I am such a stick in the mud
I must be a major stick in the mud, I have a friend that I am debating music in the church with, also debating hymnals and the new up comming hymnal for the LCMS. God have mercy on me.
Passed the point of no return on the Tin Whistle
Well I think I passed the point with the Tin Whistle where I can see myself some day being OK on it. Right now I am going though my 2 hymnals. Yes I own 2 hymnals, I got them a few years back so I can use the liturgy sections, Matins and Vespers. I am now starting to go looking though the hymn sections for hymns I can in theory play on the Tin Whistle, I have to find ones that are in either the Key of G or D. I do not know as of yet how to transpose music from one key to another, so I can only look for music that is written in the key that the Tin Whistle can do. Also I am now able to look at the notes and know what holes on the Whistle to cover, I don’t need the crutches that the other books I have give. I am very happy with this, there are still some of the higher notes that I still have some trouble with, they would be the high E, high F, and high G. So right now I am going though the hymns looking for hymns in those keys (G and D) and marking them down in a separate note book for future reference. I still need allot of practice on the 1/8 notes and timing, but I believe that will come with time.
I also ordered on line a new Whistle, it was $30, I got a chance to try one like it before I went to get it, so I know it is better, the one I have now is ok to start out with, it is cheap ($8) and gives you an idea, and you can start to learn on it, but I think it is time for me to take a step up to a little bit better one.
Notes about the blog
Sorry I have not been updating as much as I had in the past. There is a reason for this. As I have started a new job, that is further from where I live, and I am trying to pick up a instrument, I have really cut my free time down. I will update as much as I can, but I have other things I have to do, I had originally planned on only 30 minutes a day, but some days the practice does take a bit more time. But I believe the loss of the time that I am experiencing is well worth it, the stuff I am doing is good stuff and well worth it.
Cell phones and manners
Is it me, or don’t people seam to have manners when they are on their cell phones? First, here is what brought it to my mind, the other day I was in a public rest room, this guy comes in talking on his cell phone, and goes. I would not want to be the person that he was talking too. After he finished (using the facility’s, not on the phone) he just walks out with out washing his hands. Or the people that will talk on their cell phone while checking out at a store just ignoring the casher.
Some one does not like my anti-spam stuff
The other day I got the following email:
I wrote you a nice comment on your printer post but your jerky software told me it was spam and deleted my text. How do you expect to get any useful comments?!
The person had in the subject: your jerky anti-spam thing on your blog
Well to this I say the following, I don’t have the time to filter out 1000’s of spam comments (and I did say 1000’s and I am not joking here) so I just keep a bit of a mental track of what words are being used by spammers and filter them out, if you want to know what not to use check out my list of reject words
Well that is 3 out of 3
In the last decade I have tried ink jet printers,I tried 3 of them, all of them lexmark. All of them failed in less then a year. about 6 months ago I got a lexmark for about $40, it was cheap and I though I would give them one more try, well 6 months later it failled yet again. So that tells me one of 2 things eather ink jet printers are a worthless thing to use, or lexmark is a worthless company to buy from, eather way, I will not waste any money on ink jets or lexmark. I am going to save up for a good Laser Jet printer (a good one for home use) Any one have any good suggestions for a good home use Laser Jet printer.
My progress on the Irish Tin Whistle
Well my progress on the Tin Whistle is not that great, but I am making some progress. For a while I had been using the crutches that the books had put in the music telling what holes to cover on the whistle. But for the last couple of weeks I have been working on being able to work without needing them, I have found in my churches music there are a few tunes that are in the right key so I can play it, I need the music to have the F # instead of having just plain F. I can also do a C # or a C natural, but all the other notes have to be natural. I have to really work on the song to get to a point where I can really “play” it. I still have to think about what the fingering needs to be when I play the note. I also really need to practice the 1/8th notes, I am ok with 1/4 notes and larger, but I have trouble with things that are less then a 1/4 note.
I am hoping that by this time next year I will be 1/2 good.
WPLUG today
Today at WPLUG we had Bob Good from VMWare give a talk on VMWARE. It was an ok talk, but the coolest part was that Sean from http://www.smallbutdisorganized.com/ also was there. It was pritty cool to meet a fellow blogger from the area. What would have made it even cooller would have been if Rob from unspace had shown up, but oh well, it was cool to meet Sean from mallbutdisorganized.com
My legs
I have not posted about this in the past, but my legs have been giving me problems for a while (the last couple of years). I will get nasty leg cramps, and they will violently twitch at night, and when I say violently twitch, I mean that they will violently kick at night when I am trying to sleep, I have been ejected from my bed from the kicks. I have a bit of a fear that one night I am going to wake up in massive pain from a broken toe. Does any one that read my blog have any suggestions on what I can do to help stop it.
I am trying a few “Dietary supplements” and they are:
- Potassium (99mg)
- Magnesium (400mg)
- Calcium (1000mg, a friend of mine said this might help, it can not hurt)
- finally I take some “Leg Cramps” pills with Quinine (not a Dietary supplement, but it is for leg cramps)
I started these about a year ago and they only help a little bit, they help with the cramps, but my legs still violently kick at night, so I am wondering if any one know of anything I can do to help stop the kicking at night?
Lunch with a friend and biking
Today I had lunch with a friend of mine from church that also work at Union Switch and Signal. We talked about a few things, it was a good lunch. The one subject that we covered that I wish to put here was that he said that he found one day an ad on his bike for something called “critical mass” and he was thinking of going to it. I told him he should not go, these people are 1) ultra liberal (so liberal they make Al Sharptin look like a neo-con) 2) law breakers (running red lights all the time, taking up the whole road when the law only allows for 2 abreast) 3) doing it only to annoy others. So I told him that he should not go.
Also on my way home from work today (around 6pm) as I was coming up Coltart Ave, I saw the jerks that do “critical mass” biking down Forbes Ave, I did not want to be seen near them or have people think I was with them, so I just wanted at the intersection as they blocked the road, and as they pass yelled at them that they do more harm to bikers then they do good, they are only pissing off drivers, they were not happy with me.
Game night
Tonight I had a few more friends over for games, we played Taboo and Trivial Pursuit. It started out normal, but then things started to get funny during the Taboo game. My friends came over around 6 and left around 10, it was a good night. We were talking about doing it again next week.
Mike and Kellie’s Wedding
A couple of friends of mine got married today. You can see the pictures I took at it here. I wish Mike and Kellie all the best. That is so far 1 out of 2 weddings that I will be going to this summer down, and 1 more to go.
Mike and Kellie are friends of mine from church.
Bikeing today
Well today between biking to work, and to a friends house to fix their computer. And finally up to the Pittsburgh Irish Center. I biked a total of 18.82 miles today. I also was able to bike up Negley Av from 5th Wilkins.
I think I might make the 1000 miles goal I have set this year.
Poker Tonight
Tonight I had a few friends over for food and games, we got a game of poker in. We had a good game. Most of my friends came over around 7 and left around 10. I like haveing friends over.
I was able to use the new poker set my mother got me. There are some nice solid chips. I had 6 friends over.
Got my bike ride in
Well I got my bike ride in today, I went for 30.01 miles. I must be out of shape, my legs hurt a bit right now. I guess I will have to rebuild them, so I can get back to my 50 miles in on day bike rides. But for my first bike ride out I think 30 miles is not half bad.
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