Scott's Blog (What else would it be called)?

Upgrading my Phone

2011-09-17T08:49:00.001-04:00

I've made the leap to a Motorola Triumph Android phone. It's not the bleeding edge of technology, but it is the first Android phone available over the Virgin Mobile network.

I've been wanting something like an iPhone, but I just wasn't ready for the financial commitment it takes to own such a device. I looked into it - I believe it was $199 for the iphone, and then a 2-year contract of over $100/month to get a respectable number of minutes, 2GB of data and unlimited text. $2,600? No.

On Virgin Mobile, there is no contract. For $40 month, I get 500 minutes of talk, unlimited data and unlimited text. Also, I can tell them to piss off at any time without financial penalty. The rub is you have to buy the phone. I got the Motorola Triumph for $261 off ebay. Not cheap, but much less than the contract type phone.

I never even realized how far these newer phones have advanced. Media player, bluetooth, WiFi, 5mp camera, HDMI output - the list goes on and on. Before I knew it, I had it setup, syncing with the contacts from my Gmail and Facebook accounts. I haven't even begun to look at the possibilities with the 1000's of applications that are available.

One bonus feature (for my ever aging eyes), is the screen size. My LG Rumor Touch had a 3" screen, the Triumph has 4.1" The difference is incredible, and I can actually read things on it.

Now when I travel, I'll be able to use Google Maps and download apps for riding the subways in NYC. And I can continue to bug you people on twitter more easily too.

Sweet

Here's a review which better describes the Triumph.

Sun Dried Explosion

2011-08-21T09:09:00.001-04:00

I recently purchased a jar of sun dried tomatoes after seeing them on a cooking show. Their flavor is intense and sweet. Do this:

Chop 1 TBSP white onion and 2 TBSP of sun dried tomatoes. Melt a tad of butter in a small skillet. Saute' the onion for a minute. Add the sun dried tomato and saute' for another minute. Spread it evenly across the bottom of the skillet, and pour in 2 eggs, beaten. Salt and pepper. Once the egg has set up, add shredded cheddar cheese. Fold the omelet (in 3rd's, not in half). Put it on a plate, and hit it with a generous dose of Texas Pete. Sprinkle with a little chopped Parsley.

Pretend that you're a chef, and enjoy.

4Rivers BBQ

2011-08-20T17:05:00.002-04:00

I love BBQ, but most of my exposure to it has been from either Sonny's, or my own attempts at smoking meat.

There's a place in Orlando called 4 Rivers BBQ. Anytime you drive past, people are 'literally' lined out the door to get in. I've heard from a couple of the guys I work with that their BBQ is awesome. Well, today I finally went to see what it was all about.

What it's about, is a restaurant that has quickly outgrown it's building, with no relief for this location. This is the original that opened a couple of years ago. They've now opened a second location in Winter Garden and are building a 3rd near where I work.

To cut to the chase, I went at 3PM. They have parking for 20 cars, max. I was lucky to get a space after waiting for 10 minutes. I got up to the door, and was then confronted with another wait - the wait to get in.

Once inside, you snake your way around the outside of the room until you get to the counter. You place your order, get your food and pay the cashier. Once back out the door, the only seating is outside behind the building. There are water-misting fans to keep you cool. Yeah, it's August in Florida. Also, seating is so limited you inevitably end up sitting at a table with strangers. Eating with people I don't know isn't my idea of a good time.

So you have to put up with a lot of inconvenience just to have the 'honor' of eat at 4 Rivers. So how's the food?

I got the Angus Brisket plate. Beef Brisket, if you ask any Texan, is the Holy Grail of BBQ. All the dinner plates comes with 3 sides. I got baked beans, Cole slaw and French fries, the cornerstone of BBQ sides. It also comes with a biscuit, which I thought was a bit weird. Oh yeah, $12.99 which isn't too bad. It's one of the most expensive plates on the menu. One of the sides I didn't get to try, but wanted to, were the smoked Jalapenos. It was a Jalapeno, stuffed with (something), and then wrapped in bacon. Next time.

The sides were good, but no better than those I've had from other BBQ places. In fact, I'd go as far to say that the sides at Sonny's were actually a touch better. What separated this dinner apart from the others I've tried was the brisket.

Wow, they just whack you off a big pile of meat from the brisket. It must have been close to a pound. This isn't sliced either, it's falling apart. Think pulled Pork, but beef instead. They then squirt their own sauce on top of it. It was some of the most awesome meat I've ever had. I was going to take a pic, but sitting with strangers and all, I didn't want them to think I was a weirdo.

I'll go again, but not to that location. The reward is good, but not worth the hassle. Hopefully the new location will address all of the parking and seating issues of the original store.

Kelley and Ruben Move to Brooklyn

2011-06-17T13:32:00.000-04:00

Kelley and Ruben moved to Brooklyn last Friday so Ruben can start his job at the hospital. Moving is scary enough, but moving to someplace like New York city has got to be intimidating. I remember how I felt when Amanda and I visited Chicago for 1 day last year. They have a nice small apartment and have left many of their possessions behind, including their cars. Everyone uses public transport there and owning a car can be very expensive.

One of the things they wanted to have was Ruben's TV (a 46" Samsung), which UPS successfully managed to destroy while in their care.

You assholes up there be nice to them, do you hear me !?!

Exciting times. To be young and free again .......

Let's Smoke Some Meat

2011-06-17T13:24:00.000-04:00

I got the bug about a month ago to try my hand at smoking some meat. I love BBQ and watched quite a few videos of people smoking pork shoulder (pulled pork), ribs, beef brisket and chickens. I had to give it a try.

This is a propane smoker made by Masterbuilt. I bought it at Sears right before Memorial Day. Kelley helped me put it together which only took about an hour or so. I went to Costco and bought a couple slabs of ribs, rubbed them down with some McCormack Applewood dry rub, put them into a big ziplock bag & stuck them back in the fridge for a day.

I used Hickory wood for the smoker and put the ribs on to slow cook. I smoked them at about 225F for 4-1/2 hours, then pulled them out of the smoker and wrapped them in foil. I set them aside to rest for about an hour.

I'm not bragging here, but these probably were the best ribs I've ever had in my life. Between myself, Kelley, Jodie, Ruben and Tyler, we put a serious dent in the 2 full slabs, barely having enough left to let Brad and Amanda try them.

Smoking is fun and easy, and I'm anxious to try brisket and chicken.

Ruben Graduates from Medical School

2011-06-17T13:11:00.000-04:00

My future son-in-law, Ruben, has graduated from Medical School with a Doctorate in Pharmacy.

Ruben is one of the hardest working and fun to be around people that I've ever known, and I'm very proud of his accomplishment.

Now that he's a Doctor, it's time for a residency in a hospital in Brooklyn. He and my daughter Kelley moved there a week ago, and are still trying to get settled in. More on that in another post. Congrats Ruben!

Michele and Eric Expecting

2011-06-17T13:03:00.000-04:00

I'm so far behind with my blog, I figured it was time to do some quick posts about all the important things that are going on.

Michele (my oldest daughter) and her husband Eric are expecting their first child in November. This will also propel me into the category of Grandpa, something I'm having a bit of a hard time getting my head around.

I'm super happy though, as is everyone else. It's going to be a big change, but super cool at the same time. The baby will be here before we know it.

Hot Dog Heaven

2011-05-22T09:26:00.005-04:00

See this building? This place has been alongside Colonial Drive in Orlando for as long as I can remember, yet I've never bothered to stop there. It's not in the greatest part of town, and was somewhat hard to get to. Recent construction in the area has helped on both of those points.

The other day, I was reading an article on the web about the 10 best places to eat in Orlando. Orlando is a crap hole for food, with nothing but every chain restaurant under the sun lining the streets. I've said that Orlando doesn't have any place that the locals know about and frequent. Well, Hot Dog Heaven was listed in this survey of 10 best places to eat for 'best hot dog in Orlando'. I was driving past it the other day and decided to pull in and give it a try.

At 1:30 in the afternoon, the place was packed. This is a good sign. It's a long skinny building with places to sit against the wall. There's also tables and a very long bench outside. The bench faces the road, so you can sit, eat, and watch the idiots go speeding by. I opted for the bench after placing my order.

I blew my chance to get a genuine Chicago dog while we were actually in Chicago last year. In fact, I'd never had a Chicago dog before until Sonic added them to their menu. You're stunned, I know, but knowledge of these things even existing doesn't make it down to the south, just as many people up north have no idea what grits are. Anyway, the Chicago dog at Sonic was good, but the Chicago dog is also the specialty at Hot Dog Heaven. I ordered one up with fries and cole slaw on the side.

To get to it, it was the best hot dog I've ever had in my life. There's something about the combination of ingredients (tomato, diced onion, mustard, dill pickle, neon-green relish and hot peppers on a poppy seed bun) that works together to create a flavor second to none. I know some of you may not like all of those ingredients, but if you start messing with it by taking stuff off, you may knock the entire experience out of whack. The fries were crisp and straight out of the fryer into my basket. Just incredible.

I'll be going back, soon and often.

Download the menu!

Hot Dog Heaven
5355 East Colonial Drive
Orlando, FL 32807-1816
(407) 282-5746

Map

My Bedroom is My Bedroom ... Again

2011-04-30T14:40:00.002-04:00

My Dad was living in my bedroom the time he was here, from August 2006 - June 2010. I was using the small bedroom on the opposite end of the house. I wanted him to use the master because it has it's own bathroom.

When he moved out last year, the renovation began. The carpet was original, ruined and disgusting. I decided to put hardwood laminate flooring in the entire house, and this room is where I started.

I blogged about this earlier (click here if you're interested).

This really was a complete renovation, starting with the ceiling and working my way down. I scraped the popcorn finish off the ceiling and replaced it with a knock-down finish (thanks Brad).

After painting the ceiling, the walls were next. Nothing too difficult about the walls, with the exception of trying to remove the border that used to go around the top of the room. It was stubborn and took some layers of drywall paper with it when it came off.

I wasn't sure what to do about the color of the room, but in the long run I ended up using a color called 'rainwashed' by Sherwin Williams. It has a green hue to it, without being too green. I thought it looked soothing on the sample swatch when I saw it, adding color too the room without being overpowering.

After paint, the floor was the next thing to be installed. I used flooring by Armstrong, and the finish is called 'Applewood'. This is a thick (13mm) laminate flooring that snaps together. I had never done flooring before and wasn't sure what I'd gotten myself in to. In the end, the worry was for nothing. I had the closet and floor done in less than 8 hours. Not too bad, and it looks better than I had ever hoped.

Over the last 2 weeks, I've been moving back into the room. I originally wanted to build my own bed, but realized I may be waiting forever if I went that route. I just don't have that amount of free time right now. I found a nice bed and a gentleman's chest to match, as well as a single night stand (it has not yet arrived).

Here's the result. Because of my laziness, it took me close to a year to complete this, but it was worth the wait. I slept in there for the first time in almost five years last night. I have a problem with the bed being too firm right now, but it felt great to be back in my own room.

The Coral Castle

2011-04-11T21:17:00.011-04:00

Last Saturday, Amanda and I drove to Fort Lauderdale to visit Kelley and Ruben. I had just been down 3 weeks earlier and had a blast, so I couldn't wait to make another trip down there.

The main thing we had planned for the day was to go see the Coral Castle down in Homestead, about an hours drive south of Kelley and Ruben's place. Amanda already knew what to expect having researched it on the web, but I didn't have any idea what to expect. It turned out to be a really cool place.

See this creepy looking dude on the left? His name was Ed, and he built the Coral Castle by himself over a span of 30 years. He was a petite man, just 5' tall and weighing a mere 100 pounds, yet he managed to carve, move and erect slabs of coral weighing up to 30 tons each. The entire castle consists of over 1,100 tons of coral. He lived in this castle, working on it mainly at night. He didn't want others to see how he was able to accomplish this feat of engineering. Some say he had secret powers, such as the ability of levitate objects. He just claimed that he understood physics and leverage.

There are many interesting objects inside the Coral Castle. One of these is the '9 ton gate' located on the east castle wall. It is a giant slab of coral weighing 9 tons, and it revolves like a revolving door. They claim you can move it just by pushing on it with your finger. As Kelley found out, it isn't quite that easy. Still, a person can open this door without too much effort. Nobody understands how Ed was able to accomplish this. A door such as this using modern bearings would be difficult to construct.

We had a great time at the Coral Castle. Later that night, we went out to eat at a place called the 15th Street Fisheries. We ate outside, right above the dock where hundreds of fish swim and get fed by people at the restaurant. Giant tarpon are often seen and they are huge, some growing up to 8 feet long and weighing 400 pounds. The food was incredible. I'd love to go back there again some day.

Thank you Kelley and Ruben for having us. We had a blast!

Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock

2011-03-27T10:22:00.004-04:00

I walked into Chick-Fil-A Friday morning to get my usual treat. Friday is casual dress day at work, so jeans and a t-shirt are a must wear.

As I walked up to the counter, the gentleman taking my order began staring at my shirt. He soon had a confused look on his face.

I proceeded to point to the symbols on the shirt, and explained that they were "rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock.

Still confused, he replied "Huh, I don't know any sign language".

What Time Is It?

2011-02-06T12:46:00.004-05:00

It looks like my Seiko has finally given up. A couple of weeks ago, it stopped running. "No problem, just needs a new battery" I thought. I took it in and got the battery replaced. At the same time, I decided it was time to try a new look. The Seiko had a black face, but a bracelet style gold band. I had them to take that off and put a brown leather strap on it. It looked sharp, and I was happy.

Two days later, it stopped running again. Maybe I just got a bad battery? I took it back and the girl tested the battery. She said it tested fine, but put a different one in, just in case. It ran for 2 weeks after that, but stopped again. Having enough of it all, I decided it was time for a new watch.

I'm surprised that watches have gotten larger and thicker over the years. Back in the day, thinness was the goal. Not anymore. I found it a challenge to find one that wasn't too large, or didn't have all of that chronograph crap on it. Who really uses that anyway?

I found this Citizen watch, model BM7100-16E. Nice black face, black leather strap, and just a date window. I've heard good things about Citizen watches, but have never owned one. This is an Eco-Drive model. It has a rechargeable battery which is powered by light, either artificial or natural sunlight. In theory, you never need to replace the battery.

Pros and Cons? It is larger and thicker than my old Seiko, and has taken some getting used to. The good thing about that is it's easy to read, even with my glasses off. On the con side, the date window is very small and I have a hard time reading it, even with my glasses on. WTF Citizen?

My Dad

2011-01-17T16:17:00.002-05:00

My Dad passed away last week. I still don't think it's really hit me full on yet. I really don't even know what to say, or why I am posting this.

I could see his health deteriorating in the last few years. When he moved in with me in 2006 (after my Mom passed away), he was walking with a cane. Within 2 years, he was using a walker. As late as 2 weeks ago, he had a very hard time walking at all.

Worrying about him weighed heavily on me. After My mom passed away, and then my sister in December of 2009, I was all he had left. He was living in an assisted living facility since June of 2010. He didn't like it at first and was plenty pissed off about everything, but I think he was starting to be alright with it towards the end.

The end came within a week of him falling ill. I won't go into the details, but I'm glad that if it was his time to go, it didn't drag on and on.

He was a good man, husband, father and grandfather. We will all miss him.

Pizza 2010

2010-12-26T13:21:00.006-05:00

Pizza 2010 started Thursday the 23rd, with Kelley and Ruben getting into town. We had said that we were going out for pizza when they came to town, and we did.

There's a pizza place called Goodfella's that I had never been to before, even though they've been in business since 1998. Not really sure how that happened, but now I know.

We got an order of wings to start, and they were delicious. They came sans sauce, but we had a medium and a hot sauce to dip them in to. They were super hot temperature-wise, you can tell they're made to order.

The pizza was incredible. I don't know really what else to say about it, but you could tell they use quality ingredients and cheeses to make these. Just awesome.

Finally, we got to open presents on Christmas night. What did I get from them? Yeah, it's the Starship Enterprise, but it's also a pizza cutter.

Pizza 2010 was a total win. I hope pizza 2011 is just as good!

Das Auto

2010-12-11T18:40:00.009-05:00

What can I say? Let's call it mid-life crisis and leave it at that, shall we?

I've been eying this for 2 years and my truck, although still a fine piece of conveyance, is getting a bit long in the tooth. It has no trunk (naturally), so even taking any kind of trip in it is challenging.

I was thinking MX-5 Miata, but that really makes no sense from a practical stand point. The Volkswagen GTI has piqued my curiosity for awhile, but I've never had the chance to drive one. Knowing how nice Kelley's Jetta is to drive, I figured the GTI would have a nice fun factor too.

I decided to go test drive one this morning. 2 miles down the road, I had a severe Fahrvergnügen attack. The rest is history.

Das Auto.

Making Progress with my Diet

2010-11-28T14:14:00.011-05:00

I've been eating better, healthier and less since June of this year. In September of 2009, I quit smoking and subsequently put on even more weight. In April of 2010, when I had my colonoscopy, I weighed close to 320 pounds. I finally reached a point to where I told myself I need to do something.

I changed my eating habits. Fried food and sugar, off the menu. Potatoes, rice and bread also off the menu. As for meat, I decided to not give up red meat completely, but limit it to a once a week type thing. What this left me with is lean meats such as chicken and fish, vegetables and fruits.

Also, I used to eat only 1 large meal a day - dinner. I'd often skip lunch and breakfast and the pig out at dinner time. No more. I've made it a point to be sure I eat throughout the day.

Here is what my typical eating may consist of now. For breakfast either oatmeal or cereal with skim or 1% milk. Coffee w/low fat creamer and Splenda.

Mid morning - either an apple or a banana.

Lunch - A bowl of soup. Most cans of soup only have about 200-300 calories and are low fat. Just watch the sodium.

Mid afternoon - either an apple or banana, whichever I didn't eat in the morning.

Dinner - Fish or chicken either grilled or cooked in a dab of olive oil. Steamed vegetables.

Late night snack - a small bowl of cherries or grapes.

But of course there are hurdles along the way. I knew when I started this that I'd never be able to give up all the things I love, like pizza. It's just not realistic to think you'll never want these foods again and have the willpower to ignore them.

So, you have to allow yourself a treat every once in awhile. For me, I love tacos. So every Tuesday night I go out and get 2 tacos with chips and black beans. I do get chicken tacos instead of beef and luckily I detest sour cream, so even the tacos aren't too bad.

But wait, I've failed to mention the other half of the equation - exercise. Like it or not, you have to get off your ass and move around. By having even a moderate exercising regime, it speeds your bodies metabolism so that you're burning more calories than before, even when you're not doing anything.

Two things have worked brilliantly for me: walking and riding bicycle. I started walking in June of this year, which is when I basically started this whole lifestyle modification. At first, it was just one time around the neighborhood, about 1.5 miles. I did this every night along with the modified eating.

It wasn't long until I started to see the scale move downward and I've been sticking to it ever since. In August, I bought a bicycle and started to go bike riding on the weekends. At first I was doing only a few miles, but it wasn't long that I got to where I could do 10 miles. In September I bought my road bike, and have been riding that on a 15 mile loop every day that I am not working (weekends, my Friday off and holidays). I've put over 500 miles on that bike in 3 months.

So it's been about 6 months now. I've lost almost 70 pounds and am still sticking to it. I'm not sure how far this will take me, but so far it seems to be working well. I'm used to the diet and now feel guilty if I miss a walk. In the last 2 months I've changed my walking loop to increase the length fro 1.5 to 2 miles. Sometimes I even go around twice if I have the time.

In June, I was wearing 46/48 pants and XXXL shirts. I went shopping the other day and bought some new clothes. Size 40 pants, and XL shirts. I haven't been able to shop for off the rack clothes in a long time, and it feels good.

These scale pictures start in September, I don't have any older ones. So this is just showing the progress in the last 2 months or so.

If I can do this, anyone can. I have crap for willpower, but yet in the last 14 months I've been able to quit smoking and loose 70 pounds. I'm pretty proud of that.

Kelley And Ruben Are Engaged!

2010-11-23T12:02:00.002-05:00

I got a call from Kelley last night, asking me to check my e-mail. When I did, this is the picture that was attached to it.

I'm relieved. Ruben talked to me about this last week when he was in town. Of course I told him he had my blessing - he's a great guy. I'm not good at keeping secrets and hadn't mentioned it to anyone. Now I don't have to sit on it anymore.

I love you both and of course wish nothing but the best for everything in your life. I hope you'll have many happy years together.

Dad

Bass Tuner

2010-11-07T10:52:00.001-05:00

Online Bass Tuner

William Shatner Then and Now

2010-10-29T10:41:00.005-04:00

William Shatner in 1967:

William Shatner in 2010:

What's A Kraut Runza?

2010-10-23T20:36:00.013-04:00

My Grandma used to make a dish called a Kraut Runza. It was my favorite thing in the whole world to eat, and every time we went to see her, I begged her to make them.

