I look at the “Beach Buzz” from Theresa and it has very little depth, the editorial is pretty bad and in this instance, misleading to the wrong people by joking that eating steak is no worse than eating the grass that fed the cow. It is probably humor but why take that kind of chance? A good puzzle is more addictive and Wallace likes those “find the differences” between two pictures. Yeah, he'd be good at that.The Buzz has too many fonts, the “ransom note” effect. I see now that it is geared for two different communities (Monkey Junction and Pleasure Island). Somehow I didn’t notice that at first—but it proves I’m awake and thinking. The main font is down around 5 points (5/72nds of an inch) and must be impossible for those without good vision. In all, I have lots to think and plan here while awaiting Theresa’s reply. (In the end, she never did reply, but it was still all talk and no action. And I really mean no action.)
Here’s where I talk about work. We had a customer bring in a job for $12 and by the end of the day. That guy now has a $100 pair of shoes and does not know it. We are never at a loss for material. In fact, you know that thin cardboard that canned soda arrives in? Each step to what was an otherwise simple matter got ever more complicated, where to get each thing done, you had to first do something else. A lot like signing up for Comcast Internet service.
Later. The good news is that I may have developed a new word puzzle. Yoiks! While nothing is truly original, I’ve got something that is unique enough to work for now. Generated by a spreadsheet text algorithm, it asks the reader to reconstruct a 6 or 7 letter word. A test run tonight proves the difficulty can range from obvious to devious. Meanwhile, I just know Theresa up in the Carolinas is more than impressed by all this hard work. Just me and the cat.
[Author’s note: The algorithm is a plucky use of an existing text function, which I won’t reveal unless I get famous over this. It’s right there, but you have to figure out how to trick it into working for this purpose. The puzzles can, in a pinch, be created by hand but that is tedious and it makes finding the right sequences a matter of trial and error. Around 2/3 of the results are too easy and we want at least some challenge. But I will give you a hint. The 7 letter maximum has to do with the limit of how many layers you can nest Excel formulas.]
Dueling Banjos, the epic tune, always did have a boring bass line. Not no more. Both Arnel and I had by coincidence learned complimentary parts of it in the past, both rejecting it for stage work as not quite good enough. But you should hear us play it as a duo. Ha! What a show, what a show. Arnel has also written an instrumental tune that has led me to dub him “The Henry Mancini of guitar”. It is a hit somewhere and reminded me of such music as “Pink Panther Theme”, “Mission Impossible” and “March of the Que Balls”, if you care to give those a listen.
I doubly like his new tune because it has my style of bass line. That is, a moving line with few repeated consecutive notes, a toe-tapping rhythm feel, subtle dynamics and just dissimilar enough from the melody line as to show it required thinking as well as talent to create. Arnel can do something I cannot, which is play jazz. Then again, you know my defense on that one: “You mean some people actually have to take lessons to play music?”
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