I’ve never been fond of extended sitting around – I’m just not fond, and add a desk to the mix and I’m all just NOPE. But my digital audio workstation is at a desk. So I decided that was dumb, and I’d like a standing workstation, but those cost hundreds to thousands of dollars,and tried a standing configuration with my monitors at maximum height, using a music stand as a keyboard holder.

Since that worked, I decided to make a better keyboard holder, one that would also hold my trackball.

Adjustable!

It attaches to any stand that will take a standard mic clip. This was of course intentional. It’s 3/4″ thickwall PVC pipe, filed out on the inside to make the inner diameter wide enough to slip over the microphone pole of a standard mic stand. It doesn’t screw on, it just fits on, so don’t file it too much or it’ll get wobbly. The fit should be snug.

The top board is just some leftover plywood I had lying about, tinted with some leftover stain and polyurethane. Completely unnecessary, but looks nice. The board is held to the PVC frame with plumbing securements and brass bolts. Don’t use wood screws; quarter-inch ply doesn’t give you enough of an anchor for that.

Also, there’s a layer of double-sided tape between the metal securement hoops and the PVC end caps. If the fit wasn’t tight, that wouldn’t work – but it is, so it works well.

The end caps are important. You need them so that the T in the middle of the PVC support and the ends of the PVC support present the same frame diameter to the attachment system. If you didn’t do that, either the board or the PVC pipes would bend a little once you bolted everything down. This way it’s consistent and flat.

I think it came out as an attractive bit of kit. The screws aren’t flush, but the keyboard has feet and those are thicker than the screw heads, so it works out. I kind of expected the screw heads to sink in a little, but they didn’t; you can always drill a little bit into the wood with a bit the size of the screw head to flatten it a little bit further, if you need to. But that’s tricky with 1/4″ ply, since it’s so thin.

Since the mic stand’s telescoping pole reaches the top of the T inside the PVC frame, you can raise and lower the tabletop just like you would a microphone, so it’s adjustable to the height you like – at least, within limits.

The PVC pipe is also the right exterior diameter for a mic clip! If your mic stand is stable enough, you can totally do this, too, which lets you raise or lower the table like a boom mic. My stands aren’t awesome enough to be stable doing that for a heavy thing like a keyboard and trackball, but I could use this for other, lighter items if I wanted. The hard part is getting the clip not to rotate left and right – the clamping bolts on my mic stands don’t clamp firmly enough. If yours do, then great!

Very quick build, about an hour except for the staining and polyurethane, but that’s optional. This is quarter-inch ply, and that seems plenty strong enough for this purpose. It’s 65cm wide and 26cm deep, which was about as small as I could get and fit the keyboard and trackball.

What I’d really like is something I could move around just a little, kind of like a mobile rack for the monitors and keyboard, but that appears to be crazymoney. This seems like a reasonable middle ground that cost me, um… two disposable brushes plus stuff I already had on hand. ^_^ So far, I’m getting more work done since this indulges my dislike of chair and desk. We’ll see if that holds out over time.

Norwescon executive committee have announced the adoption of the anti-harassment policy they’ve been working on over the last year. That “they” is a little disingenuous, as nwcMUSIC is part of Norwescon, and therefore this is also nwcMUSIC’s anti-harassment policy, effective six days ago.

Along with many others, I provided testimony and information to the committee working on it, and I think they’ve done a pretty good job. I’m pleased to be able to say that yes, there is an official policy in place, with intent to enforce.

eta: While I, for one, applaud John Scalzi’s harassment policy pledge, I must note that this process was underway a solid year before his statement, and that it was not, despite some comments made elsewhere, prompted by his pledge movement.

Up late comping fiddle and listening to J-Pop of the 1980s, in a two-hour compilation tw:freedrull found on YouTube. (“Category: Science & Technology” Awesome.)

The fiddle is for the Bone Walker/Free Court of Seattle soundtrack album – I played a bit of it in the latest episode of the podcast – and I’m trying to get reasonable comps ready for Friday’s recording session with Ellen Eades on hammer dulcimer.

I made kind of an ad hoc standing configuration for my digital audio workstation. I hate sitting for long periods of time – I’m too antsy for that! But it turns out a music stand makes a fine keyboard shelf:

Turns out I’m more likely to start working if I don’t have to sit down, and can wander away and back to it. So I’ll keep this kind of thing as an option. I’m building a better keyboard shelf that’ll have room for the trackball and also attach to a mic stand, because if you’re going to engineer something, you should totally over-engineer it. (I tried just putting a board on the music stand… it was too wibbly.)