She'd spend all day making the filling and dough (from scratch of course). It's unknown how many times she tried to teach my Mom and Aunt's how to make them, but they never could get the dough right. There was no recipe - you use some of this, and a pinch of that. Grandma's and science don't seem to go well for some reason.

She passed away in 1975, and my Kraut Runza days were limited to about 1 attempt, by my mom or sister, per decade. This week I decided I would try and give them a go myself. I haven't had one in forever, and I thought my Dad would like to have one again too.

Since Grandma never managed to create a recipe, I won't create one here either. I'll just try to give a rough guideline to go by that should get you there should you decide to try and make these.

What is it? A Kraut Runza is basically ground beef, cabbage and onion all cooked together. You place this mixture (after it's cooled) into a square of bread dough, then bake it in the oven.

Here's what I went with when I made them today, and I must say they came out delicious. No, they weren't exactly like Grandma's, but I've given up long ago trying to duplicate that.

1 pound ground beef
1 small head of cabbage
1 large sweet onion
Salt and Pepper to taste

Shred the cabbage and onion and cook in a large covered pot until the cabbage gets soft. Add just a wee bit of water to the pot to create some steam on the inside. Be sure to keep it covered or else the water will boil off and the cabbage will burn.

Add the ground beef and cook until the beef is is done. Put the mixture into a colander and drain thoroughly. Let it cool fully to room temp, or even fridge it if you want.

For the dough, I never even considered making it myself. I bought some Pillsbury Pizza Crust (Thin Variety) in one of those pop tubes. I suspect you could use the 'Classic' crust also if you'd like a bit more bread. My Dad seemed to think the bread needed to be thicker, while I actually preferred it on the thin side. Grandma's was probably a bit on the thicker side as well. The reason I like this? You unroll it onto the countertop and it makes roughly a 15" x 10" rectangle. Using a pizza cutter, cut in in half (lengthwise), then twice the other way. You'll end up with (6) 5" x 5" squares. Perfect!

Take one of these dough squares and turn it in front of you so it looks like a diamond. Take a couple of spoons of the mix and place it on the dough. Grab the top and bottom corners and pull them together, then pinch the dough together down each side until you've sealed the mixture.

Repeat for the rest of the dough and mixture. Using the proportions I've described here, I made 6 Runza's and had a little bit of the filling left over.

Place them on a cookie sheet as you finish each one. They should look something like this once you've finished. I forgot to mention that I lightly wiped this baking sheet with olive oil before I put the Runza's on - just enough to keep them from sticking.

From that point, I mostly followed the directions on the pizza dough tube - I ended up cooking them at 400F for 17 minutes. Keep a close eye on them once you hit the 14 minute mark, you don't want them to burn.

Here's what I ended with when they came out of the oven.

At this point, I brushed some melted butter on top of them, then plated them to serve. I don't remember if Grandma put butter on top of hers or not, but something in the back of my mind told me to do this, so I did. Let them cool for a good 5 minutes before you attempt to eat one, or you'll burn your mouth. They get really hot on the inside.

No, they don't look exactly like Grandma's, but I tell you they were damned good! This was probably my best effort to date, and they really are pretty easy to make.

Beardstache Update

2010-10-19T12:32:00.005-04:00

Beardstache update: here I am on Tuesday 10/19/2010 approximately 5 weeks after deciding I was going to grow some hair.

Admiral Marius said that I have acheived "TOS:Klingon". That's a worthy compliment.

The good news is it doesn't itch anymore, I've pushed through that. The bad news is the stash is a bit unsymmetrical, and the beard has more grey in it than I'd hoped.

I came close to taking it all off the other night, but decided to give it a bit longer and see what happens as it gets fuller and longer.

Stay tuned for further updates.

Le Parc du Coq Sac?

2010-10-16T11:39:00.006-04:00

Since I've started riding bicycle, I've taken full advantage of the beautiful parks and bike trails we have covering Orlando. More specifically, Blanchard Park which is just down the street from my house.

Running along side the Econlochatchee River, Blanchard Park is one of the nicest parks to walk, run, bike or picnic in. It is full of people on the weekends doing their thing, playing soccer, walking dogs and cooking hamburgers.

But beware, the park is also full of douchebags. These are people who are oblivious to their surroundings and no have respect or concern for their fellow citizens. This has led me to construct (drum roll please) .........

TOP 10 WAYS TO TELL IF YOU'RE A PUBLIC PARK DOUCHEBAG.

10. You walk down the left edge of the trail
9. You walk down the center of the trail
8. You find it necessary to walk hand in hand with your gf/bf like you're in love or something.
7. You walk in a group of more than 2 abreast.
6. You're dog is off a leash
5. Your dog's leash is longer than 3 feet.
4. You and your significant other each have a dog, you walk 4 feet apart down the center of the trail, each dog rotating like a helicopter blade.
3. You totally ignore someone when they acknowledge you or say hello.
2. You have your shirt off - male of female, young or old, nobody wants to see your tits.

And the #1 one way to be a park douchebag .....

1. You have shit stains on your shorts for more than 1 consecutive day.

There's also one special mention I must give to the biggest douchebags of all - people who talk on their phones while walking / biking / running in the park. Are you kidding me? You people are just pathetic.

The 6th Generation iPod Nano

2010-10-10T07:55:00.006-04:00

I went out yesterday and got a new iPod Nano. I already have an iPod, a 120GB iPod Classic. So why a new one? It all has to do with my walking in the evening.

Usually during the week, I have an old Sony Walkman (radio) that I carry with me, and I listening to talk radio while I walk. The Walkman works fine, but it is a bit on the bulky side, about the size of a pack of cigarettes. On the weekends, I tend to carry my iPod Classic and listen to music as I walk. This is a bit of a hassle - the Classic has a bit of weight to it, and if I put it in my pocket it bounces around quite a bit. Remember, the Classic has a hard drive inside of it, so bouncing isn't really desirable with this device. I usually end up holding it in my hand while walking. There's also a fear that I'll drop it some day. Do I really need to have 12,000 songs with me just to walk around the neighborhood?

Amanda is so nice - she let me borrow one of her older mp3 players, a Creative Zen. It is pretty nice and would have been just fine for what I needed it for. The only problem is it doesn't play nice with Macs, and that's all I have anymore. I did find a program that would allow me to manually transfer songs to it, but it's a hassle and takes a long time.

I decided I was either going to get an iPod Nano or a Shuffle, so I started looking at both.

The Shuffle is 2GB and just plays MP3's. No fancy screens or additional features, it is what many people use when they want to listen to music while exercising. 2GB is about 600 songs which is plenty, but I could see having to reload it every once in awhile to get some fresh content on it.

The latest generation Nano's came out not long ago. They come in either 8GB or 16GB versions, the price difference being about $30. They are now small and squarish, instead of long. Gone is the familiar control wheel. The new Nano has a 1.5" square touch screen and is operated by using swipes and gestures, just like it's big brother the iPod Touch. The thing that really sold me on the Nano is that it now has an FM radio built in to it. I didn't find out until after I bought it that it also has a pedometer built into it. Meh, not sure I'll use that much - I still don't see how a pedometer can be anywhere close to accurate (distance wise) just by counting steps.

I loaded it up with music last night and went walking. Awesome! It has a built-in clip on it, so you can attach it to your clothes. I clipped it onto the waste-band of my shorts and soon forgot it was even there. I did slip it into my pocket at first, which would have been fine, but the cord on my earbuds needs to be about 6" longer to make that work well.

My only gripe has more to do with me, and not the Nano. My eyesight isn't perfect anymore, and I have to wear glasses to read. Yeah, the Nano is so small I can't read the screen unless I have my glasses on, and who wears glasses to go walking?

Dos Taco Tuesday

2010-10-05T17:56:00.002-04:00

Learning Guitar

2010-09-20T22:05:00.001-04:00

Shrimp with Yellow Rice

2010-09-05T19:28:00.006-04:00

This is a super easy dish I made for dinner tonight. Here's all there is to it.

Purchase a package of Vigo Yellow Rice. It's less than a dollar for the smaller packet. Just follow the directions on the package - 1-1/4 cups water and 2 tablespoons of butter, margarine or olive oil. I used margarine for mine. Bring water and margarine to a boil, add the rice, boil for 1 minute. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 25 minutes. Just to add a little bit of color to it, I threw in a handful of frozen peas.

For the shrimp, I just bought some devained shrimp at the grocery (tail on). I went ahead and peeled them and pulled the tails off before I cooked them.

When the rice has about 10 minutes left, throw the shrimp in a separate skillet with some minced garlic, a splash of white wine, and some salt and pepper. Cook until done on medium heat - they should be ready about the same time as the rice.

That's it, just plate the rice and throw the shrimp on top.

Enjoy!

New Bicycle Has Arrived

2010-09-03T14:39:00.006-04:00

The bicycle I ordered 2 weeks ago arrived, and I went to pick it up this morning.

As mentioned in a previous post, I've really taken to bike riding and wanted a bicycle that was designed to be ridden longer distances. This is that bike.

It is made by the bicycle company "Specialized" and it is a model Secteur Elite (Apex group). If you're interested in finding out more about the bike, click here.

I have only had a chance to ride it briefly, but it is very different from the Diamondback hybrid bicycle I have been riding. It is easier to maintain a quicker pace on this bike. With no additional peddling power on my part, my average speed will probably increase by 4 to 5 MPH. It doesn't sounds like much, but that's huge on a bicycle.

I've got the Shimano pedals put on, as well as the water bottle cage and the Cateye Strada odometer. I'll report more once I can log some hours on the bike.

Camping

2010-08-26T14:57:00.004-04:00

I was just sitting here thinking how much fun it would be to go camping. It would be a great chance to get away from it all and spend a little time with Mother Nature.

Then I realized I'd have to go by myself, because I don't have anyone to go with. No problem, I'll just take my guitar and sit by the fire and play some songs.

Then I realized after a year and a half of playing guitar, I can still not play one song.

Fuck camping.

Government and How Government Works

2010-08-24T17:08:00.003-04:00

I did not write this and I don't know who did. I'd give them credit if I knew.

Government and How Government Works

Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert. Congress said, "Someone may steal from it at night." So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job.

Then Congress said, "How does the watchman do his job without instruction?" So they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies.

Then Congress said, "How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?"
So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people. One to do the studies and one to write the reports.

Then Congress said, "How are these people going to get paid?" So They created the following positions, a time keeper, and a payroll officer, then hired two people.

Then Congress said, "Who will be accountable for all of these people?" So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary.

Then Congress said, "We have had this command in operation for one Year and we are $18,000 over budget, we must cutback overall cost." So they laid off the night watchman. NOW slowly, let it sink in.

Quietly, we go like sheep to slaughter. Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY.... during the Carter Administration? Anybody? Anything? No? Didn't think so!

Bottom line. We've spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency...the reason for which not one person who reads this can remember! Ready?? It was very simple...and at the time, everybody thought it very appropriate. The Department of Energy was instituted on 8-04-1977, TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL. Hey, pretty efficient, huh???

AND NOW IT'S 2010 -- 33 YEARS LATER -- AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS "NECESSARY" DEPARTMENT IS AT $24.2 BILLION A YEAR. THEY HAVE 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES; AND LOOK AT THE JOB THEY HAVE DONE! THIS IS WHERE YOU SLAP YOUR FOREHEAD AND SAY, "WHAT WAS I THINKING?"

33 years ago 30% of our oil consumption was foreign imports. Today 70% of our oil consumption is foreign imports. Ah, yes -- good ole bureaucracy. AND, NOW, WE ARE GOING TO TURN THE BANKING SYSTEM, HEALTH CARE, AND THE AUTO INDUSTRY OVER TO THE SAME GOVERNMENT? HELLOOO!........Anybody Home?

More Bicycling

2010-08-22T13:29:00.005-04:00

I've been riding the Diamondback Edgewood for over a month now, and have really taken a liking to riding the bike. Maybe it's flashback from my motorcycling days, but it's fun and damn good exercise.

That said, I'm committed to riding now and decided to get a bike geared more towards riding longer distances.

I've ordered a Specialized 'Secteur Elite' from the local bike shop. It should be here in a week or so. They just have to assemble it once it arrives, then they'll give me a buzz so I can go pick it up. This bike will roll much easier than the Edgewood. It is a true road bike, while the Edgewood is more of a casual cruiser.

See you all on the bike paths.

No Profanity Contained Wherein « The inability to follow simple instructions

2010-08-15T11:54:00.004-04:00

The Mightly Mr. Cogswell has been at it again. This self proclaimed asshole spreads his hate through all of the free music he shares with us.

He is quickly building a back catalog most musicians would be jealous of.

Check his shit out today.

Tour de Econlockhatchee

2010-08-08T21:09:00.006-04:00

So I've had the bike about a month, and it's going alright. I went on my longest ride this morning, a 12.7 mile loop that surprised me.

At first going just 1 or 2 miles was all I could handle. But after a couple of weeks, I was doing an occasional 6 mile ride. Today, I decided to try to go further to see what happened.

Well to make a long story short, I made it. I didn't break any records, averaging 11MPH throughout the journey. I finally got the odometer hooked up on the bike to track such things.

I walk almost 2 miles just about every night. Amanda, Ginger and Daisy go with me sometimes. I love them all.

I'm stuck between 280-285 pounds and can't break into the 270's. It's been going on 3 weeks now. :(

Work is going ok, no complaints there.

Dad is doing ok at the assisted living place, but he clearly has too much free time on his hands. He's starting to obsess about thing like what time they bring him his pills, and what everyone else is doing. I wish he'd go mingle with the residents more instead of just sitting in his room working crossword puzzles.

I haven't finished covering the drums yet - still ongoing.

I got the ceiling in the master bedroom sprayed today, although it may need another coat. We'll see how it looks in the morning.

2 days until Taco Tuesday.

I miss the hell out of my girls, Michele and Kelley. I love you guys so much.

Peace out ya'll.

Time To Start Biking

2010-07-17T15:39:00.006-04:00

With everything else that's going on around the house - the recovering of the drums, the remodeling of the house, installation of the floors etc., I decided it's time to pile even more on top of that.

Dad's stint in the hospital back in June forced me to take stock of my own health, and re-kindled my hatred for anything doctor or hospital related.

I quit smoking back in September of '09, and that is going well. Unfortunately, I started putting on even more weight once I quit. I've been heavy most of my life, and I've tipped the scales at 318lbs back in April. I've finally said enough is enough, and began trying to turn my eating habits around.

I'm finally off the sugar with my morning coffee, yet I still drink diet soda. I know, I need to give that up as well. I'm also off of fried foods, and pretty much anything containing flour. Bread, rice and potatoes have also been taken off my table.

I've been eating lots of fruit and vegetables, along with lean meat, mainly alternating between chicken and fish. I've allowed myself to have a beef dish no more than once a week.

On top of the modified diet, I've finally gotten off my ass and have begun to exercise. This is mainly just trying to walk every night, with some resistance training after the walk. I've been walking a nice loop around the neighborhood, which is 1.7 miles. I do about 10-15 minutes on the machine after the walk, then I'm done. I try to do this every day.

I decided the other day that it was time I tried bike riding again. It's probably been 35 years since I've owned a bicycle. The last one I had was a Schwinn Varsity 10-speed that got ripped off back in the mid 70's.

After doing a bit of research (I love doing research) I decided that a 'hybrid' type bike would probably suit me best. A hybrid bike is a cross between a mountain bike and a road bike.

Back when I bought the BioForce exercise machine, Sports Authority gave me a $100 voucher which was going to expire today. I had to act before this ran out. I also has a coupon for 25% a single store item.

With coupons in hand, I walked into the store today and found this bike. It is made by a company called Diamondback, and it is a model called Edgewood LX.

It's a nice looking, comfortable bike with a few quality parts on it (Shimano drivetrain). Since this is my first bike in so long, I didn't want to spend too much money on one. This bike was on sale for $299. I got 25% off that (coupon), then $100 off that (voucher). In the end, it was $129 out the door. A fair deal if it turns out to be even a halfway decent bike. I figured I'd give this one a go to get used to riding again, and help me further in my quest to get in better shape.

Since I've started the eating/walking change, I've gone from 315 to 291 pounds. It feels good and I plan to keep sticking to the plan. I still have some goodies every so often - we had chips and queso today with lunch. But if I keep exercising, I can allow myself to occasionally have a treat like that.

Remodeling Underway

2010-07-04T14:05:00.008-04:00

Since Dad's moved out, I've been itching to get going with remodeling the house. While the outside of the house looks great (compared to what it did a few years ago), the inside is what really needs a make over. EVERYTHING needs to be done, starting with the ceilings, then the walls and finally the floor.

I started looking at flooring and have decided to go the DIY route with laminate flooring. This flooring has made big strides as to what it was just a few years ago, with some of the premium stuff being indistinguishable from real hardwood floors.

Last Thursday, I ordered 775 square feet (60 boxes) of Armstong's Grand Illusions flooring, in American Apple finish. This is a premium flooring that I will install myself, hopefully saving some $$ in the process.

I've already begun work on the master bedroom in preparation to install the flooring. Yesterday, I scraped all of the popcorn finish off the ceiling, and today I removed a wallpaper border that has circled the room for 15 years. It didn't come off easily, but it is off. I'll need to do some drywall repair because of it, but the are other places that need repair anyway. In the long run, I'll probably need to get the entire room resprayed with orange peel, then get the knock-down finish applied to the ceiling. From there, it will be paint on the ceiling, then the walls. Only then can I install the floor.

Taking the popcorn off the ceiling was actually fun to do, almost to the point of being therapeutic. You can make allot of progress in a very short time, and it really gives you the feeling of accomplishment. Of course there's a huge mess left behind by doing this, but it's quickly cleaned up if you lay some plastic on the floor ahead of time.

While removing popcorn was fun, taking this border down was not. In all fairness, it was probably my fault that I lost so much of the wall finish while trying to remove it. The wall was already damp from being sprayed with water (to remove the popcorn), and got wet again when I applied the wallpaper stripper to the border. I think water got behind the orange peel, and well that's all it takes.

Here you can see what I'm talking about. This will probably be pretty easy to fix - just some drywall mud feathering it back to the ceiling joint again, finished with some new orange peel.

This room should look awesome when it's finally finished. I'll be going with some kind of nice happy color in it this time, but not sure what it will be yet. Unfortunately, I don't the decorating gene in my system, so I'll have to rely on those around me that do for advice. Something "manly" for sure, but not too over the top. I'll be sure to post pictures as I go.

The Iceman Cometh!

2010-06-26T15:15:00.008-04:00

Last Saturday, after returning home from a fantastic Father's Day dinner with Kelley, Ruben and Tyler, I stepped into the house only to be greeted with a blast of hot air. I could hear the air conditioner running. I knew something was wrong.

Yes, Mother Nature had decided to shit on me yet again, for the ump-teenth time in the form of a lightning strike / power surge while we were out. The toll that day was the paddle fan in the master bedroom, the air conditioner for the entire house and my DSL internet connection. After cussing and shaking my fists at the heavens (ala Wrath Of Kahn), I settled in for 6 days without A/C, in Florida, in June.

Of course these thing always happen on the weekend, so I had to wait until Monday to even begin taking action. After speaking with the husband-in-law, I had the name of a reputable A/C company that I felt I could trust.

Dave came out on Tuesday afternoon and surveyed the situation. I told him I wasn't interested in fixing the existing unit, I wanted it all replaced. The outside compressor / condenser assembly was at least 15 years old (that's how long it's been since I've bought this house). The air handler in the garage was original to the house, circa 1982.

Air Conditioning has made great strides in that time as far as efficiency is concerned. I decided it was time to upgrade to a very energy efficient unit. Air Conditioners are rated using what they call a SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio) number. The higher the SEER number, the more efficient the unit is. Dave estimated my old unit to have a SEER number of 8, while the new unit has a SEER number of 15. Yes, twice as efficient!

Seeing James pull up into my driveway on Friday morning, I felt like a kid at Christmas time. The owner's Son, Dave Jr. showed up shorty after James and began working on swapping the outside unit while James worked in the garage swapping out the air handler.

After about 5 hours, they were finished and the A/C was turned on for the 1st time. Wow, I'd never felt air moving out of the vents in the house like they are now. The air handler in the garage is so quiet, and the outside unit is quieter than the old one. The air coming out the vents is ice cold, something the old unit could never accomplish.

With my old A/C, starting about 10AM it would never shut off during the day, running until midnight sometime without cycling off.

The new system comes on, runs about 6 or 7 minutes, then shuts down for awhile - you know, like air conditioners are supposed to do.

Because of the high SEER number, I qualify for a federal tax credit of 30% of the cost of the unit, up to $1500. Also, the power company will give me a $300 energy credit. And month after month, I'm saving power while having superior A/C and comfort at the same time.

I should have done this years ago. BTW, the unit is a Trane XR15. They say "you can't stop a Trane." We'll see ;)

Big Changes

2010-06-06T09:57:00.004-04:00

One of my biggest fears came to be last Sunday. My Dad fell in the kitchen as a result of his failing health. The most likely culprit was the fact his blood sugar level had dropped to 50. He hasn't tested himself in years and it caught up to him.

