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jackbenimble
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Posted: 26 October 2009 03:59 am |
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Well, my shoulders a bit sore from tennis - my left shoulder - no idea why. I guess it's just age. Thank God I played, though. I was going crazy. I really have to think about getting some winter tennis in. This gym stuff really is boring.
Hmm..the wife is still moving around upstairs. Maybe I should go to bed. There is usually a very small window between the time she hits the bed and is fast asleep.
While meditating this morning, it came to me...the one thing I want to improve in - *confidence*.
I finally sort of finished Hey Joe, and made an mp3, which is how I'm stamping songs as being entered in my "street" act. I kind of have the intro sort of down, which surprises me. I worked for an hour on it and it kind of came together. My vocal are uneven, still.
I just took a quick look at a youtube on how to play sympathy for the devil. It was excellent. This is a beginner song, kind of a fast strum, 16th notes, but the guy gave the secret d d d d u u d d, easy. It sounds *great*. Also, you just hit the base note on the first two downs. This will take way less time than Hey Joe :)
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jackbenimble
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Posted: 27 October 2009 02:31 am |
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Ok. I had a good day, basically. Except I lost my glasses. I stuck them in my pocket at the sub shop, and when I got back to the office, they were gone! 400 bucks. Well, I was thinking of getting them replaced, but I might go ahead and get the lasik. I pretty much use my glasses for everything anyway. I just have to come up with 4k.
Well, as far as my recommendations on the open source. It went pretty well. I met with the new guy who's driving this, the PM, and C and P. I had to convince especially the new guy and C. Luckily, I had made up a powerpoint on Friday, when i was researching this. I just was taking notes, but I knew I would have to convince them. It turned out to be a pretty good presentation, covered a lot of things. So, the basic decision was to adopt the open source. That was what I was shooting for. The front end, we are going to do as a fat client, but it'll really just be an embedded browser. So, that can work. C will be happy, because he gets to do a UI and he likes doing that. Plus it will be better, and add value. I would've preferred if we focused on a strictly SaaS model, but the new guy wasn't on board with that, so far. But, we can see as things progress if we go that way.
I worked out, 45 minutes on the elliptical, 500 plus cals. I got 200 back when I bought a couple of bags of salted peanuts, but hey, they were good. I had a couple of slices of pizza for lunch and a salad/potato salad for dinner. How many calories in a slice of pizza? 400? So that's 800 + 200 + the salad, another 700? Plus coffee creamer, 300, call it an even 2k for the day. I really have to get more accurate numbers.
The landlord's daughter is a sweet kid. She keeps offering me food, although I haven't taken her up on it yet. At first I thought she was kind of standoffish, but she's definitely gotten friendlier recently. Maybe she's figured out I'm not some strang-o type like they probably get in these rooms a fair amount. She's no beauty, but she does seem to have lost some weight since she moved back in.
Uggh, I forgot my laptop battery, so I can't stay on the computer too long. I'm going to work on "Sympathy for the Devil". I've got it on itunes, so I just really need to download the lyrics. Wait, itunes is on the computer too. Oh, well, I can still play it.
Soooo, see ya later.
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jackbenimble
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Posted: 28 October 2009 02:04 am |
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I weighed in at 169 this morning. Not bad, all things considered. I've been sitting on around 170 for about several months now. Very stable. I liked the 169.
Today I had say 200 calories coffee creamer, 650 cals lunch, steak and cheese pocket things, and a salad, 100 cals, than a smart choice dinner, 300 cals. So really only about say 1200 cals. Not bad. But I skipped my workout.
My wife is a bit unhappy about the whole choir thing going on. There are jealousy issues and there is this one lady who pushes people around. So, basically she's getting pressure to do stuff she doesn't need to or want to do, go to rehearsals, stuff like that. I told her, just quit. But it's not so simple, she wants to leave on good terms. It's awkward, but, if they want her to stay, they've got to make it worth for her. Who do you go with - the bossy lady or Snow White?
Anyway - I'm going to, umm, play some guitar. I'm working on Sympathy for the Devil. It turns out to be not so easy - the beat is really fast, and I'm having trouble matching it to the song. I've got it licked once I figure that out. Oh, yeah, I found a great web site - this guy named Herb Roberts I think, really teaches guitar really well. No guesswork at all. He's got a seven-piece series on You-tube which describes how to play Classical Gas, one of my all time favorites. I'm determined to tackle it. Then, I will just sit around playing classical gas all day long. I love that song.
It's funny, he was describing his typical customer. They are older guys like me, who never quite nailed down guitar, and now have a little extra time or money now that their kids are out of the house. He says, they usually learned how to play a little guitar, but not songs exactly. So if you asked them to play a song, they couldn't! Err, too painfully close to home, that one. He also said, that unlike when they first started, there is the internet now, and you can find a dozen lessons on any song. If you miss it, just hit replay. And it's true. It was on youtube last fall that I finally nailed down how to keep the rhythm going on guitar. It was on "Every Rose Has its Thorn", and I finally got it, I mean, how to keep a steady rhythm and sing at the same time.
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jackbenimble
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Posted: 29 October 2009 02:25 am |
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The old weight was 170 this morning. I'm alway happy if I can keep it at or below 170. For food, I had, well, a chicken and rice dish my wife made. It was good. 1000 calories? 2000? No idea. Then I had some potato salad - 400? And also, I had some coffee cream, and also a couple of salty peanuts.
