Bleah.
Just to prove that I have something else to write about besides coffee, guitars and school, I think I have caught a cold of some sort.
It’s the groggy, don’t feel like getting up kind.
Haven’t gotten much done except sleep – and I’ve got some tests coming up this week.
*sigh*
Ahhh crap.
Because I didn’t pull my guitar apart myself first, and relied only on a quick question/answer, I got the wrong part.
I’m upgrading the block inside the Ibanez on the Floyd Rose.
Sustain = good.
The gaping wound:
Side by side comparison (somewhat – since it’s the wrong block. The correct block will be on it’s way once I mail this one back):
Floyd Roses are complicated? What? What do you mean? (Humpty Dumpty Pt 12):
As a child growing up in the 70’s, in Texas, football was a majorly oppressive force for those of us who didn’t give a crap about sports.
I was recently sitting in an establishment that was showing Steelers highlights, and reflected back to a recent get-together at my brother’s house. Everyone there seemed to have an opinion about their favorite football team. Ross loves the Steelers, Nancy loves the Redskins, and everyone else seemed to be a Cowboys fan. When it comes to football, I’m less atheist and more agnostic. I just “doubt” that football really exists. Actually I don’t really actively think about it.
For what purpose does organized sports – much like organized religion play? I would hazard a guess they are actually one in the same.
I digress.
Now that I’ve gotten further into my school planning, I’m realizing that this is actually going to be work. WORK! I know I can do it, and if it’s something I’m interested in doing for the remainder of my years, then it’s the “right thing to do”. I guess I just feel a little behind since I imagine that most of the kids that will be in the program for a Music degree will have been reading music all their lives (since grade school anyway) and I never really sat down and learned it. I’ve had to start learning recently as my students are reading music, so I have to do it too.
I’ve set a goal of practicing 30-45min daily on my guitar and see how far I can get before I have to audition at the school *shudder*
This should be interesting.
Ow. Ow. Ow.
I’m not really in that much pain, but my lower legs are definitely sore. Yesterday, in my “Concepts of Physical Fitness” class, we were baselining our VO2max and had to walk (1mile) or run (1.5miles) to get this baseline. Of the thirty person class, two of us chose to run. I was supposed to only run around the building about five and a half times, but I think I ran six and a half. Oops. Lost track. Even so, with the time I ran, my fitness is considered “good” – of which I’m pretty glad. I haven’t been running at all, so to be able to complete this I felt good about my physical fitness (for my age *cough* *cough*).
That being said, I was more or less stoned from exhaustion yesterday. I didn’t realize it until I made it over to Guitar Center to buy more strings. When I had gotten home, I had immediately tried to complete stringing up the J. I quickly realized that I had cut three of the strings wrong, and that is what was causing my intonation problems. But, I had no strings left. So, to Guitar Center I went. One of the GC guys attempted to strike up a conversation about Reverend Horton Heat (I was wearing a RHH shirt) but I was so exhausted that I could barely do more than nod and shrug my shoulders. From there I went to Whole Foods around the corner and found this:
Came home and finished stringing up the J. Around seven thirty, I laid down and attempted to sleep. So I slept until about eight forty five this morning. That’s a lot of sleep for me.
Oddly, this will be the first true holiday weekend that I’ve had in about five years. My Saturday class is cancelled, and so are my Monday classes. Time for more coffee. Need to read some Chemistry – maybe later.
Forgot – I’m supposed to be getting a *free* treadmill tomorrow from my ex-mother-in-law.
I had my Endoscopy (follow up) today – the Dr says that there’s no inflammation, and didn’t even stretch (dilate) my esophagus. He said there’s enough room, and things are looking good.
Still have to puff on Flovent twice daily and still taking Nexium. Feeling good. The anesthesiologist gave me propofol, so of course I was obliged to make jokes about touching small boys and being able to do the moonwalk. That’s pretty trippy. It burns, then you sleep. Then you wake up in another room.
You’re not supposed to drive after you’ve taken it and while I can’t say that I was foggy, things would slip my memory. Like what I said last to the anesthesiologist before passing out….
The Iceman is just an absolute killer guitar. It’s an all around player. I’m not even afraid to mess with the Floyd – I understand it now (and have a book to help me out) so I need to change the strings on the guitar. Need to study first.
This school thing is turning out well. It’s nice to have Labor Day weekend off – I’ve got a quiz tomorrow in Government. We’ll see how that goes……
As I am slowing recovering from my two hour nap – and waking up, I’m going to update this page rather than clean my desk, do homework, practice guitar, feed the cats or any of the other mindless things I “should” be doing. Tuesdays are the only days that I have that I don’t have to wake up early to do anything – so essentially, Monday night is my Friday night. I can study late tonight (should I choose) and sleep late tomorrow…..and study tomorrow.
School is going well. Until the first test anyway….then we’ll see how well I’m understanding my commitment to the process.
My Iceman is on its way – and technically I should receive it tomorrow, but there was a shipping error, so it may be another day. I’m not sure how I always manage to fall into these “pay well below market” situations. It’s always “right place right time” with me and guitars. I have too many, way, waaaay too many now. I’d feel bad, but I’m not going to. I’ve paid the price in other ways. >wicked<
I’m supposed to get my upper GI scoped on Thursday (again) and it’s going to be expensive without insurance. I set up COBRA, but the gears of bureaucracy turn sloooowly. I’ll have to pay out-of-pocket and then be re-imbursed for it.
