Owen's X10 Blog

If I had known in college that I could send my music wirelessly to my stereo I probably would have never left my apartment. I will say I never suffered or went without my electronics. My friend Shelby has started kidding around about how many gadgets I have in my house. Yeah I suppose I like technology about as much as Kip does from Napoleon Dynamite. If you catch me in the right mood you might find me singing that song of his. Anyway, this weeks Lola Report shines a light again on a few lesser known artists.

This week Matt Pond PA and Bernard Fanning.

-Matt Pond PA-

One evening in my apartment I was letting Pandora.com decide what to listen to. I seem to do this a lot when I’m running low on music I haven’t played over and over again. I typed in Elliott Smith – so Pandora created a radio station of similar artists. After a few decent songs and a few by Elliot Smith himself I heard a song that I really liked. This is my process, find a song you really like – research the artist on Wikipedia – and download a cd.

Matt Pond is a singer/songwriter from Pennsylvania of course. He writes relaxing songs with interesting arrangements of guitar, cello, keyboards, and drums. The name itself stood out because I had grabbed the cd once before for one of my sisters, but never listened to it myself. In 2005 the released the album Several Arrows Later. It is probably one of the best albums of 2005 in my mind. I am surprised I don’t see them on TV or hear them on the radio. I think that at the moment there is not much room for bands like Matt Pond PA or even a band I mentioned in a previous post – Idiot Ghost. All the kids like Emo, and Screamo, and whatever else goes along with that. You can ask Sara about all that madness, I’m quite sure she knows a lot more than I do. While all the adults are holding onto their 90’s favorites. Grunge was my favorite though – I have to admit.

This band really speaks to me because of the way they are able to blend acoustic guitars with other instruments so well. I play my guitar every day, acoustic that is – because its hard to rock out in a townhouse.

The Good: Acoustic Guitars and Relaxing Vocals
The Bad: Similarities in songs – but who isn’t guilty of that.
Best Song: Is it Safe?

-Bernard Fanning-

Yet another great artist that Pandora has brought to my attention.

Bernard Fanning is the man behind the Australian band Powderfinger. After going on hiatus in 2004, Fanning ventured out on a solo project. The result was an album entitled Tea and Sympathy. I just loaded this on my Ipod again recently after giving it a break. After I listened all the way through yesterday I thought to myself, “This whole album is actually good”.
Fanning’s style reminds me of Ben Harper in a way, but his songs are lighter and easier to relate to. If you like crisp clear vocals then this album is for you. He has done very well in Australia but I haven’t heard much about him in the States. He writes his songs about a lot of things, but isn’t shy about keeping a personal tone to his lyrics.

The Good: His Voice and Lyrics.
The Bad: Hmm – I’m sure I can think of something.
Best Song: Wish You Well.

Posted by Owen Robinson at 09:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

I finally got around to brewing a new batch of beer this past weekend. My Brew Buddy and I traveled out to the Beer Essentials Home Brewing Store in Lakewood Wa. It’s a really cool place to visit if you are at all interested in beer or home brewing. Every time I go I learn something new or see something else that will help me brew the perfect beer. Ok, so I’m not really after the perfect brew but I have to say it’s getting pretty good.

For a few batches now I have made a mild IPA with the added flavor of Cascade Hops. A few people that have tried it relate it to Sierra Nevada IPA, which is a very good beer so I’ve decided to make it until I’m sick of it. I usually end up giving about half a batch away to friends and family that have yet to try my beer. This time around my friend chose to make a Cerveza, or something along the lines of a Corona. He has been a lot more adventurous as far as trying new beers each time. Some have been very good; others could use a little work.

Everything went very smooth this time around. Between rounds of Mike Tyson’s Punch Out (yes we got stuck on king hippo) we stirred the brew and timed the hops. No boil-overs or nasty spills this time around. There is a point during brewing where the wort, or the beer mixture, starts bubbling madly and foams upwards toward the edge of the pot. This is often called the “hot break” point. If you aren’t careful you can easily find your entire stovetop covered with a sticky beer mess. This action doesn’t really hurt the beer itself, but beer at this stage is very hard to clean up. The sugar is yet to be turned to alcohol so anything spilled is sticky. We haven’t really had any of these problems, probably because of the endless warnings you receive from brewers.

