It was remotely possible...

It was remotely possible, were you naive enough, to vote for Senator Obama in 2008 and not also be actively voting for an embrace-and-extend approach to Mr. Bush's arbitrary arrest, indefinite detention without charge, and destruction of the justice system policies. That will not be possible in 2012.

Please enjoy the first interim report from Chief Executive Obama's Detention Policy Task Force featuring plans for the new three-teired "justice" system Mr. Obama has already stated he supports: real courts for some, fake military courts for others, and no trials at all ever for still more. The system is designed to insure imprisonment of anyone the government wants imprisoned, and, on that basis, can fairly be called a system of show trials, similarly to those of Mr. Bush. Remember: as stated previously by the Obama administration, should someone be found innocent, somehow, by one of these show trials, the administration - as per that of Mr. Bush - reserves the right to imprison them forever anyway.

As is fitting, the briefing on the report was presented by four administration officials who would only discuss the matter if they were not named, even though the report was released to the public. As usual, all those news organisations invited agreed. As Glenn Greenwald asks: why?

Moving the studio was a good idea

I should've done this a while ago.

I've been learning to record via a little studio setup I've been assembling in the library/office/server room at Murkworks North. I've solved a lot of problems since starting, but at the same time, doing anything new has been a big problem, just due to space or lack thereof. Plus, recording in that room means shutting up and baffling the server closet, which - particularly in the summer - means overheating servers, which is no good for anybody. (Particularly not all the users at murkworks.net!) We haven't had any meltdowns yet, but it's been unpleasant.

Plus I can't use the room after 9pm, plus the floor in that room squeeks, plus it gets really hot in the morning (summers, again), plus there's road noise, plus the birds (on the same level) sometimes get into recordings. I have workarounds, but they're kind of a pain in the ass.

At the same time, I've had another couple of small projects ongoing: 1) sorting through the storage/guest room on the top level, fixing up the room, and getting rid of a bunch of stuff we've been keeping for no good reason, and 2) the same, but for the server closet.

Over the last week or so, I've combined all of these problems into one giant clusterproject - and to my surprise, instead of the expected implosion of fail, everything has come together rather nicely! I still have a bunch of stuff to ditch, but I've ditched a lot of things already. The server room still needs a lot of work but is vastly improved, and the servers are running cooler, even in this heat wave. The library/office/studio is now mostly a library and much less crowded. The storage room still has storage (in a closet) but is also a studio that can still be converted into a guest room with a little warning.


New Studio! (Formerly storeroom)
I did my first test recordings this afternoon. I've had one big surprise already: in the library/office/studio, I was essentially unable to record what I hear out of my mandolin. I've come closer over time, with new microphones and a lot of eq work and some filtering, but all that has costs. And the noise floor wasn't really where I wanted it to be.

My first test recording in the former storeroom, recorded flat (mic straight to recording track, no eq, no filters, etc) is better than the best I was able to do in the library studio. I have very little idea why, but I checked with Anna, and it's not just me. The noise floor is a lot lower with a lot less work, too, but that's not the cause.

I'm really, really surprised. I didn't expect this to happen. I thought I was solving some specific issues - and I guess I was - but I didn't know that would happen. Recording is so odd.

It's weird, this project now having a separate room. I wonder if it'll get a name. Criminal Studios?

Anyway, long entry is long. Have another couple of pictures under the cut:

( Pics! )