I worked out at the gym tonight - 45 minute 6 or 700 calories worth, on the elliptical. I haven't been doing the weightlifting.
I'm heading home tomorrow - at last.
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jackbenimble
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Posted: 31 October 2009 06:12 am |
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Ok, so, it's about 1 a.m. and I'm listening to Eddie Vedder sing "Black" which sound very cool just about now.
I haven't played guitar for a few days as I've been overwhelmed by work. I've been doing a lot of checking into this open source program, and I just want to make sure that we don't screw this thing up.
Ummm...so, my wife is bugging me again. I can't believe I've been married so long without resolving this thing. The problem is, if we divorce, I am so screwed financially. i will be paying alimony the rest of my life, big alimony, because she's essentially unemployable. She could always teach, but she hates teaching. What else can a classically trained singer/pianist do, though? You don't make anything actually doing the stuff.
My states alimony laws are ultra-restrictive - I think we have the lowest divorce rate in the nation. I'm screwed if I divorce - and screwed if I don't. It's not an optimal situation. I've got to figure this one out.
Maybe I'll go see that marriage counselor. I've got some days off coming up. If I don't want to spend them working, then I've got to make plans to do something, not just take the days off.
Yeah, that's what I'll do. I'll go and see a marriage counselor. I'll make a priority out of it. Eventually, maybe I can talk my wife into it, too. Who knows? Maybe it will make a difference. It's a plan.
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jackbenimble
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Posted: 31 October 2009 06:23 am |
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Speaking of plans, I've decided that I want to spend more time planning. Planning leads to action. Action leads to...well, you get the drift. But I'm serious. I've never been much of a planner - it's not my nature - but, as my sister says - you've got to have a plan.
Ah...great tune. My Sweet Lady Jane. Mick Jagger really nails the vocals on that one. He always did. And the guitar, I think it's a couple of acoustics, one for sure, so sweet on that song. I just heard their version of "Little Red Rooster", and it was so good. Ah, now, Mustang Sally - Wilson Pickett. A real classic. It's got some serious sexual innuendo going on, that one, no doubt.
I was trying to play Sympathy for Devil Mon/Tues but couldn't quite get the hang of it. The rythm is in 16th notes. I want to buy this software package, Transcribe, to slow it down, but it's like fifty bucks. Wait, how about Windows Media player, can that slow things down? I'll need to check.
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jackbenimble
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Posted: 31 October 2009 07:23 am |
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Ok, well, so, I can't sleep. I will report on my day. Today - I worked. There. Hows that?
I'm going to call my brother to see if he wants to play tennis tomorrow. Then I'm going to work some more. Then, hand out some candy for Halloween. I'll call my mom - I haven't talked to her for a while.
I'm hungry. I've got sugar cravings. I wish we had some grapes around here.
Ah, I'm listening to this song, "I Feel Love", an old hit by Donna Summer. It's just a moog / synth or whatever laying a couple of simple yet *urgent* overlapping rhythms, and her doing liquid, sweet-sexy over-vocals in the background, "let me run, let me run", over and over. It's really quite the tune.
I watched this movie, Pineapple express. Ok, it had its moments. Call me an old grouch, but the vapid, "I love ya man" pot-inspired guy on guy humor really didn't slay me. My wife liked it - she would - it's an all guy flick, and she invariably likes all guy flicks. I was disappointed when I heard she ordered it. She should've known I wouldn't like it. She knows I don't like all guy flicks, I've emphasized that to her, many, many times. Heck, even if they had reeled it in just a bit, or had aimed higher than a six-year old's mentality, it could have been a significantly better movie.
Ah. Billie Holiday. Thank God for Billie Holiday. Things aren't so bad, really. What's this song? Our Love Is Here to Stay. A nice, simple jazz piece. A little bit of a snare drum, jazz/blues piano, sax, and her voice blending so naturally and lightly and sweetly.
What's love got to do with it by Tina Turner. That reminds me of a long-ago girlfriend. We really had a chemistry. That was love. But I walked away from it. It wouldn't have worked. It was kind of the opposite of my current marriage - my wife had all the talent and grace, but there's no music *between* us. Literally. Her music is the kind you learn in opera school. My music is the kind you hear on the radio. Classic Rock. Jazz. Blues of any kind. Reggae. Grunge. Motown. Disco. Pop. Rap and hip-hop. Funk. Big Band. Bluegrass can work. Country not so much. I like some classical even. Who doesn't like the four seasons by Vivaldi? Beethoven's 9th? Mozart's Requiem? The William Tell Overture? But, she's never even *heard* of a lot of the bands I like - it's wasn't part of her growing up. How did she end up with me? Or, I with her? What a mistake. Well, at least we got my daughter out of it. She's my contribution to future generations. She'll carry on the genes, maybe, if not the name. Although I sometimes wonder about her. I can almost guarantee she would be more than happy to spend her days curled up with a good book in front of a fireplace with her cat in a condo somewhere. Boys need not apply.
Ok, it's time for me to wrap up this little session at the keyboard. To the tune of AWB playing "Pick up the Pieces", an electric funk tune of the first order.
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suenos
Moderator
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Posted: 1 November 2009 04:57 am |
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Hiya Jack!
