Gye Greene's Thoughts

Root beer store

2012-01-20T21:23:00.000+10:00

While being driven from Lynnwood up to Everett, my host commented on The Root Beer store as we drove past.

''In Australia, you don't have root beer,'' Games Boy said. ''Here, we have a whole store for it.''

--GG

Travelling songs

2012-01-19T20:14:00.002+10:00

I've noticed during this visit -- all my bus rides and train trips -- that I've been singing Simon & Garfunkel's ''The Boxer'' and ''America'' to myself. Especially when I'm on the bus, or the train. Or in an airport.

(If you're not familiar with those songs, presumably they're on YouTube. I'll let you do the search yourself.)

''The Boxer'' is about a young man moving to New York City. It's about being in a strange place, and specifically mentions the winter.

''America'' is about a young couple setting out cross-country on (IIRC) the train and Greyhound busses. It just came to me as I rode on -- well, trains and busses.

--GG

Found it but will leave it

2012-01-18T19:02:00.001+10:00

So, I kind of found my original, first guitar today in a pawn shop. The one that was stolen in a burglary after I moved to Australia. But, I'm not going to buy it.

My guitar was an Ibanez Roadstar II. They have the same basic body shape as the green guitar pictured above. But whenever I do come across them, they have three single-coil pickups, rather than dual humbuckers (which the green guitar above -- a totally different brand -- has). And they sometimes have (from memory) pickguards, which my guitar (as the green guitar above) also lacked.

To the left you can see the photo of me with my eyes closed and wearing a cowboy hat (??!! -- well, it was green...), with my original guitar. It was Midnight Blue. As you can see, I ''decorated'' it heavily -- partly because I was young and impetuous, but mostly because -- without a pickguard -- it was pretty darned plain.

Because of the decoration, I named it ''Gypsy''.

Anyhow: saw an actual Ibanez Roadstar II, dual-humbucker, **very** much the same to my guitar (except for many large chips taken out of the body). US$270 asking price: a very reasonable price.

But, I'm not gonna get it, because:

-I've spent more than I anticipated on this trip, already.

-For $200-$300, I could get a very decent ribbon microphone instead. That would be far more useful for my musical aspirations.

-I **already** have a dual-humbucker guitar.

-Even with unbolting the neck -- thereby essentially folding the guitar in half -- it would still be a pain to get it back to Australia.

-And, it's just not the same. It's actually a very plain-looking guitar. I'd probably want to gussy it up -- and that would make it a different guitar than Gypsy. (It would be a little like a guy marrying a redhead, just because his first girlfriend was a redhead. If that's the only reason, then it's a little pathetic: trying to recapture old times instead of moving on.)

That being said, I kinda wished I had plugged it in and tried it out. So, maybe my thoughts will change.

But, probably not.

--GG

(Addendum, 1/29/12: Didn't go back. I'll be visiting my folks again in about half a year. If it's still there, I'll at least take a look at it. If not: ah well.)

The other Destination Unkown

2012-01-17T21:09:00.000+10:00

Here's some info for you kids out there: in addition to my quasi-niece's band Destination Unknown, there was also a 1982 song by the same name by the new wave band Missing Persons.

The band The Replicants also did an enjoyable, more industrial (and IMO, better), version in 1995. (Although: First, ya gots to write the song. So, the subsequent cover version could not exist without the original.)

It's a good song.

--GG

The local band Destination Unknown

2012-01-16T19:26:00.007+10:00

During my stay with Guitar Cousin, we also saw a performance of my quasi-niece's band, Destination Unknown. They played at a local ''keep the kids off the streets by providing a wholesome alternative'' youth night. It included free pizza (score!!!). Awkwardly, it was scheduled at the same time as another organization's ''keep the kids off the streets...'' youth night -- which reduced the attendance.

Luckily, we live in the age of electronic communication: my niece texted a bunch of her friends, who ditched the other youth night in favor of this one.

To the left is a photo of Guitar Cousin and me sitting along the wall, looking exceedingly old and waiting for the band to start.

Below is a short video clip of the band. It's a cover of the Joan Jett and the Blackhearts song, ''I Hate Myself for Loving You'':

Apologies for the weak recording: the digital camera's built-in mic doesn't have a very broad frequency response (especially in the bass frequencies).

They're good performers, and good musicians. They're particularly good considering they're around 14yo!

They played six or eight songs. Two of them were originals: they should write more songs.

So, good stuff. First time I've gone out to see a band in more than ten years. Ouch! -- given that Guitar Cousin and I used to go see bands about twice a month -- a million years ago.

--GG

Firefly ubiquitious

2012-01-15T22:03:00.002+10:00

As I mentioned in a recent post, I was introduced to the t.v. series Firefly during my Seattle trip: my brother showed me the pilot double-episode, and Guitar Cousin and I spent three evenings blasting through the entire Firefly series on DVD.

I had heard of Firefly for years, esp. thru the online comic strip XKCD -- but never got around to checking it out.

A few e-mails confirmed my suspicions: of the five households I'd stayed in thus far (including Guitar Cousin's), all males except my dad owned Firefly on DVD. (The tally: brother, Old Roommate, No-Tower, Guitar Cousin). Guitar Cousin says this is simply a reflection of my friendship circle. :)

FWIW: my favorite characters are Kaylee (of course! who doesn't like Kaylee?), and Jayne ("Isn't that a girl's name?"). Not that I **like** Jayne, as an individual: but it's a good character. :)

--GG

Guitar Cousin

2012-01-14T19:45:00.006+10:00

Had an excellent time with Guitar Cousin.

Spent three evenings blasting through the entire Firefly series on DVD: had heard of Firefly for years, esp. thru the online comic strip XKCD; my brother showed me the pilot double-episode the week before; and Guitar Cousin showed me the rest. OK -- I'm sold! :)

Guitar Cousin dug out his electronic drums, and we jammed one evening -- him on guitar and me on drums, and then we swapped. Good stuff: pretty sure I hadn't played music with anyone since 2003.

Although I don't practice the drums as often as I'd like, I was pleased that I'm hovering around the lower reaches of ''adequate''. Certainly, far above the realm of ''suckage''.

Also, one of my ''upgrades to do'', once I'd saved up the money, was to upgrade my recording capabilities from two channels at once to four or six channels: at the moment I can do stereo micing, or a near-mic and a distant-mic (to enhance the fullness of the sound) -- but I'd have a hard time recording a band all at once, or recording myself playing the drums.

But, Guitar Cousin sold me one of his ''old technology'' six-input computer interfaces for fifty bucks. Beneficial to both of us: I upgraded for much less than a comparable unit would cost ''new'', and he got fifty bucks for something that was just sitting in his closet (although, he could've just eBayed it if he wanted).

And, while I was there, it snowed. Worried me a little, as I have to be at the airport in a week, and it would stink to be snowed in. But it was still a novelty for me -- being from the sub-tropical portion of Australia.

Good stuff. :)

--GG

I love the Trading Musician

2012-01-10T21:59:00.002+10:00

My favorite shop in Seattle (nay! the world) is the Trading Musician -- a used-instrument shop about a mile north of the University of Washington. They have two floors of used gear: electric guitars and electric basses, plus amps, on the first floor; acoustic guitars, plus ukeleles and assorted band and orchestra instruments in a large room off to the side; drums and percussion upstairs; and mics, synths and recording gear also upstairs.

And pleasant, helpful salesfolk. Including the lady behind the counter, who sings and plays bass in a Metal-style Pat Benatar covers band called ''Battletar''.

The Trading Musician boasts a marvelous range of eras and price ranges (''inexpensive'' through ''botique-y/vintage/collectable''). There ain't nuthin' like it in Brisbane.

The original plan was that I would have lunch with my aunt and uncle, then meet my friend ''No-Tower'' at the store. (I used to call him ''Four-Tower'', because he used to have four PC servers in his home office; he has since divested.) My mission was to help him upgrade from an acoustic guitar to an electric -- and yes, he pointed out that saying ''upgrade'' exposes my bias; and so it does.

However, my aunt and uncle were nice enough to drop me off directly. So, while waiting for No-Tower to arrive, I hacked around the percussion area upstairs.

I got to try out a bunch of things that I'd read about but never experienced, such as the differences between different size high-hat cymbals: 14" diameter is the standard,but some hard rock drummers use 15" cymbals. I like!!!

I also tried out a ride cymbal with no bell. Interesting, but not on my "To Buy" list.

Dug through a few of their less-expensive cymbals. Ended up getting a Salvador Dali looking cymbal, a ''Trashformer'', with a delightfully trashy sound and at a bargain price. (Note: not my photo.)

I also bought a pair of plastic-bristled jazz brushes. I already have a pair of metal-bristled jazz brushes -- but the kids were starting to damage the ends when they used them, so I hid them away -- and now I don't remember where I put them. Oops. I figured that buying something different was better than buying a replacement -- and then finding the original.

(Because the US:AU exchange rate is favorable, and because things are generally cheaper in the U.S., I was open to picking up some music gear during my visit.)

Then No-Tower arrived, so we went downstairs. He was very methodical: he browsed around, looking at all the electric guitars and checking out price tags. He eventually chose about five, and tried them out for feel. From memory (i.e. I could be wrong), he then plugged in three to try out, and I borrowed a guitar strap from the salesfolk so that he could also try them standing up. He settled on one, and then had me give it a quick play to confirm that it was a decent guitar.

It indeed was: a Fender Stratocaster -- a ''name brand'' guitar, far fancier than my guitars. See photo at left.

Interesting that No Tower appears to be a single-coil man: all the guitars he demoed were single-coils. In constrast, I'm a humbucker guy. At the moment, at least.

Somewhere during the demo-ing process, I tried out two different inexpensive reverb pedals, as I didn't own any reverb pedals. But I do now! I chose the one that was twelve bucks more expensive, but had an extra adjustment knob and an extra slider switch: I figured the extra flexibility was worth it.

I also slid a distortion pedal under No-Tower's foot. I'm pretty sure he ended up buying it.

So, good times. Good to visit my favorite store in the world. :)

--GG

Hyper-specialized

2012-01-09T22:40:00.000+10:00

I took the train from Oregon, back up to Seattle. Somewhere in there, in a small town, I passed a shop near the tracks that sold "New and Used Legos".

