Day 81: Today I discovered Deadland Ritual

I'm on a trail, a path... if you will.

Determined to bring some joy into my life by being able to make a joyous noise, I bought a bass guitar. This was on Friday, May 29, 2020. Combing through Facebook Marketplace, I found a college student who wanted to sell her almost new bass because she's not playing it anymore and is now into playing the cello. Cool! The black 2018 Fender Bronco bass is in Westlake Village... it's an hour and a half drive.

I bring the bass home, inspect it and immediately plug it into my Crate 15W guitar practice amp. And then, I think, am I even supposed to be doing that? It's a bass! You can, but you have to be careful and adjust the equalizer to get a clean tone. And instinctively, I did that. My ear tells me I'm making noise, but it's not the full, rich sound a bass guitar is supposed to sound like.

And then, how to play, how to play, how to play. I'm consuming the stuff that bass players are publishing about their work, their rigs, their style. I'm finding info online from:

Carol Kaye - www.CarolKaye.com (who has teaching tools for sale online. God bless her<3); 

Leland Skylar -  On Youtube (who is giving all who so choose to watch his videos a kind of fly on-the-wall perspective into some of the music he's worked on and artists he's worked with over his career);

And then I begin to remember the bands who I used to listen to as a kid growing up in a house with little joy. And I was listening to Queen (John Deacon), Black Sabbath (Geezer Butler), Led Zeppelin (John Paul Jones), ELO (Kelly Groucutt), The Eagles (Timothy B. Schmit), and Heart.

Now I'm looking for a solution to a problem and that problem is I have two electric guitars and one 15Z practice amp and I don't want to get separate amps for each one because: 1) I don't have the space, and 2) it's expensive!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5B5r8A9dOw

Fancy That

So this week, I'm emerging from a period of mourning over the loss of my uncle after having attended his memorial and getting back into town from being in New York for a week. I didn't feel like I was able to go through the grieving process for him while stressed out over my job, so it might have been a good thing that I separated when I did so I could go through and get through what I felt I needed to do in dealing with his passing. Now that I'm feeling better about it, ...

I've got to get a job. Or at least some money going. It's been a little over two months since I've had a paycheck. Going to check out Uber and see what that's all about. But in the meantime...

Even though I've previously sworn off pursuing the music scene like I used to, I'm getting into one band that sparked my attention from the Alt radio channel on SiriusXM - The Struts, and I could just kick myself that I missed going to their concert at the Observatory in Santa Ana on 03/29/16. Probably won't ever see $16 tickets for their shows after again after all their touring all over the world.

And in getting acquainted with said band, today, I was perusing the videos they have posted on Youtube.com and I have come to the realization that the one song that has captured my attention on the radio, i.e. "Kiss This", sounds familiar. Really, really familiar.

Listen, I'm no expert, but I am almost twice as old as some members of the band and as time is on my side with regards to a larger catalog of music that I've been exposed to, I couldn't help but searching for the song that sounds, in part, like theirs.

In doing so, I reacquainted myself with the goings on with the popular Swedish duo Roxette. Sadly, their lead singer made the hard choice to cancel the remaining tour in Australia due to the further breakdown of her body after having a brain tumor (see: Roxette Makes a Tough Decision to Quit Tour). At least we have the wonderful catalog of music from the band that spans from late the 1980's to 2016, which is when their last album was released.

When Roxette was first making the charts in the U.S. in , one of their most popular songs was titled "She's Got The Look", or some would just call the song "The Look".

I can even can hear that the phrasing tempo seems similar, even though the actual lyrics are different.

Now, only copyright lawyers and royalty trackers have the ability to sort  out these things out in a court of law if it has to come to that, but there have been recent settlements out of court in the news for this very same thing. See:  https://www.buzzfeed.com/

Now listen to both for yourself and you decide.

And then recently, I found this posted on Variety:
http://variety.com/2016/music/news/ed-sheeran-sued-copyright-photograph-x-factor-1201791603/

And then I was thinking... 02/16/16

They say the essentials we all need are food, shelter and clothing. [...and then the government taxes us for what they provide while we provide some sort of existence/life for our ourselves and our families. Paid taxes in 2015 for the first time in a while.]

But as I was walking back to my home after driving home from work, it hit me that these things are driven by money, emotions, and comfort.

One's ability to earn enough money could either raise or lower the emotional state resulting in a level of comfort in life. Personality and education back it up. Health, whether it be physical or mental is controllable to a certain extent, but for the most part, your health outcome is in the genes you get from your parents. You get what you get healthwise, from genetics, unless you smoke, drink, or take/abuse drugs and food and don't choose to move your body in vigorus ways to help build muscle and remove the toxins then the results or the lack thereof - you did to yourself and your genes did it to you. [Yes, I have Crohn's disease, but changing jobs has changed my commute and my stress level is down due to less of a commute, up to new surrounding and standards to get re-acquainted with on job tasks I'm already familiar with and working for a manager that actually cares to manage, but change is good.]

And then I was thinking, that,  "Isn't it enough to be a good person?" ...as I drive home on the "freeway" in this car, with this amazing horsepower as I grasp the steering wheel, this conveyance I'm seated in, that others, too, are seated in as we travel to our destinations and in my mind's eye/imagination- the exterior of the cars melted away and all people commuting on the freeway were seated floating in a dimly glowing interior blue light with powertrain and frame assuming the driving position with hands on their steering wheels, no upholstery with tires-this technology that really hasn't changed all that much in over 100 years [but to make it faster, safer, use less gas, or another fuel, but really at what cost to our environment if the power to make that alternate fuel was derived from fossil fuel?] and when we as humans end up using up all of the fossil fuels this world has, would we then need to worry about the need to expand our roadways or instead how they scarred the earth, contributed to global warming and how they'll need to be deconstructed?

