Fitz is back online!!!

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Howdy everyone!!!! MOFO!! After 2 and a half months, I'm finally connected in my new house in Coos Bay. Damn do I love it here. Makes the Sac valley look like Mars.
WHEWWWWWWWWWWWW!!! The first moving marathon is over. Two more to go. The first one was a friggin nightmare. 2- 26' Uhaul trucks each with a vehicle trailer and car. Man,
were we packed. Everything was fine untill we got to Rogue River. BOOM! Blew a clutch throwout bearing in one truck. Uhaul came out with the biggest tow truck I've ever seen. It was in the movie "Thelma and Louise". They put us up for the night and fed us. Fixed it by 12 noon the next day and we were on our way. Untill we got the the HILL from HELL!!! Which is the road to my house. Its only 1/2 mile long and starts out easy. It becomes a 45 degree hill by the time it becomes my driveway. Then it drops you level onto the lot. A small parking lot just big enough for the two trucks. Only after dropping the cars off first and taking the trailers back. And pulling one truck in at a time. With VERY carfull manuvering, we were able to get both in, although I thought they were going to tip over backwards with everything in them. But, they made it ok.
Well, its been one HELL of a trip, and I still have a couple of more to get the press and cutter, another storage unit full of ebay stuff, my gear, and my father-in-law's household stuff. He came up for a visit, and decided to move too. He bought a manufactured home yesterday, so his stuff comes too. And now, my son in law and girlfriend, AND daughter in law are moving from Michigan next week to live with us. Thank god I have a room for my temporary studio. Ha! My Hideaway.
Just thought I'd say hello, and fill ya in with the move stuff. I'll be back with more stories later. Man have we been through some shit on this trip. Almost over though. 3 more weeks and I'll be done. One year worth of drugery, stress, emotional and physical duress and mind boggeling waiting. YEA!!! almost over!

Cheers, fitz.

 

[Michael Jones]

Congrats Fitz!
Glad to hear from ya bud.
Stay in touch.

 

[DDev]

Glad to see ya back, Fitz.

Have fun with the rest of the move, and just keep thinking, "there's no place like home; there's no place like home..." (tap your heels 3 times and the pain all goes away, right?).

Darryl.....

 

[frederic]

Welcome back dude! Congrats and all that.

Where is my beer?

 

[blues-hacker]

yo - dood - welcome back !!!!!

ain't moving a trip ? gawd I hate it - course I'm a charter member of the pack rat society - sounds like yu might qualify for membership yourself !!!! -))

Anyhoo - glad to hear you found a nice place and are starting to get settled in - and hopefully not crowded out !!!!

b-h

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

OH SHIT, time to fix a house again!!!

