What made you happy today?

[Retired]

Not this heat Lol. The heat index made it feel like 100. That just makes me feel tired.  

[DanvillRob]

I bought a 'Bird 12-String from a Forum member several years ago.    I've recorded over 100 songs on it so far!

One song not mentioned that requires a 12-String is "The Seekers" song "Another You".

No better voice in popular music than Judith Durham's.....but I'll expose you to mine:

 

[fortyearspickn]

Yes -  thanks.  I love that song.  Hadn't thought of it in years.   I think half of the reason is her voice.   I use to play it - with a six stringer.  Picking a high and low C at the same time. High and low E,  etc.  An octave apart. A world apart from the sound of a 12 string - but different ! 

Edited June 11, 2021 by fortyearspickn

[Retired]

Thanks for sharing that, Recording 100 songs is an accomplishment. 

[DanvillRob]

16 hours ago, fortyearspickn said:

Yes -  thanks.  I love that song.  Hadn't thought of it in years.   I think half of the reason is her voice.   I use to play it - with a six stringer.  Picking a high and low C at the same time. High and low E,  etc.  An octave apart. A world apart from the sound of a 12 string - but different ! 

I simply LOVE her voice!   I think it's the truest female voice in music....I can't think of another female voice I'd rather hear.

[DanvillRob]

14 hours ago, Retired said:

Thanks for sharing that, Recording 100 songs is an accomplishment. 

Thanks.... I was surprised there were so many too once I counted them, (I have a spreadsheet of all the videos I've posted on YouTube (for my grandsons).   I just added  "My Home's In Alabama" yesterday.... which brought the total to 376 videos.   The spreadsheet lists the song, the guitar/instrument used and a link to the video.... they're sorted in alphabetical order of the song title...but can easily be sorted by instrument!

[Retired]

11 hours ago, DanvillRob said:

Thanks.... I was surprised there were so many too once I counted them, (I have a spreadsheet of all the videos I've posted on YouTube (for my grandsons).   I just added  "My Home's In Alabama" yesterday.... which brought the total to 376 videos.   The spreadsheet lists the song, the guitar/instrument used and a link to the video.... they're sorted in alphabetical order of the song title...but can easily be sorted by instrument!

After about 3 years or so when I retired from the Railroad, I counted the songs I learned and it was like 35 songs I could play. It's more than that now but I have no idea how many I can play? I've been retired 8 years now as of last May, 31. 

[DanvillRob]

11 hours ago, Retired said:

After about 3 years or so when I retired from the Railroad, I counted the songs I learned and it was like 35 songs I could play. It's more than that now but I have no idea how many I can play? I've been retired 8 years now as of last May, 31. 

My deal was that I had about 150  songs I'd played and were in my chart book.    But, when I was asked to play, it was always the same 20 or so songs.   Because my young grandsons will inherit all my guitars (and other paraphernalia), I wanted to video all the songs in my chart book, (the charts will be helpful for them to learn the songs), so about 1-1/2 years ago I started recording every song in the book.... finished all those pretty quickly..... so I added some songs I'd heard recently and liked..... then found an OLD chart book that had songs I'd put in there, and maybe did once...or never actually put an arrangement together, (the charts are actually just the 'bones' of a song).    I'm not sure how many songs are in this old book that never got into the current chart book, and I don't want to know..... when I finish one song, I turn the page..... if I've already recorded it...I turn the page again....if not, it's the next song I record.

[Notes_Norton]

We have around 600 songs in our repertoire http://www.nortonmusic.com/cats/songlist.html, but we end up playing quite a few of them over and over and over again because the audience likes them. We always try to sprinkle some of the other 'not so often played' songs in between the most popular.

What made me happy today? Among quite a few other things, Mrs.Notes is baking zero-carb doughnuts. Yummmmm.

Insights and incites by notes

[DanvillRob]

1 hour ago, Notes_Norton said:

We have around 600 songs in our repertoire http://www.nortonmusic.com/cats/songlist.html, but we end up playing quite a few of them over and over and over again because the audience likes them. We always try to sprinkle some of the other 'not so often played' songs in between the most popular.

What made me happy today? Among quite a few other things, Mrs.Notes is baking zero-carb doughnuts. Yummmmm.

Insights and incites by notes

My brother, who plays at the "Red Dog Saloon" in Virginia City (I think), asked me about my chart book...he said he carries about 40 songs in his head.... plays them differently all the time.    I'd be as nervous as a hore (Sp!) in Church if I went into a gig with no 'cheat-sheet" (even if it's "just in case".

