Ch-ch-ch-ch-changessss.....

A lot has happened in the past 4 weeks for me. I thought rather than have to explain it to a large number of people over and over again, I could alleviate some of that with this blog post, some of you might be getting here from the land of twitter, other from the town that is facebook, and others yet from google BUZZZZZ. Regardless, here are the updates.....

1) New computer - I have gone to the dark side and now have a MacBook Pro. I have to say, I'm still getting used to it but I love the adventure. I have a trusty copy of Windows 7 virtualized on it so I'm safe if I run into any WINDOWS ONLY! applications. I also got the Magic Mouse, and must say, it's pretty nice!

2) NEW JOB!!! Although I will be sad to finally leave Duquesne behind, I am happy to start a new adventure with Facilities Survey Inc. out here in Pittsburgh. I will be a "Field Engineer I". I will split my time between traveling and working at home. It will allow me to use some of the knowledge I gained here at Duquesne as a technician, and allow me to keep furthering my skills with multimedia and over all tech support. Facilities Survey Inc. is a company run by Mr. Serwinski.

3)HOUSE!?!?!?! Yup you read it right, I'm settling down for the time being and have put in an offer and had the offer accepted on a house in Churchill, Pittsburgh (more specifically Turtle Creek). It is the house pictured above. Thanks to my great realtor Kaedi Manly, I should be closing on April 30th, 2010. The house is a great little house and the people that live in it now have it done up real nice. Needless to say I am excited. I can turn my amps up to 11 now and now worry about bothering the neighbors.

snOMG!!!! 2010

Just wanted to say a few things about this whole SNOW STORM! First off, WOW, it was great to see people pulling together to help others out. While stuck inside, I had a chance to look out my window a lot and I saw so many people helping other people dig out and push cars among other things. Pittsburgh as a whole has greatly impressed me, and the amicable neighborliness has never shown brighter than these past few days here in the burgh. Secondly, the city has done a great job, despite taking what seemed a day or two to get to it, they really did a great job, they had a HUGE task in front of them and they handled it like none other. With the help of outside contractors and the help of the National Guard, Pittsburgh will easily recover and dig out of this mess!
All in all, what a great experience despite the hardships!

My New Hammond organ and Leslie Speaker!!!!

Here is my "new to me" Hammond C2 and Leslie Speaker. The hammond was so graciously donated by Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA and I just picked up the Leslie from the organ Legend, Gene Ludwig. It is currently being housed at Red Caiman Media in downtown Pittsburgh. Thanks to Red Caiman, I can crank the Leslie 122 as loud as I like! I am aspiring to become a great player and I'm just starting to get the hang of the feel of the keys and the foot pedals. It's been a dream of mine to own a set up like this and now that I do, I am excited to play!

Proof of Concept - Midi Organ Bass Pedals

Here is a proof of concept of a project I've been wanting to do for a little now. I took a set of pedals from an old Hammond M2 organ and have wired them into an Arduino programmable micro controller. A friend helped me do the coding for the Arduino and it now sends Midi out. In the video I am using a free VST. The pedals will eventually be finished and used with a Roland VK-8 Clonewheel organ. You can see videos of the organ on my youtube site. Also, eventually I will have a second manual that will be able to have the original keyboard mounted on it.

When I am done with the project I will post a link to either an instructable or a further post with more details and the sketch (arduino code).