That seems terribly specialized. I'm surprised they can stay in business.

--GG

Helm of Safety

2012-01-08T23:02:00.006+10:00

One of my traits is that I'm willing to go against convention, if there's a good reason.

So, this is a blog entry that I've been meaning to write for about a year and a quarter -- and I'm just now getting around to it. But partly that's because it's reached the next level of progression.

About a year and a half ago, I got into two car accidents -- neither of which was my fault -- within a six-week period. The first one was low-speed, and not that scary.

The second one, however, could've turned out pretty bad: I was driving at highway speeds when a lady failed to yield as she came out from a side street, rammed the side of my car, and almost flipped me.

The next day I went back to the scene of the accident, took some measurements, and used my approximate speed to calculate some alternative scenarios: if she'd been 0.13 seconds faster off the mark, she would have rammed the driver's side car door, rather than just clipping my tail. If she'd been 2x 0.13 seconds faster, she'd have been in **front** of my car -- which also would've been serious. Since she **wasn't** 0.13 seconds (or 0.26 seconds) faster -- maybe thirteen isn't so unlucky...

The second accident got me thinking about the mechanics of if I ever **did** get T-boned while driving. Neither of the cars that we drive have side-impact airbags. What's more, my leg length and torso height puts the side of my head directly in line with the seatbelt bracket on the door post: if I ever got rammed, I'd probably damage my temporal lobe (the speech center of the brain). That's a bad thing.

So: Cost-benefit time. If I wear some sort of padding, it would minimize the risk of sustaining a head injury while driving. The disadvantage is that I'd look like a dork.

Luckily, I'm at the age where I dress for comfort, not fashion. I'm already married -- so I'm not worried about impressing the ladies. So I figure ''looking like a dork'' is an acceptable trade-off for reducing my odds of a head injury in an accident by 10%-20%. So I bought the green rugby helmet that you see below (also useful for Halloween costumes!).

An additional disadvantage is that if I ever get pulled over, the cop might think I'm either ''special needs'' and not suitable to be driving -- or else I'm some sort of reckless driver (because I'm wearing a crash helmet). However, by the nature of their job, cops are pretty good about appraising people -- and (I presume!) I'm distinguishable as an eccentric, not as a crazy. And I think that most reckless drivers that cops encounter do **not** wear safety gear; quite the opposite: they **lack** caution.

And that was about a year ago.

But then I figured, eh -- why not go all the way? My original Helm of Safety only has cushioning: I need a hard shell.

So, while I was in Oregon on my trip (yay! no sales tax!!!), I picked up a ski helmet at a used sporting goods place (see top photo).

As an added bonus, they were having a ''20% off all winter sports gear'' sale. So, bargain!!!

So: do I look like a dork while I drive (or while I am driven -- since I wear it as a passenger, too)? Probably.

Am I **way** less likely to have an ABI in the event of an accident? As they might say on Firefly: I reckon so.

--GG

Good times with Old Roommate

2012-01-07T22:46:00.007+10:00

Spent a few days with Old Roommate and his very nice wife the Breath Healer (I may think of a better pseudonym later; that'll do for now). :)

(Note that I'm not chronicling each person I stayed with. In part, it has to do with having a photo to post...)

I like browsing around pawn shops and antique shops, looking for bargains. Old Roommate does, too -- so, that worked out well.

Old Roommate was impressed with how I was willing to haggle with folks. Generally, I'd be friendly while I browsed -- when I was ready to make my purchase, I'd say something along the lines of ''What can you do for a pleasant guy visiting from Australia who's paying cash?'' Except for a teacup and saucer that I bought for The Lady, I got some sort of discount.

My best discount was probably the neon green ''black light'' guitar strings with a sticker price of $11; I got it for $8.

I also got a bit of a discount on the cowbell (pictured; BTW, thx to Old Roommate for all the camera-phone pics!). Stickered at $25 (used); got it for $23). Also a handplane -- but I forget what I paid.

Oh! Great thing about Oregon? No sales tax! And this is in addition to things being slightly cheaper than in Australia (maybe due to the protective tariffs? Dunno).

I also picked up a face shield (like what you'd use when turning something on a lathe), as my usual safety goggles would steam up my glasses.

And, I picked up a Helm of Safety (see next post).

This thing below, I **didn't** buy. But I'm curious to know what it is. Saw it at a ''misc. used'' store -- not fancy-pants enough to be an ''antiques'' store (maybe ''collectable''?). It almost looks like a trammel point -- but it's not quite right.

And, here's another view..

A mystery.

--GG

Quasi Christmas

2012-01-06T22:37:00.003+10:00

My first weekend in the U.S., my folks held a remedial Christmas for me: a family gift exchange, plus the food things.

Rcv'd lotsa great things (not that Christmas is about receiving gifts. Actually, part of it **is**.). Included many argyle socks from my parents (oddly, can't find them in Australia), and a instructional book on Krav Maga from my brother.

The socks pictured to the left aren't the gargoyle socks I received: it's just an illustrative image I grabbed from the internet.

Yeah, one of my standard puns is to call them ''gargoyle'' socks. My other one is to use ''gerbil'' for ''herbal'' -- e.g. ''gerbil tea''. It amuses me. Quietly.

--GG

Three Seattle thoughts

2012-01-05T22:34:00.002+10:00

Upon arriving at Sea-Tac airport, I noticed three things:

1) At customs: Wow! There **is** a distinctive ''Northwest'' accent! Can't specify it -- but it's distinct from all the Americans I hear on the t.v. shows.

2) Walking through the terminal, towards the outdoors: Dang! Caucasians in Seattle are really pale! Almost blue. They look kinda unwell. In Brisbane, everyone's either tanned, freckly, or sunburnt.

3) Curbside, waiting for my brother to pick me up: Woo! I can see my breath!!! (i.e. coldness!)

--GG

Early boarding

2012-01-03T22:28:00.003+10:00

Why do people like to stand in line for ten or fifteen minutes, just for the privilege of getting on the airplane early? It seems like that would be a punishment: that you want to put off, as long as possible, climbing in to the flying tin can.

It's not like getting on early gets you a better seat: it's assigned seating.

Addendum: I asked my dad about this. He noted that getting on early lets you stash your carry-on luggage in a better place.

Fair enough. I only have a knapsack and a small messenger bag, so it doesn't matter to me.

--GG

Road sign

2012-01-02T22:24:00.002+10:00

Saw this road construction sign while visiting the outdoors during my layover in Korea:

We sincerely apologize for making you inconvenient.

Also, in the small Korean department store, in the computer electronics section, was a USB adaptor called a "swing gender adaptor" (it swings both ways!). Nearly got it, as a joke, for Old Roommate, who fixes computers. But figured it wasn't **that** funny. ;)

--GG

Korean airport toilets

2012-01-01T22:22:00.005+10:00

(And ''Korean Airport Toilets'' would be a good album title or band name.)

My wife has pointed out that I take photos of toilets more than most people. And she's probably right.

The first two photos of toilets (below) I found interesting because the toilet seat converts from ''adult size'' to kid size. Clever! Never seen that before.

(Addendum: While visiting Builder Cousin, I noticed that the toilet in his main bathroom also has this type of toilet seat [he has three kids]. So maybe it's not as rare as I thought.)

I also thought this one was clever: the urinal on the right has hand rails, for the elderly and enfeebled folks that still prefer to use a urinal (rather than sitting).

Good toilet technology, there in Korea.

--GG

Through Korea

2011-12-31T22:12:00.005+10:00

On the road, visiting friends and family in the U.S. (At least, the ones in the Seattle area.) Haven't been back since three Christmasses ago -- when snow messed up our travel plans and prevented us from visiting a few people on our list.

This time I'm traveling solo (wife and kids are still in Brisbane), which means I can visit more people without boring the kids to pieces.

Sadly, I only have a limited time in the U.S. -- so I won't be able to see everyone that I'd like to.

The shorted flight was from Brisbane to Seoul (Korea) to Seattle (thx to Mom and Dad for paying for the ticket!). Had a 12 hour layover, so the airline was kind enough to give me a voucher for a free hotel room. I had planned to be ambitious and spend the time learning how to use looping software (freeware) that I had installed on my laptop but not yet had a chance to use.

Had the (free!) breakfast, first, while reading. Then went up to my room. Sat down in the comfy chair, just to try it out -- and woke up a few hours later. Decided that I must be tired, shrugged, and climbed in to the bed. So, no looping software.

Above is the Christmas tree they had in the hotel lobby. Note the scale of it, as indicated by the fella in the lower right of the photo.

--GG

Congrats on Guitar Cousin's album

2011-12-30T21:24:00.001+10:00

Guitar Cousin has released an album! He wrote and arranged the songs, did all the instrumentation and vocals, laid down the tracks and mixed it, and did all the graphics and layout. I think the only thing that he outsourced is the "mastering" process (and, the actual physical printing of the CD sleeve and the CD).

This is actually a belated announcement, as he released it around November 17th, 2011.

I appreciate that he included the lyrics in the CD sleeve: not everyone does that.

It's a long slog to create a CD. Particularly in the "recorded" arts (audio recording, film making -- and **especially** animation) -- the ratio between time invested and a final product is just wretched. For me, it takes about 8 hrs. for a three minute rock song -- so about a 160-to-1 ratio. Urgh.

Anyhow: tastes vary, but I think it's a good album. Depending on the song, it reminds me of bits of Rush, Evanescence, goth music. Also Metallica and Maiden influneces (not surprising, given his musical background).

So: band name is NilSonance, and it's available at his website -- http://www.nilsonance.com -- as well as Amazon and iTunes and CD Baby.

--GG

Perspectives

2011-12-28T20:04:00.000+10:00

I thought this cartoon was pretty good.

--GG

Impressive reverse rap

2011-12-27T00:42:00.001+10:00

Impressive!

Though, a minor cheat: easier to accomplish this when you're reversing the order of phrases, compared to reversing the order of each word.

But, still -- impressive.

--GG

Rap on how to solve a Rubiks cube

2011-12-26T00:32:00.000+10:00

Yow! This is impressive on several levels.

--GG

Two from chap hop

2011-12-25T23:47:00.002+10:00

So, I was doing a Wikipedia search on "steampunk -- musicians" (or something similar), and happened upon a musical genre called "chap hop".

