DU-GD's third shift - what are you folks doing up this hour anyway???

[The Straight Story]

I am writing code and sending emails out, I work at night a lot as the machines I am working on are production systems and we don't like to play with em during the day.

I hang out here a lot during the day as well as people tend to call me early and wake me up, then I am back on the laptop working on issues.

So what brings you out this late at night? What state/country you in? Do you have insomnia, just a night owl, working late, etc?

Seems awfully slow here at night at times :)

[Richard Steele]

1. Just a night owl who's addicted to DU.

[Bluebear]

2. New Hampshire, night owl. :)

[Verde]

3. A little the same...

Working on a few web sites, doing some SEO, checking DU and watching a rerun of the pilot of Firefly (burned out on news for the day).

[maddezmom]

4. 8 am here

in the UK :hi:

[The Straight Story]

9. Well that explains why my bosses are online right now

they are over there working this week. Just saw two of em pop onto our messenger service :)

[Art_from_Ark]

32. 5 p.m. here in Japan

Or at least it was, when it was 8 a.m. in the UK :hi:

[Kiouni]

5. Omaha working hard in a Hospital.

hope you don't visit me at work!

[The Straight Story]

6. WOW I bet that gets wild at night :)

When I was a deputy I worked night shift and our wildest times were after 2am when the bars closed.

How is the weather out your way?

[Kiouni]

17. snowing but not sticking

and its farken cold out in the morning when i walk out to my car to go home. But it gets decent by the afternoon. I use to be a paramedic before going to the hospital coosh life and yep bars close at 1 here and we'd run our asses off all night.

[Behind the Aegis]

7. Insomnia.

I also use the time to balance the books and file.

[WritersBlock]

8. Whaddya mean, "at this hour?" It's 8am & the moon's up! :)

Er... actually, it is! Lovely full moon glowing brightly over the Scottish hills. A somewhat feeble glow to the east means the sun's probably gonna put in an appearance today, too.


:hi:

[Dead_Parrot]

14. Nah - 9PM and the sun just set

Been quite a hot day by NZ standards. Stop hogging that moon and sent it over, will ya, it's getting dark down here... :hi:

[WritersBlock]

18. Only if you promise to send us some of that good weather

Not that it's been all that bad the past week or so anyway - at least the wind's stopped blowing a gale for now. Just heard it's supposed to get colder again over the weekend.


Btw - Hey! What'd you do with the moon?? Can't see it any more - did you grab it while I was surfing GD??

:hi:

[Dead_Parrot]

30. Ahem - looks like I did

It's here now. Moves pretty quick for a giant rock... :silly:

Just watching the IPCC press release before bed: Looks like you'll be getting lots of nice hot weather before too long. We all will... :scared:

[WritersBlock]

35. Hah. I *thought* that was you!

Haven't read that yet, but if the Gulf Stream goes wonky, I don't think we'll have to worry too much about it being too warm here in these isles... :hurts:

[Bonobo]

10. Hey Straight Story. Always wanted to say a personal hello.

I'm in Japan.
I love the humanity in your thread and you and I are about the same age, I believe. I'm 40 anyway. When I think of you, I think of a letter to Ray Davies that became a Kinks song. Here it is:

Here's wishing you the bluest sky,
And hoping something better comes tomorrow.
Hoping all the verses rhyme,
And the very best of choruses to
Follow all the doubt and sadness.
I know that better things are on the way.

Here's hoping all the days ahead
Won't be as bitter as the ones behind you.
Be an optimist instead,
And somehow happiness will find you.
Forget what happened yesterday,
I know that better things are on the way.

It's really good to see you rocking out
And having fun,
Living like you just begun.
Accept your life and what it brings.
I hope tomorrow you'll find better things.
I know tomorrow you'll find better things.

Here's wishing you the bluest sky,
And hoping something better comes tomorrow.
Hoping all the verses rhyme,
And the very best of choruses to
Follow all the drudge and sadness.
I know that better things are on the way.

I know you've got a lot of good things happening up ahead.
The past is gone it's all been said.
So here's to what the future brings,
I know tomorrow you'll find better things.
I know tomorrow you'll find better things.

