Hi Nancy!
-> We had discoverd a tossing problem here but we still didn't end up
-> with much stuff out of area.  (thank goodness)...
Know how that is.. as far as Fido echos, frankly I'm suprised that it
ever worked at all, being that the weakest link in the chain will almost
always screw things up! After nearly 15 years of sysoping, I finally
gave up in frustration in trying to get mail moving for more than a day
or two through this net.
-> So you been busy?
Yes, busy, but not as profitable as I would like to be, most of the
projects have been "future" work that may show a profit and design on
my "studio in the sky", recently concentrating on the acoustical design
of the control rooms and computer network parameters.
I've also been collaborating with other songwriters, writing some
material of my own (both musical and "essay" style articles for
publication on audio topics), and in preproduction for an album of my
own music, rehearsing with two kicks bands every week, and doing
occasional IATSE calls when they get to the bottom of the call list.
I do have most of the hours required to become an IATSE Apprentice,
which I intend to do at this point.
  Much of my time has been spent in learning Microstation, a terrific
CAD program that I'm using for 3D design of the control rooms for the
studios, and integrating other softwares for job costing, systems
documentation and specifications.. that kind of thing (basically the
same kinds of things I used to do designing and project supervising for
major electronic install projects in the past). To me, 90% of the
business plan is the studio design, since  most of the uniqueness of the
design is a big  reason it will be profitable.
 While trying to get into more of a "text writer" mode, I've been
writing large articles in the AUDIO echo mostly on recent IATSE
calls, trying to get tooled up for opportunities to write real articles
for the industry, since I can easily cover almost any Northern
California or Northern Nevada event, or even the entire Northwest and
have experience in most of the areas concerned with Pro Audio.
 So, that, in a nutshell, from this nuthouse is about all that is
happening.. lots of promise, future looks good.
I just did a demo for a one stop distributor locally that may end up in
doing an album project and a few other things for them.. I took the
Harry Chapin and Ricky Skaggs recorded versions of "Cats in a Cradle"
and merged the two versions into a single coherent and complete version,
came out quite nice, but if it were for more than "demo" would require
some more work to  get closer to my idea of perfection, but as a demo,
it did it's job very well, and all were extremely happy with the work.
It's getting close to the new season for Sacramento Ballet, and since
they can't afford to use the live musicians any longer, I do their
editing work on my DAW, completing about 5 ballets so far.
 So, what's news with youse? It seems there are lots of folks looking
for people in your area.. Showco, Freeman, etc. from what I've seen
recently in the trades. Been keeping busy yourself?
Glad to hear that this echo is still working!
 Bonnie *:>
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