Craig got his deer

It was a hunting weekend with my in-laws Ed, Craig and Dave Poe. Up Saturday and Sunday at 5:30, we spent the better part of both days driving from one pasture to another.

I was fairly amazed at the amount of deer on our property. For the last 30 years, I’ve been looking out for them, making sure to swerve as best I could. I’d never actually looked for them before.

Craig got his first buck on Saturday night.

Diane and I spent some time in Pratt on our way home Sunday driving around looking at houses. There are a ton of houses on the market in Pratt, but very few available to rent. The move is closing in, and we haven’t made a ton of progress finding a place. It could get interesting.

Aaron Traffas - Skepticism, agriculture, politics

Proceeds from Saturday's Junefest show will benefit Relay for Life

The details have solidified for Saturday’s Junefest show. The show will start at 8 p.m. at the Peace Treaty Pageant Grounds east of Medicine Lodge on Highway 160, south of the golf course. The tickets – available at the show – will be $5 and will directly benefit Relay for Life.

The show will feature special guest Anthony Farrar. Anthony opened our last show at Mike’s in Medicine Lodge and demonstrated that he’s a very solid performer with some good originals.

On an unrelated matter, as I was investigating the exact layout of the pageant grounds, I checked and was surprised to find that Google Maps is now sporting high resolution satellite imagery of Barber County. I started looking for our fields and as I was panning towards Sharon, I found the following image.

Now I’m not criticizing – I’m sure the farmer (a friend) had good reason for random-looking patterns. He was most likely preventing the dirt from blowing or trying to find a place that wasn’t too wet to work. The point is that no longer is the way we work fields a private matter. Google’s incorporation of this kind of imagery means that our farming habits are now available for all to see.

Aaron Traffas - Skepticism, agriculture, politics

Aaron Traffas Band at the Plum Thicket in Kiowa on October 25, 2008 - left to right: Chris Goering, Lucas Maddy, Mason Powell, Aaron Traffas

Hot from the oven, here are 9 tracks from a live recording made at the Plum Thicket in Kiowa, Kansas, on 25 October 2008. The Aaron Traffas Band was Aaron, Mason Powell, Chris Goering and Lucas Maddy. You can

hear Lucas singing his song, Bottles of Bud.

• Aaron Traffas Band – Republican – 25 October 2008
  
• Aaron Traffas Band – Mirror – 25 October 2008
  
• Aaron Traffas Band – Bottles of Bud – 25 October 2008
  
• Aaron Traffas – Singularity – 25 October 2008
  
• Aaron Traffas Band – Getting Over You Again – 25 October 2008
  
• Aaron Traffas Band – Archipelago – 25 October 2008
  
• Aaron Traffas Band – 24 Feet – 25 October 2008
  
• Aaron Traffas Band – 200 Miles Away – 25 October 2008
  
• Aaron Traffas Band – Red Dirt Farm – 25 October 2008

You can find more downloads on the downloads page.

Aaron Traffas - Skepticism, agriculture, politics

These links are also available on the videos page. I’ll have some songs up on the downloads page up soon.

Singularity, live, Last Chance Saloon, Manhattan, Kansas, 18 October 2008

Getting Over You Again, live, Last Chance Saloon, Manhattan, Kansas, 18 October 2008

Aaron Traffas - Skepticism, agriculture, politics

Maddy and I are playing at Tubby’s in Aggieville tonight at 6 p.m. Come out and get some food and have a good time with us (read: keep us company).

If you can’t make it, here’s a nugget for you:

http://www.palinaspresident.us

Aaron Traffas - Skepticism, agriculture, politics

Aaron Traffas, Lucas Maddy and Chris Goering

Thus ends the three-day weekend of relaxation. Today was the best day by far. Erica ate with us this morning and when I dropped her off she ended up with both of my cell phones. There is an unexplainable sense of peace that accompanies the knowledge that nobody can contact you.

It’s weird having Erica here and Megan gone. My sisters are quite similar and yet quite different. I’m excited to get to know her as I got to know Megan.

I’m watching Chelsea Lately with Lucas and Diane and plugging away at finishing the new shows section of the website. My mother was in town all day Saturday and never contacted me because she thought I was in Omaha because that’s what my website said. We had booked a show there and when I Twittered regarding its cancellation I never got around to updating the convoluted event calendar that was nailed on top of WordPress. That’s all fixed now, as the new shows section now includes all shows, both upcoming and past – all the way back to the first launch of the site when Trevor Burgess and I were playing at Fats.

I’m typing away on my Apple slim aluminum keyboard. It’s the one I poured nearly a full cup of coffee into a couple weeks ago. I dried it, wet it, dried it again and when it wouldn’t work I’d left it for dead. A week passed and I tried it one more time and it’s been working well ever since. I guess I bought a pair to have a spare. With all the damn computers around here, I guess it will get plenty of use.

I’m selling my Cloudbook at Thursday’s auction. I couldn’t ever get the wireless to work as well as I wanted, though it seems I’m not the only one. The graphics always seemed weak, though VIA just released an open source driver for it.

I’m currently rocking the ASUS EeePC 900. It’s quite possibly the finest piece of equipment on which I’ve ever laid my hands. I turned it on long enough to hit restart on the Knoppix distribution of Linux so that I could install Ubuntu. I had good luck with Ubuntu-eee as opposed to Eee-Ubuntu. Everything worked pretty much right away. I had to load a different kernel to get the microphone working so I could play with Skype with Diane.

I got Diane an Acer Aspire One as an early birthday present. It’s slightly bigger than my Eee, but the difference in the keyboard size is pretty huge. It also runs Windows XP, which is pretty much a must for her iPod Touch. It was also crazy-cheap, weighing in at $349 at Best Buy.

It seems like John McCain’s Eskimo running mate’s daughter is knocked up. How fun.

Aaron Traffas - Skepticism, agriculture, politics

Free TV Show from Ustream

Aaron Traffas - Skepticism, agriculture, politics

We had a great show. I removed the video stream from the post now that it’s no longer active.

Aaron Traffas - Skepticism, agriculture, politics

So, in an effort to try to make Twitter yet even more useful, I added everyone in Manhattan to my “following” list. I found this link on one of their tweets. It’s a Photoshop thread and is quite good.

Aaron Traffas - Skepticism, agriculture, politics

What a time we had yesterday at the lake of Anthony! We gave away the ballance of the Republican shirts as they, like the song, have a hopefully limited lifespan of about 199 days.

Guse opened up with some face-melting balls-rock.

5 minutes later….

So I’m pounding away here at the house, getting ready for a long-awaited review of harvest 2008, the movie Wanted, and the Guse show in Manhattan, but I guess I get play mechanic instead. More later. I promise.

Aaron Traffas - Skepticism, agriculture, politics