A Confession

Posted on August 7, 2011 by SusanG

I am going to come clean. I am going to confess. Not long ago I had guitar madness or guitar fever, whichever you prefer.

I wasn’t suffering from the madness or fever. I was quite enjoying it. It wasn’t the, gotta have one of everything version either, though I did purchase 3 guitars and an amplifier within 2 months. No, it was actually the version where I would rather play than eat. Where I would learn a song just to get to play longer.

It could have been an addiction if I were just a little less disciplined. I never let it interfere with work or with exercise or taking care of business. But I did often yearn to pick up a guitar and play, even with my limited repertoire. I would play until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. I would play even with blisters on my fingers.

Truth is, I never suffered from the madness itself, only the side effects.

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Stuff…ugh!

Posted on August 6, 2011 by SusanG

Stuff! How did I get so much stuff?

Ok scratch that. I know how I got so much. I bought it. I get that. Why do I still have so much of it and why to I keep getting more of it?

The answers to these questions really aren’t that hard. I still have so much stuff because there are somethings I am attached to and can’t just get rid of, and the process of trimming down and condensing what I already have is huge and hard work. I keep getting more stuff because there are more things I would like to have, whether I just see their value or media has convinced me that I should have them, and because well, I, like anyone else keep succumbing to marketing.

So what to do about it. That is really the harder question, and the harder thing to put into practice.

The first thing becomes, not acquiring any more stuff. Sounds easier than it is. The minute  I decide I’m not going to acquire anything else, there is something cool I want. Either it’s the last one, or it’s hard to find, or I really have a need, or it will make whatever so much better. You know the drill. You’ve been there. Maybe I’ll try what we did when I was a kid. At Christmas time, when we got new toys and clothes and such we had to go into our rooms and find that same number of things that we could get rid of either through donation or a garage sale. This might be worth a try. I just bought a new pair of athletic shoes and have a pair that doesn’t wear right so I’ve put them in the box to go to charity. Well it’s a start.

So now what to do about all the stuff I’ve already acquired. Some of it, there’s just no getting rid of. I won’t get rid of the musical instruments. I just can’t do that again. And I’m going to be hard pressed to get rid of the cds, even though I was dismayed at the rearranging I had to do to get the most recent batch on the shelf. And the books. I’m not sure I’m up to getting rid of most of those yet. Maybe if I can be more discerning in the ones I purchase it will help.

There are a few other things that will help and we’re going to see how far I get with that project. Stay tuned.

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Weather Reports…

Posted on August 3, 2011 by SusanG

Some Weather Reports I would like to see:

Mars – The weather on Mars. What’s it going to be like today?

Jupiter – What’s the status of the big red storm? Is it bigger or the same. Is there more or less lightning?

The Sun – What is the current state of the flares? Are they quieter than normal or more active? Are they larger or smaller? Do we expect a solar storm any time soon? What about the solar wind is it lighter or stronger?

And could we get readings of the weather at the bottom of the Ocean? Just because.

 

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I Didn’t Realize

Posted on August 3, 2011 by SusanG

I have been playing guitar off and on for very many years, since I was a child. Before you decide that means I should be a Chet Atkins or Eddie Van Halen, read the rest. Most of the time I have played on an entry level instruments and never thought much of it.

I had been playing an Ovation and a Squire Bullet and one day I was talking with someone about the joy of playing a high end Martin that was at the guitar store but because of the price I felt like I would have to earn it. I come from that sort of background where you don’t spend a lot of money on something until you know you’re going to stick with it. So this person I was talking to gave me a bit of a strange look when I said I’d have to “earn” the Martin, but I tried not to think of it.

So I went about playing my Ovation, a little frustrated with listening to the sound of the ABS back, and a little frustrated with trying to get clean bar chords. And I played my Squire and didn’t really notice much other than by the time I finished playing a particular song, my hand was cramping.

Since I was planning on getting a new, all wood 6 string acoustic after I moved and then for Christmas I was thinking of gifting myself a Telecaster I figured I could make do. Or those were the plans until I came across a Gibson Les Paul Studio Mahogany with a 60’s neck. Oh my. Not only a good looking instrument but also a pleasure to play, and wait, my hand didn’t cramp.

