This is a cool little write up on the people that I got so amped up about at AdobeMAX in october.  Interesting read at least.

http://www.apple.com/pro/profiles/bigspaceship/?sr=hotnews

And while you’re at it, read up on your monkeysphere:
http://www.cracked.com/article_14990_what-monkeysphere.html

When I was a kid, I didn’t have an atari, or a comodore 64 or any of those things. I had an Apple II+ (or was that an E?). Anyway, there weren’t a whole lot of games for the thing, I had a favorite named Sneakers, which was essentially space invaders with giant sneakers with feet (yeah, a little odd now that I think about it) instead of space ships.

The first programming I ever did was on that thing as well, i wrote a little GI Joe game, that was basically a choose your own adventure. I learned however, that it’s not that fun to play games that you wrote, because you always know the ending…

I also had a typing game where you were given a word to type and if you typed it fast enough, you’d kill the spaceship coming at you. If you didn’t, the space ship would kill you. I actually had a really good time with it and appreciate the skills that I learned with it even today. So I’m sure you sitting there asking yourself, “what the hell is Josh going on about now”. I’ll get there, keep yer skivvies on…

I know that there have been a number of games out there for people to learn piano via the computer in a similar way as the typing game. And then there’s the popularity of Guitar Hero (which is a hell of a lot of fun). So then I see this: http://www.guitarrising.com I’m REALLY excited about guitar rising. Not only does it make things a little more interesting (and useful) for the people that play guitar hero and the like, but it also I think will be VERY interesting for people that know how to play guitar. Having something like that could really “improve the chops” as they say.

Wow, the past couple of weeks have been a whole bunch of suck. I was in the Carolinas two weeks ago and had a great trip. Meeting with new people that we’re hopefully going to have a strong business relationship with and also meeting with some clients down there. Lots of travel, but well worth it.

Got back and it all started to go downhill. Stacie’s grandfather died on that sunday. It was a very sad day for her and definitely tough. The funeral was friday and was very nice. An interesting anecdote from the funeral, a close friend of ours brought her grandfather to the funeral, he’d never met Stacie’s grandfather Robert, but at the end of the ceremony walked up to the casket and saluted him. Both are WW2 vets. You just don’t see camraderie like that anymore and the mutual respect. It really hit me pretty hard and I teared up a little. It’s just amazing how such a small gesture can have such an emotional impact.

Ever since the last gig w/ Sweetwood Groove, i’ve had this nagging feeling that something weird was going on with the bass player. Wouldn’t send me an e-mail more than 2 words long, wouldn’t return phone calls etc… Turns out that he wants to go back to being a 3 piece jazz fusion thing and we were getting too rock oriented. Which is really too bad, we were making some damned fine music and had written a bunch of new songs in a couple of months. I’m sure that there’s a whole lot more to it than they want to go back to a 3 piece. It’s more along the lines of I push hard and have very strong opinions. I always try and be as magnanimus as possible, but sometimes it doesn’t happen. I think a lot of it has to do with power as well. I have a tendency to take things over when I’m involved with them (as singer, guitarist, songwriter, experienced performer and experienced recording artist, i also have a lot more experience). So when I see someone making a mistake that I’ve made I usually try and let them make it so they’ll learn from it the way I did. However, I refuse to make the same mistakes twice, so if someone’s trying to get me to do something that I know won’t work because I’ve tried it before, I’ll say no. Which if you’re as strong willed as I am can be annoying. So, now I have to find a new band to play with. Which sucks. I’m hoping that this will all turn out for the best and by them kicking me out, i’ll go on to find something better, but over the last 4 years, I’ve built or helped build 3 bands from the ground up and none of them have done anything. It’s getting a little frustrating. It’s a shame that the same respect that the WW2 vets show each other has become so non-existent in a lot of todays day to day life.

Ok, enough bitching sorry to rant this long. How ’bout them Giants! As an Eagles fan, it was tough to cheer for them, but I just am a little sick of the Pats winning.