Surprisingly sad...

So I recently sold a guitar to a happy guy in China! (It seems I am sending things to far more exciting places then I have been lately...) Anyway, I have been trying to decide what to do with this guitar for a long time. It was just far to "pretty" for me, I was always nervous to play it. Finally I just decided to sell it and let someone else have a go at it so I did. The funny thing is that I never really felt attached to it, didn't develop a bond with it like I had with a couple of my other guitars... or at least so I thought... Anyway, I shipped it off today and was surprised that I was sad to see it go... I don't have much in this world, but I love my guitars, apparently all of them. Good bye fair guitar. May you find love elsewhere. I shall miss you...

Blessings everywhere!

Yesterday was quite the day let me tell you! Started off with me going to work (which, if you know, a day of work has been a blessing in itself of late...) and as I was working, a spring broke on the machine that I was using, shooting a shard outward... Luckily, and thankfully, the only thing injured was my sense of peace... it scared me pretty good! It was LOUD! Well, I guess a couple of sweatshirts suffered while I made adjustments to the registration since it was no longer aligned... but anyway... all was well... but it was an ominous sign none-the-less...

Next I found myself thanking the Lord for tires and a low annual rainfall in the valley! I was driving home from work and coming to a "Y" in the road, the truck in front of me started to turn into the left of the "Y" and I put on my directional to turn right, just as I was getting to the "Y" the truck in front of me, which was well into the left of the "Y" swerved suddenly back into the right, braking the whole time. Luckily for for me, there wasn't fire where there was smoke this time because my tires sure were smoking as I locked up my brakes... they sure were screaming like they were on fire though! So as I calmly tried to decide which direction to skid, somehow, after only a few shimmies, I was able to stop my car, where it stayed for a a few moments. Remember that part that I said earlier about me being calm... well technically that was a lie... I was pretty much freaking out. The tuck pulled over and started backing up, and the driver was nice enough to give me a strange look as I drove past to get my car out of traffic. Maybe it was his first day on the job. Who knows. At any rate, I was a little shook up and decided to pull over for a moment to collect myself. A biker that had seen it go down pulled up along side of me to congratulate me on my "good reflexes". He seemed very proud of me but somehow he managed to keep himself from gushing too much. Looking back at his expression as he pedaled away, he must have felt pretty ridiculous that he forgot to ask for my autograph, but hey, at least he got a pretty cool story out of the whole thing.

So The rest of the ride home was far more adrenaline filled then normal as my body worked it through my system. I actually had to watch TV for a good 30-40 minutes before I was actually calm again. Good times. Luckily no one returned my texts yesterday so I didn't end up going anywhere. I am sure I am over it, I have been in far worse "encounters" before, but considering my car's recent past, and the fact that I am pretty far away from family, these things seem to hit me a little harder lately. Thank you God for sparing not only my health, but the health of my car, which in this culture/society is so tied into my health these days anyway...

And then, since I didn't feel like driving any more that day, I oddly found myself at home for the evening and met one of my roommates friends. Turns out he is in charge of some of the event planning at a local university and he asked me if I would be interested in playing a show on a Thursday afternoon in the next couple of months. Of course I said that I would be... and then he said he could pay me! Bonus! I am still trying to be cautiously optimistic about the whole thing, but it could be a great opportunity and I am pretty excited about it. One of my friends felt the consequences of my excitement last night as she was I am sure trying to get work done and I kept chatting away with her... hopefully she understands... ;-) (Did I mention that chats with this friend always seem to brighten my day? Yet another blessing just hearing from her!) So all in all, another good day.

So I caught a hummingbird the other day...

Yep... caught it. Held it in my hands. Actually I caught it twice. The first time I thought I had injured it so I held it ever so tenderly and it seized the opportunity to fly away! The second time I had it securely in my hand, but in an awkward position so I repositioned it to make a better picture for my cell phone and it managed to, rather easily, struggle out of the new hold I had on it before my camera initialized! Crud! There went my proof... sigh... But I did catch it... twice... honestly... I did...

Those darn people that are apparently at least slightly smarter than I am...

Well it happened again... I am apparently a few years, and a few advanced degrees behind... I have been struggling to locate someone who cares and in my attempts I have turned to cyberspace with my story...

