Category: Generic

April Music Lives Again

I went three whole days without doing any work on the April Bonus RPM Challenge.  I had four songs needing lyrics and those plus two others needing vocals and leads.  I was stuck on the lyrics.  On Monday I was able to come up with a melody for song number eight but I was coming up dry for words.  Each night on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I set aside time in my schedule to try again and ended up doing something else.

That changed last night.  I finished #8 and picked off #9.  Today I did the same for #’s 10 and 11.  All the lyrics are done and I have a melody for everything.  That means tomorrow…

Singing in the car, babie!

The music is alive once more!

Desk Craziness

Forgive me, but I am going to reuse a picture I posted yesterday.

Working from home has caused some desk setup questions that I didn’t want to deal with, but I think I finally have.

Prior to social distance I had two laptops on my desk in our home office.  I used my MacBook Pro along with a second monitor for all but the eight hours I was telecommuting on Thursdays.  While telecommuting, I switched to a second laptop, running Windows 10.  I used the same second monitor.  I have a 3-1 adapter that has a USB 2.0, HDMI, and USB C input into a single USB C plug.  I had my USB dock, my monitor, and my power all running into it.  When I switched from Mac to Windows I’d just pull the adapter out of one machine and plug it into the other.  Done.

Once the lockdown started I brought my work PC home from Waltham and used that instead of the Windows laptop.  I couldn’t use the same monitor cable for both machines, and the desktop doesn’t have a USB C port, so I was pulling plugs in and out twice a day.

On top of that, Jen and I are both working from home, both in the same room, and both having to join meetings at the same time.  To deal with this I moved my Windows laptop to our bedroom and jokingly called it the conference room.  At first I was using a dinner tray table as a desk, then I setup one of Jen’s old desks instead, and then Jen brought a monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse out and turned the spot into an actual work station.

Yesterday Jen and I both had meetings scheduled for the better part of the day so I bit the bullet and moved my Waltham desktop into the bedroom and spent the whole day in there.  I was planning to move it back to the office this weekend, but instead I talked it over with Jen and we decided to keep a Windows desk in the bedroom and an Apple desk in the office.

Now I am a two desk crazy person.  Certifiably.

237/365

Untitled

The minute the lock down ends, my Waltham machine goes back to Waltham and I move all my stuff back to the office. This is temporary.

One More Serial Number Fun Post

My Gibson ES-335 Pro was the 127th guitar stamped in Kalamazoo on Wednesday December 5, 1979.

My Gibson SG Standard doesn’t follow the same serial number method as my two 70’s Gibsons.  There is much less to play with now as the first two digits are the model year (not necessarily the year the guitar was built, kinda like cars) and the remaining seven digits are just a counter for that model year.  My guitar is the 22,586th 2018 model guitar.

I never noticed it before, but there is a Made in USA stamp on my Les Paul.  My ES-335 does not have a Made in USA stamp, but it does have SECOND in it’s place.  It was a factory second, kinda like clothes were a slight defect will keep the item from passing Quality Control, but it isn’t bad enough to stop it from selling at a slight discount.  I believe my 335 is seconded because of a hole in the finish on the back of the guitar.  It’s never bothered me in the slightest.

My SG includes both a Made in USA stamp and a 2018 Model stamp.  Just in case the serial number didn’t give it away.  I bought the SG new and I have all of the case candy.  That includes a filled out QC checklist card that is dated 10/12/17… so my 2018 guitar was actually made in 2017.  It has a model number too, SGS18HC… something or other… CM1, or CH1, or something like that.  The hand writing is a little tough to make out.  They also sent a picture of my guitar sitting on the QC work bench where it was apparently plugged into a Boss tuner pedal…. I don’t like Boss pedals.  That actually makes me sad.

As for the model number, SGS is SG Standard, 18 is the model year, HC is probably hard shell case.  The rest?  I don’t know, and Google doesn’t tell me anything.

Well, that’s it for serial numbers for my electric guitars.  I suppose I could go look at my Takamine acoustic 12-string but… I don’t wanna.

Happy Friday!

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 23

Ever since I started using the CPAP machine and wearing my Apple Watch to sleep, the first thing I do in the morning is check the SleepWatch app on my iPhone to check out my numbers.

This morning when I woke up I took my phone off the swanky charger thingie… inductive?  enducive?  What ever the hell they call it.  I opened up the SleepWatch app and…

Their servers are down.

I can’t see my numbers.

That was 3.5 hours ago and it’s still down.

But… but… but… what am I going to do without my numbers?  How am I going to get through the day?  Are the SleepWatch staff even still working through the lock down?

I NEED MY NUMBERS!  The CPAP app gave me a 98.  It ran for seven hours so I got full marks there, but I took the mask off too many times and lost two points.  98 is pretty sweet.  It doesn’t tell me how my heart rate dipped though.  It doesn’t give me sleep time vs restful sleep time.

I NEED MY NUMBERS!