It’s spring break! While I’m home I decided to record a couple of demos of some new songs I’ve been working on lately. Hope you enjoy!
Search
Linky
That’s So Meta
Field Notes and Action Cahiers
February 15, 2012 – 6:24 pm
I just got my first set of Field Notes and a pack of Action Cahier notebooks. The Field Notes are the “Notherly” edition, the 13th of the colors editions, which are quickly selling out in most places. These notebooks are made in the U.S.A. and have bright white covers with an embossed shiny silver logo and are beautiful in person. Its 48 pages are ruled with white graph lines over very light blue-gray paper. I love the use of the Futura typeface, and it reminds me of the notebook used in L.A. Noire. The inside of the back cover has the company’s story, the specifications of the notebook, some humorous “practical applications,” and even a nifty 5-inch ruler along the edge. Consider me a fan, and I’ll be watching for the new colors editions as they come out!
The Action Cahiers by Behance are the same size as the Field Notes, besides having slightly less round corners and being a little thicker due to having 64 pages vs. 48. The saddle is stitched rather than having the 3 staples found on the Field Notes. The Action Cahier front cover also has an embossed logo, with “Action Cahier” set in the Helvetica typeface. The covers have a slight texture to them unlike the smooth white covers on the Field Notes. Some unique things about the Action Cahiers are the check list pages with the dot matrix on the reverse sides. I also have a Dot Gird Journal also by Behance and I love the dot grid pages. The check lists are nice, and are perfect for making a simple to-do list or keeping track of project tasks. I’ve found myself drawing in my own in the Field Notes, so having them already there and neatly laid out is convenient. The notebook is filled with perforated ”New Leaf Paper,” which is made out of 100% post-consumer waste fiber. Compared to the Field Notes’ finch paper, it is slightly textured and a little thicker. The notebook also has pocket inside the back cover which is nice.
Both of these notebooks are great, and are the perfect size for sticking in your coat or back pocket to have to write down your to-do list or sketch some notes. The Action Cahiers are a little more aimed at projects and to-do lists. Both are solid notebooks and either would be great for your daily note-taking needs.
Fraction Clock
February 14, 2012 – 8:29 pm
I’ve had this idea for a while now so I finally decided to try and throw it together. The idea is this: a clock that tells time in reduced fractions. For example, think of the time 8:18 pm as the fractions 20/24:18/60. So we’re on the 20th hour out of 24 hours total, and the 18th minute out of 60 minutes total. Now reduce both of those fractions to their simplest form and you get 5/6:3/10. It might seem nearly impossible to read and pretty impractical, but it does give an interesting new perspective on time (e.g. “3/10ths of the hour have just gone by.”). Anyways, I coded up a little java applet that does exactly this, which you can check out here (you’ll have to click “run” and it might take a second to load). Go take a look!
Which Furniture Store?
April 16, 2011 – 7:45 am
I have completed the new website for That* Furniture Store! Go take a gander!
A Plethora of Pen(cil)s
March 23, 2011 – 3:27 am
I have always taken a liking towards pens and pencils. Lately I have accumulated somewhat of a collection and thought I’d share, along with some of my thoughts on a few of them. These aren’t in depth reviews, but you can find plenty of good ones online; check out officesupplygeek.com, penaddict.com, or davesmechanicalpencils.blogspot.com. If you fancy a good writing utensil, you should also check out jetpens.com. They have all sorts of great pens and pencils, lots of which are imported from Japan (where the good stuff is). All of these pens and pencils you should be able to find on either jetpens.com, amazon, walmart, or your local office supply store. Enjoy!
(click to enlarge)
Pencils from left to right:
Staedtler 925-25 0.5mm – All aluminum body, feels great, writes super smooth.
Rotring 500 0.5mm
Uni Shift 0.5mm – Has a guide pipe that retracts into itself so it and the lead won’t get damaged during transportation or if dropped. Super cool.
Alivin Draft/Matic 0.5mm
Uni Kuru Toga 0.5mm – Features a unique auto-lead-rotating mechanism that keeps the lead constantly sharp, and it works great.
Uni Kuru Toga High Roulette 0.5mm – Same as above, but has an aluminum lower body and knurled grip. Feels a lot more solid and the grip is nice.
Pentel P205 0.5mm
Pentel PG2-AD 0.2mm – Features the thinnest pencil lead made, only slightly thicker than human hair.
Zebra Drafix 0.3mm
Staedtler Mars Technico 780 C Lead Holder 2.0mm – Has a lead sharpener built into the cap, which is awesome.
Sharpie Liquid Pencil – As much as I love sharpie products, this is absolutely dreadful and should be avoided at all costs.
