Breeding Update: Sheds All Around

The past week or so has been light on courting for the snakes. Both animals have been in shed until tonight. I found it interesting that both snakes shed on the same night and that it is the first rain we've had in a while. Hopefully they like each other's fancy new skin and resume heavy courting in the next few days.

Carolina Bound

Every state has its problems, but we're especially glad this month that we don't live in Maryland, where Governor Martin O'Malley has been undertaking something close to a tax-increase-a-day tour.

This was a quote from a Wall Street Journal article this week talking about O'Malley's planned tax increase. While at first he tried to hide the tax hikes behind a 3 cent cut in property tax and reductions in income tax for lower and middle income homes. It seems now the reality of these new taxes is too much to hide. I did the math for my wife and I and we would be saving about $7 per month with these reductions. Compare this with the planned 20% increase in sales tax and the broadening of the tax to cover services and that $7 is out the window real quick. And don't forget this is before the 9 cent increase in gas tax that is also planned. My wife and I are also in for a special treat as we are both starting a home based business. Under the governor's tax plan we will be facing an additional 26% increase in taxes on those businesses. For me that is a huge disadvantage as I will be competing in a national market operating under a higher tax than most of my competitors. Maybe it's time to look out of state for the next home and a friendlier place to start and operate a small business. Besides, I do have real issue with this tax increase outside of the financial strain it will cause my family. Maybe I will post my views on that later. Right now I have to go start packing...

Nyctibatrachus minimus

Scientists at Delhi University have discovered a new species of frog. Nyctibatrachus minimus is fully grown at only 10mm making this the smallest land vertebrate in India. This is one of a few species the team has found in the Western Ghats over the past several years.

Link

Bass Gear Review: Gallien-Krueger 1001 RB-II

I have to start out this review with a little side story about my experiences buying this amp. I ordered my first 1001 from Musician's Friend the beginning of August and had the head within a week or so. The amp worked perfectly for a total of 12 hours before it emitted a nice little cloud of smoke. The amp continued to work but had a terrible burnt smell. I was in denial for maybe a hour blaming everything from the Mylar crossover in my cab to a bug flying into the amp. I couldn't imagine a new GK amp breaking so quick or any solid state head continuing to work after what seemed to be a major malfunction. My friend Steve offered a solution to my problem chiming in, "maybe it's some sweet hidden smoke effect feature!" Thanks guy. To keep it short, I returned the amp to Musician's Friend which got all messed up and took way too long. So in the end I bought a second amp from Guitar Center and that is the one I am currently playing at 40+ hours now.

The GK 1001 RB-II is a 700w solid state amp. It weighs in at 22 lbs. and takes up two rack spaces. I will link to the GK site at the end to save you from the endless list of features. Instead I will comment on some of the features that really factor into my opinion of the amp. This amp has a separate tweeter amp that can put out an additional 50w to the tweeter directly. Unfortunately you will need to use a GK cab that is designed to use this feature. I can understand why this is necessary but it seems almost pointless with such a limited range of use. The amp does put out plenty of watts though and is incredibly quite while doing so. My old Ampeg head was real noisy and had a super loud fan. The GK's fan is super quite and before it went in my rack case I loved watching it rev up and down as I started to really push the head. The head as all of the inputs and the direct out on the front. This will certainly make the sound guy happy at shows but I would have liked to see the option for the effects and tuner jacks on the back as well.

While the design has a few faults the tone and power of this amp is where it really shines. GK is known to be a more sterile sounding amp. While most Ampegs sound like Ampegs the GK really lets the sound of the player and bass come through. One of my bass instructors once told me that the majority of your tone is in your fingers and that the gear is just there to help it out. With the 1001 RB this is exactly what happens. The amp has a four band graphic equalizer and this is almost set entirely flat. I cut the bass a little, this also helps take some of the work load off the power amp, and have a slight mid boost. The amp boasts a 4/5 String, Contour, and Presence filter. The 4/5 String filter is a simple on off switch. I am still playing with these filters a lot. On 5 string the amp seems to give more growl on the lower notes. On 4 string the amp is more balanced in tone and sounds much clearer on my 5 string tenor's high C. This switch may very well turn into a mood switch for me. 4 string for those mellow days with lots of chord work and 5 string for the days when the boss pissed me off and I just want to rock. The Contour filter is basically a mid range scoop based on the same circuitry in the famous 800RB. The Presence filter adds extra sparkle to the high-end, again to help with chord work and high end clarity. I am using these two set at about 12 O'clock on both. I find myself playing with these three controls more than anything else. They are true filters and don't over power the tone you have already dialed in. I can use just these three controls to shape my tone to taste on a session to session basis without messing up my EQ settings. All this clean focused tone pumping through the 700w power amp leads to one hell of a great bass sound. I am very please with this amp despite it's flaws in layout. The Gallien-Krueger 1001 RB-II is a great sounding head with tons of power for the casual to semi-pro player. And at $750 it is a great deal as well. I would buy this amp a third time if need be and GK may have made a lifer out of me.