[Retired]

3 hours ago, Notes_Norton said:

We have around 600 songs in our repertoire http://www.nortonmusic.com/cats/songlist.html, but we end up playing quite a few of them over and over and over again because the audience likes them. We always try to sprinkle some of the other 'not so often played' songs in between the most popular.

What made me happy today? Among quite a few other things, Mrs.Notes is baking zero-carb doughnuts. Yummmmm.

Insights and incites by notes

I'll bite. How do you get a Zero Carb Doughnut? That means no sugar or carbs. Even bread has carbs. No grease either as in deep fried. I guess an air fryer might work here?

[Sgt. Pepper]

What is gonna make me happy is I'm gonna spark the grill in a bit and BBQ steak and have some asparagus and hollandaise sauce with on top of that, while watching some playoff hockey or b-ball.

[jdgm]

16 hours ago, Retired said:

I'll bite. How do you get a Zero Carb Doughnut? That means no sugar or carbs. Even bread has carbs. No grease either as in deep fried. I guess an air fryer might work here?

Well I had bran flakes, french toast (egg fried bread) and bread fried in pork fat followed by a big sugary waffle for breakfast.  Sausage sandwich for lunch, coffee, I scoffed a couple of mini pork pies after dinner and I'm drinking beer.   I don't eat like this every day btw!

I used to burn it but now I'm older I store it.

What made me happy today was that I got everything that I had planned to do, done; I dynamically transacted with my environment!!

Edited June 14, 2021 by jdgm

[Retired]

I had a relaxing day. Too hot out so after church we had lunch and Deb went to her stepdad's 90th birthday party. I had to return my left hearing aid as the battery kept going out early. They will give me a new one in a week so that was my excuse not to hang around and I left.  I couldn't understand anyone as they were all talking at the same time and I only had my right side in. So I came home, tuned the Casino and played. 

[Notes_Norton]

On 6/13/2021 at 1:30 PM, Retired said:

I'll bite. How do you get a Zero Carb Doughnut? That means no sugar or carbs. Even bread has carbs. No grease either as in deep fried. I guess an air fryer might work here?

Almond flour, sugar alcohols, and magic. I don't know the magic part, Mrs. Notes got the recipe from a KETO site. I'm not sure what all the ingredients are.

Some sugar alcohols don't affect your blood sugar or insulin, so they aren't considered a carbohydrate. erythritol, xylitol, and so on. Some like maltitol do slightly affect your blood sugar, but with a little research, we learned which ones don't affect us.

I have a nephew who is a type 1 diabetic, and can eat some sugar alcohols and not others. I wouldn't recommend a diabetic or someone with other health challenges trying this without consulting their doctor. I don't know enough about it.

We shared the doughnuts with a neighbor, didn't tell her they were 'diet doughnuts' and she loved them. When Mrs. Notes told her they were zero carb, she asked for the recipe.

Mrs. Notes makes zero carb cookies too; chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, and pecan shortbread.

I started keto when it was called Atkins. Lost over 60 pounds and never gained it back. The diet is restricting, but there are workarounds. The keto doughnuts aren't quite as sweet as the real thing, but they are quite good.

My entire family is over 300 pounds, I'm in the 170s and I tried a half dozen diets until I found the one that works for me. I've been keto for decades now, and I'm healthier than I was before it.

Notes

 

Edited June 14, 2021 by Notes_Norton

[fortyearspickn]

Worked in the yard for 4 or 5 hours affixing a stag horn fern to a cedar board.  Heat index around 103.   Completed item weighs around 60 lbs.    But what made me happiest  -  got a pre-approval from a Rescue place up in Austin that our application has moved to the final stage (virtual in-home visit) to make sure we would be suitable adopters for a 1 year old female German Shepherd.  

[Retired]

9 hours ago, Notes_Norton said:

Almond flour, sugar alcohols, and magic. I don't know the magic part, Mrs. Notes got the recipe from a KETO site. I'm not sure what all the ingredients are.

Some sugar alcohols don't affect your blood sugar or insulin, so they aren't considered a carbohydrate. erythritol, xylitol, and so on. Some like maltitol do slightly affect your blood sugar, but with a little research, we learned which ones don't affect us.