Luckily, he didn't suffer any physical injuries from the fall other than a laceration on his arm. But he spent 4 days in the hospital where they ran a complete battery of tests on him.

For a guy of 87 years, his heart is pretty good. But his circulation is poor in his extremities as a result of the diabetes. He's been an amputee (on his right leg below the knee) for 15 years now. His left foot is not looking good.

While he was in the hospital, I arranged to have him moved into an assisted living facility. He's not happy about, and I can honestly say that I'm not either. But it's clear that he can no longer be left alone and needs people around him to help and ensure his safety.

Today will be his 3rd full day in there. The first 2 days consisted of him yelling, threatening to go on hunger strikes, and wishing he could just end it all. I can't imagine how hard losing your independence would be. This has all been very trying on everyone, including me. I'm mentally exhausted from dealing with all of this.

For now all we can do is to take it one day at a time and see what happens.

The Bridge

Gary Coleman- Postal 2 Soundboard

2010-05-29T19:58:00.000-04:00

Gary Coleman- Postal 2 Soundboard

RIP, Webster

2010-05-29T16:32:00.000-04:00

Looking out for me, or bullshit? You decide.

2010-05-29T09:26:00.009-04:00

When the veneer (to re-wrap my drums) hadn't arrived yet, I started getting nervous and fired off an e-mail to Woodcraft. This is the story they told me. Personally, I think it's all bullshit and they just fucked my order up. The bottom line is I still don't have it, and I'm sitting here in the middle of a 4-day weekend with nothing to do because of this.

To rub salt in the wound, I follow Woodcraft on twitter. On Thursday they tweeted "So, do any of you have any big woodworking plans for the long weekend?" I never in my life wished so hard that I could just reach through the computer screen and strangle the asshole on the other end.

Remember, you have to start at the bottom ;)

BTW Woodcraft, you spelled 'privileged" incorrectly in your disclaimer

---------------------------------------------

From: WC Customer Service
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2010 10:44 AM
To: Scott Redman
Subject: RE: Woodcraft Order 004327386 Status

Good Day,

Talked with vendor and he said your order is leaving today.

The figured cherry he had when your order was sent to him was not very figured and he was not happy with it.

So he waited for the next shipment of wood to get you a good figured piece.

It ships from NC via UPS – should be there in 2 to 3 business days.

Thank you,

Jeanne A. Douglass

Woodcraft Supply, LLC
Customer Service
1-800-535-4482 ext. 2502

Little Known Fact:

West Virginia is the only state to be created from another state
(Virginia…….in 1863)

PRIVLEGED - PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL

---------------------------------------------

From: WC Customer Service
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2010 8:59 AM
To: Scott Redman
Subject: RE: Woodcraft Order 004327386 Status

Good Day,

I have a call into the vendor – will have a status update here shortly.

Thank you,

Jeanne A. Douglass
Woodcraft Supply, LLC
Customer Service
1-800-535-4482 ext. 2502

Little Known Fact:

West Virginia is the only state to be created from another state

(Virginia…….in 1863)

PRIVLEGED - PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL

---------------------------------------------

From: Scott Redman [mailto:swredman@yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2010 1:00 PM
To: WC Customer Service
Subject: Re: Woodcraft Order 004327386 Status

Hello Woodcraft,

I have still not received this order. It is for some veneer, which was shipped directly from the manufacturer.

Could you please provide me with a tracking number?

Thank you,

Scott Redman

----------------------------------------

--- On Tue, 5/18/10, Woodcraft wrote:

From: Woodcraft
Subject: Woodcraft Order 004327386 Status
To: swredman@yahoo.com
Date: Tuesday, May 18, 2010, 11:44 PM

Your order has shipped - Woodcraft.com

Shipping Confirmation of Order #004327386 placed on 05/18/2010

Dear Scott Redman,

Thank you for your purchase from Woodcraft.

* Customer#: 3906970
* Invoice#: 5006964
* Invoice Date: 05/18/2010
* Order#: 004327386
-------------------------------------------

The Defendant Ate The Witness « The inability to follow simple instructions

2010-05-24T18:39:00.001-04:00

The Defendant Ate The Witness « The inability to follow simple instructions

Posted using ShareThis

From Arctic White to Urine Yellow

2010-05-22T20:08:00.014-04:00

About a month ago, I was in Guitar Center and browsed into the drum room. Sitting there was a brand new electronic drum kit that Yamaha just came out with, the DTX950K. I sat down and tinkered on it for about 5 minutes. Wow have these things come a long way from the first time I saw them.

Playing that kit got the wheels turning (what else is new). They're very quiet, so you can play them without pissing off other people in the house. Nice! So what's the downside? How about a price of admission of $5,400? Sorry, I've spent stupid money on stuff before, but that's over the line. No doubt, they're probably the finest electronic drum made by anyone, including Roland.

All of this drum stuff, and lack of anything else to do for entertainment, led me to drag my drums out of the closets (yes, plural). I bought this kit brand new in 1993. It is a large, double bass drum (22's) kit with 5 mounted toms (8", 10", 12", 14", 16") as well as an 18" floor tom and snare. Add a massive Gibralter rack and cymbals, and you have a kit that literally takes an entire bedroom to hold.

Upon taking them out, I noticed that they had started to yellow. This is just a combo of age and UV damage from indirect sunlight, and it was worse than I thought. Removing the hardware really revealed how bad they were. These drums used to be so gorgeous, but now Father Time has worked his evil on them. The good news though is that the hardware (all the chrome bits) are still in near-new condition. So what's a guy to do?

Refinish them, of course! At first I thought about selling the whole kit, and start over from scratch. I still cannot rule that out as a possibility in the future, but for now we're sticking with these. In the back of my mind, I started regretting buying such a large kit, and wished I had bought less drums, but higher quality.

I looked on eBay to see what a kit like this might fetch on the used market. I was more than disappointed. There was an auction for 3 toms just like mine, a 12", a 14" and a 16" floor tom. The 12" and 14" sold for less than $50 each! The floor tom was a touch more respectable at $175, but still. For that money, I'd rather throw them in a fire and watch them burn, or just donate them to someone who couldn't afford a descent kit.

Armed with the courage to move ahead, I sought advice from fellow drummers on the Pearl drum forum. After some feedback from them, and reading other things on the net, I decided to try and remove the wrap from one of the drums. Armed with a heat gun, the wrap actually comes off pretty easily. There are 2 strips of adhesive on the shell that hold the wrap on, right where the joint in the wrap is. Otherwise, just the hardware is holding everything in place.

I started looking at sites that sell genuine drum wrapping material, but quickly started to realize this wasn't going to be a valid option. Because of the size of this kit (number of drums), it would have cost $800+ just to buy the material to re-wrap the entire kit. I'm not willing to put that kind of money into these drums - they are nice, and the Session series is well regarded, but they are not top-flight drum shells.

Armed with my woodworking experience, I've decided to wrap the shells with real wood veneer. After all, drums are made from real wood, why shouldn't they look like real wood too? I haven't shopped for drums in a long time, but over the past couple of weeks I have been looking to see what is out there. Just about everything either sparkles, fades or bursts and that drives me absolutely nuts. Same with guitars - they'll take some AAAAA quilted maple and then paint over it to get the burst effect. In my mind, that is such a crime against wood the manufacturers should be locked up.

Getting back to these drums, I almost drove myself insane trying to decide what veneer to put on these drums. Unlike the wrap which is taped on with a couple strips, you can't do that with veneer. No, whatever I cover them with will be there forever, and I'll not get another chance to do it gain.

I've decided to go to the opposite end of the spectrum from the Arctic White, and have order 2 sheets of figured cherry veneer. This veneer has what they call PSA (Peel and Stick Adhesive) on the backside. That way, I won't have to mess with contact cement and it should be more forgiving, as far as getting it positioned properly.

I ordered it on Tuesday from Woodcraft. Of course Woodcraft is just a middle man for Sauers & Co., which is the company that actually makes the veneer. Because of this, no tracking number was sent to me and it didn't arrive on Friday. Now I have to wait until next weekend to get started on putting this new finish on my drum set.

I hope it comes out nice. We''ll just have to wait and see. Pictures to follow, of course.

Space Shuttle Atlantis' Last Launch

2010-05-15T12:24:00.001-04:00

Yesterday was the last scheduled launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis. I decided to shoot a small video of it, so you all can see what it looks like from my house in Orlando. I'm about 50 miles from the launch pad.

Crap Update

2010-04-10T10:42:00.008-04:00

Here's the latest crap update. My life has been too busy lately. I like to be left alone, and don't like to have commitments and obligations. I've done it for too long and deserve a break from it all.

The past month has been hectic to say the least. There's been fun stuff (like my daughters wedding), and crappy stuff like the threat of jury duty and colonoscopy, doctors appointments, turning 50, daylight savings time and doing yearly evaluations for the people that work for me.

After yesterday, the picture has become clear. Tuesday, my regular doctor gave me a referral for a colonoscopy, because I turned 50. Because of this, she never gave me a prostate exam. I guess she figured she'd kill two birds with one stone.

I went yesterday for the initial consultation and after talking with the scheduling chick, I'm going to have it done Monday morning. This is all happening way too fast for me. But I guess if it has to be done, I might as well just get it over with and the sooner the better.

So why is there a picture of the Epiphone Dot at the beginning of this blog? Because I don't have any pictures of my colon to share with you.

Also, I finally fixed the output jack (put in an entire Switchcraft jack assembly), and just now finished throwing a new set of strings on it. I've never in my life seen a guitar that was so poorly setup from the factory as this one. Every piece of hardware was loose on it, including the ferrule nuts that go over the tuning machine posts. The action was set so high, it would have made an acoustic guitar proud. All fixed.

Also, I was finally able to call Orange County to see if I had to actually report for jury duty on Monday. Thank God, my reporting number fell outside of the range of those that had to report. So I dodged a bullet this time.

Now please, leave me alone for 10 years or so will you? There are plenty of unemployed people doing nothing right now, and could use the $15/day payment you proudly offer the fine citizens.

So the only thing remaining on my plate is this colonoscopy on Monday and then it looks like I'm home free. At last, the light at the end of the tunnel.

More Guitar Crap

2010-04-04T10:08:00.008-04:00

*UPDATE The Epiphone EF-500R has been returned. It didn't turn out to be what I expected*

Yes, more guitar crap. There's nothing else exciting going on right now, so here's the latest on that front.

I really like the Yamaha LL16, but it is a dreadnought and I'm beginning to dislike that body style. For me, there are two reasons: Firstly the body is large making the guitar a bit cumbersome to hold. Secondly, I just like the shape of smaller guitars better, especially the OM (orchestra model) style of guitars.

OM style guitars usually tend to be a throwback from a time long ago as far as styling is concerned. Case in point is this latest acquisition, the Epiphone MasterBilt EF-500R. I pulled the trigger on this one for a few reasons. It is a nice guitar and built from all solid woods - Sitka Spruce top and Indian Rosewood back and sides, Mahogany neck. To get a similar Martin guitar will set you back a couple grand. This guitar street prices at $599. I got 15% off that in addition to a $100 Musician's Friend gift certificate that I had.

Right off the bat things didn't go well. The fit and finish is ok for a guitar in this price range, but I can say that I don't care for the satin finish that is on the body. I brought the strings up to pitch, only to be greeted by a low E-string that was buzzing like a bumble bee. Not good.

I loosened the truss rod by 1/4 turn and the buzz went away, but now the action is too high and it looks like the neck has a bow in it. I've never had to touch the truss rod on any of the guitars I have.

If I return the guitar, I'll lose the $100 MF credit that I had, as it expired at the end of March. I received that when I got the Fender Jaguar HH a few months ago. But as it stands now, I'm not diggin' the guitar, so why keep it? It sounds nice, but to be fair the Yamaha LL16 easily sounds better. For now I think I'm going to put some more time on the LL16 and see if I can't get used to that slightly larger body.

Then the other day, while playing hooky from home, I stumbled across this at Best Buy. It's an Epiphone Dot VS, which is Epiphone's version of the Gibson ES-335. This is not an expensive guitar, but is well respected for it's price.

This particular one was being sold as a display model and had a couple of issues. It had a string missing (no big deal), there was some tape residue on the headstock, and the output jack had fallen into the body (the nut was missing). Other than that, it is in as new condition, with no noticeable scratches. Price - $209. I couldn't resist. I've removed the strings. I've also gotten the tape residue off the headstock (bug remover for cars).

Now I just need to find a nut and washer for the jack, which is proving to be difficult. I went to Guitar Center yesterday to get one, but all they had was an entire assembly for $3. Fine. I got it home, only to find that the nut on that one is slightly larger than the one in the guitar. I have an e-mail in to Gibson support to see if they can help.

Last item is this book. As I like to do some woodworking from time to time, I've been toying with the idea of possibly trying my hand at making a guitar.

I say possibly because there is so much that goes into making a guitar, it makes furniture building look like child's play. Seriously. But apparently this is one of "the" must have books if you're going to try it yourself.

I haven't even browsed through it yet, let alone read it, but I may give luthiery a shot one of these days. You could end up with something that is one-of-a-kind that you'll cherish forever, or a heap of crap that you just keep throwing money at. Who knows? Maybe one day we'll find out.

Michele And Eric Are Married

2010-03-19T11:07:00.004-04:00

I can't believe it, but Michele and Eric are married. I remember the day she was born just like it was yesterday. I don't really know what else to say except I am the luckiest Dad in the world to have such wonderful kids, and now have a son in Eric.

The wedding went off without a hitch (for the most part). I almost tripped and fell while walking her down the isle thanks to a "reserved seating" sign someone placed in a really bad spot.

I took a few pictures with my little camera, but none of the photos are worthy of posting here. Thank goodness Michele found one of the coolest photographers to shoot their wedding. I'll post another blog in awhile once everything settles back to normal.

I love you both. Take care of each other and love each other. Cherish each day for the gift that it is.

Jury Duty

2010-03-09T20:39:00.003-05:00

Look what I got in the mail today. Jesus H. Christ, I just reported for jury duty not more than a year and a half ago.

Orange County - are you telling me that out of a couple million people that it's my time again? How about the unemployed? They are doing nothing right now, and they need the generous $15 day that you all pay to the fine citizens of Orange County.

It's fine that I have to park, in a designated area, 1 mile from the courthouse and then ride public transport to get there. I don't mind having to navigate Colonial drive bright and early on a Monday morning. It's even more thrilling now that it's all torn up while they are building the flyover that's going to cross SR436. I don't mind having to go through security checkpoints and emptying my pockets multiple times a day.

The last time I had jury duty, I got selected as a prospective juror for a cannabis possession trial. Somehow, a question was put to me that I answered "I'd rather have a bunch of stoners driving on I-4 than drunks." Needless to say, the prosecution did not select me to be on the jury.

LEAVE ME ALONE ORANGE COUNTY. MY LIFE IS PLENTY BUSY RIGHT NOW WITHOUT YOU ADDING MORE SHIT TO IT!

C'Ya Later Microsoft

2010-03-06T21:01:00.009-05:00

Ever have one of those "stand on principle" moments? That happened for me this week, when on March 1, my 'release candidate' version of Windows 7 began shutting down my PC every two hours.

I'd been running either the beta or RC versions of 7 since it became available to the public. I knew that eventually I was either going to have to pony up for Windows 7, put XP back on it or go the free route and give Linux another go. Because of the hassle involved in switching to a different OS, I decided to just buy 7, install it, and get it over with.

I quickly discovered that Microsoft thinks that a full retail version of Windows 7 is worth $200. You're kidding, right? $100 I could live with, but not $200. A line had been drawn in the sand. I thought about it for a bit and then decided "no, I will not pay $200 for your software. I'd rather buy another Mac before I'd do that."

Well, here we are. This is a picture of me telling Microsoft to go to Hell. I've had my MacBook for a little over a year, and knew that if I ever bought another computer, it would be another Mac.

This computer will be replacing the PC in my bedroom. As with the PC, it's main purpose in life is to store the bulk of my music and photos, and play music at night while I slip off the la la land. What better machine for doing that than a Mac Mini? It's powerful, small and runs OSX. I can still use my existing monitor and printer. I just added a couple of huge drives to it (one with a permanent Firewire 800 connection to the Mini), and the other to handle Time Machine backups for both the Mini and the MacBook Pro. What more could a person need?

Today, I threw out my old crappy desk that I've had for the past 20 years. I replaced with with a much less crappy desk that I really like. One day, I'll do a proper desk out of real hardwood, but for now this one will do.

The Mini is all setup and running beautifully. I have all of my music on the external LaCie drive (about 1,000 CD's worth) as well as all my photos. Everything is backed up too to the other external drive. Time Machine is a beautiful program. You just set it, and forget it, leaving all of your backup worries behind.

Another good thing to come from this, is that I now have an extra 320GB external HD which I'm going to give to Kelley. She can hook it up to her Mini and run Time Machine also.

Piss off Microsoft. Our relationship is finished.

Black Bean Soup

2010-02-20T15:50:00.006-05:00

I love black bean soup. I've never made a serious effort to make some on my own though, so today I thought I'd give it a shot. The recipe is roughly based on what I found on the internet, but I've modified it after talking to my work buddy Miguel.

Here's what you'll need to make it the way I've done it here:

1 bag dried black beans
1 small chorizo
1 small bundle green onions
1/2 large green pepper
32 oz. chicken broth
2 tablespoons Olive oil
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 or 2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

Soak black beans in a large pot for 24 hours. Rinse and return the beans to the pot. Dice the green onions, green pepper and chorizo. Add all of the ingredients to the pot and bring to a slow boil. Transfer everything into a crock pot and cook for 4 hours, covered, on medium.

Take two big spoons of beans out and put into a bowl. Smash them with the backside of a large spoon to form a paste. Put the bean paste back into the crock pot and stir.

That's it! It was one of the easiest things to prepare I've ever done, and it came out delicious!

Simply, How To Make A Pen (Part IV)

2010-01-31T21:37:00.013-05:00

I hadn't planned to be posting this final segment so early, but I've been working on the pens since 9AM this morning, and now have all 24 of them finished. Woot!

The only hitch now, is I don't have enough of the little felt sleeves to put all of the pens in (mainly for protection). I should have planned ahead and ordered them earlier this week, but I never thought about it. That's ok, the new ones will be here this week, and I can get these pens sent out to their new owners.

Well, here's a box of turned and finished blanks just waiting to be assembled. These 'Slimline' pens go together very quickly, and once you've done a few of them you can really make rapid progress. I'd estimate it takes about 3 minutes for me to assemble one.

Right up front, I have to apologize for the poor photography. It was night time when I assembled these pens, inside at the kitchen table.

In this photo, you can see everything that it takes to assemble the pen. Starting from the left, we have the nib, lower pen blank, twist mechanism, collar, upper pen blank and finally the clip.

I've taken care to make sure the blanks don't get flipped with respect to each other. Remember, we want the grain to match when they are assembled and closed.

As far as tools needed to assemble, the only thing I really need is a device to press the pieces together. They make small, dedicated pen presses for doing that, but I've found that this Jet parallel jaw clamp does the job just fine. You can't see them in this picture, but the are a couple of plastic holders that the clamp drops into - they keep it from falling over.

There's really only 1 rule you must follow while assembling these pens. You must press the nib into the lower section first, and then press in the twist mechanism. The nib has a shoulder, and only goes in so far. The twist mechanism, on the other hand, has to be pressed in to a precise depth and has no shoulder to stop it.

If the twist mechanism isn't pressed in far enough, then the pen tip won't come all the way out of the pen when you open it. Press the mechanism in a bit further until the tip protrudes the correct amount when open. On the downside, if you press the twist mechanism in too far, the tip of the pen will not retract all the way when you close it. If this happens, you're screwed. Seriously, you'd need some kind of puller to pull the mechanism back out without damaging it, or the wooden part. There is a reference line on the mechanism that shows you how far to press it, but it still takes a bit of trial and error.

Once you finish the bottom, you can then finish the top bit. Just put the top cap through the clip, and press it in until it stops. On the clip cap (and the nib too), I use a toothpick to apply a tiny bit of CA glue to the inside of the brass tube right and the instant of assembly. There's no reason the clip cap or nib should even have to be removed from the pen once it's assembled.

Ok, now for the final assembly, Slide the center collar over the twist mechanism. Screw the refill cartridge into the twist mechanism. Turn the mechanism such that the pen is closed. Take the top section with the clip, as place it loosely over the twist mechanism. Now, look at the grain on both sections and rotate the top section (without turning the twist mechanism) until the grains are lined up. Now, just push the pen together.

That's it! The cartridges used in these twist pens are standard size, and can be found in any office supply store. When your pen runs out, just pull it apart, unscrew the old cartridge, screw the new one in, realign your grain and push the pen back together.

Here's the final product. This crappy picture does not do them justice.

In case you were wondering, the reason I called this article "Simply, How To Make A Pen" is because I've made this batch of pens for my favorite podcasting network, Simply Syndicated. If you have not listened to their shows, you are really missing out on something special. Check them out here.

