Timing

We knew the weather would be a little dicey, but nobody saw this coming. We got in just before a huge snowstorm buried the entire area.

From Oregon To Indiana

Casie and John were nice enough to let us crash their weekend and stay with them, which means I finally got to meet Indiana!

Western Bound

The word from Oregon is that Mari's father is not doing well, so we are winging our way towards Portland. These reports aren't always reliable, but better to be safe than have any regrets. We have a plane change in Chicago, where Lake Michigan is partially frozen.

Ice Cycle

The garage at work this morning. Cold keeps on being cold.

Like Dylan

I started to try and learn guitar a while back (holy cow, I didn't think it was that long ago!), and it really hasn't gone anywhere. I learned a few notes, practiced sporadically, but for the most part had basically stalled out. Justin Sandercoe and Marty Schwartz are both great teachers, but watching their videos and finding the will to go through the steps just wasn't compelling enough to keep me motivated.

Recently my friend Jason mentioned Rocksmith, a game / learning tool for guitar and let me borrow it for the Xbox 360. It's so much more compelling and entertaining than just trying to learn a few notes and practice them over and over. It teaches through different "games" that are really disguised lessons. They can't get away from repetition, there's no shortcut to muscle memory, but they have done a good job of giving you options to keep it fresh. I've been playing every day for almost two weeks and actually look forward to practice time. 

Of course it only works with an electric guitar, because you have to plug it into the console via a special USB to 1/4" jack so the game can track how well you're playing and give advice on parts you're struggling with. I only had my acoustic and I didn't want to spend a lot of money on another guitar in case, despite my renewed enthusiasm, I didn't stick with it.

Initially Jason let me borrow his guitar, but it was a nice and fairly expensive one and I wasn't comfortable being responsible for it. I went to my friend Chris, who is a semi-pro guitar and bass player, for advice on what to buy and he had just the answer. He bought his daughter a guitar to learn on. It's a cheap beginner guitar, and because it was for his kid he bought a special lifetime cover anything from damage to theft warranty. It hadn't been used in almost two years and was just gathering dust. I offered to buy it off him, he insisted I just take it and use it as long as I need, with no need to worry because as mentioned it was cheap to begin with and is completely covered. There was just one caveat. It's pink.

So now, secure in my masculinity, I have left behind the acoustic and have gone electric with Rocksmith and my pink guitar.

Supermeh

We went to a Superbowl party over at the Kramer's house. The party itself was a lot of fun but the game was bleh. Broncos got stomped, there was never any real competition, and the commercials weren't great. The Superbowl in general just isn't as entertaining as it used to be the last few years in one man's humble opinion.

WOTM

February starts with the nicest day in weeks.