Thursday, April 07, 2011
One of These Days
Once again I enter the blogosphere to hone my shiny skills. It seems the only three things I am consistent with are waking up and dropping off to sleep. Like a wound up clockwork, every day. It's not boring or difficult. It's just something I seem to be good at repeating.
Reading Blogs I am very consistent doing. Well really, only one blog in particular as it turns out. Pharyngula. I am probably repeating myself here.
I returned to the VA nutritionist the other day after 9 months or so of being on the TLC diet deal. I had lost 31 pounds, my blood work and other labs came back so good that she felt compelled to call my home and leave a message to call her. Both the nutritionist and my physician were very impressed. The doctor even immediatly sent out a letter of congratulations and praise that very day. The nutritionist lady told me that the doctor never sends those kinds of letters so she must have been very, very impressed and happy.
This is the fourth time over the last 15 years that they've wanted me to fix myself and the other times I just never followed through with the goods. Now I am their poster child of success and a job well done. I'm not done yet, but it is a very concrete milestone set in the ground of time.
Since I last reported, I have started learning to play the blues on the guitar. I am learning the scales surrounding that sound. And in the process, I am learning a lot of the different scales on the neck. In all my 57 or so years and years of playing the guitar I never knew even one single scale at all. I could sorta pick out some plucks on the strings that sounded better that others and I knew many players could really string them together, but I wasn't able to do it. Of course I knew in my head there were such things as scales, I never thought beyond do, re, mi etc. I didn't know there were such things as Major and minor Pentatonics in every key. I pretty much only knew some chords that some of them sounded better together than others. A little bit of training early on would have been good for my progression. My teacher probably didn't know the scales, but he played the notes that are actually framed and built on particular scales. He was doing it by ear and copying what he saw others doing. I could only watch others and try to do what they did. Turned out to not be too efficient in my case. 40 years later and I am just getting around to learning the A minor Pentatonic scale. Immediate revelation: Oh....That's how they do that! Sigh. I couldn't even remember the names of the six strings except for the 2 E strings. All these years. I definitely didn't know any of the notes on the finger board. They were all just sitting right there under my fingers. I knew a lot of the basic chords and shapes, but no note names. Oh well, it gives me something to do in my waning years. I figure I have 40 or 50 left. If my fingers don't fall off, I'll be playing the whole time.
In a related vein, I am getting a Mac from Ef, probably this afternoon. It will run the software I have to record music in my room. It’s a professional level type deal with a box I can plug in instruments and stuff. Maybe I will upload some more to YouTube hyoidbone54 if anyone is interested. Well, I'm stoked about my weight and my blues. Later.
Reading Blogs I am very consistent doing. Well really, only one blog in particular as it turns out. Pharyngula. I am probably repeating myself here.
I returned to the VA nutritionist the other day after 9 months or so of being on the TLC diet deal. I had lost 31 pounds, my blood work and other labs came back so good that she felt compelled to call my home and leave a message to call her. Both the nutritionist and my physician were very impressed. The doctor even immediatly sent out a letter of congratulations and praise that very day. The nutritionist lady told me that the doctor never sends those kinds of letters so she must have been very, very impressed and happy.
This is the fourth time over the last 15 years that they've wanted me to fix myself and the other times I just never followed through with the goods. Now I am their poster child of success and a job well done. I'm not done yet, but it is a very concrete milestone set in the ground of time.
Since I last reported, I have started learning to play the blues on the guitar. I am learning the scales surrounding that sound. And in the process, I am learning a lot of the different scales on the neck. In all my 57 or so years and years of playing the guitar I never knew even one single scale at all. I could sorta pick out some plucks on the strings that sounded better that others and I knew many players could really string them together, but I wasn't able to do it. Of course I knew in my head there were such things as scales, I never thought beyond do, re, mi etc. I didn't know there were such things as Major and minor Pentatonics in every key. I pretty much only knew some chords that some of them sounded better together than others. A little bit of training early on would have been good for my progression. My teacher probably didn't know the scales, but he played the notes that are actually framed and built on particular scales. He was doing it by ear and copying what he saw others doing. I could only watch others and try to do what they did. Turned out to not be too efficient in my case. 40 years later and I am just getting around to learning the A minor Pentatonic scale. Immediate revelation: Oh....That's how they do that! Sigh. I couldn't even remember the names of the six strings except for the 2 E strings. All these years. I definitely didn't know any of the notes on the finger board. They were all just sitting right there under my fingers. I knew a lot of the basic chords and shapes, but no note names. Oh well, it gives me something to do in my waning years. I figure I have 40 or 50 left. If my fingers don't fall off, I'll be playing the whole time.
In a related vein, I am getting a Mac from Ef, probably this afternoon. It will run the software I have to record music in my room. It’s a professional level type deal with a box I can plug in instruments and stuff. Maybe I will upload some more to YouTube hyoidbone54 if anyone is interested. Well, I'm stoked about my weight and my blues. Later.
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