Ok, I don’t know if many people know this, but I’m an avid sound engineer. And on my spare time when not in the studio, I like to pull out the ol’ Mbox. Currently I’m at the Mbox 2, the USB powered device. This thing thinks it’s more powerful than its legacy, so it has power quirks through USB. So the thing turns on and off when it’s plugged in.

Digidesign suggested the following, which worked for me:
Mbox 2/Mbox 2 Mini Unit Should be Online Prior to Engaging Phantom Power
Phantom power should only be engaged after the Mbox 2/Mbox 2 Mini is connected and Pro Tools is launched. If phantom power is on when the Mbox 2/Mbox 2 Mini is first connected to the CPU, it may drop offline. So in these cases, the following steps are encouraged:

• Connect the Mbox 2/Mbox 2 Mini to the USB port with PHANTOM POWER OFF
• Launch Pro Tools
• Connect any phantom-powered microphones
• Turn phantom power on

These steps should keep the Mbox 2/Mbox 2 Mini online.

Try it, see if it relieves some frustration. You can read more on it here.

I used to think I was fine, but every day I get reminded about why I’m broke and why I can’t buy the things I want. I feel l have a good job. I feel l got normal debts. I’m not crazy in debt; I own a car with $200 payments which I owe $1,200 on, normal $700 rent, $200 utilities, $100 insurance, $50 cell phone, $40 internet, $220 credit card debt(which I’ve paid $50 a month on), $100 house items a month (that includes TP), but i still manage to end up broke by the end of the month.

What the hell?

That’ roughly $1,450 a month, and that’s not including groceries or even my fiancee’s debts. I’ve managed to cut cable, reduce my insurance, gave the dog a diet (sorry buddy), haggle with my car and pay only $178 to finish the car payments, tried the light off thing to reduce utilities, asked the kids to help out with turning off lights, water off when not in use, blah, blah. Still there doesn’t seem like there’s a way to reduce my debt any further unless I sell one of the kids–hmm…ha, just kidding. Kids are all in school now (all 4 of them, yeah I know, tell me about it), so that helps with the lights and stuff at home.

But for a family of 6, come on, it seems like I’m scrapin’ the bottom of this barrel with a dull blade. Not only that, but these little monkey kids are getting bigger and hungrier.

Damn, just the other day, I thought I’d be nice and treat them all to a $1 whopper jr. I look at the bank, $8. K, that’s ok, one for each, we drink water, bamm. It’s like my birthday all over again. They eat their burgers in about 3 minutes (we’re talkin’ 11, 8, 7, 5 years of age here) and start asking for another one. I’m wondering if these guy chewed their food; I hadn’t even finished unwrapping mine. My lady is looking at me as if I’m cheap and tells me, “What? are you thinking about how much money you’re spending.” Well hell yeah, I am. But not about what I’m going to spend now, another $4, but how it’s going to be when all 4 get well into puberty.

Can you imagine when the dynamic four are asking me for $70 designer shoes, $50 jeans, $50 for makeup, $10 toilet paper? Taking the fam costs $40 to go to the movies right now, which I’ve avoided driving certain roads now, but when I don’t get the kid discount, easily $60–and that’s just admission!! They always want soda and popcorn, and that crap ain’t cheap! Another $50 there. Whoa, my head aches just thinkin’ about it. So forget the $4 whopper deal, $400 is a long way to go. About half of my pay check already goes to making sure they’re well, hell, I’ll just make a bumper sticker sign that says, “Hi, I am a serf to my kids” or better yet, “My boss should just direct deposit my check into my kid’s bank accounts ’cause it would make my life easier.”

I better start buying scratch-its.

from http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/life/8-toxic-personalities-to-avoid-461078/
by Brett Blumenthal – Sheer Balance, on Wed May 13, 2009 8:01am PDT

Although we like to think that the people in our lives are well-adjusted, happy, healthy minded individuals, we sometimes realize that it just isn’t so. Personally, I’ve had moments where I’ll be skipping through my day, happy as can be, thinking life is grand and BAM, I’ll be blindsided by someone who manages to knock the happy wind out of my sails. Sometimes it is easy to write it off and other times, not so much.