No, it's not enough to be a good person if you're not exhibiting that goodness for someone else other than yourself to recognize, witness and benefit from. Hence we reward the leaders in their field - whatever they may be and punish those who don't meet society's expectations of what is good and right and true and sometimes - most of the time - logical.

If people were forced to work and live only within the areas that their feet could carry them, how many could? Could one's life be richer and still not have to worry financially?

And to think the fact that management tools are being rolled out to my team tomorrow. And I'm so excited, I can't sleep.

Vacation day 13, October 20th

Yeah, I'm on my way to Disneyworld today. Now my real vacation begins.

Stewart International Airport doesn't seem very international at all and it's actually very quiet at 7AM in the morning. I had no idea what the traffic would be like or how busy the airport would be. I just got up and got ready, packed up my things and got on the road as quick as I could. Stewart Airport is 17 miles from where I was staying in Fishkill. Of course, it was raining almost all the way there. I'm done with the NY rain.

O.K., the drop off for the Hertz rental I've had for he past 13 days is weird at the airport. The way this is set-up is one of the reasons why it feels like it's not an actual international airport but more of a regional one. It's on your honor. Shocking, huh. I know I was. You find a marked space to park your car and then get your stuff out and mark the envelope with the date and time you brought it back and the mileage and the gas tank reading, too. Then you lock the car taking the keys and your rental paperwork with you and walk into the terminal with your stuff to the Hertz counter where there is no one manning the thing at 7AM. All that they have there is an early drop-off box that tells you to put your paper work and your keys in the box. Done.

Since I was able to print out my tickets last night and check in online, I didn't have to do that at the counter. So now I had to go find the TSA line. And typically, I'm looking for this long line of bleary eyed people and grumbly TSA folk barking orders to get you though as fast as possible. But again, at 7AM, no line. I went through by myself with no one before me or after me. I was thinking that maybe I'm in some Twilight Zone or the wrong airport, but nope. I found my gate and sat there until it was time to board.

Seat 12F was a much better choice than 9A which was designed not to recline. So everyone got onto the plane and we waited. And we waited. And then the captain announced that his maps were expired and he was waiting for the new ones and I guess there was a printer problem on top of it. We waited on the tarmac for an hour and a half. So our 3 hour flight which was supposed to land at 11-something AM went to 1-something.

Orlando Airport is huge. On the level where you leave the gate area but before you get on the tram, it looks like a freakin' mall. There was even an ad that said they hold church serves there.  Thrifty rent-a-car held my car reservation for me knowing my flight was delayed. That was nice. They do not have cars with GPS. That was not so nice. And the map that they give you is crap.

So I used the navigation on my cellphone to get to the Dolphin Resort.

This place is huge. They give you a map at the front desk when you check in order to navigate the place. All I know is after I got to my room and settled in a little, my stomach was growling. I had toast this morning for breakfast, and water and some blue terra chips on the plane.

I went down to the first floor and found a small buffet/store called Picabu which has a lot of bird chirps and elephant sounds on a loop to greet you as you walk in.

I ate the chicken dinner, rice and greens. It was about the only thing on their menu that didn't have dairy in it.

I still have 2 and a half hours before the park closes and that's right before the Illusions Fireworks show.
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O.K., so I was able to pick up my prepaid two day park hopper ticket using my voucher, walk around a bit, find the nearest women's restroom from my entrance gate with a line, and then I walked to the center of the park where the sphere is to go on a ride called "Spaceship Earth". How do I explain this attraction... It's states that through time, communication through the written word and then on computers has been the driving force that is propelling us towards our future. It's depicted through stages, some with animetronics and some not so much. At the end, it inserts a photo of your disembodied head into a future based cartoon based upon a brief questionnaire of your likes and dislikes. And then after the ride was over, I wondered to the pin station and bought an officially licensed Epcot pin.

People start to sit down an hour before the fireworks. Yep, that's DisneyWorld for ya. It occurrs at the California park, too.

I'm falling asleep here at the keyboard. It's time for me to sleep. The park opens at 9AM tomorrow. Woohoo!

Yelp.com ROTD 5/22/2011

(Click on the image to make it more readable.)

Shit! I missed it!

Yelp bestowed me with my second ROTD yesterday, but for the car wash review? I don't think it was one of my strongest writing efforts, but I guess they liked it. *Shrug*

I got the 'Review of the Day' on Yelp!

From my Twitter:

Hey! Hey! RE @yelpoc - I got the ROTD on www.yelp.com today! http://tiny.cc/aFbVW

Creative Writing 101: There She Was

It was an uncommonly chilly morning when the clicking of her hard soled heels commanded my attention. Tall and somewhat sinewy, I saw her walking towards me with no sweater on, no jewelry and her nipples somewhat erect showing through her top. Her hair was long to the middle of her back and black with bangs in the front, combed but slightly wet as if she quickly took a shower and then had to be somewhere else. She wore what could well have been the same clothes she wore the night before at the local bar. A white cottony tank top with embroidery at the neckline. A black pencil-slim skirt. Stiletto stacked black patten leather heels with an open toe and a tiny strap around each ankle. Her skin was olive and her face was drawn from too many years of being in the sun and smoking. Her eyes searched for the one thing that could make her day a little better at sometime before seven AM in the morning: the local Starbucks.

Creative Writing 101: A Passive Voice

Hi J.
How are you doing today
Is this a bad time for you
Because if it is, I can go
We can talk some other time
When it's convenient for you
You seem like you're busy
I'm so sorry-
I don't want to be in the way
You can call me later
If you want (or not)
Whatever. Have a good day.