Piano tuning

Tuning a piano is a pain.  But just cuz it takes so long.  I do it to mine about every 6-9 months, and I can't bear to pay somebody $100, even if it takes me longer.  The first time I did it, it took me about 8 hours, but I was doing it by ear with a tuning fork, but then we got a digital tuner later, and then it only takes 2-3 hours.  Although, it still only registers the middle so the bottom and top have to be done by ear.  But that's okay, since we don't use those parts as much so I don't care if it's as perfect.  That and the bottom notes only have one string anyway.  (Stupid half the piano has 3 strings per note...)

Kids were helping for a bit today, and then did a bit more after they went to bed.  Still have 2.5 octaves to go.

SWTOR actual

Actually got on!  Woohoo!  Made it to level 7 yesterday, and ran about an hour with a friend.

My computer it starting to drive me nuts, but I didn't notice until about a month ago.  I was at a gaming party (LAN party) with a friend, and we were playing a custom Starcraft 2 map, and my computer was doing 2-3 spf (yes, I mean seconds per frame).  Then we were playing Magicka, and we were having some weird problems, like my game wouldn't come out of certain transitions.

But SWTOR plays okay, except indoors or underground, where I can get about 3 fps.  I sped it up to about 6fps by making it in small windowed mode.

Bought a League of Legends hero

Last night I bought my first expensive hero - Ahri (at 6300 IP - where you earn IP for playing and winning, etc.)  Yes, I've been playing off and on for 6 months and just barely got there.  Bite me.

However, I stink with her.  Oh well.

SWTOR online tomorrow!!!!

I get to play SWTOR (Star Wars the Old Republic) in about 12 hours!  Even though I could have been for about a week, and my friends have been bugging me to get online, my wife and I agreed for it to be a Christmas present.  Well, we agreed to open presents tomorrow, on the 24th.

(I actually wanted it for a Christmas present.  Besides, I'm terrible to shop for - I have no idea what I want, and so I can't tell anybody what I want, so they hate shopping for me.)

Daily weight variance

I've wanted to track this for a while.  So here goes.  Note the numbers are on my dumb 7-pounds-under scale.  (By the way, it's a really bad idea to tell your wife that the scale is 7 pounds under.)  I know this because I weigh myself at home, and then at the gym or a doctor's office it's 7 pounds up.

Anyway (Sort of rounding):
159: Right after hard run in evening
161: Right after shower, clothed  (yes, when I'm about to shower, I sometimes weigh myself unclothed.  Guess what?  I shower unclothed, too.  However, I need my glasses or I can't see the scale dial).
162: Right before bed, after water (this and the rest are clothed)
162: Next morning
163: After lunch
164: After Christmas Eve dinner and lots of junk food
165: Next morning

Moral of the story - I really weigh 170, which is probably before the junk food + 7.

23:45 5K

Whoo!  Good 5K just an hour ago.  I did:

Mile 1 - Start at 7.5 and increase over 4 minutes to 8.3, finish at around 7:30
Mile 2 - Rest minute at 7, Remainder at 7.7 for around 15:30
Mile 3 - Rest minute at 6, 1 minute at 8.3, remainder at 8 for 23:45!!!!

When breathing got hard, I focused on my legs and how my legs aren't strong enough to handle that pace with the stride I want, and counted steps of 'good pace', and ironically I could breathe easier.

Monkey of shame

A few years ago, a new coworker brought with him a tradition from his previous employ: The Monkey of Shame.

This is something you would post in somebody's office or on somebody's door if they broke the build or the like.  Normally it is given in jest or voluntarily taken, and I've had it a few times, as just about has everybody else.

Well, a while ago, I decide we need to have a happy monkey - like the Monkey of Triumph.  But I couldn't find one happy enough, so I settled on the Monkey of Adequate, which was later changed to Super.

Since then, we've gotten the Monkey of not the worst (person who just became second place for the most bugs, Monkey of Dentistry (to celebrate en employee's 8 dental procedures in a month's time), Monkey of Audit Failure, and a number of others.

Choices at work

So a little while ago, they mentioned they might need a guy like me on another project, which is apparently a hard project that has burned out a few other people.  I was fine with that, as I'd been on the same two projects for 4 years now.  But then we find out 2 days that the guy who is leading one of these 2 projects is leaving the company.  They approach me and mention that they're trying to decide who to replace him with, and there are a few names, and mine was on the list, but they're thinking they need me more on this other project.

barely made the train

So the other day, I thought I should be just on time to catch the train.  I walk up with this other guy to the ticket machine, and we could see it about a minute away.  But then some lady tells us the machine is out of order and we have to use the one at the other end of the station.  So we run over there.  We have about 30 seconds now.  He starts using the machine and pays with cash - a wrinkled dollar bill and quarters.  Then the train is about 5 seconds away, and get to the machine and print my ticket, and walk onto the train while the doors were open.  Barely made it.