[The Straight Story]

19. Awesome, thank you!

:)

[alittlelark]

11. Los Altos, CA - I've gotta go to sleep soon.

I'm a soccer mom - w/o the soccer (aikido, gymnastics, drama.....)


I'm just hangin' - messin' with your message <insert cute kitty w/ really big eyes>

[JCMach1]

12. Morning here, but I am on DU's Middle-East staff

:), in fact just now noon...

[villager]

13. SoCal -- your soon to be home region, S.S.!

workin', writin' -- lotsa deadlines - a book, an article, trying to clear the plate before the weekend, when I'm in "single dad" mode with my boys....

[justiceischeap]

15. I accidentally took a late night nap

Fell asleep around 8pm woke up at 11... now I can't sleep.

[133724]

16. Tax Time!!!!!

12:15 pst

got to think about hitting the sack....

Got a lot of tax returns to start in the AM.....

[Manifestor_of_Light]

20. I don't have a life

No job. Offspring grown. Therefore, I don't have a schedule. I stay up till all hours listening to music and figuring it out and playing it.

[The Straight Story]

21. Well, at least we can keep ya company :)

talk all ya want, I am rolling some smokes now (cheaper if I do it myself, only a $1/pack).

[Nostradammit]

22. Your job is to make music.

Same as mine! I always have DU in the background while I'm mixing tunes.

I'm getting paid right this minute to do a tape transfer and surf the net.

I love being self-employed, though my boss is an ass sometimes.

What kind of music are you playing?

[Manifestor_of_Light]

33. I don't mean mixing or sampling.

I mean learning chords, learning sheet music, learning words, singing.
Doing it the old fashioned way.

Stuff I've been attempting to learn to play on piano (I have a fabulous Kurz & software etc.)
Nilsson, Joe Jackson, Randy Newman, obscure Kurt Weill. As well as sing. I also love singing Mozart lyric soprano/mezzo arias, some art songs.

The shackmate is a guitarist and he can figure out chords more easily than I can and his background is geezer rock/folk, stuff like that. He does his MIDI stuff on the computer, with the mouse, whereas I am much more comfortable doing the input by playing it live. We use Cakewalk and Allegro software. He loves to edit video and audio and generally do engineering type stuff. He's taught me lots of buzzwords so I sound like I know something about it, things like "44.1K full digital sampling rate". Even though I think in piano/violin and he thinks in guitar, we can communicate about chords. I also have a Fender jazz bass tuned like a cello, so I can play along with his pop stuff. I am not really into 3 chord stuff (1-4-5) cuz it's just not challenging enough.

My background is classical/opera, and of course 60s rock, and I can play in any key on the piano, and sing pretty well, and in foreign languages which is fun.

I refuse to sing in any more church choirs because I don't like sacred stuff unless it's in Latin, and I enjoy classical stuff in foreign languages. No more protestant dirges for me.

[Nostradammit]

40. Funny you should mention that -

The tape transfer I'm doing is a protestant dirge, for sure.

Fortunately I can just watch the meters on the deck and play with the instruments in the room. A good friend of mine left his Martin acoustic guitar for a few days and it plays like butter.

You have good taste in music and equipment. Sounds like you have your time filled with music projects, and that's one of the best uses of time, I believe.

:thumbsup:

[Manifestor_of_Light]

42. Hi there! I'm back!

Just spent an hour slogging thru piano parts on some Kurt Weill songs. Sometimes the key is weird, sometimes the chord is weird, sometimes it just LOOKS weird, but isn't really.

Sorry about your protestant dirges. Glad you got a nice Martin to play on, though. I used to play the violin and I know what you mean about a good instrument that plays like slicing thru soft butter.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

43. hmmm...

Let me know if you ever find out how to make money as an audio/video engineer since that's what shackmate does since he got kicked out of the higher end of the rat race.
He started on a 4 track TEAC reel to reel some decades ago; now into digital stuff.
I tell folks I'm just the piano player; he is the one that makes all those pieces talk to each other.

[Nostradammit]

48. The best way to make a living at audio engineering

is to marry a woman who makes good money doing something else!