I've made 24 pens, 12 from Padauk and 12 from Bubinga. Each species has 6 with chrome hardware, and 6 with gold hardware. I'm hoping to be able to mail these by the end of the week. From there, Rich will put these in the store to be sold. It is up to him to decide what he wants to charge for them.

The previous picture was of all the pens with chrome hardware. Here are the ones with Gold hardware. While the Padauk wood is unusual, the Bubinga with gold hardware is my personal favorite. It has a classy elegant look that will never go out of style. I've done a Bubinga / Gold pen in the larger Baron pens that I also have made, it it came out stunning.

So if you're a follower of Simply Syndicated and would like to purchase on of these pens, they're coming to the store soon. Decide which of the 4 different types you want, and order it quickly! Remember, there are only 6 of each type. When they're gone, they're gone!

Simply, How To Make A Pen (Part III)

2010-01-30T21:56:00.022-05:00

Welcome to Part III of 'Simply, How To Make A Pen'. If you haven't read Parts I and II yet, you might want to go back and do that before continuing.

There's going to be quite a few pictures in this blog entry. Unfortunately my formatting skills are crap as you've seen in the previous 2 installments. I'll just carry on the best I know how.

We are now ready to actually turn the pen blanks on the lathe. There is a fixture to help is do this called a pen mandrel. It has a tapered bit on one end that fits into the lathe. Using a series of spacers and a locking knob, we slide the wooden blanks onto the shaft until we have the assembly in the next picture.

Here we go. Notice that I found the blanks with matching numbers, and stacked them such that they represent the piece of wood before I cut it in half. Once assembled, the grain will flow from one section to the other, making it easy to tell that the entire pen came from one piece of wood.

Starting with the tapered end, we first put a small spacer over the shaft, followed by the first blank. Another spacer, and then the second blank is put on. Finally a third spacer is put on, along with a larger spacer that allows the knurled nut to tighten the entire assembly together. These spacers actually butt against the end of the brass tubes, and they are exactly the diameter of the pen nib, center collar and pen clip. In other words, they are a gauge we can use to determine how much wood we need to take away. We turn the wood until each end is the same diameter as the spacers.

Here are the pen blanks mounted on the mandrel, ready to be turned on the lathe. This particular lathe is made by Jet, and can turn objects up to about 20" long. If you need to go longer, you can add an extension bed to it that will take it out to 48". This model has 5 speeds that can be changed by moving the belt that connects the spindle to the motor. To start each blank, I set the speed to medium, approximately 1750 RPM. I run at that speed until I knock the corners off the square blanks (until they're round), then stop the lathe and crank the speed up to high, approximately 3500 RPM.

Here you can see I've knocked the corners off of the blanks using a roughing gouge. You can remove allot of material quickly with this tool (this is the tool I had to take to the wood store to get sharpened).

The idea here is to remove most of the wood, leaving only what is necessary for the pen. Remember, these blanks were 3/4" x 3/4" square when we started. A finished pen is probably about 7/16" diameter, so there is much wood to remove.

What I like to do is to get the basic shape with the roughing gouge, and then switch to 120 grit sandpaper to obtain the final shape for the blank. There are many different shapes you can put on the pens - some of them have perfectly straight sides for example. Personally, I like them to be a bit fatter in the center and tapered on the ends.

Using the 120 paper, it doesn't take long to work the wood down to it's final shape. This is one of those steps where a bit (not much) of artistic talent is required. After you've done it a few times though, it becomes second nature. It's fun and relaxing actually.

Here's the key to getting a nice finish on the blanks after turning and shaping them. After the 120 grit, I graduate to 240, 320, 400 and finally 600 grit sandpaper. After 240, hardly any wood is actually removed. The 320 gets out the scratches left by the 240, the 400 gets out the scratches left bu the 320, etc. After 600, the pen will be very smooth and it's hard to detect scratches with the naked eye. Some turners go way beyond 600, up to 2000 and beyond. I'm not going to go to that extreme for this batch of pens. I just don't feel it's necessary.

This next step is often skipped, or not known about by many turners. I found this tip on-line while reading an article about pen turning, and have been using it ever since.

After the 600 grit sandpaper, I scoop up a handful of the shavings leftover from turning and rub the blanks with the shavings (yes, the lathe is spinning while I do this). It's call burnishing, and makes the blanks even smoother. You can see them beginning to take on a bit of a glassy finish after doing this (it probably won't show in the pictures). Anyway, I highly recommend this step.

Here is the assembly after it's been turned, sanded and burnished. Because the spacers butt against the brass tubes, each section is now the exact length it needs to be. Also, notice how the wood (at the ends) is the same diameter as the spacers.

It actually looks very much like a pen in this photo, doesn't it? There's only one more step to do, and that's to apply a finish.

And here we are, applying the finish. I use a product called H. Behlen Woodturners Finish. It adds a bit of glossy finish to the wood, and really makes the grain 'pop'. It also seals the wood to help protect it. To apply, you just apply a bit to a paper towel and run it across the wood (with the lathe spinning).

At this point, all we need to do is to let these blanks dry, and then they're ready to be assembled into a pen! We're getting close with this batch. I finished all of the Padauk blanks today, and will try and do all of the Bubinga blanks tomorrow.

After the blanks dry (about 30 minutes), I slide them off the mandrill assembly and run a tie wrap though them to keep the sections together.

Here's the aftermath from today's activities. I turned 12 pens, all out of Padauk. It is a beautiful wood, but it is, it is, ... it is orange. Quite a mess. No sweat though - I hit this with the dust collector and it was all gone in a matter of about 1 minute.

That's it for Part III. In the 4th and final part, we will do the actual assembly of the pens.

Simply, How To Make A Pen (Part II)

2010-01-24T15:23:00.016-05:00

Welcome to part 2 of 'Simply, How To Make A Pen'. If you missed the first part, go back and start reading here.

Well as you can see, I have my pen kit box all loaded back up and ready to go. It's really handy to have a bin like this to keep all of the parts in. I keep complete pen assemblies in here, along with special drills, mandrels and other special pen making tools.

Ok, the next step we need to concentrate on it gluing the brass tubes into the wooden pen blanks that we just finished drilling. All of the brass tubes are the same length (in this model of pen), so that makes it a bit easier. To prep the brass tubes, we need to lightly sand the outside of them. This will remove any tarnish, and also rough up the outside surface so the CA glue sticks better to them. The tube on the left has not been sanded yet.

Here is a brass tube after I've sanded it. One down, and about 47 more to go.

Now for the messy bit. I apply a liberal amount of CA glue to the outside of the brass tube, and insert it into the wood blank. While doing this, I twist the tube back and forth as well as pulling it in and out a few times to get good coverage on the inside of the hole. Finally, push the tube in so that the end of the brass is well inside of the wooden end. We'll address this a bit later. For now, just set them aside to dry. I like to give them at least 30 minutes, but longer is better.

This is what my fingers looked like after gluing 48 tubes in place. I should probably try using finger cots one of these days, as the CA glue is not good for your skin or nails. I've managed to get most of it peeled off, along with my fingerprints.

This step is not really necessary, but I like doing it anyways. Here, I'm trimming the blanks a bit to remove alot of the excess wood from the end opposite I glued the tubes from. Are you with me?

Ok, now pay close attention to this step. This is a special drill that is used for processing pen blanks. It accomplishes two things.

First, the long bit is actually a reamer. When you run this through the brass tube, it will remove any excess CA glue that might have worked its way into the brass tube.

Secondly, the larger cutter towards the top will cut into the wooden blank, and remove the wood down to the end of the brass tube. In other words, we drill the blank to the point that this cutter just kisses the end of the brass tube.

Here it's easier to see what I'm talking about. A picture is worth 1000 words, right? The long reamer has been run through the tube, removing any excess CA glue. Also, the wood has now been removed so that, in effect, the wooden blank is now exactly the same length as the brass tube. We need to do this to both ends of the wooden blank. I end down, 95 more ends to go.

That's it for now. These bad boys are now ready to be turned on the lathe, which I'll blog in Part III. Stay tuned.

Chicken Bones

2010-01-11T18:39:00.005-05:00

Cogswell has been at it again. I arrived home from work today only to see a box sitting on the couch across the room. I thought nothing of it, as I was actually expecting a box from UPS today. I sat and ate dinner, then figured I'd open the box to see the BBQ mit that I had ordered.

As soon as I got close to the box, I saw proud declarations of Canada all over it, and knew this could not be the BBQ accessories I ordered from Amazon.

Sure enough, an unexpected package from Steve Cogswell, self-proclaimed asshole and all around nice guy. The last time Steve sent me something I nearly wet myself from his generosity. He has mailed me old programs from several Rush concerts, Grand Funk Railroad's E-Pluribis Funk album (on vinyl) and an American Scientist magazine from April 1990.

Steve has been known to send packages of apparently unrelated items out to people before. He once mailed a package to Kennedy, causing an entire posting on 'Simply Read: The Cogswell Conundrum".

The box of "Chicken Bones" shown above, was included in my shipment. They took quite a beating from our SHaFT hosts, Richard and Allison, on a recent episode.

Along with the Chicken Bones, were the items to the left.

We have the same beanie that Kennedy received from the University of New Brunswick. I'm not sure of the meaning, but maybe it's an offering that we've been accepted by him as friends. Or not, I don't know. Maybe it's symbolic of an honorary degree?

We have a pair of dice. This could also be symbolic of my love for Rush (the band) and their 'Roll The Bones' album, or not.

We have a small package of earplugs. This could mean multiple things. It may be an effort on his part to save me from the pain of my guitar playing. Another peculiar note about the earplugs is that the box is the same shape as a McDonald's apple pie container. "Would you like a hot apple pie to go with that" has been an inside joke we use on twitter, almost to the point of wearing it out.

A small foam brain, also from the University of New Brunswick. I have no clue.

Finally, a piston ring from Steve's 50cc Honda scooter. That is the equivalent of 1cc for every bone fracture in his leg when he crashed it several months ago.

I don't think all of these things go together to make something bigger, unlike Kennedy's package. We concluded that possibly a site-to-site transporter could be fabricated from his bits.

Thanks Steve! Now, to try the Chicken Bones ....

Simply, How To Make A Pen (Part I)

2010-01-08T18:26:00.032-05:00

Simply put, I am making batch of Slimline twist pens and thought I would document the process. Everyone is always amazed when I give them a pen and they ask how I make it. Well, in this series of blog posts, I will show you.

I am making 24 pens. 12 of them are going to be make from Padauk (the orangish colored wood) and 12 of them are Bubinga. To start, I process the pen blanks, cutting them from a standard piece of 3/4" thick hardwood. I cut them into 3/4" x 3/4" x 5" blanks. You can use just about any type of wood you can get your hands on to make pens out of. However, harder woods are more durable (and usually prettier), so scratch pine from your list.

Because of the way the slimline twist pens are made, all we need to do is cut these pieces in half. What I do is to mark them with a cut line, then number each side of the line. This will allow me to keep the pieces matched so I can maintain grain alignment while assembling them pens.

Ok, here we are on the table saw, ready to cut the blanks in half. I have a nice miter gauge with a built-in stop on it. All I have to do is set the length of the cut, and they'll all come out identical, without needing to remeasure anything.

Ok, here's a big pile of pen blanks that have been cut in half. The next step is off to the drill press.

Each half of the pen blank gets a brass tube inserted into it. This makes assembly of the pen possible. It also establishes the exact length for each section, which we'll see later on. For now, we need to drill a hole through each section. The hole is the exact same size as the outer diameter of the brass tube. There's a special drill bit for doing this. I mark the center of each piece, then 'dink' it with a center punch.

This is a fixture I made for holding the pen blanks. It's just 2 pieces of scrap with a "V" cut in each one. Together, they hold the plank perfectly vertical, making accurate drilling easy.

Here I have the blank clamped into my fixture, and am drilling the hole through the center of the blank. I do this to all 48 of the pen sections.

Here's a box full of pen blank sections, drilled and ready to have the brass tubes glued into them.

That's all for today. In the next section, we'll get the brass tubes ready and prepare to move to the lathe.

Ginger Playing at Casa Bonita

2010-01-07T20:11:00.001-05:00

15 Bean Soup

2010-01-04T19:44:00.011-05:00

I made 15 bean soup the other night. Wow, did it come out good!

1 bag of 15 bean mix

1 large can (49-1/2 oz.) Chicken broth 1 small can (14 oz.) Beef broth

2 or 3 smoked ham hocks

1 bundle green onions

2 cups ham, diced

Pepper

Soak the beans in a large pot of water for about 24 hours. Make sure there's plenty of water to cover the beans completely. They will swell once they start to absorb moisture.

Drain the water used for soaking and rinse the beans. Return to a large pot. Add the chicken broth, beef broth, green onions, ham hocks and diced ham. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium/low and simmer for 2 to 3 hours, until the beans are tender. Remove the smoked ham hocks. There is a little meat on them, but it takes allot of work to get it all off. I usually just discard them. The smoked ham hocks are salty, and I found I didn't need to add any salt to this recipe. Pepper to taste.

That's it. This soup is delicious and very easy to make. It's a great soup when it's cold outside.

Pico de-guy-o

2010-01-03T19:03:00.008-05:00

This is my homemade Pico de-guy-o. Kelley won't like it because of the tomatoes. Not sure if Michele would like this or not.

Regardless, it is delicious and SO EASY to make:

1 large tomato, diced

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

1/2 green pepper, diced,

1/2 small red onion, diced

1 Persian lime

Cilantro

Salt and Pepper

Dice up the tomato, peppers and onion. Mix them all together. Squeeze the juice from a Persian lime over everything. Add kosher or sea salt and ground pepper to taste. Add Cilantro to taste.

It's better if you let it sit in the fridge for an hour or two before serving. It gives the lime juice a chance to penetrate the other ingredients. You can use it as a dip for tortilla chips, or as a topping on tacos.

Tonight, I cut up chicken breast and cooked it (grilling will be even better), put on flour tortilla with cheese, lettuce and then topped with this sauce (and black olives).

Delicious!

SciFi City Tour

2010-01-02T15:44:00.006-05:00

I stopped into SciFi city today. Actually, I was going to Home Depot (which is in the same shopping center), but since I had the Cannon in my pocket I figured I'd run in and see if I could snap a few pictures without drawing too much attention to myself.

This place is the hangout for uber nerds. Yeah, I'm a bit geeky with liking Star Trek and all of that, but these people live the true nerd life.

SciFi City, Orlando, Florida.

Tour of SciFi City Pictures *click here*.

Teared

2009-12-03T22:48:00.004-05:00

I have an imaginary friend whose name is Steve. Steve is a self-proclaimed asshole.

There is a non-imaginary band called Rush. I don't know if they're assholes or not, but I love their music.

This is a link to Steve's website, where he plays his interpretation of "Tears" by Rush.

Enjoy!

"Teared" by Steven Cogswell

Drums on the Horizon

2009-11-30T22:56:00.004-05:00

You all know I'm really a drummer and not a guitar player, right? My drums have been in storage for a long time, and I've just added 'set the drums back up' to my list of things to do.

Now that my Dad is no longer living here, I have the house back to myself again and can begin spreading out instead of living in the south wing.

But one thing I had feared with my drums has come to pass - they're beginning to yellow. When I bought these babies they were nice and shiny white, but father time takes his toll on everything, including this nice finish.

So before I set the drums back up, I am going to re-cover them. They are definately going to be covered with a wood veneer such as cherry or maple. Drums should look like wood after all, right? I'm not sure what prompted me to get white in the first place, although I suspect the wood finish drums were more money. That's ok, I can do something about that now. The hardware is still in very nice condition and should clean up nicely.

There were two things I was concerned about when contemplating re-finishing the drums. First of all, would I have to strip off the old finish first, or could I just add the veneer over the top of the existing white finish? The answer is I think I can just cover over the white. The concern was that the added thickness of the veneer would make the drum diameter increase enough so that the heads would not fit back on. Well, I took a small stip of veneer and wrapped it around the shell towards the top and taped it down. The head did fit back on, although it was a bit on the tight side.

Secondly was the vent hole hardware (how it came apart). This too looks to be a non-issue, as I was able to take the vent hole apart on my small tom just by gently pushing on it with a screwdriver.

One thing for sure, I don't think I'm going to setup everything this time around. This kit is very large (double bass drums, 4 mounted toms and 2 floor toms). There is a Gibralter rack that goes around the whole kit that everything bolts to. It will be a single bass drum setup, although I may look into getting a double pedal. They weren't as prevalent back when I bought this drumset as they are now.

I'll keep you posted.

I'm Glad It's So Easy

2009-11-25T10:02:00.005-05:00

Today I was browsing at Amazon. I was looking for DVD's teaching guitar, and ran across a highly rated one for mastering the pentatonic scale. 44 reviews and the average was 5 stars. That's high praise for this type of DVD.

One reviewer in particular had this to say:

By	D. Freeman (America) - See all my reviews

"I've been playing for about 10 years now... mostly electric...metal, blues, hard rock, etc. Jamming to power chords and playing blues rhythm riffs had become easy and I wanted to learn how to use the whole neck. I knew a blues scale in the key of Em so I always slid that chord shape up and down the neck to where it fit the key I was playing in, but the only other place I could use that fingering pattern was if I brought it up an octave. My lead work was obviously in a rutt. I've always heard the guitar Greats preach about learning the pentatonic scale, but I was kind of intimidated about learning it. I'm kicking myself now for not persuing it years ago.

Today I threw in the first DVD. The patterns were so easy to learn. After mastering them all, covering the whole neck, which took about an hour, I easily learned how to shift the pattern positions to work with different keys.

Needless to say, I threw in a favorite CD, figured out the key they played in and was shocked at how much I'd learned. It was like new phrases and different string bends that I didn't even know existed just became unlocked.

I didn't sound like SRV, but I can tell my playing style has already changed.

Looking forward to viewing the rest of Disc 1 as well Disc 2.

6 Stars !!! "

All I can say is congrats guy. I'm glad you found it so easy to master all 5 positions of the pentatonic scale, up and down the entire neck in about an hour or so. I've still not been able to learn the notes on the fretboard after noodling around for 8 months.

Screw you D. Freeman.

Fender Stratocaster - Make It Your Own

2009-10-22T14:50:00.025-04:00

I don't know what it is with guitars, but I can never seem to get enough of them. It must be a combination of the mechanics, the beauty, the sound, the craftsmanship or something else I just can't put my finger on. In the 6 months since I've taken an interest in this, it seems to have become the center of what I am interested in as a hobby.

As far as aesthetics in a guitar, I still seem to gravitate towards the Les Paul body style in an electric. They just seem better constructed and are more "high-end" than Fender's offerings. But I can say with certainty that nothing else feels like a Stratocaster when you sit down to play it.

The cool thing about the Stratocasters is that they were made to be played, and played with. They are the guitar to have for someone that likes to tinker with such things. The necks are bolted on and many part are interchangeable by the owner. You don't have to have a degree in engineering to do some simple modifications on your own.

I got a good deal on my Stratocaster. It was a couple of hundred less than what they usually sell for. This is what they call the "American Standard Stratocaster" in Olympic White, with a maple neck. As with most Stratocasters, you can also get it with a rosewood neck should you desire. I didn't yet own a guitar with a maple neck, so I thought I'd go for it. It also came with one of the best cases I've ever seen called an SKB case. It is molded hard plastic case and offers awesome protection for its contents.

So now I own a Stratocaster that looks just like 10,000 other Strats out there. This Blog entry is called "Make It Your Own", and that's what I'm going to do.

With the money I saved on the initial purchase, I decided to do a couple of upgrades. The two easiest upgrades that I decided to do were to:

1) Change the tuners: Even worse than my guitar playing ability, is my ability to correctly change strings. The one time I tried it on a guitar without locking tuners, I almost ruined a $15 set of Elixer strings.

2) Change the Pickguard. No, it does nothing for the playability of guitar, but it can make your guitar feel more like "your guitar".

A couple of "Buy Me Now" clicks on eBay, and my parts arrived 3 days later. I'd like to thank Sigler Music on eBay for offering awesome service, fair prices and fast shipping.

Ok, so the first thing to do is to change out the tuners for the locking ones. The locking tuners I bought were genuine Fender locking tuners, part number 099-0818-100. You can use tuners made by other manufacturers, but I liked the locking tuners that were on the "American Deluxe Stratocaster" that I owned for 3 days. These are the exact same tuners in shiny chrome. They are also available in brushed finish or gold, so check the part number if you want one of those finishes. I knew that by going with Fender tuners, they'd be bolt-on with no neck mods necessary.

Installation is pretty straight forward. Loosen all of your strings to relieve any tension on them, then snip them with a pair of wire clippers and remove them. Use a box-end wrench to loosen the hex nutted ferrules and then just remove the tuners from the bottom.

Now all you have to do is to slip the new tuners in and put the washers and ferrules back on. Finger tighten the ferrules, then give them maybe 1/4 a turn with the wrench. There's no need to tighten them any more. Over-tightening them can cause the flat washers to sink into the neck wood, and you don't want that.