After the beer is transferred into the primary fermentor it sits to begin the fermentation process. On the top of the fermentor bucket there is an airlock filled with water, which bubbles when the fermentation process has begun. The intensity varies each time beer is made. This time I had something unusual happen that I haven’t experienced before. My airlock had began bubbling sooner than usual. Twenty Four hours after the boil I checked on the batch. The airlock was still bubbling, but this time there was beer in the chamber that holds the water. “Eureka!” I exclaimed. Ok so not really, I’m sure I used a more descriptive word, but I was shocked nonetheless. I just wanted to see if you were still reading. So, I figured I could probably do more damage changing out the airlock so I decided to leave it in. We’ll have to see what this does to my final product. I have made a few mistakes in the past, but it hasn’t spoiled the taste yet.

I’m thinking about getting and Xcam for just such a situation. I’ll call it my fermentation cam. You see, the airlock should bubble for about 2 to 4 days in my experience. Once it has slowed to less than 5 bubbles a minute you know its time to transfer to your secondary fermentor. If I had an Xcam set up I could access the footage anywhere I could get on the internet. That way if I was visiting my parents and forgot to check the progress I could simply go online and take a peek.

Now if I could only find an X10 product to complete the bottling process for me.

Posted by Owen Robinson at 03:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

He’s not Lebowski man. He’s the dude.

Incase you haven’t seen it – The Big Lebowski is my favorite movie. Something about the carefree nature of the Dude himself makes the bizarreness of the whole movie itself much easier to digest. I do like bowling and being lazy, but not to the extent that Lebowski does in the movie. That’s literally all he does – lounge around and bowl.

He is of course out to solve a mystery. Due to a few identity mix-ups his rug was pee’d on and the real Lebowski’s daughter kidnapped. Yep – they pee’d on his rug. And it really tied the room together. The story follows the Dude (Jeff Bridges) on his quest to eliminate the problems plaguing him since the big identity confusion.

So yeah, what does this have to do with anything Owen? You ask – from your slightly uncomfortable computer chair. Well – if the story were true – a guy like Lebowski would love X10 Products. Not only could he control his favorite Creedence tapes with an X10 remote – but he could also turn lights and appliances on or off with the push of a remote button. Better yet he could have his whole house on motion sensor lighting controls from NewtoX10. A Protector Plus and Sentinel Camera would be more than enough to keep his rug bandits out and prevent and harm done from ferrets and nihilists.

Friday is here and tomorrow is Brew day at my place. Ten gallons (atleast) to be boiled up and the process started. I’m gonna try to get Marko over to let him in on my secret beer brewing processes, but since I’ve bailed on the idea so many weekends in the past – he is thinking it will be the case again. It’s gonna happen – 11am (or so)!

Posted by Owen Robinson at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This would be the second in my series of reports on the artists receiving heavy rotation in my apartment. I keep my laptop upstairs in my room connected to the 120 GB western digital hard drive I picked up on at a crazy sale price. It’s my goal to fill it completely with albums in mp3 format so that when I’m older I have a massive jukebox just waiting in my home. When I’m ready to listen to music downstairs I grab my Lola remote, fire up the television, and with a press of a button I launch Lola. My PC display is shown on my TV and I’m ready to listen. The Lola remote is pretty convenient. I usually just hit the artist button so I can pick which group I want to listen to, much like the features of iTunes.

This week Damien Jurado and Coheed and Cambria.

-Damien Jurado-
A fellow musician once told me that I should look into Jurado because of the similarities in our styles. He said that my voice and guitar style were similar to his. So I downloaded his most popular release and gave it a listen. “Rehearsals for Departure”, was the album I chose to give a listen to. The first few times I let the CD spin in my player I was not impressed. His tone was rather bland and the guitar was simple. Then I thought, hey! , what is this friend of mine implying of my music? Then I listened more.

