I’ve narrowed down the guitarist applicants to one fellow who lives up on Sheridan. He seems keen on the idea of a duo, although I gave him the acid test of sending him an email specifying what I don’t want. I’ve learned. For instance, I don’t tolerate multi-banding. We play as a duo or not at all. That weeds out the dreamers and the unemployed.
It is made clear that the band and its trappings belong to me, and that the guitarist is not forming a band, he is joining one already in existence. One aspect of my bands is the way the music is arranged for performance in a manner that makes it difficult to solo afterward. This is intentional and sometimes surprises the guitarist. The guitar part alone sounds weak, missing essential sounds and lead breaks are outright terrible. This is something you have to hear to believe, but as far as I’m concerned, if I didn’t reinvent this wheel, I came darn close to doing so.
Putting y’day’s theory to the test, I produced five two-hour DVDs for $3.50. I gave this customer a special rate as he has so many tapes. I used the computer I hand-built for the purpose. The recording is real time, that is, it takes two hours to burn a two-hour tape. But most of that two hours is slack time and I can easily operate more computers. One expense not calculated is advertising. I see a monthly ad in any of the many old-folks publications in this town. However, old people don't often realize why making DVDs from tapes can get expenseive.
How do you know you’re an expert? When people watching you think, “I can do that” without a clue of the skill level involved. Dave-O saw me go into DOS and remove the autorun.inf virus and now wants to “learn DOS”. Uh, Dave-O, I have not learned it myself in some twenty years. Get a book and start reading. He is also avid watching complicated operations, both on the computer and with music, and is misleading himself over what is involved.
This is bothersome in the sense that he must thus not recognize the advanced abilities required, but it is also an indirect complement, for on that basis I was an expert before my 8th birthday. I’m reminded of the Saturday my 15 year old sister was bored and wanted me, in a couple hours, to teach her to play classical piano like I do. She could hear me practicing so many years, but she “didn’t intend to make all those mistakes”. She wanted me only o teach her the final version without those mistakes. Funny, but insulting. And pretty clueless.
Speaking of clueless, stupidity is sometimes rampant enough to meet my criteria for inclusion in this blog, and Theresa makes the grade today. I have to monitor the DVD rendering process, which requires huge computer power, so much that I cannot even open a word processor in the background. Thus, I will sometimes pass the time with a lo-res game, such a solitaire. That woman is too dumb to notice the connection between the DVDs and the games, so she complains I spend all day “playing” on the computer. She is too uneducated to understand I am working for money to pay her air conditioning bill. She has turned out to be far more stupid than I suspected. She should be worried about being behind on her rent instead of sticking her nose into other people’s business.
I met a guy in the library working a laptop and asked questions. Yes, the library wifi is free and reliable. I’ve been using the free computers, but as mentioned last day, not only did they infect my flash drive, the maximum time is an hour and today I waited over two hours for my turn. He says after four months of usage, he’s never been dropped or pre-empted, and the log-on procedure is uncomplicated. The cubicles have power outlets so my next acquisition is probably a notebook (computer).
When that will be, I can’t say. I’ve been waiting for a call from my lawyer since May 23, but all I am able to learn is that things “are going strongly” in my favor. Just like I knew they would. But believe me, after the last six months, I am more broke than the Ten Commandments.
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