Pay Day

Usually this is a good day but today was no so joyous. I've been told not to work any overtime. This coming after a time of 6-day weeks and 9-hour days. There is a big difference in my checks then and my checks now. Needless to say, I was disappointed.

I plan to make some pretty major change in the near future. I don't really know what all may change, but I'll keep you abreast of what happens. Now there are just plans, plans that are to prone to change to commit to posting.

Maybe its just the weather, but its kind of a down day. There's not a whole lot to get excited about. I even plan to hang out with one of my good friend later on. This is something I haven't done in a while and I was pretty excited about doing that, but its cold and raining and that pretty much sucks the fun out of everything.

Tuning and Intonation

Chapter 2 of "The Guitar Cookbook" is about, of corse, tuning and intonation. The principals covered in this chapter are no mystery, but I would like to stress a couple of points it made. First, the last direction made while tuning a string should always be a tightening motion, not loosening. This will help the string stay in tune longer. Second, and this one was new on me. When intonating a guitar, one matches the pitch of the open string to the 12th harmonic of the same string. I've personally have been matching the open string to the 12th fretted note of the some string. So for the last 10+ years that I've known how to intimated a guitar, I've been doing to incorrectly. I now have a project before me. I will intonate the 4 guitar that I have with adjustable bridges.

On another note, I've been trying to increase my upper body strength. So far my workout consist of 50 sit-ups and 10(ish) push ups. I timed my self doing the sit-ups this morning, 1:48. Not bad if I do say so myself. I lost some steam there at the end. Bet I can that down to a minute thirty if I keep at it. I also have to find a way to do pull-up in an apartment. Jen and I don't want to install a permeant pull-up bar anywhere. To be continued I guess. I'll let you know how all that is going later.

I don't know if this is bad or not, but I want another guitar. I love all of my instruments, but the qualities that make them great also set them apart from other instruments. Then I recognize the qualities in the other instruments and I wants those. No one instrument can contain the whole spectrum and now it has come to me wanting another. Sorry Jen. I know that I've exhausted my budget for musical thing for the next several months, but I have some gear that I can not use at the moment or in the near future and this wishful acquisition is for immediate use. Plus, I know this hard to believe, but I've been want this (or at lease a model very close to it) for a very long time. I sold a guitar to an young musician that needed a quility instrument, and I've been pining for something with similar features. That was a Seagull guitar and this is a Seagull guitar with a great pickup system. An acoustic guitar with L.R. Baggs Ribbon and Mic. You can use a mounted mic in your guitar and blend it with a traditional ribbon style acoustic pick-up. Thats awesome. Better yet, the guitar sounds like a dream unplugged. I want it bad, but I can't have everything. I'll have to do some soul-searching. But I think I can make a trade for it with no money down.

Heres hoping.

The Washer

Yes. The Washer.

My parent did a great thing and gave us our first set of washer and drier for the apartment. We were thrilled. We finally didn't have to go to one of our parents houses to wash our clothes. It was a very exciting day. I felt like a man because I hooked up the driers power cable. It was a little more in-depth than I would have thought. You have to put wires on terminals and whatnot. But it works and I can't be more proud. The washer on the other hand just need hoses to be attached. I did that no problem, but there was a problem. After running the washer for the first time, we noticed a strong smell. Something like burnt rubber was filling the air. Not a good sign for a brand new large appliance. So we took the washer back to the store with the aid of my father and his truck. I hooked the new, new washer up (a little less pride and achievement this go-around) and the same results happened. After some consideration. Jen and I decided to exchange the washer for a different one. My father and I did so today. We came back, the washer was installed and the problem for now is fixed. If there is any malfunction with this washer then we will consult the warranty.

My Wife blog has inspired me to do a little post of my own. I just acquired "The Guitar Cookbook" by Jesse Gress. By the way, Jesse if you are reading, Please don't sue my or anything. I promise I'll Share any revenue that the Google Ads are generating if I break a million dollar with the mention of you book. So far the Google Ads have brought in a whopping $0.00 to our household. So, Here is what I plan to do. I am first going to read "The Guitar Cookbook" Cover to cover, and then I will go to town implementing my learned knowledge in practical form, informing all the way. Today I read the first chapter. The first chapter really explains the basis of music and how it relates to the guitar. I have been playing for the past 11 years. I've played in many different scenarios and have learned a great deal the hard way. I really didn't learn anything new in this chapter, but it's always good to reinforce the basics. The better foundation you have the stronger your skills you build upon that foundation can become. So here is to much more learning and progression in the way of my musical ability with the guitar.

My Morning

This morning I fully intended on being at work at 8, although I recently had a meeting with my bosses reinforcing the fact that they do not want employees to earn overtime. oops, I've been making about 10 hour of OT a week. Silly me, I though they wanted to get work done, oh well. So Yesterday I left at 4. It felt weird, but I'm not really complaining, except for the fact that I won't be paid what I have been getting paid. ...bummer. Oh, so why am I sitting at the house not going to work at 7:48? I decided to get in at 8:15. I spoke with my GM yesterday about this. She said that it would be Ok to come in later, but I like coming in before the store opens. I can get more done that way. But today I will get the at around 8:15 and leave at 4:15. 8 hours a day from now on. It just doesn't seem like a full day's work if I'm not complete sick of the place at the end of the day. Oh well, maybe this will be a positive experience.