Gallien-Krueger

Leave Mike Rowe Alone

Discovery channel has a show called Dirty Jobs. I think most people have seen it. It's a pretty decent show with some hilarious antics. The show is hosted by Mike Rowe, a wise cracking inept blue collar looking fellow who tries to take on the dirtiest jobs around. As it turns out Mike was once an employee of the same company I work for. And with the Alumni Crab Picnic just around the corner the whole company is sending Mike a video invitation or something. I am obviously not a part of this nor would I care to be. From what I have heard Mike was employed by my company for no more than 14 months and this was sometime around 1980. Why the hell would he come back to eat crabs in a parking lot to see 4 people he met in 1980? Mike Rowe, if you can read this, just stay at home.

How Fredward Met Abigail

Since last night I have observed my boas courting heavily. The male was introduced into the female's cage on Wednesday and they both showed immediate interest in one another. Lots of tongue flicking and crawling on top of one another. Within 24 hours the male was on top of the female forming a zig zag pattern over the lower half of her body. He will squeeze her in regular intervals and ride her around for the next several weeks. All this leads up to copulation and helps stimulate the female for breeding. Right now they are under the paper in their cage but I will try to get some pictures soon. Needless to say I am super stoked to see good signs of courtship. It's still early in the season but I am feeling pretty confident.

Come On Little Miss And Do The Twist

My '04 Albino female boa was doing the twist this morning. The "pre-ovulation twist" as some breeders call it. This is the development of ovarian follicles before they move into the oviducts to be fertilized. She had the typical swelling over about 30% of her body. She was stretched out with tight curves and seemed to be uncomfortable and tense. I guess this is something like boa PMS. I am very excited to see the first signs of breeding interest in her. My '05 Hypo het Albino male has been off food since the last week in August and this is the second week the female has refused to eat. Now with signs of pre-ovulation and the male searching his cage all night long I am ready to introduce the two. I plan on cleaning the female's cage tonight and placing the male in with her tonight or tomorrow at the latest. With any luck I will see courtship between them by the weekend.

Bass Gear Mini Review: Avatar B210 Neo

I received my B210 from Avatar Speakers about a week ago. I have yet to use it at band practice but have been testing it out on my own. In a lot of ways this cab is very similar to the B212 I already reviewed so I am going to skip the specifics and talk only about the tone from the cab. Running this cab solo gives me a nice option for practicing alone or an acoustic setting. The 2 10"s give great mid and high end response and the adjustable tweeter lets me dial in just how much I want on the top end. The bass response on this cab is good but not great. It sounds a little lacking to me but is by no means thin sounding. For the right style or setting this cab would be great for smaller gigs. But I am more excited about the pairing of the B210 and the B212. These cabs together produce the exact sound I was hoping for. I use the B212 with the tweeter off and dial in the highs on the B210 at about 9 O'clock. The B210 fills it's role perfectly, producing more punch and fuller highs than the B212. My rig sounds more well rounded and I even get more response from changes on the amp while running both cabs. Plus the volume from these cabs is intense. I am now running at my amp's full 700 watts and you can feel/hear it. I wish I still had my old 6x10 Ampeg for comparison but from memory this stack is way louder. I am very pleased with the B210. Avatar has made two great cabinets with great tone on their own. But the pairing of these two cabs is far greater than the sum of their parts. It also looks sexy as hell.