So, as per my daily routine, I was thinking about physics the other day and, quite frankly, started getting a little ticked. The problem was that I had to plug my iPod, lap top, cell phone, you name it, into a wall socket to charge the battery. I got upset because let's think about it for a moment. Why do I have to plug it in? Why can't we just pass energy wirelessly from a nearby source or two. Isn't that basically what all of our wireless signals are? Energy of one sort or another? Surely there is someone out there who can figure this out, who knows, maybe it is me! Well, it turns out that it isn't me. Apparently they have been working on this for a while and are having some measure of success. Not, of course, "every home in America will have one in the next 3 years" success, but one team working on it is claiming 90% efficiency at a distance of about 3 feet! Other teams as high as 75%. I am pretty sure that the guys working on this are also smart enough to know how the space/time continuum works and have gone first forward in time to the recent past when I had the idea, stole it from me, and then back in time to however many years ago, to begin work on the project. It is really the only feasible way to keep me from making money off of it... I may as well just tell them (well, tell you I guess, I am sure they have already ready this blog when they time travelled...) about planting these transmitters along the roads in major cities to power electric cars so they never have to stop. Think of the broad implications, not just in eneergy, but in traffic control, economy (if the government could eliminate gasoline expenditures, how much would that stimulate the economy?), the list goes on! ...sigh... Oh well... I guess I had better get to work on my next big thing... sorry, I won't be posting it here...

Really? I mean... really?

Have you ever "googled" yourself. It is fascinating the things you can find out. For example, I had no idea that I grew up along the banks of the Rappahannock River, or that I was enormous. Not to mention it turns out that I am getting married and headed to Jamaica for my honeymoon!? Should be a blast. Why doesn't my fiance look familiar though. You would think I would be marrying someone that I had at least met... Oh well... Jamaica!

But wait... If I am a huge guy getting married soon... then why do I have fuzzy pictures of myself up in a facebook account showing a skinny little guy flashing signs? Must be to throw off the competition. You see, apparently, according to my resume, I am the Director of Global Financial Information Systems of something or other, not to mention the Director of Gaming Industry Services. Any number of people could be after me... and I wouldn't want to have to fend them off personally, I have to go to Jamaica. Good thinking on the fake facebook page. That'll keep 'em guessing....

Well what do you know!

I think that I took another big step yesterday. I put 2 guitars up for sale... yep. Turns out I can only play one at a time. It also turns out that there are 2 that I really like, and pretty much are the only 2 that get played. Seemed like the right economical choice... Of cuorse, I may really just be trying to figure out a way to buy a different one, who knows how our subconscious mind works. But one thing I can say is this. I might sell them. I just might...

Yikes!

Well, it turns out that I am on my way to becoming a guitar tech, I am getting more and more comfortable with various guitar related projects. I have fit, shaped and installed custom (pre-compensated) saddles and bridge pins of various materials on my guitars and other peoples, installed pickups on two, and repaired/re-installed a pickup on a third, can change strings fairly proficiently, perform minor set ups (mostly neck adjustments) and converse with a fair amount of fluidity about various parts of the guitar. While I know this is not a big deal to most, especially not other actual guitar players, it does represent some measure of success for myself. It wasn't all that long ago that changing strings wasn't on the list of things I could do and I just installed a 4 part pickup in a decent/high end (for me) guitar. It is a little scary drilling a hole through the top of such a piece of equipment, but I did it, and the pickup sounds terrific. Sometimes I guess I need to celebrate the small successes. It shows progress. Makes me feel like this old dog can still learn new tricks.

I didn't quite know how this blog was going to come out. I guess I was just excited about doing something right (the recent install) and wanted to share! So there you have it. Thanks for listening...

PS I also like to say that I got a new guitar out of the deal. I used to have just an acoustic... well I now have an acoustic/electric, nice...

A funny thing happened the other day...

So I was thinking about how weird life can be, and all the little "coincedences" that are there is we bother looking for them... I even just posted a similar post about such a topic, but this one is more personal.

