After the Satellite Skirmish: Autumn Rust

Published on September 23, 2024 at 10:08pm by Matt the Tall

The Skirmish is over, and it was a great time. Something went wrong with the stream during the first song of the set, so there was a sound loop that threw things off. If it was the restreaming system, sounds like it should get fixed in the recording when that's all put together (edit: not an issue in the recording). Despite that causing a temporary halt to my set, I played through the rest of it afterward and managed to squeeze in finishing before the time was up with something like 15sec spare.

Lessons learned:

• Record locally while streaming, just in case
• Get a condenser mic and an arm for it (probably AT2020, but open to recommendations)
  • Should pick up less of the room than the dynamic I have right now
  • Easier to get close so my voice is audible
  • One caveat will be to figure out a shortcuts/macros to switch between audio profiles for ocarina and voice
• Use a relaxant, perhaps? I was chock full of adrenaline during that performance, particularly after the stream issues with the first song, so a shot of liquor shortly before the set might have taken the edge off.

It was a ton of fun going through the live chat after the set to both respond to people and see the discussion about my sword when people noticed it in the background. 😆

Thank you to the production crew and everyone else who made the event happen! Would love to perform in future Skirmishes and more events.

Some major thank yous are in order for those who boosted during my set:

• ericpp
• boo-bury
• DuhLaurien (and the Bowlette boost, glad the kids loved both the sword in the background and hearing The Stables)
• Boolysteed
• cbrooklyn
• Salty Crayon
• Kolomona - Sir Libre
• petar
• frankiepaint
• cottongin
• HeyCitizen
• beamus
• Andy RNR Breakheart
• netned
• Em
• dude
• ChadF
• SirSpencer
• marykateultra
• Heather Larson
• natejohnivan

If you want me to include your note(s) in addition to your name (or change your name from how it came in the boost), reach out and let me know. I have a few ways you can get in contact here.

Performing in the Satellite Skirmish: Autumn Rust

Published on September 20, 2024 at 8:04pm by Matt the Tall

The show will be kicking off at 2pm Pacific Sunday. The Skirmish is an online Value 4 Value battle of the bands format where the artist who receives the most donations in satoshis (a small fraction of a bitcoin) wins the competition.

You can watch the show here, and if you want to send boosts (pieces of bitcoin with a message) live during the show to support me, I'd recommend downloading Podcast Guru and setting up a Lightning wallet that connects to the app.

I'll be unveiling three songs I'm working on that have yet to be recorded. Anyone who wants a say in which one gets published first can send boosts during the show saying which one, and the song that gets the most sats will be recorded before the others.

Hello World!

Published on June 5, 2024 at 6:06am by Matt the Tall

For anyone who works remotely close to software, the title choice for this post probably comes as zero surprise. I'm a software engineer by trade who dabbles in a host of unrelated subjects. For a long time I've played with the idea of setting up a blog, and getting the domain name on the cheap for the first year helped me decide to actually pull the trigger on the domain.

This blog was set up using MyWebLog made by Daniel J. Summers. When I asked about recommendations for blogging systems, I went with his system both due to our common enjoyment of No Agenda, a comedic show full of news deconstruction and analysis, and it's always nice to be able to directly ask questions to the person who wrote software you're using.

An added reason for the choice is there's support for Podcasting 2.0 features. If that's a new term for you, you can read more about it at the Podcast Index. I don't know whether I'll go about starting my own podcast, but I do want to take advantage of those features for my music.

Yes, music. One of the cool things that's spun out of Podcasting 2.0 and its enabling of V4V (Value 4 Value) podcasts, and that tech is also being used for music in the same vein. Eventually I want to host my V4V music, though I haven't gotten to that yet. I play a somewhat esoteric instrument that most people either haven't heard of or think only exists in the Legend of Zelda games: the ocarina.