I love these glimpses you give into your life. Don't like all guy flicks huh? Funny cause I really hate "chick flicks" - I mean really hate. A friend loaned me the Sex in the City movie dvd (she practically forced it on me) and two weeks later it sits in the dash of my car still cause I already know I'm gonna hate it - so why bother?
I actually thought about ya last night because we were playing this silly but fun music game. Basically you had to name a singer or song that was so famous that it (or he/she) transcends time and genre. If you named a singer/song that no one knew you got a penalty. Anywaaaay, I said "Kenny Rogers" and got blank stares. So I'm singing "you got to know when to hold 'em, etc." and got laughs - and more blank stares. I mean come on - Kenny friggin Rogers singing The Gambler, I mean seriously, I am apparently the ONLY person in my circle who has ever heard this. I was shocked and I actually thought "hmmmph, I bet Jack knows that song!" Don't let me down, man, tell me you "know when to walk away - and when to run"
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zenobia
Moderator
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Posted: 1 November 2009 09:43 am |
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suenos, you are just too cool  (what kind of people are you hanging out with by the way???? lol..... (i jest, i jest... ))
jack, that about your daughter. yup, that sounds pretty delicious to me-- curled up with a book and a cat in a condo... in san francisco, of course. or maybe big sur.... hhmmmm. anyway, in a parallel universe, i am doing just that 
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jackbenimble
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Posted: 1 November 2009 01:23 pm |
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Hey Suenos: of course I know Kenny Rodgers - he had a number of hits, the holdem/foldem song, coward of the county and ruby, don't take your love to town. Probably your friends don't know it because it was before their time, Rodgers was big in the 80's no? But he must get airplay still, so who knows. I love that game by the way, thanks for passing along the idea :)
Zen! yeah, curling up with a book and time to rad it is one of life's greatest pleasures. The book part is easy, the time part is trickier, isn't it?
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jackbenimble
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Posted: 1 November 2009 01:42 pm |
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So, my weights been steady, the scale had me at 170 this morning with sweats and slippers on - not bad since I has my share of Halloween candy, basically Nestle's crunch bars. It was a light crowd this year, but there were some really cute costumes. I met the guy who moved into a house down the street.
I played tennis down the club yesterday. I didn't play well, though, partially from rust, partially because it was windy and partially because I had a lot of trouble with this guy's left-hand serve to the backhand court, which is what I was playing, and partially from lack of experience playing the net and partially from not following through on my backstrokes. We lost, 6-2, 6-3. I'm pretty sure I would've played better if I was in mid-summer form.
I've been locked in a death-match with this software we're evaluating - it's complex, but I think I have an approach identified.
I'm kind of unhappy that at work they jumped straight into development of the GUI without evaluating the alternatives. And do the hard ones first. We already know what we can do with Swing and .net. It's a huge decision and we've wasted development time already by the rush to judgement. I'd rather we had checked out where technology is on rich internet application instead of going straight to the client. At least I got them to evaluate Adobe Flex - that was a big thing. But S seems to already be saying it will be too slow. I don't believe it.
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jackbenimble
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Posted: 3 November 2009 01:22 am |
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Ok. So, that open source software I've been pushing at work - I threw in the towel on it today. There were several reasons for this. Primary among them were my evaluation of it this weekend, where I found it to be quite complex and not that fun. Also, it's based on a technology that is losing ground in the marketplace. Otoh, if we start from scratch, we can use this really cool new technology called grails which is supposed to be highly productive and *fun*.
I still am glad we went through the exercise. Why? I'm not sure. It has something to do with making sure that you're going down the right path by going a little bit down the wrong path, first. Also, I showed I could make it work - I identified a viable approach, so I backed up what said. But, in the end, it limited our options to much in terms of the business model.
Anyway, I'm freed of that monster now. I made a speech to S about the timelines about writing from scratch, and E also made a speech. So he's well aware. The boss, however, still is in la la land about it, thinking it will only take another two months or so. So, we're going to have to have the guts to tell her. We'll see what happens.
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zenobia
Moderator
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Posted: 3 November 2009 04:14 am |
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so what are you playing?
this song is haunting. and don't laugh when you see the singer either...
[code][/code]
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zenobia
Moderator
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Posted: 3 November 2009 04:17 am |
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqMG3VR5PP4
sorry for the confusion.....
the lyrics are great, the music is ghostly, the guitar is simple. just a great all around song....
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mollymoo24
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 3 November 2009 11:58 pm |
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And if you read between the lines,
You'd know that I'm just tryin' to understand
The feelings that you lack.
I never thought I could feel this way
And I've got to say that I just don't get it.
I don't know where we went wrong,
But the feelin's gone
And I just can't get it back.
What a great song. I can understand why its on your mind.
Last edited on 4 November 2009 12:01 am by mollymoo24
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jackbenimble
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Posted: 4 November 2009 04:14 am |
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Hey Zen and MM :)
Zen, I love that tune. I have it in one of my old songbooks. There are likely to be a number of lessons on it on youtube as well. Maybe I'll take another crack at it. Or how about the wreck of the Edmund Fitzerald? Four chords total, all of them easy. Currently, the song I was working on was sympathy for the devil last week. I'm having trouble quite catching the beat when I play along, which is 16th notes and pretty fast. I want to slow it down a bit, using something like transcribe, but I don't want to shell out the 50 bucks to buy it. Btw, the Black Crowes do a fantastic acoustic cover of SftD.
