Author: John Otter

Yesterday was a pleasant day off. I went to see how much large-scale full-color digital printing costs and buy some things. I was pretty impressed with the quality of the digital prints I saw and the variety of material they can be printed on. I think I’ll go with banner material with grommets in the corners.
Bought a file portfolio folder dealio from Staples. I’m hoping to sort through some stacks of paperwork – mostly things that never had a specific place to be filed like health benefits and investment portfolio information. I think if I file and organize my paperwork I could actually file my taxes early this year. I’m waiting on a couple bits of paperwork before I can start and everything else is pretty much in order.
I stopped at Styles Music to look for something electronic to play with, the Folk Music Center doesn’t carry much in the way of electronics (come on, what about electro-folk?). Anyway, I bought a Boss Micro BR digital recorder. I like it a lot. Its small, can be battery powered and has a built in mic for field recordings, and records multiple tracks. It has a lot of built in drum samples and loops but I’m not too fond of them, I think I’ll use computer generated rhythm tracks. It stores tracks on an SD memory card and links to a computer via USB 2.0. Its my second day of playing with it and there’s still a lot of options I haven’t figured out yet. The user interface isn’t that great or simple but I figure that’s what’s sacrificed for the size. It definitely seems powerful. I also bought a 60 gig WD Passport portable hard drive. I wanted to buy a hard drive and some were better values as far as gigabyte per dollar, but this one is small and looks cool. Yes, I suppose I’m a sucker for the design of technology more than its function. The most recent cell phone I bought was more expensive than others but its small and black with rounded corners – simple but cool. The WD Passport is something between a flash-drive and an external drive. Small enough to carry around easily, its actually about the same size as the Micro BR.

I’m in need of some coffee before I begin the whole new years adventure that sounds like it will last about three days. My bags are packed and I’m about ready for anything, which will most likely happen. Not sure that I have any resolutions this year, I never really liked them. I do like having some sort of theme for the coming year but I’m at a loss currently for what that would be. I do think I’ll be reading and writing more. I’m hoping to get much more organized with my artwork, perhaps create a catalog. Redesign my website. There’s talk of a mural or two & I’d really like to acquire some new tools. I’d like to get a graphics tablet & create some large scale images that would be printed onto vinyl or canvas, something sturdy for indoor/outdoor use. I messed around with photoshop a bit yesterday & saw a million possibilities – zooming in to near microscopic detail, the ability to copy & paste details, etc.
I hope this coming year is fantastic for everyone,
Pop! Cheers! Clink!

no snow. Apparently James Brown passed away.
I stayed at home all day drinking tea and reflecting on the coming year, and occasionally cleaning house. This evening was spent reading Upanishads.