I've made a bit of progress on my dirt sample tune and at this very moment I'm processing a preliminary mix. I'll have to listen to it in the car a few times before deciding if I want to keep it as-is. It's a tune where the emphasis is on drums - there ain't a whole lot of melody going on. The working name for the tune is The Dirt Essential.

Click here for a sample clip.

I've also started setting up shop in the basement for recording vocals for Sidetracked. I want to set aside at least an hour at a time for working on vocals. I've been working on "Dirt" in like 15-30 minute chunks as it's easier to save work on my laptop. With vocals I need more time all at once because I'm just not that good and I need a lot of takes.

Nikki and I are also trying to figure out how we're going to fit up to 16 people in our house for the LAN party in October. We should be able to fit six or eight people in the basement. Probably eight. On the first floor we'll probably have to spread out across the entire house (except the kitchen). As for networking, I'd like to use the in-the-wall CATV drops to connect the upstairs and downstairs. That way we won't have to run cable in the stairwell and it'll be nice and neat. If we can get a couple of 8 or 16-port switches then we'll be set.

Yeah. And it's an NFL Sunday today too. Autumn is the best (even though it's about 10 days away).