Small Home Project

Here are a couple of picture of a recent home project in which I mounted two guitar wall hangers to the wall. They are Hercules Hangers and you can pick them up for around $20 ea.
The hangers weren’t hard to install, but I suggest that if you can’t get a stud on the wall that you put in molly bolts, which I did. They seem to hold my guitars nicely and free up some floor space. I’ll probably buy a third one and also put it on the wall.

I needed a new stand to accommodate a new bass which I just got. I had wanted a bass for a while, but had just never gotten around to buying one. It wasn’t something I needed. I just wanted to be able to fill in some parts here and there when doing recordings.

As it turns out I had a TON of rewards points on my credit card. Surprisingly enough, they had a lot of musical equipment on there and when I was surfing around I found this bass. It’s a Schecter Omen Extreme 5-String Bass. I burned about ½ of my points, but it didn’t cost me a dime otherwise!!



I’m also glad I got the 5-string. I’m not a bass player and that is painfully evident when I play it, but I have really been making a lot of use out of the low B string. My fingers are mad at me right now as they are pretty sore from jamming on it for the last 2 days straight in a row. They’ll toughen up, but it will take a while.

Tooth Owie – I’m a Stud!

Or rather, I now have a stud. I finally got my implant put in this morning. While we didn’t plan on it my father, me, and my sister all had surgery this morning. I had my implant put in. My sister had a bone graft done on her jaw – so she could later get an implant, and my dad outdid us all by having a defibrillator & pacemaker combination put in.

I think I had the easiest time as it only took my surgeon about 30 minutes to do the procedure. It wasn’t painful, but there was a lot of pressure. I could actually feel the pressure difference in my skull when he put the implant in, and hearing them drill into my skull was a bit odd. You could “hear” it everywhere at once.

The doc offered to either put a temporary screw into the implant, in which case my gums would grow over it and they’d have to numb me up and cut me open again to get to it…..or I could have the little stud put in and they wouldn’t have to numb me up again. I’m not that vain so I went with option 2.

My sister apparently doesn’t do quite as well with dentists and what-not so they put her out for her ordeal, but I also understand that it’s a lot more invasive. Last I heard she was doing OK and resting up.

My dad also did just fine. When I went to see him at the hospital he was alert and seemed to be in a good mood. Other than him wearing a gown and having an incision just under his left collar bone you might not realize he just had surgery.

If you read the blog, you might recall that this started back in July!! Now I just have to wait about three months before I can get a new crown.

Giving Back to the Kiddies!

I’ve had a pretty good year financially. Sure, I’ve had some other issues this year, such as being diagnosed with diabetes, but I can’t complain financially. I’ve had a little extra money come in from natural gas revenue, and I’ve made a lot of money working my ass off all over the place.

If you are kid, stop reading this right now or you are going to be sorely disappointed…..

Now it’s that time of year to give back. I was recently reading an article on the post office secret Santa’s. When little kids write to Santa Clause the post office intercepts the mail and goes through it. The ones that are the obvious, standard, write to Santa letters are more or less discarded, but the ones that are clearly hard luck cases in need of help are pulled out and set aside. You can then volunteer to pick up a few of the letters and get the stuff for the kiddies. I wasn’t really aware of this program, but I typically do an Angel Tree, and participate in a toy run. Some years, I am unable to participate due to my schedule and I always feel terrible. But I was reading that article and it just killed me. It always kills me. I just can’t stand hearing about kids that need clothes and food and stuff.

When you are a little kid you are supposed to be asking Santa for a new bike, or Barbie, or baseball glove, or a bb gun or something. You’re not supposed to be asking for a new pair of jeans or some shoes because your parents can’t afford them this year. No kid should have to go through that. Think about it. You can ask for anything in the world, it’s Santa after all, and you are going through such hard times that you don’t even ask for toys. I can’t take it…seriously, practically tearing up just writing this.

So I go down to the Angel Tree and pick a few kids off the tree and try to get them what they need, plus a little extra so they can have some semblance of a Christmas. This year I grabbed a couple of kids off the tree – well not really the kids. They don’t stick the kids on a Christmas tree, that would be uncomfortable for the little bastards – and went off to do some shopping for them.

One of the kids is named Jose. He’s 12 and needs some jeans and stuff. I was at Target trying to find jeans in his size – a size 18, and I got really confused. Kids clothes are like chick clothes. They have sizes, not true measurements, and I couldn’t find anything that was a size 18. Everything at Target went up to a size 16 “husky” – why they don’t call it “chunky” I don’t know. I went around to the Adult isle just to make sure I wasn’t smoking crack, but think about how tiny someone would have to be to have an 18” waist. Nope, that wasn’t it. Apparently Jose is a fat bastard.