Basically, rapping about things that are English -- tea and cricket and such.

The two best-known proponents, apparently:

Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer

Professor Elemental

Good stuff! :)

--GG

ADDED: For an American who lived near the border of Canada, and now lives in Australia -- the following is **golden**.

I'm gonna have to check out this ''Baba'' guy.

--GG

Making a song from random sounds

2011-12-17T00:53:00.000+10:00

Impressive! And, catchy.

--GG

Bad day into good day

2011-12-16T22:43:00.002+10:00

Yesterday started with me thinking it was going to be a not-good day. Had a bunch of things I needed to get done -- but instead, the day started with a 45 minute project meeting. Necessary for the project that's due at the end of next week -- but not directly productive relative to my tasks. Had some graphs and re-analyses that I needed to get done by 2pm.

Then, spent the next hour and a half doing some diagnostic things. Discovered that I had even **more** graphs to re-do. Thought I might have to (literally) stay until 10pm to get everything done in time for tomorrow --maybe just sleep over at the office.

Trying not to freak out, I discussed things with the project supervisor. She decided that given the deadline, we could eliminate a bunch of the graphs. For another series of graphs, rather than continuing re-doing them, I could just roll back to an earlier version (which meant that part of yesterday had been a waste of time -- but it still gave me a net savings).

So! Rather than having to work waaaaay late, I finished my "due around 2pm" task at 2:09pm. Close enough.

Did some other things towards the project, and managed to skip out fifteen minutes earlier than usual (i.e. leaving "on time" rather than staying late by a half hour). So, a good day. :)

--GG

Alien haircut

2011-12-15T22:50:00.002+10:00

In the comments from my "haircut" blog entry a few days ago, Giovanni asked about my shaving my eyebrows.

I think I'd look like an alien with no hair **and** no eyebrows.

Below is a quick mock-up of what I'd look like.

Alien?

--GG

Restoration of mojo

2011-12-14T21:10:00.004+10:00

A few years ago I bought a green Stratocaster-shaped electric guitar with dual humbuckers. I bought it, used, at a pawn shop. Usually I try out a musical instrument before buying it -- but this one was (if I recall) AU$115 (that's a good price), and was structurally sound -- so I figured that even if the electronics needed repair, the inexpensive price was worth the labor.

Well, I got it home, and I couldn't get my guitar cable into the hole. Popped off the access plate in the back, and discovered that someone had jammed black rubber into the hole. Or at least some sort of black hard substance -- maybe construction adhesive? Regardless, I'd have to replace the input jack before I could use it.

Again, this was a few years back.

On July 23rd of this year, I bought a replacement input jack for my green electric guitar.

And then it took until December 6th or so for me to actually make the repair.

Once I made the repair, I discovered that the pickup selector was wonky. Or maybe it was one of the pickups. Either way, the three positions did this: bridge pickup only; bridge pickup only (instead of both pickups); neck pickup, but about 10% of the volume of the bridge pickup.

I had another look at the electronics, but it's hard to get around in there (everything's crammed in). And the pickup selector switch is installed in such a way that it's gonna be **really** hard to remove.

So, I've decided to just leave it. I did a comparison with my fake Telecaster, and despite the fake Tele having single-coils, the green guitar's bridge humbuckers sound fuller, yet brighter than the Tele. Although it could because of the fresh strings on the green guitar.

Regardless, after fixing the input jack I rocked out for the next three evenings in a row with the green guitar. After Gypsy, my very first electric guitar, was lost in a burglary in 2004, I've not felt "the mojo" with another guitar: other guitars have been **functional** -- but didn't have the "pizang".

This one does. :)

--GG

Geek fun

2011-12-12T21:26:00.000+10:00

I've had this cable tester for about a year, but a few days ago (the 10th) was the first time I've actually used it.

**Very** handy! Tested a few microphone cables, plus a guitar cable that has been giving me some trouble. The photo shows a red guitar cable being tested.

Runs off a 9V battery. Very easy to use: just plug in a cable to the left side, and the right side of the box. Then turn the knob to test the various connections. If it works correctly, the correct LEDs light up.

Flexible, too: the two ends of the cables don't have to be in the same format. This means that you can test ''adaptor'' cables if you like. And it takes many different formats: the black lines indicate all of the input jacks available, each in a different format.

--GG

My hair again

2011-12-11T21:12:00.007+10:00

So, last Sunday night I was doing the ol' ''home haircut'' routine again.

Pretty straightforward:

Pull up a stool in the bathroom

Put the spacers on the electric clippers

Have my 7 year-old daughter shave everything to a uniform length

Have someone else shave the back of my neck (with the spacers removed)

And, there ya go.

Above is what I ''usually'' look like, as of late.

And below is what my new haircut **would** have looked like -- if everything had gone according to plan.

But, things don't always go according to plan...

As you can see, even with several attempts, the ''straight, horizontal line'' is not being achieved. And now we're getting into ''bowl cut'' territory.

So: it all had to come off! Which is fine -- for a while now, every time I took the clippers to my head I'd wondered what it'd be like to go full gonzo and shave it all off. And now I'd get to find out.

Of course, if I was going totally bald, I'd have to loose the beard and moustache.

And, I took a pit stop along the way.

So, this is what I looked like last Sunday.

A bit like a rock star, actually. I don't think I have the right facial features to be a ''tough guy''. Maybe if I scowled a bit more.

It's been a week, now, and I like it! It's summertime now, and I feel even the slightest breeze on my scalp; nice.

Also, my hair has started to grow out, so instead of being bristly, it's softened -- like patting a labrador.

And every time I shave my face, there's more of a distinction between my clean-shaven face and my vaguely-existing scalp-hair. So it looks more like a ''haircut'', rather than just being bald.

Interesting stuff.

--GG

Strength displacement

2011-12-10T20:55:00.004+10:00

A few days before the 26th of November, my wife's clothes bar in our walk-in closet fell down.

It had collapsed once before, maybe half a year or a year ago, when some of the screw heads pulled through the holes in the inexpensive brackets that hold up the clothes bar.

What I did at that point was place a washer between the screw heads and the bracket, to prevent them from pulling through in the future. I did this for the bracket that failed, as well as the other three (preventatively).

This time around, it seems that the structural failure was not due to the screws. Rather, the entire chunk of wood had pulled loose from the underside of the closet shelf!

In this picture, you can see the piece of wood that pulled loose. Note that the bracket is still firmly attached!

It turns out that the strips of wood were held on by a single line of glue, plus two small nails driven in at a slight angle. Wow! No wonder they failed!

This time, I repaired and reinforced it by scraping off the old glue, re-gluing it with a full smear of glue (rather than a single narrow line), and using two bolts (with washers!) though the shelf.

We'll see what fails next...

--GG

Woodworking in the kitchen

2011-12-09T15:05:00.010+10:00

About a week ago The Lady was off at a conference for a few days. Normally, I can sneak off to my workshop after the kids are asleep, in order to log some time on woodworking projects. However, as the only adult in the house, I couldn't really do this.

So, in order to make some progress on a woodworking project, I moved my operations indoors. The kitchen, I reasoned, has hard floors that are sweep-able, and lots of counter space.

But I was careful to lay some towels over the counter, so I didn't scratch things.

The photo above shows my work in progress. Look! it's an oven!!! Yep, I'm in the kitchen. A pile of weatherbeaten wood on the floor in front of the oven, as well as in the toekick area to the left. (I'm leaving the wood grey and weatherbeaten: I'm going for a ''rustic'' look.)

The core of my operations were my little sawbench. A sawbench is basically just a sawhorse that's optimized in size and shape for more ergonomic sawing of boards using a handsaw: it's short enough that you can put your knee on it, thus securing the wood to be sawn.

My sawbench, however, has become a mini-workbench.

(Side note: Most sawbenches I've seen have splayed legs, which stick out beyond the work surface of the sawbench. See the fairly typical ''Google image search'' hit, below -- although there **are** a few with vertical legs. I designed my sawbench to have vertical legs, so that when I'm ripping lumber I don't accidentally cut into the legs.)

A good workbench (for hand tool woodworking, at least) is a clamping platform with enough mass to stay put. (I should possibly be citing Chris Schwarz' Workbench book here...) However, my sawbench is pretty darned light: I can pick it up with one hand.

I compensate for its lack of mass in two ways. First, I've installed a hook on the tail end, where I hang sandbags (rinsed-out juice jugs, filled with sand). This keeps the end from kicking up when I handplane.

The other thing I do is stick my right foot against the nearest leg of the sawbench. This keeps the sawbench from sliding forward when the wood resists the handplane. Standing this way is a little awkward, but not terrible. And, it works.

If standing like that became too awkward, I'd just lay a piece of wood on the floor, against the base of the kitchen cabinets, and brace the front legs of the sawhorse against the wood.

As far as its suitability for clamping: well, my sawbench is basically an elongated cube, and it's an open frame. So I can clamp things horizontally, vertically -- whatever.

For handplaning, and sharpening with a whetstone, I clamp a scrap of wood to the non-weighted end. This serves as a planing stop: you can see it sticking up vertically just a little bit past the work surface.

Then, to handplane a piece of wood, I just butt it up against the planing stop. In the below photo I've placed my sharpening stone in a similar position.

And, the photo below shows how I position my workpiece when I need to plane the edge. I've clamped a caul (is that the term? a cleat? a supporting length of board) across the two near legs of the sawbench. This supports the weight of the wood that I'm handplaning. Other clamps hold the wood in place horizontally.

This piece of wood, eventually, will become part of a rustic wooden box.

And: note that the right-hand bar clamp is actually clamped **between** the slats on the top of the sawhorse? In other words, not having a continuous top ''isn't a bug -- it's a feature!''

In instances where I need a solid top, I just throw a piece of plywood across the top.

Dimensions? Well, you can get a sense of scale relative to the clamps and the sharpening stone. But basically, mid-thigh height. The length and depth were determined by the board that I used for the top: the length is approximately one-third of the length of the original board (but allowing for two of the three slats to protrude slightly, as support for workpieces that hang over the edge); the width is three slats wide, plus the spaces between.

Making it thigh-height does deviate from most other sawbenches: most people make theirs just under the knee, to facilitate kneeling on the wood they're cutting. Again, I intentionally made mine higher than that, so that I could better use it as an emergency workbench (or a workbench for my kids). And mid-thigh still works for kneeling on the boards I'm cutting -- although, sometimes I supplement it with a clamp.

