Upside

At least there is a cool fountain outside of my window. There’s your upside, right?

Scared?

(This is not COVID-19 related)

Raise your hand if you’re terrified of going into the lion’s den…..

Early impressions are poison ivy (I guessed that) and acute tendinitis (I didn’t guess that).

Photo a Day

This little stinker right here is photo number 351 of 365…

That’s incorrect though. It should be 351 of 366. I’ve been labeling all of these things as x/365 because when I started on September 1, 2019 I completely forgot to account for 2020 being a leap year. So instead x/365 should have been x/366 from day one.

Once I realized that I was using the wrong label I thought… ah, screw it. I just kept on doing it wrong. So instead of labeling things correctly, I am just going to go an extra day and have the last post be 366/365. Who said any of this crap needed to make sense.

Of course, I am 100% positive that I just jinxed myself and even though there are only 15 days left I am guaranteed to blow it. Like the moron that I am.

Lots of fulltone Free Guitar

I put rhythm guitars on three songs and leads on two. I used my new Black Lives Matter overdrive pedal on all of it and it is soooo sweet. The Dan side of the D&M Drive is a good alternative to an OCD that doesn’t include any racists bullshit, but it was never quite equal. Now that issue has been resolved. The hole in my life that opened when I trashed my fulltone pedals has been filled by an OCD clone that is racists bullshit free and it is glorious. My OCD was a version 1.7, and the Black Lives Matter pedal is based on a version 1.2, but if this is how it sounds then I would have been just as happy with a 1.2 as a 1.7.

The pedal is on the big board, but it’s not velcro’d yet.

Most of what I did tonight was just the BLM on its own. I did use the Phase 90 and the Crybaby here and there, but it wasn’t until I started doing leads that I stacked the BLM after the KTR and it was just as glorious as I’d hoped. I still have to try it out at gig volume, but for now I’m willing to say that I am really, really happy.

This puts me at 19 songs finished, two ready to mix, and seven ready for lyrics/melody/vocals for a grand total of 28. I need to get to at least 34 by the end of August to stay on pace for 50 songs in 90 days.

How about the pain in my injured left thumb? I took a fist full of Tylenol about an hour before I started playing. I was in some pretty serious pain on the first song or two, but it eased up quite a bit after that. Something is wrong. I’m thinking of going to a doctor on Tuesday. I’ve got this really maddening little rash on my right arm too. I am literally falling apart before my own eyes.

New Pedal Day

All the tone of a fulltone ocd with none of the racist bullshit.

This is the boutiquiest thing I’ve ever been a part of. Malaise Forever is a guy in Columbus (go Blue Jackets) who builds pedals. In this case, the order was placed before the pedal was built. Does that mean it was made to order? Probably not, but let’s pretend, yeah?

A piece of the profit from the sale of this pedal was given to organizations fighting for racial justice and to protect civil liberties.

Go buy something from this guy. If there ever was a pedal builder deserving support it’s Malaise Forever.

Three Leads

After recording vocals on five songs this morning, I put leads on three of them tonight. I could have done more, but I decided to quit while I was ahead.

So my thumb… I hurt it weeks ago. I don’t remember how, I just woke up one day and ouch. It wasn’t bad. It was annoying, but nothing to worry about. I figured in a day or two it would be history.

Instead, it’s gotten steadily worse over time. The last couple of days it’s been really bad. Like, bad enough that I’m thinking of breaking lock down to go get an x-ray or something. Clearly there’s a bigger issue than just a boo boo.

Tonight was the first time since it started being a major problem that I tried to play the guitar. How’d it go? Okay. There was some pain, but the motions my left hand needs to do to play are not those that really kick my ass. I feel like I’m lucky, but will it get worse? Who knows.

I used my full pedal board tonight so I’ve been getting goofy with all of the toys. I used a fuzz pedal tonight, and the uni-vibe pedal and a flanger and lots of wah wah. Goofy, but fun. Just feeling good about my hand not sabotaging me. Like, whew, am I right?