One year ago today: September 30, 2013, choo-choo train.
Five years ago today: September 30, 2009, Autumn leaves of leather.
Ten years ago today: September 30, 2004, Tacoma, WA
MORNING
A good way to end the month is with some incoming new knowledge? Up for it? Good. I looked at the history and development of navigational plotting tools. The simplest tools remain the best, and I’ve learned they are correctly called the ruler, the divider, and the protractor. Odd, none of my three texts gave any good advice on how to find quality. The instruments I’ll invest in are the divider and protractor, both specially developed for navigation by Weems and Plath.
Following on from the discussions last evening, you might say both “basses” need to be covered. The new band and the old band. In the first instance, I must attend the new band audition even if it really is not my brand of country.
Trent and I discussed the possibilities and we cannot discount that the “must play” tunes they sent me represents some kind of wish list on their part. It is mostly show music, not dance music. And a little too new country for my taste, sort of the music I’d expect to hear when some itinerant jazz-rock fusion guitar chunker discovers it sells.
Prime example is the tune “Later On” by the Swon (not Swan, guys) Brothers. Strung together out of existing licks, the lyrics barely match the music, but this is on the list. And “My Kinda Party” by Jason Aldean is a direct rip-off of something or other. Still, I would not forgive myself if I don’t give it my best shot. I will say after listening to the list that a four piece group will have trouble with most of these studio production numbers. If so, that is where my “layered” bass playing can really make a difference.
As for the old band, you can never have enough contingency plans in Florida. I would relinquish my bass role to Trent, who is fully aware of how quickly some guitarists catch on to bass once they break through the aura of myths that surround that instrument. I’m to pick eight or ten tunes and see if we can’t run them past a coffee house or two. And one thing we’d have going for us that is lacking elsewhere is goal congruency.
Interesting side topic. You know how I feel the government will never change the antiquated tax laws for something fairer because they’d be giving up too much power to do so? Trent and a lot of others feel the same about the cell phone system. I mean, how else do you get the majority of people to willingly carry around a tracking device that records all their conversations? And Trent and I are not even radicals much less conspiracy theorists. And don’t even mention the postal system or the Internet.
Trivia. Trent pointed out the original concept of snooping on people’s mail came from Benjamin Franklin. Old Ben knew well that intellectuals have such darn interesting correspondence.
NOON
This small bass has five strings packed into the space of four, though it is a wider than usual regular neck. The unit weighs almost nothing, less than my Longhorn. I think it is likely meant for a child’s first bass—but keep in mind electric bass is entirely magnetic waves, so the hardware makes very little difference. I had such a bass in the 80s which I used to take with me to Thailand in the overhead.
The ESP has the same feel as an Ibanez. I tried other basses as were on sale, but between fret buzz and sheer pressure needed to center the notes, no way. Fender, who make great guitars, have never made a bass that meets my standards. And they all have neck-dive. I’ve got the price on the ESP down to $160 and intend to buy it tomorrow. They retail for about $250, so I’ll be trying a new instrument for very little investment.
I looked at a three bedroom in fairly good shape, but alas it was too close to the ‘hood. (The house was okay, but due to the presence of a man-made lake, you had to drive through bad areas to get there.) I draw the line when real estate people are not allowed to state whether the neighborhood is good or bad. There are ignoramuses in DC who still think you are going to be less prejudiced if you drive out there for a look. And see all the new cars on the block have temp tags and all the old cars are up on blocks.
EVENING
You want drama? Okay. This post is one I may have trouble with, but let the future sweat about it. Tonight, I drove out to Nova to discover two pieces of information relevant to the way to the way I look at those meet-ups. It is recorded fact that I warned long ago concerning the risk of having the 3D printer in the possession of one member. Well, here is a photo of the guy they let control the printer--our former meet-up coordinator, read on.