One more thing worth mentioning. If you look closely at the picture of the tuners (click to enlarge) you will see that the shafts, of the three tuners at the right, are longer than the other three. The longer shaft tuners go in the holes for the larger strings, E, A and D. The stock tuners only had longer shafts on two of the tuners, the E and A. Why is that? I have no idea. As for the "old" tuners, I think I'll just hang on to them rather than trying to sell them on eBay.

Ah, here's the back of the neck with the new locking tuners in place. They fit like a champ. There's a couple of small nibs on the back of each tuner to ensure that the alignment to the neck is correct, so you don't even have to worry about that. The round dial with the "F" on it is the lock. You loosen these a bit, slide the string through, pull it taunt and then tighten the lock. From there, it's just a matter of bringing the guitar up to tune, and then snipping off the extra string right at the post. There is a recommended procedure for re-stringing using these locking tuners at Fender's website.

Putting on the locking tuners was an easy and welcome upgrade. I no longer fear having to change strings and can keep a fresh pair on it at all times. Even though I haven't tried other types of strings yet, the Fender Silver Bullets are really nice and affordable at about $5 for a set.

Time for upgrade number two - the changing of the guard (pickguard that is). First thing worth mentioning is that it is allot easier (I'd say mandatory) for there to be no strings on the guitar to perform this operation. I did all of this at one time, so I removed the strings, replaced the tuners, changed out the pickguard, and then put the strings back on.

The pickguard that I ordered is also a genuine Fender replacement part, number 099-2141-000. This is a 4-ply pickguard, and the color is called "Black Pearl". Arrrrrr, sounds like a pickguard a pirate would have. Anyway, if you decide to get a new pickguard, again be sure to check the part number carefully. Not only are different colors available, but there are also different pickguards for different pickup arrangements. My guitar has 3 single coil pickups, so it's called an S/S/S Stratocaster. There's also a H/S/S Stratocaster which has a humbucker and two single coils. The cut-out is different for the humbucker arrangement, so check your guitar closely.

Here's the tools you'll need to complete the changing of the guard: small Phillips screwdriver, a larger Phillips screwdriver, a pair of pliers, a 9/16" box end wrench, a small machinists ruler, a pen or pencil, a piece of paper and a rag.

Start with the pencil/pen, paper and small machinists ruler. Draw a picture of the top of the guitar showing the pickups, the volume knob and the tone control knobs. Turn all of the knobs fully one way or the other and make note of their orientation on your drawing. This will help you to get the knobs back on correctly when you are finished.
Next, carefully measure the height of each pickup, at each end, above the pickguard and write it on your drawing. The pickups have a bit of tubing between them and the bottom of the pickguard which acts as a springy spacer. Turning the screws at each end of the pickup raises or lowers the whole thing. Our goal is to put them back at the same height they came off the guitar.

No it's time to disassemble:

1) Pull the tip off of the pickup selector switch.
2) Pull the Volume and Tone control knobs off. Try it with your fingers first. If you can't get them with your fingers, carefully wrap the rag around each one and pull them off with the pliers.
3) Remove the two screws on either side of the pickup selector switch.
4) Remove the hex nuts around the three control potentiometers.
5) Remove the 11 small Phillips head screws around the perimeter of the pickguard.
6) Loosen the screws on each side of each pickup. You'll see the pickup lower itself as you do this.
7) With everything loose, gently lift the pickguard at the bridge end to slide it out from under the neck.

Congrats, we're now halfway there! As you can see in the picture, the 6 screws for the pickups are still attached to the old pickguard with what looks like a small piece of tubing around them.

Get out your new pickguard, peel off the protective plastic, and transfer these 6 screws and tubing to the new pickguard.

Now begin to fit the new pickguard into place, and get the pickups started in their screws. I screwed mine back in until the tops of the pickups were flush with the new pickguard. Align the control pots and pickup switch with their holes and slot, and get the new guard roughly onto the guitar body.

Re-install the 11 perimeter screws, starting with the 4 on the "corners". This will help to ensure alignment with the other screw holes. Do not tighten until all 11 screws are installed.

Put the hex nuts back on the control pots, and the two screws back on the pickup switch.

Now, begin to evenly tighten the screws on each side of the pickups until the height on each side matches what you wrote down on your paper. You did remember to measure the pickup height, right? Put the switch tip and control knobs back on. Add strings and your ready to rock!

Here's what she looks like with the makeover! Definitely a unique look. I can't ever remember seeing a Stratocaster that looks like this one. It adds some pop, and I think the black pearl has a classy vintage look to it.

You can also easily do other cosmetic mods to the Stratocaster, like changing the color of the pickup covers and control knobs. I thought about going black with those, but now that I see it with the new pickguard I think the white covers and knobs look just fine.

So now I have "Made It My Own" Stratocaster, one that is easily recognizable as mine. Have fun with yours too.

What's Next?

2009-10-10T10:10:00.002-04:00

I haven't update my blog in awhile, simply because there hasn't been much to blog about. I'm going to use this post just to pour out a few thoughts that have been going on in my head for awhile now. This may sound like complaining to most of you, but I'm just trying to get my thoughts sorted out in print.

This is a depressing post, and truthfully I can't even tell you why I'm posting this.

In 2006, my Mom passed away leaving my Dad and his 2 dogs all alone. They were married for 60 years. I can't imagine that. My Mom always took care of everything when it came to the house - keeping it clean, doing the laundry etc. Most of what my Dad would do would be going to the grocery.

After 60 years, I really think that they got to the point they weren't living life, they were just living. No travel, no hobbies. Get up everyday, eat, watch TV then go to bed and do it all over again. I'd ask my Mom "Why don't you guys ever go out to dinner"? The reason was because my Dad didn't want to. He doesn't see the point of going out when you can eat at home.

Last week, my daughter Kelley came home to visit from Ft. Lauderdale. I'm lucky now to see either of my kids as they've both moved away. With visits comes going out for a bite, usually lunch. My Dad won't go, even though he was always asked when he first moved in with me. He always said no, so I stopped asking. Last weekend I told him that Kelley and I were going out to lunch. This really seemed to piss him off. He threw his napkin down on the table and started drumming his fingers, a sure sign that he was pissed.

My Dad can't cook for himself, and relies on me to cook everyday. The best he can do on his own is to microwave a hot-pocket or a pot pie. On the day Kelley and I went to lunch, I had just cooked a big breakfast 2 hours before I told him we were going. The next thing I knew, he was over to the freezer, trying to pry apart two frozen pancakes with a butter knife. Failing at that, he threw them in the garbage and went out into the garage to sit and watch life go by on the street.

I don't think he understands that the reason people go out to eat is to be social, not to eat. The food is secondary when it comes to dining out.

Of course we never talk about any of this. My Dad and I don't have the 'give me a hug', and saying 'I Love You' kind of relationship. So when friction does occur between us, neither of us say anything until time just makes it fade away.

My Dad is not in good health, and it is fading. He is diabetic and had to have his foot amputated in 1995. He's now 86 years old. He is blind in one eye (complications from Glaucoma) and nearly blind in the other (Cataracts). When he moved in 3 years ago, he could walk fine with just the use of a cane. He'd go to the grocery with me. A year later, he almost fell one day with the cane and we persuaded him to use a walker. He stopped going to the store with me. He stopped going pretty much anywhere. The only place he goes is with another old guy down the street to the barber shop, about once a month. They leave at 7:30AM and are back by 9:00.

So what does all of this mean? I don't know. My own personal life is in a giant rut right now. Even though this sounds like a bitch, it really isn't. Trust me, I have so many things to be thankful for in life. I have my two beautiful daughters who are now grown and starting the best part of their lives. I have my health, for the most part. I have a good job and my house and car are paid off.

As long as my Dad is living with me, I'm relegated to getting up, going to work, coming straight home and start dinner. All the while, he is sitting here at the house all alone with nobody to talk to or look out for him. If I need to leave, I get asked where I'm going. I'm asked when I'll be back. I'm 49 years old and sometimes feel like I'm still 14.

My oldest daughter and her fiance' live in Indiana. They bought a house last year. I have never been there. My youngest daughter lives in Ft. Lauderdale with her boyfriend. They rent an apartment and she just got hired full time for PR firm. I have never been there.

The other day, Dad developed a problem with his right arm. It went numb and he had no use of it. This happened during the day when I was at work. Had it been something like a heart attack, there was nobody here to help. That night he could hardly walk because he couldn't grab ahold of his walker. The next day, he said it felt better and he clearly had use of it. I fixed dinner and when we got ready to eat, it went numb again. With no feeling in it, he could barely feed himself using his left hand to eat with. Again, it got better later that night, and he went off to bed. Yesterday, he did fine all day long, but it happened again last night. He took a few aspirin and it seemed to get better after awhile.

I've been talking to my sister during the week. I'm afraid now to leave him home alone during the day. I'm usually gone for 12 hours at a time.

Today, we are going to talk to to him about moving into a retirement home. I always said that I was fine with him living here as long as he could take care of himself. I think the day has arrived that he cannot. He will be mad, he will deny that he needs to do this. He will say it's too expensive. He is not a wealthy man, but he does have enough to sustain himself for a couple of years.

I'm turning 50 next year. My daughter is getting married next year. And I'm worried about my Dad. My own personal life sucks, and I don't even have cigarettes to keep me company anymore. On top of that, I need a haircut.

Live life to it's fullest, and smell the roses. Be thankful for all that you have. Life is so short. I know we all say it, but it is true. Father time sucks, and will eventually take all of us.

Sometimes A Deal Is Not A Deal

2009-09-09T15:49:00.012-04:00

I blogged a couple of days ago about getting a bass, as well as a bass amplifier. The amplifier was an Ampeg BA600115, which is a 600 watt combo amp with a 15" speaker. My bass finally arrived yesterday so even though I bought the amp on Friday, it wasn't until the following Tuesday that I could try it out.

All I can say is that I was thoroughly disappointed with this amplifier. Ampeg has been around for a long time and has (had) a well respected name in the bass playing community. But apparently, after further research, I've found that they went out of business, then were restarted my another company, blah blah blah. It sounded fine when played at low volumes, but when you tried to push it, it would start farting, rattling, buzzing and doing other things it shouldn't be doing. Maybe the one I got just had some problems, but it was enough to turn me off in a big hurry. After 45 minutes of playing with it, I decided it was going back to the store. Yes, a $1,299 amp for $399 is a good deal if it works, but this one didn't.

Of course the next question is, what do I replace it with? I started looking on-line and was drawn into the new Hartke series of amplifiers and cabinets. There are rave reviews to be found everywhere, so I figured further research was in order.

At this point, I was quickly being turned off with the idea of another combo. They are nice when portability is a must, and they are generally less expensive than their separate counterparts. But my guitar amp (the Blackstar) is a separate amp and cabinet, so I decided to go that same route for the bass amp. The advantages are obvious - if you develop a problem with either component, you only have to deal with that, not a combination of both components.

Cutting to the chase, I came home today with a separate cabinet and head - a Hartke Hydrive HX410 cabinet (4 x 10" speakers) and a Hartke LH1000 Hybrid tube amp. The LH1000 puts out 1000 watts in bridged mode. It has a vacuum tube preamp section and a solid state amplifier section. The Hydrive speakers are a combination of paper and aluminum comes - supposedly the punch and clarity of the aluminum drivers is complimented with the warmth of the paper part of the cone.

At first, I was concerned that the 10" drivers would not get down into the low bass range. This was quickly put to rest the first time I played the amplifier. It sounds awesome. No rattles or buzzing, and the bass goes very low. The LH1000 is very simple in it's operation, a feature that I really like. My bass has enough settings on it that I don't need all of the graphic equalization bells and whistles in the amp. A popular combination is this same pairing, along with a Hartke HX115 cabinet sitting below the HX410 cabinet. That combo would be enough to play anything short of an outdoor stadium.

So it sounds fantastic, and I'm really pleased with it. For the money, I think the Hartke gear offers a great bang for your dollar, and the equipment comes with a good 3-year warranty as well (better than the Ampeg).

This will be all I'll ever need for my bass playing needs.

Buddy Rich - The Greatest Drummer There Ever Was

2009-09-05T12:14:00.007-04:00

Ask 10 guitar players who the greatest guitarist of all time is, and you'll get 10 different answers. Ask 10 drummers who the greatest drummer of all time is, and they'll say Buddy Rich.

I'll not go into the career and life of Buddy Rich here. If you have a few minutes and would like to know more about Buddy, the Buddy Rich Wikipedia page is a superb resource.

I had the privilege of seeing Buddy in concert twice. The first time was in Melbourne, FL around 1980 or so. It was a smaller venue that held a couple of thousand people, and we had excellent seats off to the left side of center, about 10 rows back. I was blown away at what I saw that night. By that time, he was in his mid 60's, yet played with speed and power I'd never witnessed before.

The second time was at Disney World, probably around 1981. Disney used to have concerts at night during the summer, where they would close the park early, and people with tickets for the nightly concerts would get in. Many bands would perform throughout the Magic Kingdom during the night. Buddy Rich would be playing in one part of the part, and Maynard Ferguson would be playing later on the other side of the park. That night, when we saw Buddy, there were only a few hundred people there and we literally had front row seats, probably no more than 20 feet away from him. Between songs, Buddy asked the band what to play next (they did not go by a set list). My father-in-law shouted "play the book"! Buddy heard him and made some comment back. I don't remember exactly what he said, but it was a cool moment.

Anyway, here is a video of Buddy in action. I hope you enjoy it. Watch it all the way through, and pay particular attention to what his left hand is doing. Enjoy!

Guitar Is Hard - Let's Try The Bass!

2009-09-04T17:19:00.012-04:00

My guitar playing hasn't been going well lately. I've seem to have hit a wall with it, and a bit of frustration is setting in. Most notably is trying to learn how to play Barre chords. I know, it just takes allot of practice, but my fingers just don't want to seem to work the way they need to to be successful at grabbing that full barred 'F' chord.

I'll continue to practice, but in the meantime I've also gotten a bit of a bug to try and play bass also. At least with bass (initially), you don't have all of those pesky chords to worry about. I'm not saying that playing the bass is any easier than guitar, it's just different.

Some of this was sparked by my weekly browse of Musician's Friend website, a place I need to stay away from. Their tempting deals have sucked me in a few times, and the bass playing thing is no exception.

While looking, I noticed last Monday that they were having a clearance of the Ibanez SR20TH4 bass. This is a special limited edition bass that came out in 2007, commemorating their 20th anniversary. This is a $2,000 (MSRP) bass that usually sells for $1,499. They had it on clearance for $699.

Add to cart, click, done. Sigh, I swore that I was done buying things but the force was not with me on that day. The bass will be here on Tuesday the 8th. I would of had it today, but MF took their sweet time getting it shipped. It has actually already arrived in Orlando, where it will sit for 4 days until Tuesday rolls around.

So today I quickly came to realization that I have nothing to plug a bass into. You can't use a guitar amp as it will surely shred the speakers. Since today is Labor Day weekend, the local Guitar Center is having another of their 'list' sales, with special markdowns on many in-store items.

After doing some quick research, it seems that Ampeg makes respectable bass amps, so I set out to see what I could find.

In the end, I got an Ampeg BA600115 (it's a 600-watt hybrid combo amp, with a single 12ax7 tube in the preamp circuit and a 15" speaker). It was normally $1,299 (MSRP) and typically sells for $700-$850. I got the floor demo for $399.

So a new adventure begins. We'll see how this goes. In the end, it will help my guitar playing as well. For those not familiar with guitar and basses, the strings on a 4-string bass are tuned to EADG, while a guitar is EADGBE. In other words, the bass is the same as the first 4 strings on the guitar, just an octave lower. If I learn the fretboard well on the bass, it will carry over into the guitar playing.

Sony's PS3 is Awesome!

2009-08-29T10:53:00.016-04:00

The Sony PS3 has arrived and I finally have it set up, replacing the standard Pioneer DVD player in my entertainment center. One factor that helped me in my decision to go with a PS3 instead of XBox is that I would gain Blu-Ray capabilities in my home theater. I'm here to say that so far, the PS3 has lived up to everything it's touted to be.

One glitch right off the bat was the fact that the PS3 didn't come with a cable to output true High Definition to my Samsung 52" flat screen. You must use either a component video or HDMI cable, neither of which were supplied. This delayed my installation by a full day until I got the proper cable. To be fair, had I done more research I should have known this before the PS3 arrived. The Nintendo Wii has the same issue.

Ok, let's get to it. After I fired up the PS3, it went through a bit of initial self check and up came the main menu screen. I really like this screen. It's very intuitive and easy to navigate. During the setup, the PS3 scanned for for my network, and found it straight away. All I had to do was enter the password and the connection to the internet was made. I use an Apple Airport Extreme for my router and the PS3 reported 100% signal strength, even though the router is on the other side of the house.

After connecting, the PS3 reported that a system update was available and I proceeded to install it. It only took a few minutes and completed without a hiccup.

The first disc I decided to feed the PS3 was my Blu Ray DVD of Rush's Snakes and Arrows concert, a disc that Michele and Eric had bought me for Christmas of last year. After 20 seconds or so, I was presented with the disc menu and hit "play".

I spent the next 2 hours at a Rush concert, with video and sound unparalleled by anything I've seen before. The video was simply incredible. These are the sharpest and most vibrant images I've ever seen come from a DVD player. The sound as well is better than anything that has ever been captured on a Rush DVD. I cannot give the PS3 credit for this as it is simply reproducing what is fed into it. If you are a fan of Rush and have not seen the Snakes and Arrows DVD then I can tell you that you are missing out on something special.

The night after the Rush concert, I decided it was time to give gaming a try. After all, that was the main reason I bought the PS3 in the first place (or was it)? At this point, I consider the PS3 a $299 Blu Ray player, with gaming capabilities built in to it. I loaded Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (from EA Sports) into the PS3.

Wow. Wow. Wow. I don't even know what to write. I've spent the last 6 nights playing TW10 endlessly. It has cut into my guitar practice and is beginning to take over my life. Simply put, this is the finest golf game available on any console, period. I'll not go on about it, but it offers challenges that will take quite awhile to overcome. Play against your friends via the EA Sports Net or compete in international tournaments. The graphics are simply stunning.

To summarize, this isn't so much about the PS3 as it is about things that you can do with the PS3. The hardware is quickly forgotten about, leaving you to focus on things like which Blu Ray movie to buy or what games to play. Did I mention you can stream audio and video content to the PS3 via Windows Media Server?

Two knocks on the PS3 have been the price (expensive), and the lack of games available. These are quickly being addressed. Sony just announced (last week) a new version of the PS3 called the PS3 "Slim". It is smaller in size and cheaper in price ($299). It has a 120GB hard drive compared to the "old" PS3 which had a 80GB drive (at $399). I think that will be enough to push those hesitant to purchase the unit to finally open their wallets. And with increased sales will come more games. The PS3 is a winner in my book.

SHaFT quiz for Rich and Allison

2009-08-16T16:04:00.012-04:00

Over the past few days, I have been soliciting questions via twitter to ask Rich and Allison. Maybe if I could explain it here, you all can better understand what it is that I'm trying to do.

We are all fans of Simply Syndicated, right? Rich has said on numerous occasions that once they do a podcast, he rarely goes back and listens to it again. This got me thinking: Are Rich and Allison fans of Simply Syndicated?

In order to find out, I want to put together a quiz that we can administer to them during an upcoming episode of SHaFT. The quiz will be 20 questions, each worth 5 points.

The questions shouldn't be too hard, but they need to address something that has been stated on a SimSyn podcast.

You question can be something that was said by any presenter, on any Simply Syndicated podcast. The funnier the question and answer is the better! It will make for better entertainment should this ever get released as a podcast.

Here's an example:

Q: According to Craig, what shape is the holdeck?
A: Cubular (MIS Ep. 10)

Now this one isn't side splittingly funny, but I think you get the idea.

Direct Message me your question, along with the answer (I'm @swredman on twitter). If for some reason you cannot DM me on twitter, e-mail me here.

Think funny!

I've got 5 questions so far, so send in those questions guys!

PS3 Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

2009-08-11T20:02:00.005-04:00

It's all Amanda's fault. I was going along just fine, until she told me the other week that she bought a Wii.

I've never been a big gamer, but I did like to play some back in the day. The last game console that we owned was a Nintendo 64. Many fun hours were spent playing Super Mario 64 and Goldeneye.

Her getting the Wii sparked the idea in my head that it was time I get a new console for myself. I thought about getting a Wii also, but figured since she already had one, I'd try something different. What was left was the XBox 360 or the Playstation 3.

The reported harware failure rates of the XBox has me nervous. I don't know if the Playstation 3 is any better, but from what I've been able to find on-line they seem to be. The deciding factor was the fact that the PS3 will add Blu-Ray capability to my home theater system.

I ordered the PS3 on Sunday, but it hasn't even shipped yet. It looks like it will be next week until I see it. It comes with a game called 'Uncharted: Drake's Fortune' and a voucher to D/L another game (not really sure what it is yet). I also ordered 'Tiger Woods PGA Tour '10' and 'Rachet and Clank: Future Tools of Destruction'. I guess that game is about as close as one can get to a Mario experience on the PS3.