Bass Gear Review: Intro & Avatar B212 Neo Cab

I was recently invited to reform Silent Film with guitarists Brad and Chad. I also recently bought a whole new bass rig. I wanted to give some reviews of the gear on here. I never fully trusted the reviews on merchant sites like Amazon or Musician's Friend. So hopefully someone finds these of some use or at least more interesting than my usual snake ramblings.

I ordered the B212 in August 2007 for $380. I choose the brown Tolex (an extra $39) 8ohm version rated at 500w RMS. It is loaded with two 12" custom Eminence neodymium speakers plus a tweeter. With two 1/4 inch inputs, a Speakon connector, and a tweeter volume control on the back. A nice array of features and the only things I can knock it on here is not having a second Speakon connector. The construction quality is very high on this cabinet. Weighing in at 56lbs. this cab is lighter but still solid. It is pretty well balanced, making it easier to carry, and feels rugged. There are recessed steel handles and large rubber covers on the corners. These corner guards are ridged to add traction and to interlock if stacked with another cab. The front is covered with a metal grill that is held in place very securely with 8 screws and rubber spacers to prevent rattling. There is a 12db Mylar crossover...which admittedly I had no clue about! Customer service was good but all I did was place an order. They only accept phone or email orders so those of us who are accustomed to fancy, super secure online stores might feel a little weary. Rest assured they are legit and handle all your info very securely. Shipping was pretty fast, 5 business days cross country, and cheap, $42.

As for the important stuff. This cab sounds great! I have played my current amp, a GK 1001-RB II(review to come), through a few different cabinets at Guitar Center. Off the top of my head there were GKs, Ampeg, a Mesa, and Mark Bass. The only ones that were close are the GKs and the Mark Bass cabs which are at least twice the price. The B212 uses custom Eminence neodymium speakers which have a much longer cone travel than most other bass drivers. This allows fuller low frequency response from the 12" speakers. The sound lives up to these claims. The low B on my five string no longer invoked that almost toneless woofing rumble. Instead it now sounded much more musical and full but still retained it's growl. In fact I noticed an improvement in the E string as well. Silent Film plays in drop D, formerly in the string tension nightmare of drop C, and the better bass response gave a little extra power to the open D. The mids were impressive as well. These 12"s gave enough punch to rival most 10" speakers out there. While not enough to coax a slap happy bassist from his 10" punch machine, it is more than enough to let this cab stand on its own and cut through the rest of the mix. With the tweeter volume at about 9 O'clock I found the highs to be just right. Crisp and clear with just a little sparkle. With the tweeter turned off the cab did sound a little dull. At full volume the tweeter produced highs that were too much for my taste but I could see them being usable in other settings and for other players. As far as volume goes this cab is pretty damn loud. My finger style is pretty quite and I normally find myself turning the amp up as the guitarists really start to crank those tubes. But at last practice with this cab I was good from start to finish. There is a whistling at very high volumes. I have read that this is caused by air being forced out of unused 1/4" jacks. There are special screw on covers you can purchase to stop this or I've heard an ear plug does the trick nicely. Really, I don't see it being a problem in a band setting as the whistling is not that loud.

Overall I am very happy with the Avatar B212 Neo. So happy that I ordered a 2 10" Neo cab from Avatar the day after this one arrived. The 10"s should help give that little extra punch this cab is missing. Also, with the two 8ohm cabs I can run my amp at full power, 700w at 4ohms! I will post a review of the B210 once it arrives. Things that could be better about this cab? Like I said, casters would be nice and another Speakon connector for those tricky configurations on stage. I also would like a cloth grill cover as opposed to the metal. Cloth always looks more classy and finished to me and the option would have been nice. I do like the custom colors of Tolex and they even have an option to coat it in Line-X which is used to protect truck beds. As for the sound, I think these Eminence 12"s are squeezing the most tone and volume you can from a 12" speaker. Plus the Neodymium magnets save your back from completely breaking. I would bet hard cash that a better cab cannot be found for this price.

Avatar Speakers

The Reptile Mecca

The National Reptile Breeder's Expo was a couple of weeks ago in Daytona, Fl. This is the largest reptile show in the world, it typically sells out the majority of the hotels in Daytona. Not bad considering that just 30 years ago herpeticulture was still in it's infancy. While I did not attend, I do take a special interest in the aftermath of the show. I feel that this show can help gauge the health of the reptile industry and hobby. Some years are great, some years are terrible, and some years are mixed between breeders or even species. I keep in contact with a few of the larger breeders that attend and the reptile forums and message boards are normally packed with posts about the event. Knowing how well breeders did in sales and seeing the type of purchases made can give a good snapshot of how the show went and where the hobby is moving. These things are incredibly important in the reptile trade. One year a snake morph could go for $3,500 and the next year some people are selling them for less than $1,000. How is a new breeder supposed to read a market that can change so quick and buyers who can be so fickle?

