Passing the hat for coworkers

I'm sick of donating to every frigging charity, event, person, and idea that goes through my office. Every time somebody's family member croaks, they pass the hat. Ok, fine. Maybe money helps a grieving person. When somebody retires, they pass the hat. Fine, let's pitch in to get them a gift. I usually donate if I know (and like) the person, and if not, I don't give. Now that I'm in a new office space, everybody has that "happy family" mentality and the hat gets passed for everything. Somebody has family members in Iraq, so the hat got passed at Christmas time. I felt bad for not donating to that one, because I like to support the military when I can, but that one came and went without me having cash on hand.

But now, one of the women in the office is leaving because she accepted a position for the government. She'll still work in the building, but now it'll be for the Navy instead of for us. Pay raise of course. So why are we passing the fucking hat? She just accepted a higher paying job. Everybody is going out to lunch at the shittiest chinese buffet in Pittsfield, and I'm not going. (I ordered Tahiti Takeout instead!) Explain why I need to pay? I got cornered by my boss and had to cough up $2.

I don't want people passing the hat for me, and when my grandmothers died, I specifically kept my mouth shut so that people didn't know, and I asked my managers not to say anything and not to pass the hat or a sympathy card. I want my business private. I guess that's why I don't want to give every time they pass the hat for somebody else.

Thai Food: Not my cup of, um... tea

Last night after we got done with round 1 (of 4) with the priest and his silly marrage questions, Kristin and I went to the Thai Garden in Williamstown. She really likes it there. My previous experience with Thai food was less enthusiastic. Don't get me wrong, I liked the taste, but the portion size was a joke. But, this is a different resturant and I figured I'd give it a try.

I ordered some teriyaki beef that was said to come with carrots, cucumbers, zucchini and rice. Sounds filling. Price was about $15 or $16... a little steep, but worth it if it's good. Well what I got, while technically fitting the description, was a joke. It came with a pre-cut piece of steak that was elegantly spread out across the plate to give the impression of being large, when in fact, was probably 4 ounces or less. That's a good size for a hamburger that you're going to have 2 of, but not so good for a $16 steak. The "veggies" consisted of 2 half-dollar sized slizes of zucchini, 2 half-dollar sized slices of cucumber and two small pieces of carrot. The rice was the sticky shit that cafeterias serve. I upgraded to "jasmine" rice. I really have no idea what the difference was, but it tasted like unbuttered microwave popcorn.

I had a bowl of Crunch Berries when I got home from dinner.

Unfortunately, Kristin felt bad that I didn't enjoy my experience, but hey, what can you do? We still had a good time, and she got to have her bait platter that she really enjoyed. Overall, a good evening.

Getting better...

So far I've found time to practice the guitar almost every night, and usually it's for an hour or 2 each time. Right now it's still very rewarding because every single day I can see noticable improvements in my playing. I guess that when you know virtually nothing, it's not hard to improve on a daily basis. So far I've concentrated on learning small parts of songs that I like because hey, that's the fun stuff. You want to be able to pick up the guitar and play something familiar. One thing that I couldn't do was play any rythm stuff because my strumming was a disaster. So, last night I decided to practice my strumming, and I made great strides at it. I can strum fairly consistently now, although I'm still getting screwed up on the strum pattern. I'll do it and get into a good rythm, then after a couple minutes I'll botch it up.

But at least I can strum somewhat now. :)

Sandman

Here's an Enter Sandman tutorial. I've been struggling at learning this from my Metallica song book. Hopefully this will help me. Too bad I don't have fast enough internet access at home to watch this where I need it. :(

Smells Like I suck at Guitar

Kristin and I are trying to learn a song, and there's not much easier than Smells Like Teen Spirit. We've both been struggling with certain parts of it, so I found this video that should help us both.

