Author Archives: mathan

54lbs down

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So today’s magic number is 263.  That’s 54lbs down since October, and that’s 6 lbs more than what I lost under Weight Watchers a few years ago.  30ish more pounds until goal.

I have to admit, i’ve been cheating a bit with this diet.  It started with my last trip to Portland where I got fed up with eating the same thing over and over again, and I decided to have the hotel specialty for breakfast – Eggs Benedict.  Over the past two weeks ago I had the equivalent to

  • 1 piece of Pizza Pizza, Pizza;
  • regular cheese in Tampa with a number of meals;
  • rice with Teriyaki and yes I had the sauce.
  • dim sum with the Teriyaki meal.

I’ve always gotten back on plan when I’ve done this with the exception of the cheese in Tampa.

I’ve always lost between 4.5 and 5 lbs on the plan.  I have no plans on slowing down at this point, but I am at a point where I feel I need to eat more towards regular foods so that when I hit goal, I’m not suddenly switching and gaining all that hard earned weight loss back like I did with WW.  I also need to learn to balance it so I’m not reverting back to old behaviours.

For example, I bought some low-carb rye bread made with flax.  I’m allowed two pieces per day.  Great!  I’m nervous about gaining weight on the stuff, but looking at the labels, it’s all on plan.

We’re going to be eating more protein, relative to where we were at in October. That’s been a major shift for Scott and me.

So we’ll see.  While I maintain my weight, I’m planning on continuing my regular weigh ins, and may even get us a bathroom scale.

But that’s not for 30ish pounds.

The Magic

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Scott and I are on our new, annual vacation.  Something we committed to last year when we went on our honeymoon.

We’ve had a few interesting ‘magic’ moments during our holiday this post is my way of thanking everyone who added to the magic thus far:

  • Scott and I have been trying to find a Piglet pin for me, for a year and they simply don’t exist these days, or so we thought.  We went to the Pin Traders at Downtown Disney near The Marketplace and asked.  One of the cast members actually had one, and when asking what we could trade it for, she gave it to us!  We had gone off to pay for some other pins and went to find her again and she had disappeared.  We didn’t get her name, but still want to say thank you to her!
  • When we got to our room, we had noticed two omissions – Bev’s character autograph book, and a mis-spelling of my name on an embroidered blanket.  It was too late to call, but we called in the morning.  They had the autograph book to us within 30 minutes of our call, and a new blanket was waiting for us at night.  They didn’t take the mis-spelled one, so we have a funny momento of our time here.
  • At Cinderella’s Royal Table, Scott asked how much it would cost to get additional copies of the picture and frame together.  $29.99.  We opted not to as not all of us needed the frame and there were extra copies of the pictures.  As we were eating dinner, John, the cast member handing out photos came up to us and asked about Betty and Bev’s first time, our anniversary and my 40th birthday we were celebrating.  He passed us an additional 2 packages!
  • Additionally at Cinderella’s Royal Table, I was given a HUGE cupcake for my birthday.   Thank you again to the folks at Cinderella’s Royal Table for helping us celebrate Thanksgiving, and for making that night magical.
  • On our way out of Cinderella’s Castle after the fireworks, we ran into the stage manager of the show and he provided us with some neat info about the castle, some of the changes they made to the lighting and a tip on what’s coming up for the holiday season. *GRIN*
  • PhotoPass – They now do videos!  We have two – one featuring Betty screaming on Seven Dwarves Mine Train and me being very stoic; and Mike from Monsters Inc. bouncing around one of our pictures. 🙂

Talk about some great memories and things we’ll cherish for life.  Thank you to everyone who has made out trip thus far.

$8 to change seat and with status?

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photoDear Mr. Rovinescu,

I’m quite an Air Canada advocate and usually spend time talking up Air Canada to my collegues and such.  While I may not be 100k Super Elite, I do fly enough to hit 50k or 35k with status.
 
I was very shocked to see the following screen shot, yesterday, when checking in for my flight.  In short, $8 to change my seat in the same area of the plane?  
 
