my ukulele progress

[ripock]

I just read it differently. To me at work is at work. Breaks are a different thing as long as it bothers no one. Around 2018 or so I kept a tenor in my jeep and at lunch I would practice scales out there. And in 2021 I was reading book 8 of the Aeneid at lunch. People can shoot up heroin at lunch as far as I'm concerned, but when we're working, we're working.

And I have to take a hard line because I work with some younger people who are as fragile as faberge eggs. They get all stressed out calling clients because they aren't used to personal interaction and, if we allowed it, they'd have emotional support animals in the office. My stance is that work sucks so suck it up, buttercup; let's do our job and get out of here without the drama.

 

[Oldscruggsfan]

I just read it differently. To me at work is at work. Breaks are a different thing as long as it bothers no one. Around 2018 or so I kept a tenor in my jeep and at lunch I would practice scales out there. And in 2021 I was reading book 8 of the Aeneid at lunch. People can shoot up heroin at lunch as far as I'm concerned, but when we're working, we're working.

And I have to take a hard line because I work with some younger people who are as fragile as faberge eggs. They get all stressed out calling clients because they aren't used to personal interaction and, if we allowed it, they'd have emotional support animals in the office. My stance is that work sucks so suck it up, buttercup; let's do our job and get out of here without the drama.

Amen, ripock. When I strum/ pick in my office closet, I'm careful to set (and follow) the timer on my phone. We call it "work" for a reason.

As to younger employees, don't get me started on the increasingly prevalent practice of forcing pets on coworkers and strangers under the wink/ nod guise of "emotional support". I'm the first to admit there are bona-fide conditions for which service animals can be a blessing (e.g. blindness/ deafness/ epilepsy/ PTSD) but in my experience, much of the time it's just abuse of the concept.

Things really went wonky in our area when my youngest was in college and grad school between 2014 and 2020. It was during that time frame that campus housing managers stopped even pretending to bar pets. The resulting unnecessary noise, vermin and odors should surprise no one. One of her undergrad roommates kept a kitten in a tiny dorm room and put its litter box under her bed. The so-called scholar would clean out the box only when the smell became unbearable to everyone in the vicinity including the cat, who had all along been urinating and defecating many other secret places around the room. True story. [“The things that pass for knowledge I can’t understand.”- Steely Dan]

I'm a dog lover but my dogs have always lived outside where nature intended. I've never allowed a dog inside a passenger car unless in a carrier in the bed of my pickup truck or cargo area of my SUV headed to the vet. It continues to astound me that folks cheerfully invite 70-pound (and larger) dogs into the rear passenger seats of a $200K Rover / Mercedes with no restraints, seat protectors etc, then later wonder how the leather got ruined and why the cloth ceiling / headlining is disgustingly covered in pet hair. In a brilliant marketing move, Subaru (aka Fuji Heavy Equipment) has been enthusiastically encouraging the practice in its TV ads for nearly a decade. I've always preferred to purchase relatively inexpensive used cars for which someone else suffered the majority of the depreciation but have stopped doing so for that exact reason. Animal smell is almost impossible to mask, much less to remove.

OK, I'm off the "emotional support" soapbox now.

 

[bbkobabe]

Animal smell is almost impossible to mask, much less to remove.

Ah ha!

That's what that odd smell is in the Toyota van I just bought... The previous owners had cleaned it out remarkably well, and probably dosed it with Febreeze or something... but after a week I started noticing an odd aroma.

Figures... I'm about to list my previous car on Craigslist... I will add "no pets" to the text of my ad.

 

[Oldscruggsfan]

Ah ha!

That's what that odd smell is in the Toyota van I just bought... The previous owners had cleaned it out remarkably well, and probably dosed it with Febreeze or something... but after a week I started noticing an odd aroma.

Figures... I'm about to list my previous car on Craigslist... I will add "no pets" to the text of my ad.

Pets in cars is a truly revolting thing

 

[ripock]

I don't want to get you all started, but another "pet" peeve of mine is people keeping pets inappropriately. I actually love dogs and for that reason I don't have one. I don't have the resources for one. A dog needs space, a yard, an area to call its own. A lot of people where i live have big work dogs which they keep in tiny apartments and they dogs are obviously suffering. They are barking, destructive, and have anxiety. I consider it tantamount to abuse. I think it cruel to have a big dog without having the environment that a big needs.