After several times through the CD a few songs started to stand out and I realized what I was listening to, a modern-folk singer. I’m sure that sounds weird. A folk singer in today’s music? Does Owen even have enough knowledge of folk music to justify his claim? Well, probably not but I’ll stand by it anyway. Just reading a wikipedia entry on him and they put it as music influenced by folk. That works too. I guess he is also a kindergarten teacher – now that’s cool.

The aforementioned cd starts off with a song entitled Ohio. The song relates a story of a man falling for a woman who tells him often of her past in Ohio. I think it is an interesting choice to have started the cd with such a strong song. Few of the songs that follow can carry such weight, but there definitely are more standouts. Letters and Drawings, follows a relationship from the point at which it goes long distance, and ends with the relationships dissolve. Tornado is another favorite – another song about relationships.

Taking a listen to his other albums I’ve found that they all differ slightly in style and delivery. If you are the kind of person who follows a band through all progress and changes then maybe you can handle it.

The Good: A style you don’t hear to often these days.
The Bad: He could use a few more songs like Ohio.
Best Song: Duh, Ohio.

-Coheed and Cambria-

Ok, so wait – Coheed and Cambria? Really?

Yes, ironically I have not been able to get enough of this band lately. I have to admit the vocals can be so hard to get into that many wouldn’t give it a second listen. If you give it time the high pitched voice of Claudio Sanchez can grow on you. So what do I like? The guitar riffs are addictive, and the melodies unexpectedly good for a band who only releases concept albums. It seems they are following the Star Wars method of releasing sections of a story at different points of time. Each album correlates to a comic book series written by Claudio himself. How geeky is that?

If you read my review on the band Bayside then you would understand my appreciation in the guitar solo and hopes of it coming back better and fiercer than ever. Coheed and Cambria have been doing just that lately. There last album, which had a title too long for me blog, is full of solos often dueling through parts of a song.

The songs are fun, and I enjoy the goofiness of basing a rock album around a comic book saga. With that being said, these guys are talented musicians and should be respected for that.

The Good: Guitar Solos and Silly Plot Lines.
The Bad: A voice that takes patience to get accustomed to.
Best Song: The Willing Well IV: The Final Cut

Posted by Owen Robinson at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Lately I’ve been after a bigger prize, a Salmon. It’s been a few years since I’ve gone fishing more than once in a season and maybe even longer since I caught a decent Salmon.

One of my good friends has been gracious enough to lead the expeditions. Acting like a professional tour guide he winds the leaders and baits the hooks. There’s a masculine feeling that comes about when you are out in the massiveness of commencement bay in a boat that sometimes looks as though it might just give into the huge waves rolling away from larger vessels. It’s actually a sweet little boat when there are just two of us in it. A few weekends ago we had three and with the size of me and some of my friends – the little boat felt more like a raft. At one point, right in the middle of the bay, I changed seating location to see if it would help the boat plane out across the water any better. A few seconds later we heard a sound that I can only relate to something like the world ending. Ok so maybe not that bad, but we went from scooting along the water to being forcefully stopped immediately. Seems the new weight balance wasn’t one the motor was a fan of.

Right I was talking about fishing itself. On our first outing my line had a hit that I knew had to be a decent salmon. Unfortunately the friction relented and by the time I pulled my line out I could see the big one had got away. Ironically my herring was swimming headless, side by side with a baby salmon – each on a separate hook. I had caught my Salmon but it was definitely too small to eat or keep. It’s almost as if the big fish was on to me and decided to play a little joke on me by putting one of his favorite little brothers on the other hook. I have to give it to him, I was amused. A few minutes later I hooked a dogfish – which basically looks like an ugly little brown shark. When I was younger I won a fishing rod at the derby for netting a 10 pound dogfish. Since I don’t know anyone who would eat such a fish it was back into the water for that guy.

My buddy and I aren’t giving up. We are going to re-gear and head back out soon. He actually pulled out a sweet new toy for our last outing – a portable fish finder. Knowing of my exceptional X10 gadget installation skills, he had me set it up out of the box. It’s pretty cool – it looks kinda like a videosender that sits inside a holster. One end of it sits in the water and through some sort of electronic pulses it searches below for depth, water temp, and fish. No luck yet – but soon – soon enough.

