D. Lee Jackson

Words and Music

Health Bug Bites Again

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Monday was a difficult day. I spent most of it knocked out, but still managed to get some significant music progress done in the evening.

There may be a break in the search for why I’ve been knocked out so much lately, and it unfortunately means I have to take more pills. You see, I went to my doctor last week for a medicine check and suite of blood tests. The results show that my diabetes—previously in remission for several years—is now active again, although the numbers are borderline high (A1C of 6.5 and fasting glucose of 149). I’m also Vitamin D deficient, despite taking a daily non-prescription high-potency supplement.

The upshot of this is that I’m on more medicines. I’m on Metformin for the blood sugar, albeit a low dose (250mg twice a day), and on a mega-Vitamin D2 prescription that I can only take on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

The bad part of this is that my shoebox now has more pills in it. The good part is that my lethargy of late might be up for improvement. Wish me luck, please.

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More Music Madness, But In a Good Way

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For once, I didn’t have a migraine or other physical ailment get in the way of my music composition project yesterday! I need more days like that. My day was split in half when my medicines overwhelmed me for several hours in the afternoon, but I made good progress on either side.

One bit of hardware progress to report—my Wacom Bamboo pad is working with Sonar X3! I haven’t had a pad that worked with a music program in years. I’m chalking up my earlier problems to the short USB cord that comes with the Bamboo (mentioned earlier), plus my failed earlier attempt to solve the problem by using a USB extension. I guess the Bamboo wasn’t getting the power it needed through the extension cable. This time, the cable is long enough and is plugged directly into a USB port on the back of the machine. It works, so that’s the end of that story for now.

I have to admit I’m a bit surprised that a couple of devices are working from a non-powered USB hub (and an inexpensive four-port Rosewill metal thingy at that). The MOTU micro lite that sits at the center of my rig apparently doesn’t need much power, nor does my iLok “anti-piracy” (translation: pain in the arse) dongle. I’ve got one more connection to make—the USB control from my UPS unit—and I figure it won’t need any power from the port, considering that it’ll be plugged directly into a freaking power supply.

I’m also pleasantly surprised that my keyboard, an Arturia Keylab 88, is working so well as an unconfigured device within Sonar X3.  Only the keys, mod wheel, and pitch bend wheel are truly working at the moment (no time to mess with the rest of it for what I’m doing), but it was an honest plug-and-play experience once I got a cable that was both long enough and had a ferrite bead around one end. I’m still left to wonder why Arturia doesn’t ship a longer cable with the thing, as well as why they don’t provide a full control-surface definition for Sonar X3 (or why Cakewalk hasn’t developed support for the Keylab out of the box). Someone needs to get these folks together and have them hash things out.

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Much Better, Plus Musical Progress

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It took me a while to get going this morning, but once I was up and mobile I actually managed to get a few things done on the new computer. The day was much better than yesterday, health-wise. Thanks for the well wishes.

I’m having to re-acquaint myself with Cakewalk Sonar X3’s MIDI entry and editing features. Yes, it’s been a while since I messed with it, and no, the new MIDI controller keyboard still isn’t hooked up (still waiting for the replacement USB cable). I’m back to the old-school way, entering a note at a time via the Piano Roll view and editing things via the Event List view. Slow going at first, especially when wrangling Sonar’s MIDI clips feature (I really miss Cakewalk 2.0 when it comes to copying and pasting), but my speed increased by the end of the day.

The computer continues to run without a hitch so far. I’ve had it running Prime95 overnight, and it handled last night’s assignment like a speed demon. I do have to lock the system at night while it runs, though—my cat still thinks that my desk is part of his domain, and he has been guilty of cat-like typing in the past.

Tomorrow’s schedule includes a visit to the doctor for blood tests (cholesterol, A1C, vitamin levels, liver functions, etc.), followed by more wrestling with Sonar X3. Wish me luck on both counts.

Comments? Questions? Please feel free to use the Contact page. Thank you for reading!

The Battle Was Won, But The Body Was Lost

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Despite the fact that my wife did most of the heavy lifting and under-the-table cable routing yesterday, I’m the one that’s paying dearly for what little exertion I was able to contribute. Specifically, I put my left foot in the wrong spot while trying to carry a Yamaha CS6X. I felt something give in the area where my left ankle broke (old story on another blog). It’s been verge-of-tears hurting for much of the day. I had to resort to taking a dose of naproxen for it midday, despite my risk for bleeding (again related to the old story), since I’m limited to two doses of tramadol per day for Chronic Pain Syndrome control.

The rest of me hasn’t fared much better. I’ve been worn out like a cloth, to quote Thomas Dolby, and have been laid up almost all day. I have an appointment scheduled with my doctor on Tuesday, at which point I’ll discuss the situation.

At least the computer and software are still working, as is the sound system. Yay! 😀

Questions? Comments? Please feel free to use the Contact page. Thank you for reading!