It’s been a while
March 30, 2009 | Filed Under Website | 1 Comment
So I haven’t updated this site in a while…sorry about that. But it isn’t due to a lack of stuff going on. Like all of you, I’m sure, you’re really busy. Work and school have been really intense. And Facebook makes it too easy to update with a sentence or two (even if I don’t really like the thing). But we have a ton of photos and stuff to put on here, and I may streamline the process a bit soon. Anyway, the family is doing great. Kids are growing fast. We are having fun too. This month we’ve been to Minneapolis and St. Louis, for instance. March has been quite the roadtrip month for us. This site isn’t offline yet. It just took a long nap. More to come soon. We promise. 
Tweaking
October 25, 2007 | Filed Under Website | 4 Comments
You may have noticed Madeofsun.net is undergoing some changes in its design. Thing is, it isn’t quite done yet, so don’t look too closely at the rough edges. I’m still tweaking it, after all. 
On Trance/House Music
April 17, 2007 | Filed Under Music, Website | 2 Comments
Most people know I like a good electronica mix (and that I mix my own music too). I don’t like much of the weak techno that came out the 80s, or the regurgitated stuff you hear on some pop FM station on the weekend (which is what most people think of when they hear about electronica). We’re talking real trance music and house music that LA and NYC are known for…stuff Europe packs clubs with. Usually the mixdown is cut to vinyl. Turntables and all that. I think that Eric Jordan is a true traditionalist and I have many of his sets from Neverrain. Great stuff.
But I really like a lot of melodic sets too. Case in point: Kyau & Albert. In fact, some of the visitors to this website will no doubt come simply because it is one of the names of one of K&A’s very first hit mixes. Some further details FYI:
This website name was not inspired by Kyau and Albert’s Made of Sun mix. But I do think the song is amazing and is always on heavy rotation on every playlist in my iPod. But alas, the site name primarily comes from other sources.
In any case, I like some of the remixes out there of Made of Sun by K&A, and I’ve included a clip you can hear right here, if you’d like: ENJOY. It is definately a favorite.
Back to the music. I don’t like every one of K&A mixes though, as some of them lean WAY too much into the “pop” sound and those I don’t like at all…(Whenever any electronica mix has mundane beats and the lyrics are boring or the artist is only going for a hook in the song it is bad news…it reminds me of something like Eiffel 65…blech). But I do like when K&A cuts stuff like Outside, Velvet Morning, etc. There’s a fine line though. Usually those sounds are full of industrial/robotic filters and the futurist/melodic style is probably the best type of house music I like. Stuff like Delerium’s After All mix (feat. Jael), Aven’s Making Me Fall, etc. are good examples of how to walk that line.
Incidentally, in three days, K&A is scheduled to perform live in Taipei. That would be cool (minus the bar scene, of course…I don’t do the club thing anymore, unless it’s outside and junkie free) seeing how the only electronica I had the opportunity of hearing while in Taiwan was when we were in Jingme, at a shop in a night market. I even asked the shop owner what mix it was, and he burned me a copy of the CD he was playing over his system. It was really funny stuff, but I liked how copycat it was with 80s techno. That’s my only experience with the Taipei electronica scene. Asia has a ways to go before the music is uniquely their own in that department. Japan is propably the leader there, but some of the stuff I heard in Taiwan wasn’t bad.
In case you’re wondering, I learned and used Pro Tools for a while at school, but have since fallen for Apple’s (no surprise there)Logic. Even Garageband is a good conceptual tool I use to lay something down but Logic Express/Logic Pro is definately the way to go.
Stats
April 6, 2007 | Filed Under Website | Leave a Comment
We used to integrate statcounter for the previous Brightonopolis site. It is good for basic HTML sites. But lately, i’ve been looking for a good stats plugin for Wordpress. I’ve checked out the codex and implemented Slimstat and a plugin that integrates Google Analytics, but I’m not crazy about either of them…Anyone using wordpress knowing of any good stat plugins, please post. Thanks!
Adjusting
March 22, 2007 | Filed Under Family, Website | Leave a Comment
So I forgot how much I liked to sleep. Baby Keane sure has a pair of good lungs, that’s for sure. Every few hours he will sleep though, so that is nice. Sleep when baby sleeps. That’s a good one to remember. I had forgotten that one with Brighton. Kuei is doing pretty good. She’s healing pretty well but is trying to get into the new feeding, sleeping, changing routine. Although, apparently, Keane smiles when he’s all satisfied. She says she sings to him a bit too. Keane hasn’t smiled for Dad yet. Oh well. Maybe I can score the first word, “Dada,” though.
As many of you know, I took a leave of absence from school for the semester to be around more when Keane came. It has been pretty good, and I have been looking for full-time work while I am out of school. Something to help us get a car again and all that.
When we moved downtown, a big selling point was the train. It goes right up to school. But let’s face it, if you want to get around in Utah (even SLC), you need a vehicle and that isn’t going to be changing anytime soon. Though, SLC is on the right track. But for now, it’s best to have a car, as it is quite hard–not to mention a completely stupid idea–to take a newborn to a doctor visit, for example, on the trian. Right? Crazy. That’s the cool thing about really dense urban areas. What I like most about Taipei is the conveinence. If you’re in the city, you’re set. Turn a corner and whatever you need, it’s only a little walk. Or jump on the subway (which you don’t have to wait 15 minutes for) and go where you need to. We went to church on the 5th floor of a green skyscraper not far from Jingme and it was awesome. Here in SLC, without any family out west, in any close proximity to where we live, we are really lucky to have some help in the friend department. Our ward is really great too.
So we are all adjusting to some new things now. Relearning things about having a new baby again. Plus, Brighton is growing so fast. Everytime we look at him too. Living as a full-time grad student on a tight budget and having a little family makes it interesting, but we are really blessed. We know it is all an investment for the future. My brother is in transition too right now with a likely move further east to pursue law school (go get it Joe!) It’s been years since we have seen him. It would be nice to head out there in the summertime or vise versa. Sometime, he wants me to come bounce around Chicago with him, and that would be a blast (great architecture too).
Stay tuned for some more photos, when we get around to it. Kuei usually takes the good ones. By the way, this new blog I created with Wordpress. It makes it easier for us to post, and more frequently. I’ve used Wordpress in the past for other projects and I thought it would be a good fit for the new family site. So far so good. I don’t like Blogger much, and without getting too political or anything, I’ll leave it at that. Anyway, thanks everyone out there (you know who you are) for being so great. And those of you who are visiting, welcome to MadeofSun.net