We'll see how it goes. The hard part is going to be finding the time to play. If Dad is still up then I'm screwed. It will be after he goes to bed that I can finally do what I want to do .....

Update: I've finally received notice that the PS3 has shipped. It will be here Wednesday, the 19th of August.

Wine Server Cabinet Delivered

2009-08-01T08:37:00.008-04:00

Michele and Eric finally received the wine server cabinet that I made for them. Last Friday, I got it boxed up and took it to the local FedEx facility for the journey from Florida to Indiana.

I'm happy to report that it made it to their house without incident and Michele had no trouble re-assembling it.

FedEx - thanks for getting it there safely. Office Depot - go to hell for the outrageous prices you charge for cardboard boxes and shipping peanuts. I'll not be back to your store again.

Michele was going to get some artwork, plants etc. to decorate the area where the cabinet sits. Hopefully we'll see a updated picture before too long. (Updated)

If you missed the original blog about the wine server cabinet, you can go back and see it here: Wine Server Cabinet Complete

Yamaha SBG1000 - Where Are You?

2009-07-26T09:28:00.004-04:00

Well, just a quick update on the status of the Yamaha SBG1000. A few posts back, I mentioned that I ordered a Yamaha SBG1000 guitar around the 4th of July weekend. At the time I placed the order, the guitar was not in stock and the estimated time for delivery was between 2 and 4 weeks. No problem I thought, this will be worth the wait.

I haven't heard anything back from Musician's Friend since I placed the order. Yesterday, I decided to go to the website and see if it still said 2-4 weeks for delivery.

They had changed the "2-4 weeks delivery" to "Estimated arrival date 11-30-2009". Argh! I shot them off an e-mail explaining everything, and was more or less asking if that time frame also applied to my order. I received a response a few hours later (they really are great at replying to e-mails) that they expect delivery sometime between 10-30-2009 and 11-30-2009, although they cannot guarantee they will actually have the item by that date. Sigh.

This morning, I received and e-mail from them, thanking me for my order and patience, and said that they expect to be able to ship my order within the next 30 days. However, this e-mail smelt of a generic form letter, so I'm not putting much stock in it.

The long and short of it, I'm not holding my breath. I suspect it will be well into December before I ever get this guitar. I'm not going to cancel the order as I think I got a pretty good deal on it (20% off). I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

My Beater Guitar

2009-07-25T09:57:00.010-04:00

I needed a "beater" guitar. You know, a guitar that you can throw in the car, or take outside on the back patio to play. A guitar that you don't have to worry about as far as it getting a ding or scratch on it.

I went out last weekend to try and find such a guitar. As far as buying used instruments there really aren't too many options. The easiest place to try is the local pawn shops. I went to no less than 10 of them in search of a beater guitar. For the most part, all they had was total crap. Guitars that I'd never heard of, some made of plastic lined the walls. Or if you did see a potential beater, it was usually in some state of disrepair, or their asking price was just outrageous.

Another place to look is the local for sale ads such as Craig's List. I quickly gave up on this as well. Any good prospects were long sold, and the unsold ones were either crap or the asking price was too high. Why do people think that their $100 new crap guitar should now be worth $150 used?

At that point, I decided I'd just buy a new, inexpensive yet respectable guitar and turn it into a beater myself. It's no secret that I really like Yamaha gear. I've owned Yamaha motorcycles, Yamaha stereos and Yamaha musical instruments. I love my LL16 acoustic, but there's no way it's leaving the air conditioned / climate controlled environment of my house. So for the beater guitar, I once again turned to Yamaha to look for an inexpensive yet respectable instrument.

The workhorse of the inexpensive Yamaha line is the FG series of guitars. As with the LL handmade series, I've found from reading forums on the web that the FG series are very well respected instruments and always come highly recommended. The FG700 is where the line starts at a street price of $199. From there we move to the FG720, FG730 (about the $299 price point) up to the FG750 at the $399 price point. The guitars are all very similar to each other, but the quality of the materials used increases in proportion with the price.

I set out to spend not much more than $200 for this guitar. After all, this is supposed to be a "beater" guitar, right?

As I was doing research, I found a Yamaha line that is not even listed on their website. It is just called the "F" series, instead of FG. Two particular models jumped out at me, the F335 and F345.

The F345 in particular had a set of specifications that I liked, as well as a finish that I thought looked pretty cool as well. I am usually drawn towards natural finishes in guitars, but the F345 has a tobacco burst finish that I think is very well done. At least it is well done in the photos I had been able to find of it. You know how pictures go - it looks great on the web, and then when you actually see it in person it's not quite so striking. Have you ever got a sub at Subway that looked like the one on the TV commercial? Same idea.

Here's how the F345 specs out:

Body Style: Dreadnought acoustic
Top: Sycamore
Back: Mahogany
Sides: Mahogany
Fingerboard: Rosewood
Bridge: Rosewood
No. of frets: 20, 14 free
Scale length: 25"
Pickguard: tortoise shell
Finish: Gloss
Tuners: Gold Die-cast
Warranty: Limited lifetime

Not bad. And the street price for the F345 is $229. I had a 15% off coupon from Music123 so with free shipping and no sales tax the guitar came it at less than $200. Mission accomplished!

What I wasn't quite prepared for was how nice this guitar actually is in person. In this case, the web photos didn't do it justice. I never expected it to be such a nice guitar. And it sounds fantastic. As expected, it is a bit mellower than the LL16. But that's not a bad thing. The LL16 is one of those guitars that really begins to shine when in the hands of someone who really knows how to play. In my hands it is a nice guitar being wasted by someone with no talent to play it.

Bottom line, the F345 is a winner. It certainly doesn't fall into the "beater" category, but I had to get something I wouldn't be worried about every time it came out of the case. If you're in the market for such a guitar, I can highly recommend the F345.

My Old Trains

2009-07-19T11:59:00.007-04:00

I was trying to come up with an idea for this weeks blog, but kept coming up empty. I know the guitar posts are getting old. Well, I looked up from my computer desk and thought "hey, I'll post a couple of pictures of my trains".

Yes, trains. My Dad was heavily into the model railroading community some years back, but is no longer involved due to health reasons (among other things). His Father and Grandfather both worked for the railroad (B&O).

He was heavily into collecting trains after he retired in the 1980's and had a whole room filled with trains. He also was heavily involved in restoring these old trains for other people. Again, he no longer does this as his eyesight has gotten so poor he can longer see to do this fine detail work. While he dabbled in a few different brands, his main focus was on pre-war (WWII) trains manufactured by Lionel. They have been making trains forever and the older stuff is very collectible. Also it is now very expensive. It is not uncommon for some of the rarer items (Blue Comet locomotive for example) to sell for several thousands of dollars.

Quite a few years ago, he gave myself, my sister, and all of the grand kids a train for Christmas. There are 3 trains in these pictures. One is mine (the Silver Zephyr in the middle), and the other two belong to my daughters.

The train on the left is called a 253. Most of these trains have some kind of number of them which is unique to the original "real" trains when they were produced.

This model 253 and the associated cars was manufactured sometime between 1915 and 1925. There are three other cars that come with this locomotive, two Pullman cars and an Observation car. I'm not sure if this train belongs to Kelley or Michele, and I doubt if they remember either. All I know is that I ended up with them for safe keeping. They have been sitting on this shelf for years and will probably continue to sit. Excuse the dust, as I am not the cleanest housekeeper in the world.

This Locomotive is called a number 262. It is circa 1933-1934 and is pretty cool train. It is what they a 2-4-2 in that it has two front wheels by the cow catcher, 4 main driving wheels, and two rear wheels. It also has a tender behind it where they used to store the coal. There are two cars with this train, an Observation car and a Pullman car.

The final train is the one on the middle shelf which can be seen in the first picture. This train was called The Zephyr, or otherwise known as "The Flying Yankee". It was produced somewhere around 1935. I did a quick check, and they even have an enitire Wiki page devoted to the Zephyr. If you're interested chick here.

To be clear, all of these Lionel trains are based on real trains that used to be in service all over America back in the glory days of train travel. Before commercial airline travel became commonplace, railroad travel was the most commonly used form of long distance travel. After World War II and with the invention of the jet engine, train travel began to decline in the 1950's.

If you have any of these old trains lying about, get them out and display them. They are really cool and are worth a fair bit of money if you were to ever sell them (don't do that though). And yes, that is a Borg and a John Billingsly autographed Dr. Phlox doll on the top shelf.

Ed Kihm

2009-07-19T10:46:00.001-04:00

The Strat Goes Back

2009-07-14T20:29:00.003-04:00

Ah, the Stratocaster American Deluxe. It was fun while it lasted, but it went back to the store last night. A nice guitar, but I could tell tell pretty quickly that this particular one wasn't doing much for me. And it's not the fact that it is a Stratocaster, it's just that particular guitar wasn't doing it. I'm sure another Stratocaster might have been right up my ally.

So what's next to try. Well, I'll give you a clue. It is the guitar that is pictured to the left. I won't tell what it is, but if you're reading this you probably have an passing interest in guitars and know immediately what it is.

This instrument has been ordered, however the retailer was out of stock so the wait time is supposedly 2-4 weeks. The latest e-mail I received from them said that they expect arrival to their warehouse on July 31.

I can't wait to give this beast a go. I expect the quality of the guitar to be as high as anything I've played to date. We will see if this one is a keeper, or just another return.

The Search For "My Guitar" Continues

2009-07-11T16:29:00.010-04:00

Yes, more guitar related discussion this week. I'm still looking for "my guitar", but I haven't found it yet.

Even though I still can't play, I am practicing and making slow progress. Better than no progress at all. But at the same time I am suffering from GAS (Gear Aquisition Syndrome). This is something that musicians get when they keep wanting to collect and hoard gear. I have a bad case of guitar GAS right now, but I'm trying to get that under control.

Last Saturday, in what I now consider to be something I never should have done, I purchased the Paul Reed Smith 513 guitar pictured on the left. Soon after I got it home, I started having buyers remorse, and then began to wonder "what the hell was I thinking"? I got caught up in the moment, and the local Guitar Center cut me a deal that most would consider too good to be true for an instrument of this quality. As far as guitars go, it doesn't get any better than PRS, and this was one of their top tier models. This is one of those guitars that's so pretty and high-end, you're afraid to take out out of the case for fear it may get a mark on it.

I came to my senses and realized by Sunday that this guitar wasn't for me. I kept it in the case until yesterday where I promptly woke up, put it in the truck, and took it back to the store. I'm glad Guitar Center has a good return policy. The manager had a hard time understanding why I didn't like it, but they took it back without any hassle.

While I was in Guitar Center returning the PRS 513, I got to try a bunch of guitars, including a Stratocaster. I've never really been keen on the looks of the Stratocaster so I've pretty much dismissed them and have never really done much research on them. Eric had just purchased a beautiful American Standard in Olympic White, so this got me to start thinking about Strats too. See how easily influenced I am?

One thing that struck me right away about the Stratocaster is how comfortable they are to play. The back of the body is scalloped where it hits your ribs so there are no sharp edges poking you. And the sound is oh so very nice. These are definately "players" guitars - they need to be played and not just put away into a collection like so many of the fancy guitars I have been looking at.

There are quite a few different models to choose from, but the "American" series are the ones you want to covet. Yes, they are more costly, but they should hold their value much better in the long run, as well as being higher quality than the foreign manufactured lower end models.

Aside from the Fender Custom Shop models, the American Standard and American Deluxe models are the ones that should be on your list of guitars to audition. Fender rarely discounts their items, although they do have a $100 rebate going on right now for the American Standard series.

Shopping the internet yields the same price no matter what on-line store you look at. It was while checking this that Best Buy of all places showed up as being a Fender dealer. WTF? Best Buy? I looked at them on their website and noticed they also had a "check store for availability" button. Long story, Best Buy is now in the musical instrument business folks.

I went to my nearest store, and sure enough they have an entire section of the building set up with a wall of guitars, pedals, strings, yada yada yada. A sound-proof demo room as well as a separate acoustic guitar room were all there too.

On the wall they had a Stratocaster American Deluxe (in Amber finish with rosewood fingerboard) discounted $320 off the normal selling price. It came home with me today, so now I am in Stratocaster audition mode. I still don't know if I'll keep it. Best Buy has a 30-day no hassle return policy.

So I'll try this one for a few weeks and see if it does anything for me. If not, I'll just return it and keep on searching until I find my guitar.

UPDATE: I've had it for over a day now, and so far it is NOT growing on me. The Fender Schaller locking tuners are the bomb though!

Fender G-DEC 30

2009-06-28T21:24:00.007-04:00

Ok, I'm tired of seeing the recipe for my sweet and sour stir fry chicken as the top article on my blog. And I don't have much much to blog about this week.

As far as excitement around here this week, it seems things "may" be getting back to normal at work. We have been working on a very large project and my part of it is close to being done. This week I should find out if I did well.

Kelley was here for a visit and treated me to Tijuana Flats for lunch.

Also, the air conditioner went belly up yesterday (Saturday), and this is the second night of sweating until I can't take it anymore. For those of you that aren't used to living in a tropical climate, let's just say that A/C is a must. On top of the heat (normal temps run 93 during the daytime, and mid 80's at night), the humidity routinely runs over 90%. This makes 95 feel like 110. When the air conditioner quits, it's not a minor inconvenience. It's a life changing event.

Anyway, I hope to have it repaired tomorrow. It looks like the fan in the outside unit has seized. I've removed it and will get a replacement tomorrow.

I'm sorry I was grumpy Kelley. Between G'Pa and the heat, I'm about to the end of my rope. Even I, the calm one, can be an asshole at times.

In the meantime, check out the cool little G-DEC 30 (Guitar Digital Entertainment Center) from Fender. It's a smallish amp, but puts out a pretty big sound for it's size. It has 30 watts, and a 10" speaker. But the main feature of the G-DEC 30 is that it has 85 different backing patterns built into it. 15 different amplifier model simulations. Midi support. Basically, it's a band in a box. You have a drummer and a bass player laying down the backing, and it's up to you to add the solo. You can alter tempo, key signatures, etc. You can even sample 28 seconds of your own riff and then loop it.

I'll not go on about it. It's just cool. If you have more interest, visit Fender's website or checkout the You Tube video below.

Until next time.

Fender G-DEC 30 Amplifier on You Tube

Scott's Sweet and Sour Stir-Fry Chicken

2009-06-20T19:04:00.011-04:00

Ok, I'm not a chef, nor do I play one on TV. But I do like to cook, and this is a recipe that I've been making for years. A buddy of mine showed me how to cook this many years ago, and I like to make it on a regular basis. It is fast, easy, pretty inexpensive and tastes great. Ready?

3 boneless-skinless chicken breasts
2 medium onions
1 green pepper
1 red pepper (argh, I didn't have one for this).
1 package stir fry vegetable mix
cashews or peanuts
1 bottle Kikkoman Stir Fry Sauce
1 can pineapple chunks
Rice, regular or boil-in-bag
1/2 clove minced garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
splash of white wine (optional)

Before we go any further, please no comments about my knife or my cutting board. I know they are crap and will be replaced with proper ones someday.

Start by slicing the green pepper into strips. I normally use one green and one red pepper, but unfortunately I didn't have a red pepper on hand for this. The red peppers are much sweeter than the green, and they also add an awesome explosion of red color into the dish. Just pretend it's there.

Next, do the same with onions. I usually just cut them into slices, then push them apart with my thumbs to make rings. They'll get soft with cooking, so it doesn't really matter how you do it. Set the peppers and onions aside in a dish.

I always cut my vegetables first so they are not rolling around in raw meat juice. Now do the same for the chicken. Slice it up into bite-sized pieces. By the way, you could also use beef, pork or even shrimp if desired. Use whatever your favorite is.

If you are using conventional rice, go ahead and get that going now. Once everything is cut up and ready to cook, it takes about 20 minutes to make this dish. If you are using boil-in-bag rice, get your water going so you can start the rice a bit later.

Now get a big pan, preferably one that has high sides on it, and a tight fitting lid. I put just enough olive oil in to cover the bottom. Add some minced garlic. Once the garlic is dancing nicely, go ahead and add the chicken. Cook it on medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, and then throw in a splash of white wine. I keep a bottle of Chardonnay handy beside the stove. Now you need to continue cooking the chicken until the wine cooks away, about another 5 minutes.

Ok, now the excitement begins. We are about 10 minutes away from being done at this point. If you are using boil-in-bag rice, go ahead and put it on and get it rolling.

Add about 1/4 cup of water to the chicken, just enough to cover the bottom of the pan. We need the water to steam the vegetables, but don't want to add too much liquid.

Put the onions and peppers on top of the chicken, and then add the stir-fry vegetable mix on top of that. The mix I buy has brocolli, carrots, snow peas, and some kind of shaved thingies in it. I'm not sure what it is, but it is good.

Cover the pan tightly and cook for about 8-10 minutes. We want the vegetables to steam, but not to the point of being mushy. They will turn bright green if everything is going according to plan.

Damn, isn't that looking good? At this point we just wait. I usually sneek a handful of cashews while waiting for everything to finish. You can open the pineapple and drain the juice while you're waiting too.

Ok, we're almost ready to eat. After the vegetables and rice are done, go ahead and turn the buners off for both pots. Take the Kikkoman Stir Fry Sauce and pour the entire bottle into the vegetables. Add the can of Pineapple, and throw in a handful of cashews. Stir it all up and put the lid back on.

We are almost done! The stir-fry needs to sit for a minute or two to give the sauce a chance to soak in, and also to give the pineapple and cashews a few minutes to get hot.

Go ahead and plate your rice. How much you use is just a matter of preference. If you really like rice, use allot. It's up to you.

After plating the rice, we're pretty much done. Just put how ever much stir fry you want over the rice and enjoy!

And here is the final dish. It really is very easy to make and I really like it. Using the above ingredient list, this makes enough to serve 4 people and costs about $12 to make. You'll have to determine the amount of rice you'll need according to your preference.

This recipe can easily be modified. As I mention, use beef, pork or shrimp instead of chicken, or maybe no meat at all. I could see some wanting to add mushrooms also. It's really up to you.

I hope you try it. If you do, please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Epiphone Les Paul Custom Shop Limited Natural Maple Flame Top

2009-06-20T14:52:00.010-04:00

I know, I know, not another post about guitars! I promise you that this will be the last post about a guitar I've bought. I have purchased 3 guitars now in the last 3 months (4 if you count the Epiphone Standard that I returned).

Truth be told, I thought I was done with the two very nice guitars that I had already, the Paul Reed Smith SE Custom Semi-Hollow and the Yamaha LL16 acoustic that I talked about in my last posting. I had no intention of getting yet another guitar until I made the mistake of looking around on E-Bay last Sunday night.

Back when all of this guitar obsession began, I knew that I wanted a Les Paul. The Gibson's are so expensive that I abandoned that search quickly and focused on the Epiphone Les Paul. When looking at all of the models on the net, the guitar pictured on the left was the one I wanted - the Epiphone Les Paul Custom Shop Limited Natural Flame. The heart breaker was that this particular guitar was a special run done in 2006, and by the time I took an interest in guitars they were long gone.

While poking around on E-Bay, I saw an ad from a seller that was listing he had three of these guitars available. I checked his feedback (which was over 400 and near perfect) and took every step I could think of to make sure that his items were legitimate. A word of warning if you are thinking about purchasing an item like this from E-Bay. There have been fake Gibson Les Paul copies coming from China for a few years now, and the market now includes fake Epiphones as well.

Fortunately, there are quite a few websites talking about the problem, and warning you what to look for when buying a guitar. MyLesPaul is such a place to go to get help from guys that are "in he know" when it comes to spotting fake guitars.

I had little reservation after checking out my seller and doing some research on this. When my guitar arrived, I posted photos and asked the guys to look at it. They all concurred that my Epiphone is the genuine article.

It was in the original box, which was bar coded with date and serial number information that matched the guitar inside. It still had all of the "new" stickers on it, owners manual, truss rod tool, literature, poster, warranty card, etc. It has none of the tell-tale signs of being a copy, and the serial numbers verify that this was made during the proper time period (mid 2006).

As for the looks, wow. I had hoped the top would have a bit more of a golden color to it, but I'm not complaining. I think it is beautiful to look at, it weighs a ton, and plays like a dream. I had almost forgotten what a Les Paul felt like after returning the first one. This one will not be returned, that's for sure.

I've also just got the speaker cabinet that goes along with my Blackstar Artisan 30H amplifier, so my amp setup is complete. About the only thing left to do, as far as equipment goes, is to find a new home for the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. I do not need two amplifiers, and though my time with the Fender HRD was short, it served it's purpose well. It held me over until I got the amp that I really wanted.

So now I am done with buying guitars for quite awhile. Learning to play them is now the focus. I am making progress, although sometimes I feel like I've stagnated in my learning. There are so many things to learn and so much practice that needs to be done, I sometimes feel like I'm standing at the bottom of a mountain and can't see the top.