Alright – my first class dropped.
I was able to sneak into a Saturday Chemistry class (one of my core requirements) and drop the logic class. The logic class was probably going to be interesting, but I could tell that from the first two chapters that I would be pretty buried. It didn’t help at all that the teacher was not tremendously orgainized. Quote, “I’m not going to be a teacher, but more of a coach…..well, I’ll teach also but….” Nothing was really laid out too well (at least not to my liking) so that I could expect relatively what was going to happen. After experiencing this, my history and government classes seem very easy. So, I did manage to find the Chemistry class – while I’m not super excited about it being on a Saturday, it just means that I only have to take four more classes for my Associate’s degree – then I can transfer into University of Texas Arlington.
Having had the previous experience of bombing classes, I know better now when to cut and run. There’s a difference between sighing because of the workload, and having a horrendous sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach that you’ve made a terrible, terrible mistake. Last night was one of those nights in the Logic class. Since I was taking it to fill an elective spot (foolish me), I did visit with the academic counselor yesterday so that I could fully understand what I was doing. I pretty much just jumped into it all without looking too closely, but that logic class was a little too close to the edge.
Maybe if I had been in school more recently, I could have handled it, but having not been in school in about thirteen years, overwhelming myself is not a good plan.
All in all, I’m very happy with the choice I made – I did it before it was too late, and I’m still on my way.
The music class should be fun.
SO – How was the first day at school?
Not as nerve wracking as I expected it to be. While it is assumed that I’m some punk “kid” because of my green hair (which did go over very well by the way) I know that I’m a little less than twice the age of most of these kids. It’s definitely nice to have this kind of perspective – every single class had a “get to meet you” and the majority of the kids in there sounded just like me when I was their age: “I don’t know what I want to do/be”
[UNDECIDED]
So it’s nice to at least kind of know what it is I’m going to do.
Current plan: Xfer to UTA and get a degree in music production/recording. Couldn’t hurt.
My classes seem pretty straight forward. The “Concepts of Physical Education” I’m kind of looking forward to. It’s being taught by a track teacher and he said we can work out however we want to. I’m already working out four times a week – so this should bump it up a bit. Not sure how the information is being graded though in his class. The other two classes are pretty self explanatory.
Sooooo…..I probably need to be practicing guitar right now, but unfortunately, I’m not. I made a semi-mistake on eBay and ended up snagging a J Yuenger sig model Ibanez…..that will be pretty much like the guitar that I’m having custom painted right now….to look like a sig model J Yuenger guitar. My “custom” won’t have a floyd rose, but the sig model probably needs to be repainted anyway. Apparently it was damaged when being shipped to the current owner and he had it airbrushed. You can see it in the photo which looks a little blue/green right by the knobs and the stars are a little more shiny – which is probably why I got such a good deal on it. Depending on how well my “custom” is coming out, I may send the sig model to him to redo the entire front. We’ll see when it comes in.
*sigh*
Sundays appear to be good days to update. Again, I’m not sure why.
I’ve got a student coming over in about an hour and a half – and I’ll be giving another guitar lesson.
Yesterday, my brother picked me up and we went to a small get together with some of his friends from school – I’m a at good place in my life, and didn’t feel as …..inferior….. as I normally do. Over time, I’m finally getting to the conclusion that as long as I’m happy with what I’m doing, then the rest falls into place. We drove around a bunch in Ft Worth and went to the stockyards. My green hair went over pretty well there – in a lot of ways it was like being in Houston. The really “square” folks stared – everyone else pretty much ignored me. It was definitely a fun time – Ross’ buddies are all pretty quick on the draw.
School starts tomorrow. All my credits have been accounted for. After I finish this 13 hours this semester, I’ll only need four more classes to get an Associates Degree. I’m not stopping there though – I’m going to transfer into the college around the corner and go for a degree in Music Business/Recording. Not quite sure of all the different parts of it, but that’s the plan. Having the plan is good enough right now.
I wish I had something interesting to report.
Things are kind of slow when my daughter isn’t around, and my green hair only entertains me so much. I hear from my lawyer that I will need to go back to blonde before the probate hearing. Yay me. Then it’s back to green.
Being unemployed is a little surreal. It will be good to go back to school, giving me a daily goal (wake up, go to school, repeat).
I’m using a book that teaches fretboard logic – and it’s working very well for me. I’m really happy with it.
Picked up a ton of $2 bills at the bank today. I wiped them out. Why? Why not? It’s legal US currency – it’s time to reintroduce it into circulation. C’mon people! Do your part!
Going to have a parent/teacher conference tamale. Little one made “student of the hour” last week – of which I am extremely proud. The things you do for your kids…..
She’s enjoying the whole process which is awesome. This is exactly what she needed. I can enthusiastically endorse Sylvan Learning Center.
Am considering doing the P90X program – my insurance agent/guitar teacher does it and he loves it.
I’m trying to use every Category that I have…..here we go – I’m close.
Installed a new toilet the other day – life is so much better with a new toilet. Don’t underestimate the power of a new toilet.
Speaking of humor….just kidding. I honestly have had more conversations with this hair than I can count. People say the oddest things. Which is great, because it’s sharpening my response skills.
“Which came first, the chicken? Or the egg?”