Maybe you are a positive person, but when you are around a certain individual, you feel negative. Or, maybe you have an idealistic view of the world and when you are with certain people, you are made to feel silly, unrealistic or delusional. Or, maybe you pride yourself in being completely independent and in control of your life, but when you are around a certain family member, you regress into a state of childhood.

Some of these situations, and yes, these people, can have a tremendously negative impact on our lives. And, although we are all human and have our ‘issues,’ some ‘issues’ are quite frankly, toxic. They are toxic to our happiness. They are toxic to our mental outlook. They are toxic to our self-esteem. And they are toxic to our lives. They can suck the life out of us and even shorten our lifespan.

Here are the worst of the toxic personalities out there and how to spot them:

1. Manipulative Mary: These individuals are experts at manipulation tactics. Is a matter of fact, you may not even realize you have been manipulated until it is too late. These individuals figure out what your ‘buttons’ are, and push them to get what they want.

Why they are toxic: These people have a way of eating away at your belief system and self-esteem. They find ways to make you do things that you don’t necessarily want to do and before you know it, you lose your sense of identity, your personal priorities and your ability to see the reality of the situation. The world all of a sudden becomes centered around their needs and their priorities.
2. Narcissistic Nancy: These people have an extreme sense of self-importance and believe that the world revolves around them. They are often not as sly as the Manipulative Marys of the world, but instead, tend to be a bit overt about getting their needs met. You often want to say to them “It isn’t always about you.”

Why they are toxic: They are solely focused on their needs, leaving your needs in the dust. You are left disappointed and unfulfilled. Further, they zap your energy by getting you to focus so much on them, that you have nothing left for yourself.
3. Debbie Downers: These people can’t appreciate the positive in life. If you tell them that it is a beautiful day, they will tell you about the impending dreary forecast. If you tell them you aced a mid-term, they’ll tell you about how difficult the final is going to be.

Why they are toxic: They take the joy out of everything. Your rosy outlook on life continues to get squashed with negativity. Before you know it, their negativity consumes you and you start looking at things with gray colored glasses yourself.
4. Judgmental Jims: When you see things as cute and quirky, they see things as strange and unattractive. If you find people’s unique perspectives refreshing, they find them ‘wrong’. If you like someone’s eclectic taste, they find it ‘disturbing’ or ‘bad’.

Why they are toxic: Judgmental people are much like Debbie Downers. In a world where freedom rings, judgment is sooo over. If the world was a homogeneous place, life would be pretty boring. Spending a lot of time with these types can inadvertently convert you into a judgmental person as well.
5. Dream Killing Keiths: Every time you have an idea, these people tell you why you can’t do it. As you achieve, they try to pull you down. As you dream, they are the first to tell you it is impossible.

Why they are toxic: These people are stuck in what is instead of what could be. Further, these individuals eat away at your self-esteem and your belief in yourself. Progress and change can only occur from doing new things and innovating, dreaming the impossible and reaching for the stars.
6. Insincere Illissas: You never quite feel that these people are being sincere. You tell a funny story, they give you a polite laugh. You feel depressed and sad and they give you a ‘there, there’ type response. You tell them you are excited about something and you get a very ho-hum response.

Why they are toxic: People who aren’t sincere or genuine build relationships on superficial criteria. This breeds shallow, meaningless relationships. When you are really in need of a friend, they won’t be there. When you really need constructive criticism, they would rather tell you that you are great the way you are. When you need support, they would rather see you fail or make a fool of yourself.
7. Disrespectful Dannys: These people will say or do things at the most inappropriate times and in the most inappropriate ways. In essence, they are more subtle, grown up bullies. Maybe this person is a friend who you confided in and uses your secret against you. Maybe it is a family member who puts their busy-body nose into your affairs when it is none of their business. Or maybe, it is a colleague who says demeaning things to you.

Why they are toxic: These people have no sense of boundaries and don’t respect your feelings or, for that matter, your privacy. These people will cause you to feel frustrated and disrespected.
8. Never Enough Nellies: You can never give enough to these people to make them happy. They take you for granted and have unrealistic expectations of you. They find ways to continually fault you and never take responsibility for anything themselves.