The best way to try and predict the future is by looking at what everyone is buying now. A few years ago people were snatching up albino boas and hypomelanistic het albino boas. When breed together these two morphs will produce a designer morph known as a Sunglow boa. So no surprise when about two to three years, it takes about three years for female boas to reach sexual maturity, after this big increase in albino and hypo het albino sales we see tons of Sunglows for sale. This flood of Sunglows and their albino, hypo, and hypo het albino siblings drove down the price for all three morphs. This year's sales are not quite as clear. There are a few newer morphs on the market Blood boas, Caramel albinos, and Squaretails being a few that really excite me. But the big sellers seem to be the Co-Dominant mixes. Without going into genetics Co-Dom morphs will produce two appearances one that shows some of the new trait and some of the normal color and pattern, called hets, and one that shows nothing but the new trait, a homo or super. The spectacular nature of the super forms and the ability to see the trait in first generation offspring make these high dollar and high demand morphs. Mix these with Recessive traits like albino, anerythristic, or even other Co-Dom morphs and you have a snake that is very desirable. While this leaves a lot of possibilities for mixing new morph combinations it does little to shed any light on the future market. The strong sales of this year's shows and the newer Recessive morphs are good clues that the market will stay healthy but beyond this I am at a loss. I will have to look to other markets to see how to handle this unclear future but for now all I can think is diversity. Instead of branching out into some other species I will need to focus on building a strong diverse collection of boas. This should allow me to better adapt to any trends that might pop up in the future and at the very least give me an excuse to get more snakes.

Busy as an Africanized Bee

Playing catch up here and made some changes to the layout. Added a blog roll with one link. This is to be expected as I have one friend. I am also planning some posts in the next few days on bands, music gear, tattoos, and Shaolin monks.

$50 Citizenship

Some American Indian tribes have starting selling tribal papers to illegal immigrants for $50 or more. Of course the papers offer no real claim to citizenship and the tribes involved have been investigated in the past for similar scams. But still I love the irony of Native Americans selling American citizenship for twice what they got for Manhattan.

Link

The Kids Don't Like It

I have seen a huge rash of bulletins on Myspace lately all talking about questioning the current government and political activism. I usually cringe at these sort of posts. They typically are very one sided, under researched if not borderline conspiracy, and very often do little more than fire off insults at the Bush administration. But these have been a little different. More like rallying calls to our generation to start looking around and really participating in the democratic process. I also know some of the posters well enough to trust their intentions and judgement on these topics more than the next guy. I hope this is a trend that continues to grow amongst the younger generation. Heck, maybe someday it will even be cool to be into politics.

WikiScanner

There is a Reuters article (here) about Wikipedia topics being edited by people using CIA and FBI computers.

People using CIA and FBI computers have edited entries in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia on topics including the Iraq war and the Guantanamo prison, according to a new tracing program.

According to the article the changes where found using WikiScanner. The program allows people to track the computers that were used to make changes to Wikipedia. The changes seem to be fairly harmless. Mostly expanding on provided information and not removing info or censoring entries. But I am always a little suspicious of government agencies mucking with information and the media. Not to mention that this more than likely violates Wikipedia's rules on contributing to entries where a conflict-of-interest may occur.

I am torn on how bad this really is. I think most people would admit that the government has at least some control over mass media. And I think more Americans are going to get their information from Fox or CNN than Wikipedia. While Wikipedia may have more clout being billed as an encyclopedia. I would say the people who would take a wiki as gospel would believe the same information from a TV program or news paper. In the end it is in the hands of each individual to filter and double check the information we are being feed each and every day.

Is That Your Bach Or Maybach?

