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Sure, why not?
Anyhoo, that beasty in the opening photo is a "harp guitar." I first learned of these on Saturday, when Beans posted a link to a video. Yeah, okay, it's Beans, my first thought was "now what?"
Then I gave it a listen. Which led me to this -
For those who wish, here's the link Beans gave me, same guy. The musician, Jamie Dupuis, is quite talented. But that harp guitar thing, what a sound!
Apparently these instruments have been around for quite some time, since the early 19th-Century. To quote Buck, "I had no ideer."
In other news ...
Had to get a new laptop at work, nothing wrong with the old one, it's just "time" as the company defines it. Made sense when we leased our machines, now we buy them. I guess there are good and valid reasons for doing this, but it's a bit of a pain. (Especially seeing as how the new laptop isn't that much of an upgrade.)
Anyhoo, back in the day the IT folks would tell you to keep your computer logged on overnight. They'd image your hard drive to the new computer, then bring it to your desk. Then they started having us put all the files we wanted to keep in a particular folder on the old machine. When we got the new one, they'd copy it over for you.
At least now there's some semblance of sanity. You get the new machine and a cable to hook it to the old machine. There's software which figures out which files on the old machine should be switched over then you put the two machines in a dark room, put on some soft music, light a couple of candles, leave a bottle of Champagne, then give 'em some privacy. (Yes, I'm kidding.)
After 30 minutes to an hour the new machine has all the files it should need from the old machine. I did that today, hooked 'em up, fired 'em up, and forty-eight minutes later I seemed to be all set. A quick glance left me pleased with the results. But IT won't be getting my old laptop until I do a thorough check of the new one this coming week.
Oh well, progress, I suppose.
I leave you to juvat's tender mercies tomorrow. I'll be back on Tuesday.
God willing and the creek don't rise.
I used to really dislike computer upgrades at work. Regardless of what the wizards said about transferring files, and favorites, the boondoggle left me irritated. To make things worse, they would take months to work out the bugs in the network.
ReplyDeleteI can't blame the technical wizards completely. Others in the office had a way or doing things on their machine that would affect the network. They wouldn't fess up to their involvement, but when their computers weren't on, the problems disappeared.
One of those "necessary evils" I suppose.
DeleteVery nice sound to harp guitar and I'd not ever heard of it.
ReplyDeleteI followed up with a visit to the musician's YouTube site for more.
He uses an electric model and there are covers of a wide range of music including "Take on Me", "Country Roads", "Metallic's For Whom the Bell Tolls" and a bunch more.
Thank you Beans and Sarge.
👍
DeleteHis version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" is quite good, rather excellent actually. Only quibble I have with it, a minor minor quibble, is how he chose to end it. Udder dan dat, rather good stuff.
DeleteWhich is the one I listened to first.
DeleteWhat an interesting combination Sarge. Essentially a resonant line along with the guitar sound.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to see another "What?" instrument, look at the Welsh triple harp. There are two complete sets of strings on the outside with major notes and the accidentals are a row of strings in the middle. The performer reaches through to play the accidentals. A link to Robin Huw Bowen, part of the late 20th Century renaissance in this instrument: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1-yO8lVq7A. The harp starts at 3:00 or so, but the opening has him speaking in Welsh, which is a nice treat.
Updates - Ugh. I get why we do them now, with the speed of change in technology. That said, I hate it every time when it happens. My last upgrade was in 2018; I am hoping to put mine off as long as possible - they never quite go well.
The harp has always sounded divine to me.
DeleteI have / had a very simple rule when I was doing this type work: The pc should NEVER be an issue for you. Your job is to worry about whatever you do, my job is to make sure your pc is never a worry for you. Never a second thought. I made a lot of friends with that attitude.
ReplyDeleteUpgrades on desktops and laptops was where I built my customer base. Our company would replace shortly after the warranty expired. 3 years on average. We have one doofus that would clean out a multiuser pc, and only pull over the day timer's profile. That caused untold disasters when the night crew would come in and couldn't do their jobs... jobs which would keep a plane on the ground and potentially cost us a million or more. He destroyed 20 years of training materials for new hires like that. I cleaned up his messes for a while, then just told them refuse to let him do the swaps, ask for me. They complained, I complained, and the manager never did a dagone thing. Inexcusable.