Some details 
– I’m currently 35K well on my way to 50K this year. 
– I fly Toronto to Vancouver (and then on to Portland) a significant number of times a year, and will be doing this at least once a month until August next year
– I’m already booked in a middle seat (which is fine, I’ll live with)
 
What is Air Canada thinking?  Here is the exchange I had on Twitter with @ACAltitude.  Firstly, I do have to commend the folks over at @ACAltitude – they rock, and are always courteous:
 
Iain:  sorry to be cranky but why would I pay $8 to change my seat when I have status? Flying AC101 tomorrow.
Iain:  and I have a preferred seat as well…
ACA: Hi Mathan, different preferred seats have are assigned at different amounts (ie aisle vs middle). /cc
Iain:  even changing between another middle seat would cost $8 – will get a screenshot for you. Not a good revenue model.
ACA: Hi Mathan, instead of a screenshot, can you DM your booking ref nbr? /cc
Iain:  I might stand corrected but still, feels like nickelling and dining loyal customers.
 
Mr. Rovinescu, this is nickelling and diming your valued customers and is a digusting practice.  Completely ridiculous.  
 
I choose Air Canada because it’s not like the US airlines I deal with.  United has an inconsistent product.  American’s seats are way too small. US Airways service is horrible.
 
Air Canada is a 4-star Skytrax airline.  It won’t be if you continue these practices which are more like RyanAir (Ireland) and Spirit (US).
 
Thank you,
Iain Bennett

1987

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It was 1987.  I would have been 12 going on 13.  A young friend of my cousins and my sister, although he would have been about 17 or 18, was dealing with severe manic depression as a result of bipolar disorder.  Unfortunately the mental health services in Halton Region were completely useless at the time and unfortunately the young man committed suicide.

This was the first funeral I had ever attended, and the first at Holy Rosary Parish in Milton.

What happened during that service was, quite frankly, disgusting.  In short during the sermon, the priest at the time said that the young man would not be allowed into heaven.  You could hear the wailing of the whole congregation.  Seeing the mother of the young man completely distraught was inexcusable.  There was practically a revolt as youth who were attending shouted back at the priest.  The priest would hear nothing of it.  He, unilaterally, decided that the young man wouldn’t be allowed into heaven because he took his own life.

I know I was a mess after that, and while I didn’t feel I had any power to do anything, this sparked within me, how important peer counselling and mental health is, and that attitudes had to change.  People living with mental health challenges such as bipolar disorder need compassion, understanding and help.  And this is what drove me to volunteer in such programs.

I wasn’t going to change the church’s view, but I could do other things.  Over the years, I hoped and prayed that attitudes would change.

And another suicide would happen again to a second friend a year and a half later in 1988.  I wasn’t at that funeral – I should have been.

Yesterday I attended the funeral for a friend from high school who committed suicide.  I was apprehensive about the church service knowing what happened in 1987.  I still to this day feel the anger of that situation.  That was not going to stop me from celebrating and grieving the life of my friend from high school, with the community of people that loved him.  This was too important.

That said, the church has learned since that time.  Our friend was sent on his way to the afterlife with full blessings.  It was a beautiful thing to see, that attitudes have changed.  This helps to bring some closure to a 27 or 28 years pain.  I am still brought to tears thinking about this part of the service.

There are many things the Roman Catholic Church has done wrong over thousands of years.  This doesn’t erase that, but it does show you can teach an old dog new tricks and that enlightenment can happen.  I know Pope Francis is working to steer attitudes of the church, or so it seems.  I pray that one day the Roman Catholic Church will somehow collectively atone for it’s sins.

This doesn’t mean I necessarily support the Roman Catholic Church, but I believe it is important to acknowledge positive changes seen.  Thank you to the Pastor who celebrated a life lost yesterday and for providing that healing for me, and for providing a place where we don’t have to deal with old attitudes such as what happened in 1987.