I perform some basic desktop and network support for Mercedes-Benz on Wednesdays. Not the most exciting contract I have ever been on but there are some perks. Hot Pockets in the lunch room, use of the executive bathroom, and the occasional chance to drive a fancy car. Today I got to drive a 2007 Maybach 62. Now, I am no car guy by any stretch but this was a pretty cool car. It had all the fancy features you would expect in a high end luxury car. By far my favorite were the curtains in the rear windows and the voice recognition system. You can do almost everything just by talking to this car. It drove real nice and starting at $390,000 I am thinking of getting one once my Toyota Matrix dies...ha!! Also they had 12 of these at the warehouse I was at.

No More Free Italian Sausage

Today my wife did what most of us can only dream about, she quit her job! Cathy left her job as Assistant Administrator at a local Italian restaurant to work for herself. She is going to be home to start work on the snake business, Charm City Snakes, and will be running her own business selling Jafra skin care products. She would play down the importance of the latter but I think this should be a point of pride. Even with all the advances in woman's rights it is still harder out there for a female entrepreneur than it is for a man. But in a matter of months she has grown her business and become self employed. So here is a big congrats and good luck to Cathy in all of her future business ventures. She will need it, after all I have convinced her selling snakes with me is a good idea! I love you and I am very proud of you!

Charm City Snakes

I recently decided to start formally preparing my business plan for Charm City Snakes, a commercial snake breeder of course! Yes, you can make money breeding snakes. No, it's not easy money. But hey it's about time I stepped up to a real challenge in life. I am a huge over planner in all things and this is no exception. I am currently using the Small Business Administration's website along with startupnation.com. The SBA's site is pretty basic and really kind of discouraging. They have a number of little quizzes that help you determine your business style and if you are cut out for the task of starting your own business. I took a few of these quizzes twice, first answering honestly and then giving answers I thought the quiz wanted. Both times I was given less than stellar results and found the advice to be very critical. Then I slid on over to startupnation.com and what a difference this site made. I found a lot of the same information but the presentation was better and the advice while still realistic was much less depressing. The site is more of a community for people who are starting and running their own businesses. The site is ran by the Sloan brothers who also host a radio program by the same name. The whole site is free except for individual classes and is chock-a-block full of information. I am currently using their 10 step program to help prepare for starting your own business. So far so good, it's free and as such is a little light on the specifics but does give a good start to the whole process. Once I am done this program I will begin working with the book Start Your Own Business by Rieva Lesonsky. At 700+ pages I expect to fill in a lot of details with this book. And to top it all of I have my dad who runs his own successful auto body repair shop and Pete Kahl one of the big names in snake breeding. After all of that if I should be ready to start running things like a business. Right now I am trying to expand my collection and finalize my caging and supply needs. I am specializing in Boa Constrictors to start and the name of the boa game is morphs! Morphs, morphs, and more morphs!! Morphs is the slang word we snake guys use to cover the many genetic mutations that visually affect color, pattern, and sometimes form. Morphs like albino, hypomelanism, piebald, and axanthic are scientific terms that describe a mutation across many species. Whereas jungle, motley, and sunglow describe mutations or combinations of mutations found by a breeder in a specific species. These are kind of catch phrases and can be rather confusing with everyone trying to pitch their new morph to the herp community. Herp being short for herpetological, herpeticulture, or herpetiles (reptiles and amphibians). Nomenclature aside, morphs are where the money is. It's with this money that I will be able to start, grow, and expand my business to the point where I can get into some of the more interesting work. My goal is to always stay in the boa family but to expand into some tree boas as well as locality boas. All in due time I suppose. For now I will continue my work on the business plan and start preparing the snake room for more snakes. With my wife leaving her job in the next couple of months and the breeding season approaching fast I plan on a few updates a week.

In the beginning...

Actually this is like my third blog but all the others have gone the way of Delphi. I am hoping the difference this time is that I now actually have something to blog about. Things like starting a business, growing wealth, snakes, marriage, technology, music, and just all the hilarity that goes on in my life. The name of this blog is a sailing term, I do not sail nor do I endorse sailing of any kind, referring to the outer most of two or more jibs....I am more interested in the verb form meaning to refuse to comply or resisting forward movement. The flying part just makes me sound more spectacular. That sums up most of my goals in life. I want the American dream without the American lifestyle. I am trying to find the right balance between living in the norms of society to reap the benefits without giving up my personal freedoms or independence. I hope to elaborate on these ideas more right here in this blog.