I have a nephew who is a type 1 diabetic, and can eat some sugar alcohols and not others. I wouldn't recommend a diabetic or someone with other health challenges trying this without consulting their doctor. I don't know enough about it.

We shared the doughnuts with a neighbor, didn't tell her they were 'diet doughnuts' and she loved them. When Mrs. Notes told her they were zero carb, she asked for the recipe.

Mrs. Notes makes zero carb cookies too; chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, and pecan shortbread.

I started keto when it was called Atkins. Lost over 60 pounds and never gained it back. The diet is restricting, but there are workarounds. The keto doughnuts aren't quite as sweet as the real thing, but they are quite good.

My entire family is over 300 pounds, I'm in the 170s and I tried a half dozen diets until I found the one that works for me. I've been keto for decades now, and I'm healthier than I was before it.

Notes

 

That's interesting Bob.  There was a guy at Havelock Shops that made cookies and sold them at work. He used substitutes for sugar and they were oatmeal cookies. I don't know what he all used either but they were good.  My moms side are huge also. My sisters and their kids mainly.  I think Johnny must be over 400 lbs. His daughter just graduated and isn't much smaller. I'm the only one that worked out with weights for 42 years. Covid last year ended that and I lost all my muscle that I gained. Now people tell me I'm too skinny. I don't like that but its better than being fat. 

[Retired]

A little bird fell from its nest but couldn't fly yet. I didn't see the mother around for most of the day. The tree was way to tall to put it back so I hid it under some Flowers by the tree and gave it a drink and a slice of bread if it was hungry.  Later I noticed it ate the bread and sipped or drank some of the water that was in a Frisbee.  The mother must have taught it to fly  as it was gone and no signs anywhere of a struggle or being eaten by a cat. I looked everywhere in the back yard for it and it was gone and no signs of the mother bird either. I tried keeping any predators away from it that day. 

[Notes_Norton]

In the keto diet, we get to subtract fiber from carbohydrates for two reasons, (1) they count the fiber as a carb, but it doesn't get digested and (2) fiber slows the absorption of any carbs. So if you subtract the total fiber from the total carbohydrate count, you can end up with a net-zero count.

As far as sweeteners are concerned, we stay away from NutraSweet, Saccharin and other artificials. Stevia, a natural plant extract and some sugar alcohols, especially in the right combination, supply enough sweetness, especially for someone who has been on the diet for decades.

I call my diet 'easy keto'. Fewer than 20 carbs per day and twice as much fat as protein, Plus I keep my calorie count down to 1800 or less.

I've read that when your body runs in ketosis instead of sugar, your immune system gets stronger, as the sugar compromises your T cells. I don't know if that's true or not, but it seems to be.

I have been on this diet I think since the late 1990s. Since then, I haven't had the flu even once, and I don't get flu shots, plus I work around the senior citizens that are walking, talking germ dispersers.

I caught a mild cold after our vacation to Vienna. It was one day of sneezing and one day of coughing. When I'm on vacation I eat what the 'natives' eat as that's part of it. Vienna made some delicious desserts, and Mrs. Notes and I indulged. We both caught a cold on the flight home. Hers lasted 2 days too. It had been over 15 years since either one of us were under the weather, and probably another 15 before that.

I think my defenses against COVID-19 would be very good, but unlike the flu, COVID-19 can make you permanently damaged, so we got jabbed.

A lot of people tell us that fats are bad for us, in my case not.

I had an experience where my heart was skipping beats. I went to a heart doc who did tests on my heart, the blood supply to my heart, the rest of my circulatory system, and a stress test. The staff was amazed at my test results, and said my circulatory system is like a fit person 25 years younger than my age.

It turned out to be anxiety.  Another company bought my shopping cart provider, and they screwed things up to the point that a few people figured out how to get my products for free. It took the techs 4 days to figure out what was wrong, and to fix it, I had to rewrite the cgi code on about 550 products and that took about a half hour per product. Arrrrrgggggghhhhhh.

Once the problem was diagnosed, and I started rewriting the code, the heart stopped skipping beats.

Sorry, I'm drifting off-topic.

So what made me happy today?

I finished another Band-in-a-Box style, and it turned out really wall. Mrs. Notes and I worked on an e-fake disk and that's coming along fabulously too. I'm hoping to release about 40 new styles and 3 or 4 fake disks by early 2022 at the latest.

My regular customers have been asking, and that's like getting applause for our work.

