We all have them, somewhere, hidden in a box somewhere stored in the closet or the basement.  Hopeing that our family will never discover them, for fear of the true mockery that is inevitable.  But yet, we hang on to them, just so that someday, when we want to "relive" the "good ole days" we can.  Yes, I am talking about those basements tape recordings.  

Whether you were in a band, or just messing around with your freinds, you did it too.  Spending hours recording mindless chatter, playing your favorite drum or guitar lick, or in my case..... singing.. 

Well normally we don't share these with anyone, except maybe your old freinds if you ever see or speak to them in later life.  But sadly, sometimes those tapes just sit getting old or sometimes, even thrown away.  And why?  Isn't it nice to hear where you came from, how you have grown?  Isn't it nice to hear how carefree and inventive you once were?  These are not times to look back on an cringe, but laugh at, and appreciate where you came from.  

Well my freinds, grab a pillow, and gather around my tape player with me, will you?   I have found some basement tapes of my first attempts at singing karaoke.  Lets have a laugh shall we?  I don't mind if you laugh, honestly, listening to these now, makes me appreciate what I can do now more than ever.  That doesn't mean I don't miss being a younger kid, I still do, but hey, I can't stop time, neither can you.

These recordings were done in 1990 when I was just 18 years old.  They were recorded in a Mall located in Austin, Texas.  It was around the time when Karaoke started getting to be a huge hit everywhere, and mall "recording studios" were a huge draw for the teenagers.  I only have 3 recordings left, the other tapes must have been lost, but I can assure you, living in Austin alone, I did these recordings like crazy, every week to be exact, I would go do (2) songs when I got paid.  I lived in Austin for 6 months until I moved to Beaumont, and sadly, no recording booths in their malls.  But I know I had at least a shoebox worth of tapes from Austin when I moved.

I hope you get a great laugh out of this, its pretty funny, and fun, to listen to.  I also encourage you to archive your tapes, and heck upload them too.  It's all for fun isn't it? 

Last note:  The christmas song I think is hilarious.  I used to love to play back me singing acapella on one recorder while recording on another my harmonies.  I would do this over and over till I got as many parts as I could, I would do it with my violin, piano and singing.  I find it pretty funny how now, I have a 8Track Multi Track Recorder to do that with.. lol

Today I had some free time, and really inspired as well.  I decided to make a "music video" of sorts out of a song that I did with fellow kompozer Jason H. 

Its not perfect, but I like it, please check it out, and let me know what you think!

-Jessica 

Do you get confused as to who's profile your on, because they all look the same?

Do you wish that you could personalize your profile with your favorite theme?

Does the color gray make you want to vomit?

Well if you answer yes to any of the questions above, please keep reading, and I will tell you how you can quickly change your profile page to showcase your personal taste!

Recently I wanted to find a way to change the look of my profile, to showcase my interest and show my personality. This first started with the Status bar located below your Kompoz URL. I started out by playing with the color and font style of what I would type in this field.

I first looked up on a search engine "color and font codes". I got several links to HTML codes. Well I am not a computer genious, and I hate reading.. so I just wanted something quick and easy.  One website that makes it very easy to understanding how to do a color and font code is Iron Spider HTML Code Help  this site takes the guess work out of it and you can just start playing around with it.  What? You don't want to even visit the site you want me to tell you?  Ok then, I will give you a cheat that you can just play with.  

The Title for this blog has HTML coding on it.  This is the way it looks:  <font color="purple" font size="5" font face="verdana" > <i>Snazz Up Your Profile!</font>  

Now, you can play around with all of the "quoted" areas.  For example maybe you want the color "blue" and you want the font size "3" and you want the font to be "arial" and you want the text to be <bold>.   Your HTML should now look like this <font color="blue" font size="3" font face="arial" > <b>Snazz Up Your Profile!</font>

You can play around all you want but remember to always have </font> behind your text.  The colors are endless but may not be supported on all browsers or on Kompoz.

After I got bored with changing the colors of my text, I was curious if you could change the layout of your Kompoz Profile.  I did a search on the internet for free layouts (myspace), and I tried a few of the codes in the Status window.  Unfortunately, they would not work. 

However, I found that you can  change the background of your profile.  You know on the sides that ugly gray color bars staring you in the face.. yah that one, eww change it!  Do a search on the internet for free myspace background codes and find something you like.  Copy the code and paste it in your Status window on your profile page!  It's that easy!  

What?  You don't want to search through millions of webpages for a music theme background?  Well your in luck!  I will give you the link to the website I used for my background.  Premade Layouts.com  I have started you on page 464, because I found that the few pages following it has the most music related backgrounds.

Ok, now that you changed your background, you notice that under the text you have typed announcing your status, that there is some extra typing in there.  Yep it looks like crap.  It's so that they can advertise so if someone is interested they can click the link.  But I hate garbage, so I deleted it, but how?  Ok.. here we go..

The code for My Background is this:

<style><!-body{background:  url(http://www.premadelayouts.biz/userpics/backgrounds/music_13.gif) fixed}--></style><div><a href="http://www.premadelayouts.biz/" target="new">Background By Hot Myspace Backgrounds</a></div> <a href="http://www.premadelayouts.biz/" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.premadelayouts.biz/img/button.gif" style="position:absolute; left:0px; top: 0px;" border="0"></a>

Everything that is underlined you can delete.  The only command that you need is that first half linking to the URL.  That is it!  Now when you save, you wont have any of that garbage in there! 

I hope that you found this blog helpful, and I hope that you too will be able to show us your personal taste!  Your an individual here at Kompoz, and you should show your style! 

-Jessica Rasche

Thank-You to Raf for suggesting I post a blog on how to personalize your profile.

Disclaimer: Not a computer wiz, simply want my pages to have a personal touch! 

I am starting to really feel good here at Kompoz.  I feel like I have found my niche in life. I have never chatted and worked with such talented freindly people ever in my life, and boy, I treasure that! 

My mother told me a few years back that you wonder what it is your here on earth to do, and some of us it takes years to find it.  With my mom, it wasn't until her mid 40's that she found dog training to be her niche.  At 36 years old, I think I have found mine.  Even if I never get session work, I can be happy here at Kompoz, until my vocal chords give out!

I am learning so much too, learning about sound, and how to properly use a mic to record with, to how not to push so hard and lose my voice, thanks coach Rab!

I look forward to years on Kompoz, and I hope that my new kompoz family will stick with me. 

I am so sorry that you all have dealt with a whiny crabby crybaby lately.

I am going through so many things all at once and I think my brain is on overload.  Its not meant to exuse the way I have been but rather, explain it.

Thanks!