 

[Patty]

Pets in cars is a truly revolting thing

What? You never drive your dog to the park, or the beach, or to some distant place for a special walk, or on a family trip? Our dogs live in our house, not outside. They lie under the table while we eat. They sleep in our bedroom. They are members of the family, not farm animals.

 

[Renaissance-Man]

What? You never drive your dog to the park, or the beach, or to some distant place for a special walk, or on a family trip? Our dogs live in our house, not outside. They lie under the table while we eat. They sleep in our bedroom. They are members of the family, not farm animals.

Thank you Patty. Our pets enrich our lives.

 

[ripock]

I spent the morning spinning my wheels. I felt I needed an upgrade in my kitchen knives. I felt I needed a better serrated knife because I have a bread knife. I wanted something better. I spent a lot of time examining serrated chef knives and after much time I came to the conclusion that my bread knife is superior.

The only complaint I have about the bread knife is that the blade isn't very much off-set so that you can scrape your knuckles on the cutting board. Other than that, my bread knife has broad scallops (the serrated chef knives had very fine serrations which defeat the purpose of serrations), my bread knife has sharp points, and my bread knife is longer than a chef knife.

So I did all this research to prove that I had nothing to prove. I think part of it was the label of a 'bread' knife. I normally do not eat bread so the bread knife seemed extraneous. However I do use the serrated bread knife to cut a lot of meat in instances when a regular blade wouldn't work. I'm thinking of things like cutting poultry where you want to keep the skin intact as possible for aesthetic reasons.

Then I worked on using my super lokrian scale, better known as the altered scale. And what's so altered about it? It is the 5 and the 9. It is a scale based on a 9 chord but instead of a 5th degree, you have a flat 5 and a sharp 5 and same applies to the 9. Instead of having two of the important notes of a scale you have the adjacent notes.

 

[Oldscruggsfan]

For the record, I never stated that pets don’t enrich our lives.

Actually, I have indeed driven my (outside) Mastiff-Lab mix Mitchell to the nearest beach, which is a sandbar on the Etowah River about 15 minutes from our home. To get there, he complied with his absolute favorite command of “load up!” (leaping onto the open tailgate and into the bed of my pickup truck). When we arrived, he and I enjoyed hours of cameraderie. He then loaded back up and stayed outside (his home) while I entered my home.

The nearest saltwater beach to my home is five hours away and, no, I would never subject Mitchell to such a drive. If we were in walking distance of the ocean, I’d certainly take him there. I’m not.

In the same manner in which each of us enjoy the uke but prefer to play and learn different genres and different styles, we simply have different perspectives. While I don’t condemn yours, I also reserve the right to disagree.

This may also be a predictable outcome of rural v urban life experience. I grew up in a rural hunting and fishing culture in which dogs were expected to earn their keep. They were well cared for but were seldom considered or treated as pets, certainly not as “fur babies”. We knew no one who kept a “house dog”, certainly not a “lap dog”.

We have additional common ground. I’m just as outraged as you presumably are on the subject of bona fide animal abuse. I oppose the barbarous and inane practices of dog fighting and cockfighting. Yet, when I repeatedly encounter dog feces in the center of the walking track at all our local public parks (all of which have multiple poles with taxpayer-funded pet waste bags), cat feces in multiple places in my daughter’s dorm room, a 70-pound “emotional support” Border Collie in an adjoining student apartment that barks constantly because it (a generations-ingrained herding dog) is confined to a cage 19 hours out of every 24, and pet hair dangling from the ceiling of an unnecessarily smelly used car I’d otherwise purchase, my little brain concludes that the “pets are family” / “fur baby” trend has gone much too far.

 

[Patty]

I spent the morning spinning my wheels. I felt I needed an upgrade in my kitchen knives. I felt I needed a better serrated knife because I have a bread knife. I wanted something better. I spent a lot of time examining serrated chef knives and after much time I came to the conclusion that my bread knife is superior.

The only complaint I have about the bread knife is that the blade isn't very much off-set so that you can scrape your knuckles on the cutting board. Other than that, my bread knife has broad scallops (the serrated chef knives had very fine serrations which defeat the purpose of serrations), my bread knife has sharp points, and my bread knife is longer than a chef knife.

So I did all this research to prove that I had nothing to prove. I think part of it was the label of a 'bread' knife. I normally do not eat bread so the bread knife seemed extraneous. However I do use the serrated bread knife to cut a lot of meat in instances when a regular blade wouldn't work. I'm thinking of things like cutting poultry where you want to keep the skin intact as possible for aesthetic reasons.

