Apparently an iPhone app was created that might work with my website. So I figured I would create a quick post to test its functionality. If it does work, I may just increase the frequency in which I post. 
If this worked, it should have a picture of my computer at work, complete with my DX1 programmable/customizable keyboard next to it.
If you were expecting this post to be more interesting, then I’m sorry to have disappointed you!
I love to learn. For example, I just learned that comments don’t post until I approve them. My first comment ever received has been approved and is now up. ><
Anyhow, I seem to be a sucker for musical instruments. Every time I see or hear a new one, I’m tempted to purchase it and “fiddle” (groan!) around with it. The latest one I’ve found is the Erhu, which is akin to what would be a Chinese violin. It sits in your lap, has two strings, and is played with a bow. Here’s a couple of video examples: Traditional | Western
Watching any of these music videos makes me pretty jealous, and I start thinking about buying one, taking lessons, and getting to a point where I can play the instrument without making people’s ears bleed. But then I take a step back. I realize that I’ve been through this cycle before, and I actually own a number of instruments, all of which I’ve only ever really dabbled with. I typically pick up an instrument, learn some of the math behind it, and usually stop playing sometime after I’ve taken the mystery out of it and can only see an insurmountable number of hours of practice ahead in order to become decent. I don’t stick with it.
When I was growing up, I had few musical influences. My parents weren’t the most musically inspired people, at least while I was growing up, so I didn’t listen to much. They would occasionally turn on a radio, or put in a cassette tape, but they didn’t really focus on teaching me much about the music that was playing. It was the TV age, and since there wasn’t a moving picture associated with the music, I found it hard to listen to. To this day, I really need to read the lyrics to a song before I can understand what the artist is saying.
But I wasn’t left entirely without exposure. I had a white Raffi cassette that I used to play constantly, which my father was eventually forced to repair after I had worn it out listening to “Joshua Giraffe”. I still remember many of the lyrics to “Oats and Beans and Barley” and most of “Baby Beluga”, which I played in an infinite loop.
Years later I upgraded my Fisher Price, firetruck red boom box with a hand-me-down stereo system. It had dual tape decks, which held my Batman and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles soundtracks. The former would put me to sleep at night, and the latter I would listen to the TMNT “Remix” over and over again, whilst jumping on my bed. I wore that tape out too. But the world would fix that…
One day I was called out to the front yard, and walked with my parents across the street to “Barbara and Allen’s” house. Their son (I think) came out and showed us a brand new invention called a “Compact Disc”. I remember staring at the rainbow lights that danced around its shiny surface. Soon after, my parents went out and bought a number of CD’s, along with a little mini player for them. This is really where I started to get my first “mature” taste in music. By the time I got to Junior High, my knowledge of music had been expanded to include Queen, Jimmy Buffet, UB40 and Harry Belafonte. Unfortunately, it seemed as though I was the only one of my peers that knew these bands. Attempting to fit in with my classmates I did my best to figure out what they listened to.
“Power 106″ was the radio station of choice for most individuals at Bell Intermediate. So, for the rest of the 7th grade, I turned that station on everyday when I got home from school. My otherwise innocent vocabulary was quickly expanded as my ears digested rap and hip hop songs. I heard a song that I felt a particular connection to, which was about two kids who were late to school after missing the bus… As I had done that a number of times, I asked my parents for a tape of this Kris Kross and memorized all the singles. After being able to impress others in the school yard, I felt comfortable in my musical life.
Then 8th grade happened. I had spent most of my summer listening to that same radio station, which was apparently the wrong thing to do (I didn’t get the memo?). When the school bell rang social awkwardness back into session, I saw words and phrases written on everyone’s binders in various mediums (pencil, whiteout, markers, etc). Essentially, it was always some play on the genre Rap, usually rhyming with “crap”. The new radio station it seemed a requirement to listen to was KROQ, and I went to work changing my presets and erasing previous knowledge of Boyz II Men, doing my best to conform.
Alternative Rock seemed to work for me, and I stayed with it most of my life. I’d still turn on classical music when I needed to concentrate or fall asleep, but I refrained from making that public knowledge. It just wasn’t cool.