Posted by Owen Robinson at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The Lola Report…

So if you’ve read my blog before you probably know music is a top priority in my life. If I’m not playing it myself then I most likely have my Ipod blaring my favorite bands (as I do most days at X10). Don’t worry, I’m only going to be deaf in one ear – I keep the other one open so I can hear Marko’s demands. When I’m at home I run to my computer and fire up my X10 Lola System so I can have the music throughout my apartment. I figured being that it is so important in my life I should do an occasional update on what bands and artists are on my playlist at the time.

This week: Bayside and Idiot Ghost

- Bayside –
I tried my hardest to avoid any band that could be thrown into the crowd of bands labled as EMO these days. Why, well because most of them are extremely annoying. I just checked wikipedia.org (one of my favorite internet valuables) to see how they define the genre of EMO.

They say:
“Emo is a subgenre of hardcore punk music. Since its inception, emo has come to describe several independent variations, linked loosely but with common ancestry. As such, use of the term (and which musicians should be so classified) has been the subject of much debate.”
See – even the wikipedia has trouble defining emo. To me Rock is Rock, if it’s good then it’s good and vice versa.

After that long intro about EMO, how about a bit about Bayside. Well let’s see after a long week of work I was drifting out of consciousness on my lazy boy with FUSE (a non MTV music channel) playing. Just as I was about to slip away into sleeping I heard a few chords that widened my eyes. On the screen I saw a few New York looking guys playing the kind of new music I haven’t heard in a while; the good kind. It got better when they went into a few guitar solos. It seems in the past few years the solo has faded from the world of mainstream rock – why – well I think the talent steeply declined as well but that’s a whole different blog. So I’ve downloaded two of their Cd’s and done a little research on them and I think they’ll be on my nano for quite a while now.

The Good: Fun guitars and the return of the solo. Fearlessly Interesting lyics.
The Bad: The music associated with Bayside. Some songs seem too similar.
Best Song: Devotion and Desire.

- Idiot Ghost –

A few years back a good friend of mine, Shelby, took me to see Dave Matthews at the Gorge. (Yay lets go see Dave, as his drone of fans would say). I used to like some of his music, but that’s not really why we were there. There was a band, The Peat Moss Band, which opened for DMB. Shelby and her family were friends with members of the band. The show was great; I clearly remember a very impressive cover of Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees”.

Well fast-forward to last week when Shelby handed me a new CD. Idiot ghost – comprised of the two lead members of and older band called Peat Moss. So I threw it in my cd player and I have to say it’s probably the best album from locals I have heard in quite some time. Written, Performed and Produced all by the same two fellows out of seattle washington. Tthe CD is a medium tempo Indie Rock style album. Hopefully I will catch them playing sometime soon.

So who might I compare the band Idiot Ghost to? Well their songs vary in style and tempo, but Sara mentioned Iron & Wine in her blog. I hear glimpses of Coldplay, and was told of a shins influence. What I find most amazing is the recording quality. There is wonderful layering, and vocal crafting. I believe they are without website at the moment. Infact if you search google for their name - my blog seems to come up around the third result. They do have a myspace page with songs and concert listings.

The Good: Exceptional Vocals and songwriting. Definitely My Taste.
The Bad: They aren’t on the radio.
Best Song: Undecided

Check out their myspace page for songs and band info by clicking here

Posted by Owen Robinson at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Football season is just about here! I have to tell you that it hasn’t always been my favorite sport to watch, but the past few seasons have been more enjoyable. Why? Well the Seahawks are finally something to talk about, and my cougar pride has finally developed into something real. You see – I went to school mostly because I thought I probably should. I also knew that down the road I’d need my diploma to get my feet in certain doors. I’m not a book person, and love to learn by doing. But I graduated in 4 years – a little less in fact. During this time I had a lot of opportunity to stroll down to the stadium and catch a Saturday football game. It didn’t seem that important or amazing back then, but now that I’m so far removed from Pullman and WSU I can’t wait for the games to start towards the end of summer.

