One year ago today: July 27, 2013.
Five years ago today: July 27, 2009, $1,000,000 shack.
Ten years ago today: July 27, 2004, Mars weather.
MORNING
The Canaveral trip books are closed. It cost me $179.15 inclusive. I’ll get you the breakdown another day, but half the cost was gasoline, somewhat higher due to the side trip to Winter Haven. Once again, avoiding the rip-off hotel/motel scams, I did everything, ate the best places, and passed by nothing because it was too steep. Every cent saved goes to pure enjoyment. Maybe I can no longer afford to live uptown, but I still enjoy my kind of places.
The trip exhausted my savings and by the looks of that picture, my energy as well. It was warm out there. And another thing, I don’t believe most people who tell me they saved up for something. These days I need proof, such as a systematic deposit of cash into a segregated account that matches the trip duration and cost.
You see, I find those who claim they saved up are generally liars. They usually juggled some other finances to come up with enough cash to do something, but that is not at all the same as regimented, regular savings. Like I did. This trip took me four months savings at $45 per month. And wahhhh, I still have not seen a real rocket launch.
Ah some say, but I took several short trips in four months. Yes, but those were budgeted for, not saved up toward. I said it when I was starting out in life, if you work you must reward yourself. Thus, to me, a budgeted trip is not a special event. It is something built into my design of things. But this satellite launch, I had to save extra.
AFTERNOON
Following is a scenario anyone who knows me will find familiar.
A successful band rehearsal. This band has got to be one of the most well-documented startups of all time, at least for a band that isn’t famous enough to have their own historians. I read back on my long recital of complaints—and I ratify these are accurate to what really happened.
My ratio of twelve to one is complaints to compliments is probably better than normal for a band of this size. There’s another development in that the band has finally (I’m not going to say I told you so) dropped the price to get a first gig down to $200.
There’s more. The band is finally learning to analyze the stage work, to focus on the problem songs and there’s a marked improvement in error recovery. Of course, I’m happier, as they are also doing it my way, but with a long enough separation they could deny it. This probably could not be helped, as this band still has a severe case of gittaritis and would resist any idea from a non-guitarist. But it’s moving faster than the wasted six years with the Space Hippie and Cowboy Mike.
Some may say I manipulated the situation, but maybe I just wasn’t up to wasting another year. Fact is, the band if finally acting as a more cohesive unit and as far as I’m concerned that means time to start recording originals. Once you get a “sound”, you have nothing to lose. As for my methods, in music, the end justifies the means. It is a cutthroat business.
It says a lot that the other groups I joined never got that far, not even to the elusive demo tape. I’m not against studio work, but I am against deception or recording something that would never sell. Sadly, none of the audio recordings from the last gig turned out. My Kodak microphone was too sensitive and clipped every note. Next time, I record through the PA. Hold on. I no longer have any gear that can do that. Then I’ll borrow something. If we are not gigging, we should be recording. The band has reached a plateau where we are not getting any better just rehearsing.
But we are getting better. I kept playing on the upper strings (many non-bassists don’t like that) until they took the low end fat out of the PA. Now the bass is again audible across the full range. Stage confidence, and they still have a long way to go, is enough that everyone now leaves the bass playing alone. Is this relevant? Yes, because the band is, possibly without realizing the extent, taking on more complicated music than most other local bands dare to touch. This is my turf.
I won’t give any examples, since to non-musicians, complicated can mean different things. What doesn't make sense is why isn't this band going anywhere? I mean besides the fact they won't listen to me because I am "only" a bassist.
EVENING
Okay, Agt. M, I agree there would be more room in my place if I hung my bicycle from the ceiling. But let’s be fair. You are a weightlessness fanatic, I’m not. My bicycle weighs more and it would dent the ceiling of my Florida room. And the weight means I can’t pick it up with one hand.
Another warning. When these bicycles are converted to electric drive, forget about mass. The batteries can tip the scales at 38 pounds each. And the drive motor has have copper coilings. Trust me, a bicycle ten feet in the air isn’t what you plan for at my age.
My Win 7 computer barely avoided defenestration. Now, it won’t let me into my own control panel. Says I don’t have the authority. Please, world, somebody go back to building real computers again. Even Apple has fallen on that count.
Then again, I’ve found Win 7 locks and blocks are very easy to defeat. Win 7 is full of quirks that won’t let you get away with certain things but all of them seem to be designed to fool only the generation since DOS. These blocks, such as the Program File (x86) attribute that won’t allow files they don’t like (such as Lame which is used for copying MP3s) can be defeated by copying a shortcut. This is the same situation as Nova. When a problem is encountered, I try to figure it out, others start searching for an app to do it for them.
I’m not saying anything else about that.
