I just wrote my first new song in my new copy of Reason 2.5. I am very excited, not because it is a great song but because of the fantastic possiblities of this program. Thank you Propellerheads for making such a kickass product! For those of you not in the know, Reason is a music studio emulator, with racks of virtual machines that you can manipulate and wire together. I love how you can see the “back” of the machines, and rewire the virtual audio cables. I’m hooked! Fruity Loops can’t even come close to this!

Anyway, this song is very simple, but I made it with only my first few hours ever using Reason. A simple melody using one instrument and a drum synth for a fairly simple rhythm. MP3 (2.43 Mb) 1”41

I called my real estate agent this morning. This was a big step—I think I was afraid to make such an obvious action towards making this move to North Carolina happen. I’m such a wimp sometimes.

Of course, he hasn’t called me back as quickly as he said he would. It took me a week to screw up the courage to call him back, so I don’t fault him for it. It isn’t that I’m afraid of him, it was fear of getting the ball moving on selling the house. Zoiks! The whole idea still freaks me out a little.

In other news, I did spend some of the weekend cleaning up the house. I also mowed the lawn for the first time in a while. Sad that it is an accomplishment to do something one should do out of habit, but lately I’ve had great difficulty getting over my general malaise and slight depression. All of this is also compounded by thoughts of packing, moving, preparing, etc.

By the way, if anyone wants a 3 BD/3 BA 1300 sq. ft. house in San Leandro, CA, let me know. I would be willing to sell if for less than market, on account of not having to pay the agent fee. But you’ve got to let me know quickly!

Last night I watched [[imdb:0258153 Simone]], and overall I did enjoy it. The story is about a failng movie directory in Hollywood who invents a digital movie star named Simulation One. From the trailer, I thought that this was another technology runs amuck, gets too smart too fast, becomes a sentient entity, and refuses to die type of movie. Thankfully, my assumptions were quite wrong.

The story is more about humans (Americans at least), and our absolute obsession with celebrity. What we expect from celebrities, what we invent in our imagination, and how far we and they get removed from whatever got them the attention in the first place all come into play in this movie. It was very thought provoking for me.

On the other side, the movie is also a bit too light-hearted at times. It can also be very predictable. Not much is left to our imaginations. There are not-so-indirect allusions and foreshadowing throughout. The predictability does wore thin quickly for me.

Overall, an enjoyable movie for most of the family. No real violence, so my mother can watch it, yea!

I arrived home from North Carolina to find A Trip In Trance waiting in my mailbox. I had to order this from Hi-Bias Records in Canada. I bought it when I heard it playing on Digitally Imported, my favourite internet radio station. It is a two disc compilation, with Hiver & Hammer mixing the first, and DJ Esquille on the second.

The tracks that caught my attention when I heard it on DI, were U.S. (Unidentified Sound) by DJ Peke, and Emotion by Trancepulse Inc, which I wasn’t aware were separate tracks until I received the CDs. Unfortunately, those are two of the best tracks in the collection. Often buying a compilation based on only hearing a few tracks works—it didn’t really in this case. Oh well.

Two notables on the first disc are Nothing (Hiver & Hammer Remix) by Holden & Thompson, and 5 Million Miles (H&H Differentgear Mix) by Hiver & Hammer Featuring Javah. Nothing is not my usual sort of track, it starts out as a sort of hard dub, but morphs into trance. 5 Million miles is some great vocal trance.

There are other good tracks, but many of them are well known (to me at any rate). At least there is truth in advertising, every track is basically trance at its core. Some are vocal, some are hard, some progressive, a one or two are even of the melodic variety.

I love foreign commercials. Check this clip out for this collection. I’m assuming it is in Swedish, but it is so odd when the English comes blasting through. blah blah blah blah Non-Stop DJ-Mix, blah blah blah.

DalRae IM’d me while I was at work today. She wants me to cover the whole 6% for the real estate agents, rather than split it 50/50. This could work out to be 21k, so I took a disliking to this idea. Her argument is that I’m making out like a bandit, getting my 90k back out of the house. On one (her) hand, if we hadn’t put the money in the house, it would probably be worth 20k. On the other (mine), if I put all of that money in the house, shouldn’t I get it back? I think she is looking at the discrepancies between the income we take away, 30k vs. 120k, and getting jealous. I don’t consider that 90k income, I had it before we bought the house.

I hate all of this crap. What a terribly good lesson in trust. Prenups will be a flyin next time, if there ever is next time. Money sucks. I distinctly remember thinking of having a prenuptual, and deciding against it for fear of intimating that I thought this relationship wouldn’t last. That thought was the farthest thing from my mind, so I didn’t push the idea. I had everything to lose, and she had nothing to lose. This is enough reason to have such an agreement.

Dammit. This whole thing pisses me off. I don’t feel like this is fair to me, but I do see her point. On paper, it makes sense for me to support her through May, which is $7k, rather than pay her 3%, which is $10.5k. A small difference, but something. This is all assuming that we can get $350 for the house. The more money we can get, the more reason to go with a percentage. From my perspective at least.

I also like the idea of keeping the house separate from the divorce. The house is technically 50/50. Of course, I am asking her to let me have my down payment back. That isn’t 50/50, now is it? Harumph

Moral of story: marry someone of approximately equal financial standing. It just simplifies everything. This is shitty, but also: Marry someone who isn’t a flake, has some grasp on what they want, and knows who they are. A sense of humour would be nice too.