Category: Generic

Risky Behavior

I did two crazy things this morning and it’s still not even time to punch in to work.

  1. I left the house
  2. I recorded myself singing

It was risky behavior, not because I left the house.  Sure, I left the house but I never left the car.  I never even cracked the windows.  No, it was risky behavior because the security guard working at the strip mall whose parking lot I was hiding in buzzed me twice in his mall security mobile.  If he had come over to me I would have had to explain what I was doing and boy would that have been embarrassing.  I’m glad I avoided that hassle.

My mobile studio:

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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.