We had a video conference tonight with my family, my sister and her family, and my brother and his family. Everyone is okay. Going a tiny bit stir crazy maybe, but otherwise okay. It made me very happy.
Category: covid-19
The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 9
I mentioned in one of my psychotic, depressed rants yesterday that we are trying to give ourselves the illusion that we have control over at least some parts of the current situation. Deluded? Yeah, probably.
One thing we are doing to exert control over the universe is making the bed every morning. Neither Jen nor I are the kind of people who worry about making the bed every day. In the current circumstance though? Yeah, we’re making the bed every morning. Control what you can. Forget about all the rest.
Fight the Urge to Stress Shop
One of the slew of guitar orientated BookFayce groups I belong to had a post a few minutes ago where one of my fellow members confessed to stress-buying a guitar pedal.
Fulltone is a company that manufactures pedals. I own three of them. Well… more like two and a half. Two different versions of one pedal, and then a second pedal. Whatever. Suffice to say they make good stuff and I am a happy repeat customer. I am also on their email list. I got an email from them a few minutes ago. I read some updates on things they are working on and I think I literally salivated a little.
Unlike my fellow BookFayce sufferer, I have managed to stop myself from stress-buying… anything. Not just guitar gear, but anything. The only thing I’ve spent money on since the quarantini kicked off is food and one tank of gas in the Kia. That’s it.
My thinking is simple. If we don’t spend any money during the quarantininess, I should be able to afford a new Les Paul once it’s all over. If it lasts another month or so I’ll be able to afford one of those sweet 2019 Les Paul Standards (with the gold finish because I’ve always wanted a gold top). If it lasts through the Spring, like many people believe it will, I’ll be able to afford a nice late 60’s Les Paul Custom, in black, of course. If it lasts into next year… well… with that much money saved we can start looking at something from the late ’50’s. Probably not a Burst (capital B) but maybe a ’56 or a ’57? Maybe a ’59 junior? Sky’s the limit, kids!
Air
My wife and I just took a 15 minute walk around the block.
I’m not going to say I feel all better. I don’t feel all better, but I do feel better. My back is aching a bit, but at least I got some fresh air. If it were 10 degrees warmer we’d open all the windows in the house too. You take what you can get though.
I Don’t Have the Tools
I had a bad morning. I was all emotional and messed up and stuff. Two really awful night’s sleep in a row put me in a pretty screwy state of mind. Before I fell into my personal little black hole I was talking to Jen about things we can do to keep our heads. Seems ironic now. I said that I need to try and give myself the illusion of control over our crummy situation and one of the ways I can do that is to try and be creative. I’m going to keep trying to write and record terrible songs until it’s all over. Of course I had the opportunity to work on music this morning but did I? No. Bad day.
March is almost over. I want to do another 10 songs in April. My tiny little brain wants to change the March process up (guitar straight into an amp, like some kind of neanderthal) by allowing one pedal. My little Fuzz Face mini. I have heard that a Fuzz Face circuit is really simple. What, thought me, if I gave myself another project and finally built a pedal of my own? There are companies that will sell you kits with all the parts you need and you just have to assemble it all. I was so going to do it. Then I realized I don’t own a soldering iron. Or solder. Or literally any tool required to build a circuit board. Damn it. I guess we’ll punt on this until after the COVID-19 gives us our lives back.
I did go looking for youtube videos showing people building fuzz pedals. There are a couple, but nothing really like what I want to see. Instead I found an episode of That Pedal Show from 2015. I’ve never watched this one, but they compare a few different Fuzz Face pedals.
Let this video kill off 11-12 minutes worth of your coronavirus exile.
The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 8
Last night I had a really bad night’s sleep. I slept a decent length of time, but I was more exhausted when I woke up than when I went to bed. Yesterday was the same. I blame two little events that happened on sleepiness.
Yesterday before work, maybe around 8:00 AM, I was sitting in the office trying to write a melody for one of my March Music RPMarch songs. I wasn’t getting anywhere and I decided to go and get myself some breakfast. I got up and walked through the office door. Somehow I misjudged the spacial relationships (like sum kinda cat with cut off whiskers or something) and I slapped my left elbow against the door. I got it right on the funny bone. MuthaPussBucket!
Last night after work I was sitting in the office trying to write lyrics to one of my March Music RPMarch songs. I wasn’t getting anywhere and I decided to take a break. I was going to grab some cookies (Nutter Butters, aka Bliss) and watch an episode of The Flash. On my way back from the kitchen I again misjudged the spacial relationships (like some kinda chump) and I slammed my right elbow against the door. I got it right on the funny bone. MuthaPussBucket!
Note: My spell check does not flag MuthaPussBucket as a misspelled word, even though it isn’t even really a word. One of the times I typed it I misspelled it as MuthaPussPucket and the spell checker flagged it. Do I use the word MuthaPussBucket so often that the spell checker lets it slide?
To paraphrase my high school principal’s morning announcement sign off, have a happy and healthy day and don’t forget to wash your damn hands.
