J.M. Hardin, Author at My Two Lives

C’est fini!

April 15, 2025

Transbian Studio has been quite busy over the last few weeks. My parody song, PM Carney’s Song, has been completed and is now available on YouTube.

For those who haven’t heard, I’ve finally put together a home recording studio, which I’ve named Transbian Studio. The name describes the place pretty well since I’m a transbian (transgender lesbian) and it’s my project recording studio.

The genesis of the song

While not the first project at Transbian Studio, PM Carney’s Song is the first to be completed. As I said last week, after Dear Leader (POTUS) declared himself a king, my mind immediately went to King Herod’s Song (Try It And See). The end of the song from, Jesus Christ Superstar, has Herod tell Jesus,

You’re a joke, you’re not the Lord
You are nothing but a fraud!

Over the next couple of weeks, the lyrics took shape. Mark Carney, the new prime minister of Canada, ended up being the perfect person to sing them.

I considered getting a karaoke file to record and share with a few friends. However, I found that Karaoke Version offers professional backing tracks for purchase. They also have a non-commercial license that allows me to share the song here and on social media.

Recording the vocals

I worked in a professional recording studio in New Orleans, but that was back in the early 80s. As I recorded vocals in my home studio, a problem cropped up. I had to find the best way to record vocals in my home studio. After some trial and error, I got a vocal take I was happy with. While the final vocal track isn’t perfect, it uses no autotune or other digital trickery.

Next up

I still need to work on Somewhere Someone Cares, and I have another song that’s in the works. Now that I have Carney completed, I have a better feel for the workflow in the studio and will get back to laying down tracks for Somewhere.

The other song in the works is a repurposing of the music I wrote for another song. It was originally a Christian rock song, but since I’m no longer a churchgoer, I’m not comfortable with doing anything with the original lyrics. The melody for the intro and the hook wouldn’t let me go, so I’ve come up with a chorus for a song that will celebrate the LGBTQ+ community in the time that we find ourselves in. I’ll share more about that song as I get it ready to record.

I hope to get Somewhere finished and released by mid-May, but I had originally penciled in a release date of last May when I started putting together the studio. The song should be out no later than this summer, though. I need it finished so I can work on other songs that are</span> bouncing around in my brain.

May the April showers not wash you down the road, and may the May flowers brighten your days without making your allergies flare up too badly.

Where’s the music, JM?

April 10, 2025

In January, I said that Transbian Studio was back in operation. It’s now April, and I haven’t posted any music. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been working on it.

I’ve set up Ardour and laid down some MIDI drums for Somewhere Someone Cares. But my folding keyboard got wonky while laying down more tracks. I tried to get it serviced before the warranty expired but could never find out where to bring it.

Momma needs new keys

My music needs a keyboard to record it. I ultimately gave up on repairing the old keyboard and bought a used M-Audio Keystation 49es MIDI controller. It’s my first proper MIDI keyboard with a touch-sensitive keyboard and pitch bend and modulation wheels. Musician’s Friend had it for a sweet price, and it’s just what I needed to create music. I already had a virtual Hammond B-3 organ, and I found a great virtual piano for recording piano tracks. But Somewhere Someone Cares needs a synth with a nice chimey piano sound. I discovered Dexed, an open-source virtual Yamaha DX7, along with hundreds of patches (sounds). I’m still going through the virtual cartridges to see what all the sounds are, but I’ve found several possibilities.

But first…

Photo of me recording vocal tracks for “PM Carney’s Song”

America’s chief executive officer decided to make himself a king, even though our Constitution clearly states that the founders rejected the possibility of having one. I’ve long been a fan of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar, and one of my favorite songs is King Herod’s Song (Try It And See). I saw huge possibilities for a parody dedicated to the politician I refer to as Dear Leader, and over a couple of weeks the lyrics took shape.

Next up was to figure out who would be singing it. British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was a possibility but he’s too far away. Canada’s Justin Trudeau was a thought, but he had already stepped down. When I saw Mark Carney make his first speech as prime minister, I knew who would be doing the singing. Besides being our northern neighbor, the US tariffs made Carney the perfect casting.

I considered grabbing a karaoke track of the song for a limited release, and I discovered a way to get a proper backing track with a non-commercial license that lets me post the finished song on social media.