Did I take pictures? lolno. I’ll post about it later anyway, though. It’s an easy build.

If you didn’t listen to the podcast: we’re ramping up for nwcMUSIC 2014, at the Norwescon science fiction convention, April 17-20, 2014. If you want to be involved in programming, now is the time to ask.

That goes to people who want to be on staff, too. I need a videographer and a second – I don’t want to be the only person who knows how this all works! music at norwescon.org is the official contact address; that gets to me, plus a couple of other people, so if I miss it, it doesn’t get lost.

Surprise! The Geekmusic Podcast! Episode 5, September 2013. It’s a short one (18 minutes) but it’s here. I play some very early bits from the Bone Walker soundtrack, talk about nwcMUSIC 2014, plus – SHOW ANNOUNCEMENT! – I’m an attending pro at Vancouver’s VCON this October! I’ll have a 10pm Saturday show, and will be running a workshop and some panels.

But here’s the podcast:

Tell me who you want to hear about or hopefully just outright hear in a future episode, too! Hopefully in October or November we can get back to normal lengths.

Oh, if you don’t like YouTube, we have direct mp3 download and Soundcloud links at the Podcast page, like usual.

In related news, an update on the post I made yesterday about the return of Seattle Geekly: they made their Kickstarter goal! Go them! But it’s not too late to jump on that bandwagon, they have stretch goals and such, like y’do.

The Seattle Geekly podcast has long been a big supporter of geekmusics of all flavours. They had to retire from podcasting a couple of years ago due to Fuck You, Cancer reasons, but are ready to come back with a little Kickstarter funding.

They’re less than $400 away from goal, but are down to four days as I type this. Go back this project. I already have. In fact, I just upped my support.

Seriously, go throw ’em a fiver if nothing else. They’ve been big music supporters; get them back above the line.

A house, but with a second underground lair house you say? Like in that Alicia Silverstone/Brandon Frasier movie, Blast from the Past, you say? Only the 70s, not the 50s, so it looks like Janet’s mom’s house in Shock Treatment, you say? Only entirely actually genuinely real? you say?

holy hell!

And the underground house even has its own guest lair house, you say?

dude.

God damn. I am not evil enough to live in Las Vegas; I’m the wrong kind of supervillain. But were I? I would be all over this shit. I mean it. Go watch the video, or look at more pictures. You can even walk all the way around the underground house, it’s in the middle of its very own Brady Bunch shag carpet lawn.

They also have some pictures of the upper house, but IDGAF. Use it for storage, whatever, nobody cares. This? This is sheer epic awesomeness. This is somebody’s dream lair.

I was over at Peter’s house yesterday. He has a mini-me in dog form. This is Pete:

Mini-Pete

Take a good look because that’s the only time you will see that puppy that idle, or rather, I will, because Pete has decided somehow that I am the most exciting person ever, and this is what he usually does when I’m around:

Spin Cycle

I tried to shoot phone camera video, but he’s not a stationary typhoon; he’s all over the place, so it didn’t really work out.

There’s no story here, really. I just find this kind of hilarious and adorable, and after the last few posts, I figured we all needed a puppy break.

Hello, thousand new visitors over the last couple of days! I hope some of you come back to see this post, too.

You’re here because of PAX and the politics and sexism and misogyny in geek culture, and not my music. That’s cool. Given where most of you are coming from, I’m thinking you’re against the whole sexism and misogynistic exclusion thing. That’s very cool.

There’s one thing I most want shared from all of this, and it’s not the recent PAX posts. It’s another post I wrote a few weeks ago. It’s called gatekeeping and recourse, and it’s about a tactic guys – and mostly only guys – can use against sexist exclusion in gaming and fandom.

The details are in the post, but it’s an old Civil Rights Movement tactic. It’s minimal and simple, and doesn’t start trouble; it’s about short-circuiting a feedback loop that supports exclusion, and it’s a small thing which is nonetheless known to be effective. It’s not new, and I didn’t invent it; Stetson Kennedy did, or, at least, I got it from him.

I want it out there because it’s a tangible action people can take. Please, particularly if you’re a guy in gaming, but regardless – go read about it, if you haven’t, and forward it to your supportive guy friends.

