One year ago today: June 10, 2017, Plumbing 101.
Five years ago today: June 10, 2013, a generic day.
Nine years ago today: June 10, 2009, a generic day.
Random years ago today: June 10, 2008, I've leveled before.
See this? That’s Mel Gibson’s ex, or is it his ex-ex? Whatever, but this is the reason you need to be on stage when you are over 40. Other then money, which attracts the wrong kind of attention, the only hope of having a selection is to get out of the pit. Slated for today is a potential trip to Kissimmee to see how the other guitarist is faring. But I did manage to break my kitchen lighting and have to make coffee by candlelight until I find the open. It’s inside the wall. So leave it until after the weekend. I’m not the human dynamo, although some of my ex-exes might contradict that. I said might, okay. Now, to get on that stage, I gave a call to the army guy. Probably tomorrow. We need to see how much time he’s put in. Nobody I’ve ever met can do proper duo arrangements naturally.
Salesmanship, there’s a contrived term for you, always reminds me of Ken Sanchuk. The Meat Boy, who still owes me $1,400, fancied himself just such a salesman. The type who thought he had the ability to get anybody to do his job for him. Then there is me, who is an absolute stone wall to such tactics. The best I’ll do is maybe show you the easy way to do it for yourself. So there was the donut shop orientation, but in fact it was 80% a sales pep talk. The customer does this, you do that because head office says so. Other than that, you are free to use your initiative.
I was also reminded of the phone company, where they are constantly testing to see if your mind is on the job. You are encouraged to think outside the box as long as your mind is on the job, get it? These were actually decent places to work up until the 90s, when somebody upstairs suddenly decided everybody, including the janitor, was a company salesperson. It’s one of the more moronic ideas that makes the rounds every business down-cycle. Myself, I see a sharp disjoint between marketing and production. The average or even remarkably superior customer at the phone company could hardly or never comprehend what I was doing, much less be sold something over it. But these crackpot customer service brain-turd ideas die real hard. They were still at it when I waltzed out the door with a hundred thousand dollar buy-out.
I know, I know, they are basing their calculations on a different equation. It’s probably ten times that per tourist per week. By the time everybody gets their cut, what’s left over filters down to some chump at the bottom of the food chain making $2.15 (minimum wage for jobs that rely on tips in Florida), then one McJob is created. No medical, no dental, no pension, maximum 32 dreary hours per week. Don’t come to Florida looking for a decent job, there aren’t any. Not only that, Florida corruption is entrenched. You got your tourist tax, your airport tax, your hotel tax, your sales tax, and if you win any money, your windfall tax. Tallahassee would tax sunshine if they could only figure out how.
Last evening I put up more drywall. That’s a two-man job. No matter how carefully I measure, my cutouts never line up. It’s a good thing I can afford an infinite supply of tape and mud. Nor is it as interesting or challenging as electrical. In fact, it’s a trade where it is best not to plan the whole job in advance. Drywall is more start in one corner and deal with the problems as they arise. I prefer a trade where the advance planning is a little more challenging than calculating up the square footage.
Another partially cool day helped me put in a five hour day, a bit of a record. This is diet day 191 and instead of feeling fatigued, I was naturally leaning more into the work. I usually step on the scale at the same time each morning, but thought I’d take a peek before I turned in. To my delight, the scale settled momentarily just below 180. I haven’t seen that in around 20 years. The digital scale fluctuates, I get a spread of up to two pounds per day, so I take several readings at a time. And I definitely read 179.8 last evening.
I haven’t done any electronics projects since this renovation began. That makes sense, I don’t have a dust free area to work. Instead I regularly read what’s new or different on-line. The projects, once you’ve read a comprehensive list, become repetitive. Kudos to the person who invents a truly new device or a new component. I’ve become more attracted to studying and planning DIY gadgets, but not building them. That ROM number display remains my most complicated prototype. I’ve conjured up dozens of ways I could improve and miniaturize it. That seems to satisfy my goals most of the time, just knowing I could do it if I had to.
Late news from the deep south. JZ’s original high-school girlfriend is in a bad way. I don’t really know her, but he talks about her. It’s more like the guy who says he doesn’t have a girlfriend, but he knows a lady who gets really angry when he says things like that. We’ll know more after surgery. Also, he should know better than to touch Zest, the soap. I don’t know what’s in that product but now he’s got a rash all over his hands. And that is the big news for the day. Hey, I had to settle down sooner or later.
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How went the rehearsal? Semi-great. The Kissimmee dude has a natural aptitude. But he has no clue about any of the tunes on the default list. Despite that, we played a full to sets. He has not put that much time in, but he is talented enough to get through most of it. Any stumbling blocks? A few, for instance he has a tendency to gallop. That means speed up as the song progresses. He’s still struggling to eliminate the shigga-booga strum. And, like most guitarists, he tends to overplay when not in a full band. Many times I counsel these guys not to overstrum, but it is wrongly taken as a way to diminish their style. Not so, and indeed, he had to stop after 3-1/2 hours, while I was just getting started.
Please, dudes, listen when I tell you strumming acoustic for hours on end is more strenuous than you think. You are not the first to tell me for you it is no problem and then wash out. The secondary reason to keep it simple is any “fancy” strum you use now is one less you can call upon later where we meet a tune that requires it. Remember, each song has to be strummed differently for these duo arrangements to work right. It was an overall successful meet-up, as he is now can see the fundamental logic of the presentation. Instead of playing what comes naturally, he plays the boom-chick while I play the chick-boom. Dynamite sound, folks.
Turns out he doesn’t know Steph, the lady who gave me his number. For some reason I thought they were old buddies. Nope. He and his father stopped in looking for an address, stayed for a brew, and they all got to talking. This was just a few months ago. Also, he is married, which always puts a damper on things when the wife does not regularly attend the gigs. I met her today and she’s not a party animal, so keep the other guitar player in the loop. You know, just in case. For example, the excellent guitar player from the church hall never did call back after his wife gave the word.
What went right? The big picture on this one is positive. This is a concept band, not just another of the countless clone groups in the vicinity. He’s already gotten flack that we are playing the “wrong” material because we don’t have he standard song list. Fortunately, he brushed that right off, knowing we have no intention of being like the others. Or disparate backgrounds can be turned to an asset when we come up with one of the more eclectic music most people have ever heard. Put another way, this band won’t be no Stevie Ray Vaughn tribute.
Still, he did not put in even two hours since last time, so maybe throw the guy to the wolves? I’m talking about that birthday party next Saturday. Two single women, a bar, and a sound stage. Two hours or two sets, whichever comes first. You call it. If I had any brains, I’d be on that stage no matter what. I have now lost 35 pounds. (Took six months and ten days.) My blue jeans are almost there.
ADDENDUM
I found the article on the latest Mars probe, the one they launched from California. Alas, it contained little news I hadn’t anticipated, but contained some interesting stats. Only 40% of Mars missions have been successful. Deployment near the Mars equator is slated for November 26. It says here they are going to jackhammer down 6 feet. Please let this be the one, you know how I feel about them finding life out there.
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