My next post may go back to a woodworking project, one that I have been thinking about for a couple of weeks now. I need a guitar stand for the Yamaha LL16, so what better project than to make a nice wooden one out in the shop? I've been searching the net for wooden guitar stands and have a few ideas now. I'll keep you posted.

Yamaha LL16 Acoustic Guitar

2009-06-18T10:01:00.014-04:00

As everyone knows, any serious guitar player needs to have an arsenal of weapons to choose from, including those that don't "plug in". If I were a serious player, this would apply to me also. I am just a guitar poser, but I still felt I needed an acoustic guitar.

In reality, allot of the music that I listen to and like has acoustic guitar in the mix. Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Paul Simon etc is the type of music I listen to on a regular basis, aside from my hero trio from Canada. That being the case, I started doing one of my favorite things in life - research.

When it comes to buying new things, I always do at least some research on the item that I want to purchase. For example, I probably had a good 20 hours or so of internet time invested in search of finding what I feel is a good acoustic guitar. This also involved a trip to the guitar store, and strumming and entire wall of different instruments, ranging in price from a few hundred to several thousand dollars.

When it comes to acoustic guitars, I'll admit I know practically nothing about them. In cases like this, the first place I usually turn to is a forum of some type that is devoted to the product I'm researching. In this case Acoustic Guitar Forum was an invaluable tool in my search for a new guitar.

When my search began, a couple of the big names in acoustic guitar making quickly jumped to the forefront, Martin and Taylor. Both of these companies have been in business for a long time and they offer some truly remarkable guitars. The problem with owning a Martin or Taylor is the same as the problem I ran into when shopping for a Les Paul (Gibson). They are expensive. Even their entry level guitars barely break the $1,000 mark, and I didn't care to spend that much. The used market is no easy place to navigate, as used Martins or Taylors can demand their original asking price and then some. They are very collectible and unless you've devoted your life to knowing what these instruments are worth, it's a market you should stay out of. So the search for a less expensive although viable alternative began.

I went to Guitar Center and had a great conversation with a very knowledgeable guy that worked there. He invited me to try anything that was hanging on the wall, and I took that opportunity to try many different instruments. Of everything I tried, a couple of guitars really jumped out at me - a Yamaha FG730S, and a Seagull S6. But I wasn't ready to buy right then, I just wanted to get a feel for what guitars I might like.

I returned home and started researching Yamaha and Seagull. The results from both were very encouraging. As a matter of fact, I had a hard time finding any knowledgeable guitarists that had any bad things to say about either brand. The more I researched, the more I found that Yamaha was recommended to both beginner and even experienced guitar players alike. But which model?

I'll try to be brief now as this post is getting rather long winded. Yamaha makes the FG series of guitars to feed the masses and they range from about $200-$400. Above the FG's, are the LL series. The LL6 and LL16 are handmade in China, and the LL26 and above are handmade in Japan.

My guitar is the Yamaha LL16. It has a solid Engelmann Spruce top, solid Rosewood back and sides and an Ebony Fretboard. Gold hardware completes the look.

The LL16 can be found for about $750 and comes with a really nice case. The LL26 jumps the price to over $2k, so the LL16 it is. I got a 15% discount from the normal $750 price, so in the end the LL16 was about $635.

It is simply beautiful to look at and play. I just wish I could do it justice. The tone from this guitar is just magical and I can't imagine a guitar sounding better, for any amount of money. I still can't believe how loud it can be, or how responsive it is to any way it is touched. Simply remarkable.

There is one final guitar on the way, and then I am finished for a long time. That will bring the total count to three. Surely that is enough for any serious musician. I'll blog about it next.

Wine Cabinet is Complete

2009-06-14T18:47:00.005-04:00

Well, after what seems like a long time, the wine cabinet for Michele and Eric is complete. I think it turned out rather nicely if I do say so myself.

The cherry I used for this project is just beautiful, and it will darken and continue to get better with age. That is one of the reasons that furniture makers cherish working with this fabulous wood.

For the most part, everything went together fine without any hiccups. The plans for the project were accurate, and I did not have to deviate from them in the construction of this piece.

Michele has been down visiting this week, so she has seen the cabinet in person. She seemed excited by it, at least as excited as Michele ever gets about anything I guess :)

The last hurdle is getting it safely from Florida to Indiana. This project does come apart into 3 separate pieces, the top, the bottom and the legs. All it takes is a screwdriver to disassemble and reassemble it. Shipped in 3 boxes, it is quite a manageable size, so it should be no problem getting it there without damage.

It is hard to get a sense of scale from these pictures, but the cabinet is rather diminutive. It is 36" tall, which is the same height as a standard kitchen counter top. There are 12 cubbies for storing your favorite wine, although the bottles need to be on the smaller side. This cabinet will not hold those jumbo magnum type wine bottles. I don't really know why anyone would want to store a large bottle like that in this cabinet anyway.

Up above, there are 4 "slots" that will accomodate your wine glasses, hanging upside down. All in all, a very functional and cool design.

This project has been fun. I'm not sure what my next woodworking project will be, but at the moment I'm entertaining thoughts of a nice wood guitar stand for my Yamaha LL16 acoustic guitar. I'll keep you posted if I proceed with that.

Until next time, happy woodworking.

Orlando Magic in the NBA Finals

2009-05-31T10:17:00.004-04:00

I'm not a huge sports guy, but I do at least follow basketball and baseball. Football (American football, not soccer) on the other hand has slipped way down my list of favorite sports to watch.

Last night, for the first time since 1995, the Orlando Magic made it to the NBA Finals by defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers in 6 games. Hardly anyone gave the Magic much of a chance to make it that far. After all, this year it was supposed the be the "Kobe vs. Lebron" show. Kobe will be there, but Lebron will either be off fishing, playing golf, or sitting around crying like a little bitch.

I've always liked Lebron James. He seemed like a stand up guy, but his quick exit from the arena last night after being defeated 103-90 makes me wonder. No congrats for the Magic or a handshake for Dwight Howard. He just vanished. Come on Lebron, where's your sportsmanship?

Much of the outcome of the Finals will come down to the officiating. This aspect of basketball drives me nuts. The games are called differently during the playoffs than they are in the regular season. Depending on a players credibility, calls will always go in favor of the more popular players. I saw Lebron bowl over a defender that was standing like a statue, and the statue gets the foul.

With hard work, the Magic are capable of beating the Lakers. The Magic won both meetings between the teams during the regular season. And now maybe Dwight Howard will start to get the respect he deserves. He is genuinely one of the finest young men in sports, or anywhere else for that matter. Had the Cavs won the series, I'm sure Dwight would have been there to shake Lebron's hand.

Asshole People in this World

2009-05-30T17:47:00.005-04:00

This week's post is going to be short. We'll talk about guitars or woodworking again next week.

I'd like to take this week to call out an asshole. This would be the person that had the balls to walk into my garage and make off with my air compressor.

It could have been worse. Of all the things I have in the garage, the air compressor was one of the least valuable items, at least as far as replacing it goes. So not only is this guy an asshole, but he's a fucking idiot to boot.

It's too bad that we live in a society containing assholes like this. In my wildest dreams, I would never consider walking onto another man's property and making off with something that isn't mine. Clearly this person is misguided, and I wish him a shitty life.

Now that I'm thinking of it, I don't wish him a shitty life. I wish cancer upon him.

Screw you, you prick!

Blackstar Artisan 30

2009-05-24T11:33:00.008-04:00

(Eric's Marshall Half Stack on the left)

Ok, so in my last blog post I raved about the Blackstar Artisan 30 amplifier head and 2 x 12 cabinet. I said that I'd probably have one of these sitting in my listening room one of these days.

Guitar Center (http://www.guitarcenter.com) is an evil place. They are the Blackstar retailer for the US. This weekend, they had their Memorial Day sale. It gets you 15% off a single item purchase (more on that in a minute).

The bad news about the sale is there is a list of excluded manufacturers. Fender, Gibson, Paul Reed Smith, etc. are all on this list. Yes, I believe there is price fixing in the pro audio business just like there is in the high-end audio business. Manufacturers keep their prices artificially inflated by not allowing retailers to discount their products. If you've been waiting to get 15% off of your $6,000 Gibson Les Paul dream guitar, it isn't going to happen.

But much to my surprise, Blackstar products did qualify for this sale. 15% off of an expensive item like Blackstar can save you quite a bit of cash. And a sale like this only comes along once a year, so...

I ordered the Blackstar Artisan 30H amplifier head. I had been going back and forth trying to decide if I should get the 15H, or the 30H. Realistically, the 15H is all the amp I'll ever need, but it doesn't have the tone shaping features of the 30H. Had they been identical except for power output, I would have got the 15H instead. It was in stock and should be here this week.

The speaker cabinet is a different story. Since the 15% off only applies to a single item, I had to get Amanda to buy the speaker cabinet for me. WTF Guitar Center? Isn't the purpose of the 15% off sale to , let me guess, sell stuff? Sometimes I just don't understand the rationale behind the marketing genius's that run these outfits. All a stipulation like this does is make their customers jump through hoops and piss them off.

Now for the bad news: the cabinet is on back order until August 17! They had the 4 x 12 cabinet in stock, but only Eric needs a cabinet that big. I'm already concerned that the 2 x 12 cabinet will overpower my small room.

So the amp head will sit here for 3 months while I wait for the speaker cabinet to arrive.

That's ok though, maybe my playing skills will be better by the time I'm finally able to plug in. I'm trying to piece together my first learned song: "Tears" by Rush. Not even close to being there, but I've got a good start and have learned a few new chords on the way.

(Artisan 15H head on 2 x 12 cabinet)

Blackstar Artisan 30 Head and Cabinet

2009-05-17T17:57:00.010-04:00

Whoa, now this is what I'm talking about. I've been doing allot of research lately trying to find out all I can about guitar amps and speaker cabinets. My Fender Hot Rod Deluxe is doing fine, but you know how it goes :)

Most of the amplifiers that I've looked at to date turn me off for one reason or another. Some of them are physically huge - great if you're going on tour and have a roadie to lug it around for you. I have plans for neither. I like the idea of a separate amp head and speaker cabinet, for the same reason I like separate preamp and amp in my stereo system - flexibility.

Trying to find small heads really leaves few choices when it comes to guitar amps. I don't need 100 watts. or even 50 watts for that matter. The candidates whittle down rather quickly with about 3 contenders.

Mesa Boogie Express 5:25 head. 25 watts in a nice small size. Fairly expensive, but nothing compared to the kookie prices that is high-end audio. But reliability conversations around the net has made me leary. Bogner Alchemist - another small head with minimalist features, but a good reputation.

Lastly, the head pictured above, the Blackstar Artisan 30H hand-wired head.

Craftsmanship like this brings a tear to my eye. This is the way all stereo equipment used to be built. 40 year old Marantz and McIntosh stereos built like this are demanding a kings ransom on the used market. It is exciting that you can still purchase a guitar amp that is made like this in today's high-tech PCB world.

Truth be told, I really don't know why I'm blogging about this. I just found the Blackstar Artisan series today on the net and it has piqued my curiosity. The Artisan stuff is finished in a killer burgundy tolex, and looks awesome if you ask me. The head puts out 30 watts, or 10 watts depending on how you have it configured. This sounds small, but in reality 5 watts with an efficient speaker would be enough to chase most out of a small room (like mine).

The matching speaker cabinet (the small one) houses (2) Celestion Vintage 30 drivers and is finished in the same burgundy tolex. Together, they make for an awesome combination.

"The ARTISAN 30H is the head version of the award-winning combo with the same magical sonic qualities of the 30W EL84 power stage driving a pair of classic British speakers. The ARTISAN 30 takes this tone and carefully distils it, taking it to a new level of tonal purity. One channel is built around an EF86 with a 5-way Bass Shape switch and the other an ECC83 with the addition of a Voice control for extra tonal flexibility. The Master Volume delivers the pure, natural crunch that you would expect from an amp of this quality".

I wouldn't be surprised to see this combo sitting in my listening room one of these days. This would be an amp that could serve for a lifetime of fun and entertainment. And, I hear they are an awesome match for PRS guitars too!

If you'd like to learn more about the Blackstar line of amplifiers, point your browser to:

Blackstar Amplification

Quinto, Pine and Nimoy on SNL

2009-05-10T11:53:00.003-04:00

Zach Quinto, Chris Pine and Leonard Nimoy were on SNL last night to promote the new Star Trek Movie. Take a look.

Star Trek gets a re-boot with Star Trek XI

2009-05-09T14:22:00.009-04:00

NO SPOILERS so please continue reading on....

I just returned from seeing the new Star Trek movie. After what seemed like waiting forever, the new movie finally arrived in theaters on Thursday May 7, but I didn't get to see it until this afternoon.

For whatever my opinion is worth, I did not care for the film. I wanted desperately to like it, but it just didn't happen for me.

The general consensus has been that Trek needed a re-boot and I agree with this. Where it went wrong for me was re-booting it with established characters that we all know and love.

To the actors credit, I think they all did a great job of filling some very large shoes. I don't believe it could have been cast any better (with the exception of Chekhov). Zach Quinto, Karl Urban and Simon Pegg did a good job in portraying Spock, Bones and Scotty. Chris Pine was also good as Kirk, but it was the script for Kirk that I had a problem with.

The story may be the downfall of this movie for me. It seemed very formulaic, with the old established good guys vs. bad guys approach.

I think the film will be successful to a degree, and I've heard that Paramount has already green-lit a sequel to this. This leads to the question: so now we're going to get new movies again with all of the old characters?

It was time for a re-boot, but I think they should have done it with new characters. I know that as far as the studios are concerned, they are better off going with what is established. But if you go that route, you cannot ignore all the cannon that is involved with the old shows. It is somewhat explained away, but I'm not sure how I feel about the approach.

Good points - the photography was excellent, as was the CGI. I really liked the exterior of the Enterprise, but the interior didn't work for me.

There was action o'plenty, although in retrospect some of the best Trek has not been action based. It was the story telling that made them so good.

So my feelings are mixed. Maybe after subsequent viewings, I'll come to like this film. Just as with record albums, I don't always like them the first couple of listens, then come to cherish them with time. Maybe this film will be like that for me.

Paul Reed Smith SE Custom Semi-Hollow Natural

2009-05-02T15:50:00.006-04:00

Yesterday, I returned the Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plus guitar that I bought three weeks ago. There were a couple of reasons that drove my decision to do this.

The guitar would not stay in tune. Now I expect a guitar to drift from day to day, but the Epiphone would drift out of tune after 10 minutes of playing it. Secondly, the low E-string had a buzz to it when played in the open position. I've read about this on the net, and just about every Epiphone (not all) that I picked up in the music store did the same thing. Lastly, the sunburst cherry finish was starting to be a little over the top for me. It was a beautiful guitar, but I started falling out of love with it.

In all fairness to Epiphone, I'm sure that both of the above problems could have been addressed easily by a luthier. But I didn't want to have to spend more money on a guitar that was only three weeks old.

I tried to move up the Epiphone line, but all of the models above the Standard had issues that concerned me. The Epiphone Les Paul Customs are nice, but only available in Arctic White and Black. Also, they both have gold hardware which I'm not a big fan of. The Ultra is only available in the faded sunburst cherry finish (no thanks). The Ultra II's were interesting, but additional electronics seemed a bit dodgey to me. The Les Paul Prophecy was stunning to look at, but I got to play one and really didn't like the way it sounded or felt in my hands.

So I've been racking my brain for the past day trying to figure out what to do. One piece of advice I keep hearing, with regards to buying a new guitar, it to buy one that feels right to you. Not being a seasoned player, I'm not sure this would apply to me as I really don't know what to look for in a guitar.

So today, I went to Guitar Center in Winter Park. They have walls of guitars, and I looked for something that caught my eye. And there was one guitar in particular that did.

We pulled it off the wall, and I sat down with it and strummed a few chords. Immediately, I liked the way this guitar felt in my hands, more so than the Epiphone. It is also drop dead gorgeous to look at. Being a woodworker, I appreciate pretty woods and this guitar does not disappoint. The neck and body are mahogany, and the top is a beautiful figured maple. Also (being a semi-hollow) it is very light, perhaps half the weight of the Epiphone.

After plugging it in and playing it for 10 minutes, I knew that this was my guitar. The strings are closer to the frets than they are on the Epiphone, and seemed to be considerably easier to press them down. Very easy on the fingers. It has a great clean tone, but can still get very dirty when asked. It just felt "right" to me.

So, I'm no longer an Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plus, but a Paul Reed Smith SE Custom Semi-Hollow Natural.

Click on the picture to see a big version of the actual guitar. If you'd like to learn more about the Paul Reed Smith SE Custom Semi-Hollow Natural model, click here or follow this link to the PRS website.

http://www.prsguitars.com

I know I'm going to love this guitar! Now it's time to learn to play it.

Walk Softly and Carry a Big F-Sharp Suspended

2009-04-25T09:32:00.028-04:00

I wasn't sure what I was going to blog about this week. Except for a handful of people, I'm sure that everyone is getting a bit bored reading my posts about woodworking and following the journey of a used amplifier from Michigan to Florida. So, this week, I would like to pay tribute to 3 guys that have had a profound effect on my life.

Music has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid in the 60's, AM radio was where you'd go to listen to music. Songs like "Downtown" by Petula Clark, "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" by B.J. Thomas and "There's A Kind Of Hush All Over The World" by Herman's Hermits would be played on almost an hourly basis.

When we moved to Florida in 1968, my family lived in a small apartment the first year. My memories from that time (I was 8) were of getting up on Saturday morning and watching The Monkees TV show.

My Dad would go to the grocery on Saturday and take me with him. Next to the grocery was a drugstore that carried, what seemed like to me anyway, a large collection of albums. It was at that store that I bought my first record album: More Of The Monkees. I must have worn that record out from playing it so much. At that age, I didn't bother to wonder why I liked to listen to it, only that I did. And from watching the TV show, I thought that Mickey Dolenz was so cool and playing the drums is what I wanted to do. And so it came to be.

By the time I got to High School in 1976, music on AM radio was gone and FM ruled the airwaves. Radio stations in those days were so different from what they are now. The DJ actually selected the music to play rather that some suit in a corporate office. I was thoroughly into playing the drums by then and music that was technically challenging quickly became the focus of my musical radar.

With the release of "Leftoverture" by Kansas in 1976, I had found what I thought was my Holy Grail of music. The final track, Magnum Opus, is to this day is one of my desert island songs. It is musical brilliance.

Also in 1976 I turned 16, so driving and going to live concerts were now a reality. The first concert I ever went to was to see Peter Frampton. This was about 6 months or so after "Frampton Comes Alive" exploded on the music scene like no other live album had before. I can still remember that night like it was yesterday. This is at a time where all tickets were general admission. You'd get in the venue, and shove your way up front to get as close as you could. So there I stood, a mere 20 feet away from Peter Frampton while they played everything from Frampton Comes Alive and then some. It was a 3 encore night. When it was finally over, I remember feeling that I'd just come from some alternate universe or something. A surreal experience for sure.

And so the concert going experience began. Frampton, Kansas, Styx, Boston, Gary Wright, The Eagles, Aerosmith and Atlanta Rhythm Section were all bands I saw live, most of them multiple times. I even had the privilege (I believe around 1981) of seeing Buddy Rich perform at Disney World. Back then, they used to have multiple famous musicians performing throughout the park on the same night. This particular night, Buddy was playing in a small setting and we were sitting a mere 15 feet or so from the greatest drummer of all time. Close enough that my Father in Law shouted "Play The Book" and Buddy heard him and made some comment about it.

By the time 1980 came around, I was married and moved out of the house. The record collection had grown to a respectable size, and I had a proper stereo and turntable. One day while driving in the car, I heard a song on the radio that caught my ear. "Wow, that's pretty good" I thought, but it fell off my radar. I heard that song a couple of times again over the next few days, and took a mental note of the name "Spirit Of Radio".

On the next trip to the record store, I found Spirit Of Radio. It was by a band called Rush and the album was called Permanent Waves. I bought the album and gave it a listen. They had a sound that, at least to my ear, was different from other bands. The chords, the syncopation and the lyrics just all seemed to click with the way my brain was wired for music. The more I played that album I quickly realized that it was something special. I then began buying more Rush albums to fill in the back catalog. Every one was special and Neil Peart came to replace Phil Ehart as my favorite drummer walking the planet (sorry Phil). La Villa Strangiato (from Hemispheres) also knocked off Magnum Opus for best instrumental rock tune of all time (sorry Kansas).

By 1981, I had all of the Rush albums (except the first self titled debut album). And there was word that a new Rush album was on the way. That album was to be Moving Pictures. To this day MP is easily on my top 10 best of all time list. If you are not familiar with this album, shame on you! Yes, I've heard Tom Sawyer enough times that I could go without hearing it again. The remainder of the album constitutes some of the best rock music that has ever been written.

