was worth it.

Rainy Glasgow

2009-05-05T19:42:00.000-04:00

We made it safe and sound (and with all our luggage)...albeit a bit tired and drenched. If you care about the Scotland-specific posts, a blog has been created [here]. Tech posts will likely pick up, and ditto with the cooking blog (food will need to be imaginative on this budget). As a result, traffic on this one will be reduced.

If anyone wants to come visit, pints are on me (only thing cheap over here...especially with the strong loonie).

Cheers

Scotland

2009-04-13T16:03:00.000-04:00

So first off, a recap:

Carving: Haven't gotten around to it yet :(
Roasting: Oh ya...Sweet Santa was a nice find, but I'm still runnin wild with the Tanzanian Peaberry
Crockpot: Another fail...just never have the time to get into that.
Baduk: Yes, actually. Playing almost every other day at lunch time.
Blogging: I'm on it ;)

    So the biggest news is Kristie and I will be going to Glasgow for the summer. The tickets are bought, and we'll be shipping out on May 3rd. Last day in Toronto is April 28th -- we'll be packing up the apartment and heading to Barrie for the week.

    The main purpose of the trip, besides being a fun time, is to visit the Strathclyde Planning Group. They seem to have a great team over there, and I'm stoked to be able to work with them for a few months. Since Kristie is finishing her Masters of Museum Studies this month, hopefully she'll be able to find a job around Glasgow.

    On that note -- if anyone on the internets has a lead on any of the following, we would be much in debt and would pay with many-a-roasted coffe beans ;):

Housing: This is rough -- everything available is for 6 months minimum lease. House hunting from over seas is a pain.
Museum / Gallery Job -- I'm not entirely convinced these exist in paid forms...but there's an absurd number of galleries and museums around.
Move-out on the 28th: If you'd like to help, the reward also includes beer ;)

That's all for now. If anyone is coming through town before the 28th (or Scotland after the 5th), be sure to let me know. Cheers.

Re-kindling (new) Hobbies

2009-02-22T00:16:00.000-05:00

Things I plan on doing now that the MSc Thesis is complete:

Start carving again.
Start roasting coffee again
Learn how to use our /very/ unused crockpot
Learn the game of baduk
Write to my growing set of blogs on a more regular basis.

Any bets on how many of the tasks I'll achieve? ;)

Thesis Complete

2009-02-10T14:11:00.005-05:00

The master's thesis is officially done. Final drafts have been reviewed, and all edits are made. For an interesting view of what my thesis was all about, here's a picture:

The size of the word corresponds to how often it was used. The colour doesn't mean anything (to the best of my knowledge). Now back to this 'real life' thing I keep hearing about...

2009-01-13T16:57:00.000-05:00

I just achieved inbox zero on both GMail and Google Reader...no small feat. Now to finish this overdue thesis...

Book Meme

2008-11-13T13:28:00.000-05:00

"The first 2n-3 coordinates are the lengths of the edges in M in order."
- Isometric Morphing of Triangular Meshes, by Bose,O'Rourke, Shu, Wuhrer. Proceedings of the 20th Annual Canadian Conference on Computational Geometry

Book meme:
- Grab the nearest book.
- Open it to page 56.
- Find the fifth sentence.
- Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
- Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

via Leah Culver's Blog

The closest book to me (in paper form) was a proceedings book from CCCG last year. I didn't have anything published, but it's amusing that the quote is from a paper by people I know back at Carleton University where I did my undergrad.