#162 – February 18, 2022 (49/365)

The BLOG:

In February, I am selecting the oldest photo from my “Candidates” folder and if I still love it, posting that. If the love has gone, it gets deleted.

There’s a simplicity to this photograph I love. There’s also the complexity of the different levels of radiating light that I love. 

PS: Did you love the photo? Each photograph in the 2022 365 Black & White Challenge is made available as a single limited edition print. If you are interested, click here to purchase this print for only $36.50. I thank you for your support of my photography and this website.

The BLOG:

I have a little web portal that I have built for the band I play with. It has all the things you would expect such as a calendar and the list of songs we play. I’ve always had something like this brewing away with the hopes of monetising it but recently I found I enjoy the process of developing it so much more when I’m not trying to build a system that will please most of the bands, but just building it for our band. It takes all the pressure of the payment system and designing a tool that will work with a majority of lineups etc. This system, which we call Muzac, is built for our band, and our band only.

They say necessity is the mother of invention. Firstly, I’d love to meet whoever “they” is because “they” have been attributed with saying a lot of cool stuff over the years. But I digress. One of the things Muzac does well is displaying the setlist for any given event. This is great when somebody goes ahead and creates one. Rather than waiting for others to do this, I’ve devised a feature where with a click of the “Generate Setlist” button, Muzac will do the following:

1. Grab the oldest (by date added to Muzac) two songs labelled NEW.
2. Grab two songs (by date last played) labelled – READY
3. Fill the remaining allocated time with random songs labelled WIP (work in progress)
4. Randomise the order of all above the above.

Obviously, this depends on a few factors. One: I’ve programmed in how much playing time we have per rehearsal. Two: All our songs are labelled NEW, WIP or READY. And finally, three: The setlists leaves enough time for each of us to add one song of our choosing from the repertoire further adding to the randomness of the songs.

Now, instead of waiting for someone to start populating a rehearsal with songs, Muzac will generate a list of 12-14 songs and we take it from there. If there is something that is more important to work on, or someone is not feeling up to a song, the list is fully editable.

My next step will be to have Muzac automatically create the list for the next rehearsal when the current rehearsal is marked as completed.

Another very popular part of the website is the Quotes section. Musicians are an inherently funny bunch and I’ve made it possible to record who said what and at which event. A random quote appears on the dashboard every time you enter the website. My personal favourite quote of mine is “Can someone turn down Alli’s dancing in my mix please?”. I guess you had to be there.

All in all, it’s a very useful system for the running of our band and I look forward to where necessity takes it in the future.

As always, join the Facebook Group if you haven’t yet, comment below, have a great day and I look forward to typing at you in the next post.

Richard

Facebook Group
If you are not a member already, please consider joining the Average Suburban Dad Blog Followers Facebook Group. I’m posting to the group whenever I publish a post. Start or join discussions on the photograph and/or content with others!  And maybe suggest a better name for the group.

# Photo Information 
Camera: Nikon D810
Lens: Nikon AF-S Nikkor 105mm 1:1.4E ED @ 105mm
Settings: 1/250 | f/1.4 | ISO 800
When: Sunday February 13, 2022 @ 14:26
Where: Carrum Downs, Victoria, Australia

# Useless Website Statistics
Post number: 162
Published: Friday February 18, 2022 @ 0701 AEDST
Composed: Wednesday February 14, 2022
Scheduled Posts Ready To Publish: 2
B&W 365 Challenge: 49/365 (13.4% complete)
Candidates Folder: 16 (-1)

# Useless Life Statistics That Only I Like Looking Back On
Podcast Queue: 133 episodes | 119h, 57mins | Current episode: 01JUL21 (230 days behind)
YouTube Subscription Video Queue: 11 (-14) 

This website makes use of Amazon and eBay affiliate links. If you click on a product link and purchase anything from the Amazon or eBay website, this website will receive a (very) small percentage as an affiliate. This small amount will be put towards running costs and photographic equipment and accessories. Thank you for your support.#edf2f7