Here’s the raw link:

https://crimeandtheforcesofevil.com/blog/2013/08/gatekeeping/

Thanks.

And if you decide to stick around, we put out a new song in August, for Jaegercon, the Pacific Rim fan convention. It’s new, and a free download. It was inspired by Pacific Rim, but it’s fun for kaiju flick fans in general; you just have to know that Jaegers (“Hunters”) are kaiju-fighting mecha. Give it a listen, won’t you?

A boycott is a tricky thing – particularly a political boycott. There’s a history of success which makes them attractive, and it’s doing something by not doing something, which, in some but not all cases, can make it seem like an “easy” feel-good action.

In reality, it’s not easy at all. And while some boycotts succeed, many fail. So, let’s talk successes. What does an effective boycott need?

1. Your boycott needs a specific and reachable goal. “Boycott because I don’t like” and “boycott because they’re bad people” are ethically sound, but politically ineffective. C.f. the endless and utterly futile GE boycott of the 90s – a general protest of their armaments programme, communicated poorly, nebulous and largely hopeless.

Montgomery, by contrast, went in with specific goals, ones that could be reached – limits to segregation on the bus system, courteous treatment by drivers, elimination of the whites-only requirement for driver positions. They didn’t even go for full bus desegregation; they decided it wasn’t reachable.

What is your specific goal? If you don’t have one, you are doomed to failure; get one. If your goal is “destroy PAX and Penny Arcade,” you’re turning this into a death match. Ask yourself: Is this attainable?, and think about that real hard.

2. Your boycott needs to be achievable. Do the circumstances allow your boycott to have practical monetary effect, or will your boycotters be instantly replaced by non-boycotters, resulting in zero economic effect?

Montgomery didn’t succeed out of moral righteousness. Montgomery succeeded by causing the city serious economic distress, causing racist whites to show their true natures in unpleasant and graphic ways, leading to international attention and court cases the boycotters and protestors eventually won.

Right now, PAX sells out in under an hour. Can you make enough impact so that it doesn’t sell out? Or can you persuade a lot of exhibitors to bail, weakening the expo? Because that’s economic impact. That’s your goal.

If you cannot cause significant effect, your boycott is doomed from the start. And worse, you’ll have made the crowd into a monolithic wedge of reinforced misogyny, giving the “bitch make me a sandwich” crowd exactly what they want.

3. You need to provide an alternative. Montgomery had car-pooling and taxis and more. It ground on for years and was a huge hardship.

Do you want the gaming industry to go back to a big E3 or Comdex type event? Have you forgotten the stripper poles at exhibits and controls physically attached to women’s breasts? Did you enjoy the prostitution coupons^*? I’m not making those up; I kept some as reminders.

This is a serious question. Was that better? If not, do you think they won’t go right back there if it’s their turn again? Do you think the same greater rape culture that treats women so disposably as this one, the sexist and exclusionist culture that can, say, run these ads (for a non-porn game!) without even raising a noticeable stir:

MALE GAMERS ONLY!
These ran last month on science websites, ffs

…do you think this corporate culture will produce an improved event?

Because one way or another, if your goal is to take out PAX, then if you succeed, a replacement will appear. It’ll probably be corporate; events this scale absolutely require year-round staff.

And you have to ask whether this replacement will be better, or worse. Will you get a larger MAGfest? It’s possible. Or will you instead get the return of Comdex?

If you don’t have an answer, you need to get one. Because if you’re wrong, well – sometimes success is worse than failure.

Look, I’m not saying a boycott is wrong; I’m not saying a boycott is doomed to fail. But I am saying there are three possible results: 1. A boycott failure, which weakens you, and makes things worse. 2. A “success” that leads to a corporate Comdex/E3 style replacement, which also makes things worse. 3. An actual success.

These are the facts. If you don’t even know what that actual success is, and if you don’t have a plan that could conceivably get you there, then you will get results one or two. And then we all lose.

Our latest single, by the way, is a free download we did for Jaegercon, the Pacific Rim convention. It’s really free – it doesn’t even ask for your email address. But if you want on our band mailing list that would be awesome, it’s a monthly newsletter. 😀

*: I acknowledge that there are actualised self-directed sex workers; these were not they. This was objectification factor twelve, to put it mildly.