FuturePrimal.com

http://www.futureprimal.com

My newest website, launching this spring! Also, stay tuned for a new MicahAtwell.com.

:)

DragonStone

Here's another game I wrote a couple years back and recently ported to Flash. Click the Help link for gameplay info. You can download the game here.

mahjong anyone?

just a little side project this weekend. you can download the game/source here.

I have another version of the game authored by someone else but didn't like having to go into the options to turn off the sounds every time, so I wrote my own version. This does have a sound, though it only plays at the end of the game. The tiles are not standard mahjong designs, rather I just threw my own together real quick. The timer is only there because I usually play the game while cooking a pizza and it helps me keep track of, well, time. I've included the .fla and .as file with the zip so you can do your own mods if you want (authored in Flash Pro 8) or just examine the source (it's not the most optimized, this was just a quick project). If you just want to play the game, double click the .swf file.

effin spam

Just to note, the Looney Tunes TV widget is gone. They're planning (or have already begun) to include ads in the feed so they've been nixed. At least they were nice enough to warn us a couple weeks in advance. Too bad, but it was nice to reconnect with my childhood for a few hours.

Anyway, I replaced the widget with my own, my random chord progression generator. Ok, it's not technically a widget but you can grab it if you want, just ask if you need help adding it to your blogger template.

Hopefully, pleasant dreams

The last few days I've been toiling over various projects, seldom falling inline with my usual routine of checking my favorite sites every 5 minutes while I wait for inspiration to strike. Instead I've found myself totally forgetting until bedtime that I haven't checked my MySpace or Facebook pages since I woke up. I don't even think I've been in contact with a single soul in nearly a week. It's a wierd feeling... falling out of my routine.

The past week feels like a delirium, like all I have done for endless days is stare at wires and solder, leather and thread, mess and pile. Quite frankly, because I have. And all night (morning to you surface-dwellers), I toss and turn, embroiled in dreams of equal toil and delirium. I'm seldom one to ever get a "good night's sleep" though, regardless of circumstance. I never wake rested and ready to take on the day. My nights are just unconscious continuations of my day.

Well, here are a couple pics of a couple of things I've been up to lately. There is soooooo much more behinds the scenes of these two items, and it is that in which I've been so enthralled.


The prototype strap for Batch II


A new audio switch for the studio

Oh... and a new audio player for the website! can't believe I forgot about that after all the mind-numbing work I did on it.

Hello, ol' friend!

I've been having a great time getting reacquainted with Photoshop and graphic design lately. Started working on a new music project and when it came time for a logo and myspace profile design, I looked up some photoshop tutorials (not because I need them, but because I wanted some new ideas). I only looked up some 3D text tuts, but those sparked my creativity and ingenuity to experiment in other ways. This got me back into graphics like I haven't experienced in many years, where I've been manically spending several hours straight in photoshop while the rest of the world dissapears into oblivion (I haven't really missed much, lol). But now it's time to get back to the project's music and hope it lives up to the image I've created for it. I think it will, though ;)

Meantime

Got word my leathers will be here next Wednesday (w00t!). Can't wait to kick out some new straps! In the meantime, I've been working on music. Adding some extra parts to an older ambient guitar track and wanting to finish up some others that have been lying around. Don't hold me to it, but maybe I'll have a new track to post before I dive into the straps.

Stuck In My Head

Over the summer I found a cassette at my dad's house. It's front-to-back live music recordings of my great-uncle and three other family members (who I believe are another great-uncle, great-aunt, and first cousin). A few tracks were recorded at one of their homes (in Laramie, Wyoming), and all but one of the rest were of a performance in Woods Landing, WY. Not sure about when, though I'm guessing in the 80s or 90s. All but two of the songs are covers of classic country western songs (some going back to the 30s and 40s).

I'm not a big fan of country music but there is something cozy and familiar about the classic era of the genre. My great-uncle was a 100% genuine cowboy/farmhand and, though I may have only met him once, he and the rest of my family up there lived the image and lifestyle to the letter. I loved going up there to visit with my dad, who thoroughly loved it (he was raised there for a few years and attended Laramie University).

Recordings like this are rare, especially in my family where --despite the large number of musicians we can claim-- it's been all too common a tragedy for them to be accidentally erased or otherwise destroyed. I remember one visit when I got to experience my great-grandpa, great-grand-uncle, and great-uncle perform their favorite songs in great-grandpa's living room, just as they often did. Guitar, fiddle, accordion, and character-oozing vocals. Music just doesn't get any more real than that! I think my dad recorded that performance only to have it accidentally taped over (possibly by me) years later.

So, when I found this tape, I knew it was my duty to preserve it. It felt as though I had been handed one of, if not the last surviving copies of some sacred text. This weekend I recorded it to hard drive and will next begin trying to revitalize the music (noise-reduction, equalization, etc.). Following that, I'd like to package it up in a true CD album format, complete with a quality cover, liner notes, etc., and then make copies for the family.

I've only listened to these songs once through, and I've listened to a bunch of other music since. But for the last couple days I've awaken with them in my head, where they seem to remain on endless loop throughout the day. And I'm already noticing the signs of how it may likely affect my own music. It's reminded me of how simple, straight-forward, and genuine music can (and maybe should) be to be effective --and that it's not even about being effective at all, but just about telling a story.