Emo Santa in: "Spreading Christmas Cheer!"

Mouse Over The Cartoon To See The Rest!




Merry Christmas!

by westone | Create your own Cartoon at www.toondoo.com

My Life In 2008

It's been a while... So I figured I throw something out there to top off the year...

This year I....

1. Got Married
2. Built A Computer
3. Became A Salesman
4. Started Investing In Foreign Currency
5. Progressed With My Band
6. Saw Progression In My Church
7. Became A NCU Senator
8. Helped Create A Marketing Plan
9. Increased My Vocal Range
10. Became An Adult - Learned a lot of stuff about myself, and my life will never be the same.

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

Get Free Stuff From Real People

The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,212 groups with 4,292,000 members across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them's good people). Membership is free. To sign up, find your community by entering it into...

The Freecycle Network™

iPhone In A Blender!!!

That iPhone got what it deserved!

Emo Santa!

It took me about 3 hours to conjure up Emo Santa and it was was well worth every second.

Hey kids, if you're naughty this year, Santa won't leave you any presents.... cause he'll be too busy crying, alone in a dark corner, in the fetal position about how much his life sucks!

Merry Christmas To All!!!!

Is NCU's IT Trying to Sabatoge Songs of the Season?

Check the email out at the bottom... Or click here

In simpler terms heres what happened. I download files off of NCU's Titanium server because I needed music for chorale. I downloaded them because as we all know the internet always goes down at the most inconvenient times. I made the mistake of also downloading Music History and Protool files too. It sounds like IT got scared that I had downloaded that much, which any one can do, and shut down access to students. This is an abuse of power and half the semester has gone by and IT has not corrected the problem or personally contacted me. The email below was forwarded to me by Mark Lundeen who is in charge of the Mac Lab and who has had a lot of complaints about the songs being blocked off to students.

Aaron Halvorson to Larry, David, Cheryl, Andy, Wayne, Mark

I accessed only the "//Titanium/Music/" folder using the username and password given to me by Larry Bach for Chorale. I mapped out the drive on my computer, which any one can do and no one has ever expressively told me not to do. Then since I have Windows Vista, I then right clicked the drive and clicked "Make available offline." I did this because NCU's servers and internet go down quite often.

While I admit I wasn't thinking about how much would be downloaded that's just it. I wasn't thinking, because I did not think it would be this big of a deal to download publicly accessible files for school use. I did not even bother to check to see how big the folder was. All I did was click "Make available offline." And for the record there is no way possible that I downloaded 153GB of data because I only have a 80GB HD that is 80% full. It was actually only 7GB.

I would like to inform whoever is reading this that as an employee at the mensing mac lab, chorale member, and someone who knows many music majors as well as Comm majors that whoever made the decision to shut down public access to the Titanium music folder that has inconvenienced a large number of students. I have talked with many people, especially in the Mac Lab, who have needed access to that folder in order to learn the music for Songs of the Season and were unable to do so.

I would hope that access is back up by the spring semester and that you are more careful next time you make a decision that interferes with the education that goes on at this university. Furthermore, I cannot believe that no one contacted me personally, and that it has taken a full 2 months for closure to occur. I do not believe this is professional conduct. My fellow students and I pay way too much money to go here to be hindered from doing our best at Songs of the Season which we have worked for all semester and at which all the proceeds go to the Fine Arts Department. There is no excuse for not being able to take care of this sooner and there is no way I am responsible for this misuse of power.

- Hide quoted text -

On Nov 30, 2007 7:32 AM, Mark Lundeen <mdlundee@northcentral.edu> wrote:
Aaron, Please provide a written response to this.

