Friday's Electric Lunch Hour - Heavy Shit Edition

I promised heavy shit; I sure hope you didn't think Steve Vai was it. I really love Steve and what he does, but his stuff is not what I had in mind.

Fly loud

\m/ >_< \m/

PS: do look up "Carving a Giant" >:)

Friday's Electric Lunch Hour - Burn Jita Edition

May the butt-hole of New Eden burn with the heat of a billion supernovas !!!

Fly hot

o7

Blogging hiatus

Hey there. Feeling like complete shit this week so I feel like writing about as much as I feel about watching paint dry, mining in Hi-sec, going to church, or listening to Celine Dion. Yeah, that much. I'll report back after this bout with a nasty cold is done. Expect an extremely heavy and/or violent video on Friday.

Feel better than I do

o7

Friday's Electric (sorta) Dessert - SCV Drumline Edition

OK, this is me geeking the fuck out. This video is NOT for everyone, for sure. But it is an example of what all drumlines aspire to be. They may not be the "official" best drumline (the honor went to The Cadets) but SCV will always be #1 in my heart :)

Enjoy!

o7

Friday video - Soon™

This being a crazy super early morning where I have to take my boys to an appointment, the Friday Electric Lunch Hour will come to you some time around supper time. Sorry about this but when you gotta, you gotta!

o7

The weird spring

As abruptly as it started, spring sure is on the weird side up here in Montreal. While on the 21st of March I was chillin' on a patio having a beer in shorts and T-shirt at 10PM, a few days later Mother Nature was back to freezing our barren and snowless landscape on a few occasions. It was wasn't until this week that we finally got some weather ressembling spring (summer even) but even then it didn't last long and after some blasting 40mph winds we're back to the freezing point. Well, at least it's better than last year where spring brought us rain, flooding, more rain, more flooding, more rain... you get the picture. So while my bike may be ready for some good rides, riding weather is iffy at best. I will have to literally harden the fuck up soon, bite the bullet and start using my bike more in the very near future. If I'm to travel hundreds of clicks I'm sure the weather will not be perfect all the time!

In the meantime what have I been up to lately? Well, with the drumline project well under way I've been getting my rudimental chops to levels I hadn't thought of attaining this quick. I guess practice does make perfect and now that I have more tools to practice with I spend much of my free time banging away on one of my practice pads, studying video tutorials and music scores, and listening to the seven Nightwish tunes that the drumline will play on at the October 20th show. One of my latest achievements in drumming is finally nailing down a classic snare exercise that's been around since the American civil war called "Three Camps", when drums and fifes were used as communication methods. It is a reveille, a wake-up call if you will, that's basically a triplet roll exercise which isn't too hard but I had never gotten around to actually playing it, even though I have heard it hundreds of times because of the drum corps background. I nailed it at slow speeds first to make sure I understood correctly what the sticks are supposed to do, and now I'm working on getting the speed up while staying as clean as possible. And of course to give myself a bit more challenge I play it both in matched grip and traditional grip. It fits on a single jpeg image so here's how it looks:

Accented notes are singles, the rest are doubles.

Also, my drumline instructor is giving me tips before the practices start and he's encouraged me to keep playing along the rudimental excercises he throws at the rest of the drumline. For now this is easy to do as we don't have instruments yet, but when we get 'em I'll have to keep to my practice pad and feel more than hear what my sticks are doing, unless someone doesn't show up and I can borrow a snare for the warm-up. Man would this make my day or what! :)

Now with all the drum stuff that's going on my gaming time has pretty much hit rock bottom, but I still keep an interest in a few games. The most prominent for me these days is Fallout 3. I love it so much that I'm really getting into the whole post-apocalyptic fiction genre, survivalism, Cold War history and all that jazz. I guess it puts me in the mood to get into survival mode as I prepare to travel the vast expanses of my province by bike. I've taken a big break from Skyrim not because I don't like it anymore, but because my computer doesn't like it anymore. I may have modded it a bit too much for my weakening box. I know it's getting short on memory and the video card is showing it's 4 years of age. I really need to think about upgrading if I want to play any newer games, like say Mechwarrior Online when it comes out! I do play a bit of Quake Live and Mech4Mercs once in a while but pretty much all my attention is on Fallout these days.