Work has been seriously infringing on my free time recently. Last night, I got home and just gave up the ghost and slept, like from 9:30 or something. When I woke up, I thought it was an hour later, because my cheapo cellphone doesn't get its time from the network, and so I ended driving into work at close to sunrise. Although the blazing foliage is pretty much history, the early frost and the pale, whitish sun made for some eerily beautiful viewing over the fields and some ponds on the way into work. I took a couple of photos, we'll see how the come out.
It was a good day overall - J and I did some work in Grails, and give it to S who incorporate his layout into it. Then, after work, I stopped off at Borders and read up on "Groovy" which is the Java-based language used for grails. It was actually pretty interesting reading. Plus M called me to tell me he had found my $400 glasses down out the club - I must have been somehow carrying them on me without realizing at, maybe in my green sweatshirt. That's got to be it.
After that, I stopped at the gym and did an hour on the elliptical, worth 700+ calories. At the TV there, I saw the Celtics play for the first time this year, and they are *loaded* with talent. They have 5, count 'em 5, all-stars at one level or another on the squad. KG, Pierce, Ray Allen, Rasheed Wallace and Rajon Rondo. Then, they have this guy Sheldon Williams who looked very well tonight, and another guy, a rookie? Hudson, who sank some nice shots in garbage time. Eddie house can really drain the threes as well. It's almost certain to be Celtic/Lakers again in the finals. Awesome :)
I tipped the scales at 170 when I came back, which shows two things - 1) my scale at home is unreliable and 2) I ate too much Halloween candy.
For food, I had, a lunch, a rice and beef thing, maybe 1000 calories, then a salad with sharp cheese and potato salad, maybe 500, and then, the cream from the coffee, say 300. So, all told, maybe 1800 cals.
Jaa, mata ato de...
Last edited on 4 November 2009 04:19 am by jackbenimble
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jackbenimble
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Posted: 6 November 2009 03:18 pm |
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I was just on Sueno's thread, and she had some really interesting ideas on intuitive eating. I started getting into this whole-self analysis thing myself, but the problem is that I am not entirely comfortable with the self-analysis and rooting around in the past which is required. For now, I'll try a simple version of it, which is simply, does my stomach feel hungry or not? Just ask that question. It's a good first step.
I also came across this site "Zen habits". It's about simplifying your life to achieve your goals. Here's a link about "Six small things to do when you lack self-discipline" which I am going to attempt to apply to myself:
http://zenhabits.net/2009/05/6-small-things-you-can-do-when-you-lack-discipline/
Good day yesterday. We're all in consensus about how to move forward with this project. I was kind of a pain about it, but I did my homework and I'm comfortable with the direction we're heading. The boss was laughing at my jokes, and saying what I said "resonated" and agreeing with a lot of my points. But, watch next week, she'll walk up and say "do this by Monday". My wife says it's like a weather report - boss good/boss bad. A very apt analogy.
I won my traffic violation hearing, when the cop didn't show up. I paid a lawyer six hundred bucks to represent me. The six hundred bucks as justified, because it would have cost me double that in insurance and fees had I lost. I think when she moved the date of the hearing because of her vacation, it fouled him up. But once you hire a lawyer, it's in the bag anyway, more or less, because the judges are all lawyers and they are in cahoots with the profession. Another guy had a lawyer, and the guy really had no defense, he ran a red light. His lawyer basically threw in the towel and asked the judge to consider his client's character - without even saying what about his character was noteworthy. The judge said tell me about him, and there wasn't much to say - the guy works, basically. So the judge let him off with a bit of scolding. The other guys with no lawyer, who had no defense either, were all found guilty. The judge never said tell me about yourself to them.
Actually, my lawyer was a real cutie, about 25 or 30 years old. Beautiful brown eyes, sweet lips, Mediterranean looks, outgoing, kind of short, curvy. Bit of a cleavage showing. Very much my type in some ways. She put on high heels when she got to the court. She kept telling me this, telling me that during the proceedings. Nice voice too. She kept her legs crossed, but impatiently kicked her leg in and out much of the time. I somehow found that to be quite sexy, like wow. She even kind of hinted around about going for coffee afterwards. Maybe it was the suit? I didn't take her up on it, though. I dunno - for one thing she had a huge rock. Still, a coffee with her would've been fun. I guess I was to slow on the uptake. Typical. She fished around in her pocketbook and gave me her card, and off to work I was. It was a pleasant interlude. It's always good to win. Last edited on 6 November 2009 03:23 pm by jackbenimble
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jackbenimble
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Posted: 6 November 2009 03:24 pm |
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from the Zen Habits link about self-discipline (above)
1. Forgive yourself. You aren’t perfect. No one is. Realize that beating yourself up will only make things worse. Take a few slow, deep breaths and let it go. Forgive yourself. And move on.
2. Realize that discipline is an illusion. While discipline is a common concept, it doesn’t actually exist. It’s not a thing you can actually do. Think about it: people say discipline is pushing yourself to do something you don’t want to do. But how do you do that? What skill is required? There isn’t a skill — it’s just forcing yourself to do something you don’t want to do. And that requires … some kind of motivation. Without motivation, you won’t be able to force yourself to do anything. So motivation is the key concept — and this is something that’s real, that you can actually learn how to do.
