Allow me to introduce E24, our first honorary club member. He’s the young chap who advertised for others in this hobby, and although he is too far away to commute to club meetings, he is, like myself, a writer. He seems about the same level, except he plainly has more experience in the manufacture of component systems.
E24 intends to build Arduinos along the line of the other clones such as the Freeduino and the Seeeduino, although I think these have to sell for at least $20 to be profitable. He has volunteered to lend us all the sensors we need for now, including RFID, memsics (accelerometers), Ping)))s and more ultrasonics. I will attempt to find a laser printer for our printed circuits.
And, $20 is too much to tie up in a simplistic device like a weather monitor or backup alarm. My proposal is that we design (and of course manufacture so I can learn how) Arduino chips (ATmega brand) on a breakout board with the code already embedded. That is, we use the original Arduino board as a harness or chip burner. The chips are a couple of bucks each, and the code, once written, is pennies per copy. Just ask Bill Gates.
Now, music. Well one thing that will be unique if we succeed is the musical sound of JJ and my bass. He’s played professionally with groups like “The Fendermen”, but it is a type of endeavor I’ve never personally tried—playing every song with a generic beat programmed into a machine. I’m the other side of the coin, I play it exact enough to guess the tune after a few notes. This isn’t something right or wrong, just different styles.
So we rehearsed ten songs to test the water. Normally two separate styles and two strong personalities would clash, but in fact we are experiencing synergy, this is really something. His singing style is Broadway, mine is Johnny Cash. At first I was leery of keyboards and he was equally leery of how much a bass could really contribute. Now I know he can eliminate my need for a guitar player and I know he has never heard a bass played quite like I do, that is, nearly a rhythm section in itself. (Good thing I never took lessons to learn that can’t be done.)
He’s also a trumpet player. Maybe he’ll teach me to play bugle and I’ll have a real bingo call to arms. (Right now I play a recording which has the audience trained to race for their seats as each new game begins. It is a bingo show, not just bingo.) I am enthused about the rehearsal today, we learned half what we need to get out and play, both of us have the done hard part years ago. It is enough to allay my earlier concerns about his lack of computer gear; I will gladly contribute that for free if this project flies.
Another telltale positive sign is that the usual startup difficulties were absent. Other than the usual statements of musical preferences, I point out that those preferences did not extend to any refusal to play a given tune and you just know who I’m talking about. Both of us appear adaptable enough to fake it without “following” some guitar player. I still can’t figure out with those 23 million guitar players in America, how I picked the bad ones with bad attitudes.
In an aside, I drove past the old Frenchies, a club off Federal. It is under new management and is considerably brightened up. There playing was good old Chopper, who never remembers me at first, but that’s okay. I mentioned JJ and he knows the guy. I forgot to say that I had discussed light weight PA gear with JJ, for like myself, he won’t take gigs that pay small because it is not worth packing heavy equipment around. But if the mini-PA systems prove their worth, I am more than ready to adjust prices and my approach to club owners. Chopper must have 300 pounds of tackle.
The economy sure isn’t doing as well as we just did. “Aftershock” is a book predicting financial doom in 2012, I assure you it is the first of many. How does 50% unemployment sound? Or 90% drop in stock prices? It sounds reasonable to me, for that complies with my estimation of what things have been worth all along. Time was when I was surrounded by people bragging how much their houses “went up”. Or gorfs up to their neck in debt telling me it’s not what you have but what you earn that counts. Really? Let’s see how much you earn now. Most of them don’t even know how to earn a dollar the real way.
So what is the real way? First, quit thinking of a “job” and second, you have to spend part of the dollar in order to earn it. Make damn sure you don’t spend more than 99 cents. The true calculation of that cost takes skill, and that’s what I mean when I say they don’t know how. But if you must know, it costs me 16.7 cents to earn every dollar I make, and I don’t do foolish things like drive a car to some office five days a week.