Anyhow: I used this arrangement for three nights, sweeping up the sawdust and wood shavings each night, but otherwise leaving everything set up.

And then, the night before my wife came home, I put everything away.

--GG

Saw handle

2011-12-08T22:41:00.000+10:00

This occurred back on November 8th, but I'm only now writing about it.

My brother-in-law (next door) was cutting down his old banana tree. (For a boy from Seattle, this still seems extremely exotic.) The plastic handle on his pruning saw was pretty cracked, so he mentioned to me that he was thinking about throwing the saw away and buying a new one.

"Noooooo!!!!", I cried. (Well, mentally.) I hate waste, and the blade was still perfectly good.

Instead, I offered to just make him a new saw handle.

I have a few large branches from a lagistromia(sp?) tree that used to be in his grandmother's front yard. It's an oddly slow-growing tree: this gives it a very tight grain pattern.

I cut a curved section from one of the branches, of the same length and general shape as the original plastic handle. The original handle had a hole in the end, presumably for hanging (either on a nail, or putting a cord through it). To approximate this, I left a branch stub on the end. It also would prevent his hand from sliding off the end if his hand got sweaty, much like the bulge at the end of the original handle.

I re-used the same bolts, nuts, and washers from the original handle.

I tried to finish this mini-project pretty quickly, as I have several half-finished projects and didn't need another. So, I took the "quick and functional" approach, rather than trying to make it look pretty. The end result is therefore at the "folk craft" end of the scale, rather than "fine craftsmanship".

Except for wood rasping away a ridge from the side of the branch (to make it more comfortable to grab), it was just sawcuts and drilling some holes. I don't think I even bothered putting boiled linseed oil on the handle.

I used all hand-tools, except for an electric drill for the holes.

Because my workshop doesn't have electric lighting, I was racing darkness to get this done. But I managed to finish just before it got too dark to work. The whole task took about two hours.

--GG

Tool storage ergonomics

2011-12-07T20:25:00.000+10:00

This is a good article (short and punchy!) on efficient tool storage, relative to your work habits. The author focuses on woodworking -- but I think it would apply to any hobby, craft, or occupation where you have tools that you store, yet need to access them.

--GG

Mystery tool

2011-12-06T23:33:00.003+10:00

Picked this up cheap, but not sure what it is.

Clearly, it's some form of screwdriver -- but it has a pair of sleeves or collars and the shaft. The collars are screw-threaded, such that as you turn each one it progresses up, or down, the shaft. You turn one, then turn the other to follow it until they're snugged up together; this locks them in place.

Maybe the collar keeps the screw head from falling off the side of the screwdriver blade? I have an e-mail out to the OldTools list, so hopefully someone will have an answer.

--GG

Keep some tools at work

2011-12-05T15:16:00.002+10:00

In 1998 at J.C. Penny's there was a sale where if you bought some certain amount of merchandise, for an extra twenty bucks you could get a tool kit. I took them up on the offer, and since then at all of my different "office jobs", I've always had a tool kit under my desk.

It's one of those "briefcase"-style tool kits, with all the basics: hammer, tape measure, pliers, wrenches, screwdrivers...

In each of my jobs, people have been amused that I have a tool kit at work. And then, a few weeks, or a few months, later, they ask to borrow it: loose screw, desk that needs disassembling, whatever.

At my current job it's been under my desk for about half a year, without use. But then in the last two weeks it's been used five times. So, once again, it's proved its usefulness. :)

--GG

Language development

2011-12-03T23:19:00.002+10:00

Both of my young sons (less than 4 y.o.) have been saying things of late that show a remarkable command of language. The sentences aren't complicated, but they provide some fine distinctions.

For example: This morning, The Lady and The Girl were heading off to do the usual Saturday errands. Sometimes the boys and I go with; other times we stay home.

B1 expressed interest in going with them. He said, "I want to look at hammers."

I told him, "I just **bought** you and B2 a hammer last week." (An inexpensive -- five bucks -- but solid hammer at the new big-box hardware store. Their first hammers!)

B1 replied, "No, I want to LOOK at hammers. I don't want to BUY a hammer."

Good nuance. :)

--GG

Movie reivew of Cradle 2 the Grave

2011-11-30T23:16:00.002+10:00

Rented "Cradle 2 the Grave" on DVD. It was fine.

The action was o.k.; the martial arts choreograph was o.k.; the plot was o.k.; the acting was o.k.

Jet Li's been in better.

A fair amount of cussing, and some sexual situations. Martial arts violence.

SUMMARY: Rent it if you're into action movies and you can't find anything else. It's an adequate popcorn flick.

--GG

Mary Poppins is a very good movie

2011-11-29T23:12:00.003+10:00

The kids seemed to enjoy a musical on t.v., so I rented Mary Poppins a few nights ago.

I hadn't seen it for a long time - I'd forgotten what a well-made, entertaining, nuanced movie it was.

It was a week-long rental, so the kids ended up watching it several times. On the second or third viewing, The Girl declared it to be better than Nanny McPhee. When I saw the first Nanny McPhee movie, I thought that all along.

--GG

A good weekend

2011-11-27T23:47:00.002+10:00

A good weekend. Pulled nails out of wood, nailed pieces of wood together, and mowed about a quarter of the yard.

Specifically, I made subtantial progress on the luggage shelves for the shed (in the U.S. you'd call it "the garage" -- except that it'll never house a car), to get the piles of boxes up off the floor and stored vertically, instead. I'm about 1/4 of the way through the upper shelf. The project is taking a fair while, partly because there's a surprising amount of "handling costs" (drilling pilot holes, cutting the slats to length, scrounging up additional slats). It's also not often that I can shut myself away in the shed to work on it, as it's a task that's incompatible with supervising the kids.

"Pulling nails out of wood" refers to my disassembling a pallet, so that I can use the slats for the luggage shelves. I've also salvaged three decent-length 4" x 4" beams from the pallet: they'll probably become workbench legs for some future workbench (probably for the kids).

Because it's summer, the grass is growing pretty quickly. I didn't have time to mow the whole yard, so I just blazed some trails. I also mowed the "soccer field" -- the name we use for the drainfield from our water treatment system.

Plus the usual errands, family time, and such.

So: a good weekend. :)

--GG

Explanation of object-oriented programming

2011-11-19T22:11:00.001+10:00

A year or so ago I asked several knowledgeable friends what the heck Object-Oriented Programming was. Each person tried to explain it, but their explanations ended up using additional technical terminology that I didn't know.

This, however, makes total sense to me. Hopefully it will also make sense to you.

--GG

Nice co-workers

2011-11-18T22:00:00.002+10:00

For my birthday, my co-workers chipped in and got me a gift certificate for a chain music store. Nice co-workers! :)

After some deliberation, I ended up getting the Smashing Pumpkins CD "Mellon Collie and the
Infinite Sadness", which contains the sadly beautiful song "Tonight, Tonight" (no relation to the Genesis song).

I've always enjoyed The Smashing Pumpkins -- but although I am Of That Era, I didn't actually have any Smashing Pumpkins songs -- until now.

:)

--GG

Two infinite effects pedals

2011-11-06T22:10:00.002+10:00

Modern technology is doing some spiffy things.

This guitar effects pedal -- http://line6.com/m5/ -- has a zillion famous pedals inside (well, emulated). It's supposed to be remarkable convincing.

This one -- http://www.zoom.co.jp/products/g3/ -- is a similar concept, but it's three pedals. I like the interface.

One of these days, maybe I'll buy one of them. But not any time soon. :)

--GG

Music your parents hate

2011-11-05T22:06:00.002+10:00

Apparently, it's the tradition that kids choose music that their parents will hate.

I'm hoping my children -- when they're teens -- go OLD old-school and get into classical music. Or maybe some jazz?

--GG

Funny money

2011-11-03T22:03:00.003+10:00

When I used my ATM card at the store, instead of giving me two fifties, they gave me a hundred dollar bill.

It's probably been two years since I've had -- or even looked at -- an Australian hundred. Usually you just get fifties.

A nice color. Although it's a weird shade of green -- for money.

--GG

Nice synths

2011-11-02T22:23:00.001+10:00

A few photos of the band Chromeo's studio -- with all their lovely synths!!!

--GG

Err on the side of attending

2011-11-01T22:17:00.002+10:00

Both my grandfathers died in the last year or so. Because I live overseas, and was busy at the time -- and had already "said my goodbyes" during my last visit -- I didn't attend either of their funerals. Even though my folks said they'd pay my airfare. In hindsight, I probably should have.

When I was about twenty, my sister was in a high school play. She said it wasn't very well-written, and I didn't have to come. I lived about a half hour away, so I didn't. But I should have.

In contrast, I've done an open mic night -- which went mediocre. But at least I did it.

And I tried karaoke. It went **really** poorly -- the version of the song that they had was in a totally different key from the version I'd practiced. It was fairly embarrassing. But -- eh -- at least I did it.

So, what I've learned thus far is that if you're in doubt over whether you should attend some concert, go to some party, or catch some event -- if you're truly in doubt, then you should err on the side of doing it. If you were wrong, and it's boring, you're simply out two or three hours of your life. But if you don't go, and wish you had -- well, there's no repairing **that**.

Note: This heuristic probably doesn't apply to doing dangerous stuff.

--GG

Halloween costume

2011-10-30T22:08:00.004+10:00

So, I was prepping for a friend's costume party today. I'd planned out the costume in my head during the week: some sort of generic green super-hero.

But then, this morning as I was assembling the parts, I had an inspiration: instead of a green super-hero, I'd be a 1930s pulp science-fiction person.

To achieve this, I added goggles, omitted the green gloves I was going to wear, and added two art deco-ish rings.

And then, I cast about for something steampunk-ish to add. Saw the kids' bubble gun -- so that worked for a 1950s ray gun. But it needed a futuristic-looking muzzle.

Went out to the library/home office and looked about. My eyes found the bucket of old-timey radio parts on the edge of my desk (which everyone has in their home office). Tried a few of them, and one of them actually fit snugly into the nozzle of the bubble gun. Score!

Here's a snapshot of the resulting "space gun".

