In the name of love...

In honor of Martin Luther King Day, here's one of my favorite songs from U2, "Pride (In the Name of Love)", with lyrics below:



U2 - Pride (In the Name of Love)
One man come in the name of love
One man come and go
One man come, he to justify
One man to overthrow

In the name of love
One more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love?

One man caught on a barbed wire fence
One man he resist
One man washed on an empty beach
One man betrayed with a kiss

In the name of love
One more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love?

Early morning, April 4
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride

In the name of love
One more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love?
In the name of love
One more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love?

TV Time

• Batman: The Brave and the Bold / Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes: In the end, I'm just a big head. I still love comic books and cartoons about comic book characters.  This one in particular features an extensive cast of guest characters, engaging stories, and campy all-age fun.  Meanwhile with the Avengers cartoon...I don't know why it took them so long to do a good Avengers cartoon, but I'm glad they finally did.
• The Walking Dead: Started out better than it finished but why does it have to be so long until new episodes?!? Five episodes is such a tease.
• Modern Family: Taryn caught up and its now a show we can enjoy together.
• Mad Men: Started watching this again.  I had stopped a year or two ago during the second season because in general, I don't watch too many serious dramas. It may be the shortened amount of daylight or the dropping temperature, but its a good fit right now.
• Battlestar Galactica: Finished it! I'm glad I pushed through, the ending wasn't as bad as some things I had heard.
  

Pedalboard update

• Upgraded the board itself from a Pedaltrain PT-JR to the PT-1 so that I could fit the volume pedal on the board itself, as well as get a hard case to protect the goods.
• MI Audio Boost 'n Buff v2: I love two-in-one pedals. While originally I was using it for a lead boost, I've been really digging the sound I get from just leaving it on all the time.
• MXR Eddie Van Halen Phase 90: This my first pedal a try.  It does the standard phaser effect, but also has a button for "Script mode", which is supposed to be more subtle. 
• Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret v1: Loved this pedal since I bought it awhile back. I leave it in "Rawk" mode and boy does it live up to the name.
• Fulltone Fulldrive 2 w/ Mosfet: I was growing unhappy with the sound I was getting out of this guy, but came to realize its just a very tweakable pedal and after taking an afternoon to find an overdrive sound I liked, I finally found a sweet spot in the regular and boost modes.
• EH MicroPOG: Usually use it to add an octave up and I'm always finding new uses for this pedal.
• Ernieball Volume Pedal JR/Korg Pitch Black: While a tuner is an absolute essential, I've been wondering if I'd be able to get by without the VP.
• Keeley-modded Boss TR-2:  For some reason, I go in cycles for wanting a tremolo pedal.  Though I'm pretty close to taking it off the board, there's nothing pressing to replace it with, so I'll leave it on to have more tonal options and it especially pairs well with the MicroPOG for organ-like sounds.
• t.c. electronics Nova Delay: There's so much this pedal can do and so much I have to learn about delay that I know I've barely scratched the surface here.
• Boss RV-5: Gave this pedal another try after selling one off back when I started picking up effects.  Very happy with it and like most people who run it, I use it exclusively in Modulate mode.

Hello 2011, here's a short update...

Happy New Year readers! A lot has been going on, so I thought I'd share some highlights of these past few weeks:

• My New Year's resolution is to lose 25 lbs by my 30th birthday in April.
• I'm on-board with the group of people pushing to say "twenty-eleven" instead of "two-thousand-and-eleven".  If we already shorten two-syllable names, why would we make saying the year more complicated? 
• I started a new job this week at Tufts in Chinatown.  This happened just before Christmas and the whole process, as well as the period of unemployment and soul-searching, has really been a testament to God's faithfulness. It was also a time to grow in trust and to rely on God's timing and Providence.
• I have an abundance of Asian, predominantly Chinese, lunch options and loving it. However, my wife and soon my body may not love that as much. Will have to remember to practice moderation, especially in light of my resolution in the first bullet point.
• I've barely played my electric guitar since mid-December.  Will need to reserve some quality music time this weekend. Gear page update coming soon too!
• Mid-December we purchased a 2005 Subaru Outback for Taryn to prepare her for the winter, which has already proven it's usefulness.  Two days later, we also sold off our blue Toyota Camry.  It has found a happy new home and we're planning to get together with the new owners for some board games in the near future.