In 1982, it was announced on the radio that Rush would be in concert at the Lakeland Civic Center (Florida). We bought the tickets and drove to Lakeland (April 11, 1982). That night is even more memorable to me than the Frampton concert. I was into photography by then and even though cameras were not permitted, we snuck the SLR into the concert. I've since learned that this concert was part of a small mini tour that has been named "Tour of the Nadars". Again, this was in the days of general admission. There we were, standing so close to my new heroes that you felt you could almost reach out and touch them. This is the first time I'd ever seen Neil actually playing the drums. On that night, he was elevated from "the best" to God status along with Alex and Geddy.

It's now been 29 years since I first discovered Rush. I've seen them in concert 4 times, which is not enough in my book. The whole concert going experience is something I don't care to partake in anymore. Assigned seating has killed it for me. Unless you are connected with someone on the inside, you're not going to get good seats. They are all gone before the tickets even go on sale to the general public. I've also found with shitty seats comes shitty sound. It seems to be the goal of the audio guys to make concerts as loud as possible, and to hell with anything that resembles sound quality.

The last time I saw Rush was in 2002, in Tampa, for the Vapor Trails tour. It was a memorable experience but the factors I mention above had come into play by then.

That being said, even though the guys will never read this, and they've been told this 1,000 times before, I would like to personally thank Alex Lifeson, Geddy Lee and Neil Peart for being who they are. Consummate professionals that are so committed to their passion that they've inspired generations of musicians around the world. Their music is photographically etched in my mind as are the lyrics that accompany it. In 35 years there have been 19 Studio albums, 8 live albums as well as many DVD's to add to the enjoyment of life. For this, I thank you!

Now, since I've taken up the guitar, I have a new goal this weekend. It's to learn "The Alex Chord". To have a particular guitar chord synonymous with your name is quite an accomplishment.

Click on the picture of Alex at the beginning to read an interview with him. He talks about the last tour, his gear and the future of Rush.

Walk softly and carry a big F-sharp suspended.

Wine Server Construction Update 4/19/2009

2009-04-19T15:16:00.005-04:00

Well, here we are again. I have been able to spend the better part of this weekend working on the Wine Server cabinet for Michele and Eric. I've made good progress since the last post, where the pictures just consisted of a pile of parts.

You can now see that this little cabinet is really beginning to take shape. There are still quite a few things missing in this picture though and they are the things I need to finish so the cabinet can be completed.

The solid cherry top is not yet installed, nor are the wine glass holders that allow the glasses to hang in the upper cabinet. They are milled, but need to be completely finished before they are installed. The holders just need a coat or two of polyurethane. The top needs to be cut to finished size, a decorative edge needs to be routed, and then it can be fastened to the top cabinet.

I don't have the backs installed yet either. I have them cut to size, but I still need to veneer, stain and finish them. There is also allot of little details left, like the alignment blocks between the cabinets, as well as a panel to help secure the bottom cabinet to the base.

So overall it's coming along nicely. Probably won't get it completely finished next weekend, but it should be done by the beginning of May. The finish is looking good so far, and will only get better with age. I'll post pictures again when it is complete and ready to be delivered!

Tracking The HRD Across The Country

2009-04-18T12:11:00.004-04:00

Want to follow the progress of my HRD from Michigan to Florida? Follow this link:

Track the Hot Rod Deluxe

While we're waiting for it to arrive, check out this video of the HRD.

Now this is what I call blogging excitement at it's finest!

What should I do?

2009-04-16T08:06:00.006-04:00

I went to take the little Hartke G15 back to the music store yesterday. I gathered the receipt in preparation, and looked at it to make sure I had the right one. Upon looking at the receipt, I discovered that in the purchasing storm of buying the guitar, picks, strap, stand and tuner, the guy at the music store did not charge me for the amp. An $89 error in my favor.

Now I'm wondering what I should do. The way I look at it, I have 3 choices:

1) Take the ethical high road and return the amp, even though I have no proof that I bought it.
2) Keep the amp to use for a backup, just in case.
3) Sell the amp, and try to further maximize the error made by the guy at the store.

What would you do?

(Update 4/17)

I just returned from taking the amplifier back to the music store. I explained what happened. The manager seemed a bit shocked, and thanked me for my honesty. I then went to browse around a bit, and overheard the manager telling another guy what I had done.

I now have a good karma glow around me :)

Tascam MP-GT1

2009-04-15T12:12:00.005-04:00

Well, it's been 4 days since I bought the guitar. What have I learned so far? Nothing much to tell you the truth.

I finally got to actually plug the guitar in yesterday and hear what it sounds like for the first time. My mentor (John) brought into work this cool little device called a "guitar trainer". It's made by Tascam and is called a MP-GT1.

Basically, it's a rather small handheld device. You plug your guitar into it, as well as a pair of headphones. You can then play until your heart's content without bothering anyone in the house.

It has a butt-load of different effects built in to it if you like that sort of thing. It is also a tuner and an .MP3 player. You can load it up with your favorite songs, and play the guitar along with the music. You can also "remove" the guitar from the music being played, so you can take the lead. When everything's happening too fast for your fingers to process, you can even slow the music down without altering the pitch of the song.

It is so cool, I bought one. But I don't have it yet. Nor has my E-Bay amp arrived yet either. So while I wait for these things to arrive, I'm doing other stuff. The little Hartke G15 amplifier is going back to the store tonight.

I have learned two chords though: the Em (E-Minor) and C major. The Em is not too bad. Only takes two fingers. The C major is harder, as my fingers don't want to contort into the proper position. So for now, I'll practice these two chords until I can switch easily between them. That should keep me busy for a month or two.

UPDATE: the Tascam has arrived. It's in my hand. If I check the USPS tracking number, it's not even in the system yet. Another demonstration of the efficiency of a U.S. Government agency in action.

Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plus (Update)

2009-04-12T20:45:00.008-04:00

Well, I've had the guitar for one day now, and have yet to plug it in. This isn't a good way to start. But wait, there's a reason.

When I bought the guitar yesterday, I also needed an amplifier to plug it in to. I bought the least expensive amplifier that they had available. It is a Hartke G15. While I'm sure this is a fine little amplifier, I got to thinking that it just doesn't make sense to spend a decent amount of $$ on a guitar, and then plug it into the cheapest thing you can find. I decided, before even taking it out of the box, that the little Hartke would go back to the store. Since today is Easter, the music store was closed. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to take it back.

So once again, the research began, this time I devoted most of the day looking at all the amplifier information my brain could handle. I looked at everything from Roland Micro-cubes to full Marshall stacks, and all things in between.

Going by looks, reputation and You-Tube reviews, my choices narrowed quickly to about 3 of the bigger names in amplifiers - Peavey, Vox and Fender. Of those amplifiers, Fender seems to have the nod in the opinion of many guitar players and amplifier owners. Also, I like the look of the Fender amps. They also seem to offer the best warranty in the business - 5 years.

Fender it is, but which one? Since this is for a bedroom system, I don't need anything that resembles large. That pretty much rules out multiple-driver amplifiers. It just isn't necessary for my application. That eliminated 1/2 of their product line.

Next bridge to cross is the debate which I am all too familiar with (coming from a stereo obsessed background): Tubes vs. Solid State. Yeah, it pretty much needs to be tubes. They are more expensive and require more maintenance, but tubes do have a "sound" of their own that just can't duplicated with solid state electronics. That eliminated another 1/2 of what was left.

This left just a few candidates. The Fender Blues Junior, The Hot Rod Deluxe, the '65 Princeton Reverb Reissue, and the '65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue. The '65 Deluxe had more bells and whistles than I need, so I scratched that from the list. Besides, it was the most expensive of the bunch, currently selling for about $1,200. The Blues Junior was a definite contender, but the more I researched, the more I was drawn to the Hot Rod Deluxe. Apparently, this is best selling Fender amplifier of all time.

The Hot Rod Deluxe it is! It's a Goldilocks amp for my application.

More research, only to find that they are now being made in Mexico instead of the USA, and quality has suffered according to some. Crap! Now what. The Hot Rod Deluxe isn't exactly cheap. I guess that Fender has also recently raised their prices. The Hot Rod Deluxe can be found on the net for $850. Everywhere! Do I dare look on E-Bay? Yeah, I dared.

I found exactly what I didn't really want to find, which is an apparent good deal on a used Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. You know, one that's in really good condition, and an older one that was made in the USA, not Mexico.

The listing had just been posted, with a respectable "Buy-Me-Now" price of $379. Believe me, buying used electronics on E-Bay is not my idea of a fun time, but this is a savings of close to $500 over what a new Mexican Fender would cost. That is of course providing that this amp is everything the seller says that it is. Low hours, played by Grandma, yada, yada, yada. But I checked the guy out the best I could. Member since 2000, a couple hundred feedbacks and a 100% rating. So I'm taking my chances.

If it all turns into fruition, then I'll have gotten an excellent deal on a nice, respected amplifier. A tube amp. Made in the USA, not Mexico. I have nothing against Mexican assembly mind you. Kelley drives a new Jetta that was assembled in Mexico and it's an awesome car. But when it comes to things like this "Made In The USA" seems to mean something. Just like when Marantz used to be made in the USA. I should be able to hold onto the amps for years, and should I ever decide to sell it, get all of my money back and maybe then some. Apparently the older Fender gear holds it's value well.

My fingers are crossed. Hopefully it will arrive (that's the first step). If it powers up and plays nicely, then I'll be pleased. Keep your fingers crossed for me, ok?

Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plus

2009-04-11T19:44:00.003-04:00

If there's one thing that I can say for myself, it's that I tend to be impulsive. Once I get an idea in my head, it usually festers in there until I act upon it, or forget about it. Most of the time it fades away, but that didn't happen this time.

About a week ago, I was talking to a co-worker and the subject of guitars came up. That's all it took to spark the idea in my head. I've always wanted to learn to play an instrument (besides drums). I thought "man, wouldn't it be cool to be able to play guitar"?

Look, I know I'll never be able to play much of anything, but it would be nice to at least learn the chords and maybe a riff or two.

So the hunt began. After doing my obligatory research, I decided to get a Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plus. It looks exactly like a Gibson Les Paul Standard Plus, but it costs 1/10th of the price. Yeah, even though I like quality stuff, I'm not quite prepared to shell out $5,500 for a guitar just yet.

So after reading the reviews on the internet and looking at allot of different guitars, I thought this one would be cool. Unfortunately, buying it was the easy part. Now I have allot of work ahead of me to try and figure this contraption out. If nothing else, Eric will have something he can play around with when he and Michele come to visit.

Wine Server Construction Update 4/5/2009

2009-04-05T17:20:00.004-04:00

Finally, I have something to report. It's not allot, but progress is beginning to be made with the wine server cabinet.

I've spent the last three weekends gathering materials (that usually takes longer than the actual construction). But I now have it all and most of the pieces are cut out, at least to rough size and shape.

I had to purchase some veneer to do the cabinet sides. This came from a good seller on E-Bay, and luckily I received the veneer before the weekend came. I didn't get as much accomplished as I had hoped, but progress is being made. It always takes longer to build one of these projects than you think it will. Guess your time, then double it. It always seems to work that way.

Anyway, there's just a little bit more joinery to do, and then I can finally start with assembly.

As luck has it, it's been hot as Hell here for early April, and it's been a sweating affair already. But good news: a cold front is on the way! Too bad it's in the middle of the week, where it does me absolutely no good. It will be hot again just in time for next weekend. I can hardly wait.

Wine Server Construction Has Begun

2009-03-29T14:09:00.004-04:00

I have begun construction on the Wine Server cabinet for Michele and Eric. Since I had to get this pre-approved (oye vay), Michele already knows what it looks like. So it's safe to post my progress as I go.

She originally wanted it finished dark, to match their furniture. No. It will be cherry, and she'll thank me for this someday when I'm long gone and she's thrown out all of her dark furniture.

I'm in the process of making the base now, and have begun the glue-up for the top.

The cabinet sides are actually made from plywood, but still need to have a cherry finish. I'm bidding on some cherry veneer right now on E-Bay, so hopefully that will be coming soon.

I'll keep posting as I go. This should be a fun piece, as it uses some construction I haven't used before.

Recipe for "Family Mocha"

2009-03-24T22:47:00.005-04:00

After talking with her Mom, and the lawyers, Amanda has released the recipe for what we call the "Family Mocha". It really is good. Two big spoons for a cup of hot water is called for, but I always use three.

FAMILY MOCHA
2 Cups - Instant Cocoa (Swiss Miss or Comparable)
2 Cups - Powder Creamer (Coffee Mate or Comparable)
1 Cup - Instant Coffee
1 1/4 Cups - Sugar
1/2 to 1 teaspoon - Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon - Nutmeg

Serving Size - 2 Tablespoons to 1 mug of hot water

Just mix it well and store it in a mason jar.

Enjoy!

Mac Mini's, iMacs and Spring Cleaning

2009-03-22T20:29:00.007-04:00

There's not a whole lot of excitement to report on this week. At least as far as making sawdust in the garage. But there have been plenty of other cool things going on.

My daughter Kelley came to visit last weekend en-route to go see my other daughter, Michele. We got to hang out a bit, and went and had lunch at Tijuana Flats. I knew that she was coming, so I figured I would spring a surprise on her.

She has been in need of a computer upgrade for awhile now. She has two computers, a Dell desktop that I bought for her when she graduated High School (now close to 5 years old) and a Toshiba laptop that she bought herself a couple of years ago. The Dell is now a dinosaur, and the Toshiba is having it's fair share of problems, such as minuscule RAM, hard drive, and a battery that won't hold a charge.

It's no secret that I drolled on and on about the MacBook Pro I bought last Novemember and how much I'm enjoying it. I decided quite a few months ago that I wanted to get Kelley a Mac Mini, but I've held off because of the Mac Mini update rumors. Well, the rumors came to fruition early this month, so I went ahead and bought her a new Mini. I got the base model which has 1GB Ram and a 120GB hard drive. However, I got the memory upgraded to 2GB, and had iWork '09 pre-installed. I added a wireless keyboard and mouse to go with it.

She was so excited. I couldn't wait for her to get it back to her apartment and report back. The Mini is so small, she was able to just stick it in her bag and carry it onto the plane with her.

Well, I failed to do proper research ahead of time. We had assumed that the TV in Kelley and Ruben's living room had DVI input, so they went out and got the DVI cable to jack the Mini into their 46" Samsung LCD flat screen. It turned out that it didn't. The Samsung has a VGA input, as well as HDMI. A DVI to HDMI cable was needed instead. Best Buy was asking $60+ for that cable, which is a joke. (Note, do not buy cables from Best Buy)! The Apple Store in Ft. Lauderdale said they had one for $19.95. They went to buy it. When they arrived, they were told that they sold the last one a didn't have any more. ARGH!

So this weekend, Kelley and Ruben came back to Orlando to visit with Ruben's folks. They went to the Apple store in Altamonte Springs, and finally have the proper cable in hand. They're going back to Ft. Lauderdale on Monday, so it looks like tomorrow will finally be the day that the new Mac Mini gets fired up for the first time.

Just as exciting is that Amanda has come to the Mac side as well. Aside from her regular job, she is starting a small business on the side making bead necklaces. Her PC is long in the tooth also, and even doing routine things on it were a chore (like booting up). We upgraded the memory from 256MB to 768MB. That helped quite a bit, but it still had no DVD burner, and the hard drive was slow as molasses. Clearly something needed to be done.

She now has a 24" iMac sitting on her desk and it is awesome to say the least. She has no previous Mac experience, but has already begun to be productive on it. I'm sure it will only be a small amount of time before she's showing me a thing or two.

The iMac is probably the sweet spot in the whole Apple lineup. The base model 24" iMac is now $300 cheaper than the previous generation, while boasting a faster processor, double the RAM (4 GB standard) and twice the hard drive (640 GB standard). And the display is awesome. She only had a 15" monitor with her PC, so a screen update was also in order. This made the iMac a no-brainer for her.

So now almost all of my people are stepping away from their PC's and getting their Mac on. It's a great thing to see and allot of fun at the same time. Michele is still in PC hell, but Eric has a new MacBook Pro and a Mac Pro.

Other things happening, I ran out of "family mocha" this week. Family Mocha comes from Amanda's side of the family, It's basically hot-chocolate mix, mixed in with instant coffee. I usually get a big Mason jar of it every Christmas. I've gone through it already, and am in need of some more.

When Kelley goes back tomorrow, she'll finally be taking the Apothecary cabinet home.

Work has been a bit stressful lately. I'm currently still teaching myself Solidworks, we're doing a job that requires geometric tolerancing on drawings, as well as knowledge of the IPC standards for PCB design and manufacture. I thought work was supposed to get easier as the years go by, but it seems like it just keeps getting harder.

Spring cleaning hit me today. I totally re-arranged the computer room and dusted everything down. I hate cleaning, but I love the result when it's all finished. I can actually move my chair around in the room now without it hitting the bed.

Cigarettes went up $8 carton. I've got to quit, both for health and financial reasons.

I'm getting caught up on Battlestar Galactica. Only 4 episodes to go.

And that's this week. I started thinking this would be short. I guess I was wrong again!

Watchmen

2009-03-15T13:53:00.007-04:00

Don't worry, if you haven't seen Watchmen yet, there are no spoilers here.

I went and saw Watchmen yesterday, after striking deal with Amanda.

The director of Watchmen, Zack Snyder, came onto her radar after watching "300" a couple of weeks ago. The deal was, I go with her to see Watchmen if she'd go with me to see Star Trek XI, which comes out on May 8, 2009.

I am not much of a reader in any form, sans a few magazines I get on a monthly basis. When the opening of Watchmen drew near, a friend at work brought in the graphic novel for me to read. Having announced this on Twitter, I was encouraged by many of my imaginary friends to read the novel before I saw the movie. And while my intentions to do so were good, I never got around to reading it. Now I'm glad I didn't.

I was a bit hesitant going in, as it clocks in at almost 3 hours in length. I have a hard time staying focused for any movie over 1-1/2 hours, unless I'm really into it.

Another reason I don't like going to the movies is the people, the cell phones and the tossers. This is why I haven't been to to the cinema since "Serenity" came out in September of 2005. There was none of that yesterday. There were about 30 people in the cinema, no kids, nobody talked, and no cell phones went off. Brilliant!

Overall, I really liked the movie. A large part of the movie is character setup and development, showing the back stories for everyone. Had I known all the back stories going in, it might have made the movie drag on. I never once looked at my watch, and before I knew it, it was over. It was graphic and violent, but not overly so. But, don't take your kids to see this. It does have an "R" rating for a reason.

Now that I know the story, I want to read the novel. If you're hesitant to go see Watchmen because you don't know the story, don't be. My only criticism of the movie is too much blue sausage.

The Apothecary Cabinet (Part 4 of I've Got Wood)

2009-03-08T16:06:00.007-04:00

Well, this is the final post about the project I have been working on. As you've probably been able to tell from the pictures in my previous posts, it was some kind of cabinet with drawers in it that I was building. And you'd be correct.

This is called an Apothecary cabinet. I'd never heard of one before, but the plans for this project came in a recent issue of Woodsmith magazine that I receive on a bi-monthly basis.

Functional, aesthetically pleasing and a challenge to my skills, were all a requirement and this project did not disappoint. I managed to make it in two weekends, which is not too bad. At least it's not one of the huge projects that you can never seem to finish.

The cabinet is about 13" square, and 9" deep. I placed a DVD next to it in this picture so you could get a sense of scale.

And now, a little history of apothecary, nicked directly from Wikipedia.

Apothecary (IPA: /əˈpɒ.θɪ.kɛ.ri/) is a historical name for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons and patients — a role now served by a pharmacist (or, especially in British English, a chemist or dispensing chemist).

In addition to pharmacy responsibilities, the apothecary offered general medical advice and a range of services that are now performed solely by other specialist practitioners, such as surgery and midwifery. Apothecaries often operated through a retail shop which, in addition to ingredients for medicines, sold tobacco and patent medicines.

So there you go. Quite simply, this is a type of cabinet where apothecary's would store their wares.

Well, now that we know the history behind the apothecary, there is yet another reason I wanted to build this cabinet. My Daughter's boyfriend, Ruben, is currently working is ass off to become a pharmacist. So, a piece like this I think would look fantastic in their apartment. Kelley and Ruben, it's all yours if you want it :)

A few final comments about the project. Even though it called for cherry for the drawer fronts, I thought it might look nice if I made the drawer fronts out of something lighter, to give a nice contrast between the drawer fronts and the beautiful cherry used to construct the cabinet. I had a piece of Tiger Maple that I had bought a year or so ago, and it has a very unique grain pattern to it. I decided to give it a try, and I like the way it came out.

On the finish, I did nothing elaborate here at all. I simply sanded the cherry baby smooth, and applied Minwax "natural" stain to it. I did not seal it or apply any protective coating such as polyeurethane over it. One of the unique properties of cherry is that it darkens with age. Even though it's fairly light now, in a few years it should deepen to the dark reddish-brown tint that cherry furniture is famous for.

This project has been fun. Now it's time to move on to something new. I have a few ideas, and I'll let you know when I decide what's next from the garage.