It’s too soon for any of us

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I wrote this a few days ago, posted on Facebook but wanted to keep this in my blog,

I’ve been sitting back listening to some music from my high school days, which often gets me reminiscing about those days. Believe it or not, high school for me, despite all the awkwardness that happens had lots of good times. Definitely better than the previous three years prior.

I never felt like I belonged in any particular one group and I seemed to be quite transient between a group of friends my age and older into technology, programming, science and music; a group into technology and sports (later when I started playing Rugby); and another group of friends my age and younger who very much eclectic and at one level a bunch of misfits, again with a unifying interest in music, but more diverse between technology and arts.

This is where I met Chris I have to admit, we weren’t as close as some in the group but there was always a mutual respect, as there was between everyone who was part. In the group that included Chris, Chris, Chad, John, John, Catriona, Laura, Clayton and others; we all had such diverse backgrounds, tastes in music, we all enjoyed either gaming and computers and then whatever else we brought with us all complemented each other.

As some have alluded, Chris knew how to reinvent himself like Madonna – and that’s not a bad thing. The pranks, late night drives, the first time going to the Bovine Sex Club – THE goth/industrial club in Toronto, and being exposed to harder edged music which has inspired me today.

I always enjoyed Chris’ witty attitude and humour. I liked that he was into cars. I like cars, but he took it to a much deeper level.  

Talking tonight at the visitation, all of us are saying, “It’s too soon for any of us”.

—

The following lyrics from Duran Duran’s song, Beautiful Colours really come to mind for me.

(LeBon/Rhodes/Taylor/Taylor/Taylor)

Today, riding the slow train along the way
Going to who knows where and who knows when
Not knowing where you’re rolling – it’s the learning of this journey

I feel all you good people gather and believe
Being of flesh and breathing is enough
Promise to carry on from each moment to the next one

These beautiful colours, infinite patterns so hard I see
And though we’re all of the same stuff
There’s not one of you who is the same as me

Whoa, the beautiful colours, in different patterns for you to see
Sometimes the beauty of it all seems unbearable ’til the colours bleed (keep breathing…)

Design – everyone’s their own universe
Besides – life isn’t a standard issue it’s customized
Ashes to supernova is the nature of existence

These beautiful colours, infinite patterns so hard I see
And though we’re all of the same stuff
There’s not one of you who is the same as me

Whoa, the beautiful colours, in different patterns for you to see
Sometimes the beauty of it all seems unbearable ’til the colours bleed (keep breathing…)

Keep breathing
Keep loving

These beautiful colours, infinite patterns so hard I see
And though we’re all of the same stuff
There’s not one of you who is the same as me

Whoa, the beautiful colours, in different patterns for you to see
Sometimes the beauty of it all seems unbearable ’til the colours bleed (keep breathing…)

Experiments with the Roland TR-8

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After a week of sitting in my make-shift studio, I finally got some time to play around with the Roland TR-8 I picked up.  Wow, what a machine.  It totally to me to my late-80s/early-90s techno roots.  What a phat beat pumpin’ beast.

Forget the basic Roland TR-808/TR-909 sounds it emulates, add the scatter functionality and you’ve got a beast that doesn’t just drum for you.  If you’re not a strong beats guy like me, and you get stumped, the scatter functionality can help create breakbeats and fills to way more than satisfy my beat needs.  Tie in, not just the audio over USB, but throw in the midi data and you can create some out of the world beats with your DAW drum set (Reason, Logic, etc…)

Check this sample out.

Roland Aira TR-8, TR-3, Propellerheads Reason 7.1 and OSX Mavericks

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There doesn’t seem to be a lot of information out there about how to setup instruments that can connect to a DAW such as Propellerheads Reason over USB, with MacOS X Mavericks.  Most tutorials start having completed the setup process already.

Here is a tutorial about how to setup a Roland TR-8, Roland TR-3 with MacOS X Mavericks (10.9) and Propellerheads Reason.

