I'm not Dead and I'm not for Sale

Some might have noticed that I have not been very active or vocal regarding Ubuntu Studio since 12.04 was released. There are reasons and I'll share them with you along with my future with Ubuntu Studio.

Also, I have begun to pursue some interesting ventures and I would like to share a some of the beginning results with you.

Lastly, I should wrap up my post by mentioning my intentions for this blog.

 When Worlds Collide

When Ubuntu Studio 12.04 was released I was very, very pleased and happy; pleased with the amount of progress we made with a small team and happy with the results [1].

I was also left feeling very tired and quite spent. While I certainly was not the only one involved, I felt that I was very involved in practically all aspects, from developing the goals, making the blueprints, overseeing the project, and making it happen (see Status by assignee).

So much of my daily hours apart from work (and sometimes during work) and family were dedicated to Ubuntu Studio 12.04. I needed some time away. No additional responsibilities. No demands. Find equilibrium. Do. Something. Else.

Also, I'm ADHD and not a hard core coder. So I'm compelled to do many things (usually all at once) and I'm not compelled to code (although organizing is one of my strengths), and something had to give.

But I'm not leaving Ubuntu Studio. For a variety of reasons I am committed as Project Lead to seeing Ubuntu Studio 14.04 LTS released. Please do not misunderstand that facet of this post. While I may need a little time alone, I have to plans to walk away currently.

And already I have been getting more involved in 12.10 development and expect that to increase up through release.

Get Up, Stand Up

I also used my time away to start a the first few of many content projects that I will engage over the next year or so. This has process has been a few years in the making.

The first, of several video projects queued, is a YouTube Minecraft series that I am creating with my sons called, slightly unimaginatively, Lavender and Son(s) or LandS for short. A few other ideas for additional Minecraft series are kicking around, of which at least one should be realized soon.

These are not intended to be ground breaking or a great film, but they are a solid first foray into video and demonstrate an extremely viable Ubuntu Studio work flow.

Also starting up is the pre-production phase of a music album. I have the rough framing for five songs, another one done except final vocals, and still a few more to write. Over the next few weeks I'll start tracking scratch tracks for the drummer, Stuzz, to start getting a feel for his parts.

My good friend Richard Wielgosz, an audio engineer par execllance who has his own business (contact him if you need audio work), will be involved as well. His involvement is quite relieving to me. He's lucky he wasn't living during the middle ages, they would have burned him as in league with the devil for some of the magic he does.

I  plan to have the recording done by year's end and in Rich's very capable hands to do the voodoo that he do.

So, the remainder of this year will be busy, each project building into the next.

Terminus

Well, it's not actually the terminus of the blog, just this blog post ;)

I would expect that I will be using this blog more now. Quite a bit more as there should be quite a bit of cool stuff to talk about.

I would like to make the blog posts a little short (to help me get them out more often), but alas, I seem incapable of doing that. So it seems I will be forced to work harder at writing more often.

Rock on.

[1] While I still believe that we made HUGE strides with 12.04, I have already begun to feel that Ubuntu studio really isn't where I want it to be and we can continue to greatly improve to it. But that is another blog post.