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eventually i’ll get tired of electronic accomplishments, but right now every little success makes me feel like thomas edison. today’s hurdle involved cannibalizing a headphone jack from an old radio. i disassembled the piece last night, and put it back together this morning on the yamaha keyboard that i’m circuit bending. this takes care of two things: i can work on this project while jenny’s home (i can now wear headphones & she won’t complain about the noise), AND it doubles as a line out to a larger amp.

my latest obsession is circuit bending. it’s hard (and easy) to believe that no one in the greater kansas city area knows about this. i drove to four different places to get the right parts. this is my first recorded bend with a new distortion effect controlled by a pentiometer (a knob).

actually, i forgot how i discovered circuit bending. i just know that after seeing a few youtube tutorials, i wanted to duplicate the trippy 1970′s alien moog sound that other people were making. i’m glad to announce that today, with the help of one friend who runs a CB radio store, and another friend who sells pinball games, i bent my first circuit. i connected two unrelated circuits to create a “distortion” effect on my yamaha pss 30 keyboard. i’ll post a video as soon as wires, knobs, and switches are permanently attached.

i indulged myself yesterday with a trip to radio shack. i bought a soldering iron, wires, and some really small screwdrivers in an attempt to circuit bend my little yamaha keyboard. so far success has eluded me. later i used my frustration to fuel a video upload: my contribution to the long khan… an endless stream of people screaming “khan!”

we only took a few pics on our vacation. jenny and i are happy when we can lose ourselves in an experience… we don’t want to be burdened with the chore of recording it. but sometimes we make exceptions. here’s a handful of pics from our trip to michigan and illinois.

i think my mind has left the dunes of michigan and finally caught up with my body, which is currently located in the steam bath of kansas. i did not expect to be caught in the storm that blew through the greater metro area last night, but we had to go 15 mph on the shoulder with the hazard lights on a couple of times.

jenny & i took our second vacation camping out on the dunes of lake michigan. this time we took the advice of our friend, jim huber, and drove to silver lake. that’s where i discovered why dune buggies are actually called dune buggies. we rented a red one and spent an hour and a half driving like crazed lunatics… and we weren’t the only ones. i can’t wait to go back.

my last name changes around this time every year to my wife’s maiden name: herman. every fourth of july weekend (since 1972) the hermans come from all over the country to gather on the fairgrounds in marengo, iowa for the family reunion. when i first started coming in 1986 they were meeting at the american legion hall, but when the numbers kept increasing they moved to a bigger location. when someone starts chanting, “we are hermans, couldn’t be prouder, if you can’t hear us we’ll yell a little louder!” this continues until lunch is ready or until the authorities arrive.

does anyone remember the gilligan’s island theme song from the first season? the professor and mary ann’s characters weren’t even given a name, they were just “and the rest” in the original lyrics. that being said, here are the rest of the topics i hinted at three posts ago: got a free weed eater that has worked once, auto repairs on the zx2 are (hopefully) are getting finished today… and the podcast? isn’t done yet, but the preview gives a glimpse of how i do things.