Notes_Norton

Behind the Rain — Gato Barbieri Notes ♫

Beautiful, but waaaay past the point of diminishing returns for my budget. Notes ♫

Off-topic but related: Years ago, I bought some active hearing attenuators from Etymotic. They reduced the volume, but were transparent between songs, so I could hear what members of the audience were saying to me. They required the same kind of disposable battery as hearing aids, which were not expensive enough to break the bank, but for as many as I was using, I figured I could save money by buying bulk. So I did a lot of Google searches, and found some that were priced much less. But Google is voluntary spyware. Since old folks need hearing aid batteries, I started getting ads for old folks, canes, walkers, walk-in-showers, adult diapers and so on. Not exactly what I wanted to see in my feed, so I tried saxophones and guitars. I guess they don't buy ads from Google because I kept getting geezer ads. Then I tried bikinis (for my wife) figuring I'd at least get something good to look at. Then I got geezer ads mixed with female fashion ads. Eventually, the codger ads faded away (like we all will). That's when I switched to Start Page for a search engine. They use Google results, but mask your IP number, so nobody knows who is doing the searching. — Since I also handle the data from my customers, I subscribed to a VPN. — And I use ad blockers and automatically delete cookies when I close my browser. This might be an overkill, but I take the responsibility of my customers info seriously. I also remove their data from my computer after the order is processed, and move them to another computer with an encrypted hard drive, and is never connected to the Internet. If someone leaks my customers' data, I don't want it to be me. Sorry for the OT, but any thread that lasts long enough eventually will drift that way, as verbal conversation often does. Notes ♫

Never Stop — Echo & the Bunnymen Notes ♫

I grew up in South Florida. The first time I ever drove in the snow, I was 19 years old, on the road with a rock band, and we were booked in the upper peninsula of Michigan. That stuff is way more slippery than I ever imagined it to be. I'm back in FL and there ain't no way I'm moving up there. As far as I'm concerned ice and snow should only be in two places, (1) the upper section of your refrigerator and (2) your cold drink. Be careful and be safe up there. Notes ♫

I bought my Mark VI for $600 new. But $600 in 1960 = $6,057.08 in 2023, so I guess it would have only been a hedge against inflation. I traded it in for a VII, which was a mistake. The VII had better intonation, and an edgier tone at low volumes. That made it compete with the guitars in my band better. But I couldn't overblow the horn to get that nasty sound out of it at high volumes. I suppose Selmer thought that was a good thing, but for a rock sax player, it wasn't. When I was a little kid, I had a Mickey Mantle baseball card. I should have kept that instead of putting it in the spokes of my bicycle. Back to the $400 cable. With most things, there is a point of diminishing returns, where adding the same amount of money again and again starts to give you less and less improvement, perhaps eventually to the point of no improvement. And that point is different for different people, who have more money to spend. Some people buy things way past that point, just because they can, and because it separates them from the people they believe are beneath them. Is that giant diamond, designer suit, gold plumbing fixture, and other things that cost hundreds or thousands of times more than the more common ones thousands of times better? If you want to say, “I buy $400 cables” it may impress some, but not me. If you buy it thinks it is that much better than another, IMO there's one born every minute. Insights and incites by Notes ♫

I'd tell the northerners, It doesn't seem like Christmas if you can't go swimming. For the folks who live here, anything under 70 means we bundle up (but still were flip-flops) and we don't go swimming until the water temperature nears 80. I grew up just north of Fort Lauderdale, and gigged in Miami quite a bit. We're having a colder than usual winter down here. But El Niño years are usually the worst ones for us. And when we have a bad (for us) winter, the Midwest and Northeast are typically getting slammed. Notes ♫

Judy In Disguise (With Glasses) — John Fred and his Playboy Band Notes ♫

Dream Dancing — Cole Porter (Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga did a decent job) Notes ♫

IMO, there is absolutely nothing wrong with collecting guitars or whatever you want. But if I haven't played an instrument in years, except for a back-up one, out it goes. If worth something, I'll sell, if I can't sell, I know a guy who teaches, and I'll donate it to a student who needs one. I gig for a living. Music my business. If I buy a guitar I'm never going to play, in effect, that's a cut in pay. Same for a cable that is way past the point of diminishing returns. Me? I collect music recordings, mostly the kind that not many other people want to hear. (Who wants George Szell's recording of Beethoven's 4th, or some obscure Cabo Verdi Island disc?) I don't have the leisure time to listen to them often, there are too many, but when I want, most of them are not even available on YouTube, and YT is too low-fi for me anyway. Notes ♫

73 (F) at 11:00 AM (EST). It's supposed to peak at 78, but they are saying we are going to get the tail end of that storm that paralyzed the Northeast tonight. It might get down to the 50s before warming up again. Here in Florida, we are not acclimated for that. Notes ♫

It Keeps You Running — Doobie Brothers Notes ♫

Monster Mash — Bobby 'Boris' Pickett Notes ♫

And I know guys who buy guitars, and never plan to play them. But I wish I still had my Selmer Mark VI saxophone, they sell for small fortunes today. Notes ♫

Fly, Robin, Fly — Silver Convention Notes ♫

There is a happy medium between the el-cheapo cables and the overpriced cables. That's where I set my sights. Notes ♫