Note to Kristin: In the beginning, he shows how to hold the chords without the "barre" chord style that I use with the flat fingers. This may be easier for you to do. He also shows the string mute that I need practice on:

Priests, Religion, and Morality

Kristin mentioned on her blog today that she called a priest and that we're scheduled for a bunch of meetings that we have to go through before he'll marry us.

Part of this involves a bunch of questions and a compatability test. This of course, creates a major problem for me. For starters, I think the Catholic religion, like all others that I have some famialiarity with, is a complete and total pile of steaming shit that's more corrupt and full of bullshit politics than Washington.

I don't even want a catholic wedding. I'd be perfectly happy being married with a Justice Of The Peace. The problem is, I need to be able to bring my kids up with religion as a part of their life so that they can decide for themselves later on that it's all nonsense and should be avoided. But without having religion as a part of their life, they can't make that choice for themselves. But... the Catholic religion, in yet another bonehead move, won't allow me to baptize my kids if Kristin and I aren't married in a Catholic wedding. So... now comes the moral dilemma. I'm not a liar. I'm a straight-shooter and I tell you how it really is, but now I have to lie to the church and tell them all the bullshit that they want to hear so that I can be married in according with the bullshit religion for kids that I haven't even had the opportunity to create yet. I don't like to lie, and that's exactly what I have to do as part of this bullshit excercise.

How the hell does a single parent raise a catholic kid who was born out of wedlock? Are they not allowed into the church either?

I wish that there were more people who would wake up and realize that religion is a bullshit idea that's nothing but a creation by PEOPLE who don't want to deal with the fact that when you're dead you're gone. Everybody around me is so blinded by the bullshit that they're unable to see religion for what it is, and for fear of retribution, continue blindly believing in something that is so riddled with bullshit and lies and couldn't possibly be taken as truth by anybody with even a fleeting moment of mental clarity.

Guitar lessons

This is here strictly for the benefit of Kristin and I, but if I have any aspiring guitar gods in my audience, feel free to follow along.

This is a set of lessons I found on Youtube that I really like.

Lesson 1:


Lesson 2:


Lesson 3:


Lesson 4:


Lesson 5:


Lesson 6:


Lesson 7:


Lesson 8:



The rest of his stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=geetar01&page=1

book:
http://www.australianguitarlessons.com/The%20Guitar%20Players%20Secret%20Weapon.pdf

No wonder I like this guy, he's a frickin' engineer and he teaches guitar like one.

Guitar Fever Strikes Readsboro Home

Playing my new guitar has been a lot of fun. So far I've found time to play every day, but that's no surprise considering that the guitar is still my primary interest. I've noticed a steady imrpovement in my abilities every day, though I suppose that when you're this bad, it's not hard to see big improvements. I do think that if I don't get set up with some lessons soon though, that my improvement will begin to decline rapidly. Kristin and I are hoping to take lessons in North Adams together, but the guy that offers them doesn't have any sessions open right now. The other option is to take them in Pittsfield, but then Kristin won't be able to take them with me because it's too far for her to drive after work. So... I'm in a bit of an indecisive moment. I want to start taking lessons before I begin losing interest, but I'd really rather take them with Kristin because I think it would be great for the two of us to finally have a hobby that we both enjoy together.

Because of our new-found interest, Kristin is also interested in buying her own electric guitar. She's discovered that the electric is quite a bit easier to play than the acoustic is. This weekend we're going to check out the guitars at Falcetti and Wood Bros in Pittsfield. There's a beautiful used Fender Strat at Guitar Center in Albany that she likes, but she doesn't want to jump into a purchase until she's a bit more sure, and unfortunately that guitar will be long gone by then, so we'll have to see what else is around. Fortunately, Fender Stratocasters seem to virtually grow on trees, so finding another one shouldn't be too hard. I also mentioned the option of having me build her a kit. There's a strat-style guitar available in kit form very affordably, and since it's a kit and not a scratch-built guitar, it's a fairly simple procedure of painting it whatever color you want then putting it together. But, she's dead set against this idea, which is a shame because everything I've read seems to indicate that it's a good guitar for the modest investment.