3. Focus on motivation. What’s your motivation for pursuing the goal or habit? How will you sustain the motivation when you struggle? Have very strong motivations for doing something, and write them down. Commit publicly. When things get tough, remind yourself of your motivation. Focus on it. It’ll pull you along — that’s more powerful than trying to focus on the push of discipline.
4. Make it easy. Discipline is tough because whatever the task or habit you’re trying to do is tough. Instead, make it easy. Remove barriers. Having a hard time exercising? Make it ridiculously easy, by only exercising for 5 minutes. What use is exercising for 5 minutes? You’re creating the habit, not getting yourself into shape overnight. The 5 minutes of exercise will have only a tiny impact on your health, but it makes exercise super easy. If you can do that 30 days in a row, you now have an exercise habit. Hate waking up early to go to the gym? Do it at home. Do it during lunch or after work.
5. Focus on enjoyment. It’s hard to push yourself — to have discipline — when you hate doing something. So find something enjoyable about the activity. If you don’t look forward to exercise, find some good music, or a workout partner who you can have a nice conversation with, or a peaceful setting in nature that is just beautiful. And focus on that enjoyable aspect. Hate doing your paperwork? Find a peaceful sanctuary where you can do the paperwork and enjoy yourself. Maybe have a nice cup of tea or coffee, play some nice music. And focus on the enjoyment.
6. Repeat. You’ll almost inevitably slip up sometime, no matter how good you are. Unfortunately, people often take this to mean they don’t have discipline, and they just beat themselves up and give up. Well, it’s just a bump in the road. Get up, dust yourself off, and get going again. Start from Step 1 and start all over.
—
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suenos
Moderator
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Posted: 7 November 2009 04:51 am |
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jackbenimble wrote: from the Zen Habits link about self-discipline (above)
4. Make it easy. Discipline is tough because whatever the task or habit you’re trying to do is tough. Instead, make it easy. Remove barriers. Having a hard time exercising? Make it ridiculously easy, by only exercising for 5 minutes. What use is exercising for 5 minutes? You’re creating the habit, not getting yourself into shape overnight. The 5 minutes of exercise will have only a tiny impact on your health, but it makes exercise super easy. If you can do that 30 days in a row, you now have an exercise habit. Hate waking up early to go to the gym? Do it at home. Do it during lunch or after work.
5. Focus on enjoyment. It’s hard to push yourself — to have discipline — when you hate doing something. So find something enjoyable about the activity. If you don’t look forward to exercise, find some good music, or a workout partner who you can have a nice conversation with, or a peaceful setting in nature that is just beautiful. And focus on that enjoyable aspect. Hate doing your paperwork? Find a peaceful sanctuary where you can do the paperwork and enjoy yourself. Maybe have a nice cup of tea or coffee, play some nice music. And focus on the enjoyment.
ooooh Jack....I totally can't resist. I have to check out this link to see what else this guy (assuming it's a guy for some reason) says but ya know this strikes me as what typically happens when "eastern thought" meets "western thought" and rather than simply accepting the "eastern thought" as valid in and of itself, some bright guy comes along to twist the concept into a barely recognizable form of the original by trying to make it palatable to "western thought". I mean seriously, Zen is sorta all about "inner and spiritual discipline" - and we (westerners) are all about "easy and enjoyment".
Okay, tell me in 30 days and I'll eat my words (with butter and sugar)....but honestly I think number 4 and 5 are insanely bad (and totally NOT Zen oriented because it's self-indulgent to the nth) advice. The only thing "habit" that can be created by exercising 5 mins. a day for a month is...well the reinforced habit of doing only what's easy and comfortable.
Moving on......good to hear that you won on your traffic case! I think you're spot on with the "those who have lawyers win" thing...it sucks because not every innocent person can afford a lawyer and not every person who has a lawyer is guilty - so much for justice being blind I guess.
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jackbenimble
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Posted: 7 November 2009 12:48 pm |
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Hey Suenos!
Yeah, I was pretty shocked. The lawyer even told me that if you get a lawyer it shows you're "taking it seriously" to the judge, so he's more likely to be lenient. Heck, the judge even called her aside afterwards for a few minutes to ask her about who her firm was, etc. Blind justice indeed.
On the Zen habits, your thoughts on that are as usual on-target and incisive. The making it easy and fun parts are clearly not Zen - anything I've ever read about actual Zen talked much about that. For example, Zen and the Art of Archery undoubtedly gives a much better idea of what Zen is really about. Nonetheless, I'm going to give it a go. For example, this morning I did 5 minutes of stretching and 5 minutes of meditation - which is 10 minutes more than I have been doing despite my best intentions.
Ok, yesterday I spent most of the day learning this new technology for work. It's really interesting about J. Since he's quiet in meetings, and very young looking, people don't seem to take him seriously. It's pretty amazing because I have a tremendous amount of respect for his judgement, which is for the most part typically right on. We've got a real jewel with him and I'm going to make sure that he gets interesting stuff to work on as much as I can.