PEBKAC

I was reminded of an acronym today.  A coworker and I were testing our software, and he found a potential problem.  After a few minutes he declared it to be "PEBKAC": Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair.

6x1/4

Last week was a bad week for running.  And a bad week for asthma.  Well, not really bad, just enough to make me want to sleep 12 hours a night.  The last goal I met was about two weeks ago.

Tonight I tried a set of quarter miles at 9.5mph.  I made it through about 5.5 of them.

Stupid calories - it seems you burn most per mile at 6-7mph, and more or less than that you burn less calories per mile.

According to my treadmill.

30 minutes after dinner

So I have some medication that says to take it "30 minutes after the same meal every day".  Who the heck is going to remember to do that??!  It's like, okay, I just finished dessert, washed the dishes, and now I have 25 minutes to go.  Guess I'll go do something else... 2 hours later... oops.

Garage door openers

So a while ago, when it started getting cold, my garage door opener started dying.  It would fail to open the door maybe 1/4 times.  My wife's van has a transmitter, so I started using hers and then shoved the other in the glove box.  But then after a few weeks, that one started dying too (again, about 1/4), so now when one fails, I just use the other one.  So far, both have not failed at the same time.

Attic

I abhor going into the attic.  In July it's like a sauna, and it's cramped, and if you're not paying attention, you'll impale yourself on a roofing nail.

Anyway, I started installing a ceiling fan in September(?), and finished it, but it was wobbly, so I didn't let anyone use it.  I got a neighbor to secure it the awesome way today, but when I went up to clean up (get the extension cord, etc.) I slipped and stepped on some sheetrock.  My foot went through, and I almost lost balance and dropped the other through, but I managed to stay up and not die.

scarves

I just started wearing scarves in public.  How the devil are you supposed to wear it and still look fashionable for a guy?

Mind you, the one I'm wearing is probably a girly scarf anyway.

But I settled on the "Slip knot" approach for now.  Who cares, anyway, so long as it keeps you warm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X14XKtZzfw

Pain

So, I told the nurse a few weeks ago that my pain was a 4-5, and thought of this:

(from http://xkcd.com/883/)

I also read somewhere: "If you're happily texting and laughing with your friends until the second you spot me walking into your room, I'm not going to believe that your pain is a ten out of ten." — A nurse in New York City 

Band Concerts

Went to a Middle School band concert tonight - 4 of my 6 boy scouts (4/5 if you don't count the one who doesn't live in the boundaries anymore) are in the band.  It was pretty good.

I went to my wife's band concert last week (she teaches elementary school band).  They do good for what they have - a total of 20 kids in each band, compared to the MS's ~100.

I also had the kids at the concert last week, but I didn't have to shush them as much as normal, but still biting nails every time they moved.  Therefore the following isn't quite as true as it used to be:

Taking kids to 5 Guys is to taking kids to band concerts as going to 5 Guys alone is to going to band concerts alone.  The first time we went to 5 Guys was "how fast can we get out of here" vs. "wow, this is actually an enjoyable experience".

Wife says:

"I have to go to Home Depot, they have my door"

More ping pong

So, I got beat at Ping Pong by a guy a few positions down from me in the ladder.  Then the guy I beat the other day beat him.  So now, I'm about back where I started.

(With our ladder, if you beat somebody, you go above them in the ladder.)

And thus, it is very possible, that person A > person B > person C > person A.

Gathering

Aaaacccccccckkk!  I have a social gathering every day this week.  Once in a while, it's good, but I may get overwhelmed by the end of the week.

Last night we had a neighborhood gathering for Christmas.  I don't do so well in large settings, because I never really get a chance to participate, being a somewhat quieter person.

Tonight, we had two couples from our neighborhood over for dinner with the kids, and we just sat and talked while the kids watched a movie or played Mario Kart.  That was a bit of fun, but there's more to go.....

4yo says:

Mom, move your butt.

German

So (I just realized I start all of these with 'so'),  I spent a few years in middle school studying Spanish, and spent some time in Argentina, so I became kind of fluent there.  My wife studied German in MS/HS, and spent some time touring in Austria/Germany/Switzerland, and became kind of fluent there.  As I already mentioned, I want to do everything she does, so I've been picking up a little German from time to time (like once every two weeks).

So far, I've found http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/German to be a nice beginner's resource.  I'm on the 4th lesson now, and have found some things fascinating, like

• nouns are capitalized
• the word for 'girl' is neither masculine nor feminine

Maybe someday it would be cool to be fluent in a dozen languages, but I'm too 'faul' for that.