Mark

------ Forwarded Message
From: Mike Cappelli <macappel@northcentral.edu>
Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2007 06:50:49 -0600
To: "Mark D. Lundeen" <mdlundee@northcentral.edu>
Cc: "Larry C. Bach" <lcbach@northcentral.edu>, "David C. Collins" < dccollin@northcentral.edu>, Cheryl Book <cabook@northcentral.edu>, Andy Poirier <atpoirie@northcentral.edu >, "Wayne J. Thomas" <wjthomas@northcentral.edu>
Conversation: For the Record
Subject: FW: For the Record

Mark,

Here is the information we gathered:

On Sept 30, 2007, we noticed a huge spike in traffic on both the student and staff networks. By tracing the flow of traffic we were able to determine that it was coming from Mensing where Titanium was plugged in and going to Carlson Hall 3 West where Aaron Halvorson's computer was registered as being plugged in. By looking at logs we were able to determine that 153 GB of data had been transferred off of Titanium to IP address 172.20.222.252 where 153GB of data had been received. Looking at the hour by hour data transfer logs Aaron's computer received the exact same amount of data as Titanium was sending. Looking at the Firewall rules, the only thing that students are able to access on titanium are ftp shares which prompted us to shut down the ftp firewall hole until we could determine what data he was pulling off of the server and why he was able to pull so much data off of the server.

Hope this helps.

Just Found Out My Birthday Is On...

Just Found Out My Birthday Is On World AIDS Day and it will be and has been EVERY YEAR since 1988 . Great.... What fun. I know it's an established day already, but can't we just celebrate the coming Christmas season and my birthday on the first of December and remember AIDS on a different season. YOU KNOW WHAT?!?! Just for that I officially will personally make it my mission to discover the perfect cure for AIDS just to rid it from association with my birthday!!! Arrggg!

It's My Birthday!!!

So it's my 21st birthday today and it's snowing like crazy. What more could I ask for? This is awesome! Unfortunately, I will be working all day until dinner and then performing in the Songs of the Season concert again till about 9:30. As I celebrate my birthday, I like to remember that birthdays would suck without people to share it with. So Thank You, friends and family, without you birthdays would be boring.

OK, MY BAND JUST DID A RECORDING AND I'M THINKING ABOUT STARTING A MYSPACE PAGE. ANYBODY HAVE ANY IDEAS FOR A BAND NAME. WE WOULD LIKE A HUGE POOL OF IDEAS. WINNER GETS THE SATISFACTION OF KNOWING THEY CAME UP WITH THE NAME OF OUR BAND, AS WELL AS FREE NACHOS FOR LIFE(of a gnat)!

NCU's Internet Filter Blocks Christian Website

How ludicrous is this? While discussing America's Christian heritage tonight with a friend I decided to google some information and I can't believe what I have found! As of right now if you go to google and type in the exact phrase without apostrophe "americas christian heritage" the very first link on the page is this:



This is the website of the Alliance for Life Ministries, which deals with the issue of abortion and other moral issues. Unfortunately, when I tried to click on the link I received this nice little North Central message:




Personally this and other problems at NCU makes me feel as though NCU treats us like we are all children. I mean come on they block sex education? Parents might not approve of students learning sexual eduction at this early of an age, huh NCU? I mean come on we're not the AG of the 1920's.

Also just to name one more example, as you can probably tell from my picture up top I have a lot of hair. You'll notice if you google "hairstyles" the first and most sites are blocked under "Glamour & Intimate Apparel." Now considering dominate number of females at North Central this is more than a bit absurd.

Now, if you want to get around these ridiculous restrictions just try using google cache. which is what I used to check out the Alliance For Life Ministries site. All you have to do is click the Cached link as shown below....



I'm sure I'm not the only one who has found this to be a pain in the rear. Be sure to drop me a comment if you know of any other absurdities.

Deal or No Deal Music Business Seminar

Here's another Music Business Seminar from youtube.com which includes some impressively experienced authorities on the subject, such as Lenny Santiago VP of A&R for Def Jam Records and Roc-A-Fella Records, who worked every step of the way for Jay-Z.

The Music Game- Music Biz Video

For anyone interested in learning a little more about how the music business industry works, check out this video. It will help you avoid getting screwed over in a recording contract, learn how to promote your band, and much much more!!! Check the other parts out on youtube.com

American Gangster

I just saw the new movie staring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe that came out last friday, American Gangster. If you haven't seen the new movie American Gangster yet, you should. And if for no other reason, you should check it out because it's based on an accurate and true story. Check this out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lucas_(drug_lord). Now that's some real American history.