It’s taken several takes to get a vocal track I can live with, and I may still do one more take to fix a couple of vocal issues. Once I have a final mix, I plan to post the song here and on Bluesky before the day I call Bunny Day. After singing my own music off and on since the 80s, I’ll finally have a song released publicly.

What about the cat pictures?

I apologize for dropping the ball on posting pictures of Chuck and his litter mates. Life through too many things on my plate and I wasn’t able to get back to them.

Chuck is now a ten-month-old big boi weighing in at 12 pounds. He’s outgrown his second harness, but I have a harness that fits him better for when I can let him enjoy the backyard. Now I’m just waiting for another warm enough day for us to spend some time outside.

Spring’s here!

The weather doesn’t always show it, but spring has arrived, and I have several things in various stages of creation to share with y’all. I’ll be updating the product list for my two Spreadshirt shops, and I’ll be updating my Legislation tee for Pride 2025. I’ll be posting updates on my real-life merch as soon as I have them.

A quick note about the Pride Lanes Bowling Center

Unfortunately, I’m taking the website for the Pride Lanes Bowling Center in Second Life offline. The center itself isn’t going anywhere, but the website doesn’t get enough traffic to justify the time and expense it takes to update the site (and the site itself is way overdue for an update). I haven’t decided where the content about the center will be going, but it will be going somewhere.

Have a happy spring, y’all. I know our country is getting downright hostile to folks who aren’t straight, white, and wealthy, but we’re not going to bury our heads in the sand and wait for the next election. Hang in there, and do what you can to stand up for your rights, healthcare, and economy.

Transbian Studio is back

January 15, 2025

When we last left Transbian Studio, the studio monitors had come in, but the studio’s been dark for almost half a year. That changed this week, and Transbian Studio is back with some great news.

Houston, we had a problem.

Not long after the studio monitors arrived, I learned there were some issues with how my laptop was funded. While there was nothing illegal, some details were overlooked. As a result, I had to surrender my System76 Darter Pro laptop. I’ve been assured it will be replaced, although not with the same class of machine.

As a result, I have to admit that I haven’t worked on my music much lately. It’s hard to keep motivated to work on music when you don’t know when you can start laying down tracks for original songs again. Especially when you don’t plan on performing the songs live.

We’re back!

I had packed away the speakers and interface for the studio to prevent them from sitting unused on my desk. However, I realized that keeping them on my desk would serve as a better motivation to work on my songs. It turns out I was correct.

Last year, I started creating tracks using the Hydrogen drum machine and the Rosegarden digital audio workstation (DAW). After getting my new laptop, I decided to start fresh with the Ardour DAW. One important step was to connect my Carry-On Folding Piano 49 so that I could play the drum tracks on it. I wanted to use MIDI to trigger a sampled drum kit instead of programming the tracks with a mouse. This required learning some new configuration techniques.

Yesterday, I created a new project in Ardour and set up a MIDI track using the DrumGizmo Crocell drum kit. It took me some time to get everything configured, but I successfully recorded a drum track using my piano. I successfully created a 15-bar sequence using kick, hi-hat, and snare sounds. I need to tighten up a few parts and correct some wrong notes, but overall, it’s a decent first attempt at creating a MIDI drum track with a keyboard.

Say hello to my little friend.

I would like to introduce version 2 of Transbian Studio. While it’s not a fast system, and I’m uncertain how it will handle playing multiple MIDI tracks simultaneously, along with guitar and vocal tracks, it feels wonderful to be able to create music again. Even though the process is slower than a giant tortoise, I’m hopeful that I might have some shareable mixes ready by the time I qualify for Medicare in about three months.

Please excuse the cluttered desk. It’s my main work area, so there’s a mix of almost everything on it. As Albert Einstein supposedly said, a cluttered desk is a clear sign of a [supposedly] brilliant mind.

I’m back on social media

January 13, 2025

I was given the boot by a social media platform (which I won’t name) a couple of years ago for my support of the civilians in Palestine. Since then, I’ve been off social media other than YouTube, which I honestly don’t consider to be social media like the other platforms. I’m on Discord, but that’s for my doings on Second Life.

I left Facebook and Instagram several years ago when I got sick of all the hate. That was before Cambridge Analytica attempted to influence the 2012 and 2014 U.S. federal elections. Facebook should have been penalized severely for permitting it to occur on their platforms. I had been on Twitter until the day the board agreed to sell to someone who seems to want to run governments but has zaro interest in ever putting his name on a ballot.

