This and That - Musing, Muttering, and Moaning About Stuff

Poetry, music, film, even life itself means different things to different people. You can't understand where the other fellow is coming from unless you see things exactly as he does. (Or she as the case may be, it's inclusive we are here at The Chant.)

And yeah, lately I'm all about the music. It's been a long, long time since I've held guitar in hand and tried to put a few chords together to make my own songs. There were a few chord progressions that I really, really liked. But it's been over fifteen years and while I might remember a few things, much has been lost in the intervening days, weeks, months, and years. Time flies when one is having fun, but it also flies if one isn't paying attention.

I listen to a lot of music these days, at work and at home. I used to need quiet for work. Writing new things takes a bit of concentration. But now I'm documenting the work of others, manuals and such to let users know how the thing works. No deep detail, more of a quick reference sort of thing. I know how most of it is supposed to work, it's just a question of taking screenshots and tossing a few words at it to explain things.

Something I can almost do in my sleep. I've been working on this system for a long, long time. Some of it has changed, most of it looks the same as it did ten years ago. The little nuances and improvements that the coders have made don't alter how it looks. Does alter how it behaves, but it's like putting a better engine in your car. It looks the same, the controls are the same, it's just faster maybe, or more efficient.

So I put the ear buds in, head for YouTube and play 50-song mixes while I explore the mysteries of the system and document it all. With the music playing in the background, I'm in my own little world. Lately I seem to be in some weird zone, I spot things that aren't quite right, call them out to the developers and keep moving on. Last week I even worked on a project I hadn't looked at in two years. A bug had been spotted in another chap's code. As he's left the company, I had a look.

Simple fix really, while fixing that, I found a much more potentially serious problem, for which the fix was also simple. Like I said, for some reason the music has put me in the zone. And I'm enjoying the Hell out of it.

There is a price though. Listen to music all day and it tends to stick in your head, long after you kind of wished it had stopped. Like while trying to sleep. But that's starting to smooth itself out now. I expect the music, it's almost necessary now.

Learning to play the drums is, in itself, very interesting. Back when I played the bass, that's the part of a song I would concentrate on, seeing the fingers on the frets in my head. Then trying to figure it out on my own guitar. Sometimes I'd nail it, sometimes (with the advent of the Internet) I had to look it up. But playing it correctly was awesome. If just for my own enjoyment and satisfaction.

Now I listen to the drum bits. I'll hear something and try to reproduce that on my own kit. I still have two left hands and two left feet (you southpaws think of those as right and right, I know) and my efforts are still pretty uncoordinated. But I'm getting there, there's a guy online who has a bunch of recorded lessons, so I'm not trying to do this all my own. I've actually learned some good stuff from this chap. (Jared Falk for those who want to know.)

Maybe it's old age setting in, maybe I'm trying to recapture lost glories which never were, but man, I can't get enough Foo Fighters. Their music really speaks to me. I haven't found a song of theirs that I don't like, haven't heard all of them yet, but listening to those 50+ mixes on YouTube, I find a new "favorite" song every day.

The blog is still necessary to my sanity so that's ongoing, though I have to say that there are days when it's a bit frustrating. I seem to be in a bit of a slump lately.

Par example, those stats above. Three days out of five with less than 200 page views. Comments on those posts are kinda low too, dontcha know? Maybe I'm getting too big for my britches here, expecting all y'all to eagerly gobble up every post, commenting wildly. Of course, Beans tends to boost the comment count, man gets on a roll and the comments go through the roof. As I writer I love the attention. Because I really am an attention whore in some respects. I believe in being honest with myself.

The eye thing is a bit of a downer, no word on the surgery yet. But my doc is competent and confident. Things I look for with folks about to mess with my optical sensors.

Also, the feline staff is aging, one of them visibly. I mean fifteen is pretty old for a cat. Anya is still pretty spry, Sasha is starting to slow way down. Yeah, this concerns me. They've been my furry buddies for a long time now. I am terrified of anything happening to them.

Maybe as I age, I just "feel" more. There are days that I get a bit emotional. I mean this is all new territory for me ya know? I mentioned a bit of an ache in my back to my regular doc the last time I saw her. She seemed a bit concerned. gave me all sorts of exercises and the like, mostly stretching. Wondered why I hadn't mentioned it before. I told her I just figured it was part of getting old.

There are days that I get up and everything hurts. Not screaming agony or any of that, just a sit up in bed and say "ouch" as if some part of the body is yelling, "Dude, not so fast, slow it down, ya ain't 20 anymore."

No, no I am not. But mentally I'm still thinking of what I want to be and do when I "grow up." The Missus Herself has indicated on more than one occasion that me "growing up" would be really, really nice, though she has no fear (hope?) of that happening anytime soon.

And I'm good with that.

So this and that. Mutterings. musings, and moanings of a Saturday evening. Here's some Foo for you.

It's what I do, I share...

Peace and love y'all.

FWIW, I think their drummer (Taylor Hawkins) is freaking awesome. You should see him in concert, he's the freaking Energizer Bunny!

Oh yeah, Happy Autumn. Perhaps I'll add pumpkin spice to the blog.

Not.