I moved. And one of the first things I did that first weekend was to go find the guitar store. Unfortunately, with guitars, and probably other instruments, what happens is when that one you are looking for, that “the one”, comes up you kind of have to take it then or leave it and deal with the fact you may spend a long time looking for the next “the one”. I knew this going into the store and I knew it coming out of the store.

Sure enough this store had one of the Gibsons I was lusting after. They had exactly one and were not expecting any more in that wood or color, it’s black with a satin finish. Hmm.. Ok, looks like it will be now or never. I still wanted to look at acoustics. I was eying a Takamine but figured the salesman might have another suggestion. The only real criteria was that I would like to not spend as much as I was looking at paying for the Gibson. Right.

The guy handed me a mid-priced Takamine and a Seagull. Both played better than my Ovation. Wait, this was a dreadnaught, I don’t usually like those. Ok so it was time to change my thinking. The Seagull was still a little boomy for me. The Takamine was a lot better but something just wasn’t doing it for me. Then he handed me another Takamine. This one was a cedar top instead of spruce and it was about double what I was hoping to pay. But oh, it was nice to play. It was nicely balanced for a dreadnaught and it fingered wonderfully. I could now get clear sounding chords, not rattle and no unintended dead strings. This baby made me want to play.

That was my experience with both the instruments. They were such a pleasure to play that they made me want to play even more and even longer. At that point I think I understood the look the person was giving me when I said I had to “earn” the Martin. There comes a point where that is the wrong approach. There comes a point where you really need to invest in something a lot better. Though, to be hones, I did purchase two instruments for the price of the Martin so it will still have to wait a while.

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Gadget Envy, Sort Of

Posted on July 31, 2011 by SusanG

I’m not really a gadget freak. I’ve got a smart phone and a laptop and an iPod. I don’t have the latest and greatest of any of these and I don’t have a netbook or an ereader. And though a couple of those could have been followed by ‘yet’ I don’t really want all of them. How do you keep up with them and how to you justify the cost of them all.

I like the SyFy channel show Eureka! It appeals to the geek in me. So many interesting things being created and gadgets everyone has and just all the cool science. It just really appeals.

There are somethings they have on the show that we are starting to get pretty close to having in our everyday likes. We have smart phones that do things Alexander Graham Bell never dreamed would be possible, let alone happening on a phone not connected by wires. We have eReaders that let us read books on a device that takes a library of several square feet and puts it all in a space less then the size of a ream of paper. We have laptops and netbooks that are also smaller than the size of a ream of paper and with computing power that you couldn’t get in a full size desktop computer 10 years ago. We have tablets that are almost as powerful as the netbooks and do things that we only saw in sci-fi movies. How many of us watched Star Trek and thought the PADD was so cool. Really, carry all your homework in one hand, no backpack required.

One thing that I’m working towards is a being able to access my media all from several locations/devices. Ok, yes I live in an apartment and I could just put the cd on in the living room and hear it in the other rooms. That’s really not the point. I don’t want to have to turn on the stereo, dig out the cd and put it in and then decide if I want to listen to it over and over or if I will just get up and change it. I get busy and a lot of times the cd has been over for 2 or 3 hours before I get up to do anything about it. Or being able to have sheet music at the tip of your fingers in moments without having to carry around stacks of books. Or for that matter being able to access whatever reference books easily without lugging them around.

I want to be able to remotely access whatever I want to listen to from whichever room and be able to select all of it or some of it or whatever I’m in the mood for. Ok. I know there is iTunes and there are playlists for Media player and a number of other music players out there. I want to be able to have the music, words or chords to some of the songs I like to play easily available and not a mess of papers stuffed in a folder or a notebook. I’d even like to be able to access the movies I already have on DVD without having to take the thing with me.

I know it’s all possible. I may not know how to do all of it yet but I’m getting there.  The biggest part of this project is getting all the cd’s ripped to electronic format. Yeah, I could by them that way. I know. I’ll get there. I’m still a little old school on that. Then there is the scanning of everything to pdf. That’s going to take some time.

Unfortunately that means that I get to spend a lot of time ripping all my cds and then I will have to put them all in one locations, with a backup of course and then there will be all the scanning and possibly ripping the DVD’s to storage. Just that part is a big project. In the mean time, I’ve get to try to find the device or devices that I want to use for listening to the electronic of the music. I know my iPhone won’t be the best choice. It’s not very adhoc for that sort of thing. I’m thinking that some of the Android devices might be what I’m looking for.

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