Piano - 7 yo's recital

So, a few weeks ago, our 7yo had a recital.  I was surprised when the teacher asked him to get a family member to do a duet with him, and I was chosen.

If you know anything about me and piano, I can't sight read worth crap.  I can play a few songs (of level 3-4 out of 10, if one handed Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is level 1 and Hungarian Rhapsody #2 is level 8-9), but they took time to get.

So we play a 1-page duet, his part is 1-2 notes at any time, and mine is the same with 8th notes.  I was nervous.  He did fine.  After a few weeks of practicing, I have my part mostly done, but couldn't really get the whole way through without stopping or without a little mess-up, and that's how our performance was.  I only missed the left hand on a few of the measures though.  He learned how to listen to my part out of it, and we learned to play together.

Piano

I depressed myself a few days ago: I'm a somewhat grown man, and a mediocre musician, and will probably never be to a level to perform in public, so what's the point.  Well, the two answers are this:

• If you want to someday, then PRACTICE MORE, you lazy butt!
• Do it cuz you enjoy it, not for everybody else

Well, I guess that satisfied me enough.  

So we bought a used $300 piano about 5 years ago.  It's a good piano, but once the kids get out of the "hey I'm going to destroy all your stuff phase", we might have to upgrade. (I think they spilled some stuff on the middle keys last week and some of the keys kind of stick sometimes, so that got me kind of not wanting to play as much lately.)

I've been trying out the following songs recently:

Schubert's Serenade

Mannheim Steamroller's God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (rock 'n' roll)

and yesterday my mom asked me to do 

Pachelbel's Canon in D

Results: I'm about 80% on Serenade.  At least the 2-page version,  My mom has a book with a 4-page version, and since I only see that at her house, I don't practice it as much.  

Gentlemen is a little harder, but I've been trying some new fingering techniques lately - involving planning ahead a measure or two to prep where your fingers won't have to move as much, and I've gotten better at this one.  Typically I only practice around Christmas time.

You should also now that I have a pipe dream of mastering Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata - 3rd movement.  I've played the 1st movement (decently) for years, and the book has all 3 movements.  Personally, though, I think the 2nd movement is boring, but if you've never heard the 3rd, here's a cool video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqSulR9Fymg

or

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8nQ3ZBSuEY

Well, that one I can play at about 50% accuracy and about 33% speed.  In other words, in about 20 minutes, it will sound terrible.  And I've spent about a year practicing it (about once every other week).

Calvin and Hobbes

So I found an old set of Calvin and Hobbes books that belong to my brother and me, and I started reading them to my kids.  They love the reading, but they don't laugh like I do.  I think they just like being read to...

Riven - League of Legends

So I tried Riven on LoL last night and SUCKED it up.  Holy cow.  I tried an isolated environment with a friend and almost kept up with him, but with the actual games we did just did terrible.

Running log o the week

Great run today! 8mph, 12 minutes (4 min walk), 8 minutes (3 min walk), 4 minutes
Easy run yesterday and tomorrow.

Driving!

So, I didn't want to spend minutes in the cold, so I spent minutes waiting in traffic.  Oh well.

Ping Pong!!!

Woohoo!!!1

I beat a coworker I'd been trying to beat for two months at work today!

I was a good ping pong player when I was a kid, and then I tried to play people outside of my family.  And THEN I tried playing people at work.

Then I figured out there were a bunch of ways to spin the ball.  Holy cow! So I spent tens of minutes practicing that over the months, and beat my first target!  So now I'm halfway up the ladder.

Cold!

I started taking public transportation to work last month, and since I bring my work laptop with me, it saves about half an hour of net time (it's about 25 minutes each way, and I count a few minutes for the walking, etc.)

BUT HOLY COW IT'S COLD!!! It dropped below 20 this weekend.  It was in the high 30s most of last month.  Hoping it doesn't go below 0, but you know how February is.

Clarinet Intro

That being said about the trumpet, I've started to play my wife's clarinet.  I like to do things my wife can do for two reasons:

1. Because I want to do everything she can do, and
2. Because when I do those things, it kind of re-ignites her desire.  See, right now, she's practicing rudiments.

I should also mention that she teaches a band class at the local elementary school, and that my 9yo daughter is also learning clarinet in that band class.

So I've played about 5 times now, for maybe half an hour a piece.  I've gone through most of my daughter's level 1 book.  I find it odd, though, as I'm used to the trumpet, for the following reasons:

1. I have this big old welt/callous on my right thumb
2. On the trumpet, you're encouraged to press the keys with the fingers bent so the fingers go straight up and down, whereas on the clarinet, you need to keep the fingers straight(-er)
3. It seems you follow a different pattern when raising a half step than on the trumpet - following similar patterns on the trumpet would take you down half a step.