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jackbenimble
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Posted: 11 November 2009 03:57 am |
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Not to much going on...I've gotten back into playing Sympathy for the Devil the last couple/3 days - when I slow it down to 75% using some shareware, I can get the rhythm. But it's tough for some reason to get it right all the time. I'm getting better. I told B its kind of like filing down a rock. Well, I haven't heard from M for a while - maybe I'll send him an email, or something. I'll hear back from him, I think. I like the old codger, even though I know he's been using me as a tennis buddy. Oh, I forgot to call the wife tonight...hmm, should I call her now? Nahh...I'll probably wake her up.
I had a good idea on how to proceed on this project at work. J will get to do the front end stuff, I'll create the object model / database. I think it's a way forward.
I worked out about 30 minutes last night/tonight at the gym.
I've kind of hit a plateau. I know my life could be better, I know I work a lot, that I could've lived in Japan, or France - especially Japan. And that I'm not likely to change my situation. That I'm settling for what I've got. Not a perfect marriage, for sure - but not openly hostile at least. Work not in the best place possible, but I do get a nice ride in the country. Socking away salary for retirement.
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jackbenimble
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Posted: 13 November 2009 12:54 pm |
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Ok, working from home. I worked till about 1:30 am Wednesday trying to got this odd bit of technology working...not because I wanted to, but because I don't want to look bad compared to J. Unlike the previous project, where it was just me and him, this effort has 6 developers on it, and J and I are kind of working on the same piece. So if he consistently bangs out code quicker than me, I don't look good. This will just last until we both get on separate pieces - I hope. I refuse to use my seniority to hold him back, because I don't operate that way. But it means I find myself on the hot seat - he turns things around fast. Finally I asked S if he had some experience with this technology, and he did and got me off the rock. But we also decided to go with another approach which is much better and easier, and I got it done in a couple of hours. I turned out he had given J some other stuff to do - something difficult and not fun. So, I'm off the hook for now. Phew.
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jackbenimble
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Posted: 13 November 2009 01:53 pm |
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On guitar - I kind of have Sympathy to the point where I'm venturing into the lyrics - if I play it at 75% speed. Last night and Wednesday were lost because of work and watching our weekly movie. I'll put some time into it tonight.
I'm very pleased to be home. I have my Fender acoustic back from the music store. I had them reset it so that the action was lower and also switch to 11 gauge strings. As a result it is *much easier to play!*. The separation between strings is wider than my Yamaha, which makes finger-picking easier as well. It has a bigger body and better sound overall than my Yamaha APX 500, and is mahogany with a brown rosewood fingerboard. I'm not in love with the strings - they sound more metallic than the last ones. But I can replace those, I I ever get around to it. It's on a stand next to my electric fender Lead 1, which has a navy blue body and beautiful mahogany fretboard. Sitting side by side,on their respective stands beside my brick-lined fireplace, they make for an enjoyable and inviting visual tableau. I'm glad I finally figured out how to play a semi-reasonable guitar. Thanks, YouTube :)
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jackbenimble
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Posted: 14 November 2009 06:00 am |
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I totally lost motivation around 6 tonight. I had made some good progress with work, though. I'll do a bit more tomorrow and then see my niece in a play at 2. M called an we get a nice set of tennis in around 12 or 1. It's still warm enough to play. I loved it, it was a bonus. My lying scale said I was at 166 afterwards. I'll be at 170 tomorrow.
I played very little guitar tonight. Instead I went onto youtube looking up songs from various guitarists. Check this out - in 2003 Rolling Stone magazine made a list of the top 100 guitarists of all time, and had Eddie Van Halen as *70th*. 70th! There are only a handful of guitarists I would put ahead of Van Halen - Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Clapton for sure. But EVH is definitely in mix. Unquestionably. If you don't agree, first look at this video and tell me this guy is not one of the greatest virtuosos ever to grace a rock stage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4lrAxUuwkk
This is a rock-star-god in his prime playing not just fast and clean - a lot of guys play fast and clean - but in a way that is musically pleasing and innovative. He pioneered his own sound and influenced a generation of guitarists. How he could be relegated to 70th on the list is a simple statement of some kind of odd prejudice on the part of RS magazine - nothing more.
Ok, I got that off my chest.
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suenos
Moderator
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Posted: 14 November 2009 06:20 am |
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Hiya Jack:
Was Kid Rock on that list? If not, well......pffffft
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jackbenimble
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Posted: 14 November 2009 06:29 am |
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1 am! I have to go to bed. Wow, I really wasted the night. I did find some good videos on youtube, though. Here is a version of Zepplin's awesome battle of evermore by Heart:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na26mDoaBvc
I love that. Heart is so cool. How about that mandolin? It's so sweet and musical and fairyland-ish - it's uplifting. It like a different world. And their vocals, they capture the spirit of the song so well. This is going to be one of my favorites.
Here's another one. It's a beautifully done video montage of wish you were here. I love the intro, it almost defines what I love about guitar. But it's sad. The artwork and transitions are visually stunning. The kid who did it said he did for a highs school project, and was just trying to use all the effects in the software that were available. The video now has had 24 million views, 3 years later. That's a lot of eyeballs, and ears.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXdNnw99-Ic
BB King is an old blues guy who I've actually seen in concert. He was rolling stones #3 all time (give me a break) but actually he plays, or played a sweet blues guitar. What I particularly like about it is it's slow enough that I can definitely listen to the songs and take a crack at playing along. Here's RS's example song from him:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R92piPuwcOQLast edited on 14 November 2009 06:30 am by jackbenimble
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mollymoo24
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 14 November 2009 07:12 am |
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Hi Jack (waves),
Glad to see you are keeping on with the guitar. Interesting about setting the action lower and changing the strings, that is exactly what someone told me to do with mine. Guess they were right, and I should go do that. Perhaps I will learn to play better if its easier.
