Here is a picture of a bush party out on the prairies. There’s Alf and Janet, and between them in the background is Bill Tronnes (say “Troh’-nezz”). I can’t at the moment recall the other guy. That’s Bill’s guitar in the foreground. As you see, the river valleys out west do have lots of trees. It makes them a favorite spot for this kind of get-together. It must have been early Spring as the trees are bare and the guys are wearing quilted jackets. In Florida, you’d be hard pressed to find four people who wouldn’t steal the picnic table.
Let’s see what is on record for this date. My ten o’clock was to teach how to burn CDs, something that is not all that easy unless you already know how. Some folks are surprised to find out that there are not a couple of buttons you push to do it. During the lesson, I discover that somehow, Apple computer is able to over-ride my locks that prevent people from doing things like creating a virtual drive just for iTunes.It also narrows down the suspects to that hefty woman that can’t pay her bill till next week, but seems to have hundreds of dollars to download iTunes all day long. I’m considering locking Apple iTunes completely off my system because of how it operates. Whatever the cause, Apple is at the root of it all. I also found out that Netgear routers can cause headaches if you have two of them transmitting on the same channel with the same SSID. It confuses the antennas on the remotes.
In case you are wondering why all the thrilling tech material these past few days, blame the weather. Some hurricane that was supposed to stay in Mexico came back up this way and dumped water everywhere. The Taurus also has a nasty habit of the power steering cutting out if you hit a puddle just the wrong way. That’s why I could not let Wallace drive around. Rain keeps me indoors taking care of logistics and drinking much more coffee than I should. It’s decaf.
This also means new music. I did not know “Kokomo” was the Beach Boys, and I’ve rejected a few songs by Melanie because they are just too harsh from what I remember them to be. Her real name was Melanie Safka, which explains why she went by Melanie. However, I may consider her version of “Look What They’ve Done To My Song” as break music. May too the theme from Andy Griffith, although there are parts of that I’ll have to cut out, like that horrible saxophone riff. I’m also doing “Hold On Tight To Your Dreams”.
No high-hat yet. Don’t worry, I’ll break down soon. I’ve been using the tambourine and can now reliably play most of my previous list on the backbeat. Yes, there is a trick to it and I’m not saying. I have not tried any of this in front of a live audience. But that is what Jimbo’s is for, see?
Yes, folks, I have developed a version of Tennis Elbow called Bass-player’s Shoulder. Upper arm, actually. It took a while to figure out, since I assumed any injury would be my wrists. Okay, I have weak wrists. That’s weak, not limp. The cause is I use a pick and [therefore] hold my arm more in front of the instrument, like a flat-top guitar player’s stance.
Hmmm, looking around I see there are hardly any photos of me playing bass. That won’t do. It makes sense, I usually play inside where my self-timing camera won’t work. I was examining how I held the bass because of the pain in my upper arm. I never did get into finger-picking as I find it makes for over-playing. Why play four notes when thirty-two will fit? I know that isn’t true, any more than considering that kind of playing a desperate attempt by an ex-guitar player to look cool, but that is the way I see it.
Upon reading over the instructions I wrote about burning a CD, I’m tempted to publish my own. (It is over half completed already.) Even if I just make a few copies for sale in the shop, you know how it goes once you’ve printed the first one. I followed my rule of non-technical wording and after the lesson this morning it may be a good idea to get something together. It would be a short saddle booklet (means folded and stapled at the crease) that explains how to clone and rip CDs. I even have the subtitle which goes “What About The Rest Of Us?”
One of the illustrations is shown here, comparing the size of a regular 650 MB CD and a pocket 210 MB CD. I now prefer the smaller disk, especially after the arrival of MP3. They [the smaller disks] cost twice as much and are hard to find. Still, the booklet is worth considering since most people have never even seen the smaller disk and ask where it goes. See the other illustration. Trust me, this information is not common knowledge in a lot of circles. The existing CD instruction books on the market are 300 page behemoths that get into pit sizes, laser wavelengths and another 280 pages of yet more other crap you don’t really need to know. Tell you what, I’ll calculate if I could make anything selling my booklet for $9.95 a copy and get back to you. But only because I could produce 12 copies an hour.
Undoubtedly, this will go on to bring up the topic of why there are not “home publishing” applications on the market. No, not MS Publisher, which is for pamphlets and brochures and you have to place your words in text boxes. I want a program that I do nothing but type in the words and position the illustrations, then pick a page size. The software is to tell me how many sheets to put in an ordinary printer, and beep when it is time to turn them over to print the reverse side. When done, the sheets are correctly collated and numbered so when I fold them over, out comes a booklet that needs only a cover and binding. This software seems to be non-existent, but should cost less than $50.Of course, a lot of people might ask why I don’t just put my booklet on CD. Ahem, I’m dumb. But I ain’t THAT dumb.