So right now, I can go from G below middle C to A above the staff.  My wife says it's not because of any natural clarinet talent (bah!) but because I already have an embouchure developed.  However, it takes me about 30 seconds to transition over the break.  For instance, I tried "Star Spangled Banner" in C, and it took me about 10 minutes for all the times I had to do that.

Trumpet Intro

So, I played the trumpet growing up.  I was probably best in the 9th grade, because for some reason I didn't practice often in High School.  I could play all right in HS, but I could never sustain notes above an F after having practiced for more than about 20 minutes (like I could in 9th grade).  However, I had a nice tone, articulation, and other stuff.

Anyway, my wife played the clarinet, and oboe, and all of the saxes, and for some reason, she didn't lose her musicianship after we got married.  I picked up my trumpet for the first time in about 5 years, and I could only play a few notes.  Well, I can play about to the level I could in HS again now, because I occasionally am called upon to play - I've had 2 occasions in the last few years where I played Tijuana Brass numbers for a church party (I did these all right, because I practiced every day for about a month and was able to play most of the high notes), and 2 occasions where I've had to play "Taps" for grandfathers' funerals.  So I play about once a month just so I can maintain such that if the need arises, I can practice for a month and get what I need to.

Duh!!!1

I taught my children about how in online forums you'll see "Some sentence"!!!1  And for the last 20 minutes they've been "Duh!!1" to each other.  No, not typing, but speaking.

Super Mario Galaxy and Mario Kart

So, I've been playing Super Mario Galaxy with my 7yo since his birthday a few months ago, and then all of a sudden we started playing Mario Kart.  Once we started it up, we discovered that we unlocked Rosalina, just by playing SMG.  Apparently she's very difficult to unlock otherwise, and one of my friends was a little upset that that's all we had to do.

(After looking it up, you have to play SMG *and* win 50 games).

SWTOR

The second worst thing about doing lots of stuff is that you never get really good at any one thing.  This is especially true in the world of online gaming.

So over the last few months I've been playing League of Legends, thanks to a friend, and I'm probably what you would call a "noob".  I'm on level 18 (out of 30), and I've lost more games than I've won, but only barely.  Some characters I can play all right with, but I'm no expert at all.

Anyway, so I beta tested Star Wars - the Old Republic on their beta testing weekend, and it seemed cool.  It launches on Dec 20, has a pre-launch of Dec 15, but my wife is getting it for me for Christmas.  I played World of Warcraft for a while, but haven't in the last 2 years, and was probably a noob at that, too.  But maybe this time it will be different.

And hopefully my friends that don't know each other that I'm collecting to be with me won't kill each other or me by the time this is done.

Work intro

I am a computer programmer.  I've been doing that for about ten years for two different companies, 4 years at my current company.  I am also a team lead and a low-level manager.

It's currently review time at the company, and as I have 10 people who work "for" me, it will have taken up a bit of my time by the time it's done.  This part is kind of fun, but it's also challenging - I only like being the judge when I get to judge positively.  Unfortunately, we do have to do occasional critiquing, and this time of year, we are limited by a raise budget....

Cooking intro

I don't usually consider cooking a hobby, but I do enjoy it from time to time, as long as it doesn't detract from my other hobbies.

Today we have a neighborhood Christmas party, and we volunteered to bring 4 dozen rolls.  My wife and I have a groove that we use when we make rolls - I prepare the dough, and she shapes it into individual rolls and bakes them.  It's a good groove, as I hate shaping the rolls and she hates preparing the dough.

I suppose I enjoy cooking the most when my wife and I work together......

Running intro

I like to run. Why? I'm not exactly sure. Maybe it's the feeling after finishing, or the mental battle required to finish the run, or maybe just a sense of masochism. Who knows.

I ran in High School, and I sucked then (I PR'd a 5K at 20:30 at low altitude), and I suck now. I have been treadmill running for about 7 years now (I had about 5 years off after HS). I plateaued around 30:00 for a year, and then all of a sudden I was able to hit 27:30 for a few years, and then all of a sudden I was able to do 24:30 for a few years. That's where I am now, and I can't seem to get past it.

I sponsor a 5K race at work twice a year. There's one particular guy who was 2 minutes slower than me on the first one, and then a little faster than me every run after that. I'm trying to beat him in the Spring. He did have foot surgery a few weeks ago, and he instructed me to use that to my advantage.

Anyway, today I ran 7 miles in 70 minutes (6mph) - pretty easy. I figured it was an okay run after not having run in a week and a half (I had some health issues which I'm too embarrassed to discuss in a public forum). Next week I'll try to do some intervals, a medium run, and then as much as possible at 8mph - my next target speed, which would be a 23:15 5K. My current best is 10 minutes, 8 minutes, 5 minutes, and 4 minutes at 8mph with a 3 min walk between them.