Saturday, I went to a very nice sports bar and restaurant to watch the Seahawks preseason game. Upon entering my friend asked that we be seated by a big screen so we could watch the game. The waitress smiled and seated us in front of a theater sized screen. It was pretty amazing to catch a game at a restaurant in Tacoma, sitting in a recliner drinking my favorite beer of the moment. The ironic thing about that restaurant is that, as nice as it is, there were probably less than 30 customers their. Tacoma is a growing city – especially with UW- Tacoma going 4 year. It seems the local entrepreneurs and restaurant owners have to be especially careful about timing and location in the city.

Watching the game it got me thinking about the upcoming season. Working at X10 keeps me very busy during the week so I like to make the most of my weekends. I think that the VideoSender will help me keep track of the game while I run around the house doing chores. I’m gonna hook it up to the main tv with cable downstairs and broadcast it two the two TV’s upstairs so I won’t miss a play. Now if I only had a flat screen for the garage I’d be set.

Posted by Owen Robinson at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

“Hey, what are you doing with Tony’s snowboards?”

That’s the question one of my neighbors could have asked yesterday as some thieves walked off with some of my roommates things. Unfortunately we live in an area of high population, where no one seems to know anyone else. Is their a correlation between the impersonal nature of big cities and the crime rates in them? I can’t say myself, but in my 22 years living in my parents nest we had very little trouble with theft. I think I remember one time someone driving by with a pickup truck and pulling away with our Rota tiller. Never, that we know of, has anyone entered my parents house or garage and taken our possessions. As a single, young person you have to make decisions about where you want to live. Do you want to pay a lot, and live in a nice area and good location? Or would you like to live in a nice place, in a mediocre neighborhood. Well my roommate and I ended up with a very nice town home in a questionable area.

Living there for 4 months we’ve had no trouble from neighbors or strangers. That is until yesterday when I pulled up to find our garage door wide open. My immediate reaction was to call my roommate, Tony, and tell him of his mistake. He was quick to tell me that he knows the garage was shut when he left. His car is a lemon. In the morning he has to push it out of the garage, the reverse is out, and start it in the driveway. He says he was in the driveway with the door shut letting his car warm up that morning. So I believe him. How they got in – I’m not all that sure, but I know how they left -- In a hurry with an arm full of my roommate’s things.

I’ve been too busy working on the Sentinel website to actually get one and set it up at home. Not only could I have caught those lucky guys in action, but I could have had an email sent to me at work telling me of the event. With our software you can send emails notifying yourself that a motion sensor was tripped and recording had begun. At least I didn’t lose anything significant to my life, and the things Tony lost are very material and can be replaced. I will be getting renters insurance by the end of the month, I do know that much.

Big cities = a higher propensity for petty theft? Could be, but if you play your cards right and take precautions early then you should be just fine. We are taking anything remaining of value from the garage, and if this ever happens again our “guests” will be greeted with the sirens of a protector plus and the eye of a Sentinel Camera. Don’t worry I won’t be moving back in with mom and dad, but I can see changing neighborhoods within the next year.

Posted by Owen Robinson at 05:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

So sometimes my blog is pretty much just a list of things I like. So to continue with this theme let me tell you about www.Gizmodo.com. Sounds funny right? Well Gizmodo is a website that features the latest and greatest gadgets in the realm of personal technology – cellphones, mp3 players, and weird things like how to cook a grilled cheese on your laptop computer – no joke. Maybe I can convince the guys over at Gizmodo to feature the MiniTImer, Protector Plus, or the Sentinel. I haven’t really bought many things off of Gizmodo yet, except for a “skin” for my Ipod Nano, which turned out to really just be a high quality sticker. Oh well it was like 10 bucks. If my income was something amazing I’d probably spend a lot more time and money on Gizmodo.

Tonight – I am going to see Pirates of the Caribbean with one of my greatest friends. It’s funny because the movie came out weeks ago but neither she nor I have found the time outside of work to see it. I tend to try to see movies late in their theater life span anyway so I can avoid Americans. Ok not really to avoid Americans, but there’s a lack of public etiquette in our society these days – that however is a completely different blog in itself. Well its back to coding and graphics for me – until next time.

Posted by Owen Robinson at 02:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)