Seriously, the pay is low, the hours long, the egos fragile and the gear is outrageously expensive,
but I know no more delicious moment than that moment when all the pieces fall into place and
the magic take happens. The air in the room just starts crackling. I live for it!

I, too started out on a Teac R2R and now have a room full of dials and knobs and keyboards and drums and guitars.
Just slip some food under the door and let me know what the weather's doing once in a while...

I'm fine in here...

[Manifestor_of_Light]

58. we did a recording session when he was in school

We used a stone church and he was in one of those ripoff proprietary schools that advertise and take your student loan money. He was already an electronics nerd/E.E. major who got bored with that and switched to physics, so he didn't really learn anything he already knew. He thought one of those 18 month degrees in Video production would get him a job -- ha ha ha!!! The shackmate had had a garage band in college, played lead guitar, and swears he invented the "Garbage Lead"!!!!

He was doing a group documentary as a class project with four people and I played a baby grand in the church and he used a PZM mike on the lid, a boom mike over the center of the dampers, and two stand mikes to catch the room ambience. I was quite impressed with the sound.Later I sang the words in Italian since it had an inside joke reference to the subject of the documentary. (Frank Zappa talks about PZM mikes in his autobiography).

It was really fun. Now I have to work on my bass playing skills so maybe I can play and sing some of those 60s rock numbers.

My problem is that I studied classical music for so many years, and from such an early age, that I think it always has to be complicated. Like my idea of a rock bassist is John Entwistle. And it doesn't have to be that way. Paul McCartney got a long way on simple bass lines.

[Lasher]

46. You get to play a Martin?

Savor the moment, my friend.:thumbsup:

[Nostradammit]

50. I AM savoring it !

I told him the other day that I always thought he was a phenomenal guitarist
but now I realize it's actually the guitar.

He laughed, because he is a phenomenal guitarist and he knows it!

I take it you've had the pleasure of playing a finely crafted guitar, eh?

[Lasher]

60. Yes, I've played an old Martin or two. Also Gibson Hummingbird and Dove

I don't own any of these fine instruments but I have great appreciation for them.

I still have my Fender Precision bass and 4 foot tall Kustom amp from when I used to play for money long ago. I more recently bought a Fender Deluxe Nashville Telecaster, mainly for when my son comes by and wants to jam.

These days my only acoustic guitar is a an old Goya classical with nylon strings. Much easier to fret and the wider spacing of the strings helps when I try to use my fat fingers. I was visiting a brother in law a couple of years ago and he had come across it somehow. It didn't have any strings on it and looked pretty shabby. He was going to discard it but I asked him to give it to me instead. With the intention of giving it back to him I cleaned it up and invested in a set of strings and a nut and it's in good shape now. I think I spent $6 on it. My brother in law has repeatedly refused to take it back.

During my father's final days I used that Goya to play for him some of the old songs he used to love. We laid him to rest on Election Day last year. I am certainly no master, but I'm going to share one of my favorite poems:

The Touch of the Master's Hand
by Myra Brooks Welch

"Twas battered and scared, and the auctioneer
Thought it scarcely worth his while
To waste much time on the old violin,
But he held it up with a smile.
"What am I bidden, good folks," he cried,
"Who'll start bidding for me?
A dollar, a dollar - now who"ll make it two _
Two dollars, and who"ll make it three?

"Three dollars once, three dollars twice,
Going for three". . . but no!
From the room far back a gray-haired man
Came forward and picked up the bow;
Then wiping the dust from the old violin,
And tightening up the strings,
He played a melody,pure and sweet,
As sweet as an angel sings.

The music ceased and the auctioneer
With a voice that was quiet and low,
Said: "What am I bidden for the old violin?"
And he held it up with the bow;
"A thousand dollars - and who'll make it two?
Two thousand - and who'll make it three?
Three thousand once, three thousand twice
And going - and gone," said he.

The people cheered, but some of them cried,
"We do not quite understand -
What changed its worth?" The man replied:
"The touch of the masters hand."
And many a man with life out of tune,
And battered and torn with sin,
Is auctioned cheap to a thoughtless crowd.
Much like the old violin.

