Sometimes people ask me how to deal with “haters” and other critics. It’s inevitable, when you post your projects in an open forum, like the internet, you are going to get some negative feedback along with the positive.

I try to consider the source before really taking any review to heart. Some people will praise something just as absent-mindedly as another will hate on it. For me, the empty praise doesn’t mean anything more than the empty hate.

The feedback I really trust, though, comes from people whose opinions I trust. People who know me well enough to put my project in context (how it was created, the time, budget and resources) will always have better insight than those who don’t. That was one of the driving forces behind us releasing a “Making of…” video for Erase This, to put the project in some kind of context.

Today nerimon sent me his review of Erase This. A good portion of the beginning was very positive, then it got critical for a while, then he ended on a positive note. The perfect review sandwich. I may post the review tomorrow, or I may not.

The important thing is, not only did I get reassured that the pride I feel for Erase This is not misplaced, I also got a few areas nerimon believes I could work on for the next album, to make it even better. And because Alex is someone who I’ve met in real life, and someone whose opinion I value, I will take the majority of his advice to heart. Or at least consider it a bit more than I would consider some random, nameless commenter.

If you happen to get a nasty comment, or a bad review, or someone making fun of you in your comments section, try to consider the source before getting upset or even giving it a second thought. Anonymity brings out the worst in people, sometimes. Once you understand that this person didn’t spend more than five seconds considering you, or your project, you’ll be better able to not give them more than five seconds of your own time.

And when you do receive a positive comment or feedback from someone you trust, it’ll mean that much more.

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It’s been so long since I’ve collaborated with someone in the same room that I think I’ve forgotten what it feels like.

I remember when I was in grade school, my friends Josh and Tyler would come over and we’d challenge each other to short story contests or just sit and come up with ideas for various stories.

In high school I had a band with my downstairs neighbor Darryl. We wrote and recorded 70 songs together. I taught him how to paint. I kicked his ass at Cool Boarders 2 on Playstation.

When I lived with my ex-girlfriend Kate we’d work on music together, her at the piano, me on guitar or at the computer.

But now all of my projects are with people I only know online. I’ve never met Hank in person. Or John. I’ve met Alex, but not Charlie, Todd or Johnny. And I’ve met Monica, but not Karen or Luke or Kristina or Christian.

One of my best friends has been feeling a little lonely lately. Working on her projects by herself every day. And I tell her she has me, but I know that’s just not the same.

Luke is looking for a new place to live after he’s done with his summer job in the mountains, and he asked me about the possibility of him living here in the house with Jenny and me. We certainly have enough room, and the rent is super cheap. I was excited at the idea of having someone to work with in the same room. But that’s a whole summer away, so who knows what will happen come fall.

Some times the internet can make the world feel so small and help me really connect with someone half a world away. Other times, I feel millions of miles away from the people I care about. No doubt my projects are better off because of the involvement of these people, but I know I’d be happier, in general, if I had people to work with who lived in the same zip code.

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Today was mostly spent working on a new project. An online guitar tuner.

I don’t have relative/perfect pitch, so I can’t tune my guitar by ear, even if I can hear the correctly tuned tones. Every online tuner I’ve seen plays these tones for you to tune to.

So I decided to develop a visual tuner. One that works just like a hardware tuner, with a VU meter and everything:

When it’s launched, you’ll be able to just go to the website from any computer or mobile device, and the tuner will pick up and process your default audio device. There are no confusing audio routing or device setting options, etc.

My friend Sam wrote the Javascript coding, and I did all of the interface design.

Today I gave ten people the chance to beta test it. Kristina Horner was the first, and she absolutely loved it. The tuner also worked perfectly for seven other people. One person had trouble getting their browser to recognize the incoming audio signal. And one other person’s connection was too slow, which caused the browser to lose the incoming streaming audio and flicker the tuner image.

For our first round of testing, an 80% success rate isn’t too bad.

The beta team had some solid suggestions on features they’d like to see (as beta teams almost always do) so, after a few more days of testing and upgrading, I should be ready to launch the tuner for public use. (If you visit the URL now, the site is not live, it will simply forward you to one of the other sites I host.)

I don’t expect this project to bring in any serious income outside of AdSense and affiliate ads on the page around the tuner, but I’m excited for it nonetheless. The time spent developing this, and the money spent hosting it and its bandwidth will be paid back with its coolness factor. This tuner is something I will actually use, and something I’d guess others would find useful as well.

I’ll post about it again when the site goes live.

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I get teased sometimes about how often I listen to my own music¹.

But here’s the thing: You have some songs you like more than others, right? And the more you like a song, the more often you listen to it, right?

Well, if I’m going to bother writing and producing and releasing music, I’m going to make it my ideal version of what a good song or album should be.

So, using that logic, I should be listening to my music more often than not.

I see some musicians and authors talk about how they never reread their own novels nor casually listen to their own CDs, but why would you bother investing that much time and energy and love into a product that you yourself don’t enjoy spending time with?

Doesn’t make sense to me.

And if those critics and teasers create any content of their own, such as blog posts, videos, poems, whatever… I find it hard to believe they never go back themselves and watch or reread those works.

But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m just an egotist.

¹ I could easily rectify this situation by turning off last.fm and my skype mood messages linked to iTunes. But I find the conversations that occasionally arise from whatever song I’m listening to at the moment to be more interesting than the teasers are annoying. So the interesting conversations win, for now.

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On her birthday this year my friend Monica asked me to build her a website where she could upload whatever she made that day. That was my birthday present to her. She planned to upload one post every single day for a year…

Well, today is my 27th birthday and I’m stating publicly that I plan to write here in this blog/journal/diary at least once every day for the next year. I will fail. I can practically guarantee it. But you know what? That’s okay.

When you set these outrageous, unreachable goals, even if you fall totally short, you’ll still accomplish a hell of a lot more than you would if you never set any kind of goal in the first place.

The above is probably the most important thing I’ve learned over the last two years.

Most of the projects, big or small, that I’ve started over the last two years have fallen short. But you know what? With just the act of starting them and trying, I’ve made more music, artwork and participated in more collaborations that I’m proud of than ever before.

So cheers to another unreachable goal that will hopefully produce some good conversations, a place for some much needed venting, some education, and some fun… even if I fall drastically short of 365 posts by my 28th birthday.

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