Born Too Early

A bit of self reflection today. I was born on the leading edge of Generation X, just as the conflict in Vietnam was escalating, I joined the mass of mankind in the world (or, 1965).

I struggled in early education, and I was never sure why. My parents whispered behind my back, and I occasionally caught snippets. But one thing I do know is that I had poor hand-eye coordination.

It is why my penmanship is – to be blunt – awful. And it is also why I was not a natural of playing ball sports (baseball in particular).

Of course, my parents tried to improve it. But, in the early 1970’s there weren’t a lot of fun ways for a kid to work on their hand eye coordination. I recall my dad trying to teach me to play banjo at the ripe old age of 5. That didn’t go well, as you can imagine.

The irony is that had I been born a decade later, mid Gen X so to speak, I would have had the growing video game craze to help train my hand-eye coordination. Perhaps that would have made the difference.

Or perhaps not. I suspect that I lie somewhere on the spectrum, and as was common back in the late 60’s and 70’s it was just not diagnosed.

C’est la vie. Now that both my parents have passed, I am left to wonder what my early childhood was like from the snippets of my memories.

New Gear Friday – It’s here

Today at lunch time the FedEx truck showed up with my monolith shaped box. The Charvel Pro Mod So-Cal Style 1, in Robin’s Egg Blue with the Ebony fretboard is here.

Pulling it out of the box, it was dead mint, gorgeous, and flawless. It was out of tune (not surprising and I suspect that it will take a few weeks to stabilize to my local temperature and humidity.

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It is a lie…

When I worked at OpenText, the company would send you a gift for your birthday. A nice touch, and the only place I ever worked that did.

What did they send you? It was a container of “The World’s Finest Chocolate”. Essentially mini-bars, about the size you would hand out at Halloween, in their various flavors.

Want to know a secret? It really wasn’t the world’s finest chocolate. It wasn’t even as good as the waxy Hershey’s crap you get at the store.

But what great branding.

I bring this up because “The World’s Finest Chocolate” seems to team up with high school band and sports ball teams to fundraise for events and shit. My wife felt pity for one kid on the route she walks at lunch time, and bought a few bars. $5 for 5 bars. I am sure that about 80 cents of each dollar go to the fundraiser, because there is no fucking way this bar is worth more than twenty cents.

At least I hope so.

“If you say it, people will believe it …” perhaps.

Subscription Crates

brown wooden crate with bees

I get barraged with offers for subscription boxes. Dog toys/treats. Japanese unique candy. Men’s accessories. And many more. It is pretty easy to ignore.

The idea is that the purveyor selects a collection of items. For the “Men’s Accessories” I have seen things like a shaving cup and brush, a Leatherman tool, or some men’s grooming items. For $40 or whatever a month, you will get a box with the goodies in it.

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When you Realize your Family is full of bigots

men wearing crew neck t shirt

We all suspect that members of our family harbor some racism and/or bigotry. I mean, we all have that crazy uncle (or Aunt) who causes us all to roll our eyes at Thanksgiving by saying some completely insane shit out loud.

But, having grown up in Silicon Valley in the 60’s and 70’s where people of color were segregated due to a long history of redlining, and a lot of implicit racial segregation.

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Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure

Last week, I was doing a little Amazon shopping, the main purchase was a TC Electronics Polytune 3 Mini pedal, and an $8 copy of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure on Blu Ray fell into my cart.

I hadn’t watched this in a long time, but it was a movie that I enjoyed.

It arrived and I ripped it and copied it to my Plex server.

Some spoilers:

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I caved in, Ordered a new iPhone

I have blogged in the past that my well aged iPhone, a Xs that I got in December 2018 still worked well, and that it still was doing what I needed. Heck, the battery health tells me that it has 86% of its life left.

But today, I was talking with some colleagues and I recounted that my last phone migration sucked because I had a painful process of moving my 2FA from my old iPhone 6s, and I really didn’t want to relive that.

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Oops, I’ve done it now

I know I have said I could be strong. But alas, I am weak. Weak as a kitten.

Nostalgia is a bitch, and when it strikes, it hits hard. In this case it is the nostalgia for a guitar neck. My third guitar, and the first one I bought with my own money was a 1986 vintage Charvel Model 4, from the era that they were made in Japan. It was a black body, with the pointy head stock, bolt on neck, second generation Kahler tremolo, and superb Jackson active electronics. Continue reading →

Getting Old Sucks

The first hint of age catching up with me was when I was diagnosed with osteoarthritis in my left thumb. Alas, that was at an age that the surgical remedies were not recommended (fusing the joints – YIKES).

But the latest has really been a gut punch.

I stopped drinking beer quite a few years ago. There was a direct correlation between a couple of brewski’s and a gout flare up. Gout is no bueno. So I canned the malted, hopped beverages. Frankly, this led to significantly less alcohol consumption.

Therein lies the second problem.

I still enjoy the occasional glass of red wine. A Chianti with Pizza, or a Zinfandel with the rare steak I eat.

Alas, even a single glass of wine gets me buzzed, not really a problem, being a cheap date is not a bad thing at my age.

But it is the aftermath. Once the alcohol metabolizes, I wake up. Like wide awake, and not able to go back to sleep. Last Friday I made pizza, and we shared a bottle of a Spanish Rioja (it is what we had that was appropriate for Pizza) and at 1:00 AM I was wide awake.

This never used to be a problem at all. I used to be able to have moderate alcohol intake, and sleep it off without any ill effects. Now it is a principal cause of insomnia.

Just kill me now.

Finished it – Severance

I began watching the Apple TV+ show, Severance, but by the third episode I was thoroughly freaked out and stopped watching. The presumption that an implant could completely separate your work life from your home life was too freaky.

I have long espoused the work/life balance, and this show takes it to the extreme. Continue reading →