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snoozefestaudio84F with thunder and rain this morning! I managed to get up by 9:30AM, and now I have to leave in about 20 minutes.
I did scan a bunch of old photos and artwork on Monday night. Couldn't find quite as much of the latter as I remember I used to have, but there was enough to work with.
Since then, I've been working up new graphics for the songs on the oldest album, Coffeehouse Boyfriend... and adding lyrics to the listings for each song. But it's been slow going.
------------{=0=}------------
7:47PM
Okay!.. So I managed to get to the Naperville DMV just before my appointment at 11AM, but once I got inside, I still had to wait in a line?
What changed in four years? All I can think is that the population in this area has grown tremendously since 2019.
The 2020 Census didn't reflect that... but that was under Trump, and at the time there were people saying his administration was vastly undercounting non white people, and/or intimidating them into not filling out the forms.
And now I think that's true!
--<>--
At any rate, something came up during the vision test!
My left eye is WAY worse than it was four years ago!
I still made it through, but... it has me worried, after that incident a few weeks back, where my left eye suddenly stopped coordinating with the right eye!
And I'll get into that below.
I passed the written test, as well, but all I got today was a temporary paper license, and the real one's coming in the snail mail!
Apparently it's too hard to just print them on the spot anymore.
--<>--
After the DMV I had time to go to Ozzies Diner on 34 and have biscuits & gravy with a side of scrambled eggs... something I've been craving for months.
It was nice, but also sad, because I haven't been out to eat like that since Dad was alive, and... well... yeah.
--<>--
At work, I started googling about my left eye issue.
What I have not mentioned before, is that I have a small bump on the back, right side of my skull... right over what would be the visual cortex of the right hemisphere... which controls the left eye!
The bumps been there for a few years. Kinda came out of nowhere. Doesn't hurt. And feels solid... like bone, rather than fat.
And my new theory is that it's an, osteoma... which is a benign... calcium deposit... type of thing?
But apparently they can cause vision issues... usually only in one eye... similar to what I've been experiencing... at the DMV today, and a few weeks ago with the temporary loss of motor control over the eye.
So... it's probably not gonna kill me?.. but I need to make use of that free eye care pretty soon here!
------------{=0=}------------
Back at home tonight, I brought the hard drive from upstairs down here to the back room, to dig through it for missing artwork, and... after an hour of trolling through old archives from past computers... found what I was looking for.
Original high resolution scans, in bitmap format, of drawings I can no longer find... but which had been used as art for the various albums I'm trying to repackage.
I wasn't as lucky with the cover photos for two of the albums; Wig City, and Lost Cause.
It would've been nice to have the original photographs, and one of them, of a statue downtown, I can re-shoot.
But the other, of younger me, crouching in an old window downtown, cannot be reshot.
That was the Wig City cover... but I do have a couple good versions of that art without the text on it yet.
All the versions are only 450X450 pixels, but... it may be possible for me to save the situation by enlarging them all to twice their size... then creating a composite of the different versions in different layers... and touching stuff up... before reducing the final product back down to 800X800.
But... that's a problem for the future.
Right now I'm still working on, Coffeehouse Boyfriend, and... for that I do have everything I'm gonna need...
As well as a lot of what I'm gonna need for the other three.
--<>--
When I moved those four old albums over to SoundCloud, in 2015, I was just trying to create a backup for when the original website finally stopped functioning... but I never did anything, really to promote them.
No lyrics, no hashtags, no spotlights, and spotty, outdated artwork.
So, once all four have had a facelift and everything, and the playlists are back at the top of the playlist page... I do intend to spotlight them, and embed them here, and write a bit about them... to stir up some new attention.
If that's happening while I'm in the process of uploading new music... which is the only way to really get the SC algorithm to bring new traffic... then those old albums will have the best chance they can of... catching the interest of a passer by.
--<>--
Nothing's going viral!.. in the end, it'll maybe bump the plays on those old tracks up from the teens to the... hundreds?
But the other thing this effort does is... tidy up the house for when I die!
I'm thinking about this because of my musical peer, Bill, who died unexpectedly, back in April.
I wanted to hear his stuff, and reflect on his genius, and his soul, but was disappointed, because all that survived... from his life as a folk artist... was a spotify playlist of some random stuff that wasn't his best work.
And it was being interrupted by ADS!
--<>--
But Bill's not alone!
I have several old musician friends, and family members, who's music just isn't accessible because;
And I don't wanna be like that!
I want to be ready for that week after I die, with everything right there to play, in nice packages, all downloadable, with lyrics... ready to go!.. at that one moment in my life when everybody who ever knew me, is gonna really want to listen, and make time to do it!
Posthumous fame, baby!
The one dream nobody can take away from me!
------------{=0=}------------
Okay, with all of that said, I have decided on the next song I'm gonna record.
It's an old number called, "Never Rains."
We'll talk about it later.