Having a strat would be nice because it would be the perfect compliment to my guitar. Between the two guitars, there really isn't any type of music that we wouldn't be able to accurately play.

Below is a pic of Eric Clapton with "Blackie", the most famous Stratocaster ever used.

Here's my guitar

Well, I now own an electric guitar. As I posted earlier, Guitar Center was supposed to ship me the guitar. On wednesday it came in. It was shipped in a Schecter box and not the original Ibanez box, which is no big deal except that I don't have the owner's manual. No big deal, it was only a 4 page pamphlet anyway. The clearcoat finish on the back has a couple small cracks, but nothing worth sending the guitar back for. The 1/4" cord plug was apart when I took the guitar out of the box, but fortunately all of the pieces were in the box. It doesn't want to stay tight, but a little lock-tite will fix that. The front of the guitar looks great, and I'm real happy with the pattern of the quilted maple.

I enjoy playing on it, as it's easier to play than the acoustic when I'm seated, because I can keep it closer to me. Kristin agreed, and now I think she's got a bit of an interest in getting an electric to learn on.

Anyway, here are the pics:

Freezing Rain Sucks

I hate freezing rain. I think I mentioned this yesterday in one of my posts. Well, now I really hate it. Somewhere around 11:00 AM yesterday our power went out at the house, thanks to a very large tree limb on Dutch Hill that took out 3 power wires during it's rapid descent to earth. Of course, this limb fell because the massive weight of a 1/2" thick coating of ice was too much for it to handle.

I called the house every hour to make sure that the answering machine was picking up (a sign that the power was on). When I called at 11:30 it no longer picked up. I got home at around 12:45, and by that point the sump hole was almost full of water. I hauled water out 5 gallons at a time until I couldn't deal with it anymore and then my father and I set up his generator.

The generator ran erratically, and would stall often, usually after between 2-20 minutes of running. It was a non-stop effort through most of the afternoon and night to try and keep the generator running, as well as to plug and unplug the heater and sump pumps into the circuit that we were back-feeding the generator into. At around 10:30 I was unable to keep the generator running. At around midnight I cried "Uncle" and my father brought up his gas powered water pump, but fortunately he was able to dick with the generator and keep it running long enough to help get the basement back under control. We found that the carb was loose, and after we got the basement under control we were going to try and work on the carb so that it would run better. Finally at 1:00, just as we were preparing to screw with the carb, the power came back on.

All night long I was up and down the basement stairs, and yanking on that generator pull cord. From around midnight on, my father was there doing most of the work on the generator, which is probably a good thing because I was exhausted. If it wasn't for the non-stop dicking with the generator and my father's tremendous help, my basement would have taken on more water than I could have hauled out one pail at a time, and would likely have caused significant damage.

The next step is to get that generator running reliably or to get a new one so that in the future we can handle these power outages better. It's also time to rig up a battery powered pump system so that we'll be covered even when we're not home.

If we could have just gotten a normal frigging snow storm instead of this freezing rain bullshit, I could have spent last night snowmobiling instead of dicking with a pond in my basement.

No Guitar Yet

I should know better. Every time I jump the gun and mention anything that I'm "going to get", something winds up happening and I don't get it. Such is the case with the guitar that I thought was on hold for me. Last Saturday I found a guitar that I loved, which I posted a picture of below. When the sales guy was showing me the guitar last week, there was a person standing right behind me listening in. Apparently he bought it as soon as I left the store. So, when I called on tuesday to put it on hold, the dipshit just assumed that I meant a different color, so he put a red one on hold for me. So, when I went in on Saturday, no guitar.

Fortunately, there are still some in stock in the Rochester store, so they're going to ship one to me. But, since no two pieces of wood are the same, it's highly unlikely that the quilted maple top on this one will be similar to the one that's already sold. The one that was in the store looked a lot nicer than the one shown in the pic below. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what this one looks like, though I doubt it'll look bad, even if it's not as nice as the other one.