Cool. Thanks a mill guys. Being in a town where you only know the real estate agent and being homeless for 2 months leaves you feeling kinda lonesome. Coming back here is like walking into the bar "Cheers". Feels like home.
WOW! Waking up here is just out of this world. The house I bought is one of a kind.
Average interior, unusual floor plan, 2 storys. My bedroom is a big loft, with a 300 degree view out over the greenest mountains you've ever seen. But what makes this property so unique, is its carved out of a mountain side that is surrounded by 200' fir, cedar, pine and other types of trees. The back side is straight up. The two sides are straight down To creeks 75' down at 80 degrees. Can't even see them, cause of all the growth.
Its only 1/2 mile to Hiway 101 below me. If you walk out the back door, there is a path 25' away that goes into the forest, which parallels the creek below. WAY below. Walk 25' more feet on the path and your in JURASIC PARK. Hey John, I bet my rain forest is darker than yours. Ha! Biggest ferns I've EVER seen. There's a woodbutchers
cabin on the path. Cantelevered out over the creek below. Lot of work to save it, as the support beam is rotton. Wood rots quick here. If its exposed. EVERYTHING has to be either pressure treated or cedar(or redwood). But now for the best part.
There is a back room upstairs isolated from the rest of the rooms except for a bathroom. It has one window facing the back of the properety(no adjacent neighbors!)
and a sliding glass door on the long end which goes out on a deck. This door faces the path. The view is UNFUCKINGBELIEVABLE!! I see 5 fir and other trees, 150' tall or better. It is the forest. This will be my temporary studio/fun/design room.
This is where you guys come in. This will be totally designed by YOU!
The real studio is going to take some time. And money. As you know. This whole trip/move ate up money faster than you can burn it. I've ended up with a cool home, but not much money for studio expansion . Still have tools for the shop to buy. And now, what budget is left for studio, I've narrowed down my studio needs to a real big question. Either a mid quality analog mixer with 32 inputs(for the 2 MSR's or go digital with Nuendo and a high end computer and small DM-24 type mixer. Analog-digital. Same ole decisions to make. Anyway, thats another day. Another discussion.
In the mean time, I start measuring the house and property today, to punch into an
"as built" plan in CAD. This house was originally built in 1925 and has been modified and remodled and plain fucked up so much, that I have some IMMEDIATE real issues to deal with. Roofs especially. I can get by for one winter with some patching, but next year I've got to replace them. More money/time. I'm going the raised seam metal roof route on the house.
The real studio will be in what is now a pole barn. It won't be that when I'm finished.
But it does need immediate shoring up to keep it from collapsing. The builder was partially finished when he was arrested. He lost the house. Too bad. Good for me, but keeping this from falling down untill I can REALLY deal with it will be scary. And then I can re-roof it. Theres another issue. This is also where you guys come in. How do you make a roof have the same STC rating as your exterior walls? Ok, another day.
Well, thanks again guys. Get ready for some serious but fun design work. I'll be posting the as built plan soon. PLUS, you get to see how my console really looks, and how it assembles. Pretty cool. In this room, the legs to the console will die into the floor, with the cabling chased through them. You'll see. Its fairly big and will be the control room. Other rooms will be the studios. This plan is temporary. Reality may change. It may become permenant.
Ok, I've bla bla bla'ed enough. Thanks again for the welcome guys. I'll be tickling your brain cells soon. Looking forward to it. Like I always said. It's not the destination. Its the journey. Ha! So far its been interesting.
Cheers
fitz

Well gents

 

[frederic]

Re: OH SHIT, time to fix a house again!!!

heh-heh.

I need your address Fitz, I have a "welcome to your new house" present for you.

And don't be alarmed that it buzzes. And open the jar outside, not inside.

Yes, I'm generously sharing NJ nature with you by offering you a jar of hungry carpenter bees

Kidding of course. Smile, I insist!

BTW, if you find a carpenter bee inside your recording studio (like I did last night), don't smack it with a shoe against the wall. They make a HUGE splat and you'll have bee parts in your hair. Assuming you have hair, unlike me.

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Hey frederic, how are you? Thanks for the reply. Carpenter bees huh? I need all the help I can get. Do they work for meals? Ha! I'll send you a jar of Carpenter ants.
These babys are HUGE! I think they could move a house.
How is your home studio comin? Good I hope. Say frederic, I'm getting ready to invest in a computer system for the house. We'll have 6 computers here when I'm done and I think I want a server. Or maybe just a studio server. Or something to that effect. Don't know what I need yet. Can you suggest some things. Like for a DAW, since I'm thinking Nuendo and a digital board, could you recommend some things for me. I want a top notch computer, rack mounted with twin monitors, with maybe a raid system or something. My other computers will be delegated to CAD, Midi, etc. But still be tied into the network and or server. Anyway, I'll be in contact with you as soon as I get the email thing working and re-configured. Takes time. Just got connected last night. The room is a total fucking disaster. Oh well.
Anyway, thanks again. I'll be back. Gotta go to the dump. The previous tenents were yard sale professionals and left TONS of shit. All junk. Well, a few good things. Ha! Already hauled a 26' Uhaul full and that cost a fortune to dump. Thats one of the few bad things. The cost of dumping shit. Unbelievable. Laws are stiff here. So thats why everybody has shit in thier property. Can't get rid of some things. Like motors, cars, refridgerater coils and compressors and such. Well, gotta go. Take care frederic.
fitz

 

[A Reel Person]

Hey Fitz, welcome back!

Your move saga sounds quite interesting.

"Previous owner was not done with construction when he was arrested? Lost the house?" Sounds like a MJ grower, busted!

"High above Hwy 101 in the forest?" So, that means you're in No. Cal.?

Fitz, you put a LOT into your previous setup, and it seems it was completed and running only a short time before breaking it down for the move. I, for one, would be most inclined to resurrect the previous studio setup in the new house. IMO, it would be worth it, and you'd get more use and satisfaction by capitalizing on your previous efforts. It's not everyone who has two sync-locked MSR-16's, you know.