Notes

[Retired]

I don't even know what my immune system is anymore? They screwed it all up so far back and told Deb it would never build up normal again. Thats one reason I quit the gym when Covid hit last year as I used to catch whatever people had when they came to the gym. Vitamins helped a lot when I used to lift weights. 

[Retired]

On 6/14/2021 at 6:26 PM, fortyearspickn said:

Worked in the yard for 4 or 5 hours affixing a stag horn fern to a cedar board.  Heat index around 103.   Completed item weighs around 60 lbs.    But what made me happiest  -  got a pre-approval from a Rescue place up in Austin that our application has moved to the final stage (virtual in-home visit) to make sure we would be suitable adopters for a 1 year old female German Shepherd.  

It's supposed to hit 101 degrees Thursday plus whatever the top heat index on top of that so I'm not looking forward to that. 

[Retired]

Seeing  Greyson after his first dental appointment.  They put 2 caps on his back teeth on top. It was numb when his dad brought him to our house and we watched Denise the Menace while it wore off.  Deb came home and he was trying to talk to her. He looked like Elvis with his lip curled up and She was laughing hysterical at his expressions.  He kept saying No grandma & tried to tell her again when she kept getting it wrong. Oh, that made my day. 

[Notes_Norton]

Correction, the doughnuts are a little more than 1 carb each.

I told Mrs. Notes  that I liked the last zero carb doughnut recipe she tried even more than this one.  She agreed and added that this recipe has a little more than one carb per doughnut.

What made me happy today?

Last night I had a problem with my MOTU 128 MIDI Express interface. Well, actually it was with the computer. When I opened up Band-in-a-Box to work on some new styles, BiaB told me that something else was using the MIDI interface so BiaB couldn't access it and asked me if I wanted to use another.

Funny it worked  earlier in the day.

I restarted  BiaB, then the computer. Went to the task manager to see if anything unusual was running (nothing was). Next I tried using Master Tracks Pro to access the MOTU and got a similar message. Knowing that a restart and a complete shut off and reboot are different, I tried the complete reboot. No success. I directed great obscenities at it and threatened to get out the fixin' stick, and the computer was not intimidated.

Today, I uninstalled and reinstalled the driver software, and it's working again. That made me happy.

Insights and incites by Notes

[jdgm]

I remember Master Tracks Pro!!  That was good on my Atari ST1040, back in the day!  I understand that RealBand (bundled with BIAB) is a sort of customised updated version of it?  I should get a DAW/ interface, but -  I'm not writing anything these days.

What made me happy today:

1) weight down to 12st 1lb

2) Good cool swim this morning - very hot today in the UK

3) Best thing - the planning application for a big block of 28 flats and underground car park on the (small, narrow) plot of land behind my estate has been unanimously rejected by the council planning committee.  👍That's just common sense, seeing as the approach road is only 8ft wide and cannot be widened as it's right next to the railway.  I'm sure the owner/developers will come up with some other insane moneymaking plan - if they wanted to re-develop it for industrial purposes they'd get permission tomorrow, and no-one would mind at all.

4) I've been digging some garden steps up the bank behind my house...jdgm's lockdown lash-up!....total purgatory due to the huge amount of rock, rubble and bits of concrete in the soil - very slow progress.  One of today's main obstacles was a large football-sized chunk of concrete which was well embedded but had to come out - and finally did.  Tomorrow I can dig out the old 2ft square drain cover of rusted steel which is beneath it, I have to get rid of that in order to be able to bang in the uprights.   I've found scaffolding poles, old bikes and God knows what else buried in my garden.  That's developers for you.

You know that physically tired but pleased feeling you have after a good day's work?    I did ok today.

I am celebrating item 3 on the list with a large gin and tonic, not my usual tipple but refreshing on a summer's evening such as this.

My best wishes to all forum members;  take care, stay safe!

 

Edited June 16, 2021 by jdgm

[Rabs]

I finally found the last bit of wood for my build today..  Ironically, London Plane is their biggest seller and they usually have loads of it but have been out of the 50mm stuff for a month or so... So I have been waiting.

But yes.. This makes me happy  😄   And if I can get a space in the workshop I will start it next week

This is what I picked up today for the body wood..  (all of it is London Plane) ..Will obviously be a two piece body.

 

This (if you missed it last time is the top wood which I am going to bookmatch (hopefully)

And the neck piece (which will have an Ebony board)