So, present day, it appears “Irish Punk” is my favorite genre, introduced to me by a very musically inclined friend of mine. The songs seem richer than others, at least to me, with fiddles, banjos, acoustic and electric guitars, bagpipes, occasional trumpets, and melodic Irish accents. My mind never really gets bored of it (which is good, since I still have the same annoying, childhood habit of listening to the same thing over and over again), and I find myself wishing I knew how to play all the various instruments.
Fiddles, banjos, bagpipes…these instruments seem to speak to me. Versatile little guys, they can accompany or take center stage melody, and are all clearly recognizable, unique. Because of them, I will sometimes wake up from a day dream only to find myself hovering the mouse pointer over a “Buy Now!” button for a set of pipes. But I talk myself out of the purchase… After all, I already know the cycle.
Well, I think the cycle has gone on a bit long, and it’s about time I tried to break it. I’m going to California in a few days, returning a little over a week after that. I own plenty of instruments, and I figure I should make an effort at resuming my studies into one of them when I get back. But which one?
I work nights, with most of my “alone time” allocated to the late night hours after Miranda sleeps. As such, a guitar or my Hawaiian Ukulele is out of the question, lest I wake my wife from her already limited sleep. A few years ago she purchased a great keyboard for me, as I wanted to learn to play some piano. It has a headphone jack, I own several “Teach Yourself Piano” books already, and it would fit well in our living room…somewhere.
So, there’s the decision. When I get back from California, I’ll make a concerted effort to practice at night for 30 minutes. I will probably end up cutting my video game sessions down by half an hour to make room in my schedule, but I think I can afford it; I’m fairly well practiced at wasting time in front of a monitor as it is. Besides, I need to concentrate on something. I need to focus. I said it best when I was a maybe 6 or 7, grabbing for a brand new video camera my dad had just purchased:
“I wanna focus. Can I focus? I wanna focus…”
Well, I still need to find more of my photos to post, but a good amount have been added to the Gallery.
Tired, need sleep.
The second outdoor incident was my company’s first annual picnic in Austin. Located at Reunion Ranch, the event was held fairly out of the way from where we work, but really only a 30 minute drive or so from my apartment. The drive was scenic enough (it’s hard not to have a scenic drive around the Austin area), and we found the place with little difficulty.
Upon pulling up, we could see familiar faces all getting out of their cars into ~90 degree heat, most dressed in the unofficial uniform consisting of a black t-shirt (a special one had been made for this event) and blue jeans. A short walk and we found ourselves looking at a couple of well spaced, wooden pavilions amidst a large, green field surrounded by trees. A DJ was playing music I didn’t particularly care for one way or the other, and most individuals were gathering in any shade they could find.
As the day progressed, there were many events to take part in. Miranda and I went horseback riding for the first time in years to start the day off right. We met up with Josh and Melanie, and spent the rest of the day enjoying each other’s company. Josh challenged me to an “inflatable jousting” duel, which first required that one of us beat the current king-of-the-jousting-hill. Josh took the reins, and made short work of his opponent, leaving a spot open for me to challenge him. After a quick battle, I was able to knock Josh off of his post. However, I could quickly see why Josh was a fairly easy defeat; the battle had left me winded, and in turn, I was made short work of by the out-for-blood individual that challenged me. Ah well… Miranda and Melanie fought and ousted men that apologized every time they hit one of the females, torn between chivalry and not wanting to get beaten by the opposite sex.
Josh pointed out (read: challenged me to) another game called “The Bungee Run” where bungee cords are tied to the waist of each competitor, whom then must do their best to run against the pull of said cord and attempt to stick down a Velcro object at the apex of their attempt; the farthest one being the winner. Of course, once you’ve run out the length the cord allows you to travel, it immediately uses that “every action has an equal and opposite reaction” thing to great effect. As soon as you stick down your object, you’re torn away from your current location and sent back to the cord’s originating point, typically bouncing back down the lane head over heel. Josh put me to shame at this competition, not only winning with the farthest distance, but doing it without looking like a jackass.
We also engaged in several rock climbing races, a number of team oriented relay races with other employees, and a water balloon toss that resulted in each of us getting fairly wet.
