Nicolas Rowland

For a few weeks I’ve been searching for a more comfortable way of computing in my bedroom. I used to have a corner desk with my laptop and a desktop tower and a pretty descent office chair. Then my brother wanted to trade desks and since his was much nicer and he was willing to take mine I was all for it. And then my office chair broke. The center post that connected the seat was somehow pushed past below the casters and was scraping the floor. Seeing that there was no was to fix this I threw out the chair and settled for my brothers old task chair. To say the chair was uncomfortable is a huge understatement. I couldn’t sit on this thing for more than 30 minutes without having to get up and move to my white plush lounge chair that I use for watching TV and reading.

I was much happier computing there, but there was a few annoyances. First I had to lay the computer on my lap and when it started to heat up I would have to move it onto the task chair. Second, I had to bring over all my peripherals such as external drives and ipod cables, power supplies, etc. and they were all strewn about laying everywhere and getting tangled up. Third, if I had to get up and visit the bathroom or do something in the living room, I had to lay down everything and when I came back start all over again. I then started to research a way of using my computer at that chair without all the fuss and chaos.

This week I bought a rolling desk just about the width of my chair that has a slide out keyboard tray. I mounted a 6 outlet power strip to the cross bar and am using a 2.1 USB digital speaker system that my dad let me use. It’s real handy because it also has 3 additional USB ports on it’s right side. I also placed my hard drive dock on the right side and zip tied all the loose cables to the desk’s posts. I have everything I normally use for the most part on this cart. I just have to cables leading up the left side to connect, the power strip’s cable and network ethernet cable. Additionally the cart can be rolled off to the side for easy escape. Over time I might find that other items may need to be added, but that is easily handled with two extra unused power outlets free. Cloth pockets might be added to both left and right sides for additional storage of cables, CDs, and other items. Photos of the desk are below.

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Many have asked about how I created my avatar. I have never really liked having my picture taken and am never quite satisfied with the way I look in photos taken of myself. It is because of this that I never liked posting pictures of myself on social websites either. That’s why last month I decided to create an avatar or a picture that represents me to the internet. I still wanted people to know what I look like and had the idea of wanting to create something like the portraits in Leo Laporte’s TWIT podcast logo. They had those done by Nitrozac Portraits, however you will pay a pretty penny for one of those. After trying to recreate my avatar, I’ve realized that I don’t remember how I achieved the sketch effect. I can, however, give you a link for a tutorial about how I got mine started. After following the steps in the tutorial, I took out the background and started to clean up the sketch by using the brush tool to trace over the outlines and blank out everything else. I also went through and fixed details I did not like about the photo such as my hair and shirt. Your results may vary according to the photo you are using and your degree of Photoshop skills. You may also want to go through with the paint bucket and colorize your skin, hair, shirt, etc. Hope this has satisfied everyone’s curiosity and feel free to ask questions. Down below are images of the original versus the final avatar.

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This week I’m working the last full SCA show that I’ll do while officially employed by the school. It’s two one-act comedies. The first one, called “The Case of the Frozen Saints”, is 50’s style detective case about a church that’s been murdered by the poison of bad attitudes. The second, called “The Actor’s Nightmare” is about an unsuspecting man who walks into a theatre and is forced into playing a part for an injured actor. It’s all about his attempts to discern what play he is in and get through the play.

I’m not using wireless for any of the actors for this show, which is relaxing. I’m not having to worry about broken/temperamental mics forcing me to miss sound cues. I just concentrate on the music and SFX. My setup includes running QLAB on a MacBook into a Roland Edirol FA101 into a Mackie 1604VLZ and out to 2 large Tannoy speakers for mains and 3 smaller Tannoys for front fills. 1 Sennheiser wireless handheld is for announcements and a staged announcement in the second act and I have an iPod for house music.

Later I’ll post photos of the sound/lighting setup and the stage set.

Here are 3 songs that I recorded from an SCA choral concerts featuring songs from Broadway:

1. You Can’t Stop The Beat
2. Mamma Mia!
3. The Wizard and I

These sound recordings are © Copyright 2009 Nick Rowland. All rights reserved.

Here are songs that I recorded from a duet called the Foxfire Experiment in 2007. The two guys who formed this group were Andru Layne and Nick Raburn.

1. You’re My Misery
1. Thoughts Tonight

These sound recordings are © Copyright 2009 Nick Rowland. All rights reserved.