OOooooo….Thanks to BooMama, we have a little video from the Great-Travis-Christmas-Recording-Excursion of 2008. 

Travis’ Christmas CD from on Vimeo.

My head is annoyingly obvious, and Christy is riiiiiiiiiiight to the right of Angela Cruz…so you never actually see her.
HAHA!

And if you have time, go check out BooMama’s blog, she is really funny!

Happy Friday.

Let’s talk about leadership for a moment.

I’m teaching a class at Azusa Pacific University–Arranging I. This is a Junior/Senior level class where the fundamentals of musical arranging (style, form, reharmonization, etc…) are taught to a class of about 10-12 students that are mostly commercial music majors. Half of the class is music-based, and half of it is Logic-based (a computer software tool that I’ve talked about previously–one that I’ve used primarily for 10 years and that all students must learn in the music program at APU).

So yesterday in class I was going over some of the basic techniques required in order to do a transcription (or a takedown) in Logic. One of the elements required is the configuration of Logic’s tempos to match the audio file from which you are going to transcribe the song. I teach a 4 or 5 step process that must be repeated sometimes 40-50 times throughout a song to accomplish the desired effect, and a student pipes up from the back of the room, “What about ‘Beat Mapping’?”

At that instant, I had a decision to make.

I could shut the student down, and tell him that my way is the “right” way to do it. Or I could allow the student to teach the teacher, and teach the class for a moment.

I chose to let the student be the teacher.

Here’s why this won’t undermine my authority in the classroom: because it shows my students that I’m a REAL person.

Too often we get caught up thinking that if we’re the one in charge, nobody else is allowed an opinion or to ask a question. Really insecure leaders feel like the student is challenging their authority or knowledge of the subject they are teaching (when this is often not the case), and I’ve been on the other side of the anger that is unleashed from that insecurity. Neither is it pretty, nor does it help the leader maintain the position of authority they are so desperately clinging onto.

However, on the flipside, I learned something in the class I was teaching–and not just anything–something that is actually a REALLY cool way to do what I was trying to do.
Not only that, but immediately all the other students in the class could see it was a better, easier, faster way to do tempo mapping. And my acknowledgement of that fact actually solidified me as a better teacher to them-because I was open to the idea that I could learn something too.

At least, I think so…

We’ll see. It’s only my 2nd class session.

HA!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!!

NBC shows are BACK on iTunes!

This article sums it up pretty well:

Is anyone else excited about this?  Can I get a witness?

‘Cause why not?
Let’s look at the issues.

Energy Crisis?
SOLVED: The iPod has more battery life than EVER…

Economic Reformation?
DONE: iPods have been reduced to their lowest price IN YEARS…

War on Terror?
HE’S GOT A PLAN: Check it out–he sends all of the terrorists free new iPhones. Once they are happily utilizing the oh-so-wonderful 3G network, Steve Jobs will activate the famous KILL SWITCH on all of their phones and POOF. The war is over.

Why has no one thought of this already?

Steve Jobs for President!

…or…at least…check out the awesome new iPods!

We are at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas at a convention called Deeper Still to hang out with our buddy, Travis.

Well, after the meeting tonight, Travis decided to ride with us to go get some coffee or something, and we jumped in the good ole Prius to leave the stadium–but first we had to take our good friend Aaron from the exclusive parking lot we were in currently to his car over in the main lot.

We asked the security guard which way was the BEST way to go in order to get to the main lot and Aaron’s car. He said something about going around the stadium to the main lot, so we headed the way he pointed us and it was VERY unclear exactly what way to go…I made one wrong turn and almost drove into a fence, and then turned around and started driving towards some more dimly lit areas.

I couldn’t really see the road.

So I turned right, onto what I thought was a road.

But it was a SIDEWALK.

Did I immediately turn around?
No.

I just kept going.

It was a very wide sidewalk…and straight…and there wasn’t a lot of people around, so I just kept going.
I turned here and there onto other parts of the sidewalk and EVENTUALLY found the other parking lot for Aaron. We dumped him off to find his car and pulled back onto the main part of the road so we could turn left onto the street.
Well…I was on the left part of the road.

I didn’t know anything was wrong…

…and the car next to me–a car full of college guys–motions to Travis to roll down his window and yells at us, “HEY MAN. YOU’RE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD!!”