Being the resourceful person that I am I call my g/f up since she is near a computer and ask her if she can find some translation of kids size 18 to an adult size. I was thinking I just wasn’t getting it. But apparently there isn’t a translation. I guess one day you just stop buying kids clothes and start buying adult clothes. I’m not really sure how that works.

Anyway, so I explain my dilemma and ask her to help out. Naturally I tell her I luck out, and got a fat bastard, am having problems, and can she help? While she is looking the stuff up she says something to the effect of “why do they call them husky and not fat?” and I reply back “because it’s politically correct to say ‘my kid is husky’ and it’s not politically correct to say ‘my kid’s a fat bastard.’” Little did I know I was speaking more loudly than I should have and some mom overheard this. She was not pleased. I think she would have stabbed me to death or caused some other bodily harm if she could have gotten away with it. She turned around and huffed and puffed her way out of the department. I told my g/f this as I was laughing. We both agreed that her kid must also be a fat bastard.
I have to go to Old Navy tomorrow, because apparently they carry fat bastard clothes for little kids and Target only carry’s semi-fat bastard clothes for little kids. At least Jose will have some clothes he can wear and I got him an MP3 player and stuff, too.

The Salvation Army is doing the Angel Tree through Dec. 12th. Last day to “adopt” is the 11th and you have to have your stuff in on the 12th. If you can find the time, and a few extra bucks, please go down and help out. Some kid, fat or not, will really appreciate it and you’ll make their day!

Dean Markley Customer Service

Nope…this is not a rant about Dean Markley. Rather the opposite. I’ve played guitar longer than I care to admit. – over 20 years. I should be a lot better than I am, but I suck. I still play, but I think it’s some kind of self-torture at this point. I keep thinking I’ll get better, but I still suck.

Anyway, throughout the years I’ve tried a various types of strings, but my favorite and the one I always buy when I need new strings for my electric is Dean Markley Blue Steel. They carry a premium over the other strings, but I really like the way they play and sound.

The last two times I changed strings on my guitars I had at least one string that was bad. How can you tell that a string is bad? Well, if it’s not obvious when you pull it out of the package your intonation will be way off. Basically, intonation is the ability of the guitar to stay in tune anywhere on the neck. This is not a big deal, you just have to identify the bad string and replace it. However, when you are paying a slight premium for strings and have to open another set just to get one string it can be frustrating.

I wrote Dean Markley, explained what happened, and basically asked how this happens and wanted to let them know it was frustrating me. Not only did they write back and explain what might be causing it (defective batch), but offered to send me a few free sets. Now that is how customer service should be! Thanks Dean Markley!!

Assholes Get the Chicks

Anyone that has known me for any length of time has heard this before. I’d say it’s a long standing belief of mine, but it’s not a belief, it’s a fact. I recently picked up a Kindle Touch – the $99 one that comes with the ads. I’m too much of a cheap bastard to spring for the extra $30 and get the one without ads. I’m on the road (again) and using it to read my second e-book with it. The first thing I read was a novella by Stephen King. I keep meaning to do a quick write up on it, but I am not home and I am also still getting used to it, but so far I really like it.

But all of that is not the point. The second book I bought, and am about to finish, is called “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell” by Tucker Max. I think they may have even made a movie about it. I wanted to read the book for a while, but it’s still in the $20 range at the book store, and I’m a cheap bastard. E-book version? $5.00… hey! This e-book thing isn’t so bad after all!! But, I digress… Anyway, so I pick the book up and start reading it. I didn’t realize this guy had a web site (still not sure of the name, but I am sure a Google will bring it up). He’s pretty intelligent, obtained a law degree, and comes from a wealthy family…and he’s a complete dick to women. And, he gets more pussy than just about anyone I’ve ever heard of except for major celebrities. Assuming that everything he writes is true I can’t believe he gets away with it, but reading the book just drives home the point that nice guys finish last. Let that be a lesson to you. Now, though, I think he is beyond the Tipping Point, and chicks sleep with him because he’s the “thing to do.” If you don’t know what the Tipping Point is, go read about it. It’s a book by Malcom Gladwell. Also an excellent book.

But seriously, the book is great. He writes well, it’s an easy read, and it’s highly entertaining. I found myself practically choking on the airplane as I was trying to keep myself from laughing out loud. It’s also mostly excerpts from his blog so the stories are fairly short and broken down into quick chapters – you can pick it up, read for just a few minutes, and put it back down without forgetting where you were in the book.

If you like reading about wild, crazy, drunken debauchery then this is the book for you…..