Mean, you say? Wait until you hear the second thing I found out. It was not just chance that the meetings were disorganized bull sessions except for the small inner core who sat at my table. I was not the only one dissatisfied at the endless talk and no action. The scant meeting of 4 members tonight proves that. We have lost the interest of 12/15ths of our original people.
Two months ago I put forward at one meetup that Nova was “a unique university in not supporting independent public research teams” like us. I asked why they provided us no lab or funding, and why had not our “leader” approached them for these things? Well, turns out the connection with Nova was mostly a manipulation. The guy was distantly acquainted or related to some minor faculty member and had wrangled a meeting room knowing darn well the public would connect it with a Nova venture.
Piece of information number two: I find out the “leader” who quit “did not like [me] at all”. Well no shit, now that the truth comes out, I was asking the “wrong” questions from day one. It turns out the guy wanted a formless group who would eventually become chums, retire to the campus bar and "talk about robots". Funny, that was never made clear to me or anyone else who spent many hours driving to and from these sessions. Even the robot hand we began in June was, if you recall, at my insistence that we vote on it.
And I see now that my "show of hands" tactic must have got his goat. Good. He was using the Nova name as a draw, and we fell for it. I was continually asking why there were never any Nova engineers or software techs in the group, why no upper contacts with Nova staff, why no access to proper equipment? Why never any visiting Nova personnel except the pharaonic security guards who swung by to lock up a 1700 prompt? (One arrived tonight and drew up the projector screen left down by the previous meeting because we were not scheduled to use it. Said so on his printout.)
Tell you what, I’m not going to explode. So Mr. Free Format doesn’t like me. I won’t go into how this is not the first time some smug post-grad bookworm found out I was far more educated than he could ever hope to be. I won’t say I hope that fact stuck in his craw, a fat and shapeless craw. Leader, my eye! His type hold back progress. No wonder he hates organized people like me. But I won't say anything, I'll let history draw its own conclusions. I mean, just because he wasted the entire group's time for eight months is no reason label him a stupid nobody, is it?
Now it makes sense why he nearly blew a gasket when I suggested we take a “skills inventory” last May. Tonight I moved we re-locate off that useless Nova campus (and their constant interruptions), we charge $5 membership per month, we get a coffee maker, and take up a collection for materials. Plus, each meet-up, one member provide a ten-minute informational presentation.
ADDENDUM
I don’t believe in Sputnik. The Soviets certainly launched the first satellite, but this did not “put them ahead”. The US had the top German scientists working for 12 years when Sputnik was launched in 1957 and there was huge fear of a “nuclear Pearl Harbor”. But rockets are expensive business, so you need an incident to fire up the American public. There is little doubt the engineering and technology already existed in Huntsville, Alabama. What’s missing was the incentive.
Sputnik was a polished ball of aluminum with a radio beeper. It didn’t even beep in code and went dead in couple of weeks. But the US military knew very well how the American mass media behaves when given something to whine about. Note I did not say the news, but mass media with political agendas, got that New York Times?
I suggest the US allowed the Soviets to launch a nothing satellite to stir up passion for the upcoming US spy satellite program. Follow my logic here. In those days outer space was not defined. Flying over enemy territory was an excellent way to start wars. What better way to get the enemy to agree to overflights than to let him think he is ahead? Nothing new in my point of view, I’m just saying I don’t buy into the Sputnik hype. And neither did most Russians—many were surprised at the American reaction.
Here is the “all-American” rocket team. (The guy you are looking for is wearing a handkerchief.) Except for four Americans, guys were Germans and they were heading for Mars. Try as they may, the pundits of political correctness will never find in this photo the “feminists, Ethiopians, and hobos” they desperately claim are necessary for diversity. I wonder why that is?
What I got most from Sputnik was the concept “independent amateur confirmation”. The Soviets understood the importance of this group in case of official government denials. Mind you, don’t think amateur means uninformed. Take our amateur robotics club. Maybe we can’t “launch” anything, but just let the world try to fool us now.
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