Essentially, I didn't want to spend too much time -- or any money -- on a costume.

Seems to have worked out OK. :)

--GG

Witch broom

2011-10-29T21:59:00.005+10:00

The Girl got this idea that for her Halloween witch's costume, she wanted an authentic-looking broom. Not surprisingly, within about ten minutes she lost interest, and it somehow became **my** project.

We cut a length of bamboo to be the broom handle, and we (or "I") cut a bunch of sticks to be the bristles.

Then I set up a workstation by the back porch, with a bag of sand to weight down the end of the broom handle, but allow me to turn it. (Oh -- after I drilled two holes in the bristle end.) Some string, and scissors.

Here's the broom-making in progress. I made a pair of "needles" out of a straightened paper clip, folded in half, which I used to thread the doubled-over string through the branches.

And, here's the finished project. Turned out pretty well.

She'll probably use it for five minutes at the costume party, then abandon it. But, that's o.k.

--GG

Longjohnns

2011-10-27T21:37:00.003+10:00

So, I have a pair of longjohns which I sometimes use as pajama pants. Had 'em for a few years. Still good -- no holes -- except that the elastic in the waistband had deteriorated and no longer held the pants up.

I'd rather repair, rather than toss, things. So, I installed a drawstring.

Made marks at regular intervals inside the waistband, with a permanent marker. Then I used an awl (pictured) to poke holes. With each hold, I pulled a drawstring through the hole, using a paper clip which I'd straightened, then folded in half, as a needle.

Have worn the "repaired" longjohns several times now. The repair seems to work fine.

--GG

Good

2011-10-25T22:14:00.002+10:00

Boy #1 is remarkably good at finding money on the ground when we run errands.

On Sat, Oct. 9, 2011, he found found 50c at the news agents, on the floor. An hour or two later he found 5c under the seat at McDonald's. The Girl started to cry, because she never finds money -- so Boy, unprompted, took the 5c from his pocket and gave it to her.

--GG

Two music quotes

2011-10-24T21:38:00.001+10:00

Although I'm not a heavy metal guy, I have enough of a sense of the genre to find the two quotes below amusing.

Both are from record reviews on p. 21 of Rave, the local free music rag, Oct. 11, 2011.

Review by columnist Jody Macgregor of a "rap-rock" album:

"There's a decent hardcore band and a decent rapper here, but the combination isn't working out for them."

Tom Hersey's review of the "Public Enemy No. 1" single from Megadeth:

"Has anybody else started to notice how Megadeth no longer write political songs? Like, that was their thing -- they had politics, Slayer had religion to hate, Metallica had money [i.e. were wealthy] and Anthrax had... err... Chuck D collaborations and funny beards."

--GG

Decent weekend

2011-10-23T22:00:00.002+10:00

Well, a pretty good weekend.

**Finally** managed to mow the lawn (about 2/3 of an acre, so it takes a while).

Shifted a pile of wood that had grass grown up around it, and thus was starting to rot here and there. Luckily about 90% of the wood is still good. Moved it to a more sheltered location. Really need to build some sort of mini-carport for my lumber -- but, have other things that are a higher priority.

Spent time w/ the family.

Spent an evening tidying (excavating?) my daughter's room. Had tried cleaning her room in conjunction with her, but her attention span isn't enough to make it productive -- ended up just being frustrating for me. When she's older, she can do it herself.

Kept meaning to play the bass, and it didn't happen -- other things took priority. Hopefully later this week.

--GG

Song backlog

2011-10-22T21:56:00.001+10:00

For a week or so, I was doing pretty well with recording: spending an hour or two an evening, a few times a week. But I seem to have stalled out: busy with other stuff in the evening. So, the song for which I've been laying down tracks is still only about one-third completed.

And yet, while helping with the weekly grocery shopping this weekend, I accidentally wrote another song. Had a bassline and a drum beat going through my head, as I pushed the shopping cart up and down the aisles. Figured I should add some lyrics. At the end of the second line of the first verse, I took a left turn and followed the concept to its logical conclusion.

The song is about about a guy who decides to break up with his girlfriend and date a mime instead. I'm fairly confident that this doesn't mean that my subconscious thinks The Lady talks too much.

It's good that I wrote another song -- but, frustrating in that it's yet **another** song that I have in the queue, that I can't managed to get to. A week ago I had three songs in the "hot" queue. Now I have four.

But, better than **not** having songs in the queue.

--GG

My daughter

2011-10-21T21:58:00.002+10:00

Was at my daughter's annual school fair today. As we wandered the grounds, we walked past a mini-dumpster, which was (obviously!) for people's misc. garbage.

As we walked past, my 7 y.o. daughter stood on tiptoes, to see if there was anything good in there.

**That's** my daughter!!! :)

--GG

No sleep is less music

2011-10-14T21:12:00.003+10:00

I guess I'm old enough that I'm starting to repeat myself. Was gonna do a blog entry on how productive I'd be if I didn't need to sleep. But a quick Google search of "gye greene sleep superman" returned my earlier blog entry on essentially the same topic.

But, to elaborate: I haven't been able to get much recording done, as late. For a while I was squeezing in an hour or two an evening -- mostly after everyone else had gone to bed. But for the last few days The Lady has been trying to finish up a work project, so I've been getting the kids to sleep -- and accidentally falling asleep myself in the process.

But, if I didn't need sleep: man! I could record about a song a night. Talk about productivity!!!

--GG

Zombie ants

2011-10-12T21:05:00.002+10:00

Wow! (Non-sarcastically.) There is apparently a type of rainforest fungus that takes over a species of ant, "drives" it a location optimal for the fungus to survive, and then kills the ant.

Spooky.

(Note: learned of it in this blog entry, which does contain the F-word [if you're at work or whatever].)

--GG

Funnier if you are into computers

2011-10-11T22:40:00.000+10:00

A very short, somewhat amusing blog entry on a Google "suggested alternative" to a web search.

--GG

Gun kata

2011-10-10T22:14:00.001+10:00

A fictional gun-based martial arts style -- from some movie called "Equilibrium", which I have not seen.

Unfortunately, embedding has been disabled for this YouTube video. But, here's the link.

--GG

The Mighty Lemon Drops

2011-10-09T22:37:00.002+10:00

The Mighty Lemon Drops are (were?) a "college radio" band, I think from the '80s. I know they got a lot of airplay on our college radio station -- and I have two or three of their albums.

I think this song is their most famous: "Hypnotized".

--GG

Wrongfully accused

2011-10-08T19:46:00.002+10:00

In the '90s, there was a pretty good band called "School of Fish". Their best-known song is "Three Strange Days." I have both their (major label) albums. Then the band broke up, the singer went solo, and his album flopped.

It's always bothered me when singers ditch their bands when they **finally** get famous -- so when I discovered that his solo album flopped, I thought "Good riddance." And I'd mention it as an interesting factoid whenever I introduced someone to their albums.

Turns out that -- at least according to the Wikipedia article -- the **band** broke up, rather than the singer leaving. And then a few years later he got cancer and died at the age of 32.

So, umm -- sorry for badmouthing you, dude.

(Less latency, it seems, if you click through directly to YouTube.)

--GG

Pecualiar but real stickers

2011-10-07T00:17:00.001+10:00

Apparently, you can buy the actual stickers (medical surplus, etc.) that say inappropriate things like "May cause loose stools" or "Do not exercise" or "Save all urine."

Here.

Potentially useful. Like, if your company had a really bad financial year, you can put "May cause nausea" on the annual report.

--GG

Illusion of pricing

2011-10-06T21:00:00.002+10:00

I'm in Australia. Almost bought a guitar effects pedal (an octave pedal) thru Amazon.com. Pedal was about thirty bucks -- but turns out that international shipping and handling was **also** about thirty bucks. Pah! Not gonna pay as much for shipping as for the pedal.

Funny thing, though: If the pedal had been fifty bucks, I probably would've still thought that was a fair price for the pedal. And if the shipping had been ten bucks, I would've thought that reasonable.

So, still sixty bucks, total. And yet one transaction gets rejected, while another one would be approved.

It's all how you slice it.

--GG

North versus South Korea

2011-10-05T23:58:00.001+10:00

My brother sent this to me. I thought it was pretty good.

--GG

Reasonably productive weekend

2011-10-03T06:56:00.004+10:00

Had a pretty good weekend -- and by "good", I apparently mean "productive".

Made substantial progress on the luggage rack for the garage: it's a place to put misc. boxes, suitcases, and such which are currently haphazardly piled on the floor in the middle of the garage. It's more efficient to make use of vertical space: right now the pile is only about waist height; I want to move it to ankle-through-forehead height, and against the wall.

I have yet to put two more horizontal braces, plus a diagonal, on the main framework. And I need to cut and install all the slats for the platform: right now there's nothing to the shelves, just the framework. I'll post a photo when it's completed.

AND -- I mangage to get some recording done!!! Sunday night, spent about two hours with a song I haven't recorded on since May(!!!). Played back the existing tracks (most of them "scratch" tracks, but three were intended to be keepers) -- and realized that I'd recorded it at the wrong tempo! Sang a track just vocals, no instruments, just to see the inherent speed. Ayep -- noticeably off.

So, had to dump all of the existing tracks, and start over. Ah well: good experience. And the existing tracks didn't line up very well, anyhow. It had been so long since I'd recorded that I'd forgotten my basic approach, so I hadn't laid down a reference vocal track (i.e., to keep track of where I am in the song -- verse, chorus, etc.).

So: I now have a click track (a wooden metronome, which may remain in the final mix as an unusual percussion track), and a scratch vocal track. Onwards and upwards!

BTW -- the metronome had an unpleasant buzzing sound with every click. Turned out that the sides of the case were buzzing: when I pinched the sides with my fingers, the tone improved. So, held the sides in with a woodworking clamp before recording it.

--GG

Log into a plank

2011-09-30T21:34:00.000+10:00

I thought this was interesting: a webpage with a five minute video clip showing a **big** log being turned into a very long plank -- to be used in a Viking ship.

Using all traditional tools, it appears.

Arcane knowledge

2011-09-28T21:41:00.002+10:00

I have oddball pockets of knowledge. Or, maybe I just have different interests than most people. I know very little about sports, cars, and other traditional "guy stuff". But I know more than most people about recording, hand tool woodworking, and martial arts. Mostly book-learnin' (I follow a few topic-related blogs, and read books and magazines on the subjects).

