Jody Whitesides

Category: News

  • Celtics and Kubernetes: My Biggest Musical Challenge Yet!

    Celtics and Kubernetes: My Biggest Musical Challenge Yet!

    Getting in over my head. It’s a rare thing that happens. Generally, if I open my mouth to say I can do something, I mean I can do it. I come from that underpromise overdeliver school of thought.

    One of my most annoying qualities is that I like to research shit to make sure I understand what is needed. I then assess those needs against what I’m capable of doing and make the choice. Same concept applies when I’m looking into purchases as well. I expect the same of others.

    Right now, I’m experiencing a situation that I put myself into. In that I figured I could make something happen (behind the scenes) and with limited knowledge, I forced myself into doing it. The reality is, I’m now in over my head on something that if it were the old way I’ve done it, it’s a piece of cake.

    Nope, I added a whole layer of complexity. WHY?!?

    Actually, I know the why. However, the situation is going to take a bit longer than I had hoped and is going to require me reaching out to people I know to see who may have the time to help, and / or give me some pointers and instructions that I can make note of and keep myself afloat once the project has been put up on stilts.

    This isn’t a music thing. It’s music adjacent. Meaning directly related to my music and some extra areas of my functioning ability around tech. It’s called Kubernetes.

    If you’re reading this, in a relatively short time frame from whence it was published, I’d appreciate it if you reached out to me if you’re well versed in Kubernetes.

    See, I got my little server set up with the inkling of Kubernetes. The cluster is seeing itself. But I have run into a wall. There are not enough good examples of what I’m wanting to do and there’s 5 big things I need to accomplish with my cluster.

    I know once I get this setup and someone can explain a few of the moving parts (as if I were a 5th grader), I can maintain it without much issue. So I won’t be a constant burden to the helpful person.

    Now let’s talk a moment about Maine. I’ve unfortunately never been to Maine. I have had a roommate who was from Maine, during my university days. Yes, he had a fairly strong accent. He was very proud of his heritage as well.

    After all these years, I might have a small way of paying a bit of tribute to him. Today there’s a version of Do You Want to Play for the Maine Celtics. The G League team out of Maine, duh.

    What would be super fun is if the Maine Celtics got wind of this song and decide they want me to come perform it at a half-time event. One, I’d be able to see a friend I haven’t seen in many years. Two, I’d get to see yet another pro basketball team perform. Three, I’d be able to partake in some real clam chowder, which is one of my favorite soups.

    Are you from Maine? Are you a fan of your Maine Celtics? Are you savvy with Kubernetes? Do you know any of the team owners? Let’s make some magic happen!

  • From Sound to System: A Music & Tech Nerd’s Adventure

    From Sound to System: A Music & Tech Nerd’s Adventure

    Being a massive information nerd. I’ve always been one. In school I was voracious at consuming information. I’m also good at making iteration tweaks on what I learn. Though I’m not exactly like everyone else when I do it.

    In college I remember overhearing a mutual friend asking my roommate if I ever opened a book or studied outside of class.

    He responded: “When he needs to he will.”

    In my mind I was thinking, do I seem like I don’t study?

    As it turned out, I was extremely good at absorbing information in class. It stuck extremely well and I found that most of the stuff that ended up on tests was the information talked about in class. Thus with a few notes, I could easily recall the needed information.

    Same goes for say, hearing memory. Once upon a time I was with Jeff Scott Soto where we were driving to a dinner with some friends and he played me a new song he was working on with Marcel Jacob for a Talisman record.

    In the midst of listening to the song I asked him: “Did you guys sample the guitar part from your other song, then speed it up to change the key?”

    Jeff looked at me in amazement wondering how in the hell could I tell that, then actually said as much. “How the hell can you tell that?

    I suppose it was obvious to me. Over the years, I have had multiple instances where I can tell melodies and such and where they likely came from. I’m not as awesome as a recent viral video where a person was cluing off songs after hearing a single recorded note or two and instantly saying what song it is. That is savant-level of sonics. I’m not that, but I am pretty good knowing where I’ve heard something before.

    To this day I still tend to spend an insane amount of time on research when I want to know something. Especially if I want to get a good working knowledge. Enough to get me in trouble.

    It’s like that with my website. I’m still tweaking. Even after I’ve pretty much got it all together and working. In the last several hours I’ve finally figured out an issue with the buttons on the music archive page, and with the lyrics text links on the releases.

    The buttons were not highlighting as a cursor went over them. This is despite it showing the correct information in the code on the back end. However, the displaying of it to you the end user wasn’t doing the right thing.

    My answer came when I tried using the palate colors I’m currently running. Instead of multiple custom colors for each button, it was solved with tweaking the palate and then using the palate. A minor problem that to me should have worked with the custom colors as input.

    Same with the text links, they weren’t doing what most people would expect when you hover over them. Light up and put an underline under them. There’s a stupid CSS workaround that I found. That isn’t the normal way to do it, but it worked. Now it’s obvious on the release page for each release, when you hover over the title of the song title or the word lyrics – it opens a plethora of nerd information.

    There is more nerd fest stuff coming. Both musically, like the song for the College Park Skyhawks which released the morning this post went live. And for other stuff behind the scenes that is going to improve the website, the web store and the functionality of both.

    Stay tuned!

    p.s. there was another tweak to the contact page that should result in less spam messages. Take that bot-fuckers.

  • Closing In On It

    Closing In On It

    Would you notice a change if it didn’t come out and hit you in the nose?

    It’s been a ridiculous week of change the world over. I’ve had my nose deep within my own little world while the U.S. President (in 2025) has decided to cause insane global turmoil. His stupid policies are working on tanking the financial markets. He won’t listen to reason, or the American people, but he will listen to money.

    In my little musical world there’s a bit less turmoil.

    As I’m writing this, there’s another song coming out in a few hours to embrace those who are fans of the Charlotte Hornets, Do You Want to Play Charlotte Hornets. Of course it’ll be streamable the moment this goes live anyway.

    There are tweaks abound on my website this week as well. A more cohesive color palette and a new feature on the music page.

    With the colors it’s a matter of working on a goal with overall arc of the music. Strange what a little research and self reflection can offer up for change. Before yesterday the palette choice was slick, but kinda boring. Hell, it could be argued it’s still a bit boring. Though the changes were minor, they are anything but subtle.

    For the music it is now possible to see all the releases (as before), just the Albums or only Singles. Three buttons now allow you to sort to your heart’s desire. As the year progresses, there will come another category, but alas you’ll have to come back if you wanna figure out what it will be.

    As I get further along with getting these songs released and the website tweaked, my sleeping has begun to improve. No idea why, but I’m super happy to be getting more than 5 or 6 hours of rest. Returning to 7 hours is a real win. I hope the same for you as well.

    As for the moron-in-chief, let’s hope that the money currently backing him will dry up and go away. Which in turn will cause him to go away. If you’re feeling like you’re in a protesting type of mood, here’s a heroes playlist.

    In meantime, hold on to your butts and make sure you fill your life with music!

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