Just to fair warn you there are some pretty graphic scenes and a considerable amount of nudity(it is an R rated movie after all), but it portrays the story the way it actually happened, just check out the sources on wikipedia. Well then, you have two choices. Go check it out, or listen to everyone else talk about how awesome it was. Go watch it already :P

10 Essential Websites Every Guitar Player Should Utilize

I have currently been playing for 7 years at this point in my life and have learned a lot over the past couple years at college, but I can honestly say that I would not be even half as good at playing guitar if it wasn't for some of these sites. Don't just look at these sites as links. These links are vital tools to becoming a better guitar player, and heres why....

1. Wholenote.com

This site is truly a plethora for the growing guitarist complete with lessons, forums, product reviews, an online composer, and my most personal favorite the "Grove Builder" With the Grove Builder you can set up and play chord progressions that loop in order to practice soloing or drill a tedious melody line. And if you're a Bass Guitar Player check out Activebass.com

2. Cyberfret.com

While Wholenote.com has just about all the resources one could think of, if your specifically looking to learn a new technique or skill on the guitar such as mastering modes, scales, tapping, chordal structure, sweep picking, or tremolo picking then Cyberfret.com is the place to be. Cyberfret.com has some of the most professional, but easy to understand lessons I remember when starting out. It is perfect for the beginning guitarist.

3. Looknohands.com

Looknohands.com - Chord House is an absolute must if you need to learn how to play a new scale up and down the neck. It has every scale, chord, and alternate tuning imaginable for guitar as well as a section for piano chords and scales.


4. MusicianForums.com

When I just starting out(and guitar tabs weren't illegal), Musician Forums was a sub project of Mxtabs.net.... Now however it is Sputnickmusic.com which is a massive music review site. Personally I think that these forums have the most knowledgeable musicians to ask questions or search for answers out of any of the links listed here.

5. Virtual Playground

If you need drum loops this site is a must. I mean seriously check it out, how much more could you ask for?!? It has tons of drum machine emulators from the 70s-90s. If you need more, go out and buy one :P


6. Guitar-pro.com

Arguably the best guitar tablature software ever invented. And it just keeps getting better. With Guitar Pro 5 it now has a "Realistic Sound Engine" you have to hear to believe.... This isn't just some crappy midi creation program. It blows all others out of the water because it actually sounds real. What CGI has done for animation Guitar Pro does for Music.

7. Classic-guitar.com

Ever want to learn everything you could about classical guitar? Now you can and all in one convenient package.

8. Harmony Central

Now Harmony Central is a huge resource one could go on for hours about, but I would like to focus on their guitar software section. If your a serious guitar player you can seriously benefit from some of the amazing software that is out there nowadays, some of which is free. Check it out!!!

9. Jazzguitar.be

Much like Classic-guitar.com was for classical Jazzguitar.be is a jazz information rich website. Just do it already :)

10. Google.com(Specifically their pdf search)

WAIT!!!!! Now I know what you're thinking I got lazy on number 10 and used a cop out. Not True!!! Here's the deal I'm not talking about just searching google like you might do every day. I'm talking about using the "filetype:pdf" in front of a search query like "jazz" to come up with a result such as an ebook on Jazz Scale Theory. I'm not kidding you really can find useful guitar ebooks out there on guitar. Just try it, click the link and change the word guitar to whatever you want to search for!


Well That's The List! Be Sure to Drop Me a Comment with Your Favorites!

Lady In Waders!!!

This is a picture of my beautiful fiancee Jessica preparing to catch tadpoles in a scum filled pond. Kiss this Swamp Lady and turn into a frog!!!

Having Trouble Uninstalling Windows Desktop Search?

Having Trouble Uninstalling Windows Desktop Search?


Try This:

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1108836&SiteID=1

If you don't know how to open your registry editor, push the windows button+r at the same time and type in "regedt32" and click ok

It took me hours to figure out how to uninstall this annoying little utility.

Baby Numa Numa Dance

This is a great friend of mine's video Eric Riskus!!!!

Convert iTunes Playlists to M3U

After much time wasted I have found a really good converter of iTunes playlists that allows you to convert to M3U. Here it is... Convert iTunes Playlist To M3U