Welcome back.

I recommend locating the pot garden OFF the main property!

 

[frederic]

Carpenter bees huh? I need all the help I can get. Do they work for meals? Ha! I'll send you a jar of Carpenter ants.
These babys are HUGE! I think they could move a house.

I just erradicated them as well (carp ants). There were no less than 10 billion dead ant carcasses Oh, and dead mice too. Tearing down the insulation was a scary, disgusting proposition. I'm glad i'm now constructing, rather than destructing.

How is your home studio comin? Good I hope. Say frederic, I'm getting ready to invest in a computer system for the

Overall, pretty good. I don't get upstairs as much as I'd like, and now that i have a friend from Quebec staying for a week and all he wants to do is monkey with my servers, I doubt I'll get up there for 2-3 weeks. next week I'm traveling for business, and the following week I'm away on vacation.

house. We'll have 6 computers here when I'm done and I think I want a server. Or maybe just a studio server. Or something to that effect. Don't know what I need yet. Can you suggest some things. Like for a DAW, since I'm thinking Nuendo

Nuendo is cool.

My Canadian pal who's visiting this week is building me servers (something I've been putting off for a long while). My web/mail/ftp server is an Anthon rackmount of "whatever" brand, connected to a 300G compaq raid array. This has always worked, but I don't want to use it to store audio data since this box is exposed to the web in a limited fashion (firewalls).

So, today we converted those "appliance" netgear ND520 20gb snap server type of thing to run redhat, and thats a 20gb repository thats now available (got it for $50, slapped redhat on it, and it boots with Samba, a linux equivilent to a windows share. Once I took out the 16mb DIMM and put in a 256MB dimm, this little toy screams.

Now, Alain is reinstalling my three Compaq 1850R with some kind of linux clustering, each box has 300G, and somehow someway he's going to combine the three servers and their array into one huge-ass cluster, so I can aggregate the bandwidth and the drive arrays. So, thats 900gig available for video and audio editing.

Don't ask me how it works, I have no idea. We'll see when he's done if its a cluster, or a clusterfluck

But if you have windows, and linux PC's in your studio, I personally like redhat linux, strip the OS to nothing but SSH for managing it, and Samba for file shares. Then your windows PC's of any flavor can see the linux box as a fat hard drive. I did some preliminary testing over this past weekend, and found that Linux/Samba can "serve" files in the 10gig size range 61% faster than windows 2000 advanced server on the same hardware. 61% works for me. Plus linux is free, Windows costs money and I think Bill Gates should have a turnip shoved in his ass just because I feel that way, no particular reason.

and a digital board, could you recommend some things for me. I want a top notch computer, rack mounted with twin monitors, with maybe a raid system or something. My other

My studio PC is a "mere" 2.0Ghz HP Pavilion with a dual-port AGP fancy gaming card with 128MB of ram, connected to two 19" MAG monitors I run at 1600x1200 resolution each. This is nice for gaming, and more importantly audio and video editing. Side by side that gives me a 3200x1200 desktop, so I can take SonarXL and Priemere and make them the width of both monitors. Easier to see things.

you as soon as I get the email thing working and re-configured. Takes time. Just got connected last night. The room is a total fucking disaster. Oh well.

No problem, ask away, happy to help anyone that needs networking advice. I just upgraded my house to gigE, so I have a gigabit of throughput to the switch in the basement. 100MB "blows"

and "heh-heh" to your dump visits. You should see my garage, no less than six engines in a various stages of assembly. The most enjoyable engine I'm building is a 3.9L rover, balanced and blueprinted, with 1964 buick heads bolted on. Modified the block for crossbolting (4-bolt mains, sorta), then TIG welded in support bars across the lifter valley for additional upper block strength. Using a buick 300 crank, slant six rods decked down to the right width, fedmong top of the line bearings, and Ford 255 pistons, machined a bit to lower the compression. All in all I should have about 8.2:1 c/r based on my math, which is good for high RPM, high boost performance. I'm hoping this one spins over 8K. So far so good.

Once that's done, I have to make an aluminum adaptor between the rover and the porsche transaxle I have. Should be fun, I have both patterns on paper right now, just have to line up the centerlines.