The Director at work (my supervisor's supervisor) writes and records folk-ish music. We were both heading out the door at about the same time, and I raised the subject of microphones. We geeked out a little about microphones, and then she asked me what the difference was between a Shure SM57 and the SM58.

I actually had an answer: My understanding is that they're essentially the same mic, except that the SM58 has the wire grille "ball" on the end, with a foam pop-filter inside. So this ends up changing the frequency response -- and thus the tonal quality. It's also a very sturdy mic. Because of this, the SM58 is frequently used as a live music mic, whereas the SM57 is often used in recording -- especially micing guitar amplifier speakers, and snare drums.

The things I know...

--GG

Three musical thoughts

2011-09-24T23:20:00.000+10:00

1) When I next visit Seattle, I should try to spend a few days with Guitar Cousin -- see if we're able to co-write, and record, a few songs together. Haven't done that in years and years.

2) A few days ago, was listening to our self-made album (circa 1992) while at work. Had forgotten that we'd recorded a version of Guitar Cousin's and my first co-written song.

3) If I won the lottery, I'd track down Kevin "Captain Crash" Adams(our drummer; pay his living expenses (for his wife and kids) for a month; and then spend a month at Strigidae Studios getting back into practice and laying down some tracks, plus general hanging around. (Studio owner permitting, of course.)

Back when Guitar Cousin, Capt. Crash and I would have band practice a few times a week, and catch live local bands at cheap bars and clubs a few times a month. Those were good times... :)

--GG

Twentieth anniversary of Nevermind

2011-09-24T22:45:00.003+10:00

Last night I was gonna spend an hour or two recording. Unfortunately, it had been so long since I'd last recorded that I couldn't find the cable that connects my mini-mixer to my laptop (two RCA males to a 1/8" stereo male, FWIW). The annoying thing is that I know I have at least three of them... somewhere. But danged if I could find them.

So today I bought another one. Three bucks at a cheapy store; fair enough. I'll do a little recording tonight.

Also: It's apparently the 20th anniversary of Nirvana's Nevermind album. On Thursday there was an interview in the entertainment section with Krist Novoselic (sorry; poorly spelled). Today (Saturday) I picked up the Australian edition of Rolling Stone just because the guys were Nirvana were on the cover.

Nirvana's not my #1 favorite band -- but, they're pretty good. And they evoke a certain period of my life -- when I lived in Seattle, and my roommate, my cousin, and myself were in a band together.

A bit of trivia: not only were we in the same birth order as the guys from Nirvana (bassist = oldest; then guitarist; then drummer), but we were also the same age-spacing. Just not as famous.

It was always on my "To Do" list to go catch Nirvana in concert. Then Kurt Cobain went and shot himself -- so **that** wasn't gonna happen.

Some generations have their Buddy Holly. I guess I have Kurt Cobain.

--GG

About as stupid as you can get

2011-09-23T22:04:00.002+10:00

So, my wife -- a college professor -- caught a student plagiarising: passing off someone else's work as his own. Or technically, one of the teaching assistants caught it, as she was grading the papers.

First, the person is stupid for trying to do this, rather than just writing the paper properly. Smart people are able to write decent papers on their own.

Second, the person copied from one of the assigned readings from the course. A smart person would figure that the teaching assistant has probably read the course material.

And, third: the paper was written by my wife and the other co-instructor.

Duh, duh, duh.

--GG

A ritual

2011-09-22T21:47:00.000+10:00

In the little waiting room that's somewhat between the shared kitchen and my group's office is a small waiting room. In that waiting room is a piece of Indigenous art.

I like it.

As you can see from the close-up (below) of the accompanying sign, it's supposed to be a dry river bed with a wilderness camp and windbreaks. (The painting is by Leemoo Pareeyt; I've added that to the text, just in case the artist ever does a self-Google.)

Whenever I pass by it, I do a kung fu fist at it --

-- and exclaim "Indigenous Fist of Power!" Because that's what I think it looks like. Scroll back up to the painting, to see what I mean.

I don't mean it in a disrespectful way. Rather, it's like the Black Power salute:

Power to the Indigenous Australians!

In fact, I think Indigenous Australians should adopt the Black Power salute.

BTW -- in Queensland, at least, the preferred term is "Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders". To lump them all under "Indigenous" is seen as ignoring the cultural differences between Aboriginal Australians and Australians from the Torres Strait Islands (who are more Polynesian). Personally, though, I prefer the term "Indigenous": the term "Aboriginal" has overtones of "primitive-ness", whereas "Indigenous" means "the original folks". And is lumping all the different Indigenous cultures under one term any worse than the term "European" or "South American"?

But, the main point: Indigenous Fist of Power!!!

--GG

Even better

2011-09-21T21:37:00.000+10:00

Well, I **had** planned to use the one-and-a-half hour window between the kids' bedtime and when **I** try to go to bed to get some recording done. But, I forgot that tonight was The Lady's online tutorial (or "quiz section", at some universities), for the "distance learning" students. So, it was up to me to wrangle the kids.

The two boys fell asleep partway through the bedtime story -- an Irish folk tale. The Girl stayed awake.

The folk tale featured a boy who kindly shared his food with a stranger, who turned out to be the king of the fairies in disguise. It reminded me of a fairy tale from my big blue book of fairy tales (My World of Fairy Tales: Stories from Grimm, Perrault and Andersen, retold by Jane Carruth) that I've had since I was a kid. I told the girl that a lot of fairy tales involve a nice person who has a meagre lunch but shares it with a stranger, and a mean person with a big lunch who doesn't share -- and the generous person gets rewarded.

Managed to find it in just a few minutes. Read The Girl the story I was thinking of. Then noted that a lot of fairy tales have two sisters: a nice one, and a mean one; the nice one does something nice, and gets rewarded with gold (or gems) falling from her mouth with every word, while the mean one gets curses with toads or snakes falling from her mouth. Found -- and read -- a similar story from the big blue fairy tale book.

Then I read Puss-in-Boots -- just 'cause it's a good story.

And then The Lady came in, and wondered why The Girl was up so late past her bed time. (No matter: she's on school holidays.)

So: I read The Girl Bedtime stories for an hour and a half, rather than recording part of a song. Okay. That works.

--GG

Upon startup

2011-09-20T23:26:00.003+10:00

My cell phone died, so The Lady bought herself a new cell phone, gave me her old one, and swapped out the SIM cards. (Yes, I was fine with this: I'm fairly utilitarian. A cell phone is for making and receiving phone calls [and text messages, which are slightly cheaper].)

I explored the menus to change the ringtones, wallpaper, and such.

And now when the cell phone boots up, it briefly declares "spoon!". Each time, it amuses me.

(Inside joke. Try Googling "nigh-invulnerable" and "spoon".)

--GG

Perhaps my favorite poem

2011-09-19T23:20:00.002+10:00

Ahh -- the wonders of the internet.

A random thought, a poem that I remember liking from some high school literature textbook. Somewhere in my pile of notes and papers, I've written it down. Darned if I know where.

But! I remembered the snippets "Degas dancer... hang his pants on while he slept"; Googled it; and: magic!

"Museum Piece", by Richard Wilbur. I have a bias towards poetry that actually rhymes (it's harder to write something insightful and clever **and** rhyme than to simply be insightful and clever).

--GG

Laptop good

2011-09-18T22:38:00.001+10:00

Hm! After all that -- turns out the laptop hard drive had simply become unseated. Removed the hard drive, then firmly pushed it back into place. Laptop works again (I'm typing on it right now).

Huh.

--GG

Technology dies at my hands

2011-09-11T18:09:00.000+10:00

So, last Wednesday morning my cell phone failed to power up. Seemed to be working fine the previous day. Dunno. My wife ended up getting a new cell phone, then giving me her old one.

And then Saturday evening, my laptop's boot sector went plooie. Worked fine Friday night. I put an Ubuntu (Linux) disk into the DVD drive, and all the hardware seems fine -- the hard drive simply can't find the Windows stuff to start running Windows.

I'll have to muck about with it. Until then, I'll be blogging a bit less.

--GG

Home handyguy

2011-09-05T23:24:00.008+10:00

Well, I completed what is probably my first substantial "homeowner guy" task.

One of the requirements for getting the shed/garage/carport certified by the city council was jacking the rainwater from the downspouts into the stormwater drains. Finished doing this yesterday (Sunday).

So, I spent several weekends (a few hours per day -- not **all** day) digging a trench. Then I cut pipes and hoses to length; glued them (using special PVC glue) to connectors; laid 'em out; and (mostly) filled the trench back in.

Finished the bulk of the pipe-gluing and pipe-laying on Sunday. Which was Father's Day, here in Australia. Not quite what I'd wanted to be doing on Father's Day -- but, eh.

Surprisingly, the whole project went smoothly. I'm pleased to say that I didn't screw it up -- as near as I can tell.

What's more, with some **super** minor exceptions, I don't see any "Gah! Wish I'd done it differently" spots.

That's a real confidence-builder. Good stuff.

Oh! And I used the pickaxe that I inherited from my paternal grandfather. Used it a **lot**, actually: partway down I hit a fairly rocky layer that the spade just didn't want to go through -- so I had to break it up with the pickaxe before I could spade it out.

The trench ended up being "bottom of my kneecap" deep. That's reasonably substantial.

Gotta get prints of these photos that I've posted here, for the inspection guy's records.

--GG

Mozart myth debunked

2011-09-03T23:10:00.002+10:00

Love that Wikipedia!

According to this article, the compositional approach depicted in the movie Amadeus is totally wrong -- although it's consistent with the traditional, romanticized conception of how he composed.

People used to think that Mozart just cranked out his music directly from his head to the paper, hearing the complete works in his head. Actually, he composed using a piano as a tool, and worked up rough sketches prior to the finished product.

But he was supposedly a VERY good improvisor -- such that when he was in a time crunch to finish a piece, he'd often leave huge blanks for the parts he was going to play himself: then he'd just "wing it".

I also found it interesting (don't remember if it was in the above-mentioned Wikipedia article, or the main "Mozart" article) that he didn't compose "just for the art of it". He tended to be very pragmatic, composing pieces for specific purposes: either for an upcoming performance, or as commissioned works. There are apparently a lot of partially-finished works that he abandoned because the commission fell through.