Hello, Bluesky

I had heard of Bluesky, but it was co-founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who has a reputation for being a jerk. I’ve seen a lot of folks on Second Life had moved to Bluesky, and I decided it was time to consider joining myself. It turns out Jack left Bluesky last year, saying people should stay on X, which to me proves what an arsehole he is.

Since Jack left, I joined Bluesky and have already found several people I knew from the bird site before it turned into a right-wing nightmare. There are also a lot of Second Life folks over there. LGBTQ+ individuals are warmly welcomed on Bluesky, which is one of the best aspects of the platform. If you truly care about the people affected by the wildfires in the LA area, you’ll discover that there are others who share that concern. This includes those who oppose the idea that federal aid, if it is provided, should be contingent on the state agreeing to the GOP’s harmful policies.

If you’re searching for a good social media platform, consider giving Bluesky a try. There is no algorithm determining what you see, and while haters may not be removed immediately, they quickly understand they are unwelcome in the realm of the blue butterfly.

If you join Bluesky, or are already there, look me up. I’m @jmhardin.bsky.social.

Chuck on the back porch, checking out the white stuff we call "snow."

Chuck, meet snow

January 4, 2025

Last January, my upstairs neighbor’s cat, Babe, experienced snow for the first time and wanted nothing to do with it. Last month, we got some nice snow in Boston, and I introduced Babe’s son Chuck to the white stuff. His reaction was completely different.

I shot a half-hour of Chuck enjoying his time in the snow-covered backyard, and I need to edit it down. I plan to create a comparison video of the two cats’ reactions to the snow and a longer video featuring Snowy Chuck. Until I can get those edited and on YouTube, here’s a short clip of Chuck’s initial reaction when he got into the backyard.

The music is Dave “Baby” Cortez’s cover of Bent Fabric’s song “Alley Cat.”

Congrats to the 2024 World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers!

November 5, 2024

They’ve already enjoyed their parade, but I want to congratulate my Bois en Bleu, the Los Angeles Dodgers, on winning the 2024 World Series, beating the New York Yankees 4 games to 1.

My Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres 3-2 in the NLDS and the New York Mets 4-2 to spoil the Big Apple’s hopes for a Subway Series. The last two seasons our All-Stars, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freman, lost their good bats once October hit, but this year Shohei Otahni joined Betts and World Series MVP Freeman got hot just at the right time while Aaron Judge couldn’t buy a hit for the start of the series. And Tommy Edman went from midseason acquisition to NLCS MVP.

Now we have to watch the hot stove to see who resigns with the team and who has to find a new gig elsewhere. I just hope it won’t be another case of a player like Kiké Hernández having to wait until spring training to find out if he has a job anywhere, let alone with the Dodgers for the 2025 campaign.

Your 2024 World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers — Image from the LA Dodgers

There’s a new(-ish) way for Whovians to get Max

November 5, 2024

Last year, Doctor Who moved from streaming on Max to streaming on Disney+ outside of the UK. Thanks to the pairing of Disney+ and Hulu, you can watch everything from the 60th-anniversary specials to the latest Doctor Who eps, as well as Torchwood and the Sarah Jane Adventures. If you have BritBox you can watch all the classic Doctor Who shows going back to An Unearthly Child from 1963. But if you want to watch the episodes from the first 13 seasons of the return of Doctor Who in 2005, you need an account with Max. But it turns out there’s a new option.

I had Disney Plus a few years ago so I could watch Get Back, but I let it lapse because I hardly ever used it. I got it again for the newest episodes of Doctor Who, and I had to pick which bundle I wanted. You can get Disney+ by itself, with Hulu, or in a triple bundle of Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. Since I only watch ESPN for Dodgers games, I got the Disney+/Hulu duo.

A couple of years ago, the only way you could watch the Doctor Who episodes from the relaunch in 2005 (the New Who episodes, or as I like to call them, NuWho) was on Max, but they also had Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, so it was even more worth the money. The only Doctor Who spinoff that may have been missing (if memory serves me) was Class, the short-lived spinoff from the Peter Capaldi years. It turns out Hulu now has Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, but if you want the NuWho episodes, you still need a subscription for Max. (Class is available on Apple+ for those with a subscription. Personally, I won’t give Apple money unless they start supporting computers running the Linux operating system.)