Why they are toxic: You will spend so much time trying to please them, that you will end up losing yourself in the process. They will require all of your time and energy, leaving you worn out and your own needs sacrificed.
All of these personalities have several things in common. 1) the more these people get away with their behavior, the more they will continue. 2) Unfortunately, most of these people don’t see that what they do is wrong and as a result, talking to them about it will fall on deaf ears, leaving you wondering if you are the crazy one. 3) Most of these people get worse with age, making their impact on you stronger with time.

Frankly, life is too short to spend your time dealing with toxicity. If you can, avoid spending mucho time with people who are indicative of these behaviors and you’ll feel a lot happier. Have you encountered these personalities? What have you done? Any personalities you would add?

——————-
Posted by Jett Wed May 13, 2009 1:00pm PDT
Boy do I know what you mean! I have had many people in my life who have been toxic to various extents. I don’t know that I can classify them completely into the categories you’ve outlined, though:

My best friend all through elementary school was a Manipulative Mary, I guess. We became instant best friends in first grade and remained so until fifth grade when I defected from her table in the lunchroom to a table of another friend. Mary wasn’t truly manipulative in the sense that she would get me to do immoral things, but she liked to be queen and would treat me sort of as her servant at times. At the time I actually left the group because of her two other friends, not her, but in the end, if she had been a better friend and if our friendship were meant to last, I would have stayed, or we would have become friends again later. We called it quits officially in 7th grade. I’m just glad I had enough willpower and self-esteem to look for better.

Ironically, it was in this second group of friends that I found Debbie Downers and Judgmental Jim! Debbie would make us all feel that if we had any good news we had to stifle it. She would call it bragging, and it took me many years to realize that it wasn’t bragging — it was just feeling good about an accomplishment. Jim would make me feel (and still does to an extent) that I’m sort of stupid and my tastes in things like music aren’t good enough. Why’d I stay friends with them? Because besides their faults, they were actually really good friends when I needed them. I guess we all have Jim and Debbie and Mary in us somewhere. And to Debbie’s credit, it turned out she’s clinically depressed, so after high school when she was on meds, she became a lot nicer. Still, it’s awkward when I go back and visit them (I live almost 6 hours away now) because I realized we just don’t have a lot in common. I was friends with them for convenience I guess, because I’d been dumped by Mary and had nowhere else to go. Once I met other people in college I realized just how my high school friends had affected the way I would think and found myself repeating the mantras that Debbie would spout about how stupid certain things were. It took me awhile to get past that.

But the only person I would truly list as a Debbie Downers was a co-worker I had a few years ago. She would talk about her own life — her lazy, emotionally-abusive husband and bratty children — constantly without even coming up for air so I could interject. Literally, I would sit on the phone with her for AN HOUR and not have to say anything other than “yeah” or “huh.” Eventually she would say she had to go, if I didn’t manage to interrupt her monologue to tell her I really had to hang up, and afterwards I would either feel so drained from how bad her life was or so glad that my life was so much better! She would almost never ask about me, or if she did it would just remind her of something else to complain about and she’d go of again for another half hour. Finally I just stopped calling her. I didn’t let her know my new number when I moved (Both of us had left the company by then, so we didn’t have to work together.) That relationship was completely one-sided, and the weird thing was she didn’t even need me. She had family and other friends she ranted to also — all the same things she would repeat to me.

I’ve been having trouble keeping our business alive. But throughout my grieving, frustration, wondering, and worrying what’s to happen, I’ve learned a couple things that may help other businesses.

The number one rule I’ve learned is that your business is an extension of yourself and the way your business is run is a reflection of yourself.

Your business, whether you like it or not, is your bread and butter. If you’re a full-fledged entrepreneur like me, than you’ve got to realize there’s nothing else that pays the bills than your business. So it’ll take all your time and energy to make it happen. And pretty soon, if you don’t make your business grow, you will become weak.

And if your business is disorganized, that means you are disorganized…and messy too. If your desk is messy, your car probably is too, and your home, your room, your bathroom, everything. There’s trouble when all your messy life bleeds into your business, but it does and your clients begin to notice it.