But there was already someone behind me (some poor fool that followed me), so what did I do?
I just stayed there…
and waited for the light to turn green…

Soooooo—to recap:
1) Drove on the sidewalk all over UNLV’s campus
2) Drove on the wrong side of the road
3) Got yelled at by college kids
4) Laughed my patoot off in the car with friends

AHhhhhhhh…good times.

Wow.

It’s Fall.

What?

And can’t believe it’s already that time…

And we all know what happens in the Fall.
Christy gets excited.

Yes. Fall is Christy’s favorite season.
Pumpkins, Halloween, Egg Nog, (just kidding…she hates egg nog), and the cool fall weather.

BUT.

Even more exciting than Christy getting excited, is FALL AT STARBUCKS.

First off, let’s go to Starbucks.com. It smells of rich mahogany.

Then we’re off to see the new drink/food pairings.

The oatmeal is just an instant deal–they add water to the powder and put a lid on it. 3 minutes later, it’s ready to eat and you get to pick ONE of the following: brown sugar, nuts, or dried fruit. I picked dried fruit, but I think I might have like the brown sugar better. It’s a little bland, BUT on the drink side, the added protein didn’t seem to change the taste of the drink. So kudos on that one.

What they mean by “for a quick energy boost” is “if you want to poop in a hurry, combine these two bombastic items. It’s a guaranteed number 2 in 10 minutes or less”.
Just saying is all.

That berry thing is pretty tasty…and if you can stand the taste of the sugar-free syrups, then go for it. But I can’t. So, no thanks for me.

Also, the Pumkin Spice Latte is back, if you dig it.

HAPPY FALL!

This past Winter Apple released a very cool and sleek product called “Time Capsule“.

This is an uber-awesome Hard Drive that works in tandom with Time Machine–an auto backup feature included standard with MAC OS 10.5

This thing combined the best of the things I needed–automatic and easy backup + Wifi for my house and studio. Awesome.
I read all about it, asked some of my techy friends their opinions, and ended up springing for the 1TB version (I have too many gigantic-size resolution SNL clips on one of my hard drives…so I needed the space).
I was so happy.
Now I would finally have the reassurance that ALL of my data would be backed up (including the SNL clips…) and I’d have a ton of space to spare. PLUS, this sucker backs up not only one computer automatically, but ANY apple computer that is around. So Christy’s laptop would automatically get backed up too! FANTASTIC!

All was grand for a few months. I even set up my existing Airport Express to work together with the Time Capsule to extend my wifi network all the way out to my studio and give me excellent wifi reception. I was browsing and clicking and backing up at LIGHTNING speed…hallelujah.

Then we ordered AT&T Uverse.

AT&T Uverse is actually really cool. It replaced our sub-par DVR box/cable service & internet provider. It was the same price for a better deal, plus they gave us cash back and a free month’s worth of service. It’s a new technology that provides digital cable and DVR—over a wireless network–and if you choose to do so (which we did) they can flip the switch ON to provide internet through the already existing network.

AND HERIN LIES THE PROBLEM.

AT&T Uverse HAS to use their network router to provide the signal to the TV and DVR box. Additionally,  the internet signal MUST come from that same box–and that’s where the wireless network is automatically setup.
Sound awesome?
It kinda is…unless you have a Time Capsule that already does all that stuff.

SOOooooooooooo….

I basically had to bypass all of the functions of the Time Capsule and make it part of the network of the AT&T thing. This worked OK, except it wasn’t backing up my computers anymore OR linking to my Airport Express.

I was deeply greived.

I spent some time on the phone with just about every single tech support guy that AT&T has, including their “Mac guy”, who was actually very knowledgable about the whole situation, but basically told me that it just wasn’t possible to use the full capabilities of the Time Capsule AND have Uverse.

You see…Uverse has to send a signal to the TV box…and…oh nevermind…

Here’s the end of the story (fast-forward…) I have now taken the Time Capsule and connected it directly to my G5, wiped it clean, and started anew.  I am partly satisfied with this soultion as I can get OK signal from the Uverse router in my studio, and the most important data is still going to be backed up.

Plus, we get to use Uverse’s highly superior TV service (you can tape 4 shows at once, people! FOUR SHOWS!!!!).

That said…I probably could have plopped a few hundred less on a regular 1TB hard drive to do the same thing…

Oh well. Live and learn.

Now…if I ACTUALLY had a REAL time machine…

I feel very content today.

No anxiety.

No stress.

No worry.

No unease.

No unhappiness with life.

No desires to be anywhere else but where I am.

Grateful.

Peaceful.

Fulfilled.

Content.