Slushy Sunday
Sunday, January 25th, 2026 05:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudio9F and overcast, going below zero tonight.
It was 17F when I left for building checks at 2:15PM, and we had three inches of new snow on the ground, that nobody's cleaned up yet. So it was a slippery, slushy mess out there.
I stopped for groceries and gas on the way back from the high school, and now I'm settling in with a fresh cup of coffee, and some donut holes.
An update on the pokestop gambit. My photo of this building (which is a pokestop) was accepted and appears as one of the alternates, so I sent gifts from this stop to Colleen & Justin, who liked the new photo.
Colleen has two accounts, so, they gave three likes and my like makes four. The original photo had zero likes. So in theory, later this week, mine should become the main photo... replacing the 10-year old, low-res, crooked, badly lit photo of a tarnished & undreadable plaque out front.
Let's hope it works!
A check of the calendar shows that Valentine's Day is on a Saturday, with President's Day being a Monday holiday that same weekend. So... three weeks until this 3-day break!
Can I finish the album on the V-Day weekend? I'm thinking that's out of the question.
There's still a lot of work to do just on the music, with EQ and compression, but then the vocals and sound effects have to be gain-staged, and compressed, in Audacity.
And there's still that missing guitar solo for, Other Friends, to compose.
I think we're still looking at April for the silent release of the Archeological Record.
Okay, today's goal is to complete gain staging on, Bed in the Suburbs by the end of the night.
I'll talk to you later.
So, I was working on, Suburbs, and things were going fine, but then about 7:35PM, the power went out!
I assumed it was the whole building, because that happens occasionally, and it usually comes back within ten minutes.
I still have the battery powered christmas decor going, so I did have some light, and decided to scroll on TikTok to pass the time.
After a bit, however I realized... "Am I hearing my fridge running?"
Sure enough, I opened the fridge door and it's light came on!
I then noticed the nightlight in the bathroom was on, and sure enough, the bathroom light worked, when I switched it on.
Then, I noticed that the ceiling fan was still spinning!
What the hell?
So I had lost power to all the outlets in the living space... lamps, WiFi router, computers, etc... but I still had power to the bathroom, kitchenette, and the ceiling fan!
This was extremely odd, as I was not running a space heater, humidfier, or anything out of the ordinary load. I'm also pretty sure the three outlets that lost power are all on separate circuits.
I called the emergency maintenance number and told them what was up, but then it was a waiting game.
Since the ceiling fan had power, I did have an overhead light for the living space, and after tuning that on, I decided to check the outlet by the window, which is only ever used for the air conditioner in the summer (or the space heater in the fall, before the radiator starts working).
I had a fan plugged into that outlet which I haven't used in months, but sure enough, it turned on!
So... I got a spare power strip from my underbed drawer of electrical stuff, plugged it into that working outlet by the window (right behind this desk) and then carefully plugged in only the power cords for this computer (the optiplex), the speakers, this monitor, etc... and I got this computer back online.
First thing I did was power up the optiplex, then reboot it.
After that I opened, Suburbs-FNMX in FL.
It wasn't corrupted. The speakers and the MOTU were fine. And I'd saved just before the outage, so I hadn't lost any work.
So, still in the dark out here, I resumed work on the song, with nothing else to do, as there was still no internet.
At 8:40PM, an hour & five minutes after it had gone out, the power came back... for two minutes. Then it went out, for 20 seconds... came back for 30 seconds... went out again for another 10 seconds... and then finally came back for good!
Never got a call from the maintenance guy or any explanation.
But by 9PM, things were back to normal so I shaved, showered and started the laundry like normal.
And now the WiFi router's trained up again, so I have internet and can be here online to update this blog!
A very strange situation, because we're talking about three circuits going out at once... none of which were being overly taxed.
All I can think is that the breakers themselves are going bad? Because why did they have to try three times to reset the power?
But if that's the case, then I should've gotten a call! Like, "Hey! we're gonna have to replace those breakers in the morning so you'll be without power again from X:00 to Y:30."
Or perhaps it was trickster fairies?.. An angry ghost???
Whatever the case, I think I'll keep this computer plugged into the safe outlet for a while.
Okay, back to work!
I'll talk to you later tonight.
Alright! Suburbs is exporting to WAV as I write!
That's four songs in one weekend, even with building checks and a power outage!..
Tuesday, Cold Feet, Closer, and Suburbs!
And I've got a few hours left to get a start on Clue Phone!
So; Clue, Friends, Spell, and Fortune are the final four... and I don't think I'll have any problem knocking them out over the work week!
That means 2nd passes will likely begin on Friday night, for gain balancing.
Archeology, Reavis, and Rains will take a bit of time as they weren't done with the 7-step algorithm. But the 2nd pass on the rest should be a cake walk.
My prediction is that by this time next Sunday, gain staging will be complete for all 12 songs.
And so, as January gives way to February... so shall gain balancing give way to the spectral analyzer and the final parametric EQs.
...And the beginning of compression, perhaps around Valentine weekend!
Okay, that's our weekend!
Last weekends new moon became this weekend's first quarter.
It'll go full, when next we speak, next Saturday!
Until then, have a good week, and I'll see you at mid-winter!
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