Here’s what I’m up to these days.
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April 2025
Housing
In March we replaced the lighting in the basement with some nice LED fixtures and removed all the old T12 fixtures. My next project is to drop off the large collection of burnt out T12 bulbs at the dump, and then organize the workbench in the basement so I can start using it as a workspace for electronics.
Synth Building
After prototyping all the various subcomponents of my new melodic orchestration module, I finished the PCB design and sent it off for fabrication. Once I get the circuit boards around the middle of the month, I’ll assemble the module and hopefully start coding. The first project will be write a program that emulates the arpeggios and chords of a Roland J-6.
Synth Music
Now that the weather has warmed up again, I’d like to start shooting synth videos outside again. Hopefully we get some nice weather in April so I can get restarted with this.
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March 2025
Housing
Over the course of February, we finished unpacking everything in the living areas of the house and have gotten settled in to the new place. We were able to host friends for the first time mid-month in February which was a great feeling.
Late February in Calgary saw a very rapid thaw after a long cold snap which managed to loosen the eavestrough on the east side of the house, so one of the first impromptu repairs was erecting some scaffolding to reach and secure it again. As expected it was two hours building and tearing down scaffolding for a fifteen minute repair.
I have a bunch of small jobs around the house to get to in March, but nothing too major planned.
Synth Building
Late in February I started designing the circuit for the Melodic Orchestration module I’m building, but realized that there’s enough new techniques that I should slow down and do some prototyping before I move to designing circuit boards. The new designs which I’ll be using in Melodic Orchestration that I need to prototype in March include:
- Using a bare microcontroller in the circuit
- ISCP / FTDI programming of said microcontroller
- A new CV input handling circuit
- Using an onboard buck / boost power converter on the module
- MIDI in and out
- Using multiple I2C devices (display, storage, DAC)
- Scaled inputs and outputs for velocity control
Game Design
As I continue reading The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses by Jesse Schell, I realize that my initial concept was woefully inadequate, which is a blessing and a curse. It’s good I didn’t rush a half baked idea into reality, but at the same time I feel a bit overwhelmed by the task of conceiving of a better idea.
I’m going to keep reading, learning, and hopefully inspiration will strike at some point in the near future with a more workable idea.
Outdoors
In February I entered a team into the Beltline Bonspiel and somehow managed to eke out a second place finish despite my personal lack of talent. This confirms what I learned at the Ironman Bonspiel, bad ice is the great equalizer as it handicaps professional players quite effectively.
In March I want to spend some time researching and planning some hikes for the season so I have a rolodex of outings ready to go when I have the time or opportunity.
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February 2025
Housing
January was a whirlwind as we moved out of our old house, in to our new house, and started to get unpacked and organized in the new place. In reality, this meant I wasn’t able to make any progress on anything else during the month of January. Moving into February, there is still a lot of unpacking and organizing to do, but more time will be available for other projects.
This website
I don’t think I made any updates to the design of this website in January, which is a pity since it still is in a state of unfinishedness. I want to finish the homepage updates and start a media page this month. Once this is done, anything else is cosmetic and less of a priority.
Game design
I started rewatching 007: Road to a Million in January and am now two episodes in. The big takeaway I have so far is the importance of story and narrartive in building a game. I’ve also been reading the book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses by Jesse Schell and found it to be very helpful in providing a series of perspectives that I should consider and plan for.
Synth building
My electronics parts are now out of storage so, once I have time, I can get back to building my synthesizer. The module I want to design this month is what I’m calling melodic orchestration: a module which uses an Arduino to manipulate signals in a variety of different ways. This will be a longer build, the hardware is relatively simple but I have a lot of ambition for the software.
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January 2025
Housing
In December we finalized the purchase of a new house, and sold our current house (in a brief 3 days). We celebrated Christmas but also spent a lot of time packing for the move. Moving into January, the focus is now the move itself which will happen mid-month and getting settled into the new place.
This website
December saw some improvements to this website, but it still falls short of what I’d like it to be. January should see some improvements to the homepage, which content gets promoted to the blog page, and pages for media that I’ve read / watched / listened to.
Game design
An idea I had previously, inspired by the Amazon Prime series 007: Road to a Million was to create a interactive geolocation based game. To flesh out that idea further, I am rewatching 007: Road to a Million and reading the book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses by Jesse Schell.
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December 2024
This website
After reading a number of thought provoking articles on sharing work and connecting with people, I’ve decided to become more intentional with this website and share more of what I’m doing, what I’m reading, and what I’m thinking about.
This necessitates a bit of a redesign of the website so apologies in advance, this website is probably going to get worse before it gets better.
Housing
Suzy and I are in the process of purchasing a new home and selling our existing house. This month the focus is basically on the paperwork, whether legal, finance, or insurance. The practical matters of moving will become a concern in January.
This is putting a lot of other priorities on hold temporarily (all my synth building gear is already tucked away in boxes), so this list is going to be a bit shorter for the next few months than it otherwise would be.