• Tag Archives School

  • “I’m so ugly – My mother had morning sickness – After I was born” Rodney Dangerfield

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    I would say it’s been a pretty eventful week.

    Saw the Dex Romweber Duo on Thursday at the House of Blues. Exene Cervenka opened. I wanted to see Dex Romweber live so Terry and I booked it over there and saw a rather intimate show in the Cambridge room. It was a cool show – I enjoyed it. Approached the weekend having hit some golf balls and plenty of homework assigned. My piano teacher is now including me in his Piano II class – which is fine. Guitar has taught me enough eye/hand co-ordination that I can pretty much keep up. I’ll only get credit for Piano I, but at least I won’t be playing beginner stuff. Also applied for my associates degree – I graduate this semester.

    Friday saw the Young One get ill – (pharyngitis again AND an upper respiratory infection). Her trip to H-town was put on hold and she’s attempting to burn out the sickness in my bedroom. Been alternately writing papers and taking care of her (and slacking – of course).

    Somehow this week I believe I managed to fracture my big toe (doing jumping jacks barefoot – silly boy). I’ve got it taped up and it feels okay now. Thanks for asking.

    Set my PS3 to run Folding@home so that I’ve got another PC running it. Again, if you ever have had someone you love get cancer, this program uses your computer to compute protein molecules and how they react – researching cures for cancer. Power of collaborative computing. Go team 169588!


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  • “We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.” Friedrich Nietzsche

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    I’m fairly sure, at some point last night that these words came out of my mouth:

    “So…. can you shit lottery tickets?”

    It’s been a pretty interesting weekend. Last week was the first week of the new semester – which is shaping up to be pretty cool.

    Unfortunately, I did make it over to UTA on Friday and discovered that I am much, MUCH further behind than I thought I was in terms of the degree I’m after (or was after).

    I’m kind of at a crossroads – so the weekend pretty much mirrored the confusion and chaos that I’m in right now. I’m glad that I used this time to finish up my Associates Degree – but I’m not quite sure where to go from here. Plus, the one year anniversary of my father’s passing is right around the corner – and I finally got around to sending “Thank You” cards to all his friends for the nice cards and letters that I received. It’s nice to get that off my mind – that pile of letters kept nagging at me.

    I got my brake pads replaced, and played pool over at Rusty’s Billiards for about four hours (!) while they worked on my car. Got completely schooled by a guy I met there who had such excellent ball control that it put me to shame. It didn’t help that I’m not regularly playing anymore, playing for long periods of time is completely exhausting now – and I forgot to bring my cue.

    Went out last night and stayed out until 5am – which actually was a lot of fun. I got to meet some new people, try some new things, and managed to go through half a bottle of vodka in the process.

    Needless to say, I took a few naps today.


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  • “To me, music is like air, food or water. I just have to have it. I use it to shut things out when I want to study … it helps pass the time on the long walk to class, and is just my way of unwinding at the end of the day.” – Fred Russell

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    I’m taking liberty with my “only sunday” posting policy as I went to my music appreciation class today (History of Rock and Roll). Looks like it will be a lot of fun.

    The instructor is a professional drummer and is a pretty typical musician professor – laid back, goofy, funny etc.

    Before I left I asked him if he took points off for “drummer jokes” but then gave extra credit for “guitar player and lead singer jokes”. He laughed, so I’m off to a good start.

    I did answer a bunch of open ended questions that he asked (when everyone else was silent) and I knew every single artist on a survey that he handed out….so this looks to be a really fun class.

    He did ask if anyone was a fan of heavy metal – most of the class raised their hand. I didn’t raise my hand but said, “Reformed”.

    The girl beside me said, “Reformed? How can you be reformed?”

    I just smiled.


    📂This entry was posted in Guitar School 📎and tagged

  • “Try to put well in practice what you already know. In so doing, you will, in good time, discover the hidden things you now inquire about.” Remy de Gourmont

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    Gosh – is it Sunday already?

    Time has flown a bit. I kicked some ass this week – spent most of it practicing scales, learning a jazz chord progression and simultaneously watching streaming Netflix (Damn you season 1 of “Lost”!!!)

    Other than that, not much else is going on – school starts next Tuesday….with “MUSIC 1306 – History of Rock and Roll”. Looking forward to it.

    Found an friend from way back on Myspace (which then transitioned to Facebook) as Myspace still is too cluttered. It’s a shame that Facebook can’t come up with a companion site that deals solely with bands/artists/etc. The “fan” pages don’t do much for me.

    There’s a burlesque festival in February that I bought some tickets to. Should be a fun time.

    Everything else has been…..pretty quiet.

    Nice.


    📂This entry was posted in Guitar School 📎and tagged

  • “I would never speculate on the limit. Every time you speculate, you’re way too conservative.” John Warnock

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    Okay – it’s finally time for a Sunday post.

    What’s going on?

    Well, I needed an intermission….to take some time off the internets. Spending more time IRL (as it were). By not spending time on the internet all the time, I’ve found plenty of time to paint my bedroom, paint my breakfast area, practice plenty of guitar, read about four different books, watch about six or seven different movies…..the list goes on and on. Rather than going cold turkey on the whole thing – I decided that Sunday should be my day to “cheat”. Depriving yourself of anything entirely is not usually a good plan.