I saw BB King play live at the Tennessee state fair oh...5-6 years(?) ago? He brought the house down.
And..."Wish You Were Here". So wistful. Puts a lump in the throat every time.
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jackbenimble
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Posted: 14 November 2009 01:48 pm |
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Heya Mol!
Yeah, it's a pet peeve of mine about the guitars not being easy enough to play. I only finally realized it this past summer! Beginners don't know enough to realize that they could make it so much easier. How many would-be guitarists have been put off by this lack of knowledge? Guitar is not easy and requires many, many hours of practice to become really proficient at. Why the guitar industry doesn't emphasize this, I have no idea!
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jackbenimble
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Posted: 14 November 2009 02:28 pm |
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Hey Suenos,
I'm afraid Kid Rock did not make the cut...but you've got to hand it to him, he's a kickass entertainer and I think I read somewhere that he's a multi-instrementalist. And he landed Pamela Anderson. He's legit any way you slice it, that's for sure.
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jackbenimble
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Posted: 15 November 2009 06:59 am |
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Ok, so - *FINALLY* I've made a reasonable version of Sympathy for the Devil and made an mp3 out of out. It's amazing when you listen to Mick Jaggar's vocals on it. He starts out kind of subdued, but gets increasingly menacing sounding as the song progresses. And the way he does vocal extras, the "oh, yeahs" and the "mm, yeahs" are killer. That whole song is crazy - at the beginning, it sounds like there are kind of people talking, and the rattling sound, and the "whoo whoos" and the killer licks by Kieth Richards. And the lyrics, wow. Anyway, I'm glad to get that out of the way.
Now, I have four "official" songs for my street act. Knockin on Heaven's door, Hey Joe, All Along the Watchtower, and Sympathy for the Devil. I'm going to play them once a day to keep them in shape.
I have some more songs that I've already learned, that I can add with a little polish - Wild Thing, Every Rose its Thorn and House of the Rising Sun.
Oh, yeah, and Honky Tonk Women, which is really easy. So that will make eight. Oh, yeah, Scarborough fair, which is a finger-picking song, will make 10. And maybe Jamaica Farewell. And I might as well kick in Amazing Grace. I'll work on polishing those up tomorrows.
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jackbenimble
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Posted: 15 November 2009 07:09 am |
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I had a pretty decent day today. I did work till about 1:30 and made good progress. Oh, yeah, I'm trying to touch my toes, and I feel like I got closer this morning than usual. After that, we saw a play my niece was in, and it was actually very good - amazingly so for a high school play. My niece, who is also my godchild, is a beautiful blonde and very talented. She will definitely get a starring role or 2 before she graduates - she's on track for it.
Then we came home and we were both hungry and had a nice dinner of pasta and shrimp my wife made. It tasted extra good because we were both so hungry.
We got the Economist, Money and Time magazines today. The good, the bad and the ugly, huh?
Then I played guitar the rest of the night and finally kind of got a reasonable version of Sympathy going in. I'm very pleased.
Tomorrow I might take it easy - relax, play guitar some, watch the pats on TV maybe. Nothing like weekends.
Oh, yeah, I think I lost a little weight. My lying scale said I was 167 this morning, but I think I'm around 169. Still not bad. I did planet fitness 3 nights this week, about 45 minutes average on the elliptical. So, I didn't get too winded playing tennis yesterday, either. Let's keep that trend going, shall we?
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mollymoo24
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 15 November 2009 07:48 pm |
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jackbenimble wrote: Let's keep that trend going, shall we?
Indeed. Keep it up!
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jackbenimble
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Posted: 16 November 2009 12:36 am |
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I worked on the program for about 4-5 hours this morning. It was kind of frustrating, because it turned out the weird behavior I was getting was due to a browser issue - I don't do enough UI work to think of that first thing. If I had checked it, the thing would've been done in 5 minutes. Pah. That's programming for you.
It was a lovely day though. I went for a walk on the beach with my wife. It's so great to have a temperate day like this in the middle of November!
I've started working on "Wild Thing" by the Troggs. It's something I've more or less learned before, but I want to nail it down vocally and officially add it to my "ready to perform" song list. I'll work on it while I'm watching the football game. I had found a good tutorial on YouTube which describes the strumming pattern. Now I'm listening to the song, strumming and singing along with it. Next, I'll fly solo and record it.
After that, I'm definitely going to learn "Under My Thumb", not just the chords but the "band" version. What happened to my plan to learn "Classical Gas", you may ask. Well, the thing is, Classical Gas is probably my favorite song *ever*. No kidding - I can't think of one song I can listen to continuously like that one and constantly be inspired and not get sick of it. But, it's going to take a *lot* of time to learn it. I need to build up my base with a bunch of easy songs - say, 20 really good ones I love and am good at. Then I want to start going up the neck a little bit. All this is going to take a fair chunk of time. So I can't really be spending all my spare time on *one* song, albeit a incredible fantastic one like Classical Gas.