And this blog being this blog, how can I not mention this cybernetic drug called EVE Online. Before you ask, no I'm not resubbing just yet. Even though fun things are on the horizon like the Burn Jita event, Hulkageddon V, the Inferno expansion and DUST514 (I'm still wondering what the Montreal area code is doing in a game title XD), and even after I watched my own buddies and corpmates having a ball in Low-sec, I do not yet hear the call to undock Rifters, Thrashers, Taranii, Vagabonds or Absolutions. The busy summer I have ahead of me doesn't help, and there's still the slight problem of me hating the most important part of EVE with a passion, ISK making. I was watching Dr EyjoG's economic presentation at FanFest and somewhere in it he even pointed it out: in order to lose ships in PvP, you have to do your chores and make ISK to buy ships. "You have to do your chores..." I was screaming at my screen at this point; THIS IS WHY I UNSUBBED DOC !!! I don't play video games to do chores. Period. But on the flip side having a space dogfight in New Eden is a truly unique experience. *sigh* Well, if I want to help my real life buddies in a better way than just watching and giving the odd advice I will just have to bite the bullet and make ISK. I guess I can become a cheap ship specialist because losing T2 and Faction goodies is hard for a non-economically enclined player like me. Bah... we'll see what the future holds. One thing is absolutely certain, nothing will happen before the October show. By then we should also start hearing about the 2012-2013 winter expansion and see what that brings. And to anyone who would really want me to tackle, scout, or even FC, you can activate my account and I'll gladly do it for you :))

Fly, flam, ride... all that good shit!

o7

PS: To famous/infamous PvPer Garmon who is even now asking for real-world money for The PvP classes... just what the flying fuck dude?! I've already thanked you for giving me my first PvP death and teaching me this important lesson in a n00b's career. But with this sort of shenanigans I will just have to issue you a challenge if/when I come back. No worries, I will mail you. How about 1v1 Ruptures? You did kill me with a Ruppy that first time :)

Friday's Electric Lunch Hour - 2012/04/13

Hope you have a long lunch hour XD This video is to celebrate the fact that on May 18th I will be attending the Musical Box show at the Bell Centre in Montreal, where I will get treated to The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. Should be quite epic :)

Enjoy!

o7

AAR - EVE Online: Spectator Edition

FC: Cartboard Box

Scout: Letrange

Fleet: Command Loki, 3x Thrasher, 2x Cormorant (Helios scout at the start I believe - correct me if I'm wrong Let!)

Kills: 1 awesomely fit Shadow Cartel Jaguar

Losses: none

Yesterday was the closest encounter I've had with EVE Online for the past month. As you know I left the game on March 15th and even then I wasn't really playing anymore due to massive loss of interest. But recently a few of my Montreal partners-in-crime have resubbed and at our bi-weekly meet last Saturday the guys decided to do a small Wolf Pack roam of destroyers only, with command Loki support boosting a few stats. I decided to go to my buddy Cartboard Box's place to spectate with beer in hand, and boy was it worth it!

Because Cartboard doesn't use a headset I was able to talks to the other guys in fleet on comms once in a while, but I didn't do any back seat driving. I did help at the start by pointing Letrange to various possible hot spots to look into, but that was pretty much it. The gang was starting from the old AMC HQ in Everyshore so my scouting advice was pretty easy: check Mya and Gerper, stop by Alachene, and then check the Elarel-Groothese pipe. The first three systems were completely dead so when all was ready the gang formed up in Altanins and got ready to jump into Low-sec.

The first few systems were quiet but Letrange had spotted a yellow Jaguar heading deeper into the pipe; this got Cartboard's mouth watering (I know cuz I was there beside him!) but instead of rushing after it the gang advanced methodically down the pipe. At about this point Letrange called that he had enough of dual-boxing and parked his Cov-ops alt so he could concentrate on flying his main's Thrasher. He would scout anyway as he had a decent tank which would only get beefed up once the Loki powered up in the same system.

The pipe splits up at the Mannar system; Let had previously checked the Mormelot-Schoorasana side but it was full of C0ven members. Best not tangle with 'em right away. So the gang went the Angatalie-Lermireve way, and in Lermireve two ships were waiting: two Jaguars, one being the yellow previously seen, and the second solid red. Everybody jumped into the Raeghoscon system and this is where the fun began.