So right now I have a guitar stand, an amp, a cord, a case and even the strap. Just no guitar.

In other related news, I spent a good solid 2-3 hours practicing on Kristin's acoustic guitar last night after I replaced the strings. The new strings are fantastic. Not only does it play much, much easier now, but the tone is significantly better. Those old strings were so stretched that I had to wind the piss out of them to get them in tune, and as a result they played very hard. Kristin found it much easier to play. I spent a couple hours practicing a few chords along with some tablature for a couple songs. While I still suck so bad that I can barely stand to hear the noise, it was encouraging to see that after that much practicing, my hands did not get the least bit fatigued nor did my finger tips get sore. That's certainly a good thing.

So... yeah.

This weather sucks

For chrissakes, just when I think that this shitstain of a winter can't possibly shit any harder, it proves me wrong and gives us this shit. As if a wet, rainy, warm winter isn't pathetic enough already, now we get a massive dose of freezing rain that will likely coat our area with huge amounts of ice buildup that's sure to cause a power outage at the house. Because there is likely to be widespread power outages, that means that it'll take them forever to get the power back on. My shitty little battery powered bilge pump isn't likely to be able to keep up with the MASSIVE amounts of water that is going to come in to the basement thanks to the fucking lake in my back yard. If our power goes out, chances are our new hot water heater will wind up submerged.

All of the people who like this warm winter can individually kiss my ass. Not only does it suck for those of us who enjoy winter activities, it completely fucks the economy in regions that depend on on it for income. Ski areas are taking a beating, as is every secondary business like motels, resturants, and whatnot. This isn't Florida. This area needs the winter weather as badly as florida needs old people and Mickey Mouse.

Ibanez Guitar

Last week while out with my dad, I found a guitar that I liked. Monday I called and had them put it on hold so that I can go pick it up on Saturday.

Below is a pic of the guitar, though the actual one that I'm getting has a much nicer quilted maple pattern in the veneer:



The guitar seems to offer quite a bit for the money. All of the hardware is of good quality, and the finish is far beyond what other guitars seem to offer in this price range. Even if I never get good at playing it, at least it'll look good in my office!

Green Goblins Go Splash

For those of you who attended my 30th birthday party and enjoyed some of the delicious cake with black frosting, you no doubt got a big kick out of everybody with the black mouths.

I just wanted to pass a tidbit of somewhat useful information in order to help prevent you from getting unnecessarily nervous. By now you've no doubt used the toliet, and were probably a bit surprised to find that your business was black or dark green. Don't worry, you don't have a moldy GI tract, it's just the food coloring from the black frosting. It's entirely normal for your toliet to look like it's full of green Cool-Aid. I would, however, advise that you don't drink it.

Camaros in January

Yesterday marked the very first time that I've ever driven my Camaro in January. Usually we have multiple feet of snow this time of year, and I'm always out trying to get myself killed on the snowmobile trails. This winter has been a huge disappointment because I haven't been able to use the sled at all. That's really frustrating because that's the only outlet I have in the winter to get my fix for speed that every horsepower junkie craves. Fortunately, after some rain and warm weather, the roads were dry and clear of salt, and the sun was shining, so I got to take the Camaro for a short ride, and oh boy did it feel good. I drove the Corvette to Pittsfield yesterday too, and hopefully I'll get to take it to work a few times this week. With the inability to use my sled, this was just what the doctor ordered!