A "mess of pottage," a glass of wine,
A game and he travels on,
He's going once, and going twice -
He's going - and almost gone!
But the MASTER comes, and the foolish crowd,
Never can quite understand,
The worth of a soul, and the change that's wrought
By the touch of the MASTER'S hand.

http://www.ehhs.cmich.edu/~tbushey/quote.html

[alofarabia]

23. Worldwide...

I live in Prague so it's about 9:30 am here. Just having a cup of coffee and getting into the day.

[The Straight Story]

24. Coffee?? Hell, it is still beer time here :)

But wow, it must be fascinating living somewhere like you do. If I was not freaked out about flying I would be over that way so fast...

[Nostradammit]

26. Say "hi" to Larry for us, Al !

Welcome to DU, hope you like it.

:toast:

[Alamom]

25. Hi TSS, it's a long story, but we'll just say insominac in AL. n/t

[alofarabia]

27. Prague

The beer here is fantastic! Makes you realize what p*sswater that passes for beer in the US. There isn't a more beautiful city in the world than Prague.

[OneBlueSky]

28. just watching out for terrorists . . .

serving my country, don'tcha know . . . :patriot:

[The Straight Story]

29. Watch out for them Lite Brights on bridges - I hear they are all over the place

be afraid, cause if you aren't, we cannot control you!

[Sherman A1]

31. time to get up and ready for work - Midwest Here

[Justitia]

34. Texas nightowl w/insomnia checking in. Surfing DU & IMDb. -eom

[area51]

36. work

Got off work a while ago, then had car trouble & difficulty in getting home. :P

[Crabby Appleton]

37. pain - woke up to take meds - probably stay up now since

I would get up in about another 1.5 hours anyway.

[Lasher]

41. Sorry about the pain, Crabby

I hope you get better.

It's 5 AM here in West Virginia. It's a good thing I don't have a schedule because insomnia often keeps me awake from about 2 AM to 5 AM.

[badgerpup]

38. Personal schedule is flipped day-for-night right now...

So I'm feeding my on-line addiction at night because when you're on dial-up, people complain when you spend 2-3 hours on line at a time.

"I tried to call you XX times, but the line was busy!" :blush:

I like your posts BTW. You and your lovely Autumn Mist are good people. :hi:

[SeattleGirl]

39. Just my normal night-owlishness

Nothing out of the ordinary for me from SeattleLand.

[SoCalDem]

44. I just got home from Barona casino..

Can't you see the big "L" on my forehead?


They had a promotion going.. spend two hours gambling, and they would match your wins OR losses up to $200..

It only cost me $592.00 to "win" that $200 back :eyes:

My girlfriend did better..she took $180 and came back with $185.00 (she paid at denny;s on the way home :evilgrin:

[Hissyspit]

45. I have a varied class schedule, changes from semester to semester.

What I have to do to get ready to teach my classes changes from day to day. One of my classes is online, anyway. Plus I probably have some kind of sleep disorder, anyway, that tends to push my day/night schedule out of whack.

[Hissyspit]

51. Also, see here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x107807

[yowzayowzayowza]

47. DelayLand, Tx here. Also working on systems during off hrs.

Tho not coding tanite.

[Philosoraptor]

49. Throwing a wrench into the machine.

[symbolman]

52. In Hawaii

so I'm always WAY behind on the DU. Half the time I reply to a thread and when I come back it's long gone, not because of what I said, just TIME has passed :)

I stay up all night here writing my OPUS, a book that I've already got some Hollywood interest in, and have worked on for five years. I'm within 20 days or so of finishing it, only about 40 more 'chapters' out of 65 (and those will be boiled to to less) to go, while I do the final edit. Hard to write during the day, got a two year old around and he wants ATTENTION or something all day.

(Like Steve Martin once said, "My mom called me the other day to borrow some money - FOR FOOD.. so I made a little deal with her, she has to carry my barbells up to the attic, and do some work on my transmission.." :) )

Kids, what are you gonna do with 'em, gotta love 'em, eh? And he's a damn good one too.

So my wife does day shift, while I work on the book until 5am Hawaiian time, then sleep until noon, and watch the kid until his bedtime at night.. so I'm at it about 20 hours a day.