--GG

Good songwriters but no descendants

2011-09-02T21:59:00.002+10:00

Interesting (to me)! Both Buddy Holly and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were pretty good songwriters or composers.

According to their respective Wikipedia articles, neither has a direct genetic descendant: Buddy Holly's wife miscarried soon after he died, and Mozart only had two children survive into adulthood -- neither of which had children.

Hm!

--GG

Mismatched

2011-09-01T21:55:00.003+10:00

I thought this was interesting: at some restaurant (I forget which), in the men's room, I noticed that the urinals were completely different. Odd.

Why would they do that? Did one break, so they replaced it -- but with a different brand? (And if so -- how does a urinal break?) Or did they just get a good deal on a mis-matched set of urinals: a discontinued model, perhaps?

--GG

My brain

2011-08-31T21:06:00.003+10:00

I like Wikipedia (99% accurate!). ;) You can learn stuff: I tend to click on links and open them in a new browser tab, to read later.

To get a sense of my brains: over the last two days, here's what I've Wikipedia'd (which reflects what is interesting to me):

Johnny Cash
Folsom Prison Blues
Casey Jones
Camper Van Beethoven
Cracker (band)
Million Dollar Quartet
Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian (a Johnny Cash album)
Nickajack cave
Man in black (song)
altar call
dry cleaning
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Maria Anna Mozart
Mozart's compositional method
Mozart and scatology
okra
gumbo

An interesting cross-section -- if'n I do say so myself.

--GG

Two good quotes

2011-08-30T23:23:00.002+10:00

From one of the lessons at church, this recent Sunday:

From St Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 12, beginning at verse 9 (Romans 12:9-21 (NRSV)).

20 No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” (Interpretation: Be nice to your enemies -- it'll mess with their heads.)

And:

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Sounds like something The Tick might say.

--GG

My tastes

2011-08-29T22:19:00.002+10:00

Because I dislike having to wait around without anything to read (if I have something decent to read, I don't mind waiting), I keep a few half-read magazines in the map pocket of the car.

Over the last week, I've noticed that none of the woodworking magazine ads make me go "Oooh..." Example:

This is probably because I've reached a stage where I've amassed enough (used) woodworking hand tools to do what I need to do. (Still need a lathe and a bandsaw, though.) Now I need to clean them up and start **using** them, and developing my skills. I don't need to buy any more of 'em.

Some of the guitar magazine ads (guitars; guitar amps; effects pedals) make me go "Oooh..." Example:

I can always use another effects pedal. ;) And one of these days it'd be nice to have a tube amp...

But, the recording magazines. Yowza!!! I mean, check **this** out:Or this:

Yowwww-zaaaa...!!!

Sadly, these things ain't cheap -- so I'll probably never bring myself to actually get one of these. But if someone gave me a choice between some $3,000 flat-screen t.v., and one o' those blue things (above), I know which one **I'd** choose.

Partly 'cause it's a **tool**: you can do useful things with it. And partly -- dunno. Aesthetics, I guess. And it has lots of knobs and switches.

Different tastes. Whenever I show my wife ads for effects pedals or recording gear, she just shrugs. ;)

--GG

Final two ties

2011-08-28T22:13:00.004+10:00

Oh, BTW -- Wednesday and Thursday of this last week were my final two neckties out of my collection. (For those new to this blog: I have about 85 neckties, and I've been systematically wearing one per day (except Fridays) until I've worn each tie once.)

So: Monday -- any tie I want! Woo-hoo!!!

Here's my second-to-last tie: electric guitars and electric basses. Received it as a gift (either from my wife, or my kids) a few years back, and never worn it (still in the plastic).

Here's my final tie: a red (or burgandy?) bow tie -- an actual tie-it-yerself bow tie. Unfortunately, although I understand theoretically how to tie a bow tie (it's basically like tying your shoes), I didn't think to practice ahead of time. So after a few tries in the men's room in front of the mirror, I gave up. But, here it is.

So: them's the ties. :)

--GG

More on puppets

2011-08-27T23:05:00.003+10:00

When I'd showed my kids my sock puppet from high school (as mentioned a few blog entries ago), they'd all wanted to take turns with it. So last night I dug thru the rag bag for mis-matched and/or hole-y socks, and let each kid choose one. Then I stayed up late-ish sewing oval shaped cutouts from margarine tub lids into the socks, to form the mouths.

Today (Saturday), I picked up some colored poofy balls from the local arts and crafts store for noses (if they want to have noses); a pack of googly eyes; and a sheet of black felt, and white felt (as an eyeball alternative). We have a few different colors of yarn, for hair (optional). I'm assembling this all in a box, which I've labeled as my "Puppet Kit".

We were busy today, so maybe tomorrow I'll help them assemble their custom sock puppets.

Regarding my larger puppet, I had the insight a few days ago that if I make the arms the same length as my 3 y.o. boys' arms, then I can dress it in their old clothes! Also, that I'd like to make it with light purple "skin", and dark purple hair. Orange nose, orange felt eyebrows. No ears. Hands will be mitten-shaped, but with clothespins or some-such embedded as thumbs, so that it can hold stuff.

I want the "guide sticks" (don't know the technical name) on the arms to be easily removeable.

Also, that his name will be "Ha". Vocal inflection going down, or kinda flat -- so "Ha.", not "Ha!". Don't know why that name: it just came to me.

Also, his head will be kind of marshmallow-shaped: cylindrical, but with rounded edges.

--GG

Another college dream

2011-08-26T22:56:00.002+10:00

Two nights ago I had yet another recurrence of the "back in college" dream. This time I dreamed I was a "returning student" (or whatever the current euphemism is for someone who doesn't go directly from high school to college).

I was at a university reminiscent of Pacific Lutheran University (Tacoma, WA), a few days before the start of the first semester. I pulled up with a car full of belongings, then realized that I didn't know which dorm I was staying in. So, I walked around campus, looking for the Housing office, or something similar.

While doing this, I also realized I didn't know what classes I was taking -- or if I was even enrolled. So, I also kept an eye out for the Registrar's office, or similar. I spent most of the day doing this, with no luck.

Then (in contrast to most of my other "back in college" dreams) I realized, Hey! I have a Ph.D.! Why am I trying to go back to college. I'm better off moving in with my parents, getting a crummy non-career-track job, and recording music on my days off.

Then I woke up.

--G

Now versus later

2011-08-25T22:02:00.000+10:00

I've had the froggie windsock for years and years: a gift from my parents.

I've always had it hanging indoors, to keep it from getting faded.

But a few days ago, I was inspired to hang it from a tree, outdoors, where the wind could catch it.

Yeah, the colors will fade from the sun. But it tickles me to look out the window and see it flapping around in the breeze.

It's being **used**, rather than preserved. And that's o.k.

--GG

This desk

2011-08-24T22:06:00.002+10:00

This recent weekend we visited the local Ikea.

This is a snapshot of a desk I'll -- eventually -- be getting.

See all them shelves? The idea is that I'll be able to set up my various "classic" computers, and actually **use** them. The keyboards can be on the desk; the monitors can be on the mini-shelf; and the tin boxes can be on the upper shelves (vertical form factor boxes on the top shelf, and horizontal form factor on the next shelf down).

Right now, they just live in boxes. :(

--GG

Need a puppet

2011-08-23T21:43:00.004+10:00

Like many things, this one follows a circuitous path.

A few weeks ago I'd rented I Love You, Man. Sunday I got around to Wikipedia-ing who the guy's fiance was (ah! the same actress who was the love interest in The Office; **knew** I recognized her!!!). Which made me YouTube Jason Segel's "Dracula's Lament".

(No, you don't have to watch the whole thing.)

And somehow that lodged in my subconscious -- such that Monday I realized, "Hey -- I need to make a puppet."

I'm thinking something with "Bert" arms: hollow tube of cloth, with a seam at the elbow, filled with lengths of foam pipe insulation. And with lengths of dowel, attached at the puppet's wrists, to guide the arms.

Not sure what to do about the head. Today (Tuesday) I've been pondering it. Briefly thought about making it some sort of animal -- but I think I'll make it vaguely person-like.

On the way home, on the bus, I decided to name him "Small Guy" -- as a counterpoint to "Tall Guy" (whom we haven't seen much of as late -- have we?).

It'll be a week or two before this happens, though.

However -- as a "proof of concept", I dug out my old sock puppet that I made in high school (or early college?). I was pleased that I found it so quickly: it was in my "Weird Stuff" box, in amongst the Groucho Marx glasses, whoopee cushion, and the like. (What -- you don't have a "Weird Stuff" box...?)

Here it is:

(Did this in the bathroom -- hence, the echoes. I needed the bright lights, to capture a decent image.)

The sock puppet never had a name -- but when I was having him talk to the kids, he said his name was "Olson". So, I guess he's Olson.

--GG

Good days

2011-08-22T23:41:00.002+10:00

I had two pleasant evenings.

Sunday night, after the kids went to bed, I spent two hours doing music stuff: typing up some song lyrics I'd recently scribbled onto a notepad (i.e. new song!!!); trying out an old drum machine (Boss DR-110 -- I'll let you Wikipedia it) and getting it to work; then working out the guitar chords to the new song, as well as tightening up some of the lyrics.

Good stuff. I'd meant to also lay down some basic tracks, but I didn't get that far.

Then, Monday night (tonight) I spent a few hours mucking about with some business data from Old Roommate. Trying to find patterns in data -- and trying to work out how to bend Stata (the software) to my will.

Again, good stuff.

So, two pleasant evenings. Although I should've gone to bed about an hour ago. ;)

--GG

Good band

2011-08-19T17:37:00.002+10:00

I just recently discovered the band Fountains of Wayne. Some good songs.

Here' s the music video for the song "Hey Julie": good song, good video (although it appears to be for a class project, rather than an "official" video).

Good stuff.

Also: here's the Scrubs version:

Cute. :)

(I used to really enjoy Scrubs. But I've not watched the last few seasons -- and apparently J.D. isn't even on the show any more. Which rather loses the point.)

--GG

Songs at your funeral

2011-08-18T13:44:00.002+10:00

On Tuesday I was moral support for my wife at a family funeral. An aunt; I'd only met her once. They played a lot of good songs during the service -- presumably, ones that the aunt liked.