I am currently using the following equipment:

  • Roland TR-8 Rhythm Performer
  • Roland TR-3 Touch Bassline
  • MacBook Air

I am also using a Korg Microkey25 and a Kaossilator Pro which were setup quite quickly.

The high level steps for this are:

  1. Download the drivers.
  2. Setup your audio devices
  3. Setup Reason’s preferences
  4. Setup the audio tracks

Download Drivers

The first thing you have to do is to download the drivers for your TR-8 and TR-3.  If you gave the drivers installed, then you can setup your audio devices to talk to CoreAudio, Apple’s technology for interfacing everything audio on your Mac.

Setup your audio devices

Do this via Go > Utilities > Audio MIDI Setup and you should see your TB-3 and TR-8 setup on the left side.

Audio Setup

 

What I noticed in Reason was that I could select one of the TR-8 or the TR-3, but I could not play and record both at the same time, which is not really all that helpful. I also noticed the same in Logic.

You need to setup an Aggregate Device:

  1. Click the ‘+’ button and select “Create Aggregate Device”
  2. Select the Built-in Output, TB-3 and TR-8
  3. Select the Clock Source as “Built-in Output”
  4. Let the sample rate be 96 kHz.  The TR-8 and TB-3 both are high resolution audio devices, though some may argue that one doesn’t need to sample that high.  Your call.
  5. Rename the Aggregate Device – I set mine to TB-3&TR-8 (yes, I mistyped it in the image above).
  6. Right click on the new device and select “Use this device for sound input”.
  7. Ensure your actual Built-in Output  is setup for sound output.  If not, right click and select “Use this device for sound output”.  You can also select, “Play alerts and sound effects through this device”.
  8. You’re done with this part!  Take note of the output channels for the Mac’s own Built-in Output, you’ll need this for the next step. In my example, above, here is how to read the inputs and outputs:
    • TB-3 has the first two input and output channels
    • TR-8 has inputs 3 through 16 and outputs 3 through 6
    • The Mac has only outputs 7 and 8

You want to add the Built-in Output in the Aggregate Device so that you can select it as the outbound device within Reason.  You’ll see this in the next step.

Setup Reason’s preferences

Load up Reason and do this via Reason > Preferences > Audio.

 

  1. Select the Audio Device as the device you created in the previous section.  This is what stumped me, I was looking for separate audio in and out and out fields.
  2. Click the Channels… button next to Active Input Channels, select all of the Inputs.
  3. Click the Channels… button next to Active Output Channels, and select only the output channels
  4. You’re done with this part!

Setup the audio tracks

Now you want to go ahead and create the audio tracks.  Everything should be virtually wired up and ready.

  1. Go to Create > Utilities > Audio Track and an audio track is added.
  2. Expand the device on the rack and under Audio Input select the input for your device.
  3. If you want, rename the Audio Track to be more representative of the device you are adding.
  4. You’re done.

Hit the Start/Stop button on your device and you should hear everything come out of your Mac’s speaker.

Pain Points and Tips

There are definitely some pain points to this setup.  What I have found is:

  • After turning off your devices and existing Reason, it may be possible the devices get forgotten by MacOS X, or it may be the way the devices boot up.
  • Reason might forget which devices belong with which channel or that channels should be enabled.  You may have to go to Reason > Preferences > Audio to set this up.
  • Be sure to save a default file with the audio tracks setup.  This will save you time, and name the devices after the device and sound.
  • The TR-8 will send out a stereo signal on the first two channels, one for left and one for right.  The remaining channels are for the individual sounds if you want to capture the individual audio tracks separately.
  • The TB-3 will send out a stereo signal, as well, on the first two channels.  One for left and one for right.
  • This one is a big frustration point for me.  The USB plug into the TB-3 and TR-8 are FRAGILE and they can be tough to plug in.  Specifically, I actually broke the plastic post on the USB port of my TB-3.  Thankfully it still works, but I need to get some glue to fix it.  I’m not pleased with how cheap the ports are.

And there you go.  Hopefully I’ve taken away some of the pain that I had setting up my equipment.

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