    My first guitar lesson was last week – I’ve been going through minor scales and getting the key signatures down by memory. Next lesson tomorrow. I’ve got a week or two before school starts again.


    📂This entry was posted in Guitar School 📎and tagged

  • “You may have heard that a dean is to faculty as a hydrant is to a dog” Alfred Kahn

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    As I find myself navigating different situations that previously I might have over-controlled in order to pre-determine the outcome, but have more or less played by ear, I realize that like anything else the release of control gets easier with practice

    I made the Dean’s list apparently. Which is pretty strange since I’ve never overshot my goals quite so spectacularly.

    Well, good for me I guess.

    In other news, I got to move my daughter’s piano into my music room – and I’ve started the learning.

    One of my friends hooked me up with a guy who is looking for a non-singing guitar player…..hey! That’s ME! so we’re going to try and get together and play. Things are power drifting into the right direction. While I have been content to previously let these things fall in my lap (as they did this time) as of last week, I had decided that I was going to play a new open mic night around the corner from my house. I haven’t prepped for it yet – but I’m in slight vacation mode. Things are looking like they’re flowing in the right direction though.


    📂This entry was posted in Guitar 📎and tagged

  • “In grade school, I was a complete geek. You know, there’s always the kid who’s too short, the kid who wears glasses, the kid who’s not athletic. Well, I was all three.” Julianne Moore

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    I almost can’t believe it.

    I’ve done far better this semester than I ever have in my life. Let’s break it down:

    Chemistry: Final Grade (B)
    Government: Final Grade (A)
    Concepts of Physical Education: Final Grade (A)
    History – Civil War thru Present: Final Grade (B)
    The only class that I have left is Music Reading – in which I currently have a grade average of 104. (Extra Credit) – so after I turn in my masterpiece of a tune, I should also have an A in that class.

    !!

    I’m pretty proud of myself. I also looked up the text for the music appreciation class (RnR) that I’m excited about, it’s called: “Rockin’ in Time: A Social History of Rock and Roll” Here is the synopsis:

    This well-organized, visually interesting book offers an in-depth examination of the social history of rock-and-roll. Rockin’ in Time emphasizes several main themes, including the importance of African-American culture in the origins and development of rock music. Topics covered in this comprehensive history are: the blues and racism; Elvis Presley and rockabilly; Dick Clark and Don Kirshner; the California sound; Bob Dylan; the British invasion; Motown; acid rock; campus unrest and militant blues; the 1970s; punk rock; MTV; Generation X; the rave revolution; hip hop; and nu-metal. An excellent reference work for rock fans, music industry employees, those employed by radio stations, and those in music and performer-related marketing.

    I can’t wait! I’m also going to teach myself how to play piano during the break between semesters…..


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  • “At that point, we’d stop recycling.” Heidi Adams

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    I’d forgotten what a great exercise having someone over is.

    Really, there’s nothing like saying, “Company is coming” and then realizing that you need to clean up your house.

    Granted, my house is typically not that messy – it’s a matter of organizing the few things that “get away from me” like my computer desk. Recycling the mass amounts of junk mail that I get in my father’s name takes a while too. Of course, I vacuumed the house using the Dyson (hallelujah!) and I wonder how many cats I could build out of the loads and loads of hair I picked up. Is there a way to recycle cat hair? Does it make good wall insulation?

    As always, my brain feels a lot better when my house is organized, so I naturally feel great today. LOL!

    Also, I got a check for $.04 from the brokerage that was giving me a hard time. I’m not going to cash it on principle. Apparently it must be cashed within 180 days. I wonder if they’ll cut another check? Or write it off?

    I have two more finals – well, three really, but I’ve written the song for my intro music reading class – it’s ready to be handed in on Thursday. So, the classes that I have A’s in, I have finals for tomorrow. I suppose I’ll study a little later. Maybe. I made a “B” in my Chemistry class (thank you curve!) and a “B” in my History class.


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  • “If you want something from an audience, you give blood to their fantasies. It’s the ultimate hustle.” Marlon Brando

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    So I gave blood today.

    It was kind of a rush decision as the Carter Blood Care vehicle was on campus. I figured I had eaten enough this morning…..well almost. In the last minute and a half I started feeling queasy – but they gave me a sports drink and a cold compress so I pulled through. I’m probably going to make this an annual tradition around my birthday.

    Because it’s the right thing to do.

    In other news, my daughter asked me why I was looking like a “rocker”. As in “punk rocker”. Which I found pretty funny. She says, “You don’t look like a rockabilly dude any more”. I said, “This is where all the punk dudes got their looks from – the rockabilly dudes.” She said, “Mmmm. Okay.”

    Lastly, I didn’t study for my last PE quiz (pre final) and made a 97. Of course, I finished first and my teacher gave me a big grin – I guess because he expected me to finish first….then I finished first on a Government quiz (pre final) that I didn’t study for and this teacher ALSO figured I would finish first because she sent me to the copy room to pick up copies for the class. Yay me. School is almost over. (For this semester anyway).

    Creep on!


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