As All Hallow’s Eve drew near this past week, I came up with a new Second Life costume. Instead of my usual skeleton woman, I decided to go feline with the gas mask from 2005’s The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances. You can get the details on the costume over on the Nanci’s Naughties website.

Of course, I had to reactivate my old Max account and started looking for any deals I could find. Lo and behold, it turns out that Disney+ has two new bundles with Hulu and Max, one with adverts and one without. The best part is that since I already had the advert-free bundle of Disney+ and Hulu, adding an advert-free subscription to Max only adds $10 a month to my Disney+ bill.

If you already have a Disney+ and Hulu Duo bundle you can add Max by logging into Disney+, going to Account, and selecting Change Your Plan. If you have the Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ Trio, I’m sorry to say that you can’t add Max to your Trio bundle.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some work in Second Life to do, plus I’ll be spending the next week avoiding news about the election by binging Whoniverse episodes in chronological order. It’s a bloody shame I can’t include episodes of Class, but c’est la vie.

Louisiana Jones, Treasure Hunter

September 3, 2024

There’s a company in Second Life called MadPea that makes great games and gadgets. They also put on hunts in Second Life. You can earn fun prizes during their hunts, and the most recent hunt had a prize I had to try and get.

In August, they ran the Treasure Seekers Hunt, a grid-wide adventure seeker’s hunt, and what got me to join the hunt was the Explorer’s Fedora. As a fan of the Indiana Jones movies, I had to get that fedora.

I hadn’t joined one of their hunts before, and I joined this hunt with only a few days to go before the hunt ended on 31 August. In the spirit of the hunt, I had to change my display name to Louisiana Jones for the hunt. No, not Dr. Jones, because I’m an amateur explorer, not an archaeologist. And being a transbian, I’m not looking for a good man a la Dr. River Song.

I didn’t collect all of the available prizes, but I got the fedora and sunglasses. There were a couple of other prizes I would have liked to get, but I didn’t earn enough credits to get them I also got several other goodies that were placed around the grid, and I was able to collect enough gems to get the guide and shaman monkeys. You can see the guide monkey in the feataured image, and it joins me in the video below.

My Adventuring Outfit

Me being me, I wasn’t about to go adventuring without putting together a good adventuring outfit. You can see my outfit in this picture, which I took at the hunt headquarters. My avatar is wearing

PRIMA Busty v. 1.5 mesh body
LeLutka Zora 4.0 mesh head
MINA Juul hair
MadPea Exploer’s Fedora
MadPea Treasure Hunter Sunglasses
Meli Imako Ladies Long Sleeve Shirt (Maitreya V3 version since there are no PRIMA versions)
PRIMA Influence High Waisted Jeans
HeelFolly Lace Up Ankle Boot
Xcite! Coiled Bullwhip (wood handle)

Of course, I had to find a way to play the Indiana Jones theme as I hunted. I found this gesture to handle the job, but it’s only 10 seconds long so its use is limited. I ended up grabbing my Raiders of the Lost Ark soundtrack CD to make this video.

Transbian Studio got some more new gear

August 16, 2024

Late last year I decided to create a home recording studio to start working on demos of my songs. Today I got a needed piece of gear, and my studio is almost ready to begin laying down new tracks.

I started with a Fender Mustang Micro headphone amp and Bandlab. Bandlab is an online service that helps music creators lay down tracks wherever they are. Earlier this year, I added a Focusrite Scarlett Solo Studio, a single-channel audio interface combined with a condenser microphone and a pair of headphones. Last month, I got my System76 Darter Pro laptop, but I knew the speakers were an issue. I had figured I’d use the headphones a lot, although I hate living with headphones on, especially with my tinnitus.

Today I was able to unpack a pair of M-Audio BX3 self-powered reference monitor speakers. I had to clear off my desk to find room for them, and I need a stand to raise the speakers (and laptop) to the proper level.

This is my new setup with an early set of tracks of Somewhere Someone Cares that I made in Bandlab.

I still need to finalize my recording software for the studio. I looked at using AV Linux MX Edition, but it’s having issues with my wifi and Bluetooth. If I can’t get those resolved I’m going to add my recording software to my current combination of Pop!_OS 22.04 and KDE Plasma 5.

Five two week old kittens enjoying some of mamma's milk

The Kittens’ Third Week

August 10, 2024

Please forgive how long it’s taken me to get this group of pictures online. Sometimes life comes at you nonstop. -JMH

The kittens started their third week of life still living in my bedroom closet, but they finally began exploring the world outside the closet on their own. I started taking pictures of the individual kittens, and I used some in the article where I introduced the kittens.