Can't stay away from this place though - especially with the PLAME stuff going on, I spent a year researching that one, and even made a two DVD set film about the history of it from assembled clips, called "Rove's War", and in the end that's what it is, watch and see (Well, Cheney figures quite prominently, in the film I keep showing a close up of one blood filled EYE of the man, over and over, just so folks realize how evil that bastard is, and how tied into this Plame scene he was..)

When I make a deal on my Book I'll be sure and post it here, hopefully, it will help to sway a lot of people in the Directionn of saving ANWR in Alaska, where I spent two summers flying around in Helicopers in the 70's looking for Uranium.. should be interesting reading for some, and I saw Caribou killed by the Oil Companies up there, as well as the beginnings of global warming..

once that sucker is done, I'm going to sleep for a Month!

Howdy to all the other Night Owls here, good to see the late shift :)

[The Straight Story]

53. Get with me sometime on that, I have two books I want to work on

but they will have to wait until I get moved out to CA next month. Not sure where to go once they are completed.

[symbolman]

54. Jesus, as for the publishing, me neither

I'm trying the backdoor route, if I can get my Hollywood pals interested and someone secures film rights I figure that I'll be able to walk right into a Publishing House and get more bucks, esp with a completed book, no waiting..

and with the film rights off the table, they don't get to negotiate on that front either, maybe screw it up there.

Pretty sure that someone's going to snap this up, there's nothing like it out there, a mix of Salinger, Bukowski, Hunter S. Thompson, and a dash of Hemingway :)

I've even approached Ralph Steadman about doing the cover, he'll want to read it first - if I can score him for the cover I'm IN like FLINT :)

Global Warming, 70's sex, drugs & rock & roll, Spiritual awakening, crashing in a helicopter in the tundra, bear attacks, philosophy, it's all there man.. with that Heft of Sincerity as I DID all this shit :)

Be glad to share if there's any success or ideas, be my pleasure, other wise I wouldn't want to steer you wrong, all I know is, all my life I've always gotten backstage, and that's the only way to do things in this world.. but I didn't have to give up my ass to do it :)

Love to hear what you're doing (not here of course, big ears everywhere :) ), exhausting isn't it? I had no idea how damn HARD it is to write a book.. I appreciate it so much more having done it, best to you on yours!

[The Straight Story]

55. I got 2-3 ideas been brewing, I would tell you one of them (in a PM)

The other ones are mine :) and only one of them is something I have seriously considered getting published. I usually just write for fun (like my poems) but this one idea I have is aching to get out.

Oh well - once I move and get settled in I will be working on it. With my luck though the day it makes it big the world would end... :rofl:

[symbolman]

57. Fire away

I'm open, and I don't kiss and tell neither :)

[Manifestor_of_Light]

56. Great !!!

Hi there! I tried to hook up with yer bud The Stranger a few years ago in NYC but didn't make connections.

You can come to my art colony when I get my house out in the middle of nowhere fixed up and I get moved out of this huge hellhole.

Poetry, standup, art, music, gardening, cooking, whatever ya dig.....I want to make a refuge.

[symbolman]

59. Man

I could use some Refuge :)

I play some myself, guitar for 40 years now, just picked up a new VOX 50 watt amp, lots of modelling, with only chicken head KNOBS to play with, I get sick of overengineered stuff, I just want to PLAY when I'm ready to PLAY :)

Got a 16 track digital unit KORG that was 1500 bucks a year ago, and is now 850, man that chaps my hide, but it works fine, so I have be SLOWLY putting songs together, never enough time, maybe once I get the book out there, if I get the money I'll do the album FINALLY - guess they call them CDs now, eh? :)

I decided in my life that my goals were to Write One Book that changes our culture, Sculpt ONE piece of work that's considered Important to the world, and COMPOSE one Song that everyone loves, and is moved by, something that pulls away the veil and gets folks more in contact, as HUMANS..

Maybe we'll jam some day, too bad we can't get all the Musicians on the DU to write a SONG, all send a MP3 File around and ADD to it until it's finished, EARLG can do the BASS on it, wouldn't that be killer?!

Appreciate the invite, I'm in the middle of nowhere too, 2500 miles from LAND :)