So the other night, I was driving... now my cd player in my car has been heading downhill lately, getting worse and worse as time goes by. Anyway, apparently it finally decided that it had had enough of slavery and quit on me, only I didn't know at first that it was done... I ejected a cd to put a new one in, only the new one didn't go in... Now at times I do behave like your typical guy and I must admit, as shameful as it is, that this was one of those times. Anyway, acting like a typical guy, I thought, "Oh, I must just have to push it harder..." (Let me here state the the "typical guy" is not necessarily a smart guy...) Well, I pushed, and I have no idea how it happened, but the cd literally crumpled in my hands once it got halfway in. I didn't even push that hard! I have no idea what happened... It was like the cd player waited and then calmly bit the cd in half. Not something you see every day. I must admit that it startled me. I mean, what just happened! I must have looked like a crazy person, breaking cds like it is nothing! At any rate, here is where the coincedences start (short of that day seeming to be the day when random things went wrong/broke like it was going out of style all day... you know you have had one of those days... please tell me other people have those days...?) The first being that I had randomly chosen an old cd to listen to that day, and it was the one that broke... The band was Our Lady Peace... And the album was Clumsy... oh the irony...

Did I mention that I was on my way to see The Incredible Hulk?

See if you can keep up... Or 6 degrees of Robert Downy Jr...

OK, I know this isn't a stretch, and I know it happens all the time, but I still find it interesting, and I am the one writing this blog so I guess I have the say on it...

So I have watched some movies lately and something struck me once again, just how interwoven Hollywood is and how we are to believe so few people are so many characters. Here is how it goes... I was watching Iron Man, which stars Robert Downy Jr. (And Gweneth, who is married to Chris who's band recently released an album which I have been listening too... but that is not the focus here, just a related tangent). Terrence Howard is also in Iron Man... I then saw Terrence Howard (who is referenced on a Common album by the way... but that is neither here nor there, except that Common was also in the movie Wanted...) Anyway, Terrence Howard was just spotted in a movie with Jodie Foster, The Brave One... And then Jodie was in a movie with Denzel, Inside Man, which has the same initials, sylables and last name as Iron Man... starring Robert Downy Jr... who was spotted at the end of The Incredible Hulk... Sorry, that last one was a stretch (actually, this whole post is a stretch), but Robert hasn't been in a ton of movies in the last few years so give me a break...

It is also weird that I seem to run into movie star chains like this on occasion and I seem to notice it every time so I just felt like I had to mention it, you know, put it out there...

Anyway, China just tied the US in water polo so I better go cheer. My country needs me...

Ooops...

Well, it happened yet again... I accidentally just busted a groove all over my bedroom floor... It wasn't The Vanilla Shake this time, there was more hips and less shoulders... but it was definitely a groove of some sort... This has been known to happen from time to time, thankfully it usually happens in private, saving me at least some embarrassment. The thing is that I don't even know what song it was too this time! That means that it is getting worse... maybe it is this new found affinity to hip hop that I have picked up lately. I have yet to decide what I am going to do about my problem... embrace it, ignore it, or go through some sort of therapy and try to conquer it, make it my b**** if you will... we'll see...

Today...

Let's see just how mundane a life can be shall we? (I think I am once again on a word kick... Thanks then-Miss Rydzik for your weekly vocab. sheets!)

Today I went into work and found myself doing basically nothing for the first part of the day, setting up the shop and production for the second half and leaving early!! Then I got to go set up my TV as a monitor for my iTunes! (There are still some bugs to work out but now I can watch Radiohead and Maroon 5 on the widescreen!) Anyway, So You Think You Can Dance and a calzone broke up my evening of guitar playing up nicely... although I do have a new song in my hands at the moment... not surprisingly Psalms 40 seems to be coming out of my mouth to compliment it... A far cry from last nights writing which was trying to put Einstein's theory of relativity into a song about relationships, and thinking about how I am going to make the math parts sound romantic... for all of you out there that thought you were a nerd, you may have met your match... Honestly, who does such things...

And I have health coverage tomorrow! For the first time since I stopped mooching off of my parents!! Yay me! And my boss!

Anyway, I don't really know what this blog is going to be... it just seemed like the other one could get deep on me and that some of the more day to day, more personalized stuff might be better found elsewhere, thus this blog... we'll see if I keep either of them going...