Thanks. I don't eat farmed fish, nor breeds with extreme mercury content. Cod and Haddock are my favorites. My wife likes Salmon best. We are careful of the source and get them at a trusted fish market. I gave up shrimp because it's mostly farmed, too. I try to limit my processed foods as well. I shop around the perimeter of the grocery store. My coffee cream is organic, the cheese I eat is non GMO and mostly from Europe where they have A2 cows, which are also grass fed. Organic veggies when I can, too. I don't drink bottled water or any sugar laced soft drinks. Mostly water, tea, coffee, and a bit of red wine. I eat a keto diet, fewer than 20 carbs per day, and twice as much fat as protein. All my blood work is in the normal zone, I'm on zero prescription medications, and a heart doc told me I have the circulatory system of a healthy person 25 years my junior. For a man of my age, that's rare and my doc calls me "An easy patient." And my arthritis and bursitis is about 99% gone. Every now and then I might get a slight ache in the hip or a finger that I hurt playing basketball as a youth. That usually happens after vacations, when I forget about my diet and eat what the local people eat. Often that includes things on my no-no list. But I only vacation once a year, and I want to be there, not here. Without good health, you have nothing. When both my parents died too early due to obesity related diseases, I saw that as a possible future for me. I decided that I'm having a ball here, and as much as people tell me there is life after death, there is no proof. So I want to hang out here as long as I can. If there is that promised land, I try to be a good person, so I go to the paradise. I guess I'm playing the odds for both life after and nothing after. Insights and incites by Notes ♫

Little Bitty Pretty One — Thurston Harris Notes ♫

It doesn't look like any seaweed I've seen, but it's a beautiful color and a beautiful guitar. Notes ♫

Most definitely, that's why I make sure it's 100% grass-fed and grass-finished beef. I went on the arthritis/bursitis diet in the 1990s, and am still pain free. I'm also very low-carb / ketogenic. Since then, I've had fried chicken perhaps 3 times. If I could fine non-corn fed chickens, I'd love to eat eggs again. But I'd rather play guitar and saxophone than eat eggs. 24/7/365 pain free is better than a moment on the tongue. My current doctor does my yearly blood test, tells me everything is in the normal zone, calls me an easy patient, and says, “See you next year.” Obviously, the diet agrees with me. Insights and incites by Notes ♫

Little Latin Lupe Lu — The Righteous Brothers Notes ♫

I've been low carb / keto for years. I was already on much of this diet. I think for me, eliminating Chicken and Egg Yolks did the trick. From what I've read since, the reason factory chicken/eggs are so high in arachidonic acid is being mostly corn fed. Chickens should be eating seeds and insects, not fruit (corn is actually a fruit). But I don't know that to be a fact. Here it is: For both arthritis and bursitis, treatment is similar: Try the dietary approach first, and if that doesn't work, take stronger action. Foods that may contribute to chronic inflammation are foods with a high glycemic index (foods that convert to sugar quickly), such as fruit juices, sugars, simple starches, or rice cakes, foods heavy in polyunsaturated or saturated fats, and foods high in arachidonic acid. Some specific foods to avoid are: * Fatty cuts of red meat (high in saturated fats) lean is good * Organ meats: liver, kidney, and so forth (very high in arachidonic acid) * Egg yolks (very high in arachidonic acid) * Poultry - chicken, duck, turkey (very high in arachidonic acid) * Pasta (high glycemic index) * Juices (high glycemic index) * Rice, especially rice cakes (high glycemic index) * White bread (substitute whole grain breads such as rye) * Nightshade Plants bother many people (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, peppers, paprika) Glycemic index charts can be found on the Internet. Better choices are foods with a low glycemic index and foods that are heavy in monounsaturated fats. Some specific good foods are: * Salmon and other fish * Oatmeal * Low glycemic fresh fruits and vegetables * Olives and olive oil * Peanuts and other nuts * Whey proteins * Lean beef is good, 100% grass fed is better

White Bird — It's A Beautiful Day Notes ♫

Before I went on the diet, I couldn't walk two blocks without sitting to rest, I couldn't drive 5 minutes without a blue ice pack behind my hip, and I needed a barstool to gig. After a month on the diet, I was much better. Now I can walk miles with no problem, I can drive all day without any ice, and I bring a stool to work, and only use it when I'm using the wah pedal for an entire song. I really don't need the stool at all, but I have more control over the wah when sitting. My neighbor was walking her dog, and hobbling with a cane. I gave her the diet, and in a month she was cane free. About six months later, she was using the cane again. I asked her about it, and she said, “I just couldn't give up my pasta and ice cream.” I don't suspect everyone will benefit from the diet. What I asked is I don't understand why more people don't try it. If it works, you are pain free. If it doesn't, you gave up some favorite foods for a couple of months. The diet was given to me by a doctor who believed in trying natural approaches before pharmaceuticals, and the last resort should be something invasive like surgery. - - - - - - Here is something else you can try. PEMFT, Pulsed ElectroMagnetic Field Therapy. My bro-in-law works for investment brokers. They financed a guy who was building PEMFT machines for a clinic. We brought my Mother-in-law there, as she had Parkinson's, and it helped her with that. In the clinic, they use it for arthritis, too. But it was an hour's drive, so he recommended if you look for a home unit make sure (1) it radiates a square wave (2) the square wave is North polarity and (3) it is at a low frequency, between 1 and 25 cycles per second (Hz). For arthritis, as I understand it, the theory is this. — Calcium is paramagnetic. It responds to a magnetic field, but doesn't stay magnetic. He said that the pulsed magnetic field loosens the calcium deposits in the joints, and if you drink copious amounts of water immediately following the session, it will wash the calcium out in your urine. Mother-in-law took the home device with her to West Virginia in her last years, but I remember this information and plan to use it if my arthritis and bursitis comes back. But 20 years later, it still hasn't come back, thanks to the diet. But if anyone wants to eat donuts and other foods instead of living pain free and playing guitar, it's their choice. I just don't understand why more people don't give it a 2 or 3 month trial. There are foods I miss, but I don't miss needing an ice block behind my hip to drive, living on Advils, and not being able to walk for more than two blocks. Insights and incites by Notes ♫

Bird on the Wire — Leonard Cohen Notes ♫