14 Days Old: The kittens are two weeks old!

As the kids get another momma meal, you can see how big they’re getting. Of course, if the kittens aren’t eating, it would be a very safe bet that they’re sleeping. But at two weeks old, we’re finally able to spend more time with the kids, letting them get used to the big creatures and finding out that, as Ford Prefect said about our planet, we’re mostly harmless.

15 Days Old: Hi Grandpa

Bobby, Babe’s primary human/daddy, was sitting in front of the closet with Kathleen (who would later be named Kenny) on his lap. She was so comfortable, that Bobby feigned sleep so I could get a picture of the two of them. Kenny would end up being the first of the kittens to find a new home after slipping outside when either Bobby or I were coming inside without us catching him. It drove us crazy for a few days that we couldn’t find him anywhere, but we’re hoping that someone found him outside and adopted him. The alternative could be so bad that we can’t even consider it very long.

Vera (also called Vito and Vivi once we realized she’s a he) got into the floorboards via a gap under the kitchen cabinet. It took a day or so before we were able to rescue him from under the porch when we heard him meowing for us. I always hated the gap under that cabinet, and we ended up shoving an empty jar into the gap to keep anyone else from getting through the gap.

We tried for days to find Kenny, who could be pretty vocal when he wanted to be, but we never could. One thing’s for certain, whoever has him now has a pretty cool cat. 😿

16 Days Old: Sleep snuggling

The kittens still need a lot of warmth, and it’s so cute when they snuggle together while they sleep. As I write this, the kittens are 11 weeks old and it’s amazing how much bigger they are now. Of course, they still like to sleep together and they still sleep in a mound at times. In some ways, the kitty mound has gotten bigger, yet a little smaller. As much as I wanted to keep Lulubelle, she and I never bonded properly, while Chuck made me his human pretty quickly.

This past week, Lulubelle went to live with a doctor that Bobby knows, making our feline family even smaller. I got to tell Lu goodbye, but the other three kittens stayed away from me for a day or so. We decided that they connected spending time with me like I did with Lu and their leaving, but we’re back to all being buds.

Next weekend, Dave and Vito will go to live with Max, and I’m hoping Chuck won’t hold it against me even for a couple of days. After all, once they go live with Max it will just be the four of us, Bobby and Babe and me and Chuck.

17 Days Old: Let the explorations begin!

Chuck, Kenny, and Dave set out from the closet to see what the rest of their world is like. They’re still pretty wobbly, but it’s good to see them out and about on their own. You can see Vito and Lulbelle hanging back in the closet, wondering just how safe it is out in that big room.

18 Days Old: There’s nothing like Momma’s milk

Sometimes you’ll hear about momma cats that won’t nurse their kittens, but Babe has no problem feeding her babies. Her two humans just had to make sure she got lots of noms and water so she had enough nourishment to pass along to her children.

It’s getting to the point where you can tell she’s getting a little tired of being a milk machine several times a day. Don’t get her wrong though, because she loves her kittens and will fight anyone who tries to keep one from nursing.

Day 19: Wat? Iz comfy like dis.

There’s always one that likes to sleep in an odd position, and today it’s Kathleen’s turn. You can tell it’s Kathleen by the white around her mouth and the line of black on the outside of their right eye. Vito has a black line outside of his left eye, and I called them our New Wave kittens with the “mascara” by their eyes.

Sometimes we’ll see the kittens sleeping either in a pile of fur, one on top of another, or in weird positions. We have to wonder how comfortable they are like that. Other times we get jealous that they can sleep in any position they find themselves in and not get up with a crick in their neck or their backs sore as hell.

Day 20: Hi there, Chuck!

I started trying to get the kittens on my bed one at a time so I could get pictures of each kitten, but Dave wasn’t too keen on getting his picture taken yet. On the other hand, Chuck was willing to let me snap a couple of shots.

He’s so adorable, and now he’s a cuddle monster with a very loud purr when he approaches me. The other day I told Bobby that I need to record his purring and work it into a song now that I finally have my new laptop.

It’s almost hard to believe, but the kittens will be four weeks old with the start of the new week of their lives. My, how time has flown by. I almost wish we could have kept them this size a while longer, but I love how they’ve grown into being their own felines.