Tombow Mono Zero Eraser 2.3mm – The world’s thinnest eraser. Have you ever tried to erase something and accidentally erased more than you intended to, making you re-write/draw certain lines? This eraser will let you get into even the tinniest of spaces.
Staedtler Mars Plastic Stick Eraser – Great eraser, super handy, I use it all the time.
Pens from left to right:
Uni-ball Signo Premier 207 Retractable Gel Ink Pen 0.7mm – Has a metal body and a super comfortable squishy “Alpha Gel” grip. Apparently it’s so soft that it can keep an egg from breaking when dropped from 5 ft.
Pentel EngerGel Alloy Retractable Gel Ink Pen 0.7mm – This pen has an all metal body and super black ink, the blackest of all the pens I own, which looks really nice.
Uni-ball Signo Micro 207 Needle-Point Retractable Gel Ink Pen 0.5mm – Probably my favorite gel ink pen.
Pilot G-2 Gel Ink Pen 0.5mm
Zebra Sarasa Gel Ink Pen 0.3mm – Writes super thin, seems thinner than most 0.3mm.
Pentel EnerGel Gel Ink Pen 0.35mm – Just like the one above but in a super thin tip. Same super black ink.
Pilot Envelope Address Writing Gel Ink Pen Extra Fine – A cool pen from Japan that was designed for addressing envelopes. Oil based ink so it dries fast and won’t smear. Ink is very black and shiny.
Uni-ball Vision Elite Liquid Ink Pen 0.5mm
Pilot Precise V5 Liquid Ink Pen 0.5mm
Pilot Precise Grip Liquid Ink Pen 0.5mm – Probably my favorite liquid ink pen. Just like the V5 but with a comfortable rubber grip.
Zebra Zeb-Roller 2000 Liquid Ink Pen 0.5mm
Sharpie Pen Grip – Possibly still my favorite of them all. I have fallen in love with it ever since it came out. Writes more like a thin marker than a pen, but won’t bleed through paper.
Sharpie Pen Retractable - I have found that the tips on the retractable versions of the Sharpie Pen don’t last as long. The grip is also too thick and bulky.
Sharpie Pen - Just like the beloved grip version, minus the grip. The regular version has a sharp edge near where it’s held, which can be uncomfortable at times.
Zebra Brush Pen Fine
Sakura Pigma Micron 03 0.35mm – Writes a lot like the sharpie pen, and all sorts of widths are available, but the skinny barrel and lack of a grip makes it less comfortable to write with.
Pilot Penmanship Fountain Pen Extra Fine
Uni-Ball Jetstream Retractable Ballpoint Pen 0.7mm – Best writing ball point pen period. Doesn’t even feel like a ballpoint pen. Smoother than a Barry White serenade.
Pilot Acroball Retractable Ballpoint Pen 0.7mm – Similar to the Jetstream, but just not up to par.
Pilot Dr. Grip Retractable Ballpoint Pen 1.0mm
Pilot Better Retractable Ballpoint Pen 0.5mm – My dad used these all the time when I was a little kid and they still look the exact same to this day.
Pentel R.S.V.P. Ballpoint Pen 0.7mm
Foray Tungsten Carbide Retractable Ballpoint Pen 0.7mm – Given to me by a fellow pen addict, my uncle.
Zebra F-301 Retractable Ballpoint Pen 0.7mm
Zebra F-301 Compact Ballpoint Pen 0.7mm
Zebra Telescopic Ballpoint Pen 1.0mm
2011 Update!
January 19, 2011 – 9:27 am
So I decided to post a little update to note the new occurrences in the fascinating life of Micah Jayne. It is now 2011! Hooray! I suppose I’m a few weeks late, but no matter. On to business!
- As you may or may not know, over the course of my Thanksgiving spent in Ohio, me and my cousins (along with the help of @nathantsego) filmed the third (yes, third!) season of the revolution known as Camo Plaid Revolution 2. You can watch said episodes on our YouTube channel here. Currently there are only 3 episodes instead of the usual 5. Due to time constraints we weren’t able to get all 5 out there, but sometime in the future, if we can scrap together enough footage, a couple more will be released.
- For christmas, my lovely girlfriend (@autumnhaac) got me the behemammoth (that’s behemoth+mammoth, I know, epic right?) of all computer mice, the Logitech G700. It is a beast. It’s super comfortable and all of the buttons are very fulfilling. It even has it’s own onboard memory and can store 5 different profiles on the mouse itself. Me and her have been playing quite a bit of Cataclysm lately and I have one profile set for gaming with some buttons set to trigger specific moves. One day while she was back for break I went over and brought my mouse and we ran a dungeon together. I used her laptop, plugged in the mouse, and all my macros worked perfectly without installing a thing. Nice.