Normally a destroyer gang like this one would make mince-meat of two assault frigs, but these two were unbelievably fast and had no problems getting out of dodge. Their tactic was clear: try to split up the gang and kill it by attrition. The dessies' tactic was to have two Thrashers and a Cormorant parked with the Loki at the Lermireve gate to use the gate guns' protection, and Cartboard and Letrange playing cat and mouse to try to land simultaneously on one of the Jags, who were both red by now. Let's just say that the space traffic control over planets VII and X must have gone nuts! It took a lot of work but finally Letrange landed close to the Jags and was able to lay some pain on one, but he was taking a lot of heat himself. But Cartboard's Cormorant and Ricky Hand's Thrasher (flown by my buddy Keemin) were able to get close enough and after about 20 minutes of space aerobatics, one of the Jaguars finally popped. Letrange had been able to escape death somehow and Cartboard, sporting no tank except the bonuses provided by the Loki, was extremely banged up and came very close to popping.

It was only after the battle that we noticed what kind of pirate we were dealing with: Shadow Cartel. And looking at the character's stats it was clear that this guy wasn't used to dying! The second Jag's pilot tried to break a deal with Cartboard for the sweet afterburner that was dropped but Cartboard was having none of it. Anyway for a couple guys it was time to park ships so the gang made its way back to Hi-sec Everyshore and the roam was called a success!

Some congratulations are in order: first to the Shadow Cartel guys for having the guts to field such experimental fits, and the guts to fight outnumbered. Second to Montreal pilot Ilinane who is usually more carebearish for joining the op; the excitement in his voice was showing every time the Jags would come into shooting range :) And finally to my buddy Keemin who gave a shot at dual-boxing in PvP, and successfully getting one of two Thrashers on the killmail. Hey, even I can't do this XD

And as for me, did all this make me want to resub? Well, as I said over the comms as I congratulated everyone, almost. Yes fights like these are what I played for, but I still don't want to have to deal with pretty much everything else in EVE. But yes, at some points in the fight I wanted to be in there, either in a crazy Taranis or in a sniping Thrasher. But oh well, spectating this was actually really fun. I don't know... there's so much of EVE that gets on my nerves that I feel like a subscription is a waste of money. As Letrange said, I still need a much longer break!

But for those who still play, fly dangerous!

o7

Friday's Electric Lunch Hour - Moar Drum Luv Edition

Nothing to say here. Just remember to pick up your jaw off the floor after you've watched it!

o7

Meeting the band

Wishmaster is:

Philip Charbonneau: keyboard, vocals
Anissa Bélanger: vocals
Tony Batal: guitar
Daniel Tremblay: bass, guttural vocals
Alexis Serré: drums

Yesterday I was invited to a nice little happening that has to do with the Wishmaster show I'll be playing cymbals on this October. It was the media launch for the band's summer tour as well as the presentation of all the heads of departments for the October 20th gig. Present were a few local journalists and photographers, representants for the supporting acts (not really supporting acts, more like co-headliners), and representants for the dance troop and drumline (yay us!). Reps from the circus troop and Les Diplomates drum & bugle corps were also invited but Real Life did its ugly thing, but at least the drumline's director was able to cover a bit as he is also with the "Dips" as we call 'em here.

So basically it was a little party with Wishmaster presenting the new tunes on their set list, a miniature show in essence, followed by a small press conference and question period all done in a very easy-going manner. Following that I got to have a good chat with singer Anissa, and of course with drummer Alexis. The former was quite interesting despite the massive age gap (I'm 22 years her elder) because we have very similar musical tastes; I'll never get used to being called "Mr Gauthier" though! Do not let her young age fool you: this girl can SING! She doesn't try to imitate the Nightwish singers but her own voice works wonders. The drummer talk was also great because again our tastes match up not only musically, but also in drum set-up, a 7-piece DW placed almost exactly like my Mapex and also afflicted by cymbal addiction :) It's not every day that two drummers get together and talk Zappa and it happened yesterday as Alexis was taking down his kit.

But I had also an unexpected surprise waiting for me there. Apparently I made a good impression at the drumline's first practice because I was told by the director's wife that they felt sorry they couldn't put me on at least the bass line and that there wasn't time for a multi-tenor crash course. The fact that everybody from the bass line returned this year meant there was no room, and multi-tenors take a set of skills I have never practiced. But as I said before I don't mind all that and I'll have a great time. On the other hand, they told me that there is a spot open on the number three bass in the Dips. Mmmm... I may need to do some serious calendar juggling and possibly some hard discussions with my ex. Some practices fall on my parenting weekend, and only one in three practices is in the Montreal area. Not to mention the massive head-cramming I'd have to receive to catch up with the rest of the line. But even though I'm not sure if it's possible it was very uplifting to receive the invitation.

So the project is slowly starting to take shape. The venue is reserved, the people are booked, and work is under way. All we need now are actual drums and cymbals to play on :))

Drum Corps Metal for the kids and for the win!

o7