This made me realize that, if a person is savvy enough to choose her own songs for her funeral ahead of time, then funeral songs serve as a small "mix tape": a snapshot of the person's musical tastes.

I came up with these, for myself (see below). Maybe add an instrumental piece as well, if I ever get around to writing one.

1. Hey Jealousy - Gin Blossoms
2. Valerie Loves Me - Material Issue
3. Il Fait Plu - Gye Greene (me)
4. Shout - Devo
5. Magic - The Cars
6. Hello, I Must be Going - Groucho Marx
7. Tom Sawyer - Rush
8. Happy Noodle vs Sad Noodle - Logan Whitehurst
9. Smooth Noodle Maps - Devo
10. Everybody Wants a Rock - They Might Be Giants
11. Blitzkreig Bop - The Ramones ((or maybe not))

Not necessarily in that order.

Hmm -- eleven songs is probably a bit much. Maybe use "Tom Sawyer" during the seating period (maybe the very last song before the service starts?). And "Magic" could be used as the recessional.

--GG

Music dabbling

2011-08-17T14:03:00.003+10:00

After four of five days of attempts, tonight I **finally** managed to sit down and play the guitar, and mess around with some guitar effects pedals. Spent about two hours playing tonight.

Also came up with a catchy riff, which will eventually end up being the chorus to some song. Not complicated, but it's catchy, and for me that's the important element.

--GG

Some productivity

2011-08-15T14:01:00.001+10:00

OK! I feel about 95% good. But one of the kids was unwell, and it was my turn to stay home from work.

Managed to unpack two boxes from the front porch, though. So, some productivity there, which **somewhat** makes up for my lack of usefulness on the weekend.

--GG

Wasted weekend

2011-08-14T13:58:00.002+10:00

Thursday I went to work, even though I was feeling poorly: I had stuff I needed to do.

Likewise Friday.

I had **planned** to finishing digging a drainage ditch in the back yard, mow the lawn, and various other things. But, nope. Sat around, going "uhhhhhhhh" (and feeling crummy) the whole weekend.

**Did** finish watching a season's worth of the original Twilight Zone t.v. series on DVD. Plus another movie or two.

But basically, a frustrating weekend. By Sunday I felt a little better -- but not enough to actually **do** things -- neither physical work nor sorting/tidying things. Gah.

--GG

Condtradictory hope

2011-08-05T13:48:00.002+10:00

An awkward position at work: trying to double-check some figured I'd generated, which contradict another well-respected agencies figures.

Every time I run some double-check on my work, I hope that I don't discover an error -- because that would mean I'd screwed up. But, to **not** find an error means that I'm still in trouble-shooting mode. Gah.

(Update: turns out that we're using slightly different definitions. Good: everyone's a winner.)

--GG

Bilingual

2011-08-03T13:43:00.003+10:00

A little tricky: last weekend finally got around to working on some data for Old Roommate. Prior to starting my current job, I'd been using Stata (statistical software), which has its own scripting language.

However, since the end of January, I've been using SPSS (statistical software), which has a different scripting language. So, this weekend was the first time I've used Stata in a few months. So all of my new habits (using single "equals" for logical equivalencies; ending statements with a period) are nowin the way of my old habits. Gah! Tricky.

Like moving from Italy to France, then back to Italy.

--GG

Simplest saw till

2011-08-02T23:11:00.004+10:00

The World's Simplest Saw Till is the point of this blog entry. (Which doesn't directly relate to this first photo, which is just a general example of a saw till.) But first, a little background:

A "saw till" is what woodworkers that use hand tools call the rack that holds their handsaws. Sometimes it's a cupboard with a door; other times it's open air, like the one pictured here. The aim is to keep your saws safe (i.e. where they won't get stepped on), organized, and accessible.

Since getting a shed, and more recently a workbench, I've managed to log a little bit of shop time. I've noticed that I tend to use the same three or four saws over and over.

Part of this focus on just a few handsaws resulted from something I read in a book, in June of 2010. ( Frid, Tage. 1993. Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking. The Taunton Press (by FWW). Newtown, CT.) Tage Frid is a famous old-school, traditionally-trained woodworker. He contends that you don't really need crosscut **and** rip saws in your arsenal. He demonstrates his point by making (presumably) the same number of saw strokes into a board (p. 14) with crosscut and rip-filed saws. He makes pretty much the same progress with each: the rip saw is noticeably faster when ripping a board (cutting along the grain), and nearly as fast when crosscutting (cutting across the grain). (Note that he doesn't specify the number of teeth per inch, which has an impact on the cutting speed. Presumably they're the same.)

Thus, I've been using a rip-filed backsaw (I think it's a tenon saw) for dovetailing, tenons, and smaller crosscutting (where traditionally I think a carcasse saw would be used). For medium to larger crosscutting I use a crosscut saw or a medium-toothed rip saw. And for heavy ripping, I use a coarse-teethed rip saw -- although I'm in the process of modding a one-person crosscut saw into a mega-ripsaw -- but more on that some other time.

So, that's four saws. And I lacked a good place to put them.

Part one of the solution was to stick a bolt on the side of some wooden shelving near my workbench. So, a bolt, or dowel, stuck in the wall. That's about as simple a sawtill as you could have.

That's a pruning saw on the bottom of the stack; then a hacksaw (the fine teeth are good for cutting PVC pipes and other plastics); then a backsaw. I used to have a few out, and I'd use whichever was sharpened; now I just focus on one, and sharpen the teeth when they need it.

My second saw till is almost as bare-bones as the "bolt in the wall" approach: it's a board with three parallel cuts, going the long way. Each cut is about as long as the depth of a handsaw blade, and slightly farther apart than a saw handle (wide enough that I can get my hand between the handles, to grab the saw). I either clamp it to the end of the workbench, a nearby storage rack, or weight it down with whatever's available.

Below is the super-simple saw till. I glued on an additional piece of wood, thinking I might have room for one additional saw. Then I decided to just make the saw till for three saws. But, I still have room for expansion -- and the extra wood gives added flexibility for mounting.

And here, below, is the end view. It's "Grandad wood", for what that's worth: my wife's grandfather had stashes of wood all around the property (mostly offcuts), and these are are some of the pieces. Some sort of Australian hardwood, although I couldn't tell you more than that. I sanded the top a bit, and gave the whole thing some boiled linseed oil. Didn't bother with the underside: no one's going to look there.

So, yeah -- two of the World's Simplest Sawtills. :)

--GG

More degrees

2011-08-01T22:54:00.003+10:00

On Sunday, The Lady had to help staff a booth from her university department -- so the kids and I wandered around the other booths. Pretty good swag: got a small tape measure from the Engineering Department, a pen from the Business School, a squeezy ball from Accounting, a flexi-frisbee from the Health Dept, and I forget what else.

Picked up a catalog from Engineering. Good stuff, but if I won the lottery I wouldn't bother getting an Engineering degree: I have enough knowledge to dink around in the shed, making contraptions, without having to go to university. And at this point I don't need to do that stuff for a living: I'd rather mess around doing what interests **me**, not what my boss tells me needs doing.

I also stopped by the Creative Industries booths. The "Music and Sound" program is interesting, and I think I would've enjoyed being a film student. If I won the lottery it might be fun to do the Film and T.V. program -- not that I couldn't just go out and start making my film shorts, but more that it would be fun to hang around with like-minded people.

They also have a graduate certificate in Music and Sound: six months if you do it full time. **That** might be something fun to do, once I earn my "long service leave".

Long service leave is "a period of paid leave granted to an employee in recognition of a long period of service to an employer." In addition to the four weeks of paid vacation each year, Queensland government employees get eight and two-thirds weeks of leave for each ten years of ongoing employment. So that's twelve weeks, if I combine them.

A university semester is thirteen weeks, plus finals. So if I saved up a little vacation from a previous year, I could spend my entire three months doing a graduate level university course on recording technology.

Hm. Actually, I'd be better off spending the AU$7,400 tuition on some recording equipment, and spending the three months locked in a room, recording songs.

Although, it would be a different experience.

Mostly, I'd just do it to be able to put some more letters after my name, on my business card (seems to be an Australian thing: listing your qualifications on your business card).

--GG

Went to prison yesterday

2011-07-31T19:58:00.002+10:00

On Friday a few of us from work took a tour of two local prisons: a men's prison, and a women's prison.

Pretty interesting. I learned that I'd be **so** bored in prison (not that I was planning to attend). I have the background that I'd have the capacity to help teach the various educational courses. But, I wouldn't be allowed to, for two very good reasons.

One is that they try to keep a very clear distinction between staff and prisoners: so, at most I'd be allowed to be some sort of low-level teaching assistant, not an actual instructor.

And second, putting a prisoner in a position of authority means that that prisoner (me) would have additional access to restricted things. And other prisoners would try to exploit that access. So, it's safer for everyone concerned to just not grant that access.

So, I could learn how to weld. Maybe take up painting, in the art room. There's some sort of music program -- although I didn't get the details (although I think it's just acoustic instruments, rather than electric guitars).

Again, not that I'm planning on attending...

--GG

Music at work update

2011-07-30T19:53:00.003+10:00

My "music at work" endeavor has fallen by the wayside. Played the harmonica or the tin whistle at a local park on some weekends -- but I still felt self-conscious practicing (as opposed to performing something I was decent at) in public. There's a small conference room, and a medium conference room, but neither are soundproofed enough to not bother people.

Instead, I've been going for walks on my lunch break (o.k. -- it's exercise, at least), and then reading at the breakroom table for the final five minutes.

Thursday, though, while walking, it occurred to me that I could bring in my small Casio-style keyboard. I'd want to buy a AC power pack for $10-$15. I could just play it at a low volume, and keep it in my desk drawer when not in use.

--GG

Too focused on the wrong thing

2011-07-29T19:50:00.002+10:00

I'm going to Seattle to visit friends and family in a few months. It's always busy, and fairly highly-scheduled, trying to fit everyone in.

So, last night I dreamed I was staying at my parents for a few days. I was in the guest room checking e-mail, while a series of friends and relatives stopped by.

I eventually emerged from the guest room, to discover that everyone had given up and left. Dangit!

The message: Don't spend too much time on e-mail or other "administrative" tasks while in Seattle?

--GG