I worked my butt off to make sure they got a box that would work. And I got a very vocal, loyal customer base.
As well you should, you're doing it the right way!
DeleteYou can toss all the accolades regarding finding harp-guitar towards Mrs. Andrew. She's the musicologist of the family. Without her, I'd still be listening to ZZ Top, ELO, Alan Parsons Project, Herb Albert and some symphonic pieces. She's the one that introduced me to wide varieties of music.
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly, a lot of it was due to the carpy music stations available back in the day in Satellite Beach. You know, "Top 40" stations that don't tell you who the artist is or the title of the song on anything that isn't, well, Top 40. So good songs, heard a lot of them, had no idea who the group or the song was thanks to Radio Jackwagon. Jerks.
As to updates, yeah, the way to do it is to do it painlessly, like cutting one's nails. Takes a little time but no fuss no muss. Unfortunately, too many IT people believe in using a chainsaw to cut nails. Or they wait until one's computer is, as the very famous Christmas movie puts it, "The quarterback is toast." (insert image of flaming computer looking like it just got hit by an antitank weapon while trying to break into Nakatomi Plaza...) And their response when nothing is recoverable is "Don't save stuff on your computer." And your response is "Like settings? Like the proprietary program that only I am using and isn't allowed to be loaded onto the mainframe, which, coincidentally, has crashed and lost valuable data three times this year? That mainframe? How about showing up and fixing my computer when I tell you it's making bad noises and bad smells?" No, never had any issues with IT ever, not I.
IT can be excellent, or it can be total crap. Good companies have good IT departments. The guys who do the actual work for my employer are, of course, contractors. Cheaper that way the corporate goons decreed. Cheaper does not equate to good. Our guys are okay, couple of 'em are idiots, but that's true in any department. Usually it's the management that sucks.
DeleteThe Peter Principle was actually named for the male reproductive organ. Old Guns
DeleteHahaha!
DeleteThere is a program called Macrium Reflect which makes an exact copy of one drive onto another. But, be careful. It's English. I used it to transfer from a mechanical disk to a SSD on my old laptop. Plugged in the SSD and it just ran. And booted in 30 seconds rather than 3 1/2 minutes.
ReplyDeleteCan't use it at work or on company-owned assets. Security.
DeleteMy ex agreed to share custody with the absolutely wonderful IT guy he found in Michigan. And when I was having an issue, and had to go back to MI for a quick visit to do lawyer stuff, he was fantastic, and turned around my laptop in 48 hours and the price was very reasonable. Less than 30 bucks sticks in my brain.
ReplyDeleteWork updates on the other hand...ugh!! The company my agency gets the documentation platform from likes to do their updates on Tuesday night...and they do give about 5 days warning that ya need to have EVERYTHING closed by midnight Wednesday AM...ok, that's' cool...HOWEVER, it takes about 3 days to fix all the glitches that occur after the update. And it's not just this gray-haired old lady that gets stuck with issues...
Having said that the Agency IT gals are pretty good...when I called to say my work laptop just died...and CPR didn't help at all. So I have to call the IT department...and am VERY polite to the one gal who answered the phone as I don't want her to start with an attitude with me, which she has been known to do to others...but I use my Mother's Manners, and she reloads a new laptop for me, tells me if I stop in when I am in the office next, she will load all my desktop files onto the new laptop, and is willing to give my boss the new laptop to bring home for me to pick up as I was about 90 min away from the office. So I can do all my documentation for that day's visits onto the computer that night. At least as an old home care nurse I always write down names, phone numbers, and addresses and why I am seeing that patient that day...so I was able to see my scheduled patients and finish my day. Cause ya never know when technology will crap out on ya. Mr Murphy does rule some days.
Mr Murphy loves technology, so many things that can go wrong.
DeleteI was waiting for the other shoe to drop with that new computer story- like it crashed and lost all your files or something. Glad it worked out, but problems would have made for a better post! haha. That harp axe is cool, although the one in the vid has more strings than the intro pic, so there are different variants I guess.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few variants, I'd get lost with all those strings!
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