- There are rumors that with the aid of @coreyfmurphy, a promotional video for Bathroom Protocol will be released. If you are unfamiliar with the protocol, I suggest you inform yourselves here.
- The new micahjayne.com has been up for quite sometime now! I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out and I think it proves to be more functional than the previous rendition.
- I am in the process of mapping out drums for my next CD entitled “The Clock Project.” More info on it will be released soon.
- Me and Jeremy Ray (@grizzlyjere) are in the process of recording one of his new songs entitled “Jaded Eyes.” All that’s left to record are vocals and a couple more electric guitar tracks.
- The very long process of recording the Orhollow record is still underway. There are 2 songs with some parts that need to be redone and only 1 full song left to record. I will also need to remap the drums, strings, and horns for all of the songs. More info on this project should be coming soon as well.
- I created a simple new flash site for Corey Franklin, which can be seen at coreyfranklin.com.
- I have just begun my final semester at Wor-Wic. This will complete my two years there and I plan to transfer to a four-year college this next fall semester.
- I have been hired as THaT* Furniture Store’s “webmaster” and am in the process of building them a new website. After the site is complete, my job will also include updating the site with new pictures. I will post a link to the new site once it’s completed.
- I have received a new Martin GPCPA3 Acoustic/Electric Guitar which is absolutely amazing and I love dearly. I have been in need of a new acoustic for quite some time now and I could not be happier.
And I believe that is all for now! Hopefully I’ll start posting more frequently instead skimming over a dozen different topics like in this one. You can expect some more updates on many of these things soon!
Massive Cartoon
September 2, 2010 – 11:24 pm
This is the culmination of all of the previous cartoons I have done: now happily together in a huge 6319 by 1783 pixel collage. Enjoy! :]
All done in Flash with a Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet.
(Click on the picture to go to its deviantART page, then click “Download Image” on the right for a full view)
Speakers Galore!
August 11, 2010 – 11:40 pm
I thought I’d give a little update on a couple of my past purchases/additions to the studio. A couple weeks ago my bass rig finally got a long-needed upgrade. I got an Ampeg SVT-610HLF Anniversary edition, which has the silver grill cloth. I got it off Craigslist and got the guy to meet me in Baltimore to pick it up. It looks amazing, and it’s in great condition with barely any scratches or tears. Not to mention it sounds amazing, especially compared to my old 15″ combo. It sounds so much tighter, clearer, and has more punch than drinks of the Hawaiian variety. The cabinet’s been modded so that it has a switch on the back to completely bypass the tweeter. When flipped off changes the sound quite a bit but personally I like it with the tweeter on; it adds more attack and punchiness.
I also finally got some studio monitors: KRK Rokit Powered 6 Generation 2s. They are fantastically yellow. I did an AB test with my old speakers and the difference was ridiculous. They sound so much fuller and clearer. I can even hear tiny little things in songs I’ve never noticed before. They can get loud. They’re supposed to have a relatively flat response so hopefully they’ll lead to much better mixes.
Below are a few pictures of spoken-of items. The cabinet is currently at band practice so I was unable to get a better picture of it. As always, click to enlarge.
Computer Built, New Desk, & New Audio Interface!
June 1, 2010 – 9:30 pm
My new computer has been built and up and running for about 2 and half months now. I’ve overclocked it to 3.3GHz and it’s been running great and is quite the improvement over my previous laptop. Also, after being backordered for about a month, my new desk finally arrived last friday and I put it together. It has 8 rack spaces built into it for various musical equipment. My previous desk, made out of 2 old speakers and shelves, wasn’t exactly “stable,” and it’s nice to have something I can rest my wrists on without it leaning forward. The new desk also looks a lot better and has a lot more work space. My new audio interface, the Echo Audiofire Pre8, just arrived today and I installed it in one of the rack spaces on my new desk. It sounds great, and even with a cheap condenser mic there’s a night-and-day difference compared to my Blue Snowball. It has 8 preamps, 16 ins and outs, and 2 inputs with mic phase, impedance, pad, hi-pass, and DI switches. Guitars and basses sound great even with a direct in with the DI switch enabled running through an amp modeler like Guitar Rig 4. You’ll get to hear some of my new work through the new interface soon. Below are some pictures of my new set up, click on them to enlarge:
Trifles
April 20, 2010 – 10:44 pm
As part of my final assignment for English 151, I drew two scenes from the play Trifles by Susan Glaspell. Below are the two scenes I drew. The first one is of Mr. Wright being murdered, and the second is of the crime scene after the neighbor, sheriff, and attorney have arrived. I drew these to hopefully provide more information and to give a look at the crime scene, which is never directly described in the text. If you have not read the play, you can read it here; it’s fairly short. Both these were drawn with my tablet in Flash CS4. Click the pictures to view them larger.
About