Then I worked on using my super lokrian scale, better known as the altered scale. And what's so altered about it? It is the 5 and the 9. It is a scale based on a 9 chord but instead of a 5th degree, you have a flat 5 and a sharp 5 and same applies to the 9. Instead of having two of the important notes of a scale you have the adjacent notes.

You can get a nice bread knife with an offset handle.

Offset Bread Knife

America's favorite baking supply company. Top-quality all-purpose and specialty flours, specialty baking ingredients, baking sheets & pans, baking tools & supplies

shop.kingarthurbaking.com

 

[Patty]

For the record, I never stated that pets don’t enrich our lives.

Actually, I have indeed driven my (outside) Mastiff-Lab mix Mitchell to the nearest beach, which is a sandbar on the Etowah River about 15 minutes from our home. To get there, he complied with his absolute favorite command of “load up!” (leaping onto the open tailgate and into the bed of my pickup truck). When we arrived, he and I enjoyed hours of cameraderie. He then loaded back up and stayed outside (his home) while I entered my home.

The nearest saltwater beach to my home is five hours away and, no, I would never subject Mitchell to such a drive. If we were in walking distance of the ocean, I’d certainly take him there. I’m not.

In the same manner in which each of us enjoy the uke but prefer to play and learn different genres and different styles, we simply have different perspectives. While I don’t condemn yours, I also reserve the right to disagree.

This may also be a predictable outcome of rural v urban life experience. I grew up in a rural hunting and fishing culture in which dogs were expected to earn their keep. They were well cared for but were seldom considered or treated as pets, certainly not as “fur babies”. We knew no one who kept a “house dog”, certainly not a “lap dog”.

We have additional common ground. I’m just as outraged as you presumably are on the subject of bona fide animal abuse. I oppose the barbarous and inane practices of dog fighting and cockfighting. Yet, when I repeatedly encounter dog feces in the center of the walking track at all our local public parks (all of which have multiple poles with taxpayer-funded pet waste bags), cat feces in multiple places in my daughter’s dorm room, a 70-pound “emotional support” Border Collie in an adjoining student apartment that barks constantly because it (a generations-ingrained herding dog) is confined to a cage 19 hours out of every 24, and pet hair dangling from the ceiling of an unnecessarily smelly used car I’d otherwise purchase, my little brain concludes that the “pets are family” / “fur baby” trend has gone much too far.

We do agree on a lot of things. Idiots will insist on acquiring dogs. That’s not the dogs’ fault.

 

[Oldscruggsfan]

We do agree on a lot of things. Idiots will insist on acquiring dogs. That’s not the dogs’ fault.

Lots of idiots also insist on procreating and that’s never the human babies’ faults, but it creates an ongoing problem for the rest of society. A topic for a different day (and forum),

 

[Patty]

Lots of idiots also insist on procreating and that’s never the human babies’ faults, but it creates an ongoing problem for the rest of society. A topic for a different day (and forum),

True. Sorry I jumped on you, Clark.

 

[Oldscruggsfan]

True. Sorry I jumped on you, Clark.

No worries, and no offense taken. I didn’t take it as you jumping on me at all. I hope you have a great weekend.

 

[ripock]

You can get a nice bread knife with an offset handle.

Offset Bread Knife

America's favorite baking supply company. Top-quality all-purpose and specialty flours, specialty baking ingredients, baking sheets & pans, baking tools & supplies

shop.kingarthurbaking.com

that is exactly what I was looking for except the color of the handle. It sounds petty but I know you'll understand the optics is very important.

 

[Patty]

that is exactly what I was looking for except the color of the handle. It sounds petty but I know you'll understand the optics is very important.

Made of rosewood. But yeah, I understand.

Edit: This one’s prettier:

https://www.amazon.com/Ergo-Chef-Crimson-Serrated-Offset/dp/B00H58GDII

 

[ripock]

I have been fighting an infection (yellow snot and loogies) but aside from being unable to feel warm, it hasn't really stopped me much. I made a stir fry for my wife (it isn't one of my feeding days) and then I pulled out the kamaka. I mainly pulled it out because the apple of my eye, my yorkie, was at 39% humidity and I had to start humidifying. I knew the kamaka would be in the same boat.

I decided on playing the alt scale because it appeals to me more than the dom dim scale. I like the concept of an alt scale. It is basically a dominant chord except instead of playing the 5 and 9, you play the enclosures: b5 and #5 and b9 and #9.