Guilt
I follow a lot of musicians on various social media platforms. I follow a lot of performers. I follow a lot of politicians too. They all have something in common right now.
They all want my money.
Politicians are looking for money because it’s an election year. Performers are looking for money because COVID-19 has put them out of work. None of them are asking for handouts, but they are all asking. Please buy some merch. Please by my music on bandcamp. Please buy a ticket to my stageit show. Please pledge on patreon.
I have the same answer to all of these requests. I would if I could, but I can’t. We’re still working but the economy is collapsing. I can’t afford to give money to any cause right now. We could all be out of work tomorrow. How can I give you money today when my family might need food tomorrow. Come on, I can’t help you guys. I want to, I swear I do and I absolutely would if the situation were different. It’s not though, so don’t be surprised when I get tired of feeling the guilt and start lashing out.
The world is shit right now for all of us. I can’t help you without putting my family at risk. Just lay off, please.
The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 7
It’s been a week and a half, can I get used to this already? Come on, this is stupid.
My normal-life telecommuting day is Thursday. New episodes of Star Trek Picard come out on Thursdays.
A few minutes ago I was shaving… why? I don’t know. As I was shaving I thought to my idiot self, I’m working from home today so there is a new Star Trek Picard to watch before work. Sweet!
Wrong.
It’s Wednesday. It’s my eighth consecutive telecommuting day. Why the hell can’t I stop thinking every single effing day is Thursday? Brain, would you get on this please? I’m tired of being disappointed over no new Picard every single solitary day! Enough already!
And what the hell am I gonna do when Picard is over? I should have three more weeks of The Walking Dead followed by the premier of the new spin off. Wrong. It’s two more weeks and then nothing. The season finale of The Walking Dead isn’t finished and it won’t be until after this all clears up. It has been delayed indefinitely. The new series is also still in post production so they are pushing that off indefinitely too. Same with (at least some) of the CW DC Comics shows. The final episodes are being delayed until it’s all over. Bloody hell!
That’s all right though, our schmuck of a president say’s all of the restrictions will be lifted by Easter. He said it would be so great to see all of the churches full. When I heard that I realized what his goal was. He doesn’t want to be remembered as a nazi. He wants to be remembered as a great nazi. Therefore he is going to arrange for the death of millions of Americans. He’s going to go down in history as the first great mass murderer of the 21st century. Why should hitler have all the fun, right?
Our president is evil. He’s going out of his way to demonstrate it each and every day.
Okay, so this goofy post about feeling stir crazy got a little heavy right there. It’s okay. It needed to be said.
Don’t Read the News
If you enjoy freaking out and panicking over the state of the world related to COVID-19 then by all means go ahead and read the news. I often start my lunch break by perusing Google News. I look through the headlines of the topics I follow and if something catches my interest I’ll open it up in a new tab and save it for later. Once I’ve gone through the front page I pop on over to those other tabs and start-a-readin’.
In our present global situation though, a quiet little lunchtime activity like that is enough to either make me want to punch everyone on Earth square in the face, or curl up in a ball and cry as the world around me collapses into anarchy. Yeah, both alternatives sound like so much fun.
In one article I read a few minutes ago, the Governor of New York said that things are falling apart much faster than anticipated. He said the Federal Government (I don’t recall which agency) has a stockpile of about 20,000 respirators. New York estimates they need 30,000. The Feds (I think he said FEMA) agreed to send 400. Four Hundred.
Who was it, the Lt Governor of Texas, I think, who yesterday said that grandparents are willing to die in order to save the US economy. Really. I am not kidding you. Some numb nuts actually said that. The nerve… the gall… the stupidity. I said it in a post yesterday and I’ll say it again. These fascists clearly care more about giving money to billionaires than they do about the lives of the people who put them in their offices. Their constituents are worth less to them then their bank balance. If that isn’t evil, then what is?
A few weeks ago I got into a minor online argument with a maga cult member who swore that electing a socialist like Joe Biden… as if Joe Biden had a socialist bone in his body… would burn down the entire country. As of this moment, there is a bill being hammered out in the US Legislature that is by all accounts near completion that will see the US government send checks of $2400 to married couples, with an additional $500 per child. Funny… I don’t hear those maga cult members I was arguing with complaining about socialism now. Now that the high priest of fascism, the cheeto himself has come out in favor of this plan. Is socialism no longer the devil that you swore it was? How does that work? Is it not socialism if a republican does it? Hypocrites.
Okay, I’m done with the news today. I’m going to put my headphones back on and listen to podcasts about Sunday’s episode of The Walking Dead. After that, maybe some prog rock. Probably no blues today… my heart can’t really take that right now.
Wash your damn hands.
Their Money or Your Life
Trump and his collaborators are talking about ending the stay at home coronavirus response so that people will go back to work and the economy will recover.
If you thought for a second that your life was more important to them than their donors’ money then you are as big a moron as they think you are.
Inside the Red Head's Head 