But for the time being... I'm still working on the facelifts!
°¦}
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
I did scan a bunch of old photos and artwork on Monday night. Couldn't find quite as much of the latter as I remember I used to have, but there was enough to work with.
Since then, I've been working up new graphics for the songs on the oldest album, Coffeehouse Boyfriend... and adding lyrics to the listings for each song. But it's been slow going.
Okay!.. So I managed to get to the Naperville DMV just before my appointment at 11AM, but once I got inside, I still had to wait in a line?
What changed in four years? All I can think is that the population in this area has grown tremendously since 2019.
The 2020 Census didn't reflect that... but that was under Trump, and at the time there were people saying his administration was vastly undercounting non white people, and/or intimidating them into not filling out the forms.
And now I think that's true!
At any rate, something came up during the vision test!
My left eye is WAY worse than it was four years ago!
I still made it through, but... it has me worried, after that incident a few weeks back, where my left eye suddenly stopped coordinating with the right eye!
And I'll get into that below.
I passed the written test, as well, but all I got today was a temporary paper license, and the real one's coming in the snail mail!
Apparently it's too hard to just print them on the spot anymore.
After the DMV I had time to go to Ozzies Diner on 34 and have biscuits & gravy with a side of scrambled eggs... something I've been craving for months.
It was nice, but also sad, because I haven't been out to eat like that since Dad was alive, and... well... yeah.
At work, I started googling about my left eye issue.
What I have not mentioned before, is that I have a small bump on the back, right side of my skull... right over what would be the visual cortex of the right hemisphere... which controls the left eye!
The bumps been there for a few years. Kinda came out of nowhere. Doesn't hurt. And feels solid... like bone, rather than fat.
And my new theory is that it's an, osteoma... which is a benign... calcium deposit... type of thing?
But apparently they can cause vision issues... usually only in one eye... similar to what I've been experiencing... at the DMV today, and a few weeks ago with the temporary loss of motor control over the eye.
So... it's probably not gonna kill me?.. but I need to make use of that free eye care pretty soon here!
Back at home tonight, I brought the hard drive from upstairs down here to the back room, to dig through it for missing artwork, and... after an hour of trolling through old archives from past computers... found what I was looking for.
Original high resolution scans, in bitmap format, of drawings I can no longer find... but which had been used as art for the various albums I'm trying to repackage.
I wasn't as lucky with the cover photos for two of the albums; Wig City, and Lost Cause.
It would've been nice to have the original photographs, and one of them, of a statue downtown, I can re-shoot.
But the other, of younger me, crouching in an old window downtown, cannot be reshot.
That was the Wig City cover... but I do have a couple good versions of that art without the text on it yet.
All the versions are only 450X450 pixels, but... it may be possible for me to save the situation by enlarging them all to twice their size... then creating a composite of the different versions in different layers... and touching stuff up... before reducing the final product back down to 800X800.
But... that's a problem for the future.
Right now I'm still working on, Coffeehouse Boyfriend, and... for that I do have everything I'm gonna need...
As well as a lot of what I'm gonna need for the other three.
When I moved those four old albums over to SoundCloud, in 2015, I was just trying to create a backup for when the original website finally stopped functioning... but I never did anything, really to promote them.
No lyrics, no hashtags, no spotlights, and spotty, outdated artwork.
So, once all four have had a facelift and everything, and the playlists are back at the top of the playlist page... I do intend to spotlight them, and embed them here, and write a bit about them... to stir up some new attention.
If that's happening while I'm in the process of uploading new music... which is the only way to really get the SC algorithm to bring new traffic... then those old albums will have the best chance they can of... catching the interest of a passer by.
Nothing's going viral!.. in the end, it'll maybe bump the plays on those old tracks up from the teens to the... hundreds?
But the other thing this effort does is... tidy up the house for when I die!
I'm thinking about this because of my musical peer, Bill, who died unexpectedly, back in April.
I wanted to hear his stuff, and reflect on his genius, and his soul, but was disappointed, because all that survived... from his life as a folk artist... was a spotify playlist of some random stuff that wasn't his best work.
And it was being interrupted by ADS!
But Bill's not alone!
I have several old musician friends, and family members, who's music just isn't accessible because;
- They never recorded it
- They had somebody else record it and don't own the recordings
- They recorded it themselves, but have kept it behind a pay wall for decades
- They have recordings that were never digitized
- They just lost whatever good recordings they had over the years
And I don't wanna be like that!
I want to be ready for that week after I die, with everything right there to play, in nice packages, all downloadable, with lyrics... ready to go!.. at that one moment in my life when everybody who ever knew me, is gonna really want to listen, and make time to do it!
Posthumous fame, baby!
The one dream nobody can take away from me!
Okay, with all of that said, I have decided on the next song I'm gonna record.
It's an old number called, "Never Rains."
We'll talk about it later.
But for the time being... I'm still working on the facelifts!
°¦}
