Ensight – Jeremy Wright

w00t! My drumkit’s here, a day early! I’ll be setting it up today and taking dozens of pictures to show off. Can’t wait!

In order to reflect the shift that’s been happening in terms of blog content, as well as my attitude towards Ensight, I’ve changed the blog’s name. To be fair, Ensight hasn’t been a true “Business & Tech blog” for nearly 2 years. It’s always been “whatever I’m thinking + blogging + new things I’m doing + life + fun”. For a long time, the “whatever I’m thinking” bit was heavily business and tech.

While that’s still certainly part of the mix, it isn’t the only thing happening in my mind anymore. For example, music will likely take a growing place here, largely because it’s taking a growing role in my life.

Thankfully, there’ll be a number of distinct blogs sprouting up over the next couple of months. Blog Marketing’s Blog, for example, will begin to hold more of my thoughts on business blogging and the advances and changes happening there.

As well, each of the two major projects being launched in the next couple of months will have their own blogs, as will the 2 new books I’m starting to work on, in various ways.

The new title for Ensight is simply “Jeremy Wright’s Personal Blog”. It’s really always been my personal blog, so don’t expect the content to suddenly become more heavily “life focussed”. It’s really just a public statement of what most readers have likely come to realize: this is my day-to-day blog. And day-to-day blogs don’t generally contain hundreds of deep thoughts. They contain random bits, funny stories, news of what’s going on as well as the occasional longer post.

As long as the above is what you expect here, it’s likely what you’ll continue to receive.

Ensight is where you’ll find what some people in Vancouver refer to as me “balls to the wall” and “totally transparent” and such. Hopefully there’ll still be business, tech, bloggy stuff and other bits of value in here. Changing the title was really just me admitting to myself what everyone else likely already knew: Ensight isn’t a business and tech blog anymore than The Brothers Grimm is a children’s movie

I recently got an invite to sms.ac (the evil of evil SMS companies). Who was it from? My recently deceased best freaking friend. Who didn’t do cellphones in the first place. And wouldn’t blind invite people like that.

The bastards…

Spam’s bad. Spam from fake people is worse. Spam with friends names is downright awful. But dead friends?

Note: Yes, I searched SMS.ac for someone with Will’s name. No such user. No such luck.

The bastards…

Finally, finally, finally…

As long-time readers of Ensight will know, I’ve been pining after a drumkit (pun, sadly, intended) for more than a year.

As a drummer, I’ve been playing for nearly 10 years. I’ve played all kinds of music, in all kinds of venues to all kinds of crowds (as large as 5000). Music is in me, and is as much a part of me as anything else I can imagine. I’ve been without a kit for about 4 years now. While I was in Winnipeg that wasn’t such a big deal, as music felt pushed down. But here on the east coast, music is very much a part of the culture, and is a huge part of the community I’m in.

As a result, the desire to get a drumkit had been revived. Almost immediately upon arriving here, I started scouting out for the perfect kit. I looked at the RMV kit I’d wanted last year but it just didn’t feel right.

Eventually I settled on a Gretsch kit, specifically their Catalina Birch line. Here’s their schpiel on it:

Catalina Birch
Gretsch’s first Birch wood drum set, Catalina Birch Series takes the Gretsch Drums philosophy in a new direction and sets the standard for semi-professional sets.

Features Include:
* 8-Ply Birch shells for all drums
* UV gloss wood-grain finishes
* 12.7mm mounts on all toms
* Professional EVANS batter heads on all drums.

It’s a fantastic kit, with great everything. Gretsch always makes great drums, and it truly satisfies all my desires: fusion sizing (toms aren’t as deep), great finishes, fantastic hardware, great floating tom system… All around they’re just fantastic kits.

Well, after the sale of Wealthy Blogger (which went through on Monday), I finally picked up a 5-piece Gretsch Catalina Birch Fusion kit in Dark Walnut:

This picture isn’t actually the fusion sizing (I couldn’t any of those online), but it’s the right line, company and colour, so it’s close enough for non-drummers and drummers alike to gawk at.

The amazing thing? This puppy lists for about 1500$ CDN, and I got it for a whopping 600$ (plus tax, shipping and duty, so really about 900$). It was an amazing sale that Jake somehow randomly found. It took a few days for the Wealthy Blogger sale to go through, but now that it has, the kit is finally on its way. It should be here by next Friday!

Musically, this is a huge step for me. Now all that’s really left for me to have the ‘basic’ kit together is to get a kick pedal, a stand, and new cymbals. It’s about 2000$ in expenses, but considering I’ve now got about 5000$ in gear (drums, rack, custom snare, 2 sets of great hi-hats), it’s coming along really, really nicely.

Speaking of coming along, we’ve had some new band names. Do any of the following grab anyone?

Midnigt Audition
Undisclosed
Underexposed

I’ve always got a handful of domains I’ve picked up due to an idea, and then I’ve simply never done it. One of those, www.bloggeridol.com, was meant to be an American Idol style of contest, where participants would submit entries each week for the contest (on their blogs), and then be judged by the community.

I never got around to programming it, and now the domain has 3 months until it expires. If someone else wants it, it’s yours. If you want to pay me the 10$ domain registration fee, feel free, but it’s not required.

Drop me an email, or leave a comment here. If multiple people want it (which is fine), I’ll give it to the person with the best idea (not the person who offers me the most money).

Update: Bryan Strawser picked this up.