Turning 30 isn't so bad

On Saturday, I turned 30. Horray for me. Kristin, of course, had no intention of letting such a milestone pass by unnoticed. I knew that she was up to something, and knowing how big of a deal birthdays are to her, I knew that she would do something impressive, but she still managed to shock the hell out of me. I got guilted into going to a camper store with my Dad on saturday, so I knew that something was up. I had figured that when I got back, that I'd see Lance and Phaedra's Grand Am in the yard, and I was looking forward to finally showing them our house and showing Lance some of the crap that I've been working on that I knew he would be interested in. After all, it's not too often that there's somebody at my house that actually gives a damn about all my cars and my speakers. When my father and I pulled up to the house, instead of seeing Lance & Phaedra's car, I saw about 15 cars (including theirs), some of which I didn't even recognize. After I got the car parked, I went up to the house and couldn't believe what I saw. In the house were 30+ people, all there to celebrate my newfound oldness. What was even more amazing is that Kristin managed to assemble a group of people that consisted of a few friends that I hadn't seen or even spoken to in a number of years. My very good friend Liz, who I don't think I've even seen or talked to since she got married a few years ago was there with her husband and their adorable (and exceptionally well behaved) 2 1/2 year old son. Michelle, who I've only seen a couple times since Liz's wedding, was also there with her new boyfriend, who appears to be a MUCH nicer guy than her old boyfriend. Matt and Nicole were also there. Though they just recently moved into a house a half mile from us, used to live an hour away and I haven't seen them nearly as much as I should have over the last few years. Kristin also invited my buddy Todd from near Rutland, but unfortunately he has a sick kid so he wasn't able to come down. Hopefully his kid is feeling better now. Aside from those people who I don't often see, almost all of my regular friends and family were there to wish me well. It's really overwhelming when you see this many close friends and family together, because you don't realize just how many people there are that care about you until you put them all into your dining room!

What was even more overwhelming though, was Kristin. The minute I walked into the door, it was obvious that she put a tremendous amount of time and effort into making sure this party was absolutely perfect. For her to work so hard at doing this for me really means the world to me. It's just one more reminder that I'm damned lucky to have her, and that it's a good thing I put that ring on her hand before she found somebody else to do it!

Just incase any of you are actually reading this (Hi Jill!!), I want to thank all of you for participating, and sharing my old-man day with me. This old man feels very much alive!

The audibility of ignorance

Sometimes I make dumb mistakes. Other times, I make well intentioned mistakes. I haven't decided which one this was yet, but I definately made a mistake. Back in November I made a blog entry about choosing a surround sound system for my aunt. I started that entry with a comment about whether she was actually unhappy with what she had, or if she just wanted to upgrade because people told her she should. Ultimately, what I was saying, was that I wondered whether she could ever hear the improvements that this new system would provide. I just didn't want to say it that way.

Unfortunately, last night as I installed it for her, it became painfully obvious that she simply doesn't know what she's hearing, and has no interest in a proper surround sound system. She just wants to be constantly bombarded with noise from 360 degrees. After I hooked it all up, she kept asking me why all the sound was coming from the front instead of all around her. I explained a dozen times that's how it's supposed to be, that the surround channels are only used when something is supposed to be happening off screen, such as fly-bys or ambiance effects. She had absolutely no idea what I was talking about and just wants to be able to hear stuff from the back speakers all the time.

The only audible improvement that this system now provides is a much higher clarity compared to the old one for the simple reason that the old speakers were such a pathetically poor quality, but since she's going to hang some stupid assed doll over the center channel speaker, that'll go a long way toward fucking up most of that improved clarity.

Ultimately, she could have yielded similar results with a system that cost 1/2 or 1/3 the price. I completely over-estimated her abilities to recognize good sound, as well as proper surround-sound. I had assumed that she just didn't realize what the proper sound was because her current setup was so awful, but that wasn't the case at all. She prefers a completely fucked up surround sound environment that is not only completely unrealistic, but is so bad that anybody who hears it will immediately doubt my abilities to even design a reasonable system.

The one thing that I'm trying to take from this experience, is to try and learn how to suggest products to other people who "aren't as into it as I am" as my parents would put it. Frankly, I don't know how. My aunt has proven that some people have a desire for something that's so completely fucked that I simply do not know how to provide something that suits their needs.

Fuck me. Right now I want to go smash something.