Taking a break from the competitions, we decided some paddle-boating might be in order. Most of the boats were in use by others on the lake, but one was available, and it had four seats so we decided to all venture out into the water together. Josh and Melanie took up the front peddling positions, while Miranda and I settled into the back. Everything looked all a go, until one of the ranch employees pushed our boat off into the water. It was immediately apparent that our boat was too heavy (particularly on my end) as the entire front of the boat lifted mostly out of the water. The paddles underneath could only just make contact with the water, giving us a top speed of three knots per year. As well, the lip on the back end of the boat only had about an inch left before we started taking on water. Miranda and I did our best to put our weight as far forward as possible to avoid sinking. Melanie and Josh navigated the boat to some shoreline, where Miranda and I abandoned ship and let the two of them enjoy a trip around the lake alone, unencumbered.
By the end of the night, we were all fairly exhausted, and had a blast. We all felt fairly accomplished at a successful day in the outdoors, enjoying each other’s company, and even some sunshine.
Hopefully we all venture outside a little more often. 
(A few pictures of our outing can be seen in the gallery, with some of the ones taken with Josh’s camera hopefully being added in the near future.)
I don’t venture outside too often.
Between the Texas heat/humidity and the cancer-causing sun, outside seems fairly uninviting. So, I spend most of my time in air conditioning or quickly traveling too and from air conditioned environments. Since this is Texas, one rarely needs to spend more than a few minutes outdoors before they are in their next cold air sanctuary. This constant consumption of chill makes the weather quite bearable. In fact, so long as I make it to my next destination quickly, I hardly notice that weather exists.
But I don’t hate the outdoors. Actually, once I get outside and get used to the temperature (and apply a thick coating of sun block), I enjoy myself. This past month has given me two opportunities to subject myself to sunshine; both of which turned out to be some great times.
The first of those events was a visit to one of my favorite restaurants in Austin: Johnny Fins. Set right on the water of Lake Travis, Johnny Fins is a mere 10 minute drive from my apartment. The restaurant sits right on the water, built on the floating docks that surround it. During the warmer months live music (typically blues/western) plays and people occasionally dance. I think the food is pretty tasty, and the local wildlife seems to agree.
Earlier this month I took Miranda there during the afternoon, and we found ourselves sitting at a waterside table. We ordered an appetizer of chips and queso when a paddling of Mallards approached. I crushed a couple of tortilla chips and sprinkled the crumbs into the water. The ducks gathered, quickly consuming any bit that touched the water. After a few showerings of tortilla bits, Miranda joined in. We tossed entire chips into the water, and I hand fed a few of the braver birds that made land approaches on the nearby dock.
A few ducklings were also in the midst, doing their best to dart in and out of the others, attempting to use their young agility to win a few salty morsels. It wasn’t long before one of the little duckling’s bills found purchase on a floating chip. The sight was fairly hilarious: the little one would raise its head high in the air, and would literally run across the water, serpentining through the rest of its flock, until it was far enough ahead to enjoy its prize.
With our actual meals came French Fries which had a bit more mass to them, and as such were easier to throw to specific birds. We made games with a couple of mockingbirds that had heard about the free food, tossing timed bits of fry into the air on a count of three. More successfully than not, these were caught mid air. Any food not caught before it hit the water was immediately found in the stomach of a duck, or the occasional surface-dwelling fish.
It took almost two hours before we had finally had some food ourselves, and had run out of bits to throw in the water. We eventually left, with both ourselves and said local wildlife feeling satiated.
More outdoor activities continued in Part 2…
After a month of tweaking the site, changing art/layout/format, fiddling with code and tearing my hair out, I think I finally have the site looking how I’d like. The only last headache is figuring out a decent method for allowing me to upload pictures from my iPhone while I’m on the go…
So now that I find the site aesthetically pleasing, I hope to start adding some actual content here. I’ve had a number of things to write about as of late, so I suppose I’ll throw those up here as time permits…
Regardless of whether or not a Stimulus Check actually stimulates the economy, it does mean that we’ll be able to go to make our Summer trip to California without much stress.
Miranda just informed me that our stimulus check is planned to be deposited soon according to the IRS’ website. Woot!
Today I start the Verdant, a project with many purposes. A repository for ideas, a place where friends can share my experiences (without needing to log into some advertising hungry behemoth of a website), and where I can place my musings/rants throughout the week/month/whenever I update. We’ll see how long this lasts.