Day Off

I know most people would be excited to have a day off during the week, but I am kinda forced to take a day off now. I actually enjoyed making the overtime, but it probably for the best that I only spend 4o hours of my week there. Honestly, I think that place can drive a person mad. In my opinion, it already has. (not me of course)

What am I doing on this glorious day with no work related obligations? Well, So far I've woke up, showered, drank a cup of coffee, (jen if you are reading this, we need to get better coffee... the target stuff is not cutting it) and spent a good deal of time looking up scales and various other techniques for the guitar. I think that is what I'm going to focus on during my days off. I'm going to better myself at the guitar, my instrument of choice. I guess since I own 6 (six) guitars (and three basses) I should invest time into bettering my skills. I know that six guitars sounds like a lot, but each one has characteristics that make it unique. I have a tele with thin-line humbuckers, another tele with p-90s, another tele with humbuckers, an SG with humbuckers, a guild jumbo acoustic, and a washburn acoustic. I still pine for gear and whatnot but I try to keep the toll of my interest to a minimum. When your money goes for "my money" to "our money" you have to check yourself. I'd have no problem buy a pedal for a hundred or two hundred dollar, if it were really the one that I could not live without, but jen would not see the value in that. I admit there are just as many cases that I don't see how you can spend what she would on her crafty things or other nic-nacs that fills her heart with flutters.

In order to constructively spend my time on my off days, I will devote at least one hour to learning a new skill on the guitar. Although I have no material and most of the material online is on a purchase basis, or poorly written in a wiki format. Perhaps I will keep an eye out for a book to advance my skill. I have been playing for 11 years and maybe my learning curve has plato-ed. Hopefully I can teach this old guitar-dog some new tricks.

My Wifey

I know that I've Told you a little bit about my wife, but you can here it from the source. She has her own blog at blogger, http://jencreary.blogspot.com/ . Check it out, or not, your choice. But you should check it out. Just saying...

Ha?

Today has been good. I don't really know why today was good. I didn't take a shower or really get ready much, but sometimes thats how I like to start my day. Work was a blur. I was very busy all day. I never would guess that I would be busy for a solid nine and a half hours. No joke, I don't really stop the entire time I'm there. What all do I do? Well, I manage a website, but what does that boil down to? I take pictures, Lots of pictures. Our product doesn't always have pictures so I have to make the pictures. At the beginning of my work at Davis' Men's Store, I took pictures of clothes laying on a large piece of foam-board. (for a background) Now I dress mannequins with pins in a type of studio that I've constructed out of a dressing room that we use as a storage closet. We still use it as a storage closet but now it just has a photography light and some foam board. I've taken a photography class and a photoshop class. After a year of doing both I've gotten pretty good. (and pretty darn fast) It's like pulling teeth sometimes, because I have these big and tall clothes that have to fit of the awkward body forms. Taking the pictures, then editing, then posting, then describing, is very involved and I've pretty much gone pro. Still Learning, but I come a long way from a year ago and I can wait to see what the next year will bring. Maybe I'll go into buisness for myself and start taking picture of big and tall clothing free agent... or maybe not...

Who Dat!

The Super Bowl is coming up and being down here in LA its important to show some support for the local team. Actually, I've been a fan of the black & gold for as long as I've been here in Louisiana (12 years). It feels good to finally be going to the Super Bowl. I know there have been some waiting a much longer time. It almost feels like winning the Super Bowl just getting this far. Farther than we've ever been. Like back when we took the NFC for the first time. One step at a time, and now its time to take the SB!

So let me let you know what's up. I work for a small company that owns a local store and websites. I manage these websites. I've been at this job for a little over a year now. We hit peaks just before Spring and Fall, when the new styles roll out. My job includes getting pictures for our products, assigning to the correct places in our online store, and writing descriptions among lots of other things (thats right, I have to write and type in my job). So this season they implemented a new strategy. They basically divided my job in half between me and another worker. That's not terrible except that it is. Product that I could normally add in a day now takes several days. Not good when profit is more likely when you have the product sooner than your competitors. Oh well, hopefully they will realize this is a bad idea and also note that I didn't like it, thus reflecting well on me.

Yeah, so I got a little stressed over the new situation at work, but as long as I do my job then it all be fine. In fact I get to focus on the part of my job that enjoy the most. I now want a deep-fried-twinky. Thats about it for now...

-laters

Woops... Its Been a while

So its been a couple of days since I've been on here. Why? you ask, well, I've been busy getting my life is order after the honeymoon. Work has also kept me busy. Although I've been enjoying the almost daily escapes for work to run to the DMV or band to set up joint accounts or getting the information changed on our drivers licenses.

Let me catch you up to speed. I ended up buying the SG in the music store in Springfield. Yes, Its nice. We are still driving my mother-in-law's (thats still a funny word to use) car around. Work still drags me out of bed way to early in the morning. and I still love the fact that me and Jen are married. Thats about all thats going on right now. We are just adapting to married life and all the treasures and terrors that may include.

Super Stoked about the Saints in the Super Bowl this weekend. Hope the Saints Win! WHO DAT!