what I'm reading now

After the previous day's excitement, I thought I'd shift gears for a second and show you what I'm reading right now. 

The Rise of Neptune is the second book in the Dragonships series by Scott Reintgen. I discovered the series late last year and purchased The Last Dragon on Mars from Target as they often have coupons for children's books in the store. If the coupon works... us adults should be able to read and assess books before we give them to our children to read. That's my excuse. But this one attracted me because... dragons. When I started the previous book, I was actually confused because I thought that the main character was... a dragon. It wasn't until multiple chapters in that it became clear to me that it was a young man. HAHAHA. I enjoyed it and had been waiting for the new one to come out. It's almost a shame that I'm pretty busy these days so by the time bedtime rolls in, I may a little too tired for reading. So far, so good though. I'm enjoying it. 

Had to make a Target run this morning to buy bookends. I don't understand why it has become incredibly difficult to find bookends. I really just wanted those simple L-shaped pieces of metal but there was none of that readily available. A quick search online showed me a number of options but most of them were not even available in the store and I really am getting tired of having things shipped. I actually enjoy going to stores. Plus, I want the instant gratification. I settled on these marble ones that had a lot of heft. I thought maybe that was better anyway because I wanted it to sandwich my interface so I could park it on the desk standing up. If this works out, I should be able to show updated pictures of the recording setup. 

In the meantime, I have discovered a fatal flaw in my room of choice for recording. I can hear sounds from a nearby... highway. It doesn't matter where in the house I park myself because the steady drone of vehicles passing can be heard. I didn't think it was apparent in any of the recordings but someone brought up that there was a sound kind of like a blower in the background. Now I find myself constantly listening for it. When I'm full on jangling and singing, I don't hear it but I have a lot of quieter songs that I want to record, with gentle strumming or even plucking and I'm concerned that this is going to be a problem. But without making structural changes, there really isn't anything more I can do to/in the room to remove the noise. I have two condenser mics, running two different interfaces and it has been suggested to me that I try a dynamic mic. <sigh> Or maybe I should try much, much louder songs...

Playlist Recommendation: Zombie, The Cranberries