I also prefer the alt because it is more engaging. The dom dim is so symmetrical you don't have to think about the notes; it is just a regular pattern all up and down the fret board. The alt is more involving because you have to think about the notes. That being said, although this is one of the main jazz scales it really isn't that advanced. Except for a few isolated exceptions all the modes of this scale are formed with the same three finger patterns as the major scale (except in different order).

As I said above, I mainly pulled out the Kamaka for humidification, but I was enjoying it for its qualities which isn't something I often do. The kamaka has an inexorable ring and sustain. And I was playing some chords around which to melodize, like the Fm and Gm7 and those chords were very dulcet, reminding me of "Harvest Moon" and serving as a contrast to the melodies.

And I actually found a use for that blasted high G string. I used the open G string as the basis for a pedal point run up the fret board. I ran up the C string and when I got to the unison at the 7th fret it lulls you into a sense of completion but then when you move to the 8th fret and the G# the mood is abruptly broken because G and G# and too close and they step on each other's toes and the resulting tone is challenging. It acted as a great transition to melodizing off the A# on the 10th fret. It is as if the G# very audibly sounds that clarion call that we are moving from a sweet melodic line to something different.

 

[Voran]

Amen, ripock. When I strum/ pick in my office closet, I'm careful to set (and follow) the timer on my phone. We call it "work" for a reason.

As to younger employees, don't get me started on the increasingly prevalent practice of forcing pets on coworkers and strangers under the wink/ nod guise of "emotional support". I'm the first to admit there are bona-fide conditions for which service animals can be a blessing (e.g. blindness/ deafness/ epilepsy/ PTSD) but in my experience, much of the time it's just abuse of the concept.

Things really went wonky in our area when my youngest was in college and grad school between 2014 and 2020. It was during that time frame that campus housing managers stopped even pretending to bar pets. The resulting unnecessary noise, vermin and odors should surprise no one. One of her undergrad roommates kept a kitten in a tiny dorm room and put its litter box under her bed. The so-called scholar would clean out the box only when the smell became unbearable to everyone in the vicinity including the cat, who had all along been urinating and defecating many other secret places around the room. True story. [“The things that pass for knowledge I can’t understand.”- Steely Dan]

I'm a dog lover but my dogs have always lived outside where nature intended. I've never allowed a dog inside a passenger car unless in a carrier in the bed of my pickup truck or cargo area of my SUV headed to the vet. It continues to astound me that folks cheerfully invite 70-pound (and larger) dogs into the rear passenger seats of a $200K Rover / Mercedes with no restraints, seat protectors etc, then later wonder how the leather got ruined and why the cloth ceiling / headlining is disgustingly covered in pet hair. In a brilliant marketing move, Subaru (aka Fuji Heavy Equipment) has been enthusiastically encouraging the practice in its TV ads for nearly a decade. I've always preferred to purchase relatively inexpensive used cars for which someone else suffered the majority of the depreciation but have stopped doing so for that exact reason. Animal smell is almost impossible to mask, much less to remove.

OK, I'm off the "emotional support" soapbox now.

LOL! I'm sorry, I am, but I would absolutely do this with a foul mouthed parrot. Sheerly because it would be hysterically funny to have a big ol neon green bird wheeling and swooping over people's heads saying swear words and making sexual innuendos, and watch people try to keep a straight face as I explain in a totally serious and solemn tone that it's my emotional support animal.

Ok, I'm not QUITE that irresponsible, but I'd totally do this with, say, a plushie.

 

[John Colter]

I live alone but have a companion cat. I don't think of him as 'my' cat but as my pal. He was a stray. He turned up at the back of my dwelling looking scruffy, poorly and very hungry, so I started leaving food out for him. He was extremely wary of me, at first, but before long he was rubbing round my ankles as I dished out the grub. After a few months, when the weather started to turn cold, he showed an interest in coming indoors. Now he lives with me but spends most of his time outdoors when the weather is fine.

It's an arrangement that suits both of us very well indeed. It good to have an undemanding companion.

 

[kkimura]

I live alone but have a companion cat. I don't think of him as 'my' cat but as my pal. He was a stray. He turned up at the back of my dwelling looking scruffy, poorly and very hungry, so I started leaving food out for him. He was extremely wary of me, at first, but before long he was rubbing round my ankles as I dished out the grub. After a few months, when the weather started to turn cold, he showed an interest in coming indoors. Now he lives with me but spends most of his time outdoors when the weather is fine.

It's an arrangement that suits both of us very well indeed. It good to have an undemanding companion.

I've found that in general cats like to be around undemanding humans best.