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jackbenimble
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Posted: 17 November 2009 04:38 am |
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Ok, so, a pretty average day. I worked out on the elliptical for an hour then did a little weightlifting after work. I've gotten good enough at "Wild Thing" that I saved an mp3 of it. It's really kind of a fun song...I practiced it last night while watching the Pats lose to the Colts.
I also tried playing "Sympathy for the Devil" again, but I'm still shaky on it, and didn't get through it really. I need to practice up on it a bit more. "Hey Joe" I could get through. I still have to check on "Watchtower".
I didn't want to be noisy, so after a while I started finger-picking "Scarborough Fair". I'm pretty close with that, and hopefully I'll finish it up tomorrow night. Wow, I'm really sleepy. Ok, bed.
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jackbenimble
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Posted: 19 November 2009 12:41 am |
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I'm still at work. It was a good day. I seem to have finally prevailed on C to take Grails seriously. This is after about a month where he's been going off on his own path. Luckily, he's reasonable enough to understand the sense of the approach. It was a long time coming, though.
Yesterday was same 'ol. I went to work, went to the gym and played guitar. That's my Monday - Wednesday routine and I'm going to do it again tonight - I'll watch the first half of the Celtics from the elliptical.
I'm reading a series by Philip Pullman, which starts with a book called "the Golden Compass" and the second book is "The Subtle Knife". It's really tremendous story-telling - a kid's book along the lines of Harry Potter. Just great. And listening to it on CD is that much better because I *love* the English accents, especially that little girl who's the hero of the books. She has some kind of a cockney accent and says "ain't" like "en't". It's really fun.
I'm still polishing up Sympathy for the Devil. I also am working an "Honky Tonk Women", which is much easier to play as accompaniment but somehow difficult to sing well.
My daughter's coming home for Thanksgiving - she's an RA and having a little trouble with some immature freshman. She's going to have to be a little bit tough and write someone up, or else they will continue to walk all over her. She'll do it - she knows she has to.
C'est tout por mainentant.Last edited on 19 November 2009 12:42 am by jackbenimble
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jackbenimble
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Posted: 21 November 2009 06:28 am |
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It was kind of a strange day. I was working from home, when the boss called at *4 pm* to see what I was doing. Ok, that's alright - even though I'm already well over 40 hours for the week - I explained to her what J is working on, what I'm working on, and what I thought about a communication we got from the research center. But the weird thing was, while I was talking to her, I was getting these stabbing pains in my chest near my heart. Like needles. I've had them before, about 6/7 years ago, but never this severe. At that time, I had a bunch of test run and they never figured out out what was wrong.
So, today when it happened, I checked out the internet about it - how worried should I be? It (the internet) said, check your blood pressure. If it's high, you might be having a so-called event. So, I took my blood pressure, and it was way high - like 165/80 or something like that. I'm usually 115/60 or whatever. So, that kind of tipped the balance, and I decided to go to the emergency room at the local hospital to make sure I was ok. I brought a book and everying, because you usually have to wait forever in the emergency room. But, they took it seriously - they immediately got me into a room, took ekgs, xrays, blood samples - they actually gave me oxygen, you know that thing plastic hose with a couple of things going into your nostrils - they hooked me up to an intravenous thing, and also a periodic blood-pressure-taking machine, and some kind of finger attachment for measuring pulse rate I guess. It was all done rather quickly, too. You could tell they weren't screwing around.
Well, the doctor came back after like an hour and said there was nothing wrong with my heart. It's good to know that, for sure. I was joking around with my wife on the way home, telling her that the doctor said I should live every day like it was my last, party like crazy etc. I noticed she was kind of wiping tears from her eye - it was a relief for both of us.
Then, I figured I would celebrate my new-found lease on life by going out. C had called earlier, and wanted to meet at a local club to see a one-off reunion gig band he likes. I was up for it, so I met him there about 9. We had a few beers, and sure enough the band was pretty good. I was kind of grooving to the music and there were a bunch of girls dancing up there. One of them I thought kind of invited me up by crooking her finger toward me, but I didn't go up due to a sudden shyness. Typical, actually. But when she came back I started talking to her and we had a nice conversation. She looked pretty good and was friendly but said she was there with her boyfriend. We still chatted for a while, but she started talking to her girlfriend so I decided to bail, but it was fun while it lasted. There is nothing better than a good band and babes around. Actually, there was a blonde who caught me looking over toward her, looked away, then looked back and smiled. Although I didn't do anything about it, I still liked the double-take. Maybe I should be a little bit less shy - hey, it's a new life, right?
Actually, while I was laying on that emergency room bed waiting for the prognosis, I was thinking about how I would feel if I was about to die. And I thought that one of the few good things I had done was to never fool around on my wife. And another good thing, I never divorced her. I'm not really sure this is good, but it is what I was thinking about at the time. I dunno. That's what I feel even now.
C is interesting. I didn't realize how much he liked music. He could sing songs, and sing them well, when we were talking about music tonight. He's a pretty bright guy, actually. Not a handsome guy - but smart and interesting and has a unique view on life.
It was really fun talking to that babe for a while tonight, though. Maybe I should check out a couple more of these reunion gigs :)
Last edited on 21 November 2009 11:58 am by jackbenimble
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