If this is you, learn from me. My first step is take control of your mess. You made it, you clean it. In chemistry we called it entropy, or randomness. Naturally, things want to be random, or disorganized (think about it, what’s easier, keeping garbage in your car or keeping it clean?)

Take out the trash, practically and metaphorically. Clean, man (woman). Don’t let your life become a mess. And if it does, go ahead, but only for a day. One day only be a pig, but the next day clean it up. Keep your reflection clean.

I took some pics of rose.

Wow, it’s been crazy here. Everyone is talking about the model show this weekend at the Oregon State Fairgrounds, Columbia Hall. I still haven’t heard the radio ad we put on Jammin 95.5. I’d like to hear it! I haven’t yet. Others have heard it; my angel heard it just a little bit ago, Ryan heard it, others too. Just Poverty and I haven’t.

And what’s this big deal about the models? I thought they were supposed to be the most incredible thing you’ve ever seen; I am still not impressed. What does it take to impress me? It’s simple, it eye candy is what you’re supposed to be, than don’t choose to be a tootsie roll. Instead think watermelon jolly rancher. Something that makes everyone’s mouth’s water. Tootsie rolls are not model material.

Oh, and if you want to be a model, think about running on the treadmill once in a while.

Today my angel went to Portland…by herself! I thought it would be cool to give her a day where she wouldn’t have to worry about the everyday things and simply enjoy some time to herself. I guess it sounded cooler in my head.

She said it was alright. That’s better than nothing, but I wanted her to just have fun, to explore the world, to get lost and come home a refreshed person. She seemed more exhausted than refreshed.

I (tried) took care of her main responsibilities (her jungle team), and did a really good job. I got the zoo animals riding bikes, worked as a team to cook and clean the dishes, and even get along together.

I missed her though, but I was sure she would come home happy to see us.

When she arrived a glowing halo circled her beautiful face as she looked at us and smiled. I was as happy as when she first told me she loved me! Her presence created a sparkle in the room and my world lit up.

I Missed her.

We (Project Multimedia) is having a new beginning. We’re restructuring our business model and adding some new good lookin’ models (This is where I whistle). If you are new to Project Multimedia, you have to check out our new innovations.

We are also working on our first book. It’ll be a photo-telling photography book with all our familiar designer photo styles and new creative twists to come. If you’re interested you can reserve your copy today. I’ll keep us all posted with new cool pieces to the book.

I have this idea lingering in my mind. A step dad, although will usually try to raise his step children with the dignity of a father, he will always be second place to the real father.

This seems to be true and everyone I’ve talked to about it seems to strengthen my hypothesis. A step father is seldom regarded as a father. Father figure, sure, but a father, not really.

For some reason DNA creates a bond between a human child and his/her biological parents, regardless of who they are.

The theme has been used in a bunch of movies. And the way they end up is a love/hate relationship with the parents…

I can’t think right now, I’m kinda pissed off about the idea that some fathers take for granted their fatherhood privileges by:

Making a bunch of babies everywhere and living like a bachelor
Not taking responsibility for making a bunch of babies everywhere (evading child support, not helping the kids, playing with the kid’s minds telling them that he’ll always be there)
Taking the young kids to Chuck E Cheese (Of course, they’ll think it’s fun and of course they’ll think,”My daddy is the best in the world, he takes me to Chuck E Cheese)
Thinking that by buying them a bit of clothes, some toys, and out to eat is fulfilling his part as a dad

I’d like to bash a guy who sincerely believes that after having children, he can still live as a bachelor without worrying about anybody else but himself. Then when someone decides to be a part of the mother’s life, the father’s best excuse is:
Well he (referring to the new boyfriend, husband, etc) has money, he can buy them (referring to his children)clothes, toys, and food. I don’t have to do that any more.

Ha.

Ok, so I haven’t written for who knows how many months. It’s been tough a work. Late nights. Websites. Recording galore. All I seem to do since my last post is work. Wow, I guess the moments I don’t work, I’ll post. that way I’ll notice when I don’t work. Technically, I’m working right now. I’m teaching a class right now. I’m teaching a class, but the students are busy building stuff for class, so I can chill for a while.

Tags just appeared on wordpress. That’s cool, I’ve wondered when they would think tags would become useful. I’m gonna be using them more to see how the turnout will be.