Once thats done, I have to MIG weld together a 2000lb car around it

 

[John Sayers]

welcome back mate - sounds like you've got the softwood version of my place - I'm surrounded by Hardwood. tree ferns, stag and elk horns, orchids snakes, spiders.........

here's my out look

cheers
john

 

[John Sayers]

and my driveway - this shows the end of 1 mile of 4WD access.

cheers
john

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

HOLY SHIT JOHN!!!! Looks JUST like my place. WOW!
Thats fucking amazing. Only difference is steepness of hills, and height of the trees.
A couple of em on my lot are 200' approx. Big friggen trees. And theres a lot of hardwoods here too. Cherry, ash, birch, and a wood that only grows here and in the Mid East. Called Myrtlewood. Hard as rock. Beatiful, if you can work it. Anyway, thanks John, and BTW, I havn't ignored your site. And thanks for the invitation to visit it. No time yet. But soon I'll inundate the site with questions !
Man, your place is COOL. I'll post some pics of mine as soon as I get my host up and running. Got a lot of work to do though. Tons. Well, one day at a time. Right now
I've got to get this thing winterized in one month. Thats when the rain starts and it don't quit till Jan or Feb. Everyday. Hey John, do you use pressure treated stuff there,? Whats your house on? Foundation or post and pier? Is it slab or wooden floor? Man I want to pick your brain. This type of environment is interesting to build in. The bay is right down the street, with wharfs, mills, trainyards, ships, and all kinds of structures. Very interesting.
Went out to the local tool superstore today and bought a new 18" bandsaw
for re-sawing hardwoods. A jet. Nice. 3/4" blade, fence etc. Tomorrow it's a Delta unisaw. And 15" planner. Getting set up to mill.
Woodbutchering. Love it as much as studio. Well thanks again John, and I'll post those pics of Jurasic Park soon Unless T-Rex runs us out first.
Cheers
fitz

 

[ausrock]

Hey Rick,

Good to see you back.

Out of curiousity, these carpenter ants you and Frederic refered to.........approx., how big are they?

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Howdy ausrock. They are about a half inch long, big black and nasty. Tore open a whole nest of them yesterday and now thier everywhere outside Along with other critters. Like centipedes, Black Widow and Brown Recluse spiders
Had to crawl under the house to fix some plumbing. Ever had a nightmare about spiders. I was in it. Man what a scary position. Couldn't move, had to crawl on my back about 20 feet under the house. When I opened the access door a three foot snake came out. Made my skin crawl. Shit, this place is going to kill me yet.
fitz

 

[ausrock]

ROFLMAO.......................mate, I have just the thing to fix those ants.

I could (if I were silly enough) catch some of our local ant population and send over for you . These things are usually known as jumping ants...........they are a good inch from end to end, there nippers would go around a match head and they sting like all hell if they bite. Did I mention they are also wonderfully aggressive.

Next time I find one that has ventured into our yard I will try and kill it without doing to much damage to it......that way I can safely put it on the scanner and get an image of it. Usually they get hit with a brick or hammer , as they have a tough head.

 

[longsoughtfor]

Welcome back Fitz! - good to see you again

Kevin.

 

[frederic]

Out of curiousity, these carpenter ants you and Frederic refered to.........approx., how big are they?

Of all the ones I've squashed, burned, or poisoned, they were black ants approximately 1/2" in length. The queen (which I found, woohoo!) was a good inch and a half, with wings.

 

[frederic]

When I opened the access door a three foot snake came out. Made my skin crawl. Shit, this place is going to kill me yet.
fitz

While I killed some of them myself, I have to tell you, watching a guy you just paid $350 to crawl around in the attic space to poison everything is pure joy.

When he came out of the crawl space, he had quite a few ants, flies, and spiders on him. What is nice, is he left the house with those critters.

I didn't realize I had a fly problem, but since I had a field mouse problem...

See, the fieldmice would steal the ceiling insulation, take it to the crawl space. I got them out of the ceiling, they were all baked to death anyway. Obviously I missed a few in the attic, and the flies found them

All gone now. No ants, mice, bees, termites, flies, nothing.

There is one moth on the window and he's getting hit with a shoe in a little bit.

This is nice. Wildlife free recording studio. Potentially.

Next year I'm expecting to be invaded by opposums. They are the only thing on my property I haven't poisoned yet

 

[ausrock]

Well with summer here my not so favourite ants are out and about.

The pic is of one that has been dead for about a week and I